Special Flowers just for ME!

I had an interesting conversation with a few girlfriends of mine while I was scrapping last month. We were talking about how I received a wonderful mother’s day gift with the help of a wonderful, wonderful friend. She hinted to Cy about getting me to attend National Scrapbooking Day. And guess what – it worked! As a gift, I got to go and scrap and start on Jacob’s baby book. I was #1 - so SHOCKED because, ah, my hubby is one to “forget” to get things such as this and #2 – my wonderful, wonderful friend put it all together and suggested it to Cy and #3 – I enjoyed every bit of it! So, while I was at this crop, in conversation – we talked about husband’s buying flowers for one another. Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Well, one of my friend’s had said she complained to her hubby that flowers die, blah, blah, blah and then also she hadn’t received any flowers in a while. The next time he gave her flowers – they were fake. Well, to make it sound nice and pretty, he gave her silk flowers. I was like, wow – really? Well, it’s the thought that counts and he was very thoughtful in giving her flowers (be it real or fake).

Gardenia's from our yard - dead after four days.

That evening, I shared this story with Cy. Why? I guess to hint to him that I haven’t received flowers in a really long time. Although, the justification of not receiving flowers is because flowers do die and having flowers around our house causes more chaos for our cats, because they too like flowers (munch, munch, yum, yum, belch, gag, dirty pile of cat-flowered barf on the carpet). Weeks later, a big surprise to me – I got home and Cy had something special for me. My very own flowers! One’s that don’t die! He made them – yes! MADE THEM! He welded auto parts and created a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. He also painted them too! I guess I’m not the only crafty one in the house.

Let me explain. The flowers and stems are individual valves. He bent them any-which-way and welded them together. Then welded them to bearing racings – five of them. My flowers rotate too! You can see the ball bearings at the end of the “stems”. Then the very last thing on the bottom to keep it stable is a volvo flange. Go figure! The quality and hours of working in this makes me appreciate how much of a great husband I have. Hands down, this is one of the most creative gifts I’ve received from anyone. My sweet husband is the best!

Special flowers Cy made for me!

Above picture: Valve & bearing races in their original state

Facelift for my Blog

As you can see, my blog got a face lift. Woo hoo!:)

I had to make a few changes to my blog since blogger was doing away with uploading blogs through my ftp site. So complicated, but now its up and running. Some of the other blogs I read have cool backgrounds and widgets and I always wanted to do that with my blog. However, since my original blog site was uploaded through my personal website (mrearly.com) I had difficulty doing it.

Anyhoo, I managed to change my background - still needs some tweaking, but I don't have time to mess around with it. So, I'm stuck with this one instead. It's cool enough for me!

On to life...

Had a great Memorial Day weekend with the family. Didn't clean the house like I had planned too! Instead, we put up our new pool. I say "we" - but actually Cy did. He did a wonderful job setting it up. On the pool box it was labeled, "THREE EASY STEPS". I chuckled after reading that. Cy did too! Our backyard isn't so leveled, so Cy had to find a spot that was semi-leveled and work from there. He spent most of Saturday morning leveling it - digging, filling dirt, trenching, etc., etc. and then finally at 9 pm - the pool was up! We didn't add water to it until the next day after we got back from church. Thankfully, Evan was occupied with is friend Greer and also had his 2nd sleepover! His first was at Miss Lynn's house with some other friends, but this one was just with Greer. Bless her momma's heart... she managed two five-year olds, plus her one-year old and her hubby who had a major backache and wasn't feeling too good. SHE IS SUPER WOMAN! I'll be happy for her when school is out - she's a teacher and I'm sure like all other teachers, are ready for the school year to end. BIG SHOUT OUT TO ALL TEACHERS!

The summer has officially started. Evan is back in his summer program at Harmony. The boy did not sleep well Monday night (the day before summer program starts). Matter of fact, he went to bed around 10:30 pm. He woke up in a pretty good mood though. Weird. I figured he'll be okay later on during the day, since he'll be able to take a nap to catch up on his sleep that he had missed. WRONG! When we got there with his napping stuff in hand, I was told he's five now - no more naps. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? LOL...poor Evan. I knew he would be tired, but he managed, and when I picked him up that afternoon, he was like the energizer bunny. He kept going, and going, and going. When we got home - sure nuf' he pulled his shirt and shorts off, kept his underwear on and jumped into his pool. Awee...so cool and refreshing. Cy joined him when he got home. Yep, it started to rain again, but who cares....the water was 82 degrees and they were loving the water. I on the other hand, watched them from the inside, while nursing Jacob.

It's mighty nice to have a pool. It's life to be the only feeding supply to my three-month old.

My Five Year Old Big Boy

Yeah! Yeah! It’s been what – three months since I last posted a blog? I’ve been quite busy these past three months. I mean, SUPER BUSY! It’s not like I could just have a baby and then boom – back to normal/same-ol-usual self again. Yeah, right – in any case – if you’re reading this and you did have a baby and then “went back to normal” – you’re NOT NORMAL! :)

As the title of this blog states “My five-yr. old Big Boy” – Cy and I are now parenting to a five year old! Wow – where has the time gone? Evan turned the BIG 5 on Thursday, May 13th. We started the day opening two of his gifts when he woke up. He has been “dying” to get a zhu zhu pet, which is what he got. And then three months prior to his birthday, he saw in CVS Pharmacy VW Bug cars. He was “dying” to have one too! But, of course, I being the parent put my foot down and said, “ah, no to the bug” – I did however, make a mental note about and got it for his birthday! He opened it first and instantly said, “Punch buggy, don’t punch back” – I know you all know the game…J and then came the 2nd gift – the zhu zhu pet (Num nums). Boy, was he happy! He didn’t know what to think. Well, I take that back, he did know what to think – he was thinking…my zhu zhu pet needs a house! Clever, clever is my five-year old! I told him, well, maybe he’ll get one later. For now, we need to get ready for school. Off we went to school.

At Harmony, they have a birthday celebration for the birthday kid. Evan couldn’t wait for his special day. Cy and I joined their circle time for his celebration of life event. We were super happy to be sharing this special day with Evan and all of his Harmony friends! At the end of circle time, Evan shared his birthday poster to the whole class. Afterwards, they posted it on the classroom door so everyone else can see it too!

Circle Time @ Harmony School

Poster of Pictures

That evening Grandma and Papas bought some “property” for Evan’s zhu zhu pet, Num nums, and Jacob gave him another zhu zhu pet (Jilly) so Num nums wouldn’t be alone. Boy, was he ever so happy!

I’m going to make this short - we had a birthday party for Evan on Saturday at Saluda Shoals Park. This was his third time having his party here and frankly, he enjoyed it and so did we! This year was different since we couldn’t invite everyone and their mama to his party. We kept it low-key and invited a few friends from school, plus his Royal Ranger friends. I'm sorry for those we didn't invite, but again - we kept it VERY LOW-KEY! We could NOT-NOT invite his “twin” Greer! She’s four hours older than Evan. The funny thing about their parties – Evan’s party was around lunch time and Greer’s party was in the late afternoon – same location, but different shelters. How funny is that? Great minds think alike, right April? Even though we were exhausted from our little party, Evan took a quick cat nap at home, and then headed back to Saluda Shoals for Greer’s party. He had a blast and enjoyed Greer’s party favor – a TIE-DYE shirt!! So unique, so cool, so Evan (he loves tie-dye stuff).

Sophia, Evan & Greer - ALL SMILES!

Celebrating Evan’s fifth birthday was a blast. I’m so glad it’s over!

Yo Gabba Gabba! Party favors - bubbles, ring & personalized tags!

This blog has moved

This blog is now located at http://wendyearly.blogspot.com/

Is it just me or is this work week going by slow?

Can this week get any slower? It's only Wednesday! I so wish it was the weekend. I have tons of things to do!!

== Here's a picture of the diaper cake my little sister Lani sent me. It didn't arrive in time for my surprise shower. Super cute! ==

Preparing someone for my job while I'm out on maternity leave is the pits. I'm hoping the person is capable and understands my job wears many hats in the office. Thankfully, our office has switched over to a new phone system and I have that down packed! I love getting new electronic devices...its that feeling of learning new things and all of its neat features.

Other than work-related stuff, we still have yet to find the hardware to our crib. But, hey we got the bassinet ready and I've washed most of the linens and will be working on washing new baby clothes and some of Evan's hand-me-downs. Then there's the cleaning and rearranging of furniture in the spare room (soon-to-be Jacob's room). I've got majority of Evan's smaller-sized clothes organized in labeled bins. It's just the matter of putting them neatly in the closet.

As a family of three, we went to the Greatest Show on Earth - R&B Circus this past weekend. It was well worth it. If you're a friend who is reading this and despises the circus - don't hate me! We thought long and hard about taking Evan and the circus is a childhood memory for both Cy and I. So, we thought Evan would enjoy it - which he did. Had great seats and was mesmerized throughout the entire show. Ask him what was his favorite part of the show...he'll say the elephants and tigers and dogs -- the boy just loves animals! Here he is with his laser toy he got at the circus.

And speaking of animals, I picked up some really cool-looking valentine's day cards with animals for his classmates at school. He's so excited about it. We're going to modify his V-day cards a little bit -- I'll have a picture after we finish. He's just super excited!!

I'm making mini cupcakes for his class and had to run out to Michael's last night after I picked Evan up from school to get some of the cute mini cupcake liners. Whatta ya know...of all nights, they were making a kids craft. How can we pass that up. Here's what Evan made at Michael's - a valentine's day bag.

Come on weekend....get here already!!

Another Surprise!

Blessed to have a job - very BLESSED to have coworkers showing me some love today!

The infamous, "Everyone, please meet in the conference room for a meeting," blared over the page system. Of course, everyone heads downstairs w/notepads and pens ready for a meeting. Wow -- the conference room table is decorated with a baby boy theme, nice big bowl of fruit and pretty silver tray garnished with brownies and petit fours -- all in my honor. Another surprise for me!

It's Friday and what a great afternoon surprise! Adriana organized this sweet surprise for me and I am forever surprised and grateful!

Muchas Gracias Adriana!!

Also

THANK YOU to Leisha for the yummy brownies and petit fours, and Joe for the colorful banners and to the rest of the gang for the Target gift card!

Off for the weekend to conquer my organization skills in Jacob's room and find the hardware for the crib! It's somewhere around our house....

Have a great weekend everyone!

24 Days

Yes, 24 days until we welcome little baby Jacob into this world. Time is definitely ticking and I’m getting more and more anxious every day. I just read a mommy blog – and most of these mommy’s have their hospital bags packed and ready to go! Erg! Makes me think what the heck? Am I supposed to have my hospital bag ready to go too? I feel like the lyrics from the Black Eyed Peas song, Boom, Boom, Pow….”I’m so 3008, you so 2000 and late”. I’m not BOOM, BOOM, POWING the pregnancy prep!

I had the most wonderful surprise on Sunday. There are not enough words to express the way I felt on Sunday. Our friend’s Lauralee and Carl invited us over for lunch after church. We hadn’t seen their house since they moved from their apartment at the end of last year. I told her we would bring a pitcher of sweet tea – if someone invites us over….we simple HAVE to bring something – never empty-handed. I was just raised that way. So, she said that was fine.

Little did I know that she and all of my close friends, mom and husband had other plans for me that day.

We showed up like 10 minutes late (yeah – you know my blog page name isn’t a joke – we are usually always late). As we approached the house, I didn’t notice the cars in front of their house – all except my friend Audra’s blue van. I love the color of her van and it stands out! By the time we pulled into the driveway, I said to Cy, “Oh man Cy, are they having something for us?” And his reply was, “I don’t know, let’s go see”. Sure enough, we opened the door and I saw Lauralee and then saw Audra doing what she does best - flashing her camera like a paparazzi! She was taking pictures of the “ WOW, Wendy is shock looks” – but then, as I turned to my right, looking into the living room….I just burst into tears! There standing were the most amazing women of my life – all my friends, plus my mom! You know I’m pregnant so the rush of hormones just exploded in me and I was in total shock and awe! I was filled with over-whelming joy and excitement. I couldn’t believe how many of my friends where jam packed like pickles in the living room. I was truly surprised! I mean, really – I even bought Lauralee a housewarming gift, wrapped up and everything. I honestly did not know nor had any inkling about the shower. Everyone was amazed at how well no one “spilled the beans” to me.

They had been planning my surprise shower since December. They pulled it off and got me – and GOT ME GOOD! Everyone was in on it – including my three wonderful sisters who are scattered around the world. Rhojon is in Germany and she sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. It made the table even more beautiful. Lani is in Japan and she sent an awesome diaper cake – but it didn’t arrive in time, and then my little sister Amy who resides on Maui. She sent an animal blanket and eco-friendly bag. When Evan was born, Amy sent him an animal blanket and he still sleeps with it. Now Jacob will have one of his own. To top it off…each of my sisters had been in contact with my good friend Audra and they had written a personal letter to me saying how much they wanted to be at the shower. Lots of tear-jerking gushy stuff. I didn’t read the letters out loud at the shower, but I did read the beautiful poem Lani wrote about us - Four Sisters. I was crying, my mom was crying, and I think just about everyone in the room had tears trickling. My sisters are amazing and I so wished they were physically there. But you know what, in all three letters – they stated how blessed and fortunate I am to have sister-friends in my life who love me, be there for me and would put this all together – just as they would have if they lived nearby. My sisters are right! I am so grateful and I’m truly blessed to have close sister-friends here in South Carolina. I love surprises and love surprising others. That was the best, by far the best surprise ever!

If you’re reading this blog…again, there are not enough words to describe how much love I felt on Sunday. I can’t call out everyone’s name, but I know Audra out-did herself with planning and prepping (invitations, contacting my sisters, etc.), as well as Lauralee opening up her home to have the party, plus all the ladies who bought food, my mom, my three sisters and including my sweet Cy who made sure not to spill the beans, and made sure to get me there. So much hard work and effort for little ol’ ME! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

I don’t have pictures…but lots were taken. SCRATCH THAT - I see Audra has posted a picture of me on facebook. More to come! I’m sure Audra will give me a copy of them so I can share them. For now, here’s the beautiful invitation Audra created.

And I’ve also included a rather funny picture of Jacob taken at 33 weeks. It’s not his penis. Yep – you guessed it! It’s a little baby birdie flicking us off! Guess he wasn’t pleased by getting his picture taken. Hah!!