Before and After

Our church is now meeting at Willow Glen Middle School which is where I work. Jeff went to the PTA and asked them what our church could do for the school. They told us we could redo the staff lounge. A bunch of people from our church worked all weekend so it could be a surprise for the teachers. I thought it came out great and the teachers really liked it.

These are some before....





And after.

More Thanksgiving Family

Pam and Jake were also up for Thanksgiving. They stayed with their friends Cameron, Karen and Karen's daughter Julia. Jeff and I usually visit Pam and Jake at their place.
The first picture is of Karen, Julia, Pam and Micah.

The next one is of the guys playing video games. They love their video games.


Jake and Micah.


Pam and Micah.


I miss everyone already.

Thanksgiving

I am so thankful that we were able to see all of the family on the Budd side. We had a great time hanging out, playing games, going for walks, and eating lots of food.
The whole clan.
Here we are.
Grandma CeCe with Ellen, Micah and Isaiah.
Everyone again. Jeff's brother David and his wife Sarah and kids Ellen and Isaiah on the end. Kevin and Luann. Jeff's brother Shawn. Jeff and Micah and I. Jeff's sister Ashley and brother Jason.

The Budd's

We had fun hanging out with Jeff's family for Thanksgiving. Here are some pics from the weekend.

A Visit from Mom and Jim

Mom and Jim came up to visit this week. We had a great time with them. I really miss having my family around.



Mom and Jim did what grandparents often do. They spoiled Micah rotten and then gave him back. : ) The stoller in this picture is one of the many items they bought for Micah. Jim has a fixed up Jeep truck and is really into Jeeps so when I told them Micah needed an umbrella stroller they knew he had to have the Jeep stroller.


We went for a walk through the neighborhood. Jim made sure that Micah had his first offroading experiences in his Jeep stroller. They went off of the sidewalk, through the leaves and even forged through a river (ok it was a street gutter) and had lots of fun. Micah liked his new stroller too.

Mom and Micah

Jeff left on Wednesday to go to a conference in San Diego so Micah and I were on our own until Saturday. Well, except for Kevin and Luann's cat Jennifer (no picture, sorry). They were having their house tented while they were both away so Jennifer came to stay with us. I thought she would be freaked out but she made herself right at home without any problem and seemed to get along pretty good with Al also.

On Thursday morning while I was at work, Micah stayed with my friend Michelle and her four year old daughter Madeline. Michelle is 8 months pregnant so I guess it might have been good practice for the new baby. Micah had a good time with them. I then went back to school for our campus life junior high girls. We have our small group on Thursday from 3-5pm. That night was a relaxing evening.

On Friday I did not have work because the schools observe Vereren's Day. My mom and her husband Jim are coming to visit this week so the day was spent playing with Micah and cleaning. I'm sure we all know how the cleaning supplies can come out with a mom's visit. : ) I am looking forward to hanging out with them for a few days.

Saturday I went to a baby shower for Michelle, the woman who watched Micah on Thursday. Here are some pictures of us getting ready for the shower.





The shower was fun. I had to leave a bit early to pick Jeff up from the airport and then we headed toward our "Couple's Connection" group. That was fun also. We talked about how to deal with anger with our kids, but it could also be good for how you deal with anger as a couple or just in general. For those of you who don't know, I have a bit of a temper so I tried to take what tey talked about to heart. Interestingly the worst kind of expressing is in passive agressive behavior which I tend to do sometimes. It is even worse than yelling and hitting things because the anger is not really being expressed and dealt with. Hmmm....

The next picture is waking up Sunday morning. I let Al in that morning and a little later found Al on Micah's blanket. I didn't have the heart to kick him off so we all shared. When Jeff got up he took a picture of us.

Jeff has high hopes

Jeff bought this shampoo a while back for Micah. I had to laugh when I saw this. If you have seen Micah's hair you would probably agree with me that detangling shampoo is a little much as this point so I guess that Jeff has hope that Micah will inherit the Jeff Budd curls. We will see. Micah would look so cute with curls, but so far I think that Micah is heading toward his Mom's super straight head of hair.

Guilt Free

Al lately I mentioned walks around the house meowing at the top of his lungs and if he is in when we go to bed he meows in the middle of the night to go out. I need all of the sleep I can get so I have started putting him out at night and often during the day. After I saw Pam's idea I decided I wouldn't have to feel as guilty if I gave him some shelter.

Laugh Fest

Jeff had Micah laughing like this for almost 10 minutes. He does this with Micah periodically and calls it a laugh fest.

A Night Time Visitor

This opossum has visited a few different times, but I have never had my camera nearby. I was able to get a few pictures because my camera was right next to me, but also because Al, our cat, has recently been kicked out a lot and so I had food next to the door for Al. The opossum stopped for a few minutes to chow down.

Al the last few months has thought it would be fun to constantly walk around the house meowing at the top of his lungs. We don't want him to wake up Micah or us so he has been outside a lot lately. I think this weekend I will buy him a house like Pam got for Seven.

A Dinosaur By Night

This is Micah's second Halloween costume. Spoiled child. : ) It was a little big for him, but he still looked cute in it. We didn't go trick-or-treating with him, we just put him in it and took some pictures on the front porch. It was still fun.

A Pumpkin By Day

Micah is so spoiled he got two halloween costumes to wear. By day he was a pumpkin. Luann got this pumpkin costume for Micah. He was a great pumpkin. Can you tell in the picture which is the real pumpkin and which is Micah?





I had to include the following picture to show off his pumpkin bottom and his feet. They say "boo" on the bottom. How cute.

Back to work for real

Well, Monday I started back to work. So far it is not too bad. The students are pretty good and I am not too overwhelmed yet. I only work part time. Officially I work .6 of my normal position. Class starts at 7:40 and I am done at 10:40 with students. It has worked well the past 3 days. I get home at 11:30 am and take Micah from Jeff. Jeff has Monday off, Tuesday and Thursday he works nights so he can watch Micah in the morning. Ashley watches Micah on Friday's, and Wednesdays Jeff was going to try to work from home, but we might ask Ashley to watch him then also. We'll see.