conversations in the car with #3

you can learn a lot of things from the flowers


#3: Be quiet! I trying to sing my A B C D Y song!

{giggles}

#1: I like how she calls it “A B C D Y song.”

#3: It’s not funny!

Me: They’re just laughing because they think you’re cute.

#3: I not cute, I’m big!

#1: I’m cute, and I’m big.

Me: I'm cute, and I'm big.

#2: Yeah, I’m cute…actually, I’m quite talented.

#3: a-b-c-d-e-f-g…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#3: I love to smell my fingers

Jake: {whispering to himself} Oh, no. No, no.

Me: Why? What do they smell like?

Jake: {to himself} no, don’t say it

#3: they smell like poop.

Jake: {moaning with head swinging back and forth} NO! NO! I knew it!

Me: Eeeeww! Why do they smell like poop!?

#3: because I put them in my bottom. {smelling fingers}

Jake: {continual moans with “no’s” interspersed randomly}

Me: {some sort of discussion on why we shouldn’t put our fingers in our bottoms, hand her a wipey and talk of washing hands more often trying not to laugh so that she can see me and misconstrue my laughter as egging on}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#3: {talking to her stuffed animal} Stop fighting. You need to be nice. And no giving rasberries to people. Okay?

{makes stuffed animal say "okay" in little voice}

{begins singing "I want my river back" from Backyardigins}

For My Girl on Her Eighth Birthday

You are a deep thinker. You have profound questions for me and you listen intently as I answer and then have more questions.

You are kind. You make sure the people around you feel loved. You take the time to show love in the way it seems people would understand the depth of your feelings.

You are a gift giver. You are always making things to give to people you care about. You always feel loved when you receive gifts.

You are beautiful. I could watch your expressive face forever and examine your perfect features.



You are creative, you are smart and funny. You are a good sister and friend. You are thoughtful and careful.


You have great integrity. I am always learning from you to live what I know to be right. Your example of strength is inspiring.


In my aspirations to teach you how to grow into a self sufficient, strong individual, I have ended up becoming the student and you the teacher.

Self Portrait Challenge {In the Street}

There's something about the street that draws the children. We don't live on a very busy road, but the cars that do go past seem to be in a rush. The kids want to go outside, and my biggest job is to keep them in the back yard. I seem to say over and over again, "Don't go in the street! Go to the back yard!"

What is the draw? Something about being in the street...

It's a Dollar

While Kara was last visiting me, we were driving along the freeway and deep in conversation. The tolls were immerging and as I went to find my money for passage, all I had was a silver dollar. Don’t ask me where I got it or how long I had had it, but there I was with no other option. We didn’t skip a beat in our conversation, and as I rolled through the toll, I barely looked at the woman working the booth as I handed her my rare silver dollar. Suddenly, she yelled at me, “It’s a dollar!”

I slowed my roll to a stop, but I was a car length past her, and I realized that she probably hadn’t looked in her hand; she just felt that I had handed her a single coin, and the price for passing was a dollar. So I yelled back to her, “It’s a dollar!”

She didn’t budge as she yelled with more force than before, “It’s a DOLLAR!”

I realized that she didn’t quite get my meaning that it actually WAS a dollar that I handed her, so I yelled back to her shaking my head so she knew that I understood, “It’s a dollar!!”

She looked at me with incredulous eyes and yelled, “IT’S A DOLLAR!”

I sighed and released my hands into the air in defeat and shaking my head said to myself, “It’s. a. dollar.”

I pressed my foot to the accelerator knowing that our attempt at communication was futile and as the car took on the speed of the freeway once more, all Kara and I could do was laugh and repeat to ourselves, “It’s a dollar!”

I wonder how many times this happens in this human experience. The words escaped me—why didn’t I just yell back, “I gave you a SILVER DOLLAR.” The car in back of me was on my tail handing her a nice crisp dollar bill and she was just leaning out of her little window from her waist waiving her fist in the air which was in fact clutching exactly what she was asking me for, but a version of which she didn’t recognize immediately.

Maybe next time a loved one infers my lack of attention; my misinterpreted gestures of love; misjudges how busy my life is, I will respond with, “It’s a dollar!”

Tagged!

#1's experiment

I did a similar meme a little while ago, but, hey—I’ve never been tagged before! The simple joys of tagging have now made their way into my simple life. Thanks, Nicole:) I’ll try to change it up a bit from my last one—you know, just in case any of you have memorized my every word…

4 jobs I have held:
1. Hogi Yogi {I used to wake up in the wee hours of the morning sitting up in bed making “air yogis.” My favorite yogi to eat is a mix of chocolate and vanilla with a fruit mixed in AND some kind of chocolaty candy}
2. councilor at a summer camp up at Snowbird (a ski resort in Utah). {I hated being in charge of a bunch of little kids, but I loved being in the mountains. My vote was always to take them on a hike—you’d be surprised how far little kids can hike!}
3. server at Market Street Grill {I’m not a very good waitress. But once I served Holly Hunter breakfast!}
4. cashier at Roundtable Pizza (in high school) {where I crushed on the infamous Rafael}

4 movies I can watch over and over:
1. Borne Identity
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. Guys & Dolls
4. Real Genius

4 places I have lived:
1. in the wilderness in southern Utah {with a back pack and a bow drill fire and a sleeping bag for 6 months of my life}
2. a small farming town in Idaho--it was actually a LOT of fun there!
3. the rolling hills of northern California
4. the seacoast of New Hampshire

4 Categories of TV programming I enjoy:
1. We don’t have cable...
2. the only chanels I get…
3. PBS/ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX/WB
4. whenever I go on vacation I end up watching What Not To Wear

4 Places I have been on Holiday:
1. Carmel, CA
2. Hawaii
3. Carribean
4. Park City, UT

4 of my Favorite Dishes:
1. I can never choose favorites
2. There are far too many things that I love to eat
3. It would be a shame to leave anything out
4. but I don’t like processed, premade stuff

4 websites I visit daily:
1. I really don’t go anywhere every day
2. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl
3. I do have my favorites
4. some are on my sidebar

4 places I would rather be right now:
1. at the hair dresser—I need a haircut in a bad way
2. Bali
3. Somewhere I’ve never seen before
4. I really like it here—I live a quaint life on Cottage Road—maybe a little more alone time would be nice to just sit and quietly meditate…

Now I get to pick 4 other blogger buddies to do this meme:
1. Candice
2. Abby
3. Tori
4. Brooke

Garden Tour

"flower" to be sold at silent auction

For anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a hum-dinger of a garden tour this weekend. Besides the fact that the gardens are breathtaking, there are all kinds of extras. There is a garden tea party at the host garden serving yummy food and tea. There are a plethora of wonderful earthy things to bid on at the silent auction ranging from gift certificates to Smith and Hawkins and many other great places, to one hour consultations with the landscape designers. There will be wonderful baked goods to be purchased. On Saturday, there are going to be artists doing their thing at each of the gardens and donating one piece each to the silent auction. All the proceeds from the earnings go to research for breast cancer. Susan Vreeland, the author of Luncheon of the Boating Party, will be in one of the gardens signing books and reading a chapter from her book about Renoir's life.

I can hardly stand not being there!

click here for more information on the Personal Sanctuaries Garden Tour

spring blossoms

It's been Spring, and the sun has been calling me outside to the garden. The flowers are in full swing and I am enraptured. I can't help it. I wonder if that can be passed down through genetics? The blossoms on all the trees have brought beauty and color and when the breeze sweeps by, little petals flitter merrily to the grass. Strange how that can fill me with joy, but it does every time.

Blueberry Island

I have been so super busy that I haven’t had time to blog. I miss you!


arrival to blueberry island

We had a wonderful time over Mother's Day weekend camping on Blueberry Island. It was quite the retreat. It's probably the best Mother's Day I've had since my arrival into motherhood. I love camping, and the kids are finally old enough to enjoy it.



We ate like kings and queens--steak and potatoes; camp eclairs and s'mores; pot roast; pancakes and sausage (okay, as I'm typing, I'm realizing that we weren't eating the healthiest of diets, but it sure tasted good!)... We had leisurely canoe rides (where the littles became fishermen). We had fun with family in ways that you don't when you're surrounded by the daily grind. We slept all in one big huge tent snuggled under the pine trees which had layed a soft ground of pine needles for us.

The Rundown

A photo blog of our sibling reunion...

We played racquetball in the mornings and my entire body was in pain from all the random muscles that got used. It was such amazing fun. My abs we sore from the laughing alone.





Notice McNasty in his gear. He at one point, quite on accident, hit the ball right on Brooke's back that was supposed to be headed sharply across the court; she's got a big bruise now, but she took it like a champ:)



Sibling lunch was delicious with our paninis and the cookie panel. We may have been enjoying our cookies too much to remember to take pictures of the cookies--at least I forgot completely.









Before I tell you how much of a let down the Eclipse Prom was, I will tell you that we got so wrapped up in our yummy pizza, salad and pizookies (to die for!) that by the time we left the restaurant, we were already late (literally--as in the prom was starting when we left!) and had not gotten dressed yet. But we thought--hey, it's a prom, surely she will not read her chapter until the end...



We flew home (we all got fast driving genes--that's definately biological, not learned. It's much, much harder to learn to drive the speed limit.) and threw our clothes on. Krista wasn't satisfied with her normal atire, as the rest of us were pretty much in "costumes" of sort, so at the last minute, she threw on one of Brooke's old dance costumes from about 20 years ago and it made us laugh enough that she kept it on. Note: she's FIVE months pregnant with her SECOND child. I don't see how thats fair seeing that we do share the same gene pool and I wasn't even that size when I was 12. She really is as gorgeous as all that.









After getting lost, we ended up running in 45 minutes late. Turns out she read at the beginning and we MISSED it COMPLETELY. We stood in line to get our books signed and comiserated at how lame we were (and how old we seemed!) and how lame the prom was and decided to read the chapter ourselves later that night while laying around in jammies. We also felt better once we learned that the sound system was horrible and no one could hear a word Stephenie (who was very nice) read.







It's a good thing my favorite night happened the night before! (See The Hunt, below.)

The Hunt

My favorite night of our sibling reunion was a spur of the moment hunt down. We took a section of the book where we thought we could find what the author had been describing and we went searching for it.

We hopped in the truck and blasted the music and sang our hearts out. We’re a singing kind of family. We sped down the freeway toward Scottsdale and I enjoyed every second of it. What’s not to love when you’re surrounded by family you love, the wind is howling through your hair, blowing the laughter in circles and voices are harmonizing all around you?







(For all you Twilight readers, (without giving up any important info) we found Bella’s house in Scottsdale and we searched everywhere in a two mile radius and found the infamous dance studio she ran to…)

Happy Birthday, Rachie

Rachel's mom has always placed a magnolia blossom on her Birthday cake . I think it's a lovely tradition for a May Day girlie.





No wonder she's always got a smile on her beautiful face, it's spring!



Best wishes for the coming year, sweet Rachel.

xo

edited to add: Here's a link to the recipe I used: Jamie's Coconut Cake (I didn't do the filling that is listed, because one of our lovelies doesn't do sour cream, but it was still yummy.)