As good as it gets ...

Rearranged

Here's a couple of pictures of our living and dining area, with new paint and lots of rearranging! It's kind of hard to tell but the paint is sort of a green/brown - a nice warm color. The clocks on the mantle are a new fun addition - mostly from e-bay for 99 cents. We're still looking for a couple of endtables but haven't found anything we love for the price we want to pay yet. Also something to go between the stairs and the sideboard in the kitchen. So if you see anything perfect, let us know!!

Can you hear me now?

Friday Greg had an unexpectedly short work day, so after treating me to lunch he decided to work on the sprinkler system, including replacing a couple of sprinkler heads in the backyard. I was puttering around in the basement when I heard a very deliberate pounding on the door. I opened it to find Greg standing in the garage, hands covered in mud. "I just cut the phone line. I need you to call the phone company and get someone out here to fix it," he said calmly.

Now, you need some history on Greg's propensity to cut phone lines. "Call before you dig?" What? Huh? Are you talking? This is at least the third house in which he has cut the phone line, and it's NEVER just ours that he takes out, it's usually at least one of the neighbors also.

In one of his best performances to date, this time he took out the whole neighborhood. How? Because when he went to dig out the old sprinkler head, the phone line had the audacity to be right in his way! Of course our internet (and probably that of many of our neighbors) is through the phone lines, and at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon it was looking like much of Brookfield Park would be incommunicado for the weekend.

So I used my cell phone to call the phone company, and the happy representative told me a repairman would be out "sometime" the next day (Saturday). No four-hour window, no phone call before they come, just "sometime tomorrow." Gulp. I went outside to let Greg know he better start knocking on the doors of our neighbors to explain what happened.

Being the amazingly gifted man that he is, he was able to splice the line back together and thus avoid the humiliation of informing the neighbors. All was well again within about an hour of the event and hopefully most of them were none the wiser.

And now, for the rest of story ...

We got home from shopping yesterday (Saturday) and in the mailbox was a nifty orange form stating that AT&T had been out and the problem was fixed. Cool. Greg checked it out and it was definitely fixed in a more permanent way than he had left it. Last night, our phone rang, and it came up an 800 number, which I refuse to answer so I handed him the phone. He answered and got this recording, "This is the AT&T repair center calling to let you know that your repair is completed. If you need more assistance or feel the repair is not completed, please press two ..... blah blah blah ..... AT&T would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business!"

WELL YOU'RE WELCOME!! Anytime we can help just let us know!

Lexi's new hobby

I let Lexi mess around with my camera today for quite awhile, and was quite surprised at the good job she was doing by the end - here's a few representative samples, in time order ... you can sort of 'see' her figuring out how to get what she wanted by the end. Oh the weird one second from the end is definitely her tongue, and she did it on purpose - turned the camera around and stuck her tongue out at it. :)










AND, last but not least, Tink the wonder dog, who definitely smells like Fritos. Ick. I mean, I love you Tinkles.

Sweet funny boy

Mason in all his glory - loving on his baby sister (please disregard the drool, etc., and I'm pretty sure he ripped that red bow off her head a few seconds after I took this picture) ...


Cheesin' for the camera, wearing his jammy shirt and Papa's shoes ...


And being the consummate gentleman, pushing Kylee (and later Lexi and then Lainey) all over the yard in the car.

Going to the movies?

When I was little, whenever my dad would catch me scratching my behind or digging out a wedgie (not that I ever did that), he always asked if I was going to the movies. Why? Because I was picking my seat! Ha ha ha ha! That is what our family fondly calls a "Dad-ism." (He has dozens more, by the way.)

I bought Lexi this adorable yellow skirt - sort of sweat pants material, a little tight over her cute as can be little booty ... except that there's no shorts underneath. I totally know better.

Motor skills on display

This was a quick succession of pictures - quite a lot of coordination needed to pull this off!

Unfortunately, the moment of coordination was over as quickly as it started, and the whole cup went in his lap. Of course it was water ... I might be an easy mark (why did he have three straws in the first place??) but I'm not stupid!!

A picture worth a thousand words

Sweet, precious girls - Lexi just wants to be as close as possible to "Callie Anne" (as she always calls her), and often says in delight, "She likes me! She really likes me!" (Who can remember when Sally Fields said those exact words?? Maybe Lexi's practicing to receive her future Oscar.)

B.J. and D'Angelo

B.J. sent me these pictures from summer camp - he was a counselor and had several boys (including D'Angelo) in his cabin that are also in his Sunday School program. He had the blessing of baptizing D'Angelo during camp, shown in the first picture. The second picture is of the boys praying after the baptisms.

What a week!!

This is what our week felt like ... pushing uphill!! (It was amazing that he figured out how to roll this ball up the stairs without anyone showing him, by the way.)

Miss Callie gave us quite a scare this week - she started out with neon yellow drainage from her nose, then started vomiting the same stuff and running a fever ... long story short we spent two days at Children's Mercy and the poor baby was subjected to IV's, monitors, drinking barium (which she actually devoured because she hadn't been allowed to eat in so long) as they were afraid she had some sort of obstruction. Thankfully all the tests came back ok, and whatever it was apparently ran its course because she is home now and doing fine.

Check out Brenda's blog (link to the left) to see what the "big kids" were doing while we were praying and fretting in the hospital - what a huge blessing it was to know they were not just safe and secure but being loved and adored during that time. Even though Lexi was NOT adorable much of the time. Thankfully she did choose to apologize to Brenda the next day, as well as to her mommy for dumping and then stomping on (no kidding) the flowers daddy brought her when Callie was born - a little jealousy, maybe?? Yikes!

This next picture was taken the Friday after Callie was born - we kept Lexi and Mason overnight and Papa had some sweet time with them the next morning.



And here she is in all her splendor - beautiful sweet baby. We're all in love. More tomorrow - I have MANY pictures to post so check back!