Day 9 of our Adventure

Tuesday, we had to head back home. Lily and I packed up early and went down to Grandma's house. We spent a couple of hours there showing Grandma & Pat the pictures that we'd taken at while on vacation. They don't have internet so I knew that they wouldn't get to see the ones that I post here. It was a nice visit.

Then, headed home. We stopped in Macon again and stayed at the same hotel. We figured that we wouldn't risk getting a garbage place when we knew that there was this one for a great rate and it was clean & nice. We had dinner at Olive Garden and Lily was not very good. She ran all over the place and I had to take her outside a couple of times.

After dinner we went to big lots to get Lily some swim diapers and couldn't resist but to buy her a new barbie. We could barely fit all of her new toys into the van so I have no idea what I was thinking buying another one. Even worse, Sandy bought her one too!

Day 5 in Huntsville, Day 8 of our Adventure

This was Monday and we went to a water park!!! Lily was awesome. I almost didn't go because she is kinda at a difficult age for a waterpark. She wants to be completely independant but doesn't know how to swim yet so I can't just let her go.

Day four in Huntsville, Day 7 of our adventure

My little baby is TWO YEARS OLD!!!
wow. I can't believe how fast time flys. I woke up that morning to Lily singing "hap bir-day" (she is so smart!). I got her out of her play-pen and put her in bed with me to snuggle and tell her about her day. I told her that it was her birthday and that now she is not one anymore, but that she is two. Now, if you ask her how old she is, she will say "not one"
My dad said he got a tick on him the other day when he and David were shooting up in Tennessee and Aunt Charlotte volunteered to pull it out. I thought it looked funny so I made sure to get a picture posted.

Then, unfortunately, my dad had to get back on the road back to Texas.
David, Sherah, Aunt Linda, Lily & I went to see my cousin Jeannie's house and visited there for a bit. Aunt Linda took us out for mexican food for lunch, then we went to Jeannie's husband's store Across the Pond to feed the fish. Lily loved it there. She had her hands in the fountains and fed the Koi fish and the turtles. I asked her if she wanted to swim with the fish and she started taking off her shoes.
So, since Lily was soaked anyway, we went to a sprinkler park.



Then stopped by my Grandma's house for a visit there a bit.

Then played and played with Dave & Sherah until they had to head back home and Lily just passed out. Couldn't take it anymore. So much playing.

Day three in Huntsville, Day 6 of our Adventure

The family reunion was supposed to start at something like 10 or 10:30, the food was being served at noon and we arrived at 12:30!!!
How in the heck can we be up at 8 AM and can't get anywhere before noon?
So, everyone was eating at we arrived. There was a giant super slide but somehow I didn't get any pictures of that. (If you have some...send them to me please!)
Aunt Gertie and the crew was so sweet to get Lily a Dora birthday cake and everyone gave her lots of presents. She loves all of them especially the tea set and the puzzle that makes animal noises. I love the cute clothes that she got!


I took her play pen with us just in case she might get tired and want to lay down but it came in much more handy for little Rowe. Lily wasn't upset at all that there was a baby in her bed, she just kept pointing to her and telling me that there was a baby.


A nasty storm rolled in and cut the party short. :(
That evening we went to eat at Red Lobster and Lily decided that she really loves crab alfreado.

It was very sweet because on the way to "the Lob" my dad asked Lily if she liked her birthday cake and she said "birthday again?"

Sure, we'll have your birthday again, no problem.

Day two in Huntsville, day 5 of our adventure

My dad & brother drove into town late on Thursday night after I had already gone to sleep. I had been telling Lily that Joe (my dad's dog) was comming so in the morning she started wandering around saying "where's joe?"
As we were getting dressed, I put Lily's shoes on and she said "too tight" so I told her to go tell Grandad. She walked up to my dad, stuck out her shoe and said "too tight". Worked like a charm, she got two new pair of shoes within hours.
Friday night Aunt Linda invited the out of towners over for burgers (check out her sweet new shoes)

Lily ate chocolates:

AND Ice Cream

Below is the newest memeber of the Strong family, my cousin Jeff's baby Rowe. However she won't be the newest for long, another cousin is expecting any day now.

Lily and I are on an adventure

Lily and I left Ross and Zelda at home and went on an adventure to see my family. We were having a family reunion in Huntsville and we drove up to Melbourne and caught a ride the rest of the way with my cousin Sandy and her kids (Allison & Alexander). Sandy has a DVD player in her van so Lily got to watch her favorite movie "Nemo" over and over. I have no idea where the glasses came from.

We divided the drive into two days. This photo is of the Lily sized fridge at the hotel in Macon, GA.

We got into Huntsville on Wednesday and Sandy dropped Lily and I off at Aunt Linda's house. She wasn't home from work yet so we made ourselves at home. Lily walked in and said "Soooo Pretty" so I guess that means she liked it there. We were going to walk down to my Grandma's house but by the time we got out of the shower it was pouring down rain. Lily was pooped from the drive so we just ate and went to bed.

Thursday was Aunt Charlotte's birthday so she had an open house party. My cousin Melissa had taken her barbie collection over to my aunt Charlotte's house for Allison to play with while she was staying there. Lily thought this was great. The entire time we were there, (besides when we were running around in the sprinklers) Lily kept sneaking into Aunt Charlotte's bedroom to play with the barbies or into her closet to try on her shoes.

As you can see from the above picture, Aunt Charlotte has interesting shoes, she and Lily get along very well. Lily got that University of Alabama dress for Christmas and although we are not Alabama fans, Aunt Charlotte is a die-hard, so we figured it was appropriate to wear it on her birthday. I'm sure it got Lily some bonus points in Aunt Charlotte's book.

The following video shows just how talented this little baby is.

Wonder Woman!!

I love wonder woman and have quite a collection of Wonder Woman stuff. The other day when we were cleaning out the workroom we came across a couple of plush Wonder Womans. I don't collect the newer justice league stuff, but through the years many people have given me some of it, so when I came across the little Wonder Woman, I gave it to Lily. She knows exactly who it is too. Then, we opened another box and found the same doll but a larger version. She was thrilled that now she had a BIG Wonder Woman too.


We keep the sweets in a Wonder Woman cookie jar and I asked Lily who it was and she said "Mommy" and I said no and to try again and she said "Grandma". So funny how she knows Wonder Woman on TV and on dolls and comic books but thinks that the cookie jar is me.

We look at pictures and I talk to her about her Grandma. There are a few times that she has identified my mom in pictures and even though she never got a chance to meet her, she knows who her Grandma is. It makes me cry.
The other day I was taking pictures of some stuff for eBay and set up the camera and took a few pictures of myself wearing an outfit. I took pictures from the front then turned around and took pictures of the backside. Later that same day I took a picture of Lily standing on the pool table then she turned around and told me "back, back". Ross & I are really going to have to start watching everything we do and say now that this little sponge is soaking up everything.

Yesterday Lily was watching TV while I checked my email and when we were leaving the room she ran back in saying "pause TV, pause TV". She reached up onto the table and hit the pause button on the remote!

When I turn my back....

Today I've been trying to organize my workspace because I've finally broken down and hired a shipper to help me with my busines and need to have things cleaned up to where someone other than me can actually find things. Lily had found a small box with a few coins in it and was having good fun playing with them. Yes, I know, coins are a choking hazard but she has never yet tried to put them in her mouth. Usually she takes them right to either my piggy bank or Ross' s money jar. Today, I got a brilliant idea to have her bring her little box of coins into the bathroom so she could play on the floor with them while I showered.

Not so brilliant. Lily has figured out how to open doors so she escaped from the bathroom and took her box of coins to my room. Today, instead of putting coins INTO Ross's jar, she dumped the whole thing all over the floor.

Then, we got dressed and I got this cute video not 10 mintues later

As I'm uploading them to the computer to post, I realized that there was yet another cute one on my memory card. This one was shot yesterday.

Really, who needs toys when you have fun things like coins, chapstick and rainboots to play with?

Fish! by my little artist

Yesterday, while I was working on the computer, Lily had pushed her chair up next to me and was drawing on my notepad. We were working along rather nicely. I was getting things done and she was not drawing on anything that she wasn't allowed to draw on (although she was using a Sharpie and usually she is not allowed to play with markers). Then she declares "FISH!" then immediately breaks into song "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" (from Finding Nemo)

I look over and am pleasantly supprised that Lily really has drawn a fish. I'm not sure if she did it on purpose or was suprised herself that she had drawn a fish. Regardless, this one is going on the fridge.

Cheap Makeup

Whahoooo! One of the moms in my SAHMs group just posted a website of a makeup company that Nordstroms just bought out and they are selling off all of their stock for only $1.00 (well, some of the sets and stuff are $5) and if you use the coupon code CAROLINA you get another 50% off on up to $15.00. I just bought 15 items and shipping and everything came to $14.55

Can't beat that even buying the cheap stuff at Walgreens. I got some tweezers and makeup brushes too.

Here is the site in case you are interested:

http://www.eyeslipsface.com/shop.asp

Trip to Chicago

Last week Debbie and I went to eBay Live! in Chicago. Lily and I drove to Melbourne on Tuesday and spent the night with Sandy. At the crack of dawn, I few out to Chicago. I wrote this in my notebook on the plane:

I cried last night while falling asleep because I worry so much about my little Lily. I am on a plane right now heading to Chicago and won't see her until Sunday night. And even then, she will be asleep. I have all the confidence in the world that my family will take wonderful care of her. They will probably be more careful than I would! But, being away from her hurts my heart. Leaving this morning she was still asleep and I wanted so badly to pick her up and squeeze her. Oh poo. Now I'm crying on the plane! how embarrassing.

Because of a weather delay out of Chicago, I missed my connector in Atlanta and had to be re-routed to Orlando. Luckily, Christian was there picking up Debbie just one hour prior so I made them wait and collect me too. I made it home on Sunday but at 2AM. Being away from Lily all that time she grows and changes even in a few days.

We celebrated Christian's birthday on Monday with a barbecue then it started to pour and didn't stop so Lily and I had to stay another night. I finally made it home yesterday and it is going to take me a week to catch up on missed work and two weeks to workout enough to work off everything I ate!

(These pictures are Pamela's that she so nicely loaded into my computer for me, mine are still in my camera)

Water Part

Lately the SAHM mom's group that I'm in has only been scheduling playdates at Water parks. I am pleasantly surprised at how many there are in our county. There are literally dozens of them! Well, because I haven't gotten around to getting Lily into swimming lessons yet and for the longest time didn't have a bathing suit for myself that wasn't offensive, we haven't gone yet. I finally found a bathing suit that keeps everything covered up and just figured I'd have to watch Lily really close, and we went to a water park.
She did awesome. They have a zero depth place that has a sprinkler thing above and she played in that most of the day. There is a slide thing and a big structure that kids can play on but there were so many kids running and pushing that I wouldn't let Lily try it. There was a tube above that was pouring water out and she enjoyed standing below and putting her arm into the stream. That is, until the water pressure changed from a small stream to a huge gush and it knocked her back onto her bum. She handled it well and only cried for a minute.
She pooped too while we were there. YUCK. Taking off a soaking wet, poopy swim diaper is a very difficult thing to do. Poor thing had poop all down her legs!
Then, the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in and they kicked us all out.


The title of this post is not a typo, that is how Lily says 'Park'. She also says 'Milt' for milk and 'Boot' for book.

Today - Great day!

Today was a great day. This morning Lily slept in until 8 and stayed interested in the early morning cartoons long enough for me to get all of my emails checked.
Around 9:30 Marje skyped us from Zim to tell us that she is coming over for a visit in just a little more than a month. Yay! We got to talk for awhile and Lily was behaved enough to say hello. (just in case you don't know what skype is, it is a program that allows you to talk or chat live through your computer and if you have a webcam you can talk and see one another. It is free if you are interested click here)
Then we went to the beach. It is nice to go early because there isn't much of a crowd.






Ross is a bit of a weirdo because he doesn't sit or lie on a towel, just right into the sand. He has taught Lily to do the same thing.


We only stayed for a couple of hours and made it back in time for lunch and nap.
I went to an afternoon party then came home and realized that both Ross and I were having a chocolate craving. So, I taught Lily how to make brownies.



About 3/4 of the way through the brownie baking process I realized that it was dinner time so we threw some steaks on the grill and then we had warm brownies ready for us for desert. Yum.
After dinner Lily bounced back and forth between helping Ross pick weeds and helping me photograph stuff to sell on eBay.

Life is good. Makes it a little more bearable that our bank account has run completely dry! Earlier in the week we had an accident and had to spend $450 at the vet to have two of Zelda's teeth removed. She's all good now but Ross is no longer allowed to play golf with Zelda.

If this video doesn't make you want to squeeze this girl...

I don't know what will!

We were listening to a CD of African Children's songs that Marje gave us last year and Lily was dancing all over so I tried to get a little on tape.

My dad was shopping on the internet again

Gotta love the internet! Sometimes Daddy gets carried away with the ease of buying on the internet. I suggested that Lily would love a little table for her birthday (which is still over a month away!) and look what showed up at the house.



Ross and I stashed it under the pool table planning to give it to her on her birthday but Daddy insisted that we give it to her now so that he could see the pictures of it here on the blog.She LOVES it.She has spent all of her time out on the porch. It has worked out well for me too because I had a client give me boxes and boxes of stuff to get listed on eBay and I can work on the pool table and keep an eye on her at the same time. I have all the stuff on top of the table and set up my laptop out there too. Usually when I do that Lily is trying everything she can to get to whatever I'm working on. Now, she is at her OWN table outside.(again, why is she never wearing any clothes? and did you notice the shoes?)

This video isn't really interesting, it is just an example of how loud my neighbors are. Every single day they get in their pool and scream and curse at one another like the world is going to end. The parents tell the children that they are "bad" and say things like "what the hell is wrong with you" and they never scold the children for cursing and screaming at the top of their lungs "I hate you!". It gets obnoxious sometimes, as you can hear in this video. (and they have "Children are a gift from God" stickers on their cars)

Mini vacation in Miami

Jasmin came in town this weekend so I took a little mini-vacation and crashed at her hotel with her down in Miami Saturday night. Jen took the night off too and went out with us too. It is so nice to get together with old friends and catch up. The only thing is, that it reminds me how lazy of a friend I really am. I love to get together with people and keep up with everything in their lives, but I am just so bad at keeping up with correspondence. I always intend to call and email and stuff, but I never do. I'm a terrible friend.

Jaz was staying at the Intercontinental so I had a nightmare of a time trying to find parking in downtown. So, we parked my car at Jen's and rode the train back to bayside. We had dinner at Bubba Gumps then a couple of drinks at Bayside and mainly just talked, caught up and reminisced.

We stayed up too late talking and I slept in late. Jasmin had to get up for her convention stuff and I just kept sleeping. I took a leisurely ride and walk back to Jen's then spend a little time a her house squeezing squishy little Dean. He still smells like a baby. Gotta convince Ross that we need another one.