My kodak moment

This is just a simple wow moment. 2 years ago, I almost quit Best Buy because I really wanted to be a stay at home mom, and because I couldn't fathom spending so much time away from my baby. The company said no way and let me stay on just three days a week. That was a little more reasonable, and it helped finance our trip to the Mediterranean :) I have been a little sad though, because with all the work we have done to make part-time management a reality, the company is still struggling with the idea. Well, the VP of human resources met with me, Lindsay, Jeff and Char and was overly impressed at the work we have been doing. Thursday he is sending down a private film crew to capture our story on tape, and to use the video to present to the VPs and CEO when he officially roles jobshare out as policy!!! Its amazing what three women who want to stay home with their kids can accomplish! Yay innovation!!!

--here is my very rookie picture that I took to make the first jobshare brochure :)--

Some happy some sad

I found out a few days ago that my Grandpa on my dad's side had a stroke. He has always been in the best of health his whole life, so this was kind of a shock to all. At first the doctor's were cautiously optimistic, because he was moving his arms and legs on both sides. But, after some neurological testing, they determined that the part of the brain that controls his face, eyes, and ability to talk and swallow was paralyzed. They attempted to insert a feeding tube, but after all the struggles, my family agreed to sign a do-not recessitate form and to move him to a hospice facility. I am flying out there tomorrow night to spend a few days with my family. My grandfather is one of the best people I have had the honor of knowing. He always takes life with a grain of salt and a adds huge laugh. Saying goodbye is going to be extremely difficult.

On a lighter note, I think McKenna and Rylee know that something has been bothering me. Rylee has spent the whole day at my feet as I scramble to get homework done before my trip. McKenna is officially potty trained, in just a few days, and has been extra cuddly and cute. She had an accident in her bed the other day and was traumatized that we had to put her blankey in the washer. I distracted her, but she kept getting all verclempt saying that "bankey all wet..in washa..." finally we went upstairs to pull it out of the dryer. She said "whoa, bankey hot! I LLLLove it!" So the rest of the day we had to hear about how "bankey was all wet. Bankey hot, I lllllove it!" Thanks for cheering me up little bug!

Potty Training

Mac has been ready to be potty trained for a while now. But, with my crazy school schedule, our two week trip, and other excuses...we have not found a week to just focus on it. Today was the beginning of our journey. We went to target and bought lots of cute undies, fun kid soap, naughty sugary drinks, and M&Ms. McKenna was stoked that I was going to let her drink sugary drinks all day long :)

We started by throwing all the "baby" stuff away. No more diapers, changing table, wipes, none of it. I told her she was a big girl and we didn't need it any more. Then we pumped her full of liquid and put her in princess panties. The first few hours were rough. When she realized that she gets an M&M when she goes potty, she started having to "go" every 10 minutes...then would get upset when nothing came out. But we did have 4 successful trips to the bathroom today!! Woo hoo....we are entering a diaper free zone, and I can't wait. Hopefully by Monday she will have the swing of things down :)

--the smallest underwear is still a little baggie...but so cute!!!--

--I told her to strike a pose with her drink, I call it apple juice spiderman--

Busy daddy and McKenna

Lately mommy has been a party pooper. Heather is out of town for two weeks, and I have had classes galore! We got back from Europe last Friday, then we had the wedding saturday. I had class monday, tuesday, friday and saturday, and worked three days last week. I am taking three classes so I can graduate at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. So, because I have so much homework, and am so busy, Josh has been busy playing single dad.

--McKenna playing with her boyfriend, Nolo (aka Nolan)--

--Happy 30th birthday daddy! --

This past Sunday was the day after Josh turned 30. We had kind of a small party since we just got back from blowing all our savings in Europe. I told Josh that I bought him a turkish rug for his birthday :) Here he is blowing out the candles on one of his two cakes. Wes and Sarah were visiting family, so they stopped by and had burgers and cake. Gona and Baca rode in on their harleys and brought a second cake. Josh got to talk about our trip, and we learned that Wes likes to bird...which apparently means birdwatching. Was quite the story!

This weekend he went to Tara's 30th birthday party. It sounds like it was a lot of fun, with lots of Chad and Tara's family. They had it at a Mexican restaurant in Des Moines, and went to a bar afterwards. I went to class, did homework, and went to bed....lame!

Thank goodness we have such wonderful family around, because with Heather out of town, we have really had to rely on them! Gona, Aunti Em and Nikki have been the best babysitters in the land! Thanks so much for watching Mac, she comes home completely pooped, so we know she had a fun day!

Saturday Josh took McKenna to Gryte's while I went to class. They have built an awesome play house so they can be vicarious grandparents. Both of their girls are off becoming famous and are too busy to have kids right now, but once they do, Paul and Colleen will have had lots of practice! ***keep in mind, I am not responsible for dressing her in any of the following pictures......

--McKenna LOVED this little playhouse out in back of Gryte's--

--At one point she said "I love this house"--

--chessin for the camera--

--so pretty out in the woods--

--gona and colleen had fun too--

--looks like daddy had a tired little girl on his hands--

Then, on Sunday, Josh took McKenna to grandma and grandpa greats. Gona, Baca, Aunti Em and Kade came too, and they had fun visiting and cursing the rotten weather we have had. The whole state is flooding. We have received record rain, and many people that I know have had flooded basements! They had to close down part of the street that my store is on, because half of the street was under water! It flooded the walmart down the road, which I am secretly happy about :)

Hopefully I will be a better mom/wife in the upcoming weeks. This weekend, I took three days off in a row, and I am hoping to potty train my little munchkin...more on how that goes later!

McKenna's fun-ness

When we got back from our vacation our little girl who could communicate in a combination of sign language, baby talk and single words can now say full sentences and will repeat everything you say. I guess 2 weeks of constant attention from Gramma Rue really did the trick! She can count to 10 all by herself, and if you ask her how many of something there are, she will count them. Some fun things from this morning:

Mommy: McKenna, what do you want for breakfast?
McKenna: hum, yogurt and na-nana and juice in my chai (chair)

later in the day: mommy, we go park n pay wif ry-ee? (play with rylee)
baby have a icky di-pa, mommy change it (referring to her doll)

during lunch:
Mommy: McKenna, don't use your hands to eat your strawberries, use your fork like a big girl.
McKenna: mommy, no use hands, big girl (showing me her fork with a strawberry on it)

before nap: mommy read book in chai, den go night-night wif bea n baby

I cannot believe the concepts she is grasping. It seems she can repeat everything now....it is simply amazing!!! Now I just need to get on potty training :)

This Saturday we went to Emily and Aaron's wedding. I work with both of them, and have been both of their boss at one time or another. McKenna was the flower girl and did a GREAT job! We got there at about 3:30 and she was a little leary about taking pictures with the bridal party, but after being pulled around in her flower girl wagon, she warmed up a bit.

--they gave her a necklace to wear--

--closeup with necklace--

--mommy, gramma rue, and mac--

--here we are practicing being pulled down the aisle--

--she went over to give Emily some cheerios--

--then we got some cute pictures--

--sitting there posing--

--the lighting is a little bad, but the ring bearer pulled her down the aisle, and the wagon was filled with rose pedals....she did so well, smiling the whole way!--

The crowd oohed and awed at her when she came down, everyone giggled and smiled...it was a proud mommy moment! Great job little one!!!

We're back!

We had such a WONDERFUL time in Italy, Greece and Turkey. I am not going to go into crazy amounts of detail on this blog, but will be doing an entire separate blog (of which I will provide the URL at a later date.) If you want a historical description of what you see below, or want to see many more pictures, that will all be on our vacation link soon to come. Here are a few fun pictures to give you a quick summary:

--Day #1 in Rome, loved the small street, small cars and crazy drivers--

--Coliseum (duh)--

--standing in the Coliseum--

--inside, really amazing history--

--Palentine Hill--

--Palentine Hill part 2--

--artsy view--

--huge building they are restoring down town--

We flew into Rome and arrived early morning, we still managed to have a full day. We loved walking around, and eating Gelato.

--Day #2, St. Peter's Square--

--inside the Vatican--

--more Vatican (could have 800 pictures and you could never capture the artistry)--

--Sistine Chapel--

--Sistine Chapel--

--Trevi Fountain--

Day 2 was spent touring the amazing Vatican, St. Peter's Square and Basillica, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

--Day #3, the Pantheon (no it isn't leaning....)--

--Castle de San Angelo--

--view from the top of the castle--

--another great Roman view--

--Piazza Navona--

--Piazza de La Republica--

--Roman Baths--

Day 3 was spent walking around the Pantheon, Pizza Navona and de La Republica, Castle de San Angelo, the capital, Circus Maximus, and the Roman Baths. We packed our stuff and got ready to start our cruise.

Some conclusions about Rome:
(1) people cannot drive, often 6 lanes would merge to one, and mopeds would cut off buses
(2) no one wears tennis shoes or t-shirts. Very snappy dressers
(3) most people are friendly and know enough English to help you through things
(4) it is a beautiful city with such rich hisory
(5) dining is leisurely. You have to ask for the check or you would never leave
(6) the whole city shuts down from 1-4, to go home and eat
(7) EVERYTHING is smaller in Rome, cars can park perpendicular to the curve, full sized beds are considered luxurious, a 200 sq ft hotel room costs $250 a night, and this elevator was what was in our building

--Day #4, we board our ship in Civitavecchia, here is one of the pool decks--

--the casino--

--josh's favorite part of the ship--

--and us entertaining ourselves during the lifeboat drill--

--Day #5, we spent at sea, so I took advantage of the free makeover for formal dinner night. We had tons to do on the ship, and the food was amazing--

--Day #6, Mykonos Greece--

--famous windmills--

--windy streets all through the city--

--ruins of Delos, island that used to be the center of all trade for the Mediterranean--

--Day #7, Rhodes Greece--

--City streets of Rhodes--

--Ruins near Rhodes--

--Day #8, Santorini Greece--

--I couldn't photograph this place enough, simply gorgeous--

--the entire city is on top of the mountain, we hiked down, just amazing--

Day #9 we reached Istanbul Turkey--

--the city has 12 million people, and is the only city on two continents--

--Topkapi Palace--

--Turkish Bizaar--

--The hand made rug we bought from an amazing rug store. This place was 4 stories high, and our rug took 12 months to make!--

--Day #10 we explored Ephesus near Kusadasi Turkey--

--Huge stadium that still has perfect acoustics--

--2 stories of a 3 story library--

--bust of Marcus Aurelius, doesn't he look like Denny!!!--

--it seemed that every place we visited celebrated fertility...I did a double take on this statue--

--before we went back to the ship we visited the site of the house that Mary lived in, these are the supposed wells from which she drank--

--Day #11, we made it to Athens. Here is the stadium that seats 75,000 completed refurbished and covered in marble for the most recent Olympic Games--

--hiking up the Acropolis--

--the Parthenon, they have to restore it because of the pollution--

--the view is incredible--

--we aren't super imposed...we were really there!--

Day #12 we were at sea, and Day #13 we made it to Naples--

--port at Naples--

--We hiked Mt. Vesuvius--

--then we went to Pompeii, you can see how big the mountain used to be--

--the preservation is incredible, and the town is HUGE, you could walk around it for days--

--art on the wall in homes--

--ancient crosswalks, the horses would walk through the gaps in the stones, and the chariot wheels would fit through the gaps as well--

--the city was never ending--

--so many artifacts have been discovered, including plumbing that used lead pipes in the 1st century BC--

--outside of the fortified walls of Pompeii--

The trip was the trip of a lifetime. There are so many stories and details that I didn't want to include because this post would be way too long!!! I am going to create a blog that includes the history, some fun stories the tour guides told us, and our many adventures at each port. So if you are interested, that will be done as soon as I get to it! Thanks so much to Gramma Rue for watching McKenna while we were gone. They had fun playing, going to the zoo, reading stories, going to the park, shopping, having adventures with vicious animals under our deck, and living through a tornado that was close by! We appreciate it!!!!