thanks to the hero at the grocery

after the gym on Wednesday we stopped by the little grocery store by our house for lunch stuff... (it is an albertsons, and I hate it, I only go there when I need like one thing) anyway.... As we were walking out ollie was a slow poke, and me and max made it out the automatic doors before him. I stepped toward the exit only door thinking it would open, but it didn't.... there was a guy walking in the entrance and said "oh, I'll get it" as my little man was plastered frantically against the door.....

The door opened, I said "thanks" he smiled and waved... ollie grabbed my hand than exclaimed...
"whooo, that guy saved my life!"

I couldn't stop laughing.... so thanks door opening hero of my 3 year old...

it's a bust...

I, personally, love this dress.... I love the fishes, I love the water, I love the stitching and I love how it wraps on the hip and waist. I seem to be alone in this. Well, except for my friends, but they have to say they like it!

It is the least viewed dress on my etsy shop, and no-one has added it as a favorite item, which almost all the dresses are hearted! It is probably the photos, but the dress is hard to photograph to get the whole idea represented, Oh well... .. .. the rest of the world just has'nt caught on to my goldfish craze!

*I also took it to one of my shops, they think the fish has a weird look on its face, and is in a weird position, it's a goldfish they look weird and swim around come on!

yeah for making people soup...

At this house we are big fans of McMenamins... especially the lovely Kennedy School. There just is not another place like it. It has long halls for the kids to run around in, (and no dirty looks from onlookers) usually quick seating and service in the restaurant, $3 movies were the kids can sprawl out on couches, get a piece of decent veggie pizza, and I can get a pint.

All this plus my families favorite... the soaking pools... it is nice and warm and shallow... and yes, even with two little men in tow, it is relaxing for B and I...

i want this...

check out this awesome thread...

http://greenupgrader.com/2138/handspun-recycled-newspaper-yarn/

jeff sent me this link, I think it would be awesome to use for my hang tags... I also think it would be hilarious to make stuff out of, like scarves... not practical at all, but oh so fun...

the problem, who the heck has time to spin newspaper into thread?

mud pies, cement stones, and my garden...

My boys, like all kids, love the mud... I don't mind the mud, but sometimes it gets alittle out of hand. Ollie is a sensitive little bugger and does not like to be cold AT ALL... so he gets wet outside, gets muddy and than wants me to pick him up and carry him inside and wrap him in is blankie... he was thoroughly upset with me when I had to rinse him off in the cold hose water before allowing him to enter the house....

Max on the other hand, is a kid after my own heart. Will play till he is blue, with snout running out of his nose and shivering. I have to keep my eyes on that one... my rough and tumble boy.

A couple of weeks ago we rototilled up part of the yard that we never really used... it was kind of in the corner, and had a weird bump in the ground... since we live next to a funeral home, you can imagine all the wonderful things we imagined were under that bump....I was actually a little scared to find out...it was a tree stump at some point...anyway we levelled it out and added a stone patio and a large garden...

I love it, but am arguing with the patio stones... I have them filled in with kind of half sand and half dirt, and hate it... I don't like the feel on my feet... and I plotted them about 2 inches apart thinking I was saving time and money... it is not very comfortable to walk on... so I have a dilemma... I bought some steppable plants... but they aren't growing fast enough for me... so I think I might do grass... I am just worried it will still be uncomfortable to walk on... but at least it won't be dirty... I hate when my projects don't work out how I see them in my head...

*the photo of ollie on the phone was taken while he was talkin to you nana barb... we love you and hope you are getting more energy...

*the photo of my patio project is old... we have added more stones and the garden is starting to grow... more pics to come..

a walk in the park..

This is one of my all time favorite weekend traditions with aunt jo! She is done with school in August and will be moving back to portland for her internship, we can't wait till she's back!

So we bundle up the kids, swing by and grab some coffee and head to the eastbank esplanade. We walk a 3 mile loop that starts under the hawthorne bridge, takes us over the steel bridge and than back over the hawthorne bridge to where we started. It is a visually stimulating walk along the water. You get to see the gorgeous downtown city scape, industrial, graffiti, water, trains, cars, and nature... portland is great...We have been doing it since before Max was born. It is getting a little tricky since the boys now want to get out of the stroller and walk too. I usually make them wait till we get to the floating bridge and than we strap them back down across the steel bridge and let them out again when we get to the salmon street fountain. It is getting tricky....

This weekend ollie bit the dust on part of the walk, I was checking out a section of the park where they have concrete patio stones laid with grass planted in between, which is what I want to do in my backyard. Ollie took off running and caught a corner of the stones and went down right on his face... the poor little guy...he survived, but he has a nasty bonk on the head.

cheeeze....

Ollie has this new obsession with the camera. He wants me to take pictures of everything and than show him the picture. Which is hilarious because he makes what ever I am taking a picture of say "cheese"

just a smidgen of examples... since daily I take photo's of hands, blankets, toys... bugs...

His ear.




















His binoculars...
















His Hand...

and well his privates... we have since had a long talk about what says "cheese" and what does not... but it was just too funny I had to share it.

B actually is the one who took the censored photo... silly boys.

happy daddio day

The Graduate...

Headed down to salem this weekend to help Nicole celebrate her awesome accomplishment, graduating from college, and being 6 month prego... yeah for nicole!




















Ollie and max were stoked to play around the yard with the other kids. The highlight for Ollie was the cupcakes.... and Max the cake uncle john kept sharing with him. Talk about a sugar high, we took home two hyped, happy, dirty kids.

Salmonella

I am convinced I have salmonella poisoning...

I bought a bunch of roma tomatoes early last week before the recall. I made a mango salsa and burritos for dinner using the tomatoes...

Tess was over for dinner and we drank a bunch of wine.. I think that killed whatever would have affected us. I did'nt use tomatoes on the boys burritos and they did'nt eat any salsa.

The next day I ate leftovers.... including the suspicious tomatoes, which I heated in the micro slightly with black beans and hominy... basically I heated it enough probably to make a nice little breeding ground... gross... I unfortunately was not drinking any wine...

It was the next early morning that I woke up sick... no one else got sick... and I am having terrible tummy cramps still, with not really any other symptoms...

what kind of world do we live in when we get sick from food like tomatoes and spinach... crazy... makes me want to grow all my own food, which would'nt normally be a problem... except the sun is refusing to shine on us here in oregon!

trip to cali, last month....

Here are some pics from our quick cali trip last month when B's mom got put in the hospital.

B flew down and I drove down a couple days later with the boys. I was really nervous about making the trip with two little men by myself, but it was not really that bad. We were out of the house by 6:30am... stopped in Medford for lunch with Jeff and Shannon and the kids... was back on the road by 3:30 and made it to Modesto around 10:30pm... the boys did awesome. I made them little snack bags, packed a bunch of books and lap type toys and than prayed!

Even though we were only there for 2 days we made the most of our time, we visited with barb in the hospital. Visited with Emily and Olive, Dylan and Tiffany, swam a bunch, soaked up the hot sun... Got Barb out of the hospital, stoked her fridge with easy to make food, helped her wash her poor hospital hair.... visited some more and than hit the road.

We had to stop at In 'n' Out.... I do miss a good animal style burger every once in awhile.

We stopped at Shasta for a quick dinner break and to let the boys run off some energy... it was really fun... I think we might plan to stay a couple nights at shasta next time we head down that way.

It was a quick trip... would have been better if the circumstancew were better hopefully next time Nana barb will be allll better.....we are heading down again at the end of the month... and really looking forward to it!

the pukes...

in the last two weeks we have had one day of sun.... ONE DAY OF SUN...

which was yesterday...do you know what I did on that one lovely day of sun.

I layed in bed and puked alllll day long.

We had plans to get up and quickly hit the farmers market, breakfast on hawthorne, show B the new shop that picked up burdy, hit the zoo for a couple of hours, and a bbq at home (using the new picnic table we got but have'nt been able to enjoy) but instead I woke up and got sick at 4 am and did'nt stop until evening time.... yuck...

today I woke up feeling much, much better and now it is all cloudy and yucky again. blah.

is it june...

or is the universe playing a sick joke on us...

I want to wear skirts and tank tops... not long pants and ugg boots...
I want to play in my backyard, and work in my garden... not sit longingly looking out the window at the rain and wind.
I am tired of the library.
My boys and I are going stir crazy...

I am so sick of this weather!

Life has been crazy busy...

Nana Barb (b's mom) has been in the hospital for almost the entire month...that sucks...with a collapsed lung... she had surgery on Wednesday and is doing good, I hope that is over... we are going back down to cali at the end of the month when she is feeling better...

burdy fly away is doing good! I got picked up at another shop presents of mind on Hawthorne which is a really awesome shop so I am stoked....
Now I just have to find the time...My schedule is working out okay... I concentrate on the kids during the day... (I work if I can get them both down for naps, or if I am really crunched on a deadline... which I procrastinate... so every deadline) B gets home, we make and eat dinner, bath the kids... put them to bed and at about 10 p.m. I start working... I try to get to bed by 2 a.m... I usually make it... I do this about 3-4 times a week and than have a couple of nights of 9 p.m. bedtimes... it works for now...

Every Stay at home mom needs a gym membership... and a Fred meyers (I love to check Ollie in while I grocery shop)... I don't know why it took me so long to re-activate my gym membership.. I was worried it would be to expensive to get the kids a membership, it actually is not that much more than just my membership and my sanity is well worth the extra bills....being able to hand my kids over to someone else for two hours a day is just the kind of incentive I need to get my butt back in shape!

So almost a month ago I left my camera in my mom's car.... I still have not gotten it back, so no visual stimulus today.