I’m baaaaack! I’m currently blogging on a widescreen monitor with the brightness turned up WAY too high, but dammit, it beats the teeny-weeny iphone screen I blogged with two weeks ago.

Gee whiz now I feel like TOO much time has elapsed and how can I catch up with all these pictures? I can’t imagine only blogging once a year. Or not blogging at all. I need this outlet.

Flickr refuses to upload IG albums, and since I put all of the “special” things I do into albums (camping, art shows, vacations) we’ll see what’s leftover. Here’s Baby M as a Goth. Oh poor Goths in the summertime, with their thick pancake make-up! I FEEL for them.

I have a secret that’s not really a secret: I totally burned myself out on fluid art. I started it in March, and was OVER IT by June. I over-saturated myself! Following a ton of fluid artists on IG, buying a 30$ FB course on fluid art, doing nothing but fluid art (and one tiny portrait) for months…

…nevertheless, “Tangerine Dream” is one of my favorite fluid art paintings (I may keep it) but for now it’s HERE.

I’m also having a love-hate relationship with eyelash extensions. LOVE THEM the day they are installed, and then irritated by them after that. Maybe, like spray tans, it’s time for me to let them go.

I’m making moves to embrace my Natural State more. Pale skin. Straight hair. Hips. Why fight it?

Maybe some of that is from becoming a mom. I always hated underwire and high heels, now I hate them more. I was always picky about perfumes on my skin, being pregnant has made me even pickier. Visors, pedal pushers and fanny packs though…not seeing a problem!

Isn’t it gratifying when perennials come back the next year? It always makes me happy. I love hibiscus flowers.

Baby M is no longer a baby and is 19 months old. There is supposed to be an 18 month sleep regression, and OH BOY it’s been lingering.

There is also supposed to be an 18 month language EXPLOSION…and…certainly his receptive language is stellar but I’m not seeing a BOOM in expressive. I’m not concerned; at his 18 month check-up last month he was normal in all areas, and advanced in gross motor skills.

He says “Mama” and “Dis???” all day long and long strings of jibberish punctuated by dramatic finger wagging (he got that from Mama). When he’s not teething/hungry/tired, he really is a delight. A busy delight.

Schnubbs has had two fur cuts this summer, thanks to some spankin’ new clippers we bought, after arguing the pros and cons for months and months. I didn’t mind shelling out 60$ a couple times a year for a professional trim, but Josh argued that in the long run we’d save money buying clippers and doing it ourselves.

We got even more use out of them because Josh used them to cut the baby’s hair. He HATES having his hair cut. We’ve taken him to the barber to watch Josh get his hair cut, we’ve used scissors of different sizes and our regular hair clippers (for humans) and he screeches and thrashes around horribly.

So finally I put on a youtube video for him, held his hands down, and Josh trimmed his hair with the dog clippers. It looks fabulous. Way better than the hack job with scissors I did (see above photo). He gets a lot of compliments!

Cutie Goo.

Not to mention, you don’t realize until you have your own child that children are DISGUSTING. M is just as bad as Maggie; he’ll put anything in his mouth. I’ve finally trained him to recognize cigarette butts on the park grounds as “blegh” (trash), but he has picked up wood chips, sticks, rocks, sand, mud, grass, leaves…rolled them around in his mouth…

It’s kind of a friggin’ miracle that he’s not sick MORE often. When he does get sick, it’s from the gym daycare.

I finally brought him back to the gym yesterday. It was the first time since “Hand, Foot and Mouth” disease in June.

Sure I’m exposing him to germs but he needs a little exposure. And I need to strengthen my back and abs before I get pregnant again, good grief.

It’s not about “long lean muscle” or whatever those yoga/Pilates people are always trying to sell you. At this stage in my life it’s about NOT HAVING PAIN.

The joys of growing older. Josh who is six years older than moi, has been having body pain issues since May that STILL haven’t gone away.

I have a delicate back that I have to think about more, and occasional flare-ups of plantar fasciitis, but I’m still out walking those dogs every single day. Sometimes when it’s really hot we go to the big dog park and get super filthy (see above).

Like “dis”.

One-legged dog spotting!

I’m blogging the July pictures now and all the flowers look so vibrant. Currently in August a lot of these flowers have died, but our lettuce has been snarfed, the carrots are nearly ready and we even have some strawberries, thanks to one of Josh’s co-workers.

We finally bought a shade structure this year which makes going to the beach considerably more enjoyable. Here I am laying underneath it, photo-editing-free. Something about summertime makes me not want to edit anything.

I titled this photo “Cheesecake, anyone?” and people thought I was talking about literal cheesecake but I was really referencing “cheesecake photos”, a term for pinups, for the way I’m obviously posing on the beach. I have to pose.

Dat Goo! He tried to eat a dead starfish but I wouldn’t let him.

My Adventure Buddy and I have gone on a couple of bike rides this year. I always forget how much I love to ride my bike until I get on it. I hadn’t ridden a bike since we lived in the last house!

There’s been a lot of this action, this summer. Five bucks at Fred Meyer’s was well-spent. Remember when I tried to drag the dogs into a pool a few years ago and they weren’t having it? This kid loves it!

I’ve been blogging for 40 minutes and I’m only to mid-July. I’m gonna have to break this up. Josh and I recently discovered the show “Harlots”, and I like to watch one episode per night.

Art tip: always seal your painting and THEN add the rhinestones. I attempted to do it in reverse lately and ah…it’s harder.

Nobody can say this summer wasn’t hot enough!

Oh Maggie doooog, and Bear Cub. They spend a lot more time inside these days, while baby and I romp in the backyard. Old dogs need rest!

And so does this old dog. Well, I need to watch “Harlots”. So I’ll see ya again soon.