First Goal!

Big day for our soccer player... Q scored his first goal ever today and to make it even more awesome it was the only score by anyone from either team the whole game so he won it for the Green Geckos! Q's score was made by a penalty shot that the coach made a point of letting him take. I later found out it was because last night at practice Q said to the coach, "Coach, I wanna make a goal in the next game." When the coach was telling me this story at the end of the game today he had a really big smile on his face.. I think he was beaming more than Q!

I guess we're gonna go eat out tonight to celebrate. Yay! There's a halibut sandwich with my name on it. mmmm..... halibut.... *drool*

(soccer pictures forthcoming)

the joys of potty learning

I've started trying to get Meme on the potty lately. It's looking like it may be a bit premature. Today I heard rumbling coming from her diaper region so I jumped up, whipped off her diaper and plopped her on the seat. There we sat for a good 15 minutes playing with a toy and waiting for something... anything... to happen. To no avail. So I picked her up and as soon as I set her feet upon the floor... She peed. On the floor... and my foot. *sigh*

25 Random Things

1. I enjoy brown miso as a sandwich condiment.

2. I was teargassed by riot cops and nearly swept out to sea all in one day in Miami. The picture is from that day. >>>

3. I've birthed 3 babies underwater and the idea of landbirth scares me.

4. My knowledge of astrology far exceeds the average person's and I once considered becoming a professional astrologer.

5. I am a serial hobbyist. I have a tendency to adopt more art and craft interests than I could ever possibly have time for.

6. I am addicted to internet surfing. No one website in particular.. I just flow amongst many. I seem to get sucked into some kind of vortex where time ceases to exist until someone calls me back to real life by demanding my attention. Despite this, I stink at replying to emails in any kind of timely fashion.

7. I hate washing dishes.

8. I can recognize and identify a wide variety of ball python color morphs.

9. My maternal grandmother's uncle- Walter Harper, was the first man to reach the summit of Denali.

10. Ten years ago I was hospitalized for three weeks after a psychotic break from reality. You might say I'm a psycho in remission. Consequently I have a very keen understanding of the fragility of sanity.

11. I still still harbor my childhood dream of becoming a comic book artist.

12. I often wish my Grandma Sandberg could see how well I knit today. She tried teaching me when I was about 12 and I failed miserably. It's my favorite hobby now.

13. My first child was born on Friday the 13th.

14. After developing a strange allergic reaction to the oils in coffee I had to switch to tea and now have chai every morning.

15. I home school my kids.

16. My favorite game is pool and I don't get to play nearly often enough now that I have kids.

17. I fantasize about living in an intentional community that focuses on sustainable living and permaculture.

18. I just started drinking a daily tonic of apple cider vinegar, raw honey and baking soda. It's fizzy and surprisingly delicious!

19. I am using cooking shows as a tool to force myself to enjoy cooking. It seems to be working... slowly ... but surely.

20. When I finally build my own home it will be made of straw bale.

21. I've lived in Fairbanks, Alaska.... Madison, Wisconsin.... Portland, Oregon.... and Nederland, Colorado. I still can't decide where it is that I want to settle in for the long haul.

22. I'm not very good at writing lists or managing my time but I recognize that these are skills I absolutely need to cultivate in order to get what I want out of life. I'm a work in progress yet.

23. After experiencing death intimately I no longer fear it for where it may take me. My only fear is leaving behind loved ones who may still need me.

24. I am a worrier.

25. I am a optimist.

the one where I start to get caught up

I've blogged several times in my imagination since my last entry but have yet to get any of them out of my head and on to the blog. I've been afflicted lately with an especially horrid case of procrastination and escapism. I've been wasting time playing this silly game called Zuma that I became obsessed with conquering.. Once I did that I was sucked in by the incredibly strong gravitational field belonging to a certain addictive series of books involving some teenage vampire romance and ended up losing about a week and half of my life as I read all four novels. Amidst all this a few noteworthy things should have been blogged about and were not and so I will attempt to remedy that now.

First off.... Thanksgiving. I rocked it Martha Stewart style baby. Okay so the hubby helped out quite a bit but I'm proud to say that our first Turkey Day at home on our own went very well.
It's not the most glamourous picture (I was in too much of a hurry to eat to be bothered with setting up fancy pictures) but it shows the spread. There was lemon walnut brussel sprouts, buscuits, juicy turkey, brown sugar cabbage, stuffing, sweet squash potato casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry ginger jelly, maple sweet potatoes and gravy.


Each and every thing homemade from scratch thank-you-very-much. I've never been much of a cook (or homemaker type at all really) so making all this stuff was a really big deal. I will admit I didn't plan it out as well as I should have and ended up only getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before because I totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to make the pies. At midnight I thought, "well... it will probably only take a couple hours.. I'll go ahead and make em.." and once I jumped in and got started it became obvious that it was more like a four hour process and I didn't get to bed until about 6 am because once it gets past a certain point in the night I start moving v e r y s l o w l y .. plus I felt the compulsive need to clean the kichen once I got my second... or third... wind.

It all worked out well though and my brother that I hadn't seen in more than a year came in from out of town and ate with us. It was super. Oh and it was my birthday on Thanksgiving this year so I had birthday apple pie.. YUM. Pulling off the grandiose accomplishment of cooking this large dinner was a nice way to ring in my 30th birthday. It made me feel like a real grown up.

So then.... on December 3rd.. exactly ten days before her birthday.. Little Meara began walking! I so love watching babies take their first toddling steps. It's got to be one of my favorite things in the whole world. It's just so adorable the way their little faces light up with happiness and pride at something they've been working so hard on for so long.


ALSO.. incredibly this little one has started talking! I don't think the other two kids started this early and Memer already has 3 words solidly in her repertoire. First she started saying, "Hi". Whenever someone enters a room or the phone rings she gleefully shows off her perfect enunciation and contextual use of this greeting. That started within a few days of her walking. Then a couple days after that she started saying "Dad".

Shockingly she has even combined these two words into her first sentence! "Hi, Dad!" Who knew that this could happen so early! I mean.. I know it's a very simple sentence but still.. she's barely 1!

Now, for the last week or so she's started saying 'done'. This has to do with nursing... I am still nursing Zay and whenever she is finished she will say 'done'. Meara has caught on to this and now she does the same thing. It's sooo adorable.

So those are the big milestones of late. I'm still way behind in a bunch of paperwork and email correspondence but atleast I've tackled this blog backlog and hopefully it will carry over into the other things I'm procrastinating on and I'll see those things done in the next couple days. Send me some "get-stuff-done vibes" if you will please.. I really need it. Happy Holidays everyone!!

That's one BIG SOCK

*picture by Sam Harrel

Yesterday I got to play a bit part in making history. I knit about a hundred stitches into what will hopefully become the world's largest sock. It's been traveling around the world and when I read in the paper that it had arrived here I just had to contribute to the effort. Just so I can say I helped make something that got into the Guiness Book of World records. Cool.

**Even though I brought my camera I was so distracted by the awesomeness of this gargantuan sock I completely forgot to take a picture.. DOH!

Yes we did!

I have never felt more pride in my country than I do right now. I can't stop grinning like a silly fool. What an incredible time to be alive.

on politics

Part of the reason that I've been in a blogging slump lately is that I'm spending way to much time glued to the news. Between the scary rumblings of impending economic depression and the historical Presidential election I can't seem to tear myself away from discussion forums and Charlie Rose.

One thing I want to document here is Colin Powell on Meet the Press. He is the first person I've seen on the media address something that I think is very important. With all this talk about whether or not Obama is a Muslim (obviously he is not) the underlying assumption is that if he were a Muslim that would somehow make him unfit to be President. Considering that we live in a nation founded on religious freedom and populated with a very diverse range of people I find this assumption very anti-American.

I'll let you watch this clip and hear for yourselves what Powell says on the matter.




Here is the picture that he is talking about. I can only imagine how offensive all the propaganda about Obama possibly being a Muslim with it's underlying implication of intolerance must be for families such as those of this fallen soldier. To think that a man who fights and dies for his country would be deemed by so many people as unacceptable as a possible leader of the nation based on his religion is horrible.