The Most Girl Thing I Have Ever Done. Ever.

So, I have been wanting a pair of designer jeans now for a while. I wondered what all the hoopla was about, if they really could take my large, jiggley butt and make it look firm and not so long looking. I had a bored moment and went on ebay, broke into my husband's account, and bid on a pair of Seven for All Mankind jeans.
I didn't think I actually got them until Joey came to me a couple of days later and said he got an email saying he had to pay for a pair of jeans he bid for on ebay. Yay!
Here's the kicker, the part where being a total female comes in: I ordered them a size too small.
Yes, yes, I did. Totally serious. My thinking, at the time, was that if I ordered a pair of jeans just a tad too small that I really really really wanted wear, that I paid a good amount of money for, then I would be motivated to stop eating so many darn oatmeal cookies. And batter.
When Joey saw the jeans, he was even more perturbed than when he had found out I hacked into his ebay account. "Those look small."
"There not too small," I said. "I just need to lose a couple of pounds."
I tied them on for size and sure enough, they'd be a great fit for Barbie. I somehow managed to get them shut without ripping a gigantic run right down the butt (which I have done, on occasion), and then managed to walk, barely, out to the living room to show Joey that they fit.
"You look like you can't breath."
Hmmm. Come to think of it, was I breathing?
I tugged them off.
Joey told me I looked great the way I was and trying to lose weight to fit into a pair of jeans wasn't very healthy.
Oh.
I just called Plato's Closet and they said they'd probably give me around fourteen dollars for them. Sniff. Sniff.
I could try to re-sell them on ebay. Or Craigslist.
And yet all day long I keep thinking about how I can lose, or tone up, to fit into them. What I tell ya? Girl, all the way to the core.

More from Ethan.

Joey thought this was just hilarious.

Looking Back.

Looking back over these pictures I just keep thinking, this summer was so fun. We got to do so many fun things, including San Fransisco shopping and two Giants games, a new and worthwhile experience that I want to repeat soon; camping with Joey's family in a trailer, which not only made it bearable with little kids but actually allowed us to relax and have a good time; Graeagle which was just heaven, and fun day trips like the one we took to Minden to swim in their huge swim center which is awesome and costs pennies compared to Wild (freak'en expensive and so not worth it) Waters. I enjoyed my boys so much, Joey and I are learning to like each other and have a good time together again, with kids, and things are on the up swing, despite the crap of life still being chucked at us, which, it will continue to do (Did someone say insurance companies who won't pay? What? Seriously? They do that? And I thought they were there to help us, to come along side...hmmm. Barf.).
We are (hopefully) learning to roll better with these punches. Knowing they will come, and, most importantly, go. Our relationships with each other and our boys don't have to suffer.
My job is going well. Both of them are. I am thankful to be doing what I am doing, to be able to dress in cute clothes because I teach preschool and you can do that, and to be able to bring my guitar and sing with the kids, and to watch two girls dancing and twirling and falling on the ground in all sorts of provocative poses if they only knew. But they don't. They are innocent and enjoying the music, dancing and singing and making up their own words. I look at them and smile.
We've talked about having more chill'ens but for now two is full and good. The more I stop thinking about having another one the more the ones I have fill up the space in my home, in my heart. Ethan is hilarious, if not a bit--cough**covering the mouth** intense, but really, we don't know anyone else around here like that, do we now?
Lord help me if Noah is not just the most mellow laid back snuggle bug there ever was. He's got a feisty side to him, though. Like he'll come outta no where and just smack you, right across the face. He's knocked out a couple of contacts. He's scarred my nose. He bites, especially when he's hungry, and he screams when he wants something. So, maybe he's not so mellow, and I am in total denial. But I don't care.
He still has those cheeks, those soft, wondering eyes, that would say if they could, "I'm really a nice guy." I believe him.
So all in all, it was a great summer. I switched out my clothes yesterday, which you wouldn't think would be such a big deal but I have noticed I blog about it every time I do it so it may be more significant than I give it credit for. If anything, it is a definite sign of change. My arms are open for it.

Birthday!

So these are a little out of order. In fact, they are completely backward. Consider this like reading a book backward. This first one is Noah crashed after his party, on the way home. He partied hard, and with no nap!
This is Noah mid-party, chowing down on his birthday cake. This kid does not mess around.
This was at seven o'clock in the morning. Super awesome to have huge balloons in the sky on your birthday. I remember waking up the morning after I had Noah in the hospital, opening the blinds, and seeing the sky all dotted with the colorful balloons. So awesome.
He liked the balloons, even it it was a little early.
And then these are some of Ethan's artwork. Yes, yes, I know he is headed somewhere incredible, I mean, with talent like this we could be talking BIG. He also is trying to spell, totally on his own. Up there is his name and then his attempt at "mommy" and "Noah". Not bad. Me? Totally impressed.

This is his self portrait and I wish it wasn't on a dry erase board so I could have it professionally framed and keep it for always. Alas, with one swipe of the soft eraser, it was gone. So. Sad.

Oops!

I forgot to post an after picture of his haircut!

First Hair Cut: Noah Jay/Graeagle Pictures.

It's not often you find yourself trying to shove a sucker into a child's mouth. Ethan, as you can see, is an old pro at this stuff.

Me and my boys.

Ethan likes to hit golf balls. I like his outfit: you really can't beat jammies and black shoes. Joey spent a lot of time with Ethan this summer giving him "swim lessons". He's a good daddy.

Once again I think Ethan wins the fashion prize on this one. (Those shorts usually fall below the knees). Ethan's new jeep I found at a garage sale for $12.

He's very serious, folks. Watch out.

Fall is coming, it's just around the corner. I feel it in the mornings when the house is cold and I don't want to get out of bed, and then again in the evenings when you definitely want a jacket if you're outside. Soon it will be chilly all day, and then one day not too far off I will be wearing a coat and gloves and freezing my butt off as I drive to work in the mornings. But oh, that coffee will taste just devine.

Today I found Noah crunching on a long piece of pink chalk. It was kind of like lipstick the way it stained his mouth and cheeks. That's gotta be up there for cancer causers. Whoops.

And then Ethan is full of attitude today. He's down for his second nap because the first one bombed. Right now this is the hardest part of being a mom: ATTITUDE. I can't stand it and I can't stand being the meanie who has to crack down on it. But, I guess it's not really being mean if it's helping Ethan grow into the wonderful gentleman he is *gulp* becoming, right?

We took Noah for his first haircut. He looks so handsome. The bad part, though, was that he screamed his head off for most of the time, worse than any shots he's ever recieved from the doctors. He just really doesn't like things that go "buzz", and I am pretty sure if has to do with the sucking device they used on me when he was but the size of a pea. Poor baby. You would have thought someone was branding him. The pictures don't really show it because I think we were trying to get some happy ones. He did enjoy his very first sucker though, covered in hair and everything.

Labor Day, 2010.

Well, besides the fact that my toes are so cold they might fall off any second and I can't feel my fingers typing on the keyboard, the morning is otherwise peaceful and rare. I am at the outpost in Graeagle, sitting outside on their just hosed off deck, taking in my alone time, my vacation from our vacation.
Did I mention I am freezing?
This vacation has been our best yet. And the secret, I am finding, is a big word we all know called preparation. Otherwise known as planning ahead. Or, plainly speaking, the thing that Danae never does, ever. Except when encouraged, begged, by her husband.
See, this trip Joey and I talked before hand about what we'd like to do. Joey always does this, but I have a little more trouble with it. I just can't get out of what I am feeling in that moment (blue undies or pink, for example, while I am packing my suitcase), let alone try and decide what I will want to do later. But with children, this is an absolute must. So Joey and I discussed this, and we decided that he would like to play golf and have a morning to himself to be on the internet and sip coffee, or whatever. I thought that sounded very nice *Note: I would never have initiated something so wonderful and sane on my own* and so I decided I would like to do that as well, only instead of golf, I would like to go shopping.
Oh, and by the way, I have decided I love golf, because it takes a long time and is a lot of money, and therefore gives me a big fat excuse to reciprocate in kind, aka an entire morning of shopping.
(honey, if your reading this, don't freak out. I also have decided I will not spend money for money sake, but only on things I really, really, really want).
So, now that we have all that out of the way, this vacation really has been the best, despite Noah's double ear infections. I have been able to go on two fabulous runs, we've had two afternoons at the millpond (the blood flukes only dampened it a little), gone out to eat at Gumba's Pizza and Longboard 's Bar and Grill, and watched about twenty episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. I have contemplated taking a set home (they are on DVD's) to watch when I am having a hell of a day because Barney Five is absolutely the best. I mean, he is hilarious. And I see a lot of myself in him, actually. He lets me laugh at myself. And laughter, really, is the best medicine.
Ethan is having a great time too. He can actually ride his bike now, and when he rings that little bell, (brrrinnnnng, brrinnnng!) it just melts my heart. Watching his little legs pedal, round and round, makes a mama so happy.
We've put Noah in the bathroom upstairs to sleep which at first I thought was cruel and unusual but now am thinking we might just want to set the play pin up in the bathroom at home, he's sleeping soooooooo great. I think it's the lack of windows. He goes straight down for his naps and is sleeping in till eight. Seriously, people, if you have young children you get this: sleeping in till eight is like somebody just handed you a million bucks. Or at least it's close.
At one point Joey and I talked about having another baby, something that has been on my mind lately. He graciously talked to me about it. And then I spent the whole afternoon with the little buggers by myself while he did his golf thing and when he came home, I agreed with him that two were just fine.
Today we go home. Back to the routine, the schedule. I can't wait to come back, I love it up here so, almost as much as Mount Hermon.