Tubb Daily Bits

With Gratitude in my heart

2011-11-23T21:52:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It will be our first Thanksgiving away from our extended family in Georgia but we are so excited to be together in this beautiful place and I thought I would take a minute to take stock of my blessings and all that I am grateful for.

I am grateful for my husband. I love that I still get twitter-pated when he holds me close and I still love that I fit perfectly under his shoulder. I love his hugs and his loyalty, and how much he makes it obvious that he too, is so in love with me. I love that our parenting styles are so seamlessly fluid between each other (especially with an almost 3 year old). I love that I feel his respect and that I have someone I respect, admire, want to learn from, to be better for, and to conquer anything with.
I am grateful to be a mommy. For as many times as I have to cook, clean up the kitchen, vacuum & change diapers, I am happy. It is the happiest full time job I have ever had and I love pretending and learning and playing with them. They are such neat little human beings and I am glad that I get to be apart of and try to prepare them for all the things that God has in store for them.
I am grateful for the Gospel. As we go through Thanksgiving and begin our Christmas Festivities I hope that we will all take a moment to remember the Savior & his sacrifice for each of us that all started with a birth in a manger. As a mother, I think of how Mary must have felt as she held this child...this perfect child and fell in love with him for the first time. I love my Savior, I am so glad for the influence he has on me as a person, a wife, a mother and a friend.
I am grateful for my home. It has been so fun to "play house" . To plant flowers and grow things, to organize & clean and to plan & decorate. I am grateful for all that I have but especially grateful for the home where we can build a family and create our own peaceful happy spirit within its walls.
I am grateful my husband has a job that he loves. I know that it makes such a difference to have a husband who feels fulfillment in what he does to provide for us.
I am grateful for babies. I think they remind us that miracles are all around us and just how amazing we really are. It helps me to commit to be a little bit better, stronger and kinder and to be a better example. It is fun to watch big brothers become big brothers. This year has been amazing as we brought Harrison into our little home

There are so many other things that I am grateful for and my heart just feels as if will always burst with happiness, that I almost get a little anxiety that it is too good to last but for now, I am thankful for all that I have and all those that have been apart of that happiness.

Our First Celebrated Halloween

2011-10-29T00:39:00.001-04:00

Bah Humbug!

Ryan is finally old enough to really get into the holidays and of course, that means Harrison has to participate by default. So we finally have to be good parents and actually buy them costumes and take them out trick or treating. Uggghhh...can't I buy this kid a bag (or two for that matter) of candy that we all like and save the walking around, knocking on doors, dressing up, staying up late thing we call trick or treating? Nope? Okay, just checking. So tonight was our ward activity with our trunk or treat. As a kid and young adult, I loved church activities and I want my kid to feel that too. However, as a mom, actually going to these activities are a lot of work (this is an understatement)! ESPECIALLY if your spouse has to work often on these occasions (like tonight). Made me feel a little incompetent and disorganized, but we made it!

This is before the activity while I had dad's help...no pictures after that!

We did do some other festive activities for the fall holidays (see we aren't totally mean) and went to a nearby (or not so near) pumpkin farm. They had a hey ride, pony rides and a big slide. This was our first year going to anything like that as a family (yes, we really are THAT boring and just enjoy being home and hanging out with the family and besides, we didn't have too, our kids didn't know the difference yet, remember?), and it was a lot of fun.

Big Smiles...yes, don't ask him to smile, or this is what you get.

Trying to ward him off from the greasy hot dogs with gerber puffs...only worked for a minute.

Let's see if we can find just the right one.

This one?

Move over, comin' through.

Ryan found the perfect one.

Going down the slide with Daddy!

Speaking of lucky, my son now loves to ask "what's that" 5 MILLION times a day. The very limits of patience are being tested here! "What's that?", "a tree", "What's that?", "a sign", What's that?", "a police car"...yes, you can feel it can't you. I can't even think one single full thought without..."What's that, mommy?". I have contemplated how I will handle the next 'however long this stage last' little while and hiring a nanny is out of the question. So, on my little goals that I make every week (because I love 7 habits.) I make a goal for being Ryan's mommy and this week is to patiently answer all of his questions. I feel like this is the time in his life that he wants to ask ME questions and when you put it into that perspective it's an honor (and I will need to be reminded of that about an hour after he wakes up and every five minutes after that). I also feel like we are building trust in our little ones and hopefully building little bridges so when the harder questions come we will be the ones they turn to and we will have practiced answering patiently...so here goes...patience is a virtue.

And here is a tribute to the grandparents. My kids actually play with their toys (I know, it's wierd, right?...didn't come from me, I was normal.). Now they do like a big box every once in a while but both of them really enjoy playing with toys. And they can sit there for a while, I think both of them like different things about them but it is really cool to buy them things and watch them enjoy those things! Grandmas & Grandpas, thank you for these toys and here are your cute little grandbabies playing with them.

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Boyd

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Tubb

Owning a house has it's work too. Since we got a new construction the backyard consisted of Fescue seed strewn all over with hay on top. It was the middle of July so forget that. Well, last year we had it tilled and we seeded over the top (no, we did not flatten, add good soil or whatever). It actually grew pretty well, but we didn't realize how much watering Fescue needed in the summertime and it ALL died. So this Fall, we decided to start over again. This time tilling, amending the soil, flattening, fertilizing and seeding....and boy was it hard work. Here are some of the pictures of our adventures.

Mom raked

Dad Shoveled

and shoveled

And finally stopped! Good job Dad!

Ryan helped (which includes appropriate attire: rainboots & a cowboy hat)

Even Harrison helped by just making us smile!

Harrison started moving at 6 months, SLOWLY. By the time he was 7 months he could get to what he wanted but a few weeks ago we were in the mother's lounge at the church and he saw a little boy who was 3 weeks older than him crawl with both knees and pull up on things and boy, that was it for him. If he can do it, I can too and he figured that out THAT week. He is starting to pull up on things as well so we will see how that goes.

Some Notes about Harrison:

He got his first bruiser on his eye from falling off the bed. Please note, he now is not allowed to sleep on mommies bed. EVAR!
He weighs about 26 pounds and he isn't even 9 months. This is a serious boy we have created...
On that note, he is wearing 18 month clothes. He is long and heavy, nursing is quite the experience.
Still NO TEETH!
He will be 9 months on November 3.

Some Notes about Ryan:

He has started preschool and is LOVING it.
He always wants his lunchbox on his lap.
He can now put on his own underwear & wipe (pretty much)
His asthma is as always something to be reckoned with.
He loves his cowboy boots
He is really enjoying learning songs from church

Ryan decorating Cookies with all his preschool friends

Some Notes about Aaron:

He has been working a lot of OT, which we are grateful for (except we would rather him be rich and retired so we could just be with him...but we will suffer through)
He finished on-the-job training after 18 months
He qualified for his first watch station (outside watch)
He has grown an unhealthy love for Mt dew (and all it's various flavors) now that he works nights.
He has started cutting his own hair (mainly because apparently I never get to it)
He is so cute about helping around the house and taking care of our lawn (thank you for being a cute sexy man!)
I love him THIS much (and yes, that is from a children's book and yes, we have read too many and are starting to quote them)

Such a super dad! Makes my heart so happy that I am with him!

About me!

I love my frankly planner and my schedule (because I don't remember anything without them)
I feel like I have progressed leaps and bounds in my domestic task of laundry & stain fighting.
I am loving my primary class and being their teacher.
I feel like my home is becoming a place where things have a place and there is order and peace (please note the keyword is becoming). Thank the flylady.
I have been studying the OT pretty intensely. Man, I just love the scriptures and all you can learn from them.
I feel like I am very boring, but I love my family, my life, my kids and my home. I love making them beautiful and teaching and guiding. It really keeps me busy and fills my life as it is what I care about most.

6 month photo shoot

2011-08-27T22:25:00.000-04:00

Harrison is now almost 7 months but we just got back his 6 month pictures. We are so excited that they turned out so good. We had to schedule it in the early evening which just isn't a great time for my kids as they are usually in bed between 6:30 and 7:00. Here are some of my favorites:

Harrison has turned out to be such a fun loving little man. Always up for a good time, but laid back all the same (we figure this is where my husband and my personality combined to make a SUPERSTAR!!!!)

Overalls are the cutest on chubby little babies (or perhaps on skinny ones but I don't have those kind...)

And let us not forget that he has a super fantastic big brother who loves him !

Here are some of the things he has been up to:

He started solids and for the past few weeks has been trying his hand at finger foods. This has involved mucho mess and cheerios, bananas, pancakes, and other small bits of stuff to be slung in a wide radius of his chair.
Since about 5 1/2 months, he has attempted movement and he is getting faster and faster at being able to push himself around the room.
At his 6 month visit, he weighed in at 23.1 pounds and 28 inches. The pediatrician says right now he is aiming to be 6 ft 4 (and we thought Ryan was going to be tall when they said he would be 6ft1).
He loves to sleep on his back and play on his tummy.
He has a smile for everyone and he is very quick to smile.
He does not like to go to sleep but once he does (because it isn't an option...good grief, it is BEDTIME BECAUSE I SAY IT'S BEDTIME!!!!), that's it. It's out for the night. (LOVELY FOR ME!)

And let's not forget about Ryan. Here are some super cute pics of my first baby love:

Superman to the rescue

Loves to learn and draw

And where would be without a picture of Ryan with a book in his hand. We love that he loves to "read" even if it is going through his brothers board books and remembering some of his favorites.

As a two in a half year old, we are still amazed at all we discover about this smart, cute little boy. Here are some things that we love about him.

He loves to play board games (no really, this morning he woke me up and then woke daddy up and said 'games?'). He will sit for HOURS with his dad and look at all the pieces and play with the dice.
He loves books and I have to say that we just can't go to the thrift store without a bag full of them. He sits at the edge of his bed and reads them with the hall light until he falls asleep.
He has started to list things with his finger in first, next, last fashion or say the things he needs in a list. This is probably because I am always presenting him with a list. We are going to to the park, the store and then we can draw or whatever. It is really funny when he says "I need a (puts his finger up) sandwhich and a (puts the same finger up...hasn't quite gotten the two fingers yet) milk"
He can take off his underwear all by himself. YAY! Now we have to teach him how to put it back on.
He has discovered gumball machines and arcade games, which has made little "jobs" to earn a quarter. Some of his jobs are: Keep Harrison happy while mommy takes a shower (he is in a bouncer in the bathroom, so basically it is a party in there, but what mommy gets privacy, right?). It has been a great opportunity to talk about savings and tithing. Grandma got him a little piggy bank and everytime he earns a quarter, I give him 2 quarters and 5 pennies. 1 quarter goes in his pocket for fun, 1 quarter goes in his piggy bank for savings, and 5 pennies go to the Lord for tithing. The bishop is going to LOVE all those pennies we give him.

Now about the man and I, there is still a world for us (minus the kids). After the munchkins go to bed we find time to read, watch our shows (Colbert Report) or play games. We just finished Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and started on How to win friends and influence people (I am in love with being read to before I go to bed and Aaron loves introducing me to some of his favorite authors, Terry Pratchett & Douglas Adams). We are starting to get to know people and have some really good friends here in Fuquay which is nice, but I think we both agree that we are really totally the bestest friends you could ask for.

Life for the past 6 months

2011-08-25T22:16:00.000-04:00

Today I showed my 2 year old our blog. I read him some of the things we said as we bragged on him and showed him videos of him when he was just a baby. I was able to talk to him about how much we loved him as a baby and I was able to remember (and get a little teary eyed) my first introduction to motherhood, thanks to Ryan. Now that I have the second, I am in awe that my love for motherhood and my children has multiplied and I want to be able to show Harrison some of the great things during his childhood. Therefore I repent...

I am going to post the "motherload" of pictures so we can all recap on what we have missed.

April - Easter Found us at a local Easter Egg Hunt that happened to be rained out. We still got some eggs, but no hunting was involved. Luckily we did it again later.

On our way to the Fuquay Community Center

Cute boy with Cute Basket!

Ryan and I have been taking Community Classes as a fun way to spend time together... He loves it.

Ryan not quite paying attention

Atlanta Trip in June - My husband came down for a gaming conference, then went back up to work (then flew back down to spend a few days with us during vacation). I really wanted to go, so since Aaron already had nonrefundable flight tickets he took the baby while Ryan and I were hard core road trip warriors and left at 3 am to get there and meet dad at the airport. My rouse for coming was to house sit and water plants. Needless to say I killed about 6 plants while I was there, but we had a great time visiting with family.

Later in the week, Aaron joined us at a splash park in Roswell

Super Cute

Harrison does a little splashing of his own

Splashing

More splashing

Why don't they build one of these in NC?

After a Picnic lunch, we have one pooped out little baby.

We spent a weekend in Athens with Elaine and Phillip. Dane and Spencer got to come up too, which we all loved, especially Ryan.

Ryan & Spencer. Bedtime bath. Bubbles ROCK!

At Uncle Phillips Pool on a guided tour with Uncle Dane

And apparently I am an added life preserver

Ryan preparing for a swim

4. We also made a stop at GREAT GRANDMA'S house

Visited Great Grandma

4. Other fun pictures since we have been "off the map"

Seriously, these kids just make me smile.

Uncle Mason & Ayana came up and had an incident with a sno cone.

I just love dressing my men up, they are so cute!

This was taken today, not quite upright but super cute in the tub

The Park is one of our favorite destinations, and Ryan insist on proper Sun Coverage.

A while ago but always trying to be like his daddy

Of course you can't be daddy unless you walk a few miles in his shoes...he is still working on that.

Lookin' good Ryan

As usual, dad is our hero around here and tonight was no exception. Super man followed with Ring around the rosies, a great bed time game.

And just for fun, let's compare my chubby babies at 6 months.

Ryan

Harrison (also bath picture was today too)

Okay, well that's a wrap! I will try to update WAY more often and have videos too mainly for the benefit of my kids later but I hope this let's you know how we are.

Sweet dreams little one

2011-05-24T14:09:00.000-04:00

Ryan loves to read...


Current position asleep for naptime.

I rest my case.

Nighty-night my sweetie. I love being his mom.

A Happy Wife, A Happy Life

2011-05-16T10:25:00.001-04:00

I got our family pictures back today and they turned out beautifully. As I looked at pictures of my family at 1:30 in the morning (the only time I have to do anything with both hands), I am reminded at what a great husband I have. He is sweet and kind and supportive of who I am and loves me in spite of all my weaknesses (I let people know that we are 100% perfect, he is 95% of it though.) I have decided that he will get us through those pearly gates, but I will make sure we are on time. Being married and having children has brought us closer and taught me how different each personality is and how much it adds to our family. It has helped me to love my husband even more (is it possible?) and appreciate his strengths and ignore his faults (remember he is only 5% inperfect so most of the time, this is always being right...wasn't that my privilege as his wife?). Here are a few of those pictures that made me smile.

Aaron & Ryan - 2 beautiful people inside & out

He makes his children & his wife smile

He gave me this beautiful family (nice gene pool, if I do say so myself)

Now, some might say, yes, I know why Cecilia is up at 2:13 in the morning blogging. Some might say that I have a 3 month old and we all know how babies can be. Some might think that...but you are wrong. I am up because of my 2 year old. My 3 month old sleeps fine. My 2 year old does not sleep if he is teething, if he is sick, if he didn't get a nap, etc. etc. He gets up when he has to go potty (and wakes us up) at least once if not twice a night. Currently it is an ear infection, and he is up every 15 to 30 minutes. Every time a mom says that her kid just sleeps when he is sick, well, I just want to stomp on her toe (that's right...a big ole' stomp). So let's remember how cute he is at 2:13 in the am (which is now 2:45 and he has been up every 5 minutes...but I digress).

My beautiful blue eyed boy...

A wonderful big brother

Full of happiness & life

As far as a Harrison update, other than the fact that he is currently fast asleep (with an ear infection, mind you), he is just becoming more and more animated and happy. The crying stopped around 8 weeks, and it has just gotten better and better. Harrison loves to talk. He babbles and coos and loves when people talk to him.. He will tell you all about...well, whatever he is talking about...for a long time. He is growing so fast. He is following Ryan's footsteps and gaining all of his weight in the first four months of life (Ryan was 20 pounds at 4 months and 22 pounds at a year). He weighs 19.6 pounds (He will be 4 months on June 3) and he is long, we are in 6-9 month clothing. Here are some cute shots of my little man.

Not sure what's going on but lovin' the flashin' light.

Cute, cute brothers

My 2 little men, sound asleep

I have been going to the gym 3-4 times a week. Running, cycling, & classes have kept me busy. Harrison and Ryan have done great in the childcare facility. It has felt so good and been so liberating as I have overcome some of my own body issues and FEARS of going to a gym with people who know what they are doing and to exercise my body in front of them. I feel like it is a good example to my kids that their mother is making sure her body is exercised and I feel like it has helped Ryan understand when I tell him that he needs to run and play so he can feel good. I am the fat girl on the treadmill and I am running it off...stand back! I am grateful for my husband who has always seen the hot supermodel in me, and makes me want to be more and more beautiful. I think I have become more attractive inside and out because of his example, love and support.

A Happy Wife, A Happy Life

My whole family came up for Harrison's baby blessing on Mother's day weekend, so we were surrounded by our own mothers which made us happy. I will post more on that when I get pictures, but we had a great time and we are in love with the family that we have. In other news, my grandmother has a birthday today. We love her and hope she has a very happy day, we were very sad to have missed her surprise party (but I am glad I am not traveling with two kids and their ear infections by myself...yuck). We won't miss the one when she turns 90!

Together Forever

It seems Ryan has finally fallen asleep (at least I haven't heard him for 20 minutes) and I have to say that I am beginning to wish for sleep myself. It is 5 in the am and I can get maybe an hour before I hear little footsteps again. I am grateful for all that I have been given and am grateful for the prayers that brought some of the greatest people in my life.

2 months 2 weeks

2011-04-18T22:57:00.000-04:00

Wow! I thought I would never post again or have time again. All of you who have more than two kids, I have decided that you are either my heroes or crazy (leaning toward the crazy today). So a lot has happened, and I have decided just to list them, post some pictures, and call it a day.

Harrison weighed 7.8lbs at birth 12lbs at 1 month and 16.8lbs at 8 weeks. He is now in 6-9 month clothes. He is super long and super heavy. I have unofficially started calling him "The Brick".

Out of Harrison's 10 weeks of life, Ryan has been sick for about half of them. It has been my privelege to try to keep snot from swapping, drool from combining, and icky sick (usually snotty) hands off of baby...call it my superpower.
A good friend of mine got married (which whoever picks a convenient time to get married), so I traveled ALONE with two kids to Georgia (about 7 hours)...this definitely gets chalked up to one of Cecilia's crazy adventures. We stayed 10 days and wore both sets of grandparents out (Thanks Grandparents!)
We have been very blessed with great parents who have come up and helped out so much. We are glad that you are so great.
Harrison started crying at birth (except for when he was nursing) and didn't stop until about 3 weeks ago. Now he is just a normal fussy baby (and not possessed by something unnatural)
With two kids, and one crying all the time, my Moby wrap rocked...no really, wrap one kid up and take the other for a walk and we are good to go!
Surviving meant going for lots of walks...to the park, to story time, to anything I could walk to.
Ryan and I started going to a class called "kid gym" It was a great Mommy and Ryan thing to do. We can't wait for the next round.
Due to lots of long walks and eating much better than I did after my first pregnancy, I have lost 54 pounds. Only 39 more to go to be the super gorgeous mommy/wife that I have in my head.
We have planted our first garden using the square foot garden method. We are so excited to be growing our own peppers and tomatoes this year. We have also started a worm farm for composting purposes.

Here's our cute Pictures

Ryan and his big blue eyes

1 week

10 weeks

Daddy & Harrison

Our Square Foot Garden

At the local Easter Egg Hunt all ready

Just another fun picture that I found.

Well, I am sure there are more things that have happened, but 10 things is enough. Life is busy and crazy and fun. Sometimes I feel like I am overstimulated, from the rocking, feeding, comforting, holding, but then I remember that this is the good stuff and I need to be grateful for all that I have. We are excited for this Easter Season where we can remember the Savior and his gift to us.

Double Trouble

2011-02-25T06:40:00.001-05:00

Cecilia hates hospitals. She came home after the minimum 24 hour required stay even though it was 9:30pm. She hates being woken up by nurses and techs and blood people and whoever else they want to send in there as they laugh mirthlessly at the poor innocent woman who just gave birth. Especially the second day when the baby decides, "hey, I am hungry" and the milk supply decides "hey, let's wait another day, OK?

At home, we were greeted by vomiting and diarrhea, emanating from our older son, Ryan. His stomach bug lasted the whole first week after Harrison's birth, so it was a really rough week. Fortunately, our wonderful parents (on both sides) were able to come up here to visit for a while, and they REALLY helped! Thanks mom and dad!

Baby Harrison finally at home

Harrison is now three weeks old, and we're all feeling a lot better (i.e. not sick) now. The feeling of sleep deprivation that I have long forgotten is returning, though it doesn't seem nearly as bad as I remember it hitting us the first time with Ryan. Now that Ryan is feeling better, he's being a really cool big brother, bringing Harrison pacifiers, toys, and a goodnight kiss, and also doing a little dance in an attempt to make Harrison stop crying (it cracked me up, but Harrison unfortunately didn't seem to notice it).

Big brother Ryan

Yesterday was actually Ryan's second birthday, and we celebrated by going out to Cici's and the pet store (just looking at the fish, mostly). He's growing up into such a kid (no longer a baby)! It's crazy. It's been crazy. But it's been a great two years; the best two years of my life, so far.

Harrison is born

2011-02-06T09:54:00.006-05:00

I will write down the whole "birth story" but I am too tired for now...

They start out so small.

Harrison Boyd Tubb was born at 7:45 on February 3, 2011. At 8 lbs 8 oz and 21 1/2 inches, we are all glad that he came at 37 weeks instead of 40! He is happy and healthy and seems to have such a sweet disposition (That's Aaron's contribution). So far he has dark curly hair (that was my contribution...) and is just a beautiful baby (both of us had to do with that). Ryan met his brother the next morning and although he would say "baby" from a distance, he has decided to come to terms with him from a safe distance while drawing tractors and helicopters and watching Dora the Explorer. He did wake up this morning when the baby was crying and let us know that "I sad" and then pointed to the baby...I assume that he meant the baby was sad...it was really cute. We are super glad to have expanded our family from 3 to 4. We love our two little boys so much! Here's some pictures:

Quiet Dignity

2011-01-30T00:09:00.000-05:00

I have none.

But that's not the point, today I saw quiet dignity in action and I was grateful for the lesson that she taught me without knowing it. Today I went to a primary activity. We have been so sick lately but today the semi fog had lifted, I was the only one that still had symptoms and since they needed my help I decided to go ahead and go. I was slightly disgruntled, however, since they let me know at 8:30 the night before that I needed to dress like an angel in all white (have I mentioned that I have MAYBE 5 outfits that fit right now, I am just that pregnant....and guess how many have white tops and bottoms...minus my underwear...that I have). I was also informed that the activity would now be at 1 instead of 11:30...which was highlited on my cool new franklin planner (you can't unhighlite things, so now my schedule was RUINED...not to mention nap time was no longer in effect).

When we got there, I was able to fuel my fire. The leadership arrived late, they didn't have people at all the stations, etc. etc. I really enjoyed the activity however, and did realize that even in the most disorganized activities the spirit will help teach the children and I felt it strongly. But I sure wasn't going to give kudos to anyone who organized this. My thoughts were more like, well if i was doing this, there would be none of this or that would have never happened. (Can we say PRIDE?...even if it was true...just kidding)

Well, there's this lady who is amazing and strong. Very beautiful and capable and funny and nice, who also noticed some of the things that were major fails (like her group got the station where their was no one to tell them what to do for the first activity). So we were sitting there at the end of the activity and she goes up to the President and thanks her for all her hard work in putting this together, and tells her how much she enjoyed the activity. I think I learned more about being grateful and having quiet dignity than ever before. It was amazing. So thanks. I want quiet dignity and I can give you about a million situations where I haven't shown quiet dignity (the numbers quadruple during my last trimester of pregnancy). I wish I had people like that to always show me how to be.

Cecilia

oohh - eeeh, oooh- eeeh and other life lessons for my child

2011-01-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

So I have to say that I am updating my blog more because I am sick, I am pregnant, and I am sick of being pregnant. I also am ~~not~~ (overridden by my husband, who had a recent photo of Ryan on his phone) posting pictures of my cute off spring because even though he is potty trained, he cannot pull down his pants by himself and it is just easier being this pregnant to let him run around naked (which to me is the cutest thing on earth) . So sorry about the boring "wordy" post.

Ryan continues to strive to be like his parents (because what can I say, he's got some stinkin cool parents). Here are some fun examples:

With an almost 2 year old, I am on the floor much more than my pregnant body likes...playing trains, cars, and other fun and exciting games. When I get up, I have a series of grunts as my body tries to pick up everything that gravity has put down. Well, the other day I hear Ryan going "oooh-eeeh, oooh-eeeh" as he got up off the floor...apparently he figures this is the thing to do.
He loves his daddy. He puts on his daddy's boots and hangs on to the shoe strings stating, "I Daddy", "I Daddy"
At night, when we are going through his nightly routine, he knows that first we sing, then we do scripture (which I might add a clip of him saying scriptures) and then prayer. He always knows what's next and it is so cute to watch him pull down our "scripture picture" from the folder each night and sit and look at it (although this week, he seemed to be more interested in the goat in the picture then Jesus teaching the little children) then to fold his arms and kneel down for prayer.

So since I have had my first of my third trimester breakdowns this weekend, my husband has been a super champ. He has been so nice and done so much with Ryan to keep him entertained and even took me out to eat just so I wouldn't have to cook. He is such a good husband to me. Some activities I have caught Ryan and Daddy doing:

B's...this is Ryan's term for a website that I will totally suggest for any young kid to get started on phonics...it is called www.starfall.com and he could do this site for HOURS.
Video Games - You thought it would all be education but it's not, yes, Aaron is already trying to help him learn a valuable past time.
Board Games - Yep everything from Nexus Ops to Ticket to Ride were pulled out and all the pieces examined carefully...the only rule is if you put a piece in your mouth there are no more games. Ryan has really taken a liking to them; the first thing he did after waking up this morning was grab Daddy's hand, drag him into the closet, point up, and ask for a game. This is a proud moment for his dad (who has a profile on boardgamegeek.com).

Just so you know, I dont' think Daddy's felt too well either so it was so super nice that he took care of Ryan and let me be sick and pregnant for the weekend. Thanks Aaron.


Ryan drawing in the car. He really loves drawing and when we first got him that little drawing pad, he sometimes wouldn't want to get out of the car when we got home because he was still working on his art. (He also loves this jacket and even if it doesn't match, which happens quite often being neon orange, demands to wear it)

Okay, well, I think I have added my fair share for now...until tomorrow

Fair Share

2011-01-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

So I pretty much have a perfect husband...well 95% perfect. We made an agreement early in our marriage that he would get us all to heaven spiritually and I would make sure we were on time (because if it was up to Aaron we would be late...everywhere). And thus it has been. He makes sure we are nice to each other and hug and kiss and I make sure we actually make it to things on time (such as work, church, and many many other things), and things stay in routine, etc. This has been a satisfactory relationship.

Until Now...

I can barely keep myself together. I don't remember being this forgetful in my last pregnancy. I do remember totally missing one of my doctors appointments but other than that, I feel like I remember stuff. Not during this pregnancy, seriously, let me tell you about my week.

Sunday - I let a girl know that is having a baby about the same time as me but her husband isn't able to make it to all the appointments that I would take care of her boy on the next day.

Result: She called from my front step and woke me from a nap where I ran downstairs totally disoriented to let him in. Yeah, totally forgot they were coming.

Tuesday - Planned to go VT to a new sister in the ward that evening.

Result: Husband came home sick, tucked both boys in bed relieved that I wasn't the only one going to bed at 7:30 and laid down...at 8:30 remembered VT and called to apologize profusely.

Friday - Planned to stop by a friends house to work on some crafts that we have been doing together (she is teaching me how to be crafty...I am exploring my domestic side)

Result: Yeah, didn't go and didn't remember till about 1 in the AM

Saturday - Planned to meet at a friends house to practice a musical number we are suppose to sing in a few weeks at 2:00

Result - Laid down at 1:00 for a nap and didn't get up till 4 in the afternoon.Called and apologized profusely.

That's in one WEEK! And I have a Franklin Planner (my all time favorite gift this year).

So my 5% contribution in our perfect relationship is now suffering. I hope that my memory comes back...

War on Colds

2011-01-22T01:28:00.001-05:00

So here I sit...12:45 AM..yep, in the morning.

Just comforted my sick, teething two year old (when do they finish teething???) and I, sniffling and coughing (and pregnant), wait for my sweet husband to come home with medication. Now, I am all for staying away from medication while pregnant and I have to say I have done pretty good since I have been sick almost every day since DECEMBER 13 (yes, and travelling and did I mention pregnant)!!! So now with only 5 weeks left of this pregnancy, I am done. I want drugs and I sent my husband with a list of everything on the approved medication list. There is no way that I can do labor waking up 5 MILLION times (not an exaggeration) between all of us sick.

I have also banned ALL love in the house. We are currently restricted to shake hands until I feel better and I have told my dear husband (who is at the store currently reading off ingredients of different medications so I can Google them...such a good guy...who is not getting anything but a hearty handshake from me for a while since HE GAVE ME THIS COLD BACK...I gave it to him fair and square. Did I mention i will shake his hand? Did I also mention there will be thorough hand washing post hand-shaking event? Just checking. )

Sniffle, Sniffle, Sniffle.

- Cecilia

"I FUNNY"

2010-12-27T07:48:00.000-05:00

It is the Christmas season and we have been in Georgia for a little over two weeks. I have been nursing a terrible cold the entire time (I am hopefully on the upside of this thing) while Ryan, on the other hand, is living it up among a plethora of grandparents, uncles & relatives to entertain and be entertained. Aaron unfortunately had to leave for some of our vacation to attend his grandfather's funeral in Midland, TX. I was glad he was able to go, but I did miss him.

Ryan just keeps us surprised and entertained as his personality grows. He has started to be our little comedian and lets everyone know by saying, "I funny". He will just do stuff, from putting his potty on his head for the Potty Dance as King of the potty (it's clean, clean, clean.) to dancing and trying to snap his fingers and get everyone to snap along (which usually works because it is so DANG cute).

Christmas was so fun and we all had to hold ourselves back from getting too much stuff for the kid. Our favorite gift was a bike, although he thought that opening his stocking (which was by his bed that morning) was enough and he wanted to play with the "play dough". He barely glanced at the bike and kept saying "playdough, playdough, playdough." Luckily he came around and has been wearing his bike helmet inside and out to show his appreciation. He is a lot like his dad in that he wants to open one gift, look at it and play with it before he is ready for the next one. We had to really coax him to open more. Here's some bike pictures.

Mommy and daddy in the most earnest concentration to put on bike safety gear.

What? Grandpa? You taking pictures of me? "I funny."

Happy Biker


Just wearing my helmet a little longer...and a little backwards..."I funny."

We were also able to attend a friend's wedding over thanksgiving. They had a group doing pictures of everyone attending. Here are some of ours:

What a fun year and we have learned so much. We hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. We know that 2010 has been so hard for many of our closest family and friends and hope that you have so much more joy in the coming years to make up for your sorrow in this one. We also know that many of you have had great things happen for you and we hope you continue to have joy in your life.

- Cecilia

Just a note, Georgia had it's first white Christmas since 1882. Unfortunately the small town of Fuquay Varina, NC also had a white Christmas (not sure when the last one was) and continues to have snow fall from the sky. At last count there was a foot of snow in my neighbors yard when I called. The roads are icy and blocked as of yesterday afternoon. I guess I won't be seeing my nice bed for a little while longer.

Ugggh

2010-12-08T19:35:00.000-05:00

Okay, I am uncomfortable. Pregnant and uncomfortable. Although I think this pregnancy has been nicer in a lot of ways, the inevitable discomfort of being overly pregnant is beginning to get to me. Sleep is evading me again and I have a continual back ache. I seriously think this baby is going to bust out of my stomach at any minute it is so tight. This baby seems to be a lot more active than the last pregnancy and seems to not only to manage to lay all over my lungs but to also tap dance on my bladder (and make me feel like he is trying to bust out). The OB let me know that I am measuring "big". No joke.

Cecilia

78 Days and yes, I am starting to count.

3 years

2010-12-01T08:38:00.000-05:00

So here's my thoughts today -

I got married (December 1st, 2007)...

Today I have been married for 3 YEARS (CRAZY!!!!)...

To a GREAT guy (who is also very good looking and smells oh so good)...

Who gave me the most beautiful son in the world (even at 4:30 in the AM)...

With another one soon to come (who is starting to make me uncomfortable)...

Wow.

Really, I never would have thought that I would be so blessed. I think we, Aaron and I, both are sure that we got the better end of the deal. We are so grateful for the opportunity to be with each other. I have thought of many lists where I could list the things I have learned from him, his attributes, etc. but I will just stick with this. I am forever grateful for all that I have been given. Happy 3rd Anniversary!

-Cecilia

Whirlwind Trips, potty training follow up, & a few other tid bits.

2010-11-12T16:36:00.001-05:00

Potty Training Follow Up.

All business...gots work to do.

It is finished. Relatively, I mean. At 20 months, he now recognizes how to both poop and pee in the pot and would prefer to do it there than anywhere else. It took him longer to learn how to poop, mainly because sitting up instead of squatting in a corner was a totally new position for him. We rectified that situation by teaching him to touch his toes while he is on the potty, thus squeezing all the right places. This has bound us to bringing his small potty chair with us wherever we go but I will take it (I swore I would never use a small potty, but that's what you get for saying you won't do something). No diapers rocks. He has found new freedom running around the house naked (including but not limited to, finding some markers and marking up his "private" areas to a lovely shade of green...which was so cute and funny, but inappropriate to post here...)

A Wedding Story

Ryan and I headed to Phoenix last Saturday morning at to see my good friend, April, get married. I am so proud of her because she waited for the most perfect man for her. His name is Jinwon and he just seems like he will always be gentle and sweet to her which (since she is feisty like me) will always appreciate. It was a beautiful wedding, and they looked lovely together.

Ryan did great through over 10 hours of flying within 36 hours. At the end of the last plane ride he broke down in such sad sad cries saying, 'daddy, daddy, daddy' (I had told him we were almost to daddy, I didn't expect him to cry). In the airport he rode my suitcase like a horse as I rolled him through the airport...this was much, MUCH faster to having him walk.

Outage spoils - New Car

So I think my husband mentioned this, but we were able to buy a car (2002 Toyota Highlander) from a friend. It is the first time that we as a family have ever bought a car and we were able to do it with cash. That was a goal of mine to never have a car payment again, and I can't believe we did it for such a nice car. It was such a blessing, from the good deal he offered us to the Outage that Aaron has been doing making tons of overtime. I am so thankful to Aaron for all his hard work and grateful that we stuck to our goal of only using cash for our vehicles. After we bought it we cleaned it all up and made it look (and smell) all pretty. I love it, and I love driving it. It is perfect for us.

By the way, he completes the outage this week, and I am so glad. I have done lots of trips and had lots of fun, but I miss my husband and since he is my most favorite person in the whole world, it will be good to have him back.

Baby to be Updates-
It is so neat to feel this baby moving inside.This pregnancy has been so much nicer, because I don't feel my body hurting and stretching to get ready for child birth. I sleep better (or maybe I am use to sleep deprivation), and there has only been a few bouts of heart burn (learned about heart burn in the first pregnancy) Ryan and I talk about how we are making him a brother and he knows that the baby is inside mommy's tummy (every once in a while the baby jumps into his tummy, but mainly it is mine).

Aaron and I
We are closing in on our 3rd year of marriage. I can't believe it has been that long and it seems like we have always been together. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think how perfect this man is for me and how grateful I am that I found him.

Ryan's Potty Party!

2010-10-27T05:32:00.002-04:00

Wow, I haven't posted on my blog since we first moved into the house! We have been keeping busy, as usual, with working on the new house, working the new job, and spending time together as a family. The nuclear plant is in the middle of a refueling outage right now, so I've been working lots of overtime (while the reactor is shut down, they have everyone working as much as possible so they can get all the maintenance and refueling done and start up the reactor again as soon as possible. The plant is literally losing millions of potential dollars in revenue every day that the plant is turned off). A couple weeks ago Cecilia and Ryan went down to Georgia to visit both of our families for a couple weeks; it was lonely here, but I was working or sleeping most of the time. One thing we got done in the last month was grass in the backyard! We seeded with Fescue and now we have the greenest backyard on the block. This photo was taken a couple days ago; Our backyard was, just a month ago, just as brown and desolate as the neighbor's visible in the photo (it really helped that it rained for nearly a week straight shortly after we seeded!).

One great thing about the outage is that I get to see some pretty cool things that no one sees while the plant is at power (if you find any of this stuff about work uninteresting, just skip down to the photo of Ryan!). One example is the reactor itself, and another is the cooling tower while it isn't running. Unfortunately, I can't take photos at work, but I found this photo on the internet of the cooling tower at my plant, taken during an outage. As you can see, when it isn't moving water, you can see right through it (and the stairs and door in the side can give a sense of scale to the photo).

I'm having to learn and get used to is the spelling alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, etc.). The other week, I was part of the fuel offloading project (taking fuel assemblies from the reactor and putting them in the fuel pools) and had to say things like "One Romeo is going to Hotel Whiskey", which would probably sound kind of funny to most people. I'm also having to get used to the 24 hour clock; using 24 hour time on my cell phone is helping in that regard.

So, I was browsing Wikipedia the other day, and I actually came across a job description for power plant operators. According to the omniscient Wikipedia:

"Operators are responsible for the safety of the work crews that frequently do repairs on the mechanical and electrical equipment. They maintain the equipment with periodic inspections and log temperatures, pressures and other important information at regular intervals. Operators are responsible for starting and stopping the generators depending on need. They are able to synchronize and adjust the voltage output of the added generation with the running electrical system without upsetting the system. They must know the electrical and mechanical systems in order to troubleshoot problems in the facility and add to the reliability of the facility. Operators must be able to respond to an emergency and know the procedures in place to deal with it."

That seems to cover what I think operators do here at Shearon Harris pretty well. For the most part, it seems that non-licensed operators take logs, inspect plant equipment, and turn stuff on or off when needed so maintenance crews can work on it.

Enough about work! Ryan is awesome and needs to be talked about! He's really talking a lot right now, and says stuff like "daddy" and "mommy" and... actually pretty much any word we say he will passably imitate. He really is becoming a toddler and seeming more like a kid and less like a baby, all the time; it's amazing. Just the other day, we were outside and he was trying to slide down the slope in between our house and our neighbor's house. It wasn't working out that well, but he still seemed to be getting some entertainment from scooting his butt down a shallow grassy slope. We had some broken down boxes set aside for recycling, so I grabbed one to use as a sled and attached a string to it and Ryan thought it was the best thing ever for the rest of the day (actually, every day after that until it rained today and ruined the box, which we had left outside). Here's a video we managed to take during the first day:

Also, Ryan has been becoming very aware of when he has to use the bathroom, so we started potty training him at the age of 20 months. Today was our first day of no diapers, and he hasn't had any accidents and has used his new little potty multiple times. We are all (especially Ryan, who has always wanted to do stuff just like his parents) very excited about it! We loaded up on all the juice packs and stuff that we usually don't get to help him stay full of liquids during the day; it's a Potty Party!

He also has recently decided that he loves bubble baths! He'll just sit in there for what seems like ever if we let him, and we do sometimes; he's very entertaining to hang out with.

PS - Cecilia will read any and all comments left here on the blog, so feel free to comment away!

New Beginnings: Job, Baby, and Home

2010-07-27T22:27:00.002-04:00

Aaron is great about updating this, but I figured I would add some myself. Our lives are so full of blessings. We are grateful for so many opportunities to grow as a family and become closer.

Ryan wielding a stick of Spider-Slaying

A New Job.
So Aaron has started with Progress Energy as an Auxiliary Operator. He is in 'in-class' training mostly until February where at that point he will be allowed to be called a Non Licensed Operator and then will be at the plant qualifying on all the specific jobs or "stations" that he will be responsible for while he is on shift. He has been able to get a taste of shift work periodically and the next time is in September during the plant's outage when they will refuel, maintain and do any large jobs that could not be done while the plant was running. The nice thing about this is that he will be able to get a ton of overtime. The sad thing is that he will be working 4 days and off 1 and then back on, so I will never see him. We have planned some trips to keep us occupied. Aaron seems to love it and it is so good to see him so excited about his job.

A new Baby.
Yep, we just found out we were expecting our 2nd child on Ryan's Birthday next year (Feb. 24). Luckily, I will probably deliver a couple of weeks early so our new addition will be joining us early February (just in time for insurance deductible to renew!). We are toward the end of our first trimester and I feel so much more tired this time (perhaps this is because of the toddler running around in my life awake and perky at 6 am.) I have a constant queasiness but other than that we have been doing good.


Ryan's Mischievous Look

A new Home.
Finally. (Sigh) In the past 3 months we will have had 4 residences. The post man must be so confused (cuz we kinda are). We closed yesterday and got the keys, it was nice. We hope this will be the last move we make for at least 10 years. We have found a beautiful home in Fuquay Varina (pronounced Few-quay Marina with a V). It is a four bedroom 1800 square foot 2.5 bathroom home. It is a new construction which was kind of cool. My favorite parts of the house is the bathrooms marble counter tops (or something pretty and rock) and my gas fireplace (that ignites at the flip of a wall switch), and that there are separate thermostats for upstairs and downstairs.

Ryan's first cars

Updates on us:

Ryan.
Has learned that cows say "MOO". So now he is really good at dog and cow. He has decided he loves matchbox cars, especially his school bus. This has been so fun to watch him make "vroom-vroom" noises and lay on the floor running them up and down. He loves to find tunnels for them to go through and often that means under and through our legs. He is definitely a full fledged toddler and less baby every day. It's so much fun it is hard to be sad.

Some New words:
Ow
Eat
Up
Apple
Audrey
Teeth
Mouth
bus
hi
yes (funnily enough, he hasn't said "no" yet!)

Some of his favorite Books:
Where is Daddy's Car?
Grover sleeps over
Water, Water Everywhere
Time for Bed
One Two, Buckle my Shoe
I Love You Through and Throuh

Milestone updates:
He can almost jump
He marches in place
He can do parts of head shoulders knees & toes
He likes to sort of crawl on his hands in the lake, while kicking his feet in the water
He gives kisses with his mouth shut (sometimes)
He can eat by himself without making a huge mess (very nice for Mom and Dad)
He kneels to pray for family prayer, and even tries to fold his arms

VROOM VROOM

Aaron -
did a great job in the ward choir on Sunday. He has an amazing voice (one of the great things that I had hoped for in a man someday) and they needed him. We are happy to be involved in the ward and have a home there. He has finally recovered from working nights and actually goes to bed at a decent time (s'rsly, I fall asleep at 8 and then I wake up at like 2 and he is still awake). We are reading Ringworld which he has wanted to read for a long time. He has also taken over the budget (HALELUJAH) and is doing a great job at it (more than likely a better job than I did).

Myself.
My life is great. I miss a lot of people from Atlanta but I am excited about our new adventure and I love having my favorite people with me. We have so much fun and it is a good life for us.

New Developments

2010-07-07T13:30:00.003-04:00

We've been busy getting to know our way around the Southern Raleigh area, house hunting, and working at my new job! The house hunting has been really frustrating at times, but we finally found a house that we love and that is in our price range and we should be closing on it near the end of the month! The house is in Fuquay Varina (an interestingly named town), which is a great little town that we can tell we are going to love. We did not end up getting the house that I mentioned in my previous post, which I think is for the best since it was a foreclosure and the bank that owned it was being really incompetent about the whole thing (incompetent enough to give us opportunity to get out of the contract, fortunately). The house we will actually be getting is a new construction with 4 bedrooms, and it's yellow with a red door and red shutters, which Cecilia really loves.

Our house (before the door was painted)

The Raleigh area is great, except for the fact that there is no nearby pools that are reasonably priced. A year pass for a neighborhood pool costs hundreds of dollars! (back in Georgia, a season pass for White Water only costs $50) Oh well. The best thing we found for water fun is the state park at Jordan Lake; it's actually way better than a pool because the lake water is warm at this time of year, and the gradual slope into the water is better for Ryan than pool steps.

So, now that I've been working for a month, I have to say that I really like my job! It's a high-tech job where I actually get to walk around and stuff, instead of just sit at a desk all day. The operators at the plant are expected to know everything there is to know about how stuff works, in case anything goes wrong, so it's really a job where you get paid more for what you know than what you technically do on a daily basis. I'm liking the schedule so far, too. I'll let you know how I like it when I'm done with training, which will probably be around August 2011 (yes, they are investing a lot in me as an employee!).

Ryan is already 16 months old, and he is sort of running around, and he's kind of talking, too! He has had a number of words he's been saying for months now, but now his vocabulary is really growing! One word he now says is "Audrey", which is the name of the cat we're staying with; it's really cute, because he says the two syllables completely separately.

Here's a video of him I just took. He's playing with that container with the shaped holes in top that we've had since he was little.

The End of a chapter of our life

2010-05-11T21:47:00.007-04:00

The month of April has been extremely busy and extremely stressful for us. We were moving out of our house, job hunting and interviewing, finishing up my final semester at school, and trying to make any extra money we could through eBay. I also went out of town for my interview with Progress Energy (which I think went pretty well). Today, my final grades went up online, and it's confirmed that I am officially done with school! I finally got my degree in nuclear engineering! It seems so grown-up of me, it has not really 'sunk in' yet.

In other good news, Progress Energy apparently also thought that I did pretty well in my interview, and they offered me a job at nuclear plant Harris (near Raleigh, North Carolina). Cecilia and I are as happy as can be about this, since plant Harris is the plant we have been wanting to work at and live near ever since we heard about the area 2 years ago from a friend of ours. The plant is close to the outer suburbs of Raleigh, and we heard that the area has great wards, schools, and doctors. We're sad that we have to move away from family and friends here in Georgia, but we're also really excited that we got the job we really wanted. Also, Raleigh is only a 7 hour drive away from Atlanta, so I'm sure we'll be visiting as regularly as we can.

Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant

Last weekend, Cecilia, Ryan, and I all drove up to Raleigh to look at houses to possibly live in. We found a number of nice homes that we really like within our price range in Fuquay Varina (Southwest of Raleigh). We put an offer in on a house, got a counter offer, and counter offered again, and we hope we get it.

In even more recent news, Ryan is as cute as ever! Tonight, he had hot dogs, cut up and stuck on tooth picks with some ketchup and mustard to dip them in, and a granola bar. He likes ketchup; he even dipped the granola bar in it, though he subsequently decided that it wasn't actually a very good combination. He didn't seem to like the mustard, but he dipped his food in it a few times, anyway.

He's a Walking Man

2010-03-31T23:59:00.006-04:00

Ryan is now walking all by himself! Starting several weeks ago, he started standing up, often trying to see how long he could stand up without holding onto anything. He would often hold something small so he could fiddle with it in a nonchalant way at the same time. Soon, he started taking steps and now he is getting up and walking without any help!

He also has a number of words he can say (in his own unique dialect) including "this" and "that", and he usually gets the first couple letters out with "dog", "cat", and "dad". Here's a funny photo we got of him the other day in the garage:

Life has otherwise been very busy for the Tubb family in the last month. School work has been very time consuming, and we're also making a lot of effort job hunting and working a couple part-time-ish jobs to make the money we need to get through this last semester.

On the job hunting front, I'm attending a job fair next week, and then American Nuclear Society's student conference at the University of Michigan a few days later. It sounds like it will be a great opportunity to learn about the nuclear job market and also network with people. There's also going to be a tour of the Cook nuclear plant; and I always enjoy power plant tours. I have a test and (hopefully) interview with Progress Energy coming up in a couple weeks, and we really hope it goes well!

As far as money-making goes, I am a canvasser for a roofing company. It is a great job for a college student with a busy schedule because I get to work whenever I want/can and get paid just commission. We also have a sort of eBay thing going on; we're really into couponing and we sell extra coupon inserts on eBay, and also toys and books from long ago that my parents have kept all this time (Goosebumps books, Micro Machines), plus other random stuff (some random clothes?). I think I'm probably a better online salesman than door-to-door salesman, because we've made much more through eBay than we have through canvassing (admittedly, I've only gone canvassing on Saturday mornings). We've actually just gained "Power Seller" status on eBay, which is great!

Cecilia has been keeping super busy at home doing eBay stuff, running errands, couponing, job hunting for me, and being an awesome mom and wife. I love and appreciate her so much!

This is an awesome photo of Ryan taken a couple months ago. I really like it and have had it as my desktop background for a while now.
On that note, happy upcoming Easter! I know I'm looking forward to spending time with both families and watching general conference!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-12T10:46:00.002-05:00

We've decided to celebrate Valentine's Day today, so that's what today is all about!

My wife and I are partners on a wonderful journey through life, together. It's been very exciting so far, and I expect a lot of interesting times in the future! It's the adventure of a lifetime, and there's no one else I would rather go with!

I love you, babe!

The Belated Christmas Story (and other happenings!)

2010-02-04T13:06:00.014-05:00

Yeah, I know it's already February, but we've been really busy and I sort of neglected the blog for a bit... but not anymore! (I don't mean to say that we're not busy anymore, but I'm not neglecting the blog anymore!) So, this last Christmas has been really great. Ryan, Cecilia and I went with my parents and brother to my grandparents' home in Midland Texas. It was great to spend time relaxing with my wife and family. My grandma Tubb is so nice, and she loves to cook big meals for eveyone; it's always a pleasure to visit with my grandparents. We just had to take some photos of Ryan on his first Christmas morning. Here are a couple, the second one is of him with his first Christmas gift. :p Overall, it was a great Christmas vacation.

From Cecilia's parents, we got a nice comforter set for our bed. (We actually got it a bit early, closer to when we moved in, and we just couldn't wait until Christmas to use it!) Here it is in our bedroom; we like it a lot!

So, Ryan now has 7 teeth, and he's still crawling around and "puling up". He also really likes books, and not just board books. He can be content for quite a while if we give him a book with pages he can flip easily. Here's a photo of him enjoying one of my old books; the pages of it are very easy to flip through so he likes it a lot.
We also got a baby-carrying hiking backpack with some of our Christmas money. (found it on Craigslist for cheap) One of our new years goals is to exercise regularly and to be generally more active than we have been, so we started off the year with a hike at Kennesaw Mountain. The first weekend of the year, we first stopped by my parents' home to take them along with us, and then we were off to go hike in the nearly freezing cold winds, and try out our cool new backpack.
There was a good number of other people there (also working on their new years resolutions?). Ryan was enjoying it, but he eventually got cold and wanted to go home. That was OK with us; we were cold, too! I'm looking forward to our next hike, though!
Over the Christmas break, we also started a new website related to one of our hobbies:

www.CouponClippersofAtlanta.com

It has a forum and everything! It's pretty exciting for us. We are going to try to get regular deals up on the website, and we hope that other people will share deals that they have found in the forums there. We really hope that we'll get indexed on Google someday! (it's already been a month and we're not yet!)

New Year, New Home

2010-01-05T16:28:00.006-05:00

Howdy y'all! :)

The Tubb family has been very busy during the month of December. My hardest semester ever was coming to a close, and on top of that we were moving out of our apartment at the end of finals week. The last few weeks of the semester were tough; but we made it and we're really enjoying our new home. Here's some photos of Ryan "helping" us pack up our stuff.

We now live in Kennesaw, up near my parents. The rent at the 10th and Home apartments kept going up and it was just too much for us to stay. This new home is much MUCH more spacious. We even have an "activity room" now, for TV watching, coupon sorting, board games, and playing with Ryan. We all love how much more space we have, especially Ryan.

We've been busy doing projects around the house since we've moved in, like setting up the various rooms, organizing the garage, and hanging pictures. We're really enjoying the new place. This video shows Ryan upstairs by the gate I put in near the stairs. You can only see him talking a little bit in the video, but he's really been talking a lot!

Happy Anniversary

2009-12-01T16:39:00.002-05:00

So there has been a lot going on but today isn't about any of that and possibly I will finally get around to updating everyone. However today isn't about all of that. Today is our Anniversary and I want to publicly give a tribute to an amazing man. I love you so much, Mr. Aaron Tubb! Thank you for the best years of my life and I can't wait for many more!

Love,

Cecilia

Father & Son

2009-10-28T18:52:00.005-04:00

Dad came home between his classes today and got to hang out with Ryan. Ryan is going through a, "If I see Mommy then I need to be within 5 inches" stage and since Aaron is the only other person that can distract him this was a nice little break (that I got to get stuff done with two hands instead of one!). Aaron is already starting him learning the ropes of popular past times in the Tubb Home.

Here they are at the beginning of their play time:

Please Note that Ryan won this game with his unique strategy of eating all of dad's pieces, therefore allowing him to take over.

The next activity is one that I enjoy as well, and puts us both to sleep apparently. I guess that's what happens when your husband reads to you while you are pregnant.

Dad is reading Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Like Father, Like Son...

2009-10-26T14:30:00.006-04:00

8 Months and counting. Yep, that's right the man child has been kept alive and fairly happy by the poor, lowly parents. However, this may not last for long as we have a new development. Ryan has decided to forgo crawling and move on to climbing. I guess he is trying to make sure he keeps up with dad's ability to climb out of his crib at nine months. We will keep you updated.

I did surround him with toys so that I could get some cleaning done, so ignore the mess. Here are more fun Pictures of the little man~!

The balloon that he got when he was born is one of his all time favorite toys. One day we will have to put a video up of that! Here's one more video:

His diet has increased so much. He eats anything and everything. Pureed foods such as yams and green beans to finger foods such as chicken, sweet peas (which he also LOVES Pureed), blueberry pancakes and NOW...CHEERIOS. We even let him try Chili at the Ward activity. All Healthy, yummy goodness and he is lovin' it!

Let's Talk about US...

Before I had the cutest kid in all the world. I use to wonder why everyone with kid's entire blog is ALL about the kid.

I take it back.

I take it all back.

But, let me give you an update on Aaron & Cecilia...

Life as parents is becoming more and more routine and we can't imagine it ever not being like this in some ways and in some ways it feels like just yesterday that we met.
It is interesting the dynamics of having a baby, we just decided that we are going to have an official date night (as before the baby was born, every night was date night and now it is filled with cleaning or other mom and dad responsibilities). We planned a bunch of stuff we could do at home such as a game or a movie but we now have joined a babysitting co-op and have started to be able to go on a date (outside the house) regularly. It is only for a few hours but it has been nice to go out and enjoy each other. We are finding amazing, free, cheap, and short things to do around town.

We love to read together and we have a favorite author Terry Prachett. We have read over 18 books in the past almost 2 years. Recently we decided to integrate improvement books between the fun books so we could talk and learn together. These books range from improving relationships to gospel principles, etc. Just a non-fiction amazing book. We are currently Reading 7 habits of highly effective people and we have learned so much. It has been so much fun to snuggle up with my favorite person in the world and try to learn how we can be better people and improve ourselves, our relationships, and everything around us. This week, we made ourselves 4th generation planners and planned out our week! Very FUN!

Anyways, all in all, we are having a good time. Life is fun and we enjoy every minute of it.

Our very own pet dinosaurs

2009-10-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

So, for over a week, something in the maintenance room directly under us has been making all kinds of racket. It started out just making noise in the evening, and then sporadically throughout the day and eventually just constantly. I sent in a couple maintenance requests, but the maintenance crew responded that nothing was wrong both times, though they said they greased some stuff the second time anyway.

We joked that we had our very own pet dinosaurs... in the basement. Sometimes it sure sounded like it.

Sunday night, it was so darn loud, I went under us into the maintenance room and took this little video to show someone in my next maintenance request. This is the thing in the maintenance room under us that is making all the noise (watch out... it's REALLY LOUD):

This is a video taken in our apartment, to show what it sounds like in here:

Well, Monday morning the sound was gone, but we didn't have any hot water either. The response to our maintenance request was that a pump was malfunctioning and finally broke and the motor needed to be replaced. Everything seems to be back to normal, so woo yay!

Sweet Pea Oatmeal... Ingenious?

2009-10-15T09:38:00.003-04:00

So, yesterday morning, I was up with Ryan and decided to make something for breakfast for him. We usually mix some kind of fruit with baby oatmeal and he likes that, so I got to work with that recipe in mind. Cecilia, Ryan, and I have had a cold or something the last couple days and we didn't get good sleep at all the night before, so I was probably a bit delirious when I grabbed the first thing of baby food I saw in the fridge. The end result was sweet pea oatmeal, but it actually wasn't as bad as it sounds. Cecilia was highly amused when I told her. :p

This is him enjoying some oatmeal (with peaches in it, I think):

Also, Ryan recently grew 2 teeth! Right in the middle of his bottom gum. He's been learning how to chew with them, which is pretty funny to watch.

Here's him having a drink in the bath:

And here's him enjoying himself on the swing at the play ground outside our apartment:

Oh, he must be teething

2009-08-24T09:26:00.006-04:00

Hmmm, a mother thought:

So to everything you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he drools a whole lot, enough to fill up a bib you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he chews vigorously on toys you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he is up several time a night you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When the doctor says his ears look fine but he still pulls at them you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he is fussy or sad you say, 'oh he must be teething'

But there's no teeth...yep, that sums up the past few months.

(isn't this a required picture for parents to get of their kid?)

What he IS doing is:

Turning 6 Months old! Yep, that's right, today is Ryan's 1/2 birthday.
Starting Solids. His solid food diet now consists of Green Beans, Bananas, Carrots, Rice Cereal, & Peaches (all made by his wonderful fabulous domesticity-in-training mother)
He is sitting up, and he can now be put down and watch you without a seat, or toy to hold him up...so happy.
He is doing bath time in the bath tub. Good bye infant tub.

YAY for RYAN!!!!!

Life is getting much easier and I now can see how maybe people can have more than one kid. Maybe. Still a big admirer of those families with say, two or more kids. I am in love with my baby and so proud of him.

Next up: A technology diet

Another milestone in our family, we have decided to go back to a simpler time...and get rid of our cell phones. I am surprised at how liberating it is to me and that the freedoms far outweigh the drawbacks. We have eliminated yet another bill which will allow me to stay at home with my baby AND for us to graduate with very little debt. It removes more distractions in our family and helps us focus on what's important. I don't talk on the phone while driving anymore...a good thing, I assure you. Anyways, it has been liberating and 3 days into it, I am feeling great.

Vacation Time!

2009-08-01T21:14:00.000-04:00

Aaron: So, we just got back from an 11 day "Boyd reunion/Phillip's wedding" trip to Colorado. A Boyd family adventure outing to a big cabin up in the mountains of Colorado. We were all (about 15 people at the one point) living in this one cabin, so it was kind of crazy, especially since we only had 3 cars between us. It was a lot of fun, though, and I got to spend some time with my in-laws and get to know them a bit better.

Photos from the cabin:

Cecilia: Our cabin felt like it took forever to get up. Precarious winding dirt roads that felt like you could fall off anytime. We had a few rain storms (Colorado's welcome to us southerners) and that made it worse. The first ride up was the most frightening but I don't think we ever got use to it. Aaron had to constantly assure me that we were going to be okay. The cabin, however, and the view was worth the trip. AMAZING! Aaron: The mountains are very nice up there. The Denver area is interesting in that it goes from really really flat land for as far as you can see to the quite tall (compared to the Appalachians) foothills of the Rocky mountains very distinctly. Here's some random photos of Cecilia, Ryan and me enjoying our trip (we went a little crazy with slide shows on this post; my apologies to people with slow Internet connections!):

Aaron:Ryan has had an ear ache which seemed to bother him most at night. Cecilia: Although during the day he still managed to have some fun. We brought his walker along (one of the benefits of driving) and he just toddled away all over the place. Aaron: We were hoping to be done with it by the time we left for Colorado, but alas that was not so and the elevation didn't help. It got so intense that while we were there, we found an urgent care center (a slight struggle finding someone to take his insurance) and picked him up some more medicine for his ear infection. Fortunately, he was very good during the car rides taking naps and babbling the whole way Cecilia: With a little help listening to his favorite country songs (he is adamant about listening to country which shows his obvious good taste!)

Aaron:We tried to maintain his nap/night routine all throughout the trip. We got some great bath time pics.

Cecilia:We did some of the local tourist stops in Colorado Springs, can I just tell you, it was beautiful. Here's some pics
Garden of the Gods photos:

Pike's Peak photos:

Cecilia: But the reason we were all there was for a celebration of MAWWWAIGE...My brother married a beautiful girl from Colorado. We are so happy that she is apart of our family and that we are adding yet another girl to the ranks. They got married in the Denver Colorado Temple and had a reception in a clubhouse on a lake. It was beautiful in spite of the rain. Marriage is so much fun and I hope they enjoy every minute of it. Here are a few pics we took.

Cecilia: The trip home was nice and uneventful, we just had me and Aaron and the baby which was a little less crowded than on the way up there. We stayed at a hotel just inside of MO (because KS seems like the longest state ever!) and the baby actually slept all night which made for good driving the next day. We are glad to be home and enjoying our space again.

A great letter and no mistake

2009-07-29T23:51:00.002-04:00

Earlier today, my wife wrote me a wonderfully funny email, which I will quote here in its entirety, along with the email that I sent her first. EXPLANATION: We just finished reading a book together (Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett), wherein one of the characters (Nanny Ogg, specifically) who is out on a long journey often writes letters home. She isn't very good with spelling and she has an interesting "stream of consciousness" style of writing; we thought her letters home were so funny we tried writing an email in the same style (my wife's is much better than my attempt was)!

Dear Cecilia and Ryan,

Well, this day has become interestin and no mistake. I ferst got all ready for my presentation on how to avoid gettin colds and such and then finds that Tim is out and there's no morning group hug this time. The roast beef sammitch and root beer are sittin in the fridge and I'm excited for lunch time! And thanks for the comp inventory last nite. I love you so much! :) The nite at the Zoo looks like to be at 5:30 in the evenin' on the 15th, so that should work out alright and that's a bee in my bonnet. Tell Our Ryan that I love him and I'm thinking of you.

With love,

-Aaron

Dear Aaron,

Me and Ryan have been indores excep when we went outside and I think he surely did enjoi himmself so much becos he laughed and laughed and only spit up a a little. Whot a life, all kinds of things goin on, what with poopy diapers and ear aches. I gave him some medicine and he only spit most of it out. Also, I shall have a story or two to tell you when you gets back and no mistake. Anywey one good thing, Ryan went to sleep right away with no arguin' or anything. I wanted to have a a bananananana for lunch but they were too ripe and desgustin' and I wish I had one for a p'nut butter banananananana sammich. Isn't it amazing the things what happen when you don't expect it, for exammple we met Liz who was at the play ground. Ryan went farst down the slide, he was so stinkin' cute. . I think he's getting better. We tried eatin' but ryan still needs a little more practise because he just spit everything onto the flor.

Givin' you all my loves,

CeciliaXXXXX

Weeping & Wailing & Gnashing of GUMS

2009-07-11T19:24:00.007-04:00

So we made it...yep, through one week starring a double ear ache and a cold. We had the opportunity to have one week where we could experience the ultimate levels of exhaustion and hour to hour wakings (if he slept for a long time). We also got to experience, once again, how much you hurt when your baby hurts. It was rough to see him cry and with a ton of rocking, snuggling, and soothing, he finally seemed to be feeling better today. YAY! (let me repeat....YAY!!!!!!)

Now, we have to say that even though we are excited about this, we have SO MANY OTHER THINGS TO MENTION...so here it comes:

1. WE RAN THE PEACHTREE ROAD RACE: yep! what an amazing experience. 6.2 miles from the star spangled banner being played in the beginning to the people cheering you on and the bands playing. Aaron ran, and I walked and although we couldn't walk for a few days after, we did it and we can tell other people that we did it.

2. My parents hit thier 30th anniversary (well, on the 14th but we celebrated today) ! YAY for them. I am so grateful to be their daughter and to know that marriages and love and friendship can be so strong 30 years down the road. What a great example to our family. Congrats Mom and Dad!

3. My husband is finally 26 (well, tomorrow, but I can start saying it tonight!). Thank goodness...being the older one in the relationship makes you really look forward to your spouses birthdays! We will see when I am over 30 and he is still in his 20's...next year...how I handle it...BUT AT LEAST MY HUSBAND IS A CUTIE!!!!!! (I am now pro-"marry young" so far it is proving to be an excellent decision.)

4. On that note of my husband turning 26, he got a rubiks "mirror" cube (shown below, messed up and fixed) that is quite odd...my husband had it figured out in a couple of hours (but that was only because he had to take breaks!)...that's right he is super smart...

5. Oh and my baby hasn't slept through the night since the last post...maybe someday...he seems to like to do something and then never EVER do it again (like roll over, I swear he did it once...but never again) He just likes to make me hope! Oh well, he is still my favorite baby in all the world.

I think that's it. We just wanted to update everyone on our fun-filled-action-packed life (that is full of non fun-filled-action-packed things like laundry and house cleaning and grocery shopping...).

a mom in training,

Cecilia

O bed! O bed! delicious bed!

2009-06-19T07:38:00.004-04:00

He slept through the night...

sigh....

pause with me a moment

...sweet music

...bask in it's calming sensation

...k, we can move on.

WOOOOOHOOOOO! 5 days shy of the 4 month mark! WOOOHOOO!

I just had to do my own entry to express my JOY for one night (let's not push it here) of sleep. How good I felt! How revived, energetic, and oh-my-gosh happy to NOT see my cute little baby (i do think he is cute even in the middle of the night....) last night! k, see those of you that haven't had the joy of night feedings, or those of you that are able to sleep all snug through them (i still love my husband) can only imagine how I feel right now...as for the rest of you... YIPEEEE!!!!!!

so last night was hard to get him down and I do think he must be teething, but for his morning nap he just laid down, grabbed his lovey and went right to sleep...he's so cute. I included a picture (wow, like up-to-the-minute updating, how do you like that!?)

Let me just repeat, why did NO ONE tell me you would be so in love with your baby?
So here's my questions,

how in the world do you have a second baby when you are apparently going to burst with love already...is there room?
Then, and here is a mechanics question, how do you keep up with the laundry? (just a question.)

I will pose more mom questions later, I have decided that I need a mom trainer (kind of like a physical trainer, but more intense...) someone to show me how you change the poopy diaper, fix dinner, and do the dishes and get ready at the same time...I am now compiling a list of amazing mom's and secretly taking notes of whatever they are doing...beware.

In other news, I am trying to learn how to run. Now most of you might think that this is something that you learn long ago, so let me revise. I am trying to learn how to make running a healthy habit in my life, and not to feel super-stupid going down the street. I also have a great fear of 'bad guys', cuz their mean. But I will let you know how it goes...here's to my health! (toasting with soda, just so you know!)

my sweet, sweet baby.

- A proud happy Mom

P.S. If you didn't go to the website and watch Ryan laughing, it is great, and you will totally start laughing (well, I am his mom so I think it will make you laugh) It's a pick-me-up kind of video.

Deep Sleep

2009-06-19T05:53:00.004-04:00

So, we woke up with a heart attack this morning, because we realized that Ryan had not woken up once all night! He probably fell asleep around 8:30 last night, and it's 6:00 in the morning and he's still not up. We checked on him to make sure he's still breathing, but he's fine, just sleeping! It makes all the trouble we had getting him to sleep last night completely worth it (he must be teething, because he was really fighting it for a long time and seemed upset about something, and all he wanted to do was chew on something. I think it wore him out).

Also, here's a video of him laughing at me being hilarious. :)

In completely unrelated news, Firehouse Subs is growing on me. Every time I go there I end up appreciating it a bit more. (we went there for dinner yesterday, in case anyone is wondering what this has to do with anything) For me, it is superior to Subway, but not quite as superior as Quiznos. :P

I love to Laugh! ROFL!

2009-06-08T21:42:00.004-04:00

Ryan is now laughing and stuff. It's awesome! The other day, I was holding him and he was just laughing and laughing for probably ten minutes! My parents caught this photo of him giving a big smile (technically not laughing, but he sure looks like he is). I really wanted to caption it with "Jor maja ix asha pi cho! HO HO HO HO," but I'll refrain.
Anyway, we really love this kid.

Stop! Smile Time!

2009-05-09T17:40:00.005-04:00

So, Ryan smiles! Yay! We managed to take this video clip of him with our camera about a week ago, but we just haven't got it up here until now. The video is highly amusing, firstly because Ryan is smiling and stuff, secondly because Cecilia and I didn't realize that the camera records sound as well as video. The camera doesn't have any speakers so we didn't know until we put it on our computer. Great times!

And now, more photos:

Kickin' It

2009-04-19T18:45:00.005-04:00

I got so excited today playing with Ryan on the little play mat thingy that goes "WeeWoopieYahooWoopieWee." It was set on "motion" activated (and it was in the "Silly" mode), and Ryan has learned that he can make something happen by kicking one of the legs of the thing. I was so excited that I grabbed the camera and took this action shot, which happens to be one of our first photos of Ryan making a facial expression that could, from the right angle and with just the right amount of light, be interpreted as a smile!

Ryan is learning about causality. He is learning that if you perform 'A', then 'B' will occur. He will likley spend the rest of eternity trying to figure out what B is. I could see the little wheels moving inside his little head; I'm so proud of him!

On another good note, my laptop is all better now; I ordered a replacement keyboard relativley cheaply and replaced it myself. It feels better than new!

Sweet Pee?

2009-04-06T02:32:00.006-04:00

So my dear son, bless his heart is out to baptize america...well at least all the friends we try to show him off to. He has figured out how to fill the huggies diapers to capacity and then some...all over someone's shirt. We try to change him regularly, but he seems to be uncomfortable in a clean diaper and almost as soon as we put on another he is working on some "cushioning" to get comfortable. After such embarassing introductions, he gets this cute face on him (which of course, we still think is adorable) where his lips purse into an "O" and although I don't have a picture of him like that here is a similar expression of a "who me?" attitude.

And it is not only pee, unfortunately, but from every opening in his body (except for his ears) there seems to be a plethora of liquid to greet me at every turn. Every day I feel that a shower is not only a good thing to do every day but if I actually had more time (still wondering how people have more than one kid...so much for my plans to have six I can't keep up with anything right now with one) I would take two or three...AND THE LAUNDRY...Oh the agony of it all...will it ever end?

And after all that, we still absolutely in love with the cutest baby in the whole world (I am sure this is up for debate, but it is strictly our opionion and you all have very cute babies that only slightly fall short...k, I just lost a bunch of readers)...If you are still there, here is one more very cute picture of our baby (for evidence purposes)!

So we went on our first date to a recital given by Katrina the other weekend, and I have been meaning to post about how amazing it was. Katrina Scoggins is a great friend of Aaron and has an amazing voice, and her personality matches her beautiful voice...we thouroughly enjoyed ourselves. We left the baby with Grandma and Grandpa Tubb and it was so nice, although I did miss my baby and was glad to snuggle back up with him. Thanks for a beautiful evening, Katrina and grandma and grandpa Tubb, it was needed.

Baby is almost 6 weeks old!

WeeWoopieYahooWoopieWee

2009-03-27T17:38:00.005-04:00

So, this last Wednesday was Ryan's 1 month well visit to the pediatrician's. He's doing great and is (as of Wednesday) 10 lb 10 oz! At his current rate of weight gain (about a pound a week), he'll be over 1000 pounds by his 20th birthday! Fortunately, the pediatrician says this rapid rate of weight gain is supposed to slow down fairly early in life.

From what I can gather so far, his superpower is the ability to get his arms out of anything, no matter how tightly he is swaddled (with one or multiple blankets). Every superpower comes with an unrelated weakness though, so his bowels do not function unless the sun is up (but go into overdrive during the day).

He also really likes riding in his stroller and in the car, which is nice. It always puts him to sleep though, so we try not to always have him in his carseat or he will probably be up all night (and when I say "he," I mean "we"). Last week, Cecilia and I went on many nice little walks around midtown; shown is one of the pictures we took of Ryan asleep in the stroller.

In other news, the manual for the "musical play lights play gym" we have for Ryan cracks me up. It has a "melody" mode and a "Silly" mode and the manual tries hard to be very serious about it. The word "Silly" is always capitalized and surrounded by quotes, as if the word 'silly' is inappropriate for serious writing. For example, the instructions indicate that the musical play lights play gym will play a "silly sound" when it is in the "Silly" mode. The three "silly sounds" played are (and this cracks me up the most) WeeWoopieYahooWoopieWee, Scramble, and Honk Boing Woo. I like how the sound WeeWoopieYahooWoopieWee is all one word, but I especially like how this actual sound sounds more like a little girl on helium saying "w-w-w-Wow! Woopie! Weeeeee! Oh boy!" through a voice changer. Expecting (after reading the manual) this "silly sound" to be some kind of poetically silly chiasmus, I can't tell you how disappointed I was in the actual sound; and by 'disappointed', I mean 'amused'.

Don't Drink and Glide

2009-03-26T13:33:00.004-04:00

So, last week was Spring break at Georgia Tech, which was very nice for me and Cecilia. Near the end of the break, though, I was holding baby Ryan while rocking in the glider and surfing the internet and drinking orange juice (you can probably see where this is going). My hand tipped the cup of OJ over onto the right side of my keyboard. I quickly turned it off and soaked up the juice with paper towels, and then started rubbing in some alcohol to combat the stickiness I knew would come upon the keys. After everything was dry, I turned it back on to see if everything was fine... and everything was fine! Except the keys were a little sticky. I continued the alcoholic bathing for the keyboard, which seemed to be helping, but Monday morning I turned it on too soon after applying alcohol (it wasn't dry yet) and now the Delete, Caps Lock, F8, N, and B keys do not work. In a desperate attempt to fix the keys, I removed the B key and swabbed under it with alcohol and put a hair dryer to it to help move the liquid around and to get it to dry faster. Result: B key still doesn't work and all the keys around it have melted into weird shapes because of the hair dryer (I should have used the "cold" setting, but I didn't realize the keys would melt so easily)! After using a nail clipper to remove melted edges that were keeping the keys from being pressed down, my laptop looks like the photo. Moral of the story is: don't drink and glide. Or maybe it's: remember that alcohol conducts electricity, too. I don't know.

Certainly I learned that a fight between a cup of OJ, hairdryer, and a laptop will not end well.

My wife said that the remaining stuff I wrote here would be better as a new entry, and I agree. I'll repost it with more detail soon.

Labor of Love

2009-03-01T17:07:00.005-05:00

I have finally gotten to sit down and write about all that has happened to me. Pregnancy was going well until the last few weeks.

I wanted a natural non medicated delivery. The doctors kind of treated me like I should be humoured but that ultimately it was unrealistic. When I brought out my birth plan, the same apathy was felt (they practically rolled their eyes) and they just said that they would see what they could do. That was fine, I didn't figure i needed them, I just needed to be able to say NO to drugs and with the help of my doula (Ginger Dean), the Lamaze class, my husband and all of our reading, I figured I could do it.

So I prepared.

I apologized to my husband for anything that might be said or done during transition.
I apologized to my mom for the same thing.
I took notes in my Lamaze class
I finished my Lamaze class
I put together lists of things that I needed to pack.
I apologized again to my husband and mom (this was a pretty frequent thing since I was sure I would be mean)

And then 36 weeks came along

I took a blood test because my feet and hands had swollen so much and my bp was borderline

And then 37 weeks came along...

Day 1 - Monday

I started pulling out the baby clothes to make sure they were washed
I went over my list of things to bring for labor and delivery
I went to my doctor's office and sat in the waiting room for 3 hours waiting
I found out my liver enzymes and bp was borderline
Got checked into the hospital for a 24 hour urine sample.

Day 2 - Tuesday

24 hour urine sample complete (No Problems there)
Blood test came back - liver enzymes were still high
Dr. decided that I should stay one more day

Day 3 - Wednesday

BP still good.
Liver enzymes rising
Sure I was getting out, Dr. said to check liver enzymes one more time
took the test at noon, found out they misplaced the blood sample at 6. Nurse took more.
Yelled at the new nurse to find out what is going on and that I wanted to go home.
Nurse got a doctor on the line that was covering for my practice who told me that I may be induced the next day.

Day 4 - Thursday

Spoke with my Doctor who advised me that she wasn't sure why my enzymes were up but that I had no other symptoms of Preclampsia or HELP.
Said I could go home but I had to come back on Sunday for some more tests.
Outpatient of course.

Day 5-6

Frantically finished washing all the baby clothes
Got the crib from Aaron's parents and got it set up
Washed the car seats and all the accessories

Day 7 - Sunday

Went in for tests.
Liver enzymes still rising
BP normal
Nurse comes in and says they are going to induce me.
Already dilated to a 1
Started me on Cervadil and checked me into labor and delivery
I slept about an hour.
Aaron went home and frantically put together the labor bag

And then Week 38 came along...

Day 1- Monday

woke up and was 2 centimeters dilated
Started on Pitocin got up to 20
At end of day only dilated to a 3, 75 % effaced
Nurse lowered Pitocin and sent everyone home for a good night sleep
I slept about 4 hours.

Day 2 - Tuesday

Went to 2:00 on Pitocin
Broke my bag of waters
Then it really started hurting...BAD.
4:00 dilated to a 6
8:00 dilated to a 9 and almost 100% effaced
9:00 they told me to not push because the doctor was in an emergency c-section
9:30 I stopped caring and pushed anyways
10:00 Nurses all started running in and telling me to push because the baby's heart rate was dropping
10:29 Delievered a beautiful healthy little boy

Day 3 - Wednesday

Nurses came in and gave baby a bath at 1 in the morning.
More blood taken from me
Liver enzymes still rising
BP all over the place
Aaron went home and packed some stuff for the rest of the week.

Day 4 - Thursday

Dr. let's me know they are going to keep me for another day
liver enzymes still rising
Baby gets cleared to go

Day 6 - Saturday

Liver enzymes still high, but I beg to get out
They check me out with the strict instructions to take it easy.
I cry on the elevator because I can't believe I get to go home.

So after 4 days in the Antepartum Unit and 3 days in the Labor Delivery Unit and 4 days in Mother Baby, I am finally home and I think I am going to get to stay. I am glad I got to check out all of Emory Crawford Long Hospital. I am glad that I was able to make it through labor without medication because the entire time they threatened C-section and they didn't think I could do it. I know that if I would have had an epidural it would have slowed things down even more and that I would not have made the time limit that they gave me to have the baby.

And the funny thing is, I know that it hurt, but I don't remember how bad it hurt and I am just grateful to have the little boy asleep in arms who I think is so amazingly perfect. I am grateful to my mom, ginger and my husband for thier tireless support of me through 2 days of labor. It was an amazing and empowering journey.

One more thing, I was nice through labor. My husband and mom said they were both surprised. So I take back my apologies (and will save them for some later time when I need to use them again!).

Baby Ryan Tubb isn't suppose to be born for another 3 days but he sits in my arms asleep while I type up this blog. He is so beautiful. I can't believe how much you can love one little guy. It is amazing!

This is him in his sling on my lap...so cute!

Epilogue: Liver enzymes are back down to normal, but the doctors never figured out what it was. We'll probably just have to keep an eye on those enzymes next time.

Baby Tubb is born

2009-02-25T22:13:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the delay. We thought we sent out a text to approximately 300 people, but it seems like a lot of people didn't get it.

Ryan Caldwell Tubb
Born 24 Feb 2009
10:29 pm
7 lb 8 oz

We'll give more details later. :)

It's Time

2009-02-23T08:20:00.002-05:00

Small update. We went to the hospital yesterday for some monitoring and blood tests and Cecilia has "elevated liver enzymes." The doctors decided it would be best if they got that baby out soon, so Cecilia was given Cervidil and then I rushed home to get all the stuff we need for labor. We may have a baby by the end of today or sometime tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T18:29:00.004-05:00

Today has been a good day so far, and I hope it will end perfect for Cecilia this evening! While she is out visiting someone, I have set up something for her around the house, and I finally scanned the caricature drawing we had someone do of us on our honeymoon.

Last week has been busy for us, with tests and homework for me and naps and babysitting for Cecilia (Fortunately, she's done babysitting for good now). But besides being busy and tired, we're doing simply great.

The other photo in this post is from Cecilia's baby shower. Thanks to everyone who came; it was great to see friends we haven't seen in a while, again.

Sleeping Beauty...Not so much

2009-02-10T04:33:00.003-05:00

So it is 4:30 in the morning, and yes, I am awake. I am thinking of all the things I could be doing, should be doing, would be doing except I remember that it is 4:30 in the morning and therefore I am allowed to be sitting here typing this up and checking my email/facebook 50 times for new emails and stuff(because most everyone is up at 4:30 responding, right!?!) Maybe after this, I will convince myself to do the laundry, dishes and clean the bathroom.

36 weeks and 2 days. I am told that, after yesterday, I can have my baby at any time. That is scary. I believe I am feeling the impact of it every day and instead of 'taking the bull by the horns' and going with it, I feel like I am procrastinating the inevitable and not doing anything about it. So my list of 100 things to do before baby arrives (unfortunately, I am not kidding about a hundred things to do), is not happening (but at least I am updating my blog!) and I am finding more important things to do with my time (like updating my blog, and checking my facebook/email 5000 times).

Yesterday my hands and feet decided to swell up and itch like crazy! I feel like I have chicken pox or something (stopping to itch) and my poor little fingers, well, I have never seen them resemble sausages so closely. I have decided this final eight weeks of pregnancy is not as much fun as the first 32 were.

So I have decided to put a more informal list of the stages of pregnancy.

Stages of pregnancy:
Stage 1: The Wow-Cool Stage.
This is where you discover that it really works. Boy+Girl=Baby...cool, it can be done! All the fun calls go out, and everyone is excited.
Stage 2: Look at me Stage.
The baby bump emerges and people begin to ask you when are you due and the maternity clothes look oh so cute on you and are fun to wear!
Stage 3: Are we there yet? Stage.
This is where you become swollen, itchy, irritable, and have a bad case of insomnia, you hate all your maternity clothes and you wonder what you were thinking when you started this whole mess...and then you remember stage one and the formula and you remember it's the boy's fault...the formula worked!

My friend sent me this, and I thought it was so funny.

In absolute denial that I will be a mom in about a month! Crazy stuff.

A baby Shower

2009-01-30T04:51:00.001-05:00

So, I am grateful to have so many people that take time out of their Saturdays to come and see me. My old roommie, Danielle, put together a wonderful baby shower. I was so worried that no one would come, but it turned out great and it was so much fun seeing everyone from so many stages of my life. I thought I would put up a link of pictures that my mom sent. Aaron will probably post of of the ones we took later, but I thought I would go ahead and put it out there.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=peabody84&target=ALBUM&id=5299061207316200129&authkey=gwQ0RWr7fxg&feat=email

This is a test, this is only a test...

2009-01-15T18:41:00.003-05:00

So i have to admit if you are taking a shower at 5:30 in the evening you should not be complaining, however, I am 32 weeks pregnant and I was up at 4 in the morning (as well as every morning this week) because I can't sleep anymore. So, showering happens after I finally get in the mood to do it...after my afternoon nap. Aaron had an 8:00 class that morning so he too, needed a shower. We were going to our first Childbirth class at the Hospital and to save time we decided to be very efficient and take a shower together (plus we save a little water, so look at us the little conservationists that we are!). So there we were, scrub, scrub, scrub when whaddayaknow?!?!?....The FIRE ALARM GOES OFF. Aaron jumps out of the shower like he is on fire neverminding he is quite sudsy still and I being pregnant and sitting down have to figure out how to hoist myself out of the shower without killing myself. Well, it is like 30 (30.6 to be exact) degrees out there and I sure wasn't going out there naked and I wasn't putting on dirty underclothes, and I wasn't going to stink...so after getting clean clothes, shoes, deoderant and my jacket and a towel to cover my hair, we left the apartment. I have never seen Aaron get ready so fast (no really, it was quite the feat, I may start requesting the fire alarm every so often to get things going), he was wearing his dirty clothes and I think if I hadn't gotten ready he would have ran out in the towel (he looks pretty good in a towel...not like myself either now or 8 months ago!). So we get outside and we stand there in the cold and this lady tells us that it is a drill (now how's that to make a pregnant woman mad). So there you go, this is a test...this is only a test...

What an embarrassing situation.

Break is over

2009-01-07T13:12:00.003-05:00

Cecilia and I had a great time on our "Babymoon" (last vacation before the baby comes). We stayed for nearly a week in my grandfather's home in Bradenton, Florida. We relaxed, read books, watched movies, played games, and just did nothing together; it was great! The house was right on Sarasota Bay; that's us at the nieghborhood beach in the photo.

After we got back, we visited both of our families' homes for New Years, which was fun. Now school has started again, and I'm taking a bit less credits this semester than the one I just finished (partly becuse we'll have a baby in a couple months and partly because I'd like to get a few more 'A's).

Holiday Merriment!

2008-12-25T20:53:00.004-05:00

Christmas Highlights.
1. Getting to spend time with both of our families. While both are very different we are so grateful for two great sets of parents who love the Lord and loves us.
2. Finally getting on Santa's nice list and finding a stocking for the second year in a row filled with sweet surprises. (I attribute being on anyone's good list to my husband)
3. Being able to be a part of Christmas with my favorite Husband in the whole world.
4. Actually remember and having gifts for everyone (except the girlfriends and boyfriends...sorry, next year I will do better).
5. Spending time with my cute Nephew, Spencer.

Aaron and I went out of town to our parents for the Holidays to two little towns called Marietta (where his parents live) and Douglasville (Where my parents live). Apparently at his house, Santa still comes with his sleighs of goodies and toys on Christmas Eve night. My husband is one of those 'good little boys and girls that get put on Santa's nice list' and his wife, well...santa stopped coming by a while ago and we will just leave it at that. Well, even if I wasn't nice I sure was smart and I was going to be whereever Santa decided to be and for the second year in a row we have spent Christmas Eve night with the Tubb family. Not dissapointed, there was a stocking filled with goodies the very next morning by my bed! I am surprised that Santa even got in the room because my husband found the bed entirely too soft for his comfort and was up every 2 to 3 hours (thus preparing me for my future child!). But as we all know Santa is magic. We were the first ones up but Mason joined us soon after and we all waited patiently (Aaron and Mason were plotting to jump on thier parents bed to wake them up, but they didn't do it) for his parents. We had a blast with them. We opened gifts and laughed and really enjoyed ourselves. We have added to our collection of board games with some fun easy 30 minute games (which is what I can handle) as well as Aaron got a few expansions and harder games. He is in the livingroom right now dividing and organizing each game. He is so cute!
At my parents, there are a ton of us but only one grandchild/nephew and so most of the time we sit around him and try to make him laugh and play and do stuff because he is so DANG cute. They were just finishing up brunch when we got there and we were just in time for the present opening time. Spencer, our nephew, hasn't quite gotten opening presents, but it is so fun to watch him enjoy the paper and bows. I can't believe next Christmas we will have a little one of our own. My mom made us a Christus statue (perhaps I will post a picture later), it is so beautiful and they gave us a glider to rock the baby. I AM SO EXCITED about my GLIDER. Stephen and Richard, as well as my brother and sister-in-law left around 2:30 (and thus took the baby with them...very sad) and so we got our parents to ourselves since my other two brothers were preoccupied with sports on TV or thier girlfriends to hang out with us so we got to play our board games that we got for Christmas. We played Blokus and Qwirkle. What a great Christmas. I am so beat and ready to go to sleep.

Finals are over!

2008-12-15T14:25:00.004-05:00

So finals are finally all over for the year; yay. Now Cecilia and I will get some time to spend together without studying or homework to fill it up. Also, we went to a Christmas party put on by the company I co-op at (the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations). It was a good opportunity to dress up, get out, have fun, and do some dancing (which was nice!). Shown is our blurry photographic evidence (cell phone quality) of the great time we had. :)

Finals are coming

2008-12-05T22:24:00.004-05:00

Finals week is finally coming up. I have 6 finals next week, so here I am writing a blog entry instead of studying. My wife and I went to a nice little Christmas get together the Georgia Tech married housing put on tonight. It was fun and they had lots of cookies and that punch with sherbet drink. I guess that's not very informative; I'm mostly excited that we have a blog now.

Where are the Maternity Suspenders???

2008-12-05T20:52:00.005-05:00

So this whole pregnancy thing is new and fun but I do have one concern. Why are there no maternity suspenders for the maternity pants? They do not stay up, no matter what I try. No, they are not too big, unless you have to be REALLY pregnant for them to fit (which is POINTLESS). So I walk around and every 2 minutes have to stop and pull up my jeans. Is this common, is there any solution to this maternity predicament and why haven't they created some kind of suspenders to help the situation? I mean, they are already incredibly non-attractive with the blue band from you-know-where to show off each time your shirt comes up a little. So with 93 days to go, I am assuming my husband will hear 93 more times how much I don't like maternity pants.

Top Story: Awesome New Blog Hits the Internet

2008-12-04T19:21:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone!
We just passed our one year anniversary, and we decided to finally start a blog of our own. Just wanted to let you all know!