I am in love with them

I love my boys

They are so exhausting. "You are killing me!"I announce several times a day. But its not humanly possible for me to love them any more than I do. I can't stop kissing them and picking them up and hanging out with them. Which is great beacause...I'm their mom.

Wolfgang is the funniest kid. So enthusiastic. He can barely control his glee most of the time.

And Max is soft and pudgy and cuddly. And he loves his Mama!

And the toilet.....

And the Wump.

A couple of pics

This blog is totally neglected now. Not that it was all that interesting to begin with. But here are a couple of recent shots.

The boys picking a pumpkin
Me and the Maxterpants sitting on the basketball court. He will be walking in the next couple of months!
Wolfgang out watching remote control airplanes with Daddy.

New Blog

Hi.

Well, for those of you who don't know, I have a new blog. I'm not linking the new one to this old one, however, because that one is going to be more of a "public" blog and this on is just friends and family.

Here is the link. Go see it!

http://www.creativedevolution.com/

Brothers!

I love my little brothers. So little and soft and squishy.

Actually they are humongous.

And one of them has this gorgeous handlebar mustache that I KNOW he saved just for me.

(He is 21)

We got to spend more time with Victor, mi mama's new husband!

He totally likes to chill. Fits in pretty well with us, I'd say.

My mom got to be with the Wild Things, which made my heart happy.

Why is it that her skin looks better at 45 (59...shhhh!) than mine does at 37?

The Guggs FINALLY warmed up and played with my little tiny squishy brothers.

Adam (rocking the mustache) and Alex, learnin' The Wolf some physics.

Alex bedazzled us with tales of skateboarding arrests and getting robbed at gunpoint for his pizza.

Adam makes my nice roomy dining area look like a hobbit pantry.

Aw, he shaved it. Still pretty cute though, right?

Thanks for hanging with us all day!

Family

Its been a busy family weekend. I'll post some interesting (to me) pictures soon.

For now~

Its me and the Maxterpants.

A couple of shots...

Here are a couple of Parade shots that we posted on the Me And My House Facebook sight.

(you should go look)

For those of you just tuning in....this is where I work.

And this is the Parade of Homes house that we furnished.

I wish I could count the number of texts that flew back and forth between Cathy and I during the design process. But Cathy has a fantastic eye so it all came together.

Look at this killer king bed. Don't you just want to do a face-plant on those pillows?

(Master Bedroom)

And this new art we got is so cool I can hardly stand it. There are so many paintings to see and they are just so....cool. My artistic talent is jealous. You should come see them.

This is the boy's room btw.

Cathy handed me fabric swatches and I designed all the bedding. This set is a perfect example of Designs Gone Wrong. Some things didn't work. Some things were too fluffy. Some things were too short. Ah well. Its still super cute. We made it work. You just never know.

And this piece? Arg! My feelings for it are extreme! I think about it when we're not together! I wonder if it notices me when we're in the same room! I dream about it at night!

But in the morning reality hits me like a cold piece of toilet paper and I realize that this piece is simply out of my league. It would never lower itself to spend time in my apartment (although my apartment just got a massive jolt of Fabulous. More on that later)

This is another example of behind the scenes last-minute thinking.

It used to have feet. But alas it did not fit in its intended spot and so the feet were sawed...?...sawn...?...off. Unfortunately, it still didn't fit, but it actually looks really great even without the legs. So Cathy flipped it with a living room piece and suddenly the whole house made more sense than it ever had before.

Great thinking, Cathy. Great thinking.

Bad Photos

First of all, I'd like to apologize for rarely using my good camera to take photos. Why post any at all if they are going to be this bad, you ask?

My phone is just so....handy. As in, its practically glued to my hand. Just ask Randy.

"Who are you texting now!?" he cries at 8 in the morning.

Anyway, I was at work last night, which was great because I needed to burn off some of the calories I got from this dish.

Its the Adana Kabob!

Who knows what that is, but its Turkish and its incredible and its made at the Turquoise Grill in San Antonio. Like many many great ethnic San Antonian restaurants, don't let the outside fool you into thinking its a new disease waiting to happen. So so so so so good!

Anyway, back to work.

We got a bunch of new accessories in, but I can't even consider hanging things until all the furniture is in its place. So little time, so much wayward furniture.

This little Shabby Chic loveseat is actually a twin foldout.

It was placed in this grouping, which it really does look great with.

Unfortunately, the section has turned into Sofa-land with nary a walkway.

So I had to move it.

To the opposite side of the store.

And somehow make it work.

Even though it went with nothing.

Why?

Because there was room.

And I'm kind of liking it. The black. The white. The feminine. The masculine.

I went home happy (at 11, even though this is the ONLY thing I got done)

This scene was the inspiration for the black and white pallet.

Such elegance!

In other news my mother-in-law schlepped this baby home from the Good Will. Dave was like, I don't know Hon. Its.....really.....ugly.

But after a few days of labor (on Dave's part! Haha! Teach you to criticize Sue's Good Will trash!)

it turned out looking like this.

Actually Sue painted it and removed some scary pieces and made the cushion.

So pretty.

Dave did some structural engineering on the underside.

So practical.

Tuesdays and...other days.

Randy drives into Houston to teach on Tuesdays, so its just me and the monsters.

Really, its not bad. I just treat the entire day like a continual state of emergency. Do I want help? Yes. Would I like Cathy to bring me chicken salad and macaroni and cheese? I think that would be best . Does Grammy need to take us out for ice cream? Probably.

So today was great. Wyatt came over and hung out.

The boys get increasingly wound up until the volume level is so intense that Max starts making a noise that sounds almost exactly like a test for the emergency broadcast system. I'm sure he just wants to fit in but I'm like, Max, if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump off a cliff too?

Didn't think so!

Snacks and Dora calm the hoards for a while.

Peace on earth.

Cathy brought us the chicken salad, which is awesome because Wolfgang has a thing for it. We had it one day and the next morning when I opened his bedroom door, the first thing he said was, "Mommy! Chitin Lalad!" (still can't say those S's)

A mommy would have to be made of stone to not get a kick out of that. And of course the Wolf loved that even more. He repeated that phrase for months, just to see me crack up.

Only it got weirder and louder.

MOMMY CHI-TIN LAAAALAAAAD!!!!

And it accompanied this face.

Its been WAY over a hundred degrees here. I'm sure you're tired of hearing me whine but I'm tired of breaking a massive sweat every time I sneeze.

Our AC doesn't cut it.

Notice the time.

Notice the thermostat setting.

Notice the big fat actual temperature.

The last 2 hours of the boys' day is the hardest. It is so hot. But the boys are good....sports.

Why does that not sound right?

We do a lot of lounging.....

....or more accurately, we do a lot of housework avoidance.

It looks like we've robbed the place and then stuck around to play some video games.

I blacked out Randy because he doesn't want his picture on the internet. Use your imaginations.

I give the boys cool baths right before bed. Max is being a grump and refusing all my attempts at encouragement.

He was so not buying it.

As of tomorrow night the Parade of Homes house will be done. Thursday is the judging and then 47 million people will filter through the neighborhood checking things out.

47 million=a few thousand. Not bad, right?

I do a lot of precipitous teetering in my job.

That also sounds weird but I know I've read it in a book........precipitous.......should I Google it?

Na.

Here I am displaying built-ins above a bed.

We took a break after Caleb, Cathy's middle son, dropped some stuff off for us. He was beyond enthused.

Here is a soon-to-be-fabulous heap. I'll save final shots for later. After we've wowed the world with our handy-work.

This is my life

There are 2 sides to my coin.

You'll be seeing more of this in weeks to come as I slave with Cathy at the Parade of Homes in San Antonio.

My superhero alter-ego moves beds and armoires and sofas. I scoot 'em all together and hang things around 'em and make it all look pretty.

I squished this section together the other night. I pulled from the 4 opposite corners of the store.

I'd designed these linens and had big grand plans for a huge section. A light and dark "look" both based on the same color scheme. Aqua and brown and orange and FUN!

But things are too crazy to complete a fabulous thought.

So one night I went in and said to myself, "oooh! That Ginormous armoire way over there would look fabulous way over here! And the iron beds definitely need to change clothes and sit in the window! And bla bla bla bla."

I run and run until I hit the big brick wall of floor display.

Then I come home at 11:30 dragging my feet with both of my eyes glazed over.

My other life looks more like this.

Or rather, this.

A little of this....

And a lot of that.

I love this AND that!

I wish I could blog

MORE!

I'm really missing it. You have no idea how many ideas I'm dying to splatter all over the internet universe. But, alas, there is no room in my life for such things.

>:)

For now.....

I'm occupied with this one. Suddenly he is all over the place in ways that Wolfgang never was.

But the good news is, he's a happy boy now. We are over our Cry-Every-Waking-Moment-&-Watch-Mommy-Pull-Her-Hair-Out phase.

Behold my dumpling!

He *loves* the Pig-Dog-Bear.

We're also getting a lot of this.

But as soon as I can find the hanging lamp of my dreams, that table is gone. Its a Wolf-head magnate.

We've had visitors.

Kayla and Emily came and entertained us while they were here.

I love those girls.

Cathy and Wyatt spend a lot of time with us which I love. Its good for the Gooster.

Here, they dabble in brushwork.

And then run around in their dresses.

Wolfgang is learning to share things. When he doesn't get one thing (say, his car) then he immediately demands something else. Here he is saying, "Juice!" in his most pathetic voice. Notice the forlorn eyes.

Another Max habit is sleeping with his blankie in his mouth. It doesn't matter how many times I pull it out, it goes right back in. And if I take it away, some other piece of cloth gets shoved in there. Clothing, diapers, etc.

But when Max is sleeping, its Mama and the Wolf.

Behold my little weirdo.