Jennie Peakin aka CSI

That's my new title.

I got my cell phone bill last night to find that there were over $100 in charges on it from my Easy Edge feature (downloading ring tones, games, etc.) and I was livid! Those charges were all on the evening that my phone was stolen. I called US Cellular only to find out that they could only refund me half of that money! I had reported my phone stolen and told them what time it had been stolen and those charges were clearly during that time. Anyway, I decided that I was going to do whatever I could to figure out who stole my phone. I had the phone numbers that were called by the klepto who stole it and I was going to call those numbers if I had to. I looked them up online and found out the people the numbers belong to. I decided to check at work to see if the names of the people's numbers that were called were employees of Wells Fargo. Low and behold, one of the names of the numbers called is an employee...one that sits about 20 feet from me! SO, I talked to my supervisor, told her the situation and told her the name of the other number that was called from my phone! She couldn't believe her ears! Turns out, she knows the kleptomaniac and has worked with her for quite some time, including at a previous job! And so she recognized the name of the other phone number called as the klepto's daughter!!! So the case is solved! I know my phone was taken from the bathroom at work and I can't imagine that it could be anyone else who stole it. I am bringing my cell phone bill to work tomorrow so that my supervisor can have some sort of proof and apparently she says that something will be done about this. I really don't know what will be done, if anything very extensive, but I do hope she gets in some sort of trouble, and if you ask me, I think she should be fired! Anyway, at least I would like either my phone back (all of my phone numbers are in it!) or payed back for my deductible to get a new phone and the $50 that US Cellular is still making me pay! I am sure neither of those things will happen, but I can hope!

Anyway, I should seriously become a detective after that display of detective skill! ;)

Kayla Ann's Baptism

Kayla got baptized this weekend. Kayla is Sean's Goddaughter. It was so great to be there for the baptism and Sean is so proud to call be Kayla's Godfather. We wished we could have spent more time with the family, but by 1:30 Tate was DONE and was having a melt down. He was asleep within 3 blocks of leaving their house and slept almost the whole way to Muscatine. We hung out in Muscatine for the afternoon on Sunday and then all day Monday. We just hung out with the family and played a lot of Wii. Mom and Dad just got the Wii a few days ago and it definitely provides hours of entertainment. It is so sad to say, but my arm is SO SORE today from playing tennis and bowling. Also, I had a heated boxing match with Mom that was hilarious! Of course, I totally won! Sean was able to go golfing on Monday and Mom and I did a little shopping. It was a great weekend, which made it all the harder to go back to work today. We are looking forward to a low key weekend this weekend with NO plans for a change. Maybe I'll get my camera out and take some pictures...I have been slacking in that area!

Long Time, No Post

It's been such a busy last week that I have not been able to find time to sit down and post anything! We had a great weekend, which I will post about with pictures later!

Tater has been doing so many new things...here are a few...

He talks like crazy! He loves mimicking everything we say and he's really starting to annunciate quite well.

He likes to make his "monster face" (see picture)

His new love is walking (like a big boy) up and down stairs. It makes me nervous (shocker, I know!), but he WILL NOT let me help.

He insists on praying before we eat...it is about the cutest thing I have ever seen! He folds his hands and bows his head and mumbles a prayer and then says, "ah dun" instead of "Amen".

His favorite word is still "no", especially at bed time...he howls, "NOOOOO" and flales his head back. I am not kidding, he is going to be in his crib until he's 5!

He loves to climb on everything.

He LOVES books.

He can eat a can of green beans in like 30 seconds flat and that's just his appetizer!

He thinks everything is a puppy and thinks that every farm animal says, "moo".

He is a dancing machine...I hope "So You Think You Can Dance" is still on air in 15 years because he would totally win! ;) Ha.

He got a new helmet and seems to think it's an accessory. He is definitely a trend setter!

He really might be a vegetarian (unless hot dogs are meat...and I don't really know that I would consider them that!) because as much as we try, he refuses to eat meat.

He's been teething for over a year now and his shirts are so wet at the end of the day, I can wring them out!

He is obsessed with shoes. If we don't hear anything and can't find Tate in the house, we are sure to find him sitting on the floor trying to put on Sean or my shoes.

If he's not playing with shoes, he's playing with trash, he is also obsessed with the trash can and the treasures in it!

This is the "monster face"....super scary!!! Also notice his awesome accessory...aka, his helmet.

We went to Nana and Papa P's on Saturday night and Tate loved running around their yard and exploring everything!

Beautiful Day

Sean and I had a very exciting day today. Tate had a rough one. I took the day off and we took care of some things (that I will talk about later) and Tate was whiny all day. I think he still has an ear infection...I don't know, but that is my guess. I just want him to feel better. He was not a happy camper today. He napped for less than 45 minutes, he would go from smiling to crying in 1/2 a second and he just wasn't his normal self. He has a follow up appointment next week for his ears and tomorrow is his last day of his 3rd round of antibiotics. This is getting ridiculous! He is still pulling at and sticking his finger in his left ear constantly and that's the one that was still infected. I don't think that's a good sign.

Anyway, I wish I could talk about the day Sean and I had, but I am not going to. It's not quite the right time....soon though, soon. ;)

Despite Tate not being up to par, I am off to bed with a smile on my face...

Get ready for a novel of this weekend's events!

Well where do I begin? This weekend was full of excitement (good and bad) and fun! I will start in Des Moines on Friday when the story begins. I was running late to get out of town. I was finally loaded up and on the road. I stopped to get gas and then headed to the mall to pick up my new phone to replace the one that was stolen on Wednesday. I was happy. When I went to pick up my new phone, I was a little surprised to find that I was JUST getting the phone...not even a phone in a box or a charger or anything. Now this makes complete sense...after all, JUST my phone got stolen. The problem was that I had not brought my wall charger with me for my weekend trip to Muscatine and I just plain was not going back home to pick one up. After calling Sean to see if he would mind if I bought a new charger (he was so annoyed with me!) and stewing and fretting about it in front of the US Cellular guy, the annoyed sales person decided to just give me a free charger probably because he was just as irritated with me as my hubby was! :) I was very surprised and appreciative and quickly headed out the door to head to Muscatine. I ran through a drive through to get some supper and then got on the road to Muscatine. The trip was fine (besides my screaming child the last hour) and when we got to Muscatine, Tate was ready to be out of the car and run around. The problem was that it was already past his bedtime. Tate as having so much fun that I let him stay up...WAY too late! I finally put him down at 10:30 pm...I know, I am Mother of the Year...and he managed to talk in bed for another 20 minutes before FINALLY going to sleep! So now everyone is in bed and my cell phone is starting to beep, indicating my battery is dying...the only problem is that I cannot find the cell phone charger that the nice US Cellular man gave me. I decide to go dig around my car and look for it. While I am out there, I realize that I left my wallet in my car. I place it ever so intentionally on the passenger seat with my debit card and receipt from supper on top of it so that I wouldn't forget to bring it inside. I am digging and digging and digging for that stupid charger and cannot find it anywhere! Finally, I decided to look and see if I left it in the stroller and YUP that's where it was. I am so relieved that I found it and I rush inside to plug in my phone. Fast forward to Saturday morning when I go out to my car to find my driver's side door open...not latched, just sitting open and then suddenly I replay the night before's events and can't remember if I grabbed my wallet off of my seat or not. Well, it wasn't there so I assumed I had unconsciously grabbed it and brought it inside. I was wrong, it was no where to be found and had been stolen out of my car! In a matter of 4 days my cell phone AND wallet had been stolen! I am of course SICK about this and have to do Lani's hair and make up for her recital ASAP so she's not late. I make a quick call to the bank to find out no one has used my debit care...WHEW! I try to push this stress out of my mind and focus on Lani. I did her hair and make up and she got dressed and headed to her recital. We followed shortly thereafter and on my way out to my car, in the neighbors driveway I spotted my debit card...just laying there!!!!! I could not believe it!!!! I went to the recital quite happy and relieved! Lani is truly a princess...and the sweetest one at that! She is so beautiful! She did an amazing job and it was so much fun to watch her. When we got home, Mom and I decided to look around...since we found the debit card, maybe we'd find my wallet. We did not, BUT I did find my receipt that had been sitting on top of my wallet. It was all wadded up in a bush by Mom and Dad's house. SO WEIRD! I started to feel like the wallet may turn up after all. Paul (AKA...CSI) decided to do some detective work and search for my wallet. Shortly after the search began, he walks in with my health insurance card...said he found it just laying in the grass. WEIRD AGAIN!!!! Then, after more searching I felt like my wallet would not be found. We just hung out and the kids rode bikes and we all enjoyed the weather. I finally went down stairs to get Tate up from his nap around 5ish and when I came back upstairs, Lani is standing there with her hand behind her back, walks up to me and says, "hey Jennie, look what we found!" and pulls out my wallet from behind her back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so startled and happy. Apparently, Paul gets his CSI genes from Donna (his mom) because she found it in the bushes in the main entry to Mom and Dad's housing area!!! Everything was still in it...unbelievable!

The rest of the weekend was relaxing and stress free for the most part. We ate supper at the Lighthouse and Tate slept in today until 10:00 a.m. when I finally woke him up! We went to brunch and then Tate and I went out to visit his Grandma and Grandpa Shingledecker. He was asleep in the car after leaving there before we even pulled out of their housing area! We headed back to Des Moines at 4:00. When we got home, I gave Tate a bath in TONS of baking soda and then bathed his bum in Desitin...I mean A LOT of Desitin. He has the most awful diaper rash I have ever seen! Tonight when I took his diaper off, there was little spots of blood even, he had open, almost blistery looking things all over and just screams bloody murder every time I change his diaper...poor thing! If anyone has any miracle cures for a diaper rash, let me know because this one is TERRIBLE!

After Lani's recital...

Cassie and Tate pointing a birds...

Tate is trying SO hard not to smile...

...but he can't help it, he gives in!

At the Lighthouse Tate had a blast "driving" the racecar...

This morning, just being cute...

Bothered and Blessed

I am bothered...

My phone got stolen, Tate's antibiotic has been giving him some serious cha cha chas (aka water poop), some other stressful situations have been filling my mind and heart, there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done, filling my gas tank requires emptying my bank account, 3 doors in our house don't latch and that just drives me nuts, I have about 100 loads of laundry to do, Tate threw his "taggie" (aka...security must have) in the toilet, Tate still has an ear infection and screams bloody murder when we lay him down for bed, I can't sleep at night, but don't want to wake up in the morning, we have hardly any food in the fridge or cupboards, I get to listen to angry customers on the phone all day and then when I get home to my messy house with no husband in it I feel like the entire evening is spent giving Tate time outs because of his new found love of hitting.

And I really do feel thankful! These things are trivial and temporary...and for the record, Tate really is a good boy, but has recently taken up hitting. Ugh!

Yes, I wish Tate didn't have an ear infection anymore (it's been 6 weeks!) or water poop. I wish I had a maid and sometimes feel I could use Super Nanny. I would love to hear friendly customers on the phone all day and a little boy who obeys my every word and likes to kiss my face more than hit it. I wish gas was free and that I still had my cell phone with all of my phone numbers in it. I wish all of my doorknobs in the house worked and my cupboards were stocked.

But I know that Tate's ear infection and water poopy diapers will soon be gone and I will no longer be able to cuddle with my child and soon enough will have to change sheets from his "accident" he had in the bed at night. I know that my messy house is partially an indication of time spent with my son instead of doing house work. I do get that 1 super friendly customer on the phone every day that makes up for all of the mean ones. I know that Tate is able to obey and even though he hits me sometimes, he makes up for it by being the most amazing little boy who gives the most sweet kisses in the world! Though gas is expensive, I am blessed to even have 2 cars that run. I am able to get all of my friends and family's phone numbers because my internet works now (it was down for 3 days!) so I can get them through my email. And though a few of our doorknobs don't latch and our cupboards aren't stocked, we still have a house to call home and some Mac and Cheese and canned goods to get us by! :)

I am blessed...

Tate hearts dancing...and his bucking octopus :)

Honestly, Tate dances to anything...his noisemaking books, the alphabet, cell phone rings, commercials, sirens...anything! He loves to dance. Here is a video of Tate bucking on his wild and crazy rocking octopus (which he LOVES) and of him groovin' to a commercial. As you will be able to see in the video, he loves showing off his extensive vocabulary ;)...or maybe I love showing it off! Ha. Honestly, he has started saying so many things! He will attempt to say anything we ask him to...anything. Tonight I said, "Tate, say octopus." He immediately said, "ahdadadapus". Okay, maybe that one was a bit too hard for him. :)


Octopus

Don't feel bad Peakin family...he can say all of your names too(except for Kayla...which means he can't say Ayla either)! We were just practicing the names of the people he is going to be seeing this weekend! :)

One Life

Serious stuff people!

Okay, anyone who knows me AT ALL knows that what I am about to say is a big deal in my world!!!

I lost my phone today...or it got stolen. I am lost without it! I brought it into the bathroom at work and left it accidentally and when I went back 15 minutes later, it was gone. No one admits to having found it and I am completely certain that's where I left it. It was not in the "lost and found" and, so we'll see. I hope I will get it back tomorrow! I don't know what to do without my phone...I feel naked!

Mother's Day Thoughts

I don't think this day will ever pass without thoughts of Tate's birth mother. I have said it before and I will say it again, she showed such a great love for Tate by placing him for adoption. She completely put her feelings aside and did something solely for the good of her son! Now THAT is an amazing mother!!!! She is a strong, amazing woman full of so much love for Tate and we cannot wait until he is old enough to understand how amazing she is! The feelings of gratitude toward her do not diminish each year, they grow stronger. Every day that I get with my son is a day that was given to me because of her courageous decision. I will never be able to thank her properly. She is a mother in such a different, but equally as important way as I am and today, I have found myself thinking of her each time I look at my amazing son!

I thank God for Tate and that I am able to call myself his Mommy...he is the greatest gift! Being his mother has brought me more joy than anything else in my life! Wow, these last 19 months have been a whirlwind and yet I can hardly remember what it felt like to not know the love that I have for my son. This love is beyond anything words can describe!

Also today, I am thankful for my own mother who is honestly one of the most amazing, giving people I know! If I am able to follow even partially in her footsteps, I will be a much better person than I am! As I have grown and become a mother myself, our relationship has turned into more than I ever imagined it would...she is my mother, my friend, frequently my counselor and my supporter. I love you, Mom!

Little Farmer

This thing they call farming may be Tate's calling. He was in heaven when we visited Nana and Papa P on Wednesday night. First, he got to ride the "small tractor", or as most would call it...the lawnmower. Then, he moved up to the big machine...the full on, real deal "tactoe" (as Tate calls it) and he was not messing around. He was uncharacteristically serious while riding it. I believe he thought they were doing some honest work while driving the John Deere up and down the streets of Colo and through the parking lot. He was not too happy when we made him stop "working" either. He's got a set of lungs on him, this one! They will make for a good "SUUUUUEEEEEYYYYY" call one day! :)

Too Cool!

This nest is right in front of Sean's parent's front door...it is so cool! You would think I had never seen a bird's nest before by the way I am so in awe of this! I guess I have just never seen one so up close and been able to see how perfectly formed the nest was and how beautiful the robin's eggs were! Tate and I were equally amazed, (only this really IS the first time Tate has seen such a sight, making him less of a freak than I!) and we could hardly keep Tate's hands off of the eggs. Although, I think he wanted to throw them because they look like "baws!" (balls). I hope I get to see the little baby birds when they hatch!

Help Bring Zeke and Kora Home!!!!

Many of you may know the Landers and their adoption story...for those of you who do not, check out their adoption blog at landersadoption.blogspot.com. They have been waiting for a VERY long time to bring these 2 beautiful children home and now they have gotten word that it could be only a couple short weeks before they get to go to Africa to pick them up. They are raising the last bit of money through this super fun silent auction. It is unbelievable all of the great things they are auctioning off! Check out jodyrlanders.com to see what great things are being auctioned off and help to bring these kids home!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rambling...

I am so in love with this weather we have been having!!!! It has been so great to have the windows open at our house and feel the breeze. I don't even care that my allergies are acting up! Well, that's kind of not true, but right now I would rather have allergies and beautiful weather than no allergies and the cold we've been having! So I am happy!

Tomorrow after I get off of work, we are heading up to Colo to have dinner with Nana and Papa P and just hang out. Sean has been home with Tate since Monday because of his weird work schedule and no school. This will be a common theme for the rest of the summer. Sean will be off Monday through Wednesday and I will be at work...jealous. I truly am happy that he has this time off to spend TONS of time with Tate and they are having a ball together!!!! Tate is only going to daycare Thursday and Friday each week, so even though he loves daycare, it's a nice change of pace for him as well! He needs some "Daddy time"!

A couple of days ago, it was like Tate suddenly decided he wanted to start "talking". I am not even kidding, he repeats EVERYTHING we say, and does it quite clearly! It is so funny how he just picked it up one day! He now says all of his aunts, uncles and cousins names and his favorite word right now is "puppy"...that is besides his all time favorite word "no". On the other hand, with this new found verbal skill of his also came a little naughty streak! He has been getting "time-outs" on quite the regular basis. They really do work, and he knows that he needs to stop a certain behavior once he gets a "time-out" for it, but he does like to test his boundaries! He is quite the stinker sometimes! He has also become quite the kisser! He loves blowing kisses and also giving a nice, wet one right on the lips...the good thing is, he is now puckering up as opposed to his previous open mouthed kissing technique. :) I love this age...he is so much fun and learning new things every day!

I hope to have some pictures soon...I have been a slacker in that area and haven't taken a single picture since Saturday. This is rare for me! I am sure I'll get the camera out tomorrow night at Nana and Papas, so hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon.

Ordinary Moments

I was thinking today that so many people take something as simple as time with their family for granted. I used to! I never realized what a luxury it was to have an entire day with my husband and son to just be together until now. My amazing, fabulous, wonderful husband decided to take a personal day today! WOOOOHOOOOO!!! It was such a BEAUTIFUL day! I needed a family day BADLY as I was getting a bit down in the dumps. To top it all off, it was 70 and sunny out which just made it all the more wonderful! We went to church, ate lunch, did dishes, did laundry, went to Chris and Brenda's to drop a couple of things off, went out to eat with them, ran to Target, gave Tate a bath and put him to bed. Nothing extraordinary happened, but it was an extraordinary day! I am refreshed and happy. I feel SO BLESSED to have these 2 amazing men in my life that I have the honor of calling my husband and my son!

As we were driving in the car on our way home from Target, I realized...I never used to enjoy the "simple" things in life as much as I do now. Things like, just "being" together, a smile exchanged between Sean and Tate, sitting in church with Sean's arm around my shoulder, spending time together doing chores, the things that most would call ordinary. I realized that this was God's way of teaching me this. While I have been so focused on how bummed out I am about not having as much time with my family, God has been placing in my life, these little moments with my family that I will always remember and cherish. Moments that a short year ago, I would not have ever thought twice about cherishing because they were so often presented to me. How could I have ever let those moments pass me by without thanking God for them?! I took them for granted. I am so grateful that God has helped me to realize that I can no longer take any moment for granted. Spending time with my family has been more precious in this last year, now that I am able to recognize the value of it. And it is truly priceless. I long for the day that I will be able to count on more family time, but while I wait for that day, I will cherish every moment I have with these two men and allow each moment, whether ordinary or extraordinary to leave a lasting imprint on my heart!

Beautiful Boys with Bubbles

I may be biased because they are my family, but seriously, these boys are beautiful!!!! I love these pictures from this evening! We went to Chris and Brenda's and had a fun gathering, ate dinner and played games until the wee hours (it's 1:00 a.m right now and I HAD to post these adorable pics ASAP!)! The boys had fun running around the back yard, playing with the dogs, blowing bubbles, picking flowers for us, dancing, playing on the slide and just being plain cute! We had sushi for appetizers and walking tacos for supper and a margarita cake for dessert! It was so yummy and so much fun! Thanks again Chris and Brenda for hosting another great evening!

tired...venting...

I am tired. Tate is still not "right". He has cut 3 incisors in the last 24 hours which is enough to make a grown man cry I am sure! He has been just not himself. He's been whiny and nothing makes him happy...it's clear he is in pain. We think his eardrum ruptured this week as well. He had LOTS of dried puss inside his ear the other night and I have been told that's a pretty good sign that is what happened. Tate's already on antibiotics so there's nothing we can do for it. He has a follow up appointment in a week and I am not confident his ear infection will be gone. Hopefully it will be and his not being himself is due to the teething. We'll see.

Despite Tate's infected little body, he remains hilarious as usual! He is seriously so funny! A week or so ago, we bought him his first set of golf clubs...you know, the $4 plastic ones from Wal-Mart. Anyway, he's obsessed with them! He would much rather play them like they are horns or beat them on the ground than actually hit the balls with them, but occasionally, he'll use them properly (well as properly as a 19 month old can!), and when he does, it is too funny! He's so serious about it! I'll have to get pictures sometime. I have been a slacker in that area this week! I just can't seem to get anything done during the week. After trying to calm angry customers all day, all I want to do is lay around with my boys when I get home...and that's what I do! Then, on the weekends, Sean works all day both Saturday and Sunday, so it's hard to get anything done because Tate is into everything! Plus, I really just want to hang out with Tate and that's all! I need to find a balance, I haven't yet. So for now, my family is first and if there's time for house work...great! If there's not...oh well! At least that's my attitude this weekend! :)

I miss my husband on the weekends and I miss Tate during the week and I miss "family time" all the time!!! Tate has done FANTASTIC in daycare and he LOVES it, but I miss being a stay-at-home mom! Sean is doing FANTASTIC in school and LOVES it, but I miss having a husband who isn't a student! I am selfish. I know.

Favorite Things

I stole this idea from Sara Knutson's blog and so here goes:

A few of my favorite things about Tate:

-his kisses, I love his new kissy face that he does, it is the sweetest thing!
-his laugh
-his faint dimples
-his dancing
-his "run"
-his impression of an elephant
-cuddling with him on the couch...this is rare these days, but I cherish the cuddling times when they happen!
-watching him sleep...there's just something so sweet about watching a child sleep!
-the way he answers every question with "no?" or "ya?" both in the form of a question.
-the way he says "see ya!" as he waves goodbye in the mornings when I leave for work

These are a small few of my MANY favorite things about Tate. I still say to Sean (almost daily), "how did we ever get the cutest, sweetest boy in the world?!" God is good!!!!