Where does my time go??

Ok. That's just one cute pictures of the many I have been snapping of my kiddos lately. I am forever in a quandary these days of where my time is going. After logging my time for 2 days, I realized it's almost entirely devoted to my family. Which is where it should be at this point in the game. I also realized that I spend 2 hours cooking dinner some nights - time I could spend otherwise slipping in some crafts or cleaning or something else on my forever-long to-do list. I have my brand new Photoshop CS4 loaded on my computer and ready to use (along with the library book to show me what to do), but haven't gotten to it yet because I've been really trying to spend quality time with the kids. I don't want to look back at this time in my life and remember shuffling them off to play all the time and wondering what I missed of their childhoods. I took the kids one night this week (by myself!) to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant to slurp up vegetable rice noodle soup and then after I got my eyebrows waxed and they were angels the entire time. All three!! What a treat! Perhaps they are turning a corner...

My plan is to edit photos and post in the next few days - we'll see how I do.

My 30th

Wow. I can't believe I just had my 30th birthday. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of fun and I just want to say "thanks" to all the people that made it special. It involved a surprise dinner hosted by my husband at Gustav's, lunch at Bumblekiss and a viewing of "The Time Traveler's Wife" with a couple of friends (yay for girl time!), shopping for a laptop (no commitment yet on that one, though), shopping for makeup and some Amazon prizes. I really couldn't ask for more of a celebration!

Here's to another great year...

Aaargh!!

In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day, Grandpa Tim took Wes and Samuel to the Pirate Festival under the Sellwood bridge. I thought this was a pretty funny moment to capture Grandpa using MAC eyeliner to draw a mustache on Samuel.

Sweet Victory.

So, the Paypal/Gaintsoft/Photoshop CS4 story has an ending. Finally. After being declined by Wells Fargo for a chargeback twice, I made one last feeble attempt at calling Paypal to let them know that they are supporting someone who is selling pirated software and oh, by the way, I want my money back. He politely informed me (yet again) that because I purchased an item outside of eBay, I would not have buyer protection. I asked him in my kindest voice how he could help me and that I knew I was not the only one demanding money back from this crook. He told me 1) to file a complaint with www.ic3.gov (internet fraud agency) (which I did while on the phone with him), and 2) to hold on a minute. After holding for what seemed like forever, he informed me he would be putting the entire $184 back in my account in about 5 minutes. Huh?!

The best part? The money was taken out of the merchant's account. I learned not to take "no" (4 times) for an answer, and it all depends on who you talk to.

Sweet Baby Legs

I have an addiction to these Baby Legs . They are so much fun!! I bought five different striped pair off of babysteals.com for a bargain and can't stop putting them on her! I really like to mix a funky patterned outfit with the stripes.

I'm still loving having a girl.

Thanks, Tabs!!

My very understanding dear friend Tabs came over last night for dinner to celebrate our 30th birthdays. I couldn't get out this week for an evening outing, so I had her over for dinner and it was such a special treat to catch up with her and have girl talk. She surprised me with these special birthday treats (her favorite things). Sumptown Coffee, Moonstruck chocolate and Aveda tea - could I ask for more?! We left the evening promising to go see "La Boheme", which is coming to Portland. I can't wait!

I Want a Space Like This

This blog I really love. I check it daily. I love that she revamped this cluttered space to the above picture - she spray painted that canvas and the flower/vase gives it the perfect pop of color. The other cool thing about her? She uses the word "rubbish". I love that word and will now be incorporating it into my vocab. Because really. We all have a bit of rubbish in various corners of our life, don't we?

Things That Inspire Me

Ahh - so much inspiring stuff around me right now.
MAC lipstick in the color Cockney. It's originally from Europe and I snagged one at the MAC counter in Nordstrom about a month ago. Sparkly. Red. Need I say more? Pair it with black liquid eyeliner and thick black mascara (and next to nothing else) and I feel so incredibly feminine. Hambly Screen Prints (a fairly new company in the decorating/paper/scrapbooking world). They fit my style and taste to a T. I especially love their Couture line. Beautiful!

Color. Anywhere. Especially paint colors like these:

Cooking without a book, as outlined in this book. I just received it from the library and it really pushes my comfort zone - I love recipes and am afraid to veer much from them. I may be ordering it from Amazon.

Knowing my Photoshop will arrive on my doorstep in 7-10 days - from Adobe. I learned my lesson. Visa and Paypal refused to pay us back for our gaintsoft.com order (see my previous post) and the seller won't respond, so I cut my losses and ordered the software from Adobe last night. I had to pause, though, because I was researching laptops (I would like to have my own in the near future) and I know that Macs are really the only way for people that like photography. I sat and pondered which version of Photoshop I should get - that which is for PCs or Macs? I concluded that I'm not that serious of a photographer at this point to throw down tons of money for a Mac, so I went with the PC version, and hopefully that was the right decision for now.

Royal Rip Off

I've been taken for about $187. When I went to order the Photoshop Cs4 (normally a $600 program), I found a cheaper one at gaintsoft.com. Colin thought it would be fine, so we placed the order and paid immediately through Paypal. Upon receiving an email from the seller, I realized this program was coming through a Chinese shipping service. At that point, I knew something had gone awry. When I couldn't find the seller's name/address/phone number anywhere on his website, I really knew something was wrong.

Fast forward to last night. I have installed the program on my computer, but the serial numbers this guy keeps giving me are invalid. I have contacted Wells Fargo to get my money back, since I used a Visa debit card for the transaction. After requesting my money back twice from the seller, he emails back to try a different serial number and "it will be ok". I'm kicking myself, because the great deal from Adobe to upgrade to CS4 for $299 ends today and the money from the last transaction is still outstanding.

Lesson learned.

Some Parting Thoughts

I love preschool. Jude and I got some real quality time to hang out today - we even played at the "fair" (his make-believe game of turning our living room into a fair). I became his little playmate and it was such a wonderful bonding time!! What I didn't expect was that he would wail when we dropped Samuel off - he missed him so much and was so sad that he couldn't go to school as well. Looks like we will be investing in Teacher Susie's school for many years...
When I came to pick Samuel up, the kids were lined up on the bench receiving their cookie and learning manners:Samuel was the "helper" for the day (Colin and I think that maybe he volunteered because he really is the teacher's pet type). They worked on the letter "A" and learned about circles. They sang songs, got eggs from the chickens and did a paper craft. He let me know that he didn't hit anyone (which is funny because he really isn't a hitter). He was exhausted and so excited and wants to go every day of the week now.
To console Jude from missing his brother, we stopped at Grandma Jan's work (the police dept.) and she came to the rescue with a treat bag for Jude. He loved it! Oh, man. It really does take a village to raise a child, doesn't it?!

I want to freeze time on days like today - not let my kids get any older, holding onto that sweet innocence that is so fleeting when the teenage and adult years set in. I love that Jude looks at me today and says "I'm not mad at you" for no reason at all. That the baby giggles and holds her arms up as I come near her and Samuel brings piles of books to me because he knows that I can't resist reading to him. Perhaps this really is my magnum opus.

Preschool Begins

The baby is napping. Jude is "doing work" and Samuel is......at school? Yep. After much prayer, agonizing, weeping, wailing and generally gnashing my teeth, we decided Samuel would go to preschool on Monday mornings. We met with Teacher Susie on Friday and toured her pad to find a wonderful set up. She adores children and even lets them help with the farm animals!! I felt completely at peace with letting Samuel go there for a few hours a week. That, and Samuel was practically jumping up and down at the thought of school. Makes the decision a bit easier.
You know what I can't wrap my mind around though? How I went from this four years ago: To this, today:

Sigh. The beginning of a new era. Be still my heart.

A Day in Pictures

Start the day with fresh watermelon. Grandma Mary reads the boys two stories from the Bible (always the same ones - Jonah getting swallowed by the whale and Jesus getting nailed to the cross - what is it with boys and gore?).

Juliet eats her toys - as usual. Do you like my feeble attempt at the accessorizing? I really need to get on Etsy and order some girly headbands.

My mom gave Jude and Samuel these candy necklaces (Samuel polished his off while he was under other people's supervision today (ahem)) and Jude, while with me, chose to nap with, play with, smell, lick and otherwise become completely inseparable from his necklace. Big hit. Oh, did I mention my children ran uncontrollably around New Seasons this evening for about 1/2 hour? Wonder where they got all that energy from...

We all also attended my Grandma's 81st b-day today and I just want to throw a shout-out to that! I wasn't able to take pictures of the party (the kids had to come home for nap time), but I hear the cake was wonderful.

Jude's Non Sequitur of the Week

Me: "Jude! Did you poop in your diaper?"

Jude: "No!"

Me: "Then what's stinky?"

Jude: "I'm not stinky! I'm killing bad guys."

Me: {insert confused look here}

*Note to self: Jude will never poop in his diaper as long as he is "killing" other Power Rangers.

My Sous-Chef

Samuel helped me prepare most of a dinner one day - even getting carrots out of the garden! We went round and round about math while we were cooking:

"Samuel, if you need three 1/3 cups full and you are pouring one in now, how many more do you need?"

Samuel: "Three"
Me: "No. Let me repeat..."

Samuel never did quite figure it out, but we'll keep working on it. I love Trader Joe's bread crumbs. Well, I love Trader Joe's in general. Such good, cheap food.

And of course I have to include a picture of Juliet. She just started eating Mum Mums. I guess they are a favorite baby snack all over Asia and I can't complain - it buys me a few moments to eat my dinner hastily.

Some Pictures

I feel like I have been so disconnected electronically for the last few days - and that's ok. It's amazing how much one can accomplish while taking leave of the computer (cool things, like watching "The Holiday" for the umpteenth time, reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" and then taking time to critique it, and cooking - cakes, zucchini bread). I have, however, continued to take pictures. I tried to do very little Photoshopping, but it really is very hard for me. I am a wee bit addicted to the program. So, in most of these pictures I just improved the exposure and contrast and left the rest. Except for the last few of Juliet in her high chair - I Photoshopped the heck out of those.

As a side note, I just noticed that my blog header really needs to be updated- I mean we have a whole new kid and really, I don't look anything like that anymore. Just kidding - I could look like that if someone would give me like 45 minutes to spackle on that much makeup again...

Juliet is loving her floor time - she rolls everywhere.

I dug the dried beans out again - and they were a big hit! Jude didn't eat them or throw them anywhere. It was a great way to start the day.

Thanks to my dear friend, Jen, my boys were hooked up with some serious Power Ranger toys. They got a whole tote full of these, along with two costumes to boot. Samuel has to wear the costume a least a few times a day.

Juliet has decided that she really doesn't like to nurse during the day, so I've taken to pumping a bottle every day, just so I know she's getting enough liquids. She loves bottles!!

And this is her new crinkle face - she thinks it's pretty cute. I still think she looks a bit like a homeless man, but whatever. Where is the girl's hair?