Making a little boy the happiest ever!

For Jack's 2nd Birthday, we decided it was time to get him a train table. We found the one we wanted, which has all the bells and whistles you could dream of. After several days of putting it together, getting the track figured out and securing the track with both Liquid nails and Silicone (it has to be 2 year old proof) we were ready to give it to Jack. My sister and her kids came to visit over MEA and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a small party and give him the table. We invited our new neighbors, both next door and across the street, one of which is Jack's newest best gal pal Abby over for the impromptu party. After dinner and cupcakes, which my niece Kyla made all by herself, we were ready to surprise Jack. I walked him into the living room and the look on his face was priceless. There isn't a greater feeling than making your child the happiest two year old ever (at least for the moment!!)


"is this really MY train table??"


Getting help from cousin AJ to find out what noises it makes.


Giving Mama a Thank you kiss!


Singing "Happy Birthday"!


He didn't even mind sharing!

Halloween house!

I just thought I would post some pictures of our house now that it's decked out for Halloween!


OUR HOUSE IS WATCHING YOU!!!


What our house looks like coming up the street at night.


The ghouls in the front of the house.


Our new visitor looking out our living room window!


The spiders are the reason Adam says we're getting so many real ones.

The following are pictures of my Halloween village collection! It's getting pretty big! If you look close enough you will see a cemetery, a torture factory, a spooky barn, a haunted pirate ship, Frankenstein's Lab, a monster dance, a phantom train station, a ghost mine, an Island of Doom, and many more. Enjoy!

Halloween came early

I HATE SPIDERS!!!!

I just wanted to get that clear before I describe for you the wonderful 8 legged creatures we have crawling around the outside of our house (just trying to find a way in, I know it). First off, there are tons of Wolf spiders. If your not sure what those are, picture brown tarantula looking fuzzy spiders. They live in mulched areas or grassy areas. The only recommended way to rid them is to remove mulch from around your house. That would be fine, except our housing department won't let us remove the decorative mulch from around our house so we have to make friends with the wolf spider. Luckily, all web sites say they are non-aggressive. (I'm not so sure)

Next we have the yellow Garden Spider. It's body is roughly the size of a half dollar, only oval shaped with bright yellow markings on it's back. It's pointy legs are approx. 2 inches long and look like something straight out of the movie "Arachnophobia". This lovely spider was making itself at home on our fence in our back yard weaving a nice little Egg Sac! Again, the internet says they are non-aggressive and non poisonous, but if you get bit by one seek medical attention immediately. (What??) We didn't want to take the chance, so after being sprayed with Wasp killer and mutilated by the weed wacker, I was confident it wasn't coming in my house!

Adam teases that if I didn't like Halloween so much, the spiders wouldn't want to come to our house to help decorate. I say, "BRING ON THE EXTERMINATOR!!"

the following link is a great place to see pictures of our uninvited guests!
http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/NESpiders.shtml

I would have put pictures of these uglies in my blog, but copywriting prohibits me from doing so.

Where have 2 years gone?

The past 3 days I have been doing a lot of remembering of my mom. I can't believe how fast the past 2 years have gone, and yet some of the events from the past 2 years seem like they happened 10 years ago. I'd like to write down a little story about my mom from when I was just starting college that always makes me smile.

The day my parents drove me up to college started off with me and my mom crying all the way from Apple Valley to Buffalo, where my mom finally turned to me and said, "well this is going to be a fun drive!" That at least stopped the tears and started some laughs. The rest of the trip was spend with her telling me "how to" things, like laundry, keeping on a budget, etc. which I rolled my eyes at everything she told me telling her, "I know Mom" but secretly glad for her little reminders. When we got up to Moorhead and finished unloading the car mom thought it would be a good idea to take me out to dinner, since there weren't many people on campus yet and she didn't want me to eat alone (at least that was her excuse). After dinner it was time to bid them farewell. After promising to wave out my window and a very long tearful hug, they left. I went to the window like promised but within 1 minute there was a knock on my door. It was mom saying she forgot to remind me which was detergent and which was fabric softener (or something silly like that). Another hug and goodbye and I was back at the window. Again a knock on my door. This time she wanted to make sure I had cash incase the dining hall wasn't open for breakfast. Again a hug and goodbye and again a knock. This continued for about 6 more times, each one more and more of a silly reason to come back up and delay the inevitable. My dad finally dragged her into the car, and 4 hours and 2 minutes later (it's a 4 hour drive) my phone rang for the first of many daily phone calls with mom!

That's the thing I miss the most is the daily "checking in" phone calls with her.

Happy October Everyone!!!

this was taken about 5 months before mom died when she was visiting us in Detroit.