Missing the boys

Just thought since I'm watching a re-run of Law and Order I might do this instead of working. Yes, I tend to do that at home. Especially when Tom isn't here to yell at me for it.:) I'm on training week at work so my schedule is goofy. Because of this, Tom took Monday and Friday off from work so we didn't have to get a baby sitter for Bear. Well, this led to Tom wondering what he was going to do this week. He decided to take a trip to see the grandparents in Seattle. They haven't seen Bear since he was about a month old. Much too long. It is good that Tom is willing to make trips with the little guy by himself. The bad part is that I'd never spent a night away from Bear until last night. I miss the boys. It is good to get some of this done now, but I still miss them. My house is much too quiet. Ah well. They will be home tomorrow. Yay!! I get to show the boy off at work.

Here's Tom's car:

New car

Tom's car finally decided she'd had enough. The engine still goes great but the poor body is just worn out. I guess that's what happens when we get old. So, we are retiring our little Subaru. Kinda sad since that was our first big purchase as a couple and we've had the car since just before we got married. Kind of amazing. In all reality we haven't been very nice to it either. Yet she still goes. 8 years and over 100,000 miles since we got it.

We just purchased her replacement last night. We decided the new car had to have these requirements: under 100,000 miles, decent gas milage (20 mpg or higher), have some cargo space, space for the kid and the dog, and be high enough off the ground we could quit breaking our backs puting Bear in his car seat. So that left us with pretty much two options; a minivan or SUV. Well, we ended up with the SUV. Neither Tom nor I wanted to completely surrender to the minivan look.:) We bought a 2001 Mazda Tribute with 80,000 miles on it. It is almost exactly a Ford Escape. We like the way it drives and love the amount of space it has. Plus it met our price requirement of being $7500 or less. It was less so we went and got a little bit of insulation for the house too. Yippee! I love tax credits and refunds. Finally some money to do some of the things we've needed to do.

We'll see how much space this batch of insulation covers and then see how much we need to add to it. I'm almost positive we'll have to add but we shall see. Then maybe we can lower our scary gas bills. Amazing what it takes to heat an old house. Even not being a very big one. Granted we have some pretty big windows though. Along with the almost no insulation upstairs, and none downstairs. Continuous projects for us. We'll never run out of things to do.

Morning kid

Here's the kind of mood Bear wakes up in 9 out of 10 times.







Bear likes going to the grocery store with Dad. "Look Ma no hands!"

Dilly Bread

It turned out! What a delicious recipe. Thank you for passing that one on Ginna. There is only one problem with this. I could sit down and eat the whole loaf fresh from the oven. This is not going to help loose the baby weight.:)

Another

Just a quick note to those who follow: You can follow my gardening at my new blog.

http://mommech-kstgardentrials.blogspot.com/

Photo update

Tom and Bear
The beginnings of our garden:

Tom, Bear, and Buddy at naptime:

Bear playing yesterday:

Bear at a friends house:

Wintery weather

We've been stuck in an inversion for about a week now. It gets tough driving when the visibility is less than a quarter mile. This morning I'm getting to see the hoar frost for the first time. I haven't been home in the daylight as of yet. It is very pretty. I love hoar frost. I do hope this weather doesn't last too long though since my seeds need some sunlight.

Bear is over his cold and is feeling lots better. Here lately he's figured out how to make all sorts of new noises. Also, he's decided it is fun to shake his head back and forth like he's saying no. I think it must make him dizzy or something. I know it would me.

I was going to post some photos this morning, but the camera is in Bear's room and I don't want to wake him up early. I still can't get over how spoiled we are when it comes to that kid. He sleeps through the night, doesn't have a problem napping, and seldom cries. Maybe we won't have a second.:)