Keeping the World Safe From ...Weirdos

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Love, the proud Americans, Maren, Jake, Tessa, and Cole too -- May the booming from tonight's fireworks inspire him to come early.

I won, I won, I won!!!

I won a dress! Can you believe it? I won a Shabby Apple dress from a blog giveaway. There are 6 styles to choose from and I get to have my choice. Hooray! Nevermind that I won't be able to fit in it for a little while thanks to baby boy. I'll get there. And a new dress is great incentive to lose baby weight, right?
Luck-y me. About every 4 years I win something. Some of you may remember the 80's costume contest? And then 4 years later the backstage passes to the John Mayer concert = awesome. Now a $75 dress. Fun, fun, fun.

photo c/o mab888 on flickr.com

Another man's trash is sometimes still trash.

Our neighbors moved, and we think considering what was in the pile where our property meets, that the people who rent the house out are remodeling a bit. As a result, there is a huge pile of trash waiting to be taken away when bulky day rolls around. Also as a result, we've had human raccoons hanging out in our alley way for a few days. Now, I recognize picking up what someone has thrown out and making money from it as an honest way to make money, but it's a little uncomfortable to have people you don't know tossing things around next to your driveway.
Our neighbors were very polite and quiet people. They left a tidy pile for the city to pick up. However, as the days or even hours went by after they took off, the pile seemed to get bigger. I now know it's because it's been fluffed up by the "collectors". Jake had to push some things back over the property line and use a stick to fling a bra and thong back on over as well. Ew.
We caught these two on the job. I named them Gumbo and Tootsie.

If you think it's wrong to take pictures of unsuspecting people through a hole in your fence, well, you're probably right. However, I figured it was fair game considering they were sorting on my property line. Plus, I wanted to show you. Jake asked them if they'd just be careful about keeping things in a pile, and they were nice enough to comply. I don't know if anything good was left over considering the all of the others who had already gone through it, but I know they did score big on two broken sinks. And from the looks of the truck bed, they'd been working the neighborhood pretty well. It's an honest way to make money, but I can still be intrigued, right?

After the rain yesterday and last night, it is now a sodden pile of trash/treasure? and bulky day can't come soon enough.

Tessa's friends

We're so blessed to have such fun friends around.

Memorial Day:

Swimming time.

And just a random one of Tessa sitting on a book to read a book. Makes sense, right? I do it all the time.

The romance continues.

Ain't nobody I'd rather be this charming with.
Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Some pics from the San Antonio trip

On the way to San Antonio, we dropped by Baylor University to see/guess where Jake's grandpa took some classes as part of his military training before heading to Europe during WWII.
The Riverwalk in San Antonio. Love the ambiance.

The Alamo.

Other Spanish missions in the area (I really could have posted a ton more pictures. These places were awesome. We highly recommend.)Some guy napping at one of the missions.

Sea World.

Hotel swimming pool.

Japanese Gardens.

New Braunfels....and yummy streudel.
State capitol in Austin.

These are really just a few of the loads of pictures we took.

I've never had a more relaxing vacation in my life. What a fantastic graduation gift from Jake's parents.

She makes me laugh.

I was going about my business today waiting for Tessa to finish playing with her lunch when she announced, "All done. Time for school."

What?!?

Time for nap, more like it. :)

I guess this was better news following lunch than last week when she sadly announced that she had grape in her nose.

Yeah.

Directions in this case: Press on the empty nostril and have the kid blow. Then laugh when you realize she meant what she said and be glad it was just a chunk of a grape.

I know I STILL need to post some pictures of our San Antonio trip and even a few since then. I'll try to stop being so bloggin' lazy. No promises, though.