Giving it a try...

I am hoping that I stick to this better than I did to the myspace blog. The thing with that account is that I always get sidetracked emailing and looking up old friends, then realize that half of my break time is over. Here I have no distractions... maybe that will help...

We've had a super busy summer - starting with a trip down to Florida to visit Papa and Mema. I bought tons of sundresses that are so beautiful on Kailyn, but have proved useless here in rainy Valdez. Bah! Back to jeans and t-shirts! We took Kailyn to the zoo for the first time and met up with Jina, her mom, and the kids. For me, the most interesting thing was seeing my Alaska baby with beads of sweat on her nose and face for the first time! Up here, we don't get to test those glands too much, so it was weird seeing them working on her.


Kailyn also got to see the beach for her first time, and sadly, was quite wary of it all! She was scared of the waves at first, and didn't like the feel of the sand until she realized she could play with it. Maybe next trip when she's walking it will be different. I hope as she grows up she can come visit her FL grandparents each year and come to love the beach as I do. I hope my dad will take her to the beach like my Papa did. I loved when we would sit and just listen to the waves crashing and look for the men on the moon. Other than shopping and day trips, it was nice to see everyone, and I think that Kailyn helped cheer my dad up, if only a bit. She was her normal, cheery self, and after his hospital stay, I think that he needed some cheerfulness. He's doing better than I thought, but the chemo is really kicking his butt. Now that the cancer in his esophagus is gone, at least he can eat again, so he is just working on building up his strength for round 2 - going for the lung cancer. Go figure - never smoked in his life. Brian's been working on their cabin, trying to get it as close to being shelled in before winter as possible. It's looking great - the sub floor is down and the walls should start going up next hitch off.

Since getting home, it's been go, go, go. We moved in to the new house on the 16th. I'll post pictures once we are a little more settled, but so far there are boxes everywhere. The most wonderful thing about this house is that nothing needs to be changed. I am so tired of remodels!! Peggy helped me to paint Kailyn's room to match all of her ocean critters, but other than that, if this house stays unchanged for 10 years, I will be OK! Well, maybe 5 years... you know me! The dining room is a little more formal than Brian and I's taste, so we will probably change that and do a few other minor things, but we are excited that they are just projects that are there when we feel like it - nothing needs to be done right away.

Other than that, I started my bookkeeping job and so far, I really like it. I'm even considering taking on another client or two. I'm working almost exclusively from home on Kailyn's nap times, so other than needing to find a new time to do dishes, it has been really nice to be home with her. I've also been babysitting a past coworker's daughter, Sophia, who is 16 months old (just 5 months older than Kailyn). We've had so much fun together - it's really cool to watch my daughter interact with another little girl. They are constantly imitating each other, from Kailyn trying to walk like her new friend, to Sophia going back to crawling, and then they have contests back and forth with all kinds of goofy noises, making each other laugh. I hope that Kailyn has as many wonderful relationships as I am blessed with... maybe this will be the start of one. We went to the park on Wednesday and the girls had a blast swinging together and even got some of the big girls to take them down the slide. Kailyn wasn't too crazy about it - but Sophia apparently liked it; she kept going back down over and over again.


I am heading off to bed. Kailyn is back to her normal 7am wake-up time (no matter when she goes to bed at night), and I like to get up a little earlier than she does for a little quiet-time before the craziness that is our lives begins. I doubt Ash would believe that I do this without an alarm clock!

Please let me know what you think of this - post comments!!