The heat is on....

Well it appears Blogger has been unblocked at work, not going to question, just going to enjoy my writing time :)

The summer heat is really upon us here in Indiana, temps in the upper 90's and heat indexes in the triple digits the last few days, it's really been miserable. I'm not a humidity girl!

I think the heat and summer are getting to Logan as well, ugh we've had a rough few weeks with that boy. I think the heat, which means not much outside time, being stuck with Grannie for the summer and new sister are starting to get to him. Last week he had to pack up a large chunk of toys, and lost electronic privileges. Just not sure where this kid came from. This week has been better, he's earned a few things back. So I'm hoping once we get into a school routine, and he's around his friends again things will get better and he'll be back to his sweet old self, well close anyway. And school officially starts next Wednesday. We got our letter today, that he'll be in afternoon kindergarten. We have an ice cream social on Monday, and then orientation on Wednesday where we get to go to school with him and hang out for a few hours, then Thursday is his first official day. He's very excited, more so to ride the big bus than anything. And he has his first loose tooth, so lots of changes at our house, prayers that he handles these changes okay.

Avery gets bigger everyday I swear. She's so close to crawling, although some days I wonder if she'll just skip it and go right to walking! Her teeth are bothering her lately too and it looks as if she'll get a top one first. She's been chatting away lately too, really starting to find her voice and all the different sounds she can make. It's too cute, this really is one of my favorite baby stages:)

We've got a busy wedding season coming up. Jamie and I took a road trip to Lansing this past weekend for our cousin Megan's shower (can't believe she's getting married). We had a blast, the shower was fun and then it was great to just chill out on Saturday night, gabbing. Her wedding is the 21st, so we'll be traveling to Grayling for that, then next Saturday is my friend Erin's wedding. It's a small simple wedding, so as her present I've offered to be the 'photographer' for the event. I'm excited about it that and have some great ideas:) Then we have another friend's wedding Labor Day weekend, whew! Tis the season.

Back at it

Hopefully more regularly too. Blogger is still blocked at work, but I've realized how much I miss keeping up with it, so I just need to make time to keep up with it. (Especially since Grampy complained, don't want to be on his bad side, have to maintain my status as the favorite grandchild, heehee)

It's been a busy summer, and its flying by! We took a trip up north over the 4th, that was great! Avery had her first camping trip and did very well, I was more stressed out about it than I needed to be, but it ended up being fine and nice and relaxing. The boys did some fishing, with no luck, and we did some swimming. Then we hung out at Grampy's with the family for a few days, which is always nice. Logan go to play with my cousin Melissa's kids which he enjoys. So overall a good trip!

Logan has enjoyed his summer home with Grannie, but I can tell he's getting antsy, and sassy, so I think he'll be glad when school starts and can be around kids his own age again. Just a few more weeks left. We had to go over to the school a few weeks ago for an assessment, so we got to peek around a little bit.

Avery of course is growing like a weed, 7 months yesterday. She's so very close to crawling, gets herself up on hands and knees and rocks back and forth. It won't be long now, also means we need to get to re-babyproof the house. For the most part its good, just need to get some of Logan' smaller toys put up in his room.

And it always seems there's projects around the house to do, that's never ending. We got new laminate flooring put down in the living room a few weeks and it looks great, very happy with it. We've only lived in the house for a little over 3 years, and the carptet was just worn out, really didn't want Avery crawling around on it. Guess two dogs and two boys does that:)

Things at work are better for me, I just within the last few weeks, made a switch to the civil engineering department, which is where I really enjoy being. They've even let me work on some design elements here and there. Things at work are so-so for Richard, he got moved to the Construction Inspection department, since there is zero work in the survey department. So he's a little disappointed to not be working in his field, but thankful to have a job just the same. Plus he seems to really be enjoying the new group of people he works with. Plus he's guaranteed to be home every night, woohoo!

Well, that's all for now I guess, hope everyone is having a good summer!

TTFN!

Blocked

Well, I was a bad, infrequent blogger to begin with, but now I'm afraid it will be worse. I used to access the blog from work during lunch, but recently they have blocked all blogger blogs, I'm not sure why, maybe someone was looking at inappropriate blogs and ruined it for the rest of us. I'll try to wrestle the laptop away from Richard as often as I can for updates.

Things are going well in the Gustafson house. Softball season is in full swing, and Logan and his teammates are improving every week. He's enjoying his time at home with Grannie, and seems to be in a growth spurt and will eat us out of house and home before its over.

Miss Avery finally rolled over the other night, although different from the 'norm' she rolled back to front, and seems to have no interest in going the other way. She's onto solid foods now, and bananas seem to be her favorite, and peas are the least favorite, and since I also can't stand the smell of them, we won't be consuming many peas in our house.

Otherwise, life is good!

Snapshot Sunday

As promised here's some pictures from Logan's first baseball game. The game yesterday was cancelled due to rain and field conditions.

Play Ball!

Well, the rain held out long enough for Logan to play his first baseball game, and they did great! They were all so excited, and I think a little overwhelmed by the idea of an actual game with a real field and real dugouts. Logan got a few good hits off the tee, and got out once at first base, but he really had a good time. And even willingly took a nap later in the day, he must've been tired! I'll try to get a few pictures up later.

For the most part it was a pretty soggy weekend, so we didn't get much outside time. Richard had a small window for grass cutting on Saturday, but that was it.

Yesterday I spend the afternoon finishing up my tags for the consignment sale this week. It's pretty neat, you enter all your tags online, set your own prices, print and attach the tags and then just drop it all off at the sale site, and they take care of the rest. Nice way to make some extra cash, and clean out my basement storage, for not too much effort.

We also paid our last week of daycare tuition this morning!! Woohoo! Logan is counting down his last five days.

T.G.I.F.

Well, Richard is still a mystery (heehee). The doctor called last night and all of his bloodwork came back normal, so we're not sure what caused the stomach pain. He's feeling much better today, just a little tender. So I guess we just move one.

We're also praying for NO RAIN tomorrow for Logan's first baseball game. We have opening night activities tonight too. He's very excited for both.

I'm so very ready for this week to be over with. All week its been one thing of bad news after another, the world just seems a dark place lately. Illnesses, cancers, tests, bomb threats and bullying in schools, murders, there just hasn't seemed much good this week, and it has really been testing my faith. I've felt strong in my faith, but this week with all that's been going on has made me wonder how and why God puts us through what he does. How much can people handle before they break?

So to escape I plugged into my Pandora Radio and set it to Glee Cast Radio (i'm a huge Gleek). The songs that come up usually consist of show tune stuff, so I wasn't really listening just kind of zoned out, my mind racing with thoughts of the week when a song pops up by Kristin Chenoweth (who has appeared on Glee before). The song was Word of God Speak, in the midst of all my show tunes, and it kinda freaked me out a bit, as I listened to the words I kind of stopped and realized that despite the bad week I still had faith. Bad weeks make us appreciate the good ones that much more, and appreciate loved ones. So call it a sign or whatever you want, but that small snippet helped bring me back. Here's the lyrics that touched me:

I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say

Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness

Word of God speak
I'm finding myself in the midst of
YouBeyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with
You And in the quiet hear Your voice

So today I'm just thankful, not even for anything in particular, I just kind of feel at peace I guess, since I have no control over the universe, only control over how it affects me.

Bad Blogger

Once again, all my good intentions have failed. I really did intend to be a regular blogger, but its just not happening. Oh well!

Miss Avery is 4 months old today, and I am always amazed at how much she's changed in just that short amount of time. She's got quite the little personality, and it appears is becoming a Daddy's girl:) She's got a certain little squeal that she does only for him, its too cute. And of course the second she hears her brothers voice, her whole face lights up in a smile.

Her tummy troubles are much improved, thank goodness. So funny how your brain kind of forgets that stuff. In the middle of those evening bouts I wondered if this would ever end, and now looking back, it seems like no big deal. Guess its all in the perspective. Now if we could just get her to take good naps, we'd be all set. She'll only take good long naps, if Grannie is holding her. The longest she's slept in her crib is 40 minutes. The weekends we're more than happy to cuddle up with her for a nap in our bed, and she's usually out for 2-3 hours! So she's capable of a nap, just not regular ones. So that means a nice early 7 o'clock bedtime, a 1:30am feeding and up at 7:00 am. And she seems perfectly happy and content otherwise.

She's really discovered her hands, and is reaching out for toys. She's also SO close to rolling over its not even funny. Richard hopes she goes this week yet before he goes back on the road for work, we've been blessed to have him home this week with us and its been great.

Although, he did spend two days of it in bed sick. Not really sure with what, had severe abdominal pain, which we didn't mess with, so off to the doctor yesterday. We're waiting the results of the blood work, could be appendicitis, gall bladder stones, or an infection of the nodes attached to the intestines. Or just nothing, but can't be too cautious with stomach issues.

Logan is officially in the 'school age' room at daycare, and it is chaos in there. It's all the school age children that attend the daycare, some before and after school, so there is quite a range of ages in there. We're quite unhappy with the situation, on two separate occasions last week, after sending a bottle of sunscreen to school, he had not had any put on him for afternoon recess. I asked him why not and he said the teacher didn't want to. So I questioned her, and she said yeah its sometimes too crazy in here to get to it. HELLO!!! He's a redhead, sunscreen is a must! That was kind of the last straw for me. And once its summer and ALL the kids are there ALL day EVERY day, I imagine it will get worse. So we've come to the realization that he's at the peak of what he's going to learn while attending there. So next Friday will be his last day at daycare. Grannie has agreed to have both kids for the summer, and once kindergarten starts he'll go to the afternoon program at school. She's very excited about it, and is already planning menus and crafts, and buying activity books, so it will be a good thing, also the money will be saving every months is a HUGE plus.

The school is still letting him participate in the preschool graduation in a few weeks, which reminds me I need to purchase an extra box of Kleenex this weekend :(