The good stuff

This post is dedicated to updating our family status and recording the day to day joy that sometimes gets forgotten. This is the good stuff of life. The stuff I never want to forget.

At Quinn's 6 mo. app. Seth called me and told me he was no longer working for Cactus and Tropicals. Thank GOD. This was a blessing in disguise. I was a little panicked, but it's kind of nice now. He is 4 months away from graduating, and we are enjoying every minute of his unemployment. Pretty soon he will be working full time, and if we don't enjoy this time, I know we will regret it.

Fortunately I have the capability of supporting our family. I would rather my paycheck go towards the fun stuff, but we do what we have to do to survive.

On a completely different note, we have a very exciting project coming up.

We live on a corner lot in Sugarhouse. We have a smaller home on a pretty big lot. The people who originally lived in our home, built a one car garage that is literally leaning on the south side of our house. It is old and rotting and is so horrible. At the far south end of our lot is a perfect spot for a two car garage. We had a driveway poured years ago in hopes of completing this project. So we pulled the trigger last week. We should have a gorgeous two car garage built and installed by April 19. The second it is up, Seth and some very generous friends and family are going to rip down the old beauty. This is going to dramatically change our backyard. Under the old junker is a nice cement pad. Seth is going to build a deck over it this summer. I am going to hand him nails and cold beers while he works. I can't wait. I am totally going to have a fun summer party to celebrate. So this project, the kids, and thoroughly enjoying every day are my current obsessions, along with flowering branches.

I LOVE flowering branches. Not sure of the names, but the big yellow ones that are everywhere right now are so amazing. I made the mistake of telling my mom how much I loved them. So of course we planned a poaching mission. The other night after I put the kids down, I put on my dark sweat shirt, grabbed Seth's clippers, and listened for the snails honk. (the snail is the name of my mom's car) She pulled up and we were off. To be fair we only clipped from bushes that were growing out over fences. I promise. So we found some and got out and were clipping away. I jumped back in the snail after a minute because I started getting nervous. My 60 something, 5 foot nothing mom was out there shaking the shit out of the tree to get a good clip calling me a chicken. She is so freaking awesome. She is bold and more fun than anyone, and I never want to forget that night. Oh and if we got caught our story was that we worked for the city and their bush was in violation of blocking the sidewalk. Whatever ladies!!

One of Piper's favorite things right now is just being with my mom. She and my mom are two peas in a pod. Two of their favorite activities are going to the "doll store" aka Pottery Barn Kids, and "the ice cream store" aka Emigration Market. Emo as the locals call it was where I more or less grew up. It is a little local market in my mom's neighborhood. So yesterday Piper and my mom let me join them for their gelato date. The three of us walked down to the market and ate ice cream. As we were sitting there I realized it was 3 generations all together. When we were walking back I told Pipes that we were walking my school route as a child. This was so amazing to me. It was a fantastic day!

We finally got a bike trailer. One of the best parts about it is that we got $1.89 back. Between our 20% off one item at REI's sale, gift cards from grandparents, and our dividend, we got almost $2.00 back. So this summer I am going to be trailing behind a very handsome man with two amazing children in my 1960s purple stardust bike. It's going to be a fantastic summer.

Oh and one more thing. When Piper was a baby, Patrick and Erin were watching her, and when I got home she had a tramp stamp. Well guess what guys, payback is a bitch. Hope Ronan enjoys his princess tattoo.