Sleeping Beauty

Ms. Blue is definitely a little girl. She is so much fun to watch grow. There really are only two things that we have left from her baby stage. Her blankie. Which is just fine with me. Her thumb. This one is a little more of a problem. We are working so diligently on getting this habit broken, and wow, is it quite a habit to break.

I had some suggestions that we tried with no success. They either just did not work or were not worth the fight. I wish that I would have tried to tackle this a little bit earlier. I don't want to sounds vain, but I don't want her teeth to scream " I was a thumb sucker!". Our dentist told me that she doesn't show major signs but we really need to get her broke of it.
One of Ainzli's good friends was a thumb sucker and her Mom gave me a suggestion that is working beautifully!  A glove. One of those stretchy gloves. You know the ones you have a dozen of, but can never find the match. Yeah, those. I bought her two pair. One pair is just plain black and the other pair have smiley faces all over them. Ms. Blue cracks me up. She told me when she has a "good"day she wears the smiley face one. A "bad"day warrants the all black one. Apparently the previous day in the picture above was a "good" day!
There are days when we forget. (Crap!) There are also mornings that she wakes up and it is off. But all in all, we are conquering our last baby habit. Yeah!

Autumn:)

Confession of a Food Snob: #3

I hope you know that I do not mean to sound pretentious with the title of my food posts. It kind of cracks me up and I hope it does you as well! Plus, I have kind of fallen of the "healthy" eating wagon this summer. Whooo girly you need to chase that wagon down!
I have been snacking like crazy lately. It must be summer. It is almost like we graze instead of actually sitting down for a meal. Honestly, I don't mind, but in my case it depends of how long it has been since I have seen the inside of a grocery store. I try to let the girls choose something healthy every week that will be there go to snack. Ms. Blue did not have one this week, per say, she just really likes Key Lime yogurt. I suppose there could be worse things.


 This would be the snacking combo Ainzli would choose. She loves berries, basically any kind of berry. She picks them out, cleans them, and gets it all together herself. That is definitely a good feeling when your children can fend for themselves.

Here is one of my snacks from this week. Bing cherries. I ate this entire bowl myself (while I was playing this silly bubble game on the iPhone. Ridiculous how addicted I was becoming. I had to step away!). I did have a bit of an upset stomach afterwards, but they are worth it. 

There is nothing better then veggies on a charcoal grill. Last year we purchased a wok (that is the bowl type apparatus with the holes in it), Shannon has mastered the technique. We probably eat this 3 or 4 times a week. We will try to grill anything, trust me!

Although this post was all over the map, I hope you are enjoying the produce section of your grocery, a farmers market or maybe even your own little garden this summer. Music to my taste buds!

Autumn :)

The White Swan

Old cars have always been a part of my life. Even before I knew they were considered "old" cars. I love to cruise around with the vent at my feet open, windows down and the AM radio speaking to me.
Shannon inherited a 1964 Buick Special from his Grandmother, not long after his Grandfather passed away. It has been in their family since about 1965 or 66'.
This last weekend Shannon and the little women went out and tinkered on it, got it running, and drove it home. He was beyond excited. It was running a little rough, so with a little help and a couple of new parts, it is now running well.


It is tradition to wash it as soon as it pulls in the front yard. Yes, that's right, the front yard. Rarely does it get parked in the driveway. Most of the time, it is parked in the front yard. It is in the garage at night.

Isn't it cool?! Shannon's Grandpa nicknamed it "The White Swan". I asked him one time why The White Swan and he plainly stated "because it's white." Good enough for me.

I have some very memorable pictures of our family and I can think of a handful that incorporate this car. It is an amazing memory maker for us and we have so much fun in it.
If you see a vintage car cruising around your area be sure to throw a wave up.

Autumn:)

Aloha

No, we did not go to Hawaii. Hm! But Ms. Blue did get invited to a luau birthday party. She looked so pretty and I just wanted to show her off. 

Yeah for Saturday mornings and vats of coffee!

Autumn:)

9

Sweet. Huge Hearted. Smiley. Clumsy. Compassionate. Beautiful. Fidgety. Tall.  

Just to name a few. The above adjectives are in no specific order.

They all describe our Ainzli. She is nine years old. She is one of the best kids ever. There really is no bias in that statement, promise, just ask anyone who knows her. 

The morning of the day we had planned on shooting her nine year pictures was a rough one. Her attribute, clumsy, was on cruise control in hyper speed with no braking in sight. I was not so sure that we were going to be successful. 
We conquered it and moved ahead. We enjoyed a side street in Pendleton and a Borders bookstore for our photo shoot locations. She had fun. I had fun. I hope you enjoy.


Autumn:)

The Buzzing

The buzzing was loud. I was sitting out on the party pad, reading my book and listening to the girls play. It was not a familiar sound. I get up and look around. When I finally do look up into my neighbors big oak tree I see quite a few bees in the very top. Ok, I thought, they are pretty loud. Still thinking that could not be all of them. 

The girls want to get in the pool. We are getting everything ready and Ainzli sees a few bees floating in it. She mentions the loud buzzing sound. I say I know. I think it is coming from there (I point to our neighbors tree). She says no I think it is coming from right there. She points directly up. 

There are thousands of them! And I mean thousands! They are wrapped around a branch in the middle section of our hickory tree. Then, almost like they were commanded, the majority of them exit the branch. It was like a black cloud. Some went here, some went there. So in unison. 

We kept our eye on them. They never bugged us. Not one little bit. So I go back to reading. The buzzing is still there.

Later in the day, I do not see them at all. There is not one straggler that I can find. They are all wrapped around our limb. You cannot hear them. You cannot see them. If you knew to look and where then you could spot them. 

It was really cool to watch and listen to them.

They are now gone. Not a single trace of them. They were still in their big limb wrap yesterday morning. Then by afternoon, hasta la vista.
Interesting experience, to say the least. I believe I can now check off "bee cloud" from my bucket list!

Autumn:)

My Interpretation

We have an amazing church and church family. Harvest is doing great things here in our community and beyond. And I have been toying back and forth with getting my feet wet in the mission trip venue. I think it would be such a life altering experience and I have never been on a mission trip.  I want to. I want to. I want to.

In May Ainzli ran in the YMCA Kids Marathon and she did amazing.

The direction this is going is............. our mission group is running a 10k in October and they have roped me in! I am going to do it. I am having mixed emotions about it, but I am positive I can do it.
So what is it with the "Brace For Impact" bracelet you ask? Well, it has an entirely different meaning for me than its original purpose. It represents the new building that Harvest (that's the name of our church, Harvest Christian Fellowship) has built to make an "impact" in our community.
For me, it just reminds me every day to "brace" myself, be ready, be open. You never know what kind of an "impact" you can make in this life.


Autumn:)

It Starts

I try to have, at least, some thought of what I will read in summer. Whether it is a number of books, a genre, an author, etc.  This summer I will be reading books from Oprah's Book Club. I did not watch her show much at all. Odd to say the least, she is one amazing woman. I have read a couple of books (East of Eden and White Oleander, I think there was one more but I can't think of it) that she has recommended over the years and really liked them. This is my tribute to her and her moving on to do more amazing things for the world.

So my first read of the summer is.................... a million little pieces by james frey.  There is a HUGE story behind this book. Long story short.

He claims it is a memoir. Oprah loves it. Because of her love, it sky rockets for him. Turns out he lied. Oprah is miffed. He takes her brow beating on national television (He deserved it, you don't lie to Oprah! Come on James!). He goes through hard times. He redeems himself. He ends up being one of her top 5 favorite guests.

A friend recommended this book to me and I bought it two days before the whole implosion of James Frey. So I stopped reading it. I don't have any clue why, it is a good book. I suppose I just wanted it to be a play by play of a "real" tortured life. Anyway, I saw his last interview on her show and it was amazing.

I love redemption stories.


Autumn:)

It's A Hard Life

Honestly, when I look at the lives that the animals lead here at the Grismore abode, I think "hm, that is the life!" To be able to sleep whenever, wherever and to never think twice about it. For someone to feed me, water me, play with me, bathe me. Isn't that the life of a baby? Yes, I believe so, and apparently the life of an animal as well. 

This is Stella Macaroni's spot. On the front porch hanging out in the wicker chair. 

She will sleep here for hours.

I just love the contrast of her black and white against the green and those black eyes peering through

the blades of grass. I love this dog!

We also have Rusty Man. He is our cat, who is not quite sure what species he is. The biggest thing that baffles me about him is he likes water. What cat like water? The Grismore cat, of course! He will get in the shower while the water is running. He is crazy like that!

Obviously there are other perks to being an animal!

You see, here, his ears are back and he is thinking of attacking because he thinks Stella is going to interrupt his bath time. Oh my goodness, Rusty Man, if only I could bathe out in the wide open!

Always be nice to your four legged friends, what joy they can bring!

Autumn:)

Sisterly Love

Well, hello again. I think it has been quite sometime since I spoke with you last, Sir Blogsly!
It feels good to correspond and I hope the next hiatus I take will not be so long, but I honestly cannot make any promises.

So onward we will go. We are now officially 5 days into our summer vacation. I get so excited for it! I always have all these things that I want to do with the little women and feel really lucky if I do half of them. So to make the summers all that much more enjoyable we decided that we would add a pool to our backyard. :)

Is it awesome? Yes!

Are the little women loving it? Yes!

Are the hubby and I loving it? Well, not quite yet. It is still too cold for us (oh, but we will be, trust me!). Ainzli will jump in when it is 70 degrees! Crazy girl!!!

Are we so so so so glad we have it? Yes!

In the Grismore abode there is, on a normal day at least 42 quarrels, spats, fights, or screams from either one of the little women (maybe the number is a little off, but really, it is pretty close). Most generally the sound is coming from Ms. Blue. I am not naive to the fact that there is an older sister quietly antagonizing her some of the time. You see, I am the big sis, I know all her little tricks!



So here we are enjoying the pool around 10:30 this morning:

Oh, they are all giggles. Love it!

This morning 10:32:

Uh oh! It could lean either way with Ms. Blue. There is a small, fake smile on her face.

Just 3 minutes later:

Big Sis has the ability to turn her frown upside down.

10:37 this morning:

Nope, she is done. Really done. She is miffed and if Ainzli doesn't exit her tube in about 30 seconds she is going to scream!

All of this was shot in less than ten minutes and they are in correct shot order; oh how the tides can turn. This is truly the joy of raising two little women. Welcome Summer. We love you!

Autumn:)