Fish out of water

While in Quincy last week, Ava & I went to the QCC pool with Steph & Dulaney.  We had the best time!  Ava absolutely LOVES the water!  Here are a few pics of our days at the pool.

HI!!!!! (Ava and her cousin Dulaney in Quincy- June 2010)

Ava Jean + Papa Jim (June 2010 Quincy visit)

I still think of you

Today is Father's Day. It's been 12 years now that you've been gone.  I think of you all the time.... and sadly, I also forget things about you each day.  I forget the sound of your voice.  I forget your smell.  Your hands.  That is, until I watch a video of you.  Then it all comes back.  You were such a proud Dad.  You cheered for "Goose" (me) with such pride and love.


Days go by and life is different, now.  I'm a big girl.  I live in a big city.  I have a husband.  I even have a little girl of my own.  You would love her, Dad.  She has your chin... and beautiful blue eyes.  You would love Ken, too.  He loves me just like you did... so strong, so protective and so pure.  

I want you to know, that you always made me proud... each and every day.  You were the strongest, sweetest, most entertaining & most amazing Dad a girl could wish for.  I may not have had the quantity of years that some girls get with their Dads... but I was certainly lucky enough to get the quality.  I miss you each day, Dad.  I love you.  Thank you for watching over us.  

Being a "fan" on Facebook has its perks!

It's pretty well known how much I love Ellen Degeneres.  I think she's incredibly funny and I adore her humor.  I became a fan of hers on Facebook which allows me to receive posts about her show, upcoming shows and also about special appearances.  On Tuesday I received a Facebook message from Ellen... mentioning that her staff would be at The Bean, giving away a few VIP tickets to her Chicago show "Ellen's Somewhat Special Special".


With Ava it would be impossible for me to make it to The Bean.  So I called Ken.  He couldn't squeeze it in.  Then I called Jill.  Good ole' Jill.  She works just 2 blocks from The Bean.  Luckily, her schedule allowed her to run over there to try and get a few of the tickets.  She grabbed two of her friends from work and headed over to try and get a few of the tickets.


It was mayhem!  People were there with signs and costumes... Needless to say, my hopes of Jill getting tickets were pretty much crushed.  As it turns out, Jill's two friends from work were two of the 8 people to get tickets.  I had Jill beg them to let me buy them. Little angels!  They agreed to hand over the tickets for $50 each.  Woo hoo!!!  I was speechless... pacing the condo like a schoolgirl!


We got to the show and COULD NOT believe how incredible our seats were.  We were 4th row... 4TH ROW!  The stage was RIGHT FREAKING THERE!  Plus I was right on the aisle! Jill and I think we will definitely be on camera considering the camera guy was in our face a million times, filming our reactions to everything.


It was time for the show to start!!  Ellen came out and was so beautiful!  Her outfit (suit with untied bowtie) was super cute, too.  I'm pretty sure we made eye contact at least twice ;-)


During her show, she had a bunch of cool guests, doing all sorts of neat tricks/ acrobats.  She had a pretty funny comedian from Chicago, too.  We were getting ready to see the next act come on when all of a sudden, 4 of the the star Blackhawks players come on stage... hoisting up the Stanley Cup!!!!!  Everyone went nuts! The Blackhawks song came on and everyone was singing!  They then walked down the aisles, holding up the cup... I FREAKING TOUCHED THE STANLEY CUP!  Then Brower gave me a "high five"!  I was awestruck.


The show ended with a performance by Lady Antebellum.  They were incredible!  I had the best time and am so happy I FINALLY got to see her live.  I can now scratch something off of my Bucket List! 

The show will air on TBS on Sunday, June 27th. 

Walking & waving!

How to fix it...

Everyone is pissed at BP (Yeah, I get it... the whole situation sucks).  But what would the other oil companies be doing differently, under the same circumstances? I'm pretty sure if BP knew how to fix it, they would.  So instead of spreading all the hate, why don't we put on our "thinking caps" and figure out ways to help them fix it. I'll be the first to suggest something... How about a VERY large tampon.  

Some recent pics

9 months already?!

Seriously?!?!  Where does the time go???  I cannot believe my little baby is 9 months!  A year ago she was this growing bulge in my belly and now she's crawling around, climbing up furniture, eating people food, speaking jibber-jabber and sprouting teeth... it's nuts!  She's almost unrecognizable if I look at her newborn photos.  And don't even get me started on the outfits she wore when she was first born!  It's unfathomable to me that she was once THAT small!    


With her speedy growth, comes the age old question... How soon until you have Baby #2.  I literally have that same question running through my head, 300x per day.  How the hell do I know the answer?! !  I mean, I definitely want another baby.  I just don't know when!  Do I wait for Ava to get old enough that she's not a baby/ toddler... so she can be "Mommy's little helper"?  Or do I start now and get all of the baby years/ baby gear out of the way and have two babies, close in age?  And what if it takes a long time to get pregnant?  It's not like it was easy the first time around... 14 months was a LONG time!


I do find the idea of another baby to be a little scary though, especially considering I'm a stay-at-home-mom.  I mean, I'm already outnumbered with Ava and our 2 giant dogs.  It's scary to think of adding another baby to the already chaotic mix.  


For now, I'm going to continue to enjoy my sweet baby and all there is to come.