200

Well, this is my 200th post. I started the blog in December of 2006 as a way to keep all the grandparents abreast of what my family is doing. It's grown from a family journal into a way to keep up with friends and family all over the U.S. and NZ!
I'm pretty happy with the way things have evolved and think perhaps things might get a bit more personal as the months wear on. Spring is here (although our weather forecast is calling for SNOW on Thursday!!) and it's time to clean house...who knows what will be uncovered!

The other day I made note of that beautiful bird necklace...guess what I got?Isn't it lovely?!

Hazel and I spent some time playing Jenga after school today. This isn't something we usually do but with the days getting longer and longer I'm finding the need to fill the space between homework and dinner. August wasn't interested, he just wanted to read in his room (he reminds me so much of what Scott was like as a child).
Thanks for reading!

Poison

There are days when I wake up with this feeling in my stomach. The only way I can describe it is to say that it feels Toxic. This burning, hateful feeling grows throughout the day.
I begin every school day the same, alarm goes off at 7:45 giving me 15 minutes to get myself in a bit of order before I begin the slow and painful process of waking my kids up. This is my least favorite part of the day on a good day, but on these Toxic days they can be THE WORST.
I like to leave the house by 8:50 so that the kids can have morning recess with their friends. You'd think 50 minutes or so would be plenty of time to get them moving but I'm so impatient on these days. I hear myself rushing them over and over again. Asking them to do the same things, even making them chew their food faster. At times I'm able to step back and wonder what they must think of me on these mornings. Questioning what had happened in the night to make me so grouchy first thing in the morning. The truth is that I have no idea why I get this way. I have no good reason for this poison that grows and flows through my mouth.
On our trek to school I am pulling the dog and leading the kids up the street. She complains about the sprinkling or the cold while he varies between running ahead and falling behind. The whole while I'm talking to myself, questioning how I will shed this funk. Thinking that maybe if I could just get some time to myself I would feel better. Maybe warm weather would do it. Maybe getting away from my normal day would do it...all things I can not control.
Tank and I walk around for a while so that I can feel sorry for myself but also so that I can say that I tried getting some fresh air. We get home and I start cleaning, maybe that would work the poison through my system. I work out, take Tank to the park, get a coffee...the feeling is still strong. It's an all day funk. I talk to myself through it all. Talk to God through it all. And I wait. For the Toxins to leave.

TV

You know that scene in My So Called Life? The one where Angela finally gets over Jordan and she’s dancing in her room while listening to The Violent Fems, she’s wearing shorts and a big old shirt and some flannel and her hair is all wild…I love that scene. I remember watching that scene. I remember watching it as a college student remembering what that feeling was like when I was in high school.
I’m watching the series via netflix. The first five DVD’s have driven me to tears with every episode. As I started the first show a huge smile crept across my face. The memories of watching Angela grow into herself and of me seeing myself in her flooded my mind. The first time I saw the series I was 4 years out of high school living in Ypsilanti. I hadn’t spoken to my school friends for years. This was a choice on my part. I wanted to get out of that time in my life so badly.
In high school I lived next door to my best friend. But at one point she got a boyfriend and things pretty much fell apart. That is one of MANY similarities I had with Angela. There was even a boy who I was friends with who I liked when he didn’t like me and didn’t like when he liked me. I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking that we all had these circumstances in our lives. And you know what? That’s the beauty of this show! It’s like, relatable.

10 in 10 on the 10th

Month one:

Turning 6

H is turning 6 this week. it's hard to believe that she's in kindergarten, she's learning how to read and write. she's got friends. she pretends to talk to her aunt kat on a broken phone. she's a big girl now. i'll blink and she'll be in high school.

Strike...Strike...not Stike!

My brother is walking the line. He's also managing his two kids, taking them to and from school, making dinner...he's an every man indeed.

*photo lifted from paloma race*

Inspiration

it's windy and wet outside. our house still has it's original furnace from 1947 so it's a bit chilly as i sit on my green comfy couch and type away. i've got my big, wide, white scarf wrapped around my neck and my french press coffee on the table next to me in an effort to force the warmth around me.
i need inspiration. i haven't been working on anything. fall brings school which should bring more free time for me but this year i have to work as much as possible. i don't mind working. i rather enjoy the time in the kids school. i've been able to peek in on hazel at lunch as well as in her classroom. august has been surprised a number of times by me sneaking up on him and giving him a quick kiss (he isn't embarrassed by these yet). the problem with working is that it isn't constant. last week i worked 3 days, the week before i worked 1 day, this week i'm working 2 days. it's almost impossible to come up with a schedule. i need a schedule. i feel a bit lost not knowing if i'm going to work this day or that, not knowing if i have time to myself...
trey bought me a new knitting book. i haven't picked up needles in a while. this book is full of scarves. i'm excited to start (and complete) a project. now i just need to find the time to get to the yarn store to find that perfect yarn. i want the scarf i make to be wearable and luxurious. anyone have any ideas? i'm so sick of wool with it's itchy, itchy texture. i have a basket full of it from last year and just don't know what to do with it all. i'd love to find a usable cotton/silk mix...just thinking about it makes my fingers ache to knit.
sigh.

notes from the edge

we're all geared up to go camping with the 3 families tomorrow but i wanted to write some notes and share some pictures before we take off.

i've been listening to the mosaic podcast while the kids were in soccer camp last week. i'm always hit with something when i listen to their services. lately it's been all about our relationship with God and how we go about finding that relationship. the service from 8/13 was all about the search and how when we were young we loved searching for things- think about Easter...hunting for the eggs...the best! playing ghost in the grave yard (night time hide and seek) was so fun! and now? we hate having to find things. i hate, HATE being lost. i hate searching for my keys, paperwork, leash, shoes, a stinking pen for heaven's sake! i want things to be where they should be when i need them to be there! and lately? i hate searching for God. i can come up with a million reasons to just not search Him out- i'm tired, i'm busy, hazel needs me, tank needs a walk, the dishwasher is done, the rug needs to be vacuumed...i could go on and on. and in the mean time i'm not searching. i'm waiting. waiting to be found. and talking at God rather than talking to Him (which was another message that happened to come from mosaic). i'm working on this relationship thing and any day that i *find* time to read and listen and talk to God is a good day.

the past few days have brought some oddities for me:
the family and i made our way to wild waves water park for a day!

rachel and i made our way out to the sloop for a *quick* drink at the sloop with my sister and our friend lauren. we very rarely get out for a late night drink. it was pretty fun but we were quickly reminded why us moms generally don't do this often as we're having to wake up with the kids and play nice the next day...

we all went to a wedding where us gals had a great time dancing together. i think we really looked good sitting together on the fancy couch.
as a side note- greg nyssen can really shake his tail feather and his son is pretty amazing too.

Sick

Man-oh-man! hazel came down with something super yucky last night. she threw everything up from 9pm till 5am. i was so proud of her because this marks the first sickness where she actually made it to the bathroom before she threw up, usually she's vomiting where ever her face points...bed, trey's back, my front...but this time she ran to the bathroom and almost made it in the toilet...it counts!
the weird thing is that she didn't have a fever through the whole night, just vomited until there was nothing but stomach acid left. once she reached the point of no returned she was VERY surprised by a rather nasty shart. she ran to the bathroom and yelled, "mama, can you come here? there's something in my underpants and...ummm...i think i'm puking out of my bottom...it feels like PEE!"
ahhh, the discoveries of a 5 year old...

TIME CRISIS 3

There he was, my 34-year-old husband surrounded by not 1, not 2, but 3 balding middle-aged men. These men, standing close but not too close were watching over Trey’s shoulder as he shot down hundreds of bad guys while playing TIME CRISIS 3 in the auditorium of our local multi-plex. I could tell by the way he held the gun that he was unaware of the onlookers.
Trey enjoys playing these violent shoot-em-up, bad guy vs. good guy video games whenever we’re even a sliver early to the movies. With children in the home it’s hard to allow these games. Once August learned to read we had to remove certain movies and games from his line of vision. August would question why he wasn’t allowed to see any James Bond movies if daddy has the entire collection on VHS.
I’m not a huge fan of these games, but watching my husband stand with his legs wide and his arms stretched out in front like a giant triangle of death defying power, head lowered so as to aim all the better kind of turns me on. His determination to get each and every evil doer, his ability to jump up from behind a truck using not just his eyes and his middle finger to shoot but the power of his legs and feet to do the actual jumping of his character. Later he confessed that he chose the pink gun over the black one because he figured men played the game more than woman…so the pink gun probably had better aim. See, he thinks these things through…not only can he defend me if say a man dressed in all black carrying a machine gun flips a vehicle in front of us but he’ll keep his head, he’ll be sure to shoot only that bad guy and no one else who may randomly walk in front of the bad guy.
When the group surrounding Trey dispersed he turned and saw me standing off to the side as I frantically scribbled these words on a napkin knowing it would be the perfect thing to blog about. He was now ready to enter the theater to watch Live Free or Die Hard. On our way to our seats he quietly announced, "The sight on that gun was off..."

So Much to Say

We've been up to a lot lately...
I've tried to re-make Pinkberry here:
(not nearly as good...but ok.)

We went to that lunch time concert in the park that I mentioned in the previous post...the weather was...well, take a look:But the show was just great and well worth the few rain drops.

I changed my hair, yet again. It's a process, still a bit orangey-yellow but it'll get there:
Hazel was in a wedding over the weekend. Kathie came by to make her hair oh-so-beautiful:
(also a process.)
Hazel had to be at the chapel and hour and a half before the wedding...she's not so good at waiting:
She made it through the wedding just fine...no tripping, no falling...but she let it all hang out afterwards during the picture taking time:
The reception was nice...all she really wanted to do was dance, dance, dance:

Today we had a bit of a family reunion. My grandma Mid came to town with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Claudia so my Aunt Emma and Uncle Ken brought them all over for a nice family dinner. Kat and Justin and Emma's son Benny rounded us all out for a Reynolds dinner. We broached such topics as boils, hives and scabies...it was great fun!
So now we face another week of summer. Will the sun come back? It's been raining like Ca-razy...especially for the summer...ahhh...Seattle.