I'm Afraid...

Before Avery came along and I was still working out of the home, I was jealous of the people who got to manage their time how they wanted. I was even a little upset when they talked about their 'problems' (ie: they couldn't find the right slip to go under the skirt they bought for their daughter for that weekend's homecoming party) while I was trying to juggle a 40 hour work week, coaching volleyball in the evenings and weekends, plus trying to keep up with the laundry, dishes and cleaning. Then of course there were the silly things that came up where you had to stay on hold with Knology for an hour and a half because they mixed your bill up with someone else's. I know there were times when I felt frazzled, but somehow, it all got done.

I'm very afraid that I have lost the ability to manage my time wisely. Now that I get to be a stay at home mom, I have more time to get the housework finished, make sure Avery's fed and taken care of, plus take care of my coaching responsibilities. I've taken out a huge chunk (40 hour work week), and still don't feel like I have the time to get things done. The up side to this is that I don't really feel frazzled..ever. I think because the things that I feel I need to get done are the things I want to get done. For example, I've started another quilt..that's not a pressing matter, but it would be fun to have extra time to work on it. I'm sure everyone out there has a hobby, and they would like to have time to work on that as well.

So I guess the moral of the story is that even though no matter how much time you have, somehow it's always going to get filled. The great part is that at least I'm filling my time with things I want to do instead of things I have to do! (Except there are still times that I have to stay on hold forever trying to get some silly problem fixed; at least it's not Knology...but that's a whole other story.)

Controversy or Debate

Okay; so Kenny's been blogging for two days now and he already has more comments than I've ever had on a single post. If you know us at all, you know we're highly competitive..it's almost unhealthy. Anyway, he says I don't have as many comments because I don't talk about things that can be debated or discussed; I just mention an event that happened....so I guess I'll give the debate thing a whirl...

....I can't think of anything right now, so until then, I'm going to talk about Avery's infatuation with having things around her neck. As you can see from the pictures, it can consist of necklaces, play phone chords, or pretty much anything else she can find at the time. For about a week, it was a deflated balloon that still had the string tied onto it. At church Sunday night it was the ribbon from the songbook. You think I'm kidding, but anything the child gets her hands on that looks like it might be long enough to go around her head, that's where it goes. She even has a monkey who's hands velcro to each other...so she literally has a monkey on her back when she gets his arms around her neck!

I've often considered that this could be a major choking hazard, so I've tried to find more necklaces that are intended to be there instead of things that could get wrapped around to tightly. Of course there are the days when only the phone or balloon will do, so I supervise her with an extra careful eye.

I guess I'll continue to talk about Avery until I can find a debatable topic. I don't think I'll ever run out of material for her. Maybe I could make a list! Maybe it could be the top ten silliest things she's done up to this point. I'm sure Kenny could help out with that one.

A New Recruit

Well folks, Kenny's joined us. No longer am I to be considered as the newbie in the blogging world.

I've been telling him ever since I started that he would have some interesting insights to add. (You see, he's been reading everyone else's blogs secretly.)

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed he had been absent for quite some time from his normal spot on the couch for his Sunday afternoon snooze. I chalked it up to thinking he was looking at one of his ten fantasy baseball teams or something. I walked to the doorway of the room where our computer is, and saw a twinkle in his eye. Maybe twinkle isn't the right word; he looked like a kid who just got caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Of course I said, "what are you doing?" He said, "looking at your blog." I knew this was absurd because it's been a while since I've posted. He knows when I know he's not telling the absolute truth, so he added, "and my blog too."

Ha! We've got him!

Buddy Time!

We just returned from a trip to Huntsville for a coaching clinic. The best part about the coaching clinic (other than the stuff we learned) was the fact that it was in Huntsville! Not only did Kenny and I get to see friends, but Avery got to meet up with her buddies as well!

I wondered how she would act when she saw her best bud of all, Lawson, who she's known since birth. I was afraid she wouldn't remember him and just play with him like any other child. When we walked in the house to see him, Lawson cried, "A-D!" (His way of saying Avery), and Avery said, "EEEEHHH AHHHH!" (Her way of saying, oh I'm so excited to see you!!!) At least that's how I interpreted it. Needless to say, the two had a blast the whole time we were there. They had several chaperoned dates during the week.

The first night we were in town turned out to be the monthly Bonko night, so I went to be with some girl friends, and Kenny and Jon (Lawson's dad) were in charge of the kids, plus the twins because their dad was out of town. So, the girls had a fabulous time, and an even better time hearing about how the kids played together.

Apparently one time Jon and Kenny couldn't hear the kids anymore, so they went to look for them and found Joshua, Lawson and Avery in the closet giggling and Abby Kate standing in the doorway of the closet babbling for them to get out! Kenny said they all shuffled out still laughing. I guess for now it's okay if they are all in a bedroom together...as long as the door isn't shut!

What a fun trip. I look forward to the next time they can all play together!

Bye Bye Balding, Hello Pigtails

For those of you who don't know, Avery has struggled with her hair for a while now. When she was born, she had hair, then she went through the George Kastanza phase of her life, followed by the no hair at all stage. Slowly but surely, pretty blonde curls have made their way to Avery's head. Of course I was excited because curls are the best on little girls.

It's still a little thin, so I'm having trouble accessorizing her hair. She has too much for toothpaste bows, but too little for clip in bows. I decided to take a trek to find teeny rubber bands to make pigtails. I found them! Wal-Mart has everything. I did wonder why there were a million per package, but have soon learned that they pretty much are disposable hair bands because they stretch so badly.

Anyway, as you can see, Avery had her first pigtails last week! I think they're adorable. Her daddy thinks we should put them all over her head. He's outnumbered on that one.

Rock On!

I've discovered that I love to sew! It started with a project where I wanted to make a quilt out of my old club t-shirts from college. That was successful, so I made a dress for Avery. That got out of control because it's hard to stop once you start. Of course now I want to do drapes and pillows and everything else for the house, but I've decided to wait until we buy a house and not waste it all on the rental one that we're in now! So, most recently I've discovered tiny rocking chairs for kids! I've always known about them, but I've started re-doing them and making little cushions! It's so much fun, and I can't wait to see what color combinations I can come up with for the paint and fabric! I really want to start selling them, so if that happens I can specialize them with names and themes! Now I just need to make a plan: where am I going to find lots of little rockers? Where will I sell them once I do find them? How long should I wait before branching into other little people furniture?! So much to think about, but for now they will make great baby gifts!

Magical Lights and Confetti

While I was in Texas, my parents loved trying to teach Avery new 'tricks.' Each morning after Avery woke up, I would take her to my parents' bedroom so she could play in the bed before breakfast.

My mom has a painting above her bed with a light attached to the top. The first morning mom said to Avery, "look, it's magical...if you blow like this (blow), look what happens!" So, of course the light would come on or off because mom controlled the switch that was behind the pillows. The first two mornings Avery didn't get the 'blow' part down, but by the third morning, Avery was walking all over the house, looking at all of the pictures and blowing! She did seem to get frustrated when those pictures did not seem as magical as the one above the bed. So, to accommodate her, my mom and dad would rush over to a light switch and turn it on or off accordingly. It is rather silly, especially when we're in stores, or church, or anywhere a light is present and Avery is blowing at it to make it go off. But I do love it because it shows how quickly children can learn something new.

Well, tonight Kenny took us to a Mexican food restaurant called the Blue Burrito. It was good, but pricey for a Mexican food place, another story all together. So, we're sitting there eating chips. Avery's doing a good job of biting off pieces of the chip instead of stuffing the whole thing in her mouth, although she tends to bite of lots and lots of pieces before swallowing, so it's almost as if she's stuffed the whole thing in her mouth anyway. I should add, during the meal, she had been turning around flirting with the people behind us. One time, she looked back at them without turning around, by leaning backwards (so she saw them upside down and thought it was really funny). On her way back up to the normal side of things, she noticed the light hanging above the table...and blew...

...Sounds harmless, but picture this...billions of tiny, crunched up chips flying out of her mouth like a fountain, falling back down on her face like confetti. Of course the light didn't go off, so she blew again, and the same thing happened with the few pieces that didn't find their way out the first time. Well, we couldn't hold our laughter in as much as Avery couldn't hold hers in. She may not have seen how funny it was, but she sure could feel how funny it was. Maybe it was one of those things where you had to be there, but if I ever need a laugh, I'm going to think of the fountain of chips.

That Disconnected Feeling

Can I say I depend on the Internet too much. I have just returned from a fabulous trip visiting my family in Texas. It was great that Avery and I spent a week getting spoiled. Promise, it was not just Avery getting spoiled. It's been a while since someone offered to change a diaper, or give a bath, or say, "Honey, why don't you go rest. I'll make sure Avery is okay." Mind blowing actually.

When I entered the blogging world, someone told me that I would go through experiences and realize that I wanted to blog about them later! So true. This leads to the Internet issue. Everyday 10 things would happen that I thought I should write about, and now that 7 days have passed, of course there are too many things to decide between. The reason I couldn't keep up daily is that my parents do not have access to the Internet. Growing up, we lived in the country, but now that the city keeps growing, we're no longer in the country. There is a school accross the street from our house and a mini storage right next door, but apparently my parents have been told that their area is still not wired for high speed internet. Of course they could use dial up, but how frustrating is that!? So, during my week of eating bon bons and watching soap operas (not really), I did not have access to blog, email, read up on the news, and I even found myself wanting to do some research whenever a question arose about _______________ (insert your choice of subject here).

For instance, mom and I started talking about an old friend of mine. She said we could look them up in the phone book, but as luck would have it, the phone book was in the room where Avery happened to be napping. Of course you don't mess with that, so I said, "let's look them up online!" Mom just looked at me. The same type thing happened at least 5 times. I couldn't get it through my head that my parents aren't connected! The irony in all of this is that they bought us webcams for Christmas, one for them and one for us, to keep up with Avery. It was later I informed mom that it would require them to get wired. It's not that they haven't tried. The last attempt was going to be quite costly. A $500 installation fee, plus $75 a month, along with several other hidden fees I assume, (they are getting desperate). That did not include the 7 foot tower that would be required to be put on their already really, really tall roof. (It would have more effect if I could remember how tall the house really is.) They decided against that and have moved on to do more research. Another ironic fact is that my mom is taking an online class. How's she actually doing this is beyond me. I'm assuming she's playing hookey.

So, it's good to be home. Not only to see my all so wonderful hubby after a week of absence (who actually does volunteer to change a diaper every now and then), or to get Avery back into a routine, but to get back to my computer! Really though the week was great. Avery got to see her grandparents, her uncle, her great-grandparents, my best friend from high school, my aunts, and several people at church who claim us as their own. She's a trooper to go wherever I drag her. Each day is a new surprise for her, and she takes it in stride. Wish I could be as easy going as she is.

I better stop before I actually start re-counting the whole trip. I guess it's like catching up with old friends you haven't seen in a while. There is no way to fill in all of the details that have happened over the years, you just start with what happened that day!