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We got another bug. But this time it's some virus that turned off the "asdf...jkl;" keys on our laptop. What's up with that? Can you write a post or do anything without such keys? I quickly discovered no. I keep turning the laptop off and then back on to see if it will magically fix itself, but alas, no such luck. The frustrating thing about it, at least to me, is that I keep all our pictures on the laptop and have a system of how and where to store them so I can post them easily. We have a new laptop coming and now I have to learn something new and I'm old and I don't like change. Dang it.

Anyway, picking up from the last post, I am all better and feeling good. Lucas has been off at cub scout day camp this week and, though it's been super fun, he is ready for it to be over. Can you be burned out with too much fun? He was gone for 3 weeks in July doing amazingly fun things like animation camp with his cousin Jack, camping in Bend where all the kids followed him around like the pied piper plus hiking, golfing and movies with his grandparents in Spokane. Over all, a pretty great summer so far.

And August will be just as full. I went a little camp-happy this year and signed him up for 2 more camps this month. Mainly because his best friend, Kyle was signing up for them but now I think Lucas is feeling burned out and just wants to be home. I can understand that, I like to be home too. And I am wanting a little down time with my Lucas, slurping popsicles (like only Lucas can slurp them) on our back porch and riding bikes around the neighborhood. We may just have to cancel some fun so he can spend some time with his mama.

Now, a post is no post unless it has pictures. At least my writing doesn't stand alone. So, since our recent pictures are trapped in the bowels of our "asdf...jkl;" disadvantaged computer, I picked out super-random-but-some-of-my-favorite pics of Lukey. Or Gookey, as he's referred to lately.


Now, how could not just love that little face on his first day of kindergarten!?

Or lazily "swimming" with his daddy...

Contemplating his future....

Cuddling with his great-grandmother, Judy "Honey, it's gotta DO something!" Fish...

And how he spent his entire early childhood...in costume and fighting the bad guys.

I know. How random.

Love, love, love this kid.

Flattened.

I have not been this sick in a L.O.N.G. time. We were in Portland all last week to visit with my sister's family and to have Lucas attend animation camp with his cousin Jack. So fun!

But come Thursday I came down with a combination of a stomach bug that was going around and a flu that left me in a fever-driven comatose state for almost 3 days. My throat swelled up to where it killed to even think about swallowing and my entire body ached. I mean my ears hurt. My toes hurt. Every joint in my body ached. I spent about 4 hours of Friday awake. The rest was spent in a drug-induced sleep that just left me more achy and more tired. I won't even mention the puking. Aaron and my sister Genet took care of everything. That's when you know you've married a good man, one who still loves you and tells you you're beautiful even when you haven't bathed for 3 days and your sweaty hair is plastered to your forehead. He then completely packs everything up to go home (which is quite a feat since we've spread ourselves out throughout the house), cleans the basement, changes the sheets and gets everything packed in the car. He's changed every one of Jonah's poopy diapers and changed him when he decided to go back in the baby pool, fully clothed, right as we are walking out the door. Aah, that man takes good care of me.

The saddest part about it was not being able to see our niece Camille on Friday or Saturday. She is up from Texas and we haven't seen her in years. (Sorry, Camille!) I am hoping to figure out a way to see her when I go back down to pick Lucas up from Portland.

We some how made it home on Saturday, I stayed in bed all day Sunday and I am just venturing out of my room for the first time this morning. I feel better than I have in days, but it's 9am and I am ready for a nap. The laundry and the get-the-house-back-in-order-post-vacation is just going to have to wait one more day. This rainy Monday weather is quite conducive to just hunkering down and convalescing with movies and herbal tea. And I think that is exactly what I am going to do...after my nap.

We have a mouse in the house

Luckily he left a trail of chewed-up apple skins straight to his hide out. I easily "took care of him."



I tickled him until he got the hiccups.

Little Mr. Independence

Jonah (aka JB, Jonut, Little B, Disaster) turned 18 months on June 30th. C.R.A.Z.Y.


I've been coming back to this post all week so I have a random collection of thoughts and things I love about this kid.

He is one that expresses his opinion and lets me know what he wants or doesn't want in the primitive form of screeching. For example, we tried to go for a walk the other day. He LOVES being outside and will spend hours playing in the backyard moving sticks and eating leaves. So I decided to have him walk himself around the block. Yet any time I go forward, he wants to go backward. Any time I want to turn a corner, he wants to turn the other way. He screeched when he wanted to hold the dog's leash. he screeched when the dog was too strong and didn't go where he wanted. He screeched when I tried to help him hold the leash so he wouldn't be dragged down the street. He screeched when the dog pulled him over and he landed flat on his face. He screeched again when I took the leash from him. I have to admit we only made it 200 yards before we turned around, both of us screeching and went home.

So yes, he has quite the independent streak in him. He has to feed himself, take the keys out to the car, walk the way he wants to go, close doors by himself, he would even push himself in the grocery cart if he could. There are times he screeches when I have my hands on the cart too, not quite putting it together I have to push in order for us to go.

Case in point, Lucas was riding bikes out front. Of course, Jonah wanted to ride too.


But then he still wasn't happy until Lucas completely let go of him so he could "ride" himself.


Unprompted, he started folding his arms during prayers and we get a resounding, "Yea!" whenever we finish.

Jonah is a climber and has perfected pushing the chair up to the counters or computer table, literally bringing his havoc to new heights.



Jonah loves babies, so I bought him a baby doll a few weeks ago. I know. Everyone has their different opinion about boys and dolls. Even the cashier at the store said, "Is this doll for you?! You're a boy. You don't play with dolls." Me, being me, I just smiled and thanked her for my receipt and then told her nicely to "Shut up." In my head. I don't care what anyone says, he loves his baby. He cuddles him, lays him down to go "night-night," and sings to him. He plays with his swords and balls lots more than his baby but I know he has a soft spot for him.

Jonah continues in his babbling. He says about 20 words including sounds effects to about 7-8 animals. My favorite being the lion because he always whispers the "roar." Why, I do not know.

Key to recent Jonah Speak
Pacifier: "choopie" (we call it chupe, Spanish)
Cock-a-doodle-doo: "Do-do-DOOO!"
Please: "Pea"
Pj's: "Peas"
Thank you: "Kankoo"
Anything he really likes: "Cool."
I want up on this couch: "Screech. Screech. Screech."

For months every time we asked him to say "Lucas," Jonah would respond "Doggie." Then after that, any time we asked him to say "Lucas" we would get just silence. Nothing. And then out of the blue he started saying "Gookey." And he sure loves his "Gookey." he wants to do everything his older brother does. Lucas is sitting on the floor, Jonah goes and sits on the floor. Lucas is reading a book, Jonah grabs his book and sits next to him.

Love this kid, even if he still prefers dog food to my cooking and keeps trying to change the password on my computer. We'll keep him.


Especially now that we've made it to Nursery!

Never a dull moment

You should hear him on the recorder.

Brotherly love

I came from a family of 3 girls and Aaron from 3 boys. You could say our sibling relationships growing up were a little different. My mother in law talks about growing up with all sisters as well and then, when having 3 rambunctious boys, calling her father and asking, "Is this normal!?" I've asked myself the same thing at times. It's just innate in a boy to chuckle at potty humor, turn everything into a sword and to wrestle. Not that we didn't wrestle all the time with my dad but we turned it all into pretty tumbling routines and fancy lifts. Not so with boys.

And I'm told it usually starts quite innocently...


...but turns into something else in no time flat.




Winner?
Or just hiding from Mom?

I tried to stop them and put them in time out...

But they didn't seem to mind too much.


It calmed down just as quickly as it began and these brothers, like all others, are closer for it.

Runaway Bride

Anyone remember that movie? With Julia Roberts who left 3 men at the alter and Richard Gere, the reporter, who comes to write a story about her only fall in love but then gets left at the alter himself? One of his explanations of why Julia runs from marriage is that she doesn't know herself, case in point The Eggs. He asks each of her ex-fiances how Julia likes her eggs and each one have a different answer. She liked them how they liked them. She herself didn't know how she even liked her eggs because she conformed to whomever she was with.

I realized when it comes to design, I am Julia. I walk into someone's home and love their retro feel and clean lines. That same day I go into someone else's house and love their kitchy, old world feel. Some days I love lots of bold colors and funky patterns, and other days I adore calming neutrals. Some days I really go for the classic drama of dark woods and other times lots of white call to me.

When I decided to redo my dining room, almost a year ago, I found myself stuck. Completely. I didn't know what I liked. How do I redo a room when I have decorating ADD? So I went out to search for rooms that struck me. I started collecting pictures just from other blogs and other homes sites, and I began to see a pattern.

I really love whites and light and blues these days. I love the neutrals with splashes of fun color. My house right now has been so dark...dark woods, dark furniture, dark accents. But in our home, even with the sun out, we don't get much direct sunlight through the windows. So maybe it's the dark grey winters that have gotten to me or maybe just my tastes have changed, but I need light and white and to get rid of so much dark. We started by painting our dining room a great white, suggested by my dear friend and decorating guru, Cher. And it's taken off from there. Light is beginning to take over our home and I love it! I have also realized I LOVE thrift stores and garage sales. I love going through junk and finding things I can make new again. Really calls to me these days. But it also makes the redecorating process slow as I search for just the right thingy to put on the wall. I have a few projects I will post but some are still a work in progress. It's become and hobby and a bit of a passion to learn how to refinish furniture, sew slipcovers and spray paint anything. We'll see where it takes our little home. Stay tuned.

Newport has a beach?

I guess I was so focused on the marathon that it didn't quite register that Newport was yes, on the coast and yes, there would be a beach and yes, the weather might not be cold and rainy like it is in Seattle. Therefore on the first day when the weather was beautiful and perfect we were found on the beach with no sunscreen, beach toys, swimsuits or towels. But we truly enjoyed ourselves anyway in the sun and surf.

Well, maybe not all of us....



But he was a good sport and didn't seem worse for the wear.



He just spent the rest of the afternoon waddling around like a jawa.

The afternoons on the coast were wonderful and relaxing (except for Jonah's constant need to explore the outermost recesses of the shore, the farther away from our little "camp" the better)and it was the perfect little getaway before and after the race.

And I'll be better beach-prepared for next year's marathon. Right, Aaron?... Aaron??