Finally got the new blog up and running. Have had opportunity to post several things there this morning too, so its really running!! Here is the link, come along and enjoy the next couple of years....
http://rdbleonhardt.blogspot.com/
The guestbook is still there, on the right hand side. Feel free to sign it or leave comments either one is fine by us.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Mother's Day & Anniversary
Its a big day in our household, well we aren't home so its just with us I guess!! Its Mother's Day, Happy one to all the mom's we know, but its also our 13th wedding Anniversary. All rolled into one.
We got the computer monitor on Friday as we left for Granny and Papa's house, so its waiting to be put together when we get home. Perhaps in the next day or two I can get that new blog up and running and put pics on easier too. I will put the new link in a post on this one so we don't lose anyone.
Our thoughts are with a couple that put their papers in to adopt 2 weeks after we did (2 yrs ago). They are finally in Russia on their first trip, we do hope all goes well for them and their referral turns out to be just perfect for them. Amazing that it has taken this long for things to turn around in Russia. Makes us thankful that ours went well even with a brief interruption, at least it all was completed and in record time too. We can be grateful for the power of God in our lives and glad for everytime we can see its evidence.
Anyway, wanted to send a Happy Mother's Day wish out to all the mom's out there, and a special one to each Mom that is a Mom through international adoption. Its a nice bond we share!!
We were remembering 13 yrs ago last night our rehearsal dinner, all the people that were there, those still living and those gone on now. In many ways it seems we have always been married, and in many ways those memories are just like yesterday. Now today as I write this, we would have been putting the final touches on getting ready to walk down the aisle. We were married at a little after 2, think it was scheduled for 2:30, but the judge had a family emergency so we bumped it up a bit. Then had the reception and headed for Denver to fly to Florida. Wow, how time flies and has gone on. Perhaps it would be fun to watch the video of the whole thing again someday soon just to see all the people we miss now.
Time to check on Brayden, we are skipping nap today so we have more time with Granny and Papa and Aunt Jean before we head for home. Might make for an interesting evening for mom and dad!!
Here is a poem that came to me in the email today, thought it shared some thoughts and experiences that I have had by now...
Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.
We got the computer monitor on Friday as we left for Granny and Papa's house, so its waiting to be put together when we get home. Perhaps in the next day or two I can get that new blog up and running and put pics on easier too. I will put the new link in a post on this one so we don't lose anyone.
Our thoughts are with a couple that put their papers in to adopt 2 weeks after we did (2 yrs ago). They are finally in Russia on their first trip, we do hope all goes well for them and their referral turns out to be just perfect for them. Amazing that it has taken this long for things to turn around in Russia. Makes us thankful that ours went well even with a brief interruption, at least it all was completed and in record time too. We can be grateful for the power of God in our lives and glad for everytime we can see its evidence.
Anyway, wanted to send a Happy Mother's Day wish out to all the mom's out there, and a special one to each Mom that is a Mom through international adoption. Its a nice bond we share!!
We were remembering 13 yrs ago last night our rehearsal dinner, all the people that were there, those still living and those gone on now. In many ways it seems we have always been married, and in many ways those memories are just like yesterday. Now today as I write this, we would have been putting the final touches on getting ready to walk down the aisle. We were married at a little after 2, think it was scheduled for 2:30, but the judge had a family emergency so we bumped it up a bit. Then had the reception and headed for Denver to fly to Florida. Wow, how time flies and has gone on. Perhaps it would be fun to watch the video of the whole thing again someday soon just to see all the people we miss now.
Time to check on Brayden, we are skipping nap today so we have more time with Granny and Papa and Aunt Jean before we head for home. Might make for an interesting evening for mom and dad!!
Here is a poem that came to me in the email today, thought it shared some thoughts and experiences that I have had by now...
Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
little auctioneer
We had attended a benefit auction a couple of weeks ago, this is what Brayden learned. He is using the spout to my water can for a mic. I took this video through the window screen so as not to disturb my little man.
we love the Bar J Wrangler's
we listen to this cd most every trip, so Brayden has learned to sing along lots.
Two yrs and counting
I have been working on a new blog, but the monitor on my big computer gave up the ghost last week, so its slow coming. I had hoped to begin May 2nd with a new blog and here it is the 7th and still not done. Anyway, here is a new post to get me by till the big computer is fixed and I can use its features to do the new blog.
May 2nd marked 2 yrs since we met Brayden and yest two yrs since we came home alone. Usually I would post the first pics of him and a new one from now so the difference can be seen by all. Today I am using the new laptop and it doesn't have those old pics. I will just post new stuff and move on.
Just for fun we weighed and marked Brayden's height on the door again to mark the occassion. Last height mark was Feb 12 and since then he has gained about an inch. I often find it hard to believe when family mentions he is growing, I see him everyday all day long, but I can see on the door the growth!! He weighs in at 31.5 lbs now too. Changes all around us and I miss the ones most obvious.
We have a real chilly wind today, makes playing outside not much fun. Especially when we were spoiled with near 70 degrees the last couple of days and not much wind at all. Hard to believe its time to plant corn in the garden when the weather acts like this.
Will let this do for now and get some pics and video loaded.
May 2nd marked 2 yrs since we met Brayden and yest two yrs since we came home alone. Usually I would post the first pics of him and a new one from now so the difference can be seen by all. Today I am using the new laptop and it doesn't have those old pics. I will just post new stuff and move on.
Just for fun we weighed and marked Brayden's height on the door again to mark the occassion. Last height mark was Feb 12 and since then he has gained about an inch. I often find it hard to believe when family mentions he is growing, I see him everyday all day long, but I can see on the door the growth!! He weighs in at 31.5 lbs now too. Changes all around us and I miss the ones most obvious.
We have a real chilly wind today, makes playing outside not much fun. Especially when we were spoiled with near 70 degrees the last couple of days and not much wind at all. Hard to believe its time to plant corn in the garden when the weather acts like this.
Will let this do for now and get some pics and video loaded.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
cute hat...
Brayden went out to help Daddy fix the trailer for an install tomorrow. He came back to the house with his new "helmet". Made especially for bike riding I am sure!! I know for certain that if Daddy doens't get it back, he will miss it when he is on his knees on doing this next kitchen with a tile floor. :-) Who knew that knee pads made neat helmets in little boy's minds!!
Monday, April 07, 2008
Oh, you wanted Brayden pics...
Ok, now for the Brayden pics, yeah they should have been first, but then no one would look at the pretty scenery!! :-)
Our little cowboy, he loves his new hat. Oh yeah, not tired mama, in Dubois at the fuel (icecream) station on the jackalope. He had a fun time in that saddle.
Jackson and Togwatee Pass
First pic is the elk, kind of far away, then the town of Jackson, the Tetons, as much as could be seen, and Roger next to the drifts beside the road on Togwatee Pass.
Weekend FUN...
Mama had to work a prom in Big Piney on friday night so we made it a family getaway. Brayden played with several balloons at the prom for awhile, until it was way way past his bedtime, then Daddy took him back to the hotel and they went to bed. I got there about 11:45 and crawled into bed. Well I had to move Brayden off my side of the bed and into his bed, then I crawled in. I was worried about him falling out of bed, Daddy wasn't able to come up with much in the way of a barrier on each side of the bed. Anyway, once during the night I thought I heard his head hit the night table so I inhaled loudly and sat up, Roger reacted to my reaction...it was just Brayden's hand flopping over to the night table, not his head. Then a couple hours later we both heard a bump, Roger inhaled loudly and sat up and I reacted by jumping out of bed, walked all the way around Brayden's bed before I realized he wasn't in it...walked back over to my side of the bed and sure enough he was laying there on the floor still snoring. :-) Amazing how incredibly flexible they are and resilient too. He woke up when I picked him up to put him back in bed and said "mama in bed here", so I crawled in next to him to KEEP him in bed. :-) Mama didn't get much sleep that night, but it was enough to get by. Brayden woke up at 7:30 on the money and said "mama awake??". Its better than the constant beeping of an alarm clock, but it often is earlier than I would like, especially if I have had a short night. There was a cafe attached to the hotel and so we packed up some and then thought we would go down for breakfast...well in Big Piney there is a shortage of good help, too many gas/oil field jobs that pay lots better than waitressing. The cafe was closed, in fact I think most people in BP eat from the gas stations. We went a head and checked out and headed for Pinedale thought we would eat breakfast there. We looked for a McDonald's, but that area is soooo deprived, no McD's in sight. We ended up at Faler's store at the bakery, we had donuts and ham and cheese buritos that were actually VERY good. Then we headed on out for Jackson. It was sunny altho had snowed a bit early that morning. Roads were real good though for the most part. Going through Hoback canyon was very very snowy, not on the road but everywhere else. We couldn't believe the snow they have over there. We saw a crm colored pickup parked out by the road and it was almost completely covered with snow, could see just alittle of the passenger side window rest was mostly covered. If we had 1/4 of the snow they have over there, we would be doing great. It snowed the whole time we were in Jackson, just light snow and was really pretty chilly. We did a little shopping. Brayden was most interested in cowboy hats. Had to try several on and finally mama and daddy found one we liked and it wasn't terrible expensive. I found a nice family used clothing store there and had a nice time perusing the store. We had bbq for lunch and then went to see the elk on the refuge. The sleigh rides ended on friday, so we missed out on that, but we could see them anyway. After that we headed home. Roger was feeling alittle tired so he asked me to drive once we were headed up Togwatee. Of course, not long after I took the wheel, the roads got bad, its quite something when the snow on the sides of the road is taller than the car, the road is white and the snow is blowing off the top of the drifts on the sides making the top white too. Made me hope for NO traffic in either direction!! We got through it fine and came upon traffic stopped competely for a cattle truck that had started sliding and ended up with his trailer blocking both lanes of traffic. Roger put his coat and hat on and went up to see if he could help. He found a very young man and a very old man were team driving that truck, the young man had one chain out and was trying to chain one tire, hoping that would help. Roger asked for more chains and he got out chains still in the packages. :-) After about 15 min a couple pickups with snowmobile trailers got in line and the guys from those headed up to help too. We ended up sitting there in line for about 30-40 min. A white pickup coming from Dubois stopped next to Roger and asked if there was anything he could do to help (after the trailer is moved enough to open one lane), Roger said yes, to stop by the maroon grand prix and tell his wife he was ready to go home. I got the message a few minutes later and pulled out of line and slipped my way up the hill to Roger, picked him up and left the other 9 guys there to finish getting the truck going. After all, we only needed one lane to get traffic moving, and he was sick, so it was time to get on home. I was just glad we didn't end up with several hours up there. A snow plow came to the back of the line behind me before they got the truck moving, he turned around and left. A man in Dubois (after we got icecream) said he came back down and called the highway patrol, we never saw any headed up there on our way down, so no telling how long it might have taken without some resourceful young men. Home looked awfully good Sat night.
Roger is doing better today, still quite a bit of stuff in the sinus areas, but he is working and in a pretty good mood. It was beautiful here today, 50 degrees. I had a nice walk and now it is getting windy and stormy looking. I will get some pics posted as I know that is what is wanted most, not just the story line!!
Roger is doing better today, still quite a bit of stuff in the sinus areas, but he is working and in a pretty good mood. It was beautiful here today, 50 degrees. I had a nice walk and now it is getting windy and stormy looking. I will get some pics posted as I know that is what is wanted most, not just the story line!!
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
layin around singin
Thought this was cute and would share it. He is singin about happy and food first then he gets into chanting Defense at some point with good job mixed in then starts singin about his backhoe. He was certainly happy and content while I was getting lunch ready.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
indoor hunt
This was supposed to be before the outdoor hunt, but it wouldn't work right, so here it is again, see if it works this time...
We thought Brayden would understand the egg hunt thing this year, so we did one. It snowed with the sun shining, like a white out while we were doing the indoor hunt. It didn't amount to much, except a lot of exclamations!!
Driving Daddy's pickup
sorry to those that tried to view this post and it didn't come up right. I tried to use the blogger video upload, for some reason it doesn't work for me.
just before it falls...
Brayden was building with blocks Grandma gave him, I got this pic just before it fell down.
No tired Mama
On the way home from town the other day Brayden told me "no tired Mama", it wasn't long and he was sawing logs.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Another horsey
Aunt Ami can be a pretty good horsey too. We had to borrow Papa's hat to get it right.
Just an idea
This is a small taste of how fast the cougars played all year. Imagine a whole game of this and you can imagine how fun they were to watch.
state basketball
Brayden says "go cougars" in this video, he might even say "defense". The Cougars are wearing white.
what a cute smile
The first is Valentines Day at breakfast, the second is just playing outside last week. He was trying to climb the light pole, and was being my personal cultivator too.
End of Basketball
Its been a long time since I have posted here. Sorry about that delay. We have been enjoying our high school basketball season with a really great team. Last weekend was our state tournament, our team went in with a 27-0 record and left with 29-1 record and third place. Wonder how many other times in history there has been a team with only one loss that had to settle for third place. All water under the bridge now, they are a great bunch of kids and didn't let it get them down.
Brayden has come to be quite the little basketball fan and player too. I will put some video footage on here that shows our team and you can hear Brayden cheer for them. Its really cute.
We spent the weekend in Casper with Aunt Ami and basketball, and pool time. Brayden had a blast with the games, pool and eating out. We had some behavior issues in public and told him that if he couldn't behave we would quit eating in town. The next meal he was so very well behaved!! He loves to eat in town.
On Thurs while mama and daddy we packing the car, Brayden got in the car and was looking through his game bag. He found our dvd player that he has NEVER seen before, got it out of the bag, found my cd case and opened it, found his Curious George learning video that he plays on the computer, put it in the dvd player, turned it on and was watching his video the next time daddy put stuff in the car. We call him our little "techi". A little playing on the computer and the child knows a lot about electronics. Perhaps this will show up in his choice of career someday. :-)
Thurs night we went to Gillette to see Aunt Dar, Uncle Joel and Brittany, we had a great time with them for the evening. It took Brayden just a bit to warm up, but once that was done, he and Britt had a good time for sure. We spent fri morning shopping around town, found a store that carried Wisconson cheese, what a find!! Also went into a teacher store, found some things for convention there on a sidewalk sale. After shopping we met for lunch and then headed back to Casper. We got in around 3 p.m. and went to check into our hotel, they messed up a ton of reservations so we ended up with a smoking room, went to Walmart and bought vanilla air freshners. Our room smelled like vanilla cigarettes all night. The hot tub wasn't hot, sauna didn't work, over all, not a good hotel experience. The next morning we checked with another hotel and they had an available room, so we moved!! A much better experience there, good hot tubs, excellent pool, breakfast was great. I had bought Brayden a blow up turtle for the pool, he really enjoyed floating around with that.
Now a bit more up to date...we got home sunday evening. Yest Brayden went next door for a birthday party and they played outside some. It was windy so a bit chilly. Today he is out in the shop with daddy shooting hoops and doing other stuff I sure. He had another episode with his leg hurting last night in the night. It seemed to go away with a bit of rubbing. This morning it is "all better". We hope it stays that way.
Will get some pics posted now and video too. Its snowing here, hope it keeps it up all day!!
Brayden has come to be quite the little basketball fan and player too. I will put some video footage on here that shows our team and you can hear Brayden cheer for them. Its really cute.
We spent the weekend in Casper with Aunt Ami and basketball, and pool time. Brayden had a blast with the games, pool and eating out. We had some behavior issues in public and told him that if he couldn't behave we would quit eating in town. The next meal he was so very well behaved!! He loves to eat in town.
On Thurs while mama and daddy we packing the car, Brayden got in the car and was looking through his game bag. He found our dvd player that he has NEVER seen before, got it out of the bag, found my cd case and opened it, found his Curious George learning video that he plays on the computer, put it in the dvd player, turned it on and was watching his video the next time daddy put stuff in the car. We call him our little "techi". A little playing on the computer and the child knows a lot about electronics. Perhaps this will show up in his choice of career someday. :-)
Thurs night we went to Gillette to see Aunt Dar, Uncle Joel and Brittany, we had a great time with them for the evening. It took Brayden just a bit to warm up, but once that was done, he and Britt had a good time for sure. We spent fri morning shopping around town, found a store that carried Wisconson cheese, what a find!! Also went into a teacher store, found some things for convention there on a sidewalk sale. After shopping we met for lunch and then headed back to Casper. We got in around 3 p.m. and went to check into our hotel, they messed up a ton of reservations so we ended up with a smoking room, went to Walmart and bought vanilla air freshners. Our room smelled like vanilla cigarettes all night. The hot tub wasn't hot, sauna didn't work, over all, not a good hotel experience. The next morning we checked with another hotel and they had an available room, so we moved!! A much better experience there, good hot tubs, excellent pool, breakfast was great. I had bought Brayden a blow up turtle for the pool, he really enjoyed floating around with that.
Now a bit more up to date...we got home sunday evening. Yest Brayden went next door for a birthday party and they played outside some. It was windy so a bit chilly. Today he is out in the shop with daddy shooting hoops and doing other stuff I sure. He had another episode with his leg hurting last night in the night. It seemed to go away with a bit of rubbing. This morning it is "all better". We hope it stays that way.
Will get some pics posted now and video too. Its snowing here, hope it keeps it up all day!!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Mr. Gump's 3 hump Whump
Ever read Dr Suess about Mr Gumps seven hump whump?? That is what Brayden is talking about in this video. Nice to know the imagination isn't idle. The tractor is quite inventive too.
Black eye
Somehow on sunday night while playing basketball he got a bruise under his left eye. It was just a bump, but it has bruised all under the eye now. More of a red bruise than a black one, but its a black eye all the same...don't remember if this is the first or second one. Guess he is really all boy. He didn't even come tell me he was hurt, he just kept right on playing and I didn't notice anything till we were putting on coats to come home. So he is tough too apparently.
A While Ago
Would anyone believe its been 13 yrs since Roger and I got engaged? Well it was 13 yrs ago last night, of course we didn't tell everyone until March, but we had it planned. And we looked soooo young. I am sure that happens to all of us and as more time goes by it only gets worse. :-)
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Result of New shoes
New shoes cause quite a stir in our household, in fact one has to wear them right away and all day. These being running shoes, cause a whole new reaction, hence all the running.
New Shoes
Here are the new shoes, he has to wear them all day now. Thats what you do when you LOVE new shoes.
Indoor games
In some closet around here, Brayden found this indoor soccor/hockey set. Use a hockey stick to put a soccor ball in the net. He found it fun to play with for a day or two, now its found the same place as all the other toys, boring stuff anyway...they say toys are a waste of money, I am beginning to see that as true.
Getting dressed
Brayden decided it was far more fun to play than get dressed the other morning. Being behind the door was exceptionally fun.
Long time coming...
It has been another long span of time since I last posted. A lot has gone on in our little world too. I flew out to help Aunt Amity drive home with a load of stuff. The driving wasn't so eventful but the flying certainly was. This country girl sure got a real experience in airports and planes. Thought I learned it all when we were getting Brayden, but the domestic side of experience was yet to be learned I guess.
I arrived at our small airport at 5:30 a.m. to fly out at 6:05, right away the lady told me we had a situation, not a good way to start the day. Our plane didn't come in from Denver the night before so they were sending the plane from Gillette down to pick up the 12 of us leaving from here. That plane didn't leave Riverton till 7:30 a.m.. There went my layover in Denver, out the window. We landed in Denver, my bag was NOT brought to the bottom of the steps so I stepped to the back of the plane to request it, I was escorted back to the steps...can't go back there. I turned around to watch the guy with the luggage and he had listened to me so had just put my bag down on the cart for the other guy to bring to me. This other guy was busy explaining to me that I couldn't have my bag because it was a "checked" bag. I told him it was NOT checked, it had the pink tag on it see its right there, so he went and got it for me. I took off RUNNING across the tarmack to the gate entrance, this was quite a ways actually, continued jogging down the hallway, stopped to double check my gate. Continued on my way, up the escalator, down A concorse, down the escalator, to the tram, on to concorse B, up the escalator, down the concorse to the gate, arrived with still 20 people to board, made it with a few minutes to spare. Lungs burning from the cold air I enhaled, but that does go away all be it not for a couple of hours. Called Am and told her I made it and got on the plane. We pulled away from the gate and out to the parking lot, I kid you not, we sat in the parking lot for 30 min eating up my layover in Chicago. By the time we landed at O'Hare, I was down to 20 min. I ran in found the monitors and my flight was still "on time" but the 4:30 flight to Buffalo was cancelled. I went on down to my gate, there were people waiting in the chairs but no personnel at the gate and we should have been boarding. I guessed it was delayed, so sat and waited for 5 min at which point another young man came running down the concorse and asked if this was still the gate for the Buffalo flight, (a lady had come to the gate as he got there) she said that this flight was cancelled too. Off we went to customer service, a line of 150 to 200 people I am sure. After a few minutes a lady came to about the middle of the line and had all the Buffalo people come to the computers. Turned out to be a wonderful thing as she showed me how to use these computers, I used them a lot that day. I got tickets for two flights to Washington Dulles then would get a flight from there to Buffalo. The earlier flight I was on standby and got on that plane, after a few minutes they came on to say the pilot was diverted to another airport and wouldn't arrive in O'Hare till 7:30 p.m. I ran to the second flight, it kept getting delayed, finally till 7:2o which meant I missed my connection in Washinton to Buffalo. Back to the drawing board, the guy at the gate put me on the 8:30 flight direct to Buffalo. Boarded that plane, and was told one of the crew members was out of hours they would find another one. After a few more minutes, we were told to gather our belongings the flight was cancelled, back to the computers, spoke on the phone to a really nice guy that got me a flight to Rochester no time to print tickets just run down the escalator, across the underground tunnel to the other concorse, get to the gate to get my ticket from the agent, no one there, waited three min and the sign changed to San Diego, flight cancelled just like that. Back to the computers, got the same man a spoke with 15 min before, he said nothing else was moving, best was a ticket on the 7:30 a.m. flight to Buffalo. Time to accept the fact that I was spending the night in the airport or I could spend $399 for a bed at the attached Hilton. I went to the gate for the morning flight and found a bench 4 seats long with no arm rests, I could stretch out, covered up with my coat, plugged the cell phone in and slept for about45 min of every hour. Not bad actually. Amity called me at 5 and said the storm hit there check my flight, yup cancelled, she said to just get to Cleveland, so I went back to the computers and picked up the phone, got a flight to Cleveland leaving at 10:30. Got on the standby list for the flight leaving at 7:45 and actually boarded that flight. Sitting on the plane for 5 min and the pilot said they over fueled this plane for landing in Cleveland, pump truck coming, little later, no pump truck is frozen will be 1 1/2 hrs before it can come, so a different plane, please take you belongings and leave this plane, got to next gate and board again. Finally at 9 something that plane began leaving the gate, I called Am and said "we are MOVING at last". Finally off the ground and I was never so relieved to land in Cleveland and know that I could follow the exit signs and leave the airports for GOOD!!. I waited for Amity for 45 min or so and she picked me up at the door, had to find room for my suitcase, but that was accomplished. Off to find food that wasn't airport food. Seemed everytime I bought something it was $7 no matter what. After lunch I drove for 2 hrs and then it was all up to sis to get us to Davenport. We made it and had a good supper, spent some time in the hottub that was 5 steps from our door and then showers and bed. What a feeling to crawl into a real bed. Next day was more of the same driving except I did a little more my share. We got to Cheyenne that night and then on into Laramie Friday morning to unload and see the new apt. After we unloaded we had to find an open road out of Laramie, turned out we could cut across to Wheatland. On that 54 mile stretch we met 11 highway patrol cars. Thats a lot of cops!! Ate lunch in Wheatland and then on to Casper. A bit of shopping that couldn't be avoided and headed home. Roger agreed to cook supper for us. We made it home in one piece.
Brayden was jumping up and down inside the door when I came in. He was glad to see me, altho he didn't cry or anything when I left. He was a good little boy while I was gone. I did talk to him on the phone each day, so it wasn't as though I was completely gone. I was pretty certain he had grown an inch ha ha.
Since being home, he has continued to spend a lot of time in the shop with Daddy, they had such a good bonding experience. And he is growing, we had to go up a size in shoes today. He was complaining of the other ones being "tight". There was a little room in the toe on them, but apparently not enough side to side. So up to the size 7 tennis shoes we go. I have shoes up to 9 in the closet so he is set for a while, it doesn't require a trip to town to change shoe sizes. :-)
Brayden is thrilled to have Aunt Ami closer to home. He asked for her the other night after she had gone back to Laramie so I called her so he could say "goodnight". Made both their nights I think!! He has been asking when she is coming back, so I would guess he is looking forward to it.
Now thats a long post, shouldn't wait so long to write I guess. Here are some pics too. I mostly wanted this all down for future reference, memory is going out the window ya know. Happens as we get older I hear. :-)
I arrived at our small airport at 5:30 a.m. to fly out at 6:05, right away the lady told me we had a situation, not a good way to start the day. Our plane didn't come in from Denver the night before so they were sending the plane from Gillette down to pick up the 12 of us leaving from here. That plane didn't leave Riverton till 7:30 a.m.. There went my layover in Denver, out the window. We landed in Denver, my bag was NOT brought to the bottom of the steps so I stepped to the back of the plane to request it, I was escorted back to the steps...can't go back there. I turned around to watch the guy with the luggage and he had listened to me so had just put my bag down on the cart for the other guy to bring to me. This other guy was busy explaining to me that I couldn't have my bag because it was a "checked" bag. I told him it was NOT checked, it had the pink tag on it see its right there, so he went and got it for me. I took off RUNNING across the tarmack to the gate entrance, this was quite a ways actually, continued jogging down the hallway, stopped to double check my gate. Continued on my way, up the escalator, down A concorse, down the escalator, to the tram, on to concorse B, up the escalator, down the concorse to the gate, arrived with still 20 people to board, made it with a few minutes to spare. Lungs burning from the cold air I enhaled, but that does go away all be it not for a couple of hours. Called Am and told her I made it and got on the plane. We pulled away from the gate and out to the parking lot, I kid you not, we sat in the parking lot for 30 min eating up my layover in Chicago. By the time we landed at O'Hare, I was down to 20 min. I ran in found the monitors and my flight was still "on time" but the 4:30 flight to Buffalo was cancelled. I went on down to my gate, there were people waiting in the chairs but no personnel at the gate and we should have been boarding. I guessed it was delayed, so sat and waited for 5 min at which point another young man came running down the concorse and asked if this was still the gate for the Buffalo flight, (a lady had come to the gate as he got there) she said that this flight was cancelled too. Off we went to customer service, a line of 150 to 200 people I am sure. After a few minutes a lady came to about the middle of the line and had all the Buffalo people come to the computers. Turned out to be a wonderful thing as she showed me how to use these computers, I used them a lot that day. I got tickets for two flights to Washington Dulles then would get a flight from there to Buffalo. The earlier flight I was on standby and got on that plane, after a few minutes they came on to say the pilot was diverted to another airport and wouldn't arrive in O'Hare till 7:30 p.m. I ran to the second flight, it kept getting delayed, finally till 7:2o which meant I missed my connection in Washinton to Buffalo. Back to the drawing board, the guy at the gate put me on the 8:30 flight direct to Buffalo. Boarded that plane, and was told one of the crew members was out of hours they would find another one. After a few more minutes, we were told to gather our belongings the flight was cancelled, back to the computers, spoke on the phone to a really nice guy that got me a flight to Rochester no time to print tickets just run down the escalator, across the underground tunnel to the other concorse, get to the gate to get my ticket from the agent, no one there, waited three min and the sign changed to San Diego, flight cancelled just like that. Back to the computers, got the same man a spoke with 15 min before, he said nothing else was moving, best was a ticket on the 7:30 a.m. flight to Buffalo. Time to accept the fact that I was spending the night in the airport or I could spend $399 for a bed at the attached Hilton. I went to the gate for the morning flight and found a bench 4 seats long with no arm rests, I could stretch out, covered up with my coat, plugged the cell phone in and slept for about45 min of every hour. Not bad actually. Amity called me at 5 and said the storm hit there check my flight, yup cancelled, she said to just get to Cleveland, so I went back to the computers and picked up the phone, got a flight to Cleveland leaving at 10:30. Got on the standby list for the flight leaving at 7:45 and actually boarded that flight. Sitting on the plane for 5 min and the pilot said they over fueled this plane for landing in Cleveland, pump truck coming, little later, no pump truck is frozen will be 1 1/2 hrs before it can come, so a different plane, please take you belongings and leave this plane, got to next gate and board again. Finally at 9 something that plane began leaving the gate, I called Am and said "we are MOVING at last". Finally off the ground and I was never so relieved to land in Cleveland and know that I could follow the exit signs and leave the airports for GOOD!!. I waited for Amity for 45 min or so and she picked me up at the door, had to find room for my suitcase, but that was accomplished. Off to find food that wasn't airport food. Seemed everytime I bought something it was $7 no matter what. After lunch I drove for 2 hrs and then it was all up to sis to get us to Davenport. We made it and had a good supper, spent some time in the hottub that was 5 steps from our door and then showers and bed. What a feeling to crawl into a real bed. Next day was more of the same driving except I did a little more my share. We got to Cheyenne that night and then on into Laramie Friday morning to unload and see the new apt. After we unloaded we had to find an open road out of Laramie, turned out we could cut across to Wheatland. On that 54 mile stretch we met 11 highway patrol cars. Thats a lot of cops!! Ate lunch in Wheatland and then on to Casper. A bit of shopping that couldn't be avoided and headed home. Roger agreed to cook supper for us. We made it home in one piece.
Brayden was jumping up and down inside the door when I came in. He was glad to see me, altho he didn't cry or anything when I left. He was a good little boy while I was gone. I did talk to him on the phone each day, so it wasn't as though I was completely gone. I was pretty certain he had grown an inch ha ha.
Since being home, he has continued to spend a lot of time in the shop with Daddy, they had such a good bonding experience. And he is growing, we had to go up a size in shoes today. He was complaining of the other ones being "tight". There was a little room in the toe on them, but apparently not enough side to side. So up to the size 7 tennis shoes we go. I have shoes up to 9 in the closet so he is set for a while, it doesn't require a trip to town to change shoe sizes. :-)
Brayden is thrilled to have Aunt Ami closer to home. He asked for her the other night after she had gone back to Laramie so I called her so he could say "goodnight". Made both their nights I think!! He has been asking when she is coming back, so I would guess he is looking forward to it.
Now thats a long post, shouldn't wait so long to write I guess. Here are some pics too. I mostly wanted this all down for future reference, memory is going out the window ya know. Happens as we get older I hear. :-)
Friday, January 25, 2008
Two bright spots in my life...
These are for Aunt Amity, she provided the Sabers shirt for Brayden. Its a perfect fit right now, guess he will get the next three months use out of it and then we will put it away. Seems a shame, but thats how it goes with most of his clothes, just like any other kid. He is growing up on us, seems nothing stays the same for very long. In many ways that is good, but kind of sad too.
fun blow up thing...
Whenever we have company in the guest room, Brayden goes in to investigate the closet. I have had these two blow up play areas in a box in that closet and he always asks to get them out. Originally...I had planned to use this one as a baby playpen, well we never had a baby baby so its just stayed in the box. The other one is a lot bigger, but it really needs more than one kid to be fun and adults are NOT allowed. We thought we would blow up the smaller of the two and see how long it took for him to grow tired of it. It took about one hour for him to lose interest. Now if there was more than one kid in there jumping around, that would be different, but there is still just one kid in our household. We took it down and put it away again.
I have also recently gone through the toys and made lots of them "disappear". He "found" his car last night, but it "disappeared" again. I am waiting another couple of weeks to rotate the toys out and put some new ones in. Seems like he has soooo many but isn't interested in any of them very much. Perhaps there will be some "new" ones when we rotate. When all his attention and time are spent indoors it really shows how much time he spends with any set of toys. Of course in the spring and summer they will get largly ignored.
We "found" the little basketball hoop that I had bought at a yard sale a few years ago. Roger put it out in the shop and now the "boys" shoot hoops in their spare time!!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
completely out
We went in to kiss our son goodnight the other night and this is what we saw...completely out of it. He rolled over after the flash went off to take the pic. Stayed crashed though.
cutting it up
note the Bar J's in the background, should have turned it off, but don't know how to edit it out now...
Saturday, January 05, 2008
two better than one
Kevin and Brayden went down the slope several times together and seemed to squeal all the way!!
great recovery skills
Brayden did pretty well to stay on this sled...thats Becky doing the video. It allowed me some time to sled as well.
Zoo lights
We enjoyed our time at the zoo altho it was COLD. We got to see several animals. The leopard, cougar, tiger, black bear, white crocodile, some monkeys, that about covers it. The cats were fun to see as they were moving around instead of sleeping. The light show was most of it though. This video is several clipped together, so it will be a bit choppy, but better than posting six diff videos.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Fabulous Holiday's
We have had such a wonderful end to 2007 and then an equally wonderful beginning to 2008. We spent Christmas with my family. We all made it home and had a few days together, meals, games, good laughs and some serious talks too. But it was all fun. We also shared a cold between us all. Started with Dad and drifted down from there with Roger coming home on Wed with it. Brayden and I came home on thurs night and had friday to do laundry and left again Saturday at lunch time headed for Provo Utah to meet Noah and Becky and Kevin. We had planned a full action packed two weeks. Most are aware that Becky and I are cousins and we both have been married to our wonderful husbands for 12 yrs. We all went to Russia in 2006 and brought our boys home. Kevin is 6 months older than Brayden. We wanted the two boys to meet and connect with each other, we hope to accomplish this every year at least once.
We drove on some pretty nasty roads to get to Provo, so it took us a full hour extra on time. We got there and Becky and Noah and Kevin met us at the door to let us in to our hotel room. We introduced the boys and encouraged them to hug. Brayden was faster on the uptake on that than Kevin was, but they did hug and had an instant bond. In fact when we got up to the third floor and headed down the hallway, they ran down that hallway squealing to beat all. It started some dogs barking in the unit next to us. :-) We had a wonderful suite, it had two queen bedrooms with master baths, one on each side of the living room, dining table and chairs, full kitchen. We took three main meals between us, breakfast was included with the room. Sunday we went to meeting with Bobby and had a nice time there. We then returned to the room had lunch and went sledding. There was a really nice park there in town that had a large bowl scooped out of the middle with really neat slopes on the sides, some more steep than others. We had a complete blast sledding. After sledding for a couple of hours, we went back to the hotel and dressed the boys in swim clothes and sent them to the pool with their daddy's. Becky and I had a little down time and then joined them at the pool. They were sooo close to complete crashes, no naps and a late night the night before. We decided to feed them early and hope for the best. I made supper and we fed them after their showers. They played real good while we ate our supper and then we sent them for stories by daddy's. I will put the video of Brayden on here, its really funny!!! Soooo tired, but not giving in. Monday we headed for Salt Lake to the Imax theatre and then the zoo had a real neat light display for the holidays. Brayden was scared during the theatre show, it was Santa versus the Snowman, all animated, but Brayden was worried. Part of it was that it was 3D so it seemed to come right out at us. I took his 3D glasses off and tried to explain stuff to him he calmed down and made it through. The zoo was a bigger hit, except Mama wasn't dressed warm enough. Both the boys were in snow pants, coats, hats, boots the works. Mama wasn't smart enough to bring my snow pants or boots along, so I was just wearing my coat and gloves. Oh well, it worked out ok. After we finished at the zoo, we tried to find a place for supper, but all the restaurants we tried had 1 hr to 1 1/2 hr waits. We went back to our room and finished off with soup I had brought. Everyone was glad actually to bypass the whole restaurant thing, we might have had a real public meltdown. We let the boys stay up till 10:30 as it was the last night together. They played and played. Altho as parents we have to admit that they did get pretty familiar with each other and with that came the not sharing toys well and some very minor issues. Its hard to explain to a 3 yr old that goodbye means a long time sometimes. They both asked about each other the next day and seemed to miss each other. We are so glad they met and had such a good connection. We will let the videos and pics tell the main story.
We are back home and somewhat back to normal. Its been a little tough to get the schedule back on track. Its even been alittle tough for Brayden to learn to play alone some of the time. He had two full weeks of lots of people willing and eager to give attention. Its actually so nice to sleep in our own bed lots of nights in a row. In fact on the way home, Brayden was asking about his dump truck bed. He really seemed to look forward to sleeping in it again. Now if we can just get him over his cold we will be doing good. He woke up from his nap yesterday with real congestion and coughing. We have been keeping him dosed with his meds and he is doing ok. He is playing well, so he's not lethargic or anything, just a bit slower than normal. If all goes well we won't end up with an ear infection and he will get well quickly.
We wish everyone a wonderful new year!! Don't forget to comment or just let us know you stopped by to visit.
We drove on some pretty nasty roads to get to Provo, so it took us a full hour extra on time. We got there and Becky and Noah and Kevin met us at the door to let us in to our hotel room. We introduced the boys and encouraged them to hug. Brayden was faster on the uptake on that than Kevin was, but they did hug and had an instant bond. In fact when we got up to the third floor and headed down the hallway, they ran down that hallway squealing to beat all. It started some dogs barking in the unit next to us. :-) We had a wonderful suite, it had two queen bedrooms with master baths, one on each side of the living room, dining table and chairs, full kitchen. We took three main meals between us, breakfast was included with the room. Sunday we went to meeting with Bobby and had a nice time there. We then returned to the room had lunch and went sledding. There was a really nice park there in town that had a large bowl scooped out of the middle with really neat slopes on the sides, some more steep than others. We had a complete blast sledding. After sledding for a couple of hours, we went back to the hotel and dressed the boys in swim clothes and sent them to the pool with their daddy's. Becky and I had a little down time and then joined them at the pool. They were sooo close to complete crashes, no naps and a late night the night before. We decided to feed them early and hope for the best. I made supper and we fed them after their showers. They played real good while we ate our supper and then we sent them for stories by daddy's. I will put the video of Brayden on here, its really funny!!! Soooo tired, but not giving in. Monday we headed for Salt Lake to the Imax theatre and then the zoo had a real neat light display for the holidays. Brayden was scared during the theatre show, it was Santa versus the Snowman, all animated, but Brayden was worried. Part of it was that it was 3D so it seemed to come right out at us. I took his 3D glasses off and tried to explain stuff to him he calmed down and made it through. The zoo was a bigger hit, except Mama wasn't dressed warm enough. Both the boys were in snow pants, coats, hats, boots the works. Mama wasn't smart enough to bring my snow pants or boots along, so I was just wearing my coat and gloves. Oh well, it worked out ok. After we finished at the zoo, we tried to find a place for supper, but all the restaurants we tried had 1 hr to 1 1/2 hr waits. We went back to our room and finished off with soup I had brought. Everyone was glad actually to bypass the whole restaurant thing, we might have had a real public meltdown. We let the boys stay up till 10:30 as it was the last night together. They played and played. Altho as parents we have to admit that they did get pretty familiar with each other and with that came the not sharing toys well and some very minor issues. Its hard to explain to a 3 yr old that goodbye means a long time sometimes. They both asked about each other the next day and seemed to miss each other. We are so glad they met and had such a good connection. We will let the videos and pics tell the main story.
We are back home and somewhat back to normal. Its been a little tough to get the schedule back on track. Its even been alittle tough for Brayden to learn to play alone some of the time. He had two full weeks of lots of people willing and eager to give attention. Its actually so nice to sleep in our own bed lots of nights in a row. In fact on the way home, Brayden was asking about his dump truck bed. He really seemed to look forward to sleeping in it again. Now if we can just get him over his cold we will be doing good. He woke up from his nap yesterday with real congestion and coughing. We have been keeping him dosed with his meds and he is doing ok. He is playing well, so he's not lethargic or anything, just a bit slower than normal. If all goes well we won't end up with an ear infection and he will get well quickly.
We wish everyone a wonderful new year!! Don't forget to comment or just let us know you stopped by to visit.
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