May 2011

May is over already?! Here's the low down on the month...
Jeff just finished a basement he was helping a friend at church finish. It went well, but we realized that we probably don't want to get into flipping houses right now because he had to go work all evening and often weekends too. Of course this was on top of his full time job of 50 or so hours per week. They have laid some people off at his work to "cut overhead during the tough economy" is how it was explained. We know that means less people doing more work, but at least he has a job I guess. Jeff set up a garden in our back yard and the seeds and plants are growing - Jeff is excited about all the fresh vegetables we may have this summer.
I am still working three days per week, but have changed positions within the company. It became too hard on the Payroll/Benefits Dept for me to only be there part time. I am now working in Commercial Insurance. My first task has been to revamp the collection and storage process for the insurance certificates. Once that is cleaned up, I will be working more in some of the risk management area of the dept. I like working three days per week for now, gives me some adult interaction (and money) and also get to spend a lot of time with Samara. I had my first Mother's Day! Jeff got us tickets to go see "Jersey Boys" this fall - that will be fun! We had Samara dedicated on Mother's Day at our church. She did well being handed off to the pastor, but waiting her turn on stage she was quite wiggly. As my mom said you definitely had the most active baby up there...
Samara has had a busy month of course. She is becoming more and more a toddler than a baby. Sigh... She can walk with no trouble - quite quickly sometimes. Also has mastered going up and down the steps. She is drinking from sippy cups during the day instead of bottles, and is basically eating what we do, just in smaller pieces. She likes basically every food she tries so hoping that will keep up! She recently started INSISTING on standing during her bath. We are working through this hopefully short phase. She can do lots of sign language now - milk, more, please, eat, book, up. Also working on outside, banana mommy, daddy and ball to name a few. She sings eee-iii-eee-iii as in EIEIO from Old McDonald and she really likes words that have P in them. Purple, puppy, up and Poppa. She seems to learn things so fast, it is amazing really! She'll even see a picture of a soccer ball in her book and walk over to pick up the one she has that looks like it - as if to say, look I have one of those! She also went swimming for the first time at Auntie Courtney's apartment pool! She really liked it even though the pool was crowded. Daddy twirled her around in the water and lifted her in and out (not her head) of the water. So, now we're into June and summer and Samara is already 11 months old - I can't believe it!! Will post pics soon!