Welcome home, springtime.

Oh, I know it's wishful thinking...but I couldn't help but pretend today. It was a beautiful, sunny 70 degrees. Adam had to work, but the rest of us spent the day with my family. Dad grilled the most amazing burgers, once again confirming that I could only ever be an ISH vegetarian. Mom and Dad were so excited to see the kids. We played and wished the cold would stay away for good. I even had to celebrate with a fruity cocktail in the sun. I did take pictures, but I gotta apologize for the quality. All I have to work with right now is my little Nikon Coolpix, which is driving me crazy. If I don't get to adjust my ISO like a normal person soon, I'm gonna go Christian Bale on someone. (The D90 will be mine....within days.) Anyway, we all look angelic, so that's a plus.











Thanks for a great day, guys!
Oh, do you want to see my latest purchase for the house? First, the story. My friend April and I were in our local Goody's a couple of weeks ago, and learned they would be closing down soon. Everything in the store was on sale, so said the huge sign on the door. Including furniture and fixtures. On the way out, the chandelier over in the Ashley Judd section caught my eye and I remembered always thinking that it was way to cool for Goody's. I ran back over to the service desk and asked about buying it. The lady kinda sighed, and said something like, yeah, everyone wants it. Sign up in this book. So I did, and forgot about it. Yesterday, Marlena calls me and the thing is still there. Apparently no one wanted it that badly. It was 100 bucks, and I screamed when she told me she could get it and bring it over. Adam took convincing, but agreed. Later that night, when the chandelier was about to make it's grand entrance, Adam mentioned how good it would be to have a light there over the stairs. Um, there's no light. He was like...what is this thing? To which I answered...art! It's not functional, but it's really freakin' cool looking. And here it is:

Hopefully we will have that bad boy hanging up soon. I own a little piece of the cheap clothing legacy that is Goody's department stores.

Thursday was Miss Mal's 6 month birthday. She turned the big .5. And I think she knows it, as she pretty much started sitting up that day. She is really close to holding her own bottle, too. And she is scarfing down the veggies. No crawling yet, but she gets around all right. Here are a couple more shots of her from the last few days:



Here's a good Charlie-ism for you, too. One that he may be upset with me one day for sharing...but hey, it's too hilarious and I can't resist.
Charlie (On the swing, being pushed my mom): "PattyPoo, you gotta stop pushing me so high! My balls tickle!"
C'mon, you know you just spit out your coffee a little.

Speaking of Charlie. Tomorrow is February the 9th. On that day, Charlie Fekadu will have lived in the US exactly as long as he lived in Ethiopia. All the days after that, he will have been here longer. I don't know why it's such a weird thing for me, but it is, and I have been thinking about it for days. I'm sure I will post more later on all those incredibly sappy and monotonous feelings.

Speaking of feelings. I felt amazing when I realized today that I have lost 12 pounds.

Posting this blog was like a breath of fresh air. Take that, Facebook!