: )

This blog isn't over.  Life is still good, and God is even good-er.  It's the fatigue of motherhood, and  trying to keep my hobbies & friendships alive, that has kept me from putting anything up in a while.

But I'll be back!  I'm not ready to throw in the towel on my blog yet ;)

reality

I've spent a LOT of time trying to think of a graceful way to say this, but there just isn't one.  I tried disappearing from the interwebs for a while, but that's not feasible living so far away from all my family and relatives.   So, I had mostly settled for just living my life, and not making an announcement about it.  But, people are really sweet out there, and remember things like anniversaries...or they ask about my life...and I just feel bad and dishonest that they don't know.

So, just to put it out there, Jon and I are separated.  Because it isn't just MY story, I'm not going to publish any details on my blog, or facebook, or anything.  We haven't been trying to keep it a secret, and I've been more than willing [desperate, even] to talk about it with people in my life, but there just isn't an etiquette book out there on this in regard to social media.  I would welcome your prayers for each of us, and especially for Max.  Thanks-

sea -> pdx

max doesn't afford me a lot of time to blog, and with any free time I do have, I have a to-do list about a mile long to chip away at :)  

but if I release myself from all the pressure to write a novel every time, maybe I could do this thing!  how about just a bunch of captions?  Yeah?  Ok!

max & dad fooling around...

Um, this is a near constant picture - he adores throwing dirt.  sadly, most of it lands in his hair...

for about a year now, max's favorite things (without contest, I'm pretty sure) are elevators.  He adores them.  And NOW during our stint in Portland, we're living on the tenth floor, which is this kid's dream come true.  Riding it twenty times a day still isn't enough for him :)

Also, it's helping him recognize his numbers, as he watches us ascend from 1 to 10....

 This kid is constantly cracking us up.  How I found him this morning... 

I'm throwing around the idea of downsizing to a flip phone when my iphone contract is up.  Some negative effects from owning an iphone:

1) I dont use my nikon even a small amount of the time that I used to since my phone camera is so much handier.  I miss having quality pictures in my life.  Also, I think I was maybe growing in my photography abilities, UNTIL I stopped using my dslr.  I want to keep growing in that.

2) My sense of direction has become so lousy since I started relying on my phone's gps for every minuscule car ride I take.  I dont want to rely on that so much!

3) games on my phone.  need I say more?  I dont want to look back on my life and reflect on all the time I spent playing bejeweled.  

4) I dont really use skype or facetime as much as I imagined I would.  I can get by with skyping at home on the computer, I'm totally confident.

5) monthly bill.

I could go on.  Mainly, just the huge part of my life it is, that I'd rather not want anymore.  We shall see ;)

things are heating up!

We live with a kid.  No longer the parents of a baby!  No sir, we are not those people.  We have a KID, thank you very much.  According to him, there isn't anything he shouldn't be allowed to do or say.  A friend's mouth dropped open the other day after not seeing him for a week.  "He had a growth spurt," she said.  And I was sad, because Jon had said the same thing the night before....but I was too close to the situation to notice myself.  Le Sigh.  My baby continues to melt away and fade into this funny little boy who says the funniest things.

He loves to parent Jack lately.  He repeats all of the things we say to him, but to our cat.  Maybe he needs to feel in control about something?
"Jack, get down!  No, Jack!  Jack, timeout!!"  (my favorite was when he woke up from his nap yesterday and commanded her to come get him)

He's obsessed with Bob the Builder, and trucks & tractors.  Which is so classic boy, and I just love it.  The blackened fingernails at the end of the day are a little unsettling, but nothing that a good bath won't clean away.  So totally worth it to have a rough&tumble kid who would rather dig in the dirt for an hour than be inside.

a smattering of camera pics:

1+2. making the most of a sunny, warm day by taking a ferry ride.  He loved it!  Can't wait to do it again with Jon there too.

3. Max & Mom adventure day in the city.  We rode the monorail, hung around the space needle, hit up a candy store, got Potbelly's sandwiches, and ran around downtown.  He was such a trooper!!  Holding my hand when he needed to, and just taking in the sights and sounds.  LOVE having my sidekick with me.

4.  His favorite favorite thing at the moment.  At the zoo, park, childen's museum, anywhere he can find one...he WILL drench himself in the drinking fountain, and not allow other kids to use it without throwing a fit.  Oy.  (and yes, that is a shirt that I sewed for him!  haha, I've become an obsessive sewer, but more about that later.  Maybe obsessive seamstress looks a little better written down.  MAX has become an obsessive sewer.  More about that later too).

5.  Still a cuddler.  Moments when I still glimpse my baby.

6.  Favorite snack.  He finishes by handing me back a polka dotted apple, and I just wish it's the kind of thing I could scrapbook for the future.

24-month onesies, anyone??  Max has developed a nervous habit of constantly reaching down the back of his pants, absentmindedly.  Watching tv, reading a book, just standing around....he's got his right hand DOWN his diaper.  Gosh.  The cherry on the top of this not-so-sweet development was when he approached me last week with something to give me.  And he kindly put a turd into my open hand.
We made a trip to costco to sweep them of the biggest onesies we could find, and now Max lives in them.  If we forget to put one on him, we pay dearly later.

There's one of the three shirts that I've sewn for Max so far.  Haha, I am learning as I go....as all the decals came off in the wash, and that collar is big enough to be an 80s-shoulder shirt.  I took the collar off to reattach it, and need to find a different method for applying appliques.  Otherwise, it looks like a real shirt :)  

My friend, Jacq, has gotten me all inspired to sew clothes for Max (and gasp!maybe someday for me), and it's all I think about lately.  For anybody who still reads this dusty blog, you may have noticed that the blogs I read on the right hand side are now PRIMARILY sewing blogs.  I'm a woman obsessed.  It is so much fun!!  And I don't even care that it ages me about thirty years, and may sound a little hokey.  

I've reached the limit that my trusty "Pixie" (you are seeing that correctly.  That sewing machine will run you $37.95) will take me, and am anxiously awaiting Jon to give me the green light to upgrade!!  I have some dear friends who have loaned me machines in the in-between to give me a better idea of what I'd like, and to let me get some projects done.

So, anyway.  That explains my instagramming as of late.

Oh, that's just Max and his girlfriend, Ellie.  

Or, maybe she thinks that Max is her baby doll.  And Max allows it as long as he can play with all of her toys.  Whatever, it's a cute system of playing and hugging that they've got worked out.

Ellie's mom, two other friends, and myself will be leaving (fleeing) town for the Bethany women's retreat coming up in 3.5 weeks!  It'll be my first time away from Max for over 12 hours or something crazy like that.  I'm sure it will be difficult when it comes to say goodbye, but we are all sure counting down right now!  And Max is gonna LOVE his time with dadda, whom he adores.

See?  ADORES.  He's even started wearing sunglasses like Jon now.  He just loves it when daddy's home in the evenings or on the weekends.  I love watching them together!!

Spring has finally seemed to arrive in Seattle, and we are thrilled about it in this house.  Afternoons seem to fly by when we can be at the park for hours.  whew for that.  And more sunlight, more daylight, flip flops, a reason to shave legs again.....welcome spring.  Stay a while.

I gotta get to sleep, but just a note that in the past week we got word that we WILL, in fact, be moving down to Portland again in May like last year.  Jon's work was supposed to be such that he wouldnt need to be down there so much, but there was some rearranging, and he's back on in force at his client down there from mid-May to the end of June.

I was a little surprised at first to change my expectations so suddenly, but it took me about two seconds to rally and get excited.  I LOVED our stay down there last year!  It was like a vacation..staying in a sweet apartment, having housecleaners, living in the pearl district!  I'm determined to be proactive about planning our weekends down there this year.  I want so badly for us to get out to the coast, maybe even for an overnight, and let max run amok on the beach.  

Also waiting in limbo for some other potential, life-altering news from Jon's job.  I am not a fan of waiting games, but suspense adds a little flavor to life, eh?  I hope to know something soon!  That's my way of ending this post on a cliffhanger...


[ALSO, A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT IT'S AMY BINDER LIU'S BIRTHDAY TODAY.  I LOVE YOU GIRL.  HAPPY 3-1!! that is all :) ]

checking in...

I am so excited to think that we are pretty much through the thick of winter.  Gosh, is it tough to keep an active little guy entertained indoors during the cold months, when all he wants to do is dig in the dirt and swing & slide.  His favorite things, hands down.  He's also a big fan of wagon rides with his sweet friend, Ellie.  Basically, I cannot WAIT for spring and summer, so he can just be a rowdy kid.  So excited for weekends at the blueberry farm, where he can ride around with Poppy on the tractor (another favorite obsession...tractors and trucks)

He's a pretty picky eater...not willing to try a whole lot of new stuff.  Although, if it's on our plate, he wants it!  On his plate, not so much.  I've got my work cut out for me trying to figure out how to round out his diet, because he's not a huge fan of vegetables.  He'll eat fruit all day long, but I gotta work some greens in there somehow!  I know you can hide it in lasagna and stuff, but he's not a huge fan of pasta either.  So, I need to get creative...  he does love black beans and olives.  We spent the last couple of weeks visiting my mom & dad, and his grandma taught him the proper way to eat black olives:

January was a seriously BRUTAL month for our little family.  Jon & I both got sick just before Christmas, and I dont think illness left our house until February blew in.  It was awful!  I went to urgent care twice for myself, twice for Max, and Jon had his fair share of being out of commission too.  We just passed it around and around.  We experienced croup for the first time...and it scared the living daylights out of us.  Not much sleep was granted anyone.  So thankful that we are healthy now, but those six weeks were a blur.  Here's Max as we got ready to go to urgent care one morning:

I gave up a few weeks ago, trying to keep us inside and warm.  Whenever I can, I try to let loose with him and let him get down and dirty, even if the weather isn't super conducive to it.  It makes bathtime later so much more fun for him, and it's a great way to pass these winter days.

He had his first chance to play in snow last week, back in Wisconsin.  Maybe he needs some more opportunities to do so, but he wasn't super thrilled about it :)  We went sledding with the cousins, and it was pretty cute to see them all together again!

We all ended up at an arcade together.  It was simultaneously hilarious, and exhausting to chase Max around.  The boy does love him some skeeball, that's for sure. 

he won a whopping two tickets :)

cousins on the carousel...

all dance dance revolutioned-out....

Our flight home was one for the memory books, as Max took the opportunity during take-off to pee through his diaper completely, onto me, and onto our plane seat.  I was frozen, totally not sure what to do.  The flight attendants were still buckled in, we were really really not allowed to get up.  I had to wait about ten minutes like that to turn on my call light...and when the attendant came to let me know that she couldn't help me quite yet, I simply lifted my boy up to show her the disaster beneath.

Her mouth formed a perfect O, and she ran up to the cockpit to ASK THE PILOT'S PERMISSION for us to get up early to clean up the disaster.  She was not so subtle in showing how dumb she thought I was for not bringing a change of pants for myself.  I always used to!  I think I got a little cocky from never having needed it, and also didnt have the spare room to bring them.  Okay, I'll never make that mistake again, I promise.  Whatever, they dried in four-hours time, by the time we landed (although it happened again an hour into the flight.  what the heck!)  I feel like I handled the situation with composure...or maybe I was in shock.  Probably more that :)

I've never been the parent who counts how many words he's saying.  All I know is it's a lot, and he's constantly saying things I didn't know he knew.  He's putting two & three words together at a time, and constantly making us laugh.  I may have let him use the iPad kind of a lot on our trip to the midwest.  It was a bit of a lifesaver for me on those long travel days, and cold snowy days inside.  One of his favorite apps is called AlphaTots, and he's really darned good at finding his way around that game.  This morning Rachel came over and played with him for a while, and I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this happening.  I ran and grabbed my camera so fast.  Please humor this proud momma, and don't judge my nerdy commentary in the background :)

We are on iPad lock-down now.  The kid needs a technology intervention, for sure (but then again, maybe I do too...)

We are in a crazy separation anxiety phase, and it's been hard for me to go to church or playgroups or anything.  I know it won't always been this way, but it's tough at the moment.  Missing my church, and other stuff!

So there's a little update on life.  I'd like to do something fun this summer for my 30th birthday, but I can't decide on what yet.  I think a getaway to a beach is an order...hmm...

Giveaway...

THIS is truly a giveaway I'd love to win.
And Jami Nato is a girl I'd truly love to be friends with in real life.  You should read her marriage story if you're blog surfing and have a spare minute (or twenty).  It's real stuff, full of real hope.

Anyway, sign me up to win!  I want some swag!
-kara

#letsgetpraisy LinkUp!

Come on, Jami!  Give me a couple extra points for being the first person on instagram to copy you before you even created this contest :)  Please?

Oh well.  Here's my entry for "letsgetpraisy," which is pretty much a line of God t-shirts just waiting to happen.