i cancelled the cleaning ladies.

I've moved on to bookshelf #2 with my white paintbrush. I'm learning. Taking one step forward, two steps back. I tried to skip priming bookshelf #2, this was a bad call. Kind of like when I try to assemble things without reading the instructions first. But, it's fun and I am really really happy with the big ol' bookshelf in the play room. It's full of books and games. In our 5.5 years in this house, it was stained for 4.5, blue for one, and now white.

I like it white :)

In other non-related news. I canceled the cleaning ladies. About 1.5 months ago. It's been ... an adjustment. They started coming here every other week last May. Corinne was about 5 months old and I'm not sure the toilets had been cleaned more than once since she'd been born. I needed help. Bad. And they were a wonderful blessing. For a brief moment every two weeks, we'd come home to a clean house. Like everything was clean AT THE SAME TIME. But it's time for me to take it back on - clean my own toilets, dust my own dresser, mop my own floors. It's good. Last night, Dominic bathed the girls with Charlie at his side cause he's a Daddy's boy that way while I cleaned the vanity. All of us in the bathroom together.

Funny how the way we do things changes as things in our lives change. Also funny how as time goes on, we forget how we used to do things that seemed so normal at the time. Some things about our life before kids are just a blur now. The way we do things now just seems normal. Or maybe I should say it FINALLY seems normal. I feel like we've hit some type of family rhythm or something. Not struggling as much to figure out how we can go grocery shopping, nap sleepy babies, change dirty diapers, cook dinner, and all the other stuff that seemed so hard at first. Like cleaning my own toilets. I couldn't do it last year. Honestly, I couldn't get it done.

But now I can.

And for the record Dominic said he likes the new cleaning lady.

"You clean better than they did."

He's a smart guy that one :)

And since I only got one of them cleaned last night I guess I should go clean the other one now. Both girls napping. Gotta make good use of my time :)

in february ...

• Delirium officially hit the Schulte household. You can only go without sleep for so long before you start doing crazy stuff. One morning I found a block of cheese in the knife drawer. Apparently Dominic had had some cheese and crackers the night before and put the cheese back in the drawer instead of the knife (no the knife wasn't in the fridge in case you were wondering!). About a week later, I found that I had left a bag of frozen veggies in a basket on top of the fridge that holds bread, crackers, etc! Oh man. We need sleep bad :)
  
• C doubled her birth weight of 5lbs 1oz weighing in at 10lbs 6oz at her 2 month check up on 5 Feb.
  
• J counted to 9 by herself! I overheard her do it once while playing in the play room, and she's done it multiple times since then.
  
• J started speaking in sentences and repeating everything we say. A few of my favorites from the month - "Charlie chase me?!" "Dada/Mama sit by Juliet" "Get more puzzle" "No please!". If you were wondering, "no please" is the polite child's response to "yes please" :)
  
• J seems to have a new favorite toy - puzzles! Thanks to my mom who saved tons of old books and puzzles from when my sisters and I were little, we have more puzzles than J knows what to do with. I had tried to keep the ones she's not quite ready for yet (12+ pieces) on one of the higher shelves, but she was very persistent about getting them down. Dominic finally gave in one night and as it turns out, she was ready for them after all. She can't put one together by herself yet, but will sit contently and work them with you over and over. The other night she was even able to show us where most (8 I think) of the pieces to one of the 12 piece puzzles went!
  
• We took our first road trip as a family of 4 to St. Louis to meet up with the Schulte side of the family over Valentine's Day weekend. Corinne met her aunts Annie, Allie, Uncle Dan future Uncle Jeff, and cousins Paxton and Winston for the first time. She got to swim in the hotel pool and play with everyone. None of the kids were short on attention :)
  
• C started smiling :)
  
• Dominic turned the big 3-0!
• C moved to her crib (from a bassinet in our room).
• J pushed her bedtime back to 11pm! She's always been a night owl and in the last 4-5 months had pushed it back to 10ish (going down around 9:30 and playing for 30-45 min), but this month she successfully threw Dominic and I for a loop by staying up till 11:15 multiple nights. I think the problem evolved from our morning routine slipping later and later because I'm exhausted and don't really mind if she sleeps till 9:30! And I think she's needing less sleep total in a 24 hour period - about 12-13 hours total. Sigh. She has skipped her nap a couple times, but I don't think either of us are ready for that. For now I am making sure she's up for the day by 8:30, naps from 2-4:15 and goes down around 9:30. It would be nice if she went to bed earlier, but I just can't do the mornings right now. Maybe when C is sleeping longer stretches at night.
• On a related note, she is so stinkin sweet when it comes to going to bed. She's gotten to where she loves to be in her crib with all her friends - sometimes sleeping with 10+ different animals. I try to sneak them out when she's not looking, but she always notices! She picks them up one by one and kisses them and says "Night Bert, Night Ernie, Night Elephant" ... you get the picture. Then she just plays and talks. We watch her in the video monitor and it is hilarious and sweet all at the same time.
• The girls don't nap at the same time. Usually, it's quite funny. I'll lay Juliet down and Corinne will wake up 5 minutes later. A couple hours later, Corinne will fall asleep and then Juliet wakes up. Hopefully they will coordinate at some point. Then I can blog more!
  

February 2010

In january ...

• We went to the aquarium. Twice. Honestly the OK Aquarium leaves a lot to be desired as far as aquariums go, but Juliet likes it. Actually she LOVES it so we'll probably be going more in the months to come. It's much closer than the zoo and when you are working around naps and feeding schedules for two kiddos, convenience is important.
• Dominic and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary on the fifth. Woah.
  
• We had Corinne's newborn pictures taken. See the sneak peek of them here. They are amazing and I can't wait to get them printed up and hang them in the house!
  
• The day before our photo session, I confirmed something I'd suspected for months now ... with a little product, Juliet's hair curls up perfectly! I have suspected this would be the case, but wasn't going to go out and buy anything. So we experimented with a little of Aunt Di's hair stuff and sure enough, the girl has curls! Not going to deny that I am a little jealous ...
  
• We played inside. Getting out in the winter with two small children isn't exactly fun so we played at home a lot. The new playroom is perfect and we spent many a January day working puzzles, coloring, cooking in Juliet's new kitchen, playing dolls, etc. She plays great by herself, sometimes for 30-45 min at a time. Some days I feel guilty about it and other days I feel so incredibly thankful that she is so content to entertain herself!
• Juliet had her 18 month checkup. She weighed in at 23lbs 12oz and 34in long. Funny tidbit from our appointment. The nurse was asking me all the developmental questions and asked me if she said 3-4 words ... ummm "Like in a row? A sentence?" I asked ... no, just total ... uh, yeah. I'd say she knows 100+ words ... "Oh" was the nurses reply :)
• Corinne grew into Size 1 diapers, NB and 0-3 month sized clothes. More about her first 3 months here.

January 2010

remodel update

Here are a few more pictures of the mostly completed remodel. None of the finishing touches (artwork, bedspread, etc.) but we are getting there! Need to take pictures of the living room too ...

From Home Remodel Fall 2009

getting older

Sweetheart,

Next month you turn the big 30, but before before then perhaps you should ...

buy a minivan or at least check the air in your tires,

brush up on your Pinochle game,

buy some earplugs and sunflower seeds for the road,

check the weather in the 63017,

drop Charlie at his vacation home,

and get your Settlers game face on ...

thankful

We're back home (since last Friday). Most of the dust has settled. We had a small army of painters in our house over the weekend priming what felt like every wall and ceiling in sight. I have at least 8 empty gallons paint in my garage. It would have taken us months to accomplish what our wonderful family and friends helped us accomplish in a weekend.

I am thankful. We have a healthy one year old who's learning to eat with silverware, climb up on nearly every chair in our house (and the toilet), and makes her daddy and I smile every day with her smile, dancing, and funny one word remarks :) We have a happy healthy baby who at 32/33 weeks has a striking resemblance to my handsome husband of nearly 8 years.

The doctor asked me how it felt to have my husband in my uterus ... ummm awkward when you put it that way !! :)

I will post more pictures of the house soon. We are attempting to make the transition from insane asylum white, aka primer, to actual colors. The laminate floor delivery has been delayed a week and I'm having some trouble getting a carpet installer over here to measure the bedrooms - which both puzzles and frustrates me - but we are moving forward with what we can in the mean time!

49 days to go ...

evicted

Due to an overwhelming amount of dust and construction (and late night workers), J and I are at my parents for the time being. That means no pictures for now :( But, I'll give you the run down and post pictures as soon as possible.

Saturday was a big day. The window in J's new room and the new door to the guest/play room were all in before noon! These were really exciting things for Dominic and I as the window will provide good light to J's room and the door way opens up our main living area and allows more natural light in there. So, all the major framing is complete, with just a few things left - mainly trim work, closet shelves, a window seat in J's room, etc.

Then the ceiling/sheetrock guys came and things got a bit ... well ... dusty! J and I went over to my family's for the afternoon because we knew they'd be sanding and Dominic went to the TU game. When J and I got back to the house at 7:40 to put her down, the guys were there cleaning up, but I had not anticipated the extent of the dust. Wow. I think every surface in my house is covered in dust. Not kidding. Rooms that they weren't even in, stuff in closets, literally everything. This was JUST what I was hoping to come home too! I held it together (barely) long enough to get J down in the pack n play and then sat on the couch in the living room, once black leather, now grey with dust, my mind swirling trying to figure out what to do ... they weren't finished so cleaning up was pointless, but how in the heck could I just leave the mess? I did. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. I cleaned the kitchen on Sunday because I had to do something. They came back Sunday to work more so we spent the day at my family's. We now have an actual wall between the 2 rooms (sheet rock is up). Dominic called Sunday evening to let me know they would work later if we didn't come home (i.e. stayed the night at my family's). We did. J ended up sleeping with me in Deb's bed, taking up about 3/4 of it I might add! The more work they get done, the sooner they will be finished -- that's what I keep telling myself :)

So, I haven't slept well since Friday night and my house is covered in dust! One of the sheet rock guys asked me if I was ready for the baby to come ... ummm ... NO ... Have you looked around, buddy? I think I'd like to see a few things get finished before the babe decides to make an appearance :)

smooth sailing ceiling

Seems like we are making significant progress every day which is a real good thing when you have a deadline I suppose. Here's highlights of progress in the last 24 hours:

• Last night and today we had some contractors over smoothing out the ceilings we'd previously scraped. They are finishing off the sheet rock in the new rooms and doing the ceilings for us. They've been mudding them, but I guess there is still sanding to come (likely tomorrow) so that should be a wonderful mess!
  
• Today we had a plumber come over and re-route the gas line that was running through where we are putting a new door way for entry into one of the rooms (play/guest room). My dad wanted to tackle this project, but with a never ending list of things for him to do we decided to go ahead and call a plumber. The plumber was here for 2 hours, so I'm thinking we made the right decision!
• Dominic has been working on tons of electrical stuff on and off over the last week or so. We're removing outlets, moving switches, etc. and so that's keeping him busy.
• My dad and Dominic took out one of the closets in J's new room. The previous owners had added the closet (so there were 3 closets total in the room) and while the storage was nice, the space will be nice too. We are adding closets in the play/guest room so we'll have plenty of space to put stuff.

New window and doorway may both happen tomorrow! We'll see how much the guys can get done before the TU game :)

Added new pics of the progress:

From Home Remodel Fall 2009

not in november

Just a few things that aren't happening around here:

• TV watching. The TV is in the garage until the work in the front living room is complete. Paint should be finished relatively soon, but the flooring will likely be a few more weeks. I miss having it "babysit" J for 10 minutes while I got ready in the morning. J misses Elmo - and we were totally pumped about the new season of Sesame Street that starts next week!
  
• Wearing makeup. See reason above. I wish I had one of those faces that didn't need makeup, but for whatever reason dark circles just aren't considered a desirable beauty feature :)
• J's baby book. I had really wanted to have at least her first year complete before the baby came, but the desktop with all the pictures is in the garage. At least I have this blog as some type of documentation so I don't forget everything!
• Evening walks. Darn sun doesn't stay out long enough anymore for us to take our family walks when Dominic gets home from work in the evening. Charlie and J both miss this, though J has replaced walk time with looking at the moon time :) I miss the sun that stayed out until 9pm!
• Dusting. It just seems pointless to dust with so much mess so I'm taking a sabbatical until renovations are complete!
  

the paint fairy

The paint fairy has been very busy over the last week or so. Picking out paint colors, trimming, rolling, etc. and I'm happy to report that the front rooms are primed and ready for paint! I know this is not very exciting to anyone except me ... and as far as the identity of the paint fairy ... well lets just say she only works during nap time and that she looks a lot like me :)

I never thought I'd be excited about brown paint, but I'm excited about the neutral tan-ish/khaki color that we are using in the front room. One of the pictures I uploaded has a small swatch of it, but it's probably hard to tell. The front rooms (entry, living, hall) didn't NEED to be painted, but I WANTED to paint them and it was a perfect opportunity - floors are being replaced in a few weeks so no need to cover the floor and all the baseboards had to come out for the floor installation so trim time was cut in more than half! We are going to do a darker green accent wall, but haven't officially decided the color. I'm hoping that will be an easier decision once the other walls are painted.

Last night the new doorway was supposed to go in, but the guys found a minor problem -- the gas line to the fireplace runs right across the spot where we want the door! So, they are working on a solution to that, but did cut out the sheet rock so we can at least see where the door will be soon.

I added a few pictures to the remodel album from last night and my painting and today:

From Home Remodel Fall 2009

And while I'm thinking of it, here's a few cute stories about our big girl:

• My mom called 2 nights ago and told us to take J out to look at the moon. It was a full moon and really low in the sky ... beautiful. Well, J LOVED the moon and would have stayed out there all night if we'd have let her. We went outside about 7 times to see the moon, and when we'd come inside she'd repeat "moon" over and over again and look intently at us (making sure to make eye contact - this is key) and say "moon" ... how can you refuse that?!?! Last night we looked at the moon again. She took her My Little Pony outside with us to see the moon and held her up so she could see it :) She knows that the moon sleeps during the day so when we were outside this morning she told me "moon ... and then made a snoring sound".
  
• Words are becoming more and more clear and it's amazing to see the connections she makes between things and what she remembers. Yesterday we were playing outside and I couldn't figure out what she was saying. She kept pointing to our neighbors house and saying something that sounded like juice ... turns out she was saying "joe" - our neighbors name! Then after her nap yesterday, I had made a barrier of chairs to the entry way to keep her away from the wet paint. We discussed that there were 3 chairs in a row ... well 10 minutes later I find her sitting on one of the chairs happy as can be and she points to the chair and says "chair" very clearly. This morning as we were making our way through the messy garage she pointed to a gallon of paint and said "Dan" a couple of times. We went to the paint store with my sister (who she calls Dan) yesterday so I said "Yes, we went to the paint store with Aunt Dan yesterday and got some paint didn't we?" To which she responded "sssssssss" which is yes in J speak!
• She got one of those color/shape sorters from grandma a few weeks ago (with pegs for different shapes, each shape has a different number of blocks that go on it) and has mastered it. She knows which peg to put the different blocks on (by matching the colors) and if she starts to put a block on the wrong peg she says "nooooooo" and takes it off and puts it immediately on the right one! Basically she's a genius - a really sweet and adorable genius!
  

drywall dust

Well here's my best attempt at a remodel post given the following unfortunate facts:

• The desktop that has all the before pictures on it is in the garage
  
• The video camera with before footage as well as some footage of our progress decided to die this afternoon

So, for people that know what our house looked like this isn't a big deal and for everyone else I'm sorry. I tried to go back and find some decent before pictures in my Picasa Web Albums, but got tired of looking and the dishes in the kitchen are calling my name.

We've made some really good progress in the last 4 days. We had thought the wall was going to go up on Friday night, but we ended up doing some demo on Friday (which was good) and most of the framing went up on Saturday morning between 8-11 (before the TU game ... obviously we have our priorities straight!). I've included a link to an album with some pictures, but here are my favorites so far:

This is Dominic post sanding the ceilings in the front rooms last night. We scraped off the popcorn and cleaned up that mess last week, but they needed to be sanded and that made another gigantic mess.


The picture above was taken late last night and we didn't even attempt to clean up. So, this was the mess I had waiting for me during J's nap today.


Sweep. Vaccuum. Sweep. Vaccuum. Mop. I'd post an after picture, but it still looks dirty even after all my cleaning! But good progress overall ... even though it may not look like it :)

Home Remodel Fall 2009

home sweet home

We took the house off the market at the beginning of October. Did I tell you all that? I'm not sure ... anyways, it just made sense not to worry about showing the house, packing, moving with the baby coming (i.e. me being huge worthless prego lady). Original plan was to put the house back on the market in the spring ... plan morphed into maybe we should refinance and just see how we feel in the spring (maybe summer/fall would be more realistic) ... and morphed again into lets just stay a while (5ish years, maybe more) and finish what we started around here.

See, we'd had a conversation back in April about everything we'd like to do to this house - from flooring and furniture to windows and knocking walls out - and decided that moving probably made more sense than doing all that work. So, we put the house on the market and for 5 months looked for something else and tried to sell ours. It's an adventure - the whole selling/buying a house thing - that's for sure. In the end after who knows how many showings and potential home viewings, we came to the conclusion that maybe we like our house more than we thought we did! It's funny, but I don't know how to describe it other than this: God simply removed every potential possibility for us to sell our house and buy a new one. We joked that all we had to do was look at a house and talk about putting in an offer and the house would sell immediately ... I'm not kidding! This had to have happened at least 5 times. We thought about charging for our services even :) We can sell your home in no time for a small fee!

So, we're staying. And it just feels right. Sure, we thought we were supposed to move and I don't have a good explanation for why in the world God would have wanted us to put our house on the market just to take it off 5 months later, but I've come to realize that I don't understand a lot of what God has going on!

And about finishing what we started. That's the rather comedic part and I'm so glad I see it that way. I mean, how boring would it have been to tackle the largest remodeling project we've ever attempted back in April? Doing it now, with less than 70 days until baby #2 arrives is much more fun :) I've always known I have a weird sense of "fun" and I guess this is just further confirmation! Doing it now has to be easier than waiting until next year when we have 2 little ones, right?

I will try to scan in some drawings of the floorplan changes we're making sometime soon. In short, we're dividing our huge 3rd bedroom into 2 new rooms (will make our house a 4 bedroom) and updating flooring in the main part of the house with laminate. But, if you've done any remodeling, you know that there's a lot more to it than that! We're not doing everything ourselves, but are doing plenty to keep up more than busy for the next several weeks.

What's been done so far:

• Scraped popcorn ceilings in entry, living, hall, and bedroom (that will be split into 2 rooms). I could write an entire blog post/rant on popcorn ceilings, but I will spare you ...
  
• Started trimming entry/living with primer during nap time today.
  
• Tonight my dad and Dominic took out the bookshelves that were in the big bedroom and cut the carpet back so the new wall can go in TOMORROW!
  

Yes, the wall is going up tomorrow. The plan prior to 7pm this evening was for it to go up on the 10th of November, but we got another bid and he wants to start tomorrow and we are eager to get started (well eager to be finished) so chaos will officially begin tomorrow night! Pictures to come ... and I'll try to keep blogging, but will walls to paint, baseboards to stain, etc, etc, etc I'm not sure when it's going to happen!

doubt

Why in times where I've had to wait on God am I plagued with doubt?

Is there a perfect guy out there for me?

Am I destined to feel empty in my job forever?

Am I meant to be a mom?

Are we even supposed to be selling our house?

Will Juliet ever stop crying at Sunday School?

Now I realize the issues vary in size a lot, but it hit me in church last week after dropping Juliet off at Sunday School - and agonizing for the rest of the afternoon that these current tears are a sign that I'm destined to have a socially inept child - that the deeper issue is the same. When I wait - and God takes longer than I feel He should to provide what I feel like He should - I often doubt. Why? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Because I look at this list of past and present experiences and acknowledge that God perfectly provides. Better than I could ever ask or imagine.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3.20-21

So, why in the present wait - both big and small - do I doubt?

Why can I not stand confidently in Him knowing that He WILL

He WILL sell our house
He WILL help Juliet adjust to be away from us


Just like He DID

He DID provide me with the most amazing husband and best friend to share my life with
He DID help me find a job in my career field where I felt fulfilled and content
He DID bless us with a miracle baby ... twice!

God is so good. I mean, how blessed am I that my biggest troubles have to do with my child crying at Sunday School?!? I have just felt lately like I'm in a very active battle with my doubt-filled mind about the house, trying desperately to cling to my confidence in God's perfect provision, but wavering ... some days I'm good, some days I'm not ... and it's so aggravating! I blame it on my pregnancy hormones, but I know that's not it. For whatever reason, my weak mind would rather wallow in the worst case scenario than simply trust God who is in control of all things and promises to work everything out!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8.28

So, I write all this knowing that at some future divinely appointed time, everything will come together perfectly. Lord help me stand confidently knowing that you WILL just like you DID every day until then!

Summer's End

Fall may have arrived early this year and I could not be more excited about it. I no longer sweat profusely and breath heavily on our evening walks and while I still can't keep up with Dominic and Charlie, it's been much more enjoyable to be outside over the last couple weeks. It's been busy around here. We've been spending as much time as we can outside - at the park, on walks, in our backyard, etc. My sister Di started at TU so we helped get her moved into her dorm (and played with all her roomates stuff while she wasn't there!). I figured Juliet should get a taste of good ol Twin South since that's where she'll be living someday. hehe. Go TU!

We're still planning on moving and attempting to be patient on the right buyer for our house, but I must say that this whole process has been much more challenging than we anticipated. Good news is that after 4 months of having our house on the market and looking at homes we are finally starting to have a better idea of what we're looking for and how to be patient and wait on God's timing. I haven't really blogged any of the house buying drama or hilarity, but trust me, there has been plenty. We've seen it all -- from homes that have NEVER been cleaned to a house with an indoor pool (complete with red carpet in the pool area) and a bedroom with a closet with a bidet (just a bidet, nothing else). Let me just say that I will be more than thrilled when we find our future home sweet home and don't have to continue to look at all the craziness out there!

The photo album is pretty much a collection of random pictures from the last few weeks. Juliet playing with Charlie, mowing the lawn with Dominic, etc. There are some of Juliet helping with what will hopefully be our last home improvement project at this house. Dominic and my dad put up a beam in our spare bedroom to cover a crack in the ceiling that had been drawing some concerns from potential buyers. And that's about all I can think of for this somewhat random update! Enjoy :)

Summer's End

juliet at half a pork chop

Well, I think my days of coherent blog posts are over. I simply don't have the time or desire to think through what I'd like to say and type it up in a neat little post for you all to read. My list attempt to catch up didn't work and my brain is filled with little tidbits that I'd like to share before they float away ...

Perfect world. My doc's words at my 12 week appointment with baby #2. This thought has come back to my mind time and time again since he said it. I am truly thankful each and every day for His perfect timing and perfect plan for our family. From babies to home buying and selling (and so much more), we are certainly at a great place to watch Him work! We are so blessed with 2 happy healthy babies it makes me smile just to type it! Anyways, everything looks great and I actually go back tomorrow for my 16 week. Dominic is going to try to come tomorrow so that should be fun!

Going to the Chapel. My little sister is getting married this Saturday! I'm beyond excited for her! It's going to be a busy week finishing things up and preparing for the big day, but all worth it come Saturday :) You won't be surprised to know that I'm helping organize everything since planning and organization are second nature to me ... I really should be working on the itinerary, making phone calls, and nagging the bride about getting things done, but I'm blogging. I can't put off this blog post another week. I need to write a toast for the reception. This is consuming my thoughts, but I haven't come up with anything brilliant as of yet. Nothing worse than a rambling boring toast by the matron of honor so I'm trying to prevent that :) I think I'm going to write it down. I speak best when I have the words in front of me.

All that from a skirt? There are so many little tidbits I should have posted about the wedding, but I'd like to share one now. We'd been looking for some chocolate and cream zebra print fabric to make some little bloomers and bows for the 3 flower girls, but hadn't had any luck. Black and white zebra is easy to find, but not chocolate and cream. I had found some for sale on etsy for $28 each, but that seemed a little steep and didn't solve the bow problem. Anyways, my brilliant and thrifty mother found a couple womens skirts at a local department store and brought them home. "Couldn't we use these?"Ummmm, yes ... and that's exactly what we did! We've managed to get 3 pairs of bloomers and 3 matching bows out of the skirts and I'm working on using what's left to make another bow for a basket that's going to hold the programs. Pictures to come - eventually.

Goals. At the beginning of the year I set out to read through the New Testament, Psalm, and Proverb sections of my One Year Bible in 2009. I'm behind. Every year I've tried to do this I fall behind and can't catch up. I desperately want to accomplish my reading before the baby is born. I don't know why I feel like telling you all this, but I do. Maybe there's other people out there than need to be reminded of a goal they set back in January that's fallen to the wayside? ...

The pork chop. I made a pork chop and bean crock pot recipe on Saturday and Juliet deovured it. It was actually this fact that prompted my post ... not that fact that she's walking, talking like crazy, weaned, or sleeping through the night. Nope. The pork chop is what finally got me to sit down and type up and update! But since I'm typing, I'll go ahead and update you on all these other lesser things :)

These boots are made for walking. Juliet's been walking for about a month now. She started the day we got back from our vacation to Nebraska and South Dakota, July 6th. It was an amazing progression to watch. She still gets better every day and even tries to run sometimes ... mostly away from daddy when they are playing chase. It's hard to run and giggle though :) Her new mode of transportation has opened up a whole new world to her. Literally. Cabinets and drawers that she never knew existed can now be opened and emptied! We are having a blast with our often wobbly walker and can't believe how grown up she looks standing up on her own 2 feet!

Words and kisses. She saying so many new words that I can't keep track and won't even try list them all here. She hasn't put 2 words together yet (to form a short sentence), but her vocabulary is quite impressive. To me anyways (not that I'm biased or anything)! Some of my favorite words (mostly because of the cute little personality that accompainies them):

• Juice. This is the first word out of Juliet's mouth in the morning. The girl wants her orange juice immediately! And not just a quick drink of juice. She sits on my lap and downs 12+ oz of orange juice before doing anything else! It's nice snuggle time for me. Not to mention the fact that I have a few minutes to wake up before the day officially starts.
• Cookie. Prounouced "Ca" and often said repeatedly ... yep. Sounds like "CaCa" :) Juliet loves her Teddy Graham cookies throughout the day, in the car, riding around in the shopping basket, stroller, etc.
  
• Dance. She loves to dance. This started on our vacation and has continued ever since. We were watching SYTYCD and were trying to keep her occupied so were dancing with her. Well it stuck. She will now point to you and tell you to dance. She wants you to hold her, hold her little hand, and twirl about! If you don't do it right, she'll point to someone else :) Her newest variation is to have Charlie dance too. Dominic has Charlie get up on his hind legs and jump. She loves this and would have him do it all day if she could! Side note: She's picked up on some of the hand motions that we use with Charlie. Last week, Aunt Debra was telling Charlie to come and using the hand motion and Juliet imitated her! So cute. She also tried to put her hand out like Dominic does when he tells him to dance :)

Baby kisses are the sweetest thing ever. Juliet makes the cutest smacking sound and loves to give kisses. Until yesterday, kisses were mostly reserved for mom, dad, Charlie, and pictures in her books, but at the pool yesterday she gave Aunt Deb and Di good kisses too! Sweetness.

Weaning. We were down to nursing once and day (the morning). My plan was to tackle this when we got back from our trip up North, but the Monday we left, she didn't ask - or should I say demand - to eat. Before our morning oj regimn, she'd point to the chair in her room and pretty much demand to eat. If Dominic went in to get her she was not very happy with him. She likes her routine people! So, I was not anticipating that the whole weaning process would be very fun, so her not asking for it that morning was quite a surprise. So we went with it. I figured being out of our routine might just help the process and she did remarkably well. Cranky and needing oj in the morning, but other than that when really smoothly!

Did I forget to tell you? My baby sleeps through the night. Yeah, I know your baby did when she was 8 weeks old, but mine does too. Most of the time. Sigh. We tackled the through the night hurdle around 11 months. Sorry I didn't write about it until now. It's funny, I thought I'd have all this awesome advice to share. I don't. I was talking to a sweet mom just a month ago about similar problems she's having with her baby and I said what I hated hearing "I don't know what to tell you to do to help. I don't really know what even worked for us. But, it will work itself out." How could I say that?

I should know all a sleep deprived mom wants is a straight answer ... but I know now that there just isn't one to give. You can't make a baby sleep through the night. Period. I won't deny and certainly don't disagree with some of the strategies out there to help your baby get there, they just don't always work. So, my problem isn't with the strategies, but more with the way they are presented - as quick, guaranteed fixes. I was told by 2 different doctors at our pediatricians office at Juliet's 6 and 9 month checkups to "just send your husband in for a couple nights" and that would fix J's night waking. Um, no. I actually never tried this because I was 100% sure that it wouldn't work. She'd been crying it out for over 3 weeks and was still waking up ... that's just not progress and no one has a magic formula. The "just send your husband in" people are no consolation. Oh the tears we both shed those late nights and early mornings. She wasn't ready until she did it even though I was months before! The only advice I will give is to get to a place where you are comfortable with what you are doing (regardless of your success being measured by the number of hours your baby sleeps in a row). Find a plan that makes sense for you and your baby and stick to it. Chances are that if it's at all logical, it will work eventually :)

So, where are we now? I would describe Juliet's sleep schedule as more stable than it was, but still fairly variable. She typically sleeps 9-10.5 hours at night, though sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night. My approach for the wake ups is to go lay down with her in our spare bed until she falls back asleep. When she's awake in the night, it's as if she simply can't go to sleep. She's content to be held, but her little eyes are open and simply won't shut for a period of time (from 15 min to 1 hr). Yes, I could let her cry in bed, but we've tried that and it didn't solve the problem. She'd just cry for however long she was awake and then go to sleep (i.e. the cry time didn't decrease in the way it's supposed to). The problem isn't that she can't put herself to sleep (she does this 95% of the time), it seems to be (all mom theory here) that she's just awake. So, we deal. We snuggle. And most importantly, I don't worry and beat myself up about it!

She flip flops between 1 and 2 naps during the day. Usually depending on how long she slept during the night and what time she woke up. She goes down for naps like a champ and loves her blanket, and stuffed dog and duck in bed with her. She's an angel and I love her to pieces :)

I'm downsizing. In every area of my life except my wardrobe :) Can I just say that when you're pregnant, it's much more complicated than having summer clothes and winter clothes? I have non-maternity summer clothes, maternity summer clothes, non-maternity winter clothes, and maternity winter clothes. And then there's the clothes that aren't technically maternity, but they work for certain stages of pregnancy ... where do I put those? As I slowly take all my non-maternity stuff out of my drawers and closet, I ask myself "Is this even going to be in style if and when I can wear it again?" Thankfully I'm not too trendy of a dresser so the bigger question is "Will I ever be able to wear this again?" Anyways, back to the downsizing ... lately I'm convicted about all the excess in my life. From clutter in my house, clothes I don't even wear hanging in my closet (and not because they don't fit), house features I think we need as we search for a new place. Anyways, I guess I'm spending some time rethinking what we actually do need and how to live simply in a gimme more kind of world. I feel liberated already and I'll I've done so far is take a car full of crap to Goodwill :)

Well, I think that's quite enough for today. Next update will likely be post wedding recap! Have a good week!

too far behind

Is it possible to get so behind on your blog that you can't catch up? That's how I feel lately. There's just too much to post and some stuff I'd like to blog about, but feel like too much time has passed that it doesn't matter so much anymore. But I can't just let stuff go like that ... so here's my list attempt to catch up. Hopefully, then I won't be so overwhelmed by my blog!

• Pictures from Easter ... see, I told you I was behind! Dominic's family came down for the weekend and we had a great time. It was practically picture-less which is why I haven't put them up on the blog yet. It's hard to get pictures once babies start crawling and getting into everything!!

easter

• I took a Wilton cake decorating class in April/May with some girls from our small group. It was at Hobby Lobby and really fun. It was the first of 4 courses they offer and I'd like to take some of the other classes in the future, but decided I should prove to myself that I'll actually use my skills first. We made cakes for the classes and I've sense make a couple other cakes, namely a TU cake for Danielle's graduation. Pictures of my cakes here:

wilton

• I'm planning my 10 year reunion. Eeek. It's the weekend of 26-27 June and I'm excited, but a little concerned that not many classmates have rsvp'd. So, if you are a BK class of 99 graduate reading this blog who has not sent in your reply form, do it soon!
  
• Dominic's grandma (his mom's mom) passed away in May. It all happened very unexpectedly and quickly and she will be greatly missed. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and so much more. Dominic was able to make it back to South Dakota for the funeral. We were blessed to have seen her last back in February when Dominic's parents and grandparents came down. Here's a picture of Juliet with her Great Grandma and Grandpa Turbak.

• Juliet had her Baby Dedication at church on Mother's Day weekend. This went entirely undocumented. ooops. It was the day I found out I was pregnant in fact! It was kind of fun to dedicate both babies :)
  
• We have another nephew!!! Dominic's sister Allison had her second baby boy, Winston James, on May 10. We haven't met him officially yet, but look forward to getting to love on him over the 4th of July weekend!

Here's the entire family. Too cute!:

• My three sisters all graduated during the month of May - Danielle from college, Diane from high school, and Debra from the K-8 school we all went to. Here we are at Danielle's graduation party ... looking our best I might add :)

• And last but not least, our house is on the market. We decided that everything else that's already going on in our lives just wasn't enough so we'd just add something else just for the fun of it! And let me tell you, selling your house is nothing but FUN. Nothing like trying to keep your house clean 24x7 with a one year old right behind you undoing everything as you do it. The girl can clear shelves REALLY well :) We're staying in Tulsa, just looking for a house with a 4th bedroom and a bigger yard.

Well, I'm sure that's not everything, but I'm feeling better so I guess that's a good thing!

PS - I wrote this post last week and never posted it. Genius I know ... I'll never catch up if I don't actually post my posts! Anyways, there's lots more to blog about - including Juliet's BIRTHDAY - so stay tuned :)

help me laugh

I'm trying really hard to laugh, but every time I try I just get more irritated:


The hard copy looks even more ridiculous.

I can't comprehend how you can get both the first AND last name wrong. Dominic wrote the article himself - they just sent him questions. Therefore all they had to do was copy and paste ... so if I'm understanding the situation right, some idiot copied and pasted the article, but decided that Dominic had probably spelled HIS OWN NAME incorrectly so changed that!?!?!

Aside from that minor technicality, the article is wonderful. My husband is a stud.

Help me laugh people ... though I'm somewhat certain you already are :)

P.S. They fixed the article online. Here's a link.

ice day

J: Can I go outside and play in the snow?
me: No, honey, it's not the type of snow you can play in. There's ice under there.
J: There's snow! Let's go mommy!
me: I know it looks like fun snow to play in, but it's too slippery and dangerous.
J: Please!!!! I'll get my coat ...
me: ...

Just thought I'd practice for that conversation I'm sure to have with J one of these days! 2 out of 3 "snow" storms in Tulsa seems to come with a sheet of ice underneath and only a 1/2 inch of snow. Poor kid. She'll have to get her fill of snow up north when we visit family up there :)

We had some ice here the last couple days and it's finally thawing today. The fun part was the Dominic stayed home from work yesterday! However, it was not the fun kind of snow you take your 7 month old out in to take pictures, but we enjoyed a fun day inside.

first snow. daddy home all day to play. roaring fire. 2 cups of hot chocolate (both for me). chili and cornbread. chasing charlie round in circles. reading books. playing with toys (mostly stuff that's not really a toy, e.g. laptop, camera case). lots of giggles. some guitar playin. cheerios and puffs. workout for mom (woah - I know). walking around the house - with help of course. first prunes (she didn't hate them).