DPP Day 9: "I have a playground in my back yard!"

So this is the final result of the playset we had installed on Thursday for Caleb's Christmas present this year.

Now to finish sodding the back half of the yard and laying some mulch for the play area. Boy, this homeowner business is never done!

DPP Day 8: Holidays in the Office

We're having a cubicle decorating contest this year. While winng isn't super important to me, I do tend to geek out when it comes to theming up something.
This is my cubicle as of last week. I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve, but I'm not sure if I've got any remaining motivation!



What you can't see is the little, three-foot white Christmas tree with blue and silver ornmaents to the right of this picture, or the icicles hanging from the bookshelves in front of my cubicle. Now to find more snow roll and window snow spray...

DPP Day 6: MaMaw and Me

This was an attempt to grab a picture of the adorable new headband I was sporting today. While I never grabbed a decent shot of the headband, I did manage to see something else in this shot.

That's my grandmother, MaMaw, on the left. My dad's extravagant and fantastic mother.

Whenever we would come to town, she would take us on MaMaw Days. Just me and my brother and my grandmother, out for the day. This usually involved a trip to Chuck E. Cheese and Toys R'Us. We'd wander around the store for ages, debating what to bring home. It seemed unfathomable that she would just let us pick a toy, just because.
I also remember when she remodeled her kitchen. It was shockingly gold and over the top, the way only MaMaw could pull off. It felt so glamorous, just like her. She love a bit of sparkle.
She passed away when I was in high school, so I never got the chance to know her as an adult. I wish she was still around so I could hear stories about my dad and his brother misbehaving as kids. While I may not have inherited quite the level of class MaMaw had, she certainly passed on her appreciation of things that sparkle and shine to me.


I miss my MaMaw. It's nice to be reminded of her from time to time, especially this time of year.

DPP Day 2: Breakfast With Caleb

Caleb is not the best at meals. I mean, he's great at eating. He's not picky and has a good appetite. But sitting still long enough to eat an entire meal is difficult. More often than not, he is joined at the table by toys of his. This is a habit I probably need to break, but it keeps him at the table, even if not seated the entire time.

Like the Nutella mustache? I do. Very dastardly villain, if you ask me. Caleb is joined by RPM, No Stall, and Lightning McQueen (of course!)

DPP Day 4: Little Helper

We began painting our kitchen and living room yesterday, with the notion that we could accomplish it in a day. Turns out, not so much. We finally finished around 2 o'clock this afternoon. Hooray!

The trickiest part was keeping Caleb occupied. I played more than one game of hide and seek in which my seeking wasn't as earnest as it should have been. Fortunately, he's at an age where he thinks the point of hide and seek is to eventually jump out and try to scare someone, so he wasn't too concerned that I never found him.



My little helper insisted on being a part of the action, so whenever possible, we tried to include him. In this particular shot, he is painting a monster, in case you were wondering. :)

Pretty pleased with the results, so I'll share those as well. :)



No Christmas tree yet. Need to get one! The eternal battle of real vs. fake rages on.



Again, pretty pleased with the results. And pretty knackered, too. This might call for an early bed time!

DPP Day 3: Tape It Up, Chris

Tape It Up, Chris, a photo by kellyangelo on Flickr.

This was taken with the intention of being yetserday's DPP post. But since we didn't get to bed till about 1 am due to a loooong day of painting the kitchen and living room, blogging fell be the way side.

DPP Day 2: Mr. Fix It

It's probably hard to see, but there's a hammer in one pocket, a ruler in the other, and a wrench in his hand.

With any luck, he may have inherited the handy man gene my father-in-law posses in spades. It seems to have skipped a generation with my husband, who can manage some basic repairs, but prefers to pay a professional with anything serious.

But my father-in-law can fix anything, as Caleb is quick to tell you. He's fixed things we thought were impossible to fix. I wish I had a brain that could take something apart, find what's wrong, and put it back together. My brain simply doesn't work that way. But if something ever breaks in the house, Caleb is the first to say, "Papa can fix it!"

And you know what? Papa can!

December Photo Project, Day 1

Well, this is a terrible confession to make. Day 1 of the December Photo Project, and I can't find my dang camera. Looked all over it for it this evening, but no luck. I'm sure it's probably somewhere super obvious, like right in front of my face, but for the life of me, I can't find it.

So instead, I'm going to throw up a picture from last week.

Caleb taking a walk with his Papa, aunt, cousin and dad. They had been fishing and decided to take a quick walk across the street to see if there wer any alligators out. No luck on either the fish or alligator front,  but Caleb didn't seem to mind. He was just happy to be hanging with family!

December Photo Project

In an attempt to resuscitate this very dead blog of mine, I'm going to join the December Photo Project that I read about on my friend Renae's blog, The Grand.

I'll preface this by saying I am not a professional photographer, nor do I own a fancy camera. In fact, my newer camera died after one too many pictures in the rain at Disney World last month. Rest in peace, Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3.

So I've moved back to my handy Nikon Coolpix S51. Just a hot pink little point-and-shoot held together with some electical tape where I've dropped it a few too many times.

Wow. I am not kind to my cameras. It's not on puprose, I assure you. I'm just clutzy by nature. It drives my husband crazy. (As my dad might say, "It's a short drive!") All that to say, don't expect artsy pics from this here humble (and recently silent) blog. I just want to capture some memories this month and restart my creative engine.

So as a bit of a teaser, here is a pre-DPP photo to get this party started.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year for the first time ever. I was pretty stoked because we finally have a house with living space large enough for a feast of this size. Earlier this year, we bough some really grown up peices of furniture for this, our first formal dining room. So to host my in-laws for turkey day was a pretty big deal, and I was quite happy with how everything turned out (even if the corn casserole was late to the party!)

All right! Let's get this party started!