i couldn't resist

i just love the way he can crack himself up- and his giggle is contagious!

home improvement project 1B

after walking up to my front door for a total of 790 days (give or take), it finally got to me. it being the planters and general "look" of my walkway. there isn't much to the entrance to our humble abode- but that doesn't mean it has to look so bad.
when we moved in, someone had been using the dirt area under the stairs as a trash dump and had let a spider plant loose in the planter. said spider plant had taken over an area 6 or 7 square feet and had managed to kill a bougainvillea and three jasmine plants. the spider plant had become so invasive that i didn't even know the jasmine existed until i'd cleared 1/2 of it away.
so, a couple of weeks ago, ella and i got our head scarves out, donned our "work clothes" and started tearing away at the spider plant. after 3 or 4 hours of manual labor, we'd managed to clear all of this (please note ella's gardening clogs):

out of this area:

and now it looks like this:






and this:

and the area under the stairs that looked like this:

now looks like this:


although i'm thinking of adding a few finishing touches, home improvement project 1B is now as they say "close enough for government work."
it's made me a much happier person...we'll see what john thinks when he gets home and sees what i've spent money on...

oh, and in case you're wondering- home improvement project 1A was laying a rug in the front room...hey you gotta start somewhere?!? it looks awesome.

what a crock!

i am so excited that it's nearly embarrassing. i've been looking, literally, for years to find the perfect butter crock. it all started in 2004 in pensacola...my friend katie has an enormously talented sister who makes amazing pottery (her grandpa makes amazing wood items too and she grew up on a cattle ranch in idaho- what a life!).

anyway, katie's sister made her a butter crock. for those of you who don't know- a butter crock (according to wikipedia- my students' favorite reference source) is a "...19th century French-designed pottery crock [that] holds the butter packed in its lid (where it is held by surface tension), and water is added to the base. The water creates an airtight seal that keeps oxygen away from the butter so that refrigeration is not needed, and the butter can be used in its soft form."

it's awesome. it alleviates that "goldilocks" dilemma where butter from the fridge is too hard- and destroys the very piece of toast it's supposed to moisten and butter on the counter is too soft- causing you to use at least a half a stick of butter for each piece of toast.

and my butter crock looks cool. which, obviously, is the most important thing. yes, it was $20. was it worth it? you be the judge.

finally!

i've been trying to find a bath faucet cover that will work in our bathroom. this has been problematic because in our bathtub, in order to turn on the shower, you have to pull up on a little plunger at the front of the faucet. this design means that we can't use the typical faucet cover- unless john & i want to relegate ourselves to a life of bathing.

somehow, the thought of "cleaning" myself by floating around in water that contains all of the dead skin and filth that has liberated itself from my body is a little yucky.

enter the boon faucet cover, yay!

it includes two ridiculous "selling points." one, you can add bubble bath to it and the kids can dispense it at their leisure; two, the water pours out in a "gentle waterfall." well, thank the Lord for that- josiah was nearly knocked over last week.

cherry pickin'

while visiting my parents in littlerock (that's one word, small r, within-the-borders-of-california littlerock) we decided to go cherry picking.

first of all, wow. i've never seen cherries on the "vine" as it were. even so, i wasn't expecting this:

pretty, right?

and this ladies and gentlemen is $18.50 worth of U-pick cherries. can anyone say rip-off?

i scream, you scream

...josiah screams for ice cream.

not that he's picky (at all)- that kid will eat nearly anything. in fact, the only thing i've tried that he doesn't like is green beans. i know, ridiculous, right? he'll eat broccoli ground up in plain yogurt like it's going out of style; he'll gobble up spinach and he's got quite a taste for chicken paprikosh (well, i can't fault him there). but green beans, heck no! well, heck no unless you mix a little formula into them- then it's all good.

but i digress...

at first, he's tentative. he thinks to himself, well...grammy's eating it. i always want everything that someone else is eating, so i guess i'll give it a go...

in the words of my daddy "sweet holy goodness", this stuff is AMAZING, gimme more...now!

and we all shine on...

ella has sustained her first "major injury" since her broken arm. she has this not-so-stable chair that i'm forever warning her to sit still in. two nights ago she wiggled herself right out of it and smack dab into a toy that was lying on the living room floor next to it...with her face.

the end result was this:like the arm, this eye has me living in a perpetual state of panic that someone is going to call and report me for child abuse.