Pooped

We went to playgroup this morning which was at the pool in our neighborhood this time. Since it's so close we walked there and back. We had a great time swimming and talking to our friends but I guess I really wore her out.

TV Ban

In efforts to improve ourselves and our quality of life, Brian and I have decided to try no TV for a week. A month ago we downgraded the number of channels we get on Dish and so we lost a lot of programming including Brian's beloved ESPN. Since then we've watched less TV and so we thought we'd challenge ourselves and see what our lives would be like without it completely. We've gone three days without it so far and I think I'll survive. It's the summer anyway and nothing is on. Who knows... maybe this will turn out to be a permanent thing... gulp.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna need a good book to read. Anyone got any recommendations? Something happy and non-depressing, please.

Block Captains

Brian and I were asked by the HOA to be the block captains for our street. The duties of a block captain include getting to know the people on your street, encouraging neighbors to get to know each other, inform others of the neighborhood watch program, etc. An easy job, but we're excited to do it! We feel that getting involved in our community will give us ample opportunities to make friends and share the gospel with others.

I'm also serving on the Social Events Committee for the HOA as well, which I'm super excited about! I love planning parties! Our cute little street... okay. Maybe not with all the construction, but some day...

Toofers

Abby and I like to do our own photo shoots every once in a while. She's a good subject to practice my photography on.

Abby's second tooth is about to pop through! I think she smiles differently since she got those teeth. Show off...

Of course, every photo shoot ends up this way.

Crabby Abby

All was well on the McMurdie Farm yesterday until Abby woke up from her afternoon nap. She was inconsolable for about an hour. She was in so much pain from her throat. She was also super hungry but it hurt to eat. So I called Brian's sister, Jill, who was a pediatric nurse and she told us what to do to make her comfortable. Then Brian's brother who lives down the street came and helped give her a blessing. She calmed down for the blessing and didn't cry at all after that. It was a relatively peaceful night. aah..... What would I do without the Priesthood?

I thought after her fourth dose of medicine that she would be pretty much pain free, but I guess not. She still doesn't feel good and she's super grouchy and will cry at the drop of a hat. I just put her down for a nap and she cried herself to sleep, which she never does. I'm so afraid what she's going to be like when she wakes up. It breaks my heart to see her this way and I just want to make everything better! I want my sweet, happy Abby back.

This is a picture of her this morning...before she turned crabby.

Fever, Tempests and Skewered Meat

Last night Mom took all of the girls and their hubbies to Texas de Brazil. The food there is brought around to the tables by guys in gaucho pants carrying skewers of meat. Mmmmm! Good! We should do that more often... but maybe at McDonalds next time. It was quite a tab.

In the middle of dinner we got a call from Mark and Michelle who were babysitting Abby. They said she had a fever, which was total news to us! They said she wouldn't eat her food and was fussy so they checked her temp. and it was 100.2. She was totally normal the whole day, happy and wiggly, so I didn't think anything was wrong. Abby's never been sick or had a fever before, except for when she got her first set of shots, so I was worried about her through the rest of dinner. We took her to an urgent care place today cause her fever peaked to 102, and guess what? She has STREP! Generally babies don't get strep, but ours did. Woo hoo. So I gave her the medicine today (1 tsp is a LOT!) and I guess I gave it to her too fast cause she threw it up everywhere, plus probably everything she had eaten that day. Never a dull moment. Gratefully she still seems like her entergetic normal self, which makes us believe that she's not in a lot of pain.

Along with dinner, Mom had a suprise for all of us. My grandpa who just passed away was an aspiring artist when he was younger, but none of us had ever seen his artwork. So Mom copied one of his oil paintings and had it framed for each of us. Wasn't that thoughtful? The title of it is "Master, the Tempest is Raging."

Horror Story

I THINK nature is out to get me. There have been some literal "freak of nature" occurances at our house lately and it's really disturbing.

Okay, so first it was the ants. I guess with it being so hot outside they're really bad this year, but we didn't think we had to worry too much cause we have a new house. Wrong. We got ants in the kitchen, so Brian fixed that and we made sure to keep the house super clean so they wouldn't be attracted to anything we left out.

I WOKE up one morning this week and reached for a pillow (that was left on the floor overnight) only to discover hundreds of ants all over it! The only thing I can think of is that sometimes we feed Abby on our bed, and formula must have dripped on to the pillow and that's what they were after. Anyway, Brian was at work, and so I had to take care of it... I don't think I will ever be the same person again after that... Oh, it was awful!

Since then we've had the whole house treated so I hope nothing like that ever happens again.

THEN we noticed mud on the door frame leading from the garage to the house. We didn't think much of it until I walked out (the day of the ant occurance) and saw a wasp building a nest out of those little mud splashes. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I HATE wasps because of some traumatic childhood experiences so I wasn't happy about that. Brian knocked them down and we wiped it clean. But guess what? When we came back from practice last night, that evil wasp had started all over again with the mud splats. What is it with that door frame? What is it with this house? I swear we've never done anything to nature deserve the bad karma.

YEAH for the Mormon Boy!

I'm totally addicted to reality TV shows, especially So You Think You Can Dance. I might even go out on a limb and say that I like it more than American idol, (gasp!) which is saying a lot for me.

ANYWAY! My favorite contestant, Benji won the comptetition tonight! I don't know how may of you follow the show, but he's LDS, and it's rumored that there are several others on the show that are LDS too. So YEAH to dancing Mormon boys for bringing wholesome goodness (except for the booty poppin') to the people, and YEAH to the show for peaking my husbands interest in taking dance classes with me!

Think COLD

In honor of the 30th-something day of 100+ weather, I'm posting thoughts of colder times

In June of last year, we went on a cruise to Alaska. I was so upset that I couldn't lay out on the deck cause it was so cold. I'd do anything to do that now...

We took an excursion to see a glacier up close and personal.

And we felt the cool ocean wind on our faces while we were whale watching.

The ship took us through the Glacier Fjords and we got amazingly close to the glaciers. As we were having dinner, we watched huge chunks of ice fall from the glacier which sent waves rocking our huge ship. It was amazing!

If you click on the picture and look at the far left of the glacier, you can see where a chunk has just fallen off and is starting to make waves.

LATER THAT SUMMER Brian had a client up in Denver, so I went up to visit him one weekend and we went camping. It was Oh My Gosh beautiful up there.

Brian and I camped and hiked a 9,000 ft. mountain.

Mohawk

Abby has just enough hair now to make a stubby little mohawk. It's not very feminine, but we love it!

The Freon Legacy

Click on the Fowkes family blog to read a cool story about my Grandpa.

Ouch!

It started as a small little diaper rash, and in a couple days time turned into a full blown yeast infection. Have any of your babies ever had it? Not fun. Poor Abby has been borderline miserable the last couple of days, and I dread changing her diaper. It makes me cringe just looking at it.

Have you heard the different "treatments" to cure it? My mom said in the old days when the dinosaurs roamed they told her to wash her babies several times a day in Dial soap. I also heard from someone that you wipe the area with the babies urine and it cures rashes. Eew! My mom told me to let her go commando to keep it aired out, but I think I'll risk it with the diaper on. :) The real treatment is to change the diaper often, keep the area as dry as possible, and apply anti-fungal cream you use for atheltes foot. I know. But it works! We put it on over night and it's already so much better.

Funeral and Family

The funeral and graveside service went really well. My Grandpa was an air force veteran, so he had the flag and bugle player at the grave site. (What do they call that ceremony?) I actually didn't cry the whole time, except when they played "Taps." Ugh. My grandpa was an amazing man. I am grateful for him and for the wonderful family I have. I LOVE my family!

These are pictures of all the babies on my side of the family.

This is Me and Abby, Missy my sister and little Ben and my Nephew's wife, Randi with baby Mary.


All the babies together. Mia, Abby, Ben and Mary. What fun!

It seems like Abby is always the one who doesn't stay still...

One Amazing Blessing

Brian and I both sing in the Evening Song Choir, but last season I stayed home with Abby because arranging a babysitter was going to be difficult, and I felt strongly that I should sit the season out. Our normal fall season starts in September with performances in December but we're going on tour in September and I really wanted to come back for that. In order to do that we needed to get a babysitter for 3 to 4 hours every Thursday night. We found someone to do it for us, but we were concerned with the costs involved. Along with choir dues, it was going to get pretty expensive.

The last week or two we have been trying to decide whether it is worth it for both of us to sing in the choir next season if we have to pay for a babysitter every week. I had prayed and thought about it a lot, and in my mind and had come to the conclusion that I should stay home again next season. But on the way to rehearsal last night I was listening to a CD of our performances and started to cry. I need this in my life! I've sung with the choir for four years and singing is so much a part of me. Plus it's something that Brian and I love to do together. I decided that no matter how expensive it would be, we would make it work.

When I sat down in rehearsal last night, one of the sopranos (not knowing our predicament)turned to me and said that her daughter was working on her personal progress and wanted to babysit Abby for free during rehearsals as one of her projects. She committed to babysit all next season and possibly the season after that. I told her that she was an answer to our prayers and she had no idea how much it meant to us.

Brian and I always feel blessed because we have a great family, home and good health. But it's still always amazes us when we receive an instant, direct blessing such as this one.

Messy Head

Abby doesn't always want to eat solid food and she usually lets me know by blowing it out of her mouth. This time it blew upward and got her smack in the eye (and everywhere else.) I wiped it off her eye before I took the picture. I think she found it quite entertaining this time.

My Grandpa

My grandpa passed away this morning. We were all expecting it and so the news was not as hard to deal with, but still sad. My mom spent last night talking with him about their adventures in Alaska and he was very responsive, but this morning his breathing just gradually slowed to a stop.

This whole situation has really made me think about what we do with life. After my grandmother passed away several years ago, my grandpa decided to grab life by the horns and do everything he ever wanted to do but didn't. That included going to Alaska. I'm sure in his prime he and his buddies would have conquered the whole frontieer, but at the age of 80, he wasn't even allowed to drive. So my mom took him to Alaska. Twice. And in his dying hours he relived those wonderful memories with my mom. My grandpa got to fulfill a life-long dream, and my mom will never regret not doing enough for her father.

Live and love to the fullest.

Sweet!

Abby downed a whole container of baby food for the first time ever today. Lately she's been piddling with her food by sticking out her tongue when I put food in her mouth. She doesn't grimace like it's gross or anything, it's more like she's protecting her sensitive gums where her teeth are coming in. But for whatever reason today, that all changed. She even licked the bowl!

My Abby Addiction

Our free music class went well... I think. There were 24 people in the room (13 of which were kids) so it was a little crazy! We'll find out soon how many people actually want to sign up for the class, which starts on August 17th. We definitely don't want 13 students though! aagh!

I've learned something throughout this whole class preparation. I thought it would be nice to go back to what I used to do for a living and start a little side business of my own. I even thought long term and considered holding several classes a week and renting out a space if we got a lot of business... But after the first class, I actually felt kind of sad. Abby was in the room with me playing and watching everyone, but I was too busy teaching and basically ignored her the whole time. I remember thinking in the middle of the class that I would rather be there playing with her than teaching. If I were to teach multiple classes a week, that would mean less time with her, and I don't like that idea.

There are a lot of things on my plate lately. Evening Song rehearsals are starting, so she will be with a babysitter every Thursday night. I will be teaching two classes for the city of Murphy every Tuesday, so she will be with a sitter then too. And then our Wylie Wigglers class will take me away from her also. PLUS all the hours of planning involved. I thought I would welcome these new opportunities, but it makes me a little sad. I mean, how can I resist someone so sweet and adorable?

Am I too attached to my daughter?

Pooped

I wore Abby out this morning! When we got home she sat down to play with her toys and lasted about five minutes. She doesn't ususally konk out like that so she must have been pooped!

This morning I met with the class coordinator for the City of Murphy. They're going to try to start up the classes again in September, and publicize a little better this time. If they get enough interest, I will be teaching the Murphy Musicians class and a Storytime class. I'm excited for the experience, but not for the pay.

Tomorrow is our first Wylie Wigglers class and I'm a little nervous. There are 10 kids and their parents signed up, and so it's going to be a full house. Melinda called this morning and said Tommy has strep and a cold, so she probably won't be able to teach with me tomorrow. That puts in a kink in things, but we'll make it work. Nothing good comes easy, right?

Brian and I got new phones yesterday. Since we are renewing our contracts we got two super nice camera phones for free. Woo hoo!

No Grass, Please

So I put Abby in one of my favorite dresses of hers and took pictures of her on our suprisingly green grass (thanks to Brian.) I guess the grass is a little itchy for her, cause she wouldn't smile the whole time! Just gave us weird looks. We'll work on that.

Abby's first tooth finally broke the surface! She won't let us near it though. She's being very protective of it and will fold her lip over or hide her tooth with her tongue every time we try to look at it. Weird child.