moved

so we are here...moved. i feel like the past few weeks have flown by. i have never moved with two kids before. and there are lots of lessons to be learned in that. lesson number one - your home simply will not be finished in the time frame you wish it to be. lesson number two - don't just hunker down and unpack for two weeks straight. it will make you feel like a crazy person.

so i have been changing my style a bit... doing a little unpacking, a little organizing, lots of seeing friends, lots of making friends, and fending off stressful feelings. this has made life easier, it seems...and the transition a bit smoother.

as for being in a new town, i really think we will love it here. i mean, we already love it... but i think we will grow to really love it. last night my mom and i took hero to her first movie at the theater downtown. it has one screen and the show is every night at 7. we walked there... it took about 4 minutes. that, to me (and compared to living in the sfv) is happiness in a can. we walked back at dusk and all i could see all around us was the black of the mountains against the bluish sky and i really saw for the first time, how small our new town was. we left central ave (which is our main st) and turned the corner and it was dark! it made me really happy and it made me happy for the babes, to grow up experiencing a little town like this.

as for the socializing we had an impromptu bbq for the 4th because our great friend brad and his incredible girlfriend, katrina, where in town visiting. fireworks are legal in fillmore, so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to introduce some friends to our new town. needless to say, it was awesome. we even took some family portraits to commemorate the awesomeness.


as you can see, country living suits us fine.

one of those kids

i got to spend saturday celebrating baby titus' coming with lindy and her family.

and at one point in the day, i discovered mary like this.


i am resigned to the fact that mary is just one of those kids.

(this is not, poop, by the way)

we are going to see coldplay in july

i wonder if any of these guys will be there?

moving to the country

well, pretty close anyway.

we are moving! this is very exciting in many, many ways.

1. we are really outgrowing our space here in student housing.
2. we are going to try out living in a brand new town. fillmore, ca... pop 18,643.
3. we are renting our first house!
4. this house has three bedrooms!!
5. and wood floors!!!
6. and a yard.
7. with a fence.
8. and a washer and dryer.

luxury, pure luxury.
after lots of thought about where to go next, and not loving the valley, but not wanting to go far, and not having very may options based on our budget, we decided to take a chance on fillmore- a quiet little country town nestled in miles of orchards, with a real main street and a one screen movie theater and all that. we are only 30 min away from everyone we know and love (minus our fillmore friends)and we can afford a house there, which is amazing for us!

i am really looking forward to living in a little country town. i think the pace of our family has always been kind of contradictory to our living situations... and while i have loved our time in this apartment and the memories we have made i am super excited to start something new in a place that, i think, will suit our little family perfectly!

anyway, we move in a week and a half and i can't wait. if you want to see our new house, here is a super choppy video i took from my first visit there (when i didn't think we could afford it...before we weaseled an amazing deal out of the owner).

yahoo!!

things i love

i think it would be beneficial to start a regular posting dedicated to things i love.

first installment: tim and eric.

joy

i realize that while i am living my life without a camera, i need to dig up some old inspiration for my blog posts. my blog lull left me without a proper post for mary's birthday- a perfect opportunity to fill in the gaps.



a year ago, april 24.
lindy was there to photograph mary's birth which means a)there are lots of amazing shots of the whole experience and b) 98% of them are inappropriate for posting on the internet. but this is one of 2% (almost). mary was born after only a couple of hours of labor, which i have learned, makes a huge difference when it comes to baby-having. i mean, in the same way that sprinting is easier than marathon running. at 3 in the afternoon i climbed into the tub, totally amazed we had already come to this point. my pregnancy had flown by as i chased after hero and soaked up as much time with her as i could. we didn't know if the baby was a girl or boy... it all felt like a whirlwind. this was helped by how gently my labor began. my only experience had been long and arduous and i had almost banked on that as a way to, sort of, catch up with what was happening. but suddenly i was in that tub, and just a few hour later i was pushing and only minutes i heard leslie, my midwife, say.. "when your ready, reach down and get your baby." and i did! i push again and reached my arms down into the warm water and got my baby. and i was mesmerized. my mary josephine. my surprise from the Giver of all Gifts.

what a lesson she is for me in family planning. i found out i was pregnant when hero was 6 months old. i was unsure of my abilities and scared. but in that moment, this moment of joy, with my little, warm baby girl in my arms, He spoke to me and said, "Trust in me... I give you all good things."

if you have had a baby you know what it is like to rejoice when you hold your little one for the first time. it really is rejoicing...sobs and wailing and laughter. it is truly one of the greatest of all human experiences.

so then i was tucked into bed...kirby at our side, my new little one nursing for the first time. and the sun was setting and the room was amber and warm and my brother was playing piano in the room next door. a song that was thoughtful and powerful, sweet and strong. the moment was just that.

updates

interesting things i have experienced lately:

1. getting my beloved camera stolen at the SD zoo. still mourning.
2. catching mary eating a piece of hero's poop. long story as to how she got the poop in the first place.
3. finding hero, just now, diaper off, scratching her butt with my toothbrush.

my reactions:

1. wishing camera thief's would at least leave behind the memory card!
2. why?! WHY?! kirby said, quite earnestly, "maybe she can't taste?!"
3. side splitting laughter. i mean, how much more extreme can you get than scratching your naked butt with someone's toothbrush?

come on, you know your laughing, too.