the wee one

we had yet another gloriously sunny day earlier this week, and tmib was home so we headed off to see the new playground at idlewood beach (a beach that i frequented as a youth and the coolest thing about it back then was the candy cigarettes you could buy from the snack shack!) i got some awesome pics of parker, so i thought i'd share!

the site

so my sis and bil are building a house. although the process started oh about 10 years ago (ok so i'm exagerrating just a bit) they've actually made some progress over the last month or so. You can check out their progress at their online diary https://home.comcast.net/~wedenig/wedenig_dream_house.htm

the whole fam and i went out the other day because they were pouring the conrete, and well that means big noisy trucks. and when you have boys, there is nothing more cool in the world than big noisy trucks and an excuse to wear a hard hat!

New Shoes

since Parker is cruisin like a crazy man, thought it was time to get him some kicks.

we went to nordys (since there isn't a stride rite at alderwood and i was heading to my favorite scrapbook store in lynnwood). apparently they make a pretty big deal out of the first pair of shoes. he got a ballon, a stuffed animal named 'nordy' (nordstrom's mascot which until that day i didn't know existed) and they take their picture. alas, the polaroid wasn't working, but we still got the other goods.

now he's prepared. he's got the cool kicks, and the skills to do it....now if he'd just let go of the dang couch!

ho-hum

well i've been slacking a bit....knew that was coming, lol!

not much goin' on these days. i'm workin', cody's workin', garrett's schoolin' and parker's cruisin' :)

I'll try to be more exciting/insightful tomorrow.

do the puyallup

yup we 'did' it today. didn't take any pics (bad mom!) but papa had BOTH the still and video camera rolling. garrett wanted to do nothign but go on the rides. kinda a daredevil that one. we went on the giant slide (not the kiddie one!) and he rode down all by himself. i even got quite the kick out of it!

parker enjoyed the people.....ah the people of south kin county. quite a colorful bunch they are. but alas, p just loved watching everyone and occassionally reaching out a hand to try and make contact. hopefully next year he'll be big enough to go on some rides with brother.

here's a rundown of the fair food eaten (since we all know that's one of the most important parts of the fair!) **disclaimer** i alone didn't eat all of this....though i probably could've!

-scone with jam
-onion burger
-krusty pup
-curly fries
-big pop
-elephant ear
-mint chocolate chip cone
-strawberry waffle cone deluxe

oye, where's the mylanta???

check out that cake!

so i realized i hadn't put pictures from p's party up yet. so here they are...almost a month later. but check out that *amazing* cake i made :)

i got to scrap!

all day....like from 10am-10pm. how cool is that?

thanks to grammy and papa, aunt jean and tmib for watching the kiddos. i got about 8 pages done (which doesn't sound like that many for 12 hours, does it?) i had hoped to get more finished, but there were some pretty labor intensive pages in there! i'll try to post some pics of the pages i did tomorrow.....

it's amazing how refreshed i feel after a day of being crafty and creative!

first day....

of school for garrett! grammy stayed with parker so we got to go to a special lunch at mickey-d's just the 2 of us.

he was so excited to go to school, at least until his teacher said hi to him and he turned into shy-boy! but after a few mins of hand-holding, i said good-bye and ducked out. he was just fine!

it should be a fun class...there are a couple of kids from his class last year, as well as a few new friends to make!

*sigh* my boy's getting all growed up on me!

the older (and apparently wiser) one...

i was just talking to the older, wiser one (aka towo) (aka my sister, jean) and she pointed out I'd never actually told you who tmib is. so here it is...

it's my hubby! he shall remain nameless (hence the pseudonym)

makes him seem mysterious, doesn't it??

great benefits!

so one of the best benefits of tmib's new career is the time off. 4 days in a row!!!! i mean, i think the last time he had 4 days off in a row was our honeymoon 6+ years ago! ya know, i used to try and explain it to people, 'he really does work 80 hours a week.....mon-sat, sometimes sun 6am-7pm'. and that was every week.....for 6 years!!! i don't think people truly ever got that.

that schedule was a big factor in his deciding to change careers (i do think the quintessential straw that broke the camels back was the, you-need-to-be-home-more-or-else-we-may-not-be-here-someday speech i made after one especially frustrating week!) but i digress....

so the beauty of this whole 4 day off schedule is spontanaeity....one monday morning we woke up and tmib said, what do you want to do today? i said i really want to go to the ocean since we haven't done anything this summer! he said ok! so we packed up the truck with beach toys, snacks, dogs, kids, etc and headed off to ocean shores for a day trip. it was a beautiful day ....sunny and breezy. we had snacks on the beach, had a visit from ocean shores PD (apparently we missed the 15 gazillion signs that said no parking on this side of the beach!)

check out some higlights from the day.....

bummed out....

so i get up this am and think to myself, man if i turn on the tv right now, all i'll see is more heartbreaking stories about the hurricane. i say tomyself, i don't know if i can handle that right now. but alas, what do i do? turn on the tv.

but then i realize, it's saturday, and gma and the today show aren't on. a sense of relief washes over me.....but only momentarily.

i can't explain it, but then i start searching for stories/more info. it's like i need to know that the national guard has finally gotten to n.o. and surrounding areas. i need to know that water/food/help has finally arrived. once i do, i get caught up in the emotions, the desperation, the chaos.

i have to turn it off again. maybe i'm weak, maybe i'm selfish, but i just can't watch it anymore.

if you can, please donate to the red cross http://www.redcross.org/

is it monday or friday? and isn't there a holiday coming soon?

today definitley feels like a monday to me. tmib started his shift rotation today (7am-7pm for 2 days, then 7pm-7am for 2 days) and i have to work tonight, tomorrow and a double on sunday. so it feels like monday to me.

mondays suck!

we're (sorta) alive...

yikes....that's all i can say, yikes.....

ya know, you think things are going well. you talk to the the 3 year old, explain the whole procedure....we're gonna pose, smile, be patient, follow directions, listen to the nice lady etc. then BAM, 2 seconds in to the photo shoot, it all goes horribly wrong.

i won't go into the sordid details, but needless to say our family picture is less than stellar (did i really expect any different????)

on a positive note (and boy do i need one!) the boys individual pictures turned out REALLY cute. the one of them together, not so good. so i think i'll go back soon and try again.

did i really just say that? i must be crazy......

Lord be with us today....

so it's family picture day. just saying that is making me naseous! outfits are clean coordinated and ready to go. we've talked to garrett about his 'good' smile vs that annoying 3-year-old-total-teeth-eyes-closed grin he so often likes to do. i'm not to worried about parker, except that he might scoot off the set and out of the picture! tmib will start getting silently frustrated that it's taking to long, and i'll start to sweat and 'melt' due to the complete and utter meltdown of all parties involved.....

i need a beer and some advil just thinking about it!