happy labor day

so i had to work on labor day which was a bummer. it was just lunch, though. tony had the night off so we got to be together then. lori took jonah to the pool while i worked. tony went camping with some guys from church sunday and got back while i was at work. i hate my job...have i mentioned that? it's weird because this is the first time in 3 1/2 years that i just dread going. monday was no different.
well...in the middle of the shift, it all paid off. i had a guy at my table who spent about $14 on his lunch. he left $60 on the table with a note that said he believes in random acts of kindness. WOW! i couldn't believe it. i've had some really great tips before, but that definitely tops them all. now, it was a little strange because he also left me his myspace page...which i did not go to. but hey, i still got a $45 tip! that's 325%!
so, needless to say, that made working on monday worth it. i still hate my job and can't wait to be done, but somehow that was a little ray of hope for me.
i hope everyone else had a great day too!

the early bird gets the worm...

so i am NOT a morning person. (surprise to all that know me i'm sure!) having a baby means i have to be a morning person whether i like it or not. the last few months, tony and i have been rotating the getting-up-with-jonah responsibilities. it's not really working. on mornings that i get up at 7am, i will have stayed up entirely too late the night before (we're talking 12:30 or 1am) and inevitably i'll be mrs. crabby pants for the rest of the day. and that's even if i do get a nap in at some point. on mornings that tony has a turn, he'll usually take a morning nap with jonah making it ridiculously hard for him to wake back up and thus we become MR. and MRS. crabby pants. it's a wonderful life, really!

that being said (and lived for way too long) we decided to make a change. i am now the early bird. that means that i can go to bed earlier and get more sleep, but i don't get to see tony (have dinner together, watch a little 'alias', hang out) when he gets home from work at night. it's a win/lose situation really:

more sleep at night for me

+ more sleep in the morning for tony

+ less of mr. and mrs. crabby pants

WIN

less time together by ourselves

+ less time together by ourselves

+ (you guessed it) less time together by ourselves

LOSE

just one more reason that i CANNOT WAIT to get the heck outta this place and have semi-normal jobs and schedules.

what makes it all worth it? our little 'worm'!

daddy's books

excellent choice, jonah

happy birthday to jonah!

i can't believe it...jonah is already 1. this year has flown by. i have mixed emotions about it. i'm so excited to watch him grow and learn and can't wait for him to start walking and telling me all kinds of things. on the other hand, i wish he were still the little fragile 3 day old we brought home from the hospital who needed me every moment of every day.

so here's to jonah...my little boogalou

7.20.06

7lbs 14oz

18.5 in

7.20.07
23lbs 2oz
30.5 in

for more pictures from jonah's birthday, click on 'jonah's photo album' to the right

independence day

happy 4th to everyone. i'm currently waiting for jonah to wake up and lori to get here so we can go to the royals game. while i wait, i'm sitting here watching the rain POUR down from behind our big glass door. sad day...it's supposed to thunderstorm off and on all night. i have little hope of anything different judging from the current conditions.
dang it...fireworks and cooking out are all i have left of the 4th celebrations. growing up, we always had some sort of party for my brother, brian. it's his birthday. (happy birthday oldie olderson) so the 4th was always a family day. since i've been in kansas city, i always get a little sad on independence day because it reminds me how much i miss my family. so fireworks and cooking out are all that's left and i'm not sure if we'll get either of those today. at least tony is off work and lori is still coming over. we'll celebrate even if we're stuck in our crappy apartment all night!

a little obsession of mine

i love photography. i love looking at other people's photographs and i love taking my own. those of you who know me can keep all comments to yourself. although, many of you wouldn't have half the pictures you have today if it weren't for me. i take pictures of everything. i am really wanting to do more "artsy" type stuff. i finally figured out how to use manual focus on our camera and i'm super excited about it. here are some pictures i took while we were on vacation...

return to the real world

we've been on vacation the past week. it was WONDERFUL! you know when you get to the point where you just think, "if i don't get away right now, i might lose it!"? that's where i was right before we left. so it was perfect timing for a getaway. we drove up to a small town called bradley, IL. and by small, i mean only about 2 miles small. but it's tony's hometown and we wanted to visit his family. i actually liked the town. it doesn't feel like a super-small town because it's sandwiched between bourbonnais (with a university) and kankakee. so it's more like 3 smalls towns in 1. plus you can't beat being only about an hour outside of chicago. if it weren't for the winters, i wouldn't mind living there.

we went to a couple pony league baseball games and a little league softball game, went swimming a few times, went to boz hotdogs, jaenicke's (i love me some redhots!), monical's pizza, and the ice deli, went to millenium park in chicago and hung out with the stipps, played homerun derby (i'm not so good), celebrated tony's 1st father's day, held little aurora mai, and just hung out with the family. it was great! jonah had so much fun. he had lots of 1st's....swimming, getting in the grass, playing with cats and dogs, and seeing horses. he loved it all.

if you want to see more pictures, click on "jonah's photo album" on the right.

the most exciting thing for me was our mini-trip into chicago...with no baby! tony and i celebrated our anniversary by having 24 hours (or a little more) to ourselves. we drove to chicago and stayed in a hotel. the next day we rode the train to downtown. tony made an appointment for me at renee day spa on michigan ave. to get a manicure and pedicure and i didn't find out until we were on the train. he gave me a jar of cotton balls (cotton is the traditional 2nd anniversary gift) with a note inside telling me where we were going. it was so sweet! and i got 2 hours worth of pampering to start the day. sometimes i forget how girlie i can be. after that, we just walked around downtown and went over to navy pier for lunch. it was wonderful. i was a little nervous about being away from jonah that long, but i had a lot of fun. i was ready to get back and see him when the day was over, though.

i wasn't really ready to come "home". back to our yucky jobs and smoke-filled apartment, and back to the fact that we still don't know what we're doing with the next few years of our lives. but, it was fun while it lasted. can't wait to do it again.