Blog, I Miss You!

For some reason, I decided to take a peak at this, my old blog. I miss it! I see how much has changes since the last post. And how much each post actually means to me, and think "How am I going to be able to look back on the months since April?" I gave this up for facebook, since it's annoying to have to post twice, right. But I miss this blog. And the kids have grown a ton! I can't believe it. Frankly, it makes me a little sad. Well, a lot sad. This life just flies by far to fast. So, yes, I miss you Blog. And I hope we can be friends again.

Oh No You Di'nt

We've been on a few nature walks lately. Last week we went to find some locations to observe tadpoles. We came to an area where the trail was flooded. Someone didn't listen to me when I instructed them it was far too deep to cross. Someone wanted to find a way to cross anyway. And someone feel in. In to their chest. Unfortunately that someone was not impressed that I thought it was a little bit funny, and they refused to wait for me to put the memory card in my camera before they emptied the water out of their gum boots. The shot I wanted, I didn't get. But I did get this one.



And today we went out again. Looking for minnows. Treading through the thick, sticky muddy river bank. This time someone fell. Right in the mud. They decided they never want to go on muddy adventures again. Someone else got majorly stuck in the mud. I couldn't snap a photo of that. That just would've been too cruel. But I did get this one:



To me, that photo's kind of like a frog's eye view. I think they burrow in deep, when they see this predator near. They quietly, hardly breathing, wait for him to pass. Even though he's hardly a threat, if they would rather not come home and become a pet, they are better off to just hide in the grass.

And one last shot. That I sludged through mud up to my ankles (in hiking shoes) to get:

Field Trip

I took the kids to the Aquarium today. Not something I usually do on my own, but we were due for one. I am always, always amazed at the creatures there. They are so amazing. I also always love snapping a photo or two of the jelly fish, and men of war. Today, I thought I'd pop on my macro lens. Now, moving subjects don't often make for the best macro work, but I wanted to get in little closer, and capture what I thought was particularly beautiful about these things.

Sometimes You Just Can't Resist

I am a sucker for animals. I know I can't even go look at them. It's dangerous. I may come home with an extra pet. Or two. This time, though, we'd been considering getting another dog. A smaller dog. A dog the kids can handle easier than our giant bear. It needed to be small, non shedding, and female. And we found her. Don't feel sorry for her, she loves every minute of this. Her breeder had a 2 year old and a 3 year old in the house. No wonder she showed a particular attraction to our 2 (almost 3) year old. Needless to say, she fits in quite nicely. She's a shi-poo. So cute and smart. She's already learned to fake 'doing her business' so she can get back inside.
So meet Emerson. Emerson the shi-poo. Or shi-tzpoo - either way.

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Thankfully, I haven't convinced David that we need a hamster, and a bunny rabbit, and a love bird, and a turtle.... You get the point.

Celebrating a Birthday.

The other day someone very special had their birthday, and I'm blessed to get to share in his life, and ten years of birthdays, with him. Birthdays always make me contemplate life. The first 18+ years are spend wishing for time to pass, now I just wish time would slow down a bit. Are we really in our 30s now? How did that happen? Have we made the most of the time we've had? Will we live out our big dreams in the time we have left? Birthdays make me think about this stuff. And it's good to sit back and count our days. And it's good to be thankful for the birthdays we get to share it.

And our children were more than happy to share in D's birthday, and make party hats for everyone, and were those party hats.

Hello Spring, Um, You're Late!

For Fun

Just a few shots from some lighting practice I was engaging in. Please note the Harley Davidson tattoo on A's hand.

My Own Narnia

Today we got walk through the wardrobe. We took a little hike down to a small lake a little way from our place. I love hiking in snow. I love how peaceful it is. It was great to just get out and enjoy nature. A little strange when it started to snow though. I thought we just might see a lamppost somewhere. It has been pretty Spring like here. On our drive home, it was sunny. Sunny and snowing at the same time.

Oops

It's March. I've been busy. I don't like been as busy as I am right now, but sometimes life just gets busy. Busy. Too busy. I HAD to pull out my camera and snap a few today though. My camera and I have been missing each other.

Pieces of our Trip

Over the next few days I'll try to post some snapshots from our trip home. I didn't take as many photographs as I would have liked too. But I have some reminders of home - some things to contemplate. And some, just photographs.

So, I'll start today with something that happens almost every afternoon with Pake and Beppe. Afternoon tea. I remember it everyday when I was growing up, and now my kids get to look forward to it and participate too.

Grab the tea.

Cool off the tea.

Sip the Tea.

And, accompany tea with vanilla slice from the dutch store (added to make my family members drool.)

Happy New Year

So another year is now upon us. And I figure I better get a post up ASAP. We had a very mellow New Years Eve. In fact I was in bed at 7 with a very sore neck. But I was up early new years day, and made stuffed sourdough french toast with caramel sauce for breakfast. Our Christmas vaca has turned out much different than planned, but it was very restful, and relaxing. I think I will feel ready to get back at it on Monday morning. I hope all of you have had a great holiday, and can go into 2009 with much enthusiasm. It's a New Year with ENDLESS possibility!

Snow

I was happy to wake up to see snow on the ground this morning. I love snow. So do the kids. We couldn't take the sleds out and go tobogganing. Maybe tomorrow. It is supposed to be a very chilly next couple of days.

Snowball to the face never did any two year old well. And the culprit? The one in the yellow jacket.

So sad, and shocked that his brother would do that to him.

A couple seconds later, all was well again.

PS Sorry about the sizes changing. I forgot what to re size the images to.

Check it Out!

This year's Christmas Blog has begun:

www.searchingforchritsmas.blogspot.com

My ipod Has Been Taken Over

I think I finally realized I don't own my ipod nano any more, when I looked at my playlist which happens to include the Hamster Dance, Geography Songs, and Songs and Lullabies from Curious George (ok - that one is mine). Seriously, the kids fight over it. E. needs it to drum. A. loves it, and would have it 24/7. Even B. had it this morning. He's figured out how to unlock it, and turn that volume up too, which is no good.

Speaking of my current playlist I need to mention Starfield (the one's that where playing when that churches floor collapsed - love them), and needtobreathe. So, yes, I still do need my ipod. I can do some serious house cleaning singing along to needtobreathe!

**P.S. - Since I have fb and my photography blog, and some people view this and don't view my completely separate photography blog or don't have fb - pictures are going to be posted in two or three locations. Don't mind me, I just use each for different purposes.

The Boys

Maybe this will want to make you take advantage of the discounted airfare?







P.S. I should have sharpened these for the web, but, well, I just didn't.

A Recent Hiking Trip

Pave Paradise and Put Up An Industrial Park

Our house is located near a designated "green area". Or, should I say, soon to be ex-green area Industrial Park. It's really two beautiful farm fields. Two years ago there was more farm land here, but the city decided some expansions were in order and one of the farms was torn down. The fields and trees torn down to build.

Coyotes frequent these fields, I wonder where they will find new homes. Not to mention the Herons that come to the field for their early morning breakfasts. I wonder where we will go traipsing about, exploring on the lazy Saturday afternoons when we can't venture off too far from home. I wonder how the city could get so far in the process without the knowledge of those whose backyard is soon to be an industrial park.

We don't own the house we currently are lving in. And if I did, yes, I'd be worried about my property value. I'm still concerned though, as a citizen of this community. Concerned that something like this can be decided, and nearly finalized, without the knowledge of residents.

It's Been Far to Long, so I'm Posting Something Just For the Sake of Posting

I'm sick. It started on Wednesday night, and hasn't given up. I was in bed for two days, well, yesterday I actually got out a little, but still. It's a cold/flu and I feel awful. Well, actually, I think I am starting to get better. Good thing, because when you miss two days of school, you need to make up for it. D. took pretty great care of me, I'd say great, but I think he forgot about me while I was locked in our room. Not exactly... he did make me chicken soup and went to the store to buy me all the things a sick person might need, like baked dill pickle chips - oh wait I didn't get any of those. He did bring home a starbucks which would have been great if A. hadn't spilled the whole 4.53 caramel macchiato. Does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm really not. I'm thankful D. did what he could to watch the kids and let me stay in bed. How often does a mom just get to be sick - really?

Danicin'