by Heather | 0 comments
I had to wake Ben up a little early from his nap this weekend so we could go to a birthday party. I don’t think I’ve gotten a sleeping picture of him since he was a baby, it just never seemed worth the risk to sneak into his bedroom ;-) I was so happy to get a pic of him snuggled up to all the buddies in his crib.
by Heather | 1 Comment
I made Christmas cookies this weekend. Now they call my name every time I’m in the kitchen… :-/ So yummy though!
I always wondered why people wear makeup to the gym. I mean, it’s one thing if you’re there in the afternoon and you’ve been at work all day and put together and then you go work out. But the early morning classes before you’ve gotten dressed and done your hair for the day…won’t you just sweat it all off and need to shower afterwards anyway? I don’t understand…
It’s a super gloomy day today so I made my step mom’s “Cafe Mocha” recipe. Coffee, packet of hot cocoa, little bit of half and half and some coolwhip on top. So yummy, the day got a little happier.
I helped save a German Shepherd from getting run over last night. Andy was on the phone with his mom and thought he saw a deer outside, but then said it was actually a dog. A car had pulled over to try and round her up, but the dog was seriously scared of the big guy. I headed out, crouched down and she came over to me, again scared but more trusting of me than the big guy. We called the number on her collar and the owner came a few minutes later (he’d been out looking for her). Meanwhile, Andy was still on the phone inside and his mom asked “Aren’t you going to go out and help Heather.” Andy replied “But, it’s a BIG dog.” That’s ok honey, you can stick to your cats ;-) Happy the BIG dog got to her family safely though!
I have an app on my phone I use to jot down notes of cute things Ben says and does. It’s nice to have handy and everything is all in one spot. Thought I’d share a few Benisms with you:
– Pancakes are “Panpakes”
– Sometimes Fruit Loops are snacks at the Y and he calls them “Fruit Fruits.” Apple Jacks are called “Apple Fruit Fruits.”
– Ben knows he’s not supposed to touch the Christmas tree and he does pretty well this year so I didn’t put a gate around it. One day Colby was under the tree eyeing up ornaments and Ben goes “Uh oh Colby kissmas twee.” Little tattler ;-)
– Ben’s use of English is interesting, he kind of talks like Yoda sometimes. Words aren’t exactly in the right order. Case in point, the other night he’d climbed up onto the kitchen chair then wanted help getting down. He said “Mommy help. Chair sit all done Ben. Ben help.”
– Ben also asked “Colby play?” when he wanted Colby to play blocks with him. Too cute.
by Heather | 0 comments
Our house has four bedrooms in it. One is our room, the second is Ben’s bedroom, the third is Andy’s man lair and the fourth is a bedroom downstairs deemed “Colby’s Room.” It was a pretty gross room that we just used as storage for a while. Then we started sticking Colby in it when we had to leave for a few days. Jack and Colby eat each others food so the only way to guarantee one cat didn’t starve over a long weekend was to separate them. Colby’s room is going to be Andy’s new man cave though. Colby will have to be demoted to the laundry room ;-)
The original owner put up shingles on the wall because it was a “forest/tree house” themed boys room. 60 years later, those shingles were still there, just painted white.
Andy removing the beautiful shingles.
After we removed shingles and old drywall Andy spent a weekend rolling this rubber waterproofing stuff on the concrete block. We’ve used it in other rooms downstairs that used to leak and it’s proven very effective in sealing things off before we refinished the room.
View of the bedroom from the downstairs hallway. The bathroom we finished is the doorway on the left and our master bedroom will eventually be in the bedroom to the right.
Andy screws in the subfloor.
Andy’s dad pulling out the rotten window frame wood. Andy’s parents came up a few weekends ago and helped us with a few projects in the room.
Ben watching Andy and Grandpa sawing wood outside. Every time Ben walks by saw horses in the garage he now says “Gampa!”
Andy put insulation up and started wiring. The room still needs a TON of work, but we’ll get there! We always do :)
by Heather | 0 comments
…but I draw the line at cleaning meat out of the meat grinder.
You should be thankful I didn’t take a picture of the swirling meat collecting into a juicy clump at the end.
by Heather | 1 Comment
This year we had our Thanksgiving meal at Andy’s parents’ house.
Ben in his Thanksgiving getup. Somebody’s eyes are seriously changing from blue to a muddy blue brown.
Playing cars with grandpa.
Chatting over dessert.
We stayed with Andy’s parents for a few days. The weather was beautiful on Friday so Ben and Andy had a bit of fun outside.
This is very serious business.
He had so much fun riding around with daddy. Incidentally the gokart is WAY too small for Andy :)
Friday night we made gingerbread houses at my mom and Paul’s cottage.
Justin “helped” Andy decorate his monstrosity. It was all frosting by the time they were done.
Saturday we visited Andy’s aunt, uncle and cousins. I’d actually never met them before. There were three little boys for Ben to play with and they got along great.
Ben loved the train that went around their Christmas tree!
More trains!
Smooched by Aunt Judy (Andy’s mom).
Lots of little boys :)
by Heather | 1 Comment
…for posting pictures of dead animals. Well, the hide of an animal anyway.
Andy’s been hunting for a few years and finally got his first deer last week. A doe, the opening day of gun season. He bow hunts too and would have preferred getting one with the bow as he thinks it’s more sportsman like (somewhat more of an art than just blasting the thing). Actually, I have a compound bow too and target shoot in our backyard. I’m not sure I could ever hunt though. I don’t have any issues with it, we eat the venison and Andy does it respectfully and makes sure things are quick for the animal. I’m just not sure I could bring myself to do it.
But this post is about Andy, and his deer. The friend he hunts with taught Andy how to gut the deer and the guys process it themselves. It’s actually very cool, very “old world, self sufficient” like. If we were ever in an end of the planet, society as we know it is crumbling situation…I would want to be on Andy’s team. He can MacGyver his way through pretty much anything. They carve out the fat and other stuff and end up with fabulous cuts of meat. They’ll also grind some which we use to make burgers, jerky, in tacos and any other place you’d use ground beef. I should do a whole other post on how to get venison to taste yummy, when done correctly it’s actually really good.
So what’s left over after all the meat is cut up (besides icky innards and organs) is the hide. Have you ever seen a deer up close? They’re gorgeous animals, so graceful looking. The hide is really pretty too, softer than you think it’d be. Andy thought he’d try his hand at preserving the one from his first doe. I’m not sure what he plans to use it for (I will not be snuggling up under a deer blanket) but I’m curious to see how it turns out for him. He cleaned it all up last night and needs to start the next few steps which involve lots of salt and some chemicals. I’ll have to let you know how things work out for him and what we end up doing with it :) Yeah, we have some weird hobbies…
