::simple pleasures::

It's nice that 99 cents worth of pinwheel and a (slightly freezerburned) creamsicle can make a little boy happy on a sunny afternoon.
I don't think I've ever bought him a pinwheel before--I don't know how that's possible but I think it's true.

(doesn't our yard look so trashy? the dead grass--it'll come alive soon I hope, the kid/dog toys scattered everywhere, the section of fence leaning up against the fence. Oh well, we're renters. It's what we're supposed to do, right?)

::happy st paddy's::

Happy St. Patrick's day to everybody. St. Paddy's day was always fun at my house growing up. My mom's dad's side of the family is Irish, so we had a little something to celebrate. So we always wore lots of green, pinched people and ate some sort of green treat. Or at least I remember eating green treats from time to time.

So here at our house now, we wear green. Max, in fact wore two green shirts, green socks and green underwear. It's always good to be thorough, right?
Nobody in our family got pinched today. We were all nice and green.

Evidently they did a little St. Patrick's style stuff at Max's school too.


It's true. So true. (And so adorable.) If he had a pot of gold he would definitely use it to buy toys with. No question.

As far as treats go, last year I made cupcakes. They were delicious chocolate cupcakes with green frosting and we loved them. But we're trying to eat healthy right now. Nothing ruins eating healthy faster or more effectively than a big batch of delicious chocolate cupcakes.

So no cupcakes. Plus I wasn't into cooking all afternoon since the sun was out. So instead I spent the afternoon out on the deck watching Max play and being sucked into his strange and crazy pretend games. Then after dinner I threw some ice cream, milk and a few peppermint patties into the blender and we had ourselves some mint shakes. Slightly green and totally yummy.

That was our day. We were happy to see the sun and to be wearing green. And happy to be Irish, however low the percentage is in the mix.

In conclusion, here's the 1st attempt to take the photo at the top of the post. I count it as a fail since I had to get the creamsicle out of my hair afterwards. But it's funny.

::two items of business::

1st:
Max putting Rachel's hedgehogs to good use.

They're as cute as the real thing! A little less tickly though. And you don't have the thrill of danger--you might poke your finger on a real hedgehog. But they're a lot more predictable.

2nd:
Kris got his New Mexico dental license on Saturday. It was a huge pain to get, so we're happy to have that step over with. And it means we're really going there. CRAZY!

Like his moustache?

::hedgehog::

A while back Max and I got to go to a sort of "mothers & sons" activity at his school. (Except it wasn't really mother's and sons since people these days don't always have the normal amount of parents--it was billed as some sort of "gentleman's choice" event which got me really confused.) Anyway, we went and the activity was all based around a party entertainer reptile man. He brought tons of animals. He told us about all of them and showed them to us. Then after he was done with that he let everyone hold them!
I thought that was crazy. I mean I wouldn't have let all those crazy kids hold my cell phone, much less my tiny snake or big turtle. But this guy was cool about it. And the animals were brave.
Max wasn't too brave. He wasn't into any of the big animals this time. No snakes. No big lizards (even though I held one.) But he loved the teeny tiny turtles.

He also appreciated this huge tortoise. He was too big for anybody to hold.

Doesn't he have amazing humps or bumps or whatever those are on his shell?

The one Max loved most though was the hedgehog. Now, don't ask me to explain why the reptile man brought a hedgehog. Whatever the reason, the hedgehog was there, and Max adored him. He held that guy at least four separate times. And I'll tell you what, the little guy was adorable. His little sniffy nose and button eyes were hard to resist. And it was fun to pat him, as long as you patted those spines in the right direction.

The little guy was hard to get a picture of because he kept diving into the towel to try to make a burrow.

When we left we saw the reptile guy loading all the animals into his car. Max said wistfully, "I sure wish we could take that hedgehog home......."

::collaboration::

When I was in Utah I bought a knitting book that I'd been wanting. It's full of adorable patterns for toys and I couldn't resist it. But I didn't (and still essentially don't) know how to knit. So I assigned my mom to teach me how to make one of the toys. Which turned out to be a tougher assignment than I thought. Anyway, she started working on one of them, and finished it just before we left. It turned out super cute.

It's an adorable puppy. BUT there's a problem. It's a sleeping puppy, and it's supposed to have a little blanket to be wrapped up in. She didn't have time to make the blanket, so I took on the challenge when I got home. Which is a big deal for me since my knitting skills are so very basic.
So here's how her blanket turned out:

Yes, it looks kind of like a washcloth. And yes, as usual I picked out a multicolored yarn that made it so I couldn't tell if I was doing the stitches right or not. But it turned out fun. The edges only look good because the pattern had me crochet around them, and I'm good at that!
But I thought the blanket turned out pretty cute too.

But the cutest is when they're together.




Needless to say, Max is in love. He walks around shushing us: "The puppy is SLEEPING!!!!"
My mom and I make a good team. Now I just have to figure out how to do the more complicated stuff.

::good things i did last week::

**disclaimer!!: This post is just a pat on the back from me to me for trying hard. I thought about also listing the good things I should've done but didn't get to, and even the bad things I did--just to keep it real. But then I thought, HEY, this is my blog and I can say what I'm proud of myself for here!
So just know, there were many things I should've done and didn't, and some bad things I did too. But I did some good stuff and I'm happy about it!


Taught a Primary lesson
Used up a whole carton of strawberries (I didn't let them sit in the fridge until they were all moldy!)
Drank some V8--two separate times! (ick)
Went to the gym 2 times, exercised 4 times.
Finished a little knitting project (that is more impressive than it sounds since I might be the worst knitter alive!)
Cooked 4 dinner times--nothing that came from a box or can! Kris cooked twice.
Went to my band practice even though I didn't want to.
Read my scriptures.
Took one nap.

Hip hip hooray! What have youguys done that you're proud of?

The Fly Shop

Last year about this time I decided that I--Kris--needed to spend more time outdoors. Since the weather and the geography weren't doing much for my cycling, I decided to get my fishing license and try to do some more fly fishing.
For starters, I basically stink at fishing. And to make things more difficult, Rhode Island isn't exactly well known for it's fresh water fishing. The end result was that while I caught some fish, I didn't do that well and ended up frustrating myself more often than not.
Finally, this fall I decided that I if I was going to fish in Rhode Island, I needed to do it the way locals did it. I looked up a fly shop and drove down to ask them what I was missing. There were about 3 people in the shop. One was the owner and the other two weren't exactly shopping, but they also weren't working. What were they doing? Regardless of what these guys were doing, they had a lot to say about how to have fun fishing in Rhode Island. Turns out that while I was spending my time in the stinky rivers fishing for fish like this:


They were out fly fishing for fish like this:

Obviously I need to start doing as the romans while in rome.
My parents got me a heavy weight rod for Christmas and I took up an invitation by the owner of the shop to start coming down to the shop to tie flies with the crew. I've started going down to the shop about once a week and I've been learning how to tie patterns for the salt water.
It's been crazy spending time at this shop. Every time I go by I see between 2 and 5 guys hanging out in the shop, doing nothing. Never fails. This same group of guys love Rhode Island. In fact, last time I was there the discussion was about how blessed they were to live in Rhode Island! It's like bizaro world Rhode Island: a place where the people love this state and they're also super nice (we generally have not found the east coast to be as friendly as the midwest or west).

On Saturday, I went to a fly tying seminar hosted by the shop. A (supposedly) famous salt water fly fishing captain gave the course on patterns for sand worms. When I walked in, the owner, Dave, grabbed me right away and said he had something for me. Two of the usuals--brothers actually--had machined me a custom base for my tying vise. (Since I only have an inexpensive vise, it can only clamp to tables. The shop's table is too thick and I always have to bring a board to clamp onto, which ends up being ghetto and unstable.)

Here's my new base. It's made of steel with a padded base that won't scratch tables. The Brothers told me that they noticed I travelled with my vise a lot, so they made it so I can totally disassemble it. It's really an awesome upgrade for me. The guys refused payment too. I couldn't believe it.
Now I know what those guys hanging around the shop do all day. They make fishing stuff for people they hardly know.

Obviously, I was surprised and super grateful that these guys made this for me. I've probably not spoken more than 5 minutes with them, but I see them every week at the tying get-togethers.

Here are a collection of the worms I made during my class, using my newly upgraded vise.


And here is a close-up of one of the worms.


This is one of the other patterns I've been working on thanks to tips from my new fishing crew. It's called a surf candy. It imitates bait fish and then you can trim to back to make it the same length as the fish present that day.


The fishing season doesn't start until May, so I won't have much time to enjoy my new flies with the guys from the shop. Still, can't wait to get started.

::sun!!!!!!::

The sun came out today! It's been about 50 degrees too, so we've been very happy. Max and I went to our local park earlier this afternoon. I like this park because it's on the bay and there's a little beach there. I think it's really pretty. Plus the breezes smell like the ocean, and that's (usually) a very good thing.










I love the view from the swings.



Please stick around Sun, we sure do like you.

::i know you're wondering::

I know you're all wondering what we do around here when it's cold and gloomy outside. (Like the entire winter.) I know it's just eating away at you. So I'm going to relieve your mind and hip you to some of the stuff we've been doing.
First of all, it's dang cold here. When I was in UT it was around 40 degrees. And it was nice. The sun shone and when I went out I hardly felt like I needed a coat (some of the time.) Out here the air is wet and damp and heavy and 40 degrees is SO cold. Yesterday it was 40 and being outside for 5 minutes was painful.
So the jist of all that is, we don't spend much time outside once it gets cold. I just can't take it.

We tease Sultan (well, not me, but Max.) He loves to try to get Sul to chase him around and stuff like that. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

So we get creative.

Well, Sultan doesn't get creative. He just pretty much sits around and sleeps all day. But others come up with weird things to do.

This particular activity was extra cool because it combined creativity and teasing Sultan. At some point Max called Sul to come under the table, which he somehow did. Then he got really interested in the sucker Max was eating. It was pretty funny to watch. It entertained me at least.

Max practices guitar. Let me explain this a bit. "Practices" might be too strong a word. Max practicing equals about 10% playing the songs in his book and 90% playing the guitar as loudly and obnoxiously as is humanly possible. It also involves dropping the pick inside the guitar at least once every 10 minutes. Entertaining.

We play with friends, animate and inanimate. (Though more often it's the inanimate.)

Like these guys for example. We also take pictures of friends--sometimes group family pictures--monkeys, jungle animals, fish family.

We watch movies. Fun movies. Like this one Max got for his birthday.

It's a bunch of the old Pluto cartoons. They're pretty fun to watch. Especially if two Plutos are watching with us.

We do laundry. We clean. We cook. That's not the fun stuff though, so we won't dwell on it.

So there you go. Is your curiosity satisfied? Now if only spring will come soon we might not go crazy.......