HELP!!!

My mom came over yesterday morning to watch Wyatt for me so I could go to the gym.
I had last year's costume out because I'm going to take it to Jackie and see if Luke can squeeze into it. (he's 11 months younger than Wyatt, but he's the same size and possibly weighs more...He's a brick...in a good way...I love Lukey)
When I came home she said she had asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween this year.
What did my child say?
He said he wants to be a crow.
So she asked again.
He said he wants to be a crow.
So when she told me this...I asked him yet again...his response was the same.
I died laughing. It was hilarious. So I asked him if he meant the birdy crow..."Caw". And he said..."wanna be a crow, CAW!"
What the heck do I do with that?
I've been pouring through the internet looking for toddler sized crow costumes.
They do not exist.
What can I say, at least he's original.
I'm probably going to have to deter him from his original request, but wouldn't that be so funny if I could make it work?
I don't have the first clue about how to make a costume.
I don't think the pattern exists.

All I know is this, he is very persistent.
He wants to be a crow...CAW!

London

So, I offered to help my friend Savannah with invitations for her little London's first birthday.
When she came over I took a few pictures of him too. She brought him over in these little legging things. All of a sudden, my brain snapped into place and I remembered a picture I saw on this blog.
So before he got into his fall picture mode, I had to take some fun pictures.
I love these butt shots!!!







Those eyes get me every time.

Mr. Potato Head

Wyatt loves these glasses. He came up to me like this.
This is mildly concerning for me, mildly.
When I was a youngun' I went through this phase of wanting glasses, SOOOOO BAD!
It got so bad that my grandma and grandpa bought me glasses and had the lenses taken out. I wore those things everywhere. That wouldn't have been so bad if, I wasn't going through the "little house on the prairie" and "not brushing my hair" phases at the same time. Doesn't that paint a pretty picture.
I'm hoping we skip these phases with Wyatt, but for now...I'll just share these cute pictures!!!

Rewind...

At the end of summer, one of my favorite flowers blooms. Hardy Hibiscus. I have one down in the backyard its huge. It's about 5 feet tall and gorgeous. I didn't water it for about 2 days and all the flowers fell off. I was absolutely devastated.
But, I have one planted in the front yard that is much smaller and has never bloomed, until now.
It was incredible. It looked like a fake in my front yard because the bloom was so huge, it didn't look like it went with the small plant. I mean, this bloom was the size of a dinner plate.
I take too many pictures of my plants than I would like to admit, but it does remind me of my Grandma Parmele so that's ok. But these were just to pretty to not share!

I Finally Went Birthday Shopping...

...I am usually very frugal. I don't splurge often. But I used the money that my parent's gave me for my birthday and bought this ridiculously cool new pot. Yes, I said pot. It's actually a cast iron enamel Dutch Oven. Did I mention it's Emerilware too? So, this is the debut of my new "real & rustic" "Trinity Pot".
I'm making Buffalo Chicken Chili for dinner. This is actually one of my favorite things about fall...making all different kinds of soup.
Ryan is coming home to spend the evening with us, instead of working on the house.
We will be watching "The Office" premiere.
I am really looking forward to tonight.

And I love my new Dutch Oven...that sounds better than "pot" doesn't it.

We Interrupt This Break...

...with a post!!!
Ha ha, I didn't know I was on a break from blogging either, I just haven't had time to put anything together.

My parents 30th anniversary was this Tuesday!! Happy Anniversary mom and dad.

So, we are plugging away with the house...we are so close (and yet so far away), that I don't want to post any more pictures until it's done.

Last week, I did a little photo session with the beautiful Miss Nat. She was 9 days old on the day these were taken. I didn't feel very good about the pictures when I was taking them. I just didn't feel like I ever got into my groove. But, all in all, I think, we got some pretty cute pictures.

Natalie Jane

Well, sweet little Natalie Jane was born a week ago today, September 3, 2008. I was there at the hospital and was honored to be one of the first to get to meet the little bundle. She is a snuggly little girl, weighing in at 7lbs 8 1/2 oz. Much smaller than her 8lb 8oz(?) big brother who was born 2 weeks early...YIKES!!!
Nattie (thats what Wyatt calls her) was very quiet, unless she was unwrapped, then it was ON!
She did not like being unswaddled or bathed.
I thoroughly enjoyed being there and of course, I have pictures!!!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

August 29th was my 29th birthday. I think some call that my golden birthday.
Fun Fact: I also share my birthday with my lovely niece Melissa, Claire, (Some friends of ours, Josh and Bonnie's, daughter) she turned one this year, and Michael Jackson who turned 50. 50!!!!!!
So, here's how the day went:
My mom and I have a tradition of going out for lunch on my birthday. So to lunch we went. We picked up Grandma on the way and went to Olive Garden for some yummy soup, salad and breadsticks. When the waitress was asking for our beverage order, she mentioned that they had complimentary wine sampling. Well, grandma perked right up and told the waitress that she would like some of that free wine please!! :) So, in the spirit of celebration, we all joined in and she brought us samples of 3 different wines of our choice. That was a fun little twist to lunch at Olive Garden. By the end of lunch, Wyatt was exhausted, he was trying his darndest to stay awake before they came to sing happy birthday. You see, singing happy birthday usually includes a candle or 2 and a piece of cake. He didn't care about singing me happy birthday, he really wanted to blow out those candles. But he lost the fight and fell asleep. Well, as you may know...Olive Garden just sings to you, no cake no candles anyway. But when we were putting him in his car seat to leave, he woke up and the most horrible temper tantrum ensued because he had fallen asleep and not gotten to sing "Happy Birthday".
My mom is such a softy when it comes to this little guy. She said, maybe we'll have to go buy some candles and a dessert so he can sing "Happy Birthday". To which I replied, "I'm not going to reward this behavior right now, maybe later"
So, we then headed over to an estate sale that I had found online. I put a bid in on a washer/dryer (that I later won) and Wyatt played with pots and pans in the back yard with his grandma's...(We couldn't leave without a pan, that was one fight that I wasn't willing to put up!).
After checking in on Ryan at the "little house" we headed to Walgreens for some birthday candles and a lighter. Then off to Burgerville for a couple of Sundaes. And about 15 songs of "happy birthday".
It was a fun day.
Ryan picked Wyatt and I up at Burgerville and off to Becky and Ray's, where we cleaned up quickly, dropped off Wyatt and were off to dinner at Benihana's.
I wish I would have gotten a group picture. Benihana's is set up in a half circle, so I only got pictures of the people on the ends. Oops. I'll tell you that Doug and Lynnann, Cresslyn, Jenna, Jared and Christi, Ryan and I, and Terry were there. (That was the order we were sitting in too)
I love this place.
It's a little on the pricey side. But so yummy. I had Tuna steak. I'd recommend it to anyone. It didn't taste fishy at all. And the dish they put on the side, I can't even describe how good it was, but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. No kidding. Watering.
Anyway, it's like going to a show, the chef did knife tricks and an onion volcano. Very entertaining.



So, the next evening, my mom had us over for dinner. In my honor she made all Rachael Ray recipes. This was a labor of love for sure, because my mom doesn't like following recipes. She's too free for recipes. It's the artist in her. My grandma came over early to help her and also made some yummy apple pies...straight off the apple tree outside.

It was a fun birthday.
Thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate!!!

A Public Service Announcement...and a Winner!!

Hi...
I put this picture of Wyatt up here so I can remember how cute he is while I'm explaining how the "rice contest" came to pass.
Saturday morning, I was working on the progress report blog for the house. I'm not quite sure what Ryan was doing. And Wyatt was playing in the living room. I was oblivious. So I turn around and what do my eyes see, but him with a full pint glass of water. And what was he doing with that water???

Well.....

...Lets see what's in the rice!


















Yup...it's my fairly new cell phone.

So, can you put it together?
Well, I turned around to see him repeatedly dunking my cell phone in the water, when he saw that I saw him. He said, "I dip it mommy"!
We won't talk about what came next.

But after that, I decided to try an experiment that worked great for my mother in law.
I'm don't remember exactly what happened to her phone. I am certain, however, that it hadn't been "dipped" repeatedly into a glass of water. But, her phone got wet somehow and wasn't working. So, my brother in law Jared, said that he'd seen a news story about taking your battery and chip out of the phone and putting everything in a bowl of uncooked white rice. And I'll be darned, it worked for her.
So, what could it hurt. I knew that it was my only hope really. I have a 2 year contract on this phone and I just got it this spring.
Yesterday morning, I took it out, hopeful but not expecting much. It turned on. It TURNED ON!!! That's amazing in and of itself, but the screen had all kinds of lines and was bouncing around. So, I took it back apart and into the bed of rice it went again. Last night, I tried it again. It turned on, and I was able to call Ryan and actually talk to him. AMAZING!!! But shortly after that, the whole screen died. At that time, I figured there was no hope, it was fried. But back into the rice it went, what could I lose really?
This morning, I put the phone back together for the 3rd time. It turned on. The screen worked. I called Ryan, it worked. And it's been about 2 hours now, and everything is working beautifully.
I really thought I was going to have a bad report for you guys. But it sounds like this story has a happy ending.
I even have a couple of rice kernels floating around inside my phone. And IT WORKS!!!
Alls well that ends well...I don't have to raid my son's college fund to buy a new phone, and you get a tip to save you from the brink of disaster. So dramatic.

Oh ya...and we have a winner.
My plan was to use Random.org. I know that alot of different people use that to choose their random winners.
I promise that I took the first results, but afterwards, I did experiment to make sure that the number was changing.

(Drumroll please) after an astounding 3 votes. (that has to set some sort of record, right?) The winner is:

Steph from myohmy

So, Steph pick out your pendant from Home Studio and let me know which one you want.
E-mail me at harleygertie@yahoo.com

Thanks to Donna and April for playing along!!!

And store the "rice trick" away in your head for a rainy day...(or possibly just a glass of water)

What's In The Rice? *First Ever Contest* Time's Up!!!

Only 3 bites on a contest???
Wow!!!
Well to you 3...their loss is your gain...your chances to win are great.
I'll announce the winner tomorrow sometime.
I will say, that while all creative none of the answers were right.
I didn't just cover something with rice for no reason.
There was a method to the "madness".
I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.
For now...I'm gonna go sit on my couch, put my feet up and relax. (long day working at the house)

So, that's the question....What's in the rice? It's not a trick question, something is buried in the rice and I want to know what you think it is. Since I love random contests, you don't have to be right. Just looking for some creative guesses and if you get it right...great.
What's the prize?
Well, my college room mate Kelly's sister, Andrea, blogged about these on Wednesday. I fell in love with these little pendants. So that's the prize. One of those adorable pendants, your choice...you supply the chain. The winner will be picked at random. Only one entry per person. Contest will end at 9pm Sunday evening.

Have fun...
I know I will thoroughly enjoy reading your answers!!

...Progress

Well it's been 3 weeks since we took possession of the "little house" or maybe I should say "hell hole". It's been pretty tough all around. Wyatt has started acting out, and not coincidentally I think it has alot to do with this house debacle. (That's what Kelly called it and I agree, it's quite the debacle) Alot has been done in the last 3 weeks and it's not done yet. Ryan is getting very close to being able to put the kitchen back together.
I just thought I'd share some before and "progress" pictures.
Remember this back bedroom with the hole in the ceiling?
Well Ryan and his dad drywalled the ceiling and ripped out the carpet. *NOTE* I just remembered that these pictures were actually taken last Saturday. So, this is the 2 week "progress" report!

And who could forget the most memorable room...the bathroom! The toilet was one poop away from falling through the floor into the basement. (I'm really not exaggerating at all) So first and foremost, we had to fix that up, you know, safety first.
Then we put a new toilet, sink, tub surround...(the tub itself was in great shape, our response to that was that they must have never bathed), flooring and wainscoting paneling in it.

Then there's the kitchen...
...We ripped out everything in the kitchen, it's a blank slate. We've been working on drywalling the ceiling, patching up the walls, fixing the window, and evening out the floor.
This isn't as dramatic of a change, but even with now cabinets it's an improvement!!!

Here's the dining room.

And then there's the room that we've named pepto bismal! It's no longer that nasty disgusting pink color, I don't know about you, but it reminds me of diarrhea. Well, I didn't get a "Progress" pic of this room, but I can assure you that it is no longer pepto bismal pink. While we're on the subject of this room, it also had those glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. Well, this is what we found when we peeled them off...the original color of the ceiling. This should be a commercial to stop smoking. What do you think?

There hasn't been a night that Ryan hasn't spent at this house. It's been a constant thing. We are looking forward to getting past this.
This weekend I think we're working on the kitchen and it's getting a new front porch.
Next post won't be house related.

I think birthday celebrations or Baby Natalie!!!
Have a great weekend everyone.