etsy fun

Its called an Apple Jacket. I can't remember the last time I ate an apple, but dagnabit I want one.

heehee

This picture is for Annie. If this was a dictionary entry, I'd say the word that fits this is She-Male.
I can't explain why, but it just makes me giggle and I can't stop. Thank you, pop culture!

new site

SO, first step to trying to get my life back to normal is getting back to teaching. I made a website today to advertise and make my name stand out when I post on different sites. It's pretty basic, and a work in progress. I'd appreciate any advice you can give me, internet world!

Click here please!

Merci much!

Its been 2 weeks since you looked at me

Sorry for the 2 week pause. I keep thinking Jared will write something, but alas, you are stuck with me.

Interesting things of note here: I told Jared he could buy a scooter if he found a deal and got life insurance. One trip later, he and his BFF Mike are proud owners of Italian import Piaggios - that in a former life were actually used as mail delivery scooters in Italy! Don't have a picture of ot yeat, but ask mom or dad, they've both ridden it and approve. I am still wary of it, since, Jared has the worst sense of balance I've ever seen, but his legs are as of this posting, still intact.

And Solei has not only figured out how to pull up and stand on everything, she also crawls all over the house (she disovered doorways) and last week at a wedding, she saw another baby climb some stairs, so she went ahead and tried it!

And now, some video proof of how she is indeed keeping her title as the cutest kid I have ever had.

(this one is her standing up )


This one is my favorite - laughing like a crazy person!

New house, same tools

Last week was Jared's 31st birthday and it was celebrated in the manner it deserved (he got a desk missile launcher for work and Simpsons paraphernalia). I would discuss it more in detail, but he has already been asked to blog and has declined. In fact, it looks like yours truly has written the last 8 posts.

Hmmmm... someone is slacking.

It may seem to us in the middle of the storm that not much is going on, but when you look at it from a distance, you realize we are going positively crazy. We bought a house, and are attempting to move into said house. No, you can't see pictures of the house. It's really uggo. Seriously, I wouldn't even go look at it for weeks after Jared found it because it was so freaking ugly.>

But the inside, man... well, it's cool. One of the big reasons I gave in is because there is a room in the basement for a teaching studio for me! And then the upstairs is a ranch layout, so no more running up the stairs to get a burp rag for Solei, it's just down the hall!!

We've also discovered we don't own any furniture, at least to fill up the big spaces in the house. Jared is beginning the planning on building a book case (and has also have to replace the dishwasher hose, replace tubing in the A/C system, cut a hole in the ceiling to facilitate said A/C repair, replace the shower head in our bathroom and convince me the washer isn't broken. And he hasn't even started on the poison ivy sanctuary that is our front yard - eep!)

Oh, and also Solei has learned to crawl now that there is carpet everywhere - we have footage of her desperately trying to crawl in Nana and Popa's house but she couldn't get traction on the wood floors. Her knees are well protected as well, as evidenced by my last Miss Cheapskate post. I'm proud of myself for that one:)

Okay, random picturitity:

Jared and Solei sharing a moment at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

Solei pulling herself up for the first time on moving day!

The family room of the new house... it won't look this neat and clean until we move out again, methinks.
The way cool basement that I plan on turning into a bean bag sanctuary.
The new kitchen, sans the fridge Jared found on craigslist for $300, woohoo.

Have a loverly day!

reunited and it feels so goooood

Whew! So last week in Colorado was the first official "Kuzmich Sibling Reunion." A blast was had by all and Solei and I got to come in early and leave late just to play more with Grandma and Grandpa, although it wasn't nearly long enough. First, here is a video of Dallin being the sexiest brother ever:



Aaaand, in honor of the kajillion pictures we took, here's the video montage I so graciously slaved over:



Enjoy!

Our memory card is bigger than your memory card.

Solei is sleeping, and has been sooo insanely photogenic lately that today's entry is just going to be nuts, sorry. I don't know if anyone else enjoys checking out any one else's kid this much, but the side-effect of having a digital camera is 7 versions of the same picture that are just too precious to choose just one.

By the way mom - thanks for having me in 1979 so that I'd hit parenthod exactly when digital cameras came about abundantly. Mad props to you for timing that just right!

So, here is my gratuitous album of our hott kid lately:

First off, Nana Paget got Solei a bunch of Mardi Gras beads to play with, and she adores them! The are the best toy ever, always amusing and oh-so-portable. Here's a few happy shots of the kiddo and her bling...









Next, Grandma Kuzmich sent some adorable clothes for Solei, including a Skirt Of Many Colors and I couldn't decide (surprise, surprise) on just one photo, so gawk on...





Next, a few Sundays ago we dressed Solei up in this outfit that included this head/hair scarf thingy that we couldn't figure out and ended up giving ups way too much amusement. Sad, really. First was the traditional approach:



But daddy thought it was supposed to go more like this:



And after that, the obvious direction was of course gangsta style:



She was much happier when we just took the dang thing off:



Sooo, the other day I was doing something in the kitchen and Solei was happily running all over the house in her scooter=walker-thingy, when she went silent. I went looking to see what damage she'd gotten herself into, and the cherub had pulled Grandpa's electric guitar across her lap and was cheerfully licking the handle to the gig bag!! Maybe you had to have been there, but it made her so freaking happy I had to snap a picture:



We went to a company picnic last wek and Solei met her first dog - we think she likes them, she didn't mind at all when the dog licked all over her face!



This was a random pic that Solei smiled for that shocked the heck out of us - man, that chick is maliable:



I play dress-up with her way too much.. Grandma Kuzmich, note that this is one of your skirts again:



Now this was too good not to take - I found these boots on sale for $1.50. That's a buckfify!!!! Can't wait until she can fit into them, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to not make her pose with them NOW, naturally!



And um... this last one was Jared's doing, NOT mine.

Want to guess what she's doing in this picture? Hint - she's not crying.



Yeah, she's doing what you think she's doing. And yes, it makes us laugh at her. Lots.

Puffy the Car!

We have a new member of the family!!! We sold our house this week (we are officially homeless) and are still looking for a new home, but at least we finally got a car!! This one is for the girls to drive - I wanted a puffy car and good golly, it sure is a puffy one. But so dang fun to drive and I feel way less of a stuffy mom in it. It feels so good to have at least one thing on our checklist checked off!

Eastertime

Happy Easter!

This was Solei's first Easter and a blast for us. Here is a pictoral trip of a few of our favorite moments of the day:




Here are us and the parental units at church. Jared and I both spoke in sacrament meeting. Quite an experience - I wrote 6 pages of stuff to say, and ended up barely any of it. Jared was brilliant, as usual :)



After church we went by Grandpa John's place to say howdy. Howdy there!

At the end of our visit, Solei was ready to get out of that darn carseat. She's at the wiggling age for sure!

Here's the family portrait.
The gorgeous gals in our Easter finery.

Solei and her first Easter basket.

Oooo, what is this toy?

Being adorable takes it out of you!

Naptime with dad.

Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter everyone!!

baby baby

There is too much that happened in March to put in one entry, so for now, here's a video of our illegal Spanish nanny and Solei meeting a cruel baby in the Target dressing room.

back in the USSR... uh...

This post is being written from the good ol' US of A, in the great state of Georgia. After the oh-so-fun packing of all our earthly goods left in Brasil into 5 suitcases, then trying to pack those plus a double violin case a baby and 2 adults into a hatchback, and 14 hours in 2 different planes - WE'RE HERE! Yes, to those curious, there have been dangerus levels of cheddar cheese consumed. Now, to buy and sell homes, buy cars, buy phones, get our kid to learn how to sleep through the night again and hopefully at some point have a place to actually unpack before Solei graduates high school. If you want to get ahold of us, we'll be in bed. Hullo, America!

The Job

Hear ye hear ye:

Be it known that a certain Floyd (or Jared, or Jon, or Doofus as I am referring to him right now) has landed a job. The Job. In America. Atlanta-ish. For a nice little pile of money. So we can buy diapers. Or a car. Maybe not both, but it's a start.

Ye may now wish him hearty congratulatories and pat him on the bum. It'll weird him out for sure, but who doesn't like a weirded out Jared? Heck, most of the stuff I do is to annoy him just because his reactions are priceless and we don't have cable. YAY JARED!!!

And now gratuitous pictures of our child because he told me to post them. He's got The Job so he can tell me what to do. Well, not really, but if I do what he says, maybe I'll get that Jetta.

I love you Floyd!!!

Not Jared

So this is a picture that my mom dug up. Believe it or not, it's not me. It's actually a picture of my Grandfather (my mom's dad). I guess we finally figured out where i get my figure from...

Random Thoughts From a Random Guy

Well, we haven’t really given many real updates lately – just mostly pictures. It’s probably about time we did. The last while has been a real rollercoaster. Ever since Christmas we’ve been pretty stressed with the idea of joblessness, moving and caring for Solei. We’ve all had good and bad days. Things are finally starting to brighten up a little.

We have very mixed feelings about leaving. It seemed that just when we were feeling comfortable with things and getting settled in things were turned completely upside-down. I suppose that is how we grow in life, defeating one challenge after another. It seems now that we are moving on. We will definitely miss all the people who have touched our lives here. We love our friends here so much. They have done so much to bless our lives. We thought that we’d be the people helping others here, but it turns out it’s the other way around. There are things that we will be glad to get back to: A house that is not overrun with ants, the ability to flush the TP, cars, TV, cheddar cheese, Taco Bell, a functioning phone, A/C (I know it’s winter, but we are turning ours on anyway), the pre-packaged food Americans are so accustomed to, not being able to hear our neighbors sneeze (no joke), cinnamon rolls, root beer, fast food, a “high speed” connection higher than 1Mb/s. I went out for visits with the missionaries from my church last night and someone said I must be happy to be leaving. I replied, “life would be perfect if we could bring all our friends back with us.” I think that’s exactly how we feel.

I’ve had a lot of great leads and bites on my resume. There apparently are a lot of companies out there looking for people with my similar qualifications. I had good interviews, but in the end, most opportunities didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. This weekend I’ll be traveling to Atlanta for a quick day with a company (Monday) that produces hi-tech toys for kids ages 8-12. They look like a fun company. Most of the executives have a toy or cartoon background, which could make it a lot of fun to work with them. Their office is just literally down the street from my parent’s house as well. From their house it would be a 5 min commute. From ours, however, it’d be closer to an hour. If things work out, we’d probably end up moving somewhere closer (assuming our house sells). My biggest concern about the interview is leaving Reva and Solei here by themselves. I certainly will miss them a lot, but am scared for them to be here by themselves. The ladies of the ward are falling all over themselves (as normal) to help us and actually will be staying with the two of them round the clock, but I won’t be close to help and I worry about that.

On a totally different subject:

So, I’ve noticed recently that I keep getting older. I turned 30 last year and really haven’t felt my age that much at all. In the last little bit I have been startled at how thin my hair is getting. I’m also learning about ear hair. Thankfully I don’t have visible hairs growing out of my ears like an “old” person, but they are sprouting. And something you wouldn’t imagine is that they are really irritating. Hairs help you feel things and I really haven’t seen a need to feel my ears all the time. I’ve got to figure out how to shave them or something. Also, I found my very first grey/white hair a little while ago. Unfortunately, it wasn’t growing where you’d think you’d find white hair. NO, my first white hair was found sticking out of my nose- very prominently. Needless to say, that has been taken care of. More than you cared to know!

Well, that’s about all for now. We are looking forward to changes and opportunities. We appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts that are coming our way!

Cute pics of our kid

We pretty much have the cutest baby ever and here's proof:

As a note or update on our lives, I had a few really good interviews with a toy company located in Marietta this week. They were so good that they wanted to fly me to Mexico City to meet the CEO (he was planning a trip there) so they could get the green light on an offer to me. Instead they are flying me to Atlanta this coming weekend for a series of interviews on Monday. Reva will be here in Brazil alone with Solei, so if you want to write her write either on Sat, Sun or Mon. That and pray for us! If all goes well, i'll leave my job here on the 9th of March and start in Atlanta 3 days later!

But seriously, isn't our kid cute!

Google???

So, if you use blogger, you may or may not have just found out that it was assimilated into Google recently. Seeing that every website will eventually be a google site, I've decided that it might be best to just sell myself to google in one fail swoop. I figure with everything on the internet belonging to them and the amount of time I spend on the internets, why not? It'll eventually all be theirs anyway and I'll end up their slave. Might aswell get something out of it now...

We are getting ready to pack up and leave Brazil. We've let the cat out of the bag at church- and I will tell my boss tomorrow as well. It's starting to sink in for everyone here. Our friends are quite disappointed (as are we). It seems like we were finally getting to the point where we were comfortable and having a good time. We are kind of disappointed. The added frustration of not knowing what we are going to do with ourselves complicates the matter even more. Since we have a house and family in Atlanta, it seemed like the best place for us. This week reality set in that we will never be able to just step back into our old lives. Things have changed and won't be the same if we go back. While this is very disappointing and frustrating, in a way it opens a lot more doors. We just don't know where our door is or where it leads.

Update on Solei: She's moved passed laying down and even sitting and now refuses to do anything but stand. She can even stand for a few seconds on her own with a chair to hold onto. The balance isn't even close to there, but she is very strong. She's also still growing like a weed!