Busting a Gut Under the Big Top

The circus came to our little town today. It made me feel like I'm living in a different century. The whole town heads down to the Big Top and watches the clowns, jugglers, elephants, trapeez-artists, tigers and eats peanuts. When you live in a town with 2,000 occupants the circus coming is a big deal. The town office, the bank and the hardware store all sell tickets for weeks ahead of time. There are posters in all the windows of "all" the shops (by which I mean several pizza places and hair salons). Apparently the circus visits us once a year, so this will be the first of many such exciting evenings.
Moses. Well. Moses. Four-year-old boys are made for circuses, that's all I'm sayin'. When God came up with "frogs and snails and puppy-dog tails" the concept of "circus" could not have been far from his mind. I can honestly say that I've never understood clowns until tonight. That is not to say that I knew how little I understood about clowns. I thought I appreciated their purpose and gave them due gratitude. Tonight I hardly watched the clowns at all because I could not take my eyes off the sight of Moses, generally so reserved in public, dissolving into contagious laughter every time one of those guys fell down or got hit on the head. The veins in his neck were popping out, at times he was screaming with laughs that were just too big for his body, and I definitely think I saw tears when that clown had water spraying out of his ears.
I'm sure that this was the best year EVER for the circus and Moses. We will go to many more circuses but he'll only be a four-year-old for this one. Thank God that He seems to be giving me an endless supply of four-year-old boys, that way the circus will never get old.

Beginning of the pictures

I am very slowly getting my head above water. Therefore I will start to post pics of our new digs! I will go room by room and will go slowly. There's just way to much for one post. Here's the front porch. I shouldn't really post the porch first since only one half is done. The other half has a porch swing that arrived broken 2 months ago and we are getting the part replaced finally but it's close enough. I will eventually post the updates when they are done. We haven't done much to the exterior yet, just planted a couple perennials and replaced the storm door. WHICH, by the way, is much more difficult then it sounds. But David and Glen are my heroes and so now I can enjoy screen weather with a proper screen door. Ah, the good life.
The first picture was about 3 months ago and the next two were a couple days ago.

Cup O' Joe

For weeks, probably months, I have been struggling to drink my morning coffee. This is a stage that I go through fairly regularly, as I'm sure all parents do. You get your coffee (or tea or Diet Coke, etc) and drink a sip or two then all hell breaks loose and a 1/2 hour later when you start to feel the magnetic pull of your bed you remember that you haven't had your coffee. But by this time your awareness of your 75,000+ to-do-list items are weighing heavily on you but you simply lack the energy to get started on them. This leaves you feeling demoralized and impotent - and it's only 8 a.m. All the while, deep down, you know that if you just drink your coffee and/or start to do the simplest things on your list your day will still get off to a good start. But here is the Great Dilemma: do you sit down for 10 minutes to drink the coffee or do you just start the list?
If you sit down with the coffee you run the following risks - a.) you will get distracted and lose motivation to face The List or much more likely, b.) one of your Progeny will require your attention and you will actually still not finish the coffee and still not start the list and at noon you will realize that it's now time for lunch (which you do NOT have the energy to get together) and you have a splitting headache from caffeine withdrawal.
On the other hand, if you just start the list you will a.) be miserable and tired while you do the tasks b.) get part way through the easiest task and then not be able to finish because you realize that your really, really need that coffee c.) abandon the task to drink the coffee and then we're back at the Progeny Problem, lunch time and the splitting headache.
So, today I came up with the solution. What I need is either a hat for beer with a straw or one of those runner's backpacks with the tube/straw. That way no matter what happens I can drink my liquid energy whether tackling The List or The Progeny. I'll be unstoppable.

my new favorite

There has been so, so, so much going on here that the old blog (or new blog?) is seriously falling to the way side. I promise to do a picture post of the new house but I still have some unpacking to do and pics to put up on the wall. In the meantime I thought that I would share with you my new favorite Moses story. This is a melt-your-heart story, for sure - if you're me anyway.

He came downstairs the other day after an unusually long nap.
Me: Hey buddy! Did you miss me while you were sleeping? I missed you!
Moses: Mommy, do you know why I was sleepin' for so long? So I could dream. About you.

Somebody loves me.

Stats

Stats on Gus Gus...
7.5 months
16 lbs
5 % (a squirt)
Scooter/crawler
Pacifier-aholic
Big Brother

Look out world. Demographics is power and by the looks of it Love Life will be a force to be reckoned with.

So, I lied. Of course the news is baby-related, who did you think we were? It seems time to bring out an oldie-but-goodie.