Catch Up Time

Well we have now been in Indiana for four months and I think we are starting to feel a little more settled. I still have a lot of days (like today) when I really miss San Antonio and the familiarity of good friends. But I'm also really finding some things I love about a smaller city. We have really enjoyed the weekly farmer's market here and while my frugal side won't let me buy much at a time, the fresh produce, grass fed beef, free range chicken, and fresh eggs have been delicious. I really love summer produce and it's been fun getting it straight from the farmers. We've also been a bit spoiled by my parents' sharing from their garden as well.

The biggest news of the month for us is that we finally sold our house!!! When we listed it for sale last November, I never dreamed it would take quite this long to sell. Especially because we kept lowering the price. We received our first offer at the end of June and after a little negotiating, we accepted the offer. But after having the inspection done, the buyer gave us a lengthy list of pretty picky things she wanted done and we began to wonder if she was for real. (One thing she wanted was for us to clean out some lint that was stuck in the dryer vent) We picked a couple of the somewhat reasonable things and told her we would do those, but she ended up backing out. Needless to say, it was frustrating and we were very ready to be free of the house. But the Lord's timing is always perfect and he brought us another buyer two weeks later. And this one paid cash, so the closing was done in just a week. It's amazing how free it feels to know that we no longer have an empty house sitting 1200 miles away. I think after that experience we will be content to be renters for quite some time.

Benjamin went in for his three year check up this past week. Let me just say that finding a good doctor is yet another thing that makes me miss San Antonio. There just aren't a whole lot of options, and I really didn't like the one we went to. But, all that aside, Benjamin was super healthy and has gotten to be quite a big boy. When he was born, he was in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. This didn't surprise me since neither of his birthparents were all that tall. But as he has gotten older, he has gradually increased in that percentage. By his second birthday he was in the 75th percentile and this year, he measured 40" and was 36lbs, putting him in the 89th percentile for weight and the 95th for height. People are always asking if he is tall for his age, and having grown up in a family of tall people, I usually don't really think about it, but I guess he is. It still amazes me that I have a three year old already.

This past weekend we celebrated Matt's 30th birthday. I think they say this is officially when you are supposed to act like an adult. Not sure exactly what that means, but we had fun celebrating anyway. Matt's parents came down for his birthday and stayed here with Benjamin so I could take Matt on a little surprise getaway to Indy. We have had three overnight getaways since moving here and I think we are officially spoiled. It's amazing how refreshing one night away can be.

I made cheesecake for Matt's birthday and Benjamin had to get in on the action with the candle blowout

I think that about sums up the news for this little family.

My Little Man is Three!

This year has by far been the most exciting of Benjamin's three birthdays. I LOVE birthdays and I love that the excitement of them is being passed on to him. I remember laying in bed before my fifth birthday and not being able to go to sleep because I was so excited. And I remember the year my dad got me this huge warehouse size pack of gum as one of my gifts. We were only allowed to chew it on Sundays and special occasions, so it must have gone stale before I finished it, but it is a fun birthday memory. But back to Benjamin. He's been talking about his birthday off and on for the past month two months. It was about two months ago that I asked him what kind of cake he wanted this year. He told me he wanted an HEB cake, which of course made me miss Texas, but even if we'd been there, I wouldn't have bought his cake. Then, a while later, after our conversations had moved on to other things, he suddenly told me he wanted a cement mixer cake. I made a train cake for his first birthday and it was no small feat for me, but I just couldn't imagine how I was going to make a cement mixer cake. So we came up with a construction themed cake instead. Benjamin and I went to the party store and he helped me pick things out. Just seeing his excitement made me want to buy the whole store. It also made me realize that this may be the last themed party we do because they are crazy expensive. But this year was construction themed, so we had caution tape, balloons, construction hats, and other fun decor. And I made a construction themed cake complete with several plastic trucks, but unfortunately lacking in the cement mixer department. Apparently those are not considered part of the construction sets when they make them available for purchase. Anyway, this year was different than the past two because our families were able to come for his party. We had a beautiful hot sunny day and had his party at the park. Benjamin could hardly keep his hands off the cake and we kept having to tell him to wait to open presents, but it was still a lot of fun for him. This was the first year he was fully aware of the fact that the day was all about him and I loved watching him experience it.

Since we celebrated his party a few days earlier than his actual birthday, I wanted to make sure the day itself was special too. He and I spent the morning playing games and then met daddy for lunch at McDonalds. Back when we were in San Antonio and living in our house while trying to sell it, I'm embarrassed to say that we often went there at least once a week and sometimes more if we had last minute showings. But, since we've moved, life has been a little less hectic and we really haven't eaten lunch out much at all. I think it had been almost two months since Benjamin had had McD's. (As a side note, I totally think the whole lawsuit against McD's for putting toys in their happy meals is ridiculous. It's the play area that draws my kid and none of the McD's here have them. (side side note, even if McD's is totally unhealthy, you have to be a kid every once in a while, and I really wish there were play areas at the McD's here) ) ANYWAY, he was pretty excited about his food and seeing daddy at a restaurant for lunch, so it was fun. To finish off a fun day for him, we spread sheets out in the living room and got pizza and ate it while we watched Veggietales. We had planned to let him sleep in the living room and do sort of a family camp out, but he was antsy and just wouldn't stay still long enough to go to sleep. We finally took him to his room around 10 and he almost seemed relieved and was asleep within minutes. Maybe we'll try the family camp out another year. :)

Benjamin Funnies

Benjamin loves to talk about the things he will be able to do when he gets older. Often when he asks to do or have something and I tell him no, he says "when I get older I can have it." Well, this morning he discovered a bag of toys I had put away because he had outgrown them and I already have plenty of baby toys stored away. Of course he wanted to get into them and I asked him to stop. He told me he wanted to play with them when he got older and I told him they were for babies. His response: "When I get older I can be a baby and play with them."