Wishing for Flip Flops

love that I am done with school forever

hate that Brett still has a bunch of school to go

love that we have three trips planned between now and August

hate that we have to leave Kennedy for one and travel alone with her for another

love that some days are getting warmer

hate that the weather is so temperamental

love that all of our birthdays are coming up

hate that Kennedy is growing up so fast

love that I'm getting better at rock climbing

hate that I haven't been able to go very often lately

love that the library has wait lists for books

hate that sometimes I have to wait a few months for books

Suitcase Adventures

Yes, we have still not put the suitcase away.  Well, it's away now, but it wasn't up until yesterday.  And although the pictures don't really do justice to what I found, I thought I would share.  Remember how Lucy squished herself into the suitcase?  I think Kennedy wanted to try too.

I actually found her sitting inside the suitcase pulling the door closed, but she moved before I could grab the camera.  I did manage to get a smile out of her though, which doesn't usually happen around the camera anymore.

And then later she found Lucy curled up inside it.  She chases Lucy around all the time.  The poor kitty has no time for herself.

You'll be seeing lots of pictures of Kennedy in the near future, especially as her birthday is coming up soon!

School's Out for the Summer, School's Out Forever

Dear School,

While you can be fun, for the moment, I hate you.  My only solace is that after Friday I will never have to deal with you again.  I will probably be breaking out into some Alice Cooper.

Looking forward to Friday,

Tired reader

Dear TV,

Thank you for being there when I need 30 minutes to myself.  I don't feel like reading anymore.  See above.

Re-run watcher

Dear President Obama,

Although I should be interested in your prime time press conference tonight, I really just wish that I could watch American Idol.  So although I will probably tune in to watch and hear what you have to say, whether or not I like it, just know that this would have been better timed on Thursday.

Concerned citizen

Dear Restaurants,

Watch out.  I don't know which one of you I will be hitting on Friday evening when I am officially done with school, but beware.  My meal will be big, fattening, and will include appetizers and desserts.  There will be leftovers for days.

Hungry graduate

Dear Seattle and Noelle's Parents,

I will finally be able to set a date to come and visit now that school is going to be done!!  I am not allowed to set concrete dates until the finals are finished, but rest assured, that will be happening over the huge dinner I will be eating on Friday evening.  I am sooo looking forward to coming!

Desperately wanting to visit Pike Place

Dear Waddoups,

I'm excited you're home!  Thank you for the delicious Sprinkles cupcake mix.  I am very excited to make it.

Your friend

How Did Lucy Get in There?

We did not unpack as soon as we got home from California - we hardly ever unpack as soon as we get home.  Our suitcase was standing upright by the couch and Brett had opened only the top part of the zipper.  I saw Lucy standing on top of it, and when I looked back a second later, she had disappeared.  Then the suitcase started mysteriously shaking.

She must have really had to squish to get in there!

And in the end I had to open the suitcase and help her out because she couldn't do it herself.  I don't know why cats feel like they need to squish themselves into the smallest place possible to sleep, but it is amusing.

Some of you with bigger computer monitors may have noticed the birthday background that I have given my blog.  That is because April celebrates many birthdays!  Mine, Brett's, the blog's, and Kennedy's!  We will be having many celebrations over the next few weeks, so I decked out my blog.  Our birthdays will be the next big events for the next little while, and we intend to have some fun!

Beach Bummer

Apparently Kennedy is not a fan of the beach.  Actually, I'm not positive whether it was the poopy diaper or the sand that actually upset her, but she was not a happy camper.

She was really happy and just being herself before Brett put her feet in the sand.  We didn't even go anywhere near the water.  But she cried.

And then Wyatt started crying because Kennedy was mad.

So they were not going to have any more sand.  Hopefully she'll get over this fear of sand before we go to Hawaii.

Thanks grandpa for such a fun trip!  We all had a blast.

Disney Hats

We all tried on a lot of hats at Disneyland since they are plentiful in the shops.  I have some Mickey mouse ears with a graduation hat on them from my senior trip to DisneyWorld with my family, and Brett and I have a set of bride and groom ones.  I had to buy Kennedy a hat, so we tried several on.  First up is pirate Goofy.  Christine ended up buying these and wearing them around.

Next up: Wyatt in the Sorcerer's Apprentice hat.

Here comes Kennedy as Minnie Mouse.  And you can see Christine sporting the pirate Goofy look.

Here are Kennedy and Wyatt in the hats that we bought for them.  I wanted this one because her name is embroidered on the back.  And of course Wyatt has his name on his hat too.

While we were waiting for the hats to be embroidered my dad found a Grumpy hat that we all thought was pretty funny.

The Disney Experience

Saturday was Kennedy's first experience with Disneyland.  I can't definitively say that she had fun, but I don't think she didn't. :) She had some nap issues and was really tired, but she was a trooper and let us have a lot of fun.  She was tired even when we got there since it was nap time.

Wyatt on the other hand was excited and ready to go!  He was a smiley boy in his cute Tigger outfit while we waited for grandpa to come back with tickets.

Here's grandpa with Kennedy and Wyatt at the entrance to Disneyland.  We had to get a picture with the Mickey flowers.  But by this point we were ready to go get on some rides.

First stop: Dumbo.  We didn't want the line to get too long, and we only had to wait about 30 minutes, which was great.

Kennedy had a good time with the air blowing in her face just like I knew she would.  She loves wind and liked the wind that was in her face during the ride.

After that we headed down to Splash Mountain, but it broke down on us twice during the day, so some people didn't get to ride it.  We of course went on all of the big rides: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion.  After the lights came back up in the elevator going down, Kennedy started clapping.  I think she liked Haunted Mansion best out of all the rides she went on.  Here is an appropriately scared but clapping picture in the elevator.

She finally fell asleep right before we got in line for Pirates.  Poor Brett was tired from carrying her around, and she was exhausted too.

We weren't able to do as much as we would have liked - I didn't realize how much having kids slows you down at a place like that.  But we had a great time nonetheless!  Considering that we went on a plane and to Knott's Berry Farm the day before and didn't get home until almost midnight that night, Kennedy was great.  And I think she had as much fun as a 10 month old can have at Disneyland.  I certainly loved watching her there and can't wait to take her back!

The Happiest Place on Earth

And so it is.  I love Disneyland and DisneyWorld.  I am so excited to take Kennedy for the first time on Saturday!  We are going to have a whirlwind trip to California, but it's going to be fun.  We're going to Knott's Berry Farm and we are going to partake of their fabulous fried chicken dinner.  It has several fattening and delicious courses with your fill of wonderful mini biscuits.  Of course we are going to go to Disneyland and take Kennedy on Dumbo, eat free fruit from Tomorrowland, and just have a great time.  We have to go on all of  my favorite rides, and introduce Kennedy to Pirates and Haunted Mansion.  We'll go to the pier and In-N-Out.  It's going to be great!!  I will make sure to post plenty of pictures next week when we get back.

I also just thought I'd make a note about American Idol.  I usually start the season out with a few favorites and then after a few weeks one or two really start to stand out.  Last year David Cook didn't really start to stand out to me until a few weeks into the competition.  But this year I have a clear cut favorite already.

Adam Lambert can wail.  I have several other people that I am rooting for and that I really enjoy listening to, but Adam takes the cake.  He has some serious stage presence, has an incredible voice, and performs better than any of the other contestants.  I don't see any reason why he won't at least be in the final show, if not take the whole thing.

I Am a Book Nerd

Yes, it's true.  I love to read and I do it often.  I can easily get so caught up in a book that I lose time or completely block out what's going on around me.  This annoys Brett when it gets really bad.  Since I graduated high school (aka June 2003) I have kept a word document on my computer that lists every book that I read during the years.  I don't count textbooks unless they were a novel or a play and I actually completed it.  I am a member of Goodreads, who are the nice people who supply me with the recently read list on the sidebar of my blog.  And yesterday I joined The Next Best Book Club on that site.  Apparently, a member of that club named Cynthia, comes up with a reading challenge for every season.  The Spring 2009 challenge started on March 1 and goes through May 31.  Each challenge is worth a certain number of points, and the people with the highest number of points at the end of the challenge get to choose a 25 point challenge for the next go round.  I signed up for this challenge.  No way I will be able to get anywhere near what some of the people are doing, but just for kicks, here is the book list that I put together based on the challenges provided.

5 points

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

2. Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos

3. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

4. The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

6. The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell (I'm working on this one now)

7. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein (on tape)

8. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

10 points

1. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

2. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

3. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

4. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

6. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

7. Sex with Kings by Eleanor Herman (historical book about king's mistresses)

8. The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by Craig M. Mullaney

9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

10. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

15 points

1. The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece by Paul Cartledge

2. Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetry

3. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

4. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

5. White Noise by Don DeLillo

6. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

7. Pale Horse by Agatha Christie and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

8. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

9. The Green Mile by Stephen King

10. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (specifically through #5)

25 points

1. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

2. John Adams by David McCullough

3. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and The Bone Box by Bob Hostetler

4. 1984 by George Orwell

5. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

6. The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir

7. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

8. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs

Warning to Wives---Never let your husband get ahold of your blog while you are out getting groceries.

For those of you who know me, you will understand.  For those of you who don't, if you did know Ashley's husband(me), then you would understand.  Where Ashley was far too generous to post pics of Kennedy's first Flu, I am not:)  I figure these pictures are far too priceless to hide away.  They will go right along with the naked bathtub pictures when it comes to providing blackmail for the future boyfriends/Boston's.  

I figure that if I get to clean it then I should get some enjoyment out of it... Mary Poppins taught us all that.  

On a cleaner note,  Ashley rocks and she is an awesome wife to have.  She has been so good and so sweet while Kennedy has been sick, having to change her bed two times a day and her clothes three.  That's alot of laundry.  she is a great wife and mommy.  I love her to death, and even more so because I know I can have fun with stuff like this, and it just makes her love me all the more.....I hope.  

The First Flu

Yes, that's right.  The day after getting her first real bruise my baby girl came down with the flu.  She threw up 5 times in 2 hours.  And she had thrown up all over her crib before I went in to get her.  Then we took her to the doctor who said that we should mostly give her apple juice until she stops throwing up.  We told him that formula was the only thing that she had kept down.  And what do you know, the second we stepped out of the office she threw up every ounce of formula she had in her stomach all over the street.  She also had the worst diarrhea ever.  The poor thing was such a trooper and was so happy yesterday.  On the other hand, I haven't seen any bodily functions (yet) today, but she is a cranky little thing!  I gave her a very small amount of oatmeal and a little bit of formula, so hopefully she'll be able to keep it down.  We are confined to the house for a while while she gets better.  I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures, but I didn't think you'd want any considering the nature of this post.  :)  The poor girl is going through a lot for just a few days!  Hopefully she'll be back to her normal self before we go to Disneyland!

The First Shiner

She's finally done it.  I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.  She never really scratched up her face when she was first born - I didn't even have to pull out the mittens.  Considering how active she is, and that she falls down somewhat frequently, I can't believe it has taken this long.  But this morning Kennedy fell and hit her eye on the coffee table.  It's kind of small, but say hello to her first real bruise.