St. Louis

Unfortunately, Rosie & Jeff were unable to make it to St. Louis so Cyndie went with us instead. We had a radtastic good time and took a lot of silly pictures!


"Come be refreshed" at the City Museum!

I'm at a loss on this one...

Har har! big underwear!!

Big Empty Room? check! we MUST dance!

Mark defaces the wall of ...defacement?

Cyndie impersonates an old woman with her pocketbook, going down a slide. lol.

Mark had to lift me up for this, and I almost pulled the panther down with us. we're smart!

Mark was very hungry at this point...

Gaze upon the awesomeness of walrus mosiac!

Phoebe likes shiny reflective surfaces...alot.

Turtle Pile!

The Arch

That's just soda right Cyndie?

This is what mark thinks of St.Louis's local microbrew. KC's Boulevard RULEZ!

View from our hotel room, pretty awesome!

At the Science Center!

Baby Talk

After giving nature a year to do it's thing, I finally realized that it wasn't going to happen as "naturally" as I hoped. I was really frustrated with my doctor as well, who was about as communicative as a rock.

I started the fertility drug Clomid last month, and then switched to a new doctor who is pretty awesome so far. We're basically starting from scratch I guess though, which flustered me a little considering I've gone through acupuncture, Chinese herbs, herbal supplements, 3 different ultrasounds, an endometrial biopsy, countless blood work, and months and months of taking my temp. every fracking day and charting everything my body does.

So, on to the next phase I guess. NewDoctor is on a mission. new tests, more procedures, blah blah blah. Thursday I go in for a "HSG" in which they shoot dye into my tubes and x-ray them. Thank god our insurance covers at least all the diagnostic stuff. I'm trying not to worry about the other stuff NewDoctor was wanting to do that insurance doesn't cover. I'm hoping to hold off on the more aggressive options as long as I can, but they only let you take the drugs for so long before they start in with the AI and in-vitro. NewDoctor was pretty confident that she could get it done with at least just a couple of rounds of the AI, but I guess we'll wait and see. And that's the most aggravating part, waiting to see what happens. I'm a basket case! but that's really nothing new though is it? lol. :D

We're going to try to keep busy and hopefully distract ourselves a little, going to St. Louis this weekend for our 5 year wedding anniversary and to hang out with my sister Rosebud and her husband Jeff. I'm pretty psyched!

Photo Grab Bag

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Mark is now FIFTY POUNDS lighter! and still going! Yay Mark!!!

Chi and the multi-pane sunbeam

Labor Day Lunch w/ Chuck , Sandy, & Baby Ilena

Vamos!

My temp nanny gig finished up on Friday, a few weeks early. It was fun and I was sad to leave since I was just getting in the swing of things with a two year old. I still have the songs from "Dora the Explorer" and "Go Diego Go" in my head. lol. I learned some Baby Sign language too!

Anyway, I'm taking the week for projects around the house and running errands and such. After that, I still have over a month to kill with temp jobs. bleh. :(

I started the weekend by painting the kitchen walls (the last room in the house to paint! yay!) and now I'm working on all the cabinets and trim. I'll definitely post some before and after pics when I'm done, just to proclaim my supreme awesomeness. :D

Actually, the supreme awesomeness award goes to Mark, who has now lost a whopping 40 pounds!!! He switched from running to the elliptical machine because of knee problems and he's up to like 7 miles a day or something crazy like that. He is pretty amazing.

Oh ya, and Mark's 32nd birthday week officially starts this Friday and runs through the following Sunday. The 5th is his big day, just FYI! Yes, around the Tooley house, we do a WHOLE WEEK. It's really the only way we can sufficiently celebrate each other's existence, because we are pretty much redonkulously in looooooove. :)

Family Reunion 2007 - Pittsburgh, PA

We had a super radtastic time in Pittsburgh :) It was an awesomely successful family reunion in my opinion, and I can't wait for all of us to get together again. I feel pretty blessed.

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures since I felt like I was in a dream pretty much the whole time. I wish now that I would have snapped some of Jana cutting Mark's hair in her kitchen, and of Sugar the itsy bitsy pup, who I wanted to stuff in my bag and run away with. but anyway, here are the pics I did manage to get. enjoy. :)

We rode the incline up Mount Washington, got some ice cream...
and an awesome view of the city

Rosebud, my sister

Chris, my brother
The Mattress Factory

Ashley & Chris

Jana, My Mom

The Andy Warhol Museum

@Bar 11

uh oh

Mark's knee says "NO!"

ZOMG

Mark is up to 3 miles a day. I'm in awe. :)

Spoke too soon...

so i THOUGHT that a sabbatical was in my near future, but apparently not. the nanny service offered me a temporary assignment starting next Monday and running through the beginning of Sept. and i just can't turn it down. I'd feel too guilty not making any money for that long.

news update

Starting in Aug. I'm going to have about a two month 'sabbatical' and then I'm going back to nanny for Ilena in October.

I'm so excited that things are working out so awesomely. I really love the Norris clan and i was feeling so bummed that I might have to go work for some rich people in Mission Hills and make alot of money. lol. but i'd be miserable. and i'm on a journey of happiness, not $$$! right? right!!

Mark just got a part-time job at his tattoo shop, Rose Tattoo Parlor, in the River Market. This of course on top of his 9-5. He's basically working for tattoos, and to meet alot of VERY interesting people. :D He's very psyched about it. Also, Mark has lost almost 30 pounds so far people!! He's actually RUNNING!!! HOLY CRAP!!! he's up to about 2 miles A DAY!! I can't even believe it! seriously you guys, I've been attached to mark like a barnacle for 10 years, and this is a pretty amazing development! he's totally my hero!

We are taking a trip to Pittsburgh, PA Aug. 9 - 13 to meet my mom, Jana and my half-brother Chris. My half-sister Rosie is traveling from Cape Girardeau and will meet us there. We've met up with Rosie once a couple of years ago in Kansas City but this is going to be for the most part, a first time family reunion for us. Pretty Exciting!

We're still planning on trying to start a family of our own soon, but I think it's going to be a long road for us. There have been pretty much nothing but tests so far so it's been a bit nerve racking. Anyhoo, don't mean to get all sad on you, but send some prayers or whatever our way! :)

Bleech!! A Gnat just flew up my nose! grosssss!!! lol.

Love,
Phoebs (Mark says "hullo!")

Sharing Art

I was thinking about our trip to the Kemper and how I was sad that I didn't have any pictures. I remembered this particular painting because both Mark and I really loved it. So I thought I'd share.

Jules de Balincourt, Blind Faith and Tunnel Vision, 2005,
oil, enamel, spray paint on panel, 78x58 inches

And since I was thinking about Modern, I thought about how, in the new Bloch Building at the Nelson, a guard was sort of jerky to me as we were looking at this pretty fantastic installation:

These are pictures I pulled up from the web, so that's not exactly how it looked at the Nelson but it was super cool nevertheless.

Excerpt from the Nelson-Atkins' website:

Kiki Smith: Constellation

June 9, 2007—October 28, 2007

Kiki Smith’s Constellation is a meditation on the infinity of space and our human desire to know and tame it – to make it our own. In this room-sized installation, the artist brings the vast dome of heaven down to earth, where cast glass animals and stars sparkle and glow at our feet. Arranged upon a plane of night-blue Nepal paper, these miniature symbols of distant constellations awaken wonder and remind us of the mystery that compelled ancient astronomers to chart and name them.

The interrelatedness of nature and its parts is a pervasive theme in Kiki Smith’s work. She explores the human and animal, the celestial and earthly, the macrocosm and microcosm. Like the poet, mystic, or natural philosopher, she approaches our universe with reverence. Like the contemporary scientist, she is driven by a desire to understand.

yeah, those little dark specks? those are cast bronze "animal scat". :D

Just Curious

Does anyone read this blog? Please comment to let us know how we're doing! :)

Sunday Afternoon Art Explosion

Last weekend we took our first ever trip to the Kemper Museum of Modern Art, which was pretty cool, but not very big. I came away with some pretty bitchin magnets too. This weekend, we thought we'd go to the Nelson, since we hadn't been since they redid it. It was pretty awesome. No magnets, but lots of picture. :)

Asian Art Reigns Supreme !

That's Marble!

Stained Glass Ruelz!!

My Favorite Spot in the Nelson

Frannie Hearts His Daddy