Monday, April 29, 2013

two years later and he's still my favorite husband

Time flies when you're having fun.
I love you more than bacon!!
(And I LOVE bacon.)

(And of course, happy anniversary to our wedding buddies, Will and Kate!)

Sunday, April 28, 2013

for all he went through, Jonah's hair looks pretty good

Sometimes I think I should sit down and blog...and thinking is as far as I get. 

Lack of blogging these days can be blamed on the fact that I spend almost every day at the preschool and remembering that Dylan was put in time out 7 times by 8:45 or that I was whacked in the back with a plastic bat is not really a priority in my life. I often leave the school feeling like the Jonah I found in a children's Bible. 
I spend most of the time when I'm not at the school babysitting my favorite little people. Molly has learned how to wave and does so 1,558 times an hour. (Why do I feel like this blog is becoming a documentation of Sam and Molly's lives?) No need to tell me the awesome quality that is this cellphone photo. 
Mr. Levi McCuteness celebrated his first birthday and personally invited me to the par-tay. Just look how thrilled he was when I took him for a walk while his mom did party preparations. It's like he could barely contain his excitement.

Last night Christopher had a 24 hour shift at work so I made supper and brought it up to him. We ate in the meeting room and when we were done, I started looking around for something to entertain us. I spotted the copy machine and asked Christopher if he ever photocopied his face. 
I think we'll hang it in the living room right next to the Monet waterlilies.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

For all I know, Celine might not even be her first name

Wednesday brought about an earth-shattering revelation ...Toby Kieth's last name is not Kieth. It's like everything I thought I knew about country music has gone up in smoke. Is Brad Paisley's name really Ignatious? 
*
My cousin Pickles (who was given the name Nicholas at birth) and his peeps came down to Tennessee for a visit last week. They all stayed at my aunt's and on Friday I went to her house for the morning. Here I am with Pickles, Alyssa and Kaleigh (not related but I wasn't about to kick her off the couch for a cousins only picture).
Alyssa is only 17 but she easily looks as old as me. My youthful appearance tends to cause some confusion. Last week I went to visit a new family to babysit and the mom asked if we were a military family. After I answered in the affirmative, she said, "So your dad is the one stationed here?" Um. No. As a matter of fact I am married. Hence the wedding ring on my left hand.

Saturday Christopher volunteered at a festival downtown. I met up with him later and, surprise surprise, got slightly lost among the food booths and rock climbing tower. I called him for help and when he asked where I was, I said, "Over by the Titanic."
I never knew I wanted to say that phrase until it was out of my mouth. It really was all I could do not start singing like Celine Dion right there next to the funnel cake stand.

I should have entered the talent contest.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

First World Problems

When you have too many boards on pinterest with similar titles that you don’t know where to pin new things.

When your computer is dying and you don't feel like walking the 4 feet to the charger so you use it until it has 4% battery left.

When your boneless chicken has a bone.

When your taco shells are broken before you even take them out of the package. 

When the phone/ipad screen rotates and you can't make it rotate back.

When you pay $1.99 per episode of a show only to discover that you can watch it for free on the network website. 

When you try to watch another show for free on the network website and discover that it's no longer available. 

When you want to know the translation of a Spanish comment on Facebook but are too lazy to Google it.

When you buy the wrong type of toilet paper.
When Dunkin Donuts runs out of French Vanilla flavoring.

When Dunkin Donuts employees are not familiar with the finer points of making French vanilla ice coffee.

When you spend too much time thinking about dear Dunkin.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

we went for the history but left with a few wedding ideas

In the two years we've been married we've visited an impressive number of old homes. The tradition was resurrected today when we visited Belle Mead Plantation. (It was not the most impressive mansion on the outside, but since I live in an apartment I really have no business saying what's impressive to live in and what's not.) 
It's a pity the front yard is so small.  
We found this in the gift shop. Nothing like a little drunk horse decor to set a klassy tone in your kitchen. 
I call this Portrait of Christopher Reading a Historical Sign, Edition 138.
We had time before the tour so we walked by the river that flows in front of the plantation. Christopher said next time we'll bring "aqua socks" and go wading. Aqua socks? When I was young we just took off our shoes and went right in. 
Someday we'll have a picture that does not include my arm talking up 1/3 of the screen.
We took this picture to show the people back home how big the magnolia trees can get. I was very concerned with looking cute for the picture but it was obviously a useless exercise. You can barely see me. I feel like drawing in an arrow for clarification.  
Henry and Ellen were about to be married while we were walking around the grounds. We don't know Henry and Ellen, but that didn't stop me from getting as close to the action as possible. Christopher really rained on that parade. (The me getting close parade, not the wedding parade in general.) He has some weird ideas about not attending a wedding I'm not invited to, yada yada. He even said, "You didn't just take out your camera so you could take a picture of them, did you?" when we saw Henry and his entourage walking up the hill. No, I didn't take it out specifically for that purpose. It was already out.
It was a beautiful location for a wedding. (We didn't see the bride, but the bridesmaids dresses were green and it was shaping up to my dream wedding. They even sang How Great Thou Art, a song we sang at our wedding. The only thing that kept me from finding myself a seat was the fact I was wearing jeans. I refuse to attend a wedding in jeans.) 
Looks like I've found the perfect location for my second Pinterest-inspired wedding. Christopher will be so delighted! 

wildflowers

It looks like spring has finally come. 
I'm not holding my breath about it though because I thought spring came three times within the last two weeks only for it rain for the 12,548,002 time.
The fields of yellow wildflowers are almost worth all those days of rain.
(Almost.)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

come back next month when the front page article is about the invading tomato

 I couldn't wait to read about the Bean Army Hacker. How many vegetables attempt to take on the Army?
Then I realized it didn't say bean at all.

That would have been such an interesting story.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

much of my life is spent with people who are barely three feet tall

One of the joys (read: requirements) of my student teaching at the school was to plan a craft for the toddlers.  I like crafts and I like children, but I was not (repeat NOT) about to do any project involving paint, no matter how much toddlers love paint. I viewed my sanity as more important than discovering the next Michelangelo in a group of 12 paintbrush-wielding people who frequently fall when they walk. We made flowers instead and except for when Isaiah ate the fish sticker I gave him as a reward, it went relatively smoothly.

Speaking of people who frequently fall while walking, I babysat Samster and Molly McChubster on Friday. Every so often their mother likes to put on real people clothing (jeans) and do real people things (ie. shop at the commissary on pay day because who wants to miss that kind of excitement?) without her darling cherubs screaming serenading her the whole time. In other words, the girl likes some alone time. 

Sam was both fascinated and puzzled by the paint on the road. He stopped every. single. time. he rode by in order to discuss it. 
Unfortunately, his good mood ended at lunch time. Along with his hotdog, he had a side order of whining and a big spoonful of crying. 

Sam: wwwwwhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeee
Me: Why are you whining so much? Do you need to go back on the stairs?
Sam: No! No! All done!
Me: Then eat your lunch.
Sam: whhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeeeeeee CCCCRRRRYYYYYYYYY.
Me: Go back to the stairs.
*two minutes later*
Me: Are you ready to come back?
Sam: No!!
Me: You want to stay in time out?
Sam: No!!
Me: Then come back to the table.
Sam: All done!
Me: What do you want to do?
Sam: No!!

Neither of us knew were clear on what was going on. 

Molly could not have been more uninterested in my presence. Please note the flower in her hair. When the mother's away, the babysitter will play hairdresser.
As I finished changing Molly's diaper I noticed a long white hair on my shirt. I'm praying it just happened to be hanging out on the couch since Jenn's mother came to visit AND NOT BE FROM MY OWN HEAD.

If you need me I'll be at the salon getting my hair colored just in case. 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Easter version 2013

After extensive pondering, I recently made a conclusion about holidays: I never get around to blogging about a specific holiday until long after it's gone. Just when people are wrapping up their Thanksgiving posts, I'm all "Oh hey! Let's talk about what I did on the fourth of July!" 

I like to think of it as my own unique branding of blogging. 

Easter was the first holiday we hosted at our house, so we created a small menu in honor of the occasion:
antipasto
chicken soup
roast beef and potatoes
ham and more potatoes
green beans
bread
brownies with cool whip (!!) and sorbet
homemade chocolate and peanut butter eggs

But let's be honest. Last year it was just the two of us and we cooked almost as much food.

We had my father in law, our friends Daniel, Scherrie, Zach and Alex. I like to think I made the life of two single men better because Zach and Alex both left my house with enough food for three meals.
I still like decorating Easter eggs and every year I come up with a new and never before seen decorating method. My bowl of solid colored eggs is proof that, much to my sorrow and a great waste of pins on Pinterest, I ran out of time to do anything fancy. 
Mom and Elizabeth had some decorating time on their hands. Elizabeth texted me this picture on Saturday night. It's like they turned their marble coffee table into a bowl of eggs. 
After dinner we played Apples to Apples. I won't say who won, but her name starts with S and she has a tendency to blog about holidays long after they happen. 
Sometime I like to pretend the cards describe the personality of whoever has them. In this particular case I chose not to do so. I have no desire to be aged, confused, insulting, manly, offensive, selfish, or shallow. But I have no problem accepting perfect.