Christmas Lights

This house is in the town that I grew up in! He sets all the musical fountains in Grand Haven to music in the summer time!

http://ghmfsoftware.com/lights/

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Chocolate!

JJ found the bag of chocolate chips while I was making cookies. I had left a few in the bag for myself if I needed a chocolate fix, but apparently JJ needed one before I did!

Earlier that day he had fallen asleep on the steps. I tried to get a picture of him eating his teddy grahams while nodding off, but when I came back with the camera he was in this position!

Finally, the kitchen is complete!

We got the countertop in yesterday for the island and got it installed this morning.

Sleet

Yes, it is actually sleeting here today. You should here the comments from the weather people on TV! They keep telling us to be prepared for the cold and to wear heavy coats, etc! It is hilarious. Of course when you live in ND for 4 years this weather is nothing compared to that up there! I just think I am secretly enjoying all the whiners and moaners down here about this icky weather!

Our Christmas tree is up!

Drum Roll Please.....

Do you all really want to know the sex of the new baby?? Are you sure??? OK...It's a girl!!!! YAY!! We are sooooooooooooooooooooo excited. The second picture is the actual girl parts. I couldn't really tell, but the tech assured me it was a girl!

One Sheet Wonder

I have been working on my cards lately, specifically my holiday cards. I decided to give that rest for a few days and try a one sheet wonder! Here are the results...

Weather....

I will start this post off apologizing to all you who live in the northern tier of the country. I hate this darn heat! It is almost December and yet my 5-day forecast is 80 degrees everyday! Apparently I wasn't cutout for this southern heat. Let's just pray we don't get stationed this far south again! Luckily there is a cold front around the corner and we should see that by Thursday. (Sorry, I am a weather junky!)

Cuttin' Molars

Apparently when JJ was clingy for three days straight it was because he was cutting two molars! I thought I saw something in there this morning so I daringly stuck my finger in his mouth and there it was, the left one! I checked for the right one and it was coming too!

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can pose a hazard to your skin

and the off brands can cause some serious pain to the skin. My friend Tanya passed this link along to me this evening and I thought it pertinent to share with everyone what these items can actually do to skin if rubbed with them. I will definitely be keeping these out of my children's reach from now on.

http://kerflop.com/2006/11/02/chemical-burn/

Kitchen Island

Last night we went to Lowe's and finally picked up cabinets for our kitchen island! We ordered the counter top, which takes three weeks to arrive. When it's all done, I'll take pictures!

T-Shirts

So today I decided to put all the clothes away. Finally. I don't normally mess with John's clothes too much, but today I took it upon myself to put his away. But in order to do that I needed to reorganize his t-shirt drawers. Yes, I said drawers - plural. I counted 52 of these darn things in his drawers. 52! Oh, and he just got 3 more in the mail so that makes it 55. That is not including his work t-shirts. I haven't counted those! I think we need to do some purging of the clothes again!

Anne's visit

So I didn't get around to posting about how fun Anne's visit was this week. So here it is! After she finally arrived we took a trip to the outlet malls in San Marcos. We found some nice things including my brand new asparagus kitchen towels! Woohoo! We had chicken and tips for dinner, yum yum! On Saturday we hung out in the morning and went to the Alamo and the Riverwalk and had lunch at an Irish pub. It was pretty yummy. We did SeaWorld in the afternoon. The dolphins were very active this visit and we were able to touch them! I have been to the shows at SeaWorld three times now and they are still amazing to watch. Even though our visit was cut short, it was splendid! I even got a little birthday treat before she left; a new book and some yummy pumpkin scented candles and holder for them!
I posted some pictures. But if you check out Anne's blog there are a ton more!

Happy Halloween!!!

She finally arrived!

Anne didn't make it here last night due to bad weather up north, so I picked her up at the airport this morning. I took her back home, let her get a shower and lunch and off to the outlets we went! I got some good deals and so did she! My most favorite deal were some kitchen towels from Crate and Barrel. They have asparagus on them!!! Anne took a picture so when I get that I will show you! Tomorrow off to SeaWorld!

I spoke too soon!

This morning at approximately 7:45, the city dropped off new recycling and garbage bins. I get to recycle everything now! Isn't that a coincidence? I just start complaining about and what appears on my curb? So now they pick up trash on one day and recycling on the other. Of course they neglected to tell me which day is which, but I guess I should read the pamphlet before I start ranting about that. Have a stupendous evening. I am off to bed early tonight as JJ got up at least 3 times last night(I quit counting after that).

John's class

John has been through quite a bit of classroom experience in the last few weeks. On top of all the homework he gets, we are never going to see him for the next year! Actually it isn't that bad. He got through his first section of class work and had his first major test on Thursday and passed with a whopping 94! The crappy part about these tests is an 84 is failing. So you have to be on your toes in order to get through this! The class and few spouses and kids went out to lunch that day to celebrate.

Some Ranting

So the other night I layed in bed thinking about why on earth our curbside recycling program works the way it does. I had to scour the internet to even find this service(which I thought was ridiculous), and then I get this little green box that they pick up once a week. The catch is they don't recycle cardboard! They take glass, plastic, cans and newspaper, but no cardboard! Do you know how many cereal boxes we go through in a week? So John has been taking all of our cardboard to the base recycling program only to learn this week that they only accept corrugated cardboard. No cereal boxes, tissue boxes, or any other kind of box made out of that type of material. I like to think I am doing my part in the world by recycling. But, I can't do it, if the city government doesn't get their act together. The funny part about this whole trash/recycling pickup is that they actually come through and pick up our trash twice a week! I had never heard of that before. Why spend so much money on trash pickup when they could spend a little more on the recycling program. I guess I will do some more investigation....
PS. At least I don't have weirdo neighbors taking my empty cans out of my recycling bin when I put it on the curb :)

The Pits

JJ has had a horrendous cold for two days now. Along with it comes a low grade fever, crankiness and lots and lots of used tissues! I myself feel like I am getting something so I just took some Airborne, jr (cuz that is all I have) and am getting ready to wake John up so I can go to bed and he to work!

GO TIGERS!!!

That's all I really have to say about that!

Bath Time Splashing and Bubbles

Last night JJ got the entire bathroom soaking wet! Ok, I finally got this to work.

Matching Red Toes

I was painting my toes last night when JJ came over and stuck his foot up next to mine and insisted I give him the same treatment! So I thought I would take a picture so I can remind him when he gets older.

SeaWorld

My friend, Kristin, was in town this last week so we took her to see lots of San Antonio "things." We did the River Walk on Saturday and Sunday we did SeaWorld. It was a blast. We saw a couple of the shows and Kristin and John went on a couple of roller coasters while JJ and I watched. They have their Halloween Spooktacular going on right now and they had a dance-a-thon for littles ones at the main entrance. JJ was exhausted, but wouldn't stop dancing to go home! We had to drag him away from the park. We also went to the Cheesecake Factory! Yum, yum! I had ADAM'S PEANUT BUTTER CUP FUDGE RIPPLE - Creamy Cheesecake Swirled with Caramel, Peanut Butter, Butterfingers® and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups®. It was absolutely delicious! It was very sad to see her leave yesterday :( But hopefully she will come again!

Bummer Bunco

So Wednesday I decided to venture out and try the spouse's club bunco night. I was being a bit daring, not knowing anyone when I went. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. Well, was I wrong!! The girls weren't necessarily rude, just NOT friendly. I couldn't believe it. No one even attempted to talk to me except for small talk. There were 14 girls there and not one acted remotely interested that I was there. The group president, whom I met last week, didn't even say a single word to me the two hours I was there. Isn't that her job? To make newbies feel welcome? I tried really hard to not have stereotypes of these women. BUT, they completely proved me right. So needless to say I am sticking to my wonderful Bible study girls who like me just they way I am!

Our Big Ham is 18 months!

JJ wouldn't stop laughing at the photography studio yesterday! It was the funniest thing! Everytime the flash went off he just started laughing hysterically!

Say Cheese!

I have been really liking the camera lately! Especially in my new pooh chair!

Thursday Night Lineup

So I got to watch My Name is Earl, The Office, and CSI NY last night! Earl was funny as usual. On The Office I wasn't too surprised that they didn't go too deep into the Jim/Pam thing. I guess I wasn't paying attention on the season finale, but I didn't realize Jim would be starting this season in a new position. I was surprised to hear that Pam didn't go through with the wedding. I just thought it would play out differently. On the other hand I am glad that she didn't marry that scum bag, but now she is going to have to figure out how to win Jim back over, not that that would be hard, but she crushed him!

I haven't been able to watch Grey's Anatomy yet. That is on DVR. I'll watch it sometime today so don't ruin it for me!

On another note, Grandma is doing better. She is supposed to leave the hospital today, but the nursing doesn't take patients with IV so I am not sure where she is going for the next two weeks.

Please Pray

My grandma, for those of you that know her, Harriet, went into the hospital early yesterday morning. She fell for the second time in two days. She was disoriented and couldn't speak very well, but her blood work and x-rays came back fine. She has gotten weaker in the past few weeks so my mom has to get her into a full-time nursing home instead of her assisted living center she has been at for the last few years. We don't know how much time she has left on this earth, but we pray that she doesn't have to suffer anymore.

Catnip for dogs???

So my husband came home with a package of catnip scented stuffed mice the other day. He thinks because the packaging had a picture of a cat and a dog that it should work on Cody and Libby. Well, I was pretty skeptical but he was pretty sure it would work. For some reason Cody does like the toys, but I think because they are new and they have a little bell on the end of their tails. So I decided to google the idea and I found nothing that says catnip entices dogs, but I did find an article on a scent that does! Anice...check it out.

Autumn

Today I realized is September, well it has been for 4 days now. And what I miss most about the starting of the fall season (in the north country) is cool crisp air. You walk outside and it feels so good! And then there is falling leaves, bonfires, and wearing jeans and sweatshirts and last of all going to the pumpkin patch where you get to pick out your pumpkins, guords, bales of hay, walks through the corn mazes and see spooky things hanging from the trees!! Oh, how I miss these things!

Green, Green, Green Asparagus!!!

So, I have been meaning to post this for well over a week now and have been too darn lazy to do it. (Sorry Anne!!!) I got these wonderful tips from Anne as she knows how much I love them. I had mentioned I would like to do a little kitchen decorating in the asparagus theme, but where in the heck do you find asparagus "things?" So far I have gotten a kitchen towel, also from Anne and these tips. Yum, I love them!

The Dr's Office

So on Tuesday we went to the doctor for the first time for this pregnancy. We chose to switch our health care so that I can go off base for the remainder of the pregnancy. Our doctor's name is Dr. Williams. She is very nice, except she put a limit on my weight gain! How dare she!!! :) Like I want to gain another 55 lbs. Of course I want to keep the weight down to 30 lbs, but when you are hungry you are hungry. She also did a quick in-utero ultrasound(don't ask me to explain) and we got to see what the baby currently looks like. Of course at this stage it doesn't look like much, but we still got to see it move a little and watch it's heart beat! In the picture the head is to the right and the rump is to the left.

Gruene, TX and beyond....

Last night I actually got to get out of the house by myself! It was very relaxing and Gretchen and I had a great evening. We decided to go up Gruene, TX(pronounced green, like the color) for dinner at the Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar. The restaurant use to be a cotton gin on the river. Gretchen had been there before so she thought I might like it. And I did! I had the Fresh Trout! It was delicious. I actually just had leftovers for lunch. The atmosphere was great. It was all open and no a/c so it is probably best to go when it is a bit cooler if you can't stand the heat. The waiter informed us that they can seat 1000 people. WOW! And they have 130 servers on staff. I couldn't believe how big it was.

After dinner we walked down the street to check out the little hometown stores. We got ice cream at a little mom and pop's shop where they had lots of souvenirs. We had to have a little chuckle because our ice cream was melting all over and mine actually fell off the cone. Luckily I caught it before it fell to the concrete!

Havin' a little fun are we?

JJ just absolutely loves music and along with that loves to dance!!! He isn't quite so coordinated about it, but we are trying to teach him some moves(not like I have any, but I am trying anyway!).

"Tips" it is!

Ok so when I was in college I had to teach my friend how to eat vegetables and fruit. At least I had to broaden her horizens a bit. We tried all kinds of things. I got her to like asparagus. Well she went home for a holiday dinner and made asparagus for dinner. The problem is she only liked the "tips." So she cut off all the tips and threw the stems away. I think she has now learned to like all of the asparagus. But now we just call them tips!
JJ decided to try "tips" this evening and he very much enjoyed them! Here's to you Anne!

What?!?!?!?!

The big news IS I'm a pregnant! Five weeks to be exact. We found out last Thursday. This is all very exciting! According to the clinic we have to drive over to Lackland FB to attend Wilford Hall for all of my appointments and the actual birth. I think it is still sinking in. This might take a while...

Landscaping

So I spent most of my high school and college summers landscaping, mowing grass, etc and I finally did a little work of my own in the yard! Well, John did a lot of the grunt work as the ground here is super duper hard. Take a peak!

Children's books

We love to read JJ books. He doesn't always seem to care yet and usually closes them before we can get through all the pages, but he still likes them nonetheless. The other day I asked him to pick out a book(he's never done that before, I usually just grab one and sit down with him). So he went to the book shelf and picked out Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle, Glenn Murray, and Audrey Colman. Why does that have to be the first book he wants mommy to read to him? Thanks Anne!
Ok, you can't read this book without lauging your a$$ off, but I made halfway through before JJ of course shut the book. We may have to put this one away for a while until he is older and we need to discuss the bodily functions a little more in depth. Oh, that will be so much fun!

6 Teeth!

JJ has six teeth now!

Cute, Cute, Cute!

This is my niece. Isn't she adorable. She just turned 6 months, actually she is almost 7 months now!

View of the house

Hanging with the dogs

Climb high! Well, not quite.

JJ's new favorite past time is climbing. He tries to climb everything which is why I told John we can't put the futon next to the ledge of the stairs. JJ could just climb up the futon and over he could go to the bottom of the steps.

Solicitor, solicitor, solicitor, solicitor, solicitor

That is how many we get on a daily basis. At least 5! It is most ridiculous. I finally put our number on the https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx website the other day. We have been offered free water testing, home security estimates, and the rest I have been not answering because most of the time I get that ridiculous pause when I say hello, so I quickly hang up before the computer can tell a human being the phone has been answered. Oh, and there are the phone calls where just a computer talks to you and tells you what they are advertising. "This is for marketing purposes only." Well no kidding. I thought you were calling to make chit chat and become best buds!!!!

JJ has finally taken the plunge and started walking!

The Kirby Guy

So the Kirby guy showed up at our house yesterday at 1pm. He told me they were doing a special Scotch guard treatment on the living room carpet to show us how the carpet cleaner works. WELL, 3 hours or more later they finally left after we repeatedly told them we can't afford a $1900 vaccuum!!!!! But, I did get my couch, bed and floor vaccuumed and some of the brand new carpet shampood (b/c that makes a lot of sense). Please whatever you do, DO NOT let them in your house if you think you want to get anything done that day, otherwise feel free to waste 3 hours of your day.

Yum Yum, Watermelon

What more do I have to say?????

Backyard Pool Time

We got our stuff today and I filled the kiddie for JJ and the dogs. JJ enjoyed it immensely! He climbed in out, in out about 50 times! Sorry, we didn't wear any swim trunks today.

The movers are coming, the movers are coming!!!!

With my stuff tomorrow!!! Now I will be busy until forever reorganizing all of our crap! At least we will all have our own beds to sleep in, especially JJ. He needs to be in his own crib. The dogs are getting their haircut tomorrow at PetSmart. Apparently they have a "university" where they teach people how to groom animals! So in an event to save some cash the dogs are going there. It is 10 bucks cheaper a dog. That would be a $20 savings! Hopefully they don't come back with mohawks or pink hair(especially Cody). Well, I shall be busy for the next few days, I will try to get back on soon!

Back on!

My internet has been installed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll write more later J i s trig t o take over the keyboard as you can tell!

Offline...

As of tomorrow we will be offline until Time Warner can install our cable and internet in our new house! We will be closing tomorrow at 11am!!! YAY for us! Talk to you in 9 days!

Update on the house

So, everything is supposedly in order with the loan and we are supposed to close late Monday or early Tuesday. I'll believe it when I see it. The BIG bummer is the moving company says they can't deliver our goods until the 28th of June! So we have to live in the house with nothing until then. If we didn't have the dogs we would probably stay here in TLF, but they need to get 0ut of the kennel. I think Libby has gone to the doggy mental institution by now and Cody needs lots of extra love when we pick them up.
We still need to talk to the contractor as the driveway was cracked so the guy who poored the concrete put some sort of plaster coating over the driveway, which looked really sloppy. The crack went through that so they replaced the portion of the drive that was cracked. Except now the pillar in the front of the house has a gap under it where the old drive was and the new is about an inch lower so it looks ridiculous. Not to mention that half the drive is now brand new and the other half with the stupid plaster layer on it. Hopefully they will fix all of this for us. The plaster coating will chip and peel off over time. The fun of buying a new house!!! We are excited to close though. It has been way too long for this process!

More Pictures