Summer. Finally!

We have been in perpetual winter in ohio for what seems like YEARS! Well...we finally hit summer...at a dead run...today is supposed to be 95 degrees here in Ohio! I can't complain, I have honestly felt like the White Witch left Narnia and came to Ohio.

And we made our maiden voyage to the pool last week.

Happy Anniversary

Wednesday marked three years of marriage for Conrad and I! I still can’t believe it’s been three whole years! And I still can’t believe it’s been ONLY three years! These years have, beyond a shadow of a doubt, been the best of my life! Not only did I get to spend them with the Love of my life, but we got one and a half little “arrows” in our quiver. Who could ask for more?

Conrad is the best husband in the world. I know you think you have the best, but I do! God seems to have made us for each other, even though we were born and raised oceans apart. How wild it is that God brought us together from different counties, continents, and languages…amazing! And I love having a bi-cultural family!

We celebrated with take out Chipotle and a dozen red roses my thoughtful husband brought home to me! Every day, especially when I’m at work or traveling for work, I always think of Conrad and think how lucky am I?? I love you babe!

Rock On

Thanks Vicky for posting this on your facebook. All our old Teen Mania Internship friends have been posting scary old pictures lately. That's my bedroom, and Gwen was one of my(six)roomates and good friend. You gotta love the hair, don't you??

American Prom, in Review

Recently while traveling I was listening to This American Life from NPR. They were mulling over the American tradition of Prom. Besides being fascinated by the subject, having lived through the Public High School experience, (By the way, I didn’t go to prom. My logic? Well, I was saving for a missions trip and just couldn’t fathom spending the money involved!) I was also appalled, and a little scared. And I started to realize I was also developing a nervous twitch in my eye, as I thought about my sweet little daughter ever experienced this ridiculous right of passage.

The twitch began as the narrator was talking about covering a local prom in Chicago. Apparently at this prom, all of the “serious” couples go out on the dance floor with a chair. The girl sits in the chair, moves her dress up to expose a garter…yes..a garter! And the boy has to remove the garter with his teeth. Okay…I’ve seen this at weddings (still tacky and just a little too much information for me)…but we are talking about HIGH SCHOOL PROM. The ultra-liberal-NPR reporter was also a bit taken back by this and approached teachers to ask their response to such a display. He was told (by the teachers) to basically get his head out of the sand, this had been going on for years!

I know girls really look forward to having this pseudo-wedding day in highschools all across the country, and boys look forward to the pseudo-wedding night in highschools all across the country. I guess not much has changed in that aspect in the past few decades. But, as a Believer, I have to tell ya, I got issues with this. And this event takes on a whole new light when you become a parent…and my children (in womb included) aren’t even near this experience yet.

At this point, maybe we’ll take Conrad’s preferred plan and just send them to India.

What's In A Name?

We are bouncing around some names for Baby Michael #2. Our (i.e. MY) number one choice on the list for a boy is Hudson Taylor. Of course, named after the famous 19th century missionary and founder of China Inland Missions. I think keeping up the tradition of naming our children after missionaries is something I’d like to keep. But Conrad thinks this name is crazy. All he can think about is the Hudson River. And wonders if we are really going to name our child after a river. At least he doesn’t think of Rock Hudson, right


For boys, we also like Phinn(as in Phinneas, but I’m not sure we can do that to a poor child), Solomon, and Boaz. But again, not sure if we can do that to a child. But all shorten-able to easier to manage names like Sol or Bo. Still manly, but less mockable in a middle school setting. Can you see where I’m going with this?

For a girl, we are tossing around Grace or Elle. We like Elisabeth, but Isabelle is the Spanish form of Elisabeth, so we don’t really want to do that. I may have to peruse my Guardians of the Great Commission book to check out more names. Can you think of any girl names? I do need to preface that statement with good names. I guess that is subjective. Although I like Lottie Moon…not sure how I feel about Lottie. Maybe Charlotte?

A Sink Bath

Last weekend we went to my mom and dads for the dedication of their new church building. It was great to connect with friends and family from all over and see my parents’ new building, which looks really good, thanks to their interior decorator!

Some of you, who didn’t grow up in a pastor’s family, may not have experienced the drama of building a new church. Church’s (that shall remain unnamed) have split over choosing carpet colors! Not to mention, it’s always good to avoid hurting feelings when Sister Good-Intention-And-Bad-Taste goes to the local Wal-Mart and purchases her favorite statue of Jesus pouring water into wine for the church sanctuary. I know you think I made that up. I didn’t. You can always just reject the good intention and blame it on the decorator. Who should NOT be a regular attendee of your house of worship.

Unfortunately, the night was so busy, I didn’t get any pictures. I’ll try to remedy that later. I will say it was a lovely weekend since my friend Heidi and I went for a massage on Saturday (always a happy occurrence!) and I made dinner for all of my family and extended family on Sunday for mother’s day.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of Isabelle taking a bath in Grandma’s sink. Lately, she HATES baths. Which is odd, since she used to really enjoy them. I think it’s some kind of subconscious fear of the potty. But she loves when Granny gives her a bath, and in the sink…no less!

The Big Tease

As every pregnant woman knows, you begin counting down the days till your due date as soon as you have a due date! Every day is one day closer to the blessed event. Some of us count down because we can’t wait to see our little bundle of joy, some of us count down because it’s one day closer to feeling normal again! Okay, I am counting down for both reasons, obviously! But, honestly, some days I really resent all of you happy glowing pregnant women, tho! I’m surly, nauseated, and waddling….eesh.

A couple of weeks ago I had my first ultrasound and besides Michael Baby #2 being healthy and active, the tech also told me that I am due 5 days earlier than my original estimated due date. Well, let me tell you, I was jumping up and down for joy! Five whole days earlier! So I changed all the dates on my calendar and my tickers and took pride in the fact! Unfortunately, my doctor nixed this when I saw her several weeks after this. It’s like a big let down. Oh well..still happy about the healthy baby!

By the way, we aren’t going to find out the gender of this one. We figure the second child doesn’t get nearly the hype that the first one gets, so maybe this one will add to the hype. I guess the next question will be, will this one have a baby book/scrapbook?

This and That

We are officially in the spring cleaning mode. Sunday night we were at Wal-Mart and Conrad decided he wanted to paint our guest bathroom. So we picked up a gallon of paint and off he went! Actually, he pretty much finished his project before he went to bed that night! So we are officially down to only two completely white rooms left in our house to paint.

On our “To Do” for summer, included projects we need to “save” for before we complete them is fencing the back yard. This, we decided was important, after repeatedly having to chase Isabelle and catching her right before she went into the neighbors back screen door!! Also, we would like to install hardwoods in our kitchen area, and tile in our kitchen and bathroom backsplash. I keep telling my husband that he is an engineer, there has got to be very little that he can’t figure out to do himself…am I right? I should say this list is called the “Well-it-looks-like-we-are-going-to-be-here-a-while” List. Or the “Conrad To Do List, While Pregnant Wife sits on Couch.”

Isabelle is simply LOVING being outside. She runs up and down the driveway pushing her stroller. She also jumps on and off our swing. She calls it “winging.” When she sees the swing in the morning, out the window, she starts to cry, “Wiiiinnnnng.” She’s hilarious.

Good Parenting: Lesson 1

Yesterday when I dropped Isabelle off at daycare, I stopped at the one way window to watch her for a minute on the way out. I saw one little girl, Emma, who is several months younger but about ten pounds bigger than Isabelle, take off after her. Isabelle screeched and started to run as fast as she could around the room. Emma, with a big smile on her face , chased her until she caught the traumatized Isabelle and gave her a big squeeze. I couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. Isabelle then sat in a seat and Emma smooshed herself in the same seat next to her, both looking at the one way window. I think Isabelle then noticed that her mother was watching her through the window and laughing. She got a little upset at this point, but I quickly left so I wouldn’t have to see that part.

Potty Tales, Part 2

I don’t think I have ever been so excited about toilets before. I have to admit, before I picked up Isabelle that day at daycare and her teacher told me she used the potty, I hadn’t thought seriously about potty training.

In fact, when we were coming home from NC several weeks ago, I ran into this older southern lady in the restroom, while changing Isabelle’s diaper. She asked me why my 18 month old daughter wasn’t yet potty trained. I told her the same thing, it hadn’t even crossed my mind yet…I understand it’s much easier when you wait till your kids are ready or at least giving you some indication of ready. Which she hasn’t yet. This lady responded, in her southern accent, “I had all boys, I guess boys are just easier to potty train.” Never heard THAT before.

I also questioned my sister-in-law’s in India about how they potty train children. I have read and heard rumors of how Asians potty train infants and that they are light years ahead of westerners. They couldn’t give me any insight, but I think it may have to do with the fact that disposable diapers are four or five times the price they are here, and in an economy that is a fraction of what we have in the states. You do the math. It also helps that nothing is upholstered or carpeted there. Say what you want, but my unpotty trained kid isn’t going to walk around diaper less on my wall to wall carpeting or sit on my $700 couch! It comes down to economics, people.

All of that to say, this weekend, Isabelle peed in her little potty at home every day! Whoo hoo! It plays music when the kid pees in it. The first time it did, she shot up off of the potty with a wild look in her eyes and came running as fast as she could to me! I was laughing so hard! But we celebrated with a jelly belly, compliments of Eli and Jayden from our Easter stash. We have found out JB’s are a huge motivator for peeing.


Isabelle getting her first pedicure...from Daddy!

It's My Potty....

Look who is using the potty...well...not exactly THIS potty. She's using it at daycare, with all of the other kids..but not so much at home. It's a start. Is it unrealistic that we'll have her out of diapers by the time Number Two comes along in October???

Little Miss Gabby

I truly seem to be feeling a bit better these days. What a miracle! At least, Conrad measures how well I feel by how much I cook. When I’m really nauseated the thought of cooking dinner makes me want to cry. Actually, I’m not beyond tears when I walk in the door at 5:30 and think about raw meat. Now the thought of raw chicken is more manageable and my family is officially getting a tad more than microwave meals.

We had a great relaxing weekend. Isabelle has been a complete angel since we arrived back from Vegas. I think she’s afraid we’ll up and leave her again Or it could be that the weather is getting better and she is loving getting outside more. And we love it too!

We are constantly amazed at how much she is learning and how quickly. She mimicks everything we say. On our way home from daycare, about half a mile from our house, she usually starts to get a bit ansy and whiny. So I usually begin distracting her at about the same location. I point out the local school, the ducks, our neighborhood, our street etc. by saying, “Look! There’s the school. Hi School!”

This morning we were driving to daycare, past the school, and she looked out the window and said, “Hi chool!” I took me a minute to realize what she was saying, then I laughed. She is so big some days!

On the other hand...

In our typical slacker parenting style, our kids still has a pacifier (among other vices we have yet to break her of). So we have been saying to her, “Binkies are for little girls, not for big girls. Are you a little girl?” To which she replies, “I a big girl.” And prompting wretches the pacifier out of my retreating grasp. I don’t think she’s getting the parallel.

Vegas in Review

We had a good weekend in Las Vegas last week. Not great…just good. We decided we had definitely been places we liked much better. So I thought I’d hit the highs and lows of the trip


Highs
• We had a nice Jacuzzi tub in our suite, and I LOVE taking baths, so I took the opportunity to properly mourn the tub that I never got in our “new house.”
• One night we went to a morrocan restaurant to celebrate our anniversary and it was so cool! It was like a big tent and the tables were low, and they served a wonderful six course meal. They even had belly dancers (slash seating hostesses)!
• We GOT OUT of Vegas to visit Red Rock Canyon and the Hoover Dam.
• 80 something degrees and sunshine…the entire trip!
• We tried our first In and Out Burger which has been on my “To Do “ list for many years! Yum!

Lows
• We missed Isabelle terribly! And it was worse when we heard that she would cry herself to sleep at night with, “Mamma.” The next trip will just have to include her (and my mom and dad to take care of her while we rest and vacation)
• Vegas in general was a little like a grown up Disney World. We were sick of it after a few hours. Not to mention every where you look are half naked pictures of women! And smoking…urgg…the smoking. I’m not sure if it was the smoke or the spiritual atmosphere, but it was down right sickening after just a little while.
• It should come as no surprise to you that we are budget travelers. So we went to vegas because of a good hotel deal. We got a good hotel deal because we agreed to sit through a two hour time share sales pitch. Ha! The sales guy couldn’t make it for two hours with us so he let us out early. Bottom line: HILTON wants to “sell” you a spot on the Vegas Strip for $60,000 that will entitle you to “approximately” seven nights hotel stay a year at any of their properties world wide for the next 30 years. Don’t have $60,000? No worries! Hilton will loan it to you for about a 15% interest rate for the next 5 years. Which comes down to $1600 a month for the next five years.

Oh ya…did I mention you also get to pay upkeep fees of $1900 a year for the rest of your life? Needless to say, I laughed at the guy when he told us this was a “legacy” we could leave for our children. We told him we would rather pay our mortgage and save for our children’s education. I kept thinking, do people REALLY do this? Do people really buy into this? Surely no one could be that dense??
Added High: We mocked the sales guy the rest of the trip and it provided much entertainment for the two of us!

Finally! I know someone on reality TV!

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, when I’m pregnant, all ability for forethought or intelligent thinking seems to seep out of my pours. Conrad is working hard on getting a solid ebay business going (and doing really well, I might add!) and has been asking for my help. His reasoning? “Well, we are still paying for YOUR MBA” But I just can’t seem to get my head out of the fog in order to be of any help!!

But last night I found myself waxing philosophical while watching my new favorite tv show, Real Housewives of NYC. I find it fascinating that this group of women can make such federal cases out of nothing at all. And the sheer amount of money they can spend on clothes, “charity events”, and coaches and trainers….geeze. But since I am the one with the remote control, I can’t throw too many stones, now can I?

Since we are on the topic of television, I’m not a huge fan of Survivor, but I recently got wind of an old friend who is on Survivor Micronesia!? Natalie Bolton, who holds the record for any Maniac being on consecutive Teen Mania trips with me…we both were in Venezuala 90, Costa Rica 91, and then again Chile 92, and then again in Hong Kong 97 I think… She is now apparently the most boring cast member EVER on Survivor. Sorry Natalie….hope you win the million…with your integrity intact.

The Sun is Peeking Through

The temperature actually reached 70 degree’s here in Ohio! Praise the Lord! Conrad said, “Did you notice you are feeling better since the sun came out?” Really…I have been nearly fully functioning since!! It’s like I BELIEVE there is hope!

This weekend we drove north to see my sister and her new little girl, Abigail. She is so beautiful and perfect! Isabelle showed small signs of jealousy but it was probably a good introduction to her (and our) big life changes coming in October. I told her that Mommy was going to get a baby like Abigail, she crunched her eye brows together and shook her head a resounding, “No.” Funny girl.

Sunday was Conrad and I’s week to do Sunday School for the 1-6 graders. For starters, our big building is under construction, so we moved to a smaller room. Secondly, Isabelle wailed and wailed and refused to be comforted in her class, so we had to take her with us. And she continued to cry, so Conrad ended up having to take her out while I did the class. Eeshh. To say I was tired after the class was an understatement!

Today, I have been thinking about and praying for a family that is scheduled to give birth to their little daughter, Audrey Caroline. She isn’t expected to live, once outside of her mother’s body. Pray for Angie, Todd, and little Audrey. As Angie says in her blog, “One way or another Audrey will be healed today.”

A Few Pictures of Abigail

Welcome to the World Abigail!

My sister, Jona, and brother-in-law, Eric welcomed beautiful little Abigail Nichelle into the world yesterday around noon after nearly 20 hours of labor! She was 7 pounds 15.5 ounces and 21 inches long and practically perfect from the looks of things! We can't wait for the weekend to meet our new littl neice!

A Visit from Grandma

My Grandma Margie is with us this week “visiting.” In reality she should get paid for this kind of visiting. She has been watching Isabelle in the daytime and cooking for us at night…and everything else in between! We are definitely being spoiled!

I think she felt sorry for us from all of my whiny posts and decided to come help out. Isabelle is in a much better mood when she’s been home all day with Gram, and I LOVE not having to think about what to cook for dinner or even cook it for that matter!

Today I had my first real doctors appointment. As it turns out, my OB is pregnant and due in May! She assured me she would be back in plenty of time for our October arrival. Nothing revolutionary to report from this appointment except that I whined and complained to my doctor about feeling badly. She empathized…funny how a pregnant doctor seems so much more….well….empathetic! But didn’t do more than empathize.


Also, she couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat, which didn’t seem to concern her too much since I am right under 12 weeks so she scheduled an ultrasound later this week just so that “I wouldn’t worry for a month.” I’m not a great worrier anyway, but any excuse to add an ultrasound!

Still Jonesin’ for Sun

I have only been to Vegas once before. A few friends who shall remain nameless (Rachel and Brandon) and I decided to drive there one weekend from ORU. And yes, good ORU girls do go to Vegas…apparently. Rachel kept telling girls in our dorm that we were going to evangelize Sin City. I’m still not sure if she really thought we were going to go street witnessing or she was trying to delude other good ORU girls.

Anyway, we took off and drove 18 hours to Nevada from Tulsa and stayed one night, visited all of the casinos and drove all the way back. I still think I must have “addictive personality” written on my forehead because everything I touch in a casino throws money at me. They must think, “Let’s see if we can get her hooked.” I had no ever loving idea how to play black jack but never lost one hand. I didn’t make tons because, luckily, I’m a grab-it- and-run kind of girl, but I made enough to pay for my trip and then some!

Last week, the day we were leaving for North Carolina, I got one of those unfortunate sales calls. Since I belong to a big hotel points club, they always target me to “promote” their new properties. To make a long sales pitch short, they got me. I have been craving sun, particularly when I’m pregnant in winter…I get sooo blue!

So, Conrad and I will be heading off to very sunny and very warm Las Vegas Nevada in a few weeks! Yeah! He’s never been to the west coast and he, luckily, is also a grab-it-and-run kind of guy, so we should make it just find in Vegas. We are staying at a beautiful hotel and planning a fun trip of Shows, restauranting, and hiking in (or driving through, depending on how I feel) the canyons. And of course, visiting the outrageous casinos!

Sunshine and Belly Bops

We drove to NC this weekend to visit the Stenner’s. We had such a good time with Eli, Jayden, Ruth, and Gary! We decided we wanted to break in our new mini van, so we drove all the way to North Carolina! Isabelle did surprisingly well…thank you DVD player.

We spent the weekend relaxing and visiting with everyone and Jayden and Isabelle got to know each other a little better. Jayden is about a year older than Isabelle and is all boy. I honestly didn’t know our little girl was such a delicate flower until this trip! The first thing Jayden did was come up to Isabelle with a big grin on his face and said, “Hi Belle.” And gave her a big belly bop. Although he only outweighs Isabelle by about ten pounds, she promptly flew back and hit the ground. I don’t think she was expecting a belly bop. This really hacked her off and she threw her hands up in the air and screeched as loud as she could. This became their signature interaction throughout the weekend.

If Jayden didn’t want Isabelle playing with something he’d scoot in front of her and start pushing her out with his bum. These two only children had a weekend of hard knocks. Being the responsible parents that we are, we took lots of video and laughed a lot.

One of the best things about the trip was the 77 degree weather! Yes, I was basking in the sun and loving every minute of it! On the way home on Sunday, I slept for a while and when I woke up we were in West Virginia and the temperature had dropped over 25 degrees and it was snowing…urrrghhh. That was honestly depressing!


Since the Easter traffic was so bad on the way down we decided to leave a bit early and missed most of the festivities on Sunday. But we stopped and had a nice Easter lunch of North Carolina BBQ! Luckily we seemed to miss most of the traffic and arrived home late, but in time to get a good nights sleep.

Thank you Stenner's for having us this weekend! We had a wonderful relaxing time!

Cabin Fever

Many of you experienced this with us a couple of weeks ago, as we got the biggest snow storm in the midwest...at least the biggest in MY life time! We got over 20 inches of snow. We were snowed in all weekend long. This is how we kept ourselves occupied....

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The Michaels, M.I.A.

Lately, my days consist of getting up before my family even wakes up, getting ready, leaving for my day. Traveling all over the state of ohio, eating eating eating all morning long. I’m starving in the mornings! By the time I get home in the evenings, I’m so spent and nausea begins to set in. I don’t want dinner, I don’t even want to SMELL dinner. After we swing some sorry excuse for food for Isabelle and Conrad, I give in and eat oatmeal around 7ish, before we get Isabelle ready for bed. I collapse into bed not long after her!

I feel like crap, BUT I’m not throwing up several times a day like I was when I was pregnant with Isabelle! Whoo hoo! I have to say that I am sooo thankful for my wonderful husband! He has more than taken up the slack for me while I’ve been out of commissions. Without a doubt, this is the man God had prepared me for! He was doing the dishes a few days ago after dinner and afterwards he sighed and said, “I love a clean kitchen.” I prayed for a clean husband, and God was faithful!

More often than not, he is the one taking care of Isabelle. He get’s her ready and off to daycare in the mornings. And when he comes home at night, he starts entertaining her and spending time with her because Mommy is usually totally tuckered out and at the end of her patience with Isabelle. And let’s be honest, I didn’t have much patience to start with, so it’s only gotten worse with pregnancy! I told Conrad that I asked God for more patience, but instead he gave me a patient husband. He thought that was a great big cop-out.

Guest Blogger

This is Isabelle. My mom is on the couch sleeping and my dad isn’t home from work, so I thought I’d blog today. Since my mom has been such a slacker lately, I feel like I need to tell you some important news…I’m going to be a big sister! My little brother/sister is due on October 16th and Mommy isn’t feeling that great, but I hear it isn’t as bad as when she was pregnant with me! So that’s good news!

So, I decided to celebrate by whipping up a big bowl of whip cream and eating it (while Mommy is sleeping, of course). It is my favorite!

Jona & Abigail's Celebration

This weekend we threw a baby shower for my sister Jona. Her baby girl is due on April 3 (tentatively named Abigail). It was so nice to see family and friends and Jona got a boatload of great baby stuff! We had the shower at a little coffee shop in Norwalk called Sheri’s, where they have a beautiful party room.

We wanted Jona to have a really nice shower…and we figured this will be the last party like this for our family so we went all out! Not to mention, I have really been thinking and praying about starting an event planning business, so I was hoping to get some great pic’s for a potential portfolio. The pictures didn’t turn out wonderful, but the party did!

I have also started to develop some party “theories.” Whether we are talking about a wedding or shower or birthday, the event may be to celebrate the person or couple, but it certainly is NOT all about the person of honor! It should perhaps reflect them, but the party or celebration should revolve around the guests attending.
Besides, if I, as a guest, took time out of my schedule to come to your event, and even spent money on a gift, the least you could do is serve good food, and maybe even give me a little gift to thank me for coming! And all of the guests who ever attended weddings with terrible food and inconsiderate hosts said “amen.”

But back to the baby shower: the party ended well with a really good time of prayer for Abigail and Jona. Thanks everyone who came and congratulations Jona!

Cynical Me, Part 2

You may not know what I do. I administrate free vision clinics for children in rural areas in Ohio. I go to small towns, bring doctors and all of the equipment and we run free vision clinics…free to everyone…no cost. Come one, come all!

Last week I was in southern Ohio at a jam packed clinic. This is unusual because, if you were unaware, people often don’t show up for free healthcare. So, we usually double or triple book patience, because so many don’t show up for the FREE medical care. So we had more folks show than was normal. One mother came and brought her five children with her because one of them needed an eye exam. They had to wait over an hour to see the doctor.

By the time mom got in to see me she was irate. She was ranting and raving about how long she had to wait and why we couldn’t get our act together in order to shorten her wait. I have no doubt it was difficult to entertain her five children for such a long period of time…but her response brought to a head some of my stronger feelings about our current system and what is and is NOT working.

Why do the people I work to serve feel such a sense of entitlement for FREE services? They don’t pay a dime for their Medicaid programs, but I, with “great” insurance, pay a $15 co pay plus 20% of my entire medical bill. And when I take my child to the ophthalmologist, I still have to wait over an hour to see the guy!

In Ohio, we just revamped our Medicaid system, where private companies are running our public Medicaid program. One of the items that all companies must offer is “incentives” for patients. Meaning, if a pregnant woman who is on the medical card, makes and actually goes to her regular prenatal appointments she gets a prize….perhaps a gas card to speedway for doing what any responsible mother would do anyway. Your tax dollars at work.

“Anything the government does for its citizen that they should do for themselves makes us a weaker nation.” My last thought from my friend Brandon.

Cynical Me

Honestly, the older I get the more thankful I am for my slacker job. Good pay, good benefits, plenty of time to work on other things. As long as I don't have lapse of conscience and can conform well to the system (which has been my issue in the past) I'll get along well.

Anyway, I recently thought of Letterman like list of Top Five Reasons you Know you work for the government (I hope no one is reading this, like the Columbus Dispatch!As it's been quite a firey topic in the governers roundtable lately!)

1. You come to work, THEN do your hair and make up.
2. You come to the office early, so you can do your morning devotions at your desk.
3. You are finished with your day’s tasks before 9:15 a.m.
4. You got written up three times this year, but you still got your two annual raises.
5. You spend 85% of your work time doing paperwork to prove that you were working.

Of course, all of these things I have OBSERVED not actually done myself! ahem. They say to beware of whatever you put in print because it always come back to bite you in the butt. Let's hope not:)

Add it to the list...

There hasn’t been much going on in the Michael Household this week…hence the lack of bloggage. Last Thursday the daycare called me and asked me to pick up Isabelle early, she was running a fever. When I got to daycare, her face was all red and she was so miserable. When I took her home and put her PJ’s on, she just sat on the couch with me. Poor little thing. She ran a 102 degree temp all night long and we woke up every four hours to medicate her and sponge her off. It broke in the a.m. and she was fine as wine! So that was our Valentine’s day.

We visited my parents this weekend and ended up leaving Isabelle with my mom and dad Monday and Tuesday night , so we kind of celebrated Valentines day with dinner out on Tuesday night (A grown up restaurant with no highchairs or picking up silverware off of the floor ten times!)

On another note, despite my vehemently anti-mini van attitude, we bought a mini van this week! We traded in the ole’ faithful (and paid for) 1996 Honda Accord for a shiny 2005 Nissan Quest…with all the bells and whistles. You can officially add two things to the list of things I said I’d never do. 1.) Drive a mini van 2.) Have a DVD player in my vehicle. After a year and a half of crying baby car rides..I give in! And we got an excellent deal, thank you e-bay!

Happy V Day

Here is a picture of our little valentine dancing to her cousin Shanti’s guitar playing! By the way, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard an Indian sing American Country Music. Classic…

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On other fronts, we officially let our new house go this week. Actually it looks like they sold it out from under us last week! Can you believe that? We are okay with this. AND, on a happy note we got ALL of our deposit back (whoo hoo!) because our builder is pulling out of Ohio! They were in Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus. Although the Columbus market is booming, the other two areas were doing so poorly they forced the builder to leave Ohio all together. Bad for our builder…good for us!

Product of the month

Although I like to scrapbook, like all of us, I do get a bit behind! I can only imagine this get's worse with more children...



Anyway, I found this great website, called How Fast They Grow. It let's you create very cool 12x12 full glossy pages for $7.50 each. A bit pricy, but it might be worth it for a few pages a year. I don't like this product because it offers limited creativity, but again, thier layouts are phenominal!

Another Proud First

I am happy to report that we experienced another proud first in the life of Isabelle. Sunday morning we got up early (as is our custom since adjusting from jetlag) and started getting ready for church. I threw Isabelle in the bathtub and went about getting ready for the day. Suddenly I heard Conrad yell for me. “Come quick!” I knew what it was, instinctively.

It was morning and our little girl has bowels on a strict time table. Morning, after a fresh diaper change and during her usual breakfast time is her first bm of the day. Sure enough, I had left her in the tub to play just a little too long and she felt the urge, while bathing…
Conrad said he found her playing with it and it took him a few minutes to figure out exactly what it was. Luckily, I had gathered advice from friends before hand on how to clean a tub of this particular refuse. So a quick shower for the little one and a few minutes of grunt work and we were back to square one. I figured this had to happen sooner and later, right?

Also, today is Isabelle’s first day in the toddler class at daycare! She has been transitioning for the past week into this class. She has always loved this classroom, and going into it has always been a “treat” for her, so she transitioned pretty well. Also this means no more naps in the crib…she’s on a cot now. What a big girl she is!

Not to mention we are VERY excited as this means her weekly tuition goes down $50 a week. Whoo hoo!

Henna

While Conrad and I were planning our wedding back in good ole’ 2005 (ahem.) I kept questioning him about Indian traditions that we could include in our wedding. After much prodding and poking and google searching he convinced me that most Indian traditions were steeped in Hinduism and wouldn’t be included in our wedding. Bummer.

You all know what tradition I was hedging for, right? I always always wanted to get henna tatoo’s on my hands and feet. So while I was in India I found out that I have a Henna Buddy. Conrad’s Sister-Cousin (I’ll explain that title in another post!) Suzanna loves henna! So, one afternoon Suzanna, Anthony Mary (my sister-in-law) and I went to a little salon for pedicures and henna. I had it put on m feet only, knowing I would be peppered with questions and a complete distraction to the little ones I would be seeing in my vision clincs the next week if I agreed to henna hands!
Suzanna had henna put on her hands, and Anthony Mary decided to skip this excitement and took a nice nap while our she waited for us. Consequently, she’s in grad school full time and the mother of an energetic seven year old.

You will notice in these pictures the fruit of one of my other favorite items while in India…tailored clothes! I got three new outfits tailored while I was there and got my dad 5 tailored shirts, which he was ecstatic about. All for less than $10 each. Don’t you just love the exploitation of the labor class in third world countries??? (okay, I hope you hear this statement laced with sarcasm, but that doesn’t always come across in a blog, does it?)

A Little Slice of India

Make a postcard - it's easy!

Home Sweet Home

I have so much to write about and great pictures to post, but I am too busy to get to these things. It will have to suffice to tell you that we have arrived home saftely. All is well. We left at 2:00pm (EST) on Thursday and got home Sunday at 12noon. It was a LONG trip with a toddler. She started melting down about one day into the trip. We are exhausted!

I am trying to remember if I have ever been so glad to see my house as I was when we arrived Sunday afternoon. I don’t sleep much on planes, so I had a lot of sleeping to catch up on. But I am so exhausted and sleeping so heavily that it’s almost not restful..have you ever felt that way? Not to mention we have all been getting up at 3:30 – 4:30am every morning. Such is jet lag!
More stories coming soon….

Worship Session

Here is a picture of all of the Michael Grandkids dancing to a little worship music this week.


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