peace in the valley...

While one is off at school, doing the things that first graders do...

... the other 2 nap peacefully, one in my bed...

... and the other, on the couch.

Peace in the valley, I tell you...

summer, where did you go?

the view from there.

After being on duty nearly every day and every night since January 7, 2003, it was nice to retreat kid-less with my beloved for a bit. Fortunately we had a view.

And a nice one at that, right?

Lots of big things going on at our house over the past several weeks, and so far life shows no signs of letting up any time soon. Which is good.

The first day of first grade for Margaret lingers just around the corner. Preschool starts again soon for Lydia, and this year, Jack. We have a new puppy, that's right, a new puppy, coming to live with us closer to the end of September. We have a boat! A boat! Who would have thought we would ever own a boat! I foresee lots of weekends spent lazing about this boat this fall, swimming off the back, bobbing in the warm water...

Lots of big things, indeed.

650 days.

650 days.

Nearly 21.5 months.

That is how long I breastfed my sweet baby boy Jack. After 650 days, our last nursing was this past Friday afternoon at naptime. It is definitely a bittersweet occasion... I am ready to be finished, he doesn't really need it anymore; it's much more of a security thing than anything else at this point in his life. I will miss it though. Nothing can compare to those sweet moments as he would drift off to sleep, looking up at me, smile on his face.

After 2 admittedly half-hearted attempts at nursing our girls, this has been such a wonderfully rewarding experience in my mommy career.

I am just so proud of myself.

But while I am celebrating another milestone in my son's life, a woman whose blog I am a loyal follower of is quite possibly the closest she has ever been to losing her sweet baby. Jennifer McKinney, better known as MckMama (<---click that link if you are so inclined) in the blogging community, could really use any extra prayers and good thoughts you might have to share. Her sweet baby Stellan is hospitalized right now with a prolonged episode of SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) and is not doing well.

Many thanks...

karma is a... fish?

Meet Smokey.

Smokey? Blog readers... Blog readers? Smokey.

Smokey is our cat. Cats eat fish. Smokey ate our pet beta a few weeks ago. Survival of the fittest, I tell you.

Guess what came home with Lydia from summer camp this afternoon? This must be karma because deep inside I was happy when I learned Smokey ate our last fish... One less thing for this mommy to do.

This? Is "Goldfish Water". Who knew the water in our town was so dang toxic to goldfish, but amazingly fit for human consumption? Thank goodness for water filters I guess, right?

This? Is the fish's new digs. The kids' bathroom. Door closed. (But don't worry- there is a window in there too so the little guy will get plenty of natural light during the day. He gets bottled water too you know...)

Best of luck to you, little one. Your caretakers are 6 and 4, so I'm just saying they don't always remember to close the bathroom door. This will be key to your survival as Smokey roams free. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you though.

(*Now I will say that when I picked up Lydia this afternoon that I was told we didn't have to bring home the fish if we didn't want to. So who was going to break this news to Lydia, when she worked so hard fishing the little guy out of the kiddie pool with a net today at camp and her prize was all bagged-up and ready to go? So now we have another fish.)

somethin' tells me it's all happening at the zoo.

i do believe it, i do believe it's true...

This Sunday morning, Brian and I decided to surprise our 3 with a stop at a beloved bakery for donuts and then a trip to the Memphis Zoo. We were extra-lucky this particular morning because our good friends Aneel and Alexis and their twins, Maya and Jude, decided to join us (they skipped the donut part though- pillars of virtue I tell you).

Our visit started with a trip through Primate Canyon (where yours truly used to spend most my days...) and we paid one of the most beloved orangutans I know a visit.

This is Chickie, still as beautiful as ever. Doesn't it look like she styles her hair before stepping outside for the day? Her bangs were always the perfect length and I know to me it always seemed like she may have had a pair of scissors hidden somewhere (but I know she didn't because I was just that good).

After wishing Chickie a good afternoon, we headed to what would easily qualify as the highlight of our day: Birds and Bees (honey bees and budgies, but not flying around together in the same place; the bees were locked up in their little hive that you could peek into...)

For $1 you could buy (rent?) a wooden dowl with a clothes pin on the end, holding a spray of millet seeds. You then walk over to any of the 500 or so budgies flying around and offer them a treat. Margaret and Lydia loved this.

look very carefully and you will see a zoo map tucked under lydia's arm. she was the self- designated "map holder" for this trip and as you can see, she took her job very seriously.

There were blue birds and yellow birds...

... mostly white birds...

... and green birds.

And the good news was that once one decided he was finished snacking and flew off,

... there was another watching and waiting, eager to take his place.

first haircut.