Let's Get This Party Started

This isn't just a box of Non-Sterile Powder-Free Latex Examination Gloves....it's my first packed box. And, it's just full of boring old books to be put into storage while we look for a house.

[sigh]

It must begin.

Mammoth Amounts of Fun

So, I have lived in Kentucky for over 75% of my life (thank you, trusty calculator for your help) and up until Monday, I have never been to Mammoth Caves. In fact, for 10 of my wonderful childhood years, I lived 40 minutes from Mammoth, and my sisters often went, however, I was always, "too young to go." Translation: they didn't want an 8 year old tagging along with them. It's sad, but true.

Knowing that we didn't want to spend Memorial day at home, wasting away, we decided to drive down and finally see what all the hoopla was about. We had planned on taking a tour, but we got a late start to the day, and arrived about 15 minutes later than we wanted. Well, actually we arrived 45 minutes too early, because we forgot about the time difference. Doh! It didn't matter anyway, because the tour had already sold out. Instead, we took the self guided tour, which turned out to be a great thing. Turns out, Mammoth Caves are just mammoth, and that's all. I mean, that's great....it's one of the largest cave systems in the world, which is really cool, right? But I suspect that the majority of the cave is just a hollowed out inside of a rock, with not much to see. So, we saved ourselves some $$ and a lot of time by just going down and wondering around the beginning of the cave ourselves. Most of our pictures turned out dark (...imagine that, dark pictures in a cave), but here are a few:

Maryn and Me at the entrance of the cave

In the Rotunda Room

Since we couldn't get into a tour at Mammoth Caves, we decided to scour some of the other existing caves in the area. We'd found a pamphlet on a privately owned cave system just outside the park called Diamond Caves, so we headed out that way. We were not disappointed. It was much smaller, but the geology (is that the right word?) was MUCH more interesting. We went down with a small group of people and our tour guide. Our tour was only an hour long, but when you are carrying a sleeping baby, that's enough time. It was a wet, drippy cave which created a lot of stalagmites and stalactites, whereas Mammoth was dry and dusty due to the layer of sandstone above it. The lesson we learned is this: wet and drippy is WAY more interesting than dry and dusty. Oh, except when really cold water drips from the tall ceiling onto your sleeping baby's face--that was pretty rude. They even turned out the lights for a few minutes so we could experience the total darkness. Yeah, between my crazy fear of small confined spaces and the pitch black, I almost had a heart attack at that point. Our pictures don't do it much justice, but you can use your imagination.

Some of the views while walking along the path. The picture on the right is of "cave bacon." Pretty cool, eh?

It was a pretty good way to spend our Memorial Day. I got to finally see Mammoth Caves, Kade got a break from studying, Maryn got her candy from the gift shop, and Ailee got to spend most of the day in her mom's arms. Sounds like we all won!

Creepy Crawly Bug

Having known myself for the past 28+ years, and having known Kade for the last 8+ years, I have zero expectations for my children to be athletically or physically superior to their peers. Are you surprised? I was, however getting a little nervous as Ailee rounded the corner to 10 months old, and she still wasn't crawling. Admittedly, it's a little bit my fault. You see, Maryn just was not a snuggly baby. In fact, she was about 2 before she ever even held on to me (other than when she was sick), or gave me a snuggle. She wanted nothing more than to be off my lap and on to the floor by the toys. So, when Ailee came along, I was overjoyed to have a baby who wanted to be on my lap. I love it. I never get sick of holding her. Between always being on my lap, and having a big sister to always bring her toys, Ailee just was never determined to scoot around. Her mode of transportation, other than mom, was to roll everywhere. Being a steamroller seemed to get her around short distances.

I talked with some friends about it, and they gave me a few suggestions to motivate her. Toys just didn't work. In her mind, if she whined long enough, Maryn would fetch it. Food was our golden ticket. Ailee loves to eat, especially when she can pick it up herself. After a few days, and a little bit of motivation by saltine crackers, Ailee can Army crawl:

We are still working on getting her up onto her knees to crawl, but I am glad to know that she won't be a slug for the rest of her life.

This last picture is of the footies on Ailee's lamb pajamas. Just thought I'd throw it in 'cause they're cute.

Just For Kicks

Once upon a time I was a huge "Walker, Texas Ranger" fan. I watched it quite often, and I was amazed that when Chuck Norris couldn't solve a problem by talking it over with the bad guys, a nice roundhouse kick to the face seemed to settle the matter. I happened upon this Chuck Norris website via one of my favorite blogs, Cake Wrecks. If you have a spare moment, and the ability to laugh and/or smile, please, check it out.

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/

I think my favorites were:

1. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

2. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

3. There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist.

I think the American flag is a nice touch.

Happy Mother's Day to ME!!

(My attempts at a model pose...please ignore the pasty white legs)

I have no idea what possessed to feel so ambitious, but I made this skirt. A few weeks ago, I was at Hobby Lobby (♥♥♥) where they had patterns on sale for .99, so I had to stop and scavenger for a moment....which actually took about an hour. I found a couple of patterns I liked, and 2 yards of cute fabric, and I thought to myself, "Self, this should be easy!"

Yeah, it wasn't really.

I grew up with my mom as my personal seamstress. I bought it, she made it fit (I was a rather scrawny child....if you could imagine), and every so often we would make things together, like my senior prom dress. It was my Laurel project, so my mom would sew one side, I sewed the other (really, she pretty much made it). Anywhoo, I thought for sure this would be a cinch.

Not so for the following reasons:
1. The smallest size on the pattern was still about 2 sizes too big (curse those misses sizes!)
2. You have to have something slippery between your legs and cotton fabric...unless you want to give a show while you walk. This pattern had no lining, so I had to make it up, which required a lot of brain power.
3. I've never actually sewn a zipper on my own. Yikes.

Despite all those obstacles, [warning: bragging moment ahead] it actually turned out much better than I expected! Yay! And, to top it all off, I am proud to announce that I am officially back in to my pre-Ailee pant size! Double Yay! I wore it to church today, as it was my Mother's Day present to myself, probably because I ignored my kids for 2 days while I made it, which makes me a really good mother. And, I can equate making a skirt to child birth: I wanted to swear a lot while I was working, the labor was so intense that I never want to do it again, I love the end product (though it won't poop and spit up all over me), and probably I'll forget how hard it was in a few years and try it again.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommas and Hot Mammasitas out there!

Oh, and as a side note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KADE!! Every so often, our worlds collide and Kade's Birthday lands on Mother's Day. I don't mind sharing my celebratory day with him, but there is the conundrum of who has to wipe the poopy bottoms all day. I would do a post specially for his bday, but how can I top last year's "Ode to Kade"? It was pretty rockin' awesome.

They Came, They Saw, We had a Great Time

I am very behind on my posts.

The week before this last, Kade's brother and his family came over from North Carolina to visit us. It was really fun to have them all to ourselves for about 5 days. They lived in Louisville during their four years of dental school, nothing was new to them, so we just kind of relaxed and took it easy. We spent a beautiful Wednesday at the zoo. I think that was the first time I went through the whole zoo in one trip. We were pretty tired by the end.

Stopping at the playground to feed the hungriest animals at the zoo: Ella, Amaya, and Maryn

At the Lorakeet Landing, you can go inside and let the lorakeets walk all over you. Luckily there was a small crowd that day. The girls loved it.

Silly girls look like a bunch of monkeys to me!

The next day, Allison and I ran away to Northern Ky. The Gap Clearance Center is about an hour and a half away from us, so we felt the need to go. We left the four girls with Kade and Shad, [G.C.C. - kids = :)]and just took Dash, their sweet little baby, with us. He was quite the trooper, and let us get in an ample amount of shopping and bargain hunting.

Friday, another beautiful day, we went out in search of water down at Waterfront Park. Unfortunately they hadn't turned on the water yet at the splash pad, so we settled for the playground and still had fun.

Maryn and Ella

Ailee...who still hasn't figured out how to crawl. Cute hat, huh? I got it at the Gap for super cheap!

Saturday, we spent the morning "cheering" Kade on in his big race, and the afternoon cooling off in the backyard with the hose. Sunday came, and it was sad to say goodbye. Thanks, Shad and Allison, for driving all the way here, and staying in our squishy house with us. We hope you visit again!

It's in the Bag

While our family was in town, Allison (my sister in law) and I managed to sneak away from husbands and kids with just their little baby, to make a trip up to the Gap Clearance Center just outside of Cincinnati. Of course, we both totally scored! Jeans for $5, women's t-shirts for $1.99...you get the idea.
Right at the front of the store they had a bin full of tank tops. I pulled on out and all I could think was, "This looks like a bag." I figured that for $1.99 it was worth a shot. Last week, with our company gone, and Kade out of town at a conference, I got a streak of ambition and started sewing. First I sewed some headbands, then sewed my tank top into a bag, then I moved on to a really big project that I finished last night. (To be shown on another post) Here is my tank top bag:

I thought it turned out pretty great. It's not perfect, I'm not that great of a seamstress, but it's functional. I found some brown lining material, and lined the inside for some strength. It was a little tricky sewing that around the straps, but the rest was easy. It's nice and big.

Now, what should I do with it?