lottie sue is mobile AND proficient in microsoft word, how to tell someone they smell & more

hi everybody!

I forgot to blog about this earlier, Lottie Sue is crawling. This is BIG news for us at the Mowrer household. She started a few weeks ago, but she is so fast it's like she's been doing it for a long time. We knew she'd have to crawl at some point, better late than never. I thought I needed to mention it since this blog is her baby book. One day when she brings home a date I'll bring him over to the computer instead of pulling out the photo album. Oh my, how the times are a changing.

proof

But Lottie Sue is not only mobile, she computer savvy. The other day I let her type in Word, this is what she typed:

/].

\\)OnmjI*vi88i&
(M9ik –gBBB
*GKHK* +=./o/M+Pmo7p bbdf sjgdoh b0 [-
Fgf-p[

‘mh9o]jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj9] ===========\.

Isn't that the cutest typing you've ever seen??? Somehow she created a hyperlink but my favorite part is that she ended it with a period.

Here are a few other photos we took today, she is really into the ball popper, regular balls and anything Elmo.

lottie sue crawling up my leg

the elmo/duck sings and dances and she LOVES him
cute side note: lottie brought all of the elmos over (including one cardinal toy but he's red so i'll let it slide) so they could all play together

lottie sue is my name, poppin balls is the game

Ooh, look at me - I'm a super hero! I know this doesn't look much like me but it's as close as I could get it. Marvel has an application and you can make your own here...

don't worry, i will save you

Does the person in the next cube cube smell? If so, nicecritic.com allows you to anonymously pass along helpful advice to people.

Other messages you can send include:

• "Your computer volume is uncharacteristically loud today."
• "Please consider trimming some ear hair."
• "You don't release your hug in a timely manner."
• "Your skirt may be tucked into your pantyhose."
• "You seem to have over-applied your make-up today."

Some of the emails are a little out of line. I, of course, would never use this but thought it was funny.

Ponder this, do you think honey is off limits for vegans? I'm not sure I care that much but if you do you can read about the fierce debate going on over it here.

the honey debate

Anywho. Other items of interest for your enjoyment:

• I want to hire this guy. Our poor little garden didn't really attain the greatness we were hoping. So far we have one green pepper that's actually pretty big then then lots of beefeater tomatoes that are the size of grape tomatoes. We do not have green thumbs and our bounty is a sad reminder of that.
  
• Nicely Construction made the news AGAIN. Seriously, they should open up a PR department as well...
• Food Apartheid: The war on fat has just crossed a major red line. The Los Angeles City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting construction of new fast-food restaurants in a 32-square-mile area inhabited by 500,000 low-income people. I see why, but can they really do that?
  
• Want a daily writeup of what the newspapers have on their front pages each day? Well, here you go.
  
• NASA confirmed that water once existed on Mars. Trippy.
  

And now I leave with three random photos from our photo library...

two very cute things, a baby and a kitten

this was taken as shon's wedding shower a few
years ago, what a beautiful bride

this was taken in boston a few years ago, kenley and carrie
were about to chow DOWN on some bouillabaisse

Everyone have a great weekend! We are erecting Lottie Sue's clubhouse/swing set this weekend. Wish us luck.

lottie sue on the boat with quite the belly

I tried to upload the Mississippi Squirrel Revival video but it timed out, I think it's too big so I need to fix that somehow. But in the meantime I give you Lottie Sue on a boat with a huge belly (also eating, a-hem). She will kill me for this when she's a teenager. Oh well.

talk about a buddha belly, dang girl

Happy hump day everyone! Don't forget to watch ShooBeDooBeDooDANCE* and Project Runway tonight. Whee!

*At the very end of the intro for So You think You Can Dance someone says (in a very low voice) "so you think you can dance" and for three years I thought the voice said "shoobedoobedooDANCE." Laugh all you will but last week I found out that Matt's mom thought the same thing! I am not alone.

little rock rocks: major crafting, yahtzee & a mississippi squirrel revival

I mentioned that we traveled to Little Rock last week, and I have photos for you to view. Matt's Aunt Jan (husband Jim along with son Jeff and his wife Mandy) live in Little Rock and this year Grandma and Grandpa (Robinson) sold their home in Springfield (Missouri) and moved to Arkansas. So we packed up our car (including Lottie Sue and Sydney) and met Matt's parents for a big drive West.

We spent our time visiting, eating, crafting and playing games - it was great. If you don't believe me take a look at the photos!

hubba hubba

Matt's mom volunteers at a local nursing home and she is starting a Red Hat Society there for the little ladies. You wouldn't dare be caught at the luncheons without fabulous red and purple hats, it's required. We spent a lot of time decorating hats and making pins, it was like our own Project Runway! We then we spent a lot of time wearing them for photos. You'll see below.

an inspired sydney

Dad did a little yard work and "found" Jan and Jim's water line. Bad thing is he found it with a pickaxe. Oops. When Dad sat down to dinner he had his very own place card.

not sure if you can tell but the place card is set inside the broken pipe dad butchered, we laughed for a long time over this one

Mom and Dad brought these pears all the way to Little Rock, they grew them on one of their trees and were very proud. Don't they look huge?

objects in photo may appear larger than they are

ha, we tricked you with props - they are tiny pears, but still special

lottie sue reads a book while we decorate hats

here we have (from left to right) sydney,
lottie sue, jan, grandma and mom

doesn't dad look adorable here???

and lottie sue looks adorable as well

here i am with sydney, we donned some of our creations

grandma and a super relaxed lottie sue play together on the couch

lottie sue gave grandma lots of kisses

lottie sue could not get enough of jan's koi pond,
she would point and say "oooh"

matt and grandma in the kitchen

dad and lottie sue play ball

grandma and mom here

sydney and my hubby (fyi - matt is officially a four-eyes now)

mandy and lottie sue play games before dinner one night

We of course had a family photo session, I can't tell you how hot it was out there. I was melting.

grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, lottie sue, matt and moi

same players here but sydney is in the center

jim, jan, jeff, mandy and lottie sue

the cousin shot (jeff is crouching down here,
he's actually 10 feet tall)

And here we have the "red hat" section, it was after dinner and us girls became a bit excited about modeling.

this is my favorite hat i made, i think it looks GOOD

here we are waiting for our closeup

we make these hats look GOOD

mandy and jan vamp it up

here we are wearing the headband/veil thingies
(we made these in case they ran out of hats at the luncheons)

Afterwards Mandy performed her interpretation of the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" (any Ray Stevens fans here?) song for us. Mandy works as an interpreter for deaf and blind persons, and she performed the song in sign language. She first did it last Christmas and brought the house down, if you know the words you can see why it's a hoot.

mandy signs away

Here is the first verse of the song so you have an idea...

Well when I was kid I'd take a trip every summer,
down to Mississippi.
To visit my granny in her ante bellum world.
I'd run barefooted all day long,
climbing trees free as a song.
One day I happened catch myself a squirrel.
I stuffed him down in an old shoebox,
punched a couple holes in the top and when Sunday came,
I snuck him into church.
I was sittin way back in the very last pew
showin him to my good buddy Hugh,
when that squirrel got loose and went totally berserk!

You get the idea, it was really cute and we actually video taped her performance. Maybe I'll post it up here if I can edit the videos we have. I'm sure Mandy won't mind...

jan cues the song while looking like the cutie pie she is

here is matt with a big smile

grandpa and grandma enjoy the show

So there you have our trip in a nutshell, a great time was had by all and I am now obsessed with Yahtzee. The Robinson family loves to play games so I was in heaven, we played every night and also during crafting breaks. I must note how delicious the food was and let me also say that Jan and Jim were wonderful hosts to us. Next time I go I may not leave.

ding ding: it's a boy for the mcnicholas family & 7.4.08 photos

Just a quick non-Lottie Sue post here (my apologies to Em!)...but please know that I have a pretty big post coming up, we went to Little Rock last week and I have a ton of photos of the Robinson family (that would be Matt's family on his mom's side). We had a great time!

I wanted to share a photo from Kat and PJ's blog, it really cracked me up...

it's definitely a boy

Congrats to Kat and PJ, a little PJ Jr. is on the way. Whee!

And I forgot to post these photos from the 4th, I had the best intentions of taking a lot of photos but it just didn't happen. Maybe next year. These four photos are the only four we took the entire weekend.

matt knee boarding like a pro

megan and tommy should be on the cover of a jet ski magazine

keith on the knee board

here is bb falling into the lake on the transfer from jet ski to boat, we were too late to save her because we were laughing (oops)

Alright, I'm out for now but check back tomorrow for our Little Rock post!

shonnie bear completes her first 5k (yay!) and her first blog post (yay!), intelligent design & other stories

#141, the cutest runner in the whole lot

Shonnie Bear completed her first 5K yesterday - WAY TO GO! She's been training for it hard core and even belongs to a running club (sounds serious). I am so proud of her! She went from running a 14+ minute mile to a 10-minute mile. Yes, she is that good. I may now call her Shonnie Lightning Bear, I'll see if it sticks.

And let me introduce you to the Gilmore's new blog, The Gilmore Report. Add it to your list of cool things to read. I'm so happy they have a blog, I think blogs are just the greatest!

Anywho, I don't have much to post. I do have a few stories below and also a video - please watch it. It's just six minutes long and is pretty cool.

intelligent design

Here are a few stories if you need something to read:

• The Debt Trap is a great series by the NYTimes that highlights some of the people that are in over their heads due the mortgage issue.
  
• And if you didn't hear the NPR story on the mortgage crisis, you may want to take a listen - it explains it all (you can listen to it here or you can download it from iTunes): The Giant Pool of Money
• A story for any foodies out there: The Weird, Wild and, Ultimately Sublime - a new take on Seoul food (hahaha, I crack myself up).
• I just finished the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I enjoyed it although some parts kinda drove me nuts. The main character is a 9-year old motormouth named Oskar, and he's pretty awesome. His father died in the 9/11 attacks and he goes out finding clues about his father's death.
  

i love the cover

I hope everyone had a good weekend, it was hot and sticky here. We went up to the lake and Lottie Sue showed off her new swimming techniques for everyone. She has three classes left and the she graduates!

ocean isle survives another venable trip. barely.

OK, here we go! The Venables have been going to the same island in North Carolina for many many years (20 or so I think). I went with them once before (Matt had to work) and this year Lottie Sue and I (um, Matt had to work - again) vacationed with them. We had a blast! There were 20 of us in two houses, with the beach right across the street. One of the houses had a pool, so you can see how we were living the high life for seven glorious days. I am currently in withdrawal. Wah.

this is our crazee group shot (my apologies to megan, i did not get her in the shot but she's the one strangling dear suzy on the bottom right)

this is greg and jennifer (parents to andy and spencer), they are newlyweds and had dinner out the night of group photos (next year we'll plan better)

here we are "normal"
(someone forgot to tell andy this wasn't the crazy photo)

And so you know the names of everyone...

top row: ronny, shon, lottie sue, tony, chris, becky and tommy

couch people: andy, jim, sam, spencer, mary ann with lucy and kim

floor people: clay with max, moi, suzy and megan

And so you know how everyone relates, let me give a brief overview. Ronny, Suzy and Sam are siblings. Ronny's wife, Lianne, was unable to attend (boo, because she's AWESOME). She's an actress in NYC and her play opens tonight (break a leg!). Maybe next year! OK, back to it - Sam is married to Mary Ann and they are parents to Clay and Megan. Clay is married to Kim and they have two kiddies, Lucy and Max. As you probably know, Megan is married to Tommy. Suzy is married to Tony, the Greg is Suzy's son and he is recently married to Jennifer. They are parents to Spencer and Andy. Becky is Ronny/Suzy/Sam's cousin and her husband is Jim. Shon and Chris are friends of the family, just like LS and myself. Phew, hope that helps.

Oh right, before I start please take a look at Sam's column from Monday, it's about our trip: Lessons Learned by the Sea and it's pretty neat. He's falling into his new beach duties quite well.

To give you an idea of what we did all week I've written out my typical day. Wake up, feed LS and walk down to the other house for coffee. Maybe stay around and chit or maybe go for a walk. LS goes down for her morning nap mid morning, or we would skip it and go to the beach until lunch. Lunch was around noon and then it was pool time until LS went down for her afternoon nap. I would then pool it and then go home to shower, but I would come right back as it was storytelling time. Dinner was a few hours later followed by a stroll on the beach. LS then goes to bed and we stay up playing games and spinning yarns. It was awesome.

And now, a photo essay...these are in no particular order and there are so many! I wanted to entertain you with my rapier-like wit but my brain is not complying. So accept my apologies if I don't write much and you only have photos to see.

Beach time! Lottie Sue liked to play in the sand and she also loved to be right where the water washes on the shore. I would walk across the boardwalk to the beach and once she saw it she would start squealing with delight. It was super cute.

lottie sue enjoyed moving her feet in the sand

Here is a quick video I took with my little camera, it's raw (and I still know of my promise to edit and post videos - I haven't forgotten). I took the video camera but I couldn't find the charger (story of my life). I still don't know where it is. But let me warn you this clip isn't exciting but you can see LS's chub legs kicking sand.

chubba wubba

what a belly

sam and spencer build a manly sand castle (neighborhood)

tommy and megan play with lottie sue

These are on the beach right before sunset, we took a stroll every night after dinner...

tommy was lottie sue's surrogate dad this week

i'm taking a photo of tony taking a photo, how artsy of me

the gilmores take a stroll down the beach, all together now: awhhhh

mr. and mrs. smith, bring on more awhhhs

lottie sue loved for the water to hit her toes

sam and ronny came over to see lottie sue

i miss the gilmores already, wah - but don't they look super cute?

andy in mid-run, he's about to jump over some water

here we are "normal" at the beach

and now we are crazee at the beach, this better represents everyone if you ask me

Every day around 4pm Sam, Tony and Ronny start smoking/grilling the meat for dinner. They DO NOT mess around when it comes to meat. It's a ritual. It is sacred. You'll laugh your b*tt off, guaranteed.

sam and tony "working" on the meat

ronny striking a pose

mary ann comes back with lucy after her nap

megan holding baby lucy

lottie sue wants to know why megan isn't holding her

i took this shot right before tony mooned me

lottie sue looking crazed

check out these scallops (wrapped in bacon) - they were the bomb

You'll see some people wearing tie-dye items. They are the fruit of our labor completed earlier in the week. Megan brought all the stuff to tie-dye and I LOVED it. It was so much fun! Mary Ann, Megan, Andy, Shon, Suzy and myself participated and we had so much fun. I really loved it. It's a bit messy though but oh so worth it...

mary ann gets down and dirty, and colorful

OK, here are some shots from dinner one evening.

good food, good conversation

And after dinner, social hour(s)...


I took a few photos of Andy and Spencer playing with Lottie Sue, it was so cute. The boys are very impressive kids, they took their allowance money and bought LS a stuffed shark.


And now on to random photos... You may or may not know, but Megan collects Santas. She spotted this one at a flea market.

a $7 deal

tommy and spencer are in a figure-four leg lock

shonnie bear and lottie sue during lunch one day

snackin it up

mary ann and megan double the fun with patty cake

I haven't gotten into it on the blog yet, but the Mowrers and Smiths have a project going on that required us to render our own salt. More to come on that later. But check it out! Megan did all the work and I just watched and gave moral support. She filled a milk jug and bucket with ocean water and boiled it down.

we were giddy over all the salt we were able to get

the bag looks suspect but it's all legal we swear

And I hate to leave this post on a sour note, but all I can say is no amount of beach camaraderie can make up for poor taste.

spencer and andy have been lead astray

We already have our houses for next year and I hope Matt can make it. I've been told that I'm out of the mix if my spouse misses one more year. Yikes.

And let me give a GIANT shout out to Suzy - she made all of this happen and has the best organization skillz I have ever witnessed. She is the Queen of Ocean Isle. Long live the Queen!