Currently...

Loving: My kitchen. I've been in there doing tons of baking - I know! Cookies, cupcakes, and I've even decided to make Caroline's birthday cake. I made my first ever layered cake today to practice for her party. It's my new mixer. I'm totally in love.

Reading: Ahhh...Not much. I currently have The Night Circus on my Kindle and Einstein Never Used Flash Cardson my nightstand. I'm really enjoying both, it's just a matter of making time to get to them.

Watching: The last season of The Closer. I'm so sad it's coming to an end, but I'm going to enjoy every bit of these next six episodes. Brian and I have watched The Closer together since the very beginning, and he's totally making time to watch this last season with me. Time with Brian and one of my favorite shows? Awesome! Also, I hear Project Runway is starting a new season this week. I'm going to have to check out the designers. I'm hopeful for a really good group this time!



Anticipating: August. Caroline's first birthday, birthdays for my mom and my mother-in-law, dog-sitting for 10 days, Andrew back at home for a few weeks before official preschool, Brian having a week off of school. All good stuff.



Listening: The Avett Brothers, Fresh Beat Band and Gotye. These and the Foster the People Pandora station are pretty standard on our Apple TV right now. Andrew's babysitter is getting married this fall and when he hears January Wedding he says, "This is Hope's song!" It's cute. :)



Planning: So Caroline's turning ONE in a month. I thought I'd just have a small family get-together and then I decided to invite a few friends and now I'm kind of going all out. I decided on a Lemonade theme and I'm running with it. There's just so much you can do and it's all so cute.

Working on: I took photos of two sweet baby girls for friends last month, and I'm still trying to finish them up. Ugh. I feel so bad that I'm so slow to finish up a photo shoot. It's a really good thing I'm not planning on being a pro photographer any time soon. There's just a lot on my plate right now.

So that's where we are in the middle of July.

What are y'all up to?

No Fear

So apparently I should spend more time blogging and less time watching silly summer TV. But this season of Top Chef has been so fun! And have y'all seen that new show that comes on afterward, Work of Art? It is awesome!

We've been staying busy (mostly) inside this week. But we did meet some friends at a little petting zoo on Tuesday. We went early so we'd avoid the hottest part of the day, but it was still pretty toasty. We had a good time anyway.

We got to feed the goats and quack with the ducks.



And Andrew took his first hay ride!







But mostly he just played with goats. There was a baby goat who could fit his head through the fence and Andrew thought that was hysterical. He kept grabbing his little baby horns. No fear in that kid :) ....it worries me just a little.



Andrew is learning about hot and cold. He puts his hands on his arms and says "Brrrr" for cold and waves his hand in front of his mouth and says "ha" for hot.

But sometimes he gets them mixed up. So when he gets in to the 100 degree car or the warm bathtub he'll say "Brrrr" and squeeze his arms.

It cracks me up every time.

He's also more obsessed than ever with Yo Gabba Gabba. Anytime he sees a TV remote he says "Gabba Gabba?". It's a little more garbled than that - he's still not much of a clear talker, but it's very obvious what he's asking for.

And the climbing - oh the climbing! I'm pretty sure the climbing is what I'll remember most out of these months. I just hope he gets a little more cautious soon. I found him walking on my kitchen bar the other day. On top of the bar!

We pray for safety every day. :)

American Idol

Can I just say I am shocked, shocked that Kris Allen pulled it off. I love it when the underdog wins.

Vote!

Oh, I can barely stand all the incredibly bad fawning all over David A. It's just so blech. And David C. is just pouring his heart out up there on that stage.

I don't know if I can handle watching tomorrow if David A. wins. I can already see the tears and the shaky-voice thank you, thank yous to all the 15-year-old girls who voted for him.

David C. is a true original, and I'll buy the first thing he puts out there.

I just saw Simon wink at David C. I wonder if that means he's really in his corner and just had to fake the fawning on David A.? No, probably not. He just said the whiny David A. delivered a knock-out.

I'm off to vote for David C. I know I can't cancel out all the tween votes, but I'll try.


P.S. I really hope the boxing analogies don't continue into tomorrow. (Double blech.)

Getting Lost

I have an addiction, and I will freely admit it. I am crazy about TV. And poor Brian has to endure my crazy fascination with all things Primetime. But the one show he will watch every week without complaint is Lost.

We started at the very beginning, and now... it's back! Lost fans, this is what we've all been waiting for. It's supposed to be a cold and windy day here in Big-D, so Brian and I are going to hunker down, eat some soup and get Lost!

Last we left our fearsome friends they were ripe with the prospect of rescue, but we now know, from a few strategic fast-forwards, that getting off the island may not be all it's cracked up to be.

I'm sure the Lost season premier won't be nearly as thrilling as the Republican presidential debate we watched last night in this writer-free TV season, but somehow we'll muster through. :)

Blue Monday

• Damn my Dallas Cowboys. They were thisclose to making it to the NFC Championship. I wouldn't mind a bit if Patrick Crayton and Roy Williams became Oakland Raiders over the summer.

• My mouse is very twitchy and all over the place today. I've already changed the batteries and pushed the green buttons on both the mouse and its receiver to no avail. Do wireless mouses just wear out eventually?

• Speaking of rodents, my co-worker's wife called today. She'd been rabbit sitting for her neighbors' 15(!) year old rabbit while they were away. She went to check on him this morning, and the poor thing had passed on to rabbit heaven. On her watch, no less. She thought it was a very lousy way to start the week.

• On a brighter note, American Idol starts tomorrow. They say it's bigger and better than ever. We shall see, but I'm ready for something new on TV. I'm also very grateful for my X-Files DVDs. There is a limit to how many hours of American Idol and Project Runway you can watch before your husband threatens to run away from home.

Season, Interrupted

Have y'all heard about this writers strike? It's really messing with my world. Don't worry if you're a movie lover. They have plenty of movie scripts ready to go and you should have no problem catching Sex in the City: The Movie. But we TV lovers are just up a creek. TV show scripts are only complete a few weeks before they are set to film. Many sitcoms are actually re-written while they are filmed. And since there's no writing going on there's very little filming going on.

What does this mean? That we're already out of The Office and Back to You scripts. That we're going to run out of hour long dramas like House and Dirty Sexy Money by the end of the year. That Lost and 24 which were supposed to be back in February most likely won't even air this TV season. Dear Lord, what will I do? (That's a prayer, not a swear!)

The networks are going to air reruns and reality shows in place of regular, good TV. I can look forward to the newest season of Project Runway on Bravo and American Idol in January, but that's it. The rest of my week will be filled with CSI reruns.

I know y'all are saying, "Come on. Can't you just read a book?" But it's not the same! I'm crazy about good, well-written TV, and I still read lots of books. I'm thinking I'll ask for TV shows on DVD for Christmas this year. Things I haven't seen before so it's like watching new TV to me. There's got to be a bright side to everything I guess. But I'm going to miss my regular TV. :(