New(s) Things

I thought I should write to update a little bit about things going on at the Ridenour Ranch. Before I get to that I will share my grossest bug story yet. Remember the Asian beetles we've had bombarding our home for the past few months?! (I'm hoping this cold weather will finally beat them down). Anyway at night lately I've been bringing my nice big water bottle (the one they gave me in the hospital when I had Jude) upstairs for the nighttime thirsties. This morning I brought it downstairs and decided I had the morning thirsties so I took a nice big swig. Now mind you this water bottle has a lid and a straw, so as I'm sucking up from the straw I notice something of a lump come up with the water. My water is not usually lumpy. And as soon as it entered my mouth there was like this instantaneous realization (because of the lump and the horrible taste, which I had never experienced, but because of the smell knew in an instant) that an Asian beetle had crawled down my straw and into my water and was now in my mouth!!! I turned to the sink and spit it all out. There was the culprit...still crawling!!! GROSS. Now to me that's more disgusting than butchering chickens any day!

Ok, on to news! First things first, the reason I now need my giant water bottle wherever I go (and the reason I make a few trips down the stairs in the middle of every night to visit the bathroom) is because Gil and I are expecting our second child on May 23!!! I am almost 13 weeks now. I have been feeling well for the most part. Better than with Jude anyway. A little sicky, but nothing to complain about really. (warning: TMI, I have only puked once!). So we are excited about that and like our doctor and already got to have an ultrasound at 9 weeks:) Here's the little one:

In other news Gil is preparing for his second trip to Honduras with Briar Cliff students. They leave next Wednesday and will be gone until the day after Thanksgiving. It is going to be a lonely week for Jude and I, but he will have a great time digging trenches, sleeping on the floor, not showering, and eating "traditional" Honduran food!!! This time the area they are going to is even more remote than last year so I don't think we'll even get to talk on the phone:( But we are having a very exciting week before he leaves. He is doing a little deer hunting and writing a 30 page paper for the class he is taking. Ok, so maybe not that exciting. But we do get to travel to Council Bluffs on Sunday for the Ridenour Thanksgiving, even if we do have to miss Brittany's game tomorrow night that we were supposed to be able to go to (sorry Brittany!!!!!).

When Gil comes back from Honduras he with start the second of the three semesters at Briar Cliff so his schedule will change a little. My schedule will change a little soon as well. This semester I have been teaching two sections of a class at Wayne State called "Succeeding in College." I have really enjoyed it even though my first section is a challenge and I feel that some of my students are not quite succeeding! Next semester there are no classes available for me to teach so I will hopefully pick up on my subbing in the area. But I do plan to return to Wayne next fall to teach 3 sections. Should be a whole lot easier now that I have a little experience under my belt!

Another activity that has kept me busy this fall is the new MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) group in Wayne that I have been a part of starting up. I am the discussion group team leader. We have had two official meetings now and meet again next week. I really love getting together with other moms and the best part is the new friendships I've made. In fact, our friends Melissa and Tony (who we met at church in Wayne one Sunday after Jude chucked his shoe at them!) have a little boy just four months older than Jude and are also expecting in May, just 11 days before us!

A few other new things have popped up inside our house recently. The first is this handy dandy wood stove gate. We decided that we really needed something for peace of mind since it is impossible to watch Jude constantly. He is getting the concept of hot and staying away, but this gate (although a pretty penny) is PERFECT! It can detach and attach to the wall easily and actually goes the entire length. It also has a section that opens so we can get inside.

The final new thing is our Christmas Cactus that John and Carolyn brought down to us last weekend. It is a replant off of one that they have at their house. I think these are so pretty and it seems to be doing well!

The day has finally come...and gone!

Beautiful sunrise with a sliver moon!

Jude holding the new baby kittens we found in the barn yesterday. They were so calm they let him hold them right away and he loved it! He has become much more gentle and even loves holding his "baby" (precious moments boy dolly).

We held our first annual (did I just say annual?!) chicken cleaning day at the Ridenour Ranch yesterday. 20 broilers and 3 roosters were done for and are now soon to be dinner! This also means a lot less chores:) If you feel left out, there's always next year!

The moms/grandmas were hard at it in the kitchen doing the dirty work of cleaning and cutting. I did the bagging!

Our city friend Cas even came out for the day and got his hands dirty!

This is the dunking/gutting station. Sr. Janet took charge of the gutting!

I'll spare you a picture of the head chopping station! Brett and John took care of that mostly.

Here are our dads plucking away.

Gil and Sr. Janet doing some plucking as well.

Here is Jude playing with his two papas and two grandmas...well not playing "with" so much as close to! He's not the best sharer yet...notice he's really good at saying, "ME!"

He must've got worn out by the chicken day or else it was daylight savings, because he went down for a morning nap today at 9:30 and has been down for over two hours already!

BAD!

Here is a great one of Jude doing his thing!

Autumn

Here are some pics of the changing leaves. Such beautiful foliage in the fall:) I heard on the radio that is completely unmanly to use the word foliage so I'm trying to use it as much as possible just to be cheesy!

So I took this amazing video of Jude dancing to a Michael Jackson tune last night. He was going crazy and he even busted out his new move of the somersault! Unfortunately the video has "disappeared" and is no where to be found. I'll have to get another one though because it is stinkin' hilarious! (unlike the poo he decided to leave on the carpet and the pee puddle on the wood floor right after his bath the other night...NOT hilarious!).

Until then here he is in his somersault position

The Bugs...

Well I have to say this fall has blessed us with some tremendous weather. I was reminded the other day that last year our first snow came on October 10 and it didn't let up until April. Oh man. I had repressed that! Anyway, along with the great temps and mild wind...have come the bugs. Some days it was literally too buggy to be outside! Now we have had a great multitude of bugs all summer. I don't know why. I'm not a bug scientist. But I do know that it started in June with the mosquito. Millions arrived one day and it just wasn't worth being outdoors! Then it was the little yellow butterflies. Those were pretty and I felt like Cinderella singing in nature with the little guys fluttering all around:) Next, the fly. We have battled those all summer. Even Jude gets in on fly swatting (not sure he's ever actually got one yet!). But this fall came the Asian beetle. This thing is disgusting. There have been days that the minute you go outdoors they swarm you. Plus they bite, don't fly away when you move, and stink. And they get in the house like no other bug has yet. Maybe they are just trying to survive the changing weather, maybe they have a personal mission to make my house gross, I really don't know. All I know is that these guys, along with a few big black flies and box elder bugs, have become my enemies. I vacuum basically on a daily basis just because otherwise there are dead and alive bugs ALL OVER the windows and sills (our back porch is a buggy tornado!), and all over the house too. We (or I should say Gil) are doing all we can to prevent these suckers from getting in. Caulking, tightening stuff, other things (??). Everyday Gil comes home with a new idea for how to stop the bugs. Tonight the idea was to go up into the attic and start vacuuming (where I don't dare to go and where there are too many to imagine!). As he was doing this tonight he discovered a couple other friends...bats! Now, funny thing is I'm to the point with the bugs that I feel like welcoming these black furry creatures as friends (they eat bugs right!?). So now there is that to deal with (Gil's job again!). As for me, I guess I'll keep on a keepin' on with the vacuuming. Oh, and another bug on the rise out there, the Caterpillar! It just doesn't end...

Here are some attempts to show the bugs.

Here is another story altogether. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I teach Jude and I have developed a routine. He gets up at 8 or so, has breakfast, plays a little, then we go outside to do chores and play. When we come in around 10 it is time for me to get ready and for him to watch Sesame Street. This kid LOVES TV (as I've mentioned and as long as it's a kids show--how does he know that already?). And he really likes Sesame Street, so it works out usually. One morning he was being particularly quiet and when I went out to check on him this is what I found. The booster seat I purchased recently at a garage sale, and that we keep in the kitchen, was moved up onto the coffee table making a perfect little seat from witch to view Ernie! I snuck up to take this picture. He was really into it and didn't even notice me! Thank goodness for Sesame Street:)

Pumpkin Pleasure

Gil was out cutting up a dead tree the other day and it spontaneously combusted! Okay, so it just started on fire from a spark from the chain saw. It was weird though and smoked for over 24 hours!

Here is our 2010 pumpkin produce. A few watermelons and butternut squash are thrown in too.
Here is the lovely centerpiece I made from some of them.
A few others I threw in the decorative jar from our wedding that previously still had Christmas balls inside...I need to get with it!
Jude is starting to enjoy coloring. He really enjoys it actually. So much that he wants to eat the colors! That is the problem. He also thinks it is fun to see how many he can hold in his hand at once. He really doesn't get it...but neither does his mom because I was encouraging him to color the phone book!

A church story:

Bringing Jude to church is (dangerous, scary, brave, torture, exhausting)...an...experience (there that sounds slightly positive!). This is how a Sunday service typically goes: Jude is sitting on my lap, Jude is down on the floor, Jude in getting into the diaper bag, Jude is trying to run down the aisle, Jude is standing on the pew, Jude is yelling (that was the first 5 minutes). This continues until either Gil or I take Jude out and run around the hall with him or (if available) sometimes to the nursery. As you might have figured out Gil and I get very little listening done and very much entertaining of a one-year-old in if Jude is with us in church. This past Sunday was even more fun. We had the pleasure of sitting with our good friends and their little guy who is about 4 months older than Jude (and has an entirely different temperament!). Eli sat still and quiet and occasionally wanted a snack or a toy. Jude did his normal church behavior (which is pretty typical all-around behavior) only every time Eli had something he didn't have he yelled, "ME!" (That's his new thing--"me"). So Eli got to share his fruit snacks and goldfish and coloring book and toy truck and about everything with Jude. I don't think our friends quite knew what they were getting into with this boy! We made it through almost the entire service, however Gil did take him out when it finally got to be too much. I can only hope for the day when Jude will sit quietly during church...but I am afraid by that time he may be 25 years old!

Preparing for Winter

This past weekend we had 'The Great Wood Split.' Gil's parents came up for the weekend and my parents came over too. We got a good start on Friday which was good because Saturday was miserable and cold! We didn't get it all done, but we did alright. Man, burning wood is hard work! Now we are just crossing our fingers for a mild winter. Usually the first snow of the year is kind of exciting. This year I think I'll curse!

The dads/grandpas

The proud woodsman in front of his stacks
This was my job, running the tractor gears. Seems easy, but it wasn't!
Gil and Jude at the Outdoor Expo in Ponca.
Grandma Carolyn holding on to the wild man.