did you know?

Did you know:

That a squirrel can't run and  breathe at the same time?

That's why they stop mid-run.

Poor things are breathing!

Did you know:

That my husband has dropped oodles of weight lately?

I am seriously crushing on him.

Did you know:

That I chose a random picture without looking at it to put here?

This was the one I got.

Did you know:

That it is, like, 320 degrees here today.

It's freaking hot.

Did you know:

The word, NERD, was first coined by Dr. Suess in "If I Ran a Zoo.?"

Did you know:

That I have lots of kitchen work to do today.

Baking and such.

I am in the mood for that.

So it all works out.

Did you know:

That these girls are Ellie's oldest girlfriends?

We love them.

Did you know:

That I am doing a warrior dash in August?

I really need to start running more.

I am running some, but I need to work back up to a 5k not being a big deal.

Right now, 3 miles = big deal.

Did you know:

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets?

Did you know:

That I am seriously considering a tattoo?

It would be of a tiny robin.

Somewhere that no one would never ever see it.

In honor of my mama.

Thoughts?

Did you know:

That this is what Ellie looked like at one and a half?

Where did that little baby go?

Did you know:

That in an average lifetime a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator?

Did you know:

That if you are reading this, I like you?

Even if I don't know you.

 Did you know:

That coach came up to us last night and asked if he was doing everything right by our kid?

She is the youngest (BY FAR) on the team.

He sees an athlete in her.

My dad played baseball into his 40's.

It totally skipped me, but I think she got it.

Yay!!

Did you know:

That I love this man?

I think you probably knew that one...

stuff and things again

I have a lot to talk about.

And nothing to talk about.

All at once.

These are the types of posts that I most like to read whilst reading other blogs.

Your thoughts?

What kinds of posts do you prefer?

This boy.

He is the guarder of my feet at night.

Every morning this is where I find him.

He is such a corker.

 We seem to have 3,216 things going on this summer.

Softball.

And swimming lessons.

And playdates.

And this.

And that.

It is making it go way too fast.

Is it just me or is anyone else eating their weight in fresh fruit this summer?

I cannot get enough.

Yesterday alone I had a peach, watermelon, ranier cherries, green grapes, and cantalaupe.

I also had a snack cake.

But I digress.

I love me a good snack cake.

But you can feel your arteries clogging as you finish one.

That's probably not a good thing.

So, remember last year when I had a little scare with my boobies and had to have biopsies and such?

Well, ever since then, I have had pain in both of them.

So at my annual visit, my midwife told me I needed to get it checked out again.

Yay.

So, bright and early Monday morning I headed to the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus for some

boob squishing   mammograms.

I am lucky that my main hospital is the Cleveland Clinic.

It's a good place.

All is well, no immediate reason for the pain.  It was labeled as "indeterminate."

Apparently I am still healing.

15 months later.

Wow.

I do have to go back in 6 months to check on one tiny place.

But they don't seem overly concerned.

So I am going to try not to be either.

An as an aside, no less than 15 people saw me topless.

Always a good way to start a Monday.

We are taking a little mini vacation and going to a friends cottage on an island this weekend.

Doesn't that make us sound fancy?

That we have friends with a cottage on an island?

I see campfires and lake swimming and hobo pies in my immediate future.

Sis is beside herself with excitement.

One of her little school friends is the owner of said cottage.

Speaking of friends, have I mentioned lately how much I love mine?

This Friday, I got invited to a special event at Anthropologie.

Every year they choose a non-profit and support them.

On Friday night, the doors are shut to the public,

and are open for only its best, most spendy customers.

A percentage of the proceeds go to the non-profit.

There will be champange and "Horse derves."

(I can never spell that word and I am too lazy to look it up right now...)

They happen to be supporting my friend Megan's non-profit, so I got an invite as her friend.

I am going to go and pretend I am filthy rich.

I know.

Don't be jealous.
Maybe someday you will meet Megan and get invited to these fun things too.

I took my friend Lisa to the airport yesterday and then stayed with her 3 children for a bit until grandma showed up.

I really don't know how mom's with more than one do it.

Her kids are fantastic and well behaved and fun, but they all three wanted to do something different, and they are all 4 or younger, and the baby needed fed, and the 2 year old wanted pushed on the swing, and the oldest wanted juice, and I was tired after 30 minutes.

You mom's are superheroes.

Really.

Ellie was a huge help.

"Mom! You push Darren on the swing and I will make sure Michael doesn't run into the street and here is Reagan's binkie."

She was on it.

I was sincerely grateful that she was there.

Love that girl.

Ok.

That is all.

Happy Wednesday!

piercing

Every time, since the dawn of creation, that we walked by anywhere to get ears pierced I would ask Ellie if she wanted to.

She would always scream and run in the other direction.

Yesterday for the billionth time I asked.

She calmy said yes.

Wha??

I thought to myself,

"Self, this is perfect.  There is no big lead up, no time to fret.  Let's do this!"

She sat in the chair.

She held Claire Bear.

She was nervous.

But pretended not to be.

And just like that it was over.

She cried just a titch.

This was her first look.

10 minutes in and she was happy.

No pain.

Smiling.

I catch her staring at herself in the mirror.

I think she likes it.

:)

She looks older.

Chris said last night that he feels like this is the gateway to the bra.

It all starts with pierced ears.

He is not quite ready for her to be so big.

I love that man.

And I love her new look.

my guy

This is a story about a guy.

He grew up way out in the country.

Where there were more dogs than people.

He didn't have a whole bunch growing up.

But he did have a mother and a grandmother who loved him.

And a younger sister and brother.

He didn't have a dad.

He wasn't given much of a chance through high school.

He was overlooked.

It's a shame, really.

They had no idea what they were missing.

I saw it.

Even at 15 I knew he would be something special.

In college, he bloomed.

I think it was then that he realized he could do any damn thing he wanted.

And he did.

He is smart, this guy.

Smart in a way that most people don't even understand.

He can meet someone and know, instantly, what kind of person it is.

He is comfortable in any situation.

He gets things.

He knows what he wants, and the best way to get it.

He is a rock solid friend.

He is the guy you would call in the middle of the night if you were stranded on the side of the road.

Or in jail.

And he would be there.

Without question.

He is brilliant on the computer.

Even more brilliant on the golf course.

And gives a mean back rub.

He plays volleyball on Tuesday evenings and basketball on Friday mornings.

When he puts his hand on the small of my back to lead me into a room...

dear heavens, I swoon.

Still.

After almost 20 years.

As a father, he is without equal.

I don't know if his lack of one has anything to do with it or not.

I don't care.

All I know is that our girl has a good Daddy.

He plays.

And knows how to tease just right.

He sneaks her snacks when I'm not looking.

And takes her on dates.

He still gives her shoulder rides, even though she is getting too big for them.

He knows.

He knows that it is going so fast, and he wants to get them in while he can.

However, he is not perfect.

He can frustrate me to no end.

He leaves soda cans all over the house.

Has a short fuse.

Has more shoes than any man I know.

Has no tolerance for stupid, whatsoever.

And he likes circus peanuts.

Gross.

 I wouldn't trade him for all the tea in China.

There is no one I would rather spend time with.

No one I would rather argue with.

No one I would rather parent with.

He is mine.

All mine.

I am so lucky.

So lucky.

I love you, Babe.

Happy Father's Day.

And Anniversary.



disclaimers

I have 2 disclaimers to discuss.

1.  In the post where I discussed the party and showed the host and hostess and so on and so forth...

I think it was 2 posts ago...

I mentioned it wasn't a wild and crazy night.

The hostess took offense.

Nearly disowned me as a cousin.

Hasn't spoken to me since.

Refuses to take my calls.

Put an ad in the paper about what wusses we are.

I jest...

The party was completely wild and crazy.

When we left, we had no kid for the night, so we planned to get all wilder and crazier.

We went home...

(and we were the first to leave)

and went to sleep.

So,

Party = Wild and Crazy!!!

Home Afterwards = Not wild and crazy.

There Paige.

Your reputation for wild party girl is saved!

**************************************************************************

2.  My last post had no less than 3 grammatical errors.

Wow.

I pride myself on correct spelling and such.

My bad.

My very very bad.

All has been fixed.

***************************************************************************

That is all.



summer grumbles

I love summer.

I love the flowers.

 And the plants.

And the green.

And the birds chirping in open windows.

 And the sun.

 And the warmth.

 I love the lazy mornings.

And extra cups of coffee.

And sprinkler running in the front yard.

And swimming.

And dinners on patios with friends.

And beers on the front steps.

I love flip flops.

And sundresses.

And mint toe nail polish.

And early morning jogs.

And lightening bugs.

 But there are a few things about summer that  just about drive me crazy.

1.  Applying sunscreen every 22 minutes.

Ok.

Not really.

But it seems that way.

And she always burns anyway.

How do you keep that area under the eyes from burning?

She would be ok if it weren't for her silly goggles.

The putting on and taking off and putting on and taking off tends to wipe away even zinc.

She burns there all summer long.

2.  Dirty feet.

While this is great in theory, my carpets beg to differ.

We have a no shoes on the carpet policy.

In the summer, we barely wear shoes.

And we can't take off our feet.

And I often forget to wipe them down before she scampers upstairs for something.

Sigh.

3.  Watering.

So far I have managed to be gone enough in the evenings and Chris has done it for me.

I don't know what it is about watering my garden.

But I don't like to do it.

Uncoil the hose, get wet feet, spray everything down, fill the watering can, carry it around to the front to water petunias and impatiens, get wetter feet, refill can to water new lilac bushes, recoil hose.

Blah.

It should be relaxing.

It is not.

4.  On the same note: Weeding.

Seriously.

The weeds are overtaking the garden.

When the world ends, the only things left are going to be cockroaches and weeds.

I have not given up the fight yet.

I got so rigorous the other night, I may or may not have pulled up some cucumber plants.

I don't know what cucumber plants look like though, so I'm not sure.

I'm new to this whole "actual garden" thing.

I know these are just terrible awful problems to have.

Poor me.

And ps.

She didn't need a new suit.

Not even a little.

But I fell in love with this one from H&M.

I wish it came in my size.

first summer weekend

Seriously.

If we have many more weekends like this one...

we are going to pass out from exhaustion by July 4th.

I am not even kidding.

It all started Friday with a golf clinic.

She is on her way to being the next big thing.

I can feel it.

(As an aside, when they asked her name for her name tag, she said Elizabeth.  I looked at her with cocked eyebrows and she was all "what?? I am Elizabeth today!" Ok, then.)

After that we took Nat for a few hours so her mom could get some things done.

We lunched at Chipolte...

and played some game where turtles took over the world.

 Then she spent the night at Nat's house and Chris and I headed over to the Palladino's for a patio party.

 The Host.

 The Hostess.

 They know how to throw a party, those two.

It was nice.

I would like to say things got all wild and crazy.

But we were asleep by 11:30.

Then on Saturday we paraded the circle.

Which basically means, that we, along with 75,000 other people sat in the sun and baked and watched the slowest parade in the history of mankind.

We started out on Lolly the Trolley, who took us to the parade and provided entertainment along the way.

 And we got awesome views of the city.

Like this one.

 And this one.

 Some blessed shade before the parade started.

 And a lemon slushie thing kept us cool as we waited.

 I know I complained up yonder a bit.

I shouldn't have.

But it was so stinking hot.

It really was a great parade.

All homemade floats.

Lots of kids.

And musicians.

It's how a parade should be.

 We didn't like her.

She scared us.

 Did I mention it was hot?

 On the way back home, Lolly the Trolley lulled her right to sleep.

 Once back in Gordon Square, we popped in to visit our friend Nicole in her pop up shop.

We crafted.

And promised to be back this week when we weren't too pooped to party.

 We did feel better after we lunched at this gorgeous patio.

Which by the way, to get to, we had to scrunch through bushes and roll under gates.

It was a urban hike, if you will.

 With these gorgeous people.

 And some fun ice cream always makes things better.

 I think I may have found the Jerry's of Cleveland.

Seriously.

It is a teeny tiny outside ice cream place.

With Kiddie cones and such.

Only they offer hummus.

And lots of different sorbets.

Like Grapefruit.

We will be going back...

Thanks for the tip Joneslers!

People.

That was just Saturday.

On Sunday, we paraded with her baseball team to fire up for the season.

Then hit up a pool party for a friend.

Where we managed to wile away the afternoon.

There would be photos, but apparently photo taking at the pool is frowned upon...

She fell asleep at 6:30 on the way home.

And woke up at 8:15 this morning.

She asked for a snack.

I asked her if she meant breakfast.

She was confused.

She had no idea she had slept the whole night.

Silly girl.

So, see what I mean?

It was a whirlwind weekend.

Today.

It looks like I haven't been in my house all weekend.

Except to throw one bag down and grab another.

There are wet bathing suits here and there.

And I can spy no less than 4 bottles of sunscreen.

So, today.

I have the grocery.

And bathing suits to pick up.

And clothes to fold.

And goggles to buy.

And a kitchen floor to scrub.

And so on and so forth.

And someone is begging to go to the pool.

It's gonna be a good summer.

no more kindy

It's official.

She's a first grader.

GASP!

When did that happen?

After the ceremony we went back to the classroom for snacks and pictures.

Here she is with her twin.

And two handsome boys, Andrew and Lance.

And another handsome boy, Adrian.

And another handsome boy, David.

And some girl friends, Natalie and Isabella.

And her teacher, Ms. Murray.

Who, by the way, is a fantastic teacher.

She really pushes the kids.

But in a good way.

I am really amazed at what Ellie learned this year.

It is staggering.

Then today was the very last day of school.

It was a fun day with relays and bounce houses and popcorn and giant candy land.

I was there all day, manning the obstacle course.

I am exhausted.

I don't know how teachers do it.

For. Real.

Then, what is the last day without a water fight?

I proclaimed myself the photographer.

Cause that water was freaking freezing.

Then she played in the dirt.

And promptly passed out.

She was pooped.

It was a great year.

A wonderful start to her educational years.

I am happy.