Smilin' Cowboy

Holiday pictures were taken at school on Wednesday. Before we left for school that morning we practiced smiling - NOT smiling like a pirate with one eye winking and going "Arrrrghh..." He did pretty good - but this "new" smile looks a little stiff to me!

Then that evening after school he played around with a dollar store cowboy hat I'd bought for him - so he got out his horsey - cause every cowboy needs a horsey. He paused long enough for me to get him to smile again...but I'm thinking he either had a little stash of some spirits in his saddlebag or he was just humoring me with this plastered on smile!

Gordon-isms II

When eating Rice Krispies cereal he now says they go: "snap, crapple, pop!"

Saturday we went to the grocery store, a long ordeal since when we finished I put everything in the trunk, including my purse, which contained my car keys...thankfully AAA got someone there within 45 minutes, before my frozen shrimp thawed LOL. Gordon had picked a balloon - a yellow one. He cherishes his grocery store balloons. They give them away - he knows which grocery stores don't give away balloons...he tells me every time we pass one "that one doesn't have balloons mommy." We've never lost one until Saturday, I always tell him to hang on tight - and he once witnessed a kid lose his and was quite careful to hang on to his string after that. After the fiasco with the keys and we were both tired and hungry, I had Gordon get in the house with his balloon while I was hauling stuff from the car to the house. I turned around to the sound of the front door opening to hear "look mommy" and then he let go of the string, it bounced against the eaves, I dashed to try to grab the string but it bounced past that and went up into some trees and we watched it float up into the blue sky. Gordon looked at me and said "what happened?" I said it is gone, we can't get it back (which he proceeded to tell me we needed to go get another one.) He asked a hundred questions about the balloon, then finally I said "it went to the moon." Well now every night when the moon comes out he has to look for it, when he spots the moon he says "I see the moon! It has my balloon!" I think I need to write a children's book about a balloon going to the moon :) Don't anyone steal my idea now!

Sleep Study Tonight - ha ha ha!

I am supposed to hook this little gizmo up - wrap it around my waist and then attach a clip thing to my finger. This is going to tell them if I have sleep apnea or not...I guess they just don't believe me when I tell them the reason I get 4-5 hours of sleep a night is the loud roaring that comes from the other side of the bed. I have earplugs, but they only dull it a little bit (and I've searched out the kind that have the highest decibel rating at the store!) And I'm not too comfortable wearing the earplugs because then I'm afraid I wouldn't hear Gordon. Although, come to think of it - I've always heard him before Shannon, but still, someday I might not. Anywho - I am to wear this gizmo for the full nights sleep the lady says - "at least 7 hours". Um. If I slept 7 hours, I wouldn't need a sleep study. I'm in the middle of an "auditing crunch" - which means I'll be lucky to finish by midnight, and although I theoretically could sleep until 7 am...the chances of that happening are slim to none as Shannon will be getting up at 4 am...and there are no earplugs strong enough to block out that noise! And I can rarely fall back to sleep after that interruption. So what to do?? I guess I'll get "in trouble" with the doctor - they need the equipment back tomorrow I'm told. I was only half joking when I told my mom I was going to just slap that sucker on Shannon and see what happened - he usually gets 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night. He knows he snores, he's just in denial about how loud he is. You can hear him at the other end of the house. I know this because that is usually where I end up sleeping. Gordon has heard him too - our bedroom and his share a wall. One night he woke me up yelling from his room at 2:30 am. When I got in there to see what was wrong, he kept telling me to "fix the wall mommy!" I can't prove it, but I think he was talking about the rumbling coming from the other side of it. Poor kid. Shannon did tell me I could try that snore-enz...it is a spray that the snoree is supposed to spray on the face of the snorer whenever they start sawing logs. I laughed and said the only way I thought that would work is if I sprayed it all at once and he drowned!

So I guess my sleep study is going to tell me that I don't get enough sleep...that will be eye opening (he he...get it? go ahead, say "aaugh"!)

ok...back to my auditing now...

Celebrating Gordon's Birthday

Three years ago from this moment I clearly remember...I was desperate for an epidural! Gordon was born at 1:57 AM on 11/10, it was a LOOOOONG labor - we'd checked in and started the induction on 11/8.

Tonight we had our little celebration - since the party got cancelled. I made a cake - my homely attempt - no one submit it to Cake Wrecks please! The damage to the sides will be explained shortly...

While I was cooking dinner Gordon saw the cake on the dining room table - I told him not to touch it. He was so excited - starting singing Happy Birthday To Me and I thought he was just looking at it...how silly of me. It got a little quiet so I quickly popped around the corner to see that he'd taken the remote control part of his new remote control car and stuck it into the side of the cake and smeared the frosting off and was busy licking it off the remote! Of course I couldn't get mad - I had to just take a picture, and then take the remote away and ban him from the dining room (but I left the frosting on his nose and cheeks as evidence!)

He LOVED his cake - made me glad I just made one instead of spending money on one, he didn't seem to mind my sloppy frosting job! I used a photo frame I had with Goofy as a cake topper. I have one more birthday gift to give him, but I'm waiting until tomorrow - he has to have one thing to open on his actual birthdate!

Blog Snagging - I can't stop myself!

If you look at my blog list...it is getting extremely long, but they are all so much fun to read! I started out with just the ladies from the cranbaby board...and then from their blog lists I've found even more that inspire me, intrigue me, and feed my addiction - I'm a voyeur, I love reading about all these "strangers" and their lives. Yesterday I got up very early and although I should have been working I had a pity party for myself and spent a lot of time on my blog and reading others, and today I find myself wanting more...I don't dare go to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc...I'll never get anything done!

I've decided to give myself a "time out" once a day - complete with the kitchen timer ticking, and allow myself a measured dose of bloggy fun every day - to make a quick post or at least enjoy peeking into the lives of others for just 30 minutes. Maybe that will keep me in check!

So if you recognize a blog on the list as one you follow - or write, yes, I snagged it from you - thank you!

P.S. Is there an etiquette book for bloggers?? LOL - Sometimes I wonder if I've intruded when I add a blog to my list or link to anothers blog...I'm clueless about these sort of things so I'll just plead ignorance, issue a blanket apology for any past and future faux pas, and if someone doesn't want to be on my list, please just let me know!

Warning...blog now has sound!

Ok I stumbled across a way to add a playlist to my blog...and sorry...but I couldn't resist! So just wanted to warn you in advance. I'm not sure if there is a way to set it so you don't have to hear it every time you check out the blog, if there is I'll post it later.

Finally Some Fresh Air

As you know, Gordon has been sick since Tuesday night, and finally yesterday he was climbing the walls (and me...literally) so we went for a walk in the yard. I remember as a kid when I was sick, as soon as I started feeling better, I would start talking, a lot, and it was like all my energy returned first to my mouth and I couldn't stop chattering - it probably drove my parents nuts. Now I know how that feels. I am so glad Gordon is feeling so much better, but he's talking my ear off - so the short time outside did us both some good. Here he is after he's jumped into a pile of leaves, he was so happy, I happened to catch the nanosecond that he wasn't smiling, laughing, or talking.
you can see the "motion" in this one


Gordon, talking, about the leaves, the trees, the birds, the squirrels, the nuts, the gumballs, the sky, the birdfeeders, the balls, the house...you get the idea

Still talking...this time on the stump...


and he's still talking "where's the path" "look a gumball" "where are the nuts" "hi puppy!" "look at all the colors" "I love outside" "where's the moon? behind the trees?"

"Look -- flag", "Virginiaaah Techhhh", "Coach Beamer!" "Go hokies!" "lets check the front yard"

"Mom? Mommy? Mommmmm?" "no pictures" "oh look...

...the moon!!" "its a half moon" "the owls have to wake up!" "look at the moon mommy, its early!" "is it dark?" "nooooo...its not dark yet"

So there, you've now experienced a walk with chatty Gordon. I don't get many words in edgewise! And this was only the back yard, I put the camera down for the front yard...I'm exhausted but also so happy he's feeling better. By Monday, he's going to school - birthday or not. I've got audit appointments and have an appointment for a medical test in the morning at the hospital too - fun. We've cancelled all birthday party plans since croup is contagious for 5 to 6 days and I do not want to give this gift to any of my friends' kids! We'll just have a cake and balloons and the three of us will celebrate our little boy's birthday together.

We did buy a new camera, ours is truly on its last leg - it won't zoom anymore and is cracked too, so we did some research and decided on a Panasonic FZ28, now we need a crash course in how to use it, more options than I knew were possible, I'm getting too old to learn such things!

Cash based living

As uncertain as things appear in our national and even world economy, one blessing of the current situation is people are talking about and learning about living without debt - and it is becoming popular vs odd. Thanks to listening to Dave Ramsey for several years now, we've been debt free except the mortgage for a while now, and if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been able to spend two years not working, and we'd probably be in even more debt now. I came across a fantastic article that really explains that skewed thinking our society has towards wealth and debt, and also talks about truly living within your means (ie BENEATH your means). It really inspired me to take another look at our budget. Since returning to work and going from penny pinching one income to our current state, I've become pretty lax with the cash, and it is time to change that. This part of the article reminded me that our "means" isn't spending most or all of what we make, it is saving as much as possible:

Alas, "living within your means" is just a giant personal finance cliché at
this point. People have lost track of what it signifies. LWYM has come to mean
that you're fine if you spend every dime you make.
If you have to use plastic to cover a few gaps here and there -- your vacation, the holidays, some groceries -- that still counts as "living within your means" because you eventually pay it all back. Probably.
So let's rename "living within your means" for the modern era. We'll call it "real-income living." It means, obviously, making the hard choices necessary to live and save on what you earn.
So it's really about spending a small portion of your income to live,
and saving a large chunk of it -- for emergencies big and small, for the
unexpected and for a warm, cozy, secure and happy future.

Gordon-isms I

I should have done this ages ago, I'm sure I've already forgotten lots of things and will forget even more as the months go by - so I'm going to start making "quickie posts" and call them Gordonisms - little funny things he says or does.

Noodles are always pronounced New-News - I asked him to say noodle today, the way Mommy says it - and he did say "new-dols", so he CAN say it right, he just chooses to say it the other way, I don't mind, I say it that way now too half the time.

Our neighbor Sharon popped over for a few minutes to chat - he was very good about not trying to talk while we were talking, but before she left he made sure he told her "I did a good job with the shots yesterday!"

I continue to wrestle with the thought of having another child and today - seeing how behind I'm getting at work and things, I am leaning heavily towards the "we're done" side, but as I sat with Gordon watching Max and Ruby for the umpteenth time I blurted out to Gordon "would you be upset if you didn't have a brother or sister?" He said no, he wouldn't be upset (I'm quite sure he had no idea what I'd asked him - in any meaningful way). Then I said, "would you want a brother or a sister?" He looked at me and paused, as if to think about it, and said "I want a sister". I just said "oh". About 20 minutes later, after my mind was on getting him lunch and to his nap so I could get busy working, I asked if he wanted his pizza, he said "no, I just want a sister". LOL!

Halloween - Part II

Halloween seems ages ago already - but here are the last of the pictures from our several day celebration - Gordon, ready to go to the Boo Bash at the Natural Science Center - "resting" on the car (his idea):
Caleb and Gordon playing in the frog pond - how appropriate

The scary tigers - thankfully we've never seen the "spraying" going on in the "spray area" that the sign warns about...the tigers sure were active - walking the fence line and rolling in the grass playing.

Caryn cheering on the boys at a bean bag toss game:


Even little dinosaur Gabriel got into the cheering
On Friday night it was off to a church festival - only one picture, just of Gordon's first pony ride. He was so excited he turned to me and said "LOOK Mommy - I'm riding a pony!!"
And now, my poor baby has croup. We went to the doctor yesterday afternoon - it was getting worse by the hour. They gave him 3 shots at one time in his thighs - 3 nurses injected him at the same time while I had to hold him down with his arms at his head. I explained the shot would only be a little pinch - I didn't know there were going to be 3, I almost cried for him when the 3 nurses walked in with the syringes! But he only flinched - and never even cried or struggled - he sat up and looked at me and was more concerned about the 3 band aids that had been instantly slapped over the injection sites. Then I made a big deal of clapping and telling him what a great job he did getting his shots and that made him so proud he was telling everyone (and even mentioned it this morning) about what a good job he did with his shots. The doctor and nurses were so impressed and kept telling me how smart he was, that he talks and says things that are so much older than a boy about to turn 3. I was so proud of him! He even thanked the doctor "Thank you Dr. Cooper" after he examined him - the doctor was just taken aback and laughed. I can't brag enough about this boy! After we got home I made one phone call, turned around, and this is how I found him:

This morning he's very cranky, congested, and still not feeling well, I hate seeing him so sick, but at least he's not as bad as he was yesterday! And in the meanwhile, my work piles up...