Today I'm going to commit myself

I kid you not, today is the day that I have finally lost my mind. I’ve been slammed busy with work for about the last month and a half. I still have a list of people that I need to call back from when they initially called to wish me a happy birthday… You know who you are and I’ll eventually get to it. I’ve not forgotten yet. Right now I have ten minutes of work left before I dash out the door, cram food down my throat and then kiss Marin good night as I slip out the door on my way to Cub Scouts. Them I’ll get home and fall into bed. Tomorrow will be my first day off since some time in September? Oct was supposed to be my day off, but I was called in to work because they got busy and needed me. Happy birthday to me! But I did technically get half of that day off. I’m not complaining about any of it, I’m just tired and would like nothing more than to sleep and read and play with Marin and Katie.
Now the reason that I’m going crazy more so today than any other day is because I just made a huge mistake on something that I was so positive about. I’m kind of cracked to now know that I made this mistake because I have no idea how it happened. I was positive!!! Also, there were facts to back me up on my initial mistake. I was so positive!!!
Next, the mistake that I made has a bazaar twist that actually serendipitously relates to exactly what my mistake was about in the first place.
I know that none of this makes any sense whatsoever, but I don’t think that I should be any more specific as this whole mess has to do with and ongoing police investigation that is concerning a brutal and violent act of crime that I somehow seem to have found myself connected to. Somebody please just give me a break.

Crazy Summer

Yes...its us. We're back to the blog world after a summer long break from our keyboard. Entering the summer season I thought that it was going to be pretty uneventful, but obviously I was wrong about that. Marin and I ended up spending about 3 weeks in Michigan, while Daniel worked long hours here in Durham. My sister Erin drove back to NC with Marin and I and spent a week here with us, before heading back to Michigan to get ready for school. We really enjoyed having her here. We worked in a day trip to the beach with her so that she could be properly introduced to the ocean. We had a great time and brought enough of the beach back with us to prove it.


After that I spent my days gearing up for the looming task of POTTY TRAINING. It was pretty much terrible, but Marin doesn't appear to be too emotionally scarred for life because of it (although I'm sure her therapist someday will have something to say about it :) I really shouldn't complain, Marin did great!

During potty training boot camp we found out that hand, foot and mouth disease was going around the ward. So guess who gets it... Yep! Marin ended up having blisters all over the inside of her mouth, and feet. Poor kid. She couldn't leave the house for 2 weeks and we all went a bit insane being indoors so long. I was a little upset about the whole thing. Before having kids I always told Daniel that I'd let our kids eat dirt and be germy so that they would be healthy adults. Well, I've changed my mind. I get kind of crazy when people bring sick kids to play group and to nursery. I've since calmed down and have realized that there are worse things to deal with out there than a fever and some blisters. Unfortunately though, we had to cancel a trip to Delaware to visit Daniel's sister (for the 4th time). Sorry Chris! Someday we'll make good on our plans.

So after all of our summer craziness we've been left flat broke (what's new) and exhausted. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I have felt like life has been really hard lately. But leave it to the Lord to humble us when we'd like nothing better to do than complain about why life stinks. We've had a bunch of friends and family go through some really tough trials the last couple weeks and I have realized we have nothing to complain about. We're all healthy and we have a beautiful soon to be 2 yr. old, who makes us smile everyday. We also have a steady job and a roof over our head. So yes...I'll admit there are worse trials than potty training :)

My little ragtime doll

So the fam packed up our little Civic and drove on up to Michigan for a few days recently. I spent about a week and then flew home and back to work. Katie and Marin have stayed behind and will be coming home in about another week. I've been home now for about five days and I'm totally finished with the batchelor thing. I miss them and want them to come home. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Katie gets to spend time with her family and that they get to spend time with Katie and Marin, but I'm also very selfish. I miss my girls.
While we were in MI, Erin (KT's sister) took some great pictures and video clips. I've been thinking about those pictures all week. Wishing that I had them here with me so that it could feel like I still had the real thing. No luck, they are all still in MI. But then... When checking my gmail today I found that someone had commented on a video that was posted to my youtube account. It was a video that I didn't know was even on there. Aparently KT had posted it and Now I get to watch it. (Emoticon Smiley) You may also watch it, but this is mostly for my own pleasure as I cannot stop smiling and will certainly watch it from my work desk multiple times tomorrow.
And it seems to be funny enough that it's been commented on by some random youtube person. -I'm not sure how I feel about that. (Emoticon Pensive)
Enjoy.

Back Up and Running

IT WORKS AGAIN!!!

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Time to Boogie Woogie!

Please don't hate me as I make you both the object of some intense humor!
Enjoy.

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Just remember that I'm your favorite son in law ever.

What's Cookin'?!

Marin has recently decided that she needs to be involved in more of the cooking. I thought these pictures turned out so cute, I just had to post them. She wasn't so helpful with the cooking part, but does a great job helping clean up.




"YUM YUM"

Beach Trip

Daniel's whole family came down to North Carolina for a beach week in June. Daniel's mom came out a couple days before to spend some time with us before the masses arrived at the beach. Cheryl and Marin went to work on saving our trees in the front yard. They're saying that the drought here is only going to get worse. Fortunately for us I don't think our yard could get much worse. I'm not sure how helpful Marin was, but she certainly found a way to stay cool in all the heat.





We stayed in a fab beach house in Kill Devil Hills. It was great weather for the most part and we had fun spending time on the beach. Marin is definitely her father's child.



She is a total water baby.





She also had a lot of fun with Daniel's nieces and nephews. I know she was glad to have kids to play with instead of her boring mother.



It was nice visiting with the family and getting to see all the kids again. Daniel's sister Chris had a set of twins about a year ago that we were able to meet for the first time. All in all we were sad to leave the sun and sand, but had a great week. Thanks Cheryl and Bob!



(Please feel free to advert your eyes away from my flabby, pasty legs, but don't you think my suit is fabulous?!)

Back to blogging...

Yeah-its been awhile. Here is my meager attempt at redeeming myself. We went through some big changes in the Kuhn household during May. Since our 1 1/2 year-old is roughly the size of a 3 year-old we discovered that the baby gate had to come down, it was time for a booster seat instead of a highchair and we had to put those annoying doorknobs things on all our doors. Marin walked out the front door without my knowledge the other day, but luckily Daniel was outside to witness the escape. Unfortunately, she has now figured out how to open doors with the annoying doorknob things on them. Just last Sunday she organized THREE separate escape attempts from nursey by Houdini-ing the "child-proof" locks on the door.

Here are some pictures of Marin eating her first meal in the booster seat. She is thrilled to be in her big girl chair.

Misadventures in Shopping

What you're about to see may scare you. This is not for the faint of heart. I've been complaining for some time to Daniel that I have no clothes. I went about trying to prove it to him one night and the experience left us both shocked and disturbed. Here is the pile of clothes that no longer fit me or are worthy of allowing social services to take away my child based on my appearance. It was ugly folks.


This is what is left. So pathetic and sad. (P.S. Please nominate me for TLC's "What Not To Wear.")


I was forced to realize two things about myself. One- I hoard old clothes. Don't ask me why...I do such a good job decluttering the rest of my life, but can't seem to let go of ugly shirts from high school. Two- After Marin, my body has taken on a new shape all together. I swear my waist has dropped about 3 inches. I'm not sure why that happened.

Anyway, drastic steps needed to be taken. We hopped in the car on Daniel's day off and headed to the outlets 2 hours away. We thought we'd be smart and leave during Marin's nap time, thinking she'd sleep on the way down. Ha! Yeah right. She was grumpy by the time we got there, especially after getting lost trying to find the place. However, her spirits rose after she was freed from the car and able to walk around.

We had a little success in the first store, but our luck quickly changed as soon as we left that store. What a wash the day turned out to be. You'd think finding a few shirts would be a realistic expectation after visiting 30 different stores, but were we wrong. We did have one funny experience. We went into the Oshkosh store to see if they had any kids stuff on sale and while Daniel and I were making a quick game plan, Marin had sat down, stripped off both her shoes and socks, and was already trying on flip-flops. After Daniel and I composed ourselves we had to convince an 18 month old that she needed to leave her own shoes and socks on, and that we wouldn't be trying on EVERY pair of shoes in the store. I'm not sure where our girly girl came from, but she is GIRL through and through.


A short time later we took a trip to Dairy Queen in an attempt to lighten our collective spirits. Apparently, Marin really liked the ice cream.



Daniel did too. Unfortunately, a short while later, we found out that it didn't like him back. So while Daniel took the next hour and a half to deal with his own issues, Marin decided she had retained enough water to liberate all of NC from their drought and that it was time to let the flood gates go. I kid you not... she completely wet through 4 diapers in the span of 1 hour. I had never seen anything like it. Daniel is nowhere to be seen and I am 18 miles from the car. Marin and I started hoofing it. She screamed the entire way.

By the time we got to the car, Marin had not only soaked through her last diaper, but had now soaked my shirt as well. I hadn't been able to find any shirts all day, as previously mentioned, so I walked around for the last hour of our shopping trip in a pee shirt. All in all, we didn't get much accomplished but we all made it home in one piece. My closet situation...remains the same.

Visit from Pappy

Daniel's dad came for a visit last weekend. Unfortunately for him, he spent most of his visit helping Daniel fix our broken couch. Yes people..beware! When you come and visit us we put you to work! We sure appreciated all the help though! We did take a trip to Duke Gardens on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty hot out, so it was a bit of a short adventure, but we still had a good time.





Daniel's dad bought Marin a glow stick while he was here. This is a funny video of Marin, Daniel and the glow stick. Marin had a difficult time saying "pappy" so she called him "happy" instead. It was pretty cute. She had a great time playing with him over the weekend.

Marin's Room

My mom came for a visit at the beginning of April. We were so happy to have her here for a visit. We worked on several projects during her week stay, but I must say...our great accomplishment was Marin's room. I am so happy with the way it turned out. I know I know...Pottery Barn Kids is bound to be knocking on my door any day. I still have some little decoration projects I'm working on for the room, but I'm so pleased that everything came together so well. Now, if we can keep Marin from pulling the wood fence out of the wall, we'll be set.

Marin had a lot of fun playing with Glamma Harris all week. She was pretty confused when my mom left. She kept asking where grandma went and would look for her around every corner. They played a lot of hide and seek during the week. She would get a little sad when she realized glamma wasn't there to jump out and chase her.

Thanks for all your help mom! We wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you. My mom also made some fabulous kitchen curtains that I LOVE!

Here's something Awesome!

This was made by Katie's cousin. His name is Cole and he's an extremely funny kid. As exhibited in this clip. If you watch closely, you'll also catch a shot of Cole's actual mom - Peggy, not just a paid actress.

Enjoy.


Little Timmy and the Hippie from Benjamin on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

I can't believe its Easter time again already. It doesn't seem all that long ago we were spending the holiday in a crusty motel alone, in a new place. We are lucky to have some wonderful people around us this year to celebrate with. Our friends the Rawlings were kind enough to invite us over for Easter dinner. Great food and great company. Marin enjoyed her easter basket...probably more than anything in it. She wore it around on her head for the most of the day. However, she is now the proud owner of a Blue's Clue's movie. She loves Blue!


We had a difficult time getting her to pose for the camera in her cute Easter dress so this is about all we got.



We hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!

Blog Challenged

In the words of Homer Simpson..."why must I fail at everything I do?" I've sat on my rear for about the last 3 hours trying to download new templates for our blog site. Obviously nothing I did worked and we're back to the same ole' same ole' we've been using. What on earth possessed me to think that I know enough about computers to do anything fancy is beyond me. I've lost three valuable hours of my life accomplishing absolutely nothing and I'm rather frustrated. So here it is...and here it will remain. Anyone is welcome to school in the world of blogging. I could certainly use some help.

Under Construction

Please be patient as our site is undergoing some construction. We're a little slow when it comes to computers, blogs, etc. And by "we" I mean I...Katie.