A Work in Progress

The Dresser as it was

As you may recall, I've been wanting to paint the boys dresser. For those of you who didn't want me to paint it, sorry, but if I was wavering at all, it all got pushed over the edge because Ben and Sam kept making me cover the dresser with a blanket at night because the squiggles scared them. Seems like good enough reason to paint to me. So, I finally got around to it. But it's not done. Why isn't it done? Well for a list of reasons. You'll hear about them shortly, first off, here is the dresser as it is now.

The Dresser as it is (in sunlight)

The Dresser as it is (with flash)

The actual color is somewhere between these two shots. So, the reason it is not completely finished is because:

1. I accidentally picked the wrong color (I originally wanted a shade darker than this, but I didn't bring the paint chip with me, so I picked the wrong one).
2. We got the cheapest roller we could find and it left little hairs all over the front of the drawers.
3. We didn't use a primer and, though you can't really see it in these pictures, a lot of the squiggles are showing through the green paint.

So, I'm going to need to sand down the drawer fronts again to get rid of the hairs, prime them, and paint them again. Now, the question is, do I stick with the same color? Or do I paint the drawers in the shade darker that I was planning? I'm going back and forth.

I'm also going to do some little tweeking to the inside of the drawers and the cupboard. I think it will be awesome. So, give me your two cents. Unless you don't like the color, then keep your comments to yourself.

Strawberry Jam Forever

A while ago I decided to try and make some freezer jam because I found some of the pectin stuff on sale at Target. The first batch I made was amazing and we went through four containers in about two weeks. Maybe less. So, I decided to make some more. And this time, because I'm a little bit crazy, I decided to add figs. It's delicious, by the way.

A word on figs. A good fig is amazing. But there aren't too many out there. At least there haven't been for me. So, you should always try them, because you may be in luck. Oh, and you eat them by just biting right into the skin or cutting it into quarters and biting out the flesh. That is all.

Cutting the strawberries

(How do you like my can shelf?)

Cutting the Figs (a messy and juicy process)

Two filled jam containers

Freezer jam is ridiculously silly. It's just cutting and mixing basically. And yet, I found, as I jiggled the jam jar, that this jam was not setting up. Hmmm... How could I have messed this up? I asked myself. I kept checking the back of the package to make sure that I had followed all the instructions. I decided it would set up if I just put them in freezer, but I kept checking. I was staring at the package, willing it to show me my mistake, staring at that unopened package, staring, staring. Oh. I'm a moron. Ya, I hadn't opened the pectin. And I definitely hadn't mixed it in. Just sugar and fruit. Yep, total moron.

Anyway, I added it later and all is well. Luckily, freezer jam is a very forgiving preserve. And tasty.

It's Threeeeee-D!

Another event we participated in whilst Zach's family was visiting was to see the re-release of Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in the theaters. In 3D. I'm not much into movie gimmicks and what not, and I really can't tell the difference between high-def and regular-def television. Nor can I really see the difference between film and digital if you are film-snobbishly inclined. But this was... awesome. Especially the beginning of the sequel, which takes place in space. I would highly recommend the experience.

And to add to the enjoyment, the boys sat completely spellbound the whole time. They absolutely love Toy Story. And they were also wearing hilarious 3-D glasses. It was definitely a great time. Thanks, guys! It was awesome.

P.S. See! I told you they like Toy Story. And they've mostly stopped fighting over who gets to be Buzz. Mostly.

Space Ranger Ben and Sheriff Sam

San Fransisco and Running

Zach's family came in a couple of weeks ago for Scott/Grandpa to run his second marathon in Oakland. It was great to see everyone and we had lots of fun. We went into San Fransisco, got completely stuck in traffic, got Hannah scared to death about earthquakes, walked down by Fisherman's wharf, remembered how there were a ton of sea lions down there, had lunch, forgot about the sea lions, went to see the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, found out that they had moved it to San Leandro, got several hot chocolates anyway, and then got the gitters. It was great.

Sam, sampling the chocolate

Ben, loving life

Shauna, Hannah, Emma, and Scott partaking of the deliciousness

Scott ran a good race and we all were impressed and a little in awe of the endurance and insanity that you must have deep down in your bones to want to do something like this.

Coming towards the finish line

The best part of this race was that they let the friends and families of the runners (that's us) have some food too. And that was awesome. That has always been my main gripe about races is that they are so stingy with their food. I've been sitting around forever waiting for my runner to come in, I think I'm entitled to a bagel. And maybe some juice.

Luckily, these guys had plenty of food and handed it out quite generously. It was great.

Eating and Chillin'

While they were here Shauna was busy making these little crocheted robots for the boys. Aren't they so cute? The boys love them. They are very into robots, astronauts and space right now. They picked a bunch of planet books out at the library.

Sam's Robot

So, we had a great time. And people should come and visit us more often. We like it.

Ben and his tongue

Welcome, Welcome!

So, I managed to get this video to work, but still no pictures. Hopefully I will figure out this problem ASAP. Before Zach's family arrived, I decided to let the boys make a welcome banner for them. (Sorry, I didn't think of this for your visit Gma! I hope you still felt welcome :). So, here are the boys trying their hands (and later feet) at painting.

Excuses, excuses...

We've had several guests over the last couple of weeks. My Grandma came several weeks ago and Zach's family came last weekend. And we did all kinds of fun things. And I've got pictures. But for some reason, I'm having all kinds of technical difficulties with said pictures. So, bear with us. We apologize with the delay.

Pre-School Craziness

I don't know how it is where you live, but here people get a little crazy about pre-school. I remember going to someone's house for dinner when the boys were about one and a half and getting on the discussion of preschool. I hadn't thought much about it at the time. The hostess told me I was a moron and that I should already have them on a waiting list if I really loved them, which I clearly didn't. I'm paraphrasing only slightly. I also found out that night that some people pay almost as much for a month at one of the really good pre-schools in our area as what I paid for a semester in college.

I've been trying not to freak out, I mean, I never went to preschool. And neither did Zach, which is a better comparison, because I'm not really doing a whole lot with my degree right now, except pretending to be cooler than I am.

So, I'm trying to spend the time creating an educational environment, but, I'm not great at this kinda thing without some kind of outside force that I can let down to motivate me. Because I'm the kind of person who spends an hour or so working on a new blog banner, just to post it, chicken out, because I used an image with a watermark on it that I bypassed, and then spend another half hour coming up with another, though less cool one. This is all during the time that I was planning on using to prepare some kind of preschool activity. Luckily, I found one in the process. But what are the chances of that happening every time?

Anyway, here is Attempt #1 at some kind of pre-schooly thing.

We glued some of the fallen leaves onto the tree trunk and I talked to the boys about autumn and seasons a little bit.

Ben and Sam were actually pretty interested for about ten minutes. They really enjoyed using the glue, which they'd never used before. But of course, I only had one, and that caused a few problems. But it actually went pretty well, I'd say.

I hear that the part that really matters with kids at this age is the process, not the completed work. Which is great for us. Because they tore all the leaves off the paper once they were dry. So, no pictures of completed works. Sorry.

Glues sticks and leaves, classic childhood

So, hopefully, somehow my darling children won't be scarred by not being in some kind of pre-school we can't afford or for not having a more put-together type mom. But, if all else fails, at least we'll have these beautiful projects. Oh, wait. Ben tore them up when he was done.

Huh.

In the Garden

One of the many things that have been keeping me from this here blog is our garden plot. We got one in the spring and had a friend take care of it for us over the summer. But, apparently the ground was cursed or something, because almost nothing grew. So, when we got home we dug up 3/4 of the garden and laid a bunch of chicken wire down (to discourage gophers) and then put the dirt back in. It was quite a bit of work, since the ground was like a rock. Luckily, for me, Zach did a pretty hefty portion of it.

Now, the hard work has paid off, because the seedlings we planted are growing beautifully.

Those are snap peas on the left on the bamboo trellises and on the right are lettuces and a bok choi.

In fact, dozens of the radish and carrot seeds that I planted in the spring are coming up now. Go figure. Of course, they are coming up with a bunch of weeds, but such is the way of things.

I've been trying to have the boys help me, but it is slow going. They enjoy the idea of gardening, as far as it pertains to digging and watering things, but not always the in such a way that will keep things alive. Which is one of the goals.

Ben, playing with a piece of eucalyptus bark, after "helping" me in the garden.

Those are the lettuces on the left, then some marigolds and spinach and a strawberry plant, that is not looking great. And I planted a bunch of garlic bulbs over in the area that looks like just dirt.

Once I took Sam with me, and he helped by filling his mouth up with the water that Zach had sent with us and then spitting it onto the plants. The following is a documentation of the event:

Sam is spitting water onto the dirt from the water bottle

Katie: Stop it, Sam. That's not funny.

Sam: Mom, it's a little bit funny.

(he said this about ten times for each plant)

Sam: I think this little fella needs a drink.

He fills his mouth with water and spits it out on him.

So, here's the thing..

Ya know when you have some big event that you feel that you really need to blog about before you can move onto something else or you'll forget and then you'll be doing one of those long-after-fact type blogs, which can be cool, but are often pretty lame-o. Are you familiar with this?

Anyway, I've been waiting to move on till this silly trip back to California was documented. And in all the hubbub of life, I just haven't gotten to it. And I've finally decided that I'm not going to. At least not for a while. I'm going to move one to the rest of our lives. Starting.....now! Well, in a little while, anyway.