Boating!

This summer we have playing on the boat a lot. Casey is a good little boater! The life jacket is a little like a straight jacket, but Casey is suprisingly a good sport about it. We did just finally switch life jackets, the one we were using, the zipper hit his little chin....so we discovered one we got at a liquidation sale last year fits perfect! I love a deal. No more zippers in the face.

This year, Ryan and I had to get our boaters licenses...I just want to reiterate that I passed mine the first time, with a higher score, than Ryan....who took it a few times. Yes, apparently I am the safer driver. Ryan is enjoying tubing, wakeboarding, waterskiing and attempting to slalom. I do a little tubing, and a lot of tanning and swimming and floating. Casey is enjoying napping on the boat, and playing on the shore, eating sand and splashing. We have taken Ryan, Tiphanie and baby Noah out with us a few times, and Nicole and Jared. Good times! We have had a few days we weren't able to go out....due to thunder, lightning and a rogue dust storm. Hopefully we will make it out a few more times this summer....how is it already August 20???

Our CSA

This year, Ryan and I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Basically, we paid for a share of a farm, and we get weekly fresh produce. We pick up our box every week near our house. We get whatever is in season. Our season runs from May to November. This has been great! Especially because we got a choice option, so we can rebuild our box and skip things we don't eat. Like beets and turnips, and lettuce bombs...aka kohlrabi. Although we have gotten more adventurous and are trying new things. In May we got asparagus every week, lots of it! Yum! And lots of lettuce and greens. Now we are starting to get corn, melon, peppers and lots of cucumbers. This week I made a cucumber black bean salad, with corn, pepper, onions, cucumbers, black beans, and a little olive oil, lime juice, oregano and pepper. I get lots of squash, which usually gets made into baby food. I also get some veggies at work, from a freind with a big garden.

Ryan and I made a pact to stop eating out so much....since we both work full time, its really hard to get dinner on the table every night, but we have broken the habit! Now, when chicken goes on sale for $1.78/pound, we buy 10-15 pounds, and freeze individual dinners: Seasoned chicken, chicken fajita strips, cut up chicken or whole breasts...so its really easy to pull something out and bake it. When extra lean ground beef goes on sale...we buy lots for the freezer. When I make spaghetti, I make 3 sauces and freeze 2. When pot roast goes on sale 1.99/pound, we get a bunch for the freezer. So we always have meals, and they are always super cheap:) We cut up all our fruit and veggies so they are ready in the fridge for the next meal.

I just made baked spaghetti from left over beef, threw it in the fridge, and will bake it so its ready when Ryan gets off work. All while Casey is napping. No eating out!!

So behind....

So I realized I hadn't updated in awhile....that is because Casey keeps me BUSY!!! As do the dogs, my job (super crazy these days), the new house, and trying to be more active (lots of riding bikes, swimming, walking etc).

I have been scrapbooking like crazy lately. I set up the office- which is half Ryan's, for his computer and stuff- and half mine:) Mine has my awesome scrap table and all my many scrap bins. I have pictures, I will have to put them up. I also have a bookshelf for all my albums....and a whole lot of baby toys. I realized that my blog is how I journal my scrapbooks. I print off my blog, and add it to my pages....so I better start blogging again!

Ryan and I's new craze is biking. The bikes are all tuned up, all ready to go, we bought a bike trailer from Craigslist ( a double- someday we will have 2 to put in there!) But Casey does not seem to like the bike trailer...and he is supposed to be 1 before using it. Well, the kid is bigger than most 1 year olds at his 8.5 months...so we were thinking he would be all right. We tried at 6 months before realizing he needed to be older. But even now, he just doesn't quite like it. He does LOVE the stroller and jogging stroller. While Ryan was working graves, Casey and I walked every night before his bedtime, but after it had slightly cooled off(some nights, it just doesn't!). Ryan got out his rollerblades, and has been pushing Casey in the jogging stroller, while i ride my bike, and an occasional dog jogs beside. Casey loves this! We look like a circus, and get a lot of odd looks, but we have been enjoying it. We are working up our endurance to be able to ride much further. I need a new bike seat, ouch! I asked a friend who bikes a lot, about how to make my seat cozier and was informed there are padded pants you can wear. Oh right, because all I need is extra padding on my butt! Worst idea ever!

Well, have to run, lets see if I can do better on blogging!

6 Months Old!

Casey is 6 months old! I don't know how this happened....time is just flying!

I wrote several blogs in word format, on a car trip, and for some reason they won't cut and paste over here....it is driving me crazy. Then I didn't want to blog out of order....but I guess i give up. Plus, we have been so busy MOVING, I have not had a chance to write anything.

I am not sure where to start, Mother's Day? Moving Day? First Solids? Baby food making? Joining our CSA and getting yummy veggies? Chamisa's vet school graduation? The new furniture> Setting up and unpacking?

I don't know! I am at work, so no access to pictures either....just finished painting my office Bayou Blue! Looks like a blue sunny day in here:) I love it.

Went to the Dr today, for pain in my upper right back....hurts when I breathe deep or move! Things I have to do on a daily basis. The cause? Stress and tension, surprise surprise. The cure? Physical therapy and massage :) I am headed back to my favorite physical therapist, from my shoulder and elbow surgery. Won't he be surprised to see me back! There is not much I can take while nursing, so can't wait to get some relief.

I am excited my Mom, Dad, Jenna and Dustin are coming to visit Memorial Day weekend! And our family reunion in Chelan is coming up! Lots to look forward too....starting with a weekend off with Ryan, and taking Casey swimming!

Photos

Ryan and I love to hike Badger Mountain year round. This is definitely one of the best times of year, as everything is blooming and pretty. Not always great for the allergies though! The dogs love it too...and are very well behaved. Josh carries his own backpack with water, collapsible bowl, doggy bags and treats. Ryan carries Casey and I get our backpack. McKenzie leads the pack. Casey carries his paci and looks cute. We get stopped a lot, due to our adorable child and beautiful aussies!
There are 2 sides of Badger Mountain, one is shorter but steeper, the second a longer trail that traverses more. I prefer the longer walk! We do the longer less steep side about 5x more often that the shorter steeper side.
McKenzie is such a pretty girl. We continue to be amazed at how great the dogs are with Casey. He is just learning to reach out and grab them. He grabbed the fur between/above Kenzie's eyes and would not let go! She did not move a muscle, just turned her eyes to me and pleaded for me to release her! We are trying to help him to pet the dogs nicely, but the kid has a death grip. The aussies have been very forgiving, and are very gentle. They like to lay their heads next to him, sniff him, and if they can get away with it- lick him! They are pretty gross, they love to try to lick up spit-up....yea, I wouldn't kiss my dogs if I were you....
Obviously Casey was born a Coug. His Mom and Dad are Cougs, his blood runs crimson. I LOVE LOVE this tracksuit. Casey will be visiting Pullman May 9th, for our good friend Chamisa's vet school graduation! I have known Chamisa for about 8 years now...and i am so proud she is going to be a Doctor! Last year, Casey went to WSU in my belly for Casi's graduation, this time he gets to experience it on the outside!
Casey is just now fitting into lots of different WSU outfits. He has a jersey onesie, from his cousin, Kayla that is awesome! I gotta get his picture in that. We finally got a new camera after the broken camera fiasco....can't not have a camera with a baby! New WSU pics soon....

So much going on!

These last few weeks have been total chaos, and it probably won't improve much for the next few weeks. We sold our house and made an offer on another. Yay! No more showing the house on an hours notice! But....then came the home inspection on our current home. How is possible that the shower has been leasking under the house and we had no idea?! So this started a barrage of plumbers and restoration specialists coming over and calls to the realtors and insurances and all sorts of people. We had numerous estimates on the damage and various timeframes and different information....all the while working uop contracts with the people buying the house so they wouldn't walk away. And our realtor didn't think the house we want to buy would appraise for what it is being sold at, so we had been dealing back and forth making stipulations for what ifs...they were only willing to drop the price so much, or they couldn't afford to sell...which would leave us with a sold house and no where to move to.

Ok, who followed that!?

The latest is....the shower, piping, floors and walls all need to be replaced. The insurance is covering everything. The buyers still want the house. We signed a contract that all will be fixed for them. The house we want came in right at the lowest they were willing to go, so we DO have a house to move to.

Yesterday a restoration company came and tore out the shower and flooring in the laundry room and master bathroom, and found tons of mold. Uh oh! I had been telling Ryan the bathroom smelled mildewy, and we threw away the floor rugs, scrubbed the shower, the floors and theshower tracks, but I could still smell it. Oh.....because its everywhere in the floors and walls!!! So they have taken it all out and sealed off the bathroom and laundry room and put some weird fans that make negative air pressure and pull all the air out of the house. They also had to shut off the furnace. So my house is ripped apart and it will take weeks to fix, but we are packing up anyways.

Before the resoration company got here, I asked Ryan if he thought we should get all our stuff out of our bathroom. Oh no, he says, no need. After I go to work, they tell him to grab what he needs, they have to seal it off!! As I look through what Ryan grabbed....I just have to laugh. He grabbed me 8 boxes of tampons (I don't need any.....) but not my toothbrush. He got my chi hair straightener, but no hairbrush or pick or comb. We have Q-tips and toe nail clippers, but not my make up. I have deoderant, but not any hair gel. He grabbed like 3 bottles of sunscreen, but its raining. I guess in his defense, it was sunny over the weekend, and if you have seen my red-headed hubby, he will burn in any amount of sun! Anyways, it cracked me up.

In the middle of all the house chaos, Casey is not feeling well. We took him to the Dr Monday, he has fluid behind both ears, the beginning of ear infection in both ears, especially the right, and has a cough and congestion. He has not been happy. He won't nap unless being held upright, which makes night time crappy. He can barely keep his paci in because he is so stiffy. He coughs and cant catch his breath, giving me a heart attack every time. This last weekend was Ryan's long weekend, 7-7 Friday, Saturday Sunday...so Casey and I mostly watched TV with me holding him. Saturday we did do the SARC Walk a Mile In Her Shoes, where the men walk in high heels. Casey slept in the mai-tai (no idea how to spell....sounds like may-tie?) He got a lot of compliments on the dinosaur mai tai....I will have to post a picture. Sunday we watched the 16 and Pregnant marathon. Shameful.

We have also had a string of bad luck with things breaking. Like the camera. And my breast pump....can't go without when I work full time and Casey only gets breast milk!!

Hopefully, when we close on the houses May 14th and get moved and setled...life will slow down?