normalcy

We are getting back to some semblance of normalcy here.........Jackson went to school yesterday and took a THREE HOUR nap.......(that is not normal but he is catching up) and he loved being there with his friends and teachers! He was like Mr. Congeniality when we left him and picked him up, waving and saying "hi" and "bye" to everyone on sight. His daycare teachers and friends are his home away from home and it was very apparent how at home he is there yesterday.

While Jackson was at school Jon and I took full advantage of our time and got Christmas taken down and boxed, organized and labeled. Then we decided we had so much stuff between the holiday decor and the baby stuff which is also miraculously boxed and labeled, that we needed to finally bite the bullet and become a true Floridian and RENT A STORAGE UNIT. Mini storage is a HUGE business in Florida because no one has a place to store anything without a basemenet or usable attic due to the heat. So, since we lost the closet in the office and all of that space due to creating the playroom, we were down to one little closet in the guest room and the garage. Jon called around and we found a great place less than five minutes from our home and it is like an HGTV organizational fairy has descended upon us. ahhhhhhhhhh, we can breath again with space and a clean empty garage!!! Each holiday has a bin that is labeled (there are a ton of bins for Christmas) and this is going to make life much easier going forward. We also rented a steam cleaner last night and today we are cleaning all of the carpets and the chairs our our sectional sofa...we're starting the new year off clean and organized, two things I really like! Finally, I spent several hours this morning ordering no less than 6 months of photos that I am behind on (who knows how many nights and weeks it will take me to get them labeled and into photo albums) but I am going to do it before the end of January!!! I also ordered a cool photo book of our Ohio Christmas vacation.......we're on the ball! Tonight for New Year's eve we're going to a kid-friendly party at my co-worker's house, should be fun for all three of us. This year we somehow had 4 invites for new year's but this was the best one that fit all three of our needs so we're looking forward to it.

2010 will be a big year for all of us, I will be very busy with work and very focused on my career goals this year while balancing our work, life, and our little family, Jon and I are both turning 30...eeek and Jackson is making his way through toddler-dom and will turn the big 2 this year! We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of three little ones in the family (two girls and one yet to be determined), Uncle Jay is graduating and will go off to college, Cousin Corrie is getting married and we hope to make the summer Michigan wedding combined with a week's vacation at the lake, and Jon and I will celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary in late May..........so much to look forward to in this new year!

more Christmas pics.......

here are a few more......

Christmas pics........

It is so hard to choose and I sent out the snapfish lot to all of the family.......here are a few of our favorite photos from Christmas 2009!

back home safe and sound!

Well, it is Monday December 28th last I checked (the past week has been a whirlwind so I really have no perspective of day of the week, time, and date at all)! We had a great northern white Christmas but it was VERY busy. We are in the process of uploading all of the photos now and I will post my favorites some time tomorrow. Thanks to all of our family and friends who hosted us, we wish we had more time to spend with everyone on these crazy marathon visits!

The flight home was a bit rough, not like the flight from Florida to Ohio as we had SNOW, and lots of it today in Detroit so the flights were not taking off when we got there which served to push everything back about an hour (not bad all things considered) but then we had to get de-iced before we could take off and that was an experience. Jackson had been at the airport by this time sitting at the gate for about three hours and then cooped on a plane for about another 45 minutes before take off and it was NAP TIME (but he was not sleeping, oh the fun) and we were in an over full flight this time, all three of us crammed into two regular seats, no bulkhead this time!! Thank goodness we had a sweet woman next to us that immediately said she had 8 grand children and he would not bother her a bit, phew because on a scale of one to ten, the day was about a 9 for difficulty in travel for poor Jackson (and us, ah)! He was just beat after 5 long days where we had no less than three gatherings each day (but how lucky we are to have all these family and friends who love us and want to see us, we are so thankful for that):)

One way or another though, we survived the flight and getting all the gear minus our stroller to the car (I forgot to mention that our stroller broke at the airport much to our chagrin this morning), we got to Detroit and tried to unfold it and the wheel fell right off, must have been the cold and it was done for) so we got to navigate the lines and all the gear and carry ons and carry Jackson along.........or let him walk carefully holding my hand.......but that does not work too well in a busy airport with people hustling and bustling around when you are less than 3 feet tall!!! So, I mostly lugged him along and we managed.

He was SO happy to be home and with his cat and two dogs and his own TOYS. He ran from room to room and was so happy to see his bed, he immediately put his arms up for me to lift him in and he played and rolled from side to side........then he made sure to pop right up just to make sure I was not going to actually put him to bed yet.......it was only 6 after all! But, he is getting back onto our schedule and was asleep before 8 tonight, phew! Have a good week everyone, and HAPPY NEW YEAR......2010 is a big year for our family, three new babies on the way, Uncle Jay graduates from SJJ.........did I miss anything?.....I can't wait!!! Pictures tomorrow!

Christmas Travels.......

We flew to Ohio yesterday afternoon and arrived safely last night. The flight went really well and Jackson rallied with his antibiotics and was a different man not 24 hours after being on the various drugs to clear up his RSV and ear infection, phew! We lucked into getting a third seat (when we had only bought two) and also had the bulkhead in front of us so it was like we were in an exit row with all the extra space for Jackson to move about and play, that was the best Christmas gift of all!!

Now we have a fun-filled and action packed week ahead to enjoy our families.....Merry Christmas everyone, pictures when we return!!!

Dancin' Man

Daddy and Jack and the Orange Harvest

While Mommy is out shopping for last minute gifts, Jackson and I got the first Oranges from our tree and he decided to eat an entire orange. Mind you they are the size of large grapefruit. Then while I was cleaning up he bit into the other one that I had on the table. This boy and citrus, I'll tell you.

Enjoy the pictures:

18 month well check up

Jackson and I had a date this morning for his 18 month well check up. He checked out just fine and was very brave to receive three shots! I think one was a DPT, the last of this round, and the other two were the second dose of the regular flu shot and the second dose of the H1N1 flu shot. He did not cry at all for the first one, but looked at the nurse for the second two like what in the heck are you DOING to me and then let out a shriek but was fine less than 30 seconds later. I brought tylenol along and gave it to him before we left to ease any discomfort.

He weighed in at 26 pounds, 50% percentile for weight and meaured up at 34.5 inches, 90% percentile for height, not bad!!

He has been tracking these same percentiles now since 6 or 9 months so it is safe to say he is likely going to be a tall boy. If you look at him though, I don't think that is a surprise to anyone! He has really stretched out and thinned out in the middle. He's lost all his baby fat and is looking more and more like a little boy each day!! He has very long legs, so long that in fact two weeks ago we bought a booster seat and transitioned him to that. It was getting really old wrestling to get him in and out of the high chair all the time with those spider legs of his........he loves the booster seat and actually seems to eat in a more civilized manner sitting right at the table with us! It is funny because when he wants to eat or do a craft project with me, he goes over and stands beside the chair that the seat is on and puts his arms in the air and just waits for one of us to lift him in!!!

Have a good day everyone.................

Big news!

I just found out that I have been selected to be appointed as our County's new Hospital District Attorney. I’ll still work at the same firm where I am at now, but this will be a very large account for me and consume a lot of my time. It will likely be announced in our local newspaper and I'll post links to the article(s) when they arise!

The Hospital District leases our hospital and funds and governs all public health in our county including the health department, the Visiting Nurse Association, Hospice, our Center for Emotional and Behavioral Health, and the like. I will officially accept the appointment Thursday night at the trustee’s meeting at the County Commissioner’s office…….BIG NEWS and a BIG step for me in my career. That Master's in Public Health is working out nicely for me now!!!

We have our big firm holiday party tomorrow night and my boss is going to announce it to everyone then, what great timing, I am so excited as this has been a tough year and this will set the tone nicely going into 2010. This will be a lot of additional work for me, but really puts me on the map as a serious attorney in this community. One of the members of the board of trustees that I will be working with was the White House physician for the first George Bush......crazy!!!

weekend in review........

We had our annual Christmas party with our friends this weekend at our house so I'm just now getting to the blog. It is a big event to host a party no matter what, a lot of shopping, $$$, cleaning, set-up, rearranging, etc. but nothing compares to doing all of that while Jackson is in this 18 month crazy toddler on the go phase where we cannot take our eyes off of him! We made it and were actually ready with about an hour to spare yesterday and we've done this enough times to know how we set our house up for this party, what tables go where, etc. but still, phew I am tired today. The house is almost back to normal and the dishwasher is on the last load now. We've just been home today relaxing and taking it easy. It is unseasonably warm, over 90 degrees today and it is supposed to be like this for the next three days, ugh.......but I did take a rest outside today while Jackson napped rather than inside. I cannot remember the last time I sat in the sun, even though we live here, we don't get to take full advantage the way everyone would imagine and it is nice this time of year to feel the sun but not have the intensity that normally goes with these temperatures in teh summer. The pool is still too cold for swimming though unless we heat it because it does not get the long days of sun it gets in the summer months and of course it cools down a bit here at night unlike the summer months........if this heat sticks around we may just heat it so we can all swim next weekend before our big trip to the COLD north. Speaking of which......we've got all of our presents wrapped and Jon will be bringing the shipping boxes home from work tomorrow. We'll be shipping a load to Mimi's house and a load to Grandma's house and we'll let you know when to expect the arrival of the boxes. Probably just a few days ahead of us. We hit the friendly skies on the afternoon of the 22nd and we're very much looking forward to our trip home! Here are some pictures from around our house before the guests arrived, and of Jackson and Jon testing out the snow machine...yes, we have one and it is really cool, it would intermittenly shoot "snow" off our front porch roof on to people as they were walking up to the door......

Kiss the girl..........

Does everyone remember the song "Kiss the Girl" sung by the lobster in The Little Mermaid? We have a cd compiled with all sorts of hit Disney songs and this song is on our cd. Jackson and I love to listen to it each morning on the way to his school and this morning, this song was on and all the sudden out of the peanut gallery, my sweet boy piped up and started singing the "shalalalala" refrain and whoa whoa afterwards...............IT WAS SO CUTE.......he was grinning away and singing right along, kicking his feet!

I'll refresh your memory with the lyrics:

The Little Mermaid - Kiss The Girl Lyrics



Percussion
Strings
Winds
Words

There you see her
Sitting there across the way
She don?t got a lot to say
But there?s something about her
And you don?t know why
But you?re dying to try
You wanna kiss the girl

Yes, you want her
Look at her, you know you do
It?s possible she wants you, too
There is one way to ask her
It don?t take a word
Not a single word
Go on and kiss the girl

Sing with me now
Sha-la-la-la-la-la
My, oh, my
Look at the boy too shy
He ain?t gonna kiss the girl
Sha-la-la-la-la-la
Ain?t that sad
Ain?t it shame, too bad
You gonna miss the girl

Now?s your moment
Floating in a blue lagoon
Boy, you better do it soon
No time will be better
She don?t say a word
And she won?t say a word
Until you kiss the girl

Sha-la-la-la-la-la
Don?t be scared
You got the mood prepared
Go on and kiss the girl
Sha-la-la-la-la-la
Don?t stop now
Don?t try to hide it how
You wanna kiss the girl
Sha-la-la-la-la-la
Float along
Listen to the song
The song say kiss the girl
Sha-la-la-la-la-la
Music play
Do what the music say
You wanna kiss the girl

You?ve got to kiss the girl
Why don?t you kiss the girl
You gotta kiss the girl
Go on and kiss the girl

I think one of the best things about being a parent is that you get to be a kid again along with your kids.......I loved this movie as a kid (actually Megan did and was much younger so I got to watch it along with her many times) and hearing these songs reminds me of that time in my life, it is wonderful!!

Christmas Lights for 2009

Here are the links to our Christmas lights this year. The sound quality is not very good as the camera is on its last leg.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

No one around here seems to have even heard of St. Nicholas Day, but it is a big family tradition on my side due to our Dutch heritage so we are celebrating in our household this morning!

It has been a fun-filled Christmas themed weekend in our house now that we are all well again, thank God. Yesterday we had RAIN, for the third day in a row and not just rain, but RAIN like we were getting ready to board Noah's Ark! So, we were trapped indoors most of the day (a rare event for us down here) and we decorated Christmas cookies and listened to the holiday songs while doing so. Then, the weather cleared just in time for the annual beachside parade so we headed down to my office for that. Jackson was absolutely in AWE of the fire trucks and floats and loved seeing the people, the lights, and the man in the red suit, SANTA, whom he greeted with a "ho ho ho". This is what he says whenever he sees a picture of Santa or hears the name Santa. This morning we were up bright and early as is the trend with Jackson right now so we dove right into our St. Nick's day gifts. He had quite a pile and it was really like a mini Christmas. He went very slowly with the gifts because every time he got something he wanted to play with that toy and did not understand that there was more to come. Highlights include the 1.00 wood firetruck, police car and school bus that I got at Target.......and the awesome Christmas robe I got last year on 75% off clearance and saved for this year, and a fancy chocolate covered oreo with a santa from Grandma and Grandpa along with a slew of toy cars, a car ornament, and several Christmas books from Grandma and Grandpa and a special police man puppet from Mimi and Papa. The whole day was set off well thanks to Aunt Courtney, Uncle Ryan and Gracie who supplied authentic wooden shoes from Holland for Jackson, complete with his name engraved inside the shoes! Thanks everyone and have a great Sunday. The sunny skies are back down here in the sunshine state so we're heading out to the "Christmas in the park" Christmas craft show this afternoon after his nap.

If we find anything cool we'll post pictures later!

and the next one to bite the dust is......

you guessed it, Jon went to work this morning and is now on his way home sick with the flu, ugh. Why is this such a plague? I have washed and bleached things and been all over the house with disinfectant wipes, there is no escaping this virus though it seems!

Hopefully this is the last of it for us for a while!

I am better today, although I still look pretty bad, big circles under my eyes and my color is just not good.......but lucky me, today I am scheduled to give an estate planning seminar at The Humane Society about including your pet in your estate plan........yes, there is such a thing, google it if you don't believe me and we have lots of elderly people down here who have pets that are like their children! No one wants rover to be without a care-giver or without food and shelter if they become sick, incapacitated, or die. So.......wish me luck, I am prepared, but definitely not feeling 100% up for a presentation.......here goes nothing!!!

get well soon Mimi!

Mimi had hip replacement surgery yesterday and is now recovering after a successful surgery. Here is a picture of Jackson to put a smile on your face this morning........I hope you have your lap top at the hospital!

I had mine after I had Jackson and the nurses scolded me for being online at night instead of resting and sleeping.........they did not know me too well obviously and I know Mimi will be the same way wanting to be in touch with the world and all that is going on!

Good luck with PT and we hope you are resting comfortably:)

When momma aint happy, aint nobody happy!

So I went to work today and Jackson went to school and everything started out well and then about 2pm today my stomach started churning and bubbling and I stuck it out as long as I could and I ended up leaving work at 4 and got home just in time.....I now have the stomach flu, AHHHH. I have no time for the flu, I have decorating to do, a desk covered in files and tons of work to do and the more I do right now the more my bonus will be so this is literally costing me money......pray for health for us and that Jon does not get this too!!!