4th of July Festivities

Don't let my post title mislead you.. there won't be a bunch of festive-ness displayed here. Sorry bout that. But I thought I'd share a little of our Independence Day Weekend with you- the good, the bad, and the shocking.

Swimming. We did a lot of it. Pool time was on the agenda this weekend and we definitely crossed it off our list. Though you wouldn't necessarily know it by my tan, since Evie's swimming sessions have a shelf life that (mysteriously) corresponds with her nap time. As in, mommy only gets to stay poolside for a little while until a certain someone has had enough and wants to go inside to play/eat/sleep. But that's okay. It's fun while it lasts and I can't really argue with this cuteness.

Moblie. Someone up and decided to CRAWL on Sunday night! What a way to celebrate your Independence, ay? Mom is sooo in for it.

See ya, suckers.

Crafting and Shocking. I'm happy to say I got a ton of stuff done for our booth this weekend! We named our booth Lilac Row, by the way. In case you were wondering. Anyway, I had some spray painting to do, and since it's 113* around here, I have to do it very early or very late in the day. So Saturday or Sunday night (can't remember which day, so take your pick) I'm minding my own business, watching a horrible movie on On Demand, eating oreos, painting inside and spray painting outside. (I like to multi-task). I step out the back door to sand down a little tray I've painted and decide to turn on the porch light this time. When I'm done, I turn around to come back inside and see a DEAD ANIMAL lying next to the step. I almost jumped out of my skin and I'm quite sure I woke up the neighbors.

Reasons this is alarming (other than the obvious):

1. I am barefoot. I seriously could have STEPPED on the thing and would have literally been scarred for life. 
2. This was like my third trip out in the dark and I didn't bother to turn on the light previously. So that creepy thing was just hanging out there a foot and a half away from me. In the dark. While I'm barefoot. Gag.
3. My dog's blue racquet ball is sitting right next to the animal. Basically his calling card. Awesome.

At this point I determined that it was probably a baby rabbit that Duke had nabbed and I'm firing off an excited text message to hubby that he has a fun little surprise in store for him. I couldn't care less that he killed a rabbit (They're rodents, people. And they're rampant around our neighborhood and eat my plants.) but I could do without him bringing it to the back door for us. Also? He tries to lick my baby with that mouth. Gag again.

Name Stealers. I was getting lost in the blogging black hole last night when I came across something upsetting. Long story short- some lady in Oregon is pregnant with her third daughter and will be naming her Evangeline Rae!!! HHHMMMPHH. I couldn't believe my eyes and was NOT happy. I may or may not have stomped through the house to show hubby the upsetting evidence. That led to a downward spiral of googling my baby girl's name and it turns out it's not as original as I thought! There's some artist and a model (blah!) and some people on random baby name boards talking about the name. What the heck! It's not exactly common, especially first and middle names together. Or so I thought. Sigh. My only consolation here is that there is some other Aja Lea running around with my name out there, too. I randomly came across her blog when I first started blogging and it rocked.my.world. Since she's my same age, I can only assume that her family lived across the street from us when I was born, as one of our neighbors pestered my mom to tell her what she was naming me while she was pregnant. And when my mom finally gave in, the lady up and named her kid THE EXACT SAME THING when she delivered a few weeks before my mom. The nerve. This is why I keep baby names a secret! Take note, preggos!
So anyway, like mother, like daughter, I guess. {Trying to find the silver lining..}

So how was your 4th? Find any dead animals in the backyard?? Do tell!