Tagged

So Sally tagged me...what are 10 random songs that would come up on your ipod?
Well, I do not own an ipod (and that's OK with me, even though I know almost everyone owns one now...), but if I did, here are 10 songs that would come up on mine (from my itunes downloads and CD collection):
1. Dani California...Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. Mama's Room...Under the Influence of Giants (know this band! :-))
3. Feel Good Inc...Gorillaz
4. Stars are Blind...Paris Hilton (I know, I know, but I am a sucker for reggae/ska songs...)
5. Dancing Queen...Abba
6. Riley Jo...Hometown Hero (now they are band #2 above..)
7. Jane Fonda...Mickey Avalon
8. Lilian...Depeche Mode
9. Home...Coldplay
10. Copacabana...Barry Manilow (have I ever told you I got to stay up late in kindergarten to watch his concerts on TV, is that weird? Was I just a precocious child?)

OK, so I am tagging....Brian, Vicki, (fellow bloggers) and my other readers...send me your 10 random Ipod songs...tell me in the comments. :-) Get a blog! It's free, Kim, you KNOW your family and friends would love to see pics of the new baby girl as she grows...and Robin, you too, your LA family and friends would LOVE to keep posted on Morgan and Justin's lives....

where oh where does time go

OOPS, forgot to turn pic sideways...my boys fingerpainting outside!!!

Ok, where did the summer go? What was on my list again? Did I accomplish it? Noooo....BUT I did get Spencer potty trained, part way...he is trained enough for school, even naps in undies. So that's good. Still have to paint the front rooms, but we did pick a paint color...greystone from Kelly-Moore. We'll go pick up the paint tomorrow. You can see the actual color in the photos of Kim at her shower. I loved the paint color and asked Jen, the owner of the house, for the color. Did a lot of cleaning around the house, LOTS of papers cleared out, ready for the shredder. Even had a garage sale yesterday. Just sold junk, junk that Joe was ready to haul off to the dump. But I made about $76 in junk! Yesss!
Garage sales are weird, though. Should I be offended when someone pulls up, looks from inside the car, and drives away? Do they not want my junk??? One lady yelled out in joy when she saw the VHS version of The Birdcage. She said she had been looking for it! Ha! So, now there are only a few boxes ready to be carted off to la dump.
I have also started ebaying stuff and making some moola! I made almost $30 in shabby chic books (living with 3 boys has made me give up on my dream of a shabby chic home). Now selling a figurine and an oil lamp that has been in the box since a student gave it to me about 5 years ago (shhh, don't tell, it was nice thought)...so have a nice little chunk in my paypal account and have bought a few things for the boys, a wall grille for me, a book, some scrapbook supplies, and am bidding on some fall clothes for Spence. Joe loves it!
Ok, better go, my little man just woke up and is rooting around the doughnuts from this morning's doughnut run with Daddy. So long, healthy snack!

Baby Girl

Here's a pic of our newest member of the Brown clan, isn't she a cutie? She was grimacing because my camera has the worst strobe flash...a good reason for a new camera, right??? (Hint, Joe!) I have a cuter pic, but it shows her mommy in it, and I'm not sure Amber wants a pic of herself a few hours after giving birth on my blog! Ha!

Sally, I know you tagged me...

Sally, I know I was tagged...how fun! I will add my response later and tag others...watch out!

New baby, hot, and smarty alert!

OK, first congrats to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law on the birth of their baby girl, Panacea, this morning in Sacramento. She is welcomed by her big brother Tyler, 2. We're going up later today to see them. :-) The picture posted today is Spencer and Tyler last summer. Sorry it is kinda blurry, I think I need to get more pics of Tyler!

TOO HOT here still...we're breaking all kinds of records, it's been 110+ for over a week now. You open the front door and feel like you are walking into an oven. We can't do much of anything and the boys are getting cabin fever. Good thing our vacation to San Diego is coming up soon. We can't even swim because the water is so warm, it's not refreshing at all. Yuck...

Last, a shameless mommy brag, I don't want to be THAT kind of mom, but hey, I know my relatives are reading this (Hi!), so I'll post it. Others, you can leave now. :-) Spence was eating breakfast this mornig and playing with some alphabet magnets. He picked up the P and said, "P-p-p popcorn!" So, I picked up a few others, "R-M-O-B-E" and he correctly identified them! Go, Spence! I will ADD that his Leapfrog ABC Phonics DVD is his favorite movie right, so he is learning through that. I did attempt to pull out the flashcards (hey, I am a teacher after all), but he wasn't interested. He was more interested in napping with them, so maybe osmosis??? Hee-hee....
Stay cool and hope your summer is going well.

SO HOT>>>>>>>>>and scrapbooking

Whooo-hooo, it is H.O.T here...omigosh...it was 103 on our way to church at 10:30 and 111 on our way home from the grocery store at 1:00....it's like an oven out there. We are staying in, with the air blasting, the boys in diapers and undies....what about you? Are you roasting, too???

OK, so more of my friends are starting scrapbooking (i.e. Kim!), and I wanted to post about a fabulous book you need to get if you are a scrapper. It's not really a "layout" book, though it does have many examples, it's more of a theory. When I started scrapping, I had to go in order and had ro scrapp all the big moments in Spencer's life. That's probably why his first year takes up 2 overstuffed albums! And heck no, he is NOT taking it with him when he's older...unless I REALLY like his wife! BUT, now that I have Coop, and our family, and our house, and life, and etc.etc to scrap, I am soooo far behind. So I read Stacy Julian's The Big Picture Scrapbooking, she also has a website here. It totally freed me up from the "so behind" mentality. She suggests scrapbooking what you want to, telling your stories, and just putting them in albums that are not chronological, but topical: Birthdays, Our Town, Where We Go, What We Do, Our friends, etc...even for the kids once they start school, have a School of Life album that does 4 pages a year and includes going-ons from that year, not just school related. That is the album her kids will take when they move out. I love it! She also stresses how the story is the important thing...we want to remember stories, not how pretty that paper was. I am working on my journaling. I want Coop to know what his favorite food are and how he loves to climb everything and started crawling backwards first. I want Spence to know what his favorite books were at age 2 and how he is fascinated by aliens right now and how he remembers how to get everywhere (very good at directions!). Sooo, anyway, that's my little commercial for her book. Read it, you'll be happy and feel better about feeling behind. OK, so I am only about 7 pages into Cooper's first year album, but that's OK. I'll get there. I am working on a Halloween 6X6 album of their costumes and the stories behind them and just finished "Our House" album of the building and moving in. So, check it out....

High aspirations

So this morning as Spence is watching the garbage truck pick up the trash, he turns to me and says, "Mommy, when I get bigger, I am going to drive the garbage truck! When I get a little bigger!" So much for the doctor's kit ("Don't you love helping people, Spence?") and playing producer with the cell phone and coffee (that would be Daddy's pick!). Hee-hee...gotta love 'em!

On the bright side, he is wearing underwear most of the time...even to storytime at the library today! We had our first "visit a public restroom" experience...very lovely with Spence and Coop, who is into everything! Pic is of Spence and Jake. BFF.

POOL TIME

screensuckers and other thoughts

Ok, so a few months ago I read an article about organizing your life. One of the things it talked about was "screensuckers"...spending time on the computer and in front of the TV. Me, totally guilty! yes, I could be cleaning, organizing my cave of a closet, etc, etc....but I am sucked in by the lure of the glow of a screen....I am cutting down my TV time (I am actually not a big TV person, but can sit and watch House Hunters and Grey's Anatomy and of course some reality TV)and try not to check out blogs every day!
But I have been checking on my ebay accounts (3 auctions going on right now, 1 item I have bid on, 15 hours to go....) and trying to catch up on old emails for about the last half hour. I need to get off and go do laundry and scrap...trying to finish my "Our House" scrapbook. Do you get sucked in, too????
I also read in that same article that "organizing" is the "new dieting". Everyone is doing it and there are all kinds of products and books on the market about it. Here and here are two of my fav websites about it.
Ok, so I'm turning off the computer and doing something else....
The pic is of my 3 boys earlier this month because I HAVE to post a pic. :-)

Kim...too cute!

I went to my friend Kim's baby shower last weekend (she's also one of my blog readers...hi Kim!). She looks so adorable! She is one of those pregnant people who look like they stuck a basketball under their shirt, everything else remains the same. To be honest, I wanted to think of myself like that, but I look at pics of pregnant me and see the puffed up cheeks, for one. But Kim, even her face is same, too! Too cute!! :-) I am so excited for her to be a mom. She will be great! August 15 will be here before we know it!
Joe and I also went away last weekend. It was nice. Our wake up call was for 11 AM. In our life-before-kids, Joe and I were known for sleeping in. Sadly, I still woke up about 8, but I made myself lay in bed until 11. It was nice!
Happy Friday!

Life in Oregon

So some good friends of ours moved to the Portland, Oregon area and Nicole started a blog of her experiences. She is a writer, an amazing one, and I love reading her posts. Go check it out! Oregon sounds like an interesting place to live, but until Nicole and her husband started talking about it, I never really wanted to move there. Now Portland is on our "must check out list" of where to maybe move next. The pic is of Nic and her family.
Next post...pix of a pregnant Kim!

Summer TV...

Hmm...finally enjoying me some summer TV! They are showing Season 1 of Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays, as well as on Sundays! Watched the first 2 episodes last night. They look so young...ha, it was only a year ago!
Also, Big Brother All Stars started last night! I used to be a sucker for reality TV. Survivor, The Mole, Real World...you name it, we watched it. But I have slowly weaned myself off of it. OK, I may watch an occasional episode of Real World (or The Hills, the new show I am sucked into...it's not that interesting, but I can't stop watching!). BUT Joe and I love Big Bro! It's so bad it's good! This summer they brought back old players. We were able to just jump right into watching, since we already knew the players. I hate Alison....ugh, but she's up for eviction already...heehee...check it out, it will be on 3 nights a week (!!!), so you can actually have something to watch this summer. Anyone else out there BB fans????

New baby!!!! Joe's uncle, Mike, and his wife Holly just welcomed baby Aidan last night in Santa Barbara! Congrats! I can't wait to see the newest baby cousin. More babies to come this month...my friend Colleen is due at the end of the month and my sister-in-law Amber is due Aug. 1st. Babies!!!!! :-)

Tomorrow is Joe and my 6th anniversary (6 years of marriage, 11 years together). We are going to the Bay area for my friend Kim's baby shower and then a night away without kids. My first night away from Coop. A little nervous...

whew, what a week

We've been so busy, having so many friends and my sister and Justin in town for the last few days. Sleep, what is that??? We've had 3 BBQ's and a dinner at my parents during the last 4 days. It was weird just to eat dinner with the 4 of us tonight. I am sad that we are returning back to normal. I have a hard time with some changes. I can get very emotional. When I went to sleepovers or hosted a sleepover when I was younger, I was always moody and sad afterwards. Now I am feeling sad as I walk by the empty office where Jen, Just, and the 2 dogs slept. Coop walked into the room after he woke up from his nap and was saying "Da, Da!", looking for the dogs. That kids loves animals! He is never frightened, either, big dogs, little dogs, whatever. Yes, he is officially a walker now! We are going to buy his first pair of big boy shoes this week. Time to move on from the Robeez.
Now my 3 boys are asleep, and I am doing some cleaning. Some. I am tired.
But I wanted to post some pics because I know a few people will be excited to see them. The first is Spence and Jake waiting for the fireworks show to begin. The 2nd is my sis and mom. The 3rd is Coop excited with his cupcake, and the 4th is the shot of our firework cache. Whew, we had a lot. We spent the evening at my in-law's and had a BBQ and many friends joined in on the fun. Jenny, I couldn;t figure out how to pull up your camera pics for my blog! I will keep trying. She got some AWESOME pics with her new camera! Hope you had a great holiday, too!

Happy Fourth!!!!

Happy 4th of July to you! God bless our wonderful country, with all the freedoms we have to enjoy!
We had an early get together at our friend Steph's house on Sunday night and it was so much fun to get together with the "Merced Gang" (minus one). I am posting a pic of all of us and our kiddos. Steph is in front, then Joe and me, then in back are Chip and Vicki (who are expecting their first baby in Jan.!) and the Fergusons, Brian and Kelli (and their four kids: Ali, Brennah, Corbin and Macy). The original group was Steph, me, Joe, Chip, Brian, and Ryan. Now we get together only a few times a year because we're all spread out: us here, Steph in San Francisco, the Fergusons in Tennessee, and Chip and Vicki in LA. Ryan lives in LA, too. What fun time we have had and will continue to have! You enjoy your day, too! :-)