Beautiful Olea

Olea and I had a few minutes one bright and sunny afternoon to run out and shoot a few shots of Olea in her pregnant glory. She is getting so close to being able to meet her daughter. It is so much fun to watch Adam and Olea go through all those new parent emotions. It really brings me back!

I wish I had had more kidless time to take some more shots of her but I have to be thankful for the hour I did have. Here are a few.

When Mom is Sick...

Magnus takes matters into his own hands. He doesn't come tell me he is hungry he climbs up and finds something to shove in his little cute pie hole. He also was kind enough to feed the fish for me. You can see the edge of the mud brown water behind him.

If it isn't clear from the picture, Mag pulled down two full container of Nestle flavored milk mix. One chocolate and one strawberry.

Mag is thinking, "Hmmm.... Mom may not be very happy with me right now. But I'm not sure..."

Here is another instance, from a few days ago, where Mr. Independent-Almost-Two-Year-Old decided to take matters into his own hands. I had some cherries sitting in this red strainer and Mag reached up and pulled them down. We found him sitting on the windowsill gobbling them down, pits and all. He was pretty proud of himself.

Children's Records

I really do mean to use the word record here. I wanted to share a link I just found today that is full of all these old children's records that you can download in mp3 format. You can burn it, play it on your iPod, whatever. The most important thing is that you can share these wonderful stories and music with your children.

http://www.artsreformation.com/records/

For even more fun, click on the links at the bottom of the page. They take you to TONS more of these great treasures.

King of Pop

Because this blog is kind of like my journal I just wanted to make a little post about Michael Jackson dying. It's really kind of goofy in that I even care. Usually the lives of celebrities don't affect me in the least but his death has kind of put me into a mood where I am thinking about being a child and my formative years.

I was about 7 or 8 when I first became aware of a world outside of mine in terms of music, style, fads, etc. I think Michael Jackson was a major part of that world.

Beat it was so hot. It was one of the first songs I ever learned the words to. In fact, I remember my mom bringing home the album on vinyl from the library. We danced and danced and danced and danced to that record for literally hours and hours.

That album was great full of incredible songs. Beat it! Thriller, Billie Jean, Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'... That was a good use of vinyl!

Another memory I had was of spending the night at my cousin Kristina's house. She had the poster of MJ in his yellow sweater on her wall above her bed. I think it was this one:

Every night before we would go to sleep we would jump on her bed and kiss his cheek and tell him good night. Ah, youth...

Anyway, as freaky and nutty and wacko Jacko got I am still going to miss his musical contributions. I think he was really talented and in a league of his own. I am glad to have lived in his moon walking, sequined gloved, crotch grabbing time.

Concert Memory

This is really here so I have a place to record the memory. There aren't any pictures to go with it. This particular memory took place probably in 2003. Just a guess on the year though.

I have gone to a bunch of fun concerts. My friends and I used to go to concerts all the time when I was in high school and college. Now that I'm an old married foggy we don't get out to them as often as I would like. Here's kind of a funny story from a really fun concert Ben and I went to:

We went to see Bad Religion about 8 years ago. I bought the tickets online and when we went to the venue we found out there was assigned seating and we had seats that were pretty high up. Not the kind we like. We also found out that you had to have a wristband (separate fee) and they were all sold out. So the show starts and Less than Jake opens for them. It was a good opening show. In one of the first songs they say to the audience, What is this? A punk rock show or what?!? Why are you all sitting up in your seats like good little boys and girls? (I'm paraphrasing here as my memory is a bit foggy).
So right after they said that we and tons of other people jump up and rush the pit. We get down there and it is a blast. We're right in the middle of it all and having a great time.
Less than Jake finishes and they clear the stage and get ready for Bad Religion. While they are doing that, the crowd monitors are walking around checking for bracelets. We hide as well as we can but there really isn't anywhere to hide so we get kicked back up to our seats.
Bad Religion starts their show and it is the mad rush all again except this time the security is all beefed up and they have these linebacker college guys standing guard and trying to keep the crowd back. My 6'4", 250 lb hubby totally gets into football mode and I just grab onto his neck and shoulders and hang on for the ride. He muscles his way through the crowd and those security chumps while I am just hanging on for dear life. He pushes through their defense and we get to enjoy the rest of the show the way punk rock shows are meant to be enjoyed - up close, sweaty and singing along as loud as you can.
It was awesome.

Growing Up...

All my kids are growing up so quickly. Here's a shot of Uly today. He's getting so big. He is 58 lbs today as well.

The original thought for this post was that I need to grow up. I realized this aftrenoon that I need to grow up and get some flower vases. I have this beautiful pink rose bush that is offering armfulls of blossoms and I am sticking them in the few vases I have and then in juice pitchers. It's a bit sad.

Aren't these roses divine?