Saturday

Today was, well, interesting. Brenna has some two year molars that are bowing up on her something fierce, and despite her bravery about the whole thing, there have been periodic bouts of belligerence, short naps, runny noses, and short tempers. She seems to be feeling better tonight, so here's hoping Sunday is a smidge more pleasant.

Here are a few new pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Brenna dubbed this Plah Doh creation her tall sea ship. She was watching Peter Pan while she was working on this. Made me think of pancakes, personally.

Tonight, in an effort so soothe the savage beast, Emily broke out the big guns, makeup and jewelry. Brenna was very pleased.

And finally, when asked what she was doing here, she told us that she was giving Emily another tattoo. Way cool.

More pictures coming soon to the Hoes blog, with it pushing 90 degrees here, the yard is very much alive.

One For The Road

I just uploaded a ton of pictures from our back yard, onto the old Hoes blog. It's been in the 80s for some time now, and things are growing like it's spring or something. Well, maybe it is.

For dropping by, here is a picture of Brenna working on making me a beret.

Aspring Photographer

While waiting on Aunt Beth to return to the car for snacks on Saturday, Brenna and I sat in the grass and I attempted to take some pictures of the two of us. Brenna quickly snatched the camera from me, and within a few seconds, figured out how to take pictures with it.

Out of the, oh, 100 or so shots she took during the couple of minutes she had the camera held hostage, here are a few of the highlights for your viewing pleasure.

1 . Brenna at an angle

2. Daddy's forearm (there were at least 20 of these)

3. Daddy's forehead - A rather disturbing look at it, at that

4. Swirly Tree - My personal favorite, not sure how she managed this one.

Day In The Mines

While Emily was off at the Renassiance Festival, Brenna and I went with Aunt Beth, Uncle John, Aunt Tansy, Grandma and Grandpa, and cousin Rachael, to the AZ Dept Of Mines And Mineral Resources (that's what the sign said). It was a pretty fascinating place, and Brenna thoroughly enjoyed everything she took in.

A few highlights of the day:

Taking in the giant tire at the entrance (not pictured here was a huge scoop off a front end loader of some such, that was at least ten feet tall).

Walking down one of many hallways, checking stuff out.

Mugging for me while playing at one of the many children's exhibits.

Making a free bracelet out of provided minerals with Aunt Beth. Here Brenna is showing off what she made with her very nimble little fingers.

And finally, savoring some chocolate in the parking lot before crashing in the car for a nap on the way home.

Stay tuned for a future post comprising primarily of pictures taken by Brenna while she was in possession of the camera (and unwilling to give it up).

Me Again

Two blogs in three days, what do I win? Honestly, it's been a while since I've managed this, but Brenna is happily watching some Disney movie on TV, and Emily is making a scarf, so I have a few minutes to post these pictures.

Last night Emily was off downtown answering questions for two hours about power (electricity), eating free food, and making $150 for her trouble. She ended up on this short list of participants through the church, and has giddily taken SRP (our local power company)'s money every time they've offered up one of these survey roundtable thingies. I was watching Brenna while she was away, and here are some shots from that merry time.

Brenna looks very happy here, preparing to scoot across the room and whack me with her backpack. She's gotten very good at peddling around with her feet, and takes no time catching up to me and pummeling me. Grrr.

Here's a somewhat more pleasant shot of her preparing to beat me severely.

We're sporting a bit of a shiner in this one. I bought her some new tennies I found at Ross last weekend, and she immediately broke them in by stumbling and falling on her face. But as she would say, "I'm alright".

And finally, a few more pleasant shots of her checking out her backpack, and commenting that there's nothing in it.

I'm preparing to post some new yard pictures, so check out the Hoes blog if you care to!

Brenna Mega-Post

In an effort to make up for the lack of posts here recently, I present to you a mega-post of Brenna doing various things, including:

- Opening her Valnetine's Day gifts from Grandma and Grandpa H. She's very pleased with these, and we've already been using them in our yard and Grandma Becky's

- This past weekend I got Grandma Becky's garden ready for spring planting, and here's a shot of Brenna inspecting the rows to make sure they're the correct width and depth. She was very thorough with her inspection, walking back and forth along the rows until she was satisfied with what I had done.

- Here she is with cousin Rachel, preparing to plant seeds in the rows. She was very helpful in pushing the seeds into the hills and patting them down with the shovel she's holding here.

- In a totally unrelated note, here you'll find Brenna playing with her gumballs in her high chair. In the first shot she's marvelling at a bingo ball we found under the couch from our Christmas party. It takes very little to amuse this child.

Damn You, Facebook

Well, I've finally made it back to Blogland, and with only a few pictures in tow. For whatever reason, the camera and camcorder have not been handy lately when Brenna has been dancing around singing, or doing something else of interest. And I still need to rumage through our garage for my camcorder software, so I can upload some new videos. One of these days.

At any rate, a quick update from our neck of the woods

- It's gotten cold again, like it's winter or something. It was 35 this morning, and barely made it to 60 today, no complaints, give it a few more months and we'll be baking again. Over the last few days we got a little over an inch of rain, and my barrels are nearly full.

- We're dogsitting this week for the tight-rope walking, chainsaw juggling extraordinaire that Emily works for this time of year out at the Renassiance Festival. Her name is Stella, and she's a hoot. I'm guessing she's missing her owner about now, but he'll be back in two days.



- I have logged 23 miles of running on the treadmill so far this month, with a 4 mile jaunt this afternoon, the second of that length. My best 3 mile since I've gotten back to doing this on a regular basis has been a shade under 25 minutes, and my 4 mile today was around 34. I think I've broken through the wall now and feel pretty good getting out there just about every day, without waking up in excruciating pain, and I've almost elminated my 15 years worth of drinking belly, which is something as well.

Here's my one new Brenna shot to share, at least it's a good one.

That's all I've got for now, while Facebook has enabled me to get in touch with people I haven't spoken to in 15 plus years, it's made me lazy about uploading here on a regular basis, for that I humbly apologize.

No Warmth

Just last week it was in the low 80s and beautiful out. Now we're dealing with a different kind of beautiful, lots of rain (over an inch so far) and cooler temps (it's 48 this afternoon and windy).

This past week has been devoid of Brenna photo ops, as she's been under the weather. This weekend, while Emily slugged around in the mud at the Renaissance Festival, Brenna spent lots of time with me and Grandma Becky and Grandpa Ron. I didn't bother to take my camera with me on either day, oops!

So I can only leave you with a few views of the mountains around our house, the last two of the Superstitions dusted in snow, as seen from the front of our house.

Mid Week Brenna Update

Brenna has been fighting off a pretty bad cough, and hasn't been sleeping well, but hopefully she'll be on the mend soon.

Despite that, here are a few pictures for the last few days.

Here she is buckling her own belt on her swing, which she's been told she can only go out on when the sun's shining on it (too cold, otherwise). So she's constantly giving us updates now on whether the sun is shining on her swing. Nice to know.

Here she is out enjoying our 80 degree weather, out in the yard. Gotta protect those eyes from the blinding rays of the sun.

Here we are back inside, visiting.

And finally, being generally goofy, which is a talent of ours.

Never To Reveal

We all had a busy day yesterday. Brenna spent the afternoon going to a tea party and a princess party with Aunt Beth and Grandma Becky (and Aunt Tansy!). When we arrived at the princess party to pick her up, she was on stage in front of the masses twirling and posing for a camera person.

While Brenna was busy entertaining the masses, Emily and I went to a wedding in Mesa, did some shopping, and ate a few uninterrupted meals together. It was beyond fabulous.

I have no new Brenna pictures to share at the moment, so for your viewing pleasure I present to you... our toilet.

As you may recall, this is where our water closet stood as of early last week.

And here's the finished product.

Go Cardinals!

Don't You Know Who I Am?

Okay, sorry, another obscure lyric from a band you've probably never listened to (Metal Church). I've been doing this for over two years now, my originality on the subject header is waning.

Hey, I got some good Brenna shots tonight of her drawing on her easel. Not sure what this thing is, and when I asked her I didn't get a very clear answer (I don't think she knew either). The sun was setting behind her, which cast a nice light. The last shot is of her playing with her music box that Grandparents H got her a while ago. She's figured out how to crank the dial in the right direction to get the music to play.

A few more Brenna'isms from tonight:

- The first thing she told me when she got out of the car tonight was that I looked like Captain Crunch (Veggie Tales reference)

- Later in the evening, she kept repeating "Pajama party time, jumpin' around", from an absolutely horrible song featured on a Yo Gabba Gabba episode

- After bathtime, while playing with her in her room, she kept repeating "Get the sillys out", yet another Yo Gabba Gabba reference.

Emily had to attend a church staff meeting tonight, so I had the honor of spending some one on one time with Brenna, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And before I forget, the tile has been laid in the toilet room, and I've picked up the parts I need to gut and reinstall ye old royal throne. Once done with this, I have a storage rack to put together that will go over it, leaving a few minor things left to finish before the bathroom renovation is finally complete (including installing a new brushed nickel light fixture in the toilet room, and taking a sander to my horrible spackel job over the sink).

Not A Pot To Piss In

The stars have finally aligned, and I can revel in using one of my favorite one-liners in a blog subject. And now, with our bathroom devoid of a toilet, I can even proclaim it to the world. Like many other projects that intimidate me, I procrasticated forever on pulling the can out of our bathroom. This afternoon, for the lack of anything else interesting to do, I finally got around to this. The tank and seat are now adorning my back yard, and I can't be more excited about this. At any rate, here is what the closet room looks like now. As you can see, some painting and tile work are needed before I can get everything back in order. I managed to cut my finger on something hiding under the wax ring, but don't worry, unlike 18 years ago, I did NOT pass out at the sight of my own blood. I was very brave.

In other news, I'll be uploading some yard pictures to the Hoes blog, so check that out, if you care to.

This afternoon I made my third 10-mile bike ride over to Emily's parents, and that went well enough. The four or five miles that are uphill continue to be a struggle, but hopefully as time goes on it'll get easier. Maybe I should invest in a folding bike with gears, could come in handy, but then what would be the point of getting the exercise?

I'm just about fresh out of Brenna pictures, but here are a few more. The first is one of her drawing what she told us were planets on her easel. The second is another shot in her Flashdance outfit, watching TV.

A few more Brenna'isms for you:

- Playing with her shape-o-ball the other night, she struggled with finding the slot where the piece of pie fit. Giving up in frustration, she turned to me and asked "Where does this damn thing go?"

- Watching her 10th anniversary Thomas The Tank Engine DVD that Grandparents H got her for Christmas, she is enthralled by the snippets they show of the real life Thomas engine chugging through what looks like a field somewhere (yes, a real Thomas train exists, believe it or not), and gets giddy when they show it. Last night while we were getting dinner ready, while she was chuckling at the sight of the train, she exclaimed "That's killing me!"

- And tonight, leaving Emily's parents house after dinner, Brenna stated matter-of-factly to me, "I can drive the car, and you can ride in my seat". Ah, if only it worked that way.

Weekend Activities

We didn't do much this weekend. Went to IKEA and bought some more shelves for the garage (one of many unfinished projects around our house), spent some time lounging around the house, which you'll see here.

Brenna loves her tutu that she got from Grandparents H, and here she is sitting around in it. She was also playing with her Snap-n-Style Baby, multi-tasking, as it were.

I can't tell Brenna enough that the calomondens aren't ready to pick until they turn orange. If she sees one she can reach, she grabs it off the tree and inspects it, telling me "This calomoden isn't orange", it's a funny vicious cycle. And yes, she says calomonden. She's also fond of saying Eucalyptus and Saguaro.

Here she is watching TV, sporting a nifty outfit given to her by her cousin Rachel.

And here she is watching TV on her belly. If life were this easy.