Catching up!

It's been awhile since I have been on here. All is well .... just been very very busy!

Brian, Kelly, and Ty moved into their "new" home last weekend. They bought a fixer-upper last Fall and Brian spent the year gutting it and rebuilding it from the studs in. He created a downstairs bedroom, laundry room, and 2nd bathroom, and he totally redid the wiring in the kitchen, built a pantry, installed new cabinets, and repositioned the sink to an outside wall! The house has a huge vaulted ceiling living room in the rear of the house that gives them so much more room than they had before. He still needs to finish some trim work downstairs, gut the upstairs, knock out a wall to make an open den and separate bedroom this winter, and next summer he is removing the enclosed front porch and pouring a cement floor to make it an open porch with pillars and an overhang. I am just so proud of him for all he has accomplished! And I am so proud of Kelly for living through all of the renovations and changes. They have created a wonderful home for their family. And I am so happy for all of them!!

Ty is growing by leaps and bounds! He is 20 mos old now, and his favorite word is "no". :) He has a fairly large vocabulary, but he has discovered that this word has immediate consequences so he has latched on to it. The only trouble is, he deprives himself of some things he probably would really like to have because his constant answer is "no" when we offer him things. Oh well ....terrible twos ...here we come!!

We miss Craig, Jesse, and Rocco so much! Rocco is 8 mos old, crawling everywhere, pulling himself up, and standing alone for a few seconds at a time. His daddy walked alone the day he turned 9 mos old, so we'll see if Rocco is gonna be able to match that. He is such a happy and delightful boy! But .... he seldom ever sleeps! He is a real night owl. He seldom goes down for the night before midnight, and usually is awake a few times between then and morning. Jesse is so exhausted! They have talked to their Dr about it, but she said some babies don't get their sleep patterns regulated until they are 10 mos old. And for some, they don't get regulated until they are two yrs old! Let's pray he is in the first category instead of the last!

Most of you know that Steve is selling his cows. With a grandson 16 hrs away he just decided that he is tired of being tied down with them. We want to be able to travel more. And as he ages he is having more aches and pains that twice daily chores don't help. Anyway, since this blog entry is titled "Catching Up" I have to share a scene with his cows I observed the other day....

He has part of them sold already, but not delivered. So he has been running them in two different pastures. Well .... the other day I looked out and noticed that the two herds are now positioned nose to nose over the fence. It was so interesting seeing how all the cows were "chatting" over the fence with their long lost pasture mates. I could just envision them catching up with each other.

"Hi Myrtle! How the heck have you been? How is the fodder on your side of the fence? Good! Wow! That's great! Ours is getting a little stemmy now, but is not too tough yet! How are you feeling? I have been having a little bit of morning sickness ... and this calf has just started to kick a little .... but otherwise ... I am feeling fine! Just tired as usual! Oh .... dear ... I am so sorry to hear that .... yes .... well ....that sometimes happens. Well, Myrtle I hope you get over that indigestion thing real soon. The nice green grass should help to clear that up! Well ..... It's sure been nice catching up with you! I'm gonna go munch a bunch. Let's catch up again soon!"

:)