Red Trucks

What is it about red trucks? In high school, my sister wanted a red truck. In college, I dated a guy with a red truck. Tonight, I'm drinking Red Truck. I picked up 2 bottles at Simply Wine a couple of weeks ago. I'm enjoying the 2nd bottle now. It's a Petite Sirah. The label says:

Our Petite Sirah evokes this magnificent natural landscape, sending the palate into overdrive with lush flavors of cassis, dark cherries & plums infused with pepper and brown spices.

We had dinner at Applebee's and I had a Merlot there. It was okay. When I tasted the Sirah after, it was amazing all of the flavors! I can really taste the plum. I toasted up a couple of pieces of Texas garlic toast to go with it, though I think a big bowl of popcorn would have been better! The best part is this wine was under $6!! I know I've seen it at Wal-Mart, so it will be easy for me to pick up additional bottles without heading to the West End and my favorite wine stores. I actually picked up a great cheese, made with garlic and a chardonnay, which I didn't blog about, but it was smooth, flavorful and would be awesome in mashed potatoes.

Corn Maze!

After all the drama of Friday night into Saturday morning, we decided to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and headed to the Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch.  We didn’t need to purchase any pumpkins, but we did enjoy the weather, the maze, and all the fun activities there.  Jessie napped through most of it, but Maggie had loads of fun and told us she was so happy we went to the Corn Maze.  Though, later, probably waking from a nightmare or something, she told her dad that she never wanted to go there again.  I think she’ll eventually change her mind!

 

Burglary

We were robbed Friday evening. We were in the (bad) habit of leaving our garage door open after we return home from work and also in the (bad) habit of leaving our bags in the VUE or mini-van. I've been carrying my stuff in the diaper bag, so my wallet, keys, sunglasses were all in the mini-van. About 7:30-8 pm on Friday, I went out to the garage to get my bag so I could purchase tickets to a fundraiser I'm going to with some women from church. When I couldn't find my bag in the car, I assumed Rocky had brought it in and asked him. He told me he hadn't, so I went back out to the car to retrace my steps. And prayed that I hadn't left it sitting in the Gazette parking lot. Certain I hadn't, I went back in the house, thinking I just forgot that I brought it in. Then Rocky decided to look and discovered his bag was also missing. We figured out that the bags must have been taken from our garage after we got home. How scary is that? They were in our garage, on our property and gone without us even realizing they were there. The dogs didn't even bark. They had my bag, my wallet, my keys, my work ID. My STUFF. My identity! Rocky called the police and I started making a list of what was in my bag. Have you ever tried to do that? Could you do it right now? After talking to the police, who were going to send an officer over, Rocky called our bank to cancel our debit cards and checks (they got all 3 checkbooks). I texted a co-worker to get the phone number to cancel my work credit card -- which I couldn't do at the time because the work cards aren't attached to your social security number and it was either cancel EVERY business card or just wait. I opted to wait. I did find an old statement that was in my email and was able to get it canceled. I canceled my Target card and talked to the bank to cancel my personal accounts. I still have to go the bank to reopen my checking account (I didn't do it over the phone because I still had to cancel Target and work cards -- and call my VP to let her know what happened, just in case). I have to go to the DMV to get a new driver's license. I have to get new keys.

Feeling more vulnerable than normal, we all slept in the same bed Friday night. Jessie was throwing up most of the night, so she also slept in bed with us. Maggie loved being in the "family bed." Rocky eventually went to sleep in the living room, but neither one of us got much sleep. In the morning, Rocky went to Ace to get new locks for the doors. I talked to the Health Line nurse about Jessie's throwing up & rash and we decided we needed to see the pediatrician as well. Rocky put in the new lock and then we all headed to Billings Clinic to check on Jessie. We saw the pediatrician for all of 5 minutes, who dismissed my talk of Scarlet Fever because "babies don't get strep" (yeah, and kids don't get Scarlet Fever without a fever, but Maggie did in January but you know best). We were sent home with a curt "keep her covered with Vaseline" and "there's probably a stomach bug going around."

Back at home, we had a message from a credit card fraud protection department as the thieves attempted to use my health savings account debit card to buy gas. I had forgotten about that card, so I got that one canceled as soon as I got off the phone with the fraud protection department.

And just when you start believing the world is full of thieves and evil, we got a call this afternoon from a woman who found my work credit card and one of my debit cards, near where the thieves attempted to purchase gas. Rocky told her to cut up the cards and went out to check the garbage cans and dumpsters in that area to see if he could find anything else. He couldn't, but there's nothing else for them to use in the bag, unless they have a baby. Oh, and the Target card with less than $20 on it.

Another Visitor

Rocky’s sister Tammy visited use this past week. Maggie was thrilled to have Aunt Tammy, aka someone else to pay attention to her, here.  She didn’t want to do much, but I did take a day off work and we drove to Red Lodge. I had hoped we’d be able to drive a little up the pass, but it was already closed for the season.  It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the trip very much! More pictures on Facebook.

After dinner on Thursday, Tammy suggested we all go for a walk, so we walked down to Lake Elmo. It was a beautiful evening and we even got to watch the full moon rising. 

Baby Shower

We are so blessed by our Small Group at church!!  The Ladies held a baby shower for Jessie in July.  We received many wonderful gifts, but most important to me was the opportunity to spend an afternoon with these wonderful women.  It’s like having a group of aunties for my girls!!  Thank you, ladies, for being a part of our lives!

 

Thanks for taking pictures, Alyssa!!

Bathtub composition

Musical inspiration can strike any time and any place. With Maggie, that time was last night in the bathtub:





She sang for about a half an hour before she was done. Then it was on to bed to watch and sing along to 'Beauty and the Beast.'

Some cute Jessie pictures

Jessie’s Dr. Evil impression.

Mom, I got places to go.

Enjoying a nice fall afternoon with a giraffe.

At Jessie's 4 month appointment last week, she weighed in at 13 lbs 3 oz (50th percentile) and is 23 3/4 inches long (25th percentile). We started cereal this week and she wasn't quite sure what to think about it. She seemed to like the taste, but not the spoon. She will got back at 6 months and at that time both she and Maggie will get the flu vaccines.

Maggie-isms

Maggie math: "Mom, I want to show you a plus equals problem. What does a spider plus a flower equal? A spider-flower!!"

"Mom, is heaven down here?"
"I like to think so."
"So is Nala right here with us?"
"Yes, sweetie, I really hope so."

J. Bookwalter 2004 Merlot

One of the local wine stores has a Facebook page and last week listed a Merlot.  I don’t normally like Merlots, but the description sounded very yummy:

This blend displays spicy vanilla, chocolate, espresso and candied cherries on the nose followed by concentrated flavors of sweet black cherries, black currants, cassis and cocoa all wrapped with a hint of earthiness on the palate.

The proprietor told me the reason for the great deal (usually $38/bottle, they were selling it for $8.99) was the vintner is changing his label and was looking to get rid of any bottles in the old label.  So I bought one bottle, only one because, again, typically I’m not a fan of Merlots.  She also suggested letting the bottle breathe as it is a 2004.

I opened the bottle last Thursday.  The first glass was nice.  I did think I should get at least one more bottle.  Friday, I had another glass and it was even better.  I decided to definitely get more.  Then I put off going back to Simply Wine until Sunday and of course, they were all sold out :(  It is a nice smooth wine with very little aftertaste.  Next time the description intrigues me, I’m just buying 2 bottles.

Day 122

 Jessie is 4 months old now.  It seems as if she has changed so much in just the last month.  I’m not sure if it’s because I’m no longer with her 24/7 or if she really is growing faster than she should.  She rolls over and really really wants to crawl.  If left to her own accord, she will wriggle her way around the floor on either her belly or her back. 

She has discovered that she has a big sister.  She is really starting to pay attention to Maggie.  She will look for her and watch her intently.  The other morning, when Jessie realized Maggie wasn’t paying attention to her, she started squawking at Maggie to get her attention.  Earlier this week, while riding home with Daddy, Jessie watched Maggie from her car seat and giggled at her the whole way home – what a refreshing change from her 2nd month of life when Jessie spent most of the time in the car screaming.

I’m not sure how we got so blessed to get 2 fairly content kids.  I hope this isn’t the calm before the storm and the teenage years drive us slowly insane.  However, I did pray for a good sleeper and God answered that prayer with a resounding Yes!  Jessie will fight sleep some, but not to the extent her sister did/does.  I can only pray our friends, Liz and Chris, & Kristi and Mark are also blessed with the good sleepers.  And I hope Liz and Chris are currently marveling at their new little one!

Maggie the Nature Gal

I took Maggie along with me this week to Red Lodge, Montana to shoot some of my 'Animal Bites' videos for the Gazette. She was his helper in a few of the videos, and she wanted to shoot her own video with Cowboy the domestic cat that lives at the center: