suga' lips

i was going through some old photos and thought these were hilarious.
especially number four.







blech! now go wash your face.

here we go again

summer is officially over. i think i'm going to cry... or celebrate.

you know what's really fun?

when you're perusing the the shirt section at goodwill and your #3 says she has to go potty.
you say she's got to wait two seconds.
and when two seconds are up you turn to realize that #3 is nowhere to be found.
and i mean NOWHERE.
soooo....
you ask the cute clerk if he's seen a little blondie in pink leotard and tights
"how old?"
"three."
and he gets all worried.
"i have a little girl myself blah blah"
yes, but i'm concerned with my little girl right now.
so, search search search
get on the floor to check beneath all the racks for hiding feet.
dang it!
now mister bald head and mustache from loading joins the search after cute guy and then i check out the loading docks.
"whitney! whitney! come out!"
next, miss dyed black hair comes to the search party
right before cute guy gets on the p.a.
"whitney, will you please come to the front?"
and max points out that she doesn't know where the front is.
right.
now i'm starting to panic and wishing i'd gone straight to the front of the store to catch the getaway car 5 minutes ago.
then i reassure myself that no one in their right mind would snatch whitney and if they did they'd return her in 10 minutes.
so, finally
mister bald head and mustache yells that he's found her.
in the dressing room.
duh.
miss dyed black hair says she knocked on all the doors.
"well, she was hiding" like i'd told them before.
i stick my head under the door and all i see are two pink legs with purple slip-ons curled under a pink bum on the bench.
she thought it was the bathroom.
then she realized it was a good hiding spot.
then all the employees stand around my cart watching to make sure i'm putting her in it this time

ice cream anyone?

last night summer and i hosted a back-to-school ice cream block party. we blocked off the street so the kids could run wild, which they did, and let the good times roll.
we've been saying for three years we were gonna do it and (this is kind of pathetic) a lot of people came that we didn't know ... people who live on our street. wouldn't it be great if i could say i've known all these people and have built our friendships for the past three years.
because they were all really nice interesting and good people just like us (yes i'm applying all those adjectives to me and my family).
but, kick my hiney, i've wasted three years of good neighborly cheer. on what? insecurities? inconveniences? whatever my excuses i hope i can be a lot more neighborly in the future.
and hopefully, next year our party won't get crashed by the police.
no. they didn't come for the ice cream

to tuft or not to tuft...

so my upholstery guy, arnie, has a couch of mine waiting to be done, and he's had it for two or three months cause' i can't
A - find the right fabric or
B - decide if i should tuft the back or not.
as it is now the entire back cushion is tufted but i kind of want the clean look of no tufts, sometimes. the couch is very similar to these couches below and will eventually have all the woodwork painted white and chocolate velvet upholstery, or something. any suggestions or links to sway me one way or the other? this is for my office.

EDIT: here is an example of a tufted couch.

image via little green notebook

did you know that it's not that rare for a gerbil to break its' tale off.
what i'm not sure about is how rare it is for a three-year-old to break a gerbil's tail off while twirling that gerbil round' her head by said tail.
i'm guessing it's not all that uncommon,
or at least i'm telling myself that so i don't feel so bad.

like her mama

it's never a good thing when your neighbor has to rescue your three-year-old out of the tree she's handcuffed herself to before you've even noticed she's missing. whitney has a way of sneaking out during prime distractions.
(this is not the tree she cuffed herself to. this tree was practice, i guess.)


pics from mike again.

eight already!!

how is it that my first baby, my only little boy, my chubbiest of them all, my non-stop chatter box of a kid is already eight? i wish i could push the pause button on all this growing up business. make it stop. make it slow down for just a year or two so i can soak up every last dirt smudged smile, every snorty belly laugh, every request to cuddle for just a few minutes before bed, every week spent in the same pair of pants, every fantastical lego creature, every thing that tells me he's still my little guy and i still have time to be the mom he deserves. now he's eight and panic is setting in. this milestone of being baptized is such a bitter sweet one for me. how wonderful that my son has chosen to follow the Lord and has promised to try his best to serve Him and be like Him. but this is the crossing over mark, in my mind, from a little boy to a boy on his way to becoming a young man. so strange, and exciting, and scary. this boy, my max, is such a loving, happy, caring, thoughtful and good little person, in spite of my faults in raising him. i look at him and wonder at the miracle that he is so full of goodness and light and joy, that he is infinitely better than i ever taught him to be, that he is too good for me but still i have been blessed to call him mine. we love you max and are grateful for the light and joy you bring to us every day.









max was baptized on the fourth of july, and what a celebration we had. too bad he snuck off with his cousins and i didn't get a picture of him the rest of the day.




thanks so much, mike, for all of the pictures.

ahhhhhhh, stanley

sometimes there's nothing better, or more needed, than a few days at the lake, in the mountains, on the beach. so refreshing and relaxing. that's what stanley is for us, if you can disregard the barf episode on the drive there (nothing like starting a camping trip with dirty clothes), the low 30s temperatures at night and the swarming mosquitos. and we will disregard
cause' this is STANLEY BABY!!!!