One year later...

So about a year ago I "started" this blog, but because of technical difficulties (Keaton breaking 2 LCD screens in a matter of 6 weeks), I never actually posted anything. Since I spend about a third of my life online, I figured maybe I should stop being simply a blog consumer and start saying something. If you've known me for more than 5 minutes you know that it is nothing short of a miracle that I have been content to "listen" for this long, but no more! I plan to blog about important things and totally irrelevant things and say pretty much whatever I want to (like in real life, but without the uncomfortable silences after I put my foot in my mouth:)

I guess I'll start by doing a brief "catch-up" on what our family is up to these days. My husband Boone and I have been married for almost 10 years (can you believe it?). We've lived all over the country -- from Utah (undergrad) to Seattle (slacker year) to Cleveland (dental school) to Texas (residency) to Georgia (Army payback for dental education). We have 2 more years here in GA and then we think we'll be back to Boise for good, but who knows!

Our daughter Rylan (6) is the nicest, smartest kid on the planet.



She is also a *tad* on the dramatic side which makes no sense, since nobody in my family is dramatic. She loves kindergarten, art projects, dancing, and playing "Ballerina's Big Show". Trust me, that is a blog entry all by itself. She just won her school's kindergarten writing contest and will undoubtedly be winning a Pulitzer for The Boy and the Flower any day now...





Keaton is coming up on the big "04" and is just totally crazy all the time. He has no fears whatsoever and thinks everyone is his best friend. He has a smile that will turn you to mush and he uses it to save his little behind on a daily basis. That's him writing the word "monkey" the other day on his Magna Doodle (which he sleeps with, by the way).


He gets very focused on random things -- currently school buses and Harold the Helicopter (from Thomas) -- and begs me to search YouTube for videos of his obsession-du-jour (or du-week, du-month, etc.) We have been though generic helicopters, tornadoes, swordfish, volcanoes, the number "7", the letter "Y"...you get the idea. I'll try to do a post in the future of Keaton's greatest hits, but for now I'll just try to summarize by saying that he is teaching me how to be patient. Also, selectively deaf and blind (to facilitate the patience).




Branik is fast approaching his second birthday but we still just love him to bits. Honestly, after two kids and countless conversations with other moms, I think I can officially declare age 3 to be worse than the notorious 2. A two-year old is still young enough that most of their mistakes are really made out of curiosity and their tantrums stem from a lack of communication skills. But a three year old really wants to be defiant and could just as easily tell you what they want with words, but chooses to convey their message with screams, stomps, tears, and/or markers on the wall. But back to Branik. He's a cutie pie who is finally starting to talk and climbs like no kid I have ever seen. It's a miracle he is in one piece.




That kid can scramble onto a windowsill in the time it takes me to check my email for the 27th time since breakfast ("Hello? Real world? Are you there? Can anybody hear me???")





So that's us in a nutshell. I'll elaborate more than you want me to in later posts, but for now, welcome to my crazy life!