By the Way...

I have been so sick of my way too long hair and have been talking about getting it cut really short for ages. Ever since Isaac was born, it has been falling out like mad so I decided that now would be a great time to really go for it. Seriously you guys, it was so long and ridiculous I had to braid it to go to bed! It felt like Little House on the Prairie. Of course, as soon as I decided to make an appointment I found out that my hairdresser is moving! This is the second time this has happened to me up here. Anyways, I did manage to catch an appointment with her but now I have no idea where to go from here since I'll actually have to maintain my hair now.

A few things:

1. My hair is ca-razy in that first picture, I think I just pulled it out of a bun. And seriously, there aren't many pictures of me on this computer. Let's not even talk about the number of pictures that are actually flattering...and don't mind zombie eyes up there.
2. I never did get an official "before" picture. I tried to do it myself and I look like I just woke up. Lovely.
3. I never realized just how awkward I am when Jeff is behind the camera. I can't be normal. So this sideways glance is me looking at Adrian. Believe me, it was the best shot.
4. I'm still trying to figure out how to style hair this short. I had Jeff take pictures of me before church and well, yeah, my hair looked pretty terrible because I don't know what I'm doing. I happened to tousle it up because it was driving me crazy. It was really an attempt to soften the wax but I  accidentally made it look much better.
6. I had clippers used on my neck for the first time in my life. Yikes!
7. This is a tad bit shorter than I was going for since my bangs were a little too short--my own fault since I trim them myself.
8. Despite #7, I really like it. It will be fun to try out a bunch of different haircuts as my hair grows. (I may keep it short for a while now although I think I said that last time...)
9. Any short hair styling tips are welcome!

Breakfast Chat

As we were eating our breakfast this morning Adrian told me, "These eggs are yummy! Thank-you!" And then a few minutes later, "These eggs are yummy! Thank-you!" -pause- "I said it again!" And then a moment later, "These are the best eggs I ever had!" They were good omelets, I sauteed onions then added chopped fresh spinach and chopped tomoatoes, some minced garlic, and a sprinkle of dried basil. A little feta cheese on top doesn't hurt either. Delish! Of course Adrian likes to wreck all eggs with ketchup but whatev.

Now, let me take a moment to tell you why this is so ironic; a few days ago I made the same exact omelet. I thought it was delicious and ate it right up. Adrian on the other hand, took two bites and told me, "I'm full, I don't want anymore." I was okay with that. Generally when he does that, he'll come back five minutes later exclaiming his absolute starvation and I present him with the rejected food (especially if it's something he has willingly eaten before, in this case he had). Sure enough, complained of hunger so I told him to eat his omelet. We happened to have an poolside invite that day so I was running around trying to get the house in order and get ready to go. While I was upstairs he said something funny about me throwing something of his away and I asked if he had thrown his omelet away...sure enough.

So, these are the best eggs you ever ate, huh?

Sweet Baby

Little Man is 5 months! I am just blown away by how much faster time flies with the second kid. And I'm guessing it doesn't slow down anytime soon.

He is still just as happy as ever, my perfect little chubbers. Everyone always asks, is he always that happy? and yes, he really is. Sometimes I feel guilty because he is just that good, he's totally content to roll all over and kick on the floor all day long and I get so busy with everything else in my day that I probably don't take enough time to just snuggle him up. And I should because he is just growing so darn fast.

He loves to stick out his tongue, I think he's trying to blow a raspberry, but hasn't been successful yet. He found his thumb about a week ago and he loves it. I think it's the cutest thing and sometimes he just gets so into it like sucking his thumb is the very best thing in the entire world. Mostly it's his left hand but sometimes it's his right and it's not uncommon to find him sucking both thumbs at once.

He's grabbing things pretty successfully now and I sometimes find him sucking on Adrian's Duplos that are always all over the floor. He's still a pretty good sleeper (although I blame my coffee habit for his stopping sleeping through the night) he soothes himself to sleep most of the time. At night, when I notice that he's getting tired, I lay him in in crib as we're getting ready for bed and he'll roll around and every once in a while he pops his head up and gives us a big grin. Before I know it, he's sounds asleep.

A little update on the baby wrap, he still loves it and so do I. I don't carry him around in it quite so much these days because he really loves to move around, but I still use it for hiking or grocery shopping when Jeff isn't with me to carry the 1 ton car seat. He still likes his legs all tucked up inside although I occasionally let them hang out if it's too hot. (To answer the question about yardage from the baby wrap post, you could probably get away with 2 1/2 yards of fabric. 2 yards might be just a tad short. Sorry I didn't reply 3 months ago!)

I feel like we're adjusting quite well to life with 2 kids. Although we didn't choose this age gap, I think it helps that Adrian is old enough to have some independence. And also, like I said, Isaac is a perfect baby.

Tomato, Tomahto

I kind of want to write an entire blog post about tomatoes. We went to the Marquette farmer's market again on Saturday. Jeff was working so this time it was just me and the kiddos and we got there towards the end. It had been raining off and on and all of the vendors were packing up even though there was still a half hour to go. Wimps. Anyways, when we went the week before we tried this AMAZING cherry tomatoes from one stand and brought a pint home with us which we quickly devoured like candy and on our chicken salad.

I asked what kind of tomato they were because they were so good, but the guy wasn't sure which one they were. He had 2 different varieties of these orangey-yellow cherry tomatoes and you could only tell them apart by taste. He told me to come back the following week and he would have both kinds (they were mixed together that week since he didn't have a ton of each yet) so I would be able to try them and figure out which was which. Oh my gosh you guys, I seriously can't get over these tomatoes. I like tomatoes but I don't generally like to eat them plain. I cannot wait to grow them next year just so I can snatch them off the plant and snack on them. Yum!

Anyways, I went back to his stand yesterday and he didn't have any. Not just because we were late, but he hadn't brought any at all. Instead, he had some bigger--but still smallish--tomato varieties. They were $2.50 for a pint and he had about 2 and a half pints left. He gave the rest to me for $2.50. This was the reason I wanted to go late in the first place. ;) These other varieties were every bit as good. In fact:

Jeff looked at me like I was crazy as he drizzled peanut butter onto his frozen strawberries.

Have you been to the farmer's market lately? I was pretty disappointed to hear that there are only a couple more weeks to get the local produce when we just started going.

Daily Journal and Fishing

Summertime is getting away from me! It's the middle of August and it already feels like fall in the U.P. The tips of many of the maples are just beginning to change. Perhaps next month I'll get back to more regular blogging.
Jeff went fishing overnight on Monday with my cousin Tom. It was my first night alone in our new house and I survived to tell the tale. Or lack of a tale. It was a peaceful night, thank goodness. Of course, I had Adrian to protect me, he was pretty excited to go to sleep in our room. He's been sleeping in there more often than not lately but he generally starts out in his own room. I enjoyed a few evening hours alone and devoured the rest of the birthday cake. Kidding. Actually, I'm serious and it was good.

I thought the guys had good luck fishing when Jeff brought home a cooler of salmon weighing 20-something lbs, but apparently they didn't do well at all for that area. I guess they'll just have to go again! Tom is coming over for supper tonight to enjoy some of that fish.
Last night, I had a few ladies over for craft night (you know, since I finally have the space to do that). I had pinned this journal calendar a while back--yeah I think all of my projects for craft night come from Pinterest--and started on it last night.

I didn't actually read the post on Design Sponge until I was about halfway through making the calendar so mine is a little different. I didn't have enough index cards so I mixed them in with colored cardstock and I decided to leave out the month dividers for now. I'll probably just keep the current date at the front and file it to the back each day. I also used both sides of each card since the cardstock is thicker than the notcards; there wouldn't have been enough room for 366 cards. (Dont' forget Leap Day!) I'm excited to have this since I like to journal, in theory, I just don't always remember to do it. This way, I can quickly jot down something from my day and be able to look back each year. How fun!

A Happy Birthday Weekend

We had a Happy Birthday weekend in this house. Jeff and Adrian both celebrate their birthday on the 11th. I had plans to have a houseful for a party but so many people ended up being out of town so it was a pretty small gathering in the end. We had fun nonetheless and visited with a couple we haven't seen in a while. No pictures of the guests because I am so awkward and I feel silly asking for permission to post pics. Please tell me I'm not alone. (And feel free to to tell me that I can, nudge, nudge.) ;) I actually completely forgot to take a picture of all the kids together, silly me.

Jeff started car-pooling last week [jumps for joy] so I have a car on the weekends that he works. This will be the first time in a long time that I will actually make it into church on those weekends. So nice. On Friday I was able to run all over town buying stuff for our little party. It took for.ev.er with the kids by myself. When I got home I had to fly around making cakes and cleaning and making a fun little banner for the porch.

I don't bake. When it comes to cooking, I can tweek a recipe or completely wing it. Baking on the other hand, I follow the recipe word for word and it's still mediocre at best. So the cakes were good but not great but boy, this frosting was the bomb. I wanted to freeze it and eat it like ice cream. I won't even tell you what's in it because I'm still trying to forgot. (Yes, that picture of the cake is in my living room, we have very little natural light in the kitchen, unfortunately.)

We gave Adrian Duplos for a birthday gift and he is loving them. He keeps talking about playing with his "Dupwo Wegos." Now I just need to find more thrift shopping/garage saling to add to his stash.

On Sunday, we hiked up Sugarloaf with some other friends and then grilled supper at our house. Love that we can do that now! We actually just picked up a cheap charcoal grill since I haven't found one otherwise. Can't wait to use that every day.

It kind of felt like my birthday this weekend. So fun to have friends visit our new home!

Mooshy Belly Bunny

The girls get together for craft night semi regularly (there's one tonight, woohoo!) and last time I made this Mooshy Belly Bunny that I had pinned a while back. (Click on the picture for a link to the tutorial from Chez Beeper Bebe.)

Here's how mine turned out:

Hm...somehow not quite as adorable. I realize now that the fabric I used was way too stretchy so the head in particular ended up too wide when I stuffed it. It was pretty quick to make (who am I kidding, it took me 3 seperate occasions to finish but in all fairness, the little boy above often steals my attention). Isaac is learning to grab things so this was the perfect time for him to get a new toy. Or a toy in general. I got rid of all of our baby toys because I didn't like any of them so it's time to start getting a few. I'd love to get him one of the nice, wooden teething toys that I've seen on Etsy as well but anyways....

Now Adrian wants one so I may make his a little bigger and I'll probably make another one for Isaac but his seems like it should have a rattle inside. I wonder where I would find that without ordering a ton...

Now I'm off to find something to make for tonight's craft night!

Gigi's Camp

We got back from the camp last Tuesday and Adrian is still asking to go back to "Gigi's camp." (We call Jeff's grandma Gigi to distinguish between all the grandma's. He's a lucky kid to know so many.)

We went thrift shopping while we were there, my mother-in-law and I were the last thrifters, with Adrian and Isaac in tow. Adrian was following Grandma around Keweenaw Consignment and talking as loud as can be, I could hear him all over the store. Every once in a while I would hear, "Where's my mom?" and the other customers probably nearly died when they saw what appeared to be a 14-year-old pipe up, "I'm right here, honey." I found a handful of vintage treasures including these really cool pillowcases that I saw on someone's blog. I just searched around and I can't figure out where I saw it, but anyways, I had no intention of seeking it out and then bam, there it was. I love when that happens! I'll have to do a thrifting post one day to share some of my latest finds.

We stopped at the grocery store to get drinks to go with the pizza we had for lunch and Auntie Jenna bought a mustache that she put on Adrian but it happened so quick that I wasn't able to get a face shot.

Of Adrian, tthat is.

This is my sister-in-law, Katie. I'm going to be honest here, she's winning the Favorite Auntie Contest. Adrian adores her.

Jeff and his dad went fishing a few times just a few miles off shore. They caught this lake trout and Paul grilled it up minutes after they returned. It doesn't get much fresher than that!

We were following along with the Olympics while we were at the camp, but now that we're home I feel like we're missing out because we don't have cable. I thought we might be able to see it on the local news (??) but we can't get that chanel to come in. Anyways, here's Isaac feeling inspired while watching gymnastics.

He makes it look too easy.

I had intentions of running a few times while we were there but I only ended up going out once with Jeff. The waves were pretty big so at some narrower places on the beach it felt like we were playing Mario and trying to stay out of the lava. It made the run a lot more interesting that's for sure.

We also had a night of smores, hobo pies (with nutella, strawberries and bananas on french bread, try it!) and fireworks. My camera battery was long dead by then so I missed out on all the photo ops.

It was a nice relaxing trip besides the way too much laundry caused by a certain someone who had accidents at night due to certain someones feeding him too much watermelon. Oops. Hopefully everything goes well when we camp in a few weeks.

Awesome!

Good news! I was able to recover the pictures from my memory card! I had no idea this was even possible until my cousin Katie gave me the tip. Thank-you, thank-you! Apparently you can download (free!) software to restore files including those deleted from a memory card. The whole process took me less than half an hour. I'm so amazed that this is possible, but maybe I shouldn't be. It seems that anything can be recovered these days. Technologically speaking.

I'll post pictures of the trip on Monday. In the meantime, I realized quite recently that Little Man is starting to sit up! Funny how with Adrian I was pushing it and now, it took the chiropractor's comment to make me realize that he's almost sitting on his own.

)Don't mind the cords and boxes behind him. We're moved in, we just don't have the best set-up for everything yet. I need to do more thrift shopping! I have to keep reminding myself that we have only been here for a few weeks.)

Sniff

Oh my gosh.

I was going to blog but I just realized that I wasn't able to load my pictures when I tried earlier and then deleted them all from my camera...I feel sick.

I guess it doesn't matter that my battery died halfway through the trip.

I'll be back once I've cried it out of my system. Sniff.