a hard loss

The Panther football team opened their season yesterday in a game against Hanna-Elk Mountain. Luck wasn't with them though, they lost the game 20-13. First time in 20 years that we've lost to Hanna, someone said. That made Josh feel even worse. :( The head coach asked the boys if they wanted to practice tonight or if they wanted the long weekend to think about it, and the boys all wanted to practice. So we won't be getting out of town very quick tonight. Josh's school doesn't have school today, but we do, so they have to wait for the Encampment kids to get out of school and get to Saratoga.

Hopefully this will wake the boys up a little and they get their heads more in the game and we can win from now on!

tooth #4

I keep forgetting to mention that tooth #4 finally popped through on Saturday. Hooray! It was a rough one.

the sandlian snore

So B is laying in bed right now with Josh while I got up to take a shower. I came out of the shower and heard not one Sandlian, but TWO Sandlians snoring in the bed. B has inherited that "wonderful" Sandlian Snore!! All we needed was Hogan and Charlie, who both snore also, and we could've had a snoring symphony!

too funny

You have to read this, especially if you are a mom. It's an auction on Ebay that already ended, but the description of the item is totally hilarious. Perhaps the fact that I'm exhausted made it more funny, but I was laughing so hard I had tears while reading it. Enjoy!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675#description

casper

Brecken and I were out of the house by 6:45 yesterday morning so we could go to Casper to watch Josh's team scrimmage. Lennie and Pee-Wee came up, as well as David and Beverly, and some of Lennie's cousins, because their son plays for Wright, who Saratoga scrimmaged. My mom and dad came up also, and we had a nice day together. Brecken had fun flirting with everyone.

Lunch was a disaster, my mom and dad and B and I went to Old Chicago, which we all love. We waited 15 minutes for a waitress to come take our drink orders, and one never came. Finally the host had to do it. Finally a waitress came, we ordered, and we WAITED and WAITED. It's never been so slow when we've been there! I had asked her to bring B's food out as soon as it was ready, but it didn't come until my mom and dad's food was brought out. B was STARVING. So was I but my calzone didn't come with the rest of the order. The waitress said it was still cooking. She came back later and said they had to start over because they made it wrong. My mom and dad were done eating and I still didn't have anything to eat! I finally ate a piece of my dad's pizza and we told the waitress to box mine up because we were leaving. It was a disaster. The only good thing was that they took my lunch off the ticket.

Then we did some quick shopping and B and I headed home. He slept all the way to Casper, but not the way back! He slept for about an hour but then cried the rest of the way because he wanted out of his car seat. It's so hard to travel by yourself because you can't have one person in the back entertaining the kid if need be!

When we got home we got ready to go out to dinner with Heath and his wife and some friends of theirs from Worland. B was so tired but he did a great job- we didn't get home until 9:15 and he never once had a fit. What a great kid I have!

first cold of the school year

Well, we found out why Brecken was so hard to deal with on Tuesdsay and Wednesday. Wednesday night at home his face about exploded with liquids. I kept sucking out his nose and I was still wiping it every two minutes. Josh came home and asked why Brecken was crying. He wasn't, it was just his really watery eyes! And he about lost his voice. The little cough was so sad. He didn't have a fever, so he was still OK to go to Loree's house yesterday. I guess he had a pretty good day, too! The best of the week. What a relief. Hopefully it will stay this way. By Wednesday night I was sick to my stomach with worry that we were going to lose our babysitter. Hopefully he'll have a good day today, too, and then get over his cold this weekend so he's back to his normal self on Monday. Our backup babysitter always tells us that she wishes Brecken could come live with her because he is so much better acting than her own kids, so I KNOW he does a good job at daycare! Loree just hasn't seen it all yet.

B is on a milk strike at Loree's though. He will not take a bottle at all. Won't even let her put it in his mouth. He does fine at home though, so I'm not sure what the deal is. She finally gave him Pedialyte yesterday to keep him hydrated, and he drank that. Strange.

B had to go to Loree's house today even though Josh doesn't have school. There is an EMT conference somewhere and Josh is the only EMT left in the town that didn't have to work today. So he's on call, and when he's on call he can't be alone with B. So he's up at Loree's.

Tomorrow we are going to Casper to watch Josh's team scrimmage. My mom and dad are coming down so that will be fun. Lennie an Pee-Wee are coming to, because Josh's team is scrimmaging Wright, and some of that side of the family has kids playing for Wright, so they'll be in Casper watching too.

miserable day

Brecken had a miserable day. I don't know what the deal was. Loree even had to call me at work for suggestions. I called Josh and he went over to her house to help calm him down because he wouldn't quit crying. He can't do that tomorrow, since we have kids tomorrow! B had a slightly better afternoon, but I still feel really bad for Loree. I don't want her to change her mind about babysitting!! We all thought maybe he was just upset with the change in routine, but he was miserable tonight at home too. Crying lots and very clingy. He had medicine for his teeth, and Orajel, and food, but he was still miserable. Maybe he'll have a better day tomorrow. (LET'S HOPE!!!)

first day back

Today was Josh's and my first day back at school- we had meetings today. Our new babysitter called at 6:15 am saying she had a bladder infection and had to go to the clinic, and asked if we could find someone else to take B for the morning. Good thing we have a good backup babysitter! He loves it at Deb's. So we took him there in the morning and went over lunch to take him to Loree's. He had a pretty good afternoon at the new house. His teeth were bugging him though so he got a little grumpy toward the end. And man, you should have seen him love me when I picked him up- he was kissing me all over. And even a half hour after we got home, he'd crawl up me and wrap his arms around my neck and pat my back and go "mmmmm", then pull away and kiss my face. Then he'd play, but then come back for more hugs and kisses on his own every few minutes. :) I love that.

teeth

Brecken got tooth #3 on Friday- and tooth #4 should be here any day. They are his top middle teeth and boy, are they making the poor kid miserable! He won't sleep, won't eat, is whiny, and just wants to cuddle. I wish that 4th tooth would just hurry up and pop through!!!

bbq

The football team had a BBQ up at the school tonight to celebrate the end of 2-a-days. Then they had a "Madden Football" tournament on x-boxes. They set up about 6 x-box systems in Josh's room and they had big brackets and everything. I stayed long enough to see Josh beat Heath and then B and I came home. He needed a bath, because he found the one puddle in the whole county and laid down in it. He even put his hair in there. Silly boy. Luckily it was right before we came home, so I was able to stip his shirt off and he was OK. (He already had his pants off because he was hot.)

B sure had fun tonight, he's doing so much better with the separation anxiety thing. He let Macy, Heath's 4th grader, tote him around and all the coaches kids were playing with him and he took them walking around the hallways and showed off his crawling. He really had no interest in me, which is a big change from a couple months ago!!

brecken's birthday

Brecken's birthday is coming soon!! I can't believe how fast the year went. For those of you that are able, we are having a birthday party on Sept. 2 at 6:00 in Lingle. I've had a couple people ask what to get him, so here are some ideas:

Clothes: He is wearing 12 month sized shirts and 9 month sized pants right now. For the most part. Sometimes I buy him a pair of pants that doesn't fit so I have to exchange them for another size- baby pants are weird like that. He is wearing size 3.5 shoes too.

Toys: Toys are always good! We are getting him an Elmo laptop so maybe our laptop won't be so appealing to him, and a Leapfrog Fridge DJ. It's a little boom box that goes on your fridge and plays songs. Anything that goes on the fridge would be great- he loves being in the kitchen with his walker and playing with things on the fridge. I keep some pictures of my cousins up there and he likes to take them down and look at them, and then carry those pictures around with him. He also LOVES anything musical, so that is an idea too.

Other ideas: Bath toys, something to keep all the bath toys in, outside toys (he only has one- a slide.). He LOVES "The Wonder Pets" on Noggin- everytime it comes on he gets a big grin on his face and he dances and watches it- so anything Wonder Pets would be great too.

Some people give diapers- he wears Pampers Cruisers size 3.

Please don't feel you have to get him anything though. I just posted this because a few people have asked what he would like for his birthday!

sharing

Brecken is very into sharing today. He shared his lunch with Josh this afternoon, and a few minutes ago was sharing bites of his graham cracker with Birdie. And just now, I saw him take his bottle, pick it up, and try to put it in Birdie's mouth. I caught him before he could talk Birdie into it.

He's also now walking around the furniture. The cat isn't sure she likes that. Brecken just scoots right on over, stands up, and is right in Charlie's face. He made it almost all the way around the couch "walking" today. Now he needs to figure out how to sit back down!

We're about ready to get some long pants and sweatshirts on and go watch Josh's football practice. It rained this afternoon so it's kind of chilly out now. The thermometer on my computer says 69 degrees.

visitors

We had lots of visitors this weekend. Craig and Lennie came late on Thursday night and then Jeff decided to come over too. Beth was going home to Alliance this weekend to work a golf tournament, so on Friday Jeff rode to Rawlins with her and we all met him and took him home with us. Craig and Josh had been golfing in Rawlins and Lennie, Brecken and I went over to meet them for lunch, so it worked out perfect to get Jeff while we were there. While we were gone, I'm pretty sure we had a mini-tornado of sorts. When we got back to Saratoga we discovered a mess at our house. Brecken's slide was blown over, and the back yard was a disaster. Two of our heavy steel patio chairs were blown completely into the lawn, the sun sail was ripped off the house, and one of the big fat wooden posts that holds one of the ends of the sail in the yard was snapped off! Not taken out of the ground, it completely snapped the wood in half. And the grill was blown over into the yard on the back, too. And the dogs' swimming pool that we keep out there for them to drink out of and stay cool in was gone as well. Nowhere to be found. The strange thing is, the other two patio chairs were still where they were, as was the citronella candle, still sitting on the table where it was. It's the strangest thing. I'm super glad the metal ring attached to the sail that was ripped out of our house didn't go flying into the glass patio table. It would have shattered the glass and we would've been out a table!!

Saturday morning the boys went golfing and B, Lennie and I went downtown to Crazy Days. Not much out this year, so I didn't buy anything but a new swimming pool for the dogs.

Today we just took it easy and our company all left around 1:30, I think it was. Now we are trying to get B to go to bed. He's fighting it hard tonight. We're having to take turns getting him to sleep- while I was in there I laid him down from standing up 10 times. He's figured out this standing up thing and thinks he's pretty hot stuff. Now Josh is in there trying the same thing. I needed a break.

Josh starts football two-a-days tomorrow. The morning practices are in Encampment and the bus leaves at 5:30. Yikes.

lightweight

Josh took Brecken to get weighed today since he'll be 11 months in 2 days. We both thought for sure he had gained good weight because he really does feel heavier to us. However, he only gained 6 ounces in the month! :( He's 17 pounds even. I'll have to measure how long he is tonight when he's sleepy, so he'll stay still long enough for me to do it.

little daredevil

We've had quite a few bumps and bruises the past couple days. Brecken has decided to be a daredevil and it's not working out like he planned. He's a pro now at pulling himself up on anything and everything he can. The problem is, sometimes those things move (like his walker) and he goes down pretty hard. He's also decided once he pulls himself to standing in front of the couch (or chair, or table) he's going to climb up it. He then finds out that his feet slip off it and down he goes. And the other night, he pulled himself up to standing in front of his little green chair, then put his knees up on it so he was sitting on his knees in the chair, and then pulled up to standing, then put his knees on the end table so he could climb up there! Pretty smart, this little almost-11-month-old Brecken! He didn't make it onto the table though, his mean mommy was there to pull him off it.

We went to visit his babysitter, Loree, yesterday. Josh came with so he could meet her, and we let Brecken get to know her a little more. This time, he let Loree hold him. And he took her walking around the living room. He then found toys and played with them. And then the other 3 kids woke up and he let them play with him. YAY! I'm glad he seems to like it there. Even Loree's dogs laid in Brecken's lap. No joke.

whirlwind weekend

Boy, did we have a busy weekend! Saturday, Josh was golfing in a tournament in Cheyenne with our friend Mark, Josh's dad, and Josh's grandma. While they golfed, Erin and Avey (Mark's wife and daughter) came shopping with Lennie and Brecken and myself. We had fun. Then we all went out to dinner. WARNING: DO NOT ORDER A BOWL OF APPLESAUCE AT RED LOBSTER- It cost $4!! Good golly.

That night we went to Lingle to sleep, then got up and left for South Dakota. My sister was a camp nurse at the music camp we both went to every summer while growing up. We went up so I could show Josh the camp, and my mom and grandma ended up meeting us there. We took care of Ryan while Kristen did camp check-ins. We walked around camp and then took the boys to Mt. Rushmore. Then we went down to Keystone to see all the bikes since it's Sturgis Rally week. Crazy busy with all the bikes!

Sunday night we spent at my mom and dad's house, and then came home yesterday evening. It was a fast weekend but we had a lot of fun.

my friend

I got a call from my mom early last week, saying she had just gotten the mail and about fell over to see a wedding invitation from one of my very best friends from high school, Katie. I had lost touch with Katie, we really haven't talked since our freshman year of college, I don't think. I was really excited that I finally had a way to contact her again- I didn't even know where she was anymore! So my mom sent me the address that was on the return-address label and I sent her a card. I gave her my email address and I'm so excited- on Monday I heard from her! It's been FOREVER and it was so good to her from her again. She's getting married in Idaho over Labor Day weekend but she's living in Syracuse, NY now. She's a coordinator for an after-school program at their YWCA. That sounds like a tough job! We definitely have a lot of catching up to do- both of us have had major life-changing experiences since that long ago!

Anyway, I just had to share because even now, 4 days later, I'm still so excited to have found her again. YAY, TATORS!!!

shopping

We had a fun day yesterday in Loveland and Ft. Collins doing some school shopping. I only got 2 shirts, but Josh found some pants and Brecken got some things too since he's outgrowing his 9 month outfits. We bought him some jeans, and they're size 6 months, but we put him in them today and they're about right in length but when he's in them and you pick him up, they fall straight off. I wish I could find long pants with skinny waists! I can't find any baby belts either. :( I did find a website that sells them, for $18, but we're going to have to bite the bullet and buy one because B can't go pantless once winter comes!!

We also found "big boy" car seats we like. We bought the same pattern for both cars. Brecken sat in it at Toys R Us and had the biggest grin. He was patting the arm rests and laughing. I think he liked it. :) It's a Graco Pedic so it's super comfy to sit in. And the straps are bigger. He hates getting in his car seat now, and I think it's because the straps are so small he has to twist his arms to get them in. This is a forward-facing only seat though, so I hope he gets to 20 pounds soon so we can put him in the new seat so he's more comfy!

glasses

Both Josh and I had eye appointments in Rawlins on Monday. JOSH NEEDS GLASSES! I've had glasses or contacts since I was 9 years old, so I didn't feel bad for him. In fact, I laughed at him because he was always bragging about how he has such good eyesight. However, he's "very far-sighted" according to the doctor. HAHAHAHAHA!! Josh pouted all the way home- he's being a big baby about it. :) The office didn't have a big selection of frames though, but they had a Nike catalog, so he had them order a few of those frames for him to try out. :) He really couldn't see very well though because his eyes were dialated. He was a big baby about that, too.
Apparently, he's never had it done before. They did NOT dialate my eyes, so that one of us could drive home. :)

AND, we have a new babysitter! It's the lady that we tried to get Brecken into last year but she didn't have room for a baby. Josh called her again Monday morning and she said she'd do some age figuring and call us back. She called on our way home from the eye doctor and she said she could take him! Hooray! She's in Saratoga, so that will be nice. We've heard lots of good things about her. We'll go meet her on Friday. We'll still use Deb, because she'd be sad if she didn't get to babysit, but we'll use this lady, Laurie, the other days. I really liked how Dana was with Brecken last year, but now with her step-son's trial coming up this fall she won't be
around until that's over, and plus- her extended family freaked me out a lot. (for instance, her ex-husband isn't allowed in her house but sits in the street in his car every day so he can talk to his kids. That freaks me out.) So I'll send her a big flower arrangement to tell her thanks for being so great last year with Brecken.