iParker

I went for a long run this afternoon and happened to leave my headphones and iPhone sitting out. Of course I've been careless with said equipment before, and Parker thinks the headphones are great fun to tangle up and haul around in one of his several dump trucks. Tonight Mike showed him what they're really used for (without any music on) and he thought that was pretty cool too.

Zen Moment

In the middle of an election campaign, economic turmoil, and two-year-old whining, this puts life in perspective. If you only read one thing this week...let it be this.

"The Cab Ride I’ll Never Forget" by Kent Nerburn

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

Who else needs a tissue?

Autumn Aspens

The aspens are in their full glory out west. Our trees are just starting to turn--I think with the cooler weather this week and a little rain, it could be a spectacular showing of colors.





Photos from 7News

Holy Cannoli

Can we all look as half as pulled together as this maven? Fab-O.

http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/

Playing Piano

We had a great day together today—music, park, errands, snacks. The simple things. :)

Big Day

We had a big day at our house yesterday--and we celebrated with ice cream!

Shaking it up

If you get five minutes to goof off today, check out this super, super-cool video from Wii and YouTube. The game doesn't do a lot for me...it's what happens to the rest of the screen that makes it worth checking out.

Me too

Got a new bike helmet yesterday and Parker thought he should wear it too.

On a Ride

Busy weekend at the ranch.

Spent some time with our lovely houseguests and enjoyed their company—'specially Parker, who impressed them with his "golf" swing and non-stop-ness.

This afternoon Parker went down for a snooze and I hit the road for a great ride, hit the ten-mile mark again today. Yeah! We did some yardwork after Parker woke with our "shomels" and prepped a couple new flowerbeds/landscaping. Between our respective athletic ventures and the landscaping work, we'll all need some Advil in the a.m.

The other day I hit a couple new trails and thought I saw a rock in my path, which turned out to be this:

Saying Sayonara to Summer

I can't stop laughing

Cake Wrecks

Frogs

We seem to have a barrage of sand frogs around the ranch. (That's what Mike calls them, I don't really know what they are. A frog is a frog is a frog in my book.)

The other night while we were building the ark in preparation for our trip to Iowa, I turned on the patio light to watch the water fill our backyard and scared off a few who were enjoying a nice snack of bugs. This one in particular had nabbed a couple of big'uns.



And then I went out the front door and saw one crawling up the sidelight of the front door.



I stayed inside after that. I don't mind frogs, but I couldn't bear the thought of somehow inadvertently stepping on one and feeling the skooooosh.

---

In a related frog story...

Parker and I have been playing lots of golf/hockey/stickball in the driveway. It's usually a nice evening activity and burns off some energy for all of us.

Parker and I were playing ball and one of these sand frogs caught his eye. After imitating the hopping and ribbiting, the frog decided he'd had enough of said two-year-old and took a big leap down the driveway. Parker then started bouncing the ball next to the frog in order to scare it and make it jump higher. First it was funny, then it became a contest...how high can I get this thing to go?

He brushed the frog with the ball on bounce #2 and the frog took a little while to recover. Hop. Parker got closer with the ball. Bounce again. Frog sits there and I can see he's still breathing (sigh of relief here) and Parker says "com'on, froggy, go!". We had a little talk about not bouncing the ball so close to the frog and he nods in agreement. Finally, I'm worth listening to, I think. Parker bounces the ball again, quite near the frog, and I'm pretty sure the frog isn't going anywhere for a while, maybe ever.

Parker looks at me and deadpan, says, "Momma, froggy broken?!"
"Yup, honey, I think you broke it."

The frog wasn't there the next morning, in case you were wondering, so I'd like to think it lived, but I can't be too sure....

Go Cyclones

We're at the game...whoopee!!

Sunshine on my shoulders

I've learned a few things since my return to the midwest. One of the top few is that I crave sunshine, and that there definitely aren't 300+ days of it here. In fact, I wonder if we accidentally moved to Seattle?! We've had gray skies and rain off and on for the last two weeks...and more to come from the looks of the forecast.

So, when the sunshine and piercing-Colorado-blue sky arrived the other afternoon, I couldn't help but go for a looooooong walk. It was wonderful. Time to reflect, be uninterrupted, breathe fresh air, and discover a new trail. It warms me to just think about it.

Some big purple thistles


Sunshiney yellow flowers

Buy Handmade

I've always made a conscious effort to support local artisans in their work (plus handmade creations make amazing gifts!), and I've taken the pledge to buy more (and make more) things that have been crafted with two hands. You should too...

Rub a dub dub

kiddo in the tub.

Parker loves to "swim" in the tub. Somehow knows how to make the crawl stroke and lifts his arms up over his head and turns to the side like he's taking a breath. Although he does it in quarter-time-super-slow-mo.
We were goofing off, making silly faces, blowing bubbles.
And then I get this face...seriously, momma? You are a moron.And then there's the oh-my-gosh-you-are-awesome-because-you-just-offered-me-ice-cream face.

Toot Toot!

(if you don't toot your own horn, who else will?)

Got some great (and unexpected) news this morning...two of my recent design projects were selected for the American Graphic Design Awards, sponsored by GDUSA and NewPage paper. It's an honor to have work selected from over 10,000 entries—and a very humbling feeling, that's for sure. It's been an incredible year in terms of being blessed with great clients and exciting, challenging projects, and it's a good feeling to be recognized by your colleagues and industry peers for work well done. And there's more to come!

Camp

Parker and I are signed up to attend a kids' camp a few Saturdays this month, and yesterday was our first one. Parker enjoyed it and all of the age appropriate crafts, games, music and "play time". Of course he was instantly drawn to the music, and the drums no less (definitely has his father's love of bad 80's hair bands...). I was happy that he enjoyed something like that, and the best part was that I didn't have to bring it home with me and listen to it perpetually.


(iPhone photo. My one and only beef about it?! No flash. Low lighting = sucky pictures.)

It's a great day for a good deal

I scored twice today. Twice. That never happens to me...the stars must have aligned or something. Went to Target and got some great deals on great stuff—and I'm going to leave it at that for another post, another day. Then Parker and I went to get his haircut (for which he was AMAZING, sat still as a stone and ate a little pack of crackers.). Afterward I saw a new children's consignment store had opened just a couple doors down, so we took a visit.

And I found this:



A huge bag full of someone's Thomas the Train castoffs. We have a few pieces here and there, but this will definitely make our set awesome. I'm not a huge Thomas fan--paying full retail for each train piece seems like a total ripoff, and Parker couldn't care less whether it was "Thomas" or just a train (thank you, child.). So needless to say I am pretty excited to add this to the collection. The mountain makes train sounds when the cars pass underneath or over the top, and Parker had so much fun with that, that it was $10 very well spent. We'll keep an eye out on that little store for more treasures...

Cool Calendars

I am trying so hard to completely convert to a 100% digital form of keeping track of my sorry self, but sometimes that doesn't mean I couldn't also have one of these sweet gems...
Loveliness from the recently-launched Snow & Graham website.


Hand-drawn pattern and lettering printed on smooth, recycled cover stock from Jessica Gonacha

A poster-sized calendar with a bubble to pop every day from bubblecalendar.com.


A vintage London easel calendar from Kate's Paperie.

Parker's Room Part 2

I'm not particularly feeling domestic today, just tired of seeing things laying around. And I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to display these awesome vintage alphabet cards that have been a part of Parker's room decor. I thought it might be difficult (i.e. time consuming and a royal pain) to put them up individually, and wanted to avoid that if I could.

And then recently it hit me: a little jute twine, some small craft clothespins...and we have a winner! Fun to see them up again. It's an interesting little rhyme through the whole alphabet.

...And Then, Fall Blew Through...

Yesterday, we enjoyed the very last bits of summer—playing at the pool, feeling the warm sunshine on the tops of our shoulders and tips of our noses. It was wonderful!

Today (and the rest of the week from what we understand) definitely signaled the oncoming of fall—this afternoon, big clouds and wind rolled through—and suddenly we went from such a happy, carefree feeling to blustery and cool. Guess it's going to stay this way through the end of the week.

I knew deep down that it was the end of summer, but this weather is kind of like having the door slammed in your face....

Weekend Treasure Hunting

I had the good fortune this weekend to find some good garage sale treasures. I haven't made it out much recently as we've been gone or I've been too lazy to capitalize on someone else's castoffs.

Two new things of note now grace the halls of Moresville: a "thingy"—I have no idea what it is but I like it and the price was right—and a lovely white vase. The vase isn't marked, but my guess is that it's some sort of McCoy knockoff. (Correct me if I'm wrong, blog-watchers...) Also found some mason jars for a quarter, both large and small. We'll use the large one for another travel/treasure jar. Now we just need more treasures! :)

Pee Wee Pigskin

One of Mike's co-workers coaches 4th grade football, so we went to check out the game the other day. You can only imagine how incredibly cute this is! And hilarious--they play in full pads, run the entire field...I have to say, it's impressive. And so cute. Did I mention that? And much to my chagrin, I only had my phone on me...next time I swear up and down I'll take a real camera. This is too hysterical not to capture.

Parker thought it was fun to watch "fooball." And anytime cheered for the team, he'd give a shout out too..."Go, Cyclones!". (They aren't named the Cyclones.)

Guess you can take the kid out of Iowa, but you can't take the Iowa out of the kid.