Life and Levi

New pictures of my baby nephew. Is he still a baby when he looks like this and talks and does rodeos?... Yes? Yes! Yes, he is. I did not get sufficient time with him in his baby form so I'm saying it's still on! I mean, he's in a stroller, he's not potty trained, he enters through the doggy door (apparently) - I say that's puppy status.

Things have been pretty different around these parts. I'm too zapped of energy to say much about that... to do much more than watch Parks and Rec and Fringe and drink ice water, actually. It's been pretty warm and Tom's and my sleep schedule is all bejanxy - mostly thanks to Fringe which we watch late into the night. Today he's away on business. I managed to buy four great pairs of too-long jeans from Saint Vincent's today (then discovered a hole in my previously best pair - great timing). They're too long because for some reason Gap's Long and Lean are what works best for my short and stout figure. Don't look at me!
I'm almost officially a size larger than usual.
I blame the heat... maybe unduly.

I also bought a Michael Kors sweater and some grey sneakers. It was feeling very "back-to-school", which is my favorite feeling, or one of them. But this year it's "back-to-work". I'm excited. Bring it on! Bring on life in general, really. Things are lookin' good.
Including me. In my new jeans. I got honked at.

 

New shirt

I went shopping again today at the thrift store and got some great 80's-tight sweatpants and soft shirts to kick it around the house in. I was noticing as I reconfigured our drawer situation last night that I was lacking in the cozy shirt department having donated a lot of my high school-old t-shirts that I was sick of the sight of. Tom's collection, on the other hand, was the main reason re-configuring was necessary. I've got a pile of clothes I thought he should get rid of but, eh, he's not doing that.

Here are a couple pictures of my latest Etsy buy. It's super soft and fits like a charm.

11 dollars well spent! I wish everything on my wishlist were 11 bucks - like this and these - I could do with some more light-weight outfits to prance around in.

Actually today was rainy and I wore black, but that can't last forever.

Today was unproductive home-wise but otherwise good. Babysitting, shopping, lots of 30Rock with Lane and now Harry Potter and grilled cheese once Tom gets home (after midnight).

I'm drinking peppermint tea and trying to stay awake. The tea is not helping my cause but, man, it's good. I hear his footsteps on the stairs. Gotta jam.

Yesterday

Yesterday I checked my mail (and fed my fish) for the first time in 3 days.

I had a card and gift from my Grandmother in California; this shirt:

and a letter letting me know that I do indeed get my diploma! I've done it!

Sunday was a day of tired and hormonal ups and downs. We were in the nursery at church and entertained Kate, John Spencer, Jacey and Callen with seemingly endless Thomas the Tank Engine tales and Raffi songs. It was childhood classic down there.

John Spencer sat on my lap and let me kiss him all over his neck in front of his mom. It's a big deal because John Spencer usually sobs and screams around me if his parents are anywhere in the vicinity and I'm not sure why. But if we are alone he is pretty much my best friend and lets me dole out the affection as much as I want (which is a lot). If he is at my house he's even better about this, if he's at church he's usually worse. So yesterday was a big win and I don't have much more time for those as he's moving to Canada in a matter of months.

But let's forget about that for the moment.

After church Tom and I decided to spoil ourselves with lunch by the river. We were all kisses and happiness in the car but by the time we were parked a mood swing had brought me low and we were considerably less chipper.

I can't decide if it was bad timing or good. Maybe my mood would have been worse had it not been for the spicy beer and cheese soup, the light on the river and the puppy we spotted prancing by on the waterfront. Either way, we ate our burgers with a little undue grumpiness and headed off to pick up a movie, both knowing we should be sensitive to the other's situation but both feeling very sensitive about our own.

The movie was True Grit, Tom was determined to see it again and I never had. It was great. Though as I remember it was punctuated with some kind of fight. May I recommend, if you know you are being unreasonable, but can't really help it, just admit it and give whoever it is a chance to be really wonderful to you, as Tom was for the rest of the night despite me not deserving it.

I was also struggling through a headache most of the afternoon and Tom offered to wait on me about a thousand times. By the end of the movie we were lovingly crying in each others arms and shortly thereafter Tom took a much-needed nap.

I woke him up a little after six by putting on Die Hard and sitting next to him with my icecream cone. We watched most of the movie over a spaghetti dinner in bed and, let me remind you, it is a great movie. That was the heyday of action movies. It's hard to beat young Bruce Willis rocking that New York accent, or Alan Rickman that German one.

We took a break to take a shower and Tom ran to the store for the ingredients for some of his famous (between the two of us) onion dip.

After the movie we gratefully went to bed. I cried some more about who-remembers-what. But as I fell asleep all cried out and finally rid of my headache, with Tom rubbing my back, I was peaceful and content.

All things considered it was a good day and I can't imagine how great it would be to have Tom home more often.

Today I am getting back into the swing of things here in the penthouse. I may go looking for a chest to put Tom's massive t-shirt collection in as the drawers are overflowing. As much as I want him to get rid of some, I really love all of them. They all remind me of him and he wears them so well.

I also emailed some phone pictures to myself and have been updating Facebook albums. I will share more pictures from this weekend here soon.

1 Camille at the park

2 Paia at Cafe Zenon my last day of school

3 A ladybug on Basil

And I was remembering and singing this this morning. I used to listen to The Be Good Tanyas constantly and when I started working at The Humble Bagel somehow everyone loved them and our CDs were destroyed from overuse.

Good Monday to you. May it be as nice as Sunday but with more work in it.

This and that

My peonies have expanded.

I bought a couple of new vases and dream of filling them all summer long. This one is very heavy and had a old, tiny, gold "made in Japan" sticker on the bottom, still.

I got rid of my silly old glass one that I couldn't fit my hand into to clean and got a big-mouth glass one that it will take twice as many flower to fill. Oh well!

I was extra happy with my decision to buy letter magnets when I woke up to this the next day:

And they've come in handy since.

Though we could use some more E's.

Frosted window panes...

It's June which around here means new candy cane stripped pajamas and cute, holly berry-festooned mugs for steaming hot drinks. Ah, thrift store shopping; there are no rules!

The pajamas came just in time, it was pouring rain all day long and I got a stomachache from eating too much tuna... or juice... I couldn't figure out what had done it.

It was straight into my new stripes as soon as they were out of the dryer, and they are comfortable! They're from a brand that makes baby clothes.

I want to be a baby.

Merry Christmas, one and all!

Gifties

This adorable picture and other's like it are from an old blog post of a blog I ran across recently: Princess Lasertron. It was on this post that I first found out about Hickoree's Hard Goods via the pretty-come-workman bag she's sporting. Though I couldn't justify buying a bag of my own just now I found it easy to justify buying a whole lot of other things right away in the form of gifts for various people and occasions. I got the box a few days back.

In it was a shirt for Tommy to sleep in; a sort-of-boomerang, a rubber band-powered balsa wood airplane with landing gear, some Big League Chew and astronaut ice cream for Isaac's Birthday; some gifts for Mitchell's birthday too (though I have to save them until October); a tin of collectors' crayons for Jordan's Christmas gift (I know! I'm so ahead of things!); a Fathers' Day gift; and a small graduation gift for Lane.

As the package was delayed by weather on the East Coast and Isaac's birthday was upon me I had to ship his gift right back out again as soon as it came.

Along with it I packed up the book I got for Scarlet from a box labeled FREE, though I can't believe no one would want it. The Patchwork Kilt is a very sweet and charming book about a very supportive family in Scotland. We have a bit of Scottish on our Patterson side, from which Amelia gets her distinctive middle name. That's right: Amelia Patterson Humphrey (now Childress). I've always loved her name. And now Amelia can pass our (slightly) Scottish heritage down in her own way... well, in my way, actually, but you see the draw of the book.

I don't pick up just any book out of the free pile!

Along with that went the boots I love which are still in pristine condition because they were too narrow for my feet. Amelia's long, elegant peds should do them considerably more justice. I hope they fit.

And then came the gifts. I of course couldn't resist packaging them all in tissue paper and twine and adding notes expressing my undying love for my bright-eyed angel - my middle-nephew - but in my haste I failed to photograph the final results. I hope he gets satisfaction out of ripping everything open, though.

(A late) Happy Birthday to you, Isaac. I am so happy you have come into my life. God bless your precious heart and your precious face.

Grocery Outlet

I made the trek to Grocery Outlet this evening and though it wasn't my best haul I felt like singing its praises non-the-less. And, honestly, I would have bought more had I not been carrying it all home under my own steam.

This conditioner is great and it's about 4 bucks off at GObm right now in every kind of scent. They've got the shampoo too.

So, for those of you in the Eugene-Springfield area head on over there every chance you get. For those of you not in the area, come visit me! I'll take you there, I promise!

Shopping... that's all really.

I've begun the accumulating stage of my shop venture. I intend to start up on Etsy.com this year selling vintage things I love but have no use for myself and maybe eventually things I make - it may inspire me!
Tom and I had a "day out" today, a FULL day out, starting with coffee and bagel and reading at the new neighborhood house-converted-into-a-coffee shop, Vero, and ending at The Kiva near closing time picking pastas and cheese.
Australian cheddar is by far the best deal and tastes like American cheddar if you ask Tom or I.
In between we ran nice errands, and got grumpy a few dozen times, and stopped off at St. Vinny's for a $40 shopping spree in which we acquired HUNDREDS of dollars worth of merch! Yes, we are quite good.
Aside from Tom's 3 pairs fancy pants I got a pair of Zeeta shoes that are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn and which received multiple compliments from Tom and a chance passerby. Our store of children's books doubled during the best part of the evening and Tom got a real, like-new Stanely thermos to beat up on.
As for my new wares I guess you'll see when my shop gets up and running one of these days. I was so happy to find authentic vintage pieces in such great shape, it was a boon to my hitherto hesitant start. I just need to think of a name and figure out the shipping situation... and the photographing situation.
Speaking of which, I can't wait to start posting pictures of days like today on my blog! Hopefully the prospect of a shop will encourage both Tom and I to get movin' technologically.
Until then, my blog.