{ cozy little day }

{ card from my Esty Shop }

 

 

We’ve been having oatmeal for breakfast the past few mornings. It seems like a fitting way to start off the day with something warm in our tummies. The weather has gone from bright and warm to blustery and grey. I’ve been making a fire first thing in the morning and we’ve been bundeling up to go outside, wearing scarves and closed-toes shoes and I’ve started putting tights and turtlenecks on Annabelle. It’s a good thing I love fall as much as I do, otherwise I could not bring myelf to trade in my beloved flip flops for a pair of warm socks and some comfy boots. Anyhow speaking of flip flops, now I am about to go on a rabbit trail. My sweet Mommy in law told me the other day that when she was a girl "flip flops" were called zorries. Is that cute or what?

They introduced a new song at church today, and even the words of the first line couldn’t stop our tears. Funny how grief hits you when and where you least expect it to.

When I go don’t cry for me

In my fathers arms I’ll be

The wounds this world left on my soul
Will all be healed and I’ll be whole

Sun and moon will be replaced

With the light of Jesus’ face

And I will not be ashamed

For my savior knows my name

It don’t matter where you bury me

I’ll be home and I’ll be free

It don’t matter where I lay

All my tears be washed away

Gold and silver blind the eye

Temporary riches lie

Come and eat from heaven’s store

Come and drink and thirst no more

So weep not for me my friend

When my time below does end

For my life belongs to him

Who will raise the dead again

It don’t matter where you bury me

I’ll be home and I’ll be free

It don’t matter where I lay

All my tears be washed away

Also at church, Annabelle was *winking* at the people in the row behind us. Really truly winking. I have no idea where she learned to wink. I certainly have never tried teaching her how to do it but it was hysterical.

Later on that afternoon David spontainiously sat down at the piano with me and we plunked out the notes to ‘Heart and Soul’ together. It made me feel like a girl again. We sat there and giggled and expeirmented and then of course we would mess up, which would made us giggle some more!"

And we all snuggled up and watched Chip and Dale cartoons.

And we had the yummiest sushi for dinner { gotta love Costco }. And it cracked us up because Annabelle loved it. Especially since we know several adults who won’t even try it.

And that is what I mean when I say, we had "a cozy little day."

a fresh start…

It’s been a while since I last hit the, " publish entry" button. I have missed it.  And even though I feel like I am leaving a big gap by not having written since before Christmas, it’s just a little too overwhelming to think of  picking up where I left off, all those weeks ago. So instead of filling you in on the last month, I am going to start fresh, with something that doesn’t take a lot of remembering, a random re-telling of the thoughts and joys that have been on my heart and mind., today.   

 Naturally, that means I am about to talk about my sweet little family. Especially, our dear little daughter, who is my constant wee companion.  And a source of non-stop delight.

 

For starters, here is snippet from a comment I left for a friend of mine who has such a lovely, lovely little blog, telling her about the excitment stemming from Annabelle’s morning nap, in connection with the excitement of her very own little girl’s nap, which you can read about here.  

" Funny you should mention Audrey’s crib/snot escapades in today’s post because not minutes before, reading your post, I went in to check on a very quiet Annabelle who had been napping for a unusually long time…only to find her much to my horror, happily peeling and eating pieces of the cork off the bulletin board I have up next to her crib. She was so pleased with herself…I had no idea she could reach it from her crib…needless to say the bulletin board is being hung far, far from her curious little reach…"

 

Words that our isty-bitsy, teeny-tiny daughter has been saying:

d

og-dog

b

ite ( as in a bite of food)

b

elly-button ( she said it to David and I the other night…clear as day, you should have seen our jaws drop in astonishment)

p

ity (pretty) She says it when she is playing with my earrings and I say, " yes those are Mommy’s Pretties, be gentle!")

peas (Please)

y

ay!

d

uck

q

uack

bath

b

utton

e

eeka-oo ( peek-a-boo)

s

hoe

s

ock

yuck ( often copy-catting one of us for telling her to spit out whatever she just put in her put in her mouth from off the floor!)

A

nd the new Word of the day: ooon ( i.e. balloon) She saw a smiley faced helium balloon at Fred Meyer’s tonight and it gave her such a thrill…I think know what Daddy is going to be getting her for Valentines day…Also while shopping, David decided we were going to dump out the contents of our canvas shopping bag and replace them with our baby…he get’s these silly inklings in the store of all places…and boy was she ever happy all tucked in her little swinging pouch.

Some of her Favorite Things:

Strings

Tags

Buttons

And Junk Mail(finally someone around here who appriciates it)

 

She loves giving kisses…And of all the kinds of kisses there are in the world, aren’t baby kisses are the best? She opens her mouth slightly, leans in and lightly rests her tiny lips on yours, for well, quite a while…And Until this last week she was holding out on kissing her Daddy ( we think it has something to do with his scratchy facial hair) but now it’s a all I can do to get a kiss in edge-wise…and let me tell her Daddy is beyond pleased.
It was so cute, the other night as we were about to drift off to sleep , out of nowhere David asked me if I would like an Annabelle-kiss…
“From you?” I said.
“mmm hmmm.“
“sure.”
…the imitation was so perfect it sent me into a fit of giggles.
‘shhhh…you’ll wake the baby.” He wispers. But I think I can hear him smiling in the dark.

 

She waves all the time…she even waves at “things.” When I bring her out of her room from a nap, she’ll wave at the piano or the stove, or just out the window at the kitty.

She throws her hands up in the air, over her head and grins proudly when we say…“how big is baby?” “Soooo big.” Her poppy taught her how to do this over Christmas. My mom used to do it with me when I was a baby…

D

oes twirling is count as a hobby? If not, it should be. We have spent the last few nights dancing around the kitchen…with Christmas money from my Dad, David and I picked out a under the cabinet CD player to go in the kitchen…We have been having more fun in our music-filled kitchen. And Annabelle loves twirling, it makes her giggle and that, makes me giggle.

 And now I need to run. Baby is all tucked in for the night and David and I have a date planned. We are going to play a cut-throat game of Phase 10 on the living room floor,watching Loony Tunes and eating chocolate. After all, this is precisely what Friday nights are for!

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, we are actually all quite alive…

Whew, Annabelle is down for a nap. I almost gave up trying after 30 minutes and was just about to set her back down in the middle of her toys when her tired baby eyes finally gave in to this thing we call *sleep*. A thing this little girl has grown anything BUT fond of. Hopefully the nap lasts long enough to say: Thank you for not forgetting about us, for checking in on us. You are dear, sweet friends and it has warmed my heart to find your little "notes" being added to a post that was written (gulp) twenty-some days ago.  

 

As I mentioned the sleep has not come easily around here lately. Which, all things considered, wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t losing my mind on top of it.  I even have three stories to prove it.

 

The week before last I managed to get Annabelle and I stranded for an entire day, after very much leaving my lights on in the car, which very naturally led to the death of the battery.  Thankfully, the nice, warm, city library complete with pay phone (since I think I can get a long in life just fine without a cell phone) , a nice changing station,  a water fountain, several wide, empty aisles for Annabelle to crawl up and down and a stack of Scrapbooking magazines to glance at every now and then, was within walking distance of our very much stuck car. It made for a long but interesting day. Annabelle was such a good girl…she didn’t cry at all, she took two cat-naps in my arms, nursed quietly in the darkest corner of the libary, underneath my coat…snacked on cheerios…and spent hours pulling herself up and then getting herself back down the leg of a chair. Eventually we got a hold of David, who called a friend, and he came and rescued us right away. I promised that guy a pie.

Later on that evening I made myself a great big note, to stick on the dash that said: " HELLO, Your LIGHTS?!, " while David called to sign us up with Triple A.

 

So then the other day I was at the store, on my way through the line with my cart full of groceries. A panic ceased me as I zipped my debit card through the machine…I could not remember my pin number.  The very same 4 digit pin I have used for over a year. Nothing. Erased. Totally gone.  Embarassed doesn’t do my feeling at that moment justice. The lady checking me out was so understanding and showed me how to run it as credit. David says it will come back to me. It’s been four days now. I doubt it’s coming back. 

 

Believe it or not,  I can top both of these.  

 

Yesterday we got a bill from our phone company in the mail…David says to me. " I don’t get this, it says we don’t owe them anything this month."  Taking a closer look he says " huh?" Then  "what?" followed by a chuckle and  " no way."  It looks like we have $ 847.47" credit with the phone company. " That should last a couple years."  

Yes, it seems his wife had in fact written a check to the phone company for not $87.47 but $847.47…He thought it was funny…he called the phone company. He said he could hear the guy scratching his head as he looked at our balance.

So poor David spent the rest of the night trying to convince me that I am not a idiot.

 

With my track record of the last few weeks I deserve be the butt of every blonde joke. And I am not even blonde.

 

 

 

Making the most of these summer days…

 

 

 

Where to start?

Our week has been so full.

Summer is in full swing at our house…and that means two things mainly:

 

1. People Fun

2. Sun Fun

 

So, to catch you up on the goings-on in our lives:

 

We celebrated Grannie Annie’s 86th Brithday with a pretty little brunch, thrown by Aunt Lynne and Auntie Kris.  Grannie Annie, often reffered to as Grannie-Belle nowadays, as you have heard me say before, is one of our all time favorite people in the world. Period.

David and I always told each other if we were ever going to name a baby after someone, it would have to be her. So we did.

Grannie Annie turned 86 years old last Monday but she’s closer to 25 at heart, and that is part of what makes her so beautiful. People are attracted to her like a magnet. People adore her. People tell us all the time how lucky we are to have her for our grandma and how much they wish she was theirs. We always agree and sympathize with them.

 Because of her, I can honestly say that I anticipate the day I turn 80, if I live to be that old. She is a lover of life. 

She knows all about The Value of Cheerfulness. She has demonstrated it every single day of her life. The love she poured into my husband’s mother as a baby, child, young woman, young mother,now has been passed down to the next generation and continues to this day. The unconditional love that she and Grandpa Roger practiced, instilled in their children, played such a vital part in shaping my David into the remarkable man that he is today, and for than and so many other things Grandma, thank you. If only my Annabelle could grow up to be like you. That would truly be a prayer, come true.  

 

In the days that followed, Annabelle and I spent much of our days combing through the blackberry brambles that border our rather large yard. Picking, munching, singing and sunning to our hearts content. My fingertips were transformed from their usual fleshy pink, to a very atractive shade of deep violet…With help from Auntie Roo who was able to come again for the weekend, we turned our berries into 3 very nice little pies which we served to company on Friday night and lived off of in general for the weekend. No one seemed to mind though. 

 

Saturday one of my dearest childhood and now adulthood friends came to keep us company and lift our spirits, while David was gone to work. We had a quiet little day together, chatting and giggling in turn, playing with Annabelle, mixing up  batches of chocolate chip cookies and just being together. It was a lovely, friendly sort of day. Uneventful-bliss.

 

Sunday after church and lunch with friends we all went to watch the Blue Angles fly. We ended up, by an act of Serindipity, in a the middle if an ivy hedge, on top of the I-90 tunnel, directly in front of the bridges…literally a front row seat. What a show! There were lots of oooosss and aahhhhhs and a occasional shreak from one of us girls, when two of the planes would head straight towards each other and look as if they were about to crash head-on, only to twist off in opposite directions at the very last second. As David would say,  " What a rush! "

The evening ended with a SPLASH. As Annabelle, along with her twin 9-month niece and nephew wriggled like three of the cutest baby fishies you have ever seen, kicking and squealing, with baby happiness, in our backyard kiddie-pool. You couldn’t tell who was having more fun. The babies or the proud parents/aunties and uncles, watching them. 

 

Speaking of which, we are about to jump into our swim-suits and run up to " Me-ma’s" house, to spend an afternoon with her, her grand kids and the twins on the lake.

Once we get home, I have a surprise water-ballon attack that I plan to launch on my clueless, unsuspecting husband.  My water-ballons have been filled to the brim, tied and hidden in secret places around the yard. ( snicker-snicker ) 

 

Enjoy every delicious drop of sun left in your summer!

    

Thoughts from the Kitchen Sink…

 

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. 

~Agatha Christie

I was standing at my kitchen sink, up to my elbows in suds and a stack of dirty plates, remembering all the happiness the weekend has brought our little family.

W

e laughed a lot this weekend. Ate some really good food. David and I got to go on a date Friday night and sleep in on Sat. morning…All compliments of my Mom and Dad, who were here this weekend. We love our weekends with them.

T

hey played with Annabelle, took her on walks, bought her clothes, snuggled and kissed her, exclaimed over her, laughed with her, and at her. They loved and loved on her. And Annabelle, well, mostly she just beamed. She took everything in and beamed. And there are few things in the world that are sweeter to me than getting to watch my parents with my baby. They are head over heels. I love that. We miss you already Grammie and Dido, and you haven’t even been gone a half hour yet.

Here are a f

ew other highlights from the weekend, many of them were surprises:

• David came home on Friday afternoon and surprised me with a bag of pistachios. Because of a awesome sale at Safeway, we have newly discovered these delicious snacking nuts. Later I was so guilty I had to confess to somebody so I quietly told him that I may even like pistachios more than I like chocolate. For those of you who just cannot relate to this, I will leave you with my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. What about you? Is there anything you like better than chocolate?
• a surprise "pillow attack" on David that ended up in a knock-down, blow-out fight of nearly epic proportions. I ( pause to gloat for me , here) won!  He was laughing so hard his reflexes just couldn’t keep up…
• a HUGE surprise, more along the lines of a SHOCK, came in the mail for us on Sat. Unfortunately at this time, it has to remain a unspoken surprise. Lets just say it was a gigantic, baffling answer to prayer.            
• After everyone went to sleep Sat. night, David and I had our very own "slumber party. I told him it was just like the ones I used to have with my girlfriends…We pulled the sheets over our heads and talked about absolutely nothing, far into the wee hours of the morning, our converstation peppered with generous amounts of whispered-laughter.    
• There is the most remarkable, pinkest zinnia blooming out in the yard right now. There are more pictures of it towards the end of the latest photo album. Zinnia’s make me happy!  
• I got the most fantastic case of goose bumps in church yesterday, really, from head to toe. We were singing ‘ How Great Thou Art. ‘ 1000 of us. Does this ever happen to you?

  

Now as promised, the recipe for  Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:

 

2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour

   1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter at room temperature

    1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips ( about 12 ounces)

 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, and baking soda; set aside. With and electric mixer, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce to low speed and all the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined

2.  Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.

3.  Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 min.

 

Some staggering stats

• So far today,I have had 1181 hits. And it’s only 7:29 a.m.
• Wow. Wow. Wow! 
• The statistics are astounding!
• I can’t believe how BIG MSN spaces is!
• I am having such a ball. You guys are amazing! It’s just so much fun to meet you.
• Thank you for signing my guest book and leaving me such splendid comments. By far best thing about being featured is discovering you. 
• Really and truly, I am having the time of my life with this!  

Monday Cheerfuls

By the time I publish this post, it will be tomorrow.

P

art of me wants to whine a little bit about how I was up to my neck in 7 loads of laundry, a weekend’s worth and broken dishwasher-full of dishes, and company in and out all day long etc.etc.

N

ot to mention the whole discourse I had planned to write on how heat and teething, do not compliment each other, in which I would strategically tuck in this clever quote from Mark Twain: " Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething. "

O

r about how much I have been looking forward to getting a chance to sit down at the computer all day and anonymously thank the anonymous person who nominated me for MSN’s What’s Your Story?. I was suprised and delighted at the news. Most of all because it means I get to meet all sorts of wonderful new people like you. I expected that being featured on Spaces would perhaps be today’s highlight. It’s turned out to be more like a cherry on top. I will explain…

F

irst of all, Annabelle did something unprecedented today. Really, it was nothing short of remarkable. She waved at me. Over and over and over. With her adorable and wobbily little baby hand, in slow baby-motion. Now, Is that cute, or is that cute?! At first I thought it was this adorable random kind of thing. Until she waved at David, at her Auntie’s Roo and Deb and at her Uncle Bear. Okay, so my 5 month old is waving and she knows it. And I know it. And she knows that I know it! She is doing it on purpose. She and I and everyone else for that matter, we know it.

I

t is truly the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life…she could win the Nobel Peace Prize and I wouldn’t be any prouder of her than I am right now, today!

The other thing was this. I have done a lot of blogging in past months and come across a lot of wonderful people. But I have never before seen anything nearly as sweet as the comment I discovered tonight. It was a note from a husband to his wife that he left in her guestbook. Let me tell you, that woman is blessed. This is what she had to say about him, and I quote, " Loving and being loved by a good man is like winning the lottery, every single day of your life."

 

 

 

An Introduction, A Praise and another Prayer Request…

I’d like you to meet someone. Actually, it is more like 4, going on 5 someones. These someones are very dear to us. In fact they are some of our closest friends. They also happen to be a part of our family. When you get a chance, please skip on over and say hello at:  My Freckled  Lemonade.

 

Pete is David’s younger brother and look-alike, most people think they are twins. Well they are sort-of. We call them 4-year Twins. Expect to see a striking resemblance.

 

Min (MinMom) is his sweet and beautiful wife and though technically she is my sister-in-law, I prefer to drop the -in-law part and simply claim her as my sister, because at heart that is just what she is to me. And I am so excited for her to meet all of you, I have told her about the amazing friendships I have made and how much fun it is to share little snap-shots from our everyday life with each other.

 

Then there is Boo, she is the oldest of all of Papa and Mor-Mor’s grandchildren, and so very dear to my heart. We love each other very much and have a very special bond. Some of our favorite things to do together are: dress up and dance around the living room to music from the Nut-Cracker Suite, make waffles, go for walks, pick berries and flowers, read Doctor Suess. I used to read to her, now she is reading to me.

She is my all-time favorite person in the world to have  slumber parties with!

 

Sonny is the family clown and cuddle-bug, all-boy, smart-as-a-whip, like his sissy, who he is quite in-love with and just full of life. His daddy has called him "wee-man," since he was born. Yeah, he’s pretty much of a crack-up and a darn cute one at that.

 

The littlest one of the family is getting very close to half way to his or her happy birth-day. Everyone loves this tiny person, who we haven’t even met yet.

 

They have just moved from our area in Wa. to the area in ID. that both our families are from. Big switch. They seem to be loving it so far. You can see for your self by clicking here.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

I also have very wonderful news to report about the dear little family I asked you all to pray for earlier this week. The little tyke is home with his Mommy and his Daddy. He’s on medication and they are watching him very closely. So far whatever they are giving him seems to be helping enough for them to release him from the hospital. I can’t begin to imagine the joy and relief they must be feeling tonight. God is so faithful! Thank you all  more than I can say for your prayers for them. They have been answered in so many different ways.

 

Which brings me, if you wouldn’t mind, to one more prayer request. So we have this other really dear friend. David grew up with him. He met this beautiful, amazing girl and they fell madly in love and got engaged. They couldn’t have been happier. Then right before Christmas, they were snowboarding together and his fiance somehow lost control and hit a tree. She died instantly. Straight into the arms of Jesus who she loved deeply. 700 plus people attended her memorial service. 

 

We were shocked.Crushed. Devastated for our friend. And yet he has chosen to embrace the grief and pain, he is learning to live with it, and 7 months later is still clinging to Jesus, trusting Him, even though there are no more answers to the screaming whys than there were on the day he lost her.

David called him the other night and left a message,  just to remind him that we haven’t forgotten about his loss, that we love him and are still praying for him, that he is often in our thoughts. He texted messaged David back later to say: " Thank you. Your timing was perfect. I am just crying to hard right now to talk.  

 

I am asking you to pray for him. Today would have been their wedding day.

of flip-flops, chinese lanterns and apologies…

My apologies to each of you that had a scary message come up when you tried to get into my space yesterday.

I was triumphant, gloating, waltzing around the living room with Annabelle to Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable playing on my very own space. Victory in my eyes. I had not let that big bully Windows Media Player get the best of me.  No sir. After countless attempts that added up to countless hours of agony. ( once a sweet friend spent an entire afternoon helping me try to figure it out ) It was finally working. I have music playing. 

 A small, miracle. A lesson in preserverance, I thought. It has it’s rewards, I thought.

 Turns out to be a lesson in knowing when you’ve met your match and perhaps, accepting it.

 

Some small and wonderful discoveries of the week:

 

• Baby Orajel
• this song
• Safeway Select Lemon Sherbet  ( David says this is the most dangerous discovery of the week…and claims he could eat a entire carton at one sitting…)
• the meaning of the word: pluvial
• that the best thing to do with a fussy baby on a very hot day is a nice cool bath!
• a place called Quote Garden
• How to kill Ants  ( thank you everyone )
• The Scarlet Empress (a scrapbook store in downtown Olympia)
• that I love to sit at the kitchen table late at night and  gaze out through my red french doors, to the two red Chinese lanterns glowing on my back porch…
•  that after one week of wearing my new brown flip-flops, I am recommending Reefs to everyone I meet 
• climbing up on the roof to take a picture of the sunset and having David come up after me to just sit on the ridge-line, in silent awe of sunsetting in the purplest, pinkest shade of orange I have ever seen.
• One tiny pink-prick dimple that has appeared on the darling little chin of my baby girl
• A  book full of 100 sticky love notes that I ran across in the grocery store called ‘ Stuck on You. ‘  I bought it and have been slipping them David’s lunch boxever since. A rare non-essential purchase for me but then really, what is more essential than being told or telling someone: I love You?

 

 

 We are on our way to ID for the weekend, to help bring in the hay, eat watermelon, wander through my Mom’s cottage garden, go to family night at the rodeo, watch the baby cousins interact with eachother, listen to the boys jokes, watch for falling stars, do lots of hugging, driving, picture taking, food and laughing in general.

 We will be home on the 5th.  I am going to leave you with pictures of David’s grandparents, that I have been editing in Picasa, I am copying a disc of pictures for our family. It’s a collection of pictures. My sister-in-law-just finished up one of those gorgeous photo books from shutterfly.  

 

Friday’s To-Do’s

 

 

Grocery Shop …our lettuce is all gone and cherries are on sale, need ingredients for German Chocolate Cheesecake, and don’t forget cupon for a gallon of milk for 99 cents…oh and Father’s Day Cards.

 

Laundry … there is a pile half the size of Mt. Everest just waiting to be folded on the couch ( see above picture of Annabelle in laundry basket for visual, she was "helping" her mommy and enjoying the warmth of the clothing, fresh out of the dryer)

 

Pack our overnight bag…we are going to meet my Mom and Dad half way between their house and ours for the weekend.

 

Scrub the toilets and clean out under the guest room bed  …or is it clean out the toilets and scrub under the guest room bed ) before beloved Auntie Roo ( David’s Sister, here name is really Anna and we are nuts about her, all of us, because she is wonderful) arrives.

 

Make one German Chocolate Cheesecake… for friend  David ( who I call Dave -  it’s far too confusing for me to have two David’s at a time in one small house) because today is his birthday. He is a very close friend of ours. I especially love him for his compliments on my cooking. He may possibly my biggest fan, next to David. My fan club consists of exactly two members. He usually spends several evenings a week here with us. He and David lift weights out in the garage and I can here their male  grunts from inside the house with all the window and doors shut.  We also call Dave, Uncle Bair. Partly because he is an honorary uncle to Annabelle and partly because he is her Uncle-to-be. You see, Dave is also Auntie Roo’s very serious boy friend!

 

Figure out how to Turn on New Camera…  1. see users manual 2. Wait until Annabelle is taking her  long nap, it could take hours)

 

Make Dinner - On the menu tonight: Steak Fajitas with guacamole! We are celebrating because after waiting for months, we found out today that David has succesfully passed his first interview for the Seattle Fire Department…I am so proud of him I can hardly see straight! He has another interview in 10 days.

 

All that to the beautiful backdrop of the dearest cooing baby, the soundtrack from Pride and Prejudice playing, and one tremendous thunderstorm. 

 

My life is a blessed one.