storm freak out at my house last night!

and it wasn't baby liam. i have a few irrational fears, including flying and tornadoes. when i was a kid, my older sister could make me cry just by saying the word tornado. come to think of it, mandy may very well be the original source of this anxiety. but i digress.

last night we opened up all of the windows before bed, knowing it was going to rain. storms haven't really bothered me as much in the last few years, but sometimes they still get me. last night i woke up around 1am to not very hard rain, but i couldn't go back to sleep. i could hear the storm moving closer to our house. it wasn't loud here, but i could hear it further away. it was weird. so i start to panic that i can even hear such a thing and have to now wake up colin. if i'm awake and scared, there's no reason to be by myself. colin gets up and looks outside. he says the rain is waking me up because it's falling on a tarp outside and that it's just a summer storm. i don't believe him and know something is wrong. he says if it was dangerous, the sirens would go off. i say they could be broken. and then i actually hear them. i now have my liam in my arms and i'm breathless and my heart is racing even more. i make colin grab the papazon pillow and our comforter and head to the basement.

we have a great cheap rental house in a great neighborhood. but it is cheap - and part of the reason (beside my landlord being awesome) is the basement leaks. so we get downstairs (liam is awake now) and decide to sit in the back corner with the least amount of water. colin heads back up for the laptop. i am trying to figure out what debris in our basement will be our fate.

long story short (obviously) there was no tornado. it was just a really strong storm. liam was confused and wanted to play when we went back upstairs, and our comforter got wet with basement ick. our papazon pillow is gross now, too.

colin and i both decided that we need to clean our basement and have a set (and furnished) place to go during storms. we are also expanding the plans in our head for our dream house. it now includes a shelter space that has no part of our house structure above it.

liam didn't fight going back to sleep once we turned all the lights back off. lucky for me, the storm died completely after my freak out. best of all, my husband was super sweet (as always). he snuggled up to me after getting back in bed and thanked me for keeping our family safe. he's the best, and i love him because of it.

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.

show me your treasures, gypsy

saturday morning, 7am. liam is awake. usually he will sleep until about 8 or so. but colin and i put up a garage sale the last 2 days, so liam apparently thought we should wake up and do it again. it was supposed to be my day to snuggle and sleep in. however, colin went into work around 6:30 to finish up the st. patty's day wedding order - so it is most likely unfair for me to be tired. but i am.

the sale was a huge success! we got rid of so much stuff - and made ~350. not bad. i couldn't have done it without nikki and zeven (seen here playing in the mirror).

these really odd things happened during the sale:
1. we were both flirted with. not by hot guys like our husbands, but still. it had been such a long time, i was not quite sure what was happening at first. nice to know i still have it.
2. when not being flirted with, i'm pretty sure we were being mistaken as a lesbian couple. nikki also recently had her hair chopped, and you know all lesbians have short hair.
3. someone thought zeven and liam were twins. now, if being twins meant only being super cute, yeah, i could see it. however, nikki's son is a month older, but wears 18 month clothes. that means he is one big kid. silly people.

all in all it was a good time. we all went out to dinner at hu-hot last night (we discovered this is not just colin's, but also nikki's favorite restaurant). then visited sarah's for noah's first birthday party. liam was quite the ham. it was like showing up in a dress prettier than the bride's. usually noah is just as jovial and loud as liam, but liam was in rare flirty form.

we finally got the spare couch moved out (we had 3 for 2 weeks). colin got to spend some time with eric and i got to curl up with a good book. mandy and her friend will be in town tonight and are taking me out for sushi.

tomorrow i turn 29. i think we'll have a bbq later this week, weather permitting.

liam is finally ready to nurse (and nap!) so i'm back to work :)

photos for my mama

liam helping dad cook

liam - 6 months old, ready for bed (check out that huge night-time diaper!)

taking a bath

cute photo shoot at dad's work

best bath photo ever :)

manual labor, with baby

today colin, kyle, mandy, mom and i all came out to grandma's property to clear off (i'm not exaggerating) 36 truckloads of brush. remember the incredible ice storm? well, it successfully destroyed most of the tree's branches and the sight was starting to depress grandma. i have not been this tired in a long time. and i even got to take breaks to help with lunch and dinner, and to nurse and change liam. i can't imagine how everyone else feels, although mandy sleeping next to me on the couch since 8pm is a probably pretty indicative.

however, i worked for about 2 hours with liam on my back in my mae tai. i put it on under my coat and then flipped up the hood over his head. it was really cute, and kept him warm and happy. then he fell asleep, and stayed that way. very very convenient. however, raking limbs and loading trucks with 20 pounds on your back does take it's toll. hopefully he's as tired as i am and will let me sleep tonight.

tomorrow it's back to topeka. i have a ton of laundry to do and i'm gearing up for a garage sale thursday morning. i helped nikki with her's on friday and i have the bug now to get rid of everything i don't need in exchange for a bit of cash.

on a side note, we picked up stephen's old high chair while at grandma's today, so i no longer get the wooden 'eddie bauer' one i've been coveting on target.com. *sigh*

our one year anniversary - wow!

yesterday was colin's and my first wedding anniversary. he had to shoot a wedding, but we did get to spend the afternoon together. we had a leisurely lunch at ruby tuesday, where colin gave me the newest post secret book. yay! he's the best. then we went to barnes and noble to kill a little more time. he had to go back and work the wedding, so i went and tried to find something to wear. that is no small task with a child in tow. two hours and $20 later at kohls, i had a cute green shirt and gold sweater to wear with my sailor skirt. i went and had free dinner at the reception and got to watch my husband work it. he is quite talented.

today liam and i went to the library and got to know george, from fellowship, a little more. we had a really nice visit at the cafe, then i brought colin some lunch. we stayed at the studio until 4 with colin, then headed back home. liam had some extended naked time on the floor while i folded laundry and made my reminder calls for jim. liam is practicing his 'crawling stance' and will be mobile before i'm ready. colin made us yummy tacos for dinner, and i made some banana bread from scratch. we all watched the final episode of 'planet earth' and now this happy family is off to bed. *yawn*