A trip to the doctor.....

I took Ben back to the doctor again yesterday.  His wrist is still not right and they are going to do another MRI to see if they can find out what is going on.  He was on top form and we laughed the whole time.  As we were driving out to the appointment, he was telling me that he was driving with Sam and pointing out all the hospitals he has been to.  He said "they open a new hospital, we get an invite".  Funny, but scary to think it's not far off the mark.  I think he is pretty healthy overall, but we have seen a lot of doctors.....
When we were in the office, the nurse called "Benjamin Skyler"  How many times has his name been changed to that?  He just looked at me and said "we should just ignore them when they say that.  Next time, we should totally do that....."
In the patient room, the sharps container on the wall indicated you could put scalpels in it.  Ben said "why would they bring scalpels in here?", I said "oh, you know, so they could do some minor digging around".  I'm such a reassuring parent......
The last funny conversation was:
Me:  Why does his wrist sound like that?
Dr. G:  Oh it's because of his gymnastics
Me (to Ben):  I bet orthopedic doctors really hate sports
Ben:  Blame it on the Greeks......

Summer is officially over......

We went to Little Rock to see Milly and Rich over Labor Day. We were going right before school started, but Ben had to register for classes for school, so we could not go at the last minute.  This was the next opportunity we had to travel.  We left on Friday and stayed for a couple of days before coming back on Monday.  The kids had fun playing games with Milly.  We played Mousetrap on Friday night and Ben's Monopoly on Saturday night.  The kids weren't too successful at winning since MIL won Mousetrap and I won Monopoly!!  Still, they were very happy to play

We went to US Pizza for lunch on Sunday.  Sam and I used to go there for lunch on a regular basis before we got married, in fact Sam gave me my engagement ring in one of them!!!  Unfortunately, my tastes appear to have changed and it's not as good as I remember it.  We'll have to try one of our other many favourite haunts next time we go back.

Back at home, we had the house number engraved in the stone over the front door.  We haven't had anything else done to the house this week, been pretty quiet!!!!

We did have the stove repaired and found this unlit firework under there.  Do you see the warning label???!!!!!

Milly had a hummingbird feeder that had loads of birds come to it every day, so I thought I would try again.  We bought one in Little Rock and I put it up when we got home.  I thought it was probably too late in the season to attract any, but we got this little visitor the same day!!!!  It is outside the kitchen window, so we can watch the birds easily!!!  Things like this make me very happy....

More light.......

Our dining room light arrived!!!! It is as spectacular as I thought it would be....

Now we can have dinner guests

Life goes on.....

Maggie is still doing her horse riding every Tuesday evening.  Last week she had a fairly new horse (can't remember his name), who was by far the most docile horse Maggie has ever had.  He was lovely.  Maggie is doing so well with her riding, she is so much more confident around the horses and she knows exactly what she is supposed to be doing when she gets the horse ready for the lesson.  She looks so comfortable on the horse too.  It has been very good for her.

We got a skip at the weekend to get rid of all the stuff we have taken out of the house.  The whole side of our house was piled high with junk and we really needed to get rid of it.  We must live in a really good neighbourhood because no one else threw junk in there when we weren't around.  I don't know how they could resist!!!!

The first BBQ at White Ave took place this weekend and it was a huge success!!!!

I bought this terrarium at Arhaus before we moved into our house and finally got around to getting some plants for it.  The other day Maggie asked me what animal was living inside of it, I guess she didn't realize you could just have a bunch of plants.  I think she thought there was a tarantula in there!!!  I told Sam that we should tell Ben that and he'd NEVER go near it!!!!!

Ben and Maggie seem to really enjoy our new house. Ben definitely spends less time holed up in his bedroom.  We have a nice little area in the kitchen where they can sit and eat easily.  Maggie likes it because she can pause the TV, rush in and eat, and go right back to it!!!!!

Ben and I were in Whole Foods yesterday and found these heirloom baby tomatoes.  They looked too good to not take a picture of them.

Let there be light......

We have had a lot of new lights in our house recently.

Sam bought me this light for Christmas. Christmas came early because the box was sitting on the porch when I got home-haha.  I had seen this lamp in Restoration hardware and I absolutely loved it.  It's right up my alley, a combination of history and chemistry.

I ordered these lights from Craftsman Connection.  I haven't been able to get anything from them for a while, but now I have my old house back, they are on my quick-dial list!!!!  These are hand made iron and slag glass. This one is inside the front door.....

....and this one is at the top of the stairs

Another Restoration Hardware find is the lamp I bought for our bedroom.  Solid piece of crystal, absolutely beautiful

There will be more light soon, we have had power run to the center of the dining room for our chandelier when it arrives.  Then, we will be able to eat at the dining table....

For now, it's just a hole waiting to be filled!!!!

House update.....

I love my sitting room so much, I might just take pictures of it every week!!!!  I'm not sure if I should get a new rug or not.  It is completely out of the colour palette of the chairs, but maybe it's so far away that it works....

These stock have been a great price at Trader Joe's for a while.  These are doing really well in the sitting room, they are already a week old.  The Singer sewing machine looks perfect in this room

Sam is so proud of the basement.  He has done a fantastic job with it.

I have put all my holiday china away in these cabinets, it has really helped with the limited space in the kitchen.  We also have spare toiletries in the cabinet in response to the fact that Ben insists on going in the bath at exactly the same time that we start getting ready for bed!!!!

We even have room for the rowing machine and the yellow bike.  We never thought this was going to happen.  We have a new water heater too, it is very fancy.

Food collection.....

Harvesting season has arrived!!!!  The school garden has been much neglected this Summer with the move etc, but we have had some goodies from it.  We have had quite a few green peppers, but only Ben eats them.  Ben's cabbages are finally ready to pick.  The butterflies have had a field day with them, but some are still in good condition.  I made dinner with this beauty on Tuesday.

Ben also wanted to grow aubergines this year and finally I picked 6 of them.  I'm going to make moussaka this weekend, haven't made it in years.

We went to Eckert's last weekend because they were picking both apples and peaches.  We now have a massive amount of fruit!!!!