'member that time?

hey, 'member that time in college when a brazen squirrel actually took a whole bagel from my hand and ran up a tree with it?  and also, 'member how it had human-sized nipples?


maybe it was nursing little squirrel babies and needed the bagel for sustenance.

directions on how to be an idiot.

i just read the back of my hand soap dispenser and there are actually directions back there.  not only that, but they read, "use to wash hands as you would any hand soap."  if i knew how to use hand soap, i probably wouldn't need directions.

WALMART-BRAND FAIL.

video vednesday: ladies and gentlemen, TAYLOR HICKS!

where to even start? (other than at :40, obviously.)

the biggest deal going on in my life right now.

you may or may not have noticed that i don't post many pictures on here.  (you probably have - most people tend to prefer something to look at to break up the monotony that is a bunch of words.)  believe me, it's not because i wouldn't love to post some.  but the thing is, i HATE HATE HATE going through pictures once they're uploaded.

todd and i both tend to use the 'spray and pray' method of photographing, where you take about thirtytwelvebajillion shots and hope you love (okay, like - we're no professionals) two of them.  so going through and deleting the other thirtytwelvebajillionminustwo is a daunting task.  not to mention if you want to give them a little lightroom spruce-up because, as i mentioned, we are no professionals and photo editing for us is like putting makeup on an uggo - if you do it right, maybe no one will notice all the fact that they would never win a miss universe pageant.

SO. this brings me to the point of this whole blog:  today i have reason to celebrate! every. single. photo. taken in 2010 has been sheep-or-goated, and the sheep photos have gotten little tune-ups.  2010 is officially behind me and i can dive into 2011...which is now more than halfway gone.  am i the only one who can't believe this?

in honor of this momentous occasion, i have decided to post some favorite pictures from the summer of 2010.  yes, some of these (ahem, most of these) are over a year old.  but they're done and that's what counts, and what's wrong with a little reminiscence anyway?

**so, dumb.  as i was going through picking photos for this, i realized there's a whole chunk of photos from november i haven't dealt with yet.  life sucks.

because i am so ecstatically, rapturously euphoric that i got all these pictures edited, i will be posting more throughout the week.  if you're disinterested, tune out until next week; i'm okay with it.

'member that time?

hey, 'member that time i liked to think of myself as a bleeding-heart naturalist and how i found one of those japanese beetle-things in my bedroom?  and 'member how i couldn't bring myself to kill it, even though i could admit those things are super disgusting so i also couldn't bring myself to co-habitate with it?  so 'member how i got this great idea to set it free into the wild and i opened my window and set it out on the roof...only for it to take exactly 1.5 steps and then freeze solid because i had not thought through the fact that bugs don't like to be outside in the middle of january?

that is why i am no longer a bleeding-heart naturalist, and also i'm not one because spiders are gross and meat is good.

everbody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend.

you know you're a real mom if you go across the street to visit the neighbor lady and notice her continually looking at your shirt collar, then get home to realize that your shirt is on inside out.  and has been for the last 36 hours (straight) that you've been wearing it.



i have decided to join karlee this week in celebrating the real joys of motherhood and posting a 'real mom wednesday'.  no, it's not wednesday; i realize this.  but i guess you know you're a real mom when you post a wednesday blog on a friday, so cut me some slack, jack.  (and now i have a dispatch song stuck in my head.  if you can guess which one i'll give you a dollar in pennies.  local pick-up only.)

pool party of three.

in honor of my religious upbringing, i would just like to say happy birthday to ringo starr.  one more year down, buddy.  good for you.


in other news, there is a free kiddie pool in our town.  yes, you read that right - it's FREE.  (granted, it's basically just a 16-inch deep hole in the ground full of water, but bigger and cheaper than a plastic pool from dollar general, so we're happy with it.)  we have made many a trip over the last couple of weeks to cool off and kill time.

this is the face atticus wears the entire time.  a little skeptical of all of the hullabaloo.



penelope motors around in her little inflatable 'boat.'  she is absolutely unfazed by the water - and will purposely dunk herself if given any opportunity, so she must be watched with the eye of an eagle.

taking a little rest from all our pool-time fun...not sure what's up with his belly in this photo.

drying off.

 

if you want to kill time and cool off with us for FREE anytime (did i mention it's free?), let me know.  i'd love some company!

video vednesday: you know he's doin' it, YO WHO'S DOIN' IT?, god is doin' a nu thang.

oh...the pants. the shirt.  the dance moves.  the sneaks.  the breathiness.  the total snubbing of the concept of 'key.'  this is the BEST.





i wish i was besties with the lady at the beginning so that we could share clothes.

fourtho de julio.

whoops, i guess i forgot to 'member to post 'member that time' yesterday.   i blame it on our forefathers.  who can even remember it's a boring old monday when your husband's home from work and you're doing it up patriot-style? 

actuallly, we did zip-zero-zilch for the fourth of july.  oh, i mean, i dressed my kids in red, white and blue.  and then when atticus peed on his first r-w-b shirt, i diligently found him another.  patriotic mother of the year.  but other than that, we did nothing to celebrate our country's independence - no parade, no fireworks, no flag-waving.  (unless you count the flag i daily wave in my heart.)  and you know what? I LIKED IT. 

i'm not really a find-a-parking-space-downtown-so-you-can-be-crowded-out-of-any-viable-seating-spot-while-it's-super-hot-just-to-wrangle-two-kids-at-lunchtime-slash-naptime-so-your-kid-can-run-in-the-street-for-candy-you-don't-let-him-eat-anyway kind of gal.  i HATE large crowds of people.  call it "woodstock: the new class" mentality, where it's like you think you're going to something fun and dandy and all of a sudden you're being mugged and someone's lighting your car on fire.  no thank you.

that's just my little way of saying we skipped the parade.

and i think you can infer that we also skipped the fireworks.

that one has a little more mainstream reasoning behind it: they don't start until like 9:30 when our kids go to bed at 7:30, we would have to drive into town to see them (our little town doesn't do them for the fourth), i have no idea if the kids would love them or hate them, etc., etc.

so how did we spend our fourth?  i talked to my mom on the phone all morning, fixed the kids lunch, looked at the IKEA website while todd and the kids napped, did some yardwork, made dinner, then went to lowes to buy smoke detectors and a dehumidifier.

i think that is exactly what our forefathers had in mind when they signed that good ol' declaration many moons ago. 

family update

i realize i haven't posted much about the kids lately.  and considering that a) they're why i started the blog in the first place and b) a large population of my readership is mainly only interested in them, i figured i'd give a little update.

penelope is 14 months now, and i seriously cannot believe it.  i have no idea when she turned into a toddler, but it has happened.  she is currently spending most of her waking hours toggling between crawling and walking, and her vocabulary is starting to boom - she can say hi, bye, no, baby, ball, mama, dada, and cracker.  (yes, i taught her racial slang.) she can also woof like a dog.

she can also say all done, please, and more in sign language, but that's only because she's a genius and not because i actually taught her.  (i was too busy trying to teach her how to call her brother a cracker.)  actually, i did teach her how to say 'all done' so that her nonverbal cues stopped being throwing her milk cup on the floor and rubbing any remaining food in her hair.  i think 'please' evolved from rubbing her belly while trying to find her attached nuk for comfort (i took it away during waking hours a couple months ago) and realizing that rubbing her belly while asking for something usually got her at least praise, if not the thing she was wanting.  'more' just showed up one day when she wanted more lunch; i still have no idea where she figured that one out because, as you may be able to tell, i'm not exactly a 'baby einstein' kinda momma and i really slacked off on the whole 'baby signs' this time around.  oh well.

she has dropped her morning nap on most days, which has been GREAT considering it is garage sale season and sales wait for no man (and no nap).  and since we now have to commute 20 minutes to do our grocery shopping and garage sale-ing and any other semi-civilized activity (other than walking to dollar general and going to the kiddie pool), it's good she's able to go longer without a nap.  both kids lay down for the afternoon around 12:00 and stay in their beds until at least 2:30, even if they wake up before then, because a) i think it's good that they get rest and alone time and b) momma needs time to do yardwork read blogs and watch hulu.

her temperament is still super quiet and laid back.  she is not one to cry when nothing's wrong or to demand attention, which i am so grateful for.  we've been hearing more crying lately, but mostly because they're starting to fight over toys and because atticus has learned that wrestling her is an effective means of beating her into submission.

speaking of atticus, he is ALL. BOY.  i don't know if it's because of the sunshine or because of all the extra space inside and out since we moved, but he spends about 95% of his waking time running or climbing or asking for food.  he is growing like a weed - only up, never out - and he's really getting good at the whole 'toddler speak' thing.  you know, understandable but still mostly in need of a translator.

he loves going to the 'seemee toll' (swimming pool) and wearing his 'seemeen soup' and watching people jump off the 'dyeen bode.'  he's even getting brave enough to jump around in the water and pretend to swim.  he's still the same as ever - in new or unusual situations, he isn't scared he's just...reserved.  observant.

for a looooong time, he had an alternate personality who spent basically all day, every day with us - a cat named murph.  lately, though, murph has not been coming around because his new favorite alter-ego, 'baby,' has been showing up.  'baby' is just that - a baby.  who crawls and learns to walk and says 'googoo gaga' and whines incessantly and needs to be held at all times.  i'm thinking it's sibling rivalry.  i miss murph (because he acts mostly like a cat - relatively independent and indifferent, as well as mostly silent) so i asked him the other day when murph was coming back.  atticus just shook his head and said, 'murph his house.  play with toys.'  so it doesn't look like he'll be coming back any time soon.

potty training is going really well - we had some minor setbacks after the major-life-event of moving, but we're back on track.  he even wears undies during his naps and only wears a diaper at night.  he doesn't like having anyone in the bathroom while he's pooping (the last time i walked in, he was like, 'still pooping.  mama be right back, go talk yaya.' - yaya meaning grandma.) he has it down that pee comes out of his penis and poop comes out of his booty, although when girls pee it comes out of their 'giant.'  whatever.  probably not a word i need to push great articulation with.

and lastly, his favorite day of the week is wednesday because that's when the trash truck comes (we were never able to watch it at the apartment since we only had windows on the opposite side as the dumpsters, which was A-okay with me for view-and-smell reasons).  every night when he gets to pick what to thank jesus for, he says 'tankoo jesus trash truck, dump out trash, make noise, rrrrrrrrrrrrr.'


so there it is; our kids in cliff's notes form.  next week we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming of random life events and half-insane ramblings about semi-obscure cultural references.  (and if you kid-centered readers are vocal enough, then maybe some pictures.)  until then, adios, au revoir, auf wiedersehen...GOOD NIGHT!  (anyone else totally obsessed with lawrence welk growing up? anyone? just me then?)