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!
I downloaded a program that will let you upload 50 posts a day from your wordpress, or livejournal blog to your blogger account. I really had to search for it and I think it was just one that some guy developed and put out there. You might have already done some digging, but I know it took me a while to find it. I'm just wondering if there's something like that for typepad, too.
Posted by: sara | January 17, 2008 at 01:45 PM
I can't believe you don't have any snow there right now! 65'...whoa!!
Posted by: kristi sauer | January 09, 2008 at 04:32 PM
ugg. michigan weather! i am a freak about my kids birthday parties too. I always go with home made invitations...even if it costs 3x's more than buying them...and home favors. the only thing i usually get store bought is the cake. the lady at bakeateria can literally do anything you want her to.
Posted by: zoe | January 09, 2008 at 11:13 AM
- yay for the car! boo for the money for the wheel stuff.
-it's not just MI with the crazy weather... we had 73* on Saturday with 70 again on Sunday. 73!!! We were out side ALL DAY LONG. It was like summer! And it's supposed to snow tomorrow... go figure!
-Good luck with all the tax stuff. Get it out of the way early!!
-We should have done the test run with the cake while you were here. More people to try it out on!! Maybe that would be a good project when we come up for some snowmobiling!
Posted by: heather | January 09, 2008 at 08:18 AM