Here it is, the end of another month! I'm actually glad it's over, September is my least favorite month. October is my favorite, so I'm happy! We do have a busy weekend and week ahead of us though. We're helping my mom caulk her basement Saturday. Well, okay, JOE is caulking her basement while Mom and I visit and watch the boys.

Then on Sunday I'm going to Croptoberfest! It's a scrapbooking event, 12 hours of scrapping time with no kids! WOOHOO!!! I can't wait.

Next week we have something every night except one. Joe's birthday is Monday and our Anniversary is Tuesday, so we're starting the week out celebrating! Followed by several other things next week...including taking Brendan to see Dragon Tales Live! Just Mommy & Brendan. It's part of his birthday gift (early). I'm looking forward to having him out just the two of us. Sometimes I feel like I can't give him enough attention when Adam is around, so it will be nice to do something just for him.

I hope I can find time to clean the house Saturday night after Mom's. I just have not been able to keep caught up lately.

The weather has been so much nicer this week! Went from 90's last week to 70's this week...I love 70's! The mornings have been chilly, so I've pulled out the boys fall clothes. Adam started wearing little tennis shoes this week. He looks so big in "big boy" shoes! Over the summer we left him barefoot, and we were trying to leave him barefoot until he started walking but the weather cooled off before he started walking. Although he did take his first step a week or so ago. But his tennis shoes are so cute...white with Winnie the Pooh. He's growing so fast. He's started trying to say Brendan's name now. He can't say Brendan but he calls him "nin nin". It's so cute. He loves to crawl into "nin nin's" room and play with the big kid toys instead of his baby toys.

I've also been eating really healthy this week. Hoping to make that a habit. I'm following the menu for Dr. Phil's 14-day fast start. I just needed some ideas of what to eat and not eat and recipe examples of healthy food. I'm not really fat, but I do have a little baby fat left to lose. Mostly I just want to be HEALTHY and look better. I also haven't had any soda this week at all. That just kinda came along naturally without me even trying this time. With all the fruits and veggies I've been eating, I just didn't have any desire for soda anymore. Soda doesn't go well with fruit especially! Too much acid! So I've been drinking water, and when that gets boring I grab a no-calorie flavored water. Still have my sugar-free Red Bull some mornings, but that's not soda. I've lost 2 lbs in the last 4 days. Yea! The dinners have been pretty good too! And I have felt more full than when I wasn't eating as healthy. Eating more, feeling full, and losing weight. Go figure.

Time marches on

Wow, I never cease to be amazed at how fast time flies by! Here we are the last week of September already, and Adam is 11 months old!!! Time to start thinking about his 1st birthday party already. And Brendan will turn 5 two weeks after Adam turns 1. We've decided to do just one party for them both together. That way the family won't have to drive in twice so close together. Brendan is insisting on a Power Rangers birthday party. Yesterday I bought the plates and such...half of the plates are Power Rangers and half of them are Baby Sesame Street 1st Birthday plates. LOL What a combination!

Brendan is also insisting that he wants to be a Power Ranger for Halloween. At first he really wanted the white Power Ranger, but those are kinda hard to find! I showed him a website with all sorts of Power Ranger costumes, and he decided that the black one was cool and that's what he wanted. So, I found it on ebay for a little less, and we're waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Every day he asks me if his costume is here yet.

This past weekend my sister & I got together again to do a 2-family yard sale AGAIN. It is such a pain and hassle every time. We pretty much decided we're not doing those anymore. I'd rather sell stuff on ebay and give stuff away than do yard sales. Then on Sunday we got together with some of the people in the moms group I'm in for a fall picnic. That was kinda fun. All the kids played together on the playground. Brendan enjoyed it. Towards the end, Brendan needed to go potty, so he went into the men's bathroom by the shelter. After a few minutes, Joe went in to check on him, only to find Brendan SITTING on the URINAL, and yes, he had pooped in it. Leave it to MY son to do that! LOL *sigh*

Well, my lunch break is over now, I better end this & get back to work!

Our babysitter is TOO good! LOL

Well, for our date night this past Monday we went to see "Wedding Crashers". It was pretty funny. We decided to keep it short and just do the movie & then go home. Brendan was so excited that Mary was going to be watching him that night. He absolutely LOVES the babysitter. He cries every time she leaves. Brendan cried when she left this time too. Not just a little cry- he was screaming crying and carrying on uncontrollably for about 20 minutes straight! And of course, all that noise woke Adam up too. So, we ended up having to redo all the bedtime stuff and get the boys settled back down and into bed again. So that was not fun. Even the morning after, Brendan was really grouchy and he said "I miss Mary". Really he has been a brat all week ever since she left. I'm so glad we have a great babysitter that he loves, but I'm kinda wishing he liked her a little less so he wouldn't have a meltdown every time she leaves! lol

Brendan also got "written up" at his daycare twice this week so far. First for something I didn't expect...they said that on the playground he pulled down his pants and stuck his bare butt in another kid's face! OMG! On one hand I had to laugh when I read that, but I was also a little embarrassed that *my* kid did that. LOL The other thing he got in trouble for was for copying another kid, and the kid & teacher asked him to stop and he didn't, so they sent him up to the front office, and he yelled at the teacher said she was bad and stuck out his tongue. Ugh!

At home he has stopped doing his regular morning jobs without a fight this week (making his bed, getting dressed, and feeding the cat). When we tell him to do something he just whines and says "I don't know how". It's so frustrating. We hate to yell at him for every little thing, but he just is not doing what we tell him to. We asked nice, we told him nice, we told him sternly, we yelled, we gave spankings, we took away toys, nothing worked. He just whined and yelled that he "didn't know how". Ugh! I tried making a race out of it this morning, told him to see if he could make his bed before I got done putting on my socks & shoes and then said "Ready, Set, GO!" (he loves to try to beat us at things, so I thought that might work). He smiled, like he thought it was funny, but then he said "That's okay, I don't want to beat you right now." LOL So much for that "brilliant" idea.

Sugar-Free Chocolate Candy...Never again!

Note to self: never eat sugar free chocolate candies, no matter how good they look!

Oh my, yesterday I ate 3 pieces of sugar-free chocolate candy at work and it gave me the WORST stomach ache and pains. A while back I got a small stomach ache from sugar-free chocolate candy, but I thought it was just that brand or kind or something, so I tried a different one this time. UGH- how does anyone eat that stuff? I spent most of the evening in pain (and in the bathroom).

Never, never again.

It's Friday again?!

Wow, this week flew by! Can't believe it's Friday again already! I've already forgotten what we did last weekend. lol On Monday (Labor Day) we went to Joe's parent's house to celebrate my MIL's birthday. All Joe's siblings were there too. We had a good time. Some friends of ours were having a get-together for Labor Day, and since they live just a couple minutes away from Joe's parent's house, we went by there afterwards. All our friends there were surprised to see us, since we live about 2 hours away and they didn't know we were in town. We had fun there too. We got home late Monday night, and then back to work on Tuesday morning.

About a month ago, Joe & I decided to set up a regular date night. One night a week is too much, we can't afford a babysitter that often, so we decided to make it once a month- the first Monday of every month. We picked Monday because we hate crowds, so we wanted to avoid the weekends. So, with last Monday being a holiday, we post-poned until the 2nd Monday for September...which is this coming Monday! We're both looking forward to going out without the kids. And our regular babysitter has agreed to always babysit the 1st Monday of each month for us, so we already have her lined up for these. We're going to go see a movie this time, I think. Either Wedding Crashers or The 40-year-old Virgin. We both want something funny.

Things at work have suddenly gotten a little hectic. We have our annual Heritage Festival next weekend, and I'll have to work 11 hour shifts both Sat & Sun that weekend, yuck! Also, one of my co-workers that is a key part of the festival set-up and such, just found out that her grandpa died, and she will be in California all next week, getting back the night before the festival. So, we're trying to fill-in for her as best as we can with all the preparations next week. September is always my least favorite month of the year because of this festival. I'll be glad when it's over.

Oh! Adam has started standing on his own now. He has stood there without holding on to anything about 10 times in the last couple days. We cheer for him every time. A couple times when we started cheering we startled him and he fell. LOL! I haven't gotten a picture of it yet, but hopefully I can have the camera ready when he does it soon.

Other than that, not a lot to write about today.

Friday Rumblings

Joe made it home safely from Nebraska last night. (he's been there all week for work). I felt bad for him...he was anxious to see the boys, and Brendan barely looked up from his movie to say "Hi Daddy" and Adam would not go to him, he wanted Mommy.

While Joe was gone, the electric company came out & talked to me, and pointed out 3 trees that were in the way of the power lines and said they needed to take out the trees. I was surprised that they wouldn't just trim the limbs, but since it was only 3 trees (and we have hundreds of trees on our property) I said okay if they had to. So yesterday I get home from work and wow, it looked different! They cleared way more than just 3 trees! Joe wasn't too happy either. But, we figured it was done, nothing to do about it now. Well, then Joe happened to go home early today and he couldn't even get up to our house because there were guys there with their big trucks taking down MORE trees!!! Joe about threw a fit. He was almost in tears telling me about it, because he was so mad. We understand that the trees cannot be causing problems for our electricity (& others nearby), but our poor trees! Apparently they said there can't be trees within 15 feet of either side of the power lines. That's a lot! (we have a VERY long driveway leading up to our house, and the power lines run along the whole length of our driveway on one side, so that's a lot of trees!) So I'm not looking forward to seeing it when I get home tonight. You use to not be able to see our house from the road, and now Joe said you can see straight up all the way up our driveway and the house no problem. (We liked being hidden! lol) *sigh* What a bummer. Joe called the electric company, and the guy said, "really it's our fault because we let you get used to having all those trees." Gee, thanks :P

We got him!

The mouse is gone! We set the regular snap traps last night right before bed, and before we even got in bed we heard the SNAP! Mouse gone.

Catching Up

Wow, I really fell behind in posting on my blog! Here are some snippets of things that have been going on:

- Monday & Tuesday I was off work, and had every intention of cleaning/organizing the basement while the boys were at daycare. I did get a good start, but still have a ways to go! However I did take time to go through about 4 or 5 rubbermaid tubs of baby clothes, and get them all separated out into specific sizes. I pulled out all the 12-18 mos clothes & washed them & put them in Adam's dresser since he's wearing 12 mos now. Then I labeled the tubs and put them neatly on a shelf in the basement. So now there's a 24 mos/2T tub, a 3T tub, and a 4T tub. As he grows into those I can just grab the tub & wash them & he'll be all set. I also was able to list several auctions on ebay of clothes he's outgrown, and set aside others for an upcoming yard sale. So, I didn't get what I intended to do done, but I was productive!

- Monday morning Joe left for a week of work near Nebraska. He's been gone all week, so I've been playing the part of a single mom. It's actually not been bad this time. He'll be back tonight, time flew by really fast while he was gone.

- We have a mouse! Ugh! So, the day before yesterday I bought mouse traps. I tried to use the kind that is a plastic box with a one-way door, and put a cracker with peanut butter at the far end of the box...in theory the mouse goes in to get the cracker, and then can't get out because the door doesn't swing out. Good theory, but this little sucker was too smart for that. When I got up yesterday morning & looked to see if it caught him, the trap was moved, cracker was gone and the box was on it's side with the door wide open! So, he had gone in, briefly got caught, but figured out how to flip the box on it's side so that he could get out the door. As I was examining this, I looked over and there he was just sitting there looking at me, like "na na na na boo boo!" LOL! Then he took off and I haven't seen him since! So much for trying to use a humane trap, now we're gonna set the kind that will snap him.

- On a sad note, I also found out that my mom's MS is getting worse. She was diagnosed with MS about 13 or so years ago, and has been lucky that it has been pretty mild. However, this past year things have been getting worse. Here's a blurb from an email I got from mom:
["Today I saw my neurologist, who said I'm now classified in the next level, the "secondary progressive" one, which basically means that it's getting worse, which I already knew. She's increasing a couple of my medicines, and adding a couple more, in hopes of slowing down its progress. One of those 2 new medicines has an increased chance of damaging my liver, so I have to get blood drawn once a month and see her every couple of months. Also, as long as I'm on it, I can't have any alcohol, not even wine. I'm also going to have another MRI, and see a physical therapist, who can show me some things I can do to make things easier to accomplish, hopefully saving a bit of energy."]

I feel helpless, as there's nothing I or anyone can really do to stop this from happening. It's sad to think of your mother deteriorating. I hope she doesn't get too much worse too quickly!

- My Box Project family that I sponsor lives in Mississippi, so I've been worried about them with Hurricane Katrina! I still haven't heard directly from them, but I heard from someone else that the town they live in was not hit too hard...they just had power outages and some tree limbs down. I'm still anxious to hear from them though, just to be sure!

Well, those are the main things that have gone on while I wasn't updating my blog recently!

Our family weekend!

This past weekend we decided last minute to take a family weekend down to the Black River (our favorite!). We had a good time overall. There were some fussy times in the evenings with Adam, but otherwise we had a good time. Normally we would camp in a tent, but with a 10-month-old baby along we decided that wouldn't be a good idea. So, we stayed in a one-room log cabin at one of the campgrounds that we haven't ever stayed at before. It was a nice, quiet campground (although not a river front one). Turns out we were the ONLY people there in the whole campground that weekend! It is one that was just renovated & reopened this year, so I guess not a lot of people know about it?

Anyway, Friday night we got there around 7pm and basically just unloaded our stuff and hung out around the cabin & campground. The cabin was really hot at first, no ac, but we asked if we could borrow a fan and that made a world of difference. Joe put the fan in the window and it soon was tolerable, and even a little chilly in the mornings.

Saturday we went to Elephant Rocks, which Brendan thought was cool. We climbed around on the rocks, and then had a picnic lunch there. Adam happily rode in the baby backpack the whole time. Then we wanted to play in the river, but since our campground didn't have river access, we were trying to think of where we could get to the river without having to go to another campground, and we ended up just going to Johnson's Shut-Ins. We didn't want to take the boys in the actual shut-ins since there are some pretty strong fall flows on part of that, but we went in the water above the shut-ins where it is just basically still water, and played there. Adam did good in the baby float, he enjoyed floating in the water. Then we went a little closer to the shut-ins, and there were some smaller "shut-ins" that were very shallow and not dangerous...like a shut-ins area for preschoolers! haha! So we played there for awhile. Brendan had a blast. Then we drove a little ways and found a place by the river to play, but shortly after we got there, Brendan said he needed to go potty, so we drove back to our campground. That evening we roasted hotdogs on the campfire, followed by smores, and played on the playground, ran around a little racing back to the cabin from the bathroom, playing "tig and tag" (that's what Brendan calls it), and a game of "I Spy" (Brendan's favorite thing to play right now). Then we all slept good that night, even Adam!

Sunday morning we packed up, and then went back to Johnson's Shut-Ins. This time we walked part-way on the walking trail throug the woods, and came to a really pretty spot along the river where noone else was. We knew that was just the type of setting we were looking for. So we baptized Adam there, just like we did Brendan when he was a baby. We took some pictures...I hope they turn out, because it was a really nice, pretty spot!

So, anyway, that was our weekend. It was a lot more hectic with a baby & a 4 yr old than the old days of camping (& floating) by ourselves with friends, but it was still a nice change of scenery and good to get out as a family to do something fun together.