I'm Back Online!!!

It feels so good to get my internet back. I was just telling Chris last week that I feel so out of touch with the world. No internet, we don't listen to local radio very often, I don't get the chance to watch evening news, and we only get the paper on Sunday's, I have felt lost. And after 5 weeks with no internet, I have spent two hours going through my emails. For some reason I am still receiving all my emails off my old account but I can't send off that account. Strange and hopefully tomorrow I can get it figured out and will let everyone know my email address.


So much to tell you about from the last 5 weeks, I don't even know where to begin. I guess the best place to start is with Madi. What a doll and a holly terror at the same time. Terrible twos are here. She is a ball of energy and is non stop. It is getting harder and harder to get things done around here. I told Chris all I do all day is play with Madi. I try to sneak away every once in awhile just to get something done. Of course I wouldn't want to trade it for the world, but there are days that I ponder it. She is also very bossy right now. And most of the time Oliver is on the receiving end. She must think since he is smaller than her she can tell him what to do. It is quite comical at times.


And I must brag, she is very smart. And it is amazing at some of the things she can do and say. She knows her ABC's and breaks out in song at least a half dozen times during the day. She can also count 1-10. At times she can get to 13, but not as consistently. And she doesn't just say the numbers, she counts things. She counts people and toys. Chris was pretty amazed yesterday because she came up to him and said a whole sentence. "Ah oh, were did Oly ver go Daddy?" She asks a lot of questions and usually turns around and answers them herself. "Oh, Mommy, what was that? Thunder!" She is just too darn cute. I have lots of new pictures of her. I will post some and hopefully get the rest uploaded to Winkflash sometime tomorrow.


This afternoon we found two baby turtles on the driveway. It was pretty amazing. I have never seen such small turtles. I have only ever seen larger turtles on the side of the road or wandering out at the lake. Of course I have never seen them in my front yard. That was pretty cool. I was more amazed with them than Madi. But I made a little habitat for them and brought them in the house for a couple of hours. And since I had my internet back I was able to find out that they were Red-eared Sliders. Not the typical Box Turtle you find in Kansas. I just wanted to make sure they weren't snapping turtles. We named them Lenny and Tuck from the Wonder Pets, one of Madi's favorite cartoons. And then we told them bye bye and let them go. Chris was able to get her to pet one of them but he moved to quickly toward her with one and she kind of freaked out. I also had one crawling on the counter in front of her and she didn't like that either.











We are absolutely loving the house and being out of town. The wildlife is awesome. The peace and quiet is awesome. Everything has been great so far. Our road isn't a through road so we don't get many vehicles traveling it. Maybe a handful a day. We still have some projects around here that we will be starting on soon. We want to get the basement done, a deck built, put some fencing up, get the dirt all smoothed out and planted with grass. The weather hasn't helped much lately. By the time the ground dries out enough to work outside, it rains again. So we still have a pile of dirt in the back yard and still trying to get the slope right in the front so that the water drains off and doesn't leave a lake in the front yard. We also have had some trouble with the siding on the back of the house. We had some very windy days a couple of weeks ago (40-50 mph gusts and winds) and had some siding torn off. We still have those to replace and getting the rest of the loose ones nailed down and secured. But it has been nice to take some time off too. Somehow we still manage to be busy every weekend. But it's a nice break from building.


Here are some more pics. I hope everyone is healthy and enjoying the spring weather.
Love, Amy


Madi with her Baby Ava. All of her dolls are now named Ava after visiting my cousin in the hospital when she had her new baby.


Riding her horse that Uncle Jon got her for Christmas. I have now been able to get the toys unpacked from Christmas.


Her favorite play place most days, Mom and Dad's bed!


We finally got her to ride the 4 wheeler last week. She still isn't quite sure of it yet.