This weekend our good friend Josh got married in Farminton, New Mexico. He had our company DJ the wedding, so we traveled, with our friends Brooke and Brian, 4.5 hours through some very scary mountain passes, some topping 12,000+ ft, to attend the wedding. (Note, I did not take the photo of red mountain.)

I have to say, that I’m not terrible impressed with Farmington, and it’s surrounding towns. Although, Aztec had this very interesting for sale sign.

But we really enjoyed Durango, where our good friend Isaac is now a police officer. Most importantly, downtown Durango, picture perfect for a little mountain town, had a Starbucks. Brooke was so excited when she saw it, that she elicited some very strange looks from the bikers on the street. Perhaps the saddest part of the trip was finding out that the yarn store was closed on Sunday. What kind of yarn store closes on Sunday? Sad. Sad. But we did enjoy a very large pizza before heading home.

Honor has been cracking me up so much lately with his word combinations. Once in awhile he’ll bust out a word that just makes me pause for a second, like tattoo (that’s what I get for letting him watch Miami Ink.) He’s been very quick to let me know if he doesn’t want something, “No want.” And very quick to let me know if he wants to be held, “Hold it.” He came to me the other day holding a raw egg (yes the boy can reach the counter now) saying, “Cook it. Egg. Cook it. Egg.”

But the best part of this talking stage is teaching him to say “I love you.” Even when you tell them to say it, there’s something about it that melts your heart.
So I tell Honor, say “I”
Honor: “I”
me: “love”
Honor: “you”

It’s just the sweetest thing. So now he tells me, “I you.”

And the best part, Eden is always asking me to “say the words”. So I scoop her up and we say the words together, and then Honor wants to say the words. Yep, I did good, my kids are asking to tell me they love me.

This great little neck warmer at craftster.

A very cool shrug-y type sweater from the brand new issue of knitty.

This bolero, with some major modifications, like shorten the back and lose the sleeves, voila! one up on the sold out Urban Outfitters vest.

And check out this oh, so cool knitting cafe in NYC. I’m wishing I was there.

Monday night I went through every article of clothing we own, including every article of clothing the kids have ever worn. A friend of a friend’s dad is driving a big load to a church in Louisiana. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to give. At first Eden was a little disturbed by the fact that I was giving away all our clothes. “You’re giving away my dresses!” I was a little worried about how I was going to teach her compassion. It was difficult to explain to her what’s been going on in the other side of the country, but I think she finally understood that other little girls over there don’t have any dresses at all, let alone a bed to sleep in.

I explained to her that I wasn’t giving away any of her clothes that still fit, just ones that she doesn’t wear anymore – she seemed to be relieved by this. But I told her that she can give away something that she still wears if she wants. She decided to donate her blue butterfly shirt – totally on her own – and went and got it out of her drawer. She wanted to go with me to give it to the little girls who don’t have anything anymore. It’s moments like these when your heart swells with such pride, that you don’t even know what to say.

This is why we parent, to teach our kids compassion and grace, to care for others who have nothing. We have the responsibility to train them to be good people, it’s nice to see that we can be successful.

PS: Everyone MUST read this email written by a woman who volunteered in Austin, Texas with the evacuees.

While waiting in the car –

Eden: “I want to go into the store with daddy.”

Me: “Sorry sweetie, you can’t go into the liquor store.”

Eden: “Because they might lick me?”

My friend Loo had a baby boy last night a 7:30pm.

If nothing else, there is something good in the world today.

Congratulations Loo!!!

I’ve been sitting here for an hour trying to find words about the devastation in Louisiana. I’ve taken this long to write about it because I’ve selfishly been wanting to keep it out of my mind. I’m at the point where I can’t ignore it anymore and I still can’t find the words. There’s no real way to pay tribute to what our fellow Americans are going through; this very minute, some of them are fighting for their lives.

All I can say is I thank God for our safety. I feel guilty and selfish thinking of my safety and my family first. What if this was happening to us? It scares me beyond belief.

I cry out to God for the safety and protection of those trapped without food, water, or medical care, who are fearing for their very lives and safety. I wish I could send money, I wish I could take a family into my home and make them feel safe, I wish I could be there to help with…something I think that perhaps the scariest part is there are people who need help so badly and they’re not getting it. I think, in general, we put too much faith in our governments ability to SAVE us, and to find out in such a terrible way that the government isn’t coming through fast enough, is heart wrenching.

Many of us are left with only the ability to hope and pray and cry. And sitting in my air conditioned home with food in the fridge and running water – my family is safe – it doesn’t seem like near enough.

There’s not a whole lot to report, but I wanted to keep you all in the loop. I spoke with my uncle (the P.A.) last week and he didn’t think that the blood tests would find anything conclusive, he actually wondered why the doctor ordered them at all. Jim may still do them, but now he’s not in any hurry to spend another $120.

The numbness in the left side of his body is ever present, but it’s not really bothering him like it was – I think he’s just getting used to it. At times, when we go on a bike ride or he mows the lawn, basically whenever he moves a lot, both his legs are numb. He was also having muscle spasms in his lower back the other day after a lot of activity. I finally forced him to let me give him a massage, it temporarily made things worse. But all this leads me to believe that it’s (hopefully) a problem with his back. We’re going to try to get him into another Chiropractor as soon as possible. And I think he would really benefit from a professional massage.

Until then, I thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. We’re just taking this one step at a time and trusting God to take care of us. We will be OK.

Picnic at the Park

Check out our picnic at the park last weekend.

So, this weekend when we were watching a tivo’d episode of Star Trek the Next Generation (NERDS!), Eden was sweetly coloring on a coloring book and Honor was sweetly coloring the ENTIRE HOUSE. I knew when we picked up that pack of crayons at evil Walmart for $.10 that I should spend the extra money and buy washable crayons. But they were ten cents, I figured it would be ok. A calculated risk. A stupid risk.

So we were watching Star Trek, learning about things like subspace fields and deflector dishes when we realized that Honor was strangely quiet. Jim went to investigate. The pictures didn’t turn out, but he found the entire surface of the kitchen decorated in hues of blue and green artistic scribbles. We’re talking, everything at Honor height, the stove, the fridge, the dishwasher, the walls, the cabinets. Later we found that he took a trip down stairs and decorated on his way down. He even got Eden’s turd computer monitor.

It was SO our fault. See, I think the problem is that we’re expecting him to be like Eden, and he’s just not. It would be nice, but he’s just not. It is absolutely against he nature to stay out of trouble. Honor will just always be… ornery. I need to just keep that in mind and come running whenever he’s not in my sight.

All I have to say is, I’m buying stock in the magic sponge. It got every speck of crayon off. That and I’m going to install a tracking beacon in Honor, so I can always locate him. Tracking beacon, another thing I learned from Star Trek.