Hello there. Well, that last post was fun, wasn't it?

It's lovely being completely misunderstood.

Anyway, moving on-

You'll be seeing a few changes around here.

After five years of blogging I finally have an about page!

You may also notice in my sidebars a link to my photography site which is almost finished, a link to my new review blog, and a link to Alphamom's Guide to Everything, which I wrote two articles for, I'll let you know when they're published.

I hope you enjoy the new stuff.

My friend Jen installed all of the new things in the side bars and built the about page for me. She is awesome. I am not.
I don't even know how to make me own mastheads.

Kids today and their technology.

Posted by torrie at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Almost every morning I take Willa and Dexter for a walk around our neighborhood.

A couple of blocks away from us, in an old house, lives a kind old man.
He's Italian, and his last name is complicated, so everyone just calls him Chick.

We've become quite friendly with Chick. When we reach his house Dexter's tail starts wagging and Willa cranes her head to see if Chick is sitting on his porch. About 75% of the time he is, so I push the stroller up his front walk and stand at the bottom of the stairs. Dexter goes up on the porch and Chick pets him. Willa smiles at him and we stand and chat for a few minutes.

Chick loves to tell me about our town- he's lived here his whole life.

He loves Willa's eyes.

When Chick fell down and badly bruised his face I checked on him every day.

When I made fruit crisp I brought him some.

So, you can understand why, when I walked by his house the other day, and say a McCain/Palin sign prominently displayed on his front porch, I was crestfallen.

I just stood there for a moment and stared in disbelief. Heartbroken. How can someone so nice be so wrong?

I will still stop by Chick's house to say "hi", but I will never view him the same way.

Posted by torrie at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (86)

My cell phone

My wallet

A water bottle

A flashlight

A remote control

A shampoo bottle

My keys (I actually got locked out of the house because of this)

A tape measure

A box of tampons

My Gorillapod

My husband's hospital ID

A USB cable

My organizer (she tore one of the pages of my calender out)

My necklace (she ate one of the beads)

A jar of sesame seeds

A magazine (she tore out the pages)

Rocks

A shoelace

My makeup kit

My teddy bear from when I was a little girl that I swore I would never let her play with

And you?

Posted by torrie at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

A few weeks ago we were visiting my mom for a few days at her house, in the Pocono Mountains.

We went to this amazing little secluded spot in the forest to do a little hiking.

When we were done we met my mother down by a stream to collect our things.

My mother was standing in the stream. When Willa saw her she started pointing and flailing her arms indicating that she wanted to go in the stream too.

We didn't have a bathing suit for her with us. Nor did we have any sandals.

We decided that life is too short, so we let her just walk into the stream with her shoes and clothes on.

She just walked in with no fear and started splashing around.

It was one of those moments as a parent that I will always cherish.
It was one of those moments that I remind myself of when times are tough.
It was one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile.

Posted by torrie at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Willa loves to dance.

I'm not sure if there is anything that makes me happier than watching her dance.

I figured if everyone had a chance to see her dance it would make them happy too, and maybe in some small way, make the world a better place.

Posted by torrie at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)