It's about time!

So, here's the first video of her walking. It's about time! I love that she's walking and am not sad one bit that she is growing up and getting closer to being able to hold on a normal conversation with me. I find Jer hilarious-I love that he talks to her like you hear people on tv talk to babies. ("Come get Mr. Froggggggyyyyy...") And you'll understand this when you get to the end, but wow, leg cramps...they can be a real pain. But, we're so proud of her (not that we really TAUGHT her to do this) and are so excited that she's growing up. We can't wait to see who she turns out to be!

So, it's been a while.

So, apparently I'm really busy at work! I haven't posted in almost a month-shame on me. But things are going well there-I haven't met one person I don't like in my department, which is wonderful, and I'm starting to get the hang of things...I think. Things are steadily moving on, albeit slowly. Not much has changed with us. I'm working full time for the first time in my entire life, and I think I'm handling it pretty well. We've had some sad news of late that very dear friends of ours are moving out of the area...and you guessed it!, to UTAH! We have lost many friends to that state, and I know that I'll get on onslaught of family telling us we just need to join them. Alas, our place is still here. But we sadly have already said goodbye to the Cutshaw family-while they may not know it, they mean a whole lot to us, and we were sad to say goodbye. We will also be losing our dear friends the McBrides at the end of July. Some of you may know of whom I speak, others may not. The McBrides were our "replacement" Hart family. We've become so close with them, I even consider LaVarr more like a brother than our Bishop-heck, I pretty much call him LaVarr all the time. While no one can truly replace the Harts (you know we love you guys too much to ever truly replace you), we will consider the separation from them just as hard as we did having to leave the Harts. But, we still have a little over a month, so while I've already shed a lot of tears about them leaving, we still get them a little while longer. Now, on to funner things (yes, funner is a word in my vocabulary) and less depressing topics.


Much to our great joy and pride, our daughter, it seems, is going to become quite the avid rock climber. She has begun climbing all over everything. She's got an impressive amount of upper body strength, and so I'm pretty sure we'll be enrolling her in beginner rock climbing courses just as soon as she finally takes some steps without holding onto anything. She climbs onto the couch by using us as her hand holds and hoists herself right on up. It's fairly entertaining. Now, if only she'd just walk all on her own...

The Big 1!

Here's me at about 5 or 6 am, one year ago...after already being in labor for, oh...let's see...8 or nine hours. (SO glad I'm not pregnant anymore.)

That's right folks-Misha will officially turn one tonight at 8:11pm EDT. I can hardly believe I'm mother to a toddler. Heck, I can still hardly believe I'm a mother. Anyway-we celebrated Sunday since my sister and niece were in town. We had a couple of close friends from Southern Maryland over as well, and had a blast celebrating and watching Misha down her first piece of cake independently.

You obviously see Jer here in the movie-the little girl next to him is the daughter of two of our close friends, Jeff and Katie. You'd be surprised-she's only 3, and I swear the tallest one I've ever seen. My dad's voice is the distinguishable deep one in the background-he's actually standing just out of view. Clearly I'm the one filming. After we sang to her, we put a disposable table cloth over the chair and what not, stripped her down to her diaper, and let her go to town. You can actually see she was a bit anxious to get her chance in the video.

And yes...the cake was good enough to lick the plate. I love McKay's cakes...

She got a lot of toys (THANK YOU EVERYONE!..she really needed some news ones to freshen up the exploring), and some fabulously cute clothes from my mom.
After she was done mashing cake all over creation, I took her upstairs for a quick bath and then she opened her presents.
She was highly entertained, as were we all. So, how old is she?

That's right, one.

Oh, and here's a picture of her and my niece after the party Saturday night.
All in all, I think she's had a pretty great first birthday, minus the shots she had to get at the doctor's today. Here's to many more birthdays! I love you, Misha, and Happy Birthday!

30 Years

Is how long my parents have been married. Can you believe that?!?! I can't-and sometimes I don't think they can either. But, they've made a major milestone, and in a world that is ever increasing in divorce rates, I'm really happy for and proud of them. My sister and I planned a surprise anniversary party, and despite the both of us at separate times coming close to blowing the surprise, we totally duped them. It was a blast, and it was so wonderful to have so many come, and to have so many write them very heartfelt letters that we had bound into a book as a gift. I truly love my parents-they are two of the smartest, most generous and charitable people that I know. They've taught me so much in how to make a marriage work. I don't think I can honestly remember ever hearing them yell at one another...that's not to say that they've never been unhappy with the other, just they were very good about not hanging their dirty laundry out to dry. It's something I respect, and wish so much that I was better at. They're a testament that if you're willing to work at your marriage, be forgiving, and love unconditionally, that it really can work. They've given me so much in my life, and I respect them more than I can possibly say. So Mom and Dad-here's to 30 more!

Napping...

Is not something my child wakes up well from.

Well, all, it's my last weekend before starting a "real" job. It's going to be a hectic week and a half or so. But I'm praying I make it. I'm uber stoked about it. I hope everyone is well! Perhaps I'll be posting a picture of me looking very similar to this in about a week.

Firsts

Being captured giving kisses....

Staring into her first fire....
Well, this isn't really a first, but it is a first on "film"...here she is trying to crawl in a dress....

Upgrades

So, thanks to our refund this year, we were able to go out and purchase some much needed improvements to our house (and still save some!). I realized some of you haven't even seen what our "house" (Okay, it's a duplex) looked like, so here it is with a lawn much in need of mowing after all the rain we've been getting. The first thing we got was a desk. (Courtesy of Ikea-that place is a MAZE.)

Oh so needed! Although I shouldn't complain about our last one-it was free courtesy of North Fork Fire Department (we miss you guys!)...but they were getting rid of it for a reason.
Next we got Misha a crib. (Courtesy of Overstock.com) She's really close to outgrowing her pack-n-play, so we upgraded to a crib that converts from crib to toddler bed to day bed to head and foot board for a twin size bed. GOOD investment...I'm thinking if we have another kid, it'll get one of these from the get go. Our next upgrade was our patio furniture...(courtesy of HomeDepot.com)
again, the original was free...and I finally feel like I'm starting to make my house my own, instead of free stuff from other people. While I liked the old, the flower print and PVC piping just weren't doing it for me.
Although they did glide quite nicely. We added to the patio furniture with a new "fire pit". (Courtesy of HomeDepot.com as well..You can even see a bit of the old desk there to the left.)
Obviously this isn't a pit, but it's awesome, and it will allow me to stare into some flames and not think about anything...it's one of my favorite things to do, and it seriously relaxes me to sit in front of a fire...I suppose I truly am a pyro at heart. Back at Christmas time we began our new furniture collection with a new tv stand (Courtesy of WalMart...it was previously sitting on a broken coffee table with a sheet over it),
and a movie case (Courtesy of WalMart as well...the contents of which were previously on an open book case).
Obviously these were needed because Misha had begun crawling and getting into things...so we needed things that were enclosed. And I think by now everyone realizes how much I really like dark furniture. So these are our wonderful improvements...our next save up is for a flat screen...but that may be a while in coming.
For those of you who haven't heard the good news.................no, I'm not pregnant if that's what you're thinking. I was previously employed at an agency called OMV Medical Inc. as a Respiratory Therapist. I was working at National Naval Medical Center on an "as needed" basis. I am proud and very happy to say that I upgraded my job as well and am now a full time Respiratory Therapist at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. It's literally across the street from Navy, I just make a right turn instead of a left. I'm really excited about it...I'll have much more of an opportunity to be a therapist rather than a tech who dispenses nebs and pushes buttons on a ventilator. It's a very prestigious place to work, and I'm really stoked to be working with some people that seem really awesome (one of them being the girl that trained me during my clinical hours at Navy, and called to tell me they had positions open at NIH....THANK YOU NIKKI!). All in all things are looking up. As soon as I'm over this sinus infection I have, I'm pretty sure our April showers are turning into May flowers.

The month of never-ending problems

This poor child of mine is really having a tough month. First rotavirus, then getting hit by a truck...and now..............

That's right....hives.

This poor child. She looks awful (although she clearly couldn't care less about it)

and sounds like a 20 year smoker. I too have had my own issues with allergies the last few days. What are we gonna do?!? We're all just pretty miserable around here. And get this-the doctors told me it was just a "viral" rash. So, we're trying some Benadryl on her, but it's not working all too horribly great to me. I just ache for her...she's just so darn cute!

This is my daughter....

....on noodles.

Sorry to those of you who had to read my book review without a picture at the end. Enjoy.

Rave Reviews

My thanks to all of you who have given your well wishes. We're doing fine..still a few aches, and some healing road rash, but all in all I think I'll recover fine. In our spare time waiting for my work, we're relieved to say Misha got over her bout with rotavirus. NOT FUN. Thankfully she's back to her normal self, and seems to have an increased, ferocious appetite. We've been able to purchase some new furniture for the house, and pictures will be going up soon when we've received all of it and gotten it all put together and in their rightful places. In the mean time, I've been doing some reading. Some may call it speed reading. I caved....I've been reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

Some may be ecstatic to hear this news. Particularly, perhaps, my friend Lindsey Patten. I'm sure she's thrilled. I was quite reluctant to read the story of a vampire romance...I mean, COME ON..Vampires? Seriously?

Seriously. No really, seriously. Jerry and I had to head to Ikea for a new desk on Saturday, and with our limited room, we had to leave Misha with Pam for those few hours. I knew her daughter had read them, and she also gave rave reviews...but I wasn't fully convinced to read them until my cousin Megan posted a blog about it...I figured if Meg was reading them and loved them, I had to give them a shot. Vampires aren't really my thing, and I was fairly certain they weren't normally Meg's thing either, so if she could read them and love them, I ought to give them a try.

I picked up Twilight from Pam's daughter when we dropped Misha off on Saturday afternoon, but didn't begin reading it until our drive home, which took about an hour. I was a bit disappointed at first...the first 100 pages are so were alright, but I wasn't understand what all the hype was about. Well, ahem...I just finished the second book that I purchased yesterday a mere few hours after finishing the first. I actually went on-line as soon as I finished the first and ordered the whole series (including pre-ordering the one due in August) so I would have them...but a few days was too long to wait and while I was at Wal-Mart I went ahead and purchased the second one and will by giving it to Pam's daughter to keep...and I'm now stuck having to wait a couple of days for the third one. FANTASTIC. Jerry even commented on the fact that I'm blazing through these ones faster than I went through Harry Potter. I seriously finished a 562 page book (plus some because I HAD to read the 1st chapter of the third book in the back) in less than a 24 hour time span...and that was WITH getting a solid 10 hours of sleep last night. I mean seriously. SERIOUSLY.

They're THAT good. What one of us hot blooded females out there who have read these doesn't long to be Bella? I actually think I'd do quite well with a cold vampire...I have always loved to have Jerry give me a kiss with his cold lips when he eats a popcicle. I've always been a bit hot blooded-thanks mom and grandma. But seriously-whenever I think of Edward, I think of the Taylor Swift song "Teardrops on My Guitar" where she says, "And there he goes/so perfectly/the kind of flawless I wish I could be." Doesn't that sum him up? How many of us women don't LONG to have that flawless guy want us/love us/desire us/care for us/protect us the way Edward does Bella? We've all had those unattainable guys whose circle ours doesn't even come close to ours that we would flip head over heals just to even say we looked cute! Might I point out though that the only way a person does get that, is when the other guy ISN'T HUMAN. So, don't hold our breaths ladies. Not to say I don't love my husband...I most certainly do, and get to have him for an eternity without having to sacrifice my soul...but he is nonetheless human, and therefore, less than perfect......although, still more perfect than I am.

WARNING: If you haven't read the books, you may want to skip a bit ahead...I'm not giving a ton away, just expressing how I felt reading the books.....

I don't know how any of you felt reading these...I can only guess we all have our own stories. I, however, while reading these, totally understood the utter agony Bella is in at times. I sit there and cry reading because I've felt it...the thought of trying to live another moment without that person you've given your whole soul to. When Jer and I were first married he said something to me once about how he thought he'd die before I did...maybe even while he was still young. (Not helped when his career is a dangerous one.) I remember feeling (and still feeling) the utter despair at thinking I'd have to lose him while we were young. I couldn't stand it. It makes me cry just thinking about it. I know the profound sense of not feeling adequate...of feeling like your partner deserves so much more. I know what it's like to want someone else to feel that much PASSION for you. I'm a fairly passionate person, and I've always wanted it reciprocated in the same way, because that's what I understand...alas, guys and girls ARE different...and the guy I have does his best (which is pretty darn good). I wish I could more adequately describe how I've felt reading just these two books. I am anxiously awaiting the third in the mail in a few days.

So, to those who have read them, I've joined the fan club. I find it harder to force myself away from the fantasy when I have to put the book down to actually accomplish something in my day (feed the kid...shower...sleep...eat...) than any other book I've read. WOW. I have to say Lindsey, though, I don't agree with Stephenie's choice on Edward for the movie. SO does not do the Edward in my head justice...I'm not so sure I'll see the movie...I don't want to ruin what I've got in my head. Mom, I'll be giving these to you to read...you'll like them...I think. I hope. Tiff Brown-as SOON as you're done taking the Physics GRE (maybe you took it already) go home and pick up Twilight if you haven't already....it will be a much deserved/needed/welcome vacation from all your studying. (We're SO proud of you!!).


Okay, I apologize to those I told there would be a picture. Blogger is struggling right now, and won't upload it...I'll get it up as soon as I can.