In Memory Of

In memory of my uncle, Frank Peacock, whom I will remember for his big mustached grin, his infectious laugh and his love for the outdoors, especially airboating the St John's River around Christmas, Florida. He loved his family, his boat and telling tall tales. He will be sorely missed.

Makeover Home and Yard Edition

For ye who are interested in the new mini-makeover the house got, here you go:


















The little border at the top was a huge thing for me, as I am not fond of clinging to a shaky ladder while Berry tried to climb it after me.















This is a bit of the leftovers of the Ice Storm of 09. The entire town has these huge piles of branches, sticks and bits of trees piled on the side of the road, waiting for someone to come with a chipper.















Buddy and Berry were very curious as to why I was standing in the middle of the street taking pictures of them. They were too cute to pass up.
















Meanwhile, Ian has been eagerly awaiting something else. From morning 'til night, ever since Nana and PopPop left.

















"We get my new playground today??"


















Finally, the day came and the heavy boxes were brought home. Then the fun began. Oh yeah, The Sorting of The Boards. It's almost ceremonial. And it was 35 degrees outside. But we got them all sorted into piles and marked with taped on sticky-notes. Those aren't all of the board piles. I kinda forgot to take pictures at first.

















But by Saturday afternoon, we had made a dent and had created a masterpiece. Ian began to get skeptical. He kept looking at the picture on the box and staring really hard at the poles.

















By Sunday afternoon, everyone was happy to be outside supervising.

















But I'm not sure. Erin might have been more of a distraction than a help, but she sure was happy to be in the middle of it all...


















This could be a picture of my HC hard at work, or it could be a very illuminating picture as to the present location of the tape measure and the drill bits....(ahem, Erin!)


















Finally, we were getting somewhere! Even Ian could see that it was not a cruel trick. There really was a playhouse in there somewhere.




















By afternoon, we were this far. My HC had to get ready for work at 4 and the rest of us were banned from going into the yard. For obvious reasons.

A big thanks to Nana and PopPop for helping us make our cool playground possible!

Rainy days

Not only was today Monday, but it was a rainy Monday. That means the children will be sleepy, the parents will be sleepy, nothing will get done and you will eat too much junk food to keep from being sleepy. And then you'll take a nap. But the kids won't and then you'll be grouchy.
Anyway, Erin didn't nap well because she has now discovered her favorite junk food: homemade peanut butter cookies. And then some Chex mix. I need not have worried about it going to waste. It's gone. The kids have suddenly discovered that they are ravenous for it and polished the last of it off this afternoon and then wanted more. To my innovative commenters, I've never heard of the Puppy Chow, but I've done the Muddy Buddies (with peanut butter + chocolate + powdered sugar) with great success. Mostly they just make a powdery mess, but they've never gone to waste.
I don't think the peanut butter cookies will survive until tomorrow. My HC has already filled a giant bowl with some and toted them off to work with him. He was very glad that I made them while HE was napping this afternoon. :|




All Erin wanted was the beaters. Both of them...

When Ian got home, he saw the camera on the counter and wanted to take pictures. I thought for a second. Then shrugged and said okay. It's not like he'd be wasting film. I reminded him how it worked and let him click away. Here's a sample...





*Just to be truthful, there were several that were deleted, since they focused on body parts that should not be showcased on a public blog.
Then Ian got tired of portraits and decided to get a little more artistic. These are a few identifiable expressions.





If anyone needs a label, they are: a couch pillow, Buzz Lightyear on TV, the ceiling fan, couch pillow adjacent to my purse, a 'V' magnet on the fridge.
A few more that Ian insists be added, since he's over my shoulder right now:




These are: supper on the stove, the fridge and a dishtowel on the chair (I made the mistake of mentioning me and Erin, but I was corrected).
And we couldn't conclude our first showing without a few pictures of the artist himself.




Please, ladies and gentlemen, cash only. Ian's piggy bank doesn't take checks. :)

Cheese and Salsa

Tuesday we had the kids' pictures taken. We were late for our appointment and it was given to someone else who walked in, so we had to wait until they called us. I was aggravated about that; I hate being late, but sometimes it just cannot be helped. Especially when you live 20 minutes from anywhere.

When we got down to business, it was...educational. Erin wasn't so sure about all the fuss and cooing and coaxing to smile. She thought the photographer (can you call them photographers when all they do is punch a button??) was weird. I think she was in a bad mood that day (the photog, not Erin, she was just sleepy, I think). Either way, it was a good thing her assistant was there to play with the kids while she stomped and sighed and took crooked pictures. Hopefully the photo printer person will fix it.

It's a good thing we have photogenic kids. Erin was quickly fussy and wanted to get off of that podium. Every time we let go she tried to crawl off. She didn't like the positions she was forced to hold and didn't like not being held. Ian, on the other hand, is a ham. And no, I don't know where he gets that from. He thought it was funny if he made faces and stuck his tongue out at the last minute. There were a lot of retakes for him.

And then there were the packages. The cheapest package is $80. Or you can get the CD for $99 and print off as many pictures as you want. Sorry, give me a couple of backgrounds and I can do just as well with my own camera. But we were happy with what we got; now we have to wait until the cows come home to pick them up (they will being coming August 13 unless they come early. ?!).

Other news of the week: someone is interested in buying our house and is currently trying to get a loan. We don't want to get our hopes up, but the people in question keep calling us and asking us questions that make sense. We are happy to help, if it sells our house.

I did a lot of canning today. Well, it felt like a lot of canning. Only 6 jars of salsa this time, but I dejuiced and seeded tomatoes for hours today. My fingers are still a little pruny. My HC says that this skill is useful just in case I ever get sprayed by a skunk. Naturally, this made me feel oh so much better.

Ian had a friend over to play today. His friend, G, brought over a couple of toy trucks to play with. After an hour, he asked that they be put on top of the refrigerator to keep them safe (he is 5). Ian told him to leave them here when it was time to go home. G did not feel that it was necessary for him to do so and took them with him. I think Ian missed the toys more than he missed his friend, who has the tendency to choose watching tv over playing.

We are counting down to the "Meet Your Teacher" day at school. It is the same day that Uncle Steven will be going back to Florida. I'm sure he will be glad to sleep on anything other than the couch, especially if there's an air conditioning that works in the house.

We are in a heat advisory for the next several days. It has been topping 100 and is nasty outside. We are staying as close to our not-so-cold air conditioner as possible. I keep telling Ian that if he would sit still, he wouldn't be so hot. He does not agree.

Erin is getting that other top tooth in, finally. It is taking forever to break through and she is fretful. With the arrival of August, we are finished with her First Year calendar. I had so much fun writing everything down as she learned to do things, as well as big days for our family. I guess I'm going to have to figure something else out. :D

(Don't you just love the Tigger hat? We got it from Disney when Ian was 3 months old; they both look so cute in it.)

I don't feel as interesting today as I normally do. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today with those tomatoes. I really hope the salsa turns out to be yummy. I'm not sure how I'll feel if it's nasty or no one wants to eat it. Oh well, we can always use it for Christmas gifts. Is it tacky to ask for the jars back?? Probably, but man, those jars are expensive!!

Now that it's August, I'm finally figuring out how to do things around the heat. Baking and cooking are best done in the morning, when the house is still cool. Unless you are canning, then there's no good time, it just makes everything hot. I am glad that our garden is not going to waste though. But now I am out of canning jars! Now, of course, is the time for someone to give us 10 lb of okra. I have everything but jars and hot peppers. Our local grocery store is not carrying them until the salmonella ? scare is over. I guess. I think. Because what other reason do they have not to carry them. We live in OK! There are ALWAYS peppers. Until now.

Another thing. My birthday is a week from Saturday. I feel like I need to make a list or something. My friend Rachel is a compulsive list-maker. Neat, right? No, the neat thing is that she actually DOES the things on her list. Crazy. I love to make lists too, but I end up doing other things and then putting them on the list so I can mark them off. Does anyone else do that?

Anyway, when you start not making sense it's time to go to bed. The best kind of people take their own advice. The End.

Get Up, Uncle Steven!

Last Friday we went to the airport to pick up a special visitor. He is the first of Chris's family to visit us out here and we are so happy about it! We all call him Uncle Steven and he thinks it's funny. I tried to stop, but I just can't.

But he's been playing with the kids, rough-housing with Ian and playing with Erin and riding in the cop car with Chris. And me? Well, he fixed that broken light switch in the laundry room so I don't have to prop a flashlight spring on it anymore to get it to stay on. Poor Uncle Steven is sleeping on the couch, since it's the coolest place in the very hot house. This means that no matter what time he goes to bed, he is the focal point of everyone's morning as soon as they get their little keysters up and at 'em in the morning. At 7am. Yawn.

Usually I stumble out of bed to monitor playtime. This morning, I was kind of grumpy, having been up with a grouchy, sweaty, teething Baby Noodle the night before. But it was hard to stay grumpy when I was fixing breakfast. Because Uncle Steven Moved.

Ian had been studying him for quite some time, hoping that if he stared hard enough, Uncle Steven would wake up to play. Every time Uncle Steven twitched, moved or breathed hard, there was a newsflash.

"Uncle Steven is A-wake, Mommy!" he announced about 476 times in the short time it took me to take the eggs out of the fridge and crack one into a skillet. Ian puts a little extra emphasis on the first syllable of the word so it comes out "aaahhh-wake." After about 15 minutes of this scrutiny, I'm sure Uncle Steven felt small beady eyes on him and squinted around with one eye. I happened to be checking on Erin at the time. She spotted the movement and went 90 mph across the living room to pull herself up on the side of the couch and emit something between a squeal and a whinny at her new favorite playmate (I knew I shouldn't have let Uncle Steven get her from her naps over the past few days; it puts me further and further down the list).

The whinny did it. Uncle Steven was aah-wake and pounced on. So much for sleeping in!

But we've been having a great time. On Sunday afternoon, we mosied on over to the Prairie Grove Battlefield Park (something like that) where a Civil War battle was fought. I won't go on about the details because I don't remember them, but it was pretty neat to read about the battle and to see where it was actually fought. Especially the ones that were ordered to go up this steep hill and go get the enemy, who was at the top, picking them all off one by one. And they had cannons. Ian liked those. But the neatest thing to me was all the houses they had relocated to the park. They were from the 1800s and we had a great time peeking through the windows and door cracks. I am very grateful for my indoor plumbing, air conditioner and not having to wear layers and layers of petticoats. We had a great time. And if you are wondering why I wore pants when it was 90 out, it wasn't exactly a planned trip. We were driving around aimlessly, making our way towards Fayetteville, when we noticed that the park was open and turned in to explore. So we did. :)

This was the church. It was a mansion compared to the school. It had an old organ with a pedal to pump the bellows. It was really neat. But the roll of paper towels and bottle of Windex that somebody left on the pulpit kind of killed the authenticity a bit.

And then yesterday, a friend came to the house and gave us a digital camera!! It came with a picture printer and everything! It can take pictures and video and I've been playing with it almost nonstop. We love it! And it's just in time for everyone's birthday! We are thrilled! So just for fun, I'll post a few more pics that I took yesterday.

Ian is very seriously playing video games. I was in his way. The flash was messing up his game. He was very focused. Now take the picture and go away, Mommy!

I was attempting to take a self- portrait and I was happy with the way this one turned out. I really like having a delete button. See my little redheaded offspring? See how blue her eyes are? See how blue my eyes are not? But I've got some impressive bags under my eyes from that last little tooth coming in.

I was faked out by this picture. They were both looking at the camera and Ian was smiling nicely. Then I pushed the button and everything changed. As my mom remarked with a cute little comment, you can clearly see that Erin is giving Ian A Look. This is a "Men are from Mars" look, if there ever was one. At least they have a good time on Mars. hehehe.

This is what happens when you are talking to someone who thinks it is funny to take pictures of you at various strange angles. Believe me, this is the best of the lot. At least I know what my armpit looks like from the back though. And this one is not as close as the other that showed exactly what you would see if you were a little shorter than me and looked up my nose. I was fixing my hair here, by the way. Notice the smirk on Chris's face? He knew exactly what he was doing, the scamp. Wow. So that's what the underside of my neck looks like. Hmm....