I Heart Sunglasses

Those of you who read this blog have seen this photo before, but I couldn't resist posting it again for the I ♥ Faces theme this week...Sunglasses!  I was wracking my brain, trying to see if I could remember having a decent photo of someone wearing shades, and my brain was trying to sift through memories of beach days, did I have a camera, do I even HAVE any besides that one I took of Owen and it had bad flash shadowing....Anyhow, I was browsing through my files and this one stopped me and I knew I had to use it.

I had told Zach to clean his room and a few minutes later I turned around to see this vision in black...my own little Terminator.  I guess cleaning his room was being put off in favor of dress up, but how could I not laugh?  His facial expression just puts it over the top.

Head on over to I ♥ Faces and to see more!

Surprise!

Time for I ♥ Faces again!  I haven't done this in a while, but this week's theme is Surprise! and I just LOVE this picture--Zach and cousin Sophia having a grand old time playing with the water hose when we were visiting in WV.  I brings back such fun memories and makes me homesick, wishing I could relive those summer days when we were kids running free through the hills and picking blackberries and getting dirty and running from pretend bad guys.

But I really love the surprised look on Zach and Sophia's triumphant grin as she blasts him full in the face.

Number 2 took my camera

...and took this photo of us.  I love it in spite of Zach's face, maybe even because of it.  Later as we drove home, I snapped a picture of some stormy clouds in a reddening sky.

Now that summer's almost over...

what are we doing?  Putting in a pool.  What timing, eh?  C'est la vie.  The process started a couple of months ago, actually, when we decided to see if we could qualify for a loan/refinance/whatever and contacted the pool company to discuss the possibility.  Well, it all went through and we now have a huge hole in our backyard!  I can't believe it.  When we bought this house, one of my main criteria was 'NO POOL!' b/c I was terrified of trying to keep my eyes on then-baby Zachary.  But he's quite the fish now, and Owen's getting pretty adept at the whole water thing (he swims underwater and can make his way to the edges of the pool) so it seems like my fears aren't quite so founded anymore.  And Kevin is most excited about the interest rate we managed to snag.

They say it will take about 8 weeks to finish.  It's going to be a  trashed yard for a long time.  The tree is our sweet Magnolia, which had to be chopped down. Zachary cried over that.  It's been his climbing tree.  The swingset/playset also had to be torn down.  The bucket of water is the continuous flow from a sump pump in the bottom of the hole, it's below the water line so they have to keep pumping until the pool is built and filled with water to counter the pressure.

My Baby is Three!

Hard to believe so much time has gone by.  My little monkey has grown up so much, and he has such a fun sparkling amazing albeit superiorly stubborn personality.

It's been a while

...since I took a photo 'just because'.  I'm seriously sliding backwards on my skills and goals.  Aaiieeee.  Dios mio.  I actually have a project in mind that I need to get working on, but my brain is stalled out on how to actually go about it.  However, I took this one today with that project in mind, even if it's not exactly what I want to eventually do.

Happy Birthday Zachary!

Ahh the joys of a Christmas baby.  Zach was born on December 22, so I figure he's close enough to call him a Christmas baby, right?  Regardless, it makes for a tough time getting kids together for a birthday party.  School is letting out, people are going on vacation, not to mention already being overloaded with presents and candy and sweets and ahhhh.  It's just too much all at once. 

So we have a summer party. It's worked out well for the past couple of years.  This time he chose the rock climbing gym, a place he's been many times with Daddy.  Afterward everyone came back to the house and partied down to Just Dance on the Wii, ate food, built with Lego and enjoyed our favorite party game, Nick.

I don't like widows

Black widows, brown widows...I do NOT like them.  I don't really like any spider, but I know they have a purpose and I tolerate them and usually don't even kill them if I find them in the house.  But you slap a little red hourglass on the belly and my thoughts change drastically.  I found this large mama in the garage and I seriously got nauseated with awful heebie jeebies.  When I found more on the back porch/patio furniture, and then yet another building a web off my FREAKING MUDFLAP on my CAR I about lost it.  In and around my herb pots, on the play equipment...I was living Arachnophobia for a while.  And while we did kill every single one we found, along with egg sacs, I know there are likely more lurking, and I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact.  I'm no longer on a hunt and kill mission, I'll be more careful dealing with low lying wood, pots, etc, but I no longer jump out of my skin thinking about it.  And I can view these photos without feeling the need to puke.

Btw, these are 2 brown widows, even though the larger one is very dark and the bottom one is practically white.  Apparently they are very timid and don't try to protect their web, so bites from them aren't that likely.  However, I don't really want to test that bit of knowledge.

New friends!

A new family has moved into the area and we are so excited!  The mom and I sort of 'knew' each other from a parenting message board where we have both been members for a few years.  When she posted asking about possibly moving to this area, I couldn't believe it.  And before I knew it, they were here!  Literally a mile from my house.  Crazy.  But we got to meet them and they are super cool and the girls are just as gorgeous in real life as they are in the photos I've seen.  We hope we get to play with them lots.  They have a great pool ;)