Glad They Brought The Boxes Back

but the games are pretty lame

Conniption Fits To Everything Fits

Today had highs and lows. The low was first thing in the morning when Yuula flipped out when we asked her to pick up some socks and put them in the storage bin. She lost her marbles and threw the worst and possibly only conniption fit of her short little life. It was kinda cute, but sad, and at the very least intriguing. It's gonna be a rough one, these next 15 years.

She did finally pick up the socks.

Then we made huge strides in the sheds, old and new. I'm telling you, if you ever saw it before, you wouldn't recognize it now. Things are finding their homes, finally after 4 years. And the main cause of all this free range capacity is the new storage unit. We went over in a last ditch effort to regain control of the already elusive organized space and add some stock in the form of winter wardrobe and space heaters.

Glad no one wanted to get into their own unit last night.

This place is the latest manmade wonder of the world, categorized and puzzle-pieced in for maximum space utilization. If there were ever a job for this kind of skill I would be making six figures. Next time you're up I will give you the guided tour.

And nothing like a healthy McDonald's supper on the concrete floor of Uncle Bob's Storage. The good news is happy meals come in a box again instead of those cheap-o bags. And Yuula likes french fries on the elevator, but since I don't have a photo of that, here she is eating lunch.

Breaking Playplace

Apparently the tradition after the Big Wheel is the Big Arches, and to hunker down until you overstayed your welcome.

We set the girls loose on the playplace and since we had nothing to lose, Laura and I got in there with them.

Laura even went down the slide and that's three stories up.

The girls had fun and I got to try some chicken bites. Not too good.

Bad At Foods Fast

Went to McDonald's yesterday for breakfast, something that used to be an almost weekly ritual, their hotcakes are heavenly, and we sucked at it. We could barely finish our food and I dropped a whole deluxe breakfast on the floor before I even got to our table. That would have never happened back in the day. They said having a baby would change things.


They cleaned up the deluxe-ness before I could snap a shot


Anbody want a biscuit?

Disappointing I guess. Their eggs are a little suspect anyhow.

Hotcake Tapioca Leather

Traditional anniversary celebration is lost on us, as is many things, but we manage to come out the other end feeling like we honor an event in our own little way and have no regrets, so far. So we set out...

We've made it a tradition to eat McDonald's at some point on our anniversary. We spontaneously consumed it for dinner on our wedding day out of fear of starvation and last year because we had such an early day and it was the only thing open. This time it was the simple craving of the hotcakes that beckoned us. We are not strong people.

We then had an appointment to meet our new baby, who is turning out to be quite lovely, but we'll wait til the final results are in before we make any calls to the Little Miss Perfect pageant. And it is a girl, which is awesome and overwhelming and incredible and horrifying and astounding and calming all at the same time. I didn't know that was possible. It seems unpopular to find out the gender of your baby nowadays. We did not know this. But the way we look at it is that on the day she's born, there's going to be so much excitement just because she's actually being born that the surprise of the sex couldn't possibly heighten the emotional level any, so why not find out. Plus it lets us know what kind of pants to stockpile. Pants among other things. We have family waiting to unload their backstock on us, two with daughters, one with sons, and they were waiting to see who gets to clean out the attic. (Sorry Brad & Erin. Maybe next time) But it's nice to know so we don't have to refer to her as she/he/it/the monster anymore and we know what section of the baby stores we should be browsing. And not that I'm against the shade itself, I'm sure we'll end up with more than a few articles that are, but does anyone know where they sell baby girl clothes that aren't pink?

Having the whole day ahead of us and not really having a plan past that we dropped in at the mall in hopes of redeeming some of these free Auntie Anne's cards we have stockpiled from the summer. But alas, they have no such stand in the Lehigh Valley and we settled on a bathroom break in Boscov's and a stop at Jasmine Smoothies. Laura had a mango/peach smoothie and I a coconut milk tea with tapioca beads the size of matzo balls. Delicious tho.



We were close to Easton so I showed Laura where I worked, dangerously close to quitting time, so it was a quick spin thru the lot to avoid any encounters. We headed back thru downtown Easton, which was hopping at 3pm, and found a little antique shop nestled in the far corner cross the square from the Crayola factory. We take note of these things nowadays. Laura found this lovely coat that I think may have been worn by one of the curler girls in the Beauty School Dropout number. We left it on is rack. And left the shoppe in its corner.



We took 611 home, my new favorite American highway, and made an impromptu stop at the Middle Village Bakery in Mount Bethel. When I pass the sign out front it always says "Closed", but when I saw that it was "Open" I couldn't resist. I thought fate. At the helm were two teenage girls covered in flour, sugar and sprinkles, from who we ordered an two apple danishes for the morning ride we have the next day. Also a lemon square for Laura and an elephant ear for me for the ride we had now. Good things.



We were almost home and at our last stop of the day picking up a rental car for our weekend jaunt westward and realized we still had yet to bestow our anniversary gift of leather unto one another. We didn't want leather bound books or key chains or purses. Leather jackets were too pricey for something we'd never wear. We both have wallets we like and aren't looking to replace them. We had looked in the antique store for a leather box or photo album to no accord. We had wracked our brains. Then, we thought...



How perfect and timely! Plus we would totally use them, baby belly and all. So we hurried home to get changed and test out the new set of mitts and balls, made of leather of course. Laura was up first...



and I swear to you this is where she hit my very first pitch...



Homerun! And 1 ball down. Must be the extra baby power. We hit a few balls, played a little catch, worked on our fielding and I helped Laura with her knuckle ball. All in all, I think it's right up there with the paper tickets and the cotton robes. Year three: leather gloves. A success.