Saturday, July 26, 2008

In countdown mode...

I've been in Winona, MN for 13 days now, but guess what? Only one week to go! I'm getting myself into countdown mode. I'm so anxious to get home to Martin and Grace. Being away has been even harder than I expected.

My grad school experience has been really positive though. I've been learning a lot and have met some wonderful people, in addition to the awesome group I already knew in this program. It's just the homesickness that has made it a rough few weeks.

I've watched Grace on the web cam quite a bit, and that's been so great! She is learning all kinds of new things. She showed me her belly button the other day, and that cracked me up. I'm so proud of her and how clever she is :-) When they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, they aren't kidding. I love and appreciate my family even more after this time away. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to get to share my life with Martin and Grace.

Now I need these next 7 days to fly by so I can get home...because that's where my heart is!

p.s. Happy 2nd Birthday to my niece, Madison :-) We love you and wish we were there to celebrate with you!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Saying goodbye stinks...

I am sitting in the Chicago-O'Hare airport, still teary from saying goodbye to Martin and Grace a few hours ago at the Austin airport. I am off for 3 weeks of grad school in Winona, Minnesota. That's right, 3 weeks away from my sweet husband and precious little girl! I'm not sure how I'm going to cope, especially since I've never been away from Grace for more than three nights!

Hopefully, the time will go by fast so I can get home to the 2 most important people in my life. Thank God for phones and web cams! I'm sure we will make good use of them over the next 3 weeks!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

The Gigglebox Top 10 List

Grace has become quite the gigglebox lately. (Side note: I love the word gigglebox. I remember my Mom calling me that when I was a little girl, and it always made me giggle even more.) I've been keeping a mental list of all the things that have made Grace giggle this week. Here's the top 10 and a few Honorable Mentions:

1) Seeing me for the first time when I arrived to pick her up
2) Seeing Daddy when he arrived home from work
3) Seeing Uncle Billy when he arrived at our house on Thursday evening
4) Seeing Nana and Pop-Pop when they got here to look after her on Friday evening (so I could take Martin on a birthday date)
5) Every time I asked her if she wanted "CHEESE PLEASE"
6) Hearing the opening music of "Around the Horn" on ESPN, which Martin watches every night
7) Watching the hound dogs through the window and knocking on the window to try to get their attention
8) Playing the "uh oh game" where she throws a toy out of her crib and I hand it back to her
9) The hundreds of bubbles coming out the bubble machine
10) Singing "Happy Birthday" to her Daddy (every time she hears that song, she thinks it's for her)

Honorable Mention:
- Every time anyone sneezed in her presence (sneezes are hilarious to her)
- When I handed her a cup filled with ice (this is one of her new favorite toys -- playing with ice entertains her for longer than most other things right now)
- When her piano toy played music and the monkey on top danced in circles
- When she turned off the light about 10 times in a row while I was trying to comb her hair and brush her teeth
- Each time she ate a grape (those are funny too!)
- Splashing Daddy during bath time

Friday, July 11, 2008

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is Martin's 29th birthday :-) Grace and I would like to say Happy Birthday to the number one man in our lives! Here's a little top ten list about my wonderful husband and the father of my beautiful child:

1) He's always there for us and is, hands down, the best husband and father in the world!
2) He's completely a family man and his prioirities are always in the right place.
3) He knows how to comfort Grace and me when we cry.
4) He's always the life of the party.
5) Next year he'll be "tirty." And in four years, he'll be "tirty-tree."
6) He keeps us laughing all the time with his antics.
7) He rocks at Sports Bets on Facebook.
8) He's adamant about not liking lettuce, yet he loves lettuce wraps at PF Chang's (where we're going for his birthday lunch today).
9) He loves "mug of scald" (a.k.a. hot tea) and drinks at least one mug every day.
10) He believed in a girl he met at an Irish pub in Phoenix, in spite of a mountain of obstacles, married her, and made her the happiest woman in the world :-)

Here's to Martin...Happy Birthday, My Dear :-)