how great is this?! 
i laughed, but it’s so true.
image via rarrar press/rebecca ann rakstad on flickr
Tag: life
happy birthday, john. remember when?
happy 19th birthday to my little brother, john! (well, he USED to be littler than me)
i love you john. and because i’m your big sister, i need to embarrass you a tad.
remember when you were still in a high chair and would stop eating dinner when someone mentioned the word cookies? we started calling them galletas, but you learned that in like three days.
remember how i would (rather wildly) bounce you on my knees when you were smallish? (papa had a horse, his name was jack, put ‘im in stable and he fell through the CRACK!)
remember jeremy the ant-sized boy? he and his adventures would only be told when we had to sleep on the pull-out couch in the basement because there was company in our rooms.
remember singing david cassidy’s i think i love you at the top of your lungs into a fake microphone? (i told you this was going to be embarrassing. but you were like 4, so it’s ok)
remember requesting a caterpillar birthday cake…for three years in a row?
remember when i curled all your hair and dad got mad? ha ha ha.
remember singing big bump the bubble tree riding around wisconsin in the back of the old van?
remember when you started skiing and people called you “the baby on skis”? (note to my blog readers: don’t miss john’s incredible you tube skiing channel!)
remember reading aloud ALL the street signs, bumper stickers, and billboards on the way back from chicago? you were driving everybody batty so i just joined in too.
remember when i snuck up behind you in the pool at our house in california and whispered helloooo, little boy? you nearly punched my lights out.
remember taking my camera and taking picture of your head, then quickly putting the camera back? (as if i wouldn’t find the pictures.)
remember memorizing verses together so we could do fun things off our summer list, like bike to the store and eat donuts?
remember when i told mom i wouldn’t take you for bike rides because you would just charge through intersections like a maniac? (blog readers: it paid off. he’s got crazy awesome bmx bike videos.
remember the last time i beat you arm wrestling and then i retired from the sibling arm wrestling competition so you would forever be stuck in third place? muah ha ha ha.
so, happy birthday, john. you’re an amazing, talented, artistic, wonderful brother and i’m superbly proud of you.
(ps. andy, don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. you will get your turn…)
nostalgic for barcelona
the best kind of evenings
these are the best kind of evenings ever. josiah working on art. aveline and i just hanging out on the floor, happy as can be.
i love my life.
of weekends and sunshine and circuit breakers and phineas & ferb
some weekends sail more smoothly than others. friday night started out with the power in three rooms flickering in and out. saturday morning, lights still flickering in the house, josiah discovered a hole in one of the radiator hoses in the car. meanwhile, the apartment maintenance man flipped breaker switches on and off, replaced an outlet, said lots of words like volts and circuits and hmmm, this isn’t good. (he said a few other kinds of words, too.) sunday, the iAlarm didn’t go off and we all accidentally overslept. despite my best scrambling efforts, we weren’t ready in time for church. aveline cried herself to sleep last night and woke up wailing at 6 this morning. (and the next thing she did wasn’t really that pleasant, so i’ll spare you the details. let’s just say the washing machine got an early wake-up call too.)
but there were nice things about this weekend, too. we went shopping. we saw a little kid drop dr. doofenschmirtz onto the floor while we were in a store, and my eyes popped out of my head. so we immediately went searching the toy section to see what sort of doofenschmirtz merchandise was for sale. (and yes, josiah pointed out that we are indeed 27 years old; but did you know they sell a mini perry the platypus figure, complete with gnome disguise?!)
so as you might have guessed by now, we watched phineas & ferb cartoons this weekend. we also ate tilapia and avocado. and went downtown, and walked around the lake as we people-watched. it was sunny and gorgeous and wonderful and people were, predictably, funny to watch. aveline wore her sunbonnet and snoozed on daddy’s shoulder.
so things are looking better. today, the electrician is coming to (hopefully) fix the sizzly problem. and best of all? my dear dear friend lauren is flying in from chicago. can you believe i haven’t seen her since 2008, when she was a bridesmaid in my wedding? this reunion is long overdue. i can’t even tell you how excited i am!
“there’s a joy in your sweet abandon, like the cowgirl ballerina”
i just adore my little family. we are unbelievably blessed. when i look at her bright eyes, i can’t help think of this beautiful rich mullins song:
“O Eli
There’s a sanctity in your innocence
A certain beauty and no uncertain strength
That brings me to the faith
I don’t know if I
If I am climbing to or falling in
But it comes like grace from your tiny hands
When I hold you in mineAnd I pray that the eyes
Of your heart
Shine bright
With the hope to which you’re called
And may you know with all the saints
The height ~ the depth ~ the width ~ and the length
Of the love of GodO Eli
There’s a joy in your sweet abandon
Like the cowgirl ballerina
Leaves that ride
The wild and holy bucking wind that the sky
Sent through you to blow away these walls I’ve built
Walls of selfishness and walls of guilt
That leave me free to be a childAnd I pray that the eyes
Of your heart
Shine bright
With the hope to which you’re called”
what aveline’s room does not look like…yet
aveline’s room looks absolutely nothing like this at present. the stars are all in a taped-shut box somewhere in the living room. the art piece is wrapped in cardboard and is leaning up against the dining room table. the crib is actually in aveline’s room, but is sans mattress. (hello, moving company? just wondering where exactly you ended up delivering that mattress? thanks.) the lovely white dresser is a brand-new purchase, but like most IKEA items, it came in a package the size of a cereal box. and since the cordless drill may or may not be wherever the mattress ended up, assembling the dresser is going to be quite interesting.
meanwhile, in aveline’s room, there are stacks of flattened boxes. there are unflattened video game console boxes. there’s a shelf of bulk food. there are half-opened industrial size ziplocs holding every size of baby clothes except for the size she’s in right now (the proper size was finally uncovered. half now reside in a pretty green laundry basket. the other half — the clean half — are living in an open box). but hey, the changing table is alive and well, fully stocked with [clean] diapers and wipes. i mean, ya gotta have your priorities.
the house is slowly coming together. it looks more beautiful with every unpacked box. ordinarily the snail’s pace of the unpacking would be driving me wild, but there’s something about looking into the eyes of a smiling cooing baby — a baby we prayed for — that really puts things in perspective. it’s okay if the boxes are being unpacked slowly. it’s much more important to treasure every moment of this. and so here i am, right now in this moment, holding an arm-waving, hiccuping, wide-eyed, refusing-to-nap baby. nothing’s getting checked off my to-do list. but that’s so much more than ok.
This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness. -Elisabeth Elliot
Shown:
- IKEA Malm Dresser
- IKEA Somnat Crib
- Tofu Woodland Family print from 26PM.com
- White paper stars
well hello there, isn’t it a beautiful day?
unlike me, my daughter actually enjoys mornings.
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