Miaka's Month of Firsts

So, I'm a bit late posting all this, but better late than never, right? :) During June, Miaka did a lot of things for the first time:

The night before we left for Oregon, she pulled herself to standing in her crib, for the first time. She loves to stand!
A few weeks before we left, she was "scooting" around the floor, sort of Army crawl. While hanging out in Oregon and Washington, she started Crawling with a capital C. :)
She also started sitting on her own, and being able to transfer from sitting to crawling. :D


She sat up in a shopping cart! And then she slobbered on it.
She had her first ice cream. "Grampa" Gilbert had the gall to try to take it away from her, and I heard her scream from the other side of the store. LOLShe had solid foods for the first time. She had had "slobber foods" (you know, those little cereal thingies that dissolve easily with slobber) before, but she tried several jar baby foods, and loved them! really, she did.
She moved up in diaper sizes, from size 1 to 2. wahoo! :)

When we got home, we took her 0-3 months clothes and moved in her 3-6month size! Yes indeed, she's a growing girl. :)
She went into a pool for the first time. whee! okay, this is just her playing in an empty pool, but still fun!This is "for reals" at Busch Gardens.
There ya go, dad! :)

And back again...

We (the kids and I) went to Oregon for Jaylin's funeral. We stayed for 9 days, helping Emily get settled. Then we took a train ride and went to Maple Valley, WA for a week. I finally bought the return tickets on Friday, after looking at several options; for Saturday at 12:20. Friday afternoon, we got to hang out with Levi. I'm so glad I saw him! I apparently wrote a horrible letter to him several years ago, and told him I couldn't be his friend, and that's why we haven't spoken in 8+ years. I suck. I apologized. We moved on. yay! (yes, a horrible summation, but there it is) So I got "home" a lot later than I intended, and since both of my sisters were at the local fair, I was locked out (turns out I wasn't, but oh well). I finally got the text with the code to get into Missy's house, but after getting the kids to bed (I had to take them to Preston's for one last hurrah, lol) and all, I fell asleep with Miaka and thus couldn't pack the car.

Saturday dawned bright and early, but I slept through it. LOL! I didn't wake up until 8, and then didn't get everything packed in Sheila's car until 10, and we didn't leave until close to 10:45. yeah! So we get to the airport just after 11. Unload all the bags (checking in 6!) and realize Miaka was asleep, so Sheila kept her there at the car while I checked us in. The first guy got all flustered and handed me off to another lady. She asked again what time my flight was, where I was going, etc. After several minutes, she said, "Your flight was at 10:20." WHAT!!?? I just stood there with my jaw open, and feeling SO STUPID. I said, "Oh my!" She looked at other options for me to travel that day, and said, "There's a flight into Salt Lake, then on to Las Vegas. hmmm...but you'd have to stay the night there." I blurted out, "I don't know anyone in Las Vegas!"** She tried to help me feel better, and joked, "Are you staying with family? Are you still on good terms with them?" I laughed, and said, "Yes, my sister is right over there. I must have mixed up another day's time with today and just got it stuck in my head, I'm so embarrassed!" And she replied, "Well, you've got a lot going on. 3 kids, checking in 6 bags, that's a lot!" :) So in the end, she booked me for Sunday and no additional cost. Thank you, nice Southwest lady! :D

Well, the rest of the day I was a burden. LOL Seriously, Sheila and Missy were expecting me to be gone, and they did a lot of work making sure I was included in all their activities. They even traded cars so that Preston and my boys could hang out some more. (I had been using Sheila and Andy's extra car, but Andy needed it that day.) In all this, I was not able to visit my mom again, which upset her. It upset me, too, but what could I have done? For some reason, after missing my flight, calling my mom wasn't my first thought.

Sunday there was very little to pack, since I just grabbed some clothes from the bags. We got there in plenty of time, boarded smoothly. There were some people grumbling (audibly) about "the baby" on the plane, while waiting to board. Miaka woke up, looked back, grinned real big and everyone went, "oooohhhh!" and smiled and laughed. That flight was 4.5 hours long, and I got lots of compliments afterwards on how well-behaved my children were. yay me! :) The flight attendants made the trip fun by saying funny things, like "You're getting very sleepy!" when we taxiied for take-off, and whispering, "Wake u-up!" when we taxiied at landing.

When we got to Chicago, I noticed that our connecting flight was delayed, and wouldn't leave for 3 hours. I got dinner from Potbelly's (where else? ;>) and then realized there was a USO, so we headed over there. What a nice place! TV, comfy chairs, internet, a semi-secluded dark room (perfect for nursing the baby), food, drinks...and it was all free! :) The volunteers there were so helpful and accommodating. About 10 minutes before boarding, we left there and headed to the gate. ... Where we found that the flight was delayed ANOTHER hour. OMG!!! The USO had closed, so I had to wait with the kids right there, with all the other grumbly and upset passengers. When we finally got on the plane, I was amazed and thankful that the boys did NOT fall asleep on the flight (it was only a 1-hour flight).

So we arrived without further incident, and finally got home around 1:30am. Of course, I've been on West Coast time (yes, I know it's called Pacific, whatever LOL) for 2 weeks, so for me it was only 10:30, and I had a hard time getting to bed and asleep. I finally fell asleep around 4:30, and didn't wake up until after 8, and the boys were still asleep, so I decided that Krillin was NOT starting Cub Scout camp that day. LOL :)

The boys are now fine, but I am still having a tough time adjusting to East Coast time. Is it because I'm older? Because of the time of day I arrived? or just because I'm stubborn? ;)

**It was at this point, in telling the story to Missy, once we got back to Sheila's house (4 hours later) that Missy almost collapsed to the floor in laughter. I realized with horror who I had forgotten, and whispered, "Oh. Dad." I could have seen my dad, his wife, and my sister Lisa, all in one stroke (all of whom I haven't seen for at least a year), and I totally blanked on them. I suck.
"I don't know anyone in Las Vegas!" is now my motto for when I do something totally, inconceivably stupid.

please pray for my friend Emily

My friend since we first met in 2003, Emily, lost her daughter on Friday night. Little Jaylin, who would have turned 2 this summer, was hit by a car and died that night. David is taking it especially hard, and is under a doctor's care. Please pray for her family.

new pictures

I uploaded new pictures to Facebook. What? You're not my friend on FB yet? What are you waiting for? ;) Here's a link to the album. :) **click the picture!**

Earth, wind, and...wait for it...

Last night I made bread. That, plus the week's worth of "not-dishwasher-able" dishes made for a pretty hefty pile. So once the dish-drain was full, I folded a towel and placed it on our flat-surface cooktop, and started putting the heavy dishes there to dry. A bit later, P-chan decided to cook some chicken helper for his lunch. After several minutes, he yelled out to me, something about smoke. The towel was smoking! He grabbed the stoneware pieces and told me to take them, that they weren't hot. My brain was slow, and didn't believe him, so he got a little frantic. I finally moved and placed them in the sink, while he turned off the burner. I grabbed the towel, which was smoldering, and took it to the back porch, where it promptly burst into flames. I was still holding it, so of course I did the logical thing and started waving it around. *yeah, not smart, I know* Then I remembered what I was actually supposed to do, and dropped it, and smothered it with itself. After the flames were out, it still sat smoldering, so I had to get a cup of water to douse it.
So how did the burner get turned on? I had assumed that P-chan had somehow turned on the wrong burner, but it turns out that as the stoneware was drying, one of them turned on the burner. Moral of the story? Don't use your stove for a drying area!
And also, I need more counter space....

At least the bread turned out pretty well. I forgot that I was supposed to add several minutes to the baking time, since I was using my stoneware pans. It was a bit doughy when it first came out, but I think it's fine now. And since I'm a pack-rat, I had bread bags on hand, so it looks like I bought unsliced bread. I posted the recipe over at Kitchen Crazy.

Any ideas where the camera's cord is? Yeah, me neither.

backup, backup, backup!

About a week ago, one of my external hard drives stopped working. For a few days, it had been making a weird clicking noise. Then, it just stopped being recognized by the computer. At first, I thought it was "no big deal" because it's the EHD that has all my "digital freebies" (digital scrapbook stuff that I've downloaded for free). But as time goes on, I realize that EHD had more and more stuff on it that I'd forgotten about. Like the Excel file with all my unused coupons for different digi stores. And all the digital card projects (that I'd paid for!). Plus, almost 2 years of my favorites sites.
Since the EHD crashed, I've signed up for Mozy. The backup had been running for several days, and was 36% complete. Then last night, Windows thought it would be the perfect time to install some updates and restart the computer. GAAAAHHH!!! Now the Mozy backup had to start all over. oh, I am so frustrated!!!
But, I am relieved that the other EHD is still working fine. That one has all the pictures, completed scrapbook pages, and all the digi stuff that I've purchased.

Moral of the story: backup your files!! You never know what you're going to miss using.

Got boogies?

I've seen these in several stores recently, and I have to admit, I laughed that we would "need" wipes just for boogers. But with a sick baby girl and not feeling so hot myself, I decided to give them a try. I love them! It's that simple. :) And then I found this giveaway on a blog, so I had to enter!! Sweeps4Bloggers is holding a contest to win 2 packs. Wish me luck! :)