The LaBombards

Lately (and always really) we have so much to be thankful for! The first thing that comes to mind is that after a looong period of unemployment Eddie has been offered a job! As far as we know he'll start working for SRA on August 17th unless the NRA (who he also interviewed with) decides to scoop him up in the next couple days. After several weeks of no interviews Eddie was contacted for two on the same day this past week! So he interviewed with SRA in the morning and the NRA in the afternoon. The very next day he received the offer from SRA. This is a blessing in so many ways. First, it answers our prayer for God to provide Eddie with a job in His timing. Second, it answers the prayer for a job close to home (how's 4.5 miles sound???)! We are so very excited to enter this new season and keep seeking to learn what God has for us each step of the way.

Eva has been amazing. She has loved spending so much time with her daddy, something that will be sadly given up when Eddie goes back to work. She's been blossoming into a beautiful toddler. Recently her vocabulary has really been expanding. I'm not sure about how fast other kids start speaking but it seems like she's held off for a long time. Her comprehension has been really great for many months now and she can obey simple instructions (if her will doesn't get in the way). She just really hasn't 'spoken' in words that other people can understand. Sure, Eddie and I can understand what she's saying when she says da-DA versus DA-da but it's tough for others to grasp. Anyway, we're trying raise a polite little girl so we've begun to request that she says please before getting something that she's interested in. Typically, her interest is food. [Side note: I was a kind of honored when she had her first full blown hissy fit complete with stamping feet and screaming over some of my freshly baked muffins. :)] So her version of please is really cute and I wish I could share her expression and the exact way it sounds with you all but suffice it to say that it sounds like 'pleh' and her tongue goes crazy in a really cute way.

A few weeks ago she got her very first bloody lip. We're not talking just a little bump...we're talking bloooood. She excitedly raced to the window to look out and misjudged her steps and did a face plant into the sill. Luckily her teeth were fine and the damage to her lip healed quickly. It was really really tough to console our poor little girl. The best remedy wound up being a run through the sprinkler....she loved it!! She seems to really like the water. We've been going to the pool in our community a good bit and she has really enjoyed it. We got her a little float that has a canopy and she just lays back or forward and kicks her legs. She also likes being thrown up in the air by Daddy!

Eva's gotten pretty fast now. She loves running back and forth from the kitchen to the living room and often tries to 'scare' us. She in turn also has really begun to love being surprised/scared. It's cute to hear her little gasp and see the surprised expression on her face.

Work for me has been good. It seems like things have been easier lately since I adopted a regular schedule. The connection to my virtual machine on campus at the PTO has been slow lately so that's kind of frustrating. There have been several days where I haven't been able to get a whole lot done. The good thing about my job is that it's not that hard to make up work here and there. I'm not sure what we're going to do about Eva with me working AND Eddie working. I'm sure God will lead us to what is best for her and us. I'm hoping that I can squeeze work in during her naps and have that be sufficient. I kind of doubt that I'll be able to get everything done in that amount of time but I'm going to try initially and see what happens. I anticipate a looooot of crockpot dinners. Love that thing.

Now that Eddie is going to start work we have requests to add to our family. I'm not going to lie and say that the thought hasn't crossed our minds. I used to think that once Eddie got a job I'd be ready to have another baby but now I would kind of like to lose at least my pregnancy weight from Eva before getting pregnant again. I'm hoping to start a tap class in a few weeks so that should help. We'll have to see how disciplined I can be with my eating habits, that's never been an easy thing for me. We shall see.

Posted in: on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at at 3:09 PM 1 comments

It's required a good deal of restraint on my part not to write a post immediately when I got home today. I wanted to make sure to share an awesome deal with you that you could also take advantage of. The best part is that there's no foreseeable end to this deal.


So, a couple days ago Crystal over at Money Saving Mom wrote about a coupon good for .75 off of any Santa Cruz product. There are a couple great things about this coupon. First, it doesn't expire until December and second, it's a pdf which means you can print as many as you want!!! I happened to be in Whole Foods last week after reading about the coupon and saw that they have Organic Santa Cruz Lemonade on sale for (drum roll please) .99 per 1 quart bottle. WOW!! So I mulled it over for a while and decided that my life would be incomplete without obtaining mass quantities of lemonade for very little money. Today I high tailed it over to Whole Foods with 36 of those babies in hand and grabbed three cases of lemonade.

I had to do three separate transactions because Whole Foods puts a limit of 12 of the same coupon per transaction but it was worth it. The lemonade doesn't expire until 2011 so I'm planning on making a few more trips to stock up on enough lemonade to last us for two years. If you have a Whole Foods near you and like lemonade GO! I asked the Customer Service guy who checked me out when the sale on the lemonade was going to end and he said it should be around that price all summer. Oooooooooo baby.

Posted in: on Monday, June 22, 2009 at at 2:35 PM 0 comments

Well it certainly has been a busy couple months! Between getting sick, a trip up north to visit family, working, taking care of our house and family and getting a shower in here and there ;-) I haven't really had a chance to write. I continue to learn and grow with each passing day. God is kind to sustain me by his grace.

So let's see, like I said, I was sick for about a week after Mother's day with a head cold and then, sadly, Eddie caught my cold. It's no fun for anyone but Eddie's sinuses just don't handle colds well so he's still battling off the remnants of the cold. We were planning on traveling up north to visit family on the 20th and we did leave, we only made it to Baltimore though. Eddie just wasn't feeling well enough to take the 8 hour trip and he didn't want to share his cold with anyone. There was a lot of wisdom and guts involved in turning his family around. I admit, I did not even come close to handling the decision well. My reaction pretty much equated to a toddler having a temper tantrum and stamping their feet. I have since asked for forgiveness for my selfish attitude and I'm continuing to learn to try to be more laid back when it comes to our schedule.


One week later. Wednesday the 27th we departed for our families...again. :-) This time we arrived, and in record time!! Eva did really well with the trip even though she only slept about an hour during the whole trip. She's generally such an easy going, happy kiddo. Blessed we are. Our families were thrilled to see Eva (and Eddie and I too I guess). Our parents were gracious enough to host some extended family for a meal so that we could see them. We had a great time and a good trip back home as well. I'm glad that we took advantage of our currently flexible schedule.


Eddie is still battling the economy and looking for a job. He accepted an offer a while back but he's waiting on a security clearance which could take months. So, in the mean time he's still looking. He's had a couple of interviews but no other prospects so far. God is meeting our needs as always and I am so happy that Eddie has this time to spend with Eva.


Eva is growing like a beautiful flower, and fast! She's popped another tooth and it looks like her top two front teeth will be in any day now. She's handling it like a champ and aside from some minor crabbiness she's as happy as ever. She's a voracious reader and is currently happy to hear mother goose rhymes over and over (and over and over...). If anyone wants to hear a rhyme you can just ask Eddie or I and we'd be pleased to enlighten you about pussy cat Mole or Jack Sprat. We could also present you with a recitation of Dr. Seuss's 'ABCs an Amazing Alphabet Book' if you would prefer that. She's beginning to enjoy showing us where her tummy, eyes, ears and nose are. She's also taking a liking to animal sounds. When she sees a dog or bird she makes a noise but her favorite right now is a cow 'MMMMmmmmmmaaaah.' Today she started trying a bee noise too. It's really entertaining. We're having so much fun with her each day. Viewing the world through the eyes of a child is awe inspiring.


If the summer holds half of the things that we have scheduled it's going to be a busy one. Weddings, graduations and lots and lots of babies. It seems we have an extraordinary amount of friends due in July. How fun. I guess we missed the band wagon again but I'm not rushing things. As much as I would love another baby I'm still working on getting a handle of where we're at right now. I'm excited for what the summer holds and what new things God will teach me and my family. I'll try to keep you up to speed.

Posted in: on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at at 2:34 PM 2 comments

While we don't generally buy into commercial holidays Mother's Day is one that I'm really excited about. Being a mother brings so much joy into my life and knowing these feelings gives me a little more insight into how my mother and mother-in-law feel about Eddie and I. Wow. I can hardly wait to add more kiddos to our family so we can grow our love even bigger.

Eddie and Eva were very sweet to me on Mother's day. I didn't have to cook one thing all day! In the morning I was treated to delicious, fluffy blueberry pancakes. They were so good! Lunch yielded a grilled feast with chicken, corn on the cob (first of the season!) and baby potatoes. Dinner was so tasty pizza and salad. Afterward we went to get some frozen custard...wow, that's good stuff!! Next time the family comes to visit we are taking you guys there! As you can tell the way to my heart is through my stomach. It meant so much to me to have a break and to be served by my hubby. He's a wonderful guy and I don't think I give him enough credit.

Eddie and Eva 'baked' me a surprise too. When I opened the oven there was some wonderful new kitchen gear. Some of our stuff is in pretty questionable shape from years of use so I got new baking pans, chopping mats and spatulas. What a treat!

Besides the gourmet meals and presents we went to church and since Eva's in the 1's class now we were able to have an uninterrupted time of worship and learning. I also got to take a great afternoon nap which was really needed and appreciated. Thank you so much to my awesome husband and beautiful daughter for a wonderful day.

Happy belated Mother's Day to all my mommy friends and family out there too!!

Posted in: on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at at 3:46 PM 0 comments

As I sit upstairs trying to find a patent to reject an application about the side to side shifting of a fixing belt (yuck, I know) I can't help but smile as I hear my wacky little girl and equally wacky husband interacting downstairs. She's lately been doing this crazy little girl cackle. Her tone is very high pitched and she verges on sounding kind of insane if she wasn't just a little girl. It's all I can do to keep from laughing out loud as she sounds off and her Daddy responds in a very similar sound. Their back and forth banter warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye. I cherish these little snip-its and enjoy every moment of her uninhibited love and adoration for her dad and I while they last.

Posted in: on Monday, May 4, 2009 at at 9:02 AM 0 comments

Well folks, looks like my little Eva Bean is not doomed to a life of pureed delicacies after all!! For a few weeks now she's had a hard spot on her bottom left gums and in the past couple days the tooth has really started to pop out! She keeps it a pretty well hidden secret but we get the occasional glimpse here and there. I'll try and post a picture once she's willing to flash us a pearly smile. In the mean time, check out our new pics from April in our Picasa album.

Posted in: on Friday, May 1, 2009 at at 2:09 PM 0 comments

Posted in: on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at at 3:37 PM 0 comments