Michelle and I took both boys to the portrait studio to have their pictures taken.  Skyler just turned 3 months old on Tuesday and that's tradionally the first studio portrait that we have taken.  Kaden was acting 2 1/2.  Uncontrollable.  I remember trying to get a portrait of little Kenny at that age and having to go back 3 times.  She was disgusted, but I told her it was the age.  I was talking to some young moms last night at the reception for the spousal social group that I'm president of and one of them told me that she'd heard that 6 weeks before and after a 6 month birthday children at are their worst.  That would be right there for Kaden.  But then I was thinking about that later and realized that would mean 1/2 the year a child would be unmanagable.  Maybe that's true, but if it is, I'm not buying into it.

So, photos.

Brudders.

Kaden

Skyler.

So now Michelle has her picture for her Christmas cards.

I'm doing much better today than yesterday.  Right after I blogged I got a terrible case of nasea and ended up staying in bed for most of the day.  I guess I did too much on Wed.  I'm trying to slow down, and I have, but it's a really thin line between not being a slug and doing a little bit more every day.

Anyway, during the time that my folks were around Dave painted the kids bathroom.  It had been wallpapered in a shell design, probably 23 years ago when the house was built.  That wasn't holding up so well, so one of the first tasks we assigned to Ken after he graduated was stripping the wallpaper.  That task proved to be more daunting than any of us thought.  But he succeeded and the walls have been bare and all the fixtures have been removed since the end of May.  We all had to wait on Dave, since Ken and I both subscribe to the slop-it-on technique of painting and Dave is Mr. Perfectionist.

The results:

There are no windows in the room, so we went with bright and cheerful.  And Monkeys!  FUN!

The new toothbrush holder.

And the lotion dispenser.

I love monkeys.

I did it for the grandkids.  Um, yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Another kind of adorable primate.

Smile away.

Boring post ahead.

I am definately improving every day - just not as quickly as what I'd like.  I went to choir last night and made it mostly through on my donut pillow - had to stand up for the last-for-me song.  Then I was done and I found a couch in the lounge area and lay down for the next 1/2 hour.  Turned out I had a low-grade temp.  So I went to bed early and feel better now.

I need the donut pillow because my tailbone feels like it's broken.  The doc says that most women feel the pain in their hips.  Not me.  I feel it in the tush.  He said it's probably becuase I had previously broken the tailbone, so it was more susceptible to the pain than any other part of my bottom area.

We have been eating through the main dishes that my mil brought to us on Sunday.  Yummy!  And Ken took the baskets of clothes up and down the stairs so I could do laundry yesterday.  Life continues. 

My mom and dad are back in Florida.  I think they miss being with friends and family.  It was really nice to have them here for the week.  Kaden and great-grandpa really connected in a silly way!

The surgery went very well.  Thanks for the prayers.  I'm a little sore, but drugs are my friend!  I even got a suite last night - that was wonderful - no roomie, no annoying TV, no loud relatives, and a nice extra room for Kaden to run around in while they visited.  I sound like a grouchy old lady, but really, I think all hospital rooms should be singles.

So, since I don't have any pictures of me I want to share, I'll put up a video of Dave, the horse, with his favorite rider, Kaden.

What a great week with my folks - they're in Cleveland now, enjoying their stay with friends from way back.

On Sunday I helped give a shower for a niece, Ruth.  We picked the date so that mom could attend.  Fun and games were enjoyed by all.

One of the games was the toliet paper game, where each team dresses up a bride in a toliet paper dress.  The real bride is in the center.  Can you guess who we picked as the winner?

My uncle and his brother, both retired pastors, helped me pick the winner.  I thought they were eminantly qualified, each having officiated at over 100 weddings.  But, as their wives pointed out, they weren't very observant when it came time to describe the bridal attire to their spouse!

Fran and I put the shower on. 

Michelle got to lead one game.

I got to hold my baby.  Look at how long he's getting.  He's over 10 weeks old now.

I'll post more pictures another day.  Please remember me tomorrow (Friday) at 12:30 when I go in to the hospital to have my bladder lifted.  It should be a very good thing when it's over and done!

My parents arrived yesterday after driving two days.

I have no idea why this font is so dark.  It's really frustrating me.

Is this better?  Not much

I never change fonts, so why has it changed?

These kinds of things drive me batty.

Anyway, pictures.

Kaden and great-grandpa.

Great-grandpa and Skyler.

Great-grandma and Skyler.

Uncle Kenny, rough-housing with Kaden.

Today I drove them around to some of the quilt gardens and murals.  Not all of them, and we stayed in the car and saw most of them from the car.  So, not as intense as when I went with my garden club buds.

Kaden and great grandpa sit it out.

Michelle chats with Sam while Aunt Em fills out her online diary.

And, last night we celebrated Michelle being in this country for 15 years!

I got one of those big chocolate chip cookies - yum!

Tomorrow won't be as much driving.

Oh yeah - my surgery is scheduled for next Friday, after the folks leave for Cleveland.

I had my pretesting today and discovered that having a latex allergy is kind of a big thing in hospitals.  Good thing I had recently reviewed my allergy skin tests and remembered that latex had a number next to it - a 3 as it turns out.

So they have to do all the surgery in that operating room latex free all day long, just for me!  Wow!  It'll be at 1:30 in the afternoon and I'll stay 23 hours.

Lots of fun things planned for before then so I won't think about it yet!

So we polished off our oars and made it home from a very wet Chicagoland this afternoon.  In time to watch a very exciting ND/Uof M game, which right now is at half time, but I'm ever hopeful that ND can stay ahead and win!  We  took a new route home, taking the new portion of 355 down to 80, then over.  Boy, that sure beat 294 from North Ave,  I know I lost most of you, but a few of you will have followed all of that!

So, I'm sure that Mary, Sue and Beth want pictures, so here goes.

Besty, being escourted down the aisle by her brother.

Mr and Mrs RD

They had a Beauty and the Beast theme for their storybook romance.  It was very nice.

The cake, along with the Beauty and the beast and the rose under glass.

Then the pictures my friends really want.

Boy, do we all go back a long way.  25 years!  or is it 26.  I can't remember that far back!

And us gals.  We have held each other up through many many moments.  Thanks to both of you, my SIC!  It's nice to get together and see another of our 8 offspring get married.  3 down, 5 to go!!!!!

That's fun.  Let's do it again January 3 with Sue!!!!!

Yesterday was Sam's birthday.  We always remember the date.  So we had a party.

Someone slept through most of it.

I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I sent the leftovers home with Sam and Michelle.  Wasn't I good?

Aunt Em and Uncle Ralph came.

So did Sam's mom and sister Susan.  Skyler woke up before Kaden did.

I put the women to work.  I have to bring a wreath to a garden meeting on Wednesday and I'm not very good with bows.

So Aunt Em made the bow for me.  When we went on the quilt garden tour, the other two ladies spotted a wreath made out of a length of garden hose and decided that we could do that as well as the one for sale.  So one of them bought a garden hose, had her husband cut it into 5ths, and put ends on each and they each took 2 to make and gave me one.  This is what I came up with.

Everyone loves holding a baby!

Kaden finally woke up.  Took him awhile.  Before they left he was running around like a holy terror.  I hope he went to sleep last night!

We are going to a wedding this afternoon.  5:00 p.m. in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.  I told Dave we have to leave here by 1:30 in order to fight Friday traffic and get to the hotel before the wedding.  We'll spend the night.

I love weddings.  We're getting invited to more and more now that our kids are grown up!

One more video before mom gets here next Tuesday.  Just to give her even more incentive to come!

We went out to dinner tonight with our small group from church.  It was the first time we'd met, having been assigned to each other back in March.  I think they picked the four busiest couples in church to be together!  It was great - we met at a restaurant so nobody had to cook.  Next time we plan to meet for coffee and dessert.  Hopefully in October, but we'll see!

The brudders, hanging out together.  That's how Kaden says it, as in "I lub my baby brudder."

I started bible study fellowship today with Kaden.  Now that he's two, he can come.  He loved it and is happy that it will happen every week.  He stayed over last night so he and I could leave the house by 8:30 in order to get there at 9:00.  It's on the other side of town, which was the main reason I had switched to the evening group, which is 5 minutes from my house.  But the evening group doesn't take pre-schoolers.  This is definately worth any extra effort on my part, just to have Kaden get a good start in learning about the Lord.  This year we're studying the life of Moses.

Other than that, just keeping busy doing home things.  I planted a dozen mums on Saturday and got stung by a bee that I kneeled on.  Ouch!  It's still swollen, but not as bad or as hot as it was.  I was so uncomfortable Saturday night that I didn't even sleep.  I know, poor me!

I had book discusion yesterday.  We read "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson, the true story of a mountain climber who got lost on K2 and found a tiny village, not located on any map.  He was so taken by it that he promised to come back and build a school.  He's since built many more schools in Pakistan, Afganistan, and thereabouts.  One of his criteria is that they must allow girls.  He's doing a wonderful work for the world.

No job yet for Ken, although we finally got him to apply to all the local schools for sub jobs.  So maybe he'll at least start getting in some income!  It's hard in this economy to be a recent grad in history!

I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable labor day.  We had Dave's group over, so, while it wasn't relaxing ( I had to bake and clean!) it was nice.

Skyler just turned 8 weeks old!  Michelle took this video of him a few days ago, when they were over for dinner.

I didn't tell you that Dave won the free drawing the night we saw MacBeth at ND.  He got this basket full of Shakesperean goodies.

There is a doll, two books, some Scottish tea and a mug.  Fun!

Michelle took this picture today - so cute!