He's Back

Have I taken a long enough break yet from putting pictures of Spencer on here? 

Okay, good.

'Cause dang, he looks cute in a hat.

Kind of a Funny Story...

Today is trash day. For some reason, for the last two weeks, our trash can has not gotten emptied. Craig and I have been pretty befuddled/irritated about the whole thing, to say the least. Thinking that maybe it wasn't getting picked up because he had been placing the trash can too close to the recycling can, (though this didn't seem likely) Craig opted to put just the trash out this morning so that there was no possible interference to be used as an excuse not to pick it up.

After a trip to the store this morning, I checked the can to make sure it had gotten emptied. It hadn't. I checked the neighbor's can: empty. I checked the other neighbor's can: also empty. Grrr.

I called Craig at work to let him know that the ploy hadn't worked and we grumbled a little about this weird inconvenience that keeps happening. I mean, we're paying for service, right? What reason could they possibly have to not be picking the dumb trash up? Craig said he'd call the city offices to figure out what was going on, and he gave me a call back a few minutes later.

Apparently we have never paid for trash service since we moved into the house. You know, more than a year ago.

Whoops.

It seems that the entire time we've lived here, (until 3 weeks ago, anyway) we have put our trash can out every Tuesday, and every Tuesday it has gotten emptied. For free. But, thanks to some new technology in the trash trucks, the drivers now know whose accounts are not up to date, and those folks no longer get their trash taken. Folks like us.

Phoenix's trash service is bundled into the water bill. Goodyear's isn't. And now we know.

Well, thanks, city of Goodyear for 14 months of trash service gratis. And for the grand ol' laugh we had when we realized we were up in arms about not getting a service that we had never paid for.

I'm still chuckling.

Messes and Memories

Remember the good ol' days when the family camera only came out for special occasions like birthdays, Christmas, and the occasional school assembly? I would be stating the obvious if I said that times have changed, but man, haven't they really, really changed?

Craig and I were looking at some baby pictures of Julia last night, from a time--eight long years ago--when a digital camera was more of a luxury than a necessity. (Read: we could not afford one.) While reminiscing, we mused about the blurry, red-eyed photos and how those ancient pictures were taken from a camera that did not allow us to a) view the picture before we "developed" it (remember that word?) and and b) delete any undesirable photos that we didn't want to spend the money to print. Now, we can literally take hundreds of pictures in a single day if we want to, all the while picking and printing only the best ones. (Even though we hardly ever print them. I mean, seriously; I haven't put pictures into an album since 2008. Thank goodness for this blog.)

What a blessing that the days of using the camera only for selective holidays and special events are long past. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for me to take pictures almost daily, from sleeping babies, to beautiful skies, to big fat messes. And, even though I often (okay, always) take that convenience for granted, it feels good to be reminded that it really is a luxury to photograph just about whatever I want, whenever I want, and pick only the images that I really want to remember...with the added benefit of writing about them to give them context and meaning. It's selective memory in action, I tell you. What a wonderful thing. (Thanks again, blog.)

Is there any recent technology that still amazes you? 

{Sleepy Savanna at 3 months}

{Arizona Sunset in October} 

{Big fat mess, courtesy of my little pack rat, Alexa}

Still Waiting...

I keep seeing this sign at our local Safeway, and let me tell you, the concept has been quite appealing to me. All I have to do is wait right there and I'll be granted privacy? For a mother of young children who have little to no concept of personal space and/or privacy, the idea of conveniently obtaining said privacy is very exciting indeed. But don't you think it seems just a little too good to be true?

That's because it is.

 I waited a long time in that line, but despite what the sign says, my kids are still following me into the bathroom...

Multiple Choice

Guess where this photograph was taken:

A) The Used Honda Dealership

B) The Honda Lovers Convention

C) The Elementary School Parking Lot

If you guessed C, you are correct. Award yourself a point.

Now that our car has found its long-lost identical triplet siblings, there is so much catching up to do.