Who knew stormtroopers could be so romantic?

This has to be one of my favorite little scenarios that I have come across lately. Matthew and Trevor leave them everywhere! I even found some poor lego man hanging with one arm from the light fixture at the top of the stairs today. It just made me laugh when I walked by it. I saved it from a two story fall.

uncooperative subjects.......

Do these two look like they've been up to something??

Some days are just not meant for photo taking. For some reason this photo still makes me laugh.

Happy weekend, and happy birthday to my dad!

happiness....

A random photo of Ms. M, sitting on the deck while I wait for chicken to grill. (What, you don't cook with a camera within arms reach?)

I'm so excited to sit down. OMG I have been walking every day this past week and let me tell you that the hills around my house SUCK. The worst thing is, my house happens to be the one on the TOP of the hill, so there is no getting around it. If you go down the hill feeling like you are invincible and ready for a stab at exercise, you have to drag yourself right back up if you want to get home. The bright side is that I can collapse in my own yard once I make it up the hill and I can't breathe. That way at least I look like a doof in my own yard and not passed out in a neighbor's yard.



I have actually started walking for a little over a month. Megan and I do it together mostly, but I knew when school started I wanted to get back into a daily routine and be able to go out on my own during school hours. I still go out with the kids after dinner so we all get exercise.



A life shift happened too, and it took hitting a rock bottom to learn a few things. I look back and know that I have spent the last year here really depressed. I don't think it ever came across in any of my posts because I wanted to convince myself that things were OK. On the outside I think they were.... but on the inside I was struggling with some things for a long time. I wasn't myself.



I know I stopped taking care of myself. I just didn't care. I wanted to hide in the house all day but I didn't want my kids living an unfair lifestyle because of MY depression. So I kicked my butt to at least try to get out and look 'normal.' I am happy here, and have been as far as location. It's the life stuff. I stopped eating well, gained weight, pulled my hair back every single day for a year and took no pride in myself at all.



But like a re-birth I'm able to look back on the year and no without a doubt that part of my life is OVER. I'm so excited about the future now. I am taking care of myself, which means that I am taking better care of my family. Whom I love so much, and a husband that I love beyond measure. It feels good to be in love again, and feel like we did when we were teenagers. Some outside aspects of our life that we can't control are still sucky.... but I know that a united front is unstoppable. And the things we CAN control are wonderful. Every soul needs to be nourished once in awhile.

.

.

.

around the house

I took a little break to enjoy the breeze outside today, and sit and have a glass of ice water on the front steps. I really need a cool rocking chair out there. I've always been a porch sitter. My parents were porch sitters and I come from a long line of porch sitters. (Note open windows in above photo....my apologies to my Arizona people. ;)

I was on IM with Mike earlier today and told him that after I had driven back from taking the boys to school that I noticed how pretty the flag on the front of my house looked as it was waving in the breeze. It wasn't that all out spastic waving.... but more like that slow motion, big waves, flowing type waving where you can even hear it pop as each wave works it's way through the fabric at the end. Of course my photo doesn't show that AT ALL dang it. It was really beautiful. Mike said he absolutely cannot wait to see this flag flying again, after living overseas for some time now.


We are late as usual for doing any sort of planting. In my defense I think I still may be on Arizona planting schedules. I always let things burn to a crisp when I planted things out there. Plus I bought this little herb garden kit on clearance last year and the kids reminded me that we still had it. Megan had enjoyed my neighbor's fresh basil on her delicious Kentucky tomatoes this year so much, she was pretty excited to see that basil was one of the seed packets. Megan mixed the dirt, wrote on the labels and did this all by herself.

And we are excited to finally see little green things popping through!! Come on little guys! You can do it!! Grow!

random

Just playing around with photoshop tonight. I'm hoping to get some photos like this done for my blog album that has been seriously neglected for months now! (Click on the image if you want to read the journaling.)

So far a pretty dull week. I was pretty bummed that Hell's Kitchen wasn't on tonight... you know I love my reality TV! AND speaking of reality TV...SURVIVOR starts this week. All is right in the reality TV world. And all will be right in my whole world when my man comes home to watch it with me on the couch!

Whoa. I scrapped. It's been a long time. I finally have found peace with a few things.... one, I love tan. Whether it is normal tan cardstock or kraft color and all the shades of tan in between. Why fight it when everything will go into an album anyway. It should make it all look like it was supposed to be like that and flow, right? I also like grids of neatly lined up photos. Why fight it anymore? I just can't scrap like I used to anymore. I want to enjoy it again.


More later... I'm going to bed!

September 11th

Every year I think of this little girl. Juliana Valentine McCourt. Every milestone with my own daughter I think of this little girl too. She was the same age as Megan when she died on UA flight 175 on September 11th.

Megan will have a birthday and I'll think of the time missed with this little girl. Or when Megan started a new grade in school. I remember holding my own daughter in 2001 and feeling so sad.

Before details starting coming out about some of the passengers on the planes I remember hearing that one of them was heading to California. - and being a morning flight I thought that there had to have been children on that plane more than likely headed for a trip to Disney. Sure enough later when the details started coming out..... this little girl was on the flight with her mother - headed to Disneyland.

I think of how scared mom must have been. Megan was into watching Barney at the time, and all I can think about is how I would have handled such a scary and unknown situation. I imagine her holding Juliana on her lap and singing the "I love you" song from Barney trying desperately not to show her fear to her little girl.

It's early fall, there's a cloud in the New York skyline....

Innocence dragged across a yellow line....

The Hands That Built America/U2

Rural roadside distractions

My boy who is now 9. I finally got a photo of him. He's so handsome. I love him. Happy birthday nine year old.

Amazing scenery...

Every now and then on a weekend day we drive to a place called Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. It's along the river, and a neat little place tucked in between huge trees on a little - barely - two lane road. It's one of those roads you have to pull over to the side if two cars are coming until one of you passes. We love to go there because it's usually pretty quiet and we like to go into the general store that has been there since 1831. We pick out a bottle of soda from the fridge in the back, pop the bottlecaps off at the front door and go sit by the river and either play with the dog, watch river traffic or wave at Indiana across the way. Everybody who comes to visit us goes to Rabbit Hash at least once.

It's really not far from the house, along a super winding road with horse or cattle farms and fields, and cool old barns, old historic Kentucky architecture farm houses, and new beautiful mansions. It feels good to open the windows any time of year because the trees are so thick through here it is always nice and cool. Megan is channeling her inner retriever or something by sticking her head out the window.

It's a neat old place. It has an arty feel to it, with some of the local people who make and sell things. It also has turned some of the old buildings into dusty antique shops where the stores aren't manned. If you want something, you have to be honest and take it into the general store to pay for it. It's also hippy-esque at times, and also a place where biker people like to go. What a mix. But it's also just a neat place to go because everybody is friendly. Like today when I accidentally drove past the sign that said "No thru traffic due to festival" a man who I've seen there before, who I thought was going to yell at me when I rolled down my window instead was relaxed and said God Bless to me. Then to have a nice day. Whew.

Festival? There's never anything going on here when we've been here before. But today we rounded the corner and the street was closed off (until I had to go and break the flow of people traffic! While trying to avoid hitting children, dogs or people who were enjoying the festival a little too much with a beer in hand!) Mmm, then we could smell the smells and hear the music.

We had to park a little way down the road and this tractor came by and drove us in. It was funny because just the other day when I was pointing out the signs all over the place for the Halloween farm festivals coming up, Megan said, "I really want to go on a hayride this year!" Here is your hayride Megan.

We walked around, got sodas for the kids, petted animals, looked at artwork for sale, watched some old machine making corn into cornmeal and listening to music. I'm glad we ended up coming here when we did. It was a nice surprise to think that we'd come and do our usual hang out in a quiet place and instead find this. When we were driving home all three kids were telling me how much fun they had and that they loved making pots. I love it when something so small is so memorable.

Rural roadside attractions..... continued

The kids all got to make a pot or bowl on a pottery wheel for $2 each. This woman was wonderful, she was so nice and so patient with kids while she taught them how to make something on the wheel. They all loved getting their hands dirty and watching the clay turn from a ball into a pot or bowl. The boys both made pots, and Megan made a bowl. They are perfect, and each have little fingerprints and things about them that make them unique. Megan's bowl is slightly lopsided on the top, Matthew ran his finger on the outside of his cup to make lines and Trevor's cup has a lip around the top from pinching the top as it spun.

I think the pottery was by far the most fun thing to all of us.

I took this picture for my mom. Recognize that basket?? I fell in love with that color blue glaze that they used on so many of the pottery for sale. It was beautiful. But... I don't have room for all the things that I would like to take home with me.

This band was playing cajun music. They were really good. I would have loved to have sat down and listened to them more, but the kids were all wanting to go in different directions. Matthew wanted to walk down to the river and do what he loves to do whenever we go to rabbit hash....which is to throw sticks into the Ohio river. The boy loves his sticks. Yep... and we brought one home with us. Trevor was interested in the food that you could smell everywhere (HUGE onion rings! OMGOSH. kettle corn, roasted corn on the cob, BBQ....heaven.) Megan was watching all of the dogs roaming around or on leashes. (The 'mayor' of Rabbit Hash actually is a dog named Lucy Lu who always greets cars that pull up and park on less busy days.)

Rural roadside distractions... continued

After leaving Rabbit Hash we stopped at an old church that is on the side of the road. It is on a hill and overlooks the river on one side and has rolling corn fields on the other. I've always wanted to stop and never have. I told the kids since I didn't get to make a pot this is what I wanted to do. I'm in love with these doors. My next little photo shoot will be in front of these. Old doors are awesome. My Matthew who is in a phase where he doesn't like to show his teeth when he smiles.

This is the entrance. There is a date stamped into that step at the very front of the door - 1893. - Looking at this door I can imagine the years and hundreds of people who had their first wedding photo taken standing on that concrete pad. Or the babies that were baptised through those doors, or even families gathering for a funeral. I imagine some beautiful leaded stained glass window was above where the wood is now. Those things are in antique shops all over the place here. - I wish those doors could talk.

I picture these shutters thrown open on beautiful days, or hot ones when it would be sweltering hot inside this building. This photo was taken from the cemetary right outside and down a small hill. Some of the headstones were so old you could not read them. Some were relatively new - like the 1980s so some families are still buried together in huge family areas. Maybe I'm weird, but I love old cemetaries and their history. Not that I hang out in them.... but I think they are interesting.

For the longest time I would see these big metal stars on the sides of old brick buildings. I wondered what they were. They always looked as old as the buildings, so I knew it wasn't some badge earned for being historic or anything, and they are on some pretty run down brick buildings too, so they must have had some sort of meaning or purpose when the buildings were new.

I found out when my mom was visiting months ago that they are supports! Behind the star is a long metal pole that goes through the building every so many feet that goes through to the other side! The stars are like decorative caps on the outside of the building. Mystery solved.

AND THE FIRST PUMPKIN SIGHTING! This could only mean one thing.... fall is around the corner. There have been other signs as well... like the geese are starting to come back. It's a sound I miss all summer, hearing them fly overhead honking. It is the neatest sound.

happy anniversary

Have I ever mentioned that I have the greatest kids? Today is my 19th wedding anniversary. Spent with the kids. I had them out of school today for some other reasons, but we went to one of their favorite parks. They knew I was having a hard time and spoiled me all day. My favorite was the fact that I was given picked flowers that were brought to me all day long. Which at one point all ended up tucked behind my ears. Matthew said I looked like a princess with my crown of flowers. Stay sweet you little guys. If you think I look like a princess I will believe you. I felt like one today!

Megan even took my picture. I'm rarely in pictures. You'll have to excuse the gray hair.... which will be taken care of tomorrow by Liz at 10:00. - and then I'll be able to claim my prize of the most fabulous hair.... bestowed upon me by my friend June. Today, it didn't look so fabulous. Haha.

New school year.

One full week down! School started last week, but this was the first official full week. Everybody is happy with their teachers, new friends and even middle school has been a breeze so far.

Oh it feels good to be back on a schedule. That makes for a happy mommy, even though right now I'm just trying to catch up with all the stuff that has been put off during summer vacation. I'm hoping it will all level out within this month!

This week we also got a call that Megan's school already had a confirmed case of the H1N1 virus. I can bet there is no cleaner place to be than these schools right now. I swear the air smells like bleach and purell even outside!

I also just dropped off Megan at her FIRST middle school dance tonight. Wow, that was reeeeally weird. Those are not the things I was into at that age... but things like this remind me that she is not me and she walked in with a ton of confidence. I was painfully shy. - She was all dressed up in a skirt, top and denim jacket. She looked so pretty. She has a group of friends that she was going to meet there too. I'm looking forward to hearing about it.

It has been interesting getting used to getting up much earlier to get Megan off to school. Her school starts an hour before the boys. So we are up at the crack of dawn to get her ready and I drive her to school. As soon as I get back, it's time to do it all over again with the boys. it's strange sitting out on the front steps waiting for the bus to come with just the two of them.

Lego store

..... and then the ominous dark gray clouds began to part, as the sun's warm golden rays began to shine through and warm their shoulders, awakening the senses.... then the sound of angels beginning to sing.... (or more like the heavy breathing of Darth Vader and a Star Wars theme.) And there it was, right before them ...

the allusive....only to have been seen by their wishing eyes online, but never in real life...

AT-AT Walker! *gasp!* (Lego exclusive, motorized and will only be bought if I ever win the lottery! Holy cow!!)

Matthew lost a tooth the other day so the tooth fairy paid him a visit and a few dollars. He had a few dollars saved up in his room too. With a day to kill we decided we'd go up to the Kenwood Towne Center in Cincinnati to the Lego store. I had planned on taking the boys (and Megan of course but it's easier to get her to willingly go to the mall with me than it is them.) to the Lego store this weekend anyway, since I figured Trevor would want to spend his birthday money there. But those gift cards and cash burned a hole in his wallet earlier in the week and he already had picked out two other big Lego sets at Target and Toys R Us. Now Matthew had the same problem with his small savings. Why not? They get free Lego magazines and catalogs if we went up there anyway. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours are spent flipping through the catalog. It's worth the trip just for that. Matthew has been known to fall asleep with it in his hands.

Matthew ended up buying a little thing they have with a huge table full of bins and people pieces. You can put together 3 mini figures for $10. You got to pick from several leg colors, body colors, heads with various faces, all sorts of different hair pieces, hats and each mini fig came with one accessory... like a mug, or a shovel or something like that. It was fun. I had fun reorganizing pieces that weren't in their official bin. Because I'm all OCD like that. If a head was misplaced into a bin of legs, of course I had to pull it out and toss it back into the bin of heads! I think I may have found my dream job!

Lots of updates and lots of photos!

This week kicked my butt. I was SO tired today that I wasn't feeling well and fell back asleep until noon. I could have easily slept all day. So today was kind of a wash. Today is Friday, and I am so happy that tomorrow is Saturday so we can all sleep in a little bit again. School started on Wednesdsay. Megan started middle school this year, and believe it or not I took photos of her and then realized that the card was not in the camera until it was too late. I got some photos after school... but haven't loaded them yet. So I will do that one in a bit. Next week is the official first full week of school. I plan on getting a lot done next week.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle the mornings. Megan's school starts an hour before the elementary school. So she and I were up at 6:00 (after both not sleeping well that night) to get ready for school. Then after driving her to school I come back and get the boys ready for their school. It's like the movie Groundhog Day, going through the morning routine twice every day.

They were all very excited this year, and were all happy with their teachers! Matthew:

Trevor:

The bus route is a bit different this year. Last year it went down the street first before it picked up my kids, so when I sat on the computer and read the news I could watch for it to come up the street first. Then I knew it was time to go wait on the corner. So the boys and I were outside putting on shoes. The bus came, and Trevor was ready to go, so he ran to the bus stop to ride the bus. Matthew missed it unfortunately but now we know what time to be out there. I ended up driving Matthew to school. I wasn't the only one. There were a few other moms who pulled out of garages after that. Same awesome bus driver this year, but brand spanking new bus.

Trevor's birthday....

My dad came out for a short visit, which got him here on Trevor's birthday. After lunch, we went to Graeter's for ice cream. It's a Cincinnati company so it's a must go to place when somebody visits. My dad has even ordered it to have his favorite flavors shipped back to Phoenix.

Everybody was glad to see him, but Matthew was his buddy on this trip. He always asked to sit next to him when we'd go out.

The same day, we went to Petsmart. I had been telling my dad the night before when we were outside watching Jet roam the front yard about the last little russian tortoise left at Petsmart. I felt bad for it since there were three at the store for over 8 months according to the people who worked there. In fact, when we went to buy Flower (the new one) the man seemed shocked! When we said we needed to buy the tortoise he said, "Really?" There were three that lived together for months, but one was sold before we bought Trevor's. Then we went and bought our first baby, and we'd feel bad for this last little one everytime we went back to the pet store.

So we were there and my dad bought Flower. Flower has a new home now. I couldn't bear to have him sitting in that little aquarium at the pet store all by himself. He loves to roam and eat weeds in the front yard now. I love these little guys. They have the neatest personalities, and are so zen like when they are outside. Jet is a little more used to us so far and responds to our voices. He also eats out of our hands and lets us pet his soft little neck. Some torts always hide their heads. These two are very social with people! So here is Flower:

Tank mates reunited. Jet is darker and Flower is lighter.

"Jet I think you have a little something stuck in your teeth there." He loves dandelions. Fortunately my yard has plenty of them.

Trevor's birthday...

I swear this boy was skipping out into the parking lot after going to Target. This is one of the coveted Lego sets he was wanting for a long time. It took 4 1/2 hours for him to put together. Legos are the best! The theme this year seemed to be Star Wars/Lego/Turtle. He had also picked out a light saber with some of his birthday money. Why are boys attracted to long sticks? This one makes light saber noises too. Yay. So far no severe accidents of anybody getting whacked by it. ;) Thanks to all the family who made this possible! There was also another trip BACK to Target... for another Star Wars kit that I will get a photo of in a bit.

Organizing them is my favorite part. Lego moms know that muffin pans make the best organizers. We had one mini muffin pan for the tiny parts, and two big muffin pans for the bigger pieces. 568 pieces all together.

Matthew really wanting to help and becoming more and more impatient that his birthday is still a couple of months away. It is kind of nice when both boys are into the same thing.

More clone troopers to find around the house. They actually make me smile quite a lot. I love finding places the boys have hidden these guys in.

ALMOST done. Happy birthday T!

While you were at the grocery store....

Some people may freak at the thought of one of their kids borrowing their camera, but because it sits on my kitchen counter all the time and they have been allowed to use it before, every now and then I find an image when I download all of my pictures that I know I didn't take.

Sometimes they are pretty funny. I find a lot of Lego people photos. But this one that I just found got me. Matthew spent YEARS carrying a cheapy $1 spot stuffed Curious George in his hand. It went everywhere. One even got lost once, and when I bought another one to replace it I tried the mom switcheroo. He looked up at me with the most serious, confused and furrowed brow look and said, "What is THIS?" Like he was disgusted. I learned that honesty was the best approach from that point on should we lose another prized possesion.

Matthew got older (it was probably a little into first grade that George stopped going everywhere with us, but he'd still sit on his bed.) Obviously nobody could pass up a stuffed monkey and not think of Matthew. I bought spare $1 spot Georges when I could, one of those is wearing jammies that I bought him for when he had his surgery, the big one came from Santa (because at that time - that big ugly George was the ONLY thing he specifically asked Santa for! You can't break the santa wish.) Megan went to a carnival here last year and won a George and was so proud to give it to him, a Webkinz monkey, etc.

Tomorrow is Trevor's birthday, and already the kitchen table is covered in lego pieces. We stopped at Target because he knew exactly what he wanted to get! Photos later! It's a work in progress... and it may take even longer since mommy is not the best at following directions for those big Star Wars ships. Aaa!

Well I get the award for the worst mother of the year. I totally forgot that today was the day I was supposed to go to the school to get teacher assignments for the boys. I even had a reminder on my noteboard in the kitchen about it. It wasn't until I went to pick up Trevor from a friend's house that I remembered when the mom asked me who he had for a teacher next year. UGH.

I can get it on Monday, but still.... I feel bad. I have been so off about what day of the week it is for awhile now. I need a schedule again. With school starting, I know I'll be back on my game!

New hair and new supplies - one more week.

One more week until the first day of school! This week all three kids have gotten their hair cut. The boys wanted the normal.... the least amount of time involved both with the actual cut appointment and time to devote to it in the mornings. Megan wanted to do something a little different this year. It's hard to tell from this photo but it's the best that I could get at the time. She is becoming less patient with me getting photos. It's probably a combination of getting a little older and it's not too pleasant outside right now. It's kind of sticky. So this was my one shot.

It's really cute though, and seems so strange to see a couple of inches in length missing. I can still pull it back in cool little pigtails though.

The turtle is awesome. We take him out front everyday to walk around the front yard. He's getting used to us and has been letting us watch him eat. We're going to work on him eating out of our hands soon. It's taken a few days to get used to each other. He's funny though because when he is inside his habitat indoors he recognizes voices and peeks out from his little burrow. He's incredibly spoiled. Not bad for a guy who lived for a year in a small aquarium at Petsmart. (The girl told us that they've had the same two turtles for a year now and didn't get a lot of one on one time at the pet store.) His personality is so neat.

So next week I get to reclaim my house and do a whole top to bottom regrouping and cleaning. Sadly, I look forward to that part. As much as I miss the kids and even some of the noise when they are gone. It will be time for the annual loud U2 music, bleachy smells and rubber gloves. And then a mom who sits on the couch until they come back and tell me about the first day. :)

Welcome Jet!

I think Trevor's first word had to have been turtle. He's loved them for as long as I can remember and has wanted one forever. I told him after we had moved that we would get him one for his birthday, and this year we were ready. For months now I have been buying pieces here and there to get the habitat ready for buying the tortoise. Today I asked Trevor if he wanted to wait until his actual birthday in 10 more days when school starts, or if he wanted to get him early and have some summer days to spend with Jet. I pretty much knew what his answer would be. ;) (By the way, his mouth is orange like that because he had carrots for lunch at PetsMart before we bought him. It's not normally that orange!)

We've been visiting Jet at PetsMart every week. It was nice to bring him home! We had him out in the front yard for exercise for about an hour today. They are not slow!! This little guy would start out at the bottom of our hill and with some sort of purpose he'd walk all the way to the top. I'm not sure what was up there he was going for, but we'd pick him up and take him back down to the bottom. Just to do this over and over about 100 times. I had pictured sitting out front with the tortoise a little differently.... like sitting in a chair, while he crawled around. Nope.... there is a lot of exercise for people in watching a tortoise.

I think he loves him.