A Game of Pass the Monkey

Autumn's birthday was Friday and we had a super fun day! But I want to go ahead and post our photos from Mother's Day because I have some really nice ones of everyone. I know a few of Nanny's friends read this so I definitely wanted to get the ones I have of her up here!

We decided to take a day off from working on the house to do some mama stuff. My mom was going to join us for lunch with Mike's family but she wasn't feeling well. Poor Lula! She missed a fun time. We pretty much played a lot of Pass the Monkey. Autumn started with me...


And traveled to Nanny and Lainey...


And then she traveled to Uncle Brad. They paused to do their latest trick. It's kind of crazy how comfortable Autumn is hanging out in the air.


Then they spent the rest of the time pretty much being cute,


While the other Colley men looked hungry...


And Nanny and Lainey posed for a pretty picture.


After lunch we exchanged gifts. Mike gave me assorted chocolates, including a chili chocolate. I gave my mom, Nanny, and Lainey the same thing, these silhouettes of Autumn that I made and framed. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, especially the blue mat. Sorry about the blackberry picture, I'm too lazy to go get my camera to upload the real one now that I realized I don't have it on my computer, haha.


I gave these waterproof labels and bag tags to my sister. They aren't realllly mother's day gifts but the timing worked out that way!


I guess, speaking of making, I will go ahead and show you a couple pre-birthday pictures! Autumn's actual birthday was Friday but when she went to school Thursday, I put her in a birthday dress and sent her with a treat and some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse napkins for her class. I took pretzel rods, dipped them in chocolate, and then covered them in these neon nonpareils. They turned out really well. I figured her teachers would like something a bit less messy than cake!


I don't have a really good photo of the dress, but Penny got her this adorable Mickey applique dress a couple months ago and I had been saving it for her school birthday. Autumn was soooo excited about this dress, Mike's dad told me good luck getting it off her, haha. Here she is Thursday morning, serving tea to Mickey in the bathroom while I got ready for work.


More happy birthday fun to come!

The Week in Review

It's been a remarkably busy week. I had no idea that doing things like picking out ceiling colors could suck so much life out of me, haha. I'm not complaining too much...I'm not only super happy to be getting an awesome foundation for our dream home (even after all we're doing there will be more renovations in our 5 and 10 year plans) but I've had the most wonderful help from people like Nanny and Boppa who have painted many walls and entertained a little miss; Lainey who is a well of information and energy who can advise on everything from windows to lanscaping and whisk away a baby girl just when I need it; Papa D who does miracles with drain and electricity; and Brad who spent a short trip home glued to a color deck with me and mama lainey...I mean, that's the just the tip of the iceberg but I just wanted to say a very public thank you. Note that all of these people are on the list of Folks That Autumn Likes Better Than She Likes Her Mama and Papa, ha! Here she is copying boppa.


And this tickled me almost more than Autumn trying to sit like Boppa. They sat together and played with Autumn's My Little Pony whose name is Pinkie. At one point, Boppa was helping her comb Pinkie's hair.


Now, this tickled me even more that Boppa and Pinkie...I love Nanny with power tools.


Kind of on a less fun note, some of you have heard that when Autumn and I were headed from the Germantown house to the Lakeland house, we had a wreck. A man pulled out of a parking lot and hit our car, causing about $3k in repairs that his insurance is going to pay for. Autumn and I are fine...I've got some minor issues from getting slammed into the door (I want one of those 5 point harnesses like they have in the car seats!) but nothing that's going to be long term other than a little added damage to my already messed up left eye (I have some retinal degeneration there that I don't actively worry about but I do get it checked out yearly). Autumn was awesome...she was just surprised, I think. And the Collierville police officer who came on the scene was wonderful. He gave Autumn a panda bear that we've been keeping in the car for her.


A couple days after the wreck, my friend Annalise asked me if I'd snap a couple shots of her before her baby Aliza is born. Aliza is due in, like, 2 days so I'm glad Annalise was able to come out to the house. I'm barely an amateur photographer so I was really hoping I'd be able to take at least one or two nice photos. I snapped a LOT and there's a handful of pretty shots...this is one of them.


Another nice thing, we got to go eat at Salsa on Friday night. :D And, look! There's even a very rare decent photo of me! It's hard being the photographer...no one ever takes my picture! I'm trying to be better about that. I don't want 10 years to pass by before I realize I have no photos of myself and my family. :P


Actually, I guess this isn't going to be a Week in Review so much as a Monday-Friday of Last Week in Review. I have some nice mother's day stuff to post but I think I'll save it until later!

I hope everyone has had a great week!

One person's disaster...

...can be another person's divine intervention.

As you might have heard, we had a pretty wild weekend. There were so many tornado warnings that it seems like sirens are still ringing in my ears. The northern part of the county experienced some pretty nasty flooding. Last night, they treated parts of Millington, where my mom lives and works, like a disaster zone. You could only get in or out if you had ID. I think there's even a curfew. Neighborhoods, businesses and the navy base have been evacuated. My mom's apartment complex partially flooded. Her stuff is ok because she's on the second floor but I made her come stay with us just in case she got stuck there with no way out...and also to save her car. This is a photo of the back of her apartment complex, taken from the Ledger's facebook page. She lives in the front and it wasn't as bad there.


Saturday morning, in between tornado warnings, I went over the the new house where Mike's dad had already started working. I saw the water on the back patio earlier but didn't think anything of it because the previous owners mentioned that the patio flooded sometimes...our current home's patio occasionally did the same thing before we found a good trench path so no big deal, right?


Well, I was in the breakfast area cleaning the nastiness that the previous owners left when I noticed that water was coming in. Papa D ventured out to see what was up while I tried to mop up the water that was swimming around the room into the pantry and laundry room at an alarming rate. He was able to figure out that leaves had gunked up the gate and the drain and once he cleared it, most of the water left. We also found out that one part of the flower bed back there is too low and will have to be raised. Some of the work in the photo above is P'd, Mike and Donnie's hard work from today: digging a ditch to put in a new drain on that side of the house. P'd also got on the roof to clear gutters that hadn't been cleared in over a year during Saturday's rain. This is under the living room window where they installed the drain to reroute water in the future:


Later that night, Donnie came by and happened to have his moisture tester with him...he works at service master corporate in the insurance division but he used to do disaster restoration at one of their franchises. He looked at the breakfast area and said it was wet but not terrible and gave us some tips on helping it dry. I asked him to check some of the upstairs windows and, since I had seen the pooling water, under the living room window, even though no water had come in there. It was about then that we realized that the paneling was all bumpy and swollen. The meter registered so much water that they pulled out the baseboards and part of the paneling to find this:


It looks like that area has been getting waterlogged and then drying for years. Honestly, I'm so glad this epic Noah's Ark flooding happened so coincidentally on our first weekend of ownership. I confess I was in the dumps when it happened...some of our boxes got wet and our move-in has really been delayed but, you know, it could have been worse. This "potentially mold" stuff could have grown. The water could have kept rotting the wood over the years. And then we'd have to do this with all of our furniture in the house and with no other house to live in while we reconstruct:


There's even a small side-benefit. The living room is painted paneling. So, we're (well, Papa D and Mike are) going to put sheetrock in the rest of the living room. So much for move-in ready, huh?? Between this and getting rid of the popcorn ceiling, I can't believe this is a house we thought wouldn't be a big project!


As far as our open house tonight, it was nonexistent. We had nice weather but open houses are notoriously slow and it probably doesn't help that half the county is underwater and people are also catching up on the things they couldn't do Friday and Saturday because of the rain. Ah, well! I got to do some work work (as opposed to house work) and my house is clean. Plus I have pretty sodas and flowers that I got for the open house:


I guess all this should get me down. But I was really feeling bad about the house not selling and now I am grateful that we have someplace clean to live while we do all this work. And...no one can tell me it was chance that I was there when it flooded. That Papa D was there and single-handedly stopped the rest of the house from drowning. That Donnie came by for no reason with his moisture meter. It's encouragement in a discouraging situation, really. Plus I have a little miss who has been awesome through all this upheaval.


Can't beat that! Well. I guess having a healthy house without old and new water damage and smooth ceilings would beat that but I'll take my happy where I can get it.

o.m.g

I am so tired but I took the time to chronicle today so I want to get it posted before I forget or too much time goes by. So what happened today? Today we closed on our new house!!

The day started with dropping Autumn off at Penny's house while Mike and I took care of the closing. Autumn had a blast. She got to play with Ace and Conan, Penny's dogs. Funny enough, on the way to Penny's, Autumn said, "I gonna play Ace and Conan!" With no prompting at all. She's only met the dogs a couple of times so it's awesome that she remembers them. This is Autumn trying to convince Conan that he wants to play with the tube instead of the blue rope.


Ace is a little shy but Autumn and Conan are best buds. Conan even got a hug. I'm sure he was thrilled.


Autumn didn't want to leave Aunt Penny but I was able to tear her away with promises of Lainey and P'd. :P Thank you, Penny, you're so awesome!


The couple we bought the house from had to finish moving a few things out so after going to Germantown City Hall or whatever it is to finish transferring the water, we met up at Lainey and P'd's and then grabbed a celebratory hamburger. After a celebratory monkey march.


Then we dispersed to our different chores before going to the new house. Lainey took care of some errands because her house is getting some work done. Mike and P'd went and borrowed Donnie's truck to move things from storage to the new house's garage (which, incidentally, smells like wet dog). I, on the other hand, had to take Little Miss to the doctor for a small urinary tract infection. Here she is getting ready to potty in a cup like the big girl she is!


Finally, we got to go to the house!


We weren't really intending to do much to the place but since the house we live in now hasn't sold (come to our open house Sunday 1-5pm!), it seems like as good a time as any to work on some things that aren't ideal. We also didn't intend to work on anything today but by 5pm, we had a small crew that got to work. Donnie worked on the garage door.


P'd worked on a water leak in the kitchen.


Mike kind of bounced around doing different things. I caught him weeding the front bed. I think he might have needed a break from the noise, haha.


Not unlike Autumn who covered her ears while Liz vacuumed the master bedroom which was, oddly, covered in...feathers. And not really...pillow feathers. I don't know what that was all about but there you go. >.>


Nanny and Boppa joined Lainey, P'd, Liz, Donnie, Mike, and me. I mean, that's not bad for an unplanned gathering, right? Actually, it's really awesome that they showed up because, like I mentioned, today we pretty much decided to do a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, our current house hasn't sold so we figure we might as well use the time when the new house is mostly empty to do some things like paint a couple rooms (the den/breakfast/kitchen area, the master bathroom, and Autumn's room) and smooth out the popcorn ceiling. Tonight we were able to make sure we could even do the ceiling ourselves...among other things. Thank you, all.


We went back to Lainey and P'd's house which is right down the street--how awesome is that? When Liz and I got back with dinner, this is where I found Mike.


Autumn was a trooper during all this. Like the shirt she wore to bed? It was a Christmas gift from Donnie and Liz. (WoW reference for anyone who is unaware of our nerdly tendencies...Mike is our guild leader. :D )


Whew. Bedtime. :P Long week ahead of us: ceiling scraping. painting. cleaning--oh, heavens the cleaning. weeding. open house prep. open house. Say a prayer for my sanity please. I'll be saying prayers of thanksgiving for my amazing friends and family. Thank you all for everything you've done and everything you've told me you'll do.

in case anyone ever wonders why I'm tired all the time...

This is one reason. :) Also, I apologize for the length and the 5 seconds where I "sing." My video software is acting weird so I just uploaded as is.


Also, here are the last of my Easter photos. Easter Sunday we got to do something cool. Our church normally has 2 services at its main campus at Crichton and then there's another campus that has a service downtown. Easter Sunday everybody got to meet together at the Orpheum. It was pretty incredible. We were all the way up on one of the balconies and I hear something like 2000 people attended. I had something profound to say about Easter and the service but 3 weeks out, I have no idea what it was.


Afterward, we got together with my family for lunch and another Easter egg hunt...in hello kitty rain boots, haha. I tried to do an adult egg hunt but there were a couple spoilsports :P I'll get everyone to participate someday!


I also got some nice pictures of everyone. I'm going to have to print some of these for my mom. After I photoshop the various cars out...but this one of my mom and Autumn is just adorable.


I have several really similar ones of Donnie and Liz but my favorite is this one where they are laughing.


It's funny to see this one now because, of course, bebeh Roxie is here now! I think it's going to be a bit before Autumn gets to meet her because I've heard that Valerie and Justin are kind of keeping her away from the general population because of zeh germs.


And, i guess I have to include one of yours truly and Mike. I really need to get a picture of me now because my hair is pretty cool now that's it's grown out. :D I love this shirt color on Mike, by the way.


That's all for now! I have lots of fun photos coming up...I have GOT to get back into the groove of updating regularly. Also, keep praying for us! We close on the new house Friday. We've had lots and lots of house showing and no bites. Keeping the house clean and the rise and fall of hopes every day is starting to wear on me. :P

We interrupt the Easter series for an important announcement...

Mike and I were talking today about how incredibly tired we are. Over the weekend, it seemed like we were going 90 miles an hour from the moment we woke up until our heads hit our pillows. It's all good stuff, but of course, our bodies can't tell the difference between good stress and bad stress, hahaha. It's strange, we close on our new house next Friday! Isn't that crazy? Our current home hasn't sold yet, unfortunately. We do know what the hold up is, though, and it's good news and bad news. It sounds like everyone loves the house itself, but they don't like the backyard because of the hill. So, there's nothing we can do about it which is good because...well, we've done what we can. And bad because...there's nothing we can do except wait for the person who doesn't care.

The worst part about it? It looks like things aren't going to slow down because next we have a new house that's going to need some work. And then when this house sells, we'll be moving...so there's no end in sight.

HOWEVER! None of this compares to some life changes (and most likely exhaustion) going on as we speak! Because my sister had her baby on Thursday! I'd like all of you to meet our niece Roxie Kay!


Mike picked out the above photo. He was totally into Miss Roxie and spent the entire visit on Friday poking her, hoping she'd wake up. Haha, not really. He was actually enjoying the way she'd startle herself every once in a while, like babies tend to do.


Valerie and Justin looked good when we saw them. I talked to my mom today and she says things are settling down a little, that Roxie is getting used to her new locale. Justin has been trying out music on Roxie and so far she's into Elvis and George Strait. Autumn was a Keane and Stereophonics girl there for a while. Then she was into opera, which was random. Now she makes up her own songs...time flies, for real. Seeing Roxie brings back memories! Roxie is 6 pounds and we all talked about how weird it is that Autumn was a little over 4.5 when we brought her home. Roxie's soooooo teeny that it's hard to imagine a smaller baby!


Autumn hasn't met Roxie but I'm hoping they'll be able to meet soon! Autumn's been practicing.


Haha, don't worry Valerie and Justin, I'm just kidding. Autumn will be happy giggling over the "beebee" and touching her teeny beebee toes.

More Easter

I know, this is crazy late! But here we are...some more easter photos. Saturday after Autumn's visit with her friends, we went over to Mike's parents' place for some Easter fun. Autumn and Tyler got to do some Easter egg hunting.


This is probably the most accurate photo of how egg hunting went! Haha. Autumn was like a search and destroy missile with those eggs but Tyler wasn't quite so into it during the first round. He had P'd drive him around in the wagon and lead him to the eggs. Second round, he got a little more into it, though!


Of course, we had to do some posing. Here's Autumn with her aunt "winnsey."


And with her mama and papa. I wasn't going to post this photo. I made the mistake of getting a haircut the Friday before Easter so my bangs were a little short. Well, the whole thing was a little short. It actually looks really good right now (I need to get a photo) but anyway, the reason I did post this was Autumn's face. It is hilarious! That's a Calvin and Hobbes expression if I ever saw one!


After hunting eggs, there were some bubble festivities. In case you didn't notice...look in the bottom right hand corner. That's the leaf blower. P'd is using it to blow the bubbles for the kids. :D


Seriously, Autumn loves bubble so much that I'm thinking about getting her a bubble machine for her birthday. Does anyone have a brand that they really like?


Another fun thing we got to do is dye eggs. I think Tyler has dyed eggs before but this was Autumn's first time. Mike and I had a nice little assembly line going. They took turns putting an egg in one dye cup at a time.


By the time they put the last egg in, the first eggs were ready so we helped them put the eggs in the drying trays.


Then both of them got to put stickers on their eggs...Autumn got Hello Kitty and Tyler got Jungle Animals!


I was pretty impressed. They didn't crack a single egg! And they were so great about following directions and going slowly. Nice job, 2 year olds!


Once they finished with their eggs, our LittleColleys went for the hourly swing with P'd.


And to top off the night, P'd got a thank you back massage from Miss Autumn!