First I am so excited that my great friend, Mari & her husband will be joining us on our trip to STJ this fall over Thanksgiving! YAY! She found a great rate on American and jumped on it. The house is a 4 bedroom so hopefully there will be plenty of room for us to spread out.
Second I am sad to report that Delta SCREWED us. Well, they tried to. They tried to switch the departure on our connection from Thursday, the 15th of November to Friday, the 16th. Laying us OVER more than a day in Atlanta. Uh, no. Especially NO with two little kids. So I called and was able to get us moved to Wednesday, the 14th instead. So the good news is we have an extra day of vacation. The not so good news is that our house is booked up to the minute we arrive, so we are going to have to stay somewhere else.
I spent the day debating St. Thomas for a night vs. heading on over the St. John and spending 1 night at the Westin or Caneel Bay. I settled on a night at the Ritz Carlton on St. Thomas. It doesn't come cheap but after the year we had and the postponement last time, I am ok with living large a little bit for this trip & its only for a night! We got a nice ocean view room with two double beds + a crib, along with free breakfast for 2 and a $100 resort credit along with the room. Not too shabby. When I figured it all out the rate was comparable to other lesser hotels on the island. I will still look to make sure the rate doesn't drop!
All in all I can live with that compromise. We'll get in around 3, head to the Ritz, relax a little by the pool, have a nice dinner and a good sleep, wake up, have breakfast, relax a little more, clean up and head to the water taxi for St. John. We can get into our house at 11 am, so it all will work out just fine! 3 months & 3 weeks to go!
People keep saying how much more Max looks like me than Ella did as a baby. So I decided to do a little side by side comparison. I guess I can see it...Poor Boy!
My sweet mama just sent me the sweetest funniest email about my birth! For posterity. I am guessing this pic is from my first birthday.
-----Original Message-----
Subject: OOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHH.............
Vacuum the house, dust the furniture, mop the floor.....energy to burn.....feeling just great....Granny Farris has been picked up from the airport, flew in from Illinois.....supper is done....sitting on the sofa looking through old photo albums....time to go to bed.....big PAPA has gone to work the graveyard shift at the shipyard.........lie down to relax and oh something doesn't feel right in my back..........hummmmmmmmmmmm.....go and tell Granny.....she makes the big phone call to Uncle Homer's house..........he & auntie baby doll arrive.....Ho Ho arrives curb side on Dover Road.......vw car door flung open.......all doors on house he props open too.....ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM.......off we go to the hospital in Uncle HO HO's VW............it is about 2 AM....he runs through all of the RED stoplights........car flashers flashing yellow, car horn beeping to warn other motorist we are coming through (however there are few cars on the road at this hour of the morning.........OUCH....I can see the head..........YIKES............MY BACK IS CRACKING IN TWO............OWWWWWWHHHHHH..........HELP ME.............."stop telling me to count the holes in the ceiling tile"................God Damn it, QUIT telling me just to relax my hands...........
OH THIS HURTS............OW THIS REALLY HURTS...............................YIKES.............
SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME.......................I NEED TO WALK.........OW............BREATHE
DEEP...........RELAX.............YEAH RIGHT!
help ME PLEASE...............OH GOD I AM GOING TO KILL SOMEBODY................ah la la land finally
they have given me something to relax me ........... I doze in and out ........... soon I hear "IT'S A BABY GIRL" and I am so happy and I know my life is forever changed for the better............
In about 5 minutes from now you were born some 34 years ago....you looked just like a little
indian baby, dark curly hair, dark pink skin, so cute, sooooo big all 11 lb 4 oz of you
I was so lucky ............and the rest is history as you know.......................Love your mother
I couldn't resist posting this since its almost my birthday! Good times, good times :)
And ... its almost my birthday.
I have been crazy busy, between the house, the kids, the husband and the job, I am running around like a nutty woman. I leave 1 week from today for SLC, Utah for work, so that is a big part of the insanity. 2 weeks from today it will be all over!
I have been talking with some landscape architects, pool people, etc to see about possibly putting a pool in our side yard and doing something with the overall space. We need a MASTER PLAN! Hung and I are clueless. We know what we don't want, but have no idea what is possible. We would definitely like something au natural (greenery) that would serve as a privacy/noise buffer for the main road. We'll see ... baby steps. So far Town & Country Pools is the front runner.
This weekend is packed with fun. My mama is coming to celebrate my birthday ... so Friday night she arrives. Saturday we have Ella's dance class from 11:30-12:30, rush home change and head out to Summer's bridal shower (whooo hooo Summer) from 2-5. Hung will be taking the kids to our nephew's 4th birthday party from 4-6ish. All home by 6:30 to get ready to go to dinner. Johanna is coming at 7:30 and we are off to DC for dinner at Firefly with KK & her hubby & my mama!
Sunday should be relatively relaxing compared to Saturday. Just plans to go see the new baby in town, Sophie. Hopefully we'll get some pool time in there somewhere! This is why I lobby for our own pool!!
Went shopping with my partner in crime, KK, on Sunday and came home with these babies. Practical? No. They are actually quite comfy & considering they were more than 50% the regular price of $194 I couldn't resist. Via Spiga. Hot Hot Hot. Can't wait until I have a reason to wear them!
We had a fun 4th! We started the day by sleeping in until after 8 am! Yay Max and Ella! Then we slowly got up and got ourselves going. We headed out to the Lorton Station parade and block party. FUN! This is not a huge overcrowded parade, just small and simple. Perfect for the little ones. Ella got to see her little gym teachers who were in the parade. She was SO excited! Max napped through most of the parade, even the fire engines, no he doesn't have a hearing problem. We've checked!
After the parade we headed to the town center for free cotton candy, snow cones, and popcicles. After about an hour or so we headed back to the house to rest up for the pool party later in the day.
We headed over to Patty and Brian's around 4 and enjoyed a lazy afternoon of grilled foods, yummy desserts (the best apple pie I've ever eaten - baked by one of the hubbies no less!) and swimming! All in all it was a great day. Until I realized it was almost 9pm and we had to all work the next day!
Ok, just for the day, but still. What a grownup girl she has become. How did this happen?
Ms Jeannie is closed this week to take her own family vacation so I signed Ella up for summer camp. Yesterday she was a little timid, but I think she had a great time. They got to paint, play outside, play games, and eat popcicles. When I picked her up I asked her how it was and she said, "well this morning I thought I was going to be a little shy today, but now I think tomorrow is going to be so much fun!" Today they get to go to the MOVIE. I want to go to summer camp!
Today is spirit day & the theme was "Crazy Hair Day!" ... I think we did alright. Well, she could have just rolled out of bed and gone and that would have fit the bill.
Happy 5 Months Max! Actually it was yesterday but who is counting. I don't know why but this picture just cracks me up, I love it! Is it just me or is his hair looking reddish?
Let's see things you can do now...
1 - Eat! You really like to eat. Still on the yucky formula, but just 1 month till you can have real chow. Well, mushed real chow. I think you are gonna love it!
2 - Sleep - You are consistently sleeping from about 8pm - 7 or so in the morning. Daddy and I keep saying you are just too easy.
3 - Grabbing everything in sight
4 - Laughing and Giggling
5 - Trying (unsuccessfully so far) to sit up
6 - Generally just being a cool guy!
The other day I was flipping through a trashy magazine. Yes, I am not proud, but I read People. Anyway, so Max is sitting next to me just chilling and I notice he's noticed the picture of Angelina Jolie. And then I notice, he is FLIRTING ... raising his eyebrow, smiling, gazing. So I turn to page to a cracker ad and he kind of frowns. I turn it back to Angelina. He turns back on the charm. We better not let her know or else she'll try to adopt him ;0
First I am so excited that my great friend, Mari & her husband will be joining us on our trip to STJ this fall over Thanksgiving! YAY! She found a great rate on American and jumped on it. The house is a 4 bedroom so hopefully there will be plenty of room for us to spread out.
