Author: althea

Oct. 24: After working on it for weeks, I’ve completed copying all our CDs to the computer so I can listen to them on our new iPod.  We’ve got 4,300 songs – 15GB.  I’ll want to do our Christmas music too, but that’s all in the basement.  Now in my quest to fulfill my obsessive compulsive tendencies, I’m going to spend lots of time tweaking the genres, making sure the album artwork is all there, and making play lists.
We’re already having lots of fun re-discovering all our music and listening to lots of things we haven’t heard in ages.
Thank goodness for Andrew’s help through all the CD ripping.  He got very good at swapping out CDs, and he’d call out to tell me what track number they were on and how many tracks it had to go.  It was a good math experince for the little guy:)
Oh, by the way, Andrew is in love with the iPhone.  He plays with Terry’s all the time, and he’s been having fun with Melanie’s too.  It’s so funny to watch him quickly navigate his way through the screens.  The boy knows what he’s doing.  But one must keep an eye on him to ensure that he doesn’t unintentionally make a purchase!

Oct. 24: Bryan and Melanie just drove off to pick up Ben from the airport.  Melanie has been here since Wednesday, and we’re having a great time!  Andrew’s been stuck to her like glue.  “Doting in idolatry,” as Shakespeare might say.  The little guy had a wonderful couple of days at preschool, and then he and Mel did a lot of jumping game, book reading, football running in the back yard, puzzles, dancing with scarves, more jumping game, being koalas or foxes or bison or sloths, etc.  It’s fun to see Andrew enjoy his aunt so much:)
Ben and Melanie are here together now until Monday, so we still have a couple full days to spend together.  We’re hoping to do an apple orchard outing.  Mel, Andrew, and I stopped by a farm stand a couple days back and got five pumpkins, decorative gourds, and (I’m excited about these) a couple big sheaves of corn stalks to make our front entry seasonally festive.  With a strand of orange lights, we’re ready for Halloween!

Oct. 21: When I don’t post in several days, this…thing…happens to me.  I get all twitchy and sort of nervous.  I’ve got about six posts I’m trying to hold onto in my brain, and it’s making me a bit crazy.
But Sylvia just started crying, so I’m not going to free my mind yet!

OK, it’s 11pm and the wee one is fed.  Andrew was calling for me an hour ago.  When I went into his room, I discovered that he was completely encased in his blankets.  And stuck.  He had somehow gotten down to the foot of his bed, cocooned in his blankets.  I had to pull and roll him a lot before I could find him:)  Although he was almost asleep, he did seem to see the humor in the situation.  What a kook.

As a quick recap, we had a wonderful visit with Bryan’s mom.  She came into town on the 12th and left on the 17th.  Sylvia was pretty unhappy/sick for much of her visit, so it was especially nice to have her here as backup…both for Andrew and for my mental and emotional sanity.

On Saturday, Jessica and I took our girls down to Mineral Point for the Fall Art Tour.  It was a glorious day.

I’ve continued to scan my CD collection to iTunes.  I’m really nuts.  So far, I have 3,500 songs scanned.  I went home last weekend and got a bag of CDs.  More MORE ha ha ha ha!!!

I just read a quote I liked a lot: “We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection.” – Anais Nin
So true.  That’s a big chunk of why I love to chronicle my kids lives.

I think I had other really pertinent things to report, but they currently escape me.  So I’ll leave you with the update that Melanie flies in tomorrow.  Ben joins her on Friday, and the two of them are staying until mid-day on Monday.  We’re really looking forward to their visit!

Bryan’s a sick boy today.  Fever, chills, headache.  Hopefully we won’t give our disease to our house guests!

Oct. 13: We’ve had some great outdoor adventures this past week.  It’s been warm, it’s been sunny, the trees have been oh-so colorful.  It’s been great.
On Wednesday after story hour, Jessica and I took our kids to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center.  I’m regretful to admit that I have never been there before.  It was a wonderful, wonderful afternoon.  The boys were so sweet together, running amidst the prairie grasses, the girls had fun being carried and then hanging out on a grassy clearing, and we basked in the realness of it all.  Afterwards we stopped by a great yarn store I hadn’t been to before.  Off the Beaten Path was so great!  Maretta, next time you’re in town, we’re going there!
Jessica and I met for some knitting on Thursday night.  I just love sitting with friends, drinking warm beverages, and knitting or talking and in either case, laughing.  It restores my soul.
On Friday, we returned to the Door Creek Orchard with Jessica and family and with Terry.  We had a nice picnic amidst the apple-laden trees, and we bought many jugs of cider.  The boys had fun looking at the black Welsh mountain sheep.  They then crawled around on the grass pretending to be Art and Andy, sheep.
On Sunday, we met my dad out at Cherokee Marsh and had a wonderful time walking through the forest and the prairie.  It’s one of my very favorite places on earth.  That and Jack’s place.  Beautiful.
As the sun came up today, the trees behind our house were glowing with a purplish-red.  Our tree out front is starting to turn yellow.  It’s a wonderful time of year.

Oct. 13: We have Granny here for the week!  I’m taking a big sigh of relief.  Sylvia is on the mend, and I have some major child-care assistance.  In fact, today I only moderately assisted with child-care.  It felt so nice to have a little break.  LuAnn drove up all the way from Texas.  My white car is going, going, going…  To our great delight, relief, and surprise, Bryan’s parents offered us their Toyota Camry as a replacement.  LuAnn drove from Texas up to Wichita last week and then on Friday did the 11 hour trek to Madison.  She’s amazing.
I used some of my free time this afternoon to process some of the many, many photos I’ve taken in the last week.  The fall color is so incredible.  We’ve been having fun in the out-of-doors!
Photos of Andrew and Alivia having a painting fest, Sylvia crawling in the back yard, and the young girl munching on some breakfast are in the gallery.