Eight, By the Sea

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to see the ocean for her eighth birthday. So she got on a bus with her friends, paid the fare (one sand dollar) and took off.

 BEEP! BEEP! "Next stop: Oysterville," said the bus driver.

Unfortunately, the bus couldn't take them all the way to the water. "Schools of fish are always trying to get on for a field trip," the bus driver explained, "and they are far too soggy.

So the friends had to walk the rest of the way to the beach.

"But where IS it? We must explore!"

Finally, through the tall grass, they saw some seagulls and heard the crashing of waves.

"There it is!" cried Taylor. "The OCEAN!"

 Morgen was delighted!

 She immediately waded into the ocean's shore...

...only to find it FREEZING cold, so she jumped right out and into the air!

 Micah was still trying to find his way through the tall grass....

(...he thought it tickled his nose...)

 ...until Taylor found him and showed him the way out!

Feeling the cold water, Micah exclaimed, "I'm going to be BRAVE!" He hiked up his shorts and ran straight into the oncoming surf. What a brave little boy, indeed!

 Their big sister apprehensively watched from up in the tall grass. She wasn't sure she wanted to venture into that cold, cold water with her siblings.

 But the salty ocean air, the sound of seagulls and the water crashing onto the sand exhilarated her senses until she couldn't help but to come out of hiding.

She paused momentarily, as if to unknowingly reflect the Birth of Venus itself...

 ...and lept for joy into the frigid surf!

Korah was very pleased to be at the ocean's edge.

 Back and forth, back and forth, they ran with the tide....

...until it was time to line up and travel back from whence they came.

It was time for some birthday cake!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY, MORGEN!

(Editor's note: it's amazing to me that I can lay down the strangest-looking cakes, so far from my cake-decorating fantasies, and all the children ooo and ahhh, salivating with forks poised at the ready. Maybe it's because cake is such a novely around here, or maybe it's because children have simple, joyful hearts and I ought to take a lesson. Either way... they heal my perfectionist spirit with their cheerful ones.)

 Two things to notice here: one, that Noble is apparently trying to put cake directly into his stomach, thereby fitting his entire fist into his mouth. And secondly, notice the little friend in the foreground. Morgen and her school pal she brought along, found these fuzzy little guys and invited them to the party!

"We're here!"

Hmph. Party crashers.

 Taylor always writes the funniest cards.

Then... how do you burn off a sugar high when it's dark and rainy outside and you're stuck inside a beach house? STAIR SURFING!

 This is where mommy turns a blind eye. It looks like someone's ankle is about to break here.

 This is a laughing face, believe it or not.

They've never had so much fun smooshing into each other!

 One last family photo around the birthday girl before we leave.

You are so loved, Morgen-girl! May God bless you big, this ninth year of life!

Thirty-eight

David lucks out with a birthday in August, when the weather's nice and we're all ready for some fun, and no one else is stealing your birthday thunder (everyone else in our family is two weeks from someone else). And what's more, my parents were visiting this August, and got to celebrate with us! (I am ashamed to say that these are the best photos I have of them on their visit. My photographic priorities are defunct!)

Papa says, "it looks like I have ice-cream on my lip!"

I don't have pictures of the hilarity, but we went bowling/video game playing at Big Al's. That place is a ton of fun. I fulfilled a life-long dream of being on Wheel of Fortune, and Noble spent the entire time standing on some driving game that took your photo. Morgen and Micah were in an air-hockey playoff and Taylor and Korah were doing their own thing, which has something to do with pooling their resources to end up with the biggest bag o' loot from the prize counter. Dave played Rockband. For like, an hour. So basically, we all got what we wanted for Dave's birthday.

We came home and had ice cream cake made by yours truly (awesome, that job at Baskin Robbins is still paying off!) and quick-like I made a card, since I didn't have a real birthday gift:

it's all meaningful and symbolic to us, and stuff

Actually, David worked hard to get his own killer birthday present this year, painstakingly dialing his phone, digit after digit, until at last.... HE WON TICKETS TO THE DECEMBERISTS from Kink.fm! And a gift certificate to Ringside Fish House! This guy knows how to win 'em!

"...and I'm reaping all the benefits..."
(name that movie)

I liked the Decemberists before, but now....oh, live music, it's what you do to me... now we are FANS. This was a special show for a few reasons:

• It was the last show of the tour. There seemed to be a goofy energy that came with that....so fun!
• Since they are from the Portland area, it was a homecoming of sorts and they had tons of family, friends, local fanship and familiar McMenamins Brews to celebrate.
• Their beautiful keyboardist Jenny Conlee, who missed the tour to stay home and fight breast cancer, was performing in all her bald-headed, Doc-Martined glory! Yay, Jenny!!

We are undeniably blessed. As crazy and chaotic as our life can be, good things just keep on happening, and we have to make note, make note, make note: we are loved.

HAPPY 38th BIRTHDAY, DAVID! YOU ARE LOVED!

Bicycle Dating

For the record --because that's what this is for-- thanks to my mom carting four of the kids away to have hotel room/jumping on the bed/swimming pool fun for the night, David and I got to go on a little bike ride date! Noble babbled away in his little bike seat, yelling "HI-EEE!" at everyone we passed. We took the scenic route and had dinner at some food carts. Bummer, Scoop was out of Salted Caramel (the flavor you'll dream about), but that's okay. Riding home to the tune of cotton candy skies and white sliver-of-a-moon and the singing chatter of an ice-creamed toddler, we are feelin' the Portlandia. We are feeling blessed to spend this time together, refreshing our Selves....

So Here's What Happened

Around five o'clock this morning, David and I sat bolt-upright in bed to the most sonorous rumbling we've ever heard. At least... I thought we were sitting up. I think we were just jerked into consciousness and were still laying there, staring into the dark. The traffic on the bridge behind our house is a constant white-noise for us, so we both thought a horrible accident had occurred. A trash truck had driven off and crashed into the park below! The bridge itself was somehow coming undone, cable's ripping out of the ground for sure!

"What. Was. THAT?" We were both sitting up in bed now. We realized it was thunder...and we had just torn a huge hole in our roof. We jumped out of bed and ran willy-nilly around the house; I'm not sure what we were doing. I went to the back door to see if it was raining and a light mist was coming down. I was about to stick my hand out to see how it felt when the air crackled and popped (yes, quite like Rice Crispies) the sky lit up with a flash and then "BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!" Another tremendous rumbling of thunder! Now the dog was running in circles and I beamed like I'd just pulled up to the gates of Disneyland.

I ran to get my shoes on-- we had to get that hole covered; it was really starting to rain! By now 2  kids were in our bed and the dog was underneath it when David informed me we were out of tarps. We laughed at the irony of tearing off the roof because it was leaking, only for it to rain the very next day. We should know by now that when the weather report says sunny and 80's all week (no matter what the weather report says, really) in Portland that means "rain". Our only option seemed to be to haul our backyard canopy up onto the roof.

It was...ridiculous. Even the neighbor, who had thought we were being bombed, saw Dave on the roof in the rain and asked if he could come over and help. We finally got the awkward and useless canopy onto the roof (although Taylor and I feel a little victorious over that) and the rain had stopped! Neighbor-dude got a tarp from his house and he and Dave put it up, letting us know he's ready and willing to help us with anything else we need.

Seriously, we are blessed with the nicest neighbors. I once won an Ice Cream Block Party from Dreyers for an essay I wrote on "Why I Love My Neighborhood". It's just that great. My block, not my writing.

So here we are today, Father-and-Son Demo Team, under shelter of plastic.

Taylor (who's awesome) made these handy-dandy hammer-holders! This is not the best photo, but he was proud of those hammer-holders and I wanted to get them in the picture.

 Nothing fills a boy with a sense of worth and purpose more than some good, hard work.

He spent all day alone with me (at Taco Hell and the grocery store and running errands), and only a couple of hours doing this with Dave. He comes up to me at bedtime and says,

"I had a good day today with Daddy."

(Hm. Chopped liver.)

Where are the other boys, you ask?

I had the settings all wrong for this picture, but I had to take it quick before anything changed. I love finding my little guys just reading away amongst a scattering of literature.

...and all our attic junk.

...and a moose antler.

Alright Thunder & Lightening....bring it on!! Of course, now it will only be hot and sunny for the rest of the week.

Coming up.... the Weird-Wire-Cage-Thing-From-the-Attic-Eves mystery is SOLVED!

Stay tuned. (Riveting, I know....)

What Is It?

We found this in our attic eves today:

Any idea what it is?

Our house was built in 1907, and has been randomly modified in various ways ever since. So there's no telling if this dormer came with the original house, but it's time for this rickety, leaky bad-boy to go.

DEMO-TIME!

Making progress! There was a nasty, fogged-up window here, with no ventilation except for these two wood flaps, through which --legend has it-- the previous owners' three-legged dog would climb out and bark at the neighbors. I also happen to know that racoons will crawl in those flaps and poop in your attic, too.

I am ecstatic to:
a) see the sun
b) smash something with the sledge hammer
c) not be making food for someone
d) all of the above

Seriously, if you know what that cage-thing is, tell us, please!

I'll try and keep y'all up to date on what comes of this massive hole in our roof.

Homeboy Fatherz Day, yo

Having a pre-teen in this e-generation makes you do things like this:

[This video played automatically whenever Vonderhaus was pulled up, and I didn't know how to change it! So from now on, you can see it HERE if you need to be reminded of our Father's Day antics. Thanks. Peace out.]

Happy Father's Day, David!

Give Me a Sign

I'm going to start off this post with a tangent.
I love roller coasters. LOVE them. I've been on roller coasters in...

Wait... let's play a game! I will name the city, and you tell me the name of the theme park. Now don't get all serious and google it...it's not like I'm The Pioneer Woman, giving out cool prizes. Although, if I were to give out a prize, it would be a photo of me: 7 years old, wearing a high-necked, short-sleeved, striped shirt and army green Toughskins, standing next to Goofy, in one of those neato little slide viewer key chains:

I spent about an hour looking for these and this is about all I could find! Unbelievable! Are these awesome little things just not on the planet anymore? And someday, that link is going to be useless because somebody's going to snatch those suckers up!

Anyhoo, I digress.

Guess what Theme Parks I've ridden roller coasters in, based on these cities:

1. Anaheim
2. Blackpool
3. Buena Park
4. Denver
5. Portland
6. Santa Clara
7. Santa Cruz
8. Valencia

Basically, I've ridden a lot of roller coasters, for an average Joe. They come in all different flavors: scary-fun, scary-unsafe, boring, fast, loopty-loop, free-fall, smooth and modern, old and rickety and what I like to call Neck-n-Back: the ones that give you a migraine and send you straight to the chiropractor. Then there's the ridiculous, portable Carnie Coasters, but I'm not even counting those.

And here ends the campy tangent.

By far, the most unpredictable ride I've been on yet, encompassing all of the above listed flavors, is the Vondercoaster. Being married, having children and becoming an adult (in that order, I'm sure) has been loopy, rickety, fun, unsafe, thrilling, noisy and suspenseful. My stomach has dropped to my toes on numerous occasions and I have consumed more soda and corndogs than I ever would have otherwise. Some people are on wilder rides than the Vondercoaster, I know. But sometimes the dips and turns seem really deep and sharp, and it's all I can do to keep from loosing my cookies.

The other day David came home between jobs (that's right: "jobs" --there's a sign of the times for ya), and we were discussing why the thermostat is set to, oh, 90 degrees or so and yet the house won't get above 56? Sure it's an old house and it's below freezing, but this isn't normal. We later learned that we just needed to clean out the filters. But that day I was so discouraged. After picking up the kids I was driving to the grocery store, allowing my thoughts to spiral down, down... I mulled over how hard things are, how just when we can't afford it both our cars are having problems, the roof is leaky, outlets keep failing and my mom is afraid we're going to have an electrical fire and the house will burn down. The furnace needs work, our poor little children are freezing to death...I'm thinking about the Hispanic family I delivered a meal to one Christmas, 15 people huddled under blankets without heat. They probably had food stamps...but no heat...was our food patronizing to them? I started to think (like I sometimes do) that things were getting too hard for us to handle.

And usually, when I get like this and things seems too dark and too desperate, I can manage to push and lift and heave-ho this heavy burden into the Lord's open, waiting hands, because for all our human efforts, it would take a miracle to keep us from unraveling completely. But today I doubted. I wondered if it was all too much, too fast. Too much unraveling to keep up restoration. Too many miracles to ask for... is that possible? Where does God draw the line at grace and provision and pull out the tough-love? (I'm sure there's a good lesson we need to learn somewhere here.) Have we already received too much?

And then at the intersection of a neighborhood full of construction, I look over at the stop sign-- the temporary kind on the ground in the middle of the street.


Do you see that? It has been graffitied with "everything will be okay". Of course, I started bawling right then and there in that intersection! "Okay, God. Okay," I said out loud. And that was all I could say as I spiraled back up in a fog of humility and relief.

That day, I got home to this email from David:

"I know it's very cold (26.2 F in Portland) right now, but please be thankful for that God is faithful. He is with us, and providing for our needs. Praise Him!... in a sweatshirt and jacket, as we figure out how we can make it warmer in the house."

Sometimes God speaks through my husband at just the right time, confirming...confirming.

-------

I just got off the phone with David as I write this, discussing our van's leaky transmission and the Christmas tree on our front porch (as in, not in the house, decorated) and he reminded me that we are moving forward. It may be slow, but we are making progress.
And that is the definition of success to us.

"Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail."

Lamentations 3.21-22