98 Days til Labor Day

Of course we had to kick summer off at The Lake. Unfortunately, The Lake didn't agree about what season it is now. As a result of so much wind and rain, we got to spend the weekend looking longingly at the white capped water from the shelter of various porches while holding beers and praying for an hour of sun.

It may have been less than exciting but it was relaxing and hopefully restored enough energy for me to start my next summer class today. Anyway, some highlights...

Bath time!

Because we can only dump so much water down the drain, this is how Aiden bathes at the lake. He's been doing so since he was about 6 months old. We fill the bucket and whatever he doesn't splash out gets poured on the flowers outside. I have a feeling he won't fit in the bucket 98 days from now...

Aiden got a fishing pole from Papa Deiker for Easter and discovered this weekend that he LOVES fishing.

First fish!

Well ok, he didn't catch the fish himself, but everyone let him take the credit. If he keeps this up though, we will be having a fish fry in no time at all! 

Helping clean

As happy as he was to come home with a fish he wasn't sure that he really wanted to touch it, so he helped Papa clean it from a distance.

Exciting Stuff!

Aiden was so over joyed with fish this weekend that his fascination with monkey noises and books may have been replaced by fish faces and fish books. This is an interesting development, since according to Aiden, monkeys make loud screeching noises, and fish make quiet kissy-faces...I am thrilled :)

Aiden also got his hands on some supposedly washable blue colored bubbles. And then the bubbles got on his hands. Then his hoodie, his mouth, the deck, the walls, the shed, the grass...big mess. they have officially washed off everything *mostly* except the deck, which was already blue so now it just has some lovely accents.

Even though we didn't get any water time, the boys were very busy getting the boat ready all weekend.

Aiden also took up an interest in other slimy creatures this weekend. Of the hopping kind. Yep, we caught frogs.

And kept them over night in a bucket.

And watched them very carefully.

Kane Buggey helped.

And in the morning when we set them free, Buggey tried to recapture them with his mouth and Aiden took his bucket out to the road to find more. Oh boy...this is gonna be "that summer."

A new chapter

I am surely going to miss...

Singing oldies

Talking about the men of the office

Talking about the men in our lives

Singing Backstreet Boys

Discussing books

Swapping books

Talking babies

Digging up ridiculous news stories

Having coffee

Competing in trivia

Logging on to your computer and and seeing websites in German

The penguins
Defending Harry Potter against Joe's ridiculous allegations

My "mommy" friend
My office buddy
A really really good friend

Sure gonna miss you!

Farewell Lunch

How lucky am I?

To have these monkeys to hang out with :)

Brownie Bust?

 Red. Velvet. Cheesecake. Brownies. Have you ever heard a more delicious combination of words? Me either! So of course I made them from scratch, and of course, because I am so domesticated, EVERYTHING went wrong....

First of all, the recipe told me to use parchment paper in the bottom of my pan...WTF right? And just so you know, wax paper is not an acceptable substitute...after contemplating what I was supposed to do, I finally caved and called my aunt for clarification. She informed me that parchment paper makes it easier to remove particularly sticky baked goods from their pans when finished. She also told me that she never uses it so I should just use some no stick spray instead. Fewf. So I sprayed the cake pan really good and got to work on the batter.

The chocolate had to be cut up finely so it would melt well with the butter, Dad and I thought a cheese grater would work nicely. Well the chocolate got stuck in the grater and when it was out, I think about half of the amount of needed chocolate made it into the bowl... oops! Then, I got red food coloring everywhere! Dad's kitchen looked like a legit crime scene.

Once the brownie batter was done I dumped it into the pan and it spread reallllly thin, because I used the wrong size pan, so I greased up a smaller pan and scraped as much of the sticky mess from the former into it as possible. Ugh. The cream cheese mixture was so much easier to make and extremely delicious (ask me about the Healthiest Loser Challenge later...) but when I "dolloped" and "swirled" it into the batter...no way was that mess going to come out looking like brownies. So of course I had to smooth it all over.

It turned pale pink and very slightly resembled the beautiful red and white swirly design it was supposed to be. Double ugh.

At this point I was so totally done with the whole mess that I said, "Oh well," and put it in to bake. Not realizing that brownies rise on the outside and not on the inside, so when I went to check on them and saw this happening, I FLIPPED out. But Dad assured me this happens with Mom's cream cheese brownies too, so I let it slide.

When they came out and I finally had one, I decided they weren't sweet enough (probably because of the chocolate problem) and decided to bring the batch to work and be done with it.

Here's the twist....the office finished them off in about an hour! Hmmmmm...I guess I don't have an excuse not to make them again for book club. Ugh.

Keepin Up With the Crazies...

I realize I have deprived everyone of what they crave most the last couple weeks, AIDEN PIX! I am truly sorry, but now that Virginia Woolf and I have decided to go our separate ways, I am happy to catch you all up. Even though I haven't been able to tell all his stories, I have been getting some good snap shots....

Anticipating His FROYO!

One of the best days of the month for Aiden and I is COSTCO DAY! I go once a month to pick up the bulk things we need (diapers, frozen meat,  paper towels, etc.) and the reward for Aiden (besides the one toy he usually gets) is a frozen yogurt from the little snack vendor they have. Not that I don't like it too...

This was the first time he didn't wait for me to feed it to him.

He took matters into his own hands on our last trip, and while I was enjoying a snack, he commandeered my frozen yogurt. This was the face I got when I asked, "Whadaryadoin???"

But Mom....FROYO!

Since I have been in school for four hours a day, I've been staying late at work to keep up. This means I've averaged about an hour a night with Bubba, so I've been trying to make them all count.

Aiden really gets a kick out of playing "The Dot Game" with Kane but because he is so small and Kane is such a dinosaur, Aiden usually gets totally run over when he tries to help Kane catch the dot. Now that he's getting a little older he understands how to work the laser-pointer on his own so we let him control the dot for Kane. I thought for sure one night last week that Kane was going to go through the wall....

Silly Kane....

Aiden is also officially 29 months old as of this weekend...that means the one month count down is on until he starts pre-school. So, he is soaking up as much quality time with Papa Cormack as possible. I make it sound really traumatic for both of them but really they will still have a solid 2-3 days a week together. This is just so Aiden gets the benefit of hanging out with other kids and Papa gets the benefits of extended nap time and a couple days a week that have nothing to do with the McDonald's Play Place.

Aiden and I have had very busy weekends too, places to go and people to see everywhere. Including his new best buddy...Charlie. At Red Robin last weekend he was more interested in giving baby Charlie stickers than he was eating his corn dogs...surprise surprise....

When we got home and I gave him the sticker book to put away on his bookshelf, he asked me where the baby was. So. Sweet. I told Carlye that we will definitely be sending baby Charlie stickers once he is moved back home.

Aiden got some new big boy bed sheets - I decided to part with the baby ducks and froggies (until he wets the bed) and let him upgrade - as soon as his room is clean I'll show you pictures. Since we got new sheets I rearranged his room too, nice little switch up for Summer, and when I moved the crib to show him there were in fact NO MONSTERS behind, under, or near the bed he of course went directly to where it was moved to, pointed to the corner and said, "MONSTERS!"

I guess the monsters are attached to the crib?? I don't know....

Oh, and Steve says hi!

Why you should never borrow a book from me...

Otherwise titled "How to Read Virginia Woolf"

And that is what I have been up to the last 3 weeks - these are just the most colorful examples of my thoroughly engaged reading endeavor.
I was joking with my cousin when this all began that I was entering into an abusive relationship with Virginia Woolf and not entirely sure whether I would be the abused or the abusive. Well I certainly abused the books - but it is pretty freakin cool to flip through them now. I have always enjoyed reading and I can crank through a book pretty quick, but Mrs. Woolf really pushed my limits - it took on average about 3 hours to read 50 pages (by that I mean reading for comprehension which is entirely different than just viewing word after word). It required some serious, sit up straight at the kitchen table, no tv commitment, to get through. I even discovered after reading Aiden to sleep one night with Orlando that reading Woolf out loud helps a lot! But takes twice as long...
Well I don't know that I will ever pick her up again but I recommend The Waves to anyone who is looking for a serious challenge in the future. Also, I don't know that I can ever go back to leisurely reading again....

heavenly day

Oh heavenly day, all the clouds blew away
Got no trouble today with anyone
The smile on your face I live only to see
It's enough for me, baby, it's enough for me
Oh, heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

Tomorrow may rain with sorrow
Here's a little time we can borrow
Forget all our troubles in these moments so few
All we've got right now, the only thing that
All we really have to do
Is have ourselves a heavenly day
Lay here and watch the trees sway
Oh, can't see no other way, no way, no way
Heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

No one at my shoulder bringing me fears
Got no clouds up above me bringing me tears
Got nothing to tell you, I've got nothing much to say
Only I'm glad to be here with you
On this heavenly, heavenly, heavenly, heavenly
Heavenly day, all the trouble's gone away
Oh, for a while anyway, for a while anyway
Heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

May 26th, 2010
Miss you bud <3

On a rainy day...

But Time, unfortunately, though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and fade with amazing punctuality has no such simple effect upon the mind of man. The mind of man, moreover, works with equal strangeness upon the body of time. An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented on the time piece of the mind by one second. This extraordinary discrepancy between time on the clock and time in the mind is less known than it should be and deserves fuller investigation. But the biographer, whose interests are, as we have said, highly restricted, must confine himself to one simple statement...

The seconds began to round and fill until it seemed as if they would never fall. They filled themselves, moreover,  with the strangest variety of objects. For not only did he find himself confronted by problems which have puzzled the wisest of men, such as What is love? What friendship? What truth? but directly he came to think about them, his whole past, which seemed to him of extreme length and variety, rushed into the falling second, swelled it a dozen times its natural size, colored it in all the tints of the rainbow and filled it with all the odds and ends in the universe.

In such thinking (or whatever name it should be called) he spent months and years of his life. It would be no exaggeration to say that he would go out after breakfast a man of thirty and come home to dinner a man of fifty-five at least. Some weeks added a century to his age, others no more than three seconds at most. Altogether, the task of estimating the length of human life (of the animals' we presume not to speak) is beyond our capacity, for directly we say that it is ages long, we are reminded that it is briefer than the fall of a rose leaf to the ground. Of the two forces which alternately, and what it is more confusing still, at the same moment, dominate our unfortunate numbskulls -- brevity and diuturnity -- he was sometimes under the influence of the elephant-footed deity, then of the gnat-winged fly. Life seemed to him of prodigious length. Yet even so, it went like a flash. But even when it stretched longest and the moments swelled biggest and he seemed to wander alone in the deserts of vast eternity, there was no time for the smoothing out  and deciphering of those thickly scored parchments which thirty years among men and women had rolled tight in his heart and brain. Long before he had done thinking about Love (the oak tree had put forth its leaves and shaken them to the ground a dozen times in the process) Ambition would jostle it off the field, to be replaced by Friendship or Literature.


--- Virginia Woolf, Orlando


*may you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every one, may you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true, may you always know the truth and see the light surrounding you, may you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong, may you stay forever young, may you stay forever young. may your hands always be busy, may your feet always be swift, may you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift, may your heart always be joyful, may your song always be sung, may you stay forever young, may you stay forever young*

Post It Pick Me Up

The last few days have been rough, just downright exhausting. I am having a hard time keeping my chin up for various reasons, and Steve, being the little know-it-all that he is, knew that last night I reached a breaking point.

I am constantly surprised at how well he perceives me and my emotions. There are so many areas where we differ so much that anyone might think we are completely incompatible. But there are a few important areas where we mesh perfectly...

A few years ago my beloved Slacker and Steve spent an hour discussing "dating requirements" -- when you enter a new relationship, what "interview questions" are important (ie- credit score? job? kids? etc.) So I formulated my own:

1. Who did you vote for in the last election? This is a trick question, I don't care about the who as much as I care that you voted. I am interested in ideas that are different than mine and more importantly I feel it is important that my generation makes its voice heard.

2. What is your favorite movie? This is extremely telling about a person. Guys who like chick flicks are very in tune with their emotions. Guys who like adventure/blockbusters are spontaneous and very macho. Guys who like thrillers are constantly thinking. Guys who like girls who like grotesque horror movies are the best ;)

3. What is your Zombie Apocalypse Plan? I'm not necessarily concerned with whether you believe Zombies are coming or not but whether you are into the Zombie culture.

4. Who has changed your life most significantly? I am mostly curious whether you will think outside the box or  if you have a touching story about a loved one. If you tell me that an ex ruined your life, you're telling me you are ruined.

Over the years I have learned about Steve in these ways without even asking...He voted in the last election in a way that he felt helped his son the most - how selfless! His favorite movie is The Big Lebowski -- like The Dude, he is laid back and trouble seems to find him. Our Zombie Apocalypse plan is something we have created together and we both agree that if either of us turns, we will kill each other immediately - I know this sounds morbid but you would not believe the huge discussion we had to come to this decision together. I have never asked him who changed his life most significantly because I am not entirely sure he knows at this point. Steve is very focused on the present moment, he doesn't believe in looking back or stressing about what's to come.

So last night, when I totally broke down, he reminded me - all you can do is all you are capable of. Take a step back, take care of yourself and and slow down. It's hard to stop caring when you have been hurt but you only need to care as much about someone else as they did when they hurt you.

And then to cheer me up and help me de-stress, we played the post-it game! I love the post-it game....

Whatcha got there buggie? Sticky notes: "Kane" and "For Sale  -->"

Oh it's worse than we thought! He's been hittin the booze!

No wonder you're "4 Sale" all you do is lay drunk on the couch!

Steve's Post-It

"Fuzzy Wuzzy  -->"

Couch's Post-It "Sofa -->"

Once Kane was roused from his drunk nap he posed with his Post-It

Dexter's first time playing - look how many he got!

Things are looking up today.