Be sure to check for a California Tortilla location near you.

Mmmmm. I love California Tortilla.

On a VERY VERY frustrating note, Ethan’s right eye is red and inflamed.
If you’re keeping score, this makes round THREE of pink eye for Ethan. His last day of eye drops was on Friday, and now it turns up again.

ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!

Today is SUPPOSED to be the last day of eye drops for Jocelyn’s bout of pink eye as well, but I’m thinking we may want to drag her into the doctor to make sure it’s REALLY GONE before we stop giving her drops.

So James stayed home with Ethan today, will be taking him to the doctor later this afternoon.

I guess the silver lining is I got to eat lunch with my men-folk! Cuteness and handsomeness ensued:

WHY I DON’T WRITE HERE ENOUGH

I haven’t done this in a while, you know, the writing about what actually happens in our lives, type of thing.

Sometimes I feel like this is a “journal” type of thing then I get all hung up about the things that I DON’T post, and I feel like “oh i can’t right about thing Y, that happened today, because I haven’t yet written about thing X, that happened 2 days ago,” and then nothing gets written.

Other times, I want to write about things that I have photographic proof of, but then said proof is either still on the camera, or on the computer at home, NOT uploaded onto flickr and then I put off writing because everyone knows people are more interesting when they post photos, right? Right.

And then we get into the whole shmiel about if I’m writing anything that might have someone I KNOW in it and all the strict and various rules I have in that regard it’s no wonder I write anything at all.

Oh wait. Let’s look at 2007… yup, no need to wonder, I HAVEN’T written hardly anything at all!

I think a part of that is also because when I’m feeling all angsty and weird and ‘how did i end up here in this place in my life?’ depressed, i need a place to vomit all the brain yuck up out of my brain and then i feel better and well, i haven’t had any brain yuck in a long while.

So really it’s a good thing that my blog is more like a random banner that changes every month with a ‘hi there’ and a photo thrown in now and then for good measure.

I’m going to try to stop letting all these reasons keep me from updating more often. Because there’s a big reason I need to overcome all that and just post already.

The children. The cute, cute terribly cute children. I need to document the cuteness if only so when they’re both snots wanting to borrow the car and $20 when they’re 16, I can load up the archives and go, “Awwwwwww..”

SO ON TO THE CUTENESS

Last week Jocelyn had a pretty bad case of pink eye which caused first me, and then james to stay home with her (1 day each) so as not to infect her entire school with the puss and eye boogers (we’re so thoughtful) (and also, her doctor made us).

Me and Jocelyn in the car, driving around, to/from doctor/target pharmacy/home:

Jocelyn is playing with her pink toy cell phone.

Jocelyn: I’m the mommy! And I’m driving!
me: OK! Am I Jocelyn?
J: Yes. You are Jocelyn. Only you’re a baby, and you’re in my tummy. Let me call you.
M: BRRRING! BRRRING!
J: NO! WITH YOUR PHONE!
M: I pick up my cell phone and flip it open.
M: Hello?
J: Hi!
M: Hi!
J: You’re out of my tummy now!
M: OK! Where are we going, mommy?
J: We’re going home.
M: OK. Are we there yet?
J: Nooooooo.
M: When will we get home?
Jocelyn pauses a moment, thinking this over.
J: We’ll get home in nine, six.
M: OK. What will we do when we get there?
J: I’ll make some dinner.
M: What are we having?
J: Cheese. Bye bye!
M: BYE!

We hang up.

Nine, six. Obviously, she’s trying to say something like, 10:30, but it comes out 9 6. I died of the cuteness. I’m dead now.

These sorts of conversations take place over and over and over and over, and all I can say is, I wish both of my children had come out of my tummy with the ease of which I came out of hers.

Other variations of this conversation take place when she is Cinderella, and I am either Anastasia, Drusilla, or the step mother (“only nice!”) Then she usually changes her mind and wants to be Anastasia/Drusilla/Nice-Step-Mother herself. She then regales me with how she is going to the store/ taking me to school/ driving to work/ going to dinner. Very cute.

Let me just add that giving eye drops to Jocelyn is no easy feat. I’m relieved to say that tomorrow is her last day of drops to be administered. HALLELUJAH! We will be a pink eye FREE house!

OK, That’s all I’m going to write today. I could go on, but I don’t want to kill you from the shock.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and happy father’s day to all the dad’s out there!

– amy is an accomplished concrete mixer

James and I have been kind of toying with the idea of moving sometime next year. I think we both had it lurking in our subconscious and then as soon as one of us brought it out into the open, it’s taken off. Now whenever something about the house irks us, we turn to the other and say, “Let’s make sure we have a decent sized kitchen in our next house!” these occurences are becoming more and more regular.

So with the toying, has been the browsing around at real estate. And almost immediately, I’ve been discouraged by the lack of variety in the architecture in the area. EVERYTHING IS TRADITIONAL/COLONIAL.

OK. Not everything. But 95% of the houses in our area is colonial. Doesn’t ANYONE ELSE in the DC metro area just get sick of seeing the same style house everywhere you look? Whenever I’m browsing through listings, if anything modern pops up (and I think it’s only happened once..) I’m instantly in love. Never mind the fact that it either is a) further away from work than we are currently or b) costs over a million dollars…. I’m in love.

So I spent the last hour and a half coaxing Google with the most romantic moderny real estatey search terms possible and thought I’d share my findings with others who may also be eye-gougingly sick of Colonial real estate.

First off… This is fascinating. Current listings of Frank Lloyd Wright homes on the market. There’s one in Bountiful, UT that I would totally move there for (if someone wouldn’t mind giving me a cool 3.8+ million bucks) and another in Washington state that actually made my heart hurt, it was so beautiful.

Modern Capital is a blog based in the Washington DC metro area for mid-century modern real estate, design and events – he’s listed a few houses that have come on the market recently, and in his side bar he lists communities of modern architecture. OH HALLELUJAH! We’re not totally alone in the sea of Colonials! He started up last October, and I’m looking forward to poking through his archives.

Not necessarily modern, but a real estate blog based in Seattle. I’m a Seattle girl at heart, so I’ve been following along wistfully for half a year, what can I say.

GO MOD is a great jumping off place for several modern real estate sites, as well as bunches of other cool stuff.

I wish I had the time to road trip it down to the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond, VA for the exhibit on Contemporary Prefabricated Houses – ooohhhh how delicious it would be to go check that out.

Also, did you know about CB2?? When did this happen? And why only in Chicago, you lucky dogs! (Well, NY will be getting one soon too, I see.) I ran across it a while ago and promptly ordered a catalog. Not that I have any spare money for furniture, but how dare Crate and Barrel go and open a whole new modern thingee and not tell me! FOR SHAME. Go check it out and drool along with me. And if you knew about it.. then shame on you for not telling me.

Are you a real estate junkie? Do you keep your eye on the listings just to peek inside houses for sale even though you’re not necessarily moving in the near future? If so…. I’d love to hear any of your favorite sites or real estate blogs. It’s like heroin. I’m hooked, baby. Design blogs too. Other favorites of mine include design*sponge and Apartment Therapy.

So what are you hooked on? Come on, gimme a hit! Just one hit!

It’s been almost 2 years since I returned to the work force after staying at home with my kids for a few years. When I first went back to work, I took a temporary job in DC covering for a woman about to go out on maternity leave. I got up while it was still dark, put on dress clothes with sneakers, drove to the VRE train and rode for an hour and 15 minutes to L’Enfant Plaza. Then I hopped off, crossed the street and hopped on the metro. Then I hopped off at West Farragut and walked 3 blocks to my office, where I took off my sneakers and put on some heels. Then I did all that in reverse to get home again.

This was actually a step up from what I started – driving up 66 and just metroing up into DC. The train took a little longer, but it was worth it. I got to sit and relax, read a book, work a sudoku puzzle, read the paper.

Still… it was about an hour and forty minutes of commuting. It sucked. Almost 4 hours daily just getting to and from work.

So when I took a permanent position in the Falls Church area (merrifield, really) it was a big improvement.

I seem to recall from last year that the commute was easier in the summer. For some reason, after school gets out the roads clear up. Is it all those teachers who no longer are going to work? Is it because now parents don’t have to get out the door at a certain time to avoid buses, or drop kids off? I don’t know what the reason was, but I do remember it being easier. I keep waiting for it to start getting easier. Shorter. Zippier!

For some reason or another, I’ve begun to think wishfully about staying home with the kids. I don’t know why, but as they get older and “real school” looms on the horizon, I want to be home. Specifically, I want to be home when they get home. I don’t like the fact that they’re in preschool until 5-6ish each day, even though we all love our school. Even though they’re out on a HUGE playground, running around having a ball with their friends. Even though I know they like school, they are happy when they get picked up a little earlier on occasion. On days when they get picked up a little later than usual, and things in the evening are rushed with dinner, cleaning up, laundry, bathtime and bed with little playing time, they complain.

So for whatever reason, when I think about them in elementary school, the thought of extended day just really doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe it’s the fact that I was never in any sort of day care when I was growing up. Do I want to be there when they get home because my own mother was? I don’t know. Ethan is starting kindergarten in the fall. I don’t know about you, but that qualifies as “real school” to me. We are keeping him at his current school, in their private kindergarten, so I am not too anxious about this dream of staying home YET, but I have decided to try to pick them up earlier than we have been doing. I guess the thought is maybe if I can swing it, then maybe later on when they’re in “real school,” I could work it so I’m home from work in time for school ending. I don’t even know when school is out for the day, but regardless, I’ve been trying to get in early to work so I can leave early, and pick up the kids early. So far, “early” has only equaled picking them up at about 5pm. (IE: not very early, but it’s better than nothing.)

I keep waiting for the “easy summer” commute to start. Every monday I wonder if maybe NOW the traffic won’t feel like I’m sitting in a dentist’s chair just WAITING for the drilling to start. But every Monday it sucks ass. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting up earlier now, but it even seems like it’s worse than before.

Today it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from home to desk. Grrrrr.

So 2 years of doing this commute is making it really really old. It’s making the romantic visions of staying home seem even dreamier, and it’s also making me dream about moving. To a house in a nice neighborhood with a fenced in yard and beautiful mature trees and ample gardening space with friendly neighbors, excellent schools, and is equi-distant between mine and james’ places of work.

Sigh.

I hope the magical easy 15 minute summer commute starts on monday.

And I’d also like a pony.

Lunch with a cutie and her daddy.

Saw this on my way to work this morning. The lettering had been removed from the side of this truck, but you can still see where it says, “Parallelograms”
Just makes me wonder what kind of company would have that on the side of their truck.

Jocelyn loves band-aids. I blame the band-aid makers who put strawberry shortcake, hello kitty and characters from the movie “Cars” on them.

I can’t really blame her. I totally buy this brand of feminine hardware because of the pretty poppies on the box. I’m a sucker for poppies.

She knows that she gets one when she gets hurt.

As such, whenever she even bumps into anything, she will tearfully declare, “I need a band-aid!!”

Therefore, we’ve instigated the “bleeding” rule. If it’s not bleeding, you don’t need a band-aid.

When we were camping, there was a lot of running around full tilt with exposed elbows and knees on hard surfaces, like gravel. And red rocks.

LOOK at all that skin! Of course there were going to be some scrapes!

A lot of the time, the kids were also pretty tired and grumpy. This was due to the jet lag (2 hr difference), staying up way later than their usual bedtime (campfires are so cool, and i need to stay up and burn marshmellows i will never eat!), getting up with the sun, and not napping.

So when Jocelyn fell and bruised herself (which happened about 26 BAJILLION TIMES), there were a few times I relaxed the very strict ‘bleeding’ rules about bandaids.

This is the reason she loves the bandaids.

The day before we left, she took a really bad spill and scraped up both legs, both elbows, her forehead, and even got a cut (which bled) on her nose. She felt so banged up that she actually refused to walk the rest of that evening and the next morning. (I was getting worried, but then she started to run around, though somewhat gingerly.)

A record was broken, because those bandaids, she left in place for TWO WHOLE DAYS before pulling them off and sticking them all over her body.