Baby Tilly

I was editing some pictures I took recently of baby Tilly and had to share a couple...because LOOK at those eyes! Seriously. Gorgeous. She wouldn't go to sleep for anything so after three hours or so of trying we called it quits and will try again soon to get some sleeping ones. Amy and Zach, you make the cutest-wide awake-babies ever! :)

The dryer

One day Brad and I heard a noise. We were newly weds living in our condo on the top floor. I had heard something similar earlier so we intensely listened to figure out where it was coming from. We soon heard it again and both ran to our bathroom where our washer and dryer lived. Again we heard it and this time I jumped up on the toilet while Brad started to poke around. We, or rather He, narrowed it down to our dryer and were both a little freaked out (some more then others) about what thing could be in our dryer. Brad flung the door open and jumped back! No creature came lunging out so he inched forward to get a better look. Empty. We heard it again and it was definitely coming from the dryer, just the back of the dryer where the ducting was. I was certain it was a mouse.

Info somewhat related to the story: Mice are my nemesis. They have tortured this country girl as long as I can remember. They ate my Easter candy, they ruined my sweater, they ran across my bare feet, and certainly the most damaging, my brother ran after me while holding dead mice by their tails. It's a real shocker why I dislike them so.

So back to the dryer. Brad turned it on hoping to scare what ever it was, out the way it had come in. All we heard was a loud clank and then silence. Brad pulled out the dryer while I stood on the toilet letting out squeals of paranoia every 20 seconds (it would know I didn't have socks on and run for my feet!) He took out the ducting hose and found a poor little dead bird missing a head. We had killed it when Brad turned on the dryer (we didn't know it would cut the poor things head off!)and for the record we felt really bad (some more then others)and super grossed out (some more then others). Who wants to dry their clean clothes where a bird was brutally murdered? After a lot of Clorox wipes we felt a little better (some more then others). So let that be a lesson to you on this sixth day of April two thousand and ten. Do not, under any circumstance, turn on your dryer to scare creatures out. It won't end pretty.

Have you ever killed a woodland creature via your dryer? The bird goes on my list of a rabbit, a raccoon, and a baby deer :(

P.S. The way I worded the above paragraph, I feel inclined to stress the dryer wasn't involved in any of the other incidents. Cause that would be weird. I mean, killing one animal in your dryer is one thing....but four animals would definitely be considered a problem.

Official taster

Betty Crocker isn't a real person. I didn't believe it the first time I heard it either. It is, however, true and makes me feel totally scammed by sneaky cookbook executives.

I have liked to bake as long as I can remember and have spent countless hours reading Crocker cookbooks. My first recipe was a shake I made up for my all too lucky Dad. I'm guessing I was around 4 since my parents were still together. The ingredients: strawberry powdered milk, an egg, flour, and water (and who knows what else). I remembering being too impatient for him to come inside so I took it outside where he was and watched him take the smallest fake sip possible. He told me how good it was with a little pat on my back. I excitedly told him how I made it and I'm sure he excitedly threw it out on the grass when I wasn't looking. Remember the part where I put a raw egg in it? You have to be pretty sneaky as a parent to unload a shake under such watchful eyes. Not as sneaky as being a cookbook executive however.

Brynner also loves loves loves to bake, or 'make' as he calls it. He has made up his own recipe too, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of vanilla. Luckily he has just told us about it and not actually made it and eagerly watched as I took the smallest fake taste possible. I'm sure the day will come that I'll have to take fake bites because he'll mistaken salt for sugar, Tbl for tsp, or better yet, I'll find a rubber band in his peach cobbler.

Until then, he can be my official taster of all things delicious. It's a job he takes very seriously.

The Bowling Alley

I have two questions. Where do bowling alley's get their carpet? And how do I get some? I'm telling you, carpet with stars and planets in every shade of the rainbow would definitely make my house more exciting. Brynner loves to bowl! He was pumped as soon as he saw the exciting carpet. He got super-duper excited when he caught on that no matter how many times he threw the ball, it would magically reappear. He had so much fun looking for the ball to come back he could hardly hold his composure when he saw it! He would scream and point "Daddy's Ball!" or "Brynner's Ball!" with as much gusto on the 50th time as the 1st. Brynner really loved bowling on Friday!

I tried to bowl a couple weeks ago with just Brad and I. I quickly learned bowling and pregnant belly's don't play well together. It felt like I pulled a stomach muscle....maybe even two stomach muscles. Which was totally lame because Brad and I had some sick bets riding on that game and all had to be thrown out. I already had a handicap (you know, like golf) just to make it fair between us, so add on two possibly pulled stomach muscles and my odds were not good. I won't be bowling anytime in the near future unless I can use those ramps they have for kids. Brynner scored a 91 on his first game and a 90 on his second using the ramp. That blows my average 80 something out of the water. I may practice ramp exclusive bowling even after the baby is here because you can't argue with those results.

You know what else you can't argue with? Bowling alley's carpet being exciting. Because it is.

(We forgot the camera-dang it! Not a big deal though cause I pretty much look like this when we bowled....except for the clothes and the hair and the body. We're both of the female gender however!)

ABC's

Some friends/family want to hear Brynner do his ABC's but haven't been able to because my kid is not a performer-at all! I finally got him to say it all the way through this afternoon to the camera. It helped that I turned the screen so he could see himself while he did it. I think when he first learned them he was around 20-21 months. It was sometime before his second birthday-I at least remember that much. Now if only I could get up the guts to start the potty training thing....we'll see.

It's a......

sideways picture of my sweet little GIRL!! Yeah!!!! We're still celebrating over at the Roska house and will be for a few days. I'm gonna have a girl!? I don't know why I'm so surprised. Probably because Brad came from a 4 boy family I just figured we'd have all boys too. If you see Brad around town give him a high five and/or two thumbs up. He'd done good.

To taste the impossible taste

I have neglected my poor fridge in the recent past. A good two months of neglect will do wonders. After a while I would imagine the Ghostbuster's fridge scene taking place each time I dared peek in. And wouldn't you know? A nasty cold I caught came to the rescue! My inability to taste or smell ANYTHING for the past three days suddenly had a purpose. Lickedy split-all monster making mold had been disposed of and I didn't even blink an eye! You have to understand, I have this super duper hyper active nose which would have forced me to retreat outside at least once during the cleaning out process. But! I got this blessed cold instead. So now that it's purpose has been fulfilled, I ask for it to kindly leave.

Perhaps I'm being ungrateful....it did come in handy today in the diaper changing party Brynner invited me to. A surprise party actually and all I could think of is how in the world had he pulled that one off? Nose temporarily out of service-that's how.

Everyday I wake up with hope that I may taste my delicious Cinnamon Life cereal in all it's fiber cinnamon-y crunchiness. Until then, you're more then welcome to hang out and get your own *fridge-cleaning-out cold.

*The side effect are mild and may cause the inability to breath, taste food, and engage in your daily activities. A small percent of people have reportedly stopped eating. Talk to your doctor if you stop eating, this may lead to a more serious disorder like death.