new school years eve

i’m sad. i am not one of those parents that can’t wait till their kids go back to school. i really love having my guys home. have i mentioned that my favorite thing in the world is hearing them laugh? they have done lots of that this summer. but tomorrow is the big day. (early for us burtonites...usually we don‘t go back till after labor day) i know they will love seeing all their friends and we will be in the routine before we know it. but till then...a couple pictures of summer goodness.

beach

at this rate, we’ll be booking next year’s vacation by the time i show you our vacation photos. still organizing.

summer

the new addition to our family. she’s the one biting the fence.
we think sam was meditating about dogmas or something.

mad hatter

to be honest, i really am not that familiar with alice in wonderland. but the stills and promos for this thing look amazing.

ok. so i must have screwed up when i attached this thing. but you can also take a look at the trailer here.

parastuck

so...you’ll notice...i’m missing.
i am just ever so slightly claustrophobic. (my excuse for standing in the back during staff meetings!) enough to know that i really would enjoy just the boat ride more than the ride in the sky. so anyway, i watch my family go thousands of feet in the air only to have the winch on the boat break/stall/stop working. they were up there FOREVER! the captain is calling into shore...they are hitting the control panels with hammers...then taking it apart with a screwdriver and holding it up and shaking. finally, after one good slam...it started working again and they were brought back to the boat. having no idea what just went on. only that they couldn’t believe how long they were up there. and the funny thing (besides my worst fear come alive before my eyes)...all the other people on the boat, after watching this comedy of errors, STILL GO UP! would you?
(and my apologies if you’ve heard this one before!)

daily ritual : vacation edition

i think i probably got this from my mom.
it just makes me feel more organized to layout all the stuff i want to take in one place.
and olivia and sam love it. they started asking weeks before...
“when can we set out stuff in the kitchen?!”

Robert Pattinson vs. Daniel Radcliffe (7/16/09)

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

i’ve never seen any of the harry potter movies,
but this is still very funny!

weeds

but a lot of good stuff too.
i started late...so my herbs look kind of measly. but everything else looks good.
lots of beets for amy.

where we’ve been

more to come.

short stories

a beautiful mini blog from photographer jennifer altman.
her regular blog is pretty sweet too.
one of these days i’ll get around to sprucing ours up.

daily ritual

i love make up.
ever since i was in high school and wore ENTIRELY too much.
(mom, dad...hello? olivia, don’t get any ideas)
i don’t have much time (or money) anymore...
but wandering through sephora...browsing at nordstrom...
trying to collect all the products in instyle’s makeup issue...much girly fun.
and maybe now is the time to mention... nars...dolce vita lipstick?
i heart you.

(sorry for the blurry photo...but i just hate the flash.
and didn’t have enough patience for a tripod.)

lists

cleaning out my emails and found this.
i know most people hate them. but they always make me think and i usually find out something i didn’t know about my friends

where is your cell phone? > in my back pocket.
your significant other? > brian.
your hair? > dark brown.
your mother? > deceased.
your father? > in naples, florida.
your favorite thing? > hearing my kids belly laugh.
your dream last night > work. more like a nightmare.
your favorite drink? > la croix.
your dream/goal? > an airstream trailer in the everglades ;)
the room you're in? > my office at work.
your fear? > besides constant fears about my health...anything happening to brian and the kids.
where do you want to be in 6 years? > alive. helping olivia decorate her dorm room.
where were you last night? > home. watching random tv with brian.
what you're not? > outgoing.
muffins? > ehh. not really.
one of your wish list items? > our own place on the beach somewhere.
where you grew up? > all over, but high school in wadsworth.
the last thing you did? > got a plate of food at our company cookout.
what are you wearing? > surprisingly, not black. jeans and a summer top from nola true.
your TV? > at home...probably on a station olivia is not supposed to watch.
your pet? > sparky the turtle, and lily and aya...our gerbils.
your computer? > mac.
your life? > always something new.
your mood? > right now...a little melancholy.
missing someone? > sammy. he slept over a friends house last night .
your car? > jetta station wagon.
something you're not wearing? > a bathing suit. i’d like to be.
favorite store? > anthropologie.
your summer? > treasure island.
your favorite color? > green.
when is the last time you laughed? > last night...jon stewart.
last time you cried? > couple of days ago.
four places I go over and over? > work, grocery stores, kid’s sports,
four favorite foods? > goat cheese, quesadillas, gazpacho, flank steak

one week

off from school so far.
approximately 4 arguments.
3 walks to the fairgrounds.
2 softball games, 1 forfeit.
2 baseball games, 1 bye.
2 parties.
1 sleepover.
1 case of poison ivy.
1 truck pull.
0 trips to the emergency room.

dude

brian heard this yesterday on npr.
very funny...and very interesting.
and if you know anything about brian...watch your dude-sayege.

a saturday night

in burton. it’s a strangely interesting event.
not to mention good people watching.

beans

one of my contributions the hickox street garden.
century village provided plots to families in the village...
the weikarts, the bissels, and the roach family have ours all together.
tomatoes, beets, spinach, potatoes, cucumbers, all kinds of squash,
cilantro, basil and of course, beans.
i’ll take more pictures when it actually looks like something.

work

at our creative meeting last friday. thanks t.j., for the picture.

daily ritual

by special request.
(sorry for the big old mommy voice. i’ll have to remember to be a bit more subtle next time!)

a postcard

from grandpa. a very happy surprise.
how cool are all those stamps...and stampings.
i’ll have to remember to send everyone a card when we go on our hiatus.

daily ritual

ok. so maybe i make this daily ritual THURSDAY.
one of my favorite times of the day is sitting in bed with brian in the morning drinking coffee. it’s after my shower...but before the rush of the morning starts. it’s nothing special...just watching tv, talking, sipping coffee from out of our tommy bahama mugs.
but i can’t tell you how bummed i am on the days we can’t do it!

i heart wedges

i just can’t afford them.
target copy?

memorial day

hope you had a nice one.
we visited a cemetery that had veterans from the revolutionary war.
olivia’s band played while they read the soldiers names and
kids put flowers on their graves. it was really a nice ceremony.

(i wish i had some better pictures of olivia marching...but they were all blurry!)

daily ritual

thanks to leya at curious bird for this fun idea.
it is supposed to be every wednesday...and i’ve already fallen behind.

we flip a coin every monday morning to see who will start out the week
taking sammy to school. heads mommy, tails daddy. today was my day.
usually we talk more, but sam was busy filming.
we also have a special handshake with words to go with it...love you so, so much.

summer goodness

on my windowsill.

why i sometimes miss having a dog

operative word though...being sometimes.

my garden

really needs these.

happy mother’s day

may 10th is also an anniversary for brian and i.
our first kiss.
which led to...well...mother’s day.

have a great day!

(ahsoka is my favorite clone wars character. thanks, sammy!)

rag chair

researching for a freelance job...i came across this rag chair by tejo remy at droog design.
im inspired to go scoop up all the clothes on the floor of olivia’s bedroom and create.
(just kidding, peanut. you’ve been doing a good job with your room lately.) but seriously.
wow. i can picture this in a really modern space. comfy...and a sculpture.

-(stop)-

lets just say i’ve been a little slow to warm up to some of this social-media-type-twitter-texting-stuff. and i’m not really a big phone talker either. but it’s still fun to get mail that’s actually handwritten...like the awesome postcards our neighbors send us on their travels. next special occasion, i’m going to send one of these.

zoo

the first of hopefully a couple more trips to the zoo this year. thanks to olivia, who took most of these photos. there were so many good ones it was hard to choose. i think she captured sam’s monkeyness.

keeping a journal

i’ve tried. even with this blog...which is kind of like a journal...but i’ve kind of sucked at it lately. revisiting this makes me want to try again. maybe if my brain didn’t shut off at 9:00 very night i could get more done!

we’ve been...

1. enjoying spring break with our kids.

2. painting the living room and bathroom grey...“vintage grey”. it sounds really dull.
but it’s really nice. sophisticated maybe? it was terra cotta...so this is actually a big change. and the trim hadn’t been done in like 17 years.

3. cursing how much painting prep work there is to do before getting to the fun part.

4. listening to...and loving...when our kids laugh and get along with each other.

5. managing sam’s ever increasing social schedule.
we must get three to four call a day for him.

6. missing olivia when she went to columbus overnight for a feis. (but she got to visit the columbus zoo and see a manatee...a life-long dream. thanks, ruth!)

7. worrying about brian’s mom. she is going through a rough patch right now so we keep sending her good vibes.

8. started softball and soccer practices. this week we add baseball to the mix.

9. amazed that it hadn’t happened sooner...sam fell out of a tree and gave us a good scare. (although the friend he was with was probably the most scared of all) sam is fine...just a little sore.

10. amazed at how a week with nothing to do got so busy for us.

weighty issues

sam > mom, do you believe in god?
mom > absolutely.
sam > i think he’s a boy.
mom > i don’t know, sam...i think he might be bigger than that.
sam > yeah, he’s tall like a giant...but not as fat.

i can just do a tell.

sammy > realizing he didn’t have a “show” for today.
(he decided to tell everybody that i’m going to put livin’ on a prayer onto his shuffle.)

family and consumer science

formerly known as home ec!
olivia is working on her schedule for next year...the new name just cracked me up.

time to color

sam > mom
mom, when did your hair get old?

the photobooth

how fun is this. i wish they were everywhere.
(this one was at the boneyard. we were just in the mood
to spend a ridiculous amount of money on arcade games, i guess.)
for more photobooth goodness, check out one of my favorite blogs.
amazing photography, creative writing, inspiring thoughts.

livin on a prayer

i love lists

thanks to amy for tagging me on this one. i needed some inspiration to get going again.
so here’s my list...all things good in my world (in no particular order) that begin with the letter “d.”
(let me know if you’d like a letter.)

1. dog > pico > i still think about her all the time. i still look out the back door expecting her to click up the walk.

2. depp > as in johnny. i never really gave him any thought until the pirate’s movies. but now, wow. come look at my screen saver. (and my office, refrigerator, wallet, bulletin board. i have a very understanding husband.)

3. design*sponge > very inspirational...and has led me to tons of other awesome sites and blogs.

4. my datebook > im still a paper person. it’s an old beat up, zippered coach datebook. and i almost lost it in vegas when i left it on a cab. thank you to art, the best cab driver in the world for bringing it back.

5. my beautiful daughter, olivia > she makes me nuts sometimes...but she has a smile that will light up a room and the ability to make her brother laugh like no one else can.

6. delerium tremens > latin for “trembling madness”, commonly nicknamed “the DTs”, indicating a violent sickness induced by withdrawal after alcohol abuse. but i meant the belgian pale ale. we first tried it at the bier markt with carol and charlie...and i’m afraid it spoiled bud light for me forever.

7. designing and decorating > i must like it. ive been doing it now for about 22 years. but that leads me to...

8. days off > especially the 2 week variety alone with my family.

9. douche bags and divas > i can’t help myself. i check tmz, perez and the superficial everyday. i don’t even know who half of them are...gossip girl? and heidi and spencer...wtf? and yet, i go.

10. drummers > i’m married to a really cute one.

you know you have a problem when...

while playing eye spy at dinner...
the green thing your son spies with his little eye...

is the fishtank.

one-up-manship

mom: achoo...achoo...achoo!
olivia: bless you.
sam: i bless you more.

up to the moon

...and back.

happy new year

best.
brian , laura, olivia and sam.
(thank you, russ.)