A few weeks ago Gabriel started answering questions with the word "sausage". You could be talking to him and all of a sudden there would be a random "sausage" thrown in there. It was pretty funny and he knew it. Us:"How was your day at school?" Him:"sausage" Us:"What do you want to watch on..." Him:"sausage".

It quieted down for a few days. I hadn't heard him say the word sausage and I figured it was over. All of a sudden he starts saying "ham" "ham, ham, ham". Here we go again. I'm not sure what the deal is with pork products but it's giving me a chuckle.

The summer is over and everyone has gone home. It's just the 3 of us again and now it's time to settle into the new house. All the little fixit chores are slowing down because everything that really needs doing is done. It's not perfect but it's very livable and cozy.Ellen and Gabriel have gone back to their respective schools and I'm still working along.

I forgot to mention it before but Gabriel had his adenoids removed after we moved. They were swollen and blocked the natural drainage. It caused runny noses and fluid on the ears. They told us that he had a 40dB reduction in hearing. I'm amazed that he was doing as well as he was considering he was mostly deaf with all that fluid in there. I'm also amazed that it took as long as it did to diagnose since it was an issue for 3 years or so. They put tubes in his ears and grabbed a laser to remove the adenoids. Ellen and I were in the waiting room barely 15 minutes when the doctor comes out and says he's done. His hearing improved immediately and his speech has slowly gotten better. He's doing really well now but there's a few words that he's relearning since he heard it wrong to start with.

We went to a Day Out with Thomas. Everyone that has met Gabriel or talked on the phone with him know that Thomas is a train and lives on the island of Sodor (Gabriel thinks he lives in Broken Arrow AND Sodor). A Day Out with Thomas is a traveling tour of a full sized replica of Thomas. The kids get to ride on the train that Thomas pulls (actually a diesel on the other end is doing the work). They have all kinds of activities like pictures, store, videos, etc. and our local one is at the Oklahoma City train museum. We rode with a friend of Ellen's from work. She's also a science teacher with a couple little boys that love Thomas. The boys had a lot of fun but the only thing Gabriel talked about the next day(s) was the Cranky the Crane we bought him at the store.

We did make it to a couple of the Coweta football games this year. We sat in a group with some of the other teachers at the school. Ellen always makes sure to stay through halftime to make sure she can see the band play. I wish we could have made it to some more games but at least we got to go to a couple. Gabriel seemed to do better this year than previous years. He's calmer now but doesn't seem to be absorbed with the tiger mascots. Those mascots were the only thing keeping him in place last year because he wanted to bounce around otherwise when he wasn't saying hi to them.

I got into poison ivy on the day we took possesion of the house and the effects are finally almost all gone. That was some of the most miserable weeks I've endured. My face was swollen, large patches of skin were open sores and it was no fun. It's over now even though there's some skin still healing up and offcolor. Lesson learned: It doesn't matter how hot it is, wear your long pants and long sleeves. I'm not going to dwell on this and have spent more than enough time on it now. :^)

Emily (Ellen's sister) called her inlaws and friends to see if we could get some help moving since we lost our other help and I was still healing up. Dave and Laura Steele called to say they were picking up Starbucks and wanted to know what everyone wanted. We had 8 or 9 people show up to help out plus Ellen and myself. There really wasn't enough room for everyone hopped up on caffeine in a little over 1,000sq/ft house. Everything was loaded, hauled and unloaded before the pizza got there at 11:30am and most of the help had already wandered off. I'm very greatful to all our help and it made quick work of what could have been a long hard day with just Ellen and a weakened me.

We had 2 water leaks into the livingroom, bamboo infested with hundreds of birds and thousands of spiders/bugs and a big ant problem. We really started wondering if we made the right choice and there was definitely some research into what our options were. One water leak was a short drain hose for the A/C condensation and the other was a crack in an outside water valve. Removing the bamboo took care of birds and spiders/pillbugs/etc.

Unfortunately it didn't take care of the ants. We had it sprayed inside and out, caulked every crack outside and in and set ant traps everywhere but we still had a couple hundred ants in the dishwasher, sinks, etc. We finally got the ants under control with boiling water. We took the largest pan we had, filled it to the brim and brought it a boil. I dumped it on every antpile I could find (you know it's hot when it's over 100 out and still steaming) and then sprayed the trails with ant killer. I continued until I got every antpile I could find. I did this a couple times a day for 3 or 4 days and the ants totally stopped. We didn't see a single ant in the house for weeks and even then it was only a couple. The house has been basically ant-free ever since.

We had about a week or so to settle before Ellen's family came down to stay with us. Don, Kathy and Edwin came for a week for Camp Meeting. Emily and the kids stayed for a few weeks while Matt was selling their house in California. I'm glad Ellen got to spend time with her sister and Gabriel with his cousins. I was working this whole time so I didn't get too bothered by the extra company. I think it worked out well for everyone. Ellen and Emily got a little crazy dancing late on night. I got a short video of it unfortunately the camera was full and I only got a little bit of that 45 minute goofy session.

We finally bought our first house. It's a nice little 3 bedroom house in Broken Arrow on a dead end street. The interior has had quite a few upgrades but it's older so it needs some work in a few areas. It's really nice to have a house of our own now.

There's a LOT of bamboo in the backyard and the neighbors behind us tell us that it was there when they moved in 9 years ago. It took a lot of work (3 30yard dumpsters, 60 man hours, 7 hours with a skidloader and two months of solid work) to clear the bamboo and other accumulated debris but we finally got it down to bare dirt. This spring will have us planting and we'll get this backyard into shape as we go.

Gabriel picked out some blue paint about the shade of Thomas the Tank Engine and Grandpa painted Gabriel's room when they came down to visit this summer. I'd like to put a track around the room above the door but he's already starting to lose interest in trains. We'll see if it's temporary or not.

Gabriel walks up to me tonight and was saying something about banana. He continues and I realize that he's telling me the classic knock knock joke where you say banana several times and then orange (orange you glad I telling me the classic knock knock joke where you say banana several times and then orange (orange you glad I didn't say banana) on the last time. He was very animated and was doing hand gestures for banana and made a fist for orange. I just laughed and I think that's the funniest that joke has ever been to me even though he needs to work on his delivery. I had him tell it to Uncle Mark over the phone and he was so excited and proud of himself that Uncle Mark could only understand the knock knock part of it. He did find it funny when I explained what Gabriel was doing.