Learning New Things Every Day

It's been a crazy week. I want to post something new to read, but don't have time for pictures. Besides...I can't find the camera!

Last week we were gone a lot. While we were home we were getting ready to paint our main floor living room. Those of you who've been here know the walls don't end and continue into the front entry way, up the stairs to the second story, and down the stairs to the basement. It's a major undertaking and I wasn't ready to paint on Friday when Russell had his day off.

Saturday and Sunday were spent finishing up the spackling, sanding, taping and beginning to prime. The biggest thing was deciding on a color. Four samples later we found what we wanted. Actually we found it in three, but the color match at Wal-Mart turned out to be a little different than the sample we got from Lowe's. Thanks to my creative artist friend Kirsten, we chose a color that will be good and not too dramatic (a golden yellow, I'll post some photos when I find the camera and have a little more time). She's sympathetic to my situation because they just moved into a two-story house and painted too. She and Jeremy have a generic "little giant" ladder they've loaned us so hopefully that will help with the tall areas that stretch from the main floor to the ceiling that ends at the second story.

Charles has been busy this week. He learned how to drink out of a straw (he learned on vacation but promptly forgot), feed Grandma Cheerios (which he thought was hilarious), climb down the steps, and I'm sure some other things I've forgotten. Yesterday he tried to feed his friend Merrill (Kirsten's daughter) snacks while she was here and today in his exersaucer he realized at dog-level you can feed Casey and Lillie graham crackers. He thought feeding the dogs was quite funny. Thankfully they were gentle with their chomps on graham crackers. For those of you with a weak stomach or germ phobias, please skip to the next paragraph...Charles would try to feed Lille a graham cracker, then stick it back in his mouth, and then try to feed her again. Finally she wised up and took a big bite. He was fine with that. In fact, he'd rather watch her eat than have the snack. I have a feeling these pooches are going to get a little more plump if they keep having these kind of snacks. They already know to hover under the high chair and lick the seat when Charles gets out!

Charles is getting a molar and is out of sorts without a dose of ibuprofen. He's got a big purple spot on his gum and we're finally seeing signs of a tooth. That will bump him up to 8!

I remembered I've got some pictures of Charles on the porch swing at Aunt Christy's house (I always call it Grandma Goentzel's house even though I lived there several years and Christy bought it from Grandma). Christy got a new, fancy digital camera when she was in Oregon. Of course Charles is a great subject to practice on. He loves to swing.





Charles laughing on Aunt Christy's bright orange water bed!









Swinging is fun!!!






















What's taking so long? I'm ready to go!

Posing for Aunt Christy.












I better go. I've got a stinky stinker emptying all the CD-Roms out of the desk drawer and putting 3 1/2" floppy disks in his mouth. Dad will be so excited!

One final note...those of you who live around here are welcome to join us for Charles's birthday party on August 11th. Give me a call and I'll fill you in on the details.

On the Move

This was a crazy week. I borrowed my sister's car to run an errand and on the way to my destination was hit by a dump truck. It could have been a horrible accident but the Lord protected me. We have many things to be thankful for. A short list:

• It could have been a head-on collision, instead the truck only scratched the driver's side between the wheel well and the brake light


• I was alone in the car. Christy was at the house with Charles


• The dump truck could have had a full load, but it was empty


• I didn't hit anyone when I swerved out of the dump truck's path, no one was in the right hand lane


• No one was injured

A long story as short as can be: I was headed south and the dump truck was headed north, we were both on the inside lane. A pick-up truck sped up and cut off the dump truck, slamming on it's breaks to make a left-hand turn. The dump truck swerved to avoid hitting the pick-up and veered into oncoming traffic. Thankfully Christy's car has only minor damages and the other driver's insurance will have to pay for the repairs. I've got some sore muscles in my neck and shoulders. I went to the doctor on Friday to make sure it wasn't anything serious. He gave me some muscle relaxers and some pain pills (he's great, he always gives us samples instead of having to pay for meds at the pharmacy). It's Sunday and I'm still a little sore but much better than Thursday afternoon. If it's not better in a day or two I might schedule a massage!

Charles is into EVERYTHING and can't stand to be held or sit still. He's climbed the stairs on numerous occasions and yesterday crawled into Lillie's kennel. He's also mastered climbing on the hearth of the fireplace. We've been barricading him in the living room by putting our ottoman between the end of the love seat and the staircase. He discovered that if he pushed the basket out of the way he could escape through the gap between the wall and the other side of the love seat--well almost. He got stuck, his shoulders were too wide and he couldn't get through.

Christy's neighbor has a nice in-ground pool. It's a 70-80 year old widow who lives alone. She's given us an open invitation to come swim since she's got to pay to put in the chemicals and would like it to get some use. Grandpa and Grandma have even come over and taken a dip! Charles seems to like the water. But, he'd rather crawl around on the sidewalk, on the move on his own terms. Last night during his bath he tried to stick his face in the water. He must have learned that at the pool. We bought him a small inflatable pool for our backyard, but we haven't filled it up yet, but will probably do that this week.

Not much else is going on. It's too hot to do more than sit at home. We had such a rainy spring and early summer that this 90 degree heat is almost unbearable.

Rained out 4th

We returned from Oregon safe and sound. There was some turbulence, but overall the flights were good. Charles was a trooper and was good the entire time. There was a little misunderstanding between us and the airlines about the possibility of us getting on an earlier flight out of Denver. Uncle Brian was great with the United Customer Service representative and insisted he look to see if we were listed as passengers on the earlier flight. We were and they let us on the plane (even without our baggage). The story is far more complicated, but I won't go into all the details. We were glad to get home about 11:30pm rather than 12:30am. There were storms in Denver so both flights left later than anticipated and arrived in OKC late.

On the 4th of July Charles and I got up and drove home. Grandpa and Grandma Sharp and Great Grandma Heusel were waiting with Russell for our arrival. We spent the day visiting and then headed to Russell's cousin Brady's house for a 4th of July Fiesta--we decided to forgo the traditional BBQ for fajitas. They were excellent.

Sadly it was raining so we didn't get to do any fireworks, so Charles missed out this year. Next year he'll get to play with sparklers and the snap-n-pops!

Russell took the rest of the week off so we were able to get some things done around the house while Grandpa and Grandma watched Charles. I took Aunt Christy to Hillsboro to get her wisdom teeth pulled and it was nice not to have to tote Charles around while killing time during the appointment.

Charles has to be on the verge of walking. He can stand unsupported for a while--until he realizes he's not holding on to anything. And, he has a toy he can push while walking. I took a short video clip but it's still on the camera. I'll add it sometime soon.

We keep getting rain. Russell mowed on Sunday and it's Wednesday and looks like it's past due for another trim. We had HUGE mushrooms (humongous fungus!) appear overnight. Our poor south facing door and window need to be replaced and all this rain has made it even more urgent because the wood isn't drying out. Hopefully it will be nice enough for us to go to the zoo tomorrow morning. When it's not raining it's HUMID.