The Adventures of Joel and Matthew

Mike's family owns a beach house in Carpinteria, California (a little south of Santa Barbara). I just love the house and the town... the town is small enough that you can walk everywhere. I love the fact that we can spend the entire weekend without driving the car...it makes me feel like an environmentalist. The beach house has been under construction for the past year, and it is finally almost done! Last weekend, the circus drove down to break it in. We had a blast! My dream for this summer is to spend as much time as possible at the beach, and relive the house's glory days, filled to the rim with family, friends and really good mexican food.

This man saved me from almost certain death (or at least a really bad day) when this littler man decided that it was time to wake up for the day at 3:00am (no amount of begging and pleading would convince him otherwise). My hero got up with Joel, and, with a smile on his face said, "sweatheart, I will get up with him, you go back to bed". I got an extra 2 hours of sleep because of him! I owe you BIG TIME, sweetie!!

Mike calls my entourage the family circus. I can see where he is coming from... Joel is the ringleader, Cody is the hairy lion, and I am the usher trying to keep everyone in check. The circus is always in full swing by the time that Mike gets home from work at night... the earlier part of the day is reserved for warm ups and dress rehersals. Sometimes I find myself sitting on the couch and suddenly realizing that I am enjoying a moment of silence. That enjoyment is always followed by a tinge of panic, because in my house, quiet means trouble. This is what Mike and I found last night when everything got peacefully quiet: In case you can't see everything, Joel is sitting on top of my computer, throwing our dinner napkins all over the kitchen table. I am SO GLAD that he can't reach the chandelier yet... but I know that it is just a matter of time (and a few inches) before I walk into the room, only to find him swinging from the chandelier. I love my life!

Last night I had a dream that I went bathing suit shopping. After being pregnant and birthing Joel, the thought of putting myself into a bathing suit would usually give me a panic attack. My friend, Melissa, once told me that my body would never be the same after having a child. Unfortunately, this little tid bit of information was given to me when I was 7 months pregnant, and the damage was pretty much done by then. Anyways, I digress. In my dream last night, I looked fabulous in every bathing suit that I tried on. Even the most revealing ones were no match for this post baby dream body. And Joel was with me, so it was definitely a post baby body that I was looking at. After purchasing one of those bathingsuits, I went on to run a marathon. I did so well that I came in 4th place! And I was barely even tired at the end. Now, 4th place may not sound very good to you, but I was racing against thousands of people. I was ecstatic with myself, considering that I pretty much came ...