Busy Busy Busy

Adding items to my etsy shop. I've been on a banner kick lately. Sadly, they don't photograph very well--they look way cuter in person. :-)

Oh, and if you're not into Halloween, check out the new Christmas banners, too!

Plug for Carbonite

I have to do a plug for Carbonite . We recently had a bad computer crash and lost everything. Except that just about all of it is back now. Thanks to the fact that we subscribed, all my photos were safe, the only thing I lost was my email. (so if I haven't replied, that's probably why!)

...and a bad big sister!!

Belated Happy Birthday to Miriam and Gabe! (gabey, your card from Autumn SHOULD go in the mail today. :))

Pictures....since I've been being a bad blogger

From the Fourth...

Happy Birthday, Wesley!

Hope it goes better than this:

(sorry, i'm having trouble finding pics of you, so this will have to do. :-))

Meet the Newest Member of Our Family!

LOL--here she is!! Meet Rosalita*.

Probably about as close as we will get to having another pet. She just arrived after a long stay in Indiana, where JM gave her some much needed repairs. Autumn LOVES her (and she'll tell anyone who will listen). She's totally fascinated, but a little nervous still. Keeps telling me she has to check on her "o-bot" and talk to her. Autumn follows her around the house, but always at a good distance.

*named by her previous owner

Candy Land

Autumn and I played Candy Land a few nights ago for the first time. I was really surprised by how quickly she caught on to the concept. And she beat me!!! Next day, first thing she wants to do is play with me AND matt. She beat me again! (so did Matt). :-) LOL.

(Oh, and "Aunt Beth" made the dress!)

More Autumn-isms

"playing catch with daddy" -- nope, it doesn't involve a ball. autumn's version of playing catch is running around the house with daddy chasing her until he catches her. a variation of this game is daddy running around the house until autumn catches him.

"1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,18,20" -- autumn's version of counting when she's playing hide and seek. (she likes to hide by laying down in the middle of the floor or on the bed and covering her eyes with her hands. when her eyes are covered she's invisible, of course.)

"necklaceseseseseseses" -- how she says necklace

"sponsible" -- being responsible--especially when it comes to cleaning up her room

"look, Dad! Look!!! See all those email cars over there?" -- we were at the PO going in to mail some stuff in the evening and all the little delivery vehicles were parked in rows alongside the building. :-) She thought it was neat.

"oh, cool" -- becoming a more and more common reply to anything anyone says

strawberry pickin'!!!

Today we went strawberry picking. Autumn had a great time! :-)

Sharing...

...with mouse

Flowers!

Picking through markdowns at the grocery store--I got a TON of lilies for $1.25. There are now two of these HUGE bouquets in the house. :-)

Cupcakes for Daddy

Matt's birthday is today and Autumn decided that he wanted cupcakes.
"What kind of cupcakes do you think he wants?"
"Chocolate!!!" (In a very "isn't it obvious, mommy???" kind of voice.)

Smile for the Camera!!!

Or not.









Autumn has reached the stage where she realizes that her mother takes way too many pictures...

"Autumn, smile for me please?"

"Let's try again..."

"No, Autumn, come on, at least look at the camera!"

"I said at the CAMERA, not out the window!!!"

"Okay, I give up."

Eggs!

Next year, we will have to do more!

A couple random pics...

Autumn playing with pick-up sticks...her own unique way.

Autumn and Micah--I think she's in love.

Spring Cleaning and Stuff...

I don't know if the spring cleaning bug got me or I'm just so glad to be home. But lately all I want to do is work on the house. This last week has been a busy one!

We went to IKEA on Thursday and got Autumn this HUGE Expedit shelving unit. It takes up a whole wall in her room. Assembled it Sunday and attached it to the wall last night (keep in mind that everything from IKEA is Metric and of course didn't line up with the wall studs--ugh--took as long to attach it to the wall as to build the thing!).

Here's a pic from the website: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60071358

Hoping to work on getting her toys organized and put up after lunch today.

I painted the door between the kitchen and Matt's future office with 5 coats of magnetic primer, and finished it off with chalkboard paint, so it's now one big magnetic memo board. Autumn LOVES drawing on the bottom half of the door and the top is great for lists and things. :-) Talked about doing it forever, so glad I finally did.

Painted the front door. Not quite the color I was expecting, but it's a million times better than it was. Took a few days to finish since I was working around the rain.

Yesterday I did my regular housecleaning then moved all the furniture out of the dining room and scrubbed the table legs and the chairs (with Autumn's help, of course ;-)). Then got down and SCRUBBED the floor on my hands and knees. Exhausting, but totally worth the effort. :-) Wiped down the walls and washed the windows and then moved all the furniture back.

Today I'm planning on doing basically the same thing in the kitchen. Making sure everything's clean clean clean!

Meet Micah Croft

I just did his first "official" photo shoot. :-)
Micah Croft Keeney
February 22, 2008
10 pounds
22.5 Inches

Yup, it's that time again...

...the time when I suddenly decide to update my blog for the simple reason that i have a million things to do today, not enough time to do them, and blogging should NOT be at the top of my list.

lol.

I'm getting ready to travel. Which means a few loads of laundry, packing, getting caught up on emails, using up all the fresh produce in the house (as much as possible), packing some more, trying to remember all the things i'm supposed to be hauling to Indiana, picking up after Autumn, packing some more, figuring out how many projects I'm commited to and how on earth I'm going to get all the stuff in the car for them, etc, etc, etc.

Four dozen banana muffins cooling on the counter.

Autumn in the bath.

Washer and dryer running.

What to do with that big bag of fresh green beans and the other big bag of fresh yellow squash, and the pineapple on the counter and the 10 kiwi on the table?

Suitcase half-packed on the bed.

Listening to NPR weekend.

And typing.

Vacation January 11th-14th

We had planned on being in PA this weekend for a friend's wedding, but it just ended up being WAY over what we could afford to fly there, stay there, etc. SOOO....

We spent the whole weekend working on Autumn's new room (our old room). We painted, pulled up the icky carpet (and spent forever getting all those mean tack strips up), and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed the floor. (Trying to get up all the particles of carpet padding that seemed to have permanently attached themselves to the hardwood.)

Then we moved in her bed and desk and a cupboard that we found in a trash pile that works really well for her books. We still need to move her dresser in there, but first have to figure out how to manage the big fish tank that is on top of it without killing all the fish in the process.

Lastly, I went and got the bedding I've been wanting forever for her from Target. Of course, they were completely out at our Target, so we went into Macon and got the last set there.

Still tons of work to do in there, but it's livable and she's finally moved in. :-)

YAY!!!

We finally have a functioning shower in the new addition.

Eventually here I'll have to take some pictures to share with y'all. All the painting is done and most of the furniture is moved in. Just need to buy some things like rugs, blinds, etc. still.

By far my favorite thing is the closet. It's a true walk-in closet done completely in the Stolmen system from IKEA http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39825963 It's the white and stainless version though. And we chose different pieces, but you get the idea. We each have a combination of this size, but with more hanging room and not as many shelves. Matt has the pants rack on his side, instead of the long set of drawers. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20062469

The walls are this awesome green somewhere between lime and sage. We have a stainless steel industrial-looking light fixture from IKEA on the ceiling that totally matches the shelving system. We also had them install an outlet high up for an iron (so the cord doesn't get tangled) and there's actually enough space in there to iron clothes in the closet. :-)

While it's all awesome, you have to live in a house built in the fifties (where they didn't believe in closets, apparently) to truly understand how much we appreciate it.