just stuff

i don't really have anything important to blog about but i haven't posted for a while so for all of my loyal followers (hahaha) i'll just write about life lately. (interspersed with a few photos, for good measure.)

noah started 1st grade last week. despite some drama including him not getting the 'good' teacher or ANY of his kindergarten friends in his class, he is really happy and liking it. PHEW. he's going from 8:30 to 3 now instead of 8:30 to 11:30 so that has been an adjustment but i think in a few weeks all will be well. i can't get over how cute it is picturing him sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch with his little friends. i mean, what do they talk about? maybe i'll have to go spy on them one day. he is such a cool little dude and i feel so lucky to be his mom.

luke... oh luke. he's with me all day now and i feel bad for the little guy. it's hard to come up with stuff to do and i know i need to be more actively engaged with him than i have been. luckily a spot opened up at Headstart about which is about 5 minutes away and which he will be attending monday through thursday from 12:30-4:00. SWEET. also it's free which is a HUGE blessing. it's crazy how expensive preschools are around here. probably because the people who live up here are loaded.

more about Luke... he continues to crack us up with his many quirks. he found noah's old Cars backpack and has been putting random stuff in it and carrying it around everywhere we go - he wants to be in school so badly. the other day when i took him to the dollar store to pick out a toy he instead picked out a red reusable shopping bag with a heart on it to carry 'juice & treats for his birthday' around in. (his birthday is in december). he's started saying "oh my GOSH!" all the time when he's exasperated and it's really funny. (he got it from me.) i could go on and on about the funny stuff he does but i'm not going to. oh- one more funny thing- his primary teacher told me that he's really great at 'volunteering not to volunteer'. yeah... sounds about right. and also he's POTTY-TRAINED. we are so so so happy about this latest development... just gotta work on the whole 'aiming' thing.

bret has been working at his new job as a technical writer for Miche Bag (a utah-based company that sells handbags) for a few months now. it's going good. it's not his 'dream job' obviously but it pays better than his last job and they bought him a Mac plus the people there are prettty cool so it's a blessing for sure. (check out their website if you want: www.michebag.com.)

i am doing good. i've been 'up' most days and am extremely grateful for this. i still love where i live and have been blessed with a lot of great friends. xoxo

art

i happened upon a really cool artist today while looking at calendars at barnes & noble. his name is Charley Harper. i really like his stuff, so i am sharing it.

(the pink one is my favorite.)

it's pretty simple...

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile,

a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the

smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to

turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia

more recent happenings

eating otter pops in eden, ut

                            swimming in eden. 

luke was really passionate about those rings.

                     good music at the farmer's market

(Moonsville Collective from CA)

         captivated by the good music at the farmer's market...

or else really bored. i'm thinking the latter.

                        homemade t-ball stand

                          taken from my trail...

                             salt lake city

   nothing too notable going on here, but i love that you can see

that noah has bret's chin - quite possibly the only resemblance

he has to either of us.

                         fun in the backyard

                playing Chevron Carsville with max & mikey.

(noah is obsessed with Chevron cars and it's starting to rub off on max; luke & mikey are 'best friends' who don't like eachother.)

   noah's best friend for like an hour - a rolly polly named Stilly

       at the british car & motorcycle rally bret took the boys to.

                                   scotland.

                                the fatties.

(they both took the event very seriously as you can

tell by their shirts.)

something someone said

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." -Rainer Maria Rilke

***

my trail

(bonneville shoreline)

a musing

it's funny how when you find something you thought you lost it makes you SO happy that you wonder if the fact that you lost it was a blessing. this just happened with my ipod... luke lost it like a week ago and i was sure he took it into a store and dropped it or something. needless to say i was really bummed and tried not to think about it. then today while i was cleaning out the car i found it wedged under the driver's seat. so now my day is great because i found my ipod- whereas had i never lost (and found) it my day might be more on the crappy side since i have been dealing with insurance crap and i'm really tired.

i think this ties into the theory that if there was no bad there could be no good. i try to remind myself that the fact that i have been dealing with depression for almost 20 years is a blessing in disguise... just as it keeps me from seeing any good in life whatsoever when i am down, it allows me to see SO MUCH GOOD on the days when i am up. stuff that i might not have ever even been aware of had i been 'happy' all the time. i don't know if i am at the point where i could say that i'm GLAD that i get depressed - but i do know that there is a part of me that is grateful for it.

and i'm grateful that i found my ipod.

an actual date

bret got free tickets to see Real salt lake vs. NY this weekend.

highlights:

the dude behind us took our picture - it turned out surprisingly good.

i got a pretty sweet picture of bret - possibly his best.

(he's a trooper for letting me post this.)

most importantly, our boys kicked butt. final score: 3 - 0

all in all, it wasn't quite as captivating as one of noah's games but it came really close.

thanks hon.

'cherry blossom girl'

love this song...

(so much that i thought i'd borrow the name.)

a quote

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do what is best for us;

we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

- C.S. Lewis

(possibly my favorite one ever)

another photo... surprise surprise

quite possibly the all-time cutest picture of my boys.

(or at least in the top three)

*and a shout-out to little towheads clothing for the darling shirts.