Notes on a Week.

because our current place has tons of closet storage, we have been hanging most of our clothes and using plastic bins for the stuff we can't hang. The house does not have much closet storage at all - so it was time to look for some real furniture.

found this on craigslist for a really nice price. am in love.

somebody is obsessed with wearing shoes.

all. the. time.

however, clothing is optional.
the apartment has towers growing in it now. against this wall and that, in nooks and crannies.

he knows what to do with 'em!

"There she is, set for stun!"

"wait, where'd my gun go?"

Yep, it's Comic Con time again! And again I had to send Craig without me. Alas. Next year for sure, right? Separation anxiety can't last for more than a year, right?

right?

daddy brought home tons of loot as usual. Van got a Man Called Jayne hat.

Fletch got a zipper mouth stuffed animal.

Comics, of course.
Pokemon, of course.
I also scored a Dr. Who shirt. Lucky girl that I am.

may have found a house near craig's new workplace. hope it works out. fingers crossed.

so, Craig got a new job.

Starts pretty soon, gotta move before the school year starts up in 5 weeks. It's all suddenly crazy around here.

But good. Good crazy.

Mostly.

1. I do not like tomatoes. I do not like them, Sam I Am! I never have.

2. I keep getting tomatoes with our CSA produce box. I cannot waste them!

3. My friend/neighbor is a peach and shows me awesome things to do with tomatoes. So I can eat them.

These were cherry tomatoes. I cut them all in half, and put them on a sprayed baking sheet with aluminum foil on it.

Then I added a tiny bit of olive oil (i put it on each one with a dropper. probably you don't have to be as anal as all that). And added a tiny bit of salt.

And roasted them for 3 hours on 250. And they taste divine. And I am making sausage and tomato and basil pasta for dinner tonight.

Yay!

ah, peace.

i'm ready to go back now.

The best thing about being on vacation up in the forest is that the kids just love it. Everything is exciting to them. Grandpa teaches them how to identify different trees, they see more animals in one day than in an entire year down here in the city, and they can pretend that Pokemon are behind every boulder and in every tree.

Also, the boys got to see Elle for the first time in several months. There was much joy and rejoicing. And water gun fights.

Van discovered the beauty of throwing rocks into the lake. He sat there at Grandpa's feet for EVER, and I had to keep replenishing his little rock pile. If it ran out, he would sit and grunt at me in increasing urgency until I did as I was told.

(dad doesn't always carry a gun, that was just in case of bears and stuff)

I bought the boys some authentic sheriff and marshall star badges at the Weaverville Motel, where my sister works, and they had a few days of fun with Aunt Jacquie pretending to capture each other and collect bounties and put people in jail. Ah, the good old days!

The sun has finally come out in L.A., so we might be taking some summer pictures here pretty soon - now that we can play outside without shivering!

While we were on vacation Craig spent a few harrowing days helping a company clean out his mom's house. While he was there, they ended up finding many, many photos. Photos that we had never seen. I had never seen a photo of Craig before the age of 5; and only one fuzzy photo of his father, ever (he died when Craig was 9).

So it was a big deal. I spent hours taking pictures of the pictures with my digital camera. And guess what?

My baby:

My husband:

RIGHT?

1. Sorry about June. I was in a bit of a coma for June. Thank goodness it's over. School it out and Craig is done working on the Project from Hell. I'm alive again!

2. We got back from a vacation-back-home a couple of days ago. I just uploaded 705 photos. So I should be posting regularly for awhile just with this ammo.

3. Karalenn, this is the only decent shot I can find of my new haircut. Alas, I am blinking.

4. Husband! I have one! Here he is! (also, children. cute ones, if I do say so myself). He's been off work for 15 days. Two more left. I hope they draaag!

5. I bought this for Fletcher. I'm not sure he got it for more than 5 minutes. It was absconded by the baby who turned into a violent mass of screaming and teeth when Fletch tried to take it back. We made it up to him, he was a good sport about it. :)

Delicious

Delightful
Delectable
recipe found HERE.

Project!

Remember all those batik fabrics I posted....forever ago? Well I'm finally in the beginning stages of actually getting the project done!

I ordered an enlarged world map (see, there I am, for scale) :) and I've started outlining the continents onto wax paper - so I can make templates for applique.

The finished quilt will be about the same size as this map. I have all kinds of fun plans for it! And I figure it will probably take me until next summer to complete.

1. I was wrong. #2 started barfing in the middle of the night last night. guess he was sick after all.

2. he finally can get his hair into a ponytail. with the help of some gel. he was so thrilled - wore it to church like this on Sunday. he now feels that his awesomeness is complete.

this one is just eye candy.

and driving me crazy lately. trying to nurse every couple of hours when I would really love to just wean him, and dragging me around by my finger whenever he wants me to take him somewhere. which is often.

he will finally sit on my lap through a whole book though, so that's fun. and he's saying mama and cat. because what else would one ever need to say?

Do you think I'll get in trouble for this photo?

no not this one - (although, scary, right? i really need to get a nice one up. quick.)

this one.
it was HIS idea! I swear. and I didn't realize that fletch had taken them as separate photos until later, but it kind of works. you know in a why-does-that-lady-have-a-crazed-look-in-her-eyes? oh-that's-why kind of way.

the past few weeks have been foggy. Not the-weather-is-foggy foggy but my-brain-is-foggy foggy. How many sentences can I make in this post, do you think, with dashes between the words?

we have had two cars most of the month thanks to the Generosity of Friends, and craig's hours at work have been Worse than Ever Before (i think capitalizing Important Words is more fun than dashes. it's very AA Milne. Who was awesome.) However those hours are supposed to go back to normal very very soon (yes, i HAVE been saying this for several weeks now. this time it's the truth) and there will be much joy and rejoicing in the land.

the boy being gleefully strangled in the photo above is home sick today, with a yucky stomach. naturally his younger brother cannot abide going to school without him and as soon as he heard that his brother was sick he Declared a Sore Throat and Began Coughing Uncontrollably. i would have sent him to school anyway but i know that kid and he would have convinced them that he was dying and would have been sent right back.

It seems like everyone is sick right now.

Dear Everyone, Get Better Please. Love, Me

Hey guess what! I've been All Productive today:

2 dishloads of dishes

4 loads of laundry

vacuuming

cleaned off the balcony

and guess what? it hasn't seemed to do anything for the state of disarray in this apartment. GAH!

so I suppose I ought to go and trudge through some more. here I go! (can you FEEL the Enthusiasm?)

i know. I. KNOW. it's just that I'm so boring right now and I haven't taken any new pictures in weeks, and excuse excuse excuse.

I really need to post this one though: all of the Van Dyke cousins who were at grandpa DeLay's funeral in April:

minus one sibling's kids, and Stevie who couldn't come. Fletch was bummed about that. He adores Stevie. "He must really like me, Mom. Because he calls me 'sir'." Someday - maybe - we'll manage to get ALL of them together at once!

in other news, there is no other news because I am boring and have done my best to turn into a hermit. Craig's crazy hours, which were supposed to be done in March or April, are going through May. The only consolation being that the movie comes out in June so it has to stop sometime, right? RIGHT?!

The boys are terribly excited right now because the Father/Son campout is tonight and they are headed up to the canyons to explore and get dirty. All 3 of the boys were going to go this year but it looks like that won't happen after all (illness has infested the ranks) so it'll be me and the babe for the night and tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'm entertaining enough! I have borrowed some animal movies which will hopefully enthrall him. His first real word was "cat" after all. (although one day it sounded remarkably like he said "chocolate". That's my boy!)

I will try to be interesting v. soon. Wish me luck.

How proud am I?

My little sister painted this for an art class she's taking. It's very large - taller than my one year old - and it's an image from one of my Dad's favorite photos - of her when she was about 10. She gave it to him for his birthday in March.

He was terribly impressed, as were we all. All I've seen from her so far was anime! :) Way to go Nancy!

Retreat, Retreat!

this year the retreat was large - 34 women in attendance - and noisy and fun and full of new ideas and different fabrics and good food! (chocolate is food, right?

I used Mom's '56 singer featherweight. It ran like a dream. Those old machines always do!

Here is a tiny glimpse of part of my blocks - I'll show you more soon!

It was so peaceful in Weaverville! The weather was fantastic and it smelled like pine and grass and flowers and woodsmoke. Yum.

Notes

1. You can't really see it in the photo, but Van's little james bond-style swimsuit kills me. when he is shirtless and his belly is hanging over and his chunky thighs are scootching the legs up...so fantastic! also - he's a water baby. obsessed. addicted. in love. Van + Water = True Love.

2. Hearing the sound of a 6 year old's voice singing "I Need Thee Every Hour" so strong and sweet makes one's heart burst. I couldn't even sing with him, just pointed at the words and held back the tears.

3. Suddenly my 9 year old is grown up. Suddenly he understands everything. Suddenly he wants to stay home alone instead of walking across the street for yogurt. Suddenly he wants to do the right thing because it's the right thing. I'm thinking he could run a small country on his own. I'm thinking I'm not ready to treat him like he's acting like he needs to be treated. HE'S MY BABY!

4. So busy. Jog-A-Thon is tomorrow (I'm in charge, so I've been doing a lot of prep work) and then the funeral this weekend, and then a week in the 'ville and the Quilt Retreat and then. Then I should have "lack of busy" for awhile.

please, oh, please.

absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?  we've been busy! 

Van turned 1 last month and we mostly did nothing but he got a balloon and a giant ball and was happy as a clam. 

A friend got married and we went to San Francisco and back in one weekend with all of the kids in tow. Whirlwind and crazy though it was, it still completely rocked to have Craig around for two whole days in a row! 

I turned 31. blah.  Hannah came and made the day wonderful by bringing over flowers, presents, chocolate cake, magazines and a movie after work. It was perfect. 

We got a couple of extra kids on Wednesday (boys the same ages as my two oldest) and they boarded a plane home an hour ago. 

we saw an IMAX 3D movie

went to round table pizza (heaven)

played laser tag in the park

went to the beach

swam in the pool many times

played hours and hours of video games

cast spells and defeated sith (not at the same time, of course)

now i'm thinking about preparing easter dinner. hopefully i'll get beyond the "thinking about" part before our guests arrive... :)

a dear friend of mine decided last week to spend some time on me and used her lovely talents to make me a miniatures box of sweet things. she sent me a mini fairy painting (she makes great fairies):

a mini elven shoe (connor declared "that is not an elf shoe mom, elves are huge.) He's such a Tolkien purist.... (he probably doesn't know who Tolkien is truthfully)

also a mini teacup and saucer and some super cute animal chocolates that my husband wondered if she made herself and I said, "no of course not! she's not crazy!" and then I looked at them and thought maybe she actually had made them and in that case I feel very bad for not taking a picture of them when I said I would but I was just too busy eating them to go get my camera.

I picked up some batiks last week for my newest project that I want to do (add that to the dozens of projects I want to do but haven't started yet. frightening.) but I won't tell you what it is I'll just show as I go along. I like the fabrics a lot, but I'm going to have to replace the darkest one with something just a little lighter... any suggestions on a great batik store online?

wish me energy, motivation, and a happy baby! (he turns 1 next week!!)

that day, 9 years ago, when my first baby crawled over to the bathroom door and started crying because it was shut and I was inside; that wasn't entirely surprising.  I had watched 3 sisters do that to my mom and I really didn't have much of a problem with just leaving the bathroom door open. So I did, and everyone was happy.

the fact that that same baby who is now almost 10 still thinks he can come and knock on the bathroom door and ask me a question or have a full conversation or get me to sign a permission slip when Daddy is just in the other room is beside the point.

the point is, that I am having a bit of a new experience with my newest bathroom door screamer. having the door open is not enough. he has to be on my lap. 

On My Lap. While I Pee. 

and I cannot put him down in order to pull up, zip, and button my pants. not if I don't want him to start screaming bloody murder at me. 

here's the clencher though, and I'm going to need some support on this one. I'm going to need you ladies to come out and say, "I'm here for you Kristen, I've had to do it too."; sometimes he's not happy until not only is he in my lap, but is latched on and having himself a little snack. 

Nursing! NURSING. ON. THE. TOILET. 

I get that I could just let him fuss and cry and scream and I could just watch those huge tears fall down his face and see the bottom lip poke out while I do my business. Except that I cannot. It is like torture. For both of us.  And so, every once in awhile (just a few times, but really, each time I sit there and I think to myself, "really? REALLY?") I find myself in that position.

tell me you have found yourself in it too.