Sigh

You know somethings wrong if you check your blog 10 times a day to see if anyone's updated.

2 Cute Stories

Of course as Emmaline gets older she is going to have more and more cute stories to tell. These two are precious and telling of the fact that she is growing up so fast!

So the other night Matt had gone to school around 4 and I needed to change her diaper. After I was done I got her dressed and sat on the floor in her room just watching her play. Emmaline walks up to the rocking chair and starts pulling her Sunday dress off. (Yes, I neglected to put away her clothing). I assumed that she wanted to climb onto the chair and was just 'making way' but instead she tried to push her head through the arm hole of the dress. Realizing that she wanted it on I asked "Do you want to wear your dress?" "Uh huh" So I put her dress on over her outfit. Next, she pulled the bum cover off the chair and started putting it on her head. I asked her again if she would like to wear it and again, helped her put it on. Finding another outfit still on the chair, she started trying to pull those clothes on as well. Then, she put her shoes on and a hat. So in total she was wearing: 3 shirts, 2 pair of pants, a dress, a bum cover, a hat and shoes.

My mom tells me of a story from when I was little. I loved my shirts and kept pulling on shirt after shirt after shirt until my little pudgy arms were almost sticking out. I rememberd this when Emmaline was getting dressed- Like Mother Like Daughter!

This is a picture without the hat on. you can't really tell she has tons of layers but you can see some.

The other cute story I had was about playing Peek-a-boo. She is getting really good at hiding behind her hands and occasionally I hear her ask "is it?" with her hands out like she is saying "Where is it?" So today, in her ever growing ability to play, she was in her carseat holding her cup. I heard her holler "Is it?" several times so I finally look back. She had stuck her sippy cup under one leg (she was obviously trying to hide it) and asking where it went. I played along with her several times as she lifted her leg up and pretended to find her cup!

I am increasingly amazed at how much she is learning and growing every day. Sigh. I wish she would slow down growing just a little.

One of Those Days

Ever have one of those days that you wake up in the morning knowing that you have a hundred and one things to do and nothing planned so you can definately accomplish it all if you put your mind to it? Then instead of getting it done you take advantage of the quiet to turn the TV on to watch your favorite show(s) and then you fall asleep and then you decide to check all your emails and write a blog and surf Facebook for a while then you finally look at the clock and its almost dinner time but you've already wasted most of the day so you might as well go out to eat for dinner. Then lying in bed that night you think 'oh, well, there is always tomorrow!' Thats how every day of this past week has been. I actually sat down today to write out a list of everything that needs to be done before the semester ends on the 9th and its realy long with several really big projects. And I've had them every day last week but they are no more done today than they were at the begining of the semester. And every moment I procrastinate is a moment more of stress I'm piling on myself for next week when I'm finally down to the wire. I get to read Frankenstein. I was really excited about that at the begining of the semester but now that its to the point of the assignment, I'm not. I decided I wanted to know what we are doing with the book after we read it (some report or another I'm assuming) and you know what we are doing? We are writing one paragraph on one theme in the book that is still applicable today. Ugh. Can it get any more pathetic than that? This is a 300s level course at a university and we have to read this book just to identify one theme? I've gotten good enough at cheating over the past several years to know that all I have to do is look up the summary of the book in Wikipedia and I'll be able to identify one applicable theme. If I ever become an English teacher, I don't think anyone would ever pass my classes. I think I set the bar too high and too many college students are too lazy to reach it. But then again, I'm judging the book by the cover now, aren't I?

My Magazine Assignment

I've been working on another magazine this semester- this one is called Hey You! The American Student. I wasn't too excited about the topic of the magazine and I voted for a magazine that would focus more on history but I was out voted and didn't feel like putting up a fight.

Anyway, we are a week and a half from the duedate and we are now working on the layout. I thought that I'd volunteer to do most of the textual layout and the other two in my group could work on colors, titles, ect, things that would make the magazine seem asthetically pleasing. I have gotten two of the three major sections completed and I'm proud of my work- and really excited to see the finished project.

I got an email from one of my groupmates asking why I used so many different layouts? (I used full page, two column and three column layouts because I thought the different look on each article was better than every article looking the same). Now I'm a bit confused...I hope that I actually did a good job and I'm not kidding myself. But its disappointing to recieve a negative comment on a project that I worked hard on and thought was amazing.

Oh well, again, I don't have the energy to put up a fight so if they want me to change everything I will. I'd rather get a grade for something thats mediocre than fight for something thats amazing. (Odd, because I usually would fight until I win but I'm just not that into things this semester).

Emmaline in a cute spring dress, enjoying her cup with a straw:

Emmaline's words

Okay, so I attempted to get Emmaline to talk on camera but it didn't work too well. Here is the attempt- most of the words sound the same but she has said them clearly before so we are counting them as words. Enjoy!

What Matt does with his time

I read an article online yesterday about husbands who have been laid off during this recession. It seems that when the rcession hit in the 90s, hardly any of the household 'roles' changed and husbands did minimally more or even less around the house than when they were working. So the writer of this article decided to see if this is still the case. It seems not. For the most part (this is unproved) husbands and wives are adjusting their roles to include more 'chores' for the husbands when they get laid off of work.

I read this article outloud to Matt and he commented halfway through "You'd kill me if I didn't do anything!" So true, so true. So Matt's day is now filled with entertaining our daughter and doing chores while I take naps and do homework. Well, I do help with chores and Emmaline still too...But Matt being home feels like a much wanted vacation to me.

This is Matt doing the dishes...do you see the disgusted look on his face? Priceless...

I need some help

So, as most of you already know, I'm trying to earn money to get to Washington for Melanie's Wedding in July. This is the letter I've sent everybody: Dear Family, Friends, Friends of Family and Family of Friends: My husband lost his job at the end of February. We were shocked and mentally unprepared. Luckily the Lord was watching out for us because we quickly figured out what our next step is and we are confident that we will be okay. But living off our savings means skimping and saving- something that everyone has to do at least once in their life. The problem is, we were literally days away from buying plane tickets to visit family for a wedding in the summer. We have missed a lot in my husband’s family lately because we live in a different state and we really don’t want to miss this wedding. Now that we have no income, I have a hard time justifying using our savings to travel. So I started thinking. I joined a business called Usborne Books and More last summer. When I sell a book, I get commission off of that purchase. Realizing that I could possibly earn enough money to send the family to Washington for my sister-in-law’s wedding made me giddy. But here’s the thing: it’s going to take a lot of work to earn enough money. I need your help! In order for me to get us to Washington, I need to earn $800. Could you help me by buying at least 3 books and getting your friends and family to buy 3 books? If I can find 130 people that are willing to buy only 3 books, I know I could make it! The benefit of this ‘scheme’ is that you aren’t ‘throwing your money away’ to some charity case. You are actually receiving an amazing product in return for helping me and my family create a memory. Usborne Books caries a large line of children’s educational books from infancy (bath books, cloth books and board books) all the way to preteen and teenager levels (chapter books, internet linked dictionaries etc). Take a moment to look through my website, choose few books that you think your kids (or your kids’ friends) would enjoy and help my family accomplish a dream. Don’t forget that books are unique, inexpensive gifts for birthdays, school achievement rewards and just because. www.ubah.com/HOS140617 Thank you so much for helping me out! If you have any questions or need any assistance with your order, please call me at 208-520-5900! Britta Beach Usborne Books and More Consultant Even if none of you can help, if you forward this letter onto a friend or other family member, someone else may be able to help. Other than Usborne, school is almost over, St. Patrick's day is almost here, Matt applied to UVSC on Friday, and Emmaline is now saying several different words. I wonder if I could get her to say them on camera...that would be fun!

High Time for Pictures

This is a 'rocking fish' that Emmaline got for Christmas. Matt was showing off how skinny his butt was and tried sitting in it. Too bad he didn't get stuck! Emmaline and Daddy at the Art Museum. We had to go for one of his school assignments- actually two but we got both done in the same day. We are totally lucky because most of the museums and the zoo are free here. Most of the parking is too. Makes for a lot of good days.

Just like when I tried to take a picture of Emmaline and her cousins, it took about 5 tries to get her to look at me. I'd go to snap the picture and before the flash went off she'd have her head turned away. When I finally got it, it was so worth it.

This is funny. My mom had a mini Valentine's day party for the girls where they ate cookies and played a few games and such. I ended up taking these next two pictures but Emmaline hardly looks like she moved! So either Carolyn was super duper fast or this is just plain amusing.

This is Matt and I at the Missouri History museum. Again, free. It was great. We'll have to go back one day because I think we only saw half of it, if that.

Ahh! Robert and Emmaline. Emmaline is glued to him. She sees him and she immediately hugs him and lays on his shoulder. Its so cute to see them together. Robert, find a wife and have children! This is so precious.

Here is Emmaline with Grandma and Grandpa Beach. This was back in January while we were waiting to see her new baby cousin Ryder at the hospital. We were finally able to get her to sit on Grandma's lap but she still wasn't excited about smiling.

So there are some pictures. Lots of pictures. Some of nearly everybody. Don't get greedy and expect this very often. But enjoy them.

Today is a Memorable Day

Matt finally watched a Horror movie with me! He is such a sucker. He tells me constantly that he can't watch some movie or another because his stomach starts hurting and he gets sick blah blah blah. And I so think he needs to get over himself. Besides, a girl needs a horror movie buddy that she can cuddle with, right? So I told him we were going to watch a movie and made him pinky promise that he wouldn't get up off the couch until the movie was over. Then I started it and he got all whiny on me. But every 10 minutes or so I asked him how he was doing and he was fine the full hour and fourty minutes of it. Now, he did say it was a waste of time but he sat through it! Also, not to make him look even worse but this was a very light horror movie. It wasn't Ring or the Grudge, or any of those yucky movies with creepy looking people that makes me actually run and jump on my bed when the lights are out for fear of what lurks beneath. But it still had some jumpy moments and some scary music at times. It was definately classified as Horror. So, a day to remember. Knowing that he can get through this movie, I may be able to convince him to watch other ones with me. Before long, he may be hooked!

Matt's on Vacation!

Well, for today at least. Matt got let go from his job on Friday. His boss told him that they just couldn't afford to keep paying him. It makes sense since he worked for a real estate company and real estate is what is being hit the worst. But its still sad. We were both wishing they had at least given him a few weeks notice so we could start looking for something else. They paid him for his last day of vacation (today) as well as the full day on Friday although they sent him home early. Matt did start looking for something else right away but we aren't sure we want him to go get a job. Here's the thing (and nothing is set in stone). We really want him to get his pilot's licence. If we can get a pilots licence before he goes back to work, we can get it 10 times faster and he can go straight into a pilot type job instead of all these minimum wage, time consuming things. No worries though because we do have a good chunk of money in the bank so we won't starve for a few months. :)