The Prodigal Daughter Has Returned

And no worse for the wear, after a week-long vay-cay to the Motherland. Upstate NY for Scarlet Lily's wedding, then back to the parental homestead for a meet-and-greet with Grandpa and GG (my Grandma's chosen moniker with which the Liliputian is meant to address her).

Mom, Grandma, me, and the Munchkin.

I'll leave it to Scarlet to post extensive pics of her wedding upon her no doubt bronzed (wait, who am I kidding: freckled red-heads don't bronze so much as toast. Neither do I, which is why I can smack-talk.) return. Some of the chosen few that I will nevertheless share are ours, some from Mr. Scarlet's sister, some from our friend M.

Rehearsal dinner

Ouiser and Scarlet

Mr. and Mrs. Toddler Tamer

You catching that view in the background?

Here, let me help...If you can tear your eyes away from Mr. Scarlet and my child.

As Mr. Ouiser noted, it almost looked fake, it was so perfect.

Okay, there, unobstructed. It was truly breathtaking.

The whole wedding was perfect. Again, I'll let Scarlet fill you in on the details, but I can definitely bestow upon it the best compliment we received about our own wedding five years ago from the Husband's Brother-from-Another-Mother: "It was the best wedding I've been to after my own."

Here's hoping they're soaking it all up in the islands...

My Future's So Bright

I started this post last Sunday, but it just never got finished. And now I've got more copy editing, so I'd better post now before another long stretch gets by me.

It was a productive weekend 'round these parts. Finally. Not that the last few weekends weren't productive in their way, but somehow sending invoices off to the publisher for whom I freelance isn't so gratifying when the checks tend to take a couple months to show up. Getting PROJECTS done around the house is so much more instantly gratifying.

Yeah, that's Chewy's bed. She climbed right in. Takes after her cousin.

Saturday, the Husband took a roomful of recycling to a drop-off. A roomful. I'm not exaggerating. Ask Ouiser. You know that utility room we're "remodeling?" It really became more of a to-be-recycled storage room. It just got away from us, and with all the safety disasters that we've been uncovering around here, getting the recycling out of the house was just no longer a high priority. But when it threatened to overwhelm even Ouiser's SUV, we knew it was just time. I wish I'd taken a before picture. Now we have real recycling bins and plans to empty them regularly and everything.

And, yeah, that's a dog toy. Yum. Please don't call CPS.

I also wish I'd taken a before picture of the little patch of land on the south side of our garage that I'm hoping to turn into garden space. Substantial progress has been made toward clearing out the garbage, weeds, dead brush, and other debris that was wedged back there. Oh, and bricks, rocks, and rusted pipe. Truly a wasteland. But I don't have much south-facing land, so I need to reclaim every possible inch. It's only a few feet wide, so I need to plan something to plant that I'm going to be able to access in such close quarters. Herbs with stepping stones in between? Corn with beans growing up the stalks? Is it too late to plant anything this year? I'll keep you updated on this developing news; I know you're riveted.

I'm sorry, don't you just want to roll over dead with the cuteness? Oh, yeah, and the baby looks pretty good, too. :)

The Husband also picked up a couple rain barrels yesterday! A man about an hour from here bought truckloads of them from Jack Daniels a couple of years ago. Apparently, we got the last two in good condition. Although, "good condition" is relative. You know how wood shrinks as it dries and the rings fall off barrels due to this shrinkage? The guy thought, and we thought, that once the wood was soaked with water it would expand again back to original shape. But the Husband's been soaking it for four days now, and the rings don't quite fit. Anyone know anything about this? One of the barrels actually has the Jack Daniels logo printed on it and is therefore infinitely cool. Although, we're not because we don't even drink JD. Posers, I know.

Thank you, Craigslist, for providing me with the great deal on the Leapfrog table that the Liliputian just HAD TO HAVE! Our ears will bleed if we hear that trombone one more time. I know you feel me, TT.

I whipped up some food for the Liliputian on Sunday: apricots, bananas, asparagus, yellow squash, and zucchini. Plans for peas and green beans this weekend. So much cheaper and way easy to make your own babyfood. I'm a little bit horrified at the money and waste everytime I open a jar of babyfood. And I'm in no way being judgmental here. We have the time and equipment to make our own, so it just makes so much more sense for us. I realize some people are just too busy and need portable food, and I still use jarred food when we're out. But it's very gratifying to make it myself. If only I could buy local, but I haven't worked that out yet.

It can't be helped. I love that grumpy little sleepy face.

Sunday, the Husband installed a reverse osmosis water filter (we have high-ish nitrate levels in our tap water), which is working swimmingly. This weekend I think we have big plans to install rail guards around the deck and second floor stairs so that those two areas will be more babyproof. She easily fits through the spaces between the rails as it is now, and I would make much more progress toward getting laundry put away, if I didn't have to keep my eyes glued to her every second while she's in our bedroom chasing cats.

Water Baby