We're crazy

Yeah, we're crazy. We went camping with two 1-year olds this past week. I think if you're going to attempt anything like this, you have to have a checklist that looks something like this:

• A positive attitude
• A sense of humor
• An undying sense of adventure

They did great! We opted only to camp for one night with the option to pull up camp at any time and drive home. But we made it! Our friends Scott and Amie, and their daughter Katharine, went with us. The plan was to have the kids in their pack-n-plays in Scott and Amie's tent (aren't they generous?) and Gabe and I in our tiny 3-person tent.

Well, that was the plan anyway. Caleb chose not to sleep in his pack-n-play (no shocker there) which led Gabe to lay down with him in our tent on the air mattress. Long story short, he stayed there all night with us. I like to describe it as "half sweet...half sweaty". It was super-sweet to get to cuddle with him in bed, as he's never slept in bed with us. But the other half ended with him snuggling so close that his little head got sweaty. And whoever he wasn't cuddling with got two little feet in their ribs pretty much all night.

So we didn't sleep. But man, we had fun!

Another bath story...

Last weekend we were down at my parent's house to celebrate Gabe's birthday and to celebrate an early Father's Day with my dad. After playing outside with "paw-paw" on the tractor, picking up sticks, running up and down the hill, etc., we had a little boy who was ready for a bath.
My mom and I got the bath ready, threw in the toys and started scrubbing. About half way through, Caleb just sort of sat there, got a smile on his face, and then we saw some bubbles arise. He smiled his big smile at us, and then quickly folded his hands, bowed his hands and said "Jeeesuus".

What do you think? Was he asking for forgiveness for breaking wind in front of the ladies? :)

Do we call the fire department?

That was the question we kept asking each other when we returned home after church on Sunday afternoon. As we pulled in, we could hear the distinct sound of smoke alarms going off. I know this sound well, as anytime I try to make chicken fingers in my oven, my smoke alarms always go off (I'm not sure why it's always the chicken fingers???).

Anyway, back to the alarms. After determining that they were NOT coming from our house, we started our detective work. They sounded like they were going off in the unit right next door. So Gabe walked around, looking for smoke or something, but didn't find anything. He knocked on the door, rang the doorbell, knocked on the sliding door in the back. No one was home.

The boys that live there have only been there for about a month, so we didn't have any contact information for them. I did a little detective work myself and got on the tax assessment page for the Town of Normal. It lists realty transactions, owners, etc (a little tip I picked up during my short stint as the Secretary of our Homeowners Association). So after tracking down the new landlord, Gabe called and well, got his answering machine.

Now what?

Do we call the fire department? At this point, the alarms have been going off for awhile. We're pretty sure that there isn't an immediate fire, but we really didn't know. And since their unit is connected to ours, we didn't want to wait to find out. I was definitely fretting over whether or not they would be mad that the fire department knocked down their door, but thoughts of all of my stuff going up in flames soothed my anxiety.

So Gabe called the non-emergency number for the fire department. And he got an answering machine. Hmmm, this is becoming a trend. Luckily, they gave him another number to call, which we think was the actual fire department. We explained the situation and they said they would come out and take a look.

And they did. With their big fire truck too! Too bad Caleb was taking a nap. We considered waking him up for it, but naps are too precious. They circled the place, considered all of their options and decided that climbing up a ladder to a second story bedroom would work the best.

After about 15 minutes of scaring all of the neighbors, they came out and said it was a faulty smoke alarm. Thank goodness!

Needless to say, we have since met the boys that live next door, as the fire department left them a note and one of them came over to talk to us on Monday night. Gabe also had a very long conversation with the landlord (who ended up being some composer that Gabe knows and has played many of his pieces), which turned out to be great, as he promised to cover his window well in the back (so as to keep our 1-yr old from falling in it).

So good news all around! It's not often you have to call the fire department - it was a pretty eventful Sunday afternoon!

A little landscaping

Disclaimer: My camera started working again, but not like new. It still is flipping pictures and occassionally gives me the E18 error. Until I can come to a decision about which new camera we're getting, you'll have to settle for what I can give you. In order to give you pictures that aren't flipped, I'm doing this blog through Picasa, which means I can only give you 4 pictures. So without further ado...

A few months back, I had a grand idea that we should do some landscaping around our back patio. We had grass, or should I say, a lack thereof, surrounding our a/c unit and surrounding patches.

Back to the grand idea.

After running to every home improvement store in the B/N area (and some in Highland, too) we found the bricks and rock that we wanted.

Here are the before pictures:

And the after pictures:

Thanks to Tom for #1. all of the hard work you put into making our small backyard liveable and #2. for actually knowing what you are doing! We love it and think it looks great!

RIP Dear Camera

Well it's happened. Our camera died. Part of me is sad and part of me is ecstatic, as it means we finally just have to break down and get a new camera.

I'm not entirely convinced that the camera is completely dead, however. When I turn it on, the lens comes out, goes back in and makes a few clicking noises. Then, in the bottom left-hand corner a little "E18" pops up.

I just looked up "E18 Canon error" on Google, and apparently this is a very, very common Canon problem. So common, in fact, that there is a Wikipedia entry for it.

Either way, it's time to get a new camera.

So, without further ado, I'm looking for suggestions on great cameras. I'm just looking for a little point-and-shoot (for now...but oh how I long for an awesome digital SLR - I love to take artsy pictures when I can!) What do you have? Why do you love it? What do you wish it had v. doesn't have? I'm pretty partial to Canon's, but I'm willing to listen if you've got a great camera to brag about. Let me know!

Hi-eeeeee!!!

So about 10 months or so ago I posted a blog entry entitled "Our Social Butterfly". I would have used that for this blog, but I didn't want to be redundant.

But truly, we have a social butterfly on our hands...with one condition. He has to be the one who says hi first. If a stranger says hi to him, he gets all shy and quiet. However, if it's on his terms, he'll yell across a store (which he did today) "HI-EEEEEE!!!!!" And will just keep saying it until the person says hi back or until they walk away.

I do think this has something to do with the fact that it's one of the few words he has perfected. Although, his vocabulary is expanding every day. Sometimes he'll say hi and bye to things/people who aren't even there.

It's funny how some people react with a big smile, a wave and a hello back. And others react as if they didn't hear him (which is entirely impossible). But I also love how he doesn't care what the people look like or what they're doing. If you're there, you're getting a hello.

I do wonder how long this will last. Is this truly a part of his personality or will he grow out of it somewhere down the road? I guess that's part of the journey!

Coastin' in the Ghetto Cruiser

Gabe: Did you leave the car window down last night?

Me: No

Gabe: Are you sure?

Me: Well, unless I accidentally hit the button on my way out of the car.

We came out of my parent's house on Sunday morning to find the front passenger window ajar about 2 inches.

We tried to roll it back up once we started the car, but all we heard was clicking. As we started our way down the driveway, we noticed that it was slowly going down with every bump we hit.

Hmmm.

We still had a good 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us to get home and we knew that the window was not going to make it. So we improvised . . .

I'm proud to say that it held up the whole way home, with just a slight cool breeze coming through the small gap at the top. I believe we hit a new high of classiness, don't you? Don't worry, it's been shuttled off to the mechanic. We're no longer shaming ourselves on the highway. I was just glad that we didn't have plastic flapping in the wind - now that's classy!