We spent the weekend after Katie's birthday camping at the KOA that we frequent.
Let me start by saying that it was COLD, and we didn't get the propane tank hooked up right, so we weren't able to run our furnace at night as we had initially planned to do. We do have another little heater that we carry with us just for cold nights though, so it helped to take some of the chill out of the air. We will be adding an adjustable wrench to the junk drawer in the camper BEFORE we take our first trip next April, as you can bet it will still be pretty chilly then too!! We'll probably also upgrade to a slightly bigger emergency space heater, in the event that we ever unexpectedly ran out of propane we'd still have sufficient heat.
So, the theme of the weekend was Halloween. There were sites that we decorated to the nines. A group next to us had rented 5 sites for the weekend and literally built an entire haunted house for the other campers to go through during the trick-or-treating time. It was amazing! Saturday night from 7:20 to 9:00 pm the campground closed the front gate and prohibited and cars from driving in the campground at all and every kid in the place went from site to site trick or treating. It was so much fun, everyone was dressed up, and the best part is that everyone had amazing manners and were very kind, even after we had run out of candy!! A lot of people stopped to warm up by our fire and say hi before they continued on there way.
This year for our whole family is going with a theme for Halloween, the theme is Candy Corn, Witches, and Vampires. We got Katie the cutest Candy Corn witch outfit, which inspired Dan to replicate a comic that he reads and be a Candy Corn Vampire. Katie helped pick out a witch costume for me, Cocoa (our girl dog) is also a witch and we found a vampire costume for Yoshi (our boy dog). I forgot to mention earlier that since Cocoas skin condition has been so much better lately we took both of the dogs camping with us for the weekend, so of course we took there costumes too, and boy did they look cute!!
It was a tremendous weekend, just us as a family, no extra guests, spending time together relaxing, having an all around good time.
Again, I'll post pics a little later.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Katie's 4th Birthday!!
Again, I'm late with this post, but atleast I got to it before she turned 5!!
On Friday, October 9 our baby girl turned 4!! It is so hard to believe that it has been 4 wonderful years since she was born. She is honeslty the most beautiful, precious little girl that we could have ever hoped to have. In our opinion she is brilliant, she is kind, gentle, caring, compassionate, loving, and most important of all she is HAPPY and HEALTHY!!
She started going to preschool in mid-September. It is perfect for her. She is excelling so much, it's amazing the amount of information that she has taken in, in just a few weeks time. Just in time for her birthday she memorized two poems, really the same poem, but two different versions. She recited them for us on her birthday, they are as follows:
"In September
For a while
I will ride a crocodile
Down the chicken soupy Nile.
Paddle once,
Paddle twice,
Paddle chicken soup with rice!!"
"In October,
I'll be host
To witches, goblins
And a ghost.
Whoope once,
Whoopy twice,
Whoopy chicken soup with rice."
Since her birthday fell on a school day we baked her a batch of sugar cookies to take and share with her classmates. She also got a birthday crown that she got to wear, and she hardly took it off the whole weekend! That night for dinner we took her to one of her favorite places for dinner, Mc Robins (Red Robin for those of us who don't speak toddler-ese). The sang to her and gave her a free ice cream treat in honor of her special day.
On Friday, October 9 our baby girl turned 4!! It is so hard to believe that it has been 4 wonderful years since she was born. She is honeslty the most beautiful, precious little girl that we could have ever hoped to have. In our opinion she is brilliant, she is kind, gentle, caring, compassionate, loving, and most important of all she is HAPPY and HEALTHY!!
She started going to preschool in mid-September. It is perfect for her. She is excelling so much, it's amazing the amount of information that she has taken in, in just a few weeks time. Just in time for her birthday she memorized two poems, really the same poem, but two different versions. She recited them for us on her birthday, they are as follows:
"In September
For a while
I will ride a crocodile
Down the chicken soupy Nile.
Paddle once,
Paddle twice,
Paddle chicken soup with rice!!"
"In October,
I'll be host
To witches, goblins
And a ghost.
Whoope once,
Whoopy twice,
Whoopy chicken soup with rice."
Since her birthday fell on a school day we baked her a batch of sugar cookies to take and share with her classmates. She also got a birthday crown that she got to wear, and she hardly took it off the whole weekend! That night for dinner we took her to one of her favorite places for dinner, Mc Robins (Red Robin for those of us who don't speak toddler-ese). The sang to her and gave her a free ice cream treat in honor of her special day.
Labor Day Camping
Better Late Than Never...I always say, and so thats what this post and a few more will be!
As promised, we went camping over Labor Day weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, pretty much dry the whole time until the morning we were packing up. We spent some time at the beach. Katie decided once and for all that she was brave enough to go down the water slide on her own. As many of our trips seem to, we had family with us, Dans mom and sister. It was the first time we had slept 5 people in the camper, and while it probably wasn't the ideal situation, it wasn't too bad either. (I definitely see a bigger pop-up in our future, we're just not ready for a big trailer yet, a pop-up suits us just fine!!)
Anyhow, it was a great trip, once I actually get around to syncing the phone and camera with the computer I'll post some pics of our summer adventures.
More posts to follow!!
As promised, we went camping over Labor Day weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, pretty much dry the whole time until the morning we were packing up. We spent some time at the beach. Katie decided once and for all that she was brave enough to go down the water slide on her own. As many of our trips seem to, we had family with us, Dans mom and sister. It was the first time we had slept 5 people in the camper, and while it probably wasn't the ideal situation, it wasn't too bad either. (I definitely see a bigger pop-up in our future, we're just not ready for a big trailer yet, a pop-up suits us just fine!!)
Anyhow, it was a great trip, once I actually get around to syncing the phone and camera with the computer I'll post some pics of our summer adventures.
More posts to follow!!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Family
My parents are in town for a week, from last Wednesday to this coming Wednesday. Katie is floating with the clouds. To her there is simply no one in this world better than Grandma and Papa. It is a special thing to see her face, and my parents faces, light up each time they see each other. They stayed at a friends house for the last few nights, and helped them with there garage sale. Katie spent Friday and Saturday over there with them, and quite simply had the time of her life.
Family is a great thing. We miss my parent, they moved to Florida when they retired, but as we have learned quickly, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and each visit now contains a hugely special memory that we can cherish.
We are going to dinner in Mexican Town with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, my aunt and uncle, there son and his wife, another of there sons and my Grandma (or Nana as we call her.) My aunt and uncle and cousins all live in Canada, and Nana lives in Florida, not to far from my parents, so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. I plan on taking lots of pictures today, and I'll post them once I get them developed.
Family is a great thing. We miss my parent, they moved to Florida when they retired, but as we have learned quickly, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and each visit now contains a hugely special memory that we can cherish.
We are going to dinner in Mexican Town with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, my aunt and uncle, there son and his wife, another of there sons and my Grandma (or Nana as we call her.) My aunt and uncle and cousins all live in Canada, and Nana lives in Florida, not to far from my parents, so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. I plan on taking lots of pictures today, and I'll post them once I get them developed.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Camping
I thought that it would be fun to post about all the camping trips that we have taken, and from here on out I plan to blog about each individual trip. The memories we are making are great and will be remembered forever.
Our first camping trip as a family was June 29, 2008 to July 4, 2008, at the Monroe/Toledo KOA. We took Katie and her cousin Aurora both on their first camping trips and we had a blast. Since this was our first trip together it was also our first trip in our new tent that we spent weeks and weeks shopping for. We got an 8 person tent from Target and we love it. It's mostly blue with some gray and a few orange accents. It has a small screen room on the front that is perfect for storing things in and relaxing under the night sky after the kids go to bed. We had a screen room with us that we had gotten for Dan's dad for Christmas. It was great to have a bug free place to sit for meals and cook under. We did a lot of swimming and playing on the beach, plus we did som art projects with the finger paints and crayola magic marker things we had brought along. We had a little bit of rain one day so we made a trip a few miles up the road to Cabelas and spent a day at the 'inside zoo'. Later in the week we took a trip a few miles to the south and spent the day at the Toledo Zoo, which is amazing and we HIGHLY recommend. The trip was a huge success and we look forward to many more trips in the future.
Our second Camping trip was over Labor Day weekend, 2008, again at the KOA, for 3 nights. This time it was the 3 of us and Dan's mom and sister, and our dog Yoshi. By this time we had managed to find a screen room of our own but still had to borrow a second tent from Dan's dad for his mom and sister to use. Again, we spent a lot of time at the lake/beach and we also took Katie's new fishing pole down to the fishing lake, we didn't catch anything, but it was fun. Again, the trip was a lot of fun, it was our last trip for the year, but the plans for 2009 are HUGE!!
Our first trip of 2009 was May 8-10, again at the KOA. We again took Aurora along with us, and we were joined for the weekend by our friends Stef and Scott and their son Hunter. Dan's mom and sister looked after the dogs and cat. We had bought another tent as we always seem to have extra people with us, while it was a roomy tent and it kept us dry it simply did not live up to our expectations and was returned as soon as we got home. It was pretty early in the season, and it was still pretty chilly but we had a blast!! Before the trip we had picked up a few new camping games, we got ladder ball and horse shoes, and we got an automatic bubble machine, all of which kept the kid entertained for HOURS!! We took another trip to Cabelas, had a blast, took lots of pictures. We were sad to go, but knew we would be returning soon.
May 22-25, we are KOA bound again. Dan's mom and sister joined us again, as did Aurora who had been with us for almost two weeks at this point as her family was in the process of moving and welcoming her new little brother to the world. Dan's dad watched both of the dogs for the weekend. We had purchased another new tent by this point and we were excited to try it out. Katie stayed in the tent with Dan's mom and sister, and Dan and I had the new tent all to our selves. It was a fun weekend, but it came to an end too soon.
This is going to be a busy camping season!! Outing # 3 occurs during the weekend of June 18-21, again with the KOA, can you tell we like it?? It was a celebreation of sorts, as I had just finished the classroom portion of my education to become a Medical Assistant. We are accompanied by a large crowd this weekend. It's us, my aunt Dar, our friends Stef & Scott, there son Hunter, and Scotts brother, his wife and his two kids. We also have a few day time only visitors. There is one other HUGE difference to this trip. We are no longer tent camping, we have purchased a new to us pop-up camper and are pretty excited to take it on its maidan voyage. The weekend was great, lots of swimming, eating and relaxing by the fire. There was a scary moment though, Katie and Hunter were hanging out in Stef and Scotts camper watching a movie, and in a moment of craziness managed to lock themselves and the keys inside of the camper, with all of the adults on the outside, they couldn't figure out how to unlock the lock that they had just locked, so it took a lot of talking, and a frantic call home to locate an extra set of keys, before we were able to walk Katie through opening the emergency exit window and passing the keys through so that we could let them out. Katie was really happy to be out of the camper, but I was so proud of her, she kept her calm and pulled through in a really nerve wracking situation, she's turning in to such a big girl!!
Trip # 4, 4th of July weekend, again, at the KOA. This time we have Dar with us, and my cousin Anne and her son Aidan. Another great trip, made even better by the fact that the campground put on a SPECTACULAR fireworks show to celebrate our nations independence. The campground had a bunch of activities planned for the weekend, including red white and blue tie dye, which we opted to participate in. We did a lot of swimming and eating again, along with many hours spent around the campfire. A great weekend!!
Trip # 5, July 31-August 2, a rare treat, Dan and I are alone on this trip, Katie is spending the weekend at my aunts house. We have also ventured to a new ccampground, precisely 6 miles down the road from the KOA we usually go to. We did a whole lot of nothing, honestly. We took the flat screen tv with us, and the xbox 360. We hunkered down inside the camper and really only left to walk to the bathroom. We watched movies, we slept in late, we relaxed. We celebrated me being done with school for good. It was one of the best weekends I've ever had, sure we missed Katie, but we also really enjoyed the adult only time.
We have two more trips planned for the year. One for Labor Day weekend and one for a weekend in October. Both will take place at our regular spot, the KOA. I'll blog about each adventure after we return home. Next year we plan on going once a month, from April to October, then for the 3 summer holidays, those early month will be easier with the handy little furnace that our camper houses, great little thing this pop-up of ours is, so glad we got it, it will probably be with us for many years to come (although I can't promise that, as a slightly bigger one would also be more than welcome!!).
To anyone reading this I say, go camping, you will make some of the best memories ever! If you have young kids you will have a new favorite family activity, if your kids are older, get them started now. Some of my best memories from my child hood are of us camping even after we upgraded to a huge motor home, the fact was that we were there together, and the burdens and stresses of every day life were not, if only for a few days. Katie LOVES camping, and I hope she will for the rest of her life, we plan to do as much to influence that as possible!!
Our first camping trip as a family was June 29, 2008 to July 4, 2008, at the Monroe/Toledo KOA. We took Katie and her cousin Aurora both on their first camping trips and we had a blast. Since this was our first trip together it was also our first trip in our new tent that we spent weeks and weeks shopping for. We got an 8 person tent from Target and we love it. It's mostly blue with some gray and a few orange accents. It has a small screen room on the front that is perfect for storing things in and relaxing under the night sky after the kids go to bed. We had a screen room with us that we had gotten for Dan's dad for Christmas. It was great to have a bug free place to sit for meals and cook under. We did a lot of swimming and playing on the beach, plus we did som art projects with the finger paints and crayola magic marker things we had brought along. We had a little bit of rain one day so we made a trip a few miles up the road to Cabelas and spent a day at the 'inside zoo'. Later in the week we took a trip a few miles to the south and spent the day at the Toledo Zoo, which is amazing and we HIGHLY recommend. The trip was a huge success and we look forward to many more trips in the future.
Our second Camping trip was over Labor Day weekend, 2008, again at the KOA, for 3 nights. This time it was the 3 of us and Dan's mom and sister, and our dog Yoshi. By this time we had managed to find a screen room of our own but still had to borrow a second tent from Dan's dad for his mom and sister to use. Again, we spent a lot of time at the lake/beach and we also took Katie's new fishing pole down to the fishing lake, we didn't catch anything, but it was fun. Again, the trip was a lot of fun, it was our last trip for the year, but the plans for 2009 are HUGE!!
Our first trip of 2009 was May 8-10, again at the KOA. We again took Aurora along with us, and we were joined for the weekend by our friends Stef and Scott and their son Hunter. Dan's mom and sister looked after the dogs and cat. We had bought another tent as we always seem to have extra people with us, while it was a roomy tent and it kept us dry it simply did not live up to our expectations and was returned as soon as we got home. It was pretty early in the season, and it was still pretty chilly but we had a blast!! Before the trip we had picked up a few new camping games, we got ladder ball and horse shoes, and we got an automatic bubble machine, all of which kept the kid entertained for HOURS!! We took another trip to Cabelas, had a blast, took lots of pictures. We were sad to go, but knew we would be returning soon.
May 22-25, we are KOA bound again. Dan's mom and sister joined us again, as did Aurora who had been with us for almost two weeks at this point as her family was in the process of moving and welcoming her new little brother to the world. Dan's dad watched both of the dogs for the weekend. We had purchased another new tent by this point and we were excited to try it out. Katie stayed in the tent with Dan's mom and sister, and Dan and I had the new tent all to our selves. It was a fun weekend, but it came to an end too soon.
This is going to be a busy camping season!! Outing # 3 occurs during the weekend of June 18-21, again with the KOA, can you tell we like it?? It was a celebreation of sorts, as I had just finished the classroom portion of my education to become a Medical Assistant. We are accompanied by a large crowd this weekend. It's us, my aunt Dar, our friends Stef & Scott, there son Hunter, and Scotts brother, his wife and his two kids. We also have a few day time only visitors. There is one other HUGE difference to this trip. We are no longer tent camping, we have purchased a new to us pop-up camper and are pretty excited to take it on its maidan voyage. The weekend was great, lots of swimming, eating and relaxing by the fire. There was a scary moment though, Katie and Hunter were hanging out in Stef and Scotts camper watching a movie, and in a moment of craziness managed to lock themselves and the keys inside of the camper, with all of the adults on the outside, they couldn't figure out how to unlock the lock that they had just locked, so it took a lot of talking, and a frantic call home to locate an extra set of keys, before we were able to walk Katie through opening the emergency exit window and passing the keys through so that we could let them out. Katie was really happy to be out of the camper, but I was so proud of her, she kept her calm and pulled through in a really nerve wracking situation, she's turning in to such a big girl!!
Trip # 4, 4th of July weekend, again, at the KOA. This time we have Dar with us, and my cousin Anne and her son Aidan. Another great trip, made even better by the fact that the campground put on a SPECTACULAR fireworks show to celebrate our nations independence. The campground had a bunch of activities planned for the weekend, including red white and blue tie dye, which we opted to participate in. We did a lot of swimming and eating again, along with many hours spent around the campfire. A great weekend!!
Trip # 5, July 31-August 2, a rare treat, Dan and I are alone on this trip, Katie is spending the weekend at my aunts house. We have also ventured to a new ccampground, precisely 6 miles down the road from the KOA we usually go to. We did a whole lot of nothing, honestly. We took the flat screen tv with us, and the xbox 360. We hunkered down inside the camper and really only left to walk to the bathroom. We watched movies, we slept in late, we relaxed. We celebrated me being done with school for good. It was one of the best weekends I've ever had, sure we missed Katie, but we also really enjoyed the adult only time.
We have two more trips planned for the year. One for Labor Day weekend and one for a weekend in October. Both will take place at our regular spot, the KOA. I'll blog about each adventure after we return home. Next year we plan on going once a month, from April to October, then for the 3 summer holidays, those early month will be easier with the handy little furnace that our camper houses, great little thing this pop-up of ours is, so glad we got it, it will probably be with us for many years to come (although I can't promise that, as a slightly bigger one would also be more than welcome!!).
To anyone reading this I say, go camping, you will make some of the best memories ever! If you have young kids you will have a new favorite family activity, if your kids are older, get them started now. Some of my best memories from my child hood are of us camping even after we upgraded to a huge motor home, the fact was that we were there together, and the burdens and stresses of every day life were not, if only for a few days. Katie LOVES camping, and I hope she will for the rest of her life, we plan to do as much to influence that as possible!!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband Dan. We have been married 3 years today, and it has been a GREAT 3 years.
We both had to work today, and he's not home yet, but we're hoping that we can drop Katie off at his moms or a while and go out to a nice quiet dinner or something. We'll see....
Friday, June 12, 2009
I'm back!!
Has it really been over a month since I posted last? I've had grand plans to post, but it appears that I've not followed through with those plans at all.
It has been an incredibly crazy month and we have been VERY busy. We have been camping twice already this season, and Katie and I have been to Florida, I returned after a few days, she is still there, for 8 additional days. She is having a blast with Grandma and Papa, they've been swimming, to the zoo, shopping, out on the boat, gardening and lots of other things. We talk to her everyday, and she misses us, but not enough that she wants to come home right this minute as opposed to staying there.
We are going camping again next weekend, to celebrate my graduating from Medical Assistant school. It has been a fast, yet still long, 7 months, and I'm technically not done, but I will no longer have to go to work during the day and then class at night. Instead, I will be working 30 hours a week at my externship site and as needed at my job until I have completed the required 180 hours. I am looking forward to being home with Dan and Katie again in the evening, cooking them dinner.
About my externship. I've been honored with the opportunity to do my externship at the Universtiy of Michigan Brighton Health Center. I'm not usually one to brag or boast too much about myself, but only the best students in the school are offered U of M externships, so I'm incredibly glad to have the opportunity. Having U of M on my resume will make a huge difference in the career opportunities that are available to me in the future, and I hope to some day have a job at one of the many U of M locations in the area. Over the next 6 weeks I will be getting real life, hands on experience and I am looking forward to it! I will be hoping to learn and absorb as much as possible so that I can apply it having a succesful career.
Daniel and I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary in a few weeks. It's hard to believe it's been 3 years already. They have been great, and I'm looking forward to the next 3 years and beyond!
We've made a lot of fun changes around the house lately, I'll post pictures in a few days. The biggest change is that our entire house has been resided. We've also done some pretty major gardening and we completely moved Katie's bedroom, to an entirely different room.
Check back for more later!!
It has been an incredibly crazy month and we have been VERY busy. We have been camping twice already this season, and Katie and I have been to Florida, I returned after a few days, she is still there, for 8 additional days. She is having a blast with Grandma and Papa, they've been swimming, to the zoo, shopping, out on the boat, gardening and lots of other things. We talk to her everyday, and she misses us, but not enough that she wants to come home right this minute as opposed to staying there.
We are going camping again next weekend, to celebrate my graduating from Medical Assistant school. It has been a fast, yet still long, 7 months, and I'm technically not done, but I will no longer have to go to work during the day and then class at night. Instead, I will be working 30 hours a week at my externship site and as needed at my job until I have completed the required 180 hours. I am looking forward to being home with Dan and Katie again in the evening, cooking them dinner.
About my externship. I've been honored with the opportunity to do my externship at the Universtiy of Michigan Brighton Health Center. I'm not usually one to brag or boast too much about myself, but only the best students in the school are offered U of M externships, so I'm incredibly glad to have the opportunity. Having U of M on my resume will make a huge difference in the career opportunities that are available to me in the future, and I hope to some day have a job at one of the many U of M locations in the area. Over the next 6 weeks I will be getting real life, hands on experience and I am looking forward to it! I will be hoping to learn and absorb as much as possible so that I can apply it having a succesful career.
Daniel and I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary in a few weeks. It's hard to believe it's been 3 years already. They have been great, and I'm looking forward to the next 3 years and beyond!
We've made a lot of fun changes around the house lately, I'll post pictures in a few days. The biggest change is that our entire house has been resided. We've also done some pretty major gardening and we completely moved Katie's bedroom, to an entirely different room.
Check back for more later!!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Checking in!
Wow! I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I posted last! The last 6 weeks have been crazy, to say the least. I have been working and going to school, full time, Dan has been working full time, and Katie has been spending the day at the sitters.
My parents were in town for a little over 2 weeks while my dad had some doctors appointments. It was great to see them and visit with them. They took Katie to her last 2 gymnastics classes, which worked out nicely since the initial round of classes she took was a Christmas gift from them. They also joined us for one Saturday at her swim classes.
The weather here was beautiful today, we topped out around 84 or 85 degrees. That's really unseasonably warm for us here, but we'll take it any day over the possibility of snow!! Not to mention the fact that us Whitney's LOVE the warm weather, I can't really speak for any of the other Whitney family members, but the 3 of us here in this house do! In celebration of the great weather we bought a new tree and some flowers for our yard, which we will spend most of the day tomorrow planting. Katie was also FINALLY allowed to get her bounce house out. She spent about 5 hours in it today alone! I'm sure she'll sleep GREAT tonight!
What else? Well, a few weeks ago we got Katie 3 fish, the two littlest ones didn't last the week, but the big one is still going strong. Our newest puppy Cocoa is doing much better, the mange appears to be completely gone, and the skin infection has healed nicely, now we just need to work on getting her to gain some more weight then we'll be able to get her fixed. It has become quite evident as she has aged that she is not all lab, it looks like she's half lab half boxer. She's really quite small for a lab which should have been a dead give away, but she is quite beautiful and is VERY friendly! Yoshi is still as crazy and cute as ever, and George the girl kitty is still quite mischevious!
I have quite a bit more to post, but it will have to wait until another day as I'm preactically falling asleep here at the computer!
My parents were in town for a little over 2 weeks while my dad had some doctors appointments. It was great to see them and visit with them. They took Katie to her last 2 gymnastics classes, which worked out nicely since the initial round of classes she took was a Christmas gift from them. They also joined us for one Saturday at her swim classes.
The weather here was beautiful today, we topped out around 84 or 85 degrees. That's really unseasonably warm for us here, but we'll take it any day over the possibility of snow!! Not to mention the fact that us Whitney's LOVE the warm weather, I can't really speak for any of the other Whitney family members, but the 3 of us here in this house do! In celebration of the great weather we bought a new tree and some flowers for our yard, which we will spend most of the day tomorrow planting. Katie was also FINALLY allowed to get her bounce house out. She spent about 5 hours in it today alone! I'm sure she'll sleep GREAT tonight!
What else? Well, a few weeks ago we got Katie 3 fish, the two littlest ones didn't last the week, but the big one is still going strong. Our newest puppy Cocoa is doing much better, the mange appears to be completely gone, and the skin infection has healed nicely, now we just need to work on getting her to gain some more weight then we'll be able to get her fixed. It has become quite evident as she has aged that she is not all lab, it looks like she's half lab half boxer. She's really quite small for a lab which should have been a dead give away, but she is quite beautiful and is VERY friendly! Yoshi is still as crazy and cute as ever, and George the girl kitty is still quite mischevious!
I have quite a bit more to post, but it will have to wait until another day as I'm preactically falling asleep here at the computer!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Back to work
Well, starting Monday I'm going back to work. The company I was working for got a bid for 275 jobs, and they're expected to complete 25 a week, so that means 11 weeks on work for me. It's great! We can really use the opportunity, and this way if Dan's job ends up going on strike we'll still have money coming in. Because of all this tomorrow will be Katie's last day in the Friday gymnastics class, we'll have to switch her back to Saturdays, which won't be as nice, but hopefully she'll adapt to it well. the good thing is that she is getting her wish and going back to preschool. The 11 weeks of work will be up the last week of May, which is 3 weeks before my externship starts, and 9 weeks before I graduate, so it's actually perfect timing. Of course if they offer me additional work I'll consider taking it, but it will make things a bit harder to work out. We'll see what happens!!
Check in tomorrow for pictures from gymnastics!!
Check in tomorrow for pictures from gymnastics!!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Gymnastics Update
Well, Friday started the newest round of gymnastics classes. Katie was ecstatic! She did so great in the class. There are only two other kids in the class with her, so there is a lot more time to focus on each child and really learn how to do things. She did such an excellent job, I was so proud of her! Since there are so few children in the class now I am going to attempt to get some good pictures to share. I even bought new batteries for the camera, so there are no excuses now!!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Gymnastics
So, today was the last class of Katie's 7 week developmental gymnastics class. We told her that it was the last one, and she was sad, but otherwise okay with it. We also told her that at some point down the road we'd consider signing her up for another class, but that for now she had swimming to look forward to in a few weeks. That was all before class started.
But then!! Then, my sweet little, trouble making, mischevious little monkey went in to class and for the first time actualy participated for the whole class. She usually avoids stretching like it's the plague, but today she went at it with gusto, and it was great. As daddy and I stood there, watching her stretch, then tumble and do kart wheels, and walk on the balance beam and hang from the rings and bars, we decided that we just couldn't end the classes.
So, as a surprise to our sweet little girl, she will continue to go to gymastics. She has no idea, and won't find out until Friday when I pack her and her leotard in to the car and tell her we're going grocery shoping, but instead I'll take her back to gymnastics. I can just imagine the look on her face and the excitement in her little voice.
Oh the fun I will have for the next couple of days!!!
But then!! Then, my sweet little, trouble making, mischevious little monkey went in to class and for the first time actualy participated for the whole class. She usually avoids stretching like it's the plague, but today she went at it with gusto, and it was great. As daddy and I stood there, watching her stretch, then tumble and do kart wheels, and walk on the balance beam and hang from the rings and bars, we decided that we just couldn't end the classes.
So, as a surprise to our sweet little girl, she will continue to go to gymastics. She has no idea, and won't find out until Friday when I pack her and her leotard in to the car and tell her we're going grocery shoping, but instead I'll take her back to gymnastics. I can just imagine the look on her face and the excitement in her little voice.
Oh the fun I will have for the next couple of days!!!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
My Tumbling Tyke
Katie's gymnastics classes are drawing to an end. This coming Saturday is the last class. The sad part is that she is just now really starting to get in to it, practicing what they teach her all hours of the day. Yesterday she did about 300 summer saults. She's so funny, she tells us how many she wants to do and then asks us to count them as she goes. She doesn't really realize she's doing it, but about half of the time she does a hand stand mid roll. I'm amazed at her balance. Yesterday I got on the floor with her and atempted to show her a hand stand, didn't work as well as it used to when I was a kid, LOL!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
No baby for now
Well, the long awaited answer is here, I'm not pregnant. It's been 10 weeks 3 days since i've had a period, but my docs did an ultrasound today and theres nothing there. I'm sad I admit it, but I've been preparing myself for the fact that this was the reality for weeks, so it's not really a shock to me at all. Our options now are very limited since I can't have hormones, so we'll see where we go from here. When we initially decided to try for another baby we said we would put it in Gods hands, and that we would get pregnant if he willed it. I didn't necessarily expect to get pregnant right away, but there is literally no history of fertility problems in my family, pretty muc everyone gets pregnant at the drop of a hat, the term 'fertile mertile' comes to mind. I don't think I'm ready to completely give up yet, but I'm wondering if God is trying to tell me something. I can tell you that we won't try for any more than a year, I won't put myelf or Daniel through that.
For now: I'm going to loose some weight, seriously, I am getting my butt in gear NOW!!
For now: I'm going to loose some weight, seriously, I am getting my butt in gear NOW!!
Happy Birthday Daniel
Today is Daniels birthday! He's 26. He took a day off earlier this week on a whim because he needed to go renew his drivers license and tabs. He also has Saturday off, wich we planned, so that we could spend a day together as a family and celebrate his birthday and Valentines day. The best part is that he will actually get to go to one of Katie's gymnastics classes before they end next weekend.
Happy Birthday Hunny! I love you!!
Happy Birthday Hunny! I love you!!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Alphabet Song
So, Katie has known the alphabet for quite some time, but she refuses to say the letter L when she sings them, so the letter M doesn't come out right either because of it. It's pretty funny, but it bothers me a bit so I always stop her and correct her then let her move on. Here is Katie's version of the alphabet:
abcdefghijk EMMA nopqrstuvwxyz
By saying emma instead of L M she occupies the same amount of time, so she always ends the song at the same time as everyone else, but it's a habit we're having a really hard time breaking.
Tell me that next time you sing the alphabet song you won't atleast think about saying EMMA!! LOL
abcdefghijk EMMA nopqrstuvwxyz
By saying emma instead of L M she occupies the same amount of time, so she always ends the song at the same time as everyone else, but it's a habit we're having a really hard time breaking.
Tell me that next time you sing the alphabet song you won't atleast think about saying EMMA!! LOL
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Cocoa Update
I'm sure most of you remember, but a few months back we adopted a Chocolate Lab mix named Cocoa. For the most part she is a happy healthy energetic puppy, who is also very smart and is learning commands at the drop of a hat, well, really the drop of a treat. I mean honestly, she was the same age when we got her as our corgi Yoshi was when we got him, but it took him 3 years to learn to sit, it took her about 20 minutes.
Anyway, the point of my post. When we got her we took her to the vet because she had a small amount of hair loss on her face and legs that was either from mites or a fight she got in to with another animal before she was rescued. It turned out she had mange, a high amount of mites (which all dogs have) with an allergic reaction to them. Per the vets recommendation we treated her for 3 weeks and then went back for a follow up skin scrape. Over the course of the treatment she had scratched several areas of her face and body bald because of the itching from the mites. By the time the follow up appt came around she had grown a bunch of her hair back and the skin scrape came up negative for mites. WOOHOO!! She was clean and in the clear. By new years all of her hair had grown back and she was as cute as ever and she was most importantly healthy.
Or so we thought! Last Thursday I gave her a bath and everything went down hill from there. I took her to the vet again yesterday and the mites are back in full force, not because of the bath, they were still there before it, but thats when we started noticing the changes again. Most dogs fight off the mites on there own, but for some reason Cocoa just can't do it. The thing is that she has them so bad she is causing self inflicted wounds all over her body. She looks so uncomfortable. We are back on the meds for atleast another 3 weeks, but probably 6. We have to give her a special sponge bath every 5 days to help stop the itch, we have to give her an anitbiotic 4 times a day, and we have to feed her a high fat diet. The biggest, and by far he hardest, thing the vet said to us is that skin infections like the one she has created for herself with all the scratching can be deadly and we have to get it under control before it kills her. The poor girl. She's only 8 months old and whenever people see her they make all sorts of comments. I would hate to think of what she would be going through had she not been rescued, or had someone else adopted her. The people at the vet office keep saying that it is the worst case of mange they have ever seen and that she is lucky to have us as her owners because so many people are not willing to deal with a dog with this type of problem. The treatments aren't even all that expensive either, which makes it even more sad that someone would potentially abandone a dog because of such a little thing
The thing is that with the proper treatment she will make it through this, and once we get rid of it completely it won't be a problem for her anymore, it's just a matter of killing all of these mites once and for all. She is the sweetest most loving dog ever and I can't wait to have my snuggly little puppy back. In case anyone was wondering our other dog and our cat are not at risk, the mites do not transfer from one dog to anotherthe way lice move from person to person.
Daniel, the vet and I are all in agreement though: right now, with everything going on, she is just ugly, she's just not cute enough to make you want to pet her, but you can't help but make her want to feel better because you know that underneath all the problems is that sweet little chocolate puppy with the eyes that could melt your heart.
So, if you all hav time, please pray that our puppy makes it through this and that we are able to get rid of this once and for all.
Thanks!!
Anyway, the point of my post. When we got her we took her to the vet because she had a small amount of hair loss on her face and legs that was either from mites or a fight she got in to with another animal before she was rescued. It turned out she had mange, a high amount of mites (which all dogs have) with an allergic reaction to them. Per the vets recommendation we treated her for 3 weeks and then went back for a follow up skin scrape. Over the course of the treatment she had scratched several areas of her face and body bald because of the itching from the mites. By the time the follow up appt came around she had grown a bunch of her hair back and the skin scrape came up negative for mites. WOOHOO!! She was clean and in the clear. By new years all of her hair had grown back and she was as cute as ever and she was most importantly healthy.
Or so we thought! Last Thursday I gave her a bath and everything went down hill from there. I took her to the vet again yesterday and the mites are back in full force, not because of the bath, they were still there before it, but thats when we started noticing the changes again. Most dogs fight off the mites on there own, but for some reason Cocoa just can't do it. The thing is that she has them so bad she is causing self inflicted wounds all over her body. She looks so uncomfortable. We are back on the meds for atleast another 3 weeks, but probably 6. We have to give her a special sponge bath every 5 days to help stop the itch, we have to give her an anitbiotic 4 times a day, and we have to feed her a high fat diet. The biggest, and by far he hardest, thing the vet said to us is that skin infections like the one she has created for herself with all the scratching can be deadly and we have to get it under control before it kills her. The poor girl. She's only 8 months old and whenever people see her they make all sorts of comments. I would hate to think of what she would be going through had she not been rescued, or had someone else adopted her. The people at the vet office keep saying that it is the worst case of mange they have ever seen and that she is lucky to have us as her owners because so many people are not willing to deal with a dog with this type of problem. The treatments aren't even all that expensive either, which makes it even more sad that someone would potentially abandone a dog because of such a little thing
The thing is that with the proper treatment she will make it through this, and once we get rid of it completely it won't be a problem for her anymore, it's just a matter of killing all of these mites once and for all. She is the sweetest most loving dog ever and I can't wait to have my snuggly little puppy back. In case anyone was wondering our other dog and our cat are not at risk, the mites do not transfer from one dog to anotherthe way lice move from person to person.
Daniel, the vet and I are all in agreement though: right now, with everything going on, she is just ugly, she's just not cute enough to make you want to pet her, but you can't help but make her want to feel better because you know that underneath all the problems is that sweet little chocolate puppy with the eyes that could melt your heart.
So, if you all hav time, please pray that our puppy makes it through this and that we are able to get rid of this once and for all.
Thanks!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
My updates
Well, I'm officially 1/3 of the way done with school, well, okay, not until Thursday, but you get the point. The past 12 weeks have FLOWN by. We had two weeks off for the holidays, which was nice, but the other 10 weeks have been really busy, full of taking notes, writing papers, taking tests and learning procedures. Yesterday was quite interesting as we learned how to hold a baby. Not really just how to hold a baby, but they had to make sure we knew how to do it correctly. I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't know how, but it still made me laugh!!
Lets see, what else. I have a doctors appointment on Tuesday. I have my fingers crossed that I'm pregnant. I really don't know what else it could be, but anythings possible. If indeed I am pregnant then I only have about 31 weeks and 5 days until we meet the newest member of our family. If I'm not then something is seriously wrong with my body.
I have been working out every day on the treadmill my parents gave me. I try to do 30 minutes every day. Right now I'm working on increasing the miles I do in 30 minutes rather than extending the length of time. Once I get to a little bit quicker pace I'll start increasing the time, but my goal is and always will be to get in 30 minutes per day everyday, which is 210 more minutes per week than I have gotten over the majority of my life. I know it won't always happen, and things will get in the way, but I want to make exercise the norm not the exception. I'm also hoping that if I exercise daily it will make a good impression on Katie to do the same thing and be fit for life instead of riding the roller coaster of obesity that I have been on for all of my adult life. I used to think I was so fat when I was in school, but I would kill to be as small now as I was then. Positive self image is so important, and a regular fitness regimen goes a long way towards that.
Speaking of exercise and life style changes. Daniel and I have decided to make a few other major changes around our house starting with this pay period. We kind of started working on it for these last two weeks but going forward it 'do or die!' We decided that we are going to plan out our meals for every night of the week and that we are no longer going to eat out with the exception of one family meal out per month, which will usually be lunch after a discount morning movie on a Sunday. Since DH eats out the most he has committed to taking a lunch on a daily basis, and I have committed to not shopping... GASP!! NO Shopping! What??!! I realized recently that I spend more money on crap we don't need than we put away in our savings accounts, so I'm done. If I find something I think I can't live without I'm going to come home, discuss it with Daniel and think about it for a few days before making the final decision to purchase, hoping that most of the time I'll decide against it. I mean, really, we don't need anything else! We're even going to be frugal in the baby gear we purchase since we had more than we ever could have used with Katie. Having said all that I have to admit, I have an addiction to Target! It is certainly going to take me a while to adjust to not making a pit stop there every week, maybe they should make shopping less convenient. I can always window shop right? Maybe Daniel should take away my debit card and lock it up!!
I feel so much more responsible for making these changes happen now that I've put them out here for you all to see. I am determined to teach our children, and re-teach ourselves, to be physically, financially and most of all emotionally healthy!
Off to bed!
Lets see, what else. I have a doctors appointment on Tuesday. I have my fingers crossed that I'm pregnant. I really don't know what else it could be, but anythings possible. If indeed I am pregnant then I only have about 31 weeks and 5 days until we meet the newest member of our family. If I'm not then something is seriously wrong with my body.
I have been working out every day on the treadmill my parents gave me. I try to do 30 minutes every day. Right now I'm working on increasing the miles I do in 30 minutes rather than extending the length of time. Once I get to a little bit quicker pace I'll start increasing the time, but my goal is and always will be to get in 30 minutes per day everyday, which is 210 more minutes per week than I have gotten over the majority of my life. I know it won't always happen, and things will get in the way, but I want to make exercise the norm not the exception. I'm also hoping that if I exercise daily it will make a good impression on Katie to do the same thing and be fit for life instead of riding the roller coaster of obesity that I have been on for all of my adult life. I used to think I was so fat when I was in school, but I would kill to be as small now as I was then. Positive self image is so important, and a regular fitness regimen goes a long way towards that.
Speaking of exercise and life style changes. Daniel and I have decided to make a few other major changes around our house starting with this pay period. We kind of started working on it for these last two weeks but going forward it 'do or die!' We decided that we are going to plan out our meals for every night of the week and that we are no longer going to eat out with the exception of one family meal out per month, which will usually be lunch after a discount morning movie on a Sunday. Since DH eats out the most he has committed to taking a lunch on a daily basis, and I have committed to not shopping... GASP!! NO Shopping! What??!! I realized recently that I spend more money on crap we don't need than we put away in our savings accounts, so I'm done. If I find something I think I can't live without I'm going to come home, discuss it with Daniel and think about it for a few days before making the final decision to purchase, hoping that most of the time I'll decide against it. I mean, really, we don't need anything else! We're even going to be frugal in the baby gear we purchase since we had more than we ever could have used with Katie. Having said all that I have to admit, I have an addiction to Target! It is certainly going to take me a while to adjust to not making a pit stop there every week, maybe they should make shopping less convenient. I can always window shop right? Maybe Daniel should take away my debit card and lock it up!!
I feel so much more responsible for making these changes happen now that I've put them out here for you all to see. I am determined to teach our children, and re-teach ourselves, to be physically, financially and most of all emotionally healthy!
Off to bed!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Snowy Weekend Adventures
** I know this says it's from yesterday, and it truly is, but instead of publishing it I saved it instead! Mommy had a brain fart!! **
Katie and I had a great adventuresome weekend! Unforunately I have no pictures of it, I have been majorly slacking on the picture front lately and I promise to resolve it effective immediately.
Friday we had plans with Auntie Stef and Hunter to go play at the local indoor play place. Grandma Sally and Auntie Stacey were coming too, so we swung over to Auntie Heathers house and picked her up then we were on our way. We spent a few hours at Castaway Cafe then we were off to run errands and do a bunch of grocery shopping.
Saturday morning was Katies gymnsatics class. I still didn't get any pictures taken, but next weekend I am going to try to get there early and secure myelf a spot on the bench next to the window so that I can do my best to get a few. She loves it so much and talks about it the rest of the day making sure to show daddy everything she learned that day, including the stretches they do at the start of class. After that we were supposed to meet some friends at Castaway Cafe for another afternoon of play, but they couldn't make it, so Katie and I went anyway and she played for a few hours on her own. The weather was pretty bad that afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day around the house and neighborhood.
Sunday was a pretty uneventful day. Daniel was home and we spent the day relaxing and watching movies and sports. In the afternoon Grammy Jessie and Auntie Heather came over and we played games and visited.
Overall it was a good weekend, but both Katie and I wish that Daniel had the opportunity to be home for more of it!!
Katie and I had a great adventuresome weekend! Unforunately I have no pictures of it, I have been majorly slacking on the picture front lately and I promise to resolve it effective immediately.
Friday we had plans with Auntie Stef and Hunter to go play at the local indoor play place. Grandma Sally and Auntie Stacey were coming too, so we swung over to Auntie Heathers house and picked her up then we were on our way. We spent a few hours at Castaway Cafe then we were off to run errands and do a bunch of grocery shopping.
Saturday morning was Katies gymnsatics class. I still didn't get any pictures taken, but next weekend I am going to try to get there early and secure myelf a spot on the bench next to the window so that I can do my best to get a few. She loves it so much and talks about it the rest of the day making sure to show daddy everything she learned that day, including the stretches they do at the start of class. After that we were supposed to meet some friends at Castaway Cafe for another afternoon of play, but they couldn't make it, so Katie and I went anyway and she played for a few hours on her own. The weather was pretty bad that afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day around the house and neighborhood.
Sunday was a pretty uneventful day. Daniel was home and we spent the day relaxing and watching movies and sports. In the afternoon Grammy Jessie and Auntie Heather came over and we played games and visited.
Overall it was a good weekend, but both Katie and I wish that Daniel had the opportunity to be home for more of it!!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Gymnastics Saturday
Well, Saturday is here again! In the Whitney household that means Daddy is at work and Mommy and Katie are off to Gymnsastics class. You probably remember from all of my Christmas and year-end posts, but Katie was given 7 weeks worth of gymnastics classes for Christmas from my mom and dad. We opted to do just one session incase she didn't end up liking it, but it seems from last week that she really loves the class. She was a little nervous going in, and I had to stand in the room so that she could see me for a little while, but she eventually got over her fear and joined the rest of her classmates in the activities they were doing. She had a great time, and it was so much fun to watch her follow directions and learn new things. Today will be her second class and Daniel and I are already considering signing her up for a Friday class when this one is over since she will have swim classes on Saturdays after that. Most of the kids in the class were wearing leotards last week even though they are not required by the school, so we decided that we wanted to try to get Katie one if we could find one for a reasonable price seeing that it won't really fit her all that long. On our trips around town yesterday we checked at store after store, and on our second to last stop we finally found one, and the best part was that it was on clearance!!
Friday, January 16, 2009
SOOOO CUTE
So, I'm convinced that when I finally have another baby it is going to be another girl. It just has to be, we've found so many things that we already know we would want. This one is my absolute favorite: http://www.cocalo.com/item.asp?id=111&brand=1&g=1&coll=&cat=1 The best part is that it matches both Katies room and our guest room perfectly and at this point sharing a room for a while seems to be the most feasible option so that we don't have to disassemble our guest room until we have the monies available to put on an addition.
Oh yeah...by finally I mean hopefully about 33 weeks from now! Still havnen't confirmed it with the docs yet, but it's looking more and more like a go!!!!
Oh yeah...by finally I mean hopefully about 33 weeks from now! Still havnen't confirmed it with the docs yet, but it's looking more and more like a go!!!!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Looking forward into 2009
Well, after my last post I thought it would be fun to spell out some of the things we'd like to do in 2009.
Next Saturday Katie will be starting a 7 week, child only, gynastics class. I am so excited for her to have this opportunity, she misses the interaction that preschool and daycare were giving her. After the gymastics classes are over she will start a 7 week, child only, swimming class. The schedule of the classes will basically take us right up to Memorial day weekend which is when we intend to take our first camping trip of the year. We plan on taking as many weekend camping trips as our schedules will allow this year.
On July 1st Daniel and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary and on July 31st I will graduate from my program at Ross and be eligible to work as a Medical Assistant, that same day will be Daniel and I's fifth anniversary as a couple, so I think a dinner date will be in order!!
We also hope to be able to take atleast a short trip to Florida again, and hopefully spend a day (or two) at Disney.
I'm sure this year will fly bye, just like 2008 did. If this year is half as fun and exciting as last year was then we are in for a wild ride!! Make sure you check back through out the year to see what we're up too!
Next Saturday Katie will be starting a 7 week, child only, gynastics class. I am so excited for her to have this opportunity, she misses the interaction that preschool and daycare were giving her. After the gymastics classes are over she will start a 7 week, child only, swimming class. The schedule of the classes will basically take us right up to Memorial day weekend which is when we intend to take our first camping trip of the year. We plan on taking as many weekend camping trips as our schedules will allow this year.
On July 1st Daniel and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary and on July 31st I will graduate from my program at Ross and be eligible to work as a Medical Assistant, that same day will be Daniel and I's fifth anniversary as a couple, so I think a dinner date will be in order!!
We also hope to be able to take atleast a short trip to Florida again, and hopefully spend a day (or two) at Disney.
I'm sure this year will fly bye, just like 2008 did. If this year is half as fun and exciting as last year was then we are in for a wild ride!! Make sure you check back through out the year to see what we're up too!
2008 in Review
I know I'm a little late with this, but at least I'm getting around to it eventually! I don't do an annual Christmas letter, and in the past I've never done anything to summarize the year, but this year I felt compelled to do so. I have to admit, that I was most inspired by my friends Paige and Heather to do this as they are both wonderfully organized, and reading the recap of there years really made me look back and think about everything that happened in our own household. So here we go!
January: Daniel and I started looking in to moving our house to a new neighborhood. We made appointments, talked, looked and finally started making decisions. We picked a new lot, exactly seven miles away from the lot where our house originally sat. We put the deposit down, signed all the necessary papers and started packing. Our concrete piers for the foundation of our house were poured three days later, but we were expecting it would be months before the house was moved since it takes time to arrange all those things.
February: Daniel, my dad an my uncle all had a Birthday on the 12th. Daniel turned 25! The same day we celebrated the fact that it had been two years since we first discovered that I had a severe blood clot and the miracle that I had survived the whole ordeal. The 21st turned out to be one of the craziest days of my life. There was a really bad accident on the highway in the morning, so my normal 25 minute commute to work was taking about 2 hours instead. While I was sitting in traffic I got a call from my mom telling me that my paternal grandfather had passed away, he'd been sick for a while, and we knew it was coming, but it was still devastating. That morning while I was sitting at work looking for flights to Florida I got a call from the company that would eventually be moving our house...SURPRISE! Everything had fallen in to place much faster than we'd originally planned on, and if we could be moved out, they would be there to start taking our house apart the following Monday and they'd move it Tuesday or Wednesday. We had been packing, but not much was ready, there was a LOT of work to do and I was going to be out of town, it seemed impossible, but I didn't want to say no because they we would have been stuck in our old neighborhood until after the frost laws were lifted in April. While I was in Florida for my grandpa's funeral Daniel and a lot of our family and friends literally packed up EVERYTHING in our house. There was a glitch with the old park, so the move didn't end up happening that week, but they had literally packed and moved everything we owned in 3 days time.
March: On the third the house was finally moved. It was an amazing site to watch as they pulled our house down the road. We stayed with Daniel's sister for a few weeks while they worked on putting the house back together. We were out of our house for exactly 3 weeks, we would have been back in sooner, but the day they moved the house was quite warm and the ground was to soft to support the weight of the house until it was set on the piers, so it sat on the street in two sections for a few days until the ground froze again. March 17th we finalized the move and were given the clearance from the township to resume occupancy. Daniel and I both took a weeks vacation to move things back in to the house and unpack our belongings.
April: The unpacking continued. We finally had a yard big enough to support toys or Katie, so bought her a turtle shaped sand box. In the middle of the month they came and poured our concrete. After 3.5 years of home ownership we finally had our very own driveway. Once the concrete was poured ans set our new shed was delivered and our new brick facade skirting was installed. The new shed is like a castle compared to our old one and the new skirting finally made our house look like a home instead of a trailer. I should add that our new lot is approximately 2.5 or 3 times larger that our old one, it's a lot more to maintain, but it's 100% worth it!
May: Probably our most uneventful month. We played a lot and worked a lot. The best part of the month was that Katie was now 100% potty trained, she was even sleeping through the night completely dry! We were done with diapers!!!! At the end of the month my mom retired and her and my dad made the permanent move to Florida. While we were happy to see them starting the next phase of there lives we were also sad that they would no longer be living just a few minutes from us and we wouldn't see them as often. Daniel achieved his one year service anniversary with AT&T.
June: My mom and dad came to visit and we all attended a wonderful retirement party thrown in my moms honor. On a sadder note I was declared surplus at AT&T and my position was eliminated after only 11 months of employment as the company downsized.
July: We took our first family camping trip. We went for a week to a campground about an hour away from home. We took Katie's cousin Aurora with us, they are only 13 days apart and love spending time with each other. While we were gone Daniel and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We took the girls for a day trip to Cabelas and to the Toledo zoo. The rest of the time was spent swimming, playing on the playground and hanging out around the campfire. At the end of the month Daniel and I celebrated our 4th anniversary as a couple. During the month I also started a job with a contract firm, doing exactly the same job I had done for AT&T for two years before I was brought on as an employee late in 2007, all in all I was unemployed for 8 days.
August: The new job was going good, then the news came. AT&T was changing the way they were doing things and because of that there wouldn't be much work for contractors for a while. Yep, you got it, laid off again! I was the lucky one, I was able to continue working a few days a week, but many of my coworkers were out of a job with little hope there would ever be a position for them again. I took work whenever it was available. Towards the end of the month we had a small house warming party.
September: We took another camping trip over labor day weekend. This time we didn't take Aurora, but we did take Daniels mom and sister. We went to the same campground, and again we had a great time. After we got home Katie started her first day of preschool. For most of the month my work was steady and I worked full time a good portion of the month.
October: This was a REALLY busy month for us. To start the month we found out that AT&T was again changing the way they were doing things and the almost completely eliminated contractor work, so I was once again without a job. The timing couldn't have been better or worse, but we took it as well as possible. Two days after my last day of work we packed our bags and left for our week long trip to Florida to visit my parents. While we were there we spent a day at Disney World and Katie celebrated her 3rd birthday. We came home on Friday and on Saturday we had Katie's Mickey Mouse themed birthday party. For the rest of the month Katelin continued going to preschool. Halloween was a blast, our friends came over and brought there son to go trick-or-treating with Katie. The kids had a blast and got more candy than they could have ever hoped to eat. This month we also decided that we were ready to start trying for baby #2!! We also decided to adopt our second dog. We adopted a beautiful 4 month old chocolate lab named Cocoa. She has been a handful, but is a lot of fun and we wouldn't trade her for the world. Additionally our cat George celebrated her first anniversary of joining our family (we aren't exactly sure what her birthday is, but we know she's 1, so it's easier to celebrate the anniversary instead!!)
November: I started a nine month program at Ross Medical Education Center to become a Medical Assistant. I celebrated my 25th birthday. We had Thanksgiving at our house as we do every year. The day after Thanksgiving we went to the local holiday parade, but for the first time didn't do any black Friday shopping because Daniel had to work. We also pulled Katie out of preschool as it was no longer feasible with me not working. Our older dog Yoshi celebrated his fourth birthday, he is a wonderful dog and has brought so much to our lives.
December: Daniel was working a TON. He had been all year, but with the holidays fast approaching it seemed like he was working more than ever. My mom flew in to town for a long weekend, we took Katie to get her Christmas pictures done and had our annual day of baking cookies. My mom flew home for a week and then her and my dad drove back up to spend the holidays. They spent the first half of there visit staying at my brothers house just a few miles down the road, and the last half of there visit here at our house with us. We hosted Christmas day at our house this year, there were about 25 people here for dinner. We also hosted New Years eve at our house. My child hood friend Stefanie, her husband Scott, there son Hunter and Stef's sister Stacey came over for the evening. We made cheese and chocolate fondue and spent the evening talking and watching the kids play.
We've loved having you all as a part of our lives in 2008 and hope you all have a great 2009!
January: Daniel and I started looking in to moving our house to a new neighborhood. We made appointments, talked, looked and finally started making decisions. We picked a new lot, exactly seven miles away from the lot where our house originally sat. We put the deposit down, signed all the necessary papers and started packing. Our concrete piers for the foundation of our house were poured three days later, but we were expecting it would be months before the house was moved since it takes time to arrange all those things.
February: Daniel, my dad an my uncle all had a Birthday on the 12th. Daniel turned 25! The same day we celebrated the fact that it had been two years since we first discovered that I had a severe blood clot and the miracle that I had survived the whole ordeal. The 21st turned out to be one of the craziest days of my life. There was a really bad accident on the highway in the morning, so my normal 25 minute commute to work was taking about 2 hours instead. While I was sitting in traffic I got a call from my mom telling me that my paternal grandfather had passed away, he'd been sick for a while, and we knew it was coming, but it was still devastating. That morning while I was sitting at work looking for flights to Florida I got a call from the company that would eventually be moving our house...SURPRISE! Everything had fallen in to place much faster than we'd originally planned on, and if we could be moved out, they would be there to start taking our house apart the following Monday and they'd move it Tuesday or Wednesday. We had been packing, but not much was ready, there was a LOT of work to do and I was going to be out of town, it seemed impossible, but I didn't want to say no because they we would have been stuck in our old neighborhood until after the frost laws were lifted in April. While I was in Florida for my grandpa's funeral Daniel and a lot of our family and friends literally packed up EVERYTHING in our house. There was a glitch with the old park, so the move didn't end up happening that week, but they had literally packed and moved everything we owned in 3 days time.
March: On the third the house was finally moved. It was an amazing site to watch as they pulled our house down the road. We stayed with Daniel's sister for a few weeks while they worked on putting the house back together. We were out of our house for exactly 3 weeks, we would have been back in sooner, but the day they moved the house was quite warm and the ground was to soft to support the weight of the house until it was set on the piers, so it sat on the street in two sections for a few days until the ground froze again. March 17th we finalized the move and were given the clearance from the township to resume occupancy. Daniel and I both took a weeks vacation to move things back in to the house and unpack our belongings.
April: The unpacking continued. We finally had a yard big enough to support toys or Katie, so bought her a turtle shaped sand box. In the middle of the month they came and poured our concrete. After 3.5 years of home ownership we finally had our very own driveway. Once the concrete was poured ans set our new shed was delivered and our new brick facade skirting was installed. The new shed is like a castle compared to our old one and the new skirting finally made our house look like a home instead of a trailer. I should add that our new lot is approximately 2.5 or 3 times larger that our old one, it's a lot more to maintain, but it's 100% worth it!
May: Probably our most uneventful month. We played a lot and worked a lot. The best part of the month was that Katie was now 100% potty trained, she was even sleeping through the night completely dry! We were done with diapers!!!! At the end of the month my mom retired and her and my dad made the permanent move to Florida. While we were happy to see them starting the next phase of there lives we were also sad that they would no longer be living just a few minutes from us and we wouldn't see them as often. Daniel achieved his one year service anniversary with AT&T.
June: My mom and dad came to visit and we all attended a wonderful retirement party thrown in my moms honor. On a sadder note I was declared surplus at AT&T and my position was eliminated after only 11 months of employment as the company downsized.
July: We took our first family camping trip. We went for a week to a campground about an hour away from home. We took Katie's cousin Aurora with us, they are only 13 days apart and love spending time with each other. While we were gone Daniel and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We took the girls for a day trip to Cabelas and to the Toledo zoo. The rest of the time was spent swimming, playing on the playground and hanging out around the campfire. At the end of the month Daniel and I celebrated our 4th anniversary as a couple. During the month I also started a job with a contract firm, doing exactly the same job I had done for AT&T for two years before I was brought on as an employee late in 2007, all in all I was unemployed for 8 days.
August: The new job was going good, then the news came. AT&T was changing the way they were doing things and because of that there wouldn't be much work for contractors for a while. Yep, you got it, laid off again! I was the lucky one, I was able to continue working a few days a week, but many of my coworkers were out of a job with little hope there would ever be a position for them again. I took work whenever it was available. Towards the end of the month we had a small house warming party.
September: We took another camping trip over labor day weekend. This time we didn't take Aurora, but we did take Daniels mom and sister. We went to the same campground, and again we had a great time. After we got home Katie started her first day of preschool. For most of the month my work was steady and I worked full time a good portion of the month.
October: This was a REALLY busy month for us. To start the month we found out that AT&T was again changing the way they were doing things and the almost completely eliminated contractor work, so I was once again without a job. The timing couldn't have been better or worse, but we took it as well as possible. Two days after my last day of work we packed our bags and left for our week long trip to Florida to visit my parents. While we were there we spent a day at Disney World and Katie celebrated her 3rd birthday. We came home on Friday and on Saturday we had Katie's Mickey Mouse themed birthday party. For the rest of the month Katelin continued going to preschool. Halloween was a blast, our friends came over and brought there son to go trick-or-treating with Katie. The kids had a blast and got more candy than they could have ever hoped to eat. This month we also decided that we were ready to start trying for baby #2!! We also decided to adopt our second dog. We adopted a beautiful 4 month old chocolate lab named Cocoa. She has been a handful, but is a lot of fun and we wouldn't trade her for the world. Additionally our cat George celebrated her first anniversary of joining our family (we aren't exactly sure what her birthday is, but we know she's 1, so it's easier to celebrate the anniversary instead!!)
November: I started a nine month program at Ross Medical Education Center to become a Medical Assistant. I celebrated my 25th birthday. We had Thanksgiving at our house as we do every year. The day after Thanksgiving we went to the local holiday parade, but for the first time didn't do any black Friday shopping because Daniel had to work. We also pulled Katie out of preschool as it was no longer feasible with me not working. Our older dog Yoshi celebrated his fourth birthday, he is a wonderful dog and has brought so much to our lives.
December: Daniel was working a TON. He had been all year, but with the holidays fast approaching it seemed like he was working more than ever. My mom flew in to town for a long weekend, we took Katie to get her Christmas pictures done and had our annual day of baking cookies. My mom flew home for a week and then her and my dad drove back up to spend the holidays. They spent the first half of there visit staying at my brothers house just a few miles down the road, and the last half of there visit here at our house with us. We hosted Christmas day at our house this year, there were about 25 people here for dinner. We also hosted New Years eve at our house. My child hood friend Stefanie, her husband Scott, there son Hunter and Stef's sister Stacey came over for the evening. We made cheese and chocolate fondue and spent the evening talking and watching the kids play.
We've loved having you all as a part of our lives in 2008 and hope you all have a great 2009!
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