November is the month of birthdays on my side of the family. Mom, Marsha, Garrett, Nate, and now Bruce too (maybe forgetting someone... am I?). Kaci learned the Happy Birthday Song to sing to Mom, unfortunately, she didn't answer the phone in time to hear it. But, later I got it on video. Happy Birthday Mom! And Happy Birthday to everyone else this month too.
Should I be offended that Brad gets all the cool nick-names from Kaci? She never calls me anything but Mom.
Kaci now affectionately calls Brad Daddy-Boy! That's right. Daddy-Boy! Guess what Brad was for Halloween... it's a lifelong dream of his to have a Charlie Brown shirt... he may or may not wear this to school now, with flip flops, in 30 degree weather.
Oh, I guess she has figured out that everyone else calls me Kerri, so sometimes she yells "HEY! Kay-EE!" She's also caught on that Daddy-Boy also responds to Brad.
Kaci is talking so much now, catches onto everything anyone says. Her vocabulary and pronunciation is pretty amazing to us. She's constantly asking us to "Watch ME! Watch ME!" Her favorite thing to perform for us lately is to "ula-oop" with beads. She also tells us to "TRY!" when we say we can't do something, like hula hoop with the beads.
Halloween Festivities are in full swing... here we are carving our pumpkin.
We started the trick-or-treating festivities on Wednesday. Bridgewater College opens up their dorms and the college kids decorate and pass out TONS of candy. They also do a little carnival. Kaci was scared out of her mind, until she saw a little baby dressed up like a duck. Here is Kaci's FIRST costume... a haunted homemaker aka a witch. Her loot. She could have had double this but she would always only take one piece of candy when the they told her to take 3 or 4. One time a guy was about to give her like 10 snickers, but she took just ONE again. Bummer, I'm still sad about that. On Thursday we went to the mall for their Monster Mash. The advertisement said there would be trick-or-treating, costume judging, and a dance party. Boy was there ever a Dance Party. I didn't bring my camera which is the greatest let down of the century because the Dance Party was solely kids ages 18 months to 6 shakin' it with the Dukettes (a dance team from JMU). It was AMAZING. Kaci wanted to be Rela (Cinderella) this time after seeing other kids dressed up like Cinderella. She's obsessed with Cinderella right now, she trys to sing like her which is so cute! And she's always uber excited when it's time for Cinderella to dance with her prince. She runs around the house yelling "rela DANCE prince!!" My mom had sewn her some dress up clothes which I decided to turn into a Cinderella costume. Kaci loved it! Yes! It was only Thursday and she already had tons of candy. Little did she know that today, the day of Halloween, she'll go trick-or-treating THREE more times.
The funny part about all this madness is that I don't really like all the candy, Kaci licks it and throws most of it away, and Brad eats all the peanut butter stuff, but that's it. Honestly, I just figure that it's something to do for free and I am all about that! Trick-or-treating HERE WE COME!!
Some memories with true friends are so real that on a dreary day in Virginia...
I wish I had two dollars in change and a couple hours to stand at a bus stop. I long to wade out and flail around in the water like a seal, dolphin, whale. Relish in the joys of emerging and splashing in the water. I can almost taste Acai, feel the rocks from the Island Shack under my feet, smell the salty Hawaiian air, and see her reading "Free Surf" with more intensity than an Olympic weightlifter. I can hear her singing "HIKI MAI E NA PUA I KA LA’IE" over the waves and taste the salty water as it splashes on our faces paddling on our surfboards. I can feel the wind blowing in our faces and the sweat glistening on our foreheads and we pedal to campus. I can hear the pounding of our feet on the pavement as we run around Laie and feel the shortness of breath from laughing and talking as we run.
As the day of birthing draws nearer... I'm thinking about you, praying for you, and longing to be there to hold that precious little girl who gets to call YOU her mother. I'm hoping she's an exact replica of you, the world needs more people just like you.
Okay, so there are two wards in the Burg. Basically, they are "separate but equal." I'm the 1st Ward groupie (I'm the in the 2nd Ward). I crash a lot of their stuff because ALL the young moms are in that ward (seriously, there are like 10 moms with kids Kaci's age). Honestly I get the best of both wards because my ward has all the moms with 5 kids who basically have it all figured out, know all the trips and tricks, and I crash the other ward to hang out with Moms my own age who are still experimenting like I am.
On Saturday, some of the 1st ward people were running a 5K. I got an honorary invite to join them. So I did. I haven't run more than 2 miles since I've been in VA for a lot of reasons: 1) There are hills EVERYWHERE 2) I have to push Kaci UP said hills if I want to go running and keep up with the stroller as we zoom DOWN them 3) Kaci has a limited attention span 4) In Hawaii I ran 8 miles once and that pretty much cured me of any desire to run long distances.
I feel like a 10 minute mile is do-able for an average joe like me who is active enough to claim that I "work out regularly". Since learning to run more than a sprint I've been able to hack a 10 minute mile... on flat ground in Arizona, on sand in Hawaii... my results for a not-so-flat ground in Virginia... drum roll please....
After hours and hours of researching anguish and a very insightful email from Cass
I booked our hotel
for the night before the parade, just 5 miles from the parade route. It's official, we're really going to go. I'm SO excited!!
Seriously, anyone going to come? Once in a lifetime for sure, well, for me at least... unless it is so mind blowing amazing (like it's going to be) and I do this every year for the rest of my life... fundraisers here I come... joking... kinda
Just about a zillion other things to plan in the next few weeks, like more fundraisers, what else can I possibly sell?
QUESTION: anyone use those heat warmers that are disposable, ya know they start heating up once they are out of their air tight package and last for hours? would they keep Kaci warm if I pinned a couple hundred of them to the inside of her coat?
