gran torino

i loved this movie. maybe it’s just because i love clint eastwood, i don’t know.  but it’s the best movie i’ve seen in a while.  i loved the way it looked, the colors, the dialogue, clint eastwood’s grating voice, sweet one-liners, the way everything came together, how i laughed the whole time, it’s entire lack of political correctness,  it’s simplicty and mostly it’s redemption.  “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

more about “gran torino“, posted with vodpod

that and clint eastwood’s just hot.  (he’ll be hot until the day he dies, face it.)

mavis sells soul for couch

finally.

and it already has little, black, boy-shaped, foot prints on the top of the cushions.  some would say that is what you get for buying a white couch.  but it was 50% off and i lose all sense of reason when confronted with sale purchases.  it is soft though.  and you can sit on it.  plus i got a $120 pottery barn gift card for throw pillows.  which are bound to be spicy.

and this morning we tried it out for our morning psalm reading.  instead of all the children crying over who got to sit on my lap in the only chair, we lumped together in a sea of down wrapped cushions.  it was lovely.  thanks grandma for your good luck visit to pottery barn.  i would have never spotted it without you.

chocolate baby

me pirates

gideon turned five last friday.  he’s so big.  just ask him.  it’s gut wrenching.  but that’s okay, i still have my little, pirate kitty.  and he says he is never going to get big.

if you can’t tell we had a pirate party (cake courtesy of antie piolet ).  sometimes i think that kid is a little ocd.  when he goes for something he goes all out.  for instance, this was his birthday wish list; sword, canon, machine gun, grappling hook, pirate cutlass, pirate dagger, pirate shield, a buckler, bow and arrow topped off with a request for full body armor.  he particularly specified that the canon should shoot balls of fire.  uncle reuben built him a potato gun and called it good.

after a picnic dinner we had a treasure hunt at the nature center.  it lent itself perfectly to the task; with curving paths, streams, bridges, fish windows and rocks.  all surrounded by “jungle”.  it worked kind of like cattle chute that sent all 17 rabid treasure hunters in the same general direction.  at first i was kind of wondering how i would design a treasure hunt for 5 year olds, but no worries.  here is the video of the final conquest:

more about “pirate party“, posted with vodpod

and here i am with me pirates.  girl had the cutest red striped overalls and red, crab robeez, but you can’t tell because it was freezing and we had to bundle her up.  sheer waste of cuteness.

the weather was a real tease, i was quite irate.  but things seemed to work out fine in spite of the almost rain and lurking thunderclouds.  instead it just supplied a little extra electric energy for the children.  which they really needed after all that cake, ice cream and chocolate money.

here is gideon unpacking his loot.  which, among other things, did include a grappling hook from my little sister.  “oh, i have one of those,” she said.  so she wrapped it right up.  and reuben made them all swords with blades out of white oak with black walnut handles, jael bait included.  (she can hold her own and if you make her mad she’ll just bite off your leg.  i think we’ve created a monster.)

boy and our friend sonia hid all the clues (little sections of map closed up in mini treasure boxes).  this was my favorite where they put it in plain sight on the other side of the creek and all the kids rushed at it like lemmings.  the law was following close behind though and reeled them in.  shucks.

grammy sewed gideon a pirate suit for the big day.  he’s so spoiled it’s ridiculous.  his other grandma ordered him climbing rocks for an 8 foot climbing wall that we are going to install on the fourth of july.  judging by the dexterity with which he climbed a 10 foot chainlink fence at the softball field the other day, i think he will enjoy it.

and it does look like i should cut the hair off the pirate kitty.  is it just me or is he looking a little too cute?  meh.  i can live with that.

jael baitles

this is girl in her fun, little appliqued top kandi made her.

she just took a slip and stitched layers on top, adding felt elephant and turtle pockets and pom pom fringe for craziness.

the best thing is that it looks better the more you wing it.  kandi loves the character of abandoned hand stitching.  and i’m sure grandma’s everywhere roll over in their graves at the thought, but it is kind of fun.  sewing machines are so uptight.

but i suppose it is kind of painstaking.  it’s always a better plan to get your friends to do it for you.  in fact i think i showed up at kandi’s door with the plain, white slip in hand and said, “hey, this is for you.”  it’s a shame she took off and moved to indiana.  now what?

i’m only blogging because i feel bad

and it will probably be another two weeks before i do it again.  i’s busy baby.  but here i am with my red haired boy on our way to church.  i made him wear a tie.  he looked so sexy i had to take his picture.

before he got home and put on his six day old pants and that ugly shirt with the three naked guys strung up in a tree by elk with guns…

that’s it, i’m outta here.

why i’m not homeless

we have the loveliest catalpa tree in our backyard.  it started blooming the other day so i had to run out and take some pictures before it started to fade.  i think the tree is the only reason boy actually bought this house.  he likes trees a lot more than he likes houses.

which might be why he spent most of last summer up the tree, instead of in the house with me and my paint brush.  but now that the poor thing is trimmed and watered it seems much more optimistic.  here’s a before picture so you can see for yourself.  it’s much happier now and much less white trash.  (and by the way, we have a lawn now too. )

plus it makes the best shade.  it couldn’t have been planted in a better spot.  we would be miserable without it.

what a good tree.

peachy pink

i found this walking this morning.  i had to capture it before it passed it’s prime.  roses hit middle age fast.  let that be a lesson.

nature, it’s everywhere

my brother visited this weekend so we drove up to bogus basin for a little walk.  out of all the trails we could have picked we ended up on the one that meandered through the waste management site for the ski lodge.  i was waiting for the giant sprinklers to kick on and spray me with poo.

here is the princess being carried everywhere by her daddy.  he has arms of steel.  i’m ready to put her down in five seconds.  “why don’t you learn how to walk?” i say.  but everyone knows that princesses were meant to be carried.

bipedal or no, she loves to climb.  nothing pisses her off so much as when you wrench her from the spiral stairs.  (the stairs of death.)  i think it has something to do with the fact that her name means “wild mountain goat.”  you just have to watch how you name your kids.  next she’s going to be stabbing people in the head, jehu is a likely candidate.

gidoen and jehu picked me every flower they could find on the trip.  these were my favorite.  aren’t they cool?  then there was this red one that smelled like a cross between fresh picked cherry tomatoes and skunk.  someday i am going to have a custom perfume made.  there is a place here that whips them up.  they said they had some civet cat bottled and could make me something special.  civet cat with a little marigold on the side?

the bottom right are the boys rock hopping.  until marc got stuck.  don’t climb up if you can’t get down is what i say.  but they never learn.

and auntie pilot taking a turn with jael bait.  i think she’s pulling her hair.  she’s like that.

old mother hubbard

i had my china out for an airing the other day.  my cupboards still don’t have doors on them so i had to take everything out wash them down.  while i was at it washed all the dishes.  i thought i would take a picture for you.

since they’re so gorgeous.  don’t you wish you could spend all your money on dishes?

i picked up another 6 settings of my gold crown china at a yard sale for $2.  now i have service for twelve.  dinner plates, bread plates, salad plates and tea cups with saucers.  no dessert bowls though.  or any other bowls for that matter.  and not a single serving dish.  haven’t bumped into one anywhere.

and here they are all put away.  waiting to get all dusty again.  you know, i do have the doors painted and sitting in the garage…  not that that means anything.  just a thought.