81

i decided to try these new "fancy" rag curlers last night, just to see what would happen. i'm glad i learned to try new hair things on UNimportant days. my hair, which normally reaches my mid back, spent the first 8 hours of the day just below my ears in curl dreads. as the day went on, it relaxed juuuuust a little. i felt like shirley temple. i actually kinda liked it, if we're being honest. anyway, it seemed like the kind of hair which required a jumping picture, and so that's exactly what i did.

80

i know i've got a major issue with bumperstickers in general. for some reason it has become one of my personal battles to try and obliterate them.

but REALLY?!? you REALLY needed one that proclaimed your love of HANDBELLS?! i just have a really hard time thinking that someone paid to have a huge stack of these printed up...what? to sell at the national handbell convention? and that other someones purchased them and shoved the 34 cents worth of ugly stickiness to your multi-thousand dollar vehicle????? yep. makes perfect (non)sense.

79

Jacob is 7 years old. he has autism, and a myriad of other difficulties. he experiences the world in ways no one else seems to understand. every day, jacob takes these two trash bins, HIS trash bins, and walks them around his neighborhood as many times as he can fit in. he takes them both, never just one. as he walks around the rocky roads, one or the other will regularly tip off to the side. jacob stops, lifts it upright, and continues on his way. never angry or frustrated. he keeps walking. all around the neighborhood, quietly wheeling the bins behind him.

i was spending the afternoon with jacob today as his foster mom needed a break. i can't fully explain why, but this parade of his two bins was incredibly touching to me. to watch him treat them so tenderly, so carefully. as if they were his two children, left solely in his care. he was very committed to getting them out to see the neighborhood, pausing to watch the horses or squirrels or to look at a creek. around and around the neighborhood. after about two hours of walking with him, it began to rain. i'm not sure jacob noticed at all. i let him know we needed to head back to the house until the rain stopped, and offered to take charge of one bin for him. as i wheeled it toward the house, jacob's free hand never left the side of it, as if to be a backup spotter should it topple over. as we approached the driveway, jacob wheeled the bins to their resting place, gently putting each precisely where it belonged. as we walked into the front door, he glanced back, to be sure they were as they should be.

this child is the target of teasing, rejection, namecalling. he is labeled with horrific words like "retarded" and "unreachable." and yet i see in him a level of intimate humanity i've rarely found. there is so much left to learn about autism. so many unanswered questions. countless families who struggle to make it through each day, to find the right help for their children, to try and parent them with love in the midst of being completely burned out.

one thing i'm sure of, though, is that the greatest disservice we could do to these children and ourselves is to ignore them or write them off. for the last six years i've worked directly with foster kids with developmental disabilities like autism. it's sickening the way these children are tossed from one home to another, label after label written into their records. medications shoved into their systems. rarely does anyone spend time with them to see who they are, past the diagnoses, past the outbursts and embarrassing tantrums.

each of these children is, in fact, created by God. and not just by God, but in his very image. they're not the exception to that rule, you know.

later, hours after i'd left jacob, i noticed myself rushing around, trying to get things done just to check them off the list. i remembered the care with which jacob wheeled his bins. that he felt such responsibility for them, and took that seriously. and cliche as it may sound, this "unreachable" child most certainly reached me.

78

such adorable sisters! and some of the sweetest, most generous people i know. (and the one on the right is getting married so soon!)

77

i had the SUPREME honor/pleasure/luck to be invited to join one of my ALLTIMEFAVORITEHUMANS, katie, to go see WICKED tonight. ohmyword. it.was.amazing!!! every little detail just worked out brilliantly...free tickets, starbucks, amazing seats, great parking, no traffic....had one of us been the other's husband, it would've been downright romantic. this is the only way we could get us and proof of where we were in one picture...which is sad for you, because katie is GORGEOUS. (she's also one of probably 3 who regularly read this blog, so THANKS KATIE! best friend-date ever!)

76

4 of the greatest guys ever. they were in manly dude mecca: NCAA championships. someone offered me 175 bucks for my ticket on the way into the game. i sat the ENTIRE game wishing i'd've sold it. but it was really fun...i'm just saying...do you even KNOW what i could do with that much money?!?!

75

Onions. a photographic journey

I have UBER sensitive eyes when it comes to cutting onions. normally, i can just power through an onion really quickly and the burning's not too bad. today, however, i was making soup for about 30 people (just joined a supper swap group) and so i had to cut SEVEN. i started by just seeing how many i could do. the answer? NONE. so then i tried the ol' wives tales, begining with a candle. no luck. then i rinsed the onion under water before cutting. no luck. so i decided to get creative. yep. i put a bag over my head.

but no luck there. still massive burning and flowing of tears. so i called my friend K and asked her, because she is PURE MAGIC in the kitchen, and so i assume she knows everything. she said she'd heard that people put a piece of bread in their mouth while cutting onions to absorb the vapors. well, i'm one of those people that takes things to the next level. if the box says to leave hair color on 15 minutes, i assume what they really mean is 24 minutes. so, instead of holding bread in my mouth, i did this:
i'm not kidding. i really did. it worked for about half an onion. next logical thing to try?

but nope. still the burning. all in all, it took me nearly 45 minutes to get through those stinkin onions. and i had puffy break-up eyes for about six hours.

so do you know any good tricks?

74

she had a bow in her hair for more than three seconds. so i had to take a picture. the bow came out shortly thereafter.

73

meet gretel. i was able to talk the mister into a "trial period" because she was free and came with everything we'd need. see, we're self-proclaimed "not pet people," but as it turns out, kaia is SUPERPETPERSON. and it's just so often that she's so sick and we can't leave the house...and bunnies are so cute, and don't make noise, and minimal mess....and...okay, fine....i really kinda mostly wanted one anyhow. so it works out lovely. it's presently 2am, and kaia's awake (as usual) and if you could see her glee and silly dance steps of excitement about this fuzzy bunny, you'd be tickled. it's delightful. and gretel is the softest, sweetest, most affectionate little thing. is it to early to say we heart her? kaia's daddy is not convinced just yet...fingers crossed though!

72

to be clear, this is my best friend of the world, with my sweetest girl, in a mall...let's see...what's left to make it a perfect situation? (other than my husband of course. obligatory answer). we'll i'd go ahead and say MONEY to buy things in the store, or just a good cup of coffee from starbucks. i'm easy to please.

on a more entertaining note...the overalls she's wearing in this picture did NOT make it home with us. because sometimes the blow out is so bad, i'm just not willing to clean the clothes that will only fit another month or so, know what i mean? in summary: ewwwwwwwwww.

71

i tried. i tried SO HARD to fight against the cuteness and realize that yellow toddler sunglasses weren't practical OR necessary. but i failed, okay? FAILED. i'm a sucker. and, as you likely guessed, they were busted before we got home. CURSES!

thankfully i snapped this pic in the store. so, this picture is worth, quite literally, $5.50

70

floating head at 2am. what, you may ask, was it floating in? wiiiiiiiine.

69

hello mr. sea lion. howdoyado?

68

best.hand-me-down.ever. EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (thanks ashley!)

67

that's mommy's girl...love language? PRESENTS!!! (also, how awesome is the pearl necklace on her nude little body?!?! she did that herself!)

66

see it? seeeeeeeeeeee it? THAT, my friends, is kobe freakin' bryant. in person. in my town. heck yes. i love the lakers. a lot. i tried about a million times to get kobe and luke walton in the same frame, but it wasn't happening. the game was intense. crazy intense! a fight and a stretcher and everything. we were up, literally, as high as you could possibly get in the rose garden. even still. awesome!

65

bye bye ba-bas!!! except, now she won't drink milk at all, plus she's not really eating...phase, right? this is day 3 of no baba and i'm just wondering when she'll forget about them, stop asking for them and walking over to the drawer where they used to be and crying while she pats it repeatedly.

64

great teamwork! LET'S GO DEFENSE!

63

y'all, get ready to be UBER impressed with me. i took kaia to borders for the children's book section just so we could get out of the house for awhile. on our way out, i noticed some clearance shelves that said "75% off" so i started looking around. i picked out a few things that were very cheap. as i was walking away, i heard an employee telling another customer that EVERYTHING ON THE SHELVES WAS ONE DOLLAR. freaking out commenced. i i grabbed anything that looked good (i guess this was the third day of the sale, so it was very picked over) and kept saying "you're SURE it's just ONE DOLLAR?!?!" here's the receipt, because i can still hardly believe it...

yep. i spent $14 and saved a whopping $172.90!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nothing like this has ever happened to me. it's not nearly as cool as all those chicks who get eight zillion dollars worth of groceries for $1.57, but it's nice.

from the moment i left the store, i've been thinking "why didn't i just go ahead and grab all the multiples of the ipod cases and photo albums...why didn't i just get it all?!?!"

62

for some reason, the picture won't rotate, even though i manually rotated it before saving. so, just tilt your head for a sec...

there's this spectacular store here called "scrap" where people donate all kinds of things to be used for general craftiness. you walk in and there are like huge barrels full of rubber bands or wine corks or zippers or carpet squares. then another section has zillions of file folders and binders and floppy disks and molding clay and half used jars of paint. and it's ridiculously cheap.

so i took the wee one over to find some things to play with, and happened upon these magazines from the 1950's. they're adorable! filled with story and cartoons...just so sweet. something about having these childrens magazines from way back then just made me feel so super excited!

61

i'm pretty sure this is the closest i'll get to an interesting, artsier looking photo without a better camera. the sky today was STUNNING. way to go God!

60

this may look like regular road work to you, but to me it's an enormous hassle. i drew the following (very highly technical) picture to explain.

alright. i put about twelve minutes in to that, and now that i see the text is unclear, i'm completely indifferent. the point it, the road work pictured above happens to be on the main street between my house and all the stuff we do. it is a major hassle for me. insult to injury? IT'S CLOSED FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. boooo.

59

i drove by my old office on my way home. i started having major flashbacks to pre-baby life. i remembered getting up, showering every morning. wearing makeup and cute clothes and shoes with heels. i remember doing my hair and stopping and starbucks. sitting at a desk, helping children and families. being highly respected for my work. being appreciated and having people request me. i remember lunch breaks, going home early, happy hour with co workers. i remember having sick days and paid vacation. i remember mental health days. and i remember thinking it would be so luxurious and peaceful.

this is not a case of the grass always being greener, it's....just appreciating things that were common place then. and, okay, desperately wishing i was allowed to call in sick, just once, and stay in bed aaaallll day. that's all.

58

it's helpful if you know this about me. there are precisely three reasons i'd wear a baseball cap. in order of "most often the reason"

1. i'm having a rough day, either physically or, more often, emotionally. the lower the hat is on my head, the worse it is.

2. my hair is super dirty or rebelious

3. my eyebrows are WAY overdue for a waxin'

today's reason? 4. all of the above.

57

i have no idea why it doesn't occur to me to take her to the little play area of the mall like, four times a week. especially on rainy days. it's free, it's contained, she plays freely, i could just sit and drink coffee and listen to my ipod...it's pretty much a perfect situation.

56

let me explain. this bar is at the end of the block where the college i went to is located. the college is a private, conservative christian school (i, however, am not a conservative christian), and therefore all students signed a contract that we wouldn't drink while we were students. there are about thirty nine thousand stories i could tell following that last sentance. anyway, i always joked that after we walked across the stage and received our diploma, we should just keep walking, cap and gown included, straight to the tavern to get drinks.

well, when the day came (in 2003), i didn't have the nerve. HOWEVER, tonight we had an alumni event for our "service club" (aka sorrority) and so my friend and i stopped in the bar on our way, did a shot and walked right out and onto campus for the event.

it.was.awesome.

55

my contribution to our season finale party. it was my first time making sugar cookies from scratch. although they weren't vomitous, they were nowhere near as tasty as the store bought dough. even though it looks like i let kaia write with frosting, it was all me.

also? did you SEE the finale? it's completely sickening how that all turned out. i'm in total denial.

54

one of my favorite kid books by my favorite kid book author, sandra boynton

53

i saw a sign for a lavender farm on my way home from an appointment and thought "PERFECT! i love lavender!" and i pulled into the driveway and parked. there was no one there. i opened the door, and was shocked to discover that rather than the exquisite scent of lavender overwhelming my senses, the smell of cow doodoo and llama breath. so, thankfully no one has perfected a scratch and sniff computer screen, and you just get the pretty picture.