Chilly Friday

I am so, SO flippin' tired this afternoon! I don't know what happened, because I was totally fine this morning. Somewhere between my gas station pumpkin spice cappuccino with the EXTRA shot of espresso thrown in and my Steak and Shake lunch, I apparently ingested some sort of horse tranquilizer and, as a result, am about to fall asleep at my desk.

I have to admit, I love that it's chilly outside! I am not a big fan of sweating, and I feel like I do it a lot (like I'll end up sweating while trying to wrestle my favorite 2 1/2 year old into his car seat!), so when the temperatures start to drop, I usually enjoy it! I like this in-between chilly but not freezing weather every year, and every year it seems to go by pretty quickly. We'll see how 2009 pans out. I remember last year on Halloween and Thanksgiving that it was much warmer than normal. For example, Aunt Erin and Uncle Danny came up to walk around with us for trick-or-treating, and no one had to wear any coats. Danny even wore a t-shirt, for Heaven's sake!

(I like that I made that part all dramatic...NO-T-SHIRT!!!!!!! Can you IMAGINE IT??)

On Thanksgiving, we hosted my family since it was the first Thanksgiving in our new house. I remember it being so mild outside (and so warm from the oven and stove) that I opened most of the upstairs windows because I was, hold on to your seats people, sweating. In fact, I had a lovely red sweater on that I quickly swapped for my faded out Willie Nelson t-shirt (AGAIN WITH THE T-SHIRTS!!) before dinner, as evidenced by photos from the day.

(So pretty!)

A funny, random memory from that Thanksgiving is that our across-the-street neighbors, the Wilsons, had someone on their roof on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (which is when we did our celebrating with the family). I think it was Dusty, and I believe he was hanging Christmas lights? For some reason, I'm remembering him either doing Christmas lights or, I guess, roofing, since hew as on the roof. I'm going with Christmas lights, because would someone really repair a roof all alone in November? It seems less likely.

So we'll see how this fall turns out. We had a pretty mild summer, which has led many people I've talked to to believe that this will be either (a) a mild winter, or (b) the worst winter in the history of weather. It's really a toss up at this point!

Oh, and by the way...I was shopping at Walgreens the other day (it was still September) and saw that there, above the clearanced items in one aisle, were rolls and rolls of Christmas wrapping paper! It was just LOOMING there up on the high shelf, taunting us all, "Heeeyyyyy, everybody! Here we come! It's not even October and you'd better get ready for Christmas!"

Sheesh, gift wrap! Why ya gotta be so ominous?

Cecilia, this one's for you!

So...okay. Why am I not such a good blogger? I have funny (sometimes) things to say, I'm a fast typer...you'd think this blogging thing would be really easy!

I will tell you why. I can't hold myself back and end up telling the handful of people who I believe read this blog all my stories before I have a chance to post them! Therefore, I will either try to wait and not share everything in person or throw a few things in my blog that are just random thoughts instead of funny Austin stories!

Today, I read a story on The Pantagraph about a new spa that has opened up in Eastland Mall. They're advertising 20-minute massages for $24 and, for the rest of the month, a Buy One, Get One Free deal! Some of the comments people left online were about how they could never relax while getting a massage in such a public place. Someone else noted that there is a private area in the back of the spa. I am going to have to see this place. I wouldn't be too thrilled with having a mostly naked massage in an open area, but $24 for 20 minutes, and BOGO free? Not a bad deal!

Ha!

I'm just going to say it. I'm freaking hilarious!!

I just reread my entire blog. Yes, we've been busy today at work, but I am a VERY FAST reader, and I've been reading snippets all day, and it really isn't that long of a blog, so don't think I wasn't pulling my weight today at work!

Anyway, I loved rereading this blog! I have made some pretty hilarious statements which seem much funnier now than when I wrote them! I'd like to give props to the "It Takes a Gallon" story and the memories of the Cecilia's 30th birthday celebration. These were especially funny!

Maybe I will blog more...

Playing catch up...

...and I don't mean "ketchup and Cool Whip" because I think that's been the highlight of my blog long enough!

Here are some Austin-isms and fun things to share from recent time:

• Tonight we went to Miller Park for the Stories in the Park free storytime event. It was pretty fun, although the male storyteller was a little bit over the top! I mean, let's get funny and get the kids into it, but I don't think that automatically means you must be what can only be described as goober-ish the whole time you're telling your pterodactyl story!
• Also, there was almost a rumble at said storytime event. A family right next to us (mom, dad, young daughter who was maybe 3ish) had some emotional times during the casting of the puppets for the pterodactyl story. The goober guy was calling some kids up to be certain puppets for his story (note to self: anytime a story involves puppets, the teller is likely to act dorky at some point; it's hard to be cool with puppets!). The girl of this family really wanted to be one of the characters, but she was shy and didn't want to raise her hand or call out when the man was asking for volunteers. This was a problem. Her dad (who kept calling her, the daughter, "Mama" -- weird!) told her to go up and tell the guy she wanted to be a puppet. Daughter walked up right to the front of the group...and stood there silently. The puppet passer-outer therefore had no idea she wanted to BE a puppet. Consequently, he never picked her for one. The dad was not having this, and he kept yelling out, "She wants to be the duck! She wants to be the turtle! Hey, man! She came up there to BE THE ALLIGATOR!!!! SHE'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!!" It was a bit tense. Finally the guy heard the dad (I don't know how it took so long!) and offered the girl who had since come back to her family the chance to be the turtle. At this point, the girl was crying on their blanket. It was over. The whole family was crushed. It was quite the drama. Meanwhile, Austin and I just sat quietly and hoped this turmoil wouldn't resonate in our direction!
• On the way home from the park tonight, Austin busted out with the following: "Knock, knock! Who there? Mommy! Mommy, who there? Mommy...Mommy...MOMMY!! Say who there?" I answered him with the obligatory, "Who's there?" to which he replied, "You are there!" It was pretty hilarious.
• Lately, Austin has been a major Daddy's boy. This has it's good parts and it's not-so-good parts! I love it when Austin talks about "his daddy", as in "Where's my daddy?" or "I'm gonna tell my daddy I saw a fire truck!" However, leaving to go to Sherry's in the morning is really tough, because Austin doesn't want to leave Nick! Once we get to Sherry's, Austin is typically fine but we've had some struggles lately!
• Austin has discovered a new favorite food -- cereal! He loves to eat it (especially with his fingers!) and finish it off by drinking the leftover milk. So far, he's enjoyed the Honey Nut Shredded Wheat Mini Bites and some generic Honey Nut Cheerios. He usually ends up eating two small bowls for breakfast and could probably eat more if we'd let him!
• I've learned that when your kid randomly says, "I not gonna poop in the bath!" while in the bathtub, he probably is going to poop in the bathtub.
  
• I've also learned that cleaning poop out of the bathtub is harder than you'd think!
• A couple of weekends ago, Austin and I went to Decatur to help clean Aunt Erin and Uncle Danny's house for an open house, and also to help Gramma and Papa move som stuff to their new house. Austin was dusting with Gramma at Erin's house and I was trying to get him to show Danny something. He turned to me with this annoyed look on his face and said with the utmost seriousness, "Mommy, I WORKING!!" My apologies, sir!

More to come as I remember them!

See...

I can still blog! I swear I haven't forgotten how!

Ketchup and Cool Whip

Austin has had a bit of a reduced appetite lately. I don't know if it started because of his strep throat or what, but I've been trying to make sure he gets enough to eat at each meal. Last night, we had a cookout, which was delicious! Nick grilled burgers and brats and we also had baked beans and fruit with some fat free Cool Whip on top. Austin took some bites of the food, but he also enjoyed several spoonfuls of just ketchup followed by just Cool Whip. Delicious!

Hey, it covers the veggie and dairy food groups, right?

Hello again...

Once again, I suck at blogging.

I don't know why it's so hard! I love reading blogs. I do it daily! I get excited when Erin or Cecilia post something new because I actually know them! I think I am so bad about posting because I tell all my stories to everyone I know before I blog. Then I feel like they'd read my blog and think, "Okay, this is not new information." Maybe I'll try NOT telling the stories and just blogging about them? We'll see if I can at least do that a little!

So the boy has been sick this week. He got strep throat after it ransacked Sherry's house (his daycare) over the last week or so. We kept him home on Tuesday because Sherry's two daughters got diagnosed with strep on Monday and then Tuesday night he felt warm. I took him to the doctor on Wednesday and -- ah ha! A positive strep test! I knew it! The nurse was like, "I'm sorry!" and I was the weirdo mom that was actually semi-happy about the diagnosis. After the mystery 10-day fever that was February-March 2009, I was just ecstatic to have a confirmed illness that is treatable with antibiotics!

Austin seemed to feel better pretty quickly and was all set to go back to Sherry's today when...he threw up water this morning! What? Throwing up water? What's that all about? Nick and I suspect he just drank too much right when he woke up and then maybe had to cough or something. We kept him home today and, from the report from Nick, he's doing well. They were all set up downstairs watching a little Thomas the Tank Engine and BOTH fell asleep! Nick said he woke up every half hour or so to check on Austin and that they snoozed the morning away, waking up at like 1:45 p.m.! Cute! I'm feeling good about Austin's health now. I don't want to jinx it, but I think he's on the mend!

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. The skyrocketing cost of gas was a harsh reminder that the summer is almost here. However, last year at this time, gas cost like $3.85, so I'm trying to be thankful for the $2.59/gal price! We are going to Nick's mom's house tomorrow for a quick visit. She hasn't seen us since Christmas (I think? Maybe Nick and Austin took a trip over there since then? I can't remember!) and she's going to Wyoming for three months next week, so she requested a visit! I think the weather is going to be nice, so that will make for a nice trip.

Nick has to work all weekend and then will be working at the fire department Monday during the day. We might have a cookout that evening with friends, depending on who is around. We'll see. We're playing it by ear for now!