climber.

Lawson is such a little climber.
Anything that stands still.
And even things that don't...


Climbing...

Falling...

Laughing/crying...


Lawson's laughing, Sophie's crying.
He just fell on her.
(Still figuring out my new camera.)

But look how sweet...

man cave.

Corey's been working on some storage cubes that we're going to tuck under the rafters in the garage loft. Then when we finally get around to sheetrocking up there, we'll have some built in storage nooks.

I called his cell phone tonight to tell him supper was ready (because I was too lazy to walk outside... and it was really cold) He answered his phone, "Man cave. This is Corey." :)



And every time he comes inside he says that if he just had heat and a toilet out there, he would never come inside. Heat will be added at some point. He's out of luck with the toilet, though.

*********************************************************
Last night our neighbor Craig called and said that he needed to borrow our garage. He was changing a brake light on his car and needed to get out of the cold wind. Corey happily obliged. I just thought it was funny. Megan and I borrow stuff from each other all the time, but borrowing the garage hadn't occured to me. :)

weird.

I was flipping through a random catalog I got in the mail today and a product caught my eye:

Earthy Badger Body Care Kit.
lotions, lip balm, sore muscle balm...

Earthy Badger???

A few pages later I saw:

Bedtime Badger Body Care Kit.

Since when are badgers so popular?
The picture on the label was sort of cute.
Especially the badger in his little nightgown.
Maybe it's just me, but when I'm thinking about pampering and taking care of my body... a badger isn't what comes to mind.

But maybe it's just me.

old and new.

Can you tell a difference?
Old camera is the picture on top.
New camera on the bottom.

I think I may need to adjust some settings, though.
The lighting seems better in the first one.
Tell me what I need to do...
Meg? Jana?

lawson.

Lawson's big threat when he's mad now...

"I not gonna marry you anymore, Mommy."

better.

I can't complain too much about my immune system. It fought off my yuck pretty quick. It wasn't the really bad flu-yuck, just achy everything, fever, congestion, head feels like it weighs as much as a bunch of bricks-yuck. I was back at school on Thursday and just gave my kiddos the whole "Is it more fun to have a grouchy teacher or a happy teacher?" speech and the warning that my head will start to hurt if you all get too squirrely today. Hurting head = grouchy teacher. They were all very nice to me. (Unlike a certain other teacher who was very grouchy to me when his routine got changed. Can you say unflexible??? (is that a word?) It's one of the first things you learn in teaching... you have to be flexible. This man apparently missed that lesson 20 years ago when he started teaching. Big ol' grouch.)

Anxious to download pictures from the new camera tonight and see difference.

Pictures will come...

sick.

I can't remember the last time that I took a sick day.
For myself, anyway.
My immune system is usually pretty good and I am able to fight off whatever crud is floating around my classroom.
Not this time.
I've had 3-4 kids gone every day for the past 2 weeks. At least.
Corey convinced me to call for a sub this morning when he saw me holding on to the bathroom sink, trying to balance myself. And I had just figured out that the reason I was sweating is because I was running a fever. Yuck.

What I wouldn't give for a job that I could just call in sick on days like this.
Sub plans stink.
Luckily, Corey called in that he would be late and he got the kids around and to Jessi's while I ran up to school.

I ventured off the couch for the first time about 10 minutes ago.
Now I'm heading back.

Corey wanted to take a picture of me crashed on the couch with my new camera when he was home for lunch. I said no. (Yes! The camera is open!)

More ibprofen and the couch are calling my name.
Healthy wishes to all...

for jessi.

Look how little...




A favorite of mine... could he be any sweeter?


Check out these legs! His rolls have rolls! :)














Another favorite...


Here's that ornery little face you recognize...




Did that help with your "baby fever?"

more for jessi.

Same sweet smile that you see everyday... just on a smaller person.

valentines day!

The kids had so much fun making their valentines!

This is one for Allie, Jessi's dog. :) We did manage to convince Lawson that Allie didn't need a sucker.

(a whale)



So many fun valentines from pre-school!

A favorite...

I felt very loved by my kids at school...

and this doesn't include the bag of M&M's, the hollow chocolate apple with gummy worm inside and the 1/2 pound Hershey bar that I left at school!

And still debating over whether or not to open this box...

Corey was very generous this year! Way too much money for a Valentine's Day gift...

It is a very nice gift...

I would probably have a lot of fun with it...

it is a lot of money...

but he paid for it out of his farm account...

I don't really need a new camera...

but this is the same camera that Megan has...

and Megan's camera takes awesome pictures...

but a lot of that is Megan, not the camera...

and it is a lot of money...

Do you see the struggle here?

And this is what's keeping me from being able to open the box and play around with it to help make my decision:

What's a girl to do?

mother of the year.

In case any of you had the crazy idea that I might still be in the running for such an award...
the following story should squelch those thoughts:

Every night before we go to bed, we pick a sound asleep Sophie up out of bed and take her to the bathroom. She never really wakes up, but sometimes she is just dead on her feet and can hardly sit up on the potty, much less stand. The other night was such a night. I'm sitting on the little stepstool in the bathroom, trying to keep her standing on her feet long enough to zip up her footy jammies... I let go for too long, she had no sense of balance, fell right over and smacked her face on the window sill. (You're wincing right now, aren't you?)

She woke up pretty quick after that.
Luckily, Lawson is a pretty sound sleeper, he never heard her yells and cries (which were understandable... I would probably be yelling, too, if I had fallen and smacked my face on a windowsill). Corey is a pretty sound sleeper, too. I could hear him snoring on the couch downstairs the whole time this was going on. I was feeling a horrible mix of guilt, sympathy, more guilt, humor (you just have to laugh about this stuff sometimes) and a little bit of annoyance... it was midnight, and the crying was going on just a little too long. (see why I'm not qualified for this award? I just gave my daughter a fat lip and I'm feeling annoyed with her!)

Finally got her back to sleep.
I kept telling her that going to sleep would make her hurtie lip feel better.
She called me on that in the morning. "You said my lip would feel better after I went to sleep! It doesn't feel better!"
The puffiness didn't last too long and the hurtie-ness only came up a few times while we were brushing teeth.

Even better... she doesn't remember how it happened.
And I'm not going to tell her. :)

train.

Oh, how we love these little people.