I've been tagged

I've been tagged by a few folks, so I guess I should do it now before I forget!

8 x 8

Things I am looking forward to:
1. Starting a new job tomorrow
2. My friend Julie having her first baby (we'll see what it is when it gets here!) in July
3. My sister Mary Ashley having her first baby (a boy!) in August
4. My cousin Anna having her first baby (a girl!) in October
5. My friend Lauren having her first baby (TBA this afternoon!) in December
6. Baby showers for all these girls
7. This weekend and no work on Friday
8. Sewing cute little outfits for all these new babies and for Sipsey

Things I did yesterday:
1. Made Sipsey a Taylor bubble to wear to the zoo
2. Went to sewing lesson
3. Cleaned the bathroom from ceiling to floor
4. Ate lunch
5. Took Sipsey to daycare so I could have some "me" time before starting the job
6. Did laundry
7. Talked to my mom
8. Thought about what to do this weekend for the 4th. It's hard to watch fireworks when your child goes to bed at 6:30!

Things I wish I could do:
1. Hire someone to clean my house (maybe with my new job, this will actually happen!)
2. Redecorate my house
3. Pay off my debt
4. Take a 2nd honeymoon
5. Go to the beach
6. Remodel our ONE and ONLY bathroom. I don't know how that works when you only have one!
7. Take a jog with the fam without dying from heat exhaustion along the way
8. Be physically fit and/or slightly enjoy any sort of physical activity (I might feel better about this one in the Fall)

Shows I watch
1. Criminal Minds
2. Wheel of Fortune
3. Medium
4. American Idol auditions (I stop watching when it gets to the real stuff)
5. So You Think You Can Dance auditions (same as American Idol)
6. Any game show. I love the Game Show Network.
7. I just started watching Jon and Kate. That Memorial Day weekend marathon sucked me in.
8. I don't mind catching an episode of Kendra (former Hugh Hefner girlfriend's new show)

Favorite foods
1. Chicken masaman from Surin
2. Country cookin'
3. Spinach and chicken alfredo pizza
4. Ben's salsa
5. Ben's chicken fried rice
6. Fresh fruit, especially strawberries, apples, bananas, and blueberries
7. White peas
8. Fried chicken (and everything else) from Zack's in Slocomb

Places I've traveled
1. Bahamas
2. New York City
3. Colorado
4. St. Lucia
5. Boston
6. D.C.
7. Cancun
8. Playa del Carmen

Places I would like to travel:
1. Italy
2. Greece
3. France
4. New York City
5. Wineries in California
6. Any tropical island
7. North Korea (just kidding!)
8. Anywhere as long as my plane doesn't crash along the way

People I tag:
1. YOU!

Mary Ashley's baby shower

My sister Mary Ashley is expecting a little boy in August. We had a shower for her in Dothan this weekend and she got so many wonderful things! He will be named Mark after my dad. It was so sweet to see "Mark" monogrammed on baby stuff. This will also be the first grandson (and great-grandson) on our side of the family. What will we do with a boy? We are used to dresses and bows for Sipsey. I guess we'll figure it out. Here are an obscene amount of pictures from Saturday. These are mainly for family, so please ignore if there are too many!

Diaper cake

Punch and invitation

Adorable wall hangings from the hostesses

Mary Ashley, Mom and me

Granny (Dad's mom) and Mary Ashley

Mary Ashley and the hostesses (Aunt Donna, Aunt Laura, and me)

Anna and Mary Ashley (due two months apart)

Sipsey the Queen!

18 month stats

Sipsey's 18 month checkup was last Friday 6/19/09. She had a great checkup! Her height was 32.25 inches (75th %tile) and her weight was 22 lbs. 9 oz. (25th %tile). She's long and lean! Did you expect anything else? My mom told me I was always in the 97th %tile in height, so Sipsey might not be too tall, but you never know. Sipsey showed the doctor her eyes, ears, nose, teeth, chin, fingers, toes, and belly button. Isn't it great when they actually perform all their "tricks" on command? I was so proud! Sipsey got 2 shots and her updated blue form had an expiration date of 2012! She won't need anymore vaccines until she's 5! That was weird to see (and to think that one day she will be FIVE!).

Speaking of blue forms, I HATE it when they put the expiration date as the child's birth date. For example, our expiration date is 12/18/2012, which is a Tuesday. What are the chances that I will be able to schedule her appointment on that exact date (insurance won't pay if you have a checkup before your actual birthday)? Who wants to go get shots on their 5th birthday anyway? Usually they'll give a 2 week grace period, but they have done this before and I couldn't get an appointment ON the 18th. So after I had scheduled the appointment, they made me a new blue form with the expiration date of the appointment, which I had to go pick up from the doctor's office, which isn't exactly on my way anywhere. Sorry for the venting, but the young (and I assume childless) nurses do not think of these things when they are filling out the blue forms! Maybe they will read my blog because I'm too chicken to say anything in person!

Back to Sipsey...she is such a sweet little booger. It is amazing to watch her little brain at work. She "gets" things now. When she is acting ugly, I ask her if she wants a timeout, and she will stop! She knows she doesn't want a timeout (my mom jokingly says, "Timeout? How about a knock out?"). We have pictures of all our family members, and we regularly tell her who they all are. This weekend we were in Dothan and my Papa walked in the room. My mom asked Sipsey who that was and she said, "Papa!" How sweet is that? She is saying a lot, understanding even more, and just being a lot of fun (don't I say that every time?). She tells us before and after she has pooped, and she has even started pulling at her diaper and saying tee-tee. I guess I need to get serious about putting her on the potty! She loves to be outside ("side") and stands at the door CONSTANTLY trying to turn the doorknob. There is so much more, but I'll get to the pictures.

Learning how things work.

Afraid of nothing and interested in everything!

We have a local library very close to our house and go there to escape the heat (although even there, she still asks, "side?").

She also loves to be read to, so we signed up for the summer reading program at the library and get prizes like applesauce and fruit chews and stickers every time we read 5 books.

Allen and Shelley's wedding

Our friends Allen and Shelley got married on May 16. Allen was in our wedding (almost 5 years ago!) and now Ben was able to be one of Allen's groomsmen. They married at Allen's aunt and uncle's home at Logan Martin lake. It was BEAUTIFUL. I asked my mom to come up and watch Sipsey while we went to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. At the rehearsal dinner, all of Ben's friends asked us to bring Sipsey to the wedding because they had never met her! So my mom, Sipsey and I all went to the wedding together (Ben got there way early to take pictures). We had lots of fun. Sipsey got a little crazy at times, but everything was outside so my mom would whisk her away for a little bit while I mingled with friends.

Sipsey eating jelly beans. We rarely give her sweets and she ate these NONSTOP. We finally had to take them away from her.

Callin' in the ducks!

Look at the view! In the bottom right of this picture, there is an infinity pool that blends right in with the lake. Could you even tell it was there?

Family photo

Me, Mandy (expecting a girl in August), and Robin. It was good to see friends I had not seen in a long time!



The couple



The programs were made from recycled toilet paper from Toomer's Corner!



The groom's cake and the jelly beans that Sipsey loved!



Shelley is a bee keeper so they gave away honey as wedding favors.

Local coupon

If you live in Birmingham, Thursdays in June are Summer Supper Giveaways at Chick-fil-A. Show up and get FREE food (8-count nuggets on 6/11, 3-count chick-n-strips on 6/12, and a chick-fil-a chicken sandwich on 6/25)! Anna told me about this and I thought I'd share it with the World Wide Web. Of course, I'm sure they are counting on you to spend your money on fries and a drink with the free food, but that still makes it cheaper than it would've been, right? I don't know if it is all B'ham locations but it's definitely at the Eastwood location, where we ate lunch on Saturday. Sipsey loves Chick-fil-A, not because of the food, but because we sit right in front of the window to the playground so she gets to watch the kids while we eat! And of course, playing on the playground after we eat is lots of fun too!

*I tried to upload a pic of the coupon...too much trouble. The fine print says, "No coupon necessary...valid June 11, 18, 25, 2009 between 5pm and 8pm. Limit one per person per visit."

The Zoo

Saturday morning we took Sipsey to the zoo bright and early. They open at 9:00 and we were probably the 2nd family in line at 8:50. These colorful beauties greeted us at the entrance.

Next we saw the lions taking a morning nap.

Then we were so lucky to get an up-close-and-personal visit with this tiger. He was pacing back and forth in front of the window. It was actually scary. Nothing more than a 2-inch piece of glass separated us. Sipsey kept turning her head away from him.

And then this tiger was doing the same thing! They must've been feelin' spunky so early in the morning. Or maybe they wanted a sweet little girl for a morning snack! She was being sweet on Saturday so I didn't let them have her!

We snacked throughout the day and took time out to take a few pictures together.

We ended our morning by playing in the water fountains! Sipsey was not brave enough to run through the powerful streams of water, but she did find this water spout to be just her size!

And she played with it the whole time! There were a couple of kids running everywhere around her, but she was content right where she was.

I think we have a new Saturday tradition. Getting there right when the doors open was the best idea we ever had. There were no crowds and we had a really great time!

CSI: Birmingham

What started out as a beautiful, wonderful, fun-filled day at Ben's departmental picnic,

Ended up as a very sad, bloody day. Lovey suffered lots of psychological trauma.

I don't know if he'll recover.

Sipsey's entire front side made quite the contact with the wooden deck pictured above when she somehow fell off the bench when I turned my head for ONE SECOND!

Fortunately, the only damage was a busted lip, but it sure was bad. It bled forever!

I sure did pick a cute outfit to be bled all over that day!