A Day at the Beach

Here is video of Addison's first trip to the beach. She had such a good time. She was surrounded by an entourage of cameras. I had a video camera, Roz had a video camera, mom had a camera and Tate had a camera and we were all following Addison everywhere she went on the beach. I am sure we looked pretty funny.

Funny Little Things

Addison does so many funny little things. Daniel and I have been surprised by how much Addison makes us laugh. From trying to copy what we do, to just doing random crazy things. Well, today she decided that she wanted to wear mommy's shoes. She was actually able to walk around in them pretty well. Below are some pictures. More pictures are on Addison's Page.

Boy, Oh Boy!

Yes, we found out today we are having a boy. We are very excited. He is healthy and we got some cute pictures of him.

Addison imitating Bailey

Day after day Bailey lays in front of the fireplace. Well today Addison decided that she too wanted to lay in front of the fireplace.

Quick Summary of what has been going on

Okay, so I know I am a horrible blogger. I haven't written anything in months. So I will try to give a short summary of what has been going on with us.

Addison had her 15 month doctor's appointment. She weighed 24lbs 4oz and was 32 inches long. She is still in the 90th percentile for height. The doctor said that Addison was doing great and was impressed with the number of words Addison knows already.

Addison's list of words at 15 months: back, bath, dog, duck, nose, eye, mouth, thank you, banana, night night, no, more, momma, dada, hat, shoe, and book.

She may be saying more words, but these are the ones we understand.

We took a crazy trip just before Thanksgiving. In five days we went from Raleigh to Savannah, to Florida, to Myrtle Beach and then back to Raleigh. Addison did great. Thanks to a friend (thanks Trish) who let us borrow a DVD player, Addison was entertained for hours by movies.

For Thanksgiving we went to visit my family in the mountains. I was sick the whole time. I think I had a stomach virus. I lost 5 pounds over one week, which normally would not be a bad thing, but since I am pregnant, it is not good.

This coming Friday (Dec. 5th) we get another ultra sound and we should be able to see if the baby is going to be a girl or a boy.

I have added some new pictures to Addison's website, so check it out.

So, that is a quick summary of our lives right now. I will try to be better about blogging.

First Doctors Appointment

We had our first doctors appointment today. We got to see the baby and listen to it's heartbeat. It was so exciting. While we were looking at the baby, it started to move it's arms and legs. It was so cute. The doctor said that as of this coming Thursday (Oct. 2) I will be 10 weeks. My due date is April 30, 2009.

So far my pregnancy is going pretty well. I am having mild morning sickness. I didn't have any morning sickness with Addison, so I was hoping not to have any this pregnancy as well. But like I said, it is very mild, so I can't really complain.

I am already wearing maternity pants. Apparently your body starts getting bigger faster the second time around. I am looking forward to being pregnant during the winter this time, as opposed the the summer. Being pregnant in Raleigh, in the summer, is not fun. Hopefully winter will be more comfortable.

I will keep you posted on how the pregnancy goes.

We're Back!

Addison and I spent the last week in Marion with my family. I was hoping we would get to swim all week, but we didn't. This past week was the coldest week Marion has seen this summer, and the water was too cold to swim in. But we still had a great time. We had a birthday party for Addison, which was lots of fun. Once I get pictures from Tate, I will post them.

I don't typically watch much TV, but all week I got hooked on HG TV. Luckily we don't get HG TV here at home, otherwise I might not get anything done.

Also, I ate more junk food during the week I was in Marion then I have all summer. I ate ice cream, chips & dip, cup cakes, soft drinks, pound cake, peanut butter cookies, pigs-in-a-blanket, sausage and cheese ball with crackers. And that is just the snack food that I ate. That doesn't include the food I ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So I will be going through junk food withdrawal this week.

So to summarize, while we were in Marion I watched HG TV and ate junk food. :)

Perspective

Today Addison and I were in the car and Addison was making very loud noises. She was happy, but she was being very loud. This situation reminded me of a story I read recently. This story was about two different moms. One mom walked by a window and noticed her daughter's figure prints all over the glass. This mom quickly went to the task of cleaning the figure prints off, annoyed that, yet again, she was having to clean figure prints off the window. Another mother walks by a window and sees her daughter's figure prints. Instead of cleaning them off though, she cherishes them. See, her daughter died recently and these figure prints that she used to clean off, she now wants to preserve.

As I was driving with Addison in the back making loud noises, I realized I could get frustrated that she was being so loud or I could cherish it. I know that there is a mom out there somewhere who would give anything to be in my situation and to hear their daughter or son making loud noises again.

Thank you God for blessing me with Addison and help me to never take her for granted.

I LOVE LOWE'S

So, as I mentioned in my blog yesterday, we bought a fan for our living room. Yesterday evening Daniel worked on getting it installed. Because this fan has a remote control and therefore there are extra things you have to install to get it to work, the installation was a bit time consuming for Daniel. Once he got it install we turned it on and the fan worked great, BUT. . . the light did not work. We looked up online how to open the light portion of the fan. Try as we might, though, we could not get open the area where the light went. Daniel even went through the trouble of taking the fan back down (AHHHHHHH!) so that we could try to get the light open while it was on the ground. We still could not get it open.

At this point we are very frustrated, so I decide to call Lowe's and ask for help. Vince was the WONDERFUL Lowe's employee who answered my call. I told him the model number and he said he would look it up and call me right back. In less than 10 minutes Vince had called me back and explained how we should open the light. We had been doing it wrong, but when we tried doing what Vince said, we still could not get it open. I told Vince we still could not get it open. He then asked where we lived. Apparently we live in the same subdivision his sister lives in. Vince said that he would drop by today (Sunday) and see if he could open the light.

At this point I am a little bummed. I still really like the fan, but it would have been nice if the light worked. It is not the end of the world though, because we do have a lamp in the living room. Since Daniel and I really did try to open the light, exactly like Vince told us to, I am very doubtful that Vince is going to be able to do it either.

Sunday at lunch Vince shows up at our door. On the first try, he gets the light open. To our surprise, there is not even a bulb in it. He says he as one in his car and he rushes out to get it. He kindly installs the light for us and puts it back together. We thank him and ask how much we owe him. He said nothing. We asked him a few times, was he sure, we didn't mind paying him for the light and his time, but he insisted that we not pay him.















After Vince left Daniel installed the fan again and everything works and it looks great. If I was to buy a fan brand new from Lowe's, this would have been the fan I would have bought, if money had not been an issue. So, we got it for half of what we would have paid for it new and it works great.

It is so rare to find someone who is so willing to go out of their way to help perfect strangers. I hope Lowe's knows what a valuable employee they have.

Thank you God for making everything work out perfectly, when it so easily could have turned out badly.

A Great Morning!

This morning was wonderful. Early this morning the whole family headed over to a new playground near our house. When we got there, we had the whole place to ourselves. Did I mention that we went early in the morning. :)

Addison had never been to a playground before and this one had lots of activities for just her age. She was able to swing and go down a small slide (with daddy's help of course) and they had these drum like toys that she played with. Click here to see pictures.

On our way home from the playground a guy who was selling a ceiling fan on Craig's list called us back. I have been looking on Craig's list everyday for over a week hoping that someone would sell a ceiling fan that we would like. This one was perfect. It was black and very modern looking, which is what we need for our living room. The guy was asking $75 for it, which was a good price considering the fan, brand new, cost $128. We offered him $60, just to see what he would say, and he agreed to sell it to us for $60, YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! At 10:30 we meet him at Lowe's to get the fan.

We got home a little after 11:00. We gave Addison a bath, which she loved. We feed her lunch and then put her down for a nap.

And that was our morning!

"The Last Lecture"

Randy Pausch died last Friday, July 25th, 2008. ABC News with Diane Sawyer did a tribute to Randy Pausch Tuesday night. While watching the tribute, I got extremely upset emotionally. The next day, I still felt very emotional. During my lifetime there have been many people who's life stories or accomplishments have been in the media, who I have considered great people, whom I have highly respected, who have died and it had not affected me this way. Why was Randy Pausch's death different? Why was I so emotional over his death and not the others? After considering it for a while, I realized it was not his death that upset me so much.

The difference between the other great people and Randy Pausch is that we got to know Randy's family and we witnessed his love and passion for his wife and children in a very intimate way. I realized I was not sad that Randy had passed, because all of us die at some point, I was sad because the Pausch family will no longer get to experience first hand their wonderful husband and father. Even more than that, I am sad that his children were as young as they were when he died and that at this age they can not quite grasp what an incredible man he was.

I do think that his children are truly blessed with what they do have though. How many kids who have lost a parent can say that they have recordings of what that parent would have wanted them to know about their life. How many kids who have lost a parent have such intimate videos of how much their father loved their mother and how much he loved playing and spending time with them. How many children who have lost a parent can say that I know stories about my father's life because he recorded them for me before he died and therefore I know my father through his own words.

So in a way I feel his children are greatly blessed, but they have also had a great lose that no amount of recordings can replace.

In the course of a few days I have been able to work through my emotions and come to peace with Randy's death. And I did not even know him. I know from my own experience the hard days, months, years that are ahead of the Pausch family. I also know that the emotions they are feeling now, though they will lessen in intensity with time, they will never completely go away.

I pray that God will surround the Pausch family with comfort and peace.

STAIRS!!!!

Addison has discovered the stairs. This weekend Daniel found Addison climbing the stairs. So now we have to put something blocking them, so she doesn't climb them when we are not looking. We do let her climb them a few times a day, while we are right behind her. After just a few days of climbing the stairs, she has gotten very fast. We are still trying to teach her how to come down the stairs, but as of yet, she is only interested in going up them, not coming down them.



I still can't believe she will be a year old in less then a month!

ATTENTION MOMS - Babies R Us - exchanging bottles!!

If you have baby bottles that have BPA in them (and most bottles do, even the expensive ones) you can take them to Babies R Us and they will exchange them for BPA free bottles, dollar for dollar, no questions asked. We took in all of our Avent bottles and were able to get $72.50 worth of brand new, BPA free bottles. They didn't ask where we purchased them or how old they were or anything. Now, the catch is you can only exchange them for bottles, nipples or bottle accessories, but it is still a great deal!!! They are not advertising this, so I think it is just spreading word of mouth and I don't know how much longer they are going to offer this deal. You can call the Babies R Us store near you to get more details.

YEAH FOR BABIES R US!!!!!!!

Getting my attention

Addison has learned how to get my attention. I put her down for her afternoon nap today and as usual she started to cry. I was downstairs listening to her on the monitor and she was just crying and whaling. Then she suddenly stopped crying, a few seconds later she made this terrible screeching scream and then continued to scream in this horrible high pitch. It sounded like she was in terrible pain. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, of course trying to think of what could have happened and trying to anticipate what I was going to find when I got to her. My imagination runs wild sometimes, so I had these horrible pictures in my head of her bleeding or having a twisted or broken bone, etc. I burst into her room and as soon as I did, she stopped screaming, smiled and reached out her arms for me to pick her up. THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH HER. I checked her over just to make sure, but as soon as I picked her up she was all smiles. Cleaver girl! So of course I held her for a few minutes and then I put her right back down for a nap. She again proceeded to cry, but after a while she finally went to sleep. I just hope this doesn't turn into the story of the "Boy who cried wolf".

Pampers - No free diapers

When you buy Pampers products there is a code on the inside of the packaging. You can register on the Pampers website and enter these codes in. For every code you enter you earn points. You earn a different number of points depending on what product you get the code from. With these points you can purchase items from their website. Most of the items are cheap kids toys or books. But what we really wanted to save our points for was a free large box of Pampers diapers. It takes 150 points to get the diapers. It has taken us 3 months to save 52 points. So it is going to take a while to get to 150 points.

BUT. . .

Today I logged onto the Pampers' website and I noticed that they do not offer the free box of diapers anymore. I am so upset!! There is really nothing else on their website that we really want. We REALLY wanted the free box of diapers. I know that this sounds very petty, but if you have children you know how many diapers you go through and Pampers diapers are expensive. A free box of diapers would have been REALLY NICE!

But what can you do? :-P

Finally on Facebook

Okay, I finally did it. My friends have been telling me to set up a profile on Facebook and I finally did. It has taken me most of the day. First of all, it took me forever to find a picture of myself. I am always behind the camera. I couldn't even find a picture of me and Addison. There are lots of pictures of Addison with every other person you can think of, but very few pictures of me and Addison. Once I found a picture, then you have to add friends and then enter information about yourself. It is quite time consuming. And then once I had friends entered, I spent time checking out their profiles. So, needless to say, I have pretty much wasted this whole day working on my profile and looking at other people's profiles.

BUT I FINALLY HAVE A FACEBOOK PROFILE!

Addison's First Fever

Addison had her first fever on Thursday. She slept in that morning, which is very unusual for her. She usually wakes up sometime between 7:30 and 8:00. I finally decided to wake her up around 9:00. When I got her up, I could feel that she was VERY warm. I took her temperature and it was 102.3. I called and made a doctors appointment for 1:30 that afternoon. Being a new mom and this being the first time Addison has had a fever, it did not occur to me to give her Tylenol.

When she got up from her morning nap, she felt very HOT. I took her temperature again and it was 104.3. I called the nurse and she said to give her Tylenol and put her in a luke warm bath. At this point, I realize I should have given her Tylenol earlier in the morning. The funny thing is, the whole time she was awake, she was laughing and playing and acting pretty normal. She was a little less active, but she was still her happy self.

The doctor said she had a virus and since she didn't have an ear infection or anything wrong with her sinuses or throat, we just needed to wait it out, while keeping her temperature down. Today (Friday) she has not had a temperature and seems to be doing well. I guess we should consider ourselves very blessed. Addison is almost a year old and has not had any ear infections or other sickness problems. And even this virus that she had only lasted a day and didn't seem to bother her too much.

Thank you God for giving us such a resilient baby.

Gammy & Addison dancing

Mom came to visit this week. Her and Addison had a great time playing together.

Jodi Picoult - Excellent Author

I am on my third book by Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes. The first two books I read by her were My Sister's Keeper and Vanishing Act. I love and hate her books all at the same time. Her writing style keeps you at the edge of your seat and it is very difficult to put her books down. She leaves you wondering what you are missing; what surprises she has in store for you. Even once you have put the book down, you find yourself thinking about the events in the book throughout your day. She writes about very current issues and sometimes very controversial issues. The thing I love most about her books is also the thing I hate. She has a great way of getting you involved emotionally to her characters and to the events that are happening in her books. And when you feel like your emotions can take no more and you feel that the story is coming to an end and you can relax, that is when she brings out the big guns and hits your emotions with a surprise twist. There is always a surprise, something you were not expecting that sends your already emotional state spiraling. This is the part I hate and love. Usually when I have finished reading the book I am emotionally exhausted. But after a little time, I realize, an author who can get you that involved with their characters is worth reading again.

Teething - AHHHHH!

Okay, so this teething phase is not much fun. Addison is very fussy, she is drooling over everything and she is chewing on EVERYTHING!

I happen to notice this week that her crib has teeth marks on it now.

This picture only shows a few of the numerous teeth marks that are now on her crib.

Daniel and I have been trying to come up with a way to stop her from teething on her crib. The Internet offers a few different products that can go over crib railings to protect them, but they looked so simple, we thought we might try to make something ourselves.

Then last night it hit me. Why don't we tie her bumper around the railing. Now this fixes the problems with her chewing on her front railing, but not the back, because the back is solid and has no place to tie the bumper to. Then I realized that if we just lower her mattress again, then she will not be able to reach the top of the back railing. We need to lower her bed anyway, because she is at a height now were she could climb out if she really wanted to.

So we have solved another baby dilemma and this one didn't even cost us any money. YEAH!

Where did Spring go?

I love Spring. I love being able to open all the windows and air out the house, with the breeze flowing through our house. I love it when you can cool the house down at night just by opening the windows.

But where did Spring go this year? It went from Winter (too cold to open the windows), to a few weeks of Spring (but with high pollen, so we didn't open the windows), and now it is HOT! Way too hot to open the windows! I am talking 90's hot. And it is suppose to get hotter. I completely missed Spring and I wish it would come back!

Gone are the days of being a speed demon

Okay, for those of you who know me, you know how much I love driving and how much I love driving FAST! I have been up to speeds of over 100 on interstate, though that was back in my college days. I had all the fancy radar detectors and I knew the rules of when and where you could get away with driving fast. But more than just driving fast, my favorite thing to do was to be at a red light when I knew that the person beside me was going to try to get in front of me and I would hit the gas in my little green BMW and see them in my dust as I zoomed in front of them.

Well, those days are over. About a year ago I traded in my wonderfully fast BMW for a Ford Escape (a more family friendly vehicle). Needless to say, my Escape does not have the same going power as my BMW had, but I must say it does have more acceleration power then you would think. It has still been an adjustment. Not being able to accelerate quickly when getting onto interstate roads or at red lights has made me have to change my driving style. But until recently I was still driving fairly fast.

Then gas prices went through the roof. And I have come to the realization that saving money is more important that getting to where I am going faster. Also, the fact that there are very few places I HAVE to be at, at a certain time helps in not having to hurry. I have actually started driving just the speed limit. Do you have any idea how hard that is for me. I feel like I am going the speed of a snail. I have to set my cruise control or else I will find myself speeding again. But I have definitely noticed a savings in gas. I used to have to fill up the Escape every week and many times I would not even make it a week. Now I can typically make it a week and a half and sometimes I can go almost two weeks without filling up. Also, I used to get about 21 to 22 mpg, but now I am getting around 24 to 24.5 mpg.

The really funny thing though, is I used to be one of those people who would look at the people going the speed limit, thinking they were crazy. I have gone past cops going 8 to 10 over the speed limit and they don't even blink. So I have always thought that it was crazy for people to not at least go a few miles faster than the speed limit. It is not like they are going to get a ticket. But now I am one of the cars that faster cars pass and I am sure that they think I am crazy for going as slow as I am going.

But if going slower means I can go more places, then so be it.

Water magic

Addison is 9 months old now and is still not really crawling. The doctor assures us that this is fine, but we have been really trying to get her to crawl. Also, she has started pulling herself up on one knee and one foot, but she can't seem to pull herself all the way up on two feet. Tonight during her bath she both crawled and pulled herself up all the way onto two feet.
I think the reason she crawled is because she wanted to get to a toy at the other end of the bathtub and she knew she had to keep her head above the water. She normally just lays on her stomach and pulls herself to where she wants to go or she rolls to where she wants to go. But when there is water and she knows she can not lay down, she crawls. Now if only she would try doing it out of water.
As for why she was able to pull herself up onto two feet, I don't really know. It might have something to do with the fact that the side of the tub is lower then the other surfaces she has been using to try to pull herself up with. I really don't know. But I think it is very funny that it takes water to make her do things we have been trying to get her to do for months.

Small gifts from God

Today our community had a yard sale. Only a few homes participated. We participated and we did better than we thought we would, so that was nice. But what was even nicer is I got something for free that I had been wanting for a few months now.

I have wanted a kids size Fisher Price picnic table. The kind that is all one piece with the table in the middle and two benches on each side.

One of our neighbors came to our house to look at our stuff. She said they were busy that day and so they were not participating in the yard sale, but that they had lots of stuff to get rid of. She just happen to mention that she had a Fisher Price picnic table she wanted to get rid of. I said that I was looking for one. She said she would sell it to me for $5.

Then it got better. . . Her son collects baseball cards. Our friend Ed Russ had given us a LARGE box of baseball cards. Her son had already bought $10 worth of cards from us. When the lady brought the picnic table down to our house, Daniel offered her the rest of the baseball cards in exchange for the table. I didn't think she was go for it, but she did. So we got this table that I have been wanting for months for FREE!!!

I know that this was a small gift from God. It is just too coincidental that this lady just happen to stop at our house, just happen to mention that she had a table she wanted to get rid of, it just happen to be the exact table I was wanting, we just happen to have a friend who had given us all those baseball cards, her son just happen to be a baseball card collector and she was willing to trade the table for the baseball cards.

Thanks God!

Recycling - It's About Time

Recycling is about as easy as you could make it here for us. We have three recycling bins (small bins that you can keep in your garage) that we received when we moved into our house. All you have to do is put your recycling in the bins and put it out with the trash every other week. It is so easy, yet, we didn't start recycling until a couple of months ago. Why you ask... Well, mainly we were just lazy and maybe in the back of my head I thought that we don't really use that much that could be recycled. Now that we have started recycling it shocks me how much recyclable material we use in two weeks. In 9 days we have filled up two of our three recycling bins. Though we wasted years when we could have been recycling, I guess it is better to start late then to never start at all.

Sitting up

This morning Addison woke up and was talking a little (baby talk of course). Then she was quite. So I went upstairs to check on her. Usually I can open her bedroom door and walk over to her crib to check on her without her noticing me (there is a bumper in her crib, so she can't see through the rails). But today when I opened her door to check on her, there she was looking at me. She was sitting up in her crib, just looking around her room. So much for being able to check on her without her seeing me.

Wedding Dress???

I am contemplating selling my wedding dress. It makes all logical sense to sell it. I will never wear it again. It is just sitting collecting dust and taking up room. The chances of Addison wanting to wear it are slim to none. So, this should be a simple decision, right? WRONG. Every time I take the dress out to take pictures to put online to sell it, my emotions get the best of me and I just can't do it. It is funny how you can feel so emotionally attached to an object. I have heard of people saving their wedding dresses and letting their little girls use them as dress up clothes, but it just seems like very expensive dress up clothes to me. I have also heard of people turning their wedding dresses into other things that they can use, such as a throw pillow for their bed or a nice purse, etc. This would not work for my wedding dress because it is almost completely made of tole (spelling?). So does anyone have any advice as to if I should sell or not sell? And if I don't sell it what should I do with it?

Thanks!

My Washer Works!!

While I was away visiting with my parents, the part we needed to fix our washer came in. Daniel installed it and guess what, MY WASHER WORKS. I was able to wash a medium load. Tomorrow I am going to try washing a large load. Now I know this is a weird to get so excited about a working washer, but if you have ever had your washer NOT WORK, I am sure you can relate. It is a pain when your washer does not work properly.

Wonderful Friends!

Many months ago, probably almost a year, I put a very large load of towels in our washing machine. They all fit, so I thought it would be okay. As the washing machine starts to wash I notice that it is not working as it normally does. I try to move some of the towels around and realize how heavy the soaking wet towels are, especially if you have a lot of them. So I ended up taking half the towels out and putting them in the bathtub. I wash the half that was left in the washer and then washed the other half later.

Ever since that day, our washer has not worked right. The top agitator will not turn, or doesn't turn very well. If you put in a small load it works great. But if you put in a medium load, it does not work very well. So, I have just been washing small loads ever since I discovered this. Now that I have a 8 month old, who is going through clothes, bibs, burp clothes, sheets, socks, etc. each day, if I don't wash clothes every few days, then the loads get to large for the current functioning ability of our washer. This is getting every frustrating. I either have to wash clothes every few days or wash many small loads in one day. This is much more time consuming then if I could just wash one large load.

Daniel and I have been discussing whether we should pay someone to fix it or just buy a new washing machine. If it was going to cost us a couple hundred dollars anyway to pay someone to fix it, we were thinking about just buying a new washer.

Then a friend of ours, Mike, said he would look at it. Within only a few minutes he had discovered what the problem was, looked up online the part we needed, showed us a website where we can order the part and showed us how to fix it once we receive the part. The part ended up costing us about $20 (including shipping). $20 is so much better than buying a new washer and I am so excited that I am going to be able to wash a regular load of clothes.

THANKS MIKE!

Blender Blunder

So I have decided to start making homemade baby food. It is cheaper and healthier because you control exactly what goes into it. I decided to start simple by making green bean baby food. I bought fresh green beans (actually Jackie bought them for me at the Farmer's Market, thanks Jackie!), cut them up, steamed them and then put them in the blender. The first two batches (did I mention that I got a LOT of green beans) everything went very smoothly. With the third batch I was blending them and the blender kept getting stuck with an air bubble. So I was moving the blender around and pushing down a little (and I do mean just a little) on the hard plastic that is in the middle of the blender lid. Suddenly the hard plastic piece falls through the blender lid and into the blender (I didn't even think it was possible for that piece to go through the lid.) Of course then the blender starts chopping up the hard plastic. I start pushing the off button and the blender is not turning off. Little did I know that the off button is also the pulse button (we don't use the blender very often), so the whole time I was continuously pushing the off button I was actually making the blender pulse and therefore chopping up the hard plastic even more. This whole time I am holding my hand over the lid to keep it on and to keep everything from coming out of the hole in the top. I finally let go of the lid and reach for the plug. I don't make it to the plug before the lid explodes off the blender, sending green bean mush EVERYWHERE and then the blender stops on its own without me having to un-plug it. Covered in green slime is: the wall, the cabinets, the counter top, the floor, the toaster, a basket, and some hand towels. Also there are small pieces of hard plastic everywhere.

The good news is that the blender still works. Though there is now a hole in the top of the lid. I am hoping we can buy another hard plastic piece for the top or find something else that will work.

Believe it or not, this has not deterred me from wanting to continue making baby food.

Not Answering my Front Door Anymore

So I answered my front door yesterday to find a guy selling Kirby vacuum cleaners. He slyly made his way into my house and started demonstrating his vacuum. I told him up front that I was not going to buy a vacuum. He said that I didn't have to buy anything, but if I would just let him do his demonstration he would get credit for it. He wanted to use my phone to call into his office to let them know he was doing a demonstration. I told him that I didn't have a home phone, only a cell phone. He then asked if he could use the cell phone. I said no because it would cost me my minutes. He then pulled out his cell phone to place the call. At this point I remember a story I saw on the news were sales people will use your phone to call into their office and it will put your phone number on their calling list. Because your phone called their number then it is not illegal to call you back even if you are on the "Do Not Call" list. I am very glad I did not let him use my cell phone.

Then of course he goes through his demonstration. At the end I again tell him that I am not going to buy his vacuum. He calls back to his office and tells them that he is done with the demonstration and that I was not interested in buying the vacuum. As he is slowly packing up his stuff, all of the sudden his manager shows up at my door and wants to talk to me about why I do not want to buy their vacuum. She talks to me about how if I were a good mother I would not want my new born baby to be in the filth that is in my house and that with this vacuum I could give my baby a safer, cleaner environment. I continued to say no and finally after an hour they both left.

After they left I realized a lot of things. First, they could have robbed me or done anything at the point they were in my house and no one would have known until it was too late and there would have been nothing I could have done.

The biggest thing that bothers me about the whole incident is the way I reacted through it. The reason I opened the door in the first place was because I had the TV on and I knew that he could hear the TV and knew I was home. So I felt it was rude not to answer. I know this is silly, but it is just the way I felt. Then once he was in my house I felt uncomfortable and I told him that I was not going to buy anything, but he was a very smooth talker and no matter how many times I said no he kept going. I felt really uncomfortable once his manager showed up and they were both working on me, trying to get me to buy this vacuum. I still had not been forceful and asked them to leave. I just felt like forcefully asking them to leave would be rude and I kept thinking that surely they will leave soon. They also didn't give me much time to say much of anything. They just continued to talk and make points and try to convince me to buy their vacuum.

In retrospect, I should NOT have opened my door. Even if they could hear that I was home, that doesn't mean I am obligated to open my door to them. Once they were in my house and I started to feel uncomfortable, I should have forcefully asked them to leave. If they still did not leave (as I am sure they would not have) I should have picked up my phone and called the police. I re-play the situation in my head and I can come up with lots of different ways I could have handled the situation that would have been better than the way I did handle it. I really put Addison and myself in a bad situation. God protected us. Maybe this was God's way of teaching me not to open my door to people unless I know them. I am not going to open it anymore to strangers, because the next time the person might not really be a sales person.

Why is it that we sometimes do really stupid things because of the fear of looking rude?

Addison at Six Months

Dear Addison,

You are now 6 months old. I can't believe how fast you are growing and changing. At your 6 month check up the doctor was very impressed with the fact that you can already sit up without any help. You weigh 17 lbs and 5 oz and you are 26.5 inches long. You are in the 85% for height and the 75% for weight.

You have the cutest two front lower teeth, though they are useless to you right now.

In just the past month you have gone from eating one meal of rice cereal to eating rice cereal in the morning and a vegetable at dinner time. You have tried carrots, sweet potatoes and squash. Your favorite right now is squash.

You are extremely observant and you always want to be able to see what is going on. This can sometimes make meal times a challenge, because you would much rather see what is going on then eat. But we are working through that.

I love the way you talk it up when you are sitting in your swing or when you are in your car seat.

I am so thankful that I get to stay home with you and watch all these wonderful changes. As my mom always says, "Soon you will be going off to college and I won't know where the time went."

Love Mommy

NO SMALL BAND-AIDS FOR BABIES!!!!!!!!!

Today I learned the hard way why you should not put a small Band-Aid on your baby's finger.

This morning I was reading Addison a book. She slid her finger down one of the pages and got a paper cut. I couldn't seem to get it to stop bleeding, so I put a little round Band-Aid on her finger. A few hours later we get into the car to go visit a friend of mine. As I am stopped at a red light I notice that Addison is chewing on something. I don't think much of it because these days she is always doing strange things with her mouth. Then she starts coughing. As the light turns green and I start to go through the intersection Addison stops coughing, in fact she is not making any noise at all, but her mouth is open and she looks weird. I immediately pull over, jump out of the car, jerk open the back seat door and jump in. SHE IS NOT BREATHING! At this point I realize that her Band-Aid is no longer on her finger. I reach down into her mouth, but I can't find anything. Finally in great desperation, I stick my finger down her throat as far as I can (I know this had to hurt her) and I feel the Band-Aid and I swipe it out. She sucks in a deep breath and then she let out a VERY LOUD cry. Both Addison and I sat there and cried for a moment. I finally got her to calm down, though I was still VERY shaken.
I praise God that I realized something was wrong. I praise God that I was able to pull off to the side of the road as fast as I did. I praise God that I was able to finally reach the Band-Aid. And I praise God that Addison is okay.

I've Been Tagged

Okay, so here are the rules: List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself. Tag seven people to do the same. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag “whoever wants to do it.”

The problem is I don't have seven people to tag, but I will at least share seven habits/ quirks/ facts about myself.

1 - I am a speed demon. I actually ruined a car once by going 100 mph on interstate in August with the air conditioner going full blast. I have to say though, I drive much slower today, now that I have a baby, but I am still a pretty aggressive driver.

2 - I love doing tax returns and learning about different tax codes/ rules. Yes, I know it is nerdy, but I find taxes very interesting. That is why I became an accountant.

3 - I like precision, which is why I hate cooking. If a recipe says a pinch or a dash, that drives me crazy. I want to be able to measure exactly how much should be used.

4 - I LOVE Sweet Tea!!!

5 - I cannot sleep unless there is a fan on. I grew up sleeping with a fan and now if there is not one (or at least a similar noise) I can not sleep. I even sleep with a fan on in the winter.

6 - My brother's name is Three, yes T-H-R-E-E. I know this isn't a fact about me specifically, but he is my brother and it is an interesting name.

7 - I love Broadway shows.

First Tooth!!!!

Addison has her first tooth. It is so exciting. Daniel and I didn't even notice it. A friend of mine noticed it. It is in the lower front of her mouth. I can't believe that she just turned 5 months and she already has a tooth. She is growing up so fast.

Addison - Almost 5 Months

Dear Addison,

I can not believe how fast you are growing. You are 4 1/2 months old now. You weigh 15 lbs 14 oz. You can sit up with assistance and sometimes, for a few seconds, you can sit up by yourself. You love to stand while holding on to mommy or daddy's fingers. You love playing in your exersaucer. You have started riding in the big girl area of your stroller, instead of the infant seat. You like sitting in the big girl area of the stroller because you can see everything. You are a very happy baby. You always smile when mommy or daddy talks to you. You love sucking your thumb. We are pretty sure you are teething, because anything you can get into your mouth you chew on. You like making all kinds of sounds and you like sticking out your tongue. You still have the most beautiful blue eyes. I think at this point you will probably keep your blue eyes. We are still not quite sure what color hair you are going to have.

I love you with all my heart.

Mommy

Christmas & Faithwalkers Conference

We had a great Christmas in the Mountains. We spent Christmas Eve with my parents, my brother and my Aunt & Uncle’s family. Though Daniel and I both were sick, we still had a great time visiting with the family.

Christmas day was spent with my parents and my brother. My parents went a little overboard with gifts for Addison, but we didn’t mind and Addison really enjoyed all the gifts she got.

After Christmas Daniel and I went to a conference our church (Great Commission Churchs – it’s a world wide church) puts together called Faithwalkers in Ridgecrest (near Asheville). We left Addison with my parents, which they loved!

The Faithwalkers conference was wonderful. It was so inspiring and encouraging to hear all the stories of how people are reaching out with the gospel. There were people from all over the world, sharing their stories. The conference showed me a lot of areas that I need to grow in as a Christian.

First, I need to be faithful in the little things before God will give me bigger responsibilities. Luke 16:10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” I need to be more faithful in my prayer time and in reading the Bible. The girls in my root group have committed to reading the whole Bible this coming year, 2008. But the point is not only to read it, but to be open to see what God wants to teach me.

I also want to commit each day to God. There are so many days that I don’t know what I should be focused on and I spend time doing things that are not a priority for me, and I don’t get done the things that are a priority. Every morning I want to start my morning asking God to direct my day and show me the things he wants me to focus on that day. This will also help reduce my stress. By better understanding the things I need to focus on, I can eliminate from my day the things that aren’t that important.

Practically speaking, I want to commit to getting up before Addison gets up each morning and having a prayer and quite time. This will help me start my day focused on God and help me see what my priorities for the day should be. My hope is that this will start my day off with the right attitude. This will be a challenge though, considering I will have to get up around 6:00 for it to work.

I also am going to be better about memorizing verses. There are times when the verses I have already memorized really help me to remember something important in a certain situation or they help me make decisions. I know the more I memorize the more I will live my life the way God wants me to. And the better prepared I will be with sharing God’s word with other people.

There are many more areas I need to grow in, but I am starting with these. Please pray for me that I am faithful in these areas, so that I can move on to bigger areas of my life that also need work.

Amy