Five Question Friday

1. Do you apologize to your kids if you're wrong?
Yes, I've already apologized to Patrick for stepping on him and knocking him over. I hope to keep this up as he grows and I do more things wrong. I think it is important to let my child know that I do things wrong just like him and need to apologize.

2. Do you have a class ring, letterman's jacket, or similar obscenely priced high school "must have"?
I have a class ring in my jewelry box on my dresser. I use to wear it all the time, but now I've got other jewelry that I wear more now. I never saw the point of a letterman's jacket. I'd never wear it after high school so I figured why buy one.

3. If you could be one age for the rest of your life, what age would you choose?
I like being 30 right now. Still young but not that young. I still have a lot of energy to do things and my mind is still sharp (except for spelling). I've got some good life experiences now but still have a lot to learn.

4. What is your favorite (unused) baby name?
As of right now for a girl I like Evangeline (Michael really likes this one) and Charlotte. For a boy I like Edmund (Michael isn't sold on this) and Colin. I hope to get to use some of these names in the future as Michael and I are planning on having more children.

5. If you could make your child like something what would it be?
I'd go with playing a musical instrument. I would love to have my child to learn to play the piano or violin. These are two of my favorite instruments.

Wordless Wednesday

Family Tradition

It's a family tradition for member of the family to make a quilt for each new baby. The quilts have embroidered pictures that represent the family members. The quilt I received as a baby is safely tucked away in my hope chest. I've been working on the quilt for my nephew since before he was born. Originally my mother was helping, but then she had her accident and I've had to finish on my own. I've been busy with work and Patrick and haven't had a lot of time to work on it. I've only got one more picture to embroider. Once that is done I'll just need to quilt it. I had hoped to finish it for Jonathan's first birthday but now I plan to get it finished for Christmas. Then I'll start on the quilt for Patrick. I've been looking at pictures to embroider on Patrick quilt today. I think I'm going to do a Fisher-Price Little People theme for all the pictures. I've go quite a few already picked out, but I need to find one still for Chris, Peter, and my parents.

Five Question Friday

1. Dream job...realistic and completely unrealistic.
Realistic, teaching or stay at home mom. Lucky me to get to do both. Unrealistic, I would love to be a personal travel companion and guide (is there such a thing?). People would pay me to travel with them and tell them about the places we would visit. Think a personal Rick Steves.

2. Do you fart in front of your significant other?
Yes, why try and hide it. He's seen everything else, not much is hidden between us; especially after giving birth.

3. What's the furthest you've ever traveled from home? How far and where was it?
Athens, Greece, Europe which is over 5,000 miles from home. I actually had to get out a map to see which was farther away: Skopje, Macedonia; Sophia, Bulgaria; or Athens, Greece. They are really close to the same longitude but Athens is the farthest east. I spent the most time in Skopje. I enjoyed living there for almost a year.

4. How do you celebrate birthday for your kids? Family only or friends? ... Alternate for those without kiddos: How did you celebrate birthdays as a kid?
This coming year will be Patrick's first birthday. I'm still trying to decided if I'm going to invite others or just family. I would like to invite friends but our apartment is kind of small and since his birthday is in January, we will have to be inside most of the time. I really don't want to have to rent a place.

5. Fave thing about fall?
I love all the colors that start to pop out this time of year. I don't think I could live somewhere were the trees stay green all year. I love the changes.

I See My ? in My Son

I really enjoy genealogy, the study of my ancestors. Many people find this boring and like some relatives I know think "Who cares, they're dead." The reason I find genealogy so interesting is because the list of names and dates are more than just that. These names lived a life; there are stories that go with those names and dates. I remember listening to the stories that my grandmothers would tell me of their childhoods and growing up during the depression. I loved hearing what my grandparents and my parents were like as a child and the things they remember about their grandparents. My mother, at age 5, wanted to grow up to be big and tall like her grandma, who was only 4'11". It's these funny stories that I love about genealogy.

It's more than just the stories thought. "Your just like your mother/father" is the proverbial taunt that many people try to avoid. These traits have been handed down from one generation to the next until I see them in my child. As I watch Patrick, I'm already seeing certain traits that I can attribute to either myself or Michael. He is very stubborn at times or should I say determined. He likes to do things himself, especially eating. He will get upset and start yelling if he doesn't get to feed himself. These traits came from our ancestors; they are still a part of who we are even though they are long dead and many times forgotten.

And it is not just personality traits that are passed down. Patrick has my nose, which I got from my mother, and she got her nose from her father. My brother has been told he looks exactly like my father, who looks exactly like his father. I always wondered how far back this look alike thing went. The more research I do, the more relatives, distant cousins, I uncover or are put into contact with who have more information and even pictures. The past two years I've been able to meet up with two distant cousins from both sides of the family. It was fun to meet them and share stories and information.

Wordless Wednesday

Illinois

On Saturday I took Patrick down to St. Charles, Illinois to visit with my Aunt and her family. They live in Kentucky, so we do not get to see each other much now that Grandma Bonny died. My uncle was selling some cars in an auction there in St. Charles and the family came with. Since they were only going to be 2 hours away; my dad, mother, Patrick, and I drove down to see them.

The men all went to the car auction while the women and children went to a small pumpkin farm near by. We had a good time and the kids all enjoyed exploring the play area. This was the first time that they all saw Patrick and I had seen my cousins twin boys. Our boys are only 7 months apart and they seemed to get along well.

A Post From Patrick

Any time I sit down on the computer Patrick always stands by my legs and yells at me. He wants to touch and hit the computer. So today, I decided to let him try it. Needless to say it only lasted about 2 minutes before he started to push on the screen and try to flatten the computers. Here is what he managed to "type."


bhjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjkoh bglo,. n mnmnm . . jkl;.........



//im xctccfbryfvxskittlev gvh1268584sv j3h12h6666666666hhhhhhhi


sax z ilm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,









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8 months old

It's hard to believe but Patrick is 8 months old today. He is quite the handful already. He is crawling everywhere and quickly gets under foot. I've stepped on him quite a few times already. Luckily it was never very hard. Patrick is a very happy baby for the most part. It takes him a while to fully wake up and will be a little cranky then, but that is usually it.

He has already learned how to climb up on things including the door of the dishwasher when I'm putting the dishes away from the top rack. I've had to rewash a lot of silverware that Patrick has taken to pulling out and then tasting. Not one will my child be walking by 10 months, but I'll have to be pulling him down from the counter tops, desks, couches, tables, and anything else he can climb on.

He still has no teeth, which I guess is a good thing since he still nurses 3-4 times a day. He loves to feed him-self and will eat anything you put in front of him. Sometimes we have a battle over the spoon of baby food. He wants to feed him-self with it but he hasn't mastered that skill yet and it ends up everywhere but in his mouth. Patrick does very well pinching the food between his finger and thumb to self-feed. He will eat anything I put on this tray, which I am grateful for. He's not a picky eater. The only thing I don't give him is applesauce. He rubs his nose and eyes and will get red cheeks if I give it to him. I don't think he is allergic, just sensitive. I plan to try again in a few months.

We have been using cloth diapers for a while now and Patrick doesn't seem to have notice the change over. He has discovered his boy parts recently; this makes changing him interesting sometimes. I'm quickly learning to check and see if he is just wet or dirty before I take the diaper off. He's gotten a little bit of a diaper rash since changing but once I started to change him every 2-3 hours instead of 3-4 hours he's not gotten another rash. He looks so cute in his diapers. I can't resist a little fashion show. :)

Five Question Friday

1. If you had a weekly newspaper column, what would you name it?
Passing Through after an old Hymn that I love. Here is the first verse.

This world is not my home I'm just passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore
O Lord you know I have no friend like you
if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

2. Who is your mentor/inspiration?
I'd have to go with my mother and then some famous Christian women/missionaries like Corrie Ten Boom, Lillian Thrasher, and Gladys Aylward.

3. What is your wake up beverage of choice?
Coca Cola and some times a flavored coffee if it is cold outside.

4. Would you wear your mom's clothes?
Yes, and I have done that, especially when I lived at home. I wouldn't wear them all, but I do like somethings she has.

5. When you were a kid, did you put posters on your wall? If so, what were they of?
I don't remember having posters on my walls. You'd have to ask my sister and see if she remembers any posters since we shared a room until were were 13 and 15.

Bear Cave

I've been reading books about bears to the little boy I watch and to Patrick each morning. We've read "Don't Wake the Bear", "Corduroy", and "Blueberries For Sal." After reading the stories I ask questions and we talk about bears. Yesterday we talked about where bears live, in the forest sometimes in a cave. While cleaning up from breakfast I moved all the chairs to vacuum under the table. While out I made a cave for the boys to play under. They loved the cave. I may have to do this again.

Wordless Wednesday

Iowa

Took a trip down to Iowa to visit family. This was Patrick's first time for so long in the car and visiting this side of my family. It's kind of a long drive for a baby, about 4 to 4.5 hours. He did okay on the drive down. Patrick slept the first half of the trip, Dubuque, and then cried almost the entire second half. It's not easy listening to him cry for 1.5 hours, but he starts crying again after pulling over to calm him down so it doesn't seem to make sense to pull over. The ride home was much better, he slept almost the whole way, save about 45 minutes of the drive.

We went to visit for two reasons, 1. Patrick is almost 8 months and my Grandma has yet to see him. 2. My uncle Sam was coming to Iowa to visit. He was in military service for many years and we never saw him much. The last time I was my uncle Sam was about 15 years ago. When ever he is near we try to make time to visit with him. This also became a good excuse to help my grandma "clean" her house.

My Grandma has become a hoarder after my Grandpa died, I've heard this is common. My mom took last week off to help Grandma clean, organize, and secretly purge the house. Since Grandma will not throw anything away the family will toss things into garbage bags and then take the garbage bags to the car so she will not see them and pull things back out. The other trick to cleaning is to ask Grandma if you can have something and then either donate it to Goodwill or just toss it out. This past week the family removed 9 pickup beds full of junk. I helped go through the kitchen on Saturday before Uncle Sam flew in. I've never seen so many old plastic containers in my life, not good tupperware or store bought ones, but old cottage cheese, yogurt, butter, sour cream, ect. containers. We fill three large bags to recycle. Most of the house was cleaned and purged and it looks much better.

Uncle Sam came on Saturday afternoon. He brought with him a large treasure trove of genealogy information that he has been researching. While he is visiting Iowa, he plans to spend a lot of the time working with Grandma to sort her pictures and label all the family members. He has put a lot of the information on the internet so I can access the information here at home. I have a lot of information on the Smith side but not a lot on my mothers side, so this will be extremely helpful with my research. It was a very busy weekend and I loved getting to see my family.

Five Question Friday

1. What ringtone do you have on your cell phone?

Not sure what it is called, but it whistles a tune and then there is some guitar playing. I plan to eventually get different ring tones for each person so I know who is calling before I get the phone. Plus that will help with "screening" my calls. :)

2. What is your favorite memory from this summer?

My favorite memory would have to be watching Patrick learn to crawl. It was fun to see him practice and improve each day until he was able to crawl without his belly on the floor.

3. Paper books or ebooks?

I prefer paper books. I like holding them, turning the pages, and then seeing how far I am when I close the book. Michael likes ebooks. He can read on any of his devices and he doesn't have to worry about forgetting where he was in the book.

4. If you could have one home upgrade what would it be and why?

I would go with a whole house instead of the apartment, but if we are talking about where we are right now, I would go with an additional room that I could use as a play room. Right now Patrick and the little boy I watch have to play in the living room around the furniture. I'd also go with a swing set in the backyard, but I don't think the apartment managers would agree to let us build one.

5. When was your first serious boyfriend/girlfriend?

My first serious boyfriend was in 2008 to a Michael Bohlman, my husband. He is my only serious boyfriend. I had some people I had considered dating, but they never went beyond being friends.

Wordless Wednesday

Five Question Friday

1. Shoes in house - yay or nay?

Nay, it's a habit that I picked up while in Macedonia. It also helps keep the house and carpet clean.

2. What do you call them- flip flops, slippers, thongs, etc?

I use to call them thongs but had to change to flip flops once I learned about the thong panties. I didn't want to confuse people.

3. What song are you almost embarrassed to admit you know all the lyrics to?

I'm not really sure. Maybe the theme song for 2 1/2 Men since the show does little but glorify immorality.

4. What is the best quality to have in a friend?

Honesty. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone who lied to me all the time.

5. Do you know what you want for Christmas?

Yes, how sad am I. There are two things I would like. I have a silver charm bracelette with two charms on it. I would like to add some more to it. A meaningful or significant charm for my honeymoon in Italy, and one for Patrick. The other thing I would like at this point would be money to pay the bills now that I'm a Stay-at home mom.