March 31

Hard to believe it's going to be April already. Time goes by so much faster, each year you age, the speed goes up exponentially. I remember when I was very, very young, I thought summer vacation lasted a year. In school a year, then off for a year. Now it's gone in a blink or two.

As fast as time goes by, it still drags on occasion. Today wasn't exactly a dragging day as I stayed pretty busy, but the moments when I did nothing but drag Owen off yet ANOTHER piece of furniture he'd climbed up, those seemed interminable. Over and over and over. Sometimes I think the only way I can get anything done is to put him in a padded room and lock the door for an hour, so he can't hurt himself. I have a feeling he'd find a way to climb up, holding onto the edges of the padding.

So when dh came home and took both boys to karate (Zach for class, Owen for my peace of mind), I tried to come up with a photo that represents relaxation. I tried and tried to get this to show a nice steaming cup of tea, but I couldn't get the steam. I even had the tripod set up, camera ready and focused and I'd run with a pot of boiling water to pour right into the cup and hit the shutter button. But no such luck--the steam just didn't show up . Oh well, it was nice to run with a pot of boiling water knowing I wouldn't have to worry about Owen underfoot. I don't get to do that very often. Isn't that a cute tea set? I'll give you two guesses as to where I got it.

Seven Things

I got this comment the other day:
squirrelgirl said...

I tagged you for 7 things... check my blog to see the rules. That should be good for a day's post, you just have to take a pic to go with it :-)


Apparently I need to come up with 7 things that people may not know about me. That's going to be hard to do, b/c I already did 19 on Facebook. I don't know if I have 7 unknown things left.

Let's see....

1. Dh and I have been together for 11 years now, as of 2 days ago. We met at a 'singles' party thrown by a fellow nurse. We knew each other by sight from working in the same hospital, but we had never hung out before. After that night, we were inseparable. Our 10 yr wedding anniversary is coming up soon :)

2. I have a hard time using things up and throwing them away. Like shampoo, etc. I always need to leave a little, so there will always be some JUST IN CASE. I am getting better at it, but it's a compulsion that's hard to break. Ten bottles of different hair products cluttering up the shower, or 6 packages of different pastas with barely a serving left in each one, old spices, old makeup, on and on. Those things cost money! I can't throw them away if there's still some good use left. Sigh.

3. I don't mind human blood and gore, but animal guts and byproducts gross me out to no end.

4. I always used to wish I had a more elegant name, Elizabeth Anne, instead of Beth Ann. Now I'm glad it's a simple name, and not as common as Elizabeth.

5. I have died in my dreams a couple of times. I must say, it's a very bizarre feeling. But not scary.

6. As a kid, I fantasized about having a gut sense about cooking, just throwing together fabulous meals. Now that I'm learning to cook and have made some pretty tasty stuff, it thrill me completely. Back when I was a kid, I tried to fancy up a pot of rice by throwing in all sorts of dried spices. It really didn't taste very good. I don't have an instinct for creating my own recipes, but I do a decent job of picking out the ones that taste good ;)

7.I'm really stumped and out of ideas. I'll have to come back later and edit this one, plus I need to take a photo for today.
---Ok, I'm back...My last thing is another compulsion, I suppose. Not nearly as bad now, but especially when I was an adolescent I couldn't turn without feeling as if I needed to turn 'back' or I'd feel twisted up inside. So if I turned left to go down a row, I'd need to find some way to turn right to balance it out. A complete turn around was tricky, b/c I needed to completely turn around again going the opposite direction. Let me tell you, it was hard to maneuver all these turns in a seemingly non-insane appearing way. I'm not sure I ever really perfected that.

I'm not going to tag anyone for this list, since I already tagged a bunch of folks on Facebook and besides, I'm feeling lazy and don't want to do a bunch of linking hahaha.

Au revoir. To be completed in a little while.

--Now, pics for today. I did another 'self portrait' in a mirror. Then I decided to see how it would look if I focused on the mirror, rather than my reflection. I really liked the 'stranger lurking in the background' feel it had. I really DON'T like seeing how dirty my mirror is. Yikes. Someone hire me a maid, ok?

Still a day behind

I am playing catch up on here yesterday, posting for the day before. So I'm on Monday, posting for Sunday. And it's a quickie...I finally gave Owen a trim. I'd cut his hair a little here and there in the past, but so little hair it was almost crazy, like cutting 2 hairs here and 3 there.

I don't know if you've ever cut an 1 1/2 yr old's hair, but it ain't easy. Lots of candy to bribe him, moving with him, trying to avoid his ears, keep the lines straight, do a little layering to shape it and try like heck to get rid of the frizzy bits of baby hair sitll hanging on. It gets so fuzzy and matted in the back. These pics aren't great, but I AM thrilled with how it turned out and when it's brushed and lying in place, it really looks good on him.

March 28

Today was another day of garden work. I guess you could say gardening but it's not quite at that point, because in my mind gardening is kneeling down with a sun hat and gloves, pruning, weeding and tending your plants. Today was still in the 'let's make a garden' phase. Zach helped out a lot and is pretty excited with the prospect of growing all these plants. Now if only they'll grow and if only he'll eat them! He did convince me to buy the huge 'Atlantic' pumpkin seeds. I'm sort of counting on the lack of growth from years past to kick in again because these puppies are supposed to reach a few hundred pounds. Yikes.

I didn't have the camera out all day, though. So by evening when it was too dark to go outside, Owen was asleep and Zach was watching the Kids' Choice Awards, I had to come up with a photo, quick. I took this. Dh brought them home from the store a couple of days ago. I really like it and am impressed that a quickie hand-held shot turned out so pretty.

March 27

Not much to type today, I'm just tired and not in the mood. haha. I did get the baby corn and baby leeks and baby watermelon plant in the ground today, which was good. Owen spent a lot of time climbing all over the play set, he's quite good with the ladder and 'rock' wall and slide. I'm getting less nervous with each day.

So here's my pic. It's a video, Owen decided he should just avoid the whole mess of waiting for mom to put him in the high chair and do it himself. Caught me a little off guard. But I took him out and let him repeat the performance for your viewing pleasure.

It was just a matter of time

We've been lucky so far, especially considering dh's history of traumatic injuries. And I've had my share, but I don't have quite the number of surgical scars or metal plates.

Today we got the call from school that Zach was in the clinic, he'd hurt his hand and he might need xrays. Of course my mind sort of paniced 'OMG what will he do about karate?' and I even forgot he was left handed, wondering how he would write. Luckily, it was his right hand and after all is said and done, it looks like it's only a sprain. And only one finger.

Of course I was in the middle of pulling out ruella from the back yard in my fourth segment of garden plans. I knew it would be hell, that stuff does NOT die, the roots go forever and no matter what I'm sure I'll be pulling ruella from that plot for the rest of time. I was sweaty, covered in black sandy soil, ground into my fingernails and toenails, sweat dripping down my face, dirt smeared b/c I'd tried to wipe it off, etc etc. Pretty pretty me. And I smelled great, too. I had to rinse off asap and luckily dh was here to pick him up but I accompanied him to the walk-in/urgent care clinic. He was pretty excited that maybe he'd broken it, and he's still not giving up on the idea since the doctor said with his age, there may be a small break in the growth plate which won't necessarily show up on the Xray. I'm sure the story will be quite embellished at school tomorrow.

At least he got a splint out of it.

Wednesay, March 25

I don't know where that energy I had yesterday disappeared to, but I'd sure like some of it back. I did manage to finish one 8' section of the garden prep and I planted some seeds, so now it's time to cross my fingers and pray the magic necklace is still full of magic.

The collards came out ok, but now I have a recipe from Aunt Karen to try out, so I'm hoping that the plants spring back and give me more leaves. I can't wait to try it. Owen actually ate a good dinner (collards and all!) and after the boys ate they went outside with ice cream cones. Owen acted like he really REALLY wanted one, after rejecting them a few times before, so I went ahead and scooped one for him. He actually ate it! And I got some pics similar to what I'd wanted before. Le sigh. These boys just don't know anything about timing. And apparently this one doesn't quite realize what happens when you bit the wrong end of the cone. Elmo was pleased, however, trailing after Owen licking the leaked bits of ice cream from the grass, pavers, etc. He even needed his face and head wiped off after he came back into the house b/c he was covered in drips.

March 24

I felt so good today, I stayed busy all day and really didn't have a chance to get a good photo. So here's all you're going to get. This is my itty bitty teeny tiny itsy bitsy garden (aside from my potted herbs). What I photographed is the corner where my collard greens are thriving. Shocking that my black thumb has resulted in these magnificently growing beauties. I guess that necklace is working.

I did get inspired by my neighbor's plot and I started prepping the ground for more planting. I'm going along the fence, about 2 1/2 feet out, so I can get 2 to 3 rows of whatever, and I'll keep going along the fence until I give up. Unfortunately, the cable guy laid our cable next to that fence, and it's in a very tricky 1 1/2 feet or so distance from the fence. So my progress is slowed by the fact that I have to gently move along, find the cable, pull it up and lay it right next to the fence out of the way of my crazy shovel (I severed it in two places the first time I tried making a garden plot. We now have insurance against such accidents, but I don't want to be without cable for however long it takes them to repair it).

I'm planning on cooking some collards tomorrow. Don't mind the green plastic fencing, it's to keep the dog out. I really don't want to kill him, so this was our compromise. He loves digging in fresh soil, the garden area is a big temptation.

Mundane Monday

Today I was still feeling like being lazy. Sadly, I couldn't completely accommodate myself. School, groceries, cleaning, yada yada yada. However, I did find a few moments to sink into my cozy corner and finish that book. Rare moments, they are truly treasured.

I love this corner. I really wanted some red in the room, but it was hard since each wall was sort of a continuation of the next, no true break in the rooms. "Open floor plan" I suppose. I decided rather than one huge red wall, we'd have a red corner. Of course painting meant I really SHOULD go ahead and rip out the base boards (which was a pain in the ass b/c they were the originals and had been left in place when the tile was laid, meaning they were below the level of the floor) and replacing the baseboard meant that they should ALL be replaced, which meant we should just go ahead and put in the new doors since we wouldn't know how wide the new door casings would be...you get the idea. My typical simple project, snowballing. But after it was all said and done, it looks much better than before and my poor dh now has a small compressor and knows how to hang a door (or 6).

The day after

So yesterday evening was Aunt Karen's bday dinner. And today is the day to recuperate. I think this pic best sums up how I feel right about now. Only he's much cuter. And younger looking.


















And here is lovely Aunt Karen.


















And here is sweet (aka Crazy) Uncle D.












The end.

Oh wait, no, not the end. I must not fail to mention how wonderful my dh is. I got to spend the afternoon IN BED reading a book and snoozing while he watched Owen and cleaned up the kitchen. How awesome is that?

Happy Birthday Aunt Karen

Today Karen and Dennis, aka Aunt Karen and Uncle D., drove up to celebrate her birthday. Any chance to see the boys, really. Poor Uncle D. hadn't seen them since Christmas. As per usual, we plan a lot of food and drink when we have a get together. Days spent shopping for ingredients, agonizing over recipes, some house cleaning (but it's secondary to food, really), cooking, tasting, praying I don't screw up, and it all spirals out of control once they arrive. It's a blast and we keep wine country going, at least on those weekends we can eat and drink and toast one another.

I did a remake of my previous lamb cooking experience, using chops instead of shanks, and all in all it went well. Along with Karen and Dennis, we also had my sister Sharon and her boyfriend Jerad, and SURPRISE, Number Two actually showed up. I hope we didn't scare him.

Since I hadn't yet taken a photo for the day, I gave Number Two my camera at the end of dinner and asked him to snap a pic for me. He composed this one.


















Then I took a photo of him.












I had put the camera on 'P' mode a couple of days ago to get some quick shots of the boys indoors with the flash, knowing better than to try and adjust it in manual mode with their quick movements. In light of my wine status, I opted to keep it in 'P' mode to take this photo. Then today I realized Number Two had put it in shutter priority 'TV' mode. So, I was going to apologize for the burry eye, Number Two, but YOU changed it! So I don't want to hear any sermons about learning aperture values.

March 20

There's a very good reason why I didn't post this on the actual day. I was busy, busy, busy. And sick with a nasty sinus head cold thingie. At the end of the day I was almost tearful with exhaustion and ALMOST didn't take a photo, but I did. I actually took two, but decided that a 2 gallon ziploc baggie full of marinating lamb chops really didn't make the cut. So here you have a chocolate marble bread (think pound cake) awaiting its ganache topping. I was getting ready for my aunt's early bday dinner the next day, and this was the cake I'd made. Not exactly the most exciting photo, but at least it's not a leprechaun.

They DO like each other!

I always envisioned the boys having this close bond, Owen idolizing Zach, Zachary taking time out to teach Owen some cool new prank, them giggling together over some secret, etc. I knew it would be iffy with the age difference, but I thought that would just add an extra layer of intrigue.

Well, it hasn't quite been that way.

Owen has thus far done nothing but scream, squeal, wail, or otherwise show his displeasure when Zach dares venture into his 'zone'. Playing with Owen's toys, taking time with Mom or Dad, trying to tickle Owen, all result in an angry baby. Zach gets mad b/c Owen finds his Lego creations and tears them apart, or climbs on a chair while Zach is doing homework and bonks his head into Zach's arm causing him to make a mistake, throwing toys and hitting Zach in the head, it goes on and on.

Today I got a glimpse of my dream. Owen is now seeing that Zach can be amusing. He was cackling with glee as Zach tried in vain over and over to clumsily (on purpose) jump up to the shelf holding the candy container. Zach got a look on his face of such pure simple joy that he was able to make his baby brother laugh, I know it warms his heart. And it surely warms mine to see them enjoying one another.

Zach was able to carry Owen 'piggy back' style around the house while Owen laughed and giggled and squealed (the good kind). Then they sat on the floor rolling around, tickling and just having fun.

*Big happy sigh* This is what it's all about.

March 18

I think it's the 18th. I am feeling a bit washed out, catching a cold or something. My eyes are burning and somehow that makes my brain not function so well. So I have a lot of photos, not so many words. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, then this should count as my longest post yet.

For starters, I gave the camera to dh and asked him to take some pics of me and Owen. Always behind the lens, I never get photos of myself, and I hate not having a record of the fact that I DO, actually, occasionally, have fun with them ;)

















Then I got some of Owen running free, and this one is the look of pure mischief. With a capital M.

















The man who contributes his handsome DNA....

















Owen, having a blast trying to shut the door, thinking it's exactly what someone DOESN'T want him to do.












Zachary, showing off his kicking form.












Owen, showing off HIS kicking form.












And nothing I cook is good enough. No roasted chicken, no goulash, no meatloaf, no spaghetti...nothing. But dog food? Now that's good eats.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you remembered to bring your camera to wherever your festivities took place. AND your camera chip. OMG, I am so %^&#@#!! mad at myself. I took my camera, shoved it into a big purse (you know, so I could look all cool and hip with the extra big bag, it was even green!) and we arrived at the local Irish pub/restaurant/etc. Hoping the crowds weren't too bad for us to get dinner. Holy crap. It was a mini festival with lots of tents, radio station, stage, Irish dancers, musicians, and NO seating for dinner, without a 3 hour wait. So we meandered a bit, Zach got a hot dog from a stand, a balloon man made him a hat, it was chaos wearing green shirts and beads, literally. I got the camera out to take a shot of the band playing and what's that familiar notice? No Card! You can curse in your head for me b/c I was not happy. Not at all.

And you know what makes it even worse? I have TWO FREAKING CARDS!!! One I haven't even opened, I was thinking I should return it b/c with the memory capacity, I don't actually need it. But holy mother lovin' carp on a stick, that little thing is going into my purse where it will HOPEFULLY help with my own lack of memory.

When we got home I jumped out, grabbed the chip from the computer and ordered Zach outside so I could at least get a photo of his super cool balloon hat with antlers and lighting bolt. But what's that, you say? IT POPPED ON THE GRASS!?! I guess you'll have to assume I just made it all up, we never left the house, we ate grilled cheese and sliced apples for dinner and nobody wore green.

Actually, I got a couple of the boys in their green clothes. Zach was having fun b/c it meant a slight delay for the bed preparation process. I was in a hurry so I put the camera on a somewhat more automatic setting, rather than manual, and I'm not very pleased with the quality. I think I could have done better on my own *hmpf*

Leprechaun sighting

St. Patty's day is tomorrow and Zach is all geared up to catch a leprechaun. If you get one into a pot/bucket/something, he's obligated to leave you his gold, in order to free himself. So we have some shiny beads, faux gold coins, etc, to entice the little green guy into the mini bucket and hopefully score some mad loot.

As I was meandering around the house looking for something to inspire photography, I saw this leprechaun! I know she's a leprechaun b/c she's wearing green. And she must be a FAMOUS leprechaun b/c she's got those big old sunglasses on. And she's short. It all adds up. Too bad Zach was at karate and missed this amazing event. I don't think I'll tell him about it b/c he'd be very upset at not seeing a REAL LIVE LEPRECHAUN. The photo is all grainy and such b/c it was a quickie shot in a dim room. She was sneaky! But I have proof.

Ok, ok, I am hard up for pics right now. Someone inspire me.

March.15

I'm posting this a day late b/c I FELL ASLEEP at 7pm yesterday. Big ol' WTF? Anyway, surprise surprise I didn't really do much at all yesterday, and was hard pressed to get a photo. I did, however, make some mango sorbet. This is actually for the coming weekend, we are celebrating my aunt's birthday and I wanted some of this for her dessert. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it, maybe serve it just as it is here, who knows.

It's just one scoop b/c I was the one to eat it and I'm not all up for a bunch of sugar right now. Gotta work on my delicate figure.

Who's mad at mama?

So I am slowly working my way through this 12 week photo course. Basic stuff. Still, it'll probably take me 24 weeks haha. Today I decided I could NOT put it off any more and quickly read through week 6. I could do a couple of the assigned photos, but it was a rather gray day and not ideal for all of them. I told Zach I need his help and OMG you'd have thought I was asking him to stand in for knife-throwing practice. His foot hurts, it hurts to bend, but I HAVE to bend it if I'm standing, aren't you DONE yet? Do you HAVE to do ANOTHER one? and on and on and on.

I was actually just talking to Kevin the other day about 'the look' Zach used to give us, even as a young toddler. He'd duck his head, lift up his eyes, furrow his brow and you'd start wishing you had a shield b/c the hateful anger emanating from his little face was practically painful. Even his preschool playgroup leader commented on it. I got a little flashback of that today.












Poor pitiful boy.

March 13

Today I decided to make some strawberry ice cream. Zach had asked for it, and I like giving them treats that are more natural, and how best to confirm that they ARE natural than to make it yourself? He actually used to have an aversion to strawberries, he hated the feeling of the seeds in his mouth, but it seems he's past that now.

So, I bought some strawberries and started prepping them.












After the strawberries had soaked in their sugar and lemon juice cocktail, and the milk/cream/sugar/vanilla had time for an extra chill in the fridge, I poured the cream mixture into the churn. It should take about 20 min of churning to start really freezing, at which point the strawberry mixture is added. I turned it on and went to put Owen down for a nap.












Oh no! Owen didn't really WANT to nap! He took a long time to get to sleep. And while I was trying my hardest to convince him that yes, he really DID want to sleep, the ice cream started freezing and expanding, coming up over the sides of the frozen churn bucket. And I still had to add in the strawberries! Yes, there was an overflow after this photo was taken.












But it was all worth it, b/c I was going to get a great shot of Owen with his first ice cream cone, outside, shirt off, smearing the goodness all over his face, dripping on his hands, having a blast and loving the sweet creamy berry-filled wonder that is ice cream.

Where is that photo? Well, he took that cone and threw it onto the ground, refusing to even taste it. I was NOT going to let all my hard work go to waste, so I swooped it up out of the grass and ate it myself. He is not my child. A sugar cone? Come on, kid, do you have any idea how RARE this is?

So here's a photo of Zach holding a finished cone. Only the pink isn't showing up very well :( It was pretty darn tasty, though.

















*Disclaimer: I did not make the cones. We had good old-fashioned store bought processed chemical laden, HCFS filled crunchy delights. Actually, I may be wrong. I'm pretty sure these were even MORE old fashioned b/c they had actual sugar instead of the HFCS. Publix brand! Yeehaw.

March 12

Today Zach got his red belt, the third one he's tested for since starting Karate in September. He's definitely showing a lot of improvement, even though he IS prone to goofing off in class, and just watching him, seeing his progress, it's easy to see that he has done a lot of work learning his new skills.

I was really tired today and at the last minute realized I should memorialize his achievement by making it my photo for the day. Since the sunlight has been gone for a while now, I dragged him into the bathroom (extra lights! are you tired of that boring paint color yet?) and we tied his new bright red belt around his head. I hope that's not disrespecting it. Really the only way I could get a shot of it this late and at short notice. Zach was a good sport, even with the hair pulling. I forgot to adjust the white balance and had to photoshop a good bit of yellow out of the picture. But how can it not be cute with my so serious big boy looking up out of there?

I love you, baby. And I'm very proud of you.

Hugs and Kisses

Today I decided to add to my project within a project within a project. You know, the photo-a-day project, which will help me with my improving photo skills project. And as I do that, I've decided I REALLY want to work on an alphabet project.

I've always loved the photo alphabets, where ordinary items can be viewed as a letter of the alphabet, sometimes with creative cropping, lighting, shadows, whatever. And it certainly helps if the photos are good quality pictures.

I tried a few today and dang, it's not so easy to find a letter, then get a good photo of it actually looking LIKE that letter in a format that would look nice once you used it to spell a word. I think I like these, but I want to re-take them for better quality.

March 10

It really is a burden, having such handsome boys. I feel I must constantly hold myself in check lest I run at the mouth, a non-stop diatribe of the attractiveness of my spawn. I just know other mothers, hey, even fathers, look at me with unbridled jealousy, knowing I gave birth to these wonders of nature. I can barely look those other parents in the eye, afraid I might show an overabundant gleam of pride.

Ok, fine, I know every mother and father is aware that THEIR child is the most beautiful, the most perfect. I'm just overwhelmed with it sometimes. Hard to believe they came from me.

Today Owen and I went to the park shortly after Zach went to school, me pushing the stroller while he was pushing a riding toy. We made it safely there, after many redirectings away from the road, we watched a digger dig a hole and place a new palm tree in it, slid down the slide, threw mulch, rode on the swing, said Hi to puppies, threw the ball at random strangers, etc. I just KNEW he'd be able to take a good nap. Unfortunately, he must run on solar powered batteries b/c he was soooo energized that it took over an hour to get him to sleep for what ended up being a very short nap. At least I got some cute pics out of the deal.

I have been playing with the 'Unsharp Mask' tool in photoshop. OMG, I love that thing. I never really messed with it much before and I need to read up on it to see what it does, from an explanatory sense, rather than just play with the sliders till I get what I want.

This boy has such gorgeous eyes. More than just brown, there's a hint of green and more mirror-like reflection than what I'm used to seeing. I just love looking at them.




























And then later I came back to edit this post b/c OMG...it's another full moon! Didn't we just have one of these like a month or so ago? How bizarre.

Misha

So you've seen a couple pics of Harmony, our sweet feline. Here is Misha, our slightly less sweet one. He's a great cat, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't come running when Owen starts screaming to make sure his 'baby' is ok, he doesn't like to lick your scalp and he's much more prone to running off when Owen comes cackling in his direction.

Probably the most 'unsweet' part about him is his 6am "Mrrooooooooorrrrrrrggghhhh!" at our bedroom door for food. For pete's sake, cat, can't you wait 45 more freaking minutes? No, he can't, he just keeps on the growly meow until we get up and refill his bowl.

However, that is still better than what he did to me one night. I was EXHAUSTED (surprising, huh?) and this was a few years ago...I had been down to help my aunt and uncle with some hurricane clean up. Didn't get much sleep there, no power, house boarded up, sweltering, a bad encounter with their Basenji (another story) but needless to say, I was more than a little excited about crawling into our then waterbed, in the air conditioning, for a long night of snoozing.

Back then, we had put a cat door in our bedroom to give the cats 2 rooms of 'safety' from the dog. Then we realized that the cats roaming around on the bed at night didn't really provide a restful atmosphere, so we started jamming pillows into the hole to keep them out. But the smart little cats that they are realized that enough pushing, tugging and wiggling would eventually get the pillow out so some nights one of us would have to get up and re-stuff the pillow, chase out cats, etc. That night happened to be one of those nights.

I was PISSED at having a cat wake me up. I could say the word 10 times and still not convey the anger I felt at that moment. I grabbed the cat and stormed for the door. But oh no! SOMEbody left her overnight bag right next to the bed. I tripped on the bag and went face forward toward the floor. Arms full of cat, I had no way to catch myself. Then something stopped my fall. It was the collision of my left boob with the wooden corner of the waterbed frame.

I'm pretty sure I started screaming curse words, although in reality I don't know how I would have been lucid enough to even from a short 4 letter bit of recognizable English. My whole body weight crashing to be stopped by the point of a wooden corner, padded only by my poor left boob, dead center no less, it makes me cringe even now to remember it. I think I have tears in my eyes at the thought. I was pretty sure I had broken it, mangled up the insides, cracked ribs and maybe even caused a cardiac contusion. Ok, that's stretching it a tad but I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to nurse a baby on that side again. Luckily, the plumbing seems fine.

The next day a piece of cardboard was stapled over the hole. And now we have new doors, with no cat hole. I suppose listening to a little meowrowling is better than breaking my boob.

He's lucky I love him.

March 8

A little bit of garden magic...Dh has tried several times to get a nice jacaranda tree in our yard. He's bought 3, I believe, planting in different places but each time the poor tree has died. There is a small one at Zach's school and there were several seed pods hanging off and on the ground, so we grabbed one. I forgot about it, but a few days later Zach put a small pile of seeds on the counter and said he had removed them from the pod.

Eventually I finally took a few of them and pushed them down into the dirt in a pot that had previously held a plant (Stevia, I believe) that died, as most of my plants seem to do. I have been checking that pot daily for signs of life, but hadn't seen a hint of a sprout. Until last night. We lit a small chimenea fire and while I was oohing and ahhing over how well my basil and thyme are doing, I noticed a little sprout in the jacaranda pot! I know it's a bland photo and it is such a small thing, but OMG if we can get this to grow and thrive, I'll have to simply agree that my aunt's birthday gift of the gemstone pendant increasing my 'conncection to Mother Nature' is indeed the magic keeping my plants alive and well.

March 7

Getting an early start to the day, at least from a blog perspective. We headed out to the beach this morning around 9:30 and it was B-E-A-yootiful. The water was cold, but I had no intentions of getting in. The boys, however, aren't quite as smart as I am and they got soaked.

I will say, Owen had a blast. He was a bit freaked out with the waves coming up and splashing him, so he'd scream, but then head right straight back into it. Hard to keep up with him. I'm sure he doesn't remember the last time we were out so I was expecting him to be a bit more freaked out. He was really screaming when it came time to go.

Pics were challenging, the sun was super bright with lots of glare, but I got some that I like.

Beware the 6th of March!

You may run into this guy. I certainly did, and he managed to make off with one of my Great Aunt Tilly's heirloom dishes. This is the devious, devilish, diabolical Number Two. *Cue Austin Powers music..."WHO. DOES. NUMBER. TWO. WORK. FOR?!?"*

Actually, Number Two is a very talented photographer and I was lucky enough to entice him with my burgeoning belly to get some beautiful pregnancy photos back when I still had Owen in a place where he couldn't cause quite so much trouble. Now I drop by on occasion to make sure he eats a decent meal and he in turn piles on a variety of flattering compliments. He is very good at that. He'd probably be able to make me think I looked good if I'd just crawled out of the sewer after a week long journey without food or water. Then he'd leave and I'd say "WTF? How did I fall for THAT?"

Today he let me TOUCH HIS CAMERA. OMG. I think he was shuddering in his boots because it is, indeed, a beautiful piece of machinery and worth quite a lot of money. I know he's really just afraid that I'll someday prove to be serious competition so he's trying to devise a plan to halt my progress. Mwahahahaha. You just keep trying, Number Two.

March 5

I spent some time today working on one of the 'lessons' for the photo group lesson on my message board, but I did take some time out and get some 'fun' shots of Owen running and playing and giggling in the tunnel. It's so hard to catch him when he's in motion, so this one was a bit overflashed but it's the best of the bunch.













This is one where I was experimenting with the flash outdoors. I think Zach is such a handsome boy, of course that is a mother's prerogative. He either looks serious like this for a photo, or give me a hugely fake 'CHEESE!' smile.