Uncle Ben's House

Labor Day weekend was a time of mixed emotions for us. Lately, Josh's job has become sporadic at best. He was going on a day to day basis for the most part. When he started, it was a great job. He got a work van, cell phone, laptop, work clothes, fax machine, and all the benefits that come with a good job. As the economy started to fall, so did work. So, we got word that Josh's parents were headed to visit Josh's brother and his family. We figured that we might not get a chance to go again for a long time due to the lack of work. So we agreed that if Josh was off on Friday, we would head to Uncle Ben's house (that's what Alex call's it) as well for some long overdue family time. Wednesday Josh got a call that he might have some work, and about one hour later got another call. He gave me the universal sign of the finger across the throat and I instantly knew. He was laid off. They figured it was best to give him a better chance for the union to find him a better job.

Ouch.

Major ouch.

I had my massive meltdown. You know...how will we feed our children, pay our bills, not lose our house, etc.? So we said, what the hay, and headed to see the family on Friday. It would be the beginning of the indefinite weekend. We left Friday so that we could come back on Sunday. (I was due to haul hay in the hay field that afternoon.)

So, here we are, jobless and filled with mixed emotions about the weeks ahead. It was rough, but we still managed to have a good time visiting family. Alex, after his initial ten minute meltdown, had the time of his life. He adores all of his cousins on both sides of the family. I have some great pictures of him with all his different cousins between both sides of the family that I'll be hanging in his bedroom when I can find some frames. Abby did pretty well with them too. She was still rather clingy, but managed regardless. They jumped on a trampoline, watched lots of The Wiggles, played house, and ran amok outside. Josh got some great bonding time with his brother. Heather (my sister-in-law), said that you can actually see them glowing when they get to see each other and I agree. It was fun to get to actually see Heather too. She works weekends, so if we didn't go up on Friday, I wouldn't have got to see her much at all. It was nice for all of us to get away.

So, true to form, the weather was a massive pain in my royal rump. As I mentioned before, I was due home for hay hauling on Sunday. Let me start by saying that the weathermen in this world are highly overpaid, in my opinion. Okay...so I'm grateful for their dedicated storm coverage. But I'm highly disappointed in their storm prediction accuracy. Supposedly we weren't due for rain until tonight, but last night, after the entire field of hay was cut and ready to bale, it was a constant torrential downpour. If you know anything about hay, then having a cut field that hasn't been baled is very very bad. So bad, in fact, that we now have to find a way to get another source of hay for the winter for my three super-old and highly overweight cows and our jointly owned two horses. Ugh...this was just another moment of crapness to grace our week of non-joy.

But there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. Josh was called this morning and, thanks to the union, he has been found another job. We aren't getting our hopes up for a permanent job. he won't know more until tomorrow morning. It may be a one week job, a one month job, or who knows how long. So keep us in your prayers. Until then, we will be thankful for what we have and what work comes his way.

Without further ado, I give you the few pictures I manged to capture of the weekend at Uncle Ben's house.

Cousins left to right: Abby, Alex, Lauren, Kate, Linsey.

Dancin' to the Wiggles.

Chillin' with Grandma on the couch.

Alex lookin' up to Lauren. He was a bit smitten with her I think.

Tumbling mats in the basement. I am so jealous.

Alex learned to pedal bikes this weekend.

Silly window time.

Elmo Vs. The Wiggles

When it comes to children's television programs, I will say that I am no where near a pro. I couldn't tell you what half the stuff on the TV is these days. This is mostly due to the fact that we don't have cable. Yup. That's right. We are a four to five TV station family...on a good day. So in order to entertain the wee ones, I have resorted to DVDs. (I'd like to take a moment to thank Ebay for all the DVD goodness we own.) With Alex, I went for the traditional Elmo. He was hooked almost instantly and the few VHS tapes we had of him were well worn. Abby had also reserved a special place in her heart for him. Elmo...that little red monster...drives me nutty. After a while, I learned to tune him out. Oh, I tried various other things from time to time. But nothing was ever accepted so lovingly into Alex or Abby's hearts. I never knew there was something out there that was actually entertaining for parents to watch...until now. Since the various YouTube videos of the Wiggles, we have bought a trio of DVD's and one VHS for the kids to enjoy. They couldn't be happier. When I give them the option of Elmo or The Wiggles, they almost always go for The Wiggles. This is much to my happiness. They have been around for 18 years now and I am ecstatic to have an option that doesn't involve a furry red monster that speaks in third person. Ugh...just one of his annoying traits. So if anyone is looking for upcoming birthday ideas for Alex, he's a fan now and would probably be thrilled to get Wiggles stuff. So when it comes to Elmo vs. The Wiggles...The Wiggles could beat the furry red snot out of Elmo any day of the week.

Here's another video of my monkeys enjoying The Wiggles. Abby is actually actively participating. She calls them 'wiggies'. Too cute. Oh, and Alex absolutely has to have his guitar when he watches them. Thanks Uncle Jake and Aunt Stephanie. The birthday present from last year is a true winner.

Wierd Phlog

So it has proven to be a weird day. Why so weird? Eh...maybe I'll get to that another day. So I shall mirror my weird day with a weird phlog (that's photo blog for any of you knew readers...made the word up for my photo bloggin' days. Yeah. It's classy.) Anyhow. Here are a few of the odd photos I've taken this year. There are quite a few more, but I will save them for my weird phlog v.2.0. I'd say enjoy, but eh...

Three out of five cats on your bed...wait a minute...their bed.

A squirrel relaxin' on my outside bench. Didn't think that position could actually qualify for comfortable.

A slug...inside my house...one of many intruders of my home.

Yeah...that's Josh. Nice, huh?

Jasmine...um...relaxing? Or perhaps she is dreaming of flying.

Luke...he's incognito. He wants so badly to be 'just one of the kids'.

Um...yup. those are marigolds. Freakishly tall and large marigolds. From the Jurassic era I believe.

Moral Support

If you are wondering what they are watching, it is monster truck videos. Ahhh, gotta get a little white trash in them somehow, right?

As you may have read before, Alex is on a constant breathing treatment for a preventative for his asthma. So every night, we hook him up to his machine and set up ye old faithful YouTube to pass the 6 or 7 minutes of time while he gets his medicine. Though I feel a bit sorry for the little guy that he has to do this every single day, he doesn't seem to mind it too much. It's a good excuse for him to watch is videos. But lately, Alex and Abby have become quite the little buddies. Even though there are the many times a day that they enjoy torturing each other, there is still love there. But one step cuter is what Abby does with Alex every night. When I tell Alex it is time for his breathing treatment, Abby heads for the computer too. She sits there and watches the videos right along side of him. She gulps down her lovely bottle of soy milk and occasionally pats him on the back or hugs him. Now, I'm fairly certain that she does it more for her benefit than her brother's, but regardless, it's cute. I'm a little concerned that she may be breathing in a fair share of the steroids that Alex is sucking down, but I guess if it's not hurting him, then it shouldn't hurt her. I suppose only time will tell.

Pickles & Nacho's New Pad

Last weekend, I decided to accomplish something that I've been meaning to do for quite awhile. I decided, when we got our new bunny Pickles, I would build an outside pen for her and Nacho to run in while we are outside. Of course, this was a little lower on my 'things to do list' and it was only this past weekend that I decided that I had the time. Thanks to my friend, Mandy, and her millions of animal projects, she had plenty of extra fencing to let us use. We have time share rabbits. They are such good friends that we didn't have the heart to separate them. They are litter mates and get a long so great that we have decided to go on a joint ownership program. So as a result, we now have a nice outside area for Pickles and Nacho to gallivant about. They love it and so do the kids. Alex is a bit smitten with Pickles. She is the gentler of the two rabbits and isn't opposed to the kids being a bit overly affectionate with her. It's only been a week, and they already expect to get free time in the open air. They go a bit nutty and run around like wild rabbits. They eagerly hop into the pet taxi when I open their cage. It's pretty cute and makes me feel bad that I didn't get this project done a bit sooner. So here are some pictures of the the new pad. I even threw a nice video in of the first time they tried out their new place.

Alex lovin' on Pickles.

Don't you love that face? It's her 'yeah, yeah...i know...don't sit on the bunny' look.

The Life & Death of a Cicada

Today, we went outside to enjoy the lovely weather and we got a very nice little nature show in our backyard. If you don't know what a Cicada is, you will by the end of this blog. Alex and Abby were thrilled to watch all the bugs in action. In fact, I had to drag them in the house because they wanted to watch the bugs. Alex's new word of the day is 'cicada' and he has been talking about them since. So now, through the power of digital photography, I shall present to you the Life and Death of a Cicada. (Yes...I took all of these photos myself...no google search for these bad boys).

One day, a lovely little cicada nymph came out of the ground to crawl up then nearest tree. After the long trek up the trunk, he decided to hatch.

He was happier now with wings and to not be trapped in his previous ugly nymph body. He stretched his pale wings, waiting for the sun and wind to dry him so he could take flight into the wild blue yonder.

After his trek into the world, he took a well-deserved rest as he watched two children in the distance.

He thought of how strange it was that they should wear his shed exoskeleton as a strange form of jewelry. They seemed to pride themselves in the many shed skins of his brothers and sisters.

But those children continued to collect the exoskeletons and wear them with a smile. But while he was distracted by their strange behavior...

A large cicada-killer swooped down and ate him up.

The moral of the story? It sucks to be a cicada.

The End.

*Please note that the cicada in the first photo was not harmed (yet). It was a completely other cicada that bit it in the end.

Chatterboxes

I've got a couple of little chatterboxes on my hand lately. One of them is almost 1 1/2 and the other is nearly 3...and I can't understand either one of them. Okay, okay...so maybe that's a wee bit of an exaggeration. I can understand Alex when he wants me to. Don't get all freaked out now...there are no red flags going on here. He can talk just fine. Let me elaborate.

Over the past few months, Alex has been talking more and more. He sings whole songs on his own, recites his alphabet, counts to 16 and explains the rules of the house to Abby. But in the last couple of weeks, he has developed this strange new little language. And it drives me nuts. I have no idea what the purpose of it is or what the heck he is saying when he disappears into this little imaginary world of his. Of course, I can't write down in a blog what he is saying or how he is saying it because...well...it's undecipherable. He makes up words that he uses over and over again throughout the day. When I ask him a question like, 'What kind of sandwich do you want?", he responds with some strange new word. It's very odd and he doesn't seem to be shedding the new habit. He will go off into his room and chatter on and on about things. What things? I have no idea whatsoever. He also makes up songs of his own. It's all very new and odd. I'm waiting for him and Abby to start talking in some foreign made-up language so that they can plot dangerous stunts together to freak me out.

Now Abby, on the other hand, has become the logical kind of chatterbox. She learns new words by the hour these days. She is even putting multiple words together and says partial sentences. Today she actually said, "I want cereal Mommy." It wasn't the most articulate sentence on the planet, but I understood every word of it. This is all very new to me too. Alex was not saying nearly as much at this age. She has done gone and surpassed her big brother in the verbal arena. (Yes...you read that right. I said 'done gone'. I'm showin' off my hick side) It's amazing to see how different they learn. I credit Abby's massive word index to Alex. He is always sitting with her and 'teaching' her words. It's a cute little game they play together.

Oh well, I guess if someone out there could understand the workings of children's minds, then they could become a millionaire. Until then, I suppose I'll just have to settle for wingin' it.