Huzzah, United States Supreme Court! You have made me all swoony with your act of tolerance and fairness.
Testing, testing 1, 2, 3. Is this thing on?
Making the transition to moving my life back over to the platform that doesn’t require a selfie…unless, of course, my children are involved. Stay tuned.
Every 100 Years a Post
When the babes were tiny, I had a life that accommodated my ability to create limitless prose about the awesomeness (and sometimes not-so-awesomeness) of parenting. Within the pages of this blog I got to wax poetic about the crazy, the fun, the angry, the harrowing, the adorable, the hilarious. In looking for an old photo recently, I found myself falling down the rabbit hole of reading old posts that in some cases had me literally, laughing out loud, then almost crying. Picture Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation sitting in his attic watching 8mms – and yes I was wearing a turban.
I think the thing that hit me like a ton of bricks is how much time has slipped past since the kids were born. This year Stelly turned 10. P is almost 8. As I sit here writing, Stella is in the kitchen helping plan dinner and unloading the dishwasher. Porter is at a friend’s house for a sleepover. They are big kids now. Thoughtful, mature, fun, silly big kids. It makes me realize that time has disappeared in a blink. Take this post for example: Quality Family Time. Be sure to look at the photo set – it is the true heart of the story.
It makes me incredibly mournful to accept that my writing has been buttoned up for a period. I know it is not the end, but it is halted for this period of my life where parenting, and retailing and wife-ing and participating have become the larger priority. And I can dig that. I love to write. I love that I have written, and I know I will find my way back to it at some point.
But. I have done my best to evolve my documentarianism. Even though I can’t write every day, I have done my best to post as close to every day as I can manage. Anything. Something. So a picture makes its way along. Or even just a 140-ish character sentiment.
Last year became the evolution to a photo-a-day. I would give myself a C+ in my overall job in this task. But it’s a starting point.
And so, Happy New Year to all of you. I am so ridiculously lucky to have my endlessly supportive family and my loyal, fun, zany, smart, silly, witty, scandalous, friends who make me smile, and make me feel whole, real, grounded and loved. I hope with all my being that my children get to experience such greatness in their lives.
May 2014 be the beginning – or continuation – of the next something great for all of you.
Here’s the wrap-up for holiday season 2013. (And for those of you wondering, yes that is a Millenium Falcon birthday cake.)
Enjoy!
Holiday 2013 from natalie on Vimeo.
Niether rain, nor sleet, nor foot in the fire will keep us from our mission.
Pamplin Grove 2013. This was FINALLY my summer vacation – OUR summer vacation. Three solid days of not working. Hanging out in no-reception-cell-range awesomeness. All four of us together. I couldn’t wait.
We arrived. 4 people, 2 cars, a trailer full of gear, and 150 days worth of food.
This isn’t just any camping. This is a weekend where every person in the campground is part of an interrelated family-friends gathering. The gate closes behind us and within the confines of that campground we become part of a giant tribal community. The kids run in packs, the dogs run in packs and the adults do their best to channel low-rent parenting tactics with cocktails in hand and camp-chairs permanently affixed to our butts. Kids are encouraged to scram, armed with a base set of ground rules, checking in only if someone is bleeding or in need of hydration.
We hung our site flag, unpacked our litany of tents and chairs and food and bikes, and joined in the festivities already underway.
Then came day 2.
As I lay in my tent trying very hard to doze and ignore the ridiculously loud prattle of 6 high-pitched child voices around the early-morning campfire, I all of a sudden hear a loud scream emanate from my youngest child, a scuffle and Steve’s voice yelling. Then another more pronounced scream that made me bolt upright and scramble out of the tent. It was all pretty chaotic, and by the time I was out, Steve was already headed out of camp with a screaming Porter. It took what seemed an eternity before I was able to find the mob of kind and helpful fellow campers huddled around my husband and son at the water spigot. Porter’s bare foot had gone into the fire.
It was a bit difficult at first to actually assess the damage. Porter was pretty hysterical, and looking at his foot, the extent of the burn wasn’t immediately visible. One thing was, however, readily clear: it hurt like a mother. Thankfully one of the guys helping us had the dressing materials we needed to get the area properly hydrated, covered and gauzed. From there, one thing was clear – this kid needed some pain meds. And so it was, we headed out to the nearest ER – all the while trying to calm the wails coming from the back seat. “IT FEELS LIKE A THOUSAND ARROWS SHOOTING INTO MY FOOT!”
At the ER, Nurse to Porter: “Okay, so on a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain and 10 being… -NINE!” (the poor nurse wasn’t even able to finish asking the question). Meds were administered and a little more calm evaluation was able to take place. First and 2nd degree burns, side of the foot, most likely no permanent damage, good that it wasn’t on the sole or toes. “You may want to think about cutting your camping trip short.” Steve and I kind of look at each other like, “Um. Yeah, no.” He is going to be fine. We will keep it clean and dry, use common sense if anything looks amiss and you send us back with that nice prescription of pain meds. We will take it from here.
By the time we left, Porter was describing his visions of rainbows and unicorns and proclaiming a gleeful “ZERO!!” when asked by the nurse about his pain level. We got into the car, headed to the nearest pharmacy for a bottle of pills, a bag full of gauze and tube of Neosporin and headed back to camp.
Once back, Porter got a hero’s welcome and the men got right to work on a proper shoe in which he could hobble around. Out. Came. The. Duck. Tape. And that, as they say, was that!
Camp on!
We celebrated Liam and Melissa’s birthdays in appropriate style – with a PBR-themed cape, water balloons, presents and treats. We ate deep-pit pig and lamb, watched the large gaggle of children perform skits and songs around the main communal fire-pit and roasted an insane amount of marshmallows. Somehow, Lynn, Melissa and I all ended up with these sweet Momgyver shirts that another camper had brought for the moms of the group. Porter hung in beautifully. He was disappointed he couldn’t be in the river, but made the best of the situation by parking himself on the beach in a chair while each of us took turns playing rounds of UNO with him.
Last year’s gathering had a broken leg. This year not only had a burned foot, but also a foot-in-wasp-nest episode. Each one slowly fossilizing into legends.
(Psst. You can find the entire photo set here.)
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
I’m not gonna lie. This Christmas was action-packed. Retail during the holidays is relentless, and when you throw in our usual Thanksgiving-Birthday-Dance-Recital-Birthday-Christmas-New-Year’s routine, it pretty much makes it certain that life becomes one giant hamster wheel ‘o fun.
Everyone was pretty civilized about how my recent job transition completely upturned our family’s nicely calibrated alternating holiday travel schedule. Yes, it was our year to go to the valley. No, we did not go. Yes, everyone had to drag themselves back up here. Again. But if these last years have taught us anything, it is that no matter our well-laid (lain? layed? layered?) plans, life always intervenes. And as such, we are learining to roll with it.
Stella danced her role as Latin Christmas Ornament with great beauty. Her birthday was a pre-tweener extravaganza with giggles and loud top-40 music and goofiness. Steve’s birthday was a great success of homebrew, ribs, friends and family. We all soldiered through the fact that crab season didn’t open in time for Christmas this year and we had to suffer (not really) through the Mexican feast of tamales and homemade chile verde. The kids got desks and books and toys and fun things, and yet chose to spend the better part of the day playing with a giant cardboard box. And because we are the type that never quits while we are ahead, we brought in the New Year right proper with more dancing and merriment. Boo to the yah.
Once again, I took full advantage of the fact that my mother has immersed herself in her passion for picture taking, and let her take on the lion’s share of picture taking. Hey, it takes a village, people!
I did do the work to gather all the pictures up, crop, correct and upload. I even went the extra mile and videoed that bad-boy. You’re welcome.
And Happy New Year.
Christmas 2012 Slideshow from natalie on Vimeo.