Well, we decided about a week ago that we were going to go ahead with Calendar Club again this year, so we are "moving" to Mansfield, Ohio for 3 months this fall and winter!! We were once again on of the last signups, so we didn't get a GREAT store, but we think we'll make out okay. Next year we are going to request our store much earlier in the year to ensure a better location!! I'm really excited about this years season, though, for a couple of reasons. 1) We get an "inline" store this year instead of a kiosk... apparently it's alot more work in the beginning and end, but I think it will make it easier overall.... shipments won't be quite as big of a pain!!! lol and 2) we're only gonna be about an hour and a half away from home, so I will still be able to go to SOME church services (when the weather is decent) and be home for Christmas!!! Yay! Plus, I can still do Scotchguard! =)

Okay, so the past couple weeks have been both horrendous and fantastic and super dull yet lots of fun! haha Let me explain:

The horrendousness stems from having probably the worst cold/cough of all time, coupled with still living with my parents and the cherry on top, we haven't had a working car in almost 2 weeks. =/ It's hard to only get to go grocery shopping on someone elses schedule!!

The fantastic part, as always, I have the best two little boys in the world. =) Even when sometimes THEY are the cause of part of my stress or are testing me or whatever... they are seriously THE BEST!!! Take yesterday for example, we went to the Children's Garden/ Allen County Museum and right before Mom got back to pick us up Lincoln told me that he had to go peepee... the museum and library had already been closed for about 20 minutes by that point so I was contemplating walking back to McDonalds when Mom got back to get us. Well he didn't want to go to McDonalds... so we went ahead to Jo Anns (Mom's redoing the church flowers...) and since Garrison was asleep in the car I said that I'd just stay in the car with the boys while Mom ran in... completely forgetting that Lincoln hadn't "gone" yet. A couple minutes after Mom went in, Lincoln reminded me by asking to go into the store... as soon as I remembered he had to go peepee, I said aloud, "Oh yeah, Mommy completely forgot, I'm sorry, Buddy! I forgot cause I'm a terrible Mommy!" (Or something along those lines.... he responded, "No you're not... you're a good Mommy!!" *Melts*

The Children's Museum/ Garden story is what brings us to "super fun"... we've done a few things recently that have been photo worthy and lots of fun!! For instance, Lincoln and Zion went "camping" in the backyard the other day... it was a very impromtu campout/ bonfire since Zion didn't suggest it until after he got home from work (he's helping Dad on a big job with my brothers...) and we'd had supper. He and Lincoln were outside a few minutes later and I found the tent and started bringing out sleeping bags, pillows, marshmallows, jammies, flashlights, etc. while they got the tent setup and fire going. Garrison and I hung out for the bonfire and marshmallows, and even for a little while in the tent for storytime and jammies, then we headed inside to our nice, comfy, king-sized bed. ;)

Recently (which I guess has already been a month ago now, wow!) we also went to the Allen County Fair. Lincoln and I got a ride bracelet so we could go on all the rides as much as we wanted to! It was alot of fun and since Becca got a bracelet for herself, too, we were able to ride a couple of the "bigger" things together.... nothing too big, just like the scrambler a couple times and the strawberries without the kids!! That was alot of fun, but we mostly were riding with our kids... which was also a ton of fun!! You haven't lived until you've looked at life through the eyes of your child. :)

Plus, we're going to the Ft. Wayne Zoo next Saturday (fingers crossed our car is good to go by then!!!!) so we're looking forward to that. Lincoln is very exited about it as it's his first time! He can't wait to see the lions, and he's pretty excited to see the monkeys, too!! I'm guessing that the morning of, he'll say he doesn't want to go see them, that's what he did about the fair and riding the ponies (he loved it when he actually did it!!) and even about the Childrens Garden!! hahaha He cracks me up!! (Oh yeah, hilarious story about THAT, too!! Yesterday in the car on the way to the museum, he was telling Mom and me that Zion had driven a bobcat... but we couldn't figure out what "bobcat" was cause the way he was saying it sounded like "backpack" so I say, "Daddy drove a backpack?" (Hey, have you ever seen Diego? HIS backpack turns into ANYTHING, so he CAN drive it!!) :P) and he just smiles and says, "No"... so Mom and I are looking at each other trying to translate this mystery word and figure out what it is, so she asks, "Did Daddy drive a dumptruck?" and he looks and sounds like he's talking to an insane person and says, "Noooo, Daddy didn't drive a dump truck!!" so Mom and I both start laughing (while still trying to figure out the mystery word! hahah) and Lincoln says from the backseat, "I crack you up!!" LOL That really got us going!! We finally figured out that he was saying Bobcat cause I started asking Mom what those things they sometimes use at the jobsites are called, cause I knew he drove one the other day. After she came up with "bobcat" I asked Lincoln if that's what Daddy drove and he said yes.... just a little put out since he'd already said it like 10 times! hahhaa Life with a two year old, never a dull moment!!)

Oh, and the "super dull" part is simply that I haven't gotten out of the house much the past couple weeks due to cough/cold/ no car.... staying in gets kinda old when it's days on end.

Garrison just took his first step without holding onto anything!!!! He's not quite 10 months old (3 days away!) that's pretty early!!! Can't believe my little guy is getting so big already!!! And, he has 6 teeth now! (4 on top and two on the bottom) He's getting to that "not so much a baby more a toddler" stage..... =)

Well it's been a while since I've done an "actual" post... so here goes.

Things have been crazy busy here because I finally had my first ever Scotchguard meeting (you can see what I'm talking about at www.Scotchguardgirls.com for those of you who don't know… and want to!!) at the end of August then Lincoln and Garrison have both had pink eye plus Lincoln has ANOTHER ear infection... as if that wasn't enough, I have a sinus infection so it's been lots and lots of eyedrops , Dr. visits and prescriptions the past week. Garrison's also teething (getting two more top teeth in... for a total of 6 teeth so far!!) and has been coughing. He’s usually such a happy little guy, that this new, fussier, clingy little man is really wearing me out!!! It's all been exhausting!!

Zion has been working with my Dad, Justin and Jariah most evenings on a big construction job (storage unit) that Dad got... even though he's not technically still "doing" construction (he has a day job driving a cement truck for another company) he gets the occasional framing job… which is GREAT because it should pay for the concrete that we’ve been waiting on for our house!! None too soon, either, as my birthday will be here before you know it!! My birthday is the deadline that I gave to Zion a little over a month ago to get me out of my parents house… for my sanity as well as his (and theirs!)… not that I’m saying my parents driving me to the brink, the situation however, is. =P A grown woman with a husband and two children of her own is not meant to live with her parents for over a year; no matter how great of people/ parents they are. =)

About our house, people have been asking about it, it’s very slow going. We haven’t accomplished much of anything on it because we haven’t been able to move forward financially with the concrete yet. (Thankfully that should not be the case in a week or so… Praise the Lord!!) Right now, it’s just the shell (4 walls and a roof) that was already there, and we’ve gotten the plumbing ready underground as well as the gravel on the “floor”… we JUST decided to make what will eventually be our foyer/ guest bathroom, but for now will be our family room bigger by 4 feet so Zion has to build forms for that and spread the gavel along the wall that was extended. We have pretty much everything else we’re going to need to finish it (minus a few relatively inexpensive items such as kitchen countertops, some light fixtures, mud and paint to name a few…) *Stephanie, if you’re reading this, I want to know how to get free paint!!!*

So since we’re getting close to the “finishing the concrete” stage, (we are using the concrete as our flooring, I’d seen it done out in AZ and it looked really cool!) I’ve been busy trying to decide for sure what colors we want to stain/ paint that with… along with trying to get an image in my head about what paint colors I might want on the walls. (Don’t worry, I’ve told my Mom not to let me get TOO crazy! Hehe This is a home after all. ;) She’s doing her best to tame some of my wilder ideas.)

I’m not making it easy on her as far as decorating goes, because I have two very different styles that I like; Medieval (like my wedding) and a more Modern, kind of funky with lots of lime green thrown in. I have lots of decorative things in both of these styles already because while I was living in AZ I was starting to kind of switch from the Medieval style the the more Modern style… but I didn’t have enough of the modern looking, bright things to make it seem finished. At first Mom suggested I just sell all of my more medieval stuff and use the money to go buy more modern items if that’s the look I was going for… she was thrown for a little loop when I said I couldn’t do that because I still loved all of my medieval stuff, too. =P

My old plan was that when I built my “real” house, (it’s a 2 story with a basement that my Mom designed for me YEARS ago! Probably more like a “Dream” house than a “real” house… but, hey! It’s all good!) I would have all the medieval stuff on the main, more formal floor… and all the bright, crazy stuff would be used to decorate the basement where we would spend most of our time. So I didn’t want to sell it. And I didn’t want to store it, either, because I really don’t have room or money to store a bunch of useless stuff. =P For a while she didn’t know what to suggest… but then she was inspired by a movie she watched and claims that she can make it all work together and it will look really awesome!!! Woohoo!!! I KNEW she could! (And I wasn’t really giving her a choice… ;) teehehehe)

Well, that’s all I can write about for now… my life is calling… =)

Some days I wake up wondering, "What did I ever do to deserve this..." other days, I wake up thinking, "What did I ever do to deserve this?" Seems the same, huh? You're not reading it right. =P