The Crafts

So Matt and I are training for both a half-marathon and a triathlon... while trying to pack a house, move into a new house and chase Kate as she hides tuna cans in the closet, stuffed animals in the diaper pail and wets the bed on an all too often basis. Oh, and the cat puked all over the rug this morning. As I watched in horror Kate giggled in delight. I'm not complaining about our overall circumstances, we have been blessed in so many areas and I realize challenges come with life and motherhood. I guess I'm just complaining because I'm way tired and could probably nap until July. Matt's friend, Jacob, told us kids will make us money via tax returns and free child labor. I have yet to be the recipient of either. Job or not, Kate is pretty fun. The simplest things make her smile. And oh, the silly things we do to get a rise out of her. I sure hope our house isn't bugged with cameras. That would almost seal the deal for a failed re-election campaign in thre...

We spent a good chunk of Saturday afternoon at our new house. We were 'invited' over as the owners' daughters worked tirelessly to empty out all of the stuff that accumulates over 40 years in one giant, beautiful home. We fall more in love with that house each time we visit. Now that 85% of their personal stuff is out, we are realizing the true size and beauty of our new place. Kate also loves the new house. She ran from bedroom to bedroom inspecting closets and windows with a smile on her face the entire time. Have I mentioned the number of staircases in that place? Kate already tried to venture the steps a number of times. We are going to need so many gates that our house will look like the US / Mexico border. We can't wait to throw our first party!!!

Memorial Day weekend we are FINALLY moving into our new house. As I have blogged before, I have been (im)patiently waiting since December for this day. I guess that means we better start packing. We sawed our couch in the half the other day to prepare for the move. I can hear everyone asking "WHAT" right now. Well, we kept a spare couch from the previous owner. They asked if we'd like a couch. We were just getting married and had zero furnish (literally!) so we naturally said "yes". We later found out why they didn't want to take that couch with them. Apparently they moved the couch into the basement and THEN finished the basement, thereby preventing the couch from ever leaving the four walls of this house in one piece. Thanks to Mike and Mike for their handy work with the reciprocating saw. Flood waters have taken over a large part of La Porte City. Thankfully the basement in both our old house and new house is dry. Let's all pray that doesn...

Team Scratonicity did quite well at Cy's House of Trivia on Saturday. Out of 47 teams we finished 10th. We're pretty bright. I have several pics to share but I'm going to spread them out over a couple of days to keep you coming back to the blog. We had great ISU celebrity guests in a couple of trivia rounds. Everyone on the team was thrilled to have Johnny Orr and Eric Heft help out. To be honest I didn't really know too many of the 'celebrities'. One was this wrestling great who is currently a coach at ISU. He was a super nice guy but I didn't know him. Sorry wrestling dude. But he was nice enough to get his pic taken with us. Check them out below. Johnny Orr joins the team Team Scrantonicity with the wrestling dude Eric Heft and our team Cy & me

Who is ready for some beautiful weather?! I know April showers are supposed to bring May flowers but all I see so far is puddles and crabby people. Tomorrow (Saturday) Matt and I, along with several friends and family, are competing in the 2nd annual Cy's House of Trivia. Teams of 10 answer random trivia questions with the assistance of a 'celebrity' team member on the floor of Hilton Coliseum for prizes of grandiose scale. Or so I've been told by a very trivia-hungry, Iowa State-loving husband. I'm hoping Cy will be our 'celebrity' team mate. By the way... our house is SOLD!! We should be moving into Craft Cottage/Mansion sometime in early to mid-June. I'm hoping for early June... as early as possible. I'm not a patient person and I've been waiting to move into our 'dream house' since signing the purchase agreement in DECEMBER! No one can ever again accuse me of being impatient. At least not for a little while. Even Kate has gr...

Thanks for all of the emails. Kate is doing much better. Her temperature is back to normal but she is pretty dehydrated. We have sippy cups all over the house... all of which are waiting for the little thirsty bugger to take a drink. But she doesn't. Instead she uses the cups as toys so I have to cram them in her mouth and tip them upward in hopes that a few drops will make it to the tummy. Anyway, its a work in process. Too bad someone doesn't make sippy cups that look like tv remotes. She's always putting those in her mouth.

Well now Kate is sick. Fortunately she does not have what I had!!! But she is sick nonetheless. It is 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon and she has been awake for no more than an hour and a half. She's having a nap right now. Anyway, here are some pics of healthy Kate from last week. Kate and a neighbor girl, Cassie, discuss jewelery at the church tea party. Kate displays some of the fine jewelery she collected the night before. Note: She looks hung over... too much tea probably. Now that Kate has two teeth we can say she actually brushes her teeth. (It sounds so much better than brushing her tooth.)

I unfortunately came down with a nasty stomach bug Monday night. After roughly 36 or so hours of being incapacitated I finally drank some liquids. I laid in bed all day looking at pictures of Kate on my cell phone wondering if I'll ever feel normal again and will Kate remember me when I'm back to life? A big thanks to Matt and LeAnn for rearranging their schedules to help me out. I just hope Kate, Matt and LeAnn don't get sick. Well I'm going to go lay down again. Here is a picture to get you through to my next posting. This was how I found Kate Monday morning. Those pictures were once hanging on the wall. They now live in the hall closet.

Kate has been a very busy girl the last few days. We have had several visitors to our house for various meals and play dates. On top of that Kate, Matt and I picked up sticks that accumulated over the winter. Note pictures below (and the cat creeping in the background.) The only true disappointment to our weekend was when UNC lost to Kansas. Otherwise I would have had an awesome bracket. Oh well, luckily I don't have any money riding on this. Speaking of basketball I'm cheering for Kansas tonight. Reason being that they are closer in proximity to us and I have seen them play several times. Plus I love Kansas City... and YES, I realize Kansas University is in Lawerence, Kansas but its closer to Kansas City than Memphis is. Anyway, enjoy the pictures. We took a LOT of pics over the weekend but I thought I'd spread them out over the next couple of days.

Man! I am behind on my blogging. I've got some serious catching up to do. Free time during the day has not been on my side. Then again... is it ever for a stay-at-home mom? Kate hasn't really been napping so well this week so I haven't been able to keep up on the blog. Yeah, I'll blame Kate. :) Last week she was taking three hour naps. This week I'm lucky if she fits in half an hour. Our washer stopped working this week. I had no idea how much I depend on that machine. I was extremely cautious with each of Kate's meals and snacks hoping she wouldn't require an outfit change. And I tiptoed into her room each morning saying a little prayer that she didn't pee the bed. We only have three sets of crib sheets and one doesn't even fit her bed. Of course I could have hand washed them or taken the clothes to the laundry mat but this isn't the 40's. And besides that would be too logical. So I instead sat around praying for a very clean day. (OK I just...

I've realized the most popular, or perhaps the only interesting, part of my blog is the pictures of Kate. So here you have it. Some new Kate pics. I had tried earlier to get a picture of Kate brushing her two teeth but it didn't go over so well. For one, anytime she sees the camera she must get her hands on it. Plus she doesn't do the best job of actually brushing her teeth. She will instead brush either her own hair with the toothbrush... or brush the cat's hair. Which would make for a great picture, but again... she is so intent on getting her paws on the camera that snapping a pic is near impossible. Feeding Grandma Craft's kitties. Attacking mom and the camera.