beautiful fall weekend

All of you wonderful blog-posters have shamed me into making a contribution...

This has been a lovely week for me, since I had a week's vacation to use up before my Jewel anniversary in November. I think I could adapt to not working at all, although I might have a tendency to vegetate too much. Pop and I went to the Arboretum twice for a couple of nice walks. On Thursday we also took a one hour tram ride (our "free" coupons expired in 2008) and we nearly froze. It was in the high 40's, but an hour traveling in the open air left us almost frozen. We thawed out over lunch and walked through the woods for awhile.

Gram has had a terribly painful week - the hematoma in her hip seems to move around a bit, and there was a large lump right where she couldn't sit or lay down without it interfering. Linda has been really good about applying hot wet compresses to the area, and that seems to give her some relief. She's pretty reliant on the Darvocet to control the pain. When she ran out on Thursday night I offered to pick up the refill, since it wouldn't be delivered until late on Friday. She declined my offer, but I should have done it 'cause she had a really bad night.

My oven refused to turn on all last weekend, so on Monday we had a repairman replace the igniter, to the tune of almost $200. Pop watched carefully, so the next time he can do it himself - as if the same thing would happen again ;-)

Melissa and Dave, I'm delighted that Evelyn is sleeping all night for you. What a difference it makes when you're not feeling like a zombie all the time. We really appreciate all the pictures that you post - can't wait for her "2 month old" picture (tomorrow?) I hope that something happens to make Dave's job more tolerable.

Julie and Brandon, we wish we were at the birthday celebration (and not just for the yummy cake!) Thanks for making Gavin's first year so open to us - we feel like we're there.

How's everything in North Aurora? We enjoyed the Halloween festival at the Devonshire last Saturday, and loved seeing Sami in her ghost costume and Chris in his ninja costume. I expected to have more trick-or-treaters this year because of the wonderful weather, but we only had between 50 and 60. I should give some thought to returning the un-opened bags to the store so they don't tempt us.

Pop has been on an antibiotic for the past 9 days for a sinus infection, and he seems to be feeling pretty well (for an old guy...) Lots to do in the yard, but he has both sides of the garden tilled. We have only 4 1/2 weeks until our New Zealand cruise, so we should be busy getting ready. I really hope we can put together enough suitable clothes, and figure out what else we need to have and fit it all into 2 suitcases (Thanks to D.J. and Gram for loaning us theirs!)

I just found out that the Bears are losing 20-10 to Detroit. I had best go root for them to turn this tide...

Love to you all, Mom

One Wonderful Year!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Gavin!!!

It's amazing to see what you have learned and how you have grown during the first year of your life. (Thanks to your lovely parents for logging all your pics and videos on the blog.) Can't wait to see what's in store for year # 2.

We hope you have a stellar birthday and that you enjoy your homemade cake with yummy cream cheese frosting. Make sure your Mommy and Daddy post a few pics of you devouring it.

Lots of Love,
Aunt Melissa, Uncle Dave & Evelyn

Making progress

There seems to be no end to our home improvement project list. We're still not done painting the bathroom, there's a long list of yard work chores that need to be done before winter, and in a few weeks we'll be getting new vinyl siding on the 'old' part of the house (since our pennies seem to be worth less every day we figured we might as well spend them now!). Our most recently completed project is a little patio on the south side of the house where its nice and shady all day in the summer. I say it's completed, but actually it spawned yet another project, which is to landscape around it.

We spent the evening yesterday (Halloween) across the street with our neighbors, Phil & Barb. We ate white bean chicken chili for dinner and drank a few too many cocktails while greeting trick-or-treaters. Gavin wore a lion outfit he inherited from his cousin Rhiannon, and Brandon and I pulled out our piratewear.

Tomorrow we're going to celebrate Gavin's first birthday! Its hard to believe a whole year has passed since we checked into the hospital because my water had broken. We're going to have a small gathering - not quite a party - with cake and ice cream at 2 pm. You're all invited, of course! Brooke and her family and Dale are coming up from Ogden, and some of the neighbors might come over as well. I still haven't decided what kind of cake to make but I have a few baby-friendly recipes to choose from that have applesauce, bananas, pumpkin, and/or carrots in them. We've determined that cow's milk no longer upsets his tummy (hooray!), so the frosting will be made from cream cheese. Yum!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Evelyn has been in the Halloween spirit all month long. :) We are reserving the trick or treating adventure for next year. Instead, we will be staying home to pass out candy. What a beautiful day-high near 70! We will be going on a walk soon to take advantage of it.

Things are great here, except for Dave hating his job. He has a few more months to go then, hopefully, he'll be able to transfer out. I honestly don't know if he'll last that long. He's nearing his breaking point. :(

We have a fun-filled weekend ahead. Tonight, my friend is coming over for a visit. Tomorrow, my brother is stopping by. Tomorrow night, Grandma Kaye is babysitting for Evelyn so we can attend the baptism preparation class. Sunday is the "meet the baby" baby shower in my parents neighborhood. It should be lots of fun. :)

We enjoyed the tangy pork chops last weekend. Thanks for sharing the recipe. If anyone has any other good crock pot recipes, please email them to me. This is the time of year that I like to use the crock pot. Michele, would you mind emailing your chocolate chip banana muffin recipe to me? They're delicious. I found a recipe, but they were nowhere near as good as yours.

Are there any Halloween plans? What is Gavin dressing up as? I know Chris is a ninja and Sami is a spooky ghost.

Have a safe weekend.

A public service message

And now its time for another installment of, "Good Idea, Bad Idea".

Installing a safety grate on the upstairs window:





Good idea.


Leaving your herbal tea outside for several minutes before drinking it, then drinking the herbal-tea-bathing wasp into your mouth:










Bad idea.

Nice knowing you

Gavin and his pal Mr. Bones give their regards to our only garden pumpkin. Little does either of them know that in a just few days it'll be gutted and glowing through a permanent grin.

Family Get-Together

Hello, folks! Pop and I are trying to post the 3 pictures I managed to take on Saturday. I don't want to tell you how long we've been working on this, but things keep deleting themselves. Sorry I failed to take pictures of D.J., Michele, Chris, Sami, Rob, Lisa, Cecilia, Pop or Linda.

We've been busy with yard and garden work, as well as Ace and Jewel. Our planned dinner out with George and Linda fell through yesterday. Time ran out, since they were leaving town this morning and heading back to Truckee, CA.

We had kohlrabi slaw for dinner tonight, as well as Polish beets and beet greens, all harvested this afternoon. Went well with the leftover pulled pork!

Our apple trees produced heavily this year, but the fruit is virtually inedible due to the worms that permeate the fruit. I've picked up more bags than I could count over the past weeks and put them in the garbage. The cans are so heavy that I'm afraid that the garbage man is going to refuse to lift them. I'm throwing them away so the worms don't over-winter in the soil. They would be such wonderful apples if we could grow them worm-free!

One more time, Pop is going to attach the pictures....