Video

Here's the video I shot last night after I got home from the expo. Nothing too exciting happening in it, but I hope it is enjoyable regardless.

Today we went to church, came home and Hubby and Munchkin had outside time while I made lunch. During lunch Munchkin literally almost fell asleep while eating. Then we all had nap time! We woke up and Hubby made strawberry banana smoothies and we played outside.

Munchkin then wanted to come in for some dancing. He has a few musical videos that he just LLLLOOOVVVEESSS! He is also getting very good at telling us that he wants to dance and which one he wants to dance to. Genius. Our child is a genius! :)

Summer Fun!

The Expo went well! It was quite the experience, that's for sure. Lots of people who have way too much money to spend! I think my mom said it best (I'm paraprhasing. This isn't a direct quote - I don't have that good of memory! Ha!) "Just think of all the hurting people in the world who could be helped by the money being spent here."


On a lighter note...when I came home, the boys were just finishing up supper so we went outside for some pool time.

See?

Don't be jealous of Munchkin's sunglasses. You can get some for yourself at Target. They have dinosaurs on them.

We are noticing some interesting "quirks" that Munchkin has. He is very methodical about how he does things. He has started lining similar items up perfectly in a row. Do all kids go through a phase like this? I'm not sure if that is it or if he is taking after his engineering daddy. Tonight in the bathtub he lined up all the rubber ducks that were exactly the same perfectly on the side of the bathtub. Tonight during pool time he kept going back and forth from one side of his pool to the other and splashed his hands in the water. I took a video. Videos take awhile to load and I want to go to bed so I'll post it tomorrow. Only the grandparents and aunts will probably appreciate the video, so the rest of you will just have to suffer through it! Muuah haha haaa! Or, you know, you could just not watch the video. Either way.

Enjoy your last day of May tomorrow! What a great month it has been.

16 months ago...

Sixteen months ago today at 3:27 a.m. I heard the words "It's a boy!" When hearing those words I had no idea what joy that boy would bring me and Hubby. Our lives have forever been changed - for the better. Now I wonder "What did we do before Munchkin?"



How quickly these past 16 months have passed. I totally took them for granted - especially the first few months. I couldn't wait to hear that boy laugh, talk, see him walk, eat real food, etc. Now I long for the days when I had a little infant who I didn't have to worry about getting into things. I wish I could just snuggle with him for hours on end and listen to his little noises as I held and fed him.



But alas, life must go on. The boy must continue to grow up. For soon, this boy will be a man. Months will quickly turn into years. So I am determined to make the most of each day I have with our special boy.



Days like these when we're outside as much as possible - socializing, playing, smiling, laughing, running, climbing, and loving being a little boy.

Yep, I will cherish days like these...

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak at the changes being made in our kitchen and dining room. Once the rooms are completely put back together, I'll post better pictures.

Kitchen sneak peak.

Dining room sneak peak.

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Munchkin and I headed up to my sister's today to help her get ready for an expo that will be in town tomorrow and Saturday. She will be having a booth for her Thirty-One items. I will be working with/for her both days so my mom is coming to watch Munchkin.

Even though I'll be super busy and won't be getting home until late tomorrow, I do plan on posting. I hope to get it ready tonight so I can put it up on my blog first thing. I am one that does not do well staying up late, otherwise I would just post after I get home tomorrow night.

I'll do my best to post on Saturday to let you know how the expo went.

Promised Pictures

Feeding the goats at Deanna Rose.

Playing with the new slide grandpa and grandma bought him!

Playing in his pool.

Going out to eat.

"Hmmm. What's good here?!"

Messy mouth from the cookies grandpa and grandma brought.

I'm No Pioneer Woman

We have air conditioning people!!! Woohoo!

This morning as I was using hot water to wash sheets and towels in my washer and dryer without any air conditioning I thought about how blessed I am to live in these times. I've always been fascinated by the pioneering time in history - but I'm sure glad I don't live in a time without air conditioning, running water, electricity, etc.

Today was rather uneventful. Just trying to put the house back together after our painting "party."

I was going to post cute pictures of Munchkin that his grandma took while she and Hubby's dad were here this weekend, but blogger is having issues and won't let me do it. So I guess you'll have to wait til tomorrow.

Sorry for the boring post today. Pictures will be coming tomorrow!

Busy Busy Busy

Wow! I haven't posted in a long time. Just so you know, we're fine. We've just been super busy. Here's a brief summary of the past few days.

Thursday Munchkin and I went out to lunch with my sister-in-law. She and my brother have moved much closer to us and we were planning on seeing them for at least a day this weekend at their new house. It was so much fun being able to go to lunch with her as before we rarely got to see each other.

After lunch, Munchkin and I came home to a broken air conditioner. The house was quickly getting warm, so I put on hold all the cleaning I was planning on doing. No, the air conditioner still isn't fixed. But it is supposed to be tomorrow. The guy should be here between 1 and 3. Please say a quick prayer if you get the chance.

Thursday night Hubby, Munchkin and I went to Lowe's tp buy paint as we painted our kitchen and dining room Friday and Saturday. We got home later than expected from that and did as much prep work as we could on those two rooms until 1:30 a.m.

Friday we finished prep work and got the first coat of paint on by the bedtime. Hubby's parents came to take care of Munchkin while we worked. It was even more tiring since we were working in the heat all day. This was the day we learned we wouldn't have air until Tuesday.

Saturday we finished painting, but because it was so humid in our house, it took longer than usual for the paint to dry. Therefore, while taking the tape off, some paint started peeling off the wall because it was still too wet. We did the best job that we could, but rushed a bit to go to my brother's new house. We decided to stay there for the rest of the weekend because they had air conditioning.

So the past two days we've been helping them get settled (and Hubby got to play some golf). We are back home tonight and I'm going crazy trying to get the house put back together. Thankfully it is cool here tonight so it is comfortable inside.

I feel like it has been a whirlwind of a weekend. The paint looks great and we couldn't have done it without Hubby's parents' help. I'm waiting to post before and after pictures once I get my new drapes up, so you'll have to wait awhile longer.

I'll try to be more diligent about posting this week. I'll definitely have to let you know if we get air conditioning back up and running tomorrow!

Ode to Summer

Auntie D. (my sister) came over early to get some play time in before she and I went out for the evening. We got some play time in the sprinkler - Munchkin's first outdoor water experience this summer! I think it will only be a matter of time before I get him a pool.

Here he is with Auntie D.

While I was out tonight with Auntie D., Munchkin played outside with Hubby. You can see they had good times with the wagon and if you look closely you can see some sidewalk chalk art on our patio!

Don't you just love how green the grass is! Munchkin just LOVES being outside. He'd probably live out there if we let him. I'm hoping to actually get a tan this year because I'll be outside with him so much. He is already starting to get a little bit of a farmer's tan.

Tonight I had lots of fun with my sister buying fabric for new curtains for our dining room and kitchen. We also looked at paint colors for both rooms. I may post a picture of some "teasers" in the next couple of days so you can get an idea of what the rooms will look like.

Birthday

Today is my birthday! And what a wonderful day it was.

This morning before Hubby went to work we had some family play time after Munchkin woke up. This morning Munchkin played while I got work done in the kitchen.

After lunch we both took a nap and then spent the rest of the afternoon outside. We were still outside when Hubby got home from work. Then, the three of us went out to dinner and stopped by Sheridan's for some frozen custard.

Tonight we had more play time and Hubby did some measuring in our dining room and kitchen. We are hopefully going to be doing some painting this weekend and I'm buying fabric for some curtains. My sister agreed to make me new curtains for my birthday. I am meeting her tomorrow night to have some sister bonding! We haven't had a lot of that since Munchkin was born. Just me and sissie are going out to dinner and then she is going to help me pick out a color to paint our kitchen.

We didn't do any painting when we moved into our house for a couple of reasons: when we moved in we didn't know what we wanted because it was our first house, and I was finishing my Master's degree when we moved in so I didn't have time to pick out paint colors.

I'll hopefully post before and after pictures once painting is done.

Thank you to everyone who mailed me cards, called, emailed and texted me birthday wishes. I am so blessed to have each of you in my life. It has been an absolutely wonderful day.

My Own Personal Rain Cloud

Remember how I mentioned I have a history with stormy weather? I thought I would write a post about it. I won't go into every detail because I could go on and on.

It all started in high school. Our town has a fair every August. One night it was storming, so my sister and I came home. Our parents were supposed to be home soon, but my sister and I were a little worried because the storm was so bad. From the bathroom window you can see the road so my sister was looking out the window watching for them. Also out that window you could see our pool. My sister yelled at me saying our pool was gone! Gone?! Yep, that's right. A pool full of water just disappeared! We found bits and pieces of it around our yard the next day - but that was quite the storm.

Next, the Sunday before finals week my sophomore year of college I was in my dorm room playing games on the computer procrastinating and not writing a final paper for one of my classes. My roommate was somewhere else on campus, so I had the music blaring. Thankfully I heard a knock on the door and it was another person in our dorm knocking on doors making sure people knew the tornado sirens were going off and we needed to go to the basement. I made my way to the basement, and it is a good thing I did. A tornado ended up hitting our campus. It landed right on top of my dorm and blew the roof off. It did a lot of damage on our campus and finals were canceled!

Our wedding day was also a stormy one. The place where we had our reception wasn't safe to be in during a tornado, so the fire department ended up coming and telling us we had to go to the local high school because of a tornado warning. I even have proof that our reception was evacuated!

Here is my dad telling us we have to evacuate. I love our facial expressions...don't you? Ha!

Here is hubby's brother and sister next to a fire truck walking into the high school.

And this ended up being where I did most of my socializing during our reception - a high school.

Here is hubby's family checking out the radar at the high school.

And here we are leaving the school to go back to the reception.

Although I didn't have the reception I was wanting, all in all it was a successful day. We are married, aren't we?

Uh oh!

Munchkin's newest phrase this week is "uh oh." At the beginning of the week it sounded more like "ha ha" but is slowly progressing.

Today we went to my sister's house to drop off items we didn't sell at our garage sale. Her subdivision is having garage sales this weekend. It got really stormy when we were there, but if you know anything about my past and my frequent run-ins with bad weather, it was nothing I was worried about.

What's that? Not everyone knows about all my run-ins with bad weather? Hmm...I think I see another post forming. Stay tuned! (But I may not get it written tomorrow. I'll be at the garage sale during the day and out to dinner with the in-laws tomorrow night. But I promise that post will be coming soon!

Nothing like catching up with old friends

Munchkin and I made the rounds this week catching up with some friends we haven't seen in awhile.
Here is Munchkin with his great grandpa B. I haven't given you an update on grandpa in awhile. He has been home for a week and a half. His heart does not look good and he is no longer able to drive. He is on a lot of meds and is relying heavily on my mom and aunt to take care of him. It was wonderful to have some one-on-one time with him. He certainly enjoys his great grandson! We love you grandpa!

One of my dearest friends was in this area of the country so we went to go see her. This is Kait and her son E. who is almost exactly one month older than Munchkin. Kait and her husband live in Israel but have been in the Boston area recently so her husband can do research at Harvard. Kait brought E back to this area to see family and friends. They return to Israel in September. I don't get to see her often, and it was such a blessing to let the boys play together and have some much needed catch-up time with Kait. Although having a conversation is much harder now with two toddlers around! Ha!

I've known Kait for years. We did Bible studies together throughout high school. She was also my personal attendent at our wedding. God has used her in so many ways in my life. She has been instrumental in my faith walk. It was so neat to get together now that we have kids. We used to dream about being mommies and now we are!

On a different note, my carpets are clean! Yea! The house looks so much better. My husband is the greatest!

Visiting

Munchkin and I are out of town doing some visiting. I'll post more hopefully tomorrow.

Hubby's cleaning our carpets today while we're gone! Woohoo! :)

Tuesday Talk

Today was our last MOPS meeting of the year. We won't meet again until September. What a wonderful year it has been. I met so many amazing women. I know they are also amazing mothers, but they are also fabulous women. MOPS has really helped my life stay balanced. While connecting with other moms, I have been able to keep my identity and remember and be encouraged that I have a life outside of being mommy to Munchkin.

Sometimes it is so easy to get wrapped up in simply being a mom that I forget that I am a person too. I have wants and needs. I have hopes and dreams. Munchkin won't be under my roof forever. What am I doing today to make sure I still have a purpose once he is gone? I don't want to forget who I am.

Last night I was asked whether or not I would go back to teaching once I went back to work. Honestly, I don't know. Growing up my dreams were to be a teacher, and a mommy. I've accomplished both those things, so what is next? I know I don't have to figure that out now - I still have lots of time left being Munckin's mommy and hopefully we'll have more kids in the future - but I still need to have goals. Yes, I could go back to teaching some day, but the realization that I don't HAVE to is very exciting. I can have new dreams. Just because I'm a mommy doesn't mean I have now reached my full potential.

So what do I want to be when I grow up??? Hmmm. That's a question I haven' asked myself in quite awhile.

If you could start all over with a brand new career, what would it be?

What do you think?

Do you like the new look? Well, I do, and it really doesn't matter what you think! Ha! It is MY blog after all. I think it looks more cheery. Hopefully it will brighten your day when you visit.

Can you tell Hubby has been taking care of Munchkin today?

Under Construction

Do not adjust your screen!!!! I am currently trying to change the look of my blog so please be patient with me. Hopefully, we'll make this work soon! I needed a fresh change for spring.

Ok, maybe not NOTHING

I know I wasn't planning on posting today, but I've been having such a wonderful day, I just wanted to share it with you all.

This morning Munchkin slept in, which allowed me to sleep in, and Hubby to make breakfast! The muffins were delicious and a wonderful treat this morning.

Besides having breakfast made for me, I also got my card at breakfast. For every occasion for which I would get a card, Hubby makes one for me with a picture of Munchkin or of him and Munchkin on it. I cherish these so much more than store-bought cards because I know Hubby took time to make them. Anyway, I thought I would show you the picture on my card from last year and today - just so you can see how much Munchkin has changed in the past year.

This was the picture on my Mother's Day card last year. Munchkin was just starting to hold his head up really well and get his arms underneath himself. Just look at that face. I just want to smother it with kisses! Oh! And the chubbiness around his wrists. What deliciousness.

And this was the picture on my Mother's Day card this morning. No more baby - total and complete little boy! Yes, I still want to smother that face with kisses, but his baby look is slowly deteriorating. :( Oh, and do you like his shirt? It says "Don't mess with Texas" - it was a gift from one of Aunt N.'s trips to the Lonestar state.

And I also wanted to share with you my Mother's Day bouquet. It may not look like much, but I adore it. The pink carnation I got at church this morning. The peony and rose are from our own flower bushes that blossomed just in time for my special day.

So that's my day so far. Hubby has done more for me and has given me a few more gifts, but that is a sampling of my day. Yes, I am married to the most wonderful man in the world - if you only knew how wonderful. But I didn't ask him if I could post about everything I have gotten today, so for now, this is enough to share.

Regardless if you're a mom or not, I hope you all are feeling blessed today.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there - especially the moms in my life. Grandma V., Grandma G., Karen, and my mom.

I know I'm a day early, but since tomorrow is actually Mother's Day, I'm planning on taking advantage of it, and doing NOTHING! Ok, I'll still teach Sunday School, but I'm trying to leave the day as open as possible. I told Hubby that I don't want to have to cook. However, I'm kind of dreading going to any restaurant tomorrow. Every place will be packed I'm sure.

So other than going out for lunch, what are my other plans for the day? Not really sure. Although my gift for Mother's Day this year is getting the carpets in our house cleaned!!! Woohoo! I am pumped about this. Now that we have a moving Munchkin, our carpets are getting gross! I am very excited for this gift. I am definitely one of those people who cannot totally relax unless the house is clean. Mess equals stress. Ha!

Today has been the perfect start to the weekend. I met with my teacher friends for lunch (at Pei Wei. Yum!) and shoe shopping. I found some shoes I love, but they were $60! I couldn't justify spending that much money on shoes.

The rest of the day I plan on hanging out with my boys. Hubby is going to mow. Again. We have been getting so much rain lately we can't seem to keep up with the grass.

Well, Munchkin is up from his nap now, so I better get going. A mother's job never ends! Happy Mother's Day!

A Friday Find!

I found a new activity to do with Munchkin! Today we went to Debbie Howard's Gym. It is a gym where kids can learn gymnastics. Every so often they have an open gym for little kids. Today was one of those open gyms. It was so much fun! Munchkin loved having the room to run and being around the other kids. It also gave us more practice with sharing!

I do have to tell one story. The gym has a trampoline (sp?) along one whole wall that is about shoulder height that leads into a foam cube pit. I knew Munchkin wouldn't be able to get out of the foam pit so I made him stop every time he got to that point. One time he fell in! Thankfully it was foam, and he didn't get hurt. However, like I said, it is about shoulder height so I couldn't just lean over and get him out. I tried and tried to get him to come over to me. He tried and tried to, but eventually started crying because the foam pit was like being in a sand pit. It was hopeless. What was a mom to do?

That's right, I jumped in. (sigh) I made it over to him but couldn't get out of the pit carrying him (again, like a sand pit). Thankfully another mom came over to help. She took Munchkin so I could get out. She put Munchkin on the floor, and since the pit was shoulder height, he couldn't see me and started screaming. The nice lady picked him up so he could see his struggling momma. I finally made it out of the pit and embraced my frightened son.

Needless to say, I don't think we'll play in that area of the gym the next time we go.

It is not beneath me

First, here's a picture just for fun. Munchkin is reading in this picture. One of his favorite things to do. It is really adorable now because he is able to pretend to read out loud. Too cute!


And now...it is not beneath me to put a dvd into the dvd player because I know it will keep Munchkin occupied long enough for me to make supper. See?!



Want to know what he's watching? Only his favorite dvd of all time. Some of you can guess I bet. He is watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. It is an oldie from the '70s, but he loves it - as you can see by the brainwashed look on his face :)

Ok. Round #2. It is not beneath me to let my child go around only in his diaper because I have other things to do besides chasing him around the house trying to put clothes on him. That's right. Munchkin has begun running from us. His favorite time to run away is before diaper changes.

Ahhh. I feel much better now getting those things off my chest. As you can see, I am not a perfect mother. I use the tv to occupy my child. I let him "win" the chase and give up because really, how important are clothes? Keep in mind, I don't do these things all the time. But regardless, I'm pretty sure I'm normal. Hey, I may even be a pretty good mom at that. Today I observed Munchkin playing with the neighbor and he shared some toys - without any prompting! See? I'm not so bad afterall.

a little alliteration

I promise proposed pictures posted promptly tomorrow(? couldn't think of a p word here) because personally, I'm pooped.

:)

Just another day

Nothing too exciting to report today. Just thought I'd let you know that my sister has posted some new pictures of Munchkin on her blog if you'd like to see some. Just go to my left sidebar and find my list of blogs. Hers is titled "Oh Fiddlestix".

Please continue to be in prayer for my grandpa. The results of the tests on his heart aren't great, but who would expect them to be coming from an 89 year old heart. Still, prayers are appreciated.

Sorry tonight's post is so short. I will hopefully post some pictures tomorrow. (Since I know that's the reason you all read my blog anyway! Don't tell me it isn't true. I know. You're here for the Munchkin, not me. It's fine. Really. I'm used to it. I'm sure all you moms out there know what I'm talking about.)

15 month check-up

Munchkin went in for his 15 month check-up today. He sure is a big boy! 28.5 pounds and almost 33 inches long!

The rash turns out to be eczema. We got a prescription for a cream to use when it flares up and I need to buy a different cream to use on his skin twice a day instead of regular lotion. Fun fun!

On the wheezing front I told the doctor how the nebulizer seems to be working much better than the inhaler did. However, when I told her (our doctor is a woman) how often we were using it (which I thought was pretty good compared to how often we used the inhaler) she told me he shouldn't be using it that much. Apparently he has more inflamation in his lungs than we originally thought. Therefore, he will now be using a preventative inhaler (flovent) every day. We'll still use the nebulizer when he wheezes, but the goal is that the flovent will eventually keep him from needing the nebulizer. Apparently he should only need the nebulizer a couple of times a month and we were needing it a couple of times a week! Yikes! I'm supposed to call back in a month and let her know how he's doing.

So there you go folks. That's how our appointment went today. We'll see the doctor again in three months. (Let's pray we don't need to see her again before that.)

On a different note, please pray for my grandpa B. He went out to eat lunch after church yesterday and passed out. The doctor sent him to the hospital in Lincoln. He already has a pacemaker. The did blood work last night and did an Echo cardiogram this morning and are currently doing a stress test. Please say a prayer. My mom says he is feeling good. She says he's been complaining about being hungry because they won't feed him with all the tests they have to do. Sounds just like grandpa!

Done Selling

Overall, the garage sale was a success. I have just one tub and a small box of items left to take to my sister's garage sale in a couple of weeks.

Wondering about our garage door? Well, even if your answer is "no" here is how it got fixed.

Thursday after I had called Hubby to let him know it was broken I continued working on getting things ready for our sale. Randomly a couple hours later, our doorbell rang. There was a man standing at our door with his pickup truck parked in front of our house. On the door of he pickup was the name of his garage door repair service. I looked at him and he proceeded to tell me that he had just been down the street repairing someone's garage door. He was driving by and noticed ours was broken. He asked if I wanted him to fix it. Ok, was this a God thing or what? First, what are the odds of your garage door breaking the day before you have a garage sale. Furthermore, what are the odds that a garage door repairman happens to be in your neighborhood that afternoon to fix it. I called Hubby to tell him about the angel that just rang our doorbell. He was on his way home and told me to ask the guy to wait. Thankfully, he did and less than an hour later, we had a working garage door. Praise God!

Now if only we would have made enough money in our garage sale to pay for the repair! Ha! Doesn't God have a great sense of humor?

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Sidenote: Please pray for Munchkin. This week he has developed some sort of rash. It has started to spread all over his body. Thankfully it doesn't seem to bother him, but it makes me nervous. We have his 15 month checkup on Monday so I'll be able to ask the doctor about it then. Please pray for wisdom for the doctor. Thanks!

Sell Sell Sell!

We got our garage door fixed! I'll have you tell you more later. For now I'll give you an update on how things are going.

Last night as I was setting things up in the garage it was hot and humid. Today it is freezing!!! I watched the weather at 7 this morning right before I started the garage sale. The weatherman we were already at our high for the day and the temp was just going to continue to fall. Boy was he right! I'm so cold! But thankfully, we've had a pretty good crowd and I've sold a good amount of junk. I mean...treasures!!! :)

Munchkin is sleeping right now. My mom is outside taking over while I'm inside trying to warm up. I'm eating stew for lunch. Perfect for this cold day!

Well I better get back to it. Sell Sell Sell!