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!