{8}

Today's magic number is eight. Eight is the number of....


• words Morgan says: mama, dada, uh-oh, hi, ba-bye, book, bubble, more.
  
  
• hours of sleep I need to function. Last night I got 5. You do the math.
  
  
• times I've dusted in the last 19 days since the sky fell in our bedroom.
  
  
• inches of dust on all surfaces, despite all my dusting.
  
  
• new gray hairs on my head in the last 19 days.
  
  
• weeks until Gerard starts kindergarten. Oh, no! Wait! It's only 6 weeks!!!
  
  
• new scrapbook pages I've done in the last few days. (I'll try to post those later.)
  
  
• months I am behind in Gerard's scrapbook. Not bad when you compare it to the fact that I'm 14 months behind in Morgan's scrapbook. She's only 15 months old. Once again, you do the math.
  
  
• number of new pictures of Morgan wearing an adorable halter dress from Mr. and Mrs. K. They gave it to us when Morgan was born and it looked so big back then. I couldn't imagine her ever fitting into an 18-month dress! Oh, how time flies...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• photos of Gerard's eye. OK, in the spirit of fairness I tried to come up with 8 pictures of his puffy eye (he had some kind of allergic reaction to something) but these pictures aren't as pretty as Morgan's so I'll only make you suffer with five.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

{tennis anyone?}

I finally had a chance to look through some pictures I took of Gerard at tennis camp. He's really enjoying it. Not as much as tee-ball, but he's definitely having fun.

Um, excuse me Gerard, but you're facing the wrong way!


Morgan cheering on her brother

And here are a few pics of some of our newest friends. A wild sunflower grew right outside our kitchen window, and the goldfinches visit all the time. I took some pictures after dinner (through the window):

{one year ago}

I was sitting in front of my computer watching my slide show screen-saver as I often do, and this picture flashed onto the screen. I can't believe this was just over one year ago....

{happy birthday!}

Happy birthday, Arleen! We have some cake left over if you find yourself in the area!!

{back from the beach}

We had hoped to go to the beach yesterday for Gerard's birthday, but it rained. We decided to brave the elements today -- 70's and very windy... The waves were pretty strong but that didn't stop Gerard from going in. He had his life vest on, but he definitely lost his footing a few times. I went in with him briefly and then I took Morgan in a little, but big Gerard spent most of his time in the water with Gerard. Morgan was pretty cold, so like a little princess she was content to sit and build castles in the sand.

{an update}

So here's what's been going on with the house.... Our bedroom has been totally gutted. They took out the ceiling, a few patches of wall, and the carpet. We had a few contractors in to give us estimates, and we've picked one contractor we liked who will now submit everything to our insurance company. He figures it will take about 2 weeks to get everything completed once the work actually starts. So, in the meantime, I'm sleeping on the futon in the basement and Gerard is sleeping on the couch in the living room.






The rest of the house didn't sustain any permanent damage except for the ceiling in the living room and some of the walls in the hall and stairs that will get repainted.

Other than that, it's been more of the same around here. Both Gerards got haircuts yesterday...




And yesterday was Big Gerard's birthday. Funny, I thought he turned 29 last year...

{leaving a comment}

For those of you who often comment on my blog (thanks Ma, Debbie, Patti, Arleen, Robyn....) I thought I'd point out that you will now need to complete a "word verification" step before you leave your comment. I've been getting spam comments that I have to delete, and this will help prevent these automated systems from commenting on the blog. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but please don't stop leaving comments! I love it -- your comments make my day!!!!