The Date!!!

We have a date!!!!!

We are closing on our Charleston house on Oct 19!!!!!

Less than three weeks away!!!

One more mortgage payment!!!

Only 19 days we will spend without a renter.

What a blessing!!!

We are also working on the first steps of putting this house on the market.

"We" as in Jeremy.

More our upcoming move this week.

Kinda bitter/sweet.

We worked so hard on this house.

We love every inch of it.

We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it. 

Literally.  All three.  And then some.

We dumped hours and hours and hours of work into this house.

We brought our baby boy home here.

We lost our loyal and crazy Rio here.

We mowed, we swam, we planted, we painted, we cooked, we built, and we learned a ton here!  

We will miss every inch of it.

But first things first...what kind of house closing party should we have!!?!?!?!?

We are SOOOOOO excited!!!!!

Splash Pad Discovery

We took the little squirt to a squadron BBQ.  

There was bouncy castles.

And a sand box.

And a big boy playground

He had a wonderful time.

He was covered in bug spray and sand.

And juice box.

It wasn't pretty.

I was expecting him to fall asleep in the car on the way home.

So we headed to the splash pad.

I stripped him down to his diaper.

He was very interested.

But stopped right at the water edge.

Stood right at the edge watching the other kids play.

It was time to go home. 

And he hadn't even put a toe in.

So I stripped off his diaper and prepped to force a "bath" in the sprinkler on him.

And that is when Noah discovered the joy of the splash pad.

He went NUTS!

Running from sprinkler to sprinkler.

Trying to grab the water coming out.

Doing whatever kids do in the splash pad.

Naked.

And loving every second of it.

The other parents didn't mind his naked-ness.

It is so crazy because I have taken Noah to the splash pad several times. 

And he has NEVER gotten in it.

It is fun to watch him discover new things.

And he fell right asleep in the car on the way home.

I would call that a success.

:)

3 Shameless, 1 Nasty

Okay here is a Tuesday night shameless picture:

I got these PJs at the consignment for 70 cents.  Worth every penny.  They make me laugh so hard when he wears them.  Totally just a mommy opinion, but he is stinkin cute in them.

I'm a weak mommy.  I gave him a popsicle.  He wasn't so sure about it at first, but it grew on him really fast.  It was kinda accidental, but that bib pocket worked out GREAT!

And a random note about what I found on our rug this evening. 

Yeah, take a good look.

That is a leg coming out the back end.

A frog leg.

A very dead, dried up crusty frog leg.

Gag.  Thank goodness I have a man in my life. 

Total "man job".

Which is really the definition of any job that I don't want to do. ;)

No Longer Alone

Jeremy is on his way home.  He should be here soon.
He has been in San Antonio for a week.
We miss him!!!
I try not to announce that I'm here by myself on the blog.
I don't want to have to shoot anyone.  :)

It has been an interesting week here, with just the two of us.
It started with the stomach virus, which was challenging.

I was lying in bed with a bucket on my night stand, thinking "what am I going to do in the morning?"
But it all worked out.
Thank goodness for daycare and wonderful neighbors.

After that though, we had a great week.
Lots of park and outdoor playing.
Going out to eat.
Taking drives.
Eating junk food.
Not exercising, not even once.

We especially had a nice Saturday.
Relaxing and fun.
And we (really me) got a lot of chores done.
My house wasn't even covered in toys by the end of the night.
Can you believe that?

And so our week alone is coming to an end.
I'm glad to have my hubby back.
It's lonely here at night!
And we have the first episode of Survivor to watch.
I know Noah will be so pumped to see his Daddy.
Skype is just not enough.  You gotta squeeze those rolls in person.
And I'm SO looking forward to my sleep-in tomorrow!!!

10 Confessions

1.  I stole a pen.  You know sometimes when you are at the bank or somewhere else, and you find a pen from the bank later in your pocket?  That is totally not the case.  I was somewhere (un named) and I thought a pen that I was using was really great, and I thought I would borrow it for a while.  Then I got it home and started to feel really guilty about it.  So I am going to bring it back.  But I have to figure out how to casually do that.  :)  And it turns out that the pen is really not that great anyway.  If it rests upside down for any amount of time, the ink drains backward and when you go to write, you can't.  So I'm having major stolen pen guilt.

2.  I haven't cooked at all this week.  One night I made scrambled eggs, and I didn't even wash the pan till the next day.

3.  I feel sympathy for prescription drug addicts.  Let me just clarify that I AM NOT addicted to anything in any way,  but sometimes I am just amazed at how well (and how fast!) things like nasal spray, headache medication, etc work, and I can understand how an addiction could happen.

4. Beagles hearing has gotten worse.  It really doesn't impact him much since he never really listened to us anyway.  And sometimes it even works in our favor because we don't get caught at random times sneaking a snack.

5.  When I eat Chex Mix (which is not too often), I'm a total picker.  I don't like the pretzels.  I don't know why they put them in there anyway.  I think they taste stale!

6.  Walgreens has a new card/reward program.  I'm seriously thinking about quitting shopping there because it seems somewhat complicated, and I just don't to learn some thing new right now.  Also the new program makes your out of pocket costs higher, so I just don't think I'm getting on board.  Lastly, with our upcoming move (in 6 or so months) I don't need more junk!

7.  I'm really into mouthwash.  I got a bunch this week free with couponing, so I tried it out.  I've never been a regular mouth wash user, but I think I've been converted.   LOVE that stuff!

8.  I got Noah off of his bottle.  Two days ago.  Yeah, yeah, it was a little late.  But he loved it, and it didn't do any harm.  Until Tuesday night, and then Wednesday night...when there were multiple screaming crazy child tantrums over wanting his bottle when he wanted his bottle.  So away went the bottle.  It was surprisingly easy.  Noah is getting a cup of warm milk in the evening, but here we are 2 nights no bottle!!!

9.  I counted down the hours till Noah's bed time tonight.  We even drove the the far-away park because it is nicer, but also to kill some time.  And it worked, because at 6:40, he was snug as a bug in a rug.  Bottle free.

10.  We are MAJOR "Survivor" addicts, and are super excited about this new season!  There goes Wednesday nights!!!
9.

Over Sickness

Oh man we have been sick.  First Noah got it, then I got it.  It was bad.  I didn't go to work yesterday.  We were a sad sight.

But I loaded up and brought Noah to daycare anyway.  Then I came home and got in bed.  For 2 naps.  And at 4:00 when I went to go get him from daycare, I still felt disgusting.

But this morning, I woke up feeling wonderful!  (Thank you modern medicine and wonderful drugs!!!)

So I'm feeling better, but here is the thing:  My house was TOO QUIET during my sick day!

I totally missed my little man tearing up my house.
I missed him throwing his lunch on the floor.
I missed his time out tantrums.
I missed looking at his little arm rolls and smelling little boy toes.
I missed picking up the same toys over and over.
I missed watching the same Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode over and over.

And so it is all over, and we are both feeling better.  Remind me next time that Noah drives me crazy to go back and look at this post!  :)

Happy Sick-o

For as much of a sick-o (stomach virus) as this child has been this weekend, he sure has been a happy little fellow!

I continued my mission to get some pictures of my little cutie, and he was up for his end of the job.

Hopefully he will start feeling better (and eating something) soon!

Here are some of this weekends shots:

Noah has this semi shoe obsession.  He likes to put his own shoes on.  He likes to put my shoes on me. And he likes to put our shoes on himself.  He thinks he is just so important with Jeremy's boots on.

 Speaking of important, look at Noah...all up in the business of fence re-building.  Jeans and crocs on...he thinks he is the general contractor of this job.  (If you are wondering, no it its not cold enough to wear jeans, but Noah falls a lot and gets eaten up by bugs, so we decided to try his jeans on.....this is the FIRST time he has not been too fat for jeans!  Isn't he cute in them!?!?)

 Tasting some leaves and sticks:

 Pushing the wagon around:

 All smiles, despite not having eaten in 48 hours:

I'm not saying I want him to be sick, but I am saying I have been LOVING all of the extra snuggles and sitting still that has been happening in the last 2 says!  This guy is THE BEST!  I love him like crazy!!!

Razor Overload

Sometimes I just coupon and coupon and coupon...without really paying attention to what i have bought.

Razors are one of those items....especially with a head-shaving husband.

When you coupon, you know that "buying" a brand new razor is cheaper than buying cartridges.

So I just buy brand new ones.

They usually come with at least one spare cartridge, so thats even better.

My razor stash has been getting a little out of hand (they come heavily packaged), so I unpackaged all of these beauties for Jeremy.  He should be good to shave for a while.

I also have a similar stash of women's razors, but I'm SO stingy with my razors.  I hold on to them until I'm cutting myself with a rusty old blade.  I don't know why I am like that!!!

I love free stuff!!!

Another Nibble

I'm tired and not feeling well.

I worked all day today...and I'm not lying, that is not for the weak.

It is hard working all day and keeping up with a little squirt in the evening.

It doesn't help that I'm starting to feel sick too.

I think a scoop of Blue Bell would help.

Well, in short, this is blog to report ANOTHER daycare nibble.

Nibble #15. 

Ahhh...such is life.

Happy Wednesday

MC and pics

Okay, so first the MC.

I made a new MC variety.  Its really healthy.

It has cream cheese stuffed jalapenos and cheddar cheese inside.

And it is wrapped in bacon.

Like I said, it is really healthy.

Jeremy really liked it. 

He said it was the best MC I ever made.

I worked hard to get a few pictures of my little mister.

Here are a few of my favorites. :)

Some of the goat pictures didn't turn out the best, but I love the emotion in them anyway.  :)

Happy Sunday!

Busy Busy Busy

I have great visions of taking cute pictures of my cute kid doing cute things.

Somehow, though, it never works out.

Usually I'm too busy.

Busy keeping him from face planting on concrete.

Busy keeping him from tumbling head first down a hill.

Busy keeping from standing on his toy car.

Or his rocking puppy.

Or anything that shouldn't be stood on.

Busy keeping him from sticking his finger in an outlet.

Or from closing his fat little fingers in the door.

So carrying around a camera and capturing those cute little moments are not a priority.

Funny how quick that happens.

This weekend I'm determined to get a few good shots.

I want to make a new shutterfly book of my "busy boy".

But I just can't capture him.

Unfortunately, most of my pictures end up looking like this:

The Good, The Bad, and the Disgusting

The Good:

• Our Charleston house closing proceeds!  No actual date yet, but still making progress.
• We got stocked up on winter and fall clothes, as well as "big boy toys" at the consignment.  We also made $70 and got rid of several bulky baby things.
• The little man is growing up.  Talking (in whatever language you could call that) up a storm, and saying "bye bye" consistently.
• No biting or fighting in Noah's long day (today) at daycare.  Yeah!!!
• Noah is hitting significantly less.  He was sitting in time-out 5-6 times a day for hitting, but hasn't been in time out even once this week!
• I'm feeling caught up.  With bills, paperwork, phone calls, and I'm even caught up at work.  That is such a good feeling.  I'm thinking a nap might be in order tomorrow.
• I'm still on the search for the perfect workout DVD.  I'm leaning toward "the biggest loser cardio max" workout, but I'm having a hard time with the $9 commitment.  :)  Tough decision.  
• I'm feeling very thankful for a wonderful family, great job, and good health.  We are so blessed.

The Bad:

• We are both feeling very tired lately.  Chasing after an active 15 month old is a lot of work.  Noah is getting his two top molars, and not sleeping well.  Also, when we do miss out on sleep, it is hard to make up that time.  
• My freezer is empty again.  Really so is my fridge.  I will be working on that problem in the next week or so, but for now I'm a little tired of making MC.

The Disgusting:

• Okay, so you know I have to end with a crazy story.  As if Riley eating Noah's poop log wasn't bad enough, today I caught him eating squirrel.  I'm pretty sure the squirrel was dead when I caught Riley picking him up and started shaking the limp, floppy squirrel around (tail hanging down and all).  I didn't get close enough to determine the cause of squirrel death, but I doubt Riley was fast enough to catch and kill him.  Either way, I've had a hard time getting that picture out of my head.  Mr. Poop/Squirrel eater is not warming my heart this week.  

Beagle Proof

Our poor Beagle has gotten So. Stinkin. Annoying.

I'm not really sure what brought this around.

I mean, he was always a begger.

But in the last month he has gotten worse.

WAY worse.

Sometimes he is hard to be around.

He just begs, whines, whimpers, and knocks on the pantry non stop.

He whines at 5:30 in the morning too.

I have a pile of ammo by the side of my bed.

In the form of rolled up socks.

Which I throw at him if he even tries to wake me up.

And I'm SO SICK of him knocking on, and whimpering at the pantry door.

So I got the idea to take the dog food OUT of the pantry.

Any put it out in the open.

But far enough away from me so I don't have to hear about it.

He is a tricky little Beagle.

So we have to bungee cord the top of it for extra protection.

Since he has already torn the locking mechanism off the container..

But so far, I'm really pleased.  

He hasn't spent the last two days begging non-stop.

What do you think...Beagle proof?

15 Months

To my little monster:

It was just yesterday we were bringing you home!  And here you are 15 months and all grown.  :)  We love you more than words can express.  We love watching you grow up and we can't imagine even one minute without your wiggly little self!!!  Happy 15 months!