Attempting to catch up--Bullet style

I cannot believe Monday is going to be the first day of September, where has the summer gone? Where has the YEAR gone?? Somebody said yesterday there are 18 Friday's left until Christmas.

I am so far behind on blogging, with good reason, but still, so far behind. Thought I would wrap up most of August in one fell swoop. I don't know if I can even remember what all has happened!

I am wanting to do a big post on Andrew's (and mine too really) new business. Exciting but LOTS of work on it this summer and so far, that work has been on my side of it.  As I said, bigger post to come.

Things that happened in August:

• August 2nd, we celebrated my birthday early at the Japanese Restaurant in Terre Haute.
• August 9th, Mom and I went to Sis and Richard's for the day.
• August 10th, Gibbs came into our lives :-) (If you don't know about Gibbs, see the post below, but I am fairly sure EVERYBODY knows about Gibbs).
• August 14th, made the monthly trip to Springfield with my friend, fellow LIHEAP coordinator Kathy Walk. 
• August 16th, I turned 47. Since we had all celebrated earlier in the month together, Mom and I went on a Walmart run that afternoon and Andrew and I had a movie date that night. Saw And So It Goes.
• August 21st, left at noon to go back to my sisters for some Balloonfest fun.
• August 23rd, got to witness the last of my friend Patty's biological daughters marry the man of her dreams.
• August 24th, my one and only baby boy turned 22.
• August 26th, spoke at Head Start preservice, wearing the IT hat.
• August 29th, had a day-long training for LIHEAP, gearing up for the start of the LIHEAP season this coming Tuesday.
• August 29th, Andrew took an all day class near St. Louis to get his lead certificate.

Today, I go get my hair cut and this evening , we are helping a wonderful couple celebrate their anniversary. Robert was on vacation last week so they made a lot of progress on the house and are inching closer to being through with structural work. That will leave all the electrical and then the cosmetic. When we hit cosmetic, it will go faster AND I will be able and probably expected to help more!

A few pics to close the deal and then off to a busy, wonderful life that God has blessed me with.

On our way to my birthday dinner on the 2nd, my mom called and told me to stop by on our way home, she made me a Lemon pie!

Smith's Botanical Gardens :-)

Mom, Richard and Sis

Gibbs

Robert had ice cream cake on Saturday and Pineapple Cheesecake on Sunday

Robert's birthday present, what he asked for, more tools. Go figure.

My 12 pints of homemade spaghetti sauce, with my own fresh basil and garlic. Love getting to still do some of my own canning, even when life is crazy!

  

Happy Saturday! Have a BLESSED day!

Gibbs

So, at the prompting of one of my coworkers I am spending my lunch hour updating my blog.

I told her that I really needed to do 4 blog posts, that's how far behind I am.

Anyway, I will get one finished, about the infamous, wonderful, mischievous cat named Gibbs.

Gibbs came into our lives on a rainy Sunday afternoon, August 10th to be exact. Garrett and Robert were out for a Sunday afternoon ride when they saw this little blob in the middle of the road. When Garrett got stopped, Robert jumped out to see what it was. They were assuming a baby squirrel. It ended out being a little kitten, soaking wet, and smack dab in the middle of the road.

Since we have never had cats, and Andrew was supposed to be allergic, Robert called my mom, aka a cat lady. He called me and said he was taking the kitten to Nana's. I told him I would go with him. When he walked in the door with this little blue-gray kitten all wrapped in a towel, I was in love.

I wanted to keep him but as mentioned above, figured it would have to be a choice between the hubs and the cat, well, that's a no-brainer. So we get him to Mom's and Mom says she doesn't know what she will do with him, that he is not going to stay in the house, all her other kittens are outside. Andrew at that point told me if I wanted to keep him, keep him; that honestly made my mom happy as well.

About two months ago, we had a stray full grown cat. The dogs went ballistic while he was there so we took him to a friend who has a big farm and lots of room. I was really leery of how the girls would react to the kitten.Lizzie took to him immediately and is very protective. Chris thinks he is an annoyance, especially since he figured out that she had nipples that must of reminded him a lot of his own mom. He only tried that once.

Anyway, I named him Gibbs because well, if you don't watch NCIS, I might worry about you, but I love Gibbs on NCIS, and he is also Gray headed. Gibbs on the show is tough and street smart when he has to be, but yet just a good guy with an air of confidence about him that is just very becoming. My Gibbs is all of those things as well, hence the name.

We went to see the vet on the 13th, got his first shots and found out that he was around 4 weeks old.

That makes him around 6 weeks old today. He has grown a lot. He is faithful about using the potty box and this morning when I cleaned the potty box, I got a clump that was way too big for Gibbs, so I think Liz has decided to use the potty box too, that would sure beat those mornings she wants to go out at 3 a.m.

I told on facebook, I bought him a collar Saturday, I thought it was too big though and took it back off, Monday, he went TWICE and got it and brought it to me, I said I guess the dogs told him he had to have a collar to belong. He had a bath Sunday night, which apparently will help Andrew's issues with him, though Andrew has been around the cats at the farm so long now, I think he has built an immunity.


So, without further ado......

Gibbs:

This was when we were taking him to Mom's, didn't know at this time I was going to get to keep him.

As you can see, Chris doesn't totally dislike him, this was like day 2 or 3.

Week 1

Week2

Week 3, August 26th

Liz thought I was causing him distress sticking the phone in his face--did I mention that I found an app on  my phone for him? It's called Cat Toy and he loves chasing the butterfly. Yep, like everything else in our house, spoiled.

What a Crazy, Happy, Sad, Eventfilled, Blessed Life

I last updated on July 20th, it had been a crazy couple of weeks and things just didn't change much.  The guys were running out of supplies at Robert's house and it was decided that we needed a new trailer. We have an 8 foot trailer but apparently the first trip from Effingham to Greenup with 16 foot 2x10's was not a fun one, for the guys or our little trailer. It about killed the trailer. With Robert's profession as well as his love for cars, a car trailer just made since. We craigslisted away and Robert and I came up with the same one, right in the budget I had set. We called, it was still there, so away we went on Thursday evening, the 24th to get the trailer. The trailer was just what we wanted, it was at Edwardsville and so we had left my office as soon as I got off work. Highlight of the night though was going to Taco Bell in Edwardsville. There were two women in line ahead of us, they both ordered for about twenty people. That was the START of the problem. Then we ordered. Several others came in and ordered and left with their food. After 20 minutes, Andrew got up and went to ask where our food was, at that time, I started visiting with one of the others in line. I told her my main concern was we were three hours away from home with a brand new trailer, nobody was thrilled about what time it was going to be when we got home. At 8:00, the 30 minute mark, I stood back up and said it's time to just get our money back and go. The lady that had been behind me said, "Oh no, you get your money back, but you get your food.", She TOLD the lady at the register, "You give them there money back and give them their food, they aren't from around here and they will have a bad impression of Edwardsville.". Our food came up about the same time, so I sent the guys to eat while I got our money back. As soon as Robert had ate so he could drive, we loaded up and headed home. I really like sweet people, but I think I like sweet, pushy people even better!

On our way home, we received heartbreaking news. Ken Beaumont had passed away. He has had a very long battle with cancer and even though it wasn't actually cancer that finally caused his final breath, it was still the primary reason he was in that position. Ken is one of those people that I hated to see him go, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt where he is. Ken was a big supporter of Robert. He was a mechanic so they talked the same language and I think he enjoyed getting to visit with Robert. If you remember Robert putting his car in the ditch to save a turtle; he was on his way to Ken's to look at tools. I have a story to tell you though of something that happened later this week and I know Susie didn't even think about it. I won't go into too much detail because I didn't ask either one of them permission and it was something that just happened as natural as any other day. The Lord keeps working though. The day after Ken's funeral, Susie came to work. That day, one of my other coworkers had tragic news. The next morning, Susie was taking steps to comfort that coworker. As I said, not too much detail but enough to say, Susie's faith in God gave a wonderful testimony that morning and I know that was not even on her mind.

On Sunday, we got to go to our first Brickyard 400, I have to admit what I normally do during NASCAR races on Sunday afternoon; I watch the start, sleep through a big portion unless there is a ruckus about a wreck, and wake up in time to see the last 30 laps or so. The guys were both really excited about the race and I was excited for them but really wasn't sure I wanted to sit 3 hours and watch the cars turn left, turn left, turn left, turn left. I love going to dirt track races, they are short and you either see a lot of near misses or someone getting crunch. Two weeks before Indy, Kyle Busch was hanging upside down in his car, that's a bit much for me. Anyway....The race was really uneventful. Danica broke her back axle and was right in front of us when she couldn't get her car to do anything but smoke. Robert blames me for no wrecks, because I had prayed for such and Jeff Gordon won, which I am not a big Gordon fan but he made history in that he has won the Brickyard 5 times and he is from Indiana which meant the crowd loved it. I am sure there were many people there who had been involved in his growing up, that would be neat for both Jeff and them. Here are some pictures:

All the pace cars from the previous Brickyards were right in front of us.

Honoring the active duty military present

Someone arriving by helicopter, just thought it was cool.

That brings us into this week. I have had a crazy week with computers, I have to get a class in on our new server, I am planning on starting that it September. I found a 5 day class in Springfield, the only downside was the $2800 fee and that was just for the class, no meals, or rooms. I found a $200 class online that I could download but if you just watched it and didn't download it, you get it free. Guess what I am doing??  It's Server 2012 and it is kicking my butt, mainly because we have a Hyper V terminal set up in it and I am just not used to having to deal with it. I am sure I will get it though and a year down the road, I will feel much better about the stupid thing......maybe won't even call it stupid.

Big progress on the house this week too! The west side has all of its walls on the inside moved to where they are supposed to be, all but just a little of the sub floor is also down on that side. Friday evening, they put the new plywood on the outside, this is a big thing because when they started this wall was actually at three different heights, no it wasn't supposed to be and now it is not.
There will be windows of course, and they are framed in on the inside, but they aren't putting the windows in until they have the other half of the house done.

So today, Robert is going to work, Andrew and I are tackling cleaning the house, making tomato sauce and then starting more work on our yard. I was so glad to get the front looking better but we have to keep going. Because of what August is already looking like, we are going to Terre Haute tonight to celebrate my birthday AND to buy a winch for the new trailer. This will bring us one step closer to at least moving Robert's cars to the farm. I am hoping that happens in the next couple of weeks!

Happy Saturday everyone, hope you have a Blessed day!