Come out Come out where ever you are....

I think I have a secret admirer. I will give you a little hint about him or her.
-They live in Ohio
-Bridgeport to be exact
-They have Visited 74 times
-Not one Comment that I know of


Do you know anyone that fits this description?

Do me a favor....Pretty please, and just email me. Kipani4jc@aol.com.

Contests

There is a contest over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess. They are giving away a cute Halloween Shirt from Cute as a Bug. Go check it out and Enter your little Boo-tiful baby :)

A blond walks into a Review is giving away a $100 gift certificate for Scimbaco. How cool would that be to win?

MOPS

Today I had MOPS again. Im getting more involved and helping as everyone comes in, greeting them, getting them signed in, name tages for the moms and kids, giving them a ticket if they are on time, etc. I like getting involved with things and helping out. The only downside is getting out of the house at 830am, when we are use to hanging out in our PJ's...lol. Its nice to get up and get out of the house. The last time I left the house was last Sunday! At the Meeting we get Panara breads, pastries and cookies! There is always to much left over that we all brings bags and containers to take tons home! I got 2 gallon ziplock backed stuffed full of cookies, pastries and rolls. I also got a loaf of white bread. MMM. I was also the winner of the door prize and I got a package of Bread mix from tastefully yours and bread dip. (I think thats the name of it) I felt kinda bad winning it, because there were a bunch of people that REALLY wanted it, and I didnt even know what it was. We will still enjoy it. We now have WAY too many carbs in this house. Mmmmm!

Ryleigh did really well at MOPPETS with Hannah (caregiver in there). She is such a sweety and takes good care of Ryleigh for me.

Online Friends

I have some of the sweetest online friends. Today there was a small package in the mail. I love getting mail when its not bills...lol. Anyway, I opened it up and there was a cute halloween bib from my online friend Teresa S. Her son Monte, who is so darn handsome with his big baby blues, picked it out for her. Here is a pic of it.

Thanks Teresa! Your a sweety :)

Funny Picture

Ryleigh and I had a little too much fun in the bath tub this evening. We had Bubbles, her new foamy alphabet letters and some more tub toys. Here is a picture. (I am only including one since she is naked in the rest and I have no idea who looks at this blog.) If you want to see the rest email me at Kipani4jc@aol.com and if I think your worthy I will give ya a link to the rest. I just thought this one was really funny.

A year ago Today Part 2 (long)

I woke up at 6am with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step. That was our first night in our new home. I got ready for work and kissed Bobby and told him to have a good day. He started work at 9am and I always called him around 10-11am to tell him to have a great day and see what was up. He worked 45min north of our home and I worked 30min south of it. I dont remember what time it was when I called his work, but I remember ever word of the conversation I had. The phone was ringing and then I heard an unfamiliar male voice on the other end say "Blockbuster Video this is Paul". I thought Paul? who is Paul? he doesnt have a Paul that works there. I said "May I speak with Bobby please" There was silence on the other end of the phone and after a long pause he simply said "Hes not here." I said "What do you mean hes not there, he opens this morning." There was another long pause and in slow motion I heard him say "He doesnt work here anymore." Surely this was some kind of mistake! I said "What do you mean he doesnt work there...hes the store manager! This is his wife! Where is he?" There was no pause this time and he said "Im sorry, all I can tell you is he no longer is employed here." After that I dont remember saying anything or hanging up the phone. I just sat in my chair and all I kept hearing was "he doesnt work here, he doesnt work here" over and over in my head. I stood up grabbed my purse and keys and on the way out the door I said something like "Ive got to go somethings wrong with Bobby". Our phones werent hooked up yet at home so I couldnt call. That 30 min drive felt like and eternity. I was crying the whole way, then halfway through the trip home it hit me. Im 7 months pregnant and I will no longer have health insurance, how are we going to pay the mortgage and the Bills? My mind was racing. This had to be some horrible mistake! I pulled into the driveway and into the garage. Bobby must have heard the door go up and he was downstairs waiting on me to walk in. My face was red and I had tear streaming down my face. He said "Im so sorry, but Im going to fix this. I promise. We will be ok."
He told me he was fired over 2 mystery shop scores. A mystery shop is when people are paid to come into the store, rent a movie and then answer questions about what happend. Were you greeted when you walked in? Were they polite and helpful? Dressed professionaly? Name tags visable? Etc. He had 2 40% scores in a row. The first one was probally legit, but the second one was way off base! They wouldnt even look at the video from that night that would have proved Bobbys case! Then that video tape disappeared. This was a class C violation (the low mystery shop score) He should have been written up. But instead Blockbuster decided that they wanted to make a statement that this would not be tolerated any longer and he was fired on the spot.
For Hours we didnt talk after that, we just sat there and cryed. I dont remember much after that. I know his mom came by and told us he needed to file for unemployment and we needed to go to DHHR to sign up for food stamps and the medical card for me and the baby.
The next day we tryed to be positive. I went to work because we needed the money. His mom was supportive and went to the unemployment office with him.
Looking back on things it was a blessing in disguise with him getting fired. Even though he was a store manager and we made a nice salary, there was no place for him to move up. It was a very stressful job and he hated it most days. This year has been nothing short of a rollercoaster, and we have been down alot of hills. At times it seemed like a neverending hill. But now things are finally looking up and we are going back up that hill. Hopefully soon we will have good news to share. if you made it this far, Thank you. Its been a rough road, but Im glad to have my friends and family to help us through it.

BSM

We took a family trip to the park last week. Summer was coming to an end and I wanted to take some pictures of the last days. They always have great flowers there, and they will not be there for ever. (Maybe they will though with this unseasonably warm temps this week though!) Ryleigh had a great time touching all the flowers and checking everything out.

Here are 3 of the ones I like the best!

The one above is my personal favorite!

Now go check out more Best shots at Picture this! What are you waiting for....GO

Today one year ago Part 1

One year ago today I was about 7 months pregnant. We moved from our old house to this one. We were blessed so much to be able to have a house like this. No, I didnt win the lottery but it sure did feel like it! In August 2005 a man came to the house and said he was buying the houses in the area for the coal company that was coming through. I looked at him and sayed this house isnt for sale! Its our home. It was a nice starter home. 3 bedrooms 2 baths and .5 acres of land. We had a tree swing in the back yard and the dog loved to run. They didnt know any other house. We had only lived there for a little over a year. I didnt want to move! We called my dad and told him to come over. Bobby and I were young and didnt want to get swindled. He explained everything to my dad then we asked the guy to step outside so we could discuss everything. My dad said everything seemed fine and that his buddy just went through the same thing. He came back in and said that we would sign a 1 year option agreement. That ment they had 1 year to decide if they still wanted our house. He said here is a check for $___ just for signing with me right now. At 6 mo. we will give you another check for the same amt. in 6 more months if we decide not to buy you keep the money. If we do, then the money we gave you comes of the total price. He offered us almost 4x what we paid for the house! 6 months later we got a certified letter with another check enclosed. then 6 months later we got a call from a lawyer saying they wanted to buy and Bobby and I needed to come and sign the house over at our convienance. We had 1 month to sign it over and 2 months after that to move. Yikes...we needed to find a house and fast! Luckaly we found one and less than 30 days later we closed on it. We were able to pay off 2 cars, get Bobbys credit in order and buy this house with a very small mortgage. So 1 year ago today Bobby, my dad, my dads friend and BIL were packing trucks and going to our new home. I got to put everything away since I couldnt life any boxes or anything. We got all the furniture in the right places and got the kitchen set up and called it a day. We were SOOOOO Happy to have this house. It is 3 bedrooms (a little smaller than the old house) 1 full bath and 1 half bath. But the best part is we had a basement with a recroom, 1 car attached garage, 1 car detached over sized garage w/work bench and an attic over it, and a car port. We also have a deck and a 1.5 acre yard! Best part we were in a nice neighborhood with nice neighbors. Our life took a tur for the best! So we thought...Stay tuned for tomorrows part 2

Ryleigh and her Boys

Ryleigh just loves looking out the front door at the boys. Here are some really cute pictures I took the other day. I was going to save this for BSM, but I took some pic's at the park last night and they were really cute! So I will use those instead.

Crawling over

Checking them out

Teasing Harley

Beautiful Profile

This is so funny!

I saw this on Laura's page over at Synchronazation of Us
I couldnt resist stealing it and posting it...lol. She said she didnt mind. i was laughing so hard I almost peed myself.

Bon Fire

On Sunday we had a little bon fire. Me, Bobby, Ryleigh, Rona (Sis), Brian (her b/f), My mom, Dad and the boys (dogs). It was fun, we stuffed ourselves full of marshmallows and talked. What could be better? Chopper was trying to catch the sparks that came out of the fire. After a while he was getting braver and braver and I was scared he was going to jump in the fire, so I had to put him in the house. Harley was a little cuddle bug and went from one person to the next getting some lovin. Here are some pictures of my parents, Bobby and Ryleigh. By the time Rona and Brian got there it was just too dark for decent pictures.

My Mom and Ryleigh

Bobby

My dad, mom and Ryleigh. Chopper is in the corner of the pic eyeballing up those marshmallows...lol

BSM

The other day I was out in the yard with Ryleigh, Harley and Chopper. (Harley and Chopper are my dogs). Here is the one I liked the best. I had a few others, but I just thought this was so cute. Harley was sneaking in a kiss and she was just giggling and smiling. After the kiss he sat down beside her and she put her hand on his back. It looked like she was petting him.

Head on over to Picture This to see more Best shots!

Hunter's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Hunters 2nd Birthday party (My Nephew). I cant believe hes 2 already! That can only mean that Ryleigh is going to be 1 all too soon :(. We had fun. Hunter had a great time getting all his presents. Expecially the toys! He could have cared less about the clothes, but what 2 yr old prefers clothes over toys...lol. Ryleigh had her first taste of Cheesy Potatos and my oh my did she LOVE them!

This is Hunter with his favorite toy. He kept coming over to me and cutting my arm off. I would fall to the ground moaning in pain, and he would laugh. I would sit up and we would do it all over again. When i said it was my turn to cut him he looked at me with HUGE eyes and said no no and ran away...lol. He cracks me up!

This is Ryleigh testing out the cars making sure they were OK for Hunter to play with...lol

Returning Visiters...

Ive been noticing I have TONS of traffic. Not just people "passing through" but people that are returning visiters. But some of the returning visiters dont leave me any comments. Wouldnt bother me if this person was in another country, but they are in a nearby city across the river. Just leave a comment and say Hey. You've been here 35 times already. You must think Im interesting :D. So leave me some luv and I will come visit your blog if ya have one and leave you some.

Friday Fill in

1. I met him on campus
2. We dated 3 years before we got engaged.
3. I knew he was the one right away.
4. The thing I like best about him hes a great husband and father
5. When he proposed we were at church and he proposed in front of everyone!
6. The song we had at our wedding a country song that I cant think of the name of...lol how sad is that?
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to family time, tomorrow my plans include My nephews 2nd birthday party and Sunday, I want to have dinner at my parents house!

Go check out more at Fond of Snaps

We did it!

Today I decided to leave Ryleigh in the nursery at MOPS. I went in early and checked it out. Met with the caregiver and left Ryleigh in her hands. I think thats one of the hardest things Ive done. I didnt HAVE to, but I knew if I kept her with me she would be disruptive and fussy sitting at a table with nothing for her to do. I checked on her ever 15-20 min (maybe more)....lol. Every time she was fine and playing with a different toy. She played off by herself, which was fine with me. The kids range in age from 6 weeks to 18 months in there. That makes me a bit nervous considering they start the biting phase soon. Today there were 4 kids total and Ryleigh was the youngest one. When I went to pick her up she was watching the TV. I thought it was funny, because we dont watch cartoons here. We watch the news and Today show. (I dont make her watch them they are just on...lol) She was probally looking at the TV thinking where is Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera? LOL

Ryleigh Update

Ryleigh had an evaluation today w/ birth-3. The lady seems to think she has a sensory problem. Shes not 100% sure though. She doesnt think anything developmentally is wrong which is good. She was just concerned that she was standing and now refuses. We put shoes on her and she did better with the shoes on, but still wouldnt really stand unless we tricked her into standing. (The lady was siting on the floor and had Ryleigh stradling her leg. She would slowly raise her leg untill Ryleigh was standing. As soon as Ryleigh realized it she would pull her legs off the floor though)After the evaluation, she said that she thinks Ryleigh will qualify for their services and that she would be coming once a week. Her 2nd evaluation (different lady) is Tuesday at 930am. After that we will have a meeting with the Birth -3 intake coordinator, me and the 2 ladies that evaluated her. We will discuss what the findings were and what we think we should do.

Vote for RYLEIGH

Ryleigh is in a 2007 Cover Kid contest for a local magazine. Click here and choose picture #7. You will see this picture
After you have voted, please leave me a comment so I can say Thank you! Love you guys!

BSM -Brushing teeth

Yes I know the day is half over. Now that Ryleigh is crawling and constantly getting into things My computer time is very limited! But thats ok. I love spending time with her. I chose another series of pictures for this weeks BSM. Since Ryleigh now has 3-4 teeth (I know there is 3 but cant tell if the 4th has popped through yet since she will not let me look) I thought it was time to start good brushing habits. Bobby and I take turns brushing our teeth with her 2x a day. Here are some pictures of Him brushing with her and close ups of her brushing. My favorite is her close up on, but I thought the ones of her brushing with daddy were adorable!

Now head on over to Picture this for more BSM!

Nice Matters!

Laura at Synchronization Of Us gave me the Nice Matters Award!

This award is for those bloggers who are "nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

So now I have to give it to 7 others. So here they are in alphabetical order:

Andi at A day in the life of a stay at home mom

Beverly at Trials of Being a Parent

Cathy at Cathy with a "C"

Julie at Ramblings of a Tired Working Mom

Mandy Jo at Our A-Mazing Family

Tara at A day in the life of Teepers

Teresa at Wandering Thoughts

Thanks again Laura for this award! I wish you lived closer.

Face behind the Blog meme

I was tagged by Kimberly over at Altering Life for this face behind the blog meme. Sorry the early pictures of me look kind of crappy, I had to take pictures of the pictures...lol. My stupid Scanner doesnt operate with the lovely VISTA...ugh.

So Im supposed to do this in 10 pictures, from my life. So here goes...

Happy Birthday to me! Look at those Chubbbbby Cheeks! I was 7lbs 12oz and 21" long.

This is me at easter. I was about a year old give or take a few months...lol

This is my sister and I. I was about 4 1/2 and she was about 1 1/2.

This is me in 8th grade.

This is Bobby and I when we started dating in 99'.

May 22nd 2004 Our wedding day.

This was the last picture of "Just us" November 28th, 2007 approx. 6am (She was supposed to be born this day)

Our first offical "family picture"

Mommy and Ryleigh (she was 4 months old)

Just me :)

Hope you enjoyed my meme. I really had fun making it. Thanks for Tagging me Kimberly!

I choose to tag Beverly over at Trails of being a Parent.

Camera toss (Take 2)

This time it went a little better. Christina over at Momology told me to change the +2 to a 0 or negative number. I did that and used a different light source...the computer button light. This time it went alot better. Next time I will try the TV like Kimberly suggested at Altering life.

Camera Toss

I was reading on some blogs about "Camera tossing". I decided to try it this evening since Ryleigh went to bed early and I was board out of my mind. I must be doing something wrong though. Who knew throwing the camera up will be so difficult. My pictures look nothing like what they are supposed to look like. Can someone who know what they are doing give me some pointers? I have a Kodak Camera I had the dial on ASM and the numbers and letters on the screen were S, f 2.8, 1 (sec shutter speed), +2.0, Iso 80. The only thing I know about is the shutter speed and that was set at 1-8 seconds. I tryed different ones. I did find that 1 sec was better than 8 sec. The picture was too light with the 8 seconds. Here are 2 of the better ones if you would even call them that...lol.

Evaluation

The evaluation was mainly for me to fill out paperwork and talk to her about my concerns. She asked a ton of questions. I chose 2 specialist to come and evaluate Ryleigh. (You have to pick 2). The first lady is for her physical development. Maily gross motor. The second lady is for overal development. She will check Ryleigh in all areas to see if shes lacking anywhere else. (I dont think she is at all) After that appt. I will meet with the lady I met with today. We will discuss the findings and decide if I want 1 or both women to come back if thats necessary, and we will decide how often. With in the next 2 weeks the specialist will be calling to set up appts. So I will update everyone after that.

Picture

Well, I forgot about BSM yesterday, so I will just post the picture today since I really wanted to share it.

Update on Life

Well, after calling Dr. Tellers (neurologist) office 4 times in the past 7 WEEKS, he finally called me back. I was so mad that if he didnt call today I was going to camp out in his office untill he did talk to me tomorrow! That is just insane. Anyway, after reviewing me MRI from last year again, he couldnt really find a reason why I was having so much pain. So at 9:55pm on Saturday night I go for another MRI. Bobby is going with me, and since Ryleigh will be in bed my mom will be coming over to the house to sit her while she sleeps and catch up on her computer time since hers is broken.
Tomorrow is Ryleighs evaluation with B-3, I hope all goes well. Im not that worried now, because shes making an effort to crawl. Hasnt quite got it yet, but shes on all 4's rocking. When she goes to move her knee her legs slide apart and she falls...lol. Its a start though.
Bobby is doing good. Not really much to report with him. Hes off with us today, so we are going to go outside for a little bit and hang out.
The Boys are doing good. Rotten as ever though. At night we have been putting them in the basement because its to hot with them laying on us. When its time for them to go downstairs Chopper gets this sad look on his face and starts walking in the opposite direction. Then when he descides that im going to get him he sits down, then flops on his side and rolls on his back to get some belly scratches. LOL. Hes so funny! I will have to get that on video and share it.

Hmm

Seems as though my site gets a lot more traffic than I thought! Kind of scary really. Seems as though I also have a great deal of lurkers. My page got 140 hits this weekend. Most of the hits were from the US and Canada, but I did have some from the UK, Australia, Greece, The Philippines and New Zealand. The average time spent on my site is 6 min. Most people found me from a search engine most likely by googling Kalebs name. I get a lot of hate mail from that one. Only 25% were from direct traffic, and 13% were from referring sites. So thanks to those who have me on their blog rolls. 1 Person went through my entire blog which is somewhat disturbing! A couple of others read quite a few pages of it. Every heard of a comment button? Anyway I will continue to check the stats. This has definitly opened up my eyes. I will have to be more careful as to what I post, expecially pictures.