Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

I will admit it -I'm kind of bored. Sure, I have things to do, but invariably they take a lot of time, concentration, or not in the area that the kids are. In the evening, then, once the kids are in bed there is so much I want to do that I don't do any of it. I'm starting to think about having a babysitter come and I'll hide away in the basement, just to do some of the things I want to do. This includes stuff for school, so it's not like I want just all leisure time. :) Roman, on the other hand, has had an awesome summer and it gets better. He has been doing a playground program every morning with his best neighbor friend, and occasionally will play with another kid down the street as well. He and neighbor play almost every afternoon, too. When they're not, it's because we're off at the library, or out of town. This weekend he is going to my parents' for a couple days along with his cousins, and he asks every morning "is it Thursday yet?" W...

It was two years ago tonight - around 11:30pm, approximately - that the double line showed up on the home pregnancy test telling us that Charlie had been created. I can remember that night like it was yesterday. The shock, the tears, the unbelieving, the shock, making Doug read the instructions, more tears when he read "does not show false positives." I'm sure there were some choice oaths sworn as well. I remember laying in bed next to Doug, both of us staring at the ceiling, basically saying.... "oh, shit." We had our foster daughter coming in two days, and never in a million years did we expect a pregnancy. Looking back at the pregnancy, all 30 weeks of it, I do feel bad that I didn't share it more with Doug and our families. I was really unhappy about it. But when my dr. went digging through my abdomen, opened up my uterus, and said "Well, hi there, Charlie!" before he was even out, I couldn't wait to meet him. To hear his first cry (especi...

Roman (frustrated): "Why does everyone in my family, mom and dad's family, like golf?" Doug: "Because it's awesome!" Roman: "No, it's not!" Amy: "What is awesome, Roman?" pause, and then Roman : "The universe."

It's been a great summer so far. Much different than I'm used to. Even when it was only Roman, he went to daycare a couple days a week so I had time to myself. Last summer, Charlie was still a lump and I still made Roman have "quiet time." This summer is the first where I have had two bundles of energy and can squeeze maybe an hour of time for myself. Charlie is beginning to add words to his vocab. We hear sounds now that resemble "all gone" "blue" (as in Blue's Clues) and "thank you." I swear he called Roman "Ro-ro" today. He also appears to be understanding us even better now, scurrying upstairs when we say "snack" and the like. Today he wandered into his room when I suggested a nap. He is our little spider-man, with a huge attraction to spiderwebs specifically. He will pull cobwebs out of corners and wrap webs around his fingers and inspect them closely, then wipe them on his shirt. I caught him inspecting one ...

Here's another project I worked on this evening. It sort of bums me when you put lots of techniques and work into a picture and it looks, generally, the same... although this is much more "brown" than the original very green tree. I just love this shot, which I took of the silver maple in our front yard by lying on the deck (while Charlie crawled over my tummy). And I'm really liking the new fonts I've been downloading!

I have been waiting for months to have the free time to take an online class for scrapbooking. I'm not much for paying for them (yet) but wanted to sample a couple. I signed up for a free one last November but really it was just a bunch of downloads. The one I signed up for currently is from Jessica Sprague , who is quite a talented digital scrapbooker. Her class is titled "Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects." It's a 2-weeker learning all kinds of cool Photoshop techniques. Some I was already familiar with, one I had been dying to know how to do but couldn't find an easy tutorial, and a couple I am really playing with for the first time. The photo below is one I really like - using texture, blending, and type on a photo. Pretty excited about this!

Doug is laid off (again) this week. No, it's good! Well, not good in general, but he has gotten lots of things accomplished. Replaced front brakes on my car and rotated the tires, rotated the tires on his car, we both cleaned out and donated stuff from the storage room, and he also got started on hanging a ceiling fan in Roman's room (needing a part that Home Depot didn't have). He did lots in the yard, too. Oh, and replumbed the sink in the basement and replaced the innards of the toilet downstairs also. And no, he's not for rent! Charlie said "duck" appropriately today, as in the bird. He also, I forgot to mention, says hi, hello, and bye-bye. I think "boo" might be spoon. He loves birds, watches them fly and raises his arm up to the sky saying "ooh!" We hung a homemade bird feeder in the front yard (out of a milk jug) and Doug saw a robin using it today. Very exciting. Roman continues to be, well, Roman. Plays hard all day and has meltdo...

Roman can now ride a bike without training wheels. Well, a small bike, at least. Looks like a clown on a tricycle, but he's very proud of himself. Charlie has learned the word "go." He now uses the following recognizable words consistently: Mama, Daddy, up (for both up and down), wa-wa (water), uh-oh, kay (for okay), and go. There are some sounds he makes regularly but we can't figure out what he means. Charlie did order a taco at dinner Friday night. Roman had ordered one, and Charlie looked up at the waiter and said plain as day, "taco!" Funny boy. We got him a quesadilla, and he ended up eating a hot dog. Stinker.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Here's to securing the Blessings of Liberty!