Noah hands me something he drew on a piece of note paper and says, "Are you happy now? I made you a card!"

I say, "Yes, thank you!"

He says, "Yeah, a card is loving and it's a present. Just kinda like hugs and kisses are presents too, huh?

You got to tell Daddy that I made you a different kind of card."

...what a sweet little head Noah has. Here's the card:

It's about 9:30 am and Noah has had banana bread and strawberries for breakfast about 20 minutes ago when he hops into the kitchen and says, "Mommy I'm still hungry".

"OK, would you like some yogurt?" I answer.

"Yes! I will eat the yogurt and get bigger and bigger and bigger and my tummy will get fat and when it gets fat I can go snowboarding with Daddy!"

Spring is in full swing here in Michigan - the temperature ranges bewteen the 50's and 60's and it's windy and rainy almost every other day. For two days last week it was up to alomst 80 degrees and I did a few little happy jigs (only in front of Daniel), then the cool weather settled back in.

I am ready for SUMMER!!! Bring it on! I want to fall asleep with no covers on at night. I wnat to hang out outside in lounge chairs with the boys in flip flops. I want to fill up the boys' tiny wading pool. I want lemonade!! and Rootbeer! I want to see Daniel in his cute little plaid shorts grilling on our BBQ outside. I am ready!

So ... since the weather and sun is not cooperating, I decided to decorate my front room in summer. I want to go with a red, white and blue theme. I made a beach sign pointing west and hung it up in anticipation of the sunglasses we will be using one of these days when the sun comes out and sticks around. I clipped some of the cherry blossoms off of my tree in the front yard and printed out some of the beach pictures we took on Saturday at Port Huron. Then added sand and candles and smooth stones I picked up from the beach at Port Huron all over the place. I am liking it so far, what do you think??

I was watching "Castle" the other night with Daniel. It is a CSI-type detective series. And one of the suspects was this crazy lunatic of a man who spent all day long chopping meat with a meat cleaver, crying and blasting opera. Then Saturday night, Daniel I popped in a good ol' chick flick, "Never Been Kissed", and watched as the unwanted, stuck up girlfriend of the main man spouted how her law firm had season tickets to the Met (Metropolitan Opera House in NYC). The leading lady made a joke about baseball, making the girlfriend look even more uptight and unlikeable. Why does opera have this negative conotation??

Opera lovers and singers are generally portrayed in entertainment and conversation these days as pompous, bellowing fools. Why??! It is some of the most gorgeous music and some of the most trained entertainers in the world that perform it. Opera singers spend 10-30 years perfecting their talent before they even get a CHANCE on stage. Do you think Lady GaGa, Britney Spears, or any other pop singer put in that amount of effort? ... I think not.

Anyway, I think it has to do with preparation. Most people don't know HOW to listen to opera. It can be incredibly moving without preparation, but with a little prep, it can move you in ways you never thought possible. Sometimes tearfully, sometimes spiritually but a truly fulfilling experience.

Just like one would never waltz through an art museum without reading the plaques next to the framed art or at least knowing who's art you are looking at ... you should read up a little before attending an opera. You should start by reading the libretto (storyline) at the very least. It would also be helpful to know which arias are most famous and when to listen for them. Also, you need to be in for the long haul - an opera can run anywhere from 1 hour to 4 or more. Then, make sure you are listening to good singers. If you can, go see an opera at an A list opera house ONCE in your life.

Just thought I'd give a little props to opera since it gets such a bad wrap usually. What did opera ever do to you, but elevate your taste a bit, huh?

So .... my mom and dad bought this outfit for Noah a few Christmases ago. Noah only got to wear it a few times because it was too cold of an outfit when he finally grew into it. But it's 87% humidity today and 80 degrees in Michigan and Liam needed some shorts to wear to church - and out came this outfit.

When Daniel came home from home teaching this morning I had already dressed both boys. When Daniel saw Liam he said, "Oh! Why is he wearinh daisy dukes to church?" Check it out:


He was laughing at something Noah was doing.


I just had to get the standing position on film to show the full outfit.


His little serious/tired/bored face cracks me up.


I laughed so hard when I saw that I had caught this picture. I don't know why ... it was just so funny to me.

Tonight Daniel was putting Noah to bed and Noah popped out of bed and said, "Daddy, bad dreams are about snakes."

Daniel responded with, "It's OK, you'll have good dreams tonight".

Noah perked up with, "Yeah. Good dreams are about race cars and the Abominable Snowman".

A few months ago I pieced together some old jeans I had lying around (I had a LOT) and thought I'd use it for a "rug" in the basement, but that was a dumb idea. It never worked. It kept getting moved and rumpled, it never laid flat and Noah kept tripping on it, so it went into the black hole of a sewing closet I own of failed projects that I will fix someday.

On Saturday it was pretty nice weather, so Daniel was outside working in our front yard and he found my failed jeans rug and put Liam on it on the grass .... and I was inspired to turn it into a finished outside blanket. I went to Joann's last night to buy material for the jeans quilt. I didn't want to spend all the money on batting, so I got cute polka dotted fleece because it was thicker and came home and started tying the quilt with blue yarn I already had.

Today I finished tying it and then edging the sides and voila (vwah la)! I am planning on using it specifically just for outside picnics, park days, etc. because the jean is pretty sturdy stuff. It made me happy to make use of a failed project :)

Today I also let Noah use his new scissors. They are safety scissors and are meant for children 3 and older and Noah is almost 3 1/2. But after a million tiny pieces of paper were strewn across my kitchen floor, one dramatic slicing of Noah's pinky finger on the "safety" scissors and Resolve cleaner on the blood on the carpet - we were done with scissors for another year or so.