time for a change

Well, what do you think of the new Monkey look? This blog is mostly about Collin and our life with our small family of 3, so I wanted my blog to reflect that. For now at least.  :)

IRL (in real life) I am famous for re-arranging my furniture. Sometimes as often as weekly. (crazy, I know) So that obsession spills over to my blog, I guess.

So, tell me what you think. Unless you hate it, that might hurt my feelings.

Collin goes for his 4 yr check up today with the pediatrician. I will post about it later if there is anything to share. He also goes on Monday (4/27) for an EEG to help try and dx what happened on Easter.

I am still working on getting the pix together from his birthday. Once I do, I will post them. I am still not sure how he is 4 yrs old...already.

What happened to this little baby?? (sorry for the quality, it is a scanned picture)

He is now a 'big' boy!!!  :(  :)

Can I ask for a favor?

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                                        PJ and his Mom, July 2007 in TN

I told you a couple weeks ago about my MIL having cancer. Well she is not doing well. She has had some trouble in the past with depression and that may be resurfacing with this recent cancer. With her chemo treatments she is very week and does not have much of an appetite. She is very shakey. (is that even a word?) So she takes medicine for that, which kind of zones her out. (this was the case at Christmas)

PJ has asked me to send her a scripture each week to lift her spirits. So I am going to.
The first scripture I have is this...

 

I have some others in mind, but I thought I would ask you ladies if you had any uplifting scriptures that I could pass along to her in the coming weeks. If you do and you don't mind passing them along to me, I would greatly appreciate it. As would my husband and his Mom.

You can leave them for me in the comments or email me at closetohomeblog@gmail.com

Thank you so much ladies. Your the best.

pictures from Christmas '08

The following pictures are from Christmas Eve, which we spend with my Mom, Step dad and siblings each year.

 
CJ & my Niece (13yrs)

CJ posing with his new Leap Frog quick start computer
He LOVES it!!!

opening his new train set (one of them)

giving his Mackle (Ma-cole) (what he calls his Grandma (my Mom) a hug for all his great gifts.

my nephew(4yrs) posing with a couple monster trucks 

my niece (3.5yrs) with her Fur-real dog

The following are from Christmas morning at my Grandma's house...

CJ & two of his cousins, (3 & 4 yrs)sitting on his new Lightning McQueen couch/bed
 
checking out his new Thomas train set

opening more gifts

The following are pictures from Christmas at our house, just the three of us.

posing with his first gift to be opened in front of our tree

such excitement. It was a Thomas game for his Vsmile
 
PJ's friend is a UPS driver and CJ just loves him. So we bought him his own "Craig suit".  lol He is now asking for his own UPS truck.  Oh my!!!  ;)

a Thomas blanket...it is SO soft.

his play-doh table

watching a new dvd while I was cooking dinner, waiting on PJ's family to arrive.
The following are from Christmas evening with my husband's family at our house

Opening his gift from his Grandma & her husband, a giant fire truck that lights up and makes sounds (very nice)

so excited to have more gifts to open

the mess that was our family room on Christmas evening.

And finally...getting his gift from my Grandma on friday morning...



opening a couple games for the smart cycle

last but certainly NOT least...

his fishing bear that sings and dances

That was a collection of our Christmas'.
Was it enough pictures for you?  ;)

tomorrow is the day, tidy-ing up

Tomorrow is my sleepover with my girlfriends for my 30th birthday. I am so excited I can not wait. I am hoping to take lots of pictures and share them with you all, but I do have a couple camera shy friends. We will see what we can do.

Today I will be busy getting all my laundry done, my floors all mopped and swept, everything dusted and cleaned and picked up. We do a good job of keeping the house clean most of the time, but when expecting company, I am always a little more thorough. (isn't everyone?)

I come from two parents who could not be MORE different in the house keeping ways. My Mom is a neat freak...honestly...no one can possibly have a cleaner house. Maybe just as clean, but not cleaner. They take vacation (???) each year to wipe down the walls in the entire house. While I wipe down my walls as well (you have to with a little one) I would NEVER take vacation to do such a thing. (I would hire someone first)

My Dad, God rest His Soul, was not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination. He was not dirty either...he was a typical bachelor (most of his life he was just that). He was also a pack rat, NEVER throwing ANYTHING out. He passed away almost two years ago and we are still going through things of his.

Me...I get a little from both of my parents. I have always been a pack rat. My New Year's resolution for 2008 was to SIMPLIFY. And I have done a pretty good job of that, I think. Our home is old (1899) and has NO storage. We do not have a basement and no garage storage either. (my next home will have BOTH for the record). I was tired of stuff piling up here, there and everywhere. So I started going through everything, tossing, recycling, donating, selling and giving things away. There is now room in our shed (which I would like to tear down and rebuild, it is not much in the way of looks or being good for too much storage. I think it may have been built at the same time the house was...YIKES) for a bowflex which my dear husband has wanted since I met him, many, many years ago. And our spare room, which has been everything from a closet, to a storage room to a home office is finally cleared out enough for it to hopefully be a nursery in the near future. (it is still home to our desktop, but that can easily be moved) I still have not let go of my pack rat past though. I came across a box full of cards while cleaning out the shed and I still have birthday cards from my first birthday. I can not let go of those. I am a card person...I would rather get a card than a gift. (WEIRDO, lol) I also can not part with CJ's "baby" stuff. Partly because I want more babies, but also because I am so sentimental, how could I part with all of that. I do not understand how other Mom's do it. I wish I could be more like them, but I am not and I have excepted that. I will instead do my part to keep the tote making people in business. (our economy crisis will not effect them, thanks to me)

OK, somehow this post got off on something I did not intend to "blog" about. Sorry. And THANKS if you made it through all of that.

Yesterday I received an email from my dearest cousin in Indiana that had some AMAZING fall photos in it. I am sharing them (a few of them) with you. They are breath taking. I hope you enjoy. (Tomorrow if my football edition of Fall Picture Day)

FALL PICTURE DAY 24

lots of happenings...

Well this week I can say I have been missing because I have been BUSY!!! (finally)

My husband was off of work on thursday and friday. (I LOVE having him home with us, but the paycheck that comes along with that, not so great. (he is self employed))

We got A TON done around the house. In february 2007 we started remodeling our home. The majority of the work took three months, but there were still odds and ends to be done and finishing touches. The odds and ends and some of the finishing touches have yet to be finished. (gotta love doing the work yourselves) Our staircase/hallway leading upstairs has needed painted since we bought the house in 2005. I am ECSTATIC to report it is FINALLY painted and looks awesome. So warm feeling. (painted a kahki color) And upon my request and a lot of begging my WONDERFUL Husband tore the carpet off of the steps and in the hallway. There are beautiful hardwood floors that need to be seen. The stairs have a little damage to them, so we are going to get a carpet runner, as most of the not so great looking spots are in the middle of each step. (problem solved) Another plus, CJ does not like the stairs having no carpet on them, so he is not playing on them all the time now.

We also cleaned out our shed/barn and PJ can now order the bowflex he has been wanting that we have NO room in our home for. Plus we got rid of a bunch of stuff that we did not want or need. I hate just storing stuff. Another bonus...all of Collin's baby stuff is now accessible, so when the time is right and we get pregnant I know just where everything is and I can get to it easily. Woo~hoo!!!

Saturday was my nieces 13th Birthday party. She had a dance type party with a bunch of girls. Boys were invited too, but the school had a last minute bonfire/hayride and they all went to that. They still had a good time, but like any teenager get together there must be drama. WHY? Some little girl decided the Niece was a spoiled brat, since she got to have this party and told the Niece that, which sent the Niece crying to the bathroom. Other than that, a good time was had by all. SO glad I am not 13.

Yesterday we finished working on a few things around the house and just hung out together as a family.

Oh, I almost forgot...Friday we took CJ to the park and look what he picked up...

Yes, my THREE YEAR OLD son picked up TWO cheerleaders at the park. He asked them to play and they did. They followed him all over the place for quite some time. Actually until I said it was time to go. When we got in the car to come home, I asked if he made two girlfriends at the park and he said "yes", in a voice that was like 'duh Mom'. I am now not looking forward to his teen years. UGH!!! FALL PICTURE DAYS 16-20

The following pictures were sent to me by MiMi, please check out her blog @ He & Me + 3 , you will not be sorry that you did.

this last picture was taken at our fair last weekend. It is my Niece and CJ.

dinner guest

This evening my Grandma (on my Dad's side), my Mom and my Niece came over for dinner. I wanted to talk to my Grandma about Christmas ideas for CJ. Hard to believe we are already talking Christmas. Actually I have already started shopping.

We had yummiful spaghetti.

Here is a picture of my Grandma and CJ.

Fall Picture Day 10

this picture is of a pumpkin farm in California. Wouldn't it make a beautiful backdrop for a picture? It was sent to me by a non blogging friend.