5 years ago

april 25, 2003
we were dreaming of august
planning our day, planning our lives, planning our life away
the world was our oyster
or at least it would be if either of us acctually liked oysters.
maybe the world was our cappriotti's bobby. yea. that's it.
either way, the world was ours.
we spent every waking moment together, or thinking about being together, or literally driving to or from being together.
when we weren't together, or thinking or literally driving, we were text messaging.
seriously, a lot of text messaging. the national federation of extensive text messangers would be proud.

you: a very cool blue-grey jeep with no doors.
me: a very un-cool silver-grey neon with no automatic door locks.
notes on my very un-cool silver-grey neon when i left for work in the morning...planted by mr.thoughtful at some point in the middle of the night.
shopping for clothes, and shoes and bags and hair highlights on any given day.
back when money flowed like a red martini on white carpet...
we ate, drank and be merry. c
heesecake factory.
chilis. chips and salsa.
maddys with the gang.
dave and busters with stephen. broken machines and winning tickets.
hammocks and moonlight.
dinner and dancing and falling in love.

fixing up our "prefabricated" house at 2048 lenape unionville.
brown, brown and more brown paneling.
dreams, dreams and more dreams of what the future would hold.
looking beyond the brown paneling and seeing what life would be like as husband and wife.
no one could have prepaired us for the next 5 years.
for living chinese, 2 babies on board, 11 diferent houses, and lots of cheese curls.
but each day got us closer, moved our hearts ever closer together, and gave us what we needed to be who we are on april 25, 2008.

sometimes you are being prepaired for the future during your today.
and sometimes you find yourself right where you are, and you love it.
that is me today.

perfect day

the perfect day according to foster:

hair static from endless sliding.

rosey cheeks from riggorous climbing.

a green backhoe digging up lots of dirt that sticks really well to clean sneakers.

the sound of silence

do you hear that sound? if you are saying "what sound? i don't hear anything" then you must be sitting in my kitchen, drinking a glass of tepid water and writing a new blog entry...because that is what i am doing, and all i hear is silence. the absense of sound...this my friends is what silence must sound like. i could acctually think a few thoughts in my oh-so-silent brain if i felt so inclined. na. that would mess up my silence.

wow. thats a lot of kids!

all 19 of us together at once for a photo-op

young love

rocks need hugs too...

sticks and stones

foster is obsessed with sticks and rocks (gotta be a guy thing). we are not talking about twigs mind you...these are full-grown STICKS...you know the kind that could be mistaken for a sword if you happen to find yourself in impending danger. and the rocks are not exactly anything to be taken lightly either. i think david himself would be proud (of david and golieth).

so we are off. large non-twigs in hand and as we walk. "we" (meaning foster, and me repeating as a good mom does in training the early linguist) continually call out "rock!" as a new jem is found along the edge of the grass. "we" proceed to jam it between our fingers and sticks so that as the trip progresses the extra space in "our" hands becomes increasingly impeached. as "we" reach down for one last decadent rock...a real beauty, i might add...at least 3 inches in diameter, rough around the edges and completly coated in mud...the dam breaks under the pressure of stick/rock overload and we have a catastrophy of vast proportion. sticks and rocks scatter everywhere. "OH-NO!" "we" shreak! a large effort of picking and swooshing and shuffling ensues as "we" grasp at every last morstle. i suggest putting them in the basket under rowan's stroller so as to not repeat this episode in the future. this is a grand idea, and each individual peice is carefuly stowed one at a time. (did you hear what i said? ONE at a time.) 9 minutes later, we are off again. our precious cargo is safetly stowed in our under-stroller compartment. all is well.

repeat the above steps 13 more times.

ah, life with little boys. i love every second of it!

at the choo-choo

there is a cute (little) wooden train in our development, and for our choo-choo obsessed child, the fact that it is a rather lame display of playground potential dissapears and it becomes an endless climbing, sliding, acorn finding, stick hitting zone of enjoyment.

foster's fake smile - he was not thrilled about being forced into posed photography so that i can have at least one picture to document the fact that i do, in fact, exist. i have found that as i look through our pictures there are none of me! these kids are going to grow up thinking that i was just a figment of their imagination!

the tongue of enjoyment

thomas

you know that saying "if i had a penny for every time i heard...such-and-such"?

well, seriously, if i had a penny for every time i have heard "choo-choo" in the past 5 months of my life i would be a world renound collector of Manolo Blahniks, sporting a non-knockoff dolce and gabanna bag, and an entire wardrobe fashioned entirely out of strategically placed diamonds and precious jewels.

grapes

little lovie

scrambled eggs

dirty lunch

foster has this thing where he loves dirt.
well he hates dirt, but he loves to pick it up.

pick it up and hand it to me, or put it in the trash can, or in the sink, etc.

the tiniest, most minute crumb or stray piece of lint does not elude him.

at any rate, the dirt in question must be promptly removed from his sight at once. he makes sure of it. might i add that our house is usually pretty clean, in fact the entire house was vacuumed just last night...

but as usual, mealtime brings crumbs a-plenty...and on this particular morning, breakfast brought an accidental ceramic plate crashing to the floor and shattering into 1,000 pieces.

(just what you want with a toddler toddling around.) after vacuuming incessantly, i felt confident that i had gotten it all.

then comes lunch.
finally, foster has eaten and is playing contently with his new 18-wheeler trucks.

rowan is sleeping soundly.

i happily take the time to make a scrumptious and healthy salad...complete with my all-time favorite toppings: almond slivers, grilled chicken and these delicious lightly salted tortilla strips (which are the best thing ever invented second only to cheese curls).

as i am cherishing the last few bites of my delectable salad...slowly devouring each morsel as i have a few moments to email and eat in relative peace and quiet (ever the multi-tasker)...

i hear out of the corner of my ear: "yuck" followed by silence.

i then see out of the corner of my eye, foster throwing something into my precious plate of salad.
before i realize what has transpired, i hear a small, yet distinctive "ding!"
ah, yes. a little piece of ceramic dives into the depths of the leafy greens, completely undetectable. no amount of searching will provides it's sharp and un-edible location.

although dismayed that there was a stray piece of ceramic on the floor, i was further distraught at the thought of my ruined salad. now granted, i was nearing the end of the salad, but this was a really, really good salad.

alas, no time to craft another.
no time to eat anything else for lunch.
the remainder of the day calls.
i'll try later...after i vacuum again :)

on the moon

we happily joined our dear friends chad, denise and eli on the moon tonight...moonbounce, that is...i dare say one of the best places ever created for energy ridden little boys. oh the bouncing, the sliding, the squeeling with delight! oh the sweat-dripped husbands who follow behind endlessly climbing the same "moon" over and over again...

not only do kids bring parents together, but i love the fact that they bring friends together too! what a delight to spend time with friends and watch our oh-so-quickly-growing children. we enjoyed pizza (delicious), raw, inedible brownies (big bummer) and one of the most entertaining conversations i've encountered in months...

what great friends. we are so blessed!

pre-owned

toolbench for father and son construction company: $15

kitchen set for aspiring chef: $5

thomas the train ride-on for choo-choo loving little boy: $7

saving money on pre-owned toys: priceless

friday fun night

kids sleeping
friends laughing
kendall creepily peeking
a night of potluck
kesh's nobel-prize worthy 2x potatoes
"who, what, where?"
heart-felt friendship
cherishing words
cherishing time
cherishing the wards
now that time seems short...
we look back:
the past 5 have been the best of our lives
the next 5 will look different
but our family of friends remains...
to reunite aboard our dream cruise
any chance we will all be unpregnant in 2011?

the gang circa 2005 - the week we moved to china
-kendall (3 mo. old)
-still a]waiting on the stork: foster, rowan, kyra, reece, cory, morgan, unborn baby girl witmer and baby ward -wow thats a lot of kids! if only we had known what amazing things the next few years would have in store for all of us!

it's been one of "those" days...

suggestions to aid in the reliquishment of endless crying are welcomed and encouraged...

bath-time fo-hawk

comfy

i (heart) my new sling...

but mom, i don't want to wake up!

some things never change...

foster 1 day old:

rowan 1 day old:
foster snoozing with daddy:
rowan snoozing with daddy:
(notice that clint is even wearing the same shirt!!)

monkey lover

seriously, can this kid get any cuter??

just a peanut...

it's spring! (or at least it feels like it today)

hip-hip-hooray! it's 60 degrees and we are at the park today...our first excursion to the park with rowan...foster showed him the ropes and promptly wailed an acorn in rowan's general direction from the top of the slide...rowan needs a crash helmet...too many flying objects in this houshold!

if you are inside today, you can live vicariously though this video. sun shining. birds chirping. foster going down the slide at warp speed and getting catipulted off at the bottom...

6 weeks old

we are finally getting closer to the light...the bright, well rested, not-as-much-crying light. the light that shines when you get more than 4 hours of sleep in a day and acctually get a shower more than once in a 3 day period :). we aren't there yet, espeically since i only got 2 hours of sleep last night...but every once in a while i catch a glimpse...a glorious glimpse and it is beautiful...oh so beautiful.

our little rowan has been such a blessing...a mostly layed back, content (when fed and non-tooting) happy little guy....or at least when he is being touted in his uber-comfy new sling. i feel so blessed each time i look at him...he is finally here...my little boy who will make foster a brother and me a mom of 2. what a delight he is!

my transition into the mother of 2 has been anything but easy. i spent the first 3 weeks petrified of being alone with my seeming insurmountable task of caring for me, and clint and foster and rowan and cleaning and cooking and laundry and bills and groceries, and, and, and, and, and...on and on. my mind kept racing. i kept expecting things to be horrible. and some days it was, but in this, the 6th week, there are more great days than bad ones...there are more smiles than tears and a lot of laughter. praise God that i am coming out of the haze. He is slowly giving me confidence as a mom again...showing me all the areas that i am weak so that i can keep working to be better and care more for my kids and husband. what a hard job, but i cherish the challenge and the gift of motherhood.

my la-la

fun abounds. laughter ensues. smiles widen. life brightens. jumping high...on the wings of love. my lovely la-la!

best buddies

my favorite uncle "ssss". my face lights up with delight. my feet start to jiggle...my smile won't leave. my heart he has stolen. my name he has given. love-matic is the feeling. my uncle, my buddy, my b-ball friend.

before and after

ok, since some of you have asked and you live far away, here is the progress we are making on our very-much-in-need-of-an-extreem-home-makover house. there are still a million things we want to do, but the funds are a bit limited...so we are doing a little bit at a time. hopefully our investment will payoff so we can move into a singe family home in the next 2 years.

needless to say, my clinto has been working very hard...so this is also my clinto brag book :) what a great hubby i have!

the kitchen:

before:

during:

after: (p.s. the black dishwasher is going to be gone soon...avert your eyes) we really want to completly redo this kitchen with all new cabinets and appliances. maybe next year :)

1st floor bath:

before:

after:

master bath:
before: believe it or not, this was the floor in the closet behind the shower!!! so gross!





during:


almost done:

our current project - the boys playroom/our workout room

(and yes, that is a saw in the middle of our house! welcome to our construction zone!)