picture of the day

These boys sure know how to have a blessed time.
How beautiful.

joys of being mama

The Progression of Hair

This kid's hair grows so quickly, I can scarcely keep up with it. Today I cut it short, for a change. Let me know what you think...should I keep it short, or let it grow tossley and floppy. I just can't get over his teeth, and I love this smile. (especially the last picture...what a cheese ball).

Blue Sabbath

Tonight Colson has his first taste of Blue. Some friends served him Cool-aid for their Sabbath feast. He loved it, and wore the blue hew of mustache for proof.

Pandora

If you've never heard of www.pandora.com, I highly recommend it.

An outing with friends

first we hung out with the grizzlys, yes, the bears. Off to the slides, and swings, and climbing structures. a picnic lunch in perfect weather: sun-spots dancing on our skin and sandwiches and peaches through the leaves of the swaying trees. topped off with a little local-crafted ice-cream, a few cheese curds, and finally a nap.....

and we're only 1/2 way through the day.

wow, and to think that I could be a working mom, and someone else could be with my child, and not enjoying it, while i was working, and not enjoying that either....hmmmm, i think we're right where God has intended.

FALL

I saw my first multi-colored leaf falling from the sky.

The faint exhale of chill.

It's in the air. It's in my skin.

It's coming.

Finally Caught up with the Bandwagon

KC and I are late bloomers. We're behind the times I suppose. But we're making up for lost time and this summer have hit the books hard. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is nearing it's end (Book 5). and I'm ravenous for more while wanting to savor these first-time Potter experiences. We've been listening to it on audio-book in the evenings, not just read, but performed by Jim Dale. He's a brilliant storyteller and makes the characters come alive.

At The Park

Beware: Entertaining Neighbors Unaware

Last night I put Colson down to bed, and on my way to take a shower grabbed his monitor to make sure he was falling asleep without any glitches. I turned on the monitor to loud static. His monitor must have come unplugged in his room, and I was not going to go in there to fix it. Just for the sake of it I tried the other channel. To my suprise I could hear voices, as clear as day, coming from the monitor. (It shouldn't be a come as a shock, I live in aparment with lots and lots of young families). It was another family putting their 2 young girls to bed. I listened to the mom and dad getting them ready and threatening them:

mom: "Tell her if she doesn't go to sleep, then NO trike tomorrow."

Dad, to little girl: "If you don't go to sleep then NO trike tomorrow, do you understand?"

Feeling awkward about listening, I turned the monitor off and took my shower. After my shower I turned on the monitor just for the sake of it. (This is the closest I get to reality-TV ok people?) I tuned in just in time to hear the mom losing her mind:

mom: "THAT'S IT!!!!! SPANKINGS, NO TALKING, AND YOU ARE NOT RIDING YOUR TRIKE TOMORROW! NOW. GO. TO. SLEEP!"

Well, I thought this was hysterical. I don't know what happened with the spankings, but the mom must have left the room because I heard silence for a few seconds then a little voice starts in...

Little Voice: "Hi", she says very cheerfully. "Hi, what's your name?"

an even smaller voice: "Cinderella."

At this, I smiled, giggled a little bit, was thankful I don't know who these people are, and turned off the monitor.

This boy is obsessed with his Grandpa.

All in favor of a new big bookshelf???

EYE!

one more for grandma

the kitchen and living room

Our new sofa slip-cover

I Recant my Last Post

I couldn't help posting about this new, fabulous tote my Mother-in-law sent me today from her New York birthday trip.

I love it and couldn't help sharing.

Thank you Julie!

I have to say, maybe it's because of the busy summer lifestyle, the traveling, the moving, the playing, the dinners with friends, the beautiful weather, etc, i'm just not into the blog right now. Lame, yes, but such is life.

One last Summer trip to Oregon

Because my brother Matthew Frank is getting married this Saturday evening.

I love this hippy, fly-fishing bro of mine.

A Perfect August Evening

Tonight our family rode our bikes downtown to Coeur d'Alene Brewery. Here, we enjoyed a Vanilla Burboun Stout, a big bacon-cheddar-burger, and a salad and fries. wow, deliciously satisfying.

There are those nights when nothing sounds quite like a burger. Tonight was one of those nights, and I regret nothing about our night out.

On our way home we stopped by Friendship Square and let Colson get his wigglies out before bed time.

Speed-Wash

is not life so funny?

Today I wanted to wash the car, and the automatic car washes here in Moscow frankly, don't work. They have a no-touch policy and only spray your car with soap and water - not worth $6! I only had $2 in quarters today to do the do-it-yourself wash. I know from previous experience that this usually takes 2 applications, totaling $4 in quarters. Like I said, I only had change enough for one go-around. This was going to be the speed-wash of my life. I put my quarters in the slot with the spray wand in one hand, ready to go when the 4 minute clock started to tick down. Go! I was spraying and running around that car with all my might, then scrubbing with the big brush, up and down, up and down, side to side, running around in a frantic. I hope so badly someone was there to see. I was even laughing at myself when I looked up at Colson strapped into the back seat. He was also quite entertained and also laughing at my escapade. I scrubbed and sprayed until the last second, just finishing in the nick of time. I'm sure there are a few spots here and there that I missed, but overall, the car looks shiny clean. Not a bad way to save a couple dollars and a great excuse to laugh at yourself! You should try it sometime.

Welcoming the Landis Clan

And all of this is just the beginning...

Abandoned Blog

Yes, I know, my blogging definately stinks right now. We've been on vacation, which i could not write about because it was a suprise birthday party that took us to Oregon. We had a fantastic time laying by the pool, reading Harry Potter, playing chess, and watching cousins play until they dropped. It was fantastic!

and now we're back...but my blog isn't really back....

we're moving this week. i'm going to be a busy mama and will catch you up with pictures when life slows down.

question: if you knew you were going to move in a year, would you paint an apartment the color of choice under the stipulation that you would have to paint it back when you moved?

TTFN

Please Pray

23 Christian Koreans were kidnapped by the Taliban and are being held hostage in Afghanistan. They are being held threatened by death by an ultimatum that would free an equal number of captured Taliban prisoners. These Christians were in Afghanistan doing medical missions. Many of them are women, nurses and teachers, and I believe 2 hostages may already have been murdered.

Pray for justice. Pray for the release of these Christians. Pray that God would be glorified and the Kingdom of Christ furthered.

For more information, here's the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/world/asia/23afghan.html?fta=y

Nothing says mid-summer like...

Peaches falling off the pits, luscious aromatic peaches, peaches tender to the touch...peaches in hot peach pie! I'm in love.

Messy Morality

Let me share with you what Winona Ryder has to say for herself regarding her feelings after getting caught shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills five years after the fact. After she abdicates the responsiblity of her sins by saying her pain medication made her confused, she goes on to say:

"I didn't have this tremendous sense of guilt," she adds, "because I hadn't hurt anyone. --Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience."

So this is our standard for right and wrong? "If I don't physically hurt anyone" I can do whatever I want without feeling too much guilt! "As long as I'm not poking them in the eye or digging my heal into their foot, I can cheat my boss, steal from children, lie to my husband, and practice injustice however I personally see fit." Without a moral backbone, which is what God's law provides for us, this is the type of thinking we inevitably will fall into. This is a clear example of where our Nation is going by abandoning the law of God. What if we all lived like this? And isn't it clear that too many of us already are?

(Now mabye the media mis-represented Ms Ryder. and I have to say that I loved her performance as Joe in Little Women. But this is beside the point.)

I cannot get enough of these two!

Another Beard Poem

...only this one is not written by my husband. It's in a children's poetry book that we really enjoy. This poem is particularly funny because prior to knowing about this poem, a friend of mine and I, would always resist the notion of beards because things get stuck in them, like insects, or mustard. What would happen if a man with a large beard was sucking on a tootsie-pop and accidentally dropped it. It would get swallowed up in his beard in the same way a sea anemone encloses around the touch of your finger. Just candy for thought; and now with the poem:

OLD MAN WITH A BEARD

There was an Old Man with a beard
Who said, "It is just as I had feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!"

Edward Lear

Vintage Motorcycle

Colson has got himself into a stage of asking me to draw him things, like motorcycles (if you read this blog you know he's crazy about them), or a windmill, or the moon, or our stick-figure family (which is my favorite by the way). Today while he was napping, and while I had more than 15 seconds to get something down for him to see, I drew this motorcycle and had it ready for him when he woke up. I really enjoy doing stuff like this.