Been livin' a whole lotta life around here lately. Jasper turned one at the end of July. I spent hours making this cake (I need more round cake pans!) and then let him (and Ruby) smash the crap out it. It was fun to watch and the un-smashed bits were still tasty.
He had his yearly check up and he's still a healthy, hefty, happy little guy. 85th percentile for height, 90th for weight, and still off the charts with his giant noggin. He took his four shots well. Just for the fun of it, a comparison shot of Jasper and Ruby Doo at the same age:
Shortly after returning from Minnesota, after we (I) came to conclusion that moving north wasn't in the cards we decided that we needed a new place. Besides being a little crowded lately I was tired of being in the 'burbs. We started "casually" looking. As long as we were settled before Ruby started school we'd be fine with taking our time. I think we looked at 5 houses in two weeks before we found "the one", made an offer, etc. It didn't really take long at all considering the area we wanted to live, our not-so-large budget, and the fact that Heath and I wanted completely different things in a house. Me: Older with character, walkable. Him: Move in ready, good school district. Our new place is a new build (2006) in an area of town close to downtown that has been in the process of being revived for a few years. It's walkable to a lot of parks, restaurants, etc. The neighborhood seems to be more of a community than our current neighborhood so that will be a big change for us, as we only know the names of 3 of our neighbors. Gees, that makes me feel like a terrible person.
Right after getting things finalized with the house I was in a car accident. Thankfully, the kids weren't with me but Ruby, who saw the accident scene shortly after it happened, almost proudly told everyone at daycare how "momma got her car smashed". I was fine but my poor CR-V did not survive. It was a stressful week waiting to hear if the insurance company would total it or not. I didn't know that the airbag deploying was the kiss of death to a vehicle but apparently it is. They finally declared it a total loss and I cried when we went to retrieve my belongings from it at the salvage yard. I really loved my car.
Car shopping wasn't fun (is it ever?) mainly because I was on a time crunch, both because I wanted to get the rental car back ASAP and I was test driving and haggling with various dealers in the few hours I had after work and before I picked up the kids. At Heath's behest I test drove other vehicles (a Kia Sonata and a Toyota Rav4) but in the end I decided that I was kidding myself if I thought I wanted anything else other than another CR-V. Buying a car with two kids in tow was a new experience but it wasn't too bad. The dealer who sold us the car ended up being on Ruby sitting duty while Heath and I signed paperwork. Lucky for him she tends to be fairly charming with people who aren't her parents. She mooched three helium balloons and twelve pieces of candy from him by the time everything was all said and done.
Now the whole car thing is taken care of and we are scheduled to close on the new house in less than a week. Movers are finally booked but the house is a freaking hell hole. Boxes and crap everywhere. Before I started packing I would have said with confidence that the house was fairly organized and that I had done a good job of getting rid of clutter and stuff we don't really need. Maybe not so much. Of course, it has been twelve years since we moved from a 2 bedroom apartment with only two adults.
Oh, and I've been taking a ceramics class for a couple of months. Don't let this really, really good looking pot throw you (throw you? hahaha.) I assure you the vast majority of what I've thrown are terrible and should be sacrificed to the kiln gods. I started taking the class for my sanity, get more art back in my life, and to conquer my dislike of throwing but it's been hard to not turn off the wheel and start working on a sculpture.
Lots of stuff going on right now. Things are stressful right now but I'm looking forward to the changes.
Oh, and I've been taking a ceramics class for a couple of months. Don't let this really, really good looking pot throw you (throw you? hahaha.) I assure you the vast majority of what I've thrown are terrible and should be sacrificed to the kiln gods. I started taking the class for my sanity, get more art back in my life, and to conquer my dislike of throwing but it's been hard to not turn off the wheel and start working on a sculpture.
Lots of stuff going on right now. Things are stressful right now but I'm looking forward to the changes.
