The Pumpkin Patch!

We had a wonderful fall morning here in the midwest. And, isn't the midwest just a great place to live? I love, love, love fall! We went to a local pumpkin patch/apple orchard with some neighbors, and had a wonderful morning. We picked out pumpkins, tasted apples, drank warm cider, and ate an elephant ear. (Yeah, elephant ears aren't really related to the orchard, but who can resist a warm elephant ear? )

Here are some pictures - there are a lot, but it's my blog!

Balancing on the pumpkins -



Matt was excited about the old Massey Ferguson they were using for hay rides.













Don't you love his expression here?





Here's the wife of the couple that we went with - i think it's cute that Grant's looking at their youngest son. :)



I love this family picture!



Another cute, yet close-up, family shot! Matt took it himself, just holding his arm out.







And, Grant's hair after we took the hat off.

Some New Pictures...

On my birthday...



Grant's general reaction to peas...



Some cute ones from tonight...

Found it!

Grant took a shorter-than-usual morning nap this morning, which was fine, because I wanted to go to the mall. So, I loaded the Boy up and headed to the mall to spend some birthday money. I went to the Bobbi Brown counter, where they're always super-helpful, and got some new eye-makeup (their long-wearing cream shadow) and some ink eyeliner. It looked great, and I was excited to have new makeup!

So, I continued browsing through the mall, and after leaving Gymboree, I realized that I didn't have my Sak's bag any more (that had my make-up!) Uggh!! So, I proceeded to trace my steps through the entire mall, and spent about a half and hour asking all the stores I had been in if anyone had turned in my bag. I was almost in tears by the end, because I wanted my birthday makeup!

But, I went back into Gymboree, and lo and behold, there was my bag, sitting right next to the plaid shirts I was looking at! Whew!! So, glad I found it, but it sure made me panic!!!

Ignoring the Thought...and the Heat...

Whew - just got off the treadmill. 2 miles at my fastest pace ever - an average 13:53/mile. I know, I know, it's not fast, but for me, it's decent.

I was talking to my mom the other day, telling her that for the first several minutes running, I'm thinking to myself "this is dumb, why am I doing this? Just stop." She told me that her trainer at the Y said that almost all runners have that issue, and just to ignore the the thoughts, unless you're in pain. So, I did my best to ignore the thoughts, even though they got quite loud!

And, I did the best to ignore the heat. It was *hot* in our guest bedroom, where our treadmill is. uggh! I'm dying for fall weather for a variety of reasons, primarily to be able to wear my new fall clothes! I'm also ready for fall weather, though, so I can run outside and not die from heat exhaustion!

But, at least I ran!

Lethal Mint Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache

That's the recipe I made for my birthday cake. Basically a dark chocolate cake, with a thin layer of peppermint buttercream frosting between the layers, and a chocolate ganache on the outside. I love ganache because it gets hard as it cools, so there's this fabulous layer of chocolate on the outside. It was outstanding, if I do say so myself! ;-)

A few pictures of the process -





And of the clean-up (my least favorite part of baking!) -

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Here are some pictures from my birthday. They're actually from Saturday night, when i finished baking the cake. Now, I hadn't taken a shower, because I had been cleaning and baking all day, so be forewarned!!

And, doesn't Grant look so BIG in the pictures? He gets bigger every day, it seems.

Happy Birthday, Lizzie!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Lizzie!

Almost 2 years ago I had convinced Matt to go to the humane society in Iowa to look at a black lab. We decided that the black lab would be too big for an indoor dog,and on the way out Matt said he had to go to the restroom before we left.

Well, 2 years later he jokes that it was that bathroom visit that did us in! Because, while he was in the bathroom, I discovered the puppy room!! (How had I missed that previously??) Well, I stood in the door way and staring back at me was this wonderfully cute black fur ball that immediately came over to me. My heart was instantly gone! Matt came out of the bathroom and saw me holding her, and just smiled and asked how we started the adoption process. :-)

So, for those of you that haven't met her, Lizzie is a wonderfully smart family pet. She's loving, playful, full of energy and personality. She's a barker and we affectionately call her Guard Dog Lizzie. She sheds a whole other dog every-other-day, but we still love her (and have a good vacuum! )! She's playful and is a terrific running partner. In total, just a wonderful family pet.

Here's a walk down puppy hood lane in honor of the dog's birthday.

This is a picture from my cell phone, when we first adopted her from the humane society.



A Few more of her puppy years:

They forgot to tell the babies

Dr. Oz was on Oprah today answering audience members' questions. Someone asked about problems falling asleep, and when answering Dr. Oz said, "Sleep is a natural state. The body wants to sleep."

I laughed out loud! I think they forgot to tell the babies that sleep is a natural state.

Birthday Weekend..

Well, it's a birthday weekend in the Walker household - today was my birthday, and tomorrow's Lizzie's! She'll be 2! No more puppy-hood for her! She just might get a birthday bath!

So, Grant is an official melter-downer. He *freaked out* in the church nursery this morning. Church is just SO hard, because he's exhausted - church is straight in the middle of his nap time. I knew it wouldn't be good when he awoke an hour earlier than normal, was already rubbing his eyes at 8:30 this morning, and didn't fall asleep in the car on the way to church. (Granted, that could be due to the grandma and great-grandma playing and talking to him on the way!) Poor kiddo! He took a long afternoon nap, but had some problems going to bed for the night - he was just so overtired!! Poor guy!

I'll post some birthday pictures tomorrow!

A Few Thoughts...

OMGoodness I didn't know it had been a week since I've posted! Sorry to my devout blog readers out there!!

So, to catch up...

1) The sleep situation has been going better in the Walker household, especially with the baby Walker. 2 nights ago he slept for 12 1/2 hours - which was definitely a record.

2) The construction work is almost done. The painters were here this morning, and our front door looks GREAT painted a dark blue-ish gray. (Slate gray, I think is the technical term). I'll take a picture this evening.

3) While the painters were here, we went ahead and hired them to do our 2-story entryway. SO worth it to have them do it - they were SO *fast* and did a great job, and the entryway looks terrific! Pictures to follow of that, too.

4) Matt and I are hopefully going to a newly opened Cheesecake Factory for an early supper tonight to celebrate my birthday. Cheesecake is by far my favorite dessert. Must.have.cheesecake! :-) Now, to have to pick between the 30+ flavors!!!

5) I'm dying to wear my fall clothes!! I am eager for the weather to get cooler!

6) Only 2 more pounds to goal weight! My goal is to hit my goal weight before Grant's 9-month birthday (which is in only 2 more weeks!!) I hit pre-pregnancy weight at 6 months, and my goal weight was 15 more pounds below pre-pregnancy. Almost there!!!

Whew...think that got us caught up...off to clean the kitchen!

House Construction Work

So, since the top window of our house was leaking, it caused mold and mildew to grow behind the stone and brick on the front of our house. The workers came today to fix it, and they said they'd bring an air filter with them to plug into our house as they were working on the mold/mildew issue.

Well, I had in mind this small, de-humidifier sized filter! Was I wrong! Here are the 2 filters they wheeled in this morning (after taping up our front door/entryway area!)






And what the front of our house looks like right now... (It's a brand-new front door, and the painters will come after all of the house is put back together and paint the door. It will match the shutters!)



Lizzie doesn't know what to do with herself! She's terrified of the filters (which are LOUD and BIG), the plastic on the door scares her, and the workers are banging away at the brick/stone! Poor dog!!

More Shots of The Boy

One of his first times eating Cheerios...



He's sitting up! And drooling! ;-)...



Watching football with Daddy...

Funny Quote

I saw this quote on an exercise site and thought it was appropriate! :-)

"Better your legs feeling like Jello after a hard run than your butt feeling like Jello after eating cheesy poofs!"

Vote, People!

Okay, so, do y'all *see* the poll on my blog? Look to the far right of the screen -- that's a POLL. If you see it, why don't you *vote*?

This whole not-voting thing I don't really understand - I am *asking* for your opinion, and you can give it anonymously - sounds like a good solution to me! So, now there's a poll on WHY you don't vote.

So, vote, people, vote!

And, if you're the ONE person who *did* vote in my last poll - thanks!

Poor Little Man!

Can night terrors start in an 8-month-old? And can they happen during naptimes, not just night time? For the past 3 or so weeks, Grant will often all-of-a-sudden start screaming in the middle of his nap. I mean *screaming*. Full-blown, real-tears, SCREAMING. But, his eyes will be closed, his pacifier will be in, he'll just be very upset. I can't calm him down at all - you just have to wait 3-4 minutes and the screaming will gradually decrease, and then he'll sleep for another hour or so. I just don't know what's going on!!! He doesn't appear to be in pain. I feel so badly for him, too!!

I might call the pediatrician Monday and run it by him. Although, sometimes I think they've blacklisted me at the ped's office - I think I have big, upper-case red letters across Grant's chart that read "Warning: High-Maintenance Parent." Sigh.

It's beautiful!

It's a g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s night out tonight!! I'm loving this weather for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest is that I get to run outside! It was just beautiful out tonight - almost perfect running weather. It's was cool, with a nice breeze - it was just one of those runs that I felt like I could go forever. (30 minutes later, my legs were falling off, though. )

On my cool-down lap after running, I caught up with one of my neighbors and we chatted a bit. It was just a wonderful end to the day.

Soldier Blog

I've always deeply respected the Armed Services, probably due in part to the fact that my father served in Vietnam in the Air Force, and my maternal grandfather served in WWII. I think it's so honorable to serve your country, and I support our country's troops deeply.

Here's a link to a blog that an American soldier in Iraq is writing. It's filled with lots of day-to-day stuff and fascinating pictures. It seems as though this solider is a Christian, too, as he writes of the hope he's found through Christ. He's on a 15-month deployment, which I cannot even begin to imagine how hard that would be. How heartbreaking to be away from family for so long!

Regardless of my opinion of the Iraq situation (mess!), I pray that all of the soldiers may have what they need to get their jobs done quickly and come home safely.

Soldier Blog

Ah, the Vacuum cleaner!

Oh, the vacuum cleaner, a sweet, sweet sound to Grant.

He'd been having some difficulty going to sleep last week as his naptimes were changing, and I had been vacuuming and vacuuming his room to get him to go to sleep. So, Matt, with his new ibook, or macpro book, or imac, or whatever the new mac laptop is called, recorded the vacuum cleaner for me! he then looped it so it plays for 60 minutes.

So, as I type this, Grant is going to sleep in his crib, and I'm downstairs listening to vacuum sounds over the monitor!

Whatever works, right?

Shout Out!

As we went to our neighbor's house this evening, it reminded me that I'm still getting to know people here, and how much I miss some of our friends that are now scattered across the country. So, here's a shout-out to our "Dallas" friends, as I call you. ;-)

I miss you all, and think of and pray for you often!!

Betsy, I am so glad that your pregnancy is going well, and am so, so excited for you. I hope we can see you before Baby T. arrives!!

Laura - can't wait to see pictures of Baby M. #3, and I hope the last couple weeks of pregnancy go quickly. Has your heartburn been as bad this time as it was with Noah?

Kristy - we need new pictures of your boys!! You need to start a blog, I think!

And, Kara, aren't you due sometime soon? September 30th is a good day. ;)

And, I just realized that 3 of y'all are pregnant! :-) Can't wait to meet your new miracles.

Thinking of you, all my Dallas friends.

Random Thoughts

Here are some random blog-thoughts for you:

1) We just got home from a birthday party of one of our neighbors' son. (neighbor's son? neighbors' son? hmm...my grammar fails me on little sleep!) It was fun! We hadn't really talked a lot with these neighbors before now, so it was fun to chat with them. It was a small, low-key 1st birthday party, and the little kid had more fun *throwing* the cake than eating it.

2)The woman gave me a tour of their house (which she's decorated beautifully, by the way), and it was fun to see, because it was a floor plan that Matt and I really liked as we were thinking of building. After living in our current house, however, and walking through theirs, I like our floor plan better. We, for the most part, spend the majority of our time in the kitchen and living room area, so when that part of the house is small, it makes the whole house feel small, however much square footage there is.

3)I can't get the emoticons to work on this post, and I'm bummed about that. :/

4) I'm teaching the 4th - 6th grade Sunday School class tomorrow, and I need to go prepare for it. Last week's class went okay, and I want to be better for tomorrow. There were only 5 kids there last week, but it reminded me of being in my classroom in Dallas. I was *right* in the middle of a sentence when all-of-a-sudden this 6th-grade girl burst out with, "Do you have a baggie? I need to take my earring out because I'm allergic to metal."

I'm serious. She totally interrupted me to ask for a *baggie*. What in the world? I stared back at her for a second, trying to process what she was telling me, when I finally told her to put her earring on the table and moved on. craziness!

5) The couple's house we were at had just gotten a puppy, and it was adorable! It was an English Spaniel (English Springer Spaniel??), and just so cute! It reminded me of when Lizzie was so small, so here's a picture in remembrance:



6) My neighbor, M., who had a baby boy early summer, is so super nice. She brought me homemade chicken noodle soup when I was sick, and she's bringing me homemade granola later! Just super, super nice.

7) I have *got* to go work on my Sunday school lesson, so have a great evening! (or day, or afternoon, or whenever (if ever!) you read this!)

Grant, almost 8 months old!

One of my new favorite pictures - I just love his little expression!

And another cute one: