Overdue Pictures and Other Randomness…

I have not been doing too good on the posting of pictures in my blog lately, and since I really want to get this printed out like a scrapbook someday I like to add as many pictures as possible…
I finally had a few minutes tonight since Collin went to bed a little early, so here goes…I apologize in advance for the randomness of this posing :)

This was Collin’s 9-Months pictures.  There are some more serious shots that I will print out, but I just love his expression in this one!  It says “I am done with this mommy!”

This cracks me up – our friends John & Jen were in town a few weekends ago with their daughter Ellie.  It was a really fun, but long day filled with baby shower, lots of good girl time, and guys movie night.  Well we were at Brad & Whitney’s house around 8 or later (Collin’s bedtime) on Saturday night, and Collin was in desperate need of a bath before church the next morning.  And I knew that Collin would be asleep as soon as we got in the car…so we decided to bathe him there before we went home.  Jen was about to bathe Ellie, so they just had a little bath party!  It was really cute but Collin was a little unsure since before that he had always bathed either in his baby tub or with me (while we were in TX).

This picture was taken yesterday morning before I took Collin to school.  I just love his little tongue sticking out!  For some reason he loves that and does it all the time now…to sweet!  I call this his “karate kid” outfit.

And here is Collin last night – we put the legs on the leap frog music toy that Hao & Alex gave him for Christmas and let Collin practice pulling up on it.  He has been trying to pull up on his basketball goal toy, but it isn’t really stable enough unless we are holding it for him.

And finally – he is “crawling”!!!  Well, sort of.  See the video below.  And no, we don’t make him play with Beau’s toys, but that is the only thing that is interesting enough to him for him to make an effort to go after :)

I love this little guy!!
BTW – thanks to a tip from McMommy I also downloaded Windows Live Writer for my blog & it is AWESOME!!!!  Pictures are SO much easier (and everything else too).  If you blog you need to get it too: Click Here
In other good news…tomorrow is Friday!  Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.  It is going to be busy for us with Pastor’s Conference, Son is working Saturday, and then we are going to Cantina Laredo for a friend’s birthday – yum!!
Julie

Wordless Wednesday

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tip(s) of The Week!

Tip of The Week #1: Close the blinds!

If you have a window office on the 3rd floor, and you use said office to pump breast milk for your 9 month old, and the building where said office is located is going through maintenance on the exterior windows…it might be a good idea to close your blinds while pumping…just in case the window guys happen to move their platform right in front of your window during the middle of a pumping session. You know, just in case!







Tip of The Week #2: Check the weather!

If you take the baby on a stroller ride, and you decide to go twice as far as you normally do, and you are talking on your cell phone while strolling…it might be a good idea to check the weather before you leave…just in case it starts to POUR down rain while you are about a mile from the house…and just in case you are really out of shape from not running since like before the 9 month old baby was like negative 6 months…and just in case the cell phone that you are talking on is a company iPhone that if it gets wet and breaks they will deduct like $500 from your paycheck to replace it. You know, just in case!

I'm 9 Months Old!

Hi everyone, this is Collin again…yea for me! Boy, I have been through a lot today! Why am I wearing nothing but a diaper and sitting on a sheet of paper you may ask? I had my 9-month check-up today with Dr. Kim!!

The appointment was at 8:30am, and for some reason my mommy thought that that meant that she would get to sleep in an extra hour – not if I had anything to do with it! Of course I had to wake her up at 6:00am like always. What am I supposed to do, just play in my crib? Yeah right!



Let me start by saying that I LOVE my pediatrician, Dr. Dal Porto. HATE the nurses, LOVE Dr. Kim! When we got called back into the exam room that mean nurse came in and took my temperature (let’s not even talk about where she took it), she made me sit still on the scale, AND she pricked my big toe for a hemoglobin test…now you can see why I don’t like her, right?



I weighed 17lbs and 15 ounces – this is good, but my mommy and Dr. Kim told me that I needed to start taking in a few more calories each day so that I can get even bigger! I am a little concerned since my mommy keeps trying to feed me “big people food”. I try to spit it out and tell her that I hate it, but she is not giving up…



Bad news – my ear infection is back again. Boo! That means that I have to start taking the antibiotics again. Dr. Kim said that it’s not time for the tubes yet, but she did bring it up.



Then I fell asleep in my mommy’s arms while she finished talking to Dr. Kim (I only did that because I know how much she loves it). Just when I thought that we were going home that mean old nurse came in again – that’s never a good sign. I tried my hardest to stay asleep, but she then stuck me with 3 shots!! This is seriously not helping her likeability any!



Have a great day & remember that tomorrow is FRIDAY!!

How to {NOT} get hired...

Yes, these are all things that have actually happened to me throughout various jobs in HR…

Working in Human Resources, I get to go through a lot of resumes & applications on a daily basis. If you are my friend on facebook then you already know about #1 but since it came up, here are a few more things that you should seriously consider if you never ever want to get an interview:

1. Send in your resume using an email address with the word “sexxy” – because one “x” is never enough.

2. Reason for leaving previous employer: “I went to prison for killing my wife”

3. Put in your objective line “to work in the medical field” then apply for a job as an admin assistant in a non-medical related industry.

4. List your salary expectations as “$20,000 - $100,000 annually”

5. Misspell every other word in your cover letter – and then hit “ignore” when spell-check tries to help you out


If however, the tactics above do not work and you somehow manage to get an in-person interview you can pull out these tactics that are guaranteed to not get you the job:

1. Stop mid-sentence during an interview and say “how much longer is this going to take b/c I am supposed to be making deliveries for my current job & they are going to start trying to call me on the radio if I don’t get back on the road soon”

2. When asked about a pre-employment drug test respond by saying “how far does that go back, because you know sometimes I like to party”?

3. When asked about where you see yourself in 5 years, reply “definitely out of here by then”!


And, if all the above fails and you actually get hired then here are some guaranteed ways to end the employment relationship (Note: to protect the innocent {me} none of these examples are from my current position):

1. Tell your boss that you want to get on top of the building and shoot at people in the parking lot

2. Save explicit pictures of yourself on the company network drives

3. Go on a company-paid training trip, but skip the training class and spend all day at a casino

4. Go on another company paid trip and total the company car “off-roading”

5. Instead of forwarding a “private” email to your office romance, accidentally hit “reply all” instead –most effective when the original email was sent to “All Employees” email group.

Major bed head & a little victory...

Today Son's car is officially paid off!! Yea, one step closer to The Vuong Family Master Plan...

And to make me smile here is my little munchkin with some major bed head - I love it!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Collin does it again - he's a YouTube Star!

Collin loves the basketball goal that he got from Uncle Quoc & Aunt Kim! Watch the video to see him make a basket...then clap for himself - too cute! Sorry it's a little dark.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfdO4KIisY

Me?? An Award?? Gee Thanks!!

My new blog buddy, Misty at Southern Belle Mama (http://musingsofasouthernbellemama.blogspot.com/) gave me a “Beautiful Blog” award and tagged me to do this post – thanks girl!

Check out her blog too – her post today is one of my favorites (which I may have to copy soon) – “Top 5 Things I Love about the South”.

Anyways, I am supposed to tell 7 interesting things about myself & then tag 7 other blogs…here goes!

1. My dream job is a Stay At Home Mom…unfortunately finances currently get in the way

2. Even though I have lived in Florida for the past 7 years, I still consider myself a Texan, and I think I always will. I am actually quite sad about the fact that Collin probably won’t grow up there…I guess that means that I will have to teach him the state song, state motto, state bird & Texas state history – which I am sure is waaay more interesting than that of Florida (sorry to my Floridian friends).

3. I hate conflict & will do just about anything to avoid it…

4. I love cooking & trying out new recipes – however they don’t always turn out the way I hoped…kind of like last night’s Chicken & Asparagus bake…sounded good but was totally NOT! Son ended up eating a frozen pizza (sorry honey) & I forced myself to eat a little of it & then had a banana. Oh well.

5. I am really intimidated by home school moms! I don’t know how they do it…but I am secretly considering it myself if the dream job thing ever works out. Private school is just so expensive & I would not want to send Collin to public school where we live now.

6. I regularly torture my child by doing mean things such as cleaning dried snot off his face, clipping his nails, changing his diaper, etc. For example: Collin has had a runny nose for the past few days, and after going all night without mommy there to wipe it for him there was dried nasty stuff covering practically his entire face when I got him out of the crib this morning…when I was cleaning his face with a wipe on the changing table he was screaming at the top of his lungs & wiggling so much that it took forever to clean it all off. He was so loud I bet the neighbors could hear. Someone please call child protective services!

7. Something that makes me happy: waking up to my alarm clock at 6am and realizing that Collin didn’t wake up at all the night before :)

Other Beautiful Blogs I am tagging for this award & post:

Rachel (http://thehotpinkpolka-dot.blogspot.com/) - because she is about the most creative person I know...seriously Martha Stewart better watch her back!

Angela (http://angelas-notes.blogspot.com/) - because she is another mom that I look to for encouragement when trying to juggle it all!

Emily (http://jaxcapertons.blogspot.com/) - another fellow Texan & sweet friend!

Rebecca (http://birminghamhewietts.blogspot.com/)

Jillian (http://lanostrabellavita.blogspot.com/) - because she has some exciting new news!

Elizabeth (http://storiesfromthesparks.blogspot.com/) - because she has the most adorable little boy & it has been way too long since she updated her blog! I need an update on Collin's buddy JM!

Becca (http://thelifeofbecs.blogspot.com/) - because she is my sister & has lots of new things going on that she hasn't posted yet - new house, new fiance, etc.

Wordless Thursday

Because I was too busy on Wednesday...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Shhh...don't tell mommy!

Hi, this is Collin – yea for me!!! Mommy is at work now so I hacked into her blogger account from school to post this message J I think that we all know how smart I am, but recently I have been practicing getting up on my hands and knees and rocking back and forth – I think I am about ready to crawl…but don’t tell my mommy! I really prefer for her to carry me around everywhere and hand me things that I can’t quite reach, it is much easier that way & she needs to have something to do, right??

Well, unfortunately this morning I got busted. I thought that my mommy was still getting ready for work so I was in my crib practicing my new trick when all of a sudden I look over my shoulder and there she is – oh no!! I immediately dropped down to my belly and started fussing to try to confuse her, so she came and picked me up. I thought that I had fooled her…that is, until we got to school and she started talking to my teacher:

Mommy (beaming with pride): “guess what – Collin was up on his hands and knees this morning in his crib!!”

Teacher: “oh yeah, he does that all the time”

Mommy (totally devastated): “Really?”

I am going to have a serious talk with my teachers today…that was totally not cool to rat me out like that!

In other news we had a really busy weekend…my mommy dragged me to yet another baby shower, but it was okay because there were several hot chicks there that I got to hang with – Ellie, Dallas, Clara, and Brooklyn! Ellie was pulling my hair & Clara was trying to steal my paci – do you think that means they like me? And my best buddy Maxwell was there too!

Of course my mommy took about a billion pictures, but I am sure that she will post those soon.

Well I better go now and figure something else out that I can do and hide from my mommy – maybe actually crawling?

Happy Monday!

Love, Collin

BibleVerse of the Day

James 1:2-3

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the tseting of your faith develops perseverance."

And now a picture of Collin to make me smile - happy Friday!!

On schedule this weekend is a baby shower that I am helping host for Brenda & Sean (and baby Rachel) and lots of time with our good friends Tama & Stuart who are in town visiting from Kentucky!!! I an sure there will be lots of pictures that I can post next weekend :)

Bible Verse of the Day

Colossians 3:23

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

Because I need to remind myself of this every day...sometimes I can get discouraged & lose passion and drive for my job. I am not really working for my boss(es) but for the Lord!

Julie

Why I have no makeup on today & have had like 5 cups of coffee (so far)...

7:45pm – baby goes to bed early, mommy does chores & hangs out with daddy

10:30pm – mommy feeds baby before she goes to bed

10:45pm – baby refuses to go back to sleep

12:00am – baby finally goes back to sleep & mommy goes to bed

1:30am – baby wakes up (and so does mommy)

2:00am – baby goes back to sleep (and so does mommy)

3:30am – baby wakes up (and so does mommy) – baby’s diaper is leaking needs to be changed, so baby wakes up even more & doesn’t want to go back to sleep until mommy feeds baby again

4:00am – baby goes back to sleep (so does mommy)

5:15am – baby wakes up (daddy is up leaving to work, so mommy gets up again)

7:15am – baby goes back to sleep, but mommy has to rush because she is running late


Even though I am totally exhausted & sometimes I really don’t want to get out of bed at 3:30am, once I see that sweet baby smile at me when I peek in his crib it is all worth it!! Thankfully last night is more of an exception than the rule (he did sleep all night Sunday night).

Back to Life...

I have been totally empty on ideas for a new blog post, and even more empty on time!! I guess that is what happens when you are the mom of an active 8-month-old, wife to an awesome hubby, and full-time employee!

It has been extra hard to go back to work this week & I know that this week is going to last forever since I had gotten used to 4-day-weeks lately...

I still can't believe that it is 2010...that is sooo hard to write!


I am sitting on the couch next to Son and I asked him "what should we write about it on the blog today" and his idea was "how do you install surround sound speakers" - not really my favorite topic haha! He got surround sound speakers for Christmas and has been working on installing them tonight. He has it pretty much finished, but is just trying to get it to work with the DVD player now...



Anyways, since I am having major writer's block right now (and am just too tired to be creative) I am going to "borrow" a post that my friend Rachel did on her blog (http://www.thehotpinkpolka-dot.blogspot.com/) as a recap of the previous year...wow we did a lot!!

January

• Lamaze Classes - what a way to start the year!
• Made the bedding, etc. for Collin's room

February

• The "Joann's Incident" haha!
• Son started new job

March

• Finished baby room
• Jacksonville baby shower hosted by Annie & Rachel
• Lilo, Kim, Quoc & Mrs. Vuong come to visit
• Julie turned 27
• Hosted baby shower for Mary Beth & baby Bethany

April

• Packed our bags for the hospital
• Dede arrives!
• Collin arrives!!

May

• Trip to Pensacola
• We got new toothbrushes :)
• Collin goes to the surgeon & has his abscess drained
• Son's parents visit

June

• Collin has surgery at Nemours
• Aunt Becca comes!!
• Julie goes back to work
• Julie gets sick - UC Flare, high blood pressure, dehydration

July

• Collin tries formula for the first time - does not like it
• Julie starts new medicine and starts feeling better
• Collin discovers his hands & loves riding in the stroller
• Collin sleeps through the night - yes!
• Becca leaves
• Collin starts Tutor Time
• Son turns 37!
• Collin's abscess is healed!
• Failed attempt at family pictures

August

• Lilo, Kim, Quoc & Mrs. Vuong visit
• Collin's friend Max is born
• Collin rolls over & laughs for the first time

September

• Trip to Texas!!
• Collin starts rice cereal
• Collin sits up!
• Collin loves his evening walks around the neighborhood
• Baby Dallas is born
• Baby dedication service at church

October

• Collin's school pictures
• Collin turns 6-months and starts stage 1 baby food
• Another trip to Pensacola
• Collin goes on visitation

November

• Nights of Lights in St. Augustine
• Greenburg Turkey!
• Double ear infection & temporary hearing loss for Julie
• Collin says "da da da da"

December

• Trip to Texas!!
• Three Christmases
• Back to Pensacola to see Tram, Brian & Jaeden
• Collin meets uncle Hao
• Becca & Warren get engaged!
• Son & Julie's first date night

So that's a recap of the last 12-months of our life...for more details check out our blog history. Now the surround sound speakers are finally working and it's time for mommy & daddy to go to bed! Nighty night!