This is the transition from theory to practice

My birthday was Sunday but it didn't really feel like it
HM and I are going away for my "Real" birthday celebration next weekend...
But now its the next weekend after that.
Whatever.
For Sunday, it was right after our big party
(which we always mean to have as my Bday celebration but we always forget)
So HM tells me that day: so you aren't really expecting much for tomorrow right?
Uh... well, I'd at least like a cake or something....?
He was like, Oh....
And so someone ended up making me a cake

(like my lashes? I forgot to wear them w/my costume, so I wore them for my Bday )
And L and HMs mom actually got me presents (that was amazing)

But HM actually didn't even get me a present :(
Not yet anyway....

After I blew out the candles,
Tigger and I were taking them out and licking them off

Sadie got a hold of one and came to the conclusion that
this was like chips and dip
You take the candle, dip it in the cake and there you go!

Kieran saying cheese? :)

---

Monday and Tuesday we spent most of the day putting away the Halloween decorations
Sadie thought the hates were particularly fun to play with:

This year was so much more fun with Sadie
She thought the Pumpkin patch was the coolest thing ever
And wanted to just wander around and look at everything at once
Heck with pictures, she wanted to RUN around
I wanted to kill my camera
Because every time she smiled, it was blurry... GRRR

My two favorite babysitters lately:

This is very serious business....

As of last week, our dearest wall builder told HM
He would be at our house "first thing Monday morning"
To just finish up our wall really quick
He only had to put in the top bricks
And he was done
HM told me this and I said:
So we can expect him at 11am on Thursday????
And I guess I was wrong
Shame on me for being so flippant and pessimistic
He showed up at 9AM on Thursday Lisa.... geez..... lol....
And about 8 hours later....


Our wall is finally done


It's still missing stucco though

So HM's next project is to put stucco on the bricks
And then paint BOTH sides of the wall: the new and old
To match the house

HM says they'll "Just put the stucco on real quick, no big thing"
But I have philosophy:
Anytime uses the word JUST in a description
It's ALWAYS going to be a bigger deal, take longer, be more expensive
Than they are letting on
BEWARE of the word JUST: it means trouble.
But again, I may be wrong
I mean hey, wall guy came at 9am right? I could be a whole 2 hours off here...

Oh and Wall Guy actually isn't done yet
He told me he'd be coming by... probably Monday or so
To JUST fill in this gap really quick....
I expect he'll show up about 12pm on Friday.... :)
Sure glad our wall is finally done!!!!!!!!!!

---

Well on to brighter subjects
One of our last "we just bought our house" projects
Was to finally put shelves in our weird hole in the wall

So last night late
Dave and  HM worked together
And made shelves for our weird hole in the wall:

HM is going to stain them and lacquer them (outside)
sometime this next week


At to be done before Halloween festivities
(we hope...)

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

It seems my family has an affinity for serious ailments these days...
I called my parents' house the other day
Tom answered and he sounded like DEATH
I mean hardly even sounded like him at all

Then a couple days after that,
I called again and my mom answered
She sounded horrible
And she tells me, "Oh ya, we all have Swine Flu"
I laughed, no really....
Oh ya, they all have Swine Flu....
What in the world....
They are all feeling better though
No worries
Lots of fluids, rest and all that and it's all good

My doc told me if I start getting any kind of flu
I'm supposed to call them immediately and they'll start me on drugs
Because since I am pregnant I am considered in the group of those with
"compromised immune systems"
I'd rather not be the next pregnant woman to die of Swine in KC...
Isn't that crazy???

---

Cute story really quick:
HM came home the other day and told me he found the best perfume ever
Said he found it at one of the apartments
And he LOVED it
He made me hold out my arm, and try some
Without telling me what it was
So I did and when I smelled it, I had to smile
What is this called? I asked
And he finally showed me.
Honey, I said, this is the same scent I used to wear
Only I just had the lotion
I wore it when we were first dating!
Oh, he said.... Maybe that's why I like it so much
So cute....

---

So I had my next Dr. Appt yesterday
Everything is fine and the baby is growing well
In fact, he was doing the heart monitor thing
And she kicked it hard
Enough that I jumped and the doc went WOW!!!
Then she kicked it a couple times also,
Guess he didn't like him poking around there
So she had a good heartbeat and good movement as well

---

Now how often can you say that and have it be really true?
Yesterday it was.
So yesterday was a normal crazy Monday
It's the end of 3rd quarter
So slacker kids were turning in their stuff
Everyone needed to talk to me
Things needed correcting
I was getting tired of answering the same questions
I had a ton to grade that night
Have been sick with allergies for 5 days now
and so I'm tired AND sick
And I can't be cuz I have too much to do

So as I am rushing out of school
Finally turn my phone back on for the first time since 8 that morning
And I have two messages.
One from my mom:  Call us as soon as you get this.
Odd....
Then a text from my Dad
(first reaction before I even read the message: Daddy knows how to text??? I wonder how long it took to type all this...)
Lisa. Did you get your mom's message? Stef in brain surgery as we speak fairly serious.
Doubly odd.....
If it had been from anyone one else besides my Dad I would have thought it was a joke!

So I called right away
And turns out my sister Stefanie was having brain surgery
(random.... what in the world???)
My mom, dad, and Jef were waiting for her to come out of surgery at UVMC
So come to find out, my mom tells me
Stef had been having super bad migraines for awhile
And the last 3 days especially had been horrendous
She had gone to the doctor and she had tests scheduled for later in the week
But Sunday night at 10:30pm it finally got so bad, her husband, Jef, took her to the ER
They ran tests and found out that she had a cist in her brain!
That cist was building up fluid
which was causing the migraines
So once they found all that
They took her immediately to surgery
And that was where we were.

About two hours after that,
She came out of surgery
Doc said everything went really well
They got everything out,
Didn't look like there was any damage
And so far she was responding to commands
(like wiggle your toes, shake hands, what's your name, etc)

So as of today, she's just been sleeping
Still drugged up but was awake earlier in the day
And same thing, everything seems to be fine
She can remember things, she knows normal things
She can move, you know, all those positive things we like....
So right now we just wait and so far everything looks like it will be fine....

The only thing next on the agenda is to buy her some nice hats
Because little perk of having brain surgery:
They shave your head

Before I forget them....

---

The other day HM was so amazed w/Sadie
He said she pulled him out to the kitchen
(she wakes up at 6:30am every morning, usually starving and wanting snacks)
Had him open up the pantry
She surveyed the contents,
Then chose a bag of teddy grahams
And marched back to our room
To have Daddy open them and give her some
He was so amazed

Well....
So today, she did the same thing
And came back with....
Top Ramen and a bag of Wheat Germ.....
Maybe not so amazing but at least she knows she wants food

---

The other day, we were working on Sadie's room
(pictures soon)
And Sadie went to her doorway,
and waved to me that she was leaving
And got all cute about it and waved and smiled and started to walk out
And...
WHAM!!!
Ran right into the wall
She was just kinda dazed
But I laughed so hard
That she did as well
It was the cutest thing ever

This is what Sadie does these days:

1.  Helps unload the dishwasher

2.  Puts things in and out of her Bucket
(she picked it out at the store and LOVES it)

3.  Plays with our new puppy Shay

4.  Wakes up as the Human Icicle
So I went and bought her some new pajamas
She thinks the feet are the BEST THINGS EVER


5.  Pretends to talk on my phone


6.  Has to come sit on my lap every 1/2 hour at least

7.  Is still too short to reach any of the Halloween decorations

8.  Eats Birthday Cake like a madwoman

9.  Still teething...
She still only has 4 teeth...

10.  Still takes THREE naps a day

I always look forward to the Fair every year
And I was excited this year because Sadie is bigger
And we could take her to see all the animals and things
HOWEVER
she wasn't that impressed
This was her reaction to all the animals:

She did enjoy the food though


And she really enjoyed the music
She got out of her stroller to dance around to the music

HM even took her on the caroasel
And she wanted nothing to do with those crazy horses
So they had to sit on the bench
(Wish my camera would focus better on fast moving things....)

We all had a good time though

Nothing like some fat pigs...

And a night out with a hot guy

To make your day

Finally at the END of the Summer
We finally got HM's family to actually SWIM in our pool
We've had "pool parties" who knows how many times
And no one actually swims!!!!!
So we complained enough i think that people actually came and swam

We even had our first game of Toothpicks
An Irish Family pool game
Here are the basic rules:

• Everyone stands around the pool
• One person takes a toothpick and takes it to the bottom of the pool
• Then they get out and then everyone tries to find the toothpick
• When you see it, you have to jump in and grab it.  If you miss you have to get back out of the pool before you can try again
  
• Pretty fun game and it makes for some really cool pictures....

L, this is my favorite one of you... lol....

What is Craiger doing in this picture??? lol....

This picture is funny because it's so typical: here are Sadie and Keiran playing together: lol...

Poor Sadie is STILL teething so even though you do this every other second:

It's still like this two seconds later:

Nothing like hot men swimming in our pool.... HM says these make him look fat but I think he looks hot :)

And speaking of hot, ow ow L... lol...

This picture makes me think of Sesame Street: Can you Guess What The People in this Picture are Doing?

Awh, how cute....

Sadie has recently discovered her belly button so she spends all day playing with it and show people how she now has one:

What's up Pam? Brandi was very excited she got a picture of you doing this...

Thank you to Brandi for taking  a lot of these pictures:

So here are the cute things I've finished lately
And see if I put them on here all at once
It's like I've got them all done at once!
Yup.... did these all in one day.... right...

1.  HO HO HO blocks
Gracias to RS Super Saturday!


2.  Menu Planner
I always try to plan a month of meals
But I've found that usually I don't actually follow it
Because most days I just look at ALL the days
And then just pick what I feel like that day
So L, J and I made these things to put on the fridge
And you just write 20 meals on cards
Put the recipe on the back
And those are all your options for the month or until you run out


3.  Halloween Village!!!
K, most people have Christmas Villages, right?
Well keeping with our tradition of having twice as many Halloween decorations as Christmas decorations
I found this Halloween Village at GoodWill the other day
Had to get it as it was only $15
Love love love
I am so excited to start decorating for Halloween!!!


4.  Pictures and Vinyl
Got this saying in Texas on clearance while we were there
And finally put it all together on our wall
It took awhile because as HM pointed out
I seem to have a problem with math lately
There are 16 pictures right?
Well, I ordered 14... and thought it was 16
So I had to wait another week for the other 2 to show up
For it to be finally done.... *sigh*
...being pregnant really screws up your brains....


P.S.  Chelsea I know you could have done this so easily since you are the vinyl master but I don't know the wording but when I see it I think, oh that would be cool!  So if you have any good ideas, I would love any suggestions :)

5. Winter Garden
aka: My first Garden
Peas, radishes, lettuce, onions, beets and green beans are all up and doing pretty well
So far no carrots or celery
Oh and some herbs and things too....
Can't quite get that 3rd box done.... *sigh* but soon!
Now don't you wish you lived in CA?