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.