Celtic Woman

So... Wednesday night I sat down to feed Kaiya and was just flipping channels. I came across PBS and they were playing a concert of the Celtic Woman. When I was in junior high I was introduced to Enya by a pen pal. She sent me the CD for my birthday. I fell in love with the sound of the music and have always really enjoyed that style when I really want to relax. And so the other night when it was on, I couldn't even get Kaiya to eat -- she was so taken with it! :) All she wanted to do was watch the ladies sing. So we are watching and then the station pauses for some fund-raising blurb. And I find out that Celtic Woman is coming to the Fox here in St. Louis, next April. And with one of the donation levels they will give you a pair of tickets to see them -- first come, first serve, starting with the first row of the orchestra pit to row 17. Tony's in the other room, (probably just praying I miss what they are saying)... and I exclaim, "WOW! They are coming to St. Louis! Did you hear that Tony? I would just love to see them in concert. I love that type of music." He knows my love of Enya -- the first CD he gave me when we started dating was the new Enya CD. :) Meanwhile I am doing complete justification in my mind. Well, PBS is a good station... and they do have programs like Sesame Street... and now that we have Kaiya we should support that... sure she's not old enough for it yet, but she will be soon! And then I hear: "Okay -- if that's what you want for a birthday present go ahead and get it." I race to the phone, give out all of my personal information. Excited, I call Ruthie and have her flip on the TV so she can see what I'm gonna get to see in April. Like a good sister, she muffled a laugh and told me it looked good. "Oh, you'll really enjoy that." As if I wouldn't pick up on the fact that this whole episode confirms how old and boring she thinks I am. :) No matter -- I know that Kaiya will be jealous that she can't go. I snuggled her to sleep on the couch watching the rest of the concert. Here are the links to little clips of the concert (it takes a minute or so to load after you click the link):

• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/orinoco.mp3 (audio)
• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/orinoco-hi.mov (video)
• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/fair.mp3 (audio)
• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/harrys.mp3 (audio)

www.celticwoman.com (I can't be too big of a dork -- their website claims they are the longest ever artist to be at #1 in the Billboard World Music Charts.)

Carrots!

Last night was a major (well, probably minor) milestone in Kaiya's life. She had her first food -- Carrots! I was pleasantly surprised with her reaction and appetite. She looks extremely pained with her first bite, but once it was in her mouth she got really excited.

It's as if she is thinking -- "They've been holding out on me. Who knew food was this good?"

As you can see, Money Bags was also very interested in this adventure. He had to be sitting right in the middle of the action and got very brave and took a sniff. He has decided to stick to his low calorie cat food and leave the carrot-eating up to Kaiya.

So... she really ate the carrots much better than the cereal I started feeding her last week. It's fun -- and she slept pretty good last night, so that was great too. We've had 2 nights in a row of good sleep.

My class Tuesday night was pretty uneventful. The only interesting Dirk news to report is that he is pursuing a practicum at one of the local youth services. I have a friend who is currently working on her practicum there and so I let her know to be on the lookout. Wonder if they will pick up on his creepiness? I can only hope. I also hear that I missed a pretty good story about guardian angels while we were on our break. But I am almost positive there will be more to come from him in future classes. I'm halfway finished with this class already!

Just call me Pebbles

Time to update the blog with some pictures that we have taken over the past week. The sitter has had fun with Kaiya's hair lately -- too cute! She is now sitting up pretty well on her own. When she gets excited while sitting up she will usually fall over into a face plant, but it doesn't phase her a bit. Here are couple pictures of her sitting up and the hair.
Last night we took her hair out of the pony tail and it remained in pony tail position. :) It was so cute we had to take a picture (of course).

We went out to dinner last night with Tony's friends from school for Nate's birthday. Kaiya was pretty good and even decided to fall asleep right as our food came, so we could both eat while the food was hot. Perfect timing.

It's all in the family...

Dug out this 6 month picture of Tony and we just can't get over how much he and Kaiya look alike. :) He definitely has a bigger mouth than her (many of you not surprised by that...) but from the nose up she looks like her daddy! He is about a month and a half older than her in the picture, but the resemblence is still there.

In other news... it was a productive weekend! Well, Friday night was not so productive, but it was relaxing. Saturday, Kaiya & I went garage saling w/ a friend (only got a couple outfits for Kaiya -- Tony was glad I didn't bring much home -- we have to keep in mind that we are moving in less than a year!). After garage sales, Kaiya went down for a nap and I went into project mode. My goals for the weekend were to:

1. Clean off the deck (i.e. kiddie pool growing algae) and front porch (flowers in baskets that I managed to kill by not watering)
2. Move out all the 0-3 month clothes and bring in the 3-6 month stuff. At the same time deciding what clothes to keep for the next baby and what I want to sell this spring in the garage sale we have before we move.
3. Laundry

While Kaiya was down for her nap I was able to clean everything outside, start the laundry, and move out all the clothes!! I felt like I needed a nap afterwards -- had about 20 minutes to plop on the couch before Kaiya woke up. But felt so good about everything that got accomplished. Sunday Kaiya and I went to church (on time!) and then after church I was able to mow the yard and then crash the rest of the afternoon. We had small group in the evening, which was nice.

That was our weekend. Tony is studying hardcore for boards next weekend. So... if you think of us this week, please pray!! We are stressed out at our house! :) Tony's boards will consist of tests all day Saturday and all day Sunday. He has to pass a series of 4 tests before being licensed as a chiropractor and graduating. He passed Part 1, this is Part 2. Part 3 & Physical Therapy will be in March, and then Part 4 will be in May. He sweetly informed us that we won't see much of him until next Monday. :)

Small accomplishment

In light of my last post about the disorder in my home I have started a new plan. :) My new plan is to set a couple goals for myself for the night when I get home. Yesterday I decided my goals would be to:

1. Get a laundry basket and gather up everything in my dining room and living room that doesn't belong. Then take the laundry basket around the house putting things in their proper places.
2. Go to bed by 10:30 p.m.

And.... I was successful at completing my goals last night. So I felt really good about that. And my living room looks great. And even though I went to bed early I'm not quite as well rested as I would have liked... Kaiya decided to wake up in the middle of the night and keep Tony and I up from 2:30 - 4. I gave up around 3:30 and Tony came in for back up. :) BUT... it's FRIDAY!

Pics from the weekend

We had a great trip back to Indiana this weekend. Kaiya was great on the flight. I got her to sleep just before take off, she woke up once in the middle and cried a bit until I could get the bink in her mouth to help her ears, and then didn't wake up again until after landing. (Notice the lovely drool on my shirt sleeve -- she was OUT!)















It was nice to have it go so smoothly. Tony's mom and brother picked us up in Chicago and we spent Saturday with them.

Sunday my parents picked me up in Elkhart and we stayed with them through Monday. My mom took the best pictures of the weekend -- can see them on her blog: www.indianahauns.blogspot.com

I'm feeling a bit stressed coming off of all this traveling. Frustrated with my messy house, working, etc. I told Tony last night that after I get Kaiya down for the night I just want to crash myself and not do anything around the house. I lack the motivation completely... until he spends 30 minutes this morning looking for his belt, leaving w/out it (even though he is supposed to have it for clinic). Then I feel guilty for not having my house in order. We don't have any trips planned for awhile, so hopefully I can get caught up with life. It's such a vicious cycle.

Beam me up Scotty

Well, it's the post you all have been waiting for. I was able to bravely capture a picture of Captain Dirk in class last night.
This picture is completely characteristic of his entire persona. Last night was another near tears from laughing so hard episode. I was able to keep things under control -- since he kept looking at me while he was presenting his bag. And as he was talking I thought about how as a counselor you can't ever fall off your chair no matter how badly you want to. So I practiced keeping a very serious face, although inside I was going crazy. Below I have pasted my summary of what he had to say about himself. It keeps getting more and more strange.

He starts by telling us that he hated the assignment. Then he said that he had people close to him write on the bag about how they view him. Now keep in mind, these are comments from people close to him: arrogant, egotistical, talks to much... He chuckled to himself and said that while all the comments are negative, they make sense to him because of what's on the inside. He begins talking about the inside by saying that he is a Christian. Next he says that true believers really have to combine all religions together to really get it. Specifically astrology (but he says he can't educate us on this in 2 minutes -- nevermind that none of us even pretended to want to be educated about it.) So he says that if we want to know about who he is inside we have to understand Scorpios. There is what he says about himself: "On the dark side I am jealous, resentful, obstinate, obsessive, compulsive and secretive. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a complex, emotional, analytical, focused, determined, hypnotic, and self-contained character, but one which is also prone to extremity, jealousy, possessiveness, stubbornness, and cruelty (at which point someone in the room gasps). In fact they are not above expressing vindictiveness in deliberate cruelty (at which point I gasp--internally, of course). Brooding resentment, aggressive and sadistic brutality, total arrogance, morbid jealousy, extreme volatility of temperament, these are some of their vices."

--For the sake of the blog and your entertainment, Captain Dirk now thinks I am actually interested in his astrology mumbojumbo. During our break I asked him if I could look through his papers. When he wasn't looking I copied down some of the crazy stuff he said. So hopefully he won't think we have any sort of bond -- but for the blog, it will be worth it. --

So enough of that for now. You get the idea. Here is where it gets better (or worse, really). Now is where he goes into his special psychic powers. He said that there was someone very close to him, like a daughter to him that died some time ago. Her death was a mystery to everyone but she visited him and revealed everything to him so that he could tell everyone else. He said that he gets these visitations every now and then from people. And God has also given him a special job (God spoke to him after his first visitation) -- this special job is to be a guardian. At which point he shows us this creepy picture of an angel in the sky. He said that he is a guardian for many trouble young adolescents. His exact words, "I've been working with a little boy, well he's almost 17 now but I became his guardian when he was going into 7th grade." I'm sorry, but given what he has shared about himself up to this point all I can think is that Captain Dirk is a child molester.

One other little tidbit from class -- Captain Dirk says that if a kid is bad it is because the parents are bad. And if a kid is good, it's because the parents are good. Bravely I questioned him about this -- asking if he says that is the case for every situation across the board. Absolutely he says. If a kids makes bad choices it is because the parents have done something wrong along the way. The class went nuts on him. It was great. And all joking aside, if you think of it, pray for Cptn. Dirk -- he's really lost.

SO.... I leave you with that today. Until next week...

Quote for the Day

Well, tonight is Multicultural Counseling. It promises to be interesting because today we are presenting our "bags" to the class. The project is to bring in a bag and create the outside to reflect what we think the world sees us as, and the inside is to be how we see ourselves. I can only imagine what Captain Dirk will come up with. I promise to entertain you with that tomorrow. So... I've been working on my bag here at work and going through magazines looking for things to cut out. While cutting away, I found this quote that I'm in love with and wanted to share it with you.

WHY BLAME THE DARK FOR BEING DARK?

IT'S FAR MORE HELPFUL TO ASK WHY THE LIGHT

ISN'T AS BRIGHT AS IT SHOULD BE.

-ROB BELL-

Just a little fun on a Friday

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)

Katy Sulphur Spring

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy)

Wilma Snickers

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name)

R. Lu

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)

Pink Money Bags

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

Lucinda Grand Rapids

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first three letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first two letter's of mom's maiden name, and first three letters of the town you grew up in)

Hys Ra Bl Nor

7. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (your favorite color, favorite drink)

Pink Water

Happy thing for today...

My happy thing for today is the Southwest DING special that was posted this morning. I just booked myself a flight home this weekend for $34. All along I have been planning to go home for Labor Day weekend. I was planning on taking the www.Megabus.com which is a really inexpensive bus to Chicago and other Midwest cities. It's a five hour ride. After our trip home the other day, I was dreading the trip on the bus. But wanted to go home so I was going to do it anyway. I purchased my bus ticket yesterday for $30. So when I saw the $34 flight it didn't take much to change my mind and decide to fly! :) The bus ticket is non-refundable, but can be used as a credit toward another trip in the future. There will eventually be a time that I will be able to use it, so I'm not too worried about it. The one-hour plane ride is totally worth it. Kaiya's first plane ride -- it could be interesting! :)

Tough Week

Just wanted to post an update for everyone. We drove home on Monday and arrived in Indiana around 7. We freshened up and headed over to the hospital. It was great to see Nan's face light up when she saw Kaiya. Tony's mom and brothers were already there and so we all just enjoyed watching Kaiya and Nan interact. Tony's mom says that this was the most responsive Nan had been since being admitted in the hospital. She was able to lift her arm and wiggle her fingers at Kaiya. Kaiya has been very attached to this teether that vibrates when she bites down on it. So we had Nan hold the teether and Kaiya reached out to play with her. Nan fell asleep shortly after that and we decided to go home for the night. She passed away Tuesday morning. We spent the day with Tony's mom and brothers... just kind of a quiet day, and then we left around 5 for home. So despite the toughness of losing Nan, we are thanking the Lord that we were able to have a chance to be with her Friday night. A pastor from Tony's church was able to spend some time talking with Nan on Monday, and was able to go through the plan of salvation with her. We are also thankful for the safety He gave us on the way home -- after about 2 1/2 hours on the road we stopped and noticed one of our back tires going flat. It was really low. We filled it up with air and stopped every 45 minutes to check it. Thankfully we made it home on the tire! It has been a long couple of days -- and we both feel just physically and emotionally exhausted. Tony starts board reviews today at school. These sessions prepare him for the second part of boards that he has to take in September. Starts at 8 a.m. and goes until 4:30 the rest of the week and Monday. We definitely appreciate your prayers as we continue this grieving process.

Something that I've been thinking about over the past day or so is the unique and beautiful relationship that Tony had with these grandparents. His --and their-- lives were enriched by the closeness that they had. They played a huge role in raising Tony. I was telling him it even seems strange to refer to them as grandma & grandpa because it's rare that people in our generation have such close ties to grandparents. The words grandpa & grandma don't suffice for this type of closeness. The names "Nan" & "Papa" hold so much more meaning. Does this make sense? So... now I wrestle with what this means for my family. I want that for Kaiya and our other children. And then -- can this happen when we live states away? And how did God design the role of a grandparent? And taking it even further -- what do I need to be doing in my life today (eating well, exercising, etc.) so that I can be around for my grandchildren. Obviously there are no guarantees; I should be doing these things anyway...

These thoughts come at the perfect time as we wrestle with where God wants us to go after Tony finishes school. (Note to our Parents: Don't start getting excited yet.) And no matter where we end up... there are ways that we can build relationships w/ grandparents from a distance. But these are good thoughts.

Trip to Indiana

Last weekend we went to Indiana for a wedding and to visit family. It was a great weekend and we were able to see grandparents, go to Andy's soccer game, see some friends, meet with a dr about the possibility of Tony practicing in the area (please pray for this w/ us -- we have an open door, but are awaiting complete peace and conformation from God about it). It was rushed, as usual, but here are a couple pics we took along the way.

I just love the expression and those big blue eyes in this picture.

This is a picture of Kaiya with her Nan (Tony's grandma). This is the first chance that Nan had to hold Kaiya because during our last visit she had shingles. She only got to look at Kaiya through the car window. Once again, Kaiya was a doll -- so well-behaved.

Kaiya and Great Grandma Haun We had a good visit with her at Grace Village. She was very "with it" and kept saying "so sweet" over and over to Kaiya. Kaiya gave lots of kisses when we left -- I was glad she was such a good baby for the visit.
A rare family picture! :) Usually one of us is behind the camera. This is a picture from the wedding. It was a 3-hour ordeal and Kaiya was an angel!

Here's Kaiya in a cute little cherry outfit. Thanks Mari! :)


Breakfast out with Tony's Dad's family. It was great to visit and have the extra hands to hold Kaiya so both Tony and I could finish eating at the same time (and while the food was still hot!).

Highlights from Multi-Cultural Counseling

I just started a new 8-week class as part of my quest to complete this Master's Degree. The class is on multicultural counseling and has a pretty good mix of black and white students. We were asked to write a cultural biography to share with the class. Basically -- where do you come from and what have your cultural experiences been? We were going around the room sharing our cultural biographies and this guy across the room begins talking -- only he didn't share anything about his cultural biography. He starts ranting about how black people change what they want to be called all the time. One day it's black, one day it's african american, who knows what it will be tomorrow... etc. Then he starts talking about how Chapter 9 (remember -- this is the first class -- we don't study or talk about Chap. 9 until 3 weeks down the road) in the book is all about white hate and how white people get accused of racism etc. You can imagine the reactions of the black people in the room. I start hearing mutterings about egging his car...

A lady in the room speaks up and says.. so back to the cultural biography, what is your nationality and background? He says, "I'm adopted so I don't really know or care where I came from. What matters is that I am a spiritualist and I'm very close with God. I have come to realize that I posses special psychic powers." (At which point the professor looked like he was going to pass out.) I couldn't help it... I started giggling. And then doing that muffled giggling like when you start laughing in church and are terrified that you are truly going to bust out in laughter... pretty soon you are laughing about laughing and it never ends. Then the next part is the best... He tells us that he lives his life according to the religion of Star Trek. He believes that if we would operate like Star Trek there would be no hunger, etc. I couldn't even listen anymore because I was laughing so hard, and trying to stay quiet. Tears were streaming down my face and my friend behind me was telling me to get a grip because she was trying not to laugh -- she was right in line w/ where he was sitting and he kept staring over at us.

It was great. I felt like I was sitting in a jr. high class, rather than a Master's course. This guy was so creepy strange... I have a feeling that he and Tom Cruise would get along real well. Tune in next week for more Trekky updates. :) Because I have a feeling that's not the last we'll here from him. Oh! And his name is Dirk -- strange similarity to Captain Kirk... Hmmm...

American Idol

On Sunday Tony, Ruthie & I went to the American Idols Live concert here in St. Louis. Tony managed to find us 8th row floor seats at this sold out concert on eBay. So we found a babysitter and went! We've watched Idol for several seasons now and have never gone to one of these concerts. It was really so much fun. The seats were awesome -- never sat that close before. And once the security guards made the obnoxious 10 year old boy (spoiled brat, wearing pimp daddy sunglasses on top of his gelled head in the dark stadium) in front of us get off his chair we could see everything great. He proceeded to sit down and pout for about 10 minutes before his parents traded seats with him and let him run in the aisle. Never say never... but... Kaiya is definitly never going to get away with acting like that w/ us! :) Back to Idol. Here are pictures from the concert. The only Idol not able to perform was Bucky (oh darn). :)

Ace (who thinks he's so hot) charming the ladies.

Our favorite performance of the night.
Chris and Elliott teamed up for Nickelback's Saving Me.
It was SO good.

Chris performing solo.

Taylor Hicks

Money Bags & his new toy

This is a picture of Money Bags and his lovely new cat scratcher. I recently saw this in Trader Joe's and spent several minutes debating over whether to get it. Would he really like it? Does he really need a cat scratcher when he doesn't have front claws? What will Tony say when I bring home a cat scratcher for the cat he pretends not to like? After roleplaying different scenarios in my mind I decided to spring for the cat scratcher. After all, Money Bags is just starting to get back to his normal self after the traumatic events of earlier this summer. He deserves a cat luxury -- and Trader Joe's (our favorite grocery) takes anything back, recent or not, opened or not. And to my surprise... the cat scratcher was a hit! He smelled the cat nip a mile away and attacked me before I could even get it out of the box. I tried going in a different room to set it up but he was right on my heels. I set it on the floor and he went bonkers! Drool was literally dripping out of his mouth, he was purring, and he was rubbing his face all over the scratcher. Now... nothing about this scratcher looks comfortable. It is made out of cardboard and then catnip is sprinkled in the bottom of the box. But Money Bags has decided that this is his new nap spot. When Kaiya is screaming or crying, Money Bags runs over to his cat scratcher and rolls around on it. I still haven't figured that one out. He's either using it to get high and go to a happy place while Kaiya screams, or somehow he's secretly afraid that Kaiya is going to steal the cat scratcher from him. Who knows... But we know for sure that if it is up to Money Bags, our house will always have a Trader Joe's Cat Scratcher.

Who needs toys when you have toes!!

The latest development in Kaiya's life has been the finding of her feet! We had no idea they could be such cheap entertainment! And they even taste good. :)

Penney's Pictures

I picked up the pictures that we had taken at JC Penney at the end of July.

So excited -- they turned out great.

Kaiya & AJ

Here's what Kaiya is up to while I'm at work... comfy chair while getting a foot massage. What a life...

Rachel's English Test...

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

0% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?