Uhhh...

Sorry for the silence.  I'm having difficulties with iPhoto and iMovie, and my favorite tech guy is currently indisposed.  Hopefully I'll get back on track here before I forget everything I had to say!

Here are two questions from Owen to keep you thinking in the meantime.  Feel free to leave him a comment with your answers:

"Do sheeps have toenails?"
"If I get ranch dressing on my bottom will it burn?"

Strange, yes, but I prefer these kind over the ubiquitous "Why?"

A few Owenisms and some random stuff

Another shot from last Saturday.  Bracing for the train whistle.

• As a teacher of homebound students, I have to be ready to cover any subject.  The one that is currently killing me is senior level Anatomy and Physiology.  Maybe it would be easier if they would name things the way Owen does.
• He calls his big toe a thumb toe.
• The base of his skull is his back fo'head
• I asked him for a hug and kiss the other night, and he said, "Not now Mommy... I'm Yoda."
• I've been hoarse and generally icky with allergy stuff all week, but there was a playday at church yesterday that I didn't want Owen to miss.  So I just dressed for comfort and put my hair in a ponytail.  As we headed to the car, Owen turned and gave me a look.  "Mommy, you need to go back upstairs and put on a real shirt."
• I discovered in the car this morning that one advantage to having an allergy altered voice is that I can do a killer impression of a lesbian singer-songwriter:  

(Call me and I'll serenade you.)

• And finally, I just wanted to share that I found a basket to fill the weird space next to our washing machine.  Aren't you relieved?  I know... I've been losing sleep over it too.

Too lazy to take photos of my own so I found one like it here.

It always makes me happy when I can find something with a history and give it a second life, and this guy is really cool.  All I know for sure is that it's an ammunition basket.  I've read lots of conflicting info about whether they were used in WWI or WWII or both, and I've seen lots of different European countries get credit for them - France, Germany, Sweden - even Switzerland (I image their ammo baskets stayed in pretty nice shape).   You can see in the base of the basket where four artillery shells would have rested.

So that's the end of my random list.  Have a great weekend!

More Incognito iChatting

I really think fake moustaches could replace antidepressants.  Owen is sporting the Burt Reynolds model.  What were you wearing Uncle Joe?

Owen resorted to hugging the monitor.  Got to get the kid to Orlando soon.

Ruh-roh!

This might have ended badly for my pinky toe had I not demonstrated such good reflexes.

Our Saturday

After DD and Coach went home last week we were feeling a little down.  I even resorted to bidding on things on eBay to cheer myself up and managed to become the reluctant owner of two (TWO!) vintage bird-themed paint-by-number renderings. Seriously, how is that I was the only one to bid on these beauties?

We decided we all needed to get out of the house, so we went to hike Ruffner Mountain on Saturday morning.  Owen completed a 3-mile loop with us, and he was a great sport about it.

Scott spotted this guy when we were still only a few hundred yards from the trailhead.  It is my unprofessional opinion that this is just a harmless (albeit honkin' big) rat snake.  I went in for the picture.  Scott wasn't nearly as enthused. Owen was completely oblivious. Would anyone like me to repost this in an extra large format?

First we hiked to the rim of an old quarry, and the views were nice.  I don't know why I expected there to be slabs of marble and sparkly green water...

Then we went on up to Hawk's View and the eponymous owner flew by to greet us.

Owen loved that he could see the airport and watch planes take off an land below him.

My "I'm a poser" artsy fartsy shot of downtown.

We realized we were right by Owen's favorite train depot, so after our hike we went to the Irondale Cafe and completely negated all the calories we had just burned.  

If you head out there and see the sign that says "Don't forget to head around the corner to see the steam engine!" just know that this is all you get.

It was way more fun than eBay.

B & (not entirely) A: Front door

Before:  

November 2009

Not entirely after: 

With a big drill and a lot of work from Scott, the house numbers finally went up.  Sadly, you can't see them from the road, and I'm not sure I'm willing to paint the numbers or the wood to fix it.  Suggestions?

See Owen in the window in that second shot?  He was supposed to be napping, but I guess he heard me go out the front door.  (Okay, that's a shade of the truth.  He peeked his head out and then disappeared before I could get the shot so I kept yelling his name until he came back...)

I wouldn't consider this an official "after" because (1) the boxwoods need some serious TLC, (2) I'd love to do a DIY treatment on the light using leftover scraps of sycamore veneer from our stair rail reno and this as inspiration, and (3) the whole house needs to be painted.

I love the before and after of this mid century house.  Do you think our neighbors would picket if we painted our house nearly black?

 images via domo realty

On the porch

Sunday night was beautiful and breezy, so we took advantage of the screened porch.  My nose is telling me it's all going to be covered in yellow dust soon so I'm glad we squeezed in a little enjoyment of the space between winter and allergy season.

Owen is loving having his DD and Coach here for spring break.

And I'm pretty pleased about it myself.

Happy Pi Day!

So who else was nerdy enough to notice the date today?

We're having pizza pie and chocolate pie tonight to celebrate.  Owen's also been running me around in circles, but that's pretty much just what he does on a normal day too.

None-nur revisited

.

Imagine photo here

Absolutely forgot to grab my camera on the way out the door to Chick-fil-A yesterday.  Feel free to leave hate comments.

We had thunderstorms the entire night last night, which means neither Owen nor I slept much.  And it got me thinking about this old video.  Watch out!  The cuteness may literally make your heart bleed.

So you don't forget about us

Not much to report in these parts, and I've had no pics to share because I've been making an effort NOT to take my camera everywhere we go since my lens was starting to see more of what Owen was doing than I actually was.  But we're going to Chick-fil-A with a friend today so I'll pack the Cannon and come back with a full playground report.

I've been working on a plaque for our house numbers which I'd hoped to hang Sunday and post pictures of yesterday, but it's stinkin' hard to drill holes in brick.  I researched and bought the right kind of bit (I thought), but after drilling only 1/2" of one of four holes, I was exhausted.  So I passed the drill to Scott, who barely had a chance to make progress before the bit gave up and bent itself into a taco.  The photo above captures the joy of that moment.  By then it was dark outside and the only happy worker left was Flashlight Chief Owen. 

So I borrowed a more powerful drill, bought a stronger bit and started again this morning with a fresh attitude.

Pfft.

We must have brick made of kryptonite.

And as proof of how desperate I am for subject matter... a cat update.  Old man Coby just got diagnosed with high blood pressure (sleeping most of the day must be much more stressful for cats than us humans realize), and his new favorite pastime is munching toilet paper right off the edge of the roll.  At least Owen's bad habit didn't leave the Charmin all slobbery.  And I know for a fact this grosses Greta out and gives her bad nightmares because she's been waking up at dawn lately and calling Ralph all over our house.

In case the above picture is more flattering than she deserves, Greta is F-A-T.  As a petite tabby hauling around 14 pounds, she's easily an 8 on this chart:

And Coby is no more than a 3.  So as soon as we can get Coby's BP under control I'm signing him up for a lipo transplant from Greta.  Anyone know of a good feline plastic surgeon?

Two steps forward...

We were getting ready to go somewhere Monday, and Owen went and got his shoes and put them on entirely by himself.  We've worked with him on it before and had him help with little parts of the process, but this was the first time he thought ahead, took the initiative and saw it through from toe to heel to velcro.  He even guessed right about which foot was left and which was right.  Knowing he'd done something out of the 'big boy' realm, his eyes lit up and he asked: 

Aren't you soooo happy Mommy?!!

Then this morning when I wanted him to start getting dressed, I reminded him in a very motherly manipulative kind of way that he was a big boy and didn't he remember how he'd put on his own shoes just the other day?

In a tone so reminiscent of Bill Lumbergh I thought he was going to ask me for a TPS report, Owen says:

Mmm... yeah...  I'm not going to do that anymo'.

PS:  Happy Birthday Beck Beck!

Something you don't want to see by your child's sink

I was horrified at first glance, and then I remembered Owen had recently eaten a chocolate Zone bar.