Thankful Thursday!

Tonight I am thankful for this vacation....

I am thankful to spend time with my family, especially my sweet little niece, and see her interact with my little one.

I am thankful my mother in law said, "hey, let me take the baby's monitor into my room tonight," so I can turn my "Mommy ears" off for a few hours.

I am thankful for the sound I can hear out the window of surf and waves.

I am thankful for how cold the sand feels on your toes after dark.

I am thankful for my sweet baby who's such a trooper and doesn't mind being dragged strange places.

I am thankful for autumn and after tomorrow the season of Thanksgiving.

I am thankful I didn't bring any projects or books with me on vacation, sometimes it's just nice to sit, although sometimes I feel like I don't know what to do with my hands.

I am thankful for the church we have been so warmly welcomed into... and thankful for my pastor (it's the end of pastor appreciation month) who also gets to be my husband.

The Beach

(Nice Hunh?)

We've been having a great time. It's been a little chilly but the weather's looking up from here on out, so hopefully we'll get in some good beach time tomorrow and through the weekend.

Max's first sea shell (is it bad, I let him put it in his mouth and he may or may not have eaten some sand?)


Mommy and Max at the Beach!

Laura's surgery was (as far as we know now) a success. While we were concerned about Laura, it was a fun day playing with Max and Ella.

Ella flying on Auntie Cara's feet

It was great fun to have Max and Ella meet, we've been at Ryan and Laura's house, at Grammy's condo, out to eat, to the park, on walks in the strollers, and just hanging around.

Grammy with her Babies

They get along really well together (better than I thought) sometimes Ella moves too quickly for Max and startles him, but he also loves watching her and really paying attention when she dances and runs. She loves to touch his head and even was tickling his toes by the end of the day.
Max loves his Uncle Ryan

So silly me came to the beach and didn't even bring my camera charger. Luckily I had enough juice to pull the first day's worth of pictures off and we've been using Grammy's. There's way too many to post here, so here's a lovely (and possibly boring to some) slideshow for those of you missing us (like Adam). It's really like 150 pictures long, so good luck with that.


(By the way there's some random pictures in that album, including one of Max as a new born (still in the hospital), Adam preaching, and one of Katherine, the church secretary, with Max a couple of weeks ago.

I got it!

I got video of him rolling around. It was really bad lighting.

Oh and I sped up the beginning until you get to the good part.

Cleaning up

I am packing to head to Tampa to visit Adam's family, his mom is spending her month at the beach and then there's also Ryan and Laura right down the road. Max will get to meet his one and only cousin Ella! I am leaving tomorrow with Max, Adam will be joining us on November 3 (also his birthday!), and then we will be coming back November 8. Adam's dad is also joining us for a couple of days. Adam and I are getting away for one day to Universal Studios, Laura is having surgery so we will be taking care of Ella for a few days, I have half a year of Martha Stewart Living to flip through, some sunbeams to soak, and some swimming to do with my little guy!

As I was driving through town the sign on the bank said 44 degrees. I was wearing flip flops. Yup I need to go to the beach.

I was cleaning off the camera in preparation to pack it and found some things I should share.
We took some Halloween pictures of Max as he probably won't be going trick or treating at the beach.


He's also really into BITING things at the moment. Still no teeth, but I'm just waiting for them.



(Feeding himself a zwieback toast, his new favorite)

He thinks he's so big with his sitting up and get so proud of himself.


Also, I don't have any video of it yet, but he's not pretty comfortable rolling from his back to his tummy. No more freedom for mommy.

Crafty Business
I've been in front of my new sewing machine these days.... But all at the request of something needing done right now. I still haven't gotten to play with it properly, but hopefully will soon.

Adam had the idea for Pursey a while ago and since we are on our way to see Ella who he designed it for, I finally had the chance to put his drawing into action.... Remember the last time he decided to design toys?

(Yup, it's a pink purse with a moustache)

He also needed a prop for story time at the fall festival and so I designed a seed growing into a pumpkin for him. We'll see how it works.

Seed in the soil

vines growing (you pull them out of the inside)

Flip it inside out for the pumpkin


I have little friend with a number eight birthday this week and her present is to come over for a craft day and do whatever she wants with my room of stuff. She made me feel good and said it was the best present yet. :) So I can't wait for that to happen.


Making
I made another large batch of apple crisp and remembered to take a picture. This one was for a church potluck yesterday. Hardly any of it was eaten though. Our church is full of pie eaters. But at youth group last night one of the boys really liked it, so i sent him home with a big tupperware of it. I did save enough so I could have it for breakfast today and tomorrow.

Also note to self on the frozen apples: next year make sure to peel them BEFORE freezing them.

Well back off to packing and carving a pumpkin.... :)

The Pumpkin Patch

I've mentioned the farmers that go to our church and that they grow pumpkins amongst other things, well today we headed out to their patch to choose some pumpkins for Adam's story at our Fall Festival (he needed props). This family has a small patch next to their house that I've shown on here before, but this time we went out to their larger field about a 1/2 mile from their house. There were pumpkins as far as the eye could see!

They are hybrid pumpkins used for canning pumpkin that you would eat instead of the ones you typically buy at the store. The color and shape is a little different but they are still quite large and beautiful.

It was a little cold, but it was so worth it to see the beautiful earth and it's harvest. We picked out 8 and I've just finished washing them and setting them on the porch.

Luckily Adam doesn't need to carve them (we've got a different one to carve) so they will all hopefully become pies and seeds and bread and cookies after they serve their purpose at the festival.

Adam picking the perfect pumpkin


Apparently that perfect one is way far out there!


A farmer and his field


In the field


We haven't had a frost yet, so the field is still producing


Beautiful coloring


Max and I watching Daddy pick pumpkins and learning all about them from Don.


Little guy fell asleep after all the fun at the field


A view of our porch


We are getting ready to go to Tampa to visit Adam's family next week. It was 55 yesterday and even colder today I believe, so in preparation I began to gather some of Max's summer clothes that were still too big when summer here ended. Max modeled wearing a sun hat while I was pulling some stuff together.

Thankful Thursday

For those of you that don't know, a meme is sort of like a blog chain, or club. You join, post, link back, hopefully other people who post read yours, and you connect.
So this is my first post of Thankful Thursday and I hope to do many more.


Today I am thankful for our current economic situation. With so many we know in economic strains I am thankful that my husband has a stable job, I don't have to work, we have the ability to purchase a house, and put food on our table. I know it is all through God's provision and mercy and grace that I have these things and I hope to share them with the people around us.

What are you thankful for?

Ten Things

SouleMama did a list of Ten Things she's loving right now and I thought, why not, I'll join in (all part of the previously posted about "joining in the blogging community"). It's not quite at poetic as her's, but I hope you enjoy (check her's out too, her pictures always make me want to cry, they are so wonderful).

In no particular order

1. Eating Apple Crisp for breakfast with a cup of coffee. What's not to love, apples, oatmeal, sounds like breakfast to me. In fact I ate it all so fast, I forgot I wanted to take a picture

2. Knowing our freezer is stocked with FRESH good things. Homegrown carrots, beef, peaches, rhubarb, pears, apples, corn, squash, and sweet potatoes. It's been quite an adventure for me this year. Almost all of these things were given to us (by friends and family), but I hope next year to have my own garden.

3. The sound this makes when I walk through it.


4. My baby sweetly sleeping.


5. And sweetly waking up.


6. Being requested to do a project by a friend. (I gladly take requests!)

(For you Darbs! It's almost done!)

7. Finishing Projects


8. My Craft "Bucket" (I really should make something prettier) It sits by my seat on the couch and I can just reach in and get any number of projects I'm working on.


9. Our tree continuing its descent.


10. Our youth group enjoying themselves in our home (well garage in this picture)

Things I've been reluctant to do...

The world of blogs can be in depth. I've blogged consistently for quite a while now and every now and again I think I'd like to break the cycle and start something different. But for some reason I always stop myself. Guess I'm just a little shy in "blogland." I'm not particularly shy in real life, in fact I'm quite out going, but for some reason I'm intimidated by "big" bloggers that I stalk and always think, "gosh, I wish I were that cool." But I'm stepping out. There are a few blogrolls you'll see popping up in my sidebars, and I've decided to join a meme. I'll talk more about that on Thursday though.

Check out some of the blogs in the blogrolls and see what you find. I can spend hours just hopping and learning about people. It's like the ultimate people watching as people can't tell you are staring.

This time a year ago...

We were just announcing the pending arrival of a little Kipp. :) So funny to me that a year later I can't imagine my life without him and don't know what I did with all my time before him.

Too Far?

I can't decide if these patterns to make McCain and Obama are too far off the deep end or not.
But nonetheless, they are funny.


I kinda want to make them. Maybe I'll make them and see who Max chooses for President.
(You can too if you'd like,, they are from the Lion Brand website)

The House

So finally the house gets its own post.

Here goes:
We have had an offer accepted and are hashing out details on the contract for a new home. We are purchasing the estate of a woman who passed away in February. We have been dealing with the grandson and the whole process has been surprisingly wonderful. We are getting a great deal- but and that's a big BUT there is quite a bit of work to be done on the house before we can even move in. Our anticipated move in date is March even though we are closing on the house November 10.

The house was built in 1870 and is "4" bedrooms with an office, and one bath it also has a dining room, living room, and kitchen. I put the "4" in quotations because one room is up a back staircase and is essentially a paneled up attic, but will make a great kids' playroom.

Our first major project will be gutting the bathroom, knocking down a wall from there into a closet to expand it, and rebuilding from scratch, including floor, ceiling, walls, and fixtures.

Oh we also have to tear down wallpaper, deal with wood paneling (IN EVERY ROOM), pull up the avocado colored shag carpet, repaint every surface, and re-linoleum every other floor before we can even think of moving in.

Here's the "BEFORE" slide show.

This Afternoon

It's around 60 degrees outside and so Max and I decided it would be nice to play outside for a little bit. He likes to watch the leaves. I took around a bazillion pictures and so here's a slide show for you too.....



Two posts in one day, are your heads exploding yet?

Quit Monkeying Around

I've been a bad blogger lately, sorry for the very long and too far in between posts. I try to post when I have a minute, but the minute always disappears in a wave of dishes, laundry, meetings, Max playing, you know, life.

Max
So I think I wrote about him having an ear infection, and he seemed to have felt it the few days after we found out about it, but now he's back to his cheerful self and is sleeping much better.

Tuesday afternoon I went to go get him up from his nap (he was awake and talking in his crib) and I walked in saying, "Good Morning!" in my typical sing song voice (yes, even though it wasn't morning) and he looks over at me. I normally get the biggest smile that warms every moms' heart but instead this time I get a "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" this huge growl. I shouldn't have been surprised, it's Max's new favorite sound.



Autumn
I've been LOVING the autumn weather, sights, smells, and general feeling. he tree in our front yard has been such a joy to watch, changing a little each day. Ah.
Last Week



Sunday


Today


Crafting
Wow I'm behind.... I'm working on presents for people whose birthdays have been in previous weeks! EEEK! (Yes, that means you Kara) But I did finish a present (yes, late) for our friends' little girl. She hasn't even gotten it yet, but I have to post of it while I can...


This Monkey is from Super Crochet Wonderful and turned out to be a little harder to accomplish than I thought, but in the end a lot easier than it seemed at first. (I don't know if that makes sense.) But little girls who love monkeys cannot be denied! I hope she likes it.

The House
I KNOW! I still haven't finished a good update on this, but I'll try tonight since Adam will be out with a friend and I will have the house to myself once the babe gets to bed.


A Mama and Her Babe

It's been a pretty crazy week, there's lots to update on....

Max
He just keeps amazing us with how big he's getting. It seems like something new everyday.

We went to the doctor yesterday for our official weight check and he weighed 14lbs 7oz on their scale, so that's 3lbs in one month. The doctor was really pleased and it justified to me giving up breastfeeding as he was obviously not getting what he needed and now he is.

Here is a picture taken 09/07/08 of Max

And here is one taken 10/02/08

Can you see the difference?

I also told the doctor about Max's stuffy nose that I assumed was allergies since harvest has started around here (and I had it too). She took a look up his nose and down his throat and agreed with me as she went to go look in his ear. She found an ear infection and told me that it was probably because of all the drainage and a secondary reaction to the nose issue and at least he didn't get a sinus infection. So he's on an antibiotic and I guess we won't be going to baby open swim tomorrow like I had wanted.

While Grammy was here this weekend she started a new trend. Max now loves to "drink" (really just chew on) cups. He thinks they are the most fascinating things and will try and grab them any chance he gets.



He fell asleep in the car holding onto his toy.


He's a little bear!


Yup, I let my kid watch TV. It let's me take a shower. I love it, and only feel slightly guilty about it.


My "Pumpkin Pie" with a pumpkin pie.

Church
At church this past weekend we had the "Installation Service" to permanently install Adam as pastor. It was a wonderful time and the church has been so supportive of us. We know the "lovie" feelings may not last forever but hopefully the love of Christ will always be present. Many kind words were said and charges given to both Adam and the church. It made it interesting for me.... where do I fit in? Am I part of Adam or am I part of the church. I'll have to think about that one some more....

But as part of Pastor Appreciation Month the church has "signed up" for a day to do something nice for us, so we've gotten little gifts each day.... You all know how I feel about presents! It's like my birthday month all over again! :) Except it's fall so we've received a lot of pumpkin flavored foods... even better! But wow the church has again overwhelmed us with their generosity and caring.

The deacons and staff from RHMA praying over us during the Installation Service. (me, I'm happy I'm in all my pre-pregnancy clothes again. I bought this dress the week I got pregnant and only got to wear it once before I couldn't fit in it anymore)

The House
I know I mentioned we got a house, but I never said much about it. I am storing up to do a big post on it alone, I promise I'll get it done soon and share all the wonderful goodness with all of you. I've got lots of pictures and lots of plans, more than I have the ability to write up tonight.

Ministry
We visited a couple of people today- one family that farms; they farm lots of things, but they also farm pumpkins and longhorns, we didn't get the chance to tour the farm today, but I want to soon. It felt weird to see a Longhorn here in Illinois, it made a little twinge of longing for Texas.


The other was actually going to the church secretary's home to swing on her swing in her back yard. It was a lovely afternoon all sunny and bright. Max wanted to play so we let him and chatted with Katherine a while. She just adores Max and knows her pretty well since he sees her almost everyday.


Tomorrow we are hosting a "5th Quarter" at our house after the football game. We have opened it up to the church and encouraged the youth to bring a friend. We have no idea how many people will show up but I am so excited to have the house full and entertain on a large level. Readjusting and hosting things again has been a new transition in the past few weeks. We have been pretty private as far as our home goes since we've gotten here, but I think the youth group helped us open our home back up again. Since youth group has started we've begun having people over for dinner and to hang out quite a bit more. It's nice, I've missed it.

Food
My friend Amber posted some recipes and cooking adventures on her blog today. I mention this because I happened to make her recipe for Chicken Chili Soup tonight for dinner and it always makes me think of eating it at her house with her and her husband and the Kooglers. The six of us then, laughing so hard and enjoying ourselves, and now we are the NINE of us (well almost, Amber is due with her first little one in March). It's a completely Texas meal. You eat it over a bowl of Fritos, that's pretty much what makes it Texan in my book.

Today I tried my hand at "grown up" applesauce, you know, with spices and sugar, instead of baby food applesauce. I had seen the recipe on this blog and kinda followed it but not really. I used brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, stuck a whole bunch of apples (peeled and cored and cut into quarters, chunks, depending on size of the apple) with some water into the crockpot and just left it on high until it was all tender (I think it about 4 hours). I mashed it all with a fork and put it in a container to freeze (I'm SERIOUSLY running out of freezer space).

The apples were left on our porch without a note earlier this week. A whole paper grocery sack full. They are beautiful apples.

But of course I had to eat what wouldn't fit in the container.



Randomness
Here are some pictures I've taken, that just make me think of things.

This picture reminds me that the time with the corn is fleeting. With harvest here, it won't be long before it is all gone.


I wonder what the view would be from inside that tower. I think I know the owners of that house, I wonder if they'd let me go up in the tower.


Grammy made a pit stop at Chipotle in Bloomington on her way here.... Adam and I both agreed, it was the best Chipotle we'd ever had.


I just liked this picture.