Whose Shoes are These?: September 2007

Friday, September 28, 2007

First Photo

8 weeks along

Here is the first official photo of the baby. I had a doctor appt. today, and we found out the due date is May 6th (the day after Cannon's 2nd birthday) instead of May 4th. I will most likely be late, so hopefully there will be some space between the birth dates. I was so happy to see a little heartbeat, and know that I am truly pregnant. This one has been different, and I was worried about it. We are truly blessed.

Good Times

Sorry, haven't had a chance to write much lately. I am a little overwhelmed with stuff (understandably) and the blog just doesn't seem to get done. Here is what is going on. We had an awesome 3 day weekend a bit ago. Got a lot done around the house, and I really enjoyed having Rich home to do all the cooking and dishes...
We finished up working on our hot tub patio (nice timing I know) and it looks pretty great. The hot tub is still out of order, but whose complaining.

We spent some time outside gardening, planting and enjoying the last bits of summer as a family. I probably should have put sunscreen on the white kids, but oh well.

Rich has really enjoyed Cannon, and all the "boy" things that they can do together. I am sure this will only get funnier as time goes on...

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Tale of Two Cleesas

Brynn has two puppies that are near and dear to her heart. She takes these puppies everywhere. She sleeps with them at night. She feeds them at the dinner table. We cannot go on without these two puppies.

When Brynn was about 18 months she named one of the puppies Dwayne. We have no idea where she got that name, but we enjoyed her creativity. About a year ago, the name was changed to Cleesa. (Like Lisa, with a "C" in front) Instead of naming them Dwayne and Cleesa, they were both Cleesa. The two Cleesas.

Well, like every other car trip, one Cleesa came with us. We were zipping down a four lane road with the windows down (can you see where I am going with this???) and I hear a wail from the backseat. "Cleesa!!!!" I looked out my rear view mirror to see a small tan stuffed puppy bouncing down the road behind us. Now, this is not the first time that we have lost things out the window. The well-known rule is that we do not go back for anything. If someone holds something out the window, and it gets dropped, we say 'Goodbye' and drive on. I pulled over into a parking lot, and turned around to talk to Brynn. She had huge tears welled up in her eyes, and with a wavering voice said, " I guess that I have another puppy at home that can be my favorite Cleesa...". It broke my heart. She was trying to be so brave. I told her to pray to God that He would help Mommy figure out a way to go get Cleesa from the middle of a road. She prayed, "Dear God, please help Mommy find Cleesa, and don't let Cleesa be scared." So we turned around and searched the road for the little favorite puppy. We found her, and then watched her get run over by a semi, and a school bus, and numerous cars. Pretty sad sight.
Needless to say, I parked the car, hiked up the road, waited to dodge between lanes of busy traffic, and rescued Cleesa. Brynn held Cleesa close and sniffled the whole way home, whispering "Its OK, Cleesa, you are safe now. You are not lost anymore."
I think that this time, the punishment would have far outweighed the crime. Sometimes you just have to let the rules go....

Left Alone

This is what happens when you leave daddy and Brynn alone with a camera....

Hot Tubbin'

The saga of the hot tub continues. We got a "great deal" on a hot tub last January, and were totally thrilled with the idea that we could sit in our backyard, enjoying time together in the warmth of a humming hot tub. Rich and a few friends spent 6 hours moving it from a house less than a mile away to our yard, and there the story begins. The hot tub sat, and sat, and sat through the early spring months, and then most of the summer. Every once in awhile we would get inspired and spend a few hours working on it, moving it, putting up siding around it, etc. I even made a list of all the stuff that had to be done in order for us to enjoy it. (I don't think Rich responds that well to my lists...)

Fast forward a few months. It is now late September. We enlisted the help of Marlin, whose expertise in wiring was thoroughly appreciated. They spent two full evenings, while Sara and I watched, cheering them on, trying to wire the tub, and put all the parts in the right spot. When we heard jets and the blower fire up we were ecstatic. Turns out there were some more issues, but we were definitely closer to getting in and enjoying some hot tub time.

Well, Saturday night, it was all working. We got in, and enjoyed the warmth and coziness of the tub. The kids splashed around, jumped from side to side and generally enjoyed themselves.

It was all fine and dandy until the jets kept me up all night long. Each time the tub would go through a filter cycle (every thirty minutes) the jets would blast on, and it sounded like a car motor running right outside of our bedroom window. I finally woke Rich up and asked him to turn it off before I ripped all my hair out. (Who knew that I could be like that in the middle of the night...)

Trying to solve the jet problem, Rich followed the advice of our neighbor, rewired some stuff, and turned it back on. No jets. At all. Not a good sign. He rewired, rewired, rewired, and rewired again. No jets. He couldn't even get it back to what it was doing before. Bummer. Soooooo, as of this point, we are again hot tub-less and so very sad....
Whatever.