Dancin' Fools - Eric, Caiden and James got SKILZ!

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That's How I Roll

Let's take a moment to remember my old car, because it is no longer with us! Well, maybe with some other schmuck, but not me.

After spending $650 in car repairs a few weeks ago (this was one in a series of costly repairs in the last year or so), I took my Rendezvous to the shop last weekend because the breaks felt a little funny. Turns out to fix all the major things currently wrong with it, it'd cost $1650! Bleh, no thanks. After some heavy-duty pondering, I decided to ditch this lemon once and for all. Besides, who wants to wait around wondering when the transmission will go or the head gasket blows? From others' experience with the '02 Rondy, these are the next things that will most likely happen.

So anyway, I got a new car! I'm trying on a foreign car for size this time... an '06 Kia Sorento. Gas mileage is pretty bad, but it's the best fit for our family and budget. So far, I just love it. It's color is "Ice Blue" and it's a 2 wheel drive that with the flip of a switch becomes a 4 wheel drive (should make the snow and ice less trecherous this winter!). Here's a peak:

Sometimes, Introspection is Good

I'm always complaining about how I feel like our life is like the proverbial roller-coaster... full of highs and lows mixed with both exhiliration and fear, but always seemingly in fast-forward. While that sounds fun (and it usually is!), sometimes I just want to hop off for a little bit so I can get my head to stop spinning.

Last week I did just that, at least for an hour or so after everyone had went to bed. I decided that I need to establish some guidelines for daily living in an effort to preserve what is left of my sanity... and in order to be a better person in general.

So here's what I came up with (with a pretty presentation of course!):

In case you can't read it, these are My Rules for Every Day...

• Complete a task ahead of schedule
• Do something to satisfy my creative side
• Take action to better my health because I want to be around a good long time
• Work only 7:30am to 3:30pm (or thereabouts) every day, the rest is family time
• Make sure to do something to make Eric's life easier because he does so much already
• Spend as much time with Caiden because he's growing up so fast
• Talk to a family member or friend today, because I can
• If I just can't get something out of my mind, write it down
• Do at least one nice thing for myself today, and one nice thing for someone else
• Remember to pray everyday and let God help me not worry and stress so much
• ... and ...
• Allow myself the freedom to break one of these rules for the day!

Alright, so truth be told I haven't fully implemented my rules yet. But I'm working on it :)

It's Official! Caiden looks more like...

Almost from day one, nearly everyone has said how much Caiden looks like Eric. There have been the scattered few who actually think he looks like me (mostly people who have never met Eric!). While I personally believe he's Eric's mini-me, with my fair skin, I sometimes like to think I recognize glimpses of myself in him... subtle as they may be.

So, just for fun I decided to participate in this online look-alike software to see what the face recognition "experts" say. The verdict is that he looks mostly like the both of us, with a slight edge in Eric's favor. Some small part of me rejoices at this! *lol* Especially since I was the one who got to bear the brunt of the whole pregnancy and delivery stuff, I need to get some credit. Anyway, it was interesting to try it out, even though I don't think it's that accurate:

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Ahh... to read a book :)

Alright, so let me premise this by saying that I have not read a whole book, excluding work-related texts *bah!*, since 2005 BC... Before Caiden. I just love to read, but haven't found a free block of time in the last few years that didn't beg to be napped through. People weren't kidding when they told me to sleep all I could while I was pregnant, because it's certainly a lost luxury with a baby and a full-time job.

So anyway, I bought a book! Yeah! On sale of course :) AND, most importantly I've actually started reading it. I'm only a chapter deep, but so far so good. It's called "Slummy Mummy" by Fiona Neill. It's an endearing but funny story about a career woman who decided to stay at home with the kids, but never quite got the hang of all that domestic stuff. For those of you who liked Bridget Jones' Diary... it's kind of like her with kids and a husband. Full of wry wit, embarassing moments, and a character that is easy to relate to.

"Slummy Mummy: The Secret Life of Lucy Sweeney is a hilarious novel about the dilemmas of modern marriage and motherhood for those who never discovered their inner domestic goddess. Pitch-perfect and satisfyingly smart, it offers a lovable, flawed character who resonates, entertains, and undoubtedly has it worse than you do. "

Okay, so it's not an epic novel but a light easy read is just what I need! Now if I can get through this one without too many sleepless nights, I think I'll go ahead and try another book. I have what promises to be a great read that my friend Erika loaned me... I just have to remember where I safely put it away! (Seems I've inherited the I-put-it-somewhere-safe syndrome from my mom, who also can never remember where that safe place is until it's totally non-relevent. Gotta love her!)

Oh and by the way, I just have to mention before I go that I ordered myself something I've been wanting/needing for a long time now... a 500GB external hard drive. Yep, you heard that right! Not a long day at the spa, not an expensive new outfit, not an indulgent piece of jewelry... but a nice shiny compartmentalized piece of technological wonderfulness that will solve all of my photo storage woes! And that's not a typo, it's really 500GB. Too put it in perspective, my dilapidated but dependable little outdated laptop only has a total of 40GB.

5000+ digital photos already, gazillions more to go! *whee!*
I am such a nerd :)

Caiden's Day at the Park

So yesterday, we decided that we'd take Caiden out to play after Eric got home from work. There's this great park here in GC called Fryer Park that I had read about online that has a new YMCA, baseball diamonds, a jungle-gym area, ponds and picnic areas, etc. Eric had taken Caiden there once last summer while waiting for me to meet up with them after work, but they visited only the jungle-gym area (which he loved of course!). But I really wanted to go check out the part of the park tucked back behind the Y building called Discovery Frontier. It's described as "... a children’s adventure playground with a solar system theme. Each of the planets provide a unique play experience using many custom designed pieces ranging from the Venus Music Garden to the Mars Climbing Wall". It turns out it's really neat! There's a picture of an aerial shot of the playground above.

The rest of the pictures were snapshots I took while Caiden - and Eric! - were playing around. Caiden cried when we left because he had so much fun... playing the oversized chimes and drums, digging in the purple sand, riding the playground toys, crawling into the tunnel, etc. I've got the snapshots in a slideshow (to the right labeled "Caiden's Day at the Park") and you can click on the slideshow to see larger pics. We want to take him back there soon and check out the stuff we didn't see!

My First Blog!

So hey, I've been thinking about starting one of these for a long time. I already have a MySpace page and my collage website (http://www.collagesbycassie.com/ - shameless advert here, go check it out!) but neither seem to be a good place to post general daily life stuff. Most people I know don't even have a MySpace account (mainly because most the people I know have graduated from high school already) so that's not the best place. I've also made several attempts at making a webpage but that's a bit too time-consuming for just throwing up some pics and random thoughts. Not to mention that I've been wanting a better way to share pictures with family and friends because I'm getting tired of sending emails with attachments. So for all those reasons, a blog is born!