Time to Sit Back & Enjoy the Music

Sometimes life gets so consuming that the very thought of sitting down to blog about it is enough to make me start yawning.

September ends today and the extent of my fall decor to date is a simple bowl of acorns on the buffet.

Sad.

Especially if you know how much I love fall.

But Bible study and church small group have started back up, I am running 20 miles a week right now, and Kendry is still rising by 6:30 a.m. every morning.

So I take my relaxation time wherever I can get it, even if it means a little blogging break.

Thats not to say I haven't been working on any fun projects.

I have.

I just don't have any final products to show you.

Except maybe for one.

Present exhaustion aside, two months of toddler air guitar got my creative juices flowing a bit last weekend.

Using a few items from our recycling bin, Justin and I whipped up this guitar in just a few minutes.

And Kendry loves it.

As long as you're taking requests, kiddo, how about some "Dreams" by the Cranberries to motivate my fall decorating?

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Justin and I did a trail race together last weekend - him 2 miles, me 5 miles.
Brutal, I tell ya.

Puffer Butte Huff and Puff 2011

 

{2}

Remember that Washington State football game I mentioned a few weeks ago?

Here we are:

We had a wonderful time and Kendry did great. They also had a Coug Club play area for the kiddos, which was a fun bonus.

These photos mark the official start of Kendry no longer hiding from the camera. Much to my amazement, he looked directly at us and said "cheeeese!"

{3}

Its premiere week, baby!

[spoiler alert]

I was literally squealing with delight at the sight of Victoria returning to How I Met Your Mother.

In real life the actress is the little sister of Kimberly Williams-Paisley (aka Mrs. Brad Paisley) so how can you not love her?

But enough about celebrities...

 

{4}

Oh how Pinteresting!

I came across another AWESOME recipe on Pinterest and tried it this weekend.

Chicken Tamale Casserole

You have gotta try this one, folks.

{5}

Next up on Pinterest:
acorn crafts as fall decor.
I have been scavenging my work parking lot again this year for acorns.

They call me the acorn hoarder.

 

{6}
We have a little orange visitor who has taken up residence in our yard and carport over the last week.

Justin reminded me this weekend that he has always wanted an orange cat.
The jury is still out on whether we'll let her stay,
although the bowl of half and half we have so graciously left out for her the last two mornings might give you some indication of which way we are leaning.

{7}

Over the last week I suffered: (1) a near heart attack watching my kiddo tumble from the top of the monkey bars; and (2) the most embarrassing 'kids say the darndest things' moment.

Parenting ain't for the fainthearted.

{8}
Blogolution Update:
This, my friends, is how its done:

Hooray for baseboards finally being installed two years after our baseboard heaters were removed!

And I did it all by myself.
Mini wave in celebration of me! (name that show)

{9}

Now I'm gearing up to take this bad boy off his hinges again this weekend and finally make him pretty.

Between this and cleaning our windows, we're gonna be workin' up a good sweat come Saturday morning.

{10}
This Week's Blessing:

Not only did Justin and I get to do a run together Saturday morning (sans kiddo), but we finally got to see Transformers 3 at the $1 theater, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa.

Thank you so much for babysitting, Mikki and Richard!

I Have a New Crush

Oh, picnik!

Where have you been all my life?!

(a little shout out to Shelley over at House of Smiths for tipping me off to this fabulous site and giving a few basic editing tips)

I am a newbie to photo editing, but look what I did in just a few minutes with this one:

I actually love both the 'before' and the 'after' versions; the original photo was snapped by my BFF Amanda who takes beautiful pics anyway.

But this before and after shows you a few of the features available on picnik.

I confess - I am a sepia addict. And I like having the background a little blurred so the focus was on Kendry.

(When is it not, right?)

Plus, the wording on the photos and this simple collage format were both done on picnik.

Do you know what this means for my before and after project photos?!

The possibilities are endless...

{Note: I went ahead and paid for the premium picnik features ($25/year or $5/month) since I am absolutely smitten with this site.}

Here you can see the results of a few exposure, highlights, contrast and sharpen changes - essentially just a few clicks of the mouse:

I have been blogging for three years now and for the life of me I cannot tell you why I am only just now catching up with the photo editing world.

Who knew it was this simple?

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Favorite quote of the month:

“Is there such thing as a cauliflower plant that only produces leaves for you to eat?”

-Justin-

If there is, babe, I'd say thats exactly what we’ve got:

Someone needs to tell this plant that its mid-September and we have yet to see its bounty.

And no, we are not going to eat the leaves.

 

{2}

Phooey on you, ninety degree weather!
I'm buying my pumpkin spice and peppermint mocha creamer just to spite you!

 

{3}

Did anyone really need an official study to know that SpongeBob Squarepants isn’t appropriate viewing for kids?

{4}
Over the last month Kendry's favorite question of "Do you have green eyes, Mommy?" has changed to "Are you sweaty, Mommy?"

Just peachy.

 

{5}

This (sweaty) mommy is ready to be done with the half marathon training.

Only 31 days to go.

 

{6}

I haven't had much time to create lately, although I did make this much needed sleeve for our laptop:

 Ain't she purdy?

I used this tuturial.

 

{7}

Maybe its cuz I'm a child of the 80's, but trendy or not, you will not catch me with a silly feather extension in my hair.

{8}

I wonder how much more I would accomplish if I spent less time on Pinterest and more time actually completing my 339 (and counting) pinned ideas...


{9}
Oh who am I kidding?
Its September and I've got season premieres to watch.
Later, gaters!

{10}

This Week's Blessing:

Spending time with family visiting from Germany.

Alex and Gisela: 

Dank für ihren Besuch Wir hoffen. sie genießen sie den rest ihrer Reise. Vielen Dank nochmal für die Geschenke für Kendry.

Segen für euch und den euren!

The Camping Trip That Wasn't

On Friday evening we excitedly set out for our last camping trip of the summer.

We were on the road by 5:45pm and had only an hour and a half drive to reach our site.

I had visions of sitting around the campfire reading a good book.

Justin was looking forward to cooking us a pizza in the dutch oven.

A relaxing family weekend in the great outdoors.

Alas, we reached our camp site to find this:

Camping without a campfire?

I think not.

In our defense, we had checked the website that same day to confirm there were no burn bans.

So either the website wasn't updated or the ban was placed after we checked.

Who knows?

It has been crazy hot and dry around here. I can't even tell you the last time we saw a good rain.

So the burn ban wasn't a total surprise.

Just a huge disappointment.

Knowing most of our food would need a heat source to prepare,

and knowing that our morning temps would probably only be in the 40's,

we decided to turn around and head back home.

But first we stopped to stretch our legs a bit.

Kendry saying "I want to go camping, Mommy."

His patience with me was wearing thin.

Now he is saying "No more cheesing, Mommy" as he walks away from the me,

a subtle hint for me to put the camera away.

Justin threw his line in a few times,

but the fish weren't biting.

Kendry wanted to help Daddy with his "squishing".

We knew if we told Kendry we had to go back home it would trigger a major meltdown.

So we kept up the facade and told him we still had to drive to get to our campsite.

Finally, the kiddo dozed off.

Knowing Kendry would continue to ask when we were going camping if he woke up in his own bed in the morning, we opted to do this:

We set up camp in our back yard!

We fell asleep admiring the moon and stars,

we didn't have to worry about getting too cold during the night,

and we still got to enjoy hot cocoa around our campfire in the morning.

Messes like this hot chocolate fu manchu seem so much more managable when you have easy access to a sink and shower.

It wasn't quite what we had in mind for our last camping trip of the season, but it still made a memory.

And I swear, I only dare to pull off this fashion faux pas when I'm camping.

The Kiddo's First Wheels!

This day has been a long time coming, folks.

Even Kendry was monitoring the final countdown over the last few days, all triggered by the bike helmet we bought him last Monday.

Today it finally arrived on our door step:

For some time now, Justin and I have been discussing the right time to get Kendry his first bike.

Yes, we are aware that our child isn't even two and a half years old yet. And we know that his motor skills aren't quite at a level where he can multi-task the balancing, steering and pedaling all at once.

But our kiddo has had a serious case of bike envy all summer.

In July we attended a birthday party at which the birthday boy received a new bike.

Kendry didn't take his eyes off that bike for the rest of the party.

Last weekend while we were down at the levee, Kendry watched intently as a 3 year old teetered down the bike path with his training wheels. A few minutes later, when the boy dismounted his bike and headed over to the swings, Kendry sauntered ever so casually over to the bike, stopping only a few feet away. He peered at the bike longingly, looked up at the boy's father, and then stated very matter of factly: "Thats not your bike."

To clarify, Kendry wasn't saying this to the dad; he was saying it to himself as a reminder not to play with a bike that doesn't belong to him.
A reminder we have voiced to him many times this summer.

My mom used to tell us that when my big brother John would get hurt as a child they would tell him "You're alright, John." After awhile, John took to reassuring himself with those words: "You're alright, John. You're alright."

I can't help but laugh when I hear Kendry do the same thing - my favorite being when he knows he is doing something naughty. Suddenly his conscience kicks in and he says "Kenndryy Drruuu", drawing it out and using a reprimanding tone, just like Mommy does.

Anyway, back to the bike.

Now our kiddo actually has one of his own!

This is a balance bike. In case you didn't notice, it doesn't have pedals. It works with the concept of teaching your kiddo how to balance and steer before they move on to tackle the pedaling aspect.

As you can see, we've got a ways to go yet.

We have to keep reminding him to keep his bum on the seat.




Kendry took his first lesson pretty seriously,

but he loves it!

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

We had a blast at the WSU football game last Saturday!
Pics to come soon.

{2}
Thanks for all the love on Kendry's bathtime vocals.
This week he added the "Veggie Tales" theme song to his repertoire.

{3}
You should also know that Kendry plays a mean air guitar.
And just before he strums the first note he tells you:
"Its almost music time..."

{4}
Note to self:
buy the kiddo a play guitar for Christmas.


{5}

I do not advise waiting until the third day of your three day weekend to start what should have been a one weekend home improvement project.

This is what our front door looked like early Monday morning before we removed it from its hinges for prep and painting:

And this is what it looked like 12 hours later when we put it back on the hinges, obviously sans paint:

And thats all I'm going to say about that for today.

Except, that is, to ask if that green looks like lead paint to you?

Okay, moving on...

{6}

There is no way a slightly derailed home improvement project such as that is going to stop me from heading out for one last summer camping trip this weekend.

No way, Jose!

{7}

Coincidentally, the words "No way, Jose" came out of our kiddo's mouth completely at random last weekend.

A human parrot, that one is.

{8}

All helmeted up with no place to go:

His new wheels should arrive by Thursday.

{9}
Would you believe it if I told you this bike helmet fits both Kendry and his daddy?

{10}

This Week's Blessing:

An amazing long weekend with my boys, which included an early Saturday morning run on the levee followed by blueberry pancakes, a college football game, Sunday morning church and a beautiful evening spent around our makeshift fire pit.
I love my boys! 

Blogolution Update: De-Stumped

Just a little update on our progress out back.

Justin worked so hard, in horrible heat no less, to get that enormous felled tree cleaned up – a feat he accomplished just in time for our back yard play date with friends last weekend.

I think its safe to say we are set for firewood this year:

Mmmmmm…a warm fire in the fireplace on a chilly Saturday morning, with a hot peppermint mocha in my hands.

I am so very ready.

On Monday the tree guys returned to grind down both stumps.

Along with tire tracks all over our back yard, here is what they left behind:

To help you fully comprehend the progress in our back yard, here is a photo with both trees still standing:

{2008}

And here it is now:

{2011}

Do you think our ShopVac would work on this mess?


Yeah, I didn't think so.

The back yard feels a bit nekkid without the trees, but hopefully thats only temporary.

Happy Face

If you've known the Binder family (a/k/a my gene pool) for very long, you are no doubt familiar with the phrase "have a happy face".

Its a simple reminder to have a good attitude. 

A reminder that I received from my mother countless times growing up.

Now that I'm grown and can no longer be punished for it, I confess that sometimes this reminder only succeeded in fueling my bad attitude, and it may have even triggered a few eye rolls.

{Sorry, Mom.}

I blame it on teenage angst.

Or my sister Angel.

Which excuse is more believable?

{Love you, Ang!}

Regardless, the reminder stuck with me.

And now that I am a parent, the "happy face" has made its way into our home.

As most toddlers do, Kendry occasionally whines when its not necessary,

or displays a little bit of attitude from time to time.

He is familiar with the "happy face".

The other morning I prayed with Kendry before his breakfast.

We thanked God for our food and blessings, and asked Him to help us have a wonderful day, to obey Him and to obey Mommy and Daddy.

Following 'amen', I turned to walk back to the kitchen and heard Kendry whine:

"And happy face, Mommy!"

I had forgotten to ask God to help us have a happy face through the day,

and Kendry called me on it.

Just like my mother's "happy face" reminder, our Heavenly Father has little reminders for us, His children.

And that morning He used my kiddo to speak to my heart.

Have you heard this prayer?

Dear God,

So far today, I've done all right.

I haven't gossiped.

I haven't lost my temper.

I haven't lied or cheated.

I haven't been greedy, grumpy,

nasty, selfish or overindulgent.

I'm very thankful for that.

But in a few minutes, Lord,

I'm going to get out of bed;

and from then on,

I'm probably going to need

a lot more help.

Amen.

 

 

I am a total morning person.

When my alarm goes off in the morning I have that wonderful moment of peace and contentment.

The day ahead of me has so much potential!

 

And then I discover that Kendry wet the bed during the night.

Or I forgot to wash the load of whites and now Justin is stuck without a clean undershirt for work.

Or the birds in our front tree took out their vengeance during the night on my newly washed car.

 

But when I stop and take the time to talk to God in the morning, asking Him to help me through my day (with a "happy face"),

I can hold my peace,

no matter what comes my way.

 

A bad attitude looks good on no one.

And life is too darn short.

 

 

"This is the day the Lord has made;

I will rejoice and be glad in it."

-Psalm 118:24-