Same Spot, Similar Pose, 13 Years Later, and Add 50 Pounds

One of the most exciting parts of our trip to New York back in May was locating a special spot in Central Park.  When we first visited NYC together 13 years ago, we posed in Central Park for a picture.  Although we were barely "dating" then, it became a symbol of our friendship and our falling in love, and we ended up using it as our engagement photo. We were excited to find the spot easily during our most recent visit.

We haven't changed a bit, have we?

1997

2010

Why Can't You Just Let Life Go?

Shortly after we moved into our house last spring G had to remove a nest from our front porch.  We moved it because on two different ocassions while living in an apartment, a bird built a nest by our front door with lethal results.  So we no longer allow nests near our front door.  Not to mention, I don't like animals that close to me, plain and simple.

However, it should be common knowledge by now that Buddy is a naturalist.  Now a year and a half later he still hasn't gotten over the nest removal.  The other day we were leaving our house and Buddy saw a bird by our front door.  "Do you remember that time dad moved the nest from our porch?  Why can't you just let life go?" he said, exasperated.

He later confessed that one of his grandma's told him to tell me that.  But he can't remember which one.

If only he knew how many ways that simple question applies to my life.

 * * *

Independence is a talent/curse that both of my children have been born with and so I try to encourage them to use those skills to handle all sorts of scenarios in their little lives. And most of the time they manage just fine without me intervening. 

I was in the shower on Friday when Buddy came tearing in.  He is extremely modest, so the fact that he entered the bathroom at all knowing I wasn't dressed meant there was an emergency.

"Sambo is chasing me with obsidian and he's going to throw it at me!!!!!!!  I am NOT handling this, so you are going to have to handle it naked."

Maybe this isn't funny to anyone but me.  But I still haven't stopped laughing at that one.

Summertime

Watching a hawk eat a snake in the field

We are thoroughly enjoying summer around here.  Parks.  Parades.  Swimming.  Playing outside.  Berries.  No school.  Fewer peer influences.  No schedule.  Late nights.  Daddy's softball.  A babysitter for Sambo (his brother).  Books.  It's all been fantastic.  I have a pit in my stomach thinking about "back to school," so I just don't think about it too much.  I just don't get people talking about summer boredom.  I've got a list of things I want to do this summer and I've barely scratched the surface.  If you fall into that "bored" category, give me a ring because we should definitely hang out!  If homeschool could be a good idea for Buddy I'd seriously consider it because I love this lifestyle so much better than the grind of the school year. 

I blog about berries every year, but wowsers, we've pounded a lot of berries already this year.  Tonight I made wholewheat waffles with a few chocolate chips (thanks Tahsha for turning us onto that idea) and some fresh raspberries and marion berries on top.  I just don't get how something so simple and healthy could taste so right.  We had watermelon on the side and will have raspberry pie later after it cools a bit.  Tell me please, what could be better?!

The Miracle of the Serpents

Preface:  This isn't a Bible story but it is miraculous nonetheless.  And I'm not including pictures because I don't want to see snakes anytime I look at my blog.

The Miracle:  I caught the most horrific stomach flu earlier this week. By Tuesday morning I was literally asking G to call the coroner to dertmine the cause of my death.  I had no ability to care for my chidlren, so after G got them dressed, fed them, then made them a lunch for later, he sent them outside to play in our fully fenced yard (not that that stops them half the time...).  He headed for work (I told him he could.)  One thing you probably know about my boys is they love playing outside and will happily play outdoors for hours.  I'd figure they'd open the sliding glass door if they need a drink or to tell me something, but I knew they'd be out there for awhile.  I knew I'd be safe to doze my stomach cramps away.  Two hours later I woke up and jumped from the couch to discover I had been asleep for two solid hours and neither of them had opened the door to ask me anything.  I quickly checked to make sure they were both still with us, and there they were happily playing on the grass with two snakes.

I shielded my eyes, asked Buddy to come to the door to talk to me.  He told me that moments after daddy put them outside they found TWO snakes sitting on the grass and they had been playing with them ever since.

Now, in case you don't know me very well, I am PETRIFIED of snakes.  I can't even look at a picture of a snake without getting scared.  We had a real snake problem at our last house and I'm not joking around, I actually prayed several times that God would remove them from my yard.  I also did a google search once looking for snake repellent, but saw one too many pictures of snakes on my computer and had to stop searching.  This current house backs up to the same wildlife refuge that our last house did and also backs to a field, but we don't have nearly the snake problem here, thank goodness.  Buddy catches them in the field or in the blackberry bushes around the area, but I have only seen one in our yard in the 1.5 years we've lived here.  Thank goodness. 

So to discover my boys were playing with snakes in my yard ordinarily would put me into a full-blown panic attack.  Except this was no ordinary day.  Snakes make my boys really happy and I was on death's doorstep and was unable to care for them.  It only took a moment for me to realize that God sent two snakes (two-so they wouldn't fight) to babysit my boys so I could sleep.  A miracle indeed.

After that realization, I ran to the bathroom.

Postlogue:  One snake has escaped, and the other is hanging onto dear life in a rubbermaid bin on our back patio (the same rubbermaid bin that houses all of the "pets" that come and go from our care:  12,000 mosquito larvae, slugs, frogs, and 300 salamanders to name a few this summer.)  I have yet to look at the snake and it scares me silly that it'll somehow find it's way into our house.  But, that snake got me through a rough day and I have to have a little gratitude.  Plus, Buddy cries every time I try to encourage him to set it free.  He's always wanted a pet snake, you know.

Love

These two boys -- and their relationship -- does my heart very, very good.

Fatherhood (by G)

There are times in life when the realization hits me that I'm actually a father (why someone would ever trust me with a couple of punk kids is beyond me). I had one of these moments the other day which I will explain.

One summer while I was in law school, I clerked for the firm here in Oregon and lived with a couple fellow law students. All of our wives were working full-time in Provo so the 3 of us decided to live together. These guys were pretty hardcore mountain bikers and so I borrowed a bike from a cousin and joined them whenever I could. I got to really enjoy it and so when I moved back to Provo, I bought a really nice hardtail mountain bike. I rode it as much as I could and enjoyed it so much that for Valentine's Day of the next year, I bought Michelle a mountain bike so she could go with me (at the time she was less than thrilled about her new bike). Both of us continued to mountain bike when we could.

Last week I installed a bike seat on the back of my mountain bike for Sambo. He's too small to ride on his own, but loves getting out and feeling a part of things. So now instead of tearing up and down single-track bike trails holding on for dear life, I will now ride on smooth paved bike pathways and trails with my son. My how things have changed.