It's The Thought That Counts

The other day I woke up really motivated to be a good wife & mother, get a lot of stuff around the house done, and have dinner made good and early so that i could just pop it in the oven when I got back from my dentist appointment. Oh the plans I had. If they all had worked out, it would have been magnificent!

Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of the morning on the phone for various reasons....MOPS planning stuff, making appointments, etc. (and of course chatting with a friend). I then decided to be a "good wife" and make Jon some iced tea, because I knew he would be excited. (I am lucky that he is easy to please!) I boiled the water, steeped (is that a real word?) the tea bags, added the sugar, and let it sit out on the counter for a while to cool down. I poured myself a glass and put the rest of the gallon in the refrigerator so it would be good and cold by the time Jon got home from work. I had a few more things that needed to be put in the fridge, and as I added them on the shelf, evidently I was pushing to make them fit a little too hard...and all of a sudden, the entire gallon (minus one glass) of iced tea had tipped over and was pouring out. A gallon didn't look like that much when it was safe inside the pitcher, but when it was all over my refrigerator and floor, it looked like an enormous flood. I ended up having to take out 2 shelves and 2 drawers full of food, wipe all the food off and shove it (carefully this time) on one of the top shelves that were still dry. The shelves and drawers were so sticky they all needed to be washed so I stacked them up in the sink and tackled the floor next, while at the same time trying to keep the dog to stop licking it up and running around in it.

After I got the floor unsticky, it was time to wash out all the shelves and drawers. As I stared at the massive heap in my sink, my eyes drifted downward and I had to laugh - somehow the way the sun was shining through all the glass, it had created a rainbow on my floor - God does have a sense of humor! I tried to get a picture but the rainbow disappeared too fast.

Finally after everything had been washed and dried, I could put everything back in it's place. I had to roll my eyes when I saw this printed on the shelf the iced tea had been sitting on originally:

Evidently Whirlpool did not take iced tea tsunamis into account while labeling the shelves.

In summary, the unexpected refrigerator cleaning took me most of my morning. The eBay packages I needed to send just had to wait until the next day. I did get dinner made (a yummy asparagus and chicken casserole) but it had to wait until after my dentist appointment. And thankfully, Jon and I each still got a glass of iced tea out of the day.

PS...the good news is that while all this was going on, Jackson was playing away in his toy room, and only came out to say, "mommy, you made big mess. whyyy?"

2 1/2 years ago...

2.5 years ago I was in the hospital enjoying my baby boy's 1st day in the world! Actually, more than likely at this time, I was stuffing my face full of the delicious hospital food! (Not a joke....I think most people who have give birth at Womens & Babies would agree with me).



Anyway, not my point. My point is that my sweet baby boy is 2 1/2 years old today! In some ways, it doesn't seem possible that it could be that long, but then again, in some ways I can't imagine life before Jackson! And then when I think 2 1/2 is halfway to 5....wow! :)


So for those of you who don't get to see Jackson as much as we'd like....here's what he's been up to lately:

*He LOVES to pretend. And I LOVE to just sit outside the room listening to him making up conversations for his animals or Little People. It's hilarious!

*He still reads like it's his job. His latest thing is reading out-loud to us. Sometimes he makes up stories (and words) and sometimes he has the book pretty well memorized and will and least get the main ideas across.

*Can be heard singing about 85% of the day

*Current phrase: "Two more minutes!" Said pretty much anytime it is time to go to bed, get his diaper changed, etc.

*Favorite song: the ABCs - and many other made-up songs that are sung to the tune of the ABCs, also is enjoying Sunday School songs, especially Deep & Wide...("Deet - Wide!")

More Jackson cuteness to come at a later date, but for now I need to go get dinner ready.

Cedarville Alumni Reunion

On Saturday we went to Blackrock Retreat in Quarryville, PA for a Cedarville Alumni gathering. We had a good time with lots of our church friends who have gone to Cedarville - the Witmer, Nicklas, Feucht, and Griest families were all there. Good food, fun hayride, and a scarecrow making contest....although we were a little disappointed that our Mr. T scarecrow didn't win! Here's some pics of us with Mr. T.... (and note in the first picture, the one over Jon's shoulder is the one that won for funniest. Funnier than Mr. T? I don't think so! Just because it had a Jeff Beste name tag....argh.)

Fun Fort Friday

Since Jon worked long hours out of town this week, he had today off! He and Jackson had some male bonding time while I went to MOPS this morning. When I got home, we decided to go to the Fun Fort. When the Fun Fort was built, Gramps had a fencepost engraved for each of the grandkids. It was Jackson's first time there and of course we had to take his picture next to his Daddy's name!

Fun Family Weekend!

We had a really great weekend! Saturday evening, Jackson got to spend some time with Bobby & JoJo while Jon and I went to our friends PA wedding reception (they got married in Michigan). I was excited to get a little dressed up and go on a date! To give you an idea of how long its been since we've gone somewhere dressed up....we had to go shopping Friday night because all of Jon's "nice" pants have cargo pockets :) Anyway, we had a fun time at the reception and laughed a lot sitting at a table with our friends!!

Sunday we decided to go to Hershey Park - even though it was SO HOT, we had some free tickets to use and didn't want them to go to waste before the end of the season! It was Jackson's first time at Hershey Park and he had a BLAST! Can you believe this kid and how much he loves rides? He officially now goes on rides that I refuse - aka The Scrambler. That's great - my not quite 2 1/2 year old is braver than me! He did mostly the kiddie rides, but his favorite was definitely the Scrambler. I can't believe his size could even go on it, but he could! Jon said Jackson just laughed out loud the entire time! We spent several hours in the park, but when Jack almost fell asleep on a (pretty tame) kiddie ride, we decided it was time for a little break. We went to (air conditioned!) Chocolate World and got a yummy milkshake! It was a great day!!!

I wanted to write a caption for each pic but did the layout wrong....so as you can see...

#1 - Jack and Daddy rode lots of rides together!

#2 - Sleepy guy drinking our milkshake

#3 - Ready for the Scrambler! (Daddy taught him how to hold his hands up on the rides!)

#4 - Almost a Hershey Kiss, but just a Miniature for this year!

ChuckECheese!

Last weekend we all went to visit Joelle at college, do some shopping (yay, IKEA!), and take the boys to Sesame Place. Unfortunately, it poured all day Saturday so we improvised and went to Chuck E Cheese instead. It was a hit....thanks to Jon and Joelle getting multiple 100 ticket winners, the boys each got to pick out some cute new toys!

Another big even that happend recently is that our house is now pacifier-free! Jack has been using his paci only at night since he was 1 and I've been dreading taking it away. I noticed a tear in it, so I just cut the tip off and gave him a little speech about how sometimes when babies grow up to be big boys, their pacis sometimes break. He saw his paci and said "EWWWW....it broke!" He threw it in the trash! He has been doing pretty well without it....at night it just takes him a long time to fall asleep without it. The first night he slept through the night, but last night he woke up twice. The biggest problem has been naps....he's been not as sleepy for naps as it is lately, and now he really has a hard time. I am not ready to lose nap time, since that's when I get the majority of my work done! So today he is upstairs "resting quietly" and reading books in his bed.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend with friends at a cabin near Williamsport, PA. The kids enjoyed playing outside together and getting dirty! The adults loved putting the kids to bed early and playing games!! Here's a few pics....

and for your enjoyment.......

Again with the freakish faces when I tell him to smile! (I know, I shouldn't have called my own son freakish!)

PS...I had a dentist appointment today and although I am sometimes still in some pain, the report is that I am much improved after only one week! I go back again in 3 weeks for another checkup.