ugh, this heat

yikes is it ever hot out here. today the heat index was 108. i am starting to feel like i have summer depression. you know how people get down and blue in the winter months from the lack of sunshine and vitamin d? well, i think i have that in reverse, if that is possible. i cannot wait for the weather to cool down, and the autumn air to settle in. i am seriously counting down the days.

since we aren't able to spend time outdoors, we are trying to stay sane by getting out of the house often. summertime cabin fever is the worst.

we took a trip to the mall looking for back to school clothes. we've also been hitting target and the book store for fun.

alanna is taking art classes again this week, so that is keeping her busy. i took malcolm to marbles by myself on wednesday, and i didn't lose him this time! we actually had a really great time. it wasn't nearly as crowded as the past few times we've been. and he listened to me and played very nicely with everything and with the other kids.

our little garden is doing pretty good. so far the only thing growing is cucumbers... lots and lots of cucumbers. i think we have about ten of them in our crisper right now. i've been trying to get malcolm to eat them, but with no such luck. we are hoping that the tomatoes start growing soon. and i'm pretty sure our squashes are toast, but we'll see.

malcolm was having fun taking self portraits with my camera :)

today after we picked alanna up from artspace, we went to toys 'r us to cool off and browse their awesome selection. malcolm loves that damn store. he is a huge fan of ride-on toys, and after we left i asked him what his favorite toy was? of course, he said the bikes. (dan, i took this one for you!)

i hope your weather is better than ours, and that you are keeping cool. can you believe that in two more weeks, alanna will be an 8th grader? eeek!

snip snip

malcolm is two and a half now. his hair was starting to get long and wild, so rather than have a go with the clippers at home again, we figured it was time for him to have his first professional haircut. yesterday we took him to a local salon that specializes in kids cuts. he got to choose a video to watch, and which little vehicle to sit in. he chose the nightmare before christmas, and an airplane.

he was really good and sat pretty still during the trim. he did get a little scared when the stylist tried to tidy up the back with some tiny clippers, but then she let him hold them, and showed him that they didn't hurt, and she was able to clean up his neck.

after the cut, he ran around in the lobby checking out all the fun things they have for kids. i tried my best to get a good shot of his hair before we left.

and again in the car on the ride home. but this is all i got, haha. he hates having his photo taken.

p.s. don't let that sweet face fool you. malcolm has hit his full blown terrible two's. he can be such a beast these days. just an hour before we went to the salon, we went out to lunch, and he was simply awful. to the point where we had to take him home and put him in time out in the corner. most days he is so sweet and smart and absolutely amazing... but then in an instant he just loses it. on the drive home from the restaurant yesterday, while danny had steam blowing out of his ears, i vividly remembered alanna acting/doing the same exact thing at that same age (until she turned 4), and how upset/angry/embarrassed it made me feel. i think this time around i am a little more patient. danny on the other hand, maybe not so much. this is his first time dealing with a toddler. i hope we survive this stage in his little life. we love him oh so very much, but yikes, is he ever testing our patience.

what we've been up to

wow, it's already august!? it's been super hot and humid here, and/or pouring rain, so we haven't been doing anything too exciting. *it's currently pouring outside* i can't believe summer is already almost over. alanna goes back to school in less than three weeks. crazy! where did the time go? with all of this rain, all i can think about is how it will soon be autumn. my absolute favorite time of the year. hooray. here are some photos from this past week.

we love going to costco. believe it or not, this is my dream couch. i would love this in our house to relax and watch movies on. but lucky dog would destroy it. so i will just continue to dream about it.

my first time making peanut butter cookies out of the vegan cookies invade your cookie jar book (i added the chocolate chips for danny)

malcolm and i took a trip to kmart so i could admire this sweet little patio set that i love. i'm hoping it will go on major clearance soon.

kisses for daddy

middle of the night thunderstorms

i took these videos from inside the house. we don't have a covered porch, so i couldn't go outside to film the lightning. but it was wonderful!




we took a quick overnight trip to charlotte and hit ikea on the way home
(our house is coming together very nicely thanks to some new shelving! i love ikea. and thanks again lynn for letting us stay with you guys!)

danny kept malcolm busy while alanna and i decided what to get for her bedroom. he caught this video on his phone, haha



summertime baths in the front yard

alanna has spent the week here, at artspace, for their summer youth arts program

our lantana bush's are covered with bumblebees and beautiful butterflies!

trips to the neighborhood park

silly boy

on tuesday evening our hot water went out. so we gave malcolm a quick bath in the kitchen sink...

he loved it, and made a huge wet mess!

we really lucked out with this new (old) house. our landord is fantastic. i called him yesterday morning to let him know about our lack of hot water, and he had someone come right out to fix it. and this morning he called to make sure that we weren't having any more problems. he also let me know that he pays for an exterminator service to treat the house, and that they will be coming in a couple weeks. so no yucky bugs inside for us (have you ever seen a palmetto bug in real life?! if so, you know how awful they are. eeek!

anyway, he has done way more than our last landlord ever did, and we've only lived here for a month and a half. pretty awesome. our last house had bats in the attic, termites in the wood, spotty mold in the drywall and windows (ewww), and a rodent in the basement (poor garrett!) and the owner never came and repaired or got rid of any of it. he was a slumlord for sure. i am very grateful for this new place. we are pretty happy living here :)

life's tough...

this is what it's like living with a thirteen year old sister. haha!

(this last photo i found on our computer in alanna's album. she took it in may, on our way home from ikea)

what a week

this week has been crazy. monday started out with a trip to the fairgrounds to pick up our unsold items from the kids exchange. we had loaded danny's van full, like every single inch of space, with stuff to sell (close to 200 items) and we only brought home a small box of a few toys and some clothes. that means we sold tons of stuff! how exciting to not have to bring it back into our house. and hooray for the check we will receive soon :)

on monday night alanna had two friends from school over to spend the night. ugh. 15 hours of shrieking teenage girls was enough to make me tear my hair out. but i survived. they talked non-stop the entire time, didn't go to sleep until after 3 am, and then were awake at 8:30 am talking non-stop again. it was insane, haha! mom, is that what my sleepovers were like when i was 13?! malcolm loved having them here, he just sat quietly and watched them talk. he called them "nanni's girlfriends".

danny drew this on the calendar, haha

i already posted about our trip to marbles on wednesday. on thursday i was heading down a pretty busy road toward our house, and my breaks went out. not completely out, but enough to scare me, so i pulled over at a gas station and danny came and got us. my father-in-law went and got my car, and took it out to their house to do some repair work. once again, dan seriously saved the day! i am very grateful that we have him, and that he is so very helpful and kind. it seems like we have never ending car problems, and we are lucky that he is able to help us with them (or we would be in a lot of trouble). he will be so happy when someday we can afford new cars, haha.

on saturday we headed out to their house so that danny could help with the repairs. alanna and i watched episode after episode of cake boss. we were like satellite tv zombies. the guys worked on the car. vicky and the kids and i hung out. we had pizza for dinner and cupcakes for dessert. thanks again dan and vicky.

malcolm took a little dip in the pool

dan took the kids for a spin on his bike

loungin' on the patio

a failed attempt at a family photo :)

malcolm was looking for a snake up there in the bush

on sunday we went out to water our little garden, and we found three horn worms eating our tomato plants. nasty lil' critters. so we moved them to the far end of the yard (since we don't kill bugs), and here's hoping they don't come back. yuck. one of them was huge. ewww.

in the afternoon we headed downtown to meet our friends tommy, alicia, and luc at marbles, and i spotted this license plate on the van in front of me. pretty cool. it made me smile.

danny has never been to marbles with us before, so this was his first trip. you can't tell from these photos, but it was really busy, i guess because it was the weekend.

the boys had tons of fun playing. we were all having a nice time hanging out, and we took a break to have a snack and a soda. malcolm wanted to go back to the pirate ship, so alicia and luc came with us. he headed toward a little underwater room, and by the time i went in after him, he was gone. in a split second, i had lost track of him... i lost malcolm at the kids museum. it was awful. alicia and i were looking all over for him, and he was nowhere to be found. so i called danny to have him come help us look. i started to panic. we searched all over for about 5 minutes, while alicia went and told security that he was missing, and they radioed to all of the marbles staff. an employee found him upstairs in another play area. in the short time that we had first started looking for him, he had managed to walk, all by himself, up a giant staircase to the second floor.

i have no idea how this happened, but it was so scary, and i was so relieved when tommy brought him down the stairs to me. the look on his face was priceless, he knew he was in big trouble. we thanked the security guy for helping us locate him, and then explained to malcolm how important it is that he stay with me at all times, and not run off alone. and then we went home. lets hope he learned his lesson. he is so young, so i'm not totally sure if he knew what he had done was wrong. but wow, i will be sure to keep my eye on him every second when we go back again.

all that excitement wore us both out, so malcolm and i took a nap. danny took alanna to the used book store, and then they brought zpizza back to the house. we had a full stamp card, so dinner was on them. nothing better than a free meal! then we went and did our weekly grocery shopping.

danny was smitten by this little guy, so we had to bring him home. he is on a can of chocolate milk mixers (kroger brand nesquick). pretty dang cute.