Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Benny

Our dog, Benny, has been with us since just two years after we got married.  We adopted him the day after we bought our first house.  He was there as we moved in…

2004-03-16_0063

…(don’t worry, we replaced that carpet).  He was there as we remodeled…

2004-11-18_0019

2004-11-20_0025   2004-11-20_0028

2004-11-18_0015

He was there when we got our fist kitten…

2004-11-27_0041

He was there when we sold our first house…

2007-04-03_0027

He was there for road trips…

2006-09-04_0008

…and camping trips…

2008-05-25_00262008-05-25_0031   2008-05-25_0024

He was there when we bought our new house…

2007-11-22_0004

…and when we lost our new house.

2008-11-27_0025

  He was there to help Michala with tummy-time…

2008-12-27_0078

…and Adam with outside-time…

2011-08-20 10.09.06

…and me with workshop-time…

He was there for walks…

2009-06-14_0011

He was there for comfort…

2010-01-08_0003

2011-10-09 003

He was there for Christmas…

2009-12-25_0022  2009-12-25_0024

And he was there this morning…

2011-11-09 003

…but now he is not.  Today we had to make the difficult decision to have Benny put to sleep.  It will take a long time to get used to life without him.

Rest in peace, Benny.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

A Quick Recap

I realize that it’s been a little over a YEAR since I last posted.  What can I say, life got away from me and the blog got put on the back burner.  Here’s a *quick* recap of what’s happened here in the Grissom house (which is mainly for my own edification so that I can keep track of all these memories/milestones before my mommy brain gives out):

  • Tim’s still “officially” unemployed.  Yesterday marked the 2nd anniversary of that little event as well as our 9th wedding anniversary.
  • Tim has started his own design/remodel/general handyman business to compensate for the above point.  It’s only been a few short months, but he’s so far been kept pretty busy.  Hopefully he’ll stay that way.
  • Michala is 2 and a HALF.  Where did the time go?  It seems like she was just born.  To be honest, there was about a 6-8 month period where she was a complete and total brat.  Let’s just face it, I was not born with the ability to speak Drama… but I’m slowly learning.  The last month or so has been really good though.  Michala has learned to chill out a bit and I think I’ve finally gotten comfortable with disciplining her.  She is definitely the epitome of the “Strong Willed Child.”
  • Oh yeah… we HAVE ANOTHER KID!  Those of you that actually read this blog probably already know this, but just in case you didn’t…
    • Adam James was born 2/24/11 at 10:07pm.  7lb 13oz

IMG_0359

    • Pictures can be seen here (sorry you’ll have to be a Facebook friend)
  • I got laid off from my job at the end of 2010.  I was given a few months notice so we had some time to prepare.  The project I was working on got unexpectedly cancelled so my co-worker and I got the boot.
  • Adjusting to life with 2 kids has (and still is) been an issue.  If I weren’t still at home with them, I’m not sure any of us would still be alive.  How do people make it work with both parents working and two small children?  And don’t get me started on having two active kids…yikes!  I’m still trying to figure out how to be a stay at home mom/wife and all that entails (meal planning, cooking, cleaning, shopping with 2 kids, etc).  Some days, heck most days, I feel like a colossal failure…but I’m starting to get better.  Adam is so laid back, for which I am ETERNALLY GRATEFUL, so that helps a ton.
  • We are really happy with life and grateful for what we have.  I get the impression from some people when they learn about our situation (especially those older than us ) that they feel sorry for us.  I can’t even begin to describe how much this frustrates me.  Yeah so we don’t have “jobs”.  Yeah so we had to do a short sale on our house and are now renting a smaller house.  Yeah so… yeah so…  Well yes sometimes I take a look around and think things suck, but then I take another look around.  I have two beautiful HEALTHY children who I get the pleasure of staying at home with.  We have a roof over our heads.  We have never gone hungry.  Things are tight but we have enough.  We have wonderful friends and family who we get to spend time with.  Tim’s new business is taking off better than we could have expected and is staying busy. Our desire is for him to stay busy enough (and of course paid enough) that I can continue to stay at home.  Once the economy gets better Tim would really like to get back into architecture.  I hope he gets that chance.
  • I would like to start my own bookkeeping business.  I’m deathly afraid of my brain turning to mush plus we need the extra income…and bookkeeping is what I’m good at.  Know anyone who needs my services? :0
  • Michala is just getting into watching movies.  She’s had the attention span to watch shows (thank you God for PBS) but movies have always been too long.  They still are for the most part; she’ll continue to run around and play and torture Adam, but she’s starting to develop an attention span.  Toy Story 3 is her hands down favorite.  She sometimes likes to cuddle me and I can usually get a hug and kiss a few times a day.  This is major improvement!  Other than the occasional tantrum she really is a joy.  She also says some of the funniest things that I’ve ever heard (she’ll see a flower (even dandelions) and says “smells GOOOODD”).  She’s now in a real live Sunday School class at church (no more nursery).  I so badly wanted for her to get to experience Grandma Ruth (because I never had that kind of experience) and I’m so glad that she’s finally getting to.  Grandma Ruth is getting up there in age and I’m sure she’s going to have to retire at some point…but after my kids please :0 
  • Adam is 3.5 months old.  He loves his hands, especially to chew on, and is almost ready to discover his feet.  He grabs them occasionally but hasn’t really “found” them if you know what I mean.  He’s already teething (and drooling).  My favorite though is when he sees me he shrieks, his whole face lights up, he smiles, and his whole body just wiggles.  He really is the most wiggly kid I know.  He never just sits there.  He is bound and determined to do EVERYTHING faster than Michala did.

I think that’s enough for now.  I’ll try and update more often but don’t hold your breath.  Really the best bet is to get on Facebook.  I’m more inclined to upload pictures/videos there because it’s a lot less time consuming.

Liz

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Michala Says GO VANDALS!

The times they are a changin’

That’s right my friends, Michala’s officially walking! 

She has been mobile for some time now, but now she’s more independent than ever.  It’s fun and exciting to watch, and yet saddens me too to see my baby growing up.  I’m guessing that in the next week or so we will literally be running after her trying to keep up. 

Michala is also very mischievous.  She is testing her boundaries-much to our dismay.  Her favorite thing to do is bite the leather seam on the front of the couch cushions.  Right as she’s bending over to do it she turns to slyly look at you as if to say “ha ha look at me!”… and when you tell her “no”, she giggles and thinks it’s hilarious.  Good times…  While this is very frustrating I keep telling myself that this too shall pass.  Whenever we look back at one of Michala’s more trying phases we realize that they really didn’t last too long… so hopefully this one won’t either. 

In other news, Tim is still unemployed.  However, he’s been kept very busy remodeling Debbie’s kitchen.  I haven’t seen the final product, but I hear it’s beautiful.  I don’t see a job realistically popping up any time soon, but that is just fine by me.  I’m glad that Tim and Michala are getting this time together.  I know that God will provide a job at the right time. 

I am actually starting a new job tomorrow.  I’ll be doing similar work as what I do now, but will be working for Albertsons, LLC instead of SuperValu.  On pretty much all levels, this is a great thing.  The medical benefits are probably going to cost more, but that appears to be the only downfall so far.  I am super excited for this change!

We are celebrating Michala’s FIRST birthday next Sunday.  We’re just going to get the family together and let her eat cake… lots and lots of cake :)  It should be fun and I’ll do my best to post pics soon after for those of you out of town. 

The next weekend (Michala’s actual birthday weekend) we’re starting our trek to Billings to visit Jeff & LeeAnn (JeffAnn as Tim refers to them).  We can’t wait to see them and their sweet little addition Maddie Mae.  It is sure to be a crazy Thanksgiving.  One baby, one naughty toddler who is already getting into EVERYTHING, 4 dogs, 1 cat, 1 bird, and 6 adults trying to take it all in.  Good times to be had :)

Here are videos of Michala’s development of mobility over the past couple of months:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Our Sweet Girl

Michala is 10 months old now and has started “crawling” over the last few weeks.  I don’t have a good video of it yet, but I’ll post one when I do.  For now, here are some cute pics…

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

8,000 Firecrackers (and Michala stuff too)

We went to Saint Louis for the 4th of July and stayed at my Uncle-in-law’s house which is outside of city limits (which means all of the good stuff is legal) and thankfully my brother-in-law was in a spending mood which resulted in this lovely video of two (2) rolls of four thousand (4,000) firecrackers going off at once.  It gets a little slow in the middle but is worth watching to the end.

…and the aftermath…

Saint Louis 127

Michala also had her first post-partum visit to the Zoo.

Saint Louis 003

Saint Louis 011

 

The next day we dumped Michala with the Grandparents and went to the Arch (no we didn’t go up in it (not enough time)).  

Saint Louis 047

My hat is off to Eero Saarinen on this one, well done old chap.

Saint Louis 075

Saint Louis 108

That’s about it.

Tim