Life's Ironies

Why is it that when I try to clean the toilet my daughter is RIGHT by my side and wanting to help me swish the brush around and I can't get rid of her...and I KNOW that some day when I WANT her to clean the darn thing, she's gonna run and hide.

Honest Babe

I am so proud of my Libby Lynn. Yesterday we went to our friend's house near Rockford, Illinois and a great day together. Towards the end, however, Libby found some of their Halloween candy and wanted a piece of it. I was downstairs watching a movie and told Libby NO. I told her that she was allowed to ask her daddy, but if he asked she had to tell him that I already said no. So, she slowly sauntered away, with her head down.

(Scene changes to the upstairs bathroom where daddy was working on some wiring for our friends...from daddy's perspective...)

I was inspecting some wiring that our friends were having issues with...and had the guts of a 4-gang electrical box hanging out everywhere 1/2 of it hot, 1/2 of it not...and my daughter comes moping in with a Kit Kat bar...she raised her puppy dog eyes to her father & said "Daddy, can I have this...I'm hungry!" Knowing that she never eats at meal time, and snacks like crazy otherwise...and knowing that mommy has been doing her best to get her off of that routine...I asked her "What did mommy say?" She looked back down at the floor & in the most meek & disappointed voice Libby said: "Mommy said...no..." I was so proud of my little girl...she was completely honest with me at 2.75 yrs of age!!! I am sure that will change in the near future, but I stressed to her that I was VERY PROUD OF HER for being honest with daddy...so proud in fact, that if she promised not to tell mommy, she could eat the Kit Kat bar. Okay, so that didn't back up mommy's position, but in this situation, I felt it would be more beneficial to reinforce honesty rather than eating habits. She's still alive even though she ate the junk food!!! She's a good girl...I just hope we can keep her that way!!!

Let's Try Again!

Well, we finally have some good news on the home front. After talking with this builder, and that, and checking out this house plan, and that, and talking the bank into s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g our loan to the uppermost amount that we felt we could deal with we decided that it just wasn't worth taking the financial risk of building the house we wanted on our five acres. So, instead, we found a two acre lot down the road in a subdivision...which will end up saving us approximately $50k, well worth the cut down of 3 acres in my book. So, here is a picture of our new lot. It is 1-1/4 acre land plus 3/4 acre woods. The woods (once daddy cleans it up) will be great for the girls to play in. I went out to help daddy stake our acreage out, but ended up babysitting critter in the car because it was so cold. So, here she is enjoying the sunroof in the car. I think this is the first time she has played with that. :) And, yes...that is snow in the background. We woke up Thanksgiving morning to around 3 inches. Anyway, if you know anyone that wants a five acre lot in Sherrill, Iowa send them our way. Ha ha!

Hot Rods!

Libby is SO happy that Grandpa Woods is a car salesman. That means that she gets to "test drive" all of the coolest cars. Too bad one of these won't show up under her Christmas tree...ever...unless she provides it for herself.

Chuck E Cheese Fun

Here are some pictures of our fun at Chuck E Cheese's. Libby hasn't stopped talking about it yet. Maybe once the baby is born we can take her again. :) I think that Steph, Hannah and Meghean had just as much fun playing the games. Of course, they let Libby have all of the tickets in the end. We had a good time. Thanks for the pictures dad.

Time for a Haircut!

Libby was in need of a haircut so today was the day. It was a GREAT time...NOT! Yeah, last time she was an ANGEL! This time, it took 45 minutes to get this done. I was hoping for something super cute, but we were lucky to get this. It actually turned out fairly well for the way she was acting. In other words, just ignore the sticker on her chest...it isn't true!

Libby and her Grandpa

Here's a picture of Libby while we were in B-town. Yeah, I took the camera so I could get all kinds of pictures. Here's the only one I got. Oh well. Libby still enjoyed her visit. Grandpa, Dibber, Hannah AND Stephanie (of course mommy was there too) took her to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. Of course, my daughter, she had to climb ON the stage with Chuck E. And his robotic hand came around and clapped her in the face too...it was hilarious! She had a blast and now she keeps saying, "Guess what? Chuck E Cheese's."

We Have a Genius

Every time I ask Libby whether she is having a brother or a sister she says that she is having a sister. If you then ask, "Are you sure it isn't a brother?" She screams NO! The other night we were looking at a house and the realtor asked Libby who was coming soon...without skipping a beat she answered, "Sister." I kept thinking if she doesn't have a sister, I don't know how she is going to react. Well, she is a genius and we shouldn't have any issues with that question anymore. Yesterday we had our 36 week ultrasound and although the umbilical cord was sneaking between the legs, she wiggled the baby around until she could tell that it was going to be a girl. Of course, it's never 100% sure, but it's more than likely. Of course, now that we know it's a girl, do you think that Libby will say sister for the life of us all? NO! Now she ALWAYS says that it's a brother. Go figure!

HEY!!! THAT THING GOT A HAMMY???

After mentioning it a few times myself, (as well as some motherly encouragement from my M-I-L), my wonderful (but aging) husband decided that he'd had enough and it was finally time to get back into shape. Every time I brought it up in the past, his typical answer was: "I'm in shape...round is a shape!" BUT, with another kiddo coming in December, & a Energizer Bunny for an almost 3 yr old...he knew his energy was falling behind, and it was time to go and work out at the John Deere Dubuque Works Fitness Center. We both have memberships, but the only times he's ever been in there was to show the family around the facilities!!! But anyway, on with the story...

The first night he came home bragging about how he could still do AT LEAST ONE REP of his maximum barbell weight for each of the free weight exercises that he did in college. He told of putting the biggest weights on either side of the small curl bar & curling it...and looking really cool because the HUGE weights were on such a small bar...and that everything seemed to be a breeze. But, the second night was a whole different story. He could barely walk through the door!!! The way I understood the story was this:

There was a skinny, scrappy guy there that my husband knows from Deere...and my guess is that husband was getting a bit of a complex. The other guy was in there working out, (about half the size & weight of my hubby)...but lifting just as much as he did...if not more!!! As time went on, Chris tried to keep up, but the guy could match everything he did. Knowing that he couldn't out lift the other guy (for the time being), my hubby got another great idea while he was catching his breath & taking a break. He watched as the other guy effortlessly pranced around the gym multiple times on the running track. He figured that he would challenge him to a race...mano y mano!!! (Which means "hand to hand" in Spanish...as typically refered to in combat). I guess he figured that if a really old fat guy blew away a scrappy young feller in front of a bunch of people in the gym, he could prove that he was still in the running...(no pun intended!!!) SO, Chris asked the other guy if he was good at sprints...and he said, "Yeah, in my day..." So the duel was on...it was agreed upon that they would do 1/2 a lap, and then on the straight-away, it was an all-out sprint to the death...or at least to the other side of the gym. While on the 1/2 lap pre-start, the other guy was amazed that Chris didn't warm up or stretch out or anything...and asked in few or more words if that would be a problem. Of course, my manly man said, "Nah, I am about as limber as timber...and stretching doesn't help out anyway!!!" As soon as that was said, the olympians rounded the last corner...came to the straight portion....and ramped up to "full speed". Chris said the first 50 ft. went really well...just checkin' out what the other guy could do...and matched him, no problem!!!" The race was about 1/2 over, and it was time for my love to crank it up another notch...kick in turbo boost & fly past the other guy. WELL, turbo boost worked great for a little while, and the fat guy was CLEARLY pulling away from the skinny guy...then something snapped...not good!!! My superman ran into some kryptonite!!! The best he could describe it was that it felt like someone shot him in the back of the right leg. The end of the race was a few steps away, and so he decided to just "walk it off" and do stretches AFTER running...quite the man!!!

The next day after limping around all day, Chris described what had happened, (out of context from the race, of course) and everyone asked if it was black and blue...which was a perfect sign of a torn up hamstring!!! Well, he hadn't noticed it the first night, and didn't think to check...but tonight...this is what it looked like!!!



I love my man...although he can act quite childish sometimes. I guess if this is his form of a mid-life crisis, then I am thankful that I don't have much to worry about!!!

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This particular blog entry was written in third-person limited viewpoint...of which Liza had nothing to do with!!! It is her husband's interpretations & predictions of what is going through her mind during this whole story. I am sure if you have been reading this blog diligently, it is blatantly obvious!!! BUT, she's in Bellefontaine, Ohio until Nov. 11th, so I thought I'd try my hand at this BLOG STUFF!!! The next few months will be quite interesting, so stay tuned!!!