Happy Halloween!

Despite illness the boys managed to rally, be happy, and go trick or treating!!

Halloween continued...

Fall Fun!

Halloween pictures coming shortly...

Playing in the leaves

School trip to Coppal House Farm...he did pat the lamb.

More Pumpkins

Pumpkin Fun

Yum, eating the pumpkin carvings...
Playing in the goop.

Scooping out the goop.

First cut

Trampoline

There it is, I knew I had one! He's mad here.

I love this thing merely for the fact that it is SO funny to watch them bounce before they can walk. Seth is obsessed with the trampoline and HAS to have the music on. In fact I've seen him arch his back and yell in protest when he accidentally shuts it off.

Faith Restored

Planet project - finished!!!

Oops I don't know how to erase a picture after I put it in here.

So awhile back I posted about how much there was "to-do" and how it never gets done. Well, I'm happy to say that after a few bumps in the road I'm well on my way to happily crossing things off that list! Here's my story:

After giving up on finding the Shrinky Dink paper I went out and bought some more. Silly me, I bought the UNfrosted kind and therefore it was no good. I was determined to finish this damn project though...so next time I'm at Michael's I find some of the right kind and bring it home. We trace, color, punch holes, cut, and shrink those damn things to a third of their size! Cal was excited. I was excited....almost home free! Well, I string up the planets on the already finished black board with glow-in-the-dark stickers, get a hook and screw it into his ceiling, put it up and wait for darkness....wouldn't you know the stupid thing didn't even GLOW?! Errr...I'm hoping it's due to a lack of light on the stickers and have them basking in some warm glow now. We'll see.

Also on my list was that gargantuan pile of paper to shred...you know, to protect against identity theft...well, let me give you a little aside if I might...concerning things being stolen...we've had a bout of bad, VERY BAD, what shall I call them? People for hire? I don't know...it doesn't matter who they are or what they do but lately SERVICE JUST SUCKS around here. Again, if it's such a bad ecomony then why do I get such horrible service???? When I call you...call me back! Not 10 DAYS later...how about the same day?! If you come to my home and install something, or fix something, or clean something, be FRIENDLY, CAREFUL, and KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!!!!! I can't tell you how many idiots we've had around here lately. Anyway to get back to the subject at hand, our last cleaning crew stole the ipod from the playroom. I called and told them and was assured I'd get my money back. To make a long story short, they were actually going to show up at my house on the next scheduled day to clean!! I got a message that they were running late and thought WHOA?! They're coming here?! I had just gotten out of the shower so I ran to my phone and dialed back dripping wet to say, ummm...I don't think so. You haven't paid me for something you've stolen and how do I know you didn't steal a piece of information that will then lead to credit card charges or something like that?! The shocking part is that she then proceeded to BEG me to let them come and clean the house. She told me she really needed the business...hmmm, she might have wanted to think about that before she hired the girl that stole! She also told me that the last girl I had clean (who admittedly I did like) was a drug addict (NOT a shocker) and was stealing pills from clients. Actually, when I checked my medicine cabinet I did find bottles missing and an empty one left behind so yup, pills stolen too. I've yet to see the "check in the mail" which she promised me since I did pay for that one and only cleaning when they stole the ipod! I'm toying with the idea of a letter to the BBB or the threat of a police report...and in the meantime watching my credits cards and bank account carefully...

So back to the shredding...I was in shredding bliss...it was euphoria to finally see that pile of paper be made into scraps when suddenly my phones rings. I can't find the dumb thing so the machine gets it and it's my hair salon calling to tell me that my stylist Allie no longer works for them. Pop! goes my perfectly good mood. Allie is THE BEST hairdresser I've ever had. Never before have I had my hair cut every 6 weeks, I ONLY do now because I like Allie so much. If I don't feel like talking, she doesn't talk...she's an artist, a guitarist/pianist, AND a damn good hairdresser so I'm terribly distraught. You know how I was just ranting about bad service, well when I find those few diamonds in the rough, I like to hold onto them FOREVER. I don't even have the heart to call back the salon and find out what happened to her because I know if she went somewhere else that they aren't going to tell me. I want to kick myself because at our last appointment she told me her last name, the name of her band, and probably a dozen other things I could have used to identify her, look her up on Facebook, SOMETHING but I can't remember anything. I think this is some kind of cosmic joke - like someone's trying to say to me WAKE UP, PAY ATTENTION, LISTEN WHEN PEOPLE TALK, you idiot! When I do call I get the "I wish I knew what happened to Allie" speech and they're all acting like she just disappeared from the face of the earth. Given her personality I know this is not possible. Sadly, I agree to change stylists for 25% off (this is the second time this has happened to me at this salon) but I'm still wondering what the hell happened to my girl. A few days later I had my answer. I get a call that comes up at NH cell phone on caller ID. I answer and hurray! it's Allie. She did move salons and she took ALL her clients info with her. Yikes, must have been a pretty bad salon to work at if she actually did that...I can't see that being kosher. But I was glad she did it, otherwise I'd never have seen her again!

What I'm really trying to say is that I've been up to a whole lot of nothing lately...life isn't as exciting as the missing boy thought to be in the balloon!

1st Day of School

We're now halfway into the 2nd week of preschool and I'm just getting around to posting these pics. The first day went off without a hitch. Ben was SO excited. He woke up at 6:10 and wanted to know when we could go. He wanted to get dressed and put on his back immediately and go. I drove the boys the first day, a task that usually falls to Eric, with thoughts of Cal's very first day in mind. I knew I wouldn't be welling up with tears or nervous to leave Ben but I was certainly SO proud that he's growing up to be such a big boy. He hung up his backpack, found his name to put up on the board and went off to play in the sandbox without even as much as a glance back at me. I was standing around talking with one of the administrators when Ben realized I was still there and said, "When are you GOING, mom?!" Too funny.

They continue to love it and Seth seems to be a little sad that there's no more hustle and bustle in the house. The first two days Ben actually told me HE missed Seth which is saying alot! Seth tends to think I'm boring and even goes so far as to crawl over to other moms with more kids during his music class. He just sidles up to other brothers and sits in close to enjoy the class!

Seth continues to be a tiny little terror. He's sweet but he's moving and crawling and climbing faster than I can keep up. He crawls up the stairs, he climbs on chairs and STANDS up waving his arms in the air like look at me! I even found him on a chair trying to climb up on the table in the playroom the other day. The kid is crazy. Today he finally took more than just a step. He did 3 or 4 steps a couple of times so we're almost there!! I wish I had taped it because he was so excited that he was walking that he was giggling and just plain giddy. He'd fall and then clap like crazy because he knew he had accomplished something. It was very cute. He's also babbling and I swear saying words but I can't be sure. Every time he does I think, "Did he just say that or am I imagining it?". He definitely attempts to repeat words. I'll give him that much.