a monkey-rrific halloween

What’s with the quick turnaround time on the Halloween photos you ask? Well, the thing is, it’s 8:00ish something, and Ryan’s in bed. FatJ isn’t home. And we have a hyper barker who goes ballistic any time the door bell rings. So, no one here to contain the beast + sleeping ex-monkey = me sitting [...]

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pumpkin carving 101

{The following tutorial is brought to you by Ryan.}
1. Always refer to your pumpkin as “poppo” or “poppy.”
2. For the first five minutes, be very afraid to get your hands anywhere near the innards of the pumpkin.

3. Once you are used to the feel of the innards, make every attempt to put the innards back [...]

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the cuteness quotient…

…has just been raised.

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i miss you summer, week 1 (take two)

Back in September I wrote this post, because I was apparently all depressed or something that summer was over. It seems we didn’t really have THAT bad of weather for most of September and October, because I never felt the need to let summer know that I missed it (even though I did) via a [...]

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1.5

One point five. That’s how old he is. 1.5 years old already, or as they say in mommy-speak, 18 months. I remember doing this post and thinking that 9 months was an ‘old baby’. Well now that we’ve hit double that, I’m definitely thinking I have an ‘old toddler’ on my hands.
What’s Ryan up to [...]

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a photoshop question; can you help?

I’m sure this is a matter of one little click, but I can’t figure it out. Google has been no help either.
I’m trying to crop an image in Photoshop. Typically, this is a PS task I can handle on my own. But here’s the prob. Something’s gotten wacked out with my cropping tool (or something!) [...]

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the orchard, and some leaf activities

On Saturday we decided we’d finally head out to the Pine Tree Apple Orchard before fall slipped past us. [I was just chatting with my friend Jen about how we get these notions in our heads that things like "a fun little adventure to the apple orchard" will be this idealized wonderful family outing where [...]

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uncle T, eat your heart out

This one’s dedicated to my Uncle Tom.

Love, Ryan

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tft: long drives (and an Oprah tidbit at the end)

Over the past nine days, I have done a considerable amount of driving.
First, there was the trip to Chicago: {Minneapolis to Chicago and back again= 822 odd miles.}
Then, the evening I returned from Chicago, we got word that FatJ’s uncle passed away in Bismarck, North Dakota. I thought it best for everyone involved to not [...]

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this should be my last oprah post…

The whole “O” experience is still on my mind apparently. Last night I had a dream- a very crazy dream.
In my dream, I decided that I wanted to attend another taping of the Oprah show. So I hopped in the car, drove to Chicago, and parked in the Harpo studios lot. There, I got out [...]

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