It's been a while...

Well, I am officially back. It's been months and months, and I am sitting down to write on my blog. Why I have not written on this:

#1 ~ We have had dial up and I was ready to chuck my computer out the window everytime I posted because it took so long. Now we have high speed and it's quicker for the most part. We still have an old computer.

#2 ~ I have been obsessed with Facebook. If you are not on Facebook, you have to get on now! And add me as a friend. :0) It's been fun to read about what people are doing and to catch up with people that have "fallen off the face of the earth." I will say, though, be prepared to read some things that you may wish you hadn't have read. A few of you may understand what I mean, as we've talked about this before!

I am trying to think of #3, but I really don't have an excuse. I have just been out of the loop.

So, here's what's been going on lately. We've been super busy, busier than I ever anticipated for the fall. The girls are playing more and more together and we're having fun. AND, today...well, today has been interesting. I was excited to finally be home, back in a normal schedule, as we have been running around like crazy lately. Emily pottied on her bedroom floor (NOT normal for her). She ran into me so upset that she did that, and I threw her in the bathtub. As she was screaming because water was in her face as I was rinsing her hair (NORMAL) , Lucy (who was dried off) wandered off into Em's room and sat on the bed and pottied. I guess that doesn't surprise me. Let a 21 month old wander around naked, and I suppose she will potty on just the right thing at the right time. I have wiped noses and cleaned up potty all day long! I'm ready for a nap. :0) Hope YOU have a good day!!!

SpRiNg

We are enjoying spring! Cookouts, playing on the swingset, Emily picking weeds...I mean "flowers". Tyler's been outside swatting at bees with Emily's plastic bat, and I've been taking pictures of our trees. I love it right now when our trees at the side/back are at their brightest colors. We have two that are bright pink. It doesn't do well with my nose, but I still enjoy them.

I have completed the hoosier cupboard that I have been working hard on to put in the antique shop. It was pretty dirty and dilapidated, so I'm really proud of how it looks in comparison to before! I kept it rustic, but just cleaned it up a lot and put a new top on it. I want to keep it, but I know that it doesn't work that way!!! I have to keep telling myself that it wouldn't fit in my kitchen anyways.

I will try (once again) to keep up with posting. I have been preoccupied with things to do, working on my things to sell, and the kids and life in general. If I had high speed internet, I might be up for doing this more often. One of these days.....!

Something New

So, I had a few pictures uploaded on this post, and as I was writing I accidentally deleted them. I don't want to go back and try to get them on. Anyways, you may have noticed that I have not posted for a few weeks! I've been bad at keeping up with it. A couple weeks ago I decided to start selling antiques at a shop in Peru (Indiana, for those of you not from around here! Ha!) Kelli started selling there and told me about it...I went to see it a couple Fridays ago and immediately wanted to start! I have wanted to do this for a while, and am going to give it a shot. I have been living in my laundry room(fixing,painting, staining), dining room(pricing things and stashing
everything in the corner), and the garage (FIXING things). Right now in the garage is a great old chippy white hoosier cupboard among other furniture. Can't wait till that's done! My goal is to take the first load to the shop this weekend. Here's the website if you want to take a look at where I'll be. http://thefarriswheel.net/default.aspx

Tyler's been very good about me taking over the garage and he thinks it's great that I'm trying something! He's helped out a lot while I am out working on stuff, switched his day off a couple weeks ago so I could go to an auction, and has been patient with my questions, "what do you think I should price this?" Emily likes to help choose paint colors for things, and this is what Lucy thinks:

Well, next time I will try to post a few pictures of some of my completed pieces, and hopefully I can do it without deleting them!

Funny Emily

Emily is so funny! I put a clock in her room a week or two ago, so that she can see when it's 7:00. She knows that if the clock says 7 and we're not up, she can turn on her light, close the door, and read or play. This morning I went into her room and this is what I found. All her little animals with underwear and socks on. It's hard to see it all in the picture, but it was really really funny.

This rhinoceros picture is something she drew a few days ago. I asked her what it was, thinking it looked like a rhino, but I wasn't sure. I was right! I thought this was very clever of her! Lots of details!

This morning I had quite a scare with Emily. She was in my bathroom and I was trimming her fingernails. I accidentally clipped the top of her thumb a little. She said it didn't hurt. But, she said she had a headache and that she was sweating. She sat on the floor and said she couldn't stand up. I picked her up and she went limp on me ~ all the blood running out of her face. She turned white! I took her clothes off and ran her over to the bed, got her a drink and called Tyler. He was out at White's Residential Services, helping his friend Brad with their chapel. He was on his way back through town right after I called, and stopped by to see how she was. She had no fever (in fact, she was sweating but her temp wasn't even 97!) By the time he got there, her color was back and she's been fine ever since. That was scary! She almost passed out on me! I think it was a combination of clipping her finger, she was thirsty, and the room was hot.

Little Miniatures

We have had a nice spring-like day today. Sunny, warm with a cool breeze, and I noticed bits of green starting to pop up as we passed by neighbors' soon-to-be flowerbeds. The girls and I took a nice walk, with Emily stopping every few feet to pick up a leaf, rock, or small stick and saying, "This is FUN!" One of my favorite things today was taking Lucy outside while Emily was at preschool. When we go outside, we normally go right to her baby swing. Today was different. Since she is walking now, I plopped her right on the patio and let her explore. She toddled around, bending down to pick up sticks, walking over to feel the mud and grass. She looked so tiny, and I thought to myself what a little miniature person she is. We had to go in and grab the camera. I wish I could post all the pictures. It would take my computer all day to load them on this blog!

Emily had been quiet in her room for a good while this afternoon, so I went in and told her she could come out. I was hoping for her to take a nap, but it didn't happen which is pretty usual now. I went in to find her down on the rug by her bed, with all of her barettes out. She was sticking the flower barettes in the rug and saying, "Do you like my little flower garden?" Another picture opportunity, and a funny example of how her little mind works. I think we're all excited about spring!

Friends

"I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!" That was Emily while we watched Beth, Alaina, and Audri come up to the door. With all the sickness we've had this winter, we have just recently been able to have any of Em's friends come to our house! Either we've been sick or they've been sick. I watched the girls today while Beth and Isaac took Alix to Kindergarten Roundup to get him ready to enter Kindergarten in the fall. Audri and Lucy are the same age, and as you can see in the last picture, they shared toys quite nicely. :0) Alaina and Emily had a ton of fun dressing up and taking silly pictures for the camera. Whenever Lucy would see the camera even remotely pointed at her she would say, "Cheeee!" She's quite a ham! She sees her sister ham it up so much.... I know I've mentioned this before, but I just don't know where they get that.....hmmm. They have such quiet parents. And such a quiet daddy.














My favorite picture is the one of Alaina and Emily peeking up over the bed. That was their idea. And here is Little Lucy taking some steps. She started taking steps the day after her birthday, and just yesterday started to get more brave with it by trying it more and taking more steps at a time.

All About Lucy

Our little Lucy turned one last Tuesday, and we celebrated with a big Hello Kitty party on Saturday. She has no idea who Hello Kitty is, but I liked the plates so I bought them! Then from the design on the plates, I made her cake. That was fun! I really didn't want to cut into it, though. :o) Her party day was great weather, which made for good traveling for my family. Tyler's family came, so allll of Lucy's cousins were here, ready to dote on her. The girls always have fun together....there are 7 between Stacy's, Sara's, and ours. Then Drew who is Emily's age, just jumps right in and has a blast with them!

Lucy indulged in her very own strawberry cupcake with pink icing. She shoved the cupcake right up to her mouth. The cupcake barely moved, but her mouth was moving, and the cupcake just began to disappear. At one point we wondered if she was breathing! She ate the entire thing without setting it down.

My family left after lunch on Sunday. Before they left, I got some good pictures of Lucy with Grandma Manning.

It's hard to believe Lucy is one! She has gone from being so helpless and teeny, to a funny little thing that tries to say doggy and choo choo train, with such enthusiasm and a squeaky little voice. The day after her birthday she took her first step, and has been trying every chance she gets to do it again! It's so neat to hear Emily and Lucy laugh together, and hear that little chuckle. She has even been listening to books better all of the sudden. Her favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I'm sure there will be lots more to brag about...I mean report here soon!

Happy "Valentime's" Day!

Emily had been waiting for "Happy Valentime's Day" for a long time. For about a week leading up to the big day, she would ask, "Is it Happy Valentime's today?" We bought the cheapy Valentines at the grocery, and every day she couldn't wait to pass them out at preschool. She still got surprises after her big party at school ~ Daddy brought a balloon home for both girls, (and roses for me :0). We had a fun dinner together, and we thought we'd take some time out for some silly pictures. I might add, that was a mighty fine looking cobb salad that we had for dinner. And after the girls went to bed, we watched the final Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. Romantic, huh?! We have been watching the trilogy all week in the evenings. We LOVE those movies! We went out last week on Friday night, so it was nice to be in and have an excuse for a nice dinner at home together, and a movie night. Plus, its fun to see Emily get so excited about holidays now! (Oh, all the funny little Valentines she brought home in her homemade, decorated tissue box from preschool....from Transformers to Princesses and cards with tatoos. Too funny!)

PiGtAiLs

Emily was a very happy girl this morning. Not only was she going to preschool (for the first time in a while because of sickness and snow), she was sporting pigtails. She's worn pigtails a couple times before, but this was different. These are lower. Last night she brought down a bracelet that came in a bunch of dress up stuff from her cousins Halle and Brooke. The bracelet had a cartoonish picture on it. She handed me two hair holders, and said, "I want my hair like the girl in the picture!" I could just picture her up in her room, going through all of her jewelry stuff and seeing that picture, and then going over to her basket, picking out the things I will need to fix her hair. It's just a cute thought. As I began to fix it like I had before, with the pig tails higher up on her head, she immediately said, "no, like the girl in the picture!" I had to look again, and I realized that they both had their pig tails lower. Okay!!! She was so proud when I was finished, and then today when I fixed her hair like that for preschool, she was so excited she had to show Daddy right away. She's such a big girl!!!

Introducing Mac and Toby...and a Cleaner Kitchen

For the "Cleaner Kitchen" part (the Mac and Toby part comes later): Today I have a new obsession. Have you ever gotten a new product and just went nuts? My new Shaklee products that I got a few days ago have been put to good use, and I am hoping to keep it that way. Not that I hate cleaning. I LOVE having a clean house. It makes me happy! But, I don't always keep on top of the grime like I should, especially in the bathrooms...that's my dirty little secret. Ha! I had no idea the Shaklee Basic H2 cleaner could be using on everything! Here is just a sampling from the paper I received...

• Use in the dishwasher, in the dish water, bathrooms, used as body wash, shampoo, cleans woodwork, can be used to dust, add it to paint to help it cover better, put it in humidifiers, use as stain remover, carpet cleaner, wash floors, fights static in the dryer, and this was really interesting....put it in with hard boiled eggs to help them peel easier!

The list really does go on and on, but I will spare you. I will not even attempt most of these things! A little does go a long way, and from what I heard, the concentrate can last for a year. So far today I've tried it on a lot in the kitchen. Here's another little something I did today with it. I have this copper hood over the stove, and it has never been cleaned and shined. I got a little carried away with it and I do love the outcome! It went from very dull to very shiny. I am done picking up the stuff today (or anything), I don't know where all this energy came from, after having the flu the past couple days!

Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time in the kitchen today. Emily and I had a picnic in there with all her pretend food stuff when I was done. She came in for the picnic and said, "MOM! Have you seen Mac and Toby?!? They just came by!" We spent some time looking for where Mac and Toby were hiding in the kitchen. I guess they tiptoed by while I was busy cleaning.
I suppose her new pretend friends' names were derived from Toby Mac, who we enjoy listening to!

Here's a picture of the girls playing today. They love the sit and spin!

Breakfast in Bed, Movies, and Coloring Books

Another sickness has found our home, and this time it's the flu. Not the stomach flu, but just the plain old sick, high fever flu. We are trying to keep it confined to one room today, Emily was still playing around the house yesterday (while we were oblivious to it manifesting itself). My sister's whole family has had it (except Claire), and Audrey became sick again while Emily and her cousins were with my parents at Pokagon State Park in northern Indiana. So, we brought sickness at Christmas and spread the joy, and now, a month later, sickness is here again. So far, Emily is the only one in our house to have it, hence the quarantine today (and maybe tomorrow).

Her fever was over 103 last night! She hasn't had a desire to play, but she HAS wanted to eat. She was asking for yogurt ~ after a banana, cheerios with no milk ~ all this morning. She said, "I am hungry the whole day!!!" She has been served on her princess tray today, and has been able to watch movies on her travel dvd player, listen to music, and color. We are piling it on, but I don't know how else to keep her away! From time to time she comes in and wants to see Lucy, so every now and then I walk Lucy by her room and Lucy waves. :0)

Please pray for our family and those who haven't gotten it yet, that we won't. Sara and family have had a hard time getting over it. At least Emily has been mostly smiles today, as you can tell from the picture!

Home

We are home! Tyler is not, but he is due back Saturday afternoon. It was a fast week, and I have been able to email Tyler and talk to him on the phone. He is having a great time in St. Vincent. Who wouldn't, with temps topping out at the mid-90's, but a fresh ocean breeze sweeping over the mountain to help keep it bearable. I can tell he's happy about a new experience, and getting to know people from our church (and a few who are not from our church) better ~ people he didn't really know too well before. He has blogs and pictures posted on his link at bachelorcreek.com. His link is "student impact" and his blog is "pen to paper". Sorry I don't have the link to send you right there.

Despite the cold days here, we enjoyed the sunshine, which was nice for our visit to my parents. We arrived on Saturday, and came home this afternoon. Dad was able to be off until Tuesday night (due to the weekend and MLK Jr. day.). Then, Mom was off on Wednesday! My niece Claire turned 9, and had her birthday party on Sunday. We visited Grandma Ball on Monday, and were finally able to give her her Christmas gift! She was happy to see the girls, of course! The week was also full of good food....got to get the necessities...Skyline, a visit with Alli and little Ella at LaRosa's, O'Charley's with my sister, and Mexican with Grandma Manning, Mom, and the girls. So, we did a lot of visiting, resting, and playing (Lucy did a lot of watching the birds and the occasional chicken through the picture window). Emily had her first adventure on a frozen pond! My parents took Emily and Sara's kids out on their pond yesterday afternoon. Sara and I were shopping and were nervous about it, but Dad went out first on it and JUMPED on it to make sure it was safe. I'm glad I wasn't there!

The girls were so excited to be home after a day of packing up and the 3 hour drive. We celebrated being home with ice cream, popcorn, and a movie tonight. Emily was thinking we would see Daddy when we got home, so I had to explain that he won't be home for a couple days. It was nice to have the evening at home, but we're ready to get back to life tomorrow ~ have to hit the store tomorrow for milk and the basics, and send Emily off to pajama day at preschool! Saturday can't come soon enough, though, as we're anxious for Tyler to arrive back safely and pick him up in Indy.

Sorry for no picture this time! I have some good ones from the week, but need to get them from my parents.

Getting Bigger....and Sillier

Here's our little silly Lucy girl, getting so big and about to turn 11 months! Her personality is developing more and more, and we laugh all the time at her funny faces, and say OH NO to ourselves when she starts yelling at the top of her lungs. She is definitely becoming more vocal, and is wanting to be heard. I can picture the look of surprise on your face as you read this. I mean, she comes from such a quiet family! I told Tyler that I thought maybe our 2nd would be quiet. I guess our household will always just be lots of fun! Lucy last week got mad at Emily and yelled "BAAAA!" and waved her hands around. So it has begun. The little baby stage has gone so quickly and now Lucy is such a big baby. She's eating all table food now and is down to a few bottles a day. She seems to like everything we give her and would eat and eat if we let her. She walks just holding on to things with one hand, so she'll be ready to start trucking soon, I'm sure.

Here are the girls ENJOYING every bit of being outside last Monday. It was 60 here and we took advantage of it. We took a walk down to the park (to circle around the park, but it was too soggy to play), and then after lunch went outside to play. Emily once again said, "This is amazing!" while swinging. She has heard me tell people that she has said that, and now that's her thing to say. I like to get on a swing and hear Lucy laugh when she watches me swing by her. She has such a silly chuckle!

I welcome every single somewhat warm day in the winter, as I'm sure most people do! It's so nice to get out. I walked around the block another day with just Emily last week while Tyler was home, and I actually forgot I had a neighborhood! I get so used to just being inside, or just heading straight from the car to the house, anxious to get inside and get warm. Speaking of WARM, Tyler is heading to St. Vincent this Saturday for a mission trip! I am pretty jealous, but I am also happy for him to be able to go. Our church supports W.I.S.E. ~ Winward Island School of Evangelism on the island, and he is going this year to help do some work down there. It's a 2 week trip, but he will just be going for one. He didn't want to leave us or his job too long. The island is 45 miles from South America, and this time of year its around 90. It's where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. They'll be able to go to the beach a little bit, so that will be nice for him. Keep him and the team in your prayers. I always feel a bit anxious when he leaves, especially to go far away.

And to top it all off, tonight on the way to church, Emily out of the blue said, "Mom, I want to see the lighthouse again!" I asked her if she was talking about St. Simons (our fun getaway in Georgia, thanks to Linda and Joe!). She said, "Ya, I want to go to the blue and white house where we ate princess snacks." She was talking about the condo and yes, now that I think about it, I took along some princess fruit snacks for her (that was well over a year ago!). She talked about how she wanted to play on the beach again. Seems like we're all dreaming of warm weather and fun this time of year!

A Work of Art

Emily loves to draw, even more so now that we found dry erase markers of Daddy's up in the cabinet. She sat in front of her easel for about an hour today! She told me about everything she was drawing ~ ponds, hills with trees (she's coloring in her hills and trees in this picture), all the letters in her name (but not in order), kitty cats and doggies, and funny faces. I must say, I think she is going to take after her Grandma! She takes time to add the cutest details. I am a little biased.


Her creative side also includes interior design. :0) I rearranged the living room today, and she was right along side me, moving her and Lucy's stools around and their toys baskets to just the right spot. I have a new (old) cabinet ~ new things in this house are usually old. For the 1st time in 5 years, I rearranged the living room to open it up more by moving the couch way back to square it off with the cabinet. The girls have a play area behind it, which has been there for a while now, but it seems like they enjoy being back "behind the couch" now in their little nook. Dad will appreciate this new arrangement, since he mentioned moving the room around like this when he was here to help with the cabinet in December. See, it runs in the family! Ha!



I suppose Lucy will love to design and draw...I think she has an eye for it. :0) I heard Emily yell, "GET HER AWAY!" so many times it drove me nuts. As you can see, Lucy kept sneaking up on Em wanting to get in on the action. Oh, I mean, she was sneaking up on "Cheetah Girl". Emily got a Cheetah Girl dress up outfit for Christmas from Great Grannie and Grandpa, and wears it all the time.











The little stubborn girl is finally asleep. She has not napped all week, though in desperate need. After about an hour of being in her bed today, she was yelling for us and woke Lucy up. Tyler marched upstairs and put her back to bed because she was "in trouble", and she would just have to stay in bed longer for yelling in the hallway. It sure did get quiet quickly, and though I didn't want her to nap so late, I let her go. I turned on her light and took this picture, and the tired little artiste was too tired to even budge.


I, once again, am pledging to blog more often. It has been almost 2 months! I think one thing that keeps me from doing it more often is that it takes forever to load the pictures, and I know pictures make it more fun! I will do my best!