Happy Valentine's Week!

Yes, that's right. Happy Valentine's WEEK. As in, we have been doing Valentine's Day-related activities all week. Thank you, Hania, for the excuse to celebrate each and every holiday to the fullest extent! Just a quick recap of the activities:

Photo shoot for homemade Valentine's Day cards.
Hania was extremely agreeable to this form of torture.

Hand made Valentine's Day card for Daddy. We had to email pictures of the card to him, since he has run off to central Mexico for 3 weeks. Supposedly he is there for work, but my guess is that he is laying on a beach in Cancun.

One night we braved the new world of arts and crafts with a 16 month old, and it went shockingly well. Hania loved having paint all over her hands, and was happy to wait for me to give her one piece of paper after another to slap her little hand on!

Lovely flowers that Johnny sent to us.

Gift from Mommy & Daddy - her first crayons, markers that only write on a specific type of paper (genius, Crayola!), and two little books.

Oh wow, they actually work!

She picked these two balloons out at the grocery store. The square one is her favorite because it has a bee on it, and she knows that a bee says "buzz". I'm pretty clear on this, as she has told me what a bee says at least 36 times today.

Cutting out heart shapes from jello. Did you know that it is really difficult to eat jello with your hands? I had no idea. Fun, though.
No pictures of the heart shaped coconut cakes with cream cheese icing and heart sprinkles.... but trust me, they were a hit!

A cute video to wrap up our Valentine's Week extravaganza!
My parents sent Hania a package and she ripped through it in record time. She was especially happy to find a stuffed cat in her bag. The cats were especially happy that she can show her affection to this cat instead of to them!
(please excuse the weird narration, I'm on the phone w/ my folks during the video)

Big bang theory

I have a new haircut. This was sort of what I was going for: Kenley from Project Runway Season 5. (Nevermind that she was horrible to my precious Tim Gunn, stay focused on the hair, friends.)

This what I got: My bangs may possibly resemble those of Lloyd from the movie Dumb and Dumber. But at least no one is walking around behind me poking my ears out. (way to be positive, right?)
The girl that cut my hair was very nice, and I think we can chalk this up to a communication error on my part. However, it has been decreed: no photos shall be taken of this mama until they have a little time to recover from the trauma.

Frighteningly enough, they are growing on me. No pun intended. The line between fashion forward and fashion victim is quite tenuous. Or perhaps I'm simply embracing the beautifully imperfect. Sounds good to me!

The baby's baby

Hania has changed so much since the last pictures on the beach at Thanksgiving!
I have some catching up to do, but this video was too funny NOT to post immediately!

She will be 16 months next week, and is picking up words and phrases rapidly. Last weekend she gave me a hug (yes!!! The wild child is learning to be affectionate!) and said "baby baby baby". This is possibly the cutest thing EVER, and most likely she is trying to mimic me because I call her "my baby" when I hug her.

Apparently this now extends to her cat, Crusoe. He is her very tolerant baby. You can hear her say it when she lays her head on him, and at the end she says "bye cat". Do I detect a country accent? How did this happen? Is it a birthright that comes with being born in Kentucky?


We've started saving for his kitty therapy bills. "Cat" was her first word, and it was obvious she was referring to them, although it sounded more like "cock". Which is real cute, until she is screaming "cock" at the top of her lungs at a restaurant and people are snickering. Which encouraged her to yell with even more gusto! Yeah. Good times! How exactly do I put that in her baby book?

For Cousin Courtney

I'm stuck. There are so many things to blog about lately, but I just can't seem to get anything from my head to the keyboard in a coherent sentence. But sometimes you just have to say exactly what comes to mind, and hope that those that matter will look beyond the imperfection of words and phrases.

My husband's first cousin, Courtney Harbaugh, passed away on November 28th at the age of 24. This was an unexpected tragedy. To read about her accident, you can click here.

This photo of us was taken the night before our wedding in March 2004. Courtney looks just gorgeous, radiant, while I'm hamming it up being silly. I have so many other more recent photos of her, but most are from the side or back or in motion, which is true to form given all of her energy.


Courtney, there is so much more that I want to say to you. I'm sure that Johnny would have something far more eloquent to say, but unfortunately I am the more emotional half of this duo, and I'm writing the blog. But you loved that about us, right? The fact that we were so different and still trying to make our marriage work for us.

I can honestly say that I have never met anyone that was so intent on enjoying life, or had such a positive outlook. You wrung every single drop out of the 24 years that you were given on Earth. Court, did you ever have an acquaintance that didn't become a true friend? Seriously? What is this affect that you had on people? You took a lot of chances and made sure that you explored all of your options. How many of us can say the same? Did you have any clue how worried Johnny was when you went to live in the Virgin Islands last summer? Girl... (; I tried to convince him that you were a big girl and would be okay, but I was secretly relieved when we had our convo about how damn lucky we both were to not to end up like Natalie Holloway, given the somewhat irresponsible behavior we'd each had during our college years. It showed me that you knew life was fragile, to be cherished, and I didn't worry so much for you.

Somehow you managed to keep all of us young with your contagious enthusiasm. Just popping in to your grandparent's house to tell us about your most recent adventure, always keeping them in the loop of your exciting life, reassuring them by your presence that they were still needed by the baby of the family. I absolutely fell in love with you early on when you were explaining who Jack Johnson was... you said "you know, he's for MY generation what Dave Matthew's was to YOUR generation". I about fell off my chair! Since when is 7-8 years a generation apart? We laughed about that one for a long time.

On the other hand, you were also wise beyond your years. Always walking a line between family members that were having difficulty, attempting to build a bridge between those that you loved most, and continuing your efforts even when it seemed that they were in vain after so many years. I promise you that I will always try. You know what I mean. It isn't my fight (I'm an "out-law" after all, according to Uncle Bobby!) but I will always extend my heart to both sides because that is what you would want me to do.

Your trust in God was just phenomenal. You didn't banter around His name lightly, you held tightly in your beliefs and I wondered how someone so young had come to have such conviction. I want to have faith like that. Really. But as a Girl Raised in the South would say, HON, this whole taking you to Heaven prematurely thing just isn't helping the cause, okay? So I'm praying for understanding and peace. I'm not sure what the morale of this story would be... a lot of "whys" are stuck in my head, even though I realize that they are not particularly helpful. I'll keep working on that.

Do you know what makes my heart ache the most? The fact that you never had your own family like you'd hoped for. Make no mistake, you mothered everyone and everything - your family members, your dog Paisley, your ever-expanding group of friends, each of your little students. Everyone at Little School seemed to know what a gem they had in you as a teacher AND a friend. It is obvious that teaching was your gift. Watching you interact with a child so patiently was amazing to watch, and the joy in your expression was obvious. When we were texting the week of your accident, you said that you wanted to be there when Hania saw the ocean for the first time. You were there. Maybe not holding her hand, but obviously you told her to be fearless just like you, because she ran straight into that darn water as if she had done it a million times!




Thank you for being a part of our lives here on Earth, cousin Courtney. Johnny and I talked about the best way to honor your beautiful spirit; we decided that being more positive and taking advantage of every opportunity that we're given would be things that you would have done (and things we both need to work on). Personally, I have been looking at Hania and feel even more responsibility to be a patient and kind parent, just as you would have been.
We miss you and love you sweet girl. Talk to you later.

Vintage Halloween

No time set aside for profound blog posts this week, just a 30 minute window of "me time" while Johnny gives Hania a bath and gets her in the jammies before I'm on mommy-duty again so he can study.
But I HAD to post the Halloween pics!

Many of you know that Halloween is my favorite holiday, primarily because of the wonderful childhood memories that I associate with Halloween festivities. Each year my granny and my mom would meticulously craft the Halloween costume of my dreams. They teamed up to combine their sewing and craft talents to provide me with amazing and creative costumes. This was before the days of Halloween stores that pop up each September to provide you with every possible costume option that you could dream up. Nope, they sewed. Like, with a needle and thread. With their hands. What a foreign concept to me! My favorites? The Statue of Liberty, Athena, a gypsy, a very rotund pumpkin, a butterfly...the list goes on and on.
And guess what? My mom saved them. EVERY SINGLE ONE!

This is Hania in my bunny costume that I wore at 20 months. Circa 1978. So she is a vintage bunny! She is just over a year here, but it fit pretty well.
Droopy little bunny tail, running down a driveway. I realize that I 'm partial, but she's pretty darn cute.

My family brought another bag of goodies with them during their last visit.
My old prom dresses and accessories, circa 1993-1995. But which one to wear? So many fashion mistakes and only one night to relive the glitz, the glamour, the pain and agony of size 7.5 sequin pumps and the feel of itchy beads against your back!
I had to make a little sash that said "Prom Queen" because kids were asking which Disney Princess I was supposed to be. I responded "Princess Gaudy, of course".
Just a few quick observations that this getup brought to my attention:

1. My boobs are shrinking. As in, not-even-the-gigantic-sewn-in-foam-bra-inserts-will-save-you-now shrinking. Wow.

2. Rhinestone earrings this large should come with their own safety disclaimer. The could potentially cause a concussion if they fell on a small child.

3. Spanx are a gift from heaven. And mine weren't even the real deal. I used the ghetto Spanx-knockoff from Target and they rock!!! Too bad you can't wear them with a bikini.

4. These dresses must be made with chastity in mind. Don't let the show of skin fool you. By the time you could get out of this contraption, you'd have time to rethink about bad decisions you were about to make! (:

All joking aside, it was a pretty cute package the first time around. You know, in 1994.
Almost all of the neighbors dressed up, so I was in good company. I can't wait until Hania is old enough to be embarrassed by her parents' Halloween antics!

This is why high school girls shouldn't have babies. Because I don't recommend trying to chase a baby in your prom dress. It may result in flashing of neighbors or a sprained ankle, and that is even BEFORE a glass of wine! I'm just sayin'...

Daddy wasn't about to wear his cool skeleton pirate mask, because it made Hania cry. Like this.


Time to put away the Halloween decor, the fabulous vintage costumes, and the candy. Time to pack up this little Halloween jumper, as it will not fit Hania next year.
Don't worry, sweet girl. There are many more fabulous Halloween memories ahead for you. You are a Byerly girl, and we know how to rock Halloween night each and every year!