Life's a Zoo!: August 2009

Hi again. My last post took so long to write, that I didn't want to add anymore to it. But I did forget to talk much about Harlie, and I know you are all interested. A number of you that don't see her on a regular basis have asked if she talks much, and the answer is YES! Actually, much like her mother, she never shuts up. She knows hundreds of words and is starting to put together some pretty good phrases. Sometimes I don't know how she learns things, like when I say I'm giving the cat his medicine, and she says it goes in "tuna". I so don't remember ever saying that around her. And just the other day we passed a gas station, and she said "gas". Who knows. She knows all of her colors and shapes, and we're working on the alphabet. She loves to hug and kiss, and she's learned that if she gets a boo-boo, she can just pick up a doll or stuffed animal and hug it and she feels better. We're very much the "shake it off" kind of parents. We don't fuss over little hurts, and we never give bandaids (unless of course we actually need to). She LOVES to "fwim" which is her way of saying swim, and anything involving water can keep her busy for hours. She is a freak for dolls and stuffed animals and has to carry them with her wherever she goes. She sleeps with at least 7 things at a time, and I swear I don't know how she even fits in the crib. And yes, she still sleeps in a crib. She has a toddler bed, but doesn't want in it now. I keep saying we have a few months before she MUST move to the new bed. The reason for that is in the post below, so keep reading. Bye!

Hi all! I bet you thought I'd disappeared. In some ways, I have. I have been working so much lately that I haven't had time to do much on the computer but edit. But it's been way too long and I really need to at least give a little post. I'll try to remember what's been happening this summer.

Father's Day - We celebrated the special day with a picnic with all of our family. It was a beautiful day and we all had such a great time. We are SO BLESSED to have wonderful family members.

San Diego - At the end of June/beginning of July, Mikey, Harlie, and I went to California for the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. We had a great time (except for the flights - never fly with a 20-month-old). We enjoyed the conference - Harlie spent time in daycare (she loved it) while Mike and I sat through a ton of business sessions that I found quite interesting. We were looking at some controversial issues in the church, and that caused some conflict, and you know that conflict makes everything interesting (I know I'm sometimes a little evil). But no fights broke out and we made some good decisions (I hope) and it was nice to have a say in such important things. After the conference was over, we stayed a few extra days in our BEAUTIFUL hotel (with over 6,000 rose bushes) and visited the San Diego zoo (great day) and the beach. The beach was nice - Harlie LOVED it and ran right into the ice cold water. I must say, though, that I like our east coast beaches much better. I think they're warmer and cleaner. But it probably depends where you go. We all loved the zoo, of course. And it really was HUGE. So worth it. All in all, California was a nice place to visit, but I don't think I'd pay to go back again. It's just not who we are.

Baby Shower for Shawna (er, I mean Rick) - Mid-June, my best friend Shawna went into the hospital because her water broke (her baby wasn't due until August 31 - technically still shouldn't be here). She was put on strict bed rest in the hospital until baby came. We'd thought we planned her shower early enough (July 5) but I guess we didn't do such a good job. Anyway we had to have her shower without her whether we liked it or not, so we did. Rick (her hubby) came in her place and even wore the dress she'd picked out for the special occasion. He opened presents and held them up for all to see, including Shawna who was watching via webcam from her hospital bed.

Asher's Birth - Just four days after the baby shower, we got a call that Shawna was in labor. He was born that afternoon, July 9 and weighed in at over 4 pounds, measuring 18 1/2 inches (great for a preemie). He did have to stay in the hospital until July 27, though, so most of us didn't get to meet him until after that. He's now growing at a wonderful rate and doing well.

Harlie's First Amusement Park - I'm a little out of order here, but I have a reason. Right before we went to San Diego, we took Harlie to DelGrosso's Amusement Park. She enjoyed the rides quite a bit, but was a little exhausted from some excitement the day before, so when we went again in July, she had a much better time. In July, we had planned an event at the park for our church, and so there were some kids Harlie could ride with as well. She had such a good time, that when we tried to leave at 8:00 PM she begged to do the boats one more time.

Family Visit - In July, Aunt Patty, Uncle Ned, and Jason came for a few days just to visit. We don't see them often enough, and it was great to just spend some time together, even though Mike and I were working through quite a bit of this visit.

Vacation Bible School - This is more my thing and Mike's than Harlie's. She came two days, but is really too small to participate in much. But Mike was in charge of special games (we had a game show theme this year) and openings, and I was in charge of crafts. I absolutely love helping with Bible School (in fact, I skipped the week of work at the church and just helped do bulletins at the end, so I was without pay, but I didn't care!). I think Janet (my right hand with crafts) and I will continue to take care of that aspect of Bible School from now on. Yay VBS!

Church Picnic - I don't have much to say about this event, because depressingly enough this year I had to miss most of it. We had a long morning at church, and by the time we made it up to the picnic grove for the meal, Harlie was getting tired. After lunch she broke down and we lasted maybe another 30 minutes before I had to take her home to bed. Mike enjoyed himself playing softball, though, and I'm really glad he did. Even though that day I was quite jealous and layed around crying because I missed the event I looked forward to for so long. Oh well. Life as a mom, right?

Various Family and Friend Get-Togethers - Even though we've been working a lot this summer, we have had a lot of time to spend with family and friends as well. I've not been scheduling work on Fridays after the church and we've been taking the time to have some fun. Just this past Friday we went to our friends (and Mike's cousins) John and Misty's house for a fire and some mountain pies. A number of "young" adults from the church went, and we just hung out relaxing and talking. It was great. And in fact, in a few hours we will be heading to Harlie's Mimi and Papap's house for our annual end-of-summer picnic. Yay family and friends!

In the midst of all of this fun, of course, has been a lot of work. My seniors are going strong, and we still have a wedding just about every weekend, so I'm farther behind on my work than I'd ever wanted to be, but business is good, and I'm glad.

One more thing, I think all of you are aware of this, but if not, I'll make it official. After a few struggles, we are successfully pregnant and are expecting our second little one sometime in February. We are SO excited about this and we really don't care at this point what we have, as long as it's a healthy little baby. But we will be finding out the sex if at all possible, because that's what we do.

I promise to try to update sooner next time, but fall does get busy with last-minute seniors, weddings and wedding reorders, and early Christmas pictures, not to mention my sister-in-law's Baby Shower, District Conference for the church, and Harlie's Birthday. It might be a long one next time as well. And if any of you have read all of this, you so deserve a prize, but I'm too broke to provide you with one, so I'll just say I love you!

Jess

Caution: When I tried to load these photos under their categories, Blogger did not cooperate (as usual), so these are in NO order whatsoever. I'll caption a few, but you'll have to figure out what goes where!

Aunt Max, Uncle Jerry, and Dad at Uncle Jerry's Birthday Party