Quinn's new 'do

Where have i been?!

What have I been doing, other than blogging? Mostly watching Backyardigans and Blues Clues, playing with baby toys on the floor, and chasing Q around the house....but when I'm not doing that, I'm catching up on dishes and laundry, working extra nights at work to get all of my clients in, taking walks in this awesome fall weather, and catching an occasional high school football game.
And trying to catch up on sleep during the day, since Quinn has taken to waking up in the night, fo no apparent reason other than to hang out with me for an hour or so.....EVERY night. Don't get me wrong, the attention is sweet and I appreciate that he wants to hang out with me so much, but really....at 3 a.m.???

I gave him a 'real' haircut this weekend. After last week's 'starter' haircut, we saw how well he'd sit for it, so I cut the rest. He's got a cute little boy haircut now. I have pictures, but that would mean I'd have to get them from my camera to the computer, and that's going to have to wait.

Also, in my "free time" (haha!) I've been reading the Twilight series. It's a 4-book series of a high school girl caught in a love triangle between a vampire and a werewolf... it's technically a young adult book, but it's good so I don't care that it's made for 8th graders! Anyway, we have all 4 books between us girls at work, so we've been passing them around the salon. I'm on book #3, and I have two girls who have finished 1 and 2, and are waiting on me to finish the 3rd book....so I have to finish it tonight.
I did get some reading in this morning, early, after Quinn finally went back to bed at 4:30, at which point I was wide awake, so I decided to read a few chapters.

And how do I stay awake during the days after my middle of the night playdates? Aside from my usual coffee, I've found a new yummy drink: the Burger King Mocha Joe iced coffee. It's soooo good. It's like a milkshake for breakfast. It's similar to the Tim Horton's iced capp's, but it's not frozen. So good.

Time to go read.

Bye-Bye to the Baby-Mullet!

Before: Q had hair-wings over his ears and a weird mullety-tail in the back.


After: Baby's first haircut! I think it made him faster, kind of like how new shoes make you jump higher, because this is the best photo of 20-some that I took. Also, we bought his Halloween costume yesterday, but you'll have to wait and see what it is.

We almost got blown away by the superman-force winds here yesterday evening, but we survived; most of the trees in town did not.

I think we need to buy him some more toys...

Weekend Update

More pictures from our trip to Michigan last weekend; Here's the boys, playing on the floor.

Grandma Featherstone, Kathy, Jer Trish, Joe and I and 2 squirmy boys. On our way home we stopped in Ypsilanti to have lunch with my friend Marci- we were roommates in college- and we walked around the campus after lunch to see the old places...a lot has changed, a lot has stayed the same! Here we are on the steps of our old apartment.
And the 3 of us, with our family EMU t-shirts we bought while we were there.
We took Q to his first high school football game Friday night, but it never got started due to lightning so we went to WalMart instead. The game was rescheduled for Saturday, so we tried again, this time with Lisa an John, and had a good time.
Quinn stayed awake for the whole game and seemed to like it. I think he liked it Friday night better, when the band was there (they didn't bother to come to the re-do) and he enjoyed the music....and hey, lets be honest, I enjoy the game more with the band too!
No big plans for the Labor Day weekend, except I guess to pack away all of my white shoes.

The Crim, and Robert

Lots to blog about, not so much time. I'll start with Saturday: we went to Flint so Joe could run in the Crim race with his Swiss friends. They're really his UM friends, but I call them Swiss....anyway, 5 of the 7 made it to the race this year.
On the way up Friday night we saw one of the members of the group, Robert, on 75 in the lane next to us, so we pulled over at a rest stop to say hi.....


And then we followed him to the next exit to his favorite place on this Earth, Tim Hortons... which I didn't realize there was one in Bowling Green, so it's a good thing we ran into him, because now I have a coffee-stop on our way north!

Saturday morning, bright and early, we made our way to Flint for the race. Joe was registered for the 8k, but ended up running the 5k, but in the end got a medal for the 10 mile. Long story, involves new running shoes for Joe and a diaper change (for Quinn, of course, just to avoid any confusion there...)
Anyway, we all met up after the running was done for some refreshments in the party tent and entertainment from a cheesy cover band.
And hey! We ran into Robert at the Crim!


Quinn and I did what we do best- we watched everyone else run.

Hi from Here

It's been a busy week for us -mainly for Joe- between unpacking, moving out of his old classroom, getting his new classroom ready (he's switching from teaching social studies to technology), and coaching football....between all that, he's still managed to spend time with Q and I.
Work has been busy for me with back to school time, so I haven't had a lot of down time this week. Things should slow down and settle in once school starts.

In the mean time, here's a couple of cute pictures from last weekend when Joe got home.

Congratulations, Joe

As I said in the previous post, Joe graduated from his Masters' program at U of M yesterday. It's been a long, very busy 15 months, but very worth it. Not only did he get his degree, he got to travel Europe two summers in a row, and made a great group of friends in the process.
I was able to watch the graduation ceremony, held in Geneva, Switzerland, on the UM website. I'm really proud of him for going through the program and accomplishing so much this past year and a half, while juggling school, work, coaching, and still being an awesome husband and dad!

Here's some pictures from yesterday- they aren't the best quality, because they are photos of the computer screen, but you get the idea.

Some of the class of 2008:Taking a picture of Joe taking a picture..... The caps with the 7:11 on top belong to the members of the running group Joe is part of; because they meet to run at 7:11 every morning.Joe's friend Robert (or if he goes by his French name, "Robear"), giving one of the speeches, which I enjoyed. Thanks to Joe's stories, I got most of his references, too!And most importantly, Joe graduating:

One more day.

One more day until Joe comes back from his 4-week stay in Europe and I can't wait. He's been all over the place, Paris, Nice, Swiss mountainy places....he claims they do some studying while they are there, but I don't know. All the pictures I've seen look more like fun, less like schoolwork.
Doesn't matter, either way as of noon today he will have graduated and no more grad school. YAY!!!!!
Because they are so techy there (as well they should be seeing as how its a technology program) I can watch the graduation in Switzerland right here from the comfort of my own laptop. How very cool is that???
He's got a thousand or so pictures, I'm sure I'll put some up here when he gets home, but in the mean time, I'll post some totally unrelated pictures from our family cookout last weekend:

(edited to add: for more pictures and to read about the cookout, see amy's blog, "snapshots of us"; link at right.)

I went to the animal fair.

Saturday night, big night out, where do we go?? The county fair! Yes, it's the highlight of the year, if you have a mullet and a severe lack of teeth. I have all my teeth, and am not sporting a mullet, yet I still couldn't resist the lure of the greasy food and the animals. Dad, Mom, Lisa, Quinn and I spent a good portion of two hours checking out the fairgrounds. None of us had been there for years, but it sounded like a good idea this year...for lack of anything better to do, and the need for some fair fries.
We were "fairly" (haha) amused by the 4H projects, checked out the merchant's building--mainly because it was air conditioned-- shared some fries and mushrooms (yum and yum) and then before we hit the barns (very briefly) we went for the best thing of all: SUGAR WAFFLES!
It's not a fair without sugar waffles, and I can't go there without eating one. Good stuff.
Here's dad at the sugar waffle trailer:
And me, enjoying my waffle:Dad, Mom, a bucket of fair fries, and two really happy girls in the background. I didn't see them at the time, but noticed them in the picture today and they make me laugh.
Quinn, petting the sheep.
Lisa and I, self portrait on the camera phone. Pretty good, huh?And Q's highlight of the evening: the free balloon he got in the merchants building. After this point, he lost interest in the fair altogether and was transfixed by the balloon. Go figure.

july in photos

I finally figured out how to get my photos on this computer, so here's a random scattering of the past few weeks, in pictures.

Dad and Rylee, with the remote-control boat/pool skimmer:
Rylee checking out the frog Lisa found in the backyard. I like how the ring compliments the colors of the frog....How many people (and giraffes!) can we fit on Grandma's swing???
Quinn and I on our birthdays: his 8-month, my 30th.Rylee and Q watching a dvd on the portable dvd player, on the bird couch:
Our friend (and Quinn's former babysitter) Jill, and her family stopped by last weekend while they were in town. They moved across the state, back to their hometown, at the end of the school year, and we really miss them. We loved seeing them again and Q had a great time with the kids!This past Sunday all the girls went with our friend Brandy to watch her get her first tattoo. There were 13 of us there, then we went out for Mexican for lunch.....
...and yes, 5 of the 13 were kids. OK, now don't judge me. It's a kid-friendly tattoo establishment. And anyway, it's not like I let Q get inked.....this time........ :)
Here he is with Brandy's son, Preston.And finally, this is what I call the "Blues Clues Trance". I don't know what it is about that blue dog, but he just loves it. He recently discovered Blue, at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and now we watch it in the morning while I get ready for work. He's totally into it and it keeps him happy while I blow dry my hair. It's funny though, it's only Blues Clues that he likes. When it's over and the next show comes on, he's uninterested, and back to his toys.
I wonder if Blue is voiced by Raffi?????