I know this....

I just needed a reminder. I love Fred and my boys. Not because they keep good house, or cook great meals. I love them for who they are and who they make me. Seems like a good enough 500th post!

(Art by Stephanie Ackerman @ www.homegrownhospitality.typepad.com )

You are kidding me right?!

Why should I expect that in 17+ years of marriage that the norm would change. Why do I think that someday he will become all that I want and nothing that I don't? Why?

I woke this morning to the noise of a lawn mower and snoring. The lawn mower was being pushed by Jose as he mowed the neighbor's lawn. It was a reasonable 8:45 or so. The snoring of course was Fred. When I heard the mowing it made me think that the neighbor to the left had his lawn mowed last night. Now the neighbor to the right was having his done. That impact me because I care that my lawn is gonna look REALLY ratty next to two nicely mowed lawns. Did I mention that the heat index today was suppose to exceed 105 degrees? Just putting that out there.

So I thought that I would go ahead and at least mow the front yard. The sun starts in the back so there might be a smidgen of shade in the front. I'll take what I can get. At about 9:30 I head outside with my bottle of water and do the best I can do mowing the fron year. I then grab the weed whacker and take on the rough edges to Nic's job of mowing the across the street neighbor's yard which he has done for the last two weeks. Fred hasn't taught him to use the weed whacker yet so I just did it myself. Maybe I haven't asked him. Who knows.

After the mowing I am HOT so I go in, take a shower and try to find some food that will make the shaking in my hands stop. Between not eating breakfast before I mowed and the shaking that I sometimes get from the vibrations of the weed whacker I am a hot mess. I try OJ and some cereal and am feeling more like myself.

Once I have cleaned myself up and eaten I make a call to a friend and see what we can plan for the day. As a family we have no plans until tonight when we are supposed to go to a cocktail birthday party in the neighborhood.

Well, my pal could stand to go to Sam's and so could I. I also could use a couple of new Cricut mats and she says she thinks that they are on sale at JoAnn's. It's a reasonable plan to lets us spend some time together while also serving our families by getting things that we NEED like TOILET PAPER, Axe deodorant, and NesQuik. Essentials!

Well, when I left Will was playing on the iPad in my bed, Nic was dressed and upstairs playing on the PS3 and Fred was getting in the shower. I specifically asked Will to try his best to make my bed when he got done since I couldn't very well make it with him in it! When I returned from my running about 2.5 hours later what did I come home to find?

My bed unmade, my children upstairs, probably gaming, maybe not. Fred showered and moved to the LR couch watching something on the iPad with the television on and NOTHING else done, moved or changed in my house. There were clothes in the dryer, clothes in the laundry room that needed hung up. There was a pizza box on the island that needed to be put in the outside trash. There are always things on the stairs that just get passed by time and again that I'm about ready to throw away. I decided to to just do what I could then take a nap. It had been an exhausting short day. I laid down for a few, maybe 30 minutes and was awoken by my husband joining me in our bed. He was talking all sweet and annoying me. He left with the iPad and went back to the couch.

I knew I needed to get up and moving and think about dinner. I headed to the kitchen starving because I never did eat lunch. I feel certain that no one in my house did. I grabbed a small bowl of Frito's and headed to the LR. Sat in silence while Fred played on the iPad then tried to start a conversation. That went no where. He was too engrossed. I was too po'd. I headed to put some stuff from Sam's away, went back the LR where Will was munching on some pretzels. I sat on the recliner with him. We started reclining. We tipped over. We laughed. The pretzels spilled. Salt all over the floor. Fred played on the iPad. Nic came down and helped clean up the spill. I grabbed the dust buster. Will turned up his show and Fred played on the iPad. I was mad. I grabbed this laptop and I felt the need to vent. Here's the venting. Aren't you glad you stopped by?

Hello there, remember me?

It has been WAY toooooo long since I have posted and I am sorry. If there is anyone left out there reading I think I may try to get back to updating more frequently. I do find myself with more time here and there and I just really need to decide how I spend that time. Sharing a bit of myself seems like a good enough choice. Last week I had the pleasure of spending some time with Grandma Mary, Fred's grandmother on his mom's side. She is 95 years young and is facing some challenges of late. She is an amazing person and is sharp! She was sharing stories of her youth as if it were yesterday. My memory stinks and I am still on the young side. I decided that in order to remember some of the most important moments in life maybe I need to document more. I am really slacking in the scrapping department, working on that too by the way, but the 'ol blog should be doable... If I choose to DO!

Well, we at the Baker house are in the throws of summer 2010. We have returned from our summer trip to Indiana and have even made it to Austin and San Antonio for a little staycation fun. We have a couple more items on the calendar for the summer but nothing too major. I am headed to the Texas PTA convention in Austin at the end of the month and Nic is attending a Junior Police Academy as well. WB is chillaxin in the best ways he knows how and will also be playing baseball this fall. We have some shopping to do to get ready for that commitment!

On our way to our first stop in Indy we took a detour to the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology campus. The boys were pretty impressed with Fred's college but were a little taken back by the condition of the Triangle Fraternity House.

Well, I think I will throw up a couple of cool pics from our trip to Indiana last week and leave it at that for now. I am going to work on composing some deep thoughts in my head to share in another post next week. Stay tuned!

Fred chillin with newest niece Caroline and the Jerry and Betsy Traub bunch! All 17 of us. This is the first time since we have all been married that we have all been together including our wonderful spouses. It was a great time and would have only been made better if it were about a week longer. There never seems to be enough time!