Happiness is...

...winning the Wild Card on the last day of the season!

(Photos from yahoo sports except the one of Mike)

...watching another team have the worst meltdown in major league baseball history the last three weeks of the season! (Nice one Braves, but thanks!!)

...Mike winning his Fantasy Baseball League when he "would rather watch paint dry" than watch a baseball game. (Clearly I need to take more photos of him wearing Cards gear)

Must See TV

Please take the time to watch this incredible documentary. Don't say you don't have time.

I Can't Take Him Anywhere

The other day Noah and I ventured off to the outlet to get our
bread supply for the next several weeks.
They run coupons Buy 2 Get 2 Free,
so I can get 4 loaves of Arnold bread for less than $2.50.
One loaf of this bread at the grocery is $2.99.

Anyway, I told him before we left that I was
Not. Buying. Donuts!
He loves the Entenmann donuts they sell,
and I end up eating half of them.
Well, he was very good and didn't ask for donuts.
But, he did ask for cookies!
Chocolate chip no less.
Like I am going to say no to chocolate chip cookies.

Guess who ended up eating half the box?

Of course I did.
I can't help it.
Chocolate chip cookies follow me wherever I go...

School is Flying By

Hard to believe we are already one month into school.
Carlie is learning so many new things.
I'm amazed everyday at her grasp of concepts.

One of her weekly assignments is to memorize a scripture verse.
These aren't 3 or 4-word verses, but 3-4 verses!
Last week was Philippians 4:4-8.
We have a contest to see who can memorize the verse first.
She always wins!
Clearly, I need to do more brain exercises to improve ST memory.

She recently had her cell test.
Honestly, I don't think I would have done as well as she did.
Probably because I like science about as much as I like eating liver.

But, it is pretty cool the way God made stuff.
She also had to make a cell model.
I didn't help with this.
Yawn!

I'm just waiting for her to get to write a paper on what a bust Keynesian Economics is.
I'll be all over that assignment.

Get It Sold Part 2

Here is our hall bath before and after the home stager visit...

Before (I can only find a thumbnail photo of this,
don't know where the original disappeared to.)

After (Not a lot done here.
She just said my PB red berry trees looked funny on top
and to add some greenery.
So, I bought a potpourri apple and dug my
Pottery Barn topiary out of storage.)

Get It Sold Part 1

Since our house hasn't sold,
and we don't have access to HGTV's Sabrina Soto,
we called in a local stager to help us figure out
what we could do to help sell the house.

She was very nice and helpful.
Let me first say, that every realtor we interviewed said our house was fine
the way it was, and we didn't need to make any changes.
Apparently, they wanted our business and didn't want to offend us.

The stager said the house was the cleanest she had ever been in.
She said the problem was, it was too clean.
It felt sterile and uninviting. I would have to agree.
There wasn't anything that made the buyer have
an emotional attachment to the house.

Anyway, as I finish up the changes,
I'll post more pics.
I really think it makes a HUGE difference.
Let me know what you think.

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After Staging

Magic House

We recently went to the Magic House since the kids got some free passes from the library's summer reading program.
I only take them when we can go free because it is expensive
(my definition of expensive these days is pretty much anything that isn't free.)
But, they enjoy it a lot more that way.

Working quickly to get the food out

Ringing up the charges

Hey, I ordered pepperoni! What's with the help at this place??

Trying their hand at post-natal care

Clearly their swaddle technique needs work

Diaper change

It's a boy!

Dr. Noah recalibrating the scale

When You Give A Kid A Camera...

...You get pictures of their bottoms

And Silly Faces

And Dad coming home from work

And Cars
(more like 20+ pictures of cars)

And Kitty

And Flip flops ???

Vroom! Vroom!

I uploaded photos from our "fits in the purse" and "need to replace at some point" camera, and it looks as though I've forgotten to post about some things we do from time to time.

Mike took Noah to a Classic Car Warehouse (don't know if "warehouse" is the right word, but that's what I'm calling it) because he LOVES cars. Loves is probably an understatement. He says he wants to marry his cars. Silly little guy.

Yes, that's a $55K price tag. Yikes!
Being the car aficionado that I am,
I can't tell you the make, model, or year,
but it looks like it was a pretty sweet ride back in the day.

My mom is looking at this picture saying,
"Oh, I dated a guy who drove a yellow vette just like that.
Bud Whatchamacallit.
If I would have married him, you kids would all have big noses!"

Batman, and his youthful ward, Noah.

He should be a car model. :-)

Yowzers, Batman! $53K!!!

Reminds me of a jingle my sister taught me on our
Griswald California Adventure when I was six...

I've got an old piece of tin
Nobody knows what shape it's in
It's got 4 wheels and running board
It's a 4-door, It's a Ford
Honk Honk Rattle Rattle Rattle
Crash Beep Beep
Honk Honk Rattle Rattle Rattle
Crash Beep Beep

Crying Blue Tears

Former STL Blues hockey player Pavol Dimetra was
killed in a plane crash today in Russia.

He played for the Blues from 1996-2004.
Pray for his family.