Keeping in Teutsch

I haven't posted in a while because I really prefer to have pictures in my posts and I've been unable to find a memory card reader for the camera I've been using. I finally found a reasonably priced one, though, so all is right in my little picture-taking world again! And now I can finally show you some pictures...some of which are from earlier this summer before my original camera broke beyond repair.

Juliette is a tinny bit obsessed with birthdays right now and it doesn't seem to help that they've had two birthday celebrations at preschool the last few weeks. This is Juliette having a birthday party with her dollhouse people. Notice the each have Happy Birthday cups and forks and she has Happy Birthday napkins in her hand that she is about to put out. Also, I believe the big pitcher is their drink...she didn't tell me what it was. The little people are sitting around the birthday cake which is actually brown PlayDoh. (I know...it looks like a plate of poop!) Also, can you tell what the Dad is sitting on? The toilet from the playhouse! :)
Juliette also LOVES to take pictures and has gotten quite good at it actually. She took this pic of Zoe all by herself. I occasionally just let her have the camera and she walks around snapping pictures. It's fun to look and see what pictures she has taken when she is done (although I do erase all of the unflattering ones of me, though!).
Uncle Chad came to visit for about a week right after we moved in and I believe this picture is from a little "recording session." Notice her pretty accurate hand placement on the the guitar. She looks like a very serious musician!
A couple of weeks after we moved to Lafayette, we did the Tour of Families that I talked about in another post. Well, here are some pics of Juliette on the slip-n-slide at my parents house.
Since she doesn't understand the whole bit about running and sliding on your belly to get to the end, we just took turns practically throwing her down the slip-n-slide.
She had A LOT of fun, but we had to call it quits pretty quickly because of the Attack of the Mosquitoes.
I think I've probably said this before, but my favorite thing to do is applique names and I really love doing them on the backpacks and adding coordinating ribbon. Here are a few I've done recently:



I did this shirt for a teacher at River Oaks for her little girl to wear to the football games. This is the first time I've used the shiny sequin material and I thought it turned out pretty cute!
Less than 2 months to Thanksgiving, so I had to get an example made of a Turkey Tee for my web site and of course, Juliette always gets the first examples I do. I am in love with this turkey...isn't he adorable?!!

I also really like this new embroidery design that I got. I'd been looking for something like this and found it on a new embroidery design web site that I ran across and just had to buy it and do Juliette one. I know it appears as if Juliette's name is plastered all over her clothing, but it's really not...although she will have quite a lot of monogrammed things this fall and winter. Christmas is sneaking up on us VERY quickly and tomorrow I plan on doing a couple of Christmas applique tees for the web site.
As far as the day-to-day here at our house, Matt is busy, busy with his classes and the tons of reading and writing that go with them. Juliette is loving preschool and we have been very pleased so far with UL's program. As for me, well, a job would be nice. I got two rejection letters this past week from two interviews I went on recently, but I got a call Friday for an interview this Tuesday at the University Medical Center (affiliated with LSU Health Systems), so I'm praying this one goes well and would appreciate prayers from everyone else as well!

Next weekend we are supposed to be closing on our house in West Monroe (finally!!) and I also have my 10-year high school reunion in Springhill which I'm looking forward to.

That's about it from our end.

Happy Fall Y'all!! :)

Today was Juliette's 1st day of preschool, although technically UL calls it "Nursery School." It was really tempting to put a backpack on her for these pics, but she's not actually carrying one because you just keep an extra change of clothes there all semester and they don't really have much to bring home. To me, the pictures just don't say "1st Day of School" without that backpack, but oh,well, she was as cute as could be and super excited about her 1st day.

For those of you who don't know, Juliette is attending UL's Nursery School Program, which serves as a training class for students majoring in early childhood education. The students are the "helpers" and there is a teacher for each age group with 9 in each group. Mrs. Nouse (I know that spelling is wrong!) teaches the 3-year-olds who they refer to as "Juniors" and Mrs. Coghill teaches the 4-year-olds who are "Seniors."

They go Monday thru Thursday from 8:30 to 11:30 and their classroom is right on campus, so she tells me that she goes to Daddy's school too.

This morning was the first day I've had to get up early since I lost my job, so I'm REALLY feeling it today. Juliette and I (and Matt until last week when he started school) have been staying up late and sleeping late all summer long, so I had to start trying to get Juliette in bed at 8 last night and she was finally asleep by 9:15, which I considered a success. Poor thing was SO tired when I got her home today, though, that she feel asleep in the chair eating her lunch (she was watching "Scooby Doo" and sitting in the living room). After I picked her up and put her in bed, she proceeded to take about a 3-hr nap, while I debated whether I should nap myself, but decided there were other things that needed to be done. Now it's almost 6 o'clock and I'm wishing I would have taken that nap!

So, what did I do with those 3 glorious hours of free time (because let's face it...being a temporary stay-at-home mom whose kid hasn't really napped ALL summer kicks my butt sometimes and I just need some 'Me Time' to regroup!)? Why I ran errands and spent majority of my time waiting to have the oil changed in the car. I didn't mind, though, because I had a good book with me and a Diet Coke and didn't have to make sure a 3-year-old stayed in the general vicinity, so I didn't mind that I had to wait almost 2 hours!

At the UL Nursery School, you don't take your kids into and out of the classroom. You get drive-thru service: 1 Juliette with a side of 3 coloring pages was the order today! I kind of felt bad just putting her out this morning, but she seemed fine and she was happy as could be when she got in the car at pick-up time and told me she wanted to go back tomorrow and play with her new friends. What did you learn today, Juliette? "Um, my ABCs." What did you eat for snack? "Crackers and apple juice and water." Did you tee-tee at preschool? "Nope, I just washed my hands." Did you sing any songs? "Yeah, the Go-Go Song." (Whatever that is!) And that was all I could get out of her! We'll see what the rest of the week holds!

Well, since I haven't updated since last week, Juliette is now officially 3! For real this time! "Bye-bye 2! Hello, 3!" is what Juliette has said more than once this last week. Juliette and I took one last middle-of-the-week trip to my parents' house last Wednesday and came back on Friday. While I was there, I painted the master bathroom for them in the new house they bought, yet haven't moved into yet. Last time I was there, I painted some closets for them and just last week the last of the paint finally came out of my hair because I bent over and swiped my head against a wall in the closet of wet paint. You'd think just washing it once would do, but oh, no, it took about 14 times and plenty of me, my mom, and Matt picking dried paint out of it. This time, though, I'm happy to report that I successfully emerged from the newly painted bathroom without any in my hair and that I now don't look like I have dandruff all the time or that I am prematurely graying (which I am, but let's not discuss that now!)!

This week should be quite tiring as Juliette and I adapt to the new schedule. Thursday afternoon we are heading out to North LA to spend the Labor Day weekend with Matt's parents and take Juliette for an end of summer dip in the pool. (Neither Matt nor Juliette has class on Fridays.) We don't have any plans, so we'll just go with the flow for the weekend.

If I don't post again before then, have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!

Melissa

Three years ago today, Miss Juliette entered our world and turned it upside down...for good! We can't even believe it's been 3 years already...our baby is growing up so fast! And, like she frequently tells us, she's not a baby anymore, but I tell her all the time that she will always be my baby!

I have to say, I don't think I've ever celebrated someone's birthday over a span of a couple of MONTHS! Because of our move, we went ahead and had Juliette's birthday party with her friends at the end of June. We had the party at Build-A-Bear in the mall and it was the easiest party I've ever thrown. The kids all seemed to enjoy making their bears and dressing them up and afterward we went to the food court and had cookie cake (yum!) and they rode the carousel.


Two months later, yet still not on her actual birthday, we're celebrating some more! Matt's parents came in this weekend to give Juliette some birthday loving. We ate at Landry's Seafood Saturday night and since we told them Juliette was celebrating a birthday, she got a free dessert of her choice, which was a big ol' piece of chocolate cake! Then Sunday after lunch, we had cake and ice cream and Juliette got to open presents from Matt's parents.


Today we will celebrate Juliette's 3rd birthday for the final time with dinner at where else but Chuck-E-Cheese!!

Every year, I sit down near Juliette's birthday and write her a letter that pretty much serves as a recap of the last year. I haven't written the one for this year yet, but in that letter, I always tell her what she likes to eat and play and do at that particular age, so I thought I'd share some of her favorite things to do and eat at the new age of 3:

Favorite foods and drinks right now: Cheerios, cheese (but not sliced; she wants the little individually wrapped squares), grits, Goldfish, chips and salsa (of yeah, she will eat it up...doesn't matter how hot it is!), chicken, strawberries, bananas, peaches (begged for one the other day and practically inhaled it when we got home...fresh peaches ARE tastey, though!), bread (just like her mom and dad!), chocolate in any form, mocha frappicinos (Yes, I just said that my 3-year-old loves a drink with coffee! Don't worry, she's never drank more than half of one!), ICEEs, sweet tea, still loves her white milk, fish sticks and tator tots (if I let her, this is what she would eat everyday for lunch!), oh and how could I forget popcorn...we have to get it every time we go to Target!

Favorite things to do: work puzzles (she's up to 40 pieces now without any help), watch movies (currently addicted to TOY STORY), ride her tricycle around the block (with us in tow of course), play outside, especially at playgrounds, color/paint/cut paper, take Zoe on walks, jump on the bed, play Rock Band with Matt (usually she's the drummer, sometimes the singer), sing, dance, swim or just get wet, go to Chuck-E-Cheese, take bubble baths, go to the library or books store, "drive" the car buggies at Albertson's or the car buggies at the mall, and she even enjoys just playing by herself in her room!

Dislikes: Thunderstorms, being told "no" and not getting her way (which is probably every toddler), taking naps or going to bed (when we moved, our good napper and easy-to-get-to-bed kid disappeared), most vegetables (but at least now she understands us when we tell her she has to take so many bites before she can get down from the table), someone not letting her do something she can do herself (such as get the milk carton out of the fridge).

This is what happens when we have thunderstorms, which has been going on a lot the past few weeks. Zoe hates them and will go get in her kennel and Juliette, on this particular day, got in with her! This isn't the first time she's done this!

We are looking forward to a new year for Juliette and are excited for her to start preschool next Monday and grow and learn over this next year. It saddens me for her to turn a year older, but she is really so much fun that I enjoy every bit of it, so it's hard to stay sad.

Happy Birthday, Juliette!!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I posted. I guess I've just been busy...sort of. I promise to not wait so late to post again and will just give you guys a little recap of the past 2 weeks.

Matt's parents came to visit and we had a visit full of eating! The weekend they were here, we went to dinner with Matt's cousin and her husband to a seafood restaurant, we took Matt's parents to lunch on that Saturday at LA PIZZERIA for their birthdays, and then we went to a new little Mexican place in town on that Sunday for lunch and then came back and had birthday cake.

Last Wednesday, Juliette and I headed back up to North Louisiana to spend some time with my niece and nephew at my parents' house and for me to help paint closets at the new house they just bought in Minden. Let me just say, spending two days straight with an almost 3-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old--one day which involved a trip to a very crowded Chuck-e-Cheese--is about all I could take...talk about some natural birth control!!! :) Of course, I love the kids, but it's just craziness when they all get together and it's never a dull moment!

Matt started orientations and meetings this week at UL and will start classes on Monday, which coincidentally is Juliette's 3rd Birthday! I took Juliette to meet her preschool teacher at the UL Nursery School Lab yesterday and she is excited about starting school on the 31st. Her teacher's name is pronounced Nouse, but Juliette calls her Miss Mouse, because she has trouble pronoucing that N sound. The teacher said that all the kiddos call her Miss Mouse, though. I think it's really cute!

That's about all for now. Matt's parents will be here this weekend to help celebrate Juliette's birthday and so I'll blog more after the weekend is over and will promise to actually include pictures this time.

I will leave you with this little bit of entertainment, though! Yesterday, Matt jokingly said to Juliette, "You are crazy!" and Juliette said, "I'm not crazy...anymore!"

Wow! This week flew by and we really didn't do anything other than take the occasional walk, play outside and check out a couple of neat little grocery stores. One of them is The Fresh Market in the high-class area of River Ranch. It's pretty much a small scale version of Whole Foods Market. Matt and I were really impressed by it, but not by the prices, which we expected them to be high anyway considering the area of town. It's one place that we'll only be able to shop at occasionally for a special occassion.

The other place we checked out was Little Veron's, which is mostly a meat market. What I LOVE about this place, is that they have a lot of stuff made up that you can buy and just reheat, like Chicken Spaghetti. Matt got fish stuffed with crab dressing and said it was really good. I got a container of homemade Chicken Salad and it was just like my friend Jessica's chicken salad, which I love! She gave me the recipe for hers, but I think I might just buy it from there!

This is one of the jobs I did this week that I thought turned out pretty cute! I was a little worried when I first started working on it that it wouldn't be that cute, but once I put the ribbons on it, I breathed a sigh of relief! This is for a little girl (yes, her name is Bradley) to use for her backpack at school this year, so I hope her and her mom like it!
I have been searching all over for a cute initial garden flag that doesn't look like everyone elses (you know those fleur de lis flags that EVERYONE has)! Well, I found this one on this site by chance, really, and I couldn't resist getting it because it was a) different from everyone elses and b) really cute!

While waiting on my cute little garden flag to arrive, I've been looking for a wreath for the door that had some bright green in it. I finally just decided to try my hand at making a wreath out of nothing but ribbon (and of course, the round foam base). Basically, all I did was tie strips of ribbon in knots all the way around and then attached a ribbon on the back to hang it with. I even bought a little wooden "T" and painted it lime green, but after multiple tries I couldn't get it to stayed glued to it, so I just have to be happy for now with this. Of course, now that I've done this, I can't help but think how cute it would be to do one with Halloween ribbon, so I guess that will be my next project! (By the way, Matt says that the wreath looks "morbid" because it's black. I told him to leave me alone!)
We have a busy weekend planned. Matt's parents are coming to visit and we are going to take them out for their birthdays (Matt's dad's is Sunday and his mom's is next Friday). We also are going out to dinner with Matt's cousin tonight and I guess somewhere in there we'll have some birthday cake and maybe I'll get to sneak away and see JULIE & JULIA this weekend too, although I think Matt said he wanted to see it too, so maybe we can make it a date! I read the book BEFORE seeing the movie and before I even realized it was going to be a movie, which I really hate because now it's not going to compare to it. I'm going to be analyzing everything because I'm sure it won't follow the book all the way, which is the entire reason I never went to see MY SISTER'S KEEPER, because I read in an interview with Cameron Diaz that they changed the ending up and it wasn't like the book. Now why would you go and do that? Change the ending? That's not like changing a minor scene in the middle...it's the ending! It's what makes the book! Ok...I'll quit ranting about that, but if you saw MY SISTER'S KEEPER, but haven't read the book, I encourage you to read the book and find out how it really should have ended!

Off to check on Sleeping Beauty! She fell asleep in the chair watching THE INCREDIBLES for the gazillith time this week and she doesn't have a Pull-Up on, so I'm hoping she doesn't have an accident while sleeping. She has been doing awesome going to the potty...I just haven't been brave enough to put her to bed without Pull-Ups. I'm not quite ready for the middle of the night sheet changing! :)

Have a good weekend!

They say that every 7 years your tastes change. Maybe this is the reason I've suddenly stopped picking tomatoes out of stuff (although I still don't like them all by themselves or in really big chunks), started craving dishes with actual strawberries in them instead of just the flavoring and embraced the idea of eating or going near anything that had basil pesto in it.

This summer we've (or in some cases, just me) have been trying new dishes, so I'd thought I'd share some of my new favorites:
Have I mentioned that my 10-year high school reunion is only about 10 weeks away and I've been working on losing as much weight as I can before then? I'm thinking I should probably find some new favorite things that don't involve eating, huh?