the joys of homeownership

We had toilet water in the basement last week. There was an amazing and beautifully powerful storm and then sewage came up out of our basement toilet. yum.

So we did what we thought never possible; we cleaned the basement. Only a clear threat to our health could have inspired that huge task. Yeah. We already had a ton of cleaning to do down there. Adding the fecal factor was a real bitch.


It's great to have a clean basement. But some of Matthew's musical equipment got messed up, and I had to throw away some useless but hard-to-part-with items like this;


all in all, it was a possitive thing

mara

She has style.

When I was small, I let my mother dress me in whatever was clean. Mara likes to dress herself, and is rather picky. Recently, it seems that she has picked up this "I must be beautiful always" obsession at school. Her schoolmate Sophie (right) has got the bug too. Now, I don't care how ridiculous Mara looks (she has a wonderfully funky definition of "beautiful"), I'll send her to school in almost anything, but I do have 2 reasonable requirements; A) it must be weather appropriate, and B) her butt and nipples must be covered. Somehow, these rules have caused some serious confrontations. I hope to goodness that the only reason that our morning altercations get so heated is simply because Mara is incredibly stubborn. If that's not it, that would mean that some sort of kindergarten peer pressure has brainwashed her into getting all psycho about her appearance.

I'm sure the phase will pass quickly. It's summer now, so no worries about requirement A, and I'm sure she'll realize with just a few more trips to the park that dresses don't always lend themselves well to slides and sandboxes.

follow the yellow brick road

Sometimes I see baby gifts on Etsy and I can't help but go awwwe!

I found these booties in Heather's Treasure Box's shop along with crocheted cowboy boots, ice skates, hightops, sadle shoes with boby socks....awesome.

bye bye boat

Sunday was Paper Boat Boutique and Gallery's last day. I got to be their very last sale ever. I'm very thankful to Faythe and Kim for all the amazing art and craft they brought to Milwaukee. Sad to see the place go, but excited for the future. Cheers, ladies!

lil carpenter

The other day Makai was wearing the onesie that Stephanie make him using waxpaper stencils. Just thought I'd post it cuz it's so cute and he'll be too big for it in just a few days.