Oh, dear

I can't believe it's been so long!

Daniel has a few new teeth, and he took his first certified step today (seen by both Bob and I). As best I can figure it, he'll be 9 months old in a week.

Yes, I'm having to try to figure it! Last night I slept from 12-2, 2:30-5, and 7-9:30. I've been averaging 6 hours per night, as Daniel doesn't like to sleep, or as the shared photo on Facebook put it, he resists a rest.

 I had pain in my left shoulder for a few weeks, and finally looked up some physical therapy moves to try. That made it worse for a few days, and then suddenly it quit! But this afternoon it suddenly came back! ouch.

Bob started tiling the shower today!  Lots of exclamation points here !!!! :)

Spring is going on; it got over 80* this week, but then a cool front and thunderstorms came through last night and now we have a fire in the wood stove again.

And now some cuteness.

yummy and funny.

Today I made real, French pastry chef, croissants. Do you see those flaky layers? Pure awesomeness!

And a feeble attempt at a funny (I had the wording all planned out last night, but almost forgot the incident until something else happened today, which I did forget). Taryn has taken to making comic strip drawings of my conversations with Elijah.

Yesterday we were driving, and the children began chattering about an episode of Andy Griffith where Barney tried to sing "You get a line and I'll get a pole, let's go down to the crawdad hole," except someone thought it was a catfish hole. And the arguments flew thick and fast. The children were now correcting each other's pronunciation of "crawdad": frawdad, frog's dad, grawdad... So I said, "It's CRawdad, because it's so nasty it will stick in your craw." This stirred up a new buzz of arguments - it was like playing "telephone." Finally everyone was thoroughly confused, so I helpfully suggested that they call it a crayfish, since that is the same animal and that way there won't be such confusion.  Cedwryck promptly passed this information to those in the back seat who couldn't hear me: "She said it's a GREY FISH!"

catching up

If you thought I was behind on blogging because I haven't written up the trip to Texas yet, well... I just finished (I hope) washing the clothes that we wore on the trip.

So time has passed and the details are gone...

We drove down, meeting my younger brother for supper in Dallas; stayed 3 nights in a two bedroom cottage at BLORA. Bob and I slept on the sofa bed! It was terrible, but interesting. Saw my older brother and his family; they treated us well and were very accommodating, even providing most meals. I got to shop in HEB a few times; we went to LBJ state and national parks; it was cold and windy. Visited the local mall, Army base, and playground. Made it home in one piece without too much trouble.

I do wish I had time and brain cells to write it up properly, but anyway Wil did a decent job on his blog so I guess that will have to cover it for me, too. :)

Today I spring-cleaned our bedroom, and it's so nice and big now!  And the floor feels good on my feet again. happy sigh.

Elijah wasn't feeling too well today, so I stayed home with him and Daniel while the rest went to church. It was very quiet for 90 minutes.

Ced went to the doctor yesterday for headaches and backaches. He got a spinal x-ray, which showed no curvature, so he'll do some physical therapy exercises at home to strengthen his core muscles. She also said his sinuses were quite swollen, so prescribed Flonase to help with that and maybe the headaches.

Lost one baby chick so far; the rest are doing fine.

Got new tires on the van. $$$$

See you later.

This is what I had written 2 weeks ago:

Most of you already know that we recently took a little trip.
I've been wanting to go back to Yellowstone ever since we left there. Thought 10 years might be a nice goal, but I was busy having Ella that year.  Maybe 15? Well, we were busy settling into retirement. This year!  We camped in Florida; we can camp and it won't be too expensive. But it snows there. Any time of year. (never mind the bears) Can't afford a 2-3week trip with two hotel rooms every night, plus meals and gas. So we decided to take a few short trips instead.

Timing and weather being what they are, we went to Texas this week. Drove down Monday; left home at 10am; took I-540 to I-40 to US-69 (turn off at Checotah, OK, where we stopped for lunch). Just past the border it changed to US-75, which we took into Dallas. We met my younger brother and his lady friend in Dallas at a Fuzzy Taco eatery at 4:50pm. We had a leisurely dinner and then continued south on I-35E. Once in Belton we headed over to Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area (an annex of Fort Hood), where we had reserved a cabin. It was about 9:15pm when we arrived.

At check-in Bob was told that the screen door had snapped off in the wind and was placed "inside." Okay, then. We found our house and got out of the van, but the door wouldn't open. So back to the front office, where they suggested we try the "other door." So back to the house where Bob felt his way through the dark to find and open a second entry door. We unpacked and got ready for bed.

The next day we went out to my big brother's house for some visiting.

checkups

Which Elijah was calling "ketchup" but learned the correct pronunciation before it was time to go. :-)
Anyway, we took Daniel and Elijah to the doctor for a visit. Both are fine: she commented that Daniel was very advanced and that Elijah is "articulate."  Both were showing off terribly - Daniel got into everything, smiled and talked until the doctor looked at him and then yelled bloody murder until she quit, and Elijah talked nonesense (couldn't remember the cat's name, said all 4 boys slept in the same bed, and his favorite food was broccoli) and sang the ABC song.
Daniel is 7 1/2 months old; he weighs 18lbs and 11ozs, which the CDC tells me is 50th% for his age. He is 27" long, which is also at the 50th percentile.  This is surprising to find, as he is a total roly-poly.
Elijah is 3 yrs and 4 months. He weighs 39lbs, about the 95th percentile, and 39 inches tall, the 90th %.
Riah went with to help distract the one not being examined.
After the doc, we had lunch at Golden Corral, and then to Walmart for a few things.

Does anyone know where to get After Eight mints? I've been craving them and haven't seen them anywhere. 

Monday

It was definitely a Monday around here.

My time wasn't bad, but Bob had a day of it. He had an assignment due, so had to take pictures, format, and prepare for posting at school. Only afterwards to find that he was supposed to include information that he hadn't recorded.
Then he posted a comment in the wrong place. Twice. No edit or delete.
The light in the living room is flickering, so Taryn went to plug in a lamp so we could turn off the overhead light, but she unplugged the computer as he was working.
The new fan timer for the bathroom exhaust fan trips the breaker every time it's turned on (the old one started turning itself on in the middle of the night).
We finally got the children to bed, then Ella came in saying she thought she was sick. Daniel was just going to sleep on my lap, so I sent her to Bob. Before he could properly question her she threw up on him.
I put Daniel to bed and cleaned up the chair and floor while he took a shower.
Then Daniel woke up and William came in feeling sick. At least he made it to the toilet.

I've got a vacation post in the works, but thought you'd like to share in today's trials first.

bragging

I feel very accomplished, domestically, this week.

I made a skirt for myself and another for Naysha, then supervised Taryn while she made one.

Then, I helped Bob "do" the boys' room.
This started with Bob feeling destructive. I suggested he tear out the wall in the closet, which is one of the initial home improvement projects we planned. See, it used to look like this:

Bob tore out the wall on the closet side, thus making all the space useable. But with this move came organization that left the boys without a private space of their own. So we decided to put up a shelf or two in their room. But first, we paint.

2 coats on the ceiling. Primer on the walls. Tape around fixtures. Two coats on the walls. Tape around edging. Two  coats on door and window frames and crown molding while pulling carpet. See why:

Then tape around floor, then two coats on the baseboards.

I did most of the painting; Bob did most of the taping and heavy lifting.

End result (before hanging shelves, new curtains, or light fixture):

A few notes: the room is about 10x12 and has 2 sets of bunk beds that we didn't take down. It's hard to paint while touching the wall you're working on. Placing sliced onion around the room really helps with the paint odor, but it also makes you hungry. We'll get new switch and outlet covers next time we're in town.

introversion

A few days ago I saw this on Face book - you're going to have to go read it for the rest of this post to make sense.  I'll wait.

Not being a particularly introspective person, I didn't immediately recognize myself in the Guide. I did, however, realize that the Guide describes how I tend to treat other people. I mentioned this to Bob, suggesting that maybe I do this because that's what I'd prefer done to me, and some interesting conversation followed.

First, Bob confirmed that I am a true introvert. Then we reminisced a little. My habit was displayed quite well at our first meeting. I was the first one in the Sunday School room, so I sat to read the church bulletin and wait. Bob was the next one in; he sat directly across from me, so I looked up and said "hi" (I was trying to be nice, because I knew he wasn't a regular), and then went back to my reading (I didn't want to flirt, and anyway, I had nothing to say). He said something, I answered him, but went right back to the bulletin. Repeat.

When I was a youngster I had a motto: I don't talk to anyone unless I know them. This doesn't make sense to extroverted people, because they get to know someone by talking to them. But for me, I required time to become comfortable with a person's presence before I would expend some of my precious energy on them. Why bother if it was a one-time encounter?

This information sheds light on our daily activities as well. Every evening after the children are in bed, Bob watches a TV show on the computer. Not willing to waste my precious energy juices on unwanted contact, I don't interrupt. So any bottled-up conversations that accumulate throughout the day wait a little longer.  Bob, however, doesn't have the inner "how to treat an introvert guide," so whatever I am doing, he doesn't hesitate to interrupt me to initiate conversation.  Now, if I told you this in a vacuum, you might suspect that I am cold and Bob is rude. But since we have the insight gleaned from this little Guide, we all know that Bob and I are both just practicing self-preservation.