Happy Birthday, my love!

I will write more about our birthday celebrations later this weekend, but since today is the actual day, I wanted to send a birthday wish to my love!

Heart you!

The Definition of Insanity

I've heard insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. I am officially insane.

A while ago I bought Elise 2 pairs of mary jane style Crocs. I know Crocs are a little bit hideous (especially on adults). No offense to anyone who wears them. I'm sure they look lovely on you. Anyway, it's really hard to find a shoe that meets all the requirements for the school (no open toed sandals allowed), doesn't get ruined if exposed to a little water and/or mud, and isn't too hot for the summer. Crocs seem to fit the bill. The mary janes are pretty cute, and they come in a lot of really cute colors and with a lot of cute accents. I finally gave in and decided that these were the shoes for Elise! I got her a pink pair with flower & butterfly accents and a black pair with lady bug and sunflower accents. She loves them, they match just about everything she owns, and she can't ruin them, right?

Wrong.

Apparently during naptime at school, she gets bored and won't sleep. Since she's required to stay on her cot and rest for the 2-hour nap period, she found something to do to occupy her time. She ripped the straps off the new Crocs. Then she ripped the accents off the new Crocs. Have I mentioned how much I spent on those darn things?? The shoes are not cheap, and neither are the extras. She broke the black pair first, and I was not happy. I was able to fix them using the strap from the pair she had last year that were outgrown. I repaired the shoe, and I told her she better not do it again. So she proceeded to break the pink shoes a few days later. That was what I call a "count to ten moment". As in, I better count to ten before I harm my child.

A big part of me thinks that I need to teach her a lesson by not replacing the shoes. She loves them and would be very disappointed if she didn't have any Crocs to wear from now on. Only problem with that is...I can't send her to school barefoot! It put me in a tough position. So, today I went out and not only replaced the broken shoes, but bought a 3rd pair in blue. I've tried to find a different shoe, but these are just the most sensible. I had a long talk with her about taking care of the replacements. She's been told that they will NOT be replaced again. And I do mean it this time. What I haven't figured out is what I will do for shoes if these get destroyed. I guess I will file that under the category of "I'll deal with that if and when it happens."

So, what makes me think she's not going to break these?? See, I told you I'm insane. This is almost embarrassing.

TV Footage of the Big Catch!!

I made a video of Jamie's catch last night. You can really see all 3 of us quite well! The quality is not great, because I took the video of our TV screen. But you get the idea. How fun!

Update: The video was removed by YouTube today - something to do with copyright infringement. OOPS!

Our 60 Seconds of Fame

Jamie got tickets for our family to go to the Astros game this evening. Elise loves to go to any sporting event (after all, she is a coach's daughter), so we were excited for the night out at the ballpark. It ended up being even more exciting than we originally planned! In the 5th inning, Jamie caught a foul ball! He forgot to bring his glove, so he caught the ball with his baseball cap. It was quite impressive! Within minutes of his big catch, we received a text message from his cousin who reported to us that he saw all 3 of us on TV! They showed Jamie making the catch, and apparently got Elise and I in the shot as well. I wish we had DVR'd the game, but I believe it will be replayed later tonight and we can record it then. Elise thought it was very neat that she got to hold the baseball.

Almost caught up!

I think I am almost up to date again, with the exception of a few more quick updates. Jamie's record is now 15-4. Not too shabby! The varsity team is tied for first place in our district. They have 5 regular season games remaining, and they need to win 3 of them to guarantee themselves a playoff spot. The next few weeks will be important for them.

We are in the last week of tax season, so things are hectic for me at work. This is the toughest time of year for me in my HR role. I expect to be fielding issues and complaints of varying degrees well into the summer. It is the thing I enjoy the least about my job, so I'm not really looking forward to it. But things will quiet down a little after the deadline.

Elise is on a few new medications for her allergies/asthma. We are going to begin tapering her off the inhaler next week and see how that goes. The doctor thinks some of her problems may be triggered by seasonal allergens. We hope the summer will bring better health in that regard.

Disney Update

Only 74 days to go!!! We are getting SO excited. We made the decision to fly to Orlando rather than drive with the help of my parents. They really didn't want Elise to have to endure the long road trip, so they offered to pay for her plane ticket. With the cost of gas steadily rising & 2 nights in a hotel factored into the equation, we can purchase our plane tickets for the same amount of money it would take to drive. So, we booked our flight!

After talking to Jeremy and Candace, we also decided to go ahead and spring for a rental car for the week as well. Jamie reserved our car today. So now we are all set! We have our character meals, flight, hotel suite, and rental car all booked. If we could leave tomorrow, we would! I know we all feel like we are in real need of a vacation. In the meantime, it's really nice to have something to look forward to.

The icing on the cake is that I am going to finally get to meet 2 friends from my online mommy group - Angie & Maggie - while in Florida!!! We became friends more than 4 years ago when we were all trying to conceive. We all have daughters that are within 1 month of one another (Angie's daughter is a June 2004 baby, Elise is a July 2004 baby, and Maggie's daughter is an August 2004 baby). Maggie also has another addition - a son who is a year old, and Angie is expecting another baby now in addition to her older daughter who is 8. I can't wait to see them, meet their girls (and boy!), and introduce our kids to one another. I've heard so many stories about the kids that I feel like I already know them. It's going to be a great meeting.

Elise's Big Girl Room

I have been such a bad blogger lately! I'm so behind, so I'm going to make an effort to catch up now. We *finally* set up Elise's brand new big girl room this weekend! She has all new furniture, newly painted walls (I chose a color called Cool Pink), and a whole new decor. I think it looks so cute, and Elise loves it. When she first saw it, she just kept saying, "Wow!" It was really cute and made all the hard work so worthwhile. I've been feeling guilty for quite some time that we never really decorated her room when we moved in (...uh...2 years ago...) and since we recently got rid of the toddler bed in favor of a big girl bed, it seemed like the perfect time to fix things up for her.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

Congratulations to my dad's alma mater, the Kansas Jayhawks on a wonderful season that culminated this evening with a win in the 2008 NCAA Championship game. All I can say is what an awesome comeback!!! This has a special meaning for me, because I can remember the last time KU won the title. I was only 9 years old and dad let me stay up late to watch with him. We also took a trip together about a year before Elise was born to watch a game at Allen Fieldhouse. I've always been a KU fan, although I've gotten away from it a bit as I've grown up. Still, it was wonderful to see the Jayhawks win tonight.

Family Portraits

It feels like it's been ages since I posted. We have been crazy busy, and I have a lot of updates. I promise to share more later, but since it's almost 11pm and I have to work tomorrow it will have to wait for another day. For now I just wanted to share our family portraits that were taken today. I created a slide show since there are so many images. I can't wait to get the CD and go crazy developing prints.