MOUSE!!!!

Friday night we had Horsts, Racchinis, and my mom for dinner! We had a blast! The kids all played....NOTE TO SELF...there is a reason why you should have more than one kid. They ENTERTAIN EACHOTHER! It's amazing how little I have to do when other kids are around. It would be totally exhausting to never have another kid because I'd always have to be Eli's entertainment. The guys took off to fly Brandon's glider airplane early evening, and us girls traded when they got back and took off for a girls night at Starbucks. (I put Eli to bed before I left, so Brandon just had to help wrangle the other 3 kids in the basement). My mom mentioned that right when she got here her car started stinking and she couldn't figure out what it was. It did smell kind of nasty on our way to Starbucks. We had fun laughing our heads off and headed back after a couple hours. We were discussing that it really smelled like something was dead in the car or under the car or something. Right as we parked in front of the house I said, "Whoever finds the dead critter gets a prize!" Literally 5 seconds after I said it Tanya started screaming her head off and clawing at the door trying to get out (unfortunately it was locked for some reason). Turns out there was a dead mouse RIGHT at her feet (that we didn't notice because it was dark already). It was so gross and SO funny. We still are laughing about it. Mom gave Tanya a prize! Amy was brave and used a baby wipe to throw it out onto the street. What would we do without baby wipes? Mom parks her car in a barn at night, so it's no surprise that something snuck in there. We'll forever be joking about that night. Very memorable!

Everything is breaking down around here. Brandon had to work like crazy the entire furlough fixing everything. We're going even greener that's why we have the clothes hung on a line in the back yard....uh...I mean our dryer is broken. Brandon also got to fix the mower and the string trimmer. Luckily we bought a warranty on the house appliances when we got the house, so the dryer should get fixed. We played at the Kansas Grown Farmers Market Saturday morning. It was an amazing farmers market and it was packed! I can't believe I've never been before. We'll definitely be there on Saturday mornings from now on. It could have been a disaster because all the instruments and sound system were acting up because of the heat/humidity, but God really blessed it in the end. We ended up selling like 30 cds and getting a lot of tips! A lot of the vendors also donated produce and baked goods to us. It was so sweet. My mom was amazing and came down to babysit a teething toddler for us during HARVEST! She definitely gets the grandma of the year award. My dad should get an award too for letting her come! You can see that we got the room finished finally! Six gallons of paint later ;-) I got these huge chalkboard airplane/cloud wall murals to put on the wall for Eli and I've already found this antique bi-prop plane bedding to get someday. Who knows when he'll actually move up there but at least we're ready. Eli has been saying some new words lately. "Bread", "E-I-E-I-O", and "HOT!" He says "HOT" and puts his hand up if his food is warm and when he gets in his car seat. We cool the car down before he gets in but the buckles are still warm. It's so cute. He still loves for me to ask "Where's Jesus?" and he starts patting his heart and we say "INSIDE!" He'll want me to ask it over and over again. He still says "AMEN" when we pray before bed. So precious. Looking forward to getting ready for our huge CORMAN FAMILY FOURTH OF JULY BASH! It's our favorite holiday on my Corman side. We are having a party at my parents house this year. Eli has been getting some serious farm time in!

We've been crazy busy trying to get Eli's future room done. I've been collapsing in bed at night exhausted (and I've barely worked on it compared to Brandon)! Painting in heat...not fun! Pictures to follow because it's almost done! We had my cousin Sam over yesterday for supper and then all went to Cessna's pool to escape the heat. It was definitely refreshing; Eli loved shooting baskets with the guys. He also liked watching us all go down the slide. Eli's second bottom molar finally poked through. He seems to feel a little better today. Teething tablets have been helping him sleep during his nap and bedtime. He is getting better and better at helping me clean up. If he throws food he now helps me pick up the pieces off the floor and put them in the trash. He also throws the junk mail in the trash for me. He really likes using a cloth to "clean". If he spills water on the floor while he's drinking he'll squat with a cloth and clean it up. So cute! I hung out with my friend Courtney during his nap yesterday. We went and got pastries and coffee at Panera for lunch ;-) She came back with me to the house and Eli woke up while she was here. He got in serious show off mood. He kept doing this funny scrunched up face smile and running as fast as he could. Major flirting going on. Brandon was cracking up because he's not usually here when Eli goes into flirting mode with my friends. Tomorrow night we're having our friends over for dinner. I'm looking forward to some fellowship with some of my favorite people!

Paint paint and some more paint

Brandon started painting Eli's "big boy" room upstairs. What he didn't realize is it's the room from hell to paint because almost the entire room is trim/windows/doors/closet/cubby holes etc. Basically, almost the entire room has to be painted by HAND! GAG! There seriously are like 8 windows and barely any wall and it is a large room. We are on our 3rd can of paint and it is obvious that the trim and walls are going to take THREE coats to hide the gray color that it already was and the ugly murals. This is just the primer people! I've been squeezing in time during Eli's naps and after he goes to bed. We are in a heat advisory all week (105-110 degrees). Needless to say, we've been out on walks to the park/playground around 6:30 a.m. to beat the heat. We've been able to get quite a bit of outside time during the early morning. Brandon took Eli to the library yesterday and finally got the puppet show schedule figured out. Twice a week at 10:30. Perfect! We're going to take Eli tomorrow to see how he likes it. Cool and free :-) Brandon has been teaching Eli all sorts of things while he's been home this week....like screaming....oh great!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Here's what we've been up to the last few days:

Friday: Took Eli to Cessna's pool. He "swam" for an hour. Brandon and I took turns swimming laps (okay I just swam one and thought I was going to die), while Eli played ball in the shallows. He loved laying on his stomach and pulling himself with his arms through the water. There was another little boy there who came up and hit Eli twice and kept stealing his ball even though he had his own (seriously, I wanted to lay the smack down ;-)) The dad didn't say a word. Some parents SUCK! We had a blast though! Eli also nursed for the LAST time at noon before his nap. We're done for good around here! He's done great, no issue going down for his naps without it. I'm only a tiny bit uncomfortable.

Saturday: I helped my friends with a shower for our bass player and friend Dave Racchini's fiance at our church. It was really fun to fellowship with all of my women friends. Very refreshing! Brandon took Eli to the McDonalds play place (of course we don't actually FEED him fast food, but Brandon likes taking him to different play areas when he's babysitting). Several times he said "mama" and Brandon could tell he missed me. When I got home he just kept snuggling/hugging/kissing me saying "mama, mama, mama, mama," it was so precious. Molars should be making an appearance soon....I can feel lumps now on the bottom! Eli loved playing in the puddles outside during a break in the rain. We have gotten hammered with rain the past couple days. After Eli went to sleep, a friend from church came and babysat so Brandon and I could go out to a Japanese Grill (Sumo) and have an awesome meal/evening with my best friend Courtney and her boyfriend Matt. It was so much fun! Our babysitter had to spend the night b/c it was storming so hard when we got home. Luckily I ALWAYS have the guest bedroom/bathroom ready to go downstairs in case someone needs to use it.

Sunday: Brandon led worship at church. Eli LOVED playing with the kids in the nursery. He seriously didn't want to leave. It's getting better and better each time we take him. He didn't even whine or look sad at all when we left him this morning. He just took off running to go play ball with some other kids. YAY! At lunch, Eli was purposely pouring milk in his eye and laughing hysterically over and over again until I noticed what was going on and took his cup away. Oh boys! Sometimes I'm just baffled. Eli picked out Brandon a superman musical card a few weeks back and was excited to play with it after Brandon opened it. So cute! We just enjoyed my Grandma Buck's enchilada recipe for supper! Yum! Brandon decided he's not going to shave for this entire week of furlough. I swear he almost has a beard and it's been like two days. Sheesh and GROSS!

Mommy's helper

We had a fun day today with all my family. They came down to have dinner at my aunt Cate's house and visit with my great uncle and second cousin who were passing through town from Arizona. Eli soaked up all the attention and played his three favorite games with my parents all day....BALL....BOOM....and SEEK! My dad was kind enough to lounge around during Eli's nap so my mom and I could run to Johnson's Garden Center (our favorite place in the world) and Pier One. Mom brought me down some more transplants from her garden to fill in some places in the front. Every time she comes down or we visit we steal flowers. It rocks! We got our first grape tomatoes out of our garden. Yay! Eli is going to have tons of fresh veggies this summer. Because it has been over 100 degrees the past few days, Eli and I have been playing outside from about 6:30 a.m-8:30 every morning. We take our long walk with Rica and play ball outside all morning while it's cool, then hunker down inside all afternoon. He has been able to cool off in his baby pool, and today my parents, Will, and Brandon took him to the fountains to play while I helped my friend Tanya ice some cookies for a bridal shower this weekend. We all went to my aunt Cate's for dinner and Eli LOVED playing in the fountain in her back yard. By the time I left, he was soaked and covered in mud from head to toe. What is it with BOYS? They always find the dirtiest and most dangerous past times. It just blows me away. So much fun, though! He loves to get the title of "mommy's helper". He'll practically do anything I say as long as I ask him if he wants to be "mommy's helper". It cracks me up. If I ever see a kid's broom set, I will snag it up because he just loves helping me do big people things. Today he had a blast carrying our neighbor's newspapers from the sidewalk and putting them up on their porches. He was so proud of himself that he was "helping" the neighbors. As you can see in the video, he loves helping me "clean" daddy's guitar.

I came up with a solution that will give me peace of mind in the next year. I am getting everything together to get my substitute teaching certificate, so that if Cessna furloughs for a long chunk next year I could work a couple days a week during that time (while Brandon watched Eli) to help around here. It's the only temporary job I could think of that I could do in an emergency situation. That way I don't have a freak out ;-) I'm such a control freak...I have to have a plan in place in case of disaster :-) I have NO faith...it's rediculous.

Eli...can you say FURLOUGH!!!!

As most of you know Brandon, as well as all of Cessna, had to take 4 weeks of furlough. Brandon's first week starts next week. We spaced them throughout the summer where we would need time off (Harvest, to go to Arkansas, Kansas City for my friend's wedding etc.) They announced recently that they are going to do another round of layoffs (Brandon should be safe from these) and more furloughs. Brandon has to take 3 more weeks of furlough this year. We're going to take a week a month starting in Oct. and hopefully get one of them by Thanksgiving for when we go to Texas. That's a total of 7 weeks, but luckily Brandon will use 4 weeks of his vacation to ease the financial burden! I'm really worried right now that Cessna is going to go under or have to do really long furloughs (like a year or more). I've had a few freak outs, but am reminding myself that all will be okay no matter what happens. Hey, as long as we've got each other that's all that matters! I've been taking out my worries on my oven...baking and cooking! I made whole wheat pancakes last night to freeze for Eli for a breakfast option, bran muffins (all bran, granola, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, craisins etc.) to freeze for breakfast, meatball sandwiches for supper, lasagna, chicken and rice, and the list keeps going on and on. If we're on the streets...at least we won't be hungry ;-) ;-) Eli is definitely going to enjoy all the family time this summer/year! We're going to have a blast and definitely take advantage of the free time!

Farm and Festival fun!

We had a fabulous weekend up in Salina/Minneapolis with family. We played Thursday night at the Smoky Hill River Festival in front of a crowd of a little over 10,000 people! It was fun! Eli ALWAYS cries if he sees us on stage, so he wasn't too happy. Here are some of the fun highlights of the trip:

-Eli played frisbee, ate his first sno-cone (Brandon snuck him that one without me knowing), clapped to all the music, and played with cousin Jadyn at the River Festival (He also fed Jadyn half his supper with a fork and his fingers, so cute).
-Brandon and I enjoyed seeing all the relatives at the festival and one of our favorite groups Mingo Fishtrap. Brandon watched Eli while I looked at the crafts and art with my mom/sister/cousins/aunt! Brandon also ate a million corndogs, and we all enjoyed homemade ice scream!
-We hung out with Becca (Bepa, as Eli calls her), Joel, Will, Sam and my parents all weekend.
-Eli rode the four wheeler and mower with my dad and loved it
-Eli loved the kittens I discovered in my dad's shop. He kept trying to kiss them and meow at them, and even brought them a toy as a gift to share. So precious! He loved petting the cats while we were there and chasing all the dogs.
-Eli didn't go to sleep until 10 (normal is 7:30) the first night because he was SO excited to be at the farm. He also would wake up at like 4 every morning ready to go....luckily we were able to get him back to sleep every morning and by the end it was fine.
-Both car drives were AWESOME with the car seat turned forward. So much easier!
-Brandon and Will rode dirtbikes while Joel and Sam rode the four wheeler. They came back covered in mud!
-All the guys made fun of Mom, Becca, and I for playing Farm Town on facebook.
-Eli just adores all the family. He always wants to play "guns" with my dad and ball with my mom. He gave everyone kisses the whole trip.
-Once again Eli loved roaming around in the wide open spaces of the farm. He was laughing his head off running and DIVING into the tall weeds. Luckily he didn't get chiggers!
-Today both Brandon and Eli got harvest haircuts! We're preparing for a HEAT WAVE!