Remember this moment: When I think back on my own childhood, I can specifically remember one morning, one summer, when I woke up and put on my favorite dress (actually I had two; one purple, one pink).  My sister, my mom and I sat out on the deck in the sun.  It’s a blurry memory in my head, and through the fuzziness all I can remember is that my mom was laying in a lawn chair tanning and my sister and I had our dolls out there as well.  I can, however, remember the feeling.  We had no plans (or none that my 9 year old mind was aware of), no where to be, nowhere to go, just the three of us relaxing and playing on the deck.

Why is it this single morning that sticks out in my head so much?

I wonder which moments will get trapped in Ephram’s memories for years to come.  I have no control over which ones do, but I hope it’s ones like these.  On this morning, Beau was searching online for one of the last discounted HP Touchpads and I had just gotten back from a morning run.  We had no plans really, just to enjoy the day.  Ephram pushed his stroller around the basement (an everyday occurrence) while walking in my slippers.  There was nothing special about the day, except the fact that us three were together; no plans.  But I hope the feeling of love and contentment made its way into Ephram’s head and stays in his memories for years to come.

1. I may have been just about the luckiest meteorologist this past weekend. Instead of being stuck at work forecasting for Hurricane Irene, I was up north in Wisconsin at my brother in law’s wedding without much of an internet connection even. I thought I had outsmarted Mother Nature, but then she gave me Poison Ivy while I was taking photos just to make sure I paid for the lucky break I’d been given!

2. In all seriousness, Mother Nature really did create quite a bit of damage. Click here to watch Irene’s journey through the Bahamas and up the East Coast from space. Here’s some awesome, crazy, sad photos culminated from Irene. And in case you are one of those people who have ever said that meteorologists overhype storms, here’s a funny little post for you.

3. In less seriousness, this little girl’s coverage of Irene is quite adorable. I don’t know of any other little girl who may have obsessed over hurricanes when she was that age… Nope, definitely not with the name of Donya.

4. That wedding I mentioned above? You can see a sneak peek on my Facebook Page. And while you are there, you might as well ‘like’ it too ;)

5. Speaking of the fabulous bride and groom, they must have been stalking my blog because they thanked me with a couple of outstanding gifts. One of which was the Happy Family Movement’s Adventure in a Box for Road Trips I had mentioned before on this hear blog. You have no idea how excited I am now to take Ephram on a road trip this winter! (Thanks again, Blake and Tanya! I’ll have your photos done soon!)

6. The ants in my kitchen (who also made it into our dining room, entry way, and laundry room…) have finally disappeared, and I think the magical cure was the large cucumbers we brought in from our garden. Who knew?! Oh, Pinterest, I love you.

7. Beau and I seem to be having an ongoing battle to beat each other’s scores in the game Extreme Road Trip. I’m not sure what is more addicting, attempting to beat Beau or just the game itself. You can thank me later for getting hooked.

8. Have heard some great things about Grocery IQ for list keeping, so I’m thinking about giving it a shot. Any reviews on it? Easy to update and use?

9. Is it true that friendship bracelets are making a resurgence? I may need to go dig in my closet for a few of the ones I made back in the day. Woah, I just felt old.  Something I did as a kid is already becoming fashionable again?

10. I am a lover of Fall weather, but whenever Summer starts coming to an end, all I can ever think of is the horribleness of Winter approaching. This year, I’m determined not to let the horribleness affect my attitude until it’s actually here. No point in worrying about the inevitable, right? I might as well just enjoy the prettiest seasonal change we get up here in Minnesota.  Though I may need a few dozen pumpkin gooey bars to assist in this attitude change…

Remember this moment: They say that as your child grows, it never gets easier, it just becomes different. I never doubted it, but I didn’t truly understand it back when I first heard this around the time that Ephram was born. The sleepless nights, the constant need for you to hold them, the spit up. Those newborn days pass quickly and your daily challenges transition to figuring out nap schedules, cleaning up food, and making the house baby proof (at least from the knee down). Right now, with Ephram nearly at 18 month of age, we’re dealing with food pickiness, tantrums, and baby proofing the house from my waist down. Every stage brings about its own challenges.

Though with all the challenges comes new delights as well. At the newborn stage, it was the smiles. As he grew older, it was the ability to crawl right into my lap. And now, at 18 months, it is the ability for Ephram to understand words/questions. Everyday he understands something new. My favorite “trick” is when we ask him to throw something in the garbage — usually his wrapped up dirty diaper after a changing or a clump of cat hair. Each time he does it, he claps his hands, as in ‘Good Job.’ I love it.

Though, of course, the inevitable challenge has been to make sure nothing but garbage gets thrown away. :)

It started with a promise that I’d put an effort into learning to cook if Beau ever got a 8-5 job. Which lead to a new obsession with the show Master Chef, and is probably the reason I found myself in the kitchen, awake after an overnight shift with Ephram, baking tomatoes at 10:00 in the morning. Ever since we turned into one of those normal families who use daycare, I rarely have to put myself through much sleep deprivation, but this day was an exception since we’d maxed out our part-time daycare hours that week. So E and I went for a walk, bought coffee, played at the park, rolled in the damp grass, walked some more, then came home to cook. Because really, how else was I going to stay awake?

And more importantly, how has it taken me 3.5 years to realize how gorgeous the light is in our kitchen?!  -sorry, I was tired.

Okay, back to the ‘cooking to keep from falling asleep on the couch and letting Ephram tear the house apart without supervision’. These turned out beautiful.  Unfortunately, Ephram wouldn’t even try them, and they didn’t satisfy my tastebuds much either.  But look at the plating!  Yep, there’s that obsession with Master Chef I was telling you about.

And here’s the little man having his “other” breakfast.  I guess blueberries and cereal and a banana looked more appealing than a well plated baked parmesan tomato… Ya, I can’t blame you buddy. We’ll try a different recipe next time.

1. Our tornado sirens went off at 2:30am this morning. At first I thought I was sleeping after an overnight shift and it was just a 1pm Wednesday test. Then I realized it was 2:30am, we were supposed to get storms, and immediately grabbed my phone to check radar and make sure a tornado wasn’t really headed for my house. What did I see? A Severe Thunderstorm Warning to our west, but we. weren’t. even. in. the. warning. Nor did the storm look that intense. Maybe some large hail, which did not give me any reason to take cover anywhere other than under my sheets. Needless to say, I was a tad bit annoyed (since my alarm was set to go off at 4:20…) and I needed my sleep.

2. Trust me when I say, you want those sirens only going off when there really is something dangerous coming at you, because when you warn for storms that aren’t dangerous, people start to take those sirens less seriously.

3. If you are local, and you were awoken by the sirens at 2:30am for no reason like me, the good news is that it was a mistake apparently. The bad news; 2:30am is not exactly the best time make that type of mistake…

4. On a different weather related note, if you live in the Eastern US, I sure hope you are preparing for Hurricane Irene. Mother Nature really seems to be focused on the East Coast this week. An Earthquake hit them just a couple of hours ago too. By the way, the Earthquake already has twitter. Welcome to 2011.

5. I’ve been asked a few times recently about how I’ve gone about keeping track of my runs through the C25k program. The answer is Runkeeper on my iPhone. There are a number of apps available for C25k, but this one is free, tracks your routes, your speed, your incline, syncs them with their website online if you wish, and allows for music to play as well. Everything I could ask for in a running app, in my opinion.

6. Another iPhone app I do not think I could live without? TeuxDeux! Best to-do list out there in my opinion, though I wouldn’t mind some color coding options. (Hear that Teux Deux?)

7. I stumbled across this story/quote this week. Made me think a little bit, so I thought I’d share.

8. If you know me, you know I love Taylor Swift (and yes, I still have all three of her cd’s playing on repeat in my car at least once a week). Beyond her amazing song writing skills, she’s just so genuine. And it shows in her latest blog post of vacation photos.

9. Ephram’s still being picky as ever when it comes to food, and I realize this is completely normal in my head, but sometimes reading it on the interwebs makes me feel just a little bit better. ;)

10. Guess what? I actually took my DLSR out on, not one, but TWO walks this past weekend. So I’ve got plenty of photos of this sweet little man to share. Here’s just one that I immediately fell in love with.