Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer [in Chicago]

This pretty much sums up our trip to Chicago: Beautiful walks along the lake, running in the gardens at Northwestern, dancing to music in the dorm, the wind blowing through our hair and lots and lots of food and fun with good friends.  Last year I came back with about 500 photos.  This year I only have 230 and 3 videos.  All the good photos (only about 90) are on Flickr so feel free to check them out if you can’t stomach all five minute of this video (And why can’t you?? It’s five minutes of Avelyn’s new favorite song and adorable cuteness.) or if the rapid fire progression of pictures doesn’t mesh well with your computer.

 

I might get around to writing an actual post one of these days but I work tonight and sleep half the day tomorrow.  Somehow I just can’t bring myself to spend time on the computer blogging when I have such a beautiful girl running around filling my house with laughter.  Hope you’re all having a great day.

 

11 daus until Kevin comes home!

A lot, a little late

It’s OVER! I am
DONE with nursing school,
DONE with working for free,
DONE with living away from my family,
DONE with living in apartments and with other people!
DONE! DONE ! DONE!

Where to begin? The past two weeks (Seriously? Two weeks? I can’t believe I’ve gone two weeks without blogging. It’s like I actually utilized my time wisely. Glad that’s over.) have been a roller coaster. I’m not really sure how much detail to go into, out of sheer exhaustion and pure peace that it is all over.

To make a very long story short, I almost did not graduate. I passed both of my classes, but due to a technicality in the grading system I was told that even though my final grade was passing, I would fail one class and thus be unable to graduate. Me and two other people. I would have to come back in the fall and take the entire class and clinical over again. Don’t even ask, the whole thing makes no sense. The grading policy made no sense, the syllabus was not clear. A million things were wrong with this situation. I cried, no sobbed, for two days. I could not imagine going through this separation from Kevin and Avelyn again. I felt myself falling into a dark hole of depression and just could not imagine that this was really happening. It was awful. But I fought hard to make it right. Kevin fought hard, writing letters which thankfully I never had to send, and breaking it all down in an easy to argue argument. I took it to my advisor who fought hard for all of us – and we won! The grading policy was changed, our whole class graduated and IT IS ALL OVER!!!!!!!!!

Monday, May 4th: Take my first final. Get an 84 on it. Get an 86 final average in the class. On the way home I get a phone call that I FAILED THE CLASS BECAUSE OF ANOTHER AVERAGE (that I won’t bore you with here) AND WILL NOT GRADUATE. Have mini breakdown. Freak out. Sob. Wail. Sink into deep anxiety laden depression. Still have to go home and study for the final on Tuesday. Nice.

Tuesday, May 5th: Take second final (that I pass with an 80 and get an 86 in the class even in the middle of this “you will not graduate you big fatty loser” sh*t). Walk out of the classroom and am met with a giant fat crazy b*tch of a human being all up in my face asking if I passed because she heard I had failed. Thanks giant fat crazy b*tch. Thanks a lot for making my sh*tty last day of school even sh*ttier. Guess I’ll just creep out this side door and avoid saying (possibly my last) goodbye to all my friends so my giant puffy crying face doesn’t bring them down on what should be a great last day of class. Crazy b*tch, I hate you. Go make out with another ho ho.

Wednesday, May 6th: Phone is off so I sleep until after 10am. Well needed rest. Wake up to 13 missed calls and 4 voicemails. Call back the only person who could give me the news I want. It’s official! They all agreed the syllabus was unclear and changed the grading policy! We all graduate! I have used my Crap Community Health nurse lobbying lecture and lobbied for change! I GET TO FREAKING GRADUATE! Call my fantastic friends who had been fighting just as hard and are just as excited about the news. Have a fabulous lunch with Darci and go home to relax until the end of year party later that day. Go to end of year party later that day and have a FAB-FAB-FABULOUS time. Have several drinks and lots of good conversation. Pull into the driveway around 12am just as Kevin and Avelyn pull up. Great day.

Thursday, May 7th: Wake up with a totally worth it hangover. We attend my pinning ceremony, a nursing school tradition. Kevin pins me and Avelyn does not scream watches in the back row with my grandparents. Afterward we take a few pictures with some Hobo stalkers friends and my advisor, Dr. Yu, who fought hard for me to graduate. I owe her something big :)

Friday, May 8th: Kevin, Avelyn and I have lunch with my childhood best friend Shannon and her son Cooper AKA Avelyn’s boy toy. They were born twelve days apart. You may remember him from tandem spit up days or the freaking cutest Halloween costume duo ever.

[Giant brackets as I segway into an interesting tidbit that just popped into my head. At the end of our 4th grade year Shannon and I both liked a boy named Robert McKeon. He called me on the phone one day (OMG! A BOY called ME on the PHONE!!!!!!!!!) and told me he liked me too and asked if I wanted to go out with him, or whatever fourth grade boys in 1991 might have said. My fourth grade self reallllllllllllllly wanted to but I was afraid to hurt Shannon’s feelings so I told him I would have to call him back. I called Shannon to make sure it was okay. She said it was but I could tell at school the next week she was not cool with it. I think Robert McKeon and I might have held hands maybe once, then I moved to a different school for fifth grade and we “broke up”. Well, I guess we broke up. Shannon told me during fifth grade year that he was dating some other girl from the FOURTH grade. WHORE! What a skanky loser, that Robert McKeon. Dumping me for a FOURTH grader just because I moved schools, hmph! I went back that year for their talent show to see my friends and his new girlfriend sang “My Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music. I swear to you I hate that song to this day. Below is Robert, top row, 2nd from the left. I’m on the 2nd row, far right and Shannon is wearing that kickin’ visor and sitting next to some girl I clearly did not like as evidenced by her scratched out face.]

Back to reality. Friday night is graduation. Pretty uneventful except for you know, the whole being totally done with nursing school and GRADUATING thing. I should have got more pictures with my homies.

Avelyn behaves swimmingly if you consider graduation didn’t start until 7pm and she usually goes to bed around 8pm. When all is said and done we are OUT of here, and we hit the road for San Antonio. Pull in around 2am. Too tired to feel anything.

Saturday, May 9th: Woke up to an amazing sensation of being home when a really cute little girl toddled in to say hello. We moved the big stuff from storage to the new house and I mowed and edged the front yard while Avelyn napped. Don’t remember much after that. Must have spent the evening recovering from Houston hell.

Sunday, May 10th: For Mother’s Day Kevin gave me a fantastic card and Avelyn gave me some beautiful dish towels, a book so I can pretend she likes me to read to her, and a card with some flower seeds for us to plant in our new garden this fall. I gave her a pony tail. I was really happy with my gifts. She was not so happy with hers.

Monday, May 11th: Spent allllllll day painting Avelyn’s room pink. Due to an unfortunate incident involving Kevin using the crapper and me accidently walking in on him only to be shooed away I was not able to get a pair of painting shorts out of the closet and ruined one of my two pairs of jeans that fit. Yes, I could have gone back for the shorts after he finished but I was flustered and forgot. Note to self – don’t walk in on Hubby in the crapper. It will mess you up for days.

Uncle Pennybags arrives Monday afternoon. Unfortunately we are not yet ready to move into our house. Unless I don’t mind retarding Hobo’s brain with paint fumes, which I do. Oh – and I also come down with the WORSTCOLDEVERRRRRR.

Tuesday-Wednesday: Spend time organizing, setting up, cleaning the new house and feeling really, really crappy. Contemplate slicing my nose off to relieve pressure and push myself too hard to get everything done. It’s worth it. We spend Wednesday night in OUR house.

Thursday, May 14th: Our FIRST day to wake up in our new house. Avelyn spends time getting the hang of having her own cabinet and leaving the rest of mine alone. She can do whatever she wants with the stuff in her cabinet. I am looking forward to the day I open the door and find her sitting in it. You know it’s coming. You also know five thousand pictures will be taken.

Friday, May 15th: I have no recollection of this day. I will assume it was the day I was prepared to die from the WORSTCOLDEVERRRRRR.

Saturday, May 16th: The washer that came with the house broke the first time we used it, which was not unexpected but annoying none the less. We buy a washer on Saturday, our very FIRST major appliance purchase ever. It’s really lame how excited I am about it. To celebrate this milestone we also buy Guitar Hero World Tour as a mutual Kevin/Jennifer belated birthday present to each other. Uncle Pennybags and Avelyn shared a paci high five to show their approval of this decision.

Sunday, May 17th: We drive to Rudy’s for the Worst Barbeque in Texas. It’s realllllly good. We drive back home and break out the monster bubble machine while Pennybags and Kevin rock the World Tour. The monster bubble machine is supposed to make bubbles. Big bubbles. Big bubbles with little bubbles inside them. It works on a sliding scale I think. When it works it’s really cool. And Avelyn looks amazingly beautiful. No surprise here.

Monday, May 18th: Called the store back about getting a delivery date for the washer I’m so excited about since the computers were down over the weekend and they couldn’t schedule a date. Was told the computer says it’s scheduled for delivery June 8th. JUNE 8th. Like THREE weeks away JUNE 8th. This is not acceptable. Grrrrr.

Dropped Avelyn off at school. She is being transitioned from the blue (infant) room to the orange (1-2’s) room this week. One of the many bittersweet moments I am getting used to. I’m so excited for her and all the things she has learned. I love her teachers and they have loved her and I hate she will have to leave them but I’m so excited for all that she will learn in the next room. They have dance class day and karate day and play outside… she is going to have so many fun experiences.

The house is coming together. We have a lot of space to fill, so many empty walls, a lonely dining room that holds six new chairs and one old ugly table begging to be refinished. I think I’m going to go buy Avelyn a swing to hang in the tree in the backyard. It’s shaded and she loves to swing so much. That should be nice.

I scheduled my test date for the NCLEX this morning. Thursday, June 4 at 12:15 I will be sitting down to start a 4 hour exam that will allow me to become Jennifer Welch, BSN, RN… hopefully. Guess I better get to studying this week.

Dropped Pennybags off at the airport. His sister-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer and had a biopsy today. She is pregnant with their second baby. Please pray for their family.

Picked Avelyn up from school and had a fantastic time chasing her around the house. She is getting so big and is so fast! Had dinner with Kevin’s parents at Luby’s where I gave Avelyn mashed potatoes for the third time. She finally decided they were tasty. Smart girl. Oh, and she is THIRTEEN months old today!

So that’s (briefly) what’s been going on around here. My Google Reader was so full when I finally checked in with you guys. Guess I better get back to reading what YOU’VE been up to!

These days are (near) perfection

Another great weekend with the Hobo, another job interview, another job offer and NO completed school work to show for it.  Sounds like a success wouldn’t you say?  I now have two job offers to choose from.  One in the Pediatric Emergency Room (Pedi ER), the other in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).  Decisions, decisions.  I plan to make my decision this week, although I’m pretty sure what I want to do.  Before I decline the other position I want something in writing from the job I do want.  Jobs are scarce these days and with a bird in hand… well you get it.  What do you think I should pick?  Put in your two cents on the poll on the right side bar by this Friday at noon and we’ll see if you were right!

The above photos were taken in the last few weeks.  The diaper change in the trunk is the best idea I’ve ever had.  Except for über cold or über rainy days I’d rather change her precious rump in the trunk of my own car than on those nasty, germy, disgusting changing stations.  Take a UV light to those things some day.  EWWWWWWWWW.  And the pink sparkly shoes, well, SHE NEEDS THEM AND SO DO ALL LITTLE GIRLS!!  BECAUSE THEY’RE PINK!!!  AND SPARKLY!!!  Please don’t sell out before I can buy you, shoes!

I got in SA just in time to put Avelyn to bed Thursday night.  She was so excited to see me that she race-crawled right over in her little pink PJ’s and buried her head in my chest.  Those are the moments that break your heart, but in a good way.  Of course it was right before bed so when I tried to give her a bottle she was too excited to eat or sleep and wanted to play.  The sit-on-the-bed-and-sing-while-she-drank-a-bottle trick didn’t work so we moved to Plan B and I held her close and rocked her in my arms until she calmed down.  She is such a big baby girl now, and most nights will let you hold her close until she decides “Okay, time for bed” and reaches to go to her crib.  I appreciate this maturity on her part, don’t get me wrong, but the immature Momma part of me is sobbing OH MY GOD! MY BABY IS SOOOOO GROWN UP AND DOESN’T WANT ME!  SOOO(hiccup!)OOBBBBBBB!  But then she sleeps for at least 10 hours straight without making a peep and I sing Hallelujah to the heavens for finallyaftermonthsandmonthsandmonths granting me the gift of rest.

Friday was awesome.  I dropped Avelyn off at daycare without one tear (from her or me), had a great job interview with the PICU (can I be super proud of myself for a moment?  I mean TWO interviews and TWO job offers?), had lunch with Kevin then headed home for a well needed two hour nap.  I had a terrible cold and NEEDED. SLEEP.  Then I picked Avelyn up from daycare and tried to take her picture since Kevin has not kept up with the 1,387 picture a day precedent I set. 

I call this series “The Screaming Baby” because this baby is very into screaming these days.  Look at that girl standing, the one soooo close to walking!  Isn’t she tall?  Doesn’t she look like a little KID from behind?  Where did my baby chubber wub go?  Oh wait, phew! There it is behind her knees.  Love it.

In preparation for Avelyn’s FIRST birthday (12 more days!) I wanted to get her pictures made.  I found a few great photographers, one of which lives in Texas (hence was the obvious choice) and was really, really excited to get some great photos.  Unfortunately we move a lot and the money tree I ordered has yet to be delivered to the right address so we were out of luck.  But pictures are better than no pictures so I booked a session at the PP and had Avelyn model some potential outfits for the shoot. She looked utterly delicious and seemed to enjoy the first ensemble as evidenced by this face: But then I got a little cocky and tried to take pictures of her from a different angle.  It didn’t go so well:The second wardrobe change was even more fun.  The sheer nerve of me I tell you:

In keeping with her less than stellar performance during dress rehearsal the night before, the photo shoot on Saturday went kind of… meh.  She spent most of the time crying, screaming, making no face whatsoever and crawling off camera towards me.  We got a few good shots but nothing like her normal wide eyed grin.  I love them all though, no matter what.  Unfortunately they look like, well, portrait studio pictures.  Ugh.  I think I take way better pictures than they do.  If the subject weren’t so damn adorable I wouldn’t have bought one picture.  One day I will get the photos I want.  (Like THIS YEAR KEVIN.  When I get a job we’re doing it.)  Until then I will just drool over Matt, Sharon and Annalee’s beautiful photos.  They’re all really good looking people but their hands-down-utterly-beautiful baby girls really make the shot.  Some more cuteness to tide you over.

Hobo Baby is wearing Kate Mack by Biscotti Baby Spring Rose dress, Kate Mack Strawberry Fields Voile Bubble Romper, and Iris & Ivy some dress I don’t know the name of.  (Note to Biscotti – we love your clothes, want to send some our way?)

 

8 days to my 28th birthday!
11 days to Avelyn’s 1st birthday!
14 days to Kevin’s 32nd birthday!
31 days to Momma’s graduation!

Guess who is almost ONE YEAR OLD?

AVELYN ISABEL WELCH

That’s who!  Just thirteen more days until my little Hobo Baby turns ONE.  We’ve started celebrating a little early around here…  

Skortin’ ‘round town

Avelyn played on the playground for the FIRST time today!  I told Kevin he should take her to the park in his parent’s neighborhood because they had baby swings and he did!  AND she wore a skort for the first time.  How funny is that?  A skort.  Remember those?  On those chubby little legs.  I can’t stand the cuteness.  Or the fact that if memory serves, it’s a size 3T skort.  I also can’t stand that she is wearing it with a stupid purple onesie normally reserved for under the PJ’s and scuffed up pink Pedipeds with no bow on her head, but I can’t be too choosy.  He does his best and I love him for it.  He is a great dad.  I don’t think I say that enough on here.

She hadn’t been in the baby swings by our old place since before Christmas.  Kevin strapped her into the stroller and took her today, possibly for the first and last time because it’s “way too far to walk with a stroller”.  To be fair, there is a massively gigantic hill involved in this walk and I’m not sure I’d be interested in doing it when it gets much hotter either.  But it’s just a little too close to strap her in the car seat and make your way down there.  Hmm, guess we’ll have to find better parks further away from his parents place.  Which won’t be too hard since we have no plans to live anywhere near there come May 15th.  Yes people, we have a goal.  An end date.  A day of reckoning.  Independence Day if you will.  And I CAN. NOT. WAIT.

(Yes, there may have been non blown-out angel-esque pictures of my baby from the park but unfortunately they were hijacked by the evil snot nosed booger faced baby, and are in a secret hiding place never to be seen in the light of a computer screen.)

25 days to Hobo’s FIRST birthday!

46 days to Momma’s graduation!

Highlights/Lowlights

Whew.  This week has been a whirlwind.  I want to tell you about all the wild and crazy fun family things we did this week but we didn’t really do any of those.  We did have some regular fun family things we did a lot of.  Like playing on the floor, going out to eat, [window] shopping, me getting a job, making practice birthday cakes.  Oh yeah, I’ve been DEAD TO BLOGGING this week but ta da!

I GOT A JOB!

My interview on Monday went really well (clearly).  The Nurse Manager I interviewed with told me he had a few more candidates to talk to but that I sounded like I had all the qualities he was looking for and I really impressed him during the interview.  I was all, Uh duh Dude, but I bet you say that to all the interviewees and he was all, no way man, you totally rocked it so then I was like yeah, I know, I am FREAKING BAD ASS and he was like yeah, yeah you are.  Then he said HR would be contacting me in the coming weeks.  Exactly 3 hours and 21 minutes after I left the building HR called and told me the job was mine.  IN YO’ FACE all you other [alleged] interviewees!

So I’m supposed to wait for the head HR lady to call me on Monday with all the details.  I need to find out what the deadline to accept is, since I am still hoping to hear from a few more hospitals.  I would like to have a few offers and be able to choose the best one for me but honestly, all I wanted was ONE and I got it.  I think I would really love working in the Pedi ER and I would get to see a lot of stuff I might not see elsewhere.  I’m a little proud of myself so I’ll go ahead and say it,

GO ME!

We were supposed to go to the zoo with some friends on Wednesday but wouldn’t you know we got rained/winded/COLLLLLDED out.  What the hell Weather?  Every freaking year, huh?  Well at least you’re consistent.  The rest of our week went nice and slow and perfect but somehow it’s turned into Saturday and I don’t like it one bit.  Booooooo urns. 

Yesterday we took advantage of my cousin’s loaner house key and hung out at her place while she was out of town.  We needed to get out of the house.  Unfortunately it was 61 degrees inside since she was gone and we nearly froze our patooties off --- until we discovered the heart pounding, sweat inducing Holy Grail of my kind of video games AKA Guitar Hero.

Why had I never played this before?  Why am I always the last to come around and finally try something everyone else has been raving about and playing for years?  Sweet Mary’s Little Lamb that game is fun and might I most humbly say

I. AM. AWESOME. AT. IT.

No, really I am.  I kicked Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas” ass and have a burning desire to play this game continuously until I hold top rank on every song on the playlist.  Granted we started on Easy level but if memory serves I did outplay Kevin pretty consistently.  He did better on a few songs but I think I totally rule overall.  (Dear Hubby, I so rarely win at anything please let me continue to believe this even if it is a totally false memory.  Thank you.)

A few of you on Facebook have already let me know that Rock Band should be played next and bought soon and very soon because, uh, it rocks.  I am looking forward to it.

Since I’ve been MIA for a while and I like to believe a few of you obsessively check the site bi-hourly for updates I thought I would pay you back with a Super Hobo fix and provide a teeniny glimpse of our week.

  

 

55 days to Momma’s graduation! 

(HOLY FREAKING COW!)