We did the "Technicolor Yawn"

Andrew and I managed to reverse the law of gravity this weekend - what went down..... Well, it just didn't stay down. I, for sure, had the 24 hour bug. Andrew joined the party the next day (which was a problem since he is not old enough to know how to drive the porcelain bus), Sarah remained an outside observer, and Michael (lucky guy that he is) missed it all together by being out of town. Seriously, this is the 4th time in the last 16-17 months that I have been visited by Ralf. Just when I thought we were out of the woods, Andrew became sick all over again and we took him in to the doctor this morning. It turns out that over the weekend he probably had the flu, but round two can be blamed on an ear infection. It is not a common symptom of an ear infection, but it does happen. I'm glad that I took Andrew to the doctor today to find that out since I would have never guessed that it was from an ear infection. They gave him a booster shot of antibiotic, so hopefully we will see major improvement in the morning and I can catch a break.

So Orange

On the road to Stillwater for Homecoming.

Can't wait for football!

The tailgate set-up.

Chowin' down!

What's more fun than playing with a chain?

"Go Pokes!" or "Oh Pokes" as Sarah liked to say. With Mr. Matt, the owner/ master/ coordinator extraordinaire of the tailgate.

Sitting next to mommy's brick (to the left of Sarah's knee).

On the stairs of the Student Union.

Done! Hot, tired, and pretty mad with the camera.

18 Months

My Hiatus is Over

Well, my blogging seems to be going as well as my weight loss. So, if I have to spell it out, that means it's not happening. It could possibly be from heavenly delicacies such as
Nutella, which I only just discovered. I could also blame it on the stash of Whoopers and Swedish Fish that I keep around for the high school girls' Bible study that I lead at my house once a week. In reality, I'm getting a lot more exercise than I was just a few months ago and my eating habits aren't really as bad as I just made them seem -really. I just think that I now have the metabolism of a 32 yr. old woman. Bummer! Michael, on the other hand, is making great strides in his weight loss endeavor. The church staff is doing the Biggest Loser competition and he is an extremely competitive person. I'm, of course, pulling for him to win, but I feel torn since one of his competitors is my walking buddy.

Andrew will be 18 months old tomorrow, as in a whole year and a half! As in half way to two!! Andrew runs, climbs, dances, can say a simple sentence (he loves to say, "I did it!), has the same nap schedule as Sarah, and basically thinks he is just as capable as his 3 year old sister. He has been a real sweetheart of a little boy lately, which is good because I need one of my kids to be sweet and cooperative. I know I better enjoy it before we hit the twos. My biggest frustration with him right now is not knowing what to prepare for him to eat. He is so incredibly selective with what he will put in his mouth that a lot of nights he just doesn't eat dinner. And I refuse to be a short-order cook. I figure that one of these days he'll get hungry or curious enough..... Andrew does love fruit, yogurt, peanut butter, crackers, and milk. Oh, and goldfish, candy, and cookies! He refuses cheese, which is the strangest thing to me. I've never heard of a child not liking cheese. Poor little guy is currently is running a temp of 102 and it is his first real fever (other than low grade from teething) ever. I think that is pretty amazing for a kid.

Sarah is in a challenging season right now. I think it could possibly be the fact that she is in the, "NO, I DO IT MOMMY!!!" phase. I know that she has to learn to do things for herself, but it is the tone and the fact that often she really does need my assistance- at least a little. (Sigh!) Her verbal skills are coming along so well. I really thought that this would cut down on her frustrations, but instead it just gives her more vocabulary to voice them - lol! A dear church friend who is a retired speech therapist is giving Sarah private speech therapy once a week out of the goodness of her heart. Isn't that awesome?

I've done a terrible job of picture taking in the last month, but here are the few that I have.

Michael has taken Sarah to a couple of TU football games this fall. She absolutely loves the daddy time and seems to actually love watching football. I think she also loves all the snacks involved and getting to use binoculars with her friend Simona.

Don't go to work Daddy!

(above) Avi Joy and Sarah
(below) Natasha, me and the girls at Natasha's baby shower. We're all anxiously waiting for baby Nehemiah to come home from Can Tho.

He finds so much joy on the scale! He visits it every single morning. :)

We made our annual visit to the State Fair. We didn't get any cute pics of the kids, but we did photograph this sweet mullet. Priorities people!