[i] LoveLife

Time and a half.

The weather around these parts has been awesome. And by awesome I mean 24C/75F and sunny. And breezy with the kind of breeze that sort of just skims your body like butterfly kisses. And cool enough at night that you can sleep with the windows open and still snuggle up in the covers. And chilly enough in the morning that you need a sweater. Or a blanket on your lap if you're enjoying your coffee outside. Ooooooh, man it's really, really nice. Makes me smile. I love this. This shot is the barely cloudy sky through the sun roof.
I got a lot of emails about the white watch in July's Bulletin Board. It's awesome. You can find it here. I haven't figured out how to work it yet, but it's comfortable. It's also a great price. It's from Roots and I love Roots.

SLEEP TRAINING: The book that's been working the best for me is the Sleep Easy Solution. It might not be for everyone, but it's starting to work for Penn. She's getting up out of habit and needing a bottle to soothe herself back to sleep. Every 45 minutes. All frickin' night long. Totally my own wrong doing and I need to help her learn to soothe herself so that she can be well rested and grow strong. And so that I can get some good sleep and be a better person. So far - she's not all that happy about it, but getting better.

Today: We are meeting some new friends for chatting and walking (Hi Brandy!) and then we are doing the usual kind of thing. Working on naps and making healthy whole food dinners and taking kids and dogs for walks. I've pretty much perfected the art of walking two kids and two dogs and I like it. We need to stop at the art store for tempra paint because tomorrow we are having an outdoor painting party. Oh, that sounds good.

GO!

Ouch.

Super ouch actually. A great Tuesday ended with my tooth being yanked out. It was kind of anticlimactic because the pulling of the tooth literally took about 5 minutes. It's all the after junk that's kind of icky/painful. BUT better than it was - so bring on the healing. Also, bring on the three cheers that my teeth are fixed up and happy again. After almost a decade of tooth-unhappiness. I love my new found dentist. Actually - I think I was waiting my whole life to meet a uber hip and cool dentist that doesn't scare the bejeezuz out of me. She's fantastic. I love her.

And my mouth is happy and sore. Well, mostly pretty sore. But healing.

Today: Oh my goodness. WE ARE GOING TO DO NOTHING. I'm too pooped and throbbing. Last night was Night 2 of my sleep training with Penn... I'm tired, but I'm happy to see her improving a little. She's doing great. Anything I can do to help her get better rest is worth doing. She's the sweetest little thing (okay she's not all that little). My face hurts and I'm craving Rice Krispie squares which is definitely not on the list of soft-foods-for-a-week. Nor is coffee. Or alcohol.

Oh my god, this is going to be a long week! GO!

Oh, Norman.

Hi Tuesday. I didn't manage to make painting time yesterday, but I DID EXERCISE though. Something about the 300lb woman chatting with me on the front walk asking me if I was pregnant while she patted my (significantly smaller than HERS) belly. OUCH. She's lucky that I'm a slow thinker because all I could come back with was "Nope, not pregnant - I'm just fat." Why would I say that? Why could I not think of something with more wit and zing? BUT, I DIGRESS. This little painting is from Sunday. It's for Dan. It's a little something that I'm working on that will reappear sometime over the summer months but is not what I would consider a finished piece. It's a quick sketch of Norman.
Norman is our 5 month old French Bulldog puppy. We're finally over our peeing-in-the-house issues and our peeing-in-the-kennel problems. We're even over our crying-all-night-long festivus, too. I'd have to say that he's settled in so nicely here that I can't believe we stressed out about this decision in the first place. He's just right. He's a comical little fart. He's wonderful with both of the girls. He's terrific with Crash. He's good with the neighbours, too. He's definitely a chilled out puppy and we are certifiably in love with him and his little BIG attitude. He fits in perfectly here. Just proves it: ihe right dog finds you.

Actually, make that the right DOGS find you.

Today: We are off to the kiddie pool with our friends to enjoy summer. We have all sorts of other things to do, but right at the very, very top of that list is getting everyone in the house exercised, fed and feeling 100%. Sounds simple enough. I have an appointment at 7pm to HAVE MY SORE TOOTH PULLED. I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not anxious about it. THEY ARE PULLING MY TOOTH OUT! BUT I am completely looking forward to HEALING and getting on with things.

I am going to enjoy some extra coffee. GO!

July Bulletin Board

Hi Monday. Good times here today because DAN HAS THE DAY OFF. That means I am going to try to zip away and paint. Maybe I will exercise AND PAINT at the same time to maximize the pure wonderfulness of this situation. Maybe I will exercise, paint AND SLEEP tandemly because if I don't do them all at the same time - I'm gonna have to pick just one. Eeeeek. Terrific weekend around here. Good friends and bbq's and all kinds of goodness like that. This Bulletin Board is definitely reflective of the pace of summer. Drinking great wine (Yali is delicious!), enjoying berries and buying books that I will never finish reading because WHO HAS TIME FOR READING when you are entertaining two small people all day long and trying to keep two dogs from eating up the backyard? Oh well, my intentions are good.

Today: I want to paint. AND I have emails to catch up on. I have two print projects to hammer out. I should probably exercise. I'm also going to take the dogs for a walk SANS children so that they know that they are important members of this establishment, too. SWEET DEAL.

First, we drink coffee. GO!

Summertime and the living's easy.

This girl tribe loves summer. (Thanks for the swim Nicole & Lucas!) Happy Weekending.