November 28th, 2011

Well darn it I didn't meet my once a week goal this past week... but at least I'm only a day over!  I'd like to be going to bed right now, but I'm making myself stay up an extra 15-20 minutes to reflect on this past holiday week!  It was VERY nice to have a break!  I enjoyed Thanksgiving with both families.... Jordan and I have a lot to be thankful for, Zearley is everything two parents could ask for.  She's such a joy and now she's UNSTOPPABLE... she's walking EVERYWHERE!  It's so fun to watch her get better each day and how quickly she's learned.  She walks with her hands and feet out right now like she's about to fall, but she's got pretty good balance. Over the weekend she has now learned she can bend/squat down to pick something up and then stand up again- all on her own!  She's doing awesome!  She still loves the stairs though, so we have to be very careful and remember to always close doors behind us.   Although she's always cute, Zearley's definitely starting to show her attitude when she doesn't get what she wants!  She will drop and lay her head down on the floor and pout!  What a drama queen already!?
On Thanksgiving, we went to Jordan's side for lunch and my side for supper.  It was a very busy, but fun day with family.  We're very fortunate everyone is close so there's not a lot of traveling for us.  The weather on Thanksgiving was beautiful it was certainly in the high 50's, it maybe even reached 60 degrees outside, whatever it was... it was beautiful, it made it seem more like an Easter holiday then Thanksgiving!  I'm glad we've only had one dusting of snow so far this year, but I know it's inevitable that it's on it's way, so I almost feel the sooner we get it over with the better, I'm hoping it's a short winter this year!
Early Friday morning (12 am) I went "Black Friday" shopping for a short amount of time to check out what good deals there were.  However, I didn't find any deal worth waiting an hour in line for at any of the stores we stopped at.  I met up with Lisa, Jena, Jillian, Lani, Alexa, & Tami, however I was back home right before 2 empty-handed and ready for bed!  Later Friday, we went shopping for a bit again.  Then Friday night, Jordan and I met up with my mom, Sara and Jason and Quinn, and Kaia and Justin down at Holiday Hoopla on Main St. Cedar Falls.  It was crazy how many people were down there.  It would be fun when Zearley gets a little older and she's excited to see Santa come to town, but this year she was asleep in the car when Santa came to town by helicopter.
Saturday, we went down to Jordan's grandma Bev and Ron's house in Cedar Rapids for a Thanksgiving dinner.  Then when we got back, Zearley and I went to Kaia's for a jewelry party.  Jordan went and looked at mattresses and made our big Christmas purchase- a new KING sized bed.  It's much needed with 3 dogs, Jordan and I, and a lot of the time Zearley too!!
Well, I have to cut this blog short because little Z bug is suddenly awake, poor tired girl!!

November 20th, 2011

This seems to be becoming my habit...blogging on Sunday evenings!  Whatever works, as long as I'm sticking to writing once a week!  I'm excited to get this week started as it's only a three day week and tomorrow morning we have a field trip to the public library.  Should go pretty quick and then I'm way excited about Thanksgiving and spending a couple extra days with my little girl and family!  Hoping it's stress-free... like all weekends should be.  Hope to go out on Black Friday and get some Christmas shopping accomplished!  Not sure how I feel about waiting in lines anywhere yet, I don't think there's anything on my list I need to stand in line for, but I'll take a look on Thanksgiving in the newspaper...that's the best day of newspaper ads!!
This week seemed to start off slow, but it ended up going pretty quick.  Jordan stayed home Friday night and left early Saturday morning for Landan's first play-off game.  Northwest won, so that is great news for them...very exciting, hope they do as well as they did last year and hope they don't have to play in Duluth, MN!!  Brrr...last year I felt bad for them, how cold it had to have been!  Being Jordan was gone all of Saturday and came home Sunday afternoon- it was very quiet here.  Zearley and I didn't do a whole lot.  We met Sara & Quinn at the mall for a little bit on Saturday and then later on we met Kaia and Justin and her friends Travis, Stacy, and McKinley after the Decorah/Union football play-off game to eat at Mulligan's.  Zearley loved McKinley!!  She is 3 and was a lot of fun for Zearley!
Today we ran a few more errands and then came home and made gingerbread cake balls and caramel cake balls to share at Thanksgiving!  Hopefully they taste good!  I also went out on a limb following a very vague recipe to make macaroni grilled cheese for supper!  It was AMAZING... I'm starting to feel a little like Paula Dean or something!  Haha...maybe not quite, but it's fun finding recipes that are simple and delicious!
Oh an important note about today, Zearley wore her first ponytail in her hair with a bow.  She wore her bearcats onesie with jeans and a bow in front of her ponytail, she looked too cute and it getting so grown up.
There's not a lot to report this week, other than Zearley is really walking now!  She took her first steps November 8th, but she's now taking a lot more steps independently.  She doesn't get up from the floor and start walking on her own, but she will stand up to tables/chairs and then take a couple steps if you reach out for her and ask her to come to you.  So cute!  I love to watch her little legs take steps and how excited she gets... such a doll!  She's getting better and braver every time!  You have to be so careful of steps now because she climbs them SO fast!
She started eating teddy grahams (broke in half) and goldfish crackers this week!  She loves her cheese ravioli, string cheese, cottage cheese and surprisingly so, she likes to chew on lemons!  She tried chewing on a piece of celery yesterday and she really seemed to enjoy that too!  She's really a great eater, which I'm very grateful for!  I'm excited to watch her eat Thanksgiving dinner this year!

Of course I have to download at least one picture from this week, so what I've chosen for this blog is a picture of Zearley from the bath tub last night!  She loves playing in the water and her hair gets so curly they make for darling pictures.  It's also fun just to take pictures of her playing with the water because water looks so cool in pictures!  I'm always sad Sunday nights when I get her put to bed and she cuddles and I think about having to leave her tomorrow to go back to work!  A Big Bummer!
Friday night, we went out to eat at Old Chicago with daddy and grandma Lisa.  We made a stop at the Dress Up Shop and got a lot of cute things for Christmas for Miss Zearley!  I'm excited to get going on some pictures for Christmas of our little jewel!  I have a lot of ideas in mind, so I'm hoping my little cheese is cooperative!

Maybe I will get a post in before Thanksgiving, but if not I have a lot to be thankful for and I will post afterwards to reflect on the holiday!

November 13, 2011

Well darn it...I didn't make my once a week blog...instead, eight days later I'm sitting down on a Sunday night and making myself reflect on this past week!  At least tonight was a good bedtime night for Miss Zearley, so I'm able to have some time to get things done!  This week was a week of great relief, some relaxation, and yet another tragedy.  I'll start with the relief- Monday and Tuesday I had parent teacher conferences and I'm so relieved to be done with them.  I'm happy with the way they went, I have a good group of parents and students so that helped my conferences run smoothly.  It was nice to visit with parents and celebrate the growth students have made after now 51 days of kindergarten.  On Tuesday, November 8th Zearley started to get a little brave and take a few steps on her own.  She is not walking yet, but loves to hold on to things or your hand and walk around.  Although, she's taken a few steps, she's still not quite sure about the whole walking thing, but she's getting better all the time... sooner than later, I know she'll be taking off all over by herself and I will wonder why I was so anxious and excited to see her walk!  There will be no stopping her!
After conferences on Tuesday night, I was very tired, so it was nice to wake up Wednesday morning, to our first late start day!  I wasn't thrilled about having our first snow- there wasn't a lot, but it was just really wet and pretty windy.  I didn't get to sleep in, as Zearley was wide awake, but I did get some extra snuggle time with her!  So that was well worth it.  During this time Wednesday morning, it was then I learned of an accident that happened Tuesday night where a car struck a man walking his dog, killing them both.  This man happened to be a very good friend and classmate, Abbey (Henry) Sauerbrei's dad. What a tragic event, I have now learned a lot of very sad details of this tragedy, however I'm not sure if everything I've heard is 100% correct.  It sounds like to me what started as an accident, turned into a crime by the way things were handled by those involved.  Gravel roads are scary, people often tend to drive all too fast on them, and innocent people live on them and have every right to walk on them, whenever they chose as long as they take per-cautions for their safety.  I'm very saddened for Abbey and her family.  It's absolutely not fair what happened and the life of her dad and his dog was taken as a result.  If what had happened was confessed in all honesty from the very beginning after the accident occurred, I think, although still very difficult, it might have been more accepted.  I don't want to say too much, as I know everyone's voice is entitled to their own opinion and there are probably more views then mine on this tragedy- I just really hope Abbey's family finds peace in the outpour of support and love shown for her dad today at his celebration of life.  It was truly a unique and neat experience that honored his Native American Heritage.  Abbey lost her mom at a very young age when we were in fifth grade to breast cancer, which has been hard on Abbey growing up and her mom would be so proud of the mother Abbey has become herself today and how much support she has put forth towards finding a cure for breast cancer in honor of her mom.  Now, Abbey has lost her father.  It's in times like this she needs to see all the support praying for her and how much all of her extended family and friends care about her.  She will get stronger as a result of this, although to her right now that has to seem impossible. She has a wonderful husband who loves her with all his heart and is very supportive of her.
Wow...it's hard to write about anything else after that, a tragedy like that really pulls on your heart strings.
Friday, I had the day off of work because of conferences earlier this week.  I didn't do a lot on my day off, but I got to spend the entire day with Zearley, which of course is enough in itself.  We went out to take recycling back, and that was about it!  We went out for supper with Jordan's family, it was later that we went.  Zearley's bedtime was about the time we were getting there, but she did great the whole time.  You could tell she was getting tired though and the minute we left in the car she was out!  She tried a lemon for the first time when we were at Doughy Joey's and her face was priceless!  Of course, I didn't have my camera or the flip camera, but I'm bound to get it on video and in pictures sometime so hopefully she'll show the same reaction!  After her initial pucker, she seemed to enjoy biting/licking it!
Yesterday, Saturday it was a pretty beautiful day for the second week in November!  I took Zearley for her first wagon ride that she got for her birthday!  She loved it!

Jordan stayed home from Landan's game this weekend, and it was truly great to have him home.  We got a lot accomplished around the house.  First and foremost of course his yard, looks great!  Zearley and I had no choice but to take a walk if we wanted to get any pictures with leaves in them for fall because our lawn had literally no leaves!  He takes a lot of pride in keeping the yard look nice, and I appreciate it, a lot more than I ever say, because it does take away time we spend together...but at least we had him home!  Together we got a big job done this weekend- we moved Zearley's crib upstairs with us. I'm looking forward to much more comfortable nights for her, as when she was sleeping in the pack-n-play still at a year, it couldn't have been too comfortable and just yesterday as Jordan and I were putting her crib together upstairs she made sure to let us know exactly why we needed to put the pack-n-play away...she crawled out of it to get to the bed, falling in between the bed and the pack-n-play, but grabbing on to the bed, giving herself a graceful fall.  Poor thing..it was time to get rid of that!  She loves being upstairs, but now we have to be EXTREMELY careful.  Friday, she crawled up ALL the stairs herself, with me RIGHT behind her of course, but she got no help from me.  The danger of steps worry me, we always need to remember to keep the door to upstairs closed!
Well, it's getting late and I got a lot written down for this week, so I better sign off and get ready for tomorrow and bed for myself!

November 5th, 2011

Another busy week!  Report cards went home with students Friday, so this week has been a blur making sure everything was filled out correctly since we have new report cards.  It's always a stressful time of year with report cards and parent-teacher conferences all at once, but in the end it will be nice to get it all accomplished and I look forward to having this Friday off to spend more time with Zearley!  After a busy week at school, the weekends do not seem to slow down!  Jordan's gone a lot during football season watching Landan play football at Northwest Missouri State and it's a lot of work to travel with Zearley and it's not the warmest weather for her to sit at football games, so we opt not to travel.  It's nice to just be home, however, it's not the most relaxing, when it's just Zearley and I around the clock!  However, I wouldn't change it for anything, I know I'd have many willing people to help me take care of her so I could get more accomplished or rest, but I would not enjoy my time apart from her!  This week she's been really unhappy about bedtime!  Poor thing, you know she's tired, but she just doesn't want to lay down and relax- so we rock and walk around for about an hour until she finally relaxes and falls asleep!  Tonight I thought she would never give up, and I wonder what tomorrow morning will bring with turning the clocks back...I hope she sleeps well!
This morning she was up early... I think it's hard for her to sleep in when she's used to getting up at 6:30 every morning!  I don't like getting up on the weekend when it's still dark out, but tomorrow that will probably change as turn our clocks back it will be lighter out in the morning (but earlier too, when she gets up I imagine!)  It was so cute as a I captured a cute picture this morning of Zearley looking out the frosty window with Elle & Ezra by her side!  She loves her puppies!  And they are pretty darn tolerable of her too!

Today we didn't have a lot going on, so Zearley took a long fun bath this morning- she played so well in the tub, entertaining herself, while I worked on some conference things.  Then we watched the Iowa game and I got Zearley down for a short nap.  When she woke up, I got her ready and we went to the mall to stop at My Dress Up Shop since Jodi was having a Grand Re-Opening and Karmen was there taking photographs!  I would never miss an opportunity to have Zearley's pictures taken!  I can't wait to see what they turn out like, she was pretty cooperative in the beginning and then she clearly had had enough!
Tonight we went out to dinner with Sara, Jason, & Quinn to Toyko in Waterloo.  It's pretty entertaining to watch them cook the food!  Jason's back for just a few days so it was nice of them to invite us to dinner to spend some time together.  It's so much fun to watch Zearley and Quinn interact!  Zearley went from her biting stage (which she still will do) to learning how to give kisses, and now she's much more likely to be a friendly little girl!  She was giving Quinn all kinds of kisses tonight... I got some adorable pictures, as I tried to catch her being a sweetie pie in action!  They definitely show "Cousinly" love!

Zearley is getting better and better about standing by herself!  She has great balance, but not a lot of interest in trying to take steps on her own...the little stinker!  But once, she starts she'll never stop, so I should be okay with her not being 100% mobile yet, she will be soon enough, and she really gets everywhere crawling that's for sure, and into everything!  So walking can't make things that much more difficult can it!?!?

One event that happened this week that I don't want to forget to journal about happened Wednesday evening after supper.  Zearley often gets pretty messy now as she wants to eat EVERYTHING with her hands, so you can imagine what she looks like after eating!  Therefore, she usually needs a bath after supper.  Well this past Wednesday, she was playing so good in the tub, I wish I had her on video tape talking to herself and splashing around, while I worked on school things and all of a sudden she was about hyperventilating!  She was having a fit because she had pooped in the bathtub and I don't know if she thought it was going to get her or what, but she was done being in that tub!!  She wanted out, and I did too, I couldn't hardly get her out fast enough poor thing!  That was an event I will never forget happening and picturing how she went from giggling/splashing to heavy/fast breathing like "Get me out of here!"

Okay so it's time for me to call it a night!  I have a few things I want to do before I go to bed, and I want to get to bed early!  I'm just glad I'm taking the time to "blog" or journal about my baby girl growing up, because it's happening so fast and I haven't been good about getting a lot down on paper, typing is much easier for me, so eventually I will have to print all my blogs off so I can keep them!

The next time I write, I hope to feel very relieved to have conferences complete!