BEFORE READING THIS POST...

...go to my playlist and click on "The Office --NBC"

Good work. Now that we're all situated and the mood has been set, let's talk about how SUPER EXCITED I AM FOR TONIGHT!!!

I have had a void in my life this past summer and I have a feeling it's about to be filled.

Is Pam going to NY?

Is Toby going to Costa Rica?

Will P&J get engaged?

And which hottie will Angela choose? Her song-bird fiance or her lover of Beets. Bears. Battlestar Galactica. ???

How will the new female Michael jive with the others?

Will Kevin carry on his "slow" persona to the new HR gal?

So much to learn in so little time.

Dunder Mifflin Srcanton Branch, you complete me.

It's a Happy Birthday Party for Avykins!!!

The Birthday Brigade

Avy & her good buddy Connor had a Birthday Party together this weekend and it was so much fun! We had lots of friends come, a pinata, a jump house, face painting a' la Heather, lots of yummy food, and all night cake-making the night before! It was definitely a party. Happy Birthday, Babies!!!

And a special shout-out to our dear friends, Pat & Lindsay for sharing their beautiful backyard for the big event. Thanks, guys!

Below are just a "few" of my fave pics from the party. For more party greatness in all it's glory, check out the party pics at www.theatwoods.smugmug.com under the heading "Avy's 1st Birthday Party!"...obviously.
(let me know if you don't know the password and I'll email it to you)

Enjoy!

Maddie giving Avy a B-day kiss

The proud B-day Papas

It's usually the kids I catch eating only the frosting off the cupcakes...however, since Kaari goes gluten-free, we'll let it slide this one time :)


Avy has this fettish for kitty cats. She sleeps with / attacks nasty-smelly cat every night before, during, and after sleep. Its original color is white, but with all the chewing, dragging around the house, sucking, and feeding she does to the cat, it's now a lovely shade of gray-brown. We wash Kitty every other day. Her other kitty cat love is her pink kitty purse, compliments of Aunt Jodi, and she carries that thing with her everywhere as well. The face on the purse was my inspiration for the cake. It turned out looking surprisingly similar.


She didn't want to dig in, but was happy to give Kitty Cake a kiss.



Birthday girl checking out the pinata.

Heather doing her thang.




Avy post Heather visit.



Birthday boy taking a smack to not-so-curious-but-oh-so-helpless George.

Avy & Mom rockin out in the jumpy.

Dad teaching Avy the finer points of cornhole champion-ism.

My Guilty Pleasures...

Have definitely changed.

Many moons ago they included, but were not limited to, activities such as:

*Late nights of dancing with my club-going-girlfriends

*Multiple IN-N-OUT hamburgers in one sitting (and of course a shake on the side)

*Reading a book cover to cover at a pace I determine and stick to

*Shopping, shopping, and then shopping some more and not even batting an eyelash

Since this little busy-body tart decided to put away her bags, park her car, and say goodnight at about 5:45 pm,

And the hottie in the yellow shirt (obviously we need some more pics of Tatty McDreamy) needed to put in some serious elbow grease at the office tonight,

And this hombre, aka our live-in manny & Uncle Austy, was nowhere to be found,

This lady (again, clearly Avy gets most of the camera time around here) decided to give in to her new-found guilty pleasures

Which include, but are not limited to activities such as:

*plunging the toilet without all senses on heightened alert in the event that a little curious george comes traipsing into the bathroom to join the fun

*washing dishes, uninterrupted, and finishing the originals before there were more to be washed

*folding 2 loads of laundry in complete and utter silence...no Ice-Road Truckers or Little People Big World in the background...and finishing the folding without making any fell swoop attempts to save my perfectly organized piles before curious george comes tromping on over to shake things up a bit

Yes, I love the noise and chaos that comes along with lots of people to love...and also sometimes it's nice to give in to my guilty little pleasures.

Ahhh...it's been a gluttonous night.

Baby Pharris' Sunrise Celebration!

My good friend Sarah is having her 2nd little bundle of joy this week, so some girlfriends thought it'd be a fabulous idea to kidnap her at 6am on a Saturday morning (clear my throat, Alie). Actually, it was an awesome time.

The best part: Tat & I had been at her house hanging with she & her hubby until late the night before. Their little one was wide awake until we left and Sarah's cheerful parting words Friday night were, "It's okay. This way we can all sleep in tomorrow morning!" Little did she know what awaited her in a few hours.

The other best part: Walking into her room Saturday am (yes her husband knew we were coming) and I tried to focus my camera & since it was dark it sent off the strobe light effect. She about jumped through the roof as an army of 4 weirdos and a strobe light entered her room in the wee hours of the morning. I'm glad we didn't send her into labor...the fabulous breakfast would have gone uneaten. JUST KIDDING!

What a great way to start my day. Nothing like a beautiful sunrise shared with beautiful friends!

Ladies piling into the car on the way over to the crime scene. For some reason my 3 accomplices hopped into the back of the car so not only was I the get-away driver but also their private chauffeur. Thanks for making me drive around town looking like a weirdy, ladies :)

Heather & Kaari

Me & the guest of honor...or shall I say, the victim of the kidnapping.

Totally cute onesies that crafty lady Heather whipped up for Baby Pharris. My favorite one says, "I'm so happy I could pee!" (I love that saying b/c I can totally relate!)

The cute (& might I add tiny) preggos embracing.

Go Green. Or Amish...They're practically the same thing.

As I've been contemplating the carbon footprint I'm leaving behind (ok, not actually too concerned about the footprint thing, but as I shell out triple the nation's deficit every week in gas...what, you don't believe me? Figure out this equation and multiply it by 3. Compare that product to my Discover card bill and you'll see a stark resemblance: Therefore, if Gt is government spending and Tt is tax revenue, then
Primary deficit = Gt − Tt
If Dt − 1 is last year's debt, and r is the interest rate, then
Total deficit = Gt + rDt − 1 − Tt
Finally, this year's debt can be calculated from last year's debt and this year's total deficit:
Dt = (1 + r)Dt − 1 + Gt − Tt...eh-hem, back to my previous thought) I've started to think about what I could do to be a bit more loving to Mother Earth...and a bit more loving to Tat's pocket book.
So all of my ideas for being more frugal/granola-y lead to the Amish lifestyle. (I know I've made reference to the Amish is previous posts...I promise I'm not oddly obsessed...just totally fascinated...okay partially obsessed. But who isn't?)

1- Use less gasoline...HELLO! Ever heard of a horse and buggy? They don't even use gasoline! (Actually, news flash, they do! Practically all the Amish we saw when we were in Ohio were weed-whacking their yards. Must be the new trend.) But besides the lawn care accesories, no gas needed to be Amish.


2- Emit less exhaust...Again, HELLO! No pollutant fumes from a horse and carriage.


3- Buy more local produce & grow more of my own veggies...Ever driven through an Amish village? Besides weed-whacking, they garden all day. They definitely have the buy & sell locally thing down.


4- Turn off unnecessary power...Don't quote me on this, but I have to imagine the Amish subscribe to the ol' dinner & family story time via candlelight bit.


5-Use my washer & dryer less; hang-dry more clothes...Again, ever driven through Amish country? There's a line for the black britches, a line for the simple colored dresses, and a line for the whites; which of course is consumed of aprons and white shirts.


6- Clean my recyclable materials out before I throw them in the bins. I used to think the idea of cleaning trash before throwing it out was absurd, but in my efforts to be one with the land, I've realized it's not trash! My nasty yogurt carton and crusty plastic baby food jars are perfectly good energy sources. Is your television on right now? Yes, you say? You can thank me later. The Amish totally recycle. Again, when we went back East, I saw little youngin's playing with a ball that must have been assembled circa early 1900's; now you tell me that's not recycling. Not to mention, they use all their old curtains & dresses to make littler curtains and dresses.





Just points to ponder.

The Grapes of Tat.

Behold...The Mighty Grape:

After many years of patience, pruning, and caring for his vineyard of 1 vine, T. Atwood, or Tatwood, or Tat as I like to refer to him as, finally got a tasty little crop of grapes this year.

If all goes as planned, you can expect to see me pedalin' this stuff next year at the Farmer's Market:

(kidding, of course)

Avy got a pony!

TAIL...that is. We finally mustered up enough sprigs of beautiful little reds to form what we refer to as a pony-tail, or a "pebbles-do" as in reference to Pebbles from the Flintstones. Can you tell which one is Avy and which one is Wilma Jr?










Avy says, "Connor, that would mean you're Bam-Bam."





Mrs. Avycakes Rubble. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Playgroup fun @ Central Park

Avy has a fun little playgroup of friends her age. Today we went to the park and shooed pigeons, ate sand, got soaked in the water, ate other parts of nature, and tried to take a group photo. Of all the fun things we did at playgroup today, watching Mommy Jessica try to corral all the kiddios for a picture was by far the most entertaining :) Thanks, Jess!

Attention: Blue Light Special on the Cereal Aisle

To all my fellow Safeway shoppers...




As Kramer (from Seinfeld, of course) once said, "Occasionally I like to help the humans." I abide by that rule so I find it my duty to inform you of the fantastic deal on cereal currently going on at Safeway. Many cereals are on sale for $3, and all the Safeway brand cereals are on sale for $2. WAIT...it gets better. If you buy 5 boxes, then you save an additional $5! I repeat "save an additional $5!" So for those of you too tired to do the math, I got 5 boxes of cereal for $5.

To my slacker friends who waited too long to hit the Baby Gap pj sale...GO STOCK UP YOUR CEREAL STORAGE...NOW!

*RECIPE* Lemon Basil Pasta

Avy has discovered her new favorite food; her Aunt Jodi's dee-lish pasta recipe. She seriously probably ate about as much as Tyler...and I...combined. Well, maybe not that much, but she devoured the tasty little morsels. Enjoy!

(Don't be confused...just in case you make this and wonder why your pasta isn't glowing orange, the orange accent on Avykins palette is pureed carrots. It should turn out regular pasta colored.)

*LEMON BASIL PASTA*

1/2 lb angel hair pasta

3/4 tsp garlic salt

2 T margarine (melted)

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 T lemon juice

1/4 c grated parmesan cheese

1 1/2 tsp basil

Cook pasta. Drain and return pasta to pan. In a small bowl, combine garlic salt, margarine, pepper, lemon juice, and basil. Toss with cooked pasta. Sprinkle cheese over pasta and serve immediately. (Main dish variation: Toss in 2 c cooked, cubed chicken or 1 lb cooked large shrimp before adding cheese. Also good tossed with cooked asparagus.)

Who is this weirdy?

May I refer you to the most hilarious post ever known to mankind? Check out Austin's "Monday lover's fun" post. You can't read it and not laugh...impossible.

http://birdmanbegins.blogspot.com/

Unanswered Questions:

I realize that my blog is often packed with totally exciting, riveting, and edge-of-the-seat type information and questions, and I've undoubtedly left you hanging on a few topics. Let's put some closure to them right now.

1- Jaxon's Cal Ripken Jr. World Series Adventure

They ended up winning 4 games and losing 3. Since they lost by so many runs in one of the games, they were taken out of the running for the championship. The team from Jupiter, Florida ended up taking the title. Regardless, they had a fantastic time and a great experience. My parents both went (Dad is one of the coaches) and they had a blast too. My Dad's favorite part (besides watching his superstar son) was definitely the fields they played on...they were all miniture versions of professional fields. He said they were way awesome. I think my Mom's favorite part (besides watching her superstar son) was going to Amish Country.

(side note: I don't blame her. I love the Amish! When we were in Ohio, all I wanted to do was watch the Amish. Tyler and I want to go live as the Amish for a month or 2. Can't you see him hoe-ing his fields as I carry baskets full of goods from the local mercantile? Little Avy-bumpkin will of course be skipping along behind me in her fashionable hand-sewn dress, apron and bonnet...but I digress)

My mom calls me from Amish country in Pennsylvania, where the town is called Intercourse, and she says, "I loved Intercourse!" TMI, Mom, TMI.

2- The Fruit Flies

I tried it all. Rotten banana in a bottle with a home-made paper funnel; lame. Apple cider vinegar in a bowl with hole-poked saran wrap over the top; stinky. Vacuuming every hour on the hour; exhausting and useless. Ghetto taping my window seals so the buggers can't get in; well, ghetto, and a waste of tape. So what was finally the cure you may ask? OSH actually sells a concoction to kill fruit flies! Who knew???

3- The Man Eating on the Toilet

*READER BEWARE* This is a true and oh so wrong story...Consider yourself warned.

So it's a beautiful morning at the Atwood house with the glistening sun beaming through the kitchen window. Tyler comes into the kitchen, I tell him I've got his breakfast for him, he tells me he needs to use the restroom, next thing I know...Tyler's marching down the hallway and his bowl is missing from the table!!! You do the math. I go hollering and chasing after him at a rapid rate and he sees absolutely nothing wrong with what he had in mind. His reasoning, "Nothing will get on my food. My food and my business are totally separated. I'll finish eating before I finish...you know." My response, "Absolutely not."

YUMMY!!! (don't be fooled...this isn't a typical Atwood breakfast, just a lovely pic I found online to add a splash of color to this post)

4- Archuleta vs NKOTB

Clearly the winner of this little battle Kaari and I had going on is...well, me of course. There was a bit of a tie, but it was cleared up by a verbal poll. Go Davey!