Jul 24, 2009

Georgia's First Birthday

Georgia turned a bright and shiny one on June 26th. Parker wanted to have a big party for her but it just wasn’t going to happen. Georgia elected to celebrate by inducing and enduring her first set of fever spells throughout the day. With that said, her birthday party had to be cancelled and we had a little get-together with Grandpa and the Grandmas (sounds like the Mamas and Papas reunited tour).

One of my favorite pictures...that thumb of hers gets a lot of work.

Jul 23, 2009

The Other Water Park

This is the only picture that exists where Parker actually projects that Mervyn's Catalog smile. I think solar esclipses occur more often than PJ putting out a smile like this.

More often than not we tend to over-plan activities for the kids(Disneyland, the zoo, Pump it Up, et al). Sometimes all it takes is a little body of water and releasing them into the backyard to devise their own playtime activity.

Riveted



I can only come up with three captions for this picture...

1) Shhhhh mom, the McLaughlin Group just started!
2) The deficit is projected to be how much in 2025?
3) Elmo and Zoey are dead?!? Mommy, what is a "violent lover's quarrel"??

The Water Park

With only a week to go before I leave my position at the City of Santa Paula and embark upon the new exciting world of county finance, Laura and I decided to take PJ on a trip with family and friends to the Lake Casitas Water Park. It was our first time at the park and well worth the wait. Once we got in and settled it was quite evident that Laura was the most excited of the bunch to be there. PJ was a closed second though.

The lazy river was perfect for Parker. She could travel without an inner tube (she was just tall enough to hop around) as well as she could practice her swimming (with a little help help from the current). Parents were even afforded the luxury of relaxation at times which is quite the rarity when there’s children and large bodies of water involved.




















The temperature eclipsed a cool 104 at the park but that didn’t bother us too much. What was more annoying was that the only shade we could settle under was beneath a couple of trees where birds routinely dropped little tokens of their affections on our lawn chairs. Their aim was terrible but much like swine flu or Al-Qaeda, the fear factor drove some of us into a frenzy. A couple times we had to elevate the terror color scale from Yellow (“be on the lookout”) to Orange (“there sure are a lot of birds up there”) to Pinkish Red (“mommy, why are they all crouching and reading a newspaper??”) to Blood Red (“Aaaaggh run everyone run! - they’re recreating the bombing of Dresden”).

Luckily there was a lot of water available to wash off the bomb fragments.

After we spent most of the day at the water park we picked up grandma and Georgia and ventured off to Outback Steakhouse for daring attempt at a somewhat peaceful diner. Uncle Thor was working behind the bar and treated Laura and myself to several inventive cocktails. Gratefully Parker and Georgia acted incredibly civil throughout the entire meal. Who knew? After the first drink Grandma was immediately elected designated driver by a unanimous decision.

All in all it was a great day and a great way to celebrate the end of yet another employment cycle. Hopefully, the next celebration will be a retirement party…and soon!!

Trash Truck



Trash truck, trash truck we like you. We like to see you dump dump dump.

Jul 13, 2009

This Train Is Bound for Glory


July 4th included a traditional jaunt downtown at the Push-n-Pull parade; then we had a little barbeque/social gathering in our front yard wher a lot of the neighbors and family came over and had an enjoyable time. The kids were treated to a big inflatable waterslide a few houses down as well as a little jolly jumper to jump around in fornt of our house. After that we went to Laura's parents and ate more barbequed food there then it was off to the fireworks at Ventura college...busy day but a fun one.


Parker seemed to enjoy herself. She made for the apple-eating by regularly stuff her face with sugary sweets for the rest of the day.
Georgia showed her support for her country by ensuring her thumb was securely in her mouth whenever photo opportunities arose. To her it was a symbolic gesture much like saluting the flag or putting your hand over your heart when you recite the pledge of allegiance. Maybe it will catch on some day and we'll all be thumb-sucking while we sing "America, the Beautiful". It wouldn't sound very good though...

In honor of this day Georgia dumped out a red, white, and blue "Patriot Stink Bomb" into her diaper. It was made up of a unique mix of an unprocessed blueberry, a little bit of unprocessed white rice, and a little rasberry that skipped through her stomach, into her bowels, and in the spirit of George Washington, crossed over into her colon in the middle of the night. The girl is a true American patriot. The stars came out once the odor matriculated into Laura's highly effective sense of smell. God Bless America.

Jul 1, 2009

Musical Connections




Certain songs spark very distinct memories for me. It’s always interesting when those memories hit, much like déjà vu. Just last night Laura and I were watching an episode of Dexter when they played the song “Free Ride” from Foghat and it struck that chord (pun intended) in my memory. Bakersfield, Ca. - 12 years old at one of my cousin’s parties with all the grown-ups outside drinking Budweiser and smoking Marlboro Reds and me hanging out with some of my uncles and cousins in the living room blasting the new 8 track cassette - Foghat Live . There are many other memories that are sparked by music for me but this one I forgot about for the longest time.

Giving Parker the middle name Johanna was performed with the same sort of thinking. Bob Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna” has always been something special to me. It’s a song whose lyrics evoke a feeling of creative, intelligent affection. Now whenever I hear it I think of ParkerJo. There you go, I’ve just created a new musical connection. Plus, it simply had to be Johanna. My other choice would’ve been Ryan Adams’ “Magnolia Mountain” and I cannot name my child Magnolia without first converting to a hippy.

Georgia Powers Pop Art

July 4th



This weekend marks the day that we celebrate being American. Rather than waving pursuing more traditional means of celebration, I suggest we could redirect that spirit and accomplish a few minor things:

-Ratify a new state constitution that eliminates the excessivley populist notion of using propositions to solve the state's problems. It's far too easy to get a proposition on the ballot, it has bankrupted this state since the people ratified Prop 13 back in 1979, it has enabled external forces (Mormons!) to infiltrate and affect public policy (Prop 8), and it strips accountability from our elected representatives.

-Cease holding detainees for an unlimited time without due process of the law. I don't care if Lincoln and Roosevelt did it and got away with it. It's incredibly UN-American.

-Stop with the death of Michael Jackson 24-hour news cycle and mourn the death of a real American...Karl Malden.

that's all I have...

Motivational Posters