Who's In The Cabinet?

It's Rin and his evil glowing eyes!

Why does Chi look so Guilty/Evil?

So Cute!

Landscaping on the Fourth of July

Frannie Awaits Mark's Return

Look @ Pete's freakishly flexible neck!

Estate Sale Fevor

Mark and I had a marathon estate sale binge yesterday and it was super fun. We were going to go to the Omaha Zoo, but instead hit a ritzy garage sale down in the "ridiculously big houses" neighborhood. I scored a stuffed panda, but otherwise it was pretty lame. From there we hit an estate sale in waldo that we totally bagged some awesome stuff at. It was 1/2 price, so we got a 10 dollar turntable, jazz records, some classy table linens, some cool asian tins, a framed chinese watercolor of kittens, a couple of decorative trays, a scarf, and a 70s stuffed owl. from there we happily drove all over chasing sale signs for about 3 hours. suprisingly the nicer neighborhoods had the least interesting stuff. in our opinion anyway.

it was funny how rabid people were at these sales though. I walked into a room and spotted an awesome quilt on a bed and commented on it to mark, some lady practically screeched "I BOUGHT THAT!! IT"S MINE!" lol. then later when we were leaving, i complemented her quilt and jokingly said "i'm so jealous! you totally scored!" so she clutched the quilt tighter and gave me a sour look. wow, okay weirdo.

anyway, we're hooked! we're going to scout out sales for next time in the paper and get up earlier. :)

Ilena aka: Squeely McSnufflesnort

Happiness

I am wrapping up my second week as a full time nanny and it's totally....awesome!!! I love hanging out with my little elfin baby "Smooshymuffinpants". Even when she's shrieking in my ear, it's cute because she snuffles and snorts.

I'm patting myself on the back. I think I found my niche. I'm fascinated every day, and never bored. I've been reading while she sleeps and i'm up to "Month Five" in "What to Expect The First Year". I'm all exited now that I actually have a reason to read baby books. I used to go to the "Parenting and Baby" section of Borders and feel like a weirdo childless lurker. lol.

I'm such a sap. :D

Out by the Speedway...YeeHAW!

Last nite we went out by the Kansas speedway to Cabellas (my own personal hell on earth, the insane collection of stuffed animal carcasses and "Gun Library" about sent me over the edge) so that Cyndie could return some hiking boots.

They've built a whole huge shopping area out there called "legends" so we ate and walked around and got some ice cream and watched the storms come in. It was pretty cool. I'm a big fan of big animal statues, hence the pictures.

Also, Mark has lost about 20 pounds since he wore those pants last, and lost them about 2 feet up the driveway, on the way to the front door as we came home, but decided he would just shuffle the rest of the way in like that. lol.

Sad Animals and Dumb People

The Kansas City Zoo is promoting the heck out of some Koalas that they are borrowing, so we were kind of jazzed to see some hardcore marsupial cuteness.

Alas, we were not only dissapointed, we were totally freaked out...in a bad way. They have this new "discovery barn" which is like a giant cement block echo chamber with a few different types of animals behind glass in very small, depressing cement block rooms. Their idea of setting up the koalas in comfort was throwing a couple of tree branches in and that's it. We couldn't really even see the poor koalas who were hunched behind a few meager leaves at the top of the "tree". And as well as screaming children sliding down a tube slide, this giant echo chamber was home to two giant mcaws who's screeching I thought was going to cause my eardrums to explode.

Anyway, our zoo sucks. i felt incredibly sad for the animals there.

p.s. the meerkats were pawing at their glass enclosure maniacally, as if they wanted us to help them escape. poor poor meerkats. :(

p.p.s. i think we were there on "dumb people day"...who seriously thinks its a good idea to shout at and mock the animals? and way to educate your children by telling them that a warthog is "Pumba" and that those rare endangered monkeys are "weird".

p.p.p.s. okay, i seriously do sound like a crabby old woman, so i have to add now that i did join the croud (if only in my head) in a colletive "ewwww" as a chimp ate it's own poop.

During & After

I don't have a "Before" because when he walked into the kitchen while i was making dinner, the first strip was already gone...

Nanny Phoebe

I moved my last day at The Firm up a week and am super psyched about it! And I got my first Nanny gig! yay! Mark's friend Chuck Norris (who is super awesome and not just cause his name is CHUCK NORRIS) and his wife Sandy have a four month old baby who I'm going to watch while Sandy studies for her Bar Exam for the next two months.

So my goals are to read lots of books about babies, take alot of pictures and detox from the two years i've spent as a Cube Zombie. :)

Upcoming events:

Friday: Olivia and Sophia dance recital
Saturday: Zoo w/ Mark and Robyn, another Olivia and Sophia dance recital, and hanging out wth Robyn some more
Sunday: bicycle riding maybe...

Escape from Cube

So I just put in my resignation at the firm. Something I've been dreaming about since about 6 months after i started working here and the excitement over the newness of an office job wore off. My last day will be the 31st.

I've signed up with a nanny agency and am hoping that they'll find a family for me soon. And I'm hoping that the desperation for money will force me into actually charging people for photography and that I'll look back on this move as a brilliant strategy that changed my life for the better. but even if it doesn't work out as i planned, nothing could be worse than what I would turn into if i stayed here much longer.

Wish me luck!

Phoebe

belated san fran post

While we were in sanfran, we kept a video blog, which I kept meaning to upload exerpts from onto this blog. But alas, I haven't sat down to do this yet. You really get a perfect idea of what it was like from the pictures…but there are a few events I for one reason or another didn't capture with pixels.

*We saw a homeless man pooping in a large trash bin on a very busy street. {SAD}

*A stoned guy coming back from "hippie hill" (wherever the heck that is) asked us for weed and then proceeded to give us the worst directions of all time to the Japanese Tea Garden in the park…which we promptly ignored. {STRANGE}

*We walked our pants off. {AWESOME}

*ate nothing but crab themed dishes one day and nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches on another. {FUN}

*we didn't buy anything but magnets, and a battery powered waving lucky cat because we are idiots, didn't take enough $$ and barely had enough money to eat with and get back to the airport on {idiots}

*phoebe is no longer afraid of flying!!! {TREMENDOUS}

*we discovered some very strange items for sale in Chinatown, including but not limited to: Ninja Band-aids, Jesus Band-aids, Candy Necklace Pasties and String Bikini, small knickknacks that portrayed different "positions" (wink wink) that scarily enough were right at child eye level and amazingly detailed, tons of painted posters featuring tattooed naked ladies, and a plethora of nudie mags right there next to other various "family friendly" souveniers. {GIGGLES}

*Dim Sum is so freaking Brilliant! We didn't even know what we were eating and didn't care! And we were the only english speaking people, not to mention the only caucasians in the place! It was like we went to hong kong! {SWEET}

That's all I can think of at the moment. I should go shuffle some papers now anyway as to simulate the sounds of me actually working. :D

Phoebe

Babysitting Liam

Indian Creek Trail 4/28

Mark Got New Glasses :)

Yay Cyndie!

Congratulations to Mark's sister Cyndie for winning a Graduate Assistant position in the Sociology Dept. at UMKC!

new stuff

We finally got a real dining room set and a cool new sidebar as well as a big new "chair and a half". Also, I had a crazy urge to paint the fireplace with magnetic paint and stick part of my impressive magnet collection to it. Just thought i'd share.

mmm...asparagus!

Our friend Jacob had a gig as Aspara'Gus' at a new health food market up north on Saturday so we piled into the car with his wife Jenni and their baby and drove up to show him some love.

San Francisco Pics on Flickr

Phoebe's Flickr Account

Pete, Liam & Phoebe

St. Patty's Day 2007

We got all festive this year! Green cupcakes, green beer, window paint and of course, a party. Cyndie played photographer earlier in the day and actually took a picture of me baking that didn't make me want to stab my eyes out! :D good job cyndie! Oh, and those are our friends Jacob & Jenni and their 3 month old gargantuan baby boy Liam.

-Phoebe

SanFran or Bust!

We're taking our Anniverary trip early and heading to San Francisco for Easter. Excitement! July 4th, is 10 years together and Oct. 12 is the 5 year wedding….but after running out of vacation days last August, and using most of this years days in jan/feb for the "cold that wouldn't go away" I don't think I can wait any longer!

We've made a list of things we really want to see, here's the rundown:

Chinatown
Japan Town
The Pacific Ocean
Muir Woods http://www.nps.gov/muwo/
Asian Art Museum http://www.asianart.org/
Ghiridelli Square
Pier 39
Alcatrez (I've seen it, Mark would be content with a boat ride around the bay that goes by it)
Golden Gate Park

And we're actually staying at the Fisherman's Wharf, so I don't think we'll be able to miss that.

If anyone has any ideas, let us know! We only have thurs thu Monday including travel time (we're flying of course) so we really want to get to all the "must-sees", even if they are cheesy and touristy. :)

Babysitting

We had a very exciting Sat. nite with Olivia and Sophia!

That's suppose to be Mark there with the blue dress and red hair. :)

Heart Up, Kidneys Down

I had my first acupuncture session last night! It was not at all what I expected, you seriously can't really feel the needles. I was almost dissapointed, is that weird? After having multiple tattoos and piercings, I was getting myself in the zone for some sort of pain, but I guess I didn't realize how incredibly thin those needles are. They are more like sharp piecies of hair really. Lol.

I'm skeptical, but after reading so much about it's benefits, especially in the area of PCOS and fertility…I thought I'd give it a go. Nothing can be worse than taking Dong Quai and Vitex(Chaste Berry) tinctures twice a day. (tastes like rotting celery)

The practioner gave me some chinese "six flavor tea pills" to take as well. I think these are suppose to do something to my yang, or my yin…now I can't remember. I'm even more skeptical of these. But If any of this stuff actually works, I'll be sure to let everyone know!

P.S. she asked me if i was in love after feeling my pulse, that my heart energy was very good. i said "of course!" :D awwwww....

Holy Crap!

Mark just accepted a new position as a Software Engineer at another firm (still in OP, KS). This is a HUUUUUGGGGEEEEE PROMOTION!!!

*freaks out and explodes into a cloud of glitter and baby bunnies and unicorns*

*dies from excitement*