Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Mobile Uploads: Chapter 4

Since I was without a phone for most of the summer these mobile uploads post have been nonexistent. However now I am fully equipped again and ready to roll...

 Here is our apartment the day we moved in. Hasn't really changed in the three months we've been here.

Spencer refused to stand with a piece of paper like we did HERE but whatevs, I snapped this picture after I dropped him off as I awkwardly reached out the passenger window. Happy first day of law school!

This area of the world is interesting. People are so ...... I really can't find the best word to use. It's not a negative thing it's just a different thing than I'm use to. For example I have no problem eating off styrofoam, but since living here I am now understanding a life of recycling and going green. So not only do all the foods at public events come in Vegan, Gluten-free, vegetarian, and Kosher but the supplies on which they serve the food is always 100% compostable. This was at some law school shindig.

I started babysitting when I was ten. Sometimes for $5/hour or sometimes even less than that. I would save my money and seriously contemplate on which Beanie Baby I was going to buy. After I made the purchase and took it home in the brown paper bag (don't really remember why the beanie babies were always in brown lunch sacks) I would put a little plastic cover on the TY tag and put it on a shelf. To me they were collectors items and over the years as I've seen the prices on eBay drop, and drop and drop I've decided that those beanie babies were a waste of my hard earned cash. I now let Drew play with them and smear chocolate and yogurt all over their fuzzy faces. I saw this display at the mall and was floored. Some of the beanie babies in the bin were some of the rarest to be found. I only looked for a minute, but of course refused to buy animal shaped bean bags.

Saw this on a door at our hotel in Boston. Weird. 

Drew's chubby self tried to get into this toy cart at our neighbors house. hahahahah enough said.

This to me is the epitome of Ithaca. A Subaru with plenty of bumper stickers.

I don't really know what to say about this one.

As Drew and I were leaving the gym he felt like he had to smear his face on every piece of available glass. This was shortly after I saw a guy with a windex bottle and a towel. oops.

 This is by far Drew's favorite thing to see at the grocery store. Something about being near an ocean that makes for some sweet lobsters in the grocery store.

Mobile Uploads: Chapter 1
Mobile Uploads: Chapter 2
Mobile Uploads: Chapter 3

Monday, November 14, 2011

Syracuse Zoo

 We crammed 5 carseats and 3 adults into Lindseys Pilot and headed up to Syracuse to enjoy the warm weather and the zoo. Courtney looks thrilled to have her hips dislocated between the two boys for the hour long drive.
The whole group
 The boys checking out the penguins and stomping in some unknown smelly substance.
 
The monkeys were awesome. The monkeys are always my favorite at any zoo I visit, and these monkeys were some of the best. There was a tiny baby monkey and a teenage brother monkey that were fighting each other running around the cage-- the boys loved it.
Drew now knows how to "roar" when he sees pictures of tigers and lions so I would say the zoo was a success.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Spencer turns 26!

We celebrated Spencer's birthday over the weekend (a couple different times). On Saturday we tried a place here called Wings Over Ithaca. It claims to have been voted best wings in Ithaca, which we laughed about because how much competition do they have? Well the claims didn't disappoint. I don't even like wings and the place was great. We went a little earlier before the dinner rush so Drew ran around while we covered our fingers in yummy sauces.
On Sunday (Spencer's actual birthday) we got together at the Lewis' home (due to our lack of furniture) to celebrate with friends. We had lots of cookies and tons of icecream to assemble SmartCookie Sandwiches. I didn't get any pictures of the night except Drew and Chet who showed up in the same pajamas.
Happy Birthday Spencer! We love you!

Friday, November 04, 2011

Oxiclean: the stain specialist

First off, did anyone know that bananas stain clothes? I never would have thought... but when I got some of Drew's clothes out of the dryer and saw some weird brown spots on a couple of the shirts I couldn't figure it out. Was there a marker in there or something? It was weird because they were all only dirty around the neckline (where Drew typically spills his food...) After I discovered that it was bananas I thought about just presoaking the clothes, maybe putting some prewash stuff on it and then washing them again... well that was like 5 washes and 2 months ago...
Drew has just been wearing this shirt with the stains on it like a grungy kid

A neighbor told me that Oxiclean would take banana stains out but she had never used it on clothes that had been washed and dried (multiple times) So I tried it anyway.... and presto...
I'm still kind of shocked at how easy it was and how well it worked. You can't really tell in the picture but the shirt is a cream color. The color didn't change or bleach out at all. So later I tried it on a lot more clothes, and they all look great! I just boiled some water and worked out a little concoction and soaked the clothes. It was weird but it worked. I picture methamphetamine makers looking kind of similar...stirring chemicals in a bowl in their kitchen...

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Little Stinker

For Halloween Drew dressed up as a little Skunk. It was nice and warm and really adorable. Our Branch had a fun party on Friday where the kids ran around and swapped candy. There was a murder mystery being played out with lots of yummy soups and hot chocolate.
Drew really liked putting candy in his little bucket. 
 
 Spencer and I kind of had lame costumes. We were bags of trash. I seriously have never seen so many skunks snooping in trash as I have here in Ithaca. I don't even know if I had seen a skunk in real life until we moved here- and now I've seen a lot! Not sure what the means.... lots of people throwing away good leftovers or the fact that we are surrounded by a forest...
 On Monday we took Drew out to a few houses. He was kind of uneasy about wearing his skunk hat since sometimes he couldn't see where he was going or where his parents were.

Drew waiting with his cute friends (Rapunzel, Dinosaur and baby Chet was a monkey)
The local fire truck rolled up with flashing lights handing out bracelets for the kids. Our neighbor driving by pulled over her car like a crazy person because she was positive a kid got hit by a car... luckily that wasn't the case...