Weekly Winners

Father and daughter "fishing" in the koi pond.

Couldn't find the kids last weekend, finally located them behind the couch coloring. Oh how they love to color.

My nephew Bennett harassing the cat.  Check out Brother Minions face. Freaky.

So many pictures of Bennett, Emery must have been hiding from the crazy lady with the camera.

 

I washed Sean's car and Brother Minion felt the need to lounge. Cat has a death wish according to Sean.

Girls Day

I've figured out the key to Greta's happiness lies in keeping her busy. That little girl gets angry when she gets bored. If Greta isn't happy, Momma isn't happy. So this week I did everything possible to keep her active. We went to a park we haven't been to in awhile and then we spent the afternoon at the mall yesterday. She's been napping very erratically and almost always passes out in the car. So once I got to the mall I knew she'd be sleeping so I parked the car and read the owners manual. This new car has so many features to learn I figured reading the owners manual would be helpful. The only thing I found interesting was that it said I should keep the car as light as possible to extend the range of the battery.....which meant it suggested only keeping the gas tank a 1/3 full. Gas is heavy. Things I wouldn't have thought of.

Greta woke up and it was lunch time so we wandered into one of the restaurants in front of the mall, one I'd never been to. I asked the gal at the counter what she liked and she said the Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps were good so that's what I got. Golly were they delicious! It even prompted me to go home and look up a recipe that would mimic them. They are going on our menu for sure.

Greta snarfed down some garlic cheese bread and even posed for a cell phone picture.

They only way I can drag her to the mall is if I promise she can go play in the play zone. She's breaking out of her shell and loves to find other little girls there to play with. I figure it's a good thing to keep her social for these next three years I've got her home with me. I'm sure preschool will help too but that won't start until next fall.

It was a nice day, now what to do with her next week?

Romancing the Trash Pile

I'm going to file this in the "odds and ends" category. Focusing on the odd part mind you. Last week was a bit of a rough week having two sick kids and a really sick husband home. I was running here and there, toting kids to and from the doctors and hoping and praying I would stay well through it all. Monday morning I'm standing at the kitchen window enjoying my coffee when I notice something over by the horse trailer. We have an old piece of furniture that needs to go to the dump sitting by the trailer and there was a pig perched up on this piece of wood. Yes, a pig. A really ugly, brown pig. He was, uh, having his way with this old piece of wood furniture. It ranks up there with some of the stranger things I've seen in my life.

I, of course, went over there to see if he was wild or tame. He didn't run from me and even let me touch him if I had cat food. He smelled awful. He decided to hang around for most of the day (can't imagine it had anything to do with the can of cat food I gave him). Might have been he just couldn't drag himself from his new girlfriend (my trash pile). He played with the dogs and really enjoyed the watering hose during his day stay with us. Naturally, every neighbor in a 5 mile vicinity showed up on my front porch asking if the strange pig that was frequenting their houses was mine. Luckily he wandered off after two days and I haven't seen the stinky pig since. Thank goodness.....because I really don't need another animal around here.

Here he is romancing the trash pile.

One ugly, stinky pig.

A bit of a ham with the hose.

Greta's 3rd Birthday

My little girl turned three years old on Friday and we celebrated with a nice little party on Saturday. Greta was so looking forward to seeing her cousins, Aunt Betsy and Uncle Blake. They were counting down the days there at the end of the week. She had a princess party with princess decor and cake to boot. I believe she went through three different wardrobe changes in the span of the party. Wanting to show off all of her favorite princess dresses. That girl is in love with her clothes (I can't imagine where she gets that from). It was a great day full of smiles and laughter and I appreciate everyone that made it special. Lots of pictures to share.

My beautiful birthday girl.

Opening her presents with a little help from Alex and Abby.

She was in Barbie heaven. 

Baby Bennett was hamming it up, what a doll!

The non-birthday boy opening up a present. 

Time for some chow.

There was supposed to be three princesses, but at 11pm I decided else wise. 

Bennett, Betsy and myself.

My Dad shares a birthday with Greta. He enjoyed his presents as well. 

Barbies and a Barbie house, we are going to have some fun play time! 

Can't forget the yearly hat picture. This one is still my favorite.

Ode to Kindergarten

Oh Kindergarten how I love you.
Wesley loves you too but lately we all feel like poo.

So much sickness brought home.
All day I talk to doctors on the phone.

Started with pink eye in Wesley on Sunday.
Let's just say it was not a fun day.

Eye drops started on Monday were met with instant relief.
But knowing it would travel to the 2 year old was only met with grief.

Getting eye drops into a screaming, kicking girl has been a test.
This whole ordeal has been quite the mess.

Sean and I hoped and prayed it would stay away from us.
But Sean woke up this morning to eye puss.

Poor guy has a double ear infection, pink eye and a bad bad cold.
It has hit him ten fold.

I, for some strange reason, am staying well.
But only time will tell.

I'm so exhausted from playing nurse,
I'm hopeful we will soon escape from the kindergarten curse.

Computer Chick

Before Wesley started school one of the kids favorite pastimes was sitting together at the computer and playing PBSkids.org. Wesley was always the computer operator, learning how to use the mouse at an unnaturally young age, while Greta would happily sit shotgun just watching what he was doing. Well I was curious how things would go once big bro went off to school. Yesterday was the first day she asked to play the computer games and it turns out she's quite capable of keeping herself entertained without her brother.

The Wednesday Write-Up

-Volt Report: We had its maiden voyage yesterday (we've been waiting on a 30 day tag that came in the mail). Greta and I decided to take Sean to lunch so we could try out the range. I'm thrilled to report we went 46 miles on a single charge (blew that 35 mile average out of the water). It was achieved by driving it easy. Which means not gunning it, coasting down hills and when coming up to stop lights which uses the regenerative braking (when you lift your foot from the accelerator or apply brakes the motor acts as a generator that works to recharge the battery). That 46 miles cost me $1.30 worth of electricity. That same 46 miles in my former car (a Ford Freestyle) which got 23 miles to the gallon would have cost me $7.50 (2 gallons of gas at $3.75 a gallon). That's one heck of a savings! So far I'm very happy with it.

-Princess Party Planning: A certain little girl is turning three years old in about a week and half. I've been trying to figure out what to do about her cake and came up with a princess cake idea. It should be cute if I can pull it off. She's been using her brothers Imaginext dragon castle as a doll house for her princesses so I figured it was time for a proper doll house. So I ordered a wooden barbie house off of Amazon. It's sitting unassembled in a large box by the front door. The kids keep coming up to me asking what's in the big box and I have to keep lying to them saying it's car parts dad ordered. I'm putting off assembling it because I don't know where to hide it until her birthday. I'm sure it will be a couple of late nights putting it together two days before the party. She's going to be so excited.

We've gone electric!

What a weekend! I've been working on an exciting new addition to our garage for about a week and a half now and it arrived on Saturday. Via car hauler. I seem to get the two year itch with the vehicles I drive and it was time for a change. And a change I got! No more gasoline for me (I hope). In the garage right this moment is a 2012 Chevy Volt. It's a plug-in electric car with a backup gas motor. It's got a 35 mile electric range (with the possibility of more if you drive it carefully). With my driving habits this could mean I won't be visiting the gas pumps at all. Nada. Zero. Zilch. How exciting! Based on my past year of driving this car will save me over $1200 in gas in a year. Can you tell I'm pumped?

Car was delivered right out in front of the house. It literally has 29 miles on it.

My Volt next to my Dad's Volt. Note that it's plugged in and charging. How cool.

The Wednesday Write-Up (a day late)

-The drought is over it seems. We got our first rain a couple of weeks ago and you could almost hear the grass start growing again. Everything greened up overnight and we even had to mow again after our two month mowing hiatus. I was mentioning to Rich how it's amazing what two inches of rain can do to a lawn that no amount of well water can achieve.  I watered and watered with well water this summer and it kept it from dying but that grass was not thriving at all. Rich said that there is nitrogen in the air and rain washes it down onto the grass and that's what greens up a lawn so quickly.  Things I never knew. That man knows everything. Seriously.

-Sean has been working on his corvette out in the shop fixing little things that he noticed on the drive home from picking up. The brakes needed a little work and the dash was flickering on and off so he got those things fixed. Today was officially the first day to drive it to work. He was excited and I was super excited for him.

-Every day I pick Wesley up from kindergarten and the first thing out of his mouth is "What did you and Greta do today?". He's very curious about how much fun we have while he's at school. He gets very let down if I mention we went to the park or out to eat. So now I have to "skip" portions of our day so he feels like he's not missing out on something fun while at school. He's really excited to go to school every day and I'd hate for him to start dreading it because he feels he's missing out on something at home.

-Greta is officially in her "why" stage. Everything word out of her mouth is "why?". For example:
Me: We have to go get the mail.
Her: Why?
Me: Because the mail lady came and it's sitting in the mail box.
Her: Why? 
Me: Because that's their job, to deliver the mail.
Her: Why?
Me: .........Because that's the way it is.
So that's my new phrase. All the time. "Because that's the way it is." Sigh. Fun times!

-I'm officially a coffee drinker. I love it. I've finally figured out why everyone likes it. Only took 33 years. Not real sure how I managed in the morning before I started drinking it. These early mornings getting the kids out the door to school are almost doable now. I'm drinking half decaf and half caffeinated in the mornings so I don't have the jitters and then a nice mug full of decaf in the evening while watching tv and sculpting. The evening cup has kept me from raiding the cupboards in search of snacks so it's a good thing. The mornings I go running I have full strength and it really helps me move.

My trim carpenter

Three day weekends are wonderful! Every weekend should be a three day weekend. I was able to totally waste an entire day shopping, eating out and goofing off while still getting a major project done on the two remaining days. I suppose *I* didn't exactly do the major project but I contributed. I decided this was the weekend to finish the trim. I've mentioned that when we did the major floor renovation back in April that we had to rip out all the existing floor trim because it was, literally, installed into the grout and tile (that we had to rip out). So off to Lowes I went with the intention of buying unfinished oak trim, stain, polyurethane, paint brushes and a set of new saw horses and spending most of Sunday staining trim. I get to the trim isle and am treated to the most amazing sight. Low and behold they sell already stained trim. In our color! I mean, seriously, what are the odds? I was so excited. It was either $9.80 per 10ft strip of unstained trim or $14.80 for a stained 10ft piece. I needed 10 strips, so it was a difference of $50. This was a no brainer. I figured I'd spend $50 on stain, brushes and saw horses and then waste an entire day staining (which is one of my lest favorite projects).

I lugged it home and yesterday Sean installed it. It looks wonderful, he did such a nice job. I told him he missed his true calling. I kind of got used to the lack of trim since it's been gone for four months so to see it all done is so exciting. I just keep staring at it. Another big project crossed off the list. Thank you Lowes for selling stained trim (in our color no less), sure made my part of the job painless.

It's the small things

Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying the nearly potty trained child? Well if I haven't mentioned it for a week, here it is. IT'S AWESOME! As part of my routine while grocery shopping I veer over to the baby isle and grab a bag of Pull-Ups and a package of baby wipes. I did it last week and then realized, after I got home, that I still had the unopened package of each from the week before. Yea!! It really is the small things in life.

Sitting on the throne with reading material....yep she's ours.

The New Normal

I thought there would be an adjustment period having one less kid around the house every day. But there has really been none. Greta and I have settled into a nice routine after big brother goes to school in the mornings. She likes to come out and help me feed all the animals, her favorite being the Minions. She's very good at getting the dry cat food out and filling each dish without spilling. As a reward she gets to take a ride on the gate (am I the only one that thinks that sounds incredibly redneck?!). The horse pen gate swings back and forth and she climbs up and I swing it while she giggles and screams. It's the simple things in life that make me smile.

While we were out feeding this past weekend I noticed the Morning Glory bush had a new bloom that I'd never seen before. I planted two different varieties on the trellis but all I've seen this season is the small purple variety blooming. So when I saw blue I had to go investigate. Looks like the other variety finally got a bloom out. It's a really large blue flower. It was so beautiful I had to take a picture. The poor trellis and bird feeder are now completely covered to the point it looks a bit more alien like than plant like. 

See? Sure is an invasive (yet beautiful) vine.

What it looked like at the beginning of the season.

These beauties have been blooming all season.

New giant blue variety. So pretty!

The chickens have been lacking in their laying duties for several months now. I have to give them a little slack since this has been one of the hottest summers in a decade or more. But now that the weather has started to change and we are getting some cool weather I think the "laydies" should get back to work. To help jump start their internal clocks we got the light in their coop back on the timer. It is set to come on early in the morning and go off after it gets dark outside. I hadn't checked the nesting boxes in about a month since they simply stopped laying so I thought I'd sneak a peek today and this is what I find. Guess they are back to laying! Yea! Store eggs are just not the same.

Coop light, worth it's weight in egg production. 

Guess I kind of veered off course, back to our day. Greta and I usually jump in the car a couple times a week and run errands. Today it was the feed store and grocery store. I have to travel a bit farther to get my feed these days. The Purina dealer near us went out of business so we had to switch the animals to non Purina feed since the next one is about an hour away. The animals don't seem to care one way or the other so it's a win win. By the time I pull into the driveway Greta is usually asleep so I park in the shade and let her sleep in the car. Apparently nap time is back on!

The girl is so much happier with a nap in her which makes ol' mom a much happier person. All in all our new days are fun and productive.

It's been one week

I'm overly excited to tell everyone I know that my youngest child seems to be potty trained. Something "clicked" a week ago and she has been hitting that potty regularly throughout the day. Do you know why I'm so excited? Because I haven't changed a diaper full of poop in seven days. You're sitting there going "what's the big deal?" The big deal is that I've been changing diapers full of crap since July of 2007. 2007! Do you realize how long that is? That's five years, one month and ten days. Holy crap that's a long time. Sean's been wondering why I've been in such a good mood lately. This might explain it.

When Greta and I were at the mall last week we went by one of the bulk candy stores and let her pick out a small bag full of all her favorite candy. She picked pink M&M's, Mike and Ike, Reeces Pieces and candy corn. By golly that seemed to be all it took to motivate her into becoming a full time big potty pro. Of course she figured out that she got a piece of candy each time she urinated regardless of how much urine was in the potty. So she was running to the bathroom three times and hour. But I don't care if she does that as long as she's learning. The down side to having candy in the house is that I eat it. Well let me clarify, I eat some of it. Turns out I can have M&M's and Mike and Ike in the house without eating it, but candy corn and Reeces Pieces were gone that night. Have you ever taken candy corn and mixed it with peanuts? So yum. Darn delicious confections.
So anyways, just had to share my super exciting news.

It runs, it drives and it's fun!

Sean rolled the tractor out of the garage this weekend for its maiden voyage. He took it into the horse pen and tried the blade out. It works great! I hopped on and gave it a whirl too. It's a very fun to drive although it took me awhile to figure out how to work the throttle while moving the blade up and down while steering. Actually I never figured it out but I will. Believe me, I'll have that thing figured out soon and then I'll be out there often scraping the horse manure out. It's going to be the cleanest horse pen known to man. I'm sure lucky to have such a handy husband (and father-in-law) that could take those pile of parts and make them into a working tractor.  It's not finished quite yet. I'd like to make it a bit more purdy (as in more green than rust colored). But that can be achieved with several cans on John Deere green spray paint and a long weekend. We'll get the "after" picture after it's been painted. In the mean time it's going to earn it's keep mucking out the horse pen and spreading gravel on the driveway. Here is Sean taking it out for its maiden voyage.

It's a good day

It's a lovely day outside. My memories of past Augusts have been a far cry from this one we are in. The weather has cooled down, there is a Fall feel in the air. The cracks are slowly closing in the yard and new growth is showing. I'm sitting here typing this while the aroma of dinner fills the house (beef tips...yum!) and a loaf of bread is baking in the bread machine. The kids are running around screaming outside and the boys (Hubby and Father-in-law) are out putting the finishing touches on the tractor. Actually they are fitting the blade on the front of it and then all that will be left is to show me how to run it. I'm looking forward to that!

Being a mom to a new kindergartener has been exciting. I have all this new found time on my hands and I've had fun finding ways to spend it. Greta and I had a girls day out on Thursday which consisted of going to the mall and wandering about looking at clothes. I promised her some time in the play zone (a big play area in the middle of the mall) and she had a blast making a new friend and playing. I discovered American Eagle has all their jeans on sale and picked up a really cute pair that looks great with my new pair of boots. I'm embracing fall even though it has yet to arrive. :) I then treated her to a lunch at McDonalds and an ice cream cone. I think she's enjoying this Mommy time as much as I am.

Wesley is doing great with the transition into kindergarten. He seems to be excited about his day when he gets home. He's not a very talkative little guy so we have to really pry to get details of his day out of him. I'm just happy he's learning new things and being social. They have a colored star system to let the parents know how their child is behaving during school. The best is purple then blue, green, yellow and red. You don't want to see your kid come home with a red star. Wesley got all blues and we are hoping that is a continuing theme. He's a good kid I'm not worried about his behavior. All in all we are adjusting to this big change well. 

I've started running more with the change in the weather. I almost forgot how much more enjoyable it is to run when it's cool! I have a race coming up the middle of October just to keep me motivated even though it's just a little 5K. They have a half and a full marathon with this race but I just can't wrap my head around another half marathon right now. I'm thinking one of those a year is enough. Rich brings up his bike with him when he visits and I borrowed it the past two weekends just to change up the workouts which has been nice. That prompted me to dig my bike out of the shop, get new tubes for it and ask Sean very nicely to put them on. So now I get to go riding on the weekends. I forgot how much I like bike riding (it's literally been 10 years since I rode a bike).
It was an all around good day, I hope you all had a nice one as well.

Off to School

Hard to believe that my oldest started Kindergarten today.  I'm sitting in a quiet house with Greta playing in her room by herself. It's kinda nice.  I'm not going to lie, I didn't cry when I dropped him off this morning. I gave him a hug and sent him on his way. He's excited to start school and I'm excited that he's going to be learning. My father asked me if I thought he was ready for all day kindergarten and I told him "Yes, he needs to be in a structured learning environment instead of pushing baby dolls around in his sisters baby carriage all day." This is going to be so good for him.

We went to the schools open house last night to meet his teacher and have a look around. It's a nice small school and his teacher is super nice. There are 16 kids in his classroom and only 48 kids in the whole grade. I'm happy with our decision with this school and sending him this year instead of red shirting him until next Fall.

Now the question is what to do with Greta? For now she's playing by herself quite nicely but I'm going to have to come up with some fun activities to keep us both occupied. She's never really had old Mom to herself. I figure Wesley had me to himself for the first 2 years of his life and now it's Greta's turn for a little one-on-one time with Mom. I do think more projects will get accomplished with just one kid around during the day. I think the first project will be to toss her car seat in the truck and go get trim and stain to finish out the carpet project. But, the first thing I'm going to do to celebrate the first day of kindergarten is to go take a nap.

Weekly Winners

The company picnic was held at the zoo this year. They opened it up after hours and had it open just for the people that Sean works with. I never knew the zoo could be so enjoyable! It was cool out with a nice breeze and it was empty. Most of the exhibits were completely deserted. Also the animals were more active in the evening (notice the bat picture below....in all my years going there I've never seen the bats feeding at the dish of blood). It was great, the kids had fun and we were able to enjoy it with Papa Rich there too. 

I thought this picture of Sean and Rich was cute. They were putting those blocks back in the box so meticulously.....only to have the kids pour it all out the next morning.

Kindergarten preparations. Wesley got to eat his lunch out of his lunch box today to make sure he was able to open everything (like put the straw in his juice box and open his treat). He's super excited!

 We were all sitting around playing play doh and I was singing "New York, New York" by Sinatra and the kids had no idea what I was singing. So over to YouTube we went and they got their first taste of Sinatra. Then I got to hear that music video over and over and over....they loved it!

The tree dweller.