Laurie Safari

Cookie night at The Laurie's

2010-04-12T23:08:00.005-05:00

Can you guess who helped Bailey and I decorate the cookies that we made yesterday?

(Bottom row: The Riddler bunny, The Joker bunny, Poison Ivy bunny and Two-Face bunny)

End of the weekend blog...

2010-04-12T12:46:00.007-05:00

There is only so much design work I can do before my brain finally gives out. I should be working but after creating hotel menus, vacations destinations guides and ads, I am now very hungry and desperately wanting a vacation right now. So I'll set that all aside and finish up tomorrow night and upload some photos of this last weekend.

All week James was wanting to take Bailey to the Deanna Rose Farm park here in Overland Park, KS but he either didn't feel well (he's still has some kind of crud he can't get rid of) or weather bad. So when the weekend came it was a wonderful day to take her to the park. So did every other parent in Johnson county and did the same thing as we were doing. The park is a really great trip for young kids but it's best to do on the week days where your kid might actually get a chance to play on the playground and it's free on Monday - Thursday.

Bailey wasn't amused with just standing behind a butterfly for pictures and even though she couldn't go play on the playground due to just too many kids already there, she did have fun with the petting zoo part. First up, feeding some goats...

Bailey loved the little goats and made sure before we left the pen that she petted and hugged them all. James was just happy to see us out of there without Bailey and myself wanting one. After walking around and seeing the rest of the animals we found the pony rides.

Again James was very happy that after the pony ride was over that neither me or Bailey wanted the pony to take home. One ride on daddy's shoulders back to the car and we headed home via the route that takes us past a Sonic for some drinks.

Are you there blog? It's me Jennifer.

2010-04-04T21:00:00.007-05:00

According to the peanut gallery in Harrisonville (aka: my father) I've abandon the blog. I'm here to set the record straight, no I haven't abandon the blog but lately I haven't been able to do much posting as before. Freelance work has been booming and has been pretty much taking what little time I have left after Bailey goes to bed. Now that the weather is warming up I'm finding myself more and more outside with Bailey picking every flower out of our yard and having her ask "when are we going to have tomatoes"? I'm also finding more and more ants in my house as the weather warms up. A war to which I haven't been able to win since we moved into this house. I've tried every chemical product out there and every year I'm walking into the bathroom seeing a moving wall. Spring also starts my yearly war with the dandelions and me wishing for hot summer days to come and burn my lawn to a nice brown crisp. So while I'm busy creating ads for hotels, planting tomatoes and destroying ants & weeds, I'll upload some Easter pictures from last weekend.

No Fear

2010-03-29T14:03:00.011-05:00

Saturday we (Bailey, my mother and me) drove in the rain to Stover, Mo. for their annual quilt show. By the time we arrived and pulled into the parking lot of the local community center there in Stover, the clouds parted and the sun started to shine directly onto the playground set located right next door to the show. Now normally Bailey is quite the good little shopper and enjoys hunting for fabrics with her Me-Me when attending shows and stores but this was no ordinary playground, it had THREE really big slides. So naturally the second we stepped into the building I heard "Can I go to the playground?", "One more booth and then I go to playground?" and "Is Me-Me done yet? Is she done now?". So I quickly looked through stuff and left Me-Me to continue to shop while Bailey got some much needed slide time in.

Up the playground set, down the slide. Repeat steps till grandma comes out.

Not much happening....

2010-03-14T22:26:00.004-05:00

A pretty quiet week and weekend happened around here. I wanted to spend some time outside cleaning up flower beds but the rain and cold temperature pretty much kept us both inside. Some unexpected freelance came my way which kept me busy all weekend. For our anniversary, James and I decided to have the weekend to ourselves thanks to my parents who watched the child for us. No big plans, just used the time to have dinners out and watching movies at home. We will have more to blog about next weekend when we take Bailey to go see Disney on ice.

Last Tuesday we forgot to take something out for dinner so we headed off to one of Bailey's favorite places to eat, Chic-Fli-A. We soon discovered it was Family Night and got to see the cow mascot come out. Bailey wanted nothing to do with the cow even with James going up there with her. I soon discovered she hadn't napped that day and was getting quite grumpy, so we ended up leaving with some free ice cream cards to use at a later date. Here's a picture of James using his new skills from his current class, Conflict Management & Negotiations. Sometimes dealing with a toddler is like doing hostage negotiations & labor bargaining at the same time.

Bailey & Alex meet the big red dog, sort of...

2010-02-28T20:36:00.010-06:00

Pulling a trick from my childhood memories of watching The Rocky & Bullwinkle show the title of this blog should really be...

"Bailey & Alex see the big red dog butt from a distance." or.... "What in the [BEEP] were we thinking when this sounded like a good idea??"

First of all both kids were great and well behaved during the entire day (wish I could have said that about some of the other kids there) they had a blast. If anyone was grumpy, whinny and crying it was James and I.

Our little adventure begins with...

From 10 am to 2 pm bring your kid down and they'll get to skate with Clifford the Big Red Dog for free down at the Crown Center. It sounded like a fun thing to do so we invited Bailey's friend Alex to come along. It was a little chilly on Saturday but the sun was out and for once this year, it wasn't snowing. So we start off our little adventure with breakfast for the kids at Chick-Fil-A and after a few minutes of play time we're off to go skating.

We arrived at 10:30 and got into line to rent skates. We waited and waited. We could see the ice rink in the distance with tons of people skating around but no big red dog in sight.

45 minutes in line and Bailey & Alex are still smiling for the camera...James, not so much smiling happening.

An hour in line and we hadn't moved since we first arrived.

After waiting for an hour and half we finally got into the skate rental area only to find out we had to be put on a waiting list for kid skates. Something that was suppose to be $12 ending up costing us $24 for ice skates rental for the 4 of us plus a skating charge for James and I. This locker room/rental area was insanely packed full of parents and kids trying to put on ice skates along with people returning the wet skates so seating was hard to find as you walked around in your socks on wet floors. Alex and I got our skates on and were waiting for James (poor Bailey was on the list for shoes) to finish getting his skates on. I'm not sure if the person behind the counter didn't hear James shoe size correctly or didn't tell him that ice skates came in whole sizes but he ended up with skates that didn't fit. As he was trying to take the skates off the hook on the boot caught his finger and left a big gash in it. Bleeding and in pain his last button had been pushed from this poorly planned skating event. I could tell James had enough of Clifford's Ice Skating party. In the television show The Incredible Hulk, at the breaking point of pure frustration and filled with rage...something was muttered "not liking me when I'm angry" a guy would turn green, rip off his shirt and start smashing stuff. Well James didn't turn green and start screaming "James...SMASH!!..stomp, stomp, stomp..." but I could tell he wasn't going to last much longer so I offered to take both kids on the ice rink and allowed him to take pictures of me falling on my butt.

At this point in the story, I should mention that neither James or myself have ever ice skated before. We both have memories of roller skating in our younger days and thought we should be able to handle it. No difference between the two forms of skating, right? Well it's Sunday night and my knees have finally stopped hurting. By the time we managed to walked our way up to the rink my feet, ankles and knees were hurting so bad that I wouldn't have cared one bit if I had to walk back down to the rental area in just my socks. First up was Alex on the ice although he wasn't to thrilled with the idea of being on it and I couldn't blame him at this point. With wobbly ankles and knees I grabbed a hold of him and the railing thinking I could just drag myself and the child along down to the next door opening. It worked, or it would have worked if I was the only person out there on the ice that didn't trust their legs to do what they're suppose to do. Needless to say I was in the slow lane on the ice rink and that was just fine for Alex. Bailey on the other hand dragged me out away from safety of the railing telling me "Go faster Mommy!!!".

I managed to grab the railing to gain whatever balance I had as Bailey's feet went out from underneath her as she started to pull me down. She got herself back up and yanked me away from the railing once again before heading off the ice. As we were leaving she wanted to go again and I promptly said "No" and wobbled back into the rental area.

Clifford did make his appearance when we were up at the rink but it was impossible to even get near him. Whoever was in the costume didn't know how to skate either. They had to be led out there on the ice and was pretty much mobbed by parents wanting a picture of their kid with the dog. James managed to snap a picture of the dog's butt before we left the ice rink but this is as close as we could get.

When we left the rink we decided to take both the kids to Fritz's over in the Crown Center since both kids love trains and this place is a train theme restaurant. The place over in the mall had another line that went and disappeared behind a corner. Neither James or myself wanted anything to do with lines that disappear behind corners so we packed up both the kids and took them over to the Fritz's restaurant that just opened up in Shawnee. No line there but we did have a 25 minute wait just to be seated. It's a cute restaurant where a train will run above your head and deliver food to your table. It was cute. The food sucked, but Bailey & Alex both loved it and that is all that matters.

Happy Belated Valentines day from the Laurie's

2010-02-16T13:14:00.004-06:00

Holy Crap Batman!! There's tread on them!!

Our Valentine gifts to each other...4 new tires to the Bat-Jeep (that's Bailey's nickname for the Jeep, I wonder who she got that from??). The 3 day weekend was great except for Bailey being sick, whiny and me chasing her around the house with a Kleenex tissue. At least I got some exercise in even though it snowed again on Sunday...ugh. I'm REALLY looking forward to spring.

I heart 3 day weekends!

2010-01-17T22:11:00.004-06:00

Some reason whenever I have 3 day weekends I get nothing done and then rush doing everything around the house starting at 9 pm on the night before I head back to work. This weekend will be no different, laundry still needs to be done, dishes still need to get into the dishwasher and I will be seeing them all tomorrow night. Until then I will enjoy what empty time I do have with my family.

On Saturday James and I watch Bailey's friend Alex while his mother was at work. Those two kids played with every toy in the house and managed to bring all of them out of Bailey's room. Back around Halloween my sister Theresa picked up a bunch of kid's Halloween costumes for a $1 at Walmart. Pretty neat idea my sister had about getting them for Bailey to use for dress up play, way to use the noggin Tre! Bailey's favorite costume right now is the wedding dress which she promptly put on over her duckie pj's and dragged Alex around dancing in the dinning room.

My parents hadn't seen Bailey since Christmas so we headed off to see them on Sunday driving through some very thick fog. Watching football usually keeps us entertained but Bailey wants to make cookies with Me-Me.

Mmmmm.....cookies!

I also spent a little time digging up my old Strawberry Shortcake dolls at my parents to give to Bailey. They still had their fruit smell considering most seemed to be missing some hair.

Is it Spring yet?

2010-01-10T20:55:00.006-06:00

It's official folks, the Laurie's are tired of winter.

Outside the kitchen window looking into the backyard

The snow lump is still there just bigger with the snowfall from the week.

Another weekend of cold kept us indoors for the weekend and wondering what to do. Bailey on the other hand is happy playing with her Barbie's and watching anything related to "Princesses" on TV over and over again. James watched football (when a princess movie wasn't on) and I manged to finish a belated Christmas gift to Bailey's friend Alex. I'll talk more about the knitted fish hat on my other blog, Anything but socks. One would think with all the time indoors we would get a lot of housework done, sadly no...some chores got done but we took it easy and watched some good old movies we hadn't seen in a while.

Tiny dancer

2010-01-04T21:55:00.005-06:00

Our daycare provider recently found this video of Bailey taken last March.

Needless to say James is quite pleased with Bailey's choice of music.

3 inches of snow and more to come?

2010-01-03T20:44:00.005-06:00

Another 3 inches of snow from last night kept us inside today cleaning up the house but we managed to go outside yesterday for a little fun in the snow.

By the time we started working on the snowman James and I were getting tired of being cold but Bailey wanted more. The snowman ended up looking like a big pile of snow so we told her it was giant cupcake, stuck a stick in it and called it done.

Then on to the snow angel...

At first she couldn't quite get the hang of it but eventually she figured it out. By that time James and I were very cold and both of us said it was time to go inside. Let the drama and water works begin. Someone didn't want to stop playing no matter how cold it was but we insisted and she came in to a pair of snowflake pj's and a cup of hot tea.

Christmas Wishes DO Come True

2009-12-27T14:17:00.006-06:00

Bailey has been really getting into the spirit of Christmas this year and has held up her end of the deal by being a good girl (as usual). When she went to visit the fat man in the red suit, she was very clear in what she wanted for Christmas... She wanted a Barbie RV camper and cowboy boots. A few days before Christmas, she also stated that she wanted snow, too.

From the pictures below, you can see that she got all three of her wishes.

If she didn't believe that Santa Claus was real before, I'm pretty sure she does now.

Bailey meets the fat man in the red suit!

2009-12-05T15:38:00.002-06:00

After turkey day ramblings...

2009-12-01T19:29:00.010-06:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Now we are left with the age old question of "how much longer are we going to eat turkey???" Not much longer since I didn't take too much home in a doggy bag when we left my parents house on Friday. I did leave with some cookies baked by Bailey and Me-Me, which promptly got eaten up once at home.

Waiting patiently for Me-Me to get started on mixing the cookie dough.

Mmmmm......everything taste better with sprinkles!

On the many trips to Monroe, La., James always has layovers in Dallas, Tx. so he picked up a small gift for Bailey on his last trip in November for being such a good girl while away. For Christmas Santa will be bringing her matching cowboy boots.

After baking and playing with her new hat, it was time for a nap. It was hard getting to sleep but eventually she crashed while the turkey was baking.

One holiday down and the next one is coming up. I'm not ready one bit since it means going shopping and hearing all the Christmas music playing in the stores. I pretty much hate Christmas music, especially when it's a classic song being butchered by some pop artist.

This year I'm thankful for Netflix. I know, I know that seems a bit shallow but it's true. Yes, I'm thankful for my family and that everyone seems to be doing fine health wise but I can't denied it anymore, I'm thankful for signing up for Netflix this year. Netflix is freakin' awesome. They have pretty much anything you can think of and the best part is all of the children shows that we can watch instantly on our PS3 that's hooked up to the big TV in the living. No more buying DVDs at $10 each or trying to remember what channel is Noggin for a child that is wanting Max & Ruby when Max & Ruby may not even be on. Now with that said, I shall be remembering part of my childhood after this blog entry with the DVD we got in the mail today, Season 1 of The Muppet Show. Check out the YouTube video of the Muppets doing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcEpdxsWZLA.

A haiku for the seasons

2009-11-07T15:34:00.006-06:00

Sycamore must die

Very slow and fiery death

Cupcakes are yummy

Trick or Treat and my husband's amazing ability to get a free dinner!

2009-11-01T20:30:00.010-06:00

Trick or treat, just give me CANDY!!! Well Bailey wasn't that bad but she did have quite the haul at my office's Halloween party for the employees and families this year. This year she decided to be a fairy princess but she didn't want a crown, she wanted a hat. So off to the store in search of supplies for making a princess hat, it turned out good although it wouldn't stay on her head very well.
Friday morning I was greeted by James and Bailey singing "Happy Birthday" to me. Bailey was managing to sing every other word to me while James did his impersonation of Marylin Monroe's singing happy birthday to JFK. As I tried not to laugh so hard that I would wet the bed, I thanked both of them and told James to keep his day job. After work we were both tired so my birthday dinner was scheduled for Saturday at Red Robin. He's a picky eater so he usually has items removed or added so by the time the waitress has taken his order, they are usually on the next piece of paper for my order. Even though the waitress has written every little change down it usually comes out wrong. Food gets sent back, comes back right with the manager saying "so sorry, we've taken this meal off your ticket". James never makes a scene, never gets angry or loud, never goes out expecting them to do anything but bring him what he order but for some reason, every time it happens he gets a free meal. The one time I go out to eat with my co-workers and I get my glass of ice tea dumped in my lap by the waitress, I still ended up paying for my meal. Saturday was to be no different, I knew the minute the burger went back because there was cheese & mayo on it, it wouldn't be on the ticket. Most of us would be just eaten the burger but James's point is valid, he order it without cheese & mayo for a reason and at the prices you have to pay now a days, might as well get what you asked for. We are probably the only family of 3 that can go out to eat and walk away under $20 for the night.

Bailey's Jack-O-Lantern

2009-10-27T20:42:00.005-05:00

There is much debate at my house over how I say the word "pumpkin", apparently I say it wrong according to the man who's home state puts "Yee Haw" or "Y'all" before everything. When I see the orange gourd I say pumpkin (PUN-KIN) now, I know that I'm not the only one doing this since I hear it quite often around this part of the state but that hasn't stop James from pointing it out to me for the last 7 years that I'm saying it wrong. Just like holidays, daylight savings time and bank hours, I can always count on James this time of the year start up the debate on how I pronounce the vegetable in question and once again all this is coming from the man who doesn't even eat the vegetable in the first place. Over the weekend Bailey got to decorate her pumpkin with her Aunt Theresa who also happens to say it the same way as I do, which he quickly pointed it out to her that she too was also saying it wrong.

Homecoming weekend down at the farm

2009-10-06T10:19:00.011-05:00

Beautiful weekend weather for the annual Homecoming festival in Fredonia, Ks., Bailey and I couldn't have asked for more. Well having James back home would have been nice but Bailey and I had a good time anyway. Bailey was pretty excited about the parade and collecting the candy. Well, it's all about the candy when your 3 and this year she got plenty for me to bring back home. The carnival came in second place and this year she wasn't disappointed. The carnival seem to have more rides for younger kids which is good cause there is one thing about Bailey and that is she's not timid.

Uncle Doug & Bailey on the Ferris Wheel

Bailey was also excited about her brand new Barbie fishing pole she received from her grandparents. Here is her big catch of the day with a little help from her Aunt Theresa.

The Barbie fishing pole seemed to be the only fishing pole with the most amount of luck that day. Theresa caught the biggest fish using Bailey's fishing pole and continued to use it the next day when all of us went fishing again.

But after a few minutes of standing and having to stare at a bobber, Bailey seemed to loose some interest in fishing and spent most of her time playing in Papa's gator.

After a full day of candy collecting, carnival rides, fishing and showing off to all of my relatives...she crashed at bedtime.

Employee Family Picnic

2009-09-23T07:51:00.019-05:00

James has been working at his work headquarters office building in Monroe, La. lately and he would be down there for the annual employee & families picnic. We got an invitation to go so Bailey and I drove down there and met up with James last weekend. This was my first visit to the state of Louisiana and first thing that James pointed out to me was this:

Click on the images to enlarge them.

That's right, it's a Drive-Up Daiquiri store and they are everywhere down there. Had a rough day at the office, just stop by on your way home to pick up a strawberry daiquiri and super size it please! Leave it to a bunch of Cajuns to figure out a loop hole to the whole "Open Container" law. My next impression of this state was that I really wished I still wore contacts. Between the humidity and it being monsoon season down there, wearing glasses was near to impossible. I thought my biggest problem would have been my hair fizzing up but with the constant downpours the rain pretty much took care of any fizz problem and gave me the look of taking a shower with my clothes on, sexy right? Lucky for the picnic the rain and humidity held off on Saturday which made it enjoyable for all.

Food, music, live demonstrations, train rides, games and even pony rides. Bailey had a blast at the picnic, I guess it worth the drive down there to see her and her daddy have fun together. The company headquarters sits in the middle of a pecan orchard that backs up to a bayou of all things.

As far as the drive goes, it wasn't bad and I really didn't mind it except for the rain (see monsoon reference above). Although Bailey had managed to throw all her activities for the entire trip on the floor of the car within the first 30 minutes of us getting on the road, she did real well for a toddler being strapped down in a car seat for a 10 hour drive. Between the Barbie laptop toy and the portable DVD player she was a happy traveler. One thing about the drive that did creep me out was the trees. Just like the drive-up daiquiri stores, pine trees are everywhere and they breed like rabbits in the swamp. It's not like I've never seen pine trees before or tall trees but they were very tall and in straight rows just enough space to see through. They frame the road so that you are driving down tunnels of trees, pouring rain, flooding everywhere....I really did expect to see swamp girl standing somewhere.

Now these pictures of course were taken on the way back while James was driving. He was a good sport about the whole creepy tree thing, I think the humidity must have gotten to him.

Newest member to our family

2009-09-22T20:48:00.005-05:00

Introducing MoJo-JoJo Fatboy. Hey Doug, we found you another riding buddy! At least he doesn't require as much luggage as my sister does.

My three monkeys at Ihop for breakfast last Sunday. The big monkey said something about how the Chiefs sucked on Sunday once he heard what the score was from Sunday's game. Bad monkey James!

Et tu Kenmore?

2009-09-15T16:08:00.014-05:00

It wouldn't be a holiday weekend in my family if someone didn't have a project for the rest of the family to help out with. This year I'm happy to announce it was the Laurie tribe that needed some extra hands for the Labor day holiday weekend.

When James and I bought the house three years ago we inherited a brush pile in the back yard. After 3 years the pile has grown and expanded to other parts of the back yard along with some old carpet that had been torn out of the house. We decided to expand our holiday weekend by taking some time off to do a major purging of the home and yard. With a dumpster coming to us that morning of the 3rd, James and I had high hopes to start bright and early with work until we heard something strange coming from the basement. As we crept downstairs we saw water everywhere coming directly out of the water heater. Five minutes later we managed to shut the water off to the entire house and start sucking the water up with the shop vac. After shopping around and a few phone calls later my dad found a water heater in Harrisonville for the best price.

Out with the broken and in with the one that allows me to turn the water back on to the house. While James and my father got the new heater in my mother and I worked on filling up the dumpster before it started raining.

Once the new water heater was up and running again, I set forth to finish up the laundry. The clothes that I put in earlier were still wet so I ran the dryer once more. An hour later.....still wet clothes. I turned on the dryer for a few minutes only, open the door and realized that the dryer should be getting hot, it wasn't. Ugh....and you too Mr. Kenmore???

Business trip

2009-09-02T10:28:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago James went on a business trip to Monroe, La. for work. A week in Monroe, La. and all the sightseeing he did was pretty much from the hotel to the office. Here are the lovely photos of his hotel room he managed to take while there.

As part of an incentive for Bailey to work on her potty skills while James was away he brought back some new toys for her. She's into Thomas & Friends and Bob the Builder right now and watches them daily on the Netflix account.

Bailey with Thomas, Gordon, Percy and Rosie trains.

James will have a few more trips before the end of the year and if Bailey keeps up with her potty skills, she'll have the whole island of Sodor before too long.

Get your dollar city vacation!

2009-09-01T10:04:00.013-05:00

Recent vacation trip to Branson Mo. with the whole family. Got home late so not much writing will happen on this blog.

Light show at night at the Branson Landing.

Learning how to blow the duck whistle for the boat ride.

Kissing ducks.

Ready to blow the duck whistle at other tourists.

Captain Doug Wilks.

Passing another boat on Taneycomo Lake.

Go-karts, where family members earn bragging rights.

Happy Birthday to James and Theresa!

Mornings stink

2009-08-04T13:14:00.008-05:00

Bailey doesn't like mornings. Usually she's quite grumpy upon waking up, so this morning was to be no different. Except I wasn't expecting this when I pulled back the blanket...

Sometime during the middle of the night, she took her socks off and put them on her hands. I'm not surprised on what I found, Bailey has always been very photogenic while sleeping.

Home improvement weekend

2009-07-27T14:36:00.007-05:00

Saturday morning we awoke to a squeaking ceiling fan above our bed. My solution was to just turn it off and hope that the squeak would go away the next time we turn the fan on but James had other ideas.

One trip to Home Depot and this happen:

Well the fan didn't get up there that quickly like the "I Dream of Jeanne" effect, it did take a few hours of James grunting due to his bad shoulder. James swears he's not a handyman but I knew he could handle a simple switching of an old fan for a new one. Have you noticed the crop circle up near the base of the fan that meets the ceiling? Seems that neither one of us thought about that when picking out the new fan. Well maybe the new fan will be the motivation that I've been needing on my Friday's off to finally paint our bedroom.

Farmer Bailey

2009-07-19T20:18:00.006-05:00

Bailey's hard work and patience has finally paid off. Her first crop of the season...

Two red tomatoes all for Bailey with more on the way. She loves tomatoes so much now we are starting to use them as rewards for her with the potty training. Now when we go out to eat, James isn't too upset when the tomatoes have been left on now that he has a tomato eating child sitting next to him but I do mind when she taking them off my plate.

Over the weekend Bailey decided that her Barbie jeep need some more work done on it. Watch out Papa, she'll be borrowing your tools soon.

Move over Elton John

2009-07-19T20:07:00.004-05:00

Last weekend James and I were introduced to the "The Grandpa" song by Bailey.

In case you couldn't hear or understand it the song basically goes like this:

"Going to see Grandpa at Pizza Hut!!!!"

I think Bailey now knows when Me-Me takes her back to Harrisonville with her, she'll get pizza for dinner that night in Louisburg, Ks. on the way there.

Tomatoes

2009-07-05T19:29:00.005-05:00

Bailey loves tomatoes! Loves them to the point to that she now will take them off my plate before I get a chance to eat them. So for her birthday she got her very own tomato plant to grow. Every day she waters it when she gets home from day care and tells the plant to turn red so that she can eat it it.
Yes, she tells the plant to turn red due to the crying fit we had when the small little green tomatoes appeared. She was very upset that day when she found out she was going to have to wait until they at least got bigger and turned red. So far this little patio tomato plant is producing 9 tomatoes just for Bailey's dinner plate.

I finally updated my knitting blog, so check it out yo!

Summer time

2009-07-02T10:34:00.006-05:00

I know, bad blogger. Here's some eye candy for the grandparents of play time in the pool.

Busy week and birthday pictures

2009-06-16T08:22:00.005-05:00

James and I have been extremely busy at work so not much has gotten done on the blog as you can probably tell. Well I will keep this short and post the Bailey pictures that everyone wants to see. Bailey got some birthday money from her Nana and spent it wisely on new bike gear to use when we take her up to the park to ride around. She got a little practice of going around in circles in the backyard before unleashing her at the park.

Take me out to the old ball game

2009-05-25T20:52:00.012-05:00

James and I have been wanting to take in some baseball games for a while now and with a three day weekend happening, we did it. Saturday morning we headed off to Springfield Mo. to take in a Double A minor league team, the Springfield Cardinals. At first we didn't know if it would be a total wash out since we drove down in rain. Lucky for us the baseball gods were smiling and it stopped raining about 2 hours before the game started. It turned out to be a great night for a game, nice and cool with no humidity. First off, I must say the stadium was amazing, I don't think there was a bad spot in the whole stadium to watch the game.

The stadium is only 5 years old and the details were just amazing. You walk in and smell the ballpark food, hear the sounds and feel the pride this community has for their young hometown team. Don't get me wrong, Kauffman Stadium for the Kansas City Royals is a beautiful stadium but there is something about the minor teams stadiums that have a comfy cozy feel that you just can't get in the major league. I scored some great seats for the game, directly behind home plate 8 rows back. Here was our view:

Springfield Cardinals vs. Tulsa Drillers started about 30 minutes late due to the ground crew was still getting the field in shape but that was ok because we still needed to get food and drinks. After much resistance from James and myself NOT to blurt out the word "CHIEFS" at the end of the national anthem the game was under way. I was kind of torn, I didn't know who to cheer for, do I cheer for my home state or the town I once lived in for a while? I decided to play Switzerland and cheer for both. It was a great game including my first viewing of a grand slam, I never saw one of those when I was attending Royals games when James and I first started dating. 3 hours later the Cardinals won 11-3 and it was time to head back to the hotel for the night. I will end this blog entry with a photo of what I feel makes a great night out eating a bag of peanuts with my husband, talking, laughing and having a good time watching a game. Priceless.

Look at me... I'm turning 3!!

2009-05-25T20:02:00.008-05:00

Well gentle followers... Jennifer and I have survived the "terrible two" stage of Bailey's existence. To be honest, she has been a joy and not terrible at all. This scares us both because we feel that she has been lulling us into a false sense of security and will come at us with both barrels blazing this coming year. It's a good thing I am taking 10 extra hours at college this summer and fall so I won't have to deal with it directly. I have full faith and confidence that my lovely wife, Jennifer, can take care of everything while I'm away. If not, then we will get her fitted for one of those lovely white jackets with the extra long sleeves that allows her to give herself a very tight, permanent *hug*.

Jen and I decided to have Bailey's birthday party at Cheese Mo's (for those unfamiliar with Bailey-ese, that is Chuck E. Cheese) on Sunday the 17th. Alex Hernandez, Bailey's best buddy's birthday is close to hers, so we (Monica, Jen and I) decided to have their parties together. As you can see from the pictures below, a good time was had by all.

In case you are wondering... Bailey got a goldfish, Dorothy (That is what Elmo's fish is called), from Jen and I. It has a black birthmark on its right side that looks like either a heart or Mickey Mouse head. But, as you can see from the pictures, she is a Daddy's girl and you don't hear him complaining one bit! Hope you enjoy the pictures of Bailey and Alex!

This is Alex (looking at the camera) and AJ, the neighbor boy to the kid's daycare provider.

Not so proud moment in Bailey's 1st

2009-05-11T21:23:00.006-05:00

On Saturday, James washed and waxed the Jeep. The next morning as we were leaving, James discovered that the Jeep had been violated by a bird. Well if any of you know my husband, some of you can probably guess that James said a bad word. I'll give you a hint: it starts with "s" and ends with "t". I guess I should take the lesser of two evils here and be grateful Bailey only repeated the last word of the sentence he said. The first part was much worse and would have certainly earned both of them a time out.

Now in James' defense, his surgically repaired shoulder has been giving him problems and it looks like he will be seeing the doctor again. So he washed and waxed the car with a bad shoulder just to see it covered in bird poop the next day, I'm sure any of us would have cussed a little bit.

Bo Ling's, now that's true Kansas City chinese!

2009-05-09T19:04:00.016-05:00

Friday night came and it was dinner out at our favorite Chinese restaurants in KC.

Here's a funny story (well it's funny to us anyway) about the title of this blog entry. Years ago, when James and I lived in a townhome, the basement flooded. 3 inches of standing water turned our once finished basement into an indoor pool with floating books, soaked furniture and water-logged computer equipment. It wasn't the best day we ever had and, naturally, neither one of us wanted to cook dinner that night after moving everything up to the first floor of the townhome. So, we decided to go out and eat at a local chinese buffet over by my work for dinner. We were seated in a booth and started enjoy the meal when we heard possibly the most idiotic statement we have ever heard in our lives. Behind me was a lady who shall we say, was just as large as the booth itself complaining about her meal. It seems she thought the buffet wasn't up to the level that it should be, this being Kansas City after all and it just wasn't true Kansas City chinese. "True Kansas City chinese" were her exact words and it was very hard not to just bust out laughing and make it worse for the waitress who was serving this lady her drink. The waitress, who happened to be of Asian ancestry was then asked by the customer if she was related to the chinese family who ran the buffet over in Lee's Summit because that restaurant was apparently true Kansas City chinese. Now let's be honest... When you think of cities known worldwide for Chinese food, Kansas City is NOT one of them. We felt so bad for the waitress we left a big tip for her and headed back to the disaster site called our home. We were laughing again and for once the day didn't seem as bad.

Bailey's green thumb

2009-05-04T19:11:00.006-05:00

Over the weekend Bailey planted her own Sunny the sunflower from seeds her daddy gave her. It's now her job everyday after coming home to water all the plants in containers and of course her plant pot as well.
Bailey has her own Dora the Explorer gardening gloves to work in the yard with. She's cheap labor for hire, juice box and fruit snacks.

War of the Dandelions

2009-05-03T20:07:00.007-05:00

Dandelions. I hate them. You mow them over, they come back with a vengeance. This simple well known weed was the reason for more yard work this weekend and I was not happy. I mowed last weekend and before the day was over those little annoying weeds were coming back. For every one dandelion that I mowed down, 15,000 of them took their place in the yard the next morning. Now I'm sure the 4 days of rain didn't hurt them but it's a fight I've been in with since we moved into this house and I decided to wage chemical war on the dandelions this weekend. The bottle said it treats a 5,000 square feet yard, now I don't know how big my yard is but it's not huge and I was able to do two passes with the stuff. The yard wasn't glowing but there was a strong smell that probably made the Vietnam vet across the street close his windows for the day. Now I wait and see if this stuff will work.

Since it was a nice day we decided to go outside on the back patio and let Bailey get in touch with her artist side with sidewalk chalk.

Yard work brings surprises

2009-04-26T14:20:00.003-05:00

MMMMMMM......Morels!

First time I've ever found them at my house and they were huge. Since I'm the only one that will eat mushrooms at my house, it wasn't worth heating up the kitchen for 7 large Morels. So I bagged them up and gave them to my parents. Next year, if I find them again, Carey can have them.

Vacation, part 4

2009-04-15T16:22:00.008-05:00

Alligator: That's "Mr. The Other White Meat" to you.

I'm going to paraphrase my good buddy Carey when it comes to Alligator Bites, "If it's made out of food, it's all good".

Most of our vacation activities were planned around food. There are just some places that require a trip down memory lane and sample some of the fine eating places that I once knew. Right after James and I were married we took a small trip down to Tulsa to visit some friends of ours. One of them, James Fowler introduced us to a wonderful Cajun style place called Jazmoz Bourbon Street Cafe. Good food and live entertainment, plus they have our favorite beer on tap, Shiner Bock.
Half price on appetizers was enough for me to try Alligator bites and as long as there is ketchup around Bailey will eat it.

While on vacation we did some shopping. Bailey got a new pair of sunglasses and James was busy teaching her the phrase "No autographs please".
I spotted this cheerleader outfit at Gordman's and well, I had to get it. Yes, folks that's Bailey in an OSU cheerleader outfit. Go Pokes!

Everyone is a critic

2009-04-15T08:31:00.003-05:00

James thinks it looks like a cat. I think someone earned a time out last night.

Vacation, part3

2009-04-08T19:50:00.012-05:00

What do you do with a 2 year old on a vacation? Take them to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Tulsa, OK and play the "Where in the world is Spongebob Squarepants & Friends" game. I wasn't sure if Bailey was going to like the aquarium or not but after seeing the first display of ocean life, she was hooked. We spent 2 hours wandering around finding most of the characters from "Spongebob Squarepants" and a few from "Finding Nemo".

The coolest feature of this aquarium is the shark tank. It's a tank that you can walk through and see sharks up close. Sorry about the quality of the next pictures but you can still get the feeling of what it was like.

On our way out we took this picture of Bailey on an alligator statue. Little did she or myself know that we would be having some later for dinner. That will be in the last installment of our vacation series "Vacation, part 4: Adventures in food".

Vacation, part 2

2009-04-06T20:05:00.020-05:00

ME SEE ELMO? ME SEE ELMO? ELMO!! ME WANT TO SEE ELMO ONE MORE TIME, PLEASE!!...

That's pretty much what we heard the entire way home. We saw Elmo's Green Thumb on opening night and use it to our advantage all day long. "You have to eat everything on your plate" or "We are in a store, use your quiet voice" etc.... Was it unfair, yes but it was very effective.

Click on the image to see a bigger picture.

Here's the scoop on the show, Elmo has a sunflower plant named "Sunny" and he's raised it from a seed. Sunny has now out grown his flower pot and needs a new home. Big Bird suggests planting Sunny in his garden and goes off to get his shovel. Meanwhile, Abby Cadabby the fairy in training tells Elmo she can do a spell to help Sunny grow big. Abby bust the wrong rhyme out and ends up shrinking everyone in the middle of Big Bird's garden. Now Elmo and his crew search out a new home for Sunny singing "New Point of View" set to Patti LaBelle's "New Attitude". Along the way they meet beetles, butterflies, a gaint talking bee and join in at the labybug pinic while Abby tries to figure out how to reverse the spell. Then all of a sudden Abby remembers her wand is also a cell phone and sets out to call her mother for help but sadly she couldn't get any bars. James was also sad about the arena not having a bar either. Eventually Abby figures out the correct rhyme just as Elmo finds the perfect spot for Sunny. She waves the wand and everyone is big again. They dig the hole which causes them to sing and dance some more. It's now the end of the show and we manage to leave the building without buying a $10 balloon of Elmo's head with no one crying.

It wasn't as lame as I thought it would have been and Bailey really enjoyed the show. We were close enough to the stage that a few of the performers in costume would eventually come out to the crowd and meet the kids. Bailey shook hands with Gover and was in toddler heaven the rest of the night. Elmo never ventured into the crowd fearing a dog pile attack from 50 or so toddler age kids. I can see us doing this again for Bailey if Elmo Live ever comes to Kansas City, it's well worth the money for childern entertainment.

Vacation, part 1

2009-04-05T15:10:00.010-05:00

We're back from vacation and we are both very tired.

In the weeks leading up to our vacation both of us were busy at work, working hard to get our desks ready for vacation so not much blogging was done prior to our trip.

But, now there's tons of stuff to blog about now so I will bring it to everyone in small doses in order for me not to run out of blog filler.

My back vs. the Super 8 motel bed

We left out on Tuesday morning with high hopes to arrive around lunch time. Well, we ending up hanging around town in order to switch out a CD in a computer game we got the night before. As the clerk was putting the disk in the game sleeve, he stuck the wrong game in there. That wasn't going to keep James happy in a 4 hour car trip with the wrong game so 2 hours later, we left out for Tulsa, OK. with a happy James playing Jewel Quest 3 till the laptop battery ran out. Good thing we have two additional kinds of back up entertainment for him, we still had an hour and a half left to go.

We arrived in Tulsa around 2:30ish and promptly started making calls to our friends letting them know that we had finally arrived, missed lunch time and was going to check into the motel room. Being on a budget we had to get something that wasn't going to cost a nightly fortune so we found a good rate at a Super 8 on the east side of town, clean and with access to the highway it said.

Here's our view from the motel window. Just over the grassy island is I-44 highway. I-44 is a major interstate running straight through Tulsa, with 6 lanes of traffic ALL NIGHT LONNNNNGGGG. One would think with all that semi-truck noise could drown out James's snoring but sadly, no it didn't. Myself being the type of sleeper who wants complete silence when sleeping learned to adjust when Bailey came but with the noise rumbling outside and right next to my ear, it was hard to sleep the 4 nights we were there. One can always expect motel beds to be bad but this was the worst the both of us have ever slept on. Our next day there we went and got some additional pillows but that didn't help. The thought of sleeping in the car sounded more comfortable than the bed and crossed both our minds a few times. I would have done it but on the night we came back from the Elmo live show we saw a Fox news crew setting up for a LIVE location shot in front of our motel. Our first thought was a dead body had been found but no crime scene tape or police was present so we headed off to our room to watch TV. Apparently the local Fox station was doing a story on recent car thefts at local motels and our was one of them. They actually caught the two criminals staying at the very same motel we were at the previous week. So if your into crime areas, hard beds and the sounds of 18-wheelers downshifting all night long, I highly recommend this motel for you.

This trip was a special for James. It was the first time he actually was in Tulsa for more than a day and I was able to show him the town I had lived in for a couple of years. He quickly noticed how many Daylight Doughnut shops there was in this town.

Daylight Doughnut is like the Krispy Kreme we have here in Johnson county but worse. There are 24 Daylight Doughnuts shops in Tulsa and only 1 Krispy Kreme shop. I grew up on Daylight Doughnuts and never even heard of Krispy Kreme till I started working at Penton Media (back in 1999 it was called Intertech) but since my folks lived 5 miles out of town, doughnuts were a rare treat for us. I didn't discover the yummy goodness of Daylights until I lived in Fort Scott, KS. I lived just a block away from one and that is where I learned of the cheese filled sausage roll. I had forgotten all about those awesome tasting rolls till the day we left Tulsa. James promptly yelled at me "Why didn't you take me here on the first day????" I now have something to get him back in the car for another vacation.

Down on the farm

2009-03-18T15:53:00.016-05:00

Not much to write about today. I finally found my camera cord and I have upload new pictures to the Flickr account with the recent photos of the shop hop & farm visit.

James and I were kid-free for the weekend and even though she was only gone for 1 day, I still found myself turning on Spongebob. When Sunday came, I headed off to retrieve my child and gave James a few hours to write his paper for school. Bailey spent part of her time in Harrisonville down at the farm supervising Papa & Uncle Doug doing ground work for Papa's new barn site. Click on the picture to see a bigger image or squint your eyes, it's your choice.
The next photo shows what happens when you leave your seat at my parents house. Miss Kitty has really let herself go after she retired from being a Hello Kitty stunt double.
On a final note, James and I will be taking a vacation at the end of the month. For some crazy reason we will be taking Bailey to see Elmo Live in Tulsa. Crazy of us it is but it's worth the 90 minutes of torture seeing Bailey's face light up when a 6 ft. Elmo comes dancing across the stage.

Last photo of the day. It's one that I came across a while back and giggled with glee when I saw it again. It was taken several years ago, back when James and I was first married. We were visiting James & Jon Fowler at their parents home in Ponca City and I snapped this shot of the guys standing in the front yard. As you can see, after being married to me for 7 years, I've been good for him. Happy anniversary James!

AHHH!! IT'S SIDESHOW BOB IN MIMOSA TREE FORM!!!

Road Trip + Time Change = I'm way behind on stuff

2009-03-11T12:51:00.013-05:00

In season 7 of The Simpsons, comes one of my favorite quotes....

Nelson: (in awe) What is this place?

Bart: Branson, Missouri. My dad says it's like Vegas... if it were run by Ned Flanders.

Bailey and I spent last weekend on a shop hop with my mother & middle sister Terrie hitting 10 stores in two days in the quest for fabric. Springfield, Branson, Joplin, Rogersville and a few other towns along the way in collecting pattern pieces, charms and fabric for quilts. Well that quest was mostly my mother & sister, I came along for the ride. Pictures to come of the shop hop road trip as soon as I can find my USB cord to my camera.

I came back to a clean house and James new cell phone.
Although it's a pretty freakin' sweet iPhone, I will never leave town again.

Cookie time

2009-03-02T09:42:00.007-06:00

4 inches of snow kept us in for most of the weekend, although we did get out on Sunday to visit Me-Me & Papa in Harrisonville for some much needed cookie making time.

Carefully picking out the sprinkles.

Making sure proper smashing technique is applied to the cookies.

Going crazy with leftover sprinkles.

Having fun while someone else cleans up after you, priceless.

Little Miss Goodwrench

2009-02-22T10:16:00.006-06:00

Bailey has been asking for some tools to fix her Jeep. This is her performing maintenance this morning. There are more photos in flickr. Pa-Pa better be careful and not borrow her tools because the handles are red and she knows which ones are hers!

Love, chocolates and crabs

2009-02-17T10:07:00.004-06:00

Happy Valentines day to all!

I know, it's a little late but it's the thought that counts. The holiday weekend was here and we did our weekly grocery shopping and general running around. We found some good deals at the grocery store on ribeye steak, so we splurged and had a nice dinner on Saturday. James must have cooked a great steak, even Bailey ate all her steak pieces up. James surprised Bailey with a valentine gift of a Mr. Krabs beanie baby from her favorite TV show, Spongebob Squarepants. He managed to teach her the phrase "Where's me money??" and we heard that all weekend long which made us laugh. Even though the ground was too wet for the Jeep to come out, Bailey still managed to have some kick ball time. She also took some pictures on her Spongebob camera, granted most of them were blurry and of the ground but she did pretty good job for a two year old.

Weekends are never long enough

2009-02-09T09:56:00.004-06:00

Friday came and the weekend was among us again. What to do? Since it was amazing weather up here I was for getting out on Saturday. Bailey, me and my parents packed up and went off to Clinton, Mo. for the afternoon to do a little shopping at some specialty stores. After the quick road trip was over we were back at my parents house enjoying more of the good weather. Bailey went for her first drive in her Barbie Jeep. She couldn't steer and nearly took out her Papa a couple of times but she was very happy with her Christmas gift. Sunday was also full of fun at Chuck E. Cheese pizza place with her daycare buddy, Alex. Check out my Flickr photo set for more photos from the weekend.

James, Jennifer & Bailey's day off

2009-02-02T09:09:00.000-06:00

On Friday, our daycare person was moving into a new home and she wasn't able to watch any kids so we both took the day off to do something fun with Bailey. Wouldn't you know it, I finally get James and myself lined up to take a day off together and he ends up sick. No worries, some rest and cough drops and he's back on track to getting better, too bad I ended up getting his cooties over the weekend so now I'm dealing with the cough & cold today.

At least for Bailey's sake I wasn't going to let a little cold spoil our day off. James needed some rest and he wasn't going to get it with a toddler in the house so I pack her up and we went off to Parkville, Mo. for a couple of hours. Parkville, Mo. is about 15-20 minutes north of where we live and is located right along the Missouri river. It has a historic downtown area that floods anytime the river is up and is a tourist trap full of antique shops and specialty shops. Did I mention something about the downtown area being all up hill?? Needless to say I got a taste of how out of shape I was with a 32 pound toddler in a cheap umbrella stroller. Since this trip was a spur-of-the-moment type of thing, I forgot my camera. So here is my rendition of my trip.
I didn't say it was a good rendition or even accurate but it looks pretty good to me. Notice all the dots around me, that's showing how stupid I was for wearing a heavy coat in warm weather while doing an aerobic workout.

Since James was sick and couldn't join in all the fun of heavy breathing up a hill while your child is making fun of you, we picked up a special treat for him.
3 pieces of chocolate pecan fudge and 3 pieces of peanut butter & chocolate fudge. Mmmmmm..... Nothing helps fight a cold better than chocolate.

More spring cleaning

2009-01-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

An uneventful weekend and more spring cleaning got down. Spent most of the weekend cleaning and getting more ideas on my list of "what to do when it warms up". Several items of furniture needs to be repainted (Bailey's dresser and old bookcase) and I might think about painting Bailey's crib since she is part beaver and she has done quite a job on leaving teeth marks on it. Eventually I will paint our bedroom and that should be it on painting of rooms for a while, although the bathroom could use some touching up. The list keeps growing...

James needed some quiet time to work on his homework so I packed up Bailey and headed off to my parents for the day on Sunday. My mother had a nice surprise waiting for Bailey when we got there.
There is Me-Me and Bailey having a tea party with the kitchen set I got to play with long ago. It's missing a few handles and needs a coat of paint but still works. Neither one of my parents could remember how old the kitchen set was but considering it's metal and all the food that was painted on the inside door was name brand items still around today but with old looking logos, I think it's the same age as my middle sister, Terrie. Either way Bailey had a blast playing with the kitchen set and as you can see is quite the little hostess. Although I see myself heading to the store sometime soon, she needs play food. Plenty of dishes but no food for her kitchen and shopping cart.

James and I both have Friday off due to our daycare person moving to a new house. Not sure what we will do, head out of town or stay in town. Guess I better end the blog and start planning something out.

Purging is a four letter word

2009-01-19T19:44:00.001-06:00

My company may not pay as much as Embarq does but I do get a lot of holidays off, 12 to be exact. So I spent my holiday off purging Bailey's room of some toys and clothes, this is not exactly how I wanted to spend my day off but it beats saving it all up for the weekend. As I was cleaning and rearranging Bailey's room, I discovered she wasn't the only one that needs to purge out their belongings. We've only lived in this house a little over 3 years and it's full. It's going to be one big garage sale come spring if I don't get all lazy and just forget about it.

Over the weekend Bailey and I attended my cousin's baby shower in Fredonia KS along with my mother and middle sister. I made my mother drive since I needed the two hour trip to finish the last baby bootie up. The hats & booties were a big hit so I heard, I spent my time at the babyshower acrossed the street entertaining a two year in a park due to she was very tired from her trip and was getting very loud at the party.

It was a girls weekend at the farm and Me-Me was a big hit as usual due to a new shopping cart toy she gave to Bailey. The farm house isn't very big but she managed to put few miles on the shopping cart, pushing it all over the house.
On the drive home Bailey kept herself entertained with the new doll bag that Me-Me made for her. She looks like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland but in pink.
Since Papa stayed home to fix his farm truck so that he can finish up his beans, we'll take her down to see my parents on Sunday. He missed out on the crying for 5 miles when she discovered that we weren't going to Papa's house after meeting back up with James in Louisburg, Ks.

Carpooling with a toddler

2009-01-12T20:59:00.000-06:00

It will be a sad day next Monday when we say goodbye to Rabert. Rabert is what James calls his car and we have chosen to only have one car payment in these tough economic times. So we used the money from both our cars to get a newer & bigger car with one low payment. Eventually we will have another vehicle to call our own again but it will have to wait till we have enough money saved up to just pay for it in cash. I'm determined to start paying for more stuff in cash this new year.

Carpooling isn't a big deal to us, since James had shoulder surgery back in May, we got use to driving to work together since only one of us could drive for a month. So no big deal, right? Well back in May James wasn't in school so now two nights a week I get to drop him off and pick him up at night. I kind of got a preview of how this carpooling and Bailey will work tonight.

Bailey: "Where's dada?"
Me: "At school, we're going to pick him up."

Repeat this conversation for 10 miles.

So it's really not a matter of how much I get saved up before we get another car, it's just a matter of how long will I last. Good thing I have a portable DVD player and season 2 of Spongebob, it might be the only thing from keeping me from giving in.

A busy week and the return of cold weather

2009-01-12T20:22:00.000-06:00

Cold weather has return to the midwest again, after fighting the cold wind home I realized it's only Monday and this work week is going to suck.

A couple of weekends ago Bailey and I went to my late grandmother's farm in Fredonia, Kansas to visit my uncle Jack and his family. There isn't much to do out there in the country for a toddler so I always bring a sack of toys along for the trip. Guess I should have known with Bailey that she keeps herself entertained pretty easily. Since it was a nice warm day we spent some of it outdoors picking up sticks.

She could have spent all day gathering every little stick out in the yard but eventually she had to come in to play with an old kitchen set that my aunt had around.

Last Sunday we rewarded Bailey with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese for earning stickers for good behavior. We invited her day care friend Alex to come along. When we arrived I was first with watching the two kids in the toddler area while James went to go pay for the pizza. No big deal, I was able to keep them both entertain at the slide and Bob the Builder ride. After James arrived with more tokens, I went to a game that I know I can win tons of tickets from. James and I usually win most of the tickets so that Bailey can at least get something more than candy. I don't think I was gone for more than a couple minutes when I see James dragging two kids through the maze of games looking for me. Well, the two toddlers may have been a bit too much for James but at least Bailey and Alex had a good time.

This coming Friday Bailey and I will be back in Fredonia to attend my cousin's baby shower. The last photo is taken from the porch of my grandmother's house in 65 degree weather, I'm hoping for nice weather again like the last visit.

Happy New Year to you and Spongebob

2009-01-02T13:36:00.001-06:00

New Year eve was pretty uneventful except for the common cold. Wednesday night was basically spent trying to catch a toddler and her runny nose. Usually when Bailey doesn't feel well she'll be all clingy and want to snuggle. Usually. Other times when she's sick she gets a wicked case of insomnia and can't go down for a nap, even with me telling her we can't go to Me-Me & Papa's house till a nap has been taken.

So we rang in the new year with watching the Spongebob movie for the second time, waiting for someone to fall asleep. I guess the excitement was too much for James.

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas.

Blog interrupted

2008-12-31T22:19:00.000-06:00

BEEEEEEEP.......James can't come to the blog right now, he's busy playing Burn Out on our Xbox 360 video game system. He's got the game almost beat and will return to blogging after he's won. He better get in all the video game playing he can cause in less than a week, he's back in school.

Not much to write about tonight, I recently purchased a small digital camera for Bailey to use. It's a little cheap stick camera that looks like a cyclops Spongebob. She got all excited when I took it out of the box and started in with "My Bob Bob, My Bob Bob". It's pretty cute and takes so-so pictures but what do you expect for $20, so I really don't mind letting the two year run off with it taking pictures.

I also started a knitting blog of my own to showcase some of my work and struggles with my new hobby, enjoy.

Christmas Day

2008-12-28T21:41:00.000-06:00

Christmas day finally arrived and Bailey was happy. This was the first year she got into the handing out and unwrapping of the presents. She got lots of toys, puzzles, games and clothes from everyone. Me-Me got a pair of chiefs slippers from Bailey but she decided to try them on for herself.

Santa couldn't fit all the gifts under the tree for Bailey this year and left one very special gift out in Me-Me & Papa's garage.
Of course we needed a new jeep of our own to carry all her presents back in.

Brrrr.......

2008-12-22T13:52:00.000-06:00

It's a whopping 7 degrees here today!

Today was the BBQ lunch at Embarq which James was suppling the ribs to his fellow co-workers. I was busy at work covering several desks when my phone rings and it's James telling me that the grill cover is frozen to the grill. After coming up with several ideas, the big bowl of luke warm water did the trick and the day was saved for my husband co-workers.

Our weekend consisted of home repair and it involved someone having to go into the attic to fix a pipe. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but our house really doesn't have a good entry into the attic. The only known opening is in the pantry and Bailey is the only one that could fit through that hole. Since I wasn't up to sending my 2 year old into the attic, we turn to the attic fan which is a much bigger hole for the guys to fit through. After a few hours later, James and my dad (he played supervisor) had fixed the pipe and the heat could come back on.

I forgot to take any pictures of the fixed pipe (for some reason James didn't want to go back into the attic to prove he actually did some home repair) or of Bailey this weekend so I will fill the void with an old photo of Bailey that I on my computer here at work. Here's Bailey with her Papa wrapped around her little finger. Enjoy!

We're still here.

2008-12-15T10:06:00.000-06:00

Hello again, sorry it's been a bit since the last entry but it is the season to be busy. James has finals this week and I'm managing to put off most of the Christmas shopping till the last minute like always.

For now, here are some photos of Bailey's Halloween costume from my office party for trick or treaters. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

2008-11-29T20:52:00.000-06:00

Well, Turkey Day is officially over and once again, MeMe (Judy) outdid herself on the turkey and pecan pie. It was really cute having Bailey-Boo sitting in my lap grazing on pre-dinner turkey. For those of you unfortunate to have not tasted Judy's diabetic-friendly pecan pie, boy... You have no idea what you are missing out on. She makes it with Splenda and it is my little piece of Texas that makes me a little homesick at times.

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard this man complain because his family has a tradition of saying what they are thankful for before eating the meal and it got me thinking... What am I thankful for? After loading the pictures and videos from Thanksgiving this year, it hit me... I'm thankful for my family. My sister's made it through hurricanes safe. My mom is doing well in Ohio. She is making new friends and seems to be adjusting just fine. Now, I think she might be a little happier if we could somehow manage to get some of the Texas warmth there to Ohio.

I couldn't ask for a better extended family. I mean, when my oldest daughter arrived from Texas, she came complete with matching emotional baggage, but they took it in stride, opened up their hearts and took her in as one of the family. Even after everything she put Jennifer, Bailey and I through this year, it is refreshing to see people who are willing to help no matter what. I should have known that you guys are the real deal, I mean... You are Chiefs fans afterall! You are used to ups and downs on a week by week basis.

The two most important things I am thankful for are in other rooms of the house. Jen is watching the weather (we had some light snow today) and the other one was standing up in her bed in her birthday suit when I went to check on her a few moments ago... Jennifer has been there to support me in everything I have tried to accomplish. Without her encouragement, I wouldn't have my degree and finishing up my bachelor's. She is the Yin to my Yang, the gravy to my mashed potatoes, you get the drift, don't you? My family believes she is a saint because she puts up with me. I tend to agree with them.

Bailey, you are my sugar-booger, my pumpkin-noodle and my best buddy. You make your Dada proud every day because you wake up every morning and are willing to greet the world with a smile no matter what happened the day before. I wish I had that quality. I just wished my Dad were here to see you, but I know he is watching you from above and smiling, too. Well, I guess I'll close for now and let you guys enjoy the video of Bailey swinging with her Papa.

Rudolph the Ransomed Reindeer

2008-11-24T21:35:00.000-06:00

Tonight, when I came home from the computer store, Bailey was posing in front of the tree showing me how much she is ready for Saint Nicholas to come visit her. If you look closely, you can see her letter to him in her hands. I wonder if it mentions what will happen to Rudolph if the keys to the Jeep are not in her stocking Christmas morning??

Welcome to our jungle

2008-11-23T18:09:00.000-06:00

Seeing as everyone has a blog these days, Jennifer and I decided that we could not hold out any longer. We wanted to have a blog so our families and friends in different states would have the opportunity to find out what is going on in our lives, see pictures of Bailey and hear about the joys, trials and bizarre antics of our toddler. We chose the name "Laurie Safari" for two reasons:

1. Having a strong-willed two-year old with a "melt-your-heart" smile is a mental challenge because even though she occasionally acts up, one quick smile from her will lower your defenses to the point that before you know it, you are knee-deep in the ankle-biter jungle known as Chuck E. Cheese feeding a school bus tokens just so she can have fun... Boy, are we suckers! It's not everyday that two grown adults with college degrees can be manipulated by a toddler.

2. Let's see you come up with something that rhymes with "Laurie"... Go on, I dare you!

We took Bailey to the mall today to beat the Johnson County Soccer Moms in getting her picture taken with Santa. She was so excited to tell him what she wanted for Christmas (if you ask me, it read more like a cross between a list of demands and the Clinton sex scandal definitions of what "good" is). The fat man in the red suit asked her what she wanted for Christmas. He asked her if she wanted some toys or a doll and without missing a beat, she replied, "Jeep". She wants a Barbie PowerWheel Jeep. Hearing this, the only thing that ran through my mind was hearing the words, "SUNDAY!, SUNDAY!!, SUNDAY!!!!" and seeing my precious little girl popping a wheelie in the living room destroying the coffee table and giving me that smile which causes amnesia in me. For those who have not seen Bailey before or not for a while, here is a picture of her from today. For the Grandmothers, we have these in keychain form for you...

**Sigh**... As I write this entry, Jennifer just called me to Bailey's room where she was supposed to be in bed asleep. On my way there, Jennifer sends Bailey to come see me and show me what she did. I was greeted in the hallway by a naked little Jaybird. She managed to strip herself out of her feetie-pajamas and diaper and was playing in her room a la commando style... In the immortal words of that famous commercial from the 1980's... Calgon.... TAKE ME AWAY!!