Baby's Sleeping

I love how cute the boys look when they are asleep in Daddy's arms. Last night Hunter fell asleep in our chair in my arms, and Dad carried him upstairs. He looks so tiny and comfortable. Looks like a father's day project waiting to happen...

Outside Again

Hunter figured out how to climb the big boy slide yesterday. Stinker.



We found this visitor in the rain drain near my Wisteria. Theo says he's a toad. Cute, eh? And nearly as big as my fist. That is a great big dead Dahlia flower I threw back there beside him.










This is where I sit when I watch the kids play--on the steps of the patio. These are the flowers closest to me. I am so excited about the elephant ears coming up in the center of this pot; they are an inch high as of this morning... I am the most impatient gardener!







More roses blooming. They fade so fast, I have to take pictures and bombard you with them. There are the newest ones.








Here are all of the Peonies blooming out front.

I'm youthful, darnit.

This morning I glanced at a Redbook in the bathroom and found one of the cover articles read: "If you're over 26, read this: new beauty breakthroughs to keep you young." Now, I appreciate they carefully said, "keep you young," implying I still have youth, but is 26 some sort of cut-off? I am 28, am I nearing the age where I can no longer preserve my youth? LOL. Made me chuckle. Age isn't something I worry about yet. Ever. I feel young. Half the time I can't remember how old I am. I wrote "27" first, and went back & thought, "it's 2007, that makes me..." and I returned to change it to 28, b/c I really did not know my age. The women in my family age gracefully. I'm just not concerned with it. But this lead to an article made me think, for a second, that age preservation is something women my age ARE concerned with. Hmm...

Then I checked my e-mail, and I decided to read this forward. Aging was on my mind, and "George Carlin's View on Aging" was in my inbox. I liked it. I rarely care for any forward I receive. This one seemed worth sharing b/c I felt like I'd have a good day after reading this:

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them!'
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only persons, who are with us our entire lives, are ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Me speaking again: it's not that I think these ideas are fresh and super-life altering, but I do find them to serve as a good reminder. I especially like the idea of ditching guilt. Sometimes guilt gets the best of me. I feel bad I didn't play enough with the kids, didn't make a better meal, didn't clean enough, or I spent too much time scrapbooking or gardening. I should not feel guilty about any of these things, b/c I have a pretty balanced dispersement of hobbies, wifing, mothering, and resting.
Loving the idea of ditching the numbers, too. I am still trying really hard to lose weight. I lost 6 lbs in 2 weeks, and then have not lost anymore in the last 3 weeks or so. I'm not beating myself up. I am being realistic, and taking my time. Making better choices. I feel better when I eat well, and walk often. What more motivation do I need? I think I'll skip the scale for awhile, and see what happens. Sometimes 6 lbs lost is permission to eat brownies: I have f-ed up logic, eh?
Just food for thought. Beats the of kind of food with useless calories.

Survey Fun

1. Who was your first prom date?My middle school had a prom, and I went with a group & hung out with Beth Zaphronovic, Winter Green, and the White Point gang. In high school, Joe.
2. Who was your first roommate? Angie, my dorm room, Heitz Hall. Cori in my first apartment.
3. What was your first alcoholic drink?Boon's Farm Strawberry Wine, in big plastic McDonald's cups at the Hecht's when I was 13.
4. What was your first job? Working the phone/desk at Caitlin's uncle's law office.
5. What was your first car? the Grand Prix we drive now. I didn't drive unil I was 24.
6. Who was your first grade teacher? Mrs. Karahara.
7. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane? To California, from Chicago.
8. When you snuck out of your house for the first time, who was it with? The night the LA Riots broke out I snuck out my window with Julia to go the beach at night with Steve and Henry. I had just turned 14.
9. Who was your first best friend and are you still friends with them? Sasha in 1st grade. But she was scared of Mrs. Karahara, so she transferred schools and I lost touch with her. Halena in 2nd grade, and yes, we still keep in touch.
10. Where was your first sleep over? My friend and I had one in 4th grade at my grandparent's house. I slept-over the first time at Hannah's I think?
11. Who was the 1st person you talked to this morning? Theo, duh.
12. Whose wedding were you in the first time? EDITTED: I have no memory, and this morning forgot my best friend was married. Jackass. I was in Caitlin's wedding and I was Maid of Honor. I was supposed to be in Andrea's, but timing was bad with Theo in Iraq, and me about to pop out a baby.
13. What is the first thing you did this morning? Grabbed some clothes to wear for me and the boys.
14. What was the first concert you ever went to? NKOTB, with the Cover Girl's opening up.
15. First tattoo or piercing? My ears.
16. First favorite celebrity? Kirk Cameron, I think. Well, thinking even further back, I loved Greg Brady when I was just out of toddler-hood.
17. First crush? Joe Sias was my first real crush, and it lasted from 2nd-6th grade. I've always been the commitment type. LOL. In 1st grade I like Mike Palma a little.
18. When was your first detention? With Oscar and Gaetano in 9th grade, for acting up in Mrs. Crawford's English class. We never went, we just walked around the hallways. Bad asses.
19. Who was the first person to break your heart? Really, I don't know.

Radishes

I pulled up some radishes this evening for Theo. I grow them from seed. I thinned them weeks ago, but not enough. Many of them are too small, or oddly shaped. I thinned them more now, once these were pulled. I'm hoping we get another crop in a week or two.

Thomas Tent

One of Hunter's birthday presents from Grandma was this Thomas tent. The boys love it. After we played in the sprinkler, and had a bowl of ice cream, we set up the tent in the living room and pulled in all the blankets and pillows. I grabbed some magazines, and Ben and Hunter got some of their books, and we stayed in there until Dad came home.

Hunter figured out we could see him through this mesh cloud, and he played peek-a-boo, laughing pretty hard. So cute. A great day.

Sprinkles

The temperature got up to 88 degrees this afternoon, so we headed outside and right into the sprinkler, or as Ben calls it, "sprinkles." Hunter was very apprehensive, but curious.

Ben and the dog hopped right in, as if last summer was yesterday.

I've been teaching Ben how to pick up Hunter. When Hunter would not go close to the water I asked Ben to take Hunter to the water. Hunter was not pleased with this, AT ALL.

Here he runs back to me, angry as can be!

Look at that anger! Poor thing...

Meanwhile, Laura and Ben play in the water.

Ben likes to fill the buckets and dumptrucks (look Melissa, our boys have the same dumptruck!

Hunter wasn't completely deterred. He remained curious, but distant.

He decided to play on the slide for awhile, and look what he figured out how to do! Slide sitting down, in the correct direction!

How freakin' cute are these pictures!

After a romp on the slide, Hunter played on his John Deere.

I found a bucket from this morning filled with sun-warmed water. I gave it to Hunter with a sandbox toy in it. He loved it, splashing away. When all was said and done, he enjoyed a little bit of the sprinkles, but I think Hunter will be more a pool-man.

What is in my garden today?

Color, blooms, tomatos and more... take a peak. Here are two painted daisy varieties backed by John Cabot rose & trumpet vine.

A close-up.

A container, beside the Morden Centennial rose. Two large elephant ear plants are growing in the center of this pot, and are coming along nicely (only and inch high right now).

I rarely talk about this part of the yard, but this is the shed, surrounded by daylilies, hosta, rhubarb, and some surprises. I think they are foxgloves or black eyes susan, but only time will tell. I stuck a struggling climbing rose in here, too. On the other side I have virginia creeper. The plan is to cover this thing compltely. We'll see how it does.

Here come the foxgloves!

Remember that Oxalis I was so thrilled about having in my window box? Dead. Dead as can be. But Home Depot also guarantees their plants for a year, so I went in and replaced with a New Guinea Impatien which I stuck on the front porch. The empty space in the window box was filled with a Lime Nicotiana, and a fushcia Verbena, not yet blooming.

Here is the New Guinea Impatien on the front porch.

Another Clematis is blooming, first flower opened this morning. This variety is Etoile Violet.

First sull-sized tomatos, Bush Early Girl, are coming.

This is much more filled in now, with the additional rose. I also added a clearance rose, "Double Delight" which I found for $4. My grandma has this rose in her garden, and it smells incredible. Can't wait to see this blooming. Does it look better now, mom?

Hey, remember those Iris I moved? We;ve had them since we moved in, and I've never seen them bloom. Well, here you go. One is blooming in the new spot I found for it!

Blanket Flower, Goblin is ripe and ready to bloom also. Doesn't it look pretty all green like this, too?

More Morden Centennial rose, I love when they bloom!

A blast with color.

It's Peony time in the garden, too. First one opened this morning.

And yes, mom, the buds have ants all over them.

Here is the front garden I out in this year. It's filling out nicely. I took pictures from three different angles so you can see everything. Front, from sidewalk.

Side, away from the house.

Rear, facing the sidewalk, from the backyard.