I don’t mind the sound of cricket’s – I actually kind of like it when I’m outside…. Outside being the key term. These lovely little creatures have somehow decided to invade our house. You can’t walk in the basement without seeing one of these wonderful hopping black creatures… YUCK!

Matt made it home last night around 9:45 and he also made it through the funeral this morning. Now we can relax and be on vacation (providing no emergencies come up…) until the 22nd – first day of school YIPPEE! We’re looking forward to a break. It’s hard to believe we have already been here 3 1/2 months.

I survived Matt’s week away – it actually seemed to fly by fairly quickly, and my birthday was tolerated as well. Now Ryan is going to be SIX in a week and a half. My oh my! I just ordered his birthday presents online as it was just easier that way then trying to sneak out to shop. With the price of gas it actually was cheaper for me to have them shipped then to drive to town… I ordered at Amazon and only had to pay $6.95 to ship everything. I love online shopping – saves time, saves money.

We only had three minor crisis while Matt was gone.
1.) Dane was teething with his two year molars. He has done fairly well, but he seems to be addicted to tylenol now. LOL Every night before bed he points up to the cupboard where I keep it – wanting his daily dose. It is like part of his night time routine now, but we’re going to have to stop that once all those teeth pop through! He asks for it before nap time too, but I haven’t given into that yet.
2.) Christian accidentally slammed Dane’s middle right finger in the metal shop door. Poor baby. He screamed for almost an hour – nothing would help we tried ice, bandaids, suckers, hugs, watching Dora, reading books, etc. I thought for sure it was broken. All the skin was missing off the top part, but it didn’t bleed much. He wouldn’t use it for a day, but he seems fine now – except it’s nice and purple. I was going to take him into the doctor, but Matt said they won’t do anything besides tape it up – which I tried and it made him VERY mad. So, I think he’s okay now, but that was a big owie.
3.) The basement flooded right in front of my washer and dryer. So, I’m not sure if the washer leaked or what. We did have 2 1/2 inches of rain so it could have been that as well. Who knows.

The kittens are of course still growing fast. Here are a few pics.

They are starting to get sharp claws – so that is why Ryan has that shocked look on his face. They should be opening their eyes any day now. Then I won’t be able to take pictures for awhile as their eyes are not able to dialate for a bit.

Well, Dane is asleep and Matt is entertaining R & C so I think I’m going to go take a nap.

C-

Hi there, I just found a great deal! FREE Soup for the upcoming fall months. I just ordered my large free sample. (There is a small $3.50 shipping fee) From what I hear this soup is delicious! There are several sample choices – most valued around $17.50. Click here to order yours!

P.S. They have tea, spice and pasta sauce samples too if you’re not into soup.

The day started off with a phone call letting me know that one of the members of the congregation passed away. (He was 94) So between calls with the funeral home, church members, Matt and the familiy (who were also out of state on vacation) it was a busy morning. It was finally determined that Matt will come home on Friday instead of Sat. and have the funeral Sat. That is two funerals in two weeks…. Hopefully that trend does not continue.

We were supposed to meet friends to go swimming this afternoon, but it was actually kind of cool today. It was 66 pleasant degrees this morning. So we opted to go to the park instead. It was almost 80 by the time we hit the park at 1:00 p.m. but the park is right next to the pool and there was only one little boy swimming. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be a swim day. We played for about an hour at the park with friends, (We met two other moms from church and their kiddo’s) and then headed over to Dairy Queen for treats. Here are the boys at the park. What can I say, it was Dane’s nap time. He really did have a nice time, but you can’t tell from the look on his face in this pic.

Afterwards we came home and Dane took a nap and Ryan and Christian took baths. Then this evening we headed over to school registration for Ryan. The principal registered us, so I got to meet her. We’ve had nothing but good experiences at the school so far. I think it is going to be a good year. They start two weeks from today! EEK! My little boy is going to school!

Next week we are sneaking in a vacation week right before school starts. Matt left it up to me to plan the trip while he is gone this week. So tonight the boys and I decided we are going camping at Indiana Beach. It looks like a lot of fun and is only about 65 miles away. I made reservations for Tue. Wed. & Thur. nights, but I just realized that Christian’s Preschool Registration is Friday at 10:00 a.m. so I am going to have to change something around.

Well, tomorrow is the big 3-0! I have an hour and a half left of my twenties….better go use my time well. LOL

Take care!
C-

YAWN…. Is it nap time yet? Ryan took a nap yesterday afternoon and then he couldn’t fall asleep until 11:00 p.m. Then, a few minutes later Dane woke up and stayed awake until 2:30. Of course Christian got up at his usual 6:30. Dane slept in until 8:30. I finally figured out this morning what the deal is. He is getting his 2nd year molars! Those have snuck up on me with every child. I always forget they get those. So I guess at least he has an excuse to be crabby.

Matt made it to MN yesterday. He will be gone until Saturday. We had our Family Bible Study here last night even though he wasn’t here. So we had 4 adults (counting myself) since Matt was gone and one of the other lady’s husband is with Matt; and then 10 kids. LOL We have heard a few more families will be joining us in the fall so it will be a nice big housefull then! We’re looking at 13 adults and 16 kids eventually. At least our house is nice and big. We just send all the kids outside or in the basement and we’re good. It’s a fun group and a blessing to get to know other families.

Dane has decided he wants Pull-Ups now. He wore a swim diaper the other day and ever since he has protested about regular diapers and has wanted the pull-on type. He demonstrates this by standing in his closet and pointing up to the shelf where the swim diapers are. So today he is trying out his new Pull-Ups. Innovative technology now makes them cold inside if the toddler has an accident. (Ryan and Christian’s didn’t have that.) I don’t think he’s too impressed with that feature… He does ask to go potty several times a day now – although he doesn’t generally do much at least he’s learning to sit up there. Of course he thinks every time he goes potty he gets a bath afterwards as that is how we initially started the whole process – potty right before bath. Here he is in his new Big Boy Pants.

Sunday morning was a bit exciting. Everyone was asleep except for me – I was in the shower. There was a huge crash. The kids glass light cover from the ceiling fell down and shattered. Both Ryan and Christian were asleep. Ryan freaked out and came running out of his room. I am shocked he didn’t cut his feet as there was glass EVERYWHERE. Christian stayed in bed – which was good as there was glass in his bed as well. I don’t know how we have lived here for 3 months and then all of the sudden it decides to fall. We haven’t changed a bulb or anything in it – it just all of the sudden fell. Too weird. Anyway, the huge mess on a Sunday morning was not the most appreciated, but thankfully no one was hurt.

The kitties are all doing well. They are supposed to double their size in the first week and they are working hard on that. They already seem so much bigger in only 4 days! We ended up with 2 girls and 4 boys. The girls are the tabby one with lots of white and the solid black with white neck. The two orange, solid black, and darker tabby are boys. The tabby girl has already been adopted by friends down the road who go to our church. Of course she will stay with us until she is old enough to leave, but they have “claimed” her. I’m guessing since they live fairly close she will come back to visit periodically. We’ll see. I think that one was Matt’s favorite, so he was a bit disappointed to hear she will be leaving.

Well we’re going to go have lunch and then nap time!
C-

It’s been an exciting day…

First Ryan woke me up at 6:30 to inform me his tooth fell out.

Then I went to check on the kitty. She greeted me as usual, climbed into my lap and one of her sacks broke all over me. YUCK! So I ran in and changed and then went back out to watch her have her babies. She had four and then I went in to take a shower and check on the kids. I was in for about 45 minutes or so and she waited for me to come back and then immediately had numbers 5 &6. So she is the pround momma to six little ones. She didn’t bite off the placenta on two of them, so I had to tie it off with string and cut it off to save them, but they seem to be fine now. Of course we gave her a nice box with blankets, but she choose to have them in the dirt.

Here she is last night, lounging on my lap with her big belly.

Here they are with momma

And then here they are when momma got brave and left them for a couple minutes.

Sorry, I cut the head off on the top one… It is kind of dark out there so it is hard to see with the camera. I think there might have been two daddies… which apparently cats can do because there are two orange/white, two solid black (one has a tiny bit of white under its chin) and then two tabby like her. One is dark and one is lighter with white. I guess at least we will be able to tell them apart!

Well, we’re off to town to pick up Matt’s car. He rode from the funeral home to the cemetary here in the front processional car so he left his car behind and we need to go pick it up.

C-

Last night as I was getting ready for bed at midnight, Dane decided it was time to wake up. He cried and cried and cried and so after checking on him several times we finally rescued him and put him in our bed at 1:00 – for an hour, but he refused to go to sleep. So back to the crib he went and cried and cried some more. I think it was about 2:30 before he finally went back to sleep. We have no idea what the deal was besides the fact that he wanted to watch Dora… He kept saying map, map, map, which is part of the Dora show, but we weren’t doing that at 1:00 a.m.! So needless to say when the alarm went off at 6:30 we were a bit tired. We did get short naps this afternoon though. Let’s hope tonight is not a repeat.

So those 90 auctions that ended the other day… Now I have to ship all those! Of course I knew that, but I’m not really enjoying it. At least this stuff will be out of our house and into the hands of people who can actually use it within the next few days. Our mail lady is going to love me! LOL She is a church member too.

I went and got my hair done today. The stylist I found does a great job. I consider myself blessed since it’s not always easy to find a good stylist. She was recommended by a church member and is actually a member of our church. Although she does not attend anymore. Here is a pic. from this evening. It looked a bit better before my nap and the humidity of the day…

Today a giant piece of farm equipment showed up in our yard to spray our poor trees. The Japanese Beetles are gone now, but now there is some sort of caterpillar/worm thing eating up the evergreens.

Oh and I learned another funny tidbit of country small town living today…. Apparently you read your own electricity meters! A member came by today and Matt was chatting with him and pretty soon he was writing the number off the meter. Matt enquired and learned that that’s how they do it out here. I guess they come by every once in awhile just to make sure you are being honest – but it’s your responsibility to report. Crazy.

The funeral service I was speaking of yesterday will be Thursday morning at the funeral home and then the burial at the church cemetary. Matt has a busy week with lots of meetings, the funeral and regular duties. Then Sunday he is out of here for a week in Minnesota at the seminary for some classes. He is taking another church member and they’re staying at his friend Ryan’s house. I’m sure he’ll have a good time.

Matt moved our bird feeders – one outside the living room window and one outside his office window, so it has been fun to watch them come visit now. Here is a Goldfinch enjoying lunch. (Our camera is dying – hence the neon green by the tree…)

All right, off to more packaging. I guess it is getting late and I should probably consider bed as well.
C-