Technical Difficulties

I have to apologize for radio silence. I've had major laptop problems for the past several days. That normally just means composing from a different computer, but my pictures are ALL conveniently located on this laptop, and my backups don't have the newest pics yet. Ah, got to love technology. We depend on it way too much, but it pays the bills so I can't do too much complaining.

As a synopsis before I can post pictures, I'll just say that the weekend was somewhat uneventful and eventful at the same time. Our heat wave snapped on Friday, giving us some much needed relieve from the very hot weather we had been having. For some of the country, 90's is no big deal, but here, it's a bit of a shock and houses aren't built with A/C, so you can begin to understand our ranting & raving. It was almost too drastic of a transition though, dropping almost 30 degrees in one day (actually in just a couple of hours), and now the colds and allergies are kicking in around here. I am already missing the heat...don't know when it will be back.

Saturday, Ian and I went to get Shawn's Father's Day present... as long as no one tells him (and he doesn't venture here for the next 2 weeks), I can leak that we went to a "paint yourself pottery" place....and when I say "paint yourself" I mean it both ways. These places are an absolute practical joke. $20 for a coffee cup...granted, I know it will be a priceless piece of art to cherish forever and ever... but Oh My God. What a fiasco. All Ian wanted to do was go around and touch every blank piece of pottery. He was also just not that into the painting process. If this were a "build your own train track" store, we would have been there all day. This was just not his thing. The family at the table next to us had 2 girls, about 6 and 9... well, those girls were sitting quietly painting unicorns and picture frames while Ian ran the store, threatening to wipe $1k+ of blanks with one sweep of his arm. I was in a sweat the entire time.

In the end, I think they will turn out great. The brushes they had didn't really allow for writing well, so the word Daddy probably really will look like a 3 year old painted it. In the end, I know the sentiment will be what matters.

OK, so put your secret keeping hats on. No telling.

Sunday, we spent the morning sleeping in...yes! I told Ian the night before that when he wakes up the next day, it's OK to play quietly in his crib as long as he wants, but to stay quiet for a while so Mommy & Daddy can have extra sleep. It worked! He slept until 9am, at which time we went in and he was sitting with his toys. He looked up and said "Mommy, did you sleep extras?". It was really cute. Maybe this big boy bed thing will go OK. My days are numbered. I plan to do that while Shawn is in Honduras...he leaves on the 4th!

Later that morning, I left to go on a hike and Shawn/Ian had the day together. I arrived home about 4 hours later and he was still down for his nap, so I had a little extra time to clean up and rest before dinner.

In all, it was a good weekend. Just enough activity to keep from getting bored, but enough rest to keep from feeling like we were cheated out of our weekend.

As soon as my laptop stops throwing fits, I'll post pics.

Oh, and as an FYI, Ian's attitude did improve when the weather cooled down... although he still freaks out when Polli runs ahead of him on the stairs or outside. Grandma Trish had the right idea: She told him that it's OK because Polli has 4 legs and he has 2, so she's faster. He wasn't buying it... We still have a little work to do on that issue.