Chapters

So, I'm sitting here eating some good ol' animal crackers with chocolate cake frosting. YUM. Time for little updates.

Chapter 1: My Sick Car
Good News: Nothing is wrong with the engine. Turns out the heavy fog and humidity was messing with a sensor and my car is A-OK on that aspect.

Bad News: I need brakes and rotors. Nothing new to us, as we've heard them grinding on our way home from St. Louis. The price however.... it comes at a nice little tune of $575. Seriously. Because only ONE company makes the rotors for my back brakes and the back brakes alone are costing $375 of the total.

Chapter 2: Weather
So we had some 90* days back in October. How about some 65* days in January? Interesting, huh? When we got home last week we were greeted with a foot of snow. Within 2 days it had warmed up, melted and begun raining. Last night and today we had thunderstorms and were under flood warnings.

Yesterday was 65* so I took Porter to Loomis Park. If there's one thing Jackson does have for kids it is parks. I should know. When I nannied I hunted down every park I could find... big or small... just to get out of the house with the girls. With Porter, I've pretty much stuck to 2 or 3 parks that are nearby. Loomis Park, along with another "playscape" park in Leslie (15 min north of us) is one of the larger parks in our area. I used to take Avery and Aria to Loomis all the time. Yesterday was Porter's first visit, and it was a nice little visit as there was only one other kid there swinging. Porter is often a little timid in new situations and I think he enjoyed climbing around and going on all the paths and stairs and walkways with me.

I love this next one of him, even if it isn't really in focus.


Now, its not like we can get all excited about this weather sticking around. Within the next 2 days the temp is supposed to drop to the 30's and we'll be seeing snow again.

Chapter 3: Nicole Barczak Photography wraps up the 1st year
I am happy to say that I have *most* of my bookwork done for my accountant, and all my numbers on my balance and profit/loss sheets match up. Woot woot! I'm finally getting the hang of all the bookwork that goes along with "making a paper trail" for the good 'ol IRS. Now to get my taxes filed and see how much I owe. Gulp.

Chapter 4: Porter's upcoming birthday
Yes, I know... I still have (according to my ticker in the sidebar) 44 days left. But... there are THINGS TO PLAN! I'm doing a "truck" type theme... basically centered around a "cake" idea. Its hard to find un-cheesy truck themed things for kids parties. And then I begin to wonder... why the hell do I care if he has cheesy themed truck decorations and cups and plates? *sigh* I'm a control freak.

I still need to book the place to have the party, as well as design/make the invites, narrow down the guest list to those people that Porter really "knows", and do a test run with the cake. Fun stuff!