Boogie Fever

Tight Pants.

Wicked Moves.

White Penguin-tailed Tuxedo with Baby Blue Accents.
The Ruffles.

The Bowtie.

Maybe Max should have been John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever for Halloween?

* This suit is courtesy of Max's father. Kyle wore this to his baby blessing. I guess it was stylish in 1987....

Scenes from the weekend.

Chewing on his fancy toy that used to belong to my little sis.

Lovin' on Uncle Robbie.

Oh the GLORY of 11/11/11 11:11am. I have been searching for this favorite coat of mine and thought it was lost in the shuffle of moving. Right after shouting/dancing/kissing to make 11:11am a momentous occasion I got the thought to check in my little sister's closet. Oh I was a happy girl. She didn't steal it, I had moved it in there to make room in another closet for our stuff and forgot that I had put it in a protective bag. But I found it and now winter can come.

Oh the joys of toothless gums.

We spent Veteran's Day weekend with family. Which I think is a great way to spend it, because that is a large part of what our Veteran's have protected. Thank you to all who have served, serve, or will serve.

Theatre

I love me a good play. So when The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged was playing the same weekend we would be in yakima I knew we had to go.

If you ever have the opportunity to see this play, jump on it. It is two hours of nonstop slapstick comedy.

This was our last hoorah before we clamp the budget shut. It was a good way to spend the evening.

Thanks to my mom for babysitting.

simple

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10? 20?

As a stay-at-home-mom I have a lot of reflection time, sometimes too much. I think a lot about the future. What life will be like when Kyle is done with school and where we will decide to settle or will we settle? Maybe we will wander, traveling the globe with our kids, exposining them to all the world has to offer...

I think about how my home will look and what we will do as a family each night (board games.)

Then I started thinking about how I will think. Mind boggling I know.

How do I want to view my world?

It's so easy to get caught up in the material things we want out of life. We are a visual people and usually the easiest target in visuals are material possessions. But I want to change how I view my life, I want to change the focus from possessions to feelings.

The conclusion I came to with how I want my life to feel when I am older.

Simple.

I want a simple life. I don't want to get caught up in to-do lists and the latest fashion trends. Yes, I want to look and feel beautiful but I want to do it simply. I want my memories to be filled not with exotic trips to Costa Rica or lavish parties but with moments of my family laughing. I want so many laughter filled moments that they blur together in my mind and I can't separate them. I don't want to care about fancy things. I want to enjoy the world God created and relish in the simplicity of a summer hike. A winter hike too for that matter!

I want to enjoy the meals that I make and not get upset over mistakes or strive to use exotic ingredients.

I want to expand my worldview but I want to do it in a way that overcomes the materialism that too easily comes with life.

How did I get to this conclusion?

Well it started with looking at our budget in life currently and at first being devastatingly sad about. The reality is that we cannot afford a caramel apple spice from starbucks, even if I feel like I deserve it. The reality is that even shopping at Goodwill is too expensive. Then I had the thought. Why do I have to be sad about having a strict budget?

I don't.

If there is one thing my women studies minor taught me is that we have a right to claim how we feel and to divert from the norm of how society says we should feel.

Society tells me I should be awfully sad about having such a strict budget and that I should just find ways around it, to cheat the system and go into a little debt.

Well to the norm I say:

"TOO BAD!"

I'm going to live simply and I am going to learn to love it (besides I've never really been normal anyways)

How to be a very cute baby

1. Love getting changed 2. Request milk about every two hours

3. Spaz out into a star as much as possible

4. Drool. A lot.

5. Make it your main goal each and every day to attempt to fit your hand in your mouth. The more you do this, the better you will get. Also make sure to salivate all over your hand for optimum results. Then try to grab your mother's face, she will love that slobbery hand.

It is also important to kick off your socks a lot, spit up all over your parent's clothes, and screech like a bird.

Papa

Kyle goes by papa in our home. I don't know how it happened but I just started calling him that. He goes by dad sometimes, but it's mostly papa here.

I looove the relationship they have. At the end of the day max only wants papa. He will be crying and fussing and as soon as I pass him over max will be smiling and cooing.

It makes me very happy.

November Sniffles

It seems with cold weather comes stuffy noses and head colds. I haven't been hit yet but poor baby Max has.

It seriously affects my ability to sleep at night since Max is constantly coughing and waking up because he can't breath out of his nose. Poor bubba.

So I'm doing what I like to do when I have a stuffy nose. Take a warm shower, turn on the heat and be extremely lazy promoting as much healing sleep as possible. Of course I always enjoy soup but Max is on a strict diet of breastmilk. I don't think he minds though.

Hopefully this cold will pass soon. In the meantime I will continue singing silly songs about being a monkey at the zoo (unscripted).