Autumn

I love this time of year. I don't think I can put my finger on why, exactly...
maybe it's because of the memories
of bonfires and the sound of quads echoing through the air (that's the band geek in my talking..) and football games...
of parades and cross-country meets and long runs in sunny, crisp fall afternoons
of bringing home our firstborn son to trees just beginning to turn to gold
Maybe it's because I'm a child of the autumn (I turn 27 on the 27th of this month!).
Maybe it's because the crisp nights and warm days bring with them an anticipation of the holidays...which I adore.
Maybe it's because of the little-girl who comes bursting out of me
when I see carpets of red and gold leaves begging to be jumped in (confession: I use my 3-year-old as an excuse to be about 8 again when I see leaves on the ground...)
Maybe it's because it was this time of year- 7 years ago- that I found myself falling in love
with the wonderful man who would become my husband.
Or because 4 years ago (in about 2 weeks) my then-boyfriend proposed to be in the middle of a beautiful Colorado autumn.
against the backdrop of a autumn-blue sky (as only Colorado can do an autumn-blue sky)
Maybe it's because of the insatiable hunger for color inside me
that the reds and golds and greens
satisfy like no other season does.
Maybe, this year, it's because I don't know if, 2 years from now, I'll be in a state that "does" fall like Colorado does.
Whatever it is--I'm reveling the fall this year. Can't wait to go hiking tomorrow to see more beauty. And am seriously considering another trip to the park this afternoon, where I spied a fresh blanket of gold on the grown last night...
anyone want to join us for a jump??

Wordless Wednesday

To our Small Son

Every once in awhile, I look at him and think...how did this happen?
how did you go from being our sweet, tiny little bundle of surprise
to being our high-energy, train-loving, talking-a-mile-a-minute, people-loving little BOY?
Because you are not a baby any longer.
I can't, in good conscience, even call you a toddler...not that you ever really toddled. More like skipped straight to flat out running.
BUT.
I wouldn't have kept you a baby for the world
for if I had, I would have missed out on this.
The sweet little smooches on my cheek
The little arms around my neck
The "snuggle me, Mama."
The (oh-so-serious!) discussions about trains and tracks and coupling rods and tenders and shunting cars and "bein' an engineer when I grow big...you can drive the diesels, Mama. I'll drive the BIIIIG steamies!" (don't know all those words? You must not have a train-obsessed boy living in your house...)
I would've missed the stubborn fits and "I don't HAVE to!"s...which I may or may not have been happy about. Ask me in a few years...
But I would've missed the sheer joy on your face as you run or climb or swim
your sweetness with your baby sister (although "gentle" doesn't seem, somehow, to have translated...in French OR English)
your help baking cookies
and building track
and the sweet times in the evenings when you snuggle up in my lap
and we read story
after story.
Although I miss your sweet baby face
I love your inquisitive little-boy face
even more
and each day with you in our lives is a blessing
Small Son, your Daddy and I love you very, very much...
We didn't know it. But God knew
we needed you in our lives.
You made me a Mama, and him a Daddy
and taught(teach!) us so much about God
and his grace towards us
everyday as we learn to parent you.
Happy 3rd birthday, Pax William...October 2nd, 2010.
Sorry about all the pictures...I couldn't choose!!

Road trip!

No, not us...although that may be coming up in the near future. This time, it was Adam's grandpa who made the road trip. Now, mind you, Grandpa is 90. And his road-trippin' (and driving) buddy will be 80 this week. Which is, in itself, slightly frightening. What may be even more frightening is that they do this at least once a year, all over the country, going to visit relatives (Grandpa) or to motorcycle gatherings (his buddy John). And both of them wear hearing aids that seem to help only marginally...and they both attempt to use cell phones but can's leave or receive voicemails...
About 2 weeks ago, we got a call from Adam's mom that grandpa was heading their way, and might possibly come up our way too on his way back to the mid-west. On Friday, she called again, to let us know that Grandpa and John had left and were headed to the Springs, then up our way Saturday morning. Now, mind you, we hadn't actually talked to Grandpa at all...but that's kind of how he rolls. About noon on Saturday, we got a phone call from John that they were "here"...but which here? You see, rather than at a hotel, Grandpa was going to stay at my parents' house, since they were out of town. That's where we were waiting for them. We figured they'd call when they left, or at least when they got close. But they didn't. So, they somehow found their way to our house, Grandpa wandered around for awhile-didn't find us there, so they made their way to my parents'...they knocked on the door-we were in the backyard, so didn't hear it. Finally, they called. Adam ran out front, telling them they were at the right place...and watched them drive away. That's what happens when you're 80, can't hear, and try to use a cell phone.
Long story short-they got here, we had a nice visit, Small Son was SO good & mellow (well, for him...John still remarked on how "high-energy" he was. Oh, if only he knew :) and it was great to see them. Pax got to meet his great-grandpa for the second time; Blythe for the first; and I got some pictures, of course!
It's always nice for me to see Grandpa- I never met any of my grandparents, so he's the closest thing I have. I got to meet Adam's grandma-a tiny, sweet little lady-on a quick trip out there after our honeymoon. She died literally the day after we left, so the fact that we got to see her one last time was pretty special, too. Grandpa's doing pretty darn well for 90-his shoulders are a bit weak, he sometimes acts uncannily like my 3-year-old, and he can't hear worth a darn of course- which made his interaction with the little dude pretty funny- but he's still going strong. So great to see him again! Maybe they'll come up our way again next year....

Wordless Wednesday

hmmm....I COULD...

The kids woke up unusually early Saturday. I think it's a rule for them...they're in cahoots to get up RIGHT when we begin working out. Today, it was yoga day-started at 6:20. At 6:25, Pax started calling me. Tried to get them to both to go back to sleep-but nope. They were both downstairs by 6:35. We kept doing yoga; B thinks it's funny and Small Son likes to crawl underneath us while we do planks and stuff (it's a "tunnel", you know). He also thinks it's fun to try to do the poses-which is pretty funny to watch, really. At one point, we were doing a "chair"pose and had a little conversation that went something like this:

me: "Pax, you have to be super strong to do this. Are you super strong?"

Pax: "hmmm....well, I AM strong..."

me: "can you do this?"

Pax: "hmmm....well, I COULD do it...."

silence. Adam is trying to hold the pose while cracking up.

Pax: "uhhhh....No thanks. I'm just busy right now,"

and he proceeds to try to use the circles on my yoga mat as train tracks.

Well, okay, kid...if you ever get a minute and want to try it, just let me know...

seriously, this kid cracks me up.

B is for building

Lots of it. In fact, if you hear the sound of power tools coming from our fenced-in porch at all hours of the day and night, don't be alarmed. It's just us, doin' what we do best-well, at least doing what we are learning to do pretty darn well. It's my fault really-I started it. I usually do, not that Adam needs much to get him started-he truly loves to build things and has learned enough over the 4 years of our marriage to become a much-more-than-decent carpenter. Our place in D-town had a beautiful changing table/bookshelf that he built when our small son was on the way (I stained it when I was about a week & a half away from giving birth and got scolded by a friend of ours...hey, I was outside! It was well-ventilated!); and a shelf in our bathroom he built because he couldn't stand my girl-clutter any longer. He worked long hours in the youth room at the church with a friend of ours and another young man (who's dad is a carpenter...good tips there!) pouring his heart into building a fun, modern, place for "our" kids to hang out.
Then we moved in here. And our box spring didn't fit up the stairs. And I told him I'd had enough of sleeping on the floor in college...so we started to look, plan, and scheme. Oh, but first he built a book shelf based off of one I'd seen at Super Tar*et-I would've probably just bought that one, but he wanted to make a sturdier one; and it's truly much cooler than the one at the red & white store would've been. And very needed, since the amount of books we now have seems to have increased exponentially in the past year.
But the bed.
We looked at some big furniture stores around here, talked about what we liked (thankfully, MOST of the time we have the same taste!), and decided we didn't want to spend $600- 1000 on a frame we could make (ok, he could make-but I helped!) ourselves. I remembered a website I'd found on my friend Jill's blog (thanks, friend! It's quickly becoming my new favorite blog!) and hopped on to look for a plan. Came home from California. Found it. Bam. Done. Built it in a day, including shopping for the supplies. Took a bit longer to finish it (ie, paint it & then distress it) because of general chaos in our lives; but here it is! With the paint, primer, screws, wood, etc-cost us just about $100. NOW THAT I LIKE. Super sturdy; high-quality look; low(er) budget. I.love.it. and it is soooooo much more comfortable than sleeping on the floor!! But the best part? Working at a project like this with my hubs. Seriously, it's so fun to build stuff together-mostly because WE have so much fun together. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do with him-the planning, the designing, the measuring, the cutting, the building, the painting...you get the idea. There are lots of things we enjoy doing together; this is just a new hobby we're learning about. And something we can do without the kiddos-although Pax does love to "help". On a compleatly differnt note-isn't our quilt gorgeous? I take absolutely no credit for it. My aunt made it as a wedding gift; it's all hand-quilted (seriously boggles my mind..). She asked me when we got engaged what colors I wanted; it was Adam's idea to use our wedding colors. We finally got it last spring, and it was totally worth the wait. I love the contrast with the red.

.....and for those of you who are waiting to see Pax's finished birthday present-It's coming. It's done, actually, and he's sleeping in it (yes, it is a VERY COOL BED too) I just have a few more details to paint on it-- and I cannot show it to you until it's totally done. Thankyouforyourpatience.Haveagoodday.

Got milk? part duex

I got to meet someone very special yesterday, face-to-face.
Remember the little baby girl I wrote about in this post?
Yup. That's her!
Sweet baby girl is 4 1/2 months old now...thriving...and I am so glad that I finally, finally got to meet her in person!! Pictures had to be taken, of course, of these two sweet little girls I've been blessed to help thrive. Connected in a unique and very special way that they won't even understand for years-after all, if it wasn't for Blythe's birth, I wouldn't have been able to give little A any milk. I'd heard through the grapevine that little A's family would be leaving the state for the winter; and since it's pretty expensive to ship frozen milk & dry ice, I contacted her mama again to see if there was any way I could get them a (3rd and probably final) batch of milk before they left. I'd given her a second back in July, when she was up here photographing a wedding (yes, she's a photographer, too...an incredibly talented one!). She told me they didn't have any plans to come our way before they took off; I couldn't find anyone who was headed their way to send it with (and kept kicking myself for not sending it back with the Other Blegers when they came to visit...). It didn't look like it was going to work out-they leave next week. I sent up a little prayer along the lines of, "Gee, I really wish I could get them one more batch of milk!". That was it. Then, Sunday night, I saw a message in my inbox from A's mama. They were, unexpectedly, COMING TO OUR TOWN. Not for the best of reasons-a great-aunt had passed away-but they could come get the milk!! I was so thankful and hoped that, just maybe, I'd get to meet in person the sweet little girl who's face I'd seen many times, and whom my baby girl has been sharing her milk with. So yesterday we arranged to meet. And when they showed up the first things baby A's momma said was,"I'm bringing her in, so you can meet her!" YAY!! She's so sweet, so chubby, so blue-eyed and perfect-I put my own sweet girlie down next to her tiny "friend" and-of course-documented the moment. I hope that, somehow, we can keep in touch over the years; and maybe someday these two tiny buddies will share a special bond that goes far beyond the milk that they share right now.

Wordless Wednesday