Josie + Asher = Love

Okay, don't judge. There have been a lot of pictures of Josie's suitors on this blog lately. But Josie is young, cute, and happenin.' You can't blame her for wanting to play the field a bit. Besides, I think I agree more with the Smith's political views than I do with baby Goo-goo's. Don't hate, Mona. If I'm creating an arranged marriage, I have to take these things into consideration.

Anyway-- on to the pictures! The Smith family came all the way from Iowa to help me celebrate my birthday. Which meant a reunion for best friends (and possible love-match) Josie and Asher! The two spent the weekend together sharing goldfish crackers, naptimes, and sweet nothings. Check out the photos below!

Look at these big kids just having a snack at the table. What could be cuter?

For a blast from the past, here's a picture from one of Asher and Josie's first dates-- both of them are two months old. I can't believe how time has flown.

Here are the lovebirds on Asher's first birthday. Neither of them could walk yet, but they could already say "I do."

Three cheers for arranged marriages!

Have you missed me?

Well folks, I'm finally back to my blog! My internet has been broken for 3 weeks. I've become best friends with half of India in the time I've spent on the phone with tech support. They finally told us they would fix it, but it would cost us our firstborn child so, forlourn, we decided to delay it a little longer. Then today we turned on the computer and everything was working again. WTF! But I'm not complaining. Just blogging again!

So let me get you all up to speed. June has been fantastic! Beautiful weather, time as a family, and I'm even starting to get a respectable tan. But the best part of June was the visit from my BFF Mona and her baby, Andrew!

Mona and Andrew (or "little monkey" as Josie started calling him) were here for three days and we had so much fun. We took the babies to the lake, the park, watched cheesy movies, and generally lived it up.

We did have one dark moment, however. When going for a walk, we were gossiping and giggling like the old days when we were distracted by something amazing-- as our heads jerked to the right, and our strollers crashed into each other, and we drooled over the thing across the street.

Hot guy?
No.
Dairy Queen?
I wish.

It was a neighbor out for a run with a fancy new jogging stroller. How humiliating! Mona and I made a pact to burn our sweat pants and try to get a life. Yikes!

While I work on my anti-aging technics, feast your eyes on some of these recent pictures.

Mona and Baby Goo-Goo

One of the few moments when Josie wasn't yelling "Oh no, Gogo's toys!"

Gogo and Drewski in the bathtub (edited for internet appropriateness, duh) Can you see the look of love in their eyes? This will be great for the photo montage at their wedding!

Favorite Josie Quotes

Favorite Josie Quotes this week:

Josie loves to watch cartoons when she wakes up on Saturday mornings. We thought it would be fun one morning for all of us to watch cartoons in Mom and Dad’s bed. I went in to get Josie from her crib and told her we were watching cartoons in the big bed today. Josie says “Because the Family Room is still sleeping.”

Josie loves to talk about all the people she knows and what they like to do. Last night we were talking about Josie’s favorite babysitter, Shamra.
Josie: “Shammy works at the butterfly museum. Mommy works at a museum, too.”
Mom: “What kind of museum does Mommy work for?”
Josie: “A space museum. And Go-Go works for a green bean museum.”

Josie and Dad were playing “I spy” in her room. Then he had to change her diaper, but they kept playing the game.
Daddy: “I spy a lamp!”
Josie: “I spy Daddy wiping Go-go’s bum!”

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! What a great time for a holiday- a long weekend during the most beautiful time of the year! In honor of this special day, the Johnson's went on strike. Just to see if we could, we refused to use our computer, drive our car, or spend any money for the entire weekend. And it was fabulous! Let me explain.

Every once in a while I go through periods where I refuse something just to see if I can. Past examples include cutting off television, coffee, curling irons (that was a weird one), etc. Lately I've been feeling a little weird about my home computer because I realized how addictive it can be. I started to add up how much time I was wasting in front of the screen instead of putting my few minutes of down time to use doing something more productive. So that explains why I have not been doing much blogging lately.

Feeling on a roll, and to protest the outrageous price of gas in Chicago (hello $4.40 a gallon!), Russ and I also went the entire Memorial Day weekend without using our car. We walked and biked everywhere and had a great time! If there was something we wanted to do or have that was not within walking or biking distance, we went without or got creative. That even means no Dairy Queen, and any of you who know me realize how large of a sacrifice that was for me. (Not to worry-- having biked to get ice cream for me at a grocery store near us, the store owner told Russ he was planning to open a brand new Dairy Queen just blocks from our house. Hear the angels rejoice!)

The final arm of the Johnson's three-pronged attack was a strike against spending money. We went three days without spending a penny and boy was that interesting. Actually, for me that strike started last Monday and mainly included bringing my own coffee to work, taking the train, and packing a lunch. We did cheat a little this weekend when I broke down and insisted on buying ice cream with some money slipped to Russ from his Dad. But other than that we made our own food, rented movies from the library, played outside and generally had some good, clean, cheap fun! I stole this idea from a book my Dad lent me about spending little to no money and enjoying life more. The author was hilarious and I agreed with a lot of what he had to say. Check out his web page if you have time. http://www.ultimatecheapskate.com/ I swear this is not my Dad in disguise. Although the resemblence is scary, this author does not have nearly as sweet a tan as my Dad does.

Anyway, it was one of the best weekends we've had in a while and I feel so lucky to live in a town that is so beautiful and has so much to do within blocks of our house. At times it was a struggle to get through winter, so being outside and spending time at the lake again is amazing. If I never write again its because I quit my job to become a homeless beach bum and continue this strike forever.

Coming Next- the Bumper Bonnet

Yes folks, this is a picture of our sun room. And no, there is no ladder outside, nor are we being imprisoned. These are the new safety bars guaranteed to keep Josie from fall to her third-story death.

I am feeling torn about this new addition to our humble abode. Russ and I have always tried to take a practical approach to "baby proofing" and keeping Josie safe from harm. Our attitude is that bumps and bruises are learning experiences and nothing we do can ever keep her totally safe. When someone first asked me if I worried about Josie falling out one of our old, large windows, I thought it was a ridiculous question. But since then I've learned how common it is in Chicago (and probably elsewhere) for children to fall out the windows of these old buildings. And Finally, my father-in-law could take the stress no more. He generously (these things are expensive!) bought the bars for all of our windows and helped Russ install them. Let me tell you, I am not a fan. Not only are they are not attractive but I can't help wondering if I've fallen for the safety overkill of today's parenting generation.

So this all brings up an interesting question. How much concern for our children's safety is too much? Help me figure out if I'm being too lenient with this week's poll. In the meantime, Josie had a colossal wipe-out outside today leaving her with an enormous goose-egg and causing me to rethink my decision not to invest in the bumper bonnet. What are your thoughts?

Happy Birthday Josie!

Josie Leigh turns 2 on Tuesday! We had an awesome Barney-themed birthday party for her this Saturday. It was the happening place to be! My Dad (aka Grampa Curly) flew in from Minneapolis to be there, and my Grandma came from Iowa along with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin. (My cousin just turned 16 and drove 5 hours with parents and Grandma to attend a 2 year old's birthday party. You know he must have been thinking "kill me!" but he was a great sport!) Josie completely understood that we were having a party for her, unlike last year when she was confused by the crowd and wanted everybody out of her face. This year she greeted everybody that came in the door by yelling "Hi Guys! Happy Birthday!"

Josie loves Curious George and she scored a new stuffed animal from her cousin, Annie. As Josie would say "Yeah! A new Oooh-ee-ee!"

Showing off new garden tools to cousin Nolan and her Great-Grandma Mickie.

The coolest present- a new trike from Grandma and Grampa Johnson! (She still has to figure out how to make it go, but that's why Daddy is there to push. Hooray!)

She was looking forward to singing "Happy Birthday" the most, but then the actual singing kind of freaked her out.... uh-oh!

Blowing out candles with help from Mommy- yum, delicious straw-baby shortcake! (Josie can't quite say strawberry yet...)

Those are two hot looking Planks! Gmax with the coolest Grampa in town, Grampa Curly!

The Results Are In!

Thank you to everyone for taking my poll on my styrofoam dilemma. I secretly wish everyone would tell me how they voted, because I find it so interesting. But I guess that kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway, here were my results:
1 vote- Yes, keep up the strike because maybe they will eventually change their ways
5 votes- Yes, keep it up because at least my conscience is clear
6 votes- No, just recycle more
1 vote- We're all going to die, at least enjoy some coffee on the way down

And my thoughts? I think I will continue the strike because I should be recycling more regardless. But I do think I might follow this good suggestions-- to buy a re-usable Dunkin Donuts mug and enjoy the coffee without the styrofoam. Genius! Maybe they will even give me a discount! This plan makes the drive through more difficult (oh how I LOVE drive-throughs) but alas, something has to give.
Thanks for voting!