Friday, February 29, 2008

All's well that ends well

Thank goodness my sweet child no longer looks like something out of National Geographic.

The steroids have helped a lot and people are no longer gasping in horror at the sight of him. Angelina Jolie lips are scary on a 6 month old.

This is a face only a mother could love.


"Milk bad, soy good."



Thursday, February 28, 2008

For Free

I have a baby swing (not fancy but it works), a bouncy seat (again, not fancy but it works), and a shopping cart/high chair cover in pink camo for anyone that wants them. Leave a comment and your e-mail and I will get with you. The swing and bouncer would be good to have a Grandma's house! If you can come and get these things off of my hands, you can have them.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Warning: This will probably be boring to most, but I want to document this for my children in case I am too senile to remember it someday

The wreath that was put on the door of the office:
This is the talk that Andy gave at the funeral:
Over the past eleven or so years, I have had the privilege of knowing and being around Ernie Sehon. And since I married one of his granddaughters, naturally, the role that I usually got to watch him play was that of a granddad. And he was a good one. Grandfathers are special, aren’t they? I mean, when I think of a granddad, some of the things that I picture are someone that’s fun-loving, someone that’s ready with a smile and a joke, someone who is wise, someone who thinks his grandkids hung the moon. And so it was neat to get to hear some of the stories and memories that Ernie’s granddaughters, Summer and Maresa, shared about their Papa. Because they fit right into that image.

One of the first things they talked about was how they loved Saturday mornings when they would get to go to the airport with their Papa to wash his plane. And inevitably, he would end up taking them for a ride. They said that they specifically loved how he would fly them to Tecumseh where their other grandparents lived and they would have called them ahead of time and told them to come outside and wave to them as the plane flew over their house.

They remembered how they would hope and pray for it to snow in the winters so that Papa would take them sledding. He would make them a special sled and hook it to the back of his tractor and drag them around at a pretty good clip and they loved bouncing and flying around on that sled. Ernie did the same thing for his great granddaughter Mia last year and she absolutely loved it. He was a fun granddad – like granddad’s ought to be.

Summer remembers when she was about 10, she got on a kick where she kept talking about how she wanted a “real job” so she could make some real money. And she kept trying to persuade her dad and her Papa to hire her on at the office. So finally, Ernie did just that. He told Summer that he had a special job for her that paid really well. And that’s what started Summer on a career path of dusting chair legs. He made it sound like the most important thing in the world that all of those chair legs in the office had to be dusted properly. And so they were – Summer was proud to dust them because her Papa had made her feel like she was playing such a special part in the work of the office.

Summer and Maresa also remembered a discussion they had one time with their Papa where they were all trying to decide what they would do if they won a million dollars. The girls were pretty young and to them, a swimming pool or the most popular toys at the time were the no-brainer answers to that question. When it was Papa’s turn to answer, they were sure he would say that he was going to buy them new cars or something like that, but instead he said that he would give half of the money to his church and half of it to theirs. And that response has stuck with them for all of these years. He was a wise granddad; a granddad who knew what was important and what should come first in his life.

And like granddads should, Ernie was a Papa who thought his grandkids hung the moon. Summer and Maresa remember how much he loved to hear them sing and how he would always come to their choir performances. And I’ll just say that I’ve seen firsthand the smile and the look in his eye when his grandkids or greatgrandkids walked in the room. It’s a look you can’t fake. It was sincere adoration and love. From a sincere and loving man.


Monday, February 25, 2008

e-mail from my sis about the "honeymoon from hell"

And just to clarify, she checked her birth control but carried on all her designer shoes...genius.

as you all know, Jeff and i were married last Saturday and went on a cruise! well, the weather on Saturday was so bad that our flight was cancelled. note to self: anytime an airline tells you that the weather is too bad to send up a Boeing 747 but another airline is still willing to send up a 60-seater prop plane, pass on that. so, before boarding this prop plane, Jeff and i were randomly selected for body searches where we were taken into separate rooms and got the full body pat down (not too bad) but then they went through my purse and ripped out the lining looking for god knows what but we survived. the flight to Denver was horrid. of the 38 people on board at least 34 of us were in tears the entire time. there was lightening and all kinds of stuff tossing the little plane around. the captains voice kept coming over the speaker either telling the flight attendants to stand by or telling them to sit down and buckle up. we were scared. everyone was. and to add insult to injury the man in front of us was so nervous that he kept passing massive amounts of gas. anyway we landed in Denver 10 minutes after our connecting flight was set to leave. we took off running through the airport as fast as we could with my husband trying to run on his crippled foot when he completely blew out his knee. (yes we are looking at knee surgery probably sometime this year). well we get to the gate as they're closing it and they let us on and we're off to miami. we land in miami about 1:00 am. we're exhausted, hungry, etc....and we go to get our luggage and of course there is no luggage for us. not one bag. nothing. airlines are so screwey about what they let you carry on that we checked everything so we wouldn't have to mess with it. we didn't have toothbrushes. nothing. we file a claim and get a cab to take us to our hotel - which we are still looking forward to by the way because we got the big fancy suite etc,etc. we get to our hotel and it looks nice and while we were checking in i asked the man at the front desk for some complementary toothbrushes. he said they had none (first clue). we get to our room and our so-called business suite was one step up from a cardboard box under a bridge. there wasn't even a fitted sheet on the mattress. the toilet didn't flush. the headboard was a mirror that had body prints all over it. sick. we were less than thrilled but tried to look forward to the morning when we could go to the boat and deal with the luggage issue. we leave the next morning (bad breath and all) and hail a cab to take us to the port. while sitting in the back we see this awful lighter that had a pair of girls boobs on it and im not sure why, maybe we were just that desperate for a possession but we swiped it. we've since decided to save it just as a reminder. we see a target and stop and get a few essentials to get us by until we can get our bags and we're off to the boat. the cruise ship was amazing. it was breath-taking and we are beginning to not feel so low. of course we had to stand in line with all these people with clean hair and freshly washed faces and we gave them all dirty looks with my yesterday's make up and dragon breath. but we are feeling better being on the boat.....that is until i start feeling a little queasy. sea sick i was not. the stomach virus hit me hard. within the first 2 hours of boarding i am very very ill. i had to be taken by wheelchair twice to the infirmary where each time i received a shot in the buttock of choice (took one in each cheek in case you were wondering) and jeff won husband of the year as he held the puke bucket for me while i was sitting on the pot having you know what. (not the type of sounds you want your husband of 36 hours to hear). we ended up being quarantined to our room from sunday to the end of tuesday night because the ship cant have a virus running loose. so while everyone on the ship was eating and drinking too much while getting sunburned, jeff and i were locked in our room covered in the lonely stinch of defeat. so we lost 3 days. but in the end 2 of our bags made it to san juan and we picked them up. we got our hanging bag with formal clothes and the bag with all hair products and makeup but we never got any clothes. and let me be the first to tell you that stuff is important. you know the saying about possessions "at the end of the day its only stuff"? i will be the first to correct you. stuff matters. after 72 hours with nothing stuff is very, very important. be good to your stuff, talk to it, talk about it. you just never know what it means until you are sitting in the back of a hot stinky cab clinging to a boobie lighter. so i must appologize to our friends and family for our lack of souvenirs for you because all of our extra money went to tee-shirts that say carnival cruise all over them - aka our new summer wardrobes. in the end the trip was amazing and we can't wait to go again. once we were back on usa soil (yesterday) we came home to the news that my grandfather had passed away while we were gone.
we are very glad to be back and hope that all of you had a wonderful week ! we love you all and cant wait to hear back from you!

The one and only
Jeff and Marea Wade

Sunday, February 24, 2008

For those of you considering having children anytime in the near future, keep in my mind that your family pictures will immediately go from looking like this: to this:

Now go get that birth control refilled before it's too late.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

More pictures than you ever wanted to see

And there will be more, so try and contain yourselves.






*By the way, for all of the delusional people out there that think they have it made once they get past the "terrible twos," my oh-so-mature three year old just pooped her pants and put three pumps of liquid hand soap into her hair as I was posting this. Three is the new two.

Friday, February 22, 2008

I actually made a menu this week and cooked for my family. I am so proud I could pop.

Here it is:
Sunday - don't remember... ok fine, it was cereal
Monday - chicken speghetti
Tuesday - ribeyes, pear and gorgonzola salad (my favorite), berry trifle (well, actually some guys came over and grilled the steaks, but I did make the salad and the trifle)
Wednesday - I make it a point to never cook on Wednesdays
Thursday - we had dinner plans
Friday - going to my parents for dinner

Before long I am going to have to change the name of this blog.

And this captures the moment right before Bode face planted into the water. Not good. Thankfully he recovered and I am pretty sure I will only need minimal therapy. The risks I will take to get a cute picture....and it's certainly not the picture of sibling bliss that I was envisioning. In three years when I get up enough nerve to put Bode back in the bath, I will try again.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Quote of the day

Imagine this in the most annoying whiney voice EVER.

"Mommy, you can't whine, I'm the one that is whining."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A Sweet Man

My Papa died this morning. He was a wonderful man and he loved his two great-grandkids.


Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Oral Phase

Hmmm, let's see, what is today?Am I six months old today? Is that it? Why, yes I think it is. I bet my mom is going to freak out and get all sad on me, somethin' about how this is her last baby and she can't believe how fast it's gone, blah, blah, blah. How predictable. I'll tell you one thing, if she thinks for one second I'm going to take my hand out of my mouth to commemorate the occasion, she's crazy.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

"I'll have the puke, with a side of vomit"

I am officially nominating my sister for Woman of the Year and here's why: Remember what you did the night before your wedding? It probably didn't involve getting puked on by your nephew, holding your sister's hair back while she puked, getting puked on by your niece, helping to shampoo all the puke out of the carpet, making a 10:30 PM medicine run, and finally running to the bathroom yourself to puke. If it did, please call my sister to co-sponsor the "bachelorette night from hell" support group. Maresa, if you never speak to us again, it will be too soon. My amazing sister had a beautiful wedding despite all her family members shooting up phenergen throughout the entire ceremony and dinner.
Poor Mia was a trooper, even though she looks like this in most of the pictures:
And as a going away present, we passed the virus on to Jeff, who was getting sick by the time they left for the honeymoon.
And somehow my sister still loves us.

Friday, February 15, 2008

The most romantic day ever

Don't be jealous, but the Lashley family had the best Valentine's Day ever. I just love these made-up holidays that set us all up for failure. Andy gave me a wonderful case of the stomach virus complete with mad dashes to the toilet and dry heaves. I gave him an $1800 dental bill, only because I just found out, after my dentist appoinment, that my wonderful insurance has a TWO YEAR waiting period for dental work (thanks MetLife, Happy Valentines Day to you too). We went in together and gave the kids a plumbing bill for a flooded laundry room, they were thrilled. "It's just what I always wanted," exclaimed Mia, "I can't wait to tell all of my friends."

And we are just chomping at the bit to give my sister her gift. She is coming into town today to stay at the "House of Pain" because her wedding is tomorrow. She will be so surprised and thrilled to have to wade through our laundry room to get into our germ infested house where we will announce that she is going to have to stay with my in-laws if she plans on having any kind of decent honeymoon (if you know what I mean, and I think you do).

Bode literally hit me in the face with his saliva covered, virus infested hand when I gave him his Valentine gift.

"And I'll do it again if you ever try and pass a crappy day like that off as Valentine's again."

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Why is spell checker not working? I can't be expected to spell things correctly when typing with one hand at four in the morning.

So I tried to scan a picture of myself when I was a baby so everyone could gawk at how adorable I was, but even my own scanner rejected me. It couldn't detect the picture, which is about right. Not only will my DNA not transfer to my own children, it isn't even detectable in a computer scanner.

In other news, the Bodester is sitting up, kind of. He thinks he's the stuff.

In fact, he's so cool now that he has decided he is through with bottles and is grossly offended by baby food and cereal. He demands the finer things in life, like my hazlenut gelato that he literally thrust himself upon and, unfortunately for me, was lucky enough to plant his mouth right in the middle of. Things haven't been the same since.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Dominant Genes


Andy and Mia at 2 1/2 years




Andy and Bode at 3 months

Friday, February 8, 2008

I don't know this woman but I love her. Go here and get a custom blog header for $15. If you can tear yourself away from my fabulous blog long enough to do this, it is so worth it.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

These were the days

Hey G and A, remember when we only had one kid and had time to hang out in your back yard, drink diet cokes, talk about our husbands, ignore the fact that our kids were screaming at each other, talk some more about our husbands, eat really good salads with homemade dressing, and bribe our kids to get along so we could talk some more about our husbands?

Yah, neither do I. But I do have pictures to prove it actually happened. You know, back when we always had the camera ready for anything potentially adorable our children might do. I miss you guys....and I really miss good salad dressing (I also miss showering regularly, but I will save that for another post).

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Nothing to say

The kids are still sick. Mia had another sleep walking episode. This time she was looking for "the red and pink thing that is on the hard floor." That girl has some strange things running through her head.

Go check this out. Mia has the best Aunt and Uncle ever. Seriously, I am jealous of my own kid.

Monday, February 4, 2008

I went to turn on the light this morning and a flame shot out at me...

I took it as a sign from God that I shouldn't go to bikini boot camp, but instead stay home and drink cokes and eat cookies.

You know it is going to be bad when you need to call a plumber, electrician, and doctor before 8 AM.

I must go now, Mia just yelled for the vomit bowl.....

Sunday, February 3, 2008

The Kiddos




Friday, February 1, 2008

Mia's Photography

A for effort on this one. Okay, maybe a B....fine, a B-.

What?

Another "soup" creation. This ones' key ingredients include candle wax and stickers. I won't be sad to see this little phase come to an end.