Country Chic

I love my inlaws' cabin home, it should be featured in some magazine. Well, it has. But here are some of my favorite corners:

You can keep your jacuzzi tubs--whenever I think of the perfect soak, I picture myself here.

-abbey's little sink stool-

Then down to the kitchen. Her oven is off about 75 degrees or something, but she knows how to adjust. And my mom can throw together a meal in this cozy kitchen like it's nobody's business.

Do you know anybody that has a wood burning stove? Oh. Well, do you know anybody who actually uses to heat their home in the winter? My father-in-law chopped wood for hours and hours getting ready for winter. We were here when the stock market took a nosedive a few weeks ago. I thought a lot about my own situation and surviving savviness and I loved to see how self sufficient they are. They even have their own water well. I'm in big trouble if our economy fails. More. I get concerned when I can't find Corn Bran at the grocery store.

It was cool to see things through a little girl's eyes this time.

I never really appreciated the beautiful antique toys until I saw Abbey appreciating them. Mom had a whole little house set up for her with a stove, antique doll cribs, tea sets, and furniture just her size. So lovely.

Homecoming

J had a charmed life growing up. I'm so drawn to the little community where he was raised. I love the simple, hard working way of life. And, let's be honest, small town gossip is the best kind of gossip! :)

This week it seemed like every time I turned around there was something beautiful. I'd go on a walk with J's sister and mom every morning along this road.

Abbey insisted on taking stale Honey Comb for Frita the Goat every morning.

The best part was being there to witness the NSHS Homecoming. Justin was Mr. High School. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean it in a 'I've-moved-on.--I'm-not-still-hanging-on-to-my-football-glory-days' sort of way. So it was fun for me to see how involved and excited this community is about their high school sports.

My niece and nephew got all decked out in their dad's old football jerseys for the homecoming parade. Last year J's grandparents were on the honored float for being voted NSHS's number one fans. They still go to every event even though the last grandkid to play there has his 10-year reunion this spring.

My second favorite part of the experience: while waiting for the parade to start, the little boy in the background of this picture came over to shoot the breeze. He said he stole his mom's car to get there. Then he told Boston he'd come to his birthday party later in the week if he could steal his mom's car again. I just laughed. My sister-in-law didn't. Maybe she knows something I don't.
But my favorite part was at the end of the parade. Everyone was hanging out, listening to country music. I turned to my sis and asked how long everyone stuck around. She said 'Oh, I forgot to tell you. The whole parade turns around and comes back again.'

Love it.

The New One

bond |bänd| noun: • figurative a force or feeling that unites people; a common emotion or interest

On week two of my 'happily-married-trial-separation' I headed up to the inlaws. A special thing happened. My mother-in-law took charge of Abbey in the morning leaving me alone with my little love, Hayden. I got to wake up with her and spend a lot of time looking at her, playing with toes, and smiling. It was a luxury I took full advantage of and truly bonded with my second child. What a blessing.

Let's Go Back, Shall We?

So what's it been? A month and a half? Eeesh, thanks for sticking around! J did eight straight weeks of rotations in Ohio and Minnesota so the girls and I headed for the motherland. I've kept up with the ol' blog but didn't have a way of putting on pictures while I was staying with the folks. So now I have a backlog of entries that just need a pretty picture or two to keep it aesthetically pleasing. Let's just pretend it's September...

Party Caveman Style

Hooray! My fabulous friend lent me a card reader so I could finally pull these pictures off my camera (thanks Kathy, it worked!)



The night before I flew to visit family, my friend threw an awesome theme party. In fact, I purposefully scheduled my flight the next day so I would be sure not to miss it. I spent the night before making my costume but realized I was seriously underdressed as I drove up and saw the Ansons:
Heather (Party Hostess Extraordinaire) puts this huge party together every year. I don't know what past party themes have been, but I was oh so happy it was 'Caveman' this year so LeAnn could scheme Randy into this getup: (yeah, that's SUPER glued on!)

We split into teams and went through a series of challenges--here are the first groups learning they have to suck a chicken bone clean then try and toss it in a kiddie pool across the yard:

This is one of my favorite 'old' couples. I use the term loosely because they are too hilarious and fun to be deemed old. This picture captured one of my favorite moments of the night. I missed the instructions for this particular challenge because I was just inside the door taking care of Hayden. I watched these ladies struggle putting together this little dinosaur, and truly, it did look hard. But when it was all over (probably a good 20-30 minutes later) I heard someone say "Come on! It says for ages 4-6 on the box!"

It's A She

Poor Hayden. My family has taken to calling her 'Fester' since I started putting her in the bumbo this weekend.

Then today I stopped by my old piano accompianist. I introduced Hayden and she said "Oh..like Coach Hayden." That's what J calls her, but I didn't expect it from an elderly lady! But to her credit, the kid had no bow in and was wearing little red Nike track shorts.

And it doesn't help that I shaved the back of her head this weekend. J was not happy to hear that but really, it looks so much better. She had the startings of a rat tail and now it can all grow in together.

So I now resolve to keep cute headbands on while we're running into old friends here. Or at least keep her in pink. But come on! This kid looks like a girl!

Uncle NoNo

The girls and I are home with family now. You wanna know what's awesome? Aunts and Uncles who are so excited to see nieces that I haven't had to entertain my kids for a couple days now!

Although, Abbey's been picking up some weird habits from Uncle NoNo. (I love how kids can start new nicknames that'll stick for years.)