Signing Off

Well, folks, it's moving day. We're moving to the country with NO internet access. It may be awhile before I post or check my email again...

Naughty List

Santa has a Naughty List and so do I! These are the people who will NOT be receiving gifts from me this Christmas:

1. The woman driving the mini van who did NOT wave at me when I let her pull out in front of me by the Red Brick Inn
2. Clix (the daycare photographer) who will be sending me a replacement CD "as soon as possible"
3. NYSEG who won't turn on the electricity in our new home until Friday, December 11
4. The nasty Verizon representative who did not answer my questions about their Internet service
5. Direct TV whose "system was down" when I called
6. Vinny G. from Lowe's who showed me where the closet rods were, but did not remind me to buy something to hook the rods to the wall with

More coming soon...

Thanks.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has offered to help us move. If you haven't volunteered and are worried about missing out on all the fun, don't fret! There's still time, and there is always room for one more. See you Saturday!

5 Months

Okay, so Owen is actually 6.5 months old, but we FINALLY got his 5-month photos from Clix. I do NOT recommend them. First, it took six weeks to get the photos. Second, I didn't even get th pose that I ordered. I've been trying to call the company, but no one answers the phone. I can't even leave a message. So my way of fighting back is telling everyone...Don't give Clix your business.

Enough complaining about the photos, I guess. This video, although sideways, is awfully cute. It was shot today.

House Update

Master Bedroom Closet

Master Bedroom

Living Room

(one word or two?)


84 Lumber Delivering the Supplies



Fireplace in the Livingroom
(one word?)

Reading Room

Owen's Room

"Daddy! When is this house going to be finished?"

Master Bedroom

Yep, it's PURPLE! Love it!

They call me Mello Yellow

Owen plays hard while we work hard on the house! He likes to look in the mirror of his Baby Einstein saucer, play the music, make the duck quack, and chew on anything that will reach into his mouth.
This is the master bedroom. The insulation is almost finished, and the contractors come on Friday to put up the drywall.

This is where the BEST range in the WORLD will be going. Lowe's messed up the delivery. (It's a long, long story. The managers and people in appliances know me by name now.) Our delivery is now scheduled for Wednesday. See that pipe above the garbage can? See that BIG HOLE in the pipe above the garbage can? That sends the heat from the basement to the upstairs bathroom. Good thing my mother-in-law put a hole in the wall so this situation could be brought to our attention. If she hadn't, we'd be heating the wall and not the bathroom.

Here's Joel putting the second coat on the dining room. The green spot on the wall is where I tested the color for the living room - GUACAMOLE!

I don't know what Joel is pointing at, but isn't Owen just the cutest?!

Two Teeth!

Happy boy before church! Showing off his two bottom teeth!
Here's a close up of those pearly whites.

He just kept giggling and giggling. He loves his Mama.

This one reminds me of Boots from Shrek2. How can anyone say "no" to those big blue eyes?

"What are you lookin' at? Can't a guy get a little privacy around here?"

What's New?

Here's an update in a New York minute...

1. Owen has TWO teeth. Mom found the first one, so she's buying him a new pair of shoes. Apparently, that's how it works. The person to find a baby's first tooth buys the baby shoes. Weird, right?
2. Owen HATES peaches and bananas. I gave him peaches four nights in a row, and he just isn't in to them. I tried banana one night, and he kept spitting it out.
3. Owen is not a fan of Kraft Mac & Cheese. We tried that for the first time last night.
4. Owen's favorites are the greens...peas and green beans.
5. The O-Man can pretty much sit up by himself now...except on the changing table, of course.
6. I ordered a Maggie Moo diaper bag Thursday night. It should be here in about 6 weeks.
7. I went to a Tastefully Simple party and now I'm hooked!
8. I still have not written one thing in Owen's baby book. Shame, shame, shame...
9. I went to bed at 8:15 last night.
10. I spent about 7 hours painting the dining room today. It's still not done. Painting is hard work.
11. I entered a Biggest Loser contest at work and have lost 10 pounds in less than one month. I have 15 more to go...
12. Yesterday I wore my normal jeans for the first time since getting preggers last year. Hooray for climbing on and off the ladder. It's a great workout for the buns.
13. Joel has been shooting way too many geese. I'll eat goose nuggets, but I'm not really a fan.
14. Owen outgrew the infant car seat. Last weekend we put him in the big boy convertible car seat. It's such a pain. Our little 5 1/2 month old is wearing size 9 months. He ways a little over 19 pounds.
15. The BEST range in the WORLD will be delivered to our house on Monday. "Why is it the BEST range in the WORLD?" you ask. Well, that's because I bought it on CLEARANCE at Lowe's. It has two 6 in burners, one burner that can be 6 or 9 inches, one burner that can be 9 or 12 inches (YEAH!), and a warming zone. The oven is convection. For those of you who may not be aware, that means that Joel can bake three trays of cookies at the same time and have them all come out perfectly. It's beautiful. But until the kitchen is updated, the range will be living in the corner of the freshly painted dining room.
16. I just read an article that says a woman's hair and nails grow faster when she's happy. :)

Demo 2

More remodeling photos...

The play room...I think it's going to be a silvery purple color

Another shot of the play room

View of the master bedroom from the reading room

Upstairs bathroom

There's a bathtub under all that mess.
We're doing a neutral nautical theme...blues, white, and khaki

The ceiling of the reading room

Owen's little closet

Owen's BIG closet...We're making it the same size as the closet

in the master bedroom

Owen's room (and the reading room and part of the master bedroom)

I may be over ambitious, but I'd like his room to be tan with white, blue, and green stripes. Ever painted stripes before?

Guest bedroom...not much going on in here

It's going to be the same silvery purple color as the play room.

Orange kitchen
The walls will be "tea room yellow" and the trim will be "cowboy boot."

The countertop that we like is called "desert passage." Nice, huh?

Demo 1

Check these out...

Upstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Bathroom

Play Room



Owen's Room

Master Bedroom

After Church Photo Session

Ladies' Man

Owen got the proofs back from his school pictures. This one is probably my favorite. The gals at daycare said Owen was the best smiling baby in his class. How cute is he with that pumpkin!

I neglected to post Owen's new food of the week - green beans! And let me tell you, this kid is a green bean monster! Last night, every time I gave him a bite of rice cereal, he put his tongue in the way and screamed at me. When I gave him a bite of green beans, he was my BFF and opened his cute lil mouth nice and wide. Since he gobbled up all the green beans, he's going to have squash tonight.

So when I picked Owen up from daycare on Friday, of course he didn't have socks on. (If you've read my previous posts, you know that he's the weird sock sucker.) I asked his teacher if his socks were in his cubby and she told me that she had to take Owen's socks off because one of the little girls in his class was after them. Apparently, Aubrey (which was going to be O's name if he had been a girl) has a little crush on Owen and needed to find a way to get his attention. What better way than showing that she has just as weird a sock fetish as he does? She took his socks off and sucked on them. What goofy babies!

A Virtual Kiss

Welcome Home

We FINALLY closed on the house! Here's a view of the backyard and one pic of the front of the house. There are three apple trees behind the "garage," a creek, a few black walnut trees, and a GIANT oak tree. We also have a circle driveway, and the house has over 30 windows. My favorite room in the house is the enclosed sun porch on the second floor, which I have decided to make my "reading room." Joel thinks the sun porch is going to be his huntin' room, but he's wrong.

ma ma ma ma ma

Owen Rolls Over

He's the Weird Kid.

Look at the head control!

After Owen's teacher told me that he didn't have a bowel movement yet today and that I should expect a big one at home tonight (for Joel, of course), she told me that my kid is the weird one in his daycare class. Now, she didn't use those words, but I know what she was thinking. Owen is going to be the kid everyone whispers about behind is back, and I'm going to be the mom they stare at when I go to the grocery store. I mentioned Owen's sock fetish in my previous post. Well, it gets worse. Not only does he take his own socks off to suck on, he has started stealing other kids' socks so that he can put them in his mouth. Yep, that's my kid. He's a sock sucker. We're getting counseling for him immediately.