In action...

In the car: Tessa had a fantastic chocolate chip cookie in the car yesterday. I think her face got this way in about thirty seconds. To keep the chocolate centralized while getting her to say cookie/cokoo on camera, I kept her in her seat for a few minutes after we got home. There is a moment where she just wants me to leave her alone so she starts fake sleeping with her eyes open. I was glad she asked "Dat?! Dat?!" so that some of you know what I've been talking about when she gets on these kicks of wanting to know the name of everything she points to.
On the drum: Wouldn't it be great if toys stayed in this price range for the rest of her life? Creative recycling, I call it.

In other news:

The search for Pampa. Every man with gray hair is now "Pampa". The hippie guy at the park, the Phillipino Orkin man --all it takes is gray hair and Tessa thinks she's finally found Pampa in the flesh. We need to get to Utah soon and visit the real grandpas.

Speaking of the Orkin Man... our left arms go to him on Tuesday. Until then, I just pray that I don't have to see Those Who Must Not Be Named. Kill them. Just kill them. Pump my wall with magical expensive foam and let's be done with it.

Serves me right. I poked fun at people getting lose and loose mixed up, and then today I sent out an email to a class I'm teaching making that very mistake. Head hanging down.

Petunia Party. I planted Petunias. Surely I can keep these renegade flowers alive. Right? Right?

And finally, Fun with Finals. Woooohhoooo! Goooo, Jake! He took one today and is pushing on for two more. The light is up just ahead.

Rosie the Caulker

....in serious need of a shower. Action packed Saturday and I'm STILL not finished with everything I wanted to do. Tessa TRIED to help, but, let's face it, she wore me out.

Ummmmmm. We found out we have termites. My skin won't stop crawling. I think my arm hairs have grown at least a centimeter as a result. The Orkin man is coming to rescue us on Monday.

Ick.
Shudder.

Save me.

I hate bugs.

Too bad my caulking gun isn't a little more powerful. I'd take care of those nasty things myself.

I need chocolate.

Sincerely, Maren

To my slippers,

I bid for you at a Relief Society auction and received you with open arms. Strangely, I didn't have anyone bidding against me. I know you look like you came from two cast off colors found at the bottom of the yarn basket, but that never mattered to me. I've never really liked other kinds of slippers or gotten any serious use out of them. But you..... you were different. When the holes started appearing, I tied pieces of yarn together to fix them. I can't do it anymore because, well, because there isn't anymore yarn to tie together. Sad, sad day.

Snoring

While playing with Tessa we've pretended to be asleep when she puts blankets on us and such. This fake sleep is usually accompanied by light snoring so she knows we're "asleep". Lately for naps and bedtime, (yes, we got incredibly lucky with a girl who doesn't mind going to bed 98% of the time) when she knows she's about to go down, she'll start her fake snore. :)

Texas Bluebonnetts

I had all kinds of things I wanted to blog about this week. I don't remember them. They must have been extremely important.

So onto the pictures.... During the early evening Saturday, we took a drive to see Bluebonnets nearby and had a picnic at a park. Tessa loved playing outside, but she didn't enjoy walking through the field at first. She didn't like the plants rubbing on her legs or the weeds in her face. She did just fine when one of us ventured out with her, though, and enjoyed admiring the "wowa"s (not to be confused with wawa) with Mom and Dad.

Songbird

I caught her singing while reading her semi shredded Monica magazine. There is a little lizard in there that looks like a dinosaur, which explains the growling.

Last Friday, Jake and I went on our monthly date. We went dancing. There is a place in town that has a dance with a live band on the first Friday of the month. I'd had this date on our calendar for at least a couple months, so even when we had to purchase a new choke AC airhandler, we were still determined to go and join some fun friends there. We had a blast. We have a pretty good handle on basic swing and a few of the other dances (though we could stand to learn a lot more), but we tried our hand at the tango a couple of times and pretended like we knew how to Lindy. The band never announced a Lindy Hop, but the song said we could try. We remembered some steps between the two of us and commenced jumping, turning, and sweating. I was beaming. There is no other word. I don't think my smile could have gotten any bigger. I usually have a nice time with my husband whenever we go out together, but there is something about having an open floor, good music, and no cares if anyone else sees you being a total spaz with your husband. Beaming. That was such a good date.

General Conference was fantastic. What a lift. I'm excited for the Conference Ensign to come so I can go through the words again.

So, my dad called me this morning to make sure we were alright since our city was on the news in Utah regarding tornado weather. I didn't realize it had gotten that bad. There was a warning set for last night while I was at the youth activity (Bishopric Challenge -go Mia Maids!), but it was just rain at that point. At about 3AM this morning the lightening and rain woke Jake and me up, but I was mainly annoyed that it wouldn't quiet down so I could sleep. I didn't want to get Tessa up to hunker down in the bathroom. I'm not a real clear thinker when I'm tired. It didn't get awful where we are, thank heavens.

Other than that, I taught a class this week, had a friend in town on business, barbecues, Biggest Loser viewing, jogging, Chat n Chocolate duo, Tiny Tots Tunes luncheon, creeped out by polygies in Texas, AC guys over 3 times (we now have a French drain outside ooh la la), tub doctor over once, etc., etc.

Her hair has no weight (my fault) besides growing forward (Dad's fault.) This is just water from me finishing the ponies in her hair.

The Office is back on tonight!

words, words, words

I don't know why I notice this one so much, but has anyone else noticed how often the blogging world mispells "definitely"? I really don't get on the computer looking for mispelled words, and I certainly mispell plenty on my own. This isn't, after all, a term paper we're all typing out. We're entitled to journal/blog without worrying about mistakes. I just find this one interesting. I've seen it typed "definately" so many times in so many places I thought maybe I'd missed out on an alternative spelling and went looking to see. Nope. The word doesn't exist. Just commonly mispelled. Now, my favorite is when once in a big while you'll see someone write "defiantly" for "definitely". I have had students do that before, which made me laugh because switching those out changes meaning. I definitely enjoy a big, juicy hamburger. vs. I defiantly enjoy a big, juicy hamburger. I love the different pictures that come to mind....like someone defiantly loving their mom (one of my favorites).
Another of my favorites is lose vs. loose. I remember my university newspaper having a sporting event add on the back of one edition which said something like, "Go SUU! Come see the [other team] loose!" I thought, "Woooweeee. I don't know if I want to see that." I couldn't believe that newpaper editors, even just the university ones, didn't catch this fourth of a page huge font mistake. Similarly, I'll see on the Biggest Loser website comments all over the place like, "I'm happy [contestant] was able to loose the weight." I personally think they'd be happier if they get rid of it completely, not just let it sag and flop around more. I guess that's better than if they defiantly loose weight.
I'm such a nerd.