Fun with books

Thanks to Sarah who tagged me for this fun task. =o)

The rules:Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

From Moneyball by Michael Lewis (A really interesting book if you enjoy baseball. There is a little bit of foul, no pun intended, language in it though.)

"When, in 2001, for the second year in a row, they lost to the Yankees in the fifth and deciding game of the play-offs, the Oakland front office was certain that theirs had been the better team and that it was the Yankees who had gotten lucky--and that the Yankees front office knew it. And that some fraction of the $120 million the Yankees had paid Jason Giambi after the 2001 play-offs to lure him away from the Oakland A's was to prevent him from ever again playing for the Oakland A's.
At any rate, by the beginning of the 2002 season, the Oakland A's, by winning so much with so little, had become something of an embarassment to Bud Selig and, by extension, Major League Baseball.

I tag Heather, Janice, Jenny, Beth, and Leah Z. (It can be your non-Ben post. =o))

Lightbulb

"Go get bebe?," this is what Emmie said (yes, said) to me yesterday after we dropped off my friend Sarah and her almost 7-month-old at one store before we went to a different store. She didn't understand why we weren't going the same place as her little friend. The lightbulb has gone on this past week and Emmie is starting to communicate a lot more. She walks around the house saying "mommy, mommy, mommy" and then runs over to me and yells "mommy!" and gives me a hug. Every once and awhile I'll be in a different room and I'll hear "mommy?" and after I reply, there is a long string of gibberish and then she'll walk out to the room I'm in and look at me like "do you agree?" It's quite cute.

She, for the most part, understands how to use "yes" and "no." We play 20 questions quite frequently now to find out what she wants. It's usually pretty effective but there are times when she's tired and the answer to everything is "no, no, no" accompanied by emphatic shaking of the head.

I think it may be a bad sign that my child watches too much tv when she bring the remote to me and says, "tee, tee, tee, tee" on a consistant basis. (She just brought me my sneaker and pointed to the knot and said, "out, out, out." I'm swelling up with pride.) She even asked to watch "melmo" this morning. I usually let her watch it if I have something (like blogging) that I want to get done that she can't help me with. She usually "helps" me do some chores in the morning first before we get to that point so I don't feel too bad. =o) And right now she seems to be content pulling all the shoes off the rack and bringing them in the house to try on despite her "tur-tul" (baby einstein) video being on. Ooo, now she's moved onto bringing the plastics into the house but to prevent contamination she put a snowglove she found on one hand to protect herself.

Chad is quite proud of Emmie's speaking ability as she now says "Go Terps!" and "Tur-Tul" when asked too. He had one of his Maryland shirts on last night and she was pointing at it and saying "tur-tul." He was glowing with pride. Now we have to work on "Go Blue!" and "Wolverines" but those might be a little bit longer in coming.

On a more me note, I found some really cute tops at Ann Taylor Loft yesterday so that made me very happy. I have several skirts that are suitable for a fancy evening out but I had yet to find tops to go with them but I solved that yesterday with 2 tops for under $40. Hurray for me! Valentine's Day here I come! =o) I would show you via link but they aren't available on the website anymore. =o/ One's a saphire blue short-sleeved wrap top and the other is a burgandy sleeveless that is hard to explain but the straps are a black strip of material that laces through the back and front of the shirt to gather it and then ties in the front.

My presence is being requested in the other room by my daughter so I will take my leave now. =o)

Happy New Year!

This month is going by so quickly! We finally got our truck back on New Year's Eve. We're so thankful to have it back. It is running great and looks even better.
Enjoy the pictures! =o)

PA Farm Show

Emmie likes her tractors.


Dad can we get one?


Cute chick =o)


Farm shows are exhausting!


The annual butter sculpture. The kids are trying to take a cow on the bus.

Playing video games with Daddy

One Cool Chica

Playing with sunglasses Aunt Melody gave her for her birthday.

Christmas Morning (con't)

Emmie's big gift was a rocking horse. She loves it! She'll climb on and off and on and off and is a pretty proficient rocker. (Please excuse the runny nose. It didn't want to stop all morning. =( )

Christmas Morning

Emmie looking at all the presents. She knew what to do with them as we had already opened gifts at 3 other family functions.

Uh-oh! Spilling her breakfast before we opened gifts.

Emmie's farm set from Aunt Allison and cousin Kaylie.

My gift from Chad. They match my necklace from last year.

Chad's gifts (I got him the Transformers movie too).

Fun with Friends

Emmie and Abby always have a fun time when they get together

Merry Christmas to All!

While I still have time before Christmas is upon us, I wanted to make sure to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year! My New Year's resolution is to try and blog a little more frequently. =o) Ok, you can stop laughing at me now. =o) Enjoy the pictures I finally put up (from September). Merry Christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas

"Mom, I think this ornament needs to go up there."


"Perfect!"


This is the way a construction worker puts together his kid's toys.


Yeehaw! Testing out the finished product.

Cousins

Kaylah taking Emmie for a stroll.


Emmie wasn't to interested in taking this picture until she got to hold Carter.


We got to visit cousin Kaylie and Aunt Allison on our trip to Michigan.
Kaylie was great about sharing all her toys with Emmie.

Picture Update #2

Emmie likes to help me do the dishes by asking for "bubus peace."


With her beard so snowy white



Emmie's big into the leg warmers style.


She wasn't too crazy about the snow. She pretty much refused to walk through it.

Photo Updates 1

One of our favorite things to do at the end of September is go to the fair.



Emmie's trying to "honk" the horn on the tractor.



All that tractoring is hard work!



Our big girls! Last year Emmie was only 6 weeks old, Kaylah was only 8 weeks and Abigail was only 5 months.


She fell asleep eating lunch two days in a row. She must have had a busy morning.


Emmie loves going down her slide when we play outside.

Elf Yourself =o)

Check it out:

Merry Christmas!


Visit www.officemax.com to do yourself. =o)

Updates all around....

First, Emmie had her 15 month check up complete with 3 shots last week. She is now 22.5 lbs and 30 inches tall. She is doing pretty well but has had a slight cold the last few days and a crazy schedule so her joyful and obedient spirit has taken a slight vacation for the time being which in turn tends to affect her parents' joyful spirits. We're all working on that one though.

We finally go approval last monday to get a rental car after 3 weeks of wheeling and dealing. We now have a pretty cool black Dodge Dakota with a V8 and satellite radio. Normally the insurance would only pay for a regular 4-door deal but since that was the only vehicle they had at the time we went to pick it up they gave it to us for the same price. Lesson to take away from this whole rental fiasco: Make sure you have rental car coverage on your collision policy. That way, no matter whose fault it is, you can get a retal car right away. We found out after the accident that we didn't have the $24 a year rider on our policy that would guarentee rental car coverage. If by chance it had been declared a no-fault accident and we had rented a car thinking the other insurance would assume responsibility, we would have given ourselves a nifty little christmas gift of a hefty rental bill. So make sure your coverage is up to date. =o) Btw, they are repairing our truck and we should have it by the beginning of December.

Dancing Queen

Emmie loves to dance. Most recently she found a song on the new Pride and Prejudice Soundtrack that she really enjoys. When she stops dancing in the middle if you look to the side you can see Chad's shadow. He was trying to get her to start dancing again. You may have to double click they play button to make it work.

Wonderful news

Well, it finally happened, a little bit of a surprise to most of you I know....we finally got cable Internet! Gotcha, didn't I? You had to admit you thought for just a split second I was pregnant again. =o) Anyway, I am very happy now. This might actually lead to me posting more than once a month and maybe I'll even throw in a video or two of Emmie. =o)

In other news, Emmie decided that she really liked the blood aspect of Halloween and proceeded to fall head first into our magazine stand last night right before bed. She ended up with about a half inch long cut (it wasn't quite a gash, the skin just split) on her forehead that of course bled profusely all over her face, clothes, mother, and father. Needless to say she wasn't thrilled with the blood running all over her face and kept trying to wipe it away with her hand and fighting against the paper towel Chad was using to try and stop it. After the bleeding and Emmie calmed down we were able to check the wound and after debating a trip to the emergency room for stitches (it was about 8:30 pm) we opted for some steri-strips and a bandage (we figured that was about what they would do at the ER anyway as the cut wasn't really deep) This morning she was no worse for the wear and playing around like normal.

Another adventure we are in the midst of right now is sorting everything out from an accident we were in on Oct 20th. Chad and I were on our way up to Sight and Sound (A Christian Theater) in PA for an overnight trip to celebrate our anniversary when we had an unexpected turn of events. We were on a two lane road driving towards a construction zone when suddenly a suburban pulled around a stopped truck into our lane. We didn't know what was going on but Chad slammed on the brakes and tried to get as far to the right as he could without plowing into the guardrail. All I remember thinking is ok, we're pretty much stopped. Why isn't he stopping or going around?!! Then CRASH!! the front left corners of our vehicles hit. It was all a little surreal. The airbags didn't go off and thank the Lord, no one was injured. Our truck on the other hand was undrivable (but the engine was still running, Chad had to shut it off, so that was good). We'll probably have to replace the bumper, grill, the lights on that side, the side panel, the hood, the driver side door (Chad had to come out my side because he couldn't get the door open wide enough to get out), the wheel (which looked like it was broken in half) and the tire, not to mention any internal damage that we couldn't see. But also another praise (at least so far) is that the truck is still valuable enough for them to be able to complete the repairs without having to total the vehicle. The repair shop is still working on the estimate so we'll see about that one. Anyway, come to find out, apparently the truck in front of the suburban stopped suddenly (he left the scene after the accident) and the driver of the suburban slammed on the brakes (he didn't have ABS), went into a skid, lost control, and swerved into our lane. You could see his skid marks on the road come from his lane into ours. At first it seemed like it would be pretty cut and dry with the insurance companies but unfortunately, the other driver after finding out that he was going to be found at fault (and not the mystery driver in the truck) has proceeded to lie to his insurance company possibly taking something I had said in speculation after the accident (that the truck may have slammed on his brakes because the lane shift in the construction zone may have made it seem like we were coming towards him) and using it to make it seem like we were at fault too. I'm pretty confident that the insurance companies will get things figured out correctly but it's so difficult knowing that something I said could be potentially casting doubt over our integrity. I hate this feeling and it's killing me not knowing what's going on.
On a bright note, since we were ok, we were able to get a cab and then a rental car and still enjoy the weekend. If any of you are up in the Lancaster area of PA you should really try and catch a show at Sight and Sound. They do an incredible job. =o)

Blue Ribbon Winner

If I could brag on my hubby for a minute...Chad's picture of Miguel Tejada (a Baltimore Orioles player) on a rehab assignment playing for the Keys won a blue ribbon at the county fair. =o)

Emmie =o)

Emmie is finally starting to get hair. When she gets warm or it is humid outside she gets little curls around the back of her head. She gets that from her mommy. =o)


Swinging like a big girl


On Thursday night when we were gone, Emmie wore her Maryland jersey so that she could match Chad who was wearing his and watching the game at home. She also liked to "help" my Grandma water her plants. Her MiMi taught her how to do it at home.