::memorial day::

We had a fun Memorial Day. In the morning we went to little parade in our friends' smallish town. The parade went right past their street which was really fun. There was a really festive feel all around.
But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Really we started the day with a "blue raspberry" icee thing for Max, on the way to the parade. If we'd had any idea the amounts of sugar he was going to enjoy later, we never would've done it. But what's done is done. And his tongue was so grossly blue.


The kids couldn't wait for the parade to actually start. You can see here that they're prepared in case of a candy onslaught--halloween pumpkins and all.

The adults were excited too--though I know Kris's face isn't giving too much away.

Then here came this guy. The guy who somewhere along the way had pilfered a shopping cart from someplace and was using it to sell his piles and mounds of cotton candy.

Then a kind-hearted grandfather hooked the kids up with some. Blue of course. Max went for it. He was so disgusting after a little while. Icky, sticky, and blue.


The best part was when some politician came by shaking everybody's hands. He shook Max's and Henry's both. I imagined he was very very sorry for quite a while.

There were lots of fire engines, a couple of bands, a bagpipe troupe and a couple of floats.
This one's for my mom--an old guy behind a huge Breyer horse. I think he was from a local stable.

Then of course there were lots of Shriners doing lots of different stuff. We always love the little cars.

There were a few real veterans in the parade and we were glad to see them.
I thought this guy was the highlight though--crazy Uncle Sam who somehow was himself and a puppet of himself at the same time.

He was pretty awesome.

Then the parade abruptly ended and there was a big line of normal people in their cars, who had probably been waiting for an hour to get through.

We went home and spent the rest of the day getting stuff done. Except I took a two hour nap. I wish I could do that every day.
I wish every day was a monday off, really.

::scavengers::

I've got a couple of little (or big, depending on how you look at it) scavengers on my hands, don't you agree?

We made Marilyn's cookies yesterday, just for fun. (Before all the crazy destructiveness happened.)
They turned out very tasty, but I think I might have overmixed--they're a lot flatter than I was hoping for. That Mr. Kitchenaid doesn't know his own strength.
Kind of like someone else I know.
Unfortunately for Max, all his shenanigans happened before he could have a cookie or two, so many tears ensued when he went to bed deprived of the deliciousness.

The good news is though, today has already been better. He's had one and I'm sure he'll have a few more before the day is out.
Hooray for better days.
Thanks for the yummy recipes Marilyn, as usual!

::careless::

Max has had quite the afternoon. He's done all sorts of things that have driven me nuts.

He found a big long rope of Kris's (much to my chagrin) and dragged it around the yard, knocking things over as he went.

He somehow pulled a big splintered strip up out of one of the deck boards. It was "the rope's fault!"

He pulled over our lame charcoal BBQ and dumped all the charcoal dust out all over our little cement patio.

Then he kicked the dust all around after I told him to stay far far away from it.

He knocked down a set of blinds in a room he had no reason to even be in, much less be in there adjusting the blinds.

He spilled milk all over the living room rug. This is really my fault because I was letting him eat dinner in the living room, and I gave him the milk. I didn't give him much and I told him specifically to be very careful. Hah. Dumb me.

All I wanted to do was yell. And I have to admit that I did. And I banished him outdoors. He was happy to be outside until banished. Then it was cruel and unusual punishment.

I have a feeling this thoughtlessness is just part of being a kid. And maybe especially being a little boy. But what can I do (besides yelling) to get him to open up his eyes and his ears? How can I positively encourage him to take some care? Any ideas from you more experienced parents out there?

::drives me nuts::

I want to know if this drives anybody else nuts.
I hate when school pictures are taken, then a big packet of prints are sent home with the kid.

Yes I think my kid is adorable (even though this photo is totally goofy. Totally.) Yes I'd love to have a BIG one and a billion LITTLE ones and some in between ones, and keychain ones and ones that look like a credit card, etc. etc. BUT. I'm just not going to pay $50 for the whole packet they sent home. I mean, seriously?
I usually buy one sheet. $13 is already stretching it for me for one of these photos.

But anyway, what I really hate is sending the rest of the prints back. I hate the thought of my little boy's face floating around in the ether. And seriously, if they're already printed out--if they'll risk just having to throw them away are they really worth $50? NO!!

So I hate that. I wish they'd just let me order and print to order. They make me feel guilty for sending back photos of my little gapped tooth smiling boy.

Dumb old lifetouch.

::misc::

Looks like we're going to get the house I wanted most after my long week of searching. One house (in the area we were most interested in) stuck out from the rest in price and size and quality. I only found it because I went to the ward on sunday and asked around to see if anybody had heard of places coming available. This place, oddly enough already had some dentists in it, and they were moving on to their next life step. The house was perfect. I knew the second I walked into it.
After a lot of stress and waiting to hear from the landlord who not only was in England, but also on vacation it looks like we're good to go and he's sending us a lease to sign. I'm very relieved. I'm so glad we could find something that will be comfortable and that's at a reasonable price. Hooray!
You want a couple of photos? I don't have much worth showing because I didn't take very good pictures, and the current tenants were in the midst of moving chaos, but what I have I'll show.

My mom took this one. Its' a picture from the sitting room kind of space back towards the kitchen. It's an open concept place with high ceilings, skylights and and a nice airy feeling to it.
From here on out, I'll mostly just show you the yard. (And take the word "yard" with a grain of salt, I mean this is New Mexico, people!!)


Personally I'm happy to have a wall that will keep little boys and big dogs from escaping out into the desert.
We're happy there's a garage. We're happy there's a guest room and more than one bathroom. This will be great.

And how can you go wrong with sunsets like this?
Now I'm able to get excited about moving instead of being worried about it, yay!

Next. I have to speak in church on sunday, and they didn't give me a topic. I'm just supposed to "pick something." I think I've got it picked now, but I've been racking my brains trying to figure out something good. Argh. Like speaking isn't stressful enough?!

It was so hot here yesterday that I just wanted to go to Antarctica. Though I've liked it here, I will NOT be sad to leave the humidity behind. It gets old really fast. And a high 90s day at the end of May is a bit of an unexpected unpleasant surprise, unless you're smart enough to make it to the beach. We weren't.

School goes until June 23rd out here. Can you say cruel & unusual punishment for the poor kids? I think Max will be enjoying some hookey beach days in the next month.

I wish I could write. Go here and read this entry by a girl I went to high school with. She writes so nicely.
An excerpt: "Why do we go to bed only to find another day has slipped through our fingers breaking into a million tiny pieces? A little lump of it lodged in our throat, a little in our heart, a tiny amount in the trash, some settling in our stomachs, and more down the drain, bits and pieces piled in prayer, and specks stuck in beads of sweat."
How lovely is that?
I love the internet and how we can share and read and appreciate each other's thoughts. It's so inspiring and humbling too.

That's all for now. Maybe now that we actually have the house lined up I can remember how to blog again. I've been remiss, and I've been missing it.

::dog day::

A couple of weeks ago we sat down with the calendar to talk over May. Out of nowhere Max declared today, 5/22, DOG DAY. You know, like mother's day or father's day. Dogs are important too. He also said it started at 7:50AM.
So last night he suddenly freaked out because we didn't have any dog day presents, and it was going to start so early! I told him we'd take care of dog day on the day itself, and he could just start it out by being very nice to Sultan.

Sul got to eat 3 times today. This is impressive because normally he eats once a day (not by his choice of course). We bought two different types of dog treats which Max dispensed liberally throughout the day. We got him a wool bone at Trader Joe's that I thought he'd hate, but he seems to like it a lot.
Max asked if we could go mini golfing for dog day. I said that sounded a little unfair, considering the dog couldn't come with us, so instead Kris and Max took Sul to the dog park (really out here the dog park is just a great big dirt patch, so it wasn't that fun. I didn't go. But oh well, it's the thought that counts. I'm sure Sultan didn't mind the dirt.)

After the dirt, I mean dog park, Sultan got a bath. I'm sure this wouldn't be his #1 pick for a dog day activity, but too bad for him.


If you think that Max looks like he's having WAY too much fun here, you'd be right. He was way too delighted to be spraying Sultan against his will.


Max told Kris in the afternoon that Sultan told him that "today was the best day of his life." Pretty great. Then, shortly after that he asked Kris when MAX DAY was going to be. Kris told him that Max day is also known as Max's birthday, and it already happened. I guess that made enough sense to Max. It's a good thing he didn't ask me or else I would probably have started talking about how it seems like EVERY day is Max day. He probably wouldn't have appreciated that explanation quite as much.

Happy DOG DAY to all you dogs out there!

::santa fe::

Max and I spent almost a week looking at zillions of houses and lots of schools. We saw things like this

and this

and this

and yards/landscapes such as these



My mom came out for a few days, helped to entertain Max and kept me from going insane. It was so nice to have her there. It was a lot of work. I probably looked at 10 or so houses (with only a few turning out to be possibilities) and we went and had visits at three schools.

In the end I got a great lead from somebody at church for a house the size we need in the area (with the right school) that we're interested in. Now we're just working on making that happen. Keep your fingers crossed for us, but so far things look good! When the house is ours for sure I'll post some more pictures maybe.

Finally

Finally, a quest that started this past Christmas--when I got a saltwater fly rod as a gift--was achieved. I caught and landed my first stripped bass on a fly rod. I caught it in the Narrow River using a clouser minnow that I tied this winter. I really like the idea of catching fish using the "flies" that you tie yourself.

Ginna and Max are out of town and I'm entertaining myself by fishing.

This is the strongest fish that I've ever landed on a fly rod and it took me a good while to reel it in. My arms were actually tired afterward.

I told myself that if I caught even one fish this year before we moved, I'd call it a successful foray into saltwater flyfishing. Yippee.

::::

Max and I are heading to NM tomorrow to find ourselves a house and take a look at some schools. We're really excited, but it would be so much more fun if Kris could come along!
At least my mom is going to meet us out there for a few days and keep us company. I'm definitely looking forward to that.
We'll keep you posted.

::what flavor is your car?::

Ours is poppyseed.

The tree over our driveway has been dropping all sorts of weird sticky stuff. It doesn't come off much, even at the carwash. Poor poppyseed car.

Ah well, at least the tree is shady. And the car makes me want some sort of delicious lemon poppyseed cake. Mmmmm.

::lilacs::

I love our next door neighbors. I don't know a thing about them, except that they have this lovely huge lilac bush that hangs over the fence into our yard.

Looks like there's almost more in our yard than theirs, doesn't it? This is a view from the driveway. When I got out of the car for a while I could smell the delicious scent wafting out to me. It was heavenly.

I love the smell and the way the blossoms look. It was so fun to watch the bush blossom last spring and this. I'm just bummed that the flowers are gone now. My photos are from last week.

I'm going to have to have my very own bush someday!!

::mothers day bracelets::

I was inspired by the tutorial on my friend Katy's blog. I just loved the bracelet that she had made out of wool pebbles. I thought one of those would be a fun mother's day gift.
But I'm nothing if I'm not practical--I knew I wouldn't get it done if I tried to make my own pebbles. I'll try it some day, but for this time I ordered some from here. Isn't etsy wonderful?
Once they came (all the way from the UK), I took a bunch of beads from back when I thought I might have a knack at jewelry making, and I put them all together.

I think the pebbles are just so interesting--they've got such a cool texture, and the marbled colors are beautiful. It was fun to pick beads to play against the pebbles.

Kris was concerned they'd look like "dryer lint bracelets." He admitted they were cool once I was done.


I like them. What do you think?
Thanks for the inspiration Katy!!

::my mother's day::

I had such a lovely day yesterday. It was pretty chilly outside but the sun was shining very beautifully. Max and Kris took really good care of me.
The flowers are from Max--he made them at school. I love them! He also brought home a handprint with a little poem in a big envelope he had decorated with hearts. So cute. The cheesy poem even made me cry.

Kris made us a yummy breakfast (including bacon). Kris also taught our primary class at church which was nice. In this ward during the 3rd hour the men take over and the ladies get to go in the gym, have snacks and mingle. It's pretty nice.
I guess the bishopric was in charge of the primary. They brought in cupcakes for the kids to frost as mother's day gifts. Kris said it turned out crazy--lots of little kids covered in frosting (happy mother's day!!), but the kids had fun. And the best part was, the bishopric cleaned up after themselves--the room at least.
Max was quite excited to give me the cupcake.

Look at the copious amounts of candy. And can you see the dirt on time? There's real dirt on there, thanks to the little seed pot from primary that Max was also supposed to give me. Pretty funny, right? I let him eat most of it--for some reason.

Kris and Max cleaned up the kitchen and made lunch.

The kitchen was a big mess after our busy weekend, so it was a big job.
I got some nice presents. We played games. I got to talk to Murphy and the rest of my family on Skype. We had delicous ice cream.

It was a great day. Thanks boys for taking such good care of me. I love you so much!!!

::happy birthday mom::

It's my mom's birthday today. I'm far away, so the blog is standing in for a great big birthday hug.

Thanks for being such a good mom and taking such good care of all of us. Thanks for teaching us so much and encouraging us to learn about anything and everything we were interested in.
Thanks for always supporting us. Thanks for working so hard and never giving up. Thanks for loving us with all your heart.
Thanks for all the zillion things I could never list because there are just to many.

Happy birthday, LOVE YOU!!

::uncle mike::

Yesterday my Uncle Mike (my mom's brother) came into town here for business. We're lucky because this is the second time he's visited us--he got to come to Kansas City a couple of years ago too.
So we got to hang out and chat a little bit in the afternoon, and then when Kris was home from work we headed out to give him a quick peek at some of our favorite sights.
We took him down to Newport.
The sun was setting and the wind was blowing and it was a beautiful evening! Newport is prettymuch always pretty, but it was extra nice last night.



I don't know what Count Rochambeau is pointing at, but he looks cool, so whatever.
The wind was making the waves break like crazy. Ocean Drive was beautiful. It was sad nobody was out flying kites though--I guess people have work and other things to do on tuesday afternoon/evening.

(Imagine how good it smelled. Mmmmmm the salty sea!)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the blue boat. It's such a pretty color.

After the drive we went to eat at the Barking Crab restaurant. We've driven past it a zillion times and I've always thought it looked yummy but we've never had a chance to go.
Well, it was yummy. Good seafood and nice service (slightly unusual for RI, but it turned out our server was from CA, so it made sense.) The crab cakes were so yummy--though they didn't bark.

It was a really fun night with Uncle Mike. We're already trying to figure out how to make his company send him to where we'll be living next!

::first beach visit::

On Saturday, after Kris got done studying for his board exam we grabbed some fast food and headed down to the beach. The weather was nice and the sun was bright. We got down there around 5PM or so. There were people there swimming which was truly nuts, but we just set up our lawn chairs to enjoy the view.

Max sort of ate, but really was just too excited to be at the beach. He had to run to and from the water constantly. Over and over. And luckily the water was too cold for Max even to get into it. I think this was maybe the first time ever that he's admitted the water was too cold. Otherwise he'd have been in up to his neck after the first 5 minutes.
There he goes:


And he comes:

He's so cute.


Can you read the sand?

We had a great time. It was a little chilly when the sun started to go down, but the beach is just so awesome, you can't go wrong. We're hoping for some serious beachy time before it's time to move. We'll see how it goes.

On the way home we were impulsive and stopped at one of the many roadside ice cream places. Kris and I shared a banana split and Max got his own serious cone. He was way serious about it too.


And he made a very serious mess.

We had so much fun. And by the way Kris's board exam is over with now, for better or for worse. I'm thinking for better. Hooray for a big thing over with!