our favorite things

Hot ramen noodles



Family Holiday parties (don't you guys do this to your brothers?)




The Nutcracker (I fell asleep. Britton sat at the edge of my lap entranced. Even forgot her twizzler. In her hand.)




BREAD!

Doesn't everybody love these?

Happy Holidays Everyone!

geek chic

Sony Ericsson C905a: Rumor Or Fact?

This phone is in fact real. And my dear James just got one. Check it out in the link above.

He's finally gotten a little geek chic. Oh, yeah. Geek chic.

Never heard of it? Neither had I, until one day I walked in to the Electronics lab back at good ol' Central Washington University, only to find a bunch of guys huddled around a shiny new camera.

James told me somebody was showing off their geek chic. I think he was a little envious.

But now he can be that cool guy.

And only people with ATT plans can call us because we now have 200 less minutes per month.

Just kidding.

But if you have an ATT phone, please give us your number!

libby lou or jonny reb?

I went to the doc's last Friday to check out if there really was a baby making my belly grow and not just my love of all things food. It turns out that I do have a baby in there with arms and legs and a really big head and the doctor viewed on one of James's ultrasound machines! Well, one that his company manufactured about 6 years ago. I think I'm going to bring in a brochure of their newest release at my next appointment.


Anyway, turns out that I am 12 weeks and one day as of today.

That makes me due June 28.

And if my baby trend continues, I am banking on having an Independence Day baby.

So, Am I crazy if I go with a theme name if the baby just happens to be born on such a Patriotic day?

Because I think it would be kinda fun to commemorate our forefathers with a baby named with them in mind.

Think I'll have a Liberty Louise or a Jonathon Rebel?

lookey here

These pictures are all from Britton's perspective. She's quite the little photographer.
So what do you think of my bathroom skills? Yup, I put in that tile. And James added the toilet and beadboard and trim. Cute eh? Too bad she didn't get a picture of our cool sink and the faucet it took a month to figure out.



This is the sweet light fixture in my room. I haven't decided if I like this antique look or not.



Our sweet living room. Note: Most pink trim has now been painted white. Thank you Linda!



Our dining room in it's natural state. I love how the paint turned out!



Jammin' in our country kitchen. Thank goodness for freezers. We made our raspberry jam in November.



Britton and Lucy's room. Isn't the purple pretty? Britton picked it out herself. I had visions of a teal and red room. Oh well.

house pictures

So I just realized I haven't actually shown any of you loyal followers any pictures of our new house. I could be lying about all these projects that we have been working on.

I'm not, but I'm still going to make you wait a little while to see pictures. For my birthday (Sunday, Yikes! I'm hitting the quarter century mark) my mom is taking the girls for the day, and then making my favorite dinner meatballs and mushroom gravy with plenty of mashed potatoes. I'm so excited! James and I are going to finish up some projects. And maybe get some yummy food for lunch, too.

The pregnancy has totally got me into food. I've got a belly to prove it. And yesterday I spent waaay too much on a roast for French dips. And it was totally worth it! All our meat money for the week on one little eety bitty roast with no left overs. But Mom's making me meatballs Saturday, so we'll get enough protein for the week, right?

Anyway, the pictures are forthcoming. We really do live in a cute little house in Monroe, and it's getting cuter.

And we're breaking it in for Thanksgiving. Can you say, biggest party this house has seen in a hundred years?

pretty pictures

I want to put a plug in for my dear sister Sarah. She's the photographer that takes the pretty pictures of our family like the one at the top of the blog and she's going to be here for Thanksgiving taking our pictures again.

If you're interested in scheduling a session, check out her business blog. Just click the smiling eyes photography button and you can find out all the information you need, plus see some of her great pictures.

If any of you have wondered if those silly little dollar store pregnancy tests work...

They do.

I tested one recently.

Woo Hoo! Outnumbered parenthood, here we come.

On a brighter note (ha ha) Lucy slept through the night for the first time last night. Gave me a heart attack. I had to check her twice to make sure she wasn't suffocating under her blankets.

funny

I'm reclaiming rooms one at a time. Today was the girls room. I told Britton we could get toys out of our garage when we finished cleaning and vacuuming. Apparently her room looked clean enough for her, because she informed me she was holding a sign that said "Vacuum right now". She says she got it on a great clearance at Target. Girl after my own heart.

just in case...

If you've forgotten what we look like since it has been so long since we've posted pictures,


We recently became Pokemon trainers and picked up a cute little Pikachu and Butterfree.




Lucy is still Super cute!



This is what Princesses do before the go trick or treating. (they are watching a Barbie movie)



So we have obtained an internet connection again! I sent James to get pizza the other night and he picked up a modem while he was out. It was a great night.

We're still plugging away at the house. Lia even came over and finished painting our living room for us! We have a sink in the bathroom, molding put in around most of the flooring, locks are changed, faucet in the bathroom, and our house has even occasionally been cleaned. Next big project is our dream bookshelf... Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, storage bench for a base. It's going to be great!/

out fishing

If you haven't noticed, I'm taking a little blogging va-cay. No internet at our new abode until we pay off the car. (Yay! for budgeting) Besides, we have about a hundred billion more things to get done.

Here, I'll give you a quick list before I get kicked off this library computer:

Done:
All new flooring in the ENTIRE house ( I tiled the bathroom myself. It was fun.)
Got first coat of paint on all the walls
Painted the ceilings
Put in a new toilet
fixed rotting siding
partially fixed chimney
had a fiasco with the chimney guy (please BLACKLIST Afew points of interest. Yes it is spelled Afew)
New gutters
Fixed roof
moved in
bought a whole bunch of supplies and power tools
living successfully with no tv or movies (totally fun, everybody try it) oh yeah, no internet either (not as fun)
found a park and library close by

Need to:
Finish painting walls and trim
change the locks (don't tell anybody)
finish the bathroom plumbing
finish cutting and putting in the floor trim
Put in our kitchen faucet (current faucet is nasty)

Slow down on the remodels


PS sorry I'm totally ignoring all your blogs! I miss you all and hope to one day see you soon via our mutual friend internet explorer.

Free Adorable Nursing Covers!

For Real! I tried it out. Go here and pick out the cute nursing cover of your choice. In the discount entry type "backorder", and all you'll have to pay is shipping! And if you don't need one, order one for a new mom somewhere!

big plans

Now that we are home owners we have a few things to do:

Paint the interior

Paint the exterior

Re-key

Replace rotting siding

Fix roof leaks

Fix gutters

Replace outlets (so they're safe)

Remodel bathroom

Move everything in

Then clean up after the girls

And maybe start in on the yard...


Anybody want to help?

This house is going to keep me busy for decades. If we stay here that long. James is already talking about expansion plans!

Just wait for the before and after pics, and all the sweet little details that I love about the house!

super duper update

We are going to escrow.

Monday!

snuggle puppy

We had a little reenactment of this book yesterday. My little puppy had cookie dough between her toes and fingers and squished in the carpet and on Grandma's antique chair with original upholstery (anybody know how to get that out?).

Instead of yelling, I realized that I'd seen this scene before, and my little puppy was very lucky because she got to hear me sing:

"Well, I have a thing to tell you and it won't take long. The way I feel about you is a sort of a song. It starts with an ooo and ends with a kiss and all along the middle it goes something like this..."

And then she took a nap while I cleaned up.

Sweet Repeat

Today for family night we had a lesson about the iron rod. And while I was getting the fun activity prepared (a curtain rod leading to a tree with popsicles in it... Just as good as fruit, right?) Britton ran over to Grandma and Grandpa and told them all about the iron rod, how it was the word of God and if we hold on to it we can have a sweet fruit. Grandma and Grandpa think we are a little bit of a bible thumper family, but they'll listen to anything Britton has to say.

I love the sweet innocence of Britton's enthusiasm. She gets excited when anyone (really anyone) comes to visit, or just gets home, when she learns something new, when she gets to read three books, when we're having noodles for dinner, if she gets to hold the hose... Such a sweet girl.

holy cow! August is nearly over and all I have posted about is running (which I'm not doing bytheway... Mostly just eating).

We are in such a limbo period right now. The house that we put an offer on (and was accepted) on July 6, we still have no news on. It's frustrating, but we have been given extra time to save up some money for that scary time when we have to pay a mortgage. I'm shakin in my shorts about it. MORTGAGE.

Maybe a little extra time is okay.

But while we are waiting, we are also living in the close quarters of my parents home. The girls like it during the day. Grandma and Grandpa adore them and don't blink an eye at any request. They're just a little noisy at night.

Yep, we moved out of our apartment a month ago.

But without a house to look after, we've been doing all sorts of fun things. This weekend we went to James's sister's house. She lives in Port Orchard. Swell town with a gigantic farmers market, cute (free) train rides, a foot ferry on a floating museum, also cute, but not free, adorable down town, lakes, fountain parks just across the water. And one of the funnest families to spend our time with!

We've also been to a castle, lots of parks, a couple weddings, and enjoyed some good ol' family time.

Just pray that our house will go through soon! We need to paint it before monsoon season here in the Seattle area.

I'm runnin' runnin'

Going for a run today, but before I do, I just wanted to invite you all to join my marathon relay team.

Well, I'm thinking about starting up a marathon relay team at least. The Leavenworth Marathon during Oktoberfest was really fun last year, and I'm looking for anybody that might be interested in taking up a four mile portion. I am really not into running thirteen, or especially 26 miles at one time. But four seems pretty manageable.

Anybody with me?

To see our fun from last year, go here.

no longer waiting!!!

They accepted our final offer! Yay! Now it's the scary waiting period between now and closing! I hope it works, and that the house isn't the money pit that I dread!

waiting waiting waiting

We made our final answer last night. Now we just have to wait and see what the big prize is: little house with lots of room for improvement, or not getting tied into a rotten deal.

We're just praying the Lord knows best.

we did it!

We made an offer on a home in downtown Monroe! Not the house in the picture. But that house turned out to be available after all! We found a different one, not as cute, but needs less work, and it's bigger, and no stairs! It was built in 1911. If we get it, everyone is invited to the Centennial birthday party of our first house. We'll meet in the backyard at the outdoor fireplace.

rollercoaster continues

So the Kelsey St house is not actually available. Some dumb agent, not connected to the house reposted it to Craigslist! Lame! And we did do a sex offender check. We will ALWAYS make a check before we even look at houses from now on!

house hunting

House hunting is such a roller coaster! We've been actively looking for houses for about a week and a half now. And we've seen a lot of homes. The first weekend we were out we fell in love with this house


We decided to think about it over the weekend, and it ended up getting 2 offers while we were thinking!


I was so sad.


So then we went on to look at tons and tons of depressing run down homes in bad areas, some not so bad, some really bad (the wall blocking the freeway in the backyard!).

Then we found another cute little house in Monroe. It was bigger, didn't need much work. We were all ready to make an offer. Then as we were noticing the grocery outlet store just a little more than a block away, a train passed between us and the grocery outlet!


So we looked at forty houses in Everett without our real estate agent and then made a list of the homes we wanted to see.


And that's what we did last night. We looked at ten houses. There was some really cool places. One looked like it had been lifted right out of Leavenworth. It even had "Give us this day our daily bread" stenciled in German in the dining room. A really cool theme house, but not really any room for our own style. We definitely thought about it. But the house that we really liked, and I even got a personal garden tour, was a little house just the perfect size for us, all on one floor, pink bathroom (oh yeah, toilet, sink, tub!) and wall paper everywhere, and the most amazing garden! They even had artichokes ready to pick! Have you ever seen an artichoke plant? It's pretty cool.


So last night we filled out all the paperwork.


And we wrote the check.


And then we checked the sex offender map.


And then we rescinded our offer. There were 3 level 3's. 8 level 2's. 24 level 1's. I don't think there was anyone in the neighborhood without some sort of record.





Such a roller coaster!





James woke me up this morning. He said the Kelsey St place is available again.

Pray for us!

Lucy's first birthday

Lucy turned one on June 25th! Her birthday was so much fun! I can't believe she's a whole year old. We celebrated with two days of birthday fun, and a whole lot of outfits.



The thoughtful birthday princess look.

Fiesta Senoritas

Summer lovin' with polka dots (b-day outfit from mommy, princess look from Grandma Becky)

And her favorite, eating chocolate cherry cake in her birthday suit!

Lucy is such a fun baby! So happy and ready to do all sorts of funny things to make us laugh. Her birthday also marks our little blogs first year, our first year away from Ellensburg and out of school, James has been working at SonoSite for a year. So much craziness, and little Miss Lucy has just thrived!

oh, the things we can do

While Lucy is sleeping!

Make the yard into castles and become running, dancing, cartwheeling princesses. Go camping and hiking. Paint. Transform into hungry lions searching for a good piece of meat. Make a stage and let out our super-star alter egos. Pick out five books to read...
And then Lucy wakes to join us.

Coming attractions:

Lucy's birthday

House hunting

Blogiversary

The deal with film

Still no film...

cameras again

The cheap Kodak has been returned to it's rightful place at Wal-mart, and now we are heading on a journey of saving and learning. We've decided to go back to camera basics. Film, no flash, cool clicking sound and all. It's an adventure worthwhile to earn a nice little DSLR, I hope.

I took a black and white photography class back in the early college days before married life and kids, and I still have the trusty Canon AE-1 (straight from the 70's). With nothing but a grey card and a 50 mm lense we are going try to see if we can live without the instant gratification of the digital age. And, we will finally start developing pictures of our kids out necessity. It has been a couple years since we've developed any home snapshots!

Sounds like a fun challenge! How long do you think we'll last before we just break down and buy another cheap camera?

babysitter!

{See how they double team}

We took the plunge! We coughed up the money, left the house, trusted our children's lives in a fourteen-year-old's hands.

And she took great care of our little rugrats!

She may have gotten a little bit of an overload with Britton's constant jabbering, but Lucy gives great respite from the constant wall of chatter by creating scary diversions.

And the poor girl made it through. We should probably pay her more next time. What is the going rate for babysitters?

to coin a phrase...

Have I ever mentioned "whatcuz"?

It should be added to the Oxford English Dictionary under the entry 'why'. Because the two words seem to be synonyms, and Britton has introduced the family to all the possibilities of her new word.

"No, we can't go up stairs right now."

"Whatcuz?"

"Grandma isn't home."

"Whatcuz?"

"Because she's at work."

"Whatcuz?"

Slightly less annoying than why, but how can I explain to her that the world will probably not sway in her direction to use "whatcuz" instead of the tried and true 'why'?

things i've learned from new recipes

1. I can make restaurant-style chinese food just as yummy as at the restaurant and at a fraction of the cost!



2. Figs are really yummy.



3. I should think about nutrition before picking out new recipes to try.







Lately, I've been trying out all sorts of new recipes. Today was the Fragrant and Healthy Carrot Cake from Maka at allrecipes.com. Check out these nutrition values!



Potassium 470mg 13 %
Dietary Fiber 5.7g 23 %
Protein 5.6g 11 %
Vitamin A 170 %
Vitamin C 23 %
Calcium 17 %
Iron 30 %
Thiamin 27 %
Niacin 25 %
Vitamin B6 13 %
Magnesium 20 %
Folate 23 %





This is an edited list, of course. Each piece contains 315 calories and 11g of fat. Both could be lowered if the oil was substituted with apple sauce. But I wanted some omega-3 fatty acids (so good for the brain) and was all out of apple sauce.





So here is the recipe:



3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon carob powder (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 orange, juiced and zested
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup raisins
5 dried figs, chopped
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 cups grated carrots





DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch Bundt pan.



In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, cake flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, carob, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the molasses, oil, eggs and orange juice. Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened, then stir in the orange zest, lemon zest, raisins, figs, poppy seeds, carrots and pecans until evenly distributed. Pour into the prepared pan.



Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan.








I made a couple changes: I wasn't going to buy cake flour for a recipe I might use once, so regular old white flour works perfectly fine as a substitute. And there was supposed to be a 1/4 cup of chopped pecans, but I just don't like them. And does anyone know what carob is? 10 extra credit points for anyone who does!




The cake was fabulous, and would even tasted yummy if I hadn't added my reduced calorie frosting to the top. (although that was pretty good and just had 1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, 8 oz neufchatl cheese, 1 1/2 T butter).

Didn't it look pretty? (see top of post)


Now I've got to share about the amazing Chinese food recipe! Who doesn't love the fried, breaded chicken that is used in such delightful favorits as sweet and sour chicken, almond chicken, and, of course, orange chicken? I do!

Here's how you do it:

2 1/4 cups flour (self-rising suggested I added a little baking powder or soda? One of the two)
2 T oil
2 T corn starch
Salt and pepper
1 egg
1 1/2 Cups water

mix corn starch and water in a separate cup. Add to flour with the rest of ingredients. Makes a pancake-like batter. Throw in your chicken (however you want it cut. 1/4 cubed mine) mix it around, until the chicken is well coated. There should be enough for atleast 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts. Then throw into very very hot oil and deep fry until golden and crispy.

So yummy. You just can't think about the whole deep frying process and focus on how yummy it is. You don't even need to add any sauces. But that's good, too.

Happy eating!

take a load of these babies

I just love the feet! And the new camera caught the texture of the cement pretty well. It'll do okay for a year or so probably.

And I got the new phone! But I've lost everyone's numbers. So, if you ever want me to call you, give me your number. And if you don't, well, then we both have the point finally ;o)

pinched!

In my fit of trying to be fit and healthy, I decided to go running on the Snohomish Freshman campus track. It's usually unused, and Rachel kindly came along even after mowing her gigantic lawn.

So, I got my cool phone out and started the timer and through it in the grass. It kept falling out of my pocket. And after half a mile, the girls had had enough, and my phone was gone.

Now, we looked all over the field. Scoured the area where I had thrown the phone. Drilled the kids to see if they had touched it. Called it.

That's when we knew. A couple of teenage girls had walked by right after I threw my phone in the grass. And when we called the phone, not only did they not answer, but the phone had been turned off. Which is actually surprisingly hard to do with my phone. It wasn't my kids that did it.

Stinking teenagers!

But ATT customer service rocks! They gave me a FREE phone, even though I didn't have insurance AND it's cooler than my last phone AND they gave me 3000 rollover minutes.

Can't wait untill it comes.

parenting is a lot like...

After contemplating the events of last night, I decided that parenting is like Calvin ball. Unfamiliar with Calvin ball? Check out a few copies of some Calvin and Hobbes collections. It's an enjoyable break.

Anyway, Parenting is a lot like Calvin ball. We're always making new rules to try to get the upper hand.

Britton getting ready for bed. She fights brushing her teeth. She's never reverent for prayers (no matter how many family nights we dedicate to being reverent during prayers!) and she usually tries having us watch her do tricks naked instead of getting her pajamas on.

So we made a new rule. No story time for girls that don't get their jammies on punctually, brush their teeth willingly, and stay reverent during prayer and scripture (we only read 1-2 verses).

She seemed pretty scared last night, think it will work?


And our camera is coming soon!

funny girls

We had some leprachaun berries today. Usually we refer to them as raisins, but for some reason Britton decided they were leprachaun berries and even made up a song about them.

Lucy has met her first love (other than chewing on stuff). A car. Seems early, right? Well, it is a play car. But she pretends to steer, cries if you pull her out, and does like to chew on the little horn.

Lucy has already started to pray! Atleast we think she is praying. She folds her little arms and walks around jabbering. Jabbering is also a new hobby of hers. She pretends she is talking on the phone with anything she can get up to her ear. This morning it was a handful of rocks. I was just happy that those rocks were not a mouthful... Until they were.

So why no pictures? Well, we love to let Britton show her creativity by taking pictures with our camera. She actually is pretty good sometimes. But I think her usage contributed to the early demise of our camera. We ordered a new one yesterday. It seemed like a deal too good to be true, so pray with me that it was not and that we will love our new little camera!

So, until the camera comes, probably next week, try to imagine with me: the dog coming out with Britton's blue stethoscope around his neck, the family's first game of croquet (on a very steep hill), cutting vegetables with colorful plastic knives (luckily bell pepper kind of folds and breaks) and two of the very sweetest girls in the whole world.

Guess what James is explaining. We have an ice cream cone for the best one!

requests

Oh, Facebook. You are so fun and addicting and such an absurd waste of time...

Today I decided to try to trudge through my requests. And did you know you could just completely block some people? I'm really sorry if I blocked you... But I had over 100 requests. I did a little dance when the list got under 100.

And then I took all the quizes! We got the girls to bed earlier than usual today. And I had already fought the evil foe. So, I thought I'd find out which Friends, Serenity, Muppet, Twilight, Mr. Man, and a handful of other characters I would be.

I don't know why I find these so entertaining, but I really do. Plus, there was a really funny trend of very high maintenance women that I was ending up to be.

Finally I took the "which hair cut should you get" quiz. Who knew, right?

Well, that one got me dead on. Get a short cut, because you don't like to spend a ton of time on your hair and you can be more carefree.

I think I'll take the advice.

Await pictures...

blankie-fie

Britton has a blankie-fie (not sure if I've mentioned it before). And what is a blankie-fie, you might ask? Well, a blankie and a pacifier, of course. She says it as if her blankie and her pacifier were one object, some how connected. Because she uses them together. Fie in mouth, blankie rubbing the nose.

But her pacifier recently gave her a pretty bad sore next to her mouth, and we'd been discussing how to get rid of the fie for quite a while.

So Britton went to Target and bought a doll with her pacifiers. The checker put the fies in the special fie register, and then we went home and showed off the new baby.

Britton is sure resourceful. When bedtime came around, she was heartbroken. She didn't want her doll anymore. It was so hard to see her sincerely distressed, crying and saying she didn't want anymore birthdays (somehow she connects birthdays with losing her fie). When she finally came to terms she just started sucking on her fingers instead. She experimented quite a bit, thumb pinkie... Now she is an index girl.

See what we did? We've got a finger sucker now! What can we do about that?

answer to the question

Just so ya'll know, I was just a little worried there might be a little bun in my oven.  But there is not.  So I'm rejoicing for that, and I still don't have the monthly curse.   Woo Hoo.

small question

{Super cute picture of early walker Britton}

Okay, so really little question... but it worries me.







When does it stop being cool and start getting worrisome when you still haven't started that lovely monthly cycle after having a sweet little bundle of joy?

nappy nap nap naaaaap!

I love naps! I love taking them. I love it when the girls sleep a bit. I like a break from James's infernal clacking at the keyboard occasionally. But this is the problem. Britton stays up until much too late when taking the nap. Should I just deal? I really love the quiet in the middle of the day. But there is definitely something to say for the going straight to sleep whenever we want to put her to bed (whether its 7:30 or 10). She's sleeping right now (and so is Lucy) Which is a really good way to feed my blog addiction. And I feel a little guilty about that, too. But, Oh the joy to get a few minutes without a child climbing on me!

potty training

{I scream for ice cream}

Britton : I'm peeing on the floor (starts peeing)

Beth: Don't do that! Go to the bathroom. (peeing continues) Why did you pee on the floor (lots of exasperation in voice)

Britton: because I'm so naughty.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

lunch with gigi

We went to lunch with Gigi (my grandma) yesterday at one of our favorite little places to go to lunch, the BlueBird Cafe. It's a great little family owned business with cheap, hot, tasty food, and great service. While we were eating we had some fun with the camera. Guess which pictures Britton took.

walking with lucy

monday

{having a "why did I cut her beautiful hair moment"}


Today I decided to start eating healthy.

Then I remembered Family Home Evening. And we all know what that means.

So, tonight I will treat you to the new Tunnell Family Treat.


Butterscotch Bliss Bars

1 package butterscotch chips
1 can vanilla frosting
1/2 cup salted peanuts
2 cups cheerios (any flavor you feel like. We used multi grain)

Melt butterscotch chips and vanilla frosting together. Mix with cheerios and peanuts. Either drop spoonfuls onto wax paper or press into well greased pan. Hardens in a couple hours.


We've had a lot of cheerios collecting dust. Well, their boxes. So I've been looking for new uses for cheerios since nobody will eat them for breakfast. Any other good uses for cheerios? I was thinking maybe I could grind them up and use them for flour...

the difference between this week and last

Since the weather has been getting better, the girls and I have been trotting down the hill to the library. I'm not really sure how far it is from our home, but I do know that we do not trot back up the hill on the way home. Because our hill is so very steep, I decided to try to take an alternate route in hopes that it would be less hilly (the walk is about a mile, I think, I'm really not very good with distances... It takes us about fifteen minutes to get to the library, downhill all the way. Seems like about a mile). The alternate route turned out to be a bit on the long side, and there were dark rain clouds looming over us when we left to go to the library. Luckily it did not rain until a couple hours after we got home. I am sooo thankful! It wasn't one of those nice drizzly rains that makes me want to dance, it was one of those "Oh dear! (or some other nicety) I really don't need a shower that bad, lets get in the house" sort of rains.

So this week, I learned that the Lord blessed us by holding back the rain, that we should probably stick to the regular route, and that Lucy does not crawl at the library any longer.

She does this:

{there will be a movie here someday}

She's walking!

All over the place! She started the day before Easter, and now I can't get her to stop! I'll post a video soon, because she's just so cute.

my new hero

While browsing through the bins of forgotten books at the Goodwill Outlet (and the books are not sold by the pound like everything else!), I came across this little book. I had no idea what it was, I was trying to sift quickly through the rubble. It just looked really fun.

Turns out I found a treasure!

After returning to a home that was a bit easier to walk through than when I had left (Thank you Hunny) I sat atop a pile of something other to take a look at my findings.

Can you make out what the cover says? "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing, is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."

And it just gets better from there.

Phyllis Diller, the lady we have to thank for this fabulous little book, is not only funny, but a pioneer stand up comedian, especially for women!

But mostly I love her because she is a proponent of messy houses.

yankee doodle dash

I don't know if you all have plans for the Fourth of July yet, but I am inviting everyone that is interested to come over to my side of the state of Washington to run in the Yankee Doodle Dash.

The Everett YMCA hosts the Yankee Doodle Dash each year. There are a few options: 10k, 5k, and a one mile family fun run.

I've decided that I'm going to become a runner no matter what. Oh yeah, I am so going to overcome this laziness that I've nursed for about 24 years, and enjoy the rest of my life as a runner. Mind over matter, right? Besides, have you ever been to a marathon? If there is anyone with more than 3% body fat, you know they are not running the whole thing.

Now, marathon is very far off, but I thought I could handle a 5k... Maybe even a 10k, if I'm really ambitious... And I thought it would be really fun to challenge some of you to come along, too!

Come, get in shape with me, and hey, maybe someday we can be like Rachel, and really love to do this chore!

doodlebugs and jam

I am newly acquainted with a very fun (but not new) author: Bruce Degen.
The two books pictured contain lots of very fun illlustrations, cute stories, and best they are fun to read aloud because of all the rhyming and made up words. "We are soup-with-noodle bugs, We are apple strudel bugs, We both eat potoodle chips while walking through the zoo. 'Cause Daddy is a foodlebug, and I'm a foodlebug too."

And so many more fun and funny things to read! Bruce Degen is apparently a very famous illustrator (Jesse Bear, the Magic School Bus...) so if ya'll have heard of him, forgive me. I just enjoyed these books so much I thought I'd pass it along. (And if you are going to the library soon, you might have to wait, I've checked them out.)

poetry of my life

I found this coming out of my mouth today... spurting words so painful and beautiful...

Ah.
mess. mess
mess on my cookbook mess
mess on the floor mess
mess you're going to clean up
with this towel mess.

Now say it aloud. It is really best spoken very quickly, and in a shrill voice.

happiness is...

Well, it's supposed to be.