September 21...

Change

It finally happened... I have left the cube farm and moved back to education, where I have my very own office! I am the Director of Institutional Advancement at Lausanne Collegiate School! My first day was June 26 and I am beside myself with excitement. I am relieved to get out of health care and out of the environment I have been working in for the last four years. This new position presents so many new challenges and so many new opportunities - some have already taken off after only two days! So, if you notice a spring in my step, you know why.

Plus, the Tour starts Saturday... Will Basso be the last "triple crown" winner of our time? Or will my boy, Thomas Voeckler pull on the "mellow johnny" again? Whatever the outcome, it will be wide open for anyone to step up and fill Lance's shoes. I love the tour...

Tia B - yippee

This weekend was a big weekend for us. First, we celebrated our six year anniversary. We enjoyed an evening out while Joe and Shirley watched the girl. Then Sunday night we went and watched Joe and Shirley's little one while they ran out for the evening. Quite nice. In and around that we spent the weekend house hunting. Crazy!

Bigger and more exciting news...Petrea's Tia B is preggo! She recently came to visit. Here she is with the girl.

She was actually here training all the new staff for the Golf Galaxy Store opening here. She is the Golf Guru and she gets to apply her knowledge in this field and beat the boys while doing it. They are pretty shocked when she beats them on the course. The girl can knock the ball. She had just returned from playing with Greg Norman on his private course because of a Golf thing she won and also the Masters where she spent an evening with Daly and some others, but most notably Sergio Garcia. I say that not to brag on the coolest sister in the world, but because she is oddly now pregnant from about Masters time. She is calling it her Masters baby. Of course, Tio D, we are kidding. Tia B (Joslin) and Tio D (Daniel) are expecting their first child in December and we are so excited. The were just married (twice) this past year. yes, I said twice. They had a wedding here in the US for their friends here. Here is a pic since I never included one. It was in October right after Petrea was born.

They also had a wedding in Panama were they met back in high school when we lived there. Danny is from Panama for those that didn't know. Here is a pic from the Panama wedding with Joslin, Danny, and his parents.

Aren't they a gorgeous couple. Now, how can we get her to move here.

Vintage ties...

Oh yeah, speaking of being helpful...

I have a load of vintage ties that I had sorted and put into groups. Took pictures and had them ready to post on ebay. It is like, 40 ties. So, I grouped them, photographed them, and organized them into piles on the chair for when someone bought the lot, it wouldn't be a big deal to ship out. Obviously, Petrea had other ideas... I got a text from Autumn with the caption, "Daddy, did you have these in order?"

Birthdays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAN! Gran turned 29, again, on June 21st. Petrea sure loves her Gran...

In other news, we apparently completely missed the eight month pictures. SO, here is an eight month picture, followed by her nine month picture.

The other day, I was doing some laundry in the living room and Petrea, being the helpful soul she is, wanted to lend a hand.

Goody, goody Grandparents

Ms. Petrea has been a busy girl with family. Her Gigi and Papi have been to Memphis. She got to go to the zoo and apparently loved the sea lion swimming back and forth ( or maybe it was the water as you will see this child loves being in the water), but pooped out before it was time to leave. Amazingly, we have no pics. We do have a great shot of her taking a nap with her Papi after a day of babysitting while Mom was in trial and dad at work.

Papi also got to play with Ms. Nealy a bit too.

Here is a shot of her all dressed up for church with her Gigi. Look they match.

An unscheduled break in of our home Monday brought Pops over to help replace a door frame and locks and of course gave Petee her Pop fix. Ms. Petrea also took a trek across Arkansas to go stay at her Gran and Pops for memorial Day weekend. They live in Hot Springs on Lake Ouachita. She spent the whole weekend on the lake or should I say in the lake. If the boat was stopped, she was in the water.

She loved splashing and even went under water without any concerns. She of course had a swimsuit for each day, including a little polka dot bikini.

She was island sighting on the boat until it was too much for her and she let the gentle motion rock her to sleep. It was a brief break before hitting the water again.

Being her hairless self, she was coated with sunblock which made for great a great hairdo, but maybe it was a tonic because look what happened.... Crazy wig.

All the kids love playing with the wigs. As you can see everyone had fun. Notice no picture of Mom in swimsuit. The camera caught this response when pointed in her direction.

Happy Daddy Day

"Hi Daddy." That's right. "Hi Daddy" was the gift Petrea gave to her Daddy today. I am not kidding you. I often ask Petrea where her daddy is and she looks around until she finds him and greets him with her rock star smile and a big wave. I usually wave with her and say "Hi Daddy." Today when I said, "Say hi Daddy," she followed it with a "Hi Daddy." She has repeated this all afternoon. I know this warms the hearts of all the dad's out there. Speaking of melting hearts, how about this pic.

For those that cannot read the shirt it says, "If you think I am cute, you should see my Daddy." It is courtesy of her Gran ( Dad's Mom).

We also painted her toes for the occasion.

We know we have been away for awhile and we are so sorry so this week we promise many updates for those that have been missing their Petee fix. We will start with a little of today's action and work our way back through what you have missed while adding the new as we go.

First, She is now 9 months old this week. She is officially into everything. She can stand and walk along anything. She is eating anything you put near her mouth. She is waving and smiling to anyone that she thinks is looking in her direction and she is rambling up a storm. She is also a tall baby. She is wearing 18 to 24 month clothes and even has a pair of pants that are 2T. CRAZY. We will update on just how tall after her 9 month check up this week. All in all, she is a very happy baby. See...

(From Petrea: I promise to make Mom and Dad post more often. I'm back everyone.")