The Keever Family

Hands

2010-06-14T17:31:00.004-04:00

The Snorter

2010-06-14T16:43:00.001-04:00

[June 13]
Noah is hilarious when he cries - he snorts! (I promise I wasn't totally cruel and I did pick him up after I filmed this.)

Bath Time!

2010-06-14T15:03:00.002-04:00

[June 11]
See? I told you he liked bath time! He's actually more in awe of it than anything. He can be really fussy, and then you turn on the faucet and he's quiet and just watches to see what's going on. You can definitely see the wheels turning!

Chatterbox

2010-06-14T14:59:00.003-04:00

[June 11]

So Sweet When Sleeping

2010-06-14T14:58:00.001-04:00

[June 11]

Concentrating On Grabbing

2010-06-14T09:02:00.002-04:00

[June 10]

Bumbo Time!

2010-06-13T19:23:00.003-04:00

[June 10]
First time in the Bumbo! It lasted all of two minutes before he wanted out.

Gardening

2010-06-13T19:11:00.005-04:00

[June 10]
We built a nice little garden in our backyard that also serves as landscaping. Noah kept me company this morning while I weeded. Didn't he look excited about it?

(Next to our tomato plants. They're huge!)

Sleeping Boy

2010-06-13T18:56:00.001-04:00

[June 8]

[June 9]

The Boys

2010-06-13T18:51:00.004-04:00

[May 6]

[

Happy Boy

2010-06-13T18:44:00.002-04:00

[May 5]

All Star

2010-06-13T18:27:00.003-04:00

[May 27]

Spit Bubbles

2010-06-13T18:15:00.003-04:00

[May 26]
Noah blew his first spit bubbles on May 6th. He just looks so darn cute when he blows them!

Top Lip Sucking

2010-06-13T18:09:00.001-04:00

[May 26]

I Love My Daddy!

2010-06-13T17:54:00.004-04:00

[May 26]

Ceiling Fan Infatuation

2010-06-13T17:42:00.006-04:00

[May 22]
Noah loves looking at ceiling fans, light fixtures, and anything else on the ceiling.

Milk Coma

2010-06-13T17:39:00.002-04:00

[May 22]

Limp Arms

2010-06-13T17:21:00.004-04:00

[May 17]

Noah's a lot like me in so many ways. This video shows just how much he does not like to get up when we need him to. He cracks us up!

Smile!

2010-06-13T17:04:00.003-04:00

[May 13]

Snoring

2010-06-10T22:20:00.001-04:00

[May 13]

Noah has the cutest little snore. It's backwards - he snores breathing out!

Pure Cuteness

2010-06-10T22:06:00.004-04:00

[May 4]

[May 11]

Mr. Grunter

[May 12]

Pure Nastiness

2010-06-10T17:11:00.006-04:00

[May 3]

Fair warning, this is really gross. However, I'm posting this to make Elijah proud.

This is definitely Noah's super power! He now has two nicknames because of it: Noah the Super Duper Pooper, and Poopmaster N. LOL

Love the look on his face. "What?!"

The only cleanup solution after something like that is a bath. I promise he loves them...though you'd never know it from these pictures...

"I don't trust you people...what are you planning to do to me?"

Definite worry face. Though I'm not sure why...
Elijah thinks he's plotting to take over the world.

Passed Out

2010-06-10T16:55:00.002-04:00

[May 1]

New Smiles

2010-06-10T16:32:00.007-04:00

Noah did his first smile on April 22nd. It has been so much more fun since then! Here's some of his beginning smiles:

[April 25]

[April 29]

Grandparent Photo

2010-06-10T16:28:00.001-04:00

[April 19]

w/Grandpa John

First Tea Party

2010-06-10T16:13:00.007-04:00

[April 15]

Some awesome signs:

Showing Our Support

2010-06-10T15:58:00.004-04:00

Red Sox [April 10]:
University of Minnesota [April 14]:

First Bath

2010-06-10T15:17:00.004-04:00

[March 21]

The poor thing was not happy!

Check out those curls!
Too cute in his bath towel.

Free Gas

2010-06-10T15:13:00.003-04:00

[March 21]

Too funny not to share!

(It says "Free gas...inquire in rear")

Going home!

2010-06-10T14:59:00.005-04:00

Two days after Noah was born, we got the ok to go home! Normally, with the c-section I would have had to stay one more day, but we asked for an early release. I'm not sure the nurses really believed me, but I felt great!

This is Noah in his cute onesie before we left the hospital:

This is him all strapped in and ready to head home! He did great!

Noah - Day 2

2010-06-10T12:33:00.006-04:00

This kid is hilarious! Just a little over 24 hours old and he's got quite a personality already. He actually wouldn't eat the first 24 hours because he was a tongue sucker in the womb and needed to learn how to use his tongue the right way, so we gave him a pacifier to help him learn it quicker. Well, when he decided that he didn't want it, he'd scrunch his lips up tight so that you couldn't stick the pacifier in his mouth. haha And, he was just like his mother and loved to sleep. So much so that he wouldn't wake up. Here's us messing with him a little trying to get him to wake up:

And he likes to make Grandpa Mike faces!

Noah James Keever

2010-06-09T21:59:00.006-04:00

I'm finally finding the time to tell the story of the arrival of our precious baby boy! Here goes...

Noah's due date was March 15th. And actually, we didn't want to find out if we were having a boy or girl, so it was "Baby Keever" for 9 months. :-) Anyway, contractions started around 2:30am on the 15th. (I forget what the doctor said, but it's a really small percentage of people that actually go into labor on their due date. Too bad he wasn't actually born that day! Instead, he inherited both of his parents' stubbornness and waited 2 days...) Late in the morning we finally went to the doctor's office and were stuck there for a while. The doctor was a little concerned about the baby's heartbeat, so she had me hooked up to a monitor for an hour or so. She was still concerned, so she sent us to the hospital. That was a nice waste of time. Quote from Elijah's Facebook page @ 4:37pm: We are going home now. Doctor decided after sending us to the hospital that we should wait longer." We could just see the dollar signs rolling at this point... We were back in the hospital at 3am on the 16th. My mental state at this point: "People who say childbirth is awesome should be shot." LOL Needless to say, the pain was NOT fun!

Speaking of pain...I definitely had some! Seriously labor pains for this girl. I don't wish that on my worst enemy. They were so bad that I got sick twice. The second time we were out walking trying to get things moving and I had to rush in to an empty room to use the toilet. Elijah told me just to throw up on the floor. Even in all my pain I felt bad about that idea. haha After that second time, Elijah ordered the nurses to give me something to ease the pain. Ended up with Stadol around 6am. It didn't get rid of the pain, but it at least knocked the edge off it and allowed me to get some sleep.

We had the most incredible nurse. She was an older lady that was a little more backwoods than refined, and we LOVED her. She was a spit fire that actually cared about the patient, unlike the doctor. (Don't even get me started on the doctors. Needless to say, I'm going to be doing some hardcore interviews before I determine my next doctor, and it won't be one of these practices where you never know who will be delivering your baby. I didn't like it.) Anyway, so the doctor comes in around 9:45 and wants to break my water...before I got an epidural! The nurse didn't even wait for a response from Elijah or me. She basically told the doctor off - told her that there was no way she was letting me get my water broken without having an epidural first. LOL It was awesome. We gained a whole new level of love for this woman after that. I finally got the epidural around 11am and it was wonderful! (I had the best doctor. Apparently he was the best i the hospital, and he was such a sweetie. Best part: absolutely no pain when he was giving me the meds!) Never thought I'd love pain meds that much. It was weird, though, because it made my legs completely numb. I felt like an invalid every time I tried to move. haha Here's a pic of me and my best friend, Mr. Epidural:
I slept pretty well on and off all afternoon. Poor Elijah didn't. He just can't sleep endlessly like I can. LOL I progressed well over the afternoon, and by about 9pm, I was fully dilated, but progress just stopped. Contractions were half as strong as they needed to be, so about 40 minutes later, they gave me Pitocin to get the baby moving again. We were really hoping to avoid getting that, but no such luck this time around. Elijah said the baby was being stubborn just like his mother. He forgets that he's just as stubborn, only he's usually quieter about it!

Throughout this whole process, we were not nervous or scared at all. Elijah called this a Philippians 4:7 event: "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus", and he was so right. We definitely had the peace of God that everything was under control!

Sometime after 7pm, our favorite nurse's shift ended, so we got another one. We didn't love her quite as much, but she was still awesome. Super friendly and made us both at ease, which was so important. I'm thinking these nurses don't get paid enough. They do more work than the doctors! Let's see, the baby finally dropped and I started pushing around 10:40pm. About 1 hr 45 min later, still no baby. I was tired, the baby was tired, and his heart rate was escalating, so the doctor was getting a little nervous. At this point, rather than wait it out and have it really become urgent, we decided to just do a c-section. When the doctor said that's what we needed to do, I started crying. haha To go that long thinking it would be a natural birth, and add on complete exhaustion, I was a little bit of a mess. But it all turned out great. My memory leads me to believe that the whole process after that took about 5 minutes, but Elijah tells me it was about 1-1.5 hours. As soon as they decided a c-section was in order, things went into full swing and they started prepping me right away. It was crazy how fast everything moved!

At 1:04am on March 17th, Noah James entered the world. He was a perfectly healthy 7 lb 6 oz 20"boy with all fingers and toes! And things haven't been the same since...it's been better!! :-)

My Latest Craft Projects: Diaper Cake & Diaper Wipes Case

2010-03-02T11:14:00.006-05:00

A good friend of mine had a baby shower this past weekend, and I had the opportunity to assist the hosts by making her a diaper cake. Oh my goodness did I have fun! I custom made her some designer burp cloths and built them into the cake, then used ribbon and silk roses to decorate it. Here's the final product:

And, because I'm finding that I really like doing crafty things and it's keeping me from going insane (you can only cook and clean so much without having something fun to do...), I made myself another designer-type baby item: this time a beautified baby wipes case. Best part? I paid absolutely nothing extra for the supplies because it's all stuff I already had! (Including the wipes case - it came with the diaper bag that I bought super cheap in January.) And yes, I realize that it's not necessary to make all these baby items pretty because functionality is what really matters, but seriously, what girl doesn't like pretty things? I know I do! It just makes me smile. :-D

Curious About What's REALLY Going On In This World?

2010-02-07T16:03:00.004-05:00

I'm hoping that whoever reads this realizes that the news media can't be trusted. If you don't realize that, well, consider yourself enlightened. Journalists pick and choose what stories to push to make front headlines, pick and choose what facts to present, and then push a lot of the more important issues to the back (i.e. how many banks have really closed over the past year or so - if you don't search for a bit, you can't find the info). Needless to say, what we read in newspapers and on the major news websites doesn't always contain all the facts. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

If you really are curious about what's going on in this world, and want to actually hear the truth and not just fragments of the truth combined with lies, I suggest you check out Elijah's blog: http://decodingcurrentevents.blogspot.com/. He started it last year, then it fell by the wayside (like I can talk...I did the same thing!), but he's started it up again. Start with this article: http://decodingcurrentevents.blogspot.com/2010/02/wake-up.html. You can choose not to believe what he spells out for you, but given that everything he writes about is backed up by reliable sources (to which he supplies the links to - people need to start doing their own research and stop relying on everyone else to do it for them), it's hard to ignore. And if you choose not to believe it, that's ok, too. Just don't say you weren't told the truth when the crap hits the fan. ;-)

Designer Burp Cloths!

2010-02-06T15:16:00.010-05:00

Like every new mother-to-be, I started doing research months and months ago to figure out what I'd really need vs. what I'd like (and eliminated all the stuff that the websites say you need but seemed completely pointless...to me anyway). For anyone that really knows me, you know that I like pretty things, and I don't always like things "same old". In the process, I came across some phenomenal designer products - diaper bags, burp cloths, nursing covers, bibs, etc. While I did get myself a gorgeous nursing cover (which also happens to be the most functional I'd found so far...and I got it 1/2 off), some things I just couldn't justify - like spending $10 on a pretty burp cloth. The plain white ones just seemed so boring, and I decided that just because I'm going to be a mom doesn't mean I have to "settle", I decided to make my own! Best of both worlds - gorgeous fabric at a fraction of the cost. Elijah thinks I'm a little weird, but he did know he was marrying a yuppie...haha My final product, which I finally finished today:

My Latest Toy!

2010-01-31T15:04:00.003-05:00

So I finally got myself a food processor a few weeks ago, but didn't use it until this morning. I've been wanting one for a long time, really started wanting one when I stopped working, but they're expensive and I just kept putting it off. I came upon an awesome deal at Kohl's for the mac-daddy Cuisinart 14-cup (I was initially going to just get the 11-cup), so I bought it! It's so pretty, and it works so well. I think it might turn into my new best friend... ;-)

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (Or Not!)

2010-01-31T14:43:00.005-05:00

So we had a nice snow storm this weekend. We ended up with probably about 4" of "snow" - seems more appropriate to call it pretty ice, though! Elijah's Land Cruiser is freakin' awesome in the snow, I have to say, especially with his new tires! We went out yesterday to attempt to run some errands (yeah...most stuff was closed, though major chains like Target, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and some major restaurants stayed open - this is definitely not the North!), and that thing handled the snow like it was no big deal! It was great. Hopefully this will be the last winter storm and we can move on to spring! Still not a fan of snow or cold weather, but it sure is pretty out there!

Keever Blog - Take 2!

2010-01-28T12:23:00.004-05:00

After over a year hiatus, I'm going to get this blog rolling again! With a baby due in less than 7 weeks, and our house still for sale (though prayerfully not for much longer), it'll definitely be necessary in order to keep people updated on what's going on!

Most recent news: I got my glider chair this morning! Amazing how things can get you so excited that you'd never dream you'd be excited about. Anyway, this rocker is amazing. We discovered it at Stephen's Ace Hardware here in Fuquay a few months ago and completely fell in love with it. Amish made and solid wood, it costs the same as the cheaply made gliders that you find at Target & Babies R Us. It's so comfortable you don't even need cushions, which means one less thing to have to wash, and what's even better is that both Elijah and I are super comfortable in it. Can't beat that! The real clincher for us, though, is that we want to start owning things that we can pass on to our kids down the road - this is our first piece of furniture that we can do that with! It's so exciting. :-)

our "new" house! updated

2008-10-16T09:23:00.010-04:00

As of last night, our house is now officially painted!! All windows have been replaced as well. Elijah got that finished up this weekend. (We wanted to get that done before the painters started painting.) We still have work to do (railings, landscaping, deck, etc.), but here's what it looks like so far. I'll try to take some better pics this weekend so the new pics aren't in the shade, but this will work for now:

Front (before)

Front (after)

Back (before)

Back (after)

I'm going to have to create a list of all the things that were wrong with this place when we first got it, but I just wanted to point out right now that a few months ago, Elijah took out about 20+ bushes...in our front yard. And not all were directly up against the house. (You can see some of them in the before pics.) The previous owners should NEVER own a house again.

Very Important Election Info

2008-10-15T15:37:00.002-04:00

Regardless of people's political views, this is something that everyone needs to watch and be aware of:

dump truck statement

2008-10-15T09:39:00.003-04:00

Saw this written on the back of a dump truck on my way into work this morning:

Going...

to go take a dump.

That had me cracking up! I think all dump trucks should have that on their rear. haha!

fun random pics

2008-10-06T11:22:00.004-04:00

Elijah & his ghetto lawn mower (it's better than a push mower, and one of these days we'll get him a good riding one!), mowing the jungle of our yard:

Zoe & her first tree climb:

And the house fixing-up begins again...!

2008-10-06T10:43:00.007-04:00

So we have started working on our house again! Over the past few weekends we have covered the old side entrance into the kitchen, the old entrance into the storage "shed", calked, fixed the exterior window frames that were deteriorating, and put in our first new window - the one in the kitchen! We can't wait until the rest of the windows get in! They are beautiful! And are going to do wonders to make this house look better. Here's some pics:

The Shed

(before)

(after)

Side Of The House

(before)

(after)

Germany

2008-07-07T13:21:00.016-04:00

And yet again, I'm very far behind on this whole blogging thing!

So work sent me to Germany last month - Hamburg for the first half of the week and Lüdenscheid for the 2nd half (about an hour from Cologne & Düsseldorf). It's a rough job sometimes. ;-) I left June 14th in the afternoon and got to Hamburg around 8:30 Saturday morning (Germany time). And our meeting didn't start until Sunday afternoon, so I had a full day and a half to just tour the city! Four of us got there at the same time, so we went EVERYWHERE. I was able to sleep the entire trip from Newark to Hamburg, so for the most part I was fine. I'm sure if I'd stopped moving for long enough I would have needed a nap, but thankfully that didn't happen. Anyway, we went walking all around the city, and even took a tour of Cap San Diego, and old ship that used to be used to transport people to America. It's now used as a hotel (yes, I'm for real) and people rent it for parties and things like that, in addition to the constant tours that it's open for. The best part of that whole tour is that we ended up joining a private tour, but didn't realize we'd done that until the very end when they told everyone that our food & drinks were waiting for us on the pool deck. We were like "wow, a tour, food, & drinks...all for 6€!". Yeah...the tour guide ended up having to tell us that we weren't invited and that it was a private tour. LOL Thankfully he caught us before we actually ate or drank anything! Later in the afternoon 3 of the 4 of us were still dealing ok with the time change and we continued our tour of the city. We ended up at this old church that you could go to the top of for a wonderful view of the whole city, and we thought it'd be a great idea to walk instead of take the elevator. Yeah...I almost died. But the view was wonderful!

Hamburg is a harbor city, and that on top of the fact that everything is so incredibly old and unique, I just found the whole city to be sooooo beautiful! And of course, I took a bazillion pics, only a very small portion of which are getting posted on here.

All day on Saturday, one of my coworkers had been talking about going to the fish market early Sunday morning, so I told him I'd go. We had to get up super early (we left the hotel at 6am), but hey, just how many times was I going to be in Hamburg? Probably never again! And we were so glad we went! It was an absolute riot. There were booths EVERYWHERE, selling not only fish, but fruit, vegetables, tacky touristy knickknacks, clothing, etc. Pretty much everything you could imagine. And everyone there had either not gone to bed yet (oh yes, the party was still going - they were even still selling beer!) or were tourists. And it was a madhouse! Everything was outside along the harbor, but one building housed food carts, beer, and a band.

Our meeting started Sunday afternoon, and that afternoon we took a boat tour of the harbor. The VP of our company, who's also one of my bosses, hooked me up and got it so that I could stand behind the boat captain for the whole trip. That allowed for MUCH better pics!!

Monday we did a tour of the city that involved a bush ride, walking, bike riding (that was interesting...hahaha), and canoing! And my goodness, that was highly entertaining. The last thing we did was go canoing, and this place that rented out canoes has only had 1 person fall overboard in 4 years...we managed to get 4 people in the water in one afternoon! LOL (No, not me.) It was so funny and of course encouraged people to poke fun at them for the rest of the time we were in Germany.

Tuesday night we went to see the Lion King! That was amazing, even in German. And of course it helps that I've seen the movie quite a few times, as well as the play in English already, so I could at least follow along. But the whole way that play is performed, the costumes, etc. is just amazing! Oh, and we took a boat to get to the show!

Oh, and here's the hotel we were staying at - SIDE hotel:

VERY modern!!

Wednesday our meeting wrapped up in Hamburg, and we all took a train to Lüdenscheid for the remainder of our meeting (our Germany office is located there). That was interesting. They're not really set up for a lot of luggage, so we were blocking entrance ways and everything. Plus, at one point, we had to run from one train to another and had about 2 minutes to go quite a good distance. Now that was tiring!!

We had our Thursday meetings at our office, with dinner at the hotel that us out-of-towners stayed at. And Friday our meeting wrapped up, and we had that night off! So of course, wanting to take in all that I can while I was there, I went into downtown Lüdenscheid to walk around and eat dinner. That worked out well - I was able to buy Germany chocolate and gummy bears! (Apparently gummy bears are from that area, and the bag I bought was much better than anything I've ever eaten in the States!)

And our hotel that we stayed at - The Schloss Hotel. It was drastically different than where we stayed in Hamburg, and while I loved the SIDE Hotel, I'd have to say that The Schloss Hotel was my favorite.

All in all, it was an absolutely wonder trip, but I was ready to get home when I left early Saturday morning. I'd had to say out of all the differences in our countries, this one was the worst - there's hardly any ice available for drinks! ;-)

Pictures to be posted soon of my entire trip on my Picasa page.

Juline Graduated!

2008-06-02T13:06:00.005-04:00

Well, if you couldn't tell by the post heading and the pictures, Juline graduated! And since I'm quite a bit behind on blogging, it actually happened a few weeks ago - May 16th to be exact. We had what I've been calling a mini-family reunion in Fairfax, VA/Washington DC - Mom & Dad came down from MA, we went up from NC, and Brent came up from TX. Oh, and one of Juline's closest friends from high school (Larissa) came down with my parents, which was awesome.

So Juline's ceremony was Friday late afternoon, and thankfully the ceremony wasn't too painful! I got a lot of pictures that showed otherwise, though... That night we had a great dinner at Bonefish, followed by an interesting trip to the grocery store. Beverages were needed, and of course Dad had to do a store check! (You can't take him anywhere...hahaha) Saturday we went to DC, and I have to say, out of all the large cities I've been to, at this point, DC is my favorite. And we could not have had a more gorgeous day! We spent about 5.5 hours or so walking around and looking at all the monuments, then headed to Old Alexandria for dinner....and a restaurant was finally picked out about an hour later. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted!!!

Sunday was moving day - Juline had to be out by noon, or something like that. Then we had a late lunch at Olive Garden (Dad was NOT liking us for that choice, but he was out numbered), and Elijah and I left for home a few hours later. Great weekend! Congrats again Juline!!

BTW - Today is Juline's first day in the official workforce! She's working in the accounting group at Staples Corporate in Framingham...what exactly she'll be doing is not something I'm aware of at this point, though. haha Not sure she's entirely thrilled that she's officially done with college, but I know that Dad is happy! All he talked about that weekend was how she was now on her own. LOL Nice, huh?

Oh, TONS of pics are up here if you want to look: www.picasaweb.google.com/LCFlan

The Kirkendall's move to GA!

2008-05-05T09:26:00.003-04:00

Last weekend (4/26) was the last weekend in MA for Chad & Hope. Being the WONDERFUL husband that he is, Chad hatched a plan to fly me up to MA on Saturday to surprise his wife (and my best friend!), spend the weekend up there, and then drive down to NC with them. There were a few hiccups along the way (i.e. Hope scheduling the U-Haul pick-up for when Chad was supposed to pick me up at the airport...good thing Amanda & Andrew rescued us!), but all in all it went great! Hope was totally clueless, and while she was surprised to see me, she didn't get nearly as excited as we'd hoped. We'll just say that she was extremely preoccupied with finishing packing (and rightly so), and will harass her about it at a later date. haha Anyway, they ended up a day ahead of scheduled and had the U-Haul packed on Saturday, which was great! I helped a little with packing up the cars, but not a whole lot. Can't say I was complaining about that, though - I was operating off not much sleep!

The 30th was my mom's b-day, so my dad and I took her to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate since I was in town. (Or I should say he took us out...he paid!) All I have to say is Legal Sea Foods. One of the few things I miss about MA - good seafood. I'm just hoping that Legal expands their restaurant chain just a little more and opens one down here!!

We left Monday morning at 4am to head to my house...and we made great time! 15.5 hours. I was estimating 15, so we did awesome! (Just a little reference - it's about 12 hours on a good day in a car. Add a U-Haul pulling a car plus another car following and it just takes a while longer.) I ended up spending more time with Chad in the afternoon just to keep him awake! Last thing we needed was the U-Haul driving falling asleep. That would be have been really bad...

Elijah had a wonderful dinner for us on Monday night, and he ended up taking Tuesday afternoon off, so we all got to spend the day together. We drove around a little to show them the area, took them to Cracker Barrel for some good southern food (Chad was in heaven!), and showed them our church. It was so nice being able to finally show them our new life down here! And then they left Wednesday morning for GA. I'm so excited for them!!

All about JULINE

2008-04-17T16:18:00.004-04:00

So Juline came to visit this past weekend. And ever since my brother left a comment saying I needed to dedicate a post all to him, which then sparked some jealousy on Juline's part because she wanted a post all about HER as well, I figured this was the best opportunity!

Anyway, according to her, we spoiled her, so I'd have to say that's a good indication that she had a nice mini-vacation! She rolled into town Thursday afternoon, so she had Thursday night, all day Friday & Saturday, and most of Sunday with us. Friday Elijah and I were both working so she had the house to herself (well, Zoe was home, so it wasn't entirely empty), but I think she just mostly slept. haha We made AWESOME kabobs on Friday night - steak, chicken, fresh pineapple (soooooo juicy...it was delicious!), coconut, peppers, and onion. We marinated the meat in Caribbean jerk marinade. Yum...I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Saturday we went to see Peter Pan at the Raleigh Little Theater. They did a pretty good job. And somehow Juline didn't know the story of Peter Pan! I'm still trying to figure that one out... ;-) After that, we went to North Hills (this awesome outdoor shopping plaza with a lot of boutiques, plus some "normal" stores) - we grabbed lunch, did a little shopping and found Juline the cutest dress for her graduation, then of course had to stop by Ben & Jerry's for ice cream. So good but we were so full afterwards! Then we went to another shopping plaza and did some more shopping at Marshall's and DSW. All three of us found stuff, so it was a successful trip!

Sunday we all got up early (I think Juline was ready to kill one of us) so that we could get to church on time and then spent the rest of the afternoon just vegging. It was a very fun and relaxing weekend if I do say so myself! :-D

NKOTB

2008-04-03T16:40:00.003-04:00

For all of you out there that don't know what "NKOTB" means, it's New Kids On The Block, and they're back! Whoo hoo! Yes, I realize that I'm sad and pathetic, but I KNOW there are others out there like me (Ganiene...Leah...) who still love and appreciate them for what they are. hahahaha

For those that still love New Kids On The Block: http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20187803,00.html. Enjoy!!

Richmond visit!

2008-04-03T13:55:00.005-04:00

I made my annual Richmond visit last weekend for Melissa's baby shower. Before I made it to her house, though, I had a great time catching up with my friend Kara who I don't think I'd seen for at least 1.5 years before Friday night. And we ate Uno's!! I was sad that they canceled my favorite deep dish pizza, and found out later that it's not on the menu but they can still make it...but whatever. We had a great visit and it was so nice to catch up.

And of course I had a wonderful time with Tommy & Melissa! I have to admit that it was a little weird seeing her pregnant, considering that last time I saw her was a little over a year ago and she definitely wasn't pregnant, and now she's ready to pop. haha I also realized that having a lot of friends, both near and far, that are either pregnant or kids already is making me feel younger, not older, because we don't have kids yet and we're not really in any hurry. It's a very strange place to be in.

I missed Elijah while I was gone, but it was so nice catching up with some very precious friends and getting in some girl time! It was much needed! I hope it won't be another year before I see them again...!

me, Melissa, and Isabella Lilly Rose ("Bella"/"Bella Rose")

pictures!

2008-03-27T16:18:00.005-04:00

I post all my pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lcflan. I just uploaded a ton last night that were looooong overdue, and I'll be sure to post when more get uploaded. View them at your leisure. :o)

Since it's spring here and everything's starting to bloom, we took some pictures of the absolutely gorgeous tree in our front yard, which I of course had to share with you:

Our 2nd Anniversary

2008-03-27T11:05:00.009-04:00

So the 18th was our 2nd anniversary. It really feels like we've been married for way longer than that, but in a good way!! Marriage has just been so easy and fun, it's unbelievable. I guess when you actually wait for the one that God actually has picked out for you, and you wait for His perfect timing, life really can be perfect!

I got my present from Elijah the other day, and I'm so excited about it that I had to share it with everyone:

Oh yes, you are seeing it right - he got me tools! I love it! haha I told him that I've been wanting a really light cordless drill so that I can hang stuff so much easier. (The drill he has is just too heavy and when I'm having to hold the thing above my head, my arms feel like they're going to fall off.) And he got me drill bits to go along with it and other stuff. :-D I'd have to say that this is probably the most fun he's had picking out a present for me. He's turning me into his little tool girl... ;-)

Family visit!

2008-03-26T14:43:00.003-04:00

It's kinda hard figuring out where to start with this blogging, so I figured I'd backtrack a little and start with John & Sarah's visit (Elijah's dad and sister). They got into town really late last Monday night, which wasn't a problem at that point - it was the next day that was a little hard. haha I like staying up late but do NOT like getting up early!

We had a really nice visit. It was so great that Sarah was able to come visit since she'd never been out there and both Martha and Mariah had already had a chance to visit. And John hadn't been out since we moved down here, so he got to see our new house, meet our kitty, see the shop, etc. Elijah was sick all week with a fever that would not go away (but was at least able to be kept at a lower temperature thanks to lots of ibuprofen), so that forced us to be very low-key. We did finally go to the doctor on Saturday and Elijah got Tamiflu and antibiotics, and he's finally feeling better now. I had Good Friday off, so Sarah and I went and did some shopping - she found some great deals on a few things and I found a really cute sweater for $15 at Express. That made me really happy! We went to the service on Saturday night, which meant that we HAD to do Cracker Barrel for dinner that night. I learned that they actually have salad on their menu...in all the times I've been there, I never knew that they had salad! They were here until early Sunday morning, so it was a very nice length of time for a visit! :-)