Love Is....

• Working outside together - mowing/weedeating, planting/tilling, admiring the flowers (me)/weeding the flowerbeds (him).
• Cleaning house together because one of us is anal about having a clean house when company comes over.
• Playing XBox together.
• Stalking people on Facebook together.
• Baking cookies for his whole shift at work.
• Working a 14-hour shift to provide for our family, and not complaining about it.
• Getting up in the middle of the night with our son, even though you have to get up for work at 5 AM.

And so much more.... Have I mentioned lately that I love my husband?

I was on Facebook this morning, and one of my friends had mentioned she had watched a romantic movie and was depressed that she didn't have a man. It made me think of how all the mushy, take-my-breath away moments you see in the movies aren't real. Yes, they happen (occasionally), but that's not what makes you love someone. It's the day-to-day stuff.

I am so happy I have Paul, and so proud he's mine.

Big Boy Bed

The pillows and stuffed animals on the floor are in case he falls out, since we don't have a rail.

Since Nathan had started crawling out of his crib, we knew it was time for a real bed. A/I didn't want him falling off the crib when he was crawling out, and B/ I didn't want him tearing the crib apart by using it for a jungle gym.
So Friday we went to our local furniture store and picked him up a twin size matress set. Since we would have to buy a bed anyways, we decided to skip the toddler bed, since he'd only be able to fit in it for a few years. (His crib also converts, but we'd just be delaying the inevitable, since in October he'd be getting evicted either way.)
I'd also like to point out that we priced matresses at Nebraska Furniture Mart's website (supposedly the best deals around). The one we bought in Ottawa was only $15 more, which we would have easily spent in time and gas just going up there - IF they even had it in stock! Bigger stores aren't always better bargains.
We set up the matresses in his room, then put him down for his nap in the crib. Later, after he woke up, I got the bed made with sheets and matress protector and all. I thought we'd give him a few days to get used to seeing it in his room before we tried to make him sleep in it. When we took him up to go night-night, he wanted the big bed. We both thought he'd just want to jump on it, but he crawled up and laid on the pillow. So we covered him up, said prayers, and came downstairs - fully expecting him to be up and about in a manner of minutes.
Not a peep all night.
Last night was the fourth night he's been in the bed, and we haven't had a problem with him getting out of bed at night, or even falling out. A couple of those nights he woke up, but he was still laying in bed when we went to check on him. He gets out of bed in the morning when he's ready to get up - one morning I hadn't heard him wake up, but he started knocking on his door saying, "Daddy.... Daaaadddyyyyy...." Yesterday's nap was the first time we had any problem with him, but that's because he'd fallen asleep at noon while we were in the car (for about 45 minutes), so he'd had enough of a nap to take the edge off, so that by 2:30 when we got home and put him to bed, he wasn't tired enough to fall right asleep. After the third time of him getting up, we brought him down.
I wish all transitions would be this easy! Our next one is potty training.... But we'll save that for after the new baby. (Unless he decides to do it on his own - wouldn't that be nice!)

The Munchkinator himself in all of his glorious boyishness - dirty face, bloody nose, and all. I love him!

My Excuse

Sorry I haven't blogged this week. I've been busy. And I truly mean busy.
Some people we go to church with own a catering business, and they had to do a huge 3-day farm sale this weekend, plus the Country Club's Memorial Day gala. Both events needed pies. Mike (the owner) was talking to my dad about this, and my dad offered my "expertise."
I used to bake pies for the restaurant/coffee shop in Pomona when I was a teen. But they took advantage of the fact that I was only like 14, and only wanted to pay me something like 6 or 8 bucks a pie, even though fillings would cost me at least half of that, not to mention my time. (Then they would turn around and charge something like $4 a slice.) That job didn't last long, but it gained me some experience.
I didn't sleep well Sunday night, before I started this undertaking. I was nervous I wouldn't get it all done.
And then I get there on Monday, and find out that instead of the 40 pies I thought I'd signed on for, it was 100+. They told me how many they needed to serve, and my math..... Oh well. They have an industrial kitchen, so things cranked out pretty fast. Being able to bake 12 at a time really speeds things up - had I been doing this in my own kitchen, I don't think I could have gotten it done even baking around the clock - 4 would be the max in my own oven, and they wouldn't bake evenly at that.
All in all, I made 64 fruit pies, and 44 cream pies. In 4 days. I'm proud of myself. I made all of the fruit pie fillings from scratch, and even though we used frozen crusts for the bottom of every pie, I rolled out a homemade crust to top the ones that needed it (cherry, peach, and strawberry rhubarb; we did a crumb topping on all the apple - much faster). The lemon pies were true cream pies (custard-type), but the chocolate, peanut butter, and coconut we cheated on and used a mix. The coconut will be interesting, because we used a pina colada mix instead of coconut milk which the stores were out of. I thought it was amazing.
So I really do have an excuse this time for my lack of bloginess. (Although as I look, I do have an entry this week, even though it really wasn't about this week. I did it while babysitting.)
I do have more blog fodder coming. After this weekend. Today I'm working at the farm sale I baked all these for (hopefully seeing the pie being swooped up by customers!), then tonight is my brother's [24th?] bday party, then tomorrow is church, then Monday we have a graduation reception and are having our own celebration cookout since Paul's got the day off.....

All 64 of the fruit pies. I couldn't get all the cream pies at once since they were stuffed into every available refrigerator or freezer.

My Week

So in the last week, Nathan has learned how to crawl out of his crib, open the sliding door to the deck, open the baby gate, and open the fridge.
I knew this would happen, but I wasn't expecting it to all happen at once.
This morning, I was up before Nathan and was checking my email. I heard him wake up with a "Ohmmmm...." Not 3 seconds later, I heard his feet padding across the floor.
He's growing so fast.
Last night I took off his diaper in the living room, since it was falling off anyways. He played for a couple minutes, then kind of got a weird look on his face. I asked him if he needed to potty, and he took my hand and led me to the bathroom to sit on the toilet. He didn't go - he waited until I put some training pants on him.
How do you get them to go in the toilet?
So much for lazy days.

9 Really Random Reasons Why I Love My Husband

....or at least why loving him is so easy!

1. He cleans the litterbox. For MY cat.
2. He scrubs the tub with a brush and cleaner - sometimes without even me asking him.
3. He wipes the rim under the seat of the toilet, because girls don't make the mess there (even if it wasn't him that made the mess).
4. He keeps his truck clean and free of trash. (A feat I have never managed in my car.)
5. The yard always looks great. He always does his best job mowing it (weather permitting).
6. He helps weed my flower beds.
7. And helps plant the garden.
8. He helps me with canning and freezing stuff from the garden.
9. He always looks neat and clean when we go out in public - shirt tucked in, etc.

Finally Done!

I finally finished the book The Silmarillion (by JRR Tolkein, author of Lord of the Rings, to which this is a tie-in - a prequel, if you will).
It was probably the longest haul book-wise I've ever endeavoured in. It probably took me a good two months to finish - and that's reading some of it most nights before bed.
I don't know what kept me going - whether it was interesting on some level, the hope that some of it would start to make sense eventually, or just plain stubbornness that I wasn't going to be bested by a book.... But I can't particularly say that it was a memorable read, other than how tedious it was.
It goes the two "ages" (each thousands of years long) of Middle Earth prior to the age that the Lord of the Rings is set in. It begins with the creation of Earth. And that's when it gets confusing. There are so many names to remember - add to that that for some there are the given names, then the names they call themselves, then the names that others call them! I recognized some names here and there, but nothing really snapped to me until it got to the "present" age that was the setting for Lord of the Rings.
Anyhow. This is kind of a rant, kind of an excuse for not changing my "currently reading" box - it's because what I'm currently reading hasn't changed for so long!
I'm rewarding myself by watching all 3 movies, and I've started on the 3 books (which I've already read... twice, I think).

Little Tooter