Very belated Happy Thanksgiving

Doesn't he look great in his new shirt?! Thanks Great Auntie!

Practicing to be a bad biker boy, so he can go riding with Dad.


As usual, it's been crazy around here. I got sick on Thanksgiving and had to stay in bed all day. Phil refused to leave my side, so he also missed Thanksgiving dinner. Matthew went with his grandparents to Thanksgiving dinner and refused to eat more than a bite of apricot, a bite of peach, a green bean and some apple juice. All the fabulous choices and that is all he ate. Friday I was still recovering and that evening Phil thought he'd was going to be sick! Then last night one of our wall heaters stopped working, plunging the front of the house into the arctic. We finally found someone to come out and look at it (a mere dirty pilot). We had him also give us an idea of what he would do to put in a real heating and cooling unit and how much it would cost. It might actually be a go this time. It'd be nice...

So you can see it's been busy here. Of course we never have a dull moment. Matthew is now so proud of the response he gets for saying "yeah" that he says it all the time. He is also now honking his own nose (it makes an ach, ach noise), but it only honks if he does it himself. He will not make a noise for anyone else. He's learning new words all the time. One of which is calling Isabelle, Izzy. Pretty close.

The only other interesting news I've heard is that Phil's step-aunt of sorts is pregnant. I give her crazy brave points for the fact that Phil's youngest brother is 17. I would not want to have a 4th with the youngest basically grown up, but she and her significant other are very excited. Congrats! I also found out that one of my oldest friends is pregnant with her first. She is due around Matthew's birthday. Congrats Heather!

Remiss in blogging lately

Sitting on Grandma's lap, watching her dig in mom's toe for a splinter, while eating an apple slice.

Cattle looking at Matthew in disbelief.

Missy barking and Matthew screaming, "KITTY!"

More observing the cattle.

Out soaking up the November sun.

Trying to make the thing go faster...and stand on the seat, which ever works better...


I've been remiss in blogging much lately. It seems that strange stuff just keeps happening around here. Like Friday I woke up with pink eye and Matthew had incredibly runny diarrhea. We didn't leave the house that day. In fact Mom came up and brought us supper that night. It's a good thing she did because the dining room floor put a monster splinter in my toe. I finished fishing it out, but she started the operation. I couldn't believe how big it was and how deep it had got embedded. Saturday we just lounged around the house. We did leave the house just once so that Matthew could yell "Kitty!" at the cattle. He and Missy noticed them in the small pasture right next to our house for the first time. Missy was growling and barking at the window, while he was enthralled saying "Kitty." We have been working on saying cattle since then. I'm not sure how successful it's been so far though.

Sunday I allowed my parents to steal us and spent the afternoon at their house. Today we were back on the normal routine of getting ready for school. Matthew got shoved into a door jamb by another child. He now has a line going down his cheek. We'll just add it to the scrapes he gave himself on the nose. He was pushing his lego box around like a laundry basket, but it would fly up and hit his nose. Finally I took the box away from him and put it up. He hadn't learned by the 5th time and his nose was really red.

Sunday Matthew said, "Are you serious?" He has started making the "OH" face. It is pretty cute. He now likes to mimic blowing noses and believes he should put his dirty diapers in the diaper genie. He says "hot" and waves his hand to cool it. He also sort of goes "brr" and waves his hand for things that are too cold. He likes to help put stuff away. If you tell him to put stuff back, sometimes he will. He is constantly entertaining us all by dancing. It doesn't matter what the music is, he will find the beat and hop to it. My father had an uncle called Jig. It was a nickname he had gotten because when he was little he would jig to music and the name stuck with him. Maybe Matthew is just following family tradition, although it was an uncle by marriage. He has enthusiastic "yea"s and does more yes and no head nodding. We are working on knowing our right and left feet. We have two books that talk about getting hugs at the end. He knows when it's going to say that and puts both hands under his chin, puts his head on one shoulder and swivels back and forth like he is cuddling something. Life is almost always entertaining here!

Cold again

Yesterday was a gloriously warm day for November. The day before was cold and it's cold again today. Matthew and I tried to soak up as much of the nice weather as possible yesterday. Work went pretty well. Matthew had a good day, except for the report from daycare. He decided to slap kids yesterday. Back to bully behavior. It must be a phase or boy stuff, because no one around here slaps except for him... It never fails to make me feel bad, because I don't know why he does it and I am at a loss about how to stop it. Except any time I see him hit the dog to tell him, "NO!"

I'm so ready for Thanksgiving to be here and get a break from school. I plan to make some pumpkin bread and a pie for Thanksgiving. We are going out to eat to simplify things. I tried Matthew's dress shirt on him last night, but as I feared, it is too short for him. So I'm going to have him wear another button down shirt and put his sweater vest over it. It still looked real cute. Now he has a dressier outfit to wear to dinner. If now I knew what I'd wear... I realized that I truly haven't shopped for winter clothes since the winter of '03. That could be why I have hardly any winter clothes. Hopefully I'll be able to pick something up this weekend or the day before Thanksgiving!

More computer troubles...

Did I mention we have a circus kitty at our house?

Fine, if I can't sleep on you, I'll sleep in your hands.

Matthew in his hat.

A delighted Phil in his hat.


After a week, I finally have my computer back!!! Yea! I know you are all cheering with me, because computer troubles for me equals no new blogs for you. My computer keeps killing my anti-virus programs. Hopefully this time the misery is over. I miss blogging. And emailing.

What to say about last week...it happened? I'm too tired to remember it, so obviously it wasn't so interesting? Well, I do remember that Matthew became quite fond of "Aut, oh" so now I hear it all the time. It's very cute. We tried to swim on Thursday, but my boss prevented it from happening. Saturday, Matthew and I went to Phil's for the weekend. I had Monday off so we stayed and enjoyed lunch with him. Saturday we went and looked at the door. It looks sooooo good. I'm very pleased with it. Sunday we veggied. After lunch Monday, we took off for my parents. We hung out with Dad for a little while and then went to see my Grandmom. Since her helper was there we didn't get to do any talking, but Matthew showed off, so it was ok. After that we met my parents for dinner and then Mom, Matthew, and I FINALLY got to go swimming. I got in a good workout. Today we went to work and now we're home.

I just can't believe how much Matthew keeps changing. He remembers, every time we go to Phil's, that there is a box of individual freeze-dried apple and pear packets, in a cabinet he can reach. He always drags the box out, so he can eat some. This time after he brought me the box and I'd gotten one out, he took it back and put it away! I was so proud of him. And amazed that he knows to do that. He is also currently enjoying honking noses to hear them honk and beep! Mine honks deep and loud, while Grandmom's beeps softly.

Enjoying the outdoors together

I can take the grass, let me at it.

Two men doing what men do.

Born to be wild...what you can't see is that he is wearing a motorcycle sweatshirt that states "King of the Road-My Road, My Rules."

I'm soooo cute...


Our family had a busy day working in the garage. Phil brought home the bike he just purchased and spent the day taking it apart. (It is a fixer-upper.) Matthew spent the day running around looking at things. And I spent the day organizing all the wood we got. Unfortunately we have to strip and restain all of it before we can put it up. Sigh. This project takes longer and longer everyday. But it will be good in the end. Now I'm hoping to have a dining room by spring. Of course, then it will become the temporary living room, while we start doing the same to the living room. I'm hoping I have both a living room AND a dining room by spring of '10. (And maybe it won't be that long!) I peeked in the wrapping at one of the doors. It looked good. I can't wait to put them up. Phil thinks I'm impatient. I think he's not in a rush to get it done because he doesn't have to live in the mess 24/7!

Anyway, it was a very nice day, considering it's become cold. I planted the tiger lilies I had in a pot. They should be able to slumber away in peace now. I haven't started dreaming of my garden next year yet. Maybe it's because I've been pondering the fact I don't have any Thanksgiving decorations.

Matthew, as ever, is learning new things everyday. His verbal skills are becoming more clear. He likes soymilk. Friday night he insisted his dad wear his hat. Phil finally hid it from him. He has to wear his shoes and if I'm not wearing mine he keeps bringing them to me until I break down and wear them. He waves goodbye more often. He also is not so sure he likes strangers. Which is a good thing. I know he did something else this week for the first time, but I can't remember!

Computer troubles

Hello everyone! I apologize for the lack of posts this week, but Monday my computer started acting up again, so I decided that I had better just shut it down and take it in. I didn't want to lose another one of my laptops again. Well, I took it and my old laptop in Thurs. I was hoping that they might be able to at least extract pics from my old laptop since (like an idiot) I'd never saved them and it took pictures from '03 to '06 with it. Well, I got called to today and told that my new laptop's anti-virus system had just quit working and had to be removed. The old laptop...had no problems and turned right on! It wouldn't turn on for me 2 years ago at all and told me something like "no operating system found." Everyone that I asked told me it was toast and to throw it away. Glad I didn't! Can't wait to save my pictures on the external hard drive to be sure!

It has been a wild week and long. I got the back porch cleaned and the wood came Friday. Alot of it ended up in the garage until Phil and I sort it. Every length goes in a certain place. Hopefully we do that tomorrow. I can't wait to look at it better. Yesterday Phil got home! He has a 4-day so we'll have some great quality time.

I better cut it short. Matthew wants to sit on the laptop as I type and Mom is on her way to watch him so Phil and I can go to dinner and the movies. I'll get some pictures up tomorrow I hope!

Fall cleaning

Sleepy friends. They cuddled the whole night. Phil called today and said that Isabelle is missing Missy and has been calling for her. Poor kitty, I think she misses Missy way more than Missy misses her!

A perk of cleaning the back porch is finding my old rocker from when I was a child. I cleaned it up today and brought it in for Matthew. He immediately sat in it and started pulling/pushing it around.

Just how strong is this thing???

I'm comfortable, really.


They say in the spring you are supposed to "spring clean" your house. This year it falls in the fall for us. Phil and I did some major fall cleaning yesterday. Object of the attack: the back porch. That one spot in our house that we really just shove everything. So now all the junk is going. Yes! I'm so excited. I've wanted to get my hands on it for months. I found a crammed full box of clothes I guess I meant to sell at a yard sale. I say I guess because I think we moved that box and deposited it in the corner where I found it 2 years ago. Well, all those clothes are gone at the thrift store now. One good thing I found is our cordless phone. We thought we had thrown it away by mistake in the move. We had found it's empty box a couple months ago. I almost got all of the back porch cleaned now. Tomorrow it should be knocked out. Now the other room off the back porch is another matter!

Matthew and I went to work and held it down by ourselves again. My boss had another issue and couldn't come today. I hope it gets better. Matthew had another clingy day. I had to leave him at the daycare with him screaming and running for the door. I felt so bad. They said it took him 10 minutes to calm down and then he started up again. Ack. After work we went swimming with the Grandma and entertained both grandparents afterwards. He was pretty pooped by time we made it home. I feel that way too. I did alot of running with the kids at work today.

The night of Trick and Treats

Here's a couple pics I have been meaning to put up for awhile. Matthew in some new clothes and Missy pre-haircut.

Missy post-haircut. Feisty.

We're just too cute.

"One of these things just doesn't belong here..."

Forget the flippers and head, I'm going to play with my dog toy at Great Grandma's.

Dad, do I have to get a picture with the head on really???

Get this darn costume off me NOW! Doesn't Grandma look good?

Trying to keep him in the costume to take a picture...

It was an interesting night for us. I had my doubts about how well Matthew felt before I went to work when he wanted to take a 2nd afternoon nap. He is down to taking only 1 a day. I had to wake him up to go to work. We get there and he seems ok, but his cheeks are red. So I go to the daycare and ask them to take his temp. Of course it's 99.8. I'm beginning to think that there is no need to get Matthew any costumes because he is going to be sick every Halloween. Last year he got very sick the day before Halloween and was sick for a week. Then I got strep, so it was the week before Thanksgiving before he trick or treated at the relatives. Good grief! Anyway, he stayed with me until we came home. Phil had taken the day off to go trick or treating with us. We talked to my parents and took Matthew's temp again. 99.5. Not great, but not bad, so we decided to go ahead and take him to my parents and grandmom's. He did ok at both stops but was pretty tired by time we got home. He did think it was great to have a pumpkin full of chocolates. That is until we refused to give him any more. Then he thought he had mean parents. I have loved the costume he wore since '05, but it turns out it was a big pain to have him wear. He hates having something on his head, so he constantly took the head off. The flippers were too big, so he tripped and fell if he tried to walk. So it's a good idea that doesn't pan out so good.

Today was about the same for Matthew, so Mom and I ran to Target and got a couple things and then came home. Phil and I attempted to get some more stuff done on the house. I primed and he cleaned the garage. He also built some nifty storage racks for the real wood paneling we are ripping out of our house so it doesn't get ruined. We are moving it and cleaning the back porch in anticipation for our new old trim and baseboards to arrive. I can't wait!!! Our new old front door has been stripped and is ready for us to pick out a stain or leave the natural color. It is so beautiful. We were sent photos of it today. I always thought it was beautiful, but now it's absolutely stunning.

Carved front side...

...back side of the door.


It's amazing was a little stripping can do for wood. I'm so glad that we didn't buy a new fake wood door. It wouldn't have been right for our house. I'm also very glad it will be ready soon, because our old door is in bad shape!