The Cooks Came To Visit!

At the beginning of June our friends the Cooks came to visit! They drove from Mt. Pleasant, MI to see us! Dr. Cook and Karen were Craig's professor and mentors while in college. They have done so many wonderful things for so many people in their lives. They touch the lives of everyone they meet. We were excited to be a part of starting a scholarship in their name a few years ago. Plus Karen might be the only person who still checks my blog and gets after me when I don't update it!
We had a great weekend with them. They took the girls to Toys R Us and gave them free reign on the store! That was a lot of fun. We also spent time at Lauritzen Gardens.
Then the girls played a rousing game of alphabet go fish with them. It was funny when they got to the end of the deck because we were missing a few letters! I'm not really sure who won!
It was a very special visit with some very special friends. Thank you so much Doc and Karen for driving all the way out here to see us! We hope to see you again soon!

Aunt Jo and Joseph's December Wedding

In December we celebrated Jo and Joseph's wedding. Jo is our adopted Aunt. She is the sister my Dad never wanted! Just ask them! The older girls were privileged to get to be Snow Princesses in their wedding along with Cousin Grace.
I took a million pictures this day and I am so glad that I did. There were a lot of personal highlights for me that day. The first was getting to spend a lot of time with my awesome SIL Kacie and my niece Grace.
Jo looked so beautiful! Here she is getting her intricate hairdo! The pretty pearl pins looked great against her darker hair. She asked me to do her makeup and that was a real honor. Not that she needed much! I just pretended I was Carmindy from What Not To Wear.
These table seating pieces are real works of art. I managed to take home 6 of them. What? She said we could when the wedding was over. I wish I had taken more of them because they are perfect for sitting around the house in different places. Just one little carnation bunch is all you need for 2 weeks worth of fresh flowers. I put them in the bathrooms, girls rooms, side tables just everywhere.
This room was so beautiful. It was the weekend before Christmas, the snow was falling, love was in the air, wine was flowing, family was dancing. It just doesn't get any better than this. Truly it doesn't.

My Dad, Joseph and his son Jacob. Handsome, handsome, handsome! I wish I had a picture of Rachel Joesph's daughter but somehow I don't. She looked beautiful too.
My MOM and Dad! I can't tell you how gorgeous they looked. All night. Another of my favorite things about the night was being with them and watching them. It was so sweet. I have the best pictures of them from this night.
You might notice that my MOM is rocking the same dress that I wore in the November wedding of Megan and Mark. She looked better in it. Seriously my MOM is hot.
If this doesn't describe their personalities in picture than I don't know what would!
She lost a tooth in between weddings. She is getting so much older. I just love her.
My Grandparents looked beautiful and handsome also! It was fun having them there from FL to celebrate with everyone. Jo has adopted our whole family and we are so thankful for that! She and Joseph visited with Uncle Chuck and Uncle Damon while on their honeymoon in NM so no one was left out!
This is one I am going to get enlarged. My Grandparents are so precious to me.
My Daddy! We are like twins but my cheeks are too puffy! I feel like I look so bloated in these pictures. Sigh...damn weight watchers here I come. Again.
Isn't this the best picture!
But this one is really the best of the best!

Jo and Joseph with their Snow Princesses! They had a beautiful ceremony filled with lovely poems and readings about love and other gushy stuff. Jo, Joseph, Jacob and Rachel each designed very artistic candles that were used in their candle lighting ceremony. I wish I had a picture of that. They were entwined and most symbolic!

My cousins Caleb and Cooper! Caleb didn't grace us with his dancing presence because he is 16 and way too cool for that kind of nonsense. But Cooper is 10 and can really cut a rug!
My brother Brian was a hot dude in a new suit. Doesn't he look like Leonardo DiCaprio? Here are my SIL, Brian and my Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue. They clean up nice my family!
My cousin Benjamin and my Grandparents. Benjamin just went to see Wicked for the first time and got an e reader for Christmas. Even though he has a Nook and I have a kindle we have some common ground!
My beautiful cousin Keli, beautiful Aunt Kim, and dapper Uncle Tim. We always like visiting with them when we go to MI.
Craig and I.
My brother and I.
Awwww! I like this picture.
Now you are going to think that I am partial to them because they are my parents. But I have been to many weddings and have been in many weddings and I am very honestly telling you that my MOM and Dad had the best toast speeches ever. EVER. I laughed, I cried, I thought, I reflected. It was amazing. I was so proud. And we can be an emotional bunch but my parents didn't waver. They made it through their whole speeches with a professionalism that any public speaker would be envious of. This was the highlight of the evening for me. I will never forget how I felt during these few moments. Chris was sitting with me and experiencing this with me. She knows what I am talking about.
And here is the lovely Chris! She is one of my MOM's best and longest (I didn't say oldest) friends. She is a big part of our family too.

Congratulations to Jo and Joseph! May Joseph always recite poetry to you Jo! And may Jo always make you laugh Joseph and eat new foods! We love you and we loved your special wedding celebration!

Megan and Mark's Wedding November 2010

One of the Worlds Greatest Babysitters Megan got married last November. We reminded her that we knew who could be the Worlds Cutest Flowergirls! She and her fiance Mark agreed!
The girls had a great day being flower girls. They took their jobs very seriously!
They had a good time getting their hair done with the bride and all of the bridesmaids.
Here is the other World's Greatest Babysitter Lindsey and her boyfriend Rob. She is Megan's twin sister.
They learned some very important things that day. Like completely removing your dress in order to go to the bathroom. And how to eat while leaning over a table so you don't get anything on your dress!
The girls carried kissing balls that were so cute and smelled wonderful. Here I am with my little ladies!

Craig was so proud of them. We got all choked up several times that day. He was their favorite dancing partner that night.

We all had a great day and danced the night away. They had their hair done at 9am and we didn't stop all day. They finally crashed at about 9:30pm at the reception. They could dance no more! It was a wonderful day and we were so happy to be a part of Megan and Mark's special day.

Who Can I Sue?

About a month ago I sprained my wrist. I must have weak wrists because every once in a while they get really sore and I can't put weight on them. Like when I am doing yoga. And there is a lot of weight on them! I must have dainty bird wrists. Or to much weight. You can choose. And you know that the right choice is that I must have dainty bird wrists.

So my wrist really hurt and then while I was changing Margaret's diaper she kicked out at me and bent it back really far. Too far. I told Craig that I was injured and couldn't fold laundry any more. That is when he told me to go to the Doctor.

They took an x-ray, gave me some anti-inflammatory drugs, and sent me out to get a wrist brace. The physical therapy store had to fill out some paper work in order for my insurance to pay for it. Was this a work related incident? Yes it was. I change a lot of diapers. Yesterday I got this form in the mail to fill out for our insurance. It is from the Legal Division Subrogation/Workers' Compensation department. I wish! Like they don't believe that while this is a work related incident there isn't much we can all do about it! Maybe we can go after Margaret's savings account. So what I want to know is who can I sue over this?

Monday

Dear Craig,
Olivia said her stomach hurt this morning after she ate a huge breakfast. So that isn't hard to figure out. But she got all ready and got in the car and seemed fine until we were a block from school. Then she started crying and saying her stomach hurt. I tried to get her to go in and then I would stay and go in and check on her in 15 minutes or so. But no. So we came home (almost got into an accident on the way home at Harrison and 144th) and when we get in the house she says she thinks her stomach doesn't hurt any more. She said she didn't want to take a chance of being at school and then just having to go to the nurses office. Really? So I sent her to bed and told her we would talk about it again in a while and see how she is feeling. Probably just needs to take a good dump. Happy Monday!
love, Julianne

Side Note: It takes me 20 minutes to drive them to school. It is quite slippery out. And she gets this nervous stomach thing from Craig. It's all him. But what if she got to school and had to go to the nurses office and I just had to drive back and pick her up anyway. Why am I having Mothers Guilt anyway?

Over Exposure In Lane 2, Overt Eyes

I could talk about boobs all day. Or breasts or Ta-Ta's whatever you like to call them. I have a love hate relationship with mine. Mostly love. But there are days when we agree to disagree. I have spent a lot of intimate time with them due to their high maintenance ways and the fact that I have breast feed 3 babies to the age of 1. Yes they have worked their asses off.

But they need a lot of support and attention. And apparently they are no longer receiving that from my swim suit. I bought a really nice swim suit 2 YEARS ago when Leslie and I started swimming competitively. I like the way that sounds. I also like to say "When we do our races" Or "We have a Tri coming up" because those also sound cool. But anyway I bought a nice suit because my ladies need to be comfortable and strapped in place before we do such things.

2 years is apparently too long to expect a suit to withstand the chemicals, stress, tension, and athleticism that I have thrown at this suit. Because TODAY was the day that it all feel apart. While I was swimming in it. While sharing a lane with a strange man. Next to a lane with 2 strange men. Next to a lane full of swim aerobics ladies. One of whom has the same suit as me. Sigh.

I got in the pool and started warming up and going slow. I don't ever get much faster than that. I notice that the man I am lane sharing with is giving me weird looks and staggering his swim starts in an odd way. We stayed on our own sides and would occasionally swim towards each other. I also noticed a strange sensation in the front of my suit. The suit that has needed to be replaced for about 9 months. I have to tug it up when I stand up in the pool. But that's not the problem. NO the problem I discovered halfway down the lane is that when I am leaning forward in the pool doing a freestyle stroke my ladies have been set FREE! LIBERATED and I am not in Europe.

I tried to do a scope and replace move while mid stroke and mid lane. It was awkward and made me almost drown. So I had to switch to my next to slowest/fastest stroke the breast stroke (irony not intentional) so that I would have a more vertical position. I did that for about 100 and then tried to go back to freestyle. Nope not happening. The dam that was my elastic and spandex support was gone and the ladies were set to swinging. Like a pendulum on a clock. They were all but out. I went back to breast stroke again. I am ticked that I am finally in the pool ready to have a good swim and this happens. Something I should have seen coming. I pondered doing the butterfly but that would just be like letting a jack in the box loose. What about the backstroke? Nope then I would simultaneously knock out both lanes on each side of me.

I had to get out of the pool and leave. By the stairs and not just pulling myself out. Because if I jumped up and onto the side of the pool my suit might have just stayed in the water without me. Really it was for the best and I think the man I was sharing a lane with was grateful. A new lady came to take my place. One with a swimmers body. You know like Michael Phelps with no boobs. She didn't understand what I meant when I told her I was having a wardrobe malfunction. She doesn't belong to my club.

The funny thing to me is that I was just teasing a favorite family member of mine about wearing a men's speedo. I think I said something like "Don't wear one. We can't help but look. It doesn't matter what your body type is." Well look who is burning cornea's now! I owe him an apology!

I wonder if I will get written up for indecent pool exposure. That would be awesome what with the stretch marks and all! Maybe I can get the gym to buy me a new suit. Or maybe I will just order one online and save myself the trouble of trying on a million only to find that they are all horrible.

You have a nice day now. And if you were exposed to me at the gym today I apologize. I think I'm going nuts! :)

Margaret

Miss Margaret is 2 now! She is sassy and fun. Surprising and determined. She is also crying her head off in her crib right now. She doesn't want to take a nap. I want her to. I wonder when she will try and crawl out of her crib. Why don't they make tops for those things. Oh wait that is a dog cage. Sometimes I forget that Margaret doesn't really give a damn about my schedule. That I took her to a play date/meeting for an hour and then made her sit in her car seat for an hour while I drove back and forth and back and forth. Someone forgot their backpack at home and needed it taken to them at school. So Margaret was all cozy and happy for an hour in her car seat. She had time to relax from the play date and unwind. To process how it all went. To celebrate in the fact that she only pushed over one 14 month old when there were so many opportunities and children to choose from. Then we came home and she ate a great lunch. Eating has never really been an issue in our house. We all seem to take to it pretty well. But now I want her to sleep for exactly 2 hours. Then wake up in time to go get sisters at school. This is time that Mommy needs so she can spread marshmallow cream on her face like Ms. Lippy in Adam Sandler. So I can update my weight watchers tracker, read, shower or blog. Now we only have 25 minutes left. And after going up twice to rock her I just don't think it is going to happen. Now I have an ulcer and a guilty conscience. But we have choir tonight and how is she going to do in child care from 6-7:15? Probably just fine. Now I really need to go to choir because it helps recharge me. But now Margaret could really stand to go to bed early. Guilt with a side of ulcer anyone?