Shaun and Mimi’s Big Adventure is being documented (kinda) at their new blog. 

 http://bigorangejeep.wordpress.com/  

Go visit and tell them “hi”.  And to send home a postcard!

This week, the lovely Kristine is out of town so her fiance has taken over.  He does things just a little differently. 

1. Something with a story behind it.Photograph something that has a story behind it. And yes, you might have to actually write a little bit on this one. Good, sad, funny, made-up….does it really matter? It IS the internet. Be creative.

This is Bradley.  He’s a really neat guy that we met  when he  moved here a few years ago from the Australian Outback.  He works with Shaun and they have become buddies.  Every once in a while a herd of photographing co-workers would go out shooting.  They end up in whatever the chosen area and compete to get the best photo.  Now, on this particular occasion they were all in downtown Seattle or maybe it was Ballard, I’m really not sure.  They turned the corner and ran into the Gum Wall.  Bradley had never seen anything quite like this.  He knew what gum was and found the whole idea of it rather disgusting.  But the thought of an entire wall filled with pre-chewed gum was fascinating to him. He had to get the perfect shot.  Bradley got closer and closer not realizing how close his lens had gotten until he tried to put it down.  That’s when he realized exactly how sticky and gooey warm gum can be when you stick your lens into it.  Yes, he managed to get it out and all cleaned up.  His legacy lives on though…they are still calling him “Gummy”

2. A Random and Odd photo.Pick anything. A picture you’ve taken, one that you’ve found on the net. Doesn’t matter. I’m making the rules, so don’t tell me what your usual blogger tells you to do! For this picture, the reader on your blog needs to write a story or caption for your picture, so get something unique.

OK, you heard the man…tell me about this picture!

3. In keeping with the recurring wedding theme, a photo of something borrowed.

This is my cat Boyo in his borrowed finery.  One day he ran away.  I have no idea why…

Did you play?

One week and two days ago school was finally out for the summer! Now, after a very brief break, KT has started summer classes.  Sigh…

We thought she would be able to take the early (7:00 AM) class and be done by 10:00.  Early enough to have plenty of time to go play.  (Heck, in the summer time you aren’t even supposed to get up before then!) But, alas, we discovered, just in the nick of time, that we had signed up for the wrong class.  So her classes are from 10:30 to 1:30…smack in the middle of the day.  Workable, but pretty inconvenient.

We have a lot of fun stuff planned.  OK, let me rephrase that; KT has a lot of fun stuff planned for us to do.  From the moment she gets out of school until it’s time for bed. She has lists.  Many, many lists.

She carts these lists around with her and hides them when she’s sleeping.  I’m starting to get the feeling that she doesn’t trust me not to “adjust” her lists just a little bit.  Is it so wrong to want some unstructured down time? I don’t think so either.
Now,if only I could find those lists…. It’s going to be an interesting summer. 

Bright and early(ish) on Sunday morning Shaun and Mimi piled in the jeep and left us.  They are headed on a road trip to New Mexico taking the scenic route (via Montana of all places!) I long to be with them but alas I am staying home to play chaffeur for KT.  She decided that she wanted to take an advanced math class for six weeks this summer.  How can you tell your kid she has to go on vacation instead of to school?

I’ve gotten used to being without Shaun for a few weeks at a time.  I’ve never been without my Mimi though.  I’m not sure if it’s going to be harder for me or for her.  I’m sure she will have a blast with her Daddy.  KT and I will miss them both, but I’m pretty sure we will have a blast as well…except for that nasty math stuff.  I don’t quite know what I’ll do if she needs my help doing it.  Hmmmm….

The weekend words given by The Odd Mix are hunger and satisfy. (Canyou tell he just started on a diet?)  We are asked to not do the obvious but to surprise him with our answer.  Well, I’ve been quietly singing  ”I hunger for your love” and not so quietly “I can’t get no Satisfaction” ever since I saw the words.  I can’t quite figure out how to tastefully express those so I went with some photos for this weekend.

I hunger for my brain to think like a real photographer. Shaun knows every little detail and knob on his camera.  He is a superb photographer.  (and I’m not just saying that because I’m married to him) He tells me that all I have to do is practice…I know it’s probably true…it just seems to techichal to me.

I can satisfy that hunger when I occasionaly take a shot that I really like.  I know this isn’t the perfect photo.  I can easily pick out a few flaws with a glance, but I like it.  KT looks so beautiful and angelic.  (no, I’m not just saying that because I’m her mother!)

Someday…someday….

kid: Moooommmmm!

me: yes darling?

kid: She's driving me nuts! Can I just kill her?

me: Ummm…only if you think you can get away without getting caught.

kid: RATS! I've watched too much CSI, I just know they would catch me. 

See, I knew that letting them watch TV would come in handy some day.  It makes handling sibling rivalry so much easier!

Not too long ago, Shaun told me that he thought our cats had worms.  While the thought of our critters having a parasite was disgusting, I merely grunted and put it on the end of the long list of things that I had to do.  That was before I found a long wiggling worm in my hallway.

Now, I’ve never been the squeamish type.  Not much in the critter world fazes me.  In fact one of the reasons Shaun said he really liked me when we first started dating was because I thought his snakes were kinda interesting. Over the years we’ve had snakes, lizards, frogs, cockroaches, scorpions, tarantulas…well you name it, and most likely we’ve had it.  (Except for a monkey… I had to draw the line somewhere!) There is however, one creature that gives me the willies.  That would be worms. I really can’t think of any reason for them to terrify me. Well other than the fact my father forced me to hold one when I was a young child.  It’s been a few decades and I’m still not over the trauma.  (Nor have I forgiven him!)

Needless to say, finding that worm in my hallway landed taking care of the cats at the top of the To Do List.  I was spurred into action and the cats were de-wormed faster than you can say meow.  Yet still, I would find a worm in the hallway, in front of my bedroom door nearly every morning.   I had to resort to paying KT to take them outside for me as I couldn’t bear to do so myself.  It was so awful that I could no long walk barefooted in my own home…who knew what those evil worms would do to me?

Then one day, as we sat at the table playing a game, I looked up and saw our crazy cat Lucy carrying something in.  Something very odd.  Shaun got up to look closer and picked up the object she had brought in.  I couldn’t contain the shriek the spilled out of me.  My crazy CAT had been catching earthworms! 

Naturally, Shaun felt the need to chase me around the table with that fiendish worm.  Mimi was running and screaming right along side me while KT stood off to the side howling with laughter.  (I did mention that I have three kids, right?)

Shortly after that, Lucy stopped bringing in worms.  I’m not sure if that was due to the long talk we had or not.  (I talk to her a lot but she never answers)  Recently though, I’ve been finding horsetails in the hall.  That Lucy…

And no, I still haven’t forgiven Shaun yet. 

Can you believe it’s already Friday again? Well Kristine has us on another mission and I’m doing my best to comply. This week we are asked to find:

1. Your Drinking Glasses.

These are my bright happy glasses that I love so much.  I also have the smaller size, but they all seem to be in the dishwasher.  You may have figured out by now that I’m all about bright colorful things!
2. Your Address book/Stationary

I used to have a handy dandy rolodex that I carted around me whenever I needed to have my addresses.  A few years ago I transfered pretty much all of it over to an online version.  I printed a copy of it out just in case we have crash.  (Let’s just avoid those, shall we?)

3. SOMETHING NEW
This is Shaun’s brand new Aussie hat that he got for driving down the open road in his Jeep.  He needed something to keep the sun off that fair skin of his.  Doesn’t he look fierce? He got tired of smiling so I told him to just look mean then…the ol’ teddy bear!

Shaun and I were chatting about this and that last night when he happened to mention that Ashley got a new hammock.  Then he added, quite incredulously that she had it set up in her dining room.   I think he rolled his eyes when I told him that it made perfect sense to me.  I saw no reason to have a fancy dining table when she even didn’t cook.  Ever.  

Me: Didn’t she take a cooking class?

Him: Nope, that was Rick.

Me: Rick?  Are you sure about that? I could’ve sworn Ashley was taking one with a friend of hers…

Him: Nope.  It was Rick and his wife.

Me: Hey, we could take a cooking class together!  That would be fun!

Him: Well, I don’t need to learn to cook.

Despite what he says, I can cook.  In fact, I think Ashley and I should whip him up a gourmet feast just to prove it to him.  We’ll make him something wonderfully impressive…like, um…toast! 

KT: Mama, are those eggs OK?

Me: Huh?

KT: The eggs, they're BROWN! Are they safe to eat?

Me: Of course they are.

KT: OK.  Ummmm, why did you buy brown ones?

Me: Because they are organic.

KT: Ooohhhhh

She nodded her head, clearly impressed with me as she walked away.  It's probably a good thing that I didn't tell her the real reason I bought the organic eggs.  I really bought them because I wanted a cardboard egg carton instead of the yucky styrofoam.  And, no….I wasn't being a typical green Seattlite, it's just that, well…you can't really glue things to styrofoam as well as to cardboard.  I need to be able to use glue with them.

Is that bad?