I Have

I saw this on a couple of blogs today. I can't remember the first one but the second was Queen-Sized Funny Bone. It looked like fun so I thought I'd join in 'cause that's the kinda girl I am. All you do is copy the list and put it in a post on your own blog and BOLD the things that you have actually done. Neat. Oh yeah, and I've added comments of my own because again, that's the kind of girl I am.

I HAVE….
1. Started my own Blog - well, duh!
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii - got to meet Rob's submarine there and spend a week with him during a deployment
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain - I hiked a mountain but I'm not sure that counts
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch - not exactly sure what that means but I at least tried to teach myself watercolor and embroidery
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - 'course this is me we're talking about so I actually told my bosses that I was doing it
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon *snort* yeah, right
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse I have a vague recollection of doing this as a child but I can only remember the preparation part not the actual eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing - went repelling once though
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason - I'm almost positive that I have but I can't remember the occasion, probably because there wasn't one
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - been on a slow one though
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper - OK, so it was a picture of my dog but I'm pretty sure my leg was in it
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

Blue Hors Matine

Can I just say WOW! A friend of mine who knows I love horses sent me a link to this video on You Tube. I don't talk about my love for horses much on my blog. Horses aren't a part of my daily life right now as much as I would like for them to be. I love horses, I love their beauty and strength, their spirit and even their smell. Some day some smart cologne maker will realize that some women, including me, looooove the smell of horses. I would be hard pressed to resist a guy wearing THAT cologne. Probably the only way I would be able to resist would be the fact that I'm married but if Rob were wearing that cologne well, this is a family friendly blog so I'm not going to write about that.

Anyway, back to horses. As I was saying, horses aren't a part of my daily life right now but that doesn't mean that I don't think of them daily. On the contrary, thoughts of horses real and imaginary gallop in and out of my thoughts multiple times per day. I day dream of them still like I'm an 11 year old Velvet Brown (that would be the main character of National Velvet for you non-horsey folks). But I don't think you have to be a horse lover to recognize the beauty and talent of this horse and her rider. Take a few minutes and enjoy!



Wow! I just went to YouTube and searched for Blue Hors Matine and a ton of clips came up, including this one where she "dances" to Zion's song. I was going to take it down but I will leave it up in honor of Blue Hors Matine for a litte while longer.



p.s. You can pause my music at the bottom so that you can hear the music on the video clips.

Works For Me Wednesday

I've been wanting to participate in this Blog Carnival for a while but since most of the time I don't know what day it is it's kind of tough. Today I remember - it's Wednesday! (At least I think it is.) You are welcome to participate too, it's fun! Click on the badge to go to Rocks In My Dryer and read the rules, post on your own blog (not hers), then go back to her blog and add your info to Mr. Linky (I love Mr. Linky).

So my tip today is to help make battery swaps easy. First, get a black sharpie, a large pencil box or plastic shoebox and a Phillips head screw driver. The sharpie is used to write the battery size and number used (e.g. 4D or 3AAA) on the battery door to toys and gadgets. Put your batteries and screw driver in the box you get and you've got your little battery changing "kit". Now battery swaps are easy peasy, you know exactly what size and how many batteries you need and you have all your batteries and a screw driver in one spot.

This I Love - A Study In Pictures

Lacing cards and quiet play with a cuddly girl on my lap.

The beautiful array of colors the Lord gives us in this season.

Little ones who figure out that mouths can hold toys just as easily as hands can (sorry for the blur, when I grabbed my camera it was on a setting that didn't allow the flash to pop up).

Little girls in pink and brown and especially little plaid peacoats.


Rainy days, no better reason for hot cocoa and a cookie - until it starts snowing that is.

Little warriors fighting for good.

Cowgirl pajamas, slippers and "mommies" who take good care of their "babies".

Can't Catch Me!

OK, I so need to go to bed but I wanted to post this before I hit the hay (hopeful that Gideon will actually let me sleep tonight). This is the gingerbread man that I made for Zion's felt food collection. Ben was laying on my lap as I put in the last stitches and that made me remember the part of the story where the gingerbread man was riding the foxes back across the water. We all know how that ended.

Good thing Ben didn't try that, I so would not have wanted to clean up that hairball!

Straight Out Of the Camera (SOOC)

Yeah! I actually remembered SOOC - and it's still Saturday! If you want to participate, click on the SOOC badge and you'll go to Slurping Life's site to read that all you need to do is post a family friendly photo on your blog and then go back to her site to sign Mr. Linky. If you visit other blogger's sites, and I hope you do, then please leave a comment on their blog. My entry this week is called "Constant Companion" AKA "That Darn Elephant".

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This post has been a long time coming. I have had parts of it in my mind for it seems like a month now. I just wanted to give credit to some folks and boo hiss some others.

First the good and this is a big good. Kudos to the Armed Services YMCA for recognizing that the families of deployed reservists don't necessarily live close enough to a base/post to utilize the support and programs offered there. They came up with a wonderful solution and worked with the National YMCA and launched the Military Outreach Initiative which provides free or discounted family memberships and nursery to qualifying military families and personnel (and not just Reservists so go check it out if you are military). Yoohoo! Especially since we qualify!

The Bad - my local Safeway for getting rid of their car shopping carts. You know the ones that have the little car in front that the kids can sit in and pretend to drive while mama shops. Safeway used to be where we shopped exclusively but not anymore, not if I can't contain and entertain my kids. There are four other stores in town that either have car carts or have another option that multiple children can sit in so they are getting my business instead. When this happened about 4 months ago I did e-mail the corporate office and the assistant manager at the store and neither one gave hope that they would be replacing the car carts. They've had their chance, now their on my bad list for not responding to the needs of families. I know I can't be the only one who at least partially bases their shopping choices on this type of convenience.

But hey, I'm not as mad at them as I am my local Petco which is brand new. I've found that these chain pets stores leave a lot to be desired in general. Rarely if ever do you actually find an employee that knows anything about pets. Most of the time when I walk in to the fish section I know ten times more about fish than the staff. To give them a little credit sometimes I only know five times more than the staff. Last week, not only did I know more but this girl was so flat out rude that she earned Petco a bump up from merely bad to downright ugly. All I wanted were some whiteclouds. I waited forever for someone to show up in the fish section. When no one came around I finally got the attention of someone at the check out and he sent some one over. When she E.V.E.N.T.U.A.L.L.Y. showed up I asked her if they had any other cold water fish than goldfish. She waved her hand in the general direction of some other tanks and said "Just what we have over there." I told her "Those are tropical fish." and began to explain what I was looking for and in the middle of my question she turned from me and asked a pair of young guys what they needed help with. Wha'?! I didn't even finish my sentence. As in, I was STILL speaking to her. So I said "Fine, I guess I'll go shop somewhere else." and walked away and she did nothing to stop me. Fuming I went to pay for my other purchases since I really did need the dog and cat food in my cart. Conveniently the guy at the register couldn't get his to work and had to call the manager over so I took the opportunity to let her know how unhappy I was at her staff member's rudeness and what happened. Lacy I understand her name was, shrugged, turned and mumbled "Hm, I'll have to go ask her what happened." and walked off. Right. I have so much confidence that you're going to do ANYTHING! Arg! So Petco, there is a Petsmart just about right next to the YMCA where I take the kids three times a week now and not only is their fish selection considerably larger than yours but their staff is a million times friendlier (even if I still probably know more than them). I know. I used to shop their before the Petco went into town, but hey, I can be convinced to drive further for better service and your staff here in town is pretty convincing.

Does This Never Happen To You?

Did you ever get home from the grocery store and start putting things away only to realize that one of the items that you thought you needed you already had two of in the cupboard and you forgot something else that you really did need? Yeah. That never happens to me.

Did you ever decide what you were going to have for dinner and keep forgetting only to find yourself haunting the cupboards and fridge for inspiration when you remember that you already figured it out? Nope, not me. Not even once. We're having pizza for dinner by the way. And I only need to remember to not make something else for another 45 minutes by which time the delivery guy will have come.

Did you ever pull a super cute outfit out of your older child's too small bin and wonder why you don't remember them ever wearing so you put it on your younger child and realize half way through a Walmart shopping trip that the reason you didn't put it on older child much was because the snaps in the crotch won't stay shut (did I just say "crotch"?) and they all pop open making the baby look like their wearing some really funky chaps or something? Yeah. That most definitely didn't happen to me today. I'm sewing those darn pants closed, that outfit is just too cute to not use again.

So, um, am I the only only one that things never happen to? What never happens to you?

Too Cute

Zion just brought me a teeny scrap of paper that she had scribbled on and said "Wook, Mommy. Foo foo (Zaboomafoo)!" Her first "drawing" that was supposed to be something. Awww!

Gabe is busy making a Mario book. He's drawn a red stick figure (Mario), a green stick figure (Luigi) and a yellow stick figure (Wario), each with a rectangle over it's head (their hats) and the letter of their first name on each one.

I guess it's a craft day since I've already been at my sewing again today. I started making a gingerbread man for Zion's felt food last night and am almost done.

Favorite Things Friday

My friend Tiff is hosting her own little "Favorite Things Friday". Hm, a chance to talk about me and things I like? I'm game. So here's a couple for today:

1) Rainy nights. Yep. Just like the song. I like rainy days too when I don't have to go anywhere. Blustery is even better. Remember Pooh's blustery day? I love that. There's very little better than sitting around in a cozy chair, fire, book, hot tea, wind and rain outside the window. Of course, for thorough enjoyment all children must be napping - at the same time. You can guess how many times I get to enjoy this favorite thing. And that leads me to...

2) 7:30PM. Bedtime for the kids. OK, I guess truthfully I like 8 and after a little more because by then they are usually in bed and at least quiet if not asleep and I can, most nights, get a couple hours of me time.

I have many, many favorite things but this will have to do for now.

p.s. another favorite is when I get to the end of a post and hit spell check and the little message "no misspellings found" pops up. I love that!

Jameson

It's been a little more than two years now that my precious nephew has been hanging out with the angels and people still can't stop talking, or blogging, about him. Thanks Kerri, for your beautiful sentiments!

The Scoop

I've spent the last couple of days taking care of sick kids. The last month has been very reminiscent of last winter when 1 or more of us were sick for about six months straight. It was very frustrating then and frustrates me all over again to think that we could face another winter like that. Holed up all day and not even a Daddy to come home for dinner to break up the monotony. Should I pre-order my straight jacket now? A week ago I got us all the flu shot hoping to avoid at least some of what's going around. Still, yesterday Gideon ran a 103 temp for most of the day and Zion's been stuffed up all week and has a wet cough. Grrr!



My fish has been sick too. Poor little guy. I've had this beautiful teal Betta for a couple of months now but haven't been able to find a food he'll eat since I got him. I tried a few different kinds of pellets but he's just gotten skinnier and skinnier and the other day I noticed stress stripes in addition to him being super thin. Finally I bought him some frozen brine shrimp the other day and waddya know, he loves them. Up till now I haven't been able to think of a name for him. What do you name a fish that would rather starve to death than eat a less than superior food? Well, I'd like you to meet my finicky little Betta - Gordon Ramsey. Now I've just got to get him back in condition with the help of those teeny little shrimps. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post a new picture of him in all his fat glory.


I also heard from Rob this morning for the first time in a few days. He reports that he has reached his destination tired after traveling for about a week but in one piece and eager to get to work. Now's when the rubber meets the road. We'll try to keep you up to date but for now I'll just give a little reminder to pray for us. Thanks!

Yum, yuck and Ha Ha!

Yum - I finally got around to making some Cake Pops as seen on Bakerella's blog. I needed something to take to MOPS so I thought I give it a go. I was going to make spice cake pops since that sounded yummy for Fall but I guess I'm not the only one - the spice cake spot was completely empty at the grocery store. But they had cherry chip on sale and that is my absolute favorite cake flavor - woohoo! So I nabbed some cherry frosting and white chocolate chips for dipping and voila! Cherry Chip White Chocolate Cake Pops were born! I gotta say, they were easier than I expected and so much yummier too! It is a good thing the recipe makes so many or there may not have been any left over for my meeting. As it was I ran out of lollipop sticks so some of the ladies just got "cake balls" which doesn't sound nearly as appealing for some reason. I also didn't get a chance to take a picture of the "pops" before they were gone so here's a few "balls" to wet your appetite (gee, that sounds even worse).

Yuck - I'm sitting on the couch. I hear "Mama, wook!" I stand up to see what Zion is pointing to and I see this.

Those are dried cranberries between her toes in case you aren't as versed in the identification of small food bits as I am. Brings new meaning to the term "toe jam".

Ha ha! - Jamie gave me Zion a belated birthday present when we went to visit the other day (this in addition to the cute clothes Z received at her birthday party from my sis and family). This is a personalized Kleenex box. It has a picture of Zion on the front with Kleenex in her nose (she put it there herself of course) and says "Kleenex anyone?" at the top. It's hilarious. I've got it on my end table and chuckle every time I have to blow my nose now.

As Promised (and Other Stuff)

A photo of the felt food that I made Zion for her birthday. A stack of flapjacks, a fried egg, two slices of bacon, a couple slices of bread with peanut butter and jelly or ham, Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato. I've got aspirations for much, much more. I'm also learning to make them better. I've experimented with different stitches and even glue. I got the inspiration for these at Homemade By Jill (who I would like to congratulate on her new baby boy!) and she got the inspiration at Mahar Dry Goods (a totally cute sight that I'm in love with now) and they are made by Hillary Seabolt. Now theirs are definitely a lot better and more finished looking than mine. I've adapted mine because right now I'm not very practiced at sewing on a machine so I am using embroidery thread and hand sewing in cute chunky colors instead. I'm ready to sign up for a Felt-Anon group, I am so gonna need support to quit this habit. As it is I spend so much time surfing the web for more felt food ideas. I'm surprised at how much I keep finding.

I am also making Zion some felt hair clips. The felt helps the clip to stay in the hair and I can design them to match her outfits (a photo of the clips will come soon).

Zion was bit by the craft bug lately too (and you should SEE all the things Gabe has made and yet he still asks multiple times daily to make something). She hauls Gabe's water colors palate all around the house asking to paint. So today, for a mere .89 cents, I picked up a paint with water book at Target. She loved it.

So cute it's scary. Even though this is obviously a Halloween outfit I think he'll be wearing it more just because it's so darn true. Over the weekend Jamie helped me get the kids out to update their portraits. Gideon got his six-month pics done and Zion her two-year. They turned out so cute, I can't wait to get them back.

A Message From Rob

Happy Greetings to all! May you be enjoying the season with Halloween, All Saint's Day, Election Day, and first frosts/snows (OK, maybe all except the last 2!) all at hand. It will surely be a busy week...

For you as well as me. As of right now, I do not expect to be stateside for any of those events. This is very likely my last note from Fort Bragg.

But, *boy* what a couple of weeks it has been. I had an absolutely wonderful time at home with Julie and the kids for one whole week. Got to feed Gideon his first solid foods, celebrated Zion's 2nd birthday a little early, joined Gabe for his first kids sports class at the Y... got to spend one whole evening with Julie (and the kids in the care of a babysitter), with family and friends for the birthday party, and with our church for the first Sunday at home in over 10 weeks! Ate at almost all of our favorite restaurants, fully enjoyed the fall colors of Western WA, and got most of the summer outside toys put away. It was a great week.

We returned to Fort Bragg less than a week ago. Within 24 hours I had my Dad and Joyce coming in from MI and Mom with her sister Jerri coming in from Atlanta, GA. They all arrived safely Friday night. Saturday morning the189th (our training brigade) hosted a nice deployment ceremony for us and all of our guests. On short notice, my good friend Joel, from MTU (now teaching in South Carolina) also drove up to join the clan.

We spent most of the day together Saturday and really had a wonderful time. By midday, Joel was on his way, by the evening I said goodbye to Mom and Jerri to spend the night with Dad and Joyce at their hotel, and by Sunday morning they were all on their way home. It was a short visit, but it was great to see everyone together in one spot.

Our CO was able to extend liberty to us for the rest of the weekend - the group of folks here that are my closest friends came and kidnapped me from the hotel to take me "south of the border". Mexico you ask? No, but this incredibly silly place that is a local tourist trip - just south of the North Carolina border into South Carolina on I-95 (only about 45 minutes from Fayetteville). Pedro reigns there and has carnival rides, free mini-golf, restaurants, and gift shops all under the "Golf of Mexico" (a large golf ball sign). This time of year the place is pretty quiet, but we did enjoy the mini golf!

As with all liberty, it had to come to an end, but having said that our work this week has been to be ready to go at any time. And on any day that we weren't scheduled to fly, we've had to catch up on personal stuff. It's worked pretty well for us to get a couple more days of light duty to finish up any last shopping or tasks on post before flying out. Tuesday was a particularly interesting day - one of our presidential candidates came through Fayetteville (I'll let you guess which one) offering free tickets to his rally. Having never attended one before, I was pretty excited to go -and managed to pull a good sized team of us to the local civic center. The place was packed, 10,000 or more by my guess. Regardless of any one's opinion of the candidate, it was truly a worthwhile experience to just be a part of the American political process. And last night I came back and finished up my absentee ballot and dropped it in the mail today.

All I ask is that you would do the same - *please vote* -either in the polls or by mail by next Tuesday. I've been told that you will have a clock time change this weekend - please take that into consideration for your trip to the polls on Tuesday! The race is close enough and this is too busy of a time in our country to just let Election Day pass us by. Thanks!

And with that, I guess the last thing I have for you is my new address. As always, please pass this to anyone who's interested - I won't be able to hit all of you by E-mail on the first shot.

(This is Julie, I've edited Rob's address out. If you know us and would like to write to him just ask via comment on the blog or e-mail and I'll get it to you. Thanks!)

It will take a week or so for stuff to reach me from the states. It will likely take a little longer for me to mail back to you. As always, please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. Julie continues to maintain her blog as well of all the fun stuff going on around home.

It has been awesome to have all of you for support and friendship. My best wishes to all of us in these next several months. Godspeed and take good care.

Warmly,

Rob

Six-Months

OK, how cute is this? So cute and you know it! He is the poster child for "bald is beautiful". He is doing so great! Getting so much better at sitting by himself. He even tries to sit straight up from a laying down position. He is going to have some rock hard abs by the time he figures out how to do it. Of course he still doesn't roll over much. I think he's going to be the kind of baby who does things out of order, walks before he crawls sort of kid.

He did see the doc recently for a wicked bad rash (probably eczema as it turns out) so I just happen to know that (as of a week ago anyway) he weighs 16lb 11oz. The rash is all better now, too.

He is typically a happy boy and loves to play games like peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake and Itsy Bitsy Spider. He also has two teeth. All the better to chew on you with. He will put anything and everything in his mouth from junk mail to fingers - yours or his. And, if it doesn't sound too much like bragging, he is on the cusp of being able to say "mama". I know he is, I'm not the only one to notice either. He makes a very distinct "mm mm mm" noise, especially when he sees me and even more when he sees me when he's hungry. Comparatively it's not too far off from Gabe's first word and Zion was only a little after him. Both of their first words were "kitty".

Birthday Girl

My little girl is two. One, two. According to my little one, two-year old what comes next goes a little like "fork, funkin, sick". She was counting on her fingers in the bath tub tonight. So darn cute. Her birthday was Monday but we celebrated last Sunday when Rob was still home. We had a few folks over (cause I don't much like big parties) Nora and family and Jamie and family. A few people who we had invited had to stay away because Zion came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease just a few days prior. Thanks so much to y'all who braved the germs and came anyway!

We got Zion a play kitchen and I've been slaving away making her play food out of felt. I'm loving this craft! I'll post pictures and more about it when I am done. For now, here's the slide show of her birthday party.



And of course, like I like to do, I've changed the first song on my blog in her honor. I think "Real Wild Child" suits her nicely.

Bringing You Up To Date

I'm really behind in posting. I'm sorry. We had such a great time while Rob was here on leave. He is back in NC currently waiting on the transportation details to work out for heading over there. Since he left we've been busy again. Gabe and Zion started new classes at the Y. Gabe is doing a sports class that introduces a new game each class and Zion is back in swimming. She loves the water so much.

We spent the weekend at my sister's. I had a friend's wedding on Saturday (it was so beautiful and so much fun to see old friends) and Jamie watched the kids for me. Sunday we went to a local nursery where Jamie and family had their pictures done my Kerri. They are GORGEOUS! Of course they are - check them out here. My kids were less than cooperative when I tried to get some shots while we waited. Zion was afraid of the water wheel for some reason and wouldn't let me put her down and Gideon decided it was scream time in the stroller. Stinkers. But it was such a beautiful day and the Fall colors were breathtaking.

Later that day was Jamie's annual Pumpkin Carving Party. Sadly, we "got" to revisit what seems to be Zion's two favorite letters - "E" and "R". Yep, that's right. We ended up back in the Emergency Room. *sigh* Jamie has a window seat in her family room and on the seat is a big black trunk full of toys. Gabe and Zion were sitting on the trunk and Zion scooted forward to get off but ended up falling off instead and landing flat on her face. At first I thought she'd just had a fright but even after she stopped crying she wouldn't go play, wouldn't use her right hand and didn't acknowledge when their best pal Abby showed up. So off we went to rule out a break. She started using her hand in the waiting room so they let us go without x-rays with a warning that if she still guards it after a day or two to take her in again. She is seeing her regular doctor for her two-year check on Thursday so he can make sure it's OK then. She seems to be mostly fine except one or two times that she says "ouchie".

Bob and the girls were nice enough to carve a pumpkin for us and even take pictures with my camera. I guess they even got Gabe to help clean out the pumpkin. If they hadn't taken a picture I may not have believed he actually stuck his hand in there.

The whole weekend was such a blur that I didn't even get to participate in Straight Out Of the Camera Saturday. I even know what I was going to post. So it's too late to jump in officially but here's the picture I chose had I found the time.

It's Jessa playing the drums for Rock Band. Yes, that's a spatula in her right hand. Apparently Zion someone lost one of the drum sticks. Oops. It seems that spatulas work just as well though so keep this in mind if you ever lose one of your own drumsticks.

Here would have been another SOOC option.

This is the nursery where Jamie and gang had their pictures done. Pretty isn't it. There were other areas of the nursery that had gorgeous trees with every perfect Fall color imaginable and a little creek with a working water wheel.

First Food

Gideon has been waiting for this for a long time. Poor little guy has practically been begging for some nosh and I kept putting him off the main reason being that I wanted Rob to be around. Rob is going to miss just about every first in Gideon first year and a half and there's nothing I can do about it except for one first. I could control when he got his first food. So wait we did until his Daddy came home on leave last week. Rob flew in late Wednesday and Thursday Gideon ate real food for the first time (if you can call rice cereal "real food"). If I could read his mind I think he was saying "why was I so excited about this?" but a few days later when he got banana it was a whole different story. Since then he's also had sweet potato. We're three for three on sweet potato being a favorite food for our kids. He definitely loves to eat.

I wanna do it.

Here, let me help you.

I'm Pathetic

I was tagged almost a week ago and forgot to check out my friend's blog to read what I'm supposed to do. I'm so sorry Tiff. Granted I was trying to ready the house for Rob coming home on leave (yep, you read that right, he's home right NOW!) and for Z's birthday party but still, no excuse. Well, here it is without further delay - 7 things you never knew about me and I'll be tagging 5 people.

1) I ran around on my hands and knees like a horse for most of my first dozen years (at least). Much to my mother's chagrin since I was always putting holes in the knees of my pants.

2) I don't like chunks in fruit mixes. Fruit pies, jellies, jams, yogurt. I only like 'em smooth. Chunks make me want to gag.

3) I can't stand having water in my face. That means I don't like splashing in the water at the pool or beach, I never learned to swim properly and I face "out" when I take a shower.

4) My vision is so bad that when I'm not wearing my contacts or glasses I can't see past my nose. Seriously. Everything past that is just vague blobs of color.

5) The old back injury that I have was originally caused by a goat when I was in elementary school (then later exacerbated by another incident with my Husky dog and finally my horse who fell on me). Honest. Cross my heart hope to die.

6) I can't stand checking voice mail. It's such a pain, call your own number, hit buttons, wait while it asks you if you want to hear your messages (well duh, why would I be calling my voice mail then?!) blah blah blah. Therefore, I will never let the phone go to voice mail or the machine if I can avoid it.

7) I was out of high school before I ever owned my own camera. I kept asking for one and my mom kept getting new cameras for other members of my family and then giving me their junk cameras but as far as cameras that actually work, not until after high school.

Well, there you go. Now I'm tagging:

1) Emily because she has nothing better to do being pregnant and having two already.

2) Emily because she just moved to WA and needs to make friends.

3) Marfa to celebrate her new header.

4) Beth because I know she'll post things that will crack us up.

5) Julie to initiate her new blog.

OK ladies, post 7 things we don't know about you and tag five people, it's so easy. :)