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.

Project Priming Begins

With our drywall taped, and the basement somewhat clean, it was time to begin the priming section of our project. We took Monday to clean and last night we ran out to pick up a HUGE bucket of primer. After William went to bed, we were able to get the office primed!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

As you can see, the walls aren't quite dry yet and we still have some drywall clean up to do (in the center of the room). Hopefully we're on a roll now!

Easter Trip to Minnesota

We had been planning on going to MN for Easter, but weren't sure about the dates due to our health problems and the ongoing drywall project. Friday morning, I made a stop at our favorite place lately, the Urgent Care. Turns out William and I have matching sinus infections! So, now all three of us are on antibiotics! Weeeeee! Just before noon on Friday, we left for MN with prescriptive medications in hand.

This was, by far, the worst trip with William ever. He cried/screamed on and off for close to 3 hours of the trip. Nothing could distract him. We planned the timing of the trip around his nap time (and trips to the Urgent Care). William apparently did not arrange his schedule around our trip. Yuck. We made it to MN in time for dinner at Valentino's. The pictures and some video from the trip at home are below!

Sledding on Easter? Only in Minnesota! Here we are sledding before easter on Friday.

We went down a couple of times on the hill Grandpa made for us!

Sledding on Saturday, too!

On Saturday, Aunt Megan came and we all colored eggs. Grandma thought it would be fun to have William hold some eggs. Guess what he did? At the end of the video, you'll also hear him say "Bang". Listen closely!

After the cracking...

Everyone coloring eggs (and William cracking them). The 2008 sign is because we can never figure out what year some of our pictures are from when are trying to sort them into albums (yes, we know that we could put them in albums more than just every 10 years - where is the challenge in that?)




Saturday night we had a family dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Megan, Kaye and Scott. Despite the snow, Grandpa fired up his grill and we had steak! Yummy! Earlier in the day William poured an entire cup of water on himself, hence the outfit change. This is one of his favorite shirts because it has a "Brmmm, brmmmm" on the front of it. William was in heaven because Scott played cars with him for a long time! (Mama was in heaven because she didn't have to play cars!)


Easter morning, William was playing with his cars in the kitchen while I cleaned up our breakfast dishes when he found this! He knows that anything is a can is good and you need to say "Ahh!" after every drink. Here he is reaching in for a car and saying "Ahhh!"

He finally got one out of the box - "Ahhhh....!"

We all got dressed up in our Easter outfits. Grandma was watching William while I got dressed. He figured out where in the kitchen she keeps the treats!


William's first cookie - John's favorite: Duplex Cremes.

His reaction? Mmmmmmmm...


It was easy to get that cookie away from him!

Then we loaded up and went over to Grandpa Heidt's house to visit with William's cousins! Here they are "playing" together. Okay, they are all kind of looking at each other, but none of them are crying!


I was pretty impressed with how gentle and nice William was with the babies (aren't they getting big? They are so SO cute and so SO very sweet!) Here he is sharing his truck with Alex.

Alex playing with the fire truck while William watches.

And...that is enough sharing. Alex's turn was about 12 seconds. We'll have to keep working on the sharing!


After a nap, we watched some video of William (will share some soon, I promise!). William was captivated by himself on the big screen. Nothing could get his attention while he admired himself!

Looking good!

Most of the time, even the chair was too far away from the TV. But he fits perfectly into Aunt Megan's old chair!

The trip home was much smoother. William slept for close to 3 of the 6.5 hours. What a relief! We got back home in time for dinner on Monday evening and started cleaning up. Over the weekend, the dust in the air had more time to settle and we could finally clean! It had kind of bothered me to drive away from our house so very messy and dusty, but it is what needed to happen! But, boy was I happy to get things cleaned up again!

Happy 14 Months!

14 months old and I swear we're starting the 2's early. Does that mean we'll get them over with early too? Something tells me no. We're onto antibiotic #2 for William as we still have the green nose going on strong. We're also onto night #2 of Mama sleeping on the couch as we left our baby monitor in MN. Monitor should arrive tomorrow in the mail (*crossing fingers*).

PS Please keep checking back. I'm working on a trip to MN/Easter post too, but it isn't going to be the first post at the top.

The House of Plastic and Tape (& Dust)

We are 75% done with the taping process. Progress has been iffy due to the amount of rain we have been getting this week. Damp air= uncertain mud drying time. Every fan in the house is on which means I haven't had a quiet moment (or a coherent thought) in close to three days. The fan noise is making me irritable and crabby. Good thing John finds both of these moods charming. Our Easter travel plans rest on the drying of mud and sanding progress that will take place tomorrow. Reservations at the Motel McGarry have been made tentatively for Friday through Monday morning.

Tomorrow we begin with the sanding, which is supposed to be the messiest piece of the taping. Not looking forward to this as there is already a thin, white film of drywall dust coating all objects in the house. This evening, John and I spent a romantic two hours building a dust blocker out of plastic and tape. This was a huge challenge with our open staircase in the atrium portion of our house with 7 fans blowing things around. However, the dust blocker is much needed due to the openess of our floor plan, it is difficult to keep the dust in the basement where it belongs. The cats' litter box, cat food and door access have all been considered. Now all that is left is to see how an evening alone at the mercy of our cats impacts the structural integrity of our house.

The house that John and Kelly built

If you look carefully in the window on the left behind the plastic, you can see Mango plotting his moves.

William continues to be thrilled about his kitty siblings. They continue to tolerate him and have started letting him pet them on occasion. Although he does do some pretty enthusiastic patting, he also loves to pull their tails.

Cat tail pulling picture #2


That is enough for this cat!