Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

Today is THIRTY YEARS of wedded bliss for my parents. I love you both and thank you for the example of love, marriage, partnership, parenting, and family that you have shown us throughout the years.
May 27, 1978:

Memorial Day Weekend

The worst part of the weekend was Friday when Jeff was told they were closing the entire credit sector of his company. Laid off. Scary! And Friday was his last day! Talk about quick!

We started off the weekend just playing around at the house.


Continued...


These are videos of Bubby that will keep us (and you!) laughing any time we need it! Here's a pic first but I highly suggest you watch the videos :)









Our sassy girl spent much of the weekend swimming.



We had a naked cabana boy:




Shelby decided to sneak off and write on herself. In permanent marker. "I'm making X's" she said. "X's for Uncle Tyty." "Tyty starts with T," I told her. "I'm making T's then," she replied. Why is one of her feet in a loaf pan? :)


Mommy and Daddy snuck off to a wedding in El Paso (Err, I mean, Garland) Saturday night.


Sunday and Monday were more pool time and relaxing. Lots of time spent searching for jobs on the internet (there aren't many!)

Stealing from Heather, the lazy wife.

You know you want to do it to!

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): Jeff, Mom, Mill & Anna, Kelly
C - Cake or Pie: Both
D - Day of Choice: Sunday
E - Essential Item: Contacts or glasses
F - Favorite Color(s): Pink, brown
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Neither
H - Hometown: North Richland Hills
I - Indulgence(s): Yummy sweets, stealing baby kisses.
J - January or July: January fo sho
K - Kids: 2 perfect ones!!
L - Life is incomplete without: Family
M - Marriage Date: January 10, 2004
N - Number of Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 brother
O - Oranges or Apples: Oranges when they're sweet and juicy. Apples are good too.
P- Phobias or Fears: Death
Q - Quote:
R- Ring size: 6
S - Season: Winter
T- Tag 3 Friends: Jess B, Amy Y (my newest reader!), Kylie
U - Unknown fact about me: My toes are long. Or maybe everyone already knows that. I do wear flip flops a lot.
V - Very favorite stores: Marshall's, Kohl's
W - Worst Habit: I'm loud.
X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasound if you're seeing your bebe!
Y - Your Favorite Food(s): Mexican, anytime
Z - Zodiac: Gemini

Happy Graduation Hayley!!!

Congrats to my cousin Hayley-bell for finishing the loveliness that is high school.

It's Thursday!!

My brother's truck has some sort of short in it. Every time he honks the horn, it blows some fuse and the truck won't start. He knows that if he needs to honk, that honk better be worth it. Talk about a way to manage road rage!

Shelby remembers EVERYTHING. The other day she was asking what kind of car Lucas (Millie's boyfriend Luke whose real name is NOT Lucas but that's what Shelby calls him because she has a Lucas in her class) drives. I said, "It's a yucky old car" before I even thought about what I was saying. It is a yucky old car that he will drive till the wheels fall off but I probably shouldn't tell Shelby that. So a couple days later she again asked what kind of car Lucas drove. I said, "It's a black car." And she replied, "It's not yucky anymore?"

Wednedsay's Words

A few things we've jotted down or remembered:

Shelby: "Thank you mommy."
Me: "you're welcome baby."
Shelby: "Mommy I'm really nice."

I walked into her room at night when she was supposed to be asleep as she was belting out in perfect tune, "I'm stuck on band aid brand cause band aid's stuck on me."

Shelby pushed or kicked Cole. I sent her to time out. A short while she walks back into the kitchen and says, "Mommy I'm sorry I kicked bubby." I said, "OK now go give bub a hug and don't do that again." So off she goes and quickly comes back to report, "Mommy I gave Bubby a kiss too so he doesn't hurt anymore."

Coleman started saying "ouch" today. He will "sing" 'Where is Thumbkin' by singing the words "where where where" to the tune. :) Don't remember if I mentioned this but he pulls up my shirt and looks in it and says, "Booboo"

Today in the bathtub after Jeff told Shelby that her soap was called Sweet Pea flavor she decided to tell him this:
"When I was a little baby, I was being born. And you would call me Speet Lea every day. Instead of calling me Clokey." ...Yeah, don't ask. ???

Last night we were watching a movie and I paused it to get up and use the restroom. Shelby inquired, "Mommy, why did you plause it?"

The Sleeping Bee

I just received this email from Shelby's teacher, during Shelb's naptime.

From: JONES, YOLANDA
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 1:45 PM
Subject: The Sleeping Bee

She looks so peaceful.

Yolanda

Tuesday ramblings

I think Fuzzy's went up on their Blue Moon schooners. Have they always been $3.50??? I whole dollar more than Shiner?! I'm sticking to the Miller Lite ($2.10) at Fuzzy's from now on.

I just walked over to see Shelby at school. They were all soaking wet! They were outside playing in the sprinklers. They had all stripped down to their panties and were wearing white adult tshirts (down past their knees.) It was rather funny seeing all the little girls and boys run around in wet tshirts with their brightly colored character panties shining through. I wish I'd taken my camera!

In other news, I started trying to follow Weight Watchers yesterday. I am not going to meetings or paying WW but I am following the points plan. I feel like I know everything about it considering my mom has done it for YEARS. :) Wish me luck!

Yesterday was HOT. Record high 99 degree temp. We played outside in the front yard with the sprinkler on for some time after work. Our kids are so fun!

Congrats to Millie

Miss Millie Jones, CPA!!! My sis passed her cpa exams all on the first try. And all within 1 year after receiving her Masters of Accountancy. Wow! We are so proud of you Aunt Mill-Mill!!!

Cole looks like...

Despite the bad quality picture, do you see a resemblance?



That is my dad aka Poppy in the photo. I've seen him (and Tyler) in Coleman since he was born. Now I need to dig out a picture of Uncle Tyty as a baby!

Badego

First off, if it hasn't already been told, Shelby calls Diego "Badego" (Buh-Day-Go)
Last night we were reading a book that had magnets of animals to put where the book said. Shelby was happily following directions, making the monkey hang from the tree, the hippo drink from the water, etc, until we got to the vulture. It said, "The vulture sits on the big rock." Shelby started to put it there and then said, "WAIT MOMMY! I fink Badego says the vultures live in the mountains." And then she put the vulture up at the top of the page where you could barely see some mountains in the distance. See, the shows ARE educational! (Not that I ever thought they weren't.)

Random updates

Coleman is spending lots of time with Uncle TyTy these days. Tyler is keeping him during the day for 2-3 days a week until June when my new shorter schedule kicks in. He is awesome with Cole and Cole loves him.
The other day we were at Shelby's school picking her up, and we stayed awhile since they were out on the playground. Shelby's friend Natalia came up to Coleman and said, "What's his name?" and Shelby said, "It's BUBBY."
Natalia looked at Ms. Debra (their teacher) and said, "He's very beautiful Miss Debra." haha!
I watched Shelby pick a flower and give it to her friend Ryann. She said "This is for you." Ryann replied, "Thank you Shelby." Shelby said, "You're welcome. For being my best friend." Ryann giggled and ran off in delight. They're so cute and sweet at this age (sometimes.)

Cole's vocab is really taking off. He says Bath (one of his favorite things) and goes running toward the bathroom when we mention it. He can yell, "Roxxy!" "Rusty!!" It's so funny. Also his new thing when throwing a fit is to scream, "Mine mine mine mine!" over and over. When he wants something to eat he sometimes says, "Bite" but it is usually just "Cookie" while making the cookie sign language sign. He will not say please but he will sign it. He also says thank you, usually at appropriate times or when we tell him to. He started saying "OH NO!" instead of "Uh oh" sometimes. He says "Nonna" for nonnie and "Poppa" for poppy (maybe I already posted that but I couldn't find it??) He yells out their names as soon as he sees them. He loves them! He can say TyTy too. He waves at everyone and everything, saying "Hi" or "Bye Bye." When we're in the front yard he waves at every car that drives by. He gives sweet kisses whenever we want one (with his mouth closed and puckered, finally!) When we say it's time for night night, he waves, saying "Night Night" and then puckers up for kisses. He always tries to kiss Sissy night night even though she rarely lets him. She's usually too busy at that point. Oh he also loves kissing Roxxy. He will sit there and follow her mouth around with his mouth all puckered trying to get a kiss right on the mouth. Of course Roxxy sits there and moves her head away from her so it is quite funny to watch. He is very sweet to the doggies and he loves petting them. It makes him laugh.

This weekend Shelby was full of attitude. Everything ended in "UH!" Shelby come here. "No-uh!" Shelby let's go to the bathroom. "I don't need to peepee-uh!!" "I want to play-uh!" Or when I tell her something instead of responding with the usual inquisitive "Why?" like some 3 year olds, she demands, "WHY-uh?" Miss Dramatic at her finest.

When Jeff was saying prayers with Shelby on Saturday night and as he was finishing, Shelby said, "Daddy I want you to thank Jesus for my tummy ache."

Yesterday we went to Six Flags for a few hours.

Shelby's swim lessons videos

All weekend Shelby asked to go to swim lessons. She wanted to go to Mr. Bobby's house. She wouldn't even really get in the water at Nonnie and Poppy's (although partially because it may have been a little cold.)


This is Shelby diving to get sticks. She dives down 5.5 feet to get a stick!



This one is Shelby floating. She can float a long time!


This is the end of "Finning and kicking." I missed the first part but she started on the other side of the pool and ended up across the pool. She is on her back, finning her arms and kicking.

Shelby's swim lessons. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

We cannot believe how well these 5 sessions of swim lessons went and we were so amazed while watching her lesson yesterday where he was showing us all the things they do and the "commands."
Mr. Bobby (yes his name is the same as Shelby precious Bobby, which I think actually did help her to like him before she knew him) taught Shelby so much. This was her first time to take swim lessons so basically starting from nothing and she can do all of this now:
-Float on her back for a LONG time. A minute, 2 minutes, forever.
-Float on her back, flip over and swim to a safe place.
-Swim from Bobby in the middle of the pool to a safe place, all under water! She can go about 10-15 feet while holding her breath and swimming under water.
-Jump in, come up and get into a floating position and float to rest, and then flip back over and swim to the side.
-They started on the "Finn and kick" which is where she starts at the side and fins her arms in and out, making her move across the pool on her back. She can do this across the entire pool.

Like I said, AMAZING. Bobby said she is as advanced as you can be for a 3 yr old. He said her pulse never rises and she is very relaxed, meaning that she is very comfortable in the water and will be a great swimmer. He even went on to say that he can tell from this very young age that she can be a swimmer (like as a sport, competitive) if we choose to let her and she wants to. I was almost crying I was so happy at how it went. I was very weary after the first lesson, as I realized we just spent almost $200 for 5 lessons where she might just cry the whole time. That girl LOVES it now. Now Nonnie & Poppy's pool better hurry up and warm up so we can continue her training so she doesn't forget!

Bobby is teaching the skills required for Survival, much like the Infant Swim Resource. See what the babies trained in this can do:


I hope to get him to teach Coleman this summer as well. I could not be more impressed~!
I also have some video of Shelby swimming that I will upload as soon as I get a chance.

Jeff's job

This article is bad bad news for the Peck family.

Triad Financial in the news

Everyone please keep us in your thoughts and let us know if you know of any openings that you think Jeff might fit in. He is great at what he does in the auto lending industry but it's obviously not a good economy for that right now. So anything banking, lending, or even something just to get by. Who knows what will happen to him/us right now but we are hoping to be prepared. Jeff is a hard worker so I know we will be fine, whatever he has to do.








...and you question God -'why me?'...

always look at the bigger picture....

Update on Summer Care

I have been busy making a pretty new header and I haven't thought to update about the daycare/summer care situation.

I had an idea to try to stay home with my kids more this summer and only work a couple days a week (20 hours so half time). Since it is only 2 months (june & july) I thought it might be possible if my bosses worked with me and were ok with me taking Leave without pay. So my boss is totally fine with my idea. It turns out that I'm only going to have to take about 7 days of Leave Without pay, but for
June and July I will be working 2 days a week and 3 days a week every 3 weeks (when Jeff is off for a flex day during the week.) So the money part is even better than I thought. With not paying daycare and me working half time, we will not be making any less money. In deciding if we could do this, I was factoring in the college only paying me for a % of benefits since it will be a % of full time schedule, but my boss thinks that since it is so "short term" it will not affect my benefits or amount of sick/vac time I'm earning and all that. I'm pretty lucky!

Update about the daycare:
After receiving my email, the director called me and apologized profusely. She didn't try to talk me into staying or anything but just said that they were very sorry and she knows that we have to do what's right for Coleman. She said Cole's teachers are upset and feel bad. I told her I don't blame any one person or anything, but it's just a situation that needs to be changed. She's refunding me the tuition. Guess it couldn't have gone any better, and I am a little sad that he won't be going back there. But you gotta do what you feel is right.

The blog title

My friend and coworker Denise (hi Denise!) said something to me that made me realize that maybe people don't know that I DIDN'T make up the line that is the title of this blog. The words came from a song that my parents used to sing to us when we were little. The song goes, "I love you a bushel and a peck...A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck." It's just a short little ditty. :)

Have you heard of the song/phrase before my blog? Yes No view results

Cole got a haircut

I keep forgetting to bring my camera to post this! We did trim his hair some when he was little, but this was his first major haul. We decided he wanted to get ready for summer like sissy is.



He's ready!



Could he BE any cuter?!

Lots of decisions since yesterday!!!

This letter to Cole's school will help sum it up. I will write more later- I'm so exhausted from thinking about it and what to do- I didn't really sleep much last night. :(

((director)) and ((asst director)),
We wanted to let you know that we have decided to discontinue care at ((daycare)).
We believe that we should receive at least a partial refund of this week's tuition that has already been paid. We are pulling Coleman out because the environment he has been put in in the past 2 weeks (and especially yesterday) is not a controlled environment and has been very unsafe for him, leading to too many physical wounds. When Jeff dropped Coleman off yesterday at 8:00 am he left him in a room full of at least 8 1-year olds and ONE teacher. Unfortunately we have seen too many of these problems to feel comfortable bringing our son into your care anymore. We believe the rules and state guidelines of ratios are not being strictly followed and this leads to repeated incidents where the children are the ones who suffer. A teacher left alone with too many children for even 5 minutes should not be acceptable, ever.
You ladies are very nice people and we wish you luck in getting this straightened out. We cannot risk Coleman receiving less than great care or anything else happening to him while it is being worked out.
I am attaching 2 pictures of Coleman's back and arm with several bite marks all over them, received yesterday at your school. It breaks my heart and we can only imagine what happened and how long it took to get the attention and response of a teacher. The bite marks on his back seem like he would have had to be laying down with a child on top of him to receive these. 3 bites were reported in incident reports but there are 4 new bite wounds.
Jeff will be by this evening to pick up Coleman's belongings. When he is there he can also pick up the tuition refund.
Thank you,
Jeff and Megan Peck

Mother's Day Message

This is the message that we heard from Pastor Jay Bruner yesterday that I was talking about earlier.
I started listening to the beginning of this and they must have posted the sermon from the second service because it doesn't sound exactly like what I heard but it will still be good.

Listen here.

Disclosure: They went a little deep into the spanking thing during my service, and it doesn't sound like they did so much in this service. I wasn't all that comfortable or in agreement with that part.

To my mom

Even though you hardly read this (tisk, tisk!) I wanted to tell you happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you and thank you for teaching me everything I know about being a mom, and about family and devotion...in words, in actions, in your life's example. You are truly the BEST. I love you Mom!!

My mom on the day I became a mom:

My new fav picture

Sisters are awesome!!! I love you 2 so much!!!

My Mother's Day

Ups and downs!!!

The good:
The day started off at 6:30 with Coleman crying. After about a minute of us both laying there wondering who was going to give in first and hop out of bed (I didn't remember that it was Mother's Day,) Jeff said, "You wanna sleep in? I'll get him. Happy Mother's Day." Off to a good start. :)
The bad:
5 minutes later Shelby is next to my bed, crying, soaking wet. She peed in her bed AGAIN. She finally stopped doing that for several weeks, but now we're on 3 nights in a row of her having accidents in her bed during the night. UGH! Anyway, my "sleeping in" ended with an abrupt start of cleaning up urine from her, the bed, and the sheets/blankets.
The good, no bad, no good, well crap bad, oh that's okay, good:
No problem, let's start this day off right. Now that we're all up early, we have plenty of time to go on a walk before getting ready for church. So we get the kids some clothes on, throw some tennies on and step outside. The usual May morning humidity and warmth is gone. It's 52 degrees and windy. After about 8 trips back inside to grab things like different shoes for the kids (with SOCKS!), blankets, hats, etc, a change of clothes for myself AND Jeff... we are off. I make a comment about getting some coffee from starbucks (another trip inside to get the money) so we head in that direction. Once we get to Rufe Snow, we see Grandy's and decide to cross the street and eat there instead of just getting Starbucks. We were pretty excited about their breakfast buffet (that was closing the last time we tried to eat it) and extra excited when we saw the "Moms eat free" sticker on the window. Well, the breakfast buffet wasn't open. The only thing "free" for moms was a scrambled egg plate (which I didn't want but we went ahead and got for the kids to eat.) We ordered and ate, enjoyed some coffee and chatter, and then headed back towards the house. We didn't get much of the exercising part of the walk in which was my first reason for going because it was COLD wind on the way back so we went straight back to the house.
The good:
Church was great. It was a really good sermon about mothers, which I had to tune out a few times so I wouldn't get all weepy and emotional right there. I really hope he puts it online because I'd like to listen to it again and share it here. TOTALLY worth hearing and very inspiring. I got a rose at church and both of the kids made me cute little cards with their fingerprints while in Sunday school.
The bad:
We went home to change and had a rough little while when Jeff disappeared (which he does a LOT!) and Shelby peed in her outfit I had just put on her, Coleman insisted on playing in the toilet and trash, and daddy was nowhere to be found for a good 10 minutes (which seemed like an hour.) Ugh!
The great:
We went to the park in Colleyville with my family where we enjoyed sitting around talking in the perfect weather. The men mainly watched and played with the kids while Mom, Millie, Anna and I sat around and chatted. We ate a Taco Casa picnic and watched the guys try to fly a kite, throw some frisbie, and run around after the kids. It was wonderful.
The bad:
Once again, I didn't think even once about sunscreen. It was a nice warm but not hot day. I don't think about kids burning since I've never really had a problem with it myself---the kids (especially Cole) have very red faces now. Their daddy is supposed to be the one to remember and remind me of sunscreen since it's something he's always had to think about for himself. Well, he's burnt too.
The really bad:
We won't go there. I can only explain it as a bad decision on Jeff's part and a misunderstanding.... He thought it would be ok for him to leave to play baseball where he would be gone at least 5 hours (wouldn't be home until after Cole's bedtime) while I nodded off to sleep with Shelby and Cole was napping. I was NOT happy to wake up to Coleman crying and Jeff's truck gone. 9 loads of laundry to do. House a mess. Dishes piled up in the sink. Missing daddy. NOT happy. But, he didn't stay for the game and we did make the best out of the rest of the day.
The good:
We went to browse Home Depot and Lowes to get me a wall lamp/light for over my bed so I can read without having the big overhead light on. (We chose to put our king bed on a wall where the bedside tables will not fit right next to the bed so no bedside lamp) We found one and Jeff installed it before bed last night. It is great!
We also went to eat at Applebees, where we enjoyed dinner and dessert. Yummy food and the kids were really good. We continue to be surprisingly impressed with how great the food tastes at Applebees and we have never seen a more friendly or attentive staff. They even have a huge box of toys that they bring to the table for the kids to pick from after they have eaten their dinner. Very cool.
Back at home bedtime was uneventful (which is good of course!) I stayed up until 12:30 watching the shows (Desperate Housewives & Brothers and Sisters) and didn't sleep well at all. Up before 6 am today to start my first week of 10 hour days. I can't wait until Friday!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow mommies. I hope your day was as good and bad as mine was! :) haha

Song

What a beautiful song!
When I hear songs like this, an intense desire rises in me. These longing thoughts are ones that I shove back...ignore...file away to pull out someday when there is more TIME.
Is there ever more time?
Life is so busy that I rarely take time to think about what is missing that I love. I mean, my life is FULL of things that I love. But still, some things that I used to do and love have gone away. One thing is singing. Beautiful songs. Nothing moves me so much as a song that really talks about the wondrous perfection of God...songs that praise Him...songs that fill me with happiness and thankfulness for His grace.
People talk about God "speaking to" them. Is this how God speaks? In these desires that rise up and put a knot in my throat? ...That make my heart hurt just wishing that I had a choir or a church stage or SOMEWHERE to express the gift of song for and with others? I do miss singing so much- it's really hard to think about it so I don't. Singing was such a part of my life for so many years and now it is almost nonexistent. It makes me sad.

This also makes me realize that no matter how great life is...no matter how perfect one seems...no matter how happy we are, there is always more that could be... Things that could be changed. Growth room. If there weren't, there would be nothing left to desire, and what then? If anyone did achieve true perfection, it wouldn't last long because they would lose the drive to keep trying for the so-called "best that you can be" because they would already be it. So I am happy to want. I am happy that there is so much to be had and so much room to grow in this life... I am an imperfect, ever-changing mess. :)
Even so, my cup runneth over.

ps- Thanks to Charlotte since I ran across the song on her blog today!

A clean house...

The women who clean our house are there right now, which reminded me of a little story. Last week Jeff straightened up our living room and playroom during his lunch break. When Shelby & I walked in from work/school, Shelby exclaimed, "Mommy, look! The ladies cleaned our house!" How sad is it that if we don't have to step over stuff to get into our front door, my 3 yr old assumes that our cleaning ladies have been there?!

A mushy diary entry

I'm at work, avoiding work. It's one of those days. Most mommies surely have them. I can't stop thinking about my kids. It's almost making me weepy. I am so in love with them that it hurts. I just want to hug them all day (although if we were all home they wouldn't allow the all-day hugging for sure!) Last night we got to be silly and roll around together in the living room for a long time. The kids were giggling and Jeff and I were laying on the tickles and hugs. I love how Coleman just runs to me over and over, with his arms open, falling into huge hugs. He's such a cuddle bug. I love how he lights up and says, "Dada!!!" as soon as Jeff walks in the door from work. I love how he is such a BOY, who loves balls and always takes them straight to his little basketball goal, and how basketball is one of the only things he'll sit and watch on tv. I love Shelby's sweet heart... How when she paints a picture like she did last night, it's always for someone else...How the whole time she is working on her masterpiece, she is filled with joy from the anticipation of how much Nonnie or Poppy or whoever she's making it for is going to like it. That's love. I love how she says, "Mommy! Mommy!" when I go into her class to pick her up, and how she usually tackles me with a hug and wants to be held and cuddled. I love when my babies play together, like last night when they were doing "Ring around the rosies" and thought it was so funny to fall on top of one another, rolling and laughing. I love how Shelby takes care of her babies like a sweet little mommy and how Coleman repeats words and chugs his milk every night like he hasn't had a drink all day. I love my boy's thick baby boy legs and chubby fingers, and my girl's slender soft feet and long skinny arms. I love it all.
I am so blessed.

Being a boy

A few quick Shelbyisms

This girl has had so many one-liners lately that we cannot keep up with her or remember them all. Her little mouth is wearing us out, and sometimes we don't know whether to laugh or cry! (but for now we're still laughing.)

Shelby was just telling me that she wanted some candy since she ate all her dinner. Since I wasn't sure what she said, I said, "Huh?" and she quickly replied, "You heard me."

This morning I had my hair in a sort of messy up-do instead of the usual down or ponytail. Shelby said, "Mom why is your hair like that? I don't like it. Put in a ponytail!!"

Several times lately when I ask Shelby to pick something up or carry something for me when she's already carrying a couple of things (but could easily carry more) she replies, "Mom, I have TWO hands." Well, sorry miss priss!!!

Jeff wanted me to include this one since he still has yet to write a blog! The other day they were in the car and the Rascall Flatts song "Life is a Highway" came on and Shelby yelled, "Dad! The highway song! Turn it up!" (I am sure she knows that from Cars the movie though.)

One more Jeff remembered from tonight. We were drawing on a magnadoodle and I asked Shelby if she could draw a sun. She replied, "Yes I can mommy, I am very good at that." So self-assured!

This post is just about Mommy!

I had a crazy fun weekend so I wanted to share a little bit about my Saturday night! I have a group of girlfriends (we are all married) that I chat with on a daily basis. We all decided one night that most of us had kind of crappy bachelorette parties, so we decided to plan a "2nd Chance Bachelorette party." This has been in the works for a couple of months and I want a special shout out to Keeli and Jess for putting it all together!
So we all met up at a hotel in Dallas. We had 3 suites and 18 or 19 girls (14 spent the night.) We did makeup and hair together, and enjoyed the free happy hour (and gardettos and goldfish!) that the hotel offered. Then we played for a bit (sat around doing girly things like popping blow up penises with my stiletto heel etc) and at 7:45 we were whisked away to our dinner at the Victory Tavern City Grille. It was really yummy. Our waiter was awesome. I ordered the wrong meal but he didn't seem to mind. I ordered "Surf and Turf" ($38) instead of "Fish and Chips" ($15) Oops! I did kind of wonder why he asked how I wanted my Fish and chips cooked. haha. I had 2 yummy glasses of Pinot Grigio and then we caught cabs to the Rose Room. This is a gay bar but is frequented by bachelorette parties and groups of girls so we weren't really standing out or anything :) I might post some pics/video of the Drag Show later if Mimi promises not to watch! (Hi Mimi!!!) haha
We cabbed home after the show- I did not stay for much of the dancing. I had a great time but there were a few too many boy tongues going into other boys mouths on the dance floor for me. SO yeah, I was with the first group of girls to go back to the hotel. We didn't make it much longer and fell asleep pretty quickly. I had the BEST night's sleep and I told Jeff I would think about that comfy bed that I had all to myself and fluffy down pillows in the dark cold hotel room very often!
Here's a pic of the girls:

From left top:
Amy G, Jess, Susan, Jess (can't really see her :( ), Virginia, Keeli, Dianthe,
Bottom left:
Carla, Meagan, Kelly, Amie B, Yours Truly, Sars, Chris, Lynn
Not pictured:
Rebecca, ReJana, KRISTIN (she was at the hotel, just missing!)

Dr. Check-ups

Dangit! The kids were so horrible at the dr that I'm not sure if I paid attention to their measurements!
Hmmm let's think
Shelby was 40 inches
Cole was 33 inches
I think they didn't get a good measurement of her height. I want to measure her again later. I believe she's around 38 inches, not 40. 40 inches is 95th percentile for her age and I don't think she's that at all. I am pretty sure she's still around the 50th percentile in both height and weight like she's always been.
Shelby's weight was 32.6 I believe (between percentile 50 and 75). Can't remember Cole's. I think it was 27.4.
That would make cole's measurements Length = between percentile 90 and 95
Weight = between percentile 75 and 90.

Shelby would not cooperate with ANYTHING. They had to weigh her on the baby scale and even measure her lying down like they do babies because she refused to stand next to the ruler. She threw a fit the entire time the nurse was taking her BP, and she was awful at letting the doc look in her ears and her mouth. And this is why we double-team doctor appointments. Just one parent would NOT be able to control those 2 at the dr's office.
Cole's head circumference stayed on the same curve that it was on last time, so I guess all that cause for concern was nothing. The dr. said that he just moved up the scale but is now staying on the same curve and since he has no developmental problems, there is nothing at all to worry about.
Cole still has a damn ear infection in his left ear. Same ear that's been infected since November. He gave us MORE antibiotics. I think this is the 4th round. Then he said next we will go to antibiotic shots. I guess he's avoiding tubes at all costs??? Shelby's ears were red and had pressure in them but not infected yet. So we get to watch them and call/go back in as soon as they get infected, which will probably be, you know, this weekend, when the dr is closed.
I'm WORN OUT from that huge fiasco. Dr. appts suck. :)

Shelby's birthday invitation...

I don't think I ever posted this. Super Shelby!

Things to remember...

Yesterday I walked to get Shelby from school and then we walked back to my office. I sat down at my computer and she came up and stood next to me and said, "So, whatcha been doin all day?" I said, "Just workin, what about you?" and she replied, "Ummm, just been at school."

When we got home we were out on the back patio and Shelby gave Cole something that she was playing with and announced, "Mommy, I shared that with my bubby because I'm a very sweet sissy." Awwww.

A couple of her most-used phrases these days are "Just a little bit, but not a lot." and "It looks like it, but it's not."

Coleman is starting to say more words. He roars like a lion, and says "bubble," "turtle," "ice," water is "Wa," "Mik" is milk, and of course "Dog" and "ball" (his favorite thing) and "Sisss" and "Daddy" and "Mama." He is kind of a daddy's boy right now. He always says, "Hi Daddy!" and wants Daddy to hold him. It's kind of cute! :)

Today is Shelby's 3 yr checkup and Cole's 15 month checkup. I don't know if they'll get shots or not.