Frog

Too Hot

Our cats are usually faithful sleeping partners (particularly since they don't get much other attention from us these days), but not last night. It was too hot!

For my Mommy!

Mamaw (that's my mom) put my hair up in pigtails this morning for the first time and Dad snapped this picture of me being cute for mommy!

scary test

I upgraded to mt 3.2 and this is the first new post. I'm scared.

Dirty Baby

She's still the cutest baby in the world!

We're getting Close

All of the cabinets are in and looking great

The countertops are finished as well.

The soffits are gone so our kitchen looks twice as big as before.

At least we have our refrigerator back where it's supposed to be.

The desk area just needs the undercabinet lighting installed.

And the floors need some trim. Then, we need to find a tiler to do our backsplash, and I have to paint the trim and patch the walls and touch up the paint. Then our kitchen will be finished. The appliance guys are working right now on getting the appliances installed. I might be able to cook tomorrow!

Oh yeah, and our website is back up. Not that we post enough for people to know it's down! But it's working again.

Kichen Update

Our kitchen is beginning to look like a kitchen again, although it is still non-functional (note the lack of counter tops and appliances). The list of things to be completed is still huge, but we are starting to feel like things are coming together.

A brief visit

On Sunday my parents stopped by for a very brief visit.

Megan really warmed up to my dad when she figured out he could read

Plus she got some new garden tools. Megan was recently introduced to the wagon when I got mine out for the garden show. But Megan figured out pretty quickly that pulling a wagon is no fun - she'd rather be riding!

New plants

This weekend I was on call - a huge disappointment when I found out this was the same weekend as the Clackamas County Master Gardener Plant Sale. So I did what any plant crazed individual would do: I made a hugely disproportionate time swap to get someone to cover for me while I went up to Canby. In exchange for my six hours of freedom I got four more days of call (to be fair, my boss is having chemotherapy and needed someone to cover for her anyway).

But I didn't care - I got the opportunity to buy plants that I have never even heard of. And buy them I did - $195 and 36 plants later, I finally decided me and my jungle-like Corolla should head on home.

It's funny, but with nearly four acres I still am at a loss for where to plant all of my purchases. 14 plants are still in pots waiting for me to decide on the perfect spot.

Build it, and they will come

At least according to the Home Depot pond book in reference to local wildlife. And though I'd really like a couple of turtles and some crawdads in our pond, I was pretty excited when I saw the first frog.

This big guy can be found sitting in our iris almost every day. I have twice seen a second smaller frog, but it doesn't seem to have a regular hang-out.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for tadpoles!

Aging

I came across the following in a chart today:

"Social history: The patient is married and has two grown kids. He enjoys reading and going to the mailbox."

Reader Rabbit

As a parent, there is a barrage of information and pressure to read to your kid. With reasons like a better vocabulary and increased school success, we have been very active in making a young reader. But now I wonder, have we become too successful at this task?

You see, Megan LOVES books. I don't think she has touched any of her other toys in a month. She flips through pages, lifts the flaps, searches for kitties and moves on to the next book. Unfortunately, this is not a solo effort. Megan brings us book after book to read to her, and when the unread pile is exhausted she starts over again.

Our library is quite extensive and we have all the classics, and we have read them all many, many times. Wacky Goat is split at the seams; Goonight Gorilla has several bent pages; My First Body Book is now separated into volumes 1 and 2; The Eye Book got dropped into the bath. It doesn't matter - Megan still wants to read them and then read them again.

But the books aren't the only things worse for the wear. The prose from the books has moved into our precious brain real estate. We can narrate them all with barely a glimpse at the pages; we know the Dr. Seuss alphabet by heart. But worse, the characters of my youth are no longer so lovable: Winnie the Pooh has become detestable from repetition; the Hungry catepillar seems so gluttonous; I definitely don't want to tickle Elmo; and even that adorable little Snuggle Puppy has become quite grating. But we are pleased with Meagan's enthusiasm and so we read to her and try not to let her see us roll our eyes as she grabs My Dog Truffle for the 700th time.