bike ride

So my mom and dad for my birthday and Everette's birthday got us really nice bikes. Schwinns.we have yet to go on a family outing, but jonathan and I have gone a few times. The adorable hat he is wearing is thanks to Darryl LaCombe and sadly it blew off during the ride... Happily it was recovered on the way home. I think I need to get a hat with a strap!

My husband Chester

This week Everette shaved of his winter beard, he as officially come out of hibernation-just in time to spread mulch! He had a little fun shaving it off and I took some pictures. I am not sure if there are even words to explain how he looks so I will post the pictures and let you decide.

Phase 1: The Crusty Joe Dirt look-if he only had a mullet.

Phase 2: The beloved Hitler Stache. I don't even know what to say

Everette really had a great time with this, mostly because I thought it was so disturbing, and he is always up for harassing me whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Phase 3:The pensive "you-don't-even-want-to-know-this-guy" He did this just to get me. It worked, it totally gave me the willies. Thankfully phase 4 (not pictured) was totally clean shaven.

They're just some old plastic cups...

but they hold some very strong, and happy memories. The first night, well actually the second-he screamed for two solid hours when we arrived at 12:30 AM (so much for sneaking in unnoticed), we were in Cleveland I was giving Jonathan a bath. I was digging in the closet for the baby toys. I noticed a set of square cups, and my heart did one of those happy, sad flip-flops. Those cups were from my grandma's house. My mom's mom died when I was only 12, and she had a severe stroke when I was six or seven. I don't remember her much before the stroke. I usually think of my grandma in two ways. Sadly, in my pre-teen years, she was the grandma that couldn't walk very well, couldn't use her right hand, and couldn't hear at all! Seriously, a large part my my memories were the fact that she could never hear us when we were talking, and she was always griping at us to stop fighting (hmm.. I wonder why?). The other part of my memories was when we got to stay with her. She lived about 45 mins away on a farm, and even after she had her stroke, we could still go and stay with her. The farm definately required a LOT of imagination. There was no cable, no playset, no swings. But there were tons of spooky things around to explore: old farm equipment, good climbing trees, scary pole barns, freaky dear heads mounted on the garage wall, vintage barbies, and other cool stuff. I got pretty awesome at Old Maid. However, I digress. It was almost like a step back in time. Not as rustic as Little House on the Prairie, but the same idea. Lots of space outdoors and no one for miles. Very Cool. The water was from a well and tasted like rusty nails. And from every place that water flowed there were rust stains. Especially the bath tub. I don't even know if it had a shower, because we never used it. We ALWAYS took a bath, and we always had those square plastic cups. I remember them because I always thought they were strange. They all had teeny tiny holes in the bottom, which made it difficult to hold water. And the had numbers and the alphabet on them-but they were printed upside down. At least in my opinion. I remember staring at them as I sat in the tub trying to figure out why the printing was the way it was. I never figured it out.
And now, more than a decade later, those long forgotten cups with their upside down pictures were in front of me again, and I was hit with a strange sensation as I poured water from them onto my seven-month-old son. It made me sad in a happy way. If that makes sense. I always felt gypped having only one grandparent growing up. Don't get me wrong, my grandma is FABULOUS! But I never knew my grandfathers, either.
And there is something about your mother's mother. Maybe she is a window to understanding your own mother and ultimately yourself. Knowing that my grandma never saw me get married, or my first born leaves me with a small ache. This added with the idea that only in recent years, I have begun to realize that the grandmother I remember is not the grandmother I think she was. Seeing my son with these small plastic cups lessens that ache and makes it more intense at the same time, a paradox of sorts.
I think in fact my grandmother was an incredible woman, with a story full of tremendous tragedy and incredible hope. And I think if I ever write a book I will write it about her.

The Blogs in my head!

Ok so it has been... two weeks since my last blog entry? more? I don't even know. Things have been crazy. But just so you know I have been blogging, just in my head. I blog all the time. In the car, mowing the lawn, feeding Jonathan. They just never make it to the computer. I actually checked my blog more than once (part of my daily blog checking) to see if by some chance they actually did get typed and posted. Yes, I know... crazy, even more crazy is that this is actually true. Part of my problem is my camera has been hanging over my head. I took some pictures at our church easter service that I was going to put up on the website... And every time I thought about taking pictures... I thought about those shots sitting there waiting for me. So I finally filed them away in the church picture file to have if we ever need cute shots of little kids. And now I am free. Everette and my sister Laura and I just got back from a quick, last minute trip to Cleveland to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was nice and relaxing, and Everette worked from their home! Another plus, Everette gets to stay home all week this week too! So right after we cleared out our house for the floors, I came down one Sunday afternoon to find Everette and Jonathan hanging out on the floor-it was very cute-see pictures below! I am sure you will have read them already, but I am about to post two more with pictures!!!

yikes!

I was just ordering some new checks, with our new address on them (now that we lived here almost a year-we thought we should finally get settled). The website I was ordering them from asked for my drivers license number to verify that I am in fact who I say that I am. That is when I realized... my drivers license has expired, in FEBRUARY! I have been driving around for over a month with an invalid drivers license. Good Grief. I needed to replace it anyway-you know get one with our current address, but it was expired!!!!!!! It kind of startled me, and freaked me out a little bit. Things were kind of weird because I got my first license later than most so mine didn't expire when I was 21, but I got married and moved so I got a new one anyway. So I was thrown off by the years. I thought it might be up for renewal, and I talked to Everette about it and he told me they were good for five years... nope-only four. Not that it is his fault. It is written in bold green ink of my drivers license. I could have checked. But not being a big alcohol consumer, and not having any recent traffic violations, who looks at their license? Oh well. I will be headed to the BMV tomorrow. Just how I wanted to spend my afternoon.

The dust has settled...

literally, and our floors are finished. It was one VERY long week. I couldn't even begin to include all the details (nor would I want to). But let's just say, while I am sure it was not the worst contracting nightmare, it was definitely stereotypical. Thankfully it is over, and they are beautiful. Many thanks to our families who offered manpower, baby-sitting, and a place to rest. I could not imagine what it would have been like without them. I am so very much loving the new floors. I didn't realize how much the carpet (which was really bad when we moved in, and even worse after a few months with Max and a mudhole for a backyard) was dragging the place down. It is like a whole new house. I will have pictures soon.