In Photos

Wow. I can't believe that I haven't blogged since Wednesday! That's four days, and totally not like me. Luckily, I have a lot to write about, and pictures to accompany those tidbits. Here, in no particular order, are the last four days, in photos.

Lately, I've been neglecting my MySpace account in favor of utilizing the time wasting options on Facebook. Honestly, the only reason I still have that MySpace account is because I have family on there, and a few blogs that I like to read. I log in maybe once every two weeks or so just to be sure no one has sent me any messages.

Last week, I got a message asking me if I attended a certain elementary school. Since I had, I looked at the person's photos but could not place them. I responded and said that I did, and asked who was asking. Turns out, it was a girl I hadn't seen since I was thirteen and a freshman in high school! She said that a bunch of people from our school (it went from Kindergarten to eighth grades) got together just to hang out and catch up every so often and she invited me to go to the next get together on Friday night. Of course, due to my not checking that account, I didn't read the message until Friday afternoon! I decided what the heck, I might as well check it out, and drove 45 minutes across town only to arrive and get a call that it was cancelled.

Crap.

We did talk on the phone for about 40 minutes and she caught me up on everyone. I'm talking names I haven't heard or thought about for almost twenty years!!! Wild, huh?

Then I got home and was playing with the computer, when I realized - hey, this thing has a webcam! I totally forgot! So I took a couple of photos of the fam:

Saturday we were supposed to go to a Spring Training game with my mom group. Even though I live down here, I've never been to one. I'm just not that into sports, I guess! The only reason I decided to go to this meetup was because the Angels were playing the Mariners, and my husband is a Mariners fan, so I knew he would enjoy it.

Well, just so you know, Fehling (pronounced FAILING) is short for FEHLING TO BE ON TIME, and by the time we got there (five minutes before the game started) it was sold out. Since we were in Tempe and covered in sunblock already, we decided to check out the Festival of the Arts where we picked up this:

The hat, not the baby. If he's going to be repping a college, it has to be one that's cool, like Arizona State where is mother went to school, and not smelly, like the University of Washington where his pop "studied." I love that he lets us put hats and sunglasses on him and isn't one of those babies who immediately rips them off.

We actually bought it on one of the stores downtown. It's sad to see how it's dying over there. How can a college town just die like that? Seriously, EVERYTHING is closing it seems. Borders, Z Gallerie, the Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Urban Angels - they're just gone, along with a lot of the restaurants we used to love when we lived in that area. It's crazy.

We also noticed this on one of the bike racks:

Whoever owns that bike is gonna be PISSED when they get back!

Before we headed over to the art festival, we stopped at the bead store because I've been wanting a pearl knotter for a while. I bought some freshwater pearls and pale pink Swarovski crystals last summer when we were in Seattle so I could recreate this $250 necklace I saw in a jewelry store window. I didn't want to just string them, I wanted to knot them on silk cord, because I'm insane like that. I started it last night and finished it this morning:

It's really long, but I can also double it up like so:

Yeah. I look like hell. Please pardon my scariness. I alternated the crystals and the pearls for a simple interpretation of the classic knotted pearl necklace. Oh, and what's that on my wrist?

My new mommy bracelet. I picked up the letter beads also while at the bead store, and used leftover pearls from my necklace. I was going back and forth on what other beads to use - I didn't want to use pink, because I have a son, but I had no blue clothes, so if I used blue I wouldn't ever wear it. I considered green crystals for a bit, but then decided that if I used simple sterling silver beads it would be neutral and I could wear it with EVERYTHING!

I'm thinking of listing these in my Etsy shop. All the mom bracelets I've seen have been way over the top, and I'm thinking maybe some folks out there have more simple tastes like me? Also, I don't use cheap materials when I make jewelry. These are all sterling silver and freshwater pearls. When I do use crystals, I buy the nice Swarovski ones, not the cheap glass ones. My findings (clasps, crimps, etc) are sterling silver too.

In case you were wondering what the hell I did to my stupid wrist:

My aloe vera plant keeps having babies. Last year was the first year it did it, and I got four cute new plants from it. This year, I got TEN. These are the smallest ones. Ideally, they would have stayed with the mommy plant for a bit longer, but they came up while I was rooting around to get the bigger ones out of the planter. We'll see how they do.

The scratches happened while I was digging around under the plant. The spikes on the edges of the leaves are SHARP!!!

Also, the aloe vera wasn't the only plant that missed the memo about my brown thumb. I have a pothos that has survived being in my care for quite a few years now. It had grown really long, and I hate the way they look when they get those long scraggly arms, so I cut it back a few months ago. I knew that some people used those cuttings to start whole new plants, so I looked up the instructions online. I wasn't going to hold my breath, because of the aforementioned brown thumb, but check it out:

Isn't that AWESOME??? I can't believe it worked!

Finally, to end this epic post, I leave you with this final photo:

After existing on this Earth for almost five and a half months, and having existed pretty much that whole time refusing to sleep unless swaddled tightly enough to rival being straightjacketed, the kid is finally starting to get that it is possible to sleep unfettered. The easiest way to get him to do this, unfortunately, is to spoon with the baby. He will sleep in his crib the last few days with no help though. It just freaks me out to no end on the rare occasion when he rolls over onto his belly to sleep, I have to admit.

It's funny. Turns out the boy is a sidesleeper for the most part, just like his mom.