T-Ball

(click on the pictures to view them larger)

This weekend was the start of t-ball season. This year we put Andrew in Little League in San Tan Valley. He was allowed a boundary exception since we live only 1/2 mile out of the boundary and where they play is closer to us than where Florence plays.
His team is the Kansas State Wildcats. Purple and white (although his shirt is black and purple). He is playing with his buddy Brysen so he's happy for that!
Saturday started with pictures and the opening ceremony/parade. Everyone was cute in the parade; waving their hats to the crowd!


Andrew's on the far right (under the speaker) - it's kind of dark...

Before their game, the team ran through their parade banner. Andrew's on the right again with the sideways hat (his daddy's son, I tell ya!).

They play 3 innings and each kid on each team hits during that inning. They don't keep score or keep track of outs, etc. Andrew had a decent first hit. He had a great hit his second time up. It would've been a home run if they would've let him run all the bases. He was very proud of himself for that (and so were we!).

He made it to first without getting out (well, we keep track of outs...).

When the next kid hit, he was off to second!

And here he is running home for the first time this season.

He played first base the first time out on the field. He did a great job at that position and really paid attention to where the ball was.

Update

Let's see what I can remember (with the help of my day planner) what has gone on in the past 6 months...

September:
My company was sold to another management company so I started September off at a new location (a little closer to home). It seemed OK at first, but as time has gone by, it seems that people are not as nice as they seemed and the processes are quite different than at my old job. I find that I am not enjoying my job as much as I used to at the old company, but I go 3 days a week, do my job and leave the drama behind as best as I can.
We celebrated Labor Day at Roosevelt Lake with our church and enjoyed a yummy dinner at Guayo's on the Trail in Globe.
I had a great time at Retreat in Prescott with the ladies from our church. I was so happy my sister-in-law was able to join me this year!
We celebrated my sister and my dad's birthdays.
Jeremy enjoyed his time at the Men's Retreat in Prescott!
Andrew had his last swim lessons for the year and he did a great job! I'm thinking he may be eligible for Swim Team at the YMCA this summer. We'll see!
I had my 10 year class reunion at Seville Country Club in Gilbert. It wasn't fun at all and we left early to hang out with some of our friends in Queen Creek.

October:
Andrew had Cousins Camp at Josh and Mindy's house. This was the second year they've done it and the kids LOVE it! Andrew keeps trying to convince Josh to do Cousins Camp twice a year.
Jeremy and I spent that weekend up in Las Vegas hanging out with Antwon. We got to see the team he helps coach play (and win!). We got to hang out with the rest of the coaches after the game, we went and saw a couple movies, ate yummy food, and had a good time just hanging out with Twon!
We really got the ball rolling with the adoption process as we now knew that the birth parents of an unborn baby in the Philippines were willing to allow us to try to adopt their baby.
We had our first meeting with our Social Worker that is conducting our Home Study. I spent most of October and November gathering information she needs and Jeremy and I ran around getting things done like our physical exams by our doctor, fingerprinting for a background clearance from the Sheriff, etc.
We had Jeremy's 10 year reunion up in Globe and we had a BLAST both nights (football game Friday and dinner Saturday).
We spent Halloween Eve with our friends at their Pumpkin Carving Party. It was the first year we've been able to make it and it was GREAT! We had a fun time and our pumpkin turned out cute!
We spent Halloween with Jeremy's family, trick-or-treating around Mindi's neighborhood in Gilbert. Andrew got TONS of candy! This was the first year he just wanted to keep going and going! It was fun! The costume theme this year seemed to be Star Wars!

November:
We spent November continuing gathering information for the Home Study and completing 12 hours of online courses on parenting.
I went to the midnight showing of New Moon (Twilight saga) with friends! We saw the movie on a huge screen at the CineCapri in Tempe. We were also able to watch Twilight before New Moon, so that was cool! Especially for my friend that hadn't seen Twilight yet!
We got word on November 18th that the baby girl was born and the mother wanted to know what we wanted to name her. We chose Elizabeth Lynn (aka Lizzy). We were excited she was born because we were leaving in 2 days with Jeremy's dad and Candy to visit them in the Philippines!
We had a great time on our 9 day trip in the Philippines! The flight there was 16 hours and the flight back was 12 hours. We spent 4 days in Barobo with Candy's family and Lizzy. We spent the last 3 days in Manila and got to see Jeremy's grandma and uncle and a lot of Danny's family. We can't wait to go back and take Andrew! Hopefully soon!
Andrew stayed with Kristi most of the time, but spent a couple days with my parents. He missed us terribly, as did we miss him! It was very hard on us all!

December:
Andrew turned 6 years old! We had a Batman themed party for him. It was supposed to be at the park by our house, but it was raining and cold so we moved it to our house. We had a chaotic, packed house, but Andrew had a great time!
Jeremy and I had my office Christmas party at a Hangar in Falcon Field. It was cold, but we had fun with the "casino night" theme. Jeremy and I won a trip to a cabin in Flagstaff with our casino winnings, as well!
We got word from the adoption agency that the Philippines requires much more information than our Home Study agency so we began our work again of gathering more information, taking more classes, becoming CPR and First Aid certified, and scheduling a Psychological Evaluation. There is no rest for the weary!
I was pretty sick mid-December. Luckily a friend of ours had some Penicillin he had brought back from Mexico that cured me right up without me having to visit my doctor. Little did I know what my body had in store for me otherwise... That comes later.
We had a nice Christmas celebrating with my parents in the morning, then we headed out to my Grandparent's house in Sun Lakes, and then we finished off the night by swinging by Kristi and Steve's house. This year we didn't buy gifts for all of the kids. We did a Talent Show, for our gift, but we missed it because we were at my Grandparent's house. It was a bummer not buying gifts for the kids, but I was happy Andrew didn't get a lot more presents since he already received so many for his birthday and from my side of the family for Christmas!
We went to ZooLights this year. We haven't been since Andrew was 1. It was the same as I remember it and COLD! Andrew really enjoyed it though and he loves to hang out with his cousins! I would've enjoyed it more if I didn't have to get up for work the next morning, I think.
We ended 2009 at a Pajama Party with our friends in Chandler. Talk about relaxing! We just hung out, played games and ate a bunch of appetizer foods. We left there around 3:00 am!

January:
The adoption stuff continues. Since I was sick in December, it really slowed me down, but I'm getting back on track.
But wait! Hold UP! What's this?! It appears I am pregnant. My mid-January doctor's appointment confirms that, YES, I am! Hmmm, God is mysterious! I didn't see that coming! My due date is 9/9/10. I question if it was really Penicillin that I took mid-December or if our friend snuck me some fertility medicine from Mexico disguised in a Penicillin bottle... After all, we've tried 5 years to have another baby with no luck until now. =0)
We decide that we are going to continue with the adoption.
Andrew, Jeremy, and I take a trip up to Flagstaff to the cabin that we won at my company's Christmas party. There was still lots of snow and the cabin was very nice! We enjoyed ourselves, although I slept for most of it, waking up just in enough time to proclaim my hunger and I need to eat now or I'll be sick. This is how all of January and February went in regards to the pregnancy. As long as I eat often, I don't feel sick, but if I wait too long, I feel crappy/on the verge of throwing up!

February:
February was fairly uneventful. Work has been going good. We got to hear the heartbeat of the baby on the 26th. That was so nice to hear! It was 160 beats per minute. I'm remembering Andrew's being closer to 120 bpm. Girl maybe?! (Hopefully!) Jeremy thinks it's a boy, I hope it's a girl, and Andrew really wants it to be a boy. We are planning on not finding out again (Andrew was a surprise to us). I remember it was hard to not find out, but it was so awesome to be surprised!

March:
Here we are in the present. Andrew has started t-ball. This is his 2nd season, but his first in Little League (last season it was with the YMCA). His team is Kansas State Wildcats (purple and white). He is playing with his buddy, Brysen. His first game will be at the end of the month.
Jeremy and I have had our initial Psychological Evaluation appointment. We have to take 2 tests each, separately. We will be done by the end of this month.
I informed our adoption agency that I am pregnant and they said that normally they require that our biological children be 6 months in age and older in order for us to adopt, but since our situation is a little different, they are going to allow us to continue now. However, they are going to ask the Philippines what they want us to do. We should hear this week. It sounds like the worst case scenario will have us waiting until this baby is 6 months old (next March). So, we can finish up our Home Study now and we can still use it next March. Home Studies are good for a year or 18 months or so.
The weather is getting beautiful! I love March for the 75-85 degree highs and being able to get out of my winter wardrobe. The pants are getting a bit snug on me and I am looking forward to just wearing summer dresses for the duration of this pregnancy!

Infectious Weekend

This weekend was interesting. A combination of fun and painful. How weird, huh?!
On Friday, I began to feel the onset of a bladder infection. Before I had Andrew (5 1/2 years ago), I would get bladder infections once a month. So, needless to say, I know the symptoms even though I've only had 1 bad infection since Andrew's been born.
It got pretty bad Friday night while Jeremy and I were grocery shopping. I had read online about some natural cures for bladder infections so I was picking up some cranberry juice, grape juice, Vitamin C and AZO Standard (that numbs the pain). I kept reading about a natural supplement called D-Mannose so we were looking for that, too. Apparently this is a natural cure for bladder infections. It is the stuff that is in cranberry juice that washes out the bacteria. I couldn't find it at any of the 4 stores we looked. Luckily, chugging cranberry juice and taking the AZO & Vitamin C got me through that night.
Jeremy played basketball the following morning in Coolidge so he drove to Casa Grande to check out the health food stores. He found D-Mannose and he found it cheaper than what everyone online was saying it costs. Whew!
So, I began taking that, too, while chugging the juices and water. I felt pretty good Saturday.
This is were the fun begins: Since I didn't have any plans for the day, I decided to scrapbook. I also invited some girlfriends over to scrapbook with me. April, Mindy, and Melissa came over and hung out. Their husbands hung out with Jeremy and the kids ran wild! We had a GREAT time, I got quite a few pages completed and I didn't get to bed until 1 am!
I woke up for church Sunday surprisingly easy considering my late night. I began drinking water and took more D-Mannose right away. My bladder was fine... Until about noon.
(Now we're back to the pain): Bladder infections for me feel like you have to go pee really bad, but when you try to go nothing comes out. So, I've been drinking water all morning and I can't get anything to come out. My bladder really felt like it was going to burst. I don't know what changed, why suddenly it got bad like that after a day and a half of feeling better.
Well, that's not the worst part. The next time I tried to go, I see blood! That has never happened to me in all of my previous bladder infections. Now, I'm bummed. We don't have insurance and I know that I have to go to Urgent Care. Ugh! So much for natural remedies.
Fortunately, the Urgent Care was not busy and I was in and out quickly. Same with Walgreen's; they weren't busy either, so I had my prescription in my hand within 15 minutes. Also, it cost us only $80.00 more for the Urgent Care visit, the urine culture, and the prescription that it would have with our previous health insurance plan. That's it! We were paying $660.00/month for health insurance and never going to the doctor. I have maybe one urgent care visit per year, I would have one well check-up/exam, and Andrew would have one well check-up on average ever year (and we were paying $660.00/month for a long time). What a waste.
Now, don't freak out, we have a high deductible plan in case anything big happens that we would need to be admitted to the hospital for and we are in the process of opening up an HSA account through our bank. We will have money taken out (pre-taxed) from Jeremy's checks for the HSA account. We would still be cash patients, but we will use the HSA account for any health issues/doctor visits/prescriptions. That money will continue to grow in the account month after month, year after year, and hopefully grow quite large in case I ever get pregnant again or we have a major medical issue.
Anyway, back to my weekend. Here's the fun part again: I have my medicine and realize my bladder feels better when I lay down. So, I got a two hour nap on a Sunday afternoon! Now, that's FUN! However, it was sad because we missed eating lunch with everyone from church at my favorite pizza place. =(
I woke up just in time to go to a church in Casa Grande where Mindy's dad was preaching a Revival! I've known for a couple weeks now that I had to go. Of course, I wasn't sure why I had to go, but I was expecting God to do something great. And He did, of course! It was great to finally meet Mindy's dad and we got to go out to eat with them after the service and get to know him a little. Good times!

This Cow is Transferring Ranges

In the words of my co-worker's text, "we have all been sold like a bunch of cattle."
My boss has sold our management division to another management company. He is looking to expand our landscape division and he felt he was unable to do that with our management division attached to the company's name. A lot of the landscape division's business is maintaining HOA's common area landscaping. So, he wouldn't be asked to bid on some HOA jobs because the management company asking him to bid saw us as competition and feared that the board would end up firing them as their management company and hiring us as their management company. They had reason to fear, because it had happened more than once before. Hey, we can't help it if we are a great landscape company AND a great management company! Well, now it will be just a great landscape company.
So, next week will be my last week at my current job here in Gilbert. All of the property managers and all of us accounting gals will be moving offices next Friday afternoon. We will have a new boss, new coworkers, but we will still have each other! So far the plan is for each of us to keep our current position, pay, and benefits. After 3 months of doing everything we do here, we will come together with our new company and figure out what we do best and what they do best and merge together to be one great super company. This is the part of the transition that I think layoffs may be made, but we'll see. That bridge will be crossed when we come to it.
A great thing about the new company is it's in Mesa and 18 miles closer (round trip) to my house. I will be saving a gallon of gas each day that I work. That's 3 gallons saved a week! Yay!
My new accounting boss seems really nice and open to suggestions. He seems to really strive on finding the quickest, most efficient way to do things and that's always been my philosophy! He seems genuinely happy to have me come aboard, too. It's nice to feel welcomed. Hopefully the co-workers I will be working with will feel the same way as the boss does.
Well, I'm excited for the change. I've always been a fan of change - getting out of the dullness of repetition. Sometimes I will randomly drive a different route to work just to see new scenery. I don't even care if it takes longer (unless I'm running late). And sometimes I will randomly get off of the subject while I'm blogging and that doesn't bother me either - how 'bout you?

Wisconsin/Chicago 2009

Our annual vacation to Wisconsin was a lot of fun again this year! How can it not be? We all look forward to our vacation and start counting down the days pretty much as soon as Christmas is over. Andrew has remembered a lot over the years and he starts asking me when we are going back the day after we come back home to Arizona. One night we at in Madison at Essen Haus and afterward we stopped for ice cream at Ella's Deli. Andrew rode the carousel outside and I had to take a picture of his horse decked out in U of W decorations! Go Badgers!

One night we went to a Brewers vs. Padres game. The Brewers did not do so well, but we still had a lot of fun! Our group took up 1 1/2 rows and not everyone came to the game.

This is my son, Shaggy! =)

Bored while the Brewers got their butts kicked, we decided to take our own picture.

We were in the upper level of Miller Park, but the view was pretty good!

We spent every morning/afternoon at the Lake. Andrew loves to hang out at the beach area because of the sand. Jeremy decided to bury Andrew. Andrew loved it!

One morning we went kayaking. We do this once or twice a year and it's always fun!

We flew in to Chicago again this year. When we left our cottage in Wisconsin on Saturday, we drove back to Chicago and spent the afternoon at Navy Pier on Lake Michigan.

We went on the Ferris Wheel and I snapped some crummy photos of the city and us from my cell phone.

Hula Hoop Competition

Jeremy thought he could take on the girls at church in a hula hoop contest!

Off to School!

Well, Andrew's is officially in school! He's a kindergartner at Anthem K-8 school. He has been a little leery of starting school, but he woke up Monday morning ready to go! He was dressed by the time I got out of the shower. Normally, I would have to wake him up at that time. Thanks to Grandma Gail, he had some cool new clothes (and shoes, underwear, socks, hat, etc.) for his first day.

He loves his new Bakugan hat!

Jeremy came home from work so we could take Andrew to McDonald's for breakfast and then walk him to class. Here he is at the front of the school.

Here's his classroom! He knows his teacher (Mrs. Conrey) so I don't think he was nervous for class.

We found his seat, snapped a quick picture and bailed before any tears could be shed (by me, of course. Andrew and Jeremy wouldn't cry).

Jeremy and I headed back to work and our son went through his first day of school and everything was great! Andrew seemed to enjoy his first day, but he was TIRED Monday night. He did fine getting on the school bus and getting to his babysitter's house after school.

I was off Tuesday so I took him to the bus stop and got to see him with the kids from the babysitter's house. He is such a big boy now. It's funny to see him interact with the older kids (like he is just one of them) and he had so much confidence hopping on the bus and taking off for day 2 of school. I sure don't have to worry about that boy. As soon as he is confident in what he's doing, he's on his own. He wouldn't even turn around for a picture next to the bus (he was embarrassed that I even asked him to do that). I'm the embarrassing mom now, I guess.

Now I have Tuesdays and Thursdays at home by myself. I ended up cleaning the entire house Tuesday and now I have today to do my own thing! It's crazy, but Andrew was ready to go to school and I was ready for him to go to school!

Peter Piper Pizza

For the last fun Thursday of the summer, Andrew and I headed to Peter Piper Pizza on Ellsworth and Baseline for some pizza and fun! We had some car problems and didn't get there until about 2pm. We were starving! We scarfed our pizza and then had fun playing games, trying to win tickets. Actually, Andrew played all the games. He's old enough now to really do a good job and he actually got a lot of tickets.

All 184 tickets were won by himself! He was so excited that he got that much.

What did he get with all those tickets??? A couple plastic space ships/jets, a couple pieces of candy, and vampire teeth. Yeah, that cost me about $7 in tokens.

Here he is sliding ("flying") with the new space ships.

And here he is with his vampire teeth in the play tunnel.

Camping

A couple weekends ago we packed up our camping gear and got out of the heat! We headed up to the Rim with some of Jeremy's co-workers. I was a little nervous because thunderstorms were in the forecast all weekend. The last 2 times I have gone camping, it's rained on us! Once we had just set up and the rain was so bad we decided to pack everything back up and leave. The second time, it rained in the evening and we toughed it out, but it continued raining over night and we woke up completely soaked - air mattresses, sleeping bags, clothes, everything. It was horrible.

I anticipated a bad time if rain was going to be involved so I tried to be pro-active about things. I folded all the seats down in the vehicle (and left it empty in case we had to make a dash for it in the middle of the night). If that didn't work, we got the keys from Kristi and Steve for their cabin up in Heber.

We didn't leave the Valley until about 5:30 on Friday and got up to Bear Canyon Lake around 8:00 or 8:30. It looked like it rained a little just before we got there, but the weather was nice! It wasn't freezing cold, but it was a little chilly in a short sleeved shirt.

We set up and hung out with everyone around the campfire that night. It was fun to finally be able to relax!

Saturday, we went down to the lake to fish. We found a nice spot and hung out all afternoon. I don't fish so I was just sitting there enjoying the lake, trees, shade, somewhat quietness, etc. Jeremy forgot his fishing pole so he was using Andrew's while Andrew was trying to catch crawdads with the other kids. Jeremy cast the line and then asked me to hold it while he did something else and wouldn't you know it, but the line tugged and I had a decent sized trout. No one else caught anything that day (except the kids and their crawdads). How funny huh?!

Jeremy and I took our sweet time packing up our stuff on Sunday. Neither of us were in a big hurry to get back. We finally got out of there about noon, but didn't head back. The three of us went down to Woods Canyon Lake to see if Andrew could fish. Again, we found a nice spot and hung out, waiting for the fish to bite. We didn't catch any fish, but we enjoyed the bald eagles flying around and swooping in to catch fish in the water. I wished I had my camera to take a little video of them. It was cool!

A thunderstorm rolled in that caused us to finally decide to head back to the car and get home. We ate in Christopher Creek on the way back and it was still raining and cloudy. I think the weather was teasing us for what we were going back to; hot and sunny.

At least we had a small tasted of nice weather. I don't think we'll see weather like that again until Wisconsin in August. I can't wait!!!!

My fish!

The Legacy

Andrew, Jeremy, and I were able to take a little "staycation" (that's recession talk for a vacation close to home) to The Legacy Resort in Phoenix a couple weeks ago. Our friends have a time share there and were able to get extra rooms for a very reasonable price.
We weren't able to stay more than one night which was a challenge in itself being that it was a Monday night.
Both Jeremy and I worked Monday so we couldn't get out there until about 6pm (we had to drive separately, too, because Jeremy had to do some work the next day in Phoenix).
I got off of work, picked up Andrew, headed out there and checked in to our room. Jeremy was able to make it there at about 6:30 or 7:00.
We had dinner as a group in Andy and Mindy's casita and it was crazy packed! It was quite shocking to me, honestly, how many people we had crammed in there. I hurried and scarfed my food and headed back to my casita before Jeremy and Andrew. I was able to take off my shoes, lay on the bed and relax for about a half hour before Jeremy and Andrew came back to tell me they were going swimming. Since I was slowly getting out of work-mode and into staycation-mode, I headed down to the pool for the last hour it was open to hang out with the others while Jeremy and Andrew swam.
Andrew's friend Brysen stayed the night with us that night and they slept in until 8am, which was much appreciated for my sleep-deprived self. I woke up refreshed and ready to hang out in the pool all day. Literally, all day since we had to check out at 11am and we were staying to eat dinner with everyone at 7pm. I had no where else to go. =)
Jeremy had woke up super early to golf and then he went and did work stuff and came back around 2:00 or so.
Mindy allowed me to hang out with her in her casita so I didn't have to fry in the pool the whole day. That was nice because she fed us lunch, too. Sweet Mindy!!!
We headed back to the pool until about 6pm then got ready for dinner at Margaret and Willie's casita. The food was great again - of course!!! This time there were the desserts from the previous night, as well as new desserts (my favorites - brownies and some strawberry thing that Mindy makes). If you know me, you know I live for the dessert portion of the meal so I was in heaven.
Then it was time to head back home (only 45 minutes by the way) and get back to reality. It took me a while to get into vacation-mode being in the same state and all, but once I had a good night sleep and some relaxation poolside, I was all set! Really bummed we couldn't do another night with the others, but now we know for next time!

Transformers 2

Look at these cute Transformer boys! We saw the movie the day after it came out. I liked it. It was really similar to the first one, but with worse language. And that's about it. What did you think?

Swim Lessons

Andrew is in his 2nd year of swim lessons at the YMCA. Last summer he started in Pike class which is a Beginner I level for ages 3-5 years. He did just fine and moved up to Eel class which is a Beginner II level class for ages 3-5 years. He only did those 2 months of lessons and was swimming pretty well for the remainder of the summer.

This year, I wasn't sure if I needed to start him back in Pike or have him start where he ended up; in Eel. I wasn't sure what he has retained over the past year so I decided to start him all over again in Pike so he wouldn't be freaked out if he couldn't remember some stuff from last year. He's been very confident in the water and he is by far more experienced than the other kids in his class. It's too easy for him, but the teacher is doing more advanced stuff with him during class. I'm happy though because he is enjoying it and really showing confidence in the water that he didn't have last summer (even after 2 months of swim lessons). Thursday is his last day in the Pike class and he'll start Eel in July. He's looking forward to it!

He loves swim lessons!

What happens when the boat tips over??

You float. No big deal.

just keep swimming...

just keep swimming...

just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

don't forget to breathe!

Birthday Party Mania

Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw my eventful Saturday a couple weeks back. Andrew had 5 friends invite him to their birthday parties all on the same day. The weirdest thing is that the times were completely d0-able! We had his buddy Jade's party from 10-noon, we had a combined birthday for Olivia and Emma from 1:00-3:00, then we went to Camryn's party from 3:30-5:30, and finally we went to Christopher's party from 6:30-9:00. How weird is that? I kept getting invitations thinking that I would have to turn someone or multiple people down because of time conflicts, but it just so happens to have worked out. I thought I'd be exhausted while running around, but I wasn't. It wasn't until the drive home from Mesa at 9:00 pm that the sugar high from all the cake wore off and the exhaustion from being in the sun and swimming pools all day kicked it that it hit me. And I have yet to catch up on my sleep. I can't wait for swim lessons to be over so I can stop setting my alarm on my days off! Yeah - I know, life is rough!

It felt a little like Christmas in June.

Ready to swim at the Anthem water park for birthday #2.

Andrew had fun on the little water slide!

Jeremy, we are only half way done with our birthday party fun!!! You can't be tired yet!

Andrew is taking his turn on Christopher's pinata.

The mad dash for candy!

Yummy!!!

This was voted the most elaborate cake of the day. Randi made a Bakugan cake - that's a Bakugan opening up (made out of rice krispy treat and covered in fondant frosting).