Papa Phil McWilliams and Ryan had a boys night this evening. Papa brought Ryan out to a dinner of Ry’s choice which of course was McDonald’s Play-land. After supper they went to a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul called, Walking with the Dinosaurs. Here is a Today Show news clip about the show. Ryan was raving about the “dino robots” and will be talking about this show for a long time.

Soba noodles, tempura and sushi….mmmmmmmmm! I was fortunate enough to help Janielle Batchelder soon to be Janielle Nordell (Ben) celebrate her upcoming marriage with a bachelorette dinner at a restaurant called Fujiya.

The food was delicious and brought me very much back to my days living in Japan where my apartment was 1/2 block from a noodle shop. Remember the louder you slurp your noodles the bigger the compliment to the chef!

Ryan is learning one of life’s greatest lessons. God made our bodies to heal and to help our ouchies heal we get scabs. Ry says, “[The ouchie] feels like it’s becoming pizza crust.” While not as appitizing as pizza crust is, it does help him heal and actually feels a lot like pizza crust. Are you wondering how did my little one  give himself what appears to be a scar on his neck from being held at knife point? It is sickening to my mommy stomach to hear the story so I’ll make it brief. While playing on the top/back of the couch he decided to take down the window shade cord that was tossed ‘up high’ on the curtain rod and place it under his chin. Oh yea and then he jumped (fell?) straight down with all of his weight hanging on the cord under his chin. Thank God he decided not to wrap it around his neck. He was able to release the cord and land without major trama. Ryan was scared after the incident and wanted to be comforted so we left the HUGE lecture for later that night. Lessoned learned on both fronts. So please wrap up your shade cords higher and tighter than you even think neccessary if you have little ones around. Peter was only 3 feet away when this happened to Ryan (3 1/2) just think if it were a toddler getting tangled up! Enough said.

I find myself saying “It’s like we are on vacation” during times of unexpected enjoyment or new fun activity.

Tonight was such a night.

The four of us went to Culver’s for my birthday dinner at my request. After our meal together we stopped at Kelley Park in Apple Valley. The park has pretty fountains, walking paths and fun equipment. Ryan loved bouncing around on the bouncy play-turf ground covering and braved the fireman pole. Molly went down slide after slide. She taught herself to lean back to go faster and put her shoes down on the slide to go slower.

The weather was an ideal mixture of coolness from breeze and warmness from sun. I felt happy that such a simple birthday evening could be so satisfying.

Phewwt! Gag-Spit! Eou!

These utterances came from my mouth as I rejected a bite of not fully ripened organic banana this morning. I finally have fresh fruit in our home after weeks of delaying the grocery run to Super Target.

I knew it was green but I was trying to push my luck. The banana tasted so foul. After I had resolved the issue I was telling Ryan about unripe fruit and why I had made such a fuss.

He said, “Mom that’s why God says in the beginning of ‘my little first Bible’, “Don’t eat fruit that is still growing.” Of course he was referring to the picture in his Bible of Adam and Eve hanging around a tree with the fruit still hanging on it in the garden of Eden.

I just smiled and said, “You’re right we shouldn’t eat fruit that is still growing!”

I am not sure when it happened; right after giving birth? Probably. Something switched in my brain upon becoming a mother that made it okay to refer to myself in the third person. Never in my life have I done this in any other way. Here is an example, Jessica thinks speaking in third person is so creepy. See even that was hideous.  A friend from High School had a boyfriend that would speak like that. It just made me want to send him to therapy for some disorder or at the very least send him away from my friend.

So now that I am a Mommy I speak in the third person everyday. Oh, I just shuttered a little as I was typing it. “Mommy is so proud of you”; “Mommy said NO!”; “Come give Mommy a kiss”. Now at least ‘Mommy’ is a title as well as my new name so it may not be such a heinous crime but it still crosses my mind now and again.

I will most likely continue this way of speaking for a long time. I just thought this Mommy talk issue needed to be addressed.

Jessica thanks you for reading her blog post.

I had a garage sale today with my friend Dawn in Apple Valley. We had a good turn out and beautiful weather.

We ran ‘the little bake sale that could’ with homemade brownies, bakery doughnuts and water bottles to raise funds for Dawn’s sister Sarah. Sarah is going on a missions trip to Africa to help dig a well for clean water.

Both of our husbands get awards for doing non-stop Daddy duty (park, food, baths, everything) all Friday night and Saturday while we priced and ran the sale. [note: In general I don't think Dad's should always get awards for watching their own kids. Watching the kids under certain tough or busy times I think they should at least be thanked.]

I love to purge material things several times a year. In the winter months I usually just donate stuff to the Goodwill but in the spring I do a garage sale. A pleasant ahhhhhhhhhhh! is resounding in my mind now that the stuff has gone on to other homes or day-cares.

The following Bible verse inspires me to put my heart into important things not just my stuff,

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [Matt. 6:19-21].

Though I parted with several baby items like the Jumperoo, exer-saucer and baby swing. I still couldn’t part with all of my newborn baby clothes, a whole topic for another blog entry. We sold a lot and will be taking the rest of the unsold items to my Mom’s church, Friendship Church, for their fund raising garage sale.

I like collecting too. I did purchase 2 coats, 10 shirts and 1 handbag. I just happened to be sharing garage space with Dawn’s sister a Banana Republic store manager. So you can imagine the racks that were hanging there. Can you blame me? I am thrilled to have a few new pieces in my wardrobe. All day today was literally wearing a tee shirt that I wore in high school so yea, it was time to update. I refrained from wondering the streets to the other garage sales in her neighborhood so that is a huge star for me.

I equally love to do things that are complete opposites. I love quiet reading just as much I love yakking it up with my girlfriends. I love eating sensibly equally as much as I love eating chocolate flour-less cake or oh…the fruit cheesecake tart from Cafe Latte in St. Paul. Point being I love to collect and I love to give away.

It was a great day overall and we are already dreaming up ideas for a sale next year.

I LOVE severe weather.  In another life I could have been a storm chaser.  I love the power and intensity. I love the colors. I love the smell.  I love how it proves (at least in my mind) that no matter what we do and what the “news media” tells us, we cannot control the weather.  God’s creativity drenches the earth with every storm!

We were enjoying a beautiful “summer” day today – high 70′s, sunny, and a slight wind.  Within about 15 minutes, the previous description of the day turned into one of the coolest hail storms I have experienced!  It was about marble sized hail and it was coming down like crazy!

Our town home has steel siding and with the hail bouncing off, the sound was deafening.  The best part was after it was all said and done, I went out to take some photos and the smell was everywhere.  Our neighborhood is lined by evergreens and they got shredded!  The aroma was thick in the air, almost like a giant Christmas tree air freshener.

Anyway, after the storm cleared there was this super cool fog effect all over because of the sudden presence of ice.  The kids loved it too!  Molly was actually throwing a tantrum right as the storm hit and she immediately perked up and jumped on the couch as she stared out the window.  This is all part of why storms rock!

Exciting things are happening at work as we dive deeper into the concept of using social media sites as a marketing outlet.  My boss is having a blast meeting new colleagues and networking using all the popular web applications: Digg, Pownce, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more.

During an Tweet exchange with the folks at Magento Commerce, we (August Ash) were noticed by a gentlemen from Minnov8. Minnov8 is an online news site with a “focus on technology innovation in the State of Minnesota“.  Steve Borsch was interested in our early adoption of Magento and wanted to know more.  After a couple interviews, he came up with a great article about August Ash, taking risks, and Open Source software.  Check it out, I even got my own pull quote!

Self motivated; self directed; self serve; self help; self made; self diagnosed; self absorbed; self esteem; self, self, self!!!!! Me-oh-my-oh! I have hesitated committing to a blog for fear of over exposure. Does anybody need to know what color we painted our living room or where we went for dinner? And if they do care why can’t I connect with them in person, over the phone or in a letter or the very least an email or text message?

How impersonal. How selfish.

Before today I thought becoming a blogger meant that I would be one more of those people shouting from the roof tops, “Everyone needs to hear my special view of the world and the daily minutia of my family and work life.” I am proud of my family and myself for that matter but why would I need to write my journal for the world to see and comment on? Remember when diaries had keys? Now bloggers write like every reader is their family pet resting loyally at the end of their childhood bed in silence.

How pretentious. How boring.

I suppose having kids has changed my views of personal sharing due to the huge flux of “hey how are y…, why haven’t you updated your kids’ photo gallery online yet this week?” Guilt for not printing photos, jealousy of people that can update everyone often mixed with lack of energy for others all enter into my mind causing me to think, why not a blog? So here I am left with an “I guess something is better than nothing” approach to family connectivity, memory recall and self-reflection.

How suitable. How convenient.

My desire is to be able to look back and have a few more stories to recall than the one or two that typically get stuck in our auto playback. I am going to post the ordinary account of the details that makes us who we are as a family. But by all means when I do have some thing to report that is extra-ordinary you will be sure to hear about that too.

How sweet. How hopeful.