girls just wanna have fun

here are some of the girls and i at the costume party we went to last weekend. we have a cowgirl, beth the bounty hunter, a model from deal or no deal, and me. after tomorrow i can post photos of the kids trick-or-treating!

what are you going to be?

as we approach all hallow's eve, i am again this year trying to convince the kids to be something fantastic. little hands always wants to be pink power ranger, and baby g always wants to be a witch. that is not entirely true, last year little hands wanted to be a geisha, but dad vetoed that- he thought it was entirely inappropriate for a second grader. so i got her a geisha costume for her build-a-bear. i got baby g a witch costume for her bear, in the hopes that she might choose to be something else for a change, to no avail. this year norm and i are going to a costume party (i have always wanted to go to a costume event) we will either be red riding hood and the big bad wolf- or an asian bride and a ww2 soldier. norm got me a great asian dress while we were in vegas and i don't really know when i will have another chance to wear it.

eeeewwwww- gross!

our local "science factory" put on an event at the library, where they taught kids how to make snot (of all things) then they made boogers too! pictured is baby g and our neighbor constructing mucous grossology. i guess the whole idea of the thing was to show the kids the relevance of saliva. they had a cracker eating contest to see how many crackers you could eat in 30 seconds. baby g the munch mouth barely finished one! and a collection of bottles filled with things you were supposed to smell and rate the level of salivation. it was yucky but intriguing - as if kids aren't gross enough already!

now i've done it.

i have officially crossed the line from "weirdo who dresses up pets" to "pathetic weirdo who not only dresses up pets, but obsessively knits for them as well". yes, it is true. i made that adorable sweater, and another, and i am working on another. i have been knitting so obsessively, norm mentioned perhaps he should set up an intervention! clearly roxy is enjoying it. a natural for the runway.

... stays in vegas?

i wish. i always have such a great time- even on a limited budget. it appeals to me that las vegas is warm (compared to oregon!) and the entire city keeps hours much like my own. i wish we had truly great restaurants at home. i have been dreaming about isla mexican restaurant at treasure island since last year. there is a photo of my best friend and i enjoying a meal there. one of the couples we travelled with got married while we were there. at the same little chapel as nikki hilton.

what happens in vegas...

i am busy getting ready for our annual las vegas trip. this year we are traveling with three other couples. our usual traveling companions, my sister and her husband and another couple whom we have not traveled with before. it should be a blast. we are going for a 3 day weekend, and have booked many exciting events. including dinner at isla mexican restaurant and tequila bar (which i have been dreaming about since last year). now that i have overcome my fear of flying, trips will be so much easier. norm is gonna regret making me fly when he realizes it has created a traveling jones in me.

that 1 guy

it may be difficult to tell what this is due to poor club lighting (although i prefer to call it "ambiance"). we went to see a performance by "that 1 guy and his magic pipe" the other night. i have seen him play a few times, and i am always mesmerized. he has invented this instrument from some pipes and electronic parts. i think there may be a guitar pick-up, a keyboard type of sampler and some electronic drum parts involved, but i can't really be sure- i am not a musician. he also plays a magic boot and a magic saw. his lyrics are pretty clever too.
this is my brother and i enjoying the show.

ra ra ra

gimme an "r", gimme an "o", gimme an "x", gimme a "y"! what's that spell? it's "roxy"! i never thought i would fall into the weirdo's who like to dress up their pets category, but here i am. baby g discovered that her build-a-bear clothes fit the dog, and spent two days chasing her around the house to dress her up. i tried hard to protect poor roxy, but to no avail. i finally realized however, that roxy actually enjoyed the costumes so i had to give it a try. she is going to cheerleader tryouts next week.

i didn't see you there

i am finally getting around to adding a photo of the new addition to our family. zero is taking it well- he really doesn't even seem to notice or care! she has been renamed "roxanne the diva"- we call her roxy for "short" ha. ha. it suits her.

to make a loooong story short

we have a new addition to our family. gracie the dachshund has come to live with us. she is adorable (i love doxies) and great with the kids. she has cried a lot since her mommy left her here, which is getting on zero's nerves, but i think we will all get along just fine. i will post a photo or two this afternoon.

girls just wanna

the girls had a slumber party over the weekend. it was a blast. we took the kids to the air show, and everyone (except baby g) had a great time. we played in the pool, bar-be-qued cheeseburgers, made 'smores and stayed up all night playing mario party on the wii. on the left you can see some of the extreme acrobatic stunts the pilots did, and the girls (from left to right: katana, rhiannon, gwynneth, keisha) exploring an army helicopter.

s-town ink

this is the design i worked up yesterday for my next tattoo. norm and little hands are water signs, aquarius and cancer, while baby g and i are both sagittarius, a fire sign. can you find the astrological symbols?

hot hot hot

mmmm. i made salsa entirely with ingredients from our garden. at first i thought it was not spicy enough, mom told me to roast the peppers so they would be more mild. after it sat overnight in the refrigerator, it was very spicy! it starts out sweet, then you feel the heat.

by: rhiannon

an excerpt from little hands' handcrafted book: "poems that save the world and make you laugh."

"i saw an aristocrat
she was at the laundromat
her husband was a democrat
he said his work building went splat
and they both said 'oh drat.' "


i thought it was pretty clever for a seven year-old.

really?!

i thought the day would never come! oh the joys of motherhood! my baby is doing the dishes now... not only that, but she has made dad very proud too by being obsessive about the efficiency of the placement of the dishes in the dishwasher. i remember being excited about doing the dishes when mom first let me- and we never even had a dishwasher. i just hope rhiannon continues to enjoy it, because i love the idea of the girls taking over some of the chores...

fairly fun

we had a fairly good time at the county fair this year. it was a little disappointing for all of us, though. "little hands" rhiannon didn't go with us because she had a birthday party to attend. baby g wasn't nearly as excited about going on rides without her. norm (with considerable effort) finally persuaded her to go on this kiddie roller-coaster. that is baby g in the rear car with the very tall boy! it is hard to believe that this is the same girl who two months ago rode the tower of terror at disney world! we heard a band called the darren johnson effort- they were pretty good! norm said they reminded him of death cab for cutie, i think he was right. we didn't see the art exhibits because baby g had an armload of sticky cotton candy. we didn't see the animals because baby g was too tired. but we did see the all-alaskan racing pigs, which was adorable and funny. it was a much better show than i imagined, and the m.c. was great too!

my hero, zero

zero is on his way to being a superstar! he is featured on ron an joe's art parts silly pet photos. here he is sneaking the use of the warming foot massager when he thinks no one is looking! autographs by request...

welcome!

welcome to the world, ronin john hunter! congratulations kyle and celeste!













(insert shameless self promotion here... this is the beauty of a card i created to welcome the baby)

happy 13!

happy 13 miss k. you have grown into a very thoughtful, mature, responsible and beautiful young woman. we are very proud of you!

happy holidays

these are samples of the st. patrick's day cards i made and never sent out... yes, i have a whole drawer full of greeting cards that are addressed and stamped but never made it to the intended recipient. thankfully, my friends and family forgive me because they know i am the girl who has a whole drawer full of sentiments... this is all beside the point. i also have a couple years worth of holiday cards i have designed and produced myself (so they could sit in a drawer wishing my friends and family happy holidays!) i realize the st. patty's cards are a bit out of season, but i think they are the most recent. i am considering a creating a line of greeting cards, and placing them for sale on my website. what do you think of these?

pay it forward

i know you will probably never read this, but thank you to the blue-earringed guy that helped me with my car the other day! you know who you are, dari-mart, around 9:20 a.m. (monday), you: white plumbing or electrician van- me: silver mini suv. thank you for not letting me leave the parking lot with my car hood open, and thank you for going above and beyond civic duty and trying to fix it! i did get it fixed. i drove 20 mph to the shop to have it fixed. turns out the latch just needed oil! i never even noticed the hood wasn't closed! just goes to show, there really are people out there who care...

photoshop restoration

i have stolen this photo from my mother in law to restore, it is so cute! that is my honey and his baby sister on her first birthday. aaaawwww!
below you see after i have restored it, what do you think?

...hades

this is what our stairway looks like (from top looking down) now that we have begun to tear it part. gross. today we take the walls out. i really want that spiral staircase...

stairway to...

i am beginning to think we should replace our stairs with a spiral staircase kit. i kinda like these, but i still have some shopping to do...

now we've done it!

well, it finally happened. something went horribly wrong and forced us to begin the remodel of our kitchen, that we have been planning/putting off for years. just in time for the grand opening of our ikea! our water heater exploded. the worst part about it really is that we had been thinking about replacing it, but were planning to get one of those fancy gas heaters that keeps you in constant hot water... we needed a new one today- so we just got a regular electric one. now we will probably never get the one we really wanted. the best part is, we had to tear out a wall of the kitchen to get to the exploded one! i know, "how can that be the best part?" you ask yourself. well, i have wanted to tear out that wall for as long as we have lived here. and now i did. and now we can continue with the plans we had laid for remodeling the kitchen. around here, everything begins with something dramatic. well the new water heater is installed and working properly, so tomorrow i wont have to go to my BFF's for a shower. and i can finish the laundry. and wash the dishes.

another happy birthday

happy birthday norman (super dad)!p.s. thank you to everyone who showed up at norm's birthday party! we had such a blast and it was so good to have everyone together. also, thank you the wonderful staff at mcshane's, you guy's are great! to everyone who did not end up in the photo, i am sorry- for some reason, we didn't remember to take a lot of photos?!

i know i meant to mention it

...at least a hundred times! the kids got me a new sewing machine for mother's day. actually, gwynneth said "i did not get you that- i wanted to get you gummy bears!" the old one was too heavy for me to get out and put away by myself, which meant that i put off all the sewing projects i have wanted to undertake. i have been very excited about it, but alas have not had a chance to use it. we have been so busy getting ready for, then catching up from our vacation. and i still have a gazillion photos to download/upload and share.miss k. is coming over today to help out around the house in an effort to drudge up extra mall dollars before the weekend, so i think i may get a chance to do some sewing today! i have been planning on recycling the fabric from this great shirt i once bought for a 70's theme party. i think it will make a perfect stuffed toy for baby io. i envision a monkey...

and pretty little maids all in a row

i am not sure what kind of peppers these are, but they sure are prettythis one is growing upside-downand these are my baby roma tomatoes

more than meets the eye

i admit it. i am a bit of a geek. o.k., it is probably more fair to say i am a lot of a geek. i went to see the transformers movie because optimus prime is the other love of my life. next to flint (of g.i. joe fame) and norman (who doesn't seem to mind that i am a geek!). i enjoyed the movie. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. but really- i was disappointed in it too. the decepticons were hardly anything like i remember. they looked like something out of an arnold schwarzenegger movie, not like the originals. the autobots looked like the originals (for the most part), and they even stayed true to cheesy john wayne-esque optimus prime personality. the action sequences went too fast. and they were too close-up, so it was hard to tell what was happening. i think it was a method of avoiding the complexity of showing the transformers transform in their entirety. there was also some all too blatant advertising. none of the buildings had names on them- except citibank. they spent too much time focussing on the gmc logos on the autobots. and transformed an xbox, and a mountain dew vending machine, and a nokia phone... and the movie was looooong. it seemed like just when you thought it would end, it began again....

independedence day

we had a great 4th of july celebration. sangria, hot dogs, swimming pool, flame dancers, fireworks...
p.j. didn't care much for the fireworks, but came out later with his hard hat and watched from the other side of the fence.

with silver bells and cockleshells

i would love to post a photo of my beautiful and thriving garden (perhaps better off, having had a substitute caretaker in my absence), but it is raining so badly here, i haven't been able to take a photo of it yet! as soon as i do, i will post it here for you. actually, it did stop raining long enough since we have been home from our tropical vacation, for me to go out and pick all the radishes. they were done. now i am trying to decide what to put in their place. i really dont know much about gardening, so i dont know what i can put there- but i will find out. oh yes, i will. actually, i dont know when i should pick the spinach either. or how to pick it. or what to do with it. do i cut off only the leaves, and more will grow in their place- or do i cut down the whole plant, and then pick off the leaves? if anyone knows, please let me in on the secrets. i have much more to post about our vacation as well...

addendum: here is a photo from my garden. we cut down all of the spinach plants, and enjoyed a fresh from the garden spinach salad. i have since picked a meal of green beans and some yellow peppers. we have replaced the spinach and radishes with some "rescue" tomato plants. not sure they will survive, but i will try.

fun in the sun

the girls and cousins playing on the beach. that is the gulf of mexico. to think, just days ago, i was swimming in the atlantic ocean- and after a few days at disney world, we will be back in the pacific. i will post more-including disney pics, once we get home.

*sobb * sniff*

leaving puerto rico this morning. i am a little sad not to have had time to see the rain-forests inland, and i will be sad to leave our hosts, but i am glad to be getting back to my children. and we still have plenty of exciting adventure planned in disney world. i will post more as i have time.

io and i

the spirit of puerto rico

the barcardi rum factory tour deserved its own entry. here i am with my tour and drink tickets (before what we now refer to as the "bacardi incident"...the trademark bat came from a colony of fruit bats that lived in the original distillery in cuba.a portion of the advertisement gallery. the screens you see here played commercials from the period.