Jayda Oliya is Finally Here!

Yesterday morning I got the call that my adopted sister Chandra finally went into labor. Of course she lives in Detroit along with her sister Jess (who needed a little support with being Chandra's labor coach). So I left work and made my way across town (luckily with minimum traffic) with plenty of time to help coach.

She went into labor at about 8:00am and they finally decided to do a c-section at about 5:45pm. It was a long day! And I have to say that I am a little traumatized by the events that took place. I will probably be waiting to have kids until this memory has been completely erased from my mind. My hats are off to all mom's (and mom-to-be's) you guys are awesome and I don't know how you do it.

I believe a few direct quotes were... "I don't want to do this anymore" and "I am so mad at her right now" very classic.

Anyways, after a long day and a lot of hard work, Jayda Oliya (last name to be determined) decided to join us. She is 7 lbs, 14 oz and 20.5 inches long. She also has a full head of hair. No wonder Chandra had serious heartburn.

Here are some pictures of the new family member:

Mom & Baby

Baby Jayda

The proud aunt & grandma




Aunt, mom, grandpa & Jayda



Me and Jayda


Oh yeah and then there was this special pull out bed that was "broken"

My new Motto

I read this quote in a forward that one of my colleagues sent me and I just had to share it with everyone.

"Friendship is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, But only you can feel the love and true warmth."

Classy!

Babies

While we were in Indy visiting our friends Justin and Heather, we got to attend a baby shower for Heather (she is due on Sept 6th). Her Grandma, Aunt and cousin threw her a shower on Sunday before we left, so Erin and I were able to attend.

We did all the typical stuff, ate cake, talked about babies and played games. Erin and I played most of the games together (figuring two heads are better than one) and we actually triumphed at one game "Make as many words our of the baby's name as you can in 5 minutes." The baby's name is going to be Lily Meadow Harbert. Thankfully we didn't have to play any games that involved changing diapers or anything that required mom talent... we would have been in trouble.

Erin, Heather and I

Man Scars

After the soccer tournament this weekend, Phil is pretty beaten up. He has many scrapes and bruises to show how tough he is (note the sarcasm).

But this bruise is worth taking a picture of and sharing with you all... it's pretty cool looking.

Pedicures, Smelly Boys and David Beckham

I know, I know… It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Things are crazy for me right now; classes are kicking my butt left and right.

But anyways, here is a little update about my weekend:

This weekend we traveled all the way down to Indianapolis for the 2nd annual MLS "wanna be" soccer tournament. Phil and his friend Jon are the instigators of this tournament and this year they recruited my favorite cousin Ross and some of his friends to play with them. We stayed with our friends Justin and Heather while we were there, they were kind enough to house 5 stinky boys plus myself and our friend Erin too. It was a houseful! But we had a great time. A big thank you goes out to them for having us and feeding us, we really appreciate it.


The boys relaxing and recovering.


The boys played soccer on Saturday, which we went to watch. They were very tired and sore afterwards… especially the old fogies on the team (Jon and Phil). After the games, Heather, Erin and I made our rounds to Hobby Lobby for some spectacular deals on art and also to get manicures and pedicures at a place where the lady used what looked like a cheese slicer on my feet… a little scary, but my feet are now super smooth. I’m trying not to think about the hygiene of the place.


Erin's manicure and Heather's pedicure both looking fabulous.



Phil throwing the ball from the goal.



The boys after their final game.


Phil and Curtis snuggling.





We grilled out on Saturday night with tons of burgers, chicken, hot dogs and corn on the grill (which was fabulous… thank you Rob). After the grill out, the boys spent about two hours waiting for David Beckham to play in his first MLS soccer game in the U.S. He finally made it in at the end for about 10 minutes and it was very disappointing. They finally settled for some poker to pass the time.


The Poker Game

Mailboxes are not having the "Best Week Ever"

A few days ago, I was on my way to work at about 7:30 in the morning and as I drove my usual route down B avenue, I notice an unusual sight: A man was walking along the side of the road in his pajamas carrying his mailbox (with the post still attached, but broken off at the bottom) under his arm walking back towards what I can only assume was his house. The funniest part about it was, he didn't even look angry... he looked like this was just part of his normal routine, like every Monday morning he rolls the garbage down to the street and picks up his mailbox from the ditch.

Then, yesterday as I was driving to work, about 100 yards from where I saw the man carrying his mailbox, I saw the following wonderful sight... I have to say it did make me chuckle.


Apparently the trash can around the post made it difficult to smash the mailbox, so instead they just settled for painting some male genitals on it. Creative!

Then after lunch yesterday at work, my boss was telling me that he is house sitting for one of his friends that went out of town and when he checked on the house at lunch time, the mailbox was missing. I'm not sure where his friend lives, but it sounds to me like we have a mailbox bandit on the loose. Everyone lock up your mailboxes tonight!

Weekend Update

This weekend our friends Jon & Erin came to stay with us. Erin and I spent all day Saturday shopping and running errands while the boys played soccer and did who knows what else. We made our way home to pick up the boys and head over to our friend Curtis’ going away party. Curtis is going to pharmacist school in Hawaii at the end of July, and we have already invited ourselves to go stay with him once he is there. At the party there was a little beer pong, a lot of drinking and eating, a few dogs and some game the boys thought was great called throw a Frisbee at each other and try to knock a beer bottle off a stick (or something like that). Once it got dark, they started a bon fire and what would a party be without fireworks of course.
(pictures of the fun night will follow... as soon as Jon gets his butt in gear and sends them to me)

Pre Party Picture: Kim & Erin Tailgating in Style

Pre-Party Picture: feeding the chickens @ Phil's dad's

Pre Party Picture: A little booty dancing with the dog

Erin & I were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes (I’m sure everyone else was too, but they were too drunk to care at that point), so we took a trip to the store for some bug spray. Although I have about 15 bites that are still itchy today, so I guess it wasn’t soon enough. At some point in the night, the boys thought it would be a great idea to throw Curtis in the kiddie/doggie pool, cell phone and all! After the party Jon, Erin, Phil and I made our way back to our house for a nice little bon fire on the deck and some more drinks.

Curtis & Buford in the kiddy pool

Sunday I had a group meeting for one of my classes in the morning (which was worthless because both of my group members dropped the class yesterday). Then we went to Grandma’s for lunch, she experimented on us with a new recipe that she wants to make for their apartment potlucks, which was actually really good and of course we left there with almost a whole chocolate cake! Gotta love those Grandma’s!

Root Canal

For the past few weeks I had been having pain in one of my molars, especially sensitive to cold and hot and pretty much anything that touched it. After the pain spread to the rest of my jaw on that side, I decided it was time to go see the dentist. My good buddy the dentist decided that I needed to have a root canal, so under his great advice, I scheduled my appointment for a few days later to have it done.

For those of you who have never had a root canal, thank your lucky stars! I had it done Friday morning. It was about two hours of sitting with my jaw propped open and spit running down the side of my face. Not to mention a big rubber shield covering my entire face besides the one tooth (which made it very difficult to breathe by the way). Along with the drooling uncontrollably, I also had someone drilling with what seemed at the time excessive force into my jaw… it felt like he could poke through the bottom of my jaw at any minute. Thankfully the entire one side of my face was completely numb so I couldn’t feel much pain.

About half way through the procedure, he got up and said I’ll be right back… I was thinking… WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’LL BE RIGHT BACK! I’m sitting here with my mouth wide open, half my face covered in drool and the other half numb and probably covered in drool too and I have this giant rubber face shield thingy on blocking my airways… don’t you think you could just hold the pee buddy! Of course I just mutter OK through the bubbling drool.

Anyways, it turned out fine, I went back to work with my face still numb and attempted to drink & eat lunch the rest of the day without looking like a complete idiot. My jaw is still a little sore and my tooth is tender, but all in all I guess it was worth it.

Firecrackers

Happy fourth of July! I can't believe it is already July, this summer is going by so fast.

This fourth of July we celebrated living in our house 1 year, by making wall hangings and hanging them up in the living room. I was inspired by Trading Spaces and assisted by my Mom, my Aunt Laurie and my sister Annie. Phil did the hard work of hanging them up on the wall and dealing with me asking him to keep moving them all over the place until they were just where I wanted them (thank god he loves me, because I think he probably would have killed me if he didn't). But they are perfect, exactly what I was envisioning and I love them.

The only bad thing is... the thermostat is in the middle of the wall, I mean exact middle and that is where I wanted to put my hangings, so I had to compromise.

I'm kind of a crooked picture taker...they aren't really that crooked in real life.


We also celebrated the fourth of July by running in the annual Schoolcraft Firecracker 5 miler ... yes I said FIVE MILES! Annie, Gual, Phil and I all participated (or attempted to). Annie and Phil ran together, which about killed Phil. I'm a little sad that my mom didn't get a good picture of him puking at the finish line, my sister is a fast runner! Gual did really well, especially considering he has a torn ACL in his knee and probably shouldn't be doing anything at all! I finished behind all of them of course, but I did pretty good for me, considering I haven't had time to run since we did the half marathon a few months ago. All in all, we did well. But I think we were the only people there who didn't win a door prize.



We then had lunch with Phil's mom, which was wonderful. We got to see the progress she's made on converting her basement into the coolest hangout spot in town! After that, we made our way home with the tiredest dog I've ever seen and tried to stay awake until 10pm... not very successfully though...it was a long day!

Free Stuff

Sunday, Phil and I were on our way to his dad's house for dinner and as we drove through downtown Richland, we saw a chair sitting by the road by someones house. We decided if it was free, we were going to stop and take it with us (who knows where we will put it, but hey it's free right?). So of course the chair was free and we had to stop and take it. As we were loading it into the back of the Explorer, the owner came out and asked us if we wanted a love seat too.

Before I could say sure why not, he was carrying the loveseat outside with his son while his wife brought out the pillows and cushions, apparently they were in a big hurry to get rid of it.

He said they had new furniture coming the next day and just needed it out of the house. He even loaded it into the back of his truck and delivered it to our house for us!!

So now, we have a free love seat and chair with a foot rest... anyone interested? I'll post pictures later.