BAH! not having a camera makes me lazy about posting on my blog. our digital camera broke; the screen got smashed in my purse, somehow. i feel foolish for having it in my purse without the carrying case. oh well... perhaps we can get a new one for christmas.

speaking of christmas, i wish like heck i'd started my knitting hobby earlier in the year so i could give everyone handknit gifts!! i'll have to settle for PLANNING everyone's gifts for next year, which is just as fun for me, but slightly anticlimactic for the recipients. i love my knitting group, aka mama and katherine. we met today at starbucks, where i drank a pumpkin spice latte, shared a piece of banana walnut bread with mama, then for round 2 had a blackberry izze and a pumpkin cream cheese muffin. holy cow, that muffin was good. before knitting group, wesley fed me a yummy spicy lentil burrito!! i have eaten gooooood today. back to knitting group... i look forward to it all week long! today, i get to the end of one of my skeins of araucania chacabuco multy yarn on my long scarf for myself. i also made some progress on my malabrigo poncho for rowie. the colors are looking so incredible together... i might ask mama to take some pictures of my projects for my ravelry page, and here on my blog. in fact, i will definitely do that. tomorrow.

this weekend has been so much fun! on friday we met some friends at the mary heads carter park in carrollton - the most awesome playground i have found, and so worth the drive. i don't know if our friends agreed, though; they got lost... anyway, after playing at the park, we met them for dinner at cici's pizza in richardson. they have two young kids just about micah and rowan's ages, so it was a lot of fun. on saturday, we went to two birthday parties for two of our most favorite kiddos! my best friend, alison's middle child, gabriel, turned 3 on october 6th, the day after rowan's 2nd birthday. they had his party on saturday afternoon, and it was pirate themed. the kids wore costumes (though mine didn't, because i forgot), and ate yummy homemade cake and vanilla frozen yogurt, and got to swing a bat at a pirate pinata. micah was in kind of a funk and preferred to observe the pinata goings on, but rowan got right in there and took a swing. we stayed till late in the afternoon, and THEN headed back to richardson for miss lina bean's 1st birthday party! now, i love lina, and thoroughly enjoyed kissing her and wishing her a happy 1st... but the highlight of this party was the food. seriously. lina's dad, christian, is an excellent cook, and he made the best brisket and mashed potatoes. lina's mom, samantha, followed it up with THE BEST banana pudding you have ever put in your mouth. EVER. come to find out, it was paula deen's recipe, so... you know, DUH. and i was just kidding, lina was totally the life of the party... she was so cute, playing around with her aunts and grandparents, and ripping into her gifts with 1-year-old gusto. now, on to sunday... i went to starbucks to knit while josh took the kids to the huffhines art festival. then we took the kids to trunk or treat at church! micah was NOT into it at first... she didn't want to walk up to the people by their decorated trunks and hold out her basket, but she definitely wanted candy, and did not want to leave. so it was kind of frustrating there for a while. but she warmed up, and made the rounds with her brother. rowan and i tried some homemade root beer, which was good, but it ain't had nothing on A&W. the kids collected lots of candy, which they sampled on the way home and before dinner... oh well. more to come next weekend!

i love knitting. i love the thunderstorm that's going on right now. and i love working for my dad so i can make a little extra money. and did i mention i love knitting? i'm going to go knit myself to sleep right now...

some party pics (thank you, alison!)

today we celebrated my sweet boy's 2nd birthday with friends and family! he officially turns two at 3:28 pm on monday, october 5. today was his party, at terrace park (which is starting to feel like "our" party place... earlier this morning i imagined showing up to set up for his party and finding another group of people there, and getting all territorial on their asses... "this is OUR park, i've been having my kids' parties here for the past FOUR YEARS!!"). i was nervous about the rain, but the sky was kind enough to wait until the kids had gotten some good time on the playground before opening up on us. some folks left when it began to sprinkle, and some waited it out with us under the covered pavillion. we sang, cut the cake, and rowan opened his gifts while it drizzled, then the rain let up and the kids ran back out to play some more. all in all, it was such a wonderful day. after the party was over, we went home and played with all of rowan's awesome new toys, games and books. my precious boy was sooooo tired, he crashed on the way home from the park (around 6:30 pm - his first nap of the day!!), but woke up as soon as we pulled into the drive. he knew he had new stuff to play with. he and micah both ended up staying up pretty late. i'm so grateful for all our wonderful friends and family who helped us celebrate!

a lot has gone on since my last blog post! josh lost his job the day after we returned from orange beach at the beginning of the month; he has a third interview at staples in richardson tomorrow. they really like him and are excited about the experience he had at kinko's. so if you're reading this, say a little prayer for them to hire him!

in other news, my childhood friend, courtney, had her first baby on the 21st! he was lotus born (they did not cut the umbilical cord; baby and placenta remained connected until the cord naturally detatched from him yesterday, day 4), and born at home, unassisted! i haven't talked to courtney yet, but i can't wait to hear all about it!!

rowan has started talking! he says: mama, dada, micah, rowan, mia, dog, cat, owl, hop, walk, up, help, banana, and milk. he still signs a lot for milk and "all gone" or "all done". he's starting to make sentences; he says "i want to go on a walk", but the only word that's really discernable to anyone else is "walk". : ) he loves to go on walks in our neighborhood and play with sticks outside. his other favorite passtimes are playing with all his little matchbox cars, and playing elaborate pretend games with micah, involving dolls and doll strollers and pots and pans and pretend food. she is the director of the game, and he does whatever she says. : ) for now...

rowan falls asleep so easily these days. when he's tired, we lay down, he nurses to sleep, then i gently roll him onto his tummy and give him his paci, and he's out. if he wakes in the night while josh and i are still awake, i go in to him and lay down next to him, snuggle him up close, and he goes right back to sleep - i usually don't have to nurse him. he really likes his paci (i'll deal with that later; for now, it's nice). he wakes up happy and energetic and playful in the mornings - though not always from his naps. if he gets a nice, long nap, he does, but if micah wakes up him before he's ready, or he just wakes up early on his own, he's usually on the cranky side for a little while. he is starting to demonstrate his little 2-year-old will; he's been experimenting with hitting and kicking, and shouting "no!" but it's so mild compared to micah. when he hits, we gently take his hand and show him "gentle", and sometimes he hits again... but we just show him a gentle touch over and over, and eventually he moves on. and when we ask him to do something and he yells, "no!", we just say, "yes, please" and he does it. : ) i get the feeling he's going to be more joyful and pleasant in general than micah was at this age, but a more physically rowdy and rambunctious. which figures; he's a boy.

micah has been delightful lately. she has VERY few meltdowns these days, and they're short-lived when they do happen. she's learning letters and numbers, and even did a little subtraction with me the other day. she loves to be read to; i could read her 50 books a day, and she would want more. she also loves to sit and "read" her books out loud to me. what's funny is, she has an excellent memory, so if it's a book she and i have read together, she'll often tell the story almost word for word. micah's been enjoying doll play, dress up, and reading the most lately. she also loves to play outside, but seems to enjoy getting lost in an imaginary world in the playroom even more.

orange beach, AL pictures!

our second trip to orange beach, AL was amazing!!!! we had such a blast; our time in the sun and on the sand was so peaceful and relaxing, and the water was wonderfully warm. i actually got to dive and swim in the ocean, which thrilled me to no end. the trip over there was really perfect; we made excellent time (the trip without stops is 10 and a 1/2 hours, and we made it 11 and a 1/2 - which we thought was pretty darn good, considering we were traveling with six children under the age of 7), and the kids did great. the ride home was a little bit of a different story... unbeknownst to us, there was an LSU/AL football game on september 6th, the day before labor day, and the day before our return trip. SO, when we left the condo around 11 AM on the 7th, we hit traffic. and when i say "we hit traffic", i mean that we traveled 54 miles in 6 hours. !!!!!!!!!!!!! it was horrendous. it was a nightmare. in the middle of all that traffic, it started to rain... and one of the windshield wipers on alison's van flew off. we pulled off the road and into a shell station, where two very nice men (i think they were brothers - they looked just alike!) helped us fasten it back on. we continued on down the road... having no more mishaps (other than being about 7 hours behind), until later in the day, when a man driving next to us on the road signaled that one of our tires needed air. we pulled over and tried to use alison's portable air pump, but it wasn't cooperating... so we got out the spare change and tried to use the gas station's pump, but the little needle thing on the thing that goes on the tire valve was missing and we couldn't get a good seal on it for the air to actually go into the tire. a nice man tried to help us, but he didn't have much success either. we shrugged, said "i hope it holds!" and got back on the road. then later that evening during another patch of rain, the other windshield wiper flew off!! ?!? this time, we just let it go - the rain let up right after that. UGH. it was rough going there for a while... i called my dad to let him know what was going on, and he made me swear we would stop for the night somewhere, so that we wouldn't get too sleepy driving at night. however, once we reached monroe, LA and saw that shreveport was only another 2 hours away... and from shreveport, only 4 and 1/2 hours till home... we talked ourselves into pushing on through. i didn't call daddy because i knew he'd make me stop (funny how i'm 28 years old and would still do whatever my dad told me, even from 300 miles away), and we just kept on driving until we got to garland - at 3:45 AM!! for a total of 17 hours driving, with, i think, three short stops. BLAH!!!

for some reason, i'm anxious to go on another road trip. i think i'll go to austin for the weekend, after naomi gets back from maui.

we've been back to our regular routine since we got back. micah and rowan have been playing together very nicely. rowan started talking a little more on the trip, probably because he was surrounded by talkative kids. he said "i want that", "i want dada", and since we've gotten home, he's said "bath" and "october". it's exciting to hear him trying out new words!! every once in a while i get anxious about the fact that he's not talking much, but then i calm down and remember that boys usually talk later than girls, and he is completely engaging with us, making eye contact, playing with other kids, playing with toys, etc. (in other words, i'm not concerned about anything on the autism spectrum) he even answers our questions in his own way, and it's obvious that he understands everything we're saying. i can ask him to go get me something from another room, and he'll do it. i can ask for his help cleaning up the living room, and he'll happily oblige. he's such a sweet little guy... i can't believe he'll be 2 in less than a month. i've already got some ideas for his party...

speaking of parties, it's ridiculous that we never had a 4th birthday party for micah moon. we moved into this house the weekend of her birthday, and we were so busy with unpacking and getting situated over here, that we just never got around to it. LAME!! i feel so bad. i hope she doesn't remember how we neglected her... : ) we'll just have to make up for it by making her 5th birthday party extra special. earlier tonight we were talking about what kind of cake to make for rowie, and she suggested he might like a hello kitty cake. i grinned and asked if that's what she wanted, and she said, "yes, with a dora the explorer candle on it." perfect! i think i might attempt to make her cake and frosting from scratch next year. i may even try that for rowan's birthday next month... we'll see how brave i'm feeling.

our cat, sara, is about to pop. anyone wants a kitten or knows someone who does, let me know...

we're off to orange beach, alabama this morning!!! i'm excited for a repeat of our spring break trip. it was so fun hanging out with alison and her kids on the beach, and this time the weather should even be a little warmer and more pleasant for us. i packed last night, and went to the stupid grocery store at midnight because i had to wait for our EBT card to be loaded with this month's benefits. that was annoying. i was sooooo sleepy by 10 PM and wanted to go to bed (of course - had i not needed to do something later, i would've been wide awake at 10 and probably would've stayed up till midnight or later anyway). now i need coffee. when alison picks us up, we're going to stop at a gas station for a bag of ice for our little cooler (necessary to keep the A&Ws cold), and i'm going to get a cup of coffee for the drive.

i hope i have plenty of snacks and stuff for the kids in the van. when we made this drive for spring break, the kids did amazingly well for a 13-hr drive. alison and i were impressed. i hope this trip goes as well!

i'm sad to be away from josh, though. he's pushing himself really hard right now with work every day and school 4 nights a week, and while i'm sure he'll benefit from a nice stretch of quiet and low-energy time at the house by himself (he plans to work on the garage and get some painting done - and feed the neighbors' dogs), i know he'll miss us like crazy. his new schedule is taking some getting used to, but we both knew it would be difficult, and it's completely worth it so he can get his degree and get into his dream career. i can't wait to see him living his dharma!

i jammed my toe really hard on a leg of the hutch last night. it HURTS. hope it doesn't bother me too much on the trip. be back monday...