Jaguars eat cheese......







...ROAR!! really loud....






...Wait in hunt of their prey.....






...ATTACK their prey....





....play with little brothers....




....play piano, eat scrambled eggs for dinner, and sleep with a pink blanket!

The Fall Schedule seems to be upon us already !

Our little lives seem to have picked up around here. I suddenly find myself looking for the day planner I bough last year and just didn't need after Gray was born. If it was just an appointment here or there, and a get together now and then, I could keep it easily in my brain, or on the basic calendar on the fridge. These last 2 weeks I'm constantly glancing at that calendar to verify every one's schedules. And even totally spaced one appointment already. (Luckily, that person was forgiving!) It seems ALL of us have had Doctor's visits scheduled, and 2 of us our working more than one job (Zach and Michelle), and 2 of us are starting school(Zach and Madalyne)! And we suddenly are cramming in a summer's worth of BBQing with neighbor's , family , and friends, and I am planning 3 different parties! My head is whirling right now with all the things I am to remember for each of the different aforementioned items! I'm excited for what this new season brings to our little family, and praying that I happen to have a hidden talent for juggling!

My Polka Dotted Baby!!




This is the body of Roseola



These are the faces of Roseola and an ear infection!


My poor little Gray came down with a high fever on Friday afternoon, and it didn't let up untill Sunday night. It ran 104-105 degrees the entire time. He wouldn't eat, barely drank, and cried and slept A LOT !! It was a LONGGGGGGGGG weekend for the mommy!!! Yesterday it ended with a bang.... a red, polka dotted bang... and A LOT more crabbiness! This was the sure tell sign of Roseola, complicated by an ear infection. We've seen the doctor, and picked up our antibiotics, and we're back home for what we hope is now the upswing..... Mommy's gonna need a lot of coffee this week, and baby boy's gonna need a few more snuggles and kisses!!

I'M IN SOOO MUCH TROUBLE NOW!

I have found this program, Smilebox, by Hallmark, and I am going to be spending ( uh...wasting), SOOOOOOO much time on that program! I am a picture fanatic, and I have found an addiction to go along with it! I'm excited and thrilled, and full of ideas to throw these picture montages at you all the time!! Check out the zoo one I just made, turn up the volume, it plays sound. Also, it played slow on my computer... so when you click each little arrow underneath the picture pages, only click it once, and wait a LONG time, or it jumps a couple of pages! Really, this is MY WAY to scrapbook, this easy, and I don't have to agonize over the layouts, and spend a ton of money?? I LOVE IT!!!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The poor guy, he already has a backseat driver!!

Sophie came to visit Grayson today, and I found this pretty cute!

Tag, I'm it!
I didn't know this, but apparently, blogs can play "tag"! :) So I've been tagged by a fellow friend/blogger! Thanks Rich!!

4 jobs I’ve had:

• Interior Decorator
• Teller
• Secretary
• and my very first... Pizza maker

4 movies I can watch over and over:

• Elf
• Princess Bride
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Pretty Woman
  

4 places I’ve lived:

• Oregon
• California
• Colorado
• does 2 1/2 weeks in France count?
  

4 TV shows I love:

• Ugly Betty
• Grey's Anatomy
• House
• Planet's Funniest Animals ( to my husband's great dismay:)! )
  

4 places I’ve vacationed:

• Disneyland
• Bend, Oregon
• Lake Tahoe
• Naples, Florida

4 of my favorite dishes:

• Lasagna
• Enchiladas
• Chocolate Croissants
• Chicken and Rice
  

4 sites I visit daily:

• Hotmail
• Flickr
• Pandora
• Google

4 places I would rather be right now:

• On a tropical beach
• In Provence
• Hanging out with my girlfriends
• Alone with my husband on his business trip

4 blogger friends I tag for this:

• Rachel
• Uhhh... that's it for now!!
• Wish I could tag Literary Girl

Anyone else watching the Olympics?

I'm not sure if its a sense of patriotism, the excitement of one world competition, or childhood memories that keeps me watching and interested in the Olympics. There is just something about that music... Dun- dun- dun- duh, duh ,duh, duh duh dun-da- da -da-da.......are you humming it yet?

We turned it on yesterday afternoon as we were doing things around the house to get our first glimpse of the famed Beijing '08. Oh darn, we missed the 'fencing' competition. Now it was men's beach volleyball. Ok, like we ever watch, or even care about that sport, I mean really...every four years they continue to add new quote- unquote "sports" to the mix. I know this one has been there for the last few Olympics, but still, I find it a little funny. That the "beach" part has become its own category in the sport. So here lies the great difference apparently between me and my husband watching a competition of any kind. I'm going to assume that this is the difference between the general man vs. woman in a lot of sport watching. I do get into our local college teams football season, so I do know how to watch sports. BUT I'm talking in a general sense here. Well, read on, and you will see what I mean!

It's a men's beach volleyball match between the U.S. and Latvia ( who knew?!). The U.S. team is the team projected to win the gold this year, seated in first place. Latvia, seated 23rd place out of the 24 countries represented ( 24 countries actually play beach volleyball?). Should be a slam dunk for our team... or sand spike?? Here is our first conversation:

Me: " Why are they wearing shirts? And baggy long shorts!!! Didn't you see the clip that the girls are all playing in Bikinis... and skimpy ones at that! That's just ridiculous?"
Him: "Well, who wants to see a man in a Speedo?"
Me: "Ugh! It's so chauvenistic!! They should at least have to take their shirts off, or give the women an option to not have to play a sport with their cheeks hanging out!"
Him: "The girls probably like it that way."
Me: "OH PLEASE! They're athletes, not models!"

I am now clearly interrupting him as he is cheering for good plays, and wincing and moaning when they miss. And now one of the quoted, "greatest upset in beach volleyball history",( history....really??) by the announcers: Latvia is beating the U.S. team! Zach is fed up and cannot continue to watch with such devastating circumstances! Watching the U.S. lose point after point has proved too much, and his emotions can't take it anymore! Next conversation:

Him: " I'm changing the channel, I can't take this!"
Me: " What?! Who cares, its beach volleyball! And this is so great for Latvia."
Him: " Are you kidding me? You are sooooo unpatriotic! You have to pull for the U.S. team!"
Me: " No, this is such a great story for Latvia, they're the underdogs! I think its so great for these guys who didn't have a chance at all when coming here to the Olympics. It's such a cute story!"
Him: " That's it, you have no patriotism here, I'm changing the channel. I found another sports channel with Olympic boxing!"
Me: " Fine!"

I'm deciding quite possibly that is just the difference between a man and a woman watching a sport. I'm chit chatting about outfits, and social injustice, and other teams fairness, and he is out raged by the fact that 'his' team can't pull it together and prove domination! It's really quite funny to me, and has left me with some valuable, (well maybe) information in the difference between the two of us. As I folded laundry, I continued to watch the swimming heats, and found myself looking forward to watching more throughout the week. YES, I will be rooting for the U.S. to win....(most of the time). But will my husband be able to handle the emotional roller coaster??!!

OK friends, meet "Lizzie"!


OH yeah....... we are just thrilled to have a pet snake! BUT Look at how excited that little girl is! :)
So slap a huge "SUCKER" sticker on my forehead, I totally deserve it!
Paca and Maddy went out last night to a thrift store and found the acrylic tank, and a light to use as a heat lamp. Then headed over to the pet store for the bedding and crickets! YUCK! Maddy has just been in heaven over this! She immediately named it ( oh and its a her according to Maddy) "Lizzie". We all set the tank up together and transfered her over. Maddy dreamed about her last night, and will NOT leave me alone about always wanting to touch her and hold her. She has made a nameplate for the cage, and wants to add glitter and has many other decorating ideas! It really is a crack up. I just think, oh well, this is what childhood is made of, right? Her own little summer adventure. And hey, its cheaper than a trip to Disneyland or that horse she's been begging for!!

So I drove home with a snake in my trunk.......

YUP. You read that right... there was a snake, in a bucket, in my trunk today! I have succumbed to my daughters pleading, and became one of "those" parents. I do say no to my child quite often, somedays too many times! She doesn't get everything she wants, and I consider her quite mannerly. But today, what can I say? I was weak..... so here I am, with a snake, in a bucket, on my porch.
So the story? Paca (my dad), found a garter snake in his garden and made the MISTAKE of telling my (animal loving, wish everything was a pet including the fly named Rose,and the dead butterfly we found at McDonalds now named Lily and living in a jar on the window sill) daughther. She talked about it for days. We finally saw the snake on Monday, but then it hid. And now, today we saw it, I put on gardening gloves and caught it for her to touch. Now mind you, I TOO am an animal lover, and I do like the snakes at the local petting zoo just to touch. But I don't ever want to find one in my garden, or anywhere else!!! But realize Maddy's joy over this. Her excitement, and fascination gave me strength to pick it up so she could have the short opportunity to learn about the snake. We even "wikipedia'd" garter snakes and read about them. But for the last several days Maddy has planned to have a "snake" birthday party and a snake pet, and has beggggggged to go to Paca's to find this snake. Paca handed me a bucket to set the, very decent sized, snake in for Maddy to observe. She finally got to hold it, much braver than I, uhhh or Paca, who let me do all the dirty work!! Then it was all over!! It was nonstop. It was full of animated little eyes lit with joy. It was passionate begging to say the least. It was mommy saying, "call daddy". It was a no, it was maybe, it was an ick!! It was well maybe it wouldn't be so bad........ IT'S NOW SITTING ON MY PORCH WAITING FOR DADDY TO COME HOME AND FIGURE IT OUT.