Randomness

I am pathetic. Do you know why? Because I want a dog SO BAD! I can’t even express in words how bad I want a dog! I’ve been looking and looking EVERYWHERE for a dog and I don’t know why because I shouldn’t get a dog right now anyway! When I find one (like the uber cheap and super cute labradoodle I found today) I talk myself out of getting it. Want to know how? Mostly I just tell myself that we are poor, starving college students that don’t really want to drive for 20 hours with a puppy in the cab of a ginormous moving truck. The end.

I am excited to go to California and live in a house. If our landlord changes his mind and suddenly decides that we can't get a dog, I am going to cry and then move…AGAIN.

I also want a cat. If the cat and the dog don’t get along I don’t know what I am going to do. Cry – it’s my answer to everything right now.

Moving on to less Breanna obsessed topics.

Aslynn and I went to the zoo by ourselves to give Luke some time to study alone. We ate an elephant ear together and it was very tasty.

Aslynn is on a Monsters Inc. kick. She watches a whole 20 minutes while sitting in her chair (which is sitting on the couch) curled up in a blanket with a pillow behind her head. This girl is going to go into a visual overload when we finally get a TV with a screen bigger than a computer monitor.

We also took her to the Children's Museum where we pretended that she was pretending to be a kangaroo.

Yummy Grilled Cheese

I read about this place called the Grilled Cheese Grill on my friend's blog.

Since I am all about food, eating and random Portlandness, we (Luke, Z, our friend Kimberly, her son Charlie and myself) braved the traffic and drove out to northeast Portland. We ate, we smiled, and I became even sadder about leaving Portland.

It was raining - what else is new? - but that was okay because we got to eat our lunch in the school bus.

An interesting mural was painted on the ceiling of the bus. I took some snapshots of some of the more interesting/not so creepy parts.

Luke got the Cheesus Burger - "The Soon-to-be-Famous Burger Behemoth. We’ve done away with the bun and replaced it with two grilled cheese sandwiches. That’s right, two of them. One on top, one on the bottom. Pickles and American cheese inside one, Grilled Onion and Colby Jack in the other. Lettuce, Tomato, Ketchup, Mustard, and 1/3lb Burger in between. You won’t need to eat again for 2 days." He said that it tasted like a cheeseburger, nothing too special. He had to order it though because it sounded so interesting.

I got the Southsider: "Artichokes, Sundried Tomato, Mushrooms and Mozzarella on Grilled Sourdough."

It was pretty good; I won't order it again just because there are so many other choices.

Kimberly got the Morton: "Meatball Marinara, Ricotta and Mozzarella on Grilled Italian Sourdough" and she loved it.

We also split a Jamie: "Marscapone, Nutella, and Grilled Banana on Grilled Cinnamon Swirl" and it was heavenly.

Since I am planning on packing up my dishes tomorrow, I am sure that we will be going back for more wonerful grilled cheese sandwiches before we leave Portland. If we don't, we are going to starve.

Random fact: Poor, sad, deprived Luke had never had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup until I made it for him when we were dating! He’s been hooked ever since. We love grilled cheese. We eat almost once a week. Of course, our grilled cheeses aren’t nearly as gourmet as the ones we had at the Grilled Cheese Grill.

Grandpa's (& Grandma's) Cabin

*On the way to the cabin, Z picked up drinking.*

We went to my parents’ cabin and Z had TONS of fun playing in the dirt.

We love it at the cabin. We are going to miss being able to go and spend time with family there.

*Redneck picture. Don't worry too much; it's just a BB gun...*

Oh, How We Love Our Campbells

Our wonderful friends, the Campbells, came to visit us all the way from Idaho. We took them to OMSI to have some fun!

*Jenny, baby in her belly, Logan and Emma.*

Luke got a whole lota people to listen to his shpeel on the Van De Graaff. He even got people to hold hands, allowing the electrical current to pass through their bodies. When it got to the person on the end, who wasn’t holding another person’s hand, she decided to shock Luke.

Random: For fun, go to urbandictionary.com and look up “shpeel”– did you do it? Okay. I didn’t know that’s what the word really meant. I know; I should be more educated. Luke really does know quite a lot about Van De Graafs so I supposed everything he was talking about wasn’t really a shpeel…

Anyway, back to OMSI.

*Those boys were so proud of themselves.*

We had WAY too much fun with the heat sensing camera. 

*Our little family.  I am taking the picture.  Luke is sticking out his tongue.*

*Luke and Logan.*

*Luke reflecting Logan's face in a mirror.*

*Logan reflecting Jenny and Emma sitting off in a corner.*

*Luke reflecting me taking a picture of Luke reflecting me taking a picture.  Did you get that?*

We love the Campbells and we miss 'em like crazy!

Aslynn's Firsts

Over the past month or so, Aslynn has had a couple of “firsts.”

Her first trip to the emergency room occurred when a plate was accidentally dropped on her head. How exactly a plate could do this is still as mystery, but it hit right above her eye and right below her eyebrow. The end result was a small but deep, linear gash that had to be glued shut so that it wouldn’t heal open and leave a scar.

*Some blood got glued onto her head so it looks worse than it really was.*

Luke took her into the E.R. She did great! She didn't even cry at the hospital (she got it all out in about 5 minutes, right after the plate dropped).

The glue fell off after about a week and now all she has to show for her trouble is a little red line.

P.S. No plates were harmed in the making of this injury.  The offending plate now sits in the cupboard bragging to its dish friends about how it got away with making a toddler bleed. 


Another "first" that was a lot more fun than going to the E.R. was a birthday party!

It was the first birthday party that Aslynn had ever been invited to.  It was a princess and pirate theme party. Since I live vicariously through my daughter, I made sure she dressed up as a princess.

Side note: One day I am going to throw myself a princess themed birthday party. Everybody better dress up! The only foreseeable problem is the fact that grown-up princess dresss can’t be found at the Disney store for $12.

Aslynn went in the same “Princess Belle” outfit she wore to the ward Halloween party; we just made her suck in her gut a little so we could get it zipped up. She’s getting so big! She won’t be able to wear it again.

*Lots of princesses and pirates!*

*Snow White even came to the party!  Aslynn was sent in by the other kids to make sure S.W. was safe; as soon as Z gave everyone the "a-okay" the princess was surrounded.*

*Z's good friend, Olivia.*

*Playing with bubbles!*

It was a very good birthday party!  Z had tons of fun!

Nap Time Fantasy

I take naps. I mean, why not? My kid takes naps; I can take advantage of the quiet and take a nap too, right?

The problem is: I feel guilty about it. I know that there are a million and a half other things that I SHOULD be doing without Z’s “help.” As I drift off to sleep, I think about all these things that I should be doing, things that would make my day “productive.” But here I am, in bed, at 11 A.M. trying to ignore my “To Do” list.

Top priority on my list is cleaning.

For example, my house is a mess 90% of the time.

Cleaning my house is like shoveling the sidewalk in a blizzard - pointless and frustrating. You know why? Because I have a toddler and she is a child-tornado. Don't be fooled by her small stature! Given inadequate (or even adequate) supervision and a whole 30 seconds, she can make BIG messes (yes, plural/separate messES).

Since I fall asleep thinking about how I should be cleaning the house, it is only natural that I would have dreams about cleaning the house.

I wake up, and for .5 seconds I think that I actually cleaned the house and it looks like this:

Then I realize that it was only a dream and it really looks like this:

…and that’s only part of the living room.

Gosh darn it all!