My birthday "vacation"

Not sure when the last time I posted was. I could look it up. But that would take effort.

It's been a lot of the same ol' play dates, boring days, and whatnot. Certainly some days are more interesting than others. The point is, that recently our day to day activity is pretty routine and nothing out of the ordinary.

On my husband's most recent time off from the rig we decided to take a trip to Texarkana to visit some family since we haven't been there in about a year. The trip went fairly well but I have to admit Taran was right. We definitely had to separate the boys. Noah decided to start pestering August when he got a little bit bored in the car. August certainly doesn't like extended stays in his car seat so after the early trip nap wore off it was a little more difficult and we had to take a couple of stops. All in all I can't really complain too much. A five hour car trip with two boys and only two stops? It was pretty good all things considered.

The weekend was spent going from place to place visiting various members of Taran's family. Taran, of course, helped with some projects such as helping to chain up his grandfather's truck trailer and working to make his parents Internet easier to access. We also took several opportunities to visit his great aunt who was recently moved to a home.

So in the title I mentioned my birthday. Where does my birthday come in? Well it just so happens that the Saturday of our trip happened to land on my birthday. Luckily it was just another day and just treated as part of our trip for the most part. I am slightly bitter about my birthday. It's not the aging thing. I've decided that I'm going to stay 25 until I'm 55 to get senior citizen discounts before that 25 is the only decent age to be. My birthday angst just comes from years and years of constant disappointments. I look forward to my birthday and something always goes wrong to make it either a basic letdown or something nearing the end of the world. At least for birthday person. In any case, aside from the handful of well wishes, the phone calls from my family, and the slightly embarrassing song and dance routine at a restaurant (which at least resulted in some pie, so I suppose that's acceptable) my birthday went primarily unnoticed. This, in my mind, makes for a good birthday. Taran's grandmother also took me shopping to find a birthday present. I think I slightly disappointed her because I didn't get something fun and exciting. I got something I needed: a new belt and a new pair of jeans. They may be boring and run-of-the-mill; but, I desperately needed them so I'm happy I got them.

The trip back was pretty much as could be expected. We headed out just after lunch so that we could take advantage of naptime in the car. Both boy slept for a decent amount of the trip. We took two stops after they woke up making for a good ride home.

So that's the tale of our most recent adventure. Who knows when I'll get back on to share the next exciting chapter of the Endsley's life. I'll try to make sure to let you know when something cool happens.

Wow, where does the time go?

So, it's been crazy. I can't remember the last time I updated or what all has happened since then. I suppose I could go check, but that would take effort, so I'll just update the latest. That's enough for several blogs in and of itself, but I'll try to be brief. The abridged version if you will.

So, a couple of weekends ago, Taran and I attended a wedding of a college friend and former roommate of Taran's. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was tons of fun. It's been a while since I had that much fun at a wedding. But then, it's been a while since I've been to a wedding. Of course, hubs looked fantastic in his tux too (he was a groomsman), so I really can't complain. Noah slept through the entire ceremony (he'd had a long day) but was tearing it up on the dance floor. He had a blast!

The weekend of the wedding was also the weekend of an annual craft fair I work with my mom. It was a bit hectic getting everything to coordinate and Taran was so wonderful trying to accommodate my ability to work the show. It put a damper on his plans to help with pre and post wedding stuff but it all worked out in the end. The show went well. Much better than last year, but I still came home with way more inventory than I would have liked. I sold several of my dream catchers with was a huge surprise to me since I usually don't sell many of those at all. I only sold a few baby items, a buggy and a pair of shoes, which was a bit upsetting but I think next year I will need to bring more small items.

On the flip side, the great weekend came with its price. Taran got sick and was under the weather during the latter part of the weekend. August also picked up the bug too so he was sick for a few days but at least he wasn't feeling horrible - he still was alert and had his overall happy attitude. I got sick a couple days ago. Not fun. It took me out. Now I get why Taran felt so horrible. I tried to help him out how I could and let him get rest, but if he felt nearly as bad as I did, I didn't do enough.

In happier news August continues those happy but terrifying baby developments. He's now crawling like a pro and has moved on to working on pulling up. He also now officially has eight teeth. As always he's as happy as can be, but he does get upset if he crawls himself into a corner or wanders off someplace he's unfamiliar with like Noah's room. He gets all fussy, but I think it's adorable.

Noah is doing his thing. His speech is improving and he's putting three words together occasionally. Taran has been working on numbers with him (I have too, but to a lesser extent) and he seems to be picking those up well. He'll randomly start counting but gets the number out of order. He's trying though.

That's it on our front. I'm still working on figuring out Thanksgiving and dreading the impending Christmas craziness as we plan, decorate, and work on gifts. Some of that is in the works, but mostly in our head and in discussions, nothing physical yet. Yikes! Hopefully I can get back on my feet soon (as I'm still kinda recovering from my "illness") and get to work on that soon.

I'm Going Crazy...

Well, there are some that would argue that I'm already there, but whatever.

We've come to the end of our car search. Kinda. The search is over, the new car has yet to be obtained. Taran has officially completed the paperwork for our new minivan. Now, it's a matter of the dealership actually acquiring it so that we can trade in our current vehicle. That means that sometime next week (hopefully) I'll be officially inducted into the "soccer mom" club. It took a long time for Taran to convince me that a minivan was the best idea for us. I hate it, I truly do, but there really are no other options. Nothing else is big enough, gives us enough storage space, has rear air for the kids and enough room for their car seats, gets decent gas mileage (relative to size), and isn't a giant boat. So, minivan it is. It'll be good for us, just not my ego.

I've spent the past couple of days at home which has been bad for my sanity. Assuming I had any to begin with. I've got some crazy cabin fever and I am in desperate need of a girls' night out. I think the last time I had one was when Noah was about 5 mo. old. The kids are seriously wearing on me. I keep convincing myself that the few hours I get in the evening after Noah has gone to bed will refresh me, but it's not enough, especially considering that August doesn't necessarily sleep at the same time. Usually by the end of the day I'm so exhausted that I just want to veg and in vegging, I don't really appreciate the free time I have. And that's if I let myself veg and I'm not occupied by laundry or dishes or who knows what else that needs to get done around the house.

On a happier note, I have been keeping myself occupied with my crafts. I've finally finished all the shoes that I had official orders for. I also recently completed a cloth diaper cake (for display only) and a Halloween cake (also for display only). They were fun. I got to try some new things I hadn't done before and it was awesome to work out new tricks. I have many more projects prepped and ready to work on, I just haven't gotten around to doing that (and in many cases, I haven't had the energy).

Tomorrow I have my annual eye exam (not excited) and later in the week I have my regular mommy meeting and a meeting for the mommy foundation. Maybe with things to keep me occupied the week will go by faster. Next weekend my in-laws are going to be here, so that means a lot of cleaning on my part. It's nice when they are here, but I really don't like the pre-company prep. That part is never fun. Oh well. At least it forces me to clean on a semi-regular basis so that can't be all bad.

Busy, busy, busy...

I feel like I say that a lot, "busy, busy, busy," but it seems like that has been the case lately. Despite the fact that I've been getting an extra hour of awake time thanks to the boys transitioning from (or is it to?) Daylight Savings Time about a month early. I still feel like the days are passing me by before I know where they went. As a result, I'm feeling less productive as nap time and bedtime result in true "down time" for me. And by down, I mean almost catatonic. Ok, not really, but it's like I switch to lazy mode where I get very little done and just veg in front of the TV or read.

Our awake time seems to take us various places in an attempt to get Noah a release for his insane amounts of energy. I'm not convinced that tiring him out makes him behave better. Sometimes he just gets wired and whiney. Sometimes it works, other times, there is no change. Oh well. So that means parks and play dates which wear me out too since I spend a large portion of the time disciplining or playing with Noah - not the easiest task with a baby strapped to you, but I'm not about to leave him in a stroller while I tend to (or chase for several yards) his brother. It'd be nice if Taran was able to join us all the time (1 to 1 is a much better ratio than 2 to 1), but he comes when he can.

To add to the normal hustle and bustle, we've been squeezing in the continued mini-van hunt. Not easy working with Taran's hectic work schedule. I think we settled on one, but we have to wait until the dealer finds what we are looking for. I had no idea new cars were in such limited supply. I guess it makes sense, but never having had a new car, I just figured the manufacturers had a stash of the cars and you only had to order them if you wanted upgrades and whatnot. I was wrong.

My crafts have gone a bit by the wayside. Ok, I guess not really. I've been working on a bunch of shoe orders so the personal projects and the extra products I wanted to make for my baby boutique have been put aside. I may pick that up again though since I'm between orders and waiting on details for orders from a few people, so maybe I'll get productive on my own stuff. That means not vegging, but it's hard to move off of a comfy couch after a busy day. Such is life.

Where was I ten years ago?

It seems the thing to do to write up where you were and what you were doing ten years ago today when you heard the news of the planes crashing in to the World Trade Center, so I'm jumping on the band-wagon. Here is what I remember from that day.

I was in lab, I'm not sure which, but it may have been organic chemistry. I remember my lab partner was really stressed out and he was talking about possibly getting sent out. He was in the reserves and it was just the beginning of the semester, but he was thinking he wouldn't be able to get a refund on his tuition and certainly couldn't get credit if he left mid-semester. I had to learn from him that a plane crashed into the first tower. Class must have ended pretty soon thereafter because I remember going immediately to my dorm room and turning on the news. As I watched the coverage of the first crash, I witnessed on the live feed that was showing video coverage of the first plane, the second plane coming in and crashing into the second tower. I was in shock. I continued to watch the coverage. I remember they kept showing the video of the plane coming in over and over. Several cameras were set on the tower after the first crash so the second one had several views. Continued coverage described the fall of the towers and the crashes at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

I remember that at first, people thought that the first plane had lost control. No one seemed to know what was going on. Over the next several days I heard about terrorist attacks, Bin Ladin, and Al Queda as the events were explained. We learned that on the last plane, the passengers fought back and it had missed it's intended target. It was a confusing and upsetting time. Clean-up continued for what seemed like forever. The Ross Volunteers, and organization out of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets was sent out to help in the efforts.

Not long after, the next Aggie football game displayed an overwhelming view of Red, White, and Blue in the stands as Aggies showed up at the game supporting their country. An amazing view, I only wish I had been there.

I don't remember a ton of what happened closely thereafter. My lab partner did not get sent out. He was able to finish the semester. I also remember, that a friend of mine who was in the Marines got his clearance acceptance delayed because his paperwork was in the Pentagon. It's the big things and the quirky things you remember, not the little ones, I suppose.

A busy weekend

It's only about halfway into the weekend and we are all exhausted.

I had my normal mommy meeting today where we got off to a rough start with Noah and his very physical behavior. On the upside, I was able to hand off some of the shoes I had made that one of my mom friends ordered and picked up a potential new order.

In the afternon we attended a "family" reunion for an organization Taran and I were in while in college. It was so wonderful to get to see some old friends no matter how brief, but it also reminded me how secluded I've become in my "new" little life as a mom. It's a bit sad, really. Sometimes getting over that hump is the hardest part. In any case, Noah had a great time playing, even in the 106 degree heat - and depressingly enough, that is not an exaggeration. Poor Taran had to chase him outside while I stayed in and protected the wee one from the sweltering heat. He's such a good sport and luckily has a far superior tolerance to heat than I do. I hope Noah gets that from him because I'm a wimp. It's the end of the day and we are all worn out. I suppose that's the way to ensure good sleep.

Not a whole lot going on tomorrow, a few errands to run. Monday will be busy as well with August's 4 mo. appointment in the morning and then we are hosting dinner for a co-worker friend of Taran's and his wife. Fortunately, I've managed to keep the house from becoming a complete disaster area over the past couple of weeks since we last had dinner guests, so while there still is cleaning to be done, it's not terrible. We just need to plan a menu and take a trip to the store.

So, a good but busy start to the weekend. I'm not used to this pace of multiple outings in a Day and having had more outings than normal in the past week (some days with more than one) I'm wearing out. I remember the days when I had much more stamina. Here's hoping I can maybe keep up the pace and get that back. Yay for optimism. =)

More days gone by...

It's hard to believe that so much time passes between blog posts. I feel like there is nothing to report, but I suppose that depends on who's reading it and how much they know otherwise.

So, this week has been busy. Taran returned from the rig earlier than expected which was really nice. This go-round out there was stressful for both of us. While out there, the first big tropical storm of the season came through. Well, kinda. It was mild enough that they decided that the rig workers would ride it out. Not that that made me feel better. I also for the first time made sure to do some hurricane prep by getting a few recommended supplies. I wasn't terribly worried about food since I've had a habit of stocking up more since I've started couponing, but things like water and batteries were necessary to pick up. As it turns out, the storm passed south of where Taran's rig was stationed and they just got some waves. We didn't even get rain. Oh well, at least I have some supplies should I need them in the future.

This week I've also been inspired to create new projects for my baby boutique (despite having a lack of time to work on them. I also received some orders for more shoes which is super exciting - we just need to hash out the details for them. I can't wait to get to work on those.

Taran and I went and dropped off my second donation of milk to the drop-off site for the milk bank. I had almost 3 gallons collected which is awesome. It's so nice having Taran with me for those trips since the trip takes about 45 minutes and otherwise I'd have to unload kids and load them back up with no time to stretch legs and play, well, in Noah's case anyway - August would want a snack at the least. The other option is to stop somewhere to let Noah run around which can prove to be difficult depending on where we are. In any case, with Taran it was an easy run in an out so there was much less stress! Thank you, hubs!

Today I went to the local Big Latch On. Conveniently, it was taking place where we normally have our Saturday mommy meeting and almost at the same time too, so it's not like it was out of my way. I would have gone somewhere else though if it were in a different location. There were 15 moms there and a reporter from a local paper so that was pretty cool. They had also set up a silent auction for the Smart Mommies Education Foundation, the non-profit that hosts our meetings. I hope it did well. I didn't bid on anything b/c I'm cheap. Also, I didn't look closely at all the things up for auction but I did see some items which I either had or didn't need so I nothing drew me in.

Tomorrow we are supposed to have some work friends of Taran's joining us for dinner. Taran is planning on making chicken-fried steak which he makes wonderfully. I'm going to make the sides and we'll have mashed taters and black-eyed peas. Not a ton of color on that plate... Oh well.

So, that's the wrap-up of what's been going on with us. Maybe I'll get better at posting regularly, but who knows... =)