First Time

Tonight is my first overnight away from Gerrit. He's almost 18 months, that's a long time of being together. I'm not doing anything spectacular in my night away. I had conferences tonight till 7 and need to leave again in the morning by 6:30 to sub so it made sense to stay in the cities. So, I'm at my friend Sue's - where I use to stay a lot before Gerrit was born. We're just hanging out. She's so great to me - she makes sure I have muffins for breakfast and Diet Coke in the fridge (she's a Diet Pepsi gal). I'm hoping to get up and run before going to work. I can sleep in a bit too seeing I'm only 15 minutes away. It is weird not seeing Gerrit and knowing I won't see him in the morning too. I just wish my first night away was for a better reason than conferences - like a vacation with Adam or something. I'll get over it.

Update: I called Adam thinking Gerrit would be sound asleep and see how their evening went. Gerrit was at a football game! Anne said she'd watch Gerrit for an hour while Adam went for a bike ride, but her boys wanted to go to the football game. She said she'd take him with. So, at 9 pm, Adam was at their house waiting for Gerrit to come home. He called Anne and she said he was doing fine. I can't believe he's lasted this long - I'm curious to hear if he sat still on her lap the whole time. I'm awaiting a phone call - hopefully soon which means Gerrit will be in bed. And to think he will be going to daycare at 6:30!

Book

I forgot to mention I ordered the book that I had talked about a few posts ago. It came yesterday and I briefly looked at it last night. Its awesome! We have been very shocked by some of the findings. Some things we think we were eating we thought were some what healthy and they are not! And when we eat out, we'd try to choose what we thought would be a healthier choice was actually worse than the ones we thought were bad for you. We've enjoyed looking at labels today and seeing how much sugar is in stuff as well as high fructose corn syrup (sugar). Its amazing. I thought whole wheat bread was good for you as long as it was 100% - well, when I checked the sugar content, I was shocked. 2 g per serving and 1 serving is a slice! That's a lot of sugar in a slice of bread. Anyways, I've only read a bit of it and I think we've got some changes to make and will have to take time to read labels at the grocery store. I'm hoping I can shed a few pounds just by making better choices!

So Easy

I uploaded the fall pictures to shutterfly a few days ago. I hadn't been on that site in a long time. It was even easier than before using my Mac! I should do it more often. My cold has finally improved; my voice is back! A cold has not put me out of commission for this long in a long time. Staying home from school for 2 days was odd. We are all healthy - for now.

My parents made it safely and are enjoying Gerrit - and us I think! And I'm enjoying my 2 days off too. I've been teaching for 10 years and never have gone to the convention which is why we are given these days off. I just see it as a time to see the family! I have no desire to go to the convention either.

I've got 2 days of conferences done and one to go next week. Yipee. The weather is beautiful and hoping to get some yard work done with my parents as well as shopping.

Raking Leaves

The leaves are in full color this week. We had a bit of a windy weekend which means many trees have lost their leaves. Adam was going to mow the lawn but realized he should rake beforehand because there were too many leaves to mulch.

Gerrit loves being outside and seeing it was so nice out we decided to see what Adam was up to. Gerrit took to the raking right away but didn't want much to do with the big pile of leaves.


After Adam putting him in the middle of the pile a few times, Gerrit warmed up to the idea of the leaves. He ran through them - well, fell and then crawled out. I was able to get a few photos:




What I find interesting is that we don't even have a tree in OUR yard! Thanks to the large trees at the church next door we get the opportunity for leaf raking without having a tree. I often get frustrated spending so much time taking care of others' leaves.

(We did think about raking the leaves back on the church's property - but didn't. In fact, Adam actually raked some of the leaves from the church and disposed of them because he knew they would end up on our lawn in a day or two anyways! He said one of the volunteers who takes care of the church's property did drive by and wave. The church has at most 30 members and is over 100 yrs. old so you can imagine how big the trees are on their property!)

The Farmer and the Dell

While watching MSU beat up on Northwestern today, Gerrit spent a lot of time playing with his animals that go with his John Deere toys. He took all of them and lined them up on the chair that I was sitting in, then he would walk across the room and admire his work, come back and knock them down and start the process over again. I thought it looked pretty cute how he lined up all the animals and the farmer . What is 'the dell' in that song anyways?????

My Little Helper

Today I did some major cleaning because we have guests coming this week. Yep, Omah and Opah (aka my parents) are coming for MEA. We are excited to have them come but that means getting the house into shape. Adam wasn't feeling real well so I let Gerrit hang out with me while I cleaned. When in the kitchen Gerrit thought my cupboard that houses all my plastic containers needed some work:He spent a long time putting the lids in the butter tub and taking them out. He was kind enough to put them all back in the cupboard when he was done.

When he got bored with the butter tubs and lids, he went to the utensil drawer and pulled out all of my cheese spreaders (the handles have basketballs and footballs on them). When I thought I had the kitchen cleaned, I looked around and saw not only my cheese spreaders on the floor but also table spoons and tea spoons. I left them and dealt with them when Gerrit forgot about them.

The house is clean (for the most part, just don't look too close) and we are ready for Omah and Opah!

A Bit Quiet Around Here

I stayed home again today due to my lack of voice. I layed low and didn't do any cleaning which was tempting - NOT! I will be going to school tomorrow regardless of my voice. I feel bad for Gerrit though as I can only whisper. I only imagine what he's thinking. He did go for a long bike ride with Adam before dinner and loved it like usual. He fed himself apple sauce at dinner and I think he ended up with more on his face than in him. I cringe at the site of him being a mess but realize he needs to learn to feed himself (as do I to let it go).

I did hear of a new book I am going to get while watching Rachel Ray (not my first choice for daytime television). She had on a guy talking about kids meals at restaurants and what choices we as parents should make. It was interesting and any help we can give Gerrit to making healthy eating choices at an early age the better. She also had a nummy recipe for turkey sausage burgers with cranberry sauce. Anyways, off to bed.

One last thing, Gerrit is back on track! He has not become a night owl (yet)! Sweet dreams.