still rockin' and rollin'

he's got the beat.



oh, what did you say mom? go crazy? ok. yeah, just like that. nice work son.

lock in

i know this is my constant refrain, i was going to sew last night but... but really things happened. panicky things. i was checking my email and reading some blogs after getting the huffsters to bed when i had a thought. hmm, they sure did fall asleep fast, collette hasnt come out of the room once. let me back up and say that collette probably gets up at least 12 times after being put to bed, and that this goes on until around ten at night. very very very annoying to me. anyway, so it is almost nine and she hasnt come out once in 45 minutes. im thinking huh, she must have been tired. nice. so i wander into the kitchen to get a snack (uh, cinnamon roll) when i hear her at the door to the room. i should also say that we live in a two bedroom house and have three children stuffed into one of them. hearing her at the door i walk over to open it and tell her to get back in bed. locked. huh. ok. so i walk over to the other door to their room. locked. great. at this point collette is talking to me through the door, saying things like "mommy open door?". yes sweetie i will unlock the door. still not worried about the situation, i go on the hunt for something to use to put through the hole in the knob to unlock the safety catch, a pick up stick is the best thing i can find. it doesnt work. hmmm. maybe this plastic pick up stick is too bendy, go hunting some more, find the meat thermometer. that has to be the ticket, right? wrong. neither safety catch will open.

i think i have failed to mention that david is at a friends house working on a script. i try his cell phone, no answer. at this point my friend sarah walks in. she immediately gets to work on one door knob with the meat thermometer while i try to take the other off with a screw driver, while collette is still maintaining a running dialogue of gibberish on the other side of the door. i manage to remove the knob and push the other side through and onto the floor without smashing collettes toes, but the mechanism is still locked and the latch is still in the door jam. great. so at this point i am reduced to yelling through the hole in the door to wake up eliot because i am fairly confident that he can unlock the other door. man does that kid sleep deep. my yelling wakes up arlo who starts crying. awesome. i convince collette to climb up to the top bunk to wake up eliot. he gets up, but is still asleep. trys half heartedly to unlock the closet door, starts whining and then climbs back in bed and falls asleep again. sweet. ok. so i get david on the phone and he is headed back home to try to break into the window on the back side of the house and crawl into their room. if you are sitting there wondering about the hinges, they are on the inside. i checked. i ask collette to pick up the door knob and put it back in the hole so i can examine it and try to figure out the safety catch to try to open the other one. this involves a lot of finger gestures through the hole on both our parts. to cut a long blog post short, collette gets the knob back in the hole and sarah fiddles with it some and finally gets it to open. thank you sarah. and thank you for being there because really the only reason i wasnt panicking was because you kept saying "wow, you are such a good mom. i cant believe you arent freaking out right now".

i ended up soothing myself with some magazines, a bag of snyders mini pretzels and a jar of nutella. it is amazing the lengths some people will go to to avoid accomplishing anything isnt it?

bake shoppe

you know i have actually been thinking about crafts quite a bit lately. sewing mostly. i have a pile of things to get working on but i never realized before how much i use my iron! i still havent replaced it since it was stolen. yes, someone stole my iron out of my car. can you believe it? i cant and it happened to me. i was borrowing one for a while, but had to give it back. and it seems like every time i get the urge to make something i get stymied by that stupid iron. dang. time to go shopping i guess. while i would love to get a nice iron, at this point my budget is demanding i get the cheapest one possible. we just got back from vacation you know. a sure fire way to put a squeeze on the ol' pocket book. until then i just keep baking and eating, baking and eating.

at our house we always have cinnamon rolls with chili. i have been feeling the fall love lately, and cooked up a big pot for dinner. even though yesterday was 76 and sunny. oh well. we got cinnamon rolls out of the deal. i cant complain too much. i think next up is this on the baking list. sewing coming soon, i promise. and speaking of, have you seen this dress??? holy goodness...makes me want to cuss.

the power of suggestion

alicia about did me in the other day with her coat challenge. i love coats, but have little to show for it. decided to go for it anyway. this green coat was given to me by my friend beth (along with many other green things) last year while i was pregnant. which means i have yet to step out in this great coat. i think this is going to be a good winter. and it just so happens that i found another great coat while i was in portland. she must have been sending me good coat karma.

how cool is this? i love everything about it, the color, the buttons but my favorite part is the collar. i picked up this little number at a place called pin me apparel on n mississippi ave. very cool shop, and very fortuitous for me. this coat keeps whispering in my ear, make me a big fuzzy brown scarf please. very convincing. you know what else is convincing? pictures of pretzels.

i got right on that friday afternoon and ate three with yellow mustard before leaving for a fancy pants dinner. probably not the best decision, but who could resist warm pretzels out of the oven? i couldnt. i also couldnt resist alicia's post involving said pretzels. what does that say about my susceptibility? i am not sure, but if anyone is planning on baking and posting pictures of a chocolate cake anytime soon, please let me know.

following the lines

eliot started pre-k a few weeks ago and it is all about letters at home right now. he has his name down no problem, but that still leaves 21 others to work on. i am making a concerted effort to cut down the amount of time he spends watching tv or videos, although i will freely admit that with three children under five, pretty much the only way that i can make dinner is to put on little einsteins for the ten millionth time at five o'clock.

last year i reduced my schedule at work to 32 hours a week, which let me be home for a full day and let david have a full day out of the house. as his business is picking up momentum, we have switched things up a bit, and now i come home at two everyday except for wednesdays. thus giving david time in the office or time to run a group every day of the week. as it so happens, the girls take naps at two so it gives eliot and me some really good one on one time. most of that time was spent outside over the summer, but now there is a bit of a chill in the air.

we had a great time yesterday tracing out these letters, and it made me realize just how quickly time is passing. five is rapidly approaching and eliot is working out who he wants to be, and i think for david and me that means a whole new phase of parenting is on the horizon as well. scary. last night it was telling the truth. it started off with eliot not telling the truth about having eaten candy at school earlier that day (a whole other issue that i am trying to deal with). later david was making cookies and eliot got into the raw dough and flat out said he didnt even though there was evidence on his face. so we had to have that talk, you remember that talk? you know, the one about how telling the truth about something, even if it something you were not supposed to do is better than lying about it. i know i remember my parents giving me that talk. then we had the one about consequences, his being no warm cookie that evening, and how he already had plenty of sugar that day anyway. oy. that was one sad little boy.

i know this is a little incident, or the tip of the iceberg if you will. but i keep thinking to myself, the beginning is so so important. laying a good foundation now so that in the future there will be openness and honesty. whew. melissa you were right, this stuff of parenting, it tests your mettle. but in a good way. scary, but good.

pdx you are great

ok so the city was great, i guess it is really the people that make it fantastic. thank you so much amy for hosting such a lovely evening, and for not screaming when we came to the door. although the fact that you wanted to scream is very flattering! loved spending time with stephanie and fam, melissa and fam, sally and baby j and cool as heck mariko. and we ate one of amys famous buckles. oh yes. we did. and a huge thank you to melissa and paul for being awesome and letting david and i go to a show sans arlo. and for letting us order food with meat. wink wink. and sam thanks for letting us watch the guys with you. good call.

david, arlo and i are still trying to work our way back into normal life mode. boo. we took tons of pictures, mostly of the beach because we are landlocked midwesterners so the ocean drives us crazy. ok? see the set here. and thanks go as well to toby for watching our house and to my mom for taking care of the other two huffsters. full family vacation soon guys, we promise. well, maybe just mom and dad vacation first...

cuff n' stuff

this arrived over the weekend from the ever talented lisa, and i have to say that i love it. everything about it, the fabric, the buttons, the trim. so good. arlo also loves it, in the "i must slobber all over this" type of love. which when you think about it means she loves everything. eah. i also got some goodies in the package, and i am itching, itching i tell you to use that trim! not sure for what yet, but i have a feeling it is going to end up on something for collette. something good.

and this guy started pre-k today. four days at school! four long days. everyone is happy about that. i have to say though, i am feeling the kindergarten jitters a year in advance thanks to t and s. i was sending good thoughts to both ladies and their little ones this morning. such big steps and so much in store. man. scary. i think eliot will transition much better than i will. he is laid back. really laid back. here is my most recent favorite conversation of his, as told to me by my friend sarah.
s: hey eliot. how's it going?
e: fine
s: what have you been doing?
e: oh you know. just rockin' and rollin'
s: rocking and rolling? what do you mean?
e: you know sarah, rockin' and rollin'. its just what some guys do.
s: oh. yeah. ok.

does it get more laid back? i dont think so.