Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Leaving on a jet plane

Well we leave tomorrow for the bitterly cold. We were suppose to be spending Friday afternoon in downtown Chicago, but grandma thought it would be better to not have the girls outside then. I guess it is suppose to be even colder than they thought. We are packed for the most part- there will be a few things that will need to be put in our bags in the morning. The bathrooms and kitchen has been cleaned, the laundry has been done and so has the vacuuming. I figure this way when Chad has people over for the Superbowl, it will be semi-clean.

The last few days have just flown by. Grandma and grandpa got in on Friday, they were about an hour late. I got to go and pick them up. I actually went and ran some errands before they came in. Saturday morning we took in the Children's Museum. It was fun. Maddie had too much to look at that I think she was a little overwhelmed. We then headed out to Katy Mills for the afternoon. We got some stuff at Steve and Barry's and Maddie got new Vans. She got another pair that will be her next size, because they were on sale for 10 dollars. Home it was. Grandma and I went grocery shopping while the girls napped. Saturday night we played Phase 10. Sunday was church. Grandpa and Chad went up to school to check the wetness of the field. Again while the girls napped grandma and I headed out. We hit the 75% off bookstore. We found some good deals. Then we relaxed with some Strabucks. Then it was CiCi's for dinner. Grandma has never been there and since that is our pizza place, she thought she should go. Then we played another hand of Phase 10 that night. Monday was back to work for Chad and we went to breakfast, hit the mall, and then took them to the airport.

The last couple of days have been us getting ready to come home. I hope that we all have enough warm clothes for the trip.

I'll try to post while I'm in Wisconsin, otherwise I'll make sure I do when we get back.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Vistors here in time for the sunshine

That's right, even though I will be going to Wisconsin in one week, grandma and grandpa Heff are coming here tonight. Grandma has a little bit of cabin fever, so she needed to get away. She figured it was either here or Florida and since we are here, she decided on here. Grandpa wasn't going to come, but he decided that he did want to come. It had been raining all week until yesterday, so they will at least get to see some sun and 60 degree weather. It may rain in the morning tomorrow, but they said that by noon it will all be out of here and sunshine the rest of the day. It will make my week even shorter next week. They won't be leaving until Monday, so then I'll have just two days before we leave. That also means only two days to get everything together. The week we are home is filling up pretty fast, but that is okay. That will give us a chance to see everyone. We then won't be back until summer, but we will probably be around for a little bit longer time then.

Baseball has been pretty wet this week, but Chad has managed to get some practicing in. Since it has been raining, we have been inside a lot this week. Yesterday we did manage to get outside and Maddie got to play in outside. We need to get one of those driveway nets for her, so she can't run into the street, but until we get one I improvised with a volleyball net. We had gotten a volleyball/racquetball set for our wedding and have never opened it. So I put the net on the pole and put it across the driveway. Maddie could have easily lifted it up and went under, but she just saw it as a stopping point, so that was good. I don't think that will last too long before she figures it out.

This seems to be reoccurring, but I hope that everyone is staying warm up north.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Baseball Is Upon Us

Yes, the day has finally arrived, it is the first day of baseball for Chad. After having a two day week last week, he gets to dive right into a full week of school and practice. It is still sometimes hard to believe that baseball is starting when it is still January, but it is 50 degrees outside. There are some baseball seasons up north that you are lucky if you hit 50 at all during the season. It is suppose to cool down a little again and also there is suppose to be some more rain this week, so that might put a damper on practice a little bit, especially since basketball is still going on, so the gym is still in use. Okay enough about baseball.

So after the short week of school we decided to not do too much this weekend. We watched half of the JV girls game at school on Friday after school. We went to pick Chad up since Emma had her 6 month check up that morning. I'm glad to report that she is a healthy one year old. She is still off the charts for both height and weight. Maddie was the same way until 18 months old. Maddie is still off on the height, but right on it for weight. I am assuming that is how Emma is going to be too. I was also not surprised when Dr. Karr said that Emma has allergies too. You can tell just by the way she breathes. So we will have to endure these also until she can get tested. Saturday there wasn't much going on. I got the grocery shopping done, I pulled two more rosebushes and we just hung out at home watching basketball. Yesterday we went to Phill and Shelly's for the Bears game. Maddie had fun chasing the dog around. Everyone was happy with the outcome of that game, but I don't think everyone was with the Colts winning. It was a good game. We left from their house after the 1st quarter and it we turned it on when we got home, but I really didn't start watching it until the 4th quarter, just when it was starting to get good. With us going over to Phill and Shelly's right in the middle of the day, I was counting on Maddie falling asleep in the car on the way over and being able to lay her down for a little while at their house. Well she fell asleep on the way over, but then didn't want to stay asleep once she knew where we were. So she kept herself going the whole afternoon. When we got in the car to come home, she was out before we even got out of their subdivision, we then laid her on the couch at home. I thought that she would wake up while being out in the living room, well she did about a half hour later, just long enough to get her diaper changed and pajamas on. So then she went right back to sleep in her crib. So she went to bed about 6:30 last night and got up at about 7 this morning.

This week is just going to be adjusting to Chad getting home a little later. I know we will manage just fine, but it will be an adjustment. Nothing too big going on this weekend. We are heading out in a week from Thursday for Wisconsin. While we are gone it sounds like Chad is hosting a Superbowl party. Hope everyone is staying warm up north. I heard there was a little more snow, now if it could just stay around for about 2 weeks, so Maddie can play in it a little bit and maybe try out sledding.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Winter Weather Advisory

Yes, that is right. Texas is in a winter weather advisory. Chad had no school today because of the threat of freezing rain and ice. By us none of this ever happened, but north of us it did. As of right now there is school tomorrow, but it is suppose to be worse tomorrow than it was today. We do have freezing rain here and so that means that there might be a possiblity of no school tomorrow either. I love listening to the weather people and all the other Texans. They think that life cannot go on when the weather is this cold. We did go up to school for awhile. Chad had some work to do and so we went with him and Maddie ran around the gym chasing a superball.

Besides the cold weather, we are getting ready for baseball to start on Monday. The field is pretty wet, so Chad isn't even sure if they will be able to get on the field on Monday. Chad's dad had left us last Thursday for San Antonio, where the weather is even colder than here. After our day of jungle digging, we went over to some friends' house on Sunday night. The Odinga's had some people over since there was no school on Monday. The girls went with us and while we played Taboo, Maddie played with the dogs and Emma slept on the fouton. We had a good time and then just relaxed yesterday. Today with no school for Chad, I was able to get some grocery shopping done and some other stuff around the house.

On Sunday I did go to Michael's to use the gift card that my parents gave me for Christmas. I got some really good stuff for scrapbooking and cards. I have decided that I want to get Maddie's scrapbook done. I am only going to do the first year and so I have even gotten the pictures I need into a folder on the computer and now I just have to send them to Wal-Mart. I am hoping to get hers done and all the while get Emma's organized to do when I can. I even got started on some Valentine's.

The girls are doing good. We rescheduled Emma's 6 month check up for this Friday. We ended up going to Waco last Thursday with Chad for a baseball coach's conference. Emma is getting up on all fours and starting to rock back and forth. Maybe by the time we head to Wisconsin she will be crawling. Maddie is Maddie. She is starting to throw more tantrums, when we say no to her. She also is just starting to use no back to us. I think that that is pretty good. 19 months and now she is starting to use no. She usually says no to everything, even if she means yes. You will ask her if she is ready to eat and she says no as she is climbing into her chair.

Hope that everyone up north is keeping warm, I saw that it is pretty cold up there too. I also heard that there is snow. Maybe some of it will stick around for Maddie to play with in two weeks.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Our Saturday

Well we are homeowners, so that means taking care of the yard. For those of you who have been to the house, you know that we have what you might call a small jungle on the side of the driveway. I had dug out about half of it this past fall and the other half has just been sitting there. I told Chad that the rose bushes needed to be gone before baseball, so we can actually go outside and not worry about Maddie running into one or grabbing a branch of one. So we decided that we would start the digging out process today. We started at about 10 and finished at 4:30, we did have about an hour and a half break when the girls needed lunch and then to be put down for their afternoon nap. Maddie spent half her time outside with us and the other half running back into the house to watch tv. Emma did spend some time outside in her saucer and then the rest of the time napping. We managed to get the rest of the jungle dug out and also the rest of the leaves in the front yard raked and bagged. We thought about it too late to take a before picture, but we did get some after pictures. Sorry they are a little dark, I wanted to take a shower and then I went out and took the pictures.




















This is from the end of the driveway, the garage is on the upper left















This the view from inside the garage
















All this trash is just the jungle. The black bags are two deep

Despite all of the work we did today, I feel good about our progress. Now we just have to decide what to do with the space. There are still a few rosebushes to take out in the backyard and the front. Those will have to wait until another day.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Back into rountine, sort of

Well we have been back for about a week now and we are getting back into the swing of things. The girls have been getting over their colds and getting used to the same old routine of being home. Grandpa Janetzke has been with us since last Thursday and will be leaving this Thursday. We didn't see him much the first couple of days he was here, but that is because he was at a conference. Chad and him did manage to get a round of golf in yesterday and today we spent some time at the park. I thought today was going to be the day we were going to have to take Maddie to the hospital. She was playing on the playground and at one of the spots of the play area where there is an open area, like where you can go across on the rings or climb up or go down the spirally thing. She decided that she wanted to get off, she did just step off, she did at least turn around and dangle herself off before falling. Good thing grandpa was there to break her fall a bit. I think she was more scared than hurt and just a few minutes later she was back to playing.

This past weekend we also got to hang out with the Keiper's and the Brennan's at the Keiper's on Saturday. There were 7 kids in all. Emma wasn't the littlest, Faith is just three months old, but then the next is Maddie and the oldest is in Kindergarten, so you can imagine what the house was like while we were there. It was fun to see them all playing and interacting. Even Emma was having a good time watching the boys playing ball in the house.

This week should be pretty routine. Emma has her 6 month check up on Friday. The girls and I are on our own from Thursday to Friday. Chad will be in Waco for a baseball conference. There is no school next Monday and then the week after that baseball starts. Not only does Chad have to get into a different mind set, but so do I. It sounds like we are going to have some visitors in March and then some more for Easter. We have started looking at making summer plans and hopefully we will get some of those finished sooner than later.

It sounds like it has been staying somewhat warm up north, I am still hoping that maybe there will be a little snow on the ground while we are there in February. I know that Maddie would love to play and sled.

We hope that everyone has recovered from the holidays and are able to get back into a routine of your own. We are praying for cousin Sam as he got tubes in today and also his annoids(spelling) out.

Friday, January 05, 2007

The rest of the Christmas pictures

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

All good things come to an end

Well Christmas vacation is officially over. Chad is at school at a meeting. There are no kids there today, but they still needed to be there for a meeting at 9am. I think that Maddie is happy to be home, sleeping in her own bed, and playing with all her toys. We are all glad to be home in our own place and not living out of suitcases, but we enjoyed our trip up to Wisconsin. The last time I wrote was the 27th. That afternoon we headed up to Germantown to hang with the Janetzke clan and some extended family. It was good to see everyone who was there, but the evening was a little shorter than we probably would have liked, but Maddie and Emma were still under the weather and so they needed to get home to bed. Thursday was spent running around with Grandma Heff trying to get things for the mini-family fun night on Friday. Maddie was with us in the morning. We then headed home for lunch, Maddie took a nap and Grandma and I were back out. The evening brought Katie and James over to see the girls and then we got to go out with them for dinner. We went to Saz's, the wait was over an hour, so we then went to The Chancery. We hung out there for a bit and then went over to Leff's for a beer. Friday was getting things packed and ready to go. Amy and Ben got to the house about noon and we got to play with them for awhile. The evening was my mom's card club get together. We were up at Mount Olive and it was good to see all of them. The little kids seemed to enjoy the games we put together and also all the prizes they got. Cousin Sam wasn't feeling well, so Amy headed home, but Ben stayed and slept over at Grandma and Grandpa's with us. Saturday morning we headed out for Joplin, MO at about 8:45am. We pulled into Jolpin at about 7:30 that night. We made pretty good time and the girls did great in the car. I think that they were so tired, that they appreciated just being able to sleep whenever. Maddie ran around the hotel room awhile until bedtime. We then headed out on Sunday morning about 8:30am and were on our way to Carrollton. We got there around 2pm and spent New Year's Eve playing cards and visiting with the Wilde's. Yesterday we got on the road at about 10:15 and were home in Spring by 2pm. It was nice to get home and to be able to unpack everything. Maddie was happy to see her toys and I think just a familiar place. The next couple of days will be low key and on Thursday Grandpa Janetzke comes for about a week and a half. He has some meetings here in Houston and also in San Antonio. Baseball starts on the 22nd and the girls and I are leaving on February 1st for Wisconsin. I have a feeling that this month is going to fly by. We hope that everyone had a Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year.