That's right, we got monkeys.

Since we had an entire day devoted to relaxing and having M. home - we went a little hog-wild and had a lovely day out. We filled it with picture taking (begrudgingly done mostly by M. himself) but look - now you get to enjoy our day too! So sit back, relax, grab some raisinets, "hold onto your butts" and enjoy the overabundance of pictures I just put up here for your amusement and my bragging rights because seriously, he's really cute.

I told him to get his shoes so we could leave and this is how he returned. Come on, adorable!!!

I think he stopped to pose for this picture because who does that as they're about to slide down a slide? Can you say ham?

He was literally running to see the monkeys. He loves monkeys and has been asking for days to go back and see them. You can almost see him in full running glory here.

You can see in his face the look of "I've already been petting goats for awhile now, what next?" He was off to find something else to lick his little face.

Peeking through the fence to look at the chickens.

I thought M. was going to jump the fence and hug this eagle he was so excited. He and E. kept saying "eag-o" over and over.

M.'s wingspan.

E.'s wingspan.

My ridiculous pose showing off my sweet wingspan.

He came right up to the window and was just staring at people as if saying "How do you like it sucker?" He even scared some poor little unsuspecting kid. Good for him, I have a new respect for eagles because of this stare - go eagle!

Can you just see enthusiasm written all over E.'s face? What a grump, I mean really, who wouldn't be excited to pose with a huge butterfly? Come on, really? Look at my excited mug!

Our monkey faces.

Playing in the elephant fountain. He kept saying "wet, wet" and looking at me unsure if it was ok that he was getting wet.

Deep concentration while playing in the sand.

And again, what is he thinking here? "This stuff is getting everywhere - why are they just sitting there letting me do this? And why isn't everyone sitting in it doing this same thing? It's fantastic people!" I think that's what he was thinking.

We had to end our fun day with some shakes at the local "Frozen Custard" stand. (Yeah, it's just called "Frozen Custard" but it's good.) They are having a special on rhubarb shakes right now so you bet your bootie we got one. It was great!

And this is how our day ended. Completely exhausted after a fabulous day of fun.

Thanks for experiencing our fun day, we had a lovely time and I hope you did too. (I feel strangely like Mr. Rogers right now but that's OK, I won't ask you to be my neighbor). Also, whoever can tell me what the above quote is from gets the sweetest high-five EVER!

Wow.

A friend sent me the link to this blog. mattlogelin Wow. All I have to say is wow. He is a self-proclaimed "unconventional" dad raising his little one-year-old girl. His wife died after seeing the baby only once and he now raises her alone, without family around. It's a pretty cool blog, I teared up a little thinking about how hard and heartbreaking that would be. Check it out, it's worth it. Maybe we can all be a little more appreciative today of our loved ones and everyone that supports us. I know I am. I love you all - you know who you are!

Seasons within seasons

My very favorite tree in the whole world is the dogwood magnolia tree and they are all over around here. (Thank you Susy for the correct name). It has the most beautiful white and red blossoms that come out for only a few weeks at the beginning of Spring. I have been so looking forward to their arrival since we moved here. A beautiful season of it's own within Spring. As the leaves start to come out the blossoms turn slightly brown and fall off.
Like all seasons, this little dogwood magnolia season has come to an end. Even though it means that Spring is fully here and Summer is just around the corner it's always sad to see something beautiful come to an end.
I had a lovely talk with a good friend last night who is moving away at the end of the summer. She's scared to start a new season of her life because this one is not always beautiful but it's comfortable and familiar, isn't that the way every new season starts? We're excited to see it come but sad to see the other end. Today I just want to enjoy the last few blossoms on the trees before they are completely gone and the new season starts. Hopefully it will be a good one.

It seems that my musical phases seem to move with my life seasons as well. Currently I am ending a beautiful love affair with Rilo Kiley. (We're not "breaking up", I just need a little space) Their cd, "Under the Blacklight" has been playing non-stop in my car for the last who knows how long and I'm ready to let that little affair fizzle out for awhile. Sad yes, but I'm excited for whatever new phase is about to start. Here is a fairwell tribute to my personal favorite of this season. Enjoy and may your new seasons start and end beautifully.
Silver Lining

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! I hope all of you did something great to conserve. We need to be watching out for our planet you know? We can't just go runnin' lights and heaters and water and stuff just willy-nilly anymore. We need to be nice to Mother Earth so she can continue to be nice to us.
I tried to do my part today, I planted some plants, yes I know that's not the greatest achievement in living green but I thought I would do my part to be a little more self sufficient and eat more organically. I'm sure our little zucchini plant will give us a little more oxygen too, so that's something right? I'm trying.

I hope you all had a great Earth Day! Happy green living.

Alright, what we've all been waiting for...

OK, so the much promised update once again comes late at night. Why do I update my blog in the very late or early hours of the night, on nights when I am so tired I can barely see what I'm typing? Well, simply because I can't sleep if I don't get that nagging little bit of information that I have been promising everyone onto the world wide web where they are sitting, waiting, with their fingertips on the keyboard and their screen permanently positioned on my blog. No, I'm not really that narcissistic, I am just a weirdo and this is when I do it, OK?

So here is the great update. M's parents came to visit and we had a lovely week with them. We shopped, caught up on some much needed sleep (which I should be doing right now) and even stayed a night down in Indianapolis. It really was a blast and as the pictures will show, it was oh-so-lovely.

These pictures are random and completely out of order, but you get the point right? Enjoy - it was a wonderful visit and we enjoyed it and miss you Papa and Lela!

Going to "Ing"

E. being silly at a great Italian restaurant we stumbled on in Indy.

Our "mucho-weirdo" eggs! Courtesy of the "mucho-weirdo's" dying the eggs.

Our Easter picture, so not in cute clothes going to church but late the night before

Papa and Lela on campus, enjoyin' the sights.

Sweet sauce community Easter hunt.

E. fell asleep eating his his puffs. Poor kid, you'd think we didn't feed him or something.

I dare you to tell me that isn't the cutest face in the world!!!!!

And then...
this...

Lack of update, sorry.

Due to having some lovely visitors in our home I haven't had the chance to update anything. We were all too busy having fun and watching little E. tell everyone "no" (his new favorite word, but not defiantly, just matter-of-factly about everything). So, I'm sorry.
I would love to update right now but it's 1:16 a.m. and I really should be in bed and can't figure out why I'm not so since I am not making any sense and these two paragraphs are probably so full of grammatical errors I am just going to get in my bed, curl up in the fetal position under my down comforter and sleep - praying that E. sleeps in, even just a little.

"Ing"

This is E.'s current favorite pastime. "Ing, ing, ing" is pretty much all I hear everyday. Sometimes there is a "cracker" or " milky" in there but basically his only word right now is swing. Unfortunately the weather has been horrible. Blue skies today though, cross your little lucky fingers that we can spend some time outside and E. can "ing".

Call me crazy.

Call me crazy but I'm actually really sad to see Scotty (my little name for him) leave AI (my little name for the show that has sickeningly taken over a part of my brain that used to be reserved for learning important stuff.) OK, I know, I know, he isn't the greatest singer but I loved watching him sing and I just think he is SO sweet. Not to mention that I got those fun little jitter-bugs in my stomach every time he would sing and they would show his family and his super cute little sister would be on there cheering (sad tear - sigh).
Sorry all you haters out there but I'm going to miss Scott on the show.

Top That!

Best movie EVER! Shout out to Teen Witch. I still have yet to find a movie that can make me feel like this movie did when I was ten. Boo-ya! It's just "funky".

p.s. I didn't know my last post would create such love. I think it's great! Expect more venting about my poor social skills. I'm lovin' the love.

Please forgive the babbling.

OK, so I went to a party tonight. A lovely party with yummy food, nice people, good conversation and perhaps most importantly, a night out. So I pose the question; why? Why as a people do we decide that we should go out, eat food together, want to get to know each other, carry on personal conversations with complete strangers, and sometimes make complete fools of ourselves? For example, let me tell you about my night. (Caution: watch for heavy venting from a tired, hormonal mother of an ornery teething son.)
So M. comes to me a few days ago and informs me that he would like us to attend a party at the home of a very wonderful, sweet couple in his program. It's early enough that we can bring E. and on a night where we are free from obligation, so I tell him great, I'll bring a dessert. So after an afternoon of fighting and prodding E. to behave or even just to stop screaming (I mentioned that he's teething right, when I say teething I mean - TEETHING!), I begin making the dessert. It's supposed to be an old favorite I used to make all the time and is pretty fool proof, well not tonight. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong - have you ever seen melted chocolate just lose all it's moisture and dry up like a dirty old prune in seconds? So, I didn't make enough sauce, they were so dry, the chocolate dried up so I had to use frosting and I should have known at this point - forget it, your night is a bust. BUT...
I go to get dressed, grabbing the baggiest, strangest outfit I could possibly find, not to mention that I pulled it out of the dirty clothes - what was I thinking. And of course I fought with M. about getting this hair stuff yesterday that now turns out to be terrible and with my new haircut I look like a poodle with an emo haircut, yeah, it was that bad.

Whatever right? I tell myself to "Cheer up Charlie" and go to the party. Only to discover even further (I pretty much knew this but it was confirmed to the max tonight) that when I'm nervous I either act like a pompous squirrel on speed or a very depressed crazy woman with only cats to talk to. WHAT?! I am a happy country girl that wears goofy clothes, cuts her hair funny and makes lame jokes all the time, and I'm OK with that so why can't I just be her? Not to mention that E. was tired, kept bee-lining it to the door and saying "Go, go" and people kept looking at me like, "Why did she bring a kid here?" So, to make this very long story shorter, I pretty much felt like a babbling idiot, a bad mom, and a complete disaster all night, my grossly strange dessert sat between the champagne and brie and the couscous and skewers. How pathetic is that?
Needless to say, what the what? Why do we do this? Is it just me that enjoys other people company enough that I will endure constant torment from myself because I look ridiculous, made really weird food and keep awkwardly bringing up my leopard pillow covers, or do other people experience this? Am I alone in my repeated humiliation as I continue to go to these parties, over and over and over? Do we do it for that one GREAT conversation that we had and the idea that for 20 minutes I acted somewhat normal and that one person might not think I'm a complete wreck. Or are we just masochistic by nature and like making fools of ourselves only to pick up our shattered self image and try to put it back together for the next go around?
What do all of you think? Where do you sit on the party fence? Are you the party animal that shows up and everyone is so excited you're there that the party finally starts, or are you like me and prefer to have a couple close friends over for soup and scrabble? Well, I hope you all know where you sit and that you are on a much sturdier ledge than myself.


~I need to add a disclosure due to the fact that M. said I sound like Debbie Downer and needed to express that I am a happy person and quite OK with who I am, I just have bad party skills. Happy partying to all you party animals out there, and for the rest of us, enjoy your game of scrabble.

She & Him

So, I am in love with this fabulous duo. She & Him is an amazing duo of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. I was so excited when I found out that Zooey has finally put out a CD. As lame as it sounds, after the movie Elf I couldn't wait to hear her sing some more. She's very Ella Fitzgerald for the modern Indy world. So, yeah, I'm loving it. It's very old school and great.
Their CD is wonderful, it's called Volume One and I'm completely in love. Creepy video below but the song is fabulous. Enjoy...

Why Do You Let me Stay Here?