Bunny Hop 2012

Today we headed down to the Pearl District for the Annual Bunny Hop -

Luckily the weather held out for us.

Butterfly, The Poem by CJ

Love Art

CJ noticed the heart shape inside this nut she found and created some "love art" to show it off.

Strange Sight

How wet is it in Oregon?

When Mama looked out into the parking lot this morning she saw a duck.  A duck in the parking lot!

We need some sun.

Positive Thoughts

CJ ran some errands with Mama after school today.  She was excited to go to the grocery store because she had something she wanted to buy.  She told Mama she had her own quarter for the purchase.  Then she explained that she wanted to buy a stuffed animal from the machine in the lobby.  Rather than just saying no, Mama thought it might be a good lesson.  She explained that she had NEVER seen anyone win and that most likely CJ would just be losing her quarter in the machine.  CJ understood and still wanted to try.  It turned out that the game cost two quarters so Mama ended up chipping in the second quarter to help teach CJ the lesson.  She again explained how unlikely it was that CJ would be able to catch and win a stuffed animal with this game.  CJ still wanted to play, telling Mama that she should be thinking positive thoughts.  

There were no instructions on the machine so CJ put in her quarters and the clock began counting down its 20 seconds.  CJ eyed a purple bunny near the front of the machine and lined up the metal hook on top of the bunny.  As the clock clicked away its last few seconds, CJ pressed the button and the metal hook dropped down on top of the bunny.  Mama watched as it lifted the bunny up.  Then she forgot about positive thoughts and watched, waiting for the bunny to slip from its grip, but it never did. The metal hook lifted the bunny up and up, then over, finally dropping the bunny in the winning slot.

What a lucky lady!  We went through the store, telling people about how she won by thinking her positive thoughts.  That wasn't really the message Mama had thought this game would teach...

Little B

Relaxing on a dry deck - finally...

Fresh Paint

Are You Kidding Me?

This is the scene in front of the house right now. I had just fixed the water heater's pilot light, broken the work lamp that I thought set the house on fire, and settled down in front of the computer to update this silly blog.

Did I know it was snowing outside? Nope. I'm sort of sealed into the house as the doors and windows are covered since we are supposed to be getting the exterior painted...whenever the weather finally cooperates!

Two Firetrucks, An Ambulance and a Dozen Police Cars

Wow. What a week around the neighborhood! And yes, we are still alive around here.

Last week we came home from gymnastics to find our contractor trying to set our house on fire. We called the non-emergency fire number, but they still sent a huge ladder truck and a half dozen firefighters - one wielding a Magnum Rescue Chainsaw that they threatened to cut into our almost new kitchen with. After some thermal imaging revealed no hot spots they backed off and left us with just a bit of extinguisher dust to clean up and luckily no fire!

Then this week Mama left a work lamp on in the basement while picking CJ up from school. We were in total shock when we turned onto our block and saw a fire truck with lights flashing in front of our house. Yikes! It turned out that they were on the block with an ambulance, assisting a neighbor with a medical need. That was quite a scare.

Today CJ and Mama ventured out in the rain to visit the library and the store. We were outside when we noticed a ton of police cars not far from where we were. The activity lessened and we went about our errands, but on our walk home we realized that another street was still blocked off from traffic. Apparently someone stole a car and crashed it when being chased. We stopped to talk to the police officer and he assured us that the guy had been taken into custody and that everything was safe.

Wowee! We are hoping for a quiet week around here next week. And someday Mama will backfill all the posts that have been missing. Maybe after she finishes the taxes...

Yoga Art

CJ told Daddy she was going to make him some art, but when he went to check on her work he found out that she'd made Mama this beautiful picture and she gave it to her when she got home from teaching her yoga class. You can see that CJ even wrote "Mom is teaching another person yoga" on the painting. Can you tell which one Mama is?

St. Paddy's Day Parade

5th Time is the Charm

There was the first time - where we painted the original yellow dining room to be Restoration Hardware's butter yellow - here's a peek behind Little B in her then-new bed.

Then we decided to go bold with Benjamin Moore's Raspberry Truffle. Here's a picture of the table set for Thanksgiving after an all-nighter painting about 6 coats even though Benjamin Moore said we didn't need a primer...ha!

We later found out that the BM paint didn't hold up to the dripping milk stains CJ's sippy cup left when she threw it off her highchair so we repainted it Devine Green Toucan, which was pretty much the same color, but in a more earth-friendly paint. That time we even got the trim done and thought we were done for a while.

But then came the kitchen project and the need for more paint, just another coat of the same color over some gray primer.

Mama swore she'd never paint it again. But then came 2012 and we got some advice to paint it more neutral. The designer suggested Navajo White, but we just couldn't bear to go that light. We compromised with Shaker Beige by Benjamin Moore. This time Mama tried using some Lowe's Valspar paint tinted to the color and it worked alright in two coats over primer. The Kilz primer we bought was awful, but luckily we had some of our favorite Sherwin Williams primer around.

What do you think? Boring beige?

Boogie Down

CJ's school had a Boogie Down dance tonight.

There wasn't much dancing, but CJ got to show off her hula hooping skills.

She loved the red punch they had for refreshments!

Food Folk

See the person in CJ's breakfast?