a christmas passage to india...

(i have just discovered this in the draft pile, from Dec.2011! seems i forgot to post it. it is old news now, and things did not go quite according to plans. when traveling, one must be flexible! update to follow. soon-ish...) seems like my usual first sentence these days is: it's been awhile. sigh...

one of my struggles in writing, is that i am pathetically chronologically bound. i have a really hard time speaking about the present, and simply, will not write, if i have not caught up from what i have done. but i have just received the most lovely letter from a friend, walking me thru the flurry and wonder of a day in her new life in florence, with really, no need to catch up. just, what are you doing right now? so, it got me in the letter writing mood, i will take that example, and skip over my never-written-about summer and it's lovely florida days with friends and family, the new school year, sisterly visits to chicago, and jump right into the present, because i think there may be some of you who do not perhaps know: that we are going to India. we will be in chennai, formerly called madras, in one week...

greg had a work trip planned for january, and wanted us to join him this time. i didn't want to pull francis out of school for that long, (like we did for beijing a few years ago, the make-up work was brutal) and so we looked at our calendar, and an empty christmas break was staring us right in the face. this year, we were not going home for christmas, and the long weeks of gray and trying to tempt francis off video games was not something i was looking forward to. so i asked: what about christmas? he pitched the idea back to his work, and while i went to visit rebekah in chicago at the end of october (with charis, a wonderful sister's visit!) we did not know our status. we did not find out til the second week of november, that it was yes, we were a GO! and so...

things have spiraled into chaos over here:
it's hard to believe that in one week, we embark on our trip to India! it really is a bit sudden. and, now: being post-immunizations, somethin's got me runnin' ragged-- it's either the polio, the typhoid, the hepatitis A, the diptheria... or simply the flu...all mixed together with lack of sleep. and in one week, we get to add malaria to the mix! (there were no child-size pills for francis, so it will be horse-pills for us all for breakfast, every day.) not to knock science, i am in awe of the modern marvels, and immunizations are a gift, but i also keep close our daily prayers: Dear God- please keep us healthy and safe, in our travels, and every day. the two go hand in hand, i believe...

in hindsight, trying to plan a trip to India in under 4 weeks has been:...uh... crazy! what were we thinking? we have done so much traveling lately, i thought: no brainer. throw some clothes in a bag, get our shots, we're good to go...
but i have spent most days, entire days-entire evenings, researching hotels, reading reviews, planning itinerary, booking hotels, reading about the area and surrounding, etc, that come falling into bed at midnight, i can't turn my brain off and at 2am get up and get some nyquil with hopes of falling asleep. then i am delirious to take F to school, come home, and pass out in a deep deep making up for lost time sleep, til about 10am, and then spend a groggy few hours waking up and getting back to the same thing. research research research. the internet (when i like it) is an amazing thing...

it wouldn't be so bad, as generally, i have nothing better to do and getting my mind on something is good, and i enjoy researching, but i am desperately trying not to neglect the christmas season that is upon us!

but

i console myself with: christmas itself is usually most often, hectic, stressful, list-making and checking things off, things to do, buy, and see, parties, obligations, etc... that is is always an immense effort to focus and remember the reason for the season. i mean, i know it, but at night when i am ruminating it is usually not over God's love for us, it is over worries of what i have yet to make, send, buy, etc. ... so...i have to admit i am content to bow out this season. no gifts! we will be: "out of the country." literally!

so it will be a very different christmas for us this year, that's for sure: it will be our own little struggle to keep christmas alive in spirit, when we are surrounded by no outward signs of it. it will be intimate, small, challenging, and hopefully, spiritually focused. thankfully, christmas day is on a sunday, so greg will not have to go in to work. when he came to india last time, he just worked the whole time, didn't see anything--but this time, he has insisted we make some weekend trips to see a few things together. and at his insistence, (i was impartial, i thought it would be too far away to reasonably plan, but he really wanted to) i have booked us a "pilgrimage" to go see the Taj Mahal over christmas weekend. i say pilgrimage because of the long travel time to get there: first we have to fly to delhi-3 hrs, then hire a car to drive us to agra where the Taj is: about 4-5 hrs away. the town itself ---by all accounts-- is an undesirable tourist trap town housing hoards and hoards of tourists, many luxury hotels not even getting good reviews, basically people come to see the taj mahal and leave. so after reading reviews for days and trying to pick a hotel, i finally went the other way, and booked a homestay with an Indian family that rents rooms. kind of like a B&B. i already feel a bit like mary and joseph, making the long trek just for a census, and having no room in the inn. it will be simple, but it will be homey, (they advertise it as: homely, haha) with a home-cooked meal, and we can sit around a talk with a family and stay in a neighborhood rather than be crushed by the throng in the town. i have already googled-earthed the town to see if there are any churches in the area, and i did find some, perhaps we will be able to go to a christmas eve service after all? but for our christmas morning, we will get up at dawn most likely, (as per recommendation, best view, least amount of crowds) to watch the morning light rise over the white marble of that Monument to Love, and hopefully have a good and memorable time together as a family. (i say hopefully as francis is a bit moody these days. teenager. ugh. it's been rough) we will stay for a day. then the next day, drive the 5 hours back, and fly back to chennai. then for greg, it's back to work... and back to me spending all day, every day, exploring with francis...

a friend recently told me: you are only as happy as your saddest child...it put into words exactly where greg and i are at these days. not that he is sad, exactly... but... being difficult. and so we worry, are frustrated, doubt ourselves, etc... not so much fun these days.



because, just recently this fall-- has taken us by surprise in that he has entered that dreaded part of teenagerdom that i thought would pass us by unscathed, as he's always been our little buddy: --but we are in it-- he has good days and bad, but most of the time, he doesn't want to talk to us anymore. he is moody and wants to be in his room. alone. not with us. and it's hard for us to not take this personally. he seems to be fine around other people, though, it's just us apparently. we took him to a weekend wedding at a lodge 2 hours away, and he moped that it would take up his whole weekend, (he desperately values his "free time") and sulked most of the way there, and then, once there, he dropped us cold and had a blast: complete strangers were reporting to me what an amazing child i had, he had voluntarily started acting as waiter and taking people their food, he started watching the toddlers and playing with them and entertaining them, and even condescended to dancing with them the whole night during the post-wedding square dance, ring-around-the-rosie style. (he was the only older kid there, they were all 5 and under...). the little 5 year old became so enamored with him, and he tolerated her openly staring at him and wanting to hold his hand. he appeared to be genuinely having fun, some of them praised our obviously stellar parenting, that we were doing a really "good job"! hahahhaha--and greg and i were totally flummoxed. i'm not joking-- one dad came up to me and said wow-- what he wouldn't give to see us behind closed doors, that our living-room life must be so amazing, we must laugh all the time! apparently, we put on a really good show! hahaha. because much of the time, our coaxing for conversation becomes lectures, we're pulling our hair out, then afterwords, when he's in bed, we're like: arrggh--what were we thinking? he's just kid. and lament how much we suck...

hmmm...seems like i'm painting it kinda dark. ok, ok, it's not all that bad, we have our good days and bad, --we just feel it more personally, because we want him to want to talk to us, but we have been relegated as "the parents". we're feeling it keenly. he doesn't want us, he wants his friends, it's all good. normal. teenagery. i can remember that age, i do remember how difficult i was. (sorry mom and dad!) i am so thankful that my dear friend Lynne came into my life when she did, she was a mentor in my teenage years, and now a dear friend in my adult years... and i am praying that francis will take that step to confide in any of our friends, if he really needs to talk, if he doesn't want to talk to us (which i hope he will, but i'm guessing i'll be out of luck.) we have many friends here who have adored him since he was a baby. you know who you are...(although: they may not exactly adore him right now, but you know... )

when we travel, he's fun, or at least, he has been in the past, so we're fingers-crossed hoping for a good time with him in india, that he enjoys our company and we're not dragging around a moody kid by his collar, but that he's engaged and enjoys himself. that he is also pleasant to be around would be nice too, since he and i will have those long days to ourselves while greg is at work...

(i always start off writing with what i'm doing, where i'm going, but really, it all boils down to where i am. and where i am these days is: mother of a moody teenage boy, and basically, every day i am simply trying not to make a mess of things...)

my prayer has become that of the parent: that our good days outweigh the bad ones enough so that when he is grown, he will enjoy our company, call us, enjoy visits, and not want to ditch us the moment he is out the door. our dreams have been whittled down to the simple most important few.

wishing you all a wonderful christmas, full of many joyful memories with your loved ones...xo

bloomin' june

not to be constantly griping about the weather, (the local news DID call the month we just had "mayvember" by the way, AND area billboards have taken to suggesting we take a break from the "sweltering 68 degrees" --with a beer, and that "who needs the sun?" because we already GLOW --when we drink vitamin water, just sayin'...) i thought it only fair to document that our struggling rose buds have finally opened. we used to have such gorgeous roses right outside our window; we quickly got used to the parade of legs, and the sight of people bending down, not to peek into our apartment, but to: stop and smell the roses. our yellow rose did not bloom at all, but there are thankfully a few others to spread the cheer...







i also tried transplanting my purple clover (that i have had for 13 years, and greg believes it is a weed simply by the fact that it is still alive). i was hoping it would take over the slim dirt garden that lines our building, but it is a struggling little patch.





in an effort to focus on the positive, i thought i would post some sunny pictures. i like to follow the sun around, so here we are catching some rays at greenlake...



around 4pm, the sun starts to dip behind phinney ridge, so it's the perfect time to catch "tea-time" at Perche No Italian restaurant (stone way and 50th). they've just opened, people don't show up for dinner til 6, so we've got the little patio and tinkling water fountain all to ourselves. the sun sticks around here til 6, so we're leaving just as the dinner crowd rolls in...



and many days, even cloudy days, the sun will tease with an appearance just in time for sunset. at home, it makes our bedroom especially inviting, and i love taking a cat-nap on our bed, with the sun full on my face. it starts at the pillow, and gradually moves across the bed...









family, friends, good food, sunshine.
and raindrops on roses.
just a few of my favorite things...

spring forward...

it's been a long time, friends. this winter has been most dreary and i've been mostly hibernating. when it came time to change the clocks, (which we forgot about, again) i was so disoriented when i woke up, over which clock was right and what time it really was, that in my morning grog i thought we were at fall back. no joke! i had to google it to see where we were. (looking out the window does no good: my brain just tells my body it is winter.)

i literally cannot believe it is june, that May slipped by right under my nose; i've been meaning to write for ages. in anticipation of summer, (i am reminded it is indeed summer, everywhere else but here. yes, it is currently raining and 57 degrees, still) i feel the need for a catch-up, before i am once again gone for a stretch. so apologies for the length, and the newsletter feel, but these are just things i meant to jot down but never managed to do so previously, and things i want to remember. so grab yourself of cup of tea, (or iced! i forget, it's hot over there) and if you have the time, enjoy the read...

january was february was march, and our april roses never bloomed. but we've been, as usual, busy with family life. we've even managed to get out of town for a few trips. (which we must do next year! breaking up the seattle winter is a key to survival, i've discovered.) and i'm become aware that i am surrounded by two northwest boys who suffer the lack of sun much less than i. i joked i was getting my sunshine vicariously on-line as i spent a better part of the winterly spring researching and planning our 3rd family summer trip, again to florida. it would seem it is becoming a habit, but we take each year individually and see what we can do. and so far, each spring has found me so desperate for sunshine and heat, that come july, florida is where we happily find ourselves. but enough about the weather...

(here's a sneak-peak of where we'll be staying beach-side for 4 days, before we head to walt disney world for 3: the kid is getting a bit old, and this just felt like the last chance to check this off the childhood list! i can't wait!)

january saw me jetting off to my parents for a mini-getaway, a long weekend with sisters. snow and babies, tea and talk; it was wonderful. contrary to some people's opinion, i do not mind the cold --in winter! i just like my seasons to be seasons, and besides, it was sunny!

my parent's house in winter:



nephew luke with his auntie rebekah, doing his new favorite thing: "becca bounce."



luke with his new wake-up call: baby brother evan!



peter and laura also joined up with us for a day at the baltimore aquarium.
family needs to see each-other more than once a year, a janurary trip is perfect.





that same weekend, greg and francis flew south to palm springs, for a guy's weekend: dirt bikes and desert, at the invite of our good friend chris bowden, who retreats often to his grandfather's old house in the desert, that the family has kept for getaways. the boys had a blast and greg put up a bunch of photos here. sadly, the wonderful trip ended with a scare: giving francis his first major injury: a concussion from an atv accident. he went for "one last ride" around the block an hour before they were to leave for the airport. he got going too fast, t-boned another rider and flipped the atv, which landed on top of him. it was so scary for greg, and we are immensely grateful to God that he was not hurt worse. (or the other rider either!) but it has not marred the great time they had, and they will have memories to last.

francis missed a week of school and spent the better part of february with headaches and -dr.'s orders- banned from gym, band, and basketball. his chin was banged up nice and good, which gave him some proof of injury! he got a lot of sympathy at school!



for him, it was a pretty boring february, except for the major event of turning 13!





it just so happened that on his birthday night, there was a special double-feature screening of the Raiders of the Lost Ark in the theatre, followed by Raiders of the Lost Ark: an Adaptation, a teen-filmed shot-for-shot remake of the movie, from the 80's, which was amazing, clever and funny!) so we took him and his best buds to a night out: dinner, movie, and a sleepover. which was promptly followed by winter break, where all his friends went out of town and we did not. that was rough. he actually said by the end of the (rainy! of course) week that he was tired of playing video games. we vowed we HAD to get out and do something for the next break, in spring. (which we did.)

march saw francis well enough to resume activities, thankfully, just in time for baseball season. he is now in juniors little league, with greg coaching again. he continues to surprise us, in the little things. like being so excited for his new helmet that he just could not wait to wear it...



here's a shot of francis in the outfield, which is right next to the woods of woodland park. there is a family of bunnies i have spied, that have no fear of hanging out in the outfield.



also in march, greg and i managed to get away for our (sometimes) annual march madness reunion weekend with friends in laguna beach. it was a nice dose of sun and friends.





which brings us to april: spring break! i took a break from summer vacation planning, and researched some places to go for a week long road trip, with the hopes of blue sky and sun. we looked at what was "in the area" via google earth, and decided on yellowstone. 2 days driving. 3 days there. 2 days driving back. i'm glad i did my research, because i discovered the park actually closes for winter, and had only just opened the week before, with only 2 roads in the park plowed and open for driving. we hemmed and hawed and read reviews, and in the end, decided to go anyways, and just see what we could see. it was wonderful to get out on the open road, and see new things. very exciting! also: thrilling-- apparently, there are many ways to die in yellowstone, or get seriously maimed: you can get gored by buffalo, mauled by bears, scalded by hot springs, fall into lakes of boiling water, drive off a cliff in a blizzard. there are warning signs everywhere! who could have forseen i would become such a fearful nag? i was seriously freaking out about surprising a bear any foray too far from our car. we were on trails, yes, but we were in the WILDERNESS! (oh yeah, and i was also scared of getting charged by a buffalo.) (oh yeah, and we got stuck driving in some seriously scary blizzards!) but it was amazingly beautiful, well worth the trip, and i would love to do it again. i've posted pictures of the trip up on facebook and flickr, but greg's are the really good ones. he got all the colors and wildlife that my cell-phone just can't get. i'll let you know when he posts them.











this april was our 14th anniversary. our gift that's been a year in the making was to once and for all, and finally, get a new bed. after 14 years of marriage, our first bed. we shopped for mattresses most of the fall. it seemed like every date we had while francis was at youth group, was to go lay on beds. it was not anything i want to do again. so stressful! i'm totally content sleeping on an old hand-me-down bed, but once you're going to commit thousands of dollars on something, how do you choose?? so we chose. and it was too soft. i mean, sinky like a couch soft. we were "required" to give it the 3 month test, so we slept/sunk on this bed for most of winter. then we returned it and had to start the process all over again. and chose. and it was too hard. and we could not return it. aahhh! we went back in to talk to the salespeople after a few months, knowing we couldn't return it, but asking for some advice. the lady there suggested buying a foam topper, which we did. and to march around on the bed every day, to break it in. (that was a sight!) and to do this: for 6 months!! i've been a little ashamed that my mind has been so occupied with bed woes, while the world has been going thru so many devastating events, but it's the truth. our bed is just now getting comfortable, which is good news. but the main reason i wanted to write about the bed, was to share that our friend nathan haase built our bed frame, out of old reclaimed barn-floor fir, and if you're looking for some locally sourced and hand-crafted furniture, check him out! it's gorgeous and we love it. thanks, nathan! (cell-phone pics just don't do it justice.)













so with may sweeping by, june is proving to be even busier. my to-do list that's been neglected for so long is now rearing it's head urgently. why do i always wait til the last minute? i have a goal of so many things to get checked off by the time francis is out of school on the 23rd. and after that, it's just a short time til we fly east for vacation for a month! another week at wildwood, nj with my whole family this time, sibs and spouses and babies all! i can't wait and i've been counting down as a general rule of survival. also: a girls-getaway to nyc with 3 dear friends: we haven't all been in the same place at the same time since my wedding i think! and of course, the nyssen adventure to florida in the july heat. it's all coming up, and i'll try to write and post some while it's occurring and not make you wait til december! i've been on a bit of a health kick, too, in preparation for summer. i call it my pre-detox. (i couldn't commit to a full detox before trying it out first, in waves, so that's where i still am.) (danajill has been helping keep me accountable, she serves me green smoothies!)



so if you made it this far, cheers!
and i wish you all a wonderful summer! xo

a little office space...

january always equals clean slate. a new year. a fresh start...

so i'm tackling my post-it note problem, my lack of creative progress, and my general "not having anywhere to put things" problem, with making greg's kitchen corner "office space" into MY office space. i have claimed a dusty little corner as mine, and i'm hoping that some inspiration strikes!



apparently, posting them all over the wall didn't result in actually getting things done. so now i have a pile of post-it notes that i have to work my way through. i'm thinking one a day? maybe one a week is more realistic? convert them all onto one long list? it will be a scroll! sigh...



also, just wanted to show off the poster by mark ovenden (--a small confession of fandom: i googled him, then emailed him via his website, saying we loved the design and asking if the poster was for sale in the usa. he responded as quick as the time difference would allow, a very kind and humble letter, and also informed me that it is only for sale at the london transport museum, for now...) that i bought greg for xmas, that was really a "for our hallway" present. i first noticed it in the book Transit Maps of the World, that, incidentally, i also got greg last xmas! haha. can't quite tell by the pic, but it's a re-imagining of the world map in the style of the london underground. so clever!

i'm also quite tickled by our new kettle. and by "our" i mean, the kettle i bought greg for xmas to replace the lovely red ceramic one he ruined a year ago, by heating the wrong burner and scorching it to death. i used to have an electric kettle years ago, so i am happy to return to it. plus, it's just so chipper, it can't help but brighten my day! tea, anyone?



ok. i'm off to tackle something on my list. i think the fridge is next...

and so it begins: another new year

am i still eating boxing day meatballs? why, yes i am. and am i still drinking leftover mulled wine? happily so. (though not at this moment) and is it gray and raining outside? why, yes it is! (though to be fair, we just had some gorgeous rays that lasted for a few days.)

and so begins another year. we put away our decorations last night, the main reason being we are expecting the delivery of a new bed this week, and need all the space we can get. our place seems so much bigger when the tree and decorations are put away. (even if it was a little tree.) i do get so excited to have them up, but then, i do get so excited to take them down. start fresh. clean slate. we had a lovely relaxing christmas day, and my missing of my family was greatly appeased by skyping with the whole family, all at the same time! if you are wondering if a 6 party skype is possible, well, it is! and so much fun. the whole 2 week vacation was chock full of fun: (and i just posted some xmas pics on flickr) favorite movies old and new, (francis got to see his first gremlins!) making cookies, eating cookies, visiting friends, a trip to greg's brothers for an overnight with cousins, a very merry christmas day, our bi-annual boxing day party, some severe vegging, a harry potter marathon, games, and a new year's eve downtown with good friends. many late nights. monday morning's back to school was rough. on all of us.

and now it's a new year.

i do not make new year's resolutions because i do not need any reminders of how many times i fail. but i make lists continually, almost daily, so... on my list for things to do this week is: organize my list!! it has swamped me. i have little lists for things that need immediate action, then i have far-reaching lists of things to do someday, and lists of pertinent things to do at a later date. it is all rather out of hand. for our boxing day party, we cleaned up the "office" portion of the kitchen, meaning: put all my papers in a box to hide in the closet, and i took down all my post-it notes that were all over the kitchen. i have talked about this before. how they become so familiar a sight that the urgency drifts away. they become yellow checkerboard wallpaper in my kitchen. and how strange: things are not getting done!? so. that is top of my new list.

already in this new year, we are dealing with brand new things. one big thing is: the kid finally got his own set of digits! he got his first cell-phone for christmas. we held out for a long time, i do believe he is the last of all his friends. and already: we have had to tackle the discovery of his lacking cell-phone etiquette with -- rules--. no, you are not allowed to call your friend's parents (while they are working, mind you) to serenade them "don't stop believin'". (sorry, rob!) discussions on pranking. but, yesterday marked the first time he texted me: "the 5 just came" (he takes the city bus home from school and it was very late, the main reason we got him a phone in the first place!) and i texted him back and it struck me: we have entered a new form of communication. so i hope for good things.

and along with communication comes another big thing we are dealing with right now: R rated movies. alot of his friends are watching them. monster flicks. zombie flicks. horror flicks. it never even occurred to us. it was not even on our radar. we do not think we are especially strict, as he has been watching many PG-13 movies well before he was 13, and has been allowed, (albeit, begrudgingly) to play Halo for a long time now. but this caught us completely off guard. this is a whole new territory, he has no idea. with R comes language, of course, much more graphic violence, and very likely: sex scenes. how we found out about it is: remarkably, francis told us that while at a neighbor's house, the group of kids wanted to watch the new Predators and francis spoke up to the mom and said he wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies. so then the mom announced "sorry, kids, you're gonna have to pick another movie: francis isn't allowed to watch R rated movies." horror of horrors! needless to say, francis hasn't been invited over to watch any more movies. and now we are put on the spot with having to decide over his mental well-being vs. his social well-being. i would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this matter, for or against. are we being too harsh? isn't that the rite of passage for junior high? --sneaking adult content? i can still remember junior high slumber parties and leaving the room if they were going to watch a horror flick. i guess it's easier for a girl. i don't think it would go over so well with a room-full of boys. i've never liked gory movies and i still don't. but i have friends who love them. even as a kid. did your parents let you? did you sneak them? shoot me an email if it will be long(as i have personally discovered that blogger comments have limited space). so far our status is: we have made a pact: if he will come to us with the movies he wants to see, we will not just say no. he is to make a "movies i want to watch" list: we will assess each request, and if we can accommodate him with a tv version, we ask in return that he accept our judgment. (the list has already started, and at the top is Aliens.) we will try to be most fair, knowing what is at stake. and if we say no for now, it is because he is only 12 (ok, almost 13) and that we may be open to it in a few years, say, when he is 14 or 15. this all sounds so formal, but basically it came down to: let's keep the communication lines open, ok? and to kick it all off, as a show of good faith, we let him watch (the tv version of) Die Hard. he... loved... it...

so there's another thing added to my list: watch Predators. i guess it's time to see what all this hoopla is about...

wishing for a(nother) winter wonderland

i gotta say it: christmas always comes too fast. i would like there to be 2 months between thanksgiving and christmas. there are just not enough days for me to prepare. and i am even more behind than i've been in previous years. christmas cards not even started yet! i do not like being stressed over xmas lists and shopping that needs to be done, because i actually do like that part. i like giving to the people i love. it's just that it always seems to come all of a sudden, and i am very bad at accumulating items over the year, or even starting in november. i wish there were more days also, because, simply, i just really love the xmas season. and added to the wonderful reason for the season, i confess i do like the material tokens of tradition as well: i love the carols, the decorations, the tv specials, the food. and plaid. and the christmas tree. i wondered/worried that we were robbing francis of the joy of hunting down the perfect tree with the fact that we are re-using the same tree from the past 2 years: we bought a little potted tree about 3 ft. tall, and it "lives" in the upstairs hallway, out of sight, off-season. but he was excited to bring it down and use it again. it had lost some branches, and is even more charlie brownish than last year, but... it seems to fit with our apt. and mood.

so i'm trying to embrace the beauty, amid the shortness of days. to indulge in all the christmas traditions we love. discovered a new favorite channel on pandora: swingin' christmas music. francis has again asked for gingerbread cookies, so we have baking days ahead. and movies to watch, for the 37th time. the only thing missing from this picture is my family. we spent last year's christmas at my parents in PA, with all my siblings, their spouses, and my grandma. so it's going to seem a little quiet here, on the homefront, on christmas day, our little family of three. (we are already planning to group-skype! that should be interesting, and nice. well, it will have to suffice)

so. since i never did get some pictures up here from our 3 days of snow before thanksgiving, here are some. it is hard to tell by the pictures just how steep our hill is, as i am standing on a little flat half-way down, acting as lookout, a necessary job: from the top -looking down- you cannot see past the dip 2 blocks down to tell if some fool is ignoring the "road closed" sign and trying to barrel up a hill of ice. this did happen a handful of times. we went out the first night because lessons have been learned that when you see the snow, you need to hit it; it'll very likely be melted by the following day. but the next day, it wasn't melted! and still below freezing. so francis called some friends to walk down, and they sledded all afternoon down 65th street. when night came, and they went home, i thought he'd be sledded out, but, i was wrong. after dinner he was dying to go out again. and again the thought it wouldn't be here tomorrow prevailed, so out we went a second night. by the third day, we were completely amazed it was still below freezing outside, the hill was still iced over, the road still closed, so the friends tromped over again and repeated it all over again. by thanksgiving, it was mostly all melted away. one of our friends has apparently misinterpreted my grumpiness at the seattle gray, and commented on seeing me all decked out in snow pants, hat, mittens, scarf: " how you holding up? i thought you didn't like all this cold." i said: "what?? i don't like gray. but i love seasons. i like my summers hot, with sun. and winter is supposed to be cold, with snow." so, my hopes might not be shared by many here, but i got a kid who wants to use his new sled (!) for more than 3 days this winter. and i'm crossing my fingers, saying a prayer, and hoping some returns for christmas... i'd like it to be white...