New Design For My Aunt!

OK, this post is actually long overdue! I completed my aunt, Lucy's Mom's new artwork weeks ago, but I just now taking the time to show you before and after shots. Sorry!

Here is before:


Here is after:

Obviously she is a dog lover, and she requested rich colors. I think it turned out very well, and she seems very happy with it. Thanks for letting me design your blog artwork!

A New Toy

Here is a picture of my new fun-car. Cory has been trying to get me into a old body style Mustang since we met. Finally, we found one we both liked, it's an '89 Ford Mustang GT:Of course it's red.

And it needs a bit of work. There is some body work needed, and it has a small list of wants. But it runs, and the interior is extremely well taken care of.

Cory ran across it on one of the car discussion boards he frequents, and thought of me. He had to run to Richmond to pick it up, and one of our friends, Jason went with him to pick it up. He bought it from some frat guy who went to EKU, who thought there was something wrong with it, and had no idea what to do with it. So-he sold it. And Cory fixed it in about two minutes.

Ah the perks to loving a car-guy.

Here is another one of those perks: (not really car-related:)

My Master Chief is happy...

Well, Cory is happy to report that his new special edition Halo3 Xbox 360 has arrived.

This info will thrill my Dad, who made a deal with Cory to buy his "old" one (the brand-spankin' new one, sorry) if Cory bought the new Halo3 edition. It does kind of rock I guess. Being camo green, it totally blends in with our living room furniture:)
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Halo trilogy like I am-the third and final installment of the series came out on Tuesday of this week. We have had this gem pre-ordered for about six months. Seriously.

We were in EB at the mall, and Cory was buying another game for his Xbox, and the guy told him to pre-order Halo3 because they might run out, and that way we were guaranteed a copy. I had to talk Cory back from the Collector's Edition which included a real-life-sized Master Chief (the hero) helmet (see box picture). Real. Life. Sized. Helmet. On display in my living room?

I think not.

Only when Cory found out the helmet was just for show, and you couldn't actually "put it on" did he decide he didn't need the Collector's Edition.

So we just got the special edition, which included some posters and stuff. Then, they announced a special edition Xbox which of course we had to have too. I fought that every step of the way, I mean, we had a perfectly fine Xbox! But Dad agreeing to take Cory's old one sealed the deal.

Of course, the Tuesday release date of Halo3 has coincided with Fox's new TV lineup this week, so Cory has been watching our normal TV, then staying up late playing Halo3.

Cory asked me to specifically mention the the "real" Master Chief is seven feet tall, and a thousand pounds, so the above picture where he is holding the toy, is not life-sized. Everybody got that? Good.

A TV Kind of Family

I have never had a problem with Moose watching television.

Mainly because I don't have a problem with myself watching television. My family is a movie/TV watching-quoting-loving kind of family. We quote everything from Aliens to Multiplicity.

"Did you bring me a monkey?"
"Nuke it from the air... it's the only way to be sure"

And my whole family is like that. I tried to tell Cory that when we first met but I don't think he really realized it until my Dad somehow worked in "if it bleeds, we can kill it" into the first dinner conversation that we ever had together.

Needless to say, cultivating my son's love for the Star Wars and the like, has never been in question.

I remember when he was an infant, I saw an expose on Moms who stuck their kids in front of TV, and how horrible it was. I just didn't agree.

When Moose was just a few months old I went out and bought the Baby Einstein videos for him. He LOVED THEM. They were specifically made for his age group, with shiny things, mobiles, and toys moving across the screen. I really feel like they were educational.

I am only bringing this up now, because Moose has a recent fascination with Blue's Clues. This is a recent thing. Up until now, he has only chosen to watch Baby Einstein. The older versions of B.E. include lessons on words, colors and shapes.

We don't own any videos of Blue's Clues yet, I'm sure we will in the future, but I have to say they are educational as well! They all have an underlying lesson, be it sounds, shapes, or artwork. Moose has even started asking for it specifically. "boo coos Mommy! boo coos!"

Sometimes I sit and watch it with him, so I can smell his head and nuzzle his neck. Other times I use it as a break to make dinner, or God-forbid... go pee by myself.

A lot of people have an opinion about letting kids under two watch TV. I must say that I am for it. And I think Moose is too.

A Visit to the Aquarium!

*I know my posting has been spotty lately. I have no excuse other than, I've grown a bit bored with blogging. So I've decided to do shorter posts, instead of long involved posts. I know my WI family depends on my blog to keep up to date with Moose's exploits, so I'll try to do a bit better.*

My friend Charing and I planned a very exciting trip to the aquarium this past weekend. Charing had called me and said that the boys were old enough to be taken out to "see" stuff, like the zoo and stuff. So I did a bit of research, and figured the aquarium would be a good first date.

We went to the Newport Aquarium, which is in... ahem, Newport. None of us had ever been before. My parents visited it when it first opened, but that was a few years ago I think.

Cory, Zach and Jennifer decided to tag along, and we all met at our house. Then we set off on our adventure.

And then we promptly stopped at Starbucks and Speedway for gas and drinks. PS-I'm counting the days before the pumpkin spiced late comes out at Starbucks. Why oh why don't they have that year-round?

We finally got on the road and Moose promptly fell asleep. Which is what I was praying for, considering our trip went through nap time. Cory and I talked the whole time about what we were going to do with my new car. (which is another post all together)

We arrived in time for lunch so we parked in the very nice parking structure and had lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant. They had a very thorough kid's menu, so I thought we were safe with that. I ordered mac & cheese for Moose. When it arrived, I was concerned because it was penne noodles, which Moose doesn't care for (don't ask me why) and it was on a huge intimidating plate.

He barely ate a bite.

We walked over to the aquarium, and went in. It is all inside, with aquariums built into the walls, and they have these tubes you can walk through, so the entire ceiling is glass, and the fish swim overhead. It was Very Cool.

Moose and Carter thought so too. They both stared slack-jawed at the shiny fish slowly floating over their heads. Carter even put his hands on his head so that the fish wouldn't "fall" on him;)

Both the boys were so good. I had read online that the aquarium did not allow strollers, so we left them in the cars. So both of the boys were carried or happily walked beside us.

We only had two issues, one when Moose wanted to stay in this one area where the kids could use plastic toys to play "vet" with a plastic shark. And the other when Carter got a bit scared in the poisonous fish area. Both of them were fine and didn't cause a scene or anything.

Both Charing and I were having so much fun, that we didn't think to take many pictures. Then we walked right past the professional picture place. We were probably talking and missed it. (can you imagine? us talking and missing something? no!)

Charing did manage to get this pic of us, but sadly, because she took it, she's not in it!

The ride home for our car totally sucked because Moose decided to cry the entire time. He was of course, starving. I fed him the few snacks I had brought, but I had thought he would eat a normal lunch, so it obviously wasn't a whole bunch of stuff.

The ride home for Charing, Jenn, Zach, and Carter obviously went a bit better, because they stopped at the Gap outlet and bought a ton of clothes. (Cory is shuddering in horror at even the thought of shopping at an outlet store with me)

We got home (thank God) unscathed, and went directly down for a nap, did not pass go, or collect $200. Later in the evening, we met back up at Charing's for dinner, and we all watched the UK game.

Well my weekend was pretty lackluster compared to the rest of ZPO-most of whom spent the long weekend in New York City, celebrating Charing's big birthday. I don't think she's put them up yet, but I'm pretty sure that Sarah will be posting pictures of that escapade at the ZPO site.
I bought some new clothes for Moose at the mall, Baby Gap was having a bit of a sale, and I managed to get some very cute jeans for him for Buy-One-Get-One-Half-Off. Which was nice, and of course I needed a shirt for his upcoming professional pictures that they take at daycare. And they had this shirt, that we HAD TO HAVE. Check it out:

That's right: "Lock up your daughters". We had to have it.

On a completely unrelated note, I made my salmon patties recipe, and it reminded me that Emily had asked me for it. I got it from my blog-friend Becki over at Cooking With Whine. Here is her recipe.
I will only add that I very rarely follow a recipe to the letter unless I am baking something. I treat them more like guidelines. I don't really measure things out, I just dump stuff in until it looks right. Some of you are shuddering in horror, but, hey, it works for me. So to make it like mine, add a half handful or so of shredded cheese, and a ton of green onions. We love green onions in this house, they go in about 50 % of our dinners.

Here is a picture of the lovely salmon patties:

They turned out very yummy. One note about this recipe, it feeds Cory and I, and Moose, with one serving left over for left-overs. I serve it with a veggie and rice typically.

We are knee-deep in planning our new roof. Turns out, the hail storm that we had a few months ago really damaged our roof. So much so, that we get a new roof, new gutters and a few new shutters. I tried to talk Cory into getting a skylight in the dining room, but he shot that idea in the foot, saying it wouldn't look good. Our contractor dropped off a sample sheet today, so we just have to call in our color choice, and I guess they'll schedule our new roof.
All of this roof talk has made us think about our siding and shutter colors, which we had originally planned for next summer. Unfortunately, with our new bed purchase popping up, it looks like it will be the next year, instead. Which is fine because I am not sure we can agree on a color. I took a picture of the outside of the house, and I'm going to play in Photoshop to see what colors we like.
Speaking of our new bed, I can personally say that they can call me to be on their infomercials any day. I LOVE OUR NEW BED. I swear to God, that it is the most wonderful cloud-like being that has ever existed. Somehow, I am sleeping through the night in one solid sleep, not waking up once. My neck and back seem to be better. It is wonderful, if you are in the market for a new mattress, go check out the Sleep Number Bed.
My cousin Jenn needs your support. Jenn and Chris are going through a tough time at the moment. They have just been through two rounds if in vitro fertilization, and now they are looking into adoption. Please go leave her a comment if you have a chance.
I just finished designing Mrs. Who's new site, Mrs. Who's Open Book.

Here is the original design:

Here is the artwork that I put together for her: (I will note that she set up the site herself, I only designed the block at the top)
Great job Mom! Make sure to stop by her site, and leave her a comment about how cute her new template is!

A Few Videos

Playing with the balloon:


Talking about animals:


Here are a few videos for you viewing enjoyment!
On update news-Moose is doing extremely well at daycare. The teachers seem to enjoy him so much, and they tell me so almost every time I pick him up. I just kind of assumed that they told all the parents that their children were joys to work with and such. However, when I picked Moose up on Friday, here is the conversation that happened:
Teacher: Moose is just so great! He has the best personality!
Me: Yes, we think he is pretty great! Aren't all the kids happy like him though?
Teacher: No, they aren't. Moose is always happy, even when he's sick. We just love him!
Me: Oh, yeah... okay! Have a good weekend...
So maybe they don't tell all the moms that. Maybe he is a great as we think he is;)