Well, that was a little nuts!

Where to start? I'll try not to write a book here, but felt I should yammer on awhile about the totally insane trip from which Aleah and I just returned home. Ai yie yie. If I just start telling you all about it, all the things that went wrong will stand out in my mind and that's what I'll talk about. So first of all, the highlights: 1) I got to see my wonderful friend Patti get married. And see the wonderful folks at my former church in IN. It was a lovely wedding, she was a beautiful bride, etc. etc. 2) Got to spend some time catching up with my former roommate and other friends in Indiana and it was great to see them. 3) Got to see Valparaiso, our future home for a year and I really really liked it! It seemed like a really nice little town and the residential area where we'll most likely rent something is really quiet, sidewalks and families everywhere, everyone seemed really nice. Yeah, I really liked it. 4) I got to spend some time with my mom's siblings - saw lots of aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen in a long long time. That was really special. Also an aunt that lives over 5 hours away was able to make it to the get together since they were going to be relatively close by for a wedding the next day. Ok, so for the run down of the trip - Aleah came down with a cold the day before we were supposed to fly to IN. Great. She was up the night before so miserable and congested and I was so nervous about flying with her. We got up bright and early last Wednesday morning and headed to the airport. First oops of the trip - we missed our flight to Atlanta. That's right. missed it. Dave always likes to get to the airport so early. I always hate sitting around little airports forever waiting to leave, and the lines are never long so I said let's just get there a good hour or so early. Well, when you shoot for that, and then don't quite make that.... but still, we should have been fine. We got in line and it wasn't too long, but both parties were going on international flights. And it took FOREVER. Oh. my. goodness! We finally got through, went through security, and when I got to the gate, it said the flight was "now 10:50." I breathed a huge sigh of relief. My flight was supposed to leave at 10:17 so it appeared it was a little delayed. So I went and bought some things at the shop and hung out. It seemed odd that it was getting later and later and they weren't calling for boarding or anything. Well, I decided to look into it and when I showed a guy my boarding pass he said wait, that's not even the same number. uh oh. I called a number he gave me and talked with a really obnoxious woman who lectured me on the merits of arriving with time to spare, etc. etc. She assured me that this wasn't even my flight and mine was long gone. She also said there's no way I could get on this other flight and that she can only search for a flight for the same day with the same origin and destination city. ok. The only thing she could do with put me on stand by for a flight leaving at 4 from Baton Rouge and I would get into South Bend at 11 that night. oh joy. I called Dave. I was flipping out. I didn't want to spend the next 5 hours in that airport with Aleah. I decided to just stand in line for this other Atlanta flight and see what happened. Seemed like there was all sorts of hullabloo surrounding that flight but I didn't have a clue why or what was going on. Anyway, it was boarding and there were lots of people in line ahead of me so I had very little hope that I could get on it. Soon everyone just sort of cleared out of the line and boarded and there I was. An older guy who barely looked up at me asked a question and looking back, I don't think he was even talking to me. I started yammering away about missing my flight and being scheduled for another one by a cranky phone lady but is there any way I could get on this one and he grabs my boarding pass and rips it and says go find an empty seat! ummm... sir? That's the wrong boarding pass. I'll need that on in Atlanta. Oh, he grabs the right one and gives me ripped one and I got on the plane and found a seat. What in the world. I sat down in the first row behind 1st class where there's more room and the lady beside asked if I knew what was going on with the plane. I said no and she explained that this flight was supposed to leave at 6 this morning. It was now 11:40. People had spent what sounded like hours in the plane that morning while they tried to fix the pesky little engine that was acting up. Eventually they deplaned and waited and waited, which would explain all the disgruntled travelers that had now missed their connections, etc. GREAT! My tardiness is finally gonna get me killed. Flying makes me a little nervous at the best of times, but in an old shaky airplane with engine problems? EESH! That was one of the longest 1.25 hours of my life, but thankfully, we landed, Aleah did very well, and since I had originally had a long lay over in Atlanta, I was still able to make my next flight. WHEW! We got on the next plane and Aleah was beyond tired and of course pooped right after we got on the plane. We then waited a long long time to take off. Everything was delayed because of storms. When we finally got to take off, we could see all the people lined up behind us waiting to take off. They told us during the flight that we were the last plane they let go. After us they grounded all flights out of Atlanta because of the storms. So close calls on both flights, but we did in fact make it to South Bend. I think the planes had shrunk quite a bit since I last flew. Oh. my. With a kid on your lap and someone in the seat next to you (who is not child's father so you're totally on your own), it's a little insane. I had a bag packed full of junk with which to entertain her, but it was so tight I couldn't even manage to get into the bag much. ugh. Thankfully, on all flights I was sitting with very nice, understanding people. So we finally made it there and had a friend to pick us up and drive us to Warsaw. whew! One thing about this trip was that in my mind, it was going to be really relaxing and fun and we were going to spend time hanging out with friends and going to the beach and strolling the trails, etc. etc. YEAH RIGHT! Instead, it seemed that every single day was spend rushing around trying to meet deadlines and get to the next place on time. Aleah had a cold the whole time and didn't sleep well a lot of the nights. I was having crazy insomnia and just couldn't sleep well at all until I started drugging myself. So yes, it was a rather challenging trip. Thursday I left Aleah with a friend and Bethany (my former RM and I) went to look at Bridesmaids dresses (because she's getting married) and did other shopping. The next day I was going to go see my mom's family that I haven't seen in a long time. I thought We'd just get up Friday morning, pack a little bag, and be off. Nothing is ever that simple. Aleah was a grouch, it was hard to take care of her and pack both, and it seemed like I was just running around in circles and could NOT get out the door! ARG! I was borrowing Bethany's brother's car to get up to Michigan. Well, the car was a little on the old and rusty side and had it's share of quirks, but it ran, so that was good. It leaks transmission fluid so Bethany's fiance was taking care of that and then I finally got out the door. I drove to the gas station and couldn't for the life of me find where to put gas in the thing. Ha! So eventually, they came back to help me out. By this time, Aleah had waken up from her half hour nap. arg. We found the place, I got out my cash card, swiped it, then set it on top of the car while I got gas (at least I'm pretty sure that's what happened). I never claimed to be bright. FINALLY made it to my aunt and uncles and had a great time with all the aunts and uncles. That night I couldn't sleep till about 3 and then Aleah woke up at 5. She conked back out at 7 and slept till after 10:30, but of course, I did not. It was then that I decided drugs would be in my immediate future. Made it back to Warsaw the next day and realized I no longer have my cash card. shoot. But I was dashing around getting ready for the wedding so I didn't have time to think much about it. Took Aleah to the church and someone watched her there during the ceremony. It was a lovely wedding. The reception had a live string quartet. So pretty. Aleah joined us for the reception. She did pretty well, but towards the end she'd burst into loud gales of sobbing over the slightest bit of excitement, such as signing in the tent or cake smearing of the couple. sheesh kid, time to lighten up a bit! Ok, so Aleah and I drove back to the house in the same Cadillac that we had taken to Michigan, but by this time there was some serious muffler dragging on pavement issues going on. I pulled up to the house and realized that I didn't have the house key that Bethany gave me. DRAT! It was getting late, Aleah was grouching about life in the backseat. I called everyone I knew who had a key and got no answers. Funny side note. I knew the restaurant where Bethany and Boy were out to eat. I also knew that he might be proposing that night. No can you just imagine my joy at the prospect of showing up at the proposal with my snotty one year old asking for a house key. Just the proposal story you want to tell for the rest of you life. So I drove to the restaurant and as soon as I got inside, I could see them in there. I bravely peeked around the corner and saw him reach into his pocket. Panic gripped and and I quickly hid myself and then asked the ladies at the front of the restaurant to look at that couple and tell me if he's proposing. It's true! She looked and thought it was clear. So I made an appearance. They were a little surprised to see me. ha. So I got a key, set it on top of the car while I got Aleah buckled in, and made a mental note to myself to not leave it there (I have GOT to stop doing that!!). We drove home um... very slowly one might say, because the muffler was not dragging almost the whole time. I pulled in again and was met with a very VERY sinking feeling. I don't have the key. It's not in my purse or pocket. I haven't touched it since I put it on top of the car. NOOOOOOO!!!!! Now all 3 of us are locked out! Just as I was ready to burst into a million tears, I got out of the car, and would you believe it if I told you THE KEY WAS STILL THERE! Right on top of the car, right where I left it. It stayed there the whole ride home and I went up one steep hill and various turns and bumps. Could. not. believe. it! Praised the Lord and entered the house. Took drugs and slept 8 hours. yahoo! Monday Bethany and I went to Valparaiso to look for apartments/houses/duplexes/condos/etc. that might be for rent. That was a rather stressful day. I had found some ads online that seemed really promising. But quickly found that people's opinions/descriptions of what they have for rent are often different than my impressions of them. haha. Also rental units are in pretty high demand there and none of the big complexes that we went to or that I had called previously had anything available (more than a 1 br). We saw some things that people were renting privately and nothing was that great. Some could have worked, but nothing grabbed me, and they were all a bit (or a lot) disappointing. So at the end we were just walking and driving around looking for "for rent" signs and making phone calls. One place we called got back to me and said he was away so he couldn't show the place but we were free to go look in the windows. = ) So we did and whaaaaaaa!!!! It was SO nice inside! Just looks average outside. And he was asking considerably less than a lot of the junkier ones. It's a cozy little place, on the small side, but has a basement too. The kitchen was great. The only downside was that I was really hoping to find something with 3 bedrooms so when all our family and friends come to visit, we could easily accommodate them. = P But for the price and how nice everything else is, I think we're both leaning in the direction of taking it if it's still available. Maybe we can work something out with the unfinished basement. So the day ended on a pretty good note and I left more hopeful. The most traumatic event of the day was when I was going to get some information from one of the apartment complexes. I was walking up the cement steps and next thing I know - SPLAT - I was on the ground with various scrapes and bruises. It was ouchie but nothing major. Sort of fit with the theme of the trip. We made it back to Warsaw and yesterday we journeyed home, which I'm happy to report, was uneventful. Well, as uneventful ever is flying with a small child. My first flight I sat with a nice little Mennonite boy from Shipshe. The last flight we finally managed to get 2 seats to ourselves which was very nice. Aleah was so done with sitting and traveling and most of the day felt like good cardio workout. She finally gave up and was falling asleep in my arms after we landed and were taxiing to our gate. good timing. It's SO good to be home and I'm ready to not do anything like that for a very long time. Next time, Dave can go along. Or better yet, maybe HE can take Aleah on a trip. haha. Also, as I was flying home, Dave was defending his dissertation and I was thinking about that non-stop and wondering how it was going. I finally got to talk to him right before we got on the plane for Baton Rouge and he said it went well and he's now a dr. whew!! Good to hear! I'm SO SO SO glad it's over and he did it! He put in so much work and I think we're both ready for a bit more of a "normal" life, whatever that might look like. Alrighty, if you're still reading this you're either really bored, a true friend, or obligated family member. I suppose it would be possible to be all 3... hmmm... I digress. catcha later. Oh, and I never found my cash card and gave up and deleted it.

around the house...

Just a few pics. nothing too exciting to report since I last blogged. These were taken maybe a week ago - with a roomful of toys, she'd of course rather play with...

tea bags
plastic containers
the fly swatter (don't worry, I washed it)... etc.

Today - a sorta rough day. she got a fever last night and had one this afternoon and evening as well. wasn't a super happy camper. We're hoping it's teeth or a little bug, and not the dreaded ear infection coming back to visit. ugh.

Did manage to get a few smiles
Mealtimes are so crazy right now. She freaks out if she can't hold things and play with them, in addition to the food of course. She also really likes to try to eat with something and not just use her hands. She obviously hasn't perfected the skill. But she sees us eating and hey, we're not shoveling it in with our hands, so why should she (we're also not randomly throwing our food and utensils on the floor, but she hasn't made that connection yet)?

Trying to use her fork.

Ha - didn't think her face would show through the bowl. cracks me up.

Going for a quick stroll before bed. That's all, good night.

real quick

I should be in bed right now but I'm stalling I guess. It's so nice and quiet right now. Hard to pull myself away. I always have these posts that sound so great in my head, but when I go to actually post them - disappointing. Here's a few things going on around here -

- Dave is finishing up his dissertation and should have a mostly don't copy submitted on Friday. This makes me happier than many many things.

- Friday Dave and I are going to his advisor's house for dinner. These things always make me a little quivery inside, but it should be fun. I remember his wife being nice to chat with. At least a couple years ago that was the case.

- I've been babysitting very little lately due to some member in one of the 2 households being sick. Between little girls having fevers and ear infections (thankfully Aleah has been healthy for awhile now), Dave and I both getting sick, etc etc. Anyway, all this time "off" I'm sure should mean the place is spotless and I have 11 years worth of prepared meals in the freezer, and 21 boxes packed for our impending move. It of course means none of that. I don't know where all the time goes!

- I've been in a cooking slump for awhile. Like ever since we got married. haha. maybe not quite. anyway, tonight I was determined to cook something good and we were going to all eat together. Mission accomplished, be it ever so late. Aleah ate an entire can of mandarin oranges while waiting for supper to come out of the oven. And not one of those little cans either. haha.

- Yes she seems to have a good appetite these days. Making up for a month ago when she was sick for a long time maybe? Man she can put away the food. Sunday she came home from church quite hungry apparently. She ate a pile of sweet potatoes, a bunch of blueberries, some cheerioes I think, and washed it down with 4 organic perogies. haha. I add organic in there so whoever wants to can freely roll their eyes. She is looking a little chunkier than she did in April.

- One more thing about food before moving on - we used to find small lil turkeys for our crock pot. They were so yummy and easy and I could go on. Anyway, the only ones I can find now are turkeys that contain "15% solution to enhance flavors." But I don't LIKE that kind! I just want a good ol plain turkey! They taste too salty and nasty with 15 % of it being a non-turkey substance. I have no point to this story, only to say that I miss my lil turkeys! snif.

- I'm very close to taking the plunge into cloth diaperdom. I've sort of been meaning to ever since she was a few months old but there's always been good reasons not too. Anyway, I'm just tired of diaper rashes and buying diapers, etc. etc. I suppose washing diapers will be less joyful than buying them. Anyway, if there are any experts out there that want to offer tips, I'm all ears. I had a kind that I wanted to get and then someone was selling that kind on Craigslist so I might get some to try.

- In 3 weeks I'm going to Indiana to a friend's wedding and also to hopefully scope out housing options. I'm greatly looking forward to the trip and praying that flying with Aleah is much more akin to her 7 month experience and does not at all resemble her 3 month experience. shudder.

- A little Aleah update mostly for my records but you can read if you feel like it. I've been meaning to write some things down and haven't gotten around to it. Not surprisingly, her favorite word right now is YUM YUM (or num num)! Sometime in the last week or so we were in our room (no where close to food or the kitchen) and I asked her if she was hungry and right away she said YUM YUM! I didn't know she knew what hungry meant, but apparently she does. She's finally learned how to sign please and decided to be resourceful and use the same sign for thank you. She can now often be found desperately smoting her chest in hopes of getting what she wants. Such a sad lesson to learn that please can't ALWAYS work. She'll look at you desperately with those huge blue eyes, beating on her chest as if to say, I'm doing everything you asked!! Why can't I have that? It is rather sad at times. But anyway, the signing part is really cute. Dave taught her to dance to music by holding up her little index fingers and bouncing to the music. She takes this pretty seriously and usually if she hears music she'll stick her fingers up, even if she's not dancing. She's also done the "How big is Aleah?" thing for a long time, but now if she hears the words "so big" in conversation or on the TV or anywhere, her arms shoot straight up. And sometimes it's with a totally straight face, nothing fun about it - this is serious business. It's quite funny to watch. She seems to have a pretty strong sense of duty and is often pretty serious, but is usually a pretty content kid. She's also very determined when she wants something. Ok, that's all about her. Well, I should hand off the computer. I guess that's all of my ramblings for now.

A little reminiscing...

So, we had the big first birthday at our house on Saturday. I had of course been thinking about Aleah turning 1 a lot the last while (bad sentence... sorry to my in-laws who also happen to be English majors!). Anyway, I love babies, no doubt about it. I've always been a baby person more than a terrible 2 person. haha. So my natural tendency is to be sad at how fast time flies, how she's not much of a baby anymore, etc. But I guess awhile ago I just decided that I know too many truly sad stories and your baby turning one is not one of them. So this is not going to be sad for me! I'm going to remember with great joy (and fatigue), the adorable, tiny, cuddly baby stage, but gracious, she makes a pretty swell one year old too and we're just going to think about all the fun times ahead and um, find a way to keep her from totally destroying the place. But it is really fun to look back and remember when she was born. Especially being further removed from all the emotion and um, ouch, of it all. What a day that was. wowee. Here's a few pictures - I think some of them were floating around FB awhile back and drum roll please.... some of them never before released to the general public.

I don't know if you can see it as well on the resized pic, but it was a long time later that I noticed her little foot sticking up on this picture. So crazy.
She wasn't born how I wanted her to be (as in delivery method, not her personally - she was perfect), but wow, there was nothing in the world like this moment - I got to watch it all in the mirror - the photo has been nicely edited. There are things on that pic that I think went back inside me. At least I hope they did! ha. and shudder.

Getting a first close up look at her.

Now I need to preface this next pic - you know when you see pictures of these beautiful women who have just given birth but they don't even look like it at all? And you wonder, how could that person really have just had a baby?? Well, I'm proud to say, I'm not one of them! My sister told me I could just delete this photo -what? I'm proud of how hideous I look and how crazy much work it took to get her birthed! Delete it? no way? I'm about to share it with the world. Cause I'm a dork. Anyway, I have family members like the aforementioned ladies, and really, I'm happy for you. = )

eesh
That first night I was so exhausted but also really drugged up so I couldn't sleep much. I just held her most of the night and drifted in and out of sleep. I hoped it made up for the hours I wasn't able to be with her right after she was born. She seemed totally perfect and I couldn't believe she was ours!

"Tell me a story mom."


SO tiny in that big car seat.
And wow - a mere 6 months later and her thighs have swelled to 100 times their original size. I think this was the height of her chunkiness.

And now she's one - her thighs aren't that huge anymore but she's still pretty squishable. And she's got some hair which is fun. (and not as heavy to haul around as the thighs)

Little party at the park - So, I tired to do everything ladybugs, but looking at the pics, it just looks red and black. Oh well. There was a nice big ladybug balloon that flew away before the party started and only shortly before we lost all of these. = ( A friend took a bunch of pics so I'll try to post more when I have them. I didn't get tons of great ones.

She did really like the cake.
Hanging out, opening some presents with her pal. So there ya have it. One year old. My friend Sue was supposed to come over the weekend, but her flight was canceled so she's planning on coming this coming weekend instead. So I'm really really really looking forward to hanging out with her. The birthday festivities on Saturday were followed by the nastiest case of stomach flu befalling me - I don't think I've had it that bad since I was a teenager. And thankfully, no one else here has gotten it. I'm praying it stays that way. I felt like I was going to die, but thankfully, it didn't last long. whew! the End.

Double Trouble

Just thought I'd stop by and say hey. Life is crazy right now. Dave is working day and night on getting assignments done. I'm trying to do a birthday party and getting ready for company. I'm so tired I'm ready to drop, but there's still lots to do so I guess I won't. Can't believe our little squirt is going to be 1 tomorrow. I read someone's blog who commented that she always found her kids a ton of work around age 0ne - able to get into everything and still very needy. Today I've been reminiscing a lot about the glory days when she would just sit on the floor and play for hours and I could run around doing whatever I wanted. Not anymore. She is way way more work than she was at 8 months or so. Doesn't sleep as much and is of course into everything, making it really hard to get anything done (this morning I really wanted a babysitter so I could efficiently get things. That didn't work out, so I decided to pretend that I have 10 kids and 9 of them were at the sitter's - might have helped a little). Anyway, it's also a really fun age because her little personality is budding (I guess that isn't always so great - haha) and she's learning new things and all that fun stuff. We went to the doctor this morning for her ear check and and 12 month check up. FINALLY, the ear infection is gone. I was so happy I almost cried. No more nasty drugs and the resulting intestinal joys. She weighs 21 and a halfish - actually less than she weighed at 9 months. So she's gone from the 95th percentile to the 50th in weight. Ok, I should keep working. Have a great weekend.

some words

I realized it's been ages since I've actually written anything on here. So real quick because I'm sure Dave will need the computer at any moment now...

• Most of you probably heard, but Dave accepted a one year teaching position at Valpo University in Indiana. So we'll be moving shorty after August 5th. It's crazy to think about being that close to where I moved from almost 3 years ago.
• I don't know what in the world is going on - the other day I opened the flour and there was a bug in it. gross. And it wasn't nearly old enough to have bugs. Yesterday we were eating lunch and I looked down at a big ol piece of lettuce there was a big slimy dead bug on it. again, GROSS! And a smaller slimy dead bug for good measure. THEN, this morning I was eating some cereal of all things, looked down, and there was a live bug floating around in it! Identical to the one that was in the flour. A cousin or brother in law perhaps. WHAT is going on???? I do clean the kitchen occasionally! I was so thoroughly grossed out.
• I'm very tired and thought I had more to say but maybe I don't. Aleah has been feeling ok ear infection wise, as far as I know, from what she's told me anyway. But I think her teeth are making her mad lately. Today was one of those days. We ended up in the pool though and that (and maybe the Orajel) made things a lot better. It was so smoking hot outside and the pool was nice and cool - a perfect combination.
• Ok I thought I had more but I don't and Dave needs the computer to finish up that little paper he's working on so he can graduate. yahoo! The end is in sight. The whole world is welcome to come party with us in a month or so.

Just cuz...

a couple days ago I was snapping some shots. Grandma C had gotten her this cute lil ensemble and we actually had a cool day so I had to of course, take some snaps.
But mom, I don't want to do this now! I'm tired!

One smile for dad

After some sleep. That's all. Have a good night/day!

One of her new favorite things to do - "How Big is Aleah?"

Just hangin out, all squeaky. with a cool hairdo.

Easter Sunday - We had a potluck lunch with some friends and it was a nice time. She didn't sleep and it was next to impossible to get any good pictures of cranky, sleep deprived child. But here's a few anyway - finding her one and only egg, which she developed a fierce passion for.

Um, yeah, she really did fall in love with that purple plastic.

Hanging out with her friend and fighting over the one egg. I think it was confiscated for a bit for this picture. funny kids. Ok, that's all for now.