LONG UPDATE AHEAD!

Only start this if you have time and a cup of coffee. Or tea. I don't drink coffee. Don't worry, I've included lots of pictures to keep it interesting!

It's been a while, no? Lots to update! In no particular order...

Memorial Day weekend: We spent the weekend in Oklahoma. My baby sister graduated high school! We went to her graduation (235ish in her class, she finished 17th she thinks) and it was short and sweet. All the grandparents were there, 2 aunts, me, Scott, Charlotte and my parents. Some of the family:

Holly, my sister, sang with her choir one last time, and she also sang the national anthem as a quartet; she is a soprano. We went up on Thursday, stopping after 7 hours of driving to visit my old office to show off the baby. A $35 parking ticket on campus that we're not going to pay later, we made the final hour to Ponca and relaxed the rest of the night. The next day was graduation. It began at 8p, which is past C's bedtime, so I wasn't sure how that was going to go, but she did great! She was asleep when we got there, but she woke up with the noise of the crowd and just chilled in her carseat for a while.

She got hungry, so we broke out a bottle to entertain her for a while. Many of the families had airhorns and every time one went off or a bunch of people cheered, she got HUGE eyes and looked very startled, but she never stopped eating! :) My sister and my mom, after graduation:

On Saturday, we met a couple of friends and their baby for lunch. They live in Arkansas but were in OK for the weekend, so we found a place between where we all were and caught up! Baby H was born in January. We hadn't met her and she hadn't met C yet, so it was so much fun! The girls smiled at each other, so cute!!

That night, my sister and 2 friends had a get together for the families, so we went to that before headed to Scott's parent's house. The two friends:

It was a late night because we sat up chatting with his parents and sister. Sunday morning, we went to our old church to show off C and hardly anyone was there!! There might have been a youth trip, as I saw not a one there (I used to volunteer with the youth). We hung out at Scott's parent's house with some friends for the afternoon. It's so great to see people you haven't seen in a long time!


Monday, it was time to head home. It used to take us 6hrs, but with baby and feeding it took about 7.5 to get home. Scott mowed when we got home, and I unpacked and started laundry. A boring end to a really great weekend. Because he's cute, here's a pic of our nephew:


Shredding: Scott and I have started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. We have completed 5 days so far and are so sore! The goal is to do it 30 days in a row, so we are 1/6 of the way done. We may try to do it longer than 30 days, that's just the first goal. It's only 20 minutes a day, but we struggle to make it each time! The first day was a killer, but we're getting better. I didn't take measurements before, but I did use string to measure my chest, waist, and hips. I'm anxious to see how many inches I can lose. I really want to fit back into my prepregnancy pants so that I don't have to buy a whole new wardrobe. I did check my starting weight, but I know it's just a number. I mean, I hope I lose weight, but if I don't, I'd settle for fitting back into my black pants! Day 30 is the day I leave for a conference in Dallas, so I can't skip any days! Oh, Jillian Michaels is the Jillian from the Biggest Loser, fyi. And I'll let you know at the end if I lost any inches. Maybe by then I'll be brave enough to measure my string lengths. [No pictures here, it's not a pretty sight. Imagine lots of sweat and there ya go!]

Charlotte: Her routine is working! She is finally sleeping a little more at night! I am beginning to realize that one day she will not need me in the middle of the night, and that makes me a little sad. I like being the one that can take care of her needs, and it's so quiet in the middle of the night, just us. That said, I am happy that she is starting to sleep longer. Now when every. single. person. asks me if she's sleeping through the night yet, I can say yes. I mean, really, is it a competition?? No! Babies develop at different rates, and you're not the one getting up with her, so what does it matter to you?? But, technically, yes, she is sleeping through the night, 3 nights in a row now. 5 hours, then 5 hours, then 6 last night. She actually went 7 hours between her feeds last night skipping one entirely, but she fought sleep for that first hour, making it only 6. Sleeping in the cradle at the inlaw's house:

She has been smiling more lately too. Especially if you say "buh buh buh" to her over and over. She's practicing her B's and blowing bubbles! She sticks her tongue out too if she's especially smiley!


This past Friday and Saturday, she was pretty grouchy all day. Today off and on too. I think she's tired, so tomorrow I'll probably let her sleep whatever she needs to. She's usually tired after the weekend anyway and needs extra sleep.


My job: I am officially a SAHM now (stay at home Mom!) and I'm excited about that. Me staying home was our goal, but Scott's job was in question for a while. Starting in January, they've been doing layoffs at his company every 4 weeks, never knowing in advance which area would be affected. We had said that if he still had a job on June 1, I would not go back to work. We hung onto my job a while to make sure that, come the end of maternity leave, one of us still had a job. June 1 is tomorrow, so I begin a new job. Staying home is tough! Days are long, and, even on the days we actually stay home the whole day, there are things that I want to get done that just don't happen. I can't go out and work in the yard when she is sleeping, because what if she wakes and I need to get to her and I'm covered in dirt?? No can do, so I did yard work today while she and Scott napped! Even though it was 94 degrees out, I loved being outside and getting dirty. (I may be sleeping all day with her tomorrow, I'm wiped out!!)

Church: There have been lots of changes at church. I had 3 (5) bosses when I worked there, 3 full time, 1 associate, and 1 part time. The only of those still there are the associate and the part timer! Two of the FTs quit and one was laid off. So those departments are all going through changes. Also, a new Sunday school class formed for Young Couples. Seeing as we are a young couple, it would seem logical for us to join that class. However, we are in the old YC class, now the Faith Class. We are the youngest in the class and have been since it started almost 2 years ago. I have felt some pressure to join the new class, but we tried it out today, and I don't feel like we will be going back to it. There is nothing wrong with it, but we are still the youngest! We feel like we can stay in our current, more developed class and be the youngest instead of moving to the new, developing class. I've been thinking about it since January, when we were first asked to switch, but the class didn't start til April, and we weren't going to church then. We were finally able to say we tried it out today though.

That's all I can think of for now. It's late, I'm sore, and I'm tired. I hope that you all have a good week!

PS: I had to do all the pictures twice, because I didn't do them right the first time. That's how much I love you people that read things like this when you probably have better things to do with your time. :)