all i want for christmas is...

well, it's been a busy weekend, as you can guess, but i'm happy to report, i'm feeling all caught up and finally ready for the big day tomorrow. cleaning house, and shopping, and seeing friends...and now i'm baking cookies, with francis sometimes helping. i wanted to get another post off before christmas, but as i have no time to write, i thought i would share with you some of francis' writings: his letter to santa this year. it's always a bit of a pickle, we never told him about santa, he just believes, but he's going on ten now, so how longer must we keep this charade? we're hoping he discovers on his own...but he's not easily swayed by doubters. he is a firm believer, even if others aren't. we're gonna have to break it to him someday, but until then...?

here it is: in francis' own words:

Dear Santa,

How are you doing in the North Pole. Are the penguins nice and freindly or are they being very defensive protecting their babys and poking you with their beaks. I want to know because I want to get a baby penguin for christmas. No no no just kiding that would be to much for my mom and dad having a squeaky penguin walking around and that would also get us in trouble in are apartment.
I wanted to ask you for some things. I want to tell you my christmas list. Here are the things I want for christmas: For Video games I want Empire at War for Xbox and Transformers The Game for Xbox. For Legos I want Tie Fighter colection and Tie Interceptor. For Toys I want LAAI\I Gunship Transformer and the AT-TE tank. For Trading cards I want pokemon. For Softwere I want the Microsoft Game Softwere. To help you out on picking Witch presents to get me. My favorite is Empire At War on the Xbox, My second favorite is the Tie fighter Colection, and Thats what I want for Christmas. Have a nice time in the North Pole.

Sincerely,
Francis James Nyssen.

(this photo by greg.)

we miss you all, and wish you a very merry Christmas!
xo rachel, greg, and francis

wishing for a winter wonderland

man, it's been many many days since i last posted, and i don't even really have the time now, except that if i don't squeeze it in, i'll be posting AFTER christmas about what i did BEFORE christmas, and that would be pointless. so i've just had my morning latte, and wrote my to-do list for today, which i will get to...after i catch up here. first, i go to all my friends and read up on what they're are doing, and therein lies some inspiration, because everyone is up to: much!

it always seems like december needs more days in it, and just like they tweeked our calendar for daylight savings, they should tweek it again and make december long, and january short (i mean, with all those resolutions, we just want january to be over and done with anyways, and move on to february) and they could call it "christmas savings". and instead of saving light and energy, it would be saving OUR energy, and the little light of our soul that just gets too crammed, crushed, and jostled, during this holiday season that is supposed to be about love, and giving, and thankfulness.

it's my fault really. because i refuse to get into the season until dec. 1. and this year, dec. 1 rang in the season with a beautiful day of snow all day long. (and of course, it lasted: one whole day long...) snow! and cold! and christmas music! and lights! THAT is when i try to come up with ideas for gifts, but then, when i look at the calendar, i realize: oh my goodness! i have to mail them in two weeks, and i don't even know what i'm mailing yet!!



so i've been busy. and i won't go into it, because they are presents, and they are a surprise...so, moving right along...

francis begs every year to do a gingerbread house, and every year i don't want to do it, and pawn it off: "that's something you can do at grandma's house", and he does get to do them, at grandma's house. but we aren't going to pennsylvania for christmas at grandma and grandpa's house this year. and after him asking again, my first thought was: for goodness sakes, he's almost ten and he's STILL asking for a gingerbread house! and then right on it's tail was my second thought, which was: for goodness sakes, he's been asking for ten years and what kind of lame mom am i that i refuse to do a gingerbread house with my kid? sooo, good new for francis, guilt won out, and i spied a gingerbread kit at trader joes for 7 bucks, and brought it home for him. he was so sweet! he was so happy for it, and wanted people to come over and make it with us! unknown to francis, assembling gingerbread houses does not top the list for many adults (including me) so we were very glad that eben agreed to come over, and the three boys (greg, francis, and eben) ended up having a heydey with it.(more photos on my flickr!)





i got too frustrated with the frosting and the pastry bag and the mess, and was asked to step aside, which i gladly did. but i did contribute the cinnamon stick chimney, and eben did the cotton ball smoke. and the rosemary on the tree. and the candy cane archway. and the direct-tv satellite dish. because even the gingerbread people need their must-see tv...



on sunday, we drove up to north bend with our friends karen and kevin, to go to a christmas tree farm. a first for us. it wasn't quite the wilderness i was expecting; still, francis had a blast running around in the trees, with mt. si looming in the distance.



it was 33 degrees, and we did get a few flakes of snow. he ran the whole farm over, looking for the perfect tree, and when we finally narrowed it down to two, greg and i favored the smallest one, and francis favored the other, the one not quite as small, but pretty much the same. the usual rule of domestic voting meant francis lost,2 to 1, and as his shoulders slumped and he slowly trudged away to the "other" tree, the "unwanted" tree, i looked at greg and sighed: "what are we doing?" he'd been having so much fun this whole time, and here we are getting short with him, trying to convince him that they were practically the same, over-ruling him, and i find i do this too much: over-rule him. saying: don't be silly, this one's fine. trying to convince him to my point of view, and because i'm bigger, i win out. sometimes, it's right: and it falls under "parenting" and "teaching", but all too often, it doesn't, and it falls under "lazy" and "bossy". my son is almost 10, and his childhood is slipping quickly past, and i need to remember that he's a kid, and LET him be a kid...to think those kid thoughts, and do those kids things.

so we realized our mistake, (sigh) and called to francis, who was halfway across the field by now, and called him back. when he got to us, i said: "francis, we're sorry for being so bossy and not letting you choose. we came here so you could pick out a tree, so which one do you want?" and he immediately broke into a grin and pointed to the tree he wanted: his tree. i said: "do you know WHY you want this one?" and he immediately had an answer: "well, you see, this one has a longer trunk, which means there will be more room for presents underneath."

you heard it here, folks. out of the mouth of babes. kids know what they want, and not too often do they know WHY they want something, but when they do, there's a reason. and it helps us, to remember that we wanted this too...when we were a kid.

so, thankfully, the day was not lost. he struggled to cut down his tree, with the hand saw they passed out. he did need a little help, as he was sawing and sawing and sawing and we realized we might be here all day. greg made some headway, then let him finish, and then francis wanted to carry it back to kevin's truck.







it was a fun adventure, and something i definitely recommend. francis worked hard for his tree...(and we learned a little lesson). that night, during his prayers, he thanked God: that his parents were "nice enough" to change their minds, and let him get the tree he really wanted, and that he was really happy for his tree. i kid you not. he said that in his prayers.

it's often those little things that make a big deal...

the good, the bad, and the ugly

well, four days have passed since the thanksgiving weekend, and my house is still a mess. (and by house, i mean apartment, but it's always easier to just say house...) i've just been too tired and too lazy, and slowly picking away at it. but. i DID read two very good books, so i don't feel that bad about it.

thanksgiving went a little different this year, in that we didn't go to portland to be with greg's family, which is the usual. the usual also being 6 hours, in the rain, in bumper to bumper to traffic...which this year, with all that's been going on, (i'll get to that later) we just couldn't stomach. we decided to go up on friday, hoping that everyone would be at the malls and there wouldn't be any traffic. and we were right!

we spent thanksgiving with our family-less east coast friends: karen and kevin, stephanie, and stu, and it was really fun. we weren't meeting up with them til 4:30-ish, tho, and i wasn't going to start my cooking until 3, so we had some time to kill, in which we thought: what shall we do? we have no traditions, really, for thanksgiving, other than to be with family. so what do we do with our OWN family,when we are just us? our own traditions? well, first we had a big breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs with cream cheese, and of course, my stovetop lattes. (that was to stretch our stomachs for the evenings feast. i have tried not eating, in preparation for the gorging, but it always ends up backfiring. i get too full too quick, so we've learned to eat a big brunch, and then we're nice and starving for the big meal.) it was gorgeously sunny outside, so after that, we decided to go walk around our neighborhood. maybe head to the park. what we didn't realize until halfway there, was that it turned winter overnight, and it was ab-so-lute-ly F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G!!! so the grand plan of frollicking as a family in the park was cut a bit short due the fact that i coudn't feel my ears and my teeth hurt all the way to my gums. francis didn't seem to mind, tho. he and greg played catch all the way to the park, until i almost got hit in the head, and then they had to stop. (it's always, always, the mom who gets hit with the ball.) the streets were deserted, but there was still plenty of local people walking about, walking their dogs, walking their selves...enjoying the sunshine. i hate to admit, i enjoyed it much better back inside the apartment. it's really cozy in there, especially when the sun is shining. (check out more photos on my flickr...)



we then met up with our friends at stu's new abode, for our thanksgiving meal. it was really fun, and yummy, and way too much food for the 7 of us. greg had dug out the atari and brought it for some laughs for later in the evening, only to discover that stu had no tv. apparently, there are people like that. so we were forced to get creative and play charade-like games, and karen and stephanie taught us some games too. hot-potato-like winking games, and another one where, you know, someone is the killer and you have to figure out who the killer is. without being killed. kind of like clue, but without the board. i have to admit, it was a bit slow going at first. we all looked and felt like what we really wanted was a nap (except francis of course) but felt bad about crashing at 7:30 at night. they apologized and said: "really, it's a fun game! just imagine it with like 17 people". i also imagined it with gin and tonic! (haha) but, in the end, we perservered, and ended up having loads of fun, laughing ourselves silly for approximately 4 hours, until we, the nyssens, unfortunately had to go. go to bed. getting up early. to drive to portland in the morning.

the drive to portland was a breeze. yay! and we spent the whole weekend with greg's brothers, dave and brad, and their families, just relaxing and hanging out. francis got major cousin time, which he just loves. sunday was sunny again, so we got all the kids outside and to the park only to discover that it was, yet again, unbearably freezing. (i guess it really is winter now!) but greg got a little baseball game going with the boys, and they were having so much fun (i think) that they kept saying: "one more inning!" whenever we suggested going back home. they were such troopers, and we got them all hot chocolate afterwords at the minimart across the street to warm up. such fun! then it was off to nickolas' 14th birthday party (crazy! i can't believe he's 14!) and then our drive home in the dark, with thankfully, no rain and no traffic. me driving, listening to "the life aquatic with steve zissou" soundtrack, (which is a really great soundtrack, by the way. especially for driving.)



so that was the end of our week. but i meant to tell you about the beginning of our week, where francis had no school, and the part where we bought a house. before you start jumping up and down--we changed our minds and said: no. basically, to make a long story short(er), we've been looking at houses. looking IN houses. for awhile now. we took the plunge and put an offer on this house, this cute little house, built in 1920's: one that's semi-still in our neighborhood, where i could still walk francis to school, and greg's commute wouldn't be that much longer.



the seller accepted our bid. we went to our loan officer and got the paperwork rolling. and then we got the house inspected. it was after this, where we said no. it's hard to say, when you're looking for a house, what will be THE factor that would make you say no. i mean, all the houses that we can afford are given fixer-uppers. so we start tallying the items the inspector is telling us... new pipes, since these ones are leaking and pre-50's? um...okay. new heating unit, since this is a forced air octopus downstairs in the crawl space that is pre-50's? yikes! new siding, because the steel siding is rusting, perhaps from the inside? perhaps covering up rotting wood? ummm... (add, add, add...numbers adding up) what number makes you draw the line? the line that says: this house is not worth the fix? well, our decision was made easy for us when the inspector came upstairs after a long visit to the crawl space under the house, and said the foundation was terrible. greg said: "by terrible, what exactly do you mean? on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the worst?" and the inspector said instantly and without hesitation: "oh, 10, definitely. in fact, i haven't seen a house this bad in a long time." and went on in great detail, with pictures, about the beetle infestation the foundation crossbeams had that could collapse at any minute, the additions on the house where someone had put up the crossbeams on: stacked bricks and jacks. i kid you not. jacks. you know, the things with which you prop up a car when you're changing the tire. i'm pretty sure in the directions there is, or should be, a disclaimer that says "not for propping up houses". this house was resting on jacks. multiple jacks. rotting logs secured with jacks. a shanty on jacks. kind of put on new spin on that old hymn: 'on Christ the solid rock i stand, all other ground is sinking sand. all other ground is sinking sand...'

so, that was the deal-breaker for us. we got our money back, and are back to square one. looking at houses...looking IN houses. it is amazing, the things you see, when you are looking IN houses. for example, you might come across a completely empty house where someone had lined all the walls with "art" they were selling. for 10 dollars. to prove i am not kidding:





i especially liked the house that had posted these signs inside: (unfortunately i didn't get pictures, but greg and our realtor and francis are witnesses)
"INDOOR PLUMBING!!" and "ELECTRICITY IN EVERY ROOM!!"

it's like those motels that advertise: CLEAN ROOMS!!

so, anyways, that's where we are these days. and to end on a slightly sad note, i will tell you that one of our little froggies bit the dust. he went to froggy heaven. food for worms. he had been a bit sickly, and by sickly i mean, he was missing a foot and in its place was a ball of fuzz. mold? infection? bacteria? did the other one bite it off? i took them both out the other day and cleaned the tank, and francis and i googled: "frog leg fungus", hoping to come up with something, but nothing looked like what our little guy had. francis was speculating maybe he had a brand new disease. we did find out that little african dwarf frogs are pretty hardy and will usually recooperate with clean water, and time. either that, or they die. so, i told francis that. he was shocked! he said we needed to take him to the vet!! i tried to explain to him that things like frogs, and fishes, don't go to the vet. dogs and cats, yes. frogs and fishes, no. and he said: but MAMA! he is part of our FAMILY!!!

so, we did the best we could. we cleaned their tank. and francis prayed that night for God would make him all better. and the next morning? belly-up. (now how do you explain that to a kid?) i made parental mistake #571 when i informed him of little froggy's death in the night, driving on the way to school. (a car day for me means driving francis to school, driving greg to work, and then my errands. greg then takes the bus home...) i looked back and his lips were trembling, and tears were streaming down his face, and greg and i both (embarrassed to admit), tried our best to keep from laughing. it was just too cute. so when we dropped him off, we both got out and gave him hugs, and a tissue, and said froggy had been a good little frog. he lived a nice long froggy life. and then: have a good day at school!

after school, i decided that it seemed more fitting to bury froggy rather than the uncerimonious trip to the garbage can, and that it might do some bit of good for francis. some proper pet closure. it was pouring down rain, fitting. so we scooped him out of the tank (i had left him there all day, hoping maybe he wasn't really dead, but,...he really was dead.) francis said: "can we make him an R.I.P??" i was like: oh?!! so we got toothpicks, and fashioned him a little cross. we went outside, and francis picked out a spot under the hedgebush and dug a little hole in the dirt. we carefully placed little frog's lifeless body in the dirt, and carefully covered him up, and placed the cross on the mound. i said: "usually francis, one says some words, do you want to?" he said no, that i should. so i said: "here lies floppy..." and francis immediately cut in: "um..mama? that was HOPPY!" what?? how can you tell? he just rolled his eyes at me. very matter of fact. no more tears. all business. so i finished with something like: "God, take this creature of yours, back to the earth, back as nature intended, and may he rest in peace."



(and may his poor little diseased self not infect the creature that digs him up. amen.)

lookouts and cabins and yurts, oh my!

when it's sunny out, you always get a little hopeful. like, it's sunny today, and even tho it poured rain yesterday, as i research possible getaway destinations, it's hard to keep in mind that it could just very well end up raining the whole time. in fact, it's very likely.

francis has the whole week off from school next week, a new thing this year, (to accomodate for parent/teacher conferences before thanksgiving) so we thought: maybe we could do a little family excursion somewhere. so i've been googling. i have to admit: i love googling. i had some friends stay in this treehouse rental near mt. rainier, and thought: that'd be fun! but, alas, no kids under 10. apparently due to insurance reasons and safety. oh well, maybe next year. i've heard of people staying in little rental cabins, yurts, and teepees. we're not really a camping family. we're into the "idea" of roughing it, but not actually doing it. hence, the cabin sounded perfect. until i realized it's just a glorified tent: a roof with a bed. cooking dinner? outside. bathroom? outside. fireplace? outside. running water? bring your own. and no coffee! not exactly what i'm looking for. especially in the end of november, where it could rain all weekend. i want all those things: inside!

when i was younger, i did alot of adventurous things, and i thought myself outdoorsy. greg also did alot of adventurous things, and when we met, we thought eachother quite adventurous! traveling thru europe, freeclimbing big giant rocks that you really shouldn't be, finding yourself on mountaintops in waist-deep snow...so i guess it was just assumed that these crazy antics would continue once we got married. but it wasn't so. and strangely, it wasn't a bummer. i realized that, left to my own motivations, i was lazy and preferred to be comfortable. sleeping in a warm cozy bed is important to me. so is my morning coffee. and so is indoor plumbing...

luckily for us both, greg has been discovered to be much the same way. and we're ok with it. we tried to summon all our enthusiasm last october for francis' cub scout camping trip. we decided to go because francis really wanted to, but mainly because we felt guilty that we didn't take francis camping more often.(ie: ever) we even went out and bought a bigger tent. i made a checklist of everything we needed to bring, which was long, and it took us hours to gather, buy, and load everything, and then more hours to get to our destination. and then more hours to unload everything, set up camp, and cook dinner. i think it took about an hour to boil a pan of water, because we only had a tabletop propane grill, and by the time we got our paltry mac and cheese and hot chocolate, everyone else was off exploring. that night in our tent, we remembered why we didn't do this more often: we froze. and francis woke us up about 15 times in the middle of the night in a panic of terror that the sasquatch was trying to get into our tent! he heard it!! trying to undo the zipper!!!( damn campfire stories. who's brilliant idea was it to tell scary stories to a bunch of 3rd graders??)

on the plus side, francis hasn't been begging us to do it again, so our guilt has been somewhat alleviated.

but that was last year, and this is this year, and again, i'm caught in the position of trying get my city-boy outside: something fun and outdoorsy and maybe not so rustic. and i had a new thought which i posed to greg: "hey, remember that fire lookout cabin we spent the night in way back when? i bet francis would love that! we should do that!" (way back when: was 1995, when we were just friends, or i should say, barely friends, because even in my tomboy-guy's-best-friend ways, i still managed to revert to girliness sometimes, and at that very moment, i wasn't speaking to him for some grand transgression, but he didn't know it. we went to the three fingers lookout cabin with matt snyder, his sister lisa, and brian glenney, and it was definitely a trip to remember, and completely a whole 'nother story: just ask me about it sometime.) greg, in answer to my grand idea said: "HA! are you crazy? that hike was over 9 miles! and have you forgotten the glacier we had to cross?" well, yes, i forgot about that, but i googled it anyways because i wanted to see if there was anything about it, and there was. (just click on the cabin to see the collection of pictures) and then i googled all fire lookout cabins in washington, because i thought, if three fingers was too hard and too high, maybe there was an easier one. but i had forgotten a few key things. one: they are high on mountaintops for a reason: they once really did contain people looking for fires. and two: they were mainly a summer residence. i forgot that in the mountains, in the winter, you get snow.

so right about now, a motel is looking mighty nice, and i'm back to square one for the next nyssen adventure. if you have any ideas, or places you've heard about or stayed in, i would love to hear about it and completely copy you.

thankfully, we're not so urban that francis doesn't get to experience the glories of fall right here in seattle. he asked me last week if i would make caramel apples, and i realized i never have. he's almost ten and i've never made caramel apples??!!what's the deal? so we did. and he loved them.








the leaves have been beautiful and our lawn covered with them, so my most recent idea to get my city-boy out into the great outdoors was to get him to rake them.





i posed it as a money-making venture, a chore of old: boys of every generation have had to do this, and as a double incentive, once he had a big enough pile, he could jump in it. as long as he raked it up again. i posed the idea to zoran, our former-neighbor/friend and current bldg. manager/friend and asked for the rake and if francis could do it. he was thrilled (saved him having to do it) and offered to pitch in money as well. so francis got to learn a lesson, earn money, and have fun all in one. he was a little disappointed at first that it took him a lot longer than he thought it would. also, that leaves kept falling as he worked and messed up his many organized piles. he thought he would be done in one shot. but it gets dark so early now, than he only had time to rake afterschool for one hour, and it took him three afternoons and he still wasn't done! (however: we did spy on him, and he did spend quite a bit of time looking at pretty leaves and setting them aside, and then a little raking, and then: oh! another leaf! and setting it aside, etc etc. it was a painfully slow process but we stayed out of it.) on saturday morning, it was sunny, and he had his friend august over (from a sleepover the night before) and greg was going to take them to the park. i said: why don't you ask if they want to rake and earn some money? they both chose earning money! apparently, you can still buy good manual labor these days for 2 dollars...and it's always more fun when you get a little help from your friends...





so, i posted some more pics of the raking on my flickr page, because i was just that tickled about it. and there's still leaves on the trees, and they're still falling, so lucky him! he'll get to do it all...over...again...

my mama ain't no gunslinger

this past weekend, our calendar was so full with halloween-related commitments, that by saturday, i was starting to feel burned out and grumpy at the mere thought of them. francis was REALLY wanting to go to the pumpkin patch...which wasn't on the calendar. but it was a sunny day, and our last chance to go, and so... go we did. we thought maybe we could do a quick pumpkin trip this year, and get back in time for our other plans, but...well...have you ever tried to do a quick pumpkin patch trip? granted, francis did find the pumpkin he wanted within the first five minutes in the patch, but after driving for 45 minutes to get there, i said: why don't you look a little longer? go run around!... so we wandered and gathered such giant pumpkins, and got a little carried away; we ended up having to put back half of them because then we wouldn't have enough cash left to do the corn maze. so we sufficed with one large pumpkin, one medium, and one small: a nyssen-size family of pumpkins.



we entered the corn maze and were really glad we wore our boots, even tho it wasn't raining. the trails were oozing mud puddles ankle deep, and francis had a blast sloshing thru it. greg decided that if we were going to do the maze, we were going to do it right: no cheating and cutting thru, even tho by the end of october, the maze was quite a shambles, with corn splayed everywhere from people running amok in the maze. there were 12 "targets" to reach inside the maze, with hole-punchers to mark your tickets when you reached them. even if we could see the marker, but were on the wrong side of the corn, greg still insisted in following the map, (which, by the way, was a poor one) and taking the long but correct way to the markers. francis liked this way too. it was quite an adventure. i didn't mind it...but, after a few hours greg's resolve began to weaken. and well, we only cheated once! at the very end. we were trying so hard to be good examples, but, in the end...we thought, well, it is only a corn maze, after all. we can't stay in here all day!



after that, we dilly-dallied around the farm: francis and greg rode the zip-line, francis stomped in more mud puddles, fed the goats, shot 'em up in the fort (and by them i mean us), rode the tire-horses, and braved the scary "boo" barn. francis was having so much fun we didn't really want to stop and leave and rush to his school's harvest party. apparently, neither did francis. he volunteered to skip it; he said all he wanted to do was go home and carve the pumpkins. which was fine by us!
(i posted more pics on my flickr of the day's adventures...)



back home, greg emptied the pumpkins, and i set to work separating the seeds to roast them! ugh! i hate this part! anyone know an easier way to do this? all i know how to do is painstakingly separate them one by one in a sink full of water. it took me two hours! greg says: why do you bother? and i said: because. it's only once a year. and we like to eat them. it somehow makes the adventure come full circle. a day in the patch. a night of carving. and when we we are done and exhausted, we can relax, and eat freshly roasted pumpkin seeds...the fruit of our labors.

francis set to work drawing his design for his pumpkin. when he was done, he showed it to us. it was a very detailed drawing, quite small for his gigantic pumpkin. i said: hmmm...you want to put the angel of death on your pumpkin? he said: mama. it is NOT the angel of death! i said: is it the grim reaper? he said: NO! it is NOT the grim reaper! i said: WHAT is it? he informed us that is was a: masked man. and he wanted it on his pumpkin. greg shot me a look, so: far be it from me to stand between a boy and his pumpkin! too often i try to direct him: "but wouldn't you like to do this instead?" etc etc. i let greg take over, and greg did his best to carve it, per francis' very detailed instructions. and he was happy with it. greg and i were both pretty tuckered out by this time, it nearing 10 pm. our pumpkins do not display the creativity nor effort we put into them last year. i asked greg if his was hannibal lector. he said a bit disappointedly: no, it's supposed to be C3PO... and mine is simply singing the opera, but manages to look a bit scary...







on sunday, we went to our friend's annual halloween party, and francis had previously been planning on going as a toucan again (his grand idea from last year) but he changed his mind last minute, again, and wanted to go as: the masked man, the picture he drew for his pumpkin. i started to balk. "i'm not sure i'm comfortable with you going as the angel of death." "MAMA! I TOLD YOU: IT IS NOT THE ANGEL OF DEATH!" (and then he muttered: and anyways, the angel of death is still an angel.) greg convinced me that it was practically right out of lord of the rings, so... on sunday, after his soccer game, we hit the goodwill to look for black fabric with which to concoct a cape. francis had it all planned out: what he would wear, but most importantly, he would be carrying his sword. greg's costume this year was, specifically, luke wilson's character "anthony" robbing the bank, from the wes anderson movie "bottle rocket". i didn't know what to be. i told greg he should be paladin, from the 50's western "have gun will travel", which we've been watching alot of lately. but he didn't have a black shirt or black jeans. and then i realized: aha! i have a black oxford shirt and black jeans! and brown leather boots. and a western-ish belt. i stuck two of francis' cap guns into my pockets, and borrowed greg's big brown hat. the only thing missing was the mustache, which, frankly, i refused. greg said it was grand. francis said: "mama, i don't think you should be paladin. you should be paladin's secret twin sister, paladina." i said: no way! i'm being paladin. he brought it up again in the car, that i REALLY should be paladin's sister. and i said:"francis, do you have a problem with me being paladin?" and greg said to me: "i really think he has a problem with you being paladin."

it isn't that he doesn't have the imagination. the boy has imagination plenty. i thought about it a bit more, and tried to think of it from his perspective. dad dressed up like a bank robber? cool! your mama dressed up like a hero-gunslinger? might be a bit much to swallow. maybe...
i mean, after all, i'm having issue with my son wanting to be what he wants to be. (last year, a toucan: so cute! and this year? only nine and already: the-grim-reaper-who-is-not-really-the-grim-reaper-but-is-really-a-masked-man)

(sigh) so it's wednesday, and freezing, and tonight we will bundle up and go wander our neigborhood, ooh and ahh at clever pumpkins, and collect candy, in that strange american tradition. and he can be his medieval sword-carrying cape-wearing masked-man or whatever he is. and i will just be his mama...

gettin' over it, the weather, that is

where does the phrase "under the weather" come from? when did it come to refer to someone being sick? these are questions i googled the other day and got some answers. i don't want you to think i named my site: "ill". when i was in highschool, the office lady, upon receiving my longwinded explanation for why i had been out-sick, would take my excuse form, and in big red marker, would write: I L L over what had been written. she was bored by excuses. she just wanted to know: sick? yes or no.

i thought of under the weather, because, simply and literally, i am UNDER it, the weather, every day. the clouds form a low ceiling, and i am under them. what i am trying to do: is get over it already. i got a chance to get literally OVER it this weekend...

for how much i complain about the gray, i really don't actually mind the rain. i like the sounds that come with rain: the slurping of tires as they drive past my window, the patter of raindrops on windows, and the tinny pings on the roof i don't get to hear anymore because we have no roof above our heads...just our neighbor, snoring.

we experienced extreme rain as only the east coast can pelt out, this weekend on our whirlwind visit to pennsylvania for a friend's weddding. while still in the air, we flew over storms for the last half of our trip, and francis got to see the black night sky light up as if a giant flash-bulb had gone off, lightning illuminating the clouds as far as the eye could see. he said it looked like bombs were going off. he was thrown into full-on war mode, and proceeded to shoot down the nazi's for the rest of the flight. when we landed, we were in the lull of a tropical-like storm, complete with the humid 70 degree heat. i stepped outside the airport and gasped, and quickly peeled off my wool cardigan and tweed raincoat, quickly down to a t-shirt.





my parents picked us up, and we drove into downtown philly to drop greg off with the boys, where the bachelor party was in full swing. it was midnight, and the city was alive with people. my dad commented that he hasn't been to philly in awhile, that he should really come down some day...and he took us on the "scenic route" thru historic downtown, past independence hall, past the art museum and it's famous steps from "Rocky". he pulled over and asked francis if he wanted to run up the steps. i thought he might, but he didn't want to. maybe the dark? maybe too tired?

we got back to my parents, and ended up not getting to bed til 3am. (greg didn't get in til 5!) it's not actually so bad in the evenings, since they're 3 hours ahead. it's the mornings that feel like death...where 9am is really 6am...and "sleeping in" til 10 is still earlier than i get up for school! our morning hours were all we had for friends and family, from 11-3, (the rehearsal being at 3 and the wedding at 5 the next day) so we got up, coffeed up, and had nice frazzled rushed squeezed visits with friends and my parents and my two sisters.

friday, the day of rehearsal, torrential downpoured all morning, but was still very warm! just a t-shirt and rainboots! (i had checked the weather before hand, and had brought my boots). but by the time we were decorating the barn, most of the rain was gone for the day, only to come back strong once we got back home! saturday, it was sunny: our friends karen and kevin got married at sunset...in lancaster, at a historic little site, with a big barn, decorated with christmas tree lights, and lanterns, and bundles of fall leaves. it was truly beautiful. we danced the night away, courtesy of kris k, and then husband and wife rode away on a motorcycle, by candlelight, her white dress flowing, glowing in the night...

back at my parents, we had a houseful of friends crashing after the wedding. we had a bonfire out in the orchard, awake again til 3am. boys and fire make very happy companions! it was a fine time... another long leisurely breakfast in the tearoom next morning, with multiple pots of coffee, and donuts, and eggs, and sausages...

so soon we had to depart, too short was our visit.

we are home now, back to work and school on monday was a bit rough. slowly getting back to our real life. (i posted some new pics from our trip on my flickr.) for being only a weekend excursion, it felt like a week. it is good to be home tho, i guess even in the rain...

october skies and other things

not much to report: after two weeks of gray and rain, today there is some sun, which throws me into delusions of hopefulness that it may last the weekend...

i finally faced reality and washed all our summer clothes and bedding and packed it all away; i normally relish the changing of the seasons, but this summer was so weak i was just really hoping for an indian summmer, but no...

however, i DO love fall, and having grown up on the east coast, it has always been a favorite season. here in seattle, you gotta catch it while you can, for the rain quickly turns the leaves to mush, and the gray dims the brightness of the colors falling to the ground. francis and i have collected a few leaves already, (it's tricky finding dry ones) and placed them into books stacked around the house. he still loves collecting leaves, and i find it so endearing. (i've posted some photos on my flikr page, if you want to check 'em out...)

yes, i do love the changing of the seasons! we finished eating the last of the summer plums, and now we're looking forward to: clementines! pomegranates! digging out the rainboots, and wool sweaters, tweed coats, and plaid scarves; making hot chai and hot chocolate... turning the radiator on "high"...

we're flying out to PA next weekend, to stay with my parents, to attend a friends wedding, and i very much look forward to seeing: friends and family, and the east coast october sky and colors, if only for a few days...

um...what else?

francis ran three and a half miles (!!)in his school jogathon fundraiser, and collected over $400 for his school! he ran a mile more than last year! i gotta say, we were very impressed!











i finished reading the sherlock holmes book and decided NOT to read it to francis; it ended up being a murder mystery, and a bit graphic, so now i'm reading to him "adventures of huckleberry finn" (after francis finished reading tom sawyer, loved it, and wanted whatever came next.) i got a couple chapters into huck finn before i realized... hmmm...i'm glad he's not reading this by himself, because there's a lot of language editing i need to do. so i did a little research. i find out it's been banned variously and continuously since its publication, but has also been, by some, considered one of the great american novels of all time. so. i guess i'm abrigding it as i go along, but- francis is really enjoying it. it has adventures, of course, however, it's heavier than tom sawyer, and it opens up discussion for the times, slavery, our country's history,etc. etc. which is good.
francis told me that if he lived in the times of martin luther king jr, that he would have "voted for him". i asked what he meant. and he said well, he was trying to get people equal, but some people who even went to church weren't trying to get people equal and didn't even want them equal, and that even tho he (francis) went to church, he would have voted for martin luther king jr. because he, too, wanted everyone to be equal.

and THAT just about sums up a good day...

my mother will be so proud

i received a magazine in the mail the other day. (actually, i receive far too many magazines these days, thanks to airmiles, they're free.)i peruse them with my daily morning latte... conde nast traveler, harper's bazaar, W, anthropologie catalogs, jcrew. i don't really shop at jcrew. i usually idea-shop, but i did buy my wellies from there last year, and they've served me well. this catalog came with a girl on the back sporting a hot pink scarf. and i thought: "wow! i like that scarf." and then i thought it was a strange thought, because the scarf was pink. and to those who know me, i'm not really a pink kinda girl. more of a black and blue and brown and olive green kinda girl. my mother is the one who loves LOVES pink.

not many people would know this by looking at me, or my sister rebekah for that matter, but we spent our childhood surrounded by pink. drowning in pink, if you will. (no offense, mom, you know we love you!) we shared a room until 7th grade, and in that room: was pink carpet, bright pink walls, seer-sucker lampshades made by my mother with tiny pink polka-dots, british duvets covers with pink floral pattern, and pink floral curtains. i kid you not. my mother LOVES pink! my mother didn't have the whole reign of the house decorating wise, for my dad exuded a very masculine influence, lots of dark wood, and dark brown couches, etc, so i think she gave herself to full abandon in our bedroom. it's something we get a good chuckle over. good times! i wish i had an old photo to show you.

so, keeping this in mind, when i saw that pink scarf, i thought how my mother would be "tickled pink", (sorry about the pun, just had to use it) to know that her army navy daughter was actually desiring a pink object. and then, when i was brushing my teeth, i noticed: hey, i have a pink toothbrush. and then, in the living room, i noticed: hey, i have pink pillows! (not that their color escaped me when i bought them, but i didn't buy them because they were pink-- they were cheap ikea pillows that i used to cover with, yes, brown pillow covers) and then, wouldn't you know, i started seeing pink everywhere!! it was enough to make me smile...

so i thought i would share this journey with you, as you can see -if you go to my flickr page. and yes, this is what i have been doing instead of what i SHOULD be doing, like washing the summer clothes and packing them away, deep cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, weeding out the closets, etc etc...all in all, being a better housewife. greg never dreamed that when he bought me a camera cell phone, it would aid in my tendency to procraste, like taking useless photos of all the pink things in our possession.

lest you think me totally lazy, i will say i was inspired to tackle the kitchen last week when i found -yuck! bugs in the cupboards. again! i just deep-cleaned last fall, and i found them again. so either i didn't clean well enough, or they are a pest problem related to the old building we live in. well, this time, i went a bit crazy, and took everything out of the cupboards, washed all the dishes, pots and pans, bleached the cupboards, and lined the food cupboard with that sticky paper that makes me want to scream (i lined it tops, sides and bottoms, and had the initial intention to do the whole kitchen, but after that one cupboard which took hours, i decided: doing the food cupboard was all i needed because we're not going to live here forever!)


then, i went about throwing away all old and opened food, about three groceries bags full, because i found a colony of these horrible horrible things thriving in the donut mix i bought over two years ago, when i made french beignets with my sister. (sigh) (was it really two years ago?) i then went out and bought containers, plastic and glass, for EVERYthing, and this is the new way we are going to live.


a new habit. it's a bit strange tho. i look at my cupboard and it doesn't look like mine. i've lived ten years of our married life, with the color of boxes... and now, everything in glass, uniform, organized, seems...i don't know, like it's some other woman's cupboard. so, i'm hoping it will grow on me.

in other habits...we have recently tried another go at water containers. after my son and husband kept losing our nalgeen bottles and our bicycle bottles, it seemed much easier to buy the 24-pack from safeway of water bottles and then not care if they got left behind. but i've recently become convicted by those news stories tauting how many billions of dollars americans spend on bottled water, when many countries don't even have good tap water. so we're trying the containers again. it's a pain, a new habit is...i feel like it's just one more thing i get on francis' case about: "do you have your water bottle?" "did you forget you water bottle?" "do you remember WHERE you left your water bottle?" jeepers! the poor kid! i had gotten myself a bottle from tully's, just for starters, and francis was so into it, that we decided it was time for him to have his own. we saw a klean kanteen in a store and bought it at 20 bucks a pop, and he was very proud, and we told him it take good care of it. so, we're trying. i don't mind reverting to the olden days, in fact, i like our bottles. so here's hoping they last a year...


well, enough of this rambling. i need to go wash the dishes. and tidy up. and get dressed. and go pick up francis from school (greg went in later today, and so took him to school. so i go walk and pick him up, and our new thing when i do that is: to stop by the market on our way home for a fresh french baguette and some fruit, and then we have that for tea-time afterschool) but now it looks like it's raining, so i also need to go dig out my wellies! oh, fall is here! i REALLY do need to wash my summer clothes, and put them away, and take out my winter ones, cause gray is here to stay...

and a little bit of pink actually does brighten the day...

why i walk my kid to school

it's the fourth week into fourth grade and: time has resumed flying, 7:30 in the morning still feels VERY early, and walking to school has resumed it's routine. everyone who finds out that we walk to school is usually suprised, because it is quite far by city-standards. it takes francis and i about 25 minutes (or even 35 minutes, if he stops to collect leaves along the way.) i walk home much faster.

i can be found guilty of doing things not necessarily out of desire, but for the mere sake of the memory. walking to school may be one of them. if our grandparents did it (in snow! uphill both ways!) it's the least we can do. it has been a habit of the past few years, and last year marked the first year where francis didn't complain. this year he doesn't even balk; it has become expected. maybe even normal. the fact that we usually merge with other walking-to-school children a few blocks from the school reinforces this, and he knows he's not the only one, which helps; he doesn't realize (yet) that he is walking much farther. the fact that we have only one car, and that we live outside of the school-district-zone for bussing are actually the main reasons for this. (greg goes to work much earlier than school starts, so that he can be done in time to pick him up.) but i guess i've come to look on the whole thing as: enforced excercise. i need it. francis needs it. and so we bundle up, and we deal. i probably won't go quite so far as to say "i just love my morning walk", but there is a part of me that recognizes that the day goes by so fast, and the morning walk is the only slow part of the day, and the only truly one-on-one time i get with francis. afterschool is sports, or teatime, then homework, dinner, reading, bath, bed. there's just not enough hours in the evening to do all this it seems.

i used to walk quite a bit. when i used to live at home, i would walk down our hill (out of the tree line, and to the fields, about a half and hour) and then up again. to be alone, to get fresh air. before i was married, when i lived on stone way, but worked in the u-district, i would walk to work and back again. just because. nowadays, there's not much to walk to. i've never managed to make a habit of walking around greenlake, even though i can walk to it. i find it boring. it can't be just for the sake of excercise, or i find myself falling short of my goals. it must be that i HAVE to do it. i MUST take francis to school, so: no car and no bus leaves only feet. school has been a nice incentive. in the morning, it is usally gray, there are few people on the streets, and it is quiet. francis chatters undistracted. the leaves are changing. we looks for snails. even when it rains, in rainboots and umbrella, he seems completely unfazed. maybe even enjoys it. i know this may possibly last for only one more year; who knows where he or we will be when he reaches the 6th grade? but at least when he is old, he can regale his children and grandchildren with his very own "when i was your age, i had to walk to school, uphill both ways" stories...