A 4th of July Dream Come True!

We spent a lovely but rainy 4th of July at Ross' cousin Debbie's house. July 4th is his cousin Mark's birthday (Debbie's brother), so since that is where he was, that is were we went. We had a great time with family, lots of food, fireworks, and as you will see, Quinn got to experience one of his favorite vehicles!

Quinn playing with Daddy and Henry. One of Henry's finer moments. I tried to get a picture of Q in his outfit, but he was not interested in the camera at all. Trust me, it was cute.


Here is Quinn...in a Jeep!! For some reason unknown to me, Quinn has really latched on to Jeeps. He can spot them anywhere, its pretty impressive. He sometimes calls other vehicles Jeeps, but he's usually right when he names them. So when he saw the Jeep parked in Roy and Debbie's garage, he was very excited. And "Uncle" Roy was nice enough to let him sit in it while they were shooting off fireworks in the driveway. I think Quinn would have sat there all night if he had the chance. He was a little frightened by the close proximity of the fireworks, so it was probably better for him to be in the Jeep anyway.
The birthday boy blowing out the candles on the yummy cake made by his fabulous wife, Jenn Star.


And the following is yet another blackmail picture. I think I have plenty at this point, but they're just so cute, I can't stop myself!

House Arrest

That's how I feel. Ever seen the movie Brokedown Palace, where the 2 American girls are in Thailand (?) and have drugs hidden on them and they have to go to a horrible prison. Ok, my situation is probably not that bad, but I've been stuck inside since Sunday afternoon and I think my mind has left the building.

On my way back from the Y on Sunday, my car, which had been giving me some problems, crapped out completely. I got it to the house, and there it sits. Ross has a friend who is supposed to come look at it, but that has sadly not happened yet. Hopefully when it does, it won't be too expensive.

I've only owned 2 cars in my life and they have both given me more problems than they were worth. Yeah, but one was a 1990 Toyota Corolla station wagon, don't be jealous. Lets keep our fingers crossed that the 3rd time (whenever that will be) will be the charm.

Haircuts, Tears, and Birthdays for all

We've had quite an action packed weekend. Ok, not really, but hey, it is what it is. Friday I went and hit up the 30% Old Navy sale. Love the sale/gift card combo, makes me very happy.

That afternoon Quinn and I had haircuts scheduled. Quinn had been doing pretty well getting his hair cut. His first few went horribly, but I thought (hoped) he'd outgrown that. Yeah, I was way wrong. He freaked out. I had Chik-fil-A lemonade to distract him, but it did nothing. I felt bad for our hairstylist, Mary, but at least she has a little girl, so she knows how kids can be. His hair isn't quite as short as I wanted, but I had to get him out of that chair. Ross' mom came up to the salon and took him home and I got my hair done. It always makes me feel great to have a fresh do!

WARNING - really bad picture of me follows...just wanted to make sure you were warned, but it shows my new shorter hair.

I had to wake Quinn up from his nap to go get dinner with daddy, since mommy had other plans on Friday night. Well, I guess he was still upset from the haircut and didn't want to get up. So there were a few more tears from that. This is the best picture I could get of him on Friday. Cute, but definitely not his best moment.

Friday night I went to dinner at Moe's and to see Toy Story 3 with Joy. I am a huge Pixar lover, so I was so excited to see it. Quinn is very much into the Toy Story movies these days (especially Buzz, that's a Buzz cup in his hand in the above picture), but I know he is not ready for a movie theater yet. Maybe next year when Cars 2 comes out!

Anyway, Toy Story 3 was amazing. Witty, emotional, hilarious, and smart, a fabulous movie. Pixar hit it out of the ballpark. And yes, I cried, several times actually. But so did a lot of people, so I don't feel too bad. It definitely made me nostalgic for those childhood toys I have discarded. Unfortunately it also made me want to hang on to all of Quinn's toys, so for that I curse it! I guess I need to give it some distance before cleaning out his room.

As I already posted, yesterday was Ross' birthday and we celebrated by making him some breakfast (or lunch really) in bed. Then last night we went to his favorite restaurant, Texas Cattle Company. Nothing better than free steak on your birthday! I also made some pretty great chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, if I do say so myself. I think he had a pretty good birthday!

Here are a couple of pictures from last night!

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Birthday Ross!

Today is Ross' 32nd Birthday!! Quinn and I would like to wish him a very happy year and we hope it is one of the best! He's a great daddy and husband and we wouldn't want to hang out with anybody else. Love you!

Yay for Quinn!

So this adorable picture you are looking at is from this morning, when Quinn and I celebrated his great success at swim lessons the past 4 weeks with a milk and blueberry muffin treat. Ok, he had milk, I had a grande skinny hazelnut latte with 1 splenda, but whatever. Quinn loved swim lessons and really did a good job. By the end he was swimming by himself with the floatie thing strapped to his back. I'm thinking of signing him up for the next level...we'll see. I'm sure he would love it, as whenever I mentioned swim lessons this past month, he would yell "Fun!" very emphatically.

Here is a picture of Quinn and Ross on Father's Day. I did coordinate them in brown, although Ross' funky green shorts weren't part of the original outfit. We went to Smokey Bones' for dinner with Ross' parents, and had a good time, even if we had to wait forever. Who would have thought a Dad's Eat Free promotion would bring out everyone and well, their fathers?


Let the blackmailing begin!! Quinn decided he wanted to put my shoes on last night, and in really no time flat he was cruising around in them. Those are 4 inch wedges people! I'd say my kid is talented, but I don't know if that's what you call it. I guess he at the very least has good balance.

And for a few more Quinn updates, he currently weighs 28.5 lbs, according to the scale at Publix. That puts him at about the 40th percentile for weight, which is a lot more than I thought it would. He is becoming a bit more, shall we say, independent and mischievous these days. We've had a few dinnertime battles, although tonight seemed to go fairly well. He is definitely his father's son though, as he is easily bribed with the promise of a "treat". I think I should start calling time-outs treats, maybe then it wouldn't be such a issue.

Happy Father's Day!

Today is the day we honor father's, so I thought I would honor my 2 favorite dads. I hope all the dad's out there have a wonderful day and are made to feel loved and appreciated by their families. Yay Dads!

Two Classics - My Reviews

So I decided to try and read 12 new books this year, and amazingly I'm ahead of target at this point. I just finished #7 this morning. Go me.

In that quest, I had originally decided to only read 1 classic. I read 1 last year (Anna Karenina) and lets just say, I wasn't overly upset when SPOILER ALERT Anna threw herself under that train. So, since I read 6 new books last year and 1 of those was a classic, I figured that since I was going to read 12 this year, I could do 2 classics. So I did. And I decided to do them back to back, I guess to get it over with. Here are my thoughts.

The first was one was, obviously, Pride and Prejudice. I had not read any Jane Austen before this, but had read a book from the same style/time period (Jane Eyre) years ago and enjoyed it. Plus so many people I know adore P&P, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. And because when I went searching for the copy of Wuthering Heights I thought I had, I came up with this.

As I'm sure many people have read P&P, or seen some cinematic version of it, I'll spare you the details and say, I really just thought this book was eh. Not terrible, but not something I was swooning over. Sure, Mr. Darcy sounded like a good catch, the handsomeness and monied aspects of him anyway. And I thought Elizabeth Bennet sounded like a pretty cool chick who was not afraid to speak her mind in an era where women were not told they had minds. But I am not one to get all gushy over spurned lovers and unrequited emotions. I'm not heartless or anything, but I'd rather have some real dialogue and story advancement than frivolous wanting and waning. I saw the ending coming a mile away and was left feeling a little unsatisfied. Oh, and I really disliked a couple characters (Mrs. Bennet, the twitty sister who married the one dude), which made it even harder for me to rave over. Am I happy I read it? Yes. Will I read it again? Probably not.

So after P&P I decided to take a break from romance and try on Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for size. I have read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, along with most of America's middle/high schoolers, and enjoyed them both a lot. But this one, another eh. It was hard at times to get into the language. The story itself was interesting, but I didn't feel like the characters were fleshed out well, and I know there are parts I just skimmed, so I didn't understand later parts. Plus I know Twain built a lot of political ideology into this book, as he did all his books, but I just wasn't feeling it. But I did enjoy the pictures (haha) and the premise behind the book was good.

So there you have it, like em or leave em. Now I'm onto to another non-fiction...1776. We'll see how that goes.