nifty paper site

I just found this website while trolling for crafty things to look at.  The name is YellowOwl Workshop and I really enjoyed their stationary and more.  Some really clever ideas for invites and such.  They also do customized orders.  Check them out if you have a chance!

Splish Splash Part 1

Let me start by saying that I am not a jungle jane. I don't like heat, I am a pansy, I wilt, all the while griping and moaning. The reason I say this is because the dog days of August really came up and bit me in the ass. It was between 100 and 106 the past three days here in lovely PDX! It just happened to work out that one of those days, Sat., my parents were coming down so we could all take a day trip to beautiful Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. All was packed and ready to go by 9am, a lovely taco salad picnic, fresh watermelon and some illegal beverages in the cooler. The list was checked twice and we all piled in for a day to beat the heat. It was a gorgeous day-sunny, a little wind, blue skies after a little mist coming over the mountain range. We drove in, set up at the park, and took a little walk before digging in. The only thing shadowing this lovely day is that I was having some hormonal issues and basically acted like a complete bitch from time to time, even telling my husband to shut up in front of lovely parents and adoring children. (sorry sweets!). After the fog wore off, as well as my attitude issues, we had a wonderful time, complete with dancing around with a whirly gig, watching a young couple get married right by the water, and talking with the grounds keeper(who suspiciously looked a lot like Santa Claus!) and his wife. After another little hike with Momma, Nanna and Abigail, we headed over to Tolovana just past Haystack Rock.



The beach was not too crowded and we staked out a place for our entourage just close enough to the water. The girls had a magnificent time! It was Charlotte's first time in the water and she was a little trooper, even letting me dip her in up to her tummy a couple times! Brrr! Abigail was a screaming banshee of pure delight, taking Momma, Daddy, Nanna and Grampa for runs into the waves, laughing and jumping all the way. She face planted a couple times in some bigger waves but even that didn't deter her joy! We sort of made some sand castles but it is a rather delicate process when you have a two year old smashing everything in to make sand-cakes!The beach has always been a favorite place of mine. I am so happy I was able to share the day with some of the people who mean the most to me in this world. The only thing I am little bummed about is my lack of pictures. Some I used the natural light setting on the camera for and then turned out crappy, and then I left the camera downstairs(computer is upstairs) and I am too damn tired to upload them now! See future post for pics!

chillin' and maxin'

just one

sometimes families are the stones you line your pockets with on your way down to the river.

gemini

gemini girl is split down the middle
her hair beyond the pale blue eye
rough hand seeking to brush tears from the brown one
like a Picasso, square breasts, cubed fingers
clasped together
beholding the fragments of the future
brushing away the past like crumbs.

she always wakes up with a headache
for the halves never meet.
one side is shy
one makes love in a public bathroom
one side tells them they aren't bothering her
the other yells in their faces

she can't help herself.

she wants the country air
and a shining towering condo in the city.
she wants another baby to smile upon,
she wants to give the ones she has away

consumed with a split vote
neither party winning
neither one to rule

no she didn't!

the other day we, my two lovely little ones, and my husband, were in the car on our way somewhere, when my older daughter, A., started kicking the back of my seat ever so gently. The intensity of the kicking increased and I calmly said to A., "I hope you're not kicking the back of my seat" to which she replied, "Does it sound like I'm kicking the back of your seat?". To this I could only hang my jaw in astonished incredulity and wheeze/gasp. If this is only a preview of life to come, I am going to need a staff or team or something to keep up with that mouth/mind!

then there were three

Miracles
by Walt Whitman


Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night
with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet
and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

Keep the windows open

bees knees news.

Abigail can now write the letters O, A, M, H and P. She can sing all the songs she learns at preschool word for word with all the motions.
Charlotte knows that if she taps her nose and points at something she is telling me she wants to smell the item. She is not wanting hugs at bedtime right now, but has learned to climb out of her big girl bed(Abigail's old bed) and toddle into our room at 5:45am!
Zakk is getting ready to go on a business trip-a first for him, I think. Cleveland rocks!
I am learning to deal with the fact that I have to wear a god-forsaken lab coat at work over my regular business attire because some of the practice managers thought it would be a good idea. Remind me, if I ever climb high enough on the corporate ladder, that I do not have good ideas...
Abigail is going to begin ballet classes in September and I don't know who is more excited-me, or her. I can't wait for all of that 100% pure energy to get channeled into something beautiful and new for her.

that's all for now, folks...

one liners

"Mommy, my boo boo looks like bacon now."

"Mommy, I'm going to be really mad if you don't come up here and see my Sponge Bob Square Pants movie."(which by the way, we don't own...)

she's leaving home, bye bye

Warning: The following statements were written by a fatigued, overly-warm, slightly cranky, low estrogenized, slightly depressed me, not my normal, slightly less fatigued self...

I feel as if my children are slowly moving beyond my reach. I can remember all the nights and days spent nursing Charlotte, spending time with her, just breathing in her baby-smell. I remember, too, talking with Abigail all the time when she was a wee one, playing with her, giving her hugs. Now Charlotte won't let me hug her, doesn't want me to hold her, and basically ignores me as much as humanly possible. I don't have the time I would like to spend giving her more one on one attention because I work all the time and Abigail is definitely a high maintenance child in the attention/need to be challenged respect. And Abigail's perma-chatter is driving me crazy-I love her and the fact that she has more than mastered the English language, but her conversations border on the manic, especially when she feels you are not paying enough attention to her.

So, I am saddened by all this. I realize deep down that most of these thoughts are highly emotional, only slightly tinged with rational thinking. But I feel sad and not a bit lonely, nonetheless.