Choices

Everynow and again, Brian and I are faced with some pretty difficult choices to make. Choices like:

1. Do we stay up to watch Jeopardy tonight?
2. Should we let Gus out now or later?
3. Do we update Quicken tonight or wait until tomorrow?
4. Do we change the sheets tonight or give it another month (or 2)?
5. Do we risk waking up our sleeping child for a good photo op?

Answers:

1. Um, heck yes, we stay up and watch Jeopardy. Who cares if we have to go to work in the morning.
2. Eh, let him out now, he won't bug us to pet him every second. (we really love our dog, I promise!)
3. In Brian's world, we update early, update often.
4. In Hayly's world, CHANGE THEM!!
and lastly,
5. Of course we do! (Parents with kids who aren't good sleepers can slap us now.)

Brian and I, like most parents, I'm sure, check in on our dear little one thoughout the evening, once she's gone down for the night. However, we're not checking on her out of paranoia, we really just like looking at our sweet girl (have you seen how cute she is?!) Every now and again, one of us will run out of the room calling for the other, "you've got to come see her!"

Tonight, we stumbled upon this:

You know what? The flash didn't even wake her up. Brian says it's because the monkey's arm was shielding her eyes.

Alternatives

Things I’d rather be doing instead of sitting in this class:

1. Poking my eye out.
2. Cleaning up dog feces.
3. Changing baby diapers.
4. Working on putting the bathroom back together.
5. Getting hit in the kneecaps with a baseball bat.
6. Cleaning out a post-hurricane refrigerator/freezer.
7. Working 14 hour days during busy season.
8. Chopping off my pinkie finger.
9. Listening to political debates.
10. Trying to convince myself that politicians are capable of telling the truth.
11. Mowing the lawn.
12. Flying on a 12 hour flight.
13. Golfing.
14. Getting kicked in the nuts.
15. Learning about torts.
16. Shoveling 4 feet of snow.
17. Jumping into a half frozen lake.
18. Cleaning out a hog trap that contains a (dead) hog that has been present in it for at least 2 weeks.
19. Standing on a ladder during a hurricane/tropical storm trying to fix the satellite dish to be able to watch football.
20. Wax my entire (yes, my entire) body.
21. Run with the bulls in Spain.
22. Bungee jump.
23. Sky dive.
24. Fall into a volcano.
25. Swim in the ocean where human eating animals are present (i.e. sharks, whales, etc.).
26. Pick up a spider.
27. Pick up 2 spiders.
28. Pick up a spider and all of its babies.
29. Pick up 2 spiders and all of their babies.
30. Smoke a cigarette.
31. Kiss someone that smokes cigarettes.
32. Eat dog food.
33. Eat vegetables.
34. Socialize on Facebook for 8 hours straight.
35. Watch figure skating in the Olympics.
36. Go to an opera.
37. Sneak into Iran and try to give Mahmoud Amaninejad (not sure how to spell his name and don’t really care how to spell his name).
38. Attempt to understand Hugo Chavez.
39. Try to figure out how the Texas courts are set up.
40. Research for the paper that I am going to have to write (soon!).
41. Give myself a papercut on the side of my mouth.
42. Listen to Mac and PC users argue over the superior computer/software platform.
43. Drink milk that is past its expiration date.
44. Eat food that is past its expiration date.

This list could (and should) go on and on and on and on and on and on and on...

Procrastination (Lil Blue Boo/Dharma Trading Co Entry)

**Updated with new pictures!**

Nothing like waiting until the last minute. It's 12:10am CST, so 10:10 PST and I'm JUST NOW finishing my entry for the Lil Blue Boo Dharma Trading Co Design Challenge.

I was back and forth for a while, trying to figure out if I was going to get the courage to actually enter. I finally decided to bite the bullet and get my act together...tonight. I am no where close to being as talented as 99.9% of the people who are going to be entered in this contest, but that's ok. I just gave it a GSG* and did the best I could, that's got to count for something, right?

*GSG=Girl Scout Go - a term coined by a dear friend, J. Love it!

This was my first Sienna Dress to ever sew. Ok, that's not true. I tried a sample one a few weeks ago and botched it up royally! Like, no way that was going to fit my sweet girl. I still had some of my dyed fabric left, I found this cute St. Patty's Day t-shirt at Target, and while cleaning out my t-shirt drawer, I stumbled upon my Pat Green "Lucky Ones" Tour T-shirt...in dark green. Perfect for a St. Patrick's Day dress, if I say so myself (and it's our blog...so I can say so myself!) I'll admit, I was a bit sad to cut into Pat Green. That t-shirt dates back to the college years...and reminds me of the one time that Brian has actually been pulled over for speeding - at a whopping 5 mph over, just outside of San Marcos. He received a warning, of course (I would have been given a big fat ticket.)

I followed the tutorial that Ashley has on making faux camo. Well, my camo turned out a lot like tie-dye, but that's just fine by me. I'm of the opinion that turquoise makes everything a little better. :)

Oh yeah, did I mention that I added some cute baby legs to go with it? St. Patty's Day is over Spring Break and based on this Texas winter, I'm placing my bet on it still being a tad chilly.

So a drum roll for the finished product (complete with crappy flash photography - there is no light at midnight, go figure!) The pictures of Kaylynn in the dress were taken the next day...around sundown. I'm on fire with getting bad pictures!

This was last picture was Friday, sporting our V-Day pj's and tutu. Definitely wore that to the babysitter for her party!

Alright kids, I'm out. I have a fun day of battling 8th graders on the never ending quest to teach them how to be good citizens of America. :)

Valentine's

Brian and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. *Gasp*, I know...before you have a coronary, we're not AGAINST or ANTI-Valentine's Day, we just don't see the necessity of having to celebrate love on that one particular day. That's all. I still buy cute heart towels, quasi decorate (except not this year, can't find the stuff) and got Kaylynn a cute (but totally usable for the rest of the year) outfit to wear (it's gray...with hearts...but not in a hokey way, in a cute retro little girl type of way...) I think we set this precedent back at A&M, by eating at a sketchy Chinese buffet, not alone, but with our group of friends, and then followed it up by having a Super Troopers reenactment back at Dufer & Eric's apartment. Maple syrup, ask B about that one. Oh, come to think of it, we weren't even dating then...I don't think...doesn't really matter. :)

Anywho, Kaylynn's babysitter (I prefer babysitter as opposed to daycare, makes me feel better about myself for not getting to be at home with her) is having a little Valentine's Day party for the 8 of them on Friday, complete with Valentine's cards! I was very excited about this. I have very fun memories of elementary school and making the "mailbox" for the Valentine's cards and having the party. I decide right away that until Kaylynn throws a fit and begs me to buy her the latest "Dora the Explorer", or whoever it may be then, cards to give out, she and I (or just me for now...) are going to make them. It's just more fun, don't you think?

In the "Things We Like to Look At" section, I saw this fun link at The Long Thread. She has a "Make it Monday" and it's usually something pretty easy that *most* people could do. Little heart crayons on a very cute and simple Valentine's card.

Making crayons was pretty easy, though they didn't come out as pretty as I would have liked. I don't know how she did the whole swirl thing with the hearts, but whatever. I used a heart ice cube tray, melted the crayons in the microwave in paper cups, then spooned them in layer by layer (I got that tip in her "comments" section.) I read somewhere that Crayola crayons worked better than "off brands" but I can't verify that...I used Crayola.

Now, I just hope that the little 4 month old will enjoy his recycled crayon heart. :) Next year. Maybe?

Milestones

2 of them, to be exact.

1. We slept all night with no Soozie! (her pacifier) She cried for about 15 minutes, then fell asleep. Sweet!

2. We've officall taken real steps! See below for proof. Warning. You will hear a high-pitched squeal. Yes, that is me. I was excited. And then I got a little sad. :( Oh, and the walking ends early on here. I just kept it rolling in case she did it again. She did not.

In Memory

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of a treasured member of the von Frinkenhagen household. San Dal von Frinkenhagen passed suddenly last Sunday, January 31, 2010 at the young age of two (37.5 in footwear years). It was a shock to us all, but I like to think that San Dal made it to a place that looks like this:

San Dal was a great companion that worshipped the ground beneath my feet. In honor of San Dal, I have revised a portion of one of my favorite songs:

I blew out my flip flop, stepped in some dog crap
Scrapped it off, had to hop on back home.
But there’s room in the trash can,
To be plucked by the trash man,
And delivered straight to the local landfill.

San Dal von Frinkenhagen
2007 - 2010