Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Composting green



As Firths we love being outside, cherish the enviroment, and honor mother nature. But when it comes to jumping on the "green" band wagon, we've kinda missed the boat. We aren't especially big consumers and try to reduce, reuse, repaint, but lately we've been talking about what we can do to be more earth friendly. We can't really afford at this point to buy organic, green, energy- saving, non- toxic products. However, one thing that we've done the past year is develop a healthy dirt making machine of a compost. We love feeding the compost and can't wait to use our new- born organic dirt.


8 reasons Compost is like a Man (Yes, it's a bit rude and offensive but a tad funny)

1)It devours seemingly non-edible foodstuffs with inanimate ease
2) Just when you think it looks HOT it lets off gas
3)Long periods of sitting around doing nothing are parenthesized by short bursts of activity
4)The more it gets working, the more it begins to smell
5)It needs to be turned and prodded to get it working
6)It's preferred habitat is outdoors
7)Worms and bugs crawling all over it doesn't seem to bother it If you spread it too thin it has very little benefit
8)However, it does keep getting better with age

Friday, October 24, 2008

More Words

Liam's new additions this week: mountain (mown-mow), pumpkin (ah-pump), door, pray, eggs, rain, feet, I want dat, keys, walk, hat, moooo, tickle, num-num-num, and jump. He will also count to three with mom and dad, and attempts to sing along with the ABCs (he only says "A-E-E-E", but in tune with the song). Whenever he sees a bunch of letters together (signs, books, shirts, whatever) he'll start singing "A-E-E-E".






About the messy house... it's all Liam's fault.

Monday, October 20, 2008

toy airplane





Liam got this airplane in the mail from Grandma Marilyn. He has been playing with it all day, making airplane sounds. This clip was taken right before his nap, he was too tired to get off the floor but didn't want to give up his plane.

Liam loves cell phones. If anyone ever gets a random call from a baby, there's a good chance it could be from Liam.

I took a weekend kickboxing workshop/certification and absolutely loved it! The instructor was amazing and it was a ton of fun. Brady's promised to help me too. I'm scheduled to start teaching a "CoreBox" (kick boxing with core training)after Christmas.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Welcome Back Lance

I married into a family that loves cycling and to a man that considers his bike one of his best friends. While I can't keep up with my family on the roads, within the last 6 months I've started teached an indoor cycling (Spin) class at the YMCA and absolutely love it.
Over a month after Lance Armstrong announced his return to cycling I stumbled upon this Nike commercial online. I love it. Despite his highly publicized bad attitude, celebrity relationships, and ego, I still find lance a likeable character, perhaps going so far as to use the word "hero." What I like about Lance's story is what it teaches us about the human spirit and it's ability to overcome- the notion that we can triumph over anything as long as we are willing to sacrifice and bust our butt(of course a record breaking VO2 max doesn't hurt.) I personaly don't believe that Lance doped and find his risky attempt at an 8th Tour laudable.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Airplane

New Liam words: ice cream, Elaine (our good friend next door), hands, hair, ear, belly button, bunny rabbit, car, color, thank you. Of course, none of these words are pronounced quite as precisely as they're written here, which of course is why it's so cute. I still don't know how he can simultaneously identify an airplane as that invisible thing in the sky that makes a loud noise, a little graphic on his shirt, and something that he sits in... Little kids are smart.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Our Next Boss

Here's what we learned last night from the debate:

Obama apparently thinks we all have vision and hearing problems by the way he prefaces every comment ("Look..." or "Listen..."). Good thing he's got healthcare ALL figured out so he can fix that.

And healthcare REALLY needs to get fixed fast, so that McCain can get his robot arms replaced.

If you don't vote for McCain, you're dissing a close friend (How many times did he say "...my friends"?)

Russia is the Evil Empire. Still. And always. Once we're done with Afghanistan, they're next. Maybe bin Laden's hiding behind Lenin's tomb. We don't exactly have any other leads...


The real Maverick, Mel Gibson, might become our next Treasurer. He did play Braveheart, right? That was a long movie- so he's got plenty of leadership experience.


So, I think I'm just going to vote for Tina Fey for president. Her debates are about as good as anybody else's.

If you're bored... (I/we don't necessarily condone these, but I(Brady) found them entertaining if nothing else.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6urw_PWHYk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbkrtDGDAbw&feature=related

Monday, October 6, 2008

Obama came to East Lansing this week for a rally and despite our intentions, neither Brady nor I got to see him due to car troubles (Our alternator wiring has gone awry)We have enjoyed critiquing the debates, making fun of the candidates, and arguing about Sarah Palin with eachother.



We bought this flooring with a portion of our stimulus check and have been enjoying our lanoleum free kitchen.
As Brady said I have been doing a few home improvement projects. As part of one of them I posted this picture on HGTV's Rate My Space to see if I could get any ideas on what to do with this akward space. Well, it just so happens that this ugly space (previously occupied by a wood stove) was the HGTV websites featured space for several hours. I bought a large plant and put it there for now but if anyone has any ideas I could use suggestions.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Playing House

For something like the 172nd week in a row, Dani is the Firth Family MVP (Liam might have claimed a few in there somewhere). She somehow created a great looking front garden for virtually free (and yes, in October), and also found a way to get wood flooring in our hallway and kitchen for a fantastic price. She gets our little house looking better every month.

Liam's new words this week: open, out, off, airplane, please, chip, popcorn, paper