Bored much?

So the other day I was looking through flies on my computer (my work computer, to be more specific) and I came across this image:



Needless to say, I didn't have any recollection of taking such a photo. Upon further investigation, apparently LC was just "trying something out" when he was scanning in some photos one night while I was gone. Someone, somewhere, someday will probably make millions off of a whole gallery showing of pictures just like this. Until then, it really is just one step above mooning the scanner in my opinion. Lord help us when we finally (if ever) decide to have kids- I can only imagine the things he'll help them "try out" while I'm away!

Introducing... OUR BACKYARD!

Remember the post a few months ago about the tree limbs we had cut off??? Well, since that post all of the broken branches and limbs have taken up residence in our backyard. But thanks to Donna and Bernardo, LC's birth parents, his sister Lauren(sorry about the nails, little LC!), and our friend Scott, we finally have a backyard once again!!! The dogs don't know quite what to do with themselves!

After an on-again, off-again plan to do some yard work this weekend, the Wichita gang came up on Friday afternoon with work clothes in tow to help us out. We took advantage of the Des Moines SCRUB Day on Saturday to get rid of mulchable items for free and with Scott's arrangement of a flatbed trailer and the use of my dad's chain saw (that was a bad idea that we'll save for another post- never let a father/son team determine what branches need cutting down- it's amazing we have any tree left!!) we managed to haul THREE THOUSAND POUNDS of tree paraphernalia to the mulching place. Yes, that would be a 3 with three 0's after it. That's A LOT of wood. And leaves. And bark. And whatever else comes with 3,000 pounds of tree. PLUS, we had an additional sixteen bags of leaves and twigs to leave on the curb this morning.

We never could have done it without everyone's help! To celebrate, we got ice cream twist cones with crunch from our newfound favorite ice cream & malt shop, Snookie's.


One of the TWO loads of tree we took to the mulcher!


One of the many limbs that suffered from the manly affection of power tools that overtook Lawrence and Bernardo.


The 'finished' product, sans landscaping! Isn't it so pretty and limb-free?

Save the Ta Tas

This Mother's Day instead of fighting long lines at the brunch buffet or racing other harried grown-up children to get the last bundle of roses at the flower shop, Lawrence and I opted to go to Chicago and join up with some of our favorite people for the Walk to Empower to support Breast Cancer research. It seemed only appropriate that we spent this Mother's Day in support of our friend Brenda, who has been at times our wedding planner, our decorator, our realtor, our cheerleader, our innkeeper, our chef, our mom and always, our number one support.



Brenda was diagnosed with breast cancer in December and in late January she opted to undergo a double-mastectomy. The surgery went well and her recovery has been awesome and inspiring! Her daughter Amy planned a great pre-walk party for Saturday night and we were joined by about 20 of Brenda and Amy's friends the morning of the walk. Commentators estimated that there were over 30,000 people in downtown Chicago that morning to support this great cause and it was an honor to be surrounded by so many brave and empowering women! What a wonderful Mother's Day tradition for those that have been impacted by breast cancer.


Brenda (Barney) and her daughter, Amy



The group of Brenda & Amy's friends who walked!



Just a few of the over 30,000 estimated participants!

Man's Best Friend

Lawrence really wanted to be the one to post this (he is REALLY proud of the below accomplishment), but it's been a few weeks now since we first documented the feat and we've been super busy and all the sudden it's been days since we last posted and probably years (or lifetimes) since we posted anything of interest (I'm not promising today will be an exception!) This might help tide all of you interested readers over until we can get back to the regular blogging routine...

We bought a frisbee for Docker recently. Lawrence will try to tell you that it was for the dogs (plural) but that's kind of like my dad telling me that the new bag of tools was for both of our birthdays last year. But wait, I digress. We got it at a local pet store in Beaverdale (Bone-A-Patreat) and it was guaranteed not to destruct from heavy use. So far, still intact(and not for lack of trying on behalf of our four legged friends). After a few failed attempts, Docker caught on quickly and now it is his favorite after-work activity (well, in reality he's an equal opportunity frisbee catcher so it's also his favorite before work, during lunch, before bed, any old time activity). For only $15.98 we have figured out a way to entertain Docker (and Lawrence!) for hours.

Sprinkles!

Since we've been kind of lame around here lately (and by lame I mean, we're just as uninteresting as always but lack the photographic evidence to share our unexciting adventures with you because we're either too busy or too lazy to take the photos off the camera), I thought that I would take a moment to share with you one of my favorite blogs. If you're familiar with the blog world, you probably already have this one on your RSS feed. If our blog is the only one you read, first of all, my apologies, and second of all, please don't start judging us against this one.

CAKEWRECKS - when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.



This one is my all-time favorite- click on the photo to visit that entry. Poor girl didn't get any sprinkes!

Good rule of thumb

My least favorite font. Ever.

Good to see someone finally outlawed it, at least in the general design world.

Daily Affirmation

Some days you just need a little extra. A little extra hug, a little extra smile, a little extra sleep, you know, a little extra. I think yesterday Lawrence and I both needed a little extra- he was crazy busy with work and preparing for our weekend houseguests and I was busy with wrapping things up at work and driving back to Iowa. So last night we both needed a little extra. Imagine my delight when I found this artist on flicker who had not only read our minds, he provided the little extra affirmation that I needed to know we are not going to be banished to the warm place down under for forgoing healthy eating for one night and partaking in a good ol' all American tradition- the cheeseburger. Yum. On certain days, it's the best little extra you could ask for.