So, for those of you outside of Oregon, we've been hit with an arctic blast. And boy, have we. It is currently 23 degrees outside, and that's warming up. It snowed all day yesterday, we've had freezing rain today, more freezing rain expected tonight, and the wind chill makes the temperature actually below zero. Highways are closed, freeways are closed, and Adam is currently walking to Fred Meyer's to buy chains because no one is allowed on the roads without them. Need I say it?--brrrr.

See the snowman in the below picture? Didn't think so. It's there, under all the snow in our front yard. Adam and Isaac built it about three days ago, and it disappeared pretty much overnight.

Here's a few more pictures of the snow around our place:

Isaac keeps looking out the window and wants to play with his dump truck. Sorry, dude, not going to happen for a while.

Before the real arctic blast hit us, we did get to enjoy some time outside. Here's a couple pictures of us sledding on our street. Notice the pavement? Can't wait to see that again. Hopefully it shows up before Christmas....

When we bought our house, we inherited a fridge in the garage--you know, one that was made before the stone age and probably consumed 10 times the electricity a normal fridge does. We hadn't gotten rid of it because we didn't have a way of driving it to a recycling or appliance drop-off center. Three years later (geez, what took me so long!?), I discovered a way of getting rid of it--Energy Trust of Oregon has an old fridge recycling program, where they come and pick it up, they recycle it, and--here's the best part--they pay you! They took it this morning and will send me a check for $30 in about a month! Whoo-hoo! Let me show you a picture of all the space I suddenly have in our garage:This was taken 2 minutes after the guys picked up our fridgeso I haven't even picked anything up. Here's what I envision with all this extra space:
Sigh. Yeah right. Complete with new truck and everything.

Here are some updates on the boys. Since he's first born, I'll do Isaac first:

Isaac has been so much fun recently! Today, for example, he has gotten a kick out of telling me thank you for pretty much everything--I take his sock off, "thank you, momma!"; I change his diaper, "thank you, momma!"; I give him a cookie, "thank you, momma!". It makes me smile. He has also recently picked up on calling me "mom" instead of "momma", so I feel like I'm listening to a 6-year old at times.

Isaac loves to make Caleb laugh, which is good, because Caleb has a serious case of hero worship, and would probably be severely depressed if his big brother did not pay attention to him.


Unfortunately, Isaac also likes to take Caleb's things. The other day, we noticed every time Caleb was playing with something, it would soon disappear. We searched for his binky at one point for a good hour without finding it. Then, we noticed Isaac take a toy from Caleb, walk behind the couch, and come back empty handed. This is what we found: Isaac had stuffed all the stuff up inside the couch, which is why we never found it by just looking under the couch. So, we finally found Caleb's toys, the wipes...look, there's my phone...and his binky.

Caleb is such a happy boy! As long as he is fed, not tired, hurt, or sick, then he will smile. He loves for people to look at him and talk to him. A lot of people say he looks like me, but I just think he looks like Caleb.

Ahh, fall is in the air. The leaves are changing, the nights are getting longer, the air is getting colder--we finally turned on our heater--and I can’t help but think, yeah--football!
No, I am not a sports fanatic, although I am occasionally interested about a game or trade. I am ashamed to admit, however, that I have gotten so accustomed to football being played on the TV, Yahoo Sports popping up when I awaken the computer, and hearing random football stats at pretty much all hours of the day and night, that I will often be home and not realize for hours that ESPN is still blaring on the television. I am perhaps even more embarassed to admit that I have my own Fantasy football team--the "Eliminators". I think I've "eliminated" three other teams. :~)

Oh, I just remembered--no, the movie never showed up...no kind soul returned it...so we had to buy it. The clerk almost tried to make us pay the late fee for it, too, but we had to argue with him that we just BOUGHT the thing, of course it is late.

Man, it's been a while. I even forgot my blog password! I can't upload any pictures right now (I think the batteries are dead in my camera) so I'll have to post pictures later when I can find more batteries. Here's what we've been up to:

1. Adam and I celebrated our 7th anniversary!!!! We can't believe it's been that long! I am so fortunate to be married to someone who makes it feel easy to be married. Seriously, I cannot imagine ever having chosen someone to marry as perfect for me as he is. Obviously someone was looking out for us. Adam complements me so well--he's so laid back, patient--the opposite of me. We still need to work on things (especially now with kids), but I don't have to worry about many things that a lot of other women do. I love you babe!

2. Both Adam and I started work. Busy busy. I can't tell if it's harder on me or on Caleb for the boys to be babysat 8 or 9 hours at a time. I am completely rushed at school, working through all breaks, preps, lunch, etc. and could easily stay at work past 6 and still not get everything done, but I really want to leave by 4 so I can pick up the boys (Adam's coaching so doesn't get home til 6). It will get easier as the school year picks up. Caleb sometimes has a hard time taking a bottle, which we're working on, but that makes it hard on him (he sometimes tries to hold out til I get home, not very happily). Thank God I only work 2 or 3 days a week right now, and thank you Lord for my mom and Vicki Proctor, who are great with him and Isaac. Love having people I completely trust with my kids.

3. I am ready to move! More important to me than a larger kitchen or bathroom is to have a big room the boys can play in...WITHOUT A TV! Unfortunately I don't think this economy is ready for us to sell yet...

4. I am an aunt again! My brother-in-law Luke and his wife Hollie just had their second baby--Malachi Luke Meyer--on September 8. I am so excited Caleb will have a cousin to grow up with!

5. Adam turns 29 tomorrow (September 19). Any ideas?

So here's what happened to Adam's knee: he fell on it during softball practice, still was able to play the whole game, came home and it swelled up probably to the size of a football (maybe bigger). He basically got a bunch of blood in his bursa sac, and it couldn't be drained (which might be because he waited almost two weeks to go in). So, it's still a little swollen, but he can walk on it fine, but he keeps a brace on it for compression and is heating and icing it so the blood can be reabsorbed. It will take a while, but it's gone down a ton. He can feel his knee cap again under the swelling because it's gone down so much. The bad thing is, since he hurt it he hasn't been able to work, but, oh well, it was just a little summer job to make a little money before the school year starts.
Speaking of... I am getting excited for the new school year! Remind me to post pictures of my classroom (minus students) to show you what it looks like. We've been going in about once a week now just to set up and clean. There were still things in the closet and in cupboards that belonged to the previous teacher that we didn't know were there. I am really excited to meet my kids, but a little worried we will have a large class: in the spring, we already had 26 kids, which is already kind of big for 1st grade, but okay. However, there's always a few adds in the summer, especially to 1st because of the private kindergardners coming in to public school (last year we gained an extra 5 from the spring to the late fall), so we're looking at....31?! Hopefully a teacher will be moved down to 1st grade, but until then...yikes! We only have enough seats for 28!

Adam hurt his knee playing softball. I think he landed on it too hard, on a hard ground, and that night it started swelling up like a balloon. Now, 4 days later, it is still swollen (although maybe a little less), and there's bruising behind the knee. I'm sure he tore some sort of ligament, but we don't know what. Has this happened to anyone else? Right now I am having to take care of 3 boys, because Adam can only get around with crutches.

I am constantly reminded of mistakes I have made. For example, when I drive by our local school bus service station and drive over the crosswalk the drivers walk on to get to their buses, I am reminded of the time when I once drove through it without stopping, and someone was walking across. Yes, I saw them. I could have hit them, but thank you God I did not. It happened about 5 years ago, and I still feel guilty over this thankfully little thing. I still shudder thinking about what could have happened if I had hit them--and all because I was too impatient to slow down. When I am reminded of mistakes like this (or others--believe me, there's a ton...and not just related to driving) I just thank God for forgiving me for making them. Even though I still have to live with the consequences, at least I can have peace knowing Jesus died for these mistakes and covered them.

Sunday, June 29, my youngest sister got married! Elisa married Lt. Chris Lund at Good Shepherd in a military ceremony. Very cool, and really beautiful. They had chosen the date partly so it would coincide with our church's annual patriotic service, so there were lots of red, white, and blue decorations up. The coolest part was at the end, as they kissed, they set off "fireworks" on the stage (it was really confetti shot into the air). That was a surprise for Chris and Elisa, which I almost ruined when I started talking to her about how cool the fireworks would be. I had to quickly cover and talk about the sparklers we were planning on lighting as they left for their honeymoon (which didn't happen, as you'll soon read why).

Yes, Sunday was also the day of thunderstorms, and yes, it poured, and yes, it was an outdoor reception. We joked about thunder roaring right as they kissed (I don't know if it actually did). The rain actually worked out okay, though, because Chris and Elisa had just cut the cake when it started to drizzle then pour, and most everyone had already eaten their first round, so it was a good time for people to leave if they wanted. It did look kind of funny, though, as Elisa and Chris went to take a slice, and half the guests got up and literally ran away! :-) We'll be talking about that forever. Fortunately we were able to move everything up indoors in the church.Afterwards, since we realized we had forgotten to get a picture of the whole family with Cherianne' husband Ben and Adam, Isaac and Caleb, and since Chris & Elisa won't be back in Oregon until Thanksgiving, we all got together to watch them open their presents and get a picture. Here we all are!

Isaac has been sleeping in a twin-sized bed now for a couple weeks, and he's been doing great! Only once has he gotten out of bed when he wasn't supposed to (which was only because Adam let him go to bed with a balloon to play with on his birthday). He likes to sleep with his stuffed monkey and puppy, and I caught him tucking his monkey in once. The weird thing about his bed, though, is that the person who gave us the mattress insisted it was a standard size mattress--and it is, but the box spring that went with it is extra long and sticks out an extra 5 inches.

And here's something else to smile about: Daddy! (I smile, too!) Caleb is so cute when he smiles! He smiles a lot in the morning, or after a long nap.

Today Isaac and I were playing tag, and he decided to suddenly turn around while I was chasing him on all fours and run head-on into me. I was laughing, expecting him to slow down before he hit me, but nooooo--he ran straight into me with my mouth open. He now has two big teeth imprints in his forehead, and I had to run to a mirror to make sure he hadn't knocked out my front teeth because he ran into me so hard. His reaction? He just laughed because he got momma.

Taken this morning--13 days old! Personally, I think he is looking a lot like his big brother.

Believe it or not, that is Caleb under all that. Isaac has a fascination with baseball hats right now, so he let his brother wear one. This was the first time we let Isaac hold Caleb by himself. He loved it!

How cute! Actually, I think Isaac was kind of hoping Caleb would move so he could play with the activity mat himself.

Caleb Joshua Meyer

Born May 14, 2008 at 9:30 pm

7 pounds 12 ounces, 19.75 inches long