Exciting

So yesterday we had new carpet installed in the basement - thanks to Pappy for installing and to Nana for allowing us to alter the basement (after all it is her house). This is huge for us. It almost doubles our square footage. Cress and I have been painting walls and trim and now we have quite a bit of finishing touches to do, but when it is all said and done it will be great. Tonight we will move some furniture and possibly do some painting. It's just all so exciting because I will finally have my very own home office after 3 years of just working off a laptop from where I could plug it in and not be bothered. My actual work station has not been set up for over 3 years! Can you imagine how much more productive and organized I will be once this is done. I can't wait. I know Jaz can't either. Her room will be bigger, and she will have a great place to play with friends. Plus it won't be right off the kitchen anymore, so she will have more privacy and not to mention peace and quite.

I am going to try and do a "design on a dime" approach to making it all work. We have quite a bit of furniture that can be re-purposed|repainted|etc. I am actually pretty exciting for the challenge to see if I can bring it all together on a tight budget.

Also just want to throw this piece of exciting news out there as well...As most of you know Cress and I have started a little endeavor on developing an iPhone app. We are getting closer and closer to launching it. When this day comes I am sure you will all know about it. But just to give you a hint - it will help people like me (busy, possibly overworked -ha! and insane) become more productive at those pesky little errands that we forget to run when we passed the place 3 times that day!!! So stay tuned and be ready to help spread the word.

The Summer is Flying By

Well here it is almost July and I feel as if I haven't gotten much accomplished. But I guess I will just keep telling myself, one day at a time right? So...to recap since the last post. Well Jaz finished the 4th grade with flying colors. Her report card was out of this world. All A's! She is a great student and works very hard, I am very proud of her. Her last day of school was May 21st. They got out early, no snow days this year. I took off that Friday and took her and her friend Lauren for a day of FUN! We painted on canvas, got ice cream and even got pedicures. The girls picked some pretty bright colors, I went a little bit more traditional because I had to be in a wedding. But all in all we had a great time and the weather was perfect.

Early Saturday morning, Jazlynn and I drove up to Bloomington where Jaz caught a flight to South Carolina to visit her dad and his family. She has been out there for a little over a month right now. We miss her at home, but I know that she is having a blast visiting everyone and enjoying her summer, as she should. We are counting down the days until she flies home. Only 28 days left! I can't wait. As soon as she gets back home it will be time to plan her 10th...yes 10th Birthday Party. I can't believe it. She is going to be in the double digits.

Adaline is growing up fast too. She is already 10 months old! And speaking of birthdays, hers is only 26 days after Jaz's so it looks like we will be busy planning and celebrating during the month of August.

Adaline actually had a check up today. She is doing great...almost weighs 19lbs. Little chunk. :-) We can graduate to a new car seat pretty soon, she just needs to tip the scale by one more pound. I am sure we won't have a problem doing that especially when she downed 2 bottles in about 15 minutes this morning. She has 5 teeth poking out, 2 on the bottom and 3 on the top. We are just missing one of the big ones up front, but I think her gums are pretty swollen and it should be popping through any day now.

As for Cress and I...we are doing great. We just got the basement waterproofed (thanks to Mom). It was quite a messy process, but I am sure it will pay off in the long run. It will give us some guaranteed extra space - water free! And with the weather we have been having that is hard to come by.

This weekend is jam packed with "activities". We have a wedding "wine" shower to attend tonight for Cress's sister Sarah and her fiance Pete. It should be fun. Jessica, Cress's sister from South Dakota, and her family will also be here. We haven't seen her since Christmas so we are excited to get the kids together. Katherine and Adaline are only about 6 weeks apart and it is fun to watch them play together.

And lastly my To Do list....
1.Get the back patio finished before Nana comes home in 2 weeks.
2.Finish the iPhone app
I think I can, I think I can....

Oh yeah and I turned 30. :-o

Sunday Funday

It has been hard trying to find time to write these days. Adaline sure does have us busy, and well, Jaz does too. Jaz just finished 13 weeks of tennis lessons. Cress and I took her out to the courts yesterday to see how she progressed ...let's just say we are glad there are other sports out there. ;-) Only kidding. She did pretty good. After all, tennis is a pretty difficult sport. Cress and I have been perfecting out tennis skills on the wii, and we didn't do too hot either. But if was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air even though it was only 32º.

So now that tennis is over, Jaz has moved on to volleyball and she LOVES it! She did great at practice on Friday. Check her out here, serving up an ACE!




She has 3 more practices/games, I am looking forward to seeing her progress. She is showing some great potential and I am really proud of her. We are really hoping that she finds a sport or extra cirricular activity that she becomes passionate about. Sports were my life for so long, and if I had the option, I would let them be an even bigger part of my life than they are now, but as we all know, some things gotta go, other priorities take over....like kids, work, and other stuff. ;-)

Adaline is doing great! She is a little cranky these days, but I think that has a lot to do with her teething. I am hoping that any day now they will break through her little gums and she can get some relief. She isn't sleeping the best either, not like she used to. I think there are a lot of factors affecting her sleep, teething, stuffy nose, chest congestion, and possibly a growth spurt. Oh the joys of raising kids! Cress and I are loving every minute of watching her grow and learn. As the saying goes, before you know it she will be driving. Agh!

Jaz is doing GREAT in school. Her last report card was amazing. Every grade improved. She has always had As and Bs, but this time she had some A+s! We are really proud of her. She worked really hard last quarter. Fourth grade started out a bit rough for her. But I think a lot of factors came into play, Adaline was born so we were all distracted. Also 4th grade is when they have to start figuring things out on their own, they are as "spoon fed" as they were in 3rd grade. But we have climbed that hill and I am very proud of her and how hard she worked to overcome.
Jaz is still in Girl Scouts, she just had her cookie sale. She sold over 200 boxes of cookies! Thanks to all her purchased from her to help her meet her personal goal. Your cookies should be in next week. I think I am supposed to pick them up on Monday.

Well it's time for breakfast so I better get going. Cress is serving up omelets this morning. Yum!
Until next time! Have a great Sunday everyone!

Summer Time

Well it seems to be flying by. Jaz has already been home a week and a half. She is enjoying summer camp. They went bowling yesterday. She got a spare and was pretty excited about it. Today they go swimming and I believe tomorrow they go to Grant's Farm in St. Louis, which she is super excited for. She has been talking about wanting to see the Clydesdale's for quite some time now.

Cress and I went to our last (we hope) sonogram yesterday morning. She is a healthy baby girl (for sure). ;-) They said that people have been more likely to make mistakes on predicting it is a boy and it ends up being a girl - never really the other way around. She currently weighs 4lbs and has about 7 more weeks to grow. The last 4 weeks they can gain up to a 1/2 pound a week so we're thinking she will be around 7 or so lbs. She already has some hair and we got to see her yawn twice, it was pretty cute. She is practicing her breathing which is a good sign. The doctor said that she is quite the active little baby and I quote "Man, I feel sorry for you guys. I think you're gonna have your hands full." But I guess between Cress and I, I really wouldn't expect anything less.

The nursery is almost ready. I got the bedding in the mail yesterday and I am hoping that my dad can get the crib together sometime this week. We decided to use Jaz's old crib, we just needed to get all new hardware - it was lost at some point. So I'm leaving it up to my dad to put it all together. (Thanks Dad) Once we get it all finished I will add some pictures to the blog and maybe, just maybe I will add a picture of the current baby bump.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. We enjoyed fireworks over Lake Springfield on Friday night. Then on Saturday we got quite an interesting show at Illinis Country Club. The sky was a bit hazy from raining all day. The fireworks would light up the entire sky and seem to appear out of no where. It was quite a show. Well that's all for today. Have a great rest of the week.

2009 MAXI Award Winner

So I am not the official award winner, Alliance Bank is, but I am pretty excited about it because it is my creative and design. From my days at Systemax Corporation | Marketing-Made-Easy, I did quite a bit of design work for Alliance Bank in Indiana. One of those jobs consisted of a direct mail campaign for farm equipment loans. I created a group of different postcards based off of the Kids Series that I had previously designed. Only due to the nature of the type of product they were wanting to promote, I had to come up will all new creative (images, copy, etc). I incorporated little kids and tractors and other types of farm equipment with a creative play on words. It turned out pretty cute. I know that is pretty vague of a description but I don't have any examples to show. Sorry! I will try to find some.

Anyway... Alliance Bank was awarded the 2009 MAXI Award for the Direct Mail category for my design at the IBA's Mega Conference on April 29th. Click on the link above to view the press release.

Just another little something to add to the resume. ;-)

Prayers Needed

This was an e-mail sent out by a BSS (Jaz's school) faculty member and I felt like I should send along:

"There will be prayers offered in the church at 5:00 tonight for Jack Londrigan, a 7th grade student at BSS. He was admitted to Memorial hospital on Friday and was moved to the ICU at St. John's on Saturday. What started out as Rocky Mountain Spotted fever has become septic. He has had surgery and they are currently preparing him to be transferred to a hospital in St. Louis. His condition is very serious.

We have all witnessed the power of prayer. Please join us if you can possibly make it.

If not, please keep him and his family in your prayers."

A little update from the parents:
June 29, 2009 9:30pm
From Tom
Jack had nice day today. His left lung is improving. He was removed from the medication that keeps him paralytic (still on sedation though) and so his arms and legs started to move. He also briefly opened his eyes. Tomorrow starts a more aggressive routine to ween him from the ventilator but it may still take a few days until he is conscious and breathing on his own... of course, barring complications. Thank you for all your prayers... don't stop.

Betsy Dirksen Londrigan (Urbana / Champaign, IL) wrote
at 5:50pm
Jack has been holding his own today with no help from a breathing machine! Between physcial therapy, repiratory therapy, doctors checking him and Mom and Dad getting him to eat, he had a very busy morning followed by a longer nap. Right now, he is happy as a clam. His brother, cousin and buddy are watching a video his Aunt bought him .......The Best of Will Ferrell from SNL. I think they call that laugh therapy. Just nice to see. Our next order of business is getting his digestive system up and running---last real food was a Maid-rite for lunch on June 20th. We will also be trying to get him weight bearing on his legs and hips. Slowly but surely still moving forward....powered by prayer.

Only 6 More Days!

Jaz comes back home on June 28th! She has been in South Carolina soaking up the sun and having a great time with her dad. This week they are at Hilton Head. Last night I talked to her and she said that they were walking to get ice cream and then tomorrow they were headed to the beach again. Rough life! ;-)

Jaz definitely has a jam packed summer. When she comes back home she will start Y.N.O.T. outdoor camp. Then on Wednesday after camp, we will drive down and meet Aunt Celeste half way. Celeste has a surprise for her - well I am keeping it a surprise. So please, no one tell her - but she will be headed to a Cardinals game with Ryan, Jalen, and Aunt Celeste. Then Thursday they are going to have a fun filled day at Six Flags and Friday they will relax by the pool at Alligator creek. Then they are all headed up to Springfield to watch the fireworks on Lake Springfield for the 4th of July. Woo Hoo! I can't wait.

On another note, it is a hot one here. We have a heat advisory for the next 2 days. I think it is supposed to be 100-105º with the heat index. I got the pups a kiddie pool so they can cool off and they have plenty of shade. I feel so bad for them...they are so fluffy. But they seem to be doing pretty good.

And although I haven't mentioned it on the blog before, I am in my final trimester of my pregnancy. Cress and I are expecting a little girl. Jaz is thrilled to have little sister. I will be 31 weeks along this Wednesday. I have started going in for check ups every 2 weeks now. So we are closing in fast. It is crazy how quickly the time has gone by but I am sure it will start to creep by pretty soon. We are all getting very excited for her arrival. And no.....we don't have a name yet.

However, I can tell you that from the sonograms we have been told that she currently weighs 3lbs 2 oz, her little feet are 2" long, she has hair and chunky little thighs. The Sonographer told us that she has quite the kick on her. Every time she would put the sonogram wand on my belly the baby would kick it. I guess that's what happens when both parents are avid soccer players. I will go in for one more sonogram on July 6th so maybe I'll have some new pictures to share. Until then....stay cool everyone!