Office Progress

Noble's fever has turned out to be a mixed blessing in many ways. Today, we were supposed to be in Houston with Grandma & Grandpa but since Noble ran a fever until last night, we had to wait an extra day to head down (Grandpa can't be exposed to fevers/viruses/etc.). So we had a quiet day at home, with all of us but James spending the day in PJs. :) (He went to a wedding this evening, which was both good--he got to be a boy for a few hours--and a bummer--we had hoped to go as a family, then we thought he and I would go on a date...and he ended up going alone. So it is what it is.

We have cleared the extra furniture out of the office at this point, and while it's not "done," it's pretty impressive to us since we've been walking through a maze of STUFF for 2 weeks. Right now it's hard to find time to do everyday stuff, much less the large projects we've created for ourselves recently. Next up, moving Noble into Kayci's room...

Looking in to the office from the back door...there's the lone shelf, it used to be part of a set.  We enjoyed having them, but we won't miss the one that's moved to a friend's house.  If you look to the right of the shelf, that pile of stuff is my desk/corner.  I'm pretty excited...I even splurged and bought myself a $10 lamp.  Woo hoo!  It'll get cleaner, but I suspect most days it'll be cluttered like this.  I've got so many projects going on at once...sigh.  Don't we all?  

Kayci's corner...she loves to sit on her stool and go back and forth between her desk and the drawers...then she'll head to the easel and teach class for a while. Today's lesson? Color words. :)

My apologies to James--his desk was neat and organized until I cleaned MINE off...and stacked "his" stuff or the stuff I wanted him to look at, take to work, etc. on his desk. I know that drives him nuts...maybe we should have "in" boxes...

This is Noble's corner...originally I had the brown monkey/pirate rug over here and this was going to be his only spot...but his toys literally covered the carpet.  We had this rug under the couch and only pull it out when friends come over, so I figured, why not?  Worked out well, I think...

Here's James' cabinet...his desk is behind it, so he really does have his own space for the first time since we moved here.  Well, technically, for the first time since I quit teaching and took over his office as my office for consultant work...poor guy.  And there's Noble's other rug and current favorite toy, his workbench.  You can't see the Sit 'n Spin, but it's there and believe me, it provides tons of entertainment.  Noble refuses to sit on it, so he either stands on it and falls off, or tries to crawl over it...imagine, if you will, a baby trying to crawl up a treadmill.  Doesn't work so well, but is so freakin' funny to watch the little guy try to swim upstream.  He'll get mad and fuss at the Sit 'n Spin and shake his head at it...

Looking at the office from the kitchen doorway. You can't see the boxes/bags of recyclables I meant to take today but didn't because of the whole pajamas thing...Oh!  that tub of junk under the easel is Sami's food, etc...I felt so smart for putting it right next to the door.  Not that we were having a hard time remembering to feed her, just that we were tired of having to dig her canned food out from under the recyclables.  Ooh, maybe tomorrow I'll post a picture of our new recycling solution...

...Another one bites the dust...

Today is day 4 of Noble's first week of daycare here in Brenham.  Love, love the daycare (First Baptist, if you're local)...it passed all of the Kristi tests and then some.  Love, love his teacher, the director, the assistant director, the menus...love it all.  Noble, on the other hand, needs some convincing.  Our plan, ha!, was to send him every day this week and next to help him get over the transition issues and get used to daycare.  Well...Tuesday evening he was pretty fussy, and by Wednesday morning, he was full-on sick.  Just a nasty cold, but too sick for daycare nonetheless.  He never had a fever, so I was kind of hoping he'd go today but not really counting on it...the little knucklehead spiked a fever this morning, exluding himself from today AND tomorrow.  Guess he showed up what to do with our "plans," huh?  

So, this is a good thing for all of us...eventually.  Right now, we're just taking it one minute at a time with our cranky boy, and enjoying the non-cranky moments.  :) 

All the blogs that are fit to print

Did you know that Kristi and I each have our own blogs in addition to this family blog? It's true.

Now, granted, they're not updated nearly as often as this blog is and no e-mails go out when they are updated as is the case with the family blog, but they're there, by golly!

Kristi's blog is called The Adventures of Mommygirl and it's where she posts notes to friends, thoughts and things that are important to her. It's like reading an open diary to the world. Pretty cool, and she's much better about updating it than I am mine. Rated G. It can be found at http://adventuresofmommygirl.blogspot.com/

My blog is called Destructoville - Population: 1. It's where I can rant and link to things that are stupid or geeky or that are a little too racy for the family blog (a recent post about pork, for instance). Rated PG-13 for language. It can be found at http://destructoville.blogspot.com/

And then there's this, the iPharaon family blog. It automatically send out an e-mail every time something new is posted. You can can find it at http://ipharaon.blogspot.com/. And if you'd like to be taken off the e-mail list, simply reply to an e-mail that you receive from the blog and we'll be happy to take you off. Well, we won't be happy to lose you, but we'll certainly understand.

Baby needs a new pair of shoes

We've put off covering the wigglys as long as we can, but as we approach Nobley's first birthday and possibly his first steps, it's just time.  So today we visited Stride Rite and bought his first pair of shoes.  :)  Well, technically his second--Lynn bought him a pair of Chucks before he was born, but Noble unfortunately was born with his sister's thick (read:  fat) feet and he outgrew them before he ever grew into them.  Big, big day for the Nobley Obley...he spent the rest of the evening using the shoes to climb on anything he could get them to stick to.  :)  

The apples don't fall far from the tree...

We made a trip to the Apple Store today--fun for the whole family!

Day by Day

Grandpa is still in the hospital, but today is a big, big day for him:  he got to have coffee this morning!  :)  He should get to go home on Thursday, and speaking of going home...

...tomorrow starts the big move-in to their new townhouse.  While can get a little overwhelming to think about everything they NEED (soap, paper towels, pillows, trash cans, flour, sugar, spices, food...the list seems endless right now), it's also exciting to think that they're getting a completely fresh start.  :)  And truth be told, they're so lucky that so much of their stuff was saved.  Now if we can all just stay patient and sane until they're in the new place and completely out of the old place...

So things are going well.  Yes, everyone is tired and overwhelmed but that's just part of it.  If you're praying, pray for Grandpa's healing and everyone else's peace and patience.  :)  

Grandpa Update

Thank you all for your prayers and happy thoughts, first of all.  Grandpa is busy recovering this morning, and the nurse has told us he's awake and had a good night.  We'll know more as the week goes on, but for now, our first concerns are being here for Grandpa--and Grandma!--and taking care of the kiddos.  

Every kid gets to do it just once...