Monday Musings

-ok, so it’s Monday again. How the heck?

-We had our first “spend all weekend outside” weekend of the year. We were all domestic like and laid new bark in our yards, weeded, mowed (ok, who am I kidding.. Neal did all that. I brought him beer and played with Austin) and our yard looks cozy and cute now! Yeah for husbands who like yardwork!

-Austin got a sandbox. He’s super excited to eat it and get sand down his pants.

-I just realized my business trip next week has me going to Kentucky. They originally told me Tennessee. Either way I’m going to be dumped in the South by myself and left to pump my own gas and find my way around. Lord help me… and Kentucky, for that matter.

-So here’s something funny no one tells you about having a baby.. apparently you can pop ribs out of place. So last week I had an ache in my right boob area and felt around and what the hell is that??… wait a minute.. that’s really hard… oh, wait… I think that’s bone.. yep, that’s a rib.. ok.. why is my rib sticking out so far??? My left side is not like that so I popped a rib out of whack in all the hard-core “get this baby out of me” pushing I did. I knew at the time I did something painful to my ribs because I had felt it, but apparently one is still out of place. So now do I fix it? Or leave it since it’s been out of place for 15 months?

-I just sneezed and scared my assistant. #notakittensneezer #blowpeopleoutofthewater

-I am about dying waiting for my friend Kenzie to have her baby!!! Any day now and I get to cuddle a teeny little snuggle bunny! AGH I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! My uterus is crying for another baby but we have to wait a bit… I. NEED. MY. FIX. Like now.

-Oh, and let's not forget Austin got his first taste of the sprinkler this weekend!!! Nothing cuter than a naked baby tushy running around the yard! Until he peed on the deck. :-)

A Few of his Favorite Things....Books!

I saw this idea on another blog and thought it was super cute!

A little post highlighting Austin's favorite books!

He is quite the book-lover (which makes his bookworm Mama soooo happy!). Some nights when we get home from work and school all he wants to do is read. He'll bring me book after book and we'll sit for hours going through them and pointing at things and chatting. These are my favorite moments with him.

He is reading here.. chattering and jabbering away, telling Mama the story.

This book has no words, and I think he loves how the story is a bit different every time because we make it up. 

We also have the Grandpa version of this book, that Austin ripped the cover off of. He loves learning all about the fun things Grandma's and Grandpa's are about!

Auntie Lori got Austin this book and he reaches for it often. 

Neal is the most amazing reader of nursery rhymes ever! He does voices, beats,  rhythms..  he puts me to shame for sure. Austin's favs in this book are "1, 2 Buckle My Shoe" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep"

By far his favorite book. We have looked at this over and over and talked about the baby animals. He loves the page with the guinea pigs and the one with the baby ducks!

Not the Best Cleaning Service

Y'all...I'd be careful if you're planning on hiring the Austin Glynn Cleaning Service...

I don't think I'd give him the best review on Angie's List...

"Hi! I'm Austin! I'm here to cwean for you! Got my broom and a smile and don't you worry, Mom.. I mean... yady.. just sit back and I'll do all the work!"

"Cheese-n-rice yady! Have you SEEN how filthy this floor this? Whaddya keep in here? CATTLE?? Where da heck is my Pine-Sol??"

"Let's go dog. I don't have all day, ya know. Hurry it up! I've gotta cwean!"

"Oh yeah, I can do this one-handed... no problem. Check out my skills, yady..."

"Um. I didn't do it. I mean, it just jumped out at me. I mean, I didn't see it. I mean, the garbage attacked me and I had to fight it off??"

K is for...

Kah-Nee-Tah!

Which is?

A hot springs resort in Central Oregon, on the Native American Reservation.

And why'd we go?

It was the last weekend of Spring Break, my Mom wanted Austin for a long weekend and we had no baby and nothing to do... so impromptu weekend trip!

For years I'd see friends post on FB that they were going to Kah-Nee-Tah and I totally thought it was actually "Kaneeta" and everyone just enjoyed over-enunciating the name with the dashes.

Nope, Kah-Nee-Tah is really the name!

And the name of the game is... high desert heat, sun, pools, and ponies!

**disclaimer- Neal was photographer that weekend, which is the opposite of almost all our other trips, so instead of every pic with Neal in it, every pic has me in it! Sorry to all those who don't want to look at me**

The view! The glorious view! I LOVE how Oregon is densely forested, then you drive two hours and you are in total desert 

We had an amazing balcony off our room

Hi there! Mirrored glass on our balcony=ok to prance around the room naked. 

Straight to the pool in our part of the resort. The water was warm from the hot springs and we were basically the only ones there! Bliss

A little putt-putt before dinner. 

The sign said "no playing in tee-pee." Well, I'm not technically IN it... 

My favorite guy

After putt-putt we went and had dinner at the lodge's restaurant. I think that was the only disappointment the whole weekend. The resort only has one restaurant and the prices were insane. I'm fine with spending $$ on a nice dinner, but a slightly dry hamburger is not worth $20 in my opinion. Ah well..

Breakfast the next day! See that thing my eggs are on? That my friends.... is authentic, thick, fried-in-lard Indian Fry Bread. And it was AMAZING. 

After our huge breakfast, we took one of the four trails for a hike.

Really couldn't get enough of the views! 

Even dead trees are beautiful out in the desert

After our hike we went horse-back riding! Meet my pal Urkel. He was the slow gentle one in the bunch

A man, a camera, and the back of a horse's head

Ok, so there were some really steep hills on our "trail ride." Let's just say my horse tripped a few times and I almost had a heart attack. 

Just plugging along on my slow-poke horse. Urkel had his own agenda and pace. Which was to stay far, far behind the others. Do-dee-doo....

Proof of how high up we were... see that way down below? That was the other part of the resort, the camping and family area with all the loud children. Which we avoided like the plague. 

After horse-back riding, it was (sigh) time to head out. We only spent 24 hours at the resort, but packed a lot in and came home a little sunburned (whoops- but I refused to pay $17 for sunscreen in their shop). 

Herds of wild horses roamed everywhere!

I think this one is a little lost....

I am so grateful my Mom loves taking Austin for weekends sometimes... he gets Grandma time, and Neal and I get precious marriage time. I am a very strong believer that time away from your kids and focusing on your marriage is one of the BEST things you can do for your kids. Healthy, happy families start with marriages.

Sorry, getting off subject... 

Anyways, it was a great getaway and Neal and I are excited to go back with Austin sometime and take advantage of all the family activities Kah-Nee-Tah has to offer too. 

Till next time desert!!!

Monday Musings

-I have a complex spreadsheet I created for our household budget. It is my baby. I think I like it too much. I fiddle with it all the time, tweaking, improving, adding formulas and making things roll up into sums and whatnot. I think I missed my calling as an Accountant…

-I wish we had enough “play” money so that I could get a manicure every single week. Damn, I would LOVE that.

-My floor has never been so clean because I did nothing on Saturday but spray hundreds of $#!!@$ ants with cleaner and wipe them dead. They are coming into our house by the DROVES and they GROSS ME THE HELL OUT. Please please please God, let the ant bait Neal used this morning work! There was an ant in my baby boy’s hair on Saturday and that is NOT OK.

-In two weeks I’m going to be in Tennessee for work. I am nervous. Why? Because I have a)never picked up a rental car before, ever.. and don’t know if I know how to do it and b) have no idea how to pump my own gas for said rental car. The last time I pumped gas was when I was 21 and my car broke down 2 hours later because I did something wrong.

-Speaking of pumping gas I’m tempted to drive up to Washington and practice before my trip so I’m not a complete idiot stuck in the mid-west hopefully not spraying gas all over the place.

-Sometimes I just wish I could eat dairy without all the hassle of digestive aids and stomach aches. I get tired of meal planning everything sans milk, cream, cream cheese, sour cream and cheese. If anyone has links to dairy-free recipes, hit me up! I need to shake up dinners a bit.

-Did y’all know you could grow your own celery from the root? Check it out! According to Neal, we will have lovely celery in only 6 months. He’s so enthusiastic about it. Ha.

-Austin got his first Band-Aid worthy boo-boo on Friday. My first thought was he looked adorable! (is that bad, that that was my first thought??) Then my second thought (when taking this picture) was that he looks really red-headed (which he isn’t) and that in that brown borrowed fleece from school he totally looks like a monk. So meet my son, Friar Tuck.

Goose and Mav's Awesome 5 Year Adventures

Last week, April 10th, marked 5 years since I went and met a cute (albeit, in my opinion "way too young of a guy to be serious about") guy for a casual date at a pub.

I wore a t-shirt and a ponytail (I wasn't supposed to like him much, remember?) and he wore sweats because he had come from baseball practice.

Well, that "too young for me guy" quickly stole my heart, made me laugh like never before, made me feel safe and beautiful and cared for... and became my everything. Funny how life works like that... and what they say is true. Love will find you when you very least expect it!

Here are some of my favorite moments from our pre-baby years!

Hiking Silver Falls... August 2008. We'd been together about 4 months at this point and Neal was living in Salem (over an hour away from me) because his teaching job was starting soon. We hated living even that distance apart, and on this hike we talked for the first time about moving in (officially) together.

Hiking Mary's Peak in Corvallis.... August 2008. We were going to a friend's wedding that night and enjoyed the hot Oregon day on top of world (or so it seemed)...

Tom Petty concert at the Washington Gorge... September 2008. We ended this weekend by getting my purse and his wallet stolen, and I broke out in horrible heat rash all over my body. Not the best ending to a weekend that was supposed to be fun and relaxing!!! Petty's You Wreck Me will always be one of our songs...

Portland's "Arctic Blast"... December 2008. To people in other parts of the country, this is every typical winter. To Oregon, this was the biggest snowstorm ever and the whole state basically shut down because of a foot of snow. Neal and I hibernated, laid in bed, walked in a winter wonderland and I learned why it is dumb to be vain and wear mascara out in the falling snow.

Trip to Lincoln City... April 2009. Our First Anniversary trip! We stayed in a B&B, ate great seafood, wandered the remains of a military fort (creepy and awesome) and were already living together and planning a future.

Oregon vs. Oregon State baseball game... May 2009. Are we star-crossed lovers because we hail from rival colleges?? Ha. A little sparring makes things fun for us... I remember at this game sitting behind a pretty drunk couple from Eugene and chatting with them. The woman of the couple point blank told me that Neal was going to marry me... she could tell by the way he looked at me. How right she turned out to be!

Prom Chaperones... May 2009. Who doesn't love a good prom, right??? I bought a dress, got mah hair did, and then sat back and watched all the teenagers do, well... what teenagers do at a Prom. Make-out. Grope. Stand around in groups. Walk back and forth to the bathroom 250 times. Cry. Fight. Make-up. Wear gaudy dresses. Act drunk (because they were drunk). And thank God I am no longer a teenager. PS- I love how Neal looks like a member of a boy band in this caricature. :-)

Wrigley Field, Chicago... July 2009. We made the journey to the mid-west for a big Glynn family reunion, including family from Sweden. My name tag designated me as Neal's "friend" (really? that's all I got??) and I got the ultimate girlfriend test... hanging with Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins for 4 days. Whew. I survived. I just don't ever want to have to eat a Swedish smorgastarta again.

Whidbey Island.... December 2009. The weekend we got engaged. One of the best weekends ever. We hiked, relaxed, shopped, ate good food and I thought Neal was breaking up with me for a moment when he told me to sit down (his response to that... "really? the candles and rose petals didn't make you think MAYBE it wasn't a break-up????). Ha.

 Engagement Session... April 2010. Our friends Matt and Alison did a beautiful job capturing our relationship.. I was nervous before the shoot though and had to take a shot to calm down a bit. I'd be a down-right drunk if I were a model... I remember this was such a fun day filled with a million kisses and hugs and it was the first time I felt like a real bride-to-be with a wedding coming up!

The Big Day.. September 2010. I remember everything about that day.. even what kind of coffee I had, and how I was feeling at every moment. The day was gorgeous, we had friends and family surrounding us, and I couldn't believe he was mine forever. Plus I had a kick-ass dress. We mustn't forget about the dress. :-)

Five years with this really fun, loving guy... many many years still ahead of us (if we survive the toddler years, that is.. some days are questionable!)

But, whether we are up or we're down, we always come back to the love that first attracted us to each other.. and for that I am eternally grateful.

Grateful for a healthy relationship, a loving husband, a devoted father to our child, and the little things that keep us laughing through it all.

Don't Get in a Car with a Toddler Behind the Wheel

Austin thinks he is a grown-up.

He likes to do things himself, he thinks he's really smart and has this world figured out.

Like driving...

He knows what my keys are, and that they belong to the car...and when he actually gets his little paws on those keys?

Mayhem..

"I got Mama's keys! I got Mama's keys!!!! Whoo hoo!"

"C'mon ladies... let's go shopping!"

"Hold on a sec.. forgot my binkie inside..."

"Ok.. so I just have to put the key to the car...and it should go! Right? Go car!"

"What the flip? I put the key to the car? Why didn't we go?"

"Ok.. try this again.. maybe a bit harder this time.. go car!!!" 

"Um... hey Mom? Can I get a ride? Damn key doesn't seem to be working..."

Yeah. And don't get me started on how he doesn't use his blinkers, takes corners too fast, and has a tendency to chug a sippy cup behind the wheel.

Tsk. Who taught this kid to drive?

Must have been his Dad. :-)