and I do mean HOT - it was nearly 100 degrees out when we got to The Gorge!



But the concert was superfun, and it was the best date we'd been on in a long time.

Today I will have a long-overdue date with my hub - we're headed to The Gorge to see Coldplay in concert! The last time we saw a concert there was pre-kiddos, so it's been awhile!

EH - there will be no drunk texting at this concert. It's in BFE and we have a bit of a drive to our friends' house afterwards :)

I have the privilege to be married to one of the most thoughtful, creative, loving men on the planet. Jack, Rory and I are really lucky!












(all these photos are from our recent trip to the Oregon Coast - I haven't had time to upload the rest but hope to soon!)


Happy Fathers Day, Jason (and to all the other great daddies out there)!

So, my baby girl is four years old today. Time flies!



Since I'm leaving for a work trip tomorrow, we celebrated over the weekend with family and a few close friends. The hit of the party was a musical birthday card, which is still getting mileage a couple days later, as you'll see below ...




Happy Birthday Rory!

Hmm ... wonder where she got that sassy attitude from?!

... I'm getting pretty good at this "forgetting I have chocolate in my desk drawer" thing.

AWESOME!

... but I was just looking at this picture



and I think that the shadow created by Jack's air guitar looks like a giraffe.

I'm just sayin...

(as we drove by our old house this morning ...)

Rory: Mama, I miss our old house.
Me: I do too, honey. But I LOVE our new house (that we've lived in for almost two years). I love that we have a big yard to play in, and that we have grandma & grandpa next door.
Rory: So they can give us lish-rish (licorice)?
Me: Well, sure. And string cheese.
Rory: And lollipops?
Me: Or crackers.
Rory: And lollipops?
Me: Or cookies.
Rory: And lollipops?


Rory chewing on a lollipop - February 2009

So weird, because I don't think G&G have many lollipops at their house. But apparently Rory thinks that's the best reason to go over there!

Over the weekend, I uploaded assloads of pictures from the last few months. They go all the way back to Jack's birthday in February and end with our PHL/NYC trip.



Take a peek if it fancies you...

Pandora.com now has a lyrics tab?

As my CrackerJack would say ... "sweeeeeeet."

I need to update. This I know. Geez, it almost seems like I gave up blogging for Lent!

Today we're in the car, heading from Costco to Panda Express (aka The Panda Bear Restaurant, or Kung Fu Panda Restaurant), and Jack pipes up from the backseat and says ...

"Did you know that Barack Obama likes jazz music?"

Jason and I look at each other, and he continues ...

"... and he likes to play basketball at the White House!"

Now I'm curious.

"He snores too."

Okay ... *giggle*

"Daddy, if you want to learn more about Barack Obama, we can visit nickjr.com"

Silly kid!

Just a quick, but super heartfelt, shout-out to my hubby, jm8yer, who is celebrating his birthday today.

I told him this is almost a "magic" birthday, because today's date is 3/6/09 - oooooooooooooooooooooh.

love you!

The name alone tells me this bag is destined to be mine ...

Time to start hunting on eBay!

i am blah today.

the end.

In what has become a bit of a reflective tradition for me, I've posted a year of pictures related to all things Jack!



Jack the buckethead - ready to hunt for Easter eggs!


Coffee date with mama!


At the Ren Fair - inside the dragonfish.


Planting flowers on Mothers Day.


All smiles when it comes to ice cream!


Writing his name on the beach at the Oregon Coast.


Practicing some guitar hero moves while taking a time out from sprinkler running.


All smiles on the first day of Kindergarten!


Working on his very first kindergarten homework assignment.


A budding artist - check out that Spongebob!


Jack is so very much his father's son.


Giggles with daddy during a gas-up driving home from Thanksgiving vacation.


Jack, aka Batman Rocker, and Rory on the "stage" in the living room.


Sledding with his buddy Owen.

Happy 6th Birthday to my little dude :) It's been a great year, and so much fun to watch him grow!

I think the subject line says it all ...

OH! But they did give us hella good retail on it, so once the loan is paid off, we'll have a handsome check for a down payment on another vehicle.

Hot dog!

The fog has been so thick around here for the past few days, it's made for some awesome frosty mornings. Check these out!


This is a string of lights keep strung on our back deck. Cool, eh?



This is the antenna on our car. That frost is like an inch long! (p.s. I love macro photography!)

Funny story about our car - our second car, that is. It's a 1995 Toyota Corolla stationwagon. We bought it from Mad Max (Jason's grandma Maxine) before she passed away. It gets decent gas mileage and even has a/c, so it's a great second car. We've been driving it while our insurance company pulls their heads out of their rear ends regarding our primary vehicle, the minivan that got eaten by a moose.

Anyhow, the other day, I needed to charge my cell phone on the way to work. So I grabbed our car charger, and as we were pulling off our street, I was surprised to learn that the cigarette lighter accessory is actually a freaking cigarette lighter, not an a/c outlet. Hah! Been a long time since I've had a car like that ... lesson learned - you can't charge a cell phone in an old car. Unless, I guess, you could get some new fangled charger that plugs into a cassette deck. Maybe I should check out thinkgeek.com ...

Happy long weekend to ya!

(see that brown stuff near the edge of the windshield? yeah, that's moose hair. yuck.)

I am grateful for a number of things tonight.

1. I am thankful that Jason has some badass defensive driving skills. After the collision, he was able to maneuver the van to the side of the highway while making sure his girls were okay.
2. I am thankful that Rory was upset that we weren't going grocery shopping, because as we were leaving town I crawled from the front seat to sit in the back with her. Jack's booster seat was already in the third row because of some carpooling we'd done over the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa, which freed up the seat I was sitting in.
3. Because I was sitting in that seat, I probably shielded Rory from being covered with shards of glass and moose hair. I'm grateful that I could be her protector.
4. Thank GOD for five-point harness booster seats. Rory barely moved an inch. She had one tiny glass sliver in the palm of her hand that bled a little, but the awesome Genesee EMTs took care of that, and gave her a stuffed bunny rabbit to boot.
5. I'm beyond thankful that Jason's dad is retired and keeps Jack for us in the afternoons. Had Jack been with us, he would've been sitting where I was, and I'm quite certain he would've received some cuts. And, he's our sensitive one. He would've freaked out.
6. I'm thankful for the dvd player and Toy Story 2. Rory barely missed a beat, and was able to sit absolutely still watching her movie until the "rescue heroes" arrived.
7. I'm thankful for two different parties who stopped to help us out. The first gentleman pulled the moose from the road and then came to make sure we were alright, and the second gentleman stayed with us until the sheriff arrived.
8. I'm thankful that we were able to walk away from with accident with barely any scratches. I've got a couple nicks on my hand, my nose, and one small cut about an inch past my hairline that left a nice little trickle of blood down my face. Ew. But, it wasn't deep enough to require stitches - awesome!
9. I'm thankful that my kiddos are downstairs giggling, and I'm about to go unwind in a nice, hot shower.

A couple more photos can be found on my flickr page. I'll tell Rory's side of the story tomorrow.

I don't ever want to experience that ever ever ever again.

The Mayer Minivan hit a moose on the highway coming home from work tonight.

We're okay - it was me, Jason, and Rory - Jason was driving, and I was in the middle row with Rory.

More details to come, and some pix - yikes!

1. Going back to work sucks. Maybe not the action, but the process itself. I hope it'll be easier once the fam settles back into a routine, but this morning totally sucked.

2. I'm grateful that the snow switched to rain, because it meant the roads would be a little more driveable. The highway was closed yesterday morning, so even if the university would not have closed because of the weather, we would've been stuck at home anyway.

3. I'm not grateful, however, for crappily maintained roads and sidewalks. I went out after lunch to run some errands, and it was nearly impossible to even get to the parking lot to get to my vehicle.

4. My "errands" should have cost me less than $10 (I needed to buy a new notebook for work, and then a treat from Starbucks for Jason who was not having the best day today), but because I drenched by feet (shoes AND socks) just trying to get to my van, I had to make a side stop and outfit myself with some waterproof insulated galosh/snowboot thingies, and some expensive new socks.

4a. Yes, I was the genius that dressed myself this morning. I'm 100% to blame for having to drop $68 at Tri State (Idaho's Most Interesting Store!)

4b. Boot galoshie things were $50, and the socks were $15. Plus tax. Damn.

4c. Socks = 3 pairs of nike running socks, so a decent deal.

4d. My feet are thankful for the actions resulting from the mishap.

5. Running errands in a town that is DROWNING from a massive rainstorm that's melting 3-4 feet of snow really SUCKS. Especially when you take #3 into consideration.

I'm irritable. Can you tell?

I have no idea what kind of condition I'd be in if my feet were still wet and cold...