Check marks

I love it when the to-do list gets shorter and not longer...

 

The garage is painted!  I borrowed my parent's paint sprayer for the back wall with all of the shelves.  Set up and cleanup took longer than the actual painting, which I love.  The grey is so much nicer than that sad, streaky green.  Somehow it makes it feel cleaner.  It's really still a gross and dirty garage, but hey, fresh paint!  *grin*

 

... I love before and afters...

 Saturday morning we tackled the grading problem in the back.  The yard sloped towards the house all along the inside of the "L."  So we roped Rustin and Sharon into helping us and we got a truckload of dirt to spread.   

Now it all slopes away from the house.  It looked so fresh and clean; now there are leaves falling and weeds poking up after the rain.  The pea gravel (bounded by ubiquitous brick) is from the previous owner- it goes down to the footing tile.

I looks like such a lovely blank slate to plant things in.  I'm thinking hydrangeas since it's mostly shaded.  Any other suggestions?

Blessings.

Redneck Ice Cream

So we hosted potluck activity tonight (no meal, plus kids) and we decided to try making homemade ice cream again.  This time we checked out the motor on our ice cream freezer and discovered that there were no gears connected to the part that would make the dasher turn.  No dasher = no churning = no ice cream.  Soooo.... our ice cream freezer also came with a hand crank that is geared correctly and Bob came up with this handy little fix.  The motor is connected to the hand crank with a precisely engineered piece of wood and stabilized with rope tied to the step stool... classy.

 

 
While we waited for ice cream, the girls played in the turtle pool.  How many kids can you fit in a very small turtle?

I love Cecily's face...  she was so excited all night. 

 

They splashed all the water out so we filled it back up.  We also used the play gym thing for the first time- thanks Streitmatters!



 

 About halfway through the ice cream making, the wooden adaptor broke.  Dale and Rustin and Bob had a great time rigging up another, better, metal adaptor.

 

 
It worked great and we ended up with thick and yummy ice cream!  Hooray!  I did email the manufacturer because I don't think we want to recreate this setup each time we make ice cream.  I mean, you really shouldn't have to be machining your own parts to get it to work...

Blessings.

Paper and Pears

So I totally forgot, but we've lived here for one year on Monday.  Happy Anniversary House!

 

 

 

Little miss and I spent most of Tuesday at Matt and Lena's.  We finished pulling off the wallpaper and started wiping down woodwork and baseboards and things.  Layers of wallpaper on top of patterned drywall.  I'd never heard of such a thing, and now that I've seen it, I can see why it never caught on.  *grin*   When we got home, little miss discovered a box of Nilla wafers in the diaper bag... and proceeded to get crumbs everywhere.



 

 Ooooohhhh.  Summer is almost over.  Mur.  But lawn furniture is on sale!  So I ordered these for super cheap.  They were not fun to put together.  Poor Bob, the things he does for me. 
 

They match the white trim and our red doors, and are totally retro.  Love.

 I dug out the bricks in the remaining flower bed last week.  That trench contained two (three on one end) layers of patio pavers and bricks laid side by side on top.  Woot.

 

Today Cecily and I went to the farm and canned pears.  Not only did Aunty Shelly let little miss chase a kitty across the dirty shed floor, she also let her play in the sink to clean up.  It was hilarious.  (Yes, that is her laughing.) 

Blessings.

Exhale

Well, we made it through serving church lunch.  No one starved, but we only had four sandwiches left.  Slightly mortifying.  Ah well, can't do anything about it now, and not sure I could have done anything about it before since there was more company than we knew about.  There were gobs of donuts left over... which I love...

Anyway.  This is our messy garage.  It's got streaky, pale yellowish green paint.

  

 The walls are marked up from years of car doors and kids.

One section is finished.  It makes it feel so much cleaner.

One afternoon, little miss and I were outside.  We picked some tomatoes and then I let her sit in the grass while I moved some pavers to the side yard.  (I dug more bricks out of another flower bed... they are never ending...)  Little miss occupied herself with chewing on tomatoes and pulling grass so we both ended up filthy. 
Dirty mouth, dirty hands, dirty feet.

 So I decided to take her in the shower with me... except that her diaper was full so I set her in the shower to rinse off... and she was mad that she was in there alone so she crawled out.  *sigh* Quite the mess on the bathroom floor.

Saturday we set tables and went to four testimonies in the evening.  Karen and Randy came out for that, and G and G and mom and dad came on Sunday...  fun times. 
Little miss was waiting at the door when K and R stopped to change after church.

Cecily took a super long nap today and I was brave and swept the basement!!!  I swept up so many spiders and remains of spiders.  It was awful.  But it's relatively clean now, and I'm still alive!

Blessings.

Swimming and Wallpaper

I forgot my camera for both.  Oh well. 

Wednesday little miss and I met Mom and Auntie Shelly at Fritz's for a few hours.  The pool water was pretty cold so we didn't do a whole lot of actual swimming.  I guess I did need to work on my tan for the wedding... or something...  haha.

Yesterday we went and helped Mom and Shelly scrape off wall paper at Matt and Lena's house.  Ugh.  I spent most of the afternoon working on the bathroom.  Such a miserable job, and bathrooms are the worst.  There's no place to put a ladder, they're small, they have all kinds of things to work around, the wall paper steamer makes it practically a sauna... fun times.  I would much rather paint.

Speaking of paint, I started painting the garage.  We'll see how long it takes to finish.  *grin*

Blessings.

Crullers

Apparently they aren't called "tractor tires."  And I'm sure I just made the bakery lady's day. 

We serve lunch on Sunday for the first time and I'm trying not to be nervous. There are baptisms and other extra company and I just know that this will be the Sunday that we run out of food and people go hungry...  

I doesn't help that I'm tired... little miss decided to have a scream-fest from 12:30-3am Sunday night/ Monday morning.  We finally let her sleep with us because she woke up every time I put her in her crib.  Last night she stayed up until midnight...  I hear all about babies with crazy schedules- what about babies with no schedules?  *sigh*  It's driving her structure and pattern loving mother batty.

Blessings.

Random

Catching up again.  Nothing major or exciting happened, which is good, but I never have anything to blog about so I don't...

Anyway.
I do have pictures of Cecily.  *grin* 
She's actually sitting still!

We went to the farm and picked beans one day and froze them.  Nothing like picking beans with a dog who is fond of dead things... it's a good thing I don't get grossed out easily.
She's figured out how to get up on the hearth in front of the fireplace.

She knows she's not supposed to be under the desk.  Stinker.


 Bob brought home some mini cupcakes and she had a great time squishing one and eating it.
I can't wait until my birthday!

 Matt and Lena came for supper Saturday night.  I don't think Little miss stopped moving the entire time they were there... 
What?  Doesn't everybody sit on pictures?
 

 My latest project.  I saw it on pinterest.  I think I like it, even though the map got a little bit wrinkly in the gluing process.  It makes me want to paint the wall now, white is so boring.  *grin*

Today was Wendi-with-an-i's wedding.  We decided not to drag Cecily to W-ton all day so we just went to the reception and hung out at the farm until Grandma's birthday party in the evening...  It was a lovely wedding, they're so cute. 

Blessings.

Life

It's been a quiet week... thankfully. 



Sometimes she wakes up and starts to sit up and falls back to sleep on her face with her bum in the air...


 

Oooo electronics... I like electronics...


Why yes, I did climb onto the dishwasher when you weren't looking mom, and I'm very proud of myself too.  Cheese face.

 

 

We went suit shopping this evening.  Little miss was not impressed until she saw the three way mirror... hehe.

Blessings.

Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten, Daß ich so traurig bin

I think my brain is still on vacation. 
We've been pretty busy. 
My car randomly decided to not start.  Thankfully it was just the battery.
I did corn two different days and little miss crawled around on the floor and ate raw corn two different days.
We went to Aaron and Katie's for potluck.
Young Matt got baptized.
Little miss had a fever. 
And she's been super grumpy.  Woot.

Blessings.

Week of Weeks- 26

The 26th Wyss Vacation is over... it was lots of fun, as always, but it seemed a little bit empty this year.  Too many people with jobs and fiancees.  Little miss had a great time at her first 'cations.  Although, she wasn't too excited to be in the car again. hehe.

She had a great time with Kebe and Shena.

And she loved all of the attention she got from everyone all week. 

I took her out on her first boat ride with the girls.  The life jacket didn't last long at all, it was hot and she didn't like it around her neck...

Chilling with Kacie while Kendra wake boarded.

We had lots of fun swimming in the lake.  Mom brought a little baby pool for her to play in too.     

I made Bob go knee boarding with me.  (Since I'm so out of shape that's pretty much all I can handle...*grin*)  One of my favorite things in the world is floating in the middle of a quiet lake on a sunny day waiting for the boat...  after a spectacular wipe out.  And that waterlogged feeling- I don't think my hair was completely dry all week.  Glorious.

Otherwise we spent a lot of time relaxing, eating, drinking pop, eating, playing games, eating, antiquing, eating, watching ridiculous shows, talking, eating, and more eating.

Little miss hanging out with Clayton and Daddy.

We had some pretty funny conversations around the supper table this year.  We now know what Clayton is looking for in a girl (mostly just looks) and Michelle's criteria (basically she needs a full health history).  And anybody who wants to marry Scott needs to be a pretty good cook.  *Grin*  Much laughter. 

Anyway.  It was a blessing.  Since I'm not good with words, I'll quote my cousin Scott-

"another Wyss vacation has passed by, and all that remains are a few goodbyes in the morning... far too little do I recognize and appreciate how I am incredibly blessed for the amazing family that I have, and for the most incredible grandparents...it is because of them, their values, and their defining faith in Jesus Christ, that an extended family of now 57 people can be as close as we are. There just don't seem to be any adequate adjectives to describe it..."

Nine Months

Little miss got her nine month pictures taken last week.  I go the cheap route and only get one pose, and it's so hard to choose. She's much more photogenic than me.  *grin*  And I can't find my nine month picture or Bob's for comparison... sooo.... anyways.  Enjoy.

Look Uncle Jakey- I'm lavender!

Blessings.

Showers

Little miss and I have spent the last few days going to showers.  ugh.  Not my favorite thing in the world, but, it is amusing to stare at my love-struck brother and Lena.  *grin*

She loves oreos.  Stinker.  Won't eat much healthy food...

Thursday evening was the church shower so little miss and I went to the farm for the afternoon.  Aunty Shelly let her swim in the sink.  In her clothes.  *sigh*

Ahhh showers, where we all get to blatantly stare at the couple and discuss the bride's taste in housewares... 

And make them tell their story.  Pretty sure this is when he said, "I was smitten, it was wuv, twu wuv."  hehe. 

Cecily enjoyed the wheelbarrow.

Friday morning was the family shower at Lori's with much good food.  Then we had a short break and got some work done at home.  Their singing shower was that evening so we all went to that.  Woot woot.  It was kind of fun to be at a W-ton yg singing again.  Anyway.  I put 100 miles on my car in two days.... eesh. 

Blessings.

We got to Kansas City on a Friday...

Hooray for road trips!  We left Friday after Bob got home from work so we got there kind of late.  It only took us 6 hours with one stop- all four lane roads make it so much faster!  Little miss did pretty good; thankfully (or mercifully), she slept the last 3 hours...

I like my cushy new car seat!

She woke up when we pulled in to Brett and Laura's and was wide awake and wound up.  If it wasn't midnight after a long day this probably would have been a whole lot funnier... 

It was hot in Kansas too, so we just hung around at Brett and Laura's with Dale and Meg.  They got their kiddy pool and slip and slide out for the kids.  And we had Jackstack for lunch.  Good times.  In the afternoon we played games and for once I didn't lose!  Brent & Beth and girls and Bruce joined us for supper. 

Sunday was church.  This is pretty much the only picture I took the whole time, but it's pretty cute.  Joni was enthralled with Cecily, and Cecily was enthralled with Joni's purse.   

It's been a very long time since we were in KC, so being there was pretty fabulous.  I kind of miss the days when it was practically my second home.  *grin*  After church we stopped at Brent and Beth's to change and then we headed for home.  Good times.  Maybe next time Randy and Karen will be home and we'll get to see them for more than a few minutes.  hehe. 


Little miss is officially crawling... and she's already figured out how to get into things.  Oh dear.  I have some major rearranging to do... mostly stuff that just got stuck places when we moved and I was going to get around to finding a better spot for eventually.  It's time!

 Tolkien is so much better than that giraffe book, Mom. 

A Box! I love boxes!



Little Miss and I spent Monday afternoon at Heidi's.  We had a great time catching up and working on our girls' wedding dresses.  Heid is making Bridget's dress for Wendi-with-an-i's wedding and it's going to be sooo cute.  Hopefully Cecily's dress turns out.  It's fully lined and it has such tiny sleeves.  Ahhh.  I hate sleeves, and I haven't even got to the zipper yet.

The Fourth

She's a grand old flag-  I'm so excited to have a flag and flagpole this year!! 

We decided to try out our ice cream maker on the 3rd... and invited Caleb and Bethany and their girls over to eat it with us.  I didn't quite set up though, so we just had sweet cream soup.  Sad day.  O well, maybe next time!

On the Fourth we were lazy and then I invited ourselves to the farm for supper.  Grandpa and our little firecracker.     

O little miss...  See that white thing she has in her fists and clutched to her chest?  That's an extra large marshmallow Uncle Jakey thought she needed to try.  Hooray for sticky messes.  She was enjoying it immensely.  *grin* 

After supper we all headed to Ron and Kary's to watch the fireworks.  I made her onesie from leftover Dresden plate quilt pieces because she didn't have anything patriotic to wear.

I match Aunty Shelly!

And I am much too squirmy for a good picture with Great Grandma!

Grass is my favorite!

Ooo... I got the volleyball.

She liked the fireworks, when she wasn't more interested in her plastic cup. 

And then we all went inside to wait for the traffic to subside and eat root beer floats.  Aunt Pearline thought little miss needed some ice cream and proceeded to feed her half a bowl.  Aaaahhh... Um... O dear.  Cecily loved it.  The look on Pearl's face was priceless- this right here is why I sometimes have an overwhelming urge to be mischievous- it's those Metzger genes. 

Surprisingly enough, all that sugar didn't seem to affect her too much.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home and went back to sleep pretty quick after we put her pajama's on.  

Blessings.