the stuff that goes on while stuff is going on

I posted about our goings on, but this is what has been really going on.

About two weeks ago, I was really frustrated with the lack of potty training progress. Mostly I was feeling like a failure parent about not being able to help Em with her "pooping" issues. Robert and I talked and we decided to up the ante. We went full out, 1 capful of Mirolax per day and no diapers except overnight, all of this with the idea of getting her to poop in the toilet at least once/day. Monday and Tuesday were a complete struggle, Emily is really stubborn, everyone says it is that red hair. Wednesday we sort of turned the corner. And I am scared to say it a loud because I don't want to jinx it, but this week she tells me she has to poop, we go, and she poops. This week we have started decreasing the Mirolax, so lets pray that we don't do it to abruptly and she still gets the hang of it with less. We have had one pee accident during nap in the last 13 days, previously I always let her wear a diaper to nap. I think we will stick with the diaper overnight for a while, with how full it is in the morning I don't think she quite has the control. In summary, I am thrilled, YEAH!
She is becoming such a little lady, she says little grown up things, talks all the time about turning three and getting to eat a chocolate cake. We have been talking about giving up the "ba ba" or paci when she turns three.

Dallas is also keeping up with his sister. He has tried and liked all of the following, avocado, pears, peaches, green beans, and prunes. He has liked all but peas, but I wonder if the texture was a little to thick, I don't think I pureed them well enough. He sits up really well and only topples over once or twice a day, especially after I tell people he is sitting up. He really loves to bounce in his exersaucer, Emily will bounce towards him, and he will bounce and giggle along with her.
He is still taking three naps a day. He wakes in between 6:00 and 7:00 nurses, has breakfast of oatmeal and something with Em around 8:00, he usually naps from 9:00 to 10:00, another 12:00-2:00, and then a third hour long nap before dinner. He usually has a little bit of whatever puree he is trying for dinner. He likes to sit at the table with us, he smiles a ton when we sing our prayer. It seems like 2 hours is about the max he likes to be awake. I am still wishing for him to sleep through the night, I would love to get more than 4 hours of sleep in a row.
Bo is doing well, he doesn't like the hot weather that much. His favorite temperature seems to be about 30 degrees, he is shedding everywhere. That has reminded me that I still haven't purchased a vacuum yet!
We have trim around our new windows as of Wednesday. I am blogging now, waiting for my nail putty fill to dry so I can go prime the wood next. Dallas is back in the guest room while I get this finished up and Robert hangs the blinds again.
I have also started to tackle our room. I am stripping wallpaper from our bathroom, I painted the vanity cabinet white, and trying to pick new bedding so I can get a paint color for the walls in the bedroom and bathroom. It seems that everyone says it is easier to find bedding you like and pick a color from there, than find a wall color and then find matching bedding.

hope you enjoyed my novella

My husband is 34

Wow we are getting old, I have known my husband for longer than 10 years! We had a great celebration on Wednesday for his birthday. I asked if he wanted another treat, as I had made peanut butter ice cream pie for his birthday on Monday to have at our bible study. He said that didn't count(1), so Wednesday morning I went to the Internet. I don't know if it is awesome or incredibly sad that I had enough stuff in the house to make this cake (it called for three different kinds of chocolate), you decided. It was super yummy, even better cold from the fridge. It is Thursday afternoon and it is half gone!

We got the birthday boy a new football, he loves it.

We went to see the new Transformers movie after dinner. Ike, Robert's now retired co-worker asked me a couple of weeks ago if we would like him to babysit so we could see a movie on his birthday. Of course we said yes. Ike did a great job, he said the kiddo's were perfect, Dallas went right to bed for him too, I am so glad I don't want to scare off those free babysitters. Ike is going to make a great grand-dad as soon as his kids give him some!
(1) Robert wanted me to correct this, he didn't say it didn't count, he said he would be up for a cake as well, since it was his birthday

saying Goodbye

Emma and Emily at pool party this week

I never thought my little Emily would have such a good friend at the age of almost three, but our dear Emma is moving to the Quad Cities on Friday. We hope to visit soon, but I think it is safe to say she will be missed quite a bit, plus I don't know how to explain "moving" to Emily. We pray for her safe travels and for settlement into her new surroundings.

Visitng friends... and Father's Day

We hosted our good friends Tim (shag) and Dana plus their new arrival Abagail. Abby was born the beginning of Feb, and this was the

first time we were able to meet her, we wish she didn't live in Delaware! Being only two months apart, Dallas sure does tower over Abby, I am pretty sure he has a solid 5 pounds on her! They got to spend all weekend with us, and helped us celebrate Father's day too, Tim's first.

We went to the zoo on Sat, before the Burkharts came to Ames, we had tons of fun, but forgot the camera at home. Just imagine...

Sunday I made orange rolls for breakfast (Rob's fav) and we gave him his gift. I made him a motivational poster, only it was personalize, with his own photo and funny saying. I will have to ask him if he wants it posted. You can do the same by going to bighugelabs.com

Rob and the kids on Father's Day

Rob headed off to Newton to watch the Indy race and the Burkharts went to meet up with their Family reunion, the kids and I went to church, we all meet for dinner out in Ames. Sadly we had to say goodbye Monday morning as they drove off to see more family.

Ames Municipal Band

Em and I enjoying the concert
Dallas and Robert watching the music

Thursday is a great day in Ames for free, fun family events. We took advantage of a tiny part of that last week. We went down to Band Shell Park to see a friends Steel Drum band which was the pre-show for the Ames city band. It also happened to be the same night that Simon Estes was singing with the band, and you simple cannot pass up his "Old Man River". It was City Council night as well which means we got free cookies and water too(1).


(1.) Robert says: they are not really free, we as tax payers provided the music and the cookies...

Another week has gone by without any postings, that can only mean...
-work is being done in and around the house
-guests stayed over
-concerts were experienced
-Fathers were celebrated
-birthday cake was made and then eaten
-pictures were taken
-and dear friends were hugged before moving

I hope to recap all

The Blank Park Zoo with Aunt Chelsey

Emily's first french braids, this happened on Sunday the day before the zoo.

We meet Chelsey at the zoo on Monday. It was a great weather day, not to hot, mostly overcast (big surprise lately) and not to humid. I actually put a sweatshirt on Em after lunch. The big fun was the peacocks that were just roaming around. We ate lunch next to one, and this other one seemed to be guarding the exit, as to beg us not to leave, or perhaps he was just admiring himself in the glass reflection.

Watching the Giraffes eat
Peacock at the exit of the zoo

Emily and Chelsey, I think they were watching the fish and ducks

Dallas enjoyed the zoo from the stroller, I took the double stroller just in case, I think Emily was in it long enough to eat her snack (which was my requirement).

Update in photos

This amazed me, I saw this pop machine near the gas pump outside a Casey's General, it accepts Credit Cards!!!! And it cost $1.75. Robert and I were amazed, but in awe of their smartness. Many people don't enter the store now that you can pay at the pump, so why not stick a machine outside. Convenience stores don't make money off the gas, where they get their profit is the food/junk, so since no one enters, why not put it outside, at an approx. markup of 800%. Robert went in and got a 44 oz fountain diet coke for $0.89. Coke machines are one reason he doesn't do well with carrying cash, lets pray that they don't put one of these at work!

Dallas after enjoying his dinner, perhaps he is going for his foot next?Finally enjoying a meal outside, we put out the patio furniture since the construction is done!

The two Dallas's

Emily getting ready for a trip to "the store"

Cookies for Construction, Emily and I are baking to feed the construction workers that are building one of E-free's new church buildings

I have been away too long, I don't know where to start my update

List of things to come back for... updates on
1. construction
2. Dallas eating oatmeal, avocado
3. Emily being silly, cute, singing, not sleeping at night, getting out of her bed by herself, loving having daddy back, being a general almost 3 year old
4. Having Rob back and his wonderful time on the Hot Rod tour, see themusclecarplace.com
5. cookies for construction
6. dinner made early in time for VBS helper
7. paint nursery
8. paint kitchen ceiling

-sorry seems my list of updates turned into a list of things to do! hence why I have been absent

Construction end of Day3

Look, we have siding, not shingles on the second story! What do you think?

The windows framed, with the flashing on the correct way.

This a picture of the transition, I think it looks pretty good, given everything we had to work with. The sliding glass door to the deck is on the bottom, then the shingles, then siding/window.

I think a different crew will show up on Monday to do dry wall work. We still need to paint the siding, we are considering going with a new color, and painting the existing siding as well. What color should we choose? I am taking ideas, as I am not skilled in this venue. I will include a pic of the brick on our house as we will more than likely never change that so it should complement the brick.

Robert on the Hot Rod Power Tour

Here is a video clip of Robert leaving for the Hot Rod Power Tour. For those of you not in the know, I liken it to RAGBRII, get up drive 100 or so miles with 1000's of your best muscle car friends, park your car, walk around look at everyones car, head to your campground or hotel at 5:00 pm, sleep, wake and do the same thing the next day. Robert is going for most of the first leg of the trip with a buddy, they will turn around in Detroit and head for home.

He is officially debuting The MuscleCar Place on the tour. Please pray that he has a great time doing what God has made him for, pray that he meets the right people and he says the right things to facilitate more business, please pray for his buddy Aaron that is riding along and also leaving a busy family at home, and lastly please pray that the Chevelle runs well the entire trip and keeps the guys safe. Muscle cars can be a fickle thing some times, while they are built great with American steel, they often don't run as smooth as my Camry, then again it is a lot faster than my Camry.

You can follow Rob's journey on Twitter, Facebook, or from the website themusclecarplace.com

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Construction evening Day 2

I didn't take any pictures, but tomorrow is another day. Just picture the outside of the house wrapped and some new shingles snugged up against the wrap. I imagine siding will happen next.

Construction Noon edition Day 2

I am pretty sure the guys think I am a weirdo taking all these pictures, so I snuck out there while they were at lunch.

Nursery window, look at all that wood they had to remove, it is also getting all new insulation. Apparently there was not any, or it had all fell, it should be a much cozier room now.


Nursery window in, my bro and sis are probably disgusted we didn't use Pella, but we are doing this on a budget so maybe they won't notice!


Window in, wood in place, wrapped!

Construction morning Day2

After day 1 the guys were back early. They politely asked if 7:30 was too early to start, of course not, we tend to get up early around here, and who was going to sleep in without any blinds on the windows!

The hole in the kitchen ceiling, how we noticed the problem in the first place, notice you can now see daylight through the hole. After all my joking it actually became a skylight. The light appeared after they removed the old window from the nursery.


The window removed, they are getting ready to remove drywall to replace much of the wood.

This is the drywall patched back in, ready for window!

Construction afternoon Day1

Thank you Hanson Homes!

The (old) window in the nursery without the trim

The old window is out in our room, progress!

Sad old window lying in the dump trailer.

By days end, we had our new window, the house was partially wrapped in Tyvec, they had to put in some new wood in our room, but they are saving the best for tomorrow I am afraid.

Construction morning Day1

Cheers! We thought we would photo blog what is hopefully the beginning of the end of our house woes! Hanson Homes is here working away, they have gotten a lot accomplished in 2 hours already.

The house from behind the garage, you can see the scaffolding and the tarp that still covers the window and the whole in the nursery wall.

From the deck into the back yard, the lumber on the ground to the right was delivered on Monday. The lumber yard used a forklift to bring it in the backyard. The Hanson guys brought in the dump trailer today. That double wide gate into the yard is coming in handy



View from our back yard the window on the left is the one into our room.

Closer view of the nursery window, see the holes in the wall. They have pulled back tarp and wrap they were using to patch this until we decided how we were going to handle the fix.


Dallas sleeping in the Pack n' Play, he will hang out in the guest room during construction, at least for daytime naps.

Brrrrr, are you feeling cold yet!

I think it is cold, and I love it! As most of you know our air conditioner died in Oct 08', it was a good 37 years old. It was perfect timing too! Since we do Dave Ramsey's plan we could have called it an emergency and bought a new one with our funds, but Oct in Iowa doesn't really necessitate an air conditioner. We saved up this winter and picked Converse Conditioned Air to purchase and install our new unit. We were hoping to wait until the second story construction was done on the house, but I was getting hot, and Happy wife, Happy life, right? Let me plug Converse for a moment. They are awesome. They were competitively priced, very fast (if you have no air you are at the top of the list), and very clean (they put drop clothes down throughout the house where they had to walk). It took most of the day to install, a good chunk of that was spent at the shop fabricating new sheet metal. Jim Converse is our neighbor (I think he is the father of the owner), he even made a Sat. night house call after I called him with a question about the water heater gas. I am nervous about gas lines, except for the grill, and Robert was in Arizona! It was a great experience, and I love the cold air. I can't wait to see the improvment in the hot summer months and in our energy bill!

Twins?

Look at the stylish coordination of my men!

Happy Birthday Greg

Happy Birthday Greg! You the best little brother out there. I see so much of you in Dallas everyday and couldn't be more proud.