Want to see the cutest baby in the world????

This is Lucy, my brother's baby girl. She came over last Monday, and I followed her around with my camera. My kids began to get a little jealous and starting begging me to take pictures of them... that never happens. I hope they learned their lesson.

Two Peas in a Pod

My children share a bond like none other that I have ever seen. I didn’t have this “thing” with my brother, but I have heard of other siblings that did have it. It’s the most intimate and natural love, not involving romance, that I have ever seen. I’ve heard from other mothers that this “thing” they have will soon deteriorate as they age. My heart aches to imagine the impending breakup of a love that is so sweet and so perfect. They have words and jokes and songs that only each other understand. And since they don’t yet understand sexuality, they consider each other to be “husband” and “wife” and say that they are married, despite how often I tell them that it isn’t true. Anyhow, they believe that they own each other and both are perfectly OK with that.

On Monday, as Rocket was in school, I stopped by the bank to take care of some business. The teller offered Roxanne a dumdum lollipop and Roxanne said “Um, yeah, but I need two, cause I need one for Rocket.” I imagine the teller thought Rocket was her imaginary dog or something, but she gave Roxanne two and she took them and put one in her pocket and sucked the other one as we shopped. When we picked Rocket up from school he ran out to greet us and said “Babe, I have something to tell you. I turned in all my homework, so I got a lollipop in school, but I told my teacher that I would need two.” He dug through his backpack and pulled out a lollipop and handed it to his sister. Roxanne gasped and her face lit up as she began to work her little hand into her pocket. She pulled out the dumdum and gave it to Rocket, and then they both began to laugh hysterically at the ironic situation. They both ate their lollipops as they walked home, hand and hand, in the perfectly beautiful spring weather (which is gone today). It was a scene that happens often, but seems almost too idealistic to be a part of MY life. But don’t get me wrong, I will probably need to stop blogging in a minute, so I can go downstairs and pry them off of each other so they don’t kill one another while fighting over the TV remote. But sure enough, they will make up before I can get back upstairs and agree that they were really just “hugging”, not fighting.


This last picture shows how natural they are with each other. I took it in our hotel room this summer, while they were watching TV. When they grow up and hate each other, I am going to show it to them and say "At one time, you loved each other so much that you would lay around in your underwear together watching TV and would think nothing of it". But I hope that day never comes.

Happy Easter, FolksToday, my children tried to teach me that Easter is not about taking pictures, it is about celebrating the ressurection of Jesus. I taught them that if you try to teach your Mom a lesson, when she wants to take your picture, she will eat all your jelly beans.

Denver Zoo

Matt has every other Friday off of work. The wheather has been warming up, so it was the perfect day to go to the zoo, which we always thorougly enjoy. But, the kids usually look at the pictures on the plaques more than they look at the real animals, which always makes me feel like we wasted our money on their admissions. These are some pics I took (remember, you can sometimes click for higher resolution):

A Groovy Party for Betty

Last week, we threw a huge surprise hippie part for Matt's mom, Betty, who was turning 60. It was a lot of work, but an evening of fun that turned into a whole weekend of celebrating and hanging out with Matt's WIERD relatives... just kidding- they were groovy. Behind the lava lamp, you see a picture of Betty in her sassier days.

A groovy girl, and a groovy boy.

Me and my own mother.

Groovy protesters:
Groovy brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles.

Dr. Sketchy's Monthly Review

On Valentine's day, I wrote a blog about the 100 things I love about Matt. One of them was "he doesn't carry a sword" (I was running thin on ideas). But then I went to Dr. Sketchy's this week, and saw this awesome lady, who made me change my mind. Maybe it would be pretty rad if Matt carried a sword- as long as I didn't feel threatened by it, of course. And it would be doubly awesome if he could balance it on his head. Heck... why leave it to him?! I think I might get me a sword. As a mother, it might come in handy. The kids might take me more seriously... as long as it didn't get into their hands. Also, I will need to take some belly dancing lessons too- then I could be as cool as this lady.

Five minute sketches:

One Minute Sketches:

Suburbic Brainwash Syndrome

Last night, as I was driving to Dr. Sketchy's, in downtown Denver, the sun was actually still up due to the recent daylightsavingstime (yes that is one word). I could actually see all of the beautiful refreshing scenery that downtown always provides. I passed the sculpture park and the capitol building, and I began thinking that my children hardly ever drive into the city with me, and perhaps their little moldable brains are beginning to think that everything is grey and square and undamaged, the way it is in Highlands Ranch. This depressed me. Maybe I am accidentally passively brainwashing my kids. That's when I decided that I must make it a goal to get my children out of the suburbs atleast once a week. We will either go inward to the city, or outward toward nature, but either way we've got to get to a place where the shapes and colors and smells are more diversified than they are here on the outskirts. They ought to be seeing homeless people, abandoned buildings, art, things 50 years or older, things that stink, things that bite, and most importantly, things that are different from us. I'll start tomorrow.

Karate Moms are the New Soccer Moms

It's true. Karate is expensive and beneficial to children, therefore making it the sport every superior mom enrolls their child in. Rocket is no exception and I expect that he will grow up to be a fine CEO of a big corporation because of his ninja skills. At class, as the children refine their karate moves, the moms sit on the sidelines and discuss things like scrapbooking, the hottest SUV colors, Racheal Ray's best recipes, acrylic nails, saving the environment, healthy eating, breast augmentation, and other highly important issues affecting the women of Highlands Ranch. No one has yet suspected that I am the mole, and that really I am only there to secretly pick up on karate moves, so that I will be able to defend myself when suburban narcisist take over the world. Shhhh. HIYA!

We went on a cruise



There is something about being on a cruise ship that will make a couple fall in love. It may be the excessive desserts that are served. Or it may be the way that the ship rocks making you feel like you are drunk, even when you aren’t. Or it may be the mint on your pillow every night. Or it may be the fact that you can sleep in until noon and have no clue because the inside cabins are pitch dark. Or it may be a combination of the above. That being said, there is something about getting off the ships at ports that will make a couple fall out of love. It may be the ruthless merchants or the heckling cab drivers. Or it may be the fact that it is almost impossible to agree upon what to do in the few hours you are given in an exotic foreign country that you may never see again in your entire life.

Miami

The cruise ship embarked in Miami. I arrived in Miami, safe and sound, but Matt did not (and he had my passport, so I couldn’t board without him). He was stuck in Washington DC. Don’t ask why we decided to fly separately. To make things worse, my cell phone wasn’t working so I was not able to be in contact with Matt. I explained to the passport checking man at the port that my husband had my passport and was (hopefully) on his way. The man said I could wait in the chair nearby in the air conditioned building until my husband arrived. After a few hours passed, the passport checking man approached me and asked if I would please move outside and wait on the front steps. I complied. As a few more hours passed, the same man approached me again and asked if I could move away from the building about 100 yards over with the porters. I guess the longer I waited there, the more he began to suspect that my husband was never going to show up. In my final waiting location, I became quite acquainted with the porters, who spoke a different kind of English than I am used to, and had all of their assets in their mouth (see the picture I took if you don’t know what I mean). The longer I waited, the more anxious I became. Not too much before the ship was scheduled to sail away, a taxi cap pulled up with my dear husband in it. All the porters cheered as Matt and I embraced and cried. It was the most emotional reuniting ever. But he came with bad news: he had no luggage. We boarded the ship anyways, because after that, nothing mattered except being together... and Matt spent the rest of the cruise wearing one single set of clothes.

Roatan

I'm sorry I didn't take better pictures of this place. My favorite part of Roatan was how colorful it was. Even the scrubbiest shack houses were painted the brightest colors. And everyone decorated their houses with rows of vibrant laundry. Even the piles of litter in the corners of the streets added to the kelidescope of this primitive island.






Belize
The awesomeness of being able to be in this place, where the Mayan Indians once mingled, is indescribable. If I never get to see something cool again for the rest of my life, I will try to remind myself that I am just lucky that I got to see this one cool thing- and we climbed to the top.

Cozumel
I ate some yummy nachos here.















Nassau

Stephanie and I ditched our husbands at this stop and went out on our own. We had many many men offer to turn us into a "Bahama Mama". We politely declined.