Father's Day

Here are some overdue photos from our Father's Day celebration. We had a nice dinner at Megan and Ryan's house. My mom, my dad and my Grandy were all there. It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a great time running around the yard.

Caroline and Sawyer with their Granddad.




Sawyer's favorite thing ever, being tossed by his dad. Caroline doesn't like it at all, so she was pretty concerned about Sawyer. (I'm with Caroline on this one.)

Mary Grace

So moving on from funny toddler profanity...

I promised to post some pictures of my new niece, Mary Grace. Here they are.

Sleeping sweetly in her Uncle Eric's arms.


With proud big sister Caroline.




Getting lots of love from her sis and cousin. Sawyer looks a little wary because the first time he tried to kiss her, Caroline said "No Sawyer! Be careful! Her MY baby sister!"

Unfortunate Mispronunciation

This is even funnier coming from such a cutey.



Sawyer does something similar when he tries to say "frog". Doesn't take much imagination to figure out what that sounds like.

Etsy Finds

As most of you know, I am addicted to Etsy. I sell there. I buy there. I browse there. I'm not exaggerating when I say I could easily spend all day in Etsy-related pursuits. One of the things I love the most is that you can find just about anything you can think of. Soap, paintings, cupcakes, stationery, jewelry, purses that look like a vagina (seriously - do a search!) - it's all there. Here are a few of my recent finds.

From The Homespun Raven: Primitive Handpainted Wood Sign

This sign describes my housekeeping style pretty accurately. This shop is full of handmade wooden signs with clever sayings on them, some cutesy and some subversive.

From Momo's Retro Fashions: Flirty Everyday Housewife Apron

I'm not a big apron wearer, but her shop makes me want to be! Totally retro and cute.


From Lovey Duds: The Custom Baby Wrap/Sling Carrier-Kashmir Brown

I'm a big believer in the magic of baby wearing, and I'm already planning the wraps I'll collect for my (so far theoretical) next baby. I love all her fabric choices - I could have a matching baby carrier for just about every outfit I own!

From Balsam: Monet's Waterlilies

I know, I know, I'm supposed to promote my *own* soap here. But when I saw this, I couldn't pass it by. The colors! The swirls! The scent description! "A sweet floral with a definite water scent in the background. Perfectly feminine." This is soap heaven as far as I'm concerned.

From Janine King Designs: Laptop Sleeve in Asian Cherry Blossom

I've been coveting one of these for my MacBook for a while. The problem is that I rarely take my laptop anywhere, so I don't have much use for a sleeve. I might have to start traveling more so I have a reason to buy this. She also makes matching sleeves for your iPhone (if only I had an iPhone!), adorable wristlets, and full sized laptop bags, all in amazing fabrics.

Well, now what?

I don't think I'm allergic to Red 40 after all. My itchiness has been gone for a few days so yesterday I decided to test it out. I ate a few different foods that all contained the dye and...nothing. No reaction at all. So now I have NO idea what I was reacting to before. I was actually hoping it was the Red 40 because that would be so easy to avoid in the future. Shoot. Allergist's office, here I come (as soon as I make an appointment.)

I'm an Aunt again!

My second niece, Mary Grace was born on Wednesday around noon. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 21 inches long, and beautiful in every way. She looks a lot like Megan did as a baby with dark hair and the cutest little face. I'll have pictures soon!

My mom and I went to the hospital a few hours after she was born to introduce Caroline to her baby sister. When we got to Megan's room we had to wait in the hall for a few minutes for her to get situated and Caroline kept saying "I wanna see my baby sister! I wanna see my baby sister!" When we went in she gave her mom and big hug and when she saw Mary Grace for the first time she said "Oh! She so beautiful!" It was such a sweet moment to witness. Sawyer was more interested in the equipment in the hospital room (especially the device that blew air into the pneumatic compression boots on Megan's legs - he kept pointing my keyfob at it and was convinced that he was making it work when he pressed the Lock button) but he did pause for a moment to see his new cousin while I was holding her. He said "Aawww. She so nice!" Since then he keeps talking about "Mana Grace" or "Cah-wine's little sister" being wrapped in a blanket and he always adds "she so nice!" She really is. I'm excited to watch her grow and have her be a part of our lives.

I Love the Whole World

I love this commercial.



What would we do without the Discovery Channel?

Itchy Itchy Cocoa Puff!

That's an expression Eric claims he grew up with, and he says it whenever he's itchy. Now that I think of it, it probably means something obscene, so if you know what it means, don't tell me.

I've been having what I think are allergic reactions. It starts with a tingling/burning sensation around my lips, and within a few hours develops into all over itchy-ness and hives. I'm having one today that started last night. I could hardly sleep I was so itchy. I should have just gotten up and taken some Benadryl, but for some reason that didn't occur to me in the middle of the night. This is the fourth reaction I've had in about 6 weeks, and I think I know what's causing it: Red 40. Yep, I'm turning into one of those crazy people who thinks the government is trying to poison us through our food colorings. The first two times I had a reaction I had been eating Fruity Pebbles (go ahead and laugh, it's funny. Sometimes I'm like an 8 year old.) I thought I was getting my first ever cold sore, so it took me a couple of days to realize that it was probably an allergy (once it spread from my lips to all over my body that was a good clue.) The third time I had just eaten Red Vines, so that was another clue - Red Vines have a super short ingredient list and Red 40 is on there. After that I made up my mind to avoid Red 40 and see if I had any other reactions. Last night when my lips started tingling I couldn't think of what it could be since I hadn't had anything that was red - until I realized I had bought a case of Cheerwine (the most delicious soda ever) at the grocery store and had some on my way to Enrichment. It didn't even occur to me that it was red because I drank it right out of the can. When I got home I checked the ingredient list: sure enough, it has Red 40. Crap.

I need to make an appointment with an allergist. Eric just started a new job a couple of weeks ago, and they put the wrong name on the insurance cards so we're waiting for new ones. As soon as we get them, it's off to allergy testing for me. For now I'll be drowsy on Benadryl, trying not to scratch all my skin off.

Ding Dong, The Neighbors Are Gone!

Our row of townhouses backs up against another one, so that when we're out on our deck we're reeeeally close to our neighbors, both on either side of us and behind us. It translates to not hanging out on the deck very much because of the lack of privacy. Not that we would be doing anything that exciting out on the deck (not on my watch, anyway!) It's just that we don't really want to have to be socializing every time we go outside. (Yeah, we're kind of reclusive - that's what happens when two introverts marry each other.)

The couple who lives directly behind us (so that their deck backs up to ours) has no such qualms. They are out on their deck all. the. time. along with the dozen or so friends they seem to have over every night. And along with their three very vocally expressive dogs. They are party people; every weekend evening we can plan on hearing lengthy drunken rants from them and/or all of their friends into the wee hours of the morning. As it turns out, I am a lot less tolerant of drunken ranting than I used to be. Especially when I've JUST gotten Sawyer to sleep and someone singing "I Shot the Sheriff" at top volume wakes him up.

The worst part though is that they both smoke, and they only smoke on their deck. I can understand that they don't want to smoke inside their house, but do they really have to share it with the whole neighborhood? When we leave our sliding door or our bedroom window open, our whole house is filled with smoke at regular intervals. Aside from cigarette smoke being just plain yucky, I'm allergic to it and it makes me all wheezy to be around it. But you can't very well tell someone to stop smoking outside their own house, so we just put up with it. One of the things you deal with when you live in close proximity to other people.

So we were both very excited on Saturday when we noticed a moving van in front of the Smokingtons' house! A few hours later they were gone. Now I'm feeling kind of wistful, like I should have gotten to know them and their dogs and maybe invited them over for dinner or something instead of just avoiding and complaining about them all the time. Oh well. I'm definitely not going to miss the smoke.