Bad Service at Home Depot?

Apparently, Home Depot hires anybody these days!







Today at Home Depot, one of the workers gave Nathan this little apron. He toddled around the store in it getting loads of attention and lots of admirers. A lot of people smiled upon seeing this little worker! It was hilarious.

Nathan's First Phone Call

Nathan made his first phone call tonight. He called 911 and then hung up.

My little man likes to play with the phone. He was playing with it tonight. I took it from him and hung it up. About 5 seconds later, the phone rings! It's 911 dispatch which isn't too uncommon because they do call here alot...but always when Jeremy is home. They're calling to send him to a call or something.

Anyway, it scared me that they were calling me because I thought something had happened to Jeremy!! Nope, they tell me that they had a 911 hang up from our number. So they had dispatched all deputies to run code to our house to figure out why someone had hung up.

Well, guess which deputy that included? Yes, Jeremy. So here he is driving as fast as he can to our house not knowing why I called 911 and hung up. We've had to call 911 before because of a severe allergic reaction so he likely thought something bad had happened to Nathan. Luckily, he didn't have to drive far before dispatch told him it was an accidental call. But still, I made him drive 100 mph to our house and scared him half to death because I let Nathan play with the phone. Nathan is not getting the phone again. I feel terrible.

Birthday Parties and Football Games

Today, Nathan and I went to a birthday party! It was for Arya Syrie who was turning 2 years old. Her parents were my old cross country coaches back in Royal City. They live in Cheney now. There were 4 little kids there and Nathan seemed to enjoy playing with them! He also liked all the new toys to look at and play with.

Tonight was also the big football game here at home. Lakeside vs. Chewelah. Jeremy was the deputy on duty for the night. On our way back from Cheney, we stopped at the game to see Daddy! Everyone of course thought Nathan was just adorable. It was Nathan's first football game. I met a few new people. Nathan enjoyed rocking with the pep band. He was smiling and clapping while they played. Alot of the girls in the band found him quite charming. It was fun! Lakeside ended up winning so that was great too.

It's eerily warm here today. It's 10:00 at night and still 55 degrees which is very strange for the middle of October!

Future Cougar Day

We took a road trip to Pullman today! We had a great time! The weather was just perfect. Laura was able to come with us. She sometimes has Wednesdays off. Our first stop was the new Cub which has the Bookie inside it now. We were quite impressed with the new Cub updates. One of the first things Jeremy noticed was the flat screens in the Cub hooked up to video games you can play. I liked that there was now a tunnel connecting the library to the Cub! That was cool!

The new Bookie was really big, but it seemed almost just like a regular Barnes and Noble now that they've taken over. So sad! Nathan loved playing with all of the stuffed animals of course.

Nathan really enjoyed playing on the top of the library but wasn't too impressed with the view.





We were suprised at the amount of construction going on! There were detours everywhere on the hill. We also discovered that things have certainly changed on deciding how to get places! Now we had to find routes without stairs because of the stroller. Who would have thought?

When we were walking by the stadium, the football team was starting practice. Nathan was mesmorized! He walked right up to the fence, and stood there. And stood there. We could not pull him away!!! I guess there was alot of action going on and he loved it.





Of course we headed to Ferdinands! We were nervous about taking Nathan in with all the milk and cheese floating around in the air. Laura had her first ever Ferdinand's ice cream and agreed it was the best ice cream she'd ever tasted! Jeremy and I both spent a summer in the creamery making cheese (not the same summer) so we had some flashbacks. I remember I really hated working there! Long, hot, humid and always wearing gloves, boots and having cheese down your boots. We bought a can of Cougar Gold cheese. They're $18 a can now! They were only $13 when we were there.








Oh yes, Nathan did change outfits on our trip. We won't discuss what happened, but of course it had to happen when not at home! See why I bring extra clothes Jeremy?












We stopped for dinner at Cougar Country Drive In! We had burgers. Nathan ate some canned chicken and applesauce. You never know what's in the burgers! Some use whey as a filler.

We stopped to visit Nathan's little friend Ava. She lives near Laura! They played together. She is 12 months old and Nathan is 14 months. It amazes me how different boys and girls are! Nathan is just moving constantly, grunting, making noises, throwing things, and nearly biting your hand off when you put food in his mouth. Ava just sat there angelically! She smiled and did a little bit of reaching for toys. She was so delicate. She'd opened her mouth to accept food and then smile. So far, this is the second little girl friend Nathan has and they are both so different from him. I'm not sure if this is typical, or if the only little girls we know are super delicate and sweet!

Both babies had some super cute hats, so we had to get a picture!

My nemesis

The old yucky blue color



the new and improved house




Nathan helping out




My big piles of pine needles




We have a HUGE pine tree in our front yard that is half over the driveway. Before I moved to Northeast Washington, I had no real knowledge of pine trees or the big mess they make! Ever day, it drops more and more pine needles all over. It's the kind of tree you have to clean up after constantly.

Growing up at my house in Central Washington, there were no trees. Well, we had a few deciduous trees that were kind of stunted because they weren't meant to grow in arid conditions. It would take about 10 minutes to rake those leaves-once a year.

Now, I rake every month. I have to! This tree is a pain in my side. The driveway is always covered in needles, nothing will grow under it. We would like to have it gone, but that would be a HUGE project for poor Jeremy who has no time as it is.

Today I raked all the needles up again. I'll have to do it again before the snow falls.

I'm also posting a picture of our newly painted house with all brand new windows that Jeremy put in! It looks so much better than before! YEA!!!

Green Day Fan?

So the other day in the car, a Green Day song came on. Nathan started SINGING! It was SO cute-he's never sung before. It was the only song he sang to the whole trip. Then, today, a different Green Day song came on, and he started singing again while clapping!! Why does he only sing to Green Day? Is he a big fan? And how did he know it's the same band but a different song? Weird!!

He did another new cute thing today too. I randomly just started reciting from a book of his. I've pretty much got them all memorized at this point. Anyway, all of a sudden, he gets up and disappears down the hall into his room. He then comes out WITH that book! I couldn't believe it! So I started reciting lines out of different books, and would you believe that he kept trooping down to his room to retrieve the book I was quoting? We got up to 5 books before he got bored with the game. I didn't realize he was actually listening when I read books!

Jeans shopping...uggghhh!!!!

Well, I needed some new jeans today. I've never particularly enjoyed shopping for clothes, but since having Nathan I've liked it even less! He's always fussing and wants out of the stroller to run around. Plus, maybe it's the 80's styles I'm not liking this year.

Anyway, I last bought a pair of jeans in August and they are too loose now. August is when I stopped nursing Nathan and when I did that my appetite just disappeared. It seems like I'm never hungry anymore. So therefore, 2 months later I needed new jeans.

Jeans are just the worst to buy! I can NEVER find the right size and fit! Today, I found two pairs that fit pretty well. Do you want to know what sizes they were? The first pair was a size 1, and the second pair was a size 11!! What the heck?? Seriously, I've never fit into a size 1 in my life and I've never worn 11's either. I used to fit between these sizes and never had to try on six sizes to figure out which I wear.

I think there are two conspiracy theories going on here. The first are the companies that want to make you "feel good" so they purposely let people fit into 1's knowing that you will buy the pants just so you can tell people you wear a 1. The other theory is the companies that make the sizes bigger so you feel you're "fat." Then you try to lose weight and when you do so, you have to buy another pair of their jeans.

Seriously, who has time or patience to try on every size from 1 to 11? Especially women toting along fussing kids? I was about to rip my hair out! Why can't they size women's pants like mens? Using inches? It would be so easy to just go in and find a 32 waist or whatever. So frustrating!!!

On a lighter note, out house is almost painted! All they have left is the shutters which they are going to do tomorrow.

Also we had our first freeze last night so my tomato plants were all black and shriveled this morning. So sad! Poor Nathan will have no more tomatoes to smash up.

Jeremy normally has Thursdays off, but tonight is off on a prisoner transport all the way to Richland. I'm taping The Office for him!

Tomato Picking

We're had a TON of tomatoes in the garden this year. I never thought I'd say it but I'm sick of tomatoes. We have both big tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. Nathan LOVES picking the cherry tomatoes. At first, I wouldn't let him do it because I was afraid of him choking on them. It turns out, he just wants to put them in his mouth to squish them as fast as he can. Then, he squishes it in his hand and throws it away. After a few minutes, there are squished tomatoes everywhere. It is cute, but super messy! Every time we head outside, he makes a beeline for the garden.

Fall videos

 

Apples!

It's the time of the year for fresh, delicious, crunchy, wonderful apples! My parents brought us up our first box of apples. I was fortunate to grow up in the apple capital of the world. Seriously, I think more apples are grown in Central Washington than anywhere else. I remember back in high school running cross country and eating apples on our runs. The coach would get so mad and we'd always end up with sideaches from eating while running.

Anyway, in the fall, we would always go pick lots of apples. We'd have boxes of different kinds of apples in the basement all winter long where they would stay cool. In our house here in Spokane, we heat the basement, so the apples will have to go out in the shop.

What's weird about apple season is that you never see these delicous fresh apples in the grocery stores! I realized this when I started shopping on my own outside of Royal City. Where do they all go? I've heard Japan gets alot, but fresh ones here in the US would be nice! It seems the grocery store apples are always just CA apples and who knows how old they are. Occasionally there will be fresh ones in the store and you can tell. I guess you have to go to farmer's markets or something.

Time to go eat a fresh apple!! YEA!!!!

How to Make Waiting at the DOL a Little Bit Brighter

Jeremy's birthday is in a month, and this year that means a new driver's license! We headed over to the DOL in North Spokane expecting the usual. A crowded place where you wait forever and everyone is annoyed. Well, bring a baby in and the atmosphere gets a little lighter! I was letting Nathan toddle around while I followed him. He would stop and look at people. EVERYONE got a smile on their face and did goofy things. I swear every eye was on him the whole time. It was so cute.

I've also discovered since having a baby that strangers are much more willing to talk to me. I guess they automatically see that I have a baby and most people have kids, so there's an immediate bond to talk about something. I love it! At a place like the DOL I never would have talked with anyone before, and this time I chatted with just about everyone.

However, I'm wondering where the point is where I need to stop letting Nathan wander wherever he wants with me following. He's 13 months now and has been walking about a month. He will not sit in my lap...he'll just scream! So what do I do? Obviously, at some point, he's just going to have to sit there.

We have this problem at church too. All he wants to do is run around. I've tried going to the baby cry room, but that place is always packed full of parents giving their children cheez its and peanut butter crackers for snacks. These children all like to share too, and that will kill my child. So I haven't been to church in like a month now because of this dilema. I do not want him wandering around the back of the church. It just seems rude I guess. I'm just in a pickle!

House Painting!

We're finally getting there on our house painting project! Our house is currently half old yucky blue, and half new taupe. The painters didn't come today because we had some sprinkles going through and they didn't want to paint in the rain. Makes sense, but we can't wait to have it done.

Jeremy is also finishing up several of our "inside" house projects. He's finished tiling our new bathtub and finished putting in all new windows (which we wanted to have done before the painters came). He's also doing the last of the molding on our new laminate flooring in the basement.

After these projects are done, we're going to be doing a lot of reorganizing to truly finally make our house home (2 years later)!

Jeremy learned today that a dog hoarder whom he's had a lot of trouble with had 34+ dogs taken from her today. She had spent a lot of time on Tuesday yelling at Jeremy when he responded to a call at her place , so he was really glad to hear she'd had all the dogs taken from her. It was a really horrible situation for all those poor dogs. At least 34 of them are at Spokanimal now, with more to follow.

I'm getting back into the subbing business. I'm not sure yet how much I want to do, but I subbed 4th grade yesterday and had a really great time. The kids down here at the local school are just such great kids. I love working there. The staff is all super friendly too, and I feel very comfortable.