Why I Love to Live in a Walnut Grove

Walnut leaves fall earlier than all the others. (picture to post later).


This morning as Ben and I were leaving (hehehe get the pun) we were commenting on how fall was coming and how happy we are.

And I said "If our next child is a boy we should name our next child Autumn Bernard, for short we can call him Auburn."


Here i should say, we aren't planning another one any time soon!

Esther Godzilla Matthews

She has taken her first steps! I can't believe i forgot to tell you. Last tuesday she took three steps all by herself before tumbling over.


And she is officially 10 months old today. Happy 10 month Birthday little one!

Somewhat Sorted Out... (i think...)

Okay.

So firstly, this past weekend was the 2007 Poodle Gathering. Which is a womens gathering that happens whenever women we know call for it (it's not annual, or even semi-annual... it's just you know when ever you need to get an exorbitant amount of women all in one place (no men) to cook with, laugh with, cry with, party with, go swimming with, or to make cool things out of otherwise ordinary things (beads and pipe cleaners).

It was a wonderful gathering, very impromptu but wonderful. I will post pictures when i get them together.

Thank you for all those who made it, and all those who worked so hard to make it fun and meaningful! And thank you to all those who traveled so far to take part!

And to those who couldn't make it we missed you greatly and love you and can't wait to see you at the next one.

And to those of who didn't get the invitation please send me your e-mail address and i will be sure you add you to the list serve.

Secondly, the update on my work situation:
I have worked out a plan that I am willing to do until spring. At which time i believe I will be ready to go full-time (36 hrs a week at an agreed salary). My boss is going to her boss to see if it is possible and cost effective for everyone. I have told her that if it isn't, i have no hard feelings and am prepared to train someone for my position and am ready to be a SAHM (stay-at-home mom). So now it is up to someone else... there's something oddly gratifying in that.

Can you see the wheels turning?

I tried to quit my job. They won't let me...

Who knew quitting would be so darned hard?

They're trying to work out a way to keep me on board which means figuring out how to pay for child care and/or helping me get satellite internet so i can work from home.

So now we need information:
- Is satellite an option and how much will it cost to set up and monthly service
- I will need a babysitter 2 days a week. Anyone know anyone?
- Is this really what I want????!!!!!

The whole thing with where i work now is that we're about to double in size and that would mean I could go to full-time (and get paid well) once Esther is in a good place to go to daycare and enjoy the company of her peers. However, that won't be viable until the spring, at least. And in the mean time they need someone here doing what I do. Because if i could i'd probably quit for 6 months and then be rehired at that time as full-time....

Ugh. Okay I'm rambling and just trying to work out the long-division like process that my mind is going through to break all this down.

i think i need a new job.

I thought i had found the most perfect job for me. Perfect job, perfect pay, perfect commute, perfect timing, everything was just right. Except that I didn't get the job... they had already hired someone.

I currently work three days a week. Esther is with her Dad one day, her grandmother another day, and a friend of ours the other day (hi becky!). My mom and Becky start their new jobs this fall and won't be able to sit for us any more. Which means...
1) we need new child care (which won't be easy because they were doing it for free, bless their hearts, and we are very tight on money these days).
2) or one of us goes back to work full-time while the other stays home with Esther. Neither of us like this idea. Neither of us are particularly looking forward to never seeing Esther or our house during daylight hours ever again...

So all in all, i'm feeling screwed.

any brilliant ideas or jobs out there?

Beach Pictures Finally...

Finally i have beach pictures. There are many more that i need to pilfer from my Mom's camera and post. I'll do that as soon as i can. i promise. In the meant time, enjoy these of Esther's first cherry experience. Yes that's a cherry and not the liver of a small dead rodent.

oh yeah, and her teeth.

Play Time With Esther

She is trying to take a step. She does about 12 squats first and then drops down to crawl.
We rearranged our room last weekend to provide Esther with Maximum crawling space.

This is called the hide the toys under the bed game. She puts the toys under the bed...
then covers them up...
Then finds them and acts surprised.

Piano Party!

Ben Shaved (like a month ago)

This is a bit late in the coming but since we're more-or-less hermits and no one sees us (and U_Stevsie lives far away and has never seen us) i thought i ought to post it so that in the event that someone stumbles across Ben in some random Pennsylvania hardware store you'll recognize him and engage him in his much loathed small-talk.

Public Congratulations to Casey and Badu

Casey and Badu (Andrew sounds like "Tamaskavick") are officially engaged to be married.

Congratulations you two crazy kids. May you always know the happiness in each other that you know right now.

More Fotos by Finch

The Baby Torture Device

It is a little known fact that car seats were originally designed to inflict severely acute pain to very young children and not keep them safe in the event of an accident, as it is so widely now believed.

Perhaps it's the barbed wire we use for a seatbelt. Or maybe it's the sandpaper seat cover.

Regardless, Esther screams as though red ants are swarming all over her the moment the seatbelt buckle clicks.(fotos by finch)

Just a Note

I promise to post beach pictures, as well as some of the piano and our newly rearranged upstairs. But for now the next post will have to do as far as pictures go.

Ketchup with a side of Ben

Part i, the Piano
After a lot of arguing Ben and I have finally obtained a piano. If any of you have been over for dinner in our loverly but incredibly tiny house you will no doubt have heard our Piano bickering. Ben, being of the musical mind that he is, has wanted a piano since... well forever, i guess. I had agreed to get a piano but that was before we inherited the monster table. I have been trying to tell him that it's either one or the other and he didn't agree...

Anyhow, after a lot of searching we found the perfect piano at the perfect price. It's a Tom Thumb which means it's quite small for a piano (although being in our house makes it look normal sized). It's restored and mahogany (which is NOT Ben's most favorite wood (who has a favorite wood???) but incidentally matches our other more adult pieces of furniture).

Now, we are in the process of trying to find a new home for the Monster Table... Jessica M. would you be interested in taking it, say this weekend? If necessary it won't have to be permanent, we can take it back from you once the addition is built (next summer?)




Part ii, Oh Desert, My Desert...
Ben flew out to Arizona morning of the 3rd. Esther and I drove him to the airport on our way to the beach.

He calls me from phoenix where he and our good friend Mike were to be found in a Mexican restaurant eating delicacies and drinking margaritas.

Ben spent four glorious days in our wonderful home away from home state...

He ate at our favorite places and hung out with some of our favoritest people in the world.

He came back with lots of news about all those we miss and don't keep in touch with (we're awful phone/long distance corespondents).

So I greatly missed him, i greatly missed being there as well, and once i saw the blurry pictures of the landscape between Phoenix and Prescott out the window of Mikes pick-up i almost cried... i did sniff a little....

Postcard to the Desert:

Dear Desert, and more specifically Prescott.
i miss you more than i thought i ever would. The east is too wet, too green, too mildewy. I feel sticky and moist all the time here. With you it was always arid and sweet. I miss your sere disposition, even with the allergies and occasional nose bleeds (every relationship has it's problems, right?). Things are so tough here sometimes. For being so verdant and fertile it's been much harder than i thought it would replanting my roots in the soil. It seems they have become very used to the dust instead.

please give the dry riverbeds a scratch on the back for me... I do promise to come visit soon.
-Libby

Family Portrait

I like this one even though you can only see half of Ben's face
This one accentuates my crooked tooth...

lots to catch up on (ketchup on...)

1. Ben left for Prescott, AZ Thurs morning to give our warm regards to everything we love and miss in person. He gets back tonight.... i can't wait... i miss my buddy.

2. I took Esther to the beach with my family for the weekend

3. Last weekend my aunt threw a going away party (complete with Lechon and water balloons) for my uncle and his family who are moving to Chicago.

4. It's a crappy monday.

5. Tomorrow promises to be equally crappy with the "will feel like 105 degrees" weather report.

I promise to post pictures and in more detail later...

Public Congratulations to Heidi and Chris!

Heidi and Chris you two are absolutely amazing and I am so glad you have found so much joy in each other. I too would like to spend the rest of my life with you guys... you know in a platonic sort of way... mostly...

I love you!!!!!!!!

PS: Well done on the proposal Chris. Ben just said "I love you. Okay, let's be married."

I Used to Be a Badass.

Okay, great... so two of my daily bloggers recently posted about climbing.

I used to Climb all the time. I loved it. I used to say that i was better on vertical surfaces than horizontal (and anyone who has seen how often i trip myself would agree).

I have climbed all over the southwest including Joshua Tree, various parts of Arizona and outside Boulder, Co. Once i even got to meet and climb with Lynn Hill.

In Prescott i started two all women climbing groups: The Boulder Bitches (climbing giant boulders without ropes). and The Crack Whores (Trad Climbing: or aka climbing cracks and placing protective gear up in the crack as you go).

I used to go on so many adventures: backpacking, kayaking, climbing...

I used to drink water with mosquito larva in it because it was the only water around in the bottom of the vast canyon we were stuck in for a week or two...



I have been on top of glaciers, inside the arctic circle, at the bottom of the grand canyon, stuck inside ancient anasazi ruins in the side of a cliff face waiting out a flash flood.


and now i'm sad.....

Oh and about the Cabbage:

Ma Petite Chou-Chou

I bought new shoes. Well, I bought Ben shoes and he bought me shoes but since we share the checking account I guess it doesn't really matter who paid for what...

There are very few things i'm "girlie" about. And i hate to say it, but shoes are one of them. Now to be fair, I only own one other pair of heels and about 4 sets of sneakers, 3 pairs of clogs, and 4 pairs of boots (one of which is a hiking boot, one snow boot, one pair of wellingtons, and a pair of motorcycle boots from 1999)

Anyhow, Ma Petite Shoe was having a sale this weekend and as i've finally found the perfect every outfit, every occasion dress shoe!

These are my new shoes:
Note: When i showed my boss, who is also a shoe fiend she did not swoon over them she said "those are interesting." I guess i don't have good taste in shoes after all... but i sure like em.