Life of LC and NC

Fresh Babies!

My IC updates have been slacking!  I think that moving back to ND has allowed us

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more family time and now with me off on the weekends, we are busy.  Not with anything in particular, house stuff, NC’s bachelor parties, birthdays, Grandmas and Grandpas, just life in general!

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We (NC and DC, I should say) finished the rest of the Pergo flooring upstairs last weekend.  It looks really nice, but I am tired of a lopsided house.  Parts look really nice, and the rest looks terrible.  It is coming along, slowly but surely.  NC and I are making our project priority list and deciding where to go from here.  The house is livable if not aesthetically pleasing so should we get the windows done?  Or maybe the yard?  Or work on painting? 

I think we are out of the woods with the flood.  Whew!  Last time around (1997), I was a junior in high school and my entire house was under water.  It sounds really bad, but it wasn’t.  We didn’t have to clean anything out because the city bought our house and put a dike on top.  So my flood experience was, flood, get out of school to sandbag, get evacuated, go to Disney World for a week, come back, look at our nasty house and say good-bye, move into new place, done.  We lived 2 blocks from one of the dikes where the Red Lake River and Red River meet; we had been evacuated early so I had quite a few of my favorite belongings.  Thankfully, our city took precautions to help avoid something like that again.  I have heard that the river may have already crested and is going down, which is a huge relief.  I will have to try and dig out my pictures from that time frame and scan them in.  It was crazy!

 

IC has had the pleasure of holding her first real, live fresh babies!  I was a little surprised how gentle she was with both of them.  IC just loved to rub their heads and touch their hands, she was very sweet.  She didn’t show any jealously when I was holding them.  Lately, she has become very possessive of me if there are other children her age around me.  MY MOMMY, is her usual banter.

Our first baby was Miss MVJ, a little peanut with enough hair to make even me jealous! 

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The second, is Mr. AJM-A.  He was sleepy, quiet, little boy. 

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This is picture of me with some work friends out on the town!  We went to a hilarious comedian from the Cities, it was a great time!

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Remodel - Continues....

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It will probably be continuing for a few years!  My in-laws came to GFK again for the

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weekend to help out.  NC and DC were able to finish the railing and get started on the flooring.  I am very excited, it is starting to look nice!  In the kitchen we had to scrape off 3 layers of previous flooring.  Original (there is still some under my dishwasher) is pea green.  Similar to the color of my house, my tub and my toilet.  I guess someone really liked green.  On top of that was a brown wood parquet linoleum.  For the final layer, those stick tiles.  It was super fun to scrape off.  Since it

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did not involve trigonometry, power tools, or personal protection gear, I helped out with that task. 

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Grandma C did a good job of keeping Miss IC from "helping".

IC had her 2 year old check-up on Friday.  She is developing normally and is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for her height (WHAT?!).  She has really started talking and showing huge leaps in her sentence structure and comprehension.  The "what's that" and "why Mommy" have started.  And any shrieking outbursts (from finding a cat hair ball, dropping a pan or stubbing a toe) from me or NC will bring IC running asking frantically "What happened?!".  I am also enjoying her parrot phase.  I called NC a ninkimpoop and found that IC can also call him that now.  IC also had another first yesterday.  I cut her hair!!  Well, my friend HU actually cut it.  She looks grown up!  I had to get rid of those little baby whispy ends that always got tangled.  While we were at it, she got some bangs too!

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Happy Weekend everyone... 

Project Remodel- STARTED!!

IC and I headed to the C Farm for Valentine’s Day weekend.  We left Daddy and Grandpa in GFK to deconstruct and reconstruct some of our house!  NC found a great deal on Pergo flooring and we decided to get that done since Grandpa C volunteered his time (hard to come by these days, he is a busy man).  After 3 full days of working we are missing a wall, have a new banister being built and some rewiring done.  They haven’t got around to the flooring, but NC thinks he (or maybe WE) can tackle that alone.  He wanted his dad to help him with the “harder” stuff.   NC and Grandpa C are one in the same in work ethic and skill.  NC worked many summers on their family farm, so they make a good team.  They mentioned they had to bust out some trigonometry functions so I am glad I was far away from anything that resembled trig.  Here is our progress!  I am so thankful that I have a handy husband and handy father-in-law. 

Kitchen wall...we plan on putting an island where the table is.

GOODBYE WALL!

Why would anyone put wrought iron INSIDE? Yuck. Good riddance.

 

Much better. Much. Thank you NC and DC!

The second celebration!

RK and IC

We celebrated IC’s 2^nd birthday for the second time last weekend.  It was a small family gathering at the Holiday Inn.  IC had a blast in the pool.  I thought she was going to hate it as I scarred her for life with an unfortunate tub incident.  We have a whirlpool tub in our basement bathroom.  The water needs to be at least 2 inches over the top of the intake.  I did not know that it needed to be that high over.  IC loves bubbles so I thought I would be cool and turn on the tub and make some bubbles.  It was not good.  Since the water wasn’t 2 inches above the

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intake it started sucking in some air with the water and made these horrible loud noises which scared IC so badly it has been a tough road to get her to bathe again.  Bad Mommy L  Back to the party, NC skeptically brought IC in the big pool and she loved it!  She was jumping off the sides and kicking her arms and legs.  Her teeth would start chattering so we’d take her out and warm her up and then she’d pull us

Uncle Chill

back for more.  IC got some great gifts, but she enjoyed the company even more.  As always, she loves her cousin GH (who she attends daycare with), but she really got a kick out of her cousin RK.  RK (she is 6 years old) was awesome with her.  She shared nicely, hugged her, ran around the house with her and giggled tons with her. She would wake up in the morning and start screaming her name looking for her. 

IC and GH

 

I am blogging in between organizing and uploading my pictures.  I was about 3 months behind and it was beginning to haunt me.  I hated turning on the computer because I knew the task was lingering.  I am currently uploading December 2008 – almost done!

 

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We are tackling one of our first larger scale home remodeling projects in a couple of weeks.  NC found a great deal on Pergo laminate flooring.  He and my father-in-law will be installing it in a couple of weeks while IC and I head back to the Farm for the weekend.  NC and I went back and forth between hardwood and laminate.  We finally decided on laminate because it was easier to install and easy to upkeep.   

 

I have some exciting news about my schedule!  Out of the blue, the supervisor that I will be replacing called me and asked if I would like to switch schedules with him for a couple of months.  I think he is working on securing some after retirement easy employment and needs the weekdays off to do so.  It will be very nice.  I have been so busy with winter airline it has been hard to see my husband.  Our relationship has taken the back burner and is finally taking its toll living since we basically live as roommates.  We miss each other!! I will now have Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and half of Mondays off.  Yea!!!  I am hoping it will be a permanent switch or I will probably stick to my original plan of going part time. 

Have a good week!

Happy 2nd Birthday IC!

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My baby girl has moved into the toddler ranks.  I really have enjoyed this past year with Miss IC.  Instead of physical milestones she hit in her first year, her second year has been personality development and social skills.  Her biggest physical milestone for this year is her teeth.  She popped all the teeth she has (about 13.5) in one year.  Oh, and probably her hair, it is getting quite long (nope, not cutting it).  While memories I have from her first year will never be replaced, I can say that I just love the randomess of having a walking, talking, little person.  One who is really learning life for the first time, learning how to feel things for the first time, learning to think independently.  It is just fun.  Having a busy IC had kept me from properly updating my blog, which I love to do because I am terrible at keeping up with her babybook.  Even my picture taking has gone down.  Granted, IC did go through a phase of not even wanting to look at a camera let alone smile at it.  She is getting better at her cheesieness and will participate in pictures with some convincing.  IC moved into a big girl bed.  Her crib is a "forever bed", meaning it turns into a toddler day bed, then will be a full size bed when she is ready.  She loves it and hasn't tried to sneak out...yet.  We are planning a little party at the end of the month, a Staycation at the Holiday Inn.  For her actual birthday, my mom and step-dad came to town and my dad came over to celebrate.  IC loves babies and Abby Cadabby from Seasme Street and she got both from them.  

I am taking full advantage of my time alone to update.  NC and IC are at gymnastics tonight.  Then we are off to my company's holiday party.  After the holidays, yes.  We work for the airlines, the holidays are beat out of us with oversold flights,extra-heavy bags, and fun winter weather. So we celebrate after.  I think we have made the decision after so much discussion that I will be moving to part-time come summer.  Even if I get a better schedule (one guy is nearing retirement, with only 42 years of seniority over me), I think that I need to spend more time with my family.  If I stay a supervisor, my 40 hour work weeks turn into usually around 50 hour weeks.  We moved back to ND with the idea of me staying home more with IC (and maybe a 2nd kid someday). I am scared though.  I have always worked, but have always wanted to stay home.  But that idea was always just that, an idea.  Now that it is possible, I am getting a little nervous.  If you know me at all, I am not really the Suzy Homemaker type.  I am scared I won't know what to do with all of my time.  Plenty of SAHM (stay at home moms) assure me there is plenty to do.  And I like my job.  It is fun working with airplanes.  So we'll see where God takes me.

IC and Zita watching Monster's Inc.

 

Boo!

NC and LC

Christmas 2008

We spent our Christmas being leisurely with the C family and my dad.  We went to noon mass on Christmas Day, which IC slept through.  IC enjoyed all of her gifts, I think the favorite presents coming from the grandparents.  Now our days are filled with trikes, Muppets and Elmo.  I was thankful she didn't get many bulky presents.  Mostly DVD's and puzzles and outside things.  We also got a surprise visit from Santa, who delivered some candy and a Monsters Inc DVD.  IC is all about Santa.  But just the IDEA of Santa.  When you put her face to face with him....she cries!

IC and Elmo

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The day after Christmas it was actually "warm" out.  In the 20's.  So NC and Grampa DC took IC sledding.  NC kicked snow into her face the first pass down so she wasn't really having any of it after that.

What did you do to me Daddy!?

  

Ok, I am better now.

IC has become obsessed with Frosty the Snowman.  I found a VHS set at the thrift store and decided to buy them after hearing how much IC's cousin GH loves Frosty.  It must be genetic because we watch that tape at least once a day.  I hear the H family is down to 4 times a month. 

IC and her Snowman

We hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's! 

IC's extra appendage

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So IC grew a step-stool as a new appendage.  My little shorty hauls that thing everywhere she goes, counter surfing!!  First it started out as a way to turn the light switches on and off.  Our neighbors probably thought we were sending them SOS messages.  Then she realized that if Mommy and Daddy weren't too careful she could snag things off the counters, like cookies.  She is almost 2 years old and pretty coordinated, so I don't really need to watch her every move anymore as she has mastered the stairs, which is mostly what I worried about. 

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Except when I find her downstairs after carrying the step-stool with her!!  She has done it twice without me witnessing it and I am baffled how this little one can maneuver down two sets of stairs with out wiping out.  I actually get a little freaked out about it and have been more vigilant on monitoring her when she is in one of her step-stool moods.  She has also recently figured out and grown tall enough to reach and open door knobs.  Great.  It is like baby-proofing all over again! 

 

It has been a busy Fall without much to report.  We had to replace the furnace at our new house, which has stalled our progress with updating anything.  While I am happy (and thankful, it is something we take for granted)  that we have heat, nice new efficient heat, I am sad that we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer to make this place more aesthetically pleasing.  IC is finishing up Kindermusik.  I decided to enroll her in the 2^nd semester.  She really seems to enjoy the music and dancing.  They also focus quite a bit on signing, which she loves.  She has become interested in the violin, always running to them when we get to the music studio and is enthralled if she sees someone playing one.  If she has two objects she can fashion into a violin and bow she will pretend she is playing.  I am hoping this means she is musical, more like her daddy. 

 

IC loves blueberries!!!  So much that she needs to drink the juice from the bowl.

 

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While planning and thinking about adding baby #2, it was discovered that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which explains my infertility with IC and some other “girl” issues I have had.  Oddly, it is also linked to diabetes and can push me into Type 2.  It is a hormone/insulin thing so I have started taking a diabetes medication called Metformin, which makes me feel like I am going to barf!!  I guess this is a normal reaction until my body gets used to it.  I have been driving back and forth to my doc in Fargo for tests.  I am still trying to figure out what this means for now and what it means for the future. 

My Christmas cards have been delivered to me.  Now I just need to address them and write a holiday letter.  We'll see if you get them BEFORE or AFTER the holidays!

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Our new gentle giant!

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**nevermind my upside down furniture, I was getting the legs put on**

Last week we adopted a Great Dane named Zita.  She was living in Sioux City, IA with my bro-in-law's co-worker.  For whatever reason (we are still trying to figure it out) they wanted to surrender her to a different home.  We have been on the look out for a dog and when I mentioned this to my sister, she told me about Zita. 

Zita is five years old and so sweet, but is a huge bum!  I can't decide who has more energy, our cats or Zita.  She is quite happy to lounge all day with a daily walk thrown in somewhere.  I thought she was depressed or something because she doesn't get excited or bark - not very animated.  I researched them more online and found they are a docile breed.  She is excellent with IC.  Other than she weighs 90 lbs (small for a Great Dane) and could step on IC, I don't really worry about them together.  She is a great dog.  I am sad to think we only have her for a short time since she is middle aged and they only have a life span of 8-10 years. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Boo!

I thought I should post some Halloween pics before it is Christmas!  Our home computer has been acting up- one of the memory pieces broke so it is painfully slow (NC is laughing at me and my impatience).  I haven't been keeping my Flickr pictures current either, sorry Family!

We started the week getting the pumpkins ready.  I was stoked that IC was finally old enough to take part in some pumpkin carving and use the excuse to get messy! 

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 NC tries every year to make a different pumpkin carving.  Last year it was a pumpkin eating a baby, the year before a puking pumpkin, this year - an electrocuted pumpkin.  I guess IC had a totally different idea of pumpkin carving.  One that did not include getting her hands messy!  Oddly enough, my husband couldn't stand to have his hands dirty either at that age.  

1. Ok, I will put my hands in there.  Mommy did, so can I.

2. Where do I put this?!?!?

3. Thanks Daddy, I don't really want to touch that anymore.  Gross.

4. Sure I'll help, as long as I don't have to touch anything!

Halloween 2008 was beautiful, the weather was perfect for trick-or-treating.  IC had fun, enjoyed her candy, but really liked just walking along carrying her bucket and taking in all of the Halloween decorations.  We joined the H family and because they live on a prime trick-or-treating block, and of course we always like to spend time with them. 

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Turkey!

Nope, not the Thanksgiving kind, the bowling kind! �IC had her first experience bowling last weekend. �The H family put together a small get together so the kids could have some fun. �As IC is with every new experience, she just stared wide eyed for a good 10 minutes before she would respond to anyone. �Then she tried her hands at bowling and scored a hefty 78. �This came with help in the form bumpers and daddy's careful aim of the ball launch. �No Turkey's, but lots of fun!

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�IC had the week off from daycare. �Our daycare provider was on vacation. �IC and cousin GH attend the same daycare, so we got to spend a day with GH after her aunt was unable to make it to town due to car troubles. �I enjoyed this day, watching them interact for an extended period. �They get along for the most part, but for some reason, they always want the toy at the exact moment the other one has it. �GH speaks in full, clear sentences and is hilarious.

We spent last week raking and preparing the the big city suck up. �If you place them on the BERM (not boulevard, BS), the City will come by with a giant�vacuum�and dispose of them for you. �

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IC is going to be a chicken for Halloween. �I don't remember if I had mentioned that or not. �She walks around the house clucking, so it is fitting for her. �I am getting so�disappointed�with Halloween costumes. �Going to go off on a rant now. �Maybe because I am a mom now, but come on! �It seems like Halloween has turned into an excuse to dress in your most *excuse my language* slutty outfits. �And that they are marketing them to the young pre-teens is even more disturbing. �I guess I don't really get what a sexy devil is. �

Have a safe Halloween and enjoy the extra hour of sleep this weekend!! �

More IC pics:

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�

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P.S.

If you need more help deciding who to vote for maybe a MCCAIN/OBAMA dance-off would help tip the scales.

DANCE-OFF