AZ

After a busy week of moving all the furniture out of our Living, Dining and downstairs Bedroom so we can get the hardwood floor redone, we headed out for AZ. We had Melissa's dogs, Oscar and Lola since May 11th. Although the dogs are fun and you do get attached, they are also a lot of work. They don't fit into our life style very well. After some frustrating weeks we opted to crate train them and things went much better after that.

We spent two days traveling to AZ stopping close to St Louis the 1st night at a Motel 6 where they allow dogs. Once we are back home, I will post pictures of this trip. It's quite different traveling with dogs. Wil and I are used to stopping at rest areas, take a quick potty break and back on the road. This time it was, putting on the dogs leash, walking around until they decided it was an ok spot to empty their bladder or bowels, then getting some water to put in bowl so they wouldn't dehydrate. We left on Saturday morning the 23rd and arrived Sunday evening. We gained 3 hours coming which was nice but are dreading the loss when we go home.

Let me just say, we really like Maury, Melissa and Isaiah's new home. I am taking a lot of pictures so you can see it as well. Wil has been busy installing ceiling light/fan fixtures, changing wall lights, installing a new kitchen sink and getting the drip system by the plants up and running. Maury's Grandpop Henry was here yesterday helping with the sink. Maury and I are helping Wil as we can. I am doing some cleaning but cleaning this house is a breeze compared to the PA house.

Monday night we went to a Mexican restaurant which was good but not our favorite and a bit expensive. Last night we had Grandpop, Maury's Aunt Tina and her daughter Kayla here for haystacks.

Right now Melissa and Wil left for Home Depot yet once again. This time it's to get some stones for the back yard where they need to get the dirt away from the house and hopefully a couple of plants. They will also purchase a doorbell, front door handle, front door light. As always Wil wants to fix everything right now. I think he needs to take off of work a week and just stay at home and see how many projects he can get done at home!! Did I say that? Seriously, he is doing a great job.

Today, Grandpop is having a procedure done to check out a spot on his lungs but he is coming back Friday because he wants Wil to help him install a garage opener. From the beginning he decided they needed one and went and bought one yesterday after he found out Wil could help install it. Maury has some wonderful family here and we are so happy about that.

Isaiah was so fearful about how he would do academically here in his new school but he doing just fine. The 1st thing he does when he comes home is do his homework then he is out the door with his new found friends. They play and ride bike inspite of the heat. He is no longer wondering what to take so he can sleep.

Sawyer video for Isaiah

Crawling

My big little boy

Is that cute or what!!

Still only one tooth and still slobbering-Double click and see the cuteness

Riding the cow that Matt had bought for Isaiah when he was the little guy.

Might get the feeling

I watched Brennan and Sawyer this morning and on our walk over to our house Brennan informed me that he thinks he is getting the "wii playing feeling." I told him that we needed to eat lunch 1st. While we were eating he said, "Grandma Kathy, I'm thinking about that wii feeling." Sawyer enjoys watching Brennan play and decided he should be helping.

Another good one on Brennan today: We were back at their house, I was giving Sawyer a bottle and Brennan was watching TV when I noticed he was reaching under the TV cabinet. I assumed he was getting a ball that had probably rolled underneath. I soon discovered that instead of getting something, he was depositing the boogers from what he calls the "booger factory" underneath the cabinet rather than going for a tissue. Nice! He was quite pleased with himself.

Wil-Mario

Isaiah had ordered a Mario game from Game Fly for the Wii while he was still here in Indiana, but it didn't come until after he left. In spite of lots of things Wil could/should be doing tonight, he decided to try out that game. This picture was taken when he was just checking it out. It's now almost an hour later and the guy is hooked! Brennan was over earlier playing the other Mario game and it must have gotten him in the mood.

Look Grandma-No training wheels

Brennan is so determined to ride bike without his training wheels. He can go short distances but without someone by his side there would have been many accidents. Matt has found out that helping Brennan on the bike is a good way to get exercise. I wanted to give him a break on Sunday. I went to help him as I had done many times before. However this time Brennan made an unexpected turn to the left and down he went with me falling over the bike. I had sandals on and therefore stubbed my big toe on the bike tearing back my big toenail into the skin. Needless to say, it still hurts.

Change

We are planning to have someone sand down our hardwood flooring and varnish it while we are in AZ. I'm excited about getting it done but moving all the furniture out of the downstairs is a challenge. I had varnished the floor myself when we 1st put it down then tried to redo it 4 years ago. I didn't get it sanded down far enough and it has started to blister .

Lola-Oscar

I heard Melissa, Maury and Isaiah are missing the dogs. I thought I'd give them some pictures to look at. Whenever I'm blogging the dogs are either on my lap or nestled on the floor beside me. It's really hard to work on the computer with them on my lap, licking my face. They are both going to the groomer tomorrow so their hair are shorter for the AZ heat. They also stay cleaner. A close up of Lola

Oscar almost too tired to even pose for the picture.

B and the wii

Almost every night that Brennan knows we are at home he asks if he can come play the wii. This week my response is always the same. "You can play until we are ready to watch the Olympics".
Brennan-ok, I will just play 10 minutes. The 10 minutes normally is much longer. Last night when I told him it was almost time to quit and the next time he fell on his Mario game it would be time to watch the Olympics, I wish you could have seen the look on his face. He lost his concentration and almost immediately his guy fell and it was the end!! The look on his face and response was priceless. Wil in the background was doing what Carrie normally has to do, I was trying to do the right thing and be kind and yet firm with him. His jaw and face was clenched, eyes BIG and was he ever disgusted. "I AM NOT QUITTING-NO IT IS NOT TIME FOR THE OLYMPICS!"
As soon as the Olympics came on his eyes lit up and it was, "Oh, I want to watch that. leave it there, they are diving!"

Grandma Polly-82

Today we celebrated my Mom's 82nd birthday. Frank, Anna, Norm, Carol, Al, Rose, Wil and myself took lunch to celebrate her birthday. Mom knew someone was coming but didn't know who. The biggest surprise was that she didn't know that Al and Rose were around.

Missing Isaiah

Brennan's prayer at bedtime- Dear God, help Isaiah to want to come to Indiana real soon because he said he will come when he feels like it.
Last night Brennan told me that he really misses Isaiah so we called him. It was so cute to hear Brennan telling Isaiah that he misses him. I think neither one missed the other for several days but they were soon reminded how much they miss each other.

We are glad that Isaiah is adjusting to all his changes and are very proud of him for standing strong through the hard times.

Corn

Last night after a long walk with Papaw and the dogs Brennan decided he needed to taste some of our 1st corn off the cob. As you can see, he loves it.

When it was time to go home, Matt found him hiding under the Dining room table.

Brennan is really into asking you about your day. Last night and tonight he asked, "so Grandma Kathy, how was you day today." Oh, a little frustrating. "what was frustrating Grandma". Then onto "Papaw, how was your day?"

Commitment

I challenged Isaiah to giving up Soda's with sugar. He worked on it real hard this summer and only had it on occasion when we went out to eat. Before he left, I told him that I'd put a $1.00 away for him for each day he would go without for the next year. Wil then told him that if he goes a full year without that he would match it. Now we know that is asking a lot for a Coke lover but we think it's a good health choice. I got to thinking that if he makes that commitment then I should be willing to make one as well. Corn is one of my allergies and I have fallen by the wayside. The consequences are weight gain, headaches and so on. I asked Isaiah if I should commit to staying off corn and he thought that would be a good idea as long as he didn't need to get me anything. It's only been a few days and I'm reminded how corn syrup is in everything. I'm only telling you all this so you can keep us accountable.

Random pictures from the summer

This is our 3rd evening in a row of no grandchildren. We discovered how tired we were! It was kind of hard keeping up with the grandchildren but we wouldn't have traded it for anything. Anything? Oh well, it sounded good and seriously we had a lot of fun this summer. We got kind of used to no privacy and it reminded us of how it used to be. We still have the dogs for a few more weeks. Tonight I went with Wil on his walk with the dogs. We stopped at what used to be Isaiah's Amish sitters, Larry and Elsie. They were married over 10 years before they had any children and then named their son Isaiah. Isaiah still spends some time with them each summer.

Isaiah & Isaiah

Isaiah went with Larry, Elsie and Isaiah to the Topeka Zoo.

We got the Wii Fit game on Isaiah's last day here. That I'm discovering can be quite the workout. That will definitely be my way of exercising this winter.

Just like me, Isaiah loves to get a good fire burning. Late one night he decided he had to start a fire. Success!