Ten Things Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!! Here are 10 things currently happening in our lives....

1) Elayna has stopped napping. She *maybe* takes a nap at daycare and it's hit or miss at home. This causes no-end of angst for mom -- who loves to sleep and thinks everyone should enjoy it too.

2) The Alpha Gamma Delta housewarming party at ASU was last Sunday. I'm still exhausted but happy with the turnout. It, of course, was the hottest day all summer!

3) In planning the housewarming party, I somehow managed to pick up a virus on our home computer. Apparently 'outdoor umbrellas' is a hot virus keyword. Our computer is being re-imaged at no small expense or lack of heartburn. Henceforth, no pictures right now.

4) Our fridge has also picked up some kind of virus and makes annoying noises at all hours of the night. We're debating hospitalization or euthanasia.

5) On Friday, we had a great evening with our friends Jane, Dave, Kira, and Karis at their community center pool. Kira is one of Elayna's best friends and the girls actually played together (not just stare and steal each other's toys). Aaron and I are now suffering from community-center-envy and day-dreaming about moving. It might be easier to move than buy a new fridge.

6) I have a concert tonight at the Musical Instrumment Museum. I've been volunteering there for several months and usually enjoy it. Lately, however, it's been challenging to schedule shows and I haven't been in a month.

7) Aaron interviewed for a new job at Honeywell. The interview went great and he keeps hearing rumors of good news - so we're crossing our fingers.

8) 19 days until Brad and Charlotte's wedding!!! We have Elayna's dress, still need shoes though.

9) I finally had my camera cleaned -- another expense to add onto our mounting list of expenses. However, they magically removed the sand inside the viewfinder and my pictures actually look in focus. Its a miracle!!

10) 5 days until our anniversary!! For the last 2 years, we've spent the weekend in Tucson. This year we decided to head the opposite direction to Flagstaff. I'm excited for some hiking, exploring, and relaxation.

Membership has its privileges

Phoenix has a wonderful Children’s Museum – we’ve gone on several occasions and Elayna’s always enjoyed it.  The old downtown school as been remodeled and tweaked with a 3-story climbing apparatus, art room, toddler discovery room, fort room, mini-grocery store, and a million little childhood wonders.  Every inch of the space has a creative thing for preschoolers to discover.  We find something new every time we go….

Sooo…..  I broke down and bought a yearly membership.  Its well worth the price and after 2 visits is already 1/2 paid for.  Plus look at how much fun she’s having!!

 

In the climber.  The cute ‘E’ shirt was made by Andrea Stafford – Grandma Carol’s granddaughter.  It was a sweet surprise this week!!  The picture on the right is in the art room.  Elayna loved painting the castle!!

We took a math class!  It was geared to preschoolers and focused on matching, rhythm, and basic math/logic concepts.  Although it was a little advanced for E, she did do about 1/2 the activities and did AMAZING at sitting, listening, and being polite.  I was very proud of her!

I look forward to a fun year exploring the museum with Miss E!

Ten Things Tuesday

For some reason, I’m fascinated with Mom Blogs right now.  The idea is intriguing …. a fleet of stay-at-home moms digitally obsessing over their kids and getting paid along the way.  And there are Mom Blogs about everything:  adoption and photography and eating vegan and clipping coupons.  I’m continually wondering how these women made the turn from hobby-journaling to on-line publishing.  When did they decide that the ideas in their heads were worthy of sharing with the internet-cosmos?  And how to hook up with this getting paid deal….

And just to level-set, I have no serious intentions of joining the Mom Blogs army.  I’m too lazy to take anything beyond hobby-journaling.  But I could get better about updating our blog more often.

One Mom Blog idea that might stick is Ten Things Tuesday.  Here’s my first list of 10 random things – this appeals to both my need to make lists and also my <self-proclaimed> quick wit.  And just to shake things up, I’ll start this on a Monday.

1. 33 Days until Brad and Charlotte’s wedding.  I started shopping for flower-girl dresses months ago but cannot commit.  Low and behold, I discovered many bridal stores require 4-6 weeks to ship.  Great.
2. Because I cannot commit, here are my 2 favorite choices for the dress.  Internet-cosmos:  vote on your favorite a-la American Idol.  Sleeveless or Cap-sleeves
3. Clancy turned 9 last week.  The vet called him geriatric and gave me the ‘scowl’ when I didn’t know about his ear infection.  Worse, I hadn’t noticed the hematoma (huge blood blister)  on his left ear.  I’m not a very good dog-mom.
4. The vet asked for $900 to drain the hematoma with an unnecessary and complicated surgery.  Since I’m already labeled a bad dog-mom, we walked out.  Hopefully it will absorb on its own in a few weeks.
5. My friend Jane is on medical leave from work.  I miss her and our Wednesday lunches.
6. Alicia returned from Europe this weekend.  She met up with Brook Wiggins (on-leave from active duty in Afghanistan).   <sigh>  I miss Europe.
7. I had my hair cut on Friday and its sadly too short.  I’m constantly playing with it, twisting it, shushing it – hoping that I’ll start liking it any minute.
8. I’m planning a sorority housewarming party at ASU on Aug 15th.  It will either be a roaring success or hopeless failure.  In the meantime, I’m doing most of the planning with the voices in my head … and we argue a lot.
9. I’m finding work uninspiring and dull lately.  I need to regain some statistical mo-jo but lack inherent motivation.  Maybe I’d rather spend my time flower-girl dress shopping.
10. I had lunch on Friday with my friend Allison Armstrong.  Allison is honest and loud and open and crazy.  I need to spend more time with girl-friends – it definitely felt good!

While Aaron is away….

Aaron has been in Denver all weekend visiting with college friends Jesse Moore, Chad Ashcraft, and Brandon Luckey.  I think he’s had a great time – they went to a baseball game and played lots of folf.

I always dread being a single-mother but have honestly enjoyed my few days alone with Elayna.  She’s been sweet, has eaten and slept better than usual, and we’ve had a good time together.  We’ve played in the park (its unusually cool), went to the farmer’s market, cooked banana bread, swam, and went to a movie.  But we definitely miss Dada.

I did finally finish one big project over the weekend.  During Elayna’s first year, I made tiles with her footprint for each month.  Since then, we’ve had 12-random tiles stored in her room – unsure what to do next.  Aaron had planned a big wall-display but we were having trouble finding a picture frame to pair with it.  In the meantime, I’ve had space on her wall perfect for something like this.  So this weekend, I hung the tiles above her upper-chair rail to create a border.  I think it looks really nice – and I’m proud to do it all on my own.

Before

  After – with the tiles hung

And who is Princess Aluna?

For weeks, Elayna has been obsessed with “Princess Aluna”.  This is a universal name she’s applied to ALL princesses, fairies, mermaids, supermodels, or cartoon heroines.

Unfortunately, we have no idea who Princess Aluna really is…  Is it some derivation of Fiona or Aurora?  Is she trying to say Princess Elayna?  [unlikely as she does say ‘Elayna’ and it does not sound like Aluna.] 

In any case, her recent fascination with Princesses is amusing and sweet.  She’s definitely our PRINCESS.