15 Months today

I didn't get a picture today of him awake as we were busy busy busy busy. Garage sale - ing this morning, helping friends install a shower stall (Ta da! Home improvement projects not at our own house!), a meeting at church and dinner with the same friends. Excellent day, but not much time for pictures. Here is the best 15 month old shot from tonight.

Although it was hard to maneuver around the crib, it was actually easier to take his picture because he was holding still. Will try to get some awake shots tomorrow.

And these three pictures just because they make me laugh. William just wants to do everything like his daddy. John can't lift a finger to do anything around the house without William trying to get involved. Here we are trying to put in some drainage pipe and some new flowers in our front yard - assisted by William. Please note the very hilarious, yet serious face he has.


Finally, here are two pictures from last weekend that got left behind!

We have (almost) a door! Middle right of the picture for those of you who don't see it.

Isn't the painting called American Gothic? Here is our take on it: two guys with their sanding gear after painting, scraping, sanding, and repainting a ceiling for two days.

Free Cat

Free cat to any home:

-Runs away when you want to hold him/pet him/give him treats
-Brushes up against you/sits on your lap only when you are wearing black, dry clean only pants (he has orange fur)
-Eats plants, spreads dirt& dead plant pieces around the house.
-Vomits plant pieces/food when he is in a hurry to eat (several times a week)
-Purrs only when eating
-Ignores everyone around him unless you are allergic to cats. Then he is cuddly and totally annoying.
-Stands by the baby's room and yowls at 5:30am. Wakes the baby and then runs away. As soon as the baby is asleep, repeat.
-Hides when the doorbell rings
-Eats insulation
-Rips plastic off plastic covered insulation walls in order to eat insulation
-Tips over all containers full of potentially staining liquid
-Follows small household pests around (spiders, flies, etc) but does not kill them
-Yowls at 6am if he hasn't been fed.
-Likes to chew on electrical cords
-Fights with other cat when she is laying in his favorite sleeping spot


Do we have any takers? I guess it doesn't matter because I wouldn't and won't give him away anyway. He will always be my first baby boy! However, this mornings antics did have me seriously contemplating alternate living arrangements for him...

John swears he doesn't know these guys....

but I don't believe him.





PS Don't click on this if you are using a telephone internet connection! It is almost 7 minutes long!

Great News!

Way to go Charlotte! Click here to check out what our friend Charlotte is learning to do!

Long Weekend X2

Last weeks guest bloggers were none other than Grandma and Grandpa! There were some technical difficulties and time constraints that didn't allow them to finish out their post after their visit last weekend. They took a lot more pictures than us and so I thought they might want to post theirs first! I guess Grandpa enjoyed working super hard so much that he wanted to do some more. He came back for a second weekend of work with us! I know I'm super behind with everything (more than usual), but here are some pictures and some updates on our huge basement project.

Basement office: Painted, drop ceiling hung, all electrical completed. John calls this "highlighter green" (actual color name is limescent). It is more intense in real life, but there isn't any natural light in this room so I wanted to brighten it up. I love to see people's response to the color in person because everyone tries to be polite, but I don't think anyone likes it like I do. I'm okay with that because I really like how the room is looking.
I am considering painting the lower half of this room a brown and putting in a chair rail of some kind. Flooring is purchased, leveling compound is curing to (obviously) level out one area of the floor. The light switch cover in one of the pictures below is Grandma's contribution to the project last weekend.

The playroom: is located off of the office - you can see the green peeking through. The base color of this room is called Sapphire Glow. It is so beautiful, lovely, polite, and charming that I am totally in love with it. So in love that I would probably marry it if I wasn't already spoken for. I think everyone should have a room this color in their house - EVERYONE because it is just that amazing. I have spent an embarassing amount of time just admiring the color on the walls and mentally repainting every room in our house (and most of you all's houses) in this shade. I am hand painting the very fun blue circles on the walls and I love them also. Two circles need touch ups and then they will be complete. The drop ceiling in this room is now complete as is all the wiring.
The closet off the playroom now has an actual light fixture that lights when a switch is flipped. Flooring and doors will make the playroom complete (the closet doesn't get flooring).

Last weekend I was able to tackle the ceramic tile in the bathroom while Grandma watched William (thanks Mom!). I am quite proud to report that I am the Installer of Ceramic Tile in this house. There is still some work to be done with the floor to finish the tiling. This weekend the ceiling was finished and wall painting began. Unfortunately, the wall color is NOT what I had in mind, so I think we're going to have to start over on that one. Grrr...

We have also purchased the wall tile, toilet, cabinet, faucet and other fixtures for this room. But, they are all waiting for the floor/painting to be done.


Last weekend we got all the ceilings primed for painting. We painted all the ceiling in the basement on Friday. We were super excited to be totally done with ceilings, but on Saturday is was clear that the ceiling was not what I/we had in mind. So, a large chunk of time and money was spent on Saturday sanding and repainting the ceilings in the bedroom and family room. NOW the all the ceilings are completed *fingers crossed* in the basement. If you look carefully in the above picture, you can see the problem with the ceiling - the stripes of texture.
Another picture of primed/painted ceilings in the family room area. This area has a LOT of work left to be done: carpet, ceramic tile in the entry way, painting, doors, etc.
Here is Grandpa hard at work finishing up by installing some outlets. Grandpa actually wore out a pair of knee pads working on our basement this last year.

I don't have a current picture of the bedroom mainly because nothing is happening in there. The ceiling is painted, the walls are primed. That is about it.


And just for fun, here are some pictures of the little guy. He is becoming more independent by the second and wants to be in the middle of everything. He was outraged the last two weekends that he was not allowed to hang out in the basement with the boys and help them with their work. Anytime there was any noise coming from the basement when he was awake, he would run to the gate at the top of the stairs. From his perch at the top of the steps, he would alternate crying with yelling of orders down to the guys working below. He was NOT happy to be left upstairs with Mama/Grandma at all. We had to start timing our trips upstairs as to when he would be busy with other things. By the end of the weekend, just the sound of the gate opening was enough to send him into a fit of unhappiness if he wasn't allowed to go downstairs.
*Well, this is going to have to be at least another post because I have the worst headache and need to go to bed! Hopefully I'll be able to do more tomorrow....buenos noches!

The Quake(s) of '08

Grandpa Kevin came back to see us again this weekend as Grandma is at a work conference for the whole weekend. We miss Grandma - but we are sure glad to see Grandpa again! We've been busy working all day, but I wanted to make sure to post about our exciting morning. We all experienced our first earthquake! The biggest episode occurred early this morning (yesterday) around 4:30 am and Grandpa is the only one who woke up. The rest of us kept on sleeping. The second one that we could feel happened about 10:15 this morning. William and I both felt it in the upstairs portion of the house while the guys working in the basement didn't feel a thing. It kind of felt like a train going really close by our house and rattling things around. Not to worry - there aren't any reports of damage here or anywhere nearby.

I'll be back later with more pictures/stories/etc. It is late and I'm tired!

Play Time

Weekend in O'Fallon (rookie bloggers)

Guest Blogger

We're tired, sore and happy. Much has been accomplished. I will only be able to tell you about it after a hot shower, full nights sleep and several ibuprofen. Until then, we have a surprise guest blogger coming in to share their video/pictures/life stories/etc with you. Stay tuned.


PS Guest blogger. I gave you the wrong password. Check your e mail.

Brrr....

This post is a mess. But, there are few things I wanted to get up and entered in before I forget them. We've spent every night this last week priming and painting after putting William to bed so I am behind in my entries. The Grandparents McGarry are scheduled to arrive tomorrow evening to help us this weekend. That news has motivated us to spend as much money as humanly possible to ensure we have enough stuff here to keep Grandpa busy for the entire weekend. Flooring arrived this afternoon, the ceiling supplies for the office were purchased yesterday. Tile, mortar, grout, and more paint have been purchased and sit ready for action. So, forgive the disorganized mess of this post and don't count on hearing from me again until Monday.

William was introduced to ice cream for the first time around Christmas. We try not to do too many sweets with him because we're still working on getting him to eat the right amount of the healthy stuff (advice welcome on how to get him to eat meat and fresh fruit). I don't want him to hold out until he gets the unhealthy scheduled snack of the day.

That being said, we do bring out the good stuff every once in awhile when he's already eaten well during the day. Today was one of those days and we pulled out the ice cream as a treat. As soon as he saw what was in the bowl he said "Brr.....!" and made a beeline for it. I wasn't scooping it into his mouth fast enough which was reason enough for a small meltdown on his part.

The funny thing we've noticed over the last few weeks is he is now using "Brrr..." to mean anything that has a temperature. When warm pizza was put on his plate, he reached for it. When he found out it was still pretty warm, he pulled his hands back in surprise and said "Brrr...!". Too funny.

We're never sure what will come next - tonight he begin mimicking the sound of a sneeze, saying "Choo..." after John sneezed loudly for the third time in a row. Today he also came out with an "Up-p-p-p" while standing at John's feet reaching upwards. The 'p' is very pronounced and very cute.

The B words (not the naughty B words) are becoming difficult. He has so many B words, unless he is reaching or pointing to something, it is impossible to tell what word he is saying. The following list of words sounds completely identical:

Bear
Blanket
Book
Ball (sometimes has the L sound at the end to help me out, sometimes not)
Ba (the sound you make when you kiss someone)
Bark (dog)
Balloon
Beep (car)
Belly
Bath
Bless you (Ba when you sneeze)
Bread
Baby

Hopefully we reach a place where we are all able to understand each other or I see frustration in our future!

Busy Busy Busy Busy

Painting, sanding, washing, drying, buying, researching, digging, planting, watering, sweeping, vacuuming, washing, chasing, splashing, and more painting.

We're busy busy busy busy busy. More later.

A Comparison

Just for kicks, this is what our backyard looks like more typically (please note: less water). Although the water level is still higher than usual, I am not longer operating in the "make a plan" mode and have even started considering paint colors for the next room in our basement. At the time of my last post, I was taking pictures of our work in the basement for insurance purposes and calculating how long it would take us to redo the work we have already done.

Picnic table is barely visible but between the trees in the center of the frame.

Nice green grass + no water= good thing. John is convinced he needs to mow the lawn this weekend.


A different kind of comparison. The blue shoes are what William had just outgrown at this time last year. The white shoes are his new ones that currently fit. Please note: although they Nike, they are not new. $6 at the children's resale shop.

William has developed a thing for shoes. Here he is trying to put on my shoes.

It was bright and sunny after dinner on Wednesday, so we attempted our first trip to the park! It was a lot more fun this year! William climbed, slid, crawled and ran around. And cried when it was time to go. Looks were deceiving in that it looked nice, but was still only 45 degrees outside. A little chilly for us, but we still had fun.

We put William down to walk back to the car with us. He turned right around and ran back to the play area!

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

A package arrived today for William. He was so excited to be handed some mail to play with for real. He spends time every day trying to cute us out of our bills and newspapers to play with everyday.

Checking it out

So exciting...what is inside?

To heavy to pull it out, gotta dump it. Who am I kidding? I just love dumping stuff.

It's a book! That plays music! William loved it immediately and calls it the "beep beep" right now. You know, because it beeps when you open it. The gift is from William's godmother to celebrate the anniversary of his baptism!

In other new, we've had a lot of rain recently. Between the plague of illnesses and the weather, I've been feeling pretty cooped up around here. Tonight, things became a little more worrisome for us.

Here is the creek that runs behind our property. It is usually a tiny creek that we can barely see. This was this evening after it had rained hard almost all day long. The picnic table you see is actually our neighbors (not in our yard, but usually MUCH further away from the water).

The view from our deck. The green along the bottom of the picture is where our backyard actually starts. The rain has quit for now, but more is predicted this week. We're keeping a close eye on things and have put some plans in place in case we need them (I know we probably don't need plans, but I feel better just knowing there is a plan).


There are some perks to all the rain: Rainbows!

And beautiful light at dusk! Even if it is just the neighbors back yard.

And wonderful clouds!

More rain clouds on the way....still are pretty


Sunset...and more rain on the way

5 K = Complete

The 5 K race was today. John and I were both supposed to run together while a friend watched William for us. However, we just can't seem to shake the sickness stuff and John was unable to run. John came down with some yucky flu bug on Friday night and spent most of Saturday sleeping. Sunday morning he was feeling better, but not running a 5 K kind of better. I wasn't sure if I should run with the funny feeling stomach I woke up with, but decided it was nerves. Still not sure if I'm getting sick or just tired from a very long weekend. My initial goal was to be able to run an entire 5 K race. After training and realizing that wouldn't be problem, I started to up the ante in my head. I played with different completion time scenarios in my head and began to try and shave time off of my training workouts. In the gym, I was able to complete the entire 5 K distance in under 30 minutes (29.55, to be exact). Turns out, when running outside and it is raining and cold and I'm wearing too many layers, and there isn't a clock in sight, it takes a lot longer. So, I pleased that I accomplished my original goal of completing the run. I'm thinking about registering for another run to see if I can get a better time. Or, I might just be okay with trying to best my own time on the track in the climate controlled world where I can run in my favorite tank top. We'll see.

Finishing the race. The time was terrible, but I ran the whole thing...which was the first goal of mine.


William congratualting me after the race by trying to put his fingers in my water.

New Post

There is a HUGE post about Easter if you scroll down. Nothing new to report here other than we've picked up a new stomach bug and William is still sick with the yucky nose. Phone call to the doctor is on the list of things to do on Monday morning. Baby monitor arrived in the mail, but I'm still on the couch so I maybe don't get sick. Small collision between our cars is creating some headache on top of some self imposed deadlines. Oh yeah, we also painted our new office in the basement approximately the color of a green hi-lighter on Friday night. And I think I like it. That would be the only good news from this weekend.