The Awesomeness That Is Mike

For the last month, I've been trying to change the background picture on this blog. I liked the picture itself, but it came off as pretty depressing as a background for a blog about our family. After lots of frustration and slamming my keyboard, Mike comes over to the computer and within 5 minutes has the problem fixed. (In my defense, it wasn't as simple as it's supposed to be-- the HTML wasn't where it should have been in the first place!)

And now he won't shut up about it. Wonderful.

He asked me to write a blog entry about his "amazing computer feat." He also asked me to create a pie chart of how long I spent working to fix the problem, and how long he did... and then put in on here.

I'm going to skip the pie chart, but hopefully this entry is enough to pacify his need to be recognized as a computer genius.


The "Einstein of HTML":

In My Daughter's Eyes

 

In my daughter's eyes, I am a hero.

I am strong and wise,

And I know no fear.

But the truth is plain to see:
She was sent to rescue me,
I see who I want to be, in my daughter's eyes.

In my daughter's eyes, everyone is equal,
Darkness turns to light,
And the world is at peace.
This miracle God gave to me,
Gives me strength when I am weak.
I find reason to believe, in my daughter's eyes.

And when she wraps her hand around my finger,
Oh, it puts a smile in my heart.
Everything becomes a little clearer.
I realize what life is all about.
It's hanging on when your heart has had enough;
It's giving more when you feel like giving up.
I've seen the light: it's in my daughter's eyes.

In my daughter's eyes, I can see the future.
A reflection of who I am,
And what will be.
And though she'll grow and some day leave:
Maybe raise a family,
When I'm gone, I hope she'll see,
How happy she made me,
For I'll be there, in my daughter's eyes.

Busy Busy Busy...

I haven't had time to sit down and update this blog in the last week because I am currently inundated with homework. Which wouldn't be so bad if the instructions you get from the teacher weren't written in Greek. What really bothers me, aside from the incoherent direction from the instructor, is the fact that this is an English class. Actually, a COMMUNICATIONS class to be exact. It really baffles me that the directions we get from a communications teacher aren't communicated well. I mean, come on, that's what you do for a living!

Normally I enjoy school, but this has made it very difficult to get major progress on assignments done. I'm constantly trying to figure out what he means and wants us to do. So this adds extra time to every assignment. At this point, and keep in mind that class doesn't even officially begin until Sunday, I'm just trying to get things done and turn them in without a lot of thought as to the quality of the work. Is this the smartest thing to do? Probably not, but I'm not going to allow myself to get bogged down by a communications class. That's not what I'm going to school for so I'm going to concentrate my focus and time on the classes that really matter to my degree. Not this crap.

Strange Day

Today has been a pretty weird day. It started off with me taking a nap at 11 am this morning. I NEVER do that. When I woke up, Mike had already eaten lunch and put Leilani down for a nap. It was really strange.

Later, we took Leilani to the fountains at Bayshore for some water fun. Unfortunately, that only resulted in one of the worst fights Mike and I have ever had. Not good.

Then, while Mike was fishing with his brother, I entered a contest for free Jarritos... and won! I should be getting an email from Jarritos sometime today to instruct me how to claim my prize. I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

Strange.

Lead Test

I received the results of Leilani's blood-lead test that was done during her last visit to the pediatrician. She got a 4. After a bit of searching online, I learned that a score between 0-4 means there is very little lead in a child. However, the letter from the doctor said that we should schedule a follow-up appointment and have her retested. Ugh. That's just what I want to do... take Leilani to have more blood drawn because that's always a treat for everyone involved.

What I'm curious about is how she was ever exposed to ANY lead. Her bedroom is almost 100% brand new. By that I mean the drywall, paint and all the furniture is new. I installed it all myself... drywall included. The house itself was built in the mid 70's, so it could run a risk of having had lead paint at one time, but all of the walls have been repainted in the last 10 years, so any lead paint that would be on the walls is safely sealed in by newer paint. And she doesn't exactly go around scraping the walls with her teeth, so what gives?!?

There are two suspected sources in my mind:
1) She chews on the sides of her crib. We bought her crib brand new from Target just before she was born, so the finish on it should not contain dangerous amounts of lead. But who knows.
2) Some of her toys. Specifically this really cute shark squeezy toy that I bought in the little $1 section of, you guessed it, Target. I thought it would be a great toy while we were on vacation in California because she could play with it at the water park. It wasn't until later that I discovered it was actually a DOG TOY. I'm pretty sure the powers-that-be don't regulate lead levels in dog toys like they do in children's toys. So that makes me wonder about it.

Either way, I'm going to go out after Gymboree today to see if I can find some of those plastic covers that go around the edges of a crib and I'm going to get rid of the shark squeezy toy.

I'm determined to lower Leilani's exposure to lead and get a better result when we retest her. Just because the CDC says that a lead test with a result 4 is acceptable, doesn't mean I have to accept it.

Sweet Little Girl

Mike and I took Leilani outside to snap some photos of her while she still has her cast on. I haven't wanted a lot of photos of it for obvious reasons, but I realized today that this is one of those crazy circumstances that rarely happens-- a 1 year old in a full leg cast. I thought it'd be a good idea to capture it for memories sake. When she's older, she can look through her baby book and see these photos. The best part about explaining it to her when she's older will be telling her how it never slowed her down. She never got frustrated or mad. She mastered walking *perfectly* in it after just two days. And I think that's a pretty cool story that we will want to remember.

GPA

I've never had a 4.0 GPA before. Not in high school or when I was getting my Bachelors degree. So even though I only took 3 classes in the Spring, which made for a really easy semester, I still love logging into my grades online and starring at my 4.0 GPA. It wasn't hard to earn, thanks to that light class load, but I am still very proud.

I love seeing those perfect grades next to my name.

The Fall semester starts in less than 3 weeks, and I am totally pumped! I feel like I've been idling all Summer and I am happy that classes are finally going to start this month.

My goal is to keep getting A's. It's definitely going to be harder due to the fact that I'm taking 5 courses in the Fall, but 3 of those are online, so that should help. And I LOVE online courses. I love being able to work at my own pace, which is usually ahead of schedule. Last semester I finished all 3 classes at least 3 weeks before the end of the semester. It was great and so convenient. I cannot wait to get started again. Everyday I check online for the instructors to load the curriculum onto the web page. No such luck yet, but I'm sure it'll be any day now.

Inspiration a la Pepperidge Farm

Today I read a quote on the back of a bag of Goldfish Crackers:

"Challenge yourself to find something good in every situation."

Such insightful little fish.

Lil' Leilani's Luau

Sunday was Leilani's 1st birthday, so in a quasi-Hawaiian move, we had a backyard luau. We invited a bunch of friends over and enjoyed the warm weather and ate a lot of food. It was the perfect 1st birthday party.

Leilani got a ton of really cool presents (thanks everyone!), including a little play kitchen, bath toys, a little riding scooter, books, and tons more.

All the little kids got to play in her new little cottage play house in the backyard, while we adults got to sit around, relax, and enjoy each others company.

We had a lot of great food-- Barbecue pulled pork, grilled brats, Derek's Homemade Taco Dip, and the cupcakes that I have been stressing over for a month.

 All the little ones in Leilani's new cottage

 ~Cutie♥Cakes~ and Leilani's V.I.P. cake

Leilani getting her first taste of cupcake

Time for PRESENTS!