The Corn Maze...

Fall is here, you could tell by the weather today. There was a chill in the air and the leaves are *just barely* starting to turn. Ron's work group had an off-site activity where we went to The Maze at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island. It's really only an Island because the Columbia River separates and then joins together again... So it sounds more distinctive than it is. It was fun anyway, and we took lots of fun pictures.

The Farm:
You can tell they've been doing this for a while (35 years to be exact). It's set up very nicely. There is a gift shop right as you drive in, and the barn is set up to sell fresh produce. There is a canopy tent (below) with picnic tables which connects to both the entrance and the exit.


Once you're in, you can go through the maze as many times as you want. They even have a picture of it at the ticket counter, so I took a picture of a picture, hoping I could find my way back. For those that know me well, you know that it was not cheating, but merely a desperate measure to survive! I am not good with directions, even with a map, and would most likely be lost for good without some way to get me back... so this is what the maze looks like from overhead:


And here are some of the shots as we went through the maze. It was a beautiful day, really.








The Players:

Ron's team at work sponsored this as an offsite for the team members and their immediate family.

John and Whitney with Braxton


Roger and Katie


Dave


Ron & Britney with Connor


Dago and Mariposa


Krissy and Alice (her mother) with Violet and Noah


Dave, Roger and Katie lucked out the first time through and got done in 15 minutes. They went back in, though, and really got lost for almost an hour. Next out were Ron, Britney, Dago, Krissy and her mom. Then, finally, John and Whitney came out. (although I should say that John and Whitney came out WELL before Dave, Roger and Katie came out the second time...).

Fun With Cartoons:

The tent with the entrance and the exit had some fun cartoon boards to take pictures in. Everyone took turns sticking their heads in the holes of the boards.

Krissy and the 5 techs, Suzie couldn't make it... :( . We had to wait a while to take this shot since Dave and Roger were lost for quite a while... :) but it's a cool shot!

Clockwise from left: Krissy, Dago, Roger, John, Ron, Dave


Krissy and her kids!


John & Whitney and their son


Connor! :)


After pictures, we all went to the produce barn and stocked up on some fresh produce, including bell peppers the size of your head, and zuchinis the size of your leg. Lots of other stuff, too. (My favorite so far was the pear butter. yum!)

It was a fun day. Now, for all of you Connor fans out there, here are some more pictures of him. Such a cute outfit!! The pumpkin pictures were the hardest. Next time I'll pay more attention to the details... but they turned out OK. Enjoy!

Smiles!

OK, I finally took pictures of the Nursery! Thanks to Ron for painting the walls and hanging everything up... And Thanks to Mamie for helping me to organize it in the first place. (You'll be happy to know that I was able to re-organize it after I bought all of his clothes at the consignment sale... I'm fully operational now! :).

Here's one from September 20... So cute!


And, September 23rd... Oh, wait, that's dad smiling! :)


Here's Connor smiling:






His smiles started in about his 3rd week, but they're getting more frequent now. He's *almost* smiling in response to stimulus, but not yet. (Mostly it's just when he's pooping now... but it's still so cute!)

The pictures below aren't of him smiling, but I thought it interesting that he seems to be getting red hair these days.. Take a look and see what you think:








Does it look red to you?

Ta-dah!

OK, I finally took pictures of the Nursery! Thanks to Ron for painting the walls and hanging everything up... And Thanks to Mamie for helping me to organize it in the first place. (You'll be happy to know that I was able to re-organize it after I bought all of his clothes at the consignment sale... I'm fully operational now! :). Pay no attention to the fact that the door doesn't have trim on it yet. That's true everywhere at our house.... We'll trim the doors once the guest bathroom is remodeled. Hopefully coming soon.

bargain hunting...

I have been bargain hunting since I was 11 years old -- old enough to earn my own babysitting money and be required to buy my own clothes... Since college, I have sworn off bargain hunting because it takes too much time, and I wanted all new stuff anyway. Well, as most things do when you have a new baby, that has all changed now. Nothing that Connor has (except his car seat and some clothes we got at his baby shower) is new. Some has been passed down from friends, and alot of it has been purchased from consignment sales.... I've started to really appreciate the bargain hunting again, so much so that I actually volunteered for 4 hour shifts at the spring sales so that I could shop one day earlier than the rest of the public and snag the good deals! Pass-it-on Sales even has a picture of me on their web site. (pic below. I'm behind "Julie working hard while pregnant". I'm pregnant, too, I'm just a newbie... :)).


This fall I consigned to get in early instead of volunteering. I have a bunch of stuff left from when Anna and Miguel were living with us, so I decided to sell it instead of donating. (I have already donated TONS of stuff that could have made some money! oh well!).

So, today was the "presale" where consigners and volunteers went shopping before the public. And, I looked online at my inventory, and I've already sold $53 of stuff! sweet! So, mom, since you helped me tag all of this stuff, I thought I'd keep you in the loop. Here is what we sold already (and 3 more days to go!):



The poly diaper coverups were actually way underpriced, since I paid $3 for each of them used… they usually sell new for $8 each. But that’s OK, though, because I’ve gotten some steals myself!! For instance, I bought 4 white cloth diapers (for burp cloths) for $2. (cheaper than the 3 pink ones I sold for $3!! Even after the consignment fee ). I found 7 new NUK nipples for $3 total (3 were silicone and 4 were latex, so I get to try both). I found a Bumbo (looks brand new) for $7. I found a diaper champ for $11. I found a fold-up changing pad with two cover sheets for $3. (that means I get a downstairs changing station for $14 ). I found some Janie & Jack shirts for $1.50 each! A darling Gymboree rain jacket (with a zip-up hood) for $4! Some other Gymboree clothes for $2-3 each. Some adorable Sunday outfits for $3-5, and tons of gap/old navy/Children’s place clothes for $1 each… I love it! No worries, because if I sell everything I've consigned, I'll still come out ahead. and the great part is, when I'm done with this stuff, I can probably make my money back. awesome!

Ashley, let me know if you want to come down. They sometimes let new moms in the day before as well-- not too late for the October sale in Hillsboro :). Or if you can’t, let me know what you need and I will look. If it’s not at this sale, it’s sure to be at the one in Hillsboro in October…. :D

money, money, money, money! MONEY!

Well, I just got the insurance statement from my hospital stay with Connor. 4 days, 3 nights, a c-section and a circumcision, plus some miscellaneous drugs and supplies = $17,282.15. (Not including the doctor visits from my OB and from our pediatrician). We will have to wait and see what my share of that is, since my insurance needs more information about "medical necessity" from the provider to figure out liability... whatever. in any case, Connor is worth every penny! Especially since insurance WILL pay... (Plus the ~$6,000 it took to get us pregnant in the first place -- we didn't pay much of that, though).

(Edited Dec 10, 2009): I found out my co-pay is only $100. And, the figure above didn't include the additional ~$3,500 for "infant services". Which is also a $100 co-pay. I guess all those years of paying for insurance paid off.... :)

More Connor

I have been accused of not taking enough pictures of Connor. In fact, it has been suggested that I take one every day, centered at the same place, so we can do a time-warp online to watch him grow up. And here I thought I was overloading everyone already.... OK, I know I have no life anymore except for taking care of my 6-week old (tomorrow), but I'm not sure if I can manage pictures everyday....

In any case, he has grown ALOT in the last couple of weeks. So, here are some pictures. You can see from this first series that he is a wiggly worm! He is so active now, kicking his legs, moving his arms, getting buff so he can start crawling... He's still a REALLY good baby -- hardly ever cries unless something is wrong. (I'm knocking on wood hoping that doesn't change). Although, I will admit that I'm exhausted... since he's been sick, his whole schedule is thrown off and he eats twice as often (and half as much). If he doesn't get better by Monday, we may go in to the doctor again, since that is past the 10 day mark... (10 days was yesterday).


He has so many cute expressions, it's hard to capture them all. But here is one of them. Can anyone guess what color his eyes are going to be? Still hard to tell....


And another... (I love when he poses with his fist on his chin!)


This is as close to his "poop face" as I have been able to capture, but not quite it... It's so funny to see in person. He gets this expression that says "Well, there I've done it" and he kind of stares past you. So cute!


He's ready to get changed.... See how snuggly the jeans fit him now? Two weeks ago when we went to the zoo with all the Edwards cousins, he was swimming in the jeans! He's grown so much!


Mostly, though, I took this picture to document that yes, he does wear something besides pajamas all the time. Actually, it's a good thing I dressed him up today to go out and about, because it turns out I forgot about a baby shower that my visiting teacher put on for me. (yes, it's a little late since the baby is already here -- we just turned it into a diaper shower instead...). Anyway, Roxanne called at 3:15 and said "We've started your party without you!" I said "what party?"... oops! I got there ~half hour late.... It was really nice of the ladies in the ward to do that for me...

Here's Connor and Ron after Ron got home from work. Connor is getting burped while I finish dinner. Notice he holds his head up by himself now. He started lifting his head within an hour of being born, and he's been holding it steady for a couple of weeks already. It's not even floppy anymore. Just the occasional "head butt". (he's so strong!)


So, there's the latest pictures. Not sure I can post every day, but I'll try to be more frequent...

Yes, we are insane!!

So, we had contractors starting the backfill the day after everyone left from the big weekend. What timing!! So, Ron, me, Karen, and Connor all went up to Brinnon to get some work done. I was so exhausted! and I was coming down sick! But we trudged on....

We spent the whole week in Brinnon -- the first few days at the Bayshore Motel and the last few days at the Harbor House B&B. (We definitely like the B&B better, but it's twice as much $$ and not always open...). Karen would stay at the hotel/B&B while Ron and I would go work with the contractors, rake the hard to reach places and move the electrical box to a permanent location. It was ALOT of work. To make it more complicated, Connor started getting sick, too. He was all congested, and by 2am on Wednesday, it was bad enough that he couldn't eat very well, so I called the nurse on-call to figure out what to do. Ron and I had to make a midnight run to Wal-mart (45 minutes away, one way) to get a ventilator, a nose syringe, some Tylenol -- just in case, and a few other supplies. Connor is still sick, but we're told it could last 5-10 days, so we'll just have to wait it out. (It's so sad when a baby is sick -- so hard to watch).

We did get alot done, though, so it was a productive trip.

Here's Ron & Connor -- yet another picture with the EXACT same expression... :)


Karen at her post. She spent alot of time feeding Connor since his eating habits went to half as much twice as often when he was sick...


Here's a view of the sunrise from the B&B balcony.


The front of the house is now accessible from the road without taking your life in your hands!


The trail on the back of the garage is now flat (instead of being sloped).


The far side is now terraced, ready for a propane tank and stairs on the side.


Karen and me walking back up to the road.


We also moved the meter to a more permanent location.


it's nice to now have a place to park!


Everyone was comfy on the way home... including the cats! Adrianne in my lap, Anna in Ron's.



And Connor slept the whole way! We hope he feels better soon....