i’ve spent the morning stuffing coats and mittens into bags, zip locking perfume and toothepaste, collecting shoes, hording matched socks, filling water bottles, corralling curling irons and all the other madness it takes to get a family of five out the door for a six night stay.

you wouldn’t believe the mess this tidy pile of stuff can make once we get there.  are you ready?

if you ever thought anything was wrong with me i would like you to know your suspicions are justified.  (it’s mostly genetic.)

i still remember my dad dropping us off at the top of this canyon and saying, “i’ll pick you up in kendrick.”  we eventually made it there, soaking wet, in the dark.  the germain’s do know how to have fun.  that’s why they always come prepared.

fortunately i married an otto.  their idea of weekend fun is napping.  i’m still adjusting but i think i can handle it.

the incomparable jael.

she was mad at me for taking her picture so she slapped the camera a few times and then flopped down in a huff.

it’s my favorite.  although it’s probably counterproductive when you find your child’s tantrums endearing.  but she sticks her butt up in the air and sucks her thumb and it is so stinking cute i can hardly stand it.

she is the cutest most wonderful girl in the world.  i just feel sorry for whoever marries her.  he doesn’t stand a chance.  look at the size of those eyeballs.

i kicked auntie piolet downstairs so jael bait has her own room now.  in turn, the boys were kicked into the toy room, but no one cares about them anyways.  we have more important things to do.  like get high.  i think my husband is going to outlaw painting in the winter, but it can’t be helped.  the blue dresser is going to be a gray, muted sort of green with glass knobs.  the crib is going to match.  and i would like to chop these gingham panels in half to make a set of cafe curtains.  then, of course, i would need to get the matching crib skirt.  it never ends, truly.

and if you remember my evil plans from long ago, i still have my eyes on this ikea rug and pillow accents.  i’m not sure how it is all going to come together (or who is going to drive to ikea and get them for me), but i’ll worry about that when i get there.  for instance, the yellow paint was free from my mother so i didn’t think twice.  yellow it is.  the  changing table i might paint a darker shade of the green, but i don’t know.  feel free to chime in if you have any brilliant ideas.

meanwhile, it’s just nice for her to be cozied up in her own room.  i still need to get her doll bed down and paint it (red).  hopefully by christmas i can move in her new play kitchen and all her dolls too.  then she can hole up and tell the boys and their cannons, pirates and rammers to bugger off.

it’s kind of calming to have all of your furniture painted in primer.  i still  have four more pieces to go.  i already have some yellow laying around for the rocking chair but the future of the rest is yet undecided.  i could just pick cool colors, but unfortunately, i feel obligated to coordinate.  (i like my color palette to leave out at least two colors in the rainbow, so i really have to slow down and think.)

anyways, now you know you can look forward to some after pictures.

and these are the flowers from my husband.  boy bringing me flowers is almost a death defying endeavor.  i still don’t know how he pulls it off.  he might as well give me his big toe in a pint jar.  that’s how much he loves me.  how come we are always happier when we know how much it hurts?  i mean, if he liked bringing me flowers it wouldn’t be the same at all.

this is the front of the postcard mailer i made for hubby.  (photoshop and i aren’t friends at all, by the way.)  he going to do more tree trimming and do  some contract tree climbing for other companies.  a lot of tree outfits don’t even stock a climber.  they’ve got bucket trucks.  but sometimes you need someone who looks sexy in a saddle, and that’s all there is to it.

i just wish he would stop hauling brush in the back of my minivan.  in any case, if you have any trees that need groomed, be sure to have him over.  especially if you have some monstrous oak in your back yard.  you would make a friend for life.

i was so excited to watch the hornblower series over again with the boys.  i am always amazed by their attention spans.  they loved it.  the good news is that it squelched all their pirate ambitions.  “there is no power on earth than can defeat the might of the british navy!”  good riddance to bad rubbish, if you ask me.

what is really fun is gideon’s christmas list.  he is a little single minded, if you can’t tell.  jehu is totally different but is pressed into playing pirate/navy games every minute of his life anyways.  he’s a good sport.

they are both the most wonderful boys ever.

although i imagine no one likes a complaining blogger.  it’s just the first thing that came to mind as i sat down to whip up an obligatory post.  here are some pictures from this weekend.  we went hiking up rocky canyon road.  i think gideon had just poked himself on a sticker bush and girl was right there to give him a squeeze.  she’s such a good girl.

i was really impressed with gideon.  “on!  on!  on!”  he was quite the fearless leader.  (jehu followed behind and tried to guilt trip me into carrying him.)

we were climbing to the hill right behind jehu’s head.  it was almost too steep to walk up.  but as soon as we crested the top (when mommy was ready to sit down for a breather) gideon saw the next, higher hill and took off again.  i think he could hike all day.

personally, i still find recreation tedious.  it’s nothing like reading a book or refinishing furniture.

house stalking is my absolute favorite thing to do.  i can’t drive anywhere without pointing out my favorite houses.  to quote violet, after a hard day of yard saling, “what?  do you have a bloody ‘favorite house’ on every street?”  mostly.  this house is my all time favorite though.  it’s the old assay office in downtown boise.  it was on the heritage homes tour last weekend, so i got to snoop to my heart’s content.

unfortunately, the forest service “remodeled” the inside.  someone had the sense to make them stop before they took on the outside.  they wanted to add white, mobile home wings off the side that wrapped around the front with a little hole for the door.  …to think.

i also got to do a walk through of the klein house.  (which is on sale right now for a tempting $400,000.)  it is amazing.

i gave it to megan.  (except you have to share with violet, sorry.)  and this house is my mum’s.  since she likes painting.  and how they got real men to put up all that ridiculous trim work in the first place, i will never understand.

on the bottom left is boy exiting the modest front of the klein house and the house on the right is a four square.  it had a large welcoming hall in the front.  too small to be a parlor, but big enough to take coats and shake hands with room for a few chairs on the side.  it even showcased a lovely bay window.  you don’t see those kind of spaces very often, but i kind of liked it.  i gave it to sister sarah because it was kinda boss.  the upstairs had a huge center hall the length of the floor flanked by six bedrooms.  all  very down to business.

the house below was one of the nicest and also the most depressing.  each room was paneled in a different type of wood.  the living was done in oak, the parlor in bird’s eye maple, the library in sycamore, the dining in red cherry, the kitchen in fir – all with nasty, pet-infested berber carpet throughout.  some people have no morals.  and what the lazy boy sectional was doing there, i have no idea.  that is why i gave it to natalie.  she is the man for the job.  i trust the first thing she would do is take the navajo basket collection out of the window.  ???

the house on the bottom right was the perfect family home with a play attic and large walk-in closets between rooms.  so i divied it out to becca and her spawn.

and the heritage inn goes to gayla.  it had a huge white, paneled living room and a gourmet kitchen.  it was still badly outfitted and highly suspect though.  in fact, i find fewer things creepier than bed and breakfasts.

overall, i was amazed by people’s bad taste and general crumminess.  every house i went in was dirty.  we suffered the same sensation last year.  everything felt icky around the edges.  maybe because most people don’t spend much time in their houses so they are never forced to become too intimate with the state of their baseboards and cabinet fronts.  i don’t know.  i do know i’m messy, but i assure you – it’s clean underneath.    and if i was going to invite the entire town of boise to swing by and pop-in, you could count on the whole place being windexed.  my mother and i couldn’t figure it out last year either.  just weird.

and this beast is reuben’s.  i thought he could turn it into a fort.  actually, i was just hoping he would settle down and propagate.  i’ve already named his firstborn (bismark) and picked out his wife (best left undisclosed).  it’s just a shame he doesn’t listen.

we went to rec fest this weekend.  it was madness.  the simplot sports complex is huge.  there were soccer games going on as far as the eye could see.  with bouncy bins, free coffee, face painting and all the string cheese and chocolate milk your 5 year old could ever wish for.

unfortunately, i forgot to grab some for girl.  she noticed.  “wait, where did he get that?  what?  give me the cheese!  give me cheese you fool!”

“this is so not fair.”

“…was that chocolate milk?  injustice!”

don’t worry, we shared.  although she failed to be satisfied.  she spent the whole time trolling for food.

she was after my coffee too (and mommy can’t say no).

it’s a good thing we don’t drink this stuff all the time or else they would all be addicts.

and here is jehu with his kitty face.  if you click on him you can watch him practice meowing.  my sister says i need to get him into football.  maybe he will grow up to be a ballerina instead.

and here is girl stuffed into so many layers she can’t move.  i learned that trick from my mother.

“help.”