All About Sam comes to an end.

Sam's life is going to change in about 8 months. Life won't be all about her anymore. So, in the spirit of being a parent that keeps things fair for her kids I can't have a blog with the address "all about sam". The Enlund blog is moving. The Enlund Family Blog (most boring title EVER, but my creative juices are just not working tonight) can be found here.

It is the end of an era, thanks for sticking with me through this first phase of the growth of our family. I hope you will all skip right over to the new blog to hear the latest on our family, see pictures and here about the soon to come new addition to our family! And leave me a comment, or Chris, or Sam or the new baby to let us know that you are still out there!!

To my husband -

Admittedly tonight was not most people's typical anniversary celebration but it has been a long time since I have had so much fun. Errands and spending an hour in the car to go to Buffalo Wild Wings is certainly not a romantic date night; but it was better than the fanciest restaurant. It was our kind of night! We laughed more than I can remember in a long time, were silly, had one of our favorite meals, ATE CHEESECAKE, talked about so many things, held hands while walking in a store, dreamed about future home projects and made decisions about life. We connected and there is just nothing more fabulous than that.
Thank you for a wonderful evening.
Happy Four Year Anniversary!
I love you.

I am feeling very Charlie Brownish this morning

In the words of Charlie Brown....Good Grief!

That is about how I feel this morning after Sam took a huge fall head first off her changing table. This is the first time she has ever rolled away from me and actually fallen. She has been scared before which I thought had made her learn she couldn't get down from up there, but apparently she hadn't learned. And apparently I SHOULD HAVE LEARNED! I just turned away to grab her pants, less than a foot away from her, and then she fell. The worst part is that she was laying on the floor just screaming and I immediately scooped her up into my arms. As a first responder I KNOW BETTER! Check for head, neck, back injuries first. But in that moment I just needed to hold her. To apologize PROFUSLY and cry with her because I felt so bad for letting her fall. It took me almost a half hour to get her calmed down and breathing normally again. But I think she is okay. Walking and talking fine. I checked all her limbs for breaks or sensitive spots after she stopped crying and there was nothing. Oh, God please let her be okay.

A rough morning was not what I needed after getting some very disappointing professional news last night. It is a long and complicated story but the short version is that I was given the opportunity through one of my side jobs this past year to apply to present at the National Environmental Education Conference happening in Portland, Oregon. This is a pretty big deal, at least it was going to be for me. I thought for sure the project that I had been a part of was a shoe-in to get accepted to present, but it didn't, at least not for an actual presentation. We got accepted to submit a poster. A POSTER? Seriously? I have never been to this conference before (it is really expensive to go but through this project part of my expenses would be covered) so I don't really know what the poster room is like but in my mind I am imaging my fifth grade history project posters. I researched Hawaii and served pineapple! I just couldn't believe they were really asking me to spend well over $2000 to go to this conference and stand next to a poster. Other people from the project are going for other presentations so they will most likely still do the poster but I just can't justify the cost and time away for a poster. I was so disappointed last night. Good Grief.

But good news on the blog front...
Chris figured out how to export this WHOLE blog to a new blog! So the address for this blog will be changing probably this weekend. Content, pictures, and everything else will stay the same but the address will be different. Sorry about the hassle this may cause to the couple of people that may have me linked or listed on their google reader but I just don't think with another kid coming I can keep the address as All About Sam. So, thanks to all the great ideas and offers of help but my husband stepped in and helped me out! I do need a new title though...so keep the ideas coming!

Okay, back to work! Hopefully you all are not starting your day off with a GOOD GRIEF!

rain rain go away!

Thank you all so much for the comments and emails of congratulations and support. We are so excited about this and it is great to finally share the excitement with blogland. Since I started this blog after Sam was born I am also kind of excited to be able to vent, get advice, get support and ask questions about this pregnancy to all of you! So, you have that to look forward to!

Today - I am really mad at mother nature right now. It is currently 50 degrees and cloudy/rainy which it has been for several days. We actually have temperatures in the 30s listed for night time temps and even some day time lows! This is ridiculous. It is JUNE!
I want to be playing outside, going for long walks, bike rides and call me crazy but maybe even going to the pool!

Lastly, blog people, seriously what do I do about this blog? Do I 1) start over with a new blog, 2) change the title at the top of the blog to something else other than "All About Sam" (anyone have any ideas?) but keep the address the same, or 3) is there a way to copy the content from this blog to a new one with a new name?
What do you all think?

Sam has exciting news!

Yup, that's right Sam is going to be a big sister sometime in January. The Enlund family is growing once more! We could not feel more blessed and excited to meet this little person. No real details yet because it is still very early in the pregnancy but of course I will keep you all posted as we know more.
By the way...anyone in blog land know how to take the content from this blog and put it on a new blog? Not very fair to the new addition to our family to have the blog address still be "All About Sam"! Clearly I was not thinking ahead when I planned the blog name!! HA!

errands, errands, errands

I was a good American this morning and helped to stimulate the economy! HA! That is the way I have decided to make myself feel better about the ridiculous amount of money that I spent this morning while running six different errands with Sam. Lowes, Petco, Target, Duralum (the carpet store, this was the REALLY big expense!), Kohl's and the grocery store. Sam and I had a great time though, she survived the morning with no nap and is sleeping great now. So all in all even though my credit card took a pretty big hit it was a good morning.
I am excited for tonight because we have an evening boating trip planned with some good friends. And Sam was invited too! It should be really fun and a great way to spend a beautiful Friday evening.
Hope you all are having a happy Friday!

the faces of Sam

So apparently my sister is very good at capturing many of the crazy faces of my daughter. The other thing that she amazing captured was evidence that the skill to make these faces was not taught to her or inherited from me...it is all Chris's fault!!

rough day

It has been a rough day.
Chris has been gone a lot lately (volleyball Thursday night, volleyball all day/night Saturday, golf tonight, golf tomorrow night, volleyball again on Thursday). It is one of those things where we talked about each one of these events and thought they were a good idea, signed him up and then realized that they were all back to back. It is good for him to get out, be active, have hobbies and be social but it is hard for me to be home with none of that for myself. I don't think this all would have been such a big deal if at the same time I wasn't trying to catch up on laudry, yard work, cleaning and grocery shopping (not to mention my jobs!) since we were gone for five days. Plus, Sam is going through a tough time of teething and growing out of two naps.
We are struggling right now.

But two funny things happened today that made me smile.

I saw a pig statue today at a mechanic shop that had a sign on it that said "I am swine flu free!" I thought that was pretty funny. I like a mechanic with a good sense of humor!

The neighbors across the channel must be working on putting in a new dock or something because there were two men examining the shoreline across from our backyard. One of the guys walked back up the hill and one stayed behind. The one that stayed behind stopped for a moment right on the shore, looked around (apparently NOT seeing me in my yard right across the water) and then proceeded to open his fly and PEE!! Oh yes he did!! HE PEED. I laughed and looked away quickly. Not sure how he didn't see me.

So that was pretty much my day. I am now sitting here watching the WORST "game show" I have ever seen...not even sure of the name but Spencer and Heidi from the Hills are on it; YUCK. Nothing else on tv and because I am a tv addict I just can't turn it off.

How was your day?

a whole lot of pictures

We had such a great time in St. Louis and I did my best to have the camera out to capture the fun times. So here are a whole lot of pictures from the weekend...better ones will be posted on Jodie's blog but here are my favorites.


One of Sam's lovely faces!I love the face that Sam is giving to Bailey in this photo..."hey off the water!"

sprinkler time gone terribly wrong!

Sprinkler time in my parents front yard started out very cute and peaceful. Sam was timidly putting her fingers in the water and freaking out if someone accidentally splashed her in the face.


And then an adult water fight began...which ended in disaster (or a really funny prank!)

We made it!

We arrived safely to my parents house about 10:30 last night. Sam was such a trooper. I was terrified pretty much all week that she was going to be a crabby, screaming mess the whole time but she wasn't, she did great. Which had very little to do with the portable DVD player that I broke down and bought yesterday thinking that it would be the perfect distraction for her in the car. It works great for my sister and her girls when they travel so I was just convinced that it would be the perfect fix. Now don't get me wrong it probably did help, she watched a little and was certainly distracted by it at times. But I thought she would just stare at it and be quiet the WHOLE time, which was not the case. She isn't much of a TV watcher normally so I am not sure why I thought she would suddenly be interested, but I did.
I have been convinced for years as we drove past vans filled with the glow of colorful tvs that MY children would not travel like that. They would travel the way that I did; looking out the window, playing stupid license plate games, reading, coloring, and of course fighting and whining with siblings. I don't know why but I have just had an aversion to using the TV as a distraction mode in the car; they miss all the scenery if they are staring at a screen. But my fear of eight hours of screaming Sam took over and forced me to forget my convinctions (clearly it was not that strong of a convinction!). So I went and bought a DVD player, it is even PINK! HA!
The funniest part of the whole thing is that I LOVED having it in the car!! I watched the baby Eisnstein movies and Robots and it was great. Totally made the time go faster. So, my conclusion from the whole thing is 1) don't have convictions about silly things that don't matter, and 2) for anyone out there that has long trips in their future with kids in the car BUY A DVD PLAYER...doesn't even have to be for them, just make your spouse drive, sit back and enjoy a movie!

I hate the F word

No I am not talking about the one that rhymes with duck, although I really do hate that word too.
I hate the word FINE!
It serves no purpose but to allow people to hide their true feelings, wants, needs or reactions. Whenever I use the word FINE it is not actually what I want to say.
Someone asks you how they look in some outfit, you say FINE. But what you really want to say is Sorry, sweety but you are not in college anymore and CANNOT pull that off OR oh my gosh I am so jealous that you look that good, I could never pull that off.
Someone asks if they can miss a meeting, blow off a phone call or somehow otherwise inconvenience you at work, you say FINE. But what you really want to say is No, my time is valuable too and if I have to be there/do it/whatever so should you.
Your husband/wife asks if they can take a whole Saturday and go (oh I don't know play golf! HA!) somewhere to do something and you say FINE. What you really want to say is there is laundry to do, a house to clean, a yard to tend to and a family that needs you, no you can't go OR no, you stay here and let ME leave for the whole day.
But no one ever says what they are really thinking, they say FINE. And then that anger, frustration, resentment just sits inside of them stewing and growing. It is ridiculous.
Yes I understand that if everyone stopped saying FINE and started actually saying what they truly felt there would be hurt feelings, damaged relationships and probably a lot of people no longer speaking to each other. But in the end wouldn't we all be happier, healthier, less stressed out people? I mean the people in our lives that truly love us are not going to cut us out just because we are honest with them (right?). I truly think the word FINE should be removed from the dictionary and all of our vocabularies because it just doesn't do anyone any good.

So, maybe this is just me and maybe you think I am nuts for going on such a rant about a small, virtually meaningless word but for whatever reason today I am not FINE with the word FINE!

puddle, pine cone and a bucket

It doesn't take much to entertain my daughter. A while ago we went to have dinner at our friends Nick and Stephanie's house. It was getting late and Sam was reaching her breaking point but Chris and I were not ready to leave. I handed her a deck of cards and I think she could have sat there sorting, holding, dropping and picking up the cards for an hour. It was hilarious!
The other afternoon we went outside after a small rain shower and she had SO much fun playing in a puddle. She found some pine cones and I gave her a bucket and she was good to go.
She loved the feeling of the water, loved throwing the pine cones into the water and watching the splash, and would collect all the pine cones in the bucket and then dump them out in the water. It was really fun watching her play in the puddle as if she had never experienced water before.




I love watching her discover new things outside and I can't wait for her to be little older so I can really start doing outdoor activities with her. But for now I really think we may have to buck up and buy this kid a water table!!

a challenged failed

My sister challenged moms (anyone really) to be in the pictures with their kids more often. She took some very cute pictures of her with the kids; you know the kinds where you hold the camera out with one arm and take a picture of two people squeezed into the frame. So, I decided to give it a try. If she can take cute photos like that, why can't I!


Okay, this one did not turn out so good. Second try...clearly flash was not a good idea! But without it didn't seem to work very well either...
This is the best one and good grief is it out of focus and not centered!
Sorry, I don't think I will be trying to get myself in the photos anymore. I failed this challenge. I think I will stick with taking pictures of Sam, those can sometimes turn out pretty cute!

quick update

Just wanted to let you all know that Chris got home on Monday and felt pretty good. He thought the exam went well and that he felt pretty confident in his answers to almost all of the questions. This is GREAT news.
We won't find out the results until mid-July but I am so happy that he is at least feeling good about how it went.
Not many people can understand just exactly what studying over the course of 3-4 months for one test feels like, how stressful it is or just how hard these exams truly are. I only understand because I see how stressed he is the months leading up to an exam and I see the pure exhaustion and relief on his face when the exam day is over. I am so proud of him for going through this process and even though there have been tough times he has never given up!

Exam Day!

Chris left just a few minutes ago to head to work. He will do is regular morning routine but then at 8:30 he will head into a room with just a few other people and sit for five hours taking actuarial exam number 7. This is a big day for us. If he passes this exam he officially becomes an Associate Actuary, keeps his job at Sentry, gets a raise, we get paid back for the sitting fee for the exam, and with the new title he gets job security that no matter how long it takes him to pass the last two exams he cannot be fired for failure to pass anymore. This is huge. If he doesn't pass...well it terrifies me to even think about that scenario. I don't want him to lose his job, I don't want to have to try and find another job somewhere in the country and move in a hurry. I don't want to have to rush to find another house for us to live in. This scenario is not fun to think about.
We won't actually find out the results until mid-July but I am hoping he is going to come home from this exam the same way he came home from number three, by saying "If I didn't pass that I don't belong in this field".
This whole process is very stressful for Chris; all the studying, all the pressure, and not feeling confident in your job unless you pass. I know that this is so hard on him.

So, if you read this and could please think good thoughts, cross your fingers and/or pray for Chris this morning that would be wonderful.

Happy Exam Monday!

weird night

I went to bed about 10:00pm, nothing weird there. About 1:00am I woke up to a very loud toy singing to me. Chris had stepped on some singing turtle thing and couldn't get it to stop singing. Awesome. Unable to find the off switch in the dark he put a sweatshirt over it and threw it in the closet. I tossed and turned for awhile trying to fall back to sleep. Then sometime before 5:00am Chris's alarm turned on. I sat up in bed to find him trying to turn the alarm off. He said that he realized it was going to go off like it was a week day and in the dark he was trying to turn the alarm off, but accidentally turned it on. About five minutes later I heard Sam. Before 5:00am she was awake a talking. I got up. Seriously how many loud mishaps can one man have in a night? Good grief.

But the day is going well so far. Chris is at work studying, Sam and I took to the streets to do some serious garage sale shopping and now we are back at home napping, well Sam is napping.

I thoroughly enjoyed driving around looking at other people's junk. I don't know why I find it so much fun but I do. We got lucky on some kids clothes; good brands, good condition and super cheap. If we didn't already have all the baby gear (swings, excersaucers, swings, baby toys, etc.) I would have hit the jackpot today. There was some great stuff out there. The one thing that I would have LOVED to bring home was one of those bouncing rocking horses. You know the old fashioned plastic horse sitting on four large springs attached to a metal frame. Bounces like crazy and you can lose a finger in the springs but they are AWESOME! If I could have figured out how to put it in my car the thing would have been mine. I actually saw TWO of them today; crazy. The second time I truly felt that God was telling me the horse needed to come home with me, but I had no way to get it home and no room in the house for the giant horse. Damn small cars.

Okay, I better get some laundry done. I would like to be working in the garden but since it is rainy and cold that is a no go.

Enjoy some cute videos and pictures!
She says MA! That is me, I finally have a name in Sam language!

bored with blogging

Do other bloggers suffer from just being bored with their blog? Right now I am really struggling to find anything to blog about that seems worth anyone's reading time. I am not brave enough to lay it all out there like my sister (and many other bloggers) does, I don't know that I can be that honest with myself let alone with the whole rest of the world. I don't think I have a very interesting job that is worthy of writing about and I truly believe that even my closest family HAS to be sick of the stupid stories/facts/pictures of just Sam.
I still read other people's blogs and find wonderful comfort, strength and humor in their writing but I don't comment as much any more; I don't really feel like I have much to contribute right now.
I must be in some kind of blogging funk right now? Again, does this happen to other bloggers? Is there a point when I should just give up and quit the blogging thing all together?

Anyway, it is Thursday night and after a long day of teaching 2nd graders I am ready for some Applebees to go (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!) and some great Thursday Night TV! Boring and lame I know, but whatever it is all about the comfort tonight.

she is perfect to strangers

I think we have a pretty bizarre child. Is that mean to say? I don't know, but there are just some things about her that are too funny. So, I give you...
THE UPDATE ON ALL THINGS SAM!

She is just over 13 months old.
She is wearing 24 month/2T clothes. This is one thing that I think is weird...why put months to the sizes if no kid actually wears the size that corresponds to the age that they are? Or is my child just HUGE?
She has had seven haircuts; four that were her whole head and three just trimming her bangs. The girl has more hair than I do.
She loves books. Doesn't have much interest in sitting in my lap, or letting me read a book to her, but put a stack of books in front of her and she is content to sit and "read" for well over an hour. Too weird.
Next favorite toy - Easter eggs. She loves emptying out baskets of them, pulling them apart and attempting to put them back together, and throwing them all over the room is also fun.
New favorite thing to do - climb ON EVERYTHING. There is not a room in our house that doesn't have something that she will attempt to climb on; couches, windows, tables, stairs, beds, chairs, the list is endless. She has only had a few major falls and has recently mastered getting down out of our bay window which was a huge reflief. This is the window where Polly spends most of her time and Sam now loves hanging out up there with Polly but kept falling down whenever she wanted to get down. I think going to the playground where she can climb a lot increased her love of this type of play.
Most of the time she would much rather play by herself than with me. Does my child not like me? HA! She will sit and play with pretty much any toy on her own, chatting with herself, making herself laugh and just having a great time with no direction or guidance from me. If I try to join her she will easily get bored and move on to something else. Maybe I am just not a good playmate; I don't know.
She chews her blanket. This is her comforting mechanism. She doesn't suck her thumb, need a bottle or a pacifier but she has to have that blanket in her mouth. Recently with the addition of several new teeth she has begun to leave evidence of her chewing on her fingers. Her thumb looks like it has been through a shredder. We think she is wrapping the blanket around her fingers and then shoving those fingers in her mouth. All I know is that she will most likely have scars on her thumb because I cannot get the cuts to heal and each morning they are bleeding again. She doesn't seem to mind it. Weird.
She throws silent tantrums. Right now when she gets really mad at me she will throw herself to the floor, put her head down and lay there. She doesn't say a word or make a noise. She just lays there. After a few seconds she looks up at me with this "Are you watching me? Do you see how mad I am at you?" kind of look on her face. I know that very soon screaming will probably be added to this display so right now I am enjoying the silent version. But this is weird; very weird.
Okay, I am sure there is more to tell but I think that is enough for now.

Sam and I are enjoying a lazy morning at home while Chris is at work studying. His exam number seven is a week from tomorrow and so we are in full stress/anxious/ready to get it over with mode. This is a HUGE exam for us because it is Chris's third attempt at this exam and if he doesn't pass he will lose his job at Sentry. We are praying that he passes but have the job recruiter looking for positions for him in other parts of the country just in case! We won't actually know the results of the exam until mid-July but if he doesn't think it went well our job hunt may seriously increase late next week. I really think he is going to do great and we will be fine. Keep those fingers crossed.

Hope you all are having a happy Sunday.

no pictures

So, I totally forgot to take a picture yesterday of the hole. Can you just trust me that it was big? By the time I get home today HOPEFULLY the outside of my house will be perfect, totally repaired and all future leaks prevented. The inside of my house is yet another story. The insurance guy came yesterday and after only being there 30 seconds took one look and said "oh no, this is not covered by any home insurance policy. This is hidden damage from water and insects. There is nothing we can do to help you." This almost sent me into tears. But then he asked if there had been any inside damage. When I said yes, he told me that he could certainly help us with that!
His recommendation is for Sam's room to get new drywall (since huge sections of it will be removed today to repair the rotting exterior of the house), new floor boards, new carpet pad and carpet. YES NEW CARPET! And then in the kitchen where we had water leaking we will have the cabinets repaired, wallpaper removed, new wallpaper (we hate wallpaper, so we will paint) and cabinets painted. YES FRESH PAINT IN THE KITCHEN! The stuff in Sam's room we were not planning on doing but who doesn't love new carpet. This does mean that since we are replacing one of the two rooms that has ugly bright blue carpet I want to go ahead and replace the other room's carpet as well; whatever. But the stuff in the kitchen we had talked about doing anyway to update the kitchen a little bit now that we knew we would no longer have water coming in. So this was really great news.
Right now Sam is living in the guest room. The bad part about all of this is that the roofers will fix the exterior damage today and remove all the damaged parts of Sam's room (drywall on two walls and a large piece of the floor) but because we are not totally sure what the insurance company is going to cover we have to wait on doing the repairs. We will get a recommendation from them on a contractor to use, get the work scheduled and then have it fixed. It could be a very long time before Sam is back in her room. She doesn't seem to mind.
So that is the news on our house.
Happy Wednesday!

rain sucks

The roof is almost done. They will be back tomorrow to finish the gutter work, clean up and take away the dumpster and trailer. However when they leave I will still have a HUGE whole in my house. No, I am not exaggerating as I am prone to do. I will provide proof of the largeness of the hole tomorrow.
I believe I have mentioned the leak that we had in our roof/wall that led to water coming into our kitchen and into the floor of Sam's room. Well, as part of the new roof we asked the roofer to open up the section of the exterior wall that had been hit with water the most to put in additional flashing and cover the exterior wall with more waterproofing (this stuff they put on roofs called ice and water shield). When he pulled the siding off and started to look at the water damage it was much more extensive then we all thought could be possible. Whole 2x4s, sub-flooring, and insulation was completely rotten. They also pulled a fairly large bee hive out of the wall. Where there are bees there is likely to be damage from the tunnels they can create in wood. So the wood that wasn't rotten was chewed apart by bees! The rotting went all the way to the outer side of the drywall in Sam's room. The exterior half of that half-inch thick drywall was wet and rotting. This means that there is a fourth of an inch of drywall that is not rotten protecting my sleeping child from the outside!!
When I got home from work at noon today the roofer pulled me aside to talk me through all the damage. He said that this was much more rotting then what could have occurred in the last couple of years that we have noticed the leak. He thinks the water damage has been accumulating for at least 10 years! He said that I should probably contact the insurance company to see if the work would be covered because the labor, materials and expense of repairing all the damage would be extensive; oh wait I MEAN EXPENSIVE!
I tried very hard today to not let this whole thing upset me too much. As my dad would say, Shit happens! I chose instead to laugh it off so that I wouldn't cry. I am choosing to be glad that we found this now and not when the damage was much worse, when mold got into Sam's room or when the whole house caved in! Okay, that might have been an exaggeration!
Anyway, I am pissed that we have to spend more money on this stupid house on projects that do not make life easier or more fun (like a new beautiful, convenient kitchen). But I am praying that the insurance company will cover most of it.
So be on the lookout for pictures of the hole tomorrow. Unless it rains tomorrow, which since we now have a huge hole in our house I think it would be really awesome if it would rain!!

good stuff

Okay, first of all I WAS THAT CLIENT.
When Chris got home I went out with him to get the run down of the progress with the roofer. When he was finished and told us he would be leaving I asked him to ask his men to be more careful around my daffodils! I couldn't believe the words were really coming out, but they matter to me and make me smile and I do not want them smashed. So I did it. He was very understanding, apologetic and said if the guys were not respectful he would put buckets over the flowers to be sure that they did not get ruined.

Now on to the good stuff.
Sam has a new found love for scooting across the kitchen floor on her belly. It is so cute.


She also seems to enjoy spinning.




I also forgot that there were more picture of the weekend on my camera from last weekend. Some cute ones of Sam and picture that capture what the adults did most of the weekend (when we were kid free!), majority of the pictures were not postable, meaning that my friends and husband would have killed me if I had not deleted them. I did save a GREAT one of Holly just in case she doesn't get around to posting the pictures that she took...blackmail!

I want to be picky!

I want to be THAT client. I want to be THAT women that goes out of her house to complain to the roofers about the damage that they have done to my flowers, gardens and yard.
We are getting a new roof this week and because of on and off rain it is taking much longer than I had expected. The pounding is driving me nuts! I swear they are jumping from one level to the other, dropping tools on the roof as loud as they can and just plain stomping around simply for the joy of driving me, the dog and my non-napping child CRAZY! We live in a tri-level which means that every floor has at least some portion of roof directly above it; I cannot go anywhere to get away from the noise! So needless to say I am just a little irritated today and then I go out to see my daffodils bent over, smashed, and my hostas that have not even really come out of the ground yet (just the VERY tips) totally destroyed. Spring is just starting to come here and one of my greatest joys is watching the green plants bring new life to my brown and dreary yard. They have taken that joy and smashed it!
I also have to say that spending money on a new roof has to be the most annoying home improvement to have to spend money on. It's not like we really get to enjoy it, or show it off, or even look at it and say "wow, that just looks really nice!". They are shingles; they were there before and will look pretty much exactly the same. I suppose next winter when we don't have water running into the kitchen and also soaking a small portion of Sam's carpet I will appreciate the new roof but right now I am just annoyed at the whole process.
When I went outside to let the dog out and let Sam walk around a bit the roofer came over and told me that they would definitely be working all day tomorrow (awesome!), depending on the weather they would probably be working on Saturday (WHAT?) and then most likely would be back on Monday (HOLY SHIT, you mean I have three more days of this?)!

I appreciate what they are doing but it would really be much better if they could do it a bit quieter.

friends+kids+gorgeous weather = exhausted Monday morning

You know you had a great weekend when the alarm goes off and there is not one ounce of energy in your body that wants to pull you up off the bed to go get the kid that is yelling for you in the next room and get moving for the day. We had so much fun, played hard, sang to a game on the Wii way too much and loved every minute of having so many people in our house. Unfortunately we had an unexpected plumbing issue (I guess plumbing problems are never really expected!) which meant that the fun Mexican dinner I had planned for Saturday night turned into order pizza because I had no kitchen sink or dish washer. Hard to feed 11 people when you have to wash all the dishes by hand in your laundry room! I felt like a complete failure of a host but they were all great sports about it and the pizza worked out fine.
Sam loved having other kids in the house and was just enthralled with the older girls. I was also excited that she never showed an ounce of jealousy when I was holding Bryce, the adorable little man that reminded me just how much fun babies are!!
Okay, just a few pictures from the weekend. Not too many but hopefully Holly will be posting pictures soon and I can direct you all to more cute pics on her blog!! (better get those pictures up Holly you wouldn't want to disappoint the three people that read this blog! HA!)

Good morning!

Hello Friday Morning! You arrived way too early this morning when my brain decided to turn on and would not turn back off. We are having friends come to visit this weekend so of course I was thinking about all the things that I needed to get done before they get here.
My mind was also thinking about work, YUCK! At 5:00am I do not want to be thinking about emails that I need to respond to, mass mailings that need to go out and our Fall Conference that is in OCTOBER! Who lays awake worrying about something that it six months away. Only crazy people. I am a crazy person.
I am working hard today to get the house clean. Which really doesn't bother me; it is one of the things that I like about having people come to visit is that my house gets a complete overhaul. By 2:00 this afternoon it will be vacuumed, dusted, bathrooms cleaned, toys picked up and smelling like a dog DOES NOT live here!
I am excited for this weekend because we are having college friends come to town. Really, they are Chris's college golf buddies (are we too old to have buddies?). I knew them in college but was not really friends with them until after we graduated and we got married. And then to be even more honest I have not become close to Holly or Amber until the last couple of years I have really bonded with them through our blogs and facebook. Is that lame? Well who cares, I am excited to see all of our kids play together and get to hang out with people that went to Knox. I miss my college friends a ton so any chance I get to talk about "the good-ole-days" is great!

Well, gotta get back to work if I am going to make my 2:00 deadline!
Happy Friday! Hope you are having the same AWESOME weather that we are having and are looking forward to a great weekend!

best toy ever

Have you ever bought one of those musical cards? You know, the kind that plays music or sings when you open it. Well, I buy them for my nieces on occasion and recently we received our first one from my mom; an Easter card that sang the Easter Bonnet song. Sam LOVES that card. She doesn't seem to care about all the great hand-me-downs from my sister that were in the box, the awesome wooden animals that my mom sent (she has actually played with those a few times, but not nearly as much) nope, all she wants is that singing card. Although it is great to see her sit and entertain herself for a bit I must also admit that I am getting VERY sick of the Easter Bonnet song. So, if you need something to distract your child with for a while buy a singing card but get ready to hate whatever song that card plays!

Happy Easter!

This was an interesting holiday for us because I wanted to stay in town to be able to go to the church that we are trying to get more comfortable with but that meant that we couldn't travel to be with family. But we did our best to celebrate this wonderful day and make it fun for our family.
It began with an early morning poopy wake-up...awesome! But after that it greatly improved.
Sam loved her Easter basket and all the goodies that she got (puzzle, new barrettes, an animal for her farm, a new cd and an Easter book). But even more than that she loved walking around outside picking up Easter eggs to put into her basket! I wouldn't really call it an Easter Egg Hunt since Chris just placed the eggs out in the middle of the yard (and then when I complained that they were too far apart, that it was going to take too long and I was cold, he started kicking them toward her to make it go faster!!) but she loved it anyway.
Then we went to the church pancake breakfast to support the youth group. Sam ate her weight in sausage! Then church. They sang the Alleluia chorus which was WONDERFUL; I ususally only get to hear that on Christmas Eve at Emmanuel (my home church in St. Louis), so getting to hear it today was great. I sang loudly from my seat in the pews and Sam was in awe of the music.
The rest of the day we spent bike riding, napping, yard work, laundry and then a GREAT picnic lunch (it was really like a middle of the afternoon meal, but whatever!).

So, since I know you wanted to see every moment of our holiday...here you go!
She hated her new dress shoes and tried many times to tear them off of her feet.


Our picnic and fun at the park. We went to a place that has a frisbee golf course, mountain biking trails, hiking trails and downhill ski slopes. We went and explored the ski slopes now that they have no snow.
This is a Sandhill Crane that Polly decided she would try and chase down...she didn't catch it and ended up in the pond covered in muck! Sam at the bottom of the ski slope that we walked down.

Chris and Sam throwing tennis balls for Polly. Our Easter picnic spot!
Overall we had a wonderful day. Hope you all had a Happy Easter Holiday.