week 4: my parents

where to start? If i could describe my parents in 3 words, they would be "hippies from california".

My mom is VERY loud and VERY outspoken. She is so loud and outspoken that it often embarrasses me. She loves tie-dye clothing and birkenstocks. She has discovered texting recently and sends me THE longest texts. I tend to reply with one sentence because I have a word limit on my texts. She must've yelled at Verizon until they made it so she has no word limit. She is hard to handle, I dont know how my dad has lasted so long. She is a great cook. She is tall like me. She is very excited she is a grandma and has been buying everything in sight for Lyla. She is a great garage-saler. Although most of the time, I can only take her in small doses, Im very thankful for her.

My dad is very much the opposite of my mom. He is short. By far the shortest one in our family standing at about 5'8". He is much calmer than my mom. He loves to talk and tell stories. He always has a new idea or project. He is a hard worker and has supported our family by himself for my entire life. He is very creative and artsy. He can, and will, fall asleep anywhere. He is an animal lover. We have had so many animals throughout our lifetime and he still gets so heartbroken when one of them passes away. He has tractors and so my mom must buy every baby john deere item she sees. Lyla got a ride on john deere tractor for christmas. Im sure she will love it when she can use it. I'm very proud of my dad and very thankful for him. I am and always will be daddy's little girl.

Yeah yeah I know I'm behind...

With the holidays here and family visits, I didn't get a chance to update my blog. And so I will attempt to catch up!

Week 3: My first love...

It was 2001 and the summer I turned 17, and he was a boy I fell head over heels for. Sigh. This one brings back memories. I was working as a lifeguard at a summer resort in canyon lake and he was working as a maintenance man. I was about to start my senior year or high school and he was about to start his junior year, although we were nearly the same age. He introduced me to Texas Country music and New Braunfels. He wore jeans that were WAY too tight, with a ring in his back pocket from his can of snuff, drove a lifted dodge truck, and managed to both steal and broke my heart. I learned a lot from that relationship: most of all, never date anyone your best friend and your parents dislike and never give anyone a second chance to break your heart again. It was all just one of the many journeys that led me to the loves of my life, Tyler and Lyla.

Week 2: meaning behind blog name

And so week 2 of the 30 week blog challenge begins!

The meaning behind my blog name is pretty self explanatory... it began as 'Baby Dunkelberger' when we started this blog and was a journal of my journey through my first pregnancy. I wanted to start the blog so our family in iowa, colorado and california could keep up with the exciting happenings in our lives. Now that baby dunkelberger has arrived, I have changed the blog name to 'The Dunkelberger Family'. 

Until next time, adios!

30 Week Blog Challenge: Week 1!!!

Week 1: Introduce yourself, recent picture, 15 interesting facts....

My name is Jami Rae Dunkelberger, formerly Calhoon. I am 26 years old and currently live in San Antonio, Texas. I am married to an amazing man, Tyler Robert Dunkelberger, and have been for almost 3 years now... WOW the time flies... We just had our first child on October 20, 2010. Lyla Jayde Dunkelberger is our little princess, pride and joy. We have 2 dogs, Bella (great dane) and Cash (black lab mutt), and a cat (Marmaduke or Duke for short). We just got rid of our ferret, Ferry Potter, about 2 weeks ago. Apparently ferrets and babies dont mix well. We miss her terribly but she went to a good home in new braunfels and we get pictures of her all the time :) That about covers the "introduce myself" part.

This is the most recent picture I have taken...

This was earlier today when I started out to decorate our christmas tree... This year is the first year we have had our own full size christmas tree so we dont have ANY decorations to make our new tree look pretty. So after Tyler got home last night and we ate dinner and played with Lyla a bit, which was about 1130pm, I decided to go to wal-mart to get some decoration. Millions of dollars later, I returned with decorations. I ran the Lyla drill, fed her, changed her, burped her, blah blah blah, hoping I could put her in her swing right next to me while I decorated. WRONG. The little turd didnt want to sit in her swing, bouncer, on the couch, or in her crib. She wanted me to hold her so she could be in the middle of everything. Well I couldnt get much done with one arm, so I grabbed my moby wrap and tried to stick her in there so I would have 2 free hands. After trying multiple positions, I ended up holding her again and sitting her in my lap so she could watch. She thought it all was pretty dang funny of course. Of course my ornaments needed little hangers attached to them and i only got material ones that you have to squeeze through a little hole and tie, I sat there on the floor and attached those things to all my ornaments with one arm. All the while fighting off the dog and the cat because they were convinced the shiny balls were their toys. After about 3 hours of fending off animal attacks on my ornaments and keeping the baby happy, I gave up. I have 1 ornament hanging on my tree. Sigh. Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow.

15 interesting facts...

1. I'm tall. 6'0". Although Tyler tells me I'm not all the time. I am. And I LOVE wearing high heels!

2. I was born in Escondido, California where I lived until I was about 5 years old. I was then transplanted to Texas.

3. I went to 3 different colleges and officially changed my major 4 times. After Texas Lutheran University, Texas Tech, Texas State and back to Texas Lutheran, I graduated with a BBA in accounting and a BS in accounting. 2 degrees = student loans forever! My pre-accounting majors were kinesiology, interior design and general business.

4. After returning to TLU in 2004/2005, and not participating in athletics from 2002 until then, I walked on to the track team as a high jumper and discus thrower. I won conference in high jump, actually placed im discus, and our team won conference for the first time in TLU history. Yeah, yeah, its only a D3 school, but STILL. I have a college conference championship ring!

5. I worked at hooters for 4 years throughout college. It paid for about half of my private school tuition which I am thankful for. I especially loved it when my college professors would ask me where I worked. And then say Oh.

6. I love wakeboarding. Mostly on a cable, Im not a huge fan or riding behind a boat. Tyler bought me a pink wakeboard for my birthday about 4 years ago :) Before I started the professional lifestyle, I had finally learned how to hit sliders at the ski ranch, so fun! Now that we live in san antonio, we dont make it out to the texas ski ranch anymore :(

7. I'm an auditor. I dont do taxes. Theres quite often the misconception that because I'm an accountant, I do taxes. Its annoying when people refer to tax season when I am asked about my job. And I dont audit individual people, but when i say im an auditor, i generally get that crazy scared look like im coming after you. Im a corporate auditor. i now realize most people have no idea what a corporate auditor is/does. the following quotes sum up my job pretty well...

"Auditors are the people who comes in after the battle is over to shoot the wounded."

"Auditing is providing information nobody understands to people who couldn't care less."

If that doesnt tell you what i do, watch the following video... i think its hilarious because it basically describes my work life to the T. but i dunno, it could be lame accounting humor that nobody else thinks is funny. theres other episodes there is anyone cares.

Public accounting episode 1

8. I dont like living in san antonio and i wish i could move back to new braunfels.

9. I hate to cook, but i love to bake desserts. And eat them of course. I have a huge sweet tooth.

10. I have been blessed with many opportunities to travel to various beatiful countries. I wish I could do more of that and see many more countries. That may have to wait now that miss Lyla has arrived.

11. I love playing games. spider solitaire is among my faves. in fact, i have just about mastered my one-handed feeding while playing spider solitaire technique. just dont ask me to decorate a tree one handed.

12. i love wrapping presents. i wish there was a money makin opportunity there...

13. tyler and i never got a honeymoon... maybe one day

14. i still cant believe im a mom. its so weird growing up and getting older.

15. i love my  in-laws. they are wonderful and amazing people. even if we have to visit them in iowa. mom-in-law texted me today and said its 7 degrees there right now. sheesh!

That is all i got tonight! Until next time!

30 WEEK Blog Challenge? Who's With Me?!?

I was reading Jenny's blog a while back and she posted about starting a 30 day blog challenge after seeing the same on one of her friend's blogs. Well I LOVED the idea of a 30 day blog challenge, however, I know that it is highly likely that I would not succeed in said challenge. SO, I decided to change the challenge up a little so that I may have a higher chance at success :) This will be my 30 WEEK blog challenge rather than a 30 DAY blog challenge. I will try my hardest to post once a week! I haven't been very good at keeping my blog up to date lately, or ever really, so we'll see how I do!!!

If you would like to participate in the 30 day blog challenge, or join me in my new and improved 30 WEEK blog challenge, I welcome you. In fact, I dare you! :) Thanks for the idea Jenny!

Here's the details...

Week 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Week 2-Meaning behind your blog name
Week 3-Your first love
Week 4-Your parents
Week 5-Your siblings
Week 6-A picture of something that makes you happy
Week 7-Favorite movies
Week 8-A place you've traveled to
Week 9-A picture of your friends
Week 10-Something you're afraid of
Week 11-Favorite tv shows
Week 12-What you believe
Week 13-Goals
Week 14-A picture you love
Week 15-Bible verse
Week 16-Dream house
Week 17-Something you're looking forward to
Week 18-Something you regret
Week 19-Something you miss
Week 20-Nicknames
Week 21-Picture of yourself
Week 22-Favorite city
Week 23-Favorite vacation
Week 24-Something you've learned
Week 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Week 26-Picture of your family
Week 27-Pets
Week 28-Something that stresses you out
Week 29-3 Wishes
Week 30-a picture

Now that I have all the info posted, I can begin! Maybe I will start tomorrow, Lyla has worn me out today! Good night!