untitled

Do you title your posts before you start writing or after you are finished? normally, I title the blog first and then start typing. This time, I started typing (all the way up to that question mark) before I titled this blog. I'm kind of a rebel that way.

Great news! Wes is home! Can you believe it because sometimes I can't! Honestly it's kind of strange being in the house with him. haha... it's true though. He's been gone all summer with me seeing him on weekends, but since I went to London, we missed two weekends so it had been well over two weeks!

I got an A on my paper. I got a C on my test. (don't ask. I don't want to talk about it.) That leaves me with a A in one class and a C in the other so far. I can't handle that. So, I will have to make a 100 on my next two tests in the C class and continue rocking my assignments in my A class.

I'm going up to work today for a professional development day but also to see how my kids did on their AP test. I'm really nervous. My kids were seriously freaking awesome but that test is kind of cruel to their minds sometimes so we shall see...

Wes and I started talking about having another baby. That really makes me so happy because Eli is so great and who doesn't want more greatness? We are thinking that maybe this coming Spring might be a good time! hmm....

ok. that's all for now. oh! And I learned a new word today: Memes. Wait, I read a new word today, I still don't know what it means (thanks Terroni) :)

Pictures

Well I finally figured out how to do this! It's so good to be back! If you don't want to sit through the slideshow, just click here and view them!

Across the pond

well hello all you Americans back on the mainland! We have had SO much fun over here, but I'm not going to lie, I'm getting ready to be back home.

We have seen:
-Primrose Hill
-Big Bend
-London Eye
-Parliament
-Buckingham Palace
-Downing Street
-Westminster Abbey
-Hampton Court
-St. Paul's Cathedral
-National Gallery
-British Museum
-Tower of London
-Tower Bridge
-Eiffel Tower
-Versailles
-The Louvre
-Picadilly Circus
-Harrod's Department Store
-Trafalgar Square
-Notre Dame
-and many many underground rail stations, buses, taxis, trains, and walked many many many more miles

Tomorrow we'll be going to Kew Gardens (I think) and I'm not sure what else! We'll probably come home a little early to repack, clean up, and try to get some good sleep so we can come HOME!! :)

Don't worry! I've been stalking all of you from afar! How about a little slideshow? I'll try and figure that out. Love you guys!

well...

I leave tomorrow! I am so excited/so tired I can barely stay awake. Miss me! :)

Old Navy loves me

so I'm super sad right now that I don't have my camera (ahem...Wes...) to show you some pictures of my super cute clothes I got at Old Navy today! I basically followed the simple shirts, tank tops, hoodie, jean rule I made and it was super easy! I got several cute things that I will wear forever and that will be perfect for the trip! yay for me!

So. Here is what I have left to do after Eli goes to bed each night:

tonight: clean the house
tomorrow: finish my paper
Friday night: laundry and start packing

not too bad eh? I think I can handle that.

I sort of got freaked out today about Eli's passport. He really doesn't resemble his picture that much to me. They will let him leave right???I'm sure they deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis, but for some reason I just kind of got a little crazy about it.

I'm so excited to be leaving, but I'm sad that I won't see Ebony for that long! We have a house/dog sitter coming to stay so that's nice, and actually Wes will be home for part of the time too! (of course... I leave, he comes home...)

oh gosh! how have I not posted this yet?? My beautiful cousin Susan got engaged! yay!! We are so excited for Susan and Mason! The family likes him, which is always good, and more than that, he's willing to marry into our kind of strange at times family!

They live in San Antonio and he proposed to her on the river walk, and some passersby took pictures and emailed them to Susan! So sweet! Congratulations you guys!

Que vais-je porter?

That would be French for "what am I going to wear?" (thanks iGoogle)

My body isn't exactly the same as it was before I had Eli. I still haven't lost all the weight (uugghhhhhhhh.....) but more than that, I seem a little wider maybe? who knows. I'm totally fine with my body changing after a pregnancy, but not so fine with the whole clothes issue.

I haven't really bought any new clothes since Eli was born mainly because I was either in "teacher" clothes or my standard jeans and a t-shirt. Since we leave for Europe SO soon, I am now getting the big picture of the lack of clothes I have to wear. I can't afford to go buy a bunch of new clothes (and honestly I don't want to do that either because if you will remember... I still haven't lost all the weight...) so I'm thinking I'll just assess the weather situation over there, buy some solid tank tops, and possibly be good to go.

Here is this week's forecast for London:

64°F

Current:Cloudy
Wind: W at 17 mph
Humidity: 52%

Tue

68°F | 59°F

Wed

69°F | 62°F

Thu

75°F | 60°F

Fri

71°F | 59°F

Ok... so maybe a few solid tank tops and a short sleeve hoodie? (smile)



Any suggestions? I want to be comfortable. I get hot easily. And I don't want to look terrible for every picture.

Oh! Did I tell you that with Wes' new macbook that he got a free iPod Touch? And since he basically stole my iPod (haha...just kidding Wes), he gave the iPod Touch to me! SO cool! umm... I already love it, but I do feel like he just handed me something that I am not qualified to use. The greatest thing about it is that you can get on the internet anywhere the internet is wirelessly available! Thanks honey!! (sorry for the stock photo- Wes took the camera this week)

The Nursery...

As you may know... Eli is now over 6 months old. In fact, next week (if you can believe it, because I can't) he will be 7 months old! He's not crawling, waving good-bye, rolling from front to back or drinking from a sippy cup but he is 100% perfect to me!

And because I think he's just so perfect, it has been very difficult for me to leave him with people I don't know. Actually I've never left him with anyone I don't know before until last night at church.

My church going experiences have consisted of me sitting in the lovely green room backstage listening to the music and hardly listening to the sermons since he's been born. Yes... I do realize how many sermons I have missed (sorry Gabe). So last night I decided I was going to be a big girl and take him to the church nursery for the very first time. (some veteran moms might be rolling their eyes and the dramatics of this story... haha.. but seriously, this was very hard for me to do!)

We go to church at night since that's when Wes plays and so there were literally only like 6 kids total in the entire nursery. Eli was definitely the youngest. All the other kiddos were walking around playing everywhere. So, I registered him, signed him in, got a pager, put his sticker on him and kept the matching sticker, walked him into the nursery, handed my baby over to a complete stranger, my hands started shaking, and I walked out.

Meredith met up with me after that and we went into the service. After about 30 minutes (ok... 28 minutes to be exact), Mere and I went to the nursery to check on him through those mirrors you see on cop shows. He was doing ok. Just kind of looking around, swinging, and taking it all in. We stayed for about 5 minutes and went back to church. Then about 10 minutes later I was like, "let's go get him!" and so we did.

uugghhh... it is so hard to leave him with people I don't know. It is VERY VERY hard for me to do that. I wish I could say I felt all victorious for leaving him in the nursery for 40 minutes, but I don't. I don't feel bad, or feel like I neglected him or like I did anything wrong... I just didn't love it. But I guess that's ok too. :)

One fish, Two Fish, Three Fish, Four

On Friday the fam decided to go to the Dallas World Aquarium! I do LOVE going there except that it is pretty dang expensive. And it was super crowded that day, which was slightly annoying considering the last time I was there it was basically empty. BUT I got to be there during shark feeding time which was just so cool to me!

Eli LOVED being there and seeing everything and talked to every fish/otter that came up to him! It was really adorable and here are some memories:

Little Swimmer

Today Wes was home and it was our one day where we made no plans except to hang out as a family and it was awesome! He'll technically be in Dallas tomorrow but I won't see him until tomorrow night since he plays in Grapevine in the morning and Dallas tomorrow night. (sigh) the life of a musician... I'm going to really try to go visit him one day next week in Oklahoma because if not I won't see him until July 23 when we get back from Europe. :(

Anyways! Wes got home really late last night but woke up early this morning so we could all hang out! He forbade me to take Eli to the pool for the first time without him so we decided today would be the day! I was so excited because I had his cute little swimsuit with top and matching hat ready since like...April! As soon as Wes said we were going to go swim today I jumped up and got Eli dressed because even though I have had it since April I had never had him try it on. It fit perfectly and was SO adorable! We stopped by Wal-Mart to get some swim diapers and a floatie for Eli and we were off to the pool!

Wes got in first and said the water was kind of cold but thought it was fine for Eli, so we put in the little crab floatie that we got him and Wes put Eli in it. haha... I wish you could have been there to see it because Eli was just absolutely amazed at what he was getting to do! He just kept looking around like "what the heck is happening to me?" and it was so cute! Almost immediately Eli just starts kicking and floating around like he owns the place. :) oh gosh, it was just so much fun!! of course I took like 8 million pictures and most of them look the same...haha.. but I couldn't stop! It was just too precious!

Eli was slathered in like SPF 50 (literally), wore a shirt, shorts, a hat, and was covered by the crab's little yellow hooded thing and once it had been an hour I was like, "ok! we have to go!" I just have this thing about me not wanting to do anything bad to him! I can't be the one responsible for him losing his hearing at Wes' concerts or getting a sunburn or anything! Will I ever lighten up??? I still vividly remember when I cut his thumb and made him bleed when I cut his nail. I almost passed out.

That Elizabeth Stone quote that I read off a breakfast menu once still resonates with me, "Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

In other news, Wes finally got a new laptop. His old one surprised us each time we turned it on because you just never knew if it would actually happen. He is the master at selling things and using the money to buy something that he wants. He's so responsible with money. I love that about him. Wes was showing Eli his new Mac book and Eli loved seeing himself in the camera on the screen!

Well Wes just got Eli to sleep so we're going to go watch a movie! Goodnight!

Happy 4th of July!

Thank you for all of your "Teething" comments! I loved them! Eli is doing much better with the whole teething thing actually... I'm not sure why but it's true! yay! :)

Here's a little storybook of what we've been doing all week:

Sunday:
Eli and I went to church and hung out with the band and Wes during the service. Now, this was not when Eli was doing good with the whole teething thing, so we were having some fussiness, but not too bad! This particular day Eli hadn't had an afternoon nap, which usually spells emotional breakdown around 7:00 pm, and that's exactly what happened at church. He was so tired, you could tell he was hurting, and he didn't want to be around anyone anymore! I hadn't seen Meredith in forever, so she stopped by church after it was over to see Eli. While we were in the parking garage talking, she was just holding him and kind of swaying back and forth and then she said, "Is Eli asleep?" I couldn't see his face so I said, "why?" and she said, "well his head is getting really heavy on my face!" haha... and yes... as you can see... he was asleep. so precious...

Monday:
Eli and I went to visit Rachel in Athens, and I was so excited because she's only like an hour and forty minutes away and I love that! We had so much fun hanging out! She cooked this amazing dinner, the kids got to "play" with each other (which consisted of Eli drooling everywhere and Ellie growling at Eli...haha...), I got to go see the house they are building, we got snow cones, and they introduced me to the Wii!! oh my gosh! That thing is SO fun! So fun that I called my dad on the way home on Tuesday and told him about it and so he went and bought one! (THANKS DAD!!) I love love love spending time with Rach (we missed you Mere!) and so it was great. Ellie is such a cutie pie and that is that sweet thing sleeping on the left! It was really fun.


Tuesday:
Tuesday nights are graduate school nights this summer and so I needed to get ready for class. Eli was being kind of needy (how dare he. ha!) and got fussy every time I walked out of his sight! So, I became a late blooming genius and actually used that play pen that has been set up in our bedroom since way before he was born and was previously being used to throw my clothes on! terrible... I know... so here is my sweet son playing with his toys in plain sight of his mother! Isn't he just the most precious baby???


Wednesday:
This was the day that my mom was hanging out with her best friend from high school all day and the day that my sister finally finished her summer 1 class and got to come home! My dad went to Commerce, TX to interview for a high school principals job (which he got by the way! he is now a Commerce Tiger!) and also the day that he bought our beloved Wii! Anyways, after literal hours of playing the Wii, it was time to eat. So me, my dad, Amy, and Eli loaded up and went to Christina's for some Mexican food. This is Eli sitting up in a booth all by himself! (sigh...) he's getting so big.


Thursday:
Eli and I went to visit Jennifer who was actually at our friend Sarah's house watching Sydney with her son Grant. Sarah is being crazy and taking 9 hours of graduate school in summer 1 and so Jen came to her rescue by playing with Sydney for a while. Those kids remind me of those beautiful California people with their blonde hair and blue eyes! They are so precious! Eli looks so proud of himself sitting like the big kids! We also did our little 4th of July celebration this night by sitting in the Wylie High School cafeteria and turning out all the lights so we could watch the Wylie fireworks. I love fireworks!!!


Friday (today):
Most of my cousins are down with my aunts and uncle and so we've had a busy day today. One of the things we did was finally buy Eli a high chair. He has refused to sit in his little Bumbo seat (or whatever those things are called), probably because his chunky little thighs barely fit in there anymore! So after about 3 days of not eating any baby food and only formula, I was feeling like a selfish mommy and made getting the high chair a priority. So here it is in all its glory :)

Tonight Eli had green beans for the first time and LOVED them! I had my camera all ready to take a picture of his face when he ate them expecting this horrid look but I got nothin'! Just an quick swallow and an open mouth for more! Gosh I love that kid!

Happy 4th of July friends!