Gleason Life and Times

Christmas 2011 after Santa arrived

2011-12-24T23:12:00.001-05:00

Set up took longer than I'd expected tonight since we had already wrapped everything. However, we still had to put together a couple of the ride-on toys and install some batteries and fill stockings. I hope the boys are excited about all this loot because it all looks ridiculous to me! Think our little family is truly blessed.

More work on the homestead

2011-11-28T13:27:00.003-05:00

Over the long holiday weekend, Mike and I decided it was time to replace the toilet in the powder room since the original toilet has been giving us fits on flushing for a long time now. Along with the toilet, we decided there was no better time than the present to repaint the room and add crown moulding and fix some of the baseboards. So on Black Friday, that's what we did! As you can see, the room was a lovely shade of lavender that everyone loved and has loved for 10 years.

However, now that the hallway and surrounding rooms are shades of blue, the lavender just didn't seem to work anymore. We chose a light shade of greenish-yellow which seemed a lot less harsh on the card at Lowe's and ended up with a very bright yellowy-chartreuse. It's growing on me now, but soon after I started painting I was thinking, "Oh my! What have we done?!"

Sorry it's been awhile again

2011-09-16T08:50:00.007-04:00

This past weekend, our good friends the Renz family drove over from Charleston and we went camping at the Etowah River Campground in Dahlonega, GA. It was the Gleason family's first camping trip as a family; indeed, the first camping trip for our boys. Below are some picture highlights from the weekend. A big thank you goes to Ashley for shooting all the pictures!

Here's the big-ass camping sandwich (BACS) that Ashley inspired. It consisted of a freshly-baked 2lb. round loaf of my whole wheat bread, ham, salami, provolone, fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, and Italian dressing. It was a thing of beauty!

A picture of the kidlets throwing sticks into the Etowah River running right by our campsite. Yes, you may infer from that statement that the mommies were on high-alert the whole weekend worrying about a drowning.

Saturday we hiked at Amicalola Falls which entailed climbing no fewer than 604 steps up a steep hillside to the top of the falls. It was beautiful and quite a little workout.

After we returned from the falls, Ashley and I rewarded ourselves with some tasty adult soda!

The men-folk started a lovely campfire for our dinner and we roasted dogs and brats and made s'mores with giant marshmallows. Check out this beauty that Kieran refused to eat.

The boys did great with camping and really seemed to enjoy it. They slept great at night even though it was cold overnight and they played hard. Kieran is asking when we are camping again!

Making a post of a recipe I want to make one day

2011-07-18T14:05:00.002-04:00

Friday evening Mike and I went to see the very last Harry Potter movie. It was amazing. This morning my friend Ashley shared with me a recipe for Butterbeer cupcakes she intends to make later this summer. I am posting it here so I don't forget it.

http://amybites.com/?p=623

It's done!

2011-07-11T08:11:00.005-04:00

I took these pictures with my phone because I'm that lazy, but you get the gist. The room is DONE! Our very own little retreat in our home. I am still going to paint the full-length mirror black, but it's in there for now because I have nowhere else to put it and I use it daily. The last thing that will happen to the room is a flooring update to a laminate wood floor, but that won't be right away. I'd like to give a warm shout-out to Lowe's for making it so easy and affordable to outfit the room with lamps. This process was a good thing for our closet too since we weeded through everything and got rid of a ton of stuff we didn't need. Ahhhh, feels good!

Teaser pics of the painting

2011-07-08T11:38:00.004-04:00

Mike shot me these pictures while I was at work yesterday because I couldn't wait to see the paint job! Last night we put the closet back together and moved everything back in there. We will put the finishing touches on it soon and I will unveil it!

Finally, I can blog about our bedroom makeover!

2011-07-08T11:26:00.004-04:00

Sometime in April, Mike started hanging crown moulding in our bedroom. That began the finishing of the last room in the house at long last! These pictures are the "before" pictures. The first three pictures are the tray ceiling prior to crown mould. The pictures after that are after completion of hanging the moulding and before the painting and right before the new furniture arrived. We moved all our old bedroom furniture to Kieran's room and now his room is really looking quite finished as well!

Other Indiana vacation pictures

2011-07-08T10:30:00.008-04:00

I was running short on vacation time this year, so we had to divide and conquer to get up to Indiana for the 4th, but we made it happen. While we were there, Julian had his 7th birthday and he enjoyed his very first Cubs game at Wrigley Field on that day thanks to Mike's stellar planning.

Proud Daddy and Julian at the game.

Go Cubbies!

After I arrived, we had a family gathering with lots of food and fun and we celebrated Julian's birthday with the Batman cake that Mike drove up from Publix!

Near the end of that day Dad took Kieran and me on a boat ride around the lake while the big kids went swimming in the beach section of the lake. He enjoyed the outing and said, "I go fishing!"

On the Fourth we had a fish fry with my brother and sister-in-law and then in the evening we drove into Logansport for another visit to Riverside Park for some carousel rides, miniature golf, train rides, and fireworks. Here's a couple of pictures of Kieran's first train ride with big brother.

Here's a picture of Kieran on our way home and his typical road-trip fare--McDonald's French fries and chicken nuggets and a healthy dose of ketchup. Thank goodness he was satisfied watching Thomas the whole way!

Julian's summer adventure

2011-07-08T09:57:00.004-04:00

My parents came to Georgia at the end of school and when they returned to Indiana they took Julian with them so he could fish and have a little getaway. I predicted he would be ready to come home after a week or so, but I was wrong. It seems he really enjoyed his stay with them. On the first day they attempted fishing there was a snag and they lost 2 anchors in the first 5 minutes; he ended up catching his first fishes at the boat ramp!

Catch of the day!

A trip to Logansport is not complete without at least one visit to Riverside Park and a ride on the Dentzel carousel. On the night these pictures were taken, my mom was grabbing rings for Julian and since they were nearly the only riders she caught the brass ring earning him a free ride!

While Julian was gone to Indiana, we think Kieran really enjoyed being the only child in the house. He found his voice and his bossy little attitude as well as his normal 2-year-old defiance! He started speaking in complete sentences since chatty-pants Julian wasn't there to talk over him and we knew a lot more of what was going through his mind!

Hair fun!

2011-07-07T16:22:00.006-04:00

Once I put crazy color in my hair, I didn't want to go back to boring brown, so I didn't. In March, the inspiration was fire. Yellow gave way to red and purple.

Then in April or early May, we went fuschia and purple.

In late May, my girl Ellen asked me to be a hair model for a photo shoot. They sent their favorite shots to hair publications to be printed! Ellen took these pictures before the professional got ahold of me. She did an amazing job on my hair and makeup and I didn't want to wash it all off before bed that night!

London highlights

2011-07-07T15:16:00.010-04:00

We arrived in London in the evening and headed to our hotel right away. Because Mike got to choose which hotel we would use in London, it was superior to the hotel the company chose for us in Paris. When we awoke in the morning, we went to the hotel restaurant hoping for real sustenance and something more than croissants and coffee. Unfortunately, the breakfast that came with our room rate was a carb festival and left us feeling a little disappointed. How hard is it to find a breakfast of eggs and meat and toast in Europe?! At any rate, we avoided blood pudding and other English delicacies. We spent our first day in London with some sightseeing and a little shopping. We visited Buckingham Palace, but did not go inside; then we had lunch at the Kings Arms pub very near the palace. With our beers we enjoyed a traditional platter of pub favorites including meat pies, sausages, fish & chips, mashed potatoes, and mushy peas. It was delicious!

Then we headed to see Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye.

Next, we visited the Tower of London and shopped for some souvenirs.

London Bridge (nope, it's not falling down)

Truer words were never written!

Please mind the gap!

That evening, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant called the Frontline Club and a good sleep.

The next morning we decided to avoid the hotel restaurant and look for something more substantial. Less than a block from the hotel restaurant, we found a charming cafe! For a more reasonable price than the hotel restaurant was charging we got cappuccinos, scrambled eggs, bacon, and buttered toast! No croissants finally and a real protein-filled breakfast!

After breakfast, we ran out to locate Penhaligon's which sells one of our favorite scents of bath soap and lotion. We picked up some treats for ourselves there for a pretty penny!

On our way back to the hotel I insisted we find a place selling Solero bars. Mmmmm.

After we checked out of the hotel, our friend Mondlane came all the way in from Rickmansworth to pick us up and take us to his house. We settled in and the whole lot of us (Mo, Brooke, Orion, baby Soleia and Mike and me) headed out on the train back to London for more sightseeing.

Here, Mike and I ate pizza "made with real tomato" as the sign says!

Me and Brooke with an 8-week old baby Soleia.

Here I am showing Brooke how to work the Baby K'Tan to wear Soleia. I think I wore her for 2-3 hours that night and she slept peacefully on me. Really fired up the baby fever in me!

There is a ton more photos, but we took them with the real camera and with Mike's phone so I don't have them all with me right now.

Got a lot of updating to do! So I'll start with Paris.

2011-07-07T14:09:00.006-04:00

I'm going back in time to publish some details about the Euro trip Mike and I took in February of this year. In preparation for this trip, I colored my hair like a European so I would fit right in!

When we arrived in Paris it was about 8am Paris time. After we cleared customs, we navigated the metro train system to get from the airport to our hotel. That alone was thoroughly exhausting, but since we knew this would be the one day we would get to use for sightseeing, we hit the ground running after that. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. That blew about 4 hours with all the waiting in line; wait to buy tickets, wait to ride up, wait to ride the rest of the way up, queue around up at the top waiting to ride back down. That was ridiculous, but now it's done and I'll never have to do it again. I am truly glad I didn't waste my day-trip to Paris in 1996 on a tower tour!

After that, we went to locate the Louvre. That was a drawn-out process as well involving a long walk IN THE RAIN and by the time we got there, it was going to be closing within 1.5 hours. We had enough time to locate the Mona Lisa, but could only get as close as the photo below indicates (not very close at all!). It's unfortunate that I got such a good shot of that guy's hair because wow, that's bad hair! That was nearly all the sightseeing we could accomplish that first day and by the end of it my dogs were BARKING!

One day I went shopping with the two other wives who had accompanied their husbands on this trip. We went to a really pricey mall called the Opera. The interior of the place was built to look like an actual opera which I thought was clever and aesthetically pleasing. Of course, with the exchange rate, our dollar was worth a lot less, so actually buying things there just didn't make sense. I bought a few souvenirs and called it a day there.

One evening, the entire group of us went on a river dinner cruise on the Seine. That was a lot of fun with free-flowing wine, music, and an abundance of tasty food ranging from soup to cheese with everything in between. After the boat docked, we walked a long way in the cold to get back up to where we could get a taxi back to the hotel and that's when I snapped a blurry picture of the tower all lit up for nighttime. I wish I had snapped a shot of the tower on the hour when it is twinkling.

Late on our last day in Paris, Mike and I took off to visit Notre Dame Cathedral and the Arc de Triomphe before we had to head to the train station to catch our train to London. What a whirlwind!

My project for the day

2011-06-05T22:11:00.003-04:00

This is a picture of what the hallway paint looked like before we started. This is the blah builder-flat butter yellow that it has always been. For being a yellow color, its always felt pretty cold. I can't explain it much better than that. We are in the planning stages of hiring out a job to get the stairwell, the master bedroom, and the master closet painted. Originally, I wanted to have the upstairs hallway painted as well, but the more I thought of it the more I realized it was a pretty small, uncomplicated area and seemed extraneous to pay someone to do it. In light of that I asked Mike to pick up a gallon of paint yesterday so it would be ready when I was ready. So today after church I started on the painting and Mike finished putting wood filler on the crown mold on our bedroom. The next pictures here are after the painting was finished. We chose a nice, warm golden yellow for this job and I think it adds a ton of warmth and brightness to the hall.

Looking toward the end of the hall where the boys' rooms are. Kieran's is on the left and Julian's on the right.

Looking down the hall into our bedroom which, incidentally, is the same sad color of yellow as the hallway was. But not much longer!

Julian caught his first fish

2011-06-05T22:02:00.003-04:00

Julian went up to Indiana to hang out with my parents for awhile and experience (hopefully) good fishing. On his first day there they lost an anchor early in their outing, so they had to give it up. However, shortly after that Mom took him down to the boat ramp and they fished a little down there. It was there that he caught 2 small bass and 3 small sunfish! He was excited and he had some good stuff to write about in his journal that day!

Julian's first fish!

Keeping my promise to Julian

2011-04-01T22:02:00.001-04:00

Julian had a stupendous week in school this week and I told him if he had another good day today to wrap up the week that I would blog about it. He had a good day and finished the week with 15 pennies in his bank (now the kids start each week with 10 pennies and lose for bad choices and gain for good ones and completed work)! That's a record for him. :) I also figured he would be looking for a surprise if he finished the week off well so I stopped at the dollar store and bought him his very first cap gun and caps. He was pretty stoked and shot up 3 rolls of caps in a couple of hours. Big boy is growing up and now totes his silver pistol. By the way, I'm not a huge fan of guns, but recently read a book about a man's heart and am aiming at encouraging my boys' wild, courageous hearts so toy guns it is.

Here's a picture of him and his Pillow Pet the other night before bed.

More adventures in eating!

2011-03-29T18:24:00.001-04:00

Last night's dinner was homemade whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes and I had piggies ready to eat when they were ready! Kieran ate THREE pancakes and Julian had two I believe. That was on top of whatever they snacked on while I was mixing the matter and cooking the cakes. Oink! Tonight's dinner is pizza and Kieran has previously rejected pizza so as a back up plan I figured he could have pancakes again. The child ate two pancakes and about 3/4 red grapes! I get so excited when he eats well and when it's healthful foods like my baked goods. Another sweet trick we've played recently is serving the boys their dinner in Kid Cuisine tv dinner trays and they usually eat better. While much of the country fights obesity, we do whatever we can to get the boys to eat more mostly-good stuff.

Proud

2011-03-15T19:49:00.001-04:00

Only those who have met my precious toddler know how picky he is when it comes to eating. He would eat yogurt for every meal if I would let him and he'd have a side of mac and cheese or a cereal bar with it. Imagine my delight that in the past week he has eaten ChikFilA chicken nuggets which I consider the gold standard of fast food nuggets, nearly a whole grilled cheese, and at least one whole PB&J. He finished even the crusts of his sandwich tonight and ate crunchy apples without the usual choking-on-the-skin drama!

And Julian has been doing pretty well in school since we started him on ADHD medicine before Christmas. He also just lost his fourth tooth yesterday so the Tooth Fairy visited overnight and dropped a buck on him. He is more of a lovey boy each day and I adore that. He is lazy about reading unless we make him, but he gets better at reading every day as well.

One of these days maybe I will get some footage of Kieran's all-new gift of gab to post for you. He's a hoot. He's continuing the speech therapy throughout the year until he turns 3 and is set to be evaluated by the school system to see if he qualifies to continue. I don't honestly think he will qualify, but that would be a good thing.

Catching you up

2011-03-12T19:59:00.002-05:00

I tried to make a post with this photo several months ago, but that was when my old mobile blogging application went out to lunch on me so I never posted it.