Latest Fashion Discovery

Nope, this is not for the kids. It's for the ladies. I went to Gap in search of work pants for the fall. I've been struggling with sizes. My hips and thighs fit in to size x, but my waist fits in size y. This is very common for the curvy set and they have a solution of getting waists taken in by a tailor. However, I'm in the not-curvy set and getting hips, etc. taken in isn't so simple. So your choices are buy size x and suck in your gut all day, or buy size y and have droopy butt.
Well, low and behold Gap has created adjustable waists for grown-ups. I put on size x and adjusted the slides on each side and voila - the waist fit and I didn't have muffin top! Hooray!

Now the next battle on the fashion front - shrink an inch to be a petite length, or grow a couple inches to look normal in regular length.

Let them eat cake!

Happy Birthday Adrian!

Proof

I do take pictures of Travis outside of his high chair. Since he is always on the move it can be difficult.

What is that?!

I saw this guy or gal this morning in my bathroom. Of course I freaked, "OMG, what the heck is that?!" Quickly finished up my business as it scurried in my direction. I almost caught it under a cup but chickened out.



After some helpful Google-ing I felt better. Still creeped out and sure that hundreds of them are on the floor right now, but at least I am educated. I did work up the courage to go back with my camera. The bug had found a hiding place, so I had to get a picture from the internet.

The answer to the bug's identity - (drumroll) - This is a common house centipede. From the guy at What's that Bug? and the entomologist at University of GA - they are handy to have around.

See text below:

[These centipedes are nocturnal hunters. They hide in dark, damp places during the day and come out at night to catch insects. Because they're so shy, you seldom see them unless they fall into the sink or bathtub and can't get out.

What should you do if you encounter one of these strange creatures skittering around your house? Walk away and leave it alone. It will run and hide.

House centipedes are harmless to you and your family. In fact, they're your allies, providing free pest control.

If you just find it too freaky and don't want it in your home anyway, just cover it with a glass, slip a piece of cardboard underneath it, then take it outside and release it. To keep it from returning, use a dehumidifier to dry out your house. That will make it an inhospitable place to house centipedes.]

A Quick Note

Design tip:

To see if your room is well coordinated you must gather all your soft furnishings into a pile. Make note of the textures, colors, and patterns.



Then shout "on your mark, get set, jump!" and crash into the design-review pile. If you land safely, then your selections were good in the pillow jumping category. This, however, is not an indicator of your aesthetic design skills.




P.S. Travis still enjoys his favorite past time - eating. I'm so glad he loves broccoli!

Remember these guys?

I posted about them a while ago. They went around the country correcting public and private signs. Well, one of their corrections was not taken lightly and they ended up in court. On their trip to Grand Canyon they altered a very old sign. "They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park or modify any public signs. They were also ordered to pay $3,035 to repair the watchtower sign."

Link to article

Meltdown City

Yesterday when I went to pick up the boys at daycare I didn't know I was going to meltdown city. We all made it out of the building happily. On the way to the car Nicholas asked to go to Frankie's Fun Park again. I told him going there is a special treat. "It's not a treat, Mommy. It's a place." Oh, such a literally interpretive boy. Thus, the first meltdown ensued in the parking lot. Hopefully any parents within range have been in my place before and were sympathetic.
We're getting all buckled in when he realizes his chocolate milk from breakfast had been left in the car all day. On occasion I do remember to bring his leftover milk into work and store it in the fridge. Shame on me for not remembering this time and causing meltdown number 1 to escalate into a combined super meltdown.
Thankfully I've had some experience already in this department. I've found if you calmly acknowledge said meltdown and explain that it's not going to work out for them, they realize their efforts are fruitless. We were not going to Frankie's and nothing could be done about rotten milk. So about a mile down the road he was calm and asked for some grapes to eat on the way home. But we're not done yet...
We're going down 540 approaching the routine congestion of Hwy 70 merging in. Nicholas takes this moment to announce he has to go potty "right now!". Being halfway between school and home and stuck in traffic between exits, nothing could be done. Again, I've been here before, it happens about once a week. You can imagine what happens. He wets his pants and starts another meltdown. We calmly bring things down to a reasonable level and decide it's going to be all right.
And before you know it, we're home and Nicholas is changed into dry clothes. Travis is extra tired and heads off to bed a little after 7 pm. Nicholas decides to make confetti and help me on the computer. Bath time comes and so does the last meltdown of the day. He wants to watch his show and Iron Man is all done. I explain to Nicholas that he is a big boy and that he chose to hang out with me and cut up paper and that he knew he wasn't watching his show. Once we're in the bathroom starting his bathwater Nicholas accepts the fact that his TV show is not going to happen. He gets cleaned up, pajama'd, and read his Transformers story. He goes to sleep without any problems as if his trips to meltdown city were no big deal. And we'll start another day and still love each other very much.

Sunday Morning

Big Brother


Little Brother


Little Brother showing how many Frosted Flakes he can fit in his mouth.


Big Brother suggesting he try for more.


The expression is intimidating, double trouble.

So Delicious

It had been 7 months and 22 pounds since I had a straight up Starbucks Frappucino. I was ordering all my drinks tall and skinny, which is how I envisioned myself becoming (although tall is unfortunately out of my control). Yesterday after I slipped out of work early, I decided to splurge for a moment and order a regular tall caramel frappucino. And boy was it tasty and worth the wait. The full sugar syrup goodness throughout and the whip creaminess on top. Yum Yum Yum!

2 Cuties

Travis learned to love the watermelon. I exposed him to it a couple months ago, but he had just started solid foods and the flavor was a little strong. Now that he eats table food like there is no tomorrow, he has fully embraced the watermelon. It was hard to capture the juice running down his chin in the photo.











Nicholas wanted to have a flower garden earlier this summer. We bought some seed packets and attempted to grow a lot of flowers. Our success rate is pretty dismal. I think the sunflower seeds were stolen by winged or fluffy-tailed thieves. Here's Nicholas at the peak blooming period of our flower garden.

Too Sweet

We have been planning a trip to Central NY. Nicholas has flown before and may have some memories. We started telling him about the trip and the flight. Yesterday he wanted to do arts and crafts so I helped him get his stamps out. He decorated a sheet of paper with "Thank You", some paw prints, and a few scribbles. It was one of his more organized pieces of work (a lot of pieces are chaotic scribbles and stamps). He said it was for the airplane man. Adrian and I each had a brief discussion that men and women can do the same jobs and that it could be an airplane woman on our trip. He was not swayed and insisted the note was for the airplane man. And also insisted that he mail it to him right away and that we could not wait until our trip. Adrian helped address the envelope to the airplane man and the two of them took it the mailbox so Nicholas could put the flag up.

I'm sure this activity can be explained by his eagerness for the trip. But I do wonder...How did we get lucky enough to have a kid so grateful that he writes his thank you notes before receiving something? I hope we can foster this and it will continue to grow.

For Erica

A photo of feet...taken while watching "The Fox and the Hound" on a wet and lazy Sunday.

(Note: I am aware of the fact I need a pedicure. Donations are welcome.)

08/08/08

My friend Kara, whom I worked with for almost 6 years, got married on the special date. She and Debbie went out to San Diego, CA to make their commitment officially to each other. The ceremony was broadcast live on the internet and our virtual company was requested. Jess (my BFF from work) and I planned a virtual reception in honor of the occasion. I picked up the boys from school and we went to Jess's place to watch. The ceremony was real quick, only about 3 minutes. But the live feed kept going for a while so you could see them afterwards signing the documents, posing for photos, and thanking their virtual guests. Adrian picked up the boys and I stayed to hang out and have dinner. Jess's boyfriend Chris made salads, cooked chicken and penne with vodka sauce. We had chocolate chocolate cake at Kara's request. It was a nice reception. We had really good food, played Mario Party on Wii, and watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony. We also took lots of pictures which we hope Kara will include in some sort of album. We also hope that some of their other friends took pictures. What a neat thing to have, sort of like New Year's Eve, where they show people around the world celebrating separately yet together for the same reason.

Observed at B&N

I was in the B&N Jr. section with the boys. Nicholas was checking out the superhero picture books. Two girls were meandering around. Girl A had a $10 gift card. Girl B was the lucky friend to go shopping with her on a Saturday evening. Girl A was really excited when she found the chapter book aisle. She was contemplating "Wizard of Oz" and "Cinderella". Girl B remarked that she could just watch the movie instead. Smartly Girl A retorted that she liked reading books and spent some more time looking around. Girl B continued to nag and beg to go browse the game section downstairs for something less than $10.
At the time I was rooting for Girl A to stick to her guns and get a book. And I was a little sad that her friend was trying to convince her that books were not as good as a game. But the more I thought about the scenario I think that Girl B just wanted her to buy something they could both enjoy. After all that's what friends do - hang out and have a good time!

The Wild Animal

Do not enter the cave! (He looks so intimidating, right?)


It's not often you see the wild animals sleeping out in the open.