news and notes from jess and dan

june nineteenthy stuff

How to explain the behavior of oil in the ocean, brought to you by Target.

I think decorations like this in a fast food restaurant are supposed to fill patrons with assurance that they have made a wise nutritional decision, thereby assuring return visits.  Instead, it fills me with skepticism, wondering why they have to surround me with "good for you" messages, suspicious that it's yet another deployment of psychological trickery in order to build business. 

It was cute, though.

And these are getting ready for a big kindness adventure.  

 

january

Am I the only one who finds the beginning of a new year really disorganized and stressful?  It's not just the expectation to set resolutions (which I don't do on Jan 1, I'm an idealist 24/7/365) or looming tax dates, there's something about the sense of a new opportunity, the holiday decorations to be put away, the lack of light and vitamin D, the list of things to plan (spring activities, summer vacation, school events), and this nesting feeling I get once the tree is down.  Ugh.  I mean, exciting, but UGH. 

So, sorry to go without updating for a while.  I decided to undertake a 365 project - which is a creative project you do every day for a year - and Griff joins me on it most days.  Finding time for it has been difficult. That is complicated further by a big career thing that I'll get to later.

First, January catch-up! (the links lead to 365 posts)

The kids and I finished up their winter break in a real do-nothing, go-nowhere mood. I guess that's good in some ways?  I wouldn't mind it so much, except that I didn't cook enough breakfasts and read enough stories.  Things to remember for next time. I'd like to remember stay-at-home days as snuggly instead of driving-eachother-crazy.

 

Oh, except we did do something productive.  Griff and I hand-delivered birthday party invitations again this year.  Part of me wants to swear that I'll be ahead of the game next year and mail them two weeks in advance, but I actually enjoy driving around and seeing where all of his friends live, maybe getting to say hello to a friend or two.  (Hi, Pache!)

Xander shocked me by being the only one of my children ever to voluntarily wear a knit cap as a toddler.  He's SO cute in it.  He stopped wearing it two days later, though. Ah, well, at least he was warm for those two days.

 

Reese continues to want to wear no outerwear or only his grey jacket.  He HATES wearing a coat.  Our surprising compromise: grey jacket over coat.  I dont' understand what part of this arrangement makes the coat acceptable to him, it looks awfully bulky to me, but hey, this is one winter during which I never have to worry about him being warm enough outdoors.  He wears two shirts every day, too.

 

Occasionally I took a freezing-cold walk around the back alleys in our neighborhood, toting my new telephoto zoom lens and stalking hawks.  I was lucky enough to find this one with a fresh kill.

We visited New York Deli at least once.  We always bring a stack of quarters.

We started a family painting.  This mostly-abstract / color study work will eventually be hung over the fireplace in our living room. 

Luke spent a few Thursday mornings with me and Xander.

I learned how to do some really cool long exposure tricks.

A 1920s typewriter followed me home from a local antique shop and sparked much interest among the kids.  How does it work? Why is there no #1?

 

We celebrated Griff's 7th birthday with a bowling party for him and his friends. Seven seven-year-olds are the perfect number and age for this kind of party!

I learned some PhotoShop tricks - textures and vignetting.

I also had a "Mom's Night Out" at the home of one of the NAP mamas, who is also one of the first friends I made after moving to Richmond.

We had some pajama days and a lot of screen time. Reese and Xander played better together than ever before. 

 

We had an impromptu after-school playdate with Jack and Josiah, during which Dan took ALL FIVE KIDS to the grocery store.  Voluntarily.  Hokey Smokes!  They had a great time, Josiah taught Griff some new jokes, and we all ate fabulous junk food (mmm, onion dip).  I love these kids, they're so sweet and fun and polite and adorable! My boys all love them, too.

I learned yet more long-exposure tricks and ways to use texture. 

I got really, really stressed out.

I taught Griff how to play Chinese Checkers again.  This time he was ready.

 

Griff had his first school dance and his first "date".  You know those stories you hear about childhood sweethearts who fall in love when they're five years old and eventually marry each other and have this precious storybook romance?  Those stories sound eerily like what's going on here.  Griff and Mia have been sweethearts for a year or thereabouts.  Not to jump the gun or anything...but the in-laws are awesome.

 

Ok, so back to the stressed-Jess thing.  I was asked to be a photographer for the Sabot auction this year, which involves working with two lovely Sabot artists who are putting together a gallery of children's art.  I count this as an honor.  Then a friend referred me to friends of hers who were looking for a wedding photographer. I've been researching and deep-thinking and planning ever since.  I'm arranging a meeting with the couple and there's a chance they may hire me (I believe they're also looking at one other photographer, maybe more).  This would be an INCREDIBLE opportunity and honor, but it's also incredibly stressful.  I had planned to take at least one paying client this year, but not until the fall and only for children's or family portraiture.  This ups the stakes considerably and steps up my time frame for things like figuring out rates, contracts, insurance, model releases, and acquiring some new equipment, too.  I would have four months between now and the wedding, and I need to spend that four months PERFECTING my photojournalistic event/human connection skills as well as learning flash.  Yikes.  This couple knows that this would be a first for me, and they have seen my Flickr; I need to address expectations with them even more before signing anything. 

Scary, but sometimes you have to leap!

Phew.  Writing out all of January (thus far) makes me feel like we've been far more productive than I had considered before!  Here's to all the learning and living we'll do in the weeks and months to come.  

the week

A weekful of days, you know, like when you say you're having a day.  But it lasts a week.  None of it photogenic, especially because of the part where my camera died last week, anyway.  My beloved camera, which caused much pain.  That's a whole other story, and one with a happy ending.  Other stuff first.

We drove up to Delaware on Sunday, taking all the stuff we'd stashed away for the road trip to the beach.  Good thing, because what should have been a 4 hour trip became a nearly 7 hour trip.  Traffic crawled.  Horrible, horrible.  The kids were troopers. 

Dan and I joked about the superior Maryland roads but lack of mileage indicators for food and gas.  Hey, in Virginia, the journey may be crap, but at least you know how long it will be.  And we joked about the sign for a decoy museum, imagining people being fooled into entering it,thinking it's a real museum.  We made notes to research what exactly the piles are near the harbor (pretty sure they're road salt, but what *is* road salt, and is that really what the piles are?) We were reminded by frequent billboards not to move firewood.  I sniped at him about getting off the highway at freaking takes-forever-to-find-anything Columbia for gas, and then looked out my window at the "Choose Civility" bumper sticker on the car next to us.  (Check the link.  Oh, Howard County, you are so *precious*.) 

We had family conversations like this:
Xander: "A wawa? A wawa?"
Jess: "You want water?"
Xander: "A money?"
Jess: "You want money?"
Griff: "Aww, he's just so grown up already!"

Xander begged for bridges constantly after crossing the Potomac for the first time.  Dan and I realized that this was his first significant trip out of state (not counting DC).  All the way to Wilmington we heard "more bridge!!" Every overpass was a cause for celebration, then "I want more bridge."  He was happy until we hit 6 hours.  We missed most of the wake, then stayed up way too late in the hotel pool, waiting for takeout.  Pizza and Chinese by the pool, the exotic nature of a motel room (pronounced "niiiiice" by Griffin), cable TV, everybody sleeping in one room.  The stuff happy childhood memories are made of.  We made Belgian waffles for breakfast in the motel canteen the next morning, trundled off to Bear to the Veteran's cemetary for the (really brief) funeral. 

Then came a wonderful thing. Well, first an awful thing: everybody was DONE.  Melty-downy super-frowny DONE.  We almost skipped the post-funeral family-reunion-ish restaurant meal.  But we didn't skip it, and it turned out to be in a great sunny casual room in a waterfront restaurant in charming charming charming Chesapeake City.  The streets there - few as they are and named things like "Bohemia" - are lined with Victorian homes that are part-residence, part-business: B&B rooms, antique shops, photo galleries, and such are tucked in here and there.  It took forever to get our meal (which was delicious) but we were able to stroll along the canal with kids or visit with relatives.  Better yet, we found a little waterside ice cream shop for an after-lunch treat with the kids before hitting the road.  It was wonderful.  It felt like a gift. 

The whole meal at Bayard's was punctuated by what my brother Kyle called "the boat alarm":  "boat!!! BOAT!!!!!! water! boat!!!!"  Oh, and there was a bridge, a HUGE bridge, within view the whole time.  Xander may want to consider relocating to Chesapeake City permanently.

Oh, it was lovely...and I missed my camera.  Although I think maybe I needed that trip without the camera to show me how much I need the camera. I did take the old PowerShot A620 with me, and was dismally disappointed in the few pics I took.  I may have whined a few times to my sibs.  One brother didn't get it.  My sister sortof got it.  I said it was like missing a limb.  Some friends at some point thought it would be a good, restful thing that I would go to the beach next week with no camera, or with only the point-and-shoot.  I wanted to point-and-shoot THEM.  People, not having a camera is not restful.  Taking pictures IS restful to me.  It's not about the documentation, it's about art.  Gah!

Other fidgety moments: repeated questions from Reese:
"What is a coffin?"
"What is a cemetery?"
"Will the coffin ever open again?"
Reese has a way of asking things with no correct answer.  He's not really asking what he seems to be asking.  Determining what he really wants to know can drive you insane.

Everybody was SHOT long before we got home, meandering as we were on scenic 301 instead of taking the dreaded I-95.  At some point I remembered the audio books on my iPod, and miracle of miracles, we didn't hear another peep for the rest of the way home.  I'm downloading a ton before we go to the beach.

Tuesday and Wednesday were horrible.  Trip fallout? Overtired kids? Just life with three hoodlums?  Didn't help that first Griff, then Reese, had some odd probably-viral redness of one eye each.  And our plans to catch the free movie on either of those days wouldn't have worked, anyway, because apparently some local summer camp programs send busloads of kids to them, preventing local families from being able to get in.  I won't type what I think of them for making that choice.  Or what I think of the theater for allowing it.  Not cool, folks.

Let's see, the high point of Tuesday was when I discovered that Reese had found a container of children's Tylenol and had consumed the rest of the bottle.  There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and general swearing-off of all allegiance to this child, who has sorely taxed me lately.  Oh, and research that revealed that he would have to swallow more than an entire bottle in order to seriously harm himself.  This information was preceded and followed-up with extremely stern lecture about liver failure, aimed at the four-year-old. 

Griff started a beach countdown.  6 days.

On Wednesday morning, Reese asked, "am I going to die today?"  He repeated this on following mornings.  I'll admit, it's nice to know if death is in the day's plan.  Still, gosh, poor guy.  He goes to a funeral, feels apprehensive yet curious about coffins, and then is warned by his mother about liver toxicity.  "Great-grandma died yesterday, will I die today?"  Dan explained why Great-grandma died and why we don't expect Reese to die.  Heavy.

Somewhere in here a friend called me to have an intervention on the photo issue.  A totally awesome friend who totally gets how yucky my stomach felt over the months of dreaming of beach macro photography, LOST.  My vacation lost!  The glorious glowing photos of friends, lost!  No opportunity to distill the sun and wind and togetherness into beautiful images. 

On Thursday, Xander called Reese a name for the first time.  According to Dan, he said "you dumb."  Reese, who freely calls anybody and anything "dumb," looked stricken. 

Griffin changed the beach countdown to 4 days.

Also on Thursday, Xander caused his first major flood.  He turned on the bathroom sink and added a roll of toilet paper.  I'm wondering whether he had an accomplice.  At any rate, he soon overflowed the sink and the whole room was flooded - so much that it was flowing into the boys' bedroom.  While I was hauling a whole basketful of soggy, pulpy towels to the basement, I discovered water flowing through the ceiling onto the basement floor.  Oh. My. Goodness.  It was a second floor bathroom, what did we do!?!  How much damage?!?  I raced upstairs and discovered that while I was cleaning one bathroom, Reese put a whole roll of TP into the first floor toilet and flooded it.  While I was cleaning *that*, he raided the sugar in the pantry again.  I think there was more.  I've blocked it.  I ranted to local friends about the horrible difficulty in managing three small people, and the impossible balance of providing just enough leadership to children without being an overbearing, scarring tyrant. 

On Friday, my new camera arrived.  Five minutes with it, and I knew all would be well.  Angels sang.  Children were nice to each other, mostly.  I was nice to them.  We bought Crocs and pizza and ice cream at a mall.  I easily redirected Reese when little things seemed overwhelming to him.  We had a lovely afternoon and evening together.  Reese asked Griffin to read his bedtime story to him.  Dan found a sitter for the film festival tomorrow.  I noticed that Griff had changed the beach countdown to 2 days.  Dan left the hospital and sent a text stating that his vacation starts NOW. 

Tomorrow we pack and scurry.  In the middle, Dan and I will see the premiere of the 48 Hour Film Project films.  We're hoping that local friends pack the theater and that Adam wins an audience award.  Then Sunday, we're off!  Peaches & beaches, here we come! 

all that's fit to print

• Tomorrow is Griff's last day of Kindergarten.  I haven't heard a word about any special festivities or graduation ceremony, it seems it's just a normal last day.  His class play was two weeks ago and their party was last week.  School supplies have come home.  Looks like the kindergarteners are revved up for summer!


• Reese has been in underwear for two weeks! I was planning to go hard-core on the potty training this summer once he was out of school, but he surprised me by *asking* for underwear on the last day of preschool...and hasn't looked back!  I always tell myself that things will happen when kids are ready for them, but it's hard to really believe it until you see it!  He's really proud of himself.  He's also psyched to be allowed in a booster seat in the car now that he's four and insisted on buckling himself this morning.  Most days he picks out his clothing and dresses himself head to toe.  Leaps in independence are happening left and right.


• Birthday party in the works for the 4 year old big guy.  We had a couple of last-minute family additions to our bday at home yesterday but the official bash will be on the 27th.


• Xander is a full-fledged toddler, hardly a baby, talking up a storm and telling me "no nap".  


• Dan and I are a week away from celebrating our 12th anniversary.  Since we probably won't get a date this weekend, we went down to Shockoe Slip last Saturday, shopped in Fountain Bookstore and an overwhelmingly, wonderfully cluttered antique shop, then had a lovely, lovely dinner at The Tobacco Company.  Old bricks, late afternoon light at a window table for two, and the most delicious pomegranate cocktail and filet Oscar ever. Add a waiter who recently graduated from our alma mater (and whose sense of humor was so W&M) and you have a perfect evening out.


• WE HAVE AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE!!!  Not just that, we accepted it, painfully low or no.  The buyer wants to close June 30.  Not sure if the process can move that fast but we are certainly willing to try.  Despite having gone back into nasty nasty debt during this whole awful anxiety-provoking recession-house-sale process, I don't regret moving for a moment.  I'm a little ticked at the November ex-buyer for thinking she could get a new car and a new house, but at this point, bygones are bygones.  I just want to be rid of the albatross and look toward paying down the debt and eventually fixing up chez Lucia-Hardy. 

summer is icumen in

It's almost here, really!  Actually, it feels like summer already, as noted over yonder.  This evening some very dirty Hardy Boys and I hung out in the back yard and fat dark clouds, the kind that only come before summer thunderstorms, threatened to douse us the whole time. 

I found a few excellent bugs, which I will also note on the Spark side.  The boys, who were already filthy from playing in the dirt at school, found some sidewalk chalk and entertained themselves with it.  Xander noted every passing plane, as documented in the photo above.  It makes me laugh every time - this tiny little person pointing and yelling "a plane! a plane!" 

Sabot's end-of-year closing circle and picnic are on Friday.  Maybe I should pull Griff out of school for that.  He still has 14 days left of school, as he informed me this evening, and on June 3 the kindergarten classes are putting on a show (also followed by a picnic) about fish.  Dan tells me that the word on the street is that the production is LONG.  Griff tells me that his part is toward the end.  Hooo, boy.  We plan to take video.  Be nice to us or we'll subject you to it.

Summer plans...

* mostly bumming around, having small adventures, hanging out with friends
* hopefully lots of ice cream truck purchases and park playdates and, if the humidity doesn't kill me, walks to Carytown
* swimming lessons for Griff? maybe even for Reese?
* some kind of birthday party for Reese.  He wants a pirate party at home.  I want some other theme at a playground.  Birthday boy wins?
* week at the beach with the Allen-Shorts in late July
* figuring out what the hell I'm doing about schooling next year.  I really wish I could confidently pick either homeschool or public school, move forward, and never angst over it again. 
* finishing up our garden? I never did plant cukes or zukes or gourds, or the hummingbird-attracting flowers.  The sunflowers I did plant didn't come up. 
* fixing the patio.  Maybe painting some rooms? Scrubbing out the basement?

pati-oh-no

Griff and I are pulling up all the slate in the old patio.  Roots from the maple tree made it uneven, and then bug-hunting, shovel-loving kids have worsened the situation, so that it's less a functional patio and more a quarry of sorts.  Before-ish/during shot:

The hope here is to loosen up the dirt beneath after giving all the various ants, termites, and beetles a chance to vacate the premises, and then settle the stones in a somewhat level fashion and allow moss to grow between them.  Problem is, at least two stones are lodged between maple roots, and more roots pop up all over the place.  They're too close to the tree to safely cut them, as they fall within the critical root zone.  I'm fairly certain that working around them may just result in problems down the line and the need to fix the patio again.  That said, it could work in the short term, and we may have better resources for a more permanent fix in a few years. 

Right now, I just want to be able to get the old patio table/chairs out of storage (we've set a deadline for ourselves of May 31 to get everything out) and be able to add outdoor dining to the host of ways we enjoy the yard. 

do it

do it, do it, do it.

i don't care what it is.  just do it.

don't get bogged down in how something bad might happen, or who doesn't approve of the thing you want to do.  don't listen to the fear, or the little voices in your head telling you a million and one reasons not to do the thing that you really, truly, deeply want to do.

and do it.

it feels really, really good to be living the things you've talked about, rather than talking about them and complaining about the things you're doing instead of them.  it is amazing to realize that you're not carrying the baggage of unfulfilled wishes and dislike of your present circumstance.  it is fantastic to say no to things you don't want to do, and to go for the things you do want to do.

life is way too short to be doing anything you don't actually have to do or want to do, and when it gets down to it, the list of what you actually have to do is pretty short. 

start the project, take the class, make the plan, meet the people, drop the sense of duty to people who mistreat you, embrace who you really are, do it your way, and evict those silly little voices.  they don't know what they're talking about.

do it!

make the world a better place with Jess

In January 2007 I wrote an entry on MySpace with the same subject heading as this post.  The title was taken from my sloganizer message at that moment, which seemed a fitting phrase for setting out my goals for the new year and beyond.  From that post:

I thought the time was ripe for posting my resolutions-in-progress.  I hestitate to call them resolutions because the term seems to trite and this means more to me this year than just the usual "go to the gym three times a week!" promises we make to ourselves (although, I admit, there is one weight-related item on the list).

These are a collection of ideas I've had in my head lately about the way I want to approach my life.  Some represent major change, some are a continuation of things I already try to do.  The list is a work in progress. 

I then laid out my mission statement for self-improvement, which was organized into items related to tending myself, tending my family, tending my home, and tending the world beyond my doorstep. 
I intended to revisit them and evaluate their status periodically and to rewrite them the following January; I accomplished the former but not the latter. 

This year I am cutting and pasting that mission statement and will attach it to this blog as a page (also linked in the sidebar).  I'm posting it here not for accountability purposes - in fact, it annoys me when people quiz me on personal-project status, so please don't - but in order to put ideas out there.  Sometimes seeing other people's goals inspires me, and something I add there might give you an idea or two.  Or it might prompt you to comment with your own goals, which I might want to add to my own.  You might have an idea that can help meet a goal; two years ago Lynz suggested a particular kind of reusable bag that I ended up purchasing and now use all the time (I used them this morning!).  I like it when sharing something starts a discussion, whether trivial or deep.  

So, if you want to read them, they're over there, and hopefully I'll remember to reassess now and then. I may pull a few out as post topics in the near future, too, and hope you'll chime in with your thoughts.

studio

Tucked into the back of our new home, beyond the dining room, is a tiny little room not much bigger than a twin-sized bed.  In fact, we have placed a twin-sized pull-out sofa in that room along with the children's little table, and when the sofa is unfolded, the room is filled, wall to wall.

The room has three large windows that face the East and the South and keep the room bright through most of the day.  The North wall, which it shares with the dining room, is completely taken up with a set of built-in shelves.  They are narrow shelves, deep enough for paperback books but not much else.  The previous owners called this room the "library" and used it for books, a couch, and a desk.  The floor was covered with old berber carpet.  The carpet is now gone and the restored wood glows.  With this light and the cozy heat of its own small radiator, this room is inviting.  What better place to set up as our studio?

Previously our art supplies were hidden in boxes and cabinets.  Now they are out of hiding, easily accessible.  Along with our diminished access to television, having increased access to games and creative materials has been a great experience!  This is the first place we come in the morning and it's a major hub of activity in our home all day long.  Take a look at how we've arranged the shelves (click on the photo to go to a labeled version on Flickr).

Future plans include stripping the wallpaper and painting in a fresh color (green?), painting the shelves a lighter color, and changing the dark window coverings to something lighter.  My in-laws gave me a bluebird house which I hope to put in view of the windows, along with a new stand for our old bird feeders.  You can also see the vegetable garden plot from here, and this summer we will add solar-powered glowing fairies given to us by Sean and Jessa.  ♥

anticipation

Griffin is very excited about our upcoming move to the Kensington house and initially seemed to expect that it would happen immediately.  I explained that we won't be moving for a couple of months, not until after Halloween.  Moments later, he produced this:

It's me, dressed as a witch, going trick-or-treating.  I'm carrying a blue treat bag.  Not sure what the green item in the bag is, I will have to ask him about that.  On my feet are "light-up" shoes.  You've probably seen kids wearing these things - little lights in the soles flash with every step.  Griff has coveted them in the past and recently acquired his first pair.  Apparently they are so cool that all of us will be wearing them soon. 

Since this drawing was made I answer questions daily about when we will move and how many more days until Halloween.  He's dutifully ticking off the days on his calendar.  I'm hoping once November comes we have a better idea of when we'll fully move in - at present all I can tell him is "somewhere in here" while vaguely gesturing at the last two weeks of November.  During the first couple of weeks we're hoping to tear down wallpaper and some built-ins (buh-bye, formica hall shelf and matching desk upstairs), patch plaster, paint, and refinish some floors so that everything is neat and shiny. 

Griff is looking forward to Halloween so that the move can start.  I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, when hopefully it will be over!

4317 kensington avenue

We have a contract!  ...and now we will rush headlong into a flurry of mulching and power washing and steam cleaning in order to get our house on the market ASAP.  Good gracious.

We've been entertaining the idea of moving for 2-3 years, and started taking it more seriously at least a year ago, at which time I started browsing through listings now and then.  Then this summer we decided to actually get a little more serious about it, watching the listings more avidly and considering calling our Realtor and letting him know that we're casually looking.  A week and a half ago I saw a listing that looked kindof cute - probably nothing amazing, not the one, but it seemed like as good a time as any to actually call Cy, get reacquainted, and cut my teeth on touring houses.  Gotta start somewhere, right?  Even if this one was inside the city limits, where we'd previously said we wouldn't live...at least take a look. 

But then I really liked it.  And Dan, who had come along on the spur of the moment instead of staying home with the kids, liked it, too.  But, you know, it's in the city.  And would the bedrooms work for us?  Lots of wallpaper, older kitchen...but all in very good shape, and easy to change, and the house was just...so...us.  It has wood floors and nice moldings, a side porch, a huge old fashioned attic, big sunny windows, a screened back porch, a large basement, and a beautiful yard with enough sun for gardening and enough shade for playing, even in August.  Gas cooking, radiators for heat, a/c for the summertime.  It has a 1950s feel (parts of it remind me of my Medon grandparents' home, which I loved) and is really well-maintained.  It has "secret" stairways, according to Griffin, and the kinds of nooks and crannies that make it a great home for creating childhood memories.  It is smaller and certainly less ostentatious than our current abode, which is good.  It sits in an adorable neighborhood, one of the quaint West Endy ones that I would sometimes drive through and wish I could live there.  It's walking distance (sidewalks!) from a great elementary school with a wonderful playground as well as from at least one good friend's house.  It's a long walk, short bike, minutes-long car ride to Carytown.  Much, much closer to Dan's office, Reese's preschool, and our favorite museums and parks.  The price is perfect - less than I was expecting to pay, but not so low that you wonder who they buried under the basement floor.  This is a house that can fit our lifestyle...but can we fit into it?

I spent the weekend obsessing over it (let me tell you, anxiety + sleep deprivation + husband out of town + housing concerns = bad combo!) and moving things into it in my imagination.  I realized that I was finding places for Griff's art supplies and my great-grandmother's glass bottles - well, not finding places, knowing where they'd go.  I needed to see it again.  (In the meantime I looked at four other homes, two of which were nice and fit our needs, but none of them called to me at all, unlike this one.)  So on Tuesday, we went back.  Every room was twice as big as I had remembered, and with those "where do we put the piano, and will our fridge fit?" worries settled, I only loved it more.

The house feels like it's full of stories, and I can completely see us adding our own stories to them.

So, after studying comps and talking to the bank, we put an offer on it last night, fully expecting a counter-offer, and willing to pay their asking price, if it came to it.  It was a fair price, after all. 

They accepted.  We're moving!  Our closing is scheduled for October 31, and we will move in after a couple of cosmetic touch-ups (floors/walls), probably in mid-November. 

Next step: talking to Mary Munford about Griff starting there on Sept 2 instead of starting at Shady Grove and switching mid-year.  Cross your fingers for him/us.  We are also having to step up our formerly leisurely plans to spruce up the Burberry Lane house and get it on the market.  No stress, eh?

And can I tell you how AWESOME it is that we have enough of a "tribe" here now that we had people rooting for us to move close to them?  During all of my college drives past Richmond, I never imagined that someday this would be home

shortness of breath

THIS is going on my calendar.  Not sure if my heart can take it.

He told me yesterday that some of the kids in his class said that Yo Baby (small containers of full-fat yogurt) is for toddlers.  I asked him what he said and he apparently told them that that's silly, and he can eat it if he wants to.  Sortof reminds me of the time the next-door-neighbor-girl, Shirlina, told me that my dad couldn't be a nurse, he had to be a doctor, because women are nurses and men are doctors.  I thought she was an idiot.  I was the same age as Griff.  Glad to hear that he's on his way to being a great little freethinker.

seeds

"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring.  Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth?"
- Edward Giobbi

Griff and I are starting to plan our garden.  Some changes from previous years:

• pole beans instead of bush beans
• some spray to (hopefully) keep the bunnies out of the beans
• slightly raised beds with covers for lettuces, radishes, carrots
• no watermelon!
• (knock wood) an earlier planting time

Weeding has begun, as has a project to rip out the grass underneath the fort/slide part of the swingset so that we can put in a Tonka truck quarry of pea gravel and some other rocks. 

Resident gnome Aberfeldy will, of course, oversee the project.

stuff and nonsense

Last week:

♥ Both kids have gone crazy for kiwi fruit.
♥ We invited two moms and their kids (moms are my friends, kids are Griff's classmates) over on Wednesday to make pizzas from scratch for lunch. 
♥ Reese was excited to go to Danielle's (babysitter's) house on Wed and Fri and happily gave me a kiss and a hug and then said "see you later, Mommy".  We all ate lunch there on Friday. 
♥ Griff and some classmates are building a rocket ship in the Forest Room studio.  Griff occasionally comes home with an "air tank" taped to his back, in the form of a popsicle stick or strip of paper.
♥ I ordered the replacement door for our back door, which is rotting out.  On the down side, replacing doors costs an arm and a leg.  On the up side, there was no angsting about it because it MUST be done, you can't *not* replace a rotten door.

Next week:

♦ State Fair of Virginia on Sunday.  Prize-winning enormous vegetables! Pig racing! Ferris wheel! Tractor pulls! Rodeos! Cotton candy! Stinky livestock! This is the highlight of our fall every year and we're bummed that we'll only be visiting once this year instead of several times like last year.
♦ 33-week midwife appointment on Tuesday
♦ Finally getting the lawn sprinklers fixed and the outdoor outlets repaired on Thursday
♦ Some pampering (gift card for a facial, treating myself to a mani/pedi) for me
♦ Dan has a hospital week, works the weekend

The week after:

♣ Parent/teacher conferences at Sabot.
♣ Maternity photos.
♣ My birthday. :)
♣ Conscious Birthing class with Dan at Yoga Source.
♣ "Sprinkle" (light shower) for me organized by my sisters-in-law.
♣ Anúna concert

updateish

Updates and plans:

⇒ Garden planted 6/11, FINALLY.  No cherry tomatoes available this late from Strange's.  I'm hoping I can find some at a hardware store garden center in the next few days.

⇒ Pregnancy stuff: definitely feeling baby kicks.  I'd been sortof feeling them for about 2 weeks, but now there's no denying it.  Also looking more pregnant, and in maternity duds full time.  As mentioned before, I'm having to rebuild the maternity wardrobe pretty much from scratch.  Fun to shop, fun tohave new things, fun to be a size small again, not fun to spend money.  Ah, well.  While searching thrift stores, I found a consignment shop that desperately needs maternity clothing.  Gonna sell off those size larges, wuwu!

⇒ Next midwife visit: tomorrow.  Should be scheduling the 20-ish week ultrasound then or in the very near future.

⇒ Reese's 2nd birthday on Thursday the 14th, small family/friends party on Saturday the 16th.

⇒ Family vacation in Virginia beach next week, hooray!

⇒ Prenatal yoga starts June 22.