Farewell to summer

When Carolyn and I stepped outside this morning it became clear that summer is gone. There was a layer of snow on the deck just perfect for making footprints and all of our plants were brown and shriveled. Some people are pretty sad around town, but we are excited! Besides the challenge of finding a Halloween costume that sufficiently insulates a toddler, I like this weather. I can't wait to go home and rake our leaves into a big pile and play with my daughter.
As a tribute to this past summer, I wanted to share my favorite picture of the season. This is from camping at Turtle River State Park with Grammy and Grandad.



My sister's wedding is coming up soon, so Carolyn has a beautiful new "wedding dress", aka: flower girl dress, and you wouldn't believe how excited she is to wear it. We get it out of the closet daily. I am not as excited to wear mine. It fits perfectly except in one area (if you know me, you understand) and I'm feeling a little self-conscious. But I AM VERY EXCITED to wear the jewelry. My mother and I got to go design some custom jewelry at a local business and we had a blast. It is all going to turn out absolutely, fabulously cool.

We are still working on the bathroom and Bryan is gone for a week to do some pheasant hunting, so you can imagine how frustrated I'm getting. At least Carolyn loves taking baths at her grandparents' houses.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

For those of you who haven't given up checking this blog, yes, we are still alive. We are in the middle of our first major home improvement project. Apparently Bryan doesn't want to take showers in the middle of our unfinished basement anymore... something about being too cold in the winter. But that also means that we no longer have a bathtub for Carolyn and I, either. Naturally it is taking a long time and going over budget; but for our first project, it is going fairly well.
We went on a boundary waters canoe trip with Bryan's sister and brother-in-law last weekend. I needed it. Even though it was hard work and I got pretty scratched up falling off some slippery rocks, I loved it. We were canoeing against the wind in some pretty rough waves on this big lake and I couldn't stop laughing - it was pure happiness for the first time in a long time. I'm a weirdo for finding the fun in that kind of stuff, I guess, but like I said, I needed it.
Carolyn stayed with Gramma-Lissa and Grandpa Roger for the weekend. The first day we were gone we acted normally, the second day we started talking about her all the time. We must have been missing her! When I picked her up on Monday morning, she was going double speed! Her talking and movement, etc. were so much faster than they were on Friday. She must have had a good time because she hasn't stopped talking, yet.
Well, I hope the pictures we took last weekend turn out so we can share some of the stuff we saw.

House update

I mentioned that we made an offer on a house... well, now its going to be OUR HOUSE! We aren't closing for a couple months, but so far everything is going surprisingly well. To tell the truth its quite frightening buying our first house. Its kinda a big deal. It is a 3 bedroom 1 bath; okay, 1.25 bath because there is a free-standing shower stall in the middle of the unfinished basement. Its hilarious, really. It has a big apple tree in the yard, a garden and a big 2-stall garage. We are going to get some pictures to post this weekend, so STAY TUNED!

A Home?

Well, just a quick update on what's going on with us...
We have been casually looking at houses for about 6 months, now, but last sunday we went to an open house out of curiousity - now 4 days later we are doing the whole bargaining song and dance to buy it (potentially). People keep asking me if I'm excited. No. I don't have time to be excited. Mostly I'm just scared to death because I'm a very cautious person - I overthink everything. If we buy a house we're stuck with it and the mortgage!

This is only adding to the stress of school. I have been overloaded with work because the semester has had to be condensed due to the month off during the flood. I have a huge list of things to do and I just keep working at crossing them off, day by day. I had to go to the doctor for help with a severe stress-induced tension headache that lasted 17 days and was only getting worse. The great thing is that the medicine also stopped the eye twitch that I'd developed!

Carolyn got to come with me to see the doctor, and she is a big fan of doctors ever since she had a dislocation in her elbow and the doctor fixed it right up, so she was excited. She had a blast! I feel bad that the next time we go to the doctor she'll be getting a shot; it will probably traumatize her. She especially liked putting on the rubber gloves and running around to give all the nurses high-fives. She had a minor tantrum before we left because I wouldn't change her diaper on the examination table. They are pretty much the same as a changing table, and she is almost two years old.

Almost two years old! And you can tell. She says "do it by myself" and "mine" alot. She also has figured out that she doesn't always want to do what you do anymore, except when it comes to putting on makeup. She loves to put on makeup, and she'll do your makeup if you let her. The other day I let her put bright pink blush on one of my cheeks and partly down my neck. Unfortunately this was right before going to class and running errands - yup, I forgot about it. It was sparkly and everything!

Well, I'll be back soon with an update and some pictures. Its been a LONG time since I've adequately shared little C's adorableness!

Penguin Week

Last week was penguin week at Carolyn's daycare. It was awesome! Just check out some of her penguin-inspired works of art:

Hey,
This is Stephanie's blog.
I'm not available right now,
But as soon as I can sit down at a computer that works, with pictures available,
I'll get back to you with some entertaining updates.
Until then,
An apology will just have to do...
Sorry!

He went BOOM! (arms in the air)

Let's just say Carolyn had a great Christmas; all 5 of them.
My parents had an early Christmas, Bryan's Grandparents had Christmas Eve, the in-laws had Christmas day, we opened presents at our house, and then my parents had a second Christmas. I told Carolyn the other day that we were going to go visit Grandma and she looked at me with a serious expression and nodded her head convincingly while saying "Open presents, again."

And on a serious note (to a certain 19-month-old):
Santa broken

We recieved an inflatable Santa from a friend of our family a couple years ago and BOY was it a DOOZY! It was the best (by that I mean most ugly) decoration EVER!!! It looked like Obi Wan Kenobi glowing red with an inflatable round mustache that was completely separate from the rest of its face. Then it had a gigantic white ball on top of its head that failed at all to resemble the puff on Santa's hat. It was roughly shaped like one of those punching bag clowns that always pop back upright and it was constructed out of the same vinyl stuff that they make water flotation devices out of (to its eventual demise). I was pregnant when we first inflated it, and lets just say I rolled around on the ground for a good hour laughing so hard I almost peed myself!
We took this Santa and put it in front of our friends' house, randomly, and it was hilarious. Well, when they moved we stole it back and were going to vandalize someone else's home this year. We went to go inflate it with the air compressor, and while Dad worked on it, Carolyn and I hung out in the house. We were sitting there eating a cookie when we heard a loud BOOM that sounded like a bomb going off. Carolyn was scared so we went to check on Dad to make sure everything was alright. We peeked out the door and asked what happened; Dad said, "huh?"
While Santa's boots were inflating, the brittle frozen plastic shattered and exploded.
Well, this whole event was very notable to Carolyn who had no idea that there was a difference between the Santa we had been talking about bringing presents and the Santa that just gave daddy a percussion headache and temporary deafness.
To add to the confusion, daddy decided to put him in the dumpster with his head peeking out like he had succumbed to the poor economy and was in a last-ditch effort to fill his gift quota.

If you call the Hall home now, or walk in the door you will hear of this story, still. You see it lives on in the mind of Carolyn. She is obsessed with the memory of the Santa that 'sploded, just like a balloon. We can't walk outside without hearing that he peeked out of the dumpsters. Quite frankly its getting to be a little old.

Won't someone start a Valentine on fire or something?