for the widows in paradise...

after seeing a woman standing on the corner begging for food and money, j and i had a conversation that went like this...

L - you know, there are some kids in the world with no food or clothes or toys.

J - no food at all? not even a little?

L - yeah, some have none at all.

J - what do we do about it?

and i could leave the story here. with a profound statement from a four year old, but that's not real life. so here's how the rest went:

L - well what do you think we should do?

J - we should give them some money for food, then they could give us some money back. 

then i think he went on to talk about elf ears.

in all honesty, i do wish we had done something. maybe given her the five dollars i was on my way to spend at starbucks. maybe bought a sandwich and brought it to her. maybe we should have DONE something. like j had said.

get'cha head in the game

ymca basketball has a been a big blessing in our lives this winter. j has pretty much no social interaction with kids his age right now, so s decided to sign him up for basketball. what a great idea. twice a week, j met other kids, learned some basketball, and got out some energy. he loved it. 

 (singing the national anthem)

side note: steven helped coach whenever he wasn't scheduled to work. which was just beyond adorable. he's amazing with kids. there was one day he had gotten about 3 hours of sleep after working late, spent the entire day at home with the boys, coached basketball, then went to back to work. i'm not sure i've ever appreciated him more. my hubs rocks.

(i am not a great photographer.)

(check out that form.)

(go broncos!)

today was the last game of the league. it was also trophy day. which j has been looking forward to since the day he signed up. and as i assumed, i almost cried.

lucky for us, another basketball league starts in january and we will for sure be signing him up.

it's Christmas! let's be glad!

there are very few things i like about steven working nights. yes, i love staying up late, watching grey's anatomy, with a huge bowl of ice cream and no one to judge my show or size of ice cream bowl. but everything else pretty much sucks. and i know we've only been married two years, but this has been by far the hardest season of life yet. (except for those two months when i thought c and i were going to hate each other. for the REST OF OUR LIVES.)

one thing i do like, though, is the time he gets to spend with j. j has been in daycare since he was 7 weeks old. and we've been so blessed to have sitters that felt like family. their house felt like home. but this time that j has with dad...it's special. slow mornings watching tv, not getting out of pajamas all day, going on adventures, checking out the museums, libraries. painting, building forts, running errands. and dads sometimes have a different way of doing things than moms. not better, just different. they put their daddy prints in everything they do.

steven had been wanting an advent calendar, but by the time he thought to look for one, they were all gone. so he made one. walked into michael's, grabbed a few things, came home and put it together with j for over three hours. they crafted for over THREE HOURS. and i think we may keep it. here is the result:

and some other quick updates:
1) we have a library fine of $25. it's possible.
2) S had an interview today. pray, pray pray.
3) C now has FOUR teeth! holey moley.
4) J is the star of his basketball team. (not really, but he loves it anyways.)
5) people will steal change out of your car if you leave it unlocked.
6) we can't eat popcorn around C anymore. it makes him angry to not eat it.

lost ones

so we stole a cat. i mean, we didn't really steal him. he's been wandering around our neighborhood for about a month. he has followed us on bike rides, walks, and j named him brady awhile ago. j would go out looking for him yelling "brady....brady!"

today brady was here when i got home from work. tried to sneak in the house. and by the time i actually got in the front door, he was meowing at the back. this happened three times today. i would leave and he was always just waiting to follow me up the front steps when i got home.

so we kept him. well, let me say this: it's not for selfless reasons. s and i aren't cat people. we aren't animal people. we're people people. animals has never been our thing. BUT...

a couple weeks ago we had a mouse incident. one that involved tears and steve's bff coming over at 10 pm to take care of business. (yes, s is capable of handling this type of thing on his own. and he would have, had he not been at work.) i'm not proud of how i handled that situation, tears might not have been necessary, but whatever. like i said, i'm not an animal person.

so brady was begging us to keep him. in the garage. don't worry - we made him a little bed, gave him a light, some food and water. he will be well taken care of and hopefully keep up his end of the bargain in this situation.

i don't have any pictures yet because i didn't want to get too close.

by the way, don't tell my dad's wife. she'd kill me. or make him a christmas stocking.

let it fall

still feeling lazy. still carrying that extra 10. still have a pretty awesome life.

(still reppin' the bears)

(my favorite photo of him ever.)

(spiderman and ninja. both totally playing the part.)

(we got in some good time with A this fall.)

(fun at costco.)

feeling thankful still...

wrong way

we're in a funk. and have been for months. in the craziness of getting ready to move, staying in someone else's house for three weeks, figuring out new jobs in a new city and new schedules, well...we just haven't found our groove yet.

i've been drinking too much diet coke, smoking too many cigarettes, eating too many french fries, and running not at all. my jeans are not happy.

the past four years i started work at 7:30 am. which meant getting up between 5:30 and 6, going for a run (before my belly got too big and summer got too hot) and leaving the house before i saw any sweet faces. but i was home by 4. in time to play and cook and do anything else i needed to do.

now my work day typically starts at 9. which means i get a lot of sleep and i kind of love it. kind of addicted to my sleep. and usually only see one sweet face before i leave. but now i don't get home until 5 or 6, sometimes later. rarely feel like cooking (though we probably wouldn't even have the right groceries if i wanted to), and end up folding laundry until 11. 

after four years in social services, this is the first job that leaves me drained and exhausted at the end of the day. it wears me out. i come home and need a break. need a rest.

on one hand, it's nice to feel more laid back. not feel the pressure to be so disciplined. to let things go a little bit.

but i feel lazy as fuck. i'm carrying around an extra 10ish lbs. and i just feel stuck.

we're going to be friends

jack and his cousin are best friends. we don't get to see them as often as we'd like, but i think that will always be the case unless they're living next door. (which isn't likely to happen anytime soon since they're moving to france for two years).

jack and ava have always gotten along. ALWAYS. jack loved her so much when she was a baby and as she's gotten older, she's followed every move he makes. they're almost exactly a year apart. steve says there will come a time when it'll get weird because he's a boy and she's a girl, but right now, they're best friends.

jack used to be a biter. (i'll defend my kid to the death about this too.) but one of these times involved ava. she was at jack's babysitter for the day while my sister was out of town. another little girl at the sitter's was getting into ava's diaper bag while she was napping. according to the sitter, he gave off warning signs that he was upset; yelling and crying, like "bitch, step away from my cousin's stuff or i'll bite you." and he did.

ava (and beckett and tracy) are coming to town tomorrow. we haven't seen them in three months. jack's been counting down for days. the other night before bed i asked j what he was thankful for. "i'm thankful it's only four more days until ava is here."

 july 2008

april 2009

 august 2010

october 2010

july 2011