the grigoryevs

October. November.

2011-11-17T14:38:00.000-05:00

Here are some of my favorite random pictures from the last little while.

This month we went to check out Cracker Country to learn a little about life in Florida in the 1800's. The boys did laundry, went to school, made candles, rope, and butter. I think I would have really enjoyed it if not for the whiny two year old making life un-fun for me.

Ilya and Xander recently joined Cub Scouts, and today we got their uniforms (aka the most ridiculously expensive outfit EVER and thus the majority of Christmas presents for them this year). I have to say though, I love how they look. It's just so stinking cute and they're so excited about wearing them.

Obladee. Obladah. Life goes on.

Camping :: A comedy of errors

2011-10-27T11:01:00.000-04:00

This summer we couldn't afford to fly anywhere to have a vacation, so we were stuck brainstorming ideas for things to do within driving distance. We got a tent, we armed ourselves with books on the best of east coast camping, and we planned to go in the fall so we could avoid the heat and humidity.

Originally we were going to go in September. We got everything ready to go and then...the forecast said it was going to rain all week. Rainy hot humid tent = no fun, so we postponed.

This month was full of unavoidable appointments and commitments, which really only left a one-week window of opportunity for a trip north. The forecast looked decent--one rainy day and then chilly, sunny days after that. Sounded good to us, so we packed up and drove to Tennessee. The drive up was uneventful. The kids watched movies. I worked on a little Christmas embroidery.

Once we got to Chattanooga we took advantage of Art's Marriott points and stayed in a hotel for the night, so we wouldn't have to try to set up camp in the dark after a day of driving. All was going well.

The next day we made our long, circuitous route to the campground. This place was literally in the middle of nowhere, but it was beautiful. We stopped at the ranger station to get a map and ask some questions, then finished driving up to the campground. It was awesome. A small river wound around the campground, and everything was blanketed in fallen leaves. The trees were in full fall colors, and the sky was brilliant blue. It was quiet and we scored a HUGE campsite right on the river. The kids ran around excitedly while Art and I started unloading and setting everything up.

Once our tent was up Art set up a makeshift "shower" (i.e. a tarp tied to trees) which Ilya wanted to show off.

The boys and I looked for fallen wood for a fire, but we couldn't find any. So we ended up driving for 45 minutes into the little podunk town to buy some. That took forever. Once we got back we got the fire going, and I put together the shishkebabs for dinner. Everything was going so well.

I took pictures of the kids and breathed the crisp mountain air. Everyone was excited.

Finally we put the kids to bed and spent a little time alone by the fire, looking at all the stars. I could see the milky way which was awesome. A little later we turned in, and that's when we experienced the first hiccup.

Our air mattress was halfway deflated. We rolled into each other and were wedged in the valley in the middle. And it was freezing. What felt nice by the fire was a totally different feeling in a cold tent. My teeth were chattering so hard I thought they might break. I got up and put on a sweatshirt over my pajamas, pulled the hood over my head, and tried to go back to sleep. But my already messed up neck was not liking being contorted at weird angles so I ended up rolling onto the hard ground to sleep. I could hear Art wiggling around on the mattress in discomfort as well, but eventually I fell asleep. And then Mal woke up crying. I finally fell asleep after that, and then....it started raining. And raining. And raining. Thankfully Art had sprayed the whole tent with waterproofing stuff so nothing was dripping on us. But. All the side seams leaked. Which meant the whole perimeter of the tent was a giant icy puddle. Ilya woke up around 6am and said, "Mom. My whole sleeping bag is soaked." It was dark and cold and we spent a few hours huddled in the center of the tent waiting for enough light to figure out what to do. We brought the camp stove inside and made pancakes while the boys sat in one spot and played rock paper scissors and argued with each other.

Art and I looked at one another. And then we decided to go for a drive.

So we drove...to North Carolina. Foolishly we decided to take the "scenic byway" and it took us three hours to go about 100 miles. At one point we were so completely hysterically slap-happy that every winding turn we would burst into crying laughter. It was foggy and rainy and every road looked identical to the last. Eventually we got to Franklin, where we surprised my Dad and brother Dane by showing up, and spent some time hanging out with them. I'd left my camera in the tent so we didn't get any pictures, though. But other than those idyllic few hours of setting up camp the night before, the time spent with them was probably the highlight of the whole trip. We checked out my dad's art gallery, and then went out to eat with my brother and his friend John Mark. And then...we had to drive back to Tennessee because all our wet stuff was still there.

Ugh.

We got back when it was dark, and it was still raining. Everything was wet. It was getting colder--in the forties and looking to get colder still--so we left the car running with the heater on full blast and used it as a big dryer. After a few hours our stuff was pretty dry, and we got everyone into bed. We threw handwarmer packets into everyone's sleeping bags but it was still pretty cold. And still raining. A second wet, cold night of tossing and turning and Art waking up every few hours to reinflate the air mattress left us feeling all the joy drained out of us. It was time to go. We told the boys we were leaving and they cried.

"We didn't get to fish!"

"We didn't get to go on a hike!"

("I haven't had a shower or slept in three days!" I mentally added)

But there was just no way we could stay and endure more of that. It was in the 30's that night and by morning it was only 40. Nobody was having fun. It was time to go. As quickly as we could we packed our stuff up, and got on the road. I won't bore you with the details of the trip but I will say it involved whining, puking, and disappointed children sighing and talking about all the stuff they didn't get to do. We got home around 11pm and I've never been so glad to be home in all my time here. That was the best shower ever.

The next few days we spent drying everything out, putting away all the food we didn't eat (we've been eating hot dogs for days since we got back) and apparently putting underwear on the outside of one's pants in order to look like a superhero.

Art spent a day sealing all the seams of the tent for next time.

And there will be a next time. I mean, this was not a good trip but you have good days and bad days and the same goes for vacations, right? We'll just hope that next time we don't have a vacation that seems more like something from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

In which Malcolm turns two

2011-08-09T14:04:00.000-04:00

Saturday Mal turned two. Crazy. Where has the time gone? I feel like he was born yesterday. I also feel like the last two years have been the longest of my life. Ha ha.

Malcolm...what can I say. You are adorable. You're a total punk. You're equal parts crazy affection and just pure crazy. You destroy and wreak havoc and then grab my neck in the tightest hug ever. I don't know what to do with you. Some days you make me scream, but mostly I just want to squeeze you till you pop. In a good way. You are always on the move, so nearly every picture we have of you is a blur. I love your crazy energy even when it makes me nuts. I love you.

Art came home from California Saturday night, so we opted to do our celebrating a little later. Last night we had some cake and ice cream, just the five of us, and opened his two little presents together afterward.

I've been really into making little mini-cakes. I totally cheat and cook cake in a jelly roll pan, then cut out layers with a cookie cutter. Okay, I don't have a cookie cutter. I use a cup.

Lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum!

He really liked tearing the wrapping paper.

Learning how to bowl with Mom.

My mom got him "Tangled" (yay, a present for ME) and this cute little Timmy the sheep from the "Shaun the Sheep" series my kids love. BUT. She broke the "no noise toy" rule with this guy. He was Baaa-ing and snoring and making such a racket I thought I was going to blow my brains out after five minutes. So Timmy..ahem...had a small surgery and now he's a happily mute lamb. Mal still loves him. :)

Happy Birthday Mal-mal.We love you.

what evening looks like

2011-07-19T18:45:00.000-04:00

Indifference.

Slobbery grins.

Side bends.

Headstands.

"Dinosaur."

Even after a crazy day of VBS, the energy level of three boys is astounding. If only I had that kind of stamina!

late July, humidity

2011-07-18T18:36:00.000-04:00

The year is flying by for me. The boys are sprouting like weeds, as are the chickens and bunny, and life zips past me at lightning speed. Just watch, in a week I'll be sixty already.

Right now we are doing Vacation Bible School with church, which is always a crazy and exhausting time. Add that to the fact that we've had a crazy exhausting couple of weeks, and you have a recipe for a family badly in need of some chill time. Last night we took a little time to just hang out, me with Mal and Art with the boys.

Malcolm and I spent some time with Thingummy and Bob outside:

He loves feeding them and petting them. Then when I came inside, I discovered that my sewing room had been commandeered by the guys, and turned into a giant train track.

Awhile back, my stepdad Tim had given Art and the boys some supplies for building train tracks, which is a hobby of his he thought they might enjoy. I guess Sunday seemed like a good day to try. They had fun and have been playing with it ever since, which, despite the fact that my sewing room is a useless disaster for me, has kept them VERY quiet. Something which I greatly appreciate after hours of VBS.

Things are nice. Family=Love. Home is home. God is good.

The End.

Guinevere Gretchen Grigoryev

2011-06-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my friend Heather brought me an awesome present--our family's first pet! Meet Guinevere, a 1 pound 2 ounce holland lop bunny--i.e. an adorable ball of the softest fur I've ever felt with floppy ears and giant goofy back feet.

She was so chill all day yesterday, sitting on my chest while we chatted and throngs of chubby kid hands and exclamations of, "She's so CUTE!" assailed her from all sides.

Last night we brought her out to be held again, and this time Malcolm was all over that. He kept trying to give her kisses between shouting out "BUNNY!" and "HAPPY!!" at the top of his lungs at her.

Today I brought her out again to play in our back room (where the wood floors are) and at first she was tentative and ladylike. Then suddenly it seemed to dawn on her that she was free and she went crazy. Leaping, bounding, running full tilt and then realizing too late that wood floors over no traction for bunny feet. Lots of crashes and stumbles and tripping over stuff. Lots of laughing at the funny bunny. Once she'd calmed down, we took her outside for a few minutes and she let me pet her tummy.

Then of course I had to show you how cute it is to see a bunny with it's face between it's feet.

The kids are ecstatic. Art is indifferent. I think she's great!

Lazy Saturday

2011-03-26T17:36:00.001-04:00

Today Art is helping my brother hang some cabinets, so me and the kids enjoyed a nice, lazy day that didn't involve much except sci-fi marathons, giant origami, and playing outside.

As much as I'm enjoying the warm weather, I know it's only a matter of time before it's sweltering outside. I'm trying to enjoy being outside while it lasts!

Whatnots and sundries

2011-03-24T13:15:00.000-04:00

Midget Mondays are not working out for me. Oh well.

In the last month of my not posting, we had the carpet cleaned, which meant all our couches and chairs were crammed into our tiny dining area. The kids had lots of fun pretending they were spaceships, and spent almost the whole day in there.

Sashka trying really hard to pretend he's alseep.

Even school is more fun when you have couches in the dining room!

At the end of the day, reading Calvin and Hobbes on a couch where it doesn't belong is the best way to wrap things up.

Another day this month we met up with my sister-in-law and her sister and a friend of theirs at Hyde Park sprayground, and Malcolm had a blast playing in the water with Olivia and Maren. Ilya and Sashka were in trouble so they didn't get to play. Their loss.

I think he saw an airplane or something.

This face of Olivia's cracks me up.

Wet hug, anyone?

That pretty much sums up my MONTH of pictures. Pathetic, I know. I'd say I'll do better in April but I don't want to end up eating my words. I'd rather have some ice cream or something.

Midget Monday--a day late

2011-02-22T16:23:00.000-05:00

We didn't have the awesomest Monday ever yesterday. I took all three boys to the doctor for a checkup, and all three ended up needing shots. Ick. So they were grouchy and not in the mood to be photographed, and I was super busy anyway. But here are some fun ones of Mal from the other night.

Here's Sashka giving me the "I just got four shots" face.

And here we have Ilya dramatizing what getting a shot feels like when you're seven.

On a happier note, I got these flowers the other day and they've been sunning up my dining table all week. I love sunflowers!

Here's to next Monday being a better day.

Midget Mondays--Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T10:07:00.000-05:00

I'm going to TRY to start posting more over here, if for no other reason than so my family afar can see the kids once in awhile. Mondays seem like good posting days, so I hereby dub these the Midget Monday posts. These are from a few days ago, before all my kids had their hair mostly removed.

Today is Valentine's Day, and while we don't usually do much (or anything) for this day, I felt like being fun this year. All the boys got little heart-shaped boxes of chocolates which they inhaled as soon as they woke up. For Art I got a card and much bigger box with better chocolates which I left on his seat in the car. It's kind of fun to be sneaky and see everyone get all happy with a box shaped like a heart. I mean, I know all the excuses for not celebrating, like that every day should be a day you show love to your loved ones, or that it's just a holiday created by Hallmark to sell more cards, but...is there really anything wrong with one day a year getting pink and red candies and cards for your family? I don't think so.

A Monday

2011-01-24T17:19:00.000-05:00

I dislike Mondays. Today was no exception. But still...there was some redeeming loafing around on the couch time to make up for all the school-time whining and frustration.

Later in December

2010-12-23T10:46:00.001-05:00

This has really been a great month. Kind of jumping from one extreme to another as far as frenzied party prep followed by complete laziness goes, but good. We had lots of Christmas movie watching while laying on the floor:

Lots of snuggling up with blankets around the fire:

Lots of cookie making and decorating:

Lots of hot chocolate:

A regular amount of brotherly love:

And quite a lot of present wrapping:

Hope your December is going as good as ours. Merry Christmas!!

December

2010-12-12T12:47:00.001-05:00

I really need to post more pictures on here. Anyway.

Here are a few I've take the past few days. First off, I just want to say that Malcolm is the child that will give me gray hair. He's not even two and he's had symmetrical eyebrow injuries, a squished finger, fifty million bonked heads, one attempt at running away from home, and now he's decided the washing machine is a fun hangout.

Also, he's lately decided that my room is his new happy place. I can't tell you how many times in the last week I've been frantically searching for him (did I mention his runaway attempt?) and found him snuggled up under my blankets with his cup, quietly chillin'.

The older boys are harder to capture, cause they're usually on the move. This last friday night Art was gone hunting, so we had a few boys over from the kid's Sunday school class for a sleepover. They were so hyper I couldn't pin them down for a picture, except this one of them drinking mulled cider at the table. Okay, so it's partially my fault they were so hyper, I did let them make s'mores in the fireplace AFTER they drank sugary cider. Then they watched The Polar Express and ate popcorn and bounced off the walls.

The best part about this sleepover, for me, were the conversations. This was the first time Ilya had kids his age over, and the general topic of conversation was poop. And boogers. And fish stories. But mostly poop. Is it wrong that I was hiding in the back room giggling while eavesdropping? I guess I'm just a total boy-mama.

Anyway, I hope to become more regular with my picture posting, I have been so busy lately I haven't taken many. Bad me.

Harvest Fest 2010

2010-11-01T15:26:00.000-04:00

This year's Harvest Festival was, as always, a huge hit with the kids. They came, they bounced, they ate candy, the played games. Here's Malcolm with little Cairo chilling on the stage together.

Cousin Olivia, a few short days from becoming Big Sister Olivia.

May-may!! The cutest cat on the block.

Ilya and Sashka patiently waiting to play Bob for Donuts.

Tying on the donuts and ready to get covered in powdered sugar. Good times.

Kind Edmund and Luke Skywalker, I presume.

Malcolm the dandelion/green giant/elf/troll/Billy Idol.

Spinning the color wheel. I think they just liked the sound it made because they got candy no matter what color it landed on.

Art's mom is visiting from Russia--I think she was a bit bewildered by the Harvest Festival. Ha ha.

The Dandelion with his Papa. Also a little bewildered by Harvest Festival.

Wow, I'm feeling eloquent today. I guess the pictures, crappy as they are, will have to be worth all the words I'm uninspired to use.

Snort! Tidbit! Fizzing Whizbee!!

???

I don't know.

Fall!!!

2010-10-05T09:17:00.000-04:00

It seems like life has been both extra busy and extra...uninteresting...since we got back from California. But I suppose that's just post-vacation blues talking.

The last few days have been really awesome weather-wise, it's starting to feel like fall for reals. Well, fall for Florida anyway. You know you've acclimated to the climate when a dry 85 degrees feels like cool fall weather. Anyway, yesterday my sister-in-law and her family took my two older boys to the park to enjoy all this nice fresh air. Here's a picture Rachel took of Xander and Olivia making faces. Don't they look like siblings?? Crazy. And I love how it looks like they tried to wear fall outfits together. Ha ha.

After they got home, we made some fall sugar cookies, and I let the boys decorate them. I say "let" because, well...I'm sort of uptight about this sort of thing. It's not that I'm afraid of messes, it's more like I'm afraid that things won't be pretty. Ha. I'm trying to let go.

It's too bad I didn't get a picture of Xander's "barf cookie" as we were calling it. Pink (it was supposed to be red) frosting with globs of sprinkles in a big pile in the middle of the cookie. Yuck. It really did look like somebody puked on it, but it was pretty funny. I think I need to stop being so anal about these sorts of things, cause it was worth the laugh. Somebody ate it before I could take a picture, but nobody wants to own up to being the one who ate barf.

The Vacation--Part Two

2010-09-06T08:27:00.000-04:00

While we were camping almost the whole time there was the biggest moon out. At first I was disappointed; in the Sierras you can usually see a ridiculous amount of stars, sometimes you get a glimpse of the Milky Way, too. But I have to say this moon was pretty rad. It was so bright, and the reflection on the lake was gorgeous. Art and I went for a walk around the lake at night and with the intense quiet, the moonlight, and the sharp shadows cast by boulders and trees it was really surreal. Like being on a lake on the moon itself.

Monday Art and I packed up and went on our little hike. I didn't get pictures of the hike itself, because in the beginning I was enjoying the trail too much to think of the camera, and at the end it was because I was dodging bear poop and trying to keep from sliding down steep hills. We went off trail in search of uncharted territory, which meant crossing the freezing cold creek, hiking where bears had obviously been recently, jumping logs, and swatting away the insane amount of flies. I swear I felt like something from a cartoon--there were so many flies buzzing around my head!! That was the only bad part about our hike. We found a little sandy nook next to the creek and made a little picnic of beef jerky and trail mix, and hung out. Jumped in the freezing water because it's fun to get that instant headache and then slowly thaw in the sun. You feel great afterward. Here's the creek:

We got back from our hike hungry and hot, so I jumped in the lake to cool off while we waited for my mom to get back with the boys. She'd taken them all to the "resort" down the road for ice cream. "RESORT" is in quotations because I have no idea why it is called that. It's an overnight campground for backpackers going on the Pacific Crest Trail (which incidentally goes from Mexico to Canada--crazy, eh?) and it happens to have a tiny store with ice cream and a crappy eatery. We bought ice and firewood there, and got our drinking water canisters refilled there, too. So I guess it was useful. But resort? Ha ha. Anyway the kids liked it because there was ice cream. Of course.

The next few days we pretty much just hung out. Played a lot of Parcheesi and Battleship. Ilya learned how to build a fire from scratch and actually got pretty good at it. Malcolm discovered how much fun it is to hang upside down and he's been doing it ever since.

We went fishing again, this time without Sashka because he thought it was boring (and my mom bribed him with ice cream to stay with her and Malcolm). We caught a heap of fish, and we thought we could invite our friend over for dinner to share with us.

Oh yeah, our FRIEND.

So I guess a lot of these National Forestry campgrounds have what are called "Camp Hosts." Essentially they're people who stay at the campsite all season and their in charge of checking you in, making sure you're following the rules, and keeping stuff clean. Ours happened to be a young guy named Brian who had a dog named Stella. We'd talk to him off and on when he'd come by because he was really nice and friendly, plus my mom's dog Sirius was enamored with Stella. After the weekend, the campground pretty much emptied so it was just us and the camp host around, so he'd come by more often and we'd watch the dogs play with each other. The kids were all in awe of this guy, they kept showing off their "finds" and stuff they'd made, and they kept asking us if "the Ranger" could come over for dinner. Ha ha. So after our second overly successful fishing trip, we thought we'd invite him, but when we came back my mom had already made a big batch of spaghetti and invited him to come over. Which he did. And it was really fun. No picture though because I was already afraid we were overwhelming the guy with all our chatter and the way all our conversations turn toward poop jokes in the end--I thought taking pictures might be a bit stalker-ish. Plus my mom had told him that we were all really impressed with him and that we wanted to take him back to Florida with us. Aaaawkwaaard. Ha ha ha.

Our last day we spent a lot of time down on the beach, trying to soak up as much of the pretty as possible. Malcolm sure enjoyed being free to roam around in the sand, although at one point I wasn't paying attention and he almost went for a swim with Art. That would have been fun.

That night we packed up as much as we could so we could leave early in the morning. My mom had to be back in Southern California for work so we decided to part ways for a day or two and take a more scenic route back. Friday morning we broke camp, which was interesting. Trying to keep all the kids clean was difficult, we ended up making them eat inside the tent trailer and then hanging out in there while we packed up. They didn't like it but I really didn't want to drive for hours with a carload of grubby kids. Regardless, we were all still pretty dirty as we made our way out of the mountains.

We'd decided to go north and then cut across the mountains over Tioga Pass--the road that goes through Yosemite National Park. We drove and we drove and we drove and we drove. We stopped just short of the southern entrance to the park to eat lunch at some mom and pop's diner (which happened to have the best hamburger I have ever had) and then Ilya threw up all his lunch into a cup right before we entered the park. Gross. I had to get out and dump it out while it was still hot, then clean up his shorts. Ew.

The drive through Yosemite was gorgeous. I wish the pictures could do it justice--there is just no way to capture the enormity of the place. We drove under granite cliffs so high you had to stick your head out the car window to see the top, but in pictures it just looks like a rock.

If you look closely at the top of the picture, you can just make out the trees. Those are HUGE trees, too. Crazy. We drove through several massive tunnels through the mountain and then came out with a decent view of Half Dome.

Here's the nerdy tourist version:

Since none of us had ever been through this park before, I wanted to at least stop somewhere and see something, so we opted to take the kids to see the giant Sequoias. We pulled over, put on our hiking shoes, and walked a few miles down to the "grove". There were really only a few of the trees down there, but it was still worth seeing, and the kids were duly impressed. Here's us standing inside an old dead one.

Everything in this park was huge...including the crowds. It was cool to drive through but I would never want to stay there. You sacrifice all your peace and relaxation for the chance to see all the sights, but we're not much for that type of sightseeing. So our drive-by visit was perfect for us. I never realized how big the park was--it took hours to drive through, and at one point we were at almost 10,000 feet elevation. The temperature went from 85 to 59 degrees during our drive through the park. Crazy I tell you.

Finally we were through the pass, and we drove the last 70 miles or so to our destination listening to the sounds of Malcolm screaming. Honestly he didn't cry all day so he did pretty good I think, but we were all pretty wasted from a whole day of driving and a four mile hike thrown in. I wanted to check into our hotel, and to FINALLY be able to shave my legs and take a hot shower. We made it to Bishop just as the sun was setting, and found a hotel to throw our stuff into. Sick of the car, we decided to walk around the town in search of food. It was breezy and lovely outside, and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to be out walking around at night. We ate dinner then crashed.

The next day we ate a good breakfast, and stopped at Schatt's Bakkery. No, I didn't misspell that--it's a Dutch place that's been there since 1905 and ever since I was a kid we've always stopped there on our trips to the Sierras for coconut Macaroons. I was glad we had the chance to take the kids there and make it a tradition for them, too. I forgot my camera though which sucks because it's a really interesting little place to see, like old hot air balloon toys, wooden clogs, not to mention all the yummies!

Then there was MORE driving. Our next tradition stop was for "REALLY GOOD FRESH JERKY." This place is literally a shack on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, but they have signs advertising it for like a hundred miles. The place itself is so crappy, totally covered in stickers from all the hikers and snowboarders who stop there. There are bathrooms you can't flush toilet paper in and right next to it are chickens you can feed. But they do have really good jerky. And dried fruit.

Our traditional family picture in this same spot:

Notice how we're all about to be blown away. It was SOOOO windy here. I was changing Mal's diaper on the front seat of the car and the wind blew the door into my butt so hard I almost started crying. Ha ha. Also, it blew away the directions my mom had given us to get back to her house. That ruled. Well, it got even windier as we continued our drive. We'd roll down the windows when Mal would get too fussy because he couldn't possibly scream with the hurricane going through the car. Ilya kept his face next to the window and I about peed my pants watching his face practically peel off in the wind.

This leg of the road trip was particularly sucky. Ugly. Brown. Nothing much to look at. We did stop on the side of the road at one point so we could pick out some volcanic rocks for the boys to bring home. Other than that it was just long and brown. Many many boring and annoying hours later, we arrived at my mom's house. Which was a relief.

The last few days of our vacation we spent with a delightfully limited schedule of events, which were: do laundry, eat tomatoes, watch Star Trek TNG. The laundry was INSANE. My mom started it Friday, and I continued it Saturday and Sunday. And a little on Monday, too. I lost count of how many loads I folded. Some things had to be washed twice they were so dirty. This was AFTER about six or seven loads had already been finished:

Now, about that monster tomato plant. Here's Art picking the third or fourth FULL SHOPPING BAG of cherry tomatoes. THIS IS ONE. PLANT. Just one!

According to my mom, the trick is to not take care of the plant, no trimming, weeding, sucker pinching, nothing. And apparently the result is a freakish plant that produces more tomatoes than you know what to do with. I seriously think we ate our own weight in those things the last few days.

Monday was our last day in California, so my mom took us to the Sheriff's hangar where she volunteers so the boys could see the helicopters her and my stepdad get to fly in. He's a firefighter paramedic and she's a nurse, and they get to do stuff like get lowered on a harness into mountain canyons to rescue people. It's pretty cool. The boys loved the helicopters, and we even got to stand there when one took off on patrol.

After the hangar visit Art and I took advantage of Grandma babysitting and went and saw a movie. Then it was back to the house for some final packing and readiness checking. The next morning we were up bright and early at 3:45 (double UGH) loading up our stuff in the truck. This time we were hiccup-free--no barfing, no birth certificate questions, we just got right on the plane and it was smooth sailing all the way home. Mal didn't really cry, and the boys were very entertained by my invention of airplane barf-bag puppets.

At last we arrived in nice, cloudy, muggy Tampa, where Zac and Nate were nice enough to drop off our truck for us, and we got our bags and loaded up the car. We arrived home to a mowed lawn (thanks to our neighbor) and a green pool (thanks to our chlorinator being trashed) and as we plopped our bags down on the floor with a sigh we realized that the vacay was officially over.
FIN.

The Vacation--Part One

2010-09-03T15:27:00.000-04:00

This week we returned from our first real family vacation in six years. I have to say there were some hiccups, as one might expect when traveling (and traveling and traveling) with three little kids, but it was pretty awesome in general.

We woke up bright and early on a Tuesday (4:15am, yay!!) and threw all our junk in the back of our truck. The kids were sleepy but excited, although Sashka kept complaining he had a headache. We arrived at the airport, and Art loaded himself up with nearly every bag we had and we made our way to the ticket counter.

Hiccup #1. The woman behind the counter says we have to have a copy of Malcolm's birth certificate or shot records to fly with him. What?? Has anyone else EVER heard of this rule? I've traveled with two other kids in my lap on airplanes and there's never been an issue. I tried not to panic. Finally the woman relented and added Malcolm to my ticket and we were free to go. We got through the security fine, except that Art left my backpack there (which had our boarding passes and all Mal's diapers and our food in it). Ha ha. I noticed later while we were waiting to board. While we were sitting there eating the bagels and cheese I'd made the night before, Sashka got paler and paler. Suddenly my mom instinct kicked in, and I told Art to run him to the bathroom. Five feet from the toilet he barfed everywhere. Hiccup #2.

We got on the plane and Sashka seemed to be feeling better, but Hiccup #3 was Malcolm screaming. And screaming. And squirming and screaming some more. The WHOLE flight. Okay well he did sleep for about 20 minutes, but the rest was all screaming. I couldn't tell if it was that he had gas, or two molars about to pop through his dreadfully swollen gums. Whatever it was, it was unpleasant. This is Art's face after a few hours of it:

Oh wait, he always looks like that. Nevermind.

We finally made it to California, where my mom was waiting to pick us up. Now, don't ask me why, but I'd worn my giant Uggs on the flight because my feet are usually really cold when I fly. But with it being almost 100 degrees in California I was dying in those hot boots. Right when we got to the car I started to get weak in the knees and Art had to take Mal away from me so I wouldn't drop him on the hot blacktop. As soon as I got my sandals back on I was okay. Boy that sounds pathetic. Oh well.

Back at the house Sashka started barfing again. And running a fever. All our grand plans to hurry up and grocery shop and pack up our stuff to leave for camping the next morning went down the tubes. Instead we tried to relax a little. Ilya played in the pool with my stepbrother Stephen. Sashka slept on the couch, Art went to get a fishing license, and me and Mal laid in my mom's backyard and enjoyed the dry weather and cool grass and the yummy cherry tomatoes growing like things from a horror movie all over. More on that later.

The next day Sashka still had a fever, and then Ilya started throwing up, too. The whole day was a rush of barf duty, packing, and my mom and I shopping for enough food to feed 7 people for over a week. We decided to just proceed as planned figuring the kids could barf at a campsite just as easily as at a house. The next day everyone felt mostly better so we loaded up in the cars and started our LOOOONG drive up north.

Mal started off optimistic, but that soon degraded into no sleeping and, you guessed it, more screaming.

We drove through so many different areas it was weird. Ugly industrial valley, rolling golden hills dotted with oaks, and signature High Sierra pine trees, granite boulders, and crazy breathtaking vistas. Hours and hours and hours and lots of bathroom stops later, we got to Kaiser pass. I didn't get any pictures because it was just too scary. Seventeen miles of a crazy switch-back one lane road with no guard rails, sheer drops off the side...and when I say one lane I mean barely big enough to fit one car, so when another car came down the road our butts were pretty much suctioned to the seats, ha ha. It took over two hours to go that 17 miles, that's how crazy it was. But finally we arrived.

The campground was mostly empty, so we got to pick the best spot in the whole place--right on the lake.

The kids enjoyed being out of the car, and we explored the shore while Art and my mom set up camp.

I'd never seen a lake like this in the mountains--the shore was like a beach, and there were tufts of grass, boulders, and tons of cool looking driftwood lying around everywhere.

We ate a hurried meal of oatmeal and crashed for the night. The next day (and for a few days after that) we mostly sat around and enjoyed the peace and scenery. Art took his fishing gear for long romantic walks on the beach while the boys played in the cold water and me and my mom read or played games or cooked.

Mal wasn't too keen on being trapped in the playpen, but he got over it.

This was a trip of firsts for us in a lot of ways. It was our first time camping on the west side of the Sierras, the boys' first time camping where they'd remember it, and also it was their first time fishing.

Mostly it was a whole lot of eating candy and me and Art retying on weights and hooks and trying to keep Ilya and Stephen from putting hooks in our faces with their spastic casting. Strangely, I enjoyed myself. I originally had no intention of fishing, I was just going to watch and maybe help out, but I ended up catching a few good sized trout and that made it pretty fun. Everyone caught at least one (though in Sashka's case it was more like he felt it tug and I did the rest but don't tell him that) so everyone came back happy. I discovered something else on this trip: trout is actually pretty tasty. I'd made some lemon parsley herb butter before we left and kept it in the ice chest, and Art used that on the fish before he pan-fried them...oh, so yummy.

This was a really DIRTY trip. Every day the kids had the grossest faces, which we pretty much ignored till bedtime, when we would give them a good dousing in the jerry-rigged outdoor shower my mom and Art set up. I myself opted to just jump in the cold lake most days, but I did on occasion feel the need for something a little less bracing. Plus my mom made me feel bad for shampooing my hair in the lake. What? There weren't any fish in there anyway....

Those pictures don't even do the dirt justice. Some days they looked like Al Jolsen, it was crazy.

On Sunday Art went off on a scouting trip, trying to find a good trail for our traditional "let's get away from the kids" hike. Hours later he returned, scratched up and with crazy hair, toting the hugest mushrooms I've ever seen.

Apparently these are shrooms that Russians go nuts trying to find. In the interest of us not having to take him to the E.R. (on a windy scary one lane road--yeah, he'd be dead before we got to a hospital) he opted to dry the mushrooms and try them at home. Man did those things stink. I won't say like what.

To Be Continued...I know I know, it's long.

The Many Faces of Art

2010-08-11T22:59:00.000-04:00

OR: "Commemorating Two Years of Immaturity"

Okay, so Art is not generally known as the man of many expressions. Deadpan and serious are two adjectives that get tacked onto him quite a lot in my experience. I bring forth for your perusal some hard evidence to the contrary: our Skype video snapshots.

You see, Art goes out of town at least four times a year, and during those times we rely on daily video calls via Skype, which also has the great feature of being able to take snapshots of your calls. Heh. I've been threatening to do this to him for about two years now, and now I'm finally following through on my dastardly promise. So without further ado I present:

COOKIE EYES!

A Montage

2008-2010

From the looks of things you'd think the majority of our video calls involve a great deal of face-making and not a whole lot of actual talking. Which is totally untrue! Wait...

Okay, okay, so we've actually made it though about 20 minutes with only the words, "Hi" "You're a dork" "I love you" with the other 19 minutes 45 seconds consisting of cookie eyes and pretend head-pinching. But who doesn't do that?

Happy Birthday(s)

2010-08-06T21:32:00.000-04:00

Today is Malcolm's first birthday. However, since Art is out of town we celebrated as a family a few days ago. It wasn't the greatest thing ever, no hordes of guests and mounds of presents but really...he's one. He could care less. He had plenty of fun demolishing his lemon and cream cheese cupcake.

Here's a little video:

Also, we got exactly NO good pictures of Xander's birthday on July 4th because my camera settings make Art mad. And it was rainy outside and dark inside. So I didn't post anything about it. Which is crappy. He had a great time and he got among other things the hot-rod red toaster (Yes, you read that right. My kid asked for a toaster and a loaf of bread for his fifth birthday. That's just how he rolls). It was hilarious.This was the first year however that due to said rain he didn't get any fireworks on his birthday, which disappointed me but him...eh, not so much. I have good kids. One is perfectly happy with a water balloon fight, the other with his shiny toaster.

And Mal, of course, with his proportionately ginormous cupcake.

Time for random pictures...

2010-07-22T14:14:00.000-04:00

Not much is new around here. Or at least, things are new but it's been too long and now I'm too lazy to try to catch up. The highlights: Xander turned 5, we celebrated our 11 year anniversary (dang that makes me sound OLD), Ilya lost some more teeth, and Malcolm is walking. And drooling. A LOT.

A Vain Visitor

2010-06-20T13:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, so, I've seen some weird stuff since moving to Tampa. I mean, I've lived in Florida since I was 18, and in that whole time the only wildlife I ever saw were seabirds, squirrels, raccoons and gators. Then we moved to Tampa and suddenly there are deer, armadillos, and all kinds of birds. Then we move into our new house and there are snakes, turtles, bunnies, and herons all making visits to our yard.

But today's visitor was by far the weirdest.

So I'm washing dishes, and I'm looking out my kitchen window, and then suddenly I see it. A humongous peacock chilling in our yard.

Art's yelling, "Hurry get the camera get the camera!" and I'm trying to find it buried in my huge purse. Then I sneak outside, not quietly enough because it immediately flew up and landed on Art's shop roof. Then it decided to get higher and flew up to the treehouse roof, where it looked down on us condescendingly for a few minutes before flying onto the carport, where it made leaves come pouring down and a gigantic amount of noise.

I think at this point I could wake up to an elephant grazing in our front yard and I wouldn't be fazed at all.

A Basket Case

2010-06-17T08:16:00.000-04:00

This is Malcolm's new obsession. Any time he sees a basket, he absolutely must get in it. Laundry basket, toy basket, blanket basket...it matters not. If it's empty, well and good, but a basket full of clothes is even better. That way he has a cushion AND the entertainment of tossing clothes out one item at a time.

This little booger is Mr. Personality lately. He growls, he makes faces, he laughs hysterically...it's pretty funny. Here's a cute, albeit blurry (why don't babies sit still? like, EVER?) one of him from this morning.

I can't believe he'll be a year old this August...where does the time go??

The Rest of Us

2010-05-28T10:12:00.001-04:00

Since the last few posts have been all about Ilya, I figured I'd put up a few pics of the rest of us. Except Art, because he needs a whole post to himself so I can show off the funny birthday present I made for him...weeks ago. I haven't been very on top of things lately. Er...and I rarely get pictures of him, just like there are rarely pictures of me unless it's me doing something stupid, like this:

In my defense, it was five in the morning and I was out of it so Art thought it would be funny to stick a grocery bag on my head and take a picture of it. This is why you won't see many pictures of me around my house, because they invariably look as idiotic as the above. Although this next one isn't so bad, but mostly I think it's because the cute baby is a good distraction.

Mr. Serious-face Xander. He's the most non-serious kid ever, but I can rarely get a good smile when the camera is out.

Although I did manage to get this one:

As for this one, yes I know it's blurry and out of focus but I can't get this kid to keep still long enough to take anything in focus. So I don't bother. And I just wanted to point out that this is his new favorite face. Could he look MORE mischievous? I don't think so. I think this was taken a nanosecond before he lurched forward to either smack my face or give a "kiss", which involves a wide open drooly mouth planted right on my cheek. Sometimes I get the added bonus of a slobbery raspberry blown on there, too.

These are my kids. I'm starting to think I might keep them after all.

The Sneaky Guys Strike Again!!

2010-05-28T08:59:00.000-04:00

They're back, those crazy Sneaky Guys--for the second time in less than ten days! Ilya looks like a jack-o-lantern. He said soon he's going to have to start eating baby food because his teeth will all be gone.

And now, we all know that inside the rusty water tower with the money-tooth painted on the side are rooms made out of candy. And the Sneaky Guys also have washing stations inside their tooth-necklace factory for the teeth. This way the kids whose teeth fall out don't have to wash said teeth themselves and risk the precious things falling down the drain and losing them their money.

ON A SIDENOTE:

The best thing about this particular experience was something Ilya said to me this morning. He was saying how it would be cool if once the Sneaky Guys are done with this necklace if they would leave it under his pillow for him. But, I said, those necklaces are for them. That's why they pay you money for your teeth. He scrunches up his face in thought and then says, "But why would I need money?"

I love that my kids have this attitude. Both of them have money banks that we steadily add to, but they could care less about the money. I think they just like stuffing things inside the little slot, and after that it's like, "Whew! That was fun! Okay, now where are my hot wheels?" I've even tried to impress upon them that they can occasionally bring their money with them when we go out, so they can buy things they want. Not that I want them to be materialistic, it was more to start teaching them the concept of paying, getting back change, etc. Anyway, every time I have tried this I've failed. They're not interested in buying things. They don't even really ask me for things when we're out either. I kind of think this has something to do with the fact that we don't watch TV, so there are no commercials to make them nuts over some new toy. Anyway, it's cool. Okay. Off my soap box now. Here are some pics of the toothless wonder himself:

The Sneaky Guys

2010-05-19T17:27:00.000-04:00

Last night Ilya lost his fourth tooth, and the sneaky guys struck again.

I'm not really sure how the mythology surrounding "the sneaky guys" evolved. All I know is that when Ilya lost his first tooth, Art said I wasn't allowed to tell him that the tooth fairy takes the tooth and leaves money. Okay, fairies are admittedly kind of queer anyway but where's the fun in just handing your kid a dollar and saying, "Okay gimme that nasty tooth so I can throw it away"?? So, perplexed as to the proper course of action, I said nothing. The next morning Ilya came running in saying some sneaky guys took his tooth and left him money!!

The next thing I know the sneaky guys all live together in a rusty water tower off Nebraska Avenue, and they use the teeth they buy for tooth necklaces. Ilya and Xander can talk about this for ages. It gets more embellishment as time goes on, and I'm more than happy to go along with it. Whenever they talk about it in front of Art I get the evil eye, but hey. I don't have a problem with kids imagining weird stuff is true so long as it isn't some pagan crap like santa or the easter bunny trying to ruin things that mean something. Kids gotta have their little imaginary worlds for awhile, don't they?

I think so.That's why I have so much fun making these little cards to go with the tooth money and sneaking them under his pillow at night. It's just so hard not to laugh watching his face when he discovers that the sneaky guys have done it again. Those silly sneakies.

Ilya's seventh birthday

2010-04-30T16:18:00.000-04:00

my oldest son turned seven this month. it's hard to believe how fast time is flying--it seems like yesterday when he was still toddling around in diapers. and now he's getting so grown up--he even insisted on reading all his cards out loud and he did great. most of the pictures indoors turned out crappy--surprise, surprise--but after the presents we moved outdoors for ilya's annual birthday water balloon fight.

reading his cards aloud

ilya was so excited that grandma and uncle dane got to visit.

malcolm gets into the spirit of things

i'd just like to point out art in this picture. you can tell he really wanted to nail my stepbrother.

it's all fun and games till someone little gets smacked in the chest with a water balloon. art was aiming for my stepbrother, steven, and got little asher instead. poor kid.

art's either really into this throw, or he's getting ready for the ballet. i can't tell.

water balloon fights are definitely a spectator sport.

this has nothing to do with anything i just think it's a great picture. despite (or because of, i haven't made up my mind) the scowl.

all in all it was a nice, low key party, and nobody except poor asher got hurt.

mal the monster

2010-04-12T19:05:00.001-04:00

right now mal is teething, and generally being a little wretch. but he can be super cute sometimes. take these adorable pictures my sister-in-law took of him at bok tower gardens the other day:

it's a good thing he looks like this, cause right now his attitude is making him very...uncute to be around. :)

bok tower gardens

2010-04-11T19:33:00.001-04:00

this weekend i took the boys to bok tower gardens with our friends and family. it was a beautiful day: sunny without being humid, blue skies, and the breeze full of the smell of orange blossoms. i didn't take too many pictures of the flowers, being too distracted by pushing a stroller, but all the ones of abby turned out nice.

now i kind of seem like a creepy stalker. uhhh...anyway, here are some others of the tower and kids.

the babies got together for a conference. i imagine "how we can get more milk" was on the agenda.

the tower. some guy was up there playing dissonant bell music that made me think of the hunchback of notre dame. he played the sound of music and made me want to twirl around wearing a nun habit.

it was a great day. and i'll say it again: i'm loving spring this year!!

spring in my step

2010-04-03T14:22:00.000-04:00

i know we floridians are starting to sound like broken records with our "what a cold winter we had!" and "i totally love spring!" comments. but i can't help it! it was a cold winter, and i do LOVE SPRING. and for the first time in the 14 years i've lived in florida, i'm actually noticing spring. i mean usually it's just sort of green all year long, with an occasional flower here and there in the spring. but this year...ahhhh...flowers everywhere, in great drifts of pink and white and purple...the smell of jasmine and gardenia and orange blossoms thick in the air...the bright new green of clover and grass...i could just live in this season forever! today ilya and i took malcolm for a walk (and left the resident whiner sashka to go to home depot with papa) and we took our sweet time, savoring the smells and sunshine and birdsong.

so lovely...and all of this is just on our little street. have i mentioned how much i love where we live??

downtown

2010-03-30T18:49:00.000-04:00

today i took the boys to meet some friends at a really awesome park in downtown tampa. the weather was PERFECT, the park was beautiful, the company was just what i needed today.

stupidly, i forgot i brought my camera until the very end, so i didn't really get many pictures. it was so funny how many babies there were--there were six babies, plus my older two, my friend esther's two year old, and some other kids i didn't know. crazy!

a beautiful day, and it made me even more anxious for warmer weather (though i don't look forward to the humidity--ugh!), floating in the pool, and beach trips! and this park was definitely a keeper.

what it means to have sons

2010-03-12T09:59:00.002-05:00

i love calvin and hobbes. first of all because it's the only comic strip i actually find funny most of the time, and also because as a mother of three boys i can appreciate the insights into what it means to have sons. here are some things i've learned about boys over the years:

#1--boys are curiously resistant to learning good bathroom habits. i made this gentle reminder for my boys in photoshop yesterday, and hung it right above the toilet. they seemed to think it was hysterical. i'm really cashing in on all those "mom is hilarious" points while they last.

#2--boys are like walking, talking, injuries in the making. on monday malcolm decided to launch himself out of my arms and right at the marble windowsill, resulting in this awesome shiner. we've been calling him little pharaoh all week cause it looks like make-up or something. this was the day after i had to dig a giant thorn out of ilya's hand and observe the multitude of scrapes and bruises sashka accumulates playing on his scooter in a driveway covered in rocks. you can send my parent of the year award to me at any time. i'll be waiting by the mailbox.

#3--no matter how hard you try to instill peace-loving principles in your boys, you quickly learn that any and everything can be turned into a gun. or a sword. that's the hose attachment for our vacuum up there. brooms, paper towel tubes, legos, kitchen utensils...all of these are weapons of choice in our house.

#4--being wet is good. being dirty is good. being wet and dirty is definitely ideal.

#5--boys hate shopping. i hate shopping with boys. they whine, they wail, they ask, "why do we have to go to the mall??" over and over.

shopping FOR boys isn't that fun either, because, let's face it, they just don't make a lot of cute clothes for male children. it's mostly a lot of dinosaur related t-shirts and jeans. i'm cool with that, really, not being that into clothes to begin with. but every once in awhile i find something for them that i just LOVE, like this orange and white sweater hoodie thing. it's just so CUTE!

in general i have to say that while it would be interesting to have a girl, i'm definitely okay with having a house full of dirty, violent, pee dripping, constantly injured and style-challenged little boys. because they're fun. and because when nobody else is around i have a perfectly appreciative audience for my secretly spectacular belching.

malcolm at seven months

2010-03-04T16:39:00.000-05:00

okay, i'm admittedly really sucky at consistently documenting...well...anything. part of it's that i'm lazy. part of it is that i'd rather be making memories than constantly trying to record them. if that makes sense. so anyway, here's my mal update.

first of all, isn't he CUTE??? i could just eat him. if only that weren't illegal.

second of all, this kid is crazy. he's EVERYWHERE. i have to drag him out of the entertainment center at least eighty thousand times a day. half the time when i try to get pictures of him this is what i come away with.

i try to keep him contained in one spot but it does no good. especially not when there's yummy grass just beyond the blankets edge...

he loves his brothers, too. he's always got a smile for their crazy attempts to entertain him, even when it involves an empty oatmeal can on his head. "wook, mom! mal's a chef!"

he's got teeth, he pulls himself up, and is already cruising along furniture. he skipped mushy baby food entirely and went straight for the chunky stuff. i feel like i've got a mini toddler here, just when i was at the age when i was ready to enjoy babyhood without being anxious for the next phase. it just figures. :) i love my little mal-mal.

la photocabine

2010-02-28T17:51:00.000-05:00

sunday

2010-02-21T13:10:00.001-05:00

today we couldn't go to church because art has to go out of town. so we went outside instead to get a little vitamin D action. and so we could all enjoy the pleasure that is laying in the sun watching somebody else work.

why should the fire die?

2010-01-11T16:19:00.000-05:00

last night it was a frigid 38 degrees. art made a fire, we pulled up our chairs, and enjoyed the roaring flames. i decided to mess around with my camera settings. apparently my doing so was ruining the mood, but no more so than the extremely hyper kids that couldn't just sit still and enjoy the idyllic evening. if only life were as pretty as pictures.

swing and leap

2010-01-07T13:12:00.005-05:00

on monday my sister-in-law and two of her sisters came over to take some pictures for me to use in some new paintings i'm starting. all the jumping around inspired me and the boys to go jump ourselves.

sashka is contemplating jumping. will he? won't he? it's so suspenseful.

after ten straight minutes of listening to, "can i take a picture? can i? is it my turn yet? please can i take a picture?" i finally surrendered the camera over to ilya. this is the shot he got. um, is it wrong to be annoyed that your first grader takes better pictures than you?

this is what happens when i try to be creative taking pictures of the kids. it goes something like this:
"boys, lay on the grass so i can take a picture of you."
"but it's cold and the grass is wet!"
"it's not wet. it just seems like it because it's cold. now lay down."
giant sighs. "oKAY."
they proceed to lay on top of each other. sashka starts whining that ilya is laying on him. ilya begins to chuckle evilly, completely enjoying his brother's pathetic pleas for help. sashka starts kicking and struggling. meanwhile, i'm trying to pull them apart while still maintaining the visual aesthetic i was going for. the camera goes off in my hand.

in other news, it's freezing cold (for florida--36 degrees yesterday!)and my poor little baby has bronchitis, a double ear infection, all of which is causing his blocked tear duct to booger up like crazy. oh yeah, and he's teething. yikes!

malcolm at four months

2009-12-20T14:39:00.001-05:00

my little giant went in last monday for his four-month checkup (has it already been FOUR MONTHS? sometimes it does go by ridiculously fast) and as usual i left feeling awesome. first of all, my pediatrician is amazing--she's also my niece's and my friend's little boy's doctor--and my kids are always all smiles when she comes into the room. she has such a reassuring way about her. secondly, my little mal-mal is in perfect health. and HUGE. this little sucker weighs 17.5 pounds and is almost thirty inches long! not to mention that big ole head of his...and apparently he acts like a much older baby with all his rolling and grabbing. the last few days he's discovered his feet and they are just fascinating, let me tell you. yesterday for the first time he got up on his hands and knees. only for a second before he scooted forward in pursuit of something to gnaw on, but i was excited. he's been inching along by scooting with his toes for a few months, but this was the closest i've seen him come to actual crawling.

seeing him interact with all of us makes me want more kids. i'm just so curious to see who else could be part of our little family.

in other news, christmas is right around the corner and we've been enjoying decorating, baking, and partying like nobody's business. i'd post pictures, but i've been so busy i hardly took any. bad me.

ottoman C

2009-12-13T09:09:00.003-05:00

alexander neutron grigoryev, aka sashka, is our resident weirdo. he says so many weird things sometimes it's hard to keep track, but i've been really bad about writing some of this stuff down and i know i'll regret it later.

today we all woke up sick--it seems we all have separate aspects of a cold: i have the sore throat and headache, ilya has the congestion, and sashka has the nasty cough. anyway, i passed out some vitamin C and my kids downed their first pills. a milestone, i tell you.

after sashka swallowed his, he smacked his lips and yelled, "oh i LIKE these yummy OTTOMANS!!"

the thing i find the funniest about this is that he knows the word ottoman and not vitamin. strange priorities.

Meet the Grigoryevs

2009-12-11T21:10:00.002-05:00

well, okay. you've probably already met us. but i just love this picture. i'll have you know, this is our first EVER real family picture. i just love how every one of us is being very...ourselves...in this photo. i think we were all laughing because ilya kept making weird faces.

well, we're all laughing except mr. serious-face malcolm.

photo courtesy of my talented sister-in-law rachel.

2009-11-30T13:32:00.002-05:00

the rugrat. and me making one of my rare "normal" faces. i can't believe this little guy is almost four months old...my, how time flies...
photo courtesy of rachel.

happy thanksgiving

2009-11-27T07:49:00.002-05:00

hope everyone had a great one. i did. i forgot my camera though so i don't have a single picture to share. oh well...

busy. lazy.

2009-11-17T16:58:00.002-05:00

that pretty much sums up my week.

nights are unbearably boring waiting for art to call, and i can't seem to fill up the nothing hours with something useful. i tried. it didn't work. i ended up playing video games and getting super creeped out shooting monsters in the dark immediately followed by going to bed. alone.

the thanksgiving pre-dinner thing is at church tomorrow, and i need to practice the ukulele so i'm nice and limber for worship. but i don't want to. because i'm lazy. but i should, because...well just because.

i'm a fountain of entertainingness today. oh yes.

it feels like home to me

2009-11-02T12:09:00.005-05:00

his sunday we had our family and friends over for lunch--a strange southern feast called "low country boil" that consists of corn on the cob, potatoes, smoked sausage, and shrimp, all boiled together in a turkey fryer then dumped unceremoniously on the table. i think shrimp is gross, (eating a poop vein? are you kidding me??) but the rest was D-liscious. i also tried a raw oyster for the first time, just to say i did. it was revolting. exactly how i always imagined it would be--like eating an ice cold snot-wad that tastes like the ocean smells. blech.

we had a lovely time sitting outside and trying to pretend the weather wasn't humid. the kids had a blast and our swing got lots of use by everyone.

the guys set up our ping pong table in the grass and played for hours. i think we were quite the spectacle for our neighbors driving by--every single car that passed slowed down to gawk at 20+ people all hanging out in our front yard.

and i realized yesterday that i had finally had a lifelong desire granted--for as long as i can remember, the one thing i always wanted was to have a home that i love to come home to, a place where my kids would feel rooted and happy, and a place where people could come and enjoy and feel at home themselves. yesterday, three different people made the comment to me that our house felt really homey, and that means a lot to me.

punkin patch

2009-10-28T12:29:00.003-04:00

was going to post a big ole blog about the pumpkin carving we did last weekend, but i didn't get any pictures myself and i'm feeling lazy. instead, here's a link to my sister-in-law's blog post about it. sashka's pumpkin won the popularity contest. mine is the girly white one--i departure from this one i did a few years back:

the men in my life

2009-10-27T14:55:00.006-04:00

ll the men in a row, like russian nesting dolls opened up and stacked backward. these guys make me feel like girls are totally over-rated.

y little man in training. he loves getting good grades and being overly meticulous with his art, just like his mom. he's such a good helper, already vacuums the house and everything. always aiming to please.

he poor middle child. such a little weirdo he is, but he makes me laugh. he's always telling bizarre stories with the utmost seriousness. he aims to misbehave.

ittle mal-mal, brand new baby. always vacillating between serious and scowly--unless you gnaw on his ribs or make fart noises. just like his dad.

on an un-related note, these daily drop caps are fun. i can see how you could get sick of them at some point, but i'm just not there yet.

yuck yuck yuck

2009-10-23T11:13:00.002-04:00

gh. anyone who becomes a plumber on purpose is smoking crack.

i generally consider myself fairly handy, especially for a girl, but plumbing is one of those things that makes me cringe. never have i attempted to fix anything toilet or sink related (unless you count replacing a toilet seat or lever) because let's face it--that's what maintenance is for.

alas, now we are homeowners and maintenence is now art. or, if he's too busy doing other things, me. eewwwww....i'm shuddering just thinking of this.

so, a few months ago when we had our home inspection, the inspector let the sink in the master bath run for a second, said, "it's draining a little slow but there's probably just a little hair caught in there." okay. fast forward to a week ago when i told art that the sink was draining REALLY slow, and he said, "it's probably just some hair caught in the p-trap." then he just looked at me.

today, after trying to ignore a sink that takes an hour to drain for quite some time hoping that art would cowboy up, i finally decided to just clean the dumb hairball out myself.

oh. my. GOSH.

absolutely the grossest thing i have done, period. this includes trying to scrape baby poop off the walls and crib and cleaning puke out of my cleavage, because, well, normal bodily functions are gross but not this gross. after taking apart the pipes and using a screwdriver to unclog the sink, what can only be described as ten years worth of hair, toothpaste, and who knows what else plopped out of the hole in a log of pure sewage. AAGGHH!!!! nasty!!

i don't even know what to do with myself now, except to try and convince myself that the result of my little colonoscopy experiment is a nice clean sink. was it worth it? only time will tell.

the colors of the morning are inside your eyes

2009-10-22T07:41:00.007-04:00

ately mal started sleeping through the night, and for the first time in a year i feel human again. he's been doing so much better with the grouchiness thing, too, and the result is i get a lot more smiles out of him.

a few weeks ago i needed to get out of the house for something other than a doctor's appointment, so i loaded the kids up in the car to go check out this nature preserve that we always pass by on our way to church. i can't say it was that great--i mean, every nature preserve in florida looks the same: palm trees, cypress trees, swamp, and spiders--but this place did have the distinction of having the coolest nature center ever. the best part was the giant sand tortoise cave that the kids could go inside. they were terrified at first, because every time they ducked to go inside there would be loud bug and rattlesnake noises coming out of the hole. and there were giant roots inside dangling from the ceiling that freaked them out. but once i mocked them and shoved them inside screaming they got over it and decided that it was fun after all.

this place also had the not-so-great distinction of having more spiders than should be possible in one place. when we stepped onto the boardwalk that meanders through the swamp on the way to the nature center, i knew i shouldn't look around too closely. spiders are inevitable here. but i couldn't help it. after nearly sticking my face right into a giant orb web when ilya was little i tend to be pretty cautious at nature parks. i looked up and immediately was a mass of goosebumps. i'm not kidding you, there were at least five crab spiders or banana spiders per square foot the entire 1/4 mile walk. i felt a little like frodo in cirith ungol. i tried to take a picture to capture how many of these things there were, but you can only really see it if you click on it to make it bigger. keep in mind, banana spiders are just a little bit smaller than your hand. yuck.

in other news, the weather has been nice, and we've spent quite a bit of time laying outside on a blanket. we have one of those weird moving blankets that makes the perfect picnic/who-cares-if-it-gets-dirty blanket. i recommend it.

death at dawn: an armadillo's tale

2009-10-05T07:26:00.003-04:00

once upon a time, i was a little girl who had never seen an armadillo. coyotes, sure. rattlesnakes, you bet. but an armadillo? nope. i'd never even heard of one until one day my dad brought home a fake menu for the "roadkill cafe" and armadillo was listed as one of the dishes.

"what the heck is an armadillo?" my ten-year-old self wondered.

since we're talking prehistoric times here, i hit the ole encyclopedia for the answer. and i saw something i didn't find quite believable. is it some kind of mutated cross between aardvark and pill-bug? and armored rat-rabbit? accidental spawn of an alligator and a slinky dog? still, i was intrigued, and oddly, enchanted. it's so ridiculous-looking as to be sort of cute.

then my ten year old self grew up, and eight years later i found myself driving in florida with a friend when an armadillo ran across the road.

"aawww..." i said, eyes all aglow.
"huh?" my friend said, eyeing me askance.
"it's so cute!" i exclaimed, to which i received no reply save an incredulous stare.

flash forward thirteen years (good grief, have i really been in florida that long?) to the purchase of our first home. surrounded by lush florida forest (aka: swamp) and fairly isolated from suburban civilization (neighbors who set off commercial fireworks in their driveway and offer to let our kids shoot their guns), i see my second live armadillo. it's so cute! it's all weird and ball-like and...hey...what is it doing out there in our yard? rooting around and grunting and crunching loud enough for a herd of elephants...digging for grubs you say? oh, okay. well, an armadillo's got to eat, right?

hmmm...our yard is awfully holey looking though. in fact, it kind of looks like a mine field. one where the mines went off.

and slowly, insidiously, the little girl's infatuation with armadillos starts to dull. then my butterfly garden gets trampled and the infatuation evaporates. my husband never liked them to begin with, so he has gone straight from "what's an armadillo?" to "all armadillos must die on principle." he borrows a bow and a pistol from my brother and bides his time. the armadillo vendetta has begun.

then this morning his shining moment of glory comes. it's 6:30 a.m., it's still dark out, and i hear POP! POP! followed by silence, then a few more POP!s. i lay there listening, trying futilely to suppress the mental image of art sitting half-naked and covered in mud on the roof cackling maniacally whilst waving a gun. then there's a smug sort of silence followed by the sound of him leaving for work.

years ago, my small self would have been horrified. but now my adult self is happy as a cat in cream. i guess it's a sign of my growing hillbilly-ness living out here on the hick-end of tampa that the death of an armadillo feels like a reason to celebrate.

on an unrelated note, i found the above picture on a girl's blog, and she was ranting about clerical errors in her patients' charts. i thought this one was particularly funny:
"Patient in for a below-the-knee amputation. What do we see in print? BALONEY AMPUTATION. Does the Oscar Meyer Corporation know about this?"

ha ha.

martha's fasting

2009-09-28T06:32:00.002-04:00

confession time: as silly as it sounds, this week i'm starving my inner martha. and by martha i mean both the mary's sister martha and the martha who makes things on tv and puts out some fun magazines. if this is confusing to you, i apologize. it is pretty early here and i didn't get much sleep last night. perhaps if i tried to explain? yes? no? who cares? well i will anyway, if only for my own illumination.

you see, i have a very addictive personality. not in the drugs and alcohol sense (although i admit that eating carbs comes close--ugh, stupid carbs) but in the doing things sense. whether the doing things is making cool stuff or just cleaning the house, i have this driving need to accomplish things. i sew, i bake, i clean, i paint, i DO--constantly. and if i don't...well. i feel like a useless lout for starters.

but is that really who i am? is all my joy tied up in what i can get done in one day, or whether or not somebody else is wowed but my spectacular (okay, okay, mediocre) talents?

that right there is one problem. another is the whole unwise steward thing. i make fun of girls who go clothes shopping every week and yet i could go to joann fabric three times a week and still think of something else i want, or convince myself of something else i "need." the result? money down the drain. or at least stacked up in neat color-coordinated piles in my fabric stash. why do i have a stash? if i only bought what i needed i'd never have more than a few stray scraps lying around. my frugality has gone out the window lately when it comes to my "little projects."

that was problem number two. three is worse: i'm an obsessive and impatient martha. when i'm working on a painting or a sewing project or even if i'm just cleaning the house, i'm focused. so focused that i forget to eat, drink, go to the bathroom, and God help you if you interrupt me for anything short of an emergency. i hate this about myself. i know that God has given me the abilities i have, and that i shouldn't squander them, but i know that irritable obsessive-compulsive jenn is not the intended by-product of using those skills.

but worst of all, my doings nag at me. if i try to sit down with the kids and watch a movie, if i try to read a book, i'm always thinking of what i "should" be doing. heck, i can't even go swimming without noticing the dirt at the deep end and busting out the pool broom. and this has spilled over and consumed my spiritual life. this horrible nagging mental list of things i'd either rather be doing or that i've convinced myself i can't relax before doing looms over me every time i think of praying and reading the Word. even this morning at three a.m., when i was praying about these very things, i started to think about a new sewing project. innocuous enough, something that would be a gift for art, but still! the very fact that i can't even PRAY without getting distracted shows how out of control this has gotten.

so martha is fasting--for a week, for a month, for as long as it takes me to get my priorities straight. the sewing table has been cleared off, the stash stashed away and the machine covered up. my paints are in a bin, and all chores not strictly necessary are on hold. because i know how wrong it is that i spend a huge amount of time trying to please myself or others and a fraction of that trying to please God, and that knowledge nags at me much more that my self-imposed to-do list does.

mal-mal

2009-09-09T13:27:00.003-04:00

his smiles are rare but when we get them they're HUGE

he's excited about something. who knows what.

tiredly allowing his big brother to kiss his head. who can resist kissing a babies head? i certainly can't.

swingin'

2009-09-07T11:28:00.004-04:00

art made an awesome swing for the front yard. we're all enjoying it immensely. and it goes so high! it's almost scary when you look up and the rope is attached like forty feet up. but it's a cool kind of scary.

summer's end

2009-09-07T10:27:00.002-04:00

summer is almost over. school has started and already my mind has switched gears from wanting to float in the pool to daydreaming of buying new school supplies. nosegays of wildflowers are replaced by bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils, and i've already started lighting my pumpkin spice candle in anticipation of fall.

the boys enjoyed their summer, but i think they've got the fall bug, too. i've already been informed of costume choices for this year's harvest festival (viking for ilya, garden gnome for sashka).

if only it actually got colder in the fall here. alas.

alexander (and ilya and malcolm) and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day

2009-08-24T08:27:00.002-04:00

it's only 8:38 am and already malcolm has spent an hour screaming and inconsolable. i finally calmed him down, then ilya emerged from his room saying that not only did xander pee his bed, but he had as well. while trying to get them to remove all their nasty sheets and blankets (and stuffed animals and pillows--oh, the pervasiveness of pee) malcolm started throwing up. not spitting up, throwing up. everywhere. i took him into the other room to change him and he threw up again, this time it was coming out his nose and combined with the snot that was already there he stopped being able to breathe. so i had to try and hold him upright and suction his nose and not panic that my baby couldn't breathe. i got all the puke off, changed him, and then xander starts freaking out that his blankets are too heavy and he can't carry them into the laundry room. and now malcolm starts screaming again.

i sense a bad day coming on. what do you think?

i love my boys

2009-08-22T18:14:00.003-04:00

sometimes i feel pretty alone surrounded by all this testosterone. but really, i wouldn't trade it for anything. i do so enjoy being able to crack fart jokes with my kids. boys are just fun.

a great many firsts

2009-08-14T16:16:00.004-04:00

this has been an era of firsts. okay, maybe not an ERA per se, but it seems like many new things have been happening around here. a new house, a new baby, and last night my little ilya lost his first tooth.

since i was forbidden from telling him about the tooth fairy (i admit, getting a boy of six to believe in a fairy does seem a little gay) we just told him that when he sticks his tooth under his pillow it turns into money while he sleeps. so when he went to bed i made him this envelope and stuck it under his pillow.

this morning he came running into my room waving the envelope excitedly, thinking that the envelope itself was money. i had to explain that the money was inside. so cute. then he wanted to pose with his "cool envelope", and the only way i could get the gap in his teeth to show was to snap a picture of this awful grimace. i swear, he's much cuter than this normally.

in other news, malcolm had his first checkup at the doctor, and everyone was all exclaiming over how cute he was, how alert, and how BIG. then the doc came in, looked him over head to toe, and declared him absolutely perfect in every regard. yay! that's certainly something every parent loves to hear.

the first week

2009-08-13T13:58:00.002-04:00

i love this picture--he looks like he's got ridiculously short legs--and that questioning tilt to his head cracks me up. maybe he does have short legs--it's so hard to tell when they're so small and their little chicken legs are permanently bent. they do run in my family though (short legs i mean), so i wouldn't be surprised.

so...the first week is over, and it has been interesting. living in a perpetual fog of sleep-deprived half-insanity is always fun. two days ago i cooked a roast all day in the crockpot, only to have art discover that i'd forgotten to take it out of the plastic baggie it was in. last night i cooked an entire dinner without remembering that i'd done it. i found myself piling food on plates and staring at them wondering how on earth i'd made dinner without being aware of it.

still, moments of idiocy and postpartum tears all fade away when his little face quirks up in one his smiles. i don't care if it's just facial twitching, it's awesome anyway. here's to you malcolm--one week old today!

Malcolm Cyrus enters the world

2009-08-10T18:13:00.002-04:00

9lbs., 10oz., 21 inches long. born august 6th, 2009, at 22:22. cute little face but screams like a nazgul.

for some mysterious reason there is not a single picture of me holding him.

what a downer

2009-08-03T11:38:00.004-04:00

today is my due date.

i know, i know. due dates aren't accurate. and this being my third and all i should know that my kids don't come when they're due. still, this day is one of the hardest days for me to deal with, if only because everything this time pointed to early delivery--early dilating, lots and lots of contractions, etc.

but no. here i sit, not in labor.

yesterday i went to visit my friend, who has the same doctors as i and delivered at the same hospital i will be delivering at, and even being there and NOT being in labor wasn't as discouraging as waking up this morning after a horrible night and having nothing to show for it. last night was "family fun night" at the church, and everyone gathered round to make predictions and pray for me, saying they just KNEW i was going to go into labor that night.

of course i appreciated the prayers, but let me just let you in on a little theory of mine concerning the predictions:

it seems like every time the words, "you're totally having this baby tonight" come out of someone's mouth it means another week of nothing followed by a doctor's appointment where i'm told, "sorry, no change this week." it's like a curse. i see the words forming on someone's lips and in my head someone starts yelling, "NOOOOOOO" in slow motion, but it's always too late. they've said those horrible yet well-meant jinxing words and i'm stuck with another week of waddling, cringing, and bursting into tears for no apparent reason.

good grief, this is the most depressing post. just call me eeyore. or puddleglum. or any other literary character who seems a permanent pessimist.

just don't say, "you're totally having this baby tonight!" or i might just hire a hit man to come pay you a little visit.

farewell to dignity

2009-07-28T16:09:00.002-04:00

thought for the day: nothing about pregnancy is dignified.

you puke.
you cry for no reason.
you get massive and weird looking. i don't care what those people say who think a pregnant woman is beautiful--my face may look radiant but the rest of me just looks awkward.
you leak various fluids out of various places.
a sneeze can leave you soaked.
do i even need to mention getting examined at the doctor?
you learn wonderful new terms like "mucus plug" and "membrane stripping".
and then at the end you get to go into labor and have 15 different people all up in your business while in incredible amounts of pain.

of course, it's all worth it, and somehow by God's grace the indignity of it all fades away instantly when they put the gooey newborn on your chest. it's a good thing too, or i think people would have become extinct as a species long LONG ago.

doodeedoo...just waiting for this baby to get here...any day now...
maybe now...
or now?
how about....

NOW?

so ready for this baby

2009-07-06T13:35:00.002-04:00

today marks week 36 of this very uncomfortable pregnancy, and today i had my first exam to see if anything was happening in there. i've got four weeks to go (supposedly) and i'm already 3cm. ha! now all i can do is hope this baby decides to wait till after friday, because art will be gone all this week at MIT doing a presentation.

in the meantime, i'm doing what little nesting things i can--packing my hospital bag, trying to set up the nursery, and TRYING to finish the baby's quilt that's been sitting on the rack for over a month. i'm also trying to enjoy my last days/weeks of a baby wiggling inside, although to be perfectly honest it's more painful now than enjoyable. i would definitely prefer the external wiggling at this point.

home sweet home

2009-06-25T11:19:00.003-04:00

well, after ten long years of apartment dwelling, we finally have a house! so far i can't get enough of how awesome it is. it's so pretty, and it feels huge after a cramped two bedroom apartment. our neighbors are so nice--our second day here we had a lady knocking on the door bearing brownies, cookies, and two pots of violets for me to put in my window box! i thought that sort of thing only happened in movies.

here are some of my favorite things so far:

all the greeny goodness! i love how many flowers and green things there are here. i especially love the big oaks in the front yard...ahhh....

1) i have an art/sewing/homeschool room! yay!
2) a fireplace may be next to useless in florida, but i like it anyway. ignore the bed frame leaning against it...
3) even if they're fake, i've always wanted green shutters. always. and now i've got them!
4) a place to sit outdoors doesn't go amiss--unless it's a thousand degrees outside, like right now! we'll have to wait a bit to enjoy this it seems.
5) i love seeing green from my windows. every window here looks out onto trees or flowers. it's great.
6) a treehouse. yep. that's right. a TREEHOUSE.
7) a place for the kids to play
8) a place for a pregnant girl to play (float)
9) a place for a man to play

i could go on...but i won't.
this is so FUN.

sandy, sunny, itchy

2009-06-19T19:32:00.002-04:00

photos courtesy of elizabeth.

i've got heat rash and i'm itchy.

talking without commas

2009-06-05T20:31:00.003-04:00

today ilya was asking me if his brother is going to talk weird when he comes out. i said, "no, ilya, he's not going to be able to talk when he comes out. when your brother comes out all he'll be able to do is eat, poop, and cry."

i guess i said it too fast for the commas to be noticeable, because ilya's horrified response was: "why would he eat poop?!!"

ah, good times.

i suppose if you remove all the commas it makes sense that the baby would cry after eating poop. i know i would.

thursday

2009-05-21T10:37:00.002-04:00

it's 10:30 am and i already want to go back to bed. crazy fatigue, man--it was my prior experience to feel tired only in the first few weeks of pregnancy but i guess nothing about this pregnancy is going to be like my other ones. of course, it could be the crazy amount of things we've got going on around here lately.

tomorrow we have the home inspection on the house we're trying to buy. is it silly that i look forward to seeing it again like i'm getting to visit an old friend? we saw it only once, several weeks ago, and i've found myself jonesing to get another peek ever since. i've even considered being a total stalker and driving by slowly to gawk, but thought better of it.

i know that ultimately material things don't matter, but i can't help being excited about the prospect of finally living in my own house after a decade of apartment living. ah, to paint the walls whatever color i want! ah, to sleep the sound sleep of a person that doesn't have obnoxious college kids upstairs throwing drunken raves till 5 am! ah, to let my kids play outside without fear of the neighbors' dog poop become embedded in clothes and shoes!

not to mention the simple pleasures of having a real mailbox and a pool i don't have to share with questionably clean people. unless of course i decide to invite a bunch of dirty hippies over to party.

hmmm....i'm hungry. did i mention it's only 10:30? my body seems to think it's lunch time already...

ridiculous french toast

2009-05-19T09:57:00.003-04:00

so easy, and so yummy!

CAUTION: use only if you aren't dieting. in any sense. :)

(serves four)
8 slices of sourdough or italian sandwich bread
5 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. agave nectar or sugar (agave cooks more evenly and is better for you)
1 tsp. cinnamon

cream cheese
whatever flavor jam you like

Mix the eggs, milk, agave, and cinnamon and use like regular french toast dipping medium. in a separate pan, warm cream cheese and jam and mix until smooth. spread a generous amount of cream cheese mixture between slices of french toast and enjoy.

water

2009-05-13T19:21:00.002-04:00

it's finally raining.
i can't express how relieved i am.

thank you Lord for answering our prayer!

masden cycle!!

2009-05-09T08:25:00.001-04:00

oh my gosh i want this!! i've been wanting a bike for ages and this one is so cool! click on the link for me, please!

a taste of the caribbean? pacific? keys? who knows

2009-04-04T18:13:00.003-04:00

okay i don't normally post my recipes here but i was just so proud of this one. lately i've been craving things like mangoes and pineapple and fish--light tropical food i suppose you could say. so i made this up on the fly tonight and it turned out amazing:

sea scallops, marinated for at least an hour
MARINADE:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp. olive oil (or vegetable, whatever you've got i guess)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
juice of two lemons (grate and set aside the zest first)

steamed or boiled jasmine rice

1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 mango, diced
1/2 cup pineapple, diced
1-2 tbsp. chopped ginger
lemon zest

i set aside a little of the marinade before i put the scallops in so i could pour it over the rice later. anyway, mix up the marinade and put as many scallops as you want in. while it marinates, cook the rice. in a heavy skillet (i use cast iron) blacken the onions, peppers, zest and garlic. once these are cooked through add the mango and pineapple and cook until it's warmed all the way through. don't overcook the fruit or it will get unpleasantly mushy.

sear the scallops on a hot frying pan, or broil them for about 4 minutes each side. serve the veggie/fruit mix and scallops over the rice. voila! yummy caribbean/polynesian/whatever meal!

i wish i had pictures but it got wolfed so fast...alas.

crafty post

2009-04-01T19:01:00.000-04:00

i posted some crafty stuff over at blog #2. just in case you're interested....

i like my skin well done

2009-03-31T18:27:00.002-04:00

our local water park, adventure island, recently came out with a pass good for weekdays only that's super cheap, so i decided to get some for me and the kids. i haven't been to adventure island in ages and i was pretty excited to go again, although after the disney fiasco with sashka i was a little worried how much fun we'd have with him. i shouldn't have worried--with the exception of one scary moment when a tube we were sharing flipped mid-ride, he was great. no crying, no whining about water in his face, it was great. and ilya! i was so proud of him, he's absolutely fearless. not only did he go on any slide he was tall enough for, he was jumping off cliffs into the deep end of a huge pool without even a moment's hesitation.

the nice part for me is that i get to spell climbing eighteen flights of stairs with long, leisurely floats down the lazy river or sitting under an umbrella watching the kids play in the playground. and floating and laying are two things i enjoy more and more the bigger my little internal boy gets. :)

no pictures of all our fun (who wants to carry a camera at a water park?) but i can certainly say that despite my unusually conscientious application of sunscreen all of us are on the toasted side. but it's nice after all our "stuck indoors while mom is puking" pallor. woohoo!

do overs

2009-03-20T14:08:00.006-04:00

lately i've been on a salvaging kick. i can't stop taking ugly crappy things and transforming them into slightly less crappy things that i like more.

i found two frames with generic abstract art at a flea market. i liked the frames and the fact that they had glass, but the blah art inside bothered me. plus i just prefer artwork done by myself or others i know on my walls as opposed to tj maxx stuff. so i painted part of the mat orange and stuck some old gesture drawings i did ages ago in art class in the frames. it's not like it's classy highbrow art or anything, but it's nice to finally have a reason for saving some of my old doodles.

i got this cute little bedside table to replace this glass-topped rattan monstrosity that was formerly uglying up the side of my couch (seven dollars!! i love the flea market). i didn't really do anything to it because it was already in good shape. i tried giving away the monstrosity, but when i got stalled in my philanthropic efforts, i decided that it might be worth painting.

a little yellow spray paint, et voila! a cute little place to put my potted plants where the landscaping guys won't mow them over. i'm glad i didn't get rid of it now.

and then there's this dumpster dive candelabra. i don't even know if i'm going to do anything to it or leave it as is. i swear i have no shame. if it's cute or salvageable and it's sitting on a curb or by the dumpster, i have no aversion to giving it a new home and a makeover.

hideous gold lamp with boring beige shade, meet silly fabric and mr. spray paint! i swear, spray painting things is addicting. i can't stop looking at things and wondering what they'd look like in a different color...

kids are weird

2009-03-17T09:31:00.005-04:00

sashka holds up a wooden block and declares in an ominous voice:
"THIS IS THE BONE CONFUSER! IT CONFUSES YOUR...BONES!!!"

and yes, he wears this costume at some point every single day.

ilya, asking me what seems like his hundredth death-related question, wants to know why we get old and die. i talk to him about lofty concepts like original sin, etc. he is thoughtful for a moment and says, "but then when this body dies we go to heaven and get a new body, right?" "yes," i answer, glad he's cottoning on. he thinks again for a moment and declares, "i bet when sashka gets his new body it will have better breath."

this is a drawing ilya did for sashka. it's a picture of the baby when it comes out, and when sashka sees his new brother he turns into a snowman.

makes perfect sense to me.

it's (another) BOY!

2009-03-16T16:46:00.003-04:00

apparently i just don't make girl babies. still---yay!!!

disneyworld, sort of

2009-03-16T16:30:00.003-04:00

i say "sort of" just because not many of my pictures came out very "disneyish". they mostly look like...pictures of my family.

sneeze tally

2009-03-11T08:24:00.002-04:00

so i forgot to revisit my ultimate tally for the sneezing, didn't i? actually, i've been keeping track daily, for no other reason than counting somehow makes it funny instead of just ridiculously annoying. also, i've been trying to see if i can beat my own record, which is....drumroll please....

25!!

actually i've been averaging about 18 a day since i started counting, and 25 is like my guinness record or something. ha. i'm not quite sure i want to beat that record to be honest--the "day of 25" was not an easy day for me. :)

i just hope i can keep my eyeballs in my head and my bladder inside my body after all this...

southern merit

2009-03-09T10:20:00.002-04:00

i know i live in a southern state, but i don't think of myself as southern. i don't have anything against being southern--i'm just...not. my brother tries to pretend he is, but, well...

that being said i have to say there are some things i love about southerners and southern things. there are also something i just don't get.

things i like:

1. being called "sugar". it's just cute and i like it and i'm not ashamed of it.

2. good old buttermilk soaked fried chicken. i can only eat it infrequently, but it's GOOD.

3. barbeque--pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw on top of the meat. delicious.

4. the idea that "honey, you just need to come sit down and relax." definitely not a northern concept.

some things i don't really understand:

1. grits--i don't care what you put in them, they taste gross.

2. collard greens--see above statement about grits.

3. sweet tea--although i went through a brief "bring on the sweet tea" moment while i was still puking my guts up, i have decided i prefer regular iced tea. it's just more refreshing without all the syrupy sweetness.

4. cracker barrel in general. they have awesome french toast, but everything else there is some variation of greasy paste. the store is fun to look around, though.

i guess now that i look at it most of my dislikes are food related as opposed to attitude/lifestyle related. which is good i guess. i do like southern hospitality--it's refreshing to have someone just gather you in regardless of who you are and feed you.

just don't try to feed me greens or grits.

rhinitis anyone?

2009-03-06T08:45:00.002-05:00

so i've been trying to figure out why i seem to have a permanent runny nose the last month, so i looked it up to see if maybe, just maybe, this was another pregnancy symptom. sure enough, it's called pregnancy rhinitis and it is so much fun! the runny nose doesn't bother me much, but the sneezing...

for those of you who have experienced pregnancy, i'm sure you know how much fun it is to sneeze while crossing your legs and holding your strained belly. now imagine doing it countless times a day. just for poops and giggles, i've decided that today i'm going to do a running tally of how many times i sneeze. so far i'm up to eleven times, and i've only been out of bed for an hour.

this is going to be fun.

new day

2009-03-02T11:17:00.001-05:00

Waking, dozing
The world a groggy grey
Trees sway
Birds sing in a predictable order, taking turns:
The first whistles like an owner for his dog
The seconds starts in soon and
Magpie-like it trills its cell phone ring
The third moans and creaks in increasing crescendo
Somewhere out there an out-of-sync owl belts a random hoot
It’s morning
And I’m only half awake
My eyes just starting to open
My mind just starting to function
And the groggy grey sky peeps through cracked curtains
And the birds sing in their peculiar order
It’s a new day

phase II is here

2009-02-27T08:46:00.002-05:00

phase II of pregnancy is officially here! this is a phase that in no way coincides with being in my second trimester--i've been there already for over a month. no, this phase marks the end of major puking (although the occasional random pukage still happens) and the start of major CONQUER MODE.

when in CONQUER MODE, the pregnant female feels the need to start changing everything. and i do mean everything--from hairstyle to home decor, it all has to change. the clutter and mess of the last few months must go and it must go NOW, even if that means ending up quivering in the fetal position from pure exhaustion at the end of the day. it's a very exciting time.

for example, on wednesday i made half a quilt and did eight thousand loads of laundry and reorganized my closet. yesterday i reorganized and purged all the kitchen cabinets, the linen closet, and my bookcase. i also gave away a futon that was crowding our living room (the wide open space makes me intensely happy) and an extra tv, hung some pictures, refitted the slipcover on our sofa, painted some lampshades, and collected a bag full of stuff for goodwill. and the more i get done the more i want to do!

this is so fun. after months of pretty much writhing around in nauseated agony while the house got messier and more cluttered, this is stupendous.

oh captain, my captain

2009-02-26T17:48:00.005-05:00

it's very amusing to me as a parent to watch the little personalities begin to emerge in my kids as they grow.

sashka, aka xander, has gotten steadily weirder and more amusing over the last few weeks. my little bump on log has developed a motor mouth that won't quit, and lately he's started referring to himself in the third person by the appellation of "captain." i have absolutely no idea where this title came from, all i know is that a few weeks ago he started insisting he be called captain. a few days ago we were at the playground, and i was keeping an eye on him while i was doing some schoolwork with ilya. i could hear his excited squeaky voice as he played but wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. a while later, several small boys left with their dad, waving at sashka and calling out, "bye, captain! see you later!"

another recent development is the random dancing. it's like life is a musical and he just has to dance. but this isn't like regular kid dancing where they rock out to music. we'll be walking somewhere and he suddenly starts up with a random tap routine. the other day i told him to leave my room--i was trying to concentrate and he would NOT stop talking--and he left quite obligingly, doing a little clapping tapping exit that would have fit right in on a broadway stage. the bemusing thing is i can honestly say i have no idea what prompted all this. it's not like he's watching musicals in his spare time or something--we don't have cable so if he watches tv at all it's movies he's seen a million times and trust me, he's more into "cars" than my "sound of music" dvd.

it kind of makes me wonder if this is what it was like for my parents with me. in any case, it's funny as heck to watch.

the invisible man

2009-02-21T07:07:00.001-05:00

recently i took my boys to the mall to look for (of all things in florida) a warm hat for art to take with him on his snowboarding trip. when we entered the mall, we noticed a display set up outside of the fancy piano store--a self-playing piano cordoned off with ropes. we watched it play for a minute or two, the whole time the boys looking at it like it was the strangest thing they'd ever seen. i couldn't help myself. i said, "do you like how the invisible man is playing the piano?"

they both nodded solemnly. indeed, he was a most impressive pianist.

we walked away and in the course of meandering through the mall i forgot all about it. at the end of our little trip we once more passed the display, and ilya asked me if he could say goodbye to the invisible man. "sure," i said, trying not to laugh. he skipped over to the piano and whispered, "bye, invisible man. you play really good."

in the future, legumes are out

2009-02-03T14:27:00.002-05:00

last night art was talking to me about a podcast he was listening to where the pastor claimed that al gore was attempting to tax farmers something like $175 per head of cattle for "methane emissions".

surely this can't be true, i thought. i mean, it does sound very much like al gore, but seriously? farmers have to pay a tax so their cows can fart?

so i searched online and sure enough there is something like that floating around out there. not necessarily thought up by al gore (unfortunately--that would have made it more funny) and not necessarily something that will pass, but still. is it just me or is this not one of the stupidest things ever thought up? i'm no environmentalist but it seems to me there are other, larger things that could be done to help decrease pollutants, etc., if we really wanted to.

it's a funny and ridiculous concept, of course. why not just plug up the cow butts with corks? find a way to feed them food that doesn't induce gas? but laugh all you want--pretty soon every public toilet could have a slot for your "methane emissions tax". you never know.

If you drive a car,
I'll tax the street.
If you try to sit,
I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold,
I'll tax the heat.
If you take a walk,
I'll tax your feet

show me the sunny side, please

2009-01-28T08:29:00.003-05:00

just when i thought i couldn't feel worse, i get a cold. GOOD TIMES.

but i'm determined to see a bright side, so i'm holding on to yesterday's phone call from the OB office telling me that the result of the baby's nuchal test (test for down's syndrome and other genetic disorders) was totally normal. what a relief. there's my silver lining.

now i just need to hang on to that thought while the pressure caused in my sinuses from throwing up threatens to implode my cranium.

literary amnesia has its merits

2009-01-27T08:36:00.002-05:00

i've long had a reputation in my family for reading insanely fast. i don't do it intentionally--it's not like i'm in a hurry to finish or anything, i just read quickly. what can i say?

the downside to this is that my ability to retain the read information is not great. a few months after reading a book i only remember the general story. a few years later i'm like, "huh? i read that book?"

but i do have to say this amnesia has its merits. for example, at present i do not have a vehicle, thus i have no way to get to a bookstore or library to buy or borrow new reading materials. since i'm bored, homebound, and incredibly pukey, i have little else to do besides read, and my own personal library is all i have to fall back on. thanks to my inability to retain information, i've re-read about 15 of my old books and most of them are like whole new adventures. it's great. right now i'm reading the phantom of the opera and enjoying it immensely.

sorry--i'm sure this dull little insights into my daily life are not that entertaining. unfortunately my life is not that entertaining right now. maybe someday soon it will perk up and i'll actually have something interesting to report. one can only hope.

more olivia

2009-01-22T07:45:00.002-05:00

at last, an aunt

2009-01-16T09:03:00.004-05:00

this wednesday at 4:05 p.m. i finally became an aunt! it's weird how exciting it can be to be on the other end of having a baby. and emotional--geez, i think i cried as much about this little girl as i did about my own kids.

meet little olivia lyn, 8lbs. and 21 inches of the prettiest little newborn ever:

the happy new parents+one!

preggie pops? the jury's still out...

2009-01-07T16:31:00.003-05:00

so i've been really sick. really, really, disgustingly ill, and have been having a hard time not being mad about it. i mean, i know it's normal (at least for me) and everything but that doesn't mean it's fun. anyway, yesterday i had my first appointment, and i got to see the little peanut on sonogram, and for some reason the sight of a strong beating heart and little limbs made the misery easier to bear.

still, when i dropped by the mall today to get a belly band (not that i need one yet--i've lost almost 10 pounds from all that hurling) i noticed that there were "preggie pops" for sale at the counter at motherhood. i'd heard about these, and like most people desperate for relief i was interested in trying. they're basically like all natural candies with some herbs thrown in or something. i bought the little container, and as we were walking out of the mall i tried a tangerine one.

yuck. made me feel worse if that's possible.

but i thought maybe it was just that particular flavor. so i resolved to try again later.

five minutes ago i tried sour apple, and that one actually sits better for some reason.

still, i have to say i'm still undecided on the efficacy of these things. when it all comes down to it, it seems like all it helps do is give your barf a nice candy flavor, which really is better than regular flavor. if you know what i mean.

merry christmas everyone

2008-12-25T08:20:00.000-05:00

i just want to say that i hope everyone has a great christmas day. try not to get to caught up in the commercial trappings--remember, this day we celebrate God made flesh for us, which is way better than unwrapping some silly gifts!

love to you all!

rainy day, please?

2008-12-24T12:08:00.003-05:00

i wish it would rain. but as usual in florida, christmas day is scheduled to be 81 degrees and sunny. just like summer.

i'm beginning to remember why i wanted to leave this state so badly.

a public service announcement

2008-12-14T07:09:00.002-05:00

it's mid-afternoon, and i'm driving the kids home from somewhere. high up in the sky i notice a blimp is flying, and i point it out to the kids but it's already gone where they can't see. disappointed, they begin to whine, but then i see another. and another. soon blimps of every shape, color, and size crowd the overcast sky, some swooping dangerously low to the ground. ahead of me, a small car-sized blimp comes to a crash on the road and i swerve, trying to miss it, but we collide. there's confusion, darkness, and a high keening noise in my ears.

i'm standing on a high bank of a dirt hill, beneath a huge oak tree, and as if i'm having an out of body experience i see the carnage of the car-blimp encounter far below me. my grey truck is a mass of twisted metal, and i see the paramedics shrug as they find no driver or passengers inside. good, i think. at least my kids weren't in there when we hit.

"excuse me," a voice says from up above. curious, i look up to find an adventurous-looking man hanging by his suspenders from a tree. "you haven't happened to see a crampon lying around here anywhere, have you?"

i look around to find i'm standing in a rubble of odds and ends--a shoe, some fabric, and there, glinting in the grey light, is a crampon.

"there it is," i say but as soon as i point to it he's out of the tree picking it up and pretending he'd seen it there all along.

"nevermind," he said, "i found it."

"because i showed you where it was," i retorted irritably, though i have no idea why i would even care. the man shakes my hand and asks if he can stay with me and my family, and when i stare at him uncertainly he launches into a ream of tall tales that are ridiculous and entertaining. i find after several stories that i've been unwittingly leading him back to my house.

the scene changes, and art and i and a group of people are running through an urban park, laughing and squealing as icy rain pelts us. somehow i trip and fall, and find myself laying face up on the wet grass watching the raindrops come flying toward me. for some reason it feels like magic. art helps me up and we continue to our destination--a museum of some sort. art buys our tickets, but he's angry now and when i ask why he says the tickets were fifty five dollars each, and hands me the change. i apologize to him--our friend said the tickets were only twenty, i had no idea. i'm fretting and counting our change when we meet up with our group inside.

"don't worry about it, honey," a matronly woman says soothingly, urging me to pocket the change and enjoy myself.

"can i be honest with you?" a boy with overly large teeth asks. when i nod he continues, "overly worried and manipulative females are such a bore. i can tell you're smelling the bond between us and that's making you act weird and possesive."

mystified, i manage a "huh?" before art cuts in angrily.

"he thinks you have a crush on him."

i stare at the boy with huge teeth and choke back a laugh. he's smiling a self-satisfied smile which doesn't falter when i assure him that no, i don't have a crush on him. i'm pretty well taken with my husband, thanks. annoyed by his ridiculous assertion, art and i leave the group, when suddenly everything changes again. art is gone, and i'm alone in a group of hundreds milling about the museum. suddenly i notice that no one is moving. everyone stands stock still as though frozen, or waiting for something. large screens around the room flicker to life, and a scratchy recording plays over the loudspeaker.

"please prepare yourself for a public service announcement."

as a whole, all faces turn expectantly toward the screens. another flicker, and an old sepia-tinted reel is playing: a film showing hundreds of sick people laying on pallets on the ground. their eyes are sunken and they seem sleepy.

"if you're feeling tired, better call your loved ones to say goodbye," the voice-over says cheerfully. "belasian sleeping sickness is back with a bang this year."

on screen, an elderly woman seems to fall asleep, her gaunt face lined and pained. her family weeps and wails silently while the narrator continues to describe signs and symptoms of this disease, and then suddenly the screen goes dark and lights are back up. nobody moves. then, as a whole, a low moaning begins to swell around me. people begin to scream and wail, and then, as a dirge begins to play from nowhere and everywhere at once, the people around me begin to remove shards of pottery from their bags and pockets. in time with the slow funereal music they start to scrape at their skin, and only then do i notice the sores they seem to have from head to toe. but i am unscathed.

and where is my husband? and where are my children? longing to escape the depressing dirge and illness that i seem somehow immune to, i walk out the door and into the sun.

the insanity of disney

2008-12-12T11:14:00.002-05:00

seriously, how is it possible that people will pay almost a hundred dollars per adult to get into disney? i mean that is just insane. pretty soon people will have to start donating kidneys to get in. i've been wanting to take the kids for awhile, and i was thinking about going once the barfing clears up, but holy cow! fortunately, i signed up for that go free on your birthday thing so i guess that's 80 bucks less than i'd have to pay normally.

i would say the prices are unconscionable but obviously people are still willing to pay them. i do feel sorry for those people who save up for years to travel to orlando or anaheim and take their family on the "ultimate" vacation. maybe i'm jaded from having been to both parks so many times, but i don't see anything that thrilling about the idea of a week of theme parks. and you can see it in their eyes, too--those sad, weary-eyed adults trailing a gaggle of cranky, overstimulated children, all sporting an angry red farmer tan from a week of florida sun...poor deluded midwesterners and brits. those touting the magic of disney have a lot to answer for in that regard. but, oh, we are a gullible breed. for all my disbelief and cyncism i still can't wait to take my kids there again, and my biggest grief isn't really the prices, but the fact that they don't let preggies ride space mountain.

crossing the invisible line

2008-12-09T15:04:00.002-05:00

there seems to be a fine line between all-day nausea and actually throwing up. for me that line is very fine indeed, and i've tried, really i have, to keep from tripping that wire that causes explosions of barf. i held out much longer this time, which makes me proud, but alas, to no avail. and now down i go on the slippery slope of watching every meal come back up again, all because my body really really doesn't like being an incubator for human life. oh well. my body will just have to deal with it.

the silver lining is that this time around i don't have to smell poop all day long as our current abode is miles away from the local water reclamation plant. that's a blessing indeed. nothing trips a sensitive gag reflex like the reek of stale human poo. at least for me. i guess there might be a person or two out there who thinks it's not so bad. anyway.

i hate throwing up.

book reports

2008-11-21T20:59:00.002-05:00

here are my opinions on some books i've read recently, for anyone who is even remotely interested.

1. The Shadowmarch Trilogy (books 1 and 2)--Tad Williams
these two books were great fantasy. they juxtapose three completely different worlds against each other as they all converge in an all out war. i don't really know how to describe the story except to say that it was great and i can't wait for book three to come out.

2. Brisingr--Christopher Paolini

i have to admit i'm pretty jealous that a kid could start writing a series like this while a teenager. it's certainly not proust, but it has its merits. even though i like sci-fi and fantasy i've never been a dragons and elves kind of girl. but i find eragon and saphira a pleasantly flawed, interesting couple of characters that make the trilogy--oh wait, it's a CYCLE now--fun to read.

3. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell--Susanna Clark

i love, love, LOVED this book. it started off a trifle slowly, and at first i couldn't wrap my head around the period style of writing--very austen or doyle-esque, despite the fact that it was written recently. also, each chapter is very episodic and it takes some time to build up the disparate stories so that you can see the cohesive whole begin to emerge. but then it completely sucks you in. the story is about two different magicians in the 1800's who are trying to bring the magic done in medieval times back to england. sounds weird, i know, but it was seriously great. the magic done is very vague, so there is no hocus-pocus cheese involved which is good.

4. twilight--stephanie meyers

okay. go ahead and laugh. i just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. it took me a day to finish, and most of the time i was snickering at the ridiculous obviousness of the target demographic: screaming adolescent girls who will cry out ridiculous things like, "edward cullen can suck my blood!" right before swooning.

that being said i sort of liked it. despite the way it reminded me uncomfortably of confusing, silly teenage thoughts and emotions of yore, the characters are pretty likeable. and despite the fact that it was (again, obviously) written to titillate teens and tweens with thoughts of forbidden love, etc., it was pretty clean. i'd read the next one if it wasn't sold out at every single store (see the screaming adolescent comment above. they must have their vampire romance, i suppose).

the glory of motherhood

2008-11-17T10:25:00.003-05:00

why is it that people often glorify things that are entirely unglorious? i hear women of a certain type talk about motherhood as if it was a sacred thing unto itself, as if being a mother (as opposed to a father?) is something that makes her somehow superior. you see it sometimes in the self-satisfied smirk of a pregnant woman who seems to feel that all the changes within her are her own doing. childbearing is a shining holy ground that no man shall tread upon.

but i wonder if that kind of woman ever finds herself covered in baby puke, or digging out the fossilized remains of french fries from between couch cushions, or cleaning up poop that has been smeared on every surface of her child's room, and thinking, "oh how glorious to be a mom!"

don't get me wrong--being a mom is great, and we women are both biologically designed for childbearing and emotionally designed for empathizing and mothering our children. that much is certainly true. and it is an amazing, indescribable experience to give birth to a little human you carried around for the better part of a year, and to wake up with chubby hands rubbing your head and sweet drawings laid out for your approval. but when i'm sitting in church, five minutes before i'm supposed to go up on stage and lead worship, and i get peed on by my precious progeny...well, let's just say that at that moment the glory definitely (though temporarily) loses a little luster.

i did it....

2008-11-14T19:15:00.001-05:00

i updated the other blog. check it out if you so desire...BLOG!

the ugliest shoes ever

2008-11-10T12:36:00.002-05:00

so today i got some hideous shoes in the mail and i'm so excited!

last spring i was reading all this stuff about masai barefoot technology shoes (MBT) and how great they are for posture and back problems. seeing as how i have wretched posture and my neck and back hurt every single day, i thought it might be something to look into. so i did. and i wanted them. badly. but alas, they are insanely expensive, and although some girls in far-off penthouses think nothing of dropping several hundred dollars on this seasons must-have shoes, i cringed at the thought of spending so much money on something so, well, ugly.

but my practicality won out. i mean, how much money would i spend on a chiropractor for months of treatment? i looked at these as a health investment--one that will hopefully pay off--and so i bided my time until we could afford it.

then luck was with me and i found some discontinued models online for half the price of the regular shoes, and now i am the proud owner of some atrocious-looking footwear! already my butt is killing me, and every time i bend over to pick something up (which, with two little ones is about every five seconds) i nearly fall over i'm so out of balance. but i'm determined to wear these suckers as often as possible, even if everyone snickers at me for looking like a cartoon character with too-big feet.

actually, this picture doesn't do them justice. they really are way uglier than that. and so sporty! i'm so not a sporty shoe person. well, we'll see how excited i am after a few months of wobbling and rocking and falling over.

the harbinger

2008-11-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

for the past year i have been plagued with this strange feeling of foreboding, mingled with excitement. for some odd reason, even though i pay little attention to world events or the decisions of politicians or even matters of religion, i have been having this feeling of growing dread that our country is in for a bad time.

now normally i don't go in much for intuition. sometimes i have bad feelings that turn out to be nothing. but i have found in my conversations with people over the last few months that many others have the same feeling. i can't pin it on any one event, but things like the growing demand that we respect homosexuality and the dwindling ability to say anything biblical without being charged with "hate" seem to indicate a downward trend in the morality of this country. check out this article.

when i read the quote, "I don't think Jesus would approve of a gay-marriage ban. I don't think God discriminates," i couldn't help but be bemused by this attitude. what do they know of Jesus? they obviously don't see the Man who called the religious leaders of the day "vipers" and told people audacious sounding things like "if you lust after someone you've committed adultery".

what God are they talking about? what idea of Jesus have they got?

don't get me wrong; i'm not trying to force a slippery slope argument with homosexuality or the acceptance of homosexuality as the root cause of evil. to me it is merely a symptom of the growing depravity of our nation. the fear of censure that so many believers are exhibiting by shrugging and saying, "well, who am i to judge?" doesn't help. it is true that the world should know we are christians by our love and not our judgment, but that doesn't mean we sit idly by cowering in fear of looking like a bible-thumping condemner. we shouldn't be afraid to say a wrong thing is wrong any more than we should be surprised when people get angry for us saying it.

on the flip side of all this doom, depravity, and destruction is the sense of time running out, but in a good way. i don't know why, but i just have this crazy gut feeling that Jesus is coming soon. and not soon in the sense that every single generation has thought every world event was pointing towards the imminent rapture; i mean soon like soon. like in this lifetime. also a gut feeling shared by even some of my most skeptical friends. i know i risk sounding like a huge sensationalist here, but i don't care. i can be wrong and it won't upset me. maybe He won't come for another thousand years, who knows. i just hope He comes soon, so perhaps my hope is tainting my flawed intuition. either way, i say: come quickly!

maybe baby

2008-11-07T15:54:00.003-05:00

i've been feeling sort of guilty about my shameless neglect of my other blog. the poor thing probably feels like the red-headed stepchild of my blogs. it's not that i haven't made anything in the last year, it's just that i have been too lazy to take and upload pictures. yeah, i've posted a few things on this blog, but that's no excuse.

so i'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, i'll put some pictures up on it.

maybe.

maybe tomorrow.

where my foot lives

2008-11-06T16:55:00.002-05:00

so, i'm an idiot. not only do i say stupid things that are misconstrued as mean or malicious, i write them, too. you'd think having the time to type things would give a person like me ample opportunity to NOT be inadvertently rude. but no. it seems i'm an equal opportunity offender.

i didn't realize that "trendy" is a negative thing to say--trendy to me equals whatever happens to be cool at a given time, and since every last person i know wants to be cool (who wants to be an outdated nerd? i certainly don't) i just don't associate the word with something that's bad. but apparently other people do. and thus my use of the word gets me into trouble.

but this is not an isolated event, because apparently i say stupid, rude-sounding crap all the time. it's like i have diarrhea of the mouth combined with being overly opinionated--a lethal combination. i'm trying to be careful, and to be quiet, but unfortunately i fail half the time.

which might lead you to wonder what kind of trouble i'd be in if i was saying whatever popped into my head the other half of the time.

as usual, my foot lives in my mouth.

the madness is over!

2008-11-03T14:16:00.005-05:00

...at least for now.

friday night my church put on our harvest festival, and it turned out great. at first i was pretty nervous--i had no idea who would come, and even if my volunteers would show up, and of course all those questions of "will it go smoothly?" and "will it suck?" were running through my mind. but it went off without a hitch, and the kids had a blast. we had face painting, races, a baking contest (i got 2nd place!!) a cakewalk, and tons of games. it was pretty fun all in all. i don't know if i'd want to be in charge of the whole thing again but still...it was good.

here's a video of ilya running the three legged race while sashka gets his face painted. ignore the irrelevant discussion of the virtues of snazaroo face paint...