Sweating Buckets

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a better way to spend a Friday afternoon in 100+ degree weather than sitting upstairs in the sun, painting in a house with a broken a/c.

One of our lovely units [the upstairs one] fail victim to the heat on Thursday night, and while it would have been much cooler [and smarter] to work downstairs, I didn’t want to risk ruining the downstairs stuff with paint. So, we painted in the room set aside for such productivity, wiping our brow all the way. I have to say, the new a/c was one of the greatest anniversary presents ever!

Here’s to staying cool!

xo

nessa dee

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the Team Jacob poster in the background…it was a joke gift to Jonathan. Does anybody want it? Frankly, I get a little freaked out with him staring at me all day.

11

11 years ago, on a hot summer’s day, I anxiously awaited at a church for the arrival of my best friend. As the clock ticked on, and seconds turned to hours…okay, minutes, I became more and more nervous. He was late. Of all the days to be late, why today? I panicked.  Did we rush into this?  Maybe he changed his mind. How can I do this alone? I tried to stay calm, but my thoughts were getting the best of me. I greeted family with a forced smile. I assured the photographer it would only be a few more minutes. I adjusted my veil and checked to make sure my dress was perfect yet again. My heart raced. I couldn’t breathe.

And then, a door opened. He stood at the end of the hall, dressed in his tux, and perfect. Exhale. As I walked towards him, I started to cry. He embraced me and wiped my tears, and just like that, time stopped, and my worries disappeared.   I knew that the road ahead wouldn’t be easy, but I couldn’t think of anyone else with whom I’d travel it.

 

For two naïve kids, I think we’ve done pretty well.

I love you, Jonathan Stephen.

Happy anniversary.

ness

Finnanigans

My camera isn’t working. I’m not a happy camper. Finn just walked into the room dressed as a pirate, said “I’m Jack Sparrow,” and tried to attack me with a sword [flag]. Aaarrrgh! That was me screaming in frustration, not Pirate Finn. I think I might have provoked another attack, though.

I could use a bit of Finnanigans right now.

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Finn: PaPa wants to give me his bb gun.

Me: If you get a bb gun, you know you can’t shoot it at people or animals. You can shoot it at stuff like cans.

Finn: I’ll only shoot it at old stuff, but not old people.

Me: What do you mean "old stuff"?

Finn: Like stuff from the 50’s.

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Mom, I think that when I snap, God makes the sound from my fingers.

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Pointing to his baby teeth: Mom, I want to keep these teeth because they chomp very good.

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Finn: Mom, tomorrow when I get up I’m going to work out, and then I’m going to paint, and then I’m going to work out again, and then I’m going to eat breakfast.

Me: Wow! That’s a lot to do before breakfast.

Finn: Yeah, I want to get stronger so that I can hold a heavy nail if I find one.

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Mom, when I’m 30 I’m going to work out at the gym. Do I need to pay cash and then credit?

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Mom, I wish dinosaurs couldn’t be instinct.

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Finn: Does heaven have a lot of people in it?

Me: nod

Finn: Does it have a lot of lot of people.

Me: nods more vigorously.

Finn: It must be HUGE!

Me: nods with eyebrows raised.

Finn: I want to go there and pick up all of the gold. Maybe they have big gold coins with God’s face on them, and medium sized gold coins with Jesus’ face on them.

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Grin.

xo

nessa dee

Hello, Monday!

It’s hard to get back into a routine after a few days of R & R.

We spent the weekend at the Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop to get in a last minute vacation before Jonathan starts his new job, the kids start school, and I start going crazy. The resort is really family friendly and offers plenty activities to keep active children [and parents] busy throughout the day.

The highlights of the trip included movies in the park, tennis on the lawn, rock climbing [pictures to come soon], floating the lazy river, migas at breakfast, spa treatments, floating the lazy river, visiting the candy shop several times, floating the lazy river, and this guy:

Did I mention that we enjoyed floating the lazy river?

xo

nessa dee

S-C-R-A-B-B-L-E spells Sex Ed.

Words with Friends has become the new obsession in our family. And when I say obsession, I mean that with numerous smart phones and IPads, it has taken the place of real conversation amongst the extended family. If we want to say anything to each other, we better hope our letters can be combined to convey what we would have expressed with our voices had we not forgotten how to use them.

It’s not such a bad thing, though. When my kids are fighting over a game that provides spelling practice and promotes vocabulary enhancement, I count that as a plus!  Of course, with new technology comes a whole new set of challenges. Unlike traditional Scrabble, Words with Friends has a built in feature which tells you whether or not the word you are trying to play is, in fact, an actual word. This feature, while convenient, makes the kids quite lazy in terms of learning new words. The kids no longer have to look up words in the dictionary, instead, they just plug in any combination of letters, hoping it will go through. So the challenge comes in making sure the kids learn the meanings of the words they’re playing… OR…in making sure they don’t, as in this such case when Audrie was playing a game against her great-grandmother…

Audrie: “Oh, wow! I didn’t know that was a word!”

Me: “What’s the word?”

Audrie: “ G – O – N – A – D – S”

The rest of us burst out laughing.

Audrie: “What? What does it mean?”

Jonathan: “We’ll tell you later.”

xo

nessa dee

Tickling the Ivories

This is one of my three favorite times of the day:

As Audrie practices, it feels as though I have a soundtrack to my life. It certainly makes the mundane tasks of everyday seem much less so.

xo

nessa dee

Busy/Lazy Days

I’m sorry for my absence lately. I have to admit, it’s not because I’ve been super duper busy and haven’t had any time to sit down in front of the computer to write. It’s more of a kind of busy, kind of lazy about blogging kind of absence. I think my brain’s on hiatus and me not think too good right now. Plus, we’ve been trying to catch up on all of the summer activities that we’ve missed out on since I’ve been holed up in my studio for the majority of the break.

Now, we’re gearing up to start school, soccer, some projects around the house, and a bit of last minute travelling; and someone in our family will be starting a new job in a couple of weeks, while another person in our family will be working on art for a two month display at a coffee shop downtown. I’m not exactly sure who’s doing what, but hopefully I’ll figure it out before the job starts. Until then, I’ll leave you with a few pics of the lazy part of our busy/lazy days.

xo

nessa dee