Tea Time

Several weeks ago we took Nathan out for Vietnamese food, and he discovered He LOVES Tea!

I haven't made any at home in quite awhile but it was so cold the other day, I made a pot and offer him a cup at the table with me. I guess Mommy can make it as good as the restaurant...

This was all good and cute, until the next day, when I was standing in the laundry room and heard a strange clinking sound from the kitchen.

"Nathan what are you doing?"

"Yes"

hmmm not good. I went to investigate.

and if the little tea monster hasn't added 2 tea bags to the tea pot and is climbing on the counter trying to figure out how to plug in the kettle!

I made him a pot, with a lecture about how he was allowed to have tea but needed to ask Mommy first, and Mommy would make it.

Again~ I guess my tea making ability gets the thumbs up!

Feelin' crafty

I'm getting really excited about Halloween this year.

We went out today and pick up 5 pumpkins. I know it's too early to carve them (darn), but I thought I'd leave them out as decoration on the front porch for awhile first.

While in the grocery store I couldn't resist coming home with a "Halloween tricks & treats" magazine. It's a special interest publication from Better Homes and Gardens. The main reason I "needed" it was the 43 clever pumpkin ideas inside...although the ones I think are the absolute coolest are the patterns for dog breed pumpkins that you can get online here...Free Pumpkin-Carving Stencils of Favorite Dog Breeds

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Last day of September

Chris has been off for the last 3 days, and it's been fall prep all over the place!
The leaves are such gorgeous autumn colors, and the "new" chainsaw is roaring in the trees. Trying to get enough of the dead fall cut and stacked for our little fireplace this winter.
I meant to take the camera into "out little forest" last night. But I took the dogs and Nathan (oh and the cat who apparently thinks she's a dog too tagged along) and cameras and a spastic dog don't do well together. So I'll have to get back over there in the next few days before all those beautiful colors drop, or are blown away in this crazy wind!

Another cute addition

We've been on a search for awhile for the PERFECT dog for out here.

I was pretty sure I wanted another Pyrenees. The question was did we want to start from scratch with another puppy? or find an older dog that might teach Miss. Maggie a few things, like coyotes don't really want to be your friend? (to be honest I was terrified that the coyotes were getting closer to the house, and Maggie wasn't seeing them as a threat- if figured if one was bold enough to approach her she'd probably just roll on her back and think it wanted to play)

But finally after months of searching the ads I found the dog...

(hmmm...blogger is doing something funny with the pictures- it rotated on it's own and I can't figure out how to turn it back!)

Welcome Jasper
he's an 11 month old 3/4 Pyrenees 1/4 Samoyed cross

and those cuts on his nose? from a couple weeks ago when he tangled with a coyote. He's already fearless, not another wussy, city-fied dog around here.

He was also raided around 2 little girls ages 2 and 6, so Nathan's sometimes spastic behaviour is totally tolerated by this pooch.

Right now were working out the kinks. Like, he's never worn a collar or been on a leash. He also seems to think climbing people is an acceptable greeting. But he's coming along fast.

And of course Maggie is thrilled...but we knew she would be.

Clean up

Decided it's time to clean up the blog a little bit...and either post all the things I have sitting in draft files or delete them...so there may be a few "new" entries out of order and from months ago...

30 SUCKS!!!

Okay...maybe it's not actually being thirty that sucks.


But,


I felt the cold coming on the night before, and by the next morning (you know the actual day I turned 30) It hit full force!!!



Yuck!



Nothing that hacking, sneezing and snorting your way into a new decade.

Can't sleep...cause you can't breath laying down...can't get any better with no sleep...it's a vicious circle.



What a snot-tastic way to start a new decade.

hopefully it can only get better from here...

The Eve of the BIG EVENT

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY
Tomorrow I am officially the BIG 3-0!!!
and the truth is, it's been bothering me since I was turning 29 and realizing that this was my last year in MY TWENTIES.
But surprisingly, I'm doing really well!
I've kind of taken the last month to take stock, and look at where my life is.
30, was always the big magic number for me. Everything was always something that had to be accomplished by 30.
I'm happy to say,
I've done it all!
Okay maybe not everything,
I didn't get to Paris like I promised myself.
But I managed to get out on to a farm years sooner than I thought I would. So I see those two as awash.
And really?
the lifestyle living out here full time has got to be way more worth it than 2 weeks in Paris.

So I figure everything is pretty good (minus the fact I woke up this morning with a wicked chest cold and a throat that's on fire- make enjoying your last day of your twenties kinda painful)
I mean if you can reach that milestone/goal age, and say I did everything on "my list" so far, except one thing, you've got be doing something right, RIGHT?

Now...I need to come up with a whole new list of goals and stuff for the next big milestone...

How Fun would it be to go out for Halloween as a stick man?
Maybe it's just me and my rapidly expanding shape...but I thought this costume was the greatest

Of course I have no intention of breaking out in dance routine, in another 2 months I'll probably be lucky to tie my own shoes. But I just thought this was such a simple yet great costume.

Budda is pear shaped...or the other way around?

Just another little something from cyberspace...I thought it was too cool not to share.
http://www.neatorama.com/2009/09/04/buddha-shaped-pears/

How cool would it be to have an entire fruit tree of little growing Buddha's?

Birthday Ice Cream

Chris' Birthday...and I'd put off making a cake. It was way to hot to turn on the oven and bake one, so we did the next best thing...

Off to DQ- and stick some Birthday candles in the ice cream~

Happy Birthday!!!!

Of course Nathan figured he must be missing out...and needed a candle in his cone too!

Happy UnBirthday!



mmmm...even better than cake.

The Capital EX

Yesterday we went to the fair...the capital ex actually. I had wanted to go on Chris' Birthday (today) but after looking at the schedule of entertainment we decided to go yesterday to see Thomas the Train and Elmo!

Nathan Had the best view of anyone for the Thomas the Train show

Thomas, the station master and the conductor putting on their songs and dance act

Nathan with the mini donuts- a must at any fair!!!

And I put him on a pony ride! I was so proud of him, he loved it and he was solid in the saddle.

At one point during the ride he noticed the horse in front of us was empty...and we had a little conversation...

"Mommy seat" (pointing at the horse)

"yes the seat on that horse is empty, it's called a saddle not a seat Nathan"

"mommy go sit"

Translation???

Mommy I've got this covered, go ride your own horse I don't need any help here.

I love his confidence- a little cowboy in the making

We played the duck pond game

And he won "froggy"- he got to choose which one he wanted and of course chose the brightest creature of them all

Chris got his Birthday corn dog

Although he did agree to share a few bites...it was Nathan's first corn dog ever and he thought it was a pretty good deal - although he started calling it "Doggie corn" which I think grossed his Daddy out

And we did see the sesame street characters- although I wasn't impressed! I though they were putting on some type of show. Turns out it was a meet a greet, with about a 45 minute wait by the time we realized what the deal was. So this was about as close as we got...and that of course caused a melt down that we didn't get to hug Elmo!

tomorrow...

I'm so excited for tomorrow...I must be getting OLD!!!
My Dad and Barb are coming up, and going to pick up our New Lawn Mower!!!
a sweet John Deere riding lawn mower that is! ( we're being spoiled by both sets of parents getting together and buying it for us as a wedding present- My dad's just thrilled I didn't cost him a million bucks with a big wedding and decided to put the money into something we need- so cool)
No more push mower.
And a JOHN DEERE to BOOT?!?! AWESOME
I'm tempted to go get me a John Deere hat so I can feel like a true redneck...of course I'd have to find a pink one....

mmmmm..tastes like summer

I found perfectly ripe cherries at the store today...You know the kind that you need to eat right away because they're so juicy and perfect at that exact moment?

Personally I love pulling off the stems and spitting the pits out...but this year I was a little worried about someone breaking a tooth or chocking on a pit...so I de-pitted (Is that an actual word?) all of them first

And we took a whole bowl of them out onto the deck for dessert tonight

I think, by the looks of this face, my son may have inherited a love of cherries from me!

Although I don't think he was to crazy about the cherry juice wipe down/clean up routine his dad had for him

Friday Nite Date

Being to hot and tired to cook, and knowing that I had to pick up a few things at Walmart.
I took Nathan to Mcdonalds.
I bought him a happy meal, which had some sort of dinosaur toy in it...and then we went and did our errands in Walmart...
He was really well behaved the entire time, so I'd had a great night.
But the really special part to me was the conversation we had just as we were getting in the van to go home, he looked up at me and said...
"mommy, 'donalds fun"
and then
"thanks mommy dinosaur"

from a little guy that doesn't have a lot of words still, that just about made me cry!

It was a special date night for me

Flowers flowers everywhere

Nathan and I spent our evening gardening together, actually that's not entirely true first we went to Wal-mart to get the potting soil, some big boy undies oh and McDonald's for dinner...then we spent the rest of the night wedding and planting.

I know it's super late to be planting flowers, but after the July long weekend they go on sale for 50 % off, and seeing as I'll probably kill at least half I figure the math works out in the end...sort of!

After weeding the big horse trough/planter out front I just put Nathan right into it; to help me dig the holes. As you can see in the pic below it's a little too tall for him to try and reach into.

All I can say is the flowers are "well planted" or at least well packed into the soil since I think that most of them got stepped on at least once.

(my poor lily got the worst abuse of all the plants, Chris broke one of the blooms off before we were even out of the store and Nathan stepped on it, and I think he may have snapped the stem of the remaining bloom...so maybe I'll have pretty lilies next year ?!?!?)

I also had to dig some back out, since Nathan thought they need to be completely cover over in dirt. But hey he was helping.

This is the special plant that Nathan got to pick out himself...I think it's pretty cool looking, I've never seen one before it's called a candy corn plant...

He's also an expert waterer. I think that needs to become his new chore.

**An Update since the last post about the "FROG" in the basement**

I was on the phone with Chris when I discovered the creature in the wall...and the first words out of my mouth, after the scream were"there's a lizard or a gecko in the wall"

to which he told me I was being crazy it was probably a frog...so after the last post i went back down stairs to make sure the water had completely stopped and look what I found...

We were actually both wrong, after some research on the net I realized it's actually a Tiger Salamander
Being a salamander is less scary than a frog...go figure that one out. So I caught the slimy little thing with a bucket and a broom and even fashioned this little cage to keep it over night so I could show the boys in the morning

Nathan thought the thing was pretty cool in the bucket

Although he was sure it was a frog and kept telling us it was kermit

It was even cool to watch it run around on Daddy's hands...

But when we asked if he was going to touch it, he threw himself off the chair and shouted "NO, no thanks"

We took it to the edge of the pond out front and released it

By the picture below I'm not surprised we've never seen one before now, look how well they camouflage in their environment