Time marches on

I can't believe it's already September!

Jon is almost half done with the lecture series part of his internship. He is studying his brains out (which seems like an oxymoron to me). He is doing well but will breathe a big sigh of relief when this portion is over.

Emma has grown over an inch in two months!

She and Jarrah and I walk to the park a lot. I find myself going brain numb there sometimes and actually weeded the tot park this week out of desperation for something to do while Emma played.

We saw a lady walking her pet pig. It was a black, pot bellied pig and while the lady was bopping to her itunes the pig was taking it's good ole time sniffing around. So I couldnt' help but watch the pig. I figured the lady was probably getting creeped out so I forced myself to quit staring, but not before getting one last look. Turns out her little black dog just LOOKS like a pot bellied pig. Now I'm certain she was creeped out at me staring at her!

I saw the first tree with mostly fall colored leaves.

I noticed the leaves crunched under the stroller tires.

I started thinking about putting Emma's wading pool away for the year.

No matter if we are loving our position in life and wanting time to freeze or if we are anxious for the present to turn into the future, time simply marches on.

I'm happy with that. I feel like God has a plan for me and my family. Strike that, I KNOW God has a plan for me and my family. That is a truth that I have to work at believing and trusting but the Lord is helping me with that. I know the march ahead will have happy and sad times but I'm hopeful.

That's a big deal.

Peeeuuu

I made a to-do list for today. One of the items was to clean the oven. A few weeks ago (ok, I'll be honest, a few months ago) something I made boiled over and left burned chunky things in the bottom of the oven. Now when ever I turn it on to pre-heat it smells like my kitchen is slightly on fire.

So my oven needed cleaned. I opened the windows and got out the "fume-free" oven cleaner, which consequently is NOT "fume-free" and opened the oven to begin cleaning. Then I noticed that my oven says "self-cleaning" on it! YAY! I can mark it off the list. I figured out the correct buttons to get it to say that it was starting and I think it will be cleaning for 3 hours.

However, since I didn't take the time to clean out the charred chunks in the bottom of the oven (I figured that was like rinsing the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, why wash, only to have them be re-washed), my house smells like you stuck your head in a charcoal grill.

It

Smells

BAD!

My throat even burns a little!
I'm glad it's a beautiful day and I can have the windows open all day but, man, 2 more hours of this nasty smell! And I have a sneaky suspicion that I will still be wiping up burnt chunks after all of this!

Too quiet

When we got home from church last Sunday Emma was reading books in her room while I made lunch. After it became quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time, I went searching and this is what I found. She had parked herself on her potty in her church dress (after grabbing Jarrah's bone- see it on the tub?) and found her little hair ties. They used to be separated by color. There are about 50 each of six or seven colors. She had opened each one and threw them on the floor. I walked in and said "hi Emma!" and she looked at me, quite pleased with herself and pointed to the floor and said "mess mommy!". She then proceeded to open the last section and throw the yellow ones on the floor and then said "yellow mess mommy!". I couldn't help but smile at her and also couldn't help sorting all 300 and some hair ties back into their appropriately colored homes.

Tu-Tu much

Emma got a hand me down tu-tu and finally mastered hopping!












And Emma, much to the delight of the neighbors I'm sure, was singing at the top of her lungs.
















But for now, back to the hopping.

Don't you hate it when...

- You tear a finger nail and have to cut it really short and then it's not ready to cut when all the others are and then your fingers are not on the same clipping schedule

- You finally give in to be the one to change the garage bag, tie it up, take it outside to the garage can and then the next thing you have to throw away is really stinky! You wish you had waited 10 more minutes to tie up the trash. Now you have to untie the bag outside and add it, use up an entire new trash bag to tie it up in, or just toss it in the new bag and accept the fact that the kitchen will stink for about 2.5 days until the bag is full enough to tie up without guilt of under using a garage bag.

- You let your dog outside to potty before you go on a walk specifically so you don't have to pick up poo and carry it with you the remainder of the walk only to have the dog "double poo". Now you've wasted a trip outside prior to your walk and the compartment under the stroller smells like poo even though you double tied the wal-mart bag.

- You sweep the entire house and put away all the shoes and, wait, what's that you hear? The mower man showed up and now your house will be covered in tracked-in grass clippings in less than 10 minutes.

- You wake up early so you do extra chores in the morning only to arrive to work later than the days you wake up late.

- You pat yourself on the back for remembering to put on sunscreen and then you look in the mirror that night and find you missed a huge patch your your neck and shoulder. So you try to fix it the next day by putting double sunscreen on the red part and single layered sunscreen on the unburned part. But the edges of the original sunburn got missed and now you have an even weirder pattern on your neck and wish it was turtle neck season.

- You decide to risk it and not try on the new shirt before purchasing it only to get home and find out that the size was mis-marked. AND the size you thought you bought would have been the correct size.

- Anybody have any more to add?

Pearly whites

I decided Jarrah needed her teeth cleaned. The vet suggested we let them do it for us. Since I didn't want to spend $400+ on my DOG'S teeth I decided to do it myself. Sans the drugs to knock her out even. I tried loving on her and getting her to lay down. She knew immediately that something was up.
I think she could smell the baking soda on the cloth I was using. I see all the internet ads that say "an Ashland mom has found the secret to whitening your teeth and it's in your cupboard right now" so I figured "why not try it on the dog"?! She thought maybe she'd distract me by trying to play.
She ran all around the house and barked and hid behind the dining room table. Emma thought it was hilarious and everytime I'd get close to Jarrah she'd take off!

I gave her a pep-talk and after that didn't work, I brought out her treatie jar and sat it in the middle of the living room floor. I told her if she let me clean her teeth with the cloth (I pointed to the cloth) then she's get a treatie (no need to point to the jar, that's all she was looking at).

It worked! Sort of. I got about 3 teeth rubbed with the baking soda and contrary to the "Ashland mom" internet ad, Jarrah's teeth are FAAARRR from white.

I figure I can keep it up and maybe I'll be the next "Ashland mom" on the internet ad. Actually, I'm pretty sure I don't want to be on the internet ad. It's usually on the side bar of my hotmail that scrolls between the "Ashland mom" and "hot singles". I think I'll settle for a dog whose breath isn't mistakable for Emma's poopy diapers.

Proof that it's summertime

Sandal tan- need I say more?!