Trip to the Zoo

Caleb got to go on his very first field trip this morning. I dropped him off at school and then they rode the "big yellow bus" to the zoo and I met them there. They rode the carousel, saw the animals and had a great time. I love our little zoo here in Madison. It is completely free and just a gorgeous little facility. The animals are well taken care of and are in really nice enclosures.

I am glad I went because Caleb got freaked out several times. Miss Maria tried showing him a spider and he just about jumped out of his skin. Then, we went into the aviary and it was so loud that he started to freak, but we managed to get him out of there just fine. However, he was so jumpy the rest of the time that I think he was glad to get back on the bus and leave. There was one bright and funny incident....as we were leaving the penguin exhibit, Caleb asked if he could bring one home with us. Too cute!

All in all, it was a good trip and Caleb had a great time, but I am glad I was there to keep him from melting down. He just doesn't seem to do well in completely new situations like the zoo. I think we are all going to have to go back there a couple times this summer so he can get better accustomed to the animals. I don't want him to be freaked out by every little thing, but is isn't even 3 yet and he is so little that everything must seem HUGE to him, especially things like bears and lions, even if they are behind glass.

More highlights

Here I go again with the bullets:

• Caleb learned how to do "thumb up" this week (6/18/07) and has been eagerly showing everyone that he can do it.
• Caleb started swimming lessons two weeks ago (6/13/07) and is doing great. I expected him to be super nervous and stubbornly refuse to participate but he is taking to the water like a little fish. He won't put his face in the water, but for a kid who has only gone in the pool a couple times that isn't a big surprise. He was even jumping off the side of the pool into the water last week!
• Funny story: On our way home from daycare one day, Caleb grabbed his upper lip and said "Ow!". I asked him what was wrong and his reply was "My mustache hurts". Too cute!
• I think we can safely say that Caleb is potty trained! He still wears a pull-up at night but I am not worried about it. He sleeps so deeply that he just doesn't realize he needs to go and I refuse to get him out of bed in the middle of the night to make him try. He still wants help using the potty and for now I am alright with that as well.
  
• We went camping recently (6/15/07) with some friends and had a great time. Scott dunked his cell phone in the lake but we managed to get it dried out and working so I let him live. Caleb did great and only asked to go home at the very end. We got rained out the last morning but we were all so tired we didn't care and headed for home.
• We have been doing a lot of geocaching or "treasure hunting" as Caleb calls it. Found some great caches and met some great people
• My neighbor had a garage sale this past weekend and let me put some stuff in it. We sold quite a bit of stuff and made$22.50. Not a ton of money but more than if we had given it directly to Goodwill like we had originally intended.

I am hosting bunco night at my house this month on Wednesday and I have to get my house super clean in the next couple of days. Unfortunately, I have to continue the constant battle with clutter AND deep clean at the same time which makes things hard, especially with a toddler running around. I tried to get a bunch of stuff done this weekend, but just couldn't do much and entertain Caleb at the same time. I let him play in the backyard where I could see him while I did the dishes, but I was checking on him so often I still didn't get anything done. Scott spent the morning golfing 18 with Marty so he wasn't any help and then he wanted to work on the pergola refinishing when he got home so that didn't give me any relief either. Finally got Caleb down for a nap and then I had to go grocery shopping.

Hopefully I can make it through the next few days without passing out or screaming, but I am not making any promises.

Sara

Wow!

Well, holy crap, I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything on this blog. So much has happened that this may be quite the marathon post to get everything caught up, but I will try to stick to bullet points as much as possible. So grab some popcorn and hang on!

First, Caleb is doing great. Growing like a weed and finally getting the hang of potty training. He has also learned how to ride his tricycle and is becoming more and more independent. Every time I turn around he wants to do something else all by himself. Makes me sad and proud all at the same time.

• At the beginning of May I had the chance to go scrapbooking for the whole weekend. Got lots done and met some great people. Vicki and Melissa went with me and we split what turned out to be one of the nastiest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in. WAY to much money, but I wasn't there for the room.
• My parents left (April 14) and then returned (May 11) from their annual trip to Key West, Florida. I wanted to go with them so badly I could taste it, but the timing was all wrong.
• Scott left on May 17 for 2.5 weeks in New Zealand. He was supposed to be coming back this Sunday but will be gone until at least June 9th. We miss him like crazy but we are getting along OK. I had to mow the lawn last week for the first time since I was 12. It was only after I was 3/4 done that I realized the mower had a self-propelled option. Would have been nice to know when I was mowing the HILL in the front yard. Oh well, I definitely burned a bunch more calories that way!
  
• Just signed Caleb up for swimming lessons for the summer and for gymnastics again in the fall. He is only 2 and I already feel like we do nothing but run him around. I would like to get him into music lessons and then of course soccer/T-ball in a year or two. And Scott will probably want him to try hockey. Will have to see what we have time for but definitely leave time for him to be a kid.
  
• Work has been crazy for me and I am just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We bid two subdivisions this spring and the questions were just relentless. Finally settling down into the more mundane design and reports that is so familiar. Although it feels like I have been working on the same report for weeks now, I am making decent progress
• Got to go to a geocaching event at Hartman's Creek in Waupaca a couple weeks ago. Had a BLAST and will be looking forward to doing it again next year. We did 35 caches in one day that involved 9 hours of hiking, lots of ticks and a few blisters. It was heaven!
  
• Took last Friday off of work to make the Memorial Day weekend 4 days instead of 3. Let Caleb sleep as long as he wanted and then went up north to Waupaca. Beautiful weather was great! Had a campfire on Friday night and enjoyed the stars. Caleb and Bumpa played so hard that they both went to bed early.
• Mom and Dad are coming for this weekend because Dad has a meeting tomorrow (Friday) morning here in Madison with his lawyer. I hope they plan on staying the whole weekend. I could really use the hand getting stuff done around the house. Nothing seems to get done and there is always more to do.
  

Well, that is the month in a nut shell. I will try to update more regularly. I am thinking about actually telling people in my family about the blog so they can read it, but I don't know. It is pretty cathartic to know that I can write anything I want and no one knows it is there. Journaling at it's best.

Weekend recovery

I know it is Tuesday, but I am just now getting a little breathing room to jot down a few thoughts from the weekend.

Saturday was nice. We spent the whole day at home and tried to get some things done. Notice I said "tried". We did get most of the books put onto the book shelves downstairs which is something I have been meaning to do for months. Then we made a BIG dent in cleaning all the crap out of our room. It became the dumping ground for all the stuff that we cleaned out of the office/guest room so that we could turn it into Caleb's big boy room. The weather was crappy so it was pretty easy to justify staying inside.

Sunday we did some running but managed to not spend a ton of money. Caleb and I went to Tanck's house so Caleb could play with Naomi, while Scott met Marty at the Alliant center for the Deer and Turkey Expo. We met back at Tanck's and then stopped at Noodles for lunch. We had a BOGO coupon so we decided to treat ourselves. Caleb decided to be quite the brat on Sunday so there was a bit of a battle going all afternoon. It was very draining and I think I ended up more worn out than he did.

Potty training has been pretty much a lost cause the last week or so. He didn't tell us ALL weekend when he had to go or had GONE for that matter. At one point I went to change his pull-up and his little bottom was flaming with diaper rash. Felt bad for him, but I didn't know it was there to even change! He may have had a bit of an intestinal bug because he had about 5 BM's in two days. Not like him at all, but he didn't complain about a yucky tummy.

The good news for the day is that I sent the last payment in for Caleb's furniture. That means the first of our debts has been paid off is about 1 month. Now we are moving onto paying of the living room furniture once and for all. Should be able to send the last payment in on that in June. Can't wait!

Home Again

Well, Scott got home last night and was able to put Caleb to bed for me. Of course, I managed to fall asleep on the couch about 10 seconds later. There went all the plans I had for getting stuff done last night.

Tonight I have decided to run away. I am going to go over to a friends house for a couple hours and just chill out. I hope there will be alcohol involved but since I am trying to save money I don't think so. Should be fun and a little time to just get my head back together after this week.

I was hoping to have a "no spend" weekend, but Scott has plans to go to the Deer and Turkey Expo this weekend. That will be about $6 in admission fees and then they will probably go out for lunch. At least I have no plans to spend money, unless you count the gas I will be burning. :) Don't know what the weather is going to be like but it would be awesome to take Caleb to the park again. And I would LOVE to be able to get the kite out this weekend. Caleb has never flown a kite before and I think he would love it.

The spring cleaning bug is starting to bite me pretty hard. The yard needs a lot of work but the inside of the house is even worse. It is going to take us MANY weekends to get it in order. With Caleb demanding our attention so much (specifically mine) lately it has been all I can do just to make dinner. We are virtually piled under mountains of crap that don't seem to have a home. That has GOT to change soon or I am going to hurt some one. Maybe I will ask the neighbor kid if he wants to earn a little money watching Caleb while we are at home. That way we can get something done but Caleb will still be entertained.

Random stuff

Scott has been in Detroit since Monday and I am beginning to unravel. Caleb has been a bit hard to handle the last couple days, plus he didn't sleep well, therefore I didn't sleep well. At one point he was awake and yelling for me because one of his socks had come off. Sheesh! I am going to need a little time to myself once Scott gets home on Thursday.

The discussions started earlier this week about when to start trying for kid #2. We have agreed from the beginning the two is a good number but the added daycare costs are going to kill us. But with our get out of debt plan in full swing we should be able to soon free up about half of what we will need ($500) but that won't be for another year. Where the other $500 is going to come from I have no idea. I am torn right down the middle about wanting another child. On one hand I want another child, but at the same time I really like the fact that Caleb doesn't need constant attention and is becoming more independent. I am finally able to get a few things done around the house without holding a kid in the other arm. I am already exhausted every night, how much more tired am I going to be if there is another person to do everything for?

I feel badly whenever I have the thought go through my head that Scott doesn't help out around the house. The truth is he does help, but usually only with what I tell him to do. I end up feeling like his mother at the same time as Caleb's. No, that isn't fair to him, but when I am looking at the disaster that my house has become and then look at Scott sitting at the computer surfing for Jeep parts we can't afford, I can't help but think that isn't fair to me either. Why should I be the one who has to clean up all the messes? I don't MAKE all the messes, do I?

But I can't expect things to change if we have another child. As a matter of fact, I can only expect them to get worse. Caleb is already insanely jealous whenever I hold another baby. I can't imagine what he will be like when and if we have a baby of our own. He is almost 3 and we may have already waited too long to give him a little brother or sister. WAY too long if you ask any of the 7000 people who seem to ask us weekly when kid #2 is coming along. At this point I think it is illegal in the state of Wisconsin to only have one child. Two is the norm, maybe even three. Heck, even 6 to 8 isn't unheard of. But only ONE!?!?! Why would we even consider such a thing?

Well, I am going to think on this a little more and head to the bank. Then I will be picking Caleb up and heading home to a nasty mess and dinner that I have to make. At least I have it all planned and I just have to put it together. Never got around to starting the dishwasher this morning so I will have that to deal with as well. What a great night this is going to be.

Another blog

Since I seem to be writing so much lately about our finances I decided that it would be better to create a separate blog for that and leave this one for the purpose it was meant for....recording family happenings so that I can remember them in the future. If anyone is interested, you can find that blog here.