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Friday, June 28, 2013

Around Here...

...things have been busy. Same story for everyone, right? But, life is still going on and I'm just barely staying afloat. I think my experience the other morning kind of sums up how things have been lately. Warning: Ranting ahead!

Two miles out of the driveway, I got a flat tire on the way to a follow-up appointment for Kathryn to determine why she's had a cough for 10 months (yeah, 10 months). Oh, and did I mention the air conditioner in my 11 year old car is crapping out? In late June. In Texas. However, it works in the morning, but when it's 105 on my drive home it stops working. That's life for ya, right? It's just not right when you exit your car and look like you've just completed a hardcore workout only to find out that all you did was sit in a car for 40 minutes.

I lucked out though. By chance, E. J. had a training that morning and left the same time I did. So he turned his patrol car around in the opposite direction to pick us up and bring us back to the house so we could get his truck to drive into town while my car hung out on the side of the road until the tow truck came.

So my tire, not repairable and I had to get a new one. The air conditioner? The repair shop couldn't get it to NOT work. What the heck? Thankfully, nothing appears to be leaking. So one fairly inexpensive item was replaced and it's still working half of the time. Oh yeah, and I'm going to need new tires soon. I feel like I just got new tires last year (I found out I got them October 2011).

::End rant::

But life has a funny way of still going on, even if you not ready for it and reminding you that those bumps in the road aren't all that bad.

It has been nearly two weeks, but we celebrated Father's Day with a homemade dinner together (even if it was very brief - E. J. worked for most of the day).
I love you, dad :-)
Check out the pink "A". I turned around and K let me know that she took it upon herself to draw an "A". Smartypants.

At her three year appointment they confirmed that she's 3'3" and 35lb, both in the 90% for her age. After bringing up her cough for about the 100th time, the doctor thought it was possibly asthma. But at her follow-up appointment, he said it may be allergies. Rather than putting her through a slew of tests that would probably be trying on a three year old, she's trying out an allergy pill for now to see if that does the trick. To be continued. Otherwise, she's a perfectly healthy and thriving little girl.
Kathryn can be strong willed at times, but I really think she's been a breeze and thus far (knock on wood) and hasn't fit into the "terrible threes" category. In fact, I'm loving this age, especially some of the things she's been saying lately.

For example, I was putting on some under-eye cream the other night and she asked what I was doing. I told her, mommy didn't want to get too many wrinkles. "Oh, mommy! I don't want you to get old. I love you like this." Oh, Kathryn.

Or the other morning on the way to school, I gave her a cereal bar. She took one bite and said "Oh, I'm so disappointed mommy. There's no chocolate chips in this." She's definitely my daughter.

She knows her alphabet, surprises us with some Spanish every once in a while, can count to twenty (for the most part) knows the Pledge of Allegiance and loves puzzles (just a few of her talents). In fact, when it's clean up time, her teacher usually has her put all the puzzles away since she puts them together so quickly and helps the other kids out.
She's also really into rule following and letting us know how great she's doing at following the rules. "Look at who is listening, mommy." "Look who said please and thank you."
Celebrating Taylor's birthday in Houston!
Happy Weekend! So glad we're here.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Bedtime Conversation

I haven't posted in a while due to some traveling for work. Although the lighting was bad and we didn't talk about anything particularly interesting, I thought I would share this little snidbit of K before bed tonight.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Thirty

Thirty. I'm here, well as of last week. I'm not one to freak out over age, so hitting this milestone hasn't bothered me. In fact according to many people, their 30's are the best years of their life. So you have a lot to live up to, 30's.

After work, I met up with E. J. and Kathryn for a family dinner out. I chose Mexican food because, well why wouldn't I?
My (delicious) dinner complete with an agave margarita. I can probably count the amount of times I've ordered a drink when eating out, so my birthday was an easy excuse to get something other than water.
Kathryn picked out an ice cream cake for me (I think I have her hooked from her birthday) but our candles were no where to be found. We found the candles when E J. and I turned 29 and then just added Kathryn's candle from her 1st birthday. We improvised and I think it works well for me since I'm such a math whiz.
The best family photo we could get. After a long day, this sums it up: tired mixed with some deliriousness. It was a great day and I was very lucky to be spoiled by friends and family - very lucky!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Three

There are some things in life that you wish wouldn't happen but they happen all the time, you know, things like bills. Then there are those things that you wish you could have all the time, but they are far  too infrequent. One of those infrequency's are visits with my parents. Two thousand miles between us can be such a bummer.

But we took advantage of Kathryn's big third birthday with a fun visit together (and yes, that was a month ago). We had a great extra-long weekend together!
We visited a neat bed and breakfast for dinner on the first night.

On Kathryn's birthday, the three girls headed into town and we stopped at the children's museum to explore.

Followed by a delicious lunch together.
Per Kathryn's request, I made some homemade pizza for dinner and bought her a classic Carvel ice cream cake. (It was as tasty as I remember them being!) K loved it too!
Kathryn was seriously spoiled for her big day. Cute outfits, toys, games, books, oh and a pony. Yeah, a real life pony from the in-laws. Woah.
Day 2: Riding her pony some more. This is when she announced her pony's name: Doctor Pony. 
She's too much.
Of course, it wouldn't be Kathryn's birthday without celebrating my birthday. Just kidding. But we did go out one night to a fabulous dinner to celebrate my 30th, a little early.
I must be the luckiest daughter ever. Each time my parents come they go to work. Dad wants a project and mom cleans/organizes. This time we got our front porch re-stained and our curtains washed and starched/ironed. Translation: they're lifesavers.
What a difference. Thank you, dad!
Nana/Kathryn time :)
Counting down the days until our next visit.