Fun Weekend With Gigi

Gigi was in town this weekend.

Cub really enjoyed all of his snuggle Gigi time.

He also enjoyed driving lessons.

And this monkey balloon Gigi bought for him at the store this morning - monkey hugs.

White trash outfit also provided by Gigi. 

Filanthropy Friday

The London Olympics start today. 

I love the Olympics.  Buttin does not.  He describes the winter Olympics as the "lesser version of something I already don't like."

Oh well, Buttin should get ready for lots of Olympic watching fun (or at least till 8:00 PM, when I fall asleep).

I think the Olympics has enough money, so I'm giving $20 to the Special Olympics.

Athletics should be part of any willing child's life no matter their abilities. 

New Games

Cub has a couple new games he likes to play.

One new game is called "run fast".   He likes to play it in the sun and heat of the afternoon.  I'm not a fan of this game because I'm pregnant and usually carrying his bike and my feet tingle.  He loves it. 

Another new game is called "pieces".  He eats Goldfish crackers in our bed every night before going to his bed.  He now likes to smash each Goldfish in his hand (making "pieces") before he eats it.  The problem is the pieces don't all make it in his mouth and so Buttin and I feel like we're sleeping in sand.

Here is a cute picture of Cub spending about 20 seconds in the shade before running all afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday

It's Chicken!

Today Buttin and I went for Chicken's anatomy ultrasound.  It nice to see Chicken looking like a baby (instead of like a smushed gummy bear, like last time).

Chicken is looking perfect.  The ultrasound technician knew we did not want to know Chicken's sex, so she was very sneaky when looking at Chicken's legs.  Buttin apparently has a theory because he saw her type an abbreviation; however, he's not really sure so it could have been an abbreviation for anything.

Here is Cub covered in dirt.

 

Misfit Monday

The most difficult thing for me as a small business owner is trying to not take things too personally.  This is nearly impossible for me. Customer issues, misfit issues, supplier issues - I take them all personally. 

I don't want to dwell on craptasticness, so we'll just look at this cute picture of Cub and misfit Patty aka "aunt Patty" looking at some complicated work on the computer. 

Movie Weekend

It was a great weekend for movies.

The Dark Knight Rises

Super, awesome and satisfying - I loved this movie.  

 

Beasts of the Southern Wild

It's impossible to describe this movie - I'll only say that I got completely swept up in the story and sobbed like crazy for about the last 30 minutes (Buttin cried too).

 

 Here is Cashman today modeling my sunglasses and Buttin's glasses.

  

 

Saturday, Yuck

Buttin had this kind of Saturday . . . 

Passive-aggressive neighbors, oblivious neighbors, wallet and iPod stolen out of truck while working out (thieves managed to charge about $3K before Buttin cancelled the cards, thank goodness for fraud protection) and work junk. 

However, we've decided to remember only the good stuff . . . .

Bike rides, hanging out with friends, bounce house and take out dinner.

Filanthropy Friday

This week I was listening to Fresh Air, as I often do when driving Cub home from school.   The guest was Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of the Women Religious (which represents 80% of the Catholic sisters in the US).  As a former Catholic, I found the conversation fascinating.

Essentially, the LCWR has been reprimanded by the Vatican for "Undermining Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality and birth control and promoting 'radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.'".  However interesting, this is not what really got me thinking about Filanthropy Friday.

At one point during the interview, Terry Gross asked sister Pat Farrell about the LCWR's position on abortion (because they have been criticized by the Vatican for not having a stronger and more vocal anti-abortion position).  I loved Ms. Farrell's response (and I'm just going to copy her quote because she's so eloquent and I could not possibly paraphrase it well):

"I think the criticism of what we're not talking about seems to me to be unfair. Because [Women] Religious have clearly given our lives to supporting life, to supporting the dignity of human persons. Our works are very much pro-life. We would question, however, any policy that is more pro-fetus than actually pro-life. If the rights of the unborn trump all of the rights of all of those who are already born, that is a distortion, too — if there's such an emphasis on that. However, we have sisters who work in right-to-life issues. We also have many, many ministries that support life. We dedicate to our lives to those on the margins of society, many of whom are considered throwaway people: the impaired, the chronically mentally ill, the elderly, the incarcerated, to the people on death row. We have strongly spoken out against the death penalty, against war, hunger. All of those are right-to-life issues. There's so much being said about abortion that is often phrased in such extreme and such polarizing terms that to choose not to enter into a debate that is so widely covered by other sectors of the Catholic Church — and we have been giving voice to other issues that are less covered but are equally as important.

I'm not Catholic, but her response made me proud.  

It made me think about those on the margins of society, the ones that don't get as much attention and it made me want to focus this week's Filanthropy Friday on a less-publicized "right to life" issue.

Coincidentally (or maybe because the universe aligns itself sometimes), one of my good blogger friends has been writing about The Red Thread Movement.   The Red Thread Movement is dedicated to ending human trafficing and sexual slavery, specifically in Nepal.  This seems like a very worthy right to life issue for this week.

This week, I donated $20 to The Red Thread Movement and thank my blogger friend for introducing me to the charity.

So, How's The Bike?

The running content of my blog has been somewhat (or completely) scarce the past few months.  However, my tingly feet posts have more than made up for the excitement and intrigue (really?).

For the past month, I have been riding my stationary bike four times a week (just like I used to run); however, I find it so much easier to cheat (or go easy) on the bike.

I've never been one of those runners where running was easy - some days it felt better than others - but running has never felt like walking.  I never got to the point with running like I did with swimming. 

I can't really cheat at running (I'm either running and it's work or I'm walking), but cheating is easy on a stationary bike.  I know from my time in Toronto, that riding a real bike -ya know-  to actually get somewhere is WORK.  But riding my stationary bike, in an air-conditioned office while watching a movie is not very difficult and I'm not making it very challenging.

What to do?

Well, on Saturday I'm going to try a little run.  My feet are still very tingly, but I haven't had any flare ups in almost two weeks.  I'm OK if I can only jog a couple of blocks (and then have to walk or go home and lazy bike) - I'm just so ready to exercise outside again - even if it is for just a little while. 

Here's Cubbie exercising outside today with his firetruck. 

Wordless Wednesday

Eating shredded cheese with a fork - can't argue with that logic. 

Chicken Guess

If we ask Cub if he wants a brother or a sister, this is how he responds:

• 10% of the time - "Brother"
• 20% of the time - "Sister"
• The rest of the time (which I think is around 70%) - "No" 

My female chiropractor is pretty sure chicken is a girl (she apparently wrote that on my chart during my first visit).  

I don't have any strong feelings about chicken's sex, but maybe I'll get a stronger feeling in a few weeks.   If I do get a stronger feeling, I'll guess the opposite because I was very wrong with Cub.

Here is Cubbie (non sister or brother wanting) playing with touchdown duck at work this afternoon.

Misfit Monday

Last Thursday night the misfits went to the Austin Apartment Association Bowling Night.

Here's our group picture:

In other misfit news, I managed not to strangle any today. 

Here's Cub today doing the reclining snuggle.  

Building An Ark

This past week we've had a ton of rain.

I'm not complaining - there was a very bad drought last year.

Here is our green belt - keep in mind, there is usually never water running through it.  Also, the big guyser on the right is the sex hole - crazy, crazy sex hole.

This afternoon we went to The Little Gym for a birthday party.  Cash had a great time planning on everything, especially the "monkey" bar.

Bike Riding

** Contains Pooping Stuff - - You've been warned**

Cash's new favorite thing to do is ride his bike (tricycle).

He loved bike riding yesterday in the rain.

And today - we went for a 2.6 mile bike ride!  He rode his bike for at least 1.5 miles and the rest of the time was spent either pushing his bike or me carrying him and his bike (this was not fun).  I'm very thankful for all the recent rain, but it was like a sauna outside this morning and Cub and I were super sweaty.

Also, about 1 mile into our bike ride (and what felt like about 7 miles away from home), I had the immediate need to use the bathroom.   For a couple minutes I thought maybe I could find some nice person mowing their lawn and ask them if I could use their bathroom, but then I found this nice little structure.  

We actually passed quite a few of them during our bike ride and every time Cash would point and say, "Mama Poo".  Poor kid has no hope. 

When Cashman and I got home, we were both pretty exhausted and my clothes were soaking with sweat.  

One really good thing that happened (or didn't happen) during the bike ride, I had no tingly leg "flare ups".  My feet were still tingly the entire time, but I had NO incidents where the tingliness runs up my legs (this usually happens about 4 -5 times a day and forces me to sit down).  I actually haven't had any "flare ups" since we got home from Toronto.  This gives me hope.  

This afternoon, I took a long nap and Buttin took Cub to a NEW bounce house.  It's actually just a bunch of huge trampolines.  Cub had a blast. 

Filanthropy Friday

Last night the misfits went to a bowling tournament for the Austin Apartment Association.

I didn't bowl, but I supported our team and was also there as a representative of the Community Outreach Committee to collect school supplies.  This is me, modeling school supplies.

 The theme of the night was "Urban Cowboy" and our team (we won, "most spirited") went as "The Good, The Bad and The Three Uglies" (even though we had seven people, I guess we're not very good at math).  I was the "good" (for obvious reasons).  

This week, I'm donating $15 to the Manos de Cristo back to school program for the children in East Austin.  Through this program, over 2,000 Austin children living in poverty are given one backpack, a set of school supplies, books, and two new sets of clothes.  

I remember back to school shopping was so much fun and I hope my $15 is used to purchase lots of crayons or a Trapper Keeper. 

Wordless Wednesday

Just Our Luck

I was going to write last night (for Misfit Monday) that we arrived back at work surprised to find the building still standing and all misfits relatively healthy.  However, we had household adventures last night that prevented me from writing.

We had a small (but powerful) storm last night and it managed to knock over one of the trees in our front yard (onto our neighbor's car) and blow over a majority of our backyard fence.  Fun! 

In other good luck news, Cub got scratched by a friend at school yesterday.  I guess he's been on the other side (the assailiant one) a few to many times.  If you ask Cub what happened - he says a "frog did it".  To which my dork husband responded, "did he call the tadpolice?".  

Here is Cub today playing outside at the park.  

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home safely today - wish I could say the same thing about my phone.  Poor smushed iPhone.  

Cash wasn't very excited to see us, but he seems to have aged a least a couple months while we were gone.  Buttin and I both think he's so grown up.  Apparently, four days in a toddler's life involves lots of learning.

I'll write more about our vacation (and my iPhone's death) during another post.

Helpful Hints

My best friend Liz has a blog - The Year of Taking.

In her honor - I'm taking something from her (an idea).

Liz has a habit of writing a 10-page instruction manual for a pet sitter when she's going out of town for two days.  She leaves a detailed, type-written list of rules and insights like , "feed the dogs" and "Kody is afraid of thunder" and "lock the doors".  It's actually pretty impressive.

I decided to write my own instruction manual about Cub to give to Mormor and Gigi (while Buttin and I are on vacation).  To be fair, the guide I wrote is far less detailed than the ones Liz writes.

Some of my favorite things about my "helpful hints" for Mormor and Gigi include:

• A daily schedule for Cub
• A color coded map of Cub's room (in case Gigi gets lost)
• Information like, "Cub doesn't know how to spell, so you made need to help him with You Tube".  

It's a pretty exciting read.

Even with all my type-written lists, I still had to hand write some stuff this evening

So, I'll be taking a little blog break for the next few days, but I will return - hopefully well-rested and full of stories (about how many naps I took).

I sure am going to miss this little face (and big personality).

Misfit Monday

Buttin and I are leaving for a little vacation on Wednesday.

Which means that I'm trying to cram a week of work into two days.  This makes for a very grumpy pregnant lady.  I'm going to need to re-read some of my posts from my last pregnancy on how to relax and let go.

Currently, I'm finding it more and more difficult to not obviously roll my eyes  when a misfit asks for an "advance" - honestly, some of the excuses we hear are laughable.

Cub's school is on vacation this week so Hannah is spending a couple days with Cub (until Buttin and I leave and then Mormor and Gigi arrive).

Today Cash-man woke up from his nap, but then fell asleep immediately on Hannah.  She sent me this picture.

Good Parenting

I think HEB should pay us money to shop at their store.

We clean their floors with our two year old nearly every time we go.