A Condition

Me: Jack, you need to put these clothes away in your room
Jack: Mom, can't you just make them appear in my room
Me: Abra-cadabra! Bummer. It didn't work. I guess you'll have to do it.
Jack: Let me try..."Abra- CA -Dabra!
Me: Bummer
Jack: Can we get a condition.
Me: What?
Jack: We need a condition
Me: What kind of condition?
Jack: The one with the magic wand and the black hat
Me: Oh, a magician
Jack: Yeah, a condition

Officially Fall

As I mentioned in previous posts I love fall. I'm glad it's officially here. And I'm glad I live in New England to enjoy fall at it's best. Now if only BYU could win this weekend all would be well.
Yesterday was the 1st day of Fall. I put out the artificial leaves in the vases my mom bought for me when Marian was born 2 years ago. They look great, very fallish. I had Vivaldi's 4 seasons on repeat all afternoon to celebrate the occasion. Jack thought I was playing a "Little Einsteins" soundtrack...at least he recognized the music. I pulled out the football from underneath Jack's bed and the next time Chad is home during daylight I intend to run intricate routes while Chad throws me the ball. Since the first fall we were married Chad has had me run routes and after 6 years I have to give him credit for never giving up on me. My fear of running into things (trees, park benches, etc...) takes away the fearless attitude that a football reciever really requires but I love it anyway and Chad seems to as well. By the way, my fear is not entirely unfounded. I'll spare you the details but lets just say there is a park bench in Vienna, Austria that ruined a perfect catch for me 7 years ago. The watermelon sized bruise has long since faded but I've still got the torn jeans to prove it.

What is it...

-about a leotard that makes a little girls instinctively act like this the moment she puts it on?



I swear I just put the outfit on her and this is what she does. I signed her up for a "Tiny Dancers" dance class that starts next week. I figured it's about time she had something in her life that was truly for her and not her older brother. From the looks of things, I think she is going to love it!

That's My Boy!

Jack started preschool last week. And besides the inevitable crash with another kid on the playground he has loved every minute of it! It is so fun to see him enjoying something so much. Yesterday he asked if he could call his teacher "just to talk". I should mention that I realize this picture is a little random but he was being quite the ham while we were taking 1st day of school pictures so this was the best of the lot.

Speaking of random, for some reason this morning I was thinking about a funny Jack story from our Utah vacation. He was out playing in a sand box with the other Pugh cousins his age and apparently they were playing good guys and bad guys. Jack had volunteered to be the bad guy. He loves to play the villain. Eventually branches and sticks got involved and Jack came in crying. My sister-in-law went out to resolve the situation and she suggested that instead of having Jack be the bad guy they could all be the good guys and fight the IMAGINARY bad guy. I think the direct quote from Jack was,

"Great idea, I'll be the invisible bad guy."

That's my boy.

Who is that?

That's what I thought when I saw this picture that my sister-in-law emailed to me. It's a picture of Chad and the (to me) momemtarily mystery baby.

Did my blonde little Marian ever look like that? I almost can't remember her like that. She must not have been sleeping through the night yet. That is why 12 months of my life are totally fuzzy memories.

One Year Later...

This is a random picture of Marian and Jack from Jack's birthday party. However, I think it does justice as to the reason why I didn't recognize Marian in the first picture. Minus the ginormous and beautiful blue eyes...she looks so so different.

I forget they change so fast.

Did I mention that tomorrow Jack starts preschool? I'm pretty sure that the day after that I'm going to wake up and he is going to be leaving for college. Can you do homeschool college? I wonder if some mom invented online universities to keep her son home. Close to her.

Cause and effect

Because Jack played with these...

Notice the bald spot on his head.

Chad got to play with these

And because cutting his hair to a level 3 (pretty short in razor terms) wasn't short enough... (as you can see)

My blonde little boy now looks like this!

Bring on Fall...and my Wall of Inspiration

I'm more excited for fall than I thought I'd be considering that we had such a rainy summer. Something about the cooler nights and the green, red, and yellow leaf Jack found on our walk the other day have me all excited for the next season...hence the new blog background.

We had a fabulous time with family in Utah and California and since I so cleverly forgot to pack my camera for the trip...I'm hoping I'll get some photos in email from family so I can post pictures of our trip soon.

I do have a picture I'd like to share though. I've been trying to spruce up our very dated and slightly dreary kitchen. I'd paint the cabinets if I could... a nice crisp white. And I'd get new knobs for the cabinets and redo the counter tops and the 30 year old linoleum that is starting to pull up on places on the floor. I actually am getting up the nerve to ask my landlord about that last one. Anyway, since those things are currently not options I decided to tackle the random wall by the fridge that is covered with nail holes from past renters.


I call it my wall of inspiration.

It's pretty random...but I like to think of it as more eclectic. The college diploma is to remind me that at one point in my life I wrote in-depth papers on a wide variety of topics, studied foreign languages, and dealt with numbers in ways other than "count to ten and then you can come out of time out"

The man praying is a copy of a picture that hung in my great grandmother's house, my grandmothers house, my mothers house, and now the homes of my siblings. It reminds me to be grateful for what I have.

Here are the other pictures for better viewing. Each one reminds me of something or inspires me in some way.

"The responsible Woman" by James Christensen This reminds me that even though I have a lot going I just need to "fly high enough" not to crash into trees. If my foot kicks a branch here and there (figuratively speaking) that's ok too.



"Woman with 3 children in the window" by Ferdinand Waldmuller ( a favorite from my study abroad in Europe). This reminds me to bring my children into the light and to show them the wonders of the world each day.

This one reminds me to try something new. I never would have thought I would like modern art but I fell in love with Kandinsky in college.


"Music" by Gustav Klimt. This one reminds me to keep music in my home...and I just think it is such a neat painting.

"Flower garden with sunflowers" by Gustav Klimt. This one reminds me of my mom's yard. If I were an impressionist painter, this is how I would paint my mom's back yard, it's amazing. There are flowers and colors everywhere.


Well you can all hope and pray that people email me pictures from our trip so I can post about things other than my deep thoughts about what I've hung on my wall...but for me at least, I'm in love with my new kitchen decor. I think I can put up with the peeling linoleum for a few more weeks.