Falon’s World

Tonight was a busy, busy night. Our landlord is coming Thursday to check our place out and make sure that Mason hasn’t demolished his house. Well, the day before we moved in, it rained. So, the day that we moved in, while sunny, the ground was wet. This equaled dirt in our house on the carpet, and moving multiple things, plus three dogs = dirt ground in. First we borrowed my parents’ steam cleaner (it’s ancient and survived the motel) and it took a stain from one spot…and dragged it evenly across the carpet:

After that little mishap, I got down on hands and knees and manually scrubbed that damn floor for about 2 hours…nothing. It did nothing but get really wet – it smelled good though. So, last night Eric rented a Rug Doctor from Meijer. That thing was freakin’ amazing (and cheap).

I was so ecstatic I rushed into the bedroom (that thing is LOUD) and called my  mom. I spoke too soon. I came back out to find out that the thing was no longer working. Eric called the number on the side and he ended up having to trade it in (a pain in the…). Tonight we decided we would like to try out the attachment for the hard-to-reach-places and also the couches. It made the main machine leak and it didn’t seem to do a whole lot. We gave up. But, the carpets are WAY cleaner than they were!

We also helped Dan pack up and move his stuff from his parents’ house to his very first apartment. It’s in Heritage Hill and is pretty sweet. Wood floors, bay windows, french doors – I loved it.

This photo is by Eric, but the ones below are from Dan (Eric mostly took photos of the various knobs throughout Dan’s house).

AND there’s a working fireplace:

The downfalls: the floor in the kitchen/dining room is the “original flooring” and is ugly

…and the peephole is 3 inches above my eye – when I’m standing on my tip-toes. lol. Otherwise? A gorgeous place!

While visiting with my mom tonight we discussed my Grandma’s pregnant labradoodle and when she would have her pups. My mom called me tonight to inform that they are here.

I don’t have any photos of either of the parents or the pups but here are some examples to tide you over until I get there myself:

Chocolate Labradoodle (the mom):

Apricot Standard Poodle (the dad):

Here are some labradoodle pups:

Remember, these are examples, not the real thing!

The breakdown:

3 Females

5 Males

2 Chocolate

2 Black

4 Apricot

The first pup was born at 2:30 this afternoon and the last (a surprise, they thought she was done) at 5:55 pm. Yay for healthy puppies and a good mommy.

We had Mason’s obedience class tonight. He is doing ok in terms of the overall goals of the course and pretty horrible in terms of our personal goals. Going into the class, he has about half of them mastered, but the half he doesn’t he’s totally clueless on. He is pretty good at looking to  us for direction though:

I know it’s a really bad photo, but it was taken with Eric’s cell phone and they were moving. If you want to see how the whole class went, go here.

Last week, I had an odd experience on the bus. I walked up to the 50 right after class with many of my classmates. We got on and then another 50 pulled up behind ours. They are supposed to be 8 minutes apart. Our bus was the late one, so the lady closed the door in preparation for leaving. There is a group of 4 that usually ride the bus together (and are in my class as well) and one of the girls was a little behind the others. She walked up to the closed doors and the bus driver turned away to speak to the driver of the bus behind us out of her window. She was told she was late and had better get a move on. The lady then drove away, leaving the girl still standing right outside the door with the rest of our class on the bus. Then the bus driver did not stop at any of the stops to pick up additional riders, she headed straight back to campus. I was almost expecting her to not stop when I pulled the cord.

Today I got out of class early (again) and headed for the 50 bus stop. Lo and behold, there are two 50’s right in a row…meaning one is late. I walk onto the first one (because it would be leaving the soonest) and what do you know? It’s the same damn bus driver. She is on the floor trying to secure a man in a wheel chair to the hooks. She is failing miserably. Finally she gets some help…from the blind kid sitting in the seat near her. Between the two of them they manage to get the man tied down…kind of. The woman tries to wave us through to get in the seats but she’s too large to get past, she realizes this and pushes through to her seat…and her fly was unzipped. I don’t know if she just always has bad luck or if it’s me and my presence that seems to bring it to her…but she was late again so we left quickly and I was again thankful to be dropped off at my stop.

We were trying to rush home from Holland to see my parents before they headed back up north, but due to an unforeseen delay, we missed them . I was bummed. I love it when they come to stay! Instead, Eric wanted to stop at the park that we stopped at awhile ago to see if the leaves had fallen yet. They had, quite a bit of them. There was a family there getting their photos taken and Eric also wanted to get some photos of us.

(No, I’m not a midget. Yes, I am very short. Yes, he is very tall)

It was nice to get some photos of us together because normally Eric is the one with the camera (and now me too) and we are rarely in a photo together. It was freezing and sitting on the cold rocks was mildly unpleasant but it was just us so Eric had to set the timer and then run into position…but I liked them. He had one spot where he liked how I looked by myself better than any of the two of us:

Friday

After class I went home and let the boys out and did some laundry and other miscellaneous chores and then I left for Holland. Eric was driving from Allendale so we met at Jason and Jennifer’s house and then I rode with him to Logan’s. Eric’s mom ended up being there too (we thought she had to work). After a delicious dinner and some baby talk (Jennifer is showing now and they’re discussing names…tentatively) I had to jet back to GVSU’s downtown campus. My history class was giving 2 points extra credit to our end grade if we went to this presentation from a woman about childhood slavery. I was really kind of looking forward to it (besides the driving all over and hurrying and night driving thing) but she ended up being pretty monotone, reading directly from her notes the whole time and eventually I just got up and left…before it was over. Oh well. I went home and Eric finally got home from the high school football game he was shooting and we hung out before bed.

Saturday

I did some more laundry and thoroughly cleaned the house and then relaxed the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Eric packed up and headed out for tailgating and the football game against Ferris. My parents arrived at my house right around dinner time (finally!) with my brother following them. We ordered some delicious Peppino’s Pizza and sat around talking and watching a movie. It was lovely. One of the best Saturday nights I’ve had in a long time. Oh, and then mom and I worked on refinishing my table (getting the water spots out). 

Sunday

Mom and I worked on my table a little bit more and then I had to rush and shower and be ready for Eric to pick me up (he was at a dodgeball game) so that we could head to Holland (yes, again). We had a late lunch (early dinner?) at his Grandma’s house (it was delicious – I looovvveee cheesy potatoes). We also chose names for Secret Santa – this is the first time I’ve had to do that since high school haha.

Kelli was there with her adorable baby boy, Dylan.

He’s so darn cute!

Everyone wanted to hold him:

Eric did what he usually does:

And a photo of the happy, and soon-to-have-a-baby, couple:

Today I’ve realized that no matter how much I prefer to believe I am over things that happened in the past, I will probably never actually be totally over them. The more I pretend they didn’t affect who I am, the more weight they carry. The more I try to forget (occasionally forgive) people who have hurt me deeper than I’ve ever been hurt, the more I realize it’s almost impossible. The more I try to convince myself I am happier without those people in my life, the more I realize I am a liar (apparent when I hungrily absorb any glimpse into their lives of which I am no longer a part). The more this bothers me, the more pissed I get at myself for caring (especially when I’m sure they don’t) lol. It’s a vicious circle that I feel I will never escape and I wish there was some way out of it…

Ok, so today marks the day of Week #5 for my attempt at losing 20-25 pounds. The exercising thing hasn’t been going too well, as in, I haven’t. But, Eric wants to rig something in the basement so that we can ride our bikes all winter…hopefully that will be something he actually gets around to doing (and if anyone has any suggestions on how to do it, they would be welcome). Anyway, Eric searched near and far and finally found some tortillas that I can actually eat, so my diet has branched out to include wraps – so far only tuna wraps, but the change is great! How much weight could I have possibly lost in 5 weeks? Almost 12 lbs!!! Yay me!

Midas’s favorite spot in the house is laying looking out the sliding glass door. But lately, I’ve been spending more and more time in the bedroom working on homework and stuff, so he’s substituted for the window ledge, which he’s just barely tall enough to reach:

Mason’s now tall enough to rest his chin on the windowsill too, it’s a little more awkward looking than even Midas. I remember when he used to have to jump up and down to look out the window…they grow up so fast lol.

If Mason is aggravating Midas to the point of irritation and I’m on the bed, Midas will beg to be let up there (this was more effective before Mason could jump up on the bed too), if I’m at my desk, he likes to squeeze underneath, where there is barely enough room for him, my chair and my legs:

Tonight while Eric was outside mowing the lawn (finally), the sky was really fiery, these are photos from our house looking across the street:

I thought it was pretty fantastic anyway…

Today after a couple of side trips, we finally made it up north to my parents house for dinner. This was the last night that I was going to see my Grandma and Grandpa Gray before they head out of time for warmer weather. It was incredibly sad, I hate it when they leave. Grandma Gray wanted a photo of her, her mug that we got her, and both of the boys. It took several times to get everyone looking in the right direction and looking normal at the same time, but we finally got it!

It’s a sad day, no matter how happy all three look…