Growing Up So Fast

A recent exchange with Amy...

Me: Amy, please come down off the stairs. Mommy doesn't want you playing on them.

Amy: Why?!?

A Difficult Book to Read

No, not literally. But it is hard to see the words when one 21 month old girl keeps putting her head in front of you so she can kiss the characters and "hug" each of them. Now that's taking the title of the book literally! And this really is the only book she does that to...

So I must read it every night, as her sweet display is too precious for words.

Boys and Their Imagination

Alex: (dressed in pirate attire) I am a pirate!
Nathan: Where is my daddy?!?
Alex: Your daddy is dead!
Nathan: No he's not. YOU are my daddy!

If they'd seen Return of the Jedi, they would know that this is not exactly how it is supposed to happen...

Speaking of Spiders...

I'm finding them everywhere!!!

Actually, I'll take this kind over the real ones any day!

Alex's creepy crawly in it's web

Nathan's many long-legged friends in his web

The two creators with their spider creations

How Clean is Your Spider?

He's dead, but clean.

Yesterday, while starting a washer load of rag towels (those I use for cleaning purposes), I noticed just as I'd tossed a couple towels into the washer, something dark move within the towels. I quickly looked into the washer and caught a glimpse of a large spider attempting to climb up the side of the washer, only to slowly fall back into the water. I tried to get him out, but was unsuccessful. So, he got washed along with my towels. I ran a second rinse in the hope that I could rinse him away and never have to see him again. But my fear of spiders, even dead ones, caused me to leave this load of towels in the wash overnight. Today, after overcoming an inner struggle, I bravely went through the washer of towels, one towel at a time, slowly checking every inch of each towel, until finally I found his remains at the bottom of the washer and was able to dispose of him properly. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Sometimes laundry can be terrifying, but this experience took it to a whole new level!

Recipes, Cooking Tips and More!

Celeste, Michele and I have jumped on the band wagon and have started a food blog called Mixing Bowls and Measuring Spoons. We will post some of our favorite recipes here, along with any cooking tips and advice we might like to share. Come check it out!

Finished

Today I finished the last Harry Potter book. Don't worry - I won't post any spoilers! I read all night Friday night, as much as I could fit in with the garage sale on Saturday, Saturday night until 11:30pm, Sunday morning for an hour before church, for the hour long drive to my brother's house after church, and then, and this is what I'm most ashamed of, during lunch and while "watching" the kids, as the rest of my family socialized. Thankfully, by the time we'd reached my brother's house, where we'd gone to celebrate my dad's birthday, I had only a small amount left to read before completing the book. By that point, there was no way I could stop myself from reading it through to the end. So I finished it quickly and was able to spend the rest of the day making up for my rudeness to my family. Thankfully, my brother and sister-in-law are also big Harry Potter fans and are also currently reading the book... they were extremely understanding. The rest of my family just laughed at me. ;)

I've described the book only as "different" to my disappointed husband, who wants more explanation, though at the same time expects me to not give anything away. :) So, to all of you who are still waiting to read this final book, I say to you - it is different in some aspects (can't say why), but great. Typical J.K. Rowling book. I don't think you will be disappointed!

I was also asked my opinion of the Order of the Phoenix movie - awesome. In my humble opinion, it was the best so far!

Just Anxious, or Slightly Fanatical?

That's the question one has to ask as they sit at their computer typing away at 11:30 at night, having sent their husband to the nearest Walmart to purchase the final Harry Potter book, available at the stroke of midnight. And of course, I'll have my coffee brewed by the time he gets home so I can sit up all night, enjoying the quiet as I read. I'm really not a fanatic. But I really do love the Harry Potter books. I'm not going to defend my love for these books here, though please don't think I haven't considered the points brought up by many Christians who are against these fantasy books. There are some good arguments against them, no doubt, but none I can fully agree with. I enjoy the books as the fantasy books that they are. And I know I will enjoy every minute of this last book - assuming I can stay awake all night to read it... and I'm willing to bet I can!

The Show WILL Go On

We have had the rainiest summer ever. It's amazing to look back on summers not that long ago, when we had to go outside and water our lawn by hand at specified times of the day due to the drought and feared water shortage. And even with the hours spent outside watering, the grass and flowers still died. And yet this summer, we can barely find a dry day to mow the lengthy, flourishing green grass. Not that I will complain. It beats standing out in the heat with a water hose any day! But at the same time, it does tend to put a damper on summer activities.

That's what almost happened yesterday. Bill was going to leave work early and go by the bank on his way home to meet me in the kids. Then we'd take them to my parents and he and I would go watch the latest Harry Potter movie. What we didn't expect was difficulties caused by the rain. First, Bill was stuck at the bank for awhile due to a power outage that occurred as they were sending his drivers license back through the drive through tube thing (for lack of a better description). Then when he finally went to leave the bank, he found all the roads were flooding. He had to continuously back track and take different paths in his attempt to get home. He finally braved the high waters as he drove behind another SUV, keeping a sharp eye on the leading SUV's tailpipe to ensure safe passage through the water. Thankfully, he did make it home and we weren't off schedule by too much. But we were a little worried about the drive to my parents as we had to go back through this same flooded area. Thankfully, the rain had let up and the water had drained by the time we passed through. And Bill and I made it to our movie on time. I say on time. Bill is still laughing at me because I insisted that we get there early (only 45 minutes!) because I just knew there would be a huge crowd and I did not want to get stuck on the front row, destined for a neckache the remainder of the day. But when we got there, on time according to our (okay, my) plans, we were the first ones there. But Bill can't argue - we got the best seats in the house! :)

The rain was also a potential problem for our later plans. We were afraid continued rain would cause more flooding and make it hard, if not impossible, for us to get to the circus. Again, God is gracious, and the way was clear. We had so much fun. My brother's kids had been before and loved it. This was my kids first time to attend the circus. They enjoyed it, though I'd say Amy enjoyed it the most. She watched attentatively the entire time, which was quite a long time. Nathan and Alex were tired, however, and at the intermission halfway through the show, Alex began complaining that he wanted to go home. I think he thought it was over at the break, and he was so tired at this point he really was ready to go home and climb into his cozy bed. But a couple acts into the second half, particularly when the motorcycles were zooming around amazingly in the spherical cage, he perked up a little and watched without complaint. And of course, thanks to an overly gracious Granny, they each came home with a souvenir. Alex and Nathan had new swords to add to their collection (can you ever have enough?) and Amy had her little light up ballerina thing - no idea exactly what it is - that plays music... very loudly. Let's just say you could hear "Music Box Dancer" over the trumpeting sounds of the circus performers and screaming audience. You can imagine how loud it is in our home, without the added noise. Wonder how long those batteries will last...

Circus Events...




Alex with cousin Caden and their new swords...


Alex and Nathan enjoying the greatest aspect of the circus - eating...



What you get when you ask the kids to smile for the camera...

Home Improvements

When we first bought our house, it had dark green, leafy wallpaper in the kitchen, the den was painted pale yellow, the two formal rooms were painted dark maroon on the lower third of the walls, a border being the divider in the dining room, and the downstairs half bath was painted dark green. The upstairs bedrooms were also painted in vibrant colors. I'm not saying it all looked bad. In fact, the way the previous owners had the home fixed up, it was beautiful. That's probably what sold us the house - everything had a place and it all seemed to coordinate so well. But the decor was different from my own and the colors weren't going to work. So we set out to change it. We painted most of it ourselves, though we hired someone to come in and remove the kitchen wallpaper and paint it and the two-story foyer. Yes, we painted it. White. Plain white. And a very white, white. It looked nice, certainly, but over the years it has become too plain... almost drab. And of course, with three children, you can imagine the impact on the solid white walls. They had become adorned with dark lines, various color marks, handprints, odd dirty spots, and of course, the expected dents and missing paint around the corners - not to mention tea stains on the kitchen walls and ceiling (funny story behind that). We have been itching to change it. So, even with sick children, we have managed to repaint most of the open areas of the house, all a lovely shade of beige. So beautiful!

We still have the study and dining room to paint, though we haven't decided on the color just yet. We will either stick with the all beige look, or paint the lower third green - a lighter shade than our pine green carpet - and do beige on the upper section. Or we might decide to paint the whole thing a lovely shade of green, though I think I've already just about ruled that idea out. The dining room is also going to take some work because when the border was removed, the wall was damaged. We decided to retexture the walls. Heh, heh. That was a BIG mistake. We know nothing about texturing, and if you've seen my dining room you'll agree. It looks SOOO bad. Ugly, in fact. Let's just say, we over-textured. We've kept it all these years, but I refuse to paint that room until we've done something about that texturing. So poor Bill. One weekend, I will take the kids to my parents and Bill will bravely sand down the walls in the hopes of removing the massive texturing job. With any luck, just sanding it down will allow us to then paint it and have a nice, slightly textured look. But I worry we'll have to texture it again. Do we even know how this time? I'm afraid of creating another "hairy" room, as best I can describe the current appearance. Sooo... hopefully in the near future we can finish these two rooms. We'll at least do the study soon. But that dining room...

We also have a few rooms upstairs I'd like to paint, but at least for the time being I can just shut the doors to those rooms and enjoy the all new appearance of the rest of my house. Oh, and did I mention I got new appliances?!? My generous and loving husband bought me a new refrigerator and stove. My refrigerator, which was left to us by the original homeowners, worked fine, with the exception of the ice maker. It would produce ice, but you wouldn't want to use it. It had lovely black things frozen into the ice. Yum. So we've always had to use ice trays. And then there were the shelves on the door... When you'd least expect it, one of them would decide to fall off. I learned quickly not to store glass items on those shelves! I think the final flaw, which I believe is what pushed Bill to get a new one, was in its appearance. It was beginning to rust. Bill couldn't stand the sight of it, as it was on the front of the refrigerator just beneath the ice/water dispenser. And on a white refrigerator, it looked pretty bad. So now I have a gorgeous black fridge, with working icemaker, water dispenser, AND gallon size door shelves which never fall off. Can you beat that? As for the stove... Well, replacing it came as a true surprise. My old one worked fine. It did need to be releveled, as I noticed everytime I had to "fry" something in oil, all of my oil would run to one side of the pan. It also only had one large burner, and that sometimes made cooking difficult. Finally, it was hard to clean, which is why I rarely did and it looked mighty gross. So now I have an electric, FLAT TOP stove. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!! It never looks gross, because I can clean it in no time, with very little effort. Celeste, you couldn't have been more right about that! Now... If I can just find a really good excuse to replace the old dishwasher... :)

Notice the lovely new black stove...


Notice the lovely new black refrigerator...


Pictures of recently painted den...




I'll try to post more pictures after we've completed more rooms, which hopefully will be in the next couple of weeks!

Healthy and Happy

We appear to be well, finally. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we remain that way for awhile! I especially pray we can remain well through tomorrow. Not only do Bill and I have pre-purchased tickets to go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tomorrow afternoon (please don't think ill of me for being a fan), but we also have tickets to the circus tomorrow night, and we are supposed to go to that with my parents and my brother and his family. So I would be devastated if someone ends up sick before we get through tomorrow - we are really in need of a fun day out of the house!

Still Here - And Still Sick

Nathan had been feverless for 4 days. We thought we were in the clear. No more sickness in this house... at least for a few more weeks. But as luck would have it, Alex came down with fever yesterday afternoon. He may have had it all day, but it wasn't obvious to me until I found him curled up with a blanket on the floor as he watched television - for an entire movie. Usually if he's watching tv, he's walking around playing with his action figures, or drawing on his DoodlePro. So I had my suspicions when I found him just sprawled out there on the floor. Sure enough, he had fever. So round four, here we go. At least I know what to expect. I think I am a pro when it comes to this particular bug. I don't look forward to another week stuck inside, or another Sunday at church alone. But at this point, I'm more concerned that we may never see the end to this. That even though Amy has already had it, it's been weeks and she could get it again. As could I. And then Nathan. And of course, Bill has never had it so he's a prime candidate. I just really want it to be over. I'm ready. I've had my fun and now I think it's time to get off this roller coaster. Please?

We're Still Here

It's been awhile so I thought I'd post real quick just to say that we have not fallen off the face of the Earth. For the past several weeks, we have been battling illness. Amy was sick for almost a week - she caught it at VBS - and then Bill went on a week long backpacking trip in New Mexico with my brother (a post for later), at which time I came down with Amy's bug and was sick for a week. Then my first day well, Nathan became ill and we had to go through it for another week. I also have very sensitive eyes and wound up with, I assume, eye infections. I've had problems with both of my eyes since being sick and am having a real problem with light sensitivity. This is one of the big reasons for my not blogging. It's very hard to type an entry on the computer when you can't open your eyes to look at the screen. :) But today things are a little better; I'm actually able to look at the computer without wincing... not much, anyway. And all kids and parents appear to be well. I hope this means we are over this last bug and can continue with our summer activities. It's been somewhat depressing being stuck inside all this time, excluding the brave attempts to run necessary errands. Thank God I didn't run into anyone out on the roads, though I did look silly wearing two pairs of sunglasses, one hand cupped around my eyes to shield them as much as possible, and at the same time fighting to keep my eyes open despite all of these measures. Probably shouldn't have been driving...

But there are many changes happening to my home (interior painting, new appliances, etc. - another future post), so being stuck inside isn't necessarily all that bad. Today is a busy day, but I will try and post soon about all we've been up to the past few weeks - besides being sick.