Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Teddy


Here is a recent picture of Teddy, in a playfull "pounce" pose. He is now 9 months old and is getting big. He is a pretty good dog, other than the chewing of everything in site! He has a fondness for shoes, so if you happen to leave them out, he will chew on them. I try to keep all the doors to bed rooms closed, so that we can keep our shoes unharmed, but that doesn't always work because we usually take our shoes off at the door. He hasn't done any major damage, thus far. I buy him all kinds of bones, ropes, chew toys, everything I can think of, but it does not distract him from shoes, or the kids toys if they are laying around. I guess he will eventually grow out of it. I hope so anyway! :)

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Stress Relief

Wow, today is only Tuesday and already it has been a long week! Starting with Monday, I was looking for some paperwork needed that I could not find. I came home for lunch and went through every file in our filing cabinet, every "bucket" in the garage (plastic storage bins), closets, drawers with no luck. It could not be found. But in doing so, I noticed that there were several duplicate files in the filing cabinet. Files that I had made and Jeff had made, also, but they were in different drawers. And all kinds of junk mail or various forms of paperwork in "Junk Drawers" where it had been put to "quick clean" the kitchen counters. Wow that all needs organized! Back to work, sweaty after being in the garage moving bins around, with no paperwork, to the normal busy work Monday. After work, I needed to get Allie and take her to get some soccer cleats and shin guards because soccer practice starts on Tuesday. So off to Mom's to pick her up and drop Conor off, so that I don't have to deal with a 2 year old in the mall. We get everything needed and go back to get Conor, but he doesn't want to go. He wants to stay and play with Mimi and ride on the 4 wheeler. Mom just recently got the 4 wheeler and Conor loves to ride on it! We do finally get home somewhere around 8pm, not much time left in the night, but I am worn out anyway, so that is fine. Allie, Conor, and I play blocks in the living room. Allie and I build them up and Conor knocks them down. Time for bed, tomorrow is a new day!

Well, tomorrow isn't a better day! I get up this morning and go to take a shower - no hot water. Ugghhhh! OK, so I get ready and have to go and wake Conor up to get him ready. My normal morning guy does not want to get up today. He gives a bit of a hard time, but eventually gets up and ready. I get to work and I am feeling a little grimy, but not too bad, I did shower yesterday after all! But I am a little sluggish and have a lot on my mind that I need to get done. We have a "warranty guy" coming to the house today @ 1PM to see what all needs fixed for our 1 year warranty on our house. I need to do a little work at the house - some straightening up - so I plan to leave work around noon or a little after, but then if the warranty guy takes a while, that would mean a LONG lunch. So with all the filing issues, I ask if I can just take 1/2 day vacation. My boss approves, so I hurry to get as much done as I can and head home.

As I am pulling up to my house, there is a truck parked in front of it. It is only 12:20 - it can't be the warranty guy! But it is. Then he tells me that a visitor across the street at my neighbor's house just backed into his truck, so he has to wait on the police and would be in shortly. I am sorry for his bad luck, but glad that I had a little time to straighten up. I go into the house and Allie is finishing up the pots and pans that were in the sink. Thank God for Allie. She has been such a big help to me lately. She had done a lot of the straightening, with only a little left to do. So she directs me when I walk in that I should straighten the couch covers while she finishes something else. :) It made me smile that she was telling me what to do - a little role reversal. We get it done and the warranty guy is only here for about 20 minutes. He checks the hot water heater and finds the pilot light is out, so he tells me that he will send someone over today to get that re-lit so I can take a shower. JOY!

He leaves and I set about gathering all the various papers throughout the house. I get my shredder and the trash can set up and I go to work. I check in on my work email throughout the afternoon, just in case of an emergency. Then at 4:35 I tell Allie to get ready, that we would be leaving soon to go and get Conor then go to her practice that starts @ 5:30. At 4:45 I found the papers that I had been looking for! Filed with Jeff's taxes and school stuff - but not in the filing cabinet, setting out on the entertainment center. Great! But I need to send them to the person needing them and it would take forever to scan them! So I tell Allie, let's go - right now! I can run to work and fax them, then pick Conor up, then go to the park for practice. We shouldn't be too late, and a few minutes wouldn't hurt anyway.

So out the door we go. When we are going down the road Allie says "Mom, I have to use the bathroom." Well - you can either hold it until we get to work (about 10 minutes) or I can drop you off at Molly's (my sister) and then pick you up after I get Conor. She chose Molly's. So I tried to call on my way there to make sure it was OK with them, but by the time the phone was given to my brother-in-law, we were pulling in the drive. I quickly explained to him and left to go do what I needed to do. I get to work at 5:04 and there is no one there! Guess they all ran out of the door at 5. :) I go in, fax the paperwork, reset the alarm, lock the door, and go to get Conor. When I pull up to the sitter's house, it is 5:26 - only 4 minutes til practice. I run to the door, get Conor, get his shoes, tell the sitter why I am in a hurry, and out the door we go. 5:28. We go back to my sister's to get Allie, and as we were leaving, there is a blind spot in her road - kinda a hill - and as I went over the hill, an SUV was headed right for us. They were driving in the middle of the road, about to hit us head on! As soon as I saw it, I made a fearful noise (sucking in my breath) that made Allie look and do the same. I swerved a little to the right, but there wasn't anywhere to go, but they also swerved quickly enough and missed us. Barely. My heart was pounding! I had not been speeding, I already knew we were going to be late but was not in a rush at that point. But they certainly were speeding, as well as being in the middle of the road. We were certainly being watched over at that moment, and I am very thankful for that.

So Allie gets to soccer, I go with my mom to look at a couch for sale, and then pick Allie back up. We finally make it home around 7:30 and we are all starving. I make a quick dinner of grilled cheese and tater-tots, then we all relax in the living room for a bit. Conor wants to play blocks, so I tell him to bring them to the living room. Instead he comes out with a big ball.

Here is where the "Stress Relief" comes in. :) Bet you were wondering about that, huh?

He and Allie start playing, and we were all "passing it" back and forth. Then I come to my senses and say we shouldn't be doing that in the house... So Allie and Conor start a pillow fight with the couch pillows (they are small square pillows, for those of you who don't know). Allie throws one at Conor, he runs into his room so she misses, and he comes out and says "Missed Me!" hee hee. Then he throws it back at her. It comes nowhere close to getting her because he is too far away when he throws it, but he thinks it is funny anyway. She moves quickly and gets it, he runs to his room again, so when she throws it, it hits the door frame - not Conor - and he does it all again. It escalates to Allie moving to right outside his door and throwing them into his room. Although she hits him with the pillows (not hard), he still giggles and says "Missed Me!" So she laughs and says "I did NOT!". While this is all fun, and everyone is having fun, the best is yet to come.

We all go outside, Jeff and Allie sitting on the chairs on the front porch, me sitting on the step, and Conor running around. Allie brought her soccer ball out, so she and Conor are passing it back and forth down the sidewalk, Allie trying to get Conor to catch it. And he does - quite a few times. And he keeps moving further away from her. So when he throws it back, it doesn't quite reach her. So I start teasing her and saying "Sissy can't catch the ball!" and "She missed again!" hee hee. So Conor thought that was funny and he started saying it, too whenever she missed. Allie was a good sport, and acted indignant, but was laughing, too. Then Conor was standing about 3 feet from Allie and he threw the ball towards Jeff and said "Oh, Sissy missed AGAIN!" This sent me and Allie into rolling laughter, tears were forming in my eyes!

I suggested to Allie that she go out in the yard and pass the ball with him with their feet, or run around, something to wear Conor's energy out. Allie then suggested to Conor that they "race" across the yard. So they began running back and forth, and in circles, around the yard. Conor beat Allie (he would stop and turn around, or change the path, in the middle of the yard). She, of course was letting him win, but was still getting wore out. So she laid down in the grass, to catch her breath. Conor went over and bent his face down to hers and said "Wanna race, sissy?" She said she needed to rest, so he found another distraction. The water hose was laying nearby and he wanted to play with the water. I told him to go and turn it on. When he came back, he immediately sprayed Allie (she was still on the ground) - who squealed with laughter. He ran up to her on the ground and was spraying her head from 2 inches away. I told him not to get so close, but Allie was a very good sport, and did not get upset, she said she didn't mind.

Jeff and I were still sitting on the porch, laughing, when he turned on us! He started spraying us and Jeff immediately jumped up and ran into the house. I followed, but had to first grab the phone so it didn't get ruined, so I got a little more wet than he did. Then I was the one who had to go back out and get sprayed while walking up to Conor (trying unsuccessfully to shield the water with my hand) and getting the hose from him and turning the water off! Boy was he not happy about that. He got over it when we all went inside, because he followed. We dried off, got dry clothes on, then settled down to watch Ice Age. Conor fell asleep shortly after, and I came in here to write my blog. I feel more relaxed now, after having laughed so hard for so long.

So my kids were my comic relief tonight. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Time for bed now, I am yawning a lot! Good Night!

Sunday, July 10, 2005



I finally got a new camera! It is a digital one, my 35mm broke and I have been wanting another camera for a while. I found one on an auction site - the one I have been eyeing for a long time, so I got it! While it was on an auction site, it is still brand new, and I got it for $100 less than what it is priced at the store. :) So now I can take more pictures for my posts!

The above pictures were taken at Jeff's family reunion. The first one is all of the people who were still there, and of course the second one is Conor. He had been swimming in a baby pool with some of the other kids.

Just thought I would share a couple! Have a good evening!

Friday, July 01, 2005

Does Age Really Matter?

Well, I am going to be 32 in a couple of days. It is strange thinking of myself as being in my 30's. In a lot of ways, I feel so old. When I think of everything I have done in my lifetime, it makes me feel old. In other ways, I don't feel any older than I did when I was 20. Allie is going to be 12 in less than a week. It seems strange that I have a daughter who is almost a teenager. Then I think of my mom, and I remember her when I was Allie's age. Did she feel the same way I feel now? That she wasn't really old enough to have children that old? And I still think of my parents and my aunts and uncles as being in their 30's or 40's. When they mention how old they are, even though I know how old they are, it is just hard for me to think of any of our ages in quantity of years.

My blogs are getting less funny.... I am going to stop this one now, and try again another time. :) Hope everyone has a good 4th of July!