My Little Olympian!

Kaylea graduated her Level 1 Seal Pups class and received her gold medal! Here she is posing with her gold medal and her classmates and the second one is with her swim instructor Ms. Alexa. She was very proud. They played Olympic music and had them stand on the podium and gave them each gold medals and certificates. It was all very official! Tonight she moves on to Level 1-2 with a new class but same instructor! Go Kaylea!

Make a Wish Kaylea Style

Eric and Kaylea were in the car and listening to sports radio.... (hmmm I wonder who chose that station?)during one of our hurricane season downpours this week. Anyway, a commercial came on for the Make a Wish foundation. It had multiple little kids coming on air to say what they were making a wish for.... and went on about how the program helps make these kids wishes come true etc etc. Kaylea believed it applied to her and said, "I'm making a wish that I can go the park with my Daddy!" (I know so sweet!) But, Daddy reminded her that it was storming and they would have to go another day. And Kaylea reminded him that the commercial said it makes kid's wishes come true! :-)

Kaylea's Seal Swim School Picture

Here is Kaylea's School Picture they took at her "Seal Swim School". It turned out really well so we bought it and they even gave us the original digital file so we can get it blown up for her wall! She really loves her swim class. You never know.... you all might see her at the Olympics one day! :-)

The Big 3-0!

Well my friends I did it. I turned the big 3-0 yesterday. This morning I woke up and went to my fitness bootcamp I've started to work off the Chocolate Cobbler I had from Cracker Barrel last night lol. (I'm so tired!)

To celebrate my birthday, Eric took Kaylea and I to Daytona Beach for Saturday night and Sunday. We stayed at a little place called the Hawaiian Inn and it was nice and relaxing. It was very family oriented... not the Ritz, but good enough for us. What was great is the view from our balcony - right onto the ocean!

Saturday night we went to a Luau that they do there. It is a show with Hula dancers and Hawaiian music. I got to go up on stage and learn the "Huki Lao" (not sure the correct spelling) in front of everybody, and then later they brought Eric and Kaylea on stage to do some dancing too! Getting Eric on stage to dance with a Hula Girl pretty much made my night (he's not one to go on stage). So it was a great time! Kaylea practiced her swimming and we had a chance to relax as a family. Daytona is a lot nicer than I expected it to be. I always pictured it as a dirty beach and a party town, but in fact where we were was very clean, clear water and family oriented and not crowded. We want to make it a point to do a one night getaway every couple of months. Its great bonding time for all of us and relaxing time too... gets you out of the reality of the world as you know it and takes your mind off stressful stuff! You should do the same! :-)

Here are some more pics from our trip to Daytona Beach.

3 Year Old Responsibility

This morning I headed to the gym at 6:30am. Usually when I go to the gym, Kaylea knows she has to wake her daddy up and that is a big task. Waking Eric up can be a very hard thing even for an adult to do... you have to practically pull him out of bed lol.

Well this morning Kaylea woke up and realized Mommy was not there, so she walked over to Eric's side of the bed and started to tickle him and said, "Tickle, tickle tickle!" in her cute little girl giggly voice. It wasn't working I guess, so she piped up and in a very serious tone said, "Daddy you have to wake up! It's my responsibility to wake you up!"

That got Eric up and laughing. I wish I had been there because I've never heard a three year old say the word "Responsibility" before! :-)

She has a better grip on her responsibilities than most adults! I just love these adorable moments... these little phrases just melt your heart away!

Eric's 30th Birthday Dinner at Molly Goodheads

http://picasaweb.google.com/kayleasmom/EricSBirthday

Summer Meets Bill Rancic

So here was the highlight of my trip. It was Monday night and Eric had already flown back. I was planning on going back to my hotel and ordering a Giordanos pizza for dinner and watching their limited television stations. So, I walk out of the McCormick Place Convention Center and I see Bill Rancic. I'm freaking out thinking, "Wow thats Bill Rancic!" I know you are asking yourselves "Who is Bill Rancic?" Well I will explain that later.

So there is a long line for cabs so I have time to waste. I go nearby and try to get a couple of pics from my cell phone. Then another girl comes up and says is that really Bill Rancic? Both of us wanted to talk to him but neither of us had the courage yet. Then I decided why not. What's the worst that can happen? So I go up and introduce myself and hand him my card.

Now who is Bill Rancic? Bill (now that we are on a first name basis lol) is the very first winner of the TV show "The Apprentice" hosted by Donald Trump. He won a job working for Donald Trump in Chicago. He still works for Trump by helping him with the TV show Apprentice, but has also written two books. Prior to the show he had started his own online Cigar business called Cigars Around the World and it is now a multi million dollar business. All that said, and "HE IS HOT!" :-) And married to Giuliana DePandi (Rancic) from the E Television Network and former Miss USA.

So I hung out with him and chatted for about 10 minutes. Told him my name, company and explained what I did for a living. We talked about wine for a little bit and then he asked me where I was staying. I couldn't say "Ramada Inn in the ghetto" so I played it off and said, "somewhere off Lakeshore Drive in Hyde Park". He said, "oh. ok. Well next time you should stay at the Trump!" Yeah I think so too believe me!

So he asked me if I was going to the dinner party that night. Didn't want to seem stupid so I just said, "I'm not sure yet." (In my head I was thinking... what dinner party and where?) The VP of Marketing with the VIP checklist obviously noticed my confusion and came over and non-chalantly whispered in my ear... "You wanna go I can get you on the list?" Um let me think... YEAH! So I waited with the group of 40 VIP guests to go on the double decker bus to the Nine Steakhouse in Chicago.

I've never ridden a double decker bus till now. I walked up the steep stairs on the bus with Bill Rancic right behind me. The whole time I'm thinking... "Don't trip or do anything embarassing and Bill Rancic's face is at my butt's eye level! Ack!" So we rode the bus to the Nines and were escorted upstairs to the VIP room that overlooked the entire restaurant (which was very hip and trendy by the way). Bill Rancic spoke and we had a fully catered dinner and open/free bar! I ate dinner with the E-commerce girl and VP of Lowe's Home Improvement (these were the types of people at this dinner party!) Little ol me hanging out! I even got a swag gift! A box of Harry London Chocolates and a USB jump drive

SO to sum up this long story... I was in the right place at the right time. I got to eat a free dinner at an exclusive steakhouse with Bill Rancic and other Business VIP, ride a double decker bus and get free stuff! Amazing night I will never forget.

Today I called Bill's agent and got his address so I can ship him a bottle of wine. Oh yeah! :-)

Back from Chicago!

Well we are back from Chicago! Actually Eric came back on Monday and I stayed at the conference Monday through Wednesday. I went to attend the Internet Retailer Conference for my company. Since Eric's birthday was that week we decided to fly Eric up with me on Saturday and spend the weekend in the city before the conference started. We had alot of fun!

Our first day in Chicago we spent walking.... walking and walking around the Navy Pier and some of the city. The Navy Pier is really neat with lots of little shops and restaurants. We managed to fulfill every Chicago tradition in one weekend. At the Navy Pier we stopped at "America's Dog" and got a "Chicago Dog" and an "Italian Beef Sandwich" both of which Chicago is known for. The Chicago Dog was really good. The only thing strange about it was that it had a whole dill pickle cut up on top of it, which made it pretty hard to eat. But it was definitely yummy! The Italian Beef Sandwich (I got mine with hot peppers) was really like a glorified French Dip to me... like a French Dip Sandwich that had already been dipped. It was ok... but not nearly as good as the Chicago Dog.

After pigging out... literally! We decided to walk it off. We had a couple of hours to spare until the show we were going to see "Cirque Shanghai" (a Chinese acrobat show). So we walked more around the Navy Pier and the nearby parks and city. We got our picture taken with Bob Newhart (actually just the statue of Bob Newhart), and we tried on some really cool Afro wigs! I tried to convince Eric we should buy these but I guess we needed to spend that money on something better. (What could be better than some 70s afros? Really?)

So after walking the city we went to see the Cirque Shanghai show. It was absolutely phenomenol! I've never seen anything like it. They balanced tiny little plates on wires while doing cartwheels and making human pyramids. At one point a girl actually balanced 10 chairs on her knees while another girl balanced on top of them! It was crazy, but so neat. Kind of like Cirque de Soleil but this was called Cirque Shanghai. It was a really cool show and makes me want to go see the Soleil now.

After the show and the Navy Pier we headed to see a movie. Yeah I know why see a movie when you are in a town of all kinds of fun. 1.) it was pouring rain 2.) we never get to go to the movies together cause we have a 3 year old! So we went to see the movie - "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". Absolutely hysterical. I don't think either of us has ever laughed so hard at a movie before. We both recommend going to see this movie for some good laughs... but be warned of its funny yet graphic nature! (I can't say any more)

After resting our feet and laughing till our sides hurt, we took a cab back to the hotel and ordered a Giordanos pizza. Now my friend Mari told me we wouldn't be able to finish a "small" pie. But neither Eric or I believed this. Its a 10 inch pizza. Come on we could each eat two! Until we got the pizza and realized it weighed ten pounds! No joke! It was like 2.5 inches thick and filled with sausage and pepperoni and cheese and the sauce on top. Sounds weird like an inside out pizza, but it was AWESOME! (PS - just saw a sign for a Giordanos opening up here!)

Because this is getting so long, I will make the next day short. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo - a free zoo imagine that?! Then we went to see yet another movie (tired feet). We went to see the Zohan movie with Adam Sandler (I'm a huge Adam Sandler fan).... and actually it wasn't that funny. The Sarah Marshall movie was much funnier and made with unknowns! :-)

So in short folks, on our trip to Chicago, we took the bull by the horns and had a lot of fun!

Here is a link to the rest of our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/kayleasmom/Chicago

Our Little Seal!

Kaylea kicking her feet with the teacher Ms. Alexa

Kaylea has started her summer lessons at the "Seal Swim School". She took swim classes there two years ago when she was just turning 1 years old and did well, but of course there is only so much a one year old can learn.

Well this year, she is doing awesome! She is in the Level 1 class and this time without parents being in the water with them. They put her under the water almost immediately... this class is obviously more advanced than her previous, but she is loving it. She hasn't cried or fussed, but instead smiles and claps and even screamed out, "I can do it!" Its so fun to watch her in swim class and the instructors there are the best I have seen as far as interacting with kids. They have alot of enthusiasm and are great with the young ones like Kaylea. I will post more pictures and/or video as she progresses this year!

Ms. Alexa guiding Kaylea to the wall while swimming underwater. It looks scary but she was all smiles!

Kaylea's Graduation

Our little girl is growing up! She sang at the PreK graduation last week. Sorry I haven't had a chance to post pictures till now. She did more standing and looking at the other kids than singing but it was cute none the less. Things I did not catch on video were her dancing with the little boy in the front row with her and Kaylea standing in the front row pulling her dress up (aaack!)

It was a really cute graduation and I know when she gets to do the whole cap and gown bit I am going to cry. Afterwards we headed to the gym for some cake - then we hit Bob Evans! :-)

Mimi and Kaylea at PreK Graduation

Kaylea's 1st Haircut!

We have debated about whether or not to cut her hair for a long time. I think if Eric or my mom had their way they would still not have her cut it. Her hair is so long and beautiful! But, I wanted her to get it trimmed just to get the dead ends off and keep it healthy. So, we took Kaylea to get her very first haircut yesterday (June 1st, 2008). She really did a great job. She was very nervous about going and kept saying she did not want to get her hair cut. We made a deal with her that Eric would get his cut first then me then her just to ease her into it. Well, Eric had to go to work so I made a deal with her that she could watch them cut my hair first then she could go. Also I promised her I'd take her to get a donut afterwards as a reward.

So she agreed and then as her turn got there... she got excited about it! She was thrilled to sit in her own special booster seat and have a kid's cape on around her. She smiled the whole time, and it ended up being fun (not like she expected!) She got to keep a little piece of her hair in a card that had the date on it.


So I did as promised and took her to Dunkin Donuts where she picked out a chocolate frosted donut with pink sprinkles. As we walked out of Dunkin Donuts Kaylea said, "Mommy! Did you see all those people in there were lookin' at me! They thought my hair was beautiful and they were lookin at me cause my hair is so pretty!" I busted out laughing. So cute! And the rest of the day she just kept saying how beautiful she was with her "new hair". :-)

Last Day of School

Well today is Kaylea's last day of school before the summer. I can't believe my little girl is growing up! When I dropped her off today I got all of the things she had worked on through the year it was really neat. Also I got her class picture! Notice Kaylea is posed with the boys and is a good 6 inches taller than the rest of her classmates! That's my girl!


Tonight she is going to sing at the Pre-K graduation and then tomorrow her class has a end of the year picnic. Then the summer begins! Kaylea starts swim lessons next week. She will go three times a week for a half hour each time and this year mommies and daddies don't get in the pool with them! (Biting my nails!)

Then she will have three weeks of camp at her current school this summer (just random weeks we picked). Week 1 will be themed Florida Plants and Animals. Week 2 is Camping week where they will camp out in their class, fish in their water table and go on a flashlight adventure! Week 3 is Dr. Seuss book week, and perhaps her favorite I expect as she loves reading and loves all her Dr. Seuss books.

And so the summer begins!

That's my brain!

Last night I bent down to kiss Kaylea's forehead as I was rocking her to sleep. She said, "Mommy, that's my brain! You just kissed my brain... cause my brain is in there!" Don't you know it my smart little one - Dr. Kay!

Too Slow!

Last night as I was rocking Kaylea to sleep and singing to her, I sang her "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor. We have sung this many times and she knows the words to it. Well I got to the part that says, "You just call on my name and you know where ever I am... I'll come running (I added: just as fast as I can) to see you again". Well Kaylea quickly responded, "No you won't Mommy cause you are tooooo SLOW! Your not fast really fast fast, your slow and my room isn't big enough for you to run fast!" :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, its Memorial Day and I have to work today... but only till 5pm so not too bad. This weekend was pretty jam packed for us. On Saturday night, Eric and I got to have a date! I surprised him with tickets to the Alicia Keys concert. I got fixed up and looked pretty darn cute I have to say! (See my picture above!) I didn't take my camera because it said no photography on the tickets, but when I got there everyone had their camera. Darn! Anyways, we were right by the stage in lower arena. Our seats were amazing and the concert was great too.... Jordan Sparks and Neo opened for her.

The next day bright and early, Eric's uncle Tommy, wife Samantha and her son Alex, and Eric's mom, dad and little sister Courtney came over. Tommy is building a deck for me in exchange for me building a website for his new Private Investigation Agency. But Tommy did have some help... cause Wes and Eric helped build it all day with him. THANK YOU ALL! Its awesome! We love it! And thanks for helping Wes!

So this is part to of Summer and Eric's Extreme Home Makeover! Rocks have been put in around the plants, the pool is now blue and it tested perfectly balanced, and the hot tub is fixed! Plus we added the deck and a hammock this weekend. (Can't see the hammock in the picture.)

Our next steps will be a barbeque pit/area, getting our grass green, pressure washing the pool area, rescreening some of the screens and thats all I can think of for now. By the end of the summer it will be ready to enjoy! LOL jk.... we are enjoying it now! :-)

Asleep Sitting Up!

This week Kaylea tried out a new all day daycare/preschool since Mimi and Gada were gone and couldn't watch her during the day. Well she isn't used to going to school all day long and playing so hard I guess. Every night I'd pick her up and we'd get dinner and she'd eat it at my work the last hour. Then on our way home from work or after we got home she would konk out asleep. Here I caught her on Thursday night. After we got home she fell asleep sitting up on the couch she was so tired. I couldn't resist taking her picture!

A New School & a New Back Yard

Yesterday and today I have been really nervous. Mom and Dad had to go out of town and so we had to find a daycare option for Kaylea for the week. We are letting her try out a new school and she will be there all day every day this week! Yesterday she cried when we left. Today, she grabbed the teacher's hand and ran off towards the playground not looking back and said, "Bye mom!" I guess I am more nervous than she is! Anywho, keep your prayers going for Kaylea this week and for mom and dad as well. They need it!

Now onto a new garden. In an attempt to keep my activity level I've decided to switch some of my chores with Eric and handle some of the outside duties. I'm rather proud of myself too! We bought a new lawnmower on our Home Depot card (no interest 12 months deal). Well it had sat in the van for two weeks as I was out of town, and Eric was working and hurt his side so he couldn't lift that week. So, this past week I got it out after work put it together, oiled it up and mowed our front and back lawn! (This reminds me of that Annie get your gun skit "I can do anything you can do better, I can do anything better than you!") Well I won't say I can do the lawn better than Eric, HOLY COW it takes a lot of muscle strength to mow Florida lawns. You Kentucky people don't know how easy you have it! In Florida our ground is all sand. ALL SAND. No dirt! So when you go to turn the lawn mower the wheels just spin holes in the sand! It was such a workout to mow the lawn that I actually had a vein pop out of my arm near my elbow whenever I flexed my muscle - after mowing! Crazy! I don't wanna be a body builder! Good news is after mowing I lost all the water weight I gained on the cruise! LOL

So seeing the results from the weight loss I decided to continue and not give up. I vaccuumed the pool and cleaned the filter twice and dug half a trench for a garden on Saturday. I was pooped. Utterly exhausted. So, Sunday, Eric helped me finish the gardening area.... he helped me dig the rest of the trench and we went to Home Depot to use our coupon before it expired and bought 2 Bottle Palm Trees, 2 Hibiscus Plants, 2 White Lilies and 1 elephant ear plant... and some little green plants as fillers to go in between. We also bought 15 bags of dark colored stones to lay on top. It was hard work just loading and unloading all this stuff! Thank God for Eric's help on Sunday! I wanted my father's day present to him to be this nice renovated backyard... but I gave up doing it on my own and had to recruit him to help LOL. It is hard work... (yes I know Eric you told me so!)

So we finally got all the plants planted and called it a day around 4:30pm. Pooped again. Tonight we have to even out the sand and put the stones out. Eric's uncle Tommy is going to help us build a deck, and I still need to get the pool area pressure washed, plant more plants, build a pathway to the deck, and get a hammock and more and more.... I'm totally renovating our backyard... cause this summer I actually want to use it! I will post new pictures to show our progress as we go!

PS - yes I know our grass is brown and dead... thats Florida for you! I called True Green Chemlawn out for a spray and a few waterings it should be back to normal. See in FL water is short so we can only water our lawns I think once a week - we aren't priveleged like Kentuckians with beautiful bluegrass. I'm praying it rains here...we had dark clouds this morning... but now its blue sky and sun. Rain please!

Mother's Day

Sorry I haven't posted in a while... been super busy catching up from vacation. So here is an update on what we did for Mother's Day. First we got up and got ready and headed to my mom's house to take "Mimi" to lunch at El Zarape Mexican restaurant. The mexican restaurant trip was part of my Mother's Day present from Eric and Kaylea and so I brought my mom along for the ride. Mother's Day was a great excuse for cheating on my diet! We had very yummy flan and Kaylea loved her fried ice cream as you can see in the picture!

After lunch we headed to Eric's mom's house to wish her a Happy Mother's Day and from there we al headed to eric's Uncle Tommy's house to plant a garden in honot of Eric's grandmother. Everyone brought a plant and/or seeds and I know Grandma was happy.

After planting the garden we hung out, ate dinner, and the kids swam. Look at this adorable couple pictured below! :-)

Sean-y, Courtney, and Kaylea
all enjoyed time in the swimming pool!

After dinner and after swimming Kaylea and everyone else ate some juicy watermelon (except me of course cause I don't like Watermelon).

It was a very Happy Mother's Day!

Back from the Bahamas

We are back and we have learned two things on this trip! The Bahamas are beautiful .... and never take a free (or close to free) offer for a cruise and not expect to pay something or go through a time share presentation! Luckily we got out of the presentation because our cruise had to board and they didn't have time to give us the presentation... not to mention we didn't know about it until after we had paid for the port fees etc.

Anyways, the cruise itself... well it wasn't Royal Carribean or Carnival, but Eric and I go with the flow so we still had fun. Its all what you make it. Many complained about the accomadations and the little boat and cheesy entertainment and bad food.... as for us... we were away from home for two days and that was good enough for us!

Kaylea had a blast and was so perfectly well behaved even we were in shock I think! I also think she was so excited to have her Daddy back after being in KY with out him, that she was extra sweet! She even had good table manners and was commented on many times by other cruisers as to how good and how cute she was. (Mommy is proud!)

The entertainment while cheesy ... still gave us a good laugh and so we enjoyed it. Kaylea loved the show, she loves music and dancing, and she couldn't keep the smile off her face! After the show they opened the floor for dancing so Kaylea boogied down and even danced with an older couple there. Then of course she had to dance with her daddy.

Each night we listened to the "Music under the stars". The girl who sang had a good voice, but a strong accent.... and she must have only known those certain songs because she definitely couldn't do requests and she sang the same songs the next night. But its ok because it put Kaylea peacefully to sleep each night.

Once we arrived in the Bahamas, we went on a shore excursion to Cable Beach Resort. It was absolutely the best part of the trip and so relaxing. They had a HUGE pool, a live band, and the most soft sandy beach I've ever been to. The water was so clear and blue. It was gorgeous! We both said we'd love to go stay there next time instead of going on a cruise! The other good thing is we got to eat at Cable Beach and their buffet was out of this world... we were so hungry because the food on board had been less than desirable, so when we got to that lunch buffet and it was so good, we filled up our plates! Yummy!

On the beach there were ladies selling purses and braiding hair, so we asked Kaylea if she wanted to get her hair braided and she did. She got to sit and pick out lots of pretty colored beads out of this big bag full of beads. I couldn't believe she sat so still! She won't sit still for 30 seconds for me to do her hair, but she sat still for 5-10 minutes for this Bahamian woman to do her hair! It looks really pretty.... Eric calls her our little Bo Derek LOL.

After cable beach we headed shopping downtown and went to the straw market. Kaylea had talked us into buying three things before we even left the first row of the straw market... so we didn't stay too long. She got a toy turtle handmade from coconuts and wood (that she already broke). She also got a toy flute that she won't stop playing, and a little straw purse handmade with a picture of Hello Kitty sewed in with straw and they sewed her name onto it so it says Kaylea on it!

Overall we had a great time... maybe not as good as other cruise liners.... and we probably won't take another promotional offer again, but we still had fun and had a chance to relaz together as a family. That said... we sure are happy to be home!

To see all of our pictures from the trip go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kayleasmom/Bahamas2008/photo#s5199088120988283218

A slideshow from our trip to KY