Three Weeks

Andy leaves for basic training in three weeks from today. It still seems a bit surreal. It will happen soon enough and then maybe I will have a better answer as to how I am doing. Actually the first month I will be fairly busy. Out of town the first full week- it's going to be a fun one, back for a week and then out of town again for Thanksgiving week. Then a few more weeks until Christmas and hopefully we will get to see Andy as long as his drill sergent grants them Christmas exodus. Word on the street is it's about 10 days. Then come January it will be a long haul.
Have you ever seen the movie About a Boy? Where he (Huge Grant) lives his life in "blocks of time"? He arranges his day in thirty-minute intervaled blocks of time. His usual activities consist of watching TV (mostly game shows), shopping for new toys (CDs, DVDs, etc.), getting his hair professionally disheveled (four blocks of time). That is how I feel it's going to be. The first block of time going to Colorado with a friend. Get through the second "block of time" then go on my next trip. It's nice to look at my calendar and see that I have some fun things to look forward too.

Feel free to keep me busy!! Dane loves people and he gets quite crabby if I am the only one he sees all day long. One thing that is making this easier is knowing I have such great friends and a caring church family that are more than willing to help me out, so know I won't be 'all alone'. I have a feeling me and our dog are going to become better friends because I am going to need someone to be by my side if I get the creepers late at night.

We will find out mid April what Andy will be doing and where we will be moving. To sum it all up I figure I will be here until May or June sometime, then moving to an unknown at this time location. I hope it's somewhere fun, where people will want to visit us.

Fascinating

There seems to be quite the intrigue over our maple tree out front. Last weekend we were sitting in our living room and noticed outside our window a lady stopped her car got out with her camera and started taking pictures of our house. weird. very weird. Then I got closer to the window and tried to figure out what angle she was going for and realized she was aiming at our magnificent golden leaved maple tree. (At least I think it is maple, the leaves look really similar to the one on the Canadian flag.)

I have to admit I did notice about a week ago it was the only tree on our street that was brilliant orange. I was driving home and saw it off in the distance and thought oh that is a pretty tree, then I realized it was in the middle of our front yard :o) It is leading the way into autumn, all the others were still green and still are mostly green. Then just this afternoon I was sitting in the dining room and a car stopped in front of our house with their flashers on. peculiar. A lady gets out of her car, I think she is coming to the door, for what, I was very curious. Only to realize she just wanted to pick up a few of our beautiful large golden maple leaves. I wish she would have taken more. We wanted to run out and tell her to bring some large bags next time and take as many as she could!If there are any botanists out there, is this in fact a maple tree? If it is could I tap into it and get my own maple syrup? Now that would be yummy!

These pictures aren't even from this year, but you get the idea. The camera doesn't even do it justice. It looks this way every year. A beautiful golden glow shines in the kitchen, and it truly is pretty, but cleaning them up is a huge chore. Fun for the first large pile raked and jumped in, but after that the next 35 large paper bags becomes very tiring.

Here is one picture taken this year under the maple tree. I really hope it is a maple tree or I am going to feel really stupid.

Winkin, Blinkin and Nod

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Howell's Pumpkin Patch yesterday afternoon. It was such a perfect day for it and the sun was actually shining. This farm has strawberry picking, asparagus picking, Christmas tree chopping, they have something going on every season of the year. It was a fun afternoon. Dane loved the hay wagon ride, we sat up next to the tractor and he was making tractor sounds long after we got off. He kept trying to wave at the guy driving the tractor. It was pretty cute. They had lots of goats and other animals that Dane loved and kept pointing at. Andy and I enjoyed some of my favorite things, yummy hot apple spice cider and pumpkin bars we let Dane have a sample of the pumpkin bars who can resist that cute little face so sweetly signing please?

Look at that smile. He loved that I actually put him down on the ground and he could touch all the things around him.

Can you see it? Which is the cutest pumpkin in this picture?

So having his birthday on Reformation Day, I mean October 31st, there are many fun things that can be done as well as many cheesy things, right? I really wanted to carve open a pumpkin and stick him in it, you know Anne Geddes style.

I was driving Andy nuts looking for the biggest pumpkin I could find. I don't know if he will fit in one of those pumpkins pictured below, so I may have to scrap that idea, but seriously this is the only year he would even have a chance at fitting in one. Any cute ideas are welcome. He does have a little pumpkin Halloween costume. I figure this is the only year I can get away with dressing him up as a pumpkin, well maybe next year too but I know I will get voted down soon enough. Though a little GI Joe costume would be pretty cute as well.

That is 105 lbs of pumpkin including the one with the blue hood.

The End

Pottery Barn

I love getting the Pottery Barn catalogue. I saw this cute idea with these old skeleton keys that you could purchase for $19.99. I was in luck. This old house came with a skeleton key to every door in the house backdoor, bedrooms, closets, the works.

My house or Pottery Barn catalogue?

Pottery BarnMy house

What I have been doing.

I was just noticing what a blog slacker I have been lately. It seems September has just flown. We did go to Colorado for a week, and then I was sick with mastitis-a very horrible infection and I had a very crabby baby for a week and a half- growing pains maybe?
It's hard to be crabby during bath time though.I have also rearranged the living room, not something I do very often.
I painted our other kitchen (that's right we have 2, it makes me feel rich to say that) lime green that I found in the $5 oops paint at Home Depot. I think I am going to turn this into a office/craft room before Andy leaves so I wont have to hang out in the yucky basement.
Here is the before picture. I bet he didn't expect this to get on the blog but I guess that's what you get for jumping in front of the only 'before' picture that turned out.
After: Still needs stuff moved in but you get the idea

And I fixed up a lamp that I bought for $1 at a garage sale this summer. Just glued a little fabric to the shade and 'bam' new light fixture. An idea I stole from my friend Peter Marie. I have one more I think I may try to fix up.

Is it ridiculous to keep decorating and redoing things when I know I will be moving late spring/early summer? I don't know, at least I haven't put much money into, so far only $10 :o) I guess I still have to live here for many more months so I might as well enjoy it.

I also just completed my first "for hire" sewing alteration on a very lovely dress. It feels like an accomplishment since I have never tried anything like that before. (well I have tried by winging it, but I did it correctly this time) I called my mom who is an accomplished seamstress and she talked me through it. Though she did keep talking louder and louder until I understood how simple it was. Thanks mom for the help! Seriously it was simple, the hard part is being able to think backward and inside out.

That's all for now, the nap time silence has been broken.

11 Months

Only 4 more weeks until that big first birthday. I had the realization last night that I have not rocked him to sleep nearly often enough. We usually just lay him down awake and he goes right to sleep. I held him a ton at the beginning before he figured out how to move. Now it is a rare occasion where he sits still long enough for me stare at that adorable little baby face. He had a hard time falling asleep last night so I went in and rocked him until he went to sleep, and then kept rocking a little more. I love holding a sleeping baby!
I can't even remember what he has learned this past month. Here are a few I do remember.

• We got him to try and wink and us last night. That was pretty cute watching those adorable eyelids flutter open and shut.
  
• He got his first 2 teeth this month.
  
• He does says 'sup' for whats-up and does the head nod thing that goes with it.
  
• He loves being read to.
  
• He loves playing with daddy. That is going to be so hard once Andy leaves for basic in 4 weeks.


• He signs please every time he sees me consuming food or drink, and if he really wants a bite he gets both hands signing please. I take that as meaning pretty please.
  
• He is climbing everything now. I had him at the mall the other day and let him loose in the play place. He was scaling a big rock think in the middle and he has mastered the slide. I get home and was organizing his clothes and found him on top the rubbermaid container reaching for the items on top of his changing table. Let me tell you he was oh so proud of himself.
• A few months ago he started switching sides on his own while nursing. You know, sit up, struggle to turn around, and then dive backwards. Now when he is done with the first side he stops and says 'done' and smiles cute, then we switch and repeat.
  

Well I am sure there are many more things he has learned lately I just don't remember them right now. It feels we have had a very busy month. Here are a few pictures with his bunny to mark a months worth of growth. It is getting to be fairly difficult to get these pictures. It has turned into a two person job. That boy does not like to sit still.