It's Pumpkin Time!

The other night, we decided to try and carve the pumpkin. I was curious to see how Brayden reacted to all the goo inside. Andy isn't a big fan, but he was willing to help...lol. So we spread out the newspaper and got everything going. Andy cut the top off and I got the video camera ready. Then we gave Brayden a big spoon and let him try it out. At first he wasn't sure...but soon he dug right in. He was more interested in flinging it all over the kitchen, but hey, it's his first time and he was having fun! Then he wanted to help me pick all the seeds out (we like to bake them to eat!), but was doing too much flinging, so he was sent back with his spoon to the pumpkin. He was such a good helper!

Right now, he's laying on the floor watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! He really likes it!

ChaCha!

ChaCha is something I recently found out about that is fun, easy and a way to earn a little extra money! It is free to sign up. Cha Cha is completely free to sign up - there is no start up fee and they will never, ever ask you for any money.

What is ChaCha? ChaCha is a human-powered search engine!

How ChaCha works… Subscribers (or customers) text in any question that they need an answer to, to 242-242. ChaCha is totally free for customers (it is advertisment driven). A subscriber might want a sports score, their local weather or the closest Mexican restaurant! Then, trained ChaCha Guides (me) research for the answer- using ChaCha's search engine (or Google). The guide finds the best answer, and sends it back to the customer. You never have to use YOUR cell phone, so no text charges ever! You work whenever you want, for how ever long you want, right on your computer. You can log in for 5 minutes a day or 8 hours a day. The more you "work", the more you make. There is no minimum hours that you must work and no schedule at all. If you need to go on vacation, just go! No need to tell them when you can or cant work.

ChaCha Requirements: -Loves searching online -Fluent in English -Excellent writing skills -High speed internet connection (you will also need to download Mozilla Firefox, but ChaCha will walk you through this) -At least 18 years old -Must live in the U.S. and have a valid Social Security Number

How do I apply? If you decide to sign up, please leave a blog comment with your email & I will contact you with my referral email. Comments are private, so no one will see your address.

How referrals work - By using a referral you have a better chance at having your application approved. For every person you refer, you get 10% of what they make. But they still get 100% - it does not come out of their earnings. You can refer up to 40 people. You do NOT have to refer people to work for ChaCha, this is not a pyramid scheme! However, you will maximize your earnings by referring people. Be sure that you refer people who are seriously interested, otherwise your spots will be wasted. ChaCha very rarely "clears out" inactive referrals.

Just click here to get started. The role you want is “Generalist”. After your iniatial application, ChaCha will contact you within a few days letting you know if you are a good fit for the position, or not. The first round I hear is multiple choice (common knowledge). If you pass this test, you'll receive an email inviting you to take the simulator test. This is the part that lots of people fail. They give you a lot of information to read and review before taking the simulator and I HIGHLY suggest reading it & watching all videos thoroughly. If you fail the simulator there are no second chances.

*If you would like to check out ChaCha as a customer first, set up a FREE account at ChaCha.com then start texting your questions to 242242!

Welcome to the World, Baby Boy!

Yesterday, my best friend Megan welcomed her 3rd little baby into the world. Miles Andrew was born at 5:17pm on October 23, 2008. He was 8 lbs, 6 ozs and 20 & 1/2 inches long. Not too big, considering he was a few days overdue! He gave his mommy a hard time this past week by not budging until he was given the official eviction notice. She went in yesterday morning to get induced. They gave the medication. She waited. She walked. No progress at all. So home they went.

When I got off work at 5:00pm, I gave her a call to see how she was doing. It didn't sound good. I had originally thought she said they were leaving for the hospital. I find out later that they were actually about to pull in the parking lot. And talk about cutting it close!! Later, we looked at our phone times. I talked to her on the phone at exactly 5:04. Look again above at what time he was born!! I got a phone call from her mom at 5:25 saying I didn't make it in time. I was shocked!

But both Mommy and baby Miles are doing great. When I was visiting with her around 7pm last night, I could tell she was already wanting to go home with her family. Both Gabi and Ryan (her other kids) came to visit and were so excited to meet their new little brother. Congratulations Greene Family! He's absolutely beautiful!!

10 Years...

That's how many years Brayden just took off my life...I'm sure of it.

He recently has started climbing on everything. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. We have let him to an extent, but it is getting to be too much. The wipe container is used as a step to get him up on the couch. A little people play set is used as a step to get him on the coffee table. An upside down block container is used to help him reach on his high chair. Well, yesterday he discovered he could pull out our dining room chairs and climb on them as well. This is horrible news to me. Because now I can't keep him off of them. Andy was home with him all day yesterday and got so tired of fighting with him about it that he put them all up ON THE TABLE. So that's what I came home to last night.

This morning, while Brayden napped, I spent the time cleaning the living room and kitchen. That included taking the chairs back down to clean the table. So I didn't think much of it. But the one that goes in the back corner I left up there because it was hard to reach. A little bit ago, we went downstairs so I could do some laundry and Brayden could play in his ball pit. We came back up and I realized I forgot to change over the last of the laundry. So I went back down. I was probably down there about a minute and a half...however long it takes to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and turn it on. I come upstairs and it's really quiet. And I don't see Brayden. Which is impossible because the gates are still in place. I look around...and there he is. UP ON THE CHAIR...WHICH IS ON THE TABLE...STANDING UP!!! And trying to touch the ceiling light!!!! Arghhhhhh....so there you have it. He's giving me gray hairs....lol.

And as I type, he is sitting in the center of the coffee table, eating goldfish crackers. I have no control.

Daddy's Boy

If you read my earlier post, you will know that Andy was gone pretty much all weekend. Well, Brayden certainly missed him! When he came in Sunday night, Brayden had just started to doze off on me on the couch. I didn't want him to fall asleep yet, so I took him with me out to walk the dog...which he LOVES to do because we let him hold the leash. A couple minutes after we come in, Andy comes home. Brayden went crazy! He started doing all his crazy dance moves, even though music isn't playing. Then he ran in and grabbed a toy and brought it to show to him. Then off to the kitchen to push his little fridge toy that plays music and more dancing. He was totally showing off and so excited. It was adorable.

Last night, I had got him to bed pretty early...proabably around 8:30pm. I did some cleaning and then took a shower and was about to get in bed when I hear him start whining. I go get him and let him lay down with me in our bed for a little while. Andy comes home about 15 minutes after. As soon as he came in the room, Brayden is up and crawling around...GROWLING and laughing like crazy. Yelling DADA and making sure Andy knows he is in our bed! He is definately Daddy's little man...

Long Weekend

Brayden and I just had a long and boring weekend. Andy was out of town at SRU for homecoming and working all day today, so we were on our own.

Friday night I went to play some bingo! It was a fun time...I met a new friend and we had a blast. Although we didn't win anything, we came close a few times and it was nice to get out for a little bit. I got home to Brayden in bed, but there was a little "incident." He was running around with his cup in his mouth and tripped and fell. Which split his bottom lip open. Apparently, there was quite a bit of blood...which I didn't see for myself, but was evident on the towel and his shirt. But he's just fine. There is a cut that is noticable, but not a big deal.

Did anyone else wake up FREEZING during the night Friday?? Brayden woke me up around 2am and I scooped him up and put him in bed with us with some extra blankets. He usually can't stand to be under the covers, so I knew he was cold when he cuddled in and went back to sleep instantly. Saturday we went out and ran some errands and got Brayden was warmer pajamas. He had outgrown all of his long ones from last year and obviously it was time. Then we took a ride out to Janoski's to get some apples. (See our food blog to find out how those turned out.)

Today was one of those days. I really was done being on my own. Andy works nights during the week, so having him gone on the weekend also made this a rough one. I feel like all I said today was "Brayden NO!" I'm sure some of you know...lol. I just would have enjoyed oh...going the bathroom without help...lol. We hung out at the house all day and haven't done a whole lot of anything.

AND....we're STILL waiting for a special little boy to be born...c'mon out Baby Boy Greene!!! We're ready to meet you!

Endocrinologist Appointment Update

Today we took Brayden to his endo appointment at Children's Hospital. We only go once every 3 months now, so it's not quite as big a deal as it used to be, but still a hassle. He has to have bloodwork taken at Sewickley Hospital about a week before and they send the lab results to Children's. So we went today and everything went great! He has actually been on the same dosage of the medication (Synthroid) for almost a full year. That's good news because even though he continues to grow, the dosage hasn't changed...meaning his body is picking up the slack and his thyroid is actually working enough to make a difference.

He was also weighed and measured. He's up to exactly 32 inches tall and exactly 23 pounds. My tall and skinny string bean...lol.

Besides that, we had a nice dinner at Andy's parents tonight. We forgot the booster seat, so improvised with some phone books and a scarf to tie him in. It was a nice, relaxing evening.

My Sweet Little Angel...

Just threw the absolute biggest FIT I have ever seen! Wow...I didn't know he had it in him! LOL! I think my mom and I were just amazed. We were watching him as if he were going to explode. We had just got home from shopping with Megan and her mom, where he was just perfect. My happy little man. We came home and I took him over to his Grandma's to show her some of the stuff we got. While I was getting it out of the car, she commented that he was a bear and I had no idea what she was talking about. He played around for a couple minutes. I can't even remember what set him off...but all of a sudden, he was throwing stuff and flinging himself all over the room, making this horrible screeching sound! He walked right over and purposely banged his head off of the front of his little quad. My mom grabbed him and told him he was gonna just sit til he relaxed. He continued screeching and I packed up our stuff to go back home. When I got back, he had calmed a little and we were visiting for a couple more minutes.



Then it started again. I actually had a pulling match with him over a full bowl of cereal that he was prepared to fling across the kitchen which turned into lots more screeching. At full volume. So we leave. I'm carrying him, kicking and screaming, back home with my mom following for the show. I put him down in the living room, only to have him run across the room and decide to repeatedly bang his face off of the leg of our dining room table!! At this point, it's time for a time-out in bed. His first one...but when we went upstairs, he managed to completely relax and was immediately back to his normal self.



I guess the full moon did it??

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

We had a fun and busy pumpkin-filled weekend!

Friday, Brayden and I spent a nice day together hanging out and picking out some new Halloween decorations. We found some great deals at Garden Ridge and got some sparkly, bouncy spiders that hang in our tree, some light up pumpkins for in front of the house and a strand of pumpkin lights for the porch. I'm working on getting Brayden to say pumpkin...right now he calls them balls...lol.

We were invited to a pumpkin party at Megan's in-law's house on Saturday afternoon. Brayden had such a good time...he never even looked twice at me the whole day! They had fun things that we don't...like ride-on jeeps and tractors and sliding boards and lots of rocks to play in! He was busy the ENTIRE time. Never sat down all day. There were lots of other kids for him to play with and he loved it. He rode on the jeep with Gabi all around the yard and wouldn't get out to give others a turn! Then we took a ride on the tractor to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin.

After that, we went home (he was asleep by the time we were out of the driveway!) and Grandma was coming over to baby-sit so that Andy and I could go to dinner. We have had a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory for over a month that we have wanted to use. So we headed out to a nice, relaxing dinner. Came home about 10:30 and guess who's still up? Yep, Brayden and Grandma are sitting on the couch watching tv. She's such a sucker...no crying in the crib when Grandma is over! But he went to bed easily for us after she left.

Sunday, we went to Janoski's Pumpkinland with Aunt Suzy, Uncle Alan and the kids. It was a beautiful day to be outside. We took Brayden here last year, and he was such a little peanut. Now he was much more interested. He loved playing in the hay jump. And visiting the petting zoo area was okay...he liked the stuff in the cages like bunnies and chickens...but the goats and baby cow were a little too close for his comfort. He would walk WAY around them if they came near him, and I couldn't even get him to sit near one with Andy for a picture. We rode the hayride out to the pumpkin patch and picked out a nice big white pumpkin to add to our collection.

Just to be sentimental...here's a photo from Janoski's last year...where did my little baby boy go??

Weekend Getaway!

This past weekend we took a trip to get out of this place for a little bit. We had been invited over and over again to visit a family friend in Louisville, KY and had never had a chance to do it. We finally took them up on their offer and made the trip! And I'm so glad we did...we had a blast!

It was a 6 hour drive and the car ride was pretty uneventful. This is the longest we have tried to keep Brayden contained, so I was a little worried, but he did a great job. On the way, he back addicted to Wendy's chicken nuggets. Usually he goes for the fries first, but he really liked these! And later we tried to give him Burger King and he refused...so he won and we stopped at a 2nd Wendy's in one day.

We arrived on Thursday evening and just spent the night relaxing. Cooked some burgers on the grill and had some snacks and just spent time hanging out and visiting. The house where we were staying was absolutely gorgeous. Brayden quickly discovered the huge pond in back and was completely entertained with finding rocks to throw into it and feeding the fish. They have alot of land and every evening a bunch of deer come by to be fed. We took buckets of corn out and spread it around and they would let you get pretty close.

Friday was our sight-seeing day. We drove into downtown Louisville and walked around for awhile. Then we went on a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum and got a personalized bat for Brayden. They also gave us each a mini (14") bat with our tour. Believe me, these will be packed away for quite some time. Brayden immediately took one and attempted to kill everything within sight!

Saturday we got up and went to the St. James Art Festival. Apparently, it is the biggest of it's kind and I believe it! It was huge. I don't think we made it around the whole thing. It was extremely crowded and Andy was getting annoyed trying to get the stroller thru the herds of people. And everything was completely out of our price range, but it was fun to walk around for a bit. After that, back home to relax. But while Brayden and Andy decided to take a little nap, Carleen and I decided to try out the toys in the garage. She jumped on her dirt bike and I took the quad (I was terrified at first!) and we rode around the yard and into the woods. It was alot of fun...even for a sissy girl like me!! But I think that was Andy's favorite part. Every chance he got, he was out on the quad, zooming around the yard. Ask him about his re-enactment of a music video later...lol.

Finally we spent the evening out for dinner at kid-friendly Red Robin and driving around Louisville. The next morning we loaded up and headed home. It was a great trip...and I think we will be making it again!!

Welcome!

I'm trying out a new blog...the last one wasn't working very well. I hope to keep this one updated more regularly. I'm still figuring this site out, so hopefully we will have some pictures and other new stuff added also. Keep checking back!