Monday, June 29, 2009

Birthday Babblings

Beautiful girl

with a butterfly tattoo

brilliantly befrocked

by her own bidding

with a bow in the back

boldly wearing beads bobbing curls in hairbows brooding at the base of a tree

blowing bubbles

on her birthday

Monday, June 22, 2009

......whoa.

Theia and I went to the mall today
and when we came home
we found waiting for us
quite possibly
the largest bug
I have ever seen
......bar none.

Monday, June 15, 2009

There is no great loss without some small gain.

Take a good, hard look at this picture, because there are two things in it that will likely never be seen again
by human eyes.
Recently we attended a lovely get-together with
some good friends from church. We enjoyed a cookout, played in the pool (with a view of the bay), and ripped it up on our friends' jet-skis. It was the first time I had every been on a jet-ski, and I'm already hungering for more.
After I took a highly enjoyable, but tightly controlled ride, Jessie and his buddy Rob decided to take the jet-skis out and allow them to realize their full potential. Now, Rob is one who is very experienced at jet-ski tomfoolery, so at some point he spun his ride around at high speed in close proximity to Jessie's ride, so as to drench him with salt water, and awaken in him an intense desire for revenge. Unfortunately, Jessie is not one who is very experienced at jet-ski tomfoolery. Consequently, when he went in for the kill, he hit Rob's wake and was thrown off his ride through the air (in slow-motion, I am told) and backwards through the water for about ten yards. When he surfaced Rob immediately observed that Jessie's glasses were missing, but it wasn't until they were back on land that Jessie realized his wedding band was also AWOL.
As you can see, while Jessie was off disencumbering himself of several hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, I was partaking in tamer pursuits, all the while remaining in possession of both my glasses, and my wedding band.
At least we have the assurance from Rob, that Jessie did indeed get him soaking wet with the fateful maneuver, so we can take comfort in the fact that his valuables were lost in a worthy endeavor. And, perhaps somewhere in the bay of Tampa there is a dolphin now sporting a very sharp pair of spectacles, and a size 11 white gold men's wedding ring.
So, look well, because we have already
discovered that the frames Jessie lost
(which we both really liked, and he had
owned for less than a year) are no longer
available. And you can be sure that,
when given an opportunity do purchase
a new ring, Jessie will not go for the
same old style he's been sporting for
almost four years.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Horses, Haystacks, and Homage.

We took a very, very, VERY impromptu trip to Pennsylvania over the Memorial Day weekend. So impromptu that it was brought up at 7 pm, decided upon at 8:30 pm, and acted upon (as in, packed and on the road) by 10pm. That's just how we roll. You would think that someone with 3 children under the age of 3 would pre-meditate a 20 hour car ride for more than 2 and a half hours, wouldn't you? We actually would, usually, but this one was brought on by a desire of Jessie's to see his very dear and very ill grandmother, and we had reason to worry that if we didn't do it right away, we might miss out on the opportunity to be with her while she could still appreciate visitors (thankfully, she did revive from the down-turn she took that weekend and is still with us).
Although the car trip was something we would like to eradicate from our memory permanently, we did have a lovely visit with Jessie's parents and his sister Joy. The actual time spent at their house exceeded the actual time spent traveling by about 53 minutes, I think. The girls adore their grandparents and Aunt Joy, and were rapturously happy the entire time they were there.
Ingrid on the trampoline
Theia and Eliza sitting on the "horsey food"
Joy's horse, Misty, just had a foal two weeks before our trip, so we had a delightful time introducing the girls to horses.
Misty and her little colt, Destiny
Is he cute or what?
We took the opportunity to give them all a lesson in riding. This was the first time any of them have submitted to being put on a horse (Ingrid had never even seen one). The last time we tried with T and E they both froze in terror and let out a primal shriek that convinced us not to press the issue. This time they loved it. L-O-V-E, love. They are still talking about it.
Theia even went bareback with Aunt Joy
Eliza was nervous at first, but soon she was
saying "Go faster, Daddy!"
Ingrid took it all in stride
"What's the big deal? Yeah, I can ride."
We also got this great shot of our whole family while we were there. Well, great except for Eliza sticking her finger up her lip. Now, that was worth driving 4o hours for, right?
Jessie was very blessed to be able to visit with his grandma when she was having a good evening, and we all saw her together before we left for home. She hadn't met Ingrid yet, so we were happy we got the chance to introduce her. She is a beautiful, special woman, and we feel so blessed to be a part of her family. She has a pretty far-reaching influence since she has nine children and their spouses, fifty-five grandchildren (including their spouses), and fifty-four great-grandchildren (and that number is always growing).
Grandma at her 80th birthday party in May