What's that feeling?

Oh, it's fresh air rushing through BOTH my nostrils! I love it! I praise God because I have gone 3 days without a bit of pain! I took some oxycodone thinking I would need it, but because of the narcotics, I puked it all up... and lost 2 pounds in the process. I got the packing removed today and it feels like an air tunnel in there!! It's wonderful. I didn't bruise like I thought I would.

So thank you to anyone who prayed for me. God guided Dr. C's hands and anyone else involved (I slept through it all and have no idea who was in there). I'm so grateful for my wonderful hubby who has been a saint and servant to me through this. He's taking a much-deserved nap right now.

Thank You Jesus!!

My Little Buddy

Curtis is now the big 18 months.







big change, eh?

**yawn**

I'm so bored I could slip into a coma.

It's 110 lovely degrees here. We spent an hour at the pool right after I got off work, then home for Curtis' afternoon nap. We'll eat a quick dinner and go back. Paul is in San Diego, so we don't have to wait dinner. And since I can't take them Wed-Fri due to surgery, I'm storing up my points.

I wish I had $500. I'd fly to Louisiana to meet my niece. I'd only stay a day...or two. I hear I have good visitor manners. I also make a mean baked mac-n-cheese.

Cousins...

Karen with Sabina, who just turned 3.

Curtis with Addison, who is 15 months.


They are up from Texas for the week while my brother is in Malaysia. We drove to Hermiston to visit and play. Lots of fun. :oD

Seattle Part II

Part of the trek and the park. It's so weird to be in a city big enough that more than one other family is at the park at the same time. Usually our parks are so barren, but there were 20+ families here. Here are our hosts, Coby and Kori. Karen adores Coby.

Seattle

Not too far from our friends' home is Carkeek Trail and Park, just off the Sound. It is quite a trek, especially with little ones. But the weather was lovely.

sTuFf

1) My parents are in Africa. For 3 loong months. I'm very proud of them. I'm anxiously awaiting pictures of them with the local wildlife.

2) Curtis is getting so stinkin' cute! He has very silly faces and a hilarious personality. He is now giving me my vaccinations with the kiddy doctor's kit. All in the elbow, no less! And boy can he scream!!! yeeoww!!

3) I am finally having nose surgery. Not rhinoplasty... I like the shape of my nose. I'm having septoplasty, which means I'm having my deviated septum fixed. I'm really looking forward to being able to breathe and not have sinus headaches as often. That is next Wednesday.

Seattle.... Dulles... Africa

This last Friday, my family took my parents to the SeaTac airport to start their journey to Africa. Botswana to be exact. The ride up was very good. It's about 5 hours and we stopped twice. Any more than that and Curtis starts to revolt because 'you are making me get into this carseat AGAIN?' We dropped them off at Kiss and Fly Zone so the kisses and hugs were brief. I told my parents I was proud of them. They took off that night at 11:30ish, hit Dulles for a couple hours, then Johannesburg and then Botswana. They landed 8:00 a.m. our time on Sunday. LOOONG day they had!

They will be gone for 3 months and we'll make the journey to get them in October. Dad will be doing carpentry and Mom will work in their library. I'm looking forward to seeing some of their pictures.

Scrap happy!

Yesterday I made about 25 trips up and down the stairs, moving my scrapbooking supplies up to the room formerly known as Foster Kid Room. This past weekend, we painted the floor a shiny light blue. I moved the bed back in JIC we need it, the desk, shelving cubes, and STUFF! I have boxes and totes and Sterilite units full of supplies. I worked on sorting it all out, taking it out of Curtis' hands, back into the drawers, and in some semblence of order. I hope it's good enough I can actually scrap today. I'm so excited!!

Is it nap time yet??

We have had some mega-late nights lately. Friday night we had our 2nd Walk-In Theater. We have a large sheet on 2x4s we put on the garage wall, bring the projector out, and watch a movie. So fun!! Then on Saturday we were up kind of late, then Sunday night.... ugh!! Since Karen refused to nap Sunday afternoon, we told her she HAD to be in bed at 8:00. She went to her room then about 8:15, she came down the stairs asking if I would come up and pray with her. I headed up about 8:30... and she was tearing down the wallpaper in her bedroom!!! (just a border, but still it was a lot of work and money). I was livid! She is supposed to be in bed, not redecorating!! Long story short: since she can't take care of what we've given her, we'll take everything away. We filled 6 totes with toys from her room, took out her table and chairs, shelves, pictures off her wall, blankets, EVERYTHING. The only thing left is bed and dresser, sheet and pillow. She will lose 50% of her toys when we go through them, plus will have to earn her things back by chores. This has been very hard on Paul and I as we feel like failures in the parenting department. Does it ever get easier???

More pictures

I'm not going to C&P pictures of Emily, but you are welcome to look at www.steelehere.blogspot.com to see more of her. She's precious!!!

She's here!!

Emily Grace was born at 12:15ish Louisiana time. 6#13oz and 18" long.

Karen the invigorated

Karen lost a magnet under the refrigerator. She pulled the fridge out as long as the cord would go. We mopped up the dirt then pushed the fridge back into place. Then I found the magnet... stuck under the door in front.

my pretty flowers

Self portrait

Here we are on the morning of July 4, before I head to the fireworks booth. You can't tell, but we have our Old Navy Flag shirts on. I have blue shorts and Curtis has red ones.

Recycle Queen!!

So where is my reward?? I took 4 boxes of smaller fireworks boxes from the booth so we would recycle them instead of into the garbage. There are 2 boxes of empty water bottles from the booth. Then the blue box is our recycling.

I want my tiara!!!

Crazy Cat

This is our silly cat Whiskers.

This is Curtis trying to hug Whiskers w/o using his arms. hmmm... how does that work exactly??

Sparkley!

Curtis' first fireworks. He wasn't too impressed at all. The loud ones had him running for the house. Poor guy.

Uppy!!

Although he doesn't say it yet verbally, there's no denying what his face is saying!

the 5th of July

We have survived the fireworks booth!! Karen and I worked 9-12 and raked in $500. Then Paul and Doug worked 12-3. Paul worked again 3-9 with Pastor. We did just over $4k all day. It was so hot!!!! (I think I mentioned that before!). But we're done, I figured out what we have to pay (about $8k) and our profit (about $2600). That'll go towards our van loan. Friday night we are hosting a Thank You BBQ in our yard. We have a big screen for the side of the garage (a queen bed sheet on 2x4s) and the projector from church (not as cool as having your own, eh Chris?) We'll do our fireworks that we saved, too.

((I like parentheses, can you tell?))

Curtis just gave me 3 of his mints he had in his mouth. He kept the 4th.

I took an hour nap today after being so busy the last few days and up late last night cleaning out the booth.

Karen is trying to dig out a magnet from the under the fridge with a dowel rod. She keeps lifting the stick up and it gets stuck. Duh! keep it flat!!

Mom and Dad are on their way home from Alaska/Vancouver today. They leave for Africa next week.

Gotta go...crabby boy alert.

4th of July

Today is the day after my grandparents' 70th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary + 1 day to you!!!!

Today is our last day of the fireworks booth being open. Hallelujah for that!! It's smokin' hot in there! 100* in a black booth on black asphalt. I worked 9-12 with Karen and we did almost $600! Then Paul went in to help another guy and he'll be there until 9:00 or so. We need to go take dinner in and pick up cash so there isn't much sitting in there. We'll go after Curtis wakes up.

We bought a season pass to our local aquatic center. Karen loves it there and Curtis is learning to like it. He likes the shallow end, but I'll take him into the 4' area with me. We'll bob up and down, then I dunk him. He's doing well with that. He'll also float on his back with only holding onto my fingers. This swimming outfit is from Gramma Jessie.





As you know, I'm very excited to have a new niece any day now. This will be my 3rd. I also just found out my brother and his wife are expecting #3 in January. I'm sad we are done, but am having fun buying things for Pauberly (Jon and Chris' daughter's nickname). I have been busy making korkers (curly ribbon bows) for her to wear. This picture is Karen modeling the new pony-o's. Here is part of my collection of korkers and bows I've either made or purchased. Poor Sydney got stuck wearing these things since Curtis doesn't want to.