So, another post. Yes, that is two in two days. I must admit that being on break from school does make it MUCH easier. So, eat your hearts out for the next month because I think I will posting a lot more!
A little over a week ago I went to my niece's (Sierra) Christmas Program at a local church. It is hard to believe that she is big enough (four years old already) to take part in such events. She was a little lamb and she sang two songs with her little classmates. I especially loved the motions, dancing, and extra silliness that four year olds alway provide! It was a fun night
Sorry the posts have been few and far between and a little dry. Things have been super busy , and I have lots of fun stuff to post about, but it is just a matter of making the time to write it. As I sit here and write this I am eating my 100+ cookie of the holiday season (thanks Monica! They are really good!). While my mouth enjoys the taste, my waistline is not enjoying the tight jeans. Thus, I am going to try to not be such a pig this week (I am not off to a good start). Why can't I be one of those people who does not like sweets?
So, my seasonal love affair with sugar and spice started on my annual baking day. On this day to beat all days my friend Amy and I bake cookies from sun-up til sun-down. Seriously. I think we break some sort of record. This year we made 14 different types of cookies in one day. Yes, we are baking goddesses. This resulted in almost 1000 cookies which we then give as gifts to various people. We try to make fancy cookies and like to try new things. The line-up this year was quite impressive- pinwheels, brownie biscotti, buckeyes, peanut butter kiss cookies, chocolate gingerbread drops, honey-ginger bites, peppermint sticks dipped in chocolate, nutty eggnog bars, almond tassies, spritz blossoms, cranberry blondies, cherry chocolate bark, chocolate mint bars, and lemon shortbread. Not that you all care what we made, but I do think it was pretty impressive. The process was kind of intense and involved a battle of the wills with a cookie press. Luckily I won, but it was close.
The end result of all our labor is tasty tasty cookies, sore feet and backs, and a lot of clean-up. I meant to take pics throughout the day. However, we were a little busy, and I ended up just taking some pics of the mess in my kitchen at the end of the day. Keep in mind that we cleaned up as we went as well so this was just a small part of the cleaning that we did that day! I have a new appreciation for people who do this for a living as well as for my friend Amy. This is our second year doing this, and I have much respect for anyone who can put up with me for over 8 hours in a very small workspace. Thankfully the only casualty of the day was an oven mit.
So, Brian and I have been trying to focus on doing everything we can to be more "green." I know that sounds like we are trying to jump on the trendy bandwagon, but really this has been important to me for awhile. So, I had to drive all the way up to Akron to drop off a final paper (annoying but not the point). I was in a hurry after dropping Johanna off at my moms, and I went through Burger King to grab a quick sandwich. I got a chicken sandwich and a side salad. They proceeded to hand me two huge brown bags. I told them that they must have given me the food for the person behind me too. But nope, it took two LARGE bags to hold my chicken sandwich and side salad. I told them that they could just put it all in one bag, but they insisted on giving me two. I know that sounds like no big deal, but you multiply that times 1000 times a day or more......well, you see my point. Way to go burger king. Or, as my niece said... booger king.
So, it is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and past. I have to admit that I feel like I did not take enough time to truly celebrate what the holiday is all about. I have so much to be thankful for. I have such a wonderful and supportive family, great friends, a fabulous (in every sense of the word) daughter, and the best husband ever (even though he gets really annoyed with my typing which I think is really dumb. Fast typing should not be annoying. He should count his blessings that I can post quickly instead of pecking for hours.). So, I want to take this opportunity to thank my husband for all that he does for our little family. He makes so many sacrifices, and I hope that he knows none go unnoticed. So, you all have permission to eavesdrop on my thoughts....
Brian,
I appreciate all your hard work. I know that it is not easy to have to leave your family to go to work everyday. This is especially true since you know that Johanna will probably be in bed before you get home that evening. I am so appreciative that you are home in the mornings and can drop Johanna off at my sister's when I have to leave super early for school. You have read literally thousands of pages of school assignments as you have been my official proofreader for the past 3.5 years (only one semester to go sweetie!!). I appreciate laundry done and clothes folded. I appreciate you letting me have small nervous break downs about once a month when the pressure from school, work, and being a mommy seem overwhelming. I love how much you love our daughter. I love how you have always been so hands-on and "there" since the second she was born. Yours was the hand she was holding as they wheeled her down the hall to check her lungs right after she was born. She lights up whenever she sees you and that makes my heart melt. I appreciate you encouraging me have time out of the house where I am able to refuel. I appreciate you loving me, even when I am not very lovable. I appreciate that you put the Lord first in your life and in our home- I know this is not always easy. I love how you can always make me laugh, no matter what. I could keep going and going, but I think you get the point. I love you sweetie and I am forever grateful for you and all that you do. The past six and a half years of marriage have been truly wonderful. Thank you for you.
So, my family has always had the tradition of going shopping early morning the day after Thanksgiving. It has always been something that I look forward to and have a blast doing. Desptie what the news and people who don't actual go says, everyone is very pleasant and in the Christmas spirit! Of all the years that I have gone, I have never had someone be mean to me, or even seen a fight (although that might be kind of exciting!). So, I drug myself out of bed at 2:50 in the morning, got dressed (I even managed to put some make-up on) and headed to Kohls, which opened at 4:00 am. I got some GREAT deals on stuff for my hubbie and Johanna. All the fisherprice toys were 50% for a doorbuster deal! Johanna is not going to know what to do with herself on Christmas!! I wish I could reveal some other great deals I got, but since my hubbie reads this, the surprise shall not be revealed until Christmas morning!!! After Kohls, I headed to Walmart (when they opened at 5), Kmart, Starbucks (for a tasty treat), Walmart (again), Best Buy, and then Bob Evans to reward myself for all my hard work! I was home by 9 am so that Brian could head to work. Now that is efficient!! The pics were taken outside Kohls at about 3:45 a.m.
So, life has been a little stressful lately. Johanna has been sick on and off for about a month and a half. She seems to be on the mend once again. So, let's hope that she is on the mend for good! I was having an especially bad day on Friday. My wonderful sis took pity on me and surprised me with cards (one for me and one for Johanna) and flowers. I discovered this is the first time I have gotten flowers since I had Johanna (ahhumm...Brian). I guess I'm not a huge flower person, but on Friday I realized that it is just such a nice gesture. I REALLY appreciated it. So, anyway, the flowers were great and look super nice on our table. However, the card my sis got for me is the reason for this blog (two in one day- you all must feel special). She found the most perfect card for me! Not only was it perfect for the situation, but it sounds like me talking! So, here goes-
Outside of the card- "Hang in there.....sometimes life hands you lemons, but then you can make lemonade..
Inside of card- "Of course, sometimes life pulls down your pants, runs a power sander across your naked butt, then pours lemon juice on your raw abraded buttocks. In that case, a cool citrus drink wouldn't really help but, darn it... you've got to hang in there anyway!"
So, this is for those of us who have had a power sander abrading our naked butts for awhile now. Kudos to my sis for making me laugh over and over again. Love you!!
So, I have been putting off another blog because Johanna was having her nine month check-up this week (even though she turned 9 months two weeks ago- gotta love how that works). She officially had her appointment yesterday. So, I can now update the world who I'm sure is anxiously anticipating the most recent information. I don't want you all to have anymore sleepless nights!! Ok, now that I'm over myself, I will continue.
She is weighing in at an amazing 20 lbs 13 ounces and is almost 30 inches long. For those of you who thrive on percentages- that is about the 75% for weight and the 95% for height. So, she's still a big girl!
She is doing more and more things everyday!! Her latest craze is walking around the coffee table and playing "Where's Johanna!" which is our much cooler version of peekaboo. She covers her eyes with something (ranging from a blanket to a shirt to a coaster) and then I say "where's Johanna" until she pulls it down and I say "There she is!" The thing that makes this game so fun is the fact that Johanna already has our twisted sense of humor. She will hold the object up for different amounts of time to see how long I will keep saying "Where's Johanna. Where is she at? I don't see her!" I think she really gets a kick out of how dumb I sound doing this! Sometimes she'll be real fast, and other times she will wait almost a minute!! She is very diabolical!!
The down side of the past month or so is that she has been sick off and on. She has been fighting sinus infections, which is no fun. She has a total of six teeth now. At least that's all I know about because she HATES to let me poke around in her mouth. I don't blame her. I wouldn't like that either. She also has finally moved into size 4 diapers. She was in between sizes for a couple weeks, and we have the pooped stained clothes to prove it! I should post a picture of her poopy tights from church last Sunday (pretty funny!!). Sometimes you just have to laugh!
So, this post is going on 5 days for me to make (does that sentence make sense?)! Things are CRAZY busy! We are rearranging the living room because we hung our tv above the fireplace. Johanna has been going nuts trying to get into all the cords. This makes me very nervous, so she has been playing in her super-yard a lot. I have some other things to post, but I will post this update about everyone's favorite (at least my favorite!) little girl!
So, I have been neglecting this blog lately (sorry!). I just recently discovered that I have also been neglecting taking pictures of our baby girl. I need to get on top of that. I guess I have good excuses. Johanna has been teething for weeks (she is now sporting two top teeth!) and now she is sick with a cold. She seems to be doing better today which is such a blessing. School has been keeping me super busy. I feel like I always have so much school work that I need to be working on, plus there are always things that need done around the house. I have tons homework to do, piles of laundry, we need groceries, and Johanna's closet needs changed over to 12-18 month clothes. I guess we make 'em big!! Enough woe-is-me from the full-time student mommy who also has an outside job (just had to throw that in there)! I suppose I could be working on homework right now, but where is the fun in that :)
Johanna is growing up so fast. She seems more like a little girl than a baby. She is crawling all over the house and just started pulling herself up to standing (this past Wednesday). She is moving to stage three baby food (the kind with chunks) which makes their pooh REALLY stink now (just to warn all the other mommies). I am hoping that she will start to eat "real" food before too long. She doesn't seem to be a picky eater, but she especially likes the banana apricot with mixed grains fruit. I will now insert a huge plug for Earth's Best Organic Baby Food. We LOVE it!! Plus, if you get the variety packs it is not much more than making it yourself (which I have done). The last time I made it myself, it only saved me 2 bucks and took me two hours! The only down side is that Wooster doesn't have a babiesrus which carries the biggest variety of the Earths Best foods.
Johanna likes to squeel and say "mama" and "dada". She also has favored saying "blah, blah, blah" lately which just cracks me up!! She LOVES to look at her reflection in the window (at night) and in her highchair tray (which makes feeding kinda a pain!). She is over just looking at herself in the mirror and loves trying to see her reflection in different ways. Although she still really enjoys talking to herself in the car mirror.
I feel I should tell all other mothers (and I will look back at this to remind myself when we have another baby) that things kinda get more difficult again at about 7-8 months. Teething is no fun (even though the first two teeth weren't bad at 5 months). It has caused Johanna to start pooping like a poopstar (i think this probably isn't helped by her cold). She has pooped out of her diaper and all over her crib at least one a day (usually before she gets up in the morning) for about four days now. Thank heavens my own child's poop doesn't gross me out at all. She's now mobile which is fun, but can be stressful at times. She now has quite the personality (which is so much fun!), but that comes along with a new sense of will which can be difficult. She also started going through a strange sleeping stage (the kind where she wakes up too much, but thankfully puts herself back to sleep). I am saying all this because I think it is good to know what's coming. This helps me to realize that there is nothing wrong with Johanna and keeps me from losing my mind. Plus, it's all a passing stage. So, here's some encouragement to all the mommies out there! It gets harder again, but more fun. When things get difficult, just remember, "this too shall pass"!!
That's all for now!! Enjoy the pics and video (hopefully) that I will post. Pictures of her in her Halloween costume are soon- to - come!! The pic with two babies is Johanna (indians onesie- GO TRIBE and pink pants) and her buddy Katelyn! The adult holding her in another one is Brian's sis Margaret who is due with her third in January.
