Small Victories

SV#1
So you know that drawer, or cabinet, or sac that everyone has where they stash the almost unavoidable accumulation of plastic grocery bags? I would like to state for the record that as of right now, I am no longer in possession of any of the above! I feel that I have slayed the modern cabinet dragon of petroleum product consumption! Yay Me, er, us, er Tank Family. I have always tried to be a schlepper of cloth grocery bags, but now that we are getting the weekly (organic! local!) veggie box (which is housed in a little rubbermaid tub that we return for the next week) there is even less opportunity for forgetting and getting stuck, er... um... holding the bag, as it were. And I get to try exciting cooking experiments, such as "what the heck is this okra crap and what on earth am I going to do with it?" And you know, more than half the time, the answer is fry it in butter. Hard to go wrong with that!

SV#2
Little Tank has been a bit fussbudgetty for a few days, culminating in a refusal to nap at day care yesterday, and we figured out why last night. His fifth tooth has just come in, and it looks like number six is hot on its heels. Yay Tankster!

SV#3
And finally... I have now officially found two other local women who are willing to go do this with me. Yay us!

Not currently a victory, but a project in the works: I have decided to try and rally enough local women to do a hoop group in the Labor Day Parade. So far I have lots of nibbles on the line, but I am still a bit shy of the quota for fish in the basket. Wish me luck, or better yet, come on out and join me!

Bootie Fodder!

Hey guess what!? My cousin had her baby! She hasn't gotten to blog yet, so I'm posting a pic here! Look at how freakin' cute he is! Born July 26th at 2:52 am, weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs 3 oz!Picture credit to Julia Pearson I believe...

And in other anitclimactic news, despite the 105 degree heat (at least there's no humidity!) I have actually been knitting!
Tadaaa. My second ever pair of adult socks. Destined for a very belated gift box to the Lovely Lisa (Hi, Lisa!). It went so smoothly I decided to try some color work next. Ha ha ha! Now I have this big persnaggeldy mess that soon will be a sweater for the new little gipper in the family! (See above!)

Oh and the whole fam damily went for a hike in The Park today and we saw THREE BEARS! Um, no, not The Three Bears, there was no porridge involved. Just three Black Bears (that are really brown colored). Two munching away on a grassy meadow, and another ambling around another field. This really isn't a rare occurrence in the ole Yose, but we haven't been out much, so it was exciting for us. We made sure mom and cub were on the same side of the trail, made lots of noise so that she knew we were coming and slithered past with a big group of other hikers. Safe as houses. And I forgot my camera. Foo.

A Haircut. Literally One Hair.

So wee li'l Tank got his first haircut this weekend. Not that he was in danger of turning into Cousin Itt, but he was a bit fluffy on the sides... It was a rather silly affair, with Moms trying to hold him relatively still, while Pops tried to distract and document at the same time, and our poor little hottie hair stylist had just been in a car wreck and was in a fashionable neckbrace with limited mobility!

Breaking News!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Friday to bring you this! (Which is probably sideways because I can't remember in the heat of the moment to only take video horizontally, and YouTube isn't quite finished processing it yet so I can't check, and even if I did, and it was, I still don't know how to fix the issue...
(li'l help here, anyone? Anyone?))

Look closely, there's three distinct steps in there, wiggly but strong! OMG!

Fevers, Falls, and Fainting!

Its been a tough week for health here at the Hoop Ranch. First, the boys came down with a fever, and much couch napping ensued...
Fortunately it only lasted about 24 hours, which I highly recommend, if you have to get sick. Then two days later I came down with something seemingly unrelated entailing a swollen throat, low fever and monstrous headache. Here's where it gets bad...

Tuesday evening while we were unloading groceries and our (local! organic! weekly!) veggie box, somehow Tank took a digger and cut his wittle eyebrow on the heater grate on the floor. And let me tell you facial cuts are bleeders!

Now I had spent most of that day in bed due to said throat and head, but adrenaline kicked in when my offspring got wounded. I jogged off to get a clean washcloth to put pressure on his noggin. We made the quick decision to pop down to the hospital and see if our tot needed a stitch or two. Within seconds we were loaded in the car and Poppa was driving us to the local Dr.

And then the adrenaline wore off. And I sort of passed out. Tunnel vision, rushing in the ears, all that. Debated throwing up. Decided it would be a bad thing. Poor Poppa up front now figured he was driving us both to the hospital. So anywhoo, the tot would have gotten stitches if they still did that these days, but with modern technology and all they just crazy glued the little guy back together. I laid in the back of the subaru until I felt well enough to walk in to the hospital and get some water. We all survived and are at home, held together with a little glue.

Punkin's, Pinwheels, And Pantylines

This past week has just been a huge weekend for the Tank Family. First there was hanging with the friends in Nevada City...


Then Quality Family Time in our fav' town of Truckee...

Then on to the major event of the the week for me! The Fourth of July Parade... Which we "won" for the second year in six. Due entirely to this, I'm sure... I have to say that this year some of the (wonderful, super nice, great, sweet and fun loving) ladies seemed a bit confused as to where on their shorts the letter was painted, hence a hint toward pornography... You'll notice that I seem to be the most staunchly conservative gal there, not only NOT bending over suggestively, but also sporting the industrial panty lines. Sometimes I can be frighteningly uptight.


Our lovely support crew was there making it all possible...


Then the drive home was punctuated with lovely stops at scenic places like Tenaya lake, with perfect breezy balmy temps and clear blue mountain lakes...
Lastly, Tank and I dropped Poppa off in El Portal where the temps were a bit more than balmy at over 110 at 5 pm... Yikes! And guess what, its Friday! Lets hope the party never ends!

You Say Its Your Birthday!

Well, the little dude turned one. I can't believe it. I still think of him as tiny, then I see these pictures and he's ginormous. We had a wonderful party here at the homestead, good friends, good food, and happy babies everywhere! It couldn't have been nicer. Then to top it off, the next day we spent a gorgeous day at an incredible beach. Sometimes life does not suck.



Now that he's a big one year old, Tank is practicing a lot of standing unsupported. He gets so proud of himself, he makes sure you see him and then giggles and waits for praise. We even coaxed and goaded him into taking his first step, because we didn't want it to happen at daycare without us! He's not quite ready to run the sub 4 minute mile, but he is... umm literally... taking the first steps! Yay big Tankster!