she's on the move...

Hey All~ Just a quick post tonight to update you on the happenings at the Carroll household. Brianna has officially started crawling, last night we were trying to get her to crawl to come get a teddy bear, and she did!! This morning and tonight she has been crawling whenever she gets the chance. So tonight we had to go out and get some gates (yes, I know we probably should have done this ages ago, but we didn't...so get off our backs! :) ) Anyway, that is our big exciting news for the week, other than that we're just doing the same old. We are heading to Iowa on Friday, so you may be blessed with some pictures next week! :) There are a few new ones in the June album. Enjoy! Our love to all!!

relay for life

While in college I took a course entitled "Death & Dying". Yes, I actually took this class, and I yes I really enjoyed it. During this class we had to create a "family tree" of sorts that made us talk to our families about death and to actually find out how members of our extended family had died. In doing this project, I discovered something I found quite alarming...cancer is quite prevalent on both sides of my family. Although until that point cancer had only touched my life in one way...my grandma had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she had battled and won. Then as some of you know, in December of 2004 my grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer. He battled with everything he had, but a short 7 weeks after his diagnosis, the cancer took his life.

On August 4 I will be participating in the Relay for Life. The Relay for Life is an overnight walk to raise money for cancer research. If any of you out there would like to donate money to this wonderful cause please email me using the link to the right (thanks Dale :), and I will contact you with more details. I know a lot of you that frequently read my blog are individuals I will be walking with that night, but for those of you who are not, I'm asking you to look into your hearts and donate to this more than worthy cause.

I'm usually not one to ask people for money, it actually makes me quite uncomfortable, so you have to know how much I believe in this to be asking.

I can only hope that one day, my daughter will not have to know what its like to lose someone to cancer. That is something that will only be possible if we continue to raise money to fund research. Then maybe one day all of our children will grow up in a world where cancer is just something they read about.

how did mom have 2 of us so close together??

So, I told you the other day there was an incident at the grocery store this past weekend. So, now that I can think about it without my heart beating at an alarming rate, I decided to share my little story. Saturday mornings Bob usually golfs with his dad and brother (when we're in town, which lately has not been that often), this Saturday was no different, other than the fact that we were having guests pretty much all weekend long, starting shortly after Bob finished his round of golf. We spent much of the week preparing for our guest, cleaning, doing laundry, making grocery lists, and deciding what foods to make. Friday we ran out of time to actually do the grocery shopping, so I decided that I would take Brianna on Saturday while Bob was golfing,(Side note...Bob does 99% of the grocery shopping in our house) as I needed to go out to get some things anyway. So Saturday morning, Brianna and I headed off to Super Target, figuring we could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Unfortunately, by the time I had gotten everything else on the list, there was no room in the cart for any sort of groceries, and during this time, Brianna thought it was fun to take things out of my purse, play with them and then drop them on the floor. Needless to say, mommy didn't find this game so fun. I must note that she wasn't screaming, crying, or anything else, just dropping things, so I was a little upset with myself for feeling very frustrated with her, but I was really only frustrated because everything was taking me 5 times longer than normal. (I realize this happens when you have kids, so stop laughing at me) Anyway, I had decided to skip the groceries and wait until Bob got home to send him out after groceries or to have him watch her while I went back out to get the groceries. On the way home, we passed the grocery store and I decided I was already out, the list wasn't that long, I should just get the groceries now and be done with it. So, we got out to get groceries. This was a mistake. After about 1 hour in the grocery store to pick up about 30 things, we finally headed to the checkout line, my patience very thin...again, not because she was doing anything wrong, just because it took so long, and the dropping game was getting VERY old by this point. The checkout lady asked if I had a Jewel (thats the grocery store) card, and of course I do, its right there on my key chain....wait....where are my keys? Oh no, Brianna must have dropped them...I am frantically looking for them, when I spot them...the are stuck between her belly and the front of the cart, whew...crisis averted. So then the lady asks for my ID to purchase the beer I was buying (and at this point really wanted to open!) just a second, its right here in my purse...wait....where is my wallet? Oh my gosh...she really did drop my wallet!! I'm frantically looking in the cart as I'm getting annoyed looks from the people in my checkout line. Nope...no wallet. I grab Brianna out of the cart and start running up and down the aisles looking for my wallet...there is nothing, I go to customer service, ask if anyone turned in a wallet...nope, nothing like that here. The manager asks me if the wallet could be down Brianna's outfit, again with an annoyed look on her face, I wanted to punch her in the face....hello, its a wallet...its not small! I again start looking up and down the aisles, go back to customer service...again nothing. I go out to my car, in tears to look there, nope nothing...meanwhile I call Bob and he is on his way to the store but won't be there for about 30 minutes or so. Oh, and did I mention that during all of this I'm also carrying Brianna who now weighs over 20lbs and also that I got maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before...I'm tired. I tell the manager my husband is coming to pay for the stuff and she asks if I want to keep looking in the aisles, what else am I going to do? So I ask again, are you sure no one turned anything in...holding out hope that there are good people in the world. So she goes to check...oh...here it is! I let out a breath, and realize I've kind of been holding my breath for the last 30 minutes. She hands it to me and says "I don't know if anything is missing" I anxiously open it, afraid of what I might find, or not find...and there it is, my driver's license, my credit cards, my atm card, my cash...all where I had left it. So back through the checkout we went.

So to that wonderfully kind person who turned in my wallet, thank you. You made one very frazzled mommy very happy. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

I guess it made it all worth while when on Saturday night Brianna said her real first word...mommy.
Yeah right in my dream world, well, she did say her first word, but of course she said daddy! She can say nothing that even remotely sounds like mommy.

But it was actually very cute, she was sitting on the couch with me, Bob was sitting on the floor in front of her when she tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around and she said da-deeeee!

OK, sorry for the long winded post, but its my blog and I'll make my posts as long as I want to! :)

father's day, old friends, & of course...golf

First of all, I want to say Happy Dad's day to all the dad's out there. The word father always makes me think of this quote "Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a dad" (or it goes something like that) and the following people are definitely special enough to be dads. First of all to Bob, you are such an amazing daddy to Brianna. She absolutely lights up when you are around (as you do around her) and seeing you with her makes me love you even more (and I didn't realize that was even possible!) I know I never tell you enough how much I appreciate everything you do for us, but we both love you so much, and I'm amazed by you everyday! You are a wonderful husband and father and I love you more and more every day. To my dad, I don't even know if I could ever have the words to thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for me (and my family). I know you think the stuff you do is "no big deal" but it means a lot to us, and we could never repay you for all you've done. I'm sure I don't say this enough...but Thank you, and I love you. To Bob(my other dad), from the moment I met you, you welcomed me into the family with open arms. You do so much for us, from watching Brianna, to mowing our grass, and all the things in between, we appreciate it more than you know and we love you so much! Both of you (dad & Bob) are wonderful Grandpas to Brianna, and I know she will feel as blessed as I do, having had such great relationships with my grandpa's, and such wonderfully precious memories.

As I was writing this I realized that I never said thank you to the mom's in my life at Mother's Day, so I guess now is as good as time as any...as long as I'm in the sappy mood! To my mom, you know I love you lots! :) You're always there when I need to talk to someone, to complain, or to tell my funny stories to, or just to chat about nothing. You do more for me than you know, and for that I'm truly grateful. Nancy, you too, have welcomed me into the family and made me feel at home in your home. We both appreciate how much you do for us and for Brianna. We love you lots! You are both such good Grandmas and Brianna is so lucky to have you, and you have both been so wonderfully supportive while I have been figuring out this whole motherhood thing for the last year, and that means the world to me. And to my grandmas (both by blood & marriage), I love you all so much!

OK, now that I'm done with the sappy stuff... :)

This weekend was such fun (for the most part...there was an incident at the grocery store, but I don't have the energy to post about it now...maybe tomorrow).

Sunday, the Carroll family came over for lunch, along with our buddy Garth, who was staying here for the weekend, and then of course we watched the final round of the US Open. Sunday night a bunch of Bob's golfing buddies came over so they could hold their fantasy football draft. Yes, it is June, and they are talking football already. They are a little crazy about the fantasy football, but it was great to see all the guys. Holly and I left the boys to their draft and went to see "The Break Up", which we both enjoyed, and Brianna stayed here and kept an eye on the boys! :)


Yesterday, both Bob & I took the day off, so we attended the Knosher Golf Outing (this is a Knox Alumni event, for those of you who don't know) Bob played and I walked & watched. Knox golf was such a big part of Bob's college years (although if you know him at all, this is not a surprise to you) These guys are some of Bob's best friends (and also mine too) and they are the nicest guys anyone could hope to meet. It was such a blast to hang out with all of them and talk about old times, there were lots of laughs! :) And of course the day was topped off by the fact that the team Bob was on won! (well, they won the gross score). Needless to say a good time was had by all.

Well, I think I've rambled enough for tonight.... Lots of love to you all...

have you missed us?

Yes, I know...I know...its been a while. But I've finally got some new pictures. Brianna is getting pretty big now, and while she's not yet crawling, she sure does seem to get into a lot of stuff! This past weekend Brianna & I went with Amanda and her mom to the Wilton tent sale (if you don't know, Wilton makes cooking/baking supplies) I was thinking about what kind of cake to make Brianna for her birthday and while walking up and down the aisles I spotted a 3-D duck. Well, Brianna saw it and immediately got this huge smile on her face and was laughing and playing with the box. I almost couldn't get it away from her to pay for it! So, I bought it and decided to do a trial run to see if it would actually work for her birthday. It actually didn't turn out half bad. It will hopefully be decorated much better for her birthday( I only had chocolate frosting in the house), but Bob made me take a picture of the practice one before he started eating it!

Anyway, I've got a bunch of stuff to do around the house tonight, and its almost bath & bed time. But there are some new pictures in the June 2006 album. Hope everyone is having a nice summer so far. Our love to all!!