Decepticons

While it may looks like one person has yet to place their ships and the other person is cheating... there is a reasonable explanation to this game.

It's not a game.

These are top of the line, very newfangled, cutting edge Battleship Brand Laptops.
Hours of enjoyment for all involved, let me tell you.

I have the most amazing friends.

My friend, Char (if you're not reading her blog, you should be!) sent me the most lovely housewarming gift a couple of days ago.

She already posted it on her blog, and since I'm feeling quite under the weather, I have not. So here it is.



Char, I thank you with all my heart... and all my messy cooking skillz!

Green Thumb?

Part of the reason I was SO excited about buying a home was the possibility of a garden. Growing up we ALWAYS had a large garden. Did I say large? I meant HUGE garden. Lots and lots of tomato plants. Green beans. Peppers, peas, carrots, broccoli, and my favorite: Zucchini.

No, I'm not kidding. Sweet lovely zucchini cookies, breads, sauteed zucs. Mercy!

Unfortunately, we moved into our home about a month too late to start a real garden. What's that you say? It's still snowing in your backyard? What you need to know about FL's growing seasons is that there are three. The "summer" growing season actually starts in February and at the latest, early March. So, by the time we moved here, it was too late for my precious zucchini. The reason you have to get started so early here is because the sun become beastly quite quickly. By the end of May, you've basically just got your tomatoes left.


So, that's what we're doing. Tomatoes.

We've also got a lovely little herb planter going on: Sweet Basil, Cilantro, and just today I bought some Chives.


I have to tell you how much happiness it brings me to go out there and water my plants every day. Communing with nature and all that.


This last picture has me totally excited.

These are my baby grapefruits. Each of these pea sized green balls will, hopefully, be a delicious grapefruit eventually. I'm already drooling.

Seriously can't wait for the October growing season! The planning starts now!

Diet of Champions

We took Lucas in for his one year well-child exam today. At nine months he weighed a whopping 13 pounds 14 ounces.

Today he tipped the scales at 14 pounds 14 ounces. Heavy sigh!

And it's no wonder, when you consider the staples of his diet.

Pencil erasers. Crayons. Dirt. Playdough. and Raisins. Kidding. Mostly.

He's obviously very cute, he's just not very big. Fortunately, we've already run the gamut of testing and they've found nothing wrong with him. He's just bound to be little. We're buying him some jodhpurs and a whip to get him started early on his jockeying career.

Anyone who has fed him a meal knows that he's not little because he doesn't eat enough. He loves to eat. And he's quite vocal about it. He will definitely let you know if he needs more food. Which he will.


I take a lot of pictures of him eating to prove that we do actually feed him.

I kid. It's because it's the only time he'll sit still for me.

Confession Time.

We have never (not since we've been married) had a dining room table that we could regularly eat at as a family. I know! This sounds totally ridiculous.

In every house we've rented, the dining room was either too small to seat our entire family at once, OR the dining room was carpeted. CARPETED. Can we discuss the ridiculousness of putting carpet in a rental dining room? Do you know how trashed your carpet gets when you let little kids eat on it?

Our house? No carpet in the entire downstairs. Do you know what this means?!
I'll tell you what this means!


It means eating dinner as a family.
It means having someone in charge of setting the table.
Having someone in charge of clearing the table.
It means sitting as a family around a table to enjoy a meal and a conversation and each other's company.
It means Mom feels motivated to make dinner again.
It means enjoying my children and hearing about their day.
It means I have more patience.

I really never thought that something as simple as eating dinner together could produce such amazing results. Looks like it might be time for me to start wearing an apron and pearls.

The Curtains were Hung...

By the window with care...



Please ignore the still unpacked box and that hideous floor lamp. It's all we've got till we can settle our lighting disputes. We like to dispute. You didn't know?



Also, if anyone has some brilliant idea for the top of that bookcase/wall between the curtains, we'd appreciate it. I was hoping for a large portrait of each kid, but we're still unsure.



I want to rehang the curtains so you can't see the rods... not loving them on the ring clips so much. I tried moving the ring clips down on the curtains, but then they don't hold onto the fabric so well. Helps?

We're undergoing the slow conversion from reds to greens and blues. Be patient while we mismatch?

Together

Printing this one large for my new house. Would it be weird to get wallpaper made?
I have to admit that I don't normally think the boys look alike. But I can totally see it in this picture. Just look at that identical smile!

*Contented Sigh*

The moment you've been pretending to be waiting for.

House pictures. Or I can do you one better. A house tour.

Please keep in mind that I did this tour the day we moved in. I would estimate that 90% of that stuff is now put away. I still need to properly unpack the kids' rooms but I need to buy some toy storage/organization first.



I'll do another tour soon so you can see where we decided to put all our junk!

Here are some stills from before the house was bombarded with two truckloads of crap.

The girls' room. Need to hang curtains in that corner... any suggestions on how to configure that one??


Boys' Room. Needs another coat of paint. Needs Matt to get busy with some kind of funky stripe he has planned.


There was a whole fiasco regarding our color choices, but lets just say that Matt redeemed himself and repainted two entire walls for me. But that's what happens when you do a poor job paint matching, eh Matt? Love the brown corner. It brings me a tiny bit of happiness every time I walk up the stairs. Also, it makes me want a frosty.

Suggestions always welcome.

Uh. So. Yeah.

One of my kids had a birthday on Friday. I'll let you guess which one.

A hint:


I have a really hard time believing that he's actually a full year old. He has fully integrated himself into our way of life (read: chaos) and into our hearts.



As you can see, he's walking all over the place. He's pretty steady on those tiny legs.

Yes, we're quite fond of the little bugger.
I'll have to come back in a bit with house images. My hard drive is wigging out.