a walk in the park

Yesterday we had our 2nd annual Easter photo shoot. We went to one of our favorite parks in Highland Park, and had a ball. Here's a slide show of some of my favorites:

A giant thanks to Grammy for all her help!

Naked Feet

Spring is here, and yesterday found us hosting our 1st cook-out of the season, complete with hummus & aunties & uncles aplenty. I've been enjoying the freedom the season brings by wearing my flip-flops constantly, hence Miss K's question on Friday: "Mommy, why are your feet naked?"

Here are some pics of our adorable little fruit trees in the backyard (a red apple, an apricot, a golden delicious apple, and a peach):

Beautiful, no? Honey found them at Calloway's at the end of last summer for $5 each, so I was skeptical that they would survive...but survive they did, and now they are just so leafy. Makes me smile every time I see them! So our backyard was happy to host our party, complete with a rousing game of croquet for all the johnnies (honey, J, and N all graduated from St. John's College; a big event there every year is the annual croquet match versus the Naval Academy, so for them, croquet is quite exciting...I haven't figured it out yet, but maybe this will be the year?).

So we're all running around here enjoying springtime with our naked feet. Quite frankly, I wish I could say my soul was blooming with all the trees in the backyard, but it's not...it's feeling a bit naked itself, kinda stripped & worn out, like it's nearing the end of autumn rather than the beginning of spring. Last night I described it to Sha as "feeling kind of funky." But I know that that's the nature of things - our trees have to look dead in order to bloom again, and sometimes there are just dry seasons for our souls. I'm thankful that this doesn't mean that the Lord is any less faithful or in control, but just reflects my wishy-washiness instead. Thank you, Father, for the new life of spring, and the reminders all around that You're in the resurrection business.

"Important Information"

Maybe it's because honey's been gone since Wednesday morning, but for some reason, this just really made me laugh. It's from Sandi's blog, on Monday (btw, I realize I've been stealing ideas all week from other people...maybe my creativity will come back from Georgia with honey!):

"In the next week or so, Kregel plans to launch the third edition of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage, which I co-authored with Bill Cutrer, M.D. As we were finishing up the galley proofs, he sent me some info on the latest research, as he is prone to do. This one was about a new study he felt sure I should know about. You need to know I'm not saying I agree or disagree. I'm just reporting it how I heard it, okay? His subject line was "important information" and the body of the text read as follows:

A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle. For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. If she is menstruating or menopausal, however, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire. No further studies are expected."

Yum (or, now for something completely different)

My mom just emailed me with a question about our wedding cake, because we have a friend getting married here in the Dallas area, and her mom remembered how yummy our cake was...

So I pulled out the ol' wedding planner (yes, I still have it!), and got all the info, and now I am absolutely CRAVING a piece of that cake. Here's the description: "Casatta (Italian Wedding Cake) - a traditional Italian golden cake with amaretto and toasted almonds in the cake and an amaretto-butter sauce poured over the cake as soon as it is removed from the oven, usually frosted with our rich cream cheese frosting." Oh yum. I might just have to drive up to Addison sometime soon to get a small one from Delicious Cakes ...they sold small ones back when we got married...wonder if they still do?

Sorry that the pic is a little fuzzy - it's our girl K at J&S's wedding in beautiful Jamaica, and as they say, a pic is worth a thousand words...

Mornings like this

"Crap happens. That's life.
Crap abounds everywhere.
But - the good thing is - that wherever crap abounds...grace abounds all the more.
go, Grace.
I know I need it. So maybe I shouldn't be perturbed when other people need it, too."

excerpted from Heather Jamison's blog post on Wed. March 7th, 8 Rules of Engagement.

We so know about crap right now. Miss MA has had diarrhea since we returned from oh, so beautiful Oregon, and although it is absolutely getting better, it still really sucks to have a baby sick that way. Miss K has had fever, and it seems another cold. And I found out yesterday that honey is leaving town tomorrow to go to a math teacher conference thing, and that means 4 fun-filled days all alone with my girlies. woo-hoo.

And I just got hired on at $7 an hour to babysit kids at the gym for a few hours each week...which means I got interviewed by a girl at least 10 years my junior who asked me, "So what's your worst characteristic?" What I wanted to say was "Seriously?? You can't actually want me to go into that..." But instead I told her that I'm not a morning person. SIGH.

So, I know that I'll be fine. Sickness & $7 an hour jobs are only for a season.... But I'm just having a REALLY super-hard time this morning with contentment.

So I read that quote from Heather Sunday night, and for some reason, I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Father, help me to be a woman, a wife, a mother, a friend, characterized by grace, even in the midst of dealing with a broken world, a broken self, and a heart that's not content to rest in You. Forgive me for it; You know that I want You to just magically make my discontentment disappear, but I know full well that's not how things work. So help me to see and be grace in action today, to walk by the Spirit, and to have a thankful heart, because I know that grace is all around me, just sometimes I choose not to see it.

rock on

Just so you know, I'm stealing this idea from Sandi's blog (Sandi is a really good friend of my friend Kelley, and she is a published author, editor-in-chief of the DTS magazine, an adjunct prof at DTS, among a thousand other amazing things). Here's what she said: "I read tonight that one way to come up with the name for your rock band is to follow this formula: The name of your first car + the name of your school mascot = your rock-band's name."

So my band's name is the Corolla Dragons, which sounds like a lame lounge singer's band, but at least my sis is in the band with me, because we shared the same 1st car. Or maybe it could be the first car that was truly mine, so it'd be the Miata Dragons, which sounds like a band that covers Japanese songs. Honey's is the Taurus Rams, which we'll pretend plays ska in tribute to honey's love of ska. So, come on girls, tell us all about your band...

Back Home!

Well, we're back home safe & sound from the pacific northwest, and it is absolutely gorgeous up there. We stayed with some friends on Tuesday night, and they win the prize for the most beautiful view from their front porch (I guess this really isn't the view - it's the corner of their house, but you get the idea; the water you see is the Columbia River):

They also live about 10 minutes from Multnomah Falls:

Amazing things that our Creator does. We drove to the coast on Monday, and as we were passing through these incredible forests, I remembered that what I was looking at was part of the broken creation. Christ told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them, so how much more incredible must heaven be? I know that Jesus is going to eclipse everything there, but it was fun to think about. These are some pics from our trip to the coast (the first one is just funny. Katie started rummaging through their backpack on the way there, and they both had pull-ups on their heads before we knew what they were doing).

I also got scolded by Sha for not posting a pic of me at the wedding, so here are a few. I have to admit that I hate my hair, though. I got it cut right before we left, and she gave me BANGS! I hate bangs. NEVER AGAIN!

So if you ever get the chance to go to Oregon, for heaven's sake, GO. It's beautiful, and oh so different from Texas. And although traveling with the pumpkins is a challenge, it was definitely worth it.

Full Hearts

Yaaay! Uncle Thaniel & Auntie Summer are married, and all is well. We're having a wonderful time with all our aunties, uncles & cousins. Here are some pics from last night!

The happy couple dancing at the reception.

Daddy with the pumpkins, and uncle J in the background.

All the flowergirls with Auntie Summer (the little blond is our
cousin, and the big flowergirl is Auntie's niece).

Miss K & Auntie Sha

Flowergirls again

Pumpkins with Uncle Thaniel

Front & back view of dresses

Silly face

Flyin' the friendly skies...

And I'd like a rum & coke, please.... Now is when my completely irrational fear of flying starts to kick in before every trip we take that involves airplanes. It's no problem for honey & the pumpkins. Miss K is already very jazzed about it, although she did hear a report on the radio that involved an airplane in India or somewhere thereabouts catching on fire, and she was very worried that it was our plane, which would thus delay our trip. So, here's my Meez, drinking her heart out outside DFW (not really, but work with me here), dedicated to Jen & Lauren, who introduced us all to the craze that is Meez.

Party Time

So we're on a countdown to Nathanael & Summer's wedding! We leave on Friday, and I've decided to quarantine the girls from all other children until we get to Portland, because I'm just tired of them being sick, and if there's any way we can stay well during our trip...well, that'd be just super.

We started celebrating Friday night with a dinner party that we threw for the "kids" at Jonathan & Sharifa's house. It was a dinner and dancing theme, and Sha & I fed everyone chicken parmesan, salad & tiramisu (excellent recipe from Food Network), and then our fun friend Kelley taught everyone some basic swing dance steps. Honey tried hard to not do the white man's overbite while dancing, and N & S learned some really fun moves (he literally flipped her!) for the wedding. A fun time was had by all!

Saturday we tried to recuperate from Friday night, and picked up the girls at mom & dad's (yaaay for super-supportive parents!). Sunday found us celebrating 2 more times at various homes in Dallas. Needless to say, I am tired, and need a weekend to recover from our weekend. But I'm sure our quarantine will encourage rest, so hopefully we'll all be ready for our big trip on Friday. Pray that Miss MA's ear infection will totally clear up by then!