Wishing for Spring

All this snow and ice is getting really old. Whenever we go anywhere I have to bundle Lucy up until nothing is visible but her little face - and then cover the whole operation with yet another blanket. At least she looks good in her little hat. The sunshine makes me feel a lot better, unfortunately I think we're in for some more ice and snow. Well... next month is March (Whoa!) so it won't be much longer....

Smiling one minute....

...Spitting up on me the next.

I was sitting on the couch, holding Lucy in my arms. She woke up early from a nap and I was thinking I might be able to get her to go back to sleep for a little while. She looked up at me, and seemed wide awake, so I smiled at her. Under her pacifier I could see her smiling big back at me. I took her pacifier out of her mouth, and she just looked up at me grinning so big she had little dimples in her cheeks. The suddenly, BLAH! - a nice little pile (of what was once applesauce with bananas) on me. It wouldn't be so bad if there had been a warning. She continued smiling as if nothing had happened. Well, it's a good thing I hardly ever dress nicely at home...

A New Little Friend

This morning I read my e-mail and learned that my friend Laura had her baby Sunday morning, Feb. 25. I think that was either her due date, or one day off. Anyway, she was thinking it was a boy, and honestly I was too (not sure what I base this on... it's just a guess from a "feeling", so whatever), but she had a baby girl, Courtney Elizabeth. She was 7 pounds 9 ounces. Laura was really nervous about the labor and delivery, and I'm anxious to hear her story. I'm sure she did great, and the e-mail from her best friend doesn't mention anything about any complications. I am so excited for her, and I can't wait to visit them.

Only a few days before Laura had her baby, my cousin's wife had their boy - Ryder Jay. He was 8 pounds 9 ounces, 20.5 inches long, born at 2:24 AM. She is recovering slowly but surely after having not-so-easy a time. I look forward to meeting this new baby as well.

It'll be weird to see and hold a newborn, because I'm used to our almost 5-month-old, and I am betting that I won't believe how tiny she, too, used to be. Fun times.

Meanwhile, Lucy's cold seemed to have vanished, but now reappered in the form of a sore throat. Pretty good only having one illness in the first 5 months. Anyway, she's just taking it easy. No fever, so I'm not too worried about an infection, like strep. All I can do is watch her temp, and give her baby Tylenol and lots of rest. Speaking of which, I hear a hoarse sounding cry - gotta run!

Another Blast From the Past

With the drastic changes that have taken place in my life over the last year, it seems like I am, in many ways, a totally new person. I have grown a lot and there really is no turning back. Also, there are friends from the past who could easily be tucked away forever into a closed chapter of life ("Before Baby"?), or our high school and college years. Full of fond memories, but never to return!

Somehow just the opposite seems to be happening - in the past 2 months we have gotten together with my college roommate and her husband, a friend of Ron's from high school and her husband, I got back in touch with my friend Eric from college (who lives in Vermont) - he called last night and we caught up a little bit. He might be in Michigan in May so maybe we can all get together out at New Holland Brew Co. or something. It was so weird - I was always trying to find an e-mail address or phone number, but only thanks to myHope, a new system set up by Hope College for alumni, did we finally cross paths again (over e-mail and phone). I'm really excited about this opportunity to find out where all these old friends of mine have ended up. I have stayed in touch with a handful, but I think about how many people that I was so close with, until graduation sent us in different directions. Hmm... well, either way it's been fun so far, and I hope this pattern keeps up...

It's just someone taking that first step. With a little bit of effort we've managed to rekindle friendships that will hopefully last well into future chapters...

Long Weekend

We're back into the "normal" routine of the workweek... Even though it is a short one! No school for Ron Monday or Tuesday, and today there was a 2 hour delay due to Freezing Fog! That's a new one...

Anyway, the long weekend was nice, we got to spend some time with friends and family - just about each day. Friday we went to New Holland Brew Co. (restaurant) and met up with Deanna and Rik ... Deanna went to high school in the UP with Ron. Now they live in Zeeland. It was a lot of fun - I can't wait to get together with them again.

Saturday was another work-on-the-Nova day. Ron also went to Buffalo Wild Wings with Keith - it had been a while since they hung out with just each other. I got a lot of reading done in Water For Elephants and later we watched part of SNL.

Sunday we went to my parents' house late in the morning because Ron and Sarah were going over there to hang out and see the Nova before the eBay buyer picked it up (around 1 PM)... they got it loaded on a trailer and Ron said bye to the project that took him years to complete. But he felt good about having finished it. Ironically, the buyer is going to pull the engine and transmission, and paint the car a different color. So - some of Ron's work is going to be undone... but in a way, he did it for himself (not for someone else). The money we got from the car will help us out, and hopefully in the future, he can do a new project and not have to sell it. After the Nova thing we went to Lisa and Dave's to watch the Daytona 500. Lucy was really fussy the whole time, since she hadn't napped really all day. She couldn't fall asleep in the playpen in one of the bedrooms, especially since the race / TV was super loud. I in turn became fairly frustrated, and was more than ready to leave by the time the race ended. We stayed to see the finish - which was great, actually. I was just really glad to get home that night!

Monday we got up early and dropped Lucy off at my parents' for the day, and we went to visit Kelly in Lisle, near Chicago. We stayed fairly local, going to Fry, then out to lunch, and then to Ikea. We bought a couple little things... then we hung out at her apt. for a while and then drove home! We were home around 9:30 or 10:00 PM.

Tuesday we went to Ron and Sarah's for lunch. Brianna was there because they take care of her during the week, and she had no school (Grandville). We stayed for a couple hours, and then actually went to 2 thrift stores to look for cheap deals. We ended up buying a couple clothing items for Lucy, but only spent a few dollars. After that it was just a relaxing afternoon/evening.

Marie Antoinette

Last night Ron and I watched Marie Antoinette starring Jason Schwartzman (as Louis XVI) and Kirsten Dunst. I thought this was one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time... I wish we would have gone to see it in the theater, but it didn't show for long (as far as I remember) and we honestly don't go to see movies in the theater very often. Anyway, I can't even say enough good things about it - I just recommend it highly. It's such a beautiful movie in every way.

Sun in Winter

This is one of my favorite recent photos taken last Saturday, the 10th - it is of the Grand River near Johnson Park in Walker. It's actually down by a boat launch. I love when the sun is shining and there are blue skies in the winter... it might make a nice computer wallpaper if you're looking to update :).

This is Gladys....

It may be 7 minutes long, but it's worth it... well.. it made me laugh out loud! I found this on someone else's blog and at the risk of being unoriginal, I am not ashamed to admit that I wanted to post it on my own... (thanks Mark and Tara)! Anyway, it's hilarious, enjoy!

Roses

Here is a photo I took today, of Lucy with (fake) roses... she did her best to try to rip them apart and eat them but I got plenty of good pictures of her, so please check them out! She is wearing another old sweater from my and my sister's baby days.

4 Months... and a Reunion in Holland!

Lucy had her 4 month checkup and immunizations yesterday with Dr. Joe. It went well, although we ended up having to wait and she got hungry, so she started crying, and then while she was being poked and prodded, started screaming. The only way the doctor could hear her heart/lungs was when I finally gave her a bottle. Just when she thought things were getting better though, the nurse had to poke her legs with needles 4 times! Lucy was looking at me like I had really betrayed her, like 'how can you just stand there and let this happen?' and I felt really bad. When it was over she was sort of doing that gasping-hyperventilating (like a kid who's been crying hard!), but she calmed down by the time I had her back in her carseat. Phew!

She is a growing girl - a bit above the normal weight and length for her age, but proportionate (so that's good). She is starting to pull her knees under her butt when she is on her tummy... so I can tell she wants to crawl. Although I think it will be at least a couple more months before we see anything like that. She definitely wants to get moving!

Tonight we visited Jen & Kevin Wolthuis and had dinner - Swedish meatballs, which were excellent, and salad. I finally got to meet Elinore who I have watched grow through Jen's blog. She is even cuter in person. Jen and I were roommates in Cook Hall (at Hope) for a year, and hadn't seen each other in several years (since 2001?), and it was nice to hang out... plus our husbands really got along well! Even though a lot of time had passed it really didn't feel like it. Hopefully we can find time to get together again.

Groundhog Day

As it happens, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning, which means an early spring is on the way. Thank goodness. I'm chilly.

"This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather."

That's a quote from one of my favorite movies - Groundhog Day. And what better day to pull it out, dust if off, and watch it. I think this is the one time each year where we are guaranteed to do just that. And I love Bill Murray!

This date is also significant to me (and easy to remember...) since it was one year ago today that I found out that I was pregnant... officially - since I already had a pretty good feeling after I almost threw up from a sip of coffee (the horror!). Well, I'm back to drinking coffee of course, but I can't believe how much life has changed in the last 365 days. I couldn't imagine from just seeing two lines on a stick (a faint test line is still a line!) where I would be one year later.

Rolling Over!

Here's a new video of Lucy rolling over. She started doing this a week ago, but now is really good at rolling back onto her back with no help at all. She still can't roll onto her front by herself, but a little help gets her there pretty easily.

Pardon Killian's barking in the background!

Back on Track

After being thrown off a little bit due to teething/growth spurt issues, Lucy is back on a beautiful nap schedule, and sleeping through the night much better. I've also started feeding her a bit more. I think I had been feeding her the same amount for over a month, and I think she needs a slight increase. Anyway, I took the pacifier photo yesterday, and it just looked kind of boring... so I jazzed it up on photoshop. As you can probably tell, that's my new favore effect to play with.

There are a couple new photos on Smugmug of Lucy with her Grandma Sarah ... we visited them last night, and amazingly Lucy was happy the entire time! I say "amazingly" because for the last week she would scream and cry at least a couple times a day. I took the edge off with a little Tylenol before we left, but she was awake and more or less happy for 3 hours straight. Minimual spit-up too... well, for her that's an accomplishment!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sister Kelly's birthday! I hope it's a good one. Here's an old photo of the two of us in 1982.

It's always the last place you look....

...because then you stop lookin!

I found my keys, they were in a compartment of a purse I almost never use... I had to get a purse to take to that Stampin' Up party ... usually the diaper bag doubles as my purse, but that wouldn't be too cool... so anyway, after I went back to my parents' house to get Lucy / Ron, I threw my set of keys in the purse and did not need them - since Ron had his set to drive us home. Then I threw my purse in the guest bedroom...

I did lose a set permanently once, so I was really worried that this was a chronic problem of mine (and was getting a bit defensive about it when Ron was astonished at the fact that I lost yet ANOTHER set of keys)... anyway, there is a difference between losing and misplacing. I knew they were misplaced, and now they are on the phone stand where they belong. I did learn a lesson though - they should always be in the same spot.

Stampin' Up!

Well... a little while ago my friend Caroline invited me to a Stampin' Up party at her house. I knew there would be at least a few people there that I knew, and it would be a good way to force myself to get "away".. even for just a couple hours. Besides, I'd probably get to go home with a souvenir project (I did), and some great ideas. So, the party was last night (Thursday). Of course I didn't buy anything (although I saw many things I wish I could have gotten), but the point was that I am motivated to get back into scrapbooking... Maybe not to the extent that some people take it, with all the doo-dads and expensive embellishments (and all the tools etc. required to affix them), but at least to start getting some pages done. I do like to keep things simple, but seeing the demonstrator make her projects, which actually seemed simple watching her do it... it really is amazing what you can do with the right stuff. A person could literally spend thousands of dollars on this hobby. Stampin' Up is similar to Creative Memories, but involves (obviously) more stamping! Other than that they seem the same to me (but I'm no expert). The nice thing is you can make your own decorative paper with the stamps, to use as backgrounds. You can use letter stamps, and other designs... you can do all kinds of things! I think I'll have to just get back to the giant scrapbook project looming in the closet, and maybe pick up a few items from a craft/hobby store later. I can't be ordering the kits and sets they were offering last night. I wish! I watched my friends greedily filling out the order forms ("if you order $100 of supplies you get a free... whatever") and I was thinking "HA! Ron would kill me!".

But, I got a glass of wine, a free card (that I made), snacks, and some inspiration.

Funny Girl...

I'm not sure why, but Lucy kept arching back to look at the top end of her crib. I would try to straighten her out, and she would just fight me and keep looking up there. I'll always wonder what was so fascinating....

Photoshop Fun

Here's Kelly on her trainer in our parents' living room.

Ouch

So here's the picture I finally got from the med center. Click on it to see a larger version - and you can see just how far the break went through the base of my toe. There are more on our photo site (under 2006), which show the toe after it was realigned.

New Year's Golfing

Wow - another atypical December day, sunny and moderate temps. I was driving through town and saw Maple Hill golf course packed with golfers. I guess it's cool, they'll be able to say they golfed on December 30 (and maybe 31 too, if it stays like this). How often does that happen?