writing a bit...

i tell the kids "aroo and zpants" stories (jackaroo and ezpants)
so i decided this weekend to write a few down...
i managed 4...they aren't long and i am sure aren't very good...
but i hope to have them illustrated and made into little books just for the kids...
there are so many cool online sites that i am sure that even with my limited internetty knowledge i can figure it out
here is josh getting ready for his polygraph..which he passed with flying colors!
yay!

home again home again...

jiggity jig
it took us just over 4 hours to drive home! ahhhhhggg!
buuuut the computer helped enormously...
and the mini potato chip bags grace gave us =)
and i literally have almost zero voice
this is crazy!
i told joan earlier that it had been going on about a week and a half...but i think it is more like 2 weeks that i started feeling off
i remember about 2 weeks ago thinking "wow, i am really really tired"
more than normal...you know?
i felt like i just needed a little break and i could swing back to normal...
but instead i kept building shelves and fences, riding bikes and playing furiously in the dirt with the kids =)
go figure
anywho....my chest is somewhat lighter feeling which is good and i am not coughing up as much...
maybe if i can stop talking for a while, my voice will return!
ha! good luck with that one ol' chatty =)
off to bed then, at least then i am not talking =)

a snapping something or other, a fiddler and the penguins

and you know the penguins are the one thing that i feel a little sorry for...
they just seem to need the open water and the ability to migrate...

i think this is why i so didn't like the atlanta aquarium (besides that it makes me feel like i am in a mall)
but so many of the animals are just so big...and used to an OCEAN to migrate and search for food and mates...
it just seems so wrong for them to be cooped up...
i know you could argue this for smaller fish too...but they just seem to have a smaller domain in the great big ocean too...

my dress from marie

marie found this pretty dress at the thrift shop and it didn't fit quite right...so she sewed here and there and viola! a fun new dress to wear...the best part is that someone else hand made it...i only wish that person could know that i will wear it happily..it is at a good home =)
noooot that it will stay clean for long..but it will be loved =)

the aquarium!

after eating a most ...

delicious carrot cake grace so kindly made for me (my favorite!)
i headed off to chattanooga for r and r
when i woke up in the morning, i had tea and an orange and wandered around the city for a bit
it is just so lovely!

cake number 2 and fun chattanooga

the morning of the polygraph

so this is it!  josh is taking his polygraph as we speak here in chattanooga
he looked quite dashing this morning in his suit and tie
though we both wondered how much of it if any would they take off to hook him up to all the stuff!
we had a lovely lovely day yesterday....ate at a greenlife grocery store for lunch...meandered around town, had another yummy salad for dinner....swam at the hotel...fun fun! 
but i still don't have a lot of energy and can't talk at all really! just a raspy sound comes out...
the kids are on their way up with grace and andy ...we are going to the aquarium!!!
on a list of my favorite places to go this aquarium is near the very top
my mum and i and our family used to come here....it is so wonderful and mysterious...the dark deep waters =)
the favorite for me is the jellyfish exhibit...the first time i saw it, i cried...right there in the aquarium
it was so marvelous....these beautiful creations...God so huge and magnificent and yet so quiet and delicate in His designs....how true for so much i believe!
ok, off to gulp down enormous amounts of vitamin C packages in hot water and onward ho!

a different but lovely birthday

thank you thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes!!
it is so funny that no matter how old i get, i still love being wished happy birthday...
i am in chattanooga and spent the night here by myself!!!! alone!!!
the kids are having a ball with grammy and pops and josh rode an ambulance all day yesterday and then class until 10pm....he is heading up here today....
and we get a whole day together!!!!
i am sooo excited!
and having a good rest last night i feel much better...i think i was getting a little too rundown...
sleep sleep glorious sleep....it is so evasive for us and yet when the next day dawns i dont' want to miss out on a mite of doing things with the kids ...i want to play and create and cook and just be all alive with them...
anywho...
doing that without sleeping much (though esme has slept 2 night in a row until 6am!!!!! yayayayay!!!)
makes me kinda loco
i am about to explore chattanooga a bit...find a writing pad and a coffee shop and sit and just write.
i am not sure what about
i just feel like writing =)
and what a sunny day i am waking up to!

various other stuff

this rain has been so good for the garden...the corn and cucumber plants just popped out of the ground and a couple acorn squash...very happy indeed...
and the fence is coming along...i try to do a little each day...i finished all the metal posts bar 2 and finished the corners with cross braces...
now i just need to wire the corners together...make a gate and pull wire!
the afternoon...jack and i made a bird collage...
and somehow i lost most of my voice over the course of the day!
hmmm...
i had a cold about a week ago that has slowly decreased over this week....but i didn't sleep well last night...so maybe it just sprung back to life??
who knows.
anywho....off to chat with josh after his day at the book buy and then to snuggle into bed!

green green and sooo green

this evening the sky was just amazing...subtle but so wonderful ...it made everything's color more true somehow
i suppose it is the rain just giving all the plants a good drink =)
we bought some training wheels for jack's bike today and i put them on and away he went!~
even though he can now ride without them...he still needs help getting started and being confident to ride on his own...
and the little time we'd practice each day just wasn't cutting it for him =)
so now he has his freedom again!
and notice the balls of barbed wire! yipee

heidi's here!

i feel so so blessed to have a full hand of dear friends....people who know my heart and i feel i know theirs...and i think this is why it really doesn't matter how much time passes by, they are always easy to be with...easy to chat and catch up...
it was wonderful o so wonderful to chat with heidi today...
it has got my mind going about homeschooling again....
i think if i could do it very intentionally, i could do it...
anywho..more on this another time

she seemed to be doing really well...a joy always surrounds her...the kids were quite taken with her and esme woke up from an unusual nap and asked "where heidi is?"
over and over =)

baking a birthday cake!

so i am turning 34 tomorrow!
and yet i have already had so many wonderful gifts for my bday....
kim came up a couple weekends ago and brought all my favorite delicious things from the farmer's market
josh gave me a lovely skirt and socks with multi-colored stripes on them =)
and marie gave me a hammock!!!!!! and a lovely pair of boots!!!
it is like Christmas!
well, i suppose it is like my birthday =)
and heidi came today!!!!
my dear friend who lives in norfolk...she was passing through town and went out of the way to arrive here and hang out...
the kids ADORED her and after the kids and i made a cake yesterday, heidi helped present it today!
the trouble was that the only space for it was in the freezer so it was rock hard and i forgot candles...so heidi ingeniously suggested matches on end...which worked well! we just had to do the whole hurrah quickly =)