Another Beach Day

It has been warm here and on this past Saturday, it was sunny and just right for a Feb visit to the beach. I know, we have ALOT of beach pictures, what can I say, it's what we have. Bean likes to take her big dump truck and haul sand, and as always chasing sea gulls is a favorite past time.

NEWS!

We got word today of where we are going to be transferred!!!!! Drum roll sound...... Ohio!! Yes this is great news for us, back home , close to our families and friends, back to a place where we can buy socks and underwear without driving for an hour and a half, back to where there are job opportunities for me.

That's a silly little outfit Jones

This is an outfit from Aunt Jenny. Bean loves it and when it finally fit her, she put it on and wore it for 4 days running, even to bed! Now I am being hounded about when she can wear it again. I will say, she looks so cute in it, like a little striped jawa.

Sunday Morning Tradition or Thank God for Duncan Hines!

So I have decided that we will start making piping hot, homemade muffins each Sunday. Fine. It's a great idea, we get to have nice hot muffins on Sunday morning and then there are left overs for a few mornings for Evelyn. Except that as Les puts it , I "scour books and the internet for obscure recipes full of organic granola from some hole in the wall road side Montana Grill", and these recipes have been nothing but a dry, tasteless excercise in futility. Seriously, it's been this way for YEARS , whenever I pick out a breakfast-y thing to try, it's awful. So after a few tries of bad muffins , I freaked out and bought some Duncan Hines Blueberry Muffin Mix and......... HALLELUYA!!!! we had a pan full of beautifully browned, moist and delicious muffins this morning. I love the ready mixes and they are now my new Sunday morning thing- I am a convert. When I think of the wasted ingredients over the years, I just cringe.
The other thing is, that on Sunday morning, you are allowed to read at the table. Bean loves this and has only recently been allowed to join the "Read While Eating Club". From these pictures you can see that not only can she be a mini-Les but that she enjoys the splurge of eating and reading at the same time.

What are Grumpaws good for?

Pure joy, that's what.




This was at my parents house over the Christmas visit. My Dad rigged up a system to pull both grandkids at once and they loved it. By "they" I mean the kids and the Grandparents! Obviously Grum was involved, I mean someone had to take the pictures- right? Well, this picture just makes me chuckle and grin silly every time I see it. Bean is without a shirt because that sort of thing happens all the time at Grandma's house and what happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's.
You will have to click on it and see it big for the full effect. I honestly don't know what's funnier, Bean's absolute unbridled joy or Brevin watching her and laughing just because she is. Priceless.

A Valentine's Surprise

Lissa and Grandma got together and sent Bean a package full of Valentine's stuff. There were stickers, pens, markers, paper, pink sparkly shoes, a shirt, dress 'em up magnets, art work form Brevin and some chocolate. Bean said two memorable things about it all, when she saw the shoes she gasped and said " oh my these are some damn sexy princess shoes!" and then later on after everything was opened, she said " Mama, you know that really made me happy to get that presents in the mail from my friends".

This is what happens when....

your daughter drops a full desk drawer on her toe! Two x-rays, three stickers from the Doctor and many calls to Grandma (for moral support) later and we know that she does not have a fracture, just a helluva bruised and sore toe. We are keeping her on Motrin and off of her foot as much as possible because it is VERY sore and she does limp and sort of moan a bit with each step when she is up, so she gets lots of "up pease" time and couch pic-nics and art time at her big girl desk, plus there is chocolate for the needed soul repair after such an injury. After this happened I wasn't sure if she would wear shoes or not and I wanted her to wear some to bed for splinting. Thankfully two things happened: first she had just received a pair of glittery, fantastic pink shoes from her Aunt Melissa that day in the mail and secondly she decided that she wanted to sleep in shoes all on her own! What a smart kid, she said " if I sleep in these- the nyoshies (blankets) won't hurt my broked toe - right?" Right on kiddo. Though let me just say that she thinks ice packs are the stupidest idea in all creation, and under no circumstance are they going to be used on her toe, even if it is a cute little monkey face and he's purple and really wants to help her, and Billy thinks she should just let him help too. UH UH No way.



Also the toe looks much worse in real life.