when people like my pins on pinterest, i'm all

Heck yes, you do.

365 days 180-191

 7-11-12
I caught the reflection of the fan in my specs.

 7-12-12
County fair!  We didn't ride any rides because the last time we tried that, poor WonderGirl was terrified, but we went around looking at the animals, which was tres amusing.  One really amusing part was how many teens who were showing their cows in the competition were sitting next to their cows, eating burgers.  Is it just me, or does that seems a little rude to the poor cow?

 7-13-12

We had a date night with some friends at an all-you-can-eat Mongolian place in Mad-Town.  I had to prop up my feet on the dash and unbuckle my skinny jeans on the way home.  

 7-14-12
Two dates in two days??  It won't happen again for a long time, but the husband couldn't resist one more demolition derby of the season, and I got to tag along .  The drive included a trip on a ferry and ice cream, too!

 7-15-12
It's HOT.  Tying up my hair and getting down to work.

 7-16-12
Dreaming of bed... this summer is just draining me!

 7-17-12
Circus World day!

 7-18-12
The hubs sister was in town so we finished up the trip with some deep conversation about mortgages and other such adult things.  It always comes to me as a shock that I've grown to the place where people around me discuss such responsible things.  No worries, I didn't understand any of it.

7-19-12

I'm not as miserable as I look, just tired and ug-lay.

 7-20-12
Some friend had us over for homemade quesadillas.  Oh my heavens, the cilantro, the cheese, the massive deep frying...  I was toast.

 7-21-12
Oooo, I didn't phone it in today!  I tried to go for a deep picture of me posing with some headache meds.  I think the husband gave me his broken brain.

7-22-12
No TV on Sunday means we spend more time together, which we do.  Until the kids went down and we plopped on the couch checking FB and blogs on our phones in tandem.

marriage counseling

I heard some awful marriage advice the other day.  I'm no expert - I've only been married 7 years and I've been alive for oodles more (and spent exactly none of those preceding years getting ready for marriage) so I'd hardly go out giving advice.  Especially because I'm pretty sure our marriage is far from normal, what with the two of us because so far from normal.

The advice was to always argue naked.  Has anyone else ever heard this??  I am all for a healthy discussion about how wrong the other person is, but if they were nude then I'd be all mad at their nudity, and then just hate their naked body for being all naked.  My anger knows very little logic.  And no matter how rockin' my bod is, I can seriously infuriate the hubs.  I do NOT want to mix my annoyingness with my hottness.  That just screams poor foresight.

As my girlfriend and I were discussing this in my kitchen yesterday over peaches and a bad day, husband pointed out another problem - it would be waaayyyy too easy to point out the other's flaws.  Consider the following hypothetical confab:

"How could you not rinse out your bowl before leaving it in the sink??"
"I didn't have time because I had to rush to turn off the bidet that YOU left on that was flooding the bathroom."
"Why are you throwing that in my face??  I told you I forgot to turn it off because I was distracted texting my mom pictures of cats and dogs snuggling  WHY DO YOU HATE MY MOTHER?!?!"
"Who said...  what the... ARG!  You drive me insane!  I didn't say that or do anything wrong - why are you and your belly button giving me the stink-eye??"
"It's not my fault I have an outtie!"
"IS IT???  IS IT???"

My girlfriend had had a rough day and was hanging out before going back to home and reality.  Before she left, I gave her my own, rare bit of advice.  When things are rough, just hug them and tell them how much you love them.  And if you REALLY made them mad, do it topless.   APOLOGIZE naked, I say.

Who can argue with that?

For the family reunion , we put a pack-n-play in the closet and had the Dude take his naps in there.  I was nervous about it because I was scared he'd be able to get OUT, but the crazy thing was he was thrilled to get IN.  I'd find him sneaking in there for breaks all the time.    He didn't want to go back to the crib when everyone left, and I've been worrying this meant he was ready for a real bed.  Because I am so not there.

But husband lowered the side of the crib and put a step ladder so he can climb on in, and I swear, you've never seen a happier human in your life when this child climbs up and snuggles into his bed by himself.    This is a seriously dull post, but really, this is what is going on.  Flabbergastation at the adorableness.

365 days 166-179

We hosted 12 family members for a family reunion in a crazy heatwave and lived to tell the tale, and not to update my blog the entire flipping time.  No worries, at least I kept snapping my daily photos!

 6-27-12
"Mommy, may I please dance? May I please turn around?"  It's never just dancing with this one - you always end up spinning. 

 6-28-12
Homercles declares NAPTIME.

 6-29-12
A.dor.able.

 6-30-12
Papa Bear is in the HOUSE!!!  The reunion can officially begin!!

 7-1-12
Husband and I etched mugs for every family member for the reunion - perfect for drinking that keg of root beer we got!!  Paaaartay!!

 7-2-12
We spent a lovely family home evening at Pewitt's Nest where I took a million and one pictures of everyone else, and this one of me with the zoom all zoomed in.  Whoops.

7-3-12

We pulled off a long, hot sweaty day at Circus World and a surprise 40th anniversary party for my parents.  This picture of my popcorn making skills for the post-party-movie was all I could muster that day.  By the way, I make awesome popcorn.

And if you are so inclined, I made an epic video for the party.  Of course.  You can watch it if you want.

40th Wedding Anniversary of Mama and Papa Bear from Reva Paget on Vimeo.

Someday the lyrics for our tribute song (written to the tune We Didn't Start the Fire) will probably surface.  Dallin helped and somehow the words "explosive diarrhea" got in there.

7-4-12
Of course the only picture I managed to get was with my cell at 11pm.  But dagnabit I still haven't missed a day!

7-5-12
The family reunion was a success, hip hip hooray!  Jane was just as thrilled as I was.

7-6-12
Mom and Dad saved sparklers for husband and I to take a picture with since we'd managed to get some awesome ones with everyone else on the 4th (he was still cleaning up the party at church).  But the camera wouldn't cooperate and he burned his foot, so I'll name this one "Attempting To Keep The Spark Alive."  It takes WORK, people.

7-7-12
Mom and Dad officially left and I won't see them until after they return from China in a year.  So I spent most of my day hiding and crying like a ninny.

7-8-12
I was messing around in the kitchen and overexposed the heck out of this one.  I kind of dig it.

7-9-12

More with the kitchen... ugh.  Recovering from this reunion will take some effort.

7-10-12

WonderGirl picked out our matching outfits today, down to the shoes (she even put mine on for me).  Of course Dude couldn't keep away from the excitement, but we had no flowery tunics for him, poor thing.