Bring Your Pet To Blog Day

HOLLY AND SUNSHINE
We are off to Big Sur!!

Dreams

Ok, Here it is, my highly artistic interpretation of "Dreams". I'm not sure yet if I'm going to officially sign up for "Illustration Friday", I'm sure when I do my talent will be the talk of the blogging world, I may not be ready for that type of fame yet, I'll have to think it over awhile.

We went to the zoo this morning with my mother -in-law. This is my self portrait submission. You can see fish, me, John, the stroller. I love our zoo it's really green and pretty. Most of the animals were out and lively this morning. The lion and tiger were especially entertaining.
I love Maryann. I feel like I'm still getting to know her. She has changed so much since I've known her, but she is becoming more of the lively person John knew growing up, he says. She is hysterical, creative, and always has a story to tell. Today is her Red Hat club meeting. I asked her what they talk about and she told us "Sex and Men". She said a few months ago the topic question was "would you ever have an affair on your husband, and if so should you tell him". Her respose to the second part of the question was " What? are you crazy? Why and the hell would you do something like that". Later on she told us how when she was younger she volunteered at the Lodi center for venereal disease because she thought it just sounded so sinful. Really it was a good organization because it helped the local kids. She is a rebel and artist at heart. She is outspoken and bold. She has a theory the the flamingos are pink because they eat so much shrimp, I told her I thought that was the silliest thing I'd ever heard, but she insisted it was true. Who knows maybe she is right, I'm usually wrong when I think I'm absolutely right.
This photo is for my mom, she is a turtle lover. Actually he is a tortoise, looks like a turtle to me, but my mom would know the difference.

Taste Of Heaven

(inspired by la vie en rose)

1. Watching Jack get excited when the sprinklers come on.

2. Going on early morning walks when it's still cool out.

3. Eating chilled butterscotch chips.

4. Making up with John after we got in a fight.

5. Watching Jack make faces at himself in the mirror.

6. John giving me a foot rub while we watch tv at night.

7. When I pray to God and really feel connected to Him.

8. Having John make us margaritas at the end of the day.

9. Opening the door in the morning and feeling the warm sun.

10. Holding Stella on my hip, and having her hold onto me with her little arms.

Finders Keepers

We found this on the side of the road. It was a really ugly brown color and had mirrors behind the windows on the top. So we painted it and put some of our pictures in it and added some pillows. I really love it now. We store all of our shoes in it. John is really great at finding useful things on the side of the road. When we lived downtown we found a BBQ, and air conditioner, a space heater. They all worked and we used them.

State Fair

We went to the state fair on Friday. It seemed a lot more crowded than these pictures show. My mom came with us. We walked around and looked in a lot of the buildings. My mom got sucked into a vapor cooking demonstration so we took off to the petting zoo. They actually had a little deer walking around in there. She was so small and cute.

There were a some new exhibits this year. One was about Tibet that I liked. They were selling these cute little bead necklaces for $5 that they made in Tibet so I bought one. They also had a surfing building with lots of cool pictures of women surfers. It reminded me of how much I liked that show "Surf Girls" that was on a while back.
This is Stella admiring a piece of art. She was so good, she liked seeing all the people and sights of the fair.
The very last thing we did was go on the monorail. It was so nice to go on last because we were so tired from walking and the train is so quiet and soothing as it glides around all the areas of the fair. My favorite part has always been when the monorail passes over the beer garden. I remember as a kid I would always look down and think I was peeking into some adult place that kids were not allowed. It was always loud with a band playing and people we smiling and having a good time. I don't know what I expected to see, but I'd get a little thrill from looking. I don't feel the thrill anymore, but something still stirs in me when we pass the beer garden. Something forbidden is going on in there and I want to be apart of it.

Fairy Tale Land

We were all feeling much better yesterday so we made a trip to Fairy Tale Land. I love it there. My brother and sister and I grew up coming here so it is nice to bring my kids here now. It's actually almost exactly the same as it was when I was young. Today we are going to the State Fair. It should be fun. Now it feels like we are on vacation. We even made new reservations to drive back up to Big Sur next week. This time we might try driving at night so the kids are both asleep, Jack is a horrible car rider, whining and crying. When he was younger as I sat in the passenger seat I would reach back with my left arm and hold his leg. Now EVERY time we drive he says "Hold your leg, Hold your leg" (Translation: hold my leg) If I don't he goes into hysterics. I know I need to cut it out all together, I just haven't been willing to face the tantrum yet, It's easier for me to just hold his darn little leg. He does have a cute little leg, and sometimes I like holding it.... anyway, as long as I'm not holding his leg when he 12 right? Well off to the fair. Giant cinnamon roll here I come!!!!!!

Bring your pet to Blog day

Jack and Holly
Holly is so good with the kids. She is the kind of cat Jack can lay on and pull around the room by her leg and really not do to much about it. She does have a limit though, and Jack has gotten lots of little scratches, but overall she is a peace loving kitty.

A Little Story

Hey Heather,
What are you doing up at 4:45am, blogging when you are supposed to be breathing in the cool ocean air in Big Sur right now? You Ask.

Well let me tell you a little story.
John, Heather, Jack, and Stella are really excited about going to the Ocean.
Especially after Heather, Jack, and Stella were so sick the last couple days.
Good thing John wasn't sick, He's lucky.
They drive 4 hours.
Hey it sure is pretty here.
John looks a little pale.
John says "I'm going to the bathroom".
John comes out 45 minutes later.
John is green.
John is in pain.
We drive 4 hours home.
The End.

O wait, There is more.
Heather wakes up at 3:30 to nurse Stella.
Stella has a temperature of 103.6.
Heather is worried and can't go back to sleep.
Heather starts blogging.
The End

Self Portrait Tuesday

The first day and a half of John's vacation should have been nice and relaxing. Kicking back, drinking a beer, watching TV, but instead he spent it cleaning up puke from his 2 sick kids, changing runny diapers, and basically running the house while his wife camped out by the toilet waiting for the next wave of nausea to hit. We were all hit (except for John) by food poisoning. I just had food poisoning not even 2 months ago after eating at a restaurant. It's not like we were eating fast food or anything, actually this time we ate at the food co-op. Anyway thank you John, I would not have made it through without you. We are feeling much better now and so we are off to Big Sur for 3 day. The redwoods and the ocean, just what the doctor ordered.

The Orange Tack

When Jack was a baby he became fasinated one day with an orange tack we had on the wall. So we stuck it to the mirror in our bedroom and every few days we lifted him up to touch the orange tack. He would get really excited and smile as he played with it. Now every few days we lift Stella up and she gets to enjoy the magic of the orange tack. We love watching there cute little faces light up.

Our Morning Walk

Stella is happy to be out and about.

An abandoned dryer, poor thing.
We walked down to the bridge and threw rocks and twings into the water below.
Jack clutched three of his toy cars the whole time.

Bring Your Pet to Blog Day

This is Sunshine. She is our first born, before the kids, before our other cat Holly. We got her from the pound. She was so small. After we had her a couple of days she got a really bad cold and we thought we might loose her but we didn't. She used to get tangled up in my hair at night and fall asleep there. She was always very wild and playful, but then one day we brought Holly our other kitty home, and Sunshine went to a crabby place and has never returned. I swear the day we brought Holly home I saw her personality change. Sunshine was meant to be a spoiled only child and we went and ruined it for her. We now introduce her as Sunshine the mean kitty. When kids come over they say "is that the mean one or the nice one". It's sad to say but true. Even though she makes it hard to love her, I still do.

August

In August
it will be so hot
I will become
a cooking pot
cooking soup of course.
Why not?
Cooking once
cooking twice
cooking chicken soup
with rice.

- Maurice Sendak

Self Portrait Tuesday

I don't know why but for about a week now I've been having this inner battle between being content with what I have and with having this deep craving for more. I'm not talking about my family or things that really matter, more like material stuff. A couple of our friends are moving into bigger homes, I think that may be what started this craving for more. It's like a gnawing in my belly. I can feel it when I watch Extreme House Makover on Sunday nights. I'm fine until the very end when they show off the house they built, then I start to feel it in the pit on my stomach. I hate it. I know we won't be moving anytime soon, and really we have more than we need. A few years ago we went to Manila and saw what poverty really is. It's a different poverty than I've ever seen in America (though I know it's here in some places). I left truly grateful for what I had, even now sometimes out of the blue, I'll be washing the dishes and just become really grateful for running water. Overall though lately I haven't been doing that much. I'm going to try to get back to that gratitude. I know I love my family and God and my friends. I know that I don't want to live beyond our means. I know I don't want to feel jealous when I see others get stuff I think I want. Really all that matters is my family. If all were lost and all I had was them, that would be more than enough.

Jack and Maya

Jack's friend Maya is over today. Most of Jack's friends are girls, so sometimes I worry that he won't get the rough and tumble play that he likes so much, but when Maya is over I don't worry about that at all. Maya is about as wild as you can get. I don't mean that in a bad way, It's actually good for Jack, he can rough house with her as much as he wants and she can keep up just fine. It's nice to have Jack's friends over. It gives me a break from being his only entertainment.

Bye Noelle

Noelle, my niece flew away to Idaho today. We will miss her. On Friday she came over with my mom, she asked if we knew who Gretchen Wilson is, being a closet country music fan I said of course and a couple of minutes later "Redneck Woman" was blaring from my stereo and we were dancing around the room. She twirled, and cartwheeled, and pranced around . She knew every word to the song, though when the song goes "hell yea" Noelle said "ho yea". I though that was funny. Have a nice trip Noelle and I'll write you soon.

Bring your pet to blog day

This is one of our cats. Her name is Holly and she is a sweetheart. She is really soft and purrs alot. She used to be our baby before Jack and Stella came. She is a good kitty and needs more attention from us. Sorry Holly. She likes to eat ice cream. I know that probably isn't very good for her, but it's hard to resist her sweet little face begging as John and I finish up our bowls. Sometimes we even let her lick it off of our spoons (John lets her do it to, but you didn't hear it from me, he'll deny it, but he does).

Love you Gretchen

A lump in the oatmeal

You know when you get in a fight with you best friend, and you didn't see it coming, and you don't understand, and it feels like you got punched in the stomache because you want to understand and you really hate to fight and at first you were confused but now your angry and now you want to call and really fight but your husband says to let it rest till he gets home ,so you do, and how you really love this person and just want to hug her and strangler her at the same time, and how you hope it gets resolved fast and things get back to normal so you can go to the park and have coffee and donuts again soon. Yea I know that feeling.

Things that made me happy today

- Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast
- There was no laundry to do
- Jack said hi to strangers everywhere we went today
- There are really soft sheets on our bed
- Found out the State Fair starts on friday Yipeee!!!
- Naptime
- A crisp cold apple
- Stella's soft tummy
- Watching Jack run around laughing hysterically as we danced to the song "Pon De Replay"
- Psalm 139
- Jack getting excited about going to the library
- Doves new cucumber and green tea lotion

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Self Portrait Tuesday

Stella and I were sitting on the grass in the back yard, enjoying the early morning cool before the blistering heat of the coming day when I snapped this picture. I've never seen Stella look like this. Her little face looks different than it ever has before. I look different too, I little more tired then I thought, but I also see a contentness in my eyes that I didn't know was there. It's funny how a picture can make you see something that you didn't see a moment before. A split second in time, that captures things you didn't even know were there.

Turn your face to the sun

On Saturday night we dropped the kids off at our babysitting co-op and went out on a date. First we went to Plum Blossom. It was yummy. Here's John finishing up.
My fortune turned out to be very fitting "Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you." I seem to do just the opposite most of the time and sometimes miss out on having a lot of fun ( like later on on our date ). After dinner we went to Infusions a little coffee shop downtown and ran into my friend Ben. He's not really a thug or a ganster or anything, I just told him to pose like one. We seem to run into each other every 2 years or so. Hi Ben, see you in another 2, love ya.
Later on John and I went to a bar that had dueling pianos. This is when our date sort of started falling apart. I hated the bar and could not get out of there fast enough, John on the other hand was having a fun time and wanted to stay. We ended up leaving after an hour or so. I told him I was sorry I made us leave but I just felt like such a loser the rest of the evening. He assured me that it was alright, but I just couldn't get over it. I guess I'm just not a big social bar/club person. On the rare occasion I will have fun at one, but most of the time I just feel so out of place. John can find fun in anything. Anyway, we are all good now. We made it home and the next day everything was back to normal.

Beautiful

Sweet Stella

Sew Happy!!

I did it, I finally finished the dress I was making Stella. It is the fist dress I've ever made from a pattern. It is a bit big, and she sort of gets tangled up in it when she crawls, but I am so proud of this dress anyway. The pattern was from Simplicity and it was labled as "Easy" but I swear those directions were written in a different language. I had to read each step like 10 times before I could sort of figure out what they were telling me to do. Now that it is done though, I would do it again. I think this is the cutest dress ever.

Where I'm From

Me (with the long hair), Heidi, Darren, and Mom
I got the idea for this poem off of Pea Soup.

Where I'm From


I am from Bisquick pancakes with banana's cooked inside. From standing
still so the sewing pins would'nt poke me as my mom fit clothes she
was making on me, and from a furry little dog named Chopsticks.

I am from playing in the Big Ditch and getting itchy making forts with
dried grass. From the pig and the cow and the chickens
and the cats and the dogs. From sharing a room with my sister and
jumping from one bed to the next. I am from walking two miles down to
Tom's Feed in the heat of summer to pick out baby chicks and
bring them home.

I am from raisin bread for breakfast and
tuna sandwiches with relish for lunch at Grandma's. From paper
dolls and Silly Putty at her kitchen table, and all day shopping trips with
lunch at Lyon's in the mall.

I am from Heidi humming while she ate, and splitting
a 1 lb bag of m&m's four ways. From Darren's love of peanut butter
and from Dad saying "I'll split your lip and run your leg through it" and
mom saying "warsh"

I am from motorhome trips, sittng in the back dangling my retainer out
of the window daring myself to let it go. From going to Santa Cruz
and feeling the gritty sand and warm sun on my body as we walk back
to the motel.

I am from birthday parties at McDonalds. From a sweaty Strawberry
Shortcake mask on Halloween spreading our bags of
candy out on the floor afterwards and sharing with mom. I
am from Christmas with Great Grandma and
eating mom's stuffing and pie until I felt like
I would burst.

I am from family photo albums in the formal room end table, digging through
them every few years with excitment.
Spending hours
looking and remembering

Little Miss Piggy

Here's our little angel Stella. She eats like a maniac. Seriously, we put food in front of her and she grabs handfull after handfull cramming it in her mouth, It's pretty funny to watch.

Is it 5 O'clock yet?

There are some days that are so crazy and exhusting, that by 8am I'm wondering how I'm going to make it untill John is off work at 5 o'clock, today is one of those days. I have a cold and feel really run down. Jack is pulling one stunt after another, from trying to flush a blanket down the toilet, to unrolling 1/2 a roll of toilett paper, to putting a wood box over Stella's head and banging it with a spoon, I could go on and on. Thank goodness for naptime. I must say though, that with all the frustration I feel at times, there are other times when he is a complete angel, and all the other times just seem to melt away. My friend Lorissa asked me this morning how I could do it with 2 babies, she has one baby right now. I told her I didn't know how I did it, I just did. Thinking about it though, I think I do it from moment to moment. From one moment where I'm ready to strangle Jack, to the next moment when his big brown eyes melt my heart and I want to hug him and not let go. Eventually 5 o'clock comes around and lo and behold we've all made it through another day happy and healthy. Yep, I can do this.

Self Portrait

Eating breakfast with Jack this morning.

Heidi and Cricket

cricket in kitty dreamland

This is Heidi's new kitty.

Patience!!!

Jack Napping

Man being a parent takes a lot of patience, right now I feel like i'm running out. Jack is supposed to be in bed for a nap but keeps getting up. Ug.

Anyway, I had a good weekend. Saturday night it was our turn for Co-op, but only one couple showed up. Yay!!! It was a breeze. John built a huge fort for everyone, they loved it.

Sunday we meet my sisters new little kitty Cricket. She is so cute and tiny. I hope cricket will be good to my sis and give her lots of love.

Today I went and got John and I tickets to go see Gwen Stefani and the Black Eyed Peas. I really didn't want to be in the nose bleed seats, but the ticket lady reassured me that I could upgrade if closer ones became available. I'm just so excited to be going, I haven't been to a concert for ages.