thelongwells.com

Wow, I have really been bad about posting here the last few months. I will spare you the excuses, and I will even spare you the possibly empty promises of more frequent postings in the future. I will just give you a brief update on what everyone's been up to:

Aaron has been super busy with work, and spent a lot of time traveling in the last month for his gig with the Kentucky Derby and for a conference. He is doing great and lookin' fine (and he didn't ask me to say that, I came up with it all on my own!).

Jack is sharp as a tack and really honing that sense of humor. He is starting to read and surprises us every now and then by randomly telling us what signs say. He's been keeping busy with lots of puzzles and books and making friends everywhere he goes.

Oliver is working on learning lots of new words, and my favorite thing he does now is shout out "happy! happy! happy!" when he's having fun. Now that he can keep up with Jack's shenanigans, he is less of Mama's Boy, but he still finds some time every day to snuggle.

I have nothing to report on myself really. I have felt really busy, but I couldn't tell you where my days go. When I have a spare moment I have been using it at my sewing machine, and I have every intention of having an amazing vegetable garden this summer but so far have been a colossal failure in that particular endeavor. Eh. 

I must be getting old, because today I totally chastised a teenager that I do not know at all about her careless driving (she backed out of a parking space and into my parked front bumper about 20 yards away, causing 0% damage but 1000% annoyance). Not only would the most cursory of glances in her rearview mirror have prevented this, but she backed so far out of her parking space that I had time to lay on my horn for more than a full second before she hit me. Then she didn't even bother to get out of her car. When I checked the kids and then got out of my car to check the bumper, she rolled down her window:

DUMB GIRL: Um, is your car, like, ok?

ME: Yes, my car is fine, but you really should be more careful. There is no way that you shouldn't have been able to see me. I have my two kids in the car!

DG: Um, I'm sorry, but like, I was totally getting yelled at on my phone.

ME: (jaw falls in disbelief) Then, like, why didn't you stay in your perfectly fine parking spot?

DG: So, everything's ok then? I'm gonna leave now.

Seriously. So annoying. When did this happen to me/the youth of today? Anyway, I know you fine folks don't come here just to hear me complain, so I have included a super cute picture of the boys in Fountain Park from our trip to AZ. Plenty more where that came from, if and when I ever get my act together. Drive safe!

Oli has no fear, and therefore gets the most amazing scrapes and bruises. This is an imprint from the corner of a leather ottoman. It's not that we don't try to protect him, he's just your average one year old with delusions of invincibility!

I'm not sure who was most into this, my mom, my cousin Rachael, or Oliver.

mmmm... turkey.

In 24 hours yesterday, we received over 37 inches of snow. That's over an inch per hour all day and all night. We have to thank Gordon again for the snowblower!

See the whole Blizzard 2008 photo gallery and slideshow at Flickr.

Finally! A picture where all four of us look happy at the same time! (Actually, the photographer had to switch some heads around to make this possible, but that's why he's the photographer and we're not.) We bought a print of this that is now hanging in our main hallway and I just have to beam with pride every time I walk by.

Photo by: Artisan Portrait, Post Falls, ID