A productive Memorial Day weekend

We've had quite a productive weekend this past weekend. Kevin and I both took a vacation day on Friday, so we had a nice 4-day weekend. We made a lot of progress on our fencing project - thanks to all the help we had on Saturday and Monday from my parents, Jason, Bruce, Danny, and the guy on the Bobcat! For those that don't know, we're fencing in about an acre of our backyard for Jet. It'll also be very nice next year once Carson is mobile - I won't have to worry so much about our busy road. On Saturday morning, we rented a towable auger to dig all the post holes. They got all the holes dug and all the posts in. Yesterday, my Dad hired a guy on a Bobcat to come do a bunch of demo work along the side property lines so we're able to get in there in the next couple of weeks to get the fence down the sides. They also got the privacy panels secured yesterday. We still have to fabricate a gate on the south side of the house, run the chain link across the back once those posts are fully set, pound the posts down the sides and run the fence down the sides. So it'll be a few weeks before its done still, but it'll be so nice to have it done once it is!

On Sunday, we went to my Aunt Sharon's for a family party on the lake. We were planning to take Carson for his first boat ride, but it seemed a little chilly for it with the breeze. Turns out he probably would have been fine according to those that went for a ride, oh well. Next time. Then on Monday, Kevin's grandparents, Uncle Chuck, and Aunt Marcia stopped by for a visit. They were there during the Bobcat demo, so they got to witness all the trees and brush coming down.

I was finally able to get my annuals planted in the front. I didn't plant the rest of the veggie garden like I'd planned to, because the weather forecast shows a frost advisory tonight. I'm thinking I'll get out there either tomorrow evening, Thursday evening, or Friday when I'm off to get the rest of the veggies planted. And hopefully Kevin is able to rototill the side yard in front of the privacy fence so we can rake it smooth and get it seeded. It'll look so much nicer once we get some grass growing over there. The same goes in the backyard where we tore out all those gardens last year.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I know Kevin and I are both sore from all the work we did outdoors. Our yard is a wreck again with all the brush and trees everywhere, but we'll get it cleaned up in the next couple weeks.

Gunky eyes and sleeping

So I took Carson to see Dr. Akrawi yesterday so he could check out his gunky eyes. They've been gunky basically since he got his 2-month immunizations, but they got a little better, then worse again now. I just kept assuming he'd inherited Kevin's allergies this time of year, since the doc had mentioned it was possible before. Well, it turns out he has immature tear ducts that are clogged and now slightly infected. Poor baby! :( So we have to put eye drops in for five days to see how they do. Also have to massage his inner eye and down his nose a few times a day until we're told otherwise. If they continue to have problems at age six months, he said he'd have to send us to an eye specialist to see about surgically unclogging them. I surely hope that it doesn't come to that!!

I'm happy to say that Carson has slept through the night completely for the last two nights. We'll see if it continues, or if its just a fluke thing. He's been going to bed and then sleeping until 4:00am yesterday morning and until 5:30am this morning. So 8.5 hours Sunday night and 9.5 hours last night!! Now, this won't be considered through the night on a weekend for us, but we're up at 4am every morning during the week, so it is through the night for us during the week, at least.

Bittersweet

We're feeling very bittersweet at the moment. As I mentioned on Tuesday, we listed our beloved boat for sale on Craigs List. It generated a lot of interest, we had five people lined up that wanted to come see it. The first of which came this afternoon at 2:00. After a little stress when the boat wouldn't start... we wanted to wait till they got here so they could experience the hardest start of the year... the first one of the season. We've never had any problems with it starting, but it just wasn't having it at that point. Kevin chalked it up to a bad starter. My grandparents were here at the time and my Grandpa wanted him to try it on the jumper cables, just in case it was the battery. Kevin didn't think it was the battery and so did not try it till after the people left. Low and behold, once he hooked up the jump pack, the boat started. So I quickly called them back to see if they could come back. They did and ended up putting a deposit down on it. They'll be back tomorrow evening with a cashier's check and will be taking the boat with them. I honestly think Kevin and I will probably cry when they drive off with it. We've just had so many good times on that boat and we have a lot of happy memories on it. It was the first thing we bought jointly the year before we were married. We just have a lot of history in the three short years we've owned it. Most of the problem is that we just didn't expect it to happen this quickly... less than a week and its gone. It's hardly given us time to adjust. Especially considering we listed it so quickly after even considering it so that we wouldn't change our minds. Anyway, you probably think we're crazy getting this emotional over a boat, but we loved that boat so much. Yes, we'll get a new one in the next year or two. One that will meet our needs better than this one, but this will always be our first boat.

Sustainability, 3 months

I've been on this whole sustainability kick lately. With all the rage over climate change and the price of food rising every month it seems, it has just led me to start thinking about how our family can be more sustainable. I calculated our carbon footprint a while back and it just about made me sick. This, in part with the rising price of a gallon of gasoline, led us to purchase a new commuter car for me. The Trailblazer at 16-18 mpg just wasn't going to cut it anymore. We looked for about two weeks before we bought this white Pontiac Vibe. Doing so has broken my three cardinal rules of vehicular ownership... 1) Never drive a 4-banger, 2) Always have leather, 3) Always have lighted vanity mirrors. Its hard to admit, but I now drive a 4-cylinder, cloth-seated Vibe with no lights on the vanity mirrors as my daily beater. At least it has a sunroof! :) Now don't get me wrong, its really not a terrible car... its just not my Trailblazer. The switch went a lot smoother for me than I thought it would... I thought I'd HATE the Vibe, but I don't. Now I don't LOVE it either... and probably never will... but I can deal with that and the incredibly loud amount of road noise if I'm saving oodles on gas (yeah for 33 mpg!!) and reducing my carbon footprint. :)

As another chapter in my quest to become more sustainable, I've been doing a lot more research (in the very little spare time I have anymore) on canning and preserving food. I've learned that I'm going to have to invest in one of those 2-burner propane camp stoves (like a Camp Chef) to do my canning, especially if I want to do the boiling water bath canning. My ceramic cooktop just isn't going to cut it... I knew I should have stuck to my guns last year and gotten what I really wanted... basically the same range I got, but with the electric double ovens and a gas cooktop range (instead of the smoothtop electric that I have)... but oh well. I can get away with doing pressure canning on it by the sounds of it, but not BWB canning. Kind of a bummer, but at least there is an alternative... plus it might work out better that way anyway since I won't have to heat the house up so much if I do it outside. I've been looking into canners a lot, too. I think I'm going to get a pressure canner so that I can do everything I want to do... and it doubles as a BWB canner if I want to do that, too. They're more expensive, but I think it'll be a better investment for me in the long run if I continue canning (which I hope to and probably will need to if the price of food keeps skyrocketing!).

Anyway, those are just but a couple of ways I'm looking to become more sustainable.

So my little man turned 3 months this past Tuesday (May 13th). Its hard to believe he's already 3 months old. But yet it feels like he's been around for so long. Just goes back to the fact that I can't imagine life without him, I guess. Carson is still very vocal and smiley. He's chewing on his hands almost constantly now, it seems, drooling the entire time. One of these days, he'll end up getting his entire fist into his mouth with the way he tries shoving it in there. He's starting the everything goes to my mouth phase, too. He's always pulling his burp cloths, blankets, and towels into his mouth. He's not too into grasping many of his toys and putting them to his mouth yet, but he will do it with his little plastic rings. Its so fun to see him develop and grow.

Here's a pic of a Saturday morning... Dad and son in their white t-shirts and watching tv... yes, Carson loves watching tv now (this drives me crazy!!)... he's definitely his father's son. :)





Carson loves his baths... and bubbles!

A day that we never saw coming...

... The day we'd list our beloved boat for sale. :( I posted it this morning on Craig's List. We'll see if we get any bites. We won't be sad if it doesn't sell, but honestly it makes sense to sell it now. We probably won't get much use out of it this year, so it seems silly to be making payments and keeping it insured when we're not using it much. Plus, we want to buy a new boat (a V-drive) in the next year or two anyway. So it's the logical thing to sell the boat now and save some cash in the next year or two, pay off a few more bills with that savings, and then be in better shape to buy a new(er) boat that will meet all our needs/wants.... Can you tell we're still trying to talk ourselves into this whole selling the boat thing?? :-P I think Kevin and I will probably both cry if it does sell. I guess we'll wait and see.

Here's a little Ode to the Ski Centurion and the great memories we have of it...

Tulip Time

On Saturday, we loaded up the fam and headed west to Holland, Michigan to check out Tulip Time and celebrate Mother's Day with most of the Hollebooms. Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom, Uncle Danny, and cousin Anna also headed west for the event. We met up with Uncle Justin, Aunt Mary, and cousin Rebecca in Holland for a bit. It was pretty chilly and Carson was being a tired little man, so he wasn't in the greatest mood for it. We did get to see a lot of beautiful tulips and managed to take a few pictures and do some shopping, too. After Tulip Time, we met up with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van Heukelum for dinner at Arby's. It was great to see everyone and Carson can't wait until we see them all again!

Be sure to check the link to the right to see our pictures from Tulip Time!