Hello Ladies!

All is well in our household. Baby is sleeping & J bean is washing the car with daddy. Hum, what to say??? Many times I think of what I will share with you but when I have the time my mind goes blank.

So I will simply start on saying Congrats to Jamie!!!! You get a girl!!!!! I'm so excited for you! And I'm of course anticipating finding out what Staci will have- meany...you make us wait. And Melanie, I hope she shares too! Babies, babies....spring is here!


As for life in NC, it's been pretty busy. Last week was spring break for our students so there was an event planned for every day. Woo hoo! We also prepared the Wednesday night meal at church as a fundraiser for the students. And the youth league rapped up their season of basketball. The mens league is STILL going on and I just found out that they will be having a tournament as well. OH yeah- Sam loves it!

The weather here ( and everywhere else it seems) has been SUPER crazy! The winds were out of control and blew so bad that it bent the frame on the boys swings...so now we're looking for a new frame. It also moved the trampoline 5ft or so across the yard. The rain we got was very much needed! It hasn't really been the April showers kind of season. We really need more rain!

I'm about ready to put up our little pool. Zeke loves the water so I hope he will enjoy the pool too. Justus was a water baby too and would play until the water was freezing if I let him. We're going strawberry picking in a few weeks and that should be fun. I really love this time of year....there is a newness about it, like you could start fresh. In fact, I prefer to do my 'new years resolution' around this time for that very reason. It's silly I know but it works for me.

Gotta run, talk with you soon.

Caught in the act

If Zeke gets quiet you can probably find him by the wood pile. I have to pull him away several times a day. For some reason he thinks it's a great chew toy...GROSS!!!!!!!!!

I must have scared him---he looks terrified.


Mommy means business I better get out of here! Ummm, this is tasty.


OK, ok I'm really leaving this time.

Well, it's day seven & the ICK is still around..the fever has FINALLY left but the cough is still full blast along with a snot nose. Zeke officially HATES to lay on his back. That is because he now knows that one of two things is coming. Nasty meds or the dreaded snot sucker. Poor baby! I'm thinking that since it's lingering so long that it may be a virus that's been going around in conjunction with allergies.

Justus woke up froggy this morning and his been sneezing & had itchy eyes. Jamie I understand your woes! There have been several times I thought the boys might spew because of the drainage. And several times I thought it might actually be helpful since Zeke can't blow his nose. Truthfully I wish it would just all go away but I'm not expecting that to happen any time soon.

ICKY

Well we had an icky night. Zeke has oink eye...oops-pink eye LOL. And he was very wiggly last night & couldn't get comfortable. Then his nose got stuffy so he was breathing loud. Eventually he woke up & I tried to feed him a bottle which usually he takes and then goes directly back to sleep. Of course that is not what happened. The drainage must have tickled his throat because next thing I know milk was coming back up. ICKY!!!!

This lead to Justus & Sam waking up. So our 'wee' hours of the morning were spent trying to get everyone back to sleep. A very frustrating process. This is when I wish the boys had a room of their own & weren't in the same space with us. Most of the time I love having them so close.....last night was NOT one of those times.

This week is our consignment sale for our children's ministry. We do one in the spring & one in the fall. I always have a blast helping organize & weed out the junk that some people try to sell. It's really quite funny when someone wants $5 for a stained dress. Get control of yourselves people! The ladies that are in charge of this are so much fun to be around. And Sam gets to ENJOY the boys for a couple of hours.

This couldn't have come at a better time for me. The youth are going to Aquire the Fire this weekend so I will get a bit of a break from the house while I help out at the church. Throw in the good company & a little shopping for my boys and I'm there!

Hopefully whatever is bothering baby oink eye will pass quickly; I'm not really up for caring for a sickie all by myself.

Surprise, surprise...nothing spectacular going on here. But I must say that I saw the most beautiful sunset this weekend and in my favorite color--PURPLE!!!!!!! That triggered a spontaneous moment of reflection & a quick prayer thanking God for being in the little things and loving me so much. I wish I could have gotten to the camera but it wasn't with me at the time.


Sam put in his two week notice on his second job! Hopefully most of his evenings will be spent at home & now we will be able to eat supper together-I'm so excited!!!! It's been a long time coming and I'm extremely thankful for this change!!!

Tonight a friend is bringing two of her children over to play while she & her husband go eat dinner. Baby boy (three weeks old) will be joining his parents...RATS! I wish she'd leave him here but I don't blame her!

Well that's all folks. Zeke is sqiggling & squealing in the other room.

Life in fast forward.....

Zeke has hit a growing streak! He's wearing some 12month stuff. This week he started waving bye-bye. He's said 'daddy' once & BEST of all he said 'Momma' today!!!!! As for Justus- well he keeps me laughing out loud! On Friday he pooped in the urinal at church!!!! So funny! He had asked Sam for help but apparently Sam didn't get there in enough time for the proper direction. Needless to say I stay busy simply keeping up with these two.

As for me- I'd like to lose some weight but I have NO will power so it seems a distant dream! I have been trying to make healthier choices & I feel better mentally if not physically. It's nice to do something for myself. And rewarding to make good choices. This will probably be short lived...we'll see.


The boys hanging out:

A few pictures.....

Behind the boys is where our woodpile went to keep the house warm during winter. We had a wood crate to hold the wood. Since then we've replaced it with a new wood holder.


A shot of the walls and floors before:


One of the worst spots. Although you can't even tell this floor had been cleaned & bleached even. I'm sure you can see my reasons for NEEDING new flooring. The paint on the floor was also peeling in places.


Laying the tile


All tiles down!


Grouting....MESSY!


Step one of painting: sealer. This keeps the mold out!


Step two---PAINT! No more ugly blue.


All in all I am VERY happy with the results. The paint in the room is lighter than I wanted it. I actually prefered the color of the wet paint. However- this is a look I can live with!!!! Thank God for tax returns!

We're still moving things around a bit but once the furniture is settled I'll show a picture of the final results!

Home Improvements

Last week we started working on our house. The first half of the week was taken up by gathering supplies & rearranging our house. We had to move a portion of our stuff out of the room so that nothing was on the floor. So now on third of our basement apartment is tiled & it looks fantastic or as Justus says "Bantastic".

For those of you who don't know we basically live in a concrete rectangle aka an unfinished basement. The rectangle is divided into three sections. Anyways the part that you walk directly into now has a fresh coat of paint & a nice tile floor. And I am SO excited!!!!! It's always nice to have a feeling of accomplishment.

We have changed things around a bit & now I want to paint the bedroom. Eventually the entire basement will be finished. Complete with a bathroom & real walls and all that normal stuff. Hopefully we'll be in our own place by then but for now I am happy with our improvements!

Last week we also had my grandmothers 70th birthday party and our youth had their second basketball game. I took the boys for the first time-----disaster!!!! Sam was coaching so he couldn't help at all. Thankfully some church members were there & my brother Josh as well so I wasn't completly out of sorts. I won't be taking the boys again!

Well reading over this my week doesn't sound very full but believe me I stayed busy! Oh yeah, we made time to go see a movie. We went to see 300. It was a decent movie. But not one I would see with our youth for sure! It's rated R for some sexuality & nudity and of course battle scenes. We almost took my 15 year old brother Jacob.....he would have missed several 15 minute scenes! I'm glad he ended up doing something else!

I also have to say that I have the BEST three year old in the world!!!!!!! He's just awesome!!!!

As soon as I find our computer cords I'll post some pics of our changes!

Why try???

I just finished fixing supper. Justus is asleep. Sam's at work. Zeke is fussing & I"m not hungry.

It's been almost a week-

Did you miss me??? Well I missed you all but haven't had much time to really think about it until now. We've been busy & I'd love to tell you all about it but Zeke is up. I'll update on last week soon. I promise. I know you're all just drooling to know about my boring life!

Check this out!

This was hard...

I was familiar with most of these words but got confused on the actual meaning. I need a new dictionary! And thesaurus.

Your Vocabulary Score: B-

You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!

How's Your Vocabulary?

Sam's brother at Graduation

My baby

Zeke is crawling!!!!! Not at super speed yet but he can do it. He gets pretty loud when I walk out of the room but he hasn't figured out that he can come after me yet. The little stinker weighs almost twenty pounds now so it's good he is becoming mobile a little at a time.

His top two teeth are coming in pretty good and soon you will be able to see it pictures. Right now it's hard to catch him sitting still & smiling at the same time. He reminds me of my nephew when he was a baby. So cute!

Last weekend we drove to Virginia to watch a military graduation. Sam's brother is in National Guard, we took the boys so that made it interesting. It was only a four hour drive to it wasn't complete torture. Then we turned around the next day and came back. Caleb came with us and we had Justus' birthday party. He wanted a ball theme so that was pretty easy. The kids jumped on the trampoline for a while and got out a little energy. But as soon as cake was served they all got a second wind.

Those pain neighbors have been on the trampoline again at some point in time. There was red mud on the padding. We don't have red mud in our yard. My brother said he is going to set up the video camera any time that we're all gone at the same time. I doubt it will do any good.

FYI: Something interesting

Watch this: Shift Happens

THE NERVE!!!!!!!!

We bought a trampoline for Justus (and me too I've wanted one for a while) to jump on and get out a little bit of energy. We put up the bottom part of it on Monday before Sam had to go to work. Then yesterday we put up the enclosure. Justus LOVED it & we jumped until the Z woke up from his nap.

About an hour later Chile(dog) was barking her head off upstairs. My mom was yelling at her to be quiet when she happened to look outside and see two of our teenage neighbors zipping the enclosure & high tailing it out of our yard. I cannot tell you how mad that made me!

They thought that no one was home and they could just waltz on over & use my baby's toy for their own. I sure am glad that I wasn't the one who caught them; I doubt I'd had been very Christian about it!!!! We just bought it two days ago!!!!!! They didn't even ask!!!

We found out last night that they've already been arrested for trespassing before. WOW--- I feel great that they live just next door! Well now I'd really like to put up a privacy fence but if they really want to get in they will. And I'm sure that when they think no one is at home they'll try their escapades again.

Sam made a sign saying that we will call the police if they try it again...that made me laugh! But if I'm here alone and they try and I see them I will call. It is so rude, inconsiderate & just plain wrong!

Oh yeah- the neighbors on the other side of them have already put up a fence!

Excuse me while I shop...tax returns are here!!!

Tons of Pics

Here are lots of pictures in celebration of Justus who turn three this week. Happy Birthday J! Sorry, I DID limit the pics & tried to do them in order but failed.