Bath time

Update: I posted this in a hurry last night without explanation. You can either think a) someone had a "blowout" and needed to go immediately in the tub, b) Lucy is so smart that she bathes and washes her clothes at the same time, or c) I was running the bathwater and went to go get her pj's and 10 seconds later came back to this...

Stuff

Kris Tierney passed away this morning. Read my previous posts on how you can help this family. Just so sad. I can't imagine losing a child and a spouse within 6 months of each other. There is some comfort in knowing mother and son have been reunited. ugh...

What is new? Let's see here...I am going back to school to get certified as a medical transcriptionist. It kind of combines my love of the medical field and my technical background. It is an opportunity to work from home as well and I'm thinking more and more about baby #2 these days. It wouldn't be a hard transition after all the crap that has been going on at work either. Anyway, it is an online program through a local community college, completely self-paced. You have up to 6 months to complete it (just in time for baby) but I think I'll have a leg up with my surgical tech classes. Stay tuned!

Lucy has her first ponytail in her hair today. I think this will be her new look as she tends to remove barrettes right away. We took a nice long walk around the neighborhood and spent some time at the park. Abby found a big stick and Lucy kept running away with it. Simple pleasures.

What else? Hmmm...we had another Open House last Saturday and nobody came! I mean it's great reason to have a clean house but ugh, St. Joseph is not working! It is getting harder with Troy being on the road so much commuting, I can't imagine what winter driving is going to be like on top of that.

This is Lucy's favorite thing to do, sit in the fridge. And her favorite thing to gnaw on while sitting? The top of the tabasco sauce bottle! Out of everything, that's what she goes for. It would figure as I loved all spicy things when I was pregnant with her.

Take care everyone! This weekend I'm off to a Caribou Coffee date with girlfriends tonight and to the Marine on the St Croix Art Fair with the family tomorrow.

Let's Do This!

In regards to my previous post, the Tierney family needs lots of prayers and our financial help. Please go to http://www.kyletierney.com/fund to see how you can help. From their caringbridge site today:

Dear Friends,

As many of you are painfully aware, the Tierney's are being faced with yet another tragedy.

My best friend from high school, Rick Tierney and his family need your help and prayers.7 and a half years ago they had a baby boy and named him Kyle. When Kyle was just two years old he was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. After a 5 year battle, Kyle passed away on March 27, 2008 and the age of 7. Kyle has a little brother Ryan who just started kindergarten last week. Kris was expecting another baby in October. Due to a catastrophic stroke last Saturday September 6th they took the baby by emergency c-section. Baby Luke Kristopher(named after his mom) was born about 8 weeks early with a hole in his lung. As of today baby Luke is tube free, and is doing well. The outlook is looking good for Luke!As for mom the stroke has left her with no brain activity, and very little hope for survival.(pray for a miracle)

Many of you have asked: What can I do?

There are 3 things we can do!

1. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY
keep the Tierney and Katzmark families in your prayers.

2. give them TIME
Goal- $36,000 (this will help to cover medical expenses not covered, and house payments for one year)
Rick will need to be away from work for some time. Rick has exhausted all of his time off from work during Kyle's final days.
Let's band together to give them the TIME they so desperately need right now, without the fear of where the next house payment
will come from.(if we can find just 360 people to donate $100. we will achieve our goal)

3. FORWARD this to everyone you know

May God Bless you for your thoughts and prayers
May God Bless you for your generosity
and
May God Bless the Tierney and Katzmark families at this most difficult time.

Prayers please!

A fellow HM classmate of mine and his family have gone through such heartbreaking tragedies these past few years. To read the story of his son - www.kyletierney.com. When Kyle passed away earlier this year, his wife Kris was pregnant with another son, due this October. The old saying goes something like "in death there is new life". Well, Kris ended up going early and delivering last weekend at 32 weeks and through a series of unfortunate events, it doesn't look like she is going to make it (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kristierney). It just breaks my heart!

September!

We're getting a bit of fall weather lately which I LOVE. It could be autumn all year for me. It's my favorite clothing season (sweaters, comfies), I love the changing colors, baking with apples, decorating the house, the holidays, scented candles, hot cider, hitting the craft shows, making soups and baking....

The flu has hit the Lovestrand households big time the past two weeks. Paul ended his vacation by coming home with the flu, then Lucy had it for a quick spell, then Troy had it over the weekend, and now I'm afraid it's hitting me. Thankfully Lucy has been accomodating to her mom laying around today!

Last weekend was the long holiday weekend. We had a couple bonfires out back while enjoying Troy's favorite pumpkin bars. On Saturday Troy and Vicky painted our old office (used to be a dark red) to a neutral beige. If the house doesn't sell soon that will become Lucy's little girl room. We spent the rest of the day trimming up all the bushes around the house, maintaining our reputation as the only house for sale in Baldwin that actually keeps itself maintained! I think it's time to bury St. Joseph in the yard.

Saturday night Troy woke up with the flu, enough said. We were supposed to be worship assistants at church so Lucy and I headed out without him. Good thing we showed up as the other assistants didn't! We gathered volunteers and everything went well and Lucy had lots of babysitters in the back row! Sunday afternoon we headed to West St. Paul to my uncle Wes and aunt Darla's home for a Labor Day Weekend picnic. It was a great afternoon gathering in their shaded backyard with tons of good food and the entertainment of the two little girls (Lucy and her 11-mo-old cousin Kieryn).

On Monday Troy was feeling well enough to head to Chippewa Falls for Fantasy Football League sign up. Lucy and I and Vicky headed to Stillwater for a little shopping. We got some cute fall decorations and had ice cream before heading home. And Tuesday it was back to the 'ol grindstone!

This upcoming weekend we are headed down to Cedar Valley Resort in Lanesboro, MN to a very large cabin with all of the Hill families. The weather sounds like it will be perfect and I'm anxious to check out this little town!

Last but not least, the picture above will most likely be recognized in March 2009!

The Last Ten Days

Lots of pictures to post, let's start with Friday, August 15th - Mike and Erin Hill's wedding day. The wedding was up in Princeton, with a reception following in Pease, MN. We all headed up to the cabin for the rest of the weekend.

On Wednesday as I was cleaning out the car Lucy climbed in, so I buckled her in while I finished.

Thursday morning we picked up my parents and headed to the Great Minnesota Get-Together (the Fair)! As usual, we had every intention of going up and down every street so as not to miss anything, but our stomachs got the best of us so we backtracked everywhere and missed half of it! All that was consumed (not just by me) in no particular order - mini donuts, french fries (my favorite), pronto pups, frozen grapes on a stick (Lucy's favorite), pork chop on a stick (well maybe that's my favorite), veggie pie (ish, don't get again), nachos, deep fried pickles, frozen apple cider, taco (a new try of ours we shared from the food bldg that we'd definitely get again), gelato, popcorn, beer, watermelon, lemonade, butterscottish "thing" (basically a frozen twinkie dunked in butterscotch on a stick), root beer...

After we arrived, Troy, Mark and Val (mom) hit the mini donut booth while Lucy and I went to go get french fries (so what if it's 9am). We had our breakfast and headed into the Grandstand. We purchased a puzzle stool for Lucy as she loves her friends' puzzle stools:

What? It's like 10:30 and we haven't eaten in over an hour?? I'm assuming it's at this time we made our first stop into the Food Building (frozen grapes for Lucy, Pronto Pups for the boys, taco for the rest). I believe after this we headed up to the Technology/Eco Building on the old machinery hill for a little rest and a quiz show. It was quite humid that day which probably explains our easy exhaustion (not from the greasy food of course) and why we backtracked and missed half the sights. We did head over to the horticulture building to get the frozen apple cider sticks (75 cents a pop, the best deal at the Fair), and then a phone call from Sam and Krista who had brought the kids to the Fair and we were going to meet up.

On our way to find them, we pass the pork chop booth and I got in line. Dang they are good, and they sure make a killing at 6.50 a pop! We found the girls, said hello, I tried that wierd frozen twinkie. Then we made a loop in the Coliseum, the boys got some beers and we went and sat down in the stadium and rested/watched a horse show for a while. Then it was over to Heritage Square for a loop, knowing full well that we always go here and leave within 5 minutes because it's the same crap every year, yet my mother insists we didn't go the year before :) After our loop in there we headed back toward the Grandstand for a root beer and the nachos (just "ok"). And then....

Lucy and daddy went on the Big Slide! She loved it and I videotaped it (not very well). Grandpa had another Pronto Pup (note, if you have your gallbladder out, do not eat pronto pups!) and we headed over to the DNR building. What's next? Mom's turn for pork chop on a stick, then another run thru the Food Building and Horticulture building. Left for home at 4, a good full day at the Fair. Home where everyone hopped in the shower to clean up.

We had gotten a phone call from our realtor that someone wanted to see our house on Saturday. D'oh! Time for major house cleaning! So Friday morning while Nana watched Lucy we scoured the house before we packed it up and headed down to Lake Benton for the weekend.

It was a 4 1/2 hour trip down there, with a stop for lunch in Hudson and a swap of drivers half way. We stayed at Uncle Duff and Pam's, our usual B&B. That evening we had dinner over at Grandma Glady's and visited. Saturday before lunch was a big group photo session in grandma's backyard. The pictures turned out great, but their not on our camera, so can't upload them here. We got some shots of us as well for possible Christmas photos. After lunch half the gang headed to the lake on Uncle Jody's boat for an afternoon of water sports. I stayed back with the ladies while Lucy napped. In the evening it was more food and visiting. Lucy and I headed back to go to bed while everyone stayed at Grandma's to play Catch Phrase. This morning was a huge brunch back at grandma's before we departed at noon. In the midst of this busy weekend, Troy and Josh took Zach and Alex golfing, Pam and I found great bargains at the Emporium, and Lucy learned how to say "Alex" over and over and over again...

Abby and Stella:

Lucy's first trampoline experience with the girls, Olivia and Kate:

August and Lollipops

July 5th at Grandpa Duffy's house in Osceola: In her usual spot, sitting in the toybasket while I read to her:
Still in the toybasket:
This lovely view of our now white-trashed west side will be covered by a wonderful privacy fence in the weeks to come (it might not seem that horrible to you, but imagine all the cars in front parked on the lawn and the police over on calls to their house once a week...):
I had no idea she had gotten these out of the cooler and was trying to "eat" them thru the bag!
Giving daddy the stink eye while we're reading bedtime stories:

A side view of the new haircut:

This girl loves pillows!

In our party dress from Aunti Shannon, heading to the Murtha wedding on Aug. 2nd:

She had been napping for almost 3 hours, so I went in to find out what was up:
At dad's favorite store, Cabela's in Rogers, MN:She loves the water. Here she is in the dog bowl...

And then she sits in it!

With her new toy from daddy, the vacuum cleaner:

I am very delinquent on updating this blog I see! The calendar now reads August 2008. I remember posting that 2008 is a nice even number like it was yesterday and now we're in the depths of August humidity? Goodness sakes, next thing you know it'll be State Fair time (Minnesota, that is)!

I found some miscellaneous pictures from July I could post and recently updated my playlist (that musical thing that plays on the side of my blog if you have sound turned on) to put my latest favorite musical discovery "Lollipop". It's a fun, childish song.

Let's see here, what is new? Lucy had her 2nd haircut last week, she's saying and signing more words than ever. It takes me by surprise when she signs something I've been doing for months and she does it on her own. I always sign "more please" so she knows how to be polite, and she's had "more" down (that was her first word) for a while. We were in Walmart on Friday shopping and I'm feeding her some Goldfish and I said "what do you say?" and she says "peas" and signs it too! She loves ice and says that word and popsicles, and anything else involving being outside, the kiddie pool (constantly in and out, cannot sit still in there!), sidewalk chalk, and bubbles.

It was so cute yesterday, we were all out back while Troy and his parents were planting hydrangeas and I brought Lucy's toys out, including sidewalk chalk, thinking she could draw in the firepit we have. Well the kid takes off to the other side of the house and here she was drawing on the sidewalk - smart girl!

Troy is now working from home on Tuesdays and Fridays so we purchased a new office set-up from Ikea last week and put our office in the craft room downstairs and the old office is now Lucy's toy room.

I have been getting some craft projects worked on - finished up a Santa cross-stitch for my mom and started a new one (it's the only craft I can work on and watch a movie to). I am working on a couple quilted table runners for holiday gifts as well as figuring out how to make felt christmas tree skirts. I love to craft!

Nana and Papa leave Friday for their 10-day vacation (an Alaskan Cruise!) so Lucy will be in various daycares the next couple of weeks. We have one more wedding coming up this month (cousin Mike's), the MN State Fair, and a trip to Lake Benton. Busy busy!