Great Googly Moogly!

Given how much Maggie & the Ferocious Beast we've been watching lately, that's all I could think of to say when we woke up today to see this view out the window:
Rather depressing. Although now that we're within shooting distance of the Dreadful Hot Season, I am actually ok with a few cool-off days now and then.

But in spite of the weather, the daffodils have finally made an appearance. They look a little disappointed at their reception, don't they?



In other news... my biggest lemon is turning yellow. Hurray! That means we're getting closer to our glass of lemonade. Come on little lemon tree. You can do it!

A good day for a project

Yesterday started off with me at Walmart at 7:30am buying fabric for a quilting party I was hosting. I've noticed a real lack of quilt tying going on lately, and took it upon myself to remedy that. We got it all set up in the family room but apparently no one else was feeling the itch so I tied alone. Scott took Oliver to his soccer game and paid him $2 (his fee has gone up) to participate in picture day. By noon everyone was home and we were out of stuff to do. Scott put his power tools (including brand spankin' new nail gun and compressor) to work to build me a window box. I'm very excited about this as I was completely inspired by the boxes of overflowing geraniums we saw in Prague last year.
Stay tuned for news and pictures of the finished project...

Other than that, the kids had a rather boring day at home. We've had a mild intestinal discomfort running through the family and yesterday was Oliver's turn. Brenden and June played nicely together for quite a while.













and then I discovered this fun series on the camera

a good reason to move to Texas

Here's how the conversation went tonight at bed time:

Scott: Oliver you need to floss your teeth.

Oliver: I hate flossing. Why do I always have to floss. Why don't you have to floss, Dad?

Scott: I do floss. My dentist told me I had to floss just like yours did.

Oliver: Well dentists don't have to floss.

Scott: Yes, dentists have to floss too.

Oliver: No, not dentists in Texas. No one in Texas has to floss.

so true.

Into the Wild

Scott and I watched Into the Wild the other night and I can't stop thinking about it. I'd heard all the hype and watched interviews with the makers and the actors and heard Oprah herald this kid as a hero so I was immediately on the defensive from the get go. I was determined to prove this kid wasn't a hero and was in fact very self-centered and arrogant, and that the movie was just a bit of ultra-liberal Sean Penn propaganda about the evils of society. But to my surprise that is not what I've taken away from it at all. There are two things that stand out:

A. His parents were ignorant and it's just sad and regrettable and unfortunate and heart breaking when stupid parents mess up kids. But his parents were so self-absorbed and their moral framework was so skewed they didn't know they were messing him up so much and they'd convinced themselves what they were doing was ok. This has a couple of implications:

1. His sister who grew up in the same environment seems to be handling her life in a much less dramatic way. So this is to say kids are all individual and will react to the same situation in different ways.
2. Is there any way to recognize that you, as a parent, are having an ill-effect on your kids before it's too late? There are certainly very obvious things they were doing wrong (extra-marital relationship, abuse, etc) that we would hopefully recognize and avoid, but what about on a smaller more subtle scale. This is a scary thought.

B. My overwhelming takeaway (corporate speak) is sadness and regret. This kid did something very extreme to "find himself" and, say what you will (or what I would) about how selfish or dramatic or irrational it was, but it did work. In the end he came to the realization that "Happiness is only real when shared" and was ready to go home. He was ready to re-join society and his family and with how smart he was and determined and capable, and with a deep personal understanding of this concept, he would no doubt have had an amazing life. But he didn't get that chance and that's just really tragic.

So I guess my review is: for you conservatives out there, don't be scared off by the fact that it was made by Sean Penn. The cinematography is breathtaking and the story passed along some thought provoking and moving messages.

**Disclaimer: it is rated R and has some gratuitous nakedness - as one might expect in the wild.

Easter finery & traditions

In preparation for Easter (and our R.S. Birthday dinner last week) we've been growing wheat grass. Unfortunately it wasn't quite mature for the centerpieces, but now it looks lovely and very springy in our kitchen.


Here are some pics of the process from Day 0, Day 5, and Day 8. It's a fun project to do with the kids since it grows so quickly. Bonus: I finally found a use for all those baby food jars I've been keeping for some reason.











Easter morning started with decorating eggs. I was going to give this up this year, since the kids don't even want to pick up the real ones anymore, until I started thinking of all the delicious things we could but rarely make out of hard-boiled eggs - Christine's deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, creamed eggs over toast... So we went all out.

**Note to self: Next year remember to take family pictures in our Easter finery before church as the finery tends to be shed the second we walk in the door. So no pics this year. But trust me, we looked nice. In keeping with Mom's tradition (that I hated when I was younger but appreciate now - sorry Mom), no one got anything new to wear this year (well except for June who wears something new almost every day and Oliver whose pants were pushing culottes length).

After church Rachel, Christine & Nate came over and enjoyed a traditional Sunday potroast meal. Then we went on the traditional walk to search for the Easter Bunny and returned home to find, in keeping with tradition, he'd come while we were away. We sincerely hope to be able to hunt in our own back yard next year. That is the goal. (Note the Halloween baskets that got pulled out after the Easter baskets were full.)
Unfortunately we did not enjoy any chocolate bunnies from Sees this year, as others did. Ours must have gotten lost in the mail ;) But we did enjoy some beautifully decorated carrot-cake cupcakes from Rachel. The kids might not have thought it was an equal substitution, but I quite enjoyed them!

After the hunt we proceeded with the final installment in June's birthday celebration: the traditional 1-year-old-cake-eating. The only problem was that June was so exhausted due to no nap(thank you 11 o'clock church) and INCESSANT WALKING BEHIND THE WALKER (she's gotten so good she can turn it all the way around by herself when she hits an obstacle - wonder when it might occur to her to let go?!) so she wasn't really all that interested in eating it. But it was enough to be able to sing Happy Birthday and open a few more presents. Huge bonus having a sister who works at Trendy Tots!

Happy Birthday little bug!

Today is June's 1st birthday! She is 1 year old! She has completed her first year on earth. And what a year it's been. She's brought joy and peace to our home and taught us gentleness and compassion and responsibility. She is almost always happy and almost always stubborn and she's independent and smart and she sure loves her family. And we love you too, Junie!

Look how far we've come.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNE!!!

As the third child in a busy family, her birthday didn't get too much attention today. She wore the "It's My Birthday" button and got a few well-wishes while we were out on errands. We pulled out the old walker and let her practice on her feet a bit. We went out to dinner to the new kid's cafe Max & Cheese and then came home and let her open a few presents. She got her very first baby doll from Grandma&Grandpa Wiley which she seems pretty excited about. Click here to see a few other pictures from the day. I think we'll do some more celebrating this weekend with the aunts. Maybe we'll even let her eat some cake.


Other notable(?) events of the day:

• Brenden had his last snowboarding lesson for the season and Scott went up and did a few runs with him at the end. What great progress Brenden has made this year!
  
• Scott, who had pretty much sworn off skiing because it's too much work and not that much fun, remembered that it is actually fun and not so much work when you don't have to take your whole family with you. He decided next year to do more skiing (or maybe even get back into snowboarding).
• Oliver got registered for Kindergarten. He is very excited and now says preschool is boring and for babies.
  
• I donated blood. This is one of my favorite ways to give service. No babysitting or casserole-baking required.
  
• Scott took the Christmas lights down off the house.
• We got new trees planted in front of our house since last years trees have died already.
• The first hyacinth bulb bloomed. Still waiting for the daffodils.
  
• I learned about Crazy 8. Do you all know about this place? Apparently Crazy 8 is to Gymboree as Old Navy is to Gap.
  

I should have done some research first

So it would appear I should have checked my calendar before posting that last entry. In fact we have missed the last day of winter and today (Thursday, March 20th) is actually the first official day of Spring. I don't know how I missed that. I guess I just assumed every year it was March 21st but maybe it has more to do with the moon and the tide and stuff. So oh well. Do with this information what you wish. I would not hold it against you one bit if you chose to treat today as the last day of Winter and celebrate the first day of Spring tomorrow. As for me, I guess I'm glad I dressed June in her corduroy skirt yesterday.

last call

We've been waiting and anticipating and hoping and dreaming and now the day has finally arrived. Today is the last official day of winter. So you know what that means.........

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LAST CHANCE TO WEAR YOUR WINTER WARDROBE

So get your corduroy pants and wool sweaters out one more time and then put them away into the far corners of your closet until the appropriate time to pull them out again next year. I don't care how cold it is in your part of the world. You should not be wearing them past today. That's what layering is for.

And I know you're anxious, but whatever you do.........

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DO NOT PUT ON THAT WHITE SKIRT YET!

It's too soon. Waiting until the Memorial Day will make it all the sweeter. Have fun with your florals and ruffles and even some seersucker. But just make the white wait. You can do it. Just a little longer.

That's right. I'm old school.

It's nice and quiet outside

Today was sort of a boring stay-at-home day since Oliver didn't have school and we didn't have any fun activities planned. We were feeling a little cooped up inside until finally we saw the sun peek out from behind the clouds and went outside. Oliver commented on how nice and quiet it was outside and asked if we could just stay out there for a while. I realized that in our family we have some who like noise and some who like quiet. Scott and Brenden get nervous when it gets too quiet and must turn on the radio or tv just for the noise. Oliver and I are in the quiet camp and are often the one turning it down or off or just enjoying and appreciating the quiet.












So today we went outside because it was quiet. Oliver and June played nicely together for quite some time. June finally figured out she could crawl outside -- but only on the cement. She's still for some reason unwilling to crawl on the grass. I did more weeding (which by the way I do enjoy) then brought my computer out and managed to get some work done (not sure why the screen looks black in the picture - believe me I was actually doing real work). We enjoyed the gentle sound of the wind chimes (that sound that reminds me of the Santa Ana winds blowing outside my bedroom window in high school). And admired Spring's first blooming Crocus. Then Oliver suggested a picnic and brought out some cereal for a snack. June finally got tired of it and the silence was broken. But it was lovely.

time to move on

I don't want to dwell on political things, but don't have much to post right now. I'm working on a couple of things but they're not ready yet. So in the mean time, enjoy this fun video my friend Julie posted about.

what a mess

!!Warning!! Political opinions to follow...

Ever since my guy checked out of the race, I've been pretty apathetic about the upcoming presidential election. I guess McCain would be my unenthusiastic choice, although at this point I feel like I'm just along for the ride. If one of the democratic candidates wins, I'm sure life will go on. It'll be an interesting few years and we can clean up the mess when we're back in 2012.

I personally don't think Hillary has a chance. There are too many people who hate her who will make a point to come out and voice their opinion in the voting booth. Plus I don't think we're at a point where it would be beneficial to have a woman president. I get that "women can do anything men can do" but at this time I think a woman would have to do too much to prove how strong and "manly" she is that it could sometimes get in the way of doing the right thing. Plus no one really wants a "woman" with womanly characteristics to be president - emotional, tender, sensitive. All they want are the characteristics in the woman that are also like a man - strong, smart, determined -- and then just hide all that womanly stuff. That's not better for women.

But Obama seems to have some momentum and frankly I've heard him speak and I can understand why. He's passionate and eloquent and that's sort of inspiring. (Not that I'm at all inspired by the words he says, but by the tone and energy.) There are many things I don't agree with and think would be detrimental to the country, but WHATEVER. We'll be fine...

At least that's what I thought until this week. I'm surprised how much this has effected me but it has. This whole story about Obama's preacher and the anti-American opinions and positions that he's voiced from the pulpit. This is a man who Obama has called his spiritual leader and who has led the Trinity United Church of Christ congregation that Obama has attended for 20 years. This preacher has said amazing inflamatory things about 9/11 being our fault, the AIDS virus being a ploy by the USA to kill the blacks, and said "God Damn America" passionately several times. Obama at this point is trying to distance himself from this preacher and claims he never heard any of those remarks, and maybe that's true. Maybe he wasn't there for those particular sermons that are being cited in the news. But surely the over-arching attitude, the underlying beliefs, the core concepts creep their way into every sermon he's given and that's what troubles me. The big things are easy to disavow, but week after week small subtle comments, opinions, positions are spoken, contemplated, quietly taken as insightful truth and that's not ok.

We do not need a president who has been exposed to or who has chosen to associate with or who has entertained those thoughts and influences even one iota. We need someone who is confident and has unwavering faith in the marvelous country of the United States of America. I'm not saying to be blind to the problems we have or naive about the changes that need to be made, but someone who will not expose those vulnerabilities to our enemies, and who will convincingly lead our country to it's full potential.

more cool stuff

I know I post about this a lot, but in the spirit of keeping a family record of the cute/funny things the kids do, here we go again...

Today Oliver was getting dressed and picked all his cool stuff to wear again. He also found Brenden's CTR ring and added it to the ensemble. As we were driving to school, he was itemizing all the cool stuff he was wearing: camo pants, cool shoes, short-sleeved Bulldozer Monster Truck shirt with long sleeve camo shirt on underneath, camo socks, cool hat on sideways, and a CTR ring.

With a kid growing up too fast and so obsessed with cool stuff, I really cherish the times when his innocence and innate childishness shine through. And I get sad thinking of the day which surely will come when he realizes that CTR rings, Max & Ruby, and being the smartest kid in class aren't "cool" and starts rejecting them. Is there any hope of avoiding that?

Happy Birthday Scott!

You are an amazing man, an awesome father, an incredible husband, a great friend.

You are caring and compassionate and tender and sensitive.

You are strong and smart and capable and hard-working.

You are giving and generous and thoughtful and kind.

You are humble and faithful.

You are funny and fun-loving.

You are talented and handsome.

You are a great example and so so much more.

You are my best friend, my love, my companion, my whole.

And because you are, I am.
And because you are, our family is.

I love you more than words can express. I admire you and have fun with you and am so proud to be your wife.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!

Love, Sarah



p.s. I love it when you make this face