August Cards

Only two selections this month. One of my card swaps didn't meet last month and are exchanging last month's cards this month (the bug birthday card). I tossed around the idea of making another one to add here, but decided to wait in the end. Anyway, here are the other two, enjoy!
I kind of went crazy using this "Groovy Guava" (who comes up with these names?) color. I had forgotten how much I liked it until I started using it again.

I got creative with this one, it is a top fold, rather than a side fold card.

Be on the lookout for September's Cards. I am expecting a great big box of new stamping stuff (very excited) any day now, and will therefore (hopefully) be inspired to make lots more cards in the next couple of weeks.

The Fair

So a while ago (probably more than a month ago) my neighbor "M" (mom of "S") asked us to go to the state fair with them. Now, I haven't been to a state fair since the 6th grade, so my memory of them is slightly fuzzy at best. Well, now my memory has been refreshed, and all I can say is "eh". It was fun, but I probably won't be rushing back anytime soon. I was frustrated with Buggy because I bought him a pass to go on all the kiddie rides, and I was able to coax him to get on a total of 3 rides. One of which he screamed on the whole time, and another which we waited in line for 30 minutes to ride. Oh well, live and learn. The boys did enjoy looking at the cows and horses and hanging out with "S" for the day. It's funny really, I grew up on a farm, one would think that all of the tractors and animals, etc. would be more interesting to me, but they kind of weren't. I guess I've lived in the suburbs for too long. Really we did have fun though, and now we are home and Beefy is napping and Buggy is having "quiet time" in front of Little Einsteins. I guess I can't complain too much about something that wears them out like that. I should go take a nap too.

New Background

Yeah, I changed my background again. What can I say, I get bored easily.

Random Thoughts On Life

I've been bad at posting for a while now. I have all the good intentions, but nothing ever comes of it. So, I've condensed the things I've been thinking of posting about into "thoughts" on the subjects, in an effort to get me caught up and to still keep things interesting. So here goes!

• Due Dates: I have officially passed all of my due dates (I had three) for the baby girl we lost in March. Back then I was really worried that this would be a really hard time for me, but surprisingly it hasn't bothered me as much as I expected it too. I definitely thought about it on all three of the days, and a little bit a few weeks ago, (which would have been, for me anyway, a more accurate assumption of arrival) but no emotional breakdowns of the magnitude that I was expecting last spring when it was so new. I guess it is true that time heals all wounds.
  
• Beefy's New Hobby: Recently I have found Beefy playing by himself, cussing out his toys. This morning it was "No Lightning! Stop it!" I'm not sure what the poor little die-cast Lightning McQueen did to deserve such a butt-chewing, but it did make me think that I maybe shouldn't scold my kids quite so often.
  
• Move Over Martha: I made freezer jam on Saturday. I know that isn't a big deal for some people, but for someone like me who is not so domestically inclined- it was a huge deal. We have wild blackberries growing on the hill behind our house and I went and picked some and made freezer jam while Trent was at work. It tasted good when I tried it during the process, but we haven't actually broken out a container yet, so I am hoping that it continues to be as good as I remember so that I don't loose the confidence to try it again.
• The Olympics: We, like many others I have talked to, spent a lot of late nights the last couple of weeks watching the Olympics. It was pretty cool (well the swimming, diving, and gymnastics anyway) and I gained a lot of respect for people who are willing to work that hard to pursue a sport, especially the ones who made me tired just watching them (that was a lot of them unfortunately).
• My Camera: Not that I am an avid photographer, but I do like to have a camera that works on hand when I need it. My current camera is less than two years old, and has decided to mostly not ever work now. Unfortunately current circumstances don't allow for me to just go out and blow it on a new one that might last a little longer. Darn that "life on a budget" stuff.
• Overtime: My husband has been working lots of overtime lately, which puts me in an emotional dilemma. He has worked at least half days the last three Saturdays, plus late everyday during the week. My dilemma is that I miss not getting to see him as much, but these last few (and next few) paychecks....they are really, really nice. It seems only natural to want them to continue.
  
• Lunch: Today was my friends birthday, so she, and another friend, and I went to lunch. You should have seen the people at the Red Robin look at us when we walked in with 3 adults and 6 kids. It was pretty funny. They shoved us back into the "people with kids" corner (you know, the place way away from all the other diners that you get seated at when you show up to a restaurant with kids) and compared to the other people also seated back there, our group did great. They sat, they ate, they didn't break or spill anything. Overall, a really good day. Plus the food was excellent (always a plus).

Well, that has been us in a nutshell recently. I guess the reason I've had a hard time posting is that life has just been normal, and for some reason normal life doesn't seem eventful enough to write about. I'm going to have to work on that I guess.

Eventful Weekend

My husband got a job promotion on Friday. It is long overdue, and not much changes - he just has the title to match the work that he has been doing for a year now. It also comes with a pretty nice pay raise, though of course, as is usual with all pay raises, it will go much more quickly than I would like it too. Even so, it is a huge blessing.
He also got a new calling at church. He is now the secretary in the elder's quorum. He was a teacher there before and really enjoyed that, but he is looking forward this new assignment.

This Much I Know....

A few things I've learned since my last post:

1. Day old red Popsicle doesn't come out of carpet, even with the great carpet cleaner that got the marker out.
2. The couch looks really nice in front of the window where the Popsicle stain is located.
3. Just when you think a kid can't get any whinier, he does.
4. I remember liking the show Gumby as a kid-but after watching it a few times as an adult, I can't remember why.
5. The person who told us that you don't need air-conditioning in Washington was lying.
6. Saturday Garage Sale + 90plus degrees in Seattle = Really Stupid Idea
7. When the "check tire pressure" light comes on, you should really check the tire pressure, even you don't want to because you think it is probably fine, and you don't want to miss the movie. It's not fine. You're going to miss the movie.
   
8. When potty training little boys, it will save you a lot of hassle if you teach them from the beginning to hold their shirt up when standing to go potty.
9. Don't make a deal with your husband that he gets tools whenever you buy stamps. Otherwise, you will end up buying him lots of tools.
10. Little boys like dressing up in high heels just as much as mommies do. Just as long as they grow out of it some day.....
    

Some Cool Videos

The other day my husband was playing around on the computer and came across these videos on You Tube. He found them through the website of a guy that I played drums with in college, who has now gone on to do some amazing stuff. Sometimes people are confused about what I did in my life before kids, this is it - sort of. I was never as good as the guy in this video. Even when I met him (7 years ago, as a college sophomore) he had more talent than anyone I knew. Anyway, these videos were pretty fun to watch so I thought I would share them with anyone who has some time and wants to see something cool. I couldn't figure out how to post them here, so I will just add the links. Enjoy.

Marimba Solo
Snare Drum Solo
Multi-Percussion Solo

**The last one is a little long (6 minutes) and and loud (turn down your volume to start out) but the other two are only about 2 minutes each.

Favorite Product of the Week

I have been a mom of boys (or at least 1 boy) for four years now. And in that four years I have tried many, many different things to get my boy's hair to stay combed for more than about 2 minutes. You see, my children were blessed with their dads baby-fine, stick straight hair. Unfortunately their also seems to grow straight out of the hair follicle making it impossible for it to lay down. After numerous pastes, waxes, hairsprays, gels, etc. I have finally found something that works. It is called Glue. No, not the Elmer's school kind of glue. I have to say, this stuff is amazing. Their hair stays combed for almost the whole day. I'll admit it is kind of crispy but compared to the crazy hair alternative, I'll take it.

Destructo Baby Strikes Again

I have taken many child development classes, and I am constantly reading new articles, etc. I know how two-year-olds behave. I could also give myself all of the textbook answers to the following rant, but I am going to do it anyway because I have to. Also, please note that I am not a neglectful parent. I don't hover, but I also don't let my children run amok. The following incidents all took place within a matter of a few seconds each, when the boys were being relatively well supervised, or thought to be asleep.

I have written on here before about Beefy's penchant for dumping things. I don't remember Buggy being like this. Maybe its the "momnesia" kicking in. We had the great "cornstarch incident" of 2008 back in February when he got out a brand new box of cornstarch from the pantry and dumped the entire contents over himself and all of canned food.

Last week I found Him and Buggy with my wheat flour taking turns dumping it all over themselves. (they looked like dirty ghosts)


So Fast forward to today where Beefy is in rare fine form. One minute I think he is coloring at the table with a coloring book. I hopped on the computer (which is in our main living area in plain sight of him) to find out the hours of the swimming pool we were planning on going to today. The next thing I know he is down from the table and in the stairwell coloring on the wall with colored pencil. Out comes the Mr. Clean Eraser and problem solved, or so I thought.

After swimming Beefy took a nap while I came downstairs to make lunch. I thought he was asleep, when here he and Buggy come down the stairs with black and purple marker all over their hands and legs. (Black on Buggy, Purple on Beefy) The floor to my craft room, which they know is off-limits now has purple marker all over it (guess the culprit). I had bought some school supplies on sale a few weeks ago, and I guess they found where I put them away.

And now, a little while ago, Beefy got in the cupboard for a snack, and decided instead that I needed cornmeal all over my stove and counter and floor. And as I was trying to contain that mess, he ran over and grabbed two handfuls and carried them into the TV room. Then promptly went to time out for 10 minutes.

I have cleaned up the cornmeal as best I can, and will soon be making a trip to Wal-Mart to get something that will help me get the (hopefully) washable marker out of my incredibly cheap carpet that doesn't scrub well. Unfortunately my camera decided that it has a one photo limit today (the cornmeal). Hopefully someday I will have enough money to buy a camera that works all the time instead of just selectively.

I know that two-year-olds are like this, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. If I am not careful, one of these days he's going to figure out how to knock the house down around us.

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels were in Seattle this past weekend. They come every year, and we have lived here for two years now and never seen them, so this time we made sure that we would. My neighbors, who know the area better than we do, took us down to a park on Lake Washington where we had a great view of the air show (and a smaller crowd, double bonus!!).

My nephew "M" is an art student and has a fancy camera that costs more than most of my furniture put together, therefore, I had no problems in letting him take all of the pictures. (Notice how I am really good at letting other people take pictures for me. You will never hear me profess to be a great photographer.)

I've decided to post a few of the pictures here, and you can find the rest on my new picasa page (comment, or e-mail if you would like the link).

I realized I have way too many pictures to put all of them on my blog, and since I started the blog to share photos, it would be a shame for all those extras to go to waste (thus the reason for the web album). But I can still post a few photos on here without making it too boring, these are some of my favorites.

He did a great job, although a photo can never quite do justice to actually seeing the planes flying for real.

Overall, a pretty cool day.

"More Cousins" (or Why I haven't Posted in a Week)

I've been kind of lazy with posting lately. I'll admit to it. I'll also admit that it is driving the type A personality part of me absolutely crazy. We had another cousin filled weekend. My two RM nephews came to visit last weekend. Being as they are adults and didn't need constant entertaining, we were able to keep it more laid back, which I enjoyed immensely. The problem with all of that relaxing is that it has made it even harder for me to get going again. But, I will be making more posts in the very near future. And my blog will not look sad and outdated any longer.