God Save the Queen - August 2010

The biggest thing in August was the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival. Last year, if you recall, Emily was entered into the Ypsilanti Jaycee's Beautiful Baby contest and received Honorable Mention (it must have been close because there usually isn't an honorable mention). You basically submit a picture and collect votes.
I decided to step up our game a bit this year. I collected "votes" from people at work - each vote is $0.25 :) as well as promoted the hell out of it on Facebook (you could submit PayPal votes online). So basically, it's whatever child has the most money donated. It goes to a great cause, the Jaycees are a great local organization that do a lot for the community.
She once again got to ride in her decorated wagon for the parade. This year we went with Red, White and Black as a theme. It was raining unfortunately and we had balloons but they didn't want to float :(
After the parade, myself, Kurin, Emily, Mom and Dad, Gay, C and Edwin all had lunch at the Campfire restaurant in Milan. It was damp and gross outside but we had fun at lunch.
The following day, the winners were going to be announced down in Frog Island. My mom, Emily and I went down to the park to hear the winners announced. There is a King, Queen, Prince and Princess.
After the announcing of the Prince and Princess, the King and Queen were announced. I am pleased to say that my Bebe' was named Queen of the Beautiful Babies of Ypsilanti, Michigan! She was so cute in her little crown. She received a lot of gifts, full size Johnson and Johnson bath products, gift certificates to local businesses like Haab's, a crown, a bouquet of flowers and a $100 US savings bond (which I might add she JUST received about 2 weeks ago LOL). It was a very exciting day :)

Ma Ma and LOST

I am behind and did not post a weight update last week..sorry! Not only that, for some reason they have been off by 0.2 lbs for the last couple of months so who knows what it is anymore. I'll figure it out this evening and post after today's weigh.

In other news, the show that meant the most to me in the last several years ended last night. Most of you know that would be L O S T (just in case you've been living under a rock or on an island somewhere ;)
I'm not a good writer, obviously so it's probably pointless to get into it; perhaps I will at a different time but as stupid as it sounds, I am emotionally drained after the show. I had a hard time accepting the ending. I liked it. I wasn't disappointed, I think that knowing it was the end and realizing how much everyone has invested into this show, it's silly but it was very hard to let go of it. I cried so hard afterward. I couldn't sleep. It doesn't help that I've been quite down for awhile now also so I was a big old mess.

Moving on from L O S T, I have made small steps of progress in my scrapbooking (yay!), I'm headed to Kentucky this weekend (well, for 2 days...lame) and most importantly: Bebe' finally knows to say Ma Ma when asked about me and Da Da for my husband. Woo Hoo! Randomly on Thursday evening, my mom pointed at me and asked Emily "who's this?" and Emily said "Ma Ma" as if she says it everyday! I was so shocked that I was like "what???" so we repeated it and she did it again! Later that night before bedtime, I pointed to Kurin and said, "who's this?" and she said "Da Da". OMG, HOW COOL!

Well...off to work. Actually, I've been at work since 6:30 am. The husband had to be at the airport at 5:45 am so this is going to be a great early day. I even got my walk in already this morning! Now that makes me happy :)

A Birthday to Remember...

Last Sunday was Emily's first birthday party. Anyone who's anyone was there LOL Family included myself, Kurin, Grandma and Cedo, Grandma Debbie, Great Grandma Gay, Benjamin, Uncle Kevin, new Aunt Melissa, Cyndie, Aunt Brenda, Karen, Aunt Faye and Uncle Clyde, Teresa, and JoAnna, Aunt Violet and Uncle George, Aunt Marianne and Uncle Anwar with Kristine, Mark and Christina with Isabella, Ron and Cherryl with George and Jack. Friends that came were Auntie Danielle and Jeff with Orion, Leslie with Izak, and Audra with Madison and Mackenzie. I hope they all had a good time. We had thought that it would be nice out so we could utilize my parents' deck with the awning but it was a bit chilly so we all ended up in the house - a little too cozy if you ask me. I get all weird in crowded situations - that is why I do not go shopping the day after Thanksgiving..I usually have a panic attack (no joke). So, I was a hot mess both literally and figuratively. It was hot in the house with 800 people inside but I was also flustered because these 800 people were talking to me, asking me stuff, I'm trying to make sure all goes right blah blah. Thanks to my parents who basically did everything like, oh, providing the food and the house!
I got the beautiful cake at Queen of Hearts bakery in Depot Town. It was phenomenal. I never even got a piece! Gone!


The food was great - my parents made a couple of different Italian type casseroles with a nice salad and bread along with appetizers.
Bebe' even got her own little mini-cake complete with mini-ladybug decoration :) She was a little confused at first as to what to do with it so I assisted her in getting started.

She had a really good time. All of the kids were so good. I had no idea what to have for them so I didn't have any games or anything - they were all so well-behaved and entertained themselves. Emily and Izak (6 weeks apart) had a fab time together. Besties!
Bebe' got entirely too much stuff. Tons of beautiful outfits and lots of fun toys and books. We are very happy to have such a wonderful group of family and friends.

Birthday Girl!

Today is Emily's 1st Birthday! Woo Hoo! We survived a whole year and she's still doing fine haha.
I won't go into any labor and delivery stories as I have none. I basically went to the hospital at noon like they told me for my scheduled c-section at 2pm. They pumped me full of fluid and I waited, and waited. There were several emergencies before me so I kept getting bumped which was fine.
They finally wheeled me to the operating room. That is when I got very scared. Up to that point, I had been like "whatev." No, literally, I probably said, "whatev." About 10 people wheeled me down there and I remember my anesthesiologist bumping the corner of the gurney into a doorway and saying something about his bad Asian driving (because he is Asian). Everyone in the halls of the Labor/Delivery area stopped as I was being wheeled by and wished me luck. It was very nice.
The OR was SO SCARY. It was huge and loud and clean. They bent me over to give me the epidural to numb me from the neck down. I laid back and got violently ill (which apparently is a side effect) but then I was fine. I couldn't feel a thing. It was very weird knowing they were cutting me open and taking out bebe' and not seeing it and not feeling it. I just kind of felt them moving around. I remember the anesthesiologist and his partner talking about the Red Wings. Kurin was sitting there but I don't remember him doing anything except when they got her out, he went to take pictures of her because I obviously couldn't see her or move.
I also remember a lot of counting after the fact. I learned later that it was the nurses counting all of the instruments before and after (thank goodness everything was accounted for or they may have left something in me!).
Poor bebe', she came out and you hear all of this hustle and bustle to get the baby all cleaned up and checked over and she had a little fluid on her lungs and she was clamshelled. This means that her feet were up at her ears like she was folded in half. Apparently, when Kurin showed the pics to our family waiting in the waiting room, they were all a little worried because, her feet were by her ears! They whisked her off to the NICU to get her breathing stabilized and check all of her oxygen and fix her legs and stuff.

It took SO long for my anesthesia to wear off. It was weird. They wheeled me to my Mother/Baby room where I would spend the next 3 nights. They did manage to wheel me into the NICU so I could see Emily. She was hooked up to a million things and it was way scarier now than when it was happening. I couldn't do anything. I was still frozen from the medicine.
That night was weird, I had the baby, but didn't have her until they took me down to her at about 9pm to try to nurse her which in itself was so scary because it was the first time I held her, first time to nurse and she was hooked up to all kinds of stuff and I was scared and frustrated. They thought she'd get to come stay in my room the next day as all of her stuff seemed to be doing really well. Surprise! I tried to feed her again at midnight and when I got back to my room, they followed me back and she could stay! She was doing just fine :)
She was squeaky. There wasn't really crying, just little squeaks.
I love her.

It sounds weird but in a way, I miss her. I miss having all of my time with her when she was just little and holding her. Maternity leave was so good for us. I just sat with her all day.

Now she's a big girl who shakes her head no and likes to take her pants off and play with dog toys *sigh*
This weekend is the big birthday bash so more to come...
Happy Birthday, Emily! I love you more than anything :)

Preparations

October is coming entirely too fast!
Not only is it Bebe's first birthday but we have my brother-in-law's nuptials which is the first weekend, husband's birthday, doctor appointments, and scrapbooking classes - I suppose I'm supposed to find time to work out in here too with working full time and everything else like keeping my house semi-tidy, etc. Dang I'll never lose weight. Ah well, I'll just stop eating for a bit and all will be right with the world.
Back to important things. Bebe's first birthday is quickly approaching which means I have actually started planning her birthday party! Yes! I am actually on the ball this time. I had invitations made and already sent out last week, they are gorgeous! I found an awesome website called First Wishes that specializes in baby's first birthday things that are themed. They have John Deere, Ladybugs, Princess, Prince, Fish, Barnyard Animals, etc. all specifically for first birthdays. They have everything from coordinating balloons to hats to treat bags to vinyl personalized banners, and more. I chose to stay with the ladybug motif as that was the baby shower theme as well. It is absolutely adorable. We got some balloons, a banner, dessert plates, and hats. I'll get coordinating paper products and stuff locally.
Bebe' is having her 1 year portraits taken this Monday. We are having a family picture made as well. I'm looking forward to it. I bought Bebe' an adorable birthday ensemble off of etsy that has a personalized foo-foo birthday hat that has a "1" and "Emily" on it, a onesie with a cupcake with 1 candle that says "Emily" and a coordinating big foo-foo tutu! I am so excited for her to wear it. Trying it on, she made the face she makes when she doesn't like food so I'm not sure how it's going to go but let's just keep our fingers crossed.
This week marks Bebe's first roadtrip. We're headed down south to visit family in Kentucky. It should be fun. I haven't been down there since 2007 as I didn't go when I was pregnant last year. I am a bit sad though that we won't have Granny with us this time.
I hope to have more to update on Monday after the portrait session. Until then...

The Envelope Please.....

Bebe' got honorable mention! They name a king, queen, prince and princess but they also named Emily as an honorable mention - my thought is that she was super-close to the princess spot. Thank you all who voted. We appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and support and your votes ($) go to a great organization that does wonderful charitable works.
From the Ypsilanti Jaycees website Funny thing, my hairdresser's daughter was princess! Pretty cool! Thanks again to all of you for your faith in Emily. She will uphold her honorable mention...honorably ;)

Heritage Festival Weekend

I think the song goes "...you must have been a beautiful baby..." and that is what we believe in Emily. Don't get me wrong. I am not a stage mom, nor a pageant mom (Lord, those women need help) but I did enter Emily into the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival's Beautiful Baby Contest sponsored by the Jaycees. This is the picture we submitted.

The contest is based on votes purchased ($0.25/vote). There are prizes of savings bonds for a king, queen, prince and princess. The best part of the contest is that all contestants can walk in the Heritage Festival parade in a decorated stroller or wagon. I went on a mission to find a wagon which I did thanks to Heather M.! It was brand new in the box and a perfect little red wagon to decorate!

I was a nervous wreck the night before the parade and didn't sleep well. I was afraid I would over sleep and miss the being in the parade. It was fun that Kurin came to record it on our camcorder, grandma and Cedo came to see, Aunt Brenda and cousin Karen watched us and Gay and Ben came down too. I hadn't been in or to the parade since I was a senior in high school and marched in it with the LHS marching band. **Tangent: Ok, no offense to anyone who may have/know someone in the current band but boy did they look sloppy! No uniforms, just polos and shorts with tennis shoes. The lines were not straight. The sound was alright though. The band is huge now so that's a plus. They also have a trailer to carry equipment! WTH? I miss it but it's not the same if you didn't wear the cowboy hat with the white heeled orthopedic shoes :)**
The parade was a lot shorter than I remember, well, it always seemed to take hours to march it back in the day and walking at my own pace with a bunch of other families was a ton different than standing at attention or marching while playing the fight song ;)
The weather was phenomenal. It was actually CHILLY! Yes, CHILLY! I had on a long sleeved zip-up hoodie and we had to put bebe' in a sweater and jacket over her clothes. Unbelievable. At parade time, it was probably in the low-mid 60s! In August! Unheard of! Enough exclamation points! haha
It was a great experience and bebe' seemed to enjoy herself except near the end she seemed to get tired and kind of flopped over in the wagon. I'll definitely enter her again next year. It was a lot of fun and the Jaycees did a great job.
By the way, we are assuming that Emily did not win as we were not notified. That's ok though. We can't seem to find out who won. There is no longer a local newspaper and none of the related websites have listed the winners of any of the contests. Here are some pictures of our winner:


Emily and daddy before the parade and Emily yawning after waiting to get started
Here we come! As you can see in the second picture, she's just about had it by this point :)

More Ramblings...and a bit of Sunny Days

Some things seem to be brightening up. It looks like I'm going to Kentucky with my mom, bebe', cousin Karen and Aunt B. Hey...it will have to pass as a vacation. Lookout Harlan County, here we come!
Granny's headstone has been installed ... finally. I haven't been to see it yet. Sometimes I feel just blank about it but then I get really sad. It's like sometimes it's more real than others. I know those of you who have lost someone might know what I mean.
On a happier note, bebe' is getting her 5th tooth! It's little edge has popped out of the gum. She is getting to be quite the little girl lately. She sits up and acts like such a big girl. She likes to play Pop-Up where she is sitting on my lap kind of squatting like and then she "POPS" up straight and laughs and laughs. She also loves her toys. She especially loves her Zoo activity play toy that sings songs and she can put the animals on a turntable and watch them go 'round and 'round. She is also very interested in me talking. She will sit in my lap and just stare at my lips and touch her fingers to them. It's super cute when she does this while I'm singing her nighttime songs for bed and she's very sleepy.
The beasts dogs went to the vet this weekend. Theodore is at 74 lbs and is in great health for what the vet terms "middle-aged", at 8 years old. What impressed me most is how impressed they were with his teeth! They thought we had been having them brushed regularly. I love the pooches but I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to scrape their plaque. The doc said his teeth are like 98% of perfect! Sweet! Oreo is a whopping 76 lbs. He is very thick. I don't know any other way to say it. He's thick. Like a log. He did very good and has only been itching the last 2 days because they gave him a dog biscuit and those make him itch (boo...). Other than that, everyone is in fine health! Thankfully our animals are in good health as it is so costly to take them to the vet. Once a year I can handle. I believe in maintenance...just like with any vehicles :)
BFF and I are back in business on eBay. We took a break..well, I took a break because my lazy butt just couldn't get motivated to post anything. I listed 3 items and wouldn't you know that within 48 hours, 2 of them had sold! Yay! I'm looking forward to selling more and we are looking into other opportunities for selling as well. Also, BFF needs to get her etsy store up and running too. I'd like to get started but anything I did for etsy would have to be small and quick to make.
Speaking of quick to make (as if this post isn't long enough), I have decided on what I am doing for Christmas for my husband's family this year. I hope they go over well. I doubt they read this blog but I'd hate for anything to get leaked early. I don't care so much if they know what they're getting, I just don't want them to not like it ahead of time LOL.
Well, I will try to be more regular about posting. I've been in a deep funk the last few weeks and I'm trying to pull myself out.

OH! One last thing....Phillipa Gregory's latest book came out today The White Queen!

OMG, I can hardly wait to get it!!

Warm Weather Weekend

Lots done this weekend. I went to Plymouth's Art in the Park on Saturday morning with my mom. Found some cute altered jackets for bebe'. Scored some awesome jewelry for myself.

I was then lucky enough to attend a graduation party for my dear old friend Caroline. I've known Caroline since she moved into our school district in I think 4th grade. So a really, really long time. She graduated from EMU and had a luau themed open house. I rarely get to see Caroline so this made my summer. I also got to see her brother Jason who I was also friends with in high school (he being a couple of years older...class of '94).

Jason and I with Alex and Emily...Emily is as fascinated with Jason's hat as I am that he no longer has his "Ponch from CHiPs hair" LOL

and his wife Stephanie who I have become really good friends with.

This is Stephanie and I with Emily and Alex - she's pretty much awesome

Caroline has a 10 year old son, DeCarlos; Jason and Stephanie have a son Griffen, daughter Mackenzie and 19 month old Alex. It's a real treat when I get to see them so that was the highlight of my weekend. Also, Jason makes bad-ass cakes and did a fantastic job on the cakes he made for his sister's graduation (see above).

Caroline, myself, Emily and Stephanie..I'm hoping Stephanie's shot came out better...

BIG EMILY NEWS: Bebe' has started crawling. Yay! She is so funny. She crawls all over now and loves to go after everyone's feet. She is also fascinated by feet at the moment, particularly those wearing flip-flops (and if you make them flip or flop, she loves it). Her favorite feet however are my dad's grotesque Fred Flintstone feet. Anyway, she is crawling all over. It's super-cute and she's really working up her appetite and then she gets super tired at night. It's so sweet. Unfortunately, this also makes me, mommy, very sad because I don't want her to get bigger anymore. I'm scared that I won't be able to handle her and I'm afraid of what the future holds for her. I will worry about that more later.

One more bright spot for the upcoming week - Drew & Mike are BACK!! Reunited tomorrow morning at 6am and I am extremely thrilled. I discovered them about 6 or 7 years ago and can't go a morning without them. I always feel "off" if I miss them - I even stream it when I'm out of town and in a different time zone. This is exciting and I hope they do well...I'm sure they will.

Special Agent...Sean Astin?!? Really?

I read a blog on usatoday.com everyday called Pop Candy. It's pretty neat and lets me learn about what's new and cool in Pop Culture and what shows are good to watch, new music, etc. So, as I was looking at the highlights from yesterday's blog, I nearly choked. Whitney Matheson (writer of said blog) wrote something like "Wondering what Sean Astin's been up to? Check out this new interview with him." So naturally, everything got pushed aside while I followed the link. Sean Astin is currently the voice of Special Agent Oso. A small bear who is a special agent in training. It is a show on Playhouse Disney for preschoolers and younger. The objective is to teach the children how to do simple tasks or personal tasks (i.e. - brushing your teeth or making a friend) in 3 easy to follow and learn steps.


I am thrilled beyond words that I have a little one to watch this. I have told my dad (who is Emily's babysitter) that this is required watching LOL. Oh and bonus (for mom!), you can sign up to have Oso call your child with a personalized message! Did I say my child was Emily? I meant her name is "Heather."

Until next time America...

Work, Entrepreneurship and Baby Dragons

So today has been a good day at work. Well, not really but yes really. The not really is that Kerry went home sick which is sad and I've had no one to talk to all day (except Danielle when I manage to go across the parking lot to the other building but it's pouring rain..or was and I didn't feel like it much and this is probably the longest run-on sentence ever).
However, the good part is that I got to do some fun stuff that I haven't been able to yet and that was enjoyable. Also, I'm constantly thinking about ways to be crafty (more for Danielle than I) I just don't have the talent but I love to find ideas or suggest things to her and she whips it out and that makes me almost as happy as making things myself. So I had a pretty neat idea today and I hope we can both accomplish this idea because it's short and sweet and could possibly bring in a little moohla.
In other news...mom and dad are off to Sin City tomorrow. They are off to Vegas to go to a conference that my mom is attending for work and daddy's tagging along. This means that Emily gets to stay with her Great-Grandma Gay tomorrow. Ooh! That will be a nice change for her. I think my dad is going to have a hard time though. He's going to be having Emily withdrawl as well as Lily (aka baby dragon) withdrawl. Lily is my parents' miniature pinscher who is more pinscher than miniature if you catch my drift. She's adorable but obnoxious at the same time. I love her, she's my sister.
So, I am still hoping to post more. I just had a 10 minute break and wanted to jump on and say "hey!"

Yes He Did!

I haven't had a chance to put into words how I feel having watched the first African-American to become President. He has a hard job ahead of him but I think the world is behind him. I saw this picture via a person on Twitter and I think the photo itself says it all.
From Time Magazine:

The Hopes of a Nation: Residents of Kibera, one of Nairobi's poorer quarters, gather around a television to watch the first black president in US history take his oath of office. (Time Magazine)

Unbelievable that a village gathers around a single small television to watch this historic moment.

One of my friends said to me on inauguration day, "Heather, isn't it wild that Emily is going to grow up not knowing what it was like to wonder if we would ever have a black President?" She will never know that. As my friend also said, it's kind of like us with women voting. Yes, we know that women couldn't vote at one time but you never really understand it because you don't know what that was like - in my lifetime, women have always been able to vote and therefore it just seems like a history book lesson - it never seems real that there was really a time that women couldn't vote. This historic day will be much like that to her.