Summer of '09 Roundup

Since a few days of rain has transformed us into a spring/fall feeling (green grass out all of a sudden/cool temps and windows open) it is the perfect time to reflect on our summer, aka our "Minnesota winter" (we hole up inside because it is TOO HOT outside.) Who would have thought I'd be HAPPY to see 90 degrees?! Bring out the courderoy!

[Pour yourself a Pimm's Cup, this is a long one.]

Just as my momentous triathlon was complete, thus began my next adventure of having company! Yeah! My cousin D is one of my first cousins (I only have 2) amidst the array of significantly older second and third and once removed cousins that I am blessed with. Sadly, I have no good pictures of D to slide in here for good measure, but know that we swam in Barton Springs, ate bbq, went to our most famous state attraction.



Some were impressed with this:


notice the proud arm draped on the cold metal.

After we sent D back to his moderate-temperature locale, which is utterly lacking in BBQ, we got ready for the Cool House Tour. There was one project that Smith and I wanted to have done before the tour, but it just so happened to be the one thing that we could never agree on. We had been back and forth for the last year about the backsplash for our kitchen. I don't know how we ever agreed on this:



But we did.


Midway through the installation, I realized why the tile looked so familiar: it is the exact same pattern and color from the kitchen backsplash at my grandma's house. Ours is glass tile, while hers was ceramic.


And so we are cruising along to tour day and I think I have everything under control when Smith drops a comment while we are brushing our teeth:
"By the way, I think John Dromgoole will be here tomorrow morning around 8 or so to shoot a segment in our garden for some tour promotion."

spit.

gasp.

choke.

John?

yes.

Dromgoole?

yes.

tomorrow at our house?

yes. he liked the look of our raised beds.


For all of ya'll not from around here, John Dromgoole has what I fondly refer to as garden mecca. He is the go-to guy for organic gardening know-how, products, and all things growing. It's HIS dirt in my beds. It's HIS mulch all over my house. Most of the landscaping plants were from HIS store. And he was going to be at my house. And I hadn't weeded yet (today), because I've been dealing with this weed:

[From my "Texas Gardening The Natural Way," by Howard Garrett:
Nutgrass... There's only one guaranteed way to control nutgrass: Remove all the plants and nutlets by sifting the soil through wire mesh. Put this material in the driveway, soak with kerosene and burn to ash. Put the ash in a sealed concrete container, take it to the coast, ship 200 miles offshore, and dump in the ocean. No other techniques I know will work...]

It's as if Martha was at my house for dinner and I hadn't bothered to vacuum.
He was very nice. And he didn't know what else to do with the nutgrass either.


The tour itself was fine, if not exhausting. I think we had over 700 people in our house, and they were all very very nice. They were curious and asked lots of questions. It's like a pop quiz at times...
Why is there a window here?
How many eggs do you get from your chickens?
How does the solar affect your electric bills?
So how many square feet of bookshelves do you have?


I had to refer him to Smith for that, and he had an answer.



So with it being so unbearably outside, what did we do inside?
We tried to grow tadpoles into toads. Our creek had an abundance of tadpoles and the boys gathered them for rearing. Out of 10, only 1 was released into the wild.


we had fancy sandwiches



a tape project



playmobil! pirates! arrr! sushi?


- let's find some saltier salmon eggs!

- yeah, and crunchy seaweed to wrap around them!

- we have plenty of seaweed, now let's suck up those eggs!

- can you hear me captain?!








piano in pajamas



another instrument...



Smith worked.



made martianmallows



they were wonderfully fun to make! and beautiful! and tasted like. well. Nbear just had one. We built things with the rest before we tossed them.



Took apart a rotary dial telephone




Hey - we made it OUT of the house, all the way to Houston for my 20th high school reunion. which rocked. Here's me avoiding the camera for the "prom-style" photo.




And summer also sees a birthday or two.
Here's the cake of my 4 year old.







And the 40 year old. We even got to reuse the 4. The "0" we had to be a little more creative with.





the greatest show on earth! in glorious black. and white.


It was the boys first circus and they LOVED it. Also the first taste of cotton candy. They had seen it for sale in the grocery store (how wrong is that!) I told them it had to be eaten either a) at a circus b) outside at a fair.



And ah. the First Day of School.


and so far, they are still smiling.

Ouch!

I learned something today. You ever wonder what that little pocket is for, on the front of men's underwear?

Apparently at our house, it is for storing legos.

Out of nowhere

J pipes up and says "Plants really like to listen to music!"

N responds and says "they bloom to jazz."



What do you bloom to?

A little from Column A, A little from Column B

A+) Nbear lost his two front teeth and just in time for Christmas! My, how many times have we heard that song? Not nearly enough! How often does that work out -- both front teeth AND Christmas?! It's like Jupiter & Venus aligning! (didn't ya'll see that?)

A-) When Nbear lost the first front tooth - it left the root bud behind. Firstly, I didn't realize just how absolutely positively squeamish I am about a loose tooth. I could barely look at him with it just dangling there. Then he lost the tooth, but the root was not quite ready so it left a "bloody stump" behind. Oh yeah. There were no night-time kisses for awhile. until it... just dissolved...



B+) Lisa came to visit for the grand spanking opening of Mr. Craig's latest adventure in well-tailored white pants! And I got to shake things up with Sinda and smack some things down with Dawn. No picture could capture the WHOMP! of that rolling pin crushing ice for drinks. It still scares me.




B-) I missed getting to go see the new Bond movie with Lisa (and the 18 other people who almost got kicked out the movie theatre because of those lovely white pants) as I was Blogging From Bed with the flu. Both Smith & I were kaput. The children however were fine. We woke up blearly and neither could summon the effort that it would take to get the children off to school and out of our hair. So they stayed home. Here's what I vaguely remember thinking that day:

- it's really really windy

- there sure are a lot of naked people selling stuff in dwell. it's a shelter magazine, does sex really sell everything?

- how much wind would it take to blow something off of the house

- spaced (the british TV series) is the best thing to watch while ill with the flu

- metal roofs are noisy

- i wish we could actually watch spaced but the children are around

- sesame sticks do not smell good on someone else's breath. ever.

thankfully the children, those self-sufficient marvels that they are, kept to themselves (for the most part, there was that run in with the sesame stick breath). They fed themselves and took every single multiple-pieced toy apart and played the heck out of it. missing (oh thank the heavens) was the flooding, the shampoo abuse, the toilet paper wasting and the rock writing on the car events of the last two months. There was one moment of silence though, it must have been 2 minutes long but Smith and I simultaneously popped our heads up listen. ??? and then back to playing it was. and to sleep. ah.



C+) Jbird wore this bucket on his head for an entire day. It fit him perfectly. I have no idea where it came from. On the other side, it read "Sol." N decided that J's face needed some extra flare with markers to finish the look. Who else looks this good with a bucket on their head?



C-) There is no minus to looking this cute with a bucket on your head.




D+) I got to see the babies! My beloved nieces and nephew are sofa king adorable. 7 lbers now too! How awesome is that?!

D-) I didn't actually get to touch the babies. I was over the flu, but was coming down with a cold. Drat! Uncle Tommy & Aunt Lynne were the best though - they loaded up and brought those little buggers over so we could at least peer at them through the back of the sneeze-guard back window. Did you know that 3 baby car seats can fit into the back of an extended cab Chevy pickup? Now you know. Jbird & Nbear got hoisted up into the bed of the truck to peer through at the sleeping wonders. J looks up with big eyes and proclaims: "WHOA! That's a lot of BABIES!" tail on the donkey that one.


E+) We sold our old house! Yeah! One less mortgage to pay. One less electric bill. One less everything! And new neighbors!

E-) They finally finished building the warehouse that backs up behind our fence at the new house. The parking lot lights are... how shall we say... flood-lighty?


F+) Thanksgiving!! One more year that I wasn't responsible for the bird. My dad, of course, as usual, was on the mark with the bird. I tried to help with the side dishes and the pie, but my mom is the master. I think I just got in the way. The best part of the Thanksgiving meal for me actually comes the next morning. I have pie for breakfast. And nobody tries to stop me!

My mom also sets a mean table.



I think my family is a tiny bit japanese.






F-) My dad gets jipped because his birthday is on Thanksgiving. So he bakes the bird and then has to blow out the candles (oh, and we didn't even have those) on the pumpkin pie. Sorry dad.


G+) I found Tina!
G-) I found her on Facebook.

Overheard from the back seat...

"LOOKT! LOOKT! A bunk bed truck!"

"NOOO, (drawn out name as pronounced by big brother) that's a FLAT bed truck!"

somehow appropriate.

Nbear has been pronouncing some things lately that make us giggle. We've come so far from the days of saying "tanilla" milk.

now we are "manipplating" things.

Ditty

As Nbear put on his wrap ("coat" for the rest of the world) on backwards today, he piped up with a poem:

this is the way I wear my wrap
with a glove compartment in the back...

Boy Tales

"I'm the Captain of EVIL!" says my biggest child.

"You're what?!"

"The Captain of EVIL!" he repeats, boldly.


gentle pause.

"have you been talking to your dad?"

smith's little voice pops up from the other room:
"E-GULL! He's the captain of Eagle. As in, the "Eagle has landed."

"The Captain of EVIL! 3-2-1- Dis-Attach!"

More Heinz 57 (ie catchup)

WINDY CITY STORIES
We have blown back in from Chicago. A visit to see Smith's sister graduate with a lovely velvet fob on her head. No flimsy nylon covered cardboard for this gal! Congratulations Alex and good luck on the bar [insert lawyer joke here.]



We are SOOOOO lucky to have family in Chicago. It is my favorite big city - made even more lovable by my in-laws. Alex has always had swanky loft digs across the street from Whole Foods - a corner spot with views of everywhere. Fourth of July was a cool time to visit as we could see dozens of fireworks displays - downtown to the burbs - bursts of light spanning the horizon. She and beloved spouse have recently moved to a 1900s 3-story brick apartment building. Cue the ivy covered walls, craftsman wood details and sweeping windows. Three blocks from the lake. A $10 cab ride to Navy Pier. How much does that suck? We really need to come visit in February to take the shine off of this place.

OH! and I almost forgot to mention the mafia princess bathroom: shiny brass and chrome fixtures, big mirrors, lots of glass and the piece de reistance: the have-a-party- (or a baby) inside jacuzzi tub! N could not wait to hop in and test out all the buttons. I merely heard the ensuing screams as the inaugural whirl came about as all the jets were pointed skyward and soaked Alex (i.e. the dry person outside the tub.)

And speaking of Navy Pier (yeah, I know, go back a paragraph), we looked admiringly up at its ferris wheel on our way in to the Children's Museum. And again on our way out, SIX hours later (we did break for lunch, but just barely.) It would be an understatement to say that Nbear really digs that place. He couldn't wait to get to work in their construction zone. It really is cool to see him in action like that, he has such focus and intense interest in some things. J and I had been through the museum several times (mostly sitting in the driver's seat of the real ambulance) while Smith & N just built away. J also proved his climbing prowess to the museum staff as he navigated the rope tube ladder to the crow's nest of the pirate ship.

The other offerings we enjoyed: a crazed Nordstrom's shoe sale, the FREE Lincoln Park Zoo (totally made the $12 stroller rental easier to stomach), the Nature Museum and the playground 2 blocks from Alex's place. Not quite as famous as the "Diana Ross" playground in Central Park**, but pretty darn cool. My brother-in-law opted to join me one afternoon. We were already barefoot in the huge sandbox and I could see his head scanning the playground searching-searching-searching for us with a lost look on his face. I had completely blended in to the setting of mom-ish figures wearing sunglasses with a cell phone to the ear. (Chicago doesn't seem to have as many stay-at-home dads. And I think Austin is completely lacking in Polish nannies.)

SO WHY DON'T WE DRINK PIG'S MILK?
At the zoo, N was very interested in the petting zoo. From there we visited the farm section. We spent a good deal of time looking at the cows and the milking machines and how that worked, pointing out the metal tubes, the udders, the works. Next he wanted to see the piglets. Mama hog was busy nursing one of her spunky litter and I could see N's little gears working up to an observation (please-don't-compare-me-to-the-cow-or-this-nursing-pig...) and then,

"Do we drink pig's milk?"

And so the conversation ensued. Big Smith & Nana piped up with their own experiences with camel's milk and horse's milk (two reasons you probably won't find me hiking across central Asia anytime soon). But yes. We drink or use the milk from so many animals, why NOT the pig?


**I realize that this trip was from back in the day (pre-blogging) when I'd send out my massive emails, remember those? Perhaps I will post that here soon.


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RECENTLY OBSERVED AT DINNER & OTHER CHILD MUSINGS

An entire jar of freshly mixed salad dressing applied to dress one salad.

"You cannot really love a pillow; you can love the shape of a pillow."

I got to witness N's first experience with chewing gum on the airplane ride. Interesting to see someone try to navigate the experience of chewing without swallowing for the first time, and figuring out what to do with all the extra saliva.


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SMITH'S NEW TOY, er... business tool




psst. it's really a new laptop. with a camera built in to the monitor. see how goofy we are when the kids are asleep? this is why we are married.

Playing catchup

It's been ages, hasn't it? Ya'll have been too busy lolling by the pool to read blogs, right? Well - snap out of it! It's June! BIRTHDAY MONTH!
Let's start celebrating by NOT having my back go out before we leave for Chicago.

In honor of another year on this planet and the eventual cessation of my body as a feeding trough, I've bought new bras. The first, non-nursing bras in FOUR PLUS years. I had to treat myself to the fancy place in Austin, whose name I can only vaguely get right without a google. Picadilly Fair? Petticoat Junction? Petticoat Palace? It's the bra place where the bras are hidden in drawers and you sign up for a fitting (which is really secondary because these are the ladies who can size you up as you are walking in the door.) So I went for supportive, yet pretty. And for a size I've never seen before.

In other news
We have a new critter in our house. A caterpillar. I hunted around the fennel to see if we had the proliferation of caterpillars that we had last year. Not yet. I found one lonely tiny little thing, that has now tripled in size and is still smaller than a fingertip. I'm not sure when it eats because it always appears to be dozing when I happen to look in on its little bug keeper.

Tonight at our friend's house N piped up and sang "A-B-C-D-E-F-GEORGE!" in honor of their dog, George. And J chased around Toast (the cat) screaming MEOW almost as loudly as Toast does [Toast being a sibling of Adrian for those who knew how loud Adrian was.] We had a splendid time just relaxing (and eating lamb burgers, yum! and a crisp with homemade ice cream, yum again!) with old friends.