Dizzy Day

Yes. The title says it all... I'm very, very dizzy today. I mean even more than normal & not in my usual 'blonde' way. Also quite tired. Not because I haven't slept much... no, I've slept at least 8 or 9 hours between last night & a nap today! I'm dizzy / loopy / sleepy because of a sinus infection.

I've been having headaches on & off for the last few weeks. I called in about them & my Dr. ended up wanted me to come in. Great... I didn't think she'd be able to tell me anything. You know, schedule me to see a specialist... And they'll run a thousand & one tests, and when it's finally all said & done they'll tell me my problems aren't physiological at all, but in fact psychological!

That or they'll tell me I have a tumor in my brain & they have to shave my head. That's my biggest concern... shaving my head. HUH?! Waaait a second, if there's a tumor in my brain, I have MUCH bigger problems than just shaving my head!!

Really, I'm more of a hypochondriac than anything else. So up until this week, I seriously thought all these headaches really MIGHT be psychological. Then I started getting kinda dizzy. You know, like you've had one glass of really good wine... and you just can't resist that second... then you get 'dizzy.' Yip, that's how I felt - completely sober, mind you!

So back to yesterday when I went in to see my Dr.

She asked me a ton of questions... "Yes...yes...no...yes...no...yes..." You get the idea. And then she told me that I have a pretty good sinus infection! YES! I've never been so happy about an infection in all my life! And that brings me to why I'm even more dizzy now. One of the medicines she put me on can cause dizziness & drowsiness. Oh, yeah. I'll agree with that!

So even though I have tons of other cool stuff to put up here...I can't seem to coagulate my thoughts & creativity enough to put anything together. I'm afraid it might come out looking like: kf904J(*mf4[nm '',]`9jg~]]] ... Only it would be much more confusing than that. So for now, I'm going to take another nap (Don't worry! My baby's asleep too) and hope that I can soon be rid of this sinus infection & the medicine I have to take for it. Love to all & God Bless!

Scary Weather

After not posting anything for a couple of days, it stinks that I have to report bad weather. And although things didn't really go the way I wanted them to this evening, I definitely feel like God was with me & all my family.

I was planning on going out to my Mom & Dad's after they got off work. I didn't even really think much of it when Mom told me that there were thunderstorm warnings out. I just took a quick glance outside & thought there was nothing to worry about. Dad even called just as I was heading out the door to let me know that if I wasn't headed out soon, the storm might catch me. I told him that I was loading stuff into the car as we spoke, so he just said to be careful.

As I was starting to drive, I saw the thunderstorm line moving from west to east pretty quickly. I hadn't even been on the road 3 or 4 minutes when it just cut loose!

At first it was just a heavy rain, but then the sky began to throw pea-sized hail along with crazy-strong winds. I was scared for a moment that my car was going to topple over! Then, as quickly as the storm arrived, the worst seemed to be over.

It was about then that Mom & Dad called me back to tell me that I oughta just turn on around. I wasn't may be 5 of 10 minutes away from home, so I did exactly as they suggested.

As I was on the phone with them, they also had a nice little scare...!

They were on the very last leg of their journey home while I was talking to Mom & suddenly something really startled her - a cable was down & caught around their car!! At first she didn't know if it was a power line or something like a cell phone line... Dad answered that question for her. He just 'tested' it!! He could've been shocked to death!!!

A bit further down the road, an actual power line was completely down. They ended up backing up & taking another route home. I'm really glad they made it safely.

So, I made it back with no problems, Perry made it home even before I got back; Matt and Kendra & the kiddos are OK, and my Mom & Dad are finally home safely (even though they have no electricity...!) Unfortunately these are all I have personally talked to & know that they are all right.

I'll just have to trust in God that everyone else is safe & sound as well. The weather was very scary, and I know there were a lot of accidents & damage. But I know God was really watching over my loved ones tonight, just like He does every night.

I was told that my Church had about a third of it's roof blown off... But it could have been much worse. I'll definitely have those who have suffered damages & as well as those without electricity in my prayers tonight. Also in my prayers, thanks for protecting and blessing me & my family.

Love to all & God Bless

Bed Time...

OK, so bedtime around here has finally become somewhat routine. Getting Livia into her crib is the easy part... that's when she starts her little routine!


She likes to crawl around a bit, you know just in case I've forgotten in the last 15 minutes how good she is at it.


Then she gazes at her lights & sounds show... sometimes she'll even stand up and turn it on & off. And oh, she just smiles and giggles!


Then she plays a game with Mommy after I lay her down. It's a combination of peek-a-boo, making funny faces, and look what I can do with my legs! *FWOP, FWOP, FWOP!* (Taking both of her legs & flopping them hard onto the mattress)
I just love the funny face she's making here.

So does that mean she's finally ready to get going to sleep?

Oh, no way!!


"That's too funny, Mommy! It'll take a lot more than just 5 or 10 minutes to get me to sleep!"

Well, that's the time that I spend with her putting her in the crib. I then lay her down one last time (sometimes she actually stays put, other times she doesn't...) and I close the door to her room. She'll usually go to sleep all by herself within 10 or 15 minutes. And I always tip-toe in to cover her up & check on her one last time before I go to sleep. I love our little routine :o)
Love to all & God Bless!

Pics from the Past

Maybe it's because I don't have any new, cool pics to put up here... Maybe it's because I was just thinking about how much people change over the years... Whatever the reason, I've been reminiscing looking through a ton of old pictures & decided to put some of my favorites up here.


Here's little bitty baby Livie within the first couple of days of bringing her home.


And one more within that first week of having her home. It's so sweet how it almost looks like Livia's smiling in this snapshot.


One of the very pictures of me & my hubby - love it. Too bad this shirt totally does not fit me at all anymore!

One of my sis-in-law, Kendra & her hubby (Perry's brother) Matt. This was taken while they were down in Florida.


One of the very first pics I snapped of my nephew, Nolan - he's only 5 in this photo! Now, he's 7 and a half (can't forget that half - I remember until I was like 10, it was always my age and-a-half!)


And here's my niece, Maggie-Boo at the ripe ole' age of 2! She looks like such a princess already, doesn't she?


And last but not least, here's my other little nephew, Garrett. He's just a few months old in this picture & doesn't he just look so sweet?!




One of the very first pictures of the triplets! Oh, they're so very tiny in this picture! Unfortunately I don't know exactly how old they are in this picture. I'm pretty sure it was within that first month that they were born. And I think the order in this picture from left to right is Jay, Meg, Sam... Oh, I'll have to ask my Aunt Tanya on this one!


And here are those little rascals for their first Halloween. My Momma took this one on her camera & you can see the date stamp - how clever is that?! Anyway, I know the order in this one goes Meg, Sam, Jay from front to back.
These the pic of the kids in these costumes made me think of a really funny story. I originally wanted to dress Livia up as a cow for her 1st Halloween this year and dress myself up as a milk-maid. Yes, I know that would have been totally backwards! But also quite funny :o)


This is one of my favorite young-and-hot pictures of my husband. This was taken back when he was in the Marine Corps. He served honorably for 5 years & got out just a few months before 9/11.


And one of my favorites of me - my Momma took this picture when I was about 4 I think. Not exactly sure, but I know I sure do love it! It looks so professional.


Here's one that my sis-in-law, Kendra, sent me just a few days ago - Perry & Nolan. I think we established that this was back in summer of '05! Don't they both look so young & handsome?


Me & my Daddy at one of my college track meets. A little piece of me still wishes I could be in track, but honestly I'm perfectly happy with the memories.


Obviously as the pic says, this is my husband & his mom after his friend Donny's wedding. I adore his smile in this photo!


My sis Laura & me a very looong time ago! I love this picture for so many reasons. One because I remember my Mom saying, "Girls, act like ya love each other!" We look so sweet in this photo, like we'd never fight... riiiiight.


And finally, one of Perry, his brother (Matt), & his mom while he was home on leave. He's so dang skinny in this picture!

Well, anyway, I'll have to get some more new pictures up next time! love to all & God Bless.

Inspired

I mentioned a new website I discovered - RedBubble - and it's inspired me to find some of my first photographs taken even before I got my digital SLR.

A few years ago, I took a film photography class during the summer. I was smart enough to get a lot of the pictures copied onto CD. At the time, I wondered if the CD's were a waste of money. Now I really wish I would have gotten them all on CD!

Here are some of my favorites that I do have from that class...


I just loved these ducks - I took several of them & this was definitely my favorite.


Overlooking the river in downtown Evansville


Another downtown shot. Just an exit ramp, but I just loved the curves & lines.

And here's just a couple more taken with my film SLR. These were from our family vacation down in Florida, summer of '05 (That seems like eons ago!)


I just LOVE this pic of the beach. The sand looks SO cool!


A beautiful Florida morning sunrise. Even though you can't see the sun, I really like the colors.

Anyway, I know these pics are ancient, but I still love them. It reminds me of when my love of photography first began. Enjoy!

Love to all & God Bless

Livia's Favorite Places

I thought I'd stick a few pics up here of where Livia is the happiest!

Believe it or not, her crib has become a place she just loves. I think it's mostly because it's really easy for her to stand up in it :)

She's looking at Perry in both these pictures - he got just as big of a kick out of her as I did!


More big grins... She feels so big!


And here's Livie in her bouncer - we have it hanging in her doorway & there's a mirror right in front of her. She always tries to jump towards that pretty baby in the mirror.


Caught her in mid-jump here. She was babbling and chattering almost the whole time.

Well, that's about all I have in terms of pics today!

I did get a couple of pics of her in the pack & play, but I took them through the screen, so you can't really see much of Livia. Oh, well. I'll just have to get some more tomorrow! Til then, love to all & God Bless!

RedBubble

I have discovered a new website - and I think I'm already addicted! I can upload as many pics as I want. It's a lot like Smugmug in the fact that you can sell your work, but the people are all SO nice & helpful. There are how-to groups, groups for whatever you like to capture on film...very, very neat stuff! The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is that you can only upload one picture at a time. Oh well, it's free & fun!

So, if anyone's interested the website's at: http://www.redbubble.com/

OK, now I need to get some more Livie pics up here!

Livia - 9 Months Old!

As of today it's official!

We had her 9 month check-up, and she's absolutely perfect! We already knew that, though. The best part of this Dr. visit was that she didn't have to get any shots - Yay!

She's hit every milestone right on schedule thus far. Everything I had questions about were answered - she's perfectly normal and doing GREAT!

She now weighs 18 lbs 15 oz and she's 27" - she's really close to getting into a forward-facing car seat!

Speaking of her car seat, she fell fast asleep in it on our way home. She even stayed asleep when I brought her inside!


I couldn't resist getting a couple of pics of her sleeping so sweetly.



So, that's really about all I have for today... I'll have to get some really cute stuff up tomorrow. I should have some funny ones of her playing in her pack 'n play from her Great Aunt Tanya.

Til then, Love to all & God Bless!

Milestones

Today was somewhat bittersweet - my sweet little baby is growing more every day, and this day she seemed to grow before my very eyes...!

I went to church as I most often do on Sundays, Livia showed off her patty-cakes, said Da-Da, & babbled during the service... She seemed to enjoy church as much as I did! I hope to raise her up so that she loves & looks forward to church as much as I do. Oh, I don't want to give a sermon in this entry - though I do want to give God special thanks for answered prayers and for speaking to my heart today.

Back to Livia's exciting day!

After we got back to her Grandma & Grandpa's house after church, we had a wonderful lunch, we cleaned up, and Livia got in a nap. A very teeny tiny nap of like 30 minutes! Anyway, then we were all playing with her in the living room when my Mom & Dad decided to try to let her scoot around on her own.

Imagine our surprise when she started getting up on her hands & knees & CRAWLING!!! We've been working with her for several weeks - she's been itching to get mobile for like a month or two at least. Up til now, she's just been rolling and kinda scooting backwards. We were just starting to think that she might skip crawling all together. Once again, she proves us wrong :)



I really didn't get much of any pictures - I was just wanting to get all her crawling captured on video (There were several - I restrained myself from putting them all on here! I'm such a proud mommy!) I wanted to show them all to her Daddy after we got back home (which he was very glad to see)

This one that I did get of her crawling was later in the evening after she'd had a bath.

Oh, yes she definitely needed a bath! Why?


Well, Livia also tried her first cookie today! It was actually a Gerber Biter, made for little kiddos.


And how sweet is this?! She's offering to share her yummy treat with the baby doll :)


Even though Livie really made a mess, it was totally worth it! She loved her 'cookie' so much that I ended up having to take it away just after this pic. Not worth her getting choked.

So the reason for her getting a bath is pretty obvious!


And just after her bath we did more crawling, playing and...


watching the grandfather clock. Livia LOVES the clock!


Every time it chimes she patty-cakes and grins from ear to ear!

Even though Baby-Boo sometimes acts like she could stay up all night, she does eventually tire out...


With a little help from her Grandma, she was out cold within minutes.

We may have made a mistake by laying her in the living room near the clock...

She was in the middle when we first put her down - every time the clock would chime, Livia woke up & scooted a little. How cute is this?!

I know this was a very long entry, but I was just so excited about everything that happened today. I wanted to make sure to write it all down. Aunt Tanya, thank you SO much for introducing me to this wonderful way of recording Livia's life. And thank you to all who care to read our little stories.

Love to all & may you all be truly blessed by God as much as I have been!

"I Like Being Big"

If Livia could talk, I imagine those would be the words she'd say the most.

Whenever she's walkie-walking, sitting up in her high-chair, sitting in the shopping cart, or even being carried in her baby front-pack Livia is always happy as a clam.

Not too long ago, I discovered that she also loves sitting on top of my shoulders! I do this with her quite a bit, even though I don't get the reaction I did when I first tried it. (She just laughed & laughed and batted her little hands against my head!) Now she still bats me, but she also does patty-cakes and pulls my hair!

Perry was sweet enough to get these pictures for me this last week when I had Livia up high.


This pic just cracks me up - she looks like she's doing a little baby-gorilla impression...and come to think of it, she was kinda growling when she was doing this. Oh, and you can also see some of my hair that she's pulling!


Since her Daddy was looking right at her snapping photos, she did patty-cakes to show off.


*Clap-clap-clap...grins*


And then laughs as she bats at Mommy's head a bit.


And finally pulled at Mommy's hair just a little bit more before I decided it was time for her to get down!

Oh, what fun :)

Love to all & God Bless!

Livia Says Da-da!

Exciting Day

Even though I was up VERY late last night, it was totally worth it! My sweet little Livia said her first real word: da-da! I feel so lucky because she actually said it several times throughout the night.

At first I was just too amazed to even think about grabbing a camera. When I put her down in her crib, she got especially chatty - babbling & blowing raspberries, so I decided to get some of her cute sounds on video.

I just happened to totally luck out; I had the camera on her when she said "da-da" in her crib!



I figured this pic of Livia & her da-da taken just a couple of days ago fits this entry perfectly.

Love to all & God Bless!

I'm Learning...

SO much about this whole blogging thing. There's so much more that I can do to this blog than I have been doing...

So, soon to come...

Some super cool stuff! Thanks to some MUCH needed help from my awesome Aunt Tanya!

I didn't have time to do it tonight (It's almost 2 in the morning & need to go to bed. Baby-Boo is down in her crib, but she does NOT want to go to sleep!)

Love to all & God Bless!

Livie's a Standin Again!

As I was fixing dinner tonight, I sat Livia in her crib to play...but I shouldn't really be surprised that she had absolutely NO desire to sit at all.

She's become a pro at using the side of her crib to stand up.


Even the side of the crib that's against the wall. I like this just fine - I don't worry about her going over the edge!


And she's also learned that she can use the crib to 'walk' to the end where the lights & sounds show is that my wonderful Aunt Tanya sent for her to use. She absolutely LOVES it! She liked it ok when she was just a teeny little baby, and now she's just fascinated with it.


You can see her grinning from ear to ear watching the lights & sounds show... You may also see that she's standing without using her hands! She's kinda leaning against the back of the crib, but how cool is this?!


Oh, she's such a happy little girl! One hand on the lights & sounds show, and the other hand holding her 'taggies' mouse (and putting it in her mouth, of coarse). You can't tell, but she's grinnin like a monkey!


Looks like she's waving in this picture - almost like she's saying, "Hey Mom! See, I told you I'm such a big girl!"


And she finally plopped back down - show's over...for now!

Love to all & God Bless!