Happy Holidays!

Hi, everyone! I thought I would be better about updating this, but I've been bad. I'll make that one of my New Years resolutions to update this once a month. I hope you've all been well. We had a great Thanksgiving and are really looking forward to Christmas. Kristen was here for Thanksgiving and we had a great time. She's so grown up now and Avery wants to do everything that Kristen does. She really misses her when she's not here. She'll be back after Christmas. Avery is getting a dollhouse from Santa and lots of other neat toys from mom and dad. She'll be spoiled rotten between Christmas and her birthday 2 weeks later.
Mark is coaching 6th grade basketball again and his team is undefeated so far. They're very good and Mark loves doing it.
Avery is doing great. She's almost potty trained and should be totally potty trained pretty soon. It's a work in progress! She's growing up so fast and is very intelligent. She knows what she wants when she wants it and God help us if she's not happy! She's a ticking time bomb sometimes, but I'm guessing that's pretty typical for a toddler.
I'm doing good. Work is going well and I just hosted our annual company holiday party last weekend and it was successful. This month is typically slow but things pick up after the first of the year. I've managed to keep up with the vegetarian lifestyle and it's been over 5 months now. I really like it and I feel great. Unfortunately cookies are still in my diet, which I need to work on!
Also, I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister Katie is pregnant and due on May 23rd. They find out the sex of the baby next week. I'm so excited for them! I'll definitely be going down to Birmingham when the baby is born. I can't wait!
We're getting ready to re-do our kitchen a little bit and put in a new floor and a new refrigerator. I'll post a before and after picture in my next blog. It should really change the look of our kitchen.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!
Love
Kaci

Updates

(Mark and I at a Trivia Night)


Hi! Sorry, I haven't been very good at keeping this up. It's been very busy at our house!


Mark is back to school and is going to start coaching basketball again late next month. He got a job coaching track at the middle school as well, so he's very excited about that. His fastpitch softball team won the National title in August. They went up to Mankato, MN for 4 days and played their hearts out and took home the big trophy! They were on cloud 9 and still are! We had a big team celebration a few weeks ago, which was a blast.




Avery is growing like a weed and is so smart! It seems so odd to sit and carry on a conversation with her. She knows all of her colors, letters and numbers and is really into playing matching games like "Memory". She also loves to color and draw and play with her baby dolls. She's very motherly to them until she's done playing with them, then she throws them on the ground! haha.




I've been busy at work. Election years are always the busiest. I spent most of August dealing with skin cancer on my arm and leg. I went to the dermatologist on 8/6 for a skin cancer screening and he biopsied 2 moles and 1 came back cancerous on the back of my arm. Then when I went back a week later to have that one completely cut out, I showed him another one on my leg and he biopsied it and it came back cancerous, so I went back again a week later to have that one cut out. I think I'm clear now and I just have to go every year to get checked. It was pretty scary to first hear the c-word though. I'm glad it's all over and I hope I don't have to deal with it again.







On a positive note, I'm still vegetarian and I feel awesome! I've stuck with it for 12 weeks, so I think it's something I can stick with forever. I don't crave it at all, in fact I really don't want it anymore. I've learned to love cooking new things and the many different ways to cook veggies. I'm lucky to have a wonderful, supportive husband who doesn't mind eating vegetarian at dinnertime so I don't have to cook 2 meals. He's the best!







I just had my 10-year class reunion this past weekend and it was a trip. It was weird having everyone in the same room again, but it was a lot of fun. It's always nice seeing old friends and even making new ones with people you never talked to in high school.







That's about it for now! We're looking forward to Fall and playing in the leaves, going to the pumpkin patch and Trick or Treating! I will post a new blog next month!

First blog 7/10/08

Wow, it's been a busy summer for us so far! Mark has been playing a lot of fast pitch softball and I've been working and spending as much time with Avery as I can. Mark is home for the summer so he and Avery have been doing a lot of fun things together. They go to the park every morning and then to the track at Wood River High School where they run a lap and Avery runs the whole way! She's going to be a runner someday. We've been spending time swimming at my parents' house and at Maria and Ron's house. It's nice to have so many pools to swim in!

Last month we went to Destin, FL with my parents and my sister Katie and her husband Eric. We had a blast! Avery loved the beach and spent hours playing in the sand with her bucket and shovel.

Hopefully the 2nd half of summer doesn't go by as fast as the 1st half. We aren't quite as busy the rest of the month, so hopefully we can fit some relaxation in.

Avery is growing like a weed and way too smart for her own good. She says the most hilarious things and I've been keeping a journal and writing everything down so she can read it someday. You never know what is going to come out of that girl's mouth! She is the definition of "drama queen" as well. Every little bump or scrape is a tragedy and every time she stubs her toe she says "I broke my toe!" She keeps us laughing, that's for sure. She's also got a heart of gold. Last night my mom and I took her to the park and a little girl with very visible facial deformities came over to play with Avery and Avery said "hi" and gave her the biggest smile and they played together for a while. It touched my heart. She didn't see the little girl as anything but a fast friend. I wish everyone could be like that and only see the good in people! She's definitely opened my eyes to things in daily life that I never stopped to noticed before, like the moon in the sky in the middle of the day and birds flying overhead. Basically, she's just made our lives so much happier!

Work is going great for me, but the next week could be crazy because I'm the only one in the office. Everyone left me to spend a week in New York for the MLB All Star Game. No fair! I'll be going to the All Star Game next year though since it will be in St. Louis.

I've also recently went vegetarian and haven't looked back. It's still new and I'm learning how to eat and getting creative with food, but I feel amazing and I feel like this is truly how I'm supposed to be living my life. It's forced me to each much healthier and I can already see the difference on the scale too! I'm sure the pounds will melt away in time.

Mark has a trivia night for his softball team on August 9th in Maryville, IL if anyone is interested. It should be a lot of fun! Just give us a call or email me if you're interested.