Brotherly love...
Carsten very happy with his Pinata loot
Aydin swinging at the Pinata
Die, Dora, die!
Parachutes are always a hit
Yes, there were freaking ponies, and as you can tell, Aydin was thrilled
Giddy up!
Aydin flailing himself into the ball pitA few pics from our annual trip to Destin... courtesy of Aunt Meme.
On the Boardwalk...
Jazz hands!
Kisses make it all better.
Carsten playing in the flooded street after IKE
Aydin enjoying the water, too...
Bath time in the sink after street swimming (not enough water pressure to fill the bath tub)
Papa's b-day card - Carsten copied "PAPA" on top of where I wrote. Pretty impressive for a 3 1/2 year old, huh?
Very excited, as you can see...
I hate to admit it, but most every year when I vote, I tend to vote a straight ticket... Democrat, in my case. Aside from the "big" races, like President, Mayor, and Governor, I don't do much research on the rest of the candidates/races. Though I identify with most democrat ideals and consider myself one, it's always made me a little uneasy voting for ALL democrats on a ballot without even knowing anything about the people I was voting for. So, this year, with the encouragement of my oh-so-perfect-civilian of a husband, I decided to educate myself. It was actually quite empowering and took only about 30-45 minutes of my time. The League of Women Voters Guide makes it incredibly easy! The guide lists all races (national & local), gives basic info about each candidate, and asks a few basic questions of them. You can click on the link below, select the voters guide for Harris County, and download it.
David Sedaris (writer/comedian) on undecided voters: “I look at these people and can't quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention? To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it? To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked."
Practice went well... short, but that's to be expected for a bunch of 3 year olds. Carsten enjoyed it, I guess, until he got thirsty and lost interest. It was a hoot watching them all kick the ball, run sprints, etc. It should be an interesting season. :-)
Carsten and his friend Aidan are on the same team. Here they are in the huddle trying to come up with their team name. As you can tell, they look less than concerned. They are "The Power Rangers". Carsten doesn't even know what that is. Some very loud and boisterous kid insisted on it. Carsten could care less.
I went to the gym this morning to work out on the stair stepper. They have 4 different TV's going all on different channels. 3 of them were local news programs - all working very hard to scare the crap out of people regarding Ike. One of them was tuned to MSNBC, which was covering the anniversary of 9/11. At first, I was enveloped in the Ike coverage. I had looked over at MSNBC a few times, but saw Bush speaking, so I quickly turned my attention (this is a natural reaction of mine in order to keep my dislike for him from boiling up from my core). Not to mention, I think a lot of the time they exploit the memory of 9/11 in the news media for ratings on it's anniversary. It irritates me to an extent. I believe those that lost their lives in 9/11 should never be forgotten, but their stories shouldn't serve as 'entertainment' every year on this date.
At one point, I turned my attention to MSNBC and realized that they were playing the actual footage from 9/11 in real time. As I worked out and listened to my ipod, I started watching the coverage (the subtitles were scrolling across the screen). At one point, I saw the second plane crash into the WTC. At that exact instant, The Beatles "All You Need is Love" was playing on my ipod. At that moment, my eyes filled with tears and I was unable to stop them from streaming down my face.
I really like this shot. Unfortunately, this doesn't come across on blogger as good as it really is. In the original, his eyes are strikingly blue. If you click on the pic and enlarge it, you can kind of tell...
Permanent. Pink. Marker. Everywhere.
Carsten's lucky he lived to see another day.
Some damage not pictured:
About 1/3 of the screen of Danyel's 50" TV scribbled on... back panels of the TV... surround sound center channel speaker... a few more places on the wall.... downstairs gate... kitchen cabinets & drawers... leather couch... coffee table... dishwasher door... oven door...
It's amazing what kind of damage a 3 1/2 year old can do in a matter of 10-15 minutes while Mommy takes a shower. After Carsten saw my genuine reaction of sheer horror and shock, he immediately realized he was in for it. He just kept apologizing... desperately. I was in such shock, I couldn't say a word for a few minutes. After my anger rose up, I spanked him and sent him to his room. I could hardly look at him for at least another 30 minutes. I couldn't talk to him either... I didn't trust myself to not say something that could have led to a visit by CPS.
Holy Hell.
Believe it or not, I managed to get it off of 2/3 of the surfaces, but I am having a heck of a time getting it off a few things. If you ever need any tips on getting permanent marker off of anything (tv screens, walls, wood furniture, door knobs, etc.), let me know! If anyone has any suggestions for the leather or upholstery, please pass them along...
This is a rainbow (actually two if you look closely) that came after a rainstorm a couple of weeks back. Carsten thought it was so cool. I am almost positive that this is the first time he has seen a real rainbow. It was really beautiful. I never tire of seeing a beautiful rainbow arched across the sky...
Don't Judge. I needed to check my email. Obviously, he found plenty to keep him occupied.
These were taken with my new Canon Digital Rebel XSi. It's a whopping 12.2 megapixels and has so many functions, it makes my head spin. The pictures are phenomenal. If you zoom in on the faces, you can see every little detail as clear as day. I added a soft focus to the pics of Carsten, but they were also as sharp as a pin.
Aern't my boys so handsome??! Those blue eyes of Aydin's just kill me...
