of mums and days that start with s

My mum is one of the most remarkable people I know. I flew up to Oregon a few weekends ago to surprise her and to get some much needed face time. There are few people in my world that I can have conversations free of qualifiers with, and she is one of them. She is honest and real and raw and so very beautiful. I have always know that we belong to one another, in that very unique young mother and daughter way; and it is her that I will always call first with my wonderful terrible world-changing news. Obviously I adore her.

Part of why I haven't been posting lately is because I cannot seem to find the charger for my camera. Which means no pictures. Which is quite crippling for a visualist such as myself. Bah is what I say to this.

Important things which have been going on:

Girls Weekend '06: Favorite people, good wine, wonderful food, rich conversation. God is faithful and brings much hope. We are messy and beautiful. I will continue to burn at the beach because I am a white-assed americana. These are all good things. I created are invitations for this year's weekend as you can see here:



Yuba: Went to see Chafer and Roxanne and our favorite un-niece and nephew. There is something so wonderful and peaceful about being with people who know you quite well and are just, well, EASY. Settlers of Cattan and dark beer with pretzels and chocolate chips are soothing on so many levels. Even when the childcare ladies at Ikea are a less than comforting.

Memorial Day: The backyard is now freaking AWESOME. Seriously. You should be sad that you weren't over for the meaty barbecue and strawberry shortcake celebration that took place after a day of hard labor. I wish my camera had a magic battery so that I could share. Don't worry, pictures will come. Along with the s-l-o-w-l-e-y growing grass.

Now I am going to sleep. Because I have way to much laundry to fold to finish my clean house project. Hope you had a lovely long weekend!

hello there

SO it has been an absurdly long time since I've posted, and I haven't any sort of really legitimate reason why I've been absent from the 'ol blogosphere. It's been a rough sort of month for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with an old, blue moldyness that wrestles with my heart. But it's all good. Here is a story of the last few weeks:

Joey turned 28, which is a very grownup age to become. We celebrated his actual birthDAY with a quiet dinner at BJ's. He was actually much happier than he looks in this particular picture.


I cook things in the kitchen and end up using half a lemon. All the time. But my lemony things are spaced far enough apart to render the unused half useless. Sort of. So I started cleaning my cutting boards with a lemony swipe after using them for a garlic or onion-ey sort of purpose. It helps.


We go to RAW, which stands for Real Authentic Worship, each Sunday night at 7 pm. It is quite and small and Joey leads music and sometimes I read a passage or poetry and we spend a purposed hour with Jesus, which is nice.


I've been sharing a lot of Pablo Neruda lately with the RAW folks. Joey gave me the Captain's Verses when we were first dating and I've loved him ever since (Pablo and Joey).


Bill turned 50. My mum had an amazing surprise party for him, full of good wine, incredible food, and really special encouragement and honoring. Seriously incredible.


Her cooking instructor/friend/folks they're going to Italy with catered and made the most delicious meal. Authentic, rustic Tuscan. Oy. The gnocci were deep and earthy and full of imported porccini mushrooms... and the cave cheese... heavenly.


My mum and I had a fabulous time together (with the greatest aunt and the husbands). I didn't realize how much I needed just to be with her (and all of them). She is amazing and beautiful and I love her quite a lot more than she even thinks possible.


Joey got a special brew from the Deschutes Brewery for our pubby birthday bash (celebrating he + mark + myself) that is deep and heavy and amazing. I forgot to take pictures at our party (ridiculous, I know), so this is the stand in.


You are nearly up to date on our world. And I need to go to bed. So. Back in the saddle I am. To bad I was never an overly "horsey" sort of girl. Ah well. The fun stuff will be coming soon. For now, it's g'night.

carlsbad was conquered

Last weekend Joey, Kit, and Mark culminated 5 months of training and ran 26.2 miles in Carlsbad, CA. The four of us made a wonderful long weekend of it, spending hours listening to Jim Gaffigan, rocking out to Mariah Carey, and dissecting the nuances of middle school relationships and Jesus. We're fun like that.

We stayed with Kit's aunt, uncle, and cousin; truly some of the most wonderful people I've met. They are creative and articulate and open and warm and generous and so much of what I want to be. They are magnetic. I could have spent so many more days absorbing them.

Families came to cheer them on, and I had the greatest time waiting with Susan and Jimmie. There's something about a marathon that's so very inspirational. I mean, I know that's a ridiculously obvious statement to make; but when you see the thousands of people wincing their way past to finish the last .2 miles, and you're encouraging them on, you can't help but think of how much depth of meaning this experience has for them, and how odd and humbling it is to be a miscellaneous part of it.

The race was good, but discouraging on many levels for the runners. From changed routes to poor fuel, it just wasn't as supportive or friendly as San Francisco. Mark finished in the same time (4.12 I think) and Kit and Joey stuck it out together and finished at 4.55. Once Mark finished he ran back up the race and met the other two, so that they could all run in together, which was wonderful and tear-jerky for the rest of us. But we were so proud.

They're so awesome. And sore.

For the rest of the pictures from the race, go here. I'm not planning on 26.2 anytime soon, but the 13 in San Jose might not be too bad...

the end to a very fuzzy week

Apparently not eating and sedatives have a rather strong effect on me. The middle of the week has faded into a fuzzy haze, so I'm trying to get my life back to it's regularly scheduled programming.

We finally went grocery shopping last night, which is one of my most favorite cheap dates evah. We had been living off of Top Ramen and leftover Christmas Tamales for far too long. Joey's been having basketball finals all week as well, so we've done a lot of catching up on our netflix and avoiding post-travel laundry as I come back down to earth.

I'm finally able to post about one of the projects I was working on for Christmas this year. I learned how to embroider when I was younger, and I loved it. However, it's been YEARS since I've even thought about it. Wanting to have something handmade with a few of my gifts this year, I decided to see if I could remember any of the old stitches. It was so fun to free hand a few of these dishtowels and I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Here's one:

I want to do quite a bit more, and I found this great blog that has some easy-to-follow tutorials for different stitches. Too bad I found it after I'd already finished the bulk of the work. I'm excited to reference it as I start more projects, though.


Some of my favorite things from this week:

We have a bajillion downed branches and limbs (25+ feet long!) from the storm all about the yard. I've been making piles while I talk on the phone for days now.

The post-storm light is beautiful.

Joey brought me a miniature calla lily plant since I made it through the "procedure" okay. It is lovely and lives next to my ancient typewriter in the kitchen.



That's all for tonight friends! Hope your weekend is spectacular!