Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year!


Well, here it is, New Year's Eve, and I'm lying on my parents' couch with a really nasty cold. The TV is on to keep me company and Frankie is asleep upstairs. What's a girl to do but update her blog? If anyone has any good cold remedies, let me know. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from our visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house.



Another reason we love Grandma...she takes us to Chuck-E-Cheese. You won't catch Mom or Dad doing that anytime soon!






Is it cruel to give your kid a green onion if your kid will eat anything?



Bridget's Christmas dress



I love my birthday girl! (She turned 3 on Christmas Eve.)



Frankie!


Friday, December 28, 2007

Frankie's newest cousin


Welcome, baby Audrey! We're so excited that you're here.


Pretty baby Audrey, only a few hours old. She weighs 6 lbs, 14 oz, a full pound bigger than her older sister was at birth; her length is 19 3/4 inches.



Audrey and Laura, the proud and hard-working mommy!



Auntie Becky




Auntie Mary (don't worry, these things do not make me baby hungry whatsoever.)


Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Chaos!


Why organize the pics? It's all about the madness!














Monday, December 17, 2007

House update.....


So I forgot the camera on Saturday. I'll try to make a trip over to the house this week to snap a few pics of the destruction since I won't be there for awhile (Juston will be there, but I'm going to be preoccupied for a few weeks.) The good news is that after ripping up carpet in two rooms and the most disgusting design of parquet and tile flooring in another, we found hardwoods! Hooray! We suspect there are hardwood floors in the other bedroom and the hallway, and quite possibly the kitchen, but we're not quite there yet. I did miss the neighborhood association Christmas party on Saturday due to a last-minute freelance job that I had to do (money trumps social revelry, and I needed to be home early), but there is a write-up on it in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the metro area paper here in Atlanta. After reading about it here and on a couple of other blogs, I'm sad that I missed it and it makes me excited to move to the West End. The neighborhood has a great sense of community, at least from my perspective on the outside, that I just haven't seen in most other parts of the city. By the way, our East Point house will still be up for rent sometime early next year if anyone is interested.... :)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Santa, he's not so bad.




He gives you stuff!



Just for fun...last weekend, we spent some time on the porch because it was a temperate 70 degrees at night! In December! Frankie and Bridget think that I'm pretty fun when it comes to making dogpiles.


Friday, December 14, 2007

My life as a....busy lady


I know I've been a major slacker lately, but I've been very busy! I worked all week (thank you thank you thank you to those who helped with the Frankster) and I've even landed a job for this weekend. When it rains, it pours, eh? Plus with all the Christmas stuff to do - who can blame a girl for letting her blog slip?


We did go to the Cartoon Network Christmas party last night, and it was a riot. Baton Bob was there (those of you from ATL should know who I'm talking about), as well as a guy dressed like the Easter Bunny, a place to take 'prom pictures', and a VIP lounge complete with fried chicken and 'Santa Clause Conquers the Martians' on DVD. I even made Juston dance, and since we don't drink, he doesn't even have a way to loosen up and prep for it like everyone else! They had karaoke, but we had to leave before it really got swingin' because our babysitter had to go to school today. Oh well, next year we know to hire out someone until midnight or later! We even missed the free Deathklok show, but it started at 11 PM and who can be bothered to stay out that late?


Anyway I've got to get myself to editing this Now Playing guide or I'm going to be up all night on Sunday since it's due on Monday morning. Tomorrow is demolition day at the house! Hooray! Anyone who feels like swinging a sledgehammer and getting out all of your frustration through destruction, feel free to drop on by. :) I'll take some pictures of the demo if it's light enough to see; I forgot to call the power company this week (not that half of the rooms even have light fixtures in place).

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Bombarded!


That is exactly how you'll feel when you look at all of these pictures. I've been blog lazy lately - I can't be bothered blogging. Many of you know that I spent a couple of days subbing at the Methodist (Mormon) preschool and daycare, which helped me to stay busy, and I've also spent a lot of time reading trashy teen fiction. We are in the process of closing on the house, so I've been on the phone a lot. For what it's worth, we've signed all of the paperwork but we're waiting for the bank to let us know they have our funds so we can take possession of the house and do demolition next week. I baked several times for the Ward Christmas Party and other assorted events. I've also done some Christmas shopping (almost done - two gifts left to buy and a few more left to make!) and yesterday I even went to the movies by myself, which was fantastic. All in all, I've been contentedly busy lately and haven't felt to get on the web and update my blog. I'm also working for TCM most of this week, so don't expect much. However, Juston just e-mailed me about 15 photos from his beloved iPhone, and it's my duty to make sure they make it to Grandma's eyes. And just for fun, I've only corrected three of these pictures. Try and guess which ones have been through photoshop.



Ah, a common scene at our house. Bridget attempts to use her feminine wiles to steal away a tasty morsel from young Frankie.






Lunch at Front Page News.



Daddy, I want a pony for Christmas!



Playing in the backyard before raking the leaves.




Leaves!



More leaves!




Stop with the leaves already!



Caged! (I think that's also the title of a film from the 'Women in Prison' genre.)

Another reason why kids think I'm a rock star - I will don a blanket as a cape and run around the house playing 'Super Why!' while babysitting.



Guy Fawkes Party - Gunpowder, plot, treason, and Frankie.



Frankie takes a nosedive into a pile of blankets.



I'm watching you.


Sunday, December 02, 2007

I been tagged.


There's this thing going around on people's blogs - it's where you write six little-known things about yourself and then tag six other people to do it themselves. Heather (who is also in the ATL Ward Primary presidency) tagged me. Woooo. Unfortunatly, I have a rather small blogging circle, so I fear there's no one left to tag! But here's my six, in random order:

1) When I was a kid, I was obsessed with cats (and Miss Piggy, but that's another item in itself.) I became something of a junior artist in the second grade with my cat drawings. I had a pet cat named Tiger that I thought was the bee's knees, even though I don't think he really liked me much. (My dog willingly snuggles with me in bed, but I could never force that dang cat to sleep near me!) I really wanted to be a vet, like most other children. At one point, my family owned four cats. I was well on my way to becoming the crazy cat lady, but then I developed an affinity for dogs and don't see myself ever wanting to own a cat again. (I only put this item in because, well, most people think I'm dog obsessed.)

2) I draw. My favorite medium is watercolor pencils, which I use with liberal amounts of spit (I love the colored fingerprint smudges.) When I was on my mission, I kept a journal of drawings, which was my emotional outlet. I mostly draw girls, and animals. I still draw quite a bit these days, and Juston is currently egging me on to try and sell prints on etsy.com, just for fun. Heck, I bought a couple of art prints the other day from someone off of that site, so people do buy them!

3) When I was in high school, I loved calculus. I lobbied for the third trimester of calculus, but only two other people signed up, so the class was dropped from the schedule and I ended up with an additional choir class. Calculus is the math that makes sense of all of that algebra nonsense!

(This is starting to get hard....)

4) I really wanted to write a paper about plastic surgery and the media in grad school. My professor thought otherwise and 'strongly encouraged' me to write about another topic that he thought was 'sexier.' I will do it someday. (What? You haven't seen "Lovely and Amazing?" You really should, if you like that kind of thing - note - not for the more sensitive of those in my reading audience.)

5) This year I've become a recycling fanatic. I get really upset when I see people throwing away stuff that can be recycled and I've been known to dig through my trash when people throw away aluminum cans, magazines, plastic bottles, etc. I also take home glass jars, plastic stuff, etc., when I'm out to eat or in public so that I can recycle them when I get back to my house. I call this my new year's resolution gone crazy overboard!

6) I haven't had long hair in over ten years. I just don't want it. I find shorter hair empowering and, well, way more fun than long hair. I also hold a belief that about 90% of women would look better with short hair, but of course, everyone is entitled to choose their own hairstyle!

7 - BONUS!) (I use a lot of parenthetical statements.)

Since it's the same people posting this stuff that read my blogs, I have no idea who's left. Anyone who hasn't, I tag YOU! Everyone who doesn't have a blog, do it in your hearts. Or send out a mass e-mail if you want to spam your friends.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

It's already Christmas?


Blue tinsel tree



Santahhhhhhhhhhh!



Yes, that's our tree this year. Chrys was kind enough to get it for us when we told her we weren't doing a tree with buying the house and whatnot. Normally I'm against such Christmas stuff before December, but with the family in town, we managed to get a jump on things. We also went to Stone Mountain Christmas with Juston's family and decided that we needed to traumatize Frankie early this year by making him sit on a strange man's lap after his bedtime and after eating copious amounts of cotton candy. Poor child.

Mini "Ben 10"


A couple of weeks ago, we went to the premiere of the Ben 10 movie, "Race Against Time." (Ben 10 is a popular show on Cartoon Network.) Juston is an editor for CN.com, and did some of the web stuff for the movie, so we were invited and decided to take the nut along with us for fun. Juston made Frankie's little Ben 10 t-shirt, which was the hit of the party. Needless to say, I spent most of the 80 minute running time chasing a toddler around the movie theater. Frankie's recently gotten really good at walking and had a hard time sitting still!




Frankie's cartoon alter-ego:


Sunday, November 18, 2007

Nobody puts baby in a corner.


Except for baby. Baby can put himself in the corner.



(Do you notice a no pants theme running through some of these photographs?)

Why not?


There's a website for everything these days. What's next?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Frankie loves iPhone


Juston has a new love in his life. It is his iPhone. He actually let Frankie play with it one day; here are the photos.


Ooooh touch-screen buttons. Love those buttons.


Friday, November 16, 2007

The Pipettes


Last Friday night, Juston and I saw The Pipettes at Vinyl. It was an awesome show. The Pipettes are a girl group from the UK that sings 50's throwback style music. Watching them, I felt as if I'd missed my calling in life. I should've formed a girl group! If only I were still 19 and British...I had Juston take a few pics and this short video since, well, I'm too short to really get anything good in a group of generally taller people. Enjoy!




Here's a video of them at Criminal Records here in Atlanta last Friday. Had I known this was going on, I would've cancelled my trip to Ikea for shelves! Frankie probably would've been nuts, but I think he would've liked it.


Friday, November 09, 2007

Bad dog!


Well, except that it's not a dog banished to that crate...and that child looks awfully happy to be in it...Frankie's discovered Bridget's bed. He just loves to climb in there and gives the biggest smiles. I promise that I don't lock him up when he gets on my nerves, even though I might want to sometimes!



And just for fun, a photo from a few weeks ago; in true Frankie fashion, a cookie in each hand and no pants! Hooray for excess!


Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Under Contract


Well, they took our offer of $96k with us paying closing costs. So it looks like we're almost under contract! If anyone would like to rent my house or knows of anyone who's looking for a great 2/2 on the MARTA line in a pretty decent neighborhood (we have lots of fantastic neighbors), let me know! We're going to charge $950 a month, which includes the alarm system (we'll bundle that in) and we're leaving the washer/dryer. Pet friendly - fenced-in backyard! Plus there's a detached one car garage with a storage room/office in the back of it. We'll also consider a month to month lease for those of you with uncertain plans for the next year! Yes, can you tell we're looking for a lease agreement? It changes the kind of loan we can take out if we have a renter in place when we close at the end of the month. Did I mention that our house has an adorable screened-in porch and a roommate floorplan? :)
Also, if anyone has any general contractor recommendations, we're looking for one.
Thanks and wish us luck!

Monday, November 05, 2007

The zoo!


Last week, we went to the zoo with our friend and her kids. Here's a few pics from our day!


Frankie tried to climb the fence to get to the giraffe on the other side.



The nest!




Here I am in the nest, back when I was pregnant....



And here I am with the baby, two years later!