Day 8 :: Visiting

Grandma and Grandpa are here visiting...
The kids are getting rightly spoiled rotten.
Up til 10pm, aquariums, museums, getting pushed in the swing for an hour strait...

Day 7 :: My Kitchen

When deciding on this rental, the fact that it wasn't an open floor plan was almost a deal breaker. Jimi said, "how are we going to hang out when you're in the kitchen?"

But  I realize I like my little kitchen space separate. It's a place where I can have some time of my own away from cartoons, and also be able to watch the kids out the window.

We were making pancakes.

Day 6 :: Sweet Kids

Day 5 :: Reading

This is a nice place to read while the puppies play at my feet.

I just read "Cutting For Stone", and I can't stop thinking about it.

Setting:

1950's - 1980's,

Ethiopia,

Catholic Hospital.

Because it follows surgeons, there is a lot of talk about body parts and organs. I am just astounded at how amazing the human body is. Like first of all, why does the heart beat and beat? It's not plugged into the wall. There isn't a battery pack keeping it going, we didn't program it. Why does it just keep going every day?

And other organs, like the liver - how does it know how to do its specific job?  And if it doesn't do that specific job correctly, the whole system shuts down. That seems like a lot of pressure to put on one brown bag of flesh.

And here is the real kicker. Do you know what it is that keeps all these amazing systems and organs going? The food we eat. That's right. If you don't eat food, your organs will shut down and you will die.

Food!

Anyway, it's a good book.

Day 4 :: Hair Do

Last night after bath time, I got the urge to comb Evan's hair.

I realized it was the first time I have ever put a comb through his hair!

Nice to meet you hair, this is comb.

the slick.                                                          the bang.

the faux.                                                  the leave me alone.

Day 3 :: A Year Ago

This picture is of us at Mt. Charleston a year ago when we were fasting for the first interview with Allegiant (that we didn't end up getting).

Also a year ago I wrote this post, bemoaning our situation at Vision Airlines. I was worried because the Vegas fleet was getting moved all over the country, and we didn't really know where we were going to end up. Most likely it would have been Kentucky or Florida, but we knew business-wise it didn't make sense.
And now we hear that, indeed, the base in Kentucky is being shut down. Some of the pilots that just moved their families out there a month ago are being uprooted again.

My point is...every single morning, and again at night, we talk about how thankful we are for this job at Allegiant. I'm going to go ahead and make the comparison - it's like we escaped Nazi Germany. (That's a fair comparison, right?)

You will often hear the phrase "we are living in paradise" spring forth from our lips - this town, Jimi's hours, Allegiant's management style, our house, our yard, the weather, the trees and ocean - it is just a lot to put in our cup, and our cup is runnething over, down our front steps, and out into the street.

Day 2 :: Hand Prints

That one mother's day poem about "enjoy my hand prints all over your house now because one day I will be grown up" (something like that) comes to mind when I see the windows in this condition mere hours after I've cleaned them.

A Picture A Day

Day 1 :: my young

Larrabee State Park

The Evan

What am I going to do about those cheeks, double chin, and swirly white hair?

this kid is really lucky he's the cutest on earth because he's about to wear me into the gravel. between the high pitched screams, mess making, and the whining, i'm probably five years older than i should be.

He laughs in the face of toys, "ha ha! why would i play with that? when i could pull vents off of fire places and wield broomsticks at piper? ha ha!"

Redemption

Do you want to hear something weird? Lately I enjoy having Piper as a pet.

There are two explanations that I could come up with.

Number 1.

As the following collages illustrate, she is getting brave. She actually climbs up the latter to get into Avery's castle.

Up and down!

This is the same dog who four years ago wouldn't go within a 50 yard radius of playground equipment. It's a stunt that has gained back my respect for her as a golden retriever. She's practically a rescue dog at the local fire station.

Number 2.

My kids have entered a phase that includes a lot of fighting, demanding, needing, and exhausting. So if you can imagine, Piper's presence is somewhat calming. I think she's figured out that her needs will not be met anytime soon, so might as well quit asking (panting). Instead she just lays by me and gives me an empathetic eyebrow raise every now and then.

Avery's Little World

According to Avery, we have a lizard living in the dryer. Everytime I open the dryer door, she yells at me not to let lizard out. But sometimes that darn lizard escapes and she has to catch him and throw him back in the dryer where he belongs.

Once we had an owl living on our deck. She crooked her finger, he landed on it, and we pet him for a while.

Today she found a whole family of birds living in her "nursery dress". She brought the little girl bird with us to church. That is why she walked into the building with her hand cupped.

In potty training news, we are successful! (**warning - poop talk ahead**)

#2 is a tuffy, but I think she's getting it. Somewhere along the way in this potty training ordeal, I called poop a "brown turd" so that she wouldn't be so scared of it. Somehow that name made it a less intimidating, tangible thing. So now her little voice can often be heard saying "no brown turd in my bummy!" and, "something something brown turd in toilet" has found its way into her nightly prayers. I even told her we would have a brown turd party if she would go poop in the toilet, but she didn't want a brown turd party (think of the possibilities for a party themed brown turd!).

I would love to be a fly on the wall in any home that is trying to teach a little one to go poop. The things Jimi and I have said to coax her along are hilarious. But what can you do? Anything to get that brown turd in the toilet.

Blueberry Bramble

We went and picked more blueberries today, except this time Jimi and Piper came with us. We stopped at a field with a little booth that said "open", and you leave your money in a slot when you're done. There is a handwritten sign that says, "make checks out to Mr. Buckley".

When we got to field 2 and were unloading the kids, I noticed Avery made it into the car with no shoes on. I thought Jimi had grabbed them, but nope. You would think that would put a real damper on the situation. But maybe you didn't know that Avery has been training for such an experience.

You see, she never puts shoes on when she goes out back to play. I tell her "put your yellow shoes on", and she replies, "no, I want just feet like Rapunzel".

And the secret about our lawn is that it's eighty percent weeds, but she still runs on it to "get Piper" when she's barking. And the gravel and climbing wall are a cinch or her feet. They're leathery tuff now.

So sure enough, picking berries in "just feet" was a piece of cake. Especially because she was pretending to be a princess picking berries. Not the pink or green berries, only the purple ones.

I posed the question to Jim, "is berry picking effeminate?" and he replied, "should I be out hunting a dragon?".

After our baskets felt about 3 pounds heavy, we were ready to go. So Piper thought it would be an excellent time to run into a greasy, stinking ditch and get black mud all over her. It was all part of her personal heaven.

The reason I decided to go pick blueberries in the first place is because my neighbor across the street brought me a bowl of some that she and her family picked, and now I'm addicted to blueberries fresh off the bramble.

That neighbor is Ukrainian and her husband is Russian (but have lived here for 20 years). So every time she yells at her kids to behave, her language swaps over to Russian. Just like my neighbor in Vegas would swap to Spanish when she yelled at her kids.

And our back neighbors are Indian (dots not feathers), and they hang their laundry on a clothesline to dry. I am curious to see how that will work out after the summer is over (next month).

And one time those Indian neighbors were waxing each other's armpits out on their back porch. We peaked at them through our blinds.

I made blueberry crisp, but I am the only one who likes it.

No, Jimi likes the top part. But besides that, it's all mine.

 

18 Months

Guess who is ready for nursery?

 Now that Avery's comfortable with the new teachers and kids, it's Evan who won't let me leave.

But we'll keep trying. He's a bit of a mama's boy. And his favorite toys are the chairs and garbage can.

Blueberry Picking

Wait a Second...

Post bath, Jim was supposed to put these jammies on Avery.
Of course he puts them on Evan instead.
Lots of people refer to Evan as "she".
At Reese's blessing, Andy's grandpa said "that's a lot of energy for a little girl". Even though "she" had a tie on. ha ha!
I'm not going to cut his hair yet though. You can't make me.