Flashback, one year

Heidi's Uncle Curt and Aunt Darlene moved from VA to IN over the weekend. They stopped in to Hotel Gerbick to break up the drive. They rented two Penske trucks and towed two cars. This was the exact same setup we used to get here from Idaho. So needless to say it all looked eerily familiar and kinda scared us a bit because moving stinks.
Heidi says: this house may be 'ugly' & need a lot of work, but we're not moving again any time soon, b/c yes, moving sucks.

Non-human friends

Griz & Biz

Ralphy & Biz

Ralphy & Addy...two dogs or two kids...you decide

Addy and Griswold had friends over this weekend. A friend of a friend was out of town so we watched his dogs Ralphy and Biz. Three dogs running around was definitely a new ball game but we survived. Unfortunately some of our plants did not fare so well as they were caught up in one of the many trysts. Addy absolutely loved the small dog, Ralphy; she would chase him around the house incessantly, but he seemed to enjoy it. Ralphy also liked to pick on Griswold, jumping on his back when Griz was sleeping, nipping at his ears...it was really funny to watch Griz get all out of sorts over such a small dog. One thing is for sure: 3 semi-wet dogs around a pregnant lady is not good...very stinky!

Finished

The Hop Hut is finished. The neighbor Rob helped me get the roof on it this afternoon. Now the hops can continue their climb skyward. I wasn't in any hurry for this but apparently they had other ideas as they were already past 8' tall in about 1 1/2 months.

Swing, Swang, Swung

This is our new to us swingset. It arrived from a friends backyard on Friday afternoon in about a dozen pieces. A few hours and some hardware later we were up and running. It took Addy 15 minutes to figure out climbing the ladder to slide down and Griswold about 3 days.

Fun with the boys

Griswold had a very fun morning today! andrew & owen crawford were over (ages 7 & 5) & gris just had a ball with them. he didn't even make one of them cry once! they played fetch with him with sticks, pretzel sticks, & griz's "cheese ball" which is a ball that has semi-circle dents that apparently looks like cheese to kids...they even got griswold to climb up the swingset we just put up for addy (& also for griz now). owen kept asking, 'why does griswold follow me everywhere i go?' & i would reply 'b/c he loves you' & owen would just smile & laugh & walk somewhere just to see if griz would follow him (he did). so now, griswold is snoozing away & looks very very very tired. thanks andrew & owen for tiring out our dog!
addy also had a hoot with the boys. they made human tunnels over her slide, so she was sliding through their legs as they stood on the sides of the slide...addy loved it. most of the time, she just sat watching them play & seemed to be taking very close mental notes on how to swing as high as they did. they even helped to teach her how to climb up the slide (we knew it was only a matter of time).
i had a great time this morning! with older kids around, addy is entertained by them entertaining themselves! it was amazing! i had all this free time to myself...so some weeds were pulled, sticks were picked up...i am going to look for pics of andrew & owen, not sure if we have any up to date ones to post. but they're a lot of fun & are great kids. thanks for hanging out fellas!

birthday party!

Addy wishing her daddy a happy birthday.

Griswold trying to get in on the cake action.

yesterday was wes' birthday & we had a little party for him, complete with the DQ ice cream cake (i offered to make a wonderful gourmet cake, but NOOO, he just wants a DQ cake...). BTW, the cake said '31 is OLD' b/c that's what wes kept saying over the past week or two. i was wishing him a happy birthday in my heart.
both addy & griswold were in typical form of loving everyone who came over & also thinking that this party was just for them...really, it was fun & wes enjoyed opening his gifts, especially his new boxer shorts :o) & the bird bath. in case others have missed this, wes is really into birds... he has asked me 3 or 4 times today if i've seen any birds taking a bath. 'no, i haven't; i haven't really been looking, though...' i also gave wes two doves in love to put in the bath to let him know i still love him even though it's his fault i'm pregnant. anyway, griswold really had a good time eating scraps & addy came out of the house with the entire bag of potato chips, just munching away.

Happy Birthday, Wes!

so today, june 18th, 2008, wesleywill turn 31. not too shabby. so here's to a wonderful daddy & an exceptionally wonderful husband: we love you, wesley alan. you mean the world to all 3 1/2 of us. hopefully we'll be celebrating these darned birthdays & getting older decades from now...when addy can take us out & we'll walk very slow & have great stories to tell about how crazy life was for awhile.
griswold especially loves you b/c without you, his life would truly suck!
love you lots, heidi

Hops!

June 17, 2008

May 21, 2008

Planted, May 13, 2008

So this is my hop growing experiment for the summer. I ordered four rhizomes from freshops.com and they have all done quite well. I have cascade, centennial, fuggle, and chinook. The latest picture is of the tallest vine which is about as tall as I am so we'll call it 6'. Not bad for a little less than a month.

a chipped tooth

this morning, addy was playing in a cardboard box while i was in another room...nothing unusual about that. suddenly a loud cry...again, nothing unusual. so i go to see what the crying is about & addy's holding her sippy cup in her mouth, crying a bit. so i pick her up & give her a hug & then i take her upstairs to change her clothes & brush her teeth. a few minutes later, as i was brushing her hair i noticed blood on the shoulder of my shirt. then i notice addy desperately trying to brush her teeth (hhmm, nothing unusual about that, either!) so i look in her mouth to find out why she was bleeding & low & behold there's the chipped front tooth! apparently, brushing her teeth helped to ease the pain or whatever she was feeling from the head bang that must have occured...so she brushed her teeth for quite a while this morning while i tried to figure out what to do exactly.

wife: call the pediatrician. leave message. wait for nurse to call back. call pediatrician again & thist time ask to speak with nurse ASAP. pediatric nurse says to call the dentist. call hubby to tell him we will have doc appointment today. hubby says he will call dentist. hubby calls dentist. dentist doesn't open until 11. hubby waits to call dentist after 11. dentist says to call pediatric dentist. hubby finds pediatric dentist. hubby calls ped dentist & schedules appointment. somewhere is mention of using cold laser to see if her nerves are raw...everyone a bit worried about this prospect. wife calls hubby from park to see what's going on. hubby tells wife of appointment. wife takes child to dentist at 4:30...

so we're at the (pediatric) dentist & addy is just loving all their toys & as soon as they call her name, she starts running towards the nurse, waving. very outgoing little lady, she is. she loves the nurses, loves that they have balloons, love that they are oogling over her & she is just smiling & posing & laughing. it was pretty great times. she lays back for both the nurse & the dentist & even sits still for an x-ray, while biting on a plate & being held by two strangers (who love her, so she loves them) b/c pregnant mama can't be near an x-ray.

here's the scoop: the chip is very close to the nerve (egads) so they didn't want to file it, fearing that they will hit or expose the nerve, even though the tooth is fairly jagged & sharp (no worries, addy has taken to eating mulch lately, so that may help smooth it out...). they could put temporary plates (nothing permanent since these aren't her adult teeth) or something like that (the dentist spoke very softly, i couldn't understand all he was saying) but it would come off soon, yaddayaddayadda! the short of it: if her tooth starts to discolor, become painful to her, or swell we are to go back to the dentist to have another look-see & evaluate from there. until then, she will just have a mark of rambuctiousness that is our addy.

and JUST last week i thought to myself 'addy should have most of her teeth in soon, so she'll have a full set of pearly whites for a smile'... oh well...so goes life with a toddler.

addy is back home...

yesterday we picked up addy & she was actually very happy to see us! relief; she does love & miss us! after many hugs & then even more hugs, we heard some great stories about her days with g&g gerbick. addy fed the fish daily at aunt peg & uncle dan's, played with cliff & bri's two kittens & with sue's friend's kitten, walked to parks, went out to eat, & even helped host a father's day BBQ! (once we get some pictures from her time in avon lake, we will post them.)
this time, when leaving cracker barrel in the aztec (our car), which grandma drove to avon lake so grandpa could fix the a/c, she thought she was going home with g&g again & started to cry as we were getting ready to leave. wes & i thought she was again crying b/c she didn't want to go home with mama & daddy. LOW & BEHOLD, when wes & i got in the car & said 'ready to go home?' she stopped crying & started clapping & laughing! it was lovely to see that she missed us.

while addy was gone, we painted the flowers on her bedroom wall & will soon have the 'family tree' up. once that is done, we will post pictures of her new 'garden theme' bedroom, in completion (it helps motivate us to finish it). a big thanks to christine & phillip for their help with the flowers & tree drawings...christine also helped paint the flowers; she gave it the 'ar-teeeeste' flair.

it was very luxurious having those 4 days to ourselves, but i don't think we can do it all that often; we just missed her too much! what schmucks we are. but now we know what we will do in 20 years when addy & j2 are out of the house (cross your fingers...): pull weeds, put down mulch, plant flowers, clean the house only after it is filthy dirty (apparently addy being around encourages us to clean), go out to eat, leave the house in 15 minutes, & even sleep in!

griswold is an only child again...

...but only temporarily! addy is with g & g gerbick from wednesday through sunday. that's 4 whole days of wonderful alone time with the 'rents for griz. although he is quickly slipping down my list of favorite things in the world as spring shedding continues (we are seriously vacuuming every other day...piles & piles of dog hair are everywhere! ARG!). when we arrived home from meeting g&g gerbick & trading cars & giving up addy, griswold was very unhappy for a few minutes. he was looking all around making some funny noise (similar to the one addy makes when she's wondering something... ''hhmmmhhhh''...he seemed a bit sad that addy was gone. or maybe that he wasn't lucky enough to get an avon lake/grandparent vacation.

this morning, addy seemed to fully understand how luxurious her life will be over the next 4 days...hardly ever being told 'no,' getting grinders (next time you see addy, ask her to give you one, then you'll know what it is) from grandpa, drinking lemonade with grandpa, going for long walks to the park & pool with grandma...and of course eating most of what she wants (although she is on a no-dairy diet due to a minor virus--EGADS, no ice cream with the grandparents!). we traded cars with sue, hoping that bruce can fix our A/C problems (please! for the love of all things pregnant!), so addy was very distraught when she was put back in her car seat in HER CAR...b/c she thought she was going home with mama & daddy. so she cried & started to flail her legs a bit & then i told her 'no, grandma's driving you to her house' & then grandma sue got in the car & life was all good again. addy happily waved 'bye bye' to mama & daddy, smiling & joyfully kicking her legs this time. (we must believe in our hearts that she loves us & misses us). i'm sure we'll miss her dreadfully by tonight. but we will persevere!

Warm AC

This is why are car is getting warm with the AC on. The green stuff leaking is what keeps you cool.

Sleeping Addy Style

Lately the nightime routine for Addy has been getting tucked into her bed and then us moving her back to her bed a few hours later. She crashed in this position a week ago but I didn't get the proof. I wasn't going to miss it twice though...

That's What Friends are For

These pictures were from a few weeks ago.

how it is

so wes has signed up addy & griswold for a blog. apparently, i am to write on it or something? or we both do? what happens when addy is old enough to type herself a little note about how terrible her parents are? then i guess i will have to get my own blog to discuss the wonderfulness of my children.
and before addy came along, we did treat griswold as a child. however, his status in our family continues to decline with each new HUMAN member being born. sorry, griz. so this september, he will go down a rung yet again. from a bedroom of his own & a spot on the master bed, to a kennel in the basement, to, where next? outside? hhmmm, that idea doesn't sound too shabby after all.
-heidi (aka mama)