This Week on Instagram

I've decided to start a new series called "This Week on Instagram"

and put all my instagram pictures from each week right here in good old blog land.

I love to capture the every day minutia, and Instagram facilitates that splendidly. The part in quotation marks is my instagram caption. The rest is my current running commentary.

Those are the rules. Is everyone clear? Ok then.

"Counting."

She is getting so good at counting things.

And I am getting so excited to start my garden. It's my first one ever!

"Everyone wants a piece of me this morning."

That little library book is such a hit. I almost tried to talk her into leaving it on the shelf (because it's so small, I just didn't want to have to keep track of it), but she reads it to us multiple times a day.

"Something is red. What is it?" (she made up that part)

"strawberries and boots"

"You are right!"

"Rainy day."

We had a nice game of "ugly face" going. This is a time out for cute face.

"@emily @kim this is us in our car too. On our way home from a soccer game. Past bedtime screaming going on."

Emily and Kim had just posted pictures of their kids in their car, so I joined in the fun.

"What was once a wisk attachment and a birdie hanging from Evan's ceiling...is now the toy of the day."

And I dismantled it and put the peices back where they belong because I was sick of kids fighting over it.

"Guess what my house smells like?"

"My lastest addiction came in the mail today."

"Just learning how to be a mom."

"@Nettie new clothes!"

Nettie sent us a box of hand me downs. My favorite thing in the world is a fresh batch of kids' hand me downs.

These are Evan's first pair of jeans. He looks really cute in jeans.

He also smells like the Petersons. I keep scooping him up and taking a big whiff. They have a good smell.

"So, yeah"

"Diaper changer."

If you look close, you'll see some cute little kibbles and bits.

Some Fun Facts

On my fridge are pictures from Christmas cards of my immediate family. I stand and look at them while I am "hide eating" something, or while waiting for bread to toast.

I'm so happy we caught that "smile" on Avery. It's her shy smile.

I like the second bowl of cereal better than the first. I think it might be the contrast of fresh new crunchy after getting down to the soggy bottom of bowl #1.

Why does it bother me when I use a pink hanger to hang Evan's clothes, or a green hanger to hang Avery's clothes? I wish it didn't. I hate that I have to soup through the clothes to get the right match. No one even sees inside the closet, and if they did, why would the color of the hanger matter? I'm about to throw them all away and just get white hangers.

Today at Joyschool, the kids were outside for "recess". There was an accidental rock thrown, resulting in a bloody head. You know how the head bleeds more than usual? It wasn't a bad cut, but a hand over a bloody head, just the same.

That was a fun phone call to the mom. (She was actually awesome...these things happen, I'm assured. But darn it.)

Oh, Jimi's airplane lost another engine a few days ago.

In his 7 years as a pilot, Jimi has had two engine failures,

and his airplane has been struck by lightning twice while in flight.

Both of which are extremely rare.

Muddin' at Low Tide

Can we take a minute and talk about what causes the tides to rise and fall?

This blows my mind.

The gravity of the moon.

It pulls at the ocean water like a bow string.

It took me forever to decipher the meaning of the "tide table"; the lower the numbers, the lower tide. Hmmm, that sounds so simple when I say it, but I promise the one in the newspaper is confusing.

The tide is about at a 1.8 here. Usually the water is clear up by the trees and buildings.

Evan was in no hurry to walk near us.

You can imagine that boy is in his own little slice of heaven right now.

Me and Avery walked around crunching old shells.

And speaking of being in heaven...

She "eats" the clam shells - puts them in her mouth until she realizes they're not edible.

Avery was so afraid this crab was going to hurt us, but it only moved slightly.

I think it was playing dead.

He needs waders. Back at the car when I took off his boots, water poured out of them.

Tag

Ok, Jamie, I'll play your little game...

#1 What are my colors?
I think primary colors for clothes. In my home I have too much brown and black. I am trying to add color into my home.

 #2 Who is the last person you called and why?
I am a texter. Phone conversations are sometimes a painful experience for me, and I've discovered it's because cell phones do not a clear conversation make. Unless I'm talking to a family member...then it's not so painful because I don't mind being like "huh? wait, what?"
We haven't had a land line since...we lived in Salt Lake in 2003. But, the last official person I called was my friend KC whom I play indoor soccer with. The only reason I called her instead of using another communication option is because she doesn't have internet/texting. She is a free spirit to say the least, and the chances of getting her to answer the phone is a crap shoot, so we ended up driving over to her house to communicate with her.
And while we are talking about soccer...I scored a header goal the other night. I was super excited despite the fact that it was a mild women's 30+ league. Not super hard core, but you know...it's every soccer player's life ambition.

#3 What is the first picture on your camera roll on your phone?

There are ones of baby Avery on my old flip phone "razor". I need to figure out how to put those somewhere safe.

So little!

This was in Austin bright and early.

#4 Instagram or Facebook?
I use both to keep in touch with different people in my life.

Instagram is the best for me and my sisters. I get daily pictures/updates of the mundane things going on in their lives. I love the "mundane" day to day stuff. Examples of the mundane things I have instagramed:

"grapefruit season in effect"

a picture of a text I sent to Robbie...

(fyi, I had the r wrong, but the answer is "Matterhorn")

I know. A picture/instagram of a text. What is this world coming to.

"Lergic light."

"I spy a gay man."

"They don't actually jump around. Very disappointing."

"Jimi's cold lunch. Ready for work."

"Busy decorating for Snow White's birthday party this morning."

(She kept coming down from my sewing room with "decorations")

"Doggone those leprechauns."

"you can't really tell, but it's pouring rain. he's drenched."

"Avery shaking her head, Evan laughing like crazy, Piper begging for food."

"I always accidentally color coordinate the dishware."

"This is the exact moment she figured out how to use the camera and flip the view finder to face her."

For facebook, I have a "secret" group with my gal friends from Henderson. I talk with them every day. We talk about the big, the small, the happy, the sad, the funny, the lame, the whine, the vent, the mommydom, the tv show. Even though I don't live there, I still get to "hang out" with them. I love it/them.
I also have a facebookclub with my cousins/sisters, and a joyschool "secret" group to keep each other updated on stuff.

#5 Beverage of choice?
It's not so much the beverage, but the container that it's in. I love drinks out of a cold bottle. I also like to drink out of small cups, especially the IKEA cups. I just really avoid drinking stuff out of big cups/containers. I don't know why.

#6 With a cup of soup, do I order half a sandwich or salad?
sandwich. next.

#7 What is your favorite road trip music?
Coldplay, The Killers, ipod on shuffle. But lets be honest, if we are on a road trip and there are kids in the car, we are watching Backyardigans. Whose music I also love.

#8 What is your go to candy?
I love saltwater taffy.
But who doesn't love chocolate.
Let me tell you a little story.

One Sunday, I had a little boy named Evan. He was a little boy who liked to scream and run around during a time called sacrament meeting when everyone there preferred quiet and reverence.

After an hour of trying to keep the little boy at an acceptable level of crazy, I got to take that little boy into a room full of toys and other little crazy two year olds and let them fight/scream/cry/make messes/have runny noses together in a special room known as "the nursery".

For two hours these crazies needed constant attention and when the two hours was over, I was worn OUT. When the crazies' moms came to pick them up, a friend of mine brought me a bar of chocolate as a thankyou for something. On the drive home, I shoved that chocolate bar into my mouth, and felt my soul feel warmth and peace. Never have I felt such reverence for a piece of chocolate.

It was around this time that I was reading a lot of Harry Potter, and I realized that my soul must have been sucked out by some dementors in the nursery room that day, and that magic chocolate bar was healing me. The end.

#9 Am I a flip flop or sandal kind of person?
I am a Chaco kind of girl. You can walk in water if you want to with Chacos.

#10 What is my favorite thing to do as exercise?
I think bike riding, but I actually like to mix it up.
I like a good run with Piper, or I like to run sprints/ladders at the park with Jimi while the kids play on the bridge and throw sticks in the water.
I like to play soccer, but it's so discouraging to realize I'm getting old. Soccer reminds me of that.
I love to swim, and we are signed up for the St. George Tri again, so I need to get it together. I will most likely have to train in the bay.

#11 Why did I start a blog?
When I had Avery, I just wanted to remember every little thing about her. Then I realized how much I enjoyed writing about life - not that I am a good writer by a long shot - but I like laying out my life in words.

When I am in a situation where I can't blog - like when we moved and didn't have the internet for a while - a lot of the emotions that I was feeling almost vanished into thin air because I wasn't able to write them down. I scribbled a lot of thoughts on scraps of paper so that as soon as I got the internet back, I could record them on here. I love being able to have an organized place for these things.
It is also a huge incentive that our Grandmas and Grandpas love looking at the blog.

I tag you if you're reading this.

Spring Time is Here!

A few weeks ago, when everyone across the land was raving about how perfect the weather was, a family of rain clouds took residence over our corner of the country. And I started to get really homesick for the sun. 

Then I noticed these little fellas sprouting out of the ground. Not only from the ground, but from a dust of snow on the ground.

And I got so...hopeful? or ok with the weather? or a renewed sense of patience?

They were like a little wink of promise, like "wink wink, it's gonna be spring soon...trust us, we wouldn't come up for air if it wasn't".

And then the bullfrogs out in the ponds croaking so loud. I could hear them from inside my bathroom while brushing my teeth one night. "What is that?" *pause the toothbrush* They sound like the cacophony of grasshoppers, singing over each other. They too were yelling at me, spring is coming!

And then, almost the exact day the calendar says it's spring, the sun came out (for a few days and counting).

Shovel marks the spot where the garden will go.

I shoved my shovel in to see what kind of soil we are dealing with, and revealed a bunch of earthworms, which bodes well for the health of our soil.

The plan was to rod-a-til the grass, but I think I'm just going to shovel it up myslef. It's not that hard...and I dare-say "fun". I want to make sure all the earthworms stay put, and I'm not going to actually plant any seeds for a few more weeks. I have lots of time.

More Bird Watching

So, this kid.

He learned how to go down the slide yesterday.

Only stopped the "up the ladder, down the slide" rotation long enough to get rocks out of his shoe.

He's the kid in nursery who turns the lights off.

And he skipped a nap today.

Bird Watching

This weekend is Bird Watchers Festival in Birch Bay, so we got in the spirit of things and went looking for birds.

Avery used the paper binoculars she made in sunbeams,

I used some real binoculars,

Jimi used the camera with the telephoto lens.

 

Evan and Piper threw rocks, got wet, drank sea water. Probably scared the birds away.

We have seen a lot of bald eagles around this area in the past,

but our binoculars must have scared them away because there weren't any out yesterday.

hawk