some more pictures from knoebels [just got them from my sister-in-law]

mary looks like she's going to rip that little tree right out of the ground! lol.

pammy.

our little family. =]

lil.

gib & caity.

doug & shey.

cory, gib, & caity going on the fandago.

me & cory on the looper [aka hampster wheels].

pammy & lil.

my strange husband. =]

the entranceway bulletin board.

part of one of the roller coasters there.

dani & mary.

me & steve.

cory & reed-burger. it's a good picture, but it's dark. =[

waiting for food. =P

caity & lil.

another shot of everyone right after we arrived.

knoebels!! =]

today was absolutely awesome!! =] it was cory's birthday so we finally got to have our surprise "party" at knoebel's amusement park. joining us were: reed, gib, caity, pam, pammy, lil, doug, shey, steve, brit, dani, & mary. we had sooo much fun! here are some pictures [click to enlarge]:


everyone when we first got there [except pam because she took the picture].


cory & steve in the food court.


me & cory took steve on the merry-go-round. he loved it! we had to pry his fingers off because he didnt want to leave! =]


cory & steve after the cosmotron.


mary & dani.


me, mary, & dani.


me & reed-burger.


me & corballs. <3


aren't dani & mary so cute together? =]


pammy.


mary waiting while cory & reed did the looper. =]

steve = awesome. =]

my baby is the absolutely cutest, happiest baby in the entire universe.

just try to fight me on this.



game. set. match.

in other news... steve is finally sleeping in his own bed!! =] woot woot! since we took down the crib [due to it's lack of use & our lack of space until june], he's actually now sleeping in a portable crib [pack & play] but it's much better than having to sleep in our bed every nap & every night. and besides, now me & cory can have our alone time on our bed. ;-)

if only i didnt miss steve cuddling up to me... =[

oh, and to anyone with perfect vision, i hate you! glasses look retarded on me, so as soon as i could afford them i got contacts. so far they've treated me pretty well. until today that is. this morning i had them in & was going about my day. but because i was rushed through putting them in [a fussy, clingy, teething baby with separation anxiety will do that to ya! :P] i didnt quite manage to get my left one in quite right and it was irritating my eye. so after i got the baby settled i went into the bathroom to fix it. it seemed dry so it took some maneuvering to even get it out. once i did, i looked down & there was only half of a ripped contact on my finger! the other half was stuck in my eye! i panicked, then tried everything i could to get it out. i scraped at my eye w/my fingernails, i cried & cried so the tears would flush it out, i sprayed solution in the eye [which by the way BURNED sooo bad!], i even took a shower which is supposed to help get contacts out.

absolutely nothing.

and the 1/2 of the contact left in my eye was hurting so bad every time i blinked or anything. so, after about an hour & a half of frustration, cory came home & we rounded up the baby & went to the eye doctor, who took like a minute to get it out [with absolutely no charge - woot!]. but he said that i can't wear contacts for three days. my eye is so red, blood-shot, & irritated i can see why, but my problem is that i dont have any other choice! my glasses [which by the way are in pieces & missing] are the wrong prescription. and my personal eyesight is too horrible for me to just watch the baby without contacts. so i waited until when cory went to work & i absolutely had to put in contacts, then put some in.

and now after all night with the contacts in, my eye is much more sore. =[

i hate contacts.

motherhood...what a wonderful thing. =]

i love being a mom! i really do. to be completely honest, when i first found out i was pregnant, i wasn't quite so sure it was a good thing. i was only 19. i had just left college [without a degree, mind you]. i had no license, no car, no job. i was in the process of moving into a small 2-bedroom apartment with two guys that i didnt know very well. my parents are uber-conservative & i was terrified of their reaction. just generally, i was afraid i had messed up my whole life.
the day i found out [01.03.07], i took the pregnancy test in a pharmacy bathroom in downtown mt carmel. all i could do was hand the test to cory, walk into another aisle, and then start bawling, right on the floor of rite-aid. eventually, cory found me, we went for a walk, and had a long talk. at that point, i wasn't sure if he was ready to be a dad or if i was ready to be a mom, but i knew in my heart i could never have an abortion. i told him that if he really wasn't prepared for this, that i would willing walk away & never bother him again. I offered to even sign a written contract saying that i would never ask him for any money [child support] or anything else for the baby [i know, corny, but it felt like the right thing to do at the time b/c i knew how big of a surprise this would be for both of us and i was prepared to deal with it on my own if i needed to]. he said something to me that meant everything to me at the time and helped me realize that he would be there through it all with me. he said "i love you, dorie. i've known that & i knew that eventually we would have kids together. i thought we'd get married first, but i love you as much as i would if i were married to you, so we can do this together now."
wow, it felt like such a relief to hear that.
over the next three days, we started telling people [starting with family], signed a lease on our apartment, and began preparing for the our little surprise.

fast-forward 16 months...
that surprise is now our wonderful, amazing little boy. he is seriously EVERYTHING to us. the most perfect, sweetest, happiest, cutest baby EVER! it's such a great joy to be around him. he laughs all the time! in fact, as i type this, i just finished feeding him [sweet potatoes & a sippy cup full of water... mmm :P] and he's right behind me in his exersaucer laughing up a storm. every morning, he wakes me up by pulling my hair & laughing. sometimes he laughs just because his daddy looks at him the right way. =]
i dont know what me or cory would ever do without him. the thought of him being hurt or sad destroys us. for example, last night cory jumped out of a sound sleep because i dropped something & it made a thud like the baby falling off the bed. he was beside himself until i told him it was me.
and by the way, steve is soo in love with us too. if we so much as look away from him during play time he cries. if we walk away he screams. :P he's started to hug us & kiss us [mouth wide open, pressed onto our cheeks, followed by a smile]. it melts my heart every time! he calls me "mama", cory "dada", and his bottle "baba". he's starting to crawl & if we go on our computer while he's playing on the floor with toys, he'll crawl to my feet & cling onto my leg until i pick him up and go play with him. =]
nothing has ever made me happier than cory & steve do every day. looking back on how everything happened, i wouldn't change a thing. no, it might not have been planned, but i couldn't have planned anything better. =]

ps- sorry for the sappy post... i was just in the mood for reminiscing...

oh and here's a picture of my boys doing what they do best :P

Our nightly walks

anyone who knows me is aware that i love going for walks. long, short, it doesn't really matter. all that matters is that someone is with me. i could walk all day if i had a friend to keep me company. well, i'm desperately trying to lose this baby weight & it seems everywhere i look [online, magazine articles, doctor, etc] they say the best way to lose postpartum weight is walking. so about 2 weeks ago i asked reed to be my walking buddy and now every weeknight we go for a walk together. =] i know it would have been better if cory was there also [and sometimes he is] but generally he doesn't really like walks like we do and i don't want to force him to go. so most nights it's just me & reed. originally we just walked & talked, but when there's a group of us it turns out being a little more fun. the other night [4.20.08] cory, stevie, & gib joined us. we started goofing around and at one point we were skipping backwards [well i wasnt....i was more fumbling backwards...but you know] and a guy yelled out the window "go home!". we kind of ignored him at first, but he kept yelling at us things like "how much did you guys drink? you must be drunk!" and when we insisted we werent drunk [because we WEREN'T!] he then claimed we must be high... all because we were having fun? that's so gay.
anyways, here's a couple pictures from our walks [because i just have to have pics with every post :P].

Yep, it's true! =]

Since I posted those last pictures, I've had quite a few people ask me if I got a haircut. The answer is... yep! =] In fact, I got two within 24 hours! I went to the first one at the mall. It was 9ish and the mall closes at 9:30 so I didn't get to go to the place I originally wanted to. Instead, I found another place which still had an opening & tried to make do. Well, the lady who did my hair didn't speak english very well, but I figured it would be okay. I had a specific haircut in mind. It was shorter, but not bad & it was cute, so it was worth it. I tried to explain it to her & she told me she understood, so on we went... Later into the cut, she started to reconfirm what I wanted. When I described it, she would say: "No, no, you don't want that! You need it to be soft!" or "You have such nice waves...Embrace the waves!" etc. I insisted I wanted it, but she said, "No, you want layers." and when I told her I didn't, she said "You must not know what layers are." Hello? I've had layers all my life! I do know what layers are! But anyways.... needless to say, she made a haircut that looked HORRIBLE! I wanted to hide in a paper bag forever. And when she was done, she said "See, it's got layers & it's soft. It looks great with your waves!" I was soo mad. So, the next day, when we went for Cory's haircut, I got it fixed [for free...woot!]. It had to be cut really, really, really short because she hadn't left much to work with, but it'll grow out & this looks a TON better in the meantime. =] Besides, even though I have a bunch of guys around me telling me how much they hate short hair on chicks, it really is a ton easier. I'm actually getting used to this whole wash-n-go thing [or being able to just wake up & not have a "fro"]. I might keep it for a little while... So, here's some pictures:

And yes, I am a complete and total camera whore because these were all taken on different days but they look pretty much the same. I need more diversity... :P

today was gorgeous!! [[money vent warning]]

I hate to start off a new blog with a negative post, but man, our financial state never seems to get better! =/ Gib [my brother in law] went online to a click site & supposedly made $2,950.00 within the first couple months he was on it. He just got the check last week. Being a college student with no job, he was ecstatic and right away had us deposit it in our checking account [he doesn't have a checking account himself or a picture ID to get one]. We were leery at first & didn't really trust a site like that, especially with how much he got & how fast he got it. But the check had all the normal security features & went through into our account. We waited a week to make sure the bank didn't pull it or anything, then started spending some of the money. BIG mistake. Yeah, our initial feelings were right; the check's a bad check. So... the bank decided to charge us 35 dollars for every purchase we made after we deposited the check [since they were technically over-drawing the account]. They were all small purchases [a couple dollars a piece] but alot of them. So those fees added up fast & now our account is in the red $864.88!! O.o And all the fees aren't even processed yet. Ouch! So yea, a bad night for us after we found that out...

Otherwise, though, life is pretty swell. :P I've almost completely finished my spring cleaning, the weather's getting beautiful out, our a/c has kicked in so our apartment feels wonderful, Steve's at that age where he's such a joy to be around it's amazing, & just everything's perfect. =]

Since it was so nice out today, we brought Steve out to the play area outside. Here's a couple pictures we took:






He didn't even cry when the grass touched his legs like last time. Although he still wouldn't touch it, but eh, it's progress. =]