two. more. days.

We're almost there.  So close.  This past week felt like it took soooooo long.  Similar to the week in between inductions for Levi.  Ha!  This celery harvest has big the biggest ever - they planted more than they ever have.  So, when a normal season feels like running a marathon, tacking an extra week on the end is a challenge.  Everybody is ready to be done.  Yesterday Mike was dealing with yet another personnel issue and was basically like, "We're almost done, we've got two more days left after this.  Just stay away from each other."  Thankfully the weather has been pretty decent.  That certainly helps.  When harvest is done, I think Jackson is going to miss visiting Mike and getting treats from Pete.  :)  He'll even say, "Hi, Pete" now and goes up to him for a fist bump.  Then, of course, he's real good about saying "thank you".  :)

A couple weeks ago we had our annual skeet shoot party here with Mike's brother and cousin.  It was fun and the weather worked out perfect!  It was warm and stayed dry until we were stopping for supper anyways, then it poured.  Mike's cousin brought his four-wheeler and so we had fun taking a few rides around.  Caleb got to shoot a .22 for the first time (I was maybe a little nervous...) and did awesome!  I shot a couple different guns (don't ask me what) and got lucky on a couple shots.  My shoulder had had enough after a bit.  Of course, Mike, Harold, and Joe had plenty of opportunities to show off how good they are.  ;) 

Last Saturday was our Fall Festival at school.  Unfortunately the weather didn't work out so good for that.  The outdoor events couldn't happen, but everyone made the most of it and had fun indoors.  I ran the popcorn machine for a while with another mom, and we managed to talk (a lot) AND get our work done.  :) 

Every fall I make a beef delivery to South Haven for one of Mike's cousins (she lives in South Bend and we meet in South Haven).  I love the town of South Haven and look forward to my drive there every year.  I went last week on a day that I just had Jackson with me.  Normally he does not do well in the car, but he did great this time!  He actually watched the video I put in for him (farm stuff), and we had fun while we were in South Haven.  I took him to the beach for a while.  An older couple gave him a whole package of crackers to feed to the seagulls, and he had fun taking a bite out of each cracker and then throwing it for the birds.  :)  He was doing great until near the end when a seagull took a cracker right out of his hand - I'm not sure if he got upset because he was scared or because he didn't get his bite of the cracker first.  We played on the playground at the beach for a little while (he has a thing for slides right now, always spots them when we're driving places, "slide! slide!"); and then went downtown for a treat before going home. 

I've been having so much fun playing volleyball every Monday night.  We have a fun group, and we've been doing pretty well.  The only problem is, so far our games have been at 8pm.  That's a good thing considering Mike's schedule while harvest is going, but it's a bad thing because it means I don't generally get home until 9:30pm and I can't just go right to bed.  I end up dragging on Tuesday's.  This week I had my "lack of sleep" headache, which made me nauseous by the end of the day.  Ugh.  What is wrong with me that I can't handle an 8pm volleyball game??  Pathetic! 

Mike does a great job making sure everything is in great shape before harvest begins, but now it's been four months and the maintenance issues are piling up around here.  My van needs an oil change (I have brought in in myself before, but I HATE doing it), his truck needs a headlight and a new tailgate (he accidentally backed into a trailer during soybean harvest for my dad - oops), our dining room light is on the fritz (something in the dimmer switch), and our lawn mower is out of commission.  Oh, the lawn mower...  Thankfully, my brother lives right next door and we can borrow their mower.  (I like their's better anyways!)  Last week I used it and I think one of the tires was going soft by the end (I didn't know it at the time).  So this week I get about half done with our yard and the tire goes completely flat.  It needed a whole new tire, so after work Mike ran to the hardware store and was able to fix it for me.  So the next day I'm partway done with what's left to mow in our yard, and the wheel falls completely off!!!  Something about a shaft collar that he had tightened as good as he could, but obviously it still worked it's way off.  Another run to the hardware store that night, fixed again, and finally yesterday I was able to FINISH our yard.  Thankful for a stretch of good weather.  :) 

Wednesday afternoon I got a call that Levi had thrown up at school.  :(  Poor guy.  I got Jackson up from his nap and went to school to get him.  He didn't seem in too bad of shape.  He rested for the afternoon and seemed to be feeling okay.  Just when I was going to load everyone up to bring Caleb and Logan to church, Levi threw up again.  He was fine the rest of the night, got a good night's sleep, and was fine the next day.  Still had to stay home from school, but I'm thankful this wasn't anything too major!  And, so far, everyone else seems fine.

I had a quick chat with Levi's teacher the other morning.  She is moving to the other side of the state soon (her husband took a pastorate near Bay City), and I just wanted to get her input on what she's observed so far this year.  She said Levi is very helpful in class (yay!), and we need to spend time working on his letter sounds.  From what I do with him at home I can see that area needs a little practice, but he has been getting some better, I think, so I'm not overly concerned.  He'll get it!  Funny conversation I had with Levi yesterday:
Levi: "Which vegetable is the best?"
Me: "Like the best for you?"
Levi: "Yeah."
Me: "I don't know...carrots are pretty good for you."
Levi: "Broccoli?"
Me: "Yes, broccoli is good for you, too."
Levi: "Steak?"
Me: "Well, that's not a vegetable, but I like the way you're thinking!"  :)

So, the other day the kids had hearing testing done at school.  We got a note home that they want us to take Caleb in to the Health Department for a retest.  I guess he missed a few of the tones.  When they did the testing in Kindergarten his teacher had mentioned to us that they had pulled him back out to test again, but we never heard anymore about it.  And, I had forgotten about this, but Mike remembered that when we had the boys in to the doctor for their kindergarten screening, Caleb had a few issues with the hearing test then, too.  At the time we weren't sure if he was really missing a couple of the tones, or if he was just having trouble understanding the directions and what he was supposed to be doing.  So, he has a retest scheduled in a month and we'll see what's going on. 

I had just a minute to chat with Logan and Caleb's teacher at the Fall Festival last weekend, and she said that they're both such little gentlemen and that they lead in that area.  That's the sort of thing that makes my momma heart proud!  They are both really enjoying chess, art, and drama at school.  I love it!  They do a lot of memorization at school (catechism, poems, verses) and Logan seems to do especially well with that.

Jackson is in that 'fun' stage right now where I can't leave his sight.  He'll be playing nicely, seemingly not paying attention to me, and I'll try to quick slip to another room to do something.  Just a couple seconds later I hear, "Mommy?  Mommy?  Mommy?" and he comes looking for me.  :)  He is learning so much right now, it's too much fun.  The other day he was pointing to the clock in the hall and I told him that it was a "clock".  Then he goes into the living room and points to one in there - he knew they were the same thing!  He has learned what the potty is, and the other day I was with him in Lowe's in the bathroom area.  We were walking down the aisle with all the toilets and sinks, and he just kept looking at them going, "Potty.  Potty.  Potty."  :)  He is still obsessed with cows, and he also enjoys farm equipment, always thinking he should be able to go for a ride.  This morning the farmer that farms the field right by us was combining his corn and Jackson was having trouble understanding that it wasn't Papa or Daddy in the combine, and that he couldn't go for a ride.  Also this morning, Mike and the older boys headed up north right away to help Harold with some work on the cottage.  Jackson didn't wake up until after they were gone, and he was having trouble understanding that they weren't around.  He kept saying, "Wuvi?  Wuvi?" and looking for them.  And, here's a good one, he had gone upstairs to look for his brothers and then was at the top of the stairs on his tummy facing head first to come down.  I said, "No, turn around." and he stands up and spins a couple circles!  Stinker.  He gets excited to see or hear planes outside..."Pane!  Pane!"  :)  So many cute things right now, I wish I could bottle it up...  Makes me sad that I know I've forgotten things about when the other boys were little, and I know I'll forget some of the things that Jackson is doing right now, too.  The other day I was watching someone's "birth story" video, and it didn't make me want to do it all over again, but it made me want to travel back in time just to remember what it was like.  I'd better stop before I get all sad and sentimental.  :)