Since He's Been Home

Casey returned home safe and sound, but life isn't as usual. He caught something, and has been running a fever ever since. I have a little something, and am hoping that it won't be as bad as what dear husband has. The Salem area is experiencing one of the biggest heat waves in recorded history, and we're kind of laid up coughing and being generally pathetic- crazy huh?!

So yeah, life isn't back to normal yet, but we're sure glad Casey's back... fever and all!

What's worse: 102 degrees outside or 102 degrees in your inside?

We're not sure, but that was yesterday. Today it's 102 inside and 107 outside.... yikes!

That's what's been going on since he's been home.

Two Days...

until Haddon can wrestle with his daddy again. (He's a little rough for me at times!)

until Norah can tell someone ELSE every thought that pops into her head.

until I have reinforcements for giant insects. (Seriously, two HUGE spiders have come after me!)

until my very best friend in the whole wide world is where he belongs.

Just two days to go, and Casey will be home.

Surviving Without Casey

The kids and I have been on our own for a bit now, and there are 11 days to go until we are reunited with Casey. I have been trying to keep ourselves occupied as much as possible, and I'll try to remember what in the world we have been doing.

The day he left, we drove to PDX to drop Casey off; I held back tears as he walked to his fate at the groping station security gate. And then we proceeded to drive back to Salem, but not before stopping to visit my grandmother in North Salem. I left Haddon there since he didn't want to leave and since he hasn't really spent all that much time with his Nanna Bigler. So off Norah and I went to our home where we threw everything we needed the things I remembered to get, and hopped back into the car to head to Silverton where my mom lives. We had dinner with my mom, and I'm not sure what she was thinking, but she didn't have any salsa in her home. So, I coaxed Norah into getting back into the car and going to Safeway where we got salsa.

The next morning I went to my mom's church, and then back to Silverton and spent a good amount of time there. We wanted to head home right as a monsoon struck, and so we held off a bit, and then left.

When I got home there were 3 messages. Oops. I forgot to tell everyone where I was. Sorry Lute side.

Monday we played with Casey's mom at her house, and in the evening ate dinner with Casey's older brother and family. The kids were horrible at bedtime, and I was looking at the long time alone with despair.

Tuesday was errand day. I had to drop off papers for my grandmother at an office, and then took four sacks of clothes for consignment, and then donated stuff to Goodwill where the gentleman manning the truck told me I was bossy. Whatever dude. When one takes 3 and 4 year olds out on errands, you'll give out a few commands here and there- or a lot, repeatedly. Into Wal-mart we went for diapers, and had to go home because mommy had had enough that morning.

What really got my goat on Tuesday was the trip in the afternoon for milk. Safeway thinks it's a funny joke to only have two checkers open when half the clientele is in line to be checked out. It's also funny that out of 6 self-checkouts, only 4 were operating. Well done Safeway. Without going into too many details, I ended up marching out of the store carrying 2 gallon jugs of milk and my 30-pound son. Again, well done Safeway.

So I resolved that today had to be a better day, and it was. The farmers' market trip went smoothly, thanks to my mother-in-law's help. Attending Wacky Wednesday at my friend Jamie's home went fine, and we even had a break in the day when I actually had to wake up my children and prepare for a trip to the Riverfront Park to play in the fountains and have dinner with Nanna, Aunt Candace, cousins, and even Great Grandpa and Grandma Miller! Totally wish I had pictures of that. Haddon was only a little less daring than his 14-month-old cousin, and Norah just went for it!

Checking Out Mr. Snail with Tayler

Now, if I can just get through bedtime... then we will be on our way to surviving without my dear husband.

Norah's First Trip to the Dentist

It started out fine. She was curious to hear about CHAP, and funny little beaver that visits the dentist for the first time. Norah listened to the nurses tell the group about the different instruments they would see, and that was interesting. She even smelled the raspberry toothpaste, and looked somewhat excited to possibly try it.

And then it was Norah's turn for the x-rays. After finding the ten hidden toothbrushes in a poster as we waited, she stepped into the x-ray area with a little bit of timidity.

And then her mouth was too small- or she wouldn't hold her mouth open wide enough- for the paper film stuff to fit. Okay. No problem.

The nurse tried a different tactic. GAG. Uh, let's try again. GAG. Never mind.

And that's what did it. Norah was very hesitant the rest of the time. She reluctantly let the dentist count her teeth. She refused to wear the provided sunglasses. She cringed at the bright light. I put the sunglasses on. She wanted nothing to do with getting her teeth brushed by the spinning toothbrush. But she did allow the her teeth to be "painted" by fluoride, and to be flossed.

Oh well. We'll try again in six months.

Oh yeah, and she needs to stop sucking her thumb- no duh!

Celebrating the USA

Ta-da! We finally stopped and had someone take a shot of all of us... but we're sun-speckled, and Norah is looking somewhere else. Casey's mom has some better shots on her camera and once she e-mails those to us, we'll share. But look at how patriotic we are!

To celebrate the 4th, we went to the Casey's parents' house and barbequed, roasted marshmallows, and lit some fireworks. Also, I made ginormous brownies for another birthday celebration for Haddon. (He's not a big fan of cake- go figure!)

It was a long and fun day that we enjoyed very much.

I don't know why Haddon looks like he's afraid of me... really, I'm a nice mommy!

Pappa gave all the kids a ride on his tractor- very cool!

Nanna got some cheap little squirt guns, and the kids went nuts over them! They ran around squirting each other, and giggling. Of course Cade and Haddon had a duel... they kept doing this- just stopping and attacking each other with the guns. Such boys!

This expression of Cade's is priceless. He's shooting and being squirted.

Neither one of the baby cousins liked being in this floaty toy, but Haddon sure did!

Haddon is Three

Our little guy is now 3 years old!

Time has flown by, and to celebrate another year of the H-Bomb, we opened presents and went to the coast for the day...

Wall-E was his absolute favorite toy. We couldn't even get him to eat his pancakes for breakfast! And when we would get out of the car, he would get so sad to leave Wall-E behind. Upon returning to the car, he would start saying, "Wawee!" Before we could get the door open for him.

Haddon loved being buried! He kept scooping sand onto himself. All those buckets and shovels were presents this year. Norah got a special pink bucket.

It was a great day to get away from the heat, and enjoy the beautiful Oregon coast. We hit Mo's, and flew kites too. But we don't have pictures of that.. sorry!