Sadness...and Happiness.

I broke our camera. :( This is a sad event. It is not the saddest event it could have been though. Despite the screen being incredibly screwed up and unable to show you pictures or where you're aiming, after a brief experiment I found that I can still take pictures that function...I just can't see them until I load them on a computer. So it's kind of like the old days of film pictures-when you never knew if you took a good pic until you got it printed.

Anyway, I shut it in the door of Pilot as it was falling out...a double badness. We'll see what the Bozich Budget says about a new one...But until we get a new one, I'd say the pictures are likely to be more rare (or just off the web) on my blog. Sorry for the disappointment.

In the HAPPINESS arena, last night Tommie played a "Down With the Deficit" concert at our church. Like many churches nowadays, we are a bit behind on our budget. Tommie and our worship leader, Drew Collins, decided to do something to try and help by playing a benefit show. They charged $5 at the door and took a love offering in an effort to raise money that went straight to the church. It was a great success! We raised quite a bit of money and had such a great time! Both of the guys played original music that was phenomenal. The soundguy for the night also recorded everything, so you might be able to hear this fun show in the near future! yay for John.

Drew's wife, Sarah, sold some cards that are adapted from her paintings and donated 50% of her profit to the budget and Tommie gave $2 of every KELLEEN cd sold to the budget also. Some of our Starbuck's friends also sold $1 lattes at our little coffee bar...though I'm not positive that was going to the budget. Anyway, it was fun to see people use their "talents" for the church and to believe that God just might be providing for us with "talents" that can also provide monetarily. It was great.

So, sadness to happiness, a good weekend overall.

IT'S ABOUT TIME:

1. That I POSTED another blog! Sorry for the delay, things have been really crazy since we got back for Marshall's wedding.

2. That I GOT MY PHONE BACK from when I left it at Marshall's house at the wedding...He and his sweet wife, Patrese, were kind enough to send it back to me.

3. That WE SOLD THE SATURN! We've been wanting to go down to one car (our Pilot) so that we have less $$$ on the insurance and don't owe my father any more moola. We sold it yesterday after it being on the market for only about 3 business days! God is so good to us.

4. That WE SELL OUR HOUSE IN DUNEDIN, FL. Tommie's house in Florida FINALLY has a closing date. It will be sold on May 8, again, PRAISE GOD!

5. That I GO GROCERY SHOPPING! Yes, today I'm going to be going because we have nothing to eat and I'm tired of making up weird stuff to eat just to get by...King Soopers here I come.

6. That TOMMIE TURNS 25! That's right, starting Saturday, we'll save some more money on our car insurance and celebrate his 1/4 life. Also, shoutout to Katie who celebrates manana. The Indiana Jones party is also coming up, so that rocks.

that's all for now folks...I'll be posting more regularly again now that things have slowed at least to a speedy pace instead of lightning fast. ENJOY!

One cell phone shy of a full family...

We're back! We even came back with just about everything we left with, all except my cell phone, that is. I left it in Marshall's guest room. Since Marshall and his new wife, Patrese, are sunning themselves in beautiful Jamaica and won't be back for another few days, I'll likely be without a phone for at least that long...oh well!

As you can see, Tommie had a lovely time playing Hannah Montana with our young friends.

Marshall's wedding was beautiful and I'll post pics from that tomorrow. Today is devoted to our Trussville friends/fam, the Richards. Thanks to Dawn for the following lovely pics:

Tommie, Lili, Alisa, Dawn, Kurt
This is the best picture of our family that we have to date! Yesss!!!
And finally, our favorite little girlfriends, Kyler, Lili and Whitley! Thanks for babysitting.

Aaaaand....We're Off!

The day has finally come for us to see our dear friend, Marshall Bee, get married! We'll be attending his wedding on Saturday in lovely Birmingham, AL. We'll also be staying in town for a few days to catch up with some friends and for me to actually meet my boss in person. That's right, after I moved, I got a new boss who I've never actually met. It should be a blast.

So today, after waking up to a world of winter white, meaning 2-4 inches of SNOW, we've rushed around trying to get the house clean for an easy return, things purchased at various stores to make that happen, get the family laundry done, family bags packed, Maple taken care of and everything else to make this an "easy" trip.

Moral of the story?
Nothing's easy when you have a baby and dog. But that doesn't necessarily make it not worth it.

Anyway, we're turning our eyes to the sunny skies of Birmingham and lamenting the fact that the weather forecast predicts rain for all the days we'll be there. Regardless, it will be a city without snow and maybe we'll even catch a wicked thunderstorm-something I've been hoping for for a while.

So goodbye cold wetness, hello warm wetness. Save us a spot, we're on our way to... the Magic City!
(and yes, that is a jab at Birmingham's motto...there are like seven other cities called "The Magic City." Could we not be more original?!) Lovely Birmingham, Alabama. (or as I prefer to say, "ab-a-la-ma" just try it. you'll love it)

Rocky Mountain High...

1. Tommie's mom came for a visit this weekend. Though it was a month early, we celebrated Tommie's birthday on Thursday with a trip to REI (think hiking goodies for the husband) and ended up with a new camping hat and camping stove with necessary accoutrements for the man. Overall, I would say he's well on his way to celebrating 25 wonderful years on earth...for his real birthday on May 3, we're planning an INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL party-complete with costumes and fun food. It should be awesome. Be there if you can be.

2. Liliana of course got spoiled beyond all good reason by her wonderful grandma. She got more clothes than any little baby needs, which made her mommy ever so happy. That means I have to do less laundry! She also got an opportunity to put her butt-print on a plate. Her "print" will then be transformed into an elephant by one of Tommie's mom's friends and sent back to us. Kristin suggests that we then use the butt-print elephant plate to serve Lili's birthday cakes from now on. I think it's a wonderful suggestion. Pictures of the finished product to come, certainly.

3. On Saturday, Tommie, Janie, Liliana, Maple and I all went back up to Estes Park, this time to HIKE! It was a gorgeous day and couldn't have been better weather for our adventure. We went to a little spot of the Rocky Mountain National Park that you can hike around in for free and hiked, had lunch and had an overall great time. Tommie carried Lili in her swing, which seemed to be just fine.(Yes, in case you were wondering, that's Tommie's new hat. Feel free to tell him what you think...) Unfortunately, the long hike, wind on her face and the two bits of sausage I had for breakfast and then dinner on Saturday meant that Sunday was one of the worst days Lili has had in recent memory. Think insane crying for no apparent reason for hours...no quite colic, but enough to make you feel for the parents of kids who have it! I'm pretty sure she was constipated, if you want to know the truth...anyway, she's feeling MUCH better today, and I my slight doubts about having other kids have all but disappeared today. :) However, the second picture you can see how crazy she and her hair look today after such a nutty day yesterday.

4. After such a nice weekend with glorious weather, I was mildly surprised to wake up to snow flurries today. Colorado is so crazy in the spring. It's probably going to warm up again mid-week, but it's still funny to see snow. It's not deterring Maple from staying most of the day out on the patio either.

5. On Friday we head out to Birmingham to take part in wedding festivities for our good friend, Marshall. He's marrying his lovely bride-to-be, Patrese, in Jasper, AL and Tommie is a groomsman. In fact, we are singing a song in the wedding...speaking of which, I should go practice that song. So, more updates later!

Estes Park

Well, hello, all of you faithful readers! Let it be known, Colorado is gorgeous!

Tommie and I took a nice little drive up to Estes Park, Colorado, on Saturday and had an incredible time. The weather was beautiful. It hailed for about an hour, then was sunny the rest of the day.

Here are some shots from our adventure:

Originally I thought this picture was an amazing example of the Colorado sky. Then I realized it's just the blue sun-protector on the windshield. Oh well, at least it looks cool...
I thought the clouds in this one, headed into Estes Park, were amazing. It looks so haunting.
This was just a lucky shot out my window that happened to catch the Estes Park sign.
I'm treasuring this picture because I'm usually the one taking them, so there aren't many pics of me and my little girl. This one will make up for that for a while.She may look like me a lot of the time, but there's no doubt that Liliana is her daddy's little girl. I think they look alike in this shot.
Yes, Maple got to come too. She loved it, and slept VERY well that night! Altitude will do it to ya!
Tommie says this could be a Prius or Element commercial. I think he's right. The mountains are in all their splendor in this shot. It was such a beautiful day even though it was mostly cloudy.

And finally, courtesy of our daughter who has just figured out she has a tongue, Liliana bids you farewell dear friends, and beckons you to visit our fair land.

I learned to make online surveys. Now you can learn to take them.

click here

trust me. it's so fun that if you don't take it, you'll be sad.

The Meaning of Life

-I'd like to move out of our condo into a nicely sized house, one big enough to have a party at.
-We own our condo and that means we have more money to share, invest and just plain give away.

-I'd like to live abroad and research some mysterious written language...kind of like Maya.
-We're in the perfect place right now for our daughter to have family and for us to waork alongside the amazing ministry our church here does.

-I'd like to have a more glamorous job and to be busier at what I love.
-What I do now is challenging me in ways I've never experienced before.

-I'd like to have a new wardrobe with tailored clothes and hottest fashions.
-I'm learning to be creative with what I have and I'm getting really good at sewing.

-John 12.25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
-Acts 20.24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

Breaking Out

.paying homage to Kallie, I will use periods to denote the various topics in this post. :) (love you!)

.Tommie played an open mic last night at a place called Swallow Hill Cafe near Denver University. It went great, despite him being second to last. He even sold two or three CDs! Great job honey! He's also playing an open mic tonight. It's his way of gearing up to play shows in the coming months.

.Maple is slowly dying from cabin fever. Okay, so that's not true, but she is REALLY dying to get outside. Thankfully it's been warm, but I'm hearing rumors of more snow this week. Hello, Colorado.

.I'm addicted to some books a friend recommended. Yes, they're the slightly corny Christian-romance type, but they're definitely good enough to have me hooked. Check out Dee Henderson's "The O'Malley Series" at your local library. You won't be disappointed.

.In response to my constant reading, Tommie is reading Clive Cussler books like it's his job. They are also fantastic books I would recommend.

.One of my friends from high school is in Denver this week with who I think is probably going to become her husband sooner or later. We are having lunch tomorrow and I'm psyched! Yay for long friendships.

.Lastly, Tommie and I made an ate falafel twice this week. We decided we really like it...give it a try.

Hysterically Wonderful

My grandmother made this outfit for Liliana. I think it's adorable. Tommie thinks it's cute, but a little much. We settled on: hysterically wonderful.

BABY WEEK!!!!

Well, apparently it's BABY WEEK here in our little Aurora Alliance church community. So far, the count is at two babies born in the past week. There's a baby shower this Saturday for another one though, so it might as well be three!

Luckily for me, Kristin is helping me out. She has much better photos of her incredible crafts, but I only had my snapshots available to post. What you see above are the baby gifts I'm giving to all of my friends. I've already given away a different set, that set was bright pink with silver threading! These are baby BOOTS, not just booties. They're awesome, and I would know because Kristin made Liliana two sets at Christmas. To finish out the gift, Kristin turned cloth diapers into designer burp rags that match the boots! She even used fancy embroidery stitching on the diapers to make them that much more special. So thanks to my ever talented sister for helping me survive...dum, dum, dum... BABY WEEK!

I also thought you all might enjoy knowing that Lili is becoming much more vocal. In fact, she seems never to run out of words when it comes to one of her favorite friends. Here she is, looking at and talking to her most favorite friend of all, Blue Elephant:
One day we're hoping she'll become good enough at speaking to have human friends to talk to. Until then, we're letting her practice on the elephant. He's a very good listener.

Genius and a Broken Back.

I threw out my back yesterday. And yes, your image of a 45-year-old, chubby man, half-bent with his hand on his lower back-that's about how I looked yesterday! Apparently, my body caught up to the fact that I'm a parent now and decided to make me feel old. I bent down to pick Lili up, and when I came back up, I almost fell over! So I spent the day in recovery (i.e. TV, naps, Tommie cooking dinner....not so horrible overall). Today I'm feeling much better, though not entirely healed from the pain nor the sore pride.

Secondly, our good friend, Clark Orr, is a design genius. He designed the shirt you see to your left. That shirt is for Johnny Cupcakes. He also designs for more people and bands than you could ever imagine. Check out his website here and his blog.


Just thought I should shout out since his designs are incredible.

It's Time for More, More, More!

So I finally have our camera back, and that means MORE PICTURES! Hooray! Shall we begin?

First off, we have a picture of my new haircut. If you'll notice, it's also tinted a purply/red with blonde highlights.
This haircut was inspired by a haircut I saw in a magazine called SWELL, which is also a purveyor of awesome surf/beach/snowboard/casual clothes that are just on the verge of too expensive for me. Which means I'm always wanting something from that magazine....Though I think it will be a few more weeks before my hair is the length of this photo, here is the picture that inspired me:

Some of you may also have noticed the picture to your left on Tommie's facebook profile. I wanted to share this picture too because it vaguely highlights one of the crafts I just finished! I'll have to post a better picture soon, but I made a baby sling! Basically, it's a long piece of cloth with rings on it to adjust the tightness...but it's a handsfree way to "wear" Liliana while we're out and about. As you can see from the picture, she likes it enough to fall asleep! I decided to make it when I looked them up on MAYAWRAP and realized I'd be shelling out about $70 to buy a new one. I Don't Think So! If you ever want to make one, you can ask me how, or click here for directions.

Finally, here is a picture of my mom, myself and my smiling daughter! Three generations of Gubser women. I thought it was especially cute since Liliana was grinning. She's also wearing one of the cloth diapers and cute diaper covers we got for her. So it's a doubly-good picture.

In the days to come I'm sure I'll post pictures of our new Honda Pilot, which I love. It's black with heated leather seats, three rows of seating with a super easy way to put down the back chairs for extra room. It's a little more of a "family-style" car, but it's better than a minivan by far! So, I have to hand it to Tommie for finding something so functional (haha-get it? fun-ctional?). Anyway....

God has been blessing us a ton lately, just in little ways that we're learning to enjoy. There will be a post on that in the near future I think too. So, here is your daily (or however often I decide to post) dose of Bozich life, check back in for the promised future posts and more!

Things to Come

So, I have all these great blog posts planned, but Tommie is out of town with the laptop I normally use AND the camera with all my pictures on it! :) So, I'll just tell you what's going on and promise pictures for later.

I got my haircut about two weeks ago and finally am LOVING it! I dyed it a reddish-purple/brown and got blonde highlights in the front. It's pretty fierce, but it took me about two weeks to decide how much I love it! I actually got it cut the same evening we went to see Caedmon's Call with Derek Webb! What an awesome show. That was one of the first dates on their tour, so check their websites to see if they're coming your way and GO SEE IT! They're awesome live, as usual. Andrew Osenga is playing with Caedmon's and their new album too, but he has a new solo album that's really good as well, so I just suggest checking it all out.

We also sold our Element, and actually, Tommie and my brother in law Mike are in Birmingham today to pick up our new, black, Honda Pilot! The guy who bought the Element happens to also live in Birmingham, where we bought our new Pilot, so the boys took a roadtrip to exchange vehicles. While their down there, they get to see friends and ALSO PICK UP STUFF FROM PUBLIX! I can't tell you who much I miss that grocery store! I'm getting them to get me Mojo sauce, which I can't believe they don't sell out here.

Liliana is trying to roll over lately, and though I have to push her the rest of the way, I'm awfully impressed with our little girl! She's cracking me up and becoming more fun by the day.

I also finally have decided to make our wedding photo book-a year and a half after the event. The new iLife from Mac makes it SO much easier than the online program I was trying to use before. I'm so looking forward to having some pictures in hand from our wedding!

I think that's about it for now. I've done some other fun things that have slipped from my memory already, but I'll post more later!

So Many Pics, So Little Time

1.) Dividing Our Hearts Between Homes
This past weekend, Tommie and I had the pleasure of accompanying our youth group to Divide, Colorado, for their winter retreat! Tommie led worship and I just got to go with Liliana. We definitely live in a beautiful part of the country. Part of me still misses my home in the South though....but pictures like this make me more at home here in CO. Here's what Divide looked like on our drive home on Sunday:2.) I'm Mixed
Obviously, I'm not actually mixed. There was a girl at the camp though who was in my small group who was AWESOME at braiding hair. I got her to do mine and then subsequently had to answer questions as to whether or not I was mixed. She said she thought I was Puerto Rican. So there ya go.

3.) Liliana's A LumberJane
Lili had thee awesome chance to wear this sweet blue vest that Kristin got her for Christmas. If you'll notice, she's wearing coordinating blue snow boots as well. It was rather cold out though, so her face doesn't quite express how much fun she had wearing this vest...in fact, it doesn't really express any amount of fun, rather anger at being awake and cold when she should have been warm and napping.
4.) From Snow to Surf in Under an Hour
That's right, Liliana got to swim for the first time this weekend! At first, for about the first 3-4 minutes, she wasn't so sure she liked it. After that though, her smiles were HUGE as I imagine she thought she was in a giant bathtub. The water, despite being "heated", was a little bit chilly, so we got out after about 15 minutes. It was still awesome though.


















Those are all the pictures I'm going to share from this weekend, but suffice it to say, we had an amazing time. The kids in the youth group are amazing and definitely are growing in Christ. We also had a great time getting to know the youth leaders, most of whom are our age and in our lifegroup (bi-weekly community group). I even had the chance to lead one of the small groups and remembered how much I truly love working with youth and kids. I think I might start praying about teaching a Sunday school class or working with the youth on Thursday nights. So, all in all, a wonderful time with wonderful pictures to share!

Enjoy!

She's A Beauty.

January at a Glance

Clearly, my life is entirely different this month than all the months of my life preceding it. It's been fun though, and I thought I should give a quick update (including fabulous pictures) of what's been going on:

1.) Liliana is bigger. By bigger, I definitely mean FATTER! :) It's fantastic to see her little body get all pudgy and then to see her lose the pudge so quickly as she grows longer by the day. Here she is with her fat little cheeks, cuddled into the swing that has become our lifesaver. She truly loves this swing and will stop crying almost immediately if we put her in it.

2.) I'm losing my baby fat while Liliana is gaining hers. I'm now only 10 lbs. heavier than before I got pregnant. That's not bad for a month and a half after baby, but it still make me sad that I don't fit in my favorite jeans yet. Thanks to my awesome, and taller, sister Kristin though, I'm borrowing some cute jeans until I hopefully do fit into my own pants again one day. Thanks sis!

3.) Not only is Liliana getting bigger in size, she's growing up a bit too. She's starting to eat a little more at each feeding and a little less often, meaning she's sleeping longer in between!!! That's awesome for us because that means we're finally starting to get a decent night's sleep. In fact, our little girl is so big, she's now sleeping in her own room. That's right, after a few tears from my mommy eyes, Liliana has made it into her crib. She's learning to fall asleep by herself and to stay asleep long enough for Mommy and Daddy to not want to hurt themselves in the morning. Congrats little baby.

4.) Lili is also starting to edge her way into the cloth diapers and diaper covers we got for her. As you can see from the picture, she is still kind of small for them, so they look ENORMOUS. I'm excited about them though and had to put her in one today since we finally got everything put together for them. For your viewing pleasure:
She's also starting to smile a lot more!!! Kristin has some good pictures of my little girl's grin while she's taking a bath. Seriously, Lili LOVES the bathtub! She floats around with the biggest smile I've ever seen. Anyway, I'll try to get some of those pics from Kristin.

5.) In other news, I've nearly finished writing my pregnancy memoir. That means for all you girls out there contemplating getting pregnant, not wanting to get pregnant but curious about what it was like for me, or just wanting to hear about our story, it's headed your way! I'm going to try to find a way to host it somewhere so that you can read it online. I think I can do that from Tommie's website, so keep your eyes peeled for my announcement when it's posted. It should be up by Valentine's Day. ( I still have to edit it to make sure it's exciting enough for you to read)

6.) I've started back to work and it's been easy and great, so all praise to God for that. I was nervous.

7.) We're planning on selling our cars to downsize, but also to up the number of seats in our cars. Right now, if we take Lili (which of course we always do), we can only take one other person in our four-seater cars. So we're hopefully going to sell them both and get one car that can fit eight: THE HONDA PILOT. It's a great car that I think we'll test drive today. Please be praying that all goes well and this deal goes through!

8.) We're also hoping to sell our house in Dunedin, FL, to the renters who have been renting it for the past 2 years. They're an awesome couple and we think this would be a great deal for both families. Please pray that this deal also is completed in God's timing. (we're hoping before the end of February)

That's about it for now. January has been a blur and I can only imagine life will continue to feel that way as new things are coming into our life all the time. We're excited for what God has for us this year and we look forward to sharing those things with you. We'd also love to hear about what God is doing in your lives and how your lives are changing, so feel free to leave a post or e-mail me!!!

Yes Please. If you haven't seen the original, just imagine Jerry O'Connell as Tome Cruise, making no sense-it's about the same thing.

The Bozichs Strike a Claim

Okay, so I'm new at the whole movie-editing thing, but I gave it a shot, and here's my first try! Check it out::

We Are Now A Family of Three (Four Kind Of...)

So, it finally happened! On December 10, 2007, our dear sweet Liliana Kelleen Bozich came into the world! And my how she's changed it already.

Right now she's sitting next to me, crying her eyes out, trying to avoid the sleep that's dogging her little tiny body. If she'd just close her eyes I think she'd pass out, but she refuses. She also has this infatuation with having my finger or Tommie's finger in her mouth as she falls asleep-which is cute but actually kind of annoying and impractical. So I'm kind of trying to wean her off of that. Although the crying is starting to make me crazy, so I might just slip my finger in her mouth after all. I seem to have no resolve...

Anyway, Lili is finally here and Tommie and I couldn't be more excited about it. Life has changed for us dramatically in the past three and a half weeks. Notably:

1.) I feed Liliana every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. That means nighttime is a relative concept for me. I seem to be awake almost as often as I'm asleep when it's dark outside. Tommie's awesome though and has been a great partner at night for me, changing diapers and putting a sleepy and sometimes grumpy Lili to sleep. All in all, this is my least favorite thing, but it's not that bad.

2.) Leaving the house takes much more preparation and time than it ever has. Now we are responsible to get Maple's things (if she's coming) and Liliana's things before we leave. I can only imagine what it will be like when there are more of us...

3.) Liliana's crying is a daily noise, unfortunately. The thing is though, that's how babies communicate and they're going to do it no matter what. So we've started to get kind of used to it. There are times though when I think I might pull my hair out if she doesn't quit. That's when I'm glad Tommie's around.

4.) Laundry has to happen at least twice a week. That girl can poop, spit up and pee with the best of 'em.

5.) I've never loved someone as quickly and easily as I love our daughter. It's funny because you might assume it's a huge revelation, but for me it's just been the way it is....I just love her.

6.) For no apparent reason, Liliana loves Johnny Cash. I'm serious. Particularly the song, Ghost Riders In The Sky. Remember how I said she was crying her eyes out? Well she's stopped now. Ghost Riders in the Sky is playing and she's got her eyes closed and pacifier slowly slipping out of her mouth. Now I can only hope she doesn't notice when the pacifier is totally out and that Johnny works his magic just a little longer this morning.

Well, I have quite a few things to try and get done today and Lili's naptime is a precious commodity. SO, that being said, trust that the mommy chronicles and more stories of my life are yet to come.