Friday, July 31, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday!

It's truly unbelievable that our Tank is 1 year old today! I labored with him the night of the 30th, and he made his appearance at 12:01am.



How can a then 9 lb., 15 oz. newborn suddenly become a 24 lb., 1 oz. little boy in the blink of an eye?! Seriously, this past year has completely flown by. Each day has held an adventure of it's own, but when I think back over the year in it's entirety, it is a blur!



This boy has a personality all his own, and we love every dirt-eating, toilet-playing, art table-destroying little bit of him! He's my loving snuggle boy who will display his tantrum talents one second and give kisses and say "Ay Ay" the next. (It's a Pennsylvania Dutch saying...I won't bother explaining.)

Happy Birthday, Mr. Caedon! We love you so!

Monday, July 27, 2009

House Projects

This past Saturday should have been entitled "Project Day", or "Invent-Projects-To-Do Day", or "Tackle-the-Outside-of-the-House Day". (Creative, huh?) :)


Our intentions were to 1) borrow our friend's power washer and see what it could do to the siding on the house, and 2) get the new downstairs windows put in. Hubby only had 5 windows to go on the downstairs, so after our morning of yard sales and picking up the washer, that was his afternoon project.


He also had a little helper when putting in windows last week, but she told me she was too busy to smile for the camera.


Anywho, once he taught me how to use that power washer, I was like a madwoman. I tried the siding, but it really didn't make a difference on it at all. Then, Hubby did something that changed my Saturday afternoon forever. He aimed the nozzle at our back deck...and shot.


And the gunk that came off was INSANE! I took one look at that and there was no stopping me. Here's a "before" pic:


And here's the deck after my 1.5 hour rampage:



A little stain and water sealer (hopefully this week!), and this baby will be set for a few more years (until Hubby feels the urge to tear her out and put in a new one).


After that, we fed the kids, ate lunch, put them down for naptime (a glorious 2.5 hours...wish I could nap with them!), and continued the tackling.


I finished the little parts of the deck that I missed and then went on to the stone walkways around the house. Even though I was beyond exhausted, the sight of green slimy stuff flying off my stone was an amazing feeling. I was ridding my house of gunk! Ahhhh...there's no better feeling!


The severe exhaustion and backache that followed on Sunday was SO worth it.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Photo Thoughts

I just realized that I never, ever put a picture of myself in the left column of my blog, and I should have one there. (Thanks to Stephanie's advice over at Metropolitan Mama.) :)


You know why I wasn't featured over there to the left?


Because as I peruse the pics on our computer, desperately searching to find one of myself, I realize that I'm the one always taking the pictures. I'm almost NEVER in them...unless you count holding the camera in front of me, like in the pic to the left.


We took the kids to a park a week or so ago, and as I snapped photos of my little boogers, a woman passed by and said, "Make sure you get in the pictures with them. As I look at the baby pictures of my grown children and don't see myself in them, I regret it. So, make sure you get in a few!"


Hmmm. Seeing as I don't want my children's children wondering if their Grandma was actually around to raise her babies, I'm now making a point of handing my camera to someone and saying, "Hey! Can you take a picture of us?" Getting in those photos IS important...and it's so true that us moms tend to be the photographer, on top of everything else. Let's give up that role for just a minute, throw on some lipstick, and smile it up once in a while...



...or just make a silly face. :)

Monday, July 20, 2009

Wedding Weekend

My baby brother married a wonderful girl on Saturday. James and Christa, your wedding was awesome, and I pray that life together will be rewarding and full of learning adventures!



Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Apparently I steal things...

I learned tonight that I'm a criminal.


A crook.


A thief.


While driving home from work today, I passed by a cute outdoor table. There she was, sitting at the edge of the road in front of someone's house, begging for a new coat of spray paint and a good cleaning to its glass top.It called to me as I drove past, and I made a quick u-turn. In an instant I decided to channel my inner Aimee Weaver, take this free table home, and make it look awesome for my back deck. After several attempts at getting it into my little Subaru (all by myself, I might add...I felt buff today!), I decided to take off the big glass top, get that in the car, and just leave a note on the table indicating that I'd be back with a truck tonight for my creatively fun, free find.


After Hubby got home from work, we packed the kids into the truck and took off to get my dirty little treasure. As we pulled into their driveway, I immediately noticed the table had been moved to the side of the house. How nice, I thought. They put it aside for me.


Riiiiight.


Hubby jumps out, approaches the table, reads the new note that's properly taped on it, (mine was just wrapped around one of the bars...who has tape in their cars these days???), frowns/laughs, and hurries back to the truck.


Here's where the word "free" now needs to be taken out of this story.


Apparently this table is the resting place for vegetables that these people grow and sell. At the edge of the road. It acts as their roadside stand...and I had stolen the top and was coming back for the rest of my loot.


You can imagine my humiliation when I had to go apologize profusely to the woman and tell her that the glass would be coming back, intact, to be reunited with its metal frame.


Moral of this story? Do not assume, at least in this county where every other person has a huge garden and either gives away or sells their veggies, that things by the side of the road are automatically free. Because you know what assuming does...it makes a...well, you know...


Oh, well...lock me up and throw away the key.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

As if he doesn't eat enough...

My son seems to think that we don't feed him enough.


The 23+ pound, 11-month-old baby that controls many things in this house has been on an eating rampage lately. The Tank boy continues to eat everything and anything he can get his hands on. Oh, and not just food. The list of favorites includes toys, crayons, chalk, twigs, sand...



...and markers. Yup, bit the top right off. I'm not sure if his goal was to become a Smurf, but he definitely got close enough. His poop was bright blue today, and I'm praying that the color will come off of the cloth diaper. Sorry for the grossness...but I wanted you to get the idea.

He also has taken a liking to apples. So much, in fact, that he took tiny bites out of several of them before I caught him in the act. My family will now be enjoying apple crisp later tonight.


If he's like this now, what's it going to be like when he's a teenager?! :)