Ten on Tuesday.

1. Memorial Day weekends are awesome. Amazing how one extra day adds so much ooomph to your weekend.

2. It was home improvement weekend: storm door installed, check. Grass thatched, mowed, re-seeded, & fertilized. My husband is awesome.

3. Went to Original Pancake House. Katie & Wally, wait 'til you see our Pancake House. It is faaaaan-ceeeeeee. Ron got his basted eggs fix.

4. Hit up TJ's for pepitas, wine, granola, and cookies.

5. Ron has set up our queue for the Summer Television Adventure (I think that's what he's calling it): Desperate Housewives and Alias. It is the truest definition of a compromise. I don't want to watch his show and he doesn't want to watch mine. I know lots of you have suggested Big Brother. Isn't this just a grown-ups' Real World? Please, please correct me if I'm wrong.

6. Thunderstorm today. Soon as I shut all the windows, it stopped. All that downpour. Love summer storms.

7. Alla said to Ron, "Daddy be careful with the wind. Don't blow away, Mommy be mad."

8. Ron told Alla she rolls deep. Has to have her entourage with her when we leave the house...Baby, Froggy, Eeyore, Elmo, and Bear. This is a lot of peeps for one little two year old to hang onto.

9. Some sneak-y peekies for my card swap gals (aren't they gorgeous!!):

10. Have you visited Chico & Mariah's new baby? -------------> see the link -------------->

Morning Transgressions.

Here's how our morning went:

5:43am - Alla chattering away in her crib

Charlie Brown, where's Linus? I don't know where's Linus.

(no answer from Mommy & Daddy)

Mooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmy! Alla's a pig! Oink oink oink oink oink oink oink oink.

(Still no answer from Mommy or Daddy)

5:53 am Daaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddy! I got a boog. I got a BIG boogie on my finger!

(At this we finally crack up and declare her the winner, and Daddy does indeed go see about the boogie. Who's surprised that there wasn't an actual boogie?)

During her diaper change, I still snuggle into the covers, and hear: Daddy, not too tight, Daddy!

And then, I wanna say Happy Mother's Day to Mommy.

Sure enough, a moment later, my eyes clenched tight pretending to be asleep, she's lifted onto the bed right next to me, whispering, Happy Mother's Day, Mommy, Happy Mother's Day.

I'll take it.


We're back from PA so you know what that means? I have loads of editing to do so it will probably be next year til I'm done. In the meantime, here's one of my favorites from our trip. Alla and "Old McDonald." Old McDonald, you're wondering? Why, isn't that Ronald McDonald, Ron's beloved childhood toy? No, in fact, Alla has decided that this is Old McDonald, of E-I-E-I-O fame. She slept with him every night we were there, in Daddy's old bed, I might add, and sang him This Old Man as she [they] drifted off.

Hope you're all having a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Two for the Road.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Right on cue, Alla came down with a cold the week before we're set to go to PA to visit Grandma & Grandpa. I swear they must think we're serving her up a daily dose of germs. I should have known there'd be a runny nose on Sunday when on Saturday she told me she had a snuffy nose.

2. Finished The Glass Castle in a week. Amazing read. Go get it.

3. Started The Pact. This was the first Jodi Picoult novel I saw in Target that made me want to read her stuff, and I just never got to it. It was the only one they had at the library yesterday. Score.

4. My husband is amazing. He made Mother's Day amazing. Breakfast in bed. Seriously. And took this picture. I love it. It tells what time it was (7:43, which means I had been lazing around in bed for an hour and forty-three minutes, and I think I stayed at least another forty-five after that). I shows my empty plate, the newspaper strewn about the bed, coffee cup, Alla opening my card, Tiffany box on my lap, and just happiness, and feeling really loved and appreciated. Thanks, you two.

5. So glad Susie's back.

6. So happy for Elizabeth's baby.

7. Eager to hear about Chico & Mariah's baby.

8. I scrapped! Actually I did three layouts last weekend. Here's one. This was great to get on paper, twenty-four hours of my life. If you've never done one of those TODAY layouts, I think they are so important and maybe my favorite because they are exactly what you did, thought, said. And I think that's what I'm going to want to remember twenty years from now, what my life was like, on a day-to-day basis. I don't know if you can enlarge this big enough to read, I mean the font had to be pretty small to get twenty-four hours of details in!

9. Is anyone else sad that the season finales are going on? I mean what am I supposed to watch all summer?

10. Ten on Tuesday will mostly likely be on hiatus next week while we're in PA. But you never know. I might get saucy and surprise you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone is enjoying a lazy Sunday. I for one am still in my jammies and on my second cup of coffee and those are my major plans for the day. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers who make my life so sweet, especially Mom.

Breakin' Out the Pool.

We had nearly ninety degrees yesterday so I broke out the pool for the little girl, who I believe forgot what it even was but when I informed her that it was for swimming said Alla go in it. Yes, babe, you go in it.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. A new favorite photo!2. Finished Saving Fish From Drowning. Don't recommend it.

3. Started The Glass Castle. I've only read 40 pages and I already recommend it.

4. Brought some lilacs inside today. Mmmmmmmm.

5. A recent conversation between Alla and I, which all started because she was indeed wearing a bib with a cupcake on it that said 'little cupcake,' went like this:

Me: Are you my little cupcake?
Alla: No! (Said in the tone of No, silly Mommy!)
Me: Are you my little punkin?
Alla: No! (Same tone)
Me: Are you my little brownie?
Alla: No!
Alla: Little daughter!

6. Tried on a tankini this weekend and had Alla on my hip while I pulled the top off the rack. Immediately she said, for nursin'.

7. Speaking of tankinis, have you checked out Athleta?

8. May is really nice. Flip flops are nice. I don't think anyone here has heard of Rainbows, though.

9. Already getting excited for State Fair time.

10. I still haven't gotten around to any Jodi Picoult novels. Maybe the library will have a paperback tomorrow.

Five for Friday.

Someday I'll catch up [on laundry, sleep, editing, etc.] from Alla's birthday, or should I say, birth-several-days, which perhaps she has been granted due to the fact that she did take several days of labor to arrive two years ago. Two? Still weird.

In the meantime, a few moments:

Her new car! Her new trike!Her new sit n spin!And, today, just her.
Happy weekend, all.