Catching up with the Curti!

Where to start, where to start!  I think I will pick up after Spring Break...mainly because that is when my LAST blog was written!  Ugh!  I think no one reads it until I get hassled by friends and family about it!  So here goes...

It has been an extremely busy two and a half months for the Curti.  Right after Spring Break, Steven was in the home stretch of his sixth year of teaching, and I started taking my last two grad classes, both of which are accelerated to get done quickly over the summer.  Steven's second year at his new school wrapped up smoothly, and he is still enjoying that change.  As you might have caught on to, I just mentioned that I started my LAST TWO grad classes!  This momma is going to have her master's degree in two weeks time.  Woohoooooooooo!!!!!!!!  ...most expensive piece of paper I ever bought.

Steven did softball again this summer, which was fun for Lily and I as well.  His team is pretty much all teachers, so you can tell their heads are often elsewhere when they play Sunday evening games.  Error.  Error.  Error.  I'll leave their final record out of this entry...

Before Steven was completely out of school, I went back to work for almost three weeks of professional development days.  Boy, was that a wake up call!!  This momma's going to have to get her head back in the game before I go back to work for real.  Sheesh!  At least Steven really stepped up and was a great stay-at-home parent when I went back.  He and Lily even visited me one beautiful day for a picnic lunch.  I love my cute little family!!

Speaking of going back to work, I was also fortunate enough to have a friend think of me when she needed to drop her tutoring assignment due to having another baby.  That extra bit of income couldn't have come at a better time, and I am so grateful to her!  It's been a really great assignment; I really enjoy the family and look forward to working with them for many years!

My, oh my, how the little bug is changing!  Her first tooth came in at the beginning of May, when she was 8 months old, and she's up to four teeth now.  Her teething really hasn't been that bad.  Every now and then she will let out a random holler and throw her hand to her mouth (which is really sad), but we just count our blessings for us and for her because it could be much worse.  I was able to get this great pic the morning after her first tooth came in!  Silly girl!

I don't remember all of the things she was doing my last blog, but now she does the following silly, hysterical, and talented things...  claps, points (purposefully), high-fives, waves (both by folding her fingers to her palm, and by rotating at the wrist...it's a big deal!), moves her hand (or ours) in front of her mouth and hollers to make loud and repetitive noises, leads the "Where's Lily?" game by pulling something up over her face, scrunches up her nose and face and sort of snorts at you to express her displeasure, loves reading and will turn the page for us, stands at her play table, rolls all around the place, loves wrastling and flopping around like a fish out of water on our mattress, scoots backward on her butt, pushes herself up to sitting, loves loves LOVES swinging, has her own little language where she talks really softly to herself, and wakes us up occasionally because she has scooted herself backwards on all fours or sitting in the corner of her crib and can't for the life of her figure how to get out or lie down again!  ...it's quite hysterical.  She also intentionally hollers/says, "Mamamamamamama..." and "Dadadadadadada..." now.

She had her first pool trip recently!  There was a decent amount of simply sitting in her daddy's lap and watching all the other crazy kids at the pool and taking in all of the action.  When we finally made it to the water, she did a great job, not crying or fussing at all.  She seemed very at peace in the water.  We didn't put her completely under the water this time, but that will be coming soon...

A few days after her first pool trip, we took Lily to her first beach trip!  We have a beautiful, clean, supervised, FREE, man-made lake and beach about five minutes from our house.  It opened last summer, but I didn't find out about it till this year.  Perfect timing for the little bug!  Just like the pool, she seemed perfectly fine with the water and loved splashing her little legs and arms in the water.

It was a beautiful day, and the water felt great!

Once summer hit, it was time to start up projects around the Curtis household!  Steven restained the beautiful deck he built a few years ago, and he also built Lily a swing set since my wonderful friend Anne gave us a hand-me-down swing seat for Lily.  As mentioned earlier, she LOOOOOOOOVES it!

With a lot of help from Dad and Keith, we also put in some raised garden beds this summer.  Steven, per usual, was the muscle of the operation.

Dad and Keith did the planting, so I guess that made me the project manager?  Tough job, but someone's got to do it.  Lily was assistant project manager.

Here is how the garden looks now, and from left to right, we grew (...or attempted to grow...) zucchini, yellow squash, and green peppers.  In the right bed, green beans (birds = EPIC FAIL), broccoli (rabbits = fail, but not of epic proportions), and red peppers.  We've eaten a lot of the squash and zucchini so far and are waiting on the peppers to get big.

Uncle C and Auntie Em came to visit a couple weeks ago!!!  We had an awesome time as always.  Lily thinks Christopher is just the funniest thing ever, but her Aunt Emily is also very loved!

 What a beautiful family we are!

Less than a week after Christopher and Emily came to town, Pat, Harold, Angela, and Brandon came to visit.  Their first day in town, we went duckpin bowling in Fountain Square.  I'm pretty sure Steven won for the young team, and I believe Pat won for the not-so-young team.

On Saturday, we went to take a Segway tour of downtown Indy.  To be honest, I was a lot more nervous than I let on.  Between my past (and current) back and pelvic issues, combined with the fact that I was recovering from a bad tailbone injury from falling down our stairs  (pure grace, I know...), I was very nervous about what could potentially happen if I fell or had to jump off.  Turns out, I was not the one we had to worry about.

You start with a 90-second training, a few minutes of "play time," and then you're off!!

Notice where everyone is looking...  This may or may not have been a common occurrence...

The morning before we went out on the Segways, we weren't even sure if we would be able to because rain was in the forecast.  That afternoon, the company made the call that if it did start to sprinkle, we would be fine.  I wonder what the company policy is for torrential downpours?

Once the sky opened up, we took shelter under one of the bridges along the canal, but once we saw that it was not going to let up anytime soon, we decided to just embrace it.  There's something freeing about plowing through sheets of large, frigid raindrops and not caring because, quite frankly, once you're wet, you're wet!  We all embraced it and laughed and laughed the whole time.  ...I'm just glad I had my sunglasses on since I didn't bring my goggles.

After drying off and warming up with dry clothes, bourbon, and wine, we went to a hysterical show at the Phoenix Theater.  So, so funny!

Angela and Brandon spent their last night in town with us before heading to Ohio for Brandon's family's get-together.  What a great time, and as always, we were left with wishes of more time in our lives to see family more often.

We cooked out on the Fourth and Steven's sister came over to visit for a bit.  We put Lily to bed early, and Mommy and Daddy watched various firework shows at dusk from the comfort of our deck.

I've decided that when growing up, it stinks having a summer birthday because you never get to hear your name on the announcements or have any sort of celebration at school.  However, it is totally worth it when you grow up (and become a teacher?) because you get to have a full, full day of celebrating when your birthday rolls around!  This year, Steven made a delicious breakfast, which we enjoyed outside in the beautiful weather.  Then, we spent most of the day at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the 100 Acres Park.  I have been to the IMA countless times, but I had never been to the park.  We had SUCH an amazing time!!

We put Lily to bed early and had a late birthday dinner so that we could really relax and enjoy on the deck.  Lots of people saved some of their fireworks to celebrate my birthday with me, which I thought was really nice of them.  :-)  A great birthday, and a great couple months!  I will definitely get back into writing more often.