4 Miles

The last week seems to have been a constant stream of runny noses and coughs. Will's cold moved from the croupy sounding cough in his throat to a deep cough that still comes sometimes, but other then that he is fine. Alex got Will's cold (so his problems are not just teething). He had a slight case of croup Wednesday night and now his cough is moving down to his chest as well. We spent all week at home, not doing what we normally do (pre-school, bible study, etc.). That, plus the two days of constant rain on Thursday and Friday, seemed to have Will bouncing off the walls by Friday & Saturday. Good thing we could let him run around outside Saturday (even though it was REALLY windy and most of our leaves are now gone)! Today we are enjoying a rare warm day. (We've been below normal most of the month. The trend will continue the rest of the week after today). So, off to the park as soon as Alex is up from his nap!

Last Thursday we drove up to my Mom & Dad's house. The plan was to take advantage of Mom's fall break. She would watch the boys while I worked on making Miles Family Calendars with a friend of my who has made family calendars for years. She allowed me to copy her old one and update it with our family information. I think I deleted all her family information off, but if someone sees a name you don't recognize on it—that will be why!  I also found out the morning AFTER I'd printed off the calendars that Daylight Savings Time will be different next year. And I'd been so proud of myself for including it.  Seems Congress voted to change the weekends it starts & ends next year.  So I need to pull out the white out!   James ended up taking the day off and coming with us to show someone the house…oh yes, our house in Jonesboro is still available. Anyone want it?

We thought we had a couple to take it. They were very eager, etc. etc. Yet they were horrible at doing the things necessary to actually rent or buy the house. Such as send in the rental application. They were supposed to fax it in. A week later, they were still having trouble getting to a fax machine. Of course, if they had mailed it to us after day 2, we would have had it! James called them and got most of the information by phone. The husband was supposed to call us back with his wife's SSN. We took the lack of a phone call back as a sign to look for someone else. (Do we really want to depend on those types of people to pay on time?)  James showed the house to Couple #2 last Thursday. They were very positive, very excited, wanted to move in the first of the month. Then we talked with them on Monday and they lost their Social Security benefits (no idea how that happens) and were probably not going to be able to afford it after all.  We're on to Possibility #3. James is meeting with a lady and a friend who'd like to rent it together. Please pray with us we'll find the right people for this house. Soonish would be nice as well.

For some reason Grammalo has decided to give each of her grandchildren a doll for their first birthday.  Even the Boys?!?!?!  I know, its crazy!!!

She claims that she did this for her children as well and I guess I remember having a doll that was "mine."  All I can remember though is that it was naked ALL the time and it was NOT anatomically correct.

Well, she got The Tort a doll when he was one.  For two whole years, he has had absolutely NOTHING to do with the doll. (YES!!!)

Now today, he finally figured out what little boys are suppose to do with dolls.

Now he just needs a sister to torment.

Last Saturday we went to an early Halloween party given by one of James' partners. There was a chili cook-off (so lots to sample), a bon fire, a "Haunted Woods Walk" (only if you happened to walk through it when Alan was hiding in the bushes with his mask on…we missed him so it was just a nice stroll), and (the highlight for Will) a tractor ride! 

 Will and Alex dressed up as lions.  I have pictures of them in the costumes at home on the left since those pictures have them actually smiling.  On the right is the picture at the party…it looks like we have a cowdardly lion and a fussy lion in those pictures! (You can click on any picture to see it bigger. They all look much better at the larger size.)

Sadly, since then, the cold that Will was fighting successfully Thursday and Friday has won the battle for now.  Will has a stuffy nose and a bad sounding cough. Alex is dealing with sneezing and a runny nose (Tooth #2 has appeared! I'm not sure if his runny nose is from that or a cold.).  So we have spent most of this week at home, resting and recovering.

We waited for the tractor ride at a restored log cabin (where the picture here was taken). While it was chilly out today (in the 40s when we were there) it was sunny in the morning. We did the tractor ride, had our picnic lunch and played on playground equiptment. By then the clouds were coming in, it was feeling cooler and Alex was ready for a nap. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see see a few more pictures of our morning.

Ok, the whole reason I wrote that last post was for James to follow up with The Rest of the Story.  He hasn't had time, so it fell rather flat. And now, it just doesn't seem as funny. See, after I got the car seat, James put the new one in and started moving Will's old one over for Alex. Will thought his new seat was great. He wanted to sit in it. So we put him in (with PJs on) and buckled him up. He wanted me to shut the door, so I did and went I inside to do other things. James worked away while Will watched.  When he was finally done, Will wanted him to shut the door and leave him there. In the car. In his car seat. In the closed garage. At night. At the time, all I knew was Will was crying as James was carrying him to bed.  We have no idea why he wanted to stay there. (Did he want to stay all night? Was he just wanting to be alone with the car seat for awhile? We have NO idea.)  Anyway, now you know The Rest of the Story. (To borrow that line. Somehow, "the rest of the story" just seems like it should be capitalized.)

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This last week I did something for me.  I usually spend all my free time working for the office (the kid's nap time and evenings). I've decided that's not the best (though really, it's easy work and I watch TV while doing it, so I don't feel like it's stressful or anything). Last week I took a night and ALL day Saturday off to do something I really like to do–scrapbook. I know some of you are rolling your eyes. But it is my time to be creative & feel like I'm accomplishing things. Everything else I do always has more to do or has to be done over again. Cleaning. Laundry. The office work.  I also usually do my scrapbooking in social settings, so I get to chat with other women while I do it. I was proud of myself, I went to an all day event in the area. In the past, I've driven up to Marion to do it with my friend up there. I just couldn't justify the time or mileage this time. But I was brave and went off on my own and had a good time. And got 7 pages done. And, like all scrapbookers, I am behind, but I'm pleased that I've started our album for 2004.  At that point in time, I don't have many pictures so most of the year will go fast. Until Christmas…that is when I got the digital camera and then the number of pictures taken increased just a tad.   On Sunday we ended up driving to the area to visit my parents & my sister who was in town for Homecoming. It was a relaxing day to just hang out.

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Wednesday we had a warm, dry day, so we spent the morning planting bulbs I'd gotten on sale. My degree/education came into play again. In the past, I honed the skills of explaining how what we were doing was 'educational' or meeting specific standards or goals. In that light, I could say we worked on biology (as I explained why we were putting the brown things in the ground and how they would become flowers–I did not go into great detail though!), meteorology (as I explained seasons), math ("We have 3 bulbs, we want to put 5 in this hole. If we add another one, how many do we have?"), and a dose of physical education as well (aside from the digging of the holes, there was lots of running and more practice kicking the big, bouncy, ball). I'm thinking I should do this more, it makes me feel like our days are more productive. 

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Tomorrow we're going to the Pumpkin patch again, this time with friends. I'm hoping Alex will nap in the morning and be in a better mood when we go. I never posted pictures of our family trip because I had a hard time getting the kids to smile. He never fussed, but the pictures weren't his best. We'll see if we can get some good pictures of the boys this time. Will is excited about riding the tractor again.  All I can say is "boys".

Today I had to get Will a new car seat. Alex is getting to big for his, so it's time to take the convertable one Will has and pass it down. I also realized today I don't remember if Will's carseat is for up to 30 lbs. or 40 lbs. If it's 30, Will is too big for his seat as well. Whoops.

I came home from the store and Will came into the garage to greet me.
Me: I got you something at the store.
Will: Ohoooooooooooo!
Me: A new car seat.
Will: For Christmas?

<Um, can you tell I've been shopping early for that?>

Alex turns 9 months old today. That seemed to go much faster then the 9 months I was pregnant! Instead of writing some sappy  sweet letter to him (rather typical in Blog-land), I thought I'd share with you a converstaion Will and I had this morning.

Me: Will, can you believe how big Alex is? Remember when he used to be tiny and just sleep and eat?
Will: Yes
Me: Before you know it, he will be walking!
Will: Why?
Me: Because that's what babies do next.
Will: When he gets bigger, will he be a Will?
Me: No, he'll just be a bigger Alex, not Baby Alex anymore.

I know I've been bad about giving you actual NEWS or things that are happening here (some would argue that is not news).  I'm going to give you a quick update while Will watches Dora. We'll see how much I can type in 20 minutes.

We, along with most of the Mid-west, have had a major change in weather in the last few days. We had our first freeze last night (and a 30 degree temp drop in the last 24 hours). I know some of you (MATT & Amy) will laugh at us and our measly flurries, seeing as how you already got snow; but for this thin-blooded, transplanted Southerner, it was a sudden change and is now rather chilly out. (The were talking about WIND CHILLS this morning!) In honor of that, I have a pot roast going in the crock pot. It smells wonderful and is making me really hungry (the downside to crock pot cooking when you are home all day).

Monday we went to a local pumpkin patch. Both Will and Alex found the tractor/wagon ride to and from the pumpkin patch the best part. They enjoyed watching the tractor (it starts SO young!).  Alex wasn't interesting in picking out a pumpkin, but he did enjoy eating straw in the wagon. Will found 2 pumpkins right away and was ready to ride the wagon again. Instead we had to wait for it to come back, and so we subjected the poor boys to a short photo shoot in the pumpkin feild. I'll put up some pictures later when I don't have to go look for the camera.

Tuesday was the beginning of our MOPS Date Night. I know I talked about it last year, but I don't have the time to go back and look up where to link to it, so I'll just bore those of you who remember & tell those of you who don't know. Our MOPS group has about 15-16 couples that all get together on the 2nd/4th Tuesday of the month. Each time 3 couples watch the kids. The others drop off the kids and have a few hours child free to do what ever we want. We watch kids 3 times and get 12 date nights out of the deal, all for FREE! It's a crazy time when you have to work, but very nice every other time!  The moms of older kids were having fun holding Alex (and wanting another baby).  They told us Will came up and said "Can you put Alex down so I can play with him?"

Yesterday Will disovered the fun of making a "tent" or "tunnel" (a blanket over the piano bench and chair) and he, Alex and I had great fun playing under it, watching Alex try to crawl through it and playing peek-a-boo with Alex in it.  It's fun to see the boys starting to play together. I was able to walk away some of the time and do other work around the house.

But, the biggest news yesterday was James drove up to Jonesboro to show the house to an interested couple (to rent for the year).  They are pretty interested, just not sure about the down payment. Please pray with us they can get the money together–we'd like that house to have people in it! (Want to see the cool web-site James made for it? Go to www.112swaterst.com)

Wow, I ran out of news before Dora ended!  Probably a good thing.

Quote from yesterday's Indianapolis Star:

A year ago, few believed Indiana had enough wind to generate electricity.

 

Today, at least five developers are planning or prospecting for wind farms in Indiana, saying the potential exists to produce hundreds and maybe thousands of megawatts of electric power.

HA! Obviously those doubters have never been to Taylor. Especially during January, when you have to walk from the Science Building to the Dining Commons where there is NOTHING to block the wind.  Maybe Taylor should consider setting up some wind towers on the campus. They could use the money they earned from that towards all kinds of things! I'm partial to the renovation of the Science Building personally.