tgif

‘henry’s my best teacher.’ -betsy

q for ‘quilt’
with ms. ami

julie, lisa, and faithy

hooray that we finally
get to meet the famous
julie
(and that she’s here
until tuesday. yay.)

the icing on friday’s cake?

running into the clementes,
the lehmann’s and the queeners
and spending a happy lunchtime
with them;
the girls and i thought
we were the luckiest

happy birthday, karen.

props to the workmen
who are faithfully paving the way
for our trader joe’s.

‘little house on the prairie’ for rest time

afterschool reunion

eli-eli-bo-bee-lie

the anthropologie catalog
arrived yesterday.

and we were quite mature
about  it all:

we read it,
wiped the drool off of several pages,
and
promptly
disassembled
the entire thing
and made mailing envelopes
out of the more-interesting pages.

whew.
temptation-B-gone.

sortof.

princess caroline
and her suitor
(bottom left),
‘prince daddy’

(exotic medium:
marker on copy paper,
button-flowers and crayons)

ps -
i’m digging this new nailpolish,
see it?
‘metro chic’ by sephora.

gray-ish-purple-y.

a friday wish

i wish i could
quiet your baby
when he is screaming,

i wish i could
come and finish your housework
when you are exhausted*,

but today,
i especially wish
i could bring you
the smell of the wind
and the sight of the sunny-ish city
and the feeling of hope-after-winter
that they bring to the soul.

i wish.

fifty-nine and rising, baby.

*i’ve heard that eskimos
have 100 different words for
’snow,’
i think mothers should have
100 different words for
‘tired.’

ps -
i should also include a wish
that includes bringing you
a cup of typhoo (decaf?)
and a yolato pomegranate bar.

uberdelicious.

junior design staff

caroline takes special pride
in her morning job,

designing nathan’s lunch bag.

true to his core identity
as an artist,
henry is glad to draw his own,
thankyouverymuch.

ps -
notice the pinkypink on
henry’s cheeks,

it’s hard to go back
from playing hookey
with a cute skiing-sunburn.

um, i was studying?

typhoo-y

fg last night,
genesis 11,

‘come, let us build a tower
that reaches the heavens,
so that we may
make a name for ourselves…’

oops.

and
diversity is good.

looking around at my
fellow-worshippers
with steaming cups of tea
in their one hand,
a bible in the other,
listening and
responding,
i was reminded of how
gracious
the Lord is to give us
eachother.

and
hot
tea.

superthankful for
last night’s crew:

joe,
emily b,
amy,
cory,
lisa,
emily p,
chris,
elizabeth,
conrad,
whitney,
joyce,
greg,
angie,
amy,
david k,
and
jen.

to the others:
we missed you,
for sure.

and
you missed
lisa’s gingerbread cookies.

meg and ang
and those famous gingerbread cookies

ps -
afterwards huddled around
to watch our resident
actresses in their
commercials:

check out emily p’s
‘clue’ commercial
(she’s in the hot white dress)

and
recently in this music video
(in the first 36-seconds,
she’s the first girl
to walk by and
then you see her
looking in the window
and acting surprised.)

and, lisa,
can we link your
neosporin gig?
(she uses it on ‘all‘
of her children’s scrapes)

waytogo,guys.

pps -
bloomberg is
closing parts of bway
(times sq) to traffic.

i like.

hookey

hookey: hoo-k-ee
to make off.
see also, truant.

we happily taught
henry what this meant today.

nathan already knew.
*sheepish grin*

cruisin’ da bunnyslope

henry, nathan, and adam

thanks, torkel, for loaning us
the harness for henry;
perfect.

(can we keep it for
city use?)

leaving shawnee mountain,
nathan turned to cory,
‘the only question is:
when are we coming next?’

what a crew:
crosbys, clementes, kramers,
wolfs, aldersons, queeners,
lehmanns, whitfords,
and more.

dude,
what a blast.

anticipating rescue

hooray for
ash
wednesday.

(which i had to look up.
why ‘ash’ wednesday?
thanks, wikimonster.)

we’re going to
subtitle this lenten season,
‘anticipating
rescue’
here in
apartment 1.

rescue is something our kids are
well versed in.

we rescue damsels,
(we capture bad guys,)
we have stuffed animals with superpowers,
we’ve seen all of the cartoons
where a poor kitten is rescued
from the tree,
and
we know about
Jesus,
that ultimate Rescue Hero.

so we’re going to focus
these next 46 days on
anticipating
how
Christ
rescued
us.

and we’re going to countdown
the days by hanging things
(tchotchkes, numerical countdown, souvenirs)
from our lent branch,
one for each day,
sort of an funky advent-ish calendar,
if you will.

happy blessed lent, friends.

‘remember, o man,
that you are dust,
and to dust you
shall return.’

and thanks to jenny
for sending this
lent guide link.

sisters

maoz does a body good.

we’re so glad to have
amy here visiting this week.

(em’s middle sister)

yoga-rific

henry had yoga in school today,
which prompted a
stop-the-memory-game,
we-must-pose!

lisa, caroline, amy, henry,
and betsy-getting-ready

photographic note to self:
next time,
get their faces.

i couldn’t let it go

the good dr. cates
had to go in early this morning
(he’s taking tomorrow off
for a supergreat outing w/ the boys)

so i was on
breakfast* and scripture
duty.

thankfully,
he left warm scrambled eggs
on the stovetop as he
whissshed out the door.

lovethatman.

as they were savoring their toast
and picking at their siblings,
i read
psalm 103 aloud.

quite loud,
to be heard.
as it were.

and when i hit
verse
eight,
i like to have died.

‘the Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger
and
abounding in love.’

pause.

kj: what is He?
n: slow to anger
h: loving

kj: slow? slow to anger?!
no matter how often i
screw something up
he’s patient?
kiddos: yes!

kj: and waiting?
kiddos: yes, mom.

kj: and slow to anger?
kiddos: yeah, yeah, lady.

waitaminute.

s.l.o.w. to anger?!
abounding in love?!

i just couldn’t let it go.

and i just can’t let it go,
13 hrs later.

the Lord is gracious and compassionate.
slow to anger.
abounding in love.

amen
and
amen.

author’s note:
i did finish reading
the rest of the chatper
and
we did sing,
‘come christians join to sing’
with resounding,
‘Alleluijah!Amen!’-s

but i had goosebumps
and
tears in my eyes
the whole time.

youknowidid.

*after a recent viewing
of that sweet movie,
‘beethoven’
about that adorable dog,

caroline said,
‘what a weird show.
i mean,
their mom cooks breakfast!’

cory about broke a rib laughing.

i shrugged and agreed,
‘weird!’

the last mohican

or
the last gilmore-ian,
as it were.

apparently i’m one of the
last people alive
to have just watched
my first
gilmore girls
episode.

how clever are they?

i’m halfway thru
season one
and luckily there
are many more seasons
to come.

so imagine my delight
to see this billboard
in the times sq subway station today?

it’s lorelai.

countmein.

ps -
lorelai’s mom
slays me.
high.larious.

le cinema

it’s french week @ the cinema.

for our family,
at least.

well,
steve martin was
pretending
to be french
and
‘the class’ actually
is
in french.

c’est bien.

pink panther 2:
8 thumbs up
(out of a possible 10)

betsy and i
each voted ‘1′ since:

1. she’s 3 yrs old
and would’ve loved
the playground just
as much.
but the popcorn was exciting.

2. i wasn’t so much watching
the show as just attending
to the sweet children
and i’m old enough to have
seen funny-man-martin at his
pinnacle.
his climax.
his stunning humorous glory.
(the jerk,
father o’ the bride,
three amigos;
and you could name 10 more.)

so just 1 thumb for me, please.

but
two thumbs
for providing the perfect
warm and happy refuge
for us on a superchilly
freezeyoureyebrowsoff
day.

the class:
i can’t yet tell how many
thumbs up.

i need to read the reviews.
after seeing it.

i went in thinking ‘dangerous minds’
from the trailers i’d seen.

notsomuch.

i’m still mulling it over,
which is one of my favorite
parts of a good movie.
rethinking
and
rehashing.

interesting.

the descent into the
promised land

ps -
abby cooks for one.
or two.
(waytogo)

pps -
cory cracks us up.
(congrats, bud)

ppps -
i would gladly sacrifice
6 inches of our 19′ shelf
for these spectacularly-covered books.

well, that was fun

winter break, check.

notetoself:
make game plan for
spring break in april.

fun, to be sure.

now, i need to hose my apt
down with a fire hose.

or at least use industrial-strength lysol;
a few gallons
ought to do ‘er.

as i roll up my sleeves
and restore happy order,
i’m so glad to reflect on
a restorative sabbath.

whew to remember
that we are not our own,
that we were bought with a price,
that we are the Lord’s people.

and that was probably one of the
top five testimonies
i’ve heard in my 12.5 yrs
at redeemer.
angel l. talking about working @
the midtown pregnancy support center.

and the offeratory song?!
holykamoli batman.
gorgeous.just.gorgeous.
i could listen to the two of them sing all night.

sometimes i catch glimpses
in my 9-yr-old’s face,
in his words and demeanor,
of the man he is becoming.

this week of break
held several of those
special moments.

why, yes, that is a
lent
branch
on our wall.

you have one too, no?

(more on said lentbranch later;
ours hails from garrison, ny)

imitating betsy’s ’superspider’ gig.
we don’t know why she does it, either.

emily’s famous blueberry-lemon cheesecake.
now, that says ‘it’s sunday night’

b-dawg

ps -
saturday afternoon,
boys’ loft.

what you can’t tell
from this pic is
that there are four
humans up there
(em, b, c, and n)
watching
‘high school musical 3′

b: when are they going to get married?
em: um, they’re in highschool.

h: ewwww, are they going to kiss?
em: don’t worry, i’ll warn you when it’s coming.

creative torment

the good news:

i have some fun
projects/events
on the horizon
and
they are providing
wonderful creative outlet
for my brain and fingers.

the bad news:

i have some fun
projects/events
on the horizon
and
i can’t sleep
because i just
lay there and
run thru the details,
the nuances,
the varieties,
the fabrics,
the lists.

(don’t get me wrong;
i’m loving every
sleepless
minute of it)

ps -
cory sent me this
atlantic article,
tres interesant:
how the crash
will reshape america

pps -
one of the most worthwhile
creative torments
i’m indulging
is
‘lent prep.’

get ready for it;
ash wed is this wed.

yay.

memory check

little girls
vs.
big girls
memory showdown

and let me say,
these girls take this stuff
seriously.

they’re acting like they’re
playing
but really they’re
serious.

serious.about.winning.

betsy and i,
we’re here for the
socialization.

a walk in the woods

henry was a bit ahead of us
and he came running back,
breathless with enthusiasm:

it’s a house from
the 1970’s!

nathan and i spent our
rest time with him
building legos
while i watched
the ice flowing down
the hudson river
behind him
and
read aloud to him
from their beautiful copy of
‘mc guffey’s 5th reader’

dreamy.

our afternoon hike at
little stony point
included jumping on huge
ice chunks until they
broke off and floated
down the river.

and that cool cave?

the ideal shelter
when it started hailing.

(yes, hail,
tiny bouncy pelty hail)

too bad we were all
too scaredycat
to actually duck
inside the cave.

we just kept on hiking
and taking a happy hail beating
until the sun broke out.

glorious.

and the icing on the cake?

it was snowing when
we drove home.

a heavenly winter-break day.

ps -
nathan’s superinterested in pursuing this one:
urban composting

i wish i was interested.
but i’m really just squeamish.

the beauty of abandonment

a thursday afternoon reminder
to this mother-of-young-ones:

‘we are apt to speak
of the sorrows of childhood
as trifles in comparison
with those of grown-up people;
but we may depend upon it
the young folks don’t agree with us.

our griefs,
modified and restrained by reason,
experience,
and self-respect,
keep the proprieties,
and, if possible, avoid a scene;

but the sorrow of childhood,
unreasoning and all-absorbing,
is a complete abandonment
to the passion.

the doll’s nose is broken,
and the world breaks up with it;

the marble rolls out of sight,
and the solid globe
rolls off
with the
marble.’

-john whittier greenleaf, 1829,
‘the fish i didn’t catch,’
mcguffey’s fifth
eclectic reader.

june 20

dear parents
in/near nyc:

june 20
is our lucky day.

mark your calendars.
get your bic.
hire a brilliant babysitter
(or two, or three,
whatever your need may be).

and
get
excited.

hello, scott.
hello, joanne.
hello, parenting genius!

more info to come.

‘more depressing’

the ‘law and order’
location scout
asked if we’d consider letting them
use our apt
for an upcoming episode.

she took loads of digital shots
of every nook and cranny
of our home
and
later brought the director
and shooting crew
for a walk-through.

i don’t know how many
people i thought were
on a crew,
but the first three men
in my door
i greeted by name,
and then realized
there were at least
ten more behind them,
so
i just started smiling and
waving them in.

in the end,
they decided they
needed something

‘more high-rise-y’
and
‘more depressing’
and
‘less cheery’

but asked if they could
keep our pictures
on file for future work.

i think that’s
the best
rejection
a girl could ask for,

that we’re not depressing enough.

ps -
i had already broached it
with cory,

‘hon,
do you mind
if someone is
murdered in our bedroom?’

(a female tv anchor,
to be specific.

hope i didn’t just
spoil an upcoming
episode for you.

surely you saw that one coming, no?)

3:42am

after putting betsy back to bed
several times in the night,
cory wasn’t surprised to see
the living room light get
switched
on
yet again.

but this time he heard
the kitchen chair
scootching back from the table,

and a minute passed,

and he poked his head out
and saw
betsyboo

coloring.

‘daddy, i’m coloring.’

word = lamp

as i was tiptoeing
down the hallway
in the pre-dawn darkness
this morning,

i was greeted by
caroline’s cheery,
(if still bleary)
‘good morning, mommy’

and
without missing a beat,
she followed it up with,

‘i’ll get the bibles’

and
my mental to-do list
vanished
in mid-thought

as she reminded me
of the Truly Important
to-do list,

a top o’ the morning
sit down
with that beautiful mirror
that scripture is,

seeing the Lord in His Word
and
listening to His plan
for my day,
for my life.

thanks, sweetie, for ushering me
into the Lord’s presence
so gently.

ps -
the gist:

i see where robert murray m’cheyne
wants us to read,
turn both my bible
and her bible
to the first chapter.

we fold our hands and
i ask the Lord to
open our eyes to His Word.

i point out the book title,
sing a bit of the OT or NT song
to help us place
where it is,
we find the chapter number,
and i quietly read the passage outloud,
pausing every two verses or so
to chat about it
or answer her questions.

and we close with another
tidy prayer thanking Him
for speaking to us
and asking Him to
whisper (and yell, when appropriate)
His Truth in our hearts
all
day
long.

and before you can say
dodgytastinglondonmeatpie,
she’s off on her next adventure.

game face

that’s right,

it’s winter break
and the boys are out of school.

and i’ve got my
game face on.

four kiddos.
long (hopefully happy) days.
loads of activity
and activities.

fingers crossed.

have i mentioned how
grateful
i am to have
emily
here?

very.

thanks for everything, em.

it’s the little things

so this couple
walks into their
accountant’s office…

and then comes out
and takes the train
back uptown to the
movie theatre…

and they chuckle and shake their heads,
as the next showing of
anything-worth-watching
is at least 45 min away.

which is 45 minutes too far away,
because
they
were
dog
tired.

and somehow
that valentine’s-eve appointment
and hand-holding subway ride
and freezingfreezing walk to the theatre
and then the
icicle-popcicle walk home
was
surprisingly
romantic.

happy valentine’s day, c,
and
happy valentine’s day, friends.

may yours be romantic
in its own way.
(obvious or not-so)

ps – we’re off to rhode island;
happy long weekend.

pps – he is a mathematician.
i’m sure a date at the accountant
probably is one of his
secret definitions
of sexy.

ppps – we did watch
the new ‘30rock’;
whoever cast salma hayek
deserves a
raise.

pppps – i promise i’ll stop.
but i can’t help but
love
that this is our
eighteenth
valentine’s day as
boyfriendandgirlfriend.

meloveyoulongtime, sugarpop.

forgiveness

the highpoint of this evening
has to be when the
six of us were
all snuggled up in my bed,
jammies, wet hair,
bath-wrinkled fingertips,

(c’s cheeks still cold
from his minutes-before return
from the Big World Outside Our Apt)

and
i
apologized.

for losing my cool
and getting upset over
spilled orange juice
and
childish behavior
(imagine that?).

and my four loving munchkins
were so quick to receive my apology
and offer their own

and in celebration,

we read
george and martha.

and laughed
and tickled
and enjoyed the happiness
of relationships set right.

you know how much
i love fg nights.

and last night,
henry spent a good part
of the study time
quietly tucked up on the floor
behind nick + joann,
cross-legged
with his own bible
reading away.

my heart was full.

my dear fg-ers
who worshipped,
studied,
prayed, and
feasted on emily p’s
shrimp+grits
(i thought she was going to
get a marriage proposal
after that meal):

nick,
sarah,
greg,
jen,
david k,
david g,
joann,
lisa,
emily b,
emily p,
jules,
felicia,
elizabeth,
cory,
liz,
james,
hisaya,
joe,

oh,
and
henry.

ps -
i’m coveting this
built by wendy
book:

but there’s not
one.single.inch.left.
on our prized
19′ shelf.

adult literacy program

when we swapped bedrooms
with the girls two yrs ago,
(they went down to the bigger space,
we came up to the cozy space)
we cleared out the built-ins downstairs
to make room for
wedgits,
polly pockets,
lacing cards,
and the like.

and we 95% of our beloved books
into freshdirect boxes
and stored them sadly away.

saddness be gone:
my cleverhusband built us
19 linear feet of
bookshelf
glory
in the sky.

well, hello there!
to all of our favorite libros.

(the ones that made the 19′ cut, at least.)

now, when you’re over
and we’re arguing about
the finer points of the
feynman lectures,
we can just pull those puppies down
and fact check for ourselves.

voila.

reality show

from today’s cc-tv clips
of my deliciously-banal life:

1. i keep forgetting things.
words.
dates.
to breathe.

2. i do the same things i
remind my kiddos to avoid.

caseinpoint:
as i walk in to 1″ of
standing water in
the bathroom,

‘henry, you can’t forget
to put the shower curtain inside
the shower, buddy.’

and then sheepishly grin
when i step out of the shower
and, um, part of the floor
is newly soggy.

3. i can’t get enough kisses
from my kiddos.

and they’re in very kissy/huggy/giggly
moods today.

4. i’m rolling my eyes that
twice today when i’ve told
betsyboo ‘no’ for something,
she’s burst into instant sobs
(stopping as quickly as they started)
and began crying out,

‘daddy! daddy! i want daddy!’

silly sweetsie girl.

(as she was climing into bed,
i insisted that she couldn’t
take her coin collection
into the top bunk,
and she told me that she was going to
‘tell daddy’ that i wasn’t ‘being nice’
to her.

which was good for a laugh.)

5. i got hit in the face
by a falling bunk-bed slat
and sustained a cartoonish-sized
goose egg on my right cheek and temple,
making me the perfect
candidate for eager nursing
from my cheerful girls.

icepack, check.
hair patted, check.
gentle words of comfort, check.

they’re going to be soothing+helpful mothers, indeed.

6. i got to teach my six-yr-old
how to spell ‘arbor’ (instead of ‘arber’)
and ‘halloween’ (from ‘holloween’)
and ‘labor’ (try ‘o’ instead of ‘e,’ lovey)

all three of those words
were in the first stanza
of this crazy poem he wrote.

cool and weird.

happy very normal tuesday, amigos.

ps -
a smattering of the times today:
when to keep a coughing child home,
living in nyc on $500K,
and
here comes kenken.

joyride

since we had our rental car
for a few extra hours yesterday,
henry, caroline, betsy, and i
headed out for an
urban
joyride.

down broadway,
thru times square,
cruising the west village,
over the bklyn bridge*,
hoop-dee-doo through some
random part of bklyn,
back over the majestic bridge,
curving through the courthouses
and
up into chinatown,
sauntering up fifth ave,
crossways, crossways,
back and forth thru midtown,

stopping two different times
for me to hop out and
grab a pack of bubblicious
at the corner newsstand
for the pleasure of
my young companions.

when we finally turned
down 70th street
almost two hours since
we left,
betsy cried out,

‘oh no,
we’re home!
let’s go again!’

ahhhh,
the joys of a car.

every now and again, that is.

the bubble promptly popped
when we had to look for
parking.

*we were almost to the top of the bridge
and i said,
’smell the ocean breezes!’
to which
we all rolled our windows down
and
inhaled
and
promptly gagged
on some random sulphur-ish smell.

so we’ll have to redeem
that one later on,
because for now,
they’re telling everyone
how stinky the
brooklyn bridge is.

‘like poo!’

nice.

lake champion

during one of the worship times
this weekend at young life’s
lake champion,
pw led us in singing,

give me Jesus,
give me Jesus,
you can have all this world,
but
give me Jesus.

and, thankfully, i can’t get
it out of my head.

ps – we are excited to connect
with yl’s ministry here in the city.

thanks to joe r. for
hosting us so graciously,
and to paul, joe, brian, and park, as well.

it was such a treat to observe
the new york metro region’s
campaigner’s weekend
and
watch Christ at work in these
eager young lives.

how many times did i tear up
with amazement and gratitude
to the power of a resurrected Christ?

several.

pps – we are very grateful for
the team effort it took to
enable cory and i to go.
(a dreamy respite sans children):

massive thanks to
emily,
lisa,
carrie,
jules,
chris w,
and
the jennings crew.

thanks from our entire fam.

pesto for a crowd

‘our community with one another
consists soley in what
Christ has done to both of us.

Christian brotherhood is a
spiritual and not a
human reality.

in this it differs from
all other communities.’
-d. bonhoeffer, life together

thanks be to God for last night’s
eager fellowship group.

greg,
jen,
david k,
felicia,
cory,
emily b,
paul,
johnny,
james,
liz,
angie,
lisa,
emily p,
meghan,
david g,
amy,
chris r,
joe,
chris w.

ps – wait for it…
the dinner menu:

cellentani w/ fairway basil pesto,
fairway baguettes (hot when we bought them),
spinach salad w/ fresh apple and pepitas +
f’way balsamic dressing,
and
amish friendship bread for dessert.
(anyone need a starter?)

fairway is apparently the honorary
sponsor of our Christian community.

pps -
i was putting betsy back in bed
when joe started leading worship.

within moments of hearing
his guitar and the hearty voices upstairs,
caroline joined in
from the bottom bunk,

‘he is exalted,
the king is exalted
on high,
i will praise him…’

ppps -
when it was time for prayer,
i knew the boys were
still awake, reading up in their loft,
so since the living room was near capacity,
my prayer group tiptoed into
their room.

henry climbed down to join us
(nathan opted to listen
from his lofty perch)
and offered his request:

’some of my classmates
are really annoying;
i think they’re trying
to annoy me.’

to which we four nodded
empathetically,
knowing that the feeling
isn’t confined to childhood.

after listening closely
to greg, jen, chris w, and i
share our requests,

henry lead out
with this prayer,

‘i ask that you would
help us to not stress out
and
to try to be calm
and
to try to work it out.’

flying comma

8:16am
group project

overheard:
henry doing his spelling hwk last night,

‘d-o-n-flying comma-t’
‘c-a-n-flying comma-t’
‘w-o-n-flying comma-t’

i’m gonna think about them
that way, too;
it just makes apostrophes
sound cooler.

flying commas, indeed.

21 days

until lydia’s house
is just
121 steps
from our front door.

hooray,
triple hooray!

her *new* room.

and how much are we loving
today’s snowfest?

immense+free

cory read to us from
psalm 6
this morning,

and we all breathed easier
after verse 4:

‘turn, O Lord,
  and deliver me;
save me because of
  your unfailing love.’

cory: why does he save us?
nathan: because of his unfailing love.
c: whose love?
n: his love.
c: so it’s not about my behavior,
or how hard i’m going to try,
or how good i am?
n: right, it’s all about him.

sing with me now,

’tis mercy all
immense and free,
for oh, my God,
it found out me.

amazing love,
how can it be,
that thou, my God,
would die for me.’

whew
and
hooray.

mindi c., here you go,
our ‘heart chart’;
sorry it took so long
to remember take a picture of it.

adapted from, ‘let’s hide the word’

50 smackers

well, degrees.

if dollars are smackers,
what are degrees?

anyway,
apple bank said ‘50,’ baby.
read it and weep.

(i almost did.
with gladness.)

betsy’s fine with sensible footwear.

we like to rub her toes.

she went with the
cucumber roll.

it was all we could do to
not just cast off our coats
with gleeful abandon.

our first time in mad;
two thumbs up.

henry will dig it
.

lisa had been telling us about this:
$25 orchestra-level seats
for the ballet.

i think they have 50 tkts total
and they go on sale on
monday morning @ 10am
for that week’s shows,
but she said there wasn’t even a line?!

she + emily had orch. row J
for a performance last week.
luckyducks.

let’s get on that.

pop-no-more

how excited was i to
snag this puppy at the
pastors/elders 12th night par-tay
white elephant gift swap?

verrrrry.

(i stole it from carter
who stole it from…
was it abe?)

you say, ‘family-movie-night’
and
i say, ‘hooray-for-the-new-popcorn-maker-thingy’

whoopeee.

one might’ve thought it
was a golden calf
the way we were
dancing
around it and
shouting.

1. read directions
(can you believe i actually did that?!
emily can vouch)

2. fill
3. plug in

wait-for-it,
wait-for-it…

4. recoil in horror!
what’s that smell?!

Burning
Electronics,
baby.

oy.

note to self:
apparently,
if there’s a Really Bad Smell
you should
shut yourself in the bathroom
and
stick your head
in the bathtub.

?

bathroom as safe haven:
tornados, sure.
burning electronics smell? the jury’s still out.

rip, good buddy;
we could’ve gone far.

em’s sad that i’m starting to
Represent
@ blokus.

we’re a wee bit addicted.

some nights,
if we can’t drag cory into the madness,
we’ll each play
two hands.

git ‘er done.

boils, lice, and hail

that’s right,
we’re back in exodus 7
of catherine vos.

i remember last time we were here,
lisa got to be hail
and henry loved him some locust.

i’ve had the pleasure
of being dead cattle
twice now.

here’s the 2009 casting
for
‘plagues: an urban family reflects’

creepy, indeed.

ps – fashion week’s moving
to our ‘hood?
love it.

pps – playmobil is covering
their ‘reality play’ bases
with this one.

as wendy pointed out,
read the customer reviews.

ppps – thanks, jcc, for the shabbat-lovin’.
see you @ circle time.

oh, and henry + i
were piddling our way
through the jcc gift shoppe
and found some sweet
purim masks.

but they were $7.50.

i have a month+ to decide
if i want to spring for them.

thiiiis much

how much do i
love my
cory?

especially as i’m watching him
tirelessly put the second coat
of rockingawesome
green
on our front door.

i was only about
one-square-foot into
the priming stage
(previous incarnation: delft blue)
when he showed up
with a second brush
and a cheerful grin.

oh, and a wet rag.
(i’m notorious.
notoriously bad @ painting)

oh, and he insisted that
i change into painting-clothes.

he knows me too well.

ps – would you believe me
if i told you it took
5 adults +
5 trips to janovic
to get this
one sweetlittle quart
of kate-spade/granny-smith-green paint?

cory + carrie,
michael k,
me, twice,
and finally emily
brought it home.

thanks, guys.

one might think
they need a tweak
to their paint-mixing-and-retrieval
system.

secret note to your mind:
kindly invert these photos.

i used photobooth
(camera battery is tired)
so they’re sdrawkcab.