Really....uh, weird.

So in trying to find ways to advertise for our music classes, I posted an advertisement on craigslist.com. I got THE strangest email EVER in response to it. Read on...


"Good day to you over there, I need a Music tutor for my son (Smith), i got your advert while surfing through the internet and i really want my child to be taught by you.Smith is 13 year old and easily catch up.Although,i understand you are in (US) but i've arranged with my cousin sister living there that my son is coming to stay with her for his period of tutoring and she had agreed with me,i was base in France. 1.CHARGE FOR AN HOUR.... 2. TOTAL CHARGES FOR 1 MONTH THAT HE WILL BE TAUGHT 3 TIMES PER WEEK..3. FULL NAME 4. HOME ADDRESS 5. YOUR PHONE NUMBER... And mode of my payment will be by Check."

So just to see if he was legit or not, I sent an email back. I didn't give him any of my information (I'm not that stupid) and I asked him some questions to specify what he wanted. It's been several days and I haven't heard back from him. So I'm guessing he wasn't for real. Kinda creepy, huh?

Lunch Time

Abby does this really cute thing when she eats. Click on the link below to view.

Lunch Time

He Passed!

In June, Brian took a test to certify as a Certified Information Systems Auditor and he just got word today that he passed! He's very relieved, and I'm very proud. Along with passing this test, he is required to complete 5 years of experience in the IT or audit industry, which we think he has, if they accept his previous work experience outside of Protiviti. He still has to complete an application and get approved before he can carry the CISA title, but he's got the hard part over with. This certification is a major milestone in his career, and it will be nice to have that title under his belt.

When we had Abby and I stopped working, he had some qualms about being the only one "bringing home the bacon." I think he's doing a pretty darn good job!

Not Much

Not much has been going on since I last blogged. Abby is teething, so she's been less than her perfect self lately. Poor girl. Brian and I spoke about tithing on Sunday and that went well. Brian's job is going good, and Melinda and I are working on getting our early childhood classes started. That's about it! Life is good.

Coming Soon!

I'm A Believer

Is there such as thing as shopping divine intervention? Cause if there is, it happened to us! Brian and I were talking the other day about how we needed a sideboard or console in the office for storage. A couple of days later I went to Target and spotted a marked down box on the bottom shelf. It was the perfect piece for our office. The original price was $329 and it was marked down to $40! It did take us two hours to assemble, but it was worth it.

Close, But No Cookie

So I set Abby down on her tummy this afternoon and she stayed on her knees. She stayed that way for a couple of minutes and then plopped on to her tummy. I was smothering her with praise the whole time so you should have seen the proud look on her face. She can't pull herself up into that position yet, so she probably won't crawl for a while now, but she's making progress. She also sits up very well on her own. Oh! And the greatest thing of all, she's growing lots of little blonde hair all over her head! About time!

In other news, the city of Murphy is trying to start a education series and so they signed me on to create two early childhood classes; a music class and a storytime/art class. The only problem is that they only had two weeks to advertise before the classes started, so they cancelled the music class and just advertised for the story time class. The coordinator called me today and told me the story time class was also off because only two kids signed up. I had already bought the books, made up the lesson plans and bought art supples. I'm not going to get reimbursed for it either. Although they were going to pay me peanuts, I was still excited to start teaching again. They will try again in the fall, but by then Melinda and I will have hopefully
started our own classes.

A Bittersweet Visit to 7-Eleven

My sister-in-law (Melinda) kindly reminded me that today is 7-11, which means FREE SLURPEE. In commemoration of 7-Eleven's 79th birthday, everyone gets a free slurpee. Anyone who knows me really well, knows I love slurpees, so I was quite excited for lunch time this afternoon to get a free one.

I walked into a local 7-Eleven to my work and asked the clerk if they had free slurpees today. She said yes, so I continued to the slurpee machine and found that they had set-up a stack of cups labeled "Happy Birthday, 7-Eleven." Unfortunately, the cups are 7.11 ounces large! That's smaller than a coffee cup. To my dismay, I did not get a free one, because that's just not enough.

I have to give 7-Eleven credit. The marketing campaign worked on me. I bought a regular size slurpee (32 ounces), a sandwich, and a bag of chips. (Why would I change my objective? I wanted a slurpee.)

So, if you didn't take the opportunity to get to your nearest 7-Eleven to get a free slurpee, you didn't miss much. If you did, I hope you still got a slurpee.

They're great!

4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

Okay, so I'm definitely not the type that wears holiday-themed aparrell, but I think it's okay to dress our babies in thematic clothing every once in a while, right? She does look a little ridiculous, but SO cute.

Yesterday morning we went to the lake with Mom, Dad, Eric, Sheena, Jeff, Kristine and their family. We had a great time out on the jet skis and playing with the kids. The water was smooth as glass so Brian and I got up to 60 mph. Ahh! There's nothin like it! Well, except following a ski boat's wake and jumping the waves. That was fun too! We love jet skiing!

Later that day we went to Mom and Dad McMurdie's and played games. We got all the nieces in coordinating outfits and took a picture. Since Eric and Sheena live in Utah now, it was great to get the girls together while they're still babies!

3rd of July

Last night we went with my family to concert in the Gardens in Fort Worth. It's a long-time tradition in our family, and there were like 30 people in our group this time! We had some Chicken Express, and sat back and listened to the Ft. Worth Symphony perform some great patriotic music, and then watched an awesome fireworks show set to music. Abby did really well. A little jumpy at the beginning, but she got used to it!

Abby chewing on her glow bracelet and Brian and Abby watching the fireworks

Scary Diaper

Abby's had some pretty scary diapers before, you know, the kind you're afraid to open. But yesterday morning she had one that was pretty frightening. Brian was changing her diaper and discovered a quarter-sized amount of blood in the front of her diaper. We called the nurse who got us in to see the doctor later that morning. The doctor was really perplexed, because it wasn't mixed with her urine, as you would see if there were a kidney problem. (I know I'm being graphic, sorry.) And she didn't have any other symptoms. So he did a catheter to gather a urine sample and then sent us to the hospital next door for a ultrasound.

Abby was such a good baby. She giggled throughout the catheter, which the nurses said has never happened before, and she was very patient during the 30 minute ultrasound. We got the results of the ultra sound while we were there, and they came back showing everything to be normal. The doctor thinks that it was a fluke thing. It is normal for new newborns to have patches of blood in their urine, because they are still flushing out their systems from the birth, but a baby her age should be way past that. We haven't gotten the full urine analysis back yet, but the doctor tested her urine in his office and said everything looked clear and normal.

The doc. sent us through STAT so we didn't have to wait for anything, thankfully! He assured us that everything was probably okay, but I'm glad we didn't have to draw this out over a couple of days. It only took a little over two hours from the time we got to the doctor to the time we left the hospital with the results. Although I wasn't extremely worried, I NEVER want to go through anything like that again with any of my babies! We're so grateful that everything is okay.