Spit Wads and Paper Boats

Five years and four months ago Amy and I sat in the bathroom of a small apartment. We talked about ourselves and about people we knew. We shot spit wads at little paper boats that we had set sail in the bathtub. It was not an ordinary night. It was our first date. We made a horrible mess in the bathroom that night. The shower walls were covered with spit wads. The paper boats eventually became water logged and sank into wet blobs. I promised to come back the following day and help clean up the mess.
The next morning I showed up with breakfast and we spent the entire day together. From that day until we were married just over four months later, we never went a day without seeing each other. I remember that I felt more comfortable around her than anyone else I knew. She had a great sense of humor and we always had fun together.
After a bit of convincing I finally talked her into marrying me and on July 25th of 2003 we were married. We have now been married for five years. In five years you learn a few things about marriage. Here are some of my tips for a successful marriage.
1. When she says that it's ok with "that tone, " it's not ok.
2. Her job is harder than yours. Period.
3. Your $500 stereo system is to be heard only at low volume and never seen.
4. Your music is just noise unless her friends like it.
5. Liquid dishwasher detergent is not the same as powdered dishwasher detergent.
6. Twenty dollars spent on a DVD is a waste, twenty dollars spent on decorations is a bargain.
7. Womens brains are not smaller than mens brains.
8. If you are going to shave your head don't do it right before a big family event.
9. The correct spelling of compromise is "letsdowhatyouwanttodo."
10. She feels the same way about cars as you do the color mauve.
11. All you need is love (The Beatles) and love doesn't require much. Sometimes just spit wads and paper boats.

Big D, Mr Burns and the Black Eye

It has been a long, tiring 7 days since our little "Mr. Burns" (I know it's kinda mean but I think he looks just like Mr Burns from the Simpson's, minus the pointy nose) joined our family.

I am extremely happy to report that he has been an excellent baby. Which has been an immense blessing since him and I have spent most of the last three days back at Kadlec. On Tuesday morning my Grandpa had a major heart attack and things are still pretty touch and go. We've spent as much time as possible (huge THANKS to Kim and Katie for babysitting) with our family sitting with him as he's trying to recover. Carson has now spent more time at the hospital than he has at home! He had his first check-up today with his regular Dr. and he now weighs a whopping 6 lbs 1 oz.! I still cannot get use to his littlness. He weighed 6 lb 7oz at birth and had dropped to 5lbs 14oz before we brought him home, so he's gaining, it's just slow going.

I am also happy to report that Big D, or Big Delores (remember the playground bully from Hope Floats?) is adjusting well to the little guy.

She has been way more gentle than I thought she would be with him, but not so much with the other kids. The other night she took on Aubrey in a fight over a ball. Being the completely irresponsible parents we are, we cracked up laughing instead of dealing with the situation. Next time you see Rachael, ask her do to her Big D impression, it's great. Seriously though, she is becoming this absolutely adorable little girl that I love to be around and I can't wait for a few more weeks so I can pick her up and squeeze her!

And thanks to this little guy and his rock hard head, my little guy looks like this...

Spencer is also adjusting well to our baby Carson but not so much to all the new 'equipment' in the house. I have twice found him cutting up nursing pads saying, "Look Mom! I made cotton candy!" The second time he did it I reminded him that it wasn't a good idea and he replied with, "Well, it was already out and on the ground." Apparently he considered it free game since it wasn't in the box!

Number Three

I can't hardly keep my eyes open but I'm glad to be home. Here's a few pics to satisfy any curious readers...



I'll add some details and updates later...Thanks to everyone who came to visit and for all the goodies we received!

The Arrival

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. Uh, actually, they're really not. Probably should get on that since I head to the hospital in 6 short hours from now. That's right, tomorrow is the big day (or rather today since most of you won't be reading this tonight). We think. Sorry to spare no details but I just "lost my lunch" and am trying to decide how pregnancy related the random puking was. Hard to tell if you're starting to feel sick when its hard to feel good after having McD's fries revisit. Maybe that's what I get for eating something I don't even like! So, with any luck, you all should be able to check Rachael's blog for details in the morning. Hopefully she'll remember to have her phone close by, 7:30 a.m. is awfully early for some of us!

Lazy Days of Summer

We've taken quite the laid back approach to summer around here. It's actually a little unusual for me but its been a nice change. Apparently from the looks of my pictures, it's been so laid back that Sophie seems to never get dressed! We've had lots of good play time in the mornings, not sure where our afternoons go, and then every evening we head out about 7:30ish to hang out with Grandma Goude. The kids love it and we've found ourselves staying out later and later into the evening to watch the birds fly to their nests, watch the clouds/smoke in the sky (there has been so much lately!) and catch glimpses of the first stars. A few summers ago we watched for skunks but this year we've been lucky, no extra critters besides the two I have.



She's learning well from Spencer about the importance of dressing up. She seems to love wearing this fire hat and cracks herself up, and us, when she runs into things since she can't see out of it!


While Spencer was quietly working on his puzzle, and I was quietly sitting in the chair my with my eyes closed, Sophie was quietly working on her own project...Apparently she doesn't think my cupboards are clean enough! She thought it was great fun to slip Candy Land cards out the cupboard door. (Pay no attention to the lovely 'fake wood' look of the cupboards, if it was my house, those suckers wouldn't look like that!)

Colton was of course teaching and instructing Spencer on the difference between good and evil. Apparently it's all about the colors one is wearing. Thanks to Unc. Pete and A. Suzanne for the donation of the castle.

Grandma spoils the kids with good summer treats like ice cream.



Earlier in the evening they had played in some 'goop' a.k.a. cornstarch and water. Between her thin coating of white powder and her chocolate lips she totally looked like a vampire baby from where I was sitting. Oh, I almost forgot to mention all the words she's saying...Mommy, mama, all done, puppy, Aubrey, Amy...I think thats about it...She comes close on a lot of others so it shouldn't be too long now!

Major Milestone

Thanks to a few trips around my parents yard on one of these...

Spencer learned all the skills he needed to achieve this childhood milestone...

After a few trips up and down our short road we took him to the Kennewick Library Park to really test out his newest skill. He was super excited about all the places he could ride to and had to stop at each one.
On our way to the duck pond, stop #1.



Posing at the little bridge, stop #3 (the sandbox was our second pitstop).

On the road again...

Pit stop at the Rose Gardens, stop #4.

Stopping again, the fifth time, to check out the new fountain.

From here on we did okay since there weren't anymore 'attractions' or rather, distractions. But, there was a hill. As he was cruising down the hill at an alarming speed, I yelled at him to ride into the grass...

Luckily, he has a more level-headed father who realized it was time to learn about back-pedaling brakes. That would be where stops 8, 9, 10, etc. occured, along the path everytime he got going too fast. Lucky for us, and him, there was only one casualty of the evening (see picture below). Pretty good for his first time without training wheels. If you hadn't noticed already, he was wearing his slippers. Jason figured it was better than his Nikes. I suppose he was right...

I had warned him though, in an attempt to thwart any major crying episodes that may have happened had his knees or elbows suffered as much as his slippers, that the more scrapes, bumps, bruises, or blood, the more pieces of candy he would earn. Twisted, I know, but sometimes I'm desperate. Too bad for him, I was the only one who left the park injured. I scrapped my leg on the door getting out of the car. Guess I'm the winner of extra candy.
Or maybe I should start saving money for a bigger bike.

The Randomness of My House

So Jason is a funny guy (I think I start off all my posts about him by saying this). His head is filled with completely random and usually un-useful bits of knowledge and his creativity and curiosity often drive me crazy. Sometimes it's great, like when preparing for a 4 year-old's pirate themed party. He loves to go all out. But other times, like when we were at a toy story 3 years ago and he found these little guys, it's not so great.

Since Spencer was only 18 months old, I convinced him not to send in our certificate right away. About a year ago, while cleaning our room, he ran across the fabulous little box, dug out the certificate, and him and Spencer made a trip to the Post Office to order our 'pet'. We shortly recieved a kit looking like this in the mail.

Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough for "Bill Nye, the Science Guy". He convinced me somehow to upgrade to this.

Which of course also included a new 'tadpole'. We had to keep them seperated however because the bigger, more matured frog was trying to eat the newest addition to our family. So the cool tube feature wasn't even usuable and I hated the whole contrapition. There was no good spot for it anywhere in the house. I eventually moved it to the middle shelf of a small bookcase until the fateful day that Sophie grabbed the whole thing and pulled it down. Luckily only frog water was spilled and no actual frog bodies. By this time they had grown to be about the same size and so we were able to move them into a new container. Unfortunately, it was one of my favorite clear cookie jars, and again unfortunately, it began it's residence on a corner shelf in my kitchen. We decided after a few weeks to 'loan' the frogs to my cousin Kimmie since the novelty of them had long since worn off for me, and was finally starting to wear off on Jason. We thought the move to Kim's would be okay with Spencer until it was 'Pet Week' at pre-school and he realized that not only were these his only pets, but they were lame. No dogs or cats around here. Just underwater frogs. Needless to say, they stayed and whatta ya know, a fish joined them. Seperate containers but now hanging out right next to each other. After all, lame pets are better than no pet at all to a four year old. Our frogs look something like this (sorry for the quality, I had to use an internet found pic since the water in our container is so dirty right now, this sentence is completely being aimed at Jason, but I know it won't do any good).

When we left for our vacation a few weeks ago, we kinda forget to ask anyone to tend to our 'pets'. Thanks goodness for Kim, the animal lover, who so kindly came over on her own and fed our frogs. When we got home, Jason remembered the poor little guys and fed them again. A few days later, I came out of the shower to find everyone looking around the house for an apparent lost object. Jason looked up and quite seriously and completely casually says, "Do you know what happened to Spencer's frog?" Uh, excuse me? I of course then realize everyone is looking around the house for a missing, underwater only, frog. Which in my mind translates to a missing, underwater only, DEAD frog. After searching everywhere and discussing the logistics of such a disappearance, we came up with nothing. No tracks, no evidence, no body. We're still not sure if one of them could have really jumped out, or if one of our frogs suddenly turned cannibalistic. For a few days I was super paranoid about any area that smelled a little funny or anytime a dark, stiff and dead looking object was found. Like one of these little scuba diver guys that Sophie so nicely scattered all over the house the same afternoon the frog went MIA.

It's unreal how 'dead frog like' these guys look when sticking halfway out from under a closet door, or the couch, or in the bottom of a toy basket...
And we still don't know where our frog is.