Toothday

Yesterday was Zoe's toothday. :-) First tooth peeking through her gums. She's 3 days away from 8 months old, sits up on her own, rolls around, smiles at everyone, has the best giggle ever, AND refuses to eat. She is quite content with mama's milk, which is just fine with me. She has a lifetime of eating food, I'll exclusively nurse her a little longer!

"I think I need to wash my hands."

Yes, yes you do need to wash your hands, my dear. (Oh, and it is mud. Just so we are clear.)

say what?

Emily posted her family's wu tang clan names, and I had to stop what I was doing to generate ours:

Andy: Mad Swami
Rachel: Intellectual Madman
Aubrey: Mad Lover
Lauren: Thunderous Assassin
Sasha: Vulgar Assassin
Zoe: Shriekin' Watcher

Add in our last name, and things change a bit:

Andy: Crazy Criminal
Rachel: Lazy-assed Prophet
Aubrey: Irate Prophet
Lauren: Annoyin' Swami
Sasha: Respected Samurai
Zoe: Gentlemen Hunter

Oh, that just made my night. Want a giggle? Here ya go

For the record, I couldn't name a wu tang song, but could maybe sing along a bit? I wouldn't know, I don't know what they sing. I'd google a listen, but there's a sisterly sleepover happening about 3 feet away. Also, some say I'm lazy.

Peace, Lazy-assed Prophet

it's like this, and like that, and like this, you know?

Most days I hate titling my posts. I do it, but I hate it. And I know 'hate' is a strong word, but it's true. The title stumps me. Because usually I'm just typing about some random stuff. But I really don't want EVERY title to be 'Random' or some variation on the word.

We went to the parade today (Happy 4th of July, by the way! I love the 4th, but it makes me miss my mom's family - it was a time when we usually all gathered.) Back to the parade. Apparently it's supposed to be one of the best. Even made USA Today's list in 2008. It was nice, but insane. 90 minutes of a parade, with a guesstimate of 30,000 spectators. So we parked at 8:30 for the 10am parade. In the sun. In Texas. In July. And we enjoyed it. But we probably won't do it again. At least not without some serious planning. A canopy to pitch. Comfy chairs. A stocked cooler.

I am working on Aubrey's birthday party plans. Scratch that. Aubrey is working on her party plans. I am offering creative assistance as she desires it, and also the annoying, but fortunately rare, "No" when her ideas are a bit too much. And, most of my "No's" have really been "Or's" to make a celebration she wants and we can afford/pull off.

But I really am working on Sasha's party. No input from her. I am not even going to ask. Because in another year or so she will be full of ideas and since I am prepared to honor those ideas to the best of my ability, this year, I pick. We're going to have a Harold and the Purple Crayon theme, and read some of Sasha's favorite stories (including Harold, of course!). And we'll be art-ing and craft-ing, too. And playing. There is always playing when you are 2-almost-3. Maybe a pin the tail on the donkey game, with a picnic blanket and pies (Harold once picnics with 9 pies - if I didn't already have a cake plan, I'd consider serving pie.) And, for party favors, I do not like giving out plastic thingies that break on the ride home. Nor do I like giving out candy. So I'm on the look out for one or two cute items to send home in lieu of a 'goodie bag.' The front runners are:

A copy of a Harold story; or

A crayon roll and simple journal

Also, I should be in bed. I am tired. And I know I will be mad at myself in the morning. But sometimes it's just too hard to get to bed. I can go to bed early tomorrow night, right? ;-)

Do you have a library card?

Everyone in our house except Zoe has one. We'll get her one when she's toddling around, pulling books off the shelves. I love going to the library. We always have library books in the house. And honestly, we return books late often. I say that is how I contribute financially to the library. :-) Anyway, I learned this week that some friends that moved here a year ago don't have library cards. I was shocked. I didn't let it show, but I just assumed that everyone made the library one of their first stops after a move. As a kid, I remember going to the library with regularity. Especially during the summer. We even went to the library when visiting our grandparents over spring break and during the summer. If I think hard enough, I can remember the smell of the library in Albuquerque (the one that we went to, there are several). And, if I think hard enough, I can ALMOST remember the smell of my grandparents' library. We are doing the summer reading program this year, and it's got a mystery theme. Storytime Bear, who lives in the library and joins us at every story hour, has been bear-napped. We've got a list of suspects, and every week that we turn in our reading log to be checked, we receive a clue. The clue will lead us to a location within walking distance of the library where we will find another clue. CUTE! So we are headed to the museum this coming week, as our first clue pointed us in that direction. Fun, fun!

Andy

Way back on January 1st I attempted to get back into blogging. And I mostly failed. My plan was to blog about some of my blessings, and I never got to Andy. But I probably ought to talk about Andy just a little bit, you think? So, in celebration of our anniversary, here goes: We met my freshman year of college. He had graduated the spring before, and was still involved with his fraternity. The summer after freshman year I moved out of the sorority house (house rules - everyone moved out every summer) and across the street into his frat house. Sounds kinda wild, huh? Not so much. His house was the first to 'go dry,' and they were strict about that. It was a cheap room that I shared with Ann. I ate brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts for breakfast, and spicy ramen for lunch. Juggled two jobs - at the law firm and in the office at a mobile home park. Anyway, this dude, Andy, had a cat named Oscar. I joke that Oscar is why I fell in love. He's not, but it certainly didn't hurt the situation! We never really dated in the traditional 'out to dinner and a movie' sort of way. We just started hanging out together, doing things together. We lived in the same building (along with 20= other guys, and maybe 12 girls), so it was just so easy to flop on his couch and watch South Park, or be in the kitchen making spaghetti, or go to the store together. I think almost instantly we were talking about the future, and it never seemed weird. We were pretty much inseparable from the start. Two months in, and he told me he loved me. Through tears. Very sweet, and very mutual. Obviously. :-) Four months after that we got an apartment together. Three months after that we were engaged (he proposed in a hotel bathroom in Vegas - it was a little spontaneous!). Two months after that he moved to Virginia for a job, and I followed three months after that. We got married June 23, 2001 - two years after we started 'dating.' I could attempt to list ways in which Andy has blessed me, but I wouldn't know where to begin, or how to stop. Just know that I am very aware of how lucky and blessed I am. Happy Anniversary, babe. I love you.

what the???

Okay, for some reason I cannot publish paragraphs? I had everything in my previous post all nice and cute - two short paragraphs, followed by a picture, followed by a paragraph, followed by a picture, etc. And I hit publish, and everything runs together, with pictures thrown in. Hmm. Mildly frustrating.