Summer Is...

Watering your plants on a lazy, warm afternoon.

One. Pretty. Thing.

If you haven't discovered the One Pretty Thing website, oh my, you're in for a treat.  You'll be inspired to stop eating and sleeping so you can devote a solid 24 hours to all things handmade and crafty.  It's addictive!!

Two Already?!?

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

We know you love us too.

Not as much as you love Elmo, but we're okay with that.

PS -- I wish I could take credit for Nate's special birthday shirt but I bought it from Etsy.

An Unexpected Milestone

Okay, this wasn't on my "39 to 40" birthday list (seen here.)

 I had a lump removed from my left breast this morning.  All of the paperwork said "partial mastectomy."  Nobody likes hearing that phrase.  It's scary and makes you think one of your girls is about to be slit in half like a baked potato.  But it's just medical jargon.  The term "lumpectomy" was coined to make us feel better -- and, yes, it certainly does.  My lumpectomy was a same-day surgery at the hospital, lasting about 4 hours.  My incision is only 1/2 inch long (or so I think -- they gave my a HUGE bandage) and I still haven't had to take any pain medication.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  Still I feel greatly relieved.  The surgeon was able to determine and tell me after I woke up that I've been given the all-clear.  My mass was a clogged duct/gland -- Praise God.  Honestly, I'm just relieved that the anesthesia was a piece of cake.  I had a couple nightmares since mid-June where I didn't wake up and then I was left with this huge amount of guilt over my son growing up motherless.  The subconscious is a crazy thing....  My only other experience involving general anesthesia involved my waking up with my arms restrained to the gurney (a story for another time over drinks, I think) so you can see where I was coming from.  Surgery at 39 is definitely a different experience than surgery at 16.  Oh well, everything is good.  My case is closed.  Guess I go cross this off my, uh, list???

PS -- if you take anything away from my tiny tale, it's this:  monthly self-exams are crucial.  Do them!!

Controversy: Children make us unhappy?

The July 12th edition of New York Magazine is causing a great deal of discussion on the Internet and,  I believe, was featured on The Today Show this week.  When I saw the cover at the newsstand over the weekend it made me stop and think "whoa, that's brutally honest."

You can read the story on the magazine's website here.  It's long but a worthy read -- just so you can start to think about parenting, your expectations, society's views on kids, etc.

What are your thoughts after reading this story?

A Mother's Prayer

Dear Lord,

So far today I've done all right.  I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or very indulgent.  I'm very grateful for that.  But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help.  Amen.

From The Toddler's Busy Book - Trish Kuffner

Tweet-Tweet Treasures

Before:

$2 frames and prints at a garage sale.  Very dirty.  Looking for love.

After:

I painted and "renovated" one of the frames for my bathroom wall, with the help of some fabric and paper.  The small, round frame with the ice skaters was also bought at this garage sale and just needed a good cleaning.  The larger, round item is an embroidered flower off of a skirt I picked up at a thrift store.

All Dress Up and Ready to Go!

Using a tutorial found here from Saltwater Kids, 

I added a little oomph to Nate's wardrobe:

I love how the green pops on the gray shirt.  

What a little heart-breaker he'll be at church.  

Here's the 2nd one:

My model didn't want to put on this white/blue shirt

because, well, he was doing this:

The clothes say "chick magnet" 

but the tears say "drama!!"

God Bless America

Did you have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend?  What did you do?  Fireworks, BBQ hotdogs, or apple pie -- what was your favorite part of the last three days?  Here are some photo highlights of our July 4th weekend...

Nothing says America like....homemade TACOS!  Woo hoo.  Okay, we made fresh tacos on Saturday night because we were craving them and knew that the next day we'd partake in a more typical American meal.  The homemade taco shells turned out pretty good and it was a 3-napkin meal so I guess that means it was good.  To keep it a little patriotic we also had these...

chocolate cupcakes are a great side dish to tacos.  Trust me on this one (wink wink).

Earlier in the day, we made a trek to Home Depot for this - 

How ironic for this weekend -- restricting your toddler's freedom.  This gate will hopefully keep Nate from running out into the street, which he nearly does on a daily basis.  

Our 2nd purchase at Home Depot was Ozzie.  He's the newest member of our family and will hopefully keep those unruly squirrels from disturbing our tomatoes, herbs, lawn, etc.  If the squirrels disturb Ozzie, well, I may throw in the towel.

And here's a shot of the squirrel's personal buffet our tomato crop.

They're finally turning pink/almost red.  The squirrels don't seem to mind the color....urrrggg.

On Sunday, the 4th of July, I went to church wearing this red and white shirt:

This photo is from last November.  Yes, the weather was chilly enough for me to actually wear what is typically a red winter holiday shirt.  Crazy, right??  I don't remember a July weekend being so mild in a long time.  Later in the afternoon (when it did get a little sunnier), we went to a pool party and BBQ at a friend's house (no photo).  Most of the other party guests have grown children so they just sat back and watched Lee and I chase Nate around the backyard.  I think I heard a couple of them chuckle and say under their breath "SO glad that's not us anymore!"

Today we visited the zoo and - duh - chased Nate around some more.  I was able to get him to hold still for 30 seconds so I could take this picture:

Would have been nice to get a picture of Nate facing me but you know what they say about working with animals and babies.  The rest of the afternoon was kinda lazy, which was divine.  Now it's back to work tomorrow!  Hope you had a nice weekend too.

50s Friday

I tell Lee that we'll probably be sleeping in twin beds when we're older.  He thinks I'm kidding.  I'm not.  He's always too hot and I'm always too cold.  And then he steals the covers.  Go figure.  I want my own bed, people.