All by Ourselves

Lovely time that it was. The two of us skipped out of town this past weekend for a romantic time by ourselves. We had a taco, bought some boots, watched an AMAZING Sabres game, rented a room in a motel, ate a pricey, but simply marvelous breakfast, meandered through antique stores all the way home, bought four sets of old sheet music and some old glass doorknobs while we were at it and made it home in time for the four o'clock Bills game that we simply could not miss. It was great. I'll upload pictures tomorrow, maybe...

All in a Night's Work

Can you tell what I have been doing ALL evening? Now all I have left to do is put it all away! I know this photo makes it seem like a never do laundry, but in all actuality if you look at my latest post AND realize that Joshua had diarrhea all last week I think you'd understand. Good work me! (Pat myself on the back...) Now off to put it away and then I can crawl into bed. Yum.

PS. I like ice cream. A lot.

See, this is how my life goes as of late.

Sept. 16th- Daycare til 5:00
Sept. 17th- Restaurant stuff till 2ish and church at 7:00
Sept. 18th- Daycare til 5:00 and tot swim at 6:30
Sept. 19th- Clean house, play with Josh, drive to Child Care Council to have fingerprinting done, drive from there to church to try my best to sing harmony with the worship team, fail miserably and go home.
Sept. 20th- Go to local big garage sale day in small historic hamlet and then go see about wallpaper.
Sept. 21st- Church morning and evening
Sept. 22nd- Wallpaper ALL day long at Children's Pastor's house
Sept. 23rd- Daycare til 5:00
Sept. 24th- Restaurant stuff til 3ish, try to catch up at home.
Sept.25th- Daycare til 5:00, TOT SWIM CANCELED!!!
Sept. 26th- Finish wallpaper and go to worship team practice to do better singing harmony.
Sept. 27th- Spend time with my husband at a Sabres game in Buffalo.

And you wonder where I have been. Now I must go and see about tomorrow's Kindergarten lesson as I have been trying to teach good health habits to three Kindergartners at Daycare. I could really use some magazines with pictures of food that could be pasted onto our food pyramid.

Oh, and Josh has hair. It is great and grows more every day. And he wanders around the house like he is two. Walking here and there. I am still amazed.

Walk, Walk, Walk,

Sorry this isn't the best video in the world, but it's the best I could get today. Josh is so funny. I hope you can get the gist of how well he is doing now.

Time For This and Time For That

Time. It needs stretching. Nap time, bed time, time for this and time for that. If there was always plenty of time, I would never get anything done. Odd as that may sound, it is true. I only am motivated to do things when time is limited or quickly fleeting. For instance, on Saturday evening we were expecting dinner company. Friday was "filled" with grocery shopping and Saturday morning there was a Ladies Prayer Breakfast at church, which I felt that I should attend. That left me Saturday afternoon (and a total of five hours) to clean my house and make dinner. Since I hadn't been home ALL week, pretty much everything had to be cleaned. But because time was quickly running out, I was able to apply myself to the task and get it all done, including laundry, with the much needed help of nap time for a small boy. I felt so rewarded when it was finished. Like I had really accomplished something. It is silly, I guess, because it is not like I did some sort of extra or over-the-top deed. I did what should've been done earlier in the week, but had just been put off till last minute. A terrible habit it is to put things off. Perhaps that is why I always feel guilty writing on my blog... There is this persistent nagging in the back of my brain telling me all these things which I should be doing instead. One of which today happens to be making sauce form the tomatoes in my garden. I have never made sauce and am slightly intimidated by the thought of doing so, but if I put it off too long, I will regret not getting to it. And watching all those plump tomatoes rot will be a sad reminder of my shortcoming. Perhaps I will remove myself from my seat and get to that which has not yet been done.

But first, I will tell of lovely things which take place in the home of a child under the age of one. Joshua, my little 10 1/2 month old Joshua, is walking. He smiles so broadly when he does so, so proud of himself. His little steps. Tottering across the floor. Tipping onto his bum. So adorable. *smile* And his hair is finally growing! It can be "blown" in the wind and messed with our hands. Every other day I smooth it with the palms of my hands and smile to myself because I can tell it has grown some more. My bald baby will soon have a head full of hair. Josh said "kitty" the other day. He loves our kitty, Louis. He has also said "doggy", "ball" and "Daddy". And I'm pretty sure he said "yes" one day too. The four things Joshua loves the most in the world are his Daddy, kitties, doggies and his ball. I guess I must be on the list somewhere too, but I'm not entirely sure where I fit... *Sigh* I love being a Mom.

What We're Up To

My brother Jim left for home on Saturday. We had a blast while he was here. The week was filled with a baby dedication, a trip to the State Fair, a Labor Day picnic, an afternoon canoeing adventure, a family pizza "party" and a Friday night movie. Since Jim hadn't been home since Christmas, we packed in activities like sardines packed in a can. I'm not sure if we could've fit anything else in if we had tried. And to top off my list of things I did with Jim, I also started helping at a daycare run by a friend of mine and was there three days last week. This friend has been after me for a few years now to help her and I have put it off until now. Seeing as I now have Joshua to look after and am only working at the restaurant one day a week, I was able to concede to her wishes. Josh comes along with me and plays with the other children (sort of) and I am still able to make a little extra money to help with the bills. So far it has been enjoyable, though when there are three or more children crying at once (including my own) it can be a little taxing. I suppose it comes with the territory and I'll learn the ropes soon enough. But that is what I've been up to lately. Keeps me out of trouble, I guess. :)

Six More Random Facts About Me--Meme

I have been tagged by My Mom, Martha.
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. List 6 random facts about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged by commenting on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know the entry is posted on your blog.
~~~~~~~~~~
1.) I am so random, this list should be twice as long.
2.) I played soccer during my high school years with a home school group. We lost every game, but had a blast doing it.
3.) Once upon a time, I wanted to be a princess when I grew up.
4.) I like pickles but I love olives.
5.) I think I wiped noses a hundred times today. Literally. Almost.
6.) I would like to go to Cape Brenton.
7.) I "never" paint my toenails.
8.) My dishes often stack up for days at a time...
9.) I take the garbage to the road 95% of the time.
10.) He's still workin' on me, to make me what I ought to be.
11.) Some days, I'd like to pretend I was someone different and have a totally new wardrobe. I'm very selfish like that.
12.) I don't especially care for Lima beans.

I am not tagging anyone because I have no friends left to tag. *sniff*

A Swampy Day

Today was a day of sunshine and happiness...... I had taken the day off work to spend time with big brother Jim. (I intend to soak up every minute I can with him while he is in town.) At first we weren't quite sure what we were going to do with our time, but decided on canoeing up Irondequoit Creek. The creek empties itself into the Bay, but first goes through a bit of swampland. The canoe rental spot starts right near the swampland and you must canoe through that to get to the creek. So Jim and I and other brother Ben start off and head into the swamp. There are definitely clear areas that are good for boating and paths that go here and there. But none of us had ever been conoeing there before and we weren't sure which path to take. Needless to say, we took the wrong one. The waterway kept getting smaller and smaller and more condensed with cattails, but I was sure it would widen up "just around the next corner". And seeing as I was in the front, I encouraged the boys with sayings like, "Where's your sense of adventure?" and we pushed on. Well, eventually the path through the reeds was only a canoe's width across and came right up to an old log in it's path. Quite defeated, I said that I thought we should go back now. (duh) So we all turned in our seats and paddled back to where we found the real way to the creek. In the first two photos you can see how silly I was to think that maybe, just maybe, we were going the right way. That is the point at which we turned around. Notice how clear the water is behind me. Not.

Once we were out onto open water paddling our canoe was much more fun. We went a ways up the creek, though I'm not sure how far exactly. At one point we all got out of our boat because there was a sign for shallow water. But then this boat full of people went by a one guy asked us, "Where's your Pioneer spirit??" So, not to be outdone, we climbed back in and pressed on. Further and further we went. Ben, being in the middle of the canoe, paddled the hardest of all of us. Just ask him. He was amazingly strong, like any good Girl Scout would be... (I wrote that just for you Ben!) Anyways it was very fun and we did eventually go back. We even made it through the swamp the second time without getting lost. We got to see a couple heron, one turtle, a few ducks or more and some minnows. When it was all over, all three of us still had smiles on our faces, though we were very thirsty and our heads hurt from the sun glaring on the water. Next time, if we ever go again, I'll at least know which way to get through that swamp.

We Dedicate Him to Jesus

On Sunday, Adam and I had Joshua dedicated to the Lord. It's actually more like dedicating ourselves to raise him in the Lord. Pastor Ray prayed for Joshua and for us and it was sweet. We have a big responsibility ahead of us and sometimes it can be a daunting task. I am so glad that we can lean on Jesus to give us the wisdom we need as parents. My hope and prayer is that someday Joshua will give his heart to Jesus and want to serve Him as king of his life.