D Blog of D Life

Just a silly little frivolous post to make you giggle! . . . . . . . Are you ready for it???? . . . . . . . Addison eats a cucumber! This is better than her lemon face by far!!!! It's bitter beer face for babies! lol

This was an AWESOME experience! Heightened by the fact that I am absolutely in awe of aquatic life! We were all "oohhing and aweing" through the entire aquarium . They have an amazing tunnel that you ride a conveyor belt through and all around you are fish and sharks swimming - above and to both sides. The coolest was probably when the Saw Fish *shark* swam right over our heads! Talk about AMAZING! I would go to this place all the time if it were in my local town. Probably better for the checkbook that it is so far away! :) Here are a few pics from our day at the Ripley's Aquarium. More of the peops than of the fish...you can find pics of fish anywhere. :) Tons of fun!

As I used my digi camera today (okay, technically yesterday at this point) taking pic after pic at the aquarium I thought, and therefore voiced aloud that I have camera envy. We bought our camera 4 years ago - and it is and has been an amazing camera. However, as technology tends to do, we paid twice as much for it as we paid for Shayna's digi camera....AND I LIKE HER CAMERA BETTER. There was a brief discussion with Steve where we both said the same thing...her's is just newer, cooler, etc. But hey...what are you going to do, we aren't going to just ditch a perfectly good camera "just because." Fast forward to this evening. We were sitting in our cabin after an evening of shopping (I bought yet another diaper bag...diaper bags are the new shoes yo!) I was about to flip through the pics taken on the trip just for kicks - over 300 so far - when Steve asked for me to hand him the camera and he would go ahead and upload them. AWESOME! I didn't know he even ...

Sunday was a family day. We are blessed to have Steve's parents here as well camping in their RV and his sister Becky who drove down from Virginia for the weekend as well. His rents came to the cabin to visit us here so that Addison could get her naps in a little easier. That was awesome. She took her morning AND her afternoon naps (and a huge afternoon nap at that) without any problems. Gigi and Pops brought all the food for lunch (and there was so much that we have had it several times since then as well). We watched 8 below with them and dined together ... watched a lot of Addison and her antics since she was in such good spirits...and hung out till almost dinner time when they left and went back to the campground with Becky. The girls did the waterpark again (they went with Dan and Lib's fam this time) and did some flirting with a few boys...one of which it turns out Shayna did not really like afterall and it backfired on her cause he was a total clingon for the rest...

So this is the first time we have really taken a BIG vacation together as a family since Addison was born. There was some worry about how she would do...will she nap, will she scream in the car the whole way there and home (16hr drive)...will she be crabby baby the whole time. The fears had us a little anxious about our planned vacation. We packed relatively light...especially for us...and set out on our way last Thursday the 19th. We loaded up the Outlook and set out at 6pm ready to drive all night long so we would arrive in time for our 1pm check in and hopefully have all the girls sleep most of the way here so we would have less crying, bathroom breaks, food breaks, etc. For the most part our plan worked. The two older girls (we brought my niece Haven with us so Shayna would have a friend her age) slept a good portion of the way after we watched Enchanted with our nifty built in DVD player and wireless headsets. (So loving having that!) Steve drove most of the way but I did dri...

Having just returned from one trip...and about to head out on another (I know...your heart is bleeding for me) I am awash in things to do. Like the incredibly anal retentive person that I am I had to sit in bed till 1am making my "to do" list. Which, ideally would have only 6 things on it...EVER. That is not the case today though. Over the next two days I have more than 40 things on my "to do list" and very little time to do those things and get them on my "to done" list. With that in mind...I am posting this and then shutting off the computer. :) Peace out!

The inquisition… 1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. 2. Each player answers the questions about themselves. 3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5-6 people, posts their names, then leaves a comment in their respective blogs to let them know they’ve been tagged. 4. Let the person who tagged you know that you posted your answers. Questions… 1. What were you doing 10 years ago? Oh my gosh...like I can even remember back that far. Let's see...I would have been barely 24 - which means I was a single parent with a 4-1/2 year old baby girl...Shayna. If she was 4 that means we had just moved from Houston to Dallas and we were living in a loft in Downtown Dallas just across from the Majestic Theatre. I was working as a Nanny for two precious little girls Ellen and Anne and also spent a lot of time doing both paid and volunteer work with the kiddos at First Baptist Downtown Dallas. That would have been the summer before I started back to school working on my degr...

view from the airplane on arrival Well, we are back from Cali! Oh what a trip! It was kinda funny cause Steve and I were both there, and stayed in the same hotel room - but we were on VERY DIFFERENT trips. He was in San Fran on biz...and I was there on a total R&R vacation/Birthday celebration for ME! We did have some evening time together which was great...but all the sightseeing I did was on my own. I must admit...I really enjoyed that! Having only been to Cali one time before (and I don't really count that since I was at a race track the entire time), this was quite a treat. We were in San Francisco - and I am in love! Not as much in love as I am with NYC...but still quite a fabulous town I must say. So here is the blow by blow.... Tuesday - June, 10th - Day 1 I arrived in San Francisco around 5pm and hopped a shuttle to the hotel where I would arrive shortly before Steve got out of biz me...

My oldest child, Shayna was always content to be still and watch a video from a very early age. It didn't even have to be a kid movie...any TV show or movie would do really. Addison however, has been completely the opposite from day one. She was the baby who rolls over both ways before she should have even been going one way. She is the baby that you can't get a picture of without chasing her around with the camera - and then 90% of them are of her head as she climbs on you trying to chase the camera. Today however, I saw a change. A small change, but one that was a very big milestone in my eyes! She SAT STILL...and she wasn't restrained or screaming! haha. I usually put her in the exersaucer upstairs when I want her to watch a video - that way she will be still long enough to notice that it is on and enjoy it. Today I just put one on and left her to mill about thinking it would tire her out and help her get ready for nap time. I sat down to check my email real quick...

How do you get Dayna to clean her house? ..... ..... .... .... .... .... .... .... Give me a Claritan D and invite a guest! :D :D :D

Oh good times! Addison loves going to the park - as soon as she sees it she starts pointing and saying "that" with a big smile on her face and glee in her legs...yes, her legs have glee. When she gets excited the knees start bending and she kicks her legs wildly and flaps her arms like crazy. Her whole body tells you her moods...not just her face. We can't help but get out of the house almost every morning and head for the park in the stroller for a few minutes of swinging and going down the slides in mommy's lap. Here are a few pics from todays windy swing ride and one from a week ago when we went with Ryder.

Poor baby girl. She is on her second set of teeth now. And by "set" I mean to say that when she gets teeth it is not one at a time. At 6 mos she got her first tooth...and the second one started popping out a day behind the first one. Now we are on the top two ... the first one came through on the 29th and the other one is showing "the bubble" but hasn't quite broken the skin yet. She wakes up so sad from naps during this time and just has a crankier outlook during the day while this is going on. :( Makes me sad for her...thank goodness we don't remember how this feels as we get older...cause really...OUCH. :( Here is a pic I loved of her at 9 mos. It shows off those first two teeth so nicely ... and the personality too. :D My baby has my teeth...we will be paying for braces someday for sure haha. Taken By Amber Lee www.amberleedesigns.com

I just have to rant for a minute. Have you ever noticed that when you owe a Dr. or hospital money, they bill you every week and/or hound you over the phone till you pay up. But when they get an overpay on one of your accounts it just mysteriously sits there, and sits there and gets filed away in some phantom place that doesn't exist should you call in to question about the money they owe you? I placed countless phone calls to Medical City Hospital when a change of insurance at the end of my pregnancy caused a mistake by the new insurance (they were supposed to transfer our already paid deductible to the new insurance...but instead we had $250 in charges "applied to deductible") I informed them of the mistake and that Insurance would be reprocessing the claims involved as soon as this was straightened out. I was informed that I MUST at least make payments on those accounts until it was straightened out or they would be "forced" to turn us over to collections. ...