lightheaded

so, we have had a nice weekend.
first a date to the MOS (Museum of Science) in Boston. it was great. a nice/different date and topped it off with indian food. yum
saturday, a lot of house stuff and playin' with caedmon and a "bondfire" get-together at night - after a crazy fit in the afternoon from a cranky boy.
today: a trip to home depot and paint samples. my "brown" was eggplant and my "peanut butter" was the same color as my cabinets. i am not happy. i do love the red, but now i am at square one with color choices. ahhhhh more frustrating than i expected, i wish we were like 2 mins from a HomeDepot instead of 15.
now, i'm lightheaded because we painted with oil based primer over three of the walls that we coudn't remove the wallpaper from. we had to clean the brushes with gasoline because we didn't have any paint remover...and i accidently got some on my lips...so i had to remove it with the gas and now...yes, i'm loopy.

sunday school started at MMC this week. i'm excited for this year and glad that we have new things happening at our church...it is time.
caedmon was a blessing today. after one little 2 year old tantrum this morning he was GREAT and no nap! he was so cute all day and played by himself so much and just brought joy. lately i've been calling him "joybringer reveley" and he thinks it funny. he is a joy-bringer though. he is always bringing us joy in new ways. i did look at him and say, "HOW DID YOU GROW SO FAST! ITS NOT NICE!" beacuse he really has changed and grown so quickly. i miss my baby boy! pray that we have another one soon, cause time is flying!

just pictures

enjoying a cookie for having a great day at Daycare! i love this boy!
progress in the kitchen....removing wallpaper

celebrating the bears victory!

breakin' the rules for the game...enjoying dinner in the livingroom! excuse my wild hair :)

what a day....

oh, what a day!

actually, the problem started saturday afternoon.
after shooting a wedding with laura and taking a nice nap, i woke up to a camera with a SPOT and flecks on the sensor.
for those of you who know me: THIS IS NOT COOL! I use my camera probably about 2 hours a day! if not ALLLLL Day long. i have taken millions of pictures this year and to know that i might be out of a camera for 6-8 weeks is depressing. i will survive...somehow. i can still take pictures, but the flaws are evident and frustrating.
i'm thinking some sand got into the sensor from shooting on the beach...saddness.
then, today. 9:45 a.m. i get a call from my hub. he was supposed to be taking the camera to RITZ to check out the problem and he says, "my car won't start. i think its the transmission." GREAT NEWS! ahahah, right.
there is no possible way that we could afford two car payments and a new car or major repairs. his has about 128K on it and has been having some issues. but, we JUST got new tires....bummer! so we're waiting to hear if it is the transmission or something else that would be easier to repair and cheaper. either way, it's money.
so the camera is free, except for shipping but the car most definitely is not...
in other news: we did just begin renovations on the kitchen, which are mostly entirely free thanks to the house being owned by the church and not us. but it is a lot of work. i will post some pictures of the cleared walls...no more hideous wallpaper!
i dont know why, but its times like this i wish my family lived by. it seems like things would be easier if you had parents nearby and could borrow their camera or had a sister down the street and could share a car with her. or they could help with the kitchen and it would be done in no time at all...plus, when things suck sometimes you just want your family around cause you can complain and they don't care, or you don't feel bad for doing it.
anyway...the BRIGHT SPOT - i'm not stressed. i'm bummed or alittle sad, but not stressed. i know that God will provide and look forward to a post cause i believe that GOD WILL and has already planned something great out of this. either a new car situation, a new camera situation, or some loaners in the mean time...whatever the case he has never let us down! even when it comes to stupid material things God knows and we can learn from this as well. so i'm feelin' groovy despite the annoyances this day!
:-)

five for friday

Five for Friday
Five favorite things for this week...pointing out the best things in life

1. getting to bed early for me and caedmon: caedmon has been going to bed early all week. about 8:30 to 8:45....that is EARLY for him. getting this boy settled down and pottied and brushed and read-to, etc. doesn't happen easily. we're hoping that this week will start a pattern of earlier bed times for caedmon. and earlier bed time may equal longer sleeping? we've noticed this when he goes down earlier and and gently he sleeps well. i have been going to bed before 11 every night, which is early for me too. i want to go to bed before that but its hard! when that means less than two hours alone with ryan and my laptop and the tv! hahaha but i am favoring the sleep! so this is my number 1 favorite thing of this week.

2. classic books. tonight we hit up barnes and noble and it brought me back to childhood. also, reading like a million books a night to caedmon makes me love the classic books again. tonight we bought THE DIGGINEST DOG...we used to love this book as kids! also, I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER - a classic and caedmon said, "this one make momma cry." it does. he's right. i bought mason and elliot *my nephews* some classics tonight to add to their collections as well. I LOVE BOOKS!

3. Co-Workers. This week i was pumped to have great co-workers. i had some awesome conversations, was able to help and support people, and was able to get help and support from people. i'm so thankful for my job. It was actually one of my favorite things this week.

4. "sentences" caedmon using good sentences. he really was doing great...using sentences to tell us everything. we heard things like, "oh, i know! i'll read daddy's book." and "Caedmon likes that movie" and "I am eating a lollipop!" but my FAVORITE sentence of the week came tonight, "Oh, momma, you're having a bad hair day."

5. THE OFFICE; this is my favorite show came back on for the fall season. made me actualy look forward to the fall a little bit, but also made me realize - it's here!

i hope you all had a few favorite things from this week. it's fun to look back and think about the things that MADE this week memorable, or a little special. :)

delish

Tonight i made Thai Chicken Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen's recipie. i kinda did my own thing for some of the toppings and i used whole wheat crust - AWESOME! lets just say, there were no leftovers. so good.

my famous chicken wings for the opening to the bears season. unfortunately...they lost. it was depressing. but the wings were good. i always make wings and nachos and potato skins for the opening game of the season. i scarfed!

progress

so, we're making progress.
school is into its third week. its going well. i'm adjusting to working longer days.
caedmon is into daycare full swing, still only a few hours a week, but he's a champ. no crying, all smiles. it's hillarious when i hear someone saying, "yeah, caedmon can do that! or caedmon goes potty." then i realize it's him talking in the third person. we're teaching him I and ME which he does know, but when he's at school he always uses his name. he still doesn't know the names of the other kids, but they are sure starting to learn his! he talks the MOST of all the kids and is a very good boy. ms. olivia has to "throw down" on him, but he likes whatever she does and listens very well to her. he ate his WHOLE lunch today and amazed the rest of the DC Staff. it was good.
this past weekend we had a nice time with our little family. the weather wasn't great on sat. so we just sat...literally didn't do much.
ryan and i have progressed in deciding to "own" a healthy lifestyle. we eat extremely healthy, i would say, and we are active, we go to the chiropractor, try to get plenty of rest *yeah right!*, but we do need more excersise. so we took up running...joy. i hate running, but i feel good afterward. 4 more times and i get new shoes...motivation! i love shoes...
we've officially started progress on a few tasks around the house that have been haunting me since moving here. 1. my hideous kitchen. i dont even like to call it MINE, but i do live here. so, we're starting! tonight we painted the door and some trim and the radiator along the floor. 2. the bathroom. i cried when we moved here and saw my minature bathroom. we're doing a little bit of work there. 3. searching for a new dining room table and hutch. we don't have our own set and the church provided one is ridiculous.

funny kid thing:
this weekend on sunday after church we did have some kids come over to play with caed. hillarious stuff happend! a 2 year old (caedmon) and 6 and 8 year old brothers. something scary at first, but now funny was caedmon getting clocked by the 8 year old swinging...caed flew like 5 feet. the 6 year old said, "JAKE! YOU ALMOST KILLED A BABY!" I couldn't help but crack up it was so funny, once i knew caed was okay.

last night we went to laura and ryans and on the ride home caedmon said, "Dadda and momma, i had a fun day!" that was great to hear! its so nice to se that he is so enthusastic and adventurous about life!

enjoy a few pics!

fanatic

what a boring weekend! seriously, my highlight was going to teh grocery store twice. i am not seeking pitty, i actually enjoyed the boring days...kinda. plus, the weather was not nice at all.
the highlight of the weekend is the must anticipated BEARS vs. Packers game. as die-hard BEARS fans, we've got caedmon all geared up for the game. (that is which, he'll be in bed for anyway). gramma and pa babler sent him a cool bears outfit (pictured above.)
sometimes i feel like i should be doing more, and get more motivated. its hard because i am so worn out at the end of the week that sometimes i just don't want to do anything. i am relieved that after this week all of our big bills we've been dreading will be past and we can actually spend a little money, maybe do a few special things.
this week approaching i am going to be starting one half day a week. no more full full-time weeks. i only did that to get school kicked-off. now, i get to come home at noon on wednesdays. i'm looking forward to these half-days. time relaxing while caedmon takes his nap or maybe i'll get some scrapooking done or photoshop practice in.
next week shoudl be a busy one though, at the end of the week laura has two wedding - friday and saturday. so, i'll be accompaning her for atleast the saturday event. i love shooting weddings with her, even though i really dont know what i'm doing yet. there's just something great about experiencing someone's most important special day of their life - even when you don't know who they are!

big boy haircut

looks like such a big boy now! he and daddy have the same haircut! so cute!

something funny caedmon did today:

well, after school we went to EGGROLL CAFE! ridiculously good. http://www.eggrollcafe.com/. when caedmon was a little baby i used to ALWAYS go there. he's been breastfed there like a million times, had his diaper changed on the tiny bathroom floor, and even "partied" there. today, we just were hangin' with hales at EC. caedmon was sitting by the window and saw, "JOE!" Yes, JOE JONAS! A boy came walking by with skinny jeans on and this same hair! He did look like Jonas. Hillarious. Then, later the boy was walking by again and caedmon said, "hey Joe! there's joe! Our son is ridiculous and obsessed with the jonas brothers! gotta love it, haleigh was dying!

A Labor-less weekend

A nice three days off, after a CRAZY first week back to school.

The first week of school was actually very smooth, but extremely busy. I was so tired on Thursday and Friday!

A long weekend couldn't have come at a better time.

SATURDAY: A nice relaxing morning and a day trip to Newburyport, MA. A beautiful coastal town. loved it! We met up with Laura, Ryan, and Jen. It was awesome...just walking around, eating ice cream, enjoying seafood, and the water. Highlight: HAVING A BOY! Boy, was i thankful that caedmon is a boy on this trip. in these small little towns, where you never know if there is a bathroom or what-have-you, you can always be sure there is a bush or an alleyway! Caedmon went pee atleast 4 times in Newburyport. We found many discrete places, and i was thankful for a boy. it would have been so annoying to find bathrooms every hour! i am very happy he's potty trained and "easy-going." another accident free day!

unfortunatly, today i did miss out on a big event: THE SCHWILLING WEDDING. i posted a picture of them, even though it makes me sad i'm so happy for them! Congrats Hannah and Justin!

SUNDAY: After church, we headed on our way out to Wendell, MA - a small town in western massachusetts where my cousins *(step-cousins, actually) live. We enjoyed time with my aunt and uncle and 4 of my cousins, and two of Kevin's kids. it was a beautiful day. we had a water balloon fight - very fun! ryan and i won the second round, until i got soaked! caedmon was a good boy, he did experience a few accidents there because my aunt was spoiling him and giving him drink after drink after drink...you get my point. HIGHLIGHT: just RELAXING and eating lots of yummy food. the veggie pizza was the best.

MONDAY: just a day at home. it wasn't completely labor-less. i did do some housework and we tried something new. A NO NAP DAY. we have done these, unintentionally before. but, doing it on purpose made me feel so bad for caed. plus, it trapped us inside. every time he goes in the car after about 12:00 he falls asleep. he's been doing good with naps, but horrible at night. so we watned to try and see if he really "NEEDS" the nap. amazingly - he went to bed at 8 pm. and wasn't up for the day until 8 a.m.! VEYR NICE! he only woke up twice, once at 5 saying, "i want dada" and once at 6:30ish to come in our bed and was bad dead sleep! it was great. but the rough part of the day was at 3:30-6ish when he was worn out. but, he woke back up when he ate dinner and then hales came over.

so, we had a great day. i got some scrappin' done, we went to a park, and we watched ACROSS THE UNIVERSE...awesome!

today...back at it at work. glad to have a short week :)

caedmon's doing great in daycare and i'm hoping he keeps it up, only going 5 hours this week.

enjoy the pictures. Labor Day pictures on the next post

what i get to come home to

Today was the first day of school. How was it? very smooooooooooooth. the best of my four years at cca. it was seamless and easy-going for a first day anyway. there was some drama, a lot of questions, anxious students, and parents with lumps in their throats, but all in all...it was smooth and easy.
the best part of my day was coming home to my boys. each day i am so excited to come home to ryan and caed. thankfully i'm only EXACTLY 8 minutes away from home and so my "commute" isn't rough. but, i still get excited to drive up. the best days are when caed and ryan are sitting on the stairs outside waiting for me and i hear, "mommmmmma's home!" that is just the greatest feeling in the world. i love coming home to their love and their faces.
caedmon doesn't take much time lately to "snuggle." but when i'm home from work i get a few moments of love and he pats my back as he hugs me. i love this feeling and won't ever forget it.
These pictures are a great representation of how happy we are when the school day is over and we're together. we're so blessed! i can't imagine working until 5, sitting in traffic, and missing so much of my child's life. or having ryan have to do that. what we saccrifice in "dinero" we make up for in time together and happiness!
JOY, simply PURE JOY!