Monto (Take Her Up To Monto)

This book was a fantastic read! It rekindled my interest in Irish history and reminded me of our trip two years ago. Being a historical novel, it may seem a little dry in places to some, but I was absolutely fascinated throughout. It describes the assassination of Permanent Under Secretary for Ireland, Thomas Henry Burke, and Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, by the Irish Invincibles. Sean Molony's research into the assassination and the investigation that followed was exhaustive. After this book I wanted to read everything I could about Irish history. This was a fascinating and energizing read (but only if you're a dork, like me).

Little Miss Can't Be Wrong

Do you know how far a man will go to prove his wife wrong?

I do. Or at least I know how far my husband will go to prove me wrong. I don't blame him. He so rarely gets to be right he's willing to do almost anything for a chance to point out any of my erroneous behaviors.

During our Dallas weekend, Elijah got a parking ticket while parked in front of a Hooters where he had taken our children for lunch.

(Yep, go ahead and read that sentence again.)

Anyway, upon our return home, he had been the one to unpack the car. I specifically remember requesting that he put everything "all the way away," rather than the usual unload into the kitchen for Marina to trip over until she finally breaks down and unpacks all the suitcases, does laundry and puts up all the miscellaneous crap we can't seem to ever leave at home.

After he had finished unloading, I remembered seeing that neon green ticket on the table where he'd put all the other trash from the weekend. I asked him to clean it up and can't recall anything else about that evening. The next day he asked if I'd paid the ticket. Knowing that we only had ten days before the fine increased, I frantically search the house to no avail.

Elijah is ADAMANT that I threw away the ticket while clearing the table. I am a compulsive "clearer," meaning I don't necessarily clean, so much as throw stuff away in an attempt to win the battle against our ever present clutter. Now, I cannot imagine that I would have mistaken a bright neon green envelope for trash but he will not let it go. Finally I make some comment about how he should go out and check the garbage if he's so sure I threw it out.

He feels so very vindicated in this shot (not a recreation by the way).

Unfortunately, had he actually put everything ALL THE WAY AWAY per my initial request, the ticket would not have been discarded. So I still sort of win, on a technicality.

Friday I'm In Love

It occurred to me to start a link list of things I've discovered (and am currently coveting) through my online adventures. I won't commit to doing this every week (I'm already over committed as it is!), but I'll try to do it often enough to make it seem like a real thing.

Here goes my first ever Friday I'm in love list:

I will own this adorable cupcake jar from In A Glaze as soon as I find the perfect hutch for it to call home.


I have wanted to order something, ANYTHING, from Sarah + Abraham and just haven't gotten around to it. I love their line of family silhouettes...maybe I'll use them for Christmas cards.


The Outer Banks Trading Group has the perfect photo for my downstairs powder room. Elijah and I met in Monterey which makes this all the more fitting for our home. My only hesitation is the $72 price tag.

Every Christmas I buy matching pajamas for our family. Yes, I am THAT mother. The Company Store has all of their family pajamas on sale and they are ridiculously cheap. I will probably buy them early just to save a little on our Christmas budget.

Suppermassive Black Hole

Poor Chester.

Poor neglected, under appreciated, left to rot in a kennel while we party it up in Dallas, Chester.

Last week I took Chester to get groomed who, by the way loves it so much, he has to be sedated. Later that evening Elijah mentioned that the bump on Chester's left side seemed to have grown. I figured it was simply more pronounced due to his newly shorn skin and proceeded to file that concern under things that I'll worry about when both kids are in school and I finally have time to poop in peace. (That's right, I said poop.)

Fast forward to Sunday evening when a sulking Chester is finally freed from his captors, or as I put it, when we pay $30 for someone else to listen to him bark all weekend. Elijah is even more concerned about this growth and while the "before children Chester mommy" would have rushed him to the nearest emergency vet, the new "totally exhausted mom of two REAL kids" wanted to try the more cost effective, wait and see approach.

Monday morning comes with a POP. That's right, Chester's growth-like cyst of nastiness popped overnight leaving remnants on Asher's sheets. Yick. Elijah cleaned it up and dug out the remaining whatever the hell it was while I held Chester, averting my eyes. It was an extreme form of gross. I had never seen anything like it. I was so disgusted.

I'll take poop over puss any day.

Welcome to the Working Week

Well, we're back from our whirlwind Dallas trip. We met our good friends Kathryn and Zach Nash (you can find them at Mixed Handbag and Nash Creative respectively) for a weekend of shopping, photography and kid wrangling.

Oh! Em! Gee!

All I can say about that crazy visit is that next time, Kathryn and I will not bring along all that baggage! It was wonderful to spend time with our dear friends even if it seemed a bit too chaotic to me.

This week is Asher's first week without camp. He only has three more weeks of summer break left and we wanted to make sure he was sick of being home and ready to head back to school. I only hope I'm up to the task of managing these two rascals 12 hours a day.