summer with sawyer

You know what rules? A whole summer with Sawyer [and Spencer]. We are having a lot of fun. Now we just need to go somewhere fun [out of town].

In the mean time...here's how it's gone down so far...

grandma janice came for a quick visit.
outdoor movies
2 peas in a pod. Lots of time with the cousins.
My Papa turned 80!
4th of July party @ church. Sawyer was drunk on cotton candy.
early birthday staycation sans sawyer @ gv ranch. heaven.
ready for fireworks. the louder, the better. papa jim did not disappoint.
the audience
who's a firecracker?

she's a yankee doodle dandy

Sawyer, 20 months, waterparkin' it up

It is now 3/4's of the way through the month of June and life is good. Lots of swimming, eating, and playing. Hopefully in July we'll have a few trips going on. My baby's feet gotta get to the beach. And the farm. And the woods. And my mind needs to get out there on the road.

Summer feels like the movie groundhog day to me. And I love it. My whole mentality changes. Every day has wide open potential for ANYTHING, and yet a lot of the days run together and feel like repeats [in a good way]. Maybe it comes from having Spencer off from work all summer. Maybe it comes from having little to no obligations. Maybe it's all the chlorine from the swimming pool. Whatever it is...keep it comin'

Maybe it's because my b-day is coming up. All those fireworks? You've got me to thank, America. Independence, schmindependence.

friday favorites

Sometimes I feel like having this blog is maybe a bit self-indulgent, because when I do post, it's nothing profound or purposeful, really. I don't think anyone is hanging on my every typed-word, waiting to see what I'll post next(you'd probably be waiting a couple months). And that's ok. A little self-indulgence never hurt anyone, right?

So I'm dedicating this post to a few of my favorite things right now. Because I can and because it's Friday. And we are just a few days away from 3 months of summer break bliss.


Simple Vera @ Kohls. Some of it is not for me, but most of it I love. And I've been lucky enough to find some amazing pieces at deep discount prices. I love a sale.


Don't get your feathers ruffled, but I love Katy Perry's new song. Poppy, cheesy, summer anthem. I'm not sold on her swim top, though...


This picture serves as two favorites in one shot. I want to make these placemats this summer. I found the tutorial on craftzine. Add this to my summer sewing list.
And Trader Joe's is more and more becoming my favorite grocery store. Almost every snack I love comes from this store. My current favs: organic tomatillo & roasted chili salsa, avocado salsa verde, vanana yogurt, vanilla almond granola. Now I'm hungry.


My new swimsuit. Only I got it in a coral-orangish color. And I'm not a swimsuit model so I pale in comparison. Literally.


And of course this dude is on my list of from now until forever-favorite things. He's talking a ton. It's really great to see their little brains learn and grow and discover. His first real sentence so far is "I go ride", which of course means he wants to go for a ride on my beach cruiser.

Despite the sweltering temperatures, summers going to be good. Really good.

new season. new scene.

I am a slacker on blogging these days. I have two good reasons for it:
1. I've been taking care of a sick kid, a busy husband, a house, and everything inbetween.
and
2. Although I make myself sound busy, there's not much happening that's worth reporting to the blog.

And I've been in a rut lately. (guess that makes 3 reasons)

I'm trying to figure out why I am always trying to fit in where I don't.

Time to get over it. Onward and upward.

here's someone I can relate to. literally.

hand me downs

I've blogged about my increasing love for thrift stores before, but a night of thrifting success like I had last weekend can only be explained in pictures.

These are just a sampling of items I dug out of the recesses of metal-hanger-smelling racks of questionable clothes. It isn't always pretty, but it's worth it. My only hangup is that it is getting harder and harder to find any fun vintage stuff worth buying. I always prefer nice, vintage stuff but I won't turn down a nice Gap dress for $9 or anything.

note: I was not about to iron all of these clothes just for a blog post. embrace the wrinkles.
springtime dress, CHECK.
creme brulee, my new favorite color palette
jcrew on a budget, my transition from winter to spring outfit. borders on old lady, i know, i love it.
i didn't show you but the black sleeve cuffs on this dress have the most adorable gold buttons on the backside of them. makes for a mean sunday dress.
summah, summah, summah time

Not pictured are the perfect dark denim bermuda shorts, a grey ruffle top, another summer dress and 2 more cardigans I bought during my secondhand splurge.

4 dresses
3 cardigans
3 tops
1 pair of shorts
=
Fifty bones!

(Ok, so it should have cost me $66, but I encountered a dishonest DI employee who cut me some weird deal. See previous post.)

twilight+thrift stores

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ENTIRELY TRUE TALE OF HOW TWILIGHT LED TO (inadvertent) THRIFT STORE THEFT

After a long week of work (as President and CEO of Mama Inc.), I declared I needed a night out. By myself.

So after meeting for dinner at Zabas, I swapped cars and child with Spencer and set out for a night of whatever I wanted. He took Sawyer to a middle school basketball tournament. REAL sorry I missed that night of excitement.

I decided to head to my local DI to get my thrift on, and who knew where the night would take me from there. After a little searching, I found some things worth buying. I mean, $3 for an Odille top from Anthropologie? DONE.

I counted up my finds, all 6 of the little gems totaling $16 (remember this number for later). I was very satisfied with myself, and with DI as I headed to make my purchases at the checkout.

"Hi. We, um...we have to ask you these questions when you checkout..." the young(slightly effeminate)man at the register said as he rang up said Anthropologie shirt (which did not fit me and I actually bought for one of my buxom best friends).

"Ok..." I waited for his questions to start.

"Have you seen Twilight?" he asked, giggling a little.

"Um, yeah. I've seen it" I answered honestly, but holding back my repressed teenage Twilight-love, since I was amongst strangers.

"Who's your favorite character?" was his next question.

Unsure of what this was leading to, I hesitated, but answered, "Uh..I guess..Edward?". Which is not a guess, its a FACT.

He was disappointed and let out a kind of grumble/sigh.

"Well who's your favorite character?" I was asking the questions now, pal.

"Mine?? Oh it's Jacob! C'mon.." he insisted, as if I should have known.

So in an effort to mend things, I said "Well, after the second movie, I was about 50/50 with Jacob and Edward. I like them both I guess." Which is not a guess, its a half-truth.

But he was satisfied with this. "Yeah, the second movie is good. He says my favorite line in that movie..." and in the most well mastered Taylor Lautner impersonation, he recited some lines from the movies, including "He left you Bella! He doesn't even want you anymore!"

You can't make this stuff up. I was dying inside. Dying.

After he was done telling me how he liked Jacob's long hair better, I complimented his impersonation.
"Thank you, I've been practicing that", he said. "Your total is six dollars."

SIX DOLLARS??, I thought to myself, looking at the cash register screen. Sure enough, it read 6.00.

"What? No..it's gotta be more than that..?" I asked, wondering if DI was having a sale or something. Does DI even have sales?

"Nope. Six dollars." He repeated.

"See, you answered the questions" he leaned towards me, "You passed the test."

"Uh..okaaay" I said as I grabbed my bag and paid.

Once in the car and driving to my next thrifty stop of the night, I laughed to myself about that twilight obsessed DI employee. This will make a good story, I thought. Then I reached in my bag and looked over the receipt.

He only rang up 3 items, each for $2.

This will make a GREAT story.

SIDENOTE: At first, I thought this was the most hilarious/profitable thing that had happened to me in a very long time. Then I was consumed by the guilt of stealing by way of twilight-test-at-cash-register. Then I resigned myself to drive my piles of donations to DI and call it even. Please don't judge me.

More on my amazing night of thrift store finds to come...including items I PAID for.

all is right

Our holidays were wonderful. Lots of time with family/friends, lots of food, lots of fun gifts.
Oh, and one sick kid. We survived.
But he still isn't 100% well. Some strong antibiotics will hopefully help him out.

I didn't take nearly enough pictures of our holidays. After years of shoving the lens in everyone's face, I have eased off a lot, at a time when I should be documenting more than ever. Sometimes I feel guilty like I'm not capturing all of Sawyers life in pictures and in journals and in scrapbooks, but I am trying. Thats a little goal for the year. Scrapbook this kids first year of life before the 2nd year starts!

The weather has been b-e-a-u-tiful lately. So we took to the park. Sawyer really just wanted to talk to other kids there who were all bigger and faster and didn't want to be bothered by a baby. So we slid the slides.


This picture happened totally by accident. I looked up just in time to focus, and click. It is my new favorite thing. Enlargement has been ordered, it will grace my walls soon.

So, this is the new year.