« December 2011 | Main | February 2012 »
hullo, dahlings. it's been almost a year since i posted about installing a mailbox in the kids' bedroom. since then people have asked me where to find one, and unfortunately i had to tell them it was a seasonal item that target no longer carried. well, good news. i heard a rumor that mini mailboxes are back at target in the $1 section for valentine's day. can anyone confirm? did you get one?
***
at 16 days old.
we turned the living room into a little make-shift studio. i shot most of these while standing on a chair. late morning light. north-facing window. i had the sheers open at first but the light was better filtered, so i ending up closing them for all but the last shot.
sigh. i do love the newborns. especially the hairy ones. :)
thanks for letting me share.
***
peeps, you may or may not have noticed, i'm having some trouble getting back on the blogging horse in 2012. for lack of any better explanation, i think i'll just go ahead and place the blame squarely on the weather which has been nothing short of RIDONCULOUS (in a good way) since christmas. sunshine + sixty-degree temps in january in kansas? for weeks in a row? unheard of.
last weekend, we hauled out the projector + huddled up in blankets in the backyard to watch E.T. what could be better? i confess, life seemed pretty good.
hint: the engineer picked up our projector for $50 at a university surplus sale years ago. it's worth doing some research into sales in your area--if there are deals to be had, they might as well be had by you.
and now as i'm typing this the kids are waking up and jumping up and down because it SNOWED last night. ha. of course it did.
p.s. thank you for the birthday wishes. i'm all warm and fuzzy inside even though my feet are freezing.
[top photo by k]
***
the week before christmas i had a birthday. we rang the salvation army bell like i talked about doing here, which turned out to be a lot of fun and i hope to make it an annual tradition. we also had dinner with friends and then there was homemade red velvet cake and balloons and some thoughtful gifts from k and the children. i felt loved by friends and family, and it was pretty much a great day.
the big surprise (to me) about turning 33 is that i'm basically the same person i was at 22. i still burp out loud like a 14-year-old boy. i still answer the phone sometimes in a really lousy asian accent. (disclaimer: i am not, nor have i ever been, asian.) i still love junk food, Quantum Leap, and karaoke--not necessarily in that order. i'm proud to say i've mostly conquered my fear of feet, but clowns of any kind and dolls lined up in rows still make me shudder. i confess, i've never tried sushi and can't see any reason why i should. and i still don't know how to properly hang up a pair of pants, though i can see how this would be a useful skill if for any reason the engineer one day woke up and decided he'd rather declare his undying love for me in some other less-endearing way than carefully lining up seams and folding and draping my jeans over a plastic hanger. (he hasn't yet.)
on a more serious note, i still have a lot of the same self-doubts i had when i was younger, and maybe even a few more. this is perhaps the great disappointment of growing up. as a kid i never thought adults felt uncertain or confused, self-conscious or insecure. i was wrong about that.
okay, so painful awareness of my nerdiness + shortcomings aside, i'm also aware that in some ways i have changed and become an upgraded version of the old me. for one thing, i'm better at relationships than i used to be. not perfect, but better. according to my dad, compassion is "love with action" and i've made some progress in that area as i've gotten older. i'm a pretty good friend in general but a great one in a crisis, i think.
i've changed in other ways too, but i think that may be the most meaningful.
***
hello and happy new year to all of you. i hope you had a joyful holiday season.
our christmas was cozy and pretty great. and then we raised the bar on new year's eve by getting a pinata.
i'm still easing into 2012, but i hope to be around more soon. thanks for being here and being patient with me. xoxo!
***
