Business expense...

Following up on a hoarder...

...yup, still hoarding. Even without having to worry about his brother stealing his things. I love my strangely neurotic little dog.

The weirdest picture on my boyfriend's phone...

I had to use Chris' old phone for a period of time when mine crashed.
Apparently he was somewhere that needed to chain down the Tide.
And he felt the need to photograph it.
I love that man. :)

A Jax breakfast at Mouse House

I like to start Jax out with a  healthy breakfast, even on mornings when he doesn't let me make him eggs or pancakes or anything. (His latest phase is growling and shaking his chair and demanding to be put in it, leaving me NO time to make anything)

So this particular morning I gave him a 1/2 a banana (which he eventually finished,) a cut up fruit leather and some shredded Cheddar cheese. He ate all of this in about five minutes.

This is a really hard age, because you want to feed them WELL ...but at the same time, its hard to keep them FULL.

Well...I was out of ideas this morning. He had eaten a man sized portion of lasagna the night before, and I was out of cereal and all of his normal go-tos.

Then this happened:

Hey, you only get to stay with your EmWay once and a while, right ;)

Mooove over...

I had some crappy little picture in our kitchen that I had gotten on sale at TJ Maxx or something. It was cute, but we have this weird wall that's only about 16 inches wide, so it either needs SOMETHING on it...or to just be left alone. And this old picture wasn't cutting it.

Until I found HER:

I love her! All 3.5 feet tall of her! She fits perfectly on that wall and has some turquoise and gray in her, exactly what we needed!
We found her at the apple house up in Linden on one of our Flea Market days, and I couldn't be happier.

I will admit, the first few times I rounded that corner, she caught me off guard and I jumped!!
I think we should name her! I just haven't thought of anything that fits yet! Any suggestions?

Insta-wha?

Chris got me a phone that is actually from this century and one of the FIRST apps that I put on it was, of course, Instagram!
You can now follow Oscar, Christopher, myself, and everything in our crazy mouse house at:
                                                          blogaboutmydog

How to make your boyfriend frequent flea markets, yard sales, etc with you

1. Food Trucks. Chris likes the Mexican ones. I have to order for him, but he never complains. Nom Nom Nom.
2. Nintendo, Game Cube, Sega, Early Play Stations, ETC from their childhoods. They can't help them selves.

Sea Glass

Thank you, People of Gloucester Massachusetts for throwing your beer bottles into the sea, year after year!!

Makes for a pretty cool collection for us!
Check out the big piece with the wire in it! From a window or something?

What to feed a toddler?

 

You might ask yourself how I got such a happy toddler on this particular day. Truth be told, I didn't. He was seriously angry pants at me most of the morning. And then he got hungry. Jax has gotten to an age where when he is hungry, he means now...not in 5 minutes when you can warm it up, and certainly not in 30 minutes when you can actually make him something nutritious...NOW.

I'm learning. 

So the night before he was to come over this time, I stayed up and made him homemade mac N cheese. I LOOOVE mac N Cheese, and Chris hates it, because he is a weirdo. Anyway, I love with Jackson comes over because its an excuse to make it, so I did.

So I'm boiling my pasta, and I'm thinking, which is rare...so I thought I'd listen to what I was thinking.
And I'm thinking, this kid LOVES Mac N Cheese! I would eat ANYTHING I mixed in with it!.

 Leftover turkey meatballs! Yes! That goes perfect with Mac N Cheese!

Peas? Yes! Perfect!

Squash! Yes...well I was pushing my limits here. He ate them, but started to pick the squash out. I think if I had peeled it first, he would have never known!

So, that's my attempt at getting an entire, mostly healthy meal into a 17 month old.

He ate 2 and 1/2 bowl fulls without coming up for air, so I guess I did something right!

Happy 10th, big guy!

What on Earth could make a 10 year old react like this??
(LOVE Aron's face, and Jax trying to "help")

Emway even gets a hug...in front of his friends!

Oh yes...this is happening this winter in the Komar basement! All SIX FEET of it!
I'm not really sure who is more excited about it. Aron or his dad, Chris, Wes, Daniel, etc?
Staying up until all hours of the night DOES come in handy sometimes. I ran into an amazing deal on this thing at 3am online that I would never be able to get any other time/place!
Happiest of birthdays to my FAVORITE ten year old! Where does the time go? Didn't you JUST turn TWO??

Sunday morning rain is falling...

...steal some covers, share some skin.
My dog is a big Maroon 5 fan apparently.
He HATES rainy mornings!

Fabric frustration.

This fabric and I, we have a problem.
We keep going 'round and 'round with each other...and I can't decide where/what to use it on. I had it all set to do curtains in Jackson's/the guest room...but now we are going to use that more as Chris' office and I just don't think he would appreciate the owls the way they should be.
So do I move them into my office? The kitchen? Change the plan all together and use it for a bag or something else?
My mom even bought me a yard of this fabric when she saw it because she said it was "just so me," and shes right...all my colors, my patterns...kind of doodles and swirls and the owls have kind of a tattoo quality to them.
Ugh.
These owls.
They frustrate me.
Anyone else have a fabric problem??

Boyfriend pumpkin...

How to get Christopher interested in doing a "pumpkin project," with me...

Pumpkins do not play video games.
Pumpkins do not transform into robots.
Pumpkins do not travel at extreme speeds.


This was not an easy task!

Thank you, Target for having this Darth Vader kit which allowed for about ten minutes of boyfriend pumpkin crafting time.

Basically you open this kit, shove the arms and head into the pumpkin a la Mr Potato head and you are done. We did it on a fake, foamy pumpkin...so he had to use a knife to stab it first...so that was the exciting part.

Also is kinda freaks out the dog, and it was funny for about 30 seconds.

My daily grumble

I don't know the people who lived in our home before us, but I am very certain that I hate them.
This is our stove after an hour of scrubbing.
Its still filthy.
Ugh.

To the window....

..to the wall!

Just in case you didn't get enough Lil' Jon from my post about our ten month anniversary...Monx wanted to bust out some Jammie time rapping.

Fall down..

...get back up!

I had amazing fall/Halloween decorations when I lived in Chicago. Most were homemade. I'm not usually bitter about what I left behind when I came home, because it was the best decision I've ever made...but I really want my schtuff back! Some of it Aron and Jason made! Ugh.
Here are some little pics of the past.
Not to dwell on it...just to look at it so that I can rebuild!

 

 

Oh...my sweet boys! Jason was 6 months old, Aron was 3. I can replace and remake everything else in these pictures! I think their dad could replace this pic for me...I'm hoping anyway.

So far in our crazy mouse house...this is what I've got...

Picture of me and my sisters in costume from Haunted Hollow last year, foot bones model that was being thrown out at work (how cool is that? I actually have two right feet!) little owl, Shrek, and a pumpkin.
I'm working on a few pumpkin projects that I will post when we return from New Hampshire next week...and I just finished our outdoor wreath, so we are getting there!!
With every chapter in your life, things change, and I'm not always good at that...but I'm learning.
Chris is amazing at change. He just rolls with it. I love him for that. 
And Oscar...as long as he has a leggy ball and some apple cookies, well he is good to go and change as well!

Oh...and there are these...they help with change too. nom nom nom.

Halloween Wreath

Anyone who has met me more than once,  knows that I have a thing for skulls...I've got skulls in my bathroom, in my living room, on my front porch, on my shoes, jewelry, etc all year round.
So for me, October is just a month when it is *easier* to find them in stores!!

When I was thinking about what I wanted on the front door for the month, I knew it needed a skull, not too scary though. It needed some color to balance out the ugly green-ness of the door that I can't change, something cute and quirky, kinda girly and bright. I know, I know. Say that all five times fast. I can't help it, that's just me.

Anyway...here's what I started with:

I had an old Easter wreath that I made like 4 years ago...it was featured on the ooooold blog. It was getting old and tattered but this is what it looked like new and pretty!

So I cut that bad boy up, took all of the old, (now nasty) Easter ribbons off and then  had an empty foam wreath again.
I just realized that my apartment in Chicago had an ugly green door too. Ugh. What the heck? Moving on...

So I wrapped the wreath in 7/8 in ribbon, alternating a neon-ish green and orange. I used one grosgrain ribbon and one satin ribbon. I just like the mix of the textures. I'm weird like that.
You could hot glue your ribbon in place or use pins...I kinda did both. I pinned as I went, and then added hot glue at the end to anchor it and make sure nothing was going to move once it was outside!

Why green and orange and not the traditional Halloween black and orange? I'm getting to that. Hold your horses. Remember, I like weird and quirky and textures and funk.

After all of the Orange and green was in place, I added a big, store-bought black and white striped bow. I could have made this bow, no sweat...but I'll tell you, when you have a Michael's coupon or the thing is on sale for 40% off, don't be stupid. Use your time and resources wisely :) With the coupon, this bow was less than $2. I couldn't even buy the ribbon I needed for that, let alone spend my time making the thing, stabbing myself with the wired bits, etc. $2 is worth my sanity.

Next to the bow, my favorite part...my skully. He is just a cheapo foam one from Michael's as well. I think he was on sale for $1 or so. I have tons of skulls, but I wouldn't risk putting one of my faves outside on a wreath. That's just asking for a meltdown whenever Chris shuts the door too hard or the wind blows!

Fuzzy spider for good luck. She came already on an alligator-type clip, so I just clipped her right onto a fold of ribbon, and hot glued it just to be safe. She was about $1.50 on sale at Michael's as well.
I don't know if I really like her on there or not. We have so many REAL spiders on our porch...I don't want any of them getting any ideas!

I'm totally not kidding...

Ugh! Now that I've given you a heart attack...Final product:

Kinda off beat, funky, not too scary but has a skully, bright and neon-y, welcoming and Halloweeny...yup, Perfect!

Reunited...

...and it feels SO good!
This dog is insane, about his apple treats that is. I used to buy these at a little pet shop in Chicago for him when he was a baby and I haven't found them anywhere in Virginia yet.
I thought he hadn't really noticed when we switched to mainly the mini milk bones, because he eats those up in a single chomp too...but I was wrong. The boy missed his apple bones!!

First of all, let me start by telling you that what Oscar and I think about these Nutro Apple crunchy treats are 100% OUR OWN OPINIONS. No one has paid us to say anything, and we don't care what you might have to say about them either, Kay?

When Chris and I were in Gloucester a few weeks ago, we walked into a little pet shop that he used to buy his Guinea Pig supplies from when he was a kiddo called Animal Krackers. It reminded me a lot of the places I liked so much in Chicago. I love little pet shops. I hate big box pet stores, just for the record...but that's what we have here and that's where we go when we need something that we cant wait for Amazon to get to us!

The girl at Animal Krackers tried to warn me that these Apple snacks were not for picky eaters, I laughed, I have the most NON-picky eater on the planet! He would eat a rock if his Momma handed it to him!

When I opened these things, you would have thought I was giving him a steak! He ran around the house and did sweet jumps and kicks, and acted like a mad man! I haven't seen him that excited in a long time! He DID miss his apple cookies! Who knew? Its probably been 18 months or so since he had one, but he REMEMBERS!!

I couldn't even get a good picture of him, he was so insane!! This is the best photo I could get you of the Oscar Mayer apple treat happy dance! I love this little dog...he lifts my soul and makes me smile!

Here he is sneaking around my things, looking for where I might have hidden the rest of the apple cookies.

Incidentally, we also found another Oscar Mayer favorite at Animal Krackers. His beloved "Squeaky Face!" This was one of the original three toys that we brought with us when we left Chicago to come home to Virginia. It used to have a tail and a rubber ring, but then it was just the face, which is of coarse how it got its name. He carries the carcass of the original "Squeaky Face" around with him to this day. He made short work of "New Squeaky Face," and now has two carcasses.

We will be in Gloucester this weekend and you better believe that I will be stocking up on
1.) Apple treats and
2.) A few squeaky faces for the future, and probably little man's stocking, etc!!

Ten 10/1/13

Ten thoughts for ten months.

Christopher and I have officially been "for realsies," (his words, not mine) for ten months today. I can't even being to find a favorite picture, or even five or ten to celebrate this day. There are just so many! We have laughed, adventured, and loved so hard over the last ten months that it would be unfair to try and sum it up with a silly picture...because let's face it, all of our pictures are silly ;)

So I'm going to give you ten thoughts on our life right now, because that's what I've got. It just seems more fitting.

ONE. A year ago our "crew," wouldn't let us meet until he cut his crazy hair. Neither of us knew that at the time, but there were sneaky plans happening that involved a haircut, and a murder mystery dinner in the future.

TWO. We both have the flu today, or a cold, or something...yet there is no one else in the world I'd rather be laying next to right now...even if it did make him snore so loud last night that I barely slept.

THREE. We started collecting Lego minifigs when we were in Legoland. I used to collect Playmobil figures, and he used to collect Transformers, now we have sort of stopped both of those and developed this new, geeky collection as a couple. It's fun to do it together :) whenever we are in a different city or town, we have to check their Target or Toys R Us to see which series they have out. We are totally lame, and we are OK with that.

FOUR. When I see him with Jax, I totally totally melt. Like the wicked witch. It's ridiculous. He thinks he isn't good with babies, but he's never been more wrong.

FIVE. He calls me Jellybeanz, I call him about 100 different things. Whatever falls out of my mouth at that particular moment.

SIX. When we fight its 99% because one of us is too tired for our own good. Usually me.

SEVEN. He is A terrible cook, but always knows when it's time to just go and get burritos. Chipotle is our jam.

EIGHT. We still cry about Rexy. We would not have gotten through that without each other. But we did it together, and thats the only thing that matters.

NINE. He likes me best when my hair is a curly, wild mess and I have my glasses on. I think he's incredibly handsome with his hair long and curly and his scruffy beard. He probably didn't need that initial haircut after all ;)

TEN. I could keep going. Forever. And I will, I'm just not going to list them ;) Here's to then next ten months, years, and decades , babe!

OK I lied...I found a picture:

3-6-9, damn your fine! Who would have ever guessed?