Cast of Characters

This is to get it off my profile. A cheat sheet to the people I mention the most!

Mads - my 5 year old whirlwind, full of emotions & giggles, holds a deep love for garbage trucks. He's my superhero, my gardening buddy, snuggle monster & Goblin King. I adore him & love being his "Mumma".

Kei - Mad's father, my truest true-blue friend & co-parenting partner in crime. He really is a certified geek. We got married in 2003, but are now separated (though we still live together in the house we bought 2 years ago). It's rough seas at times, but we're dedicated to keeping this ship sailing.

Mum & Dad - my parents. In all their eclectic glory. They hold the best casual parties & love their family with an intensity. They are amazing people but still drive me crazy at times (^_^)

Phil - my boyfriend. An amazing man, whose heart found mine when I was not looking to fall for anyone. He encourages me to be a better self, loves me & Mads without conditions, and has a fondness for video games & magic tricks.

Mr. Ken & Suki - the resident felines. Our home would not be complete without them.

Productive

We were majorly productive today. I woke up, had a good online conversation with a friend, made a scrambled eggs with ham omelette-y thing for Mads, and then watched a couple episodes of Arthur with him. Then, we played out front for a bit, walked to the park, fed ducks and played on the swings for an hour, then walked home. Mads had a tummy-ache when we got home, so he watched another episode of Arthur while drinking some tummy comfort tea. I made lunch/dinner. After eating, we went out back and put stuff away to prepare for the rain, he made himself into a mud monster while I talked on the phone with a friend, and then when Kei got home he cleaned up Mads and now they are at Walmart getting a tarp (to cover the VW Bus when it rains - the side door and roof leaks). Once they get back, we're going out to play Monster Mini Golf, then it will be home for bed.

Whew!

I actually want to put more little details in on this and have it flow better - but I'm short on time. Hopefully I'll be able to later :-)

Our House in the Middle

Since we will have been homeowners for as year (!!!) as of Oct. 25th, we've decided we should throw ourselves a belated housewarming/Day of the Dead-themed party.

To be honest, my thoughts on the theme came from this photo I found online while trying to get face makeup idea for our Halloween costumes:

That chicka's face makeup is bad-ass!

Of course, having people over to celebrate the cold air and general "We made is a year without going broke!" (semi-true....) happiness means.....there will be people in our house. Like, real people. People who I will be facing at work, people who go to school with Mads and we want to make a good impression on. People we've known for years and people we've known for months.

Besides the social anxiety I can feel coming on - my house is sooooo not party ready!

Kei took Friday off work and we attempted to clean the office. "Attempted" because the main problem with that room is that we need a few more black shelves, another book case, and a filing cabinet that doesn't resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Also, Mr. "I'm-an-only-child-and-my-parents-are-home-together-for-a-change-look-at-me!!!" Mads was intent on asking me a question every 3 seconds and wanted all of the big books off of the bookcase. We tried to pacify him with crayons and maze books, but that lasted all of 20 mins. (Which was pretty good for him, actually). We didn't get as much done as I hoped for, lunch was delayed, tempers ran amok, and the day pretty much nose-dived into the concrete.

But, I'm trying to keep a Positive Mental Attitude about it. The office is in process now, and lots was done that would have been hard to do by myself. The whole house needs some work, every room has things that make me cringe a little. I have a month and a half to get this place really ready. I don't expect perfection, but between work, personal time with family and friends, and sleep, I'm pretty confident that I can wing this.

Heck, I might even post before and after pictures :-)

Photo Ketschup

Visuals to the previous posts:

Photos to go with the first post - crayon making and water bottle playing:

The boxes from the crayons amused me to no end - they were so old!

The crayons were so old that the wrappers were embedded into most of the crayons and had to be cut off!

Decided to do shades of the colors instead of doing multi-colored crayons.

Meanwhile, Mads continued the water experiments.

He moved onto using a cup to plug the sink, then filling another cup with utensils to make a sail boat.

Eventually, he moved onto striping down nakked and watching Clifford.

Crayons, all formed and cooled. The one above the brown is actually magenta/plum/purple.

Library Day:

Tired after our trips to the library and the post. It was 80-some-odd degrees out, but he insisted on wearing a thick fleece vest that day. (o_O)?

His card and his first picks!

And lastly, the only current photo of me, that's completely unedited, that I honestly can say I like: