While You were Gone...

ben's been gone a few days to a farm show in atlanta, ga compliments of our hesston/agco dealer. in my free-er days i would've packed up and gone with; i like that kind of stuff, but my days of taking off on a road trip to michigan, flying to nova scotia, or touring the uk are in the past! :) sometimes i get to thinking wow, that's not fair, but that is SO lame! i am so happy and blessed to be a mother to my little brood. these days will fly by so quickly. they all ready have! why is emerson pulling herself up onto things all ready, why is my biggest boy all ready turning five soon, and did i just hear that come out of bridon, the free spirit's mouth?!! :) yes, i did! in fact, we've been busy while dad's been gone...some of this happened while he was getting ready to go. he was busy truckin' hay and mr. bri-dog got to go with him all morning the day we had pre-school at our house. we studied the parts of the foot, painted our feet, learned left and right, played the hokie-pokie, made feet, L's, and R's out of dough and covered them in cinnamon and sugar, and other delightfully, pre-schooly stuff! bridon had a blast on the truck. he saw a dead calf being hauled off at f&m and met a dog named 'roberto.' he also did not pee his pants. yep, my first new-years resolution is well under way and practically ready to check off (if only the others were this easy)! bridon is potty-trained! we busted out the food coloring and every time he goes pee-pee in the potty he gets a color...or two, or three! he only wears pull-ups at nite and after venturing out the end of this week, he only had one accident in town and had to pee in the weeds once :)!

the house projects also were completed this week. the builder was in town during the holidays and could work on all of our stuff that we leave for each winter (the boys love to pester him while he works...he's such a great sport!). he did a great job. a new shelf by the back door for hats, boots, and shoes and one in the garage too. a new door for the garage...how i wish i would have taken a picture of the punched-in door before we hauled it to the dump:). we had the landing at the bottom of the stairs walled in with a door, tons of lighting and moving of lights, fan, etc., a shelf in the boy's closet, and ben's newest love, a 3/4 horse garbage disposal installed. i quite enjoyed the re-newed power in the bath faucet. while the plumber was here for the disposal, i had him take a look. best $90 or whatever it was spent! the water was down to a trickle, now the dang thing fills in 5 min! more water to soak in! also, i've been working on organization/simplifying. i know, the coat closet didn't know what hit it...i've got a zillion more cupboards and drawers, and now all the painting, but it will be well worth it!

the kids and i hit town one nite for a few stores and to use our gc to winger's. ben told bridon he could go to the star house (fast food-carl's jr. maybe?), but hey eating and throwing popcorn before dinner, spilling two lemonades, and french fries are just as good, right, for going in the potty? today, we also ventured out to the new bouncy house in nampa, jumpin' jungle. the boys had a blast! especially bentley. we played for quite a while and missy e was so good and patient in her stroller. i packed a lunch, ran out to get it, and that's when the unfortunate pee accident happened, so we had to get moving home. fun anyway! tomorrow's adventure is renting toy story. my kids have tragically never see this one. we'll make some popcorn and call it a nite! come over if you'd like...we've struck out on throwing out the friend invitations as of late, darnit, so we've done all of it solo. i've got a date with the dumpster before the movie. i'm losing my mind again, and i think i threw away some corn tickets when i was working this afternoon. wish me luck...the garbage truck hasn't come (so sad, you think i'd learned my lesson) can't wait for dad to be back! happy flying!!!