Today I am feeling humbled and grateful. I am grateful for SO many things in my life.
Right now I am especially thankful for an entertaining husband who actively participates in raising our kids and doing things around the house. I am also very glad to be able to care for two beautiful, healthy, curious children!
If only the watermelon I just sliced looked like the one in this photo! I was so excited to have some fresh seedless watermelon today (I even had the good intention of sharing some with my neighbor)…. But alas, I cut it open and it was mushy and just overripe to the point of tasting like yucky pumpkin-y taste. I’d “tested” it in the store with my eyes and ears to make sure it was a good one, and as far as I could tell, it was….
I’ve been having really bad luck with produce lately, from a variety of stores, even. I have thrown out several peaches, nectarines, and plums because by the time they are a little bit soft and seem ready to eat, they don’t taste sweet but more bitter/sour and they’re a little brown inside, and just gross.
At least we have amazing tomatoes (and soon, squash) in the garden to turn to for consolation! I’ve been making some dinners with our fresh garden tomatoes, which are divinely tangy!
And good thing my mom helped us plant raspberry bushes, an apple tree, and a pear tree in our backyard just a couple months ago. Now all we have to do is wait like 3 -5 years or something for them to bear fruit….
Okay. I KNOW that people don’t enjoy the presence of nerdy folks like me, who regularly notice grammatical/spelling errors. Blame it on my roots, or on my language background from my BYU days.
But anyway, this one major issue irks me on a daily basis. Your vs. You’re. If you believe that the two are interchangeable, please rethink your belief! I am often surprised to see very intelligent people making that grammatical error on their Facebook status and elsewhere.
There’s a lot to say about “you’re vs. your.” However, since this post is just an annoying one, I will keep this short ‘n’ sweet.
Your is simply the possessive form of you, i.e. something that belongs to you. “Your smoothie, your issue, your mama.”
An example of the wrong use of the word is, “Your so sweet!!!” (Blech! Run in the opposite direction!)
You’re, on the other hand, is a contraction (= a combination of two words: you + are). Just make sure the words “you are” would fit in the spot where you’re writing “you’re.” Correct: “You’re so hot!” Incorrect: “You’re dog has fleas.”
Thank you! Have a nice day!
Ok, so I’m a little bummed that I missed out on this family adventure…
Sometimes, Chase is so sweet and innocent.
Other times, he is not.
We used to have trouble with Chase peeing in various places outside. Like he’d just pull his pants down in the middle of the playground and go, or he’d be playing inside and then I’d suddenly discover him outside, peeing off the front porch. Yes, disgusting, but after many time-outs, he has finally learned that he should only go in the toilet.
HOWEVER, the other day, I was overwhelmed by the stench of pee in Chase’s bedroom. Being a parent and all, the odor of any type of excrement is no stranger to me. But this was an exceptionally strong smell. I tried to figure out where it was coming from… I removed his sheets, looked in every crevice to make sure there wasn’t a used Pull-Up hiding somewhere (he still wears them at night), etc.
Finally, I opened the window to let in some fresh air, at which moment the odor was especially pungent. I looked down, and there I saw the air VENT…. I opened it up and searched around, not finding anything in there. I asked Chase if he had hidden a Pull-Up in there, but he said no. And then, after a little pause, he admitted, “I DID go pee-pee down there, though. Yesterday.” (According to Chase, “yesterday” means within the past few days). AACKk! At least he was honest, right?
I lectured him about it, aired the room out, & sprayed some air freshener. After a day of airing out, the stench seemed to be gone. Well, I think it’s gone… unless we’ve become desensitized and don’t notice the smell anymore… Someone please come over and tell me if our house stinks!
No, he isn’t peeing in the photo below. Surprisingly enough, he has never peed in the infamous, ever-present mud puddle at the park. He does like to pick up chicks there, though.
AW, just look how sweet he is with his baby sister! That’s one thing that has been SO wonderful (thus far)—he totally loves Charlotte, shares all his toys with her, and enjoys entertaining her. They have quite the tight bond already. (No, he doesn’t actually use a pacifier.)
So, do you think we should have allowed Nathan to leave our kid in the trash can on the corner of Center and University last month? I mean, Chase HAD taken off his shoes RIGHT before we had left for the carnival, & suffered the natural consequences of spending the whole evening barefoot. Although I shouldn’t label it “suffering”, because he rather enjoyed it… I don’t think he learned his lesson. OH WELL!
Yes, we still love Chase, anyway. Life would be so boring without him.
SO I just found the coolest thing on a mac since the easy share desktop feature in iChat. It’s called GeekTools, and it’s geeky. The image to the left is my desktop at work (2nd monitor). The cool thing is you can put in little scripts that go and do things, like grab the date and time and pretty much any text from the internet. I’m grabbing the current weather and a weather image. This keeps my basic needful info up to date and plastered as if it was my desktop so there aren’t any stupid clickable widgets. Plus since they are all little scripts who’s refresh rate you can control it takes very little CPU power compared to widget/dashboard systems. I highly recommend pimping out your mac with geektools. Here’s how:
For the nitty gritty of how I accomplished the image above, hit the more link.
A while ago the Gardners gave us a GeoTrax movie, and while Chase didn’t own a single GeoTrax toy, he loved the animated shows about trains. He liked it so much we took it with us to NC in June, where we forgot it in the hotel DVD player. So, thinking that Ryan had multiple copies b/c I thought one came with every toy…(they don’t) we asked Ryan for another one. He informed us to get our own! Luckily he said, it’s FREE! That’s right GRATIS (spanish for free)! Sign up now for your own free GeoTrax DVD, the only downside is it will ship sometime in the next 17 weeks, turns out they aren’t too excited to ship your free dvd.
We had to say farewell to this beloved, sultry lady the other day.
Yes, my first college roommate—we had SUCH a good time together from the start (back in ‘02)! And now she’s headed home to the Golden State to continue her life’s adventures.
One of the qualities I love about Amanda: She’s always so amazing/patient with the little children. After Charlotte was born, Amanda took Chase on a special excursion to the mall and got him this turtle stuffed animal from Build-A-Bear. Chase promptly named him “Car,” I think because Chase got to ride in Amanda’s car, and he thinks Amanda’s car is really cool.
Before Amanda got to our house, Chase decided to make her a goodbye card, in which he told me to write, “I love you Amanda”—short & sweet. Things have changed a lot over time, but we still manage to get together to laugh & cry (literally) about all sorts of things. We think of you often, Amanda, and wish you the best of times back in Cali!
(Background Info: The only time I’ve made this deliciously moist cake was just a few days ago! My mom made it a few times when I was young, and I LOVED it. I loved it so much that it has stayed in the back of my head ever since. I remember helping Mom unwrap the yummy caramels, and I would get to eat one. I think she made this cake for my birthday once. My mom was –and is– great at making our birthdays exciting and special for us kids.)
Chocolate Caramel Cake Recipe
1 box chocolate cake mix (+ oil, milk, & eggs to make it)
50 caramels, unwrapped
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. nuts (optional)
5 oz. can evaporated milk
3 T. regular milk
1/2 or 3/4 c. butter (recipe says 3/4 c. but I say 1/2 c. is enough)
Melt caramels, butter, & all the milk in double boiler (or in a pan sitting on top of a pot of boiling water). Meanwhile, mix up the cake mix as directed on box. Put only half the batter in 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes. Remove from oven, then pour the caramel sauce over the slightly baked cake. Add chocolate chips (& nuts if you want), and the rest of the cake mixture. Bake 18-20 more minutes in the 350 degree oven. Serve warm, with homemade whipped cream.
Charlotte only likes taking baths with Chase. If she is by herself she only lasts a minute. I’m tired and that’s all the intro you get.