rumblebrumble

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for the party. we really had a wonderful time and enjoying seeing all of our friends and family. Mary was in such a great mood too - i was so happy to see her getting along with her friends so nicely, sharing all of her toys without a fuss, and just having a ball at her birthday party!

( Party Girl... )

Hey everyone who reads my lj - if you're in the area and would like to come to Mary's 2nd birthday party here are the details:

What: Please join us to celebrate Mary's second birthday, with a potluck-style BBQ on our new deck! Please bring a side dish or dessert - send me an email to let us know if you can make it, tp tell us what you'll be bringing, or if you need directions to our place (caty . roland @ comcast . net)

Where: Mark, Caty, and Mary Roland's House!
When: Sunday, July 13, 11:00AM
Who: YOU!

In particular, Nancy Jane and Amanda, i wanted to make sure you knew you were invited, since we had talked about that before.

This morning we headed to the Washington Street Neighborhood Parade - a two block long parade, hosted by the neighbors who live on the 500 to 700 block of Washington street. it was very pleasant, and lasted about 10 minutes. It started with a firetruck, followed by a small band, playing Oh When The Saints... then, there was this FLOOD of kids on bikes, people with their pets, and people showing off their talents (a clogger, a juggler, etc.). they walked from the 500 block, to the 700 block, then did a U turn and went back down! it was great! Mary enjoyed it.

tonight we will go to the fireworks again, and hope we dont get stuck in traffic for an hour and a half like last year...


here are some pictures from last year's 4th of July celebrations:


( bombs bursting in air... )

So, it has become somewhat of a tradition for Mary and I to escape to Chicago for a weekend away with our friends and family. Over Memorial Day, we traveled to Omaha for the baptism of my newest niece. We flew back into Chicago on Sunday, and spent all day Monday doing some traditional Baby in the City activities. Here are some pictures from the wonderful event!

( on to the pictures! )


All in all, it was a really nice trip! We had lots of fun and got to see lots of neat animals.

Its A.....

( Read more... )

If anyone is looking for a job in the area - We have an opening at the nature center.

( Read more... )

Mark put a deck on our house this week. I am very excited about it.

( Deck Pictures )

( Baby Mary with Daddy )


( New Baby )

Halloween Baby!

In Seattle, awaiting jadeejf and mobileoak's return from her test. flight was fine, minus the extremely obnoxious drunk guys in the seats in front of us that kept waking Mary up with their buligerent nonsense yelling. ugg.

Mary has a 102.5 fever, runny noise, nasty cough, and is cranky has heck. hopefully things will get better for her, otherwise, while the visit will be awfully nice, the sightseeing and fun stuff might not get accomplished.

so, instead of having a couple of innocent drinks at the bar and coming home for some "alone time" with Mark, i get totally fucked up wasted on those two drinks and come home and puke my guts out the rest of the night.

not the way i intended to start out the new year.

blech.

I grabbed this one from newperpsectives.

1. Go to Career Cruising, http://www.careercruising.com
2. Put in Username: nycareers and Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top twenty results
5. Put the careers you have seriously considered in bold
6. Put the careers you've had in italics

1.Forester
2.Outdoor Guide
3.Courier / Messenger
4.Physical Education Teacher
5.Waste Collector
6.Office Manager
7.Mover
8.Economic Development Officer
9.Research Analyst (Financial)
10.Postal Clerk
11.Tow Truck Driver
12.Shipping and Receiving Clerk
13.Animal Caretaker
14.Elementary School Teacher
15.Management Consultant
16.High School Teacher
17.Bank Teller
18.Hotel Desk Clerk
19.ESL Teacher
20.Health Care Administrator


Granted - three of the things highlighted are all from my current job - office manager, animal care taker, and courier/messanger (one of my responsibilities is to due the mail run every day to all of the district facilities).

pretty good!

i didnt get a lot of response to my latest picture post. apparently I am not as cute to look at as Mary is. but, c'mon people, give me something! that takes an awful lot of time for someone whose not to good with HTML code!!

posted my first private entry tonight.

ive never done that before and the cute little "eye" symbol was fun.

i'll probaby wind up showing it to mark - since thats who it was written to.

*wishing myself luck*

I am so excited to have a garden again this year.

In early May I planted the following:
3 Zucchini
2 summer squash
4 green peppers
9 tomato plants, various types and sizes
a row of cucumbers from seed, which was thinned to 4 plants
a row of green beans from seed, growing up a trellis, which was thinned to a handful of plants.

the harvesting portion has really taken off since the rain this past couple of weeks. I have already havested:

3 monster zucchinis - over 1 foot in length! yikes - I didnt mean for them to get that big, but they still tasted awfully good.
3+ reasonably sized zucchinis
A delicious handful of green beans

plus, there is:
a 2" cucumber growing in the garden, and lots and lots of flowers on the cucumbers
lots and lots of little squash and zucchinis that need more time
Every tomato plant has tomatos on it, waiting for them to ripen....yumyum.

some of my tomato plants have grown over 6' tall at this point - i have been tying them to the fence as they grow, but now some of them have reached the top! what am I to do!

yay. *garden love*

( Bike Trailer )

( Staying Cool at the Pool )


yay!

im exhausted. in a good way, i suppose.

i got a job, afterall. i had been planning to stay home with mary, but this job kinda just fell in my lap and i went with it. its part time, 1-6pm, monday-thursday. so, i still have my mornings and a three day weekend with mary. this is the schedule at least through may. I work at Generations of Hope in their Intergenerational Center doing the afterschool program. its pretty fun, so far. its a very political/gossipy community, so its going to take some getting used to.

i'm supposed to graduate this weekend. i'm not done with my professional paper, and i'm hoping my advisor will let me graduate anyway, since we discussed working on the paper over the summer to get it published anyway...

its my first mother's day on Sunday (unless you count last year when Mary was in utero)! I'll be working at Anita Purves. cool!

Lots of pictures below the cuts!


( adventures in Chicago )

( other recent pics )

finally got our taxes done. whew. what a relief. it really wasnt so bad, and didnt even take very long. I just never feel like I know what to expect from taxes. I have no idea whether we are going to get a huge refund or if we are going to owe thousands. its too hard to tell. anyway, we didnt owe anything, and we have a credit of about 300 that is being deducted from our first quartly estimated tax payment. good good.

school is finishing up. i have a couple of big projects to finish before I'm done though, and i am highly unmotivated:
-for my class, i still have to write a 1-2 page reponse paper, a 20 page research paper, and do a presentation on said reserach paper in class in three weeks. havent started paper at all.
-my professional paper is coming along nicely, i still have one or two more interviews i would like to do, and then its just a matter of tying it all in together with transitions, introductions, conclusions, etc., but nothing too big. the paper is probably already pushing 40 pages. sheesh. its been fun though, and I'm glad I got to do that this semester.

I must have senioritis, because I cant seem to motivate myself to do much of anything school related. Ive been taking a nap almost every day for the last week instead of doing homework during Mary's naps. oh well, Im tired.

tasks for this week:
go to McKinley to get perscription refill
get Mary's 9 month pictures taken at Sears. Put that SmileSaver membership to use.
clean the house - the never ending battle. sweep, vacuum, clean toilets, etc.
meet up with Clark's mom on Thursday to bake cookies and talk housewife.

and next weekend - spa party!