Song For a Friend

This is Candace (the grown-up girl, not the baby. The baby is Carlie, and this post is not about her). She is my friend. :D


There are a LOT of things to be said for Candace; let's start with the tale of our twin-ness. A few weeks ago, she and I had some crazy similarities going on. We already had a few--got married the same month, in the same year, less than a week apart; both have 3-year-old (almost 4-year-old) boys; both have a baby who's under 2; both have husbands who like to work with computers; etc, etc.-- but a few weeks ago it just got creepy weird. On Monday, we were both planning our menus for the week. On Tuesday, we were both doing laundry. On Wednesday, we both noticed that we were the same person the 2 days previous. And we had discussed this before, how we are basically the same person. Kind of weird, right? And I guess not really a 'tale' at all, but hey, it got you to keep reading.

I like Candace. She is a lot of things to me. She's a running-buddy, a co-teacher for Joy School, my back-up pantry, my personal encyclopedia of article-based information, my break room, my baby-sitter, my food storage guru, my psychiatrist, and my wednesday-night date to Sprouts. She's also my sanity-supplier, my gardening-cohort, and the person who knows the most of what Caleb can and cannot eat, after myself. Much of our conversations are lamenting-based, which might sound funny, but it's actually great, because we're usually lamenting the same things.

I see her a lot. In fact, I think I see and spend time with Candace more than I do my own husband. I hope she doesn't mind that. I hope HE doesn't mind that.

Oh, and it also helps that she only lives 3 houses away.

Do YOU have a Candace?

(and fun fact # 58-- Candace applied to work at Alpine Storage when Kenn and I were about to move away from there; she was actually applying for my job! Weird!)

wait wait wait wait wait

So last weekend, I went crazy, and I auditioned for Zilker Theater Productions upcoming summer show, "Annie." It's been a WHILE since I auditioned for a musical, basically, since I auditioned for "Meet Me In St. Louis" back in 2001. That show was awesome. I loved it. And while I have LOVED having kids and being home and all that, I miss being on stage. I'm very much a narcissist at heart, and I like the attention. :)

So i went nuts, I started practicing audition pieces, I got Carrie to take some head shots for me, and I auditioned a week ago yesterday. And I made call backs for the ensemble! So I went back a week ago today for those.

And I still haven't heard anything back. Ugh.

How long does it take to decide if someone is good enough to be in the chorus? It's not like I'm asking much. Even if I DIDN'T make it, I'd still like to know either way.

It was fun to go and audition, but I didn't get the same adrenaline-rush that I used to. I think I was too intimidated by the talent around me. Like I said, I'm out of practice, and boy I could tell. Fenton Village Players was wonderful , but Zilker is a step up from there, times 20.

Ugh. Trying to have patience sucks.

Oh, but here's my head shot I used. Yay.

Slow Day

This is what happens when I'm home all morning on a Sunday with only Beckett to bug me.

I bake. :)

Apple Dump Cake and...


Whole wheat Bread...

And an Apple Tart. with a whole-wheat pie crust. Yumm-o. :)

Self-Awareness

Yah, I made this all by myself.

Cause I'm basically awesome.

HOT stuff

I think this picture totally speaks for itself. Beckett knows what kind of man he is. ;)

mah cute boys, in da tub

I now know how we need to style Beckett's hair for when he starts school/goes on a mission/gets married. The ladies will love this.

I'm not dead! I think I'll go for a walk!

Amazingly, the garden lives. It's actually doing pretty well, too. Things have just been so crazy around here lately, and I've been busy actually working in said garden, so I haven't remembered to take pictures and stuff.

Wanna know what's cool? We've been eating spinach! And lettuce!! And they're so yummy when they're fresh from the garden. EVERYTHING is growing, except the cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkin seeds that I just replanted last week. It's all looking pretty good, and I'm having fun taking care of it.

Time for the pikshas!

This bed has basil, parsley, onions, zucchini, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. The broccoli and cauliflower have FINALLY bounced back! It's all so happy. :*)

These are the carrots. They're lookin' so good! Yowzas!

This bed has pumpkin, cantaloupe, watermelon, yellow squash, tomato, grape tomato, bell peppers, marigolds, cucumber, peas, and green beans. The yellow squash is the miracle plant, because remember how it died? Yah, and so in desperation, I planted more seeds. And one grew! Hooray!

Squash plant! The little one.

These are the green beans. They came out of NOWHERE. One day nothing, next day, little plants!

Kenn's been working on setting a perimeter around the swings. The big rocks were creating a foot or so border against the fence, so we moved them and are in process of moving all the gravel. I'm diggin' it, just not literally. That is Kenn's job. :)

We bought another trellis net to try and get these vine-y plants that our neighbor grows to reach to our pergola. It'll be awesome if and when it works. Until then, it looks a-like-a-so.

Beckett's 18-Month Pics

This one was actually taken upside down. Cool, right? :)

Thanks Carrie, for taking these! You rock!

Randoms

The swing set is OFFICIALLY done. Seriously. We put the decorative/not-functional-in-any-way dormers onto the roof, and now it's finished. Yay!


Caleb is enjoying learning new skills.

He LOVES the picnic table, and wants to sit there and eat as much as possible.

I somehow got the broom to stand up straight all on it's own. I wasn't even trying to, THAT'S how awesome I am.

And Caleb was looking cute yesterday, walking around with his hands in his pockets. He is getting so big and looking older all the time, and I'm not ready for it.
He also actually looked at the camera and smiled normally for once. Amazing.

My garden is making me sad. :(

It's true--I've lost the joy and enthusiasm I previously possessed concerning my garden. I think the problem is that I killed most of my plants, and I'm having a little trouble getting past that. See, with all the 'water leak' troubles we had, I had the most stressful week, probably, of my life. So I needed a way to wind down, so the afternoon after we went to the zoo and we were waiting for the first plumber to come, I decided it was time to transplant my seedlings into the garden beds.

This was a BAD idea. VERY bad.

But why, you ask? Well, because it got COLD again. And it was very rainy, and cloudy, and not warm enough to help the plants get used to their new surroundings. And, I didn't have them outside long enough to acclimate. And, they probably weren't big enough. And, I don't know. But it didn't work.

Here's what they looked like the day I did it--nice, right??



And here is what they look like now.
Two marigolds dead, the yellow squash plant dead, BOTH cantaloupes dead, and I still don't know if the broccoli and cauliflower are going to make it or not.

I think I'll cry.

The Water Leak of 2010

Kenn here on what has now become my wife's blog... I thought I'd lay out what happened with our leak.

January -
In January we got a large water bill for $156 (normally ~$80). We also had some leakey toilets and so we figured that was the culprit so we rushed to fix them. We used 23,000 gallons that month, which is actually a reasonable number if you have 3 leaky toilets.

Monday -
Then came February's bill last Monday night (I check it online) and we had used 30,000 in month, and that was from 1/17 - 2/16, and we fixed the leaky toilets on 2/4 or 2/5, so it was still possible that it was the toilets.

After speaking to the city Utility Manager we were told that yes it could be the toilets, but they would send someone out to check the meter in person and verify it's operation. In cedar Park they have a transmitter inside the meter box that allows the meter reader to literally drive by the house to pick up the reading.. It's pretty cool actually.

Sure enough they left the infamous note from the city "May have a possible leak." ::Chandler Bing voice:: Could you BE any more helpful?

Then began the STRESS... the most stress I've ever faced as a homeowner. Is it in the slab? is it outside? Where is the water going? Is someone stealing it? Can we use the water have now paid for to put in a pool?

Wednesday
I had a plumber come out on Wednesday night to see if he could find it, and his lack of equipment and knowledge prevented him from doing so, but he didn't charge me so it could've been worse, so the stress did not lift, if anything it got worse. However, with his help we did narrow it down to the cold side. Which didn't really help much in terms of locating it, but it was something. At this point, I felt it was between the meter and the house outside, or at least I was hoping it was.

Saturday
Saturday morning came and another plumber came with really nice listening equipment and was able to rule out most of the house and the loudest he heard the noise was in the laundry room, and that was because that is where the main comes into the home inside the wall.

So he decided to rule out the exterior portion of the home by digging out the portion of the line by the meter and the portion where it first comes to the home. The leak was FOUND right where the main line switched from PVC to copper just before it T's off for the first water spigot outside. $500-$600 later... we have water.

Here are some photos.

The broken pipe
They had to tear out some bushes.. I replanted them later that day.

The final repair.

I'm a sucker for a giveaway

Especially when said giveaway is for something that I had JUST seen, and was JUST thinking, "man, I'd love one of those."

My friend Emily, over on Emmy Mom (and she really is my friend, we were roommates in college) is hosting a giveaway for a gift card to MikaRose. MikaRose is a company that has dresses, shirts, and skirts all tailored toward a more modest way of dressing. Their dresses are seriously pretty, and even though none of them will look good on me, I want to give it a try anyways.

So this blog post is a shameless plug in order to get 2 more entries into Em's drawing. :D hehe hehe hehe

Trip to the Zoo a.k.a. Family Reunion??

I know it's not really a family reunion, but since I am constantly calling my kids monkeys then it kind of makes sense, right?? :)

We went to the Waco Zoo, and it was all us Joy-School-ers, but Kenn took the day off and came with so, so we kind of did our own thing.

Here's the gang! (l-r) Lily, Kloey, Carlie, Garrett, Caleb, Bryn, Beckett, and Isabel

Does anyone else find it slightly creepy that Caleb and the monkey have the same expression??

This sloth was just funny, and look! I'm in a picture, too! (and none of those, 'well, which is which' jokes, thank you very much)

Beckett and Lily, checking out the playground at the zoo

Ok, I know everyone has seen pictures of all these animals before, but you haven't seen THESE pictures of THESE animals. They deserve their time to shine, too. And plus, check out this giraffe. He was like, RIGHT THERE. It was fabulous. :)

Hello Elephant!!! I love you!!!

Cute shot of my Beckett-man. :)

Ok, the lions were kind of boring, but this guy was asleep RIGHT next to the window, and look at those paws! They could take your head off! He's a killer, alright...

Speaking of killers, this turkey kept acting like it was gonna attack at any moment.

And who doesn't love an orangutan drinking from a plastic bottle? They looked kind of sad, though. Made me feel bad that I paid money to keep them locked in a cage.

Oooh, Kimodo Dragon. Caleb kept hissing at it and asking if it breathed fire.

New friend! But which is which?? ;)

Awww, a lovely family picture to commemorate our day at the zoo. Such a perfect specimen of affectionate family life.