some days are just hard...

I'm not going to go into detail, but you may not know that my new exciting and glamorous job fell through. It's a long stupid story that results in me looking for jobs again. I got a temporary 2 month position that starts in 2 weeks, but beyond that, I'm looking. This of course has caused some economical challenges for us, but we're doing the best we can and are grateful for help from family.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from 7th grade through high school got married. I found out about it from someone else's blog. Today I found out that another friend from elementary school through high school got married and apparently nearly everyone from our little high school group of friends knew about it. I'm not sure what to do with all of this information, but I am having a hard time with it. I'm not sure if it means that I was a bad friend after high school to not keep in touch as well as I could have or if it means that we were never really that close. This is aside from like 3 other marriages of friends in the past year that I either found out about after the fact or on Facebook. I know that my religious values sometimes left me on the outside of things, but it is just really upsetting. These are people I sought out when I got married to make sure they at least got an announcement. These days I don't really have any close friends who I HAVE to call when I get news, aside from my sisters anyway. Maybe that's the trade-off for having a close-knit family and a husband, but I guess I'm just not the type of person who can completely let go of a friendship, even if it's been a long time. I know I could've made many more efforts to see these old friends though, so maybe I shouldn't be so worked up about it.

Anyway, I just needed to vent a little. This evening Luke and I are going to take Adelle and just get out of the house for a little Family Home Evening. Location is TBD, but I'm excited to just get out and do something as a family, even if it's just window shopping or going for a walk!

time to update

Hello to everyone.

Not much to report today, but I wanted to share some exciting news (no, I'm not pregnant).  You may know that I have a card blog, where I show cards that I've made, etc.  Well, recently I've been submitting cards to be published in card/craft magazines, and one of my cards was selected!  I will be published in the March 2010 issue of CARDS magazine, which is one of my favorite craft magazines.  I can't wait!  I already had to box up the card and send it with details on the materials I used, how to make it, etc.  They'll send it back to me after the March issue comes out and will send a bunch of cardmaking goodies and 2 copies of the magazine along with it.  Yay :)  This was kind of a goal when I got started and I have come a long way since the beginning of my blog.  I've had fun learning about different techniques, trends, etc.  Each publication asks for specific criteria depending on the issue, so that's how you decide what to submit.  Here's an example.  Anyway, I can't show you the card now, but after it's published I will be sure to post it on here. :)

Adelle is as cute as ever and is becoming more and more dependent on us for entertainment.  She's never been too attached, but lately she wants to be held or us to be playing with her all the time.  She also got her first ouchie this week... nothing serious, but she slipped and hit her face on the corner of the coffee table.  It didn't break skin, but she has a long bruise line down her cheek.  She barely cried -- just got mad when I tried to put ice on it.

That's all!  Hope everyone is doing well.

sleepy adelle pictures...

taken 10/5/09 in the early A.M.

a busy busy busy month.

wow, i can't believe it's been nearly a whole month since i last posted... adelle is as cute as ever of course and she's kind of a big stinker. she likes to play with her daddy's XBOX and when he tells her 'no,' she looks at him, shakes her head no, then laughs and usually goes after it again. she is saying "up" and can repeat a series of notes if i sing "ahhh" to her.

about 2 weeks ago, i started a new job in OP. i'm working primarily from home, but am enjoying the change so far. monday evening luke and i moved to the KC area and really love our new place. i'll be sure to take some pictures when we finish unpacking (we're pretty close already). luke has had several job interviews and we're just waiting to hear back. tuesday evening, we found the phone number of a bishop of the ward we thought we would be in and called him. that same evening the elder's quorum president, elder's quorum secretary, and relief society secretary called us to set up times to meet us. luke already played bball tuesday night and i got to meet the r.s. pres and secretary this morning. the r.s. president in my new ward is one of my former YW leaders from growing up in lawrence. sometimes i forget how small the church really is. anyway, we get to meet in the brand new stake center, which is pretty close to home (and for luke that means a full-size basketball court).

that's the update for now. i need to take/post some more pics of us and adelle. we're so blessed to have such a sweet/funny baby. tonight we have a visit from the EQP and EQ secretary. then bball for luke and SLEEP for me. it's going to be great.

milestones and what not.

I think I'll just start with some cute pictures of Adelle, since they're not really related to the post.

Here's Adelle during bath time. I just wanted to show off her pretty face and long eyelashes :D

Here's Adelle's favorite bath time pastime (that's a mouthful -- the words, not the rubber ducky).

I cannot tell you how many times we have found Adelle chewing on her binky like this. So silly.

so i bet you're all wondering what we're up to these days... well at least our cute little girl.

just a day after my last post, so on August 12th, Adelle started pulling herself up to standing in her crib. she did that for a few days and then started doing it with furniture around the living room. about a week ago she started doing a LITTLE cruising (walking while holding on to furniture), but she only does it if she sees something really worth getting. also, she has been crawling since just a couple of days before she turned 9 months, so also just a few days after my last post. She is very quick and already pretty sneaky. also, about 2 weeks ago (so right after she turned 9 months) she started saying "dada" somewhat consistently. she definitely knows who "dada" and "mama" are and will sometimes try to say "mama," especially when she's crying.

we had adelle's well-child 9 month visit on Monday and the doctor couldn't believe how healthy and on target she was! she now weighs 20 lbs and 10 oz and is 29 inches tall (that's 3 inches in 3 months). the doctor also said, because she's getting all the nutrition she needs and eating so well, that we could start to phase in whole milk instead of formula and also more finger foods (you know, since she already has EIGHT teeth). she's already had a lot of finger foods, but i think we're going to start giving her veggies primarily in the finger food form because she has developed this habit to start talking and blowing out air and making silly noises as soon as she gets a spoonful in her mouth (only with veggies or something she doesn't quite like as much as fruit), making it gets all over her and us instead of you know, into her body.

i've gotten to go to a couple rehearsals now for the Kansas City Symphony Chorus. I don't think I knew what to expect when we (my mom and I) started, but it is such a wide range of people - experience, background, AGE, etc. Overall it's a fun time, though I forgot how much Charles Bruffy loves count singing :) I'm enjoying singing again and look forward to the performances and other opportunities it may present.

Oh, and I'm 25 now, as of Saturday the 29th. So far, it feels good :P

Update!

Hello hello! Not a ton has been going on for us. We just had a transition in the house where we work, so that has kept our hands and calendars pretty full. Transitions can be really challenging -- especially when we don't have all of the information -- but we're doing the best we can with what we've got!

On Saturday, I had an audition for the Kansas City Symphony Chorus. I have been looking for ways to get back into singing for a while now, so when they emailed me about auditions (I signed up for updates from them), I was excited to get involved. I was out the door on time to take Adelle over to my parents' house while I was gone, but then everything else went wrong. First of all, I wasn't paying attention and headed for the wrong highway. Turns out I could've gone that way, but without directions, I didn't want to get lost. So, I turned around and lost about 15 minutes. Then I decided to take the North Lawrence exit to KC and there was a huge detour once I got over the bridge. I got so lost in North Lawrence trying to figure out where to go that by that time, I had burned about 35 minutes, meaning I would undoubtedly be late. Well, I was late, but only by 5 minutes and they were running about 10 minutes late! So, I had just enough time to fill out my audition form and then sing. The audition was actually fun. Charles Bruffy, the director, worked with me a little bit, having me sing my song in different ways ('Pie Jesu' from Faure's Requiem) follow by a little sight reading. Then at the end of the audition they welcomed me to the choir and gave me the music! I'm really excited to sing on a regular basis again and my mom auditioned too, so I'll always have someone to ride with.

Fun Adelle things:

• I can just lay her down on the floor, give her a bottle and she'll hold it and drink it on her own.
• She is SO CLOSE to crawling that we're having to baby proof now, except while I was taping some cords to the wall, she started going around me to get to the part that wasn't covered yet and she keeps moving what we have in front of the TV stand to cover the electronics (uh oh!). She is pretty quick pulling herself around with her arms and she does this push up thing (hard to explain), but lately she'll go forward with one knee and then lunge. So, I think she's pretty close to figuring it out. It's so funny to watch. Oh and this morning, I went in to get her and she had pulled herself up on her knees holding onto the railing of the crib. NOOO!!
• Adelle has FOUR top teeth coming in all at once! We discovered them about 3 days ago and she had been a bit fussy, so that explains it! We're having to slightly medicate her in the morning before her first bottle, or she refuses to drink it because it hurts her teeth so much. So when these fully grow in, she'll have EIGHT teeth! The top 4 and the bottom 4. She's growing up too fast!!!
• She'll be 9 months old on the 19th, just 8 days away! We've been watching the Friends DVDs again and last night we watched Season 10 The One With Emma's Birthday and it made me cry. Before we know it, Adelle will be a year old! It's going by way too fast. Before we know it, she's going to be asking for help with Math that I can't do anymore...
• And now for some pictures representing her new "skills:"

Here, Adelle is sporting her new fake smile, which I'm sure she got from us. She is always imitating the things we do. So cute.

This is Adelle in her new preferred sleeping position. Bottoms up!

And here you can see her new obsession with sticking out her tongue. She's been doing this for almost a whole month now, but it's still so funny!
I hope everyone's having a good week! Soon I'll post a couple of projects that I recently completed.

Enjoy!

Clapping!

I mentioned in the last post that a goal for the week was to record Adelle clapping and overall just being cute, so this is some footage I took last night. (please excuse the clothes on the floor behind her and Luke sleeping on the couch) Enjoy!

Oh, and she has 2 more teeth coming in! She already has the 2 in the middle on the bottom row and now 1 on either side of those is just breaking through the gums.

8 months and a new missionary in the fam.

all of a sudden my daughter can do a bunch of stuff. like today i said "yay!" to her and she started clapping. then later i said "clap" and she clapped some more! so cute! and she has started waving, but not consistently yet. what's funny is watching her try to be mobile. she gets up on her knees and then doesn't know what to do, so she rocks a little and eventually lunges backwards. she's getting there though! oh, and she can pull herself up to a sitting position from being nearly flat on her back. it's so cute watching her figure things out!

on another note, my brother went into the MTC today! i'm excited to hear about his initial reaction and his experiences there. this is such an important thing for eric and i'm really glad he gets the opportunity to do it -- to go out on his own without family nearby and really learn how to work hard and be outspoken. this 2 years is going to affect the rest of his life so much and i am so grateful that he not only gets the chance to do it, but that there is nothing else he would rather be doing than serving as a missionary! yay! and so, i'm going to try not to miss him, but instead to be a good pen pal with words of encouragement and sincere interest. that's what he needs from his family, not "wish you were here"s.

back to the first note, my goal for the week is to get a picture of adelle, since she turned EIGHT MONTHS OLD on this past sunday, and also a video clip of her clapping and babbling. she is just so stinking cute.

if you really knew me...

you might know that i have a very slight bossy streak. and if you really knew me, you'd know there's more to say than that. let me explain.

i have a younger brother. he's nearly 20 now. before we know it, he'll be off to the MTC and then to the mission field (yes, I realize I'm referring to SLC as the mission field, but too bad, Utah! you're part of it too!) to learn about what it means to be self-sufficient, to realize how much he really values his personal space and time alone, to come to understand what it really means to work to the point of exhaustion, to draw closer to Heavenly Father than ever before, to rely on the Spirit for everything, to realize there's still so much to learn. now i'm faced with the realization that my little baby brother isn't so little anymore. i remember constantly ragging on him, not in the playful way an older sister would, but really just being bossy and kind of mean. i resented him for making me be the one to mow the lawn with this mentality that the able-bodied male should do it. i was annoyed that i was still the gopher even though he was the youngest. maybe i was just more of a pushover.

then there was that week in Kentucky where together we endured the nearly 10 hour car drive to a session of EFY (Especially for Youth), to be a part of my spiritual (and social) high. forced to be friends, at least for a week. now don't get me wrong, we always had our moments, though they were often heavily shadowed by my motherly attitude of "you should do what i say" or "you should feel bad for not doing what i say."

eventually i got over myself (some), got married and moved out and now we can actually talk on the phone, talk as peers, talk as brother and sister. i tease him about girls, impress him with my vast growing NBA knowledge, and watch him play with my little girl as I realize she'll be nearly 3 when she gets to play with her uncle Eric again.

but it really is worth it.

Eric, i am so excited for you. we won't be too far away and you'll constantly be in our prayers, that your time will be well-spent, not just for you, but also for the people in Salt Lake City (I guess you ARE going to a foreign land afterall, hee hee). Good luck and don't be surprised if Mom cleans your room while you're gone!

And I hope you'll forgive me in advance for my poor pen pal skills, but we'll do our best!

Love, your youngest big sister, Heidi.

craigslist

I love looking at antiques and random stuff on craigslist and came across this: