Well hellooo there, Internet

I'm well aware that I'm not the only one who's posts slow down in the summer. And like those others, I have plenty of good reasons. Perhaps even ten reasons? Maybe not, but we'll give it go, eh?

Ten Things from the Summer of 2011

1. I have officially graduated to the glamorous life of a stay-at-home mamma. It is lovely. I'm amazed at how much time I have to actually get things done. With my husband's fancy new job as a middle-school English/Spanish teacher (we are super posh, aren't we?) we have been getting the kids in bed before 10:00 p.m. and eating dinner together almost every night (Zumba still muddles that one up a bit). This is the life. But it does kind of put a damper on the blogging. About 90% of my previous blog posts were written at work in the down time between projects.

2. On July 28, just 7 days shy of her 104th birthday, my amazing great-grandmother Mary Lou Jones finished her time on this earth. Saying that she was an incredible person doesn't even begin to describe it. I wish I had Dumbledore's pensive so that I could see just a few of her memories.

Me (and the gestating Astoria) Great-Grandma Jones, Elliot, Grandma Mary Louise, and My dad, Roger

3. My husband has an amazing friend who just happens to work for JetBlue. Thanks to our dear Uncle Rico I was able to fly to Oregon to attend my great-grandma's funeral and celebrate her life with my family. Blair and the girls stayed home, I missed them terribly but loved having a little alone time. (Who am I kidding, part of me never wanted to come home.) And yes, while in The Dalles I did go to Burgerville, had a Tillamook cheeseburger, walla-walla onion rings, and a fresh raspberry lemonade. AWESOME.

4. I've also been reading like a hungry wolf who devours books instead of small children (or something). I've read a few stinkers and some amazing ones as well. The highlight of my summer reading adventure? The audiobook of Tina Fey's Bossypants.

5. Blair insisted that we have one last hurrah before the summer came to a close and he started his new job. So instead of going to Lake Powell with his family (I love his family, but hate-hate-hate lake powell), we  skipped down to California. I swear we should probably just buy yearly passes to Disneyland. It'd probably be cheaper. Although it helps that our kids look so little, it helps when sneaking them in when we probably should have bought them tickets. Oh well

6. Elliot would like me to add, though, that this was the first year she was able to go on some big kid rides. We are still hearing all about how great Splash Mountain and Star Tours was. By the way, they changed up Star Tours and it is REALLY cool.

7. Astoria is too smart for everything. Except using the toilet.

8. Rou has attempted to break my sewing machine twice in the past week. Yesterday I took out some screws and pulled of the front to find the spool holder, 5 potato chips, a pretzel, 2 straight pins, and a piece of a graham cracker.

9. Did you know that all the Zumba classes in the world will not help you lose weight if you insist on drinking, like, five sodas a day and eating pizza in bed 3 times a week (talking about myself here) I'm just sayin'.

10. Elliot starts Kindergarten in 7 days. This is epic.


Please excuse the lack of pictures. I'll make it up to you. I promise. But not with cookies. It's too fracking hot to bake cookies.