Ten on Tuesday

1. After much searching I finally found some shoes that fit Zane. I was hoping not to spend a lot of money on them, but turns out the $12 shoes at Babies R Us don't fit my fat footed baby, unless I bought them a size too big, which led to him falling down multiple times in the store. So we ended up with New Balances, which were the only velcro shoes that I could find that came in half sizes. I really wanted to get him little puma's, because if I was going to have to spend $30 on shoes I wanted them to be adorable, but turns out they don't come in size 5.5. Strangely a lot of the toddler shoes had shoe laces which would annoy me as a daycare worker and knowing Zane would probably be dangerous. So moral of this story is, if you see little kids in name brand shoes, their parents probably didn't want to spend a lot of money on shoes for their one year old, but most likely had to because their baby inherited their mother's fat/wide feet.

2. I am making final preparations for the first annual Korenak Craft Day to be held at my house next week. Everyone at work is amazed that I own a glue gun ( I hate to tell them how little glue guns cost) and wanted to learn the ways of my wreath making so fall craft day was born. Possibly Brandy and I being on nights and extremely bored helped as well. We are making Halloween and fall wreaths which should be fun. Here is the Boo wreath I'm making. Turns out burlap is a pain to cut into 1in x 16 in strips but I did it and it should be cute.

3. This is my last day of six days off and I am happy to say I got a lot of scrapbooking done. I needed some sort of activity to keep me busy, especially since it has been rainy and cold here, ruining all my outdoor plans. Here are some pictures of the lay outs I did. I tried to make a slide show but couldn't figure out how to do that, so I just posted a bunch of pics, sorry.

4. We all still have colds here in the Korenak house hold. Zane's runny nose is back, Zach is still in the midst of his illness, and I feel like I might be getting the sinus crud again. I have bleached everything, left the windows opened, changed all the sheets.... I'm out of ideas.

5. Zane is climbing in and onto everything these days. He continually is climbing into his, decently small, toy basket and yesterday he figured out he can climb on the the little drawers in the kitchen. NOT SAFE Zane. He can get in or on something extremely fast too, which makes my day that much more exciting!

6. Zane's other new activity is pretend cooking in the kitchen. He loves to play in there by himself, with a bowl, a spoon, and a whisk, usually. He pretends to mix and pour things into his little bowl, babbling away the whole time. He has also started to pretend fill up my cup with empty soda bottle or whatever he is playing with at the time. Such a cute new developmental stage.

7. Is it bad that I am excited about the new season of tv shows? Glee's season premiere is tonight, Parenthood has already started, Modern Family is tomorrow, and Thursday we finally get to figure out who is getting Michael Scott's job on the office. That's all the shows I watch, but I am excited for some new episodes.

8. Have I told you how much Zane loves music? He bobs his little head to the beat of every song on the radio, dances to the music on tv commercials, and  recently has started trying to jump to the music. He bends his little knees and tries so hard to jump to his favorite tunes. He will clap to the beat a well if prompted as well. I have to get some better kid song cds though, the ones I have currently kind of drive me crazy. Do they all do that?

9. I am trying to decide on a Halloween costumes for Zane. I am hoping that the Tiger costumes will still fit, however when we tried it on the other day he completely lost his mind when we put the hood/head part on. My mother in law has a pumpkin costume that would do, but I forgot to bring it back with us from SEMO. Maybe we can figure out a way to get it before Halloween.

10. In good news Zane loved watching the first Sooner Football game of the season. The Sooners scored on their first possession so he was awake for the touchdown celebration. He clapped and danced to boomer sooner and we worked on making the OU sign with this hands. This year his hands actually touch over his head, hooray!!!!! The Sooners won in a nail biter, for those of you who don't follow the Sooners, so we retained our number one ranking, for now.

Evolution of the striped overall

Much has been said about my love for striped overalls on this blog and my love of dressing Zane in them. We saw him in itty bitty, kind of, striped overalls here.

Then he moved up to bigger ones, including the miniature round house overalls.

But it has been awhile since we had a pair that fit. However, a couple of weeks ago, while searching through my boxes of hand me downs for some fall clothes, we found a new pair that has entered the rotation. They, like all striped overalls, are just a little too short (why is that?), but oh so cute. Here are the results of my outdoor photo shoot with Zane in his new overalls. Warning, he looks exactly like dad with his white hair, the ears, the little round head, and of course the outfit.

 The was doing some tinkering on the grill, doesn't it look like miniature dad, if only he was reaching into a combine instead of under a grill.

Then he had to tinker with the picnic table. Really he was trying to figure out a way to get my phone off of it, but couldn't quite reach through the glass top.

 He even has dad's squinty eyes in this one.

And then he was just plan cute, I wish dad could see his little miniature man.

Parenting a toddler

For all of you out there who have kids you know exactly what this post is going to say. Parenting a toddler is exhausting and, though it is a super cute phase, it is also a super frustrating phase. On the days I'm here with Zane I feel that my vocabulary consists of a few key phrases, "Zane no," Zane Able no," "Sit on your bottom," "take that out of your mouth," and "out, out, out" (generally used when Zane is playing in the bathroom or guest room, both places he knows he isn't allowed). There are a couple more thrown in here and there like, "do you want some milk" or "do you want to go outside" or "Zane you will literally die if you do that." I said that at least five times today, have I mentioned Zane has no fear, something about staring death in the face I think. However, for the most part they are the above mentioned phrases over and over and over again. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of laughter, singing, clapping, and learning animal sounds/body parts as well, but those moments sometimes are over shadowed by constantly having saying no, every five seconds.

At 15 months, Zane is all about testing his boundaries and in turn his parents. This is a commonly played out situation. Zane wants to do something, i.e. take trash out of the recycling and play with it. He walks over to the trash can and waits until I notice that his little hand is on the lid. Once I notice the saying no begins, 'Zane no, we don't play in the trash,' Zane then put on his cutest grin and proceeds to start to open the trash can. I then thrown in the middle name 'Zane Able, no.' On a side note our next child's name has to have more syllables because three just doesn't do it, so I often call him Zane Able Worth (Worth being Able's middle name). Back to the show down. Zane then grabs some piece of trash and runs away with it, laughing. What do you do then with a 15 month old at this point? He would have no clue how to sit still for a minute in time out or understand the meaning of it. I try to calmly explain to him why we don't play in the trash and repeat that the trash is a big no no, but he just laughs as my head explodes.

This post is most likely brought about by the fact that since I got done working this week, and picked Zane up Thursday afternoon, I have basically been acting as a single parent. Zach was sick on Thursday night and went to bed early in hopes of a quick recovery. Friday night he worked on his solar product until late, and today he headed back to work early, leaving Zane and I to fight it out alone. Zane choose not to nap well today either as an added bonus.

Tomorrow we start again. I hate that I feel like all I do is say no all day long, but I guess we are just at that stage. I remember Maggie at this stage and Abbey's fear of her thinking her name was Maggie no. I am afraid Zane will think his name is Zane Able no, hey it adds some syllables to his name at least.

On a happy note Zane was quite the trooper on my arts and crafts shopping trip today. He was literally greeting all the little old ladies as they entered Hobby Lobby, complete with shaking a few people's hands. It took me double the time it should have, what with answering all the questions about where he got his blue eyes and blond hair. I feel like it is pretty obvious where he got his blond hair, but everyone that sees him seems to think it is a mystery. I wish I made strangers day just by being adorable, though he frustrates me at times he still is a happy thought to me and the world!

My September 11th story

After reading Abbey's September 11th story I decided I wanted to record my own story for my future self and my children. It is one of the few days in my life where time stood still. There are only a hand full of other days like that, April 19th, the day Zane was diagnosed, and the day dad died are the only ones I can think of right now. Their are parts of the day that are burned in my memory forever, and then there are large portions of it I don't remember at all.

I was 18 years old, starting my senior year of high school on September 11th, 2001. I went to a tiny high school, with a class of 44 kids, most of whom had been in my class since kindergarten. My dad had taught at this school since before I was born, so the teachers there had all watched my siblings and I grow up. I lived five minutes from the high school so the morning of September 11th I was at home watching the footage of the first tower while getting ready. I remember Matt Lauer talking about how a small plane had flown into tower one accidentally, possibly a pilot with a medical condition. I'm not sure why I didn't actually leave for school, probably engrossed in the footage, but I was home when the second plane hit, watching it live.
I saw the plane coming into the shot and remember thinking, "that's weird, there is another plane flying by, awfully low, oh God." After I saw it hit I knew, like the rest of the world, that this was no accident. My heart sunk, feeling confused and scared. I watched a little more footage then quickly headed to journalism class.

Once at school I was relaying the information of what I had seen to my friends in class. Looking back on it, we were in a room full of computers, but weren't searching the internet or watching the news on them, not sure why not.  In the midst of the rumors flying through the room, my dad came and found me. He of course was in tears, as he told me that the mall in D.C. was on fire and there had a been a car bomb by the white house. We would find out later that this wasn't true, but at the time this was the point when the shock and horror for our country turned personal. My sister was in law school at the time, a few blocks away from the white house. Dad and I hugged and cried together for a moment before we became frantic to get hold of Abbey and Brent to make sure they were safe. However, this was before everyone and their dogs had cellphones, so it would be a long wait before we could talk to either of them.

This is the point where the day and my memories get very foggy. I remember I didn't go back to journalism class, not sure why, but I set out on what would be an hour or two of doing random things for different teachers to keep busy as we waited to talk to the Richards clan. I don't know if dad set this up or if the teachers did this on their own, but during that period of waiting I was kept strangely busy. Mr. Gallagher met me at the top of the stairs when I left journalism, with some random task for me to do. Then I remember Mr. Deckman finding me right at I was done with that task, with a huge stack of papers he wanted me to copy, and this went on, with different teachers finding me, until my friend Brandi found me with the news that Brent was on the phone, finally. I rushed to the office, as Brandi took the famous note to dad telling him that Abbey was ok. I talked to Brent briefly, and was shocked by his calm, I wouldn't be now, ten years later I now know that Brent is the calmest person I might have ever met. He told me that Abbey was walking to Georgetown, that he could see the smoke from the Pentagon, but that they were fine, and he was staying in the lab. During this time, where I was walking around in a daze, I remember feeling strongly that the Lord was working my life, keeping me busy, protecting my family, and some how keeping me pulled together. At 18 I remember feeling a great since of peace even in the midst of all the fear and heartbreak around me.

The rest of the day the whole school (again, not a lot of students) sat in classrooms with TVs watching the events of the day unfold. I remember the towers falling, I remember murmurings from the senior boys (all of who were 18 or soon to turn 18) about how they would be going to war, we saw the Pentagon and Pennsylvania footage, on and on. At some point I remember eating lunch in an unbelievably quiet lunch room and then heading off to a different room to watch more footage until school was out.

The drive home is one of the memories that is burn in my mind vividly. I remember getting into my periwinkle neon (yes that was my awesome first car) and I began to cry. The emotions of the day hit me like a ton of bricks. In the midst of my mini breakdown the song "Somewhere in Between" by Lifehouse started playing. I don't remember having heard this song before this moment and the lyrics were exactly what I was feeling at that point in time.

I can't keep
Losing sleep over this 
No I can't 
And now I cannot stop pacing 
Give me a few hours 
I'll have this all sorted out 
If my mind would just stop racing 

Cause I cannot stand still 
I can be this unsturdy 
This cannot be happening 

This is over my head 
But underneath my feet 
Cause by tomoroow morning I'll have this thing beat 
And everything will be back to the way that it was 
I wish that it was just that easy 

Cause I'm waiting for tonight 
Been waiting for tomoroow 
I'm somewhere in between 
What is real 
Just a dream 
What is real 
Just a dream 
What is real 
Just a dream 

Would you catch me if I fall out of what I fell in 
Dont be surprised if I collapse down at your feet again 
I don't want to run away from this 
I know that I just don't need this 

Cause I cannot stand still 
I can be this unsturdy 
This cannot be happening 

Cause I'm waiting for tonight 
Been waiting for tomorrow 
And I'm somewhere in between 
What is real 
Just a dream 
What is real 
Just a dream 
What is real 
Just a dream 
What is real just a dream

 As I walked in the door at our old house the phone rang. It was someone from the Enid News Paper. They had seen in Abbey's wedding announcement that said she was moving to D.C. after she got married and they wanted to see if she was alright. What they really wanted was a horribly tragic story to tell, because when I told them that she was fine, though a little shaken up, they quickly hung up with me. Dad called me a short time later, from school, telling me to go to the elevator to get gas. Even my 18 year old self questioned the rational of this and told dad I didn't need gas and wasn't going to sit in line for no reason. He, of course, was a nervous wreck and I'm sure went and filled his truck up after he got home from school. The rest of the night doesn't exist in my memory, expect the phone call when I finally got to talk to Abbey. She told me about her crazy journey home and seeing the black smoke from the Pentagon all day.

The weirdest part of looking back on this day is the fact that so many people, who are extremely important in my life now, didn't exist in my life then. Some of them, like my nieces and nephews didn't exist at all. But others like Anna and Zach, existed I just didn't know them yet, which seems odd. My future husband had to send his draft card off on September 11th, I'm sure thinking he was headed to war any day. The other strange part is my mom isn't in any of my Septemeber 11th memories. I obviously saw her at some point, I was living at home. But I don't remember her account or experience of that day at all. I only vaguely remember talking to Able that day, but have no idea what he said. He was at OU at the time and I have never heard his September 11th story either, ten years later, kind of strange. Anyway, that's my account of the day that defined my generation. Not fun to remember, but I want my kids to know my story. It makes me sad to think that my kids and my nieces and nephews never got to know the so called "pre-September 11th" world.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Yesterday was a big day for little Zane. He painted his very first "painting." Turns out he is a bit of a minimalistic.  Here is the finished project displayed with great pride on the fridge.

2. We spent this past weekend at Zach's parents house, celebrating his birthday. We had a great time and Zane loves being able to run about freely at his grandparents house. He got to see moo cows, ride tractors, play in cars, play with his cousins, and his favorite activity of the weekend, playing with Shy the dog.

3. Here he is playing in his car, getting a little help from Adeline. Such fun!

4. Per usual our car ride home consisted of Zane making himself throw up because he was bored. This is the worst part of our road trips. He finds it hysterical and proceeds to try to do it again, after the whole clean up and clothes change has happened. Not cool Zane.

5. Fun fact of the day, OU is the first school to be ranked number 1 in the AP poll 100 times, since the poll started in 1936. This also makes OU the school that has most often left it's fans heart broken after falling from the number one position in the AP poll. Can't wait for game day Saturday, I haven't got to see the Sooners play yet this year.

6. I work tonight and Wednesday night then after that I am off for six days. I am trying to plan some funtivities for Zane and I to do while I'm off. Zach will be working on his solar project a lot so I need to come up with some crafts or something fun to do with my time. I am hoping my pictures get in soon so I can do some scrapbooking. I am inspired by all of Abbey's crafting, wish I lived closer to her, we would have crop parties!

7. I'm thinking about taking Zane to a parade on Saturday. It's Affton days, whatever that means, but a parade is always fun, right? I think Zane would get a kick out of it.

8. Since I have been on nights I have gotten to pick Zane up early from daycare everyday before I work. I hate that he has to go so much, but I enjoy the few hours we have before I go to work. As soon as we get home he finds his blanket and stands by the rocking chair. He always needs to cuddle for at least 30 minutes when we get home, I think his hug sack must be empty, and God knows mine is. He usually goes back to sleep an hour or so after we get home, so we really don't get to spend much time together, but I love the cuddles. I wish I had a recliner so we could nap in it together.

9. Here is something that is horribly depressing. When you pass your husband, who is taking your child to daycare, on your drive home from work in the morning. That happened this morning. I could see Zane's little blond head for just an instant and then they were gone, cue tears.

10. But lets end on a happy note. Cute picture of the day. This was from when we were in Oklahoma. Zane won't keep any other hat on, but seems to love his scaly cap ( just like his Uncle Able). He will leave it on for extended periods of time and boy is it cute.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gentry

I had to wait to write this post until the Gentrys had actually signed their marriage liscense, a minor detail they forgot to do on their big day, but now that they are legally married I will recap their beautiful wedding festivities. Here is the happy couple!

At long last my best friend has married her soul mate. I always knew she would live happilier ever after with her prince charming, though I know she doubted this at times. She deserves nothing but the amazing, kind, and handsome man that she ended up with. I take her word that he is all those things, as I have only seen him three times, the third time being on their wedding day, but he seems like a great guy. The week leading up to the wedding wasn't the greatest or most relaxing for the bride, but Anna, like myself, is use to failing at life and powering through.

Her best friend was suppose to sweep in and save the day, doing all the fun pre-wedding things with her, helping her with her favors, and keeping her calm, but sadly her best friend also fails hard and arrived sicker than a dog. I did manage to make it to Norman for her personal shower Thursday, though in hind sight it is questionable if I should have been driving on that many cold meds, but I survived and had a great time. Anna got much too appropriate lingerie if you ask me, but I did my part getting her one, at least mildly inappropriate, Christmas outfit, complete with bells.

 Friday I had planned on going back down to Norman for a mani pedi and to help with the wedding favors, however I woke up feeling completely miserable and decided to stay at the farm, start antibiotics, and try to sleep it off. This plan worked pretty well and I woke up Saturday feeling like I might survive, but still had a terrible cough, so I opted out of my reading at the wedding, for fear of a huge coughing fit, which would not have been classy. We hung out with Abbey and her kids in Edmond during the day, which just happened to be the first game day of the Sooner Football season.

I got to the wedding early and was so happy to be part of all the getting ready fun, complete with a mini champaign in a little can, with a straw. How fun is that? People kept bringing Anna booze, as though they thought she might need liquoring up to marry this guy. Of course that was not the case, she was as cool as a cucumber, ready to be a married lady. Right Anna :) After I corrected a few minor emergenies ( i.e. the wedding planner at the location having set up the wedding for inside when it was meant to be in the garden and the string quartet not knowing what they were suppose to play) everything went off without a hitch. Anna's friend Lesley was in from Dallas to do her make-up, her high school friend Star was down from Nebraska taking part in the fun and lending Anna her necklace, which went perfectly with her gorgeous gown. Anna wore my earrings, the pearls I wore on my wedding day, so her jewelry served as her something borrowed, so neat!

 I could have cried when I saw her all dressed and ready to walk down the isle. She looked like a beautiful, blushing bride, and I was over joyed for her in that moment. I opted to go to my seat instead of becoming a hot, crying mess. The wedding ceremony was short and sweet, which was good since it was 100 degrees outside. But it was beautifully simple and fit Anna perfectly. I now all she really wanted from the entire day was to be married and start her life with Jarrett.

 After we all cooled down, inside the beautiful ballroom at the Dominion House in Guthrie, the party begun. There was a fabolous dinner, a wonderful assortment of desserts and pies (the grooms favorite), and as an added bonus a big screen TV in a side room so the guests could check the OU Football game score, what more could you ask for. Zane had a blast at the party, he rocked his bow tie to the ceremony and briefly at the reception, but had to have a wardrobe change so he could fully enjoy running around, dancing, and meeting everyone. I have to admit he went a little crazy and had to go home early with Grandma since I was knew I would be shutting the party down, and I did.

Old College roomies reunite

Zane and his Godmother on her big day

After applying and ample amount of peer pressure we finally got Anna and Jarrett on the dance floor, only after promising that we would all dance with her. I think she secretly had a blas ton the dance floor and it made for some very cute pictures. Once the dancing fun was over it was time to get the bride changed out of her dress and on her way to their honeymoon sweet at the Colcord in OKC.

Anna you were a gorgeous bride, I love you dearly, thanks for letting me be part of your big day. My prayer for you is that you may always laugh more than you cry and that you continue to grow closer together each day. My marriage is the greatest blessing in my life, and I am sure yours will be a great blessing as well.

Ten on Tuesday: Oklahoma recap

1. We are back from our Oklahoma vacation. Sadly, I was sicker than a dog most of the time and am still feeling quite crummy. I started having a sore throat last Tuesday night at work and then it just got progressively worse. I ended up missing some of the bridal fun Friday, but for the most part I powered through and had a good time. It was good to have Aunts, Uncles, and Grandma help watch Zane while I rested.

2. I still have a terrible cough and head congestion so I am not working tonight, in hopes of an actual good nights sleep making some difference. Tomorrow is Zach's birthday and a year since Dad died so I am going to need to be well rested to get through the day.

3. This farm visit consisted of a lot of firsts for Mr. Zane, starting with his first hair 'cut'. It really was more of a tiny trim to get his bangs out of his face, but it still counts. I don't have any pictures of this event because I was holding him still. Mom just trimmed it a little and he looks much more pulled together/like a little boy.

4. Zane also had his first swing ride on mom's blue baby swing. He loved it, of course. Sunday the weather cooled down, making it gorgeous outside, perfect for a swing ride.

5. He also had his first encounter with a cat/kittens. His kitten encounters will have to stay at Grandma's because his mother hates cats. He seemed to enjoy "loving on" them (a.k.a abusing them). He picked them up, patted them, and possibly squeezed them just a little too tight. It was shades of Able squeezing the baby bunny when he was a little boy. All the cats survived Zane's loving, unlike the bunny.

6. Zane had a blast playing with his cousins at the farm as well. He loves playing with other kids, though Maggie and him struggle being nice to each other, but they seem to have a good time. Brendan and Zane played chase with Zane a lot and they all had a great time on the farm, complete with this adorable wagon ride with Grandma.

7. This farm trip Zane was big enough to ride Peanut Butter the horse, and he loved it. He thought he could get on Peanut Butter himself, which led to a few falls, but all and all he loved his pony rides. He even gave Peanut Butter pats when he was done.

8. Zane did pretty good in the car ride there and back. When he was awake one of us needed to sit back with him and keep him entertained, but for the most part it wasn't that bad. Zach had to sit with him most of the time because I get terribly car sick. He did sleep quite a bit too, which helped.

9. The real reason for this trip was to celebrate Anna and Jarrett's wedding. Thursday I went to Norman for her personal shower/girls night, which was a blast. Friday I missed some pre-wedding fun, since I was sick, but slept a lot so I was more pulled together for the big day. I plan on doing a separate post about the wedding, but needless to say Anna mad a gorgeous bride. Here I am with Anna at her personal shower. It was great to be with my BFF for her big day.

10. As a wrap up we had a blast in Oklahoma per usual. I love being with my family and miss them so much when I'm gone. I wish we could live closer to them all so I could see them more often and our kids could grow up together.