I've been so busy lately, it's been hard to actually sit down and write.

Matt has been gone for the last week, training at the Atlanta corporate office. He's been enjoying the experience, but I haven't. ;-) It's lonely down here. It's been especially difficult because Autumn has spent the last two weeks suffering with a virus and sore gums. I love her like crazy and while we still have had some brief moments of fun, over all she's been very difficult to deal with and occupying just about all of my time. It's been hard to keep the house up since she wants to be held all the time.

When I'm not holding Autumn, I've been trying to get some more scrapbooking done for Grandma K. On Thursday I did the beach pictures from 1974 (3 pages) and another unidentified year (sometime in the 70s, hoping someone will be able to help us narrow down the year at the beach- 1 page). Friday morning I finished the pictures of my mom and myself at the beach in 1981 (2 pages) and decided that while Autumn looks most like Matt, she's very much shaped like I was. Today I did three more pages from 2004. I think in total that makes around 28 or 29 pages I've finished for her beach album in the last month.

For some reason I work in spurts. I'll get a bunch of pages done over a few days and then won't work on it again for a week. I guess it's probably that I realize just how bad the house has gotten while I've been in the office and it takes me a week to get it caught back up again.

I've realized that I really need to stop babysitting lbl sometime soon. He's still colicky and screams so much of the time that it's really stressful and I'm not able to pay much attention to Autumn. Also, it makes it very difficult to get away from home. If I hadn't been babysitting this last week while Matt was in Atlanta, I would have taken off to Indiana, or Ohio, or NoVA and visited friends and family. But instead I had to be here to watch him on Wednesday (both he and Autumn screamed most of the day) and Friday (he behaved in the morning, but the afternoon wasn't so great).

I feel like such a wimp to not be able to handle it, but I honestly don't know how anyone would be able to handle his screaming fits for very long. So often there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, but listen to him yell, and just that is pretty hard to do. I guess if it were just him, I would probably be okay. But when he's here, he monopolizes my attention and I have a hard time trying to keep track of Autumn and make sure she eats, gets her bath, sleeps, and gets some cuddle time too.

But how do I stop? I don't think his parents can afford to hire anyone else to do it and I feel so bad even thinking about telling them I can't do it anymore... Okay, I'm definitely a wimp when it comes to this. But by the end of the day on the really screamy days, I'm about to lose my mind. Matt thinks I should quit. My mom thinks I should quit. My friends think I should quit. I think I should quit. But I still don't know if I'll be able to. I guess in a lot of ways it's easier to just be totally stressed out than to tell his parents they'll have to find someone else.

Anyway...

I'm really looking forward to the beach and getting away from it all for a while. I am sad that Matt isn't going to be able to make it there this year, but still awfully happy that he's getting a much better job. I think Autumn will enjoy the beach too--lots and lots of people to play with and water to play in and sand to eat. Yay!

I've been very homesick this week, too, because it's fair week back home. All the kids are showing animals and getting awards and riding the rides (kiddy night only--too expensive the rest of the week) and eating fair food. :-) I don't miss the actual fair so much as watching my little brothers enjoying it all. I'm hoping that next year Autumn and I will be able to go visit in Indiana for fair week--I think she would like all the animals and stuff.

Oh, and speaking of fair week, I have to mention that Seth's rooster won the rooster crowing contest by crowing 69 times in 30 minutes. He set a record.

We've been getting rain this last week. Yay! But I think it really is too late for my poor tomatoes. I keep hoping that maybe they will perk back up, but every time I go out, they still look just as sad. I need to get out there and pick the tomatoes that are left, though I expect that most--if not all of them--are split because of getting so much rain the last few days.

The eggplant, peppers, and herbs are looking lots better though. As are the few flowers I have planted. The bed under the magnolia tree (the one I had to fight the squirrels over for so long) is doing GREAT. It's really getting established and taking off. None of the bulbs ever bloomed because the squirrels got them, but the annuals and the myrtle from NC have finally won out over the furry little pests. I would never have believed it of myself before, but I was so happy the other day when I noticed one of them had gotten hit in the road. (gasp)

It's getting really late now, and this is getting way way way too long, and I'm getting really tired, and probably completely incoherent, and I'm hoping to make it to church tomorrow morning, so I'd better go.

-kt

Matt's home after a week in Atlanta -> I'm happy.

Isn't she cute?

Here's Reagan (pronounced Ree-gan) at 4 weeks. Don't you want one???

...And a nice clean one

Still with funny hair though. :-)

More messy pics

Autumn is the world's messiest eater--seriously!

I have a picture of myself as a toddler after dumping a bowl of spaghetti over my head. It's pretty bad, but I don't think it's this bad.

AND...Autumn didn't have a bowl to dump over her head. Believe it or not, she was very carefully fed with a spoon from a jar, yet she still managed to do this. I wonder if tomatoes are good for your hair?

messy eater--blueberry pancakes and mac n' cheese

What's Up

Tired, sunburned, and sick. But satisfied. We had a very successful yard sale yesterday--successful, as in got-rid-of-a-ton-of-stuff-that-we-didn't-have-room-for. And managed to help Matt's parents and grandparents get rid of a lot too. And we all made a little money off of it (though ours is all in quarters and dimes). :-) We've got all the leftovers boxed up to haul off to Goodwill today, so that's good too.

Also, right after we finished cleaning up yesterday, it rained! We've been needing rain so badly. Maybe it will resusitate some of the garden and we can stretch it out a little longer.

Autumn's got a really nasty cold, which she has passed on to me. So we're both staying home from church today with sore throats, headaches, and runny noses.

Also, Grandma Kathryn came to visit, so I gave her the SB pages I've been working on for her and got paid for those. Which means I can go re-invest it in supplies for the next project she has for me to do. She also brought a few more beach pictures to work on from 1974 and 1981. Should be fun. :-)

Matt's heading to Atlanta today--hmmmm.... Happy about this, but unhappy at the same time. I hope it goes well. We really really need to get him some new clothes for the new job, but I don't know that we're going to have a chance to right away.

Also, having quite a bit of car trouble right now--and no one seems to know what the problems are.

Anyway...that's pretty much what's going on right now.

I'll try to get some Autumn pics up today.

-kt

Yay! (and stuff)

Matt got an offer letter today to join the management trainee program. Next comes the 3 month training process. :-) SOOOO good to finally have things looking up.

I've got bunches and bunches (as my little brother, Gabe, likes to say) of pictures of Autumn to post, but I've been too busy.

Reorganizing the craft/office/storage/guest room with some big bookshelves--I've made such a huge mess.

And I have a big bowl of peeled chopped tomatoes in the fridge that have got to be made into salsa or sauce or something either tonight or tomorrow morning. Lovely.

The primaries are tomorrow. I'll be glad it's over, but it means I won't be able to watch the (very entertaining) nasty nasty nasty negative campaigning of the democrat candidates against each other.

Also, whoever wins, it will be nice not to watch Casey Cagle in his commercials that state his reason for running "I am not Ralph Reed" over and over again. If he loses, he'll be gone. If he wins, he'll have to come up with some other reason to hold office.

We live in the home county of our governor. So there are "Sonny" signs everywhere. What's interesting is that someone has gone all over the town and vandalized nearly all of them, plastering "Boot Perdue" bumper stickers over his name. Lots of people are very mad at him because of going back on his promise to let people vote on the flag.

They just drove by spraying for mosquitos out of the back of a truck. I really need to actually keep track of when they do that.

Anyway, I've gotta run. Lots and lots of cleaning up to do and Autumn needs another bottle before bed.

The End?

Or at least very close. Tonight I'm planning on going out to the garden and pulling up all the squash plants, 4 rows of bean plants, and various other things.

The garden just hasn't been able to handle the drought and water restrictions. Everything is fried. The beans are shriveled and dried in their pods, hanging off of dried out yellow plants. The cucumbers are dehydrated mini-pickles hanging off the fence. The squash are just a mess. Most of the tomato plants are shriveled up straw-colored masses of vines with no leaves left.

It's sad.

I water whenever I'm allowed to and everything is very heavily mulched, but it's just too hot and too dry this year.

:-(

Family Activities in the Area

Take your family out for a fun night of exciting mud-bogging with "High Powered Lawn Mower Racing"!!!

Just advertised on the local radio station.

Yes, this is where I live.

And yes, the ad was completely serious.

Puppies for Sale!

My mom has been asking me to see if I can find some homes for the puppies, so here's a shot. Generally they have no problem selling them all--they're absolutely adorable when they're ready to go home and they have the sweetest personalities. But just in case anyone out there is interested... There are 7 or 8 males (my parents may keep one) and one female.

The mother is extremely sweet and loves being around kids. Both parents are a darker shade (not pale blonde). Also, they should be on the smaller end of the scale for Golden Retrievers, since both parents are smaller. They're purebred, AKC. $200 each.

Should be ready in mid-August. They're in Indiana, but my family will be traveling in August and may be able to deliver them if you're anywhere between there and South Carolina.

More Puppy Pictures

Their eyes are opening. :-)

Hives

Last year it was the same thing. Every time I went outside this time of the summer I immediately broke out in hives. They would start at my ankles and quickly run up my legs and arms. I could come inside and they would just keep popping out until I took some Benadryl.

I've never really had any allergies before, certainly never serious ones. But it's back again. The last couple of weeks everytime I go outside, even if it's just to pick a few tomatoes, I start getting these big, incredibly itchy spots all over my arms and legs. And every time now a whole bunch of little spots pop up on my left wrist and turn hard and red.

Still don't know what it is, but it's thankfully only this time of year.

Bath time

Peeking round the wall.

DinoWars

Dinosaur Wars (DinoWars) is a game for 1-2 players and can also be an entertaining spectator sport.

1) Select two Duplo Dinosaurs of your choice. (For a two person game, each player gets one dinosaur.)

2) Hold one in each hand.

3) Smash them together as loudly as possible.

4) Repeat.

Puppy pic

they're getting chubbier.

I wish I had something exciting to write about, but I don't.

I babysat again today.

I'm very slowly finishing The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith. I think I like it better than the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, but I'm not sure yet.

I need to pick tomatoes yet again. But I'm not going to have daylight a whole lot longer and Autumn isn't feeling very well and wants me to cuddle with her, so I think for once I'm going to just stay in with her and worry about the tomatoes tomorrow.

I'm going to try to make it into Macon tomorrow to do some shopping. I've gotta make some friends down here. Shopping by yourself is not much fun.

I have a ton of impatiens cuttings in water sitting in the dining room, hoping they will root. There are more than I can use probably, but I think I have enough people to give them to. I'm supposed to get some coleus cuttings tomorrow, too.

I'm watching Friends on DVD again.

I'm lonely.

We're over at Matt's parents watching Germany vs. Italy. The frustrating thing is that I'm going to have to leave at 4:00 to go home and water the garden. I slept in this morning and missed out on my chance to water in the morning. Now, I really have to get it done at 4:00 because otherwise I'm going to have to wait till Thursday to water and there's no way the garden's going to last that long. I HATE these water restrictions.

We're planning on going to Lake Tobesofkee for fireworks tonight in Macon. Hope they're good, since we'll have to pay admission, but they're the only fireworks in the area this evening. Everyone else did them Thursday and Friday nights. It's really kind of odd that Matt has the day off today, but somehow it worked out. :-)

Duck Hunting

Another picture of our puppy. Getting cuter now at 2 days old. Thanks for the pic Jessica!