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