Resolution

Well it's that time of year again when we get out our notebooks and start frantically scribbling the things we want to improve on! 

I for one, am determined to only write those things down that are actually attainable, because I am eager to actually succeed on some of these things this year.

1.) Lose all baby weight before I turn 30 

EEK! I know, 30! What's next menopause!? Joking! I have approximately 149 days to complete this, but who's counting right?

2.) Learn to snow board or ski 

Now this one here is simply one of those things that would be cool to try, and hopefully succeed at! No more of those highly talented 3-foot-5 year olds pointing and laughing at me and I slide down the hill on my butt! 

3.) Create (and stick to) an organized schedule for my house

This includes, cleaning, paying bills, running to the store etc... I feel like my life is so topsie-turvie with Dan's schedule to deal with and baby! Organization is one of those things I've always struggled with and one-day I hope will overcome. Here's to hoping!

4.) Run the "Midnight Sun Run" in under and hour with Kodi in her stroller! 

Now this is quite a task. My fastest time was and hour and 3 minutes, but that was without a stroller and I was in killer shape that year! Plus, something about running these races is that there is some serious strategy to overcome with getting into a great "position" before the race starts. I simply hate those folks that think they average 8 minutes a mile and should really be in the "walkers" section. I hate tripping over people and even more it make me feel like we are racing to get the best doughnut or something. Just get out of my way dangit!! 

5.) Find a fun hobby for family to do together regularly

I'm thinking maybe hiking, or bowling or something that I could talk Dan into...hmm.

6.) Take a swimming class or something with Kodi that she would enjoy.

Pretty self explanatory here! You know, squeeze my huge butt into a tiny, life-squeezing bathing suit to go out and watch my daughter with, unexplained joy and fearlessness escape from her cute-little-face as she plays in the water. I think that's motivation enough to conquer #1. 

7.) Conquer my job! 

I want to be able to know what is going on at ALL times in my job, you know..."queen of the hive". Here's to hoping anyhow.

8.) Go fishing

Ok. Now this one is silly BUT, with a baby things like this aren't as easy as they once were. I know Dip-netting is out, that's WAY to dangerous. But maybe salmon fishing would suffice? I've never caught a salmon on a pole and I think that would be freaking awesome! 

Ok. I was going to count to 10, but I'm already starting to get overwhelmed by my list. I think I'll stick to #8 for now and if I'm overly successful I'll add more things as the year progresses.

Ahh. Things to divide and conquer! Now I just need to attack my dirty house.

*sigh* 

"Baby Steps"

I love watching them grow! Yesterday I figured out that my daughter has finally mastered climbing to the top of our stairs!! Ha! In fact when she was tired and ready to lay down (when Dan was watching her) she climbed half-way up the stairs and laid her head down, and Dan asked her, "You tired?" and went and laid her down in her crib.

She went to sleep without a *peep*! Now for those of you with kids, this is a HUGE feet! (did I spell that right?)

Anyways, they grow too fast!

My life is constantly changing, and although it seems that all I ever talk about is Kodi, she is a HUGE part of my life now. So forgive me for the repetitious news, or cataloguing every-tiny-event of her life. It's so fun watching them grow. 

You spend the first few years getting them to talk and walk and then the next 15 years getting them to be quite and sit down!!!  LOL 

Talk soon. 

Oh! And pray for me if you think about it, going through a real rough patch right now. Not sure how this all will pan out, but I know that God has everything under control. 

It is simply learning to trust in Him that is the key. What I can't figure out is, why has it been so long in my "walk with Him" and I still have a hard time trusting!? He's been nothing but good to me my entire life, blessed me with an amazing husband, step-daughters, daughter of my own, family and an awesome set of friends. 

Get it together Jacki! It's gonna be alright!!

I hate work

I seriously hate my job right now. 

They hire me for a job, have absolutely NO one here who knows how to do my job and everyone is demanding stuff for me to do, crap piling up and ridiculously impatient people.

Screw you all I'm doing the dang best I can.

Hayley

Today I really miss Hayley. I'm not sure what the deal is. I think it's just because this time of year always reminds me how Emily was getting so close to giving birth to Hayley and everyone was so excited.

I remember better than anything that night. Everyone was there. To see this little person, FINALLY come into this world. 

That day, the day she finally came out I'll remember for the rest of my life. 

And I still don't understand why things had to happen the way they did. I miss her, my little Hayley girl. 

Holiday's

Well this Thanksgiving was quite lovely. I had to basically beg my Mother to have a Thanksgiving because she was hoping to go out for the holiday. No offense, but the idea of going out for the biggest holiday of the year seemed somewhat sacrilegious to me. Her idea was to "skip Thanksgiving and have Thai food on Friday". 

Yeah. 

No.

Ok, call me old fashion but Thanksgiving is the best holiday because that's the time I get to spend with my family. We've never really been much of a Christmas family, just a big breakfast and then screwing off the rest of the day with our 'new gifts'. 

Unfortunately Dan will be gone for most of the holiday's this year, which sucks. All of Kodi's "Firsts". But she's really too young to know the difference anyway. I think he's here for her 1st birthday, and our anniversary so that's awesome. Next year he'll be here for Christmas so that's nice.

Anyways I'm officially rambling. Thanksgiving was nice, we had Mom, Dad, Nathan, Aaron and his family, myself and Kodi. Heather also managed to join us later on in the dinner. Dena ended up being needed for her extended family as a second, short order cook so they were unable to make it to my Mom's house.

Pumpkin Pie

I could kill for some pumpkin pie right now. Know anyone that delivers? Pumpkin pie that is?

Seriously people.

Serious.

"You know you're a Mom when..."

You're sitting on the toilet doing your business and going.....

*singing* "There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name OOOOOOOOOO......B-I-N-G-O....B-I-N-G-O.....!!!!!!"

Hmmmm.

"You know you're a Mom when..."

To "start" or not to start

Ok. So I had an auto start installed yesterday on my truck. I was SO happy that they were able to squeeze me in so quickly. Problem is, I think they were rushing...you'll see why in a minute.

So I pick up the truck and automatically smell gasoline in the interior. Couldn't figure out what the problem was for the life of me, even called both my Dad and Brother to help me determine what the issue was. Nothing doing. Guess I was using the wrong terminology.

So...I parked the truck for the night last night and went to bed. Started it this morning with the auto start, and once I was putting Kodi in her seat noticed the AWFUL stench still in the vehicle. I looked at the open garage door, back at Kodi, to the thermometer....

-20 below. Sigh. I did not want to put her in the car because I just knew that she would get sick from that awful smell and wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened. But then I remembered what my Dad and Brother had said and figured they  must be right. But were they?

I drop her off and head to work. At work I realize I had an important meeting all the way across town and would have to re-start my car and head back across town to meet with my friend. As I passed by the car again, I smell this horrible gas-like smell and know that something had to be wrong! I get in the truck, and sure enough, the smell is twice as bad and I feel like it's giving me a headache. I run the car over to the dealer and come to find out that when the dealer had put in my auto start they had pierced the injector and there was gas just running out of my truck onto the concrete floor! Of course by this time I'm super pissed....I had been driving around with those fumes in my truck (windows rolled down, -20 below!! come on people!!) with my baby in the back seat! My freaking truck  could have caught on fire, or the fumes alone could have gotten both of us sick.

So. We call the dealer and tell them that it's their issue to fix and to deal with it. They come over and inspect my car and tell me that they "don't believe it's their fault, they've 'never done it before' but we'll fix it" type of thing. *ARG* So now I'm like 2 hours late for my meeting ( i did call...) I try to call her to tell her I'm on my way, but she doesn't answer. I have my Dad drop me off, and low and behold, she's NOT even here!!! So now I'm sitting here "waiting for her" and I have to pick  up baby in like 1 hour and I don't even know when she is supposed to be back. A little pissed off at this point and time. 

And yet it gets better. So Aaron is picking me up to pick up Kodi, and yet I still have no idea if I'll get my truck back today or if I'll have to get a rental.

They are so paying for a rental if I need one. 

funny stuff

Ok. So are we allowed to write about stuff that happens to other people? If so, I have a seriously hilarious story to tell everyone.

Demi called me tonight busting a gut she was laughing so hard. I couldn't figure out what the deal was and at first I was thinking something was wrong. As I'm hearing the phone ring (and I was on the phone with Dan) I thought,

"Well, I'll just call her back...."

But Dan insisted I answer the phone incase something was wrong with her car. She goes on to tell me the most hilarious story. 

Apparently she pulls up next to a state trooper who has a woman in the back seat. As she is sitting there (Demi) watching what was going on, she sees the woman real back and BARF all over the back of the policeman's seat. 

With a horrified look on the poor mans face, (i'm making this up of course, since I really have NO idea...) and a foul smell in the air, he flips his lights on and speeds away toward the station.

She, of course was laughing so hard she could barely breath. And I, myself, thought it was pretty ironic as well.

Poor dude, he probably got barf all over his suit. (*bet the lady felt better though*)

GRIN

An amazing gift

You ever stop during the day and go,

"Wow! What an amazing sunset!" or "Wow that person was really nice to me, and certainly didn't have to be!"

Etc...

I believe God puts people in our paths, or in our lives, or gives us gifts at times when we least expect it! When we feel like our day can't get any worse, to have someone bless us, or smile at us or to view an amazing sunrise or sunset, or to be shown mercy when we least deserve it.

It's times like these when I realize that without Him my life would truly suck.

Sorry there is no other eloquent way to put that.

I had the worst day today. Had to drop Dan off at the airport, and after almost 1 month of being home we never really had any good quality time to our selves. Stress with the baby, traveling, my new job and everything has really been a bad thing for our relationship. I miss him. I really do. And I wish there was someway to connect with him and get back what I feel we have lost.

He's such a good guy, patient, kind, and puts up with all my junk. I guess I'm lamenting the fact that we had been so much more closer in the past and it's just that much harder connecting with each other with a new little person and all the other things going on in our lives.

I was hoping today would be a  good day to get work done after I got home. But, Kodi had other things in mind and just would NOT go to sleep for anything. I know it sounds trivial, but it's very difficult getting things done when my "little person" didn't want to be anywhere but crawling around RIGHT next to me, or in my arms. 

DON'T PUT ME DOWN MOM, I NEEEEEEEEEDddddddd you!!! *sigh* Which is fine. Just very hard to get anything else accomplished.

I finally put her on the bed (for the 7th time) and pinned her down, wrapped her up in my arms and fed her. She struggled, cause she wanted to crawl around, but I could tell by her eyes that she was in agony and begging for me to put her to sleep. I finally got her down. And as I looked at her peaceful little face, the sun streaming through the blinds and the peaceful Celtic music in the background, I thought to myself,....

"What an amazing gift!!!" 

DC

Well it's 6am and I'm awake. Surprising eh? Considering it's almost 10am there in DC, not so much I suppose.

We had an eventful trip to the nations capital this past week and a momentous one at that.

My purpose of going to Washington DC was for a NCURA (grants managment conference) that was going to last about 5 days. Dan and I decided to go down a day early and over night in Seattle and on the way back we did the same because the flight times and layovers were just too much for Kodi. So that went alright.

Once we got to DC, the training started and we thought out what we wanted to do. Due to our political standing we tried to not talk about politics as much as we could because DC is a very liberal community and very passionate about their stands. So we just stuck to vacation talk and had a great time.

The first real day that we had, we visited the Washington Monument, Lincoln, & Veterens Memorial amoung other things.

I had 5 days of training so with some days having shorting schedules than others, we were able to visit more things. We even took a "tour" and got some great history out of it.

Kodi was a TROOPER! We carted her ALL over that city in her little back pack, she slept in it, ate in it, pooped in it! :) You get the idea. The only thing she really had a hard time with was some of the flights were too long for her. We got very lucky and had rows to our selves for the majority of flights, so that helped a TON! And we were blessed to have some really great flight attendants that helped us get through the whole travel process.

Dumb Jacki, managed to lose (ok, "leave" is a better term") her purse in a resturant the night before we had to fly home. OF COURSE, i didn't realize it was missing until 1.5 hours before we had to fly out! SO PISSED. SO.....I hoped that someone would be honest enough to turn it back in without completely raping us financially. They did! So I'm waiting for my purse to get here, and hopefully (*fingers crossed*) my cash is still in there as well.

So all in all it was a great trip. Dan was a bit stressed out, and has to leave tomorrow for work. So it's back to the grind stone here at the farm. : )

If you think of it, pray for me for my job. It's pretty over-whelming and I'm struggling to get what I need to get done. So let's just say that it is a work in progress and I need to really buckle down now that I'm home, and no more traveling to get in the way of things.

Talk soon.

Quick Blurp

Well I just got back from DC a few hours ago. I'm so tired and jet lagged!

It's Demi's 21st birthday today so Dan was stuck with the pleasure of staying up after having traveled all day to take his daughter out for drinks.

Kodi on the other hand was SO tired, I fed her, laid her down, and she didn't make ONE-PEEP, she simply rolled over and passed out! Pretty funny really...I guess she's just as exhausted as we are.

So real quick, had a good business trip and a good time down there with Dan-o and the Kod-Miester and some great pictures! I'll post more later definitely.

Horrible Day

Today was such a stressful day! 

Kodi literally cried ALL day long, I couldn't put her in my carrier, put her down, in her swing NOTHING. She cried and CRIED and CRIED. 

Now my patience runs pretty good usually but I seriously had to stop my self a few time and remind myself of how old she is, she can't talk, and she probably doesn't feel good.

I even laid on the floor with her (after wrapping her up like a dummie, or "swaddled her", which is something she hasn't stood for since she was like 1 month old) and fed her until my boobs felt like they were going to fall off. And she rolled over and was WIDE awake. 

Normally we do an hour nap in the AM and at least 1.5 in the evening and then it's off to bed at 8pm. Today she took a 30 min nap in the am, 30 min in the afternoon and 15 minutes on the way to the store and at 9:20am she finally finished screaming and went to bed.

So much for getting work done today, I'm exhausted and pissed that I ate a bowl of Moose Tracks Ice Cream.

Stupid stress food.

Irony

Isn't it ironic? 

Such a cool song, but to get straight to the point I have something to share.

So we live in a town home right? And the other day we were over hearing our neighbors talking about the condo association meeting that owners go to. Apparently the condo association is upset because they are spending to much money on heat and they want to make it to where people aren't allowed to use their garages in the winter time. 

IN THE WINTER TIME!!! Seriously, are people that stupid??? When else do we want to use our garage!? In the summer when it's 90 degrees outside? Seriously people, why in the world would we buy (if we would) a town house with a garage if we aren't allowed to open the garage door in the winter. 

Kind of defeats the purpose of a garage!

Anyways, I'm so freakin tired of dealing with stupid neighbors. I just want my own place so I can yell and scream and leave my freakin door open all winter if I flippin' want to! 

JEEZ. ****looking forward to the -50 below****

CRAZY

Sometimes I'm just C-R-A-Z-Y....

Need I say more.

Realizations

You know what? Sometimes it takes us a long time to realize something, but once we do it's like this HUGE light bulb comes on in our heads and everything makes sense. 

I'm not saying that everything I do it right, quite the contrary in fact. But sometimes understanding the way that we "tick" and learning to roll with the punches makes all the things in the world make a bit more sense.

Sometimes I don't understand why I do stuff that seems completely idiotic and most people look at me like I'm crazy. I may handle things in a somewhat idiotic way for the majority of the time, but that's simply how I've learned to handle things and in some crazy way it's "working for me". 

It may not be working for everyone else, in fact, everyone else may thing I'm being a jerk or being "unreasonable" but in my mind my actions reflect my feelings and are justified.

I'm not saying that I don't need to change, and that there aren't things in my life I regret and wish I could change, I'm just saying that sometimes REALIZATION is the step the recovery.

And people saying that no matter what we do, or how we act, they'll still love us. And that in hard times they won't leave us or say they've "had enough". Trust me I'm sure we've all been there. 

Life goes on. Forgiveness asked for, hopefully received, and bridges mended.

And for all the blessings I have in my life I am thankful. Lord, for all the things I rarely say thank you for, I'm sorry. You are SO good to me, and you are so forgiving. 

Without You, I'd be sunk.

Pet Peeve

OK. Seriously my biggest pet peeve is when people don't follow through!

Don't tell me you're gonna do something and then bail, it's the rudest things in the entire planet!!!

I have quite a few friends that do that all the time, I don't even talk to them anymore, it's so freakin stupid.

I know I"m just having a grip day, but seriously, stupid. 

You know they say "actions speak louder than words", well you consistantly not following though to hang out is pretty rude. Might as well say, "I really don't care about you so I'm not coming over..."

Here's some cute pictures of kodi....sometimes the only thing that calms me down is looking at this smiling face.

I swear I hate halloween, everything seems to go wrong this time of year. Such a ridiculous holiday.

New Job

Welp it's official. My new job is going to be a LOT of work!!

I've been going through the financials and there is something

to be said for the fact that my position has been empty for 1

year!! There is a lot of clean up to do and WOW, after I get this 

all taken care of and I get my 6 month review, I will definitely 

be asking for a step increase.

Welp. Back to work.

Bathtime

Well my new thing is bath time. Picture this... we're taking a bath and having a grand old time, but Kodi keeps insisting she wants to roll over on her stomach which of course, isn't ok, so Mommie lets the water out and rolls her over.

She then, with arms and legs flailing, attempts to reach the other end of the tub by "crawling" and after a few minutes of spinning her wheels she moves a few inches at most. By this time I'm dieing laughing because it's the funniest thing I've seen in my whole life, but this does not deter her. She WILL get to that sponge on the other end of the tub if it's the last thing she does! I REACH over and give her a nudge and she gets there easily, I then push her back towards the other end of the tub and the whole event begins again.

So hilarious.

Think I may have even woken the neighbors I was laughing so hard. 

Oh to be young again, and small enough to actually be able to crawl from one end of the tub to the other! LOL

New Experience

Well finally got Kodi into her high chair for the first time the other day, pretty cute really. I figured it would be good for her developmentally since she's doing so great with standing (with support) and crawling around. Not so good, however at sitting up. To boring for our taste I suppose.

We also love out handi-food-thingy, it's great since she's teething and likes to hold her own food. This way she doesn't choke on any seeds or swallow things too big for her.

Kodi:

Mommy also tried to get me to take a pacifier again, but at this point I thought it was simply another thing to eat. So the curiousity of that item lasted about 1 minute. Of course Momy had plenty of time to take a picture. (she was really hoping I'd like it so that on the airplane I could suck on that instead of flashing her to the entire world!) Good luck with that Mom.

So I guess that's about it....having trouble with the formatting on this.

But hope everyone is doing well.

Winter

Welp it's official...winter is here. And as you can tell by the first picture Kodi was a bit confused as to why everything was "white". I let her play in front of the window and caught her a few times looking out with this bewildered look on her face...

At least winter is well... trying to be here. All the snow melted pretty much hours after it fell. And me and the Kodster had a nice walk to the church this morning, it was such a beautiful day, just a bit too windy for my taste though. We were both bundled up pretty good though.

Then after church I got some great pictures of Kodi "kissing" the baby in the mirror (see below) and after that we went and visited Great Grandpa out in North Pole.

Needless to say the day went great, although her teeth were bothering her pretty badly today she was pretty made everytime I had her in the car seat with no distractions to un-remind her of how much her teeth were hurting her.

And tomorrow I start the new job. I'm pretty nervous. But I have everything laid out so that I don't forget anything. All our clothes, stuff for work, lunches etc...this new schedule will be a new thing for us. Mornings instead of afternoons. But it'll be for the best I suppose.

We had a few pictures taken....

Well as you can tell we had a few professional pictures taken and I'm pretty excited to get them developed and off to family. 

(Phil, don't show Lynn I have to copy some and I'll bring them down to Canada)

Got some pretty cute ones of Kodi, the girls and even some pictures of Dan and I.

Exhausting

What an exhausting week! This happened to be my last week at the UAF School of Fisheries department and it couldn't be over soon enough! Thank God! 

The week started out simple enough and I tried my best to get my work done, even though I suffered from 'short-times' and was completely unmotivated. During the middle of the week I realized that the department was throwing me a going away party and that I'd need to come into work 1 hour early to attend. This wasn't that much of an issue but i would have to drop the baby off at daycare early or bring her in with me for the party and then drop her off afterwards. 

So I woke up around 3am to check on her (she sleeps in her own crib now) and she was awake but rolling around and keeping her self entertained, so I fed her and laid her back down. I wandered down stairs and now fully awake thought it would be a good idea to clean my desperately-dirty house. For some reason or another, weather, mood, hormones, whatever, it hadn't gotten done all week and needed to be done badly. So for about an hour I cleaned the house and then managed to get back to bed around 4am. 

We slept in until 8am and the day was non-stop from that point until about 9:30pm. 

I've been following the political debate more consistently this week and I'm pretty exhausted there as well. 

I guess all in all I'm pretty tired and my eating the past few days has been pretty lame as well. i notice that when I eat poorly it affects mood and everything, so I need to get that back under control.

Dan called this evening to tell me that they are sending him out "remote", which in itself is pretty ironic considering him working in Prudhoe Bay isn't exactly the metropolis of Alaska. LOL. So apparently he was catching a chopper to where ever this remote pad was located, he said that he would be there for at least 3-4 days. So I probably won't be able to talk to him during that time being that he will be out in the middle of no where.

Well to sum it all up, it's been quite the week. Kodi is getting HUGE so I'm pretty excited to see that. One-tooth, crawling and getting cuter everyday she's quite fun to get to know.

TPS REPORTS

Ok. Time for a little office humor here....and some advise from the Queen of all Paper Pushers!!!
Fun stuff first...
Dom Portwood: Hi, Peter. What's happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports.
Peter Gibbons: Yeah. The coversheet. I know, I know. Uh, Bill talked to me about it. Dom Portwood: Yeah. Did you get that memo?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah. I got the memo. And I understand the policy. And the problem is just that I forgot the one time. And I've already taken care of it so it's not even really a problem anymore. Dom Portwood: Ah! Yeah. It's just we're putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great. All right!

OK. So for anyone who has ever watched Office Space the movie you'll understand the humor in this and why sometimes in our lives we get stuck with the stupidest bosses of all time. Uhhhh....YEAHHHHH....*nodding*

So here's a word to the wise from an auditing stand point...

If you need to turn in anything resembling getting reimbursement from any state run / federally funded organization please do me a favor!

1.) When you turn in your paper work, know what the heck your doing and fill the dang forms out right.
2.) If you want to get reimbursed for it here's a thought,....we in the paper-pushing world call these things 'RECEIPTS'. *nodding*
3.) If you don't want people to REDFLAG you, turn your crap in right and if you don't know how to fill something out, for goodness sake ask someone how to do it.

Think of it like this...if you turned in a screwy set of TAXES to the I.R.S do you seriously think that after they have audited the crap out of your paperwork that they don't "REDFLAG" you and every other time you turn in paperwork and go...

"Ahhhhh John Smith turned in some taxes again, let's nit-pick him and see where he screwed up this time!!!! AHHH hA HA HA HA HA...."
Trust me. I know. I'm the queen.
The queen of the "Paper Pushers".
No I wont' sign any autographs.

Hmmm we love our stroller!

Kodi has this awesome jogging stroller and it's pretty sweet. We really like it and it's so sturdy I really think I could take her anywhere, even offroading!

But I guess that's what the HUGE tires are for... :)

The love of a child

There is nothing more magical than the love of a child, or the way that your heart leaps within you when they open their arms up and cry for your attention!

I'm sometimes struck with the awesomeness of what great responsibility I have as a Mother. Sometimes I think that I don't really realize what I have in front of me and I seem to take it for granted.

This little person, has been intrusted to me to raise, to love, to be there for her for the rest of my life! I can't simply give up, when the "going gets tough" or slip away for vacation and forget what responsibilites I have anymore. It's a BIG thing.

But at the same time, the love I have for her is so amazing! I look at that smiling face at 12am, 2am, 4am, & 6am in the morning (yep!) and when she grins up at me saying "good morning Mom!" all of my irritations seem to melt away and I remember...

All of the jabs and leg "kicks" mean so little, my sleep means to little, and the fact that my house is dirty and I "only wish I had more time" doesn't quite mean so much.

I just do the best I can, love her, put Him first, love my family, serve them and all the rest seems to "fall into place".

What an awesome gift! I am so blessed.

Now it's off of my lazy, procrastinating rear end and off to take a shower and clean my house while that little "booger" sleeps...

:)

Ode to Tounge (no it's not R rated...)

Apparently the coolest "thing ever!" is Kodi's tounge. She plays with it all the time and spits and sticks it out and just laughs and LAUGHS. She thinks it's so funny.

I think she's silly...but it sure is fun to watch her!!!

Playin' in the grass

There are few times in ones life when some things so simple can be so rewarding. Today was one of those days.

As I sat outside with my beautiful baby girl, watching her play in the grass I felt and was truly blessed. Here she is 4-months old, healthy as a all get out, wide eyed, so impressed with every little thing that she just layed there and plucked at the grass with total abandonment.

She was having so much fun exploring and playing with each blade, it was pretty neat. I began to thank God for such a wonderful day! And that I had the opportunity to spend the day (gorgess!!) with both girls, and then to hang out with my little one doing something so trivial as playing outside felt both silly, rewarding and just plain amazing.

The day was awesome, the weather perfect and the companionship...awesome.

Me love you long time!

Has it seriously been almost a month since I've posted?? Wow!

So many things have happened since last post, but mainly all is well. We are just living the "dream" driving our expensive cars and sportin' our expensive clothes. *click* Oh sorry that was just a really bad episode of MTV. OH WAIT. I don't watch MTV. Anyways....

Life is good. I just applied for a new job. It would be a Fiscal Officer position with the EPSCoR Program with UAF. After all of the small clues I got relating to applying for this position I finally have, and will wait and see if anything comes of it. It would be a great promotion and about $2.50 raise which would be nice. I'd get:

1.) My own office, with DOOR, (no more "cubicle land") so I wouldn't have to worry about privacy for pumping for the kodster.

2.) Even though it's listed as "FULL TIME" they told me that if I'm the right fit for the position they are willing to work with me for part time hours and I might even be able to bring kodi to work with me or work from home. (HUGE PLUS)

3.) Very small office, so hopefully LESS drama than normal. But we all know that drama runs rampant pretty much every where. *sigh*

So we'll see. I'm trying not to get to excited if I don't get it. I told the Lord, that if I was supposed to get the position to make the way "WIDE" and open the doors for me to go or not to go. I'm so not that great at making wise decisions unless he makes it SUPER obvious.

Kodi is SO much fun. She cracks me up cause she'll be looking at me and laughing and giggling but then there are times when she gets this look on her face that looks "just like DAN"!. SERIOUS. COMPLETELY SERIOUS, like, "Seriously are you that crazy, don't embarrass me!"

HA HA.

Such is life.

News:

We get to head down to Canada to see Dan's nephew (and mine :) ) get married in October so that will be nice. Demi wanted to come down as well and she almost had enough miles for a free ticket so she purchased the rest and is coming down with us.

Dani, being so responsible, really can't afford to come down with us because she has to work and has all sorts of bills now with her new "used" car, insurance, apartment and utilities. So Dan and I decided it would be a good idea to use my free ticket to get her to be able to come down with us. We talked with Demi and she was fine with it. So we helped Dani out and now we'll all be down there to celebrate Jeff's wedding.

I've never been to a celebration with all of us there....I think the closest we all got was Christmas of 06 in California. However, the Bartley's weren't able to make it.

So other than that everything else is just fine. I've met a great lady online her name is MariAnne and she lives in Vancouver. She is helping me as a "personal trainer" to get this baby fat off so I'm excited to actually get to meet her in person when we head on down there.

I'm 10 lbs shy (well 7 really) of where I was post - pregnancy so I'm pretty excited about that. My goal is actually 140lbs so....I'll have another 20+ lbs to go after I reach pre-pregnancy weight.

Life is good. Kind of sick today, but hoping it will pass by tomorrow for work.

Love to all.

Me

FINALLY

Welp. We are finally in our new place! I'm so excited! I have a bit more unpacking to do but it's been an overly decent experience even though I basically did half of it myself. (Dan was gone when we moved)

Anyways here are some great pictures of the Kodster she's pretty funny now. Giggling and laughing and FARTING like a man! ;)