So, this is the upside to getting up at the crack of dawn to get to work, right?
The front yard is mostly secure, so now we have started working on the backyard. Since this is not just "pay thousands of dollars and VOILA!, done in a week" it will be a much longer project. Oh well. Kevin is loving it. We did get a new table so that we can sit on our butts while the little kids play on Zane's new playset. Ahhhh...sitting on my butt. Ha. Here are some pics of our first picnic outside...
We went to the zoo last week. It was pretty fun. It certainly was a gorgeous place, nestled right above the Puget Sound. We always have mixed emotions about the zoo. Because we love animals. Are zoos good or bad for animals? Mmmmm. Mixed emotions. I'm sure zoos do a lot of good and mostly animal lovers work or volunteer there. (Right? You'd have to be, right?) It was fun taking Zane. It was his first time. Lemme see if I can find our favorite picture
My buddy, Lisa Marie Mary, wanted to see these puppies, so here are the ultra-cool earrings that Caspian made for me for my birthday.
First off, here's the closeup of just the earrings:
Well, my solar return has come and gone. (When the sun is in the exact spot it was when you were born. Sometimes ON your birthday, sometimes before or after, especially if you move time zones.)
I got a call for a job interview shortly after. I'm going tomorrow--on my calendar birthday. Doh! That should be fun. I knew it was going to happen, so I just went with the flow. I'm hoping it's good mojo, as Heather said.
Kevin is still feeling majorly blechy, so I took Zane and we bought the stuff for chili and cake for tomorrow. He insisted on buying me these flowers and who was I to say no? (Oh, they are from Kevin, too. I suppose Caspian will want in now. And my mom. Dang nabbit, Zane went with me to the store, so he's getting most of the credit.)
Wish me luck on my interview!!!
~t
I'm a holdout in the land of sickos. So far. Wish me luck. I started to feel it last night. I really don't want to be sick. I've held out this long. At LEAST let me hold off until, oh say, Thursday. I'd rather just skip it altogether. C'mon Universe, help me bypass this illness. (I always think I'm going to, but I tend to just be the last pin to fall.)
Caspian added to his issues yesterday by a run-in with the cabinet:
I haven't been very good about participating in my friend Cass' fun meme, Self-Portrait Sunday. But, everyone around here just happens to be asleep, so I got the chance to play! Thanks, Cass. This is fun. Here I am, at almost 35, on a Sunday afternoon at my desk.
~t
Zane has really been a lot of fun lately. He's been stringing more and more words together into sentences. "I ate it, Mommy!" was a recent one. I also enjoyed him running around saying "Luke hiffin' toes" It took me a bit before I realized he was saying "Luke sniffin' toes". (If you haven't been following along, Luke is our puppy, not some weirdo sniffing toes.)
Last night in bed he was asking if we could have cake. I said we would probably have some in a couple days for my birthday. He said, "Buy hum?" (Buy some?) I said, "Maybe. Or maybe Daddy will make it." He said, "Make it. I help Daddy." Awwww.
Today, in the grocery store, he just took out his binkie, looked at me and said, "You rock, Mommy!"
Here's another pic of his cuteness. Sorry it's kinda crappy. We never got that new camera. Dangit.
Poor little Zane got cut this week. By, as he calls it, his "big book". It is a very cool book. He was, unfortunately, trying to jump over it. Here is the result of a missed jump:
Luke was cracking me up the way he was really going to town on his toy cow's tail today. He's getting bigger and bigger. (Luke, not the cow.)
We have been enamored of Ba Ba Bock's since we first purchased Zane's awesome Halloween Costume. Since then, we have collected a few other Ba Ba Bock's. This one became attached to Zane the other day, much to his amusement.
(I seem to catch my floor in photos a lot. Hmmm. I guess perhaps I am subconsciously super-proud of our beautiful hardwood floors. Love 'em. Especially with puppies and toddlers, who make MESSES!)
~t
I saw this happening and there wasn't much I could do to stop it. I didn't think it would get this bad, though. You see, Kevin was out smoking. And I had to use the bathroom. Stat. There was only so much I could do. I grabbed my kid and took him with me. I saw the puppy had the fireman, but I couldn't care right then. And when I got back, I forgot until Kevin rescued him. Maybe Luke didn't like him because he rescued that cat. Or maybe he just didn't like the looks of that 'stache. The fireman still seems happy, though.
~t
As promised, I have procured photos of Zane's new 'do. It is so hard to get good pictures of him lately because when he looks at the camera, he sees the red light that signals the flash and that makes him blink, so he's almost always got his eyes closed in photos. Aaaaaaahhh! So, this time as I was messing with it, Kevin was out smoking, and I was trying different things. Kevin came in just as I said, "Maybe we can get Daddy to stand behind me and you can look up at him" and he said, "Maybe you should watch out for the dog who is currently peeing on the yoga mat." (which we have down for diaper changes, of course.) Dang. Oh well, these are the photos I got. The yoga mat is now in the dryer.
Forget what he looked like before?
A little mullety. Also a little like Cousin Oliver. Whew. That's over. I'll take slightly Republican. Really, I just go that short because he needs it that short for his new hair to get caught up with his old hair. And then we don't have to go as often!
~t
I read a really cool post by Secret Agent Josephine yesterday. I hadn't visited her blog in a while. When I visited, I remembered why I love her blog so much. I don't really know her. I've only emailed her back and forth maybe once or twice. But she gets a lot of traffic and a lot of comments and she was so kind as to email me back, and I think she was really, REALLY pregnant at the time.
She's just cool. First of all, she's a graphic designer and an AWESOME one at that. (I've been using a lot of all caps lately--excuse me if that's obnoxious.) Her site looks cool.
She includes amazing photographs that she takes all the time. (I need a better camera.) And not only photos, but many of her entries have slideshows with a number of great photos. (Hmmm...hey maybe I should copy that idea.) She has ads on her site, but she designs them herself, so they all look cohesive. She writes about her life, but in a very honest and interesting way. Maybe she is just a very honest and interesting person. I think her posts may be longer than the average blog post, but I always just read them right up, because I find them so engaging. She's got style. And knows what's important. She's adorable, as is Baby Bug, her almost-one-year-old daughter. Heather got me into SAJs blog while SAJ was pregnant, so I've seen Baby Bug grow up.
SAJ does things that the rest of us wish we could do - like make these awesome milestone movies for her kid with fantastic music every month. They almost make me want to have another kid. Almost. (Not really.) She lives at the beach, but she's cool enough to know she's lucky. And she draws on boxes with sharpies instead of cleaning her bathroom. Now, I might do something like that, but probably not as well as her. (Not self-deprecating here, just true. She's a freakin' artist, People!)
What I liked most about the post was how it made me feel. It made me feel that not only was I ok to not have a totally clean house, but that I was probably doing the right thing. Because really, shouldn't we all do what we love? It also gave me a window into one of those people I admire and think, "HOW do they do all that?" They don't do ALL that. They do what they love. And it shows.
Thanks, SAJ. You are awesome. Keep shining, sister.
~t
Zane thought it was important to read up on Yorkies. (That's the book he's reading.)
HP has some great tools for Digital Photography Review. Check out the following video where HP and PayPerPost go out on a PayPerPost Postie Patrol with Robyn Nykaza. It shows some of the completely cool and awesomely spontaneous things you can capture with HP products.
When I heard all the things Robin was going to have to find, I got a little bit stressed out for her. Timed things stress me out. I immediately thought, "HOW is she going to find someone in shorts on that bitterly cold day?" so I LOVED that Ted gave her that right off the bat. Love Ted. And then how everyone went along with her definitely made it more fun. I love how these things are challenges, but the team is rooting for you to win. HP is so cool for doing this.
I thought it was hilarious that Robin was slightly reluctant to put "I heart HP" on her forehead with a black sharpie, but didn't have any problem kissing that strange guy. I would have NO PROBLEM writing whatever, wherever if I were lucky enough to be offered this opportunity. That looked like the easy part. Would I participate in something like this for the completely rad HP gear? In a heartbeat! It might be harder to do a lot of that stuff in Olympia, but I imagine they'd give me an achievable goal.
I'd also love to see my husband (also a postie) do it! We could use that camera and printer so bad. We just got a new puppy! And my dear friend in Milwaukee who also has a Yorkie is NOT online, so I'd need to print the pics and send them to her (something I never do now, because I have no photo printer). Heck, if HP wanted to replace my husband's HP computer that needs a little work, that would be great too. Well, the $1000 would do that.
Ok, so again. Thanks HP for hangin' with PayPerPost. What a great partnership. You guys are cool.
This post was brought to you by HP.
He came home and went right to bed!
On a recent trip to Walgreens, Zane and I were diverted. I had seen them before and tried to stay away. This time, it just happened. I could not stop it. The impulse buy...
He's got his own throne! Ok, you can't really see that it's Elmo. But trust me. (You can sorta see Elmo's hand.)
~t
Look how proud he is of himself! He likes to just stack things. All sorts of things. He will make multiple trips to get a bunch of stuff from one place to another. Of course, one of his favorites places to stack things is on us. Kevin was the lucky recipient today.
~t
