After another week of fighting with our internet/computer I am currently at a friends house using her computer while ordering new internet service… Please don’t leave me, I’ll be back…. eventually…
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Bedtime
Clara is almost two and her language is exploding, in the last week she started saying two word phrases and adding new words to her vocabulary everyday. I never know what she’s going to come out with, some of her phrases are totally new and catch me off guard like “shower curtain.” Whereas others are just combo’s of some of her common words such as, “duck poop.” But no matter what the words, the really fascinating thing is how quickly she can incorporate her new phrases into delay tactics at bedtime. In fact I think it’s possible she has so quickly expanded her vocabulary just to try and stay up a few minutes later.
Just days into two word phrases she now has all the typical tactics down.
It starts with:
” ‘Nother Book?” and once I leave the room moves quickly to:
“WATER MOM!”
From their we head to:
“POOP POTTY!” (Always a large dilemma for the potty training stage. Is it a fake? Is it a false alarm? Is it for real? How can you tell?)
If the girls don’t quiet down when they should the hall light goes off which has always been accompanied by lots of yelling, whining and now new shouts of:
“LIGHT ON!”
As skilled as she is in the delay tactics of the world for better or worse she has one of those mean mothers who doesn’t bend much a bedtime, until she pulls out the big guns…
” ‘Nother Hug?”
Meet Trip
After much deliberation we have finally named the new puppy and I feel I can do introductions.
Everyone meet Trip.
The newest member of our family is a Brittany Spaniel, my hunting companion to be and only Piper can rival him in perfectness.
Who was the other pup in the Sneak Peek post you ask?
Behind Trip is his yet to be named brother who is my brothers new hunting companion and I’m sure only Tyler’s current dog Turkey can rival him in perfection.
Tyler and I took a long drive to Lincoln, Illinois on Sunday and picked up our pups from Dogwood Brittanys. When we arrived to pick up the pups we discovered their new policy – “Buy six puppies and get free hats!”
Do I need to mention that my family loves these dogs? The family who is Dogwood Brittanys breed great dogs, are wonderfully nice people, their puppies are well socialized, the dogs have all been great hunters, and they personalized our hats.
Who could ask for more?
I could go on and on about the wonderfulness of new puppies, how Trip is adjusting to farm life…
…and how well the girls are doing with him…
…but I’m afraid that would only jinx things. Besides I need to go stop my wonderful puppy from eating the carpet, after all even wonderful puppies are still puppies!
Sneak Peek
Happy Birthday Tyler!
This is my brother Tyler.
It’s his birthday today.
In honor of his birthday I just wanted to say a few things about my favorite brother.
In particular I’d like you to know that even though he can wield a chainsaw, 
or wrestle a sheep or fix his ginormous truck or engage in a many other death defying, dirty sort of pursuits don’t be fooled into thinking he is just a big tough guy.
I’ve seen bottle rockets cause him to cower in fear,
and once I heard a opossum made him scream like a little girl.
This has been Tyler’s big sister just doing what big sisters do best, thank you for your time and happy birthday Ty!
How Does Your Garden Grow?
In the spring I’m always full of hope and plans when it comes to the lawn and garden.
I think that this will be the year that even though I hate the lawn I will keep it nice and neat if only to make my husband happy. I will plant grass seed in the bare spots, dig out more thistles and fill holes. It wasn’t…
During the winter John and I made lists of vegetables for the garden and in early spring the kids and I started seeds in the house.
Our vegetable garden vision didn’t quite pan out this year…
… that’s right, we’ve got one sad tomato plant that I’m afraid has never seen the proper end of a hose. On the bright side this is a very hardy tomato plant, if I knew what it was I’d recommend it to all my brown thumbed friends!
In the spring I’m certain that the girls and I will garden together and that the flower beds will be beautiful and mostly weed free (even I’m smart enough never to hope for weedless).
In June it looked hopeful.
But now that August is here my flowers appear to be engaged in a game of hide and seek…
… I figure it was nice of me to leave so many weeds so they’d have such nice hiding places.
For mothers day John and a good friend bought flowers for my window boxes and they were gorgeous… 
…emphasis on were.
And so my gardens grow, or to be a bit more correct; wither, die, and are smothered under weeds. But that’s the great thing about gardening, while it’s possible this was my worst gardening summer in history and I’ve pretty much given up all hope for the time being, I can already picture next years garden. You know, the one brimming with sweet corn, tomatoes and herbs set in the nicely manicured lawn right next to the house with the wonderful perennial flower bed and the beautiful window boxes. You should come visit it’ll be great… next summer.
Days That Make You Go…
Remember last years post about the fun of the Long Lake Lager Fest?
Remember the car trouble on the way home?
The Third Annual Long Lake Lager Fest was again a great time with friends – an excellent tradition in the making.
And again we had car trouble on the way home, except worse – not such an excellent tradition.
Today was the day the report from the mechanic came in.
Some days just make you go:
I’m thinking of hitching a ride for the Fourth Annual Long Lake Lager Fest, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun but I’m not sure we can afford the drive home!
Do I Dare Hope???
It seems that we are back up functioning and online…
… of course I thought this before and was then proven wrong – more than once.
So though I’m supposed to be doing lots of other things before the weekend I’m going to share a story quick in case it all crashes again!
This morning Ivy was snuggling on my lap as she woke up, looking at a picture of John and I from our wedding. She said my dress was beautiful and wanted to know where it was.
I told her it was in a box in Granny’s attic and that it would stay there so that one day if she or Clara wanted they could wear it in their own wedding.
She popped her head up,looked at me eyes shining and said, “MOM I would LOVE that!” as she dove in for a big hug.
But when she came back up she was almost in tears as she said, “But Mom, I don’t know who I’m going to marry!”
News From the Computer-less
I’m still here… sort of.
Our home computer is still non functional.
Unfortunately this has more to do with the fact that I’m a stubborn do-it-yourself-er (even when it comes to things completely out of my league like a computer) than anything else and so with one thing and another, the computer is making progress but still not usable.
What I have learned is that I can actually survive without my computer and the internet. In the first few days of computer-less panic I wasn’t sure it was possible:
How do I get a hold of ____ without e-mail? – The phone.
How do I know what the weather is going to do? – Walk outside.
What about the news? – News shmews if it’s really spectacular someone always mentions it.
Online banking? – Send it to work with John.
I ended up with only one main problem.
What about my blog? – ???
Since there is no good option for blog writing away from home when you have two children and your local library often closes at five I’ll keep plugging away on fixing the computer. I’ve a backlog of pictures, stories and books to share and who knows one of these days I may even break down and pay someone qualified to fix my problem!
Catastrophe!
During our rash of breaking things the hard drive jumped on board and we lost our computer. Today I’m at the library frantically catching up while attempting to keep Clara from pulling all the books off the shelves and sticking them in the return slot…and now I think my time is about at an end because I smell something suspiciously stinky coming from Clara’s direction.
Hopefully I’ll be back online soon, but now I must go put the library back together!
Behind the Willows 