Public Service Announcement

Change/check your vehicle's oil REGULARLY. If you don't, you'll likely run into the same problem Chris and I did this weekend. While on our way to my parents house, the oil light came on in the Jeep. *Note to self: if the oil light ever comes on, get off the freeway at the next exit and get to a gas station!* We had gone a few miles and the car started making a strange noise, never a good thing. We get to the next exit, and as we slow down, the noise gets worse & worse. I could tell it was the pistons banging. It's such a horrible feeling not knowing if you're going to make it to the station. Well, as we turn into the station the car dies. Chris goes in, buys 4 quarts of oil & pours it in. It won't start. Dead. Nothing. After a few phone calls, my dad is on his way to pick us up and we're trying to decide where to have it towed. We chose a mechanic near Mom & Dad's church that they've used before. Unfortunately they were closed for the weekend, so we had to just leave it at the gas station next door.

Sunday Dad took Chris home because he has jury duty this week and of course couldn't miss that. We decided I'd stay at their house until the car was fixed. Dad went up to the shop Monday morning & talked to the guy. He called later saying he'd looked at the car. It needs a new engine. We were expecting that. He wasn't able to find a refurbished engine because our car is relatively new, so he was going to have to get a factory model. What's the cost you ask of having a factory engine model installed in your 2002 Jeep Liberty? $6500!!!! Holy heck, batman!

We have money in savings, but not that much, so we start weighing our options. Take out a loan for $6500 or buy a different car since ours isn't worth much more than that. I called & talked to Lisa as she's always able to help me think things through & be rational. She & Michael were going that night to look at a new van & were willing to sell us their old one. So there was another option. My dad talked to my grandfather in Missouri who's been involved in cars forever. He did some checking around with his contacts & was able to find an '02 Liberty engine with 24k miles on it for about $1400 (including shipping it down here)! My grandfather the hero! The mechanic is going to install it for us for the bargain basement price of $1000. So, what would have been $6500 is now $2400. Isn't God amazing! Now we're just waiting for the engine to arrive & be installed.

I stayed at my parents house until today. Chris didn't get called for the jury he was being voir dire'd for, so he came & picked up the little boy & me. Jonathan & I had a great time hanging out with Gramma & Grampa. It was really nice to just get to spend time with them, and of course they enjoyed bonding with their little man. I had only packed for two days, so I was doing laundry like crazy to make sure I had clean stuff to wear. Mom had to run to Dollar General yesterday and she bought me an outfit while she was there. ;o) While I enjoyed being with my parents, I was getting a little itchy to come home. When you have a little one, it's easier when you're in your own place, sleeping in your own bed, etc.

Hopefully the car will be ready soon and life can get back to normal. Chris has to go back to the courthouse tomorrow, so I'll be here without a car. I don't really mind though because I have a lot of things to catch up on around the house. I probably wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway.

In the midst of all this craziness, we had a great weekend. After we finally got to my parents house on Saturday we went to the Big Shanty Festival in downtown Kennesaw. There were craft booths, a stage for performances and Civil War demonstrations. Sunday was a great day too. We went to a park at Allatoona Lake in Acworth and had a picnic. The weather was gorgeous & we had a great time watching the kids (and adults) play football. The adults were taking it a little too seriously I think, but it was funny to watch. Jonathan had fun on his first picnic. He wore his sunglasses & hat and of course looked adorable. I hope we can go back to that park sometime.

Well, I am getting pretty tired, so I think I'll retire for the evening. I'm sorry this was such a long one, but I had a lot to say. Learn from our mistake!!!!

He jumped...

... 'til he just couldn't jump anymore. Jonathan had been just goin' to town in his Jumperoo, and then I looked over & saw this. I can't get over how cute this kid is! That just couldn't be comfortable, so now he's sleeping in his crib.

We're going over to Kevin & Pam's tonight for game night. We wanted to make sure we got at least one more in before Pam has Ethan. She's due in about 3 weeks, so it could be anytime. I can't wait to meet him! And then just a couple of months after he's born, Lisa's due to have Elizabeth! All these babies... almost makes me ready for another one. Almost, but not quite.

Misti needs

While on my nightly "stroll" of the blogs I read I saw this on Jennifer Sizemore's blog... you go to a search engine (I used Google) and type your name followed by "needs", both in quotations. Here are the first 10 that come up for my name:

1. Misti needs to get back to her true calling, which she does better than anyone else I know: writing screenplays. (who knew, a hidden talent)
2. Misti needs help. (I'm sure that's obvious to anyone who knows me)
3. Misti needs help from African partners regarding:. – Accommodation
4. I think Misti needs to re-evaluate this (what exactly would "this" be?)
5. misti needs a new dizzy (well who doesn't)
6. Misti needs a divorce. (news to me)
7. Misti needs some cheese with that wine.
8. Misti needs to get a new profile picture (I just put a new one up the other day)
9. misti needs a new blog (why? Is this one boring?)
10. misti needs another pair of ears, arms or shoulders (what?)

Now you try it, and post your results!

The future's so bright...

I gotta wear shades!

I bought these sunglasses (and a red pair) for Jonathan today at The Children's Place and I just had to share a couple of pics of him wearing them. I can't stop cracking up when I see him, he just looks so cute. They don't seem to bother him at all, which I think is good. They'll come in handy on Saturday when we go to a festival with my parents.

6 month checkup

Today was Jonathan's 6 month checkup. Dr. Morgan says he growing just like he should, not like we were concerned though. His weight is 17 lbs 15.5 oz (75%) and he's 27.7" long (90%). He's been averaging about a pound and an inch per month, so that's good. That means he's doubled his birth weight & grown 6 inches! He's such a big boy. The doctor told us that we could start giving him baby food more than once a day, so I think I'll do fruit in the morning and a veggie at night. That just seems more "normal" to me. She also said that if we wanted to, we could start him on a sippy cup with juice! I'm not quite ready for that yet, it seems way to grown up to me. Maybe we'll start that in about a month or so.

Before I go, I just want to extend my prayers & condolences to the families affected by the tragedy that took place at Virginia Tech yesterday. I can't even comprehend what they're going through and I pray that God will comfort them.

We've gone BANANAS!!!

Today was our first experience with fruit, Bananas. As is obvious by his smiles & wide open mouth, he LOVED them. So far, he seems to like all of the foods we've given him, although he didn't appear to like green beans as much.

Hey Ma, what'd you put in my 'nanners?


I can't believe our little man is 6 months old. He's on the downhill slide to his first birthday! Every day he's changing so much, learning new "tricks". He sits up by himself very well, has finally remembered how to roll from his belly to his back (making my life easier as I don't have to keep flipping him over when he gets mad), and I'm 99.9% sure he's cutting another tooth. I've never seen so much drool. Chris' dad has started calling him "Hooch" from that movie Turner and Hooch with Tom Hanks. He's also very vocal. He "talks" all the time, I sure wish I knew what he was saying. When he's unhappy, not quite crying, but not quite happy either, he talks in this low voice & says, "ya ya ya ya". I think he's getting on to me about something, I'm just not quite sure what.

This cold sure had me whooped yesterday. But thanks to NyQuil and 12 hours of sleep, I felt quite refreshed today. Chris took Jonathan to church with him, and I slept until almost 11! It was wonderful. I finally finished one of the books I was reading, I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb. It was pretty good, but man was it LONG. I think it was about 900 pages. I'm not sure I've ever read a book that long before. Now I need to finish the book I'm reading for my online book club, A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. His writing style is totally different that what I'm used to, so it's taking me some time to get into it. Some of the other ladies have already finished it, and say it's worth sticking with it. I'm used to reading kind of "fluffy" books, not whole lot of substance, but this one's kind of deep. That was one reason I joined the book club though, to branch out and read books I never would have picked up before. So far, that's definitely been accomplished.

Time for bed...

6 months!

We had Jonathan's 6 month pictures taken at Portrait Innovations today. Here are a few of our favorites. He did such a good job, thankfully he was in a pretty playful mood, so we were able to get a lot of good shots. It was so hard to decide which ones to get, so of course we wound up buying more than we should have. But when he's just so stinkin' cute, how can you resist?

I would definitely recommend this studio to anyone who wants to have portraits done. We used them for our Christmas pictures too, and they did such a great job both times. Michael & Lisa recently had their family potrait done there, and their's turned out great too!

It seems like there was something else I was going to say, but I've got a cold & my mind is kind of foggy. I guess if I think of it, I'll come back & post. Otherwise, have a great night & rest of the weekend.

Swinging

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when I was at my parents' house. We took Jonathan to this cool park at First Baptist Woodstock that's open to the public. He'd fallen asleep in the car on the way there, but he eventually woke up & had a good time swinging. Obviously he was still pretty sleep though!

Maybe we don't feed him enough if he feels the need to eat his toes!


Saturday was a fun day of scrapping at Rebecca's house. It was me, Rebecca, Laurel, Sandy and Stephanie. In the 7 1/2 hours I was there I was able to get 3 pages done. Not too bad considering that's about how many I get done when we're at Archiver's for 14 hours. I'm really excited because next month we're going on a scrapping retreat to the Blue Ridge mountains. It will be Rebecca, Laurel, Kimberly, Lisa and myself for several days. My mom & dad will be keeping Jonathan while I'm gone, and Chris has to go out of town on a business trip at the same time. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about leaving the little boy. Not that I don't trust my parents of course, but I'm not sure I'm ready to be away from Jonathan for that long. I know it will be good for me to get away for a few days.

Jumperoo antics!

just a couple...

of pictures to share. I have several new ones, but Haley has the camera at the moment, so here are some from a couple of weeks ago.

Jonathan has really been sitting up by himself well for a few days. Last night we sat in the floor with Chris & rolled the ball back & forth. He sat up between my legs for a long time with no support. Every once in awhile he'd lean back on me for a minute like he was resting or something, then he'd sit up again. You can also see in the picture his tongue sticking out. That's one of his new "tricks". It's so stinking cute! I think I have some more pictures of it on my camera, so I'll post them when I get it back.

I thought this picture was just too cute. Daddy & son napping together.



Well, speaking of naps, Jonathan seems to be done with his. He's done pretty good today and napped in his crib for about an hour. I'm trying to work him up to napping longer in there because when he wakes up, he often just goes back to sleep while I'm holding him & sleeps for quite a while longer. Any suggestions?

Oh yeah, before I go, we gave little boy squash starting last week & he seems to like that too. (Again, I have pics on the camera so stay tuned.) So far he likes one more veggie than Chris & two more than me! LOL Sadly Mommy doesn't have very good eating habits, especially when it comes to fruits & veggies. We may start carrots or sweet potatos tomorrow, although I'd like to have the camera handy... hmmm, we'll see.

He seems to have fallen back to sleep, we'll see how long it lasts.