Where are those babies?

Okay, first of all, my computer is driving me crazy because it won't let me cut and paste the text from below the layout to above the layout. It's one of my biggest frustrations with blogger that it won't insert a picture anywhere except at the top of the post so if you forget to do it first, then you have to cut and past to move things around. Or not as the case may be.

I can't remember if I shared this layout before. It is representative of everything we are not doing this week. After my ramblings on the lazy summer I hoped for, I forgot to take into account extra work obligations. Did I ever mention that my kids (or at least one of them) is not particularly well behaved after spending the day at daycare? It makes it extra special when they have to be there more than usual.

Back to the real topic of this post... two elephants at our zoo are expecting babies any day. The zoo said they thought they might be born at the beginning of the month but so far, no babies. I feel like an expectant aunt waiting for them to arrive; I check the newspaper first thing in the morning and then check back periodically through the day to see if there is any news. The zoo also has a baby tiger whose mother rejected it. They are hand raising it but at last report, well over a month ago, they didn't know if he would survive. I think the zoo needs to start its own news division so that crazy people like me can be constantly updated about zoo happenings.

And then I procrastinated

I didn't have time to post this morning but Paula tagged me so I think that is reason enough to take a break from the law and answer up.

The rules of the game: Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers.

Ten years ago...I was enjoying the first year of being married to Justin, we had just moved into our first little house and adopted Kuma, an Akita puppy. Gosh she was cute. I was in the second year of law school and working in exactly the same place I am working right now. I believe we had just returned from our first trip to Hatteras Island where my grandma and I collected more sea shells than you can imagine.

Five things on today's "to do list"... 1. Return phone calls 2. Laundry 3. Return more phone calls 4. Call to schedule Grace's birthday party 5. Haircuts

Snacks I enjoy... Dark chocolate, cheese, Pringles 100 calorie whole wheat pizza sticks - yum!

Places I have lived... Pennsylvania, Chicago

I'm going to think of some people to tag. In the meantime, Sheila you need to start a blog!

It's Monday

Long to-do list for the day and for the week. It's Monday.

Houston, we have a tomato

This being the first year in seven years that I planted the garden on time, this is also the first time we've achieved tomato in June. There are also three or four tiny little peppers. We haven't seen a whole lot of bees this summer so it's a relief to know they are out there doing their job.

I made another card last night. Does anyone have any news for which they need congratulating?

Go Team Pumpkin!

My mother-in-law signed us up to do a charity walk for epilepsy today. We met my brother-in-law and his family at PNC Park and proudly donned our bright orange shirts to embark on what she told us was a 2 mile walk. Thus, Team Pumpkin was born. Right at the start of the race, my mother-in-law decided her foot hurt too much to walk so she found a seat and sent us on our way. We started close to the back of the pack and about 10 minutes in, came upon a sign that said "5 K this way." And that's when we realized it wasn't a 2 mile walk.

I'm not really embarassed to say that we finished the race next to last. The kids wanted to play in the fountain, they wanted to run and my brother-in-law wanted to take lots of pictures. We were passed by people on crutches, people in electric wheelchairs, people who got out of their wheelchairs to finish the race on their feet; basically, we were passed by everyone. But we had a lot of fun and it was for a good cause so I have no complaints.

For my scrapbooking offering today, I lifted some cards that Nora Griffin had on her blog earlier this week. I think it's a darn cute idea:

Now if I could only find someone who has a birthday soon!

Who picked these pets anyway?

Sam, the softer and more adventuresome of our two Siamese cats decided to sneak out the door last night at 10:00. I had to stay up until 1:00 a.m. until he decided his adventures were over for the evening.

And Harry, our rambunctious and misbehaved black lab decided to eat a dozen cookies and the contents of the garbage can for breakfast this morning. I suppose it's a good thing he ate the cookies since I'm starting the new gym program today.

Speaking of today, here is my scrappy offering. This is another older one that I never posted.


Have a good Friday!

Halfway through the year

Seems like a good time to reevaluate resolutions and revisit my word for the year "focus." Some things I'm still struggling with so I'm trying something new - like signing up for the new program at the gym. Some things I have failed completely at - like writing every day - but I still want to do so that may be a good place to start with the "focus" thing. We have made a lot of positive changes as a family, even if my kids still grumble about the organic thing. Eventually they'll get used to it, right?

But yesterday and today what I've been thinking about most is scrapbooking and where it fits in my life. It's normal for interest in a hobby to ebb and flow but when you've spent as much money on supplies as I have, the "ebb" periods seem overly self-indulgent. I participated in the Layout a Day Challenge at Two Peas for a year. I didn't make a layout every single day but I did it most days. I'm going to try that again, to see if I can find the joy in creating again, to see if I still have things to say with my scrapbook pages. Today is Day 1 and I'm posting a page I did a few weeks ago. It's not cheating because I did make a page yesterday but I hope to submit it so I'll hold it back for awhile. So anyway, Today is Day 1. Play along with me!

Quiet

Today was one of those days where I just needed the world to be quiet. Some family friends were in a horrible car accident earlier this week and two people died. It's one of those situations where I didn't know them well enough to intrude while they are trying to deal with their loss but I still feel the loss very keenly. Yesterday I was grumpy and nasty with Justin for no good reason and I only managed to get a few hours of sleep. Today I'm trying to regroup and focus on the little things I will be able to do to help over the coming weeks.

Regroup is probably a better title for this post. I got invited by my former gym (emphasis on former) to participate in a 16 week pilot program where I get a free personal trainer, a strict nutritional program and some other health/fitness related perks and guidance. It requires a big commitment but I like the idea of accountability. One week at a time. I'll start as soon as I eat the bag of m&m's that came with my scrapsupply order this afternoon.

It's a cold and blustery afternoon so we're holed up inside. We're going to have a Harry Potter marathon. Does that fall under the "quiet" or "regroup" title?

Random thoughts on summer

The smell of summer. I spent the summer after my sophomore year in college studying in Venezuela, in a mountain town not far from the border with Colombia. Nothing can bring me back to those days faster than the smell of diesel on a warm summer afternoon. It's such a strange smell to love but I do... it's one of the best smells in the world. I associate it with men carrying huge bunches of bananas riding burros down the sidewalk, advertisements for the discotecas soaped onto the windshields of cars, run-down rusty vans careening down the streets taking people where they need to go, chocolate cake and mango shakes for breakfast, tiny stone chapels hidden in the unlikeliest of corners, the warm crumbly corn taste of arepas, the vivid cacophony of reds and fushias and turquoise all mixed together in indescribable beauty.

The act of summer. It's an ongoing experiment for us. Three years ago we were in two Moms groups, a playgroup, a weekly scrapbooking group, enrolled in 2 weeks of daycamp, members of a pool club and vacation bound x 2. At the end of that summer, I realized my kids had not spent more than 2 afternoons just hanging out in our own yard. Since then we've cut things back one by one until this summer only the pool membership and the scrapbooking remain. We're going to try out some new things like the summer reading program at the library, maybe a day or two at the municipal playground program, maybe some craft afternoons at the local craft store. But mostly we're going to hang out and have fun together instead of rushing from one activity to the next. There is going to be a lot of sprinkler and sandbox time, a lot of popsicles and a lot of hot, lazy summer afternoons with nowhere to go. So says the plan.

Summer and another new lens

This picture makes me very very happy. Not because it's technically brilliant or even a very good picture. It's because my boy, running there on the soccer field, does not look like an ant. Yes, my zoom lens has finally arrived, only 2 years after I realized I needed one.

I was sitting at Charlie's baseball game later on Saturday afternoon feeling pretty smug as I snapped photo after photo (baseball games have been the biggest frustration without a zoom lens) when one of the dads walked by with his Nikon D300 and some huge mammer jammer lens. Justin turned to me and said "his camera is bigger than your camera."

Incidentally, Charlie had a great sports day - he scored a goal at soccer and was 2 for 4 at baseball. And he got to go swimming. That's the way to start summer vacation.

No matter what

No matter who you supported during this primary, no matter if you didn't pay attention at all, no matter if you are a (D) an (R) or an (I), no matter if you prefer blue or red, are a man or a woman, liberal or conservative, no matter if you are black, white, red, purple or green, no matter if you are young or old... this is a night to be proud. This is a night that history will be made. This is a night that will be written about, talked about and studied for generations. This is a night to be proud to be an American. No matter what.