Tim's sister called me tonight to ask if I would photograph her wedding in October. Let me remind you, I am already making the groom's cake, a guitar shaped cake... So yeah. Actually, I want to do it, just for the experience and because I would love to be able to capture some really nice photos, but I told her, look, I am not a professional, I don't want you to be disappointed in the end. I think she mostly doesn't care, she just wants a free photographer. I understand. But, I am going to scale back the size of the groom's cake if I am going to play wedding photographer too. I don't think it's fair to expect me to do a large cake AND take pictures. I told Tim this is going to be my excuse to get a new lens and a new flash! I can probably get the lens I want and the flash I want for about $300 total, less if I can find either one used or on super sale. We'll see. She wants to take pictures at this gazebo on the bike trail that is behind our house, but it is going to be October and I don't know how cold it is going to be. I guess time will tell.

Tim's new phone should get here tomorrow. I got him the phone he wanted and now he is very happy. I have to go out on Friday and pick up some cologne and a birthday card and the stuff to make his cake. I don't know what he wants, I think chocolate/chocolate but I am not sure. Probably I should ask! He is happy that he took the day off from work, and so am I. We can enjoy the day! He is bugging me about what I want for our anniversary though and I don't know. I can't really think of anything that I want, well, beyond a new lens for my camera! I just want to have a really nice day, actually.

Laila comes home on Saturday! I am so excited! I have really missed that little brat hehe. I am sure she is going to come home Miss Attitude from having three months being spoiled beyond all reason but I hope that she is happy to see us too. Haley is beside herself with excitement, she has really missed Laila. I can't wait to take her to the pool with us and hang out and do fun things! I want to take her shopping for some back to school clothes too. I hope that she will be happy to be home.

I am really struggling with my insomnia lately. I could fall asleep when I put Savino down to bed, at 8-9pm, but that is the ONLY time I have all day without a baby stuck to me, demanding attention, or wanting to nurse, or needing to be fed/changed/, rinse repeat. I feel like I would never get anything done, never have any time to myself if I didn't snatch that time up. But then by the time I force myself to bed, I am not tired anymore and lay there thinking about all the things I COULD be doing or all the things that I haven't done. Oh well. I will figure it out one day!

Well, it's been a few days since I wrote. I have been CRAZY busy. The Little House is within spitting distance of being done. I helped Tim out there all Saturday and after dropping more $$ on a new cabinet and countertop for the kitchen, and mass amounts of plumbing parts, I think we could be done if I can convince Tim to go out there after work. All that is left to do is hook the sink drain up and install the faucet, and the kitchen will be 95% done. Done enough so that Pete (our renter) can move in at least. The dishwasher still needs to be hooked up, but that can be done later. Two couches need moved out of the house, but Tim will have to have help for that. The mailbox needs to be put back up. Little stuff. The biggest priority was finally getting all the plumbing done and the kitchen finished. It has a new floor, new sink cabinet, new countertop, it's really nice! I am impressed with the difference that it has made. Oh, a threshold has to be installed as well. Tim let me use his big saw, his new compound sliding miter saw. It was fun! I felt like I could use it without his supervision once he showed me how to work it, it is pretty easy to use.

Today we did a lot of running around. I have been doing most of it because Jay and Eleni are out of town for the weekend and I have been taking care of their animals while they are out. Their dog, Luna, had to be put out/in and fed and the cats needed fed and checked on. Luna is a HUGE German Shepherd/Husky mix, but she looks scarier than she is. I took her for a walk tonight after I put Savino to sleep, and it was debateable who was walking who at first. She's a sweetie though. I don't mind looking after their animals, it's only fair since they looked after ours while we were on vacation. They come back tomorrow so I think that I just have to go over in the morning and that will be it.

I bought Haley and Savino a bunch of new clothes from JCPenneys Friday night, they had a huge clearance sale of summer clothes and I got Haley 5 new Bobby Jack shirts (they usually cost $20 each) for $3 each and Savino a bunch of clothes for next summer and a few outfits that he can wear now. I wish I could go back because they had so much for $1.97, I should have piled the shopping cart high.

I continue to be a crazy coupon lady. It's fun. It's my latest diversion, and it combines all of my favorite things, being a cheapskate and shopping and OCD organization and list making! I need to get a 3 ring binder and some baseball card pages to store my coupons in, I have quickly realized that my cheap $1 coupon folio thing is not going to cut it. I have way too many coupons and it doesn't have enough space. I need more organization. Pawing through a handful of coupons in the store while Savino screams at me from the shopping cart just doesn't work. I am continually amazed at the deals that I have been able to find. Lately it has been soap, shampoo, and razors. I bought several bars of this Johnson and Johnson toddler soap... for free! I think I have 5 bars of it so far tucked away in the kids bathroom closet, and I plan to keep buying it as long as I can keep finding the coupons for it. Free soap is free soap. Today I got these Intuition razors from CVS for .99 each, the price on the shelf was 9.99. Ahahahaha, it's wonderful. My bathroom closet is starting to fill up with shampoo and conditioner, I doubt I will run out of it any time soon. I am going to go back to CVS and get more of those razors and some bar soap for Tim.

Oh man, Savino. I don't know. That kid! He has such an attitude! He becomes more and more of his own little person every day. He now signs "eat" and "more" reliably and he has started letting me know when he is ready to eat by signing "eat" to me and if I don't get it, he leans forward and puts his fingers on my lips so there's no mistaking it! He makes me smile but he makes me crazy too. He's clearly not ready to wean yet. I thought maybe now that he is getting so much more mobile and able to assert himself more that he would start leaning towards weaning, but he doesn't show any signs of giving it up yet. He will be 11 months in ONE DAY. I can't believe it.

I bought Haley's school supplies, she is just missing some stickers that we will have to go to Walmart to get I think. Otherwise she is ready for school to start, she wants a new backpack though, and she needs more bras and underwear and socks and a few new pairs of jeans. Otherwise she's set. I am a mess though, my little baby is going to be a 4th grader! I can't get over it.

I have taken zero pictures in the last two weeks. Well, that's not true, I've taken a few here and there, just on my point and shoot, but I don't feel like I have had the time to really take any. That makes me a little sad, but life is life. I'd rather be living it!

Ok, it's late, time for me to pack it in.

Vacation Pictures and Tim

Well, first of all, since we came back from vacation Tim has been having a lot of pain in his shoulders and arms and numbness radiating down his arms. Today it was bothering him so much that he called his neurologist and at first they said there were no appointments available until September. Then they called him back at lunch and said COME IN IMMEDIATELY. His dr. is very concerned and scheduled him an emergency MRI tomorrow morning at 9am. He said if it gets any worse to go to the ER immediately so they can do an MRI right away, because he is concerned about permanent damage. Tim has a herniated disc in his neck at the top of his spine and it's likely that it's become aggravated. The MRI tomorrow is to check the disc and also to check his brain to rule out Multiple Sclerosis. I'm not freaking out yet, just because there's no point to it. Tim is supposed to call his neurologist tomorrow after the MRI so the dr. can read the MRI and decide what to do next. He gave Tim a prescription for darvoset three times a day to take the edge off the pain. I just hope that this doesn't lead down a path where Tim is taking lots and lots of painkillers all the time and is always out of it. That would suck for him :(.

Ok, onto happier things. Vacation pictures! I have about a million, so if they take forever to load, that's why. I'm going to try and do this in order, but Blogger has issues with my picture uploading for some reason.

We started out our first day at the Zoo!


Savino is not too pleased to be in the stroller, but he doesn't fuss too much.


Everyone is ready to go!


This is what you get when you tell Tim to smile. Uh thanks hun.


Haley is excited and ready to go!


Haley and the giant golden frog (well, part of it). The Zoo's theme was Year Of The Frog.


Savino says "Eh. Whatever.


The Extinction Bell in the Asian animals part. We didn't get to see the entire zoo because we had too much to do in one day, so we started with the Asian exhibit.


I think these were supposed to represent extinct animals. I don't really know. I just thought they looked cool!


Monkey!


Haley taking a picture. I love this picture.


Very. Large. Bats. They are the largest species of bat and they were HUGE. The picture doesn't do them justice!


And an extremely large snake as well. It was enormous. I have no idea what you feed a snake that big and I'm not sure I want to know!


Mom pointed these out to me, I would have missed them otherwise! Paper cranes lined the top of the covered bridge.


They were actually really cool.


Goats!! I was not surprised at the spots these goats got themselves into. Having owned a goat, we learned quickly that they can scale ANYTHING.


The babies were so cute! They made me miss our Billy. :(


Tim and Savino were ready to move on I think.


Haley goofing on the hammerhead statue.


And getting in the obligatory drumming picture!


In the "Shores" section (which is part of the Aquarium), this ray was extremely friendly and just chilled out pressed up against the glass, occasionally eating some lettuce.


Tim checking out the manatees in the back of the tank.


Giant tortoises. They were really really big! I think Tim could have ridden on the back of one!


Savino was just about done with the zoo. It was too hot! Poor kid, he was such a good sport about it all too.


He was about to be done with it all though. Fits were coming!


Haley clutching "Star", her new Build A Bear on the way to the hotel.


The next day, after some serious bickering and getting lost in downtown Columbus, we made it to COSI!


Poseidon means we are in the "Oceans" exhibit! (The water you can see shooting is from water cannons that are activated by your hand passing through a laser beam)


Haley is loving it!


Savino is giving Daddy the Look for messing with his hair.


A submersible the kids could climb down into. Haley chickened out at the last minute and I didn't blame her! It was so cramped inside that I was getting claustrophobic looking at it.


The floor of the "Oceans" was so pretty, there were sparkley specks all through it. I am a big dork and had to have a picture of it.


Tim is playing with this rocket that zoomed overhead in the "Spaces" exhibit. Savino was entranced.


Mom was watching as Haley climbed into a spaceship simulator.


After a minute, Haley proclaimed the simulator "Boring".


I was playing with the bottle rocket launcher.


It shot a 2 liter soda bottle twenty feet into the air with a huge explosion!


You're getting verrrry sleeepy... I don't remember what the scientific name for one of these things was, but it was cool to look at.


In the "Gadgets" area, Tim is playing with a laser table, and Haley is mugging for the camera!


Watching people hoist themselves into the air in the pulley chairs.


Savino and I take a break in the nursing room. They had a really excellent infant/toddler area that was totally safe for the kids to roam around and play, and a really nice private nursing area that we took advantage of. Savino loved playing with all the toys and I appreciated the leather glider rockers!


The "Progress" exhibit took you through two different time periods, the first being an Old West sort of street.


The street lamps flickered just like old school gas lanterns.


I thought this street sign was pretty cool. One side of the street was Hope Street and the other was Fear Street, I think it was a commentary on how people view change.


The other time period was the 60's!


Haley will dish you up a 25c ice cream sundae!


I played (and lost) a 10c game of pinball at this working pinball machine.


Last up was the Science Park outside where you could roll a 5 ton marble sphere that floated on a bed of water.


Haley is excited to get on the centripal (?) generator aka The Gravitron. Tim and my mom both thought she was gonna freak on it, but she loved it!


Even though she said she was fine, I still made her sit down for a minute afterwards.


She wanted to go on it again. That's my girl!


The giant lever! You could lift an old Cadillac, I thought it was very cool.


Tim is not amused at me taking his picture, we went on a picnic to the local park.


Cheyenne just wants someone's scraps.


Savino is having fun just banging anything he can!


Mom was probably tired of me and my camera by this point!


Grammalynn getting love from Savino, cuddling in the rocker


Savino says "Let me get that tongue for you Gramma!"


Now Gramma is getting his tongue! Silly!


I took advantage of having everyone in matching shirts and took some portraits while my mom was here. This is one of my favorites.


Aw, I like this one too though!


Savino says OK, I'm done!


Grammalynn and Haley


Giving Savino some kisses!





Whew. That's all of them.