The people living in your catalog

Hi Nancy, it’s Elaine. I’m going to be a little late for lunch. I can’t find my hat or my back-up hat.

Go here catalogliving.tumblr.com

Lizzing and shake giggling. 'Nough said.

I can't believe we got him in his costume...

There was some question if Davis, Josie, and I could get Eric to take the "bull by the horns" and wear his cow head. But apparently I underestimated him. He did wear a storm trooper costume and a sweatshirt with "Big Enchilada" on it (not at the same time, stay with me). What a sport. Josie was the one who wasn't that excited (she's the limp cow on the end).

(what happens when cowboys name their cows)

Life's Short at 6 Months

We're not keeping her under the stairs or anything, but we are neglecting the rest of the family that hasn't seen a recent picture of Josephine-jellybean.

First girly dressFavorite brother And sworn enemy But mostly favorite brother

Reason I call her Bluey-Louy
First picture of the 4 of us (finally)
Just before 1st haircut (action shot not provided for safety reasons)
Proud daughter of a dentist-man (congrats sweets!)
She pretty much rocks our world.

Introducing...

Josephine Simone

Our little "turkey" came early. Josephine was born Wednesday, November 26th. Jenny's water broke that afternoon. Jenny tried for a VBAC, but again a C-section was neccessary. 7lbs-3oz and 19 inches long born at 10:12pm. Mama and Baby are doing fine. Admittedly, we were not expecting her for a few more weeks and things around the house are not quite ready. Here are a few pics of our Thanksgiving surprise!!!

Scary

We figured Davis already gains super-human strength and turns green when he's mad, so why not dress him as The Hulk? That and our friends the Harmons had a costume they let us borrow. But that was last weekend's church party - tonight he was actually a frog. Any other year it would have been great for trick or treating except it was in the 70's and he just wanted to run… in his fuzzy costume with a hood. And when Davis is hot, he's a lot like The Hulk. Only he doesn't help people or throw around bad guys. He just gets mad. So, we ended up with an unreasonable frog, no "treats", and a very early night with our unattended bowl of candy ravaged by neighborhood kids. We even got "tricked", but it's not worth typing about.

Hi?

So, I decided to make it a good 4 months since the last post. Just to see how many family members would harass us. I had to be strong. But it was great to look at everyone else's blog in the meanwhile, and wonder when something would happen in our lives... It's been so long, I now hate Oatmeal Squares.

Eric turned 3 in dentalstudent years and 28 in regular people years on April 24th and had the sorriest birthday week ever. I shame the birthday week tradition. He had finals and I had no excuse. I did give him a uber-cool U2 book that he was quite surprised by and quoted Bono in one of his lessons at church. But that was just one of the days and there are supposed to be 7 days of celebration. Oh, yeah we went to dinner on his birthday, too.

I went to church girl's camp as nurse in June and got to be a teenager again - though I don't condone teen pregnancy. The Marjeanator got to come watch Davis while I was gone and got to be a tired mother of a toddler again.

We all went to the Texas coast to be with my parents. Davis went nuts for the beach. As in chasing waves without caution and sticking bananas in the sand. You gotta be nuts to still want to eat a sandy banana. Many beautiful moon lit walks and sandy diapers and we were all spent at the end of each day.

Davis has been kissing again. Actually, he just takes the sides of my head and mashes his face against mine. It kind of hurts and sometimes it gets a little intense (headbutting, grabbing my neck and sticking thumbs into the carotid arteries...). But it's sweet pain. We don't know where he gets his passion - Eric and I must be keeping the romance alive...

Before Breakfast

Jenny - (Greco-Roman diaper changing Davis) I think I found a solution to our mail problem.
Eric - (popping head out of pantry) What? I didn't hear you.
Jenny - (speaking louder since Davis is yelling) I think I found a solution to our mail problem.
Eric - What male problem? (re-entering pantry)
Jenny - (not seeing Eric re-enter pantry, pointing toward piled mail) OUR mail problem.
Eric - (from inside pantry) I wasn't aware we had a male problem. Are we talking about me or Davis?

This was before breakfast so I guess the 8 hours of fasting was keeping us from the almost telepathic communication Eric and I usually have. But if you're wondering what my new favorite cereal is, it's Oatmeal Squares. And, yes, it is sold at Costco. It stays crunchy for a long time and it'll keep your colon rollin'. I could probably eat cold cereal 3 meals a day, and that's no exaggeration. But I don't want to create "male" problems in our house, so I make meals with some of the other foods groups. I usually get the hint from Eric when we go to a friend's house for dinner and he says, "we should have that more often."

Leave the diaper, take the Connoli

We spent last week in St. Louis for Eric's dental school rotation in a clinic. In spite of the rain coming down and the floods coming up, we found a lot to do with Davis - an indoor mall (don't get me started on outdoor malls in intemperate regions) with a play ground, Chuck E. Cheese's, and the awesome Magic House. The Fitz's decided to fly in from Las Vegas and the Detroit Livingston's minivan-ed it at the end of the week. Davis actually loved being around the cousins which is a total 180 from Thanksgiving, but he would still give them a little love push in the head every once in a while. It snowed on Easter, but stopped long enough to have an egg hunt in the front yard. Davis didn't care about the eggs or candy - he just kept running back and forth like a liberated cage monkey. We loved having the whole schlemiel together since we know it won't be easy, but wonderful, with twin-mania on the way!

I had to join the witness protection program after taking a picture of an unruly Miami mob boss, but it was totally worth it. This studly suit made him climbing over/under pews at church completely acceptable (except with his mother).

Our little Tiger and Rat are getting older

This week our niece Kaytlin and nephew Trenten turned 10 & 12 and life is moving too fast. I just hope they don't rush into adolescence and forget who's the boss of them. They are way to precious to miss out on any kidhood - car payments and taxes stink! But they get to go to Disneyland next week and I don't think they'll be doing any growing up on Mickey's watch...

I feel like it's a holiday today 'cause I found out Amtrak goes to Chicago in style (wink, wink Jeannette). Here are some other things I've been excited about (watch out, I'm going to start sounding like an infomercial).

Neti pots - a less attractive thing you can do right in the comfort of your own bathroom... I call it going #3. It's like a nice drowning sensation, but makes you feel like you have extra room in your head to grow brain matter. My sinuses actually thanked me for using it. It was supposedly on Oprah, so it has to be galactically awesome.

Costco.com.tradein/recycleyourjunkthatyouletyourtoddlerplaywithcausetheywanttoplaywiththeexpensivestuff - if you're a member of Costco (or know one), you can figure out if you qualify to trade in old electronics for Costco-bucks (like a Schrute-buck, but GREEN) or just recycle it for free. Stumbled on it while looking for more electronic junk to collect.

Unbreaded chicken nuggets - this one also brought to us by Costco. Davis is a fan, which means I am as well - even if it does look like the creepy skin on a vulture's head.

New outdoor lighting - we have the same lights that the builder installed and, no offense, but I'm sure they weren't pretty when the were new 17 years ago either. We get to do some home improvement over Spring Break, which is what those college kids going to Florida really had in mind. Maybe we'll even be able to barbecue... something CRAZY!

Spending a week out of this beautiful mess - we are all going to St. Louis next week for Eric's rural rotation and get to see Eric's parents, Amy & Ryan, Kevin & Emma & kids, and four walls other than our own. If only it were in a warmer part of the world... I don't think we'd come back.(okay it's not that bad, but give us some hope, local weatherman)

At Costco

Shopping for Eric's glasses:

Eric - (trying on rectangular glasses) What do ya think?

Jenny - Not bad.

Eric - (putting on some ovaly frames) What about these?

Jenny - Not quite right for your face.

Eric - (trying on a ovaly-rectangular pair) How do they all compare?

Jenny - (looking over, trying on glasses as well) Umm... those seem narrower, like they're not wide enough for your head. Are you trying glasses from the kid section?

Eric - (looking confused at me through ovaly-rectangular glasses) These are my glasses - that I've had for the last 4 years...

To be fair, I didn't have my glasses on.

And now it's a miracle. I can wear contacts again. I've always thought that I just had dry eyes and I had to endure discomfort or use glasses. The eye-guy told me that the contacts were over-rotating all this time, whatever that means. But boom! goes the dynamite and I can see without having a blink fest every time. It was very necessary since Davis bent my frames to the point they fall off in my spaghetti when I look down.