Yard Work

We've been working in the yard again. I decided to get all domestic and plant a garden. I have this thought everytime I go to the grocery store and see the price of organic produce that I could grow those ridiculously overpriced vegetables...but first I have to build a rock wall to hold all the dirt in. I'm very excited about my garden and my rock wall but, as Ricky informed me this morning, it is like the fifth project in the backyard that I have started and we haven't yet finished the other 4 projects. So, after the fence is done, and the irrigation trench is dug and pipes laid, and the grass is seeded, and the big rock wall for our patio area is finished...then I will finish my garden. In the meantime, I planted two strawberry plants and atleast we'll have those. Tomorrow I will try to put up some pictures of our progress. Ricky is back at work now so I am finally figuring out what it's like to have Clair by myself...kind of. My mom is still here a ton and there are always roommates. It's really nice to have so many hands.

Here is a little photo shoot we did of Clair a few days ago:









Ok, not the photo shoot...just me screwing around with the camera. Now the photo shoot...

Cody's second tennis match is tomorrow. It is in Sierra Vista, I think...

Last Saturday we went to the last Ice Cats game of the season. It was a great game. The Icecats won in this ridiculous overtime shoot out that just went on forever. It was fantastic. I have a picture but I can't seem to locate my camera at the moment. And, speaking of camera's, Ricky somehow left his phone at the TCC so I went and got a new one this afternoon. So, if you read this and want to text your name and phone number to Ricky, you could, because he has no contacts in his new phone.

Catching up

So, I know it's been a really long time since I've posted and part of that is because I wrote an entire post early last week that errored out and had to be deleted and partly because we've just been busy and blogging takes time.

Here are some highlights of the last few weeks.

We went to see my grandparents. At my grandparents we went to two viewings and one funeral. As much as that could seem like maybe not a great way to spend a week, we actually had a pretty good time. The day we got to Michigan to surprise my grandparents, we found out their pastor of twenty years had just past away two days before and then that afternoon my grandma's best friend of 76 years died. Both deaths were sudden and unexpected and my Grandparents were very sad. However, I really believe that God brought us there to help my Grandma have a happy spot in the middle of all the sadness and to help her and my grandpa through the week. I have known Pastor Art for all of the twenty years he has preached at the church and even though I only get to see him every few years, he would always remember and know everything that was going on with me. I was very grateful to have the chance to be there and say goodbye. He was an amazing man. My Grandma's best friend I didn't really know as well.

We went with my grandpa to the old folks home on Thursday. Incidentally, I am really freaked out by nursing homes. I don't like the smell and I am very uncomfortable with the whole ambiance in general. For instance, I had to sit on pee pads because they had them spread all over the couches in case anyone had an accident. It took me several minutes to get up the courage to actually sit down. So, all that to say, I'm always so proud and humbled by the fact that my grandpa does this and I am reminded how totally selfish and spoiled I am in my comfortable life every time I go with him...which I always do because it's like this special Grandpa/Grandchild bonding time. When I was little they used to put me and my brothers up on the table and we would sing our VBS songs for everyone. Anywho...we went with my Grandpa this time as well because it was his first trip without Pastor Art and he needed a little back up. There was this lady who kept asking to sing versions of songs that don't exist or songs that weren't on the list. She asked to sing "Rock of Angels" (Rock of Ages) and You are my sunshine and a few others that I should have written down because they were so funny. And my Grandpa was so patient and just played everything he could decipher for her. Ricky gave a talk on the story of Mary and Martha and she kept asking him if he was finished talking yet so we could sing some more?

My grandma is who Clair is named after. It was fun to see them together. I got a few good photos.

From there we went to Seattle where I don't think I got any pictures. But, we had so much fun. It was nice to just relax and hang out with friends. We went to Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll's church, and we saw the fish market and sat on the piggy bank and I got a mug at the original Starbucks and we ate cream cheese hotdogs and got a ton of quality hang out time with Valor, Karen and Lauren...and then we went home...for a day.

The next day we headed to Dallas to show off the baby to Shane. We didn't get any pictures of Clair with Shane, mostly because I was passed out on his couch asleep almost the entire time we were there. But, we did get the picture below of Ricky and Shane showing off...something. :)

Next, we headed to Seminole, TX where we hung out with Ricky's Mamaw and his aunt and uncle. We got to stay with his Aunt Sherry and Uncle Rob and it was so relaxing and fun. They cooked dinner for us and we got to catch up on all the latest family stuff. Rob took us out in his new plane and I learned all about farming and how irrigation works in that part of Texas. Seminole has grown a ton since the last time I was there. Mamaw hung out with us the whole time. She was my flying buddy. I got to fly the plane and, you know, I always think of myself as being pretty tough but that was the second time I've been allowed to "fly" a small plane and it scares the heeby jeebies out of me. It's sort of like Ricky's motorcycle. I really like to ride on it but it terrifies me to ever have to be in control.

We got back from Seminole on Friday morning and Jenn and Kevin got in Friday evening to spend the weekend with us. We had a blast. While we were walking down University on Saturday we saw a Segway Club going for a stroll...check this out.

These are some photos of us all hanging out:

Brian and Kristin also came by to hang out this weekend. They introduced us to the Guadalajara Grill...so yummy. We will be going back. It was so good to see them and to top off their visit, I found this tshirt quilt that Brian's mom had written us to look for back months ago before they got married. Evidently he left it here when he moved back home but I didn't know where it was. Lo and behold I found it the morning they flew out. Just in time to have to mail it back to them instead of being able to just hand it to them in person. Oh well.

Jenn and Kevin headed out on Monday morning and then on Tuesday, Cody had his first Tennis match of the season. He made varsity at Tucson high and they played Sunnyside. Cody played his heart out but ended up getting beat right at the very end in a tie breaker match. I made Clair a little outfit to wear to his games. It was so cold I only took her out of her massive blanket for the two seconds it took to get the picture and you can tell she is none to happy about it.

We've been home for the last week and I think it has literally just flown by. Ricky went back to work for the first time today. I have one more week and then I go back. Sometime soon we need to get out to LA to see Hamilton...then our traveling days will be over.

Nadal beat Federer

So, since the majority of the world was watching the Football game today, I thought I would announce that Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in the Australian Open...it was a sad, sad match if you like Roger Federer. But we watched all four hours of it live...instead of watching the first half of the Superbowl (really, I don't think we missed much. All the excitement seemed to happen in the second half anyways) Ricky doesn't really care much about football and I just wanted to clean the house and file taxes so Australian Open it was. What a great match, too(besides the fact that it was so sad). They played some amazing tennis.

And now we're off for a whirlwind trip around the country to visit family. We will be going to Michigan then to Dallas, then to Seattle, then down to Midland, TX. Then, we will come back home and hopefully sleep in every day for the rest of our time off.

coffee

I'm not sure what I think about drinking coffee from a straw. I know some people swear by it but I'm not so sure it's all people think it is. At this moment I'm inclined to opt for the yellow teeth...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Adjusting to Life

So, I've kind of realized that there is all this novelty when you first bring home a baby and everything is crazy and people are coming over all the time and then things begin to die down and you wake up every morning to the sound of a crying infant and she has big eyes and poops a lot and cries a lot and you love her and realize that you can only do what you can do and life will continue on and this little baby will be a part of it.

We were at the racquet club this afternoon and a mom with her daughter walked by. Her daughter had a little racquet tucked under her arm and was talking to her mom as they came down from the restaurant and I thought, maybe that will be us one day. The millrose games was on the tv and I thought, maybe she'll run like me one day.

And that's where we're at right now. We sit around and ask eachother if she knows she's loved and if one or the other of us thinks she'll play soccer or tennis or run or play guitar (well, that one is just Ricky). I don't think I realized that as quickly as everything moves, there would also be these big lulls in time where she is just tiny and can't see you or smile at you. She just opens up her eyes and half way smiles. I get all excited until I realize she's just pooping or passing gas.

Anyways, being a mom is wonderful. Still very surreal, but good. I have realized that I can atleast go to the racquet club because there are places to breastfeed that don't make me feel like a moron. The ladies are very nice to me, too, as I camp out in the towel closet or the back of the locker room.

I worked out for the first time today. I walked for twenty minutes on the treadmill and did some crunches. Yay for getting back to the size I was when I was 6 month's pregnant. I'm not even goaling to be the size I was before I got pregnant...let alone the size I was in college. I'm sticking with the currently realistic goal of fitting back into the clothes I could still wear when I was 6 month's pregnant.

Ricky is taking a technical writing class and it has pretty much begun to consume his life. He spends hours pouring over websites and writing papers. The class is pretty much awesome but very time consumming. Soon he will have his degree and all this studying will be behind us. I feel very blessed to be able to hang out with him so much while he has been studying. It has been kind of fun. I get to read novels...fluffy christian novels that make me happy. And I feed the baby. The story of my new life.

Here are some pictures. One from tonight at the club and three to show how hard it is to get one good picture. I left off half the bad ones...

New Picture

I have the baby and the dog asleep on me so I thought I would take a second and post. I'm finally starting to get the hang of the whole breastfeeding thing. It seems to be working much much better but I'm not quite organized yet on a schedule. I haven't decided whether or not I think it's going to be really important yet. However, this evening I read that if I don't either feed Clair or pump out milk about every 2-3 hours, I might not have enough milk to feed her when she gets older. That has pretty much freaked me out and into the desire to create a schedule...starting tomorrow. I really hate schedules. I've never liked them. I should just be a hippee.

Here are more pictures. Ricky wanted one to show that she's the length of his arm.

hanging out

I promised myself that this week I would do nothing but hang out with my new baby and my husband and I'm so glad I did. Ricky and I have not spent this much consecutive time together since we both started working corporate jobs. I can't believe how fast the days are flying by though. Right now we are blowing through episodes of the office on netflix and taking turns holding clair. That and I just keep eating because I'm constantly hungry and pumping or feeding Clair intermittently.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]