Who are You-a Hoola' hoop man?

At least i'm embarrassing other people along with me... sorry guys...













all these videos were taken during my birthday celebration...

A VERY belated congratulations

to Mr. and Mrs. Alan Nance.

My best friend since high school, Speckly Beckly got married last month (yes i know, very belated). It was a very fun casual affair that suited them and their romance nicely. Aside from being my oldest friend, Beck saved Esther's life a few times during the first couple months after she was born. Studies show that babies with colic have a higher risk of being tossed out the window...

Here's the happy couple.

Here's Beck with Esther and Asa. Wedding photographers are like wolves just waiting for the bride to talk to my children then *snap* *snap* and it's instant memory-made-in-halmark-commercial. I have more pictures of Esther with some bride or another...

Here's Esther and her bethrothed. I wish. Deanna do you think we could set something up?

actually, Esther left the reception with a bit of a black eye. She and Quentan were playing on the swing and Esther got bopped with the swing... i was proud of her though. she walked up to Q afterwards and said "You hit me in the face. But that's ok". She even put a hand on his arm all adult-like. She still wants to marry him...

And this is me trying very hard to be nice to this extremely condescending man who said "Esther, huh? There's an Esther in the bible." um... i may not go to church or even believe in organized religion, BUT i don't live under a rock... is it that obvious that i'm such a church-avoiding sinner?

First Annual Jones Family Dump n' Dunk

First we cleaned out my parents' basement of all the crap us kids have left there over the years.

Then we went swimming and baptized the babies in Hemlock Gorge.

Somewhere in there we also ate Miah's probably world famous, definitely family famous, biscuits and gravy.

And we hoola-hooped, trampolined, found a snake in the yard, ate a LOT of food...

So anyway. it was fun.

The Post Birthday Blog Entry

So, as usual the day itself was wonderful. I woke up and did not feel any older. I didn't find any new wrinkles or saggy spots (though granted, the time i actually have to look at myself in the mirror is perhaps 1.26 seconds/day). Ben took the kids so i could sleep in. I awoke to an empty house (which for some reason tends to induce panic in me initially, but then i try to take advantage of having two free hands and start about 12 different projects, none of which i accomplish by the time they get back). On the table was my birthday presents from Ben and the kids - new rain boots and a new Death Cab for Cutie CD. I did some cleaning and made a cup of tea and then Ben and the kids came home with my birthday breakfast treats (donuts and chai latte, yum!).

Oma came for her weekly Esther adventure. They explored Oregon Ridge beach. Asa and I took the opportunity to spend some time with Lali. We went to Wegmans and bought treats for my birthday dinner (consisting mostly of goat cheese and things to eat it on). Then we wandered a bit and bought shoes for Esther and a necklace for me.

Then we all came home and spent the late afternoon/early evening running around the yard and having fun.

Jes and Ian and Lali and Grandpa came for dinner. We had a smorgasbord of goat cheeses, crusty breads, babaganoush, hummus, tomatoes, salad, corn on the cob, and Lali's homemade mango-peach salsa and guacamole. For dessert we had bumbleberry pie made from one day's pickin's of berries on our hillside (Lali-made as well), angel food cake (a tradition and all time fav.), and chocolate cake covered in berries and figs and nasturtium flowers.

After dinner we had rip roarin' hoola-hoopin' fun. (If i really feel like degrading myself later i may post a video of this, ben took some seriously embarrassing ones...) Then Lali and Grandpa told the traditional story of my birth. I have to say now that i've gone through birth with our little ones, i'm more and more thankful that we chose the out-of-hospital, midwife, un-medicated, woman-in-labor is the boss birth.

Jes and Ian got me a t-shirt with a Capucine quote and drawing (super cute). Dad got me a gift certificate to True Value, Lali bought me some Wegman's goodies and a massage, Oma got me various delectable treats, and Esther told me "happy birthday, mama" upward of 1,694 times. She also told me at one point during the day "it's okay, i love you little mama!" and after i handed an extremely exhausted, up WAY past her bedtime, cake-smeared Esther over to her father to read the bedtime story she brushed her hand gently over my hair and groggily said, with eyes closed, "you're very beautiful, mama"

i want this one

if i had it to do all over again (and the money) i'd get this carseat

New Workout Routine

And now for something truly embarrassing!!!

Birthday Blather or is it Blither?

as in blithering idiot...

So, i'm doing this a whole three and a half hours early. Or rather, since i was born at 2am, five and a half hours early...

It's been a weird couple of weeks leading up to my birthday. Usually, i look forward to my birthday. Cake, presents, people i haven't heard from since my last birthday call to tell me they love me, my mother telling the story of how i was born, and everyone laughing at me because i can't remember what we did this time last year because my memory is CRAP!

But this year, not so much... something horrid has been lurking in my psyche. Something to do with 29. I thought it was a fear of turning 30 but i think it's a little more complex than that. I look forward to my 30s for the most part - the kind of sophistication you simply cannot attain in your 20s no matter how suave you are. But what that little bitch in my head keeps saying is "this is it! times up!" Some clock (not the baby clock, i destroyed that with a blowtorch after we got pregnant with Asa)is ticking away and driving me mad. There is only one more year left to get done all those things on my "To Do Before I Turn 30" list. See, the thing is, when you're 21 making that list it seems like you have forever to do it all and so much energy to do it with... and then you graduate college and you struggle to make it out of the post-college/pre-career waste-land and then, if you're like me before you even leave that waste-land (actually, i may still be there i'm not sure) you had babies...

Now i'm not saying i haven't reached some huge milestones, but lets face it, who REALLY finishes the To-Do Before You Die list even after you find out you have a week to live? So now i'm trying not to panic and am re-working my list to look something like this:

To Do Before 30 i mean 50

And to make myself feel really good I've made this:

Things I Have Done Before I Turned 29

• gave birth to Esther (72 hours of labor - i don't care who you are, that's an accomplishment!) i should also add "parented her for almost 3 solid years"
  
• gave birth to Asa (only 10 hours of labor and an absolute picnic!) and "haven't slept since january" - i'd be a shoe-in for people capable of withstanding interrogation techniques
  
• married the only man i ever wanted to marry (hi honey!! look at me i'm being positive (if narcissitic)
• been sky diving
• gone swimming in the atlantic and pacific oceans and put my toes in the indian ocean
  
• crossed the u.s. in a car/truck more than 12 times
• drove around downtown seattle with a mask on pretending i was bank robber on the lamb
• went rock climbing with Lynn Hill
• graduated college
• got a job as a grant writer (hey mom, look at me! i'm being paid to WRITE!!)
  
• moved back home
• built (or had my husband and father build) my dream house
• driven several really fast cars
• started to learn to ride a motorcycle
• spent 3 months backpacking Alaska (on my 25th birthday i woke up inside the Artic Circle)
• backpacked all over the southwest including the grandcanyon, the superstition mountains, grand gulch, and Ute Mountain Tribal Park
• soaked in hot springs in Idaho
• flown over the ice fields of the Yukon (in a teeny tiny plane)
• officially lived in three separate states
• gone through 9 different addresses since leaving home (if you count the three months in my car and living at my grandmother's house while she was in Papua New Guinea)
• owned 7 different vehicles
• can make a good loaf of homemade bread without a recipe
• had one essay published in a literary magazine
• been to Sri Lanka, Dubai (just the airport though), Finland (Helsinki for 8 hours), Russia, England, and Scottland (and Canada too, but that doesn't really count...)
  

striking resemblance to Golem?

Carnival.

Dragon Train and Fun-nel cakes.

The Natural Defense Mechanism of Toddlers...

We're visiting Lali in the studio. We're all sitting on the floor rolling a ball to each other. Esther gets a little overly excited and throws it.

Me: Esther don't throw it please, roll it.

A little later, the same thing; she throws the ball out of sheer excitement.

Me: ESTHER! Please don't THROW it. ROOOOLL it!

Esther: Pat it, mark it with a B, and put it in the oven for baby and me... (complete with hand motions)

I had to hide so she couldn't see me giggling... she did anyhow...