stories about us

playing catch-up

I've been meaning to post these pictures for over a week now. In fact, I've been telling my mom—nearly every day since last Saturday when these pictures were taken—"I'm going to be posting some new pictures on my blog tonight." Well, here they finally are...and only nine days late! :P

We missed our chance to visit Mt. Lassen last year (because of all the fires and smoke in the area) so we were especially happy to be able to arrange a last-minute day trip to the park last Labor day weekend. Nothing much planned...just some casual exploring and picnicking. Incidentally, one realizes just how out-of-shape they are when they try to do some casual exploring at an elevation of 8,500 feet and are unable to do some without some moderate huffing and puffing! :P

Still, it was a wonderful day. The kind of day spent out in nature that could soothe a troubled week away. And what a troubled week it had been...more about that after the pictures.

Mt. Lassen in all her majestic glory.

The boys (w/Mt. Lassen in the background).

Our troublemaker extraordinaire!

I like this next series of pictures. Matthew was, obviously, not in the mood to take any more pictures. But thankfully he changed his mind. :)

Hoonie's choice of snack these days, by the way, is Pocky. Mmm.

Hanging out at Lake Helen.

The majority of the day was spent laying about on our quilts in King's Meadow. I love this meadow. There are small streams everywhere (or maybe it's just one long one) winding it's way throughout the meadow and you can just lie down on your blanket, watch the clouds and relax to the sound of trickling water. Oh man, I want to go back!

We also had a grape eating contest while we were there...you know, where you throw your grapes up in the air and try to catch them in your mouth. This was Matthew's first time trying it and he was so bad. We were totally cracking up. Hoonie, of course, just tried to throw them at our faces in general, ha! :)

Amazingly enough, Hoonie did not jump in the water.

I love the way the stream just winds around everywhere.

Growing older by the second...

Jack's belly is growing too, hee! :)

And before we left, we stopped by Sulphur Works to check out some hydrothermal vents. But not before leashing Hoonie!

Our monkey leash is still coming in handy...even though it's been over two years since we first put it to good use! :)

So that's it for the pictures. Now back to that troubled week...

Hoonie, after having a moderately successful first day of daycare, decided one day was enough. I honestly thought he would be okay there since he loves being around people so much. The thing is, he does loves being around people...people he knows & loves! And being enrolled for only two half-days a week, he hasn't really had the chance to get to know the daycare people all that well yet. Imagine how I felt that second day when I arrived to pick him up and when he saw me there, just started crying and came running into my arms. He didn't say much, he was just so relieved to see me. And, with the exception of today, it's been like that every single time we've picked him up. It breaks my heart.

And in the mornings, when he wakes up and realizes it's Monday or Wednesday, he immediately starts crying about having to go to "school" and begs to stay at home instead. I tell you, my heart can't take it.

Jack and I talked about it some this past weekend and were even considering taking him out of daycare. Maybe waiting a few months (or more) before enrolling him again and hoping, oddly enough, that Jack didn't find a full-time job between now and then. Then today happened.

Jack's mom—who used to be a "master teacher" at that same daycare and who occasionally still "subs" there—decided to plan a visit to the daycare today to see Hoonie. That was enough promise to keep him from crying this morning. To tell you the truth, I was actually a bit dubious about the whole plan because I didn't want him using her as a crutch...but then I decided that I would rather have him have a crutch and be happy than be without one and miserable. Turns out that her visit was just what he needed. She was able to introduce him to a few more kids—which is exactly what he needs there...friends!—and keep him from being too lonely. She stayed for just over an hour and when she left, he was totally okay with it.

And the best part of all? When we picked him up today, there were absolutely no tears. He was a happy Hoonie. Still very glad to see us, of course, but definitely more like himself! :)

Anyhow, this still doesn't solve the problem of what we're going to do about daycare, but today gives me a little hope. Hope that things might eventually work out for us and, more importantly, for Hoonie. And right now, I'll take any hope that I can get.

Keeping our fingers crossed for Wednesday!

it's hard not to notice the elephant in the room

...especially when it's as cute as Ella is.

Ella Publishing Company is the creative brain child of Angie Lucas and Lain Ehmann. After Simple Scrapbooks closed it doors, these two decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own e-book company. A scrapbooking-based e-book company...how cool is that?!

Make sure to check out their incredibly adorable website (beta-launched just yesterday), add your name to the mailing list (great giveaways all next week during their grand opening), sign up for their e-zine (just finished a super-fun layout for it) and have a look see at their first three e-books premiering this month (recognize any of the authors?).

I am so happy (& honored) to be a part of the grand opening celebration! And I'm also so incredibly proud of these girls and what they've accomplished in such a short period of time. The e-books are truly beautiful (designed by the great Cathy Zielske) and very affordable too (not to mention eco-friendly as well). I can't wait to read all three...well, two (I guess I've already read mine, ha).

Best of luck to you Ella. I predict great things for you! :)

ps - here's another sneak peak from my (& Sara's) e-book! Check out the website for more!

school daze

School has started for everyone (as of last week) and it's safe to say that we are all in a daze here. I don't know about you, but it just feels wrong to have to send your kid back to school in August. September I can handle, but August? August is, and will always be, a summer month for me! What I am looking forward to, however, is getting ourselves back on a schedule again. When all is said and done, I crave a routine. And school has the tendency to force us back into one, haha!

Anyhow, like I mentioned above, we've all started school now. Matthew is officially a third grader and Hoonie, poor Hoonie, has begun a trial stint in daycare. Boy, was that ever a tough decision to make. We (Jack and I) had always planned on (me) staying home with the kids until they were school age. But with Jack out of work, actively looking for work and possibly getting work at any time—combined with me now back at work...blech!—we had no other choice but to start him down that path. Fortunately, the daycare where I work is pretty nice and he only needs to be in there for two half-days a week (just enough to reserve a spot in case we need to enroll him full-time should Jack find a job). His first day there was really hard on me and I felt pretty miserable about it all day. I still do, actually. But I think I will learn to accept it (in time!) and be thankful that at least he is on the same campus as me and that I can stop by to visit him for lunch (or vice versa). Jack brought him by my office the other day and we picnicked outside during my lunch break before they left for home. All in all, I guess this whole daycare situation could be a lot worse (<--trying really hard to look on the bright side here).

In other news, we have internet service again (we've been out since August 12th...oh, the horror!). Our old service provider was absolutely horrible so we had no other choice but to make the big switch (big = more money). But, we may buy into our new providers internet phone service (which will end up saving us more money in the long run). We're trying it out right now and so far so good. Do any of you guys out there have internet phone service? What do you think of it? Anyhow, there's still no DSL service available where we live (ah, sweet country life) but now with our new internet provider, we can finally watch a YouTube video again. Long live the internet! :)

I can also share some recent pictures with you now too (yes, mom...finally!).

I know, I know...apple pictures are boring. But I'm so excited to have a great crop of them this year! :)

Plus the boys (Matthew & his cousin) can't get enough of them...especially after a swim in the creek or an adventure in the paddleboat.

And see...they make for a cute back-to-school gift too!

Just in case you were wondering...this particular apple did not come off our tree.

Both the boys have really been enjoying the creek this summer. Last year, because of all the crazy fires, they didn't get to do as much swimming as they would have liked...but they've more than made up for it this summer. They've honestly been in the water most every day. Sometimes several times a day. And Jack (who's infamous around these parts for his non-traditional parenting tactics) will even opt to go swimming with Hoonie versus having to clean him up after a particularly messy dining experience. Really.

Matthew has finally progressed beyond the doggie paddle (though it's still a favorite of his, hee!) and has even tried some rudimentary diving and cannonballing. :) And Hoonie usually swims around by himself wearing his wings or a floaty suit. He's actually gotten good enough to swim without either when he's in a pool...he'll jump in, surface to the top and swim over to the wall without much (or occasionally any) help. Bets are on that he'll be swimming completely on his own by next summer!

Getting ready for another cannonball/belly flop.

He's a water baby for sure. And he doesn't even mind the cooler creek water!

And of course before we knew it, along came the dreaded first day of school. Here's Matthew on his first day of school. He's in third grade already if you can believe it! I can't...

Matthew actually got two buzz cuts this summer.

His desk and books for this quarter. :)

And Hoonie started school/daycare the week after Matthew. He was so excited that first day that I thought it wouldn't be that hard on me. Wrong! I focused all day on not letting the tears start (while I was at work) or else I knew I would lose it. I still feel bad about it, to tell you the truth, and I really hope it gets easier for me to deal with it somehow. :(

Hoonie was so excited to go to "school" like brother!

Hopefully this isn't how he feels about school...

All in all, Hoonie's first day was pretty good. When Jack and I left, he could hardly take the time to stop what he was doing to say bye to us. But his teacher told us that by 10:00, he was done playing and ready to come home. When he realized he couldn't, he had a tantrum. As Hoonie said, "I was kicking and screaming and yelling...because I missed you." Oh, how sad is that? But another teacher was able to console him and get his mind off of us by playing with him outdoors (we love Teacher Blanca!). And when we picked him up, he was so amazingly cute. Dirty—with paint all over his clothes and sand in his hair—but oh so cute! The one thing I do feel good about is that he actually gets the chance to do things. I always had the best intentions of doing all sort of things with him while at home, including taking him to the park 2-3 times a week, but as most of you busy moms know...we just never got around to doing most of them. Now he gets the chance to paint, play on the playground, have music time, etc. while he's in daycare. (<--Again, trying to be positive about things here). When all is said and done, though, I would still rather be at home with him...even if to do nothing special (big heavy sigh).

And because I can't end on that very sad, down note...I'm gonna share a couple more happy pics of the boys. Plus I know my mom can never get enough of them! :)

 

Happy weekend everyone. Hope you're enjoying the last days of summer to the fullest!

five possible reasons why i haven't updated the blog in a really long time

1. My laptop died an untimely death on me a month or so ago—by the way, I thought Macs were supposed to live forever and ever!—and I've been experiencing horrible withdrawal symptoms ever since. After all, that laptop and me...we've been attached at the hip for a few years now. I am coping a bit better these days but I sure wish I had the funds to replace it. Especially as the only other computer in the home is already in heavy use by Jack (for job searching) and Matthew (for Lego browsing).

In related news...I've recently made great strides in overcoming my internet addiction.

2. My camera, taking its cue from my laptop, also decided to bite the dust. Well, more technically, it was my zoom lens that broke. I was laying down on the grass (looking up at Matthew to take a picture of him) when my lens just collapsed on itself. Now I can't even twist it to zoom in or out (it's stuck halfway in between) and there's a big metal piece that has come loose inside of it. I'm figuring that's probably not a good thing, right?

In related news...Matthew is suffering from self-esteem issues stemming from the fact that he was so ugly he broke my camera. (Allright, so maybe we kidded him a bit about it.)

3. It's summertime. Which means we're spending more time outdoors than indoors these days. And the kids (& Jack) have been swimming up a storm in the creek. Matthew has advanced beyond the doggy paddle (thank the lord!) and Hoonie is amazing us with his water skills every day. I'm thinking it's possible that he'll be swimming (unaided) by the time summer is through.

In related news...Jack, Matthew and Hoonie all have beautiful golden summer tans. Me? Not so much.  :P

4. We've also been trying to take a few trips here and there when we can. This included some time on the Sonoma coast just recently. When Jack and I were young and in looooove, we would spend many of our weekends out on the Sonoma coast. Jack lived in Santa Rosa for a while (going to graduate school at Sonoma State) and I would come out to visit him from college (in the Napa Valley). Anyhow, Hoonie got to experience the beautiful Pacific for the very first time and, to tell you the truth, couldn't get enough of it...tidepooling, the waves and especially the sand. Plus, Matthew finally got the chance to see some really tall redwoods at Armstrong Grove (and was duly impressed).

In related news...I have recent pictures to share! Mom, you can now pick yourself back up from the floor (she's been waiting forever for these!).

It was pretty foggy when we first got to the beach for low tide but it burned off by mid-morning. The boys loved tidepooling, especially Matthew. We saw starfish, nudibranchs, crabs, chitons, snails, a dead seal (eww!) and a bunch of seaweed! :)

Matthew has been fascinated with tall trees for a while now. He's always wanted to go walking in a redwood forest and finally got a chance to! :) By the way, if Hoonie kinda looks like he has a black eye or two it's only because, well, he kinda has a black eye or two. :P He's actually recovering in these pictures...he used to look a lot worse!

Ah, the beautiful Sonoma coast. I can never get enough of the sand and sea. Too bad we live over three hours away. Hoonie's shorts were once blue but they soon became covered in wet sand. Imagine a wet Hoonie rolling around in the sand and smearing it into his hair (because that's pretty much what happened).

5. And finally, the most likely reason my blog hasn't been updated in over a month is because I am now officially a working mom. I began working last week at the community college located down the road from us. With Jack out of work (since December), things were getting out of hand for us financially. Way out of hand. So I decided to throw my hat into the job searching arena too. And guess what? Before I even knew it, I was filling out paperwork at Human Resources. Thankfully, the transition hasn't been all that bad but I think that's only because Jack is home to watch the boys. Once—if, that is!—he manages to find a full-time teaching position, though, things will change. Hoonie will most likely have to be enrolled in daycare (boohoo!) and we'll probably have to put Matthew in after-school programs. Just the thought of it makes me a bit sad so I'll leave it at that. :(

So, where does this leave the blog? I'm not sure yet. To tell you the truth, I'm pretty tired after getting home from work and when I do, I usually just want to hang out with the kids and build Lego sets or play the Wii with them (I'm getting really good at Mario Kart, by the way!). Then since I feel sorry for Mr. Mom, I try to help him out with all the house stuff if I can too. I'm thinking that I might change the focus of the blog a bit and just share some photos now and then along with some quick captions. Ah decisions, decisions. Right now, I think I'm just going to decide to enjoy my weekend because they're more precious than ever before!

Hope you all have a good one! :)

dinner (and a show)

Last night as we all sat down to dinner, a fire engine pulled up right in front of our house. As surprising and as unexpected as that was, it was immediately followed by an even larger engine and several other vehicles behind that.

Knowing that my family was all safe and sound, I was more curious about the whole affair than worried. Jack, on the other hand, was certain that smoke must have been billowing out from the back of our house unbeknownst to us. It wasn't (thank goodness).

Turns out, it was our neighbor Mark—who happens to be the chief of the volunteer fire department in our area—and about half of his crew. He had stopped by hoping that we would allow him to practice drafting water from our creek. Evidently, their tanker (which holds about 500 gallons of water) will run out of water in about five minutes. And here in the middle of nowhere, there aren't many (read = any) fire hydrants available. So, the ability to suck water directly out of a water source to fight a fire is a very desirable thing. And being that these very people were some of the ones who helped save our home during the fires last year, we had no other answer but "yes" for them!

 

The boys, of course, loved watching the whole thing unfold and so did we. Truth be told, it was one of the more entertaining dinners we've had in a while! :)

I love it when unexpected little things like that come make our day (or evening, as it were), don't you?

check it out

I was going to mention this at the end of my post yesterday, but I think it probably deserves a post of its own! :)

I'm so very excited for many of my former friends/colleagues of Simple who have banded together to create this wonderful inspiration collective. So glad there is one place to keep tabs on all my girls! I know that I will be checking in often to see what they've been up to. I hope you do too!

my life with boys

Even with part of it spinning out-of-control, I find my life with boys (more specifically, my boys) to be a pretty good one.

Even if the older one has recently decided to dabble in a bit of back-talk lately. And occasionally acts like a disinterested teenager (even though he's technically only eight and a half). When it really comes down to it, he's still awfully sweet on the inside. And that's what matters, right?

By the way, we decided to get his summer buzz cut a little early this year. He's loving it. And so am I since it requires absolutely no prep time. Hey, anything to save us a minute in the morning is golden! Though, really, we only need to worry about three more days of school...hooray! :)

Here's a better picture (or series of pictures) of Matthew (and his haircut) taken the other day. Isn't he looking so old? He started his summer swim lessons today and is excited to become a better swimmer. It's only a two-week course and if he does okay he'll advance to the next level. I think it eventually leads to a diving and guard-start class...but, honestly, I think that's a few years down the line for us. We're just looking to advance beyond the doggy-paddle here, ha! :)

Anyhow, in anticipation of summer (and making full use of it), Matthew has decided to learn how to ride a bike. Yes, ride a bike. I know for most of you with kids, this task was accomplished when they were four, five, six...possibly younger. But for Matthew, well, let's just leave it at "He's really book smart!" :) He's making up for lost time though as he rides his bike every single afternoon and has even learned to ride it on our gravel road. It was totally a big step for me but I have finally allowed him to ride by himself to grandmommie's house just down the road. Almost a half-mile trip, actually. He does have to take a walkie-talkie with him and has to check-in with me at three scheduled "stops" before he arrives at his destination (which then requires a final check in from grandmommie). Yes, I can already  envision our future when he goes off to college...checking in with me every step of the way, ha ha! :)

Anyhow, in addition to all the bike riding, the boys have really been into their scooters as well. Hoonie has his own three-wheeled scooter but prefers riding on brother's (much more dangerous for a three-year old) Razor instead. His most favorite thing of all, however, is to ride with Matthew on the Razor. So this is what I often see outside my kitchen window. Aren't they the cutest? :)

Speaking of Hoonie, he turned three last month. We celebrated outdoors on the picnic porch...his birthday and mother's day combined, as usual. I was a bit too exhausted to make a cake so I just opted for some quick cupcakes combined with these awesome treats from Costco (we love them!).

 

What else have the boys been up to? Well, it's really been warming up around here so they've been doing lots of swimming lately...either in the creek (both boys), in our inflate-a-pool (usually Hoonie) or in grandmommie's pool (usually Matthew).

We've seriously had this blow-up pool since Matthew was a baby and it has really given us our money's worth! Hoonie especially loves splashing around in it!

 

 

And of course now that the paddleboat is back in commission, there's been many an adventure taken in there as well. The boys especially love to go for a ride after school...with plenty of snacks!

And for Hoonie, it's just as fun hanging out on the paddleboat dock as it is taking an actual ride in the paddleboat! He's a monkey for sure, that one! :)

In other news, we did catch our first rattlesnake of the season and it was a fairly big one. About three feet long. See, it hasn't been all fun and games around here...

And with that, I'll end my post. Just be thankful the picture of the snake isn't at top because with the way I've been updating the blog, you'd be stuck looking at it for the next three weeks! ;P

Hope everyone is having a good week. Will try to catch up on posts (and pictures) this week as my mom has been having some serious grandkid withdrawls. Good thing she's coming for a visit next week! :)

don't look mom! really, don't look!

After locking myself in the craftroom all day, I've emerged with mother's day cards and gifts (breathing a huge sigh of relief here). Of course, in the case of my mom, I still need to get to the post office to mail her her package—and therein lies the problem because I absolutely hate going to the post office!—but at least I have a package to mail to her now!

Experiencing a shortage of money-bearing trees in our yard, I needed a cute and inexpensive project to make. And since grandmothers seem to like nothing more than even more pictures of their grandkids to share, I decided to make some fabric-covered brag books for them. I already had some older, but still very cute, Alexander Henry fabrics as well as a few of those cheapy-plastic photo albums. I just needed to sit down and think about how to make covers for them. And, honestly, that took me about an hour. Or more. Okay, definitely more! :P My mom—who is an excellent seamstress, by the way—can just make sewing projects up as she goes along. Me? I'd end up stitching my hands closed into something (with no way of ever retrieving them back out!) if I wasn't careful. So I definitely had to think and plan a bit before.

Anyhow, by the time I finished two "trial" ones, I got the hang of it. And you know what? I totally love them! I made a set of three for each of our moms and then a few extra just because. Towards the end, I fooled around with adding some ribbon along the spine and even sewing ribbon onto one to use as a tie. They make me so happy with their fruity prints! :)

As for the cards, I usually make a little mini-album every year ("from the grandkids") with some recent pictures and drawings in it along with a coordinating card from Jack and I. Lacking inspiration & motivation, though, I was seriously going to pass on making them this year...but somehow I let Jack talk me back into it. And in the end I'm glad he did simply because I know our moms will appreciate it. :)

Allright, I guess that's enough bragging for today, hee! It's just that me + sewing projects don't usually result in a happy ending (if at all...most projects remain unfinished, ha!).

I have to get going anyhow because we're supposed to be putting in the paddleboat this afternoon and Matthew is about to pee in his pants if I don't get off the computer and get outside already. You know how it is with eight-year olds, don't you?

Hope everyone is having a nice week! :)

and without further ado

Sorry to keep you waiting all weekend (and then some). It's been really stormy around here and with the unsettled weather my internet service is less than stellar. But, the sun has finally come out again and my internet seems to be working okay for now (holding my breath, of course).

Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments about Simple. I enjoyed reading each and every one of them! :) It seems, however, that the ever popular random number generator especially liked comment #152.

Utilizing my super-special sleuthing skills, I discovered that "kimmik" was the owner of the 152nd comment.

So three cheers for Kimmik...don't forget to send me an email ([email protected]) by the end of the week to claim your prize! And thanks again to everyone for playing along!

Now I head back to the craftroom where I'll be working on Mother's Day gifts and cards. It's going to involve a sewing maching which also means it's going to involve a fair amount of cursing. Wish me luck and hopefully I'll have something to share for my efforts! :)

happy may day

*Pretend that it's May 1st when you read this...my internet started getting v-e-r-y slow yesterday, then went out completely and then I fell asleep and never posted, ha! But I checked and you can still enter the giveaways I mention at the end...they're taking comments until 10:00 (MST) tonite! Good luck! :)

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Happy May Day to all you druid folk out there. I'm going to have Jack bring out the Maypole later today for some merrymaking (wait a minute, that totally didn't come out how I thought it would, haha!). Anyhow, we don't even own a Maypole...that is so last year, hee! Truth be told, I was just trying to get in on the holiday spirit, ya know, before things went terribly downhill. Ah well...

For some reason, the first day of May always seems to bring with it a sense of excitement. For me at least. I think it's because school will be over soon (= looking forward to sleeping in), the flowers and trees have all bloomed (= no more winter, hooray!) and, for us, the creek/lake is back in (= the most lovely view out my front door for the next six months).

Seriously, how could one ever tire of that view? Incidentally, now that the dam has gone in, you know that I'll be hosting my annual "Guess how long it took fill up the Lake Giveaway." I'm thinking early next week some time, so don't forget to check back in. Oddly enough, we never know what to call our little pool of water. Since we dam it up, we refer to it as a "lake." But it seems a bit, well, smallish to be called a lake, don't you think? People have often referred to it as a "pond" as well. But that tends to peeve Jack off a bit because to him a pond equals stagnant water (which our lake isn't...since the creek runs year-round). I tend to refer to it as "the creek" and will talk about "the creek" being in or out. But that's a bit silly too as the creek is there all the time. Regardless, I can't believe I've wasted a whole half-paragraph on this very topic. Call it what you will, it's back in and we couldn't be happier! Well, maybe just a teeny bit. The paddleboat is still getting its annual refurbishment and the boys are not-so-patiently waiting for it to just.be.done.already.

Well, in honor of all things spring-like, I'm gonna share some quick spring pictures with you from around the creek house. It's been a while since I've done any regular blogging and I've got a serious backlog of pictures I want to share with you all. I'll try to restrain myself and just keep it down to a few though...yea, right

1) Our very beautiful apple tree blossoms. We're hoping for lots and lots of apples this year (since last year was a total bust!).

2) The beautiful dogwood tree just outside the guest/craftroom. I love, love, love this tree...so much so that I even did a layout about it!

3) What? You mean to tell me that you don't have wild turkeys running amok in your front yard strutting their "stuff" all day in a desperate attempt to find a suitable mate? Really? It's just us?

4) Last month, we finally got around to planting some flowers here and there around the house. You know, 'cause we've only been living here for over two years now! We stuck to some perennial favorites...pincushion flowers, geraniums, sea thrift (see below) and a mugo pine. Okay, so the last one was totally Jack's pick. But I went ahead and approved it since I know that all authentic cottage-y gardens should have a mugo pine in it. Oh, you didn't know? :P

5) And I know these aren't from around the creek house, but we've been to Turtle Bay twice already this spring and I can't get over all their cool flowering plants. Next time we go, I'm going to have to make sure to write down some of the names of these plants...

And believe it or not, I actually have pictures of people (more specifically, the boys) too. How novel, I know! :)

6) Matthew is looking far too old these days, don't you think? This was taken at Table Mountain on our annual "Do you think the wildflowers have bloomed on Table Mountain yet?" trip. And, sadly, we were a bit too early this year (we were on the late side last year). The lupines weren't even out yet this time around (not that the boys cared though, ha!).

7) And here's a shot of Hoonie from the same Table Mountain excursion...it's so cute to see him wearing all of Matthew's old clothes. :)

8) We also took another trip up Highway 70 while my brother was out visiting. This time we found a little sandy beach by the river and climbed on down. A bit nerve wracking for me since I was imagining both my boys falling into the river simultaneously and having to decide who to save first (we moms sure know how to worry a good afternoon away, dont' we?).

9) And, finally, a couple more of our little Hoonie monster taken at Turtle Bay. Believe it or not, this little stinker will be turning three in less than two weeks. Lord have mercy on us all!

I'm going to have to start planning his birthday party which is going to be next Sunday. Just family, like usual. But it's always nice to plan things out a bit.

Anyhow, I guess I have to admit that I've been in a complete funk lately (lately = all of 2009 so far) and not in the mood to share much of my life on here. But, thankfully, with spring comes a sense of hope and I'm really going to try to break out of whatever it is that I've been in. So stick around for a bit and, who knows, I might just start sharing some stories again soon.

Happy Friday everyone! :)

ps-Don't forget that you can still leave a comment on yesterday's post to enter your name in my Simple giveaway. And check out these three blogs today for a really cool giveaway: Angie, Cathy and Wendy.