bsmiles and sunny days

Two weeks ago my in-laws got on an airplane and disappeared across the wide blue yonder, forever away, but before they left I unloaded my sister-in-laws memory card onto computer so I'd have something to document their visit with. When people come to visit, I savor every moment, constantly reminding myself to not take a single second for granted. In the process, I neglect everything, namely taking my own pictures, but also housework, cooking, everything but showering and enjoying my company. Someday I won't be so deprived of such companionship and I'll be a good hostess again, but for now, it is what it is and I am more grateful for the visits than my visitors can imagine. So here are some of the pictures April took. She managed to snap, in six days, 224 pictures of things that I have somehow taken for granted in the day-to-day monotony of my busy life. Everyone in this family is a gamer, so the opportunity to play games together never escapes us. This is where we all sit a

At least we still have this... This gap between Christmas and the new year is always bitter sweet. Leila still cheers and makes scary ghost sounds every time she sees a pumpkin, so I'm sure she'll morn the disappearance of Santa Clause's face everywhere we go. It's sad, but it will make next year all the more magical when the season rolls around again. In the keeping with the spirit of starting new, I stripped the walls and yard of all the festive decor of season today. I can't believe how bare the walls are; as ready as I am to box it all up for the year, it still makes me a little sad to put it all away. Every year I wish there was a way I could keep the merriment year-round, only making the efforts seasonally neutral, not just a celebration of Christmas. Of course there are always other holidays, but you know... it's just not the same. On the other hand, Dale was relieved to see it go. He loves the decorations as much as I do, but he also suffers mildly from

With school out of session for still over a week left, I feel invigorated and inspired to start the new year fresh. So, I decided to start with the area most in need of my attention-- the boys' room. Let me tell you something about these boys. A few years ago, I told Micah that he didn't have to put his jeans in the laundry after every wear, that he could wear them a few times and then we'd wash them unless they were dirty or stinky before that. He has since contended that I said he could wear all clothes for two or three days. I have seen him wear an outfit, sleep in it, and then attempt to wear it the next day, which is when I intervene. You can imagine the laundry that doesn't make it out of his room on the days I'm not paying attention. Tre is light years away from Micah. If his shirt-sleeve gets wet, he wants to change everything. For some reason, he doesn't mind being bathed in ketchup and proceeding through the rest of the day in those clothes.

I gotta tell you, I'm getting worse and worse about snapping pictures. In the entire week with my in-laws, I didn't take a single picture! And then on Christmas morning, I got the video camera out for a few minutes and that was that. I was so busy untangling the web of wire the put into each box that I wouldn't have had much of a chance to anyway. I am sure we'll remember each Christmas specific to where we are and who came. This year Christmas morning seemed a little- dare I say it- daunting after everyone left. I had to give myself a little pep talk and remember that sometimes it's us against the world and we have a life together, regardless of where the extensions of our family may be. I missed you all terribly and am still teary thinking about the entire holiday season so far from home. But we made the very best of it and I am thankful again for the abundance of God's blessing on our home. We woke up early to lots of shuffling feet and loud whispers,

We've had a flurry of activity and a houseful of laughter for days now and I'm not sure I can go back to my real life when this all passes. My second family, Dale's mom and dad and sister and nephew, arrived Sunday after church and our lives will never be the same. We've been busy taking them all over the state of California to see all the magic that draws millions to this area every year. We went to the lovely Surf Beach, just a few miles from our house the first day. It was fantastic since there was miraculously no fog and the sun was setting. The next day we had the worst storm in the history of the central coast- which means it rained for more than five minutes. It actually rained all day and night. That is unheard of. Unfortunately, we had scheduled Solvang, the little Dutch town for that day and froze under umbrellas as we strolled down the strip. After basketball practice we took all the kids bowling on base and had a lovely dinner at the snack bar, my p

I've been pining for our annual trip to the Plaza to see the lights and the hustle and bustle and whatever wonderful surprise awaits us. One year there was a bagpipe ensemble playing despite the snow flurries right out on a busy corner. We were eating breakfast one morning and we all listed the things we wished we could spend the day doing. I said, of course, I wanted to go to the Crown Center, have lunch at Fritz's where you order your food on a telephone and it's delivered by a train that runs on a track around the entire restaurant. Then we'd go spend some time walking around the Plaza until they lit it up. Kennedy wanted to go to Westroads Mall in Omaha, Micah wanted to go to Cabellas and ride the Ferris wheel, and Tre wanted to do something in New York. I can't remember what it was, I just know it was pretty outrageous. Since we couldn't accomplish any of these tasks, we decided to go to San Luis Obispo for shopping and dinner. It's a nice city,

We have a new favorite song... you have to hear it. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=8777613 Last year it was Silent Night by Five for Fighting. It's like every time we find a good one, it opens a new chapter of our lives. Did you ever see Elizabethtown? I loved that movie and I think it's because of the soundtrack, it was perfect for the journey and reminiscent of mine. We are constantly adding to the soundtrack, marking the path with a new song every little bit of the way. Music does something to me. Sometimes I dream about singing in an opera when my kids are grown. I'm not looking for a spotlight, I just love to sing. When I was in high school, I used to wait until the sanctuary was cleared and the lights were out and then stand in the balcony and bellow out worship in the auditorium. The walls were bare and the ceiling as high as heaven, sot he natural acoustics were amazing. It was satisfying to just let it out. There'

We had the funniest conversation sitting around the table for lunch today about armpit hair. Kennedy has been involved in a basketball clinic all week, run by the high school boys team. Apparently she hasn't noticed this masculine feature before because she was pretty grossed out by it. The kids were all saying that if women had it, it would be disgusting, to which I only chuckled. She asked me if I knew about this discovery and I said, "Well how do you know they all have it?" She said, "Mom, they have to reach over us to get the ball sometimes and it's-- eww!!" She recoiled at the very real thought of it. This brought a real sense of awe to me at the privilege of being able to watch each one of these children discover the world through their own eyes and experiences. Tre read his first sentence today, to me, under my instruction, after many (agonizing) long weeks of building on seemingly crumbled blocks. Somehow, somewhere along the way, it clicked

I waited two days to snap these pictures for you viewing pleasure and found that I was almost too late. There has been some minor demolishion in the village. A few years ago we discovered that instead of making complicated frosting to stand our graham crackers up together, we could use almond bark, which dried much faster, melts much easier, and held the seams tighter. You can also use it for snow and ice. The first gingerbread house we attempted was a kit with real gingerbread and frosting in it. We bought two kits, since the kids were small, and build two houses, which we spend hours trying engineer the impossibility of their construction. Finally Dale took an iron fist and smashed them both to bits and then we had a good laugh and went out for dinner to decompress. After that I made my own gingerbread, set up the houses the night before and the decorating was a breeze. In my fragile estate, I didn't have the energy or the will power to make the gingerbread, so we built these

Last week we took Max and dropped him off at the vet for his surgery. This is what he came home with!!! This lovely little number is a 25 inch cone that he wears all the time for two weeks. It's been the longest, most agonizing week of his life. Poor guy can't lick anything but the cone, so that's what he does. He lays down on the couch and licks that cone! Micah insists that we call him Rhino until he gets the cone off because he plows through the house, already convinced that he's a lap dog, squeezing his nearly fifty pounds and 25 inches of plastic through tiny crevices throughout the house, knocking over furniture and small children that might be in the path. He just cracks me up!

This is what I look like today. The last time I posted a picture of myself, I laughed and laughed about that post because it was so awful and who posts an awful picture of themself just for kicks? One of the kids had walked in with my camera, snapped the picture of me, still pajama-clad, and I was not quite ready but started to smile when it flashed, which left me with a strange expression on my face. I don't know, I did it for a laugh. And then I got a few comments, live comments, from people who were upset by the post. Not offended, just worried, I guess. My poor family. I think they all know I'm a little nuts, but that really tipped the scales past my normal insanity. So, I promised to post a better one. And for my friends far away that have requested a belly shot, here it is. One of the kids took this one too and I'm not as excited about posting it as I was the other, but it shows my tummy, and that's what we need here. Plus I don't look so pasty and,