Blessings

One quick thing. I just finished reading my friend Dianna's blog where their entire family is battling with terrible colds and yuckies. It made me think about how blessed our family is this year in how healthy we have really all been. Despite John's ear infection and strep, they were really pretty minor in comparison to those yucky bugs and stuff that spread amongst the entire family and paralize and make everyone miserable for a week. Even with both kids in daycare, and Dave's sleep schedule constantly getting rearranged, we have stayed relatively free of viruses and yuckies that spread. And for Baby John.... how blessed we all are to live in a time when medicines are available to us that we don't have to watch our kids suffer on end! He was back to his normal happy smiling self in less than 24 hours. Dianna...... we are thinking about you and pray that your family gets well quickly!

Playing Outside Pictures

Flowers

Spring has sprung in the City of Flowers. It sure is a welcome sight. Seth, John and I went for a walk last Saturday afternoon and took some pictures. It makes me feel so much better to have the smell of flowers and rosebushes in the air. It makes me miss my flowerbed from our old house on Ft. Gordon. By now my tulips would have started coming up. I had 50+ of them in the ground. My rosebushes would have had their first or second bloom and I'd have started planting some annuals. Someday when I have my own house I'm going to have a beautiful flower garden.

Ho Hum

What a week! Nothing all that crazy or super exciting happened this week. But it sure went by fast! Here's an update.

John is feeling better. The anti-biotics cleared up his ear and eye in a day, but sure gave him a diaper rash like the dickens! :-( Poor John, but he's much better now. AND he learned how to drink from a straw.

Seth's class learned all about dinosaurs this week. He was VERY enthusiastic about it. Now he can spout off stuff about Tyranosaurous Rex and Stegosaurouses. Not sure if that's how you spell them, but it was fun. I'm going to find out if there's a museum not too far away to take him to. Also, he randomly started counting in Spanish yesterday while playing dominos with Dave. Pretty cool! Whenever I ask about his day at school....he usually responds with an "I don't know, fine.". So, I guess I get to find out what he's learning when he surprises me with it!

Dave hasn't been feeling the best this week. With Spring in the air, and pollen too, he wakes up in the afternoon with a scratchy throat and always tired. Despite that, he has been cooking dinner every night, and keeping the kitchen and dining rooms spotless! Maybe that pollen is affecting the clean spot in his brain too!

As for me, I'm just chugging along. At work they have started talking to me about taking the Lead position for my market, so that's exciting, but they want someone to take the position who's going to be sticking around for a while. I just don't know how long we'll be in Augusta! So.... I told them to make it worth my while to stay! We'll see what they come up with. Esp because my supervisor, prego with twins, will soon be on bedrest. So... its likely this position isn't just for a Lead, but a long-term substitute for the Supe, which is a much bigger job... and one that I'm not so sure I'm ready for!

Clear Skies

Tonight was a beautiful clear night to watch the eclipse.

My Valentines

Seth and John had a fun day Thursday. Seth's class had a little party where they each decorated a shoe box and exchanged Valentines. John's class had a little party too, as much as 1-year olds can party. But they each got a Teddy Bear and a balloon from Mommy. Seth named the bears Tyrone 1 and Tyrone 2.

Lovey Dovey Movie Night

So, tonight was supposed to be our Valentine's Day celebration. Our church had a lovey dovey dinner date complete with child care, yummy dinner, dancing and games. We went a few years ago and had a great time. Poor John got sick last night with a fever and a dual ear/eye infection. He's still feeling pretty down. So instead we stayed home and rented a movie. Surf's Up is not exactly as romantic as dinner out, but snuggling on the couch with the people I love the most sure ranks up there as a great evening to celebrate Love.

A few quick things

I caught John this evening putting my toothbrush in the toilet.

I put Seth in bed this evening in his jammies. I just checked on him a few minutes ago, and now he is in his Superman costume.

10 Reasons Why I Loved this Weekend

1. Jumpin' Around..... Dad and I took Seth to Jumpin' Beans on Monday. It was so much fun! Mom and John stayed home to play and it was the first time I got to go and jump with Seth without having to sit out with John. We went down the slides, Dad and I played airhockey, and I taught Seth how to do Summersaults and Cartwheels (sort of).

2. Speaking of Monday...... I didn't have to work! Yay for day's off!

3. Happy Boobies.... Mom and I went shopping Sunday afternoon. I used up most of my holiday gift certificates to replace much of my underwear and bras. Ahh....there's just something SO wonderful about a fresh new pair of panties, and so uplifting and comfortable about a new brazierre with the elastic still in it!

4. Happy Birthday John! Yes! John turned 1 year old last week, but we celebrated on Monday night with some cake and presents.

5. Shopping at Walmart.... Dad took me shopping at Walmart Saturday morning and filled 2 grocery carts-full of food and supplies. Our pantry and freezer are overflowing! We are so blessed to have such wonderful parents! Thanks Dad!

6. Warm weather.... While normally I'd have complained about 70 degree weather in Winter, it was nice to have the warm weather arrive for the weekend and give the kids some fun in the sun with bike riding and tree climbing and ball tossing.

7. Good kids. Not that I'm bragging or anything....but my kids were SO good this weekend. I was very proud of them. Seth and Grandma baked cookies together on Monday morning and Seth said that he wanted to bring them to school to share with the kids. At first, I was like...well we already signed up for tablecloths for the party....and somewhat dismissed it. But who am I to deny my son the opportunity to be thoughtful? Of course we're taking the cookies!

8. A nap...thanks to Grandma and Papa, Mommy got a little nap this weekend. Ahhhh.

9. My house was kinda clean :-) As always when guests are coming, we cleaned the house up! Thanks to much hard (yet procrastinated) work from my husband I had really little to do besides laundry throughout the weekend.

10. Mom and Dad were here! Yay! I love them so much! And I can't wait to see them again!

Weekend

Yay! They're here! Mom and Dad came in for the weekend.

AND look what they brought me! Only a few of my regular readers will appreciate my excitement for a loaf of DiCamillo's bread. Mmmm, it makes the best toast ever.

Seth and John LOVE their Grandma and Papa.

MeMe

So I was tagged by Amie for a meme. I have a hard time with these things, because....well.... as stated by my Blog name, I am pretty plain. I don't really have a whole lot of funny or unique things to talk about myself. But, I'll give it a whirl.

1. I am a pretty decent crocheter. I really love to do it....I just never have time.
2. I took tap dancing lessons when I was young. I secretly still love to tap dance, and pull out a....shuffle hop step fl-lap ball change in my kitchen when no one is looking.
3. Lately....I've been feeling older.
4. I hardly move when I sleep. I prefer to sleep on my tummy, in a pike position with my arms flat down my side and my hands tucked under me. Sleep is my friend, and I still need naps.
5. I detest washing dishes. I love my dishwasher.
6. I cant think of anything else.

Southern Drawl

So...kinda weird. All of a sudden Seth's starting to pick up a Southern accent. He says yeh-yah, instead of yeah or yes and they-yer, instead of there. I know I've picked up some Southern stuff, but not like this! And it's so weird it just started like...last week. No offense to Southerners, as I seem to be one now, but it's really bothering me.

Weekend and John

So this Friday I finally got paid!!! Yay! As one can imagine, I was quite excited. On Jan 1st I was hired permanant at work from being a temp. Along with that came an entire month to get paid, as they only pay bi-monthly and they hold your first paycheck (ie, I got paid on the 1st of Feb for the 1st-15th of Jan). Well, we made it! It was really tough, and drained most of what little savings we had, but we survived. I felt like a rich woman when I went to walmart yesterday.....whats this? we can afford crackers? and kleenex? and I can get some contact solution? Oh my! God is good! We celebrated with McDonalds and I bought myself a nail polish.

This weekend was kinda tough. We all woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Saturday and everyone was bumping heads with everyone. Normally I would've forgone the Walmart shopping till after naptime but it had to be done. We didn't even have butter for toast....it was that bad. Suprisingly we made it through without too much drama, until the very end when Seth stopped listening to me, and lost his cookies. I had to take them out of the bag and hand them back to the cashier! So...of course the usual crying fit scene erupted and I walked away quickly with my head down muttering prayers for patience. Once we all got a short snooze our attitudes were much better. We went and rented a few movies and then made a night of it. The boys watched Cinderella 2 and I watched Amazing Grace (with my eyes half open).

Sunday was a much better day. Off to church in the morning to work in the nursery. Then I took Seth to a birthday party at Adventure Crossing where he got to ride on his first rides ever! He went on the roller coaster about 5 times in a row, the carusel, the planes, the mini-twister, and then we went indoors for some skeeball and games. Seth was sooo good and had a great time.

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I can't believe it's been almost a year now since John entered our little family. The day he was born is still so fresh in my memory and makes me nostalgic for his infancy. One year ago yesterday was my due date. My husband took me out for wings, and I ordered the hottest I could possibly stand, hoping that the spicy-ness would force me into labor....... It just gave me heartburn. So, the next day I spent the day outdoors. I friend of a friend told me she got her labor started by communing with the earth. So... I pulled weeds in what was once my flowerbed. I knew I would be moving in a few weeks and would have to clean it up anyhow, so that's what I did.....and it worked. Around 4ish it occurred to me that my cramps were stronger and by 8ish by contractions were about 4 minutes apart. We dropped Seth off at Amie's for the night and headed to the hospital. He was born the next morning at 3am....on Superbowl Sunday. 9lbs 14ozs and 21 inches long. God is sooo good! Look was a joy and a gift He has given us!

This was actually taken the Christmas before John was born....... I didn't think I could get much bigger, but I did.

Here is John just a few moments after he was born. Daddy took pictures while they cleaned him up and Mommy sat anxiously waiting to hold her new blessing.

One year later.... no longer a baby..... a toddler for sure!

Yesterday's Schoolwork

Fort Robinson

When Seth was John's age I made him a fort to put over the card table. He never really had much interest in it. Well, we resurrected it this week and boy are the boys having fun in it! Fun Times!