Vacation is Over :>(

We are back from our week long trip up to the U.P. We had a great time and are all sad that it is over. Rachel is constantly asking about the cabin now! When we get the pictures downloaded and I can access them from my laptop upstairs, I will post them!

Little Updates

Let see...what is going on over here???

Rachel is doing great. She is stringing together words and at times comes out with 4 and 5 word phrases. The popular one last night was "where did the bunnies go?" We are slowly working on potty training. Her reward is a M&M. Yes, bad Mommy...I reward with candy. But...she only gets 1. Could you eat just one M&M? I know, I am mean! So, she is using the potty at least once a day and actually on Sunday today Jamie that she had to go. She is learning to sing her ABC's and it often comes out A-B-C-D-H-O-O-P, Now I know my A-B-C-D...too cute! She is also really enjoying praying before meals. She rarely lets us forget and she now says a prayer of her own. It consists of "Dear Amen!"

Bunny update...The have since left the nest and yesterday we did not see them at all. Well, this morning, I did catch a quick glance of one of them and the mommy bunny.

Jamie has been super busy at work. I guess that is it with him! (Sorry J!)

And what is up with Mommy dearest? Nothing really! I have been busy doing nothing. The small things make me happy. Yesterday I had Tabitha for the day, so when Rachel and Brad napped, she staying inside to listen for them, while I cut the grass. That just made my day!

(Like Alison...)This thing about Tim Russert passing has really touched me. I watch the specials and it brings tears to my eyes. I just saw on the Today Show that the last page of the NY Times had a page dedicated to Tim from the staff at CBS. That is touching. It goes to show how little I must appreciate life, because things like this really make me think and reflect about what I should be doing differently. It has also showed me that I can cry at the drop of a pin. I will have a Baby Story on in the background sometimes in the afternoon while cleaning up the house and that will bring tears to my eyes! Oh boy!

Another thing I saw on tv today (on The Today Show). Ed McMahon may lose his house to foreclosure. I feel terrible for the folks who lose their homes like this. You know, the average American that works their butt off and lives in just a regular house. Please, let me feel bad for Ed here, as he really has had to make lots of sacrifices! It must be so hard to live in that huge mansion! (I hope that I made you smile by all of this!)

Ok, on to scrapbooking. Hello...I have a desire to have Rachel all caught up by her 2nd birthday. Guess that is not going to happen. Darn it. Fellow scrapping friends...let's pick at date so we can do this!!!

Well, have a great day. I think that I have already said too much! TTFN!

Pictures...

My baby... Dada and Rachel on Father's day with the cookie card she made for him.


A true artist...



Having fun playing with sand!

Baby bunnies...

We had 4, but 2 have since died. On Father's day, we spotted one of them out of the nest moving around. We stood at a distance and this one moved in close to us!

3 Little Babies

I forgot to mention before...This past weekend we were working in the yard and I had decided to plant some flowers. Well, long story short, we had a bunny nest in one of my big flower pots. We put the pot back and wow are they growing. We suspect that there are three of them and this morning, we saw one of them in our backyard out eating and hopping around! Super cute!

Now, let's rewind a bit. We believe that we have 2 bunnies that live under our deck and at one point we saw 3 full grown bunnies in our backyard. Well, we have seen one of the bunnies out in the yard a lot eating a ton. Go figure, it must have been getting ready to have little baby bunnies!

On another note, Rachel loves looking at them (the full grown ones...she hasn't seen the babies yet) outside. We have seen them enough that we can tell the two apart and have named them. They are Pete and Rosey. So, as to not argue, Rosey is a new mommy!

Little R (as we sometimes call her) Update

Went to the zoo today (Rachel, Brad & Tabitha) with a friend of mine (Kristen) and her daughter( Zoe). A bit hot out, but the kids had a blast.

When I got home, I had a message from the dr saying that she does have an infection, but I don't know the specifics. So, she has a prescription and I should know more tomorrow. (The dr was out this afternoon, so I was not able to get more information.) I have to say though, I feel like a bad mommy. She has been having some problems for a few weeks now and I sluffed it off because it didn't seem to bother her all of the time. (Thank you to everyone for keeping her in your prayers!!!)

I am dealing with drops, but I have actually worn my contacts for 12 hours today!

GPC...

Have you ever heard of GPC? Well, I have it. It stands for Giant Papillary Conjuntivitis. So, here is the story. For some time now I have been having issues with my contacts. When I wear them, I ofter have to take them out after wearing them for as little as a couple of hours or sometimes I can get 5 hours out of them. It has been rare that I can wear my contacts for 12 hours straight. So, after much frustration I had decided to go back to the eye doctor. So that brings me to today, at which point he said that I have GPC. If you can stand to look...this is what the under side of my eye lid looks like... Essentially, it is little white bumps on my eye lid that cause an irritation and grip my contact causing it to slide off of my eye.

http://www.revoptom.com/HANDBOOK/SECT16a.HTM

So, this kind of has me scared. For now I have 2 different eye drops that I have to use a few times a day. I go back to the dr in a month. After doing some research, it is possible that this may not go away and that I have to go back to wearing glasses. Lasik may be an option, but I am scared of doing that. It always crosses my mind about going blind. And, not to mention the cost. The office my dr refers patients to costs $1700 per eye. Yikes.

On another dr note...I took Rachel to the dr today. TMI...but she has been having stinky urine. This does not happen all of the time, but at times it has a strong ammonia smell. So, they had to do a catheter to get a sample. I should know tomorrow what they find. The dr did say that the sample looked pretty cloudy, so there my be so kind of infection. I pray that she is ok!

Back from NJ

We are back from our trip to visit my brother and his family. We had a great time and it went by too fast. We didn't do too much while we were there, which is how we like it best! We really like just being able to stay home and play with the kids. It is so fun to watch Rachel interact with Brett, Trevor and Gracie. I don't have the pictures downloaded yet, but once we do I will post a couple.

The downfall of the past week...diet blown! As of this morning, I have gained 6 pounds between Memorial Weekend and the trip to NJ. How did it take me 2 months to lose 10 pounds and a week to gain so much of it back???

Rachel did great on the flights and did really good in NJ. The only problem was when it came time to go to bed. She would just cry in the pack and play and my non-climber figured out how to climb out of it...as many as 10 times before going to bed on Sunday night. It just cracks me up that she climbed out, because she seriously is not a big climber. She can't get in her booster chair at the kitchen table and she just figured out how to climb up on to th couch last week! Now I am hoping that she doesn't figure out that she can get out of her crib.

Ok, so the diet was blown, but I am back on track as of yesterday. And today I am going to the gym. And guess what??? I am doing my last run of the C25k! (That's right...I did run while in NJ...two runs in the neighborhood!) Ok, so I can't get 3 miles in 30 minutes, but I can run for 30 minutes straight and I love it!

That is all for now. Happy Wednesday!