Random Updates

#1 We finally got my car back on Friday! It's running like a champ, so we're hoping to keep it for at least another year or two. In the meantime, though, we'll start thinking about our next purchase so we're prepared when disaster strikes again. The final cost was actually lower than the estimate, but wow, still a good chunk of change. So much for our tax refund...My words of wisdom to you: Replace your timing belt at 80K miles.

#2 Scot got his dates for his next tour of duty in Afghanistan. He'll leave around August 25th and get back mid October. It's a relatively short deployment like last year, but hey, it still sucks. I'm not sure if it will be easier or harder this time, given Ava's age. She WILL be a lot more independent...but I think she will also GET that Daddy is gone. Good times.

#3 We started another session of Music Together on Saturday. It now seems to be a very good age to have Ava involved in this - she participated so much in class and has already been singing bits and pieces of the songs over the weekend. We signed up for the 10:00 slot this time instead of 9:00, so it was really nice not to have to rush around in the morning. Though, we did kind of miss seeing the other parents/kids we had gotten used to seeing over the past year. I'm sure we'll get to know the new group in time.

#4 Our friend Bob is here visiting - he flew in on Saturday and leaves Wed. Bob was in Scot's pilot training class in Mississippi and has been stationed in Seattle, flying the C17. Ava LOVES Bob. They have become fast friends (well, at least in Ava's eyes). She loves saying Bob's name and she loves talking his ear off. I think Bob's words were, "She really like to give the play by play, doesn't she?" We took Bob to the Mall of America this afternoon (this is his first time in MN, he's originally from Texas) and had a nice dinner out at Doolittle's.

#5 We went to Wausau last weekend for Easter and to help celebrate my parent's 40th wedding anniversary! Mom and Dad took us all out to eat on Saturday night and we had a really nice time. In turn, we gave them tickets to a show at the Grand Theater and a dinner out at a nice restaurant beforehand. We also colored Easter eggs and Ava hunted for her baskets on Sunday morning.

The happy couple:


And their brood:


Coloring eggs:

Everybody's pregnant

Well, except me. :-)

In the last few weeks, I have learned of 5 pregnancies of close friends. FIVE! WOW...I'm not sure what they're all drinking, but it's kept it's way out of St. Paul for now. Congrats to all! This will be a busy fall.

Due in September we have...
Dave and Lori Vig - friends from college
Randi and Tim Zinter - Randi was my coworker at my last job - Mentor/Coloplast

And in October we have...
Dana and Wes Sides - friends we made in Mississippi (Dana and I met at the gym - what else are housewives supposed to do?), who are now stationed in Japan
Lisa and Marc Scanio - my best friend from high school - this makes baby #3!
Wayne and Amy Pafko - Scot's best friend from high school - this makes baby #3 for them also!

In other baby news - our friends Chad and Laura Depoint just had a baby boy (their first) on March 28th - Henry David. We visited them on Saturday and he is beautiful. Huge congrats to them! We're thrilled they finally came over to the darkside (ie: parenthood), though they will be moving to Paris in the fall for a few years, so our playdates will be cut short before they ever really get started. We just might have to cross the pond and pay them a visit...

My Bad Day

So, yesterday was a pretty crappy day. As I was driving down McKnight on my way to work, I felt a little catch in my car and then all of the dashboard lights came on. I happened to be approaching an intersection, so I stopped and that was it. My car wouldn't start again. I stayed pretty calm and reached for my phone. That was the biggest tragedy of the day. My phone was not in my purse or anywhere in my car. It was likely sitting on the kitchen counter where I left it, doing absolutely no good to me. It was 7:30 am, where was I going to find a phone?

I turned my hazard lights on and got out of the car, started walking towards the gas station a few blocks away. Before I got there, I passed a small office that a guy was just entering. I asked him if I could use his phone, so he let me in and I called my insurance company. Of all days, Scot was actually not home and was going into Champion for some training. He had taken Ava to daycare, so at least I didn't have her in tow as well. So, I gave my information to Progressive and she informed me they could have a tow truck there in an hour. AN HOUR? I wasn't sure what to do, my only option seemed to go back and sit in my car and wait. So, I walked back and then witnessed quite a funny thing. You see, my car was in a turn lane at a stoplight with its hazard lights on, nobody inside obviously. I watched the light turn green and someone pulled up behind my car and started honking. She continued to honk and look obviously distressed and FINALLY realized that there wasn't anyone in the car. In spite of everything that was happening, I had a pretty good chuckle over that. And it wasn't the last time. After I got back into my car, it happened at least 4 or 5 times that someone directly behind me honked and got visibly upset when I didn't move after the light turned green. Seriously???

After about a half hour of waiting, I started to think that I wasn't all that safe sitting in my car. People would drive up so fast behind me when the light was green and then move into the other turn lane at the last minute - I was starting to get afraid that I'd get hit. So, I got out of my car and decided to stand on the side of the road away from traffic. Just when I made this decision, though, a police officer drove up and asked me what was going on. I told her that I was waiting for a tow but that it'd be at least another 30 minutes. She said that was unacceptable since I was in a turn lane, so she called a different company and they showed up within about 10 minutes. She parked behind me and turned her lights on, so I didn't have to worry about sitting in my car anymore.

We were only about a mile from our car place, so that was convenient. The guy there let me use the phone, so I called to cancel my other tow truck, called my boss, and left a message for Scot. They had a loaner car they let me use, so that worked out really well and I ended up getting to work at about 9:30.

There are a myriad of things wrong with my car - the tensioner broke which led to a domino effect of other things breaking, so much that we weren't sure if it was worth fixing. We have decided to fix it, just because we had no idea what we would buy in its place and don't want to make a rush decision. Scot also has Guard this weekend, so we just don't have the time to go out and buy a car right now. This was actually the first time I've had anything unexpected go wrong with my little car, so I'm hoping we'll still get another year or two out of it. It's been paid off for 3 years and still has less than 100K miles on it - I really kind of expected I'd be driving it for awhile yet. In the meantime, we can start thinking about what we want to get instead. It's still going to be about a week before we get it back, so they'll let us continue to drive the loaner until it's fixed, so that is nice.

And I left my library books (that were due yesterday) in the car.

I was scheduled to work from home today, so that was nice. Usually I don't set my alarm on those days and end up waking up around 6:30 or 7 on my own. Today, we all slept until 9! I came downstairs and worked for a few hours and got really queasy/nauseous. I ended up signing off, called my mommy for reassurance, and then ended up sleeping for the rest of the afternoon. I've just eaten a few pieces of fruit all day and still don't feel well. Hopefully I start to feel better soon...

Busy Weekend • Random Post

This was one of the many things we did this weekend...and I'd call it a success as it kept Ava entertained for about 30 minutes, a small miracle in our world. She eventually started getting naughty, so we cleaned up and she cried real tears because she was so sad it was over! P.S. I'm not this creative, I got it from a book.


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Tissue Paper Collage

Supplies:
Aluminum foil
Colored tissue paper
Baby oil (or Vegetable oil - my idea)
Paintbrush

Tear off a piece of aluminum foil about the size of a piece of paper. Cut or tear the tissue paper into small pieces. Put oil into a small dish and let toddler paint the oil onto the aluminum foil. Show your toddler how the tissue paper will stick to the foil wherever the oil is, but can also be easily removed. Use different colors of tissue paper to make a collage.

We started with baby oil, which worked great, but then I decided to try vegetable oil instead since Ava can always find a way to get things in her mouth and that worked just as well.

Oh yeah, and we're excited she can count to 5. Up until a few weeks ago it was 1-2-1-2-1-2. We weren't sure if she had a career as a band leader in her future or what the case was...it seems a lot of kids her age can count higher than 5, but she's always been a little higher on the physical curve than the knowledge curve. Hopefully they'll even out a little more one day.

On Saturday, we hooked up with J-squared and Keira at the mall. We made the usual rounds - first the train table at Barnes and Noble and then the play area in the mall. Keira is crawling and cruising around like a champ now, so it will only be a matter of time before these two really run each other ragged. We capped the night off with shamrock shakes at McDonald's. Do we know how to have fun on a Saturday night or what?

Here's a little random something for Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Sandy who live in Illinois. Awww...


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Today we ventured out to the Mall of America. They've reconstructed Camp Snoopy and have renamed it Nickolodeon Universe, so Dora, Diego, the Backyardigans, et al are all there. I suppose these characters are a little more relevant to the little ones these days than the Snoopy gang. We went on 3 rides - the carousel, a balloon ride, and a car ride. Scot rode with her on the car ride, which amounted to a circular track that really jerked around the corners (a la The Scrambler). Ava had a blast for the first 90% of the ride - she was giggling, screaming, smiling and then all of a sudden her expression turned serious, she leaned into Daddy and started sucking her thumb. Either she finally experienced a little fear or it started to make her stomach queasy. It was really funny to witness the sudden change! Poor kid.

This is a story I forgot to tell from our vacation. When we were in the hotel room one morning, Ava dropped a book on her leg she said "Timeout book. Hitting Ava" That made me laugh out loud.

And because Sam and Rocky don't get any press...I caught this little moment of brotherly love the other day.


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Goodbye Brett

Man, I am so depressed...

More from Florida

I forgot to include this on my other post. Look what Ava got! Scot asked the flight attendant if they still gave out wings to kids. The attendant returned with this certificate with wings on it. It says: "First Flight: This is to certify that Ava Wilcox did leave the surface of the earth on this day in a heavier than air machine. The above mentioned departed from Minneapolis/Saint Paul in a Boeing 757-200 upon this memorable occasion." It is signed by the captain and lead flight attendant. We thought that was so cool!



Here's a video from our last morning on the beach when we were trying to wear her out. We didn't have to try very hard, though - this was pretty much what she did the entire vacation (and why she slept SO well). Check out the pelicans diving in the background too. It was pretty windy, but it wasn't as treacherous as it sounds in the video.


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