Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This is Jed...

So, I told you that I would eventually post about Jed...my husband..yes, that Jed...they guy who doesn't bring me flowers on our anniversary...

Jed is a motorcyclist - an avid one...and I love him for that...it's his passion...and I love him for that. Jed taught me to ride 9 years ago, and bought me a motorcycle...and I love him for that. Now after 6 years of pregnancy and motherhood, my bike is under a thick coating of dust in the garage, and Jed never asks me about it...and I love him for that.

Jed has been training Motorcyle Safety in the State of Minnesota for 8 years, and as the State's Chief Trainer for 6. This Spring he started his own business and opened up his own Motorcyle Training School...Rider Academy. This week, amid all of the snow, cold and wind...he opened....and I love him for that. MY new job is being his poorly paid professional photographer...but I love him for that too.

Here are some shots from my first unpaid professional photography gig this weekend...

This is Jed...





..and these are not, Jed...but some of the better pictures I took..





...and these are his other unpaid employees moving cones for him...

Monday, April 28, 2008

Four Things About Me...



..I saw this on another blog and since I am lacking cute pics of the girls today, I thought I would tell you all a bit about myself...

Four Places I go over and over:
1. Preschool
2. Target
3. The Post Office
4. Consignment shopping

Four Movies I have watched more than 4 times each:
1. Cousins
2. Sound of Music
3. Wizard of Oz
4. Four Weddings and a Funeral

Four Places I have Lived:
1. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2. Medford, Oregon
3. Camarillo, California
4. New Castle, Indiana

Four TV Shows I watch:
1. American Idol
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Sisters and Brothers
4. HGTV Househunters

Four Places I have been:
1. Istanbul, Turkey
2. Sharm el Skeikh, Egypt
3. Phuket, Thailand
4. Prague, The Czech Republic

Four People Who email me Regularly:
1. My Mom
2. Kris from Florida
3. Kristi P.
4. Melanie :-)

Four of my Favorite Foods:
1. Sushi
2. Salads - any and all except w/poppyseed dressing..
3. Bun Cha Gio (Vietnamese noodle salad)
4. Fries from The Nook

Four Places I would Like to Visit:
1. Bora Bora
2. Vietnam
3. Kenya
4. Argentina

Four Things I'm looking forward to in 2008:
1. Eloise starting Kindergarten
2. The Presidential Election
3. Turning 40
4. A vacation(a girl can dream...)

Picture Pages Picture Pages...


One of my all time favorite past-times is coloring. As a toddler, as a child, as a teenager, as an adult...I would never pass on the opportunity to color. What I remember most about coloring in my coloring books is that there was usually an adult coloring with me, enjoying this past-time too..whether my Mom, an Aunt, a babysitter or my Grandma.

If we are at home, at least once a day, the girls will get out the coloring books themselves and just sit on the floor and color and talk and discuss what they are coloring. Many times I will join them too...and it seems they will be done long before I am ready to finish. I could color for hours upon end...and I still write my name on all of my completed work.


A little coloring history - according to Wikipedia..

The McLoughlin Brothers are credited as the inventors of the coloring book, when, in 1880s they produced The Little Folks' Painting Book. Until the 1930s, books were designed with the intent for them to be painted instead of colored. Even when crayons came into wide use in the '30s, books were still designed so that they could be painted or colored.

The first box of eight Crayola crayons made its debut in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colors were: black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney, wife of Edwin Binney, who took the French words for chalk, craie, and oily, oléagineux, and combined them.

..and do you remember this favorite show...
Picture Pages

Sunday, April 27, 2008

What is this white stuff on April 26th..

...please tell me it's not snow...I love living in Minnesota..and I LOVE Winter...but I am kind of over it all right now, and would like to be spoiled a bit and have Spring, okay?

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Is it Age, Motherhood or 2008...

...that caused me to call the cops on our neighbors? Seriously, I feel like the biggest fuddy-duddy in the world...and sadly, it's not the first time I've called the cops on neighbors before...

WWYD? I get back from my morning run at o'dark 30, and and here are a group of young, teen-age men on our block with guns and sticks. They are running between houses and through people's yards...and have a friend in a car that is racing up and down our street picking and dropping kids off. I had NEVER seen this kids before - they do NOT live in our neighborhood..it was still dawn/dark and they had weapons. So, I came in the house and called 911...

Okay, when I was a teenager, I made many, and perhaps some questionable decisions. However, as a teenager...that was my JOB. I believe as a parent, we are NOT our kids bosses or dictators, and they do not owe us respect just because we are old. I don't believe our house is a communist state and it's my way or the highway, and I will spend my kids childhood and teenage years telling them what to do, how to do it, and let them make no decisions and then let them leave home and wonder what the hell to do as now I have given them NO life/adult skills to make good or bad decisions in their lives. I believe it is my job as a parent to have a mutually respectful relationship with my kids, to give them the guidance, love and framework(around what our family believes in - whether it be based upon morals, faith, etc) they need to become good people and citizens of the world. I am not their boss...I am their guide. Their job as a teenager is to question their framework of living if you will..and to make some bad and many good decisions...seriously, how else will they become amazing, decision making, productive adults if they don't have the desire and ability to make some free choices for themselves. If we don't make mistakes at all - I think we fail in a much bigger way.

...geesh, where am I going with this - oh yes, when I was a decision making teenager, I partied a wee bit(bawahahaha) and made some good and many poor decisions perhaps. I think about the many times, while partying at someones house(sans parents of course...) that kind neighbors would just come over and say "hey kids, time to go home...the party is over.." Maybe back in the 80's in small town Indiana..that is just what good and concerned parents did...no one called the cops on us(well, except for the night at the LK Motel...that story is for another day...)..but I also don't think these parents worried that these teenage kids were doing heavy drugs, or carrying guns or knives...we were probably just drinking a bit of Boonesfarm wine or cheap beer and playing Bruce Springsteen too loudly. Even though I hated the party to be over, we still respected the parent(and were of course scared to pieces...) and just said "sorry, thank you.." and went on home.

Now I think as neighbors(maybe only in the big cities like we are in???...) are fearful of our teenagers - I would now call the cops before kindly going to my neighbors house to break-up a party. It makes me sad really.

...anyway, on that dark morning last week, I thought to myself..."should I just go up to the guys and ask them what they are doing..."...but chose to call the cops instead...the whole time feeling a slight betrayal to my teenage self.

The cops did come that morning(almost 20 minutes from my call...that is CRAZY...oh, and the 911 operator is asking me what they are wearing..."um, if you come on our block right now..they are the ONLY people outside...everyone else is sleeping..you can't miss them..oh, and they are also the ONLY people with guns...")..turns out it was a shift change when I called, so that is why it took so long....

A little while later, one of the cops called us and said they caught up with the group 3 blocks away, and it turns out they were just playing a game called "Nerf Assassin"...now I feel really silly and old. :-)

Friday, April 25, 2008

Skeggings...say it with me now...skeggings...



..one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century. I hope that one day my great, great, great children will be reading about the invention of the skegging and enjoying pictures of their ancestors wearing them. :-)

We LOVE skeggings in this household. My girls love to wear dresses and skirts - especially the ones that twirl - the bigger the twirl, the better. Because of the twirliness in our household, I have invested in a wardrobe of leggings, capris and bike shorts to wear under the twirliness factor..for just a bit of modesty while twirling in public. Not that I am a prude or anything, I mean come on..look how I can dress at times, and then there are my tattoos, and all..I don't want to get a bad reputation for getting all prude-like. I just like a bit of modesty with my wee girls...and they can do the whole skin showing, tattoo thing when they are older too. (gosh, I hope Jed isn't reading this...)

Anyhow, I realize the skort(shorts/skort combo...duh) has been around for awhile..but a few seasons ago, a brilliant fashion designer came up with the Skegging - a skirt with attached leggings underneath...and the World changed for all mother's of twirly skirted girls. I have no idea who invented them...but I thank you from the bottom of my heart...and my girls do to.

The word is really fun to say...skeggings...skeggings...it is a word we use almost daily in our household and my girls ask to wear their skeggings by name...it really makes me smile and amuses me so. (yes, I know, get a life)...

I did notice though, that even though the Skort is defined by both dictionary.com and wikipedia.org...that Skeggings are not yet defined as a real world. I think this will be my mission in 2008, for the World to adopt Skeggings as a word, and to give it the important place and notoriety in our society that it deserves.

In the meantime, enjoy the girls wearing their skegging sets from Luna Luna Copenhagen.....

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Watch out Imelda...

I spend hundreds of dollars on high-quality, perfect fitting, and fashionable European shoes for my girls...but this is what they would rather wear on their feet...go figure...





..oh, and they are wearing Naartjie in case you were wondering...

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Hey, who is the guy in the Party Hat?

Eloise and I were looking for something to watch the other afternoon while Esther was napping, and while channel surfing she yelled..."hey, go back..there is a guy in a party hat...I want to see that.." ... " stop there, that guy, why is he wearing a party hat?"

Me: "Well, that is not a party hat."
Eloise: "Then what is it and and who is he."
Me: "I don't know what the hat is called, but he is the Pope."
Eloise: "Who's the Pope?"
Me: "He is the head of the Catholic Church"
Eloise: "Well, isn't that God's job"
Me: "I think they work together"
Eloise "Mom, he just blinked..is he real"
Me: "Yes, he is a real man"
Eloise: "Can we google the name of his hat"
Me: "Sure, let's do that later" (seriously, what did parents do before google?)
Eloise: "...and why is he wearing pajamas in front of all of those people?"
Me: "Those aren't pj's(giggle giggle)"
Eloise: "..and look, there are other guys who have them on too and they are all dressed alike like me and Esther do.."
Me: "Yes, because they all work with God and Catholic Church too - there are Cardinals, Bishops, Priests..."
Eloise: "but a cardinal is just a bird?"
Me: - (at this point I am trying to think of something else we can do..)
Eloise: "Oh my goodness - those boys helping the Pope are wearing dresses and skirts - WHY would they dress up like girls and not like boys.."
Me: "Sorry, I can't answer that.."
Eloise: "Mom, look those other guys in pj's just took their big white party hats off and now they have red hats - are they now Jewish?
Me: "No, I don't think they are Jewish"
Eloise: "Why is it now really quiet and everyone has their eyes closed and their hands together"
Me: "They are praying to God"
Eloise: "Do you think He really cares where you put your hands when you are praying?"
Me: "Hey, let's see if Dora is on yet..."

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

NOT a Happy Anniversary...

...not that I am bitter or anything...

Number of gifts Jed gave me on our anniversary ZERO
Number of flowers Jed gave to me on our anniversary ZERO
Number of meals I asked Jed to bring home for me on our anniversary ONE
Number of meals Jed brought home for our anniversary ZERO
Number of girls puking in our house on our anniversary TWO
Number of times that I cleaned up puke off of me, the floor, the bed, the blankets, etc..EIGHT
Number of couches, rugs, blankets, pillows, girls, etc cleaned...I lost count
Loads of laundry I did on our anniversary SEVEN
Number of hours I watched PBS with the girls on our Anniversary SIX
Number of Lemon Tarts(lovely gift from a friend..not my husband) that I ate ALL BY MYSELF on our anniversary ONE
Number of excuses for not recognizing our Anniversary - the numbers are still coming in
Number of lies told on our Anniversary - at least ONE
Number of days before Jed has sex with me again 365
A woman's sweet revenge...PRICELESS

...not that I am bitter of anything...

What lightened my heart yesterday - Esther was sitting on my lap, she turned around to face me, put my face in her hands, looked into my eyes, put her nose to mine and said.."Mommy, you are so sweet to take care of us all day.." ..and then she puked all over me..

What broke my heart a few days ago..While out shopping with the girls for Jed's small anniversary gift, the girls were so excited and wanted to help, hold it and pay for..and Eloise said to me.."Do you think Daddy will ever take me to buy a gift for you?" Doubtful - but maybe I am a bit bitter...

Monday, April 21, 2008

Happy Anniversary...

6 years ago today, Jed and I were married at Tulloch Castle, in Dingwall Scotland...well, at least we think it was today, April 21st...Jed thought it was the 20th and I thought it was the 22nd - so we had to call our friend, Kristi(who actually writes things down in a calendar...hhhmmm what an interesting idea)..and she has it written down as the 21st...so we are going with that for now.

It was a gorgeous day and an amazing venue. I was living in Amsterdam at the time, and Jed was still in the US - so we were planning to get married..so logistically this worked the best for us. Scotland is kind of like the "Vegas" of Europe - you just show-up with your passport and birth certificate, find a minister from the Church of Scotland, a nice medieval castle...and you are good to go. I highly recommended it! It was only us, no family or friends - which I think both of us really preferred as neither of us likes the limelight too much...and we were meant to have a party when I moved back from Amsterdam, but Eloise joined us quickly afterwards..so perhaps we will have a big bash at our 10th..

...oh crap...that is the sound of Esther puking in her bed...I was up with puking Eloise all night, so now I guess I know what I'll be doing today...marriage is so romantic sometimes...gotta run..

Here are some pics of the castle we were married in, our wedding pics and 2 pics of us while dating - our 1st vacation together, skiing...and a pic from our 3 week trip to Turkey...maybe we'll just go back there for our 10th rather than having a party - sorry we are so orange in some of the pics...but these are pre-digital images that I scanned in and couldn't get the color corrected...but gosh I loved my dress..
hugs, t.





Sunday, April 20, 2008

I can't help it, it's genetic...

So, as you have noticed in many posts, I buy nice clothing for my girls. Everyone needs a hobby, and this one is safe, hopefully harmless(aside from a few Esther tantrums in the mornings during daily wardrobe choices), addicting(as is typical of most hobbies), is fun(as is typical of most hobbies..why the hell else would you do it...duh), and makes me smile. Since it is a large part of my life, I will continue to share photos of the girls in their latest adorable outfits, and share the clothing brand names, and also probably where I bought it from - I would appreciate your support in this as it amuses me so.

I thought that dressing my girls in the latest and greatest styles, and having a unique and keen fashion sense was something of my own, that I established, learned and built upon...but no, it seems it is just genetic...see, just look at where I came from...my grandparents, mom, aunts and uncle were stylin' way before I started learning fashions evil ways...I am so unoriginal sometimes.


Saturday, April 19, 2008

Oh my gosh we look like twins...



So, I have an obsession with dressing my girls alike. I am not sure why - but I LOVE to do this...and they seem to really like it too. Am I weird - or do other mom's with same sex kids do the same thing? I happen to think it's adorable and will do it for as long as they let me, or as long as I can find sizes to match...well, let me clarify...I don't plan on sending them off to college in matching dresses or anything - I'm not that weird.

...my matching girls through the years...okay, and I will be "weird" too and tell you the brand of each outfit they are wearing(and have a link to their websites)...as I said, it is a bit of an obsession..

Hey, wait a minute - these aren't my kids - OMG can you believe this is my Mom and my Aunt Sandy - they seriously look like my little Eloise and Esther...and hello, I am NOT weird - look, my Grandma dressed her 2 girls alike back in 1952..she was such a trend-setter. It must run in the family...thanks Gram, I love you and feel more centered about my "issues" now. :-)

Gymboree girls - I don't buy that brand anymore...

Oilily Mini Rose Overalls

Baby Lulu Geraniums - I love these pics

Oilily Fuzzy Diamond Coats for Halloween - how sweet is that!

Baby Lulu

Oilily

Oilily Picnic girls for July 4th

Oilily Butterfly dresses

Naartjie - love this brand!

My new love - Matilda Jane!

I just took this yesterday - look at the way they are looking at each other - I need this in a frame...anybody else? Oh, and they are wearing their new Matilda Jane Damsel Dresses and Neapolitan Ruffle Pants - too cute!

Thanks for letting me share!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Just because they are cute...

Some loyal readers(yeah, all 4 of you) have requested more pictures of the girls....and hey, they are so darn cute, who can blame you for asking for more pics...so here goes..these were taken the other day, when it actually reached 70 degrees in Minnesota..but you can still see how brown everything is around here..

Enjoy...(oh, and I'm using my new 70-300 lens again...not great results this time as it was bright sunlight...I need to learn how to compensate for that...Rome wasn't built in a day)

Oh, the outfits are from Mish Mish(dare I tell you from last season's collection) - but it's a great reasonably price boutique brand...I buy mine from Dragonfliesandladybugs

I asked them to hug and act like they loved each other...

This is my favorite - I think it is frame worthy...

So Big....

I love this little smirk...

Excuse me, I burped...

My favorite picture of the day..my fav smile of hers...

Fabulous pic for me - my 1st non-blurry action shot...and Eloise looks so darn cute!

In the double swing singing songs to each other...

There always has to be one picture of "mom, stop taking my picture" - oh, but Eloise, must I remind you that there is a chocolate reward at the end of this photo session...

So, they started running down the alley away from me...I hate it when I am outnumbered..

Esther, telling me to stop - you can see Eloise running swiftly in the background...

Still walking away from me - I'll show them and keep taking pictures anyway...no chocolate for them today!
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