Ashley finally posts!!!!!!

After 6 years, Blake and I are each taking huge steps in our marriage. First of all, I (Ashley) am writing a blog post. No post on the blog to this point (entitled BlASH's blog), has ever been authored by the latter half of it's namesake. Sad, but true. So that's what I'm doing.

Now, if you know my blonder half, you should know that he's quite practical. Much to my initial chagrin, I have come to appreciate, nay, adore this practicality. For example, a month's supply of Pampers magically appears on our front porch the 16th of every month for a lower price per diaper than we could find at any local retailer. What? Yep. You wish your husband was so practical.

There must be a catch! Well, sometimes that practicality overrides the emotional and irrational desire you have to do something, like order an overpriced coke at dinner or send Christmas cards. Some people might say, "Why would we print pictures on paper when we have a blog to display our pictures to friends and family?"  But I, ahem, some other people, LOVE seeing the smiling faces of friends and family as they trickle into the mailbox througout December. And honestly, don't you get a little flutter in your heart when you open the mailbox to a letter hand-addressed to you? 

This year we are sending Christmas cards!  Is it because we have an incredibly adorable son whose face would look great on a Christmas photo card? Yes. But also because Shutterfly is giving us the opportunity to try the Christmas card tradition for FREE this year! We get 50 free photo cards just for posting about it! There are over 800 designs to choose from. I haven't made a decision about which one I'll choose but this is a cute one:

Shutterfly does Christmas gifts, too.  And what self-respecting grandparent wouldn't cherish a gift mug with their grandchild's picture on it? 

We know you didn't come to our blog to hear about our precious son and not see a picture, so here's a little teaser.

Thanksgiving Video 2010

Forgot to post this.

It was fun to have the fam together over Thanksgiving weekend and to watch Kessler interact with all his girly cousins.



Kessler Gets A Flu Shot

A few weeks ago Kessler got his first flu shot. He was totally fine after crying for about 30 seconds. I just loved his epic silent cry and had to share it.

Our Son Loves To Swing

From The Bowels Of My Brain X

This one is for all U.S. Americans, and for people in other countries that don't have maps.

We're debuting our first Bowels sponsor in this edition of From The Bowels Of My Brain.

>> One of life's greatest joys is picking up things with your feet.

>> You can never have enough chip clips.

>> I feel better about myself after I trim my neck hair.

>> I HAVE to trim my fringanails and toenails at least once a week.

>> I wonder what I'll think about some of these bowels when I'm sixty.

>> Who am I kidding? These are all inarguable, timeless truths.

>> Following financial news daily makes you 30% less happy

>> Following political news daily makes you 90% less happy

>> Following financial and political news daily sucks all your happiness away, plus 20% of the happiness of those with whom you interact.

>> Dryer sheets as fabric softener actually work.

>> There's no such thing as normal.

>> The absolute best way to limit face wrinkles is to limit your use of any facial expressions, keep a poker face at all times.*

>> It also helps to drink lots of water and use a daily lotion with SPF.

>> Everything over a baby monitor sounds a lot worse than it actually is.

>> The little loop in the tongue of a tennis shoe is helpful.

That's all I got for ya today.

Sayonara sweeties.

*Brought to you by Lady GaGa.

Kessler In The Tub

Ashley does his baths in the sink, but since he hit his head on the metal the first 3 times I tried to bathe him in the sink, I like to use the blow-up baby bathtub in the big bathtub. He was in an especially good mood one evening, so I grabbed the camera.

"Kessler Needs To Wash His Hair"

A couple months ago I posted how I love kid conversations. Stories of what kids say and do consistently make me smile and often make me laugh.

This morning Livy came over to the house. Livy and Kessler were each in a really good mood. Livy finished coloring and was eating breakfast. Kessler was crawling all over the house, banging a big spoon on the floor, and pulling up on the furniture. He moseyed into the kitchen near Livy while she was eating. Ashley then got a phone call and I went to brush my teeth. I start walking back toward the kitchen and hear Livy say, "Kessler needs to wash his hair." I look down and see Kessler's head dripping with white fluid. I look over and see Livy's "big-girl" cup, once half-full of milk, now empty.

Kessler: 9 Months

He's actually over 10 months old now, but this is from around his 9 month birthday.

Music Monday | Ben Harper

I borrowed a friend's Ben Harper mix and popped it in my car CD player for my ride back to college one weekend. It was late on a Sunday evening. The song caught me off guard and blew me away. I listened to it probably 5 times in a row.

I want to be ready.

Kessler Wants The Football

There was a ball about 5 feet away from him. He was a slow crawler. He really wanted the ball.

Life In Bullets

• There's a lot of catching up to do so I'll have to trickle some catch-up posts over the next few weeks.
• There's been a lot of life happening lately, so much so that I haven't really had a chance to write about it.
• The biggest thing is that the adoption I blogged about last Christmas is becoming a reality. 
• Heather and Gardner went to Uganda 3 weeks ago today and cleared courts for their new little girl.
• She's adorable and we hope to meet her in a week or 2 if they can get the VISA. More updates to come on this.
• While Heather and Gardner were in Uganda (Gardner is home now) Ashley and I kept their 2 year old daughter, Livy. It was a lot of fun, double the desire to get home from work in the afternoon, but it was also a lot of work. We started the same day after hearing a sermon on dying to self. I felt like I really got to put it into practice.
• We've had weddings and High School Reunions and various other events which will have to be discussed further.
• Kessler, meanwhile, has become a busy body. He's all over the place; crawling, pulling up, pushing toys while walking, climbing stairs (!), imitating us, communicating more, stomping with his hands, opening drawers, falling a lot, bruising and cutting his previously flawless little face, et cetera, et cetera.
• Ashley has been Supermom 2x while making sure Kessler is cared for and serving as a wonderful "Sissy" while taking care of Livy for a little over 2 weeks. 
• I've started writing for a Chargers' site. And the Chargers are now 2-4. I hate being a fan of anything, but I keep going back to it. More on this later.
• My work has been busy and I have some more responsibility now. It's good, but has made managing everything a bit more of a challenge. 
• It's 10:43pm and I'm really sleepy, which almost never happens. 
• Expect some more updates prominently featuring pictures of the little guy, stories about the adoption, and Bowels Of My Brain over the next couple weeks. 
• Don't do drugs.

Music Monday | G. Love & Special Sauce II

Another fun one, perhaps my favorite "fun" song:

Music Monday | G. Love & Special Sauce

A fun one here:

Music Monday | Bon Iver

Another artist where I could have posted a number of songs. This is the song, though, that made me fall in love with Bon Iver's music.

Nature And Stress

First, Kahn stressed out his participants by giving them a series of math tests. Then he placed some people in front of a window overlooking a grassy lawn with trees, others in front of a large plasma television screen displaying the lawn in real time, and still others in front of a blank wall. As expected, those in front of the window experienced the quickest drop in stress levels, as measured by their decreasing heart rate. Participants also spent far more time looking out the window and at the plasma screen than at the blank wall. But the researchers found an unexpected result.


“Surprisingly, the blank wall and the plasma screen were no different in terms of stress reduction,” said Ruckert. Their study indicates that gazing at an authentic natural space reduces stress, whereas a digital replica of nature soothes only as well as a boring blank wall.

I dig these types of studies. Read the rest of the short entry from Wired Magazine here.

Music Monday | The Arcade Fire

I could post about any of their songs, but I'll go with this one for the way it fills the moment.

From The Bowels Of My Brain IX

Let's  get it started    in heeeeeeere.

Running, running and running, running:

>> "For your convenience" means you're about to be inconvenienced.

>> "With all due respect" means you are about to be disrespected.

>> "We're unable to make it" means your party sounds lame.

>> "Please listen as our menu options have recently changed" means we changed our automated voice response menu options a year or two ago but it was really annoying to change them so now we don't feel like updating the pre-recorded message.

>> "To make a long story short" makes your story longer.

>> Based on a lengthy study and in-depth statistical analysis I have determined that 79% of the time someone writes "lol" they are lying. This is assuming you still believe "lol" means "laugh out loud" instead of the definition I've adopted; "A response used to acknowledge that something is either funny or an acknowledgment that someone attempted to provoke laughter or provide amusement"

>> Billion dollar idea: Bananas that don't bruise.

>> And I wouldn't even know how to spell bananas were it not for Gwen Stefani.

>> One of the many great things about From The Bowels Of My Brain is that you get to relearn your Roman Numerals.

>> Whoever wrote the ABC song should've made the whole L M N O P section a little easier for the children.

Until next time, peoples. Gohead doyur thang.

Hey Dada

Kessler has gradually started to say "Dadadada" and "Hey Dada" enough as a response to seeing me that we think we can confidently say that's what he's saying. While he doesn't understand what it means that I'm his dad, it's still pretty fun.

Hey Kessler.

Music Monday | The National

"We're half awake in a fake empire. We're half awake in a fake empire."

Music Monday | Fleet Foxes