Fishing is Good

Fishing is good.

It's just me and nature.

A boy, like me, can get good and lost in his thoughts...


And possibly rope Grandpa into ridiculous purchases at the giftshop.

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There's a frog on our window. That's all I wanted to say.

Jack's "Space"

As promised, here is the reveal of Jack's Outer Space room. He is so very proud of it... and I am too!

Very grown-up and sophisticated. New big bed. Love the dark blue paint that makes it feel so warm.

Here are a few additions to Emma's room as well. The inspiration for the room, below.

To Compensate

To compensate for my previous pretty depressing post, I decided I needed to recommend a website that makes me giggle. Currently, tales of "Gary" and "Elaine" (who live in Pottery Barn catalog scenes, as seen below) are the only thing rescuing me from the scowls. Thanks to Amanda who passed this website on to a few of us via Facebook. Mom, in particular, you're going to love this. Click here.

Summer Results

At the close of summer, which... let's face it.... we've arrived.... you probably wanna know how the reaching of all my goals panned out. It's a fair question.

1. Create a household system = Fail. No system has revealed itself to me even though I feel like I've spent some real time on it. The house is still the messy house. How can one spend so much of the summertime cleaning and still be in this predicament? I hear you asking. The upstairs has generally stayed neat. But no one really spends any significant time up there, so.... I guess that means it's not even a true half-win. Gosh.

2. Decorate a few spots in the house = Pass. Emma's and Jack's rooms look amazing. Jack has his space room now... all we're waiting on is a big earth/moon poster, and it will be complete. I will post pictures of it when all the finishing touches are in place.

3. Go to the pool frequently = Pass... sort of? There was some delay in the achievement of this goal as we missed the official "neighborhood pool tag passing out" day and went without them for a little while. Although I wouldn't say we went to our pool often, we went to enough around-the-town-water-spots that I think we did okay.

4. Be healthier = Fail. Big time failure here. I am pretty much the most unhealthy person I know. I love sugar, and it doesn't even love me back.

5. Exercise more = Fail. Stop laughing at me.

6. Grow something and keep it alive = Fail. I did happen to grow some cute little flower sprouts early in the summer. Remember those? But uhh yeah... the sun cooked them.

Death in a cup.

Other than this, there was also a shortlived summer stint of trying to "grow" some tadpoles into frogs. I didn't kill them, but right when it was looking as if I could, we dumped them back into the river as a means of rescue.

So, to recap. My summer goals were approximately 33 percent achieved. As a teacher, I know that that ain't a great rate, people. Feelin' sorta pathetic.

Dramatization in the Sour Patch

We had a hunch, yes, that the first day of the annual Hoodenpyle garage sale would produce its fair share of funny stories. And as with all other years before, this one is not disappointing us so far. My Sour Patch candy would like to perform a reenactment of one memorable garage encounter.

Greeny will play the role of Me. Red will play the role of a pretty ballsy garage sale customer.



Red: "How much are those pots and pans out there?"

Greeny: "It's marked ten dollars for the whole big box of them."

Red: "Ten for the entire box, eh? Would you do five?"

Greeny: "Ummm... (thinking to herself, really? Come on now. Check out these fruity shenanigans going on here.) How about eight?"

Red: "Let's do six?"

Greeny: "(laughing but getting annoyed now, for sure) "Can you do seven?"

Red: "Six fifty."

Greeny: "Fine. Sure. Take 'em."

And then Greeny punched Red in the throat.

Happy Fourth 2010

Last night, we got to celebrate the fourth of July at grandma/pa's house with Aunt Vicki, my cousin, Mark Ryan, his wife, Brittany (just realized I'm not entirely sure of her name's spelling), and his son, Ryan (Jack and Emma's second cousin). Ryan is a year old and cute as a button. It was a fun holiday.

Jack had a great time with Mark Ryan, tagging along as official "fireworks co-picker-outter" during the day. Mark Ryan also bought him a Hershey bar - and that helps.

Emma had a great time too, although she spent her time either behind Daddy...

... or in a place she deemed equally safe and sound.

I had a great time, myself. See, I've just discovered the "fireworks setting" on my camera! (And no, Jim, I DON'T know what I'm gonna do with all these fireworks pictures, but considering how TOTALLY COOL they turned out, I think you should feel a'plenty silly for teasing me about taking them. Pssshaw.)

All together now... "Oooh!"

"Ahhhhh!"

"Wheeeeee!"

"Whoooa!"

And wild applause! Thanks for the show, Mark Ryan.