Behind the times

Wow, I'm a little behind with this ol' blog!  The last 6 weeks have been a little bit nutty.   After a long year of struggle, my grandmother (Grammy H) is finally at peace.  She was the strong, stubborn, matriarch of our family.  I am so thankful for the time we had with her.  I'm most thankful that she got to know my husband and my daughter since none of my other grandparents were given that chance.  I find myself missing her and thinking of her often.  The smallest little things will bring her to my mind.  She was a shining example of what being a strong woman is all about.  She didn't have a "easy" life, but she handled it all with grace and tenacity.  She was a straight-shooter, and you never had to guess what she thought about you (or anyone else for that matter!).  She was our whiskey-drinking, card playing, cussing, praying, crocheting, brownie-baking Grammy H., and none of us would have traded her for the world.  I find great peace in knowing that she is finally reunited with Grandpa Joe & Uncle Neil (and the other two babies she lost Michael & Mary Beth that none of us got to meet) after all these years.

This isn't a great picture, but it's the last picture of Grammy H with two of her three Great Grandbabies!  (Mom has a better copy!)

One of the highlights of the last few weeks was my little BFF retreat to Kansas City with my lifelong best friend Amanda!  We hardly ever see each other any more, and we were both in dire need of a little getaway.  We hit a great weekend for weather between snow storms, and spend a couple day shopping, eating, catching a movie, and lots of catching up!  I think we need to make this a regular occurrence at least on a semi-annual basis!  Craig and Delaney had a great weekend of bonding at home, and don't worry he's already working on a little "boy's getaway" coming up here really soon!

I don't have a picture of the two of us handy, but here's a picture of our little ones last summer.  Aren't they cute?!?

Let's see, what else have we been up too?!?  Did I tell you about my DIY husband of the year.  He caught the "Home Improvement" bug and has successfully completed two wonderful projects.  The first was some serious storage shelves in our storage room.  These shelves have changed my life I tell you!  A weekend of complete clutter insanity and mess, left me with these beauties....

Amazing, right?!?

After that project was all wrapped up, he decided to build the closet in the guest room we've been talking about since we moved in.  The room is a HUGE bedroom with the required windows, so now that we have officially added a closet it's a bedroom instead of a +1.  This project took about a week start to finish, but it is sooo nice.  It will be especially helpful if we ever decide to move Delaney downstairs! 

A closet is a hard thing to photograph, but if you've even been in this room it's a big change.  He built an entire wall from the studs up, and even built a few shelves in the closet it self.  We are all about the added storage! 

At the end of February, Delaney had another "first".  She finally got her first haircut!  After months of dragging my feet, I finally decided she needed a little trim.  Most people wouldn't even realize we had it cut, but it looks and behaves so much better.  She was very excited about it before & after wards, but during she was pretty timid and stonefaced.  She somehow equated haircuts to candy, and swindled Holly out of candy before we headed to the salon and Allison out of a sucker before she even sat in the chair.  Allison has been doing my hair for the last couple years, and she does a great job so I knew Delaney was in great hands!

She would NOT smile during the cut!

We have had a couple bigger snow storms this winter, which have actually been pretty fun since Delaney has really enjoyed playing in the snow.  Even Izzy got into it a few times!  Thankfully, Craig is a good sport and will play in the snow with her.  I like the supervisor, photographer role much better! 

Have a ball, while I was freezing!

Craig has been busy at work these last few weeks.  They seem to have jobs all over the midwest, so he's had a lot of windshield time lately.  He's been coming home a little banged up too.  One week a couple weeks ago, he managed to chip the end of his elbow off while tearing down a ceiling, and then slice his calf open while tearing out some carpet.  After our favorite nurse practitioner neighbor, Dr. Katie, took a quick peak she sent us to Urgent Care for what she thought would be stitches.  If you know Craig at all, he HATES needles, so this was not a good outcome.  Luckily for him, it had been too long since he did it, so it was too late for stitches.  He got some pretty sweet steri-strips instead and a tetanus shot instead!

He knew he was off the hook for major needle usage at this time, so he was feeling pretty good!

So that's the major highlights of the last few weeks.  We are gearing up for Delaney's big 3rd birthday next week, and her party this weekend so you can expect to hear back from me much sooner this time.  Can you believe she's going to be 3!?!