ememby

Instagram, week 10

Posted on June 9, 2012 | 8 comments

Not sure how it is Monday already, but once again, I’m behind for posting these (I meant to get them up over the weekend – I know I’m the only one who cares about my posting schedule but care, I do!). We had a great weekend – gorgeous weather, great company and lots to keep us busy (and tire the boys out – hooray!). The boys have been drama-free at bedtime for the past number of days which I think means tonight is not going to be good (perhaps if I anticipate the horrible, then it won’t be so bad, I’m trying to reverse psychology fate – I’ll let you know how it goes).

On to the pictures…

This is Jack’s pouty lip – one he can pull out on demand. Along with the big, sad eyes. Too bad for him I know his tricks, otherwise this would work every single time.

I believe he was trying to pull a superhero move on me. This picture gives me a glimpse of the teenage years.

Last weekend at Festival. The boys made hats. Then they wore them. The end.

Ready for a bike ride. They insisted on wearing their helmets in the car (also at the store when we bought them – I had to remove them at the checkout).

Adding to the wild life collection that I see outside my window – this chipmunk was busy all last week running back and forth outside my window. At one point it stopped, cheeks full, and sat on the window ledge. I wonder what I’ll see next.

Most of Jack’s artwork is labeled “It’s a big one.” But this one came home with something new – don’t you think it looks just like Simon and I?

I walked into the kitchen to find Jack balanced on top of this stack – one foot up in the air behind him to help him reach further onto the back of the cupboard. Awesome. At least he’s learned to start with a wider base.

Jack loves hats. I love Jack in hats. (He also loves chocolate.)

This kid. He just kills me.

Another shot of my favorite part of the drive home.

Must have all of the corn.

Calf with tongue in nose – equal parts gross and impressive.

Love that kid!

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Posted in Instagram

Five Question Friday

Posted on June 8, 2012 | 6 comments

According to WordPress, this is the 50th post I’ve entitled Five Question Friday – that’s quite an accomplishment (though I know I’ve done more than 50 5QF posts so I can’t really call it a true milestone as this is probably more like 54 or 56 or another wonky number). So really I just wasted your time with that sentence. Here’s another one: I don’t actually think that Miley Cyrus will a) get married to Liam Hemsworth any time soon and b) stay married to him for more than 2 years; she is 19 and 19-year-olds aren’t really known for their good judgement or long-term commitments (no offense 19-year-olds, if it makes you feel any better 33-year-olds like myself aren’t really known for our flexibility or diehard commitment to fun). [Someone I follow on Twitter told people to lay off Miley because “…if [Liam] asked you to marry he, you’d say yes, too.” If I wasn’t already married to my very own Australian, I’d 100% agree with that statement.]

I apologize for that last paragraph and in advance for anything you are about to read… I have a slight case of vertigo this morning (caused, I think, by a potential migraine) so I’m a little all over the place but the show must go on and my head isn’t killing me yet, so blog, I will!

1. Did you do anything special for your kids on the last day of school? Or did you parents do anything special for you?
I took Liam out for ice cream after school so that’s special – though we often do stuff after I pick him up from school so it wasn’t extra special, just run-of-the-mill special. I don’t remember doing anything special on my last day of school. I do remember once in middle school, or was it high school, going to my friend Crista’s house on the last day of school with a whole lot of our friends (who weren’t supposed to be at her house) and her mom came home early from work [I cannot confirm or deny whether we were playing spin the bottle – totally special]. Someone spotted the car in the driveway and about 20 teenagers ran out of the back of the house before she came into the house through the garage and I don’t think she had any idea what happened. Three of us were left inside to claim any left-behind items and then we high-tailed it out of the house ourselves. While I was quite innocent as a teenager, I’m quite certain the things I did do will make me always suspicious of my own children and their actions when they are teens [Dear Liam and Jack: You’ve been warned. Love, Mommy]

2. What’s your favorite summer tradition with your children?
The Memorial Day picnic with my college friends and their families always kicks off the summer. At least one trip to Holland to the beach. We love the 4th of July Parade in Cascade. And backyard time either grilling out with friends or playing in the kiddie pool.

3. What was your favorite thing to do during the summer as a kid?
Going camping. Hand’s down – I LOVED camping. We had a pop-up camper and spent at least two weeks every summer up north and I can’t think of anything that I didn’t like about those trips. We hope to go camping with the boys this summer… hopefully they love it as much as I did.

4. How old were you when you were married? Were you a Bridezilla?
I was 26 when I got married, old for my group of friends as I am the most recently married one out of all of us. I don’t think I was Bridezilla but I was super organized. I had spreadsheets, table diagrams that I did to scale on the computer and timelines [I wanted to be a wedding organizer in my former life].

5. What is your favorite girl name? (I’m needing suggestions.)
When I was pregnant with Liam, our girl name was Emma Grace and then with Jack it was Fiona Lynn (and Sydney at one point). I like old lady names like Ruby, Stella and Edwina. (Totally kidding on Edwina; I’m going to go out on a limb and say that name is hideous – though I’m sure to get someone who reads this who named their daughter that as I did when I said I didn’t want to be name Robin Renee and someone found my blog who was named Robin Renee – sorry, again).

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday.

6 Comments

Posted in Five Question Friday, Life in general, Parenting

Moving on up

Posted on June 7, 2012 | 2 comments

Yesterday was a big day for my boys… it was Jack’s last day in the little kid’s building at daycare. He’s been in this classroom since last fall and I adore his teachers – but I’ve always adored my kids’ daycare teachers because they care for my children and teach them in my absence.

We love Lisa (left) and Sue, even if Jack adamantly refused to participate in the picture-taking. I will be forever grateful to the people who taught Jack to use the potty (though he still refuses to use it regularly at home) but more importantly, helped shepherd his mind and heart through the terrible twos.

And yesterday was Liam’s last day of kindergarten. He’s officially a first grader, though he was quick to correct me when I said that as he’s doing the school-age program at our daycare and he apparently thinks that is a grade onto itself. “Mom, I’m not a first grader yet, I’m going to school age this summer!” [Gosh mom, he should have added, based on the tone of voice he used.]

Above is Liam on his first day of school, below is him in the same spot on his last day. Hard to believe a whole school year has passed between these photos.

During the past year he has fallen for his kindergarten teacher – I used to be the only one he drew pictures for but countless times he worked on a drawing, only to tuck it away in his backpack for Mrs. A. Not the first time I’ll play second fiddle to another woman in his life. Alas.

I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful, uneventful year of school for Liam. No big challenges or dramas to deal with and [fingers crossed/knock on wood/prayers lifted high] hopefully the coming years will bring the same joyful bliss of school ease (the realist in me realizes this is complete unrealistic to hope for, but the optimist hopes just the same).

I’ve got nothing but good things to say about school and daycare at this juncture. Not even a witty, sarcastic comment. Happiness abounds and the summer stretches out in front of us (though, as noted previously, the boys’ schedule is pretty much the same, just in new places so I don’t have that all-too-common, frantic look in my eyes like many of my stay-at-home mom friends tend to wear these days – just another reason I like working and daycare, it works for me just fine and I don’t sport crazy eyes – at least not about summer vacation).

And in case we aren’t friends on Facebook, here’s a little gem Liam said in the car on the way to school yesterday:
Liam: I can’t remember if “F*ck in Black” is by AC/DC.
Me: I think you mean “Back in Black, not what you just said.
Liam: Oh, I guess I just heard him un-correctly.
[I’m just thankful he didn’t say it while we were discussing music with Jack’s daycare teachers. Pretty sure that might get him banned from the school-age program.]

2 Comments

Posted in Family, Life in general, Parenting

New app = new fun

Posted on June 6, 2012 | 8 comments

I discovered a fun app that allows me to add drawing and text to my photos… expect much fun to come of this… like a poor (wo)man’s Photoshop for my phone…

At festival last weekend the boys asked me to play hide and seek with them… so keep in mind that they are hiding from me – the person taking this photo…

I believe the above is a sign I’m getting old. Last summer I got random dark splotches on my left hand after being in the sun and this year I’m getting a much larger dark spot on my right hand, below my pointer finger. It’s more noticeable in person and looks like a bruise. I keep poking it thinking it might hurt at some point, it doesn’t. I promise it’s not because I missed that part of my hand with sunscreen (mostly because I don’t put sunscreen on my hands and I wash my hands after I apply it to the children, though I guess it’s not completely outside of the realm of possibility). Hopefully it’s not a sign I’m dying.

At a stop light the other day I looked in my rearview mirror and saw this guy behind me… just lovin’ life…

After we turned the corner, he roared off… uncharacteristically long hair streaming out behind his head. Methinks someone has had a midlife crisis. Also, not matter how cool your car is, you cannot pull off a mullet. You just can’t.

8 Comments

Posted in Life in general

Life… second draft

Posted on June 5, 2012 | 4 comments

[Not a second draft on life, but a second draft on this post which I started earlier and wrote in length and have since decided to scrap because it sounded too pat and preachy and I, for one, do not have all the answers. Just lots of questions.]

My original intro line: There are many things that happen in life that just don’t make sense.

My overall point, in a nutshell: Bad things happen. Good things happen. Who knows why. None of it makes sense. Yet, all of it happens. But the point is to remember that ALL of it happens. Life is not all good and it’s not all bad. So when it is bad, have hope because it will get better. And when it is good, be thankful because it could be worse.

And just as a reminder, we don’t need to be afraid to question the small things and the big things (and everything, for that matter) because our questioning could never lessen the greatness of God. He can take it. [thanks, Jill, for that reminder]

Sometimes it helps to do a second draft because it turns out to be an improvement on the first. [This also works for recipes involving chocolate because whipping up a second batch of whatever means you have more delicious chocolate goodness to enjoy.] Too bad all of life doesn’t involve the ability to do a second draft, but then, we’d probably never learn our lesson.

4 Comments

Posted in Faith, Life in general