Tinkerdad

O is kind of hard on her toys. Well, let's just say, she plays with them quite vigorously. LT has fixed so many things; the cars, hinges on doors, chairs, appliances, toys. O really isn't all that bothered when things break anymore. She just says, "Dad will fix it." She also thinks it's pretty cool that dad is a tinker, just like Tinkerbell.

What is the coolest thing about having a dad that is a tinker?

He can fix Tinkerbells shoe

I also think it is very cool to have a husband that is a tinker. I can't tell you how many hundreds or thousands of dollars we have saved over the years simply because he can do a lot of things on his own. Install a garage door opener?? No big deal. Assemble a shed, replace spark plugs and distributor on a car, install a bedroom fan, add crown moulding, set up a grey water system, rewire a portion of a house, secure our network and set up a server on a virtual machine? (Just to name a few) Got it covered.

On another note,

it turns out our caterpillar is currently unavailable.

It's chrysalis - ing.

(I'm just glad it's not dead. That would have been tragic.)

A lotta Pinata

I just love parties and I love parties with pinatas. This is the first party I recall O attending with a pinata. W celebrated her 6th birthday in style.

Here's the girl giving me some sass.

It looks like she's showing off the lip gloss in her pocket.

There we go, a nice big, melt your heart

and make me want to give her anything smile.

"The Balloon Lady" was there to create almost every request put forth. A crown, an octopus, a fishing rod with a fish, a person, a cobra, to name a few.

O wanted a bunny.

"Take a whack at Weezer"

What movie?

On our way home I saw this massive neon green thing crawling on the road. So, of course, I had to pull over and show O. And, of course, she wanted to bring it home. So, we did. I hope it survives the love and attention O shows it. (Actually, I checked it a few minutes ago and either it is preparing to make it's chrysalis or it's dead. I sure hope, for O's sake, it's only sleeping.)

The last time we drove on the very same road, we encountered a turtle crossing the road. We pulled over to see it. Fortunately, the "taking it home" conversation didn't come up. I think LT would start to worry about letting me out of the house for fear of us bringing home another "pet". In fact, tonight, before he came home, O told him we had a surprise for him. We had a pet. He hesitated before he offered an unenthusiastic answer. However, once he found out it was a caterpillar, he was totally cool with it.

And for something completely unrelated, here are some funny stories about O.

I think she doesn't quite understand what "question" means. Today, she interrupted someone and urgently said. "Hey, hey, I have a question". "Yes" my friend replied. "I had some chicks and I had to give them away". Silence.... "Oh".

I know I've mentioned before that O is planning her birthday party. She has quite a long list of people she wants to invite and she's wasting no time issuing her invitations. At preschool on Tuesday she invited everyone to her birthday party. She told them there is going to be a pool and they needed to be careful where they stepped because our house is a mess.

Now, to explain her messy house comment. You can see the evidence of our messy house. When I see what she's done, I say things like, "Oh my gosh, this is such a mess, we need to clean it up." and "This is so messy". I'm trying to make her aware of her environment and teach her to put things away. Perhaps I need to change my wording.

Just a few things that make me smile

Our tiger lilies are blooming. I'm so happy to have something beautiful in our front yard. O is dying to pick one and bring it inside. I think before long, we will make a pretty bouquet and give them to a friend. I just love fresh flowers.

The other week, I went to one of the best girls nights I've been to in a long time. The friend who hosted it had recently moved to MD from living in Spain. She fed us traditional spanish cuisine and decorated her home in the national colors of Spain. We were given a quiz about Spain and thanks to the Murphy in me, I won this gorgeous picture. My friend, just "painted it the night before". Wow, I love the colors and the shapes and the shadows. Art doesn't usually catch my eye, but when she showed us the prizes up for grabs, this is the one that called out to me. Doesn't it just make you smile too?

Gift cards make me smile.

I bought a new camera. It's refurbished. Although most refurbished things are just fine, I felt some reservation with purchasing this camera. Then again, I was nervous buying my bose sounddock for the same reason and so far, nothing is off with that. You just can't beat the price of a refurbished product though.

Speaking of my sound dock. I love the remote. It makes me smile to skip songs and blast the volume on my favorite ones, all without moving from my desk. I know, it's a remote, right? So simple. I just love it.

The thought of a mute button on my "remote" for O. I know that will never happen, but the thought of it makes me smile.

The cassette adapter for my ipod in the car. It's a whole new world. For years I've been using an FM transmitter and the sound is very poor quality. Wow, I feel like I'm living in a new century. I'm getting closer and closer to my music nirvana.

O in the swimming pool. She has a crush on her teacher. I like it when she acts shy in her extroverted fashion.

LT has been home and available a lot more in the evenings. It's been nice having him around.

Summer is officially here!!

Our pool opened this past weekend. I know Michael Jordan would say it isn't officially summer until you cook the ball park hot dogs, but I don't really care that he is a super star and the greatest basketball player of all time. I've decided, it's officially here, because our pool is open.

I'm so glad we've had O in swimming lessons because she was more than ready to explore the water this go around. Last year, she couldn't wait to get in the water and use her goggles. As soon as she put her head underwater to look around, she inhaled an entire gallon of water. Not such a good experience for the little gal, so our pool days were over.

Well, this year, with the aid of swimming lessons, she is far more confident in the water and I am a lot less nervous. I'm excited to have a comfortable way to wear her out during the hot summer days. This kid needs all of the running/swimming around she can get.

Daddy and daughter enjoying the pool. Just look at those grins.

These days, when I ask O to smile, she does this.

You can kind of see a smile curling around her lips.

Finally, a smile.

Showing us she can do it on her own!! What a big girl.

The dangers of working

This is what happens when I try to get some work done or study and let O entertain herself for a while.

Yep, there is a price and this is the price I pay.

And for a closer look

This is her playroom. She likes to dump things out and move furniture around.

(The ladder is in there because we were moving storage bins above her closet. It's not a usual fixture in her playroom. No need to call CPS or anything.)

Time to say goodbye

In a few short weeks, they went from this

to this.

(You can see some of their adult feathers.)

And then we said goodbye.

I would say that time flew by, but that sounds a little too much like a bad pun. However, the truth is, it did go by very quickly. We were sad to see them go, but it was time for them to move on to "greener pastures". O knew from the beginning that we would only have them for a little while because when they got bigger, they would have to move in with someone who could let them play outside. She was really cool about the whole thing. When we were saying goodbye, O told C, "They're a little nervous about their new home". The following morning she came in my room to snuggle and the first comment out of her mouth was about the chicks. One thing she asked was, "Do you think they miss us"?

LT and I both enjoyed watching her with a "pet". One day, we may break down and get her a dog, an OUTSIDE dog. However, that is still YEARS way.

10 years!! Already?

So, LT and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year. I feel like we've been together forever. In fact, I have no recollection of our first 3 anniversaries. Neither of us do. But, this is how we celebrated our other anniversaries.

4th - LT had the stomach flu, we cancelled our dinner date.

5th - LT was on a carrier near S. America. I was getting Scuba Certified in Thailand.

6th - LT had been tasked to organize a retirement party for work. It took ALL of his free time for weeks. He had a mandatory dinner with his co-workers the night of our anniversary, so he wasn't around. I was pretty put out. He was nice enough to bring something home for me. He was at a mexican restaurant and he asked the waiter for something really good. What he brought home looked like a deep fried heart. I kid you not, it was the shape of a heart and it was covered with batter. I still refer to it as the "anniversary autopsy". I carefully cut into the outer covering and removed the batter. It ended up being a deep fried, stuffed green pepper. At the time, I didn't eat green peppers, so it was kind of a dud.

7th - LT was on a submarine. I went to Sea World with O.

8th - LT was in Djibouti. I went to Nassau, Bahamas.

9th - We had just moved to MD and had only been reunited for 3 months. We were still getting used to each other again and neither of us recall if we went on a date.

10th - WE SPENT IT TOGETHER!!!! It was one of the first anniversaries we've really celebrated in a long time. A great friend offered to take O overnight and we spent the day in DC.

I reserved a little bed and breakfast on www.hostelworld.com. I still laugh when I think about it.

We explored some of the touristy sights.

Walked A LOT.

Ate at a dive of a restaurant, and the food was exceptional.

Got a parking ticket. (It was issued at 6:33. I still don't think we should have paid it).

Watched two episodes of Bones, our favorite show, and were out by 10:30. (Our bed was what I call a taco bed. It kind of folded up around us and rolled us into the middle.)

O had the time of her life at her sleep over. Thanks again M for your generous gift to us.

I know this would be a good place to put all sorts of mushy, lovey comments about LT, but I'm just not a cheesy kind of girl. What I will say is that we are perfectly matched and I feel like one lucky woman. I love my man and I love how he loves me. He knows me better than I know myself at times. I had no idea marriage could be so good. I had no idea a relationship could be so good, and I look forward to the next 10 or bazillion years together.