We're Stuck

For those of you who don’t live in or around Atlanta – We are coming out of a minor gas shortage. There was a little delay in shipments but the real problem was US. People freaked out because of what happened after Ike(which didn’t even really affect us) so everyone took their Mommy SUVs and topped off their cars. Well gas stations aren’t equipped for everyone to top off every car they own, so gas stations ran out of gas.
There were a few stations with gas but first you had to find them then you had to wait in a long line.

Jason and I were discussing this and we realized we could live without our cars. Jason can work from home. He has one of those jobs you can do from anywhere; he just gets more done at the office. Our neighborhood is also centrally located to everything we need:

¼ mile away – restaurants, dentist, our bank
½ mile – little grocery store, excerds, our doctors office, blockbuster, more restaurants, Brusters…
2.8 miles – my parents, I have actually walked this before. I made my Dad drive me back, but it is possible to do.
3 miles – movie theater, even though we don’t really go anymore now that Kate’s here, more shops than I can count.

Unfortunately there would be one major problem. Our church building is way too far to walk! Also, we would have to give up some great things: Super Target (how anyone can live without this store, I don’t know), weekend trips, visiting friends who live in other towns…

Jason drives my old car (thank you again!!!) which can go forever on a tank. I could make it from Athens to my parents with it practically on empty. He’s been driving on the same tank for the past 1.5 weeks and is doing okay. We are going to Columbus this weekend and I only had an 1/8 of a tank left. This meant I was one of those people who hunted down an open gas station and then waited in the line. I now have a full tank and we’re ready to go! We're looking to forward to hanging out with family this weekend!!!

I Sound Old

I had a very annoying moment. My vacuum caught on fire! This wouldn’t be too big of a deal except in 3.5 years of marriage this was vacuum number 3. We have a ton of carpet in our home and Kate’s crawling now, which means any tiny little minuscule thing on the floor will end up in her mouth.

Vacuum #1 – I brought from my college days. Didn’t last long.
Vacuum #2 – Quit on me for no reason, I promise I’m not a jinx. After this we decided we were done with cheap Walmart vacuums and we were going to upgrade to a fancy Target vacuum.
Vacuum #3 – Fancy Target vacuum that burst into flames

The only thing left to do was buy the amazing, fabulous, swanky…. DYSON vacuum.

I am in love with my new vacuum! Even Jason vacuums for fun now. It is insane how much dirt is on our floors. You can actually see what you vacuum up. I’ve decided Dyson did this purposely to psychologically hook you on their vacuum. I can even vacuum our stairs without falling to my death. The best part is that it vacuums all floors, so I can also use it in our kitchen and foyer. Every single person who enters my home receives a demonstration of this fantastic vacuum.

When our old vacuum roared to life it would send poor Kate into a panic. Her eyes would open wide, her lips would quiver, then she would cry like I was hurting her. The Dyson, fortunately, doesn’t sound like a jet engine and actually intrigues Kate. She’ll crawl around the room trying to catch this fantastic new contraction.

Dyson really should pay me for all this publicity

Too Much Too Fast

Jason is going to be a little busier now that he is doing boyscouts. He's putting his Eagle Scout skills to use. Maybe he'll even be able to use his entire closet full of camping/rope/repelling stuff. As I'm writing this he's reading the manual and is very excited to get started (it's quite cute). I need to get busy since I'm supposed to be sewing all his old patches/badges? onto his new shirt and sash.

Now back to Katherine. I like to think I am very good at keeping my emotions in check. I'm not one of those people who cry all the time. I cry when I'm sad, which is rare, and why would you ever cry because you're happy? That just doesn't make sense. Well, I had a breakdown moment when I went to get Kate up from her nap. Nothing unusual, but she did this cutest thing where she stretches her entire body and rubs her eyes then she spit out her pacifier and proceeded to talk in her highpitch baby voice like she had the most important story to tell, while giving me a huge smile in the process. I'm convinced if you had seen her you would have started to cry too and realized how grateful and blessed you are to have this amazing little baby girl.

I've been told these months are the most developmental milestones Katherine will achieve in such a short time period. But to see it is a-whole-nother thing. She's crawling, standing up on everything, standing by herself holding on to nothing for a few seconds (very weird to see), taking baby steps with her walker toy... And all this happened between 6-8 months. It's been a blink and you'll miss it couple of weeks. While her new abilities are exciting and fun to see it's also made it a tad more hectic around the house. I literally have to keep my eye on her at all times. Mainly because she tries to stand up on EVERYTHING. Even the wall will suffice. She then likes to find you to show off her new skill and most likely falls in the process, which would be fine except there are hard floors and sharp corners everywhere. Even the most mundane thing has now become a deadly object waiting to hurt my sweet baby.

Look Mom no hands!!!

Yes, I am the cutest thing ever and can stand up all by myself

Dancing (actually falling but it could be a dance move)

This is the walker Jason's Mom brought up, Kate's always trying to grab the camera so it's hard to get a good picture. Maybe later

Caught in the act

Luckily Jennifer was able to visit and watch Kate attempting her death defining stand all by herself like a big girl ability. She again gave Kate the cutest outfits I have ever seen. My almost 8 month daughter is way better dressed than me!

I've already started thinking about Kate's Halloween costume. My dilemma is I really want to do the pumpkin but I have an issue with it being the lame, everyone's done that costume. I know it shouldn't matter; we're not going anywhere, she'll wear it for maybe an hour, might not even wear it all if it annoys her... but I do care and am completely willing to waste the money on a costume for a 9 month old.

Happy Birthday Jason

Today is a very special day! It's Jason's 29th birthday. Unfortunately he has to work and go to the dentist, but luckily in our home you get a whole "Birthday Week." So for the entire week Jason gets to pick what we watch on TV, eat his favorite meals... he gets whatever he wants! This has been quite an exciting year so here is a recap of some events during the past year of Jason's life.

For Halloween last year Ty and Dana came over then we went to a pumpkin patch, came home and carved pumpkins. Unfortunately we didn't realize how fast pumpkins rot so Jason's amazingly carved pumpkin didn't quite make it to Halloween. (don't you like how he even dressed for the occasion)!

As soon as Jason found out I was pregnant he was very adamant that he wanted to build the crib. I had my reservations and even tried to talk him out of it. I was definitely wrong on this occasion. After many hours of hard work Jason built the most beautiful and perfect crib for our daughter. It shouldn't have surprised me, Jason is seriously super guy and can do anything!

The birth of Emily "Katherine" Shehane. I'm going to go ahead and say this was the most life changing event for Jason in the past year or ever for that matter. He is such a wonderful Dad and supportive husband. He has gone beyond his duties as a Dad and was even understanding during my hormonal/If I don't sleep I'm going to die days. I would like to also point out that I never changed one diaper in the hospital! Jason was incredible from the second she was born.

I can't find our Father's Day pictures so here's one from Mother's Day

Jason taking Kate on her first hike

Jason spent a week in Korea for work and they had a little free time for sightseeing. This was his first time going there since his mission. It only took 10 years but he was finally able to use his Korean! They were all impressed with how well he spoke Korean. I am going to MAKE Jason do a blog on this trip so stay tuned for more Korean pictures.

Daddy's Girl! I took this picture last night. There aren't even words to describe what this picture means to me. I have a very good relationship with my Dad and when I found out I was pregnant (I knew it was a girl) I hoped that Jason and her would have a close relationship. Every night they have Daddy/Daughter time when Jason feeds her her solids and then gives her a bath and gets her ready for bed. We both read to her and say a prayer before laying her down but until I come up that is their time to spend together. He is such a loving Dad. Kate is very blessed to have Jason as her Dad.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON - I LOVE YOU

Katherine

Katherine is all over the place! She is now standing up on everything. The first day she realized this new ability I think she ended up hurting herself about 10 times. Her balance was lacking and instead of falling nicely on her bottom, she'd face plant or fall straight back. She has the hang of it now and is only hurting herself about 5 times a day :) Her favorite place to stand is on the window. She loves watching Jason do yardwork.

She looks so tiny standing up, it just doesn't look right

The most adorable picture ever

We also had a fun and busy week with visitors. Jason's parents, Laura, Andy, Drew, Brady, Jenny, Susan, Johnson stayed over and SAM,Steve, Rachel, Matthew, and Sarah visited. We had the best time (Jason had been looking forward to it all week!) Family is the most important thing in our life and we always have a good time hanging out together. Jason's mom and I went shopping during the week and she pureed some pears from their own Pear Tree for Kate. Jenny and my Mom were so kind to babysit Saturday while we did a church activity and ate at Cheesecake Factory.

Laura and Brady

PawPaw working and MeeMaw

Cousins: Brady and Katherine - Kate's trying to help Brady balance :)

Cousins playing. Kate looks so much bigger because she's about 7 weeks older.

We're already looking forward to everyone visiting again!!!