Our Saturday and some random info

This past Saturday we had a chili cook-off at our church. Thomas is headed to Belize in a few weeks for a missions trip and this was a fundraiser for it. Joanna and Shane (my sister and her future husband) decided that they would enter a chili.

How it works: you enter and sign a form agreeing to the "rules" and "guidelines" of the chili cook-off. (it's very high tech. I might also mention that Thomas did not put together any of the rules or guidelines. This is our churches 3rd year having the chili cook-off so he just did what was done in the past) You come up with a name for your chili, you decorate a table and serve your chili anyway you would like. Joanna and Shane decided to be "nerds". They put together a formula for their E=MmmmmChili². They had all kinds of decorations and even had a bowl with nerd candies in it. Throughout the event there are judges who are judging the chili and the people who come to the event are also looking for the best chili.

There were three categories this year.
1. Judges choice
2. Peoples choice
3. Best presentation

Joanna and Shane won...
1. 2nd place for the judges choice
2. 2nd place for the peoples choice
3. 1st place for their presentation (I might add 9 people were entered into the contest)

They won a whole bunch of goodies and they used the chili recipe that I always make. Man, Thomas always told me I should have entered it, but I didn't think I'd win. Guess I know now.





On a few side notes...
Awhile ago I posted how I have to hold Garrison while I vacuum. I wasn't a big fan of doing that. Plus, I don't want to him to be 3 or 4 or 5 years old while I'm still having to "protect" him from the big, bad, vacuum cleaner. (I'm totally kidding, of course, but you get the idea. He needs to learn now that the vacuum cleaner is ok even if Lady and Bear want to kill the thing.) I figured he's old enough to sit by himself on the couch and I trust him enough to know that he can get up and down without breaking a bone. So I decided to set up a little area where he could look at books and have his juice while still watching me and out of the vacuum cleaners way. He absolutely loved it. He didn't cry or freak out once. He was a very happy camper and now when I pull the vacuum out he doesn't run (or crawl) the other way. Yeah!!

Here is a picture of Garrison and Maddy (the girl that I watch after school) Garrison was cracking us up. He kept putting his cheek against her whenever I'd go to take the picture. He's such a character.

The sickness has spread!

Poor Garrison woke up last night at 1:30 crying and crying. Thomas and I both went in to try and calm him and as soon as I touched him I realized that he was boiling hot. His temperature was 101.2. After medicine, a full sippy cup of juice and some rocking he fell back asleep. Then he was back up at 5:30. When I went in there to get him he was soaking wet and hot again. As I changed him and gave him medicine he was shaking like he freezing cold so I brought him into our bed. I'm not a big fan of him sleeping with us, but he was so sick I couldn't leave him alone in his room. He slept for an hour in our bed and then woke up wanting to play. That wasn't going to fly with me so I put him back in his bed and he slept until 8:00. (he normally wakes up between 6 and 7).
Before Thomas and I went to bed last night we thought it would be fun to go out to breakfast as a family. Since I've been "stuck" in this house since Friday night. The only time I got out was to go to my job for 3 hours on Tuesday. I have been going crazy. I feel like I'm loosing my mind (or at least it's turning to jello), but with Garrison being sick we decided to cancel those plans. Instead we made eggs, bacon and toast. It was actually very enjoyable. Maybe tomorrow Thomas can watch Garrison while I go.... grocery shopping!
Garrison spent the whole morning on the couch with his milk and a blanket watching a Veggie Tales movie. I know that he's sick, but I didn't think he would stay there because I've never seen this boy sit very long. He surprised me by staying on the couch for a whole movie. This poor little guy IS sick! (his temperature was 99.8 this morning).
Since I've been in the house for days I thought it would be fun for Garrison and I to have a project to do. So I thought it would be fun for us to read all of our Dr. Seuss books (trying to finish one a day). Then when we get better we'll head to the library and pick up the books that we don't have at home and maybe a movie of Dr. Seuss' (if there is one). I think this would be something fun to do yearly and then as Garrison gets older we could do fun activities with the books. Like make green eggs and ham and stuff like that. We've read 3 Dr. Seuss books so far this week. I love being a mom!!

my wonderful husband

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He took care of so much this weekend. On Saturday I woke-up with a really bad cold and had no energy. For the entire day Thomas took care of laundry (doing 5 loads), Garrison, the dogs, the house and me. What a way to spend Valentine's day. On Sunday I was still feeling gross so Thomas took Garrison to church with him. Now for some people this doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you're a pastor (and the only pastor at that) you tend to get pulled in 100 different directions on a Sunday morning. Someone is always wanting to talk to him, give him something, ask him something, etc... and it's very hard to juggle anything else, let alone your 13 month old son. Plus, this Sunday church was having a potluck and a business meeting. Even though he had a plate full he still brought Garrison to church with him and was able to put him nursery, do the announcements, get him from nursery, talk to people, change Garrison, put him back in nursery, teach Sunday school, get Garrison from nursery again, feed him and G man, do a devotional before the business meeting started and stay for the business meeting (I know he did a lot more too). All the while I sat on the couch, sleeping and feeling like a truck had run me over. When they got home from church, at about 2:00, Garrison was out cold and slept for 2 hours. Thomas was able to watch NASCAR and then he went to Walmart and again took Garrison with him. What a guy! I still feel sick, but I know I would be feeling a lot worse if I didn't have Thomas to help me out this weekend. And now I think Garrison is getting sick.

I hope you like the NEW look of "The Bush Times". Now that I've figured out what I'm doing I'll probably change it often or at least whenever I get bored of looking at it. I really like this background better and I hope it's easier to read. Hopefully, it also motivates me to write in here more...

change

Bear with me as I'm trying to monkey with my blog and don't always have hours to sit down and work with it. I'm learning!

going stir crazy

Cabin fever has hit the Bush household. I think that the dogs are even going stir crazy. I cannot wait for the warm weather so that Garrison and I can get out and run, run, run. Last year at this time Garrison wasn't even a month old yet and our household was more of a blur and there was no way we wanted to be outside with the sunshine of our son inside. However, this year Garrison is a 13 month old active toddler. The last couple of days he's becoming more and more crabby starting in the early afternoon and lasting until he goes to bed. I think he's sick of playing with the same toys, in the same cupboards within the same four walls. And frankly, I'm getting sick of picking up the same toys, putting the same items back into the cupboards in the same four walls. Come on spring... even if we'll be muddy and soaked after splashing in the puddles, at least we'll be outside.

On another note... I mentioned that last week we got lamps for our house and I thought I would post them. It sounds funny, Joanna and Thomas make fun of me, but I feel like now I have a "grown up" living room because I have lamps.

I've also had thoughts of repainting my entire house. Shh, don't tell Thomas. But I know that I'm just going stir crazy and want a change. I'm not a big fan of this time of year.

A pic of Garrison today...

our week

We've had a wonderful week! We went to Minneapolis to visit with Thomas' parents who were here from California and have "Christmas" with them. Thomas and his dad also had a pastor's conference that they were going to go to Monday through Wednesday. I love hanging out with family. The fun begins, for me, when we get loaded into the truck to take the 2 1/2 hour ride down there. I love road trips!! I think it started when I was younger and had to travel an hour (one way) every week to go to church. You really get to know people when you travel.

Here's what our week looked like:


Sunday: We arrived in Minneapolis and went right away to drop Aza off at a kennel. Then we headed over to Thomas' brothers house and watched the Super Bowl. Garrison and one of our nephews opened up presents since they have birthday's in January.


Monday: Thomas, Garrison, Thomas' sister, parents and myself went to a thrift store and found lots of "goodies" ( 3 lamp stands, a picture for Garrison's future "big boy" room and a basket for G's toys). It is so exciting to find nice things for dirt cheap. Then we headed off to Panera to eat lunch. After lunch Thomas, Garrison, Sharon (Thomas' mom) and myself went to IKEA!! I think we spent two hours in that place looking at everything. Thomas was getting a little antsy towards the end. He can only handle so much shopping. Garrison did great the whole day. He took a little snooze while we were in IKEA. To end the evening we went to Thomas' sisters house and hung out as a family. Thomas and John (his dad) went to their conference from 6:30 to 9 pm.


Tuesday: Thomas and John were at the conference the whole day. Garrison, Sharon and I hung out at Thomas' brothers house until it was time to meet up with Thomas and John (around 4). We had supper at Jennifer's house (Thomas' sister) and Thomas and John headed back out to their conference.


Wednesday: Thomas and John only had their conference until 10:30 am. Garrison and I hung out until Thomas, John and Sharon came with lunch. Then we headed out to some stores. Thomas' whole family got together and had "Christmas". It was nice to hang out with everyone.

Thursday: We left to come home.

Friday: Thomas went to work. Garrison and I went grocery shopping, unpacked, did laundry and relaxed. It's fun to go on vacation, but it's also nice to be home. And tomorrow Thomas and I will be celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary.