dear lord:

help me to learn finnish so that i can converse with my family without a translator...

the little man

today was jorel's 18 month check up - yes he is 20 months and 1 day old, but who's counting? doc says he's doing really good and his little scars are healing up nicely. he had to get 2 shots today and sure didn't like that. he actually didn't like the whole visit, well, except playing with the toys, but i think he definitely remembered where he was.... here are the stats of the visit:

weight: 23.52 lbs - 12th %
length: 32.09 in - 24th %

in case you were curious, the average weight and height/length for his age are 26.6 lbs and 33.0 in. so he made a few jumps in growth and is doing well with his development. this little ball of energy is go ALL day and wears me out from time to time but he is so fun, although he is starting to get that sass and starting those terrible 2 antics :) and of course i can't leave out the most recent pics!

oh, and ginger has a little friend living with her

dear lord:

stop distracting me with so many things so that i can totally avoid doing my homework that is already 2 1/2 weeks behind... i'm probably going to have to take this class over...

the {new} job

i got a job at Backstreet Tees Design and Apparel - they are actually a branch of Hillsports our of Cedar City and so far has been a nice place to work. its just nice to be working again. i'm on my feet all day and do a lot of little jobs right now for the company. they do some really cool designs so if you're interested you should definitely contact our store! we ship everywhere, so where ever you live, it wouldn't be a problem :)

{little} project

i recently turned this:

into this:

(its a headband holder for my gazillions of headbands) and now i don't know where to put it....

twenty-seven dresses

Okay, not quite... i'll have three by the 10th of october because there will be my best friends wedding in october and i can't wait for it, but another best friend, Kristin, got married on the 13th of June and it was lovely. she asked me to be a bridesmaid and i was delighted!! i flew out to nashville to meet up with Lindsey (the one getting married in october) number one to spend some much needed time with her, number 2 to drive up to van wert, ohio with her from nashville - a 7 hour trek - and number 3, it was a bit cheaper. i got to stay out there a whole week and it was so fun. on tuesday the 9th was the flight out and we went and saw lindsey's mom, karen, when we got here. she is the sweetest lady ever, a mom away from home! jorel decided he liked her glasses:

On tuesday jorel found the rock band drums and didn't stop playing them when we were in lindsey's apartment! we also went swimming for just a little bit and then went shopping - i spent entirely too much money on my trip...

thursday morning was a pretty adventurous one. as soon as lindsey and i decided we wanted to get the car ready to go for our long journey, the rain started coming in a torrential down poor! thunder, lightning, the works. lindsey had decided to pull the car closer, before the lightning had come, but as she was getting out of her car, a lightning bolt struck RIGHT outside her apartment, i mean this was craziness and my best friend almost got struck by lightning... we joked that it was her way of stealing kristin's thunder on her day haha... we stopped by mama's house and the rain ceased for a moment. jorel stayed with karen for thursday and friday night and they brought him up for the wedding. linds and i needed to stop at wal-mart to grab a few things for the bachelorette party that night and as soon as we were going to walk out the door, here came the rain again... we bought an umbrella to get back to the car in the flooded parking lot! the rain pretty much didn't stop through our entire drive, sometimes you could barely even see the car in front of you, but we did see a rainbow...

we met the party at Cebella's Mexican restaurant in Fort Wayne,

grubbed then went back to the bride-to-be-then's house that her and her new hubby will be living in and played all sorts of fun silly and bachelorette appropriate games...

everyone got drunk - except for me of course - and kristin's mom was totally the life of the party! enough said about that, but it was SO good to hang out with the girls.

friday we attempted to get up early and decorate the reception place, we were there from about 9-1, got our nails done, and then had to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

saturday was the big day and we had a few more things we had to get ready for the wedding, like our hair. it was a beautiful wedding and the bride was glowing all day.

lindsey, her fiance, jorel and i made it to fort wayne that night to sleep the rest of the night away and then to travel the 1 less hour back to nashville. it was nice to know that i still had monday and most of tuesday to spend with linds. although i don't think the weather was ever on our side because as we were about to leave for the airport there was a {tornado warning} yep. scary. but it didn't last too long and we made it to the plane on time. i didn't get home until midnight and got to get up for my new job the next day... that will be another post, don't worry, this one is already long enough!!!

dear lord...

please send me somebody {else} to love... and i'm not talking baby - yet
:)

whoa

it's been a while, but i thought i would avoid doing my homework and have a quick update before i take off on my {week} vacay to my best friends wedding. a lot has been going on and i can't even come close to remembering it all, so the update will be in pics mostly. Jorel has been the little toad that he is.

on mother's day we went to my step-sister's house and grubbed then took the kiddos to the splash pad in santa clara for some running around, i think jorel got wet once and then was done, but he ran around the pads for a while and seemed to enjoy that okay. he got pretty worn out playing with the cousins and fell asleep on the floor that night. he must've enjoyed it because he's been doing that ever since.

his cousin mckenna came for an overnight stay and they just adore each other. she's just another little mother to have around helps me out quite a bit for a little just-turned-eighter. i took them to the hurricane park where we had quite an interesting experience with other children - its sad to say weirdos, but they kinda were. oh well...

my youngest brother, markus, graduated from high school. we are about 6 years apart and can't believe how fast the time has gone. my sis has tons of pictures of this and the whole weekend, and when she's around i don't even get my camera out! thank heavens for her though cause she captures the best moments! after the graduation my dad, markus, and i went back with the california crew for a few days. we hit up universal studios which we thought would be way crowded on memorial day, but it wasn't too bad so we got lucky. i took one picture while we were there...

i thought that he looked like my younger bro jake here...

i finished the blanket for coach esplin's new baby, grady finally, not knowing his wife was a braves fan! oops... but i thought it turned out pretty good if i do say so myself.

jorel has had more moments with crazy hair and am thinking it might be time to give him a little trim, but i just can't get myself to do it, but for sure by 2 years old... maybe :)

this kid loves it more than anything to be outside and thinks the world is over when we need to come in to the house. lately its like his life just ended... i'm glad he likes it so much except for when its so hot! the swing is definitley one of his favorites. he's also in love with grandpa's truck.

he also had to have surgery again because he beat the 20% chance of having a hydrocele on the other side, and again he came out pretty good he'll just now have 2 scars. surgery at 6:30 am and running around the house by 2 pm.

he's also been really into singing lately and it is just the cutest thing ever. sometime he sings the sadest songs cause he gets such a sad look on his face. he likes especially to sing when he's taking a bath.

speaking of music... dmb's new album is AMAZING...

when we took markus to the airport to go visit missouri, jorel got to enjoy his first mcdonald's breakfast and loved it.

also there are some results from his firt ice cream cone, all of the people in dairy queen were entertained to say the least :)

kudos for making it through this long boring post! oh, and i got a job at backstreet tees and will be starting that the day after i get back from my little vacation. i'm pretty excited about that!