Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Itchy Scratchy

This happens every year around this time. I go out and weed flower beds, weed eat around trees, mulch gardens and inevitably a few days later start scratching every inch of my body. The poison ivy has made its appearance yet again this year and I'm so sick and tired of it. It's bad this year. It's popping up in places it's never popped up in before. I'm finding it around the koi pond and right next to Wesley's sandbox. The walnut grove is absolutely covered in poison ivy and has been since we moved in. We keep it under control by regular mowings and twice a year I go out with my green "ivy" scissors and snip the vines at the base of all the trees. If left to its own devices it would trail its way up each tree and spread into the upper canopy of the trees. It's truly nasty stuff.

Sean seems to have a tolerance to it which allows him to go out there every weekend like he has been the past month and chip up all the trimmed limbs. He'll come in with not so much as one itchy bump on him. Oh how I envy him. I, on the other hand, have an extremely high sensitivity to the plant and it seems all I have to do is be down wind from a leaf and will break out. I currently have big boils on my right hand fingers that rub and bump into each other when I hold a pen. It's disgusting. I also have a fun patch right under my left eye. Never had it on my face before. I've never wanted to itch something so bad in my life. Not to mention the large patch behind my knee and just this morning I've found new bumps on my thigh. It really sucks. I just hope Wesley gets Sean's skin rather than mine, so far so good. Thank your lucky stars if you've never had the pleasure of having poison ivy on your property.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Weekly Winners June 21-27


I've been wanting to participate in Weekly Winners for awhile now and am finally going to try and start. Weekly Winners is where, every Sunday, you post your favorite photos taken from the past week. It was created by Sarcastic Mom, who takes some lovely pictures...go check her out. It's not a contest or anything, just something to do every Sunday. Anyways, here are my favs from this past week.

Contemplating which rock to toss in the pond


Sophie on a hot summer evening


Loving his "chocolate cereal" (malt-o-meal with a little chocolate syrup)


Sitting on the front porch laughing at Mom singing the "Lambaba"


Wazzup Mom?


The hat goes wherever the kid goes

Weekend Ramblings

My life is not very exciting at the moment (or ever for that matter) and I'm just going to write my average rambling blog post. I'm happy to say that our heat pump guy finally made an appearance yesterday after yet another phone call. I understand that it's 100+ temperatures and our priority is rather low in the scheme of things with other people possibly not even having air conditioning. Still, it was one hot boring week with the air conditioner acting up and being stuck at home to monitor it. It turns out after the repair guy plugged in all his hoses and meters that our poor unit was low six pounds of coolant (or freon or whatever it's called). I guess the unit only holds 16 units so six is a lot to be missing and still be expected to keep up in crazy heat like we've been having. Needless to say it is now all filled up and ice cold, un-humid air is pouring out of the vents. It's heavenly. I can stop constantly sweating now.

We've had our shop full of the unused pool equipment since the pool was removed over a year ago and I finally got around to photographing it all and posting it on Craigslist. Have I told you how much I love Craigslist? I posted the pump, filter, pool cleaner and ladder on Friday afternoon and by yesterday morning it was all sold except one thing. I even priced stuff for more than I thought I could get for it. One lady called in such desperation on Friday night. It appears her pool pump went out 2 weeks ago and the pool was now green and her kids were bugging her like crazy to go swimming. She was so excited to buy the pump and get her pool back up and running. I'm just glad all of that stuff is out of the shop and was able to make a few bucks in the process.

I've officially entered the third trimester of this pregnancy. I know I've said it before, but it is going so fast! I've got less than 13 weeks left to go, and to me that is measured in 13 weekends. How much can I get done in 13 weekends. I've still got a chunk of the house to paint, we'll need scaffolding to get to the second floor but that might come later. I still need to refinish the dresser I bought at a garage sale for the baby. Tons of baby clothes need to be washed and put in above mentioned dresser. Then there are all of the little projects like finishing caulking the kitchen, painting the horse shed, getting the crib and putting together in our room, and making and freezing a ton of meals for after the baby comes. Of course things will get harder as the time goes by and the belly grows to abnormal dimensions. But I'm thrilled we'll get to meet our little girl in less than three months.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Heat

Can someone tell me when June meant 103 degree temperatures? This entire week is 103 degrees and last week was near that. I'm dying here. I find myself sweating inside in the 74 degree house with the air conditioning let alone outside chasing Wesley around. I've been trying to convince him that playing outside during the heat of the day is not fun and we've been trying to find new and exciting things to do inside. To add to this wonderfulness, our air conditioner is starting to act up. Yes, this is the almost brand new, only been installed for one year, air conditioner. Uggg. It can't seem to keep up with these extreme conditions (imagine that) and proceeds to ice up in the middle of the day. Therefore I've been chained to this house all week to prevent any damage to the unit when it ices up. I have called our heat pump guy but he can't make it out until "later this week". It's already Thursday, can't go too much later than this. Right?

I've mentioned that we've been in the process of painting the house. With the heat being all crazy like it is that project has been put on hold. I find my only times to go out and paint are either during Wesley's nap from 2-5, or in the evenings after Sean's gotten home and we've eaten dinner. It's dangerous heat during his nap so that one's out and the evenings just fly by with dinner, dishes and bath time. Sean suggested if I really wanted to get it done I could get up ultra early and go out during the morning. For some reason this never registered in my brain as an option. So yesterday I got up at 7 am (yes, that's ultra early to a night bird like me) and went out and painted the south side of the house. I'm almost done, maybe one more morning and I can finish it. It feels good to get big stuff crossed off the "to do" list.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Woolaroc

I promise this is the last post about the trip. I just had too many good pictures to wind all of this into one post. We drove to Bartlesville Oklahoma Saturday evening and stayed in a beautiful hotel that had only been open for five months. I felt like I was the first person to stay in our room, it was quite nice. Wesley actually slept that night from 10 pm until 9 the next morning. Poor kid was bushed from the previous days activities. He really enjoyed staying in the hotels. He thought running around and opening drawers was the bomb.



Sunday morning we headed outside of Bartlesville to see Woolaroc. Woolaroc consists of a museum and wildlife preserve. You drive through the wildlife preserve to get to the museum and other buildings. The museum consists of Native American artifacts and western art. It's a fascinating place if you are ever in northern Oklahoma. In the drive thru wildlife preserve there is a collection of native and exotic species of animals. I was hoping Wesley would find the animals of interest since I held out little hope for the museum. This is what he did as we drove looking at the animals.



I tried my hardest to get him to look out the window but he was more smitten with that book. Obviously two years old is too young for this sort of thing, especially when he's got a zoo at home. There were tons of buffalo, water bison and deer up by the road.



It was pretty neat. They had a nice little petting zoo with the most adorable baby donkey I've ever seen.



Next was the museum. Bringing a toddler into a Native American museum with all sorts of pottery and sculpture wasn't ranking real high on my fun meter but the heat drove us inside. The museum was very interesting and I wish I had more time to look around without all my attention being paid to the youingin. He did all right. Pretty much what to be expected out of a bored-out-of-his-mind toddler. He spent the entire time on the floor on his back pushing himself around with his feet.



It was somewhat embarrassing and I felt like standing 20 feet away and pretending he wasn't my kid. But he wasn't running around being destructive and he wasn't yelling so we let him be. You've gotta pick your battles sometimes and this wasn't worth making a scene over. He didn't "find his voice" until we were leaving and then he discovered the wonderful acoustics of a museum. The security guard was eying us pretty good as we were leaving. Note to self, toddlers + museums = not fun.

My Dad being a goof with Wesley (love this picture)



Woolaroc Museum



Sean taking Wesley up to the lookout tower



Cute kid on a bench



The gang cooling down in the shade

Monday, June 22, 2009

USS Batfish

After visiting the Aquarium Saturday morning we drove to Muskogee Oklahoma to visit the USS Batfish submarine. This is a submarine that was used in World War 2 along with the Korean War and then post war used as a training ship. In 1969 she was retired and was floated up river from New Orleans to Muskogee where she is on display as a permanent war memorial.



I have to admit that I didn't know what to expect when my father mentioned we should all go see this. It didn't sound too appealing, a large metal submarine that you can wander through in late June with it being 98 degrees out. I was thinking we were going to cook inside this big metal oven but was relieved to find that a good majority of the sub was air conditioned. It sure made the difference of quickly running through it versus taking our time and actually looking around. It was also nice for Wesley since it was all decommissioned and he was able to turn knobs and push buttons without negative consequences.

Walking with Papa



Exploring the depths with Dad



Pushing buttons with Aunt Betsy



Running down the corridor of the bunk room



Buttons and knobs.....such fun for a toddler



Around the memorial they also had other various war memorabilia, tanks and missiles along with a random train caboose out front. Wesley, being the train nut he is, thought this was pretty cool.



One of my favorite pictures of the little tyke: typical Wesley...chubby red cheeks and hands full of walnuts

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Aquarium

What a nice weekend we had. First and foremost, Happy Father's Day to all you special Dads out there! Especially my wonderful husband, my Father and my Father-in-law. You guys enrich our lives so much and we are so lucky to have you in them.





We got back this evening from out mini vacation to Oklahoma. It was a weekend packed full of events and we really had a nice time. Saturday we woke up and went to the Oklahoma Aquarium, followed a trip the USS Batfish Submarine. Sunday was a trip to see Woolaroc Ranch. Since I got so many good pictures I'm going to break the weekend up into a few different blog posts over the next few days.

The Oklahoma Aquarium was something I've been wanting to see for about a year and a half now and am thrilled to finally have seen it. Wesley has an Elmo's World where part of the DVD is about fish. In this segment they take a trip to an aquarium and it looked so neat I immediately got online and Googled the closest aquarium to us which happened to be in Oklahoma.

I can say that the experience was sort of lost on Wesley at this age. I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep from the night before (a whopping 6 hours) or lack of food, or just being a two year old but he wasn't very into it. I, on the other hand, thought it was quite interesting. I've always thought fish and sea life was fascinating so this was right up my alley. They had a spectacular shark exhibit as well as an awesome otter habitat that made it worth it. Here are some pictures from the Aquarium.

Sharks!



A big tank of stingrays



Mom and Wesley checking out the fishes



He was so short he couldn't see anything so Wesley was carried through it all



All smiles when he's around Grandma



Grandma and Grandpa



We were thrilled that my sister and her husband came with us as we don't have the opportunity to see them very many times a year. I've mentioned it before but my sister is pregnant as well and due to have a little boy the very end of October. We had to get the "bellies" together for a shot since this will be the only occasion we'll both be preggers at the same time.



Uncle Blake was a big hit with Wesley on this trip. He was always around to make the kid smile or giggle and it sure helped out when Sean and I were running low on energy. Thanks "Blake-not-Bob".

Thursday, June 18, 2009

STB (Strange Toddler Behavior)

Wesley and I stayed inside yesterday for a change because of the almost 100 degree weather. I forgot how much it sucks to stay inside all day with a restless toddler. I decided to let him "help" me with the laundry again since I know how much he enjoys it. His new thing is to take all the washcloths out of a load of laundry and pile them up. He then will take all of Dads underwear and pile them on top of the washcloths. Then he picks up this pile and carries it around with him all day. I mean he didn't let this pile of clothes out of his sight. I tried to take some of it away (ie dads underwear) and he had a complete melt down. So this pile of laundry made it with him to the end of the day. He added all of his four pairs of footed summer jammies to it as well and proceeded to throw it all into his crib before he went to bed last night. I went in to check on him before I went to bed and he was curled up sleeping on this rather large pile of clothes. Strange but rather cute.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Fun with the hose

Since I've been on a roll with posting pictures I thought I'd add some more. I was filling up the stock tank for the horses the other evening and Wesley found the running hose as I went to turn it off. Needless to say he was totally fascinated with the concept of running water. By the end of it all he was soaking wet with a giant smile on his face. It's truly the simple things in life that can bring the greatest joy to a child (and in turn, that child's parents).


Monday, June 15, 2009

Heart Walk

My dad emailed me some pictures from the Heart Walk we participated in this past Saturday. I thought I'd share them. There was quite a turn out. Poor Wesley wasn't used to getting up at 7 am so he kept passing out in the wagon the whole morning. They were giving away all sorts of stuff and of course his favorite was the balloons.

Grandpa and Wesley (who is enamored with a balloon)


Wesley didn't know what to think about the clown making balloon animals.


My Mother, Wesley and I getting ready for the walk

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Weekend

Wesley has had a pretty busy weekend for a change. Yesterday he and I woke up early to go participate in a Heart Walk. The company my father works for is one of the sponsors so he asked if we wanted to join them, we said sure! It was enjoyable. We loaded Wesley up in his wagon and walked three miles around the local college campus. It was a nice walk and the campus was really beautiful. I, unfortunately, forgot my camera so don't have any picture to post but we did have a nice time and were lucky that the weather cooperated.

Sean has been out chipping more of the piles of walnut limbs every weekend and is making progress slowly but surely. The chipper is working like a champ and chewing up those limbs. I'm so glad we just bought one instead of renting as this would have taken far longer than we had originally thought (doesn't everything?). The pile of mulch is growing rapidly and has become a fun play spot for the youngins. Friday when Alex and Abby were over I got a picture of them playing king of the hill.



This morning I had to get Sean to give Chance a flea bath as he's been quite itchy lately. I'm a firm believer in topical flea treatments and I've treated them several times this season already. The problem is our vet stopped carrying the stuff we like so we tried some new stuff called Vectra and it doesn't work at all. In fact poor Sophie has had some sort of allergic reaction to it and itches and bites the spots where I treated her back. So I'm forced to use flea shampoo until I can treat them again next month with my old stuff. Here is Wesley watching Dad shampoo up Chance. This is the first dog bath Sean has ever given. I normally do it but didn't have any gloves and didn't want the anti-flea chemicals on me.



Wesley has learned how to open and shut the gates on the fence outside. This is proving to not be a good thing since one of the gates he likes to open and shut is the gate to the dog area. If he lets Sophie out when we're not watching her she's likely to take off. We've added some latches to the gates to prevent this but not before he went into the dog area and threw her dog bowl and water dish down on the concrete breaking both last night. Little turkey.



That's about all that's happening around here. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Friday, June 12, 2009

25 Weeks



All I have to say is that this pregnancy is flying by so fast! I can't believe I only have 15 more weeks until "D Day". Scary! Even though I've gone through labor and delivery once already I have to admit I'm not looking forward to that whole experience again. Luckily it goes fairly fast and there is an end, can't go on forever.....right?

My wedding rings are officially removed and replaced with a large silver band that I used during pregnancy #1. The rings were getting tight from swelling and I thought it was time to bite the bullet and get them off while I still can. The swelling hasn't been too noticeable yet, only right before I go to bed do I feel like there might be some in my feet and occasionally fingers.

I call this stage the "freaky dancing belly stage". It's that time when you sit on the couch and watch the belly move and jive. If you place a cup or remote control on the belly it will move up and down and all around. It's cool. She's a mover and shaker! As I move into the third trimester I find the fatigue returning. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning. Some of this is due to being sleepy and some is due to the fact that it's physically difficult to get out of bed. That's about all. I have my gestational diabetes test the visit after next and then I move into every 2 week visits to the doctor. Fun stuff!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Kids say the darndest things

This morning I hauled Wesley to the post office along with a big black trash bag full of sculptures to ship out. We finally get up to the desk and I'm unloading the boxes onto the counter when Wesley tugs on my shorts and quietly says "Mommy I pooping". I look down at him and say "That's great hon, thanks for sharing". He then turns to the line of people behind us and yells "I pooping!!". Greeeeeat. The people in line smiled and a few giggled. He's such a ham.

We are going to see the Oklahoma Aquarium the weekend after next and I've been trying to get Wesley excited about the road trip since it's the only one we'll be taking this summer. So everyday when we're eating lunch I talk to him about how we're going to go see fishies of all sizes and shapes and even see sharks! Then I tell him that we are going to see the fishies with Noni and Papa and Aunt Betsy and Uncle Blake. Throughout the day he'll come up to me and tell me we're going to go see fishies. I ask him who we're going to go see them with and he lists off Noni and Papa and Betsy and Bob. He can't seem to get uncle Blake correct so he calls him "Bob". Sorry Blake, you are now known as Bob.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

ABC song

We were goofing around in his room this morning and I video taped him kinda singing his ABC song with me. He wasn't very into it today but he did manage to get about half the letters. He was more interested in being a goof ball.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Conquering slides and scary easter baskets

We had a day with a few "firsts" today. Wesley and I were over at Jessica's house letting the kids play outside and I look over to see Wesley climbing the ladder to the big slide all by himself. This is a first for him, he's a pretty cautious child and doesn't attempt to do much on his own. He didn't seem to need any help so I let him climb it and then he went down the slide by himself. It was great. He had the biggest smile on his face and immediately went over and did it over again about 10 times. The kid sure is growing up. We'll have to buy ourselves a swing set with a slide sometime.

Then we get home and I prepare to put him down in his crib for his nap. He always goes in the crib awake and happy and eventually goes to sleep after about 10-15 minutes. He's got a few toys in there that he plays with until he goes to sleep. Today he just wouldn't stop crying. I sometimes just let him cry it out for awhile and then he calms down and goes to sleep. Today there was just "something" to the way he was sobbing so I went in his room to find that he had put his head through the handle on his Elmo easter basket and it was stuck around his neck. The sucker was wedged so tight I could hardly get it back over his head. I finally did get it off and all was well again. He fills up this easter basket with his big lego toys and takes it everywhere, including his crib. Well, not anymore. Note to self, no more easter baskets in bed.

Here are some cute pictures taken over the past two days of Sean reading to Wesley. The kid is in heaven with the new Sesame Street board books I found at garage sales this past weekend. Note the bike helmet, he'll just wear it around the house. I was telling Sean that he reminds me of the character "Dark Helmet" in the movie Spaceballs.



Sunday, June 7, 2009

Rootin Tootin Cowboy

Wesley's second birthday is in about a month and I've been brainstorming lately concerning it. I can already tell that the second birthday is going to be much more enjoyable for the kid than the first. We've already been talking about it and hyping it to try and get him excited. This past week I ordered his birthday present online. I should probably give you some background information so it doesn't seem weird. Wesley's new obsession is the wild wild west. We have an Elmo's World that centers around the wild west and cowboys and the kid loves it. No, that's an understatement. He's crazy about it. He sings the Wild Wild West song all the time. We all sing the Wild Wild West song at the dinner table. In fact I sing it in the shower. You get the idea. So when he watches this particular DVD he sits on the couch with his cowboy hat on (excuse me, his wild wild west hat). I figured the kid needed some cowboy boots to complete the ensemble. So I ordered these precious little gems.

They are tiny little leather size 8 toddler boots. Of course I went on eBay first to try and find some used ones since he'll grow out of them in 2.4 seconds but even the used ones were going for $15 plus shipping. I figured ten more bucks and I can get new ones. The kid is going to freak out. I can't wait for him to open them up on his birthday.
This naturally lead me to start thinking about what theme I want to do his birthday in and, duh, it's gotta be a cowboy theme! Who knew there were all sorts of wild west themed birthday stuff for kids? Well, there are. I know he's young and this will probably be lost on him but it sure gives me something fun to plan. The only other kids that will be there are Jessica's two (which are his best buds anyways) so I thought I'd make some cute cowboy vests with bandanas and straw cowboy hats for them to run around in. I'll do a cowboy cake and get some cute plates and we'll have a yee haw good time.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Hat Man Jack

    I went out and did the garage sale thing again this morning. This is definitely the last time this season. I'm officially burnt out on garage sales. Actually I'm burnt out on filling my already full house any fuller with other people's junk. I did make out like a bandit in the book department. I found at least 20+ new books that he's gonna love. That alone would have made the trip worth it but I also found other junk stuff. Wesley has this strange love of hats. Any hat, or even things that aren't hats but can be worn on the head, become near and dear to him. He had quite the hat collection before today but now he's got a massive collection. I asked him to model his hats for me today and I thought I'd share. We didn't get them all because he got timed of the trying on hat game pretty quick.

His new bike helmet


Fireman Wesley


His sun hat, won't leave the house without it


Wild wild west hat


Construction worker hat


Safari hat


Don't you just love his "smile for the camera" look?


In this last picture you can see his battle wounds from the other day. We had our first big "ouchie". He was trying to step out of his sandbox and tripped and face planted on the cement. He didn't put his little hands out in front of him so his face took the full brunt. His nose was bleeding all over, his chin was bleeding with sand embedded in the cuts and above his mouth was all scraped. It was pretty bad. He looks a lot better now but his face is still healing. Luckily he didn't knock out any teeth! Sean says "chicks dig scars" so he'll be ok. :)