Rehearsal Dinner

Last night was Daniel & Cindy's rehearsal dinner - they decided to do it two days before the wedding which was a genius idea. What a fun time! They gave the wedding party hand made gifts - beautiful necklaces for the bridesmaids and cuff links for the guys. Brett is pretty excited to wear his links in the wedding tomorrow.

My dad held the dinner at Teske's, which I highly recommend if you are anywhere near the San Jose area and are having a party or just want a great dinner. Their authentic German food is amazing, and of course, so is their beer. They were super helpful in putting everything together and even printed out personalized menus for each seat. The atmosphere is AWESOME - we were set up outside on the garden patio, complete with fountain.

We had such a great time with family and getting to know all our soon-to-be new extended family members.

Tomorrow's the big day - and I'll finally have a sister! Hooray!!!

Today we painted

Cindy painted parking signs for the wedding (3 days away!) and Moses painted a "meat eating dinosaur playing with playdough." They both turned out great.

I washed dirty fingerprints off all my white doors. Cindy and all the bridesmaids will be getting ready for the wedding at our house so things need to be tip top by Saturday morning!

Curtains: Check! Blog Guilt: Check!

I finally got the curtains up in Moses' room! I used bed sheets again and saved myself a fortune. However, I ended up buying a curtain rod that was too short, which I only realized after drilling all the hanging majigs (yes, it's a real word) into the wall. So I spent the money I saved on the actual curtains on a long piece of doweling and white paint in order to make a new rod. Sheesh. But they look great - it's pretty amazing what a simple set of curtains can do for a room.

In other news, I am totally suffering from blog guilt. I can't believe the total lack of interesting posts I've been turning out lately. That is not to say that there is nothing blog-worthy happening around here. In fact, there are about 17 things I could turn into awesome posts if the title of this blog was "The Raunchy and Embarrassing Adventures of Junie None." Lots of hilarious things have been happening, but they all involve unmentionable parts of the human anatomy or scary pictures of vermin... I mean, let's face it: I live on a farm with a bunch of boys. I know some of you are saying "bring it on - I can handle it!" but I always come back to the fact that people who read this might buy a blanket from me. I don't want them to think I'm a complete heathen and spend their money elsewhere, so I keep my mouth shut.

In fact, speaking of you people-who-might-buy-a-blanket-from-me-someday, I will also blame you for the lack of truth that has been conveyed in this blog lately. When I started this documentary of my life, I had been faithfully reading such blogs as this and this, both of which are full of lovely pictures of the serene homes of two super-moms and full of all the wonderful things they do with their kids etc. I thought - I want my blog to look like that! But it is just not possible. The picture of Moses' curtains at the start of this post is cropped that way so you won't see the enormous pile of toys and clothes that the curtains are dangling onto. This picture of my to do list is taken that way so you won't see such chores as "wash duck poop and algae off sliding glass door" and "Locate dead animal in pantry." See - all this time you thought I was some sort of artsy photographer, when really I'm just being sneaky. Oh, and remember this lovely post about our trip to Lake Tahoe? What I failed to mention, and what would have made it much more fun to read, is the fact that less than 3 hours into our stay, and while Titus was attached to my boob, no less, I accidentally ripped the $700 shades right off the enormous window in our bedroom. Why didn't I tell you that? Well, first of all I'm still a little perplexed as to how the whole thing happened, but mainly I didn't tell you because I don't want you to know I am a complete spaz. I don't want all you potential customers to know that, though I can make a mean quilt, Brett and I sleep on a couch bed because our house is too small to fit an adult bed in it, and yesterday we held a mini celebration because my brother shot 7 ground squirrels using only 9 bullets to do it.

So now you know. And hopefully, even if I've scared you off of ever buying a blanket from me, I've made you feel a little bit better about yourself. (Write an interesting post: check!)

Feet in the Mud - a brief recap of an important mission

Once upon a time two brave explorers ventured into their grandfather's dried up pond. Along with their trusty side-kick Thor and fully armed with cat-tails, the two conquered the thistle-filled mud pit while simultaneously doubling the size of their mother's laundry pile. In addition to protecting them from turkeys and baby frogs, the cat-tails served as a filling snack for the youngest of the band. They escaped unscathed except for a solitary enormous spider bite on the oldest explorer, which has been complained about three times per hour ever since. A successful mission. More to come.

More bibs

In the process of making these bibs I actually uttered the phrase "... if it's the last thing I do." Sheesh! Sometimes the smallest project can take me so long!

Lunch Date

Well, it wasn't an official date, but Baby took a late nap today and Moses and I were left to eat lunch, just the two of us. It was really nice. Of course, we both love eating lunch with Titus, but it was wonderful to have an unexpected calm moment of normalcy together. Moses didn't comment on Titus's absence, but he did reach over and hold my hand while he was eating, which he very rarely does any more. It was one of those melt-your-heart mommy moments. How amazing that my camera was sitting right next to me!!!

Oh, and to make it even more date like, we were eating very fancy left-overs rather than the usual sandwiches. Hooray!

Life as Usual

Whew. Baby is better and things are back to our version of normal around here. You know: the three year old outside chastising the dog for eating the fly-swatter and the baby playing with an empty pez-dispenser type of normal. It's really nice to be back - I knew I had reached some sort of diaper over-load when I dreamed that I was rescuing not one, but three babies from a hungry bear while all three of them pooped on me. How have you been?

Lake Tahoe

Last weekend we were invited by my brother-in-law's fiancé to spend the weekend at her house in Lake Tahoe. It was lovely! Plus it brought back tons of fun memories for me, since we used to spend a week there every year when I was a kid.

Highlights of the trip included seeing a bear foraging for food right outside the house in the early morning hours, Moses going on his first river rafting trip (no rapids, of course), somehow convincing Uncle Aaron to play Scrabble and then losing to him, and playing on the beach which is made of rocks. Do you know how much easier it is to come home from a trip to a rock beach? No sand on or in anything. Awesome.

Here is a weird picture of the view from our window that does no justice to how beautiful it was in the mornings.

Our Tahoe trip concluded our string of weekends away, and it is nice to know we'll be home for a while. Still busy - my brother's wedding is 3 weeks away and there is a LOT to be done! I'm hoping to get some sewing done for the shop, but I have a few home projects I need to take care of, and then there is Daniel and Cindy's wedding present...

A Mother's Love...

Here is my to do list for the day. It should explain my virtual absence from the on-line world over the last week. There are plenty of grim details, but I'm pretty sure you can piece it together...