Annie and Mike got married awhile back and I had a grand time with them. Today I was treated to a visit with their newborn son Joey. If you know me then you know that I think there is no better smell in the world than the top of a little newborn's head. It is so amazingly innocent and I jump at the chance to experience it whenever possible. Joey was born on March 29th weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz. He's perfectly beautiful and healthy, too. (And yes, people...I do believe there are sometimes ugly babies. I had one. Holly was not cute until she was 3 months old. I'm not being a mean mom, just honest.) I am proud of myself that I didn't cry in their hospital room...I kept it together while getting to hold his tiny little body. I cried after I left the room. Annie and Mike will be on their way home soon, and I hope to have this blog post up and waiting for them.
  Mike told me that Joey had a little habit of "fake" sleeping. He'd look like he was asleep, but then slowly open one eye seemingly to check and see if you were still there. Sure enough, Joey did it a lot.

Joey had good working knowledge of what a pacifier is used for. He was quite happy with it.
 

I have just finished the most unrelenting set of days ever. It all started with procrastination and unfortunately turned into the biggest work effort ever. The situation:

Beautiful, perfect day. Jason's sitting in the hammock, taking up the sunshine. I say "Wow, I have a lot of stuff to do." He responds incorrectly. Instead of saying the nice thing like "Oh, come sit in the hammock with me and let's enjoy this lovely day", he really says "Well, you could pick up your stuff off the dining room table."

Ouch. Where's the love?! So to procrastinate from doing what he suggested, I pull a weed at my feet and consoled myself that it was still "work" that I did by pulling that weed. Soon, I looked around and saw how many weeds needed pulling. Then, by noticing the weeds, I noticed the nearby plants which had died or needed pruning. Certainly, they also needed fertilizer. Oh, and that fence that surrounds our yard? Well, that needs staining. Oh, and while you're at it Katie...did you notice the mulch could use a fresh layer? Better check the drip irrigation before you put on the new mulch layer, Katie. Pretty soon, my head was full of things that needed doing RIGHT THAT DAY. The leaky hose. The potting plants. The staining of the swing set. The cleaning of the garage. Patio seats need replacing. Windows are dirty. The empty humming bird feeders.

Oh my. So, for the last three days...Jason and I have been working SOOOO hard. We accomplished all of the things listed above. ALL of it. My yard is now a showcase of anal retentive effort. In a few days, I will be able to sit joyously in the hammock with Jason and there will be nothing to do but enjoy the yard. But, it will take a couple days before I'll be able to stand up straight again...my muscles ache.

Anyways...the reason I bring this up? I seriously could not wait to get back to the blog. I miss posting here. I have taken advantage of my "off-season" to get so much done. This coming Saturday will bring the first official wedding of my busy season. To celebrate, I'm going to promise a full 30 days of blogging. Yup, each and every day will bring new photos, new stories. Maybe even multiple posts per day. First bit of sharing? The photos taken moments before my fateful step outside to see what Jason was doing in the backyard. Ok, now I must go clean off my things on the dining room table. They still haven't been touched yet. LOL!


So, just how long has she spent staring at the Tinkerbell poster thing above her bed? Well, this was the pose she gave me...almost identical to Tinkerbell's pose.
 

Jason and Anna were outside playing while I was inside the house preparing for our upcoming vacation. Anna rushed inside, crying. She claims that "Dad made me twist my ankle again". Absent-mindedly (doing that half-listening thing while I was cleaning), I answered her questions about how to spell "don't" and "you". She left me alone and went back outside. Moments later, Jason came in to show me what Anna had just given him.


for the record, he didn't make her twist her ankle. she twisted it all on her own while running, a good 20 feet from where Jason was. She just *hates* to admit when she's goofed on her own. We've all taken the blame at one time or another. LOL!

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Ok, FUNNY follow up. Just after I pushed "publish" on this blog post...I noticed the following stuck to the bottom of my computer screen. Anna is clearly one funny, clever kid.
 

As you might know, Anna goes to an elementary school where they teach using Spanish immersion. Meaning, the vast majority of her day is taught in Spanish. I think something like 30 minutes a day is in English. The obvious question most people ask us upon hearing this all is "So, do you speak Spanish in the house?" Sadly, no. Jason took a couple years of Spanish in high school which now equates to him being able to say those choice words like bathroom, beer, beach, girls, and water. I took some ridiculous amount of Spanish (12 years?!), worked in Mexico City for a time, worked nights in Tijuana (no, not like THAT...it was real work), traveled to Guatemala one summer with my Aunt Barbara (awesome!) and helped my Uncle John navigate Barcelona (super!). I took to Spanish like a sponge to water. Unfortunately, without constant use my Spanish skills are shriveling up. I am limited to Mexican restaurants and telenovelas. sad.

Since I loved what Spanish did for me in my life, I really felt it a gift to have Anna in this immersion program. She'll feel a little more free to travel the world. She'll appreciate new foods, new places, new faces. And hopefully be challenged to learn another language or two in her future.

This past Friday I tagged along on the first grade class trip to La Lecheria (the dairy) at Cal Poly. The kids got to see cows poop, talk about utters, and get licked by slobbery calves. Afterward they ate ice cream made from the Cal Poly dairy. By far my favorite part was seeing their expressions when we told them the ice cream was from those same cows that they just saw. Being that their strongest association to those cows was the pooping part they'd just witnessed...they all put down their spoons for a second and thought about their next bite pretty carefully. BAHAHAHA! a little blurry, but i love that the only photo anna would let me take of her all day was when she was surrounded by her friends.
  and finally the boy that anna had a crush on at the beginning of the year

We traded out the girls' old double beds for twin trundle beds a couple weeks ago. This has been the subject of lengthy discussions at our house. Jason (6'3" tall boy) believes that it is better for the girls to have big beds. Katie (5'6" girl) believes that the girls will be happier with smaller beds with trundles underneath. I think Jason's mistake (because he is wrong after all) is that he's approaching this from a guy's perspective. He doesn't understand that little girls LIVE for sleepovers. It's the most fun I ever had as a kid. He believes that sleepovers would be just fine using a sleeping bag on the ground. So, anyways, we finally came to an agreement and the trundle beds arrived a couple weeks ago. We've already had 2 sleepovers with Payton, and the girls love it. This morning I took them out to a girls-only donut breakfast. Yum. On the way home, we saw these awesome hats at the craft fair in the park. Had to get them for our upcoming trip to Disneyland in March. Then, I forced the girls into some photos just because (although they loved it). And, Jason's reward was that he got to sleep in. See, I knew he'd grow to love sleepovers too.