My Sister's Wedding

Kristen is in full wedding preparation. We looked at dresses today but I honestly think she has already found the ones she really likes somewhere else. It reminded me of looking for dresses what seems like forever ago. I definately feel far from those days at this point - watching her put on these beautiful gowns myself all huge & hot and trying to manage my two monkeys amongst all the beautiful white gowns. Thank goodness for strollers with seat belts! Anyway we are all really excited. Here is her webpage for the big day.

We're Back

So I know I haven't posted for quite a while. We went home (to Pratt) for Kaden to go to VBS at our home church and knew we would be gone a week. Tim can work there as easily as he can work here. Well... after much complaining from Tim about being gone for a week he went with us. Let me just say God definately brought us back for that week. Tim found out he was NEEDED in Pratt and needed to stay two weeks. So we did. The kids thought they had hit the jackpot. They got to go to VBS the first week and then the County Fair was the next week so those two events plus swimming and visiting friends made an exciting two weeks for us. We then went to Kansas City for a wedding and Lawrence for a fundraiser for a congressman that Orion was hosting. We are now home at least for the week. I have lots to catch up and pictures to post so hopefully in the next few days I can do that.

Oh, and you also might notice I took down my pregnancy counter. Today a lady in a white car drove by our house stopped and took a picture and drove off. Okay so I am paranoid and all the reasons why she would have done this are going through my head. There is the possibility that she just likes our house and wants to build one like it or we are breaking some home owner's association rule and we will be called out at the upcoming meeting or she is planning to either kidnap one of my handsome little guys (note to self more posts of their bad behavior) or she is going to try to steal our unborn. So until I forget about this incident I decided to take down my counter. And just in case she really is a psyco look for a white 4 door car - oklahoma plates (I know that really narrows it down). She has chin length straight dark hair. She drove by our house on July 31 about 4:15pm. There if it is a lady who reads my blog and has decided to stalk us in real life we are on to you.

OUCH!!!

We moved to a place that is anti - ethanol. That makes telling people what my husband does fun. I guess they would rather be dependent on the Middle East.

This sign isn't even accurate. If it were really 100% gas your car wouldn't work very well. Gas has to have an oxygenate in it (alcohol of some kind).

This isn't just at one gas station either. They are all over town. This area is kind of behind where other states are. I am guessing a lot of these gas stations do have E10 but there isn't a labeling law here.

Tim met our neighbor a few weeks ago. He wasn't very neighborly.

Neighbor: So what do you do?

Tim: Renewable fuels

Neighbor: What is that?

Tim: Ethanol, wind, bio- diesel

Neighbor: What is the future of ethanol? - I hope not good.

Tim: Hmm - Explanation begins. (Thinking: Nice to meet you too, xxxxxxx).

His question was a good one. Why he followed with his side comment I have no idea.

Random thougts

Well I guess the consensus is that Tim won that round. The i phone is cool - even though I hate to admit it. But, everyone who sees me needs to ask me if I have that thing with me - so it will work. Who knows maybe I will even look kinda "in" when I am pushing my triple stroller. Okay so maybe nothing can make you look cool when pushing a triple stroller!

I have had a few comments lately about having 3. First of all Tim and I took the boys to Lowes to get a hose, and some insectcide. Tim was looking at something outside and the boys and I went right inside the door. This lady came up to me and said are all those children yours? I look around and expect to see a daycare walking in the door or other families with children standing around but the only ones standing there was the boys and I. And may I mention the boys were standing there quietly and very still. So I replied "Yes". She says "Oh my you have a herd don't you." I said do we consider 2 a herd? She didn't say anything except "Oh my gosh and you are having another one." I guess she had just noticed the tummy. She walked off and I stood there confused. Maybe she had double vision? Wierd.

A lady in target yesterday:

Lady: "Please tell me you are having a girl."
Me: "Nope it's a boy." - Again looking at the boys to see how they are behaving. They are being great.
Lady: "Awww, Good Luck"

Later we see her again:
This time though Kaden is singing "Jack likes to wear dirty underwear" (thank you Alvin & the chipmunks) in a pretty loud voice then both boys would erupt in laughter. This happend over & over. The lady looked horrified. I am thinking great and she was already clearly anti-boy.

The third time we see her:
She told me she didn't know about boys but her daughter was having one after having 3 girls and they (her daughter & husband) were really excited about having a boy but this lady just wasn't sure. I just smiled at her and said "Boys are a blessing" and walked off. I really don't know what her goal was with her comments. She definately went out of her way to make them.

A response to the last post...

Hi all!! This is Tim, no one who has ever read this blog has ever seen a post from me, in fact, I just recently learned that we had a blog. I would never post under normal circumstances, but, given Kelli's post from today regarding my thoughtful gift, I wanted to post and defend my actions.

More importantly, I think this little event is a classic case of a husband trying to meet his wife's needs by trying to show that he wants to be more "connected" to her--thereby fulfilling her need for time and connectivity. After all, she does not have that much, if any, adult conversation during the day and has voiced her desire for me to be more communicative with her during the day, especially while I am out of town on business.

There are a few ways to meet this need in today's world--text mesaging, emailing, IM, and the gold old fashioned phone call. However, Kelli, as most of you know, does not know how to text message and rarely emails. This is not because she can't, it is because her old phone would not let her--in short it was a piece of crap. To take it further, the "crap phone" was rarely part of her wardrobe while she was out during the day--making her unnaccessible and out of my reach. Needless to say, I have not been meeting Kelli's need for connectivity in our marriage.

Math equation: Crap Phone+Busy stay at home mom who is on the move all the time=Wife not connected to Husband.

MAN VIEWPOINT FOR SOLUTION: Buy her a phone that she will use and carry with her. Better yet, do it unexpectedly!!!! RIght?????

Somehow, I missed the real message that Kelli was communicating to me. By telling me she wanted me to be more communicative she was telling me she wanted a day off to go to the spa. Fair enough, that's next.

Second, let me address the cost issue. We did not bear the expense--they are both business phones and are totally deductible: NET COST TO TIM AND KELLI=$0.00 Good deal, no??

where has my husband been this morning?

He left early & has been gone for 3 hours - he's not at work- but getting an iphone. Today is the release of the new i phone. Can you tell I am thrilled. So he just called and did he buy just one? No I got a present. Yup one for me too. And apparently this took a lot of work. Since there was a limit of one per customer he had to talk a high school chick into pretending to be me. He swore she wasn't as cute. Right now I am not sure how I feel.
1) I am mad. That is really not an expense we need right now. With moving and having a baby. There are much more practical things we need right now. Even a new computer should have come first. And I am the WORST cell phone user. He said I needed one becuase mine didn't work. Well that is what happens when the battery is dead or it has been misplaced.

2) I should be happy- right. I mean how thoughtful. It's a gift - right? I mean it is probably the most "in" I have been in years. Gifts are just not the same when you have a joint checking account, you pay the bills, you have one income, and have just had huge expenses with more on the horizon.

Oh, and I will remember he was able to take 3 hours off of work to get a phone when 1) I have my next doctor's appointment. Since he hasn't been to one since I was pregnant with Kaden.
Well he will be home soon. Maybe my next post will be singing the praises of the i phone! It better better be cool! And a whole lot more exciting then getting free diapers.

By the way - he did need one. His last cell phone carrier doesn't cover this area and his job does require him to be reached at anytime. I just do not think I "need" one and would have never have spent money on one. I "need" a haircut and want a mani/pedi. UGH!

Bubbles Anyone?

This is what happens when Grandma is in charge of the bath. There was about a foot of water and 2 feet of bubbles.

Where's Jack? (See the top of his head) He kept going under on purpose.

The bubbles didn't even sting their eyes!