Who's This? Alicia? Where's She Been Hiding?

OH MY!

Life is finally STARTING to adjust back to a semi-state of 'normal'.

The project we've been working on (the play room and hallway) are both very close to being done, I'm finally able to start cleaning up the mess, the front yard is about 75% done and Jude's BIRTHDAY is this week!

We have a series of events planned for the week. Tomorrow we're getting Jude's 1st Birthday pictures! Wednesday (his actual b-day) we will be having his 12 month doctor's visit and then depending on the weather maybe going to a garden to walk around. Thursday we will be buying the party food. Friday finishing stuff around the house and decorating/preparing... and SATURDAY! Jude's 1st Birthday Party! Yea!

Of course, all of this means that after a couple days of doing nothing but cuddling with Jude at the beginning of next week, I will have a TON of updating to do!

While I'm super excited about this week's events, I can't wait to fall back into our routine, get out to some more parks and just have our house back in order.

I've Gone Missing

Sorry blog world. I've gone missing.

With this great weather we've had, I've been taking advantage and getting out of the house!

Come to find out, Jude LOVES playing outside! So, by letting him roam the yard eating dirt and much more I'm able to tackle some of my projects.

But have no fear... I will soon have some posts! We're getting a lot done around the house and I can't wait to share!

A blog with a porpoise

When I was younger, I used to think those Highlights magazines said "Fun with a porpoise". For the longest time, I just couldn't figure out what a dolphin had to do with the magazine.

... and then I learned to read... well.

In an effort to give this blog a bit of a purpose beyond talking about my day to day life, I'm going to post weekly one way that we strive to be "Green" or one way that we are "economical" in our home. Some of these things may have already been addressed in previous posts, some of these things might be pretty obvious, but I'm going to cover them.

If it's a specific item that we personally love in our home, I (from time to time) will have a blog giveaway for that item. I'll create a fun game or something that encourages my readers to get involved and will give away said item to the winner.

Also, I will add any of these items to my Amazon tool bar to the right for easy/convenient shopping.

I hope to put up my green/economical posts on Mondays... So, this Monday, look for my new post (and maybe a give away!).

Another Feature

To the right I added a new feature. It's a link from Amazon to any products we use regularly. If there's anything you see that we use and you're interested in it, feel free to check out the links and purchase it through Amazon.

There might be a little incentive for me if you do :)

In the near future I hope to have a little blog give away... and it might be one of the products I feature there :)

More Updates...

So, since I get bored with the same old layout ALL THE TIME, I've made some more updates.


Changes:
All search functions are now located BELOW my posts.
Only one post per page.
I've added some non-blogger blogs that I read regularly to the right
I'm working on a slide show...

I'm back - again...

Unfortunately, Ryan and I have been with out a computer for about a week now. Any internet access we had came via my iphone... so all I could really do were some random facebook stats, e-mail and scan some of my favorite blogs.

But, with a little ebay shopping, we found a new computer charger for ten bucks (retail at apple was 80-90!!!) and it finally arrived today!

Starting tonight, I hope to fill you all in on what's been happening in my life, some Jude's firsts... and more.

Computer Trouble

So, just when I was ready to get back into the swing of things with my blog, I hit some computer problems :(

I got this computer probably around the beginning of my senior year in college. At first, it didn't seem like that long ago... but when you consider I graduated 3.5 years ago, that means this computer is at least 4 years old... which is a dinosaur in technology terms.

Basically the computer functions well... it's a bit slow, a bit out dated, but functions. The real problem is the battery - which is dead. If you charge the battery, it lasts for a whole 15 minutes at best. Then there's the power cord - which is also on it's last leg. The cord is starting to fray and so the connection is touch and go. The other day I thought I had lost it for good, but then it started charging again out of no where.

Now, it would be smart for us to just find another power cord and keep this computer going for as long as possible, but we both agree that it's about time to just get a new one and move on. By holding onto a computer that's almost dead, you risk not backing up your information quick enough and loosing everything (I've already backed up all of our pictures on an external hard drive). So, when tax times rolls around, I'm guessing that a small portion of our return will go towards a new computer...

In the mean time, we'll be limping along with what we've got and so I'm sure my internet time will be very on and off.

I'm BACK!... ?

So I TOTALLY feel like I've been absent from the blogging world... or at least spending very little time there. I'll say that Jude moving around has opened a whole new exciting world for me. I love just following him around, redirecting his crawl and just watching him be so totally adorable.

But the truth of it is that his moving around is NOT why I've been absent. Quite frankly, he seems to enjoy his crawling more when I'm not hovering over him. He plays with Buddy (well, his collar), inspects his toys, tries to find any cord he can and chases after anything that looks like I might snatch it away from him immediately (remotes, shoes, purse, crafty stuff, etc).

Really though, the reason I've been sans internet is because I've been reading. Yes. It's so lame. I feel like a total dork, but I honestly have not been able to put the books down (twilight series for those who don't know). I bought the first three last Friday and started them Friday or Saturday and I had to go back for the fourth because I was reading them so quickly that I didn't want to finish the first three without the fourth close by. LAME! I KNOW! WHAT HAPPENED TO ME??

So, this morning I finished "Eclipse" which is #3 in the series and have "Breaking Dawn" in the living room waiting for me.

I have dishes piled up in the kitchen, clothes to put away and a small get together to prepare for this afternoon and all I keep thinking is how much more convenient it would be if I could just finish reading the book first!

But I tore myself away... and I'm going to do the dishes. I'm going to throw a load of wash in... and I'm going to run to the grocery store.

My trip to the grocery store will be my first time out of the house (aside from work) since Tuesday... I would say I was only staying indoors for Jude's sake (he has a small cold)... but we all know the truth...

But here's my vow that I will be back... so... stay tuned.

500!!!!

6/13/07 - The Date I started my blog

Here we are almost 2 and a half years, 500 posts, about 10,000 pictures and 1 big happy family later.

A Small (not nearly all inclusive) Recap of the last 2.5 years: