Living in Harmony

Doggies

2010-05-10T16:51:00.004-05:00

Harley is our older dog. He only has 3 legs, as you can see below. In the winter time he has a lot (like almost 6 inches) of fur but we have to trim him up in the summer. This process usually involves a scissors and a lot of time. Fortunately, Harley loves to lay around and get trimmed up! Here is a before picture (taken a few years ago, before our deck got turned into a porch):

Here are some "after" pictures:

Doesn't he look cooler?!

Georgia got to take her aunt and uncles dog home last Friday night for a sleep over!! Boy was she excited! Deuce (as the pup is known) is the sweetest little dog. Bethany and Brandon are very lucky that they won't have to worry about him when their baby comes in August!

Deuce did very well on the sleepover-although he poops an awful lot for a little dog...Anyway, thanks Aunt B and Uncle B for letting Georgia pretend to have an indoor dog for a night.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T09:12:00.006-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there!

As some of you know, Joel and I suffered a miscarriage at the beginning of March. As painful as this spring has been, its also been really wonderful at times. Georgia continues to amaze us with her spirit and kindness. Our loss has made us even more grateful for her life and whats to come. It also makes me sad that our second child will never get to experience the things that Georgia has. I guess God had another plan for him/her, and us!

I think Mother's Day is less about us moms and more about our children. Without them, we wouldn't even be mothers! So, if you are a mom, take a moment and hug your child(ren). They've made you who you are today!

Spring time finally!

2010-05-03T17:25:00.003-05:00

Its finally spring here in Wisconsin. The weather is beautiful so we've been outside a lot lately.

Last night Georgia decided she was going to ride her new bike down to the garden and help plant potatoes:

Here she is with her puppy Abby (Golden Retriever/Irish Setter):

I have no idea where she got that smile from...maybe we'll blame her daddy! ;)

It's been a long time...

2010-05-02T10:45:00.003-05:00

Sorry to all 3 of my loyal readers!!! We've been busy this month and I haven't been able to update anything. To sum up:

-The benefit went well, they raised $23000!
-Joel has started spring field work and is hoping to start planting corn this week
-Our garden is tilled and ready to plant
-Almost all of the flower beds have been weeded-thanks in large part to Great Grandma Goede!!! She's a lifesaver for a busy working mom.
-Almost all of the laundry that has hung out on the laundry room floor all winter (big rugs, misc socks, etc) has been washed and is hanging outside. I love how fast the wind and sun get laundry done!
-The office/nursery is cleaned and re-organized. (Before anyone freaks out: no, we don't need the nursery yet...just planning ahead for anything God wants to send our way!)
-Grandma Murphy's garden is tilled and almost ready for planting--thanks to Joel-the perfect Son-in-Law. Its safe to say he'll keep that title for a little while longer after an afternoon of tilling up tough sod.
-Georgia has started the barn kitties on a rigorous training program...that might be the reason all the mommy cats have moved their children... :)

More to come this week!

This week

2010-04-10T09:56:00.005-05:00

This week has been crazy. Work is really busy, Joel is really busy getting ready for spring planting, Georgia is busy doing what 2 yr olds do...Its kind of a shock to the system after a winter of moving slowly and not doing too much!

We had a nice visit with my Grandma last weekend. She's home now and feeling much better. It seems the story of what happened was a little different than what I mentioned in the previous post but I don't want to get into details. The main thing is that she's home and feeling better! To introduce the next set of pictures, I need to explain that my Uncle Jim is a jokester and in an attempt to make my Gma laugh in the hospital, he brought in these chicken glasses:

On Sunday, before heading home, we stopped at a park so G could play on "The Brown Behemoth"-a name my creative father came up with for this huge slide/swingset thing:

Today is the benefit for our niece Nevaeh. We're praying that a lot of people show up and buy things. Dave and Mel will need a lot of financial assistance in the future so we're going to try to start that nest egg today. By the way, if any of you attend I don't want to see you bidding on my sister's baby blanket!!! That's all mine! :)

Over the state line and thru the city, to Grandmother's house we go...

2010-04-01T18:45:00.003-05:00

We got the scary call on Sunday night that Great Grandma Smick (my mom's mom) was dehydrated and not feeling well. It seems that while my aunt was up here in Wisconsin, celebrating Georgia's birthday, Grandma was back home not eating! She's never been a person to eat very much anyway but I guess she pushed it too far this time. My aunt and uncles finally convinced her to go to the hospital (the real kicker was she wasn't able to follow the NCAA basketball tournement so they knew something was wrong!) and get some fluids. She's been recouperating in the hospital since then. My sister and I are going to head down there Friday night with Georgia to see her and the rest of our family. We're expecting everything to turn out just fine but you never know. Prayers are appreciated! :)

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter!

Here's some pics from last Easter for your viewing pleasure:

Georgia's birthday party

2010-04-01T18:32:00.004-05:00

Allie pushing G on her new bike from Aunt Bethany and Uncle Brandon:

Grandpa Murphy decided Georgia had to have some baby chicks:

Aunt Bethany, G, Allie, "Aunt" Andrea:

Georgia's so lucky to have a cool dad like this! Just wait til she's 16 and he can make balloon animals at her birthday party then too! ;)

Bunny face!

Aunt Kelsey and G coloring before guests arrived:

The Sesame Street birthday cake (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting-yummy!)

We had a great day with family and friends, Georgia got a lot of really nice gifts, and we came home exhausted!

We can't wait until next year.

What's so special about Georgia?

2010-03-26T08:54:00.006-05:00

As an homage to my almost-2 yr old, here's what her Daddy and I find special about Georgia:

1. She loves cold food, not hot food. We nuke her dinner for about 20 seconds because any longer than that and she says its too hot!

2. She's fiercely independent and yet...

3. She won't go anywhere without Mommy

4. She already knows how to pick eggs without breaking anymore than Daddy or Great Grandma

5. She's the smartest girl in the whole world (and her Daddy taught her to say it too)

6. She likes to ride her tricycle in the house, up and down the hallway

7. She loves to fly

8. Her hair always smells good

9. She was born 2 weeks early but it took 8 hours to get her out (is that a contradiction or what?)

10. She likes to save bumps, bruises, and scratches for picture day-she's just making sure JcPenney captures her wild spirit:)

11. She'll give hugs and kisses out of nowhere-so watch out

12. She's Georgia, and we love her

Happy 2nd Birthday Georgia! We love you!

Mt Olympus

2010-03-21T08:19:00.006-05:00

Yesterday after Georgie did her chores we went to Mt Olympus in the Dells. My mom, aunt, and sister came with so it was like girls day out!

Auntie LuLu and TT (we discovered that if we make people's names as weird as possible, Georgia can say them! So Aunt Paula became LuLu and Kelsey=TT...don't ask):

Georgie in her new suit and swim shoes-which were a great idea since the floors at Mt Olympus look like they breed 15 different kinds of fungus!

The kiddie slides right by the front entrance were Georgia's favorite part of the day! She was scared at first but then became more and more brave:

As a side note, for anyone who watches "The Middle": we think Georgia may have "Brick"-like tendancies! :) Before going down the slide, she had to pull one of the little fibers that was on the rope handrail! If she could talk she probably would have whispered to her chest "rope" after doing it! Our own little inside joke I guess...if you haven't watched that show yet, its on Weds nights on ABC.

Here she is by one of the little fountains they have everywhere:

Trying to stomp on one of the floor gushers:

More sliding with Auntie TT:

After the water park, we went over to the outlet mall and shopped but by that time Georgia was getting pretty tired. All in all it was a fun day!

Going to pick eggs

2010-03-20T08:16:00.006-05:00

This morning Joel said he'd take Georgie out to the barn to help pick eggs so that I could get some stuff done in the house-namely sleep in!! Being a mommy though, I couldn't sleep and got out of bed with them anyway. He fed her Cream of Wheat while I wandered the house, wondering what to do first. By the time I settled on a task, they were ready to leave:

Those are pretzel sticks in her cup, by the way.

Bye bye Georgia!

(I've just now noticed that her pony tail is crooked! Do you think the chickens will care?)

Madelyn

2010-03-15T19:49:00.004-05:00

Georgia went with her grandparents (my parents) to visit my cousin Maddie in Illinois. Yes, Maddie is 1 yr old and my cousin, not Georgia's cousin--my uncle and aunt started late I guess.

They had a great time playing!

It must be spring!

2010-03-15T19:41:00.007-05:00

Making a funny face: Looking at the cows in the lot:

One of our new spring calves:

Helping Daddy drag the driveway, in an attempt to dry it out!

Hi, my name is Georgia and I love to take pictures:

2010-03-07T18:39:00.000-06:00

I also have a double chin...
:)

Georgia's room & a recap of the weekend

2010-03-07T18:09:00.009-06:00

We had a nice surprise last night. Joel's aunt and uncle dropped off an old headboard and footboard that have been in the family for a long time. We put it up in Georgia's room and I picked up a little bit so here are some pictures:

Our friends Ryan and MaDonna came down Saturday morning to visit. I don't think they knew what they were getting into when they arrived but we put them right to work. Picking eggs, a run to town, mixing feed, cooking supper and cookies, then loading up 2700 chickens! That last part was unfortunate for Ryan and MaDonna but we appreciated their help! Its that time of year when we clean out one of our chicken barns. The chickens need to find new homes and they were supposed to leave on Friday night but due to some issues, the pick up got moved to Saturday. Luckily they are both hardworking people who love to help us out! The truck arrived at about 7:30 pm and it took us about an hour and a half to load them up. Supper was a little later than usual! Today we took it easy and treated them to lunch at Famous Daves. They gave Georgia an early birthday gift: a pink hoody, puppy tee shirt and black leggings. Here they are:

Washington: Day 0

2010-03-04T18:38:00.004-06:00

As promised days ago, I will now tell you the dirty details regarding our trip to Washington....On second thought, perhaps we'll start with Thursday...

Thursday 2/18:
We left for the Twin Cities after work. Bethany and Brandon were ready to leave at about noon I think but of course Joel and I were running behind! Lets just say that it was getting dark when we threw the last bag into the car and pulled out of the driveway. We decided to stop for supper in Rochester and then continued on to Minneapolis. At some point, I fell asleep, hunched to the side, head resting on the carseat. (Side bar: I would like to point out that I bought just about the biggest car seat available at Toys R Us...it doesn't look that big when you're sitting comfortably in the front seat but when you are forced to sit in the middle of the back seat you discover just how large it is) I awoke to Joel and Brandon (the co-pilot up front) pulling over to the side of the road. Now, I immediately realized that they had not followed the directions I had printed out weeks before but when I said this they insisted they knew where they were. I had doubts (and expressed them in my usual crabby way) but they did in fact know where they were going! We took a slight detour and ended up in the Ramada Inn parking lot. We checked into the hotel at about 10 pm. Our room was extremely tiny but the beds were comfy so Georgia and I were asleep by 11. I thought that Joel went to sleep too but I found out I was wrong. Turns out that he was so nervous/excited about flying that he couldn't sleep. He said he tossed and turned until about 1 am then went down to the hotel lobby and surfed the Internet for awhile. At about 2 he came back to the room and had to lay on the floor-Georgia sprawls out when she sleeps! 3 am came way too early for all of us but he only got about a half hour of sleep. Its funny looking back but I wasn't amused at the time.

We're home

2010-02-28T20:01:00.002-06:00

I know I've seen many of you since we got home but for those of you far away: We're home! We had a great time but we're still trying to get back in the swing of things so stories of flying with almost-2 yr olds and scaredy-cat husbands will have to wait for a few days.

Glad to be home, lots to do, we'll talk soon!

We're leaving on a jet plane...

2010-02-17T19:07:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow is the big day, sort of! Tomorrow after work we (Joel, Georgia, Bethany, and Brandon) head up to the Twin Cities on the first leg of our 5 day journey. We fly out of the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport at 6:15 am Friday morning. After a brief stop in Denver, we land in Spokane WA. Joel's Grandma actually lives in Post Falls Idaho but Spokane has the closest airport. I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm nervous about flying! I keep telling myself that its in Gods hands but there's a little piece of me thats scared.

Wish us luck, mind Wisconsin while we're gone.

Packing

2010-02-14T16:35:00.002-06:00

I thought that with Georgia gone I would have a lot of free time to pack for our trip to Washington (state, not DC) but I was wrong! It seems that with more time comes more opportunities to goof off! Yesterday Joel and I went to LaCrosse with Bethany and Brandon to the Boat, Sport, and Travel Show. I will admit that I wasn't looking forward to going but the boys did so good while Beth and I shopped at the mall for hours that I felt like I should suck it up and go! I will admit that I had a great time once we got there. We spent close to 2 hours looking at all the RV's and travel trailers. For about $50,000, you can really have a nice time "camping"! It makes me really appreciate my Aunt Mary. She took me and my 4 cousins camping up in the U.P. of Michigan and Northern Minnesota every summer, for weeks at a time. And when I say camping, I mean tents and campfires, not RV's and indoor toilets! :) We had the best time though...Anyway, enough nostalgia-back to packing!

My baby left without a backward glance...

2010-02-12T18:30:00.005-06:00

Well, its Friday night and I should be excited. Me and my hubby are going out to eat with two of our bestest good friends and there won't be a toddler in sight (except maybe at the next table)! I should be really rarin' to go but I'm strangely sad. Georgia went to visit her Great Grandma Smick down in Geneva IL with my parents and left Joel and I home alone to fend for ourselves. They left today, although G spent the night with Gma and Gpa Murphy last night...I was lonely last night too. What made it worse was the fact that she was so darn cheerful as she said bye...isn't she supposed to cry and latch onto me and say no??

Anyway, Joel's telling me to get ready so I'll leave it here for now. You can expect more heartache and misery tomorrow.

By the way, here's what Georgia and I normally do on Friday nights:

Now you can see why Joel's so ready for us to go out! :)

All Grown Up

2010-02-07T08:43:00.011-06:00

Here's what Georgia looked like almost two years ago:

One month later, in Daddy's arms with her best friend Allie Jo:

First Christmas:

1st Birthday:

Summer 2009:

Christmas 2009:

Now:

It's really hard for me to believe that in less than 2 months she's going to be 2 years old...She really is the best kid in the world! :) Happy Almost Birthday Georgia!

Life is hard...

2010-02-01T20:23:00.003-06:00

Life isn't fair. We all know this but while some of us are worrying about what to make for supper, others are going thru things that are so much more difficult and challenging! My brother-in-law (Joel's stepbrother) and his wife had a baby on December 29th, 2009. Nevaeh Mae is our first niece and the cutest little girl; but she also has some birth defects that are making life a struggle right now. Dave and Mel have been living at the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester since the end of December and will more than likely be there for several more weeks. They are doing a really great job keeping us all informed and updated (thank goodness for CaringBridge...) but they need everyone's prayers. We are in the process of planning a benefit for them so stay tuned on how you can help! Hopefully we can help make life a little easier for them...

2010-01-30T15:52:00.002-06:00

And now I just realized that for some reason you can't see my first post. Well, at least this site is easier to manage than that other free blogging website I tried to use! It makes me kind of sad to know that my first blog is hanging out in cyber-space somewhere, not completed, bereft of friends or followers. Perhaps some day I'll attempt that one again...or not!

By the way, the first post was some nonsense about the font I'm using-Georgia. Which just so happens to be the name of our first-born child. Now that's one I've never used: "Yeah, her dad and I just love that font called Georgia, we just had to name our daughter after it". Somehow that just doesn't seem to work! In case you're wondering, we don't really know why we named her Georgia, other than she looked like Georgia when she came out. I had it in my head that she would be some exotic name like Lark (which I still love) or Saoirse (try spelling that one on your first day of kindergarten) but instead she became Georgia. It fits her somehow; she's beautiful and smart, shy and outgoing and perfect! And right now she's trying to grab the mouse and mess up the computer. I better run!

Two in one day...

2010-01-30T15:47:00.002-06:00

Well, this is the second post of the day! How exciting for you... I'm basically stalling from having to put all of the cooking stuff back up in the cupboard above the stove. I took everything out and threw a bunch of old spices and ingredients away so now we (Georgia and I) have to put it all away. I ordered a neat spice rack off Amazon this week so when that arrives today or Monday I'll really be set. What is it about organizing something that hasn't been touched in years that's so satisfying? Now if I could only tackle our closet...