Two Weeks!!!!!!

I have two weeks left before I finish school! (This week and next week) And I am so excited.  I can't wait to be done. After 7 years, I am going to be a college graduate.  That feels good.  School has been hard to get through so I feel an extremely huge sense of accomplishment.

I also have two weeks before I get to relax and play house again.  I can't wait to pick up my slack on house keeping and baby girl time.  Poor girly has been sadly under appreciated this last semester.  As has my house.  There will be some serious scrubbing going on here pretty soon.  I wish I could paint my apartment walls.  They are so yucky looking.  I had to scrub the walls not too long after we moved in because they were still covered in filth from the last tenants.  They still look so dirty even though they are cleaner now.  James and I joke often about what we will have in a house someday.  We say things like we will get all new tubs and toilets and sinks because it's gross to use someone else's.  We want all new carpets (if we do carpet) and all new wood floors,... after forty years, wood floors just look awful.  We may even go with tile or stained concrete. And we will have freshly painted walls that aren't stained from cigarette smoke or other unspeakable messes left by others.  AND THE KITCHEN- will be my special baby.  Granite counters! Deep and wide sinks, maybe a viking stove and oven.  And then the back yard is going to be spacious and we'll have a hammock or tree bed swing.  And we want a garden and flower bed. All kinds of wonderful stuff.  Dreaming helps with what we have now and also keeps our sense of humor in tact.  

There is also now only two weeks left before I can pull out my craft projects without feeling guilty.  They won't cut into my homework time then.  Ah, my poor crafts have all been shoved away in boxes waiting patiently for the day I will come back for them and finish them.  I feel like a surgeon who quit in the middle of an operation and... wait... maybe that's not quite the right picture. But it's driving me crazy wanting to finish them!

But with school done I have more time for other things that need my attention and things I want my attention for.  I am sure that I will still be just as busy as before.  But with a cleaner house!  Yeay for cleanliness!

TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!

Smoothies!

When I was pregnant all I could think of were two things. Tater tots and fruit smoothies! I borrowed my sisters blender so many times but never got around to getting my own. Well I've been wanting my own for so long now. My mom gave me her food processor but that just left lumps. Yesterday my sweet husband took me to the store to try to find a magic bullet or something similar. I got an Oster MyBlend. I love it. It's so much quieter than the food processor and makes such smooth smoothies. I love it. I'm all set for baby number two! Whenever that is. Not for a while I hope. In the meantime I can enjoy delicious smoothies to my hearts content! Funny thing is...I'm not that big on tater tots anymore.

Emily is walking! Ok so she only takes about three or four steps at a time and then sits down but it's a start. And we praise her to the sky and she get's so excited. She is a talker. All of a sudden she just goes off and tells me all about it. Or she'll tall random objects all about it. This morning she told her gate a very long story. It was so cute. Why do I never have my camera handy at times like these? Ahhh! I hope she lets me catch her at it again soon when I can record it. I hear so many people say that they want to use the pictures that they take of their kids as blackmail one day or to embarrass them at their weddings but all I want them for is so I can preserve the memory I have of my precious little girl. I love her so much and I'm gonna have to find some kind of tactic to counter her get out of jail free card... anytime she knows I'm getting on to her she snuggles and gives me kisses... which immediately melts my heart. Oh boy. I love that little girl!!!!!!

Welcome Home!

For the past 6 months our little family lived in my parents basement. It was great ans it was not so great. But now we are on our own once more in a great little two bedroom apartment in Springfield. James works and goes to school, I stay home with Emily and do on-line classes. I love having my own place again. I like cleaning it and cooking in my own kitchen. I've been busy and I like it.

Emily is crawling and almost walking. In my kitchen I have a set of drawers that goes all the way down to the floor and yesterday I found Emily sitting in the bottom drawer and my tablecloths scattered across the floor. I laughed so hard. She just sat there looking so proud of herself. Oh she's so fun. She certainly keeps me on my toes.

I found out today just how much I can get done in a short amount of time. In two hours I cleaned the entire house -minus the bathroom- and organized my cabinets. All the while with Emily under my feet or tugging at my pants trying to walk holding on to my leg. It was fun to race myself. But now I have nothing much to clean tomorrow...so maybe I'll get to work on some projects! That will be fun. I have so many projects started that I haven't finished. Maybe now I can get some done. Here's to projects finished!

Well, things are continuing to play out. We are settled now in Missouri for the most part and we are happy. Emily is seven and a half months old now and crawling like a pro. She goes everywhere and gets into everything... at least on her height level... and thankfully she hasn't mastered stairs yet. She loves to pull herself into a standing position. She forgets that she can't walk or hold herself up without holding on to something and many a time she has come crashing down on her poor little head. But wonderfully she gets back up and tries again. Was a stalwart little girl I have. I hope that attitude follows her all her life. She's growing up so fast. I can hardly believe that she's been here for seven months. I love that little girl.... even though her first word is DA DA. She loves giving kisses and she's so funny to play with. She loves being turned up-side-down. She will push herself backwards while someone is holding her and just hangs her head back. It's so cute and she laughs and laughs. Well I'll have to write again later. So till then...

Rectifying My Remissness

So it's been about a month... lots of stuff has happened. We spent a week and a half in California... visiting all of James family. Emily met her Aunt Christine, Aunt Megan, Cousin Jovie, Great Grandpa Baker, and her Great Great Grandma Jernigen. We spent a whole day at Sea World in San Diego and got bad sunburns. Emily escaped that though because I kept her covered with a blanket and slathered with sunscreen AND grandma got her a cute little hat. All in all...and despite the sunburns... it was a fun trip... oh and on the way to California the car overheated in the middle of the Mojave. Yeah.... hah... that was a lot of fun. It taught us a lot though.

After the Californai trip we stopped by to visit my friend Sara in Utah on our way back to Idaho. It was fun. I haven't seen her for about 3 years. Now we are both married and mommies. I have a little girl and she has a little boy; Tristan.

After we got home to Rexburg we got a U-Haul and loaded up all our stuff. Then we moved across country to Missouri. Now we are both working; James on construction and me at Mickey D's. Emily stays home with Grandma. We are working to save up enough money to where we don't have to work next semester while we are in school.

So that is about it. Life is going well. Emily is now 6 months old. She has finally graduated to size 2 diapers but she still fits in 0-3 month cloths...though they are starting to get a bit snug. We started her on solids now too.

The times they are a changing.

I finished my semester. It is the best feeling in the world to know that I can spend the days doing what I want and just playing with my Emily. She's so good. She's so happy and smiley. She learned to eat her feet the other day and it's so darn cute. She can be a little stinker too. If I don't hold her bottle just right she screams and if I try to burp her before she's ready she cries like I broke her heart. And I just can't help laughing...am I a horrible mother? I think not. Her crumpled little cry face is so cute! I can't help loving her more and more every time I look at her.

I am so excited for Friday! I get to go back to camp so that I can bring James home on Saturday! Then he doesn't have to leave me again! I have such a sweet husband. He bought me some scrapbook stuff and I have become addicted! I could sit and do it all day if I had more pictures. But i have lots of plans for it. It is currently my new favorite hobby...out of my numerous ones. James likes guns...I like crafty things. Both are expensive... so.... hmmm.

Next week we are headed to California to visit James' family. Then back to Rexburg to pack and then off to Missouri. I'm so excited for it. I'm excited that both sets of grandparents get to see Emily again. Mostly because I want to show off my beautiful baby but also because they want to see her too. :) I'm a proud mommy.

Anyway... yeah this summer is coming to an end and a new page is turning. This fall will be different because we actually get to build a house to live in. Fun stuff!

Ah life *sigh*

So things are starting to change for our family. I am almost done with my semester, just a few papers to write and then I'm done! So I should get on that... Motivation? None.

James is almost done with scout camp. Just one more week! And then he will be home with us for a while and that is the most exciting thing for me! Next year James is changing his major. This fall we are hoping to be able to save enough money to enable us to not have to work while in school. It will be a first for both of us in years. We used to work full time while going to school full time and we never saw much of each other. so we have our fingers crossed.

We are so happy to be parents. We have a practically perfect baby. She sleeps 10+ hours a night and plays well by herself. She only cries when she is hungry or sleepy. The past few days she has been extremely constipated and in pain but she is getting better. She's learning to roll over and she plays with her feet. She loves to be held and played with and she loves to touch things and feel different textures. I was playing with her with the mirror in the bathroom and she learned how to turn the light off. She looked up at me and was so proud of herself.

Anyway...little pants and homework call.