Summer and Apples

Not much new...just some new pics...

Dallas '09

BIG GIRL BED!!!!!!!

Ugh. Sigh. Sigh again. It's time for Ava's big girl bed. She was ready for it, me not so much. Let's just say that we bought her toddler bed 6 months ago and everytime Dave went to put it together, I'd find another reason not to. Until last week....we measured Miss Aves and she grew another inch and a half. In a month and a half. She's at 39.5"...needless to say that she barely even fit in her crib anymore!!
So, Sunday her "big bed" went up. She LOVES it!! Wants to go "nite nite" every evening around 7!! No problems adjusting to it either. She sleeps all night and all through her naps. It is a tad bit strange to have her come walking out when she wakes up tho!!
Not much else new in Brutto-land. Well, Shane did give up the ghost last week. Oh, for those of you that don't know....Shane is Dave's pickup. He was old. And tired. Shane that is...not Dave. Snicker. Poor Shane...he was a good soul.

FIRST RIDE WITH A BOY......

We bought Aves a little Pink Jeep about 3 weeks ago....she loved it until she drove it up and over a curb (yes, I know....just like her mama...I actually had the tire guy at Les Schwab chastise me about driving over curbs....I can't help it....I'm short) Anyway, now she's afraid of it. Dylan, our next door neighbor, and Ava's buddy, got a Jeep about the same time. He is a wildman!! So, he took her for a ride tonight and they had a blast.....especially when they ran over Dave!!

WE SURVIVED!!!!!

Well, we survived our first camping trip with Ava and Big Gus. Lyla, Shiloh, Dave and I are, err, pros.
Okay, so we start off well. Til about, oh say...midnight. Then I woke up with one of the ladies smashed into a rock. Seriously. Our air mattress went kapoot. It was cold. The ground was hard. Really, really hard. I'm too damn old to be sleeping on the ground. Then, I woke up about 3. We had bought Ava this new little pink air mattress with a sleeping bag attached. Well, at 3 I turned over and there she is with the crazy-ass thing sticking straight up behind her and she's on the ground.
Needless to say, we made a trip to Walmart the next morning and bought a new mattress. I was wondering if we were over the weight limit....snicker....but it's rated for up to 600 pounds. So, we're good for a few more trips to McDonalds. Snicker.
Other than that we had a GREAT time. Big Gus loved napping on the picnic table.

Just a swimmin'.....

Okay, this is really going to hickafy me....but I have that old country song "Swingin" by John Anderson going thru my head. Oh, that is bad. So bad. I think it's where we live...brings out my inner hick. My neighbor has a bumper sticker on his two-ton diesel that reads "I hunt my way"....nuff said? What the hell does that even mean? Oh, and when we met him he refered to himself as a hickabilly. He is a very nice man. Travis-Bob is what we call him. Real name is Travis, but I couldn't help but add the Bob to it.
Oh, wow. How did I get on that subject. Sometimes I do believe that I am losing my mind. I forget everything. See, there I go again with the wandering!
Anyhoo. The weather has just been unbelievable here lately. 80's and sun...I love Washington! Well, except for the 8 months of straight rain. We've been walking and swimming a lot. Shiloh, the Beagle, had her ACL surgery about 2 months ago and we've been walking with her everyday. She's so funny...she's really sensitive...freaks if we move the furniture around. So, she was scared to use her leg again. She's finally using it quite a bit.
Ava is great....SASSY. Really, really sassy. SASSY. In capital letters. SASSY.

AWESOME WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!

Wow. What a great weekend it's been. We took off for the beach on Friday and spent the weekend there for my dads birthday. Ava is still, ding-dang it, scared of the ocean. Refused to even get out of the car once she heard the noise. She thinks that the beach is actually the swimming pool. So, she kept begging to go to the beach....errr....it comes out as more like, say, ahem, bitch...gotta work on that one. Of course, the nephews thought that was just hilarious and kept asking her where she wanted to go. Speaking of the nephews....I had to take the 16-year old, Josh, out at the knees. I told him to do something and he said....I am still in shock..."why don't you go in the kitchen and fix me something to eat"....HOLY CRAP!! He, of course, was kidding....if you knew his mama, you'd already know that! I did scratch him tho...all the way down his leg...he looks like a zebra!!

We don't need no stinkin' baby gate!!!!

Why would we when we can use shoes instead? Um, yeah....I have a serious shoe addiction. The pile that Ava can't get over....those are the ones that are going to the shelter and Salvation Army. You can't see the pile that are keepers. Holy crap! The good news is that my closet is REALLY clean and I have lots more room for new shoes! Nobody better say even one word about the dust. Not one word. So bad, I know. But, unlike the rest of my girlish figure, my feet haven't grown since 1989! Seriously! So, some of those shoes date back that far. Not that many, but a few. There. I feel better. Oh, and by the way....I cleaned out Avas shoes too...she had 16 pairs....am I creating a monster? Hey, a girl needs shoes. Can I get a witness?!?!

I LIKE BIG TRUCKS AND I CANNOT LIE.....

And I hate shower caps....that from the little Miss.
First, for the trucks. Aves has this huge love of semis. Everytime she sees one she has to shriek "tuck".....which is cute unless you're driving 80 miles an hour down the freeway. Errr, did I say 80? I would NEVER even dream of driving that fast! Anyhoo....our friend, Dan, is a trucker. He hauls new Freighliners to dealers all over the US and Canada. Look for him...he's usually in a 3 or 4-way...man, that sounds really bad...get your mind out of the gutter...3 or 4 TRUCKS hooked together.
Now for the shower cap....uh, Ava HATES it! HATES IT!! It did, however make her hair silky and soft. She hollered the whole 10 minutes tho. Wow, that girl gets more like her mama everyday!! :) Hey, if mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy!! I guess the same is true for my diva-in-training!

SOW'IN TIME!!!!

I know we're a little early for this neck of the woods, but we just couldn't wait any longer....had to get those little hands in the dirt! Miss Aves definitely isn't a girly chick...she loved the dirt on her hands and the worms didn't freak her out at all. Me, not so much....I don't really feel the love for the worms...live and let live, yeah, but I no likey to touchy!!! Things that slither on the ground just freak me out...how did I get on this topic...oh, worms...yeah, I don't like them. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and two types of beans. Mostly the string beans are just for show....I found this really cool crimson type that blooms red flowers for a month. And, you will all be proud....I kept my shoes on the whole time. When I was a kid, we were too poor to afford shoes to wear in the garden (only had Sunday-goin-to-meetin'-shoes) so we would go barefoot. Something about the sweat from your feet being really good for the veggies too. Does anyone believe me? No, I didn't think so. We always did have a really big garden tho. Hey, speaking of which, somewhere I have an awesome pic of Dave from when he was making his transition from rocker to redneck...I'm going to find it and post it here....make sure you check out his milkin' boots!! He will be so happy. But, hey...I owe him one. He, unbeknownst to me, changed my ringtone on my cell to "Dirty White Boy" and cranked the volume to high. Then he waited til I was getting my hair done at the salon and called. Funny, huh?!?!

GOTCHA!!!!

Face to face for the first time.
First nap at the guesthouse.
First morning with daddy.
Home a year!!
This day, April 21st, one year ago we met our girl for the very first time. Oh wow. I can close my eyes and almost be there again...the smells, the sounds, the sights. I am so very thankful and feel so blessed. This baby girl, who is my heart, has changed my life in so many ways. Ways I didn't even know were possible. She is beautiful inside and out. So, today we celebrate.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!

Rockin' Brutto's

Uhoh. I think that I'm going to have another rocker on my hands. Started way back. About a year and a half ago (right after we found out about Ava) Dave had to run into Guitar Center to buy some new strings. I was tired so I stayed in the car. First mistake. I figure that I'm relatively safe as he didn't have a whole lot of cash. Second mistake. I didn't think that he'd use his credit card. Third mistake. He comes out about ten minutes later with this tiny red guitar that matches his Gibson. He was so proud, grinning from ear to ear. Came home and staright-away hung it on the wall in her bedroom. He's been waiting for her to be big enough to learn how to play. I think that we're getting there. She loves to listen to him and pick at her gitfiddle. Had to get new pics with them and their matching shirts and guitars.

Hooter trouble

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. Bad blogger, bad blogger!! Things have been a bit icky around here lately. Good now tho! I went in for my yearly mammogram about two weeks ago. My mom and I go together every year. She (mom) had a very nasty bout with breast cancer in 2001. Her sister had it the same year too. Anyway, the radiologist calls me a few days later....I had to go in for more pictures. Great. How fun. So, I go back and have Monique (that's what I've decided to call her as I got tired of saying my "breast" all the time) squished again. I didn't get to leave that time. I had to go talk to the radiologist. He saw some calcifications that weren't there last year. Oh joy. Weird lookin little things...all in a circle...kind of like a target! Anyhoo, we scheduled a biopsy for 3 days later (that was Tuesday). Oh, that was just awesome! Really. Everyone should do it just for the fun and excitement. So, you get up on this table with your business hanging out the hole in the table. Then they put Monique in compression and give her some shots. Not alcohol...tho that's what I really needed. And then the doc takes a sample of tissue, xrays it, and isn't happy with what he got. So, we repeat the process. Still not happy, so we get to do it a third time! I'm glad that he was so careful. I wouldn't want there to be any question of whether or not he got a good sample. Then I have to wait 48 hours for the results. Well, it turned out to be only 24 hours and I got the call. Benign! Thank you Jesus!! Phew! Now let me just say that Monique is very angry. She is very bruised and ugly. But, she's healthy!!
Sorry if this is too much information, but I just had to share. Monique is happy and so am I. :)

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Aves got a card in the mail today from Gma and Papa...funny...they live about 2 minutes from us, but Ava LOVES to get mail! She immediately went and put her money in her cash register...that's my girl! No piggie banks for us! Snicker!!
Since Ava came home, I've had this weird crush on Cozy Coupes. I've even tried to get Dave to stop at an unknown persons house who had one just parked in their yard...I couldn't find them at ANY store! Well, of course he wouldn't...probably a good thing. Anyway, we got one for her Sunday and she loves it! Lord have mercy tho...she drives like her mama. Our walls don't look the same already! Oh, and her name is Kate. The cozy coupe that is...remember...I like to name things. Dave shook his head and told Ava "don't worry...you'll get used to it"...about me naming Kate. So, without futher ado, here is Ava and Kate!