Better?

Well, we had a good weekend and most of the sickness is out of the house. We went up north for the trees. We had a good time and beautiful weather, but the colors were just past peak.

Here's a few pictures:
















We also had two dogs show up at our house last night. I think that they might be purebred Jack Russells. We're looking for their owner. They're pretty cute, but the puppy keeps going after Copper, our 90+ lb German Shepard/Great Pyrenees mix. That's not going to work for too long. Here they are:



(We are calling the puppy "Sparkles" and the big one is Jack. Chase helped name them. I think that Sparkles is one of the dogs in Barbie and the Diamond Castle...)

(Jodie, you probably can't tell, but all those images are from the Jing embed code...)

I'm Alive.

I'm just so busy! Grrrr.

In a nutshell:

• I went to Michigan Tech as part of the STC dept advisory board. It was a lot of fun, and I went by myself so I had a little break from the kids.
• We're working on building a garage/barn/shed-thing to replace the well house that had a tree land on it last August. (Yeah, nine months ago. We're really on top of things!) I've decided to call the new building Fred, since it's not really a shed, barn, or garage.
  
• I'm also at nearing the end of a product release, and I'm super busy documenting Morae, our usability/user research software. If you don't know about it, it's way better than the old Unicrap usability lab and costs a lot less than the pompous fool manager guy put into that lab.
• I took Chase to Cedar Point with our friend Susanne and her son Ethan. Ethan's just 9 months older than Chase, so the boys really have a good time together. We did an evening and then a whole day at the park, followed by a couple hours at the indoor waterpark.
  

Here's pictures of the CP trip, Cory, and the Fred building.

Cats.

I didn't mention it before, but my cat Mica got hit by a car and died a few weeks ago. She was an inside/outside cat, and we knew it would probably happen at some point. But, she was miserable if we made her stay inside all the time.

I REALLY had a hard time with her dying. I've never had to explain to a child why they can't see their kitty. I told Chase that Mica ran away and went to a really nice place to stay. He keeps telling me that we have to have 2 cats and that we need to go to the "kitty store" to buy a new one.

So yesterday, this gray cat showed up at our patio door. I opened the door, thinking it would run away. It didn't. It came in and is the sweetest thing! He's front declawed and fixed. He's not afraid of the kids and is super cuddly. (In case you were going to check, you are still reading Sally's blog, not Jodie's...)

So for now, we're keeping him. This will change for any of the following reasons:

1. We find his owner.
2. He pees on something.
3. Clio pees on something because she doesn't like him.
4. He's too scared of the dogs.

And we didn't even have to go to the kitty store...

Jodie Must Be Really Bored...

... to beg ME to update my blog! Really, my life's about as boring as a really busy life can be. I seem to always be doing something, but never anything interesting.

So, just for you Jodie... I guess there's a few things of note going on:

1. We went to Frankenmuth on Saturday to celebrate my Dad and Craig's birthdays by eating WAY too much "family-style chicken dinner". That was followed by way too much shopping at Birch Run. (You know you're old when you get really excited to see an Eddie Bauer Outlet Store...)
2. My favorite thing is to ask Cory what a Turkey says. Her answer is "Boggle Boggle."
3. Cory's finally not fighting us when we ask if she's our "baby girl". Up until this week, she'd scream "NO! I A BOY!" at us...
4. I uploaded and bought almost 800 pictures from our trip to Disney World. Now, I have to buy some albums.
5. Craig's put in new tub/shower, new toilet, and is working on a tile floor in our ONE bathroom. (I can't quite remember why we went from a 2000 house with 3 car garage and two full baths to an 1853 house with no garage and one bath...)
6. I think it's AWESOME that there are more DZ's with blogs! I've added some of them to my list of friends. (I hope they don't mind... It's only been like 8 years since I've seen them...)
   
7. I have new pictures:

I'm Back (Again)

Thanks for bugging me April.

I've been busy and lazy about posting. I guess I needed a kick to get going. We'll see if I can start doing this more. ;o)

Anyway... I've got some pictures from Halloween through last weekend.

And, I actually included pictures of me, so you're in for a treat.

I chopped off my hair last Friday instead of going shopping. I went to Douglas J and saw Lourdes. If that sounds expensive, it was. Thank goodness for giftcards. Here's what the hair plan was:


I don't have a picture of me with the haircut, but she really got it to look just like the photo. I LOVE it!

In other big news, we booked a trip to Disney World! I go back and forth about the intelligence of this idea. We're going to be staying at a Disney Hotel for 9 nights. I'm praying now that the kids (and Craig) like it.

Well, I will try to talk to you all soon!

Happy

Despite the looming shutdown of Michigan's government, which really is very silly, I'm in a very good mood. Things that make me happy today:

• It feels like summer, even though it's almost October
• Our writing group went out for lunch to celebrate how awesome we are
• We're walking in Autism Speaks fundraising walk on Sunday at the Detroit Zoo
• I'm heading up to MTU to recruit for my company
  NMU too, but big whoop. ;o)
  
• Chase is doing great
• This is gross, but the fact that Cory puts her finger in her nose whenever she feels shy. If she's REALLY feeling shy, she does a finger in each nostril. We call that one the "Mary Catherine".
  
  
• "Decorating" a coworker's cube for his birthday
  
  

Trees

So, I've been reading about all my friends in Minnesota having crappy weather. I should have remembered that we get your weather a day or two later.

So now all the money I'd saved for our Disney vacation next year now gets to go for a deductible. Grrr.

The suckiest thing is that our well and pump is under the shed. We had to cut enough of the tree away last night to get a tarp on it to keep the rain out. If a lot of water got it, it could contaminate our well.

Oh yeah, the power to the shed blew, probably to do with the light that was mounted in the center of the ceiling, and we have no running water in the house today.

Thank goodness Craig knows enough to fix that today.

Anyway, at least it didn't land 10 feet to the left. It would have smashed both of our cars.

MTU
I'm going to be going up to Tech for the career fair in October. I'm also doing the Northern one while I'm up there. I'm overly excited about this. I'm also going to do a little presentation to some of the STC kiddos. Am I cool or what?


Anyone else going to be up there?

Minivans

New Baby
My good friend Katie had her second baby last week! Steven Robert was born on July 23 at 7:58 a.m. He was 7 lbs/4 oz and 21 inches. I was just talking to Katie, and it sounds like everything's going good. They've been home since Thursday. Big Sister Sophie is very happy with the new arrival, so far.

Congratulations Katie, Erin, and Sophie! Ready to pick up that minivan?

Minivans
Speaking of minivans, I just trading in my SUV for one. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it yet. I was kind of sick to my stomach when I left the dealer. While it is a really nice car, I've had 4 wheel drive for so long, it's odd. And, I also realized that there's only like two other minivans at work.

I probably wouldn't have done it, but after 95,000 miles of no car problems, I've had two wheel bearings, a cv joint, and something that I had never heard of go bad in my car. So, I traded her in at 99, 680 miles. I have a 6 year/100,000 mile bumper to bumper and 200,000 mile powertrain warranty now, so that's nice.

Craig is coming around, I think. He said, "These doors are kind of nice. I wonder why they don't put these sliding doors on SUVs? That'd be nice."

All Kinds of Fun

Ok, that might not sound sucky, but not having enough time to get all kinds of fun new stuff onto my blog is sucky.

Now, since last time, we've been to Cedar Point, a Very Special Arts Festival, the Zoo, and had our last day of Chase's class for the school year.

Cedar Point
It went really well. It's funny how Chase was terrified of some things that Ethan would go on, and Ethan was terrified of things that Chase loved! Odd how that works.
The boys were troopers! They made it through both days at Cedar Point, an indoor waterpark, two nights in the hotel, and the trip there and home (thank you Grandma for the DVD player for the car!)

We were all tired, but I think that we're going to try to do it again next year!
Here's some pictures. I finally broke down and went for the slideshow...

Torrent Very Special Arts Festival and the Zoo
We stopped over at Chase's school for a really neat little art festival that they do every year. They have several different stops along the way to make crafts to take home. The kids made buttons, necklaces, glitter cards, and also had their faces (or hand) painted and ate snow cones.

Craig and I took the kids to the Binder Park Zoo on Memorial Day. I guess that I took more video than I did pictures, so there's only a couple. The best thing about this zoo is feeding the giraffes!

Here's some pictures of Chase and Cory, and their friends, Daisy and Evie at the art festival and a few of our zoo trip.

`

Weathermen

Why is it that weathermen get away with being wrong so much? If a person in another career was wrong as many times as they are, that person would be unemployed.

Even up until the storms hit yesterday, they were still saying that today would be dry. Um, it was pouring when I left the house this morning and it's still raining. Even better, here's the forecast from TheWeatherChannel.com for Cedar Point:Thursday's our evening at Cedar Point, Friday is our whole day. I guess it's not the crappiest forecast, but hot, sunny weather seems to go with Cedar Point.

Another thing that sucks today is that Cedar Point is only open until 7pm! I guess I've never been there this time of year, so I was totally surprised that it would close so early. I'm sure that will probably be a good time to leave for the kids. I'm sure that 9am-7pm will probably be a long enough day for them, and I guess us adults, too. Sigh.

Photos
Here's some pictures from Mother's Day.

Cory before the pickle was taken away.

Cory after the pickle was taken away.
Cory after Grandma made her happy again.Chase and (Great) Aunt Kathy

Cory and Mya

Sharing popsicles

Mya and Amy

Troublemakers

Where's Jose? Can you tell which is the real bird?

... Nightmares tonight (For me!)

So, if you know me very well, you know that I'm scared to death of flying and airplanes in general.
Here's what I found in the living room:
When I asked Chase what happened, he said, "Nane, tuntle, stuck. Oh no!"
(For those that don't speak Chasese that's, "Plane, tunnel, stuck. Oh no!")

... Forgetting I can't drink like when I was in college.

Saturday, I went out with my book club/birthday club friends for Heather's birthday. We had a great time, even though we had our dinner reservation pushed back until 9:45 PM, Lansing bars were DEAD because everyone was celebrating MSU graduation in East Lansing, Casey's car window was broken out, and I mixed beer, hard cider, shots, and mixed drinks. I'm excited to do it again, but next time, only one kind of alcohol per night.

Talk Talk Talk
Chase is talking up a storm. He's repeating tons of stuff and did something really neat. I told him last night that it was almost time for bed. He said, "Momma, no go nigh-night." This may not seem like that big of a deal, but it is for the following reasons:

• He understood what I was saying.
• He was able to realize that he didn't want to do what I was saying.
• He was able to respond to me.
• He responded to me using words that I had not said.
• He related my "time for bed" with "no go nigh-night".

So, it really is a great thing. I'm very happy about that. :o)

Pictures

Grandma and Chase at the Zoo.

Shouldn't I be IN there?

If you always carry a chair, you always have a place to sit.

Someone thought that it'd be funny if I looked like Erkel.

... I don't want to be responsible

How is it that we have all these classes and tests to be able to get a driver's license, and yet we can have kids without any regulations or tests to see if we're good enough to be in control of another human's life?

So, today I want the kids to be able to go to daycare. I'd really like to be in the office more. Saying that, now I feel totally selfish.

I do feel that Chase could handle daycare better, but maybe I'm just hoping that he could. Besides, it'd be better to spend the money on speech therapy than daycare. I'd rather not have to make decisions like this. I'd rather that someone told me what I have to do and then I'd have to do it. Wow, I am so less responsible than I'd like to think I am.

On that note, yesterday, I had a great "stay-at-home-mom" day with the kids. I took Chase to swim therapy in the morning and then met another family at Portage Lake Park for a nice afternoon of playing. Chase really had a good time and the other parent remarked about how social he is. Yay!

I have some pictures, too. They're of my baby sister Stacy before her Junior Prom last weekend and our outing yesterday. Looking at the pictures, how could I want to put them in daycare? :o(