February Fun

February was a fun month for Mason because of Valentines Day. This was the month that he discovered how cool scissors are (because it is the first month I let him use scissors... child safety ones, of course!) Whenever asking Mason what he wanted to do- he would say, "Make Valentines to give to my friends." So I would get out all the paper, stickers, etc- then all he really wanted to do was cut the paper into tiny little pieces of confetti... which is why none of Mason's friends ever got a Valentine this year!

He also really enjoyed making Valentine cookies- which is quite apparent from the picture associated with this blog!


We also had a special visit from Grandma Cioffi which meant taking her to see the cool waterfalls and gorges of Ithaca. We love visitors!!!

Addition to the Family

During the last couple months Mark had been spending far too much time at the SPCA (unknown acronym for the animal shelter in Ithaca). It was becoming apparent that he was serious about a new addition to our family. Unfortunately there were far too many barriers... for example: Mel didn't want to be cleaning up dog hair or smelling stinky dog all the time, we don't have an actual yard so we couldn't adopt an outside dog, we needed a dog that we knew would be OK with a two year old terrorizing it, we didn't want a wimpy lap dog that couldn't be a running partner and we didn't want to adopt from a horrible pet store that charges $750 per animal!

At this point the research started and we found that there were dogs out there that would fit our lifestyle. Two days after the decision was made we found Olive on Craig's List. One year old Schnauzer/ Poodle mix (no shedding!) that was already potty trained and was already used to a two year old messing with it. She did choose to run away and stay lost for about 24 hours (the coldest night of the year)- but we found her and have really enjoyed her since.

Blogging

So, obviously blogging is not a strong point. Life tends to be hectic (as everyone knows) and the last thing I consider doing when I have a second is to post a new blog. This may be why it has been nearly two months since there has been anything new on this site. The good news is that it is possible to make up and enter dates of when I really wanted to post the blog. For example, our un-descriptive little Christmas blog was just posted today, February 9th- but no one would know because I dated it December 25th! Hah!

Another blogging issue is that I named our blog "Adventure Slavens." So, what happens when the Slavens aren't adventuring? It can be slightly embarrassing. I am considering a change of name to "Lame-o Slavens" or "Wannabe Adventure Slavens." Any thoughts?

If imagination counts then consider the pictures posted with this blog. This would easily be one of my top ten choices of where I really, really want to be adventuring right now! I would almost give anything to see the contrast of blue sky and red rock-- oh and to have a tan again!
(Pictures taken in June 2004).