I’m going to try to start blogging with updates a little more frequently at www.myspace.com/cmich76.

And for the pictures, which are updated pretty regularly at www.flickr.com/photos/michener.

Thanks to whoever may have read my poor excuse for a blog, while it lasted!   

We are doing really well.  Phil is in Puerto Rico as we speak, for work, so he’s doing better than the rest of us.  LOL.  He’s been there since Monday and will be back tomorrow.  It’s a rough life for him.

Simon is still four, and loving school.  He has a girlfriend, so he says.  Good lord.  Next week we will go to another open house (the second of 2) for a potential kindergarten.  KINDERGARTEN!  I can’t believe we’re here already.  On one hand, I am looking forward to it, I think he will have a blast.  But I can’t believe he’s going to school.  :::sob:::

Eli is almost 9 months old and seriously, the cutest baby ever.  He’s eating big kid food, about ready to start cruising, and just developing the sweetest personality.  And he can say mama.  That’s my boy!

Work is going pretty well for me.  I’ve been at the sales thing for over 6 months now and it is getting easier, for the most part.  Phil’s job is going well but is getting ready to get *very* busy.  I’ll see him again around October.  LOL

Anyway, thank you to my two loyal readers, I appreciate it.    Check out our pictures to the right and tell me how cute my kids are.  In case I didn’t know.   

So, since I last updated… 

I survived my two weeks in St. Louis, learned a little, and had a LOT of fun. I ended up meeting two girls (one from Louisiana, one from Cincinnati- ironic no?) who were SO much fun, and there was a group of about six of us who like to drink beer and did so on a regular basis.  With no kids!  It was a good time.  We had a lot of laughs and have kept in touch since.

My husband was a ROCK STAR while I was gone!  He did so well with the boys, which I knew he would, but he went above and beyond.  They all survived and are better for it.

Thanksgiving was fine, if not a little chaotic.  We went to Illinois to Phil’s parents’ house and were joined by my brother-in-law and his wife and kids, then my parents, my brother, and his boy.  So there were LOTS of people there and a lot of noise, but it wasn’t too bad. The trip back was kind of no-fun, it was raining and Eli was crying a lot, but we made it back in one piece.

Work is going well.  I seem to have a good week followed by a bad week.  Last week=bad.  This week=good.   Hopefully before long the good weeks will outweigh the bad, and I’ll just have a bad day every once in awhile.

The boys are doing really well.  Simon is very excited about Santa coming, which is good bribery material for a short while.  He wants *everything* to do with Spiderman. We saw Santa at the mall last night and I’m sure Simon gave him an earful about exactly what Spiderman toy he wants. 

Eli, Eli, Eli.   What a sweet baby he is.  He is now six months old!  He had three teeth for the last month or so, until today, when I found THREE more!  AND, he’s crawling.  He’s been working on it for over a month and finally has it down.  He is so sweet, always trying to keep up with Simon.  Already. 

We are looking forward to Christmas…Phil’s parents will be joining us here at the house and I can’t wait!  I am so looking forward to enjoying Christmas at home!   Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying your holidays!  Until next time…

Most importantly, Simon’s pediatric cardiologist appointment went fine, they found nothing wrong with him.  I was pretty confident about it but a little scared.  Anyway, the doctor was kind of like "why are you here again?"  Haha.  I guess our regular pediatrician is a little over-paranoid.  I guess that’s better than the alternative.

Eli is 5 months old as of yesterday!  I just posted some pictures of him and Simon in their Halloween costumes on our Flickr site.  He had a bit of a sinus infection or something last weekend but seems to be fine now.  Ready to crawl any day now, not that I’ll get to see it…

I arrived in St. Louis today for my 2 week training.  So far I’m a little irritated that I was sent on the "early" flight out of Greenville and was in STL before 11.  Because I am here by myself at the hotel with no car, no other people from my group, no food, etc.  I’m crabby.  I could have taken the 4pm flight, but noooooo.  Oh well.  I will get over it.

Anyway, that’s it from us.  My boredom might motivate me to revive my blog a little bit more…we’ll see! 

Work for me is going okay.  I’m liking it but it’s not been as lucrative as I would like for it to be.  Yet.  Hopefully that will come.  I have to go to St. Louis for two weeks at the end of the month, and I am dreading it like crazy.  Seriously, it makes me ill to think about.  I’m going to miss my 3 boys so much!

Work for Phil seems to be fine, it has slowed down to where he’s not travelling so much.  So that’s good.  

Two weeks ago, we changed the boys’ daycare.  I am positive it was way more traumatic for me than for them.  They’re both adjusting really well.  We had a lot of little things at the old school that didn’t make us happy, but we stuck it out because we loved Simon’s teacher.  Well, she up and left one day and didn’t come back, so we found another place.  It’s closer and cheaper, so it’s a good thing all around.  And they’re doing fine.  

Tomorrow we are taking Simon to a pediatric cardiologist in Jackson because his pediatrician found a heart murmur a few weeks ago.  I’m positive that it’s nothing, but the doctor thought it might sound like an open PDA, and the only way to diagnose that is with an echocardiogram which we will be having done tomorrow.  If that’s the case, worst case scenario is that he would have to have surgery.  But like I said, I’m confident that it isn’t.  

Other than that, Simon is doing fine.  He is learning to spell *everything*, drawing pictures, and keeping us entertained as usual.  

Eli is now 4.5 months old and is just growing up too fast.  He is SOOOO sweet, I just want to eat him up.  He’s a big boy too, at his last checkup he was 16 lb 11 oz and 26 inches long!  He’s rolling back and forth and this morning was up on all fours like he was getting ready to crawl.  Lord help me.

I am having trouble embedding pictures and video, but if you’d like to see the boys grow, you can see our pictures at the link on the right (www.flickr.com/photos/michener), and we have a video page at www.youtube.com/CMichener .

Anyway, hope everyone out there is doing well!  We’ll talk to you soon! 

A quick update on the two boys…Simon is just fine, he starts pre-K next Tuesday.  How did that happen?  There have been lots of changes going on at the daycare we send them both to.  So, he’s going to have the same teacher this year that he had last year.  That’s good news, he loves her!  In fact, if it wasn’t for her, he might not be there any more.  I think next year will be time for him to go to his regular school (not sure which of the two we’re going to pick yet) but whether that will be a repeat of pre-K or regular kindergarten is still up in the air.  Damn summer birthdays.

Mr. Eli is doing really well in daycare.  He’s charming all of his caregivers when he gives them "the eye".  He’s quite a flirt.  He was a little sick this past week with a sinus infection.  At 3 months, he’s now 15 pounds!  He seems to be getting a little longer but still has pretty stubby little legs!  It doesn’t matter though, he is just precious.  He’s starting to smile and coo, it’s adorable.   

My new job seems to be going well.  I am doing medical equipment sales, and I think I will like it, but I get so nervous that I fumble over my words and make myself look like an idiot.  Once I get over that, I expect it will be fine.  I found out that my training will be in St. Louis the last week of October through the first week of November.  I’m still not over leaving my baby for two weeks.  I am looking forward to it just to get it over with!

Phil’s job is going well from what he tells me, when I see him!  Just kidding, but not really!  He’s leaving tomorrow for Texas, coming home next weekend, and is going to be in IL/IN/OH/MI the whole week-weekend after.  So I’m preparing for two weeks of single mom-dom.  Sigh.

Well, that’s about all for now- hope everyone who still reads is doing well! 

Lots of people have asked me about Greenville and what it’s like…we’re not exactly on TV often so this is a big deal for us.

Greenville will be featured on two different shows, episodes two and three. There is a link to the show here: http://www.altonbrown.com/adventure/tarmac02.html

Episode 2 will feature Jim’s Cafe, which has become a recent breakfast favorite of Phil’s. Episode 3 features Doe’s Eat Place, which I know I’ve talked to some of you about before…they are really well known and supposedly was a favorite place of Elvis’. Little Doe (that would be Doe III) is married to one of Phil’s coworkers (and several of Phil’s other coworkers met Alton Brown, which we’re still jealous about), and he brought us their famous tamales shortly after Eli was born.

Anyway, for anyone who is interested in seeing it, I thought I’d give you a heads up. Hopefully it will be somewhat interesting. Like I said, it’s not too often that Hollywood comes to the Delta, so we’re excited. Doesn’t take much…

Now just how did this happen?

How is my baby FOUR years old?!?  I’ll be allright.  We took the birthday boy to Chuck E Cheese on Sunday for his birthday.  He had a ball.  He’s now standing about 43 inches tall and about 40 pounds.  He is such a great kid, we are so proud of him! 

Eli is now two months old, and should soon be as big as Simon.  Well, not quite.  He weighed in yesterday at 13 pounds 15 ounces, and 23.5 inches long.  He is a truck.  He is SUCH a sweet baby.  See?

He is starting daycare on Monday as I will be starting my new job.  I’m quite sure I will cry when I leave him.  He loves to smile at his momma!

I think I am in love! 

 Stewart Francis Michener 4/20/01 - 7/21/07

We lost our buddy Stewart yesterday.  He got out of the house in the morning and our neighbor found him in the afternoon.  Apparently he lost a fight with a couple of stray dogs (we think) from around the neighborhood.  It’s very weird.  Stew and I had a love-hate relationship (see my old blog with the entry titled "de-birding the house"), but I am sad that he’s gone.  We have had him since he was a kitten, before we had kids, not long after we got married.  So we had him for six years.  It’s just going to be a little emptier around our house without him. 

We left for Illinois on a Friday.  An 8-9 hour trip turned into a 12 hour trip due to Eli having to eat.  We stopped 8 times, and it was very frustrating.  We had a good time in Illinois though, I got to catch up with friends, Simon was able to visit with his old babysitter, and we all relaxed quite a bit.  The next Friday we went to Cincinnati.  That trip was pretty easy.

Cincinnati was a lot busier.  My parents had a cookout so that we could catch up with family.  That was a lot of fun.  During the week we also went to the Cincinnati Zoo, Newport Aquarium, and dad took Simon to the Natural History Museum.  On top of that was the Fourth of July festivities.  We hardly had a break!  Simon loved everything.  Eli didn’t really care much!

The following Friday we went BACK to Illinois to join in the Tuscola sesquicentennial (sure I spelled that wrong) festivities, and also to see our friends for their baby shower.  My brother in law and his family also joined us so all of the cousins were together, it was a really nice time.

We drove back to Mississippi on Sunday.  Only 3 stops this time, so it was a really easy trip back.

I forgot how NICE the weather up north can be in the summertime!  It is miserable here now!  It’s rained every day since I’ve been back and it’s just THICK with humidity.  Gross.  Phil was out of town most of the time that we were, and when he came back with the rain, our yard is so flooded and our grass is about knee-high!  It looks like our home is abandoned!  Hopefully it will dry out and the heat will break a little bit.

On to other news.  I have a new job!  And I don’t have to go back to work until the 6th of August, which gives me a little bit more time off for maternity leave.  All of this blew up while I was in Cincinnati, and I had an interview on Monday and a second interview on Tuesday.  Goodness!  I’ll be a sales rep for a medical equipment company, a different one than I work for now.  Hopefully it is a good move for our family.  It will be an interesting change of pace and I’ll be much closer to home.  

Now about those boys of mine.  Simon is doing well, he is as chatty as can be and smart as a whip.  As for Eli, he is also doing well and growing like a weed.  He had his 6 week checkup on Monday and is now 12 pounds, 3.5 ounces.  Piggy!  And, he rolled over from front to back today!  He’s doing pretty well at night, he typically only wakes up once.  Feeding is so-so.  I’ve been nursing and trying to get him on a bottle, but he’s not liking the bottle so well.  Luckily, because of my maternity leave extension, I am hoping it will work itself out before I start again.

Well, that’s all from us for now.  I have yet to get all of our pictures uploaded from the trip- keep an eye out for them!