view at your own risk...

So we found the battery charger for our camera's battery pack just in time for Butchering! Our extended family butchers every year around Thanksgiving over two days, sometimes just two pigs, once as many as five. This year we did three. Everyone who is getting meat has to help and this is the first time that Greg and I have decided to participate. Friday is the killing, skinning, gutting day. Since Greg is a little squeamish he didn't go that day, but he was our representative on Saturday when they cut up the meat and ground up, seasoned and packaged the sausage. I went on Friday and helped with the skinning mostly, something I actually didn't mind much at all. This is the first time in our family history that a woman has helped with the first day of butchering and there were a lot of other young cousins there for the first time that day too. I know it sounds awful but both days were actually pretty fun. I guess it's spending time with people you love that makes it fun, even though the task is a lot of work and can be pretty gross at times. Greg took a video clip the second day, when it looks more like meat than a pig. We also eat borscht together for lunch the second day according to the tradition and so there are a few pics of Luke and cousins Eli and Addie playing together in front of my aunt Donna's Christmas tree which she got up the day after Thanksgiving.



Eating borscht...

And cobbler!


Luke and Eli are best friends. (Eli is reading Luke's favorite book to him here.) At our Thanksgiving reunion a few days earlier we were all sitting in the living room in a circle and when Eli came to sit down Luke crawled right up to him and put his hands on Eli's shoulders. Then he touched noses with Eli and then he laid his head on Eli's chest for a moment. Then he touched noses again and gave Eli a big wet kiss! He sat there with Eli giving kisses and patting him and smiling at him for several minutes before becoming interested in something else, and even then he kept checking to make sure Eli was close by. I haven't seen him do that with anyone before, and it was SOOOOO sweet! All the aunts were hunting for their cameras.

More of the butchering pics...

Making cracklings...

Today (Sunday, November 30) we had the Bartel Thanksgiving get together and I think after three days of being with other people he was just a little worn out because he was pretty whiny, but he did manage to be pretty cute too. When we got home I decided to attempt the hair cut I mentioned before. We have a short video clip of it but no pics because Luke was so exhausted that he fell asleep while I was working on it. We started out with Luke in the tub but that was short lived and we ended up doing the rest downstairs while he sat/lay on my lap. It didn't turn out great, I'm probably going to have to get someone else to fix it tomorrow and will most likely cry about doing it in the first place. He was so wiggly that one side got too short really quickly. I do think he might still have curls as it grows out, tomorrow when he gets up I'll take another look at it and wet it down and see what it does.

.....Ok, so I'm having trouble uploading the videos I took, will try again later, for now enjoy the pics. Once I have Luke's hair cut done I'll post some more.

I wish my camera battery wasn't dead!!!

Ok, so today while I was getting supper ready Greg was watching Luke and listening to music and all of the sudden Greg yells, "Laura, you gotta see this!!!" Luke was "dancing"!!! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. He had this huge grin on his face and was jerking his head from side to side, like head banging but sideways instead of up and down. (not just to one side and then center and back but from one side all the way to the other and back again) He kept making hilarious faces as he concentrated his hardest on moving with the music, winking and screwing up his mouth, and then he would stop for a second and grin at me before starting to dance again. I was almost in tears I was laughing so hard. I think this is the first time we have ever seen him really try to dance with music, and I'm so glad I didn't miss it! I just wish we had been able to catch it with our camera, but the battery is dead and I haven't been able to find the charger since Greg rearranged the dining room to work on the house. I HAVE to find that battery charger!!!

In other news, we have a working toilet in the new bathroom!!! It has a really short powerful flush but it's not terribly loud, which I'm glad about since it's right next to the dining room.

Construction!

These first two pics were taken the first of November, didn't feel much like November then but it is starting to now!

This baby loves his daddy!

For the last week my father-in-law, Dennis, was visiting us and working on our house with Greg. On his last visit in the spring he helped to frame the bathroom and small room we wanted to put in down stairs, made out of a side entry in our house that wasn't really functional before. Since then we had gotten most of the plumbing and dry wall up in the bathroom but none of the mudding done and no dry wall up in the small room. With his help we got the rest of the drywall up, did lots of mudding and sanding, started to paint, got the light-switches and outlets installed, and the linoleum on the floor!!!

The dust from sanding was awful, all of us got sore throats and Luke and I got runny noses and coughs as well. Only Greg got white though! It is going to take another week to get all that dust cleaned up!

We also had time to enjoy each other. It was great to have Grandpa there every morning to play with Luke while I got an extra couple of hours of sleep, especially when I worked late a couple of nights. We also spent an evening at my parents house to relax.

Aren't my boys sweet, both exhausted and all snuggled up together!

These next two are for Mimi, who gave Luke this toy. We thought since he likes to walk around things maybe he would be ready for this thing and use it to walk around but it's just a little to advanced for him. He really likes it but mommy has to be right there with him or it either tips or runs away from him. I don't think it will be too much longer before he can do it on his own though!

I think Luke really enjoyed his time with Grandpa, especially watching from the gate while Grandpa worked.

The cubby hole on the right of the shower is going to have three shelves in it and the toilet and sink will be on the right hand side too. I have a light blue shower curtain and soap dish and will get some towels to match. It's small but I think it will be beautiful.

This light is in the small room on the left of the bathroom. We haven't figured out what color to paint it yet, probably will get a reject paint. The to do list is a lot smaller now, we need to buy a mirror, lights and doorknob for the bathroom, finish the painting in both rooms including the shelves and door, install the sink and toilet which shouldn't take too long since I think the plumbing is already in place and waiting, install the door to the bathroom and decorate and move things in to both rooms! I can hardly wait to reclaim that space, but I think it will still be a couple of weeks at least, depending on how much time Greg is able to spend working on things.

check out this video

My mom posted a really cute video of Luke on her blog, you have to see it for yourself if you haven't already. It's preceeded by some pretty scary pics of my youngest brother dressed in drag for Halloween, but it's worth the scare to see my little cutie! (-: Just follow the link below.

http://vintage-navalgazer.blogspot.com/2008/11/halloween-dance.html

Fun Fall Colors

This was taken a week ago Thursday, I think. Two days later Luke woke up with raging fever and runny nose. The fever has been gone since last Sunday but the head cold remains.

Hear are a few pics I took yesterday...

This bright orange rose is my favorite of the four bushes we planted this year and right now it's blooming like crazy.

This shot I thought was pretty cool when I realized I managed to get the bee in it!

The trees are beautiful right now...

and there are just enough leaves on the ground to make a pile to play in. Turns out that crunchy leaves make a great toy!

It was lots of fun watching Luke enjoy the leaves for the first time.

Rough weekend

Well, Luke has another first to add to the list, but not such a happy one, it's his first cold. )-: Saturday morning I woke up early to Luke crying, very snotty, and very warm. Greg got the thermometer out and he had a temp of 102.6! He couldn't find the Tylenol so he ran to the grocery store to get more while I got up with Luke (way earlier than usual at 7am). Before he got back I had found the Tylenol and given him some. An hour later his temp had come down some but was still 100.8, but he was happy and playing and didn't seem at all bothered by it. We had gotten tickets from one of the Dr's I work with to the K State/OU game that morning and were planning to leave him with my parents and since he seemed to not be bothered and the Tylenol was working we decided to go ahead with plans. Also I talked with another nurse I knew and after talking about his symptoms we agreed that there was no reason to take him to the Dr unless his temp spiked higher, they wouldn't do anything we weren't already doing.

The game was a really fun experience. I have never been to Manhattan, KS and the drive was beautiful with the rolling hills and fall grasses all different colors. A K State game is a totally different experience from a Notre Dame game. At Irish games the student section is all green but the rest of the arena is all different colors, it's high spirited and fun but K State fans have a unique feel to them. The entire arena was packed with people wearing purple, only a few red sections for the OU supporters but almost everyone had their team color on. My cousin Greg said that it used to be that people all wore grey or white with purple letters and were kind of ashamed to be purple but then they started a campaign for purple pride to get everyone to come to the game wearing purple and now everyone does! K State ended up losing in a very high scoring game but we had a lot of fun anyway.

We came home and mom reported that Luke had been very mellow and sweet all day and had slept for three straight hours in the afternoon, at least twice the usual length. We figured the cold was getting to him a little bit but his fever seemed to be mostly gone so that was good. Unfortunately his nose was very, very runny and that meant that his mouth was his only good airway. That meant that eating was hard, sucking on a paci to comfort himself was out of the question, and his mouth was constantly open so he was soaked with spit! We had a really rough night, his fever came back though not as high and he was really frustrated with trying to nurse with a clogged nose. Sunday was pretty long too, he had times when he was pretty happy and playing but I could never be far away and sometimes there just wasn't anything that could distract him from how icky he was feeling. The Mei Tai Baby I bought was a total lifesaver. It was the only way I could do anything requiring two hands and he was pretty happy in it most of the afternoon.

I think the stuffed nose is beginning to ease up a little bit now and his fever is down again so I am hoping tonight will go better. I guess this is relatively good timing for him to be sick though because I don't have to work the next two days so he can have lots of snuggling to cheer him up until he is feeling like his old self again. Until then my time is pretty much consumed by his needs. One interesting thing I noticed was that since his nose got clogged Saturday he has not wanted to eat solid foods at all for me, only nursing will do. Usually when I am home he eats solid foods at least a couple times a day along with nursing as often as he wants to but nursing doesn't seem to satisfy him all the time anymore. Usually he really enjoys trying new foods and I can't get the food to his mouth fast enough, but today he refused to even try anything. I'm not sure if it's even harder to breath while eating solid foods and that's the reason or if it is the fact that nothing seems to taste good when you can't smell or if it's just instinct telling him that breast milk will be the best thing for him right now, plenty of fluids and lots of good nutrients and antibodies to help him get better. Anyway, it's interesting to me..

The mei tai allowed me to make soup for dinner tonight, the first I have made this fall. I made my favorite, lentil and sausage soup from the "More With Less" cookbook. It is supper easy and doesn't take long, if you have the ingredients in the house. I got all the way to adding the lentils, the last thing before you sit back and let it cook, and realised I would have to make a trip to the store! I ended up getting quite a few other things we needed which was ok, but I would have rather eaten a little earlier and gone shopping tomorrow or the next day if necessary. Oh well, the soup was really good. Even though I hate being cold there are definitely some things I love about fall... All the beautiful leaves and grasses and milo fields, scarves and warm snugly blankets and shawls, hot tea with milk in it, soup, crisp apples, squash/pumpkin dishes, candy corn, and knitting! I am over half way finnished with the first sock for my Mom and it is turring out easier than I thought and very pretty. I just hope I can get done with all my Christmas projects before it's Christmas! Time seems to be going by so quickly!

Happy Fall everyone and I hope we are the only sickies!

clapping video

I finally got the clapping on tape!!! Please ignore the messy desk and room overflowing with construction materials. (-; Enjoy!