This made me laugh

Does it need explanation? 


Today's Mom Cozy Comfort Pregnancy Pillow, from babyage.com



(not so) Hot June

It's probably best at this point to summarize June with one word - busy.  My mom arrived for a one month stay, I had two races to start the month, Ethel finished kindy, Mommy and the kids raced, and we traveled to Canada to see my mom's cousins.  As June draws to a close, here are some pictures of the month of June.

 RACING

After the United Run for the Zoo.  Mommy's 2nd 10K, kids did the Zebra Zip!

 LAST DAY OF KINDY!

On the way to school!

At the school awards assembly

Last day of school lunch with Nani

 Good Mommy that I am, I forgot my camera when I went to get Ethel after school, so you'll have to settle for these shots.

DON'T ASK

 It's fun when Mommy cleans out the garage.  And the coolers.

BYE BYE (dead and dying) TREES!

Had to have some trees removed this month.  It's pretty sunny in the back yard now. 

TRIP TO CANADA

Family truckster all loaded up!

Yep, grandma's stuff in the back!

Cottage in Kincardine where we stayed (two blocks from the Lake, absolutely adorable)

Beautiful beach on Lake Huron @ Kincardine, ONT

Just playin' around

The family at Boiler Beach

Family go kart teams!

Girls vs boys (girls won, don't let 'em tell ya otherwise)

Family gathered on patio

Cousin Nancy reviewing geography with Ethel and Fred

Cousin Ian and his wife, Betty Ann, with mom and me

The cousins.  (three) two Canadians and a bloke

A Canadian, a Brit, and an American (Hot Dad) - a.k.a. - not the cousins (inside joke, sorry)

The trip to Canada was wonderful, and is an entire entry of its own (at a later date).  Suffice it to say, we had a wonderful time with family, learning about family, drinking beer, wine and coffee, and appreciating our Canadian and Scottish heritage.  

Note to self,

Next time, lay off the poutine.

Thanks, the waistline

It was a beautiful time with beautiful people, and we can't wait to do it again very soon. 

Hot hair cut for Ethel

My mom gave Ethel a hair cut a few weeks ago.  Ethel's been looking forward to having Nani cut her hair for a long time.  I think Ethel is back under 30 lbs with the loss of several inches of hair.  It's both amazing and unfair how children undergo such transformations when they get hair cuts.

Here's how long her hair was to start:

Now, the magic unfolding:

Fred, supervising the operation

Half way there!

Hair carnage

Ethel loves her hair cut almost as much as she loves fruit snacks and Nutella.  Almost.

Hot home remodel, the final stretch

So, life gets in the way all too often, leaving me little time to get out my Hot Confidence.  There are entries swimming around in my head just dying to get out, and before I know it, weeks have gone by.

One thing that's been taking up a bit of our time is the guest room remodel.  I say "a bit" of our time because, well, let's be honest - Hot Dad and I both work, we have two kids, and there's only so much time in a day.  And weekends are never long enough.  And I am a runner.  And the rest of the house keeps calling, "Hey, a little help over here!".

We dedicated May as our month to complete a total remodel of this room.  In January we did a "remodel" in our unfinished basement {read: lipstick on a pig style}, and we did something in the basement every day of the month with the exception of maybe two week nights.  We reorganized, painted, moved furniture, and basically made a functional space out of a basement which hadn't been utilized the way it could be.  After that project, I figured we could spend our May doing one thing in the guest room each day.  Why not?  The basement was a much bigger project, why couldn't we get a small bedroom painted and put back together in 31 days?

Why not?  Life.  Life happens.  The kids get invited here or there.  We get invited here or there.  Time just slips by.  We made good progress despite parts of the new bed being delivered broken and some other mishaps toward the end of May.  It's now the end of June and it's *so* close to being done!  The replacement pieces for the bed just arrived today so we are that much closer to having the room closer to done. 

Here are the latest pics of the room.

The paint turned out better than I imagined (corner where the bed will go)

Yes, Elfa systems are easy to install

No, Elfa systems are not THE easiest, let's not get ahead of ourselves, but I wouldn't pay to have someone install it

It's a mess, but the system is on the wall!

The kids got to help assemble the bed

They each got out their tool sets and helped Mommy put the bed together

The (top) bed assembled.  Trundle to be assembled soon, now that the replacement pieces are here!

 More updated pictures to come.  Not pictured: closet doors, window and door trim, and better arranged desk/shelving.  I can't wait for it to be DONE!

Dude

Dude, it's been so busy.  Really.

Promise to get back on the horse soon.  Why so busy?

Room remodel
Running
Kids
Work
Life

If you happen to find my sanity anywhere, would you send it back my way?  Thanks!  Make sure it has some coffee when you send it over.  :)