Good Music

Okay, so I'm going to do some promoting for a friend, but not just because she's a friend, but because I really think she's got something good;) Hannah Miller's voice is unique, in a good way. I'm not going to describe it, because you can listen yourselves, click on the title of the post. mostly, i'm posting this, for anyone who might read it, to take a couple minutes and listen, and if you like it, VOTE for her to play at lollapalooza this year:)! I'm told you can vote once a day with each email address you have, but I haven't read this anywhere official yet, so I'm not too sure.
If you don't like it, no worries, but if you do, please vote:) and if you like it enough, buy some itunes or a CD so she can make some more.

Sorry for the advertising, but if you can't do it on your own blog, where else can you?

Backyard harvest

Anyone who's seen our backyard will understand the overwhelmed feeling i have when i think about trying to landscape or make some sense of it. We live on about 3/4 of an acre, and half of that is wild and overgrown forest and the other half is just wild and overgrown (we have had some help from my grandpa rudi in taming that to some degree, so i'm actually not afraid to go in the backyard anymore;) however, one side of our backyard is entirely covered with thorny bushes, so thick i don't think even the snakes will go there. we've had fleeting thoughts of digging it all up (renting large equipment to accomplish this daunting task), but that's all they've been...fleeting thoughts. Well, for the first time since moving to our house, I'm thrilled to have all those thory bushes all over the side yard. turns out they're actually functional as blackberry bushes, and man are we reaping the harvest! About every other day we spend 20 minutes or so outside picking berries, eating some along the way, and still coming in with a full bowl overflowing with 100-200 blackberries to share with neighbors, enjoy at snacktime, or, as jon and i are going to do tonight, take on an anniversary picnic at the lake:) I'm amazed at how we eat like kings so much of the time.

travel antics

So, we just spent a fabulous week in California; 3 1/2 days in solvang, and 3 days in san diego, where i was born and spent the first 6 years of my life. we saw great friends, went to Jon and Julie Reibsamen's wedding, visited my family in california, and went to the san diego zoo, and a whole lot more. the kids were amazing given the fact that they were very sleep deprived (with staying up late and the 3 hour time change). They had such a good time they didn't want to come home, even though daddy was already at home having left a few days before we did. which left me to fly home with three tired kiddos across the country. of course, we get to the airport only to find we have mechanical difficulties on our plane out of san diego, and i waited in line for an agent for TWO hours, by myself, with all three kids. anybody with children under 5 understand what this means. Amazingly, it went totally smoothly! i kept thinking to myself, "i can't believe they're just sitting here, hanging out, waiting patiently." can you believe that! only by the grace of God, that's for sure. thanks to all who were praying. anyway, our trip back was really good, and i would actually say i had a good time with the kids, minus the moment of insanity in the atlanta airport. i was standing in line waiting to get the kids some dinner, and nathan and ellie said they needed to go to the bathroom. well, for some crazy reason i let nathan convince me to let the two of them go into the mens bathroom together (which was right next to where i was getting food), thinking, "okay, they'll just go in, go to the bathroom, and come back out. yeah. it will be no big deal." right. not so much. so, i finish in my line, and i'm waiting outside the men's bathroom, and start hearing ellie scream, "MOM!!!!, MOM!!!!" i call into the bathroom, "what ellie?" "MOM, I NEED YOU TO WIPE ME!" I tried to convince nathan to help her out, but she wouldn't let him. meanwhile all the men are coming in and out of the bathroom, with this incredulous look on their faces like, "is that your kid?" "so, after about 2 minutes of back and forth coaxing, trying to convince ellie to just come out and i'll help her in the women's bathroom, i'm left with no other choice, and i walk into the men's bathroom, very awkwardly with many men looking at me like i'm crazy, wipe her, and bring her out myself. fortunately there was a nice looking man who agreed to stand outside the bathroom with all my luggage and youngest son in his stroller. yes, he could have taken my kid or stolen something, but honestly, i didn't know what else to do, and i didn't think he'd get far with anything, so i chanced it, and decided i could scream really loudly if i saw him taking off and there were enough security officers around who could help me out. we did make it out of the bathroom, albeit with a few remarks from annoyed passerby about how this is the MEN's bathroom. i decided to hold my tongue.
one good thing about the mechanical difficulties was that they let me change my final leg of the trip to bring me straight into columbia instead of charlotte north, carolina where we would have had a 1 1/2 hour car ride back home. of course the bags went to charlotte, but at least i don't have to pay the gas to get home;)