Happy Birthday

" There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents ...

and only one for birthday presents, you know."

-- Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass

Happy birthday to my most devoted blog reader... and the best Grandma (Grand Matriarch) ever!

It gets better...

Hah! Here's an update from the last post. Look closely, Grand Matriarch added a few touches!

Genetics

Surprise! I found these pictures in my inbox today, with this message from Grand Matriarch:

I have been playing again.....
You can tell I particularly like those pictures...
He looks so determined in that pic of the two of them..
I can almost hear him saying,
"NO!! I am going to do it my way!"

Thanks so much Grand Matriarch!!!!! I couldn't agree with you more. He's nothing like his sister. She was so perfect as a child (and she still is... in a "tween" kinda way).

I noted two things from Grand's e-mail.

1. Photo editing must be in the genes - so I must come by it honestly.

2. The use of "..." must also be genetic. I hardly know anyone who uses it as much as I do.

Ta -ta!

Feet

This week's contest at i♥faces is all about feet. I couldn't resist this picture from Lulu's birthday party with her friends. I especially chose this picture because you can see the little bit of the hammock peeking out from the corner of the picture and those long, dangly, tween-girl legs just crack me up. You can almost hear the giggles from these best friends! Good times!

Visit i♥faces to check out all the other wonderful entries from this week.

Clicking the button below will take you there.

The Third Time's a Charm

I'm so bad. I just don't go to the bank anymore. It was bad enough when we had a bank in our grocery store. Now, the bank is not there anymore and so... now I really don't go to the bank. All of our banking is done electronically.

This is a bit problematic because Lulu and Bro were given Christmas money to start a savings account.

1st trip to the bank (in a timely fashion) - I was told that I needed to have their ss#s, which I did not have, so I had to come back.

2nd trip to the bank (beginning of May) - Got to the very end of the transaction and was told that my license had expired... just one day ago.

3rd trip to the bank. - You know what they say? The third time's a charm.

Kids? Check.

SS#s? Check.

Valid ID card? check.

Lulu introduced Bro to a bank tradition - the lollipop. Note: This is Bro's first lollipop.

Lulu took Bro on a little stroll around the bank while Napmom opened the accounts.


I think that he wore her out. Luckily the bank was empty today.

Bro filled out all of his paperwork.

And he listened patiently to Lulu's advice about the benefits of saving NOW for college.

Bro waited patiently...

... while Lulu added up their deposit totals.

We did it! Sorry that it took so long to get to the bank, but I think that this was a successful trip. Next? Lulu wants her own credit card. Oh my!

Exercise

What should I do?


Should I back blog (and share all of things that we haven't been talking about because I've just been taking some time for myself)?


• Because what you didn't know was that I cut the comb-over on the top of Bro's head and had to take him to get his first (impromptu) haircut because I messed it up.




• We went out on the boat again, with Luvs2Boat.





• We ate some good ol' Maryland hard crabs for July 4! By "we" I mean that Dear Husband ate the hard crabs. Bro actually got sick that night and, of course, he only wants mommy to hold him when he is sick. Eating hard crabs = a two handed exercise. Oh well!


• I bought Bro the cutest Charlie Brown shirt, but he refused to let me get a cute picture of it. I was hoping that he would just quickly turn around and flash some sort of cute smile.

Alas, this was the best that I got.


• We went to our family reunion. Bro and cousin J played all day long. Look at these cute best friends.








Instead of rehashing the past few weeks, I could let you know that I have (kinda) started a new exercise program.


Look guys, let's be honest here. I have a desk job. It is my job to sit on my butt all day long. Working exercise into my regular day is hard. I'm NOT trying to make excuses for myself, but there is no time to workout during my workday (obviously) and I'm not gonna put my kids in daycare all day long to come home and drag them to ANOTHER daycare so I can get some exercise. I'm just NOT gonna do it. My HEART won't let me do it. Don't even think about suggesting it.




So, I have to exercise before I go to work in the morning or when I am dog ass tired in the evening. Ideally, I'd like to just go running for 30-45 minutes a day... somehow.


I decided to go running in the morning. Get up at 6:00. Run until 6:30. Start my day.



Day 1 - was okay. I got my butt out of bed (15 minutes later than I wanted to), put on my shoes and headed out the door... when the chilly morning air slapped me across the face. Note to self: I don't think that this is gonna work too well. I'm not being pessimistic - this is just pure honesty here.



Day 2 - Didn't get up to run. Thought about it. Was tired from staying up until 12:30 a.m. the night before reading The Sugar House a mystery by Laura Lippman (local author). Obviously the book was very good. I don't even like mysteries that much. I think that this one kept my attention because I had to giggle (inside my head) about all of the little political jokes and innuendos in the story.



Day 3 (that's tomorrow) I hope that I'll be better.

Somethings gotta give - I can't be sedentary for the rest of my life.

For all of the moms who work out of the home... how do you fit exercise into your daily life? What is your secret?????


Coming Soon: We finally opened Junior Saver accounts for the kids.

Water, Water Everywhere

Yippee! I know I haven't posted videos in awhile, but I do take video actually.

Here are two videos from a recent trip out on Luvs2Boat's ski boat. Sooooo fun!

Disclaimer: These will only be interesting for those who really know me.

Disclaimer #2: It is very difficult to record on a moving ski boat. I did the best that I could.


When we pull Lulu behind the ski boat, Bro relaxes in my lap, as seen here.

Lulu's favorite part about being pulled behind the boat is "falling" off of her float. Here, she is kneeling on the tube, taunting/daring Luvs2Boat to knock her off of her float.

Note: :-) I tried something different and I saved the videos in a "for e-mail use" format which was supposed to make them easier to upload and e-mail. Alas, it looks like it ruined the quality a bit too. So, I'll never do that again!

Ta Ta For Now!

Smile: Missions 16-20

Yes, I'm still here.

Yes, I'm still taking pictures.

Yes, we are still trying to capture pictures for the photo contest.

Mission 16: In or under a tent. 3 points

Mission 17: Cornfield. 3 points

Mission 18: With "Billy," the Naval Academy's unofficial mascot monument. 5 points

Mission 19: Any person wearing a military uniform. 8 points

Mission 20: A parking meter. 4 points (2 pt. bonus if time left on meter is less than 10 minutes.)

Yes. There was a smudge on my lens that clearly shows up in all of these pictures. Sorry!

Happy Fourth

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America.

- Barack Obama, Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention, July 2004.