Freecycle Rocks!!!

So in anticipation of likely selling our home, Scott and I tackled our basement this past weekend. We re-arranged, re-boxed, and cleaned up. I surveyed the junk we weren't sure what to do with: old, old sewing machine, electric weedeater, dip belt, old college science books, full size bed frame. Who would want that stuff apart from the weedeater. We didn't have enough for a garage sale, so freecycle it is. I joined freecycle a while ago, but hadn't parted with or picked up anything in my first few months. To my dismay everything was claimed the second it went online. Nothing has been picked up yet, but by tomorrow our house will be a bit lighter! We still have a box of old soccer shoes that Scott's going to take to Play it Again Sports. If they're not gone by the weekend I'm posting them. It's addictive. I got probably 40 emails for all that junk (excuse me...wonderfully recyclable treasures).

Missing Scott

Scott has been on the go a lot lately. He's currently gone for 3 days and nights on an incentive trip to North Central Arkansas. They are fishing and golfing with the guys from Brown Foreman (Jack Daniels people). Colin decided to throw an absolute fit about his afternoon nap, and refused both times I tried. The second time it took me 20 minutes of holding and consoling him to get him to stop screaming. He started rolling and screaming on the floor. It freaked out Kona--he started whimpering. I was freaking out thinking something was really wrong with him. Now I think his teeth were hurting him, but that he was mostly mad at me. Not sure why since he usually naps well. He didn't eat very well today--also a sign of tooth pain for him. I will need a serious break after Scott's numerous "vacations" this summer.

Pride and Prejudice

Scott and I are settling in for our bi-yearly (sometimes quarerly) Pride and Prejudice marathon. Not sure if we'll finish it in one setting. We hardly ever do any more, but we both still love it. Keira Knightley doesn't hold a candle to Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennett.

Busy week/weekend

Late last week Scott had a meeting at the Lake of the Ozarks. A former coworker/friend of his from St. Louis that now lives in KC has a family Lake house there. Mike was at the same meeting at Scott, so he invited Scott to stay at the Lake after the meeting at his family's home, and have Colin and me come and join their family. Needless to say it was a fun 24 hours. We went out on the lake a couple of times, and Colin loved going fast and playing in the water.


With 8 yr old Katie Muckerman

Glad to be free of the life jacket!

He looked a bit like Randy in his snowsuit from A Christmas Story. He couldn't really put his arms down. The day before he'd worn a different jacket and it was even bigger. He wanted snacks on the boat, but had to be fed b/c he couldn't get his hand to his mouth.

Loving to go fast.

All the Muckerman kids and Colin and Scott. Yes there are 4 of them b/w ages 3.5-10. Yikes!!! They were really fun, and they loved playing with Colin.

When we came back, Scott's sister Sarah and her soon-to-be hubby met up here in CoMo with us to go see the new Harry Potter (side note: major disappointment for someone who's familiar with the book, but probably good if you haven't read it in a while).

On Saturday I had a tea party scheduled at my house with my small group girlfriends. I'd been prepping for it all week. Thankfully Sarah was here to help me Friday night and Saturday morning. It turned out great! See next post.

Tea party

The tea party was lots of fun. There were a total of six of us. We had a nice time visiting without all our kiddos.

Cleaning up the fun!

Tight shot of the table



Hyvee was having an awesome rose sale 2/$1, so everyone was able to have their own tea cup flower arrangement.


Zoom out shot of the whole spread.

The menu was blueberry and cran-orange scones, fruit, petticoat tails (Tea cookies), parmesan pecan shortbread, crumpets, chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, onion tartlets, lemon curd and blueberry tartlets, chocolate shortbread cookies (store bought), peaches and cream tart, cucumber and goat cheese sandwiches, cheddar/pecan sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, and strawberry spinach salad. We had assorted jellies and I made creme fraiche and devonshire cream, which were both delicious.

The food all turned out delicious. It was so much fun to make it all--I love doing that stuff. We had a funny incident with the onion tarts--I had transcribed the recipe incorrectly. WAY TOO MUCH BUTTER. They were floating up out of butter in the oven, but we were able to save them. They actually taste really good-decadent with all that butter.

Tough Decisions

Many of you know I had mentioned the possibility of moving back to St. Louis a couple months ago. That fell through, but a couple of weeks ago, a new opportunity presented itself. Scott is on his way this afternoon to Chicago for an interview tomorrow with Wirtz Distributors (a similar distributor to where he currently works). It is for a position managing central Illinois. It would be a big promotion (currently he has no managers reporting to him just salesmen, but at the new position he will have 4 managers reporting to him). His office would be out of Peoria. He would be one of the head managers there, but would report to his manager in Chicago about once a month. This is not at all where we thought we would be headed next. I'm not jumping for joy to move to Peoria, but if all things go well with the interview and they make a fair offer I believe we will be going. It's a good move for Scott, but it's not exactly what I had hoped for our us moving closer to our family (with the exception of my brother everyone in my family lives within 90 miles of St. Louis).

I hate the thought of selling our house. I really love my house here in Columbia, and we finally have it about the way we want it. As we've looked at homes in Peoria, we haven't really seen anything comparable to what we have, and I've read lots of scary stuff about the sketchiness of most areas in Peoria. There are just so many unknowns about moving to a new area. You would think I'd be good at moving being a Navy BRAT, but I HATE moving. So I have all these negative feelings about moving, but I want Scott to be able to take the next step in his career. I'll keep everyone posted as we gather more information about this probable move. Sniff, sniff.

It's my party...well Colin's that is

Mia spent a lot of time admiring Colin's cake until it was cake time. She kept telling me and her mom that she wanted to eat the water.

Enjoying a b-day present with pal Mia...a new red wagon. He and Livia rode around in it for a while after Mia hopped out. It was so cute watching the two babies going all around outside. My dad got some better shots of this, so I'll have to post some pics of Livia and him later.

Feeding himself icing he grabbed off the back side of his cake.

We had a zoo animal theme. It turned out pretty cute.

He didn't take too much convincing to dig in. He has a real sweet tooth. As soon as I gave him a taste he wanted more.

Checking out one of his presents... a lawnmower...he loves it.

The cake was awesome. My sister-in-law Laura made it. Not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but it's layered off center, and the river runs down the layer, like a waterfall. She has grass and trees with the different green colors. It was adorable, and tasty, too. Chocolate with caramel filling, and buttercream icing.

He did not like his hat, but we managed to get a couple pictures with it on.

Pre-birthday festivities

A little practice b-day on the real day. The candle he's using is the one his uncle and daddy, and maybe aunt used on their first b-day. My mother-in-law saves everything. And she knows where it all is.

He discovered that with a little boost standing on Daddy, he can climb up into the recliner. Bonus, he got a hold of one of the remotes. He's pretty proud of himself.

Enjoying an early b-day present.

Enjoying outside, and desperately wanting to go down the deck stairs to the yard.

We had a big family party on Saturday in St. Louis. Sarah, Scott's sister couldn't make it to the party, so she came to visit for his actual birthday, Friday. Colin was unfortunately very grumpy most of her visit.

Happy Birthday, Colin!

Colin is 1 today. He had a good checkup. He is way ahead average 1 year old boys with his gross motor skills--he walks, runs, etc. He has started using a spoon to feed himself as well. He is right on average for verbal skills. He has to cut back on his milk/formula which is proving to be traumatic. He doesn't like being cut off, and he certainly is not on board the idea of taking a bottle out of a sippy cup. He's always been lazy with his bottles--wanting us to hold it--so he's not wanting to let that time go. We'll see. He's been incredibly grumpy for the last 24 hours. I guess it's teeth. He already has 2 molars, but his incisors and 2 more molars have been trying to cut for a long time. I hope he has a good attitude through his party tomorrow. Will post photos from party on Sunday or Monday.

4th of July

He had a great time crawling/walking around in our friends' backyard. Daddy loves to make him look like Alfalfa. He was so sweaty (and filthy) it was easy.

Future golfer?

Once he got a hold of that club he wasn't letting go. When we finally took it from him to leave...meltdown.

Channeling Martha Stewart

What can all of these materials be making?

A birthday countdown!!

I think it turned out pretty cute. If I make another one, I need to figure out a different way to get the numbers attached, but that can be easily removed and replaced. The brads don't look the best. He already is interested in the numbers. I think he wants to eat them.