Day to day life

I thought it was about time to add a post about the past few weeks since I've been a bit slack. Not very much exciting has been going on around here recently which is one reason I haven't added any posts. So let's see...what has been going on?

Well, I went and spent the day with Anitra and Baby Abby last week which was wonderful! It's been soooo long since I've held a newborn baby, I guess since Margaret was born in April of 2004. Lots of people are scared of babies that young and small, but not me. I love little, tiny babies. Abby has to be one of the easiest babies I've ever met. No gas, no reflux, no colic, no diaper rash, no jaundice, no issues with feeding, very little crying, falls right to sleep after eating. Maybe she was just putting on a show for her Aunt Emily.

Still no baby for Melissa and Elliott. And I have to say Melissa is rather displeased with this fact. She was just SURE that the baby was coming last week and actually had the rest of us convinced as well. Baby just laughed at all of us! Melissa is very prepared for labor, delivery, and post-delivery at this point thanks to Elliott, Guh Guh, Melanie and the rest of the family. The house is very clean from what I understand, all the diapers and clothes are washed and ready to wear, it seems everything is in order. My personal contribution is a special CD for Melissa and Baby to listen to during labor. I've also been working on the diaper wipes solution for the cloth wipes that Melissa is planning to use. Now we just need a baby. I'm going to visit tomorrow to drop off my little contributions and visit with Melissa and our friend Rebecca and her two precious boys. Rebecca made the trip down today from North Carolina to visit with Melissa.

What else? Well, as if I needed another hobby, I decided to reintroduce myself to cross-stitching. I've been spending quite a bit of time with this new endeavor for the past several days. About eight years ago, I started a very involved cross stitch pattern which was probably not the best choice for a beginner. And it's only half finished after those eight years. I'll spare you the gory details, but there was a tragic mishap with my collection of embroidery floss that led me to put my needle away. Well, I decided to pick it up again! I purchased some new, easier patterns to "warm" myself up. Soon I'll bring myself to finish my very first project which will be absolutely gorgeous framed. Of course I'll post photos when my masterpieces are complete.

Dave and I have made some yard progress recently. First we demolished the old, rotten storage building that was in the back yard to make way for a new, adorable one. Then Dave worked very hard and completed the construction of our new storage building (I'll post a photo soon). We still have a leveling issue to address but that's ok.

Here's Dave after making short work of the old shed demolition

We also planted some trees along the back fence which by this time next year should be about 4 to 6 feet tall and will in the next two years be tall enough to provide the additional privacy screening from our back yard neighbors that we've been wishing for.

Last week we decided on the names for the two new kittens which, by the way, we have decided to keep (that is as long as all their tests come back ok and they pose no health threat to Taffy and Teaspoon). As an update, Mama kitty was successfully spayed and released back in Cameron. She's made one brief reappearance since then to grab some dinner. In the photo above, Mittens is on the left and Molly is on the right. They are impossibly cute and have to be two of the sweetest little things I've ever met. But Molly especially is quite the handful! Let's hope they stay sweet. Today I brought them inside and gave them baths and trimmed their nails. I wish I'd been able to take some pictures of the pitiful, little wet stinkers. I even dried them with the hair dryer. It was a big day for them. They will be staying in the bathroom until after we get them "fixed" and tested. Then we will introduce them to the rest of the family.

And I'll take a moment also to mention how brilliant Dave is :). Dave is quite the auto mechanic which saves us both so much time and money with car maintenance and repairs. I've had a power steering line leak for a while that has been getting increasingly worse. Within a matter of minutes today Dave had found the leak, removed the problem hose assembly and is now at the auto parts store getting a replacement which will be promptly and expertly installed within minutes. I can't tell you how wonderful it is not to have to worry about these things anymore. And not only does he fix things but he does so with a smile on his face. He's truly the best! And I'm a lucky gal.

That about sums things up for now. I'll be back with hopefully more exciting news and photos soon.