Category: Picture Book

The Christmas Story

The other day while I was making lunch, the kids were playing in the family room located in the basement. At one point I became alarmed at the quiet (as all mothers do), and snuck down the stairs to spy. At first I was pleased to observe Thomas and Ruthie pleasantly sharing a push toy they normally fight over, until I decided the concept was too absurd to be believable so I asked a subtle, probing question: ‘What are you guys doing?’

‘We’re playing with balls!’ Ruthie announced cheerfully.

‘Okaaaay…’ I said, still not feeling comfortable about the peace and harmony.

And then Ruthie threw him under the bus. Out of the blue, as I turned to go back upstairs, she said, ‘Thomas did it.’

Bingo. Something was up.

At that point Thomas lifted up the seat of the push toy to reveal their stash of ‘balls,’ which were not actually toy balls at all, but the balls from the Christmas tree. Nearly every. single. one, in fact.

Christmas ball stash

So now our tree is ball-less (as far as the kids can reach, anyway) and I’m tired of fighting it. I am certainly no Martha Stewart, and it’s actually festive in a Griswold sort of way, so I think I’ll let it be.

Merry Christmas everyone!

a ball-less tree

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Bryan’s plane landed safely and he was home by midnight. We snuggled on the couch for awhile as we listened to the wind and watched David Letterman, then we went to bed. We live in a 1910 Craftsman, and our bedrooms are all on the second floor. We have no large trees around us, and only one window on the South side of the house where the wind was coming from, so I wasn’t too worried about severe damage to our home.

As the house rocked and the windows shook, my little family gathered around me. Scout, who normally sleeps in the dark and quiet basement, nosed her way into our room and paced lightly until settling on the floor next to the bed. Ruthie came in asking what that sound outside was. I started taking her back into her room, selfish for the limited space in our small bed. But as I entered her room and heard the gusts against her slanted walls, I remembered it was my job as a mom to protect my children and make them feel safe. So I snuggled her back into bed between Bryan and I where she slept for most of the night, oblivious to the storm in the safety of our bed. I layed awake until 2 in the morning, listening to the gusts, hearing objects drag down the street, feeling the bed shake. I was not afraid, but I was in awe.

We fared well compred to most. We never lost power. No trees fell on our house. I had gas in my car. Many people in the area will not see power until Wednesday or later – a full week after the storm. Here are pictures of the minor damage done to the outer parts of our home…

Remember this pretty deck with my new pretty lights?
New Outdoor Lights

Here’s what it looks like now…

All the lattice was blown down and shredded in the wind.

IMG_4675

IMG_4677

What is left of our shed (with the lawn mower still standing!)…
What's left of the shed (with the lawn mower still standing!)

At least we know the lock will hold!
The still-intact lock broke from the shed.

By the way, did you notice the tree behind the shed? How all the leaves on it are dead, yet they didn’t blow off in the high winds? I find that creepy.

The Morning Roamer

On Monday the kids and I woke up at 4:30am to take Bryan to the airport for his usual trip to Palo Alto where he earns money to pay for our new roof and our future new kitchen (hint hint). It’s not as big a deal as it sounds – we’re home by 5am and we all go right back to bed.

This week, though, when Ruthie came into my room around 8am declaring that she was hungry, I rolled over and mumbled, ‘Okay, five more minutes.’

An hour later I woke up when the phone rang, and Ruthie was not sleeping next to me like she usually is in the morning. I went downstairs, expecting to see Cherios and soy milk all over the kitchen in her attempt to feed herself.

Instead, she was sitting in my thinking chair with an album of our wedding photos, and when she saw me come through the door she exclaimed, ‘It’s my mama and my gamma! Can I have this picture?’ So I sat with her, and we looked through the rest of the photos, and I told her stories. And later that day I scanned the picture of me and my mom and printed a copy just for Ruthie.

mother and bride

Who IS that hot woman????

Skinny PictureHey, it’s ME – about 8 or 9 years ago. When I stumbled across this picture over the weekend it shocked me. I really did, for a split second, wonder who this was. First of all, CHECK OUT THAT REALLY COOL HAIR!! Did I have awesome hair or what? Short hair was really good to me when I was skinny, but not so much after two kids and 40 pounds. I am finally coming to terms with that and growing out my hair.

I didn’t even remember that it’s POSSIBLE for me to be that skinny. I mean, look at the definition in my cheek bones! And the separation between my boobs and my belly – they are TWO SEPARATE PARTS OF MY BODY! And look how cute I am in a shirt that actually buttons closed without that button-popping seem-stretching look.

I have to admit, I cried a little when I saw this, because it seems so impossible for it to be me.

I have lost 13 pounds and one pant size over the last couple months, and my momentum is only gaining. I was very encouraged to have made it through Thanksgiving without any damage done. This is a great accomplishment, so why do I still feel like I will never look this good again?

I don’t know that I need to be as skinny as I was in this picture. After all, I’m pretty realistic about what birthing two kids and a slowing metabolism can do to a woman’s body. I’d be happy to lose at least 30 more pounds, maybe 40. That will still not put me at what I weighed in this picture, but I will be healthier than I am now, and it will be a more realistic weight to maintain.

Reality check. Encouragement. Motivation. Possibility. These are the reasons I’ve posted this photo on my refrigerator.

SO Delicious (and the food was good, too!).

cheers!This weekend we went out for breakfast and tried a new place (for us) in Columbia City called Geraldine’s Counter. We love eating breakfast out, and this food was to DIE for. What made the experience even more lovely was how well the children behaved. It was fun, they were patient, the service was quick, and Ruthie actually ATE her food. It is just a lovely place to be with bright, warm colors and a cafe feel.

Thomas was adorable (as you can see) as he struggled his rather large plate of food in the direction of Bryan’s plate to ‘cheers’ the meal (and yes, he is STILL doing it).

What’s YOUR hairbrush song?

Last weekend Bryan bought the Wicked soundtrack, so I took the opportunity to introduce Ruthie to the hairbrush-as-microphone concept. She picked it up VERY quickly, as you will see by the pictures below.

Though I am the mature age of 35, I can’t seem to listen to any of these songs without dramatic hand movements, or closing my eyes for dramatic effect (which, you see below, is something Ruthie has a natural for), or belting out the alto songs with great feeling. When it comes to swooping broadway musicals, I am very child like.

The funniest thing is that the song that keeps running through my head during the “off wicked” hours is the duet between Glinda and Elphaba when they discover they will be roommates in college. Because, you see, they are not fond of one another. If you were a spider on my wall, you would see me dancing about, singing, “LOATHING, UN-A-DUL-TERATED LOATHING – FOR YOUR FACE, YOUR VOICE, YOUR CLOTHING…” (and so on) which is not generally the sort of thing you want seeping into your child’s vocabulary.

But, if I have succeeded in giving her the tools necessary to imagine she is on a broadway stage, then I think my job here is done.

The Call of the Jitterbug

IMG_4108Waaaaay back in February – seven months ago – Bryan bought us tickets to see Wicked at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. It was the farthest in advance he’d ever planned an event – including our wedding, which happened just five months after we met.

I think this was the best Wednesday I’ve had in a looooong time.

The musical was spectacular. I was so caught up in the electrifying drama that I welled up with tears. I love theater. There’s something so… dramatic… about it. It’s energetic and active, not passive like most movies are. When a song ends, the crowd cheers. When lines are funny, we laugh. Audience and actor dance together, intertwining performance and praise.

Beforehand we had dinner at Lottie’s Lounge in Columbia City, where I first fell in love with the Jitterbug Martini last Friday night. I waited patiently all through the appetizers, the salad, and the dinner so I could slowly enjoy the smooth, lathery, richness for dessert.

Yum.

We spent the evening talking about vision – what we’re doing now, what we THOUGHT we’d be doing now, and how do we know when to make changes. As we held hands on the way back to our car I mentioned how I liked these long dinner dates where we talk and drink and eat and talk and drink and eat. Somehow in the everydayness of our own home we fail to have these intimate conversations, even in the quiet after the kids go to bed.

As we continue to fall in love all over again every day, I think we will be seeing fewer and fewer movies. Rather, I think we will be answering the call of the jitterbug.

Birthday Poem

Coffee Mug from a PoetEvery once in awhile Bryan puts on the Woo, as we call it around here, and sweeps me off my feet. On the actual day of my birthday, Bryan was working in San Jose, but he flew home late that night. He set a gift on the bed for me, and at first glance it looked like your average coffee travel mug. But it was actually a create-your-own type thing, which he used as a template for this painting and poem. The image is a painting he did on his tablet pc using the art rage program, tracing this picture of Ruthie I took at the ocean in April. He wrote the poem to the right (click on the picture to get a larger view).

Summer Fun

Last Spring we bought a new patio set and fire pit for our deck. We opted to go with the ‘converstation’ style set, rather than a typical dining table and chairs because we wanted an outdoor living room feel. I have never regretting our decision, and the more we use the deck space, the more in love with it I become.

Again this evening we talked about walking to the park, but in the end decided to stay in our own yard. The kids played in the sandbox, Bryan read a book, and I did a little theraputic weeding, and it was divine.

More and more our yard is feeling like an oasis, and my vision for the space continues to grow. Just last Sunday I read an article in the Seattle Times’ Pacific Northwest Magazine about a garden makeover for small spaces, which happened to also be for a family with small children. I fell in love with the idea of a small brick path meandering through my yard for the kids to ride their bikes, and a playhouse built on stilts over our current play area, and a beautiful mosaic at the base of our front steps to welcome friends and strangers. Fun ideas to plan for and save money for.

Last year was such a bust for entertaining because Thomas was new and I was a mess of depressed hormones. It killed me to not be entertaining, as throwing parties is one of my most favorite things to do. But I kept reminding myself it was just a season, and soon our doors would be open again, and they are. Yipee! Here is a collage of photos from some of our fun times so far this summer. If you’re not in these photos yet, I hope you can join us soon!

The Culture of Working from Home

IMG_2773

Sometimes, when Ruthie wakes up too early, she’ll wander downstairs to find Bryan in his office and snuggle up on his plush, shag rug. She’ll get to hang out there with him as long as she’s quiet. Sometimes Bryan will call me to come get her, but other times, like this morning, he’ll bring her upstairs to me and she’ll go back to sleep in my bed.

At lunch time we all eat together, and after I put the kids down for a nap Bryan and I get some time to snuggle on the couch and read together before he goes back down to his office.

I often get frustrated with Bryan for his strict boundaries of time, because it means I don’t get to do some of the things I want to do, or projects take longer to complete. But other times, like today, I see the benefits of good boundaries, because it means I can count on spending an hour with him for lunch every day.

And that’s kinda nice.