Time for New Stuff.

So, we've been thinking about this for a long time. Now the sale is here and we're ready. We have the floor, the painting is done, and we have the space ready. This first one is the one we are planning on getting.



However, yesterday I began to think (sometimes a mistake, I know) about the one we saw at the store back in February and I photographed with Em & Sarah in front of at the store. So I began sorting through pictures on the computer from February and found it. It's this one:



It's more "cushy" and probably more cozy and comfortable. It looks to my untrained eye that the quality is roughly the same. The reason we are probably not getting this one is that it is just big enough to be too big for our space. Plus it's twice the price. Tony thinks the first one is a bit doctor's office-ish, but I had not seen it that way until he mentioned it.

This is the last leg of our grand plan to extricate as many things as possible that absorb and contain dust and other crap allergens from our home. All of the carpet was the biggie and now we are ready for this, not to mention that we are so ready to say bye-bye to the lovely green with plum piping love seat, couch and chair that have been living here with us for the last 9 years.

So I think I am ready to put in my order and put my old stuff up on Craigslist. Let's go.

Billy Goats, Ice Cream, & Friends.

Yesterday my three oldest along with my very good friend Nena and her delightful daughter Emma went to see an adaptation of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. It was cute, funny, and short enough that we began to loose them just as the play was heading for it's conclusion. After the play all the kids quiz each other on their favorite part and their favorite character. My favorite part? Just being with our friends.

Looks like Emily made a joke at Sarah's expense.



My little chocolate goatee wearin' child!

Sweet Friday.

I love Friday. For some reason, not that the weekend is much different for me than the weekdays, but it just always feels like we're on the verge of something fun. This weekend's agenda includes Friday movie night, pool party for a double birthday, a "date" with my husband (oh yeah) and a play at the university!

Tonight's movie: Akeelah and the Bee. We're enjoying this Netflix thing!

A Place of Her Own.

After I discovered Eva's fondness for those big plastic playhouses, I've been on a quest to find one without paying hundreds of dollars for it.

I enlisted the help of a friend who uses Craigslist a lot and she was looking for a house for Eva too. This same friend called me last week to say that she found a house for Eva and it was going to cost me a whopping zero dollars! My friend is a dairy farmer and she picked this one up, well, from the farm. She and her husband graciously delivered it to our home and even more graciously helped us clean it up. That was a big job because it had been outside, near a dairy farm for several years and it was almost a hundred degrees the day they brought it over.


It's a little old log cabin, and it's perfect. Emily made a welcome mat and a sign that says "Eva's house" out of cardboard. More perfect.

Shocking News Flash.

OK, so the most amazing thing happened this morning. I exercised! To top that I exercised and had a shower before 7am! Shocking news I know. I went for a walk, outside (in the world) all by myself, without any children in tow, and it was wonderful. I even jogged a little bit! It was so fresh outside, so clear, so early morningish. There were even birds singing. The birds were staring at me and I heard one say to another "look at that lady, phhhh, never seen her outside before. "

So, I feel really good about that. I've probably exercised two or three other times this year, don't remind my husband that we pay for a family membership at the gym when we really should have a single. I do get out and move, we go for family walks, I run around with the kids and during the day, you'll rarely find me sitting. But real live exercising, I just haven't successfully made time for it. I liked my early morning walk so much I think I'll do it again sometime, maybe tomorrow, who knows!

Accept It!

Accept your greater good. Oh yeah! I love it! It's my new mommy motto!

A judgement will rule in your favor, bequeathed to anyone reading this who really needs it.

I didn't have to cook dinner last night! I love Chinese Food!

Summer Days.

Yes, I'm quite literally hanging out with the monkeys! This is the top of the kids' playset where a green tarp is supposed to hang. I told Emily it looks like she is roasting monkeys!



As Eva napped and Emily was enjoying "quiet time" in her room late in the afternoon Sarah and Wyatt did this for almost an hour:

Honestly, it was not spontaneous. I laid out the blanket and coaxed them into selecting 5 books each from a shelf that has not been visited in a while. They played along and it worked for me. I'm going to try it again today!

OK, then the reason for Emily's quiet time. Eva was napping, my other three were playing in the backyard, or so I thought. A red blur caught my eye out the front window. I instantly thought of the red shirt I knew Wyatt was wearing. Could it be? No! My doubting self flung open the front door and ran to the sidewalk. Yes, my three little angels were almost to the corner of our block, running at full speed! Without any shame or hesitation, I yelled as loud as I could:

EMILY! NOW!

After Emily, the instigator, was safely in her room the others confessed to me that the intended mission was to run around the block. Sadly, that just can't happen without Mom and/or Dad these days. When I was her age...well you know how it was. Different.

Our backyard gate has a combination lock. Having it just makes me feel better. Emily does know the combination, we thought we could trust her. We still do, I'm not going to run out and change the combination. For now, I'm choosing to believe that this was a one time lapse in judgement that she won't be repeating. After a few hours in her room, she brought me these two items:

The card reads, "Dear Mommy, I'm so sorry that I tried to escape out the gate. I promise I won't do it again. Love, Emily"

Slow News Week.

Eva just finished breakfast. I had some tiny boxes of cereal left over from camping. Well, the raisins she ate and the bran is all over the floor. Lucky for me the cereal was dry, no milk involved.

It's been another one of those weeks I would call "low and slow." Emily had soccer camp each day 'till noon, a trip to Costco, a trip to the library, met Tony for lunch yesterday, that's it. We're just coolin' it here. I spent some time outside with Eva last night while Tony took the other kids with him to get a hair cut. Eva was so playful and I got some great pictures.

A few other things I wanted to share:

Wyatt's favorite food may be tortellini. He eats it hot or cold, with or without any sauce. So, I made it and was mixing in a sauce he had not tried before and he said "Mommy, is it yucky or gross?" I started to laugh and he corrected himself by saying "I mean is it yummy or gross?" I told him it was yummy. He had a second helping so he must have agreed with me!

Wyatt to friend Catie at the swimming pool: I jumped off the diving board a milly thousandly hundred times! When he needs to impress you with a big number, lately it's milly thousandy hundred and fifty-five.

When Eva is happy she says the word "happy." A lot of the time when she gets on the step-stool and looks in the bathroom mirror she says "happy", or "happy baby."

Me: Put on your pajamas, it's already nighttime.
Wyatt: Aggggh, night again!

I'm Up! I'm Up!

I'm back. It's been such a busy week. We went camping with my family last week. It was so great to see everyone and to get all the kids together. It was especially great spending some time with my nieces Audrey and Hannah, and my nephew Jake. I have not seen them in a very long time...much too long!

My computer is working now but it's been a painful recovery. I've been sick to my stomach about it for days. The good news is that I have it running and it goes a lot faster now that it's not burdened by years of "stuff" that has since disappeared. I had most of my files and almost all of my pictures and videos backed up on CD/DVD except for the last 2 weeks or so, including Emily's birthday...boo hoo. I am so glad I posted that picture of she and I on my blog because I guess that means it is the only picture from her birthday that survived. I did print a few of her and her friends also and I'll scan those back in. In a nutshell I had to buy and install a new internal hard drive, reinstall windows and start from scratch loading programs, drivers, what have you. Not fun. Not. One. Bit.

It feels so GREAT to have this connection with you all. Thanks for all the nice comments :)

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up.

My hard drive is broken or maybe just fried, I dunno. Hopefully, I can fix it soon. I am posting tonight because I begged Tony to bring his laptop home for me. Today, Sarah asked me if she could play a computer game. Wyatt picked my hard drive up from my desk, held it up to her and said, "no Sarah, this fell out." Other that that we're all good. Happy Independence Day!

Kevin.

I loved him. I hated him.

I miss him.

I'll never forget him.

I've had this post in my head for several months now, I'm compelled to say something to remember my sisters husband and my friend who left us and this world 10 years ago today. He was a husband, a father, a son, a brother, and a friend. Losing him still breaks my heart, I know it always will.

He was my personal nemesis and my biggest ally. I know that doesn't sound natural or logical but that's just how it was. He would make me so mad. Imagine me all worked up over some crazy thing he said with a mad 'ol look on my face and trying my hardest not to crack a smile-that's what he was to me, and I loved him too.

I met him exactly twenty years ago. Two days after that I introduced him to my sister. Honestly, an act I found myself often regretting (insert me, mad face, smiling) but over the years and through it all, mostly glad for. It's strange to think I knew him for as long as we've all been without him. You don't need me to tell you that he was way way way too freakin' young to go. For the longest time I expected him to pop back in and yell "Surprise! Fooled 'ya, ha ha ha!"

People were crazy about him. He was smart, funny, good looking (oh man he would love me for that one) and great fun to hang out with. He was a loyal caring brotherly menacing torturer, a contradiction in human form. By that I mean this; he was polished but coarse, respectable and vulgar, humble then pretentious, forgiving and vengeful, caring and cut throat, focused but blind, so strong... yet finally so weak.

Like I said, illogical.

His laugh. It was a loud, from the gut, three syllable ha ha ha. That laugh hangs in my head like a cloud that never dissipates; I can recall it in an instant. If you knew him, you still have it in your head too. I hope I never loose that, it still makes me smile.

Kevin James Blixt
1963-1997