Walking

Garett is walking! Hip hip hooray! He takes about 5-6 steps max right now. He's a pro at standing. I have yet to get a good video of it but will put one up as soon as I can shoot a decent few seconds. Also, we have weened him of his mid-night and early morning bottles. He got into a habit of "requesting" a bottle at 5:30 or sooner and then somehow midnight or 1 came in to play. We decided he was just taking advantage of us!! :) So we worked on weening him from that habit and he is a full night sleeper now. YAY!

On a personal note, I tried on two prom dresses from high school and was able to zip them up! I was so excited! I have slowed down on the working out since my anxiety crept back in... which is backwards I know. But I've been watching my caloric intake and eating lots of small meals each day. OH, and the water! Can't go without water. But I'm proud of myself, as Jake is too! I am definitely back to pre-baby form but now I want to focus more on the toning. Once school starts up, I will have a scheduled day so planning my workouts will be much easier.

Bouncing Around

On Saturday, the boys were invited to a birthday party at Monkey Joe's, an inflatable play place. Garett is at the age where he is old enough to play around on a few of the inflatables... and he LOVED it! I forgot my camera but was able toborrow a friend's camera and snap a few shots of Garett trying out an inflatable for the first time.

He did a great job! He would crawl around, falling on everything, but was smiling the whole time. Him and Wyatt wrestled a little bit too. That's what caused the scratch on his face as well as a little black eye on his left eye. Battle marks!

Garett even went down a few of the slides with mommy and daddy!

Passed out after lots of playing! (on the left is Max, Jessica's baby boy just a few weeks younger than Garett). I love how the bottles have found their spots on the ledges!!

A Quick Praise!!

Dear God,
Thank you for reminding me today that You are in control. As we prayed last night for our home in Colorado and the issues with the leaks in the water lines, we prayed for You to hear our prayers and guide us in the decisions about what to do with the water -- wait on the community (which would require us to have patience and trust that this selling process wouldn't be halted and give You the driver's seat) or move forward with our own repair man, taking on the costs ourselves (which Lord, You knew the sacrifice we were willing to make). Thank you for sending an answer so quickly. I praise You for answering our prayers.

Thank you for reminding me that you DO answer prayers, something I tend to forget especially when it's not answered the way I wanted it to go. Lord, we continue to pray for our house and the selling process, that things continue to work themselves out. Thank you, God!

Amen

A Quick Prayer

God,
Thank you for sending a family to buy our home from us back in Colorado. Lord, we have prayed for almost three years about selling this house. Thank you for hearing our prayers and also teaching us about your timing.
Lord, as we deal with these water leaks that have recently been discovered and become frustrated at this situation, I pray we remember what we have been praying for and how you work in all situations. .. that we don't let our frustrations and anger take over from praising you for sending this family. Lord, we pray for all things to work out with the closing date.
We know this is just a bump in our long road. Thank you for the lessons we have learned along the way. Thank you for guiding us to finish what we have started and fulfill our responsibilities.
Thank you for our many blessings, both big and small.
Amen.

Organized Chaos

Now that my hubby as entered the work force, he gets to finally experience first-hand organized chaos at work. He has seen my teacher desk and given me plenty of grief in the past. Now, I get to do it to him!

This is his desk the day after his new commander came for a visit. Not too bad! Better than normal, that's for sure.

This pile of papers was pointed out to me so I could see how he quickly solved the situation of having a clean work area in no time flat! Not bad, Jake, not bad at all! I usually use a copy paper box under my desk to hide my stash... something a pro would know to do! :)
**By the way, the blankets and baby toy are left over from a day that Jake offered to watch Garett for me... something he reminds me often that he will never do again!!!! :)

Our Fishing Date

We were supposed to go to a water park (without our kids) on Sunday, but due to Jake's ER visit we were unable to get away. I don't think we've been on a date for a month or so now and we really needed to have some one-on-one time. When we start not seeing eye to eye, a date is WAY past due!

Anyhow, we got a sitter last minute to watch the boys while we headed to a pond on post to do some fishing. We didn't have any luck reeling anything in but we both had a few bites, Jake landed one but it jumped off the line before it got to land, and I paid the price of wearing Crocs fishing and was attacked by fire ants. But all in all, it was a great date/time away from the boys that we both needed. I love doing activities that Jake enjoys... the saying "If mama ain't happy..." is the same for daddies! :)

Getting the poles rigged up!

Ready to take on some fish!

Moments after a "monster" fish jumped off his line. Our only hope for catching a fish that night... crushed!

Pouting about our inability to land a fish... but the date was still fun!

Wyatt's First Bike Ride... sorry, no pics!

Tonight, Wyatt requested we go on a bike ride and HE wanted to ride on HIS bike in the road!!! This is a big deal because he hasn't done this yet. So I hooked Garett up to the bike cart thing (whatever it's called) and told Wyatt he could ride next to me on the street. We went up the street to our friends' house to say hello. Wyatt fell one time and started to freak out about it so I quickly turned his attention to how far we had gotten. A few times, instead of using the brakes he would just turn and ram into the curb. That couldn't have felt good on his boy parts! I kept reminding him to use his feet brakes, which he is still getting used to.

The speed was actually not bad for a 3 year old. I was in 1-1 the whole time (when I usually bike in 2-5 or so). But it was nice to ride next to him on the road... quite a feat for our big boy!

Garett's Helmet

We bought a helmet for Garett about a month ago but haven't gotten pics of him with it yet. He doesn't enjoy having it on him, that is for sure! I don't make him wear it all of the time in the bike cart but I want him to get used to it more. It seems to fit his noggin real well... so either it's a small helmet or his head is huge! :)

Don't Tell Daddy...

So Wyatt was playing with Garett earlier, trying to put some of Wy's shoes on Garett's little feet. All of sudden, Wyatt bolts away and comes out wearing, what else, my heels!! Don't tell daddy!! :)

Trying to walk in heels... hopefully this is the last of this!
Smiling for the camera

Giving a manly pose! He took them off shortly after this pic and gave them to me to wear. Phew!

Tangram Shapes

One of my first weeks of school, I am going to focus on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, a great repetitive book for introducing colors and animals to students. One fun activity we will do with shapes is make the characters out of tangram pieces. Here are a few that I made up on my own (I found a site that had some already... so I had to get creative). Let me know what you think!

I am having issues with creating a frog. Here is one...

Here is another... only the head (two large triangles, two small for eyes). But I have pieces left over that I need to use up. Ideas???

Here is another attempt at a "jumping" frog. I have searched online and I guess the chinese were stumped by this creature too since I can not find a single tangram pattern for a frog.

Here was my first frog attempt. Now that I see it, I don't really "see" it anymore!! :)

Teacher version 1

Teacher version 2

Teacher version 3... which one is your favorite?

Bird #1 (the two small triangles on the left are the beak... it's chirping!)...

... bird number 2 (this one is flying to the right)

Fish... duh!

Horse... the medium triangle on the neck is sort of like its mane.

Please post your comments and share your thoughts, especially about the frog. I am in need of your thoughts for that amphibian. I think this will make a great center for the students during our Brown Bear week. I'm thinking of making the tangrams into colored sets to match the characters (blue horse, red bird, etc).

A Minute Update

The boys are doing great! Garett is on the verge of taking his first steps. He will stand on his own for a while now, and walks like a stud with just one hand for help. Wyatt is always wanting to play with his friends which allows him the opportunity of learning to be nice! Just a few minutes ago, he poked a little girl in the eye because she wouldn't let him have a turn. Someone tattled on him to me and he came in for a time out. After a moment sitting down quietly, we talked. I asked him if that's how we are nice to our friends. He said no. Then I talked to him about what to do when he doesn't get a turn. He said he should ask instead of poking. He said he liked having friends so we need to be nice to them. Once he was allowed back out, he ran up to the girl and said, "I'm sorry, I'm very very sorry!" It was soooo sweet!

Jake is doing well. He recently took over the branck -- so more responsibility. But I know he will do well. He is just so calm and cool at work. He went to the ER on Saturday night. His chest was bothering him and I could hear a crunching/rubbing in there. Our friend Nikki, a PA, listened and said if he came to her clinic, she would want an xray. So he headed in. Xray and CT were normal so the doc diagnosed it as pleurisy and gave him some Aleve to bring home... that is AFTER he was given some hydromorphone (sp?). Jake said that stuff TOTALLY relaxed him! :)

I'm doing well... trying to prep my classroom for the school year. I have some more boxes to go through and then organize all that is in the room now. The previous teacher FINALLY came and took all of her stuff. Unfortunately, that included some basic supplies and bookshelves. I will become good friends with our partners in education and PTA this year since we are not given much, if any, budget for materials!

There's the update! :)

Iceland Water

Sorry I forgot to mention this...
I never tasted the water. I was being a penny pincher and tried not to spend a dime (or penny!) while on the retreat. Therefore, I never tasted the water from Iceland. But it sure looked refreshing!!

A Retreat to Callaway Gardens

This past weekend, I went on a ladies' retreat to Callaway Gardens, about 45 minutes away. The retreat was put on by my neighbor's church and since there was a lady who had to cancel last minute, Anna invited me! I was so excited. It was a relaxing and energizing retreat, very intimate with about 20 ladies.

I was reminded at the retreat to abide in our Lord. One of my favorite verses from the weekend was, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." —2 Corinthians 12:9-10

At our third and final session, I came upon this thought: I would rather be in a storm of trials and tribulations for the rest of my life if it means me seeking and staying close to the Lord. Then, I considered my fear: becoming content again in my life and trailing away from God. It would be best if I learned the importance and value of a strong relationship with God this time around and, no matter the circumstances -- good or bad -- remain close to Him.

Here's some fun pictures of the resort...

The $4 bottle water in our room's frig... from Iceland! :)

A very fancy bathroom... at least fancier than the Super 8.

A glass door shower... not the normal vinyl shower curtain I'm used to.

The room with a walk-out balcony.

Modeling the robes and Icelandic water

Focused on the Ball

Where is it?

Found it. Need to grab it...

Got it!

Life is good!!! :)

In To Everything

We recently moved the dogs' water to a less-trafficed area so it wouldn't get so dirty. With the empty space next to the dryer, we decided to just stack our laundry baskets there. This has turned out to be a comfy play spot for Garett!

Little Helpers

As I continued work on my front yard project, Wyatt and our neighbor boy, Jude, decided to lend me a hand. What cracks me up is their shoe choices. Wyatt went with the good ol' cowboy boot while Jude went for the quickest and closest choice to the door... his sister's high heel sandals!!!! :) When Irie, his sister, made it over, she was wearing her mom's sandals. Gotta love it!

Jude's dad, Eddy, would be so proud of his son (as Jake would be of Wyatt!).

After a while of digging, filling the bucket, and dumping the extra soil at tree bottoms and in between bushes, I decided to do this whole thing logically. Bring out the Gator! Wyatt was given a Gator Big Wheels type of toy for Christmas from my parents and had never used it to its full potential. The kids drove it up to me, I filled it with shovel-fulls of dirt, and then they drove and dumped it at the bushes with me. It was awesome! Too bad I didn't get a picture of that.

My neighbor, Anna (what a great name!), came over and gave me some advice: pull up the old bricks and scatter them with the new ones. Not like I wanted to do MORE work, but I wanted it to look good, not too cheap.

These are the roots that I had to saw through (thanks to Anna for having a saw... ours doesn't work anymore). The big root was like a mini tree laying in the ground. We couldn't figure out what tree it went to... possibly one that used to be in the yard that they cut down. But the wood seemed still fresh.

The final product. Anna helped me get the bricks in as close together as possible and without much movement. You can sort of see the pattern I went with using the old bricks. The old ones are at each of the corners and then they make a diamond in the middle (with a new one in the very middle).

I still need to lay some grass seed and grab a bag of mulch for under the water hose. I think it would be great to extend the right side one more brick out (they are only $1.37 at the PX right now). We'll see!

Oh yeah, notice the hanging plant! Let's see how long that survives at the Barnoski house! :)

Little Boy, Green Thumb

One day, I got the crazy idea of trying to beautify the outside of our house. I know we are renting and, as Jake would say, why do too much to it when it's not "ours". Well, it makes me feel better about where we live. So I invested less than $20 and some good work hours outside. I had to dig up so areas since there were some dead plants and piles of dirt in our front walk area. I hadn't gotten too far and Wyatt decided he needed to do some planting! Since he became a "diver" in swim class, I bought him some dive toys. Somehow Wyatt figured these would be great items to plant and grow! After "planting", he asked me for some water. Well, at least my son realizes plants need water... he's ahead of his mother already!! He'll probably have better luck growing his toys than I do growing an actual plant. :)

Mom, where's my pitcher????? :)

As you can see in the background, I was in the beginning stages, clearing the area and seeing what I was working with: 8 bricks and lots of extra dirt!