Our new project

When we built our house four and a half years ago, I had a friend's dad come out and do our tile work throughout the house. He'd been doing this for over 20 years, and had also done some work on my friend's house, so I assumed he knew what he was doing. But as you will see, he obviously didn't. And now, we have to tear up the floor in the kitchen and dining area, and the entryway from the garage and put a new floor down. I started pulling up the tiles on Wednesday and finished cleaning up the mess on Friday evening. But now I have to get the backer board up and that's going to be interesting. So, below is what the kitchen floor looked like before I got started. Over the past year or so, these tiles had just come up on their own. First, we covered the area with a rug, then two rugs, and most recently, a tarp.

This is after some demo work...

Dining room after even more demo work...

So, I'm hoping to have it down to subfloor possibly by Monday. Good Lord willing! Then we're gettting pergo. Ooooh...

We also attended a joint birthday party for my friends two kids, Alyssa and Alex. It was at Chuck E. Cheese's and it was a lot of fun. Here's Sydney, indulging in some pizza. Mmmm

And dancing with Chuck E. and the birthday girl.

Without my baby!

Chris's mom wanted to keep Sydney Sunday night and Monday night, so here I am, without child. I've been away from her before, but I do miss her. I've come to realize through other people's misfortunes how lucky I am to have what I have and who I have. And I want to let everyone know that they should thank God everyday for what he's blessed them with, because it could be completely gone in an instant. Ok, enough of that stuff.
So, my plan tonight since I didn't have her was to come home, eat pizza in bed, drink wine, and watch t.v. And we did. And it was great. My next goal is to take a nice warm bath with no interruptions! Who knows when I'll get another chance at that!
The crabs are still doing well, although for some reason, the big one (Charlotte) likes to pinch Sydney. And only Sydney. We can't figure that one out. Unless it's kind of like Jennie's son and she's like dough. And the crab just can't help herself. She told my mom the other day that it was ok if mom wanted to hold Charlotte, cause she "doesn't bite grownups." I felt so bad for her too, because she had just overcome her fear of her and was so proud of herself for letting the crab sit in her hand, that she wanted to show Daddy. So she goes running into the living room and said "look Daddy, I'm not scared anymore." And about that time was when Charlotte clamped down the jaws of life. The mark was still there 2 days later!
The other day, after swim class, Sydney informed me that she wished I had named her Tigerlilly. Then it was Megan. Today it's Sara I've been told by my mother-in-law. I remembered when I was young, I really wanted my parents to rename me Stacy.???
Anyway, that's all for now.

Sorry it's been a while

Sorry it's been so long since last post, but it's been busy and I haven't been looking forward to uploading so many pics. So much has happened since last time. Let's see, my brother in law, his wife and their daughter moved out last weekend. It was kind of sad. It didn't really hit Sydney until Sunday night, when we had to leave Addison at her new house. Sydney's new plan is to have daddy pick up our house, put it on the truck and move it closer to Addison. She cracks me up. I mean, why not? Sounds perfectly logical to a 4 year old. So, Friday was our big trip to Cinci. I do not have any pics from the Bodies exhibit. No pictures allowed. All I can say is it was a little stomach turning at first. And don't worry, our friend Robin took Sydney to the zoo while we did that. Although, there were a surprising amount of small children there. Anyway, all I have is pics of the Newport Aquarium. So, here we go...

Sydney was absolutely beside herself with excitement when we got there. She was bouncing around and jumping and screaming. So, the above pic was taken as soon as we got down the escalator.

They had a little indoor playground for the kids. I think they were supposed to be finding some kind of creature in there, but all I smelled was dirty feet. It was gross, but Sydney didn't notice and we barely got her out.

This was by far the best part of the trip! I have no idea what birds are doing in an aquarium, but I don't even care. Although I did get peed on, twice, it was still a good time. I love the look on her face in this picture.

This bird landed on Chris's hand, took the cup from him and tipped it back like a tall drink. It was the funniest thing!

Here's Sydney, doctoring the shark.

She even got to pet them. That was pretty neat!

Ok, so at the end, Chris spotted a guy selling hermit crabs at a kiosk outside the aquarium. It was his childhood dream to have a hermit crab and his mom wouldn't let him, so he just had to buy one for Sydney. Then I was reading the chart that came with her and it said they like company and if you only have one, they'll get lonely. So, we had to get another one! So here she is with her two crabs, Charlotte and Jasmine.

However, as I write this post, I must report that our dog got a hold of the cage, ripped one of Jasmine's legs off and she died maybe 2 days later. She was fine at first, they can lose limbs and regrow them after they molt, but I think she must have died of shock or something. So, since we were down to just one, you can guess what we had to do next. That's right, get another one. Or two. I mean, they were just two for $6 at the pet store. And we got them a bigger cage.

And here is their new setup. I put three extra shells that I already had from some previous Florida beach combing in there so they can change shells if they feel the need. So now we still have Charlotte, who is inthe back in this picture, lavender shell, and Aladdin, who is the middle sized one, and Jasmine (again), who is the smallest. They like to climb, which is why the sticks are in there. I've done a lot of reading on these little critters and I've really grown attached to them. Strange, I know.

The passing of Kurla Iguana and a new car seat!

Well, today when we got home, Sydney went to check on her new caterpillar friend and alas, he had passed away. I'm surprised he lasted this long, honestly. She frowned for a second and then moved on.

Sydney has been too big, weight wise, for her 5 point harness car seat for quite some time now, so on lunch yesterday, I scoped out Target to see what they had. And I found this. I knew she would love it, so when I picked her up from mom's, I took her back. There was another one with a cute pattern, but not girly like this. So, I took her down the aisle and pointed it out to her. She shouted "holy crap!" It was hard not to laugh! So, of course, I bought it, she loves it, and we're now safe on the road.

Future Entomologist

I swear I'll be surprised if Sydney doesn't have some future career involving bugs. Not only did she collect more "shell bugs" for me today at mom's, she also found a little friend. A tiny caterpillar she named Kurla Iguana (I have no idea). She put it in a bucket with some leaves and sand. Why sand you ask? Because she's convinced that's what he eats. Mom didn't mention it in front of her when I went to pick Sydney up, she was hoping she'd just forget. Yeah right. So, it came home with us.

Here she is with her new friend and showing off her newest talent, winking.

Kurla Iguana, our new "pet"

This is just a funny picture from the other day. I heard her in the kitchen, getting into something, and then in she comes with about 10 straws in a cup of juice.

Also, yesterday, I caught Sydney in the middle of peeing in the living room floor. Pants down and all. I walked in and she just looked at me kind of startled and said "the dog peed." Amazing the skills this child has. Of course, I was NOT amused and when I asked her why she would do that, she told me she didn't know where the bathroom was. When prompted further, I discovered the real truth was that she didn't want to stop watching SpongeBob to go to the bathroom. And what's bad is that last week sometime I discovered a wet spot in close proximity to this one and she told me the dog did it. I was surprised by that, cause the dog hasn't had an accident in forever, so I thought the cat had done it, but I smelled it and it wasn't cat pee, so I figured it must be dog pee and she got in trouble for it. I'm pretty sure now it was Sydney. I really hope after last night and our discussion and her punishment that she won't be doing this again.

Friday we're headed to Cinci to see the Bodies exhibit (don't worry, a friend is taking Sydney to the zoo instead) and the aquarium, so I'm pretty pumped about that. Of course, picture overload will follow!

Go Karts and other fun stuff

We went with some friends from work to a local go kart track/putt putt/game area/batting cages, the list goes on. This place was awesome! Sydney had so much fun. We could've stayed a lot longer, but it got late. We are definately going back!Here's Sydney playing whack-a-mole

Waiting in line for the go-karts!

She was smiling from the time they let her through the gate till the time she got out. Chris said she just laughed the entire time the first lap around. She loved it!!

Playing Air Hockey for the first time. This didn't last long, cause she had to really go to the bathroom in the middle of the game and it timed out on us.

These are her winnings from all 113 tickets she got. A crown, the purple wrist keychain, and the ring. We took her for ice cream afterwards and as soon as she was done eating that, she fell asleep in the car. She was out for the night!

Back to the Grindstone

This is what my lovely, wonderful co-workers got for me for my surgery. Today was my second day back and I'm still adjusting. But this helped for sure!

Here's a few older pics, just because. This is my brother's dog, Lucy. Isn't she the sweetest thing ever? Oh, sorry Cori, I mean, besides you. Obviously.

Sydney and her butterfly net with a tiny catch!

I love this picture! So precious. She's been saying the cutest things lately. Here are some of my faves.

1. "You're crazin' me nuts!" This ones been going on for quite some time. Another variation is "You're crazin' me out!"

2. "Larissa scratched me and she almost got the blood out of me!" Said with a complete look of shock and disbelief.

3. "I like to snuggle the grass. It keeps me warm and cozy."

I don't know where she gets this stuff, but it's so funny. I love this age, she's discovering things on her own and forming her own thoughts about the way things are.

Bubbles, Bugs, and Birthday Cakes

We were all outside last night enjoying the evening. Here's my honey doing his favorite thing. No really, he loves that mower. And the crazy dog, running in front of it, barking at it. This dog has a serious complex. She barks and bites the vacuum cleaner, she barks at cars, and even bugs. It's really annoying, but I figure one day she'll bark at something important and somehow save my life. So, I keep her.

I love this picture, cause Addison is just camly inspecting the bubble blowing bee while Sydney is screaming like a banchee and running like crazy!

Sydney collected these "shell bugs" as she calls them at memaw's house and saved them so she could show me. My child is going to be the next Jeff Corwin. She loves bugs and is not afraid of them at all! She makes homes for earthworms and hugs praying mantis. She did NOT get that from me!


Here's Addy blowing bubbles. Notice the mismatched flip flops. I love this kid!

Addison said this was my birthday cake. Awww.

But then they took it back and made this masterpiece. I was then told it was Addison's birthday cake. So we had to sing to her. She got embarrased and ran away.

Water fight

Sydney and Addison decided to entertain themselves with water balloons yesterday. It was funny, because Addison would get mad when Sydney acted like she was going to throw one at her. Isn't that the name of the game? Anyway, they were both wet, and happy, when all was said and done. Then Sydney insisted on mopping the garage floor so they could "ice skate." I couldn't figure out why Sydney was putting the balloons over her face in this last picture, but she said it had to be that way, cause it would be a funny picture. Poor Addison only had one, and had no clue why this was funny, but went along with it anyway. As for me, I was set on going back to work today, but then decided on a half day. As I was getting ready, the pain really started to get to me and I decided I'd just stay home. I also got someone to trade their day off with me tomorrow, so I won't be going back till Wednesday. To celebrate, I doped up on percocet and watched TLC's "What Not to Wear." I love that show! And if anyone wants to nominate me, I won't be offended in the slightest!

A Get Well Card

This is the get well card Sydney made for me while she was at mom's. Isn't it cute?

I stupidly decided to see how it felt not to take my pain medicine today, so I could judge how I was truly feeling and to see if going back to work on Monday would be wise. Well, I deduced that wasn't a good idea. I'm going to try switching to ibuprofen tomorrow to see how that does all day.

On top of it all, Chris is sick now. I think he must have caught a bug at the hospital. So, we're both laid up with a wild child running circles around us. Yee haw! Oh well, this too shall pass.

Addison's Birthday

Today was Addison's third birthday! For those of you who are reading this and don't know who Addison is, she's my niece. Chris's brothers little girl. And for the last 7 months, she's been living with us (along with her parents). They'll be moving out shortly and it's going to be a heartbreaking day, not just for me, but mostly for Sydney. As much as they fight, they love each other so much, wanting to spend every waking moment together.

Chris went and bought Addison the cupcakes, since they aren't having her party until they get settled into their new house. So, Happy Birthday Addy Mac!

Day of Surgery

Here I am in all my pre-op glory. Chris thought the compression stockings and the blue booties were to die for and had to take a picture. I'm really glad he didn't get an after picture, cause I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been as cute as this one. They had a hard time waking me up from the anesthesia. I had this same problem when I had my wisdom teeth pulled, so I'm guessing this is just going to be the way it is. It's now 5:30 Friday morning and since I pretty much slept all day yesterday, I'm now awake. I took a pain pill though, so hopefully I can get some more rest shortly.

The pain was harsh yesterday, it's getting better. It does feel better the more I move around, just like they said it would. I'm really hoping to go back to work on Monday, but I guess time will tell. Something they didn't warn me about was that the anesthesia can make you feel like you have an entire bag of cotton balls in your mouth. That sucks! While we were waiting for my medicine to get filled, Chris took me to get some ice cream. When I got down to the last of the cone, I could hardly swallow what I'd chewed! I thought I was going to choke to death in the car. But, alas, I didn't.

Sydney stayed overnight at my mom's last night and Chris will pick her up today. While I'll be glad to see her, I'm pretty sure she won't leave me alone and I have a feeling at some point, she's going to hurt me, not on purpose, mind you, but in the way that 4 year olds have a knack for. Well, I guess I should try to go back to sleep and get better. Thanks to everyone who was praying for me or thinking of me. Love you guys!