Jared's new job!

Jared starts his orientation tomorrow at Parkland. I think he excited to get started (and also get out of the house!) The good news is, he also starts getting paid which a great thing! His first month is in the Emergency room, which is also really great. Hopefully, the first week goes well!

This week also starts life back to normal for Dakota and Erin. Regular naps, learning activities and I'm on the hunt for freelance opportunities to make a little extra moolah for the family.

Mint and peppers...and a palm tree!

This weekend, I made the jump and actually bought a few plants that will hopefully provide some delicious cooking opportunities. A green jalapeno pepper and a mint plant. The palm tree was a throw-in. I was very excited to get the palm tree, and Jared planted it in the front yard like a good husband. Hopefully it will grow big and tall and be the talk of the neighborhood. I planted the mint and pepper plants tonight, after I got attacked by a frog. Okay, not really, it just jumped across my hand, but I sure jumped out of my skin.

More family vacay

This past weekend, Jared's parents came down to visit with Jared's cousins Miranda and Jason. We did lots of fun things, including going down to the lake, Bass Pro Shop, Dallas Aquarium, fence work fun, shopping, golfing, xbox games and eating out. The kids were great - very considerate and helpful! Jason actually got to take two new pets home, two Texas Geckos yet to be named. Here are a few pictures from the fun weekend.

Family Vacay

These past few weekends was jam-packed with family visiting and fun. Last weekend, mom and dad were in town to see Amy before she leaves for London for 5 weeks for her grad-program. We did the normal family functions, including shopping, eating and hanging out. It was a good time. Here is a picture of the entire gang. This picture took a lot of effort, but I suppose it was worth it. Good times! Layla was actually the best attitude about the whole picture taking thing. She was very well-behaved!

Frogs! And yellow leaves :(

As I was cleaning up the house tonight, I decided to go out and water my rose. As I opened the door, Layla lept out as usual, but stopped dead in her tracks before I could even get out the door. A FROG ON OUR PATIO! I screamed, and without thinking, slammed the door, leaving Layla to brave the frog all by her lonesome. I turned on the light and became a cheerleader for my tough dog. She walks up to it, it jumps, she jumps higher. As she backs off, she barks and looks at me like LET ME IN YOU CRAZY LADY! The frog takes a jump closer to her, closer to the door. Not sure what to do, I just stare at Layla and start yelling. I get her attention, swing open the door and she high tails it in. I barely see her long tail get in the door before I'm slamming in shut. I guess the rose will have to wait for a drink until tomorrow....

Speaking of watering the greens, I apparently have a bad green thumb. The leaves of my flowers out back are turning yellow. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm thinking it's over-watering but not sure? The one I have inside is doing it as well. Maybe I have a poor drainage system? We won't even get started on my poor African Violet....

Teething just plain bites. But motherhood doesn't.

Teething is no fun for little babies. Dakota got her first tooth rather effortlessly last week. All of a sudden, a little white stump appeared on the bottom and we thought it was pretty darn precious. But the past few days, the unexplained crying and overall fussy little girl syndrome has been solved: teething. Lately, she has been forgoing her naps (unfortunately) and is having a tough time going down for the night. She has to be rocked, which is very rare for her. At times, I get a little frustrated, but I take a deep breath...

As I sit in the dark rocking her, I realize there won't be many more opportunities where she just needs her mommy, safe in my arms as she drifts off to sleep and I just have to smile and cherish those moments. She is really something special and I don't want her to ever grow up! Sleep tight, little munchkin. I hope tomorrow will be a fun day for you, I know it will be for me to spend another day with my baby. You are my special little girl and I love being your mommy.

Hosting a party

Jared and I decided to be brave and play host and hostess to the intern class at UT Southwestern. Boy, did we learn our lesson. While it was nice to meet 10 new Dallas residents, it was a lot to handle with 4 kids under 4. WOW. Let's just say the Schreiner house is not ready for a walking, grabbing child. After everyone left at about 9:45 and as Koty was falling asleep in daddy's arms, we felt as though a tornado hit our house. There were toys EVERYWHERE, brownie pieces all over our new rug, a deck of cards strewn across the living room, beans on the fireplace, sauce on our kitchen rug and the table looked as though a an ugly food monster had ransacked the place.

However, there are some really nice people in Jared's program. We are excited to get to know them more (outside of our house) and hang out with them more.

Swingin!

Dakota enjoyed the awesome housewarming present Aunt Amy and Uncle Scott purchased for her today...a swing!! As we suspected, she loved every second of it, even though she first got in it a little sleepy. She really loved it. She loves the wind blowing in her hair. And don't worry, for those who are wondering, yes, she has a hole in her sleeper, and yes, we bought her two new ones today! That Minnie Mouse sleeper is an oldie, but goodie!

A Fun Day with Family

Today, mom, dad, Amy and Scott headed over to enjoy some delicious Schreiner bbq! We enjoyed Jared's yummy ribs that were pretty darn tasty! I also slaved in the kitchen into the wee hours of the night preparing this delight:

Carrot Cake! It was my first attempt, and I was pretty satisfied with the results. As you can see with how much is remaining, I think it's safe to say everyone else enjoyed it as well! It was nice to get into the kitchen and back to what I really enjoy doing...baking.

Tomorrow, for Father's Day, we will be heading up to Allen to celebrate the dads in the family with Genghis Grill and perhaps some swimming. Fun!

new grill patio

Jared spent a day last week building a small patio extension out of brick squares for his smoker and bbq grills. He spent the majority of the day sweating and working hard, and all of his hard work paid off. I am very proud of his mad building skills and he looks so cute doing it! :)

hmmm...

which colors? I'm helping mommy pick paint colors...I think this green!

broken cables and a new business.

Sorry for the absence, friends. The Schreiner household had a small hiccup this past week. We decided to finally say hasta to Time Warner Cable due to their unsatisfactory customer service and poor HD line-up, so we made the switch to Verizon. They are supposed to come out and install next Tuesday. Yesterday morning, as I peered out my window while Jared was getting our Texas license plates, I see a Verizon truck and two guys working on running cable. As soon as they leave, my television stops working and my internet is just blinking on me. As I mumble a few cuss words, I get on the phone with Jared and tell him I think the Verizon people messed something up. He returns home to find they had literally cut RIGHT THROUGH the existing Time Warner cables. THAT WERE CLEARLY MARKED ALL IN OUR YARD IN NEON ORANGE PAINT AND FLAGS. Genius. So we had to call Time Warner with our tails between our legs and have them come out and fix it. TBD on if we are going to make the switch....we'll see how good of a deal they can come up with for that idiotic attempt.

It's not easy bein green.

Well. We painted the office last night. And it's very....green. REALLY green. But i think it will be a cool creative space for my crafting/scrapbooking/freelance writing. I am excited to get it all set up, but tonight we must apply a second coat after Dakota goes to bed. Our plan for painting includes our bedroom, the guest room, kitchen and Dakota's room. I really enjoy painting, but it's a lot of work.

Tonight, Jared and I are going to venture out and dine at Poncho and Lefty's. It's about a mile West of our house and it's always packed. Here is a link:

http://www.panchoandleftystexmexcafe.com/rowlett/index.htm

I'll keep you posted on my review of the place tomorrow!

First Swim

This past Saturday, we took a break from our usual moving in festivities and drove up to Uncle Scott's house to go swimming. This was Dakota's first swim -so it was rather monumental. I ran to Target before we left and stocked up on about 40 tubes of baby sunblock, (hey, you can never be too careful), a hat and a baby swim toy for her to sit in. We went to the new splash park which was perfect for her since it was about 1 foot deep. She loved it!!! Naturally. The girl is born for adventure. Dad got in with her and she loved to swim around in her toy. She thought she needed a bottle (it probably had to do with the 50 gallons of sunblock I applied all over her body) in the pool and after about 30 minutes, got a little tired. All in all, a huge success and we will be visiting the pool again shortly when Aunt Amy is home next weekend!

A hot Monday

As normal people headed back to work today, Jared and I continued work at home. Jared just about finished up the garage to where we can almost get the cars in. YAY! It's going to be a tight fit with 2 cars, but we will be able to make it. I went to Hobby Lobby in the morning and managed to spend a *few* dollars in the scrapbook section. Hey, everything is 50% off - can't beat that deal! Plus, I had to have some supplies to stock my craft area when it got finished. This craft room has inspired me to do some scrapbooking as a side business...so if anyone needs a cool memory book, let me know, I would be glad to make one for you instead of your pictures just sitting in a photo box getting ruined.

The remainder of the day, we went and bought paint for the craft room/office and a few flowers. I spent the hottest part of the day outside planting flowers. I will get a picture up here soon when I get it the way I want it. I also mowed the backyard, so finally, our backyard is becoming more of an oasis than a forest. Still got the birds, though. And a new frog in my rose bed. That thing scared the crap out of me when I went to lay down mulch. Apparently, Mr. Frog does not like mulch being thrown on his back and jumped up 5 feet right at my legs. Great.

Tonight, we are painting the office. Maybe. We'll keep you posted on that one...

The Birds

Yesterday, we had quite an adventure. And no, I'm not referring to another trip to Lowes. I'm talking about the lovely swallows we have residing in our patio cover. We thought at first (or at least I did) it was kind of cute to have birds. I even put up a nice bird feeder to attract these beautiful creatures and figured I would sit in the living room in the mornings enjoying my nice cup of coffee and watch them. Well, I was wrong. Early yesterday morning, I went outside to try and save my rose by watering it. That is a whole different story. In trying to revive my rose, I nearly was pecked to death by these very feisty (and protective) birds. I told Jared he needed to put on some gloves and move the nest out of the patio. So, he does what every good husband does and gets his gloves on and his ladder out. These birds are smarter than they appear. I think they knew what he was doing and went dive bombing--right at his face. He grabbed the rake and started making (ironically enough) crow noises at them to get the heck out of the patio. They were fearless and kept going at him. I was instructed to spray the water hose at them while Jared moved the nest. He moved it to the corner of our yard in a nice shaded tree. Well, that was not a great solution because not even 2 minutes after he moved it, we watched indoors in horror as the mama and papa bird flew up and perched where the nest was. They looked down. Looked around. Looked down. Looked at each other. I swear I saw tears and sadness from those birds. So, Jared was back out there to move the nest towards the front of the patio. They eventually found their nest but I think they are also rebuilding where they were the first time. Great. So now we are going to have like 30 chicks instead of 3.

We have landed...

The Schreiners have finally started to make a resemblence of a home in Rowlett, Texas! We got into our house last Saturday and one week later, we have finally started to see some progress. There is still lots to be done, but we are taking it slow and trying to enjoy June before Jared starts his residency.

So far the neighborhood seems great - there is a nice old couple that live to the South of us. He seems to be the neighborhood socializer and filled us in on every neighbor the second night we were here. Carlos and I are going to get along great. His wife is very sweet and offered to let me pick her roses or ask her for a cup of sugar. Too cute. The neighbors to our North we have yet to meet, but we are told he is a Dallas police officer. That always makes you feel safe. We also have new live-in residents: Izzy, Lizzy and Dizzy the lizards. They like to hang out on our bathroom window at night and catch some grub i.e. bugs for dinner.

Hiccups and Garage Sales

Well, it's been almost a month since I've posted to this blog last. WHOOPS. Things have been a little hectic around here. Like buying a house.

We are also getting ready for a garage sale this weekend which should be a fun time. Hopefully we can make a little cash for our fridge we will be purchasing. Or carpet. Or lawn mower. Or new windshield....

Yes. Equinox's windshield is in need on replacement. It is beyond repair, as the crack covers half of the windshield. Bummer.

Dakota is doing great. She currently has the hiccups and playing with toys. Doesn't seem to really phase her. She turned 7 months old on Sunday and we can't believe how much she is growing and changing. She's acquiring quite the personality and also likes to consume 2 jars of baby food at a sitting. I think she's trying to make up for her tiny body. She also attended her first baseball game last Saturday, the Royals. It was a bit chilly but she was a trooper. She made it through the 5 inning. Not bad for a little squirt!

Okay, gotta go get ready for the garage sale. Enjoy the pictures!

Layla Hershey Schreiner, April 2, 2005

Happy Birthday, Layla Hershey! Today, Layla is 3 years old. It's hard to remember the day Jared found an ad in the paper for "West Pinchers", Westie/Min Pin mixes and we traveled to BFE Missouri to pick out our little princess. I remember the day we drove there - Addie in tow and arrived to find 2 mischievious little puppies tearin it up in the basement of a house. The whole way home, we wondered what to name her. She has come so far.

Last night was Layla's second night of obedience class. Yes, Layla Hershey is currently in school, working towards her Masters in Obedience. The first week, I happily gave up my training duties to Jared since I was in Dallas house-hunting. Jared took her the first night and learned the key words: off, uh-huh and perrrrrrrrfect. Last night, I went with a little a few reservations, but came out with a new dog. Well, kind of. We worked on lose leash walking last night up and down the aisles of PetsMart and I have to say, Layla did pretty good. She had her special moments, though. But the instructor did say she could already see improvement. See - Layla is a good dog afterall!

Layla is also featured in a poster all over Pennsylvania. Okay, not really, but sort of. I designed a poster for my sister's upcoming show about a dog that is an agent to the stars. Who is the model in the picture? None other than Layla! See below for her big debut. Apparently, she is getting lots of comments. Naturally.

Forgive my absence

So, things have been a little crazy around here in Schreinerville. For a while there, I thought no one was even really reading this blog. But alas, my dad informs me that I've been slacking on my blog and that he had been directing a lot of people here, so I better keep up on my blogging duties as a mom.

This seems like a good time in our lives to update friends and family. Lots has happened.

We feel very blessed in our lives right now. On March 20, we attended to much-anticipated Match Day at KU Med. This is where all the 4th year students find out where they will be attending their residencies. I must point out the highlight of the day - Daddy and Dakota's matching outfits. Jared (whether he admits it or not) was a little hesitant on wearing these so-called matching outfits, but it was a huge hit! As Jared's name was called to the stage to read his fate, his good friend Jon shouted, "Nice shorts!" And everyone laughed. He then speaks into the microphone, "My wife dressed us today." And everyone went, "awwwwwwwww". It was pretty dang cute, but I don't really remember all of it because it was a blur until he read he had matched at The University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas! We were so incredibly excited as that was Jared's #1 choice.

After match, we went down to Dallas to search for a house - the hunt was on! With the help of one awesome father and father-in-law, Lee, Mr. house guru himself. We now officially call him Dakota's nanny because he was so helpful the whole trip. Dakota was a real trooper. Each day, we would pile into the car and head out to Rowlett, Texas (about 30 minutes from Amy and Scott's house) and look at numerous houses all day. Luckily, we matched up with an agent my sister was good friend's with and (knock on wood) we have finally found a house!* The plan is close May 20, right after Jared's graduation.

*currently in final negotiations.

Dakota had her 6 month appointment today. Funny enough, she was in the 92% for her head circumfrence and 11% in weight. But, all is well and great with Little Miss Smiley and the doctor says she looks great. She got the go-ahead for more fruits, veggies and cereal along with a sippy cup with water and snack crackers! Oh boy!

Here are a few pictures from Match Day. In the future, I will try to post more often to keep everyone updated.