Sunday, July 6, 2008

A TOOF!!!

That's right, you read it correctly! Little Miss Cutelyn (as her dadday calls her) has a TOOF! She's been sort of cranky and hypersensitive lately, so I guess I should have known. Today I yelled for Chris to come see something on tv and she got so upset with me for yelling. I felt so bad. I guess I should have known, but this is my first toof, so how could I have known? I was feeding her sweet potatoes and looked down and saw something white poking just above the gumline. I stuck my finger in her mouth and ran it along the gum line and lo and behold, it's a TOOF! I was dreading this moment, to be honest, when my normally happy child started teething because I was SURE it would mean Ms. Crankpot all the time. NOPE! She's been somewhat cranky, but not as bad as I expected! YEAY KAITLYN!

A HUGE yeay for Gordon! Mr. Man got himself adopted and is apparently adapting WONDERFULLY in his new home. He even slept in the bedroom of his new sister, which thrilled her to no end! Good work, Gordon!

Mom was up last week helping out with Kaitlyn while Ms. Lida and her family were in Disneyworld. It was awesome to have her here. I could work from home and help out with Kaitlyn when necessary (which was hardly ever). I got so much work done and had so much peace of mind....it really took a huge load off my shoulders. I can't wait to have mom up here again.

Chris has officially started his internship with Volkswagen and will be living with us for the next six months. We're in the honeymoon period, but so far so good.

Tomorrow I start physical therapy for my neck and back. They haven't been right since the accident, so hopefully I'll get some relief. I'm sort of bad about doing the home exercises though, so we'll see.

Last, but most certainly not least, Brent was promoted in the Army! He earned Sergeant First Class!!! Yeay honey bunches!! I'm so proud of him for continuing to serve our country and definitely proud of him for getting promoted. He fought long and hard for this promotion and as a result of his actions, others in his specialty can be promoted too! That's my honey!

Okay, that's it for now. More to come when I've had more sleep! ;-)

Friday, June 6, 2008

Where to beginnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn....

Okay, first off, Kaitlyn had her Christening. All went well, beyond some "church giggle" type incidents during mass. It's not my fault the priest told a funny story! And Kaitlyn got hungry in the quietest part of the service, so that was unexpected. Greatgrandma Langley, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Ken, Chris and Terri attended the service. We were the only ones dressed up, the rest of the congregation was dressed down. It was hot as BLAZES too! Either way, another notch in the belt of childhood for Kaitlyn.

The next day, we saw her boyfriend Grant at his parents' house. Parties are always fun Chez Harris. We were going to try to take Kaitlyn into the pool, but the temp was 55 degrees. No thanks!

In the household, the animal to human ratio continues to fluctuate. Chocolate and two of her kittens were adopted out. We had one kitten left and she was lonely so we added Zula. Zula and Caramel are still trying to figure out if they like each other, but they are doing very well with the dogs. The beagle boys and I are going to the adoption day this weekend. It would be cool if they got some interest.

Some interesting storms in the area. We lost half of a 12 year old Maple tree in our backyard, along with some siding. This happened on the day of the second HART yard sale, so Brent, Meg Hart and I were frantically trying to get the yard sale stuff back in the garage in tornado like weather. It was awesome....awesomely bad. Meg and I went to the adoption day, soaked to the bone. I told Charlene that if she ever needed proof of my dedication to HART, she need only remember me sopping wet.

All in all, the two yard sales combined raised about $1800+ for HART. Not bad. I'll definitely think long and hard about doing another one. This one drained me. So...much...stuff.

I had an autocross June 1. I didn't do so hot. 5th out of 8. I was pretty distracted the whole day since that was the first time Brent and Kaitlyn came out. Not sure if that had anything to do with it, but I was definitely outdriven that day. Gotta work on not getting skunked again.

Kaitlyn's rolling now. She rolls all over the room, giving her parents and the dogs fits! The dogs are never sure which way she's going to go and her parents are constantly wondering how she wound up where she is in the short amount of time she was on the floor. She's starting to dig the exersaucer more and more, even spinnning herself around ever so slightly to get to her toys. Babies are so much fun!

That's all the news that's fit to print. Until next time.......

Monday, May 12, 2008

Growed!!!

Well, he did it! Chris graduated from William and Mary! I won't publish his GPA, but soon enough, that won't matter anyway. If you are looking to hire some fresh meat, straight out of college to do technology consulting, hit him up. We're all very proud of him and he looked so handsome yesterday. I told him he's not my little brother any more! He's all growed. Brent took some pics of Chris with Kaitlyn. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Speaking of Kaitlyn, we got a TON of compliments of varying kinds yesterday. They ranged from "What a good baby" to "What an adorable baby" to "Thanks for carrying her for nine months, I'll just go ahead and take her off your hands now!" (you know who you are) Kaitlyn didn't cry at all during the ceremony and did really well meeting her great grandma Langley for the first time.

Which brings me to my next point and what a small world it is. My grandmother's nephew was sitting next to us the entire ceremony watching his son graduate. It wasn't until after the ceremony was over that it was revealed who he was. This is definitely a small world kind of scenario as both are originally from Pittsburgh, PA and found each other in Williamsburg, VA! WHO KNEW? It was later revealed that Chris had several classes with his 3rd cousin and that nobody was really a fan of that part of the family. But bygones!! That's a story for the ages!

One of the kittens will be going to his forever home this weekend. It's the only boy (Peanut) and his new mom spent 2 hours at the house on Saturday meeting him and playing with he and his sisters. I gotta introduce Peanut to dogs to see how he does as he will be a companion for the dog in his new home, but I think he'll do really well. He was so exhausted from all the attention on Sat that he sacked out on my lap. I love how kittens sleep, belly up and dead to the world. Kind of how babies sleep. Oh wait, that's not that much of a stretch since they are both babies, just of different species......See how smart I am? I figured that out all on my own.

Mother's day was kind of a jacked day for me since it was Chris' graduation, but it was kind of a surreal experience anyway. Every day is sort of mother's day with Kaitlyn. Her big gummy grin is so fulfilling and rewarding that I don't need trinkets or cards on mother's day. Just seeing her smile is enough for me. Of course, that feeling fades somewhat with a colossally poopy diaper (a daily occurence in case you were wondering), but nothing in life is perfect. Plus, we haven't had a blow out in MONTHS, so there's not much more I could ask for!

Happy Mother's day to all you mothers out there. It's moms that make the world go 'round!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Roll over, Beethoven!!

Well, okay, not Beethoven, but Kaitlyn did two flips from back to tummy this weekend. She gets a little frustrated as this then means some self-induced tummy time, but bygones! Brent and I realized that this means she'll be crawling in no time and started looking around the house to see what needed to be baby-proofed. Wonder if the dogs can be wrapped in bubble wrap. The cats won't be much of an issue as they are already used to being kicked by me and by Kaitlyn. They will tolerate anything as long as there's still a warm place for them to sleep at night!

So, this weekend was a busy one. Our household grew by four, courtesy of a Chocolate and her kittens - Caramel, Nougat and Peanut. I don't anticipate they'll be around for long as they are all very cute and very sweet. Currently they are quarantined until I make sure they are disease free. I think they'll probably stay quarantined as Chocolate doesn't seem very fond of dogs. I brought Sunshine down to meet them and it went better than expected, but still not very well. I can't imagine how Chocolate will do with all four dogs, especially since Gordon seems predisposed to chase cats.

I had a race this weekend and came in second. I was pretty happy with my performance and hope to maintain that level throughout the season. I think not being pregnant will help with that! Hopefully Brent and Kaitlyn will be able to make it out to the next event as I think some of my fellow racers are starting to doubt that I really had a baby!! Understandable as I have my svelte figure back....NOT!

So I'm getting ready to celebrate my first REAL mother's day ever. Kind of surreal, actually. I'm a mom! When did that happen? Either way, as if the universe didn't know it already, that makes Kaitlyn extra super special as she's the one who made me a mom. Nobody else will ever be able to say that. Thanks, Kaitlyn! I accept the responsibility gladly. I love ya bebe child!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

To blog or not to blog

Well, now that we have little Miss Kaitlyn, I'm going to try this blog thing so friends and family far and wide can keep up with her progress. I may even document what's going on with Brent and I as a bonus. I can't imagine people would get bored reading about Kaitlyn, but just in case they do, I'll be prepared.

As a general overview, the Shoups are a very busy family. Brent is in the Army full time for another year, Kelly's working as a Business Analyst for CGI, and everybody revolves around Kaitlyn - which is as it should be.

Family Members:
Brent - husband, dad extraordinaire
Kelly - wife, mom of the year
Kaitlyn - smartest baby in the whole wide world
Mischief - Queen B of the household aka 15 lb cat
Rascal - Mischief's sister and runner up for the biggest baby in the house
Sunshine - OMG, best dog EVAR...also diabetic
Noelle - craziest puppy I've ever known; first foster failure
Valentino - T boogie! Foster dog #1
Gordon - aka Gortino (so dubbed by dad). Not much to say about him other than the fact that he eats poop. He's not picky, he'll eat anybody's poop. It makes cleaning up the back yard a lot easier.

I can go on and on about our interests, but I should probably save that for another time. At least now, my blog has a foundation. Let's see how well I do keeping up with it.