Sunday, April 8, 2012

Days and Nights

A couple weeks ago we bought Lucas a clock - a Darth Vader clock. He is instructed to stay in his room until Vader says it's 7:00.

Ben and I went out tonight so we purposely kept the kids awake all day so they would go to bed early and Clay could have a relaxing night...
Well, Lucas had a meltdown early and was in bed by 6:15. Evan in bed by 6:55. We left at 7:05. Clay called us at 7:30 and told us Lucas was awake reading a book. I told him he could do whatever he wanted with him, so he let him stay up for a while.
Apparently Lucas just came downstairs about 7:15 and plopped on the Lovesac and started reading. He didn't even acknowledge Clay for about 20 minutes.
Then they had some cereal (which might have caused some confusion) and drew pictures and played War. Every time Clay mentioned maybe going back to sleep Lucas would get really confused and explain that he slept until 7:12, and that he could wake up!
Clay tried over and over to explain that Lucas really just had a little nap. He showed him the moon and told him that tomorrow was Sunday and Easter and there would be candy... Still, as Clay was walking Lucas back upstairs at 10:15, Lucas said, "But, if I go to bed now, It will be bed time when I wake up!"

So funny. Oh, and Evan also woke up for Clay to deal with, so the huge stack of work he brought over remained a huge stack. Poor awesome Clay.

BS

Ben had a poster up in the Art Crank poster show. Each poster had to be bike related. Ben designed a cool poster and had it letterpressed, which makes it extra-cool. The posters were sold at the exhibit and then at Mellow Johnny's for a couple weeks. And perhaps from his desk at work, too...



Remember the bike rack? Yeah, from like 2008? Well, that's still going on. Ben has discovered that it is a complete pain in the butt to work with the city and that it's a miracle that anything is ever accomplished. Hopefully things will get started soon...
We were excited for him to make some money off this project in the beginning, but in all honesty, he will probably have to pay a little out of pocket to have it built. You're welcome City of Austin. Enjoy your sculpture. We just want it to be done. Poor Ben has been working so hard.

As for me, even though my blogging frequency has been totally lame, I'm still alive. I've started running a lot more, and actually like it now. I hurt my back several weeks ago and decided to go to a chiropractor. He decided I was totally crooked (almost to the point of scoliosis) due to my psoas muscles needing to be stretched out. So, he did some painful stretches with me, then stuck his hand what seemed like halfway through my abdomen to massage each side. He warned me that other women compared the pain to having contractions. It wasn't that bad, but it was pretty horrible.
Last week we went through the same thing, but he also performed the Graston Technique on my lower back, which basically means he scrapes at your skin hoping to get rid of the underlying scar tissue, etc. It hurt like crazy. And my back is bruised - I look like I've been beaten, but hey, I got my mobility back (hopefully). The good news is that I don't have to go back until I hurt myself again.

I booked a couple jobs recently. A couple weeks ago I did a print job for a cute sub division in San Marcos, called Blanco Vista. I had a fake family and we spent the day capturing about 7 shots. I got to go running with my fake husband, have a picnic by the river, have a birthday party, a BBQ, go to the pool, and have another b-day party at the pool. Everyone was really nice. And the "grandparents" were especially hilarious and inappropriate :). 

I also went back to Golfsmith for another fit modeling session, which is when you try clothes on for the company before they have them produced so they can make changes. I've learned some interesting things going there and learning about the process.

Other than that, I'm pretty boring. I change poopy diapers, cook stuff, and drive to and from school a lot. Ben and I went on a date to see Hunger Games tonight with Scott and Jeana. I thought it was good, Ben thought it was forgettable. Not as bad as those vampire movies some people watch, though.



Monday, April 2, 2012

The Duke

Lucas is getting so big. He's doing great in school and loves his friends and his teacher. We're so proud of him for his hard work reading and writing. Ben has been working with Lucas a lot on counting money and telling time. He's quite the stud.

If you have a conversation with Lucas it will most definitely involve Star Wars. He LOVES Star Wars and would spend all day watching, playing or drawing Star Wars if he could. Personally, I miss the animal stage... When he would recite random animal facts he learned at the zoo. It was great. We went to the zoo once in ABQ and he ran up to an exhibit and said, "Mom! Look it's the klipspringer!!" and the people walking by read the sign and realized that the little kid knew what he was talking about. It was pretty funny. He still loves animals, so I'm hoping to get back into that and possibly have a Star Wars detox this summer...somehow.

(We did go to the "snake farm" over spring break and he thought it was so awesome. At one point he said it was better than Busch Gardens... and that is blasphemy, so we need to go back to Busch Gardens to refresh his memory).

Lucas can manage to sleep in until 7:00 on weekdays, but the second 6:00 hits on Saturday that kid is up and out of bed. It's so annoying! We manage to have him read books in his room for a while until Ben's ready to start playing. But he's still just so noisy. He calls us in to ask if he can wake up, then to ask if he can stop reading, and sometimes during the night when he has a song request. He's a silly kid.
When Lucas reads, he thinks its very important to use proper voice inflection. He also likes to use different voices for different characters. So, sometimes when he's "quietly" reading, it's as if a dramatic reading is going on with 4 different people.

Love this kid.