so the other day i went to get Hannah from her nursery class, and her hands were covered in marker. (seeing as she was wearing her new WHITE Strasbourg Children outfit, that i got for 75% off, I was not thrilled. but anyways). oh my, i said, did she get ahold of a marker? oh no, that's from her craft. she did the finger painting herself, they said. her craft? excuse me? she's old enough for a craft. I wont' lie to you, i started to cry right there. my baby, doing crafts? that makes me happy and incredibly sad all at the same time. and yes, you better believe i'll be keeping it. (and they told me she wouldn't sit through the bible story. you think? she's 14 mos old. she won't sit through a diaper change!)






my mom sent me some pictures she had from the summer. hannah and my Nana (not to be confused with Hannah's Nana, Des, who is coming really soon. yeah!) ridiculously long and stressful trip notwithstanding, we had a great time at the cottage. i love it there.







this was the day of Hannah's party. Lar was making the deviled eggs, i believe. i could never ever have done it without my family. we all worked nonstop all day. i barely even let anyone eat. it was pretty bad. you've heard of bridezilla? this was like new-momzilla. it was insane. at some point, somebody stopped and said, does anybody smell anything. then someone spotted a pile of poop in the corner. i'm not kidding. we never did figure out who it was from. it was cleaned up before the guests came, though!





my mom took this picture while she was here. apparently she thought it was picture-worthy. maybe if i send it to oprah she'll have me on a make-over show? (i'm kneading bread, by the way. yes, i know i could just buy it. but i actually like making it.)






so we finally got hannah some curtains. i was at the pottery barn outlet store on my way back from charlotte recently, and the sign said linen curtains, 50% off (off of the already reduced outlet store price.) great, i thought, this is what i've been waiting for. so i take them up to the cash and no, they're only 20%, or something. i said oh, i have to think about it, i wasn't planning on spending that much. the girl behind the counter says oh, it's your daughter, she's worth it. i didn't get into it there, but no, i thought, my daughter is worth much more than fancy shmancy pottery barn kids curtains. look at her face when i get her up in the morning. she is worth me staying home with her, which means i can't afford expensive curtains. why is that such a foreign concept to so many people? (i hope the fact that i bought the curtains anyways doesn't negate my point. i put back other stuff, i promise!)





so we'd accumulated so many toys that people had given us i got her a little storage place. the books are currently on the top row of bins, and she can't always reach them. these days, when she gets frustrated because she can't do something she screeches (very loudly) until i come help her. this time i apparently didn't get there fast enough, because she climbed up on her little musical table. i was in the bathroom, so i'm not exactly sure how. but then she couldn't get down. and she didn't like it when i said, stay there, don't fall, i'm going to get the camera. monkey!





so we have one of those little plastic stacking ring toy things. i have no idea where she got this idea, but today she had one on each foot, and she was just skating around the kitchen. funny kid, i'm telling you




we found this sand box at the flea market for $10. she absolutely loves it. it's been indispensable this week while i've spent time in the garden. unfortunately, our handy dandy pest control dude told me today that sand boxes are just little welcome mats for spiders (such as black widows) and fleas. bad idea, he says. great.




oh, my garden. so patrick gave me this wonderful book for christmas called the vegetable gardener's bible. i'd read it cover to cover by february. since i'm finally making a garden, i decided to brush up on it again. bad idea. i'm apparently doing everything wrong. if only a for effort worked in these situations. it's rock solid clay, and i'm trying to dig the whole thing (approx 6'x16') with a shovel. never in my life have i worked this hard. muscles i didn't even know i had. and i'm supposed to know my muscles! back when i was training, people used to tell me they worked in their garden, and i would tell them that doesn't count for your exercise. i've since changed my mind. (meghan and i are writing a book and making a dvd for our new weight loss/lifestyle fitness plan: she's doing a kneading bread workout, and i'm doing a gardening workout. we are considering adding a green-clean-your-shower-without-chemicals-so-you-have-to-scrub-really-hard-yourself workout. see, when you work out at home, you get your exercise in. then we'll get really rich and pay other people to do this manual labour for us and then we'll have to go to the gym to get ours! the american dream, right?)



the most beautiful girl in the world, telling you ba bye for now.
(patrick gets home tomorrow night after another 6 days on the road. or in the air, i guess. yeah!)