Pre-School Here We Come

I took Alexis to her pre-school registration tonight. Guess who we bumped in to? Her best friend Bentley. Some how they happen to be in the same class. Poor teacher! They had a great time visiting together and as of Monday they will see each other at Day Care during the week.

And for an update about my earlier post on Nolen. He did have and hour and a half nap today. Or should I say WE had a good nap. We'll see how tonight goes, I hope for more sleep, or at least longer periods before feedings. I'm thinking he is ready for steak and eggs, but with only two teeth, don't think that is a good idea. His stomach doesn't seem to be bothering him now. Pete is playing with him on the living room floor right now trying to wear him out.

Not a good night!

Here's a lovely photo of Nolen being fussy as usual. I put him in baby jail (his playpen) when he won't stay in the living room. Last night we fed him at 9:00. He was awake at 9:30 and I rocked him back to sleep. He then woke back up around 9:50. I rocked him back to sleep again. Somewhere around 1:00 this morning he awoke & I fed him a bottle and he went back to sleep. Then around 3:30 he was awake AGAIN and we gave him more milk and he went back to sleep. Then sometime after 4 he was awake AGAIN and we tried to rock him back to sleep but he seemed very uneasy and we thought he was trying to vomit, but he didn't. He slept off and on until 7 and I gave him a bottle around 7:20. At 8 he finally had a dirty diaper. I thought this could be the problem since he had no dirty diapers yesterday and he really hasn't been interested in baby food. He fell asleep around 9 this morning and slept 20 minutes. So now it is 10:35 and I fed him his cereal a while ago and just gave him a bottle. He drank some of it and is now screaming his head off and I'm about to pull my hair out. If more teeth are on their way, they had better hurry and get through before I explode. Alexis & Nolen start day care on Monday:)!!!!! I'm probably the only teacher who can't wait until school starts.

Mustache

Forget milk mustache, one made from chocolate pudding tastes so much better!

Parkersburg Chowder

We went to the Parkersburg Chowder today and had a lot of fun, despite the very hot weather.

Alexis & Nolen shared an ice cream cone, but mommy had to finish it fast because it was melting.

Alexis and her friends Taylor and Hudson try out the Air Evac Helicopter.

Nolen and Alexis enjoy the horses named Mini and Pearl.

Alexis thinks this truck is just the right size for her.

Last Paint Project Before I Go Back To Work

I have been working on the area right inside our back door off of the living room. This is where we keep our computer. I have the wall paper removed and walls sanded. I'm ready to put on the primer and then color. As you can see my computer is covered up, so I'm not on it as much. My plan is to get it painted and finished this weekend. Yes I know school is getting ready to start and I have to start thinking about that soon. I just want to enjoy the time I have before the new school year.

7 Months Old

Nolen turned 7 months old last weekend. He is really on the move now. He's an expert crawler and loves to pull up on things to stand. His forehead is usually red by the end of the day because he bumps it on everything. I have to watch out for his two front bottom teeth, he bit me on the shoulder last week.

It's Too Hot......... Lets Have A Party!

The Lathrop's and Schneider's came to visit for an evening of fun.

The swing set is always a big hit with the kids.

Jodi hands out water balloons.

They decided to gang up on Doug. He looked like an easy target.

The men playing a game of "Pig".

Nice tans guys!

Pete giving the kids a ride. Brayden thought it was a little too bumpy.


Hudson cools down with a nice cold popsicle.

Sand, sand, everywhere! I think the turtle sand box met it's limit. Only one way to get the sand out of all those places.......

jump into the pool!

Fun Friday!

After cleaning out my closet and finding extra plates, cups, and napkins from every birthday party Alexis has ever had, I figured out what to do with them. When a friend visits, get them out and have a party. Haley came to visit us today and we had a Care Bear party. We had Care Bears for Alexis' first birthday. The day seemed to go by a lot faster for me. Nolen seemed to be amused by two girls running around the house.

Time for pizza and ice cream!

Fun in the pool!

Now they are pretending to be ballerina's, but I think Alexis is doing something like an Egyptian move.

Swimming Fun

Nolen tried out the pool for the first time today. Since he likes the tub so much, I knew he would also love the pool. He got hungry, so it was a short swim.

Wednesday's Events

I cooked lunch for my friend Shelley and her family. We had a wonderful time catching up on everything and everybody.

Shelley playing with Nolen and Alexis.

Alexis sharing her play dough with Travis and Amanda.

Alexis thought she'd try on daddy's ball uniform before the game.

I think these three try to see who can get the dirtiest. They sure do have lots of fun at the games.

Photos requested by my other half

Pete wanted to know where all the hunting, fishing, and 4-wheeler pictures where. So in honor of my husband, here are a few.

HUNTING

FISHING

4 WHEELER

Pete was secretly snapping photos of me and Alexis washing my car. When I found out what he was up to, we gave him a pose of our best side. By the way, thank you semi driver for honking at me! Just made my day since no one hardly ever honks at me when I'm outside. Can you believe I just had a baby 7 months ago? You should see the photo of me in this same bikini at 9 months pregnant. Then again, no you shouldn't, it's hidden.

Here is your Science lesson for the day!

Thank you to Google.com! I found my unknown insect. This is what I found out.

Female wasp "listening" for larvae upon which to lay eggs

Giant ichneumon wasps of both sexes will wander over the surface of logs or tree trunks, tapping with their antennae. Each sex does so for a different reason; females are 'listening' for wood boring larvae of the horntail wasps (hymenopteran family Siricidae) upon which to lay eggs, males are listening for newly emerging females with which to mate. The female wasp pictured above spent upwards of 10 minutes feeling around before beginning to drill her ovipositor into the wood. I estimate this insect at 100 - 110mm long, more than half consisting of ovipositor. The ovipositor itself consists of a hollow central tube through which the eggs are passed, and two slender 'guides' which separate from the tube and form two expanding loops on either side of the abdomen as drilling progresses. You can see these loops in the above series of images.

Ok so it wasn't a stinger, or could it be? The article also added this:

Ovipositors evolved into stingers in some bees and wasps.

(Info. provided by Stephen J. Gould)

Time to clean out a closet.

I decided it was time to tackle the large storage closet located in my garage. When we moved in a couple of years ago, we just seemed to pitch things in there. I pulled everything out into the garage and started going through things. Alexis loved playing with some of her old toys that I had stored away.

Does anyone know what kind of insect this is? Or should I say was, I killed it before it killed me. That looked like a very long stinger off the back to me. I'd say it was about 6 inches long. I have never seen anything like this before. It was crawling on our driveway today.

Birdies & Little Archer

This was the last photo taken of our little birds. They made it one week and we enjoyed them so much. Mr. Snake found them Saturday night and had a little snack. One bird survived the snake attack, but momma bird was too scared to stick around. Bye, Bye birdies!

Pete instructs Alexis on how to shoot an arrow with her bow. She did hit the target a few times. Does she know that her hunting season is a few YEARS away?

Today's events

Nolen is just 9 days from being 7 months old and he is already climbing on everything. Here he is trying to make it up the steps in the living room. I give him a few more days and he will be in the kitchen.

As we went for a walk this evening. Alexis said "Look mom a wrench". The show "Handy Manny" has taught her the name of tools. I thought I'd move it off the road, forget that. The asphalt road has been so hot that it is soft and too many vehicles have ran over it and permanently implanted it into the road. Guess I'll leave it there for the next walker to look at.

Short, but enjoyable vacation

I spent Monday through Wednesday in Indiana, just a few minutes from downtown Indy. I had a wonderful time visiting with my cousin Heidi & her family. Was able to do some shopping and get caught up on some sleep.

Here I am standing in front of the State House. We don't have tall buildings like this in my town.

Civil War Memorial in the background. I really wanted to jump into the water fountain because it was a hot day!

Born on the 4th of July

We have a baby! Baby bird that is. One of the eggs hatched yesterday. Just hope mama bird can keep the babies away from all the varmints that run around here. Oh ya, and the 4 year old that likes to look in the nest all the time.

Which is Which?

Can you tell which is Alexis and which is Nolen? Both photos were taken when the kids were 6 months old. I had fun recreating this photo.

My Birthday Present

My birthday present arrived and I'm pleased to announce that our living room remolding project is FINALLY complete! I had new carpet installed yesterday and I'm so happy to get rid of the old. To bring you all up to date, here is a list of what we did. Now remember we have been working on this project for a long time. Trying to get this house out of the 80's a little at a time.

• tore off old ugly wallpaper, the light switch covers were even wallpapered- weird


• gave the ceiling a nice new coat of white paint- just love the purple ceiling paint that turns white when it dries- wonderful invention


• installed a ceiling fan with light last year - this room had no lights in it except for an outdated single ugly looking light fixture right inside the front door - ya we replaced it too


• painted the walls a nice shade of green - it's called Berlin - strange name for a color


• bought a credenza that matches our coffee table and end tables - fancy name for TV stand - hey that's what they call it


• replaced big & heavy TV with a nice lovely 42 inch flat screen - Pete's must have in the room


• purchased 4 throw pillows from Kohl's that just happen to be in the exact color of our walls


• replaced the green window valance with an off white one


• bought a third lamp to match the other two - the red lamp just didn't match anymore
• replaced carpet that shows all stains and dirt with new pretty carpet that looks 100% better - previous owners had a fluffy dog they kept inside, so who knows what else was on that old carpet even though I shampooed it twice when we moved in

Final price of it all - ????? I'm not adding it up, it just might scare me. One thing I do know, the stimulus check is gone, plus more. I was thinking since the government wanted the money to go back into the economy, they can send me another check and I'll gladly go back to the stores again! Next project will be the area right inside the back door where we now take off our shoes before we enter the living room. I already have the wallpaper off the walls and will soon sand and prime the walls for the color. I was thinking a light gray color. Carpet will probably be replaced with peel and stick tiles. This should be a quick and easy because the room is small. But as soon as I think something will be easy, it won't be. I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

Things That I Will Always Remember From My Childhood.

In honor of my birthday tomorrow, I'd like to make a list of things I will never forget.

1. Atari - 1 button and 1 joystick = so simple
2. Having a canopy bed with almost everything pink in my room
3. Playing with Strawberry Shortcake - mom still has all my dolls and play sets because she keeps everything
4. Being put on a waiting list at Wal-Mart in order to get a Cabbage Patch Doll
5. Cheerleading
6. Not making the cheer team one year, but who cares because the uniforms fell apart that year because they had someone local make them
7. Receiving a half dollar from my bus driver. He always passed them out to the kids, but I don't remember if it was for Christmas or the last day of school.
8. No Internet
9. No friends calling me on the phone because I lived way out in the country and had a long distance phone number, no cells phones
10. Student teaching & having a student named "Precious". Also, having one of my students die in a car wreck during lunch break.
11. Being a Fair Queen Contestant
12. Helping my Grandma put on her jewelry on the way to church because her hands just didn't work the way they used to
13. Getting lost in all the wrapping paper during Christmas time at my other Grandma's house
14. Attending both my Grandma's funerals
15. Something about a sign post and a barking dog, just ask Kathy because I'm not going into detail on this one
16. Getting my drivers license and getting a 1982 AMC Concord to drive
17. Wrecking my Pontiac Grand Am at college
18. Graduating from a local junior college and a university
19. Working at the local store
20. Out houses at church because we didn't have indoor plumbing
21. Roller skating every weekend
22. Getting stuck in a ditch full of snow, on the way to skating. Hey Randy the road was covered in ice, what were you thinking?
23. Losing my voice on my Senior trip and the people at Mc Donald's thought I was deaf because I had my friend order my food as I whispered to her.
24. Getting prank phone calls in high school and then finding out who the caller was. He actually told me who he was when I asked- Stupid!
25. Being the total opposite of my best friend in high school
26. Meeting the guy I would marry!