Thursday, August 30, 2007

Football

With football season upon us I thought I would share the following video. Please remember that Mommy had no part in influencing Abigail's football team of choice. It was all on her own free will ;) Also please note the subjects attire! Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Home, finally!

Well, we made it home safe and sound after spending a wondeful summer with family in Colorado and Wisconsin. I have a lot more to post about from our time in Wisconsin but, I just have to share a few things from the trip home.

I finally broke down and got Abby her own seat on the plane, even though technically, she can sit in my lap for free for about 10 more days! (Plus, the in laws footed the bill so that always helps! Thanks Susan and Peter!). Anyway, we woke up to rain the morning of our flight but the weather was supposed to clear up by the time our plane left at 11:30. Well, the weather forecasters were wrong again, go figure, and our flight was delayed over an hour and half. The good thing was that we had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Chicago so I wasn't too stressed about missing our connection. On the other hand, you try entertaining a two year old in a very small airport for over 3 hours. Well, in my attempts to keep Abby happy and busy we somehow destroyed my flip flop. Of course this happened about 15 minutes before we were supposed to board so we had to frantically run to the gift shop while praying they sold some shoes. I ended up splurging on some new shoes, $10 flip flops, and no you can't borrow them!!!!



After the shoe fiasco, we finally got on the plane and I was confident that we would have time to make our connection in Chi-Chicago (as Abby calls it). I thought, good...now I can relax a little bit. No such luck. After struggling with the car seat and nearly breaking my hand, I finally sat down and took a breath and about 10 minutes later I was praying for my life. I am not exaggerating. The turbulence on this flight was like nothing I have experienced before in my life and I have been on my fair share of airplanes. If you know me, you know I don't do well with bumps! They were so bad a girl in the back of the plane was screaming "Oh, my god". Abby on the other hand thought we were on the ride of our lives. For the duration of the turbulence she was saying "Whee....bumpy ride Mommy, whee!". She was sensitive to my needs however, and held my hand so I wouldn't be so scared!

Obviously we made it to Chicago safe and sound but by this time my nerves were shot. We scurried through the airport because our once leisurely 2+ hour layover had been shortened to about 40 minutes and O'Hare is a big, very busy, very crowded airport. No sooner did we arrive at our gate did we have to board yet another plane. The ride was much smoother but, still eventful. Right about the time they began serving our in flight beverage, Abby decided to pick my brain, literally. Somehow, someway, she managed to shove her little finger, with her VERY sharp fingernails all the way up my nose. My eyes started to water and shortly after the blood followed. After receiving medical attention from the flight attendant in the form of hard, scratchy napkins I was able to stop the bleeding. Needless to say, the rest of the flight Abby was concerned about my boo-boo and kissed my nose repeatedly to "make it all better". She is so sweet sometimes. We finally made it to Pensacola, 8 hours, 3 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, 1 stroller, 1 car seat, 1 tired toddler, less a pair of shoes, and a sore nose later! But, we are here and happy to be home!!!!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Uncle Josh and Aunt Laura


The other night we headed to Madison to visit Andrews brother, Josh and his wife, Laura. On the way Abby asked about a baby and I told her that Josh and Laura had dogs, not babies. I told her she was welcome to ask her Aunt and Uncle for a cousin! Abby doesn't miss a beat and she marched right up to her Uncle Josh and said " I want baby cousin". Josh and Laura were surprised to say the least!

Here is Abby making her small request!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Oschner Park Zoo

We had an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday so, Abigail and I took full advantage of it. We slept in and took our time getting ready and then we headed to the local Baraboo zoo. It is a free zoo and it is very small but they have some good animals. It was just the right size for Abby.
Abby is feeding the swan and the goats grass she pulled up from the ground because her mom was too cheap to shell out a quarter for food. (All my money was in the car).


I told Abby to put her head in the lions mouth, and this is what I got :)


After we had seen all the animals, we headed down to the park, which was right by the zoo. We played on the playground, went down the slide, went on the swings, played in the sand and rode on the horses!




Abigail and I worked up quite an appetite at the zoo and the playground, so we decided to head to Daddy's favorite place for lunch...Culvers. We enjoyed our lunch and then we had a tasty treat outside, frozen custard. Yum! I know Andrew will be jealous we went, but we couldn't make a trip out to Wisconsin and not go to Culvers, it would be un-american. I guess you could say we were doing out patriotic duty ;)
Notice the similar pose in the 2 pictures??

Friday, August 17, 2007

The Wiggles Concert


Abby and I had the privliege of attending The Wiggles concert in Madison with grammy Susan. We had such a good time and Abigail absolutely LOVED it! I was very impressed with the show and as I hang my head in shame, I will tell you I may have enjoyed it even more than Abby did! It was neat seeing The Wiggles live after watching them endlessly on tv! Abby sat through the 1st half of the show completely enthralled. She sat on my lap, staring and didn't move a muscle. I think she was just in awe of the whole thing. About 1/2 way through she got up and started dancing, singing and clapping. It was the cutest thing ever! I didn't get very good pictures due to the lighting but these should give you an idea of what it was like. Thanks again Susan, we had a blast!




JORTS

You may have noticed in my last post some of the awesome attire that I was sporting. In paticular, the colorful shirt accompanied by some cut-off jeans. Well, to give everyone a little more insight into the jean short wearing lifestyle, I thought I would dedicate this entire post to jorts.



Jorts, defined by the ever trustworthy Wikipedia, reads as follows:


A Jort (or Jorts, plural) short for "jean-shorts", is a garment worn by women or men that covers the pelvic area, the buttocks, and the upper part of the legs (typically the part above the knee.) Jorts are types of shorts that are made only from denim.



Our entourage is the talk of Soto Cano. We are collectively known as the jort'ers. And our entourage grows bigger and bigger by the day. Here are some pics of the latest fashion trend sweeping across central Honduras.

First off, I am very upset with the magazine US Weekly. How dare they call Justin Timberlake's jorts a "Disturbing Male Fashion."

Our Volleyball team-The Joint Staff Jort'ers

Another pic of the team. This was our post game celebration/Ernesto Birthday party. I think I was doing a shot-put pose, but who knows...

Here I am sporting a Jordache...get it??

Our Jort'ers Volleyball team is so popular, a card company in Tegucigalpa has started making Volleyball Cards for us. This is Tim, the team Captain.


This is the birth of some jorts. Matt finally realized how stupid he looked wearing jean pants, and decided to rectify the situation.


Our friends KT and Heidi support the team by sporting Jort Headbands, or as I call them, crown's of awesomeness.

I ran into this guy at the Lizard Lounge. He was also sporting Jorts, so I HAD to get my photo with him. Apparently he took it the wrong way.

This is Fiddler. He is so confident in his jortuality, that crossing his legs like that while wearing jorts just aint no thang

So proud is Juan Pablo, that he decided to get a Jorts tattoo!

Well that's all for now. Hopefully you all now have a greater appreciation for the Jort'n lifestyle.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Big Girl Bed

When we arrived in Wisconsin, one of the first questions Susan (My mother-in-law) had for me was...where does Abby sleep? I found this to be an odd question because she knows that Abby does not, can not, sleep in the same room as me. (She is a light sleeper, as am I...so we wake each other up). I told her, she has been sleeping in a port a crib in her own room while we have been away. And then I said why??? She looked at me and said well, I bought her a big girl bed! I am sure that many of you know I am terrified of these because my thinking was....she doesn't try to climb out of the crib, so she is safe. And, she has bars all around her so she has to stay put. If she has the freedom of a big girl bed, she will be all over the place and she'll NEVER sleep. After a little consideration and a sheepish smile from Susan I told her we would give it a try, but I made sure the port a crib was still an option. We showed Abby the big girl bed as soon as we got to the house and she was very impressed. In fact, we had to go upstairs to see the big girl bed 4 or 5 times before the night was over. Much to my surprise, she was very excited to sleep in the bed. And, my daughter proved me wrong once again! She went to sleep last night at 8:45pm and I didn't hear a peep from her till 9:30 this morning!!! I was so proud of her and when I went in to get her she was sitting up in bed and she said "Mommy, I like it" (referring to the big girl bed). I didn't want to jinx it last night so I waited to take pictures. These are from the morning after her first night in a big girl bed....wow she is growing up before my eyes. If Andrew doesn't hurry home, she'll be driving the next time he sees her!!!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Bye, bye Colorado

Well, what to say??? We left Colorado and my family today. It was a very hard day for me in more ways than one. I was very emotional from having to say goodbye to the family that has taken me and Abby in for three months while Andrew has been away. I know they are my family, and that is what they should do. But, each and every one of them went above and beyond what they needed to do to make me and Abby feel loved, happy, comfortable, and safe! I am going to cherish the memories that we shared together and I don't take for granted the time that we spent with one another. I am so lucky that I have such an awesome family! I can never thank you all enough for what you have done for us or the impact you have made on my life. I love you all so much and I miss you already!!!






Benihanna

A few nights ago we had a going away dinner of sorts for my brother Duke. As you may have read in a previous post, he is moving to Canada in a few weeks to play hockey. So, after his last hockey game in the states for a while we took him out to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants, Benihanna. It is a traditional Japanese Habatchi Steak House. We had a wonderful dinner and a great time! We will miss Duke and we wish him luck on this new chapter of his life. It is going to be an adventure, one I am sure he will enjoy!!!


Mohawk Night

Friday nights when stuck on base can get a little boring, almost depressing at times. This past Friday, getting a little too bored with Soto Cano, my good friend Matt decided to liven the mood by asking me for a mohawk. What was I to do, say no? The Second Mohawk of the evening went to none other than Ernie "Journey" Garcia. I was going for kind of a Mr. T look.Next came Emery "Board". You may notice that the barber liked to change his barber-ware between each johawking.Well, let's just say that Matt energized the entire flock of Jort'ers, and the mohawk spread like wildfire. Here is Juan Pablo getting his awesome johawk from KT. (I started developing a bit of mohawk-elbow)... I wish there was a better way of describing this night's events; but I can just picture those of you who are not here just shaking your heads. All I can really say is that we do what we do to have fun, but more importantly, to be just plain awesome!






Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Red Rocks

Last week while my grandma was in town we went to Red Rocks Grill for lunch. It was really hot outside so we didn't really do any hiking or anything but we did snap a few pictures. The food and the service at the restaurant weren't so good, but the beautiful scenery made it worth the trip.




 
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