take a gander

is it just me, or have the recent recession slogans reached an all time fever pitch?

have you noticed that companies are actually using "in times like these" phrases to try and lure us into purchasing more items?

i couldn't help but overhear a few slogan-filled commercials from amid the hum of my sewing machine this evening.
let's take a gander:

apparently, in times like these...
"...you need a wireless company you can count on."

"...you need to take advantage of the ford promise."

"...you need an insurance company who's been here for you all along."

ok, do i really need these things?
should i switch to a company because they paid for a commercial that makes them appear to understand my current state in these perillous times?
which, in my humble opinion, are only perillious if we look at them that way.

our family is, in fact, among the many whos real estate ventures have us in the "learning expirience" category as we chalk up our looming losses to life lessons learned.

but, today i had a revelation.
as i chatted about life with my dad over cheesy egg-bagel sandwiches, he enlightened my mind to remember that our faith in Christ isn't something to take lightly, it is to be taken in action. if i sit back and worry my days away, too afraid to lay aside my fear and move forward, can i really say that i am using my faith?
or is my faith laid to rest on my laurels as i sit comfortably on the sofa, sipping a fresh cup of iced coffee, making lists of all the reasons i should keep sitting and sipping.

i beg myself to realize that my laurels aren't going anywhere.
and neither am i if i don't decide to use the faith God has been growing.

whether it's showing some extra kindness to the gentleman bagging my groceries, or putting our house up for sale, faith can be applied in so many areas.
the faith that God is protecting us.
the faith that we are doing the right thing.
the faith that i serve a God who will pull me out of a slump if i'm not doing the right thing.
it's all there.
i just need to activate it.


take a gander. what do you think?

large marge

the day every little boy dreams of

was today

truck day in west chester.

not just any trucks

these were larger than large

real life

large marge...

cement trucks, fire trucks, mamoth fork lifts on transport trucks, dump trucks

and a truckload of pint-sized patrons, all wanting to try out the front seat and fog-horn-pain-inducing-ear-drum-rupturing-horns on every single vehical.

my pint sized patrons were no different...except, much to my surprise, they were completly non-enthuzed about the horns.

this was the typical grimmace in response to the incessant bullhorn-in-my-eardrum-horn honking:

the front seats, however, were quite an attraction:

apparently i was the last one to know about our truck day dress code...we arrived onsite to find that all 3 boys were dressed identically! quite hilarious and quite unlike us...we're not the matchy-matchy types...we are usually more apt to promote subtle color coordination...but today proved that even the most rediculously matchy set of boys can still be reduculously cute...dispite their idenity crisis :)

a woman obsessed.

that's me.

i've gone over to the dark side.

a bit past insomnia, and a little short of crazy town.

i can't seem to quiet my brain.

you see, i've been enabled with a rediculous pain threshold for my own creativity.

a creativity that leads me into mind torturing late nights, and enduring coffee consumption.

it's quite exhausting keeping up with myself.

my threshold has managed to absorb my recent sleep deprivation in miraculous ways.

although, as i recall, my threshhold is not quite as spry in refernece to 5" epidural needles being punched in-between my 5th and 6th vertibre,

but that's another story entirely.

i can't seem to create fast enough.

so i create various items in various stages, and by the time i get to completion, i've already sprung new ideas.

i need to grow a few more hands.

if my little endever would succeed to take off, i could hire my friends and create a summit house sweat shop and we could all work our fingers to the bone. i would offer a killer signing bonus, and you bet-your-bottom dollar the benefits package and stock options would be downright inspirational.

alas. it's just me. all alone.

no stock options. no healthcare with dental.

just me.

sewing away.

acctually, i love it.

i love the obsession.

although i could cool it down a notch and drive back toward the coastline of normalcy :)

nah. who needs normal.

or sleep, for that matter :)

my precious

my blog brain has been destracted as of late.
all of the fundraiser fantasticness took up so much space.
my brain can get quite cluttered...much like my desk, the floor of my THMV, or my ever mounded pile of misc paperwork

in all of my brain cluttering, i totally forgot about the most heart-melting moment that i recently captured on film.
beware.
it's seriously high up on the adorablness chart.
peeking over into mind boggling.

it's the story of
"my precious."
(insert a slightly nicer Lord of the Rings voiceover)

you see, my precious is sometimes daring (i.e. onto couch cushions or into my arms at the pool) but is quite often hugging, and kiss loving, and all around a quite scrumptious little guy.

when the Goshen Fair was in town two weeks ago, each night we drove around running errands and the boys would "ooh", and "aww" at the lights and the grandure. i kept telling myself we would go, but secretly i didn't want to brave the teenie-bopper mahem coupled with un-stroller friendly grasslands and over priced amusement.

it was tuesday. on the way home from Joann Fabrics, i was feeling guilty. REALLY guilty. i had drug my children into a fabric enduced coma after parading them through the isiles of material for a recent order.
clint was at a softball game. we were all by our lonesome.
i made a split decision, followed by a swift lane change...
Goshen Fair, here we come.

in short, we had a fantastic evening (or at least as much fun as $10 and 8 tickets will allow)
until i decided to do this:
the school bus of terror.


i'll be honest. i'm not sure which is cuter. foster's crazed reflection of joy or my precious' horribly pitiful cries for me to rescue him.

long story. i know. bear with me.

after our brush with terror on the school bus, my precious clung to me like a spider on the brink of being flushed. (ok, i admit. bad analogy. but seriously, you have to admit...spiders get awful scrappy when faced with a swirly :)

i vowed to take them back, and give my precious a chance to redeem his terrified nervous system.

it was thursday.
i called in the experts and my very own go-to gal in all situations frightening (my mom).
there was no way this kid was going to cry a second time.
there is only one thing that can happen:


it tickles my heart to see his overjoyed glee...
his wigglie wave...
his squeelie excitement...
my precious.
(minus the voiceover :)

delish.

bonefish.
etsy goodies.
movie night.

it's a giveaway made of all things i love.
check it out...
courtesy of a generous soul.

recap fridays

a new tradition i am inventing...
recap fridays.
i tend to forget what we do all day. all week. all year.
the dreaded question "what have you been up to?" baffles me with the inabilty to remember anything.
so this is me, recaping.

i:

-found out that i am obsessed with figuring out how to make purses. i often obsess over the array of bags, esp hobo/leather/large-marge bags at Target. i study their construction. take picutres of them with my camera phone. peruse the pics at home. scheme how to make each one.

-checked my blog 47,000 times everyday to see our adoption fundraiser progress.

-swirled around with giddy merriment each day as we are SO close to our goal! we have some seriously generous friends! a few more entries and we can find out who wins!!!

-played in the brilliantly huge sandbox clint made from spare wood (it is so big he had to borrow a REAL dumptruck to bring in the sand!)

-cheered clint's providence softball team (ok, i'll be honest. the fact that they had 5 games in 2 weeks kept my attitude a bit "questionable" but we survived.) he hit a grand slam. he is officially awesome.

-went crazy at the car dealership while my car door was getting fixed (acctually, it's still not fixed. long story. don't get me started).

-met a friend for dinner at 10pm! i felt all young and new again. not sure where my youth went, but i got it back. or at least it visited for an evening and then left again.

-ate molten-chocolate lava cake at chili's TWICE in one week. not one of my better diet moments.

-kissed foster's scungy monkey at least 73 times. apparently, it need a kiss everytime foster needs one. i think scungy monkey needs a bath :)

-continued my serious obsession with my kids. esp how they look in pictures. i look at the same pictures over and over and study their cuteness. i think i could tell you every little detail about them. i know that rowie's hair curls slighly to the right in the back-most region of his head, esp when he sleeps on damp hair. i know that foster has a light birthmark on the upper-inner-portion of his right arm that most people have never noticed. i know rowan's skin is so see-through-white that the veins in his forhead are quite pronounced, especially in late morning light. i know foster's cheezy smile from his real one. i know rowan thinks he's invisible when he hides behind my legs. i know foster's love language is words of affirmation. i know rowan's love language is touch. i know that foster has his tounge out in 90% of action shots. i know that rowan contemplates the perfect moment to smile, and then looks down, and then back up and the down again. such a tease :). i know that they are the cutest little guys i've even layed eyes on. i'm insanely, rediculously in love with them. spending each day loving them is the best thing i could ever do. i'll live in a box, eat ramen noodles for every meal, and drink water from a leaf if that's what it takes.

(pic by linds)

-it's been one of those weeks that makes you realize that people are more generous that you realize....more thoughtful...full of compassion...free of judgment...and it makes you realize how much you can learn from such a realization.

(pic by linds)

-it's been a week of glorious, refreshing, faith-building triumph.