This and That...

DH has been working 60-80 hour weeks the past few weeks. It's been stressful, with Mark being in his curious state. DH is ours as of Thursday, though!

We're off to the West Coast later this week! We'll be going to the Oregon coast, Redwood National Park, Crater Lake, Portland, Mt. Hood, the Columbia River gorge, and hopefully Mt. Saint Helens. We got a fancy schmancy baby backpack that we'll be schlepping Mark in for our hikes. We're pretty excited.

My garden has been chugging along, despite incredibly dry weather. (Zucchini, anyone?) I've tried to come up with some profound post about eating local and preserving food-- but it's summer and I can't be profound. All I can come up with is the following:

You think about the resources it takes for low-gas mileage vehicles such as Suburbans and low-wattage lightbulbs. Apply the same logic to your food. I was at my warehouse store recently and saw that the humungo-bag of organic broccoli was from-- China. Think about the resources it takes to haul humungo-bags of organic broccoli halfway around the world! The thing is that it isn't just the broccoli-- peaches from Greece, tomatoes from Italy, grapes from Peru. To boot, I'm surrounded by struggling farms that are progressively falling to developers. By buying local and preserving my own produce, I am conserving precious energy resources and supporting my local economy. That's a very good thing.

I recieved a grant this spring, and I finally finished everything. Happy, happy!

Watching Mark dance 18-month-old style is hilarious. Truly funny, but charming at the same time!

Naughty!

This is my little guy-- who is making me crazy!!! He got into mischief with our laptop (now non-operational). He figured out how to scale his crib and frolic upstairs as he sees fit. He's been tap-dancing on the dining room and coffee tables.

Just when I'm ready to take him in for a trade-in, he flashes a blueberry-stained smile at me.

No fair.

I suppose we'll have to keep him.

Not cool.

I lost one of the stones from my wedding ring.

I know it shouldn't bother me-- it's just a little stone, jewelery stores can order a replacement, yadda yadda.

But I'm upset.

DH and I have been married for almost ten (!) years now.

We knew that this prong had issues.

Gah!

Optimism

I've been wanting to spout off about 'Scooter' Libby, but I can't gripe any more about politics.

It's also been tempting to go off about global warming with the record temps in the Southwest (not to mention the mid-90s I experienced in Maine) and the Live Earth concert coming up.

I feel a need to look at the glass as half full. I've got a garden that is cranking out the veggies (despite disappointing seed and hungry wildlife). Despite the temper tantrums and dancing on the coffee table (how I wish I was joking), my little guy is growing bigger and doing exactly what a kid his age is supposed to do. My husband and I have our household under control-- we're not in debt and we're saving for retirement.

Everything is good. Which makes me nervous.

I remember a gorgeous morning when I felt like everything was great in the world. It was an absolutely beautiful day, my DH and I were doing well professionally, our families were doing well. As I locked my apartment door that morning, I thought about how lucky and blessed I was.

That morning was September 11, 2001. Within two hours, I would be in a panic because my husband can and does go to the Pentagon and I wasn't sure if he would have gone there without telling me.

He was fine. But ever since then, I get really nervous when things are too good. I get nervous about being an optimist now.

Happy July Fourth!

I love living in a country where I can say what I want to say. I love being able to choose my religion, drive where I want to go, choose how many children I want to have, and all of the other rights I have protected under the Bill of Rights.

I also strongly support those that choose to join the Armed Forces. DH currently has two active duty siblings, and one sibling in the guard.

Freedom is not free, and I want to shout out to those that put their a$$es on the line, every day-- especially right now.

God bless the U.S.A., and those who choose to protect this great country.

Vacation

Well, school is over. I celebrated all of that by: finishing a grad class, volunteering to become a new teacher trainer and work part of my summer break, and completing a grant project at my school.

The first couple of weeks of vacation weren't really vacation.

Then the fun stuff started. DH, Mark, and I took a little jaunt up to Pittsburg to see a ball game. (Vijay Singh sat in front of us as we watched the Pirates beat up on the White Sox during the U.S. Open weekend.)

My parents flew out from WY, and we started their time out here by... immediately driving to the GM U.S. Nationals up in Pennsylvania. I did it for my dad. He's restoring a '66 Chevy Bel Air and was looking for parts. So we went to this gigantic swap meet, and he found a couple of manuals and a die-cast replica. (i.e. It was a bust.) The upside was that we introduced my father to ebay. The only problem is that he refuses to touch computer keys. Thanks to ebay and his computer-literate daughter, he's got three more parts for his restoration. Then we went to Lancaster, PA to go to 'Amish country.' This is funny because my parents have Amish friends in MN-- so I knew that they would understand the absurdity of the area that boasts three outlet malls and the Dutch Wonderland theme park (yes, an Amish theme park).

We then brought my parents down to where we live. My dad completely transformed our garage, which is a very happy thing. DH and my dad insulated our garage and put up organizers to hold all of our garage clutter. (Clutter that we really do NEED, mind you-- we do have two acres of land.) Anyway, I won't trip things as I haul Mark under one arm and groceries in the other hand. They also helped clear some of the forest of weeds that is my garden. (They were rewarded with garden-fresh grilled veggies and zucchini chocolate chip cookies.)

After two short days of home-based fun, it was up to Maine to see my sister and her fiance. We went to L.L. Bean, Camden, and Acadia, which were fun. There was also two days of spa-stuff. (It was HOT in Maine, though! I was really surprised by the temperatures!)

I knew that Mark would have trouble re-adjusting to life without people laughing at his antics, snuggling with his parents every night, and having one nap instead of two, daily.

Anyway, Mark was very vocal as we attempted to put him to sleep tonight. We'll see how the adjustment goes.