Hey lady, I'm talking to you

Happy Friday Everyone!

Over the past week, Colter has started to say many things. Actually, mom has just finally wised up and figured them out. He has started to wave and say Hi. This is much preferred to his bye bye wave. That is only reserved for special people I guess. Don't feel bad if you don't get a bye bye. I don't even rate good enough for that.

Other words that are in frequent rotation are Sadie, daddy, kitty, puppy, sticker & pudding. Sticker & pudding are not very clear, but he is definitely trying to say them. He says momma, but I he doesn't seem to relate it to me. It is usually only uttered when he is mad. Okay, may be it is meant for me. Baby is another one he uses a lot. He pointed at his binky while saying it yesterday, so I think that is what he is trying to say.

Right now, Colter thinks the coolest word on earth is uh-oh. He was only using it when someone dropped something. That was not enough, so he started purposely throwing things so he could say uh-oh. Now, he just says it because he can. And he can say it over and over and over and over and over.................... He was even saying it in his sleep at 4:30 this morning.

I am still amazed at how smart they really are and how fast they change. A few days ago, I saw him heading for the back porch. I had the door latched so he couldn't get back there. Soon he was crying and I went to try to redirect him. It was obvious he was thirsty because he was pointing up at the clean sippys on the counter. I proceeded to search like mad to find his sippy while he sat there screaming bloody murder while still pointing. I could not find that darn thing any where. I looked over the gates, in the toy box, in his diaper bag, in the christmas tree and even in my coat pockets. I thought may be it is in the back porch, after all that is where he was trying to go. No luck. I finally decided I had tortured myself and him enough and just got him a new one.

After Colter recovered, I was still being tortured by the where abouts of that elusive sippy. I was not looking forward to what mysterious science project it may hold when it shows up a month from now. I knew I had to find it. I continued to search for what seemed like an eternity. I even tore the back porch upside down. I finally found the darn thing shoved in between the vacuum cleaner and a cheese tray that Colter had been playing with. IN THE BACK PORCH. Where Colter was trying to go prior to his break down. It is obvious that I am not smarter than a 1 year old.

Have a great weekend ya'll!

New Do

I have much to say today, but it is just to much for one post, so I will spread it out over the next few days. I have been so busy with all the holiday hustle & bustle as I know we all are.

I have had very good intentions of getting in to see the new hair stylist in town. I finally made it in to see her on Monday. She gave me a glamorous new cut and I love it. It is exactly how I have been trying to get my haircut for the past couple of years. I had Al take some pics of it, but for some reason, they didn't look that great. I am going to have to try again so you can all see it.

Due to the fact that I have been living in a cave for the past couple of years, I am a little rusty on my styling skills. I also threw out some much needed styling tools when we moved, so now I have to replace them. Isn't that how it always goes?

Anyhow, thank you Kerrie for a fantastic hair cut! I will be sure to pester people into trying your services. :O)

Black Friday

I am sure that some of you ventured out to the shopping establishments to take part in the "Black Friday" festivities. You are brave people, or just plain crazy. I have never gone shopping on black friday, and I don't ever intend to. I have serious issues with crowds. I can not even stand going to Walmart on a regular day. If your not up for watching a major horrific meltdown, then do not ever ask me to join you on black friday.

Despite my hate in the day, I still wanted to get in on the good deals. Last year, I was informed by a friend that you could go online and get the same deals. So I thought what the heck. Why not get some good deals on christmas presents. Hmph. FYI, there are crazy people shopping online too. I got up at 6am and went to walmart.com only to find out that the main purchase I wanted was all ready sold out. When I arrived at work, I checked again to see about the other items I wanted. Everything was all ready sold out. So much for my brilliant idea. I think next year I will just forget the whole thing even exists.

I hope those of you that did brave the sea of people, made it out alive.

Friday all ready?

Can't time just slow down a little. It all ready seems to just fly by, but throw in the holiday season, and its like we are moving in warp speed. Crazy I tell you.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for, but the most important thing is that I did not kill my family with my first official solo thanksgiving dinner. It was just the four of us. I am sure the rest of you are thankful for not having to be them yesterday. I nominated them as my taste testers, for which I am not sure they were very thankful for.

My taste testers were forced to eat turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans & pumpkin pie. All of these items were made from scratch by me with the exception of the pie crust. I did feel a bit sorry for them, so I had a few edible items on the table too. Boxed stuffing, lefse and dinner rolls. There were certainly thankful for that. :O)

I must say, everything turned out pretty darn good. I did call a tip hotline a couple of days in advance, so that probably contributed to my success. I have never made mashed potatoes, gravy or pie prior to yesterday, but you would never know it. I can not believe that I thought that these simple things would be to hard for me to figure out. I may not need that cookbook for dummies after all.

I hope you and yours had a super thanksgiving and that ya'll gained a couple of extra pounds. If you see my hubby somewhere, be sure to ask him if he got the christmas lights up yet. Thanks for your help! :O) Have a great weekend!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

My first hair cut

This & that, take 3

There is not to much going on at our house this week. I have been trying to pick up a few christmas decorations and presents here and there. We are usually last minute kind of shoppers, which puts a real strain on the pocket book. Every year I proclaim that I will be on top of it the following year, but I am a huge procrastinator. This year I have actually bought both of my kids one gift and picked up a few decorations. Yeah me!

Now that we have a bigger house, we can actually have a big tree. Not one of those tiny things you set on a table. I have been wanting to get a nice big artificial tree, but I am waiting for that good deal. I think I just may get it tomorrow. I am also excited because we actually have some bushes to put lights on and some other great places to put christmas lights out side. I have been trolling the christmas isle since they started putting the stuff out. For what ever reason, I have this stupid rule that you cannot bring the christmas decor out until Thanksgiving night or after. Perhaps some year I will rid myself of this silly thought.

We do not have plans yet for Thanksgiving. We usually alternate between my family & Al's every year. This year though, no one is doing thanksgiving, so I am not sure what we will do yet. My uncle usually has something at his place and I think my parents may be going there. May be I can convince Al to go. Or may be we will just have something with the four of us at home. I really don't care as long as we are together.

There is not much else to say except have a wonderful day!

Christmas shopping

I wish christmas shopping could be this easy.

Little hunter

My weekends are now Mon-Wed. So on monday, I decided to go along with Al to see his dog hunt. It just so happened that my brother and nephew were also going out, so we teamed up with them. I took my camera, in hopes of getting some great shots of the dog. Instead I got some shots of this little hunter.

He is pretty darn good. He got quite a few birds, not pheasants, birds. He only had a licence to shoot birds. The licence for shooting birds is much different. It is actually on a shirt. I am glad that I had this little guy along to protect me from all the wild animals, and the dirt mounds that have eyes.

This sport can take a lot out of you. Its best if you have a caddie. One that will carry your gun & piggy back you back to your vehicle when you get tired. One that can handle all of your demands. Preferably, if you get yourself a caddie, please don't request aunt Miah. She is on vacation for the rest of the season.

Happy Thursday ya'll!

Veterans Day

To all veterans, past, present & future.......Thank you. I am so amazed by your courage and sacrifices, that I can not even find the words to express my gratitude. A simply thank you is all I can do.

9 years ago today, my grandpa Ambrose passed away. I thought it was very fitting, considering he was so proud to have served in WWII. He was a Navy Seabee.

At the time of his death, I was 22 years old and still very much full of myself and did not understand of the importance of anything. I regret that I did not take the time to visit him more and learn more about his life. I never felt as though we had a close bond, and I often wondered if he even knew my name. He was not a man of many words. But he did not have to be for me to know that his veteran status was a very important part of his life. That was one thing I was certain of. And from that, I learned about pride & honor.

I regret that I never thanked my grandfather or shared in his enthusiasm, but I know that he is looking down on me and knows just how proud I am to have him as MY veteran.

Thank you veterans!

The new addition

I survived the night, and I allowed Al to live another day. Al brought "Lucky" home yesterday. Real original name, huh?. Apparently, he was named Lucky because he was the only pup that survived from his litter. I personally think that he was given that name because a higher power knew he would be living with fabulous me one day. :O)




Al wasted no time taking him out to check out his hunting abilities, and was apparently very impressed. Al & Lucky got their limit in a little over an hour. When I got home from work, Al made sure I saw a few of Lucky's tricks. He seems like a very well behaved dog and he is absolutely beautiful.

I am not a huge fan of dogs living in a kennel. Al plans to build a kennel and cut a hole in our garage so he can go in and out. The garage is heated and Al is always in there, so I feel much better about the situation. Plus, he has always been outside, so I guess he is used to it. I have a feeling that Al will take him every where. He will probably be treated better than the rest of us. :O)

I am not thrilled that I have to look at a dog kennel when I am sitting on the deck, but I guess I can "decorate" it. That will be interesting. May be I can dress him up in a pink tutu when I am out there. This is going to be fun. Mwwhhaaahahahahah!

Have a super Saturday!

Hunting partner

For the past couple of days, my husband has been relentless in his efforts to convince me that he needs a new hunting partner. Every year, when hunting season rolls around, he gets the wild idea that he needs a hunting dog. Not just any dog will do. He wants a German short hair. Every year, we have to same discussion. It always ends in an agreement, that when our big dog goes to doggie heaven, he can have his hunting dog.

Now, let me give you a little insight to this thing I call a husband, and who some of you call Al. He is a wheeler dealer bargain grabbing machine. He sniffs out great deals and can not pass on, so he snatches them up. Regardless of whether or not he all ready has 10 of the same item. This is unfortunate for me, but even more unfortunate because his most recent deal sniffing has resulted in the finding of what? You guess it. A German short hair. Not just any German short hair, a trained hunting German short hair that is too good of a deal not to pass up.

This "once in a lifetime" deal, (I have heard this before) is causing my husband to pester me too death. Seriously. He is like a huge thorn in my butt that cannot be removed no matter how hard I try. It has become infected and is so irritating that it has driven me to the edge of reason. I caved. I finally agreed, for my own sanity, to let him get the dog. He is bringing it home today.

Tune in to tomorrows episode to find out if the lady of the house ends up in a straight jacket or if her husband mysteriously disappears.

Happy friday ya'll.

Antiquities

My son. He is as hard headed as his mother, if not worse. He is not going to do anything you want him to do. He decides. Needless to say, he did not do so well on the day of the photo shoot. The photographer only managed to snap about 5 pictures. This was a good thing, though. Everyones pictures have turned out so nice. If he would have cooperated, I would have gone broke buying all of the pics. Instead, there were only two pics that were good, so my mother-in-law and I split the cost and got two of the poses. And here they are.....drum roll please........Perhaps the next Beethoven?

Lost

This daylights savings time has really thrown me for a loop. I think it is a combination of things, but I will gladly take the extra hour along with the rest of the stuff.

The past week has been interesting. I started working days, which is going good so far. I felt strange being part of the "real" world again. I had a few extra days off in between the shift change, so I tried to accomplish many things. I didn't really get much done, but I did get some sleep. I have been in bed every night around 8:30. Pathetic, I know. My excuse is that I am trying to make up for the lack of sleep from the past two years. It makes me feel better anyway. :O)

We all had a good time on Halloween. Colter's magical dragon suit helped him take his first independent steps. I was shocked. Needless to say, once the suit came off, he has not walked. He is pretty darn good at walking on his knees though.

During my extra days off, I got to attend the Al B show. Its kind of like the Red Green show on PBS. On the show, Al demonstrated how to make old school storm windows out of caulk. At least that's what he claimed. It was more like, fixing the old windows and plastering the bad spots with the caulk. I am not sure when the show will air, but I am guessing it will be some night after Gold Fever on the outdoor channel. :O)

Not much else to report tonight. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Also, good luck to Kerrie tomorrow! I will be thinking about you. And to those people who smashed our pumpkins, you missed some. The rule is, you must take them all so I don't have to get rid of them.

Halloween