farewell summer

this has been, to say the very least, a summer of ups and downs for our little family. it seems like every good event has been accompanied by one not so good.. while i appreciate the concept of balance, this summer has been a little too balanced.

over memorial day weekend, the official start of my summer, we celebrated wil's first two teeth and mourned lucy's horse and buggy accident. two weeks later we welcomed shara dee & larry and then left on our first texas trip. our trip tragically coincided with gail's death. things seemed to be on an upswing as we celebrated the arrival of lindsey, kyle and my parents in early july. we had a fantastic party and a week full of fun. we rejoiced in lucy's regained strength but began to worry about murphy who seemed to have some prostate issues. just as we were starting to gain some momentum we were leveled one by one with bad colds. and just last week we had to have new pipes put in under the house one day and justin arrived for a visit the next. up...and down.

through it all wil has been amazing and seems to thrive in any situation. he feels right at home no matter where we drag him and truly lives that old cliche, "home is where the heart is." he makes it easy for us to smile. he's lived a third of his life during this crazy summer and all of the changes he's gone through are amazing. he clearly says "dada", "mama" and "dg" (dog) now. he is starting to crawl on all fours and pulls up on everything. he has a fantastic sense of humor and loves to "dance" with me. he delights in other children and has never met a stranger. without him i am not sure where ryan and i would be. the stress of the events over the past three months has left us both physically, emotionally, mentally and financially exhausted. seeing our son grow and prosper as the world seems to spiral out of control gives us both renewed energy and peace. balance.

the residents of 126 park avenue are ready for fall and we greet it with open arms. it hasn't all been a bummer though. when it's been fun, it's been really fun. here are some of the highlights:

*shara dee & larry visit. wil and i go to texas. it was a success and we can't wait to go back!
*lindsey & kyle visit. ryan and i get to go on a date while they keep wil. both were exhausted afterward. lindsey's comment, "i don't know how you do this day after day." i took it as a compliment. kyle, my future brother-in-law, rocks the party and we love him.
*mom and dad arrive. we get to relax, i get a pedicure, we spend a day in NYC (dad's first time) and make a trip to the central park zoo which completed number 11 on my list.
*lucy finally gets back in the ocean...she is the dog version of michael phelps.
*wil begins to move. he is hilarious.
*justin comes to visit and we have a fantastic time in NJ, NY and PA!
*we spent labor day in PA with shawn & tia. it was the best labor day in recent memory.
*i convince ryan to take a short vacation. it was perfect...just too short!

so farewell summer and welcome fall! hello football, crisp air, the world series (go sox!), a new playgroup and music class, a trip to the PA mountains, wil's first birthday and much more! who wouldn't welcome a line-up like that with open arms.

(items in grey are upcoming posts! stay tuned!)

say cheese!

i love doing the picture of the day. i try hard to make it not all about wil but it's tough. he's great subject matter and, honestly, i think most people who log on each day are doing so to see his picture anyway. but i like shaking it up. as soon as i get my scanner hooked up...watch out!

some of you have mentioned that you would love to have a forum to comment on the picture of the day. i have given this a lot of thought and have yet to come up with a fun but simple solution. i considered writing a little background on the picture of the day in a daily post but that could get tedious. i have also considered posting them on flickr or picasa where all the pictures from each month could remain together and people could comment there if they wished.

i have tried to maintain, up until now, that the picture of the day is just that - a new picture each day to spark a smile, a memory, a laugh, a conversation. maybe that's what it should remain.

what do you think?

spamalot

occasionally emily will post regarding the spam she receives in her email. i used to quickly clear my spam folder without a thought but those posts have made me curious about my own spam. these days i scan the subject lines of my spam email before i delete it and am rewarded for my time with a laugh or two. there are a few that are repeat offenders: IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR BETSY.HIGGINS, the usual round of male enhancements and everyone seems to want to sell me a cheap rolex watch. today, however, there were three that i found truly original. combining the best of the modern world, pop culture and serious international news, here are three of the best spam emails i have ever received:

from: max Finklestein
subject: Paris Hilton violated by GYPSIES - WATCH NOW
how i knew it was spam: i am not sure there are real gypsies anymore and if there are i KNOW they don't have video cameras...unless they've stolen them and moved on down the road. possible.

from: Smarando Cacho
subject: Taliban say Nicky Hilton hotter than Paris Hilton - PUSH TO WATCH
how i knew it was spam: nicky is hotter than paris...i do not need the taliban to tell me this.

from: Hili domzal
subject: Hollywood Big Guns to Follow Paris and Britney to Burma
how i knew it was spam: paris & brit are no longer friends. come on people...everyone knows this.

take a gander at your spam mail before you delete. there are some true gems in there...i'll bet you a rolex on it.

wil's new trick

yesterday i was dusting our living room while wil played in what we call "the middle room". there are two steps, one small and one medium, that you have to go up to get from the middle to the living room. when i looked up i saw that wil and i were in the same room (and i hadn't moved) i was speechless. i recreated the scene for ryan and made sure to have the camera on hand. enjoy!

hairy situation

"some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts." ~jim morrison

i am admittedly, what some might call, hair obsessed. i think about my hair a lot...is it too long, too short, too blonde, too brown, too dry, too thick, too thin? typing it all out like that makes me think that maybe i've deemed it too important. anywho...i digress.

a week from saturday i am getting a new do. i am trying to determine what to do and, because i am having my friend gwen cut it for the first time, trying to make a list of what to tell her i want and don't want. let's face it: a trip to the beauty shop is intimidating. there is always a conversation that starts one way and ends another. i am living proof that what i say to my hairdresser gets totally lost in translation. because i know this to be true i almost ALWAYS bring a picture which i know hairdressers hate. and why wouldn't they? for example: i have very thick hair. most of the pictures i bring trying to describe the hair i want (that day) are of people with thinner hair. the good hairdressers tell you it can't be done and guide you in another direction. the bad ones do it anyway and thin your hair out so severely that you begin to resemble your husband. (doh!) therefore, in the spirit of helping, i started bringing pictures of myself with hairstyles that have worked for me. surely there is nothing to closer to hair that resembles my hair than my hair. however, this has proven a cause for concern. sigh.

when i made my appointment with gwen i was determined to have my hair cut like this:

this adorable woman is kyle's sister-in-law. i think her hair is equally adorable and appears to be thick like mine. (gwen confirmed this) i have been so excited to do this. my hair suffered terribly after giving birth. it is now drier and more brittle than it's ever been and more uncooperative than ever. my thought was to cut it off and start again with a clean slate. all the while maintaining a style that says, "i am a hip and stylish mom." sigh.

friday night i let my hair dry on it's own. it was hotter than hades here and the thought of breaking out the hair dryer to spend 45 minutes pulling my already dry hair into nice, straight sections seemed exhausting. when jacki and beth arrived, two EXTREMELY stylish young gals, and complimented my hair i was bouyed...floating on (h)air you might say. jacki even said it looked "free" and that was enough to make me question cutting it off. rachel (who has great hair) arrived later and also complimented it saying that it looked "great longer" and that i should keep it long. sigh.

i have tried for years to embrace my natural waves. ryan loves my hair this way and while i want to be, i am not comfortable with the look. i feel like i look disheveled and like i tried too hard to achieve a look i was never going to pull off in the first place. for one, the hair on my left side is straighter than all the rest of my hair which leaves that side looking limp and sad. getting compliments from these younger gals made me question my own opinion. i even thought (to myself - god forbid i tell anyone this) that perhaps gwen could give me a tiny two-roller perm on the left just to make it have a bit more bounce. oy vey. and sigh. sad sigh.

monday, while at the doctor, i saw these two pictures in people magazine. and thought, hey, maybe one of these is the ticket....

sigh. i really don't think i know WHAT i want. therefore, in the spirit of list making, here's what i do know:

1. i like the waves but i don't know how to manage them and i feel like a messy bessy when i have my hair this way.
2. i like having the ability to pull my hair back but that ability also makes me lazy and i wear a ponytail 6 out of 7 days.
3. i wish i had hair that worked with a "get up and go" schedule and still looked good. i have never been good at styling my hair and that is going to be hard to learn to do at 33.
4. i feel like it's necessary to wash my hair every day for it to look nice. this is a pain in the butt.
5. i loved having long, long hair but it's not realistic or practical unless i am prepared to wear it in a ponytail every single day. there is simply too much hair on my head for me to try and blow it out on a daily basis. although...there are the waves. hummmm.
6. i like some blonde around my face but i am really over being "blonde" and loved the color of my hair in the following pictures.

this is how my mind works and i won't bore you any further. i pray to god that gwen reads this post so that she'll know what to do with me next saturday because obviously i haven't a clue. on the other hand, i hope she is still willing to do my hair after reading this confession. sigh.

what goes up....must come down

last week was a great week. there were whole afternoons spent at the pool, mornings at the gym, good naps, great food. i made an effort to keep my computer time to a minimum and, at one point, turned it off for good. what a feeling! i am not sure i've been totally without a computer since i was in the hospital giving birth. that's b-a-d. it was a week of renewed energy and spirit and the first time in a while that i felt the momentum i'd lost months ago begin to creep back into my body. it felt great...until friday morning at 12am.

wil woke up with a fever of almost 102 degrees. he was coughing and crying and couldn't sleep. we were up with him off and on until we finally decided just to get up around 6. i spent the day friday keeping him quiet (read: we watched TV) and by the time he went to bed around 6pm friday night we felt like things were getting back to normal. we hosted ryan's cousins and their signicant others for chinese and had a blast. we laughed and watched michael phelps win the 100m butterfly by a fingernail. everyone left about midnight and ry and i went to bed with happy hearts.

saturday morning i woke up with the world's worst sore throat. it went downhill from there culminating in a trip to a clinic monday afternoon where i learned that i had an ear infection (wha?) and a badly infected throat (duh). i am on 10 days of meds and although i am feeling better i now have a cough that requires me to be upright all day and is keeping me awake almost all night... WITH nyquil. (and ladies...you know what it means to cough like that after giving birth. good times.)

i am not trying to complain...just explaining my absence. i feel well enough today to get back into the swing of things (on the computer at least) and hope i continue to feel more like myself everyday. oddly enough i've missed my days at wow the most!

perhaps the most interesting event of the last 5 days came yesterday when i took wil to the doctor to make certain that he didn't also have an ear infection. the nurse weighed him and as she turned to write his weight on his chart she said, "well, let's see if you have gained weight since last time...OH! MY! well...BIG BOY." she threw a cheshire grin my way and i just laughed. after she left the room i took his record book out of my bag to see exactly how much bigger he was. i quickly understood the grin. the last time we were there was august 1st for his 8 month well-visit. in the 18 days since that visit he's gained 1.5 lbs. big boy indeed! heaven help us.

30.

i did it. i took the plunge. i went for yoga and ended up talking to a guy whom i gave no less than 6 high fives and somehow, in the midst of it all, i became a wowszer... or, in layman's terms, a paying member of work out world. yikes.

i took my first class with jessica this morning and, honestly, i LOVED it. we took the centergy class which combines yoga, pilates and tai chi. i'll admit to being somewhat concerned that the teacher would bust out some madonna type yoga moves but it was all very familiar and i felt right at home. the music was a little queer (jess has referenced the 'nights in white satin' horror) but the teacher was good, the room was hot and i totally got my sweat on. i'm hooked. well, maybe that's a bit strong, but i did throughly enjoy it and look forward to doing more.

when i listed "take a yoga class" on my 34 things list i had a yoga studio in mind but since one session at a yoga studio costs more than one month as a wowszer (high five!) then this completes #30. namaste.

will work for money

blame it on the economy, call it desperation, perhaps it's nothing more than the need to put $10 in my pocket but i have begun creating a profile on elance.com. my hope is that i might secure a freelance writing gig here and there. i was doing some research on work at home opportunities and i saw this ad. i was intrigued... it may very well be one of those things that never amounts to anything - especially considering that i am taking the free route which only allows me to apply for three jobs per month. what the hell...it's worth a try!

unfortunately, my creative mind isn't starting off on a high note. when my profile asked me to create a business name and tagline i went completely blank. this does not bode well for a future windfall. therefore, in the spirit of collective entrepreneurship i am appealing to your creative minds to help me brainstorm. from what i can tell a lot of people use their own name as their business name. i can do that or i could also do something more creative but, again, i'm having trouble. here's what i've come up with so far:

business name: write out loud
tagline: bringing words to life

problem: 'write out loud' is the new sharpie campaign & bringing words to life is sort of like the old GE campaign 'we bring good things to life'. i would've made millions in advertising.

sadly, i thought of those on my own and was so proud. unfortunately, they must've been living in the recesses of my mind. i sought ryan's advice and he gave his stamp of approval. just as i was about to type them into my profile i thought...wait, aren't these familiar? thank goodness i checked. i don't want to start my freelance career off as a plagiarist. maybe it's not so much plagiarism as unoriginal. at any rate it's all i can come up with now. much like a song that stays with you for days, these two things are the only things that enter my brain when i go to complete my profile. so any thoughts you might have to get my juices flowing would be appreciated. i promise to cut you in on the royalties if this ever makes me famous. on the other hand...if i end up making $10 writing one snippet about a bobble head doll i promise to buy you a burger & a beer.