May Update

Ok, why is it that May is always so busy you barely have time to sleep? May 2008 has been no exception. Our month started with a visit from Aunt Susie. She flew in from Palmdale to join mom and me for a weekend at the Beth Moore conference at the World Arena. We had a wonderful time hanging out and spending time together. So wonderful, in fact, that I forgot to take any pictures. The next week, we moved out to Joel's parents' house, about 30 minutes from here, to house-sit for a week while they were in Kentucky visiting family. Joel's parents have 80 acres, 2 horses, 2 ponies, 93 chickens, 5 cats and 1 dog. We had a great time being country bumpkins for the week. Our country vacation ended on the weekend of Mother's Day. We spent the day at the Palma's relaxing and BBQing. On Tuesday of the next week, Joel's sister, Angela, and I went to the Carrie Underwood concert at the World Arena. It was THE BEST, TOTALLY AMAZING concert EVER!! She is a terrific performer and probably one of the nicest people ever. Our seats were awesome and we are convinced that at one point she waved directly to us. We had hoped to meet Carrie, but put our brilliant plan into action way too late and got locked out of the building before we could meet her. :( Instead we bought matching Carrie Underwood t-shirts and resorted to driving around the building twice in hopes that we would catch a glimpse of her getting onto her tour bus. We had not such luck. Despite our disappointment, the evening was a huge success and we will always remember the time we went to see our favorite American Idol in concert .... and we will always have our t-shirts!! That weekend Joel left for Chicago on business and me and the kids moved in with my parents so we wouldn't be lonely. On Saturday, I held a bridal shower for Candice (Druh's fiance) at my house. It made for a very busy Saturday, but it was a huge success!! I can't believe the wedding is only 6 weeks away. WOW!!! Joel came home on Sunday and things began to calm down again. This week has been pretty uneventful so far, but on Friday, Candice graduates from nursing school so we will be spending the day celebrating with her. GOOD JOB, CANDICE, YOU FINALLY DID IT!!!!!!! After that we will have about a month off before Druh's wedding day arrives and the chaos begins again!!

The kids have grown a lot and are a constant source of entertainment. Isabel had asked me if she could take swimming lessons so we signed her up for lessons for two weeks beginning on June 2. Since she is 3 now, she will be taking lessons by herself instead of with me. This is the first time I will not be with her, so we are waiting to see how she does. She is excited for now, but that could change when she gets there and realizes that she will have to get in the pool by herself while I sit on the bench and watch. As the weather gets warmer here, we have been receiving frequent visits from the ice cream man. Isabel loves it when he comes. She has ice-cream-truck-radar. One day I heard him coming down the street, but Isabel was still taking her nap, so I didn't make a dash for my cash. Two seconds later, she comes running out of her room saying, "Mommy, I hear the ice cream man!!" We have gotten pretty good at getting out of the house in a hurry to catch the truck before it gets too far. I'm sure that the ice cream man is going to start remembering us and giving us free ice cream soon!!

Our little Gabe has also grown and achieved many milestones this month. At the beginning of the month he started crawling. A few days later he learned to pull himself up. This is very cute, but is creating many problems for me because I have learned that Gabe loves to be into EVERYTHING!! I cannot turn my back on this kid. If I do there is no telling what he will eat or pull down on himself. I think we are going to have to invest in wall anchors for all of our dressers and heavy furniture. At the beginning of the month, Gabe was very fussy. He wasn't sleeping well and he wanted to be held all the time. I was getting ready to sell him to the gypsies. One day he was especially fussy and had a huge bulge in his gums. The next morning he woke up happy as a clam with two teeth!! Maybe next month he will start walking!

That is our May in a nutshell. Hope you all had a great May too!!