After picking my jaw up off the floor...

Check out this article link!

Absolutely incredible that parents would complain. It's completely fair to say I've got a different viewpoint, but I've NEVER seen kids be frightened by Joe. In the article, the women shares some of her comments about kids' reactions and it is right in line with Joe's experiences. Kids are curious and not afraid to ask, which is actually pretty cool.

Wow, I'm just dumbfounded...and yes, the parents are the problem here.

Signs of tiredness?

I was out from work a couple days last week due to Kate being sick. While entering time-off into our time entry system this morning, I opened the "current pay period", looked at the date and thought there must be some glitch in the system. More specifically, I thought "We're not in the 2/14/2009 - 2/27/2009 pay period. It's only January!". After sitting a few minutes, I realized that it was the correct pay period.

Think I'm a little tired? Why would you care? Are we there yet?

3 weeks and counting...

The Cuteness Known as Kate

While taking a bath last night, Kate placed two rubber ducks on the edge of the bathtub. The next thing we know, she's talking to the ducks. She starts off with a wave and "hi". Then the conversation continues: "How are you doing? How was the fire?" (FYI, one of the ducks is a fire duck with helmet and a fire hose). The conversation continued another minute or two. Joe and I were trying not to laugh too hard so she didn't get distracted and stop.

Might have needed to be there to appreciate the cuteness of it, but if you can picture her sweet little "hi" and the wave, you'll be close enough.

What can you say?

January has been a long month for us. I've been sick, Joe's been sick, I was sick again, then Kate was sick. Add in cold weather, and I'm so glad it's February. However, it's still Monday and I've been feeling a little down anyway.

Then, a friend at work stopped by. She seemed to have something on her mind but was trying to figure out how to start talking about it. And then she said she and her husband are separating which she's sure means divorce. Whoa! She's talked about having trouble in the past and they were trying to work through the issues. She really wanted to get things working again.

Joe and I haven't had friends go through a divorce. I feel so bad for her and want to help, but I'm feeling at a loss as to what to say, etc. So for now, I'm just there to listen. I'll take suggestions on other things I could do to help though.

I wanted to give her a hug, but she was pretty sure she'd start crying. I'm hoping the sentiment was enough.

Another first...

I finally remembered to ask for a picture of the quilt I made for Joe's mom for Christmas. The idea to make the quilt started about a year ago and ended up with picking out fabric last March. My mom had made a few of the same pattern and provided lots of help (and I mean lots!). Got it finished around Thanksgiving when we headed to my parent's house to do the quilting. It's made with flannel fabrics (instead of cottons) and is so cozy I was tempted to keep it for ourselves! It's a lap size, though it is close to fitting on a twin size bed.



If you look closely, you might be able to see "Sarah Joe Kate" and "2008" quilted into it...happy searching!

Holiday recap and more

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and then fun on New Year's! Traveled south to my parent's house on Christmas Eve day. Nicki and Brian made it in by 5 pm (instead of late that night). Kate was adorable in her Christmas dress (I'll get pictures at some point). She also had a great time opening gifts Christmas morning. The paper is so much fun to pull! She also loved all the puppies and kitties at my parent's house (especially Juno the Samoyed aka big white fluff ball). Spent an afternoon with cousins and Kate is now loaded with Little People. Headed to Waverly on Monday to be with Joe's family. Pretty low key time with the Green's. Came back home on New Year's Eve day. Got home, unloaded the car, then loaded back up to head over to Tina, Chad, and Anna's house for a New Year's get together. Went sledding (well, Joe and Kate did) on the side hill. Kate loved it! She went down a few times with Anna, then a couple more times by herself. I saw one face plant from the window and thought that might be the end of sledding, but Joe said she was laughing and wanted to go again! To top it off, Kate got to stay up late (almost 10!).

Finally, if it didn't seem like get was already getting older, we moved her to a big bed yesterday. Nap time didn't go so well. She never settled down and finally fell asleep sitting up in Joe's lap a few hours later than normal. Bedtime went much better although it was later than usual. She did well and stayed in bed all night. Today was even better. Nice long nap (almost 3 hrs) and went to bed easily. Hopefully she stays in bed all night again!

To close, I'll add a story from a few weeks ago. Kate was sitting on my lap and I asked her "where's baby?" to which she responded by pointing to my stomach. I was surprised since we haven't really talked about the new baby. The next evening, I asked Kate "where's baby?" again. This time, she walked over to Joe and started to pat his stomach. Joe and I were laughing so hard Kate started crying a little. We have yet to ask again.

A Vacation Video

Finally got pictures from my mom that were taken on our Monterey trip. Also got this video of Kate "talking" on the cell phone. It's pretty cute!