October 2006 Archives

Watching Noah's vocabulary expand recently got me to thinking about all those cute things that Myra used to say at his age. I miss...

...holding one hand as Chris held the other while we were walking. Myra would count us up by saying "Two...Two....THREEEEEE!!!!!" and we'd swing her up in the air. It took her a while for her to figure out that one was a number also.

...when Myra used to come up to you and hold out her hands, obviously wanted to be picked up, and say "Carry Chew. I wanna Carry Chew." She meant I want YOU to carry ME, but to her, CarryChew was just one word that meant that big person was going to pick me up and lug me around.

...practicing counting all the way to thirteen and beyond--kinda. She'd count up just fine up to 12, but those teeny numbers were a bit confusing. They all sounded the same, so she thought they all WERE the same. She'd say, "8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13......20!"

So ... We were having to clean out the garage to make room for Josh's new scooter (he'll tell you about that later). I decided that all the boxes that we had yet to unpack could be brought into the playroom (lined against the wall so they're not in the way but where I can see them so they drive me crazy forcing me to go through them). I started in ... got one box done (it was mostly trash) and another done. I got to the end of my third and I see a mouse! I quickly close the box and go as fast as I can out the door.

I get out there and we're of course looking at it, showing the kids and taking pictures. We then decide to take it across the street to the empty lots to set the little thing free. I get the video camera thinking this is going to make a great story for our blog.

I've got Noah on one hip and the camera in the other while Josh and Myra are slowly tipping the box. The mouse runs out of the box and goes directly under it. So I told Josh "You're going to have to move the box. We can't see the mouse anymore." He moves it ... and the mouse makes a mad dash right ... up ... my ... PANT LEG!!!

I, of course, SCA-REAM trying not to drop Noah or the $325 camera and praying that that little RAT doesn't decide to bite me. Josh finally takes the camera, I put Noah down and I then start ... well, dancing around like a crazy woman.

Thinking that I finally have the rodent back down and out of my pant leg, I take a moment to try to get a hold of myself. It was a very short moment ... I felt the thing right around my ... private zone. Thank God for panties!

As I was repeating "Oh God, Josh. It's still in there." over and over again, I'm pulling my shirt tight so that IT doesn't go up there when Josh gets my pants undone. IT, of course, does NOT come out the top nor run out the bottom so I took off towards the back of the neighbor's house where there's a nice 6ft privacy fence to hide me while Josh and I take off my jeans.

So the jeans are off and Josh is checking and double checking and then triple checking them for me as I scratch my legs in a failed attempt to get rid of that creepy crawly feeling. He finally convinces me that it's okay to put my pants back on.

As I slide my second leg in, I feel this prickly feeling on my foot [that I'm balancing on]. Yes, I had found a nice pile of FIRE ANTS! After another quick dance, I was ready to go home. That right there was the LONGEST ten minutes of my life.

WOW! I just noticed that the blog turned two years oldthis month! The time seems to fly. I remember back in the day when I was hard coding php through a BUNCH of trial and error to get things on the blog just right. For you people that didn't understand that sentence, lemme translate: I was doing a whole bunch of staring at letters, number, and symbols in an effort to arrange them into some secret sequence that would make a blog happen. Eventually, it did happen and we've been using the web to help create our own family history book. I hope the kids get to look back on this blog 10 or 20 years from now and see what it was like when they were little. Well, I guess that means I better get to backing this thing up! I got some work to do people, so leave me alone!

I've finally recovered enough to do a rundown of J-fest 4. It was a great party even though it turned out to be FREEZING after the sun went down. I think we ended up with 15 or 20 people (small turnout, but that was our fault for getting the word out so late). I found the most AMAZING mini-keg in the world. Heinekin makes this mini keg that is pressurized. It's got this spout on it and it feels like your using a real keg. They say the beer stays good for up to 30 days. Of course, we didn't get the chance to test them on that.

This year we had wind problems so keg bowling outside just wouldn't do. After some convincing, I talked Chris into letting us do it in the front hallway. Man, it was TOUGH! To nobody's surprise, Mario was the top bowler for the 3rd year in a row! Give the man a ball or a keg or any slightly roundish object and this man will knock some pins DOWN!

Next we hit the ladder golf links. I scored a grand total of 1 point, I think Ricky and Mario both scored about 5 points but in the end, Big Ben showed us all up with 6 points. He took home his first J-fest prize. If you look back through the old pics, you'll find that Ben was seriously envious of our past winners. He just would NOT be denied this year.

Finally came the main event: The Beercathalon. The competition broke the men up into two teams who battled each other in a game of wits, beer knowledge, and of course, beer drinking. The old man team was headed up by Jason and the younger team was captained by Ricky (I call them younger because they had Baby Boo on their team). The old men blew them out of the water in the Chicken Chug off and made a great comeback in the Beer Bucket Brigrade, but the young guys answered just enough questions to stay in it. They won the final event, the Dizzy Chicken Relay, to force a tie. In the end, we had to go to a Mega Tie Breaking Uber Chug Off in which Dan the MAN finished off his can of frosty wheat soda in record time and handed the gold medals to the Young uns.

This year's fest had the best games ever. Of course there was plenty of brats, beer, and plain old visiting to fill in the time in between. Thanks to everyone who came and be looking for a gallery of Jfest shots in the near future. I hope you all join us next year on the First of Joshtober!

Last night, Chris and I decided to let the kids take a bubble bath in our big tub in the master bathroom. This was the first time they've gotten to do that so they were pretty excited. Noah splashed about 1/2 the water out of the tub and Myra made some great bubble beards. It looked like so much fun, I had to jump in with them. Although the bath was fun, the cleanup wasn't so I don't think we'll be taking baths in there very often.

If you didn't get the email, it's probably my fault. Drop me a line (joshosu AT gmail DOT com) and I'll fill you in. We'd love to have you! It's on the 21st starting at 5:00.

We went to the 7th grade football game last night so I could get some yearbook pictures. The kids had a great time and I got some nice shots. Myra LOVED the cheerleaders and Noah, well he loved the railing.

There seems to be a sign in the way....

"No....Standing....Along.....Rail. Hmmmm. What to do. What to do?

I guess this will take care of that problem.

What do you know, Dad got some pics of the actual game!

Myra brought home her first Kindergarten Report Card last night! We were all very excited. In it, it shows that she knows and is doing everything that is expected of her. She received an 'E' (Excellent) or 'X' (Developed) on everything! In teachers comments ...

"Myra is an awesome student! She is very smart and very well behaved! You have done an excellent job with her!"
(I guess that means we received an 'E' for the first six weeks too.)

Myra,
We couldn't be any prouder of our "baby girl"! Keep up the GREAT work!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

YAY! The pictures are now posted. I didn't take any of the bedrooms because ... well, I just can't get the whole room in the frame and without the whole room being there, it just looks like a room. In other words, if you want to see the rest of the house, you'll have to come here. Oh ... I couldn't get a good one of the master closet either. That's another room you'll just have to see for yourself.

The playroom and sitting area located in the formal living/dining rooms ...

The kitchen and dining room (I took the picture from inside the pantry/laundry room) ...

The living room ...

And, one of my favorites, the master bath ...

So ... what do you think?

Finally! The long awaited details of our new house. Too bad I don't have pictures to post to go along with it ... Somebody took the camera to school again (I can't wait until the new yearbook camera arrives). Anyway ...

The new house is 2121sf. It has four bedrooms, two baths, two living areas (one is the playroom), and two dining areas (one is a sitting area ... to oversee the playarea). The kitchen, breakfast nook and laundry/pantry have ceramic tile floors. The kitchen also has a tile backsplash. The master bath (which I love) has a double sink vanity and seperate [glass] shower and "garden tub". The master closet is HUGE ... Ricky suggested making it into an office. OH! I forgot to mention the 10ft vaulted ceilings in all living areas and master (room and bath). Very nice.

The outside of the house is nice too. Even though the backyard is about 1/4 the size of our previous house, it's still big enough for the kids to run around in. (Hopefully it will be big enough for J-Fest 4 ... I'm sure it's fine.) The privacy fence is nice too. We live on a corner lot which means we have a bigger front lawn and, unfortunately for Josh, more to edge. I still like it ... more parking for guests w/o blocking the neighbors' driveways.

The neighborhood is great. We have access to two pools, a park with both big play equipment and smaller equipment for toddlers and a jogging trail which runs the length of the "green belt". The kids and I have been walking every night for the past week. We still haven't seen all there is in this community.

The location of it all ... AWESOME! We're only 6 blocks from Myra's school (it's considered an on-site school for our community) and a couple [driving] miles from Josh's. (If you walk to the other end of our street, you're only about 1/2 mile from his school. However, there's a creek and a couple wire fences in the way of walking and no road to drive.) As for convenience for out of town visitors ... it cuts off about 20 minutes of drive time (30 or so if there's traffic).

I think that covers it all. We love this house and sometimes I still can't belive that we live here. No cracked walls, no doors that don't shut ... or don't stay shut and no two-faced, back stabbing neighbors. I'll spare you the details of that. I'll only say that Somebody left a nasty letter on the door of our old house stating that we didn't take care of anything, that we were always in violation of some city code and that the code compliance guy was always giving us warnings ... in person even! SO NOT TRUE.

Back to happy thoughts ... be looking for pictures of the house to be posted soon. I've taken them. I just haven't downloaded then yet from the camera ... that's at school ... again. Until then, here's a link to the foorplan. The kids love the long halway that runs the length of the house and the fact that you can circle around through the kitchen (just like Granny and Papa's house).