Christmastime is Here!!

It is that time of year when I refuse to listen to anything BUT Christmas music =-) I tend to drive people a little crazy! I can't help it. I'm the type of person who could listen to Christmas music in July...wait, I have! Thank goodness for cd's! (Or for those of you who are more technology savvy, itunes or Pandora. Which by the way, I have used Pandora before for Christmas music.)

I think I want to start a petition to keep the "Winter-y" songs on the radio. For example, Frosty the Snowman is more likely to make an appearance here in February than somewhere November 1 and Christmas Day. I'm pretty sure I sing Let it Snow EVERY time it snows. I just don't think that songs that fall in this category should be banned from the airwaves when the holidays are over. It makes me sad =-(

Anyway, I have finally gotten into the Christmas spirit! I was kind of dreading it with Kylar's birthday being on Christmas Eve. Up until a few days ago, I was so upset about my baby turning one. I think it was the shock of a bunch of milestones very close together: First Thanksgiving, First Birthday, and First Christmas (yes, technically it's his second, but there wasn't really a Christmas feeling after baby =-)). Now I can't wait to see him open everything and smash his face in a cake! I think he'll probably have more fun playing with the paper, but it'll be fun either way.

I am also really excited to see my mother in law's face when she opens her gift (if I can get it done in time). I'm not posting it yet, but it's a good one ;-)

I hope you all have a wonderful, joyous, and safe Christmas!

things on my mind

So I don't forget:

Kylar

Blake

Work

Ok...

Kylar

So my husband and I have decided that Kylar is on a mission to destroy our house. I'm one of those "why pick it up when he's just gonna get it right back out" kind of people, so I refuse to pick up after him until he has gone to sleep. If it's really disastrous I'll tidy up a bit, but until then, our house is a toddler warpath. I haven't posted a blog in ages...did I mention that he's walking?! He took his first steps before he was 9 months old, and it became his preferred modality shortly after. Our house hasn't seen peace since ;-)

I used to leave a small selection of toys in each room...but as I'm sure most of you with children know that in a toddler's mind, what good is a toy when there are REAL things to play with?!!!!!! We decided to not babyproof the house (other than the outlets). Our thinking is how will they learn their limits if everything is pushed out of their way. That worked all of about 2 minutes once the walking started. We soon got cabinet locks. Blake did, however, leave the tupperware cabinet as a free-for-all. It didn't take Kylar long to figure out which one in which he had access. I usually re-wash all of that cabinet's contents every few days because those items are usually covered in slobber or snot...or both.

Now I just supervise whatever he's playing with when we're in my room/bathroom or the laundry room (Kylar thinks hangers are pretty great, too!). Basically, at the end of the day, the only word that comes to mind is EXHAUSTED!!

Blake

I love it when my hubby teaches me something new! Of course I had to be a little skeptical at first (Please keep in mind that I'm always right, lol!) but the wonderful world of the internet confirmed this enlightening news. Milk makes congestion worse. We're all running rampant with a cold/ear/sinus yuck. Blake asked me to make him a big glass of chocolate milk. I obliged. He made some comment about milk being bad for you when you have a cold/ear/sinus yuck. Bewilderment ensued. After telling him that I was pretty sure that said cold/ear/sinus yuck was driving him bonkers, I checked it out. Pretty much everything I saw confirmed his theory. I think it may be one of those unconfirmed deals that varies from person to person, but at least I learned something new!

Work

I was going to rant about work. But I'm not. I will say this: During this terrible economic situation we're in, I'm so thankful to God for having a job. I'm so thankful for a job that allows me to stay at home with my boy. I'm so thankful that my husband has a great job that provides us with a house, food, insurance, and an occasional treat!! I'm so thankful for these things...even if I can't wear anything to make me feel pretty ;)

renaissance festival

My brother and I took our kids to the renaissance festival today. We had so much fun! As always, it was an adventure getting out the door (I still haven't figured how to do this in a timely manner with a baby!), but we did get there!

Sky wanted to ride and do everything, and of course, none of it was free. Except the petting zoo. I took advantage of the free-ness of the petting zoo. If you wanted to feed the animals, you paid $1 and got a cake cone filled with food. That was cheap, and I'm a sucker for cheap (at least with my money anyway ;-) haha mom, Luv you!) Anyway, I gave Sky his cone and the goats attacked him! Ok...they didn't attack him but one of them basically took the cone from his hand. Dollar spent in about 5 seconds. Since I'm a super-fantastic aunt, I rationed mine to him. And then bought another round. My free trip to the petting zoo turned into a $4 trip. At least it was for the both of us, right?

We watched jousting. Jody dunked the wench. Sky and I rode a swing thingy. Kylar napped. We got to tour a torture museum. Let me tell you this...I know what I'm gonna do when Kylar lies to me when he's a teenager. I'm going to sew a rope to his tongue and hang a bowling ball size rock from it. Circa 1400 a.d. I wonder how many liars this country would have if that was the current punishment for purjury? Or if he refuses to tell me something, I'll strap him to a water wheel that spins over hot coals and flames until he tells me. Yeah. Right.

Anyway....we ended our day by going to Longhorn to visit Blake. Sky was tired and being ornery, and Kylar was screaming unless we were shoving food into his mouth =-)

Our next adventure is World's of Fun. On Monday. Yes, we are brave!!

4 words

I hate my allergies!!

I'm filling ya in!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...we just got internet in our house this week (finally!) and I have started a new job and was training all day all week.

Since I haven't written in basically forever, I thought I'd give you a post and fill you in on what is happening here since my last post.

My in-laws came up to Indiana, helped us finish packing (btw...I always forget about the odds and ends stuff to pack that I could have taken down waaaaay before they came, like curtains, etc), and loaded up the moving truck. The moving truck was too small-of course I panicked-so my friend Alyss came with her truck so we could store stuff in her garage for us to pick up later. Thank God for having great friends!

We drove to Missouri on July 3rd and the complicated ordeal continued. The owners of the house wouldn't let us in the house but they DID let us move our things into the garage (I don't remember if I posted this before but the closing date was up in the air still. Our realtor had to stress how we had no place to put our stuff...and the house was empty).

We were able to close July 9. In the meantime, we stayed with my amazing brother. Blake started work...about an hour drive away. We are so very thankful that he is there though. There was a great possibility that he would have had to stay in Indiana until a position opened up here. We'll take the hour drive =-)

Once we were able to get into the house the cleaning began. The people who lived here before us (they were tryig to rent-to-own) were SLOBS!!! I grew up in a messy house, but I never saw anything like this. When we first saw the house they were still moving their stuff out. They had a mattress, tvs and bathroom stuff left over. AND JUNK. There were so many plates with half eaten food. You couldn't see the counters in the master bath or kitchen. It was so gross. Anyway, all of that was gone. But is smelled like there were 17 cats still living there. Oh...and they didn't clean up the cat poop in the basement. Or fix the things they were supposed to by contract. Grrrr... We painted and scrubbed and scrubbed some more.

About a week later we were able to get our stuff moved in from the garage. Water leaked in from a heavy rainfall and molded our mattress. It wasn't too bad so we were able to get it clean (again, thank God!!). We were finally able to begin staying at our home!

Through all of this Kylar began crawling. July 2nd. I got the second "official" crawl on video. It was about the most precious thing I have ever seen! A friend stopped by when we were packing to say bye and I was showing her how he tries to crawl. So I put him on the other side of the room and he crawled to us!! I ran and got the video camera and he did it again! I LOVED IT!!!!

He also started waving the day that we started cleaning the house (July 10). He only does it occasionally, but he can do it!

Kylar had only been crawling for about a week and a half before he decided that he would rather walk instead. He started pulling himself up on everything and putting his legs down so he could walk instead of sit when we would put him down. He is now standing without holding on to anything. He wants to take a step so bad too! You can see it in his face that he wants to but knows that he's gonna fall if he does. I just love him so much!

I started training for Red Lobster. We actually open today!! I knew I was going to have to get a job once we moved back home. I REALLY did not want to work in the restaurant business again but the only times I could work were the best hours to work in a restaurant. So I chalked it up and applied. I'm also starting to sell Lia Sophia jewelry. It is very weird going from being at home all day most days to barely being home. I am so exhausted all the time! I know I'll get used to it but it is such an adjustment =-)

Hopefully I won't be gone so long this time!

So much to do...so little time to do it

Our little family is moving soon. And by soon I mean in just 2 weeks!! The only thing I have packed are our dvd's. I have a feeling that it shouldn't be "dvd's" because it's not posessive, but it doesn't look right being "dvds". I'm keeping it =-)

Kylar has been going through a phase where he does NOT want me out of his sight. It has really made me come between two very difficult, life-altering decisions: pack or play with my baby.

Obviously I chose the latter evidenced by my only having my "dvd's" packed. That's why my wonderful in-laws are coming to help. I am really looking forward to their visit. They have been such a HUGE help to us lately.

I have also been able to enlist some girls from my kinship group at church to play with the baby so I can get stuff done. They are such a blessing to me! It is so nice to have that kind of closeness when family is so far away.

We're still waiting to find out when the closing date will be on our house here (and, consequently, back in MO as well). Blake and I have been praying for God to relieve our anxiety about this. There is a not-so-great scenario that would put us in a financial bind (mortgage here, rent there at roughly $300/wk). We have been told since the beginning of this ordeal that they would probably close sooner than what the date on the contract says. And, Blake's job got an opening for him sooner than anticipated, so it's all up in the air =-/ I'm not sure if this made any sense so just trust me-it's a looooong story!

Thank you for your prayers, it means so much to us!

Since I started writing this a few days ago, and you know how life gets in the way, Kylar has since started crawling! He only gets 2 steps before he face plants but he has figured out the mechanics of how to do it now. I don' t know if I'm excited or terrified =-)

Kylar has also learned about the pool. I'll post pics of that as soon as I can. He absolutely LOVES the water! He went in a little baby pool the other day and a big pool with a floaty thing yesterday. He wasn't so fond of the floaty thing, but when you held him in the water, he splashed, and splashed, and splashed! It has even changed his bath time! The kid loves bath anyway, but since discovering how much he can splash in a pool, he now does the same in the bath. I've never laughed so much!

I'm going to end this post by saying "Happy Father's Day" to everyone! Poor Blake has to work as it's one of the busiest days of the year =-/. Our church showed a video for the dads, and I got teared up because I wanted Blake to see it so badly...he was at work still =-( (I usually go to church on Saturday nights if you're wondering!)

Take care and have a Blessed day!

Mindi

What I've been up to

So...we bought a house! We weren't planning on buying right away, but God put this one in our hands.

Literally.

I couldn't draw you a better version of my dream house. Of course there are some cosmetic details that I want to change, but the bones of the house are pretty much everything I ever dreamed of!

While I was at home visiting I: watched my dear friend Alissa get married, helped host a surprise party for my momma's big 6-0, went to a "Just Dance" party,and had the best time-EVER (you really should try it...you get a great cardio workout while making a fool of yourself to some pretty ridiculous songs), and of course, went house hunting.



Oh yeah, we played cheerleader, too =-)



Don't be jealous ;-)