9 posts tagged “family”

Why is September almost over?

Sep 22, 2009
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I still have tons of stuff to do!!!!

We have been extremely busy, all three of us. With the start of the school year (for both Amos and I) came a crazy rush of adjusting to yet another new schedule. We have lived by some serious schedules since I got pregnant with this baby! Here's a little run-down of what all has been going on:

1. Daycare started for Hazel, and I think she likes it as much as any 1-year-old would. When we drop her off she cries for a while, which I didn't know about until yesterday, but Donna says she does fine not too long after we leave. She hasn't been the sweetest baby these days because she is starting to teethe again, so it's been a little rough with her. But with plenty of Tylenol we'll get through it!

2. School is awesome. And hectic, and scary a little. I finally have grades back in both classes, so I feel like I am doing ok thus far. With English classes you sometimes don't get grades back until your first big paper, which could be assigned two months into the semester, so it can be a little nerve-wracking to be doing all this work and not know if you're doing it correctly. Luckily I'm making A's in both classes right now - whew!

3. I'm having a long stroke of bad luck that is getting me down, but I figure the longer it goes on the sooner it just has to stop. That includes losing my newest camera, the cute little red Nikon that I've been using pretty much exclusively to get all these quick, nice shots of Hazel, and which also had my 4 GB card inside. I still have a 1 GB card for the other, bigger Nikon, but I am SUPER UPSET about losing that camera. Maybe I can hold out until Black Friday and beat the crowds back to get a cheap deal on another one...until then there may not be as many pictures of Hazel, though I know I haven't been posting many here.

I have to go make a Powerpoint on feminist literary theory, so this is going to be a short summation. But more to come soon. Until then, here's a little something funny to take the edge off!

12 months waking up medium

Christmas Eve

Dec 24, 2008
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Imaginative title, I know, but things have been hectic for the past two weeks, and I have no brain cells left to dedicate to creativity. Mommy brain + the holidays = mental spasms.

So we made it to St. Louis in only 20 hours! We woke up at 1.30 am two Sundays ago, and by 3 we were on the thruway headed away from the snow. We took turns sleeping and driving, with me creatively nursing the baby in the backseat (both of us still in seatbelts -- figure that one out!!), and we just kept on until we got here. I imagine we'll try for that kind of return home as well. Hazel was a super trooper; she didn't really wake up until we hit Cleveland (7 hours), and after then she just couldn't stay awake in the car. We sat with her and tried to comfort her as best as we could, but really how do you tell a 4-month-old that everything will be fine in just a few hours?

Our time in St. Louis has been fun but a little nuts, which I guess is just par for the course now with a baby. We've been around, not as much as in the past, but we haven't stayed at home by any means. I got to visit two yarn shops, which was awesome, and we hit up the Loop, different stores, all kinds of stuff. Hazel is so attentive and focused, and she loves being around people, so she was fascinated with everything going on around her. In the yarn shop she was amazed by the riot of color yarn brings, and in Whole Foods she seemed to really like the aromatherapy section. Now that she's a bit older we let her touch things, smell things, and that seems to really enhance her experiences outside our house. Of course Grandma & Grandpa Confer's house provides all kinds of different experiences for her; she is getting used to everyone's faces, I think, plus all the music here entertains her. I guess tons of attention from 7adults doesn't hurt either!!

Today we are opening gifts & eating the holiday meal, and tomorrow is really low-key at the Confers'. On Friday we leave for Alabama, and my family is celebrating on the 27th so that we could be there also. Plus, as a super awesome fun special Christmas miracle, Laura and Sally are driving up to see me and Hazel, and then later in the week we get to visit Amy!!! I'm so happy that I get to see my oldest and best friends this year.

I'm going to get downstairs, maybe have a cookie or two, and I'll write up some more gibberish later. The holidays have really affected my brain, because this barely makes sense! When I get back to NY I'll have tons of photos and ancedotes, but for now Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Meeting the Grandparents

Sep 15, 2008
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As I mentioned before, Hazel got to meet her Grandma & Grandpa Confer last week! I hope they had a fun visit; of course we didn't get out and about as much as we normally would, but we did go on a few adventures. We took them around Utica, which took about 2 hours LOL, to a few bakeries, Italian places, Target (essential on any vacation), and out to Cazenovia, NY. That little village is quickly becoming my favorite place to go around here. We also took them to see our CSA farm, where I managed to snap a few photos of everyone together before they left. Hazel was very well-behaved on all these trips, which was awesome. I know we had a good time and I hope they did as well!

Here are just a couple of my favorite shots...the light was beautiful outside, and baby girl was in a good mood, so these are pretty cute! Enjoy!

Grandma and Hazel

Grandpa and Hazel

Cleveland Rocks!

Jun 20, 2008
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We got back from Cleveland last night, and after a grilled cheese and a 12-hour nap I'm ready to blog about it! Seriously, it was only a 7-hour trip each way (including quite a few bathroom breaks), but when we returned Amos and I both were exhausted.

meandamos

Monday we arrived in Cleveland around 5.00 or so. We beat the Confers by a few hours, so we took advantage of our gorgeous hotel. We had a swim, which felt wonderful and allowed me to make some moves not seen this year, and had a couple of drinks at the complimentary cocktail hour (shirley temple, thanks). Seriously, our hotel was amazing. We stayed at an Embassy Suites, which I've never stayed at before, and not only was it beautifully decorated and accommodating, but the staff there was amazingly nice and helpful. I am definitely going to stay there again! Anyway, after a nice dinner at a local Lebanese place I hit the sack while Amos stayed up to greet the family.

First thing Tuesday after a leisurely breakfast (also amazing, tons of stuff and it was all really good) we hit up the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Amos and I took some photos outside, since you couldn't take any cameras inside the place. The Hall was both awesome and lame - on the one hand, seeing all the memorabilia was really cool. You could get an idea of the size of the artist by the outfits they had, and I was kind of surprised at how small Madonna must be and how tall Jimmy Hendrix would have been. A couple of artists even had the original,

Amos at the RnR Hall of Fame

handwritten lyrics of famous songs as they were drafting them (Momma, I saw the original copy of "Ramblin' Man") and that was the coolest for me. Only the bottom floor was really great, though. The upper floors, the ones actually in the glass pyramid building, were small and kind of lame. Also, I thought they had a shortage of great female rockers in there, but that's just me, right? The gift shop was fun, though, and surprisingly not over-priced. A couple of you got Christmas presents from there! ;)

After the Hall we hit up "Mama's Pizza" in Little Italy. This restaurant was featured in "Everybody Loves Pizza," which is a book detailing the best pizza places across the country. It was my favorite restaurant on the whole trip! I loved the pizza and the late 70's decor was just the icing on the cake. We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, but barely scratched the surface. There were a few square blocks of galleries, shops,

I made them do that.

bakeries, and restaurants; the next time we visit I'm going to slate a whole day for just this area. We also drove out to the Polka Hall of Fame, which Jim really wanted to visit, and hung out there for a while. Of course we weren't as excited as Jim about this one, but he had a really good time and picked up about 70 CD's, so it was worth it! That night we had BBQ, pretty good for a chain, and saw the Zohan movie again, which was just as hilarious the second time around. By 10 pm or so when we were done I was worn out, so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Wednesday we headed off to the Arcade, one of the oldest malls in the country. We got a little sidetracked at a used CD/vinyl shop on the way there, where Amos got a couple of beat records for scratching & Jim got another CD or two. The whole area down there was adorable and looked like tons of fun. We passed the House of Blues and a bunch of cute restaurants, but we were too early for anything to be open really. Anyway, we made it to the Arcade, which was lovely but unfortunately had only super lame shops. Seriously, *super* lame shops. I don't think we went into any of them. It was relaxing and gorgeous in there though. After an ill-fated stop at the Science Center, which seemed to feature only broken exhibits (for real, we got our money back) we headed way out to another pizza place from the book. It was pretty good too in a totally different style. We were all kind of tired, plus the weather was freezing and rainy, so we headed back to the hotel for a swim, the

Amos at the Arcade

complimentary cocktail hour (Shirley Temple, thanks), and a game of pool. That night we went to a more upscale Italian place in a fancier part of town. It was pretty good, very pretty inside, and had several different tomato sauces on the menu (that's kind of rare for any place, usually it's just the red sauce and then white sauces). I got the baby a pretty blanket at a shop featuring green/recycled items and scored a reuseable bag on top of it. By the time we got home I was so worn out I headed up to bed, as did Jim and Laura, but Nick and Amos went to see a later showing of "The Hulk."

Sadly, the next day we had to leave. We breakfasted with the family and then headed in our separate directions. Amos and I stopped at the Waterloo outlet stores on the way home and picked up some cheap & adorable baby outfits from Gymboree & Old Navy, plus another Christmas present or two, and headed back in. We passed out by 8 pm last night, no joke. Definitely we'll visit again!

The 32nd Week

Jun 14, 2008
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Today was a good day for almost the entire time. Amos and I both woke up early (I had a hard time getting to sleep last night for the first time in approximately 8 months!) and decided to hit up our farm early too. We have a share in a community farm, meaning that back in March or something we paid a certain amount to this farm, and all during the

Married

growing season we get to pick up our "share" of the veggies once a week. It's a really cool deal and works out to be way cheaper than grocery shopping every week for fresh, organic, pesticide-free vegetables, plus I kind of like the element of surprise in selection. So anyway, we decided to head down there early and then take a picnic brunch to this lake we discovered down that way a couple of weeks ago. We had a nice, relaxing time chilling lakeside, eating turkey sandwiches and vegetable chips, listening to the water. It was surprisingly quiet considering its proximity to the road. I was reminded of my grandparents' farm, and got a little homesick.

Later, in the afternoon, we had our first sewing lesson. For my birthday this past May Amos bought us a sewing machine and signed the two of us up for a couple of lessons at our local fabric store. Today we basically learned about our machine, the notions & tools that complement the sewing machine, and how to do a few basic stitches and a buttonhole. It was only the two of us and one other girl close to our age, so we all communicated well and had the same types of questions. I bought some "cheater" fabric - you know, the kind that is smocked at the top and has a print below, so all you have to do is measure off enough to go around your bust, make a seam all the way down, and you have a dress - for my first official, follow-all-the-rules project. I'm going to practice making a long, straight seam, plus get a maternity/nursing dress out of it for $10. Plus the fabric is pretty adorable.

Also, this week we're going to Cleveland!! The only thing I love more than road trips are impromptu road trips, and since we just started talking about this on Thursday I'd say it counts as impromptu! We are going to meet Amos's dad, brother, and sister (Nancy unfortunately can't come) in Cleveland for about four days. I haven't visited the city, just flown or driven through, so this should be fun.

Unfortunately the day stopped being awesome and fun after all that. I'm not going into detail, but suffice it to say that I am glad to be getting away for a couple of days, to get rid of all the catty feelings and adopt a more laissez faire attitude.

End of Travels and (almost) Work

May 22, 2008
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So the fam is back in Bama today. We took Momma and Josh to the airport this morning after eating sausage links and thick waffles at a diner close to the airport. Despite the 40 degree temperatures and rainy, overcast, lame skies, we had a pretty good relaxing time. We shopped, walked, ate out, and vegged out while watching movies. Overall, good times, just more low-key than I'm used to. I think that worked for them too though. Can you tell that I'm still really tired, lol? I feel exhausted!!

In other news, I am getting close to the end of my serving career at Nola's. This weekend it's business as usual, since the college in our little village has graduation on Sunday. Next week, however, I'll be working with someone everyday instead of being the only waitress, and the week after that I'll have two shifts a week max with two shifts as a hostess that will continue probably up until the baby is born. Part of me is looking forward to the extra time. I have a list of huge projects that I want to finish before she arrives, including chores like cleaning out closets and fun stuff like finishing up the felt book I'm making for her. Also, lately my feet have had some pretty bad pains (real pains, not the typical aching and soreness that most people mean when they say foot pain) all the time, not just after work, so hopefully that will let up too. On the other hand, I'm generally less happy when I'm not working. Granted, I'll still be doing product photos, and housework, and all the other assorted little things I do, but I like to be busy. Frantic, almost. Honestly! I suspect that my listlessness and purposelessness will fade somewhat after Hazel's here, just because my activity level will probably jump back up to "frantic." I guess I'm just having some conflict over being a SAHM (really Work AHM, since I have always and will always do photos) that still needs some more exploration.

Family Matters

May 18, 2008
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My mom and little brother are coming to visit today!! We're picking them up from the airport around 3.45 pm. I cannot wait! This is the first time he's been here at all, and it's been almost two years since my mom's been here, so we are going to have some major fun. I'd type more but I have to get this place looking good -- Amos did a lot of the heavy stuff while I was at work yesterday, but there are a few things that I still want to do before they get here.

Back from St. Louis!

May 13, 2008
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Whew! I just got back last night and was too exhausted to do anything but go to bed. Well, eat first and then go to sleep! ;)

St. Louis was super awesome as always! Laura was able to come home from college for my whole trip, so she and Nancy and I had a lot of girly time, which is always appreciated and fun. We went baby shopping on Friday, and my pregnant self is so slow that shopping is the only thing we did. I got some really good deals though, and ended up with a few cute things for not that much cash.

The shower was sweet family fun. All the aunts and cousins were there, and we had a blast! Patty, one of Amos's aunts and hostesses, had about 58 games to play, and luckily none of them involved me wearing bows or hats or anything stupid. There was an adorable pink sugar-dusted cake, lots of good food, and even a watermelon basket (I secretly really love those things!!). It was so great to see everyone again, and the shower flew by. I wanted to take more photos, but I was pretty busy the whole time, so all I got was a crappy shot of the cake. It's seriously so lame I'm not even worried about taking it off the camera, but it's no big deal.

One of the best things was the huge SURPRISE I got right before we left for the shower. Nancy, Laura, and I were hanging out in the living room when the doorbell rang. We gave each other odd looks, since we weren't expecting anyone. Nancy opened the door to reveal my mom, stepsister, and her son!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so shocked and elated that they came! It made the shower even more special, plus we went to dinner and hung out afterward until about 11 pm. I was just so overwhelmed, and it was awesome to get to see them <3

My last day there was pretty chill, although we did go to dinner and I beat Jim at backgammon with a triple gammon, which is a big deal for all you non-backgammon players. The trip back was really long, with me getting to the airport at 9 am and not getting home until like 7 pm, but it was well worth the super fun trip I had.

Countdown

Apr 29, 2008
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I am sure that every woman reaches this at some point in her pregnancy...but I am ready to have the baby! I am a little tired of being pregnant. I am anxious to meet the baby and put all this stuff I've been reading about parenting into practice. I know, I know - I can hear people saying just wait until you're 40 weeks and overdue, THEN you can complain about wanting the baby. I'm not saying that I'm uncomfortable and that's why I'm ready for the pregnancy to be over, I'm just ready to meet the baby.

On the other hand, I am getting very excited about May. I'm off to St. Louis next week, which will be a fun trip around the city with the in-laws plus a super fun baby shower!! Then, just a scant week after that, my mom and little brother will be up here in old NY for a visit. I am getting all hyped up for all this family contact!!!

Why is September almost over?

Christmas Eve

Meeting the Grandparents

Cleveland Rocks!

The 32nd Week

End of Travels and (almost) Work

Family Matters

Back from St. Louis!

Countdown

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