Lightroom is a great little program. I finally had the time to select and upload our favorite pictures from 2006. Check out the link here or in the links in the column on the right.
June 16, 2007
June 15, 2007
Sweetness and Life
I just spent 15 minutes staring into my daughters eyes and falling in love with her more. Her eyes are really beautiful. They’re a definite blue, but a light blue with a misting of grey outlined by soft black eyelashes. It reminds me of the flitter of blue sky you catch midmorning on misty day on a stone, windswept Washington beach (like Rialto). I got to stare at these eyes while I was requested to sing, not one, but two songs. My voice was dry and sticky from the salty pizza I ate for dinner. I quietly rasped out ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and ‘Lord I Lift Your Name on High’. I laid on the futon that was my marriage bed for almost 5 years and stroked my daughter’s hair still slightly damp from swimming.
Yes, I said swimming. After last post’s failure, we tried again today, twice. While trying to print out copies of an application for a conference, we discovered we had run out of printer paper. Errand #1. Wayne asked me when I was going to send out all the baby presents I purchased back in February. Errand #2. I’ve been longing to get more stamps and pens and stamp pads for my new favorite hobby of card making. I missed getting to the PaperZone by 20 min on the way to Costco last week. Longing to get stamps, I added Joann’s to our list. Errand #3. Enter the rain. Heavy, steady rain. I can’t find a raincoat for Laura…it’s buried under spooge in the tool room. So I have 4 stops with 2 kids in the rain. Ugh! I buck up my spirits, repeat the concept that this will be fun, and wish for one stop shopping.
Errands proceed in a reasonable fashion. Laura gets a little wet, Sara intentionally gets wet by refusing to put her hood on, and I delight in my steady acquisition of stamp supplies. Laura cries at being buckled and unbuckled so much. It’s a decidedly boring day from her perspective. She charms several strangers. Sara sits on the counter of the shipping store and asks about packages with the clerk. She has brought her own box to “send”. As we leave, Sara says,”Have a good day!” My heart flutters in pride at her maturity. The clerk responds, “Well you just made mine.”
We arrive at the club. It’s 11:30am, bumping into nap time. I realize that the pool is about to close to kid play for lap swimming, a recent change I didn’t yet incorporate into my memory banks. Ugh. Sara is not as despondent as I imagined. I promise we’ll try again in the afternoon. We get home. I think it worked out better, because both girls instantly took naps. I lunched on bangers and mash. I slow down and head upstairs for a nap.
We try again. Wayne has agreed to meet us at Snoose Junction for dinner after work. I get the kids to the pool in good time. We spend an hour playing in the pool. Laura looks uncomfortable in her life vest, but doesn’t cry. Sara plays with her 2 turtles and 3 ducks. She is longing to take swim lessons. She even tried to slide into a lesson already in progress. There was a young boy reluctant to swim and she tried to help the instructor coax him into the pool.
Wayne meets us at the car and we walk to Snoose. It’s packed and we barely snag a bar stool for waiting. I order the pizza at 6pm and get Wayne a beer. It’s loud and crowded. I get a brownie for Sara. We get seated in about 20 minutes. I’m expecting the pizza to arrive in the next 5-10 minutes. 60 minutes later, no pizza, Laura has grabbed everything in sight, Sara is caving, and Wayne’s scowl has deepened despite his Mac&Jack. Once again, eating out with kids turns disasterous. It makes Wayne really unhappy. Unfortunately, I like to eat out. I think we’ll have to avoid it for now with the kids. I enjoy the ‘Combo’ pizza, but bid farewell to that dinner spot. Wayne declares he will never go there again. Oh well.
Then I get to stare in my daughter’s eyes…
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June 8, 2007
Breathe
Wayne and I are fulfilling our wishes from the last post. We’ve been home 5 days in a row. We’re sleeping in separate rooms from our children (despite 3rd world practices, I’ve become a fan of this), Wayne and I have slept in our own bed, laundry/dishes/mail has been processed, and the kids have had time at home to claim their toys.
Reclaiming our routine and social life has been so tempting. I think I’ve probably scheduled too much social time this week, but I miss visiting the people in my life.
We jumped right in with a dinner at Cindy’s house, our new home group. Shells stuffed with ricotta, salad, and pear-cherry crisp (delicious). Sara threw a royal tantrum. My normal method of taking her to a quiet room and reading her a book didn’t work. She just threw herself at the door and begged for Daddy. She did a similar tantrum right as we were rushing to the security line, late for our flight on the way home from Oakland. During that plight, I had to wrap Laura in the Moby and manhandle Sara into the single stroller so we could even move away from the ticketing booth. During these tantrums, she goes boneless (any parent knows what that’s like). It’s hard to maneuver a boneless 40lb 3 yo while trying to keep a 21 lb 7month-old safe. We were supposed to discuss Nehemiah after our wonderful dinner, but time didn’t allow it. I got to read the Bible and review the study in the sunlight this morning while Sara had her friend Johana over.
Thursday morning, I met Carolyn, my friend from church, for brunch at the Hi-Life. I sampled sourdough pancakes with balsalmic marinated strawberries and vanilla yogurt fage (new vocab word for me) while dealing with two kids. Laura was craving a nap and so not being cooperative. Sara had to go to the bathroom (on a different floor) twice during a 30 min meal. Somewhere in my brain, I conceived that morning would be a good time to take my kids to a restaurant. I forgot that Laura naps about 3-4 times a day and decided to skip her morning nap and be cranky. Oh well. I didn’t get to talk as much as I would have liked, but we’re doing dinner with Carolyn’s family in a week.
I tried to take Sara swimming after 4 wks away from the OAC. We talked it up for 2 days. I located and packed up all our swim stuff the night before so we could leave on time for our brunch. Sara had even planned out the order of our errands, “breakfast with Mommy’s friend, bank, then SWIM!, then library”. As we walked into the club, I realized we had arrived during the annual cleaning so the pool was closed. Sadness. Sara didn’t even tantrum as much as I expected. She just got really quiet and asked to go home. I eventually convinced her that the library was a good substitute. She kept asking to go home, but when we got to the parking lot of the library, she was begging me to come in.
Jon and Claire came over last night. We shared our Maui short ribs and tossed them in a sesame ginger salad. The Jenkins forced us to eat some of their Haagen Daas ice cream bars. Darn. The twins are growing well, but one has turned the wrong way. Troublemakers from the beginning I guess. Laura enjoys being held by Jon. This is good since she was so tired and shrieked like a pteridatyl except when she was being held and walked during dinner.
Sara went to bed Wed night asking to play with 12 yo Eilidh, not Johana her 3yo sister and Sara’s good friend. I had thought have an unplanned day on Friday, but collapsed to internal pressure to socialize MORE! Johana’s family will be traveling to Montreal most of the summer so we will miss their presence. I had Johana over and tested my ability to have playdates and a 6 mo baby at the same time. It worked out pretty well. Johana caught a spider and put it into a tupperware container she fished out of my cabinets herself. We then proceeded to catch ants on the front porch and put them in each of the girl’s containers. Johana, at one point, “lost” her container somewhere in the house. I just smiled and urged her to find it before beginning play with a Barbie. Eventually it turned up and all insects got freed outdoors before lunch.
Tonight we got hosted very nicely by my work mate, Annie. I told Sara we were going to see the twins and she smiled and said, “trains”. Josh and Bryan are big fans of trains and have lots of interesting toys. Annie and Stan are such gourmands. Their easy night is paninis with salami, roasted eggplant, 3 different cheeses, prosciutto, and salad. I think they’ve convinced me to get a pannini grill for my next splurge (maybe xmas). It was really fun and produced good food. The sunset was fun to watch. All 5 kids tumbled on the living room carpet after dinner and we attempted ‘adult talk’ over all the noise. It was a fun evening.
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