Random, As Usual

You know what I love? Pressure to get the house clean. We had somebody out at our house yesterday and it was imperative that our house be as perfect as possible (for Jason and I, anyway) so at 7:00 yesterday morning, I did a MASSIVE cleaning of our house from top to bottom and by 9:00am it was immaculate.

That brings me to my office (did you know I actually have a job and work every day...it's true).

Here it is. The walls are a lovely shade of yellow-green called Bamboo (more yellow than green) and Jason wants to puke on himself every time he lays eyes on the color I have in here.

This room will be the LAST room in the house that will ever get decorated how I want it. I usually spend an absurd amount of time (don't let my blog fool you into thinking otherwise) at my desk in front of my computer so decorations are really unnecessary. But at least I get to look out over my backyard in the window! Before any one asks, yes, that is a large sheet of 1/4 inch thick glass that I roll around on.

Anyway, this room is never clean. I'm lucky to find a few inches of space of the floor usually and it's essentially 144 square feet...do the math.

See this picture above? On the other side of that wall is our upstairs family room (a total waste of space, in my opinion). Jason and I really want to take out part of that wall and put in double French doors and close up the existing door. I see it in the near future.

And this picture above? It's the opposite wall. I like the idea I have going on but I hate the cluttered mess. I'm a function over form kind of girl so I love the clear totes that I get from Container Store (seriously, I think we have these in every room....I'm sure we own somewhere around 200 of these boxes, they are the best!) but then you have to look at the crap inside of it. Isn't my Audrey painting delightful? That was my Mother's Day present last year from my mom. She's going to eventually have a home up on that wall...the Audrey painting, not my mom.

Lawyer fishing in the pool...he found his tackle box and his fishing pole and set to baiting it himself with one of his fake worms. Nothing like fishing in your skivvies with a utility belt. Oh, and I'm sad to say, Lawyer didn't catch anything.

Hmm, let's see...oh, we had this for dinner last night:
Grilled Pork Chops
Broccoli
Grilled Potatoes

I more or less played with the cut-up pork chop on my plate...I don't like pork at all but Jason and Lawyer do. Trust me, you don't want to know what I think pork possibly tastes or smells like.

But, on the flip side, I made the most AMAZING cookies last night! They are in the Everyday Food mag that's from Martha Stewart for this month. I'm a die-hard chocolate-chip cookie fan so for me to switch to an overly lemony sugar cookie was huge.

Like I said, AMAZING. You can get the recipe online HERE. I'm hoping to make up a margarita version for Cinco de Mayo.

Future Class Clown of 2022

His antics and hilarity are never-ending, people.

You can not imagine the number of photos I took from one T-Ball game last week that were of Lawyer doing anything for a laugh.

See that picture above? You might not be able to tell what he's doing...

then you zoom in and see this...the "pitcher" giving a secret thumbs-up to his die-hard fan base.

And this picture? Lawyer's dancing 'cuz he made it to first base (the ball is still in play...see the first baseman waiting on the outfield to throw it to him?)...he has no shame.

This? It's Lawyer's "spazoid" run. He has many variations...and they never get old...except when the coach is getting fed up and the runner behind him is passing him.

I'm not certain what is going on here...I figure it's either free-style dancing or karate, I haven't yet determined the answer.

Huh. Moving along...

Lawyer is a notorious nail-biter. He gets this from his dad who is also a notorious nail-biter. I have to admit though, at Lawyer's age, I did the exact same thing. My point is, we decided to start having him start his games with a piece of gum to hopefully deter him from wanting him to chew on his nails and keep his eye on the game. Well, it ended up being even worse than the nail-biting since we saw the gum constantly going in and out of his mouth using his hands or the gum hanging out of his mouth, as is the case with the picture above.

I'm not certain Lawyer got the memo, but a game was going on while he decided to stop and have play-time in the dirt. Specifically he wasn't watching the ball and it zoomed past him. He tried to get down to it but, since he wasn't keeping his eye on the ball in the first place, he decided while he was down on the ground, he might as well play.

And totally changing the subject, here's what we had for dinner last night:
Loaded Hamburger w/ grilled red onions, arugula, pepper jack cheese and tomatoes on a kaiser bun
Guacamole Salad (seriously, you MUST try)
Sliced Strawberries

Sometimes You Have to Just Go With it...

I told Lawyer repeatedly last night "Lawyer, PLEASE quit playing in the dirt and eat your dinner!" Well, this 4 year old is equipped with the world's best "auto tune-out" when he hears my voice so he continued to do his business. As his lasagna continued to get colder and colder and my frustations were getting hotter and hotter, I remembered what little boys were made of.

And thus, my story begins...

This is a boy...

...a boy on a mission...

...Mission Accomplished!

In other news...

this is what we had for dinner:

Homemade Lasagna
Simple Greek Salad
Homemade Garlic Ciabatta Bread
And a Fruity Concoction (mango puree, L&R's Pineapple Coconut Juice, fresh grated ginger, Sprite and ice with a squeeze of lime)

What's Been Up...

A little T-Ball...

and a little knitting...

I Love My Little Pirate...

I'm also loving the navy wall with the "W"...I've got a great idea for a family picture but I have to find the chair I have in mind that I can paint white and upholster white to use as a prop....

Here is the style that I like:

*Antique-style French chairs
*Ornate carved wood base - as long as it's in good shape wood-wise (minimal gouges or nicks) I don't care if the finish is good or bad shape since I want to paint it
*I want the back kind of tall...maybe 5 feet tall
*Upholstered...any kind in any shape since I want to re-upholster it myself
*I want arms on it since I want it to look regal and kind of mainly (think king's chair)

So without further adieu, here are some pics of chairs I like...if any of you happen to find a chair meeting my specifications, let me know! But the kicker is, I don't want to spend over $50.00...hahahaha!!

Awesome Couch Alert!! I think this couch is only $300.00...so tempting but Jason would gag!

He Cracks Me Up

Totally Sweet...

Baby Girl "M" aka "Sweet Cheeks"

Ah, I still don't think the baby smells have washed off of me yet. In fact, I caught a whiff of her on Jason's hands last night still. Mmm, is there anything that smells better?

I love babies at this age. They're so floppy and soft. "M" had a cozy onesie on and I made a comment that she felt like a beanie baby!

At 6 weeks old (yesterday!), she still sleeps an insane amount but luckily she was ready for her close-ups when I showed up with camera in hand.

Baby "M" is a lucky little lady. Her parent's are already naturals and all three are just in love with one another.

Hantie and Kev-Dog are the best and Lawyer thinks the world of the two of them so I can only imagine the love between their new family. There's something so incredibly special about mother's and their babies, especially. Although, I'm sure the push-over will be Kev-Dog.

Jason, Lawyer and I specifically went up to Indiana to see baby M's baptism. I was asked to be the Godmother and while I'm not Catholic, I am deeply honored to have been asked.

For as sweet as she is, she was not liking her little bonnet on her head (although it could be that she HUNGRY!)...but it was her party so she could cry if she wanted to.

Soon, she held up her hand and gave me 4 seconds to get the big black thing out of her face.

Thank you Hantie and Kev-Dog for this sweet baby niece! We love her dearly and can't wait to see y'all again!

Good Times Were Had...

Whew! Nothing like a whirl-wind weekend! Our little family went to the Hoosier State over the weekend to visit with families and babies. Lawyer now has two sweet baby cousins and he had fun "petting" the baby girl's head and squishing the baby boy's cheeks. I even sneaked a peak at Lawyer holding the baby girl's hand while we were in the car. Smitten, he is.

Being in "The Bend" we took an excursion to Notre Dame and hung out on campus. Books were bought (I love that Lawyer could spend HOURS in a bookstore, he never tires of it), jerseys were upgraded and an ornament was to be had.

We checked out the "go-to" sights on campus:

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Golden Dome

The Grotto

Touchdown Jesus (Mom - Just go with it, okay?)

The Football Stadium

This is Jason's "shoulda-been" Alma Mater...had he had the money. While he didn't graduate from ND, he does have a Leprechaun tattooed on his shoulder. That's how much he loves this school so it was sweet to capture moments of Jason telling Lawyer all about Notre Dame: Jason with his heart-felt stories and Lawyer with his passive interest with his obligatory "Cool."

Some of my favorite pictures were taken when we made an impromptu stop at Jason's dad's shop. It's been in the family for over 50 years and it's funny that Jason is in the same line of business that both his grandfather and father have been in...three generations of Polish-American glaziers (although, Jason's not a glazier..just in the "glass business").

This building used to be the old Hoosier Brewery that was in operation from 1900-1949...I believe sometime shortly after that, Jason's grandfather bought a portion of the building to start his glass business. If I'm not mistaken, this portion that Jason's dad's business resides was an addition to the original 4-story building and it became the bottling house. I wish we had gotten to go inside because the inside is just as amazing as the outside (in a nostalgic kind of way). Back in the back and down a few steps inside is where I believe there used to be a tunnel (it's been bricked since the brewery closed) and from my memory, I think they used to have horse and buggies pull into the tunnel to load up the carts with the bottled booze. Oh and Jason's grandfather sat in the same seat at work for almost 50 years that his feet wore an indention into the concrete...so his footprints are permanently part of the slab.

Photo Courtesy of Brewers of Indiana Guild

Here's a picture I found from 1938 of the same building as above, it's just from the opposite location and back when it was in operation.

Love it!

Jason used to play on this loading dock when he was boy!

And last but not least is a picture of one of the babies...his eyes are simply beautiful.