Tonight I had a chicken finger sandwich for dinner.

Hey guess what?  There was no good title for this blog post, so I just opted for a true statement.  Creativity and Grownup points all revoked!

Turns out being really busy at work really cuts into your blog-posting time.  Usually I get the pictures all set to go while I'm at home (and even sometimes think up clever things to say), but write the in-between stuff while I'm waiting on an incubation or something. 

Anyway, the result of being really busy at work is that my blog is suffering.  Some other things at my house are suffering too.  The dog finally got some extra walks this weekend.  You already know that Em never wears pants. (I should give myself credit and say that she does wear pants outside the house.) We have just been leaving food out for the cats and now Slick resembles Jabba the Hut. Or Pizza the Hut, depending on whether you liked Star Wars or SpaceBalls. 

For those of you blissfully ignorant of both these movies (I hated them both), this is what my cat looks like:

Jabba.

 Pizza.

Ok, so now that we have Slick back on a diet, hopefully the rest of our lives will follow suit and jump right back into order.

Before the Labor Day Weekend, Uncle Gary came through on his way to Gainesville from Louisville, KY.  We cooked dinner and a yummy dessert of nutella filled peanut butter cookies, and he spent the night.  He also brought goodies!  His youngest daughter, Ally, had these jungle baby toys that she no longer played with.  There is a hammock with a light up mobile that makes music, a stroller that makes music, a baby tiger, a baby monkey, a toy cradle, and some play bottles to feed them with.  The baby animals even make baby animal noises!  I heard that Ally was not too pleased to give up these toys (even though she hasn't played with them in ages), but I hope she realizes that it all went to a great home because Em is having a great time with them! Em even "wrote" Ally a Thank You Note this weekend.  Bet you can imagine how it reads.

Here are some pics of her playing with the new stuff.  Abby, look out for the dress you got for her!

Anyway, on Saturday of Labor Day Weekend I took Em shopping for some new clothes at the outlet mall.  She still loves to shop, of course, and now that she is walking, really loves to pick out her own clothes.  Don't worry.  We didn't leave a mess. 

Otherwise it's just been business as usual at our house.  Trips to the park, Rob playing baseball with his friends, me teaching piano, etc.  Rob hung up a swing on our porch so we don't always have to go to the park.  Needless to say, Emerald loves it.  But in case you needed photo evidence:

What kid doesn't love a good game of "Airplane Baby"?

And our tomato garden.  We have no shortage of cherry tomatoes and have been sharing with all the neighbors.  I have to give Rob credit for these.  I don't even pick the tomatoes (you know, because of my allergy...).  I just make salads and pasta with them.  Definitely not allergic to a good salad!

The tomatoes are taller than Rob!  

So tall, in fact, that Rob is invisible!

For the end of today's tragically random post, I have more random things that wouldn't even fit into one of the random-ass categories above.  First, Em has taken up yoga.  Evidently Bells is taking notes.

She's also doing a very good job of eating, but prefers to have a video on if she has to feed herself.  This morning she had plums and berry waffles.

And, a better video of her walking.  And not wearing pants.  I should probably just go ahead and confess that we don't wear pants a lot at our house unless other people are over. Except Slick.  No pants fit him.