mini Daddy of course, but....

See any similarities?

Cleaning out the cedar chest and came across some baby pictures of yours truly.

Also, do the Antique Roadshow people take Zyrtec or Benadryl or SOMETHING because between the 1942 wedding gown that was Grandma's and the five mink stole, I am a sneezing mess.

Another gem: my CAT test scores from 1st grade. Oh, the good ol days! I listened to Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill while doing all this also :) It's a variety show around here today!

making like a baby

and heading out! Marcus and I are going on a half-day date in a couple of hours. Down to seatown, go to a concert, spend the night and leave for work bright and early. Thanks mom for the child care- your rate is so easy on the pocketbook! ;)

In other news...Maggie has a blog, Maggie has a blog, Maggie has a blog hey hey hey hey!!!!! My dearest kindred spirit has launched her blog and you can read thoughts from her excellent mind here: lynchclan.blogspot.com She really is quite splendid.

Cheers!

so long baby mullet

With most milestones, I come to a place where I make like Nike and "just do it". I hem and haw and feel sentimental and then, I'm just DONE. Whoa, I never really pieced that together like that before...anyway, Beau did well and kinda zoned out for his first stint in the big chair. It was time too as his locks are fuzzy most of the time. He is just so handsome now.
The title of this photo is ghettoflections :-) The high-voltage power pole near my house looks down right poetic reflected in a mud puddle surrounded by plastic litter.

Today I did some 30 day Shred with Bradie, who did practically the whole thing! During a shadow boxing sequence, Bradie simply remarks "...her eyebrows." Yes, Bradie I would not want to be on the business end of Jillian's eyebrows.

Something new: drawing. Bradie is drawing, drawing, drawing with markers! She also is working really hard at her letters and can write her name! I'll try and take picture of one of the many masterpieces lying around here. This brings up a question now:

What do I do with all these?!

yo mom

So I've spent a few Wednesdays this fall playing in a kickball league and tonight was the final hurrah as we played the #1 seed and thus lost.

BUT...

I assisted a TRIPLE play! Okay so I am no good at kickball. Eye/foot coordination is not my, uh, gifting??? Anyway, I can play volleyball...so what's a centerfielder to do when a sandy, wet kickball flies her way? She assumes serve receive and passes (read: bumps) the ball to the shortstop! Who tags a runner and then throws it to second or something...I missed it because I was incapacitated with laughter and shock.

To our credit our little 8th seed team made a little run and produced some offense... it was not a blow out! Which is almost like a victory for The Lagers:-)

All this to say, this post and that play was dedicated to my mom who did have an actual triple play once at shortstop. She was like the shiz at softball in her day.

I love you dearly, Mom.

I never said I'd be Posty Posterson or anything

Sorry to anyone who has been waiting with bait breath for me to post (imagine, breath that smells like...bait) Well, now you may move on with your lives! Isn't my witty sarcasm refreshing on this Saturday night? Thought so...

This guy is getting big! All at once bigger, naughtier, lovelier and more fun. I still want to suck his cheeks off because he is just too cute for his own good. Sometimes I think Beau literally stinks. Then I realize his little face simply smells like my own spit. Can a kid OD on kisses?
Here we are for Bradie's first field trip with her preschool to the pumpkin farm.

And here is my beautiful girl. This is the smile she gives when she is fully in the moment of enjoying herself. It is splendidly candid. She looks this way when I tickle her neck or make jokes that surprise her. She is just starting to realize that her mother appreciates a good funny. Oh Bradie...you have no idea!

What else? Oh crap! Bradie had a birthday don't ya know... she's four now. She keeps asking and insinuating that she's almost five. Maybe I'll post some birthday pics. We roll kinda simple on the birthday scene stuff... we did cake, a few presents, spent a fabulous weekend with cousins and grandparents. Next year we'll rent the Space Needle or something to make up for my lack of desire to plan a kid party...can you smell my mommy guilt? ;)

Last night we went as a family to watch the Meadowdale Mavericks play some football. A covered stadium praise the Lord and we went to DQ afterwards for a treat. Beau consumed his first ice cream cone and his intensity at eating it made my heart ache with what I call mommy consumption. Sometimes when I catch my kids in a moment worth noting, it makes my heart ache and feel very heavy in my chest whilst tears of joy start to well in my eyes... it's one of my favorite parts of this whole life I find myself living. A life I didn't plan and could not have forseen...

Thank you God.

Well, she did it...

Before as Christy does Bradie's hair...she is SO good for Christy! It makes me mad...for like two seconds. Seeing that precious face is worth it!

Dropping your kid off at school is such a huge range of emotions the only thing I can find to compare it to is actually BIRTHING the little human in the first place! Okay maybe that is dramatic, but if you've read my last post, it makes sense. Speaking of that post, soon after I went and picked blackberries with the kids and now have a freezer full of black/raspberry jam. Tremendous help to my funk.

Anyway, enough about me! Bradie did great today, no tears, no dramas, just her happy-go-lucky self after that brief "Bradieweariness" wore off! I am proud and EXHAUSTED as I realized much of my angst as of late had direct relation to this milestone. Sigh. A happy, relieved sigh. So far so good. And that is good enough for me right now.

Man, these pictures really are pathetic! But those mommy images I have tucked away are pretty priceless and I can still hear her little voice say "I think I'll miss you at preschool mommy"

blech

happy "new year"! Teacher culture and life celebrates the end of shaggy, unshaven fancy freeness and the beginning of new possibilities that STRUCTURE can bring! But, oh, the adjustment. It is hard around here in Merryweather land. Marcus comes home quite glazed this first week or so and it is challenging to get all the things done I would like. Out of perspective this can actually turn into much anxiety and a general tearfulness for me. Pathetic right? I know! It is crazy. This morning I woke at 4:50 (thanks Marcus' alarm!) and instantly begin running through birthday ideas for Bradie. If I weren't half asleep I probably would have had a panic attack! Sometimes not having a "real" job is tremendously hard. Like floating in a dinghy in a boundless ocean. Being able to do "anything" is such a tall order sometimes. I don't want to be a driven busybody of a mom but I don't want to waste my days either. I want to savor life, I want fruit, I want to be intentional with my kids. But I also want a clean desk and to not waste my precious, limited closet space. I want to find time each day to be in God's Word. I want to lose the 8 pounds I've gained since weaning Beau....blech.

Kinda journal-y for this blog, but sometimes keepin' it real is the only way. So there, anxieties cast out upon the One who cares with a side of gritty update. Order up.