Well Hello, There!

It's been awhile.

The last three weeks or so have been a roller coaster of ups and downs and in-the-middles and I hardly know where to start. And because Bennett and I have connected immune systems we are both suffering from terrible sinus colds at the moment, so I'm not even sure this will be a comprehensive posting. Good luck, dear reader. I admire your patience.

Let's start with my excuse.

Matt is deploying. Soon. Very, very soon. Because of this, people have been so wonderful to us. We have had company every weekend, gone to dinners or hosted dinners almost every night, and had lots and lots of well-wishers tracking us down. It has been fantastic. And so very, very busy.

Matt and I decided that we are ready for this new adventure in life to start. We are tired of the waiting around and the saying of good-byes. Just get on the plane, already! But that will happen in its own time and I will probably fall apart when it does. For now, though, I am exhausted (and sick) with the crazy lifestyle we have been living and I am almost looking forward to returning to my nice, quiet, normal schedule. I know Matt is looking forward to getting to do his job finally, too. Most of his guys are already there waiting for him. He's the last one to go and he is ready.

We are all ready...of course, I say that now. Check back with me in a little bit and we'll see what the real story is. :)

Anyway, that's why I haven't been updating very well. There's just been too much happening and not enough time to write about it all. So here's a quick recap of the last three weeks, in extremely condensed form and with a million different video clips. I honestly don't know what the deal with the videos is. I guess we just really liked that record button lately. Feel free to skip them...

August 16th-20th: We do a lot to the house, as mentioned before. We painted several rooms, tiled some areas, installed new things, blah, blah, blah. I have been meaning to take pictures of all of these things, but the only room I have actually taken a picture of is our bathroom.


Ta-da! We painted, got new light fixtures and towel holders, and if you look in the mirror's reflection you can see the light hanging over the tub that Matt put in and actually made work (after he cut and patched a hole in the wall the size of a beach ball. Oh man, that was a long night...) So imagine, if that's what we did in our bathroom, there was a lot more work in other areas of the house that I am just too lazy to talk about now. But it looks amazing, and I am in awe once again of Matt and his ability to cram more projects into a 24-hour period than should be humanly possible.

August 27th: I weed the front flower garden as Bennett plays on the trailer we had parked in our driveway. Suddenly, I heard a series of loud falling/skin-on-concrete sounds, and looked up in time to see Bennett skipping across our driveway on his forehead, much as you would see a flat rock skipping across a large lake. The result...

Actually, this was only hours after the incident when it still looked pretty good. In days to follow, Bennett would develop an impressive scab about half an inch think, and a black left eye. And here's the best part, after the fall I ran over, scooped him up in my arms, washed off his bloody face and nose, held a cold compress on the wound, lathered the area with Neosporin, gave him a dose of Motrin for the pain, and held him with lots of hugs and kisses. And what did this kid want more than anything? To play on the trailer he just fell from. Honestly. Will he live to see two?

August 28th: Joe and Kim (Matt's brother and cute wife) come to visit for the weekend. And we did nothing. Not a dang thing. It was GREAT!

OK, we did do some things. Matt and Joe went golfing, Kim and I went on a walk with Bennett, we all watched a movie, went to get frozen yogurt, played Monopoly Deal...just a lot of little things that were really fun and relaxing.

Kim is a wonderful chef, and I challenged her to make something yummy and gourmet-looking for me. She came up with this fabulous chocolate torte that I ended up eating with a fork right off the tray. It was soooo good.

I shaved the chocolate bar for the garnish pieces on top. I was rather proud.

Uncle Joe and Bennett in the tree house. As a side note, I would like to add that although this ladder has to be put up by an adult, we have forgotten to take it down more than once and I have come outside to find Bennett happily standing 30 feet in the air, holding on to a rung with one hand and banging on the trap-door with the other. I never knew I could climb that fast. This child will be the death of me.

Eating our yummy Yo-Yo Yogurt. Amazing.

August 30th: Bennett and I go to Toys-R-Us for like, three hours. Bennett loved everything there, but especially this coin-operated car with Elmo in it.

Elmo is one of Bennett's favorite things right now, even though he has never watched Sesame Street. I think he just likes his name, because he says it whenever he sees him (Eeamoow!)

September 1st: I start watching Jace again. Four days a week, Monday through Thursday, for about eight hours a day. It sounds like a hard job, right? But I am in LOVE with this child because he makes my life so dang easy! Seriously, Bennett and Jace are bestest friends. I can never make Bennett laugh like Jace can, and when he is around Bennett is a happy boy. I get so much done around the house when they play together, and because Jace is a little older, Bennett gets to watch him learn new things (like walking, talking, and potty-training) and then wants to try them out himself (not the potty-training yet, but one day.) The only downfall is when they decide to go into cahoots with each other to make mischief and mayhem. For example...

I can't blame this one completely on Jace. Bennett probably would have done this on his own if given the chance. Oh, and by the way that's not dirt in his hair. It's soot. We had just burned the garden that day. Talk about a mess. The hose came in very handy once the camera was turned off.

This is just Bennett being Bennett.

September 4th: Mary and Wayne come to spend the weekend. And of course, I took zero pictures of their entire visit. Silly. It was very fun though, with lots of planning and talking about Matt's little sister, Sarah's, upcoming wedding for which I am making the invitations. They are going to be adorable, if I do say so myself :)

Although I didn't get anything of them here, this little video was taken the night they arrived. Bennett just decided he could most definitely talk. It's pretty comical to listen to him.

My entire day is filled with his constant jabbering. I love it.

September 6th: We go with friends to a nearby river for some fun in the sun. Matt relived his childhood by exploring with his buddy, Erik. I had fun talking to my good friend Joelle and laying in the nice cold water on a hot, humid day, and Bennett was in heaven because he had an endless supply of rocks to throw.

Family time.

My friendy-friend, Joelle, and their little girl Brielle.

Matt and Erik coming back from their adventure.

Matt with his other buddy.



We only spent a few hours here, but it felt so good we are definitely going back.

September 7th: Hurricane season introduces itself to Texas. It is ironic that we went to the river just a few days before it rained, and rained, and rained for days. Nonstop. Heavy. I was trapped in the house with two very active little boys for the entire time (Matt takes the car to work when it rains because it's safer than the bike) and while my house got super clean, I thought I was going to lose my mind. The sun finally came out again after a few days, but not before we experienced a small flood in our backyard.

This video was taken after the first day of rain. By the end of the third day our yard looked even worse, and lots more people had flooding. Nothing too serious, though. It was actually really cool.

September 11th: Matt and I go to the San Antonio temple. It was really good to be there with him, it just kind of puts things into perspective. Again, no pictures, but it was awesome and we got to spend more time with Mary and Wayne, Bekah and Nathan, Joe, and Sarah. A very fun weekend.

So now we are home and I am sick and I am sick of this blog. But at least I am caught up (somewhat). Yay for me! And yay for Matt for taking care of sick Bennett the entire time I have been sitting here doing this. I am so spoiled.

See you next week!