Marvelous Pigs in Satin

Here’s some Happiness

Happy Birthday Eddie

yes, that is a turkey leg the size of his face

Since I’m on a nostalgic picture role now,

Happy late birthday to Johnny

This is how I always think of Johnny. 4 years old and begging me to play “Sherrif John and his dep-u-dy.” Lugging a wooden baseball bat as tall as he is and asking me to hold the softball while he swings at it.

And this one is for my seesters

Hope ya love it, Katie. That is, if you can see past the glare on Mary’s head gear.

Sooo… This month I have mostly been sitting on the couch (on my fat bum) feeding my glorious new baby and reading books. Lots of books, happy day. (But I am too lazy to tell you all the good ones and find pix of them and remember the author’s names. maybe later.) I have also made lots of cookies and caramel popcorn and other sweeties because I wanted to, OKAY. But when I wasn’t busy doing those things, I was doing some of this:

You can have lots of fun with a few silk flowers and rubber bands and 2 cute girls

The the Boy has mad soccer skills.

Well, not really, but at least he didn’t hate it and refuse to go every game, like 2 years ago.

And he is a decent goalie. Also, he just tested into his school’s gifted program. The DH’s buttons are bursting.

We had a blast on our visit to Fayettville AK

Everyone climbed about on this awesome castle at the park. And don’t worry, G-Diva (not pictured here) climbed up high and then got scared and screamed murder until Katie and I realized there was a problem and ran speedy quick to rescue her.

This is A-Diva holding a snake (who knew?) at the fantastic reptile museum we visited. It was one of those places where you find yourself murmuring, “oh, Good…” repeatedly and checking the floor for things that move. But we loved it and will probably go back because how many places will let you pet the alligators?

the Boy holding the baby boa.

I had to put this one because she was so cute. Do you blame me?

It was R-Diva’s birthday (look at that self-satisfied smile as she peels the cupcake.) Also, note the obligatory Barbie. Sigh. At least they all have one now, so I don’t have to buy any more.

Seester made this sweet monkey doll for the birthday girl. Don’t you just covet her fabric stash??? R-Diva has named her “Genevive” which is perfect, IMO.

(am I so cool for using a text messaging abbreviation?? Tell me I am. I am having a b-day myself in a week or so and I will be much more than 3. ten times that, in fact. It’s a good thing I use Mary Kay, I can feel the wrinkles knocking.)

P.S. We also watched Kung Foo Panda. It was awesome. I wish to own it. In the words of Po: “I love Kung FUuuuuuuuu….”

Okay, I am sure you all are way bored of pictures by now, but I’m not and it is my blog, after all.

My long awaited baby is here 🙂 She was born Oct 4 and weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. (my smallest baby ever). I think she is absolutely beautiful. Here are 10 things I love about my new baby:

1. New baby skin is softer than anything else on the planet. Softer than marshmallows, softer than down feathers, softer than the nougat inside chocolate bars.

2. tiny tiny hands folded up like little flowers

3. shiny black eyes (MY babies have black eyes)

4. the way she cries like a little kitten mewing

5. the way she bobs her little head, nuzzling around with her mouth open when she is hungry

6. the greedy little gulping sounds she makes while she nurses

7. the greedy little gulping sounds she makes while she nurses (I really love that)

8. the way I can spend an hour just looking at her and be utterly happy and not feel as if I had wasted any time at all.

9. the way she can’t seem to open both eyes at the same time–that is just too much effort. So she peeks at me with one eye.

10. the way she stays curled up like a little bug all the time.

I won’t bore you with my birth story–though it was quite engrossing for me and I am still obsessing about it now, 4 days later. I think childbirth falls in the category of extreme adventure sports. It is every bit as much of a rush/ life altering experience as climbing a mountain or base jumping. My DH is really into mountain climbing and asked me one time if I would want to climb Mt. Everest with him. I told him that childbirth was my Everest and I didn’t need anything more difficult or life-threatening to “test my metal” against than that.

I know I haven’t said a thing about this on my blog, but my husband joined the Missouri National Guard this spring. It has been a dream of his to serve his country for years, I was happy to support him in his decision. (I was in the National Guard myself for 8 years) So he has been gone to Basic Training for the last 10 weeks. Let me just tell you, ten weeks is a long time! It felt like forever to me. He is home now for 4 glorious months before he has to go to Officer Candidate School.

The children were so excited to see their daddy. It could be partially because I made a big deal about how he was going to be bald. (They shave your head in basic and give you really *fashionable* glasses too.) Our youngest is two and a half, and she did not stop talking for 3 straight hours. “Daddy, what’s that? Daddy, is that your hat? Why you wearing that? Are you a soldier? I like your boots…” and on and on. She was just beside herself with joy that Daddy was home.

After a few days of having fun as a family, we left the kids with my sister for two days and went down to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for some time together. We stayed at a lovely Bed & Breakfast, the Inn at Rose Hall. ( I would definitely recommend it as a wonderful place to stay if you ever go to Eureka Springs, BTW) It was very relaxing and fun. One evening, we dressed up fancy, and he took me out to dinner for our 9th anniversary, which passed by while he was gone.

I must say, I like a man in uniform…

This guy helped alot

My sister and her husband came over and helped us with some projects including refinishing my table.

Isn’t it bea-u-tiful???

This is my parent’s home in southwest Missouri. The Tornado hit their home on Saturday evening, May 10. The map of the Tornado path online shows the tornado downgraded to F1 by the time it hit their house. That didn’t stop it from ripping off the roof and several walls upstairs and shattering every window in the house. This picture is after lots of cleanup, which is why the second floor looks so tidy–despite being half gone.

I have spent my whole life sort of ignoring storm warnings–I grew up with lots of tornado warnings, but none ever touched down. Suddenly, in the last 5 years, they have been touching down and destroying homes all around. I don’t know if that is because the weather service has better technology for predicting, or if the storms are just getting worse, or both.