Life has been very busy in The Standridge Home... Mom is back to work, and feels like she has no time to do anything... Hopefully after the Holiday Season, things will slow down and we will be able to get into a better schedule. Speaking of the Holiday Season it is already the 20th, only five more days until Christmas, and I have yet to buy a present or make a cookie! NOT a typical Annie thing, usually I am all set long before Christmas, presents wrapped under the tree, and the freezer is packed with yummy bakery, cookies, and such... My motto this year is "if it doesn't get done, it's not that important..." When I go to work in the morning I can't wait to get home and cuddle with Kayla, and be a wife and mother... And even my days off haven't been very productive, good thing I have such a great husband who has been stepping up and helping out around the house, and who understands that every chance I get I want to play and hold Kayla. She is three months old! And of course the most perfect baby in the world, she is so smiley and happy, and lately she has been cooing, "talking" and "telling stories" Kirk and I are in awe watching her grow up, and learning new things. I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season, a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Yesterday Kayla had her two month check-up, I was so excited to find out how much she weighs, her height etc etc... So we get registered and we are sitting in the waiting room, minding our own business when a lady starts talking to me... I don't know this lady (not that I mind talking to strangers...) never seen her before, don't know her at all!! And the first thing she says to me is... "I went to watch the strippers on Wednesday night..." At this point my head is scrambling, I don't know what an appropriate response is... What does one say? If you were a good friend or an acquaintance I might have something witty to say... But a stranger? Come on! So in the end I simply said... "Oooohhhhh, (very long pause.... Come on Annie think of something else to say.... ) that must have been nice... " I'm not sure why I said the last part, because for the next five minutes all I did was worry that this stranger was going to invite me to the next showing... But I had my witty comebacks all set! :) And then the nurse came and got us.... Kayla is now 11lbs 11oz and is 23 inches long... She had her first shots yesterday, two in one leg, one in the other....
Kirk left last Saturday for deer camp, and came home on Thursday evening, so while he was gone I got a lot done... Every time he goes somewhere for a few days I get up the energy to rearrange furniture... Clean house and reorganize... My first goal was to bring down the changing table from upstairs and find a place for it... NOT an easy thing to do, when you are carrying an odd shape down the stairs and have to make a 90 degree turn at the bottom, but I thought if Kirk could do it, so can I! The next goal was to set up the highchair, which took all of 10 minutes... And then we have a pack and play that is also a bassinet and changing table, and I wanted to take that down and put it away... What a pain in the butt! It took me about 20 minutes to get that down and packed up! Hopefully when I have to do that again it will be a lot smoother... My house is looking wonderful, I love when everything is organized and clean.... Now I can start decorating for Christmas! I don't normally do it so early but I figured that once I am off of work and have the time I should do it... Because I go back to work in a week, and don't for see having lots of time to do extra stuff... Well Saturday morning chores are not getting done by themselves....

A little bit of this and that...

Right now I am taking a break, got my hot cup of coffee, and doing some much needed picture organizing on my computer... We have two cameras and the deer cam, we are always downloading more pictures to the computer and pictures never have their appropriate "spot" and it is frustrating me. By the time I am done each picture will be in a folder, labeled, and maybe I will even be able to order some prints. Everyone asks me to see pictures of Kayla when she's not with me, and like the most modern of Moms I whip out my cell phone and show her off... Time to get some prints, plus Kirk mentioned to me that he would like a few for his wallet, especially when he is out at Deer Camp... A very proud Daddy, always wants to show off his baby girl :)
Today has been a very productive day, currently I am on my fourth load of laundry... Where do all of these dirty clothes come from? I swear clothes are going from the clean basket to the hamper all by themselves... Today I was organizing our bedroom and closet and started putting away my maternity clothes, because of course they are to big... But in the other bedroom I was putting away some clothes that don't fit Kayla cause they are to small... They were going into the same bin and I was so happy that mine don't fit, and so sad that hers don't either... Kind of a bitter sweet moment! My cup of coffee is gone, break is over.... Time to put the clean sheets on the bed, and pack our sauna bag! Grandpa and Grandma here we come!

A few quiet moments...

I thought being home on maternity leave I would have all the time in the world... But I find myself with a sink full of dirty dishes, loads of laundy that need to get done, and floors that need to be cleaned... Not to mention the fact that having greasy hair no longer bothers me, and wearing my pajamas all day is a wonderful thing... I find myself singing, cuddling, and giving out many kisses and hugs... I spend all day enjoying my daughter, cherishing these moments before I go back to work. So when nothing gets done during the day I find no quilt, because I remember the moments we shared... I am always reminded of a picture my mom had hanging on her wall at home "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow, for babies grow up we learn to our sorrow... So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep..." I can't believe it has been almost a month since I wrote on here!! Kayla was baptized on Sunday with her cousin Owen... And later that evening she woke up very congested and had a runny nose, I finally brought her in on Thursday just to make sure that all she had was a cold... And I could feel the germs swarming around us as we were waiting in the Doctor's office... We found out that she is now 10lbs 10oz and 22in. And all she has is a cold, hopefully she doesn't catch anything else from being in the doctor's office... Well time to go... Kayla is waking up and she needs more kisses :)

She screamed, mom and dad argued, and the dog barked...

Kayla's doctor's appt. went wonderful, she is almost a pound heavier then her birth weight, and the doctor we saw was awesome!! Very excited about that, and I think we will continue to see her... I had asked the doctor to check out Kayla's belly button to make sure her cord fell off right and found myself telling the doctor that Kayla is our experiment child... As those words came out of my mouth I had to chuckle... My Mom always said that about Jerry, how he was their experiment... They learned what to do, and what not to do... Kayla also got her first bath this week, she screamed, mom and dad argued, the dog barked... We got through it and reached our end goal... Kayla was clean and smelling yummy... The second bath went much better :) No fighting, no crying... We even took a couple of pictures (which was impossible for the first... I am laughing now when I write this, thinking as if the first bath should have been such a big ordeal...) We had a lot of "firsts" this week... grocery store, pamida, bank.... The biggest one was I went to the Doctor's and Kayla stayed home with Dad... I was gone a few hours and that is the longest we have been apart... The entire time I was gone I worried... and she of course slept...

September 22, 2009

I haven't done much blogging... In fact I just found my password for this site so that I can blog more... Now that i'm not working, and have a few extra minutes a day I really should get into this... Especially since I have something to brag about... Kirk and I had a baby girl on Tuesday, September 22 at 3:38a.m. After many hours of labor, we ended up having a c-section, and our little miracle was born... Kayla Mary Standridge, it has been wonderful learning how to be a parent with the love of my life... We have gotten into a routine and everything seems to be going good... It really is amazing how natural motherhood is, and how your "mother instinct" kicks in... Even Bella our puppy has shown her mothering, and shows concern when Kayla is crying... And tries to make her happy by giving Kayla her toys and treats... I know it seems silly, but it is very cute seeing this... Today is the two week milestone and Kayla has doctor's this afternoon, and Mom can finally drive :) It will be a big outing, being the first time we are alone going to the doctor's and going out together... Hopefully all goes well... Which I am sure it will.

Well I think that it is about time I get serious about blogging... Although my life isn't very interesting, I think that I can find some interesting things to say at least once or twice a week... As you can tell from my pictures I just got married (in June) and I have a wonderful husband, Kirk and we have the cutest puppy Lucy and she is spoiled, when we have kids that poor dog is in for a shocker! We live in Copper City, Michigan where I am the newly elected Village Clerk! It will be very interesting to be the clerk, I am not sure how I will be juggling work, home, and politics... But some how it will all work out! A lot of people have asked me why I ran for village clerk and what I have told them is, I went to a meeting and didn't like how things were ran, and I decided to run myself... Because if I don't like how things are ran in our local village government, and have my opinions I can't just sit back and complain about it, cause that won't get anything done! So I decided to do somthing about it... My Mom always taught me that if you want somthing done or something changed do it yourself! So now starts my life as a political person... (sort of..) And it all starts tomorrow!! We have our first meeting and I am so excited... I will let you know what happens... Another wonderful thing happened last week... My sister had a little baby boy, and he is the cutest little thing... We haven't had a baby in our family for over five years so we are all excited to have this one... I am sure that we will all be fighting over who gets to hold him... Baby's are God's medicine because when you rock them it cures heartache, pain, and tears... You are holding a fragile life, with so much hope, joy, and happiness in it's future...