what babies really need and other news

not much - that's what! here's a cute photo of liam in his laundry basket. this keeps him wrangled so i can take a shower while he plays. when i finish, i fill the tub for him and pull him in with me. (i had to censor out his junk in this photo...)
and here he is all clean! he loves baths. btw - his little "colbert ear" is really obvious in this photo. they're actually the same size, but attach to his head at different angles. i think it's adorable :)


babies are so much fun! and you don't need to buy a bunch of crap for them. seriously, if you haven't procreated yet, talk to me before you do. i'll save you thousands of dollars, literally, by keeping you from buying all the stuff our society tells you babies need. they are lying and just trying to make money. ok, i'm off my soap box :)

here's my newest little craft. it's a clothes pin bag! it was really easy to make, and will serve me nicely once we get the clothesline put up. i can't wait!

here's a closer view:


i'm blogging today from cold, cold, council bluffs, iowa. colin has a photography conference today through tuesday. we drove up last night. our hotel is swanky - the spring hill suites marriot. we have a fridge, microwave, huge flat panel tv, and internet. the furniture is "hip and modern". here's liam playing on the floor:


they have a hot breakfast and i think snacks later. liam and i are going to go shopping for new swim suits for both of us. my favorite thing about our room is the shower.

check out the chair in the corner. just in case you get too tired from standing and showering. "gosh, i'm totally wiped out from my business trip. if only i could sit down..." brilliant design.

computer, wash my clothes.

look at who's coming to live at our house saturday. it's my fancy new washer! i don't even own 16 pairs of jeans, but you and everyone you know could come over to my house and we could wash them all at once :). my old washer was bought 2 years ago from an ad in the paper for $60. nothing fancy, and it may even be older that i am. i noticed a few months ago that it doesn't actually spin during the entire spin cycle. so a new washer went to the top of our list of things to buy when other things are paid off.

well, other things have all been paid off! except for the car and student loans, we're debt free! we have 1K saved towards what we're upside down on the car, and then we're selling it! this feels pretty good.

this washer is super great, and has a sanitize cycle for when i do my diapers. it also has a delay start on the wash, so you can load your clothes before bed, then have it start later so they aren't sitting damp all night. it also spins your cloths almost dry so you don't have to use your dryer as much. we're putting up a clothes line, too. if we do 8 loads of laundry a week with this machine, it costs $10 a year to operate. i can't wait to start comparing our bills!

the best thing about my washer is it's paid for. it's really neat to pay cash for the things we need. we did it with our bed, and now our washer. oh, our dryer too. the other best thing is this is probably the greatest impact i could have on the environment until we go down to one car.

i feel a little silly since i am so giddy about my new washer! but you'll understand once you see it. and liam's super fresh diapers.

speaking of liam, he's hilarious. he's going to be crawling soon and we have a bunch of videos to post once colin reformats them for the web. stay tuned. it's better than cable.