We're Moving!!!

We just found out that we will be moving to Washington, DC !!! Actually we'll get housing at Ft. Belvoir, VA which is just outside the beltway but still close enough to call DC. What's even more amazing is that we have a few friends who are moving not to far from where we'll be. The Hubbards are moving to Bethesda, and the Tenbergs are moving to Baltimore. Yeah!!

The crazy thing is that we had thought about moving up there sometime in 5-7 yrs. But the Good Lord had other plans. He has planned for us to be there at the end of July. Jerry reports August 1st. So 2 months from now we will be in our new home in Ft. Belvoir, VA.
What make it easier is that we already have renters for our home here in Little Rock. So we don't have to worry about getting our house on the market and losing money and all that hassle. We don't even have to pack. The movers do it for us. But we still have to prepare to downsize really organize the things we want to take with us. Being that we have a 3yr old and a 1yr old the less stress to deal with , the better.
We will keep everyone updated and now that we are going to live some place exciting, I will have so much to blog about. We are an adventurous family , so a move like this is going to be great!

Finally a new post!!! Yipeee!

I'm finally getting around to blogging again. The problem is that I spend much more time on Facebook than I do here because it's easier to post a line or two and comment on friends statuses or chat with them (even when they live right across the street, right Jess?).

So without further ado, here are the Cathey family updates!

Jerry, is going to be baptised Sunday evening at 7:15 pm. I'm so proud of him and his decision to do this. What this means for our family is that we will have a faithful, Christ- loving, Priesthood holding , leader in our home. It also means that we can prepare to go the Temple together as a family and be sealed for eternity as husband and wife with our children.

We also just finished "A Weekend to Remember". It's a Family Life event that was held at the Peabody hote. It's purpose is to strengthen marriages using God's plan for our families. It's a non- denominational Christian message and we both learned so much about ourselves, eachother, and how to keep our marriage thriving. I would recommend every couple go to an event. No matter where you are at in your marriage, whether you are engaged, married with children, empty nesters, remarried, on the brink of divorce, or still honeymooning. There is something for everyone. You will learn so much. My next step is to finish reading " Drawing Heaven in to Your Marriage" by H. Wallace Goddard and share that with my family and friends as well.

Emily is getting more and more excited about being a big sister these days. She seems to think everyone's belly has a Chloe in it. She is also so much more talkative as well. Forget new words, she speaks in sentences now. She says Hi to everyone she meets and is so loving when she's not having a tantrum. She has grown a lot too over the last several weeks. She's in a 2T, wearing size 5 shoes. She eats like a little piglett too. Of course she runs it off at the park so I'm not worried about her being over weight or anything. Her blond hair is curlier than ever now too. She is also growing in her independence. She likes to drink out of a big girl cup, sleep in her big girl bed and climb onto the big girl chairs. She also likes to go shopping for big girl shoes. I wonder where she got that from???

Now for pregnancy updates. As of today, I've gained 24 lbs, and measure for 32 weeks. Being 32 weeks that is pretty much perfect. The gestational diabetes kept under control with diet and exercise, but I had to add medication at night so that my fasting blood sugars would be under 90 in the morning. Chloe moves really well and is quite the little kicker. I love to sit and watch my belly move. One thing I have realized since this weekend, is that I haven't thank the Lord for her and her health so I have since remedied that. It's really hard to be grateful for a healthy pregnancy when you are pretty much sick most of the time, but despite my sickness, Chloe is healthy and growing. I should be grateful for even just being pregnant with her. What a blessing this is in my life.
Now if I could just the Z -Pak to kick in and take care of this sinus infection......


God bless you all.

So far life with gestational diabetes isn't too bad. There are some major incoveniences like having to make time to prick my fingers four times a day which by the way is painful (and now I have a lot more respect for those who have diabetes and have to do this everyday for the rest of thier lives). But the meal plan is pretty reasonable. And as long as Chloe's health is involved I will follow the plan 150%. Chloe,by the way, is just as active as her sister was before she was born. I can't believe she is going to be here in about 3 mo. We aren't even remotely ready yet either. We have some diapers and clothes, but we haven't moved Emily to a toddler bed, and the furniture still needs to be moved into her room. I also have yet to find crib bedding that I like. We also need to get a new carseat and extra base because the other travel system was not compatible with the new double stroller, so we sold it to a friend. This list goes on.......

Emily and I can't wait for the warmer weather. That means more park days. We would've have gone to the park today but Emily wasn't cooperating at nap time. At 2pm she was still awake playing in her crib. She usually goes down around 12:30 and gets up by 3 0r 3:30. It's 4 now so I will give her 30 more minutes and then get her up so she will go down for bedtime at 8pm.

I imagine that when we bring Chloe home our routine will all but dissapear for the first couple of weeks so I'm glad Jerry will be home. My mom plans to help out a little too. But I'm not going to stress out over it now. I still have three months to prepare for it.

Well I had a bummer of a day today. Actually it started last week on Tuesday at my ob appointment. I had to do that glucose tolerance test. Yucky. The results were not good. My levels were too high and I was anemic so I had to retest today. Three days earlier, I had to start a carb fest. Then I fasted from 8:30 pm last night to 8:30am. I got to the lab, the drew blood. My blood sugar was fine, but when the gave the glucose drink again and drew blood an hour and 2 hours later, my blood sugar levels were once again too high. So needless to say, I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

On a lighter note,Emily had a fun play date with her friend Isabelle today. They had a lot of fun according to my friend Lisa (Isabelle's mom). They listened to music and watched Elmo and of course played with their toys. Both girls are so cute together. They look so much alike. They both have blond curly hair and blue eyes and are about the same size. We'll have to have another playdate with them again soon.

Well, thats all for now. I hope to find the camera cable soon so I can upload more pics. I will also keep you all updated on how I'm doing with this pregnancy (poor little Chloe) and now the gestational diabetes. Just pray for us.

My Little Princess

This past weekend was super busy. I had a small yard sale, Jerry was at drill, and on top of that I put Emily in her first beauty pageant.Going into this I was really excited and I had great expectations that Emily would do everything she was supposed to and be super cute at it. In reality, I learned a very valuable lesson and Emily put me in my place.

On Friday, after day one of yard sale, we went to Rison, AR for pageant rehearsal. It was an hour and a half drive there and we were running 15 minutes late. I was kind of stressed already but not too bad. When we got there Emily saw a bunch of kids playing and so we let her play just to get her wiggles out. Eventually they let us have a go at walking around on stage. We had to wait behind a few kids and Emily was not having it. She just didn't undertand the concept of "wait for your turn". She had a massive melt down just waiting to go on stage. By the time we got on stage she was a mess. Still screaming and balling, she wouldn't walk to the "X's" and I was so stressed out , that I was almost pulling her to her spots and being a really mean mommy. Of course that made it all worse. By the time I got her off stage, I was so humiliated that I really wanted to cry too. Jerry was making it worse. Eventually Emily calmed down and I started apologizing to everyone about mine and Emily's behavior. We tried to practice again and again but it just wasn't going as well as I had expected. On the way home, I cried and cried. I called my momma just hoping for some good advice and I got it. When we got home, I let Jerry takeEmily so I could have some alone time to think about what I was doing and why everything was going wrong.
I realized that I had put some unrealistic expectations on my little girl. I expected an almost 2yr old who has never been in a pageant to go on stage follow my directions exactly and be super cute while doing it all on the first try. I didn't take into account the major distraction of other kids playing. I was only focused on what my child was doing wrong. I almost decided not to go back but I knew that if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to show all of those people who witnessed the melt down, that Emily really was a good child and I was a good mommy.

And now I am so glad that we went back and competed in the pageant. Mom went with me , we left early, arrived early, and I was not stressed at all. The main thing is that I went in with the attitude that I was going to let Emily be herself, and if she screamed on stage I wouldn't fret over it. I was going to be patient and show everyone that I was the happiest mom on the face of the earth even if I had to fake it. Emily must have felt change in my attitude because she was such an adorable princess on stage. Mom walked with her because I was sure Emily would do better with her than me. My baby was so perfect on stage- she hit all the x's , she clapped, waved and blew kisses. I cried and cried because this was my Emily and I was so proud of her. I could have cared less if she won or lost because my baby was letting her light shine. She was my sunshine and everyone could see that.

In the end, she was awarded 1st runner up Toddler Miss Sunshine. She recieved a big trophy which she is so proud of. I couldn't be more elated! I am so proud of her.
As for doing more pageants- absolutely! I have learned a valuable lesson from Emily. She calls the shots. I need to be understanding and patient with her. Besides, she is almost 2 and her emotions can be quite unpredictable. I will just take her as she is. I just need to be more patient and understanding.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!!

This week being my first official week of being a stay at home mom, was a busy one. We had story time at the library on Wed, lunch with the ladies and pictures on Thurs and today we had some shopping to do.

Story time at the library was so much fun. The librarian Mr. Jonathan read princess stories. We did some finger plays, sang a song, and played a fun game called find the princess before the dragon eats the prince. There different colored paper castles and under one of them was a princess and under another was the dragon. The paper prince had to find which castle the princess was in and if he picked the wrong one, he would get eaten by the dragon. It was too cute. We did "Going on a Dragon Hunt" which was kinda like the "Going on a Bear Hunt". At the end of story time, the kids colored paper crowns and taped them together so that they could wear them. It was so much fun!!

Then on Thursday we met up with some ladies from church for lunch. Lisa brought her daughter Isabelle who is Emily's age and in her nursery class. Both girls are blonde and curly. They play so well together.

They were so cute : they would share and talk to eachother. What one would do the other would do too.

I wish I had gotten more pics of them together but I did get a couple of Emily.

I'm telling you we had fun this week! I hope that the fun continues - which I'm sure it will!!!!

A Stay at Home Mom with a Little Jabberbox + Pics!!

Guess what everyone-

I'M A STAY AT HOME MOMMY NOW!!!!! YEAH !!!!!!!!!!!

And boy does it feel good! Life can not get anybetter- at least until June, when Chloe is born.

I know sometimes that I can go on and on about Emily's growing vocabulary which by now is pretty lengthy. But now I can start a new section on the blog about her phrases and sentences. Most of them are in direct relation to her newfound independence. Here are a few of them:

" I do it."

" I read it."

" I got it."

She uses them all the time, like, when we are brushing her teeth, reading her bedtime stories or catching a ball.

And now that I found my usb cable, I can upload some pretty cute photos of my baby-oops, I mean big girl.

Feeding the kitties- such a big helper!

My ballerina princess loves the new double stoller.
My pretty little ballerina princess !! Maybe next year I can put her in dance classes.

Speaking of baby, our little baby bump Chloe, is growing too. She moves around so much like her sister did. I am finally not sick anymore. In fact, I've been feeling pretty darn good lately so I've put my darling husband to work, helping me clean, rearrange, declutter and fix things around the house. Being that I'm now six months pregnant I guess that I'm beginning to nest a bit. I feel like I need to get so much done before Chloe gets here. There are still a few things I need to get for her before she arrives so I guess we will have to work on that too.

Now that I am stay at home mom full time now, I have plenty of time to do things around the house. I also have more time with Emily. Now we can go to story time at the library and start work on potty training. She loves her pink potty! But that is another blog for another day.

She loves to sit on her potty, but so far no pee pee or poo-poo. But she will tell you " pee-pee in the potty." So she knows what the potty is for.



Emily loves to swing at the park. Now that the weather is getting nicer we can go more often and meet up with our other mommy friends in the afternoon.

Bye- Bye ACH !!!

Well today ended my 9+ years career at Arkansas Children's Hospital working in the pharmacy. I started the day going to church, making a cake and going to work.
Coming home was the weirdest thing. I was just waiting for something bad to happen on the way home but nothing did. Thank goodness. Everthing was fine till Jerry hugged me and congratulated me. That's when it hit me. I have closed a chapter in life and now it is time to move on. ( Sniff!)

But the best thing in world right now is that I can say the phrase " Today is the first day of the rest of my life!" and really mean it!

Some one asked me today how we planned this out financially and otherwise. We had been cutting back here and there for a while. We had actually planned for me to quit in May so for me to quit in Feb. we had to make a few changes to our plans.

We've cut back on eating out, I clipped coupons and started sewing more. We cut the data package on our cell phones, all but stopped shopping at the expensive children's boutiques for clothes for Emily and Chloe :(((, and started shopping more at less expensive places for clothes and yard sales.
We had been doing some of these things for a while so it doesn't feel like such a dramatic change in lifestyle.
But selling the Honda C-RV and buying a gently used,less expensive mini- van will help a lot more.
So while money will be tight for a little while, we should still be okay. We just won't be able to fly the family out to Hawaii anytime we want ...lol.

But I want to thank all my friends at ACH for all those years of fun and all the memories! And I would also like the thank everyone for the support and encouragement of my decision to be a stay at home mom. I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead and pray for the best!

I hope to blog a lot more too!!!
And hopefully will find my usb cable for my camera so I can upload my pics of adorable Emily!!

Ups and downs

Well good news everyone! We had another ultrasound and a fetal echocardiogram today and Chloe Elizabeth looks perfectly healthy from head to toe. We are now 23 weeks and a 3 days. Chloe is measuring 22 weeks and 6 days; weight so far is 1lb 4oz; heart rate was 131 when she was sleeping and 145 when she was awake.
We were able to get some great video and 4D video of her but can't seem to upload it at the moment. Jerry is going to take the DVD to work and see if he can do something about that. So as soon as we have video available we will post it.

Emily and I went to the park today after the ultrasound because the weather was so nice. She loves to swing and go down the slide. She could play out there for hours. She just giggles and runs. It's a blast to watch her have so much fun. She is such a happy little sunshine!! I bet Chloe is the same way. I can't wait to see them play and laugh together. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the girls are close, loving relationship.

Those were the " Up" of the week. Here's the "down". Jon's divorce is getting messier. While Jerry and I would like to stay out of it, we were brought into it when Mom and Jon told us both that they were planning to try to get full custody of Rylee.
Both mine and Jerry's stance on the situation is clear: Both parents have problems-neither is perfect however we don't like the idea of Rylee being taken from her mother. We love Jon and want to support him but not in this endeavor.
Jerry and I believe marriage to be ordained by God and a sacred covenant between man and wife and God. We believe in the sanctity of families. So this whole situation between my brother Jon and his wife/ex is heartbreaking.
It is my wish that Jon and Angela even through the divorce put their petty differences asside and try to focus on Rylee and even Ryann. I worry so much about the girls.

But all I can do at this time is pray for them and try to talk them in calming things down a bit.

Oh- I almost forgot, more ups for the week!
I finished my antibiotics today for my sinus infection. No one is sick at my house anymore-yeah!!

Quite a bad day....

Where oh where do I begin? Oh- I know, around 5:30 am. Little Miss Emily whose been teething and kinda fussy, decided to wake up early while Jerry was getting ready to leave for drill this weekend. I begged him to take her down stairs and get her settled before he left so that I could get a little more sleep. I have to work this weekend also, 2pm to 10:30pm. But Emily wasn't having it. So I got up with her and tried to console her. Finally around 6:30am I got her to come back to bed with me. We both slept for about an hour. She woke up happier and I was glad that she was feeling better so I took her downstairs for some "Caillou". That worked for a while. After about an hour or so Iwent upstairs and got a shower, then went down to check on her. She wanted Mommy again so I loved on her for a moment then decided to put her in her crib and let her play while I got ready. Oh my- she was not happy about that. I was seriously stressing out and she was screaming. It was horrible. I checked on her , turned on some music and went to finish getting ready. When I went to go get her ready, I found her covered in vomit. It was everywhere. So I freaked out a little because I felt like a bad mother for letting her get so upset that she got sick. But I had to get ready and I can't let her roam around the house all by her self for an hour while I shower and get ready. It's one thing to let her watch Elmo or Caillou while I shower- that's the quick part (about 5 minutes) but she won't sit there for 45 minutes or so while I get dressed, do makeup, hair and ect...
So anyway, feeling like a bad mommy, I called the Brittany to come over and watch Emily while I cleaned up the mess. I called Jerry to let him know what was happening and he deciced to come home and help out for a few minutes. After Brittany arrived my stress level went down dramatically. Then Jerry came in and got Emily all packed up for Nana's house while I gave her a bath. With all the Lysol and Febreeze I used the room now smells quite nice and is probably one of the cleanest in the house.
Anyway, with the help of Brittany and Jerry, my sanity was saved. Emily still fussy from teething has not thrown up since then and I made it out of the house in plenty of time for work.

It was one of those days.
Now I need a cherry slushy to make it all better (and ice quite spot on the beach somewhere warm and sunny).
I seriously could go for a cherry slush about now........

Our growing family!

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in while, but I'm going to start again now that I am leaving my job in few weeks. Of course that means that I will have to start managing my time better and keeping Emily on her schedule so that I can do this while she naps.

Well, like the title of my post says our family is growing. We are expecting our 2nd little girl in June. Her name is going to be Chloe Elizabeth Cathey. I've already started buying matching outfits for her and Emily. I would like to do her nursery in a lavender theme but I'm not finding anything I like yet.

While I am getting them a few matching outfits, I do try to keep in mind that they are two completely different individuals. For examle this pregnancy has been so different than when I was pregnant with Emily. I gained 50+ lbs with Emily but with this baby, so far I've only gained 7lbs at 21 weeks. I've been a lot sicker with this pregnany and have had a lot of heart burn too.

But Emily is keeping me busy though maybe that's why I haven't gained as much. Chasing after a little bundle of energy all day wears me out. She says some of the cutes things too! Now is saying "Thank you baby" everytime she says thank you and "No baby!" when she doesn't want something or if she doensn't want to do something. Sometimes she say, "Nope" or "yes or yeah". I'm willing to bet the next new phrase is "yeah baby." She has said "I love you Mommy" and "I love Mommy". She said it on Jan 27th and hasn't said it since then. But Jerry and I both heard it so I know I'm not crazy (which we all know is debatable from time to time).

Now that I'm going to be a stay at home (and probably broke) mom, I plan on devoting more time to sewing and crafting for my girls and of course taking good care of my sweet 90 yr old grandmother.

Apple Picking Fun!

Okay you all will have to forgive me. I have been feeling sick in the afternoons and evenings and really tired so I may not blog as often as I like. But I do have more to blog about now. In case some of you haven't heard, we are expecting our 2nd baby. Yes, I'm pregnant and I'm due in June. I'm not very far along but I have been more sick with with baby than with Emily. In fact I didn't have morning sickness at all with Emily. With this baby, I'm sick usually in the afternoon or evening and followed by heartburn at bedtime. I find that if I stick to soup and crackers I feel better. I had Mexican food for dinner because I was feeling okay and now I feel sick. I should've just stuck to soup and crackers. So now I'm off to find some ginger ale or diet sprite.


On Saturday, we went to Guy which is north of Conway,AR and on the way to Heber Springs,Ar to pick apples. When we got there we were told that Arkansas Black and Red Delicious were what we could pick. Jerry ,Emily and I went to the last three rows of trees to pick the AR black. We were dissappointed to find that most of the apples were already picked. We were able to find about 20-25 apples on the trees. Emily had a lot of fun! She got to run free and pick up apples off the ground. She loved finding apples. We let her put the good ones in the sack. She was so proud of herself! Jerry and I were proud of her too! After we gathered the last (literally) apples from that section, we went off to find the Red Delicious apples thinking they would be more plentiful.
WRONG!
There were even less of them. We were able to find 5 or 6 of them. It was kind of a waste of time. But we made the most of it and decided to take pictures of Emily picking apples.
We definately want to go apple picking again but I think we will go sooner like in early to mid September when there are plenty of apples to pick.

Emily's big girl slide !

We have a Little Tikes slide that we've kept outside on the deck for our friends kid's and our nieces and nephew to play on. Recently we decided Emily was big enough to slide on it so I had Jerry clean it up and bring it into the playroom. After a little coaching from Mommy, Emily climbed up and slid down all by herself!! She love's going down the slide! Anticipating that there would be falls off of the slide, I had jerry put the foam alphabet mat on top of the carpet mat. Then we put the slide on top of that. At the base of the slide, we put down another foam mat. So now when she falls we won't panic so bad! She's already fallen off once with me close by and then another time with Jerry. Of course she cried and was scared, but other than that she was okay.

Emily is getting the animal sounds down and can do "Itsy Bitsy Spider" really well now in addition to "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Pat-a Cake". We're working on "Popcorn Popping" and calling the Hogs(Razorbacks for you out of staters). Sometimes these are the only things I can do to keep her calm while we are shopping. It's not unusual to see me pushing a shopping cart with Emily in it and singing those songs to her while she plays a long. People look at us, but even though I feel silly, I do it anyway. Oh the things we do as parents to keep our children occupied.

I look forward to Tuesday-my first official cooking show! Mom is hosting it at her house. I'm a little nervous but more excited than nervous. I've already practiced the recipes- Three Cheese Garden Pizza and Strawberry Amaretto Pastries. Now all that has to be done it gathering any outside orders and reminding the guests. Mom is going to recieve so much free stuff. Actually anyone who hosts a show before Oct 27th gets an extra free gift in addition to the hostess gift, free product value of $15-90 and half price items. Not only that, "I cook, I clean, I leave, and you get all the FREE stuff! How fun is that?!!
So if you haven't received your invitation the party is Tuesday Oct. 7th at 6:30pm . Bring a friend and get a gift!

Little Miss Big Girl!

Emily is such a big girl! I'm very proud of that too. She now crawls up the stairs and gets ready for bed with little help from us. The only things we do are help her brush her teeth and pick her up to put her in her crib. Okay and we say the prayer too. But Emily knows the routine. She tells us night-night when she's tired (if it's before 8pm). She crawls up the stairs, points to the bathroom and says,"teeth". We put her on the bathroom cabinet and help her brush, but she likes to do it herself. She also rinses off her toothbrush by herself. Then we put her down and she runs to her room, pushes the button on the cd player to start the music and grabs a book. We read a book, say our prayer and along with her bear, put her to bed. Then we let her go to sleep.
I love it!!

Next we are going to an orchard to pick apples. I am so excited! This is going to be a new family tradition. Emily will have so much fun because she loves apples. She also calls them "bapples". I will give her pieces with out the skin and she gobbles them down. I'm going to take the camera and hopefully get lots of good pictures. My friend Andrea said we should get Emily an apple picking outfit. Good thinking Andrea!
At the orchard, they have Granny Smith, Rome, Fuji, Arkansas Black and a few others types of apples. I plan on taking a couple of baskets. We will eat lots of them but I would like to make a pie or two and some turnovers. Who know what else I will make??

Back to normal-almost..

My husband finally went back to work! He is much happier now that he is back to his normal routine. His last week at home he pretty much worked from the couch. He would get calls all day long and be on his computer most of the day. The guys in his unit really rely on him to keep eveything together. And he pretty much does. That is why I think he will make a great First Sargeant one day!

Miss Emily is quite the little imitator now. Her babysitter Jess taught her to hold out her finger and thumb and say,"dude!". She also is calling the hogs -Razorbacks to you all who are not from Arkansas. She raises her arms and says" Woooooo Pig !" And speaking of pig, Emily knows what the pig says. She will say "nk-nk". So we have the duck sound and the pig sound down. Now we just need to work on the other animals.

Emily had a check up yesterday and got some shots. She now weighs 19lbs and 7oz. I know that sounds small but, she is following her curve on the growth chart and Dr. Schmitz is not worried. Besides my little girl eats like a pig. She loves meat and will eat almost anything. Since I see her eat so much, I don't worry.

I am excited because I just got my kit it to start selling Pampered Chef. I have already been doing the online training and have booked my first cooking show for October. My goal is to book at least 3 more by the end of the month. I am getting ready to open a catalog show for the end of this month so if anyone wants to order anything just let me know. I plan on placing an add in the Otter Creek newsletter for November and already have someone that wants to book a show then. When you book a cooking show with me within the next 30 days, you will recieve an extra gift in addition to the hostess gift, hostess special, free and half-price items, and generous discounts. I hope to have my website up and running soon too. So if you would like to find out how to earn free, half-price and discounted items, just contact me about doing a cooking or catalog show. My calendar is filling up pretty fast so let me know soon.

I know that it is still September but we already have started decorating for fall. Since the weather has been so pleasant even a little cool we took advantage of it and opened all the windows in the house. I hung up my fall wreath yesterday and even made a pot of chili (thanks to Sis. Webster for the idea.)



Jerry and I took Emily to the park for a little bit to play on the swings and slide. She had a good time walking around in the small pebbles that cushion the play area. Poor Emily was not happy when we had to leave. She brightened up when we got rolling along in the wagon though.



I have already bought Emily's costume for Halloween. She is going to be a bumble bee. I even bought her the striped bumble bee tights. She has a wand and a cute headband with a corker bow in lieu of bumble bee antennae. I even went so far as to buy her a cute little plush honey pot purse. It has the words "honey bee" in rhinestones on the front. Now if I could just figure out what Jerry and I could be for Halloween. Looking online for ideas was dissapointing. Everything for adults was either sleazy, disgusting or stupid. We are going to have be creative. I found some shirts at Savers that said "Alltell" and "T-Mobile" and thought about being those phone guys from the Alltell commercials but we need someone to be Verizon and someone else to be "AT&T". I'm hoping to find some other options in case that doesn't pan out. If you all have some ideas just let me know. I'm open to suggestions.

Bye -Bye virus! Emily has been better for a several days now. That virus was around for almost a week. The hardest part was not letting Emily have her milk. That girl loves her milk. In fact , when she wants milk, she calls it "moo". The funny thing is that if you ask her what a cow says she'll tell you ,"ca-ca"(quack-quack). Right now every animal say "ca-ca". We're working on that though. She also has a happy birthday dance now. We watch The Sunny Side Up Show on PBS Sprout in the mornings. They have three different hosts and every morning, they do a happy birthday dance to their "Happy Happy Birthday" song. Emily has started doing her own dace to the song. So we are going to record her doing her dance and send it in to the show. It just so happens that they are having a birthday party for Chica the chicken on Friday so we can send it in for her!

Jerry is doing great with his knee! He's been helping around the house, and getting up and getting out. He's been going to physical therapy once a week at the airforce base. Friday when he had therapy, we went to the case lot sale at the commissary and stocked up on food and gas (not because of Ike) just because we were there and it was convenient.

Speaking of Ike, we got a lot of wind and rain. Our electricity flickered a couple of times but never went out . Our neighbors Dale and Rhonda however, had a huge pine tree fall down in their backyard! Luckily, it fell away from their house and hit the back corner of the fence and into our yard. Nothing was damaged except for the fence. What a blessing! Jerry, Pete Offerman(another neighbor) and Joel Junkans(yet another neighbor), and Terry Webster( a great friend from church) spent Sunday cleaning up the debrie and getting the tree cut up.
Now it's in chunks ready to be hauled away. I need to make some cookies and take to everyone who helped.
Speaking of cookies, I'm going to start selling Pampered Chef ! I can't wait! I love to cook and I love their products. I also have some great ideas and recipes for cooking shows. The great thing about selling Pampered Chef is that if I decide I want to stop selling, I will have stuff that I can actually use. Pretty soon I will post and let you all know when I'm taking orders. I plan on putting in orders two to three times a week. I'll do catalogue shows and cooking shows. Just be thinking about what you want and be ready to order in a couple of weeks!

Poor Emily!

I'm so glad that I took the time to try finger painting with Emily. She didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would. But at least we did it beforethe virus hit.

Our little Emily had a virus for a few days now. We've been dealing with the diarrhea and runny nose since Friday. Today she has only had two episodes but before she was having a lot more. She doesn't like the BRAT diet but it has helped a little. But kids are so resilient. She'll be fine in another day or two.
In fact she was in the bath tub last night playing with her duckies saying "ca, ca, ca". That is how she says "quack, quack, quack". She was having a great time. But she woke up in the middle of the night, crying for her Mommy. I gave her ibuprofen and pedialyte ,then we rocked for a while. After a few minutes of rocking, we put her back to bed and she was okay the rest of the night.
This morning she woke up all happy and smiling at me. I gave her a bowl with banana pieces which she calls (nanas) and cheerios. She didn't want the "nanas" but she ate the cheerios like a champ. We played a few games and she acted fine. She loves playing "Itsy bitsy spider" and "This little piggy". But we have the most fun playing "If your Happy and You Know it!" She does all the motions in the song like clapping her hands, slapping her knees, saying"Amen!" and doing the happy face(if your happy and you know it then your face should surely show it).
She is so fun! I can't wait to do so many fun things with her!! I think she is getting to the point where she will enjoy them. Things like going to the zoo, Chuck E Cheese, and trick or treating should be fun for her now.

Speaking of fun, Jerry decided he would try something new- he is growing out his beard! I wasn't too sure about it at first but since he has trimmed it up, I think he looks rather handsome with it!

Too bad he had to shave it off tonight. He has to go on base for physical therapy. If you are a soldier and go on base you have look like a soldier.

But even with out a beard my hubby is still as handsome as can be! I love him!!!

Bad Times and Good Times.

Let me first of all retract a statement I made on my last blog. It said something about how easy it would be to take care of Jerry. For the first couple of days it was anything but easy. He came home Wednesday morning with a cooling pump thing, and a drainage bag for his knee. He wasn't in a lot of pain at first but he couldn't move that leg for two days because of the numbing medicine they injected into him. He stayed on the couch and and I took care of him. But I also tried taking care of Emily, tried to clean house and get clothes ready for the Rhea Lana sale. It was crazy.

However, by the weekend my brother Josh and his wife Kim came to town with their kids for my Grandma's 90th birthday party. We had a blast with them! Emily loved playing with her cousins Paxton and Lorelei. Grandma's party was a hit! Her sisters and brother came out to see her. She and her sisters wore matching pink shirts and they were so cute! Emily, Lorelei and Rylee wore matching tutus, tiara shirts and tiaras! They were perfect little princesses! Even Grandma wore a tiara! Fun was had by all as they reminisced about the good old days, while kids ran around playing with each other.

It was a pretty fun time!

Please Pray for Jerry!

Jerry is having knee surgery tomorrow to replace a torn ACL. Please pray for a successful surgery and a quick recovery.



I just hope that I can take good care of him and keep him off his knee for a few days. My plan is to keep Jerry downstairs on the sofa with some pillows and magazines or even a computer to work on; just as long as he is comfortable and can relax. I'm sure I will have my hands full with tornado baby(Emily) but taking care of Jerry should be relatively easy.



Speaking of tornado baby, let me tell you all about what happened today. Emily,like all toddlers goes from room to room making messes all day long. Well, today I was tired and not really in the mood for it. So, I took her to the play room and closed off the stairs with a gate. While she was playing, I made lunch and was getting ready to put it on the table when I heard her saying,"Mama, Mama". I went to the gate to get her. When I picked her up, she was soaking wet! She had litter and catfood all over her and drenched in water. She had gotten into the cats' room and made a huge mess. So quickly I took upstairs gave her a bath, put on new clothes and put her in her crib so I could have a minute to clean up the bathroom and finish with lunch. I wouldn't have been so stressed out about it if I didn't have to go to work today. Nor would I have been upset if this was the first time it had happened. The first time she did this, I thought it was funny and I took a picture. Let me reassure you this time, it wasn't funny. Since she's done this before, I have got to figure out how to keep her out of the cats' area and out of trouble. I actually feel really bad for them.



But little miss mess is still sweeter than ever. Before I went to work, she gave me lots of kisses and hugs. So how can I stay upset with that?

Bye-Bye Ba-Ba!!

Well folks, I think it's official- Emily is off the bottle or "Ba-Ba" as she called it. For the past several days, it has been nothing but sippy cups and juice boxes. I haven't even said "Ba-ba" or bottle in front of her. And Emily hasn't said it either. We keep saying milk or juice in hopes that these words will be easily picked up. She's been trying to say juice but it keeps coming out as"Di or Ji". But we'll keep working on that.



Emily has this new thing she does now with her carseat. We took it out the car so the babysitters could take her to Target with them and now it's been sitting in the kitchen for a while. Well little miss priss gets in the carseat and says," Go bye-bye". It's so cute! I guess she like's going bye-bye. It's fun to take her out because she is so social(except when she comes to see Mommy at work, she's kind of shy then.)

Our Family Vacation in Washington,DC

I am so in love with the Washington,DC area. When can we go back??? It was absolutely amazing! While Emily probably didn't get as much out of it as we did, she still was a wonderful traveller. She was so good on her first airplane rides that I would consider flying with her again in a heartbeat. I didn't have to give Emily any "airplane vitamins" or Benedryl. She even got wings from the flight attendants.



On our first day, Jerry and I had to get up at 4am to get ready and be at the airport by 5am. Mine and Emily's flight was scheduled to depart from LIT at 6:30 am. Poor Emily was such a good sport about getting up that early.



Emily and I flew separatly from Jerry, so we got there before he did. We arrived in DC at about 11:30am and took off sight seeing immediately. After lunch we went to the hotel for an early check in so we could nap, but somebody wouldn't nap. When Jerry arrived, we went out for more sightseeing and let him be our tour guide. That night we went to Georgetown for dinner and shopping. We went to Clyde's for an amazing dinner and walked up and the the main streets to see the stores and the Old Stone House and garden that was beside it.

On day two, Emily and I walked to Union Station, stopping by the U.S. Botanical Gardens and the Capital. We took tons of pictures of gardens and capital. After lunch at Union Station, we walked to the Smithsonian. Actually we decided to go to the Castle and get some info about what time things closed up. After finding out that the Air and Space Museum was open until 7:30 that night, we decided to wait and go with Jerry to that one. Jerry was in class everyday from 8-4p so that left us with time to go out with him and do some things as a family. That night for dinner we went to The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. We had some terrific Carribbean themed fondue. And the chocolate fondue was out of this world! We stayed there for 2 1/2 hours ,but Emily was fun and had a good time too! After all of that fun we drove around and found China Town. It was pretty cool from a distance-but not a good place to go after dark.

On Day three, we went to the Library of Congress and Bartholdi Park. The LOC was so beautiful and so big. Emily and I only made it to the Jefferson Building but next time I would like to go to the Madison and Adams buildings and see what they have there. That night for dinner, we went to see our friends Drew and Ashley Smith in Dumfries,VA. The trip was so scenic. On the way there we stopped at FT. Belvior. That is the prettiest military base, I have ever scene. It was so cutesy. The officer housing is row after row of town homes, and there is even a spa in one the shopping centers. The BX/PX is huge and right next door is the commissary. Outside of the base, Virginia was still beautiful.

The next day I took Emily to the National Zoo. We took the Metro to Cleveland Park which is another area of DC that is absolutely charming and walk a couple of blocks to the zoo. Emily had fun watching the pandas and monkeys. We saw lots of animals and got some good pics. After the zoo, we walked around Cleveland Park and took the Metro back. I really wanted to go to Filene's Basement and still wanted to see the temple. After Jerry got out of class, we took the Metro to Farragut west, and checked out Filene's. It was awsome!!! I bought a pair of Blue Breed jeans that retail for $165 and paid $20 for them. I also got a pair of DKNY jeans for $17. I love that store. They also had my favorite perfume for $20 cheaper that the BX. I can't wait to go back there. After that, we walked around till we got to the Hay-Adams Hotel. We talked to the manager and he let us go to the roof where we got some amazing pictures of the spectacular view.

We walked around and saw the 1st infantry memorial and walked through the park. Emily got to run free there and she enjoyed it immensely. We made it to the metro station at the Smithsonian and took it back to the hotel. The temple was our next destination. We got in the car put the address into the Tom-Tom. Jerry thought he could take a different route so we ignore the Tom-Tom. We got lost. We almost ran out of gas at the Pentagon. After finally getting gas, we got on the road and decided to trust Tom-Tom. I'm glad we did because even though it was dark outside, we still got to see a beautiful part of Chevy Chase, MD where we almost had a wreck. But everything was worth it when we saw the spires of the temple. It was so beautiful. I had waited my whole life to see it and finally here I was. It was so emotional for me. To have Jerry and Emily there with me made the experiance complete.

Our final day, Emily and I went to NASA HQ, which was right across from our hotel. We went to the gift shop and took a few pictures. I bet if Jerry had been there, we could have done more. It was still neat to be there. Then we left for the airport. I was so sad to leave. I loved being in Washington,DC so much that I can't wait to go back.

I'm glad Jerry goes there several times a year, because so will we now!

We are getting excited!

Yeah, my Tupperware came today! I had ordered the little tumblers with the sippy lids and the shape sorter. They are just as I remembered as a kid (except the tumblers are better colors). I love the shape sorter because there are more shapes and all the pieces fit inside so when it's time to pick up toys it's easy- just put all the shapes in the sorter. Emily likes to play the "uh-oh" game now. She throws stuff off her high chair and says "Uh-oh!" then watches our reactions. I can't wait to try the sippy cups out and see if the tops stay on when thrown on the floor. By the way there are still a few days left to order your Tupperware! If you didn't get an invitation from me -let me know and send me your email address.

Emily has a new favorite toy now besided "Be"her bear. She loves this toy that has a steering wheel and makes music. It bulldozer looking toy she got from cousins Amy andChaz and thier boys. Every child that comes to our house to play loves that toy. Since Emily likes it so much, we take it with us on car rides. She drives along with us and has so much fun. Car rides are much more pleasant now.

Vroom Vroom! Just like Mommy&

Daddy!!!

Well, we have just a few more days until we leave for Washington,DC and am I excited! I'm also a little nervous. Taking a 15mo old on an airplane provides enough challenges like keeping her calm, and entertained, but then grabbing all the bags, and calling for a taxi and getting to the hotel before Jerry arrives is a lot to handle. But I can do it. I'm an army wife.

Some of the things I want to do are: Take Emily to the zoo, and story time at the National Gallery, the national mall (not an actual shopping mall for those who don't know), certain parts of the Smithsonian, and George Washington's Mansion. In the Smithsonian, I want to see the Freer Gallery, and Portrait Gallery. And let's not forget the Library of Congress. I look forward to that one the most. Luckily most everything we want to see and do is withing walking distance or we can take the metro. I can't wait to post pictures from our trip.

Emily's picked up so many more words this week. She now says bubble, pink, night-night,uh-oh, and Jerry swears that she said the word "back". She tries to say kitty, but it just sounds like she's trying to spit instead. Oh and she loves to chase the kitties all over the house. It's her newest game. She's even tried to play fetch with them but they don't go after the ball. She's so funny. She also will go get a book and bring it to one of us and say, "book" , so we read it to her.

In the battle of the bottle, we are making some headway. Last night, we gave her a cup of milk instead of a bottle before putting her to bed. She took it without a fuss and chugged it down.


So we are going to try again tonight with the cup. Wish us luck.

Emily is so spoiled! But when I look at her adorable face, I think she should be. It's so cute when she is walking through the house with "B" her bear, and saying "Mama,Mama,Mama..." over and over. When I'm busy doing something, and I hear her say "Mama", I turn around and say" What Baby?" She'll just smile at me. It just makes my heart melt.

Emily is beginning to be Mommy's little helper too. She "helps" with the dishes by picking up the clean ones out of the dishwasher and i take them from her before they end up on the floor. We talk about what color they are, but I don't think she understands just yet. She also "helps" me with the laundry. She climbs up on the laundry basket, and she picks up the clothes and drags them around until I tell her to bring them to me. She watches me put them in the washer and then the dryer.

Speaking of laundry, I made a profound discovery. There has not been one month that has gone by since Emily's been born, that I have not bought her clothes of some sort. I wonder if I have even let a week go by with out buying her something. I'm sure I have. But I'm beginning to wonder if I have a shopping problem. Maybe I need to go to some shopping rehab. I'm going to have to challenge myself to go an entire month without buying some article of clothing for Emily. The problem I have though is that fall is coming up. Sure, if you look in her closet it might seem like she has a good start on fall clothes, but she still needs a few shirts, sweaters, shoes, dresses.....ect.. So I think what I will do is just cut back on what I'm buying. I will spend less on clothes for her this fall-that's my goal.

Maybe now, I will buy more clothes for myself. Most of you who have seen me probably agree that I need some serious help in the clothes and hair dept. So maybe this fall, I will treat myself to some much needed clothing and a stylish haircut.

By the way- if you haven't recieved an email from me, I'm hosting an online Tupperware party. The great thing about it is that you can shop anytime you like either at work or at home. The party is open until Aug 12th. If you are interested and have not received an invitation, email me at : lingerdoodle@comcast.net
I have to email the invitations becaused they are coded for my party exclusively.

Got milk? Emily does. She loves milk. We are now going through a gallon and a half a week of whole milk. I can't help but wonder if she's getting too much milk. But then again she is so little that I do what I can to push the calories. Emily is so cute when I make her bottles or cups of milk. When I open the fridge, she says,"cold". Then I put it in the microwave. When it beeps, she gets all excited and screams"Baba!"

She's just so talkative. This morning when she got up from her nap, she just walked around the den babbling up a storm about something. We had no idea what she was saying but she would look at us as if we were supposed to understand everything. So we would just nod our heads and say okay and then she kept going on. She is saying many words now. She'll even say "cheese" when we ask her if she wants some cheese or when we take a picture and tell her to say cheese.

At lunch today she kept saying ,"Bo", and looking for him. So I think I need to plan a trip to Nana's so she can play with Bo. The last time we were there, she played ball with him. Emily would through the ball and Bo would go and get it . She just laughed and laughed. Then Bo would bring it back and the game would start all over again. I think she tired poor Bo out. But it was so cute to watch. I'm going to try and get it on video next time.

I'm blogging again!!

I never realized how many people read my blog until I stopped blogging. So, back by poplular demand- The Cathey Family !!!!!

Now for the updates:
Emily,now 14mo, is walking all over the place and talking non stop. Of course when I say talking, I mean little things like saying: baby, dada, mama,nana, papa,book, Bo(Mom's dog), bear, hot,cold, bath, amen, hi, bye-bye and go bye-bye. And of course the baby jibberish.
She's been using the sippy cup from about 6mo. Now she drinks from a straw, and a regular cup without much mess. We still use the baba (bottle) most of the time when we are home. I'm not thrilled about it but we are going to try quitting in a couple of months.
Her little blonde curls are really starting to grow.

I can't wait to put them in pigtails!!

My poor Jerry tore his ACL and pretty much has no meniscus. We are now waiting to hear from the Ortho Doc. I'm sure that surgery is in the future so I'm trying to save my vacation days at work so that I can take off to be with him for surgery. For now, I'm taking care of mowing the grass and some of the other chores he does.

I'm also trying to save vacation days for out trip to Washington, DC. Jerry has an HPAC course there for a couple of days,so Emily and I are going to go with him!! We are all so excited! I love getting to travel with Jerry. He is such a great tour guide in places that he has been to before like DC. I have already thought about things I want to do with Emily and things we can do as a family. I just hope we have the time. We're only going to be there for four days.

As for me, before I had my gallbladder removed, I lost 20 lbs. So now I'm trying to lose the next 20 by the fall. But since we've decided to try for another baby, I may not make that goal. So my plan B is just to keep working out and losing weight until we get pregnant -if it happens at all.

So wish us luck with everything and I will blog again soon!