Joey was a bit fussy last week. He got his first tooth and it was pretty hot here (no AC!), so it's hard to tell the root cause of his fussiness. In a quest to keep him happy we combined several of his favorite activities: being naked, eating toilet paper, climbing on mom when she's on the phone, and having his picture taken. As you can see, we were quite successful in cheering up the little bug.

I don't care what the calendar says (or the thermometer for that matter), my sister went back to college today so our summer is officially over.

We had such a great time with Rachel these past few months. When she would walk into our house, Joey would flip out because he was so excited to see her. To be honest, Andy would usually flip out too because he knew she would probably make him cookies. She makes good cookies!

Here are some fun pictures from our wonderful summer...

This is a picture of my siblings before we went out to dinner for my birthday.

Aunt Rachel can always make Joey smile.

Joey's first and only beach trip this summer (he wasn't a fan).

Braving the water.

Somehow I missed the memo, but Andy, Joey, and Rachel all wore matching outfits one day.


Aunt Rachel, we miss you already!

I know "Potter-mania" has calmed down now after the exciting summer, but I thought I would still post this. Better late than never...

Andy and I both really like the Harry Potter series. When we were dating, I found out that Andy had read all the books in the series so far-- I took this as a "good sign." I especially liked that he had to walk over to his neighbor's house to borrow the books from the little girl across the street. I just thought that was a really cute mental image.

So, in honor of the last book coming out I reread the first six books in June. It took me two and a half weeks, and I had a blast! The first time I read the books I went so quickly because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. This time I was able to slow down and really enjoy them. They are very well written and funny. I started the last book on the Saturday it came out. Andy was on "Joey-duty" and I was able to finish the book by Sunday evening. Andy then read it and finished Monday night (well, actually at 2:30 in the morning). We both really liked it. It was a great end to a wonderfully fun series.

In a previous post I mentioned some clothes and toys Joey had gotten as hand-me-downs. Here's a couple of pictures of them.

This outfit is actually a hand-me-down from his Uncle Timmy. My mom kept a lot of our old clothes in boxes organized according to size, so Joey has worn tons of clothes that my siblings and I wore.

He loves this little walker. He's just showing off, "Look ma, one hand!" This outfit is of one the hand-me-downs we got from a family friend.

I've rented a few movies lately that I really enjoyed. With a couple of the movies, as soon as I was finished watching them I wanted to see them again. That is very unusual for me. The first movie is called Facing the Giants. It was actually made by a church and is definitely a Christian movie. At first I was a little put off by the bad acting, but then I found out that all the people working on the movie were volunteers. In light of that, it is very well done. The story is very powerful and it had me laughing and crying from beginning to end.

One of Andy and my favorite movies is Pride and Prejudice (yes, the six hour BBC version). It's been one of my favorite movies probably since I was in junior high. I never had any intent of making Andy sit through a six hour "chick flick" with me, but one time I was watching it and Andy was nearby. He got more and more into it, and finally we just started at the beginning and watched the whole thing together. I heard that Persuasion, another Jane Austen movie, was also a really good movie. I didn't like that book as much, but I thought I would try the movie. Oh, I love it! If you like all things Jane Austen and haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it.

I can't tell you how much I love hand-me-downs. We've been super blessed to be the recipients of lots and lots of really nice used items. I am overwhelmed at the generosity of many people in our lives. In fact the other day I was feeding Joey, and Andy and I were laughing because we started noticing all the hand-me-downs around us from Joey's highchair, bib, clothes to all of my clothes, the table and chair where I was sitting, even the large picture frame on the wall.

The past two Sundays we've been invited over to people's houses for lunch, and both times we were given toys for Joey that the families no longer needed. One family gave us this toy with wheels that Joey likes to use kind of like a walker. He's surprisingly good and controlling it while he walks, and doesn't fall flat on his face like I was afraid might happen. This past Sunday he got toy cars. Joey absolutely loves them, and for once he's not just gnawing on them. In between the chewing he's actually pushing them around. How do boys instinctively know how to play with toy cars?

A friend of our family just gave us five large shopping bags overflowing with hand-me-down clothes for Joey. Hooray! They are super nice clothes and are all in excellent condition. This is a picture of one of his new cute outfits. The dark spot is not a stain, he just still spits up every once in a while.


The hand-me-down clothes I wear are a bit of a misnomer since I get them from my younger, but much more fashionable sister. She gives me clothes that she's tired of wearing. Thank goodness I have someone in my life to catch me up with the latest fashions!

Believe it or not even Andy gets hand-me-down clothes. Andy's good friend in college has a step dad that is six foot five and built just like Andy. What are the chances? He is the head of some bank overseas and has sent Andy amazing clothes all in perfect condition. They look like they were made for Andy. In the last big shipment we got 3-4 really nice suits (one was from Nordstrom's and the others were made specifically for this man) and even a tuxedo! Now we just need to find some place where Andy can wear a tuxedo.

Andy and I have been able to save so much money from all the hand-me-downs, and I am hoping that someday we will be able to pass our stuff along and bless someone else. Happily, one opportunity just presented itself. Andy's parents just gave us their microwave because they are making some improvements in their kitchen. Andy installed it last weekend (it's the kind that goes over the stove), and we are giving our old one to my brother when he goes off to grad school. You've got to love the hand-me-down cycle!

I have a confession to make. Before yesterday, I had never cleaned windows before. Our house in Albuquerque had tons of beautiful windows which were getting kind of dirty. I was tempted to clean them a few times, but I couldn't actually get myself motivated enough to do it.

When we moved into this house, I noticed pretty quickly that some of the windows were just filthy (I actually noticed the windows before I noticed that we had white grout). It was embarrassing. I realized that I was going to have to bite the bullet and actually wash them inside and out.

One reason I think I've always been afraid to wash windows is because Windex and I have never gotten along that well. I think it's false advertising that their label says it's "streak free." I can get my mirrors fairly streak free, but the couple of times I attempted to clean the inside of a window or a glass door, it's looked horrible.

One time I found this fascinating list of uses for vinegar (yes, you are more than welcome to make fun of me for thinking a list about vinegar is fascinating). It had hundreds of uses for vinegar from neutralizing odors to skin care. One of the uses was to spray vinegar on windows and dry with newspaper. It said it worked really well and didn't leave any streaks. Vinegar and newspaper, why not?

Well as you can guess, yesterday was the day all the stars aligned-I put Joey down for a nap right when my window-cleaning motivation kicked in. I took off all the screens, closed the windows, sprayed them with the hose, washed them with a soapy rag, rinsed, and then I was ready for the vinegar and newspaper. The windows were looking pretty good, but it's always hard to see streaks when you are close up. I had a moment of panic when I was sure I would go inside and be surrounded by nasty streaky windows.

The moment of truth came. I went inside and beheld a beautiful sight. Clean, sparkly windows. Ahhh, what a good feeling.

I'm not a pessimistic person, but I'm a little worried it's going to rain really soon. I sure hope not because that definitely could kill my motivation to ever wash windows again.