Thursday, December 31, 2009

Santa Aftermath










Minute's second Christmas with us. What a good time we all had!! And I have no idea how Santa managed to bring so much loot for the Dude. I also have no idea where we are going to put everything. I guess we'll have to do a sweep of all the old stuff and send a bunch to Good Will. Or else rent another house!

We had a nice Holiday. Lots of company, LOTS of good food and good times. I have even taken time off work! MM and I have been have been doing a lot of hanging out. We worked on my golf course (wow was it cold!!), worked at my new office, done some post-xmas clothes shopping, grocery shopping, baked some cookies, and watched some TV (mostly Gilmore Girls). I'm even finishing a quilt I began 4 years ago, and made it to the gym. Stuff that I usually do not have time for. It's been fun, and while I still have anxiety about beginning the new job, I'm starting in a good place, and looking forward to having more time to do "stuff". Not just work!

Anyway, Happy new Year, and All that to You and Yours.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The next James Dean?

Minh told me he was "riding Motorcycle. Pick up pizza". But before he could leave, he needed his sunglasses. Here's the result. What you can't see: the rolled up pack of candy cigarettes in his left sleeve.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Still no pictures....




Well, in true two-year-old fashion, the Minute Man has deemed that there be no pictures of him taken EVER. So I have to sneak up on him to snap any photos to speak of. Here are a few. not the best, and I'm sure not going to win any photo contests, but at least it helps those of you who like to see new a ADORABLE pictures of The Dude, AKA Master Cute, AKA the Minh-ja, AKA, Mr. Minh-tastic.

He is too, you know; adorable, cute, and minh-tastic!

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Reading in bed




...one of life's great joys.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Minute Man helps Mom get ready for work




You see how helpful MM is? He not only picked out my shoes, but he tried them out for me. Then took them for a nice bike ride....

Friday, November 13, 2009

Thanks Mom-Mom!!!

MM's Great Grandmother sent MM a Halloween card. He LOVED the card so much he ran around all night with it saying "Mine card. No touch". In fact, he even slept with it! (yes, he got it in plenty of time for Halloween, I'm just behind posting the photo!!). Minute says "Thanks, Mom-Mom!".



Its bad when you are UPSET that its Friday because you have so much work to do that a Saturday hinders the process. Don't get me wrong, I am both very happy and very stressed that it's friday. I do have an incredible amount of work to do - although I am rapidly checking things off my "to do list" but with about one month left in my current position, I am FRANTIC to complete projects and make progress on others.

I have very little energy right now, and don't even have the energy to read! Maybe I'll just crawl in bed and spend some time with my kiddo. He's AWESOME.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Give me the Keys, Mom!!!!!!!!!!!



Happy Trash Day - or is it Halloween?

In my haste to get these photos up, I put them up out of order. But, you get the idea how great this is....

("oh, look what I found in that last garbage can!!") ... just kidding! This is Minh's first candy bar!

Big Orange WasTe ManagmenT - "We are NOT associated with the Mob". GO VOLS.


MM's light saber..... I mean flashlight (for safety of course!)

Getting ready with Big Mamma.

Minute Man out on Halloween. He's an Italian Garbage Man. duh!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Braving the State Fair


MM hangs with the tractors.


At the petting zoo, which MM really enjoyed.

MM doing yoga to pass the time while we waited for a train to go past.


MM sitting by his FAVORITE thing - a tractor.

We even went together. Some guy even offered to take our picture to prove it.



I got a wild hair and decided to take the Dude to the State Fair this year. I always go but always ask myself why I've subjected myself to such a thing as soon as I get there. this year was no exception. It was also poor timing - "get-in-free-with-a-canned-good night". You can imagine the derth (and quality) of the people that were there. Plus the weather was nice. Plus it was right at dinner time, so it was like the perfect storm. It was INSANE. MM did really well, for the most part. We took him to see all the animals: chickens, pigs, sheep, ducks, cows, goats, etc. and he enjoyed them for the most part. He really liked the petting zoo (which I did not like), but his favorite thing in the world, AND at the fair, was/were the tractors. This child LOVES LOVES LOVES tractors. That GIANT grin I finally got of him up-above was because he got to hang out with the tractors.

We ate some junk food too - french fries, and icecream. There was so much fried junk we just couldn't commit. And it all looked gross, frankly. Deep fried oreos, deep fried snickers, deep fried cheese cake, deep fried icecream, deep fried twinkies... the list goes on. There was even deep fried Coke-a-Cola. Go figure. But we tried not to indulge too much. Just being there was hard enough - fighting the throngs of people... I have a whole new definition of ugly now. Not very nice, I know, but oh so true.

Anyway, the Dude enjoyed it a lot. He was vibrating by the time we got to the car to go home. Next year I think I'll take him again, of course, but only if it rains!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

"Working" in the kitchen




A favorite pass-time activity for Minute Man and his Momma - baking!! MM LOVES to work in the kitchen and wants to be a part of ANYTHING that goes on there - but most especially the taste-testing part!

(I think here we were making waffles, actually, but I have many pictures like this making cookies too!)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Our "nest"


MM and his Momma are "nesting". I was having a rough day, and the Minute Man came to my rescue...he laid me on the floor next to the diaper pail, with my head on my bluejeans, then he put my blanket on me. And then he laid down with his bottle and his blanket.

Somehow, I did indeed feel better!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Hanging out (hee hee) around the House







Cold and damp around the 'hood today. MM and his Momma are cooling our heels by doing some shoppin', laundry, dishes, and reading (it's not just for the toilet anymore!).

(yes, this has been edited for your protection.)

Friday, October 16, 2009

My new job!!!!!

My new job will be working with this group, as well as the Feds. My "home office" is with this group, however.

Here's the website: http://www.sripmc.org/

Here's the overview for the Center:
The Southern Region Integrated Pest Management Center (SRIPMC) fosters the development and adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a science-based approach to managing pests in ways that generate economic, environmental and human health benefits. We work in partnership with stakeholders from agricultural, urban and rural settings to identify and address regional priorities for research, education and outreach.




MM sez: "go check out My Mom's new job-website!! Do it. Do it NOW!"

The "no more pictures" pose....





yes, he picked this outfit out himself....