easy there, it's just an... EASEL!

i looooove my husband. you know what dan bought me for a surprise last night? an EASEL!!!!!!!!! one that you can travel around with and paint outdoors! it is a bit cheap, granted, but not in price. dan went to a tool sale, of all places, and saw it. he bought it on the spot. he had it all set up in the door of our bedroom last night. when i got home from work at 9:20pm-ish i saw dan and the boys on the couch and started to talk to them and walked into the living room a bit... and there it was! i was so surprised! i freaked out. i almost cried. can you believe that? I was just saying that i felt a bit of painting coming on! i have felt inspiration hanging in the air. i told dan that God used him and he didn't even know it! makes you wonder what stuff you do that God is using and you don't even know.

shoot, now i'll just have to paint!:) no excuses. there's money involved now!

like a college education isn't money involved. i'm a moron.

my gram asked what i was going to paint first and i told her i have a painting in mind -- starring a green bean. i am not kidding. it will be fabulous and funky and saleable.:) i can see it in my mind. which is weird. i have never done that before. i always just chose a photo based on a requirement and then i copied said photo. i also have an idea for a painting with the face of a geisha (and i hate asian-y art. bizzare.) i am going to make her hair stand out stiff like how arthur rackham painted alice's dress in his illustrations of "alice in wonderland".

where is this stuff coming from?!!

well, i have to go give the baby a bath. we are going shopping since it is payday. i need: cheap groceries, a pair of cheap/fabulous knee-high leather boots, and there is a sale at "itsy bitsy" that i have to check out for jack.:) lots to do! oh, and i am hosting a dinner party/bonfire tonight for dan's mom and step-dad, and dan's sister and her husband and daughter. and i wanted to make a carrot cake and apple bars from scratch. and i might get a touch-up haircut. (my sis did a great job, my hair just has a nasty sense of humor. it needs to be beat into submission.) augh! so much to do!!!!!

what i have been missing out on my entire life

i think jack has an amazing sense of humor. he makes me laugh. today he needed a bath. i stripped him down and took off his diaper. we head off to the tub, but i realize i didn't grab his hooded towel. so, as i detour, i think he peed on me. ha ha, not too funny. what a sheister.

i scrub up the baby. hooray! today jack finally learned how to kick in the tub. how precious. i have been waiting. each bath i show him how to do it, but he never was interested. i congratulate him on his achievement.

i lift him up to scrub his little behind. i say, "ten hut! present booty!" and as i put his butt back in the water... he farts. jack's first fart in the tub!:) i laughed it up for a second, and then backed away waving my arm in the air, yelling about the smell. jack is deadly. yet, i am proud of him.

i go to put his romper on him in my bedroom. i place him on his back on my bed and dress him. i lean over and kiss his forhead and i say, "kisses". he laughs! that was the first time i had made him laugh. i have heard him laugh, but not from something i did. so, of course, i did it again. he laughed again! we have a routine here. i did it about 6 more times until he stopped laughing at it. super. it is kind of a "heh heh heh". very demur. this is what i have been missing my entire life.

"darlin' don't you go and cut your hair..."

"i'm just a boy (girl) with a new haircut. that's a pretty nice haircut!" my sister cut my hair saturday afternoon. drastically. my hair was probably the longest it has ever been. so, i suddenly get an irrisistable compulsion to chop it. i mean chop! i was thinking of doing it myself. you know, for fun. then, if it didn't work out i would go to a salon. i told my sis i was thinking of cutting my hair and she says, "let's go. mom, where are your hair cutting scissors?". now, my sis is not a hairstylist. she just loves to play around. her hair always looks great.

i videotaped while my sis layered away. i wanted lots of layers. my hair has this wavy thing going on right now, and it really embraced those layers. when i get up in the morn my hair is "fwinging out" as i say. like, fwing! like i combed it with a blender. it is very fun. i am enjoying playing around with it. i like to put it in tiny pig tails like all those cute girl on "america's next top model".:) you know, the season that eva won.

so, i suppose photos will follow sometime.

munsinger clemens gardens & naked baby

here is a photo of me at the munsinger & clemens garden in st. cloud, mn. i was on a church ladies outing with my mom and jack. that's one huge hibiscus. it was the coolest flower there.

here are photos of my practically naked baby. i actually sketched him that day, too. i think he was sleeping. yes, i was watching him while he was having his "tummy time".

PHOTOS OF JACK, FINALLY! part two...

dear reader, i don't mean to boast, but jack keeps getting cuter each day! i am glad i waited to get his expensive photos taken. my mom and sis bought us a lovely photo package, and they keep bugging me to use it. jack was very cute when fresh, but slightly wrinkled and with large amounts of eye boogers. well, his tear ducts have just about straightened themselves out, and he is filling out. in short, he's adorable. practically flawless. he's ready for his close-up.

i love this plaid overall. and the argyle socks! it is his 3 months best church outfit.:) even the collared onesie is precious. and don't get me started on how i feel about the white leather wingtips. it won't be long now and i will have to buy him some larger church shoes. i'm thinking tasseled-tappy-kilty-loafers. right?

my auntie lana made jack the cloud blankie. sweetness.

JACK PHOTOS, FINALLY! part one...

dear blog reader. i'm a dork. yes, it's true. i kept blaiming dan for lack of jack photos on my blog. yes, he did de-program the computer (twice!), but i was the one trying to re-install the wrong printer. oopsie. yesterday i used the right disk and i was able to re-program the copier in about 15 quick little minutes. why no photos of jack yesterday, you say? well, shortly thereafter the power went out. such is life.

here are some sweet photos of my little boy. he was about 2 1/2 months old at the time. he is 3 months and 3 weeks this very day.

look closely. there is a baby blue embroidered whale on the chest of that collared onesie! how very "izod". it is really cute.

jack's diaper takes flight

jack has been getting too much formula while i have been away at work. that has got to stop. he got so constipated the other day -- i suppose from the iron supplimented formula. i am taking iron pills, so he was probably chock full of the stuff. anyway, poor dear complained the whole day long before he had the messy diaper. his poor little tummy! what a mommy mistake.

over the weekend jack got all "the good stuff" from me and his next messy diaper was a REAL mess, to my relief. while changing him i had his feet in my left hand, the messy diaper in my right. i had to hurry in case he worked a foot free and got in his own poo. so, i just placed the open messy diaper on the box of wipes. the box of wipes at his feet. stupid, yes, i know now. i wipe him off. i let go of the feet. jack kicks the wipes box. EEEK! the messy diaper flies over the back of the changing table into the darkness. i don't want to look. i look. angels must have flown the diaper gently down and placed it, poo up, on the floor. halleuiah! i rejoice. my cream carpet is saved. i won't be making that mommy mistake again.

go oprah

monday i saw part of oprah's show. she had some dude on named dr. oz. he had conducted, or had all the info for, experiments conducted with nutrition. he had these truckers put on a high fiber diet and tracked how quickly they had a bowel movement. after i think it was 10 days the truckers went #2 in half the time! then they had an experiment where people had to eat 11 pounds of fresh veggies and fruits a day. after 10 days their cholesterol had dropped by 25% and their blood pressure by 10%. also, by eating a ton of calcium rich foods, you will shed 6 1/2 pounds of fat in a year. wow.

needless to say, i am now on a healthfood kick. "beans and bran" is my new motto. carrots and celery are my new best friends. a healthy colon is a happy colon. we eat too much processed food in my family and i don't want to be the one contributing to my boys future colon cancer.

Church Picnic '07

yesterday deerwood baptist church ("in beautiful inner-city deerwood." --joke by dr. rosenbaum. deerwood has about 350 citizens, so you can imagine how huge the city is. it doesn't even have a decent restaurant.) had the annual Church Picnic. we go to a lovely park. we've been going there since i was a teen. i can't believe i was pushing my baby in his stroller down the same paved path that i used to in-line skate on as a stoopid teen. fabulous.

we had a huge buffet in a covered shelter on picnic tables. some ladies made the expected meatballs. there were a lot of "hot dishes". casseroles to you non-minnesotans. there were about 4-5 crock pots full of baked beans. i made a green bean casserole and i wanted to make rice crispy bars. alas, i didn't have rice crispies. i had given them away to my cousin who just lost his house to a fire. so, with marshmallows already liquefied in the pot and no time to spare, i used honey nut cheerios!:) i sprinkled pink sugar on top in the hopes that some little girls would be lured into eating them. i mean, whoever heard of cheerio bars?! only 3 brave souls tried them. bless there hearts. they were actually pretty good. really!

jack, of course, was a perfect baby the whole day. i didn't see much of my husband. he was off playing horseshoes with the pastor.:) i didn't see andy. he was off in-line skating with the kids. i was not lonely. i mingled my heart out. 5 hours was not enough time to chat.

i just so happened to have my camera and video camera with so i could document jack's first Church Picnic. so, when the Philippino missionary sang beautiful songs while playing his guitar, i got to get it on film. lucky me!

i could blog all day about the gorgeous weather at the picnic and the rhubarb cake, but i have to go and buy some pants. for work. oh joy. i hate shopping for pants.

jackers! 1st "professional" photo

here's my little angel, again. isn't he too much? this was taken august 21, 2007. he was just 2 1/2 months old. he didn't like being propped up much. this was his first, and only, good shot. the rest he cried. you can already see the tears brightening his eyes if you can look really close. i can. i have a 10x13!!! i have to go out and buy a reeeeeally big frame now.

jack has his daddy's mouth. everyday it looks wider! funny that dan has such a big mouth and he hardly uses it.:) not much of a talker, not big on eating (unless it's free!!!). what a waste.

road trip for elerene's 6th b-day

i bummed a ride with my parent's friday to go see my niece on her 6th birthday. on the way we swung by panera bread so i could indulge in a sumptuous lunch. heaven. then we went to the carter's outlet store so my mom could buy jack some more clothes. like he needs them!:) i love carter's baby clothes. jack is so lucky to have so many sweet clothes. he got 2 puppy-themed bodysuits.

my sister's girls were freaking out they were so happy to see us. eme called dibs and she got to hold jack first. we went out to a chinese buffet for dinner because that's ele's favorite. she loves those noodles. i had some salmon and my sister said that i was brave. WHAT!? i thought she had just said the food was good there. thanks a lot, sis.

saturday we went to a farmer's market. i bought jack a hand-knitted blue skull cap. i tried out my loaner baby bjorn and jack wasn't too keen on it. i guess it isn't for us. i also got to see a gorgeous art deco bank and bought a few handmade knit dishcloths.

elerene's party was crazed. it was a princess party and almost every one of the 12 shrieking female guests had a princess costume and jewelry. i had a costume, too. i wore my "paper skirt" (as teddy used to call it), my wedding tiara, gloves, and my faery wings. jack wore a polo onesie and his black velvet suit jacket. too bad angie didn't have time to get him the white tights for his outfit. he would have looked just like prince charming, right? the little girls smeared on purple lip gloss and ran back and forth through the house for 3 hours. i just kept thinking, "at the end of this i get birthday cake and i get to go home to dan.". it kept me sane.

gas fire

my cousin's house burned down saturday night/early sunday morn. it is pretty sad. total loss. the wonderful thing is that no one was hurt. gabe and michelle have a little 4 yr. old girl and a 2 yr. old boy. gabe is one of my younger cousins and i suppose i still think of him as a little boy. even after he built my house with my cousin shawn.:)
--gabe is the little blonde boy in the center of the photo. i am the crazy girl making moose antlers.

PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just added a ton of photos. please go back a page or so to see them. that means you, heatherness!:)

jack's 1st laugh

two days ago i think jack laughed his 1st laugh. andy was holding jack over his head and saying, "one, two freee-hee-hee". after about 12 times, jack laughed. he was also smiling, but he does that all the time.

how is 7th grade? boring.

andy has started 7th grade. i asked him how his first day was. "boring." he is not very communicative sometimes. o well. he looked very cool. dressed all in black like his hero, johnny cash. his hair was the very trendy mop. but not too messy. it's due to be cut soon. much to andy's woe.

i have to buy andy some bookcovers tonight. yes, that's right. he won't use a paper bag to cover his books. that would be embarrassing. he says only poor people use paper bags. say what? i say using bought covers is un-cool. why pay money you can buy chocolate, shoes, clothes, etc. on for bookcovers? lame. i doubt i can find them, but i'll look because it means so much to him. if i can't find some i do believe he'll have a melt down. poor chap.

elerene turns 6

jack and i are bumming a ride with my parents tomorrow because we have a princess tea party to go to! my sister's oldest daughter turns 6 tomorrow. elerene is very excited. i am getting her a puppy vet kit that she is apparently peeing her pants to get her little hands on.:) i am going to wear my tiara i got married in. maybe some angel or faery wings, too. we'll see. i think jack will wear a black velvet suit coat. he can be little prince charming.

garage sale 07

i had a garage sale friday and saturday. it was a big one. i put an ad in the paper stating we had a washer, air conditioner, old sewing machine, women's clothes, baby clothes and items, antiques, free kittens and a '78 mercury zepher.:) i thought that would bring people in. and so it did. what a bunch of weirdos! some nice people. mostly weirdos. the "unwashed masses". a man i like to call "pee-pee pants" bought my husband's zepher. pee-pee pants had a large unidentifiable stain on the front of his pants. the rest of him was unkempt and filthy. i don't mind poor. i have a problem with people who don't wash. this is america. we have soap.

well, i made $26 and got rid of a bunch of junk. kind of bummed no one took a free kitten (after all the trouble i took to catch those little buggers!) and no one took a tract.

i got some stuff at my own garage sale.:) my gram was selling off some of her step-aunts stuff. i ended up with 2 goblets with scottish thistle on them, a small suitcase of silverware, and a wooden box with a viking ship on it for jack. the box might have been made by my great-great step-uncle anders' uncle nels. wrap your mind around that! the point is, it's old. and handmade. it has a lock and the key is in the box still after all these years. i am going to store jack's precious baby things in until he is old enough to use it. i will put in it the stocking hat that they put on him in the hospital when he was born, his white leather wing-tip shoes, his nemo pacifier when he's done with it... so many precious memories.

baby bjorn

my old work supervisor, monica, is letting me borrow her baby bjorn. i think jack likes it. my only thing is, will i use it in the winter? if you have had a baby bjorn, please leave a comment to tell me about your experience. thanks!

messin' with the phone line

i leave for work at 4:30. i usually end up calling from my car with last-minute info i forget to give dan and andy in the rush of things. the other night i tried calling for about 20 minutes to tell andy to make sure he got the chicken off the grill. it was busy. when i got to work i realized i had left the internet on so my i-tunes could update! shoot. how am i going to call home to tell them to turn the internet off? we have dial-up! so..... i called my gram. "gram, can you send grandps over to tell dan to turn off the internet? and see if andy has burned the chicken." also, a guy was supposed to call about a car dan had for sale. i really was blonde that day.

the phone line

a while back dan decided to get rid of a tree that died as a result of us building a house too close to it. if it had fallen, it would have hit the baby's room. so, i was all for it. dan called my gramps over to watch (far as i can tell). gramps and dan had a good old time. dan pushed the tree down with an old bull dozer. the next day i couldn't get a dial tone on any of our phones. dan had uprooted the phone line with the tree. ah, country livin'.

11 new outfits for jack... give or take a onesie.

day before last jack and i went shopping for groceries. i ended up rushing through wal-mart to bring back some fried chicken and milk to fool my husband because what i really bought was a whole pile of clothing for my baby. oopsie.:) it turned out i had bought a grand total of 11 rompers, sleepers, onesies and pants. my my... the good part is that some of the clothes only cost about $2 or $7. the great part is that my mom is going to buy some of the clothes back from me to give to jack for Christmas (some of the rompers are 12 & 18 month sizes). hooray! so, does that mean i was naughty, or thrifty? how about crafty?:)

--marshall fam Christmas 07--jack with "santa"

pepper

"i don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows. i can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes..." no, not that "pepper". pepper as in pepper spray. so, jay, you don't have to feel so bad about setting off my pepper spray that one time. i did it myself the other day. i had just pulled into my parent's driveway when i heard this funny sound. it sounded like a punctured can of pop. since i don't drink that too often i racked my brains to figure out what it could be. PEPPER SPRAY! i threw myself out of the car. then i thought... MY BABY!!! then i mightily hefted out his car seat and set it down away from the car. sheesh. setting off my own pepper spray. (shakes her head in consternation) i had it in the arm rest of the car and i guess i leaned on the arm rest juuuuust right and squashed it.

--marshall fam Christmas 07

"goo" "ga"

i was eating a bowl of cereal the other morning and all of a sudden i hear "GOO!!!". i sniggered. a few minutes later i heard, "GA!!!". again with the sniggering. jack often says, "a-goo". just never so forcefully. i am amazed. i thought babies didn't really say "goo" and "ga", like puppies never really say "bow wow".

--marshall fam Christmas 07-- jack and dan's mom, claire

a bar-b-q with jack

on the 24th my last supervisor threw a bar-b-q. only one other family could make it. perfect! now people had to talk to us because we were the only ones there.:) it was BYOB so i packed us some orange sodas! ha ha! i brought a wild rice-chicken salad and some fudgey brownies with sprinkles. the kids were very very excited. we played uno and sat out by the fire ring until 9pm. jack was a gem.
P.S. this photo is still from marshall family Christas.

a little too much to drink?...

i went upstairs for some blankets and an ice cream sandwich and found jack face down on the tray of his swing. it would have made a funny photo.
--photo marshall fam Christmas 07

marshall family Christmas august '07

Merry Christmas! on the 18th of august we went to maple grove, mn to a Christmas pool party in the rain. i kid you... not. here is a photo of my lovely family relaxing in a garage whilst posing for a family portrait. jack was too hot for his little hoodie at this point. he was the only one who really looked "Christmasy" and it was all a fluke.:)

we partied with my husband's mother's side of the family. dan's cousin jeff had just returned for good from his second tour of duty in iraq. jack sat on santa's lap for the first time.