When Good Friends Reproduce

You know you love me. Glad I can be creative with the titles a little. So here's the story of Baby Easton. His mommy and I met when we started Kindergarten at Franklin Elementary School a while back, quickly became best friends and remained so throughout high school and now, into the "meat and potatoes" of our lives. (Someday I should scan in old pictures of our childhood to share with you.) Anyway, Dana meets David and gets married in 2006 during a tornado (literally). Easton arrives November 2008 and starts growing as soon as he hit the air. At six months and just over 20 pounds, he is squishy and has the most kissable cheeks I've ever seen...maybe I'm partial, but take a look at his six month portraits and see for yourself.

Their front door provided amazing light for us to work with. I was very excited to see these images on the screen. I may be starting to improve at this photo taking thing!

We worked really hard to get even the slightest grin on his sweet little face. We sang, we danced, Gage played with all of Easton's toys and this was the best we could do.

Then Daddy came back and Easton's face immediately lit up. Its so cool to watch how little tykes react to different people. I think Mommies have a tendency to bore them after a while that they just appreciate a change of scenery.
After a quick snack from the bottle, we thought we could snap a few more quick pictures with the Twins gear, but Easton had other ideas (like a nap).

One more of the entire family (minus Tank...what were we thinking?). They're big Yankees fans, can you tell? :)

You can see the rest of Easton's pictures at the NEW photo hosting site! I'm very excited about using Zenfolio for hosting. Check out a few old and new albums at www.csquaredphoto.zenfolio.com

Toys!

Happy Belated Graduation to the Lemmon High School Class of 2009! I am so proud of you - YOU MADE IT! Have a safe summer and best of luck on your many endeavors. If I could have been two places at once, I wouldn't have missed it. However, it just so happened that Lemmon's graduation was the same as three of my cousins and one really great friend (hey Alissa!) in the other corner of the state so we spent the weekend controlling the cake and punch population somewhere else.

This week at The Current Connection:

Leapfrog Toys are on special this week at The Current Connection. Check out the ad to see special savings for all ages.

Remember: if you miss out on Deal of the Week Savings, come and visit us on Main Street in Lemmon. We have an ever-changing inventory of high definition TVs (19"-52"), digital cameras, desktop and laptop computers, mp3 players, athletic apparel and stadium chairs from Stateline Designs, printer ink and much more. We can also order everything from vacuum cleaners to Wii games so you will have in 3-4 business days.

Check back in the next couple of days for 6 months pictures of a delicious baby boy - you won't believe the kissable cheeks and scrumptious arms on this kid!

Laptops and Pink Eye

Is it really Thursday? Please don't feel like you're missing out on Deal of the Week because...its the same deal next week. This special is so great its running for two weeks. So let us know if you're interested and we'll hook you up. *Hint: you do not have to be a graduating senior to take advantage of this special.

In other news, Gage spent all day Monday at the office, I subbed in high school social studies on Tuesday and today Gage is at the office with pink eye. We spent part of the morning with Dr. Jake (the guy's a legend and rightfully so - he is awesome) and Gage had blood taken to test his thyroid levels again. I'll get into the thyroid discussion another day, but you should know that before I could even send Jack a text message with the diagnosis they were done taking blood. There is a vein in his arm that performs beyond expectation every time we need it. I say we, but in all honesty I wait in the hallway, the labtechs call in reinforcement and its usually over before I can wash my hands. Four stickers and two bags of candy later he was high-fiving the lab techs on the way out the door. (I know they cringe when they see us on the schedule but they are also amazing.)

One more funny story and quick snapshot of today's fun. Back story: several weeks ago Gage spent a full day and a half with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson at the ranch. We walked in the door and he immediately started into a lengthy, though mostly incoherent, story about a cow's butt. Naturally, I figured he saw a baby calf born but then Grandma explained that Gage witnessed his first prolapse repair. (If you don't know what it is...look it up. I'm not going to explain.) Periodically since this episode Gage has talked about "fixing a cow's butt". Today he was playing away with tassels from a kite and a football and I asked what he was doing. His simple reply, "Fixing a cow's butt." (Kim laughs, calls Jack over and we repeat the conversation). He was so tuned into the task at hand, he nearly missed out on a trip to the Sugar Shack for ice cream and lunch. Here's a picture of our future vet...if he could only fix pink eye.

Deal of the Week, Run-Down of Events

Here is the current Deal of the Week at The Current Connection. This promotion is good from April 27, 2009 through May 1st, 2009. Sorry for the pathetically "gray" advertisement but our local paper has a tough time transferring my colorful ideas to print so I make everything gray scale for them. I just finished up with the ad for next week - we're hitting the graduation specials early to watch for a kicking deal on Dell Laptops!

Its crazy how fast two weeks passes and how many times in the span of those day when I think to myself, "I should blog about this." Clearly I don't blog as much as I think about blogging. I'll try to be better :) Here's run-down of the last couple of weeks:

• Gage spent some more time with Grandma & Grandpa Anderson checking calves, feeding baby cows and playing in the mud. He's very excited for branding this weekend (he just doesn't know it yet). We don't talk about calves, Chuck or "the ranch" until we're ready to walk out the door
• We took a trip East River to visit the Franken/Waba crew and enjoyed bottle feeding "Gumby", another toddler birthday party, and a traditional Easter celebration with Dale & Teresa (Kim's grandparents). Just 7 days late, Gage hunted for Easter Eggs, dyed eggs with Kim's cousin Jenni and Teresa and ate a huge dinner with family.
• After our belated Easter celebration Gage and Jack headed back to Lemmon and I stayed back for State FFA Convention. (Gage was so exhausted from a busy weekend he slept about 3-1/2 hours of the trip!) Shad Christman, 2008-2009 State FFA Vice President, was my student for 3 years and I stuck around to support him and watch a great presentation in student leadership and development by FFA members from across that state.
• While visiting East River, the "bump" made an appearance and I returned to Lemmon visibly pregnant. I know this because the next day people stopped me on the street in surprise. It'll be here the end of September (with any kind of luck - the due date is actually October 9th). I say it because it will be a surprise - no sneak peaks here, but mostly to torture Jack's sister who REALLY wants to know! Neener neener.
• We FINALLY shampooed carpets at the house last weekend. They feel much better and after being out of the house all day today we'll see how they smell when we get home tonight. There was one evident spot of skunk residue that we had been missing in the bedroom so hopefully we took care of our odor issues. They are very minimal at this point, its just something we hope to be rid of soon!
• And now a few pictures of the East River trip:

Thanks for stopping in!

Kim

Deal of the Week, Skunk Update

We have instituted a new promotion at The Current Connection: Deal of the Week. Pick up the paper or listen to KBJM Radio and check out a different deal each week at the store. This week's promotion is on a Toshiba DVD Player and next week (spoiler alert!) will be a 22" Toshiba TV at a steal! We are working on a few more surprises at the store - think adding services - that we hope to announce soon so check back. I'll try and keep you abreast the current Deal of the Week.

And now, the latest on the battle against skunk smell. We faithfully sprayed vinegar in the carpet for several days following the attack. The peroxide, baking soda, dish soap bath worked great on Wrangler and took the remaining smell out of his hair and skin. The mountain of laundry has actually grown as we finally finished cleaning out the closets included rarely worn dress clothes, extra linens and even the clothes we'll never wear again but keep storing. At 3-4 loads a day you'd think we would be making headway but its tough to see much of a dent at this point. We're on our 2nd bucket of OxiClean and several pieces of clothing are more stubborn than others, requiring several washings.

When we get to a point that we think the skunk smell is gone all we have to do is leave for a few hours and come back. There is still the faint smell of skunk, mixed with vinegar. Its quite the combination. I've yet to open the bag containing the comforter waiting for the perfect day when I can lay it outside in the lawn. The last of the snow might be melted today so maybe the comforter will appear soon!

That's all I have for today. I'll shoot for a few pictures from Gage's birthday in the next update.

Happy Wednesday!
Kim

William Chase - 4 months

Here are a few pictures of sweet little Will. We were able to grab a few 4 month portraits last week. His Mom and I had a great time trying to squeeze out a smile only for it to instantly disappear the moment the flashes fired. He definitely made us laugh! The rest of his pictures are up on the photo proofing site: http://www.squaredphoto.smugmug.com/

He is great at blowing raspberries and smiling at his big brother!
Great time for a little tummy action!
How can you resist a few topless photos with baby fat creases and chunky little cheeks? And one more picture for a laugh!

Stay tuned as I hope to blog again this afternoon or evening. I made a list of everything I should be including but am not. Here's your teaser of what to expect:

• The Current Connection initiates a new "Deal of the Week" (something to blog about every Monday!)
• Gage turns two, has a pool party, plays with "Brice", and does chores with Chuck "Drivin' the tractor. Feedin' the baby cows."
• An update from our skunk smell fiasco.

April Fool's Prank of the Century

Sorry we missed you yesterday, both on the blog and at the store. We have not been closed for any of the blizzards this winter, even when the rest of town seems to shut down. Yesterday morning, we stayed home to clean the house. Let me explain.

This is our three year old dog Wrangler. Sweet and innocent right? I'm pretty sure he wasn't part of a "planned" litter of pups. His mom, a registered Beagle got knocked up by the neighbor's Blue Heeler. Enter Wrangler. He's goofy and spoiled but Gage loves him and he does a great job of cleaning up leftovers. Tuesday night about 11:45 Wrangler thought he needed to go outside so Jack let him out and dozed off on the couch. At 12:05 (barely April 1st) Jack opened the door to let Wrangler inside and could smell skunk. Every couple of weeks, we can smell skunk at night but there are a lot of trees around our house, some abandoned buildings on the property next door and a sale barn to the south. Needless to say Jack didn't think twice until he turned around and Wrangler was rolling through the carpet. Jack's grogginess started wearing off about the time mine set it while Wrangler was rolling through the comforter on our bed. The smell of garlic and burned rubber has a way of waking a person up in a big hurry. (Side note: that's what fresh skunk spray smells like, don't be deceived.) We figure Wrangler took a direct hit to the side of his head from a skunk. Jack and I spent two hours Tuesday night washing the dog, airing out the house, changing bedding and carrying out science experiments on our living room carpet. Baking soda and vinegar is even fun at 1:30am.

Wednesday morning we thought we didn't smell too bad so grabbed clothes out of the dryer and headed to work. It took less than 15 minutes (and the babysitter's confirmation) that we smelled of skunk so Jack moved some service calls, we shut down the office, headed to the grocery store for supplies and tackled this lovely April Fool's prank (gone horribly wrong). Here's what we've learned:

• This website is amazing: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf576594.tip.html and I've been there a dozen times in the last 40 hours.
• A mixture of peroxide, baking soda and dish soap (not tomato juice) works best to remove "direct hit" sprays. We didn't have peroxide or tomato juice the first night but baking soda and dish soap did take the edge off. Bath #3 is tonight.
• Every piece of fabric that we own that was in a closet, drawer, or on a bed smells like skunk and the mountain of laundry is impressive. We're not quite sure how to make our leather shoes right again, but we're working on a few experiments.
• I am nearly certain that there is not enough Oxiclean in this town for all of our laundry. It doesn't help that we've washed a few stubborn pieces (like my coat and shoes) twice and they still smell. But it does work on most stuff.
• Vinegar cuts down on skunk odor significantly. All upholstery in our house have been sprayed with direct vinegar at least once, followed up with Febreze. Three times for the carpets. They still don't smell right. I also boiled vinegar for about 3 hours yesterday morning with the cupboard doors open in the kitchen because they also smelled of skunk. I think that took care of it in the kitchen.
• Jack hates the smell of vinegar almost as much as skunk right now. We're trying some chlorine producing reactors this weekend that are supposed to be the cure-all for stubborn odors. Unfortunately it also means that we have to take our stinky selves out of the house for a couple of days. On a positive note, its a good reason to have a pool party at the hotel for Gage's birthday.
• Wrangler really does feel bad and has moped around the house since this happened. He does not however feel smart enough to leave the suspected site of attack alone. Jack chased him all over the trees yesterday and is pretty sure Wrangler was headed back for revenge. He's now a leashed puppy when outside (we had to steal the dog collar back that Gage had claimed as a toy, but what are a few more toddler tears?)
• I'm in the market for a new comforter. It needs to match the sage green curtains that were in there, unless they still smell funky too. I haven't touched the comforter yet. Its outside in a large, heavy garbage bag but we can smell it through the garbage bag when we walk a 10 foot perimeter around it...sick. The bagged up dog collar permeates much farther than that.
• To answer an obvious question: Gage really has no idea what's going on except that Mommy and Daddy would rather clean than play and that's unusual. We did teach him to say, "I smell like a skunk." and stick his little butt out and go "Pshhh" to spray like a skunk. What can I say, we really needed a laugh.
• Our house may be the cleanest its been in a really long time and from reading on the web, it could be MUCH worse!

So there you have it. If we meet up with you in the next few days, we're sorry to share the funk but we're really doing all we can. And we're open to suggestions. One more picture of Wrangler because we do still love him. (Just don't let this happen again...please!)

Also, a huge shout out to Gage's daycare who kept him even though he stunk all day yesterday and still a little today. I'd put her name in here but I don't want you to steal her - she helps us maintain our sanity.

To the skunks living near our house: I hope you all freeze to death in the April blizzard this weekend.