Having a little work done.

As you see, I did a teeny bit of remodeling. I really wanted a 3-column format, but it was kind of a hassle to get. Especially since I refuse to pay somebody to design my blog. Seeing as how I don't make any money off of it or anything, it seemed like that might be a teeny bit....extravagant. So, I tried to figure out how to do it myself. It took a bit of time, and I'm still tweaking. But I think I like it. If you don't, that's okay. Keep it to yourself.

I also reorganized all my lists of goodness over there to the left, updated the header, added some new pics. Just a few things.

Speaking of things that are pretty, I stumbled across this artwork by Bueller Photography the other day and am officially in love. Check out the Etsy store here.






Chances that a few of these babies will be coming to live at our house? High. Very high.

The technique is something I've come across on a few different websites lately called TTV - "Through the viewfinder." It basically involves using a digital camera to shoot through the viewfinder of a vintage Duraflex camera. Here's a cool explanation. The results simply make me want to die. They are so dreamy, antique-y and scrumptious. If I had a vintage Duraflex camera and knew how to do this, I would. Until then, I'll just purchase.

looking for a roomate?

I'm thinking about moving out. No, not really. But don't you ever wish for those days when you were carefree, coming and going as you please, no responsibility in the world but to leave your rent check on the whiteboard and make sure not to eat someone else's granola out of the cupboard?

Between the sick (and then well, and then sick again) kids, the laid out hubby and the teething baby, I'm ready for just a few of those days again. But then I'd like to come back. I'm pretty sure.

If I were going to move out, I'd like to move into here.

As an organizational system, only an nut-job would think this is effective. And as a serious reader (and re-reader) I'd have a fit if I couldn't quickly locate a book...by title, not by color. But MAN it looks amazing! If this were my house, some little hands would have come along about 5 minutes after this was finished, put something in the wrong place, and I would have had to lock them in the garage. Not to mention the white couch...

While I'm planning my escape, here are a few more places I wouldn't kick out of bed in the morning...

(first seen here)

the following seen at Little Green Notebook

Ooooh, I'd feel tres francais in this one. I might even ride that darling bicyclette.

This might inspire me to cook....or drink wine. Or both.

Nighty night...

Well, maybe I'd bring the baby. Just so I could have this...

And i guess, if I'm going to bring the baby, I might as well just stay. They are pretty great, after all.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!

Hi there - just so you know, we're doing a little remodeling around here. SO please excuse the mess, while I putter and tweak until I've got this exactly how I like it. And yes, I'm trying to learn basic HTML after having three children, mind you, so I'm working with a handicap. I'll just be a few days here. I think.

The faces of Aidan

yesterday we went to the park. someone had to revel in the glorious sunshine, and we figured it should be us.

aidan, who truly is our class clown, was showing me his "faces."

me: aidan, show me your angry face.
aidan:

me: show me your "thinking" face.
aidan:

me: show me your sad face.
aidan:

me: okay, now happy face!
aidan:

let's hope that his future teachers find him to be as hilarious and charming as we do.
i also have to include a few of Chloe with her various boy admirers. luke and james brewer were giving her lots of loves at the park - and check out her cute kicks as well!

Chloe, 9 months

I can't believe our Chloe-girl is already 9 months old. She's been out as long as she was in! I thought I'd do a quick update of life in Coco world. Here's a list of her tricks:

She can wave "hi" and "bye" pretty much on command, if she so chooses. :)
She can say hiiiiii, dada, ja-ja (jack jack) and ah-duh (aidan) but NOT mama.
She can sign "more" and "all done"
She can sit up, play with toys, reach for more toys, and pretend like she's going to crawl.
Then, she doesn't crawl. She tries to pull up on everything instead. This is not really okay with me, but apparently I don't have a choice. Her pediatrician says maybe she'll just skip crawling. Great.
She can eat anything you put in front of her. Bananas, pears, rice-bread, carrots, sweet potato wedges, avocado chunks, she loves it all.
She can charm your heart right out of your chest with one tiny smile and three perfect dimples. See, there are the two regular ones, and then a teeny one right in the corner of her mouth, and it only comes out when she REALLY smiles. Like, with her whole body. It's dangerous.
So, here she is in all her nine-month glory! Enjoy...

Daddy's gone...let's have an extra long bath!

One of the coping techniques I've developed in a life where my husband travels involves those last few hours after dinner, before bedtime, when you just have to think up stuff to do. My kids LOVE the bath. So when daddy's gone, sometimes we just have loooong bath/shower times. Like, refill on the hot water long. Like, drain the hot water tank long. But the kids are happy, mama's happy, and everyone is REALLY clean when dad comes home. :)

Here are a few photos from last night's bath time.

The District

For any of us, I mean YOU out there who watch "The Hills" or "The City" (yes, a show about nothing got a spin-off about nothing!) you have to check out this link. Have you ever imagined what it would be like if the producers of MTV's reality shows decided to do one about the first 100 days of the Obama Presidency? Well, wonder no more. Here it is, with long lingering looks, jealous BFF's and choppy narration in all it's glory. Have yourself a good morning laugh!

Excuse me? Who put this mercury in my Rice Krispies?

For those of you who don't know my friend Sarri, she's fabulous, you should check out her blog here. She's also a mama like me who doesn't like to put garbage into her children's mouths. Check out her post here about the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup.

To give you the gist - two new studies show that it contains mercury. Mercury, people. Lest you forget, when you're pregnant they tell you not to eat too much fish - MERCURY POISONING FOR THE BABY!! But once the baby is two, please, fill him up on overly sugared cereals and condiments which are full of...what was that? MERCURY. I was intrigued (but mostly kind of pissed off) by the post on her blog, especially since I feel like I am pretty vigilant about what I buy. We do most of our basic shopping at Trader Joe's, we usually choose organic if it's reasonably priced, and we just don't buy sugary cereals and snacks.

So I decided to go through my pantry and fridge. The good news is, this is all I found that contained HFCS.



The bad news is that in the course of their lifetimes, the boys have probably ingested about 14 bottles of that BBQ sauce apiece.

As for Trader Joe's, they get an A+ in my book. Nothing that I had purchased from there contained HFCS. Plus, you can't beat the prices. Seriously.

If you want to read some great articles on this subject, plus see a list of just 55 of the name brand products that were found to contain mercury, click here, here, and here. (Table A)

Thanks, Sarri, for the heads up. It's up to us to let the industries who perpetuate these dangers know that we just won't tolerate it anymore.

On another note, while I was on my High Fructose Corn Syrup purging rampage, I was listening to Patti Griffin, and it made me happy. I forgot how great she was. Check her out here.

Sad

Today is a sad day for me. Partly because I'm sick. Partly because my husband is gone, and there is underlying worry for me whenever he travels. But mostly, today I'm sad because my dad had to help bury an 8 year old girl. Pastors have a lot of jobs. He was able to do part of our wedding, and he's done lots of joyous things in his line of work. One of the best, I think, is doing baby dedications. We're lucky enough to have two pastor/dads in our family - Shawn's dad dedicated Jackson right before we moved here, and my dad has been able to dedicate Aidan and Chloe. He also dedicated Rachel, the girl he helped to bury today, just under 8 years ago. He was there to encourage a church family to pray for her, for her family, to encourage them and support them. How could he guess that this short time later, he'd be helping to celebrate that life that was cut short. It's just so.....sad.

Does it make me question? Of course. Do I know that my faith is big enough to encompass it? I do. But there is a lingering sadness in any mommy's heart when we hear that one of our own has lost the thing we KNOW is most precious to them. It makes me want to be better than I am. It makes me want to ignore the bickering, poking, screaming and yelling. It makes me want to praise more, tousle hair more, pull them down onto the couch for lap-sits and snuggles more often. It makes me want to breathe in their scents and never, ever forget what they smell like. Because it can all be gone in a flash, and I don't want to have wasted a minute.