SOME CUTE AND ABNORMALLY LARGE ANIMALS:

Tai-Shan, the nation’s capitol’s DARLING! He is pretty cute, isn’t he?

a freakishly large frog or toad.

SOME CUTE KIDS:

Jocelyn didn’t want to leave, and threw herself to the ground when informed that it was time to go.

Everyone was tired after our trip to the zoo. Jocelyn fell asleep in the car, which is saying something for Miss I Am Such A Good Sleeper That I Require My Bed For Any Sleeping Activity.

someday i will stop posting photos instead of actually TELLING you how life is going, but … I guess today is not the day.

-amy

Made a trip to the dentist this morning. The last time I went was when I was pregnant with Ethan. He’ll be 4 next week, so… it’s been a while.

I had a faint pain in one of my molars and had a sneaking suspicion I had a cavity. I’ve never had a cavity before, and I was kind of sad that I would lose my streak.

So. I went.

I was told, “Sure enough, you have teeth!”

Teeth were x-rayed.

Teeth were scraped.

Teeth were cleaned.

With my tongue, I can now feel the definition between each of my bottom teeth, rather than just one smooth surface. (*cough* ok, i need to floss more)

Then, I left.

The streak continues! Wahoo!

My neighbor and friend Selena mentioned that her favorite banner was the one of me and Jocelyn. So though it’s not of me and Jocelyn, it is one of the 2 cutest kids ever. Not that I’m biased or anything.

Yeah, bet you thought I wasn’t doing it, eh Anna?

I WOULD NEVER NOT DO IT!

I AM: WOMAN! RAWR!
I WANT: more hours in the day.
I WISH: I could ride my bike more, for longer.
I HATE: cleaning.
I MISS: my life before we had kids.
I FEAR: losing members of my family.
I HEAR: the Dawn and Drew show.
I WONDER: if the Dawn and Drew show will play my audio comment(s) (they have played one! if you want to know which, email me).
I REGRET: NOTHING! (ha. if only this were true.)
I AM NOT: June Cleaver, though I do use dishwashing gloves.
I DANCE: even when people ARE looking.
I SING: ABBA songs, loudly. AQUA too.
I CRY: when I don’t get enough sleep, or when I have PMS. Or when I watch sappy movies. Or when I FEEL LIKE IT, AND I DON’T THINK I HAVE TO JUSTIFY MY REASONS FOR YOU, NOSEY INQUISITIVE LIST-TYPE THING!
I AM NOT ALWAYS: very attractive.
I MAKE WITH MY OWN HANDS: cinnamon rolls, bread, pies, cakes and biscuits. Websites.
I WRITE: crazymokes.com. Checks to pay our utilities. (just kidding. online banking is my friend.)
I CONFUSE: the birds who are trying to make a nest in our dryer vent.
I NEED: to quit leaving my wallet in random establishments.
I SHOULD: clean more.
I START: sudoku puzzles. And laundry. And quilts and crochet projects. And making marble magnets.
I FINISH: suduko puzzles. And making marble magnets. And watching Gilmore Girls.
I TAG: Nobody — if you feel like doing it, feel free 🙂

-oooh, this was fun 🙂 Thanks Anna!

My mother loves to do laundry. So she REALLY loves to come to my house, because there’s always a ton of laundry stacked up, both to do, and to put away. She mentioned to me how she thought there was a mouse in our laundry room when she was here, but I didn’t really think about it, because the cat litter box is in there, and sometimes the scratchign around they do could be taken for a mouse.

Then she said that our dryer isn’t working.

There’s been an awful lot of bird poop on our driveway. And even a broken, very soft blue eggshell.

Some birds have been trying to make a home in our dryer vent.

James unhooked the vent and it was STUFFED full of twigs, straw, what-have-you nest makings. He dumped it out in the trash (no eggs, thank goodness) and hooked it back up, but Saturday morning, I awoke to the twittering and scratching around to definite bird-in-the-dryer-tube noises.

Ethan was awake so we opened the window shade that looks right out to the vent from our laundry room, and saw the bird fly in and out a few times. Then he spotted us watching him and stayed away for a while.

We also have birds nesting in .. I guess the gutters right above Jocelyn’s window. It is pretty frustrating because when we bought the house, our inspector pointed this particular spot out, and said, “You need to get that closed off or you’ll have bird problems.” Our builder refused to do anything about it, and we neglected to do anything, and now, sure enough, we have bird tenants. I don’t mind that, of course, and I think we’ll leave it until fall, and then go up and screen it off somehow.

But birds in my dryer venting tube, this, I can’t really accept. I need my dryer. I dry things in my dryer. We dumped the tube out again (again, no eggs, please birds, don’t lay eggs!) but this morning, once again, I heard them busily filling my dryer tube with nest stuff. Yesterday I went to Lowes and got a nifty vent thing with a plastic cage that would block them from entering. The problem is it has to be installed on the outside of the house, and our ladder isn’t tall enough. So, buy another ladder (NO ROOM!!!) or hire someone. Or see if friends have a crazy tall ladder we could borrow (anyone have a crazy tall ladder we could borrow?)

I REALLY hope they don’t/haven’t laid eggs in there. We can watch for them as we’re emptying our dryer tube, but what would we do with them if we find them? I don’t want to hurt or abscond with some poor birds’ eggs!

Anyway. Those are our unwanted tenants… And it’s about eviction time. I have a pile of laundry to do.

-amy

… HOSE!!!

Here it is, Monday morning, and I didn’t sit down and write like I meant to last week. So, there’s no time like the present, right?

I think I”m going to take that as my new mantra. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT, FOOL! JUST DO IT!

First, our trip and the grandparents visit, just so I can mentally check that off in my head.

The trip was faaaaaabulous, dahling, absolutely faaaaaabulous. We went up to see two fellow HSBR-ers get married, and a lot of our HSBR internet friends were there, some of whom I hadn’t met before, so it was really cool, both to meet new faces, and to see the old ones again. Saturday while James and Bill went off galivanting on a beer run, Ronna and I went to the mall and I probably agonized her by asking a zillion times, “What do you think of these?” and then changing my mind – outcome: I got some new sandals which I adore, but sometimes make my toes numb. Probably not a good sign.

The wedding was beautiful. I beleive they originally wanted an outdoor ceremony, but it was COLD and drizzly all day, so it wasn’t to be. However, the room was beautiful, with a glimpse of the drizzly hazy outside that was really very stunning, but of course, not as stunning as the bride herself.

It was the first real chance I got to use our new camera, and even though the light was low at the wedding, I think I got some very nice shots. It really made me want a big long lens (don’t be a perv) and a flash that I can bounce off walls. I love to people-shoot, and weddings are perfect for that, but with the basic lens that we have, I pretty much had to get right in people’s faces to shoot, and then they’re not being normal and natural anymore, they’re very aware of the camera and that’s not as fun.

After the wedding there was much hanging out in the hotel bar, but I was pretty tired and a little hung over (yes, already) and plus the guy playing his guitar and singing was a little too much like tom petty vs. bob dylan. I wish now I had stayed up, because everyone left the bar and went to Poster’s room to try some scotch. James tells me that he’s going to get some scotch sometime. I guess he enjoyed it.

Sunday we got up, packed up a bit, went down to breakfast with everyone, including the bride and groom, talked and hugged lots and then we checked out and came home.

There was some stress the night we left. Ethan is no dummy. Last time Grandma was in town, I was in the hospital for pancreatitis for a week. The time before that was when Jocelyn was born and she came to watch Ethan while James and I were breathing and pushing and getting epidurals (ok more me than him but you get my point). So, again, the boy’s no idiot. When he heard Grandma and Grandpa were coming, he asked me, “Are you leaving?” to which I could only answer, “Not today!” So he knew something was up. He seemed to take it pretty well when I explained what was going to happen before bedtime, and bedtime went smoothly. About 35 minutes after everyone was in bed however, he started wailing/crying. I went in and he immediately informed me tearfully that he wanted DADDY, not me. So I called James in and we both stayed and heard about how he doesn’t want us to go. It was sad. We got him settled down and he was asleep not long after, but leaving after THAT was really tough.

Of course, I managed through it all somehow. AWAY FOR THE WEEKEND, WAHOOOO!!

Monday morning we went to the zoo, for all too short of a time period. My brother Larry had to go to the airport at 2pm and that was all the way out in dulles and so we left after only 2 hours, much to Ethan’s dismay. We did see the baby panda, however, who was out with his mommy lazing around and being shy with all the folks watching him. He had his back to his audience for the most part, but did lay on his back and looked at us a few times. We also saw the giraffe, and the daddy elephant, some cheetahs, and a very large frog (which was just in a little pond in the cheetah exhibit). The kids had a blast. My folks were around for a few days after that, and sucked up as much grandkid cuteness as they possibly could before they headed out. It was a very nice visit.

I will have to continue about this last weekend at another time, so I will post a few photos in the next post, and continue on about last weekend another time, hopefully tonight.
-amy wants her bed.

1. Continually refer to the guy I let ride to work with me, thus giving me the ability to drive in the HOV lane to and from work, as “My Psycho Killer Rapist.” With James, I’ve just shortened it to PKR, but my mother chided me about it so I just HAD to say the entire thing out every chance I got.
2. Chew gum. Blow bubbles. Repeat.
3. Bring her within FIVE MILES of a mall and then not take her in.
   Just kidding. I could handle hanging upside down and being whipped with wet noodles, but then she turned hardball. After my first fingernail came out, I caved and we went in. Found a beautiful quilt on sale that James was AGHAST that I bought, but I love it anyway.

More will probably be added to this list as I think of/remember things.

Um.. Mom, if you’re reading this, I love you 🙂

– amy has her mom’s mother’s day present all picked out. Now to just not forget when the time finally comes…

I wanted to sit down tonight and write and write and post lots and lots of pictures, but it has been an evening of frustration at the lack of space on my hard drive.

My folks have been in town, and my dad is an excellent photographer. I know next to nothing, and I learned quite a bit from him while he was here, including the importance of taking pictures in raw mode.

Raw mode = lots of hard drive space.

Raw mode also = need for Photoshop CS2 for photo fiddling.

I’m out of space on my hard drive. Grrrrrrr. So I need to organize what I have, copy them down to our file server, maybe back them up on CD as well, and then delete.

I’m especially frustrated because with all the events that have gone on in the last week, I feel all non-functioning until I can write it all down. It’s almost like I can’t do or experience anything else because I haven’t written the past stuff down yet. Stop, life! Don’t throw anything at amy, she’s not ready! She hasn’t blogged about what’s already happened yet!

So I’ll post soon, and there will be many many photos. I’ll probably post a few here and there over the next few days.

-amy can’t wait for the weekend, except it’s going to be crazy busy also with a yard sale.

thus, the no posts. will talk more after they’re gone.