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moving

i’m moving.

new address:

homeofthebudds.typepad.com

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a couple days ago we got a card from this really great sixth grader we know telling us he’s graduating from high school! holy crap i feel old. my first year of teaching little kids at church he was in kindegarten i think. its funny that i only feel old when i see other people growing up.

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my blog broke yesterday. i wasn’t too worried – mostly i was just frustrated that i couldn’t blog about it but when someone in the help group recommended i delete it and start over i decided i better call in superhero bryan and he fixed it right up. and recommended i think a little more quickly about moving the blog over to something like typepad. so i guess i better get on that.

thanks again bryan!

new discovery

“mom! when i sneeze, if i snort like a pig, the sneeze (snot) goes back in my nose!”

score!

on our library trip today I was quite pleased to discover that they were having a book sale. this was as many as i could grab in the time allotted (by the children of course) while staying within my budget (cash i scrounged from my bag). i found a couple of deck building/designing books for dave, lots of kiddo books – they had a buy one get one free special (although they didn’t really mention that the free books were in a special box over in a corner.) and the really exciting part – three old school dessert cook books. i saw two “joy of cooking” books and thought about buying them because i keep hearing that everyone should have that one. the first was published in the 60’s and was going for $20, and the second was ten years younger and the bargain price of $6. both exceeded my budget.

just look at these beauties. i wonder if cake mixes were relatively new at the time this book was published. it has all kinds of varietes i’ve never heard of and all kinds of great things to do to them.

and the pie book doesn’t really look delicious (it’s a good thing cook books have gone color), but i can imagine that i’m gonna gain several pounds due directly to this book.

hand me down

remember this picture?

isaiah’s a bit more active tonight than ellen was on that night. he wasn’t at all interested in holding still.

i suppose a flash would have helped, but then it’s weird lighting. but you get the point – this, i think is the only article of clothing that will be handed down from ellen to isaiah. i suppose it should be obvious, but it was funny to dave and I that it fits them differently. for instance the shirt was always long on ellen, but poor isaiah’s belly keeps peaking out.

summer solstice/redesigned park party

tonight we went to a summer solstice party (wasn’t that yesterday?) in a nearby town that was a citywide event and had dual purpose of debuting a recently redesigned park/rec area. the park was pretty outstanding. it’s pretty huge and among various athletic fields they had super cool playground equipment that i’ve never seen before (and that’s really saying something) and back to back sand and water play areas – so it would feel like the coast. (you can tell i’m becoming an oregonian because now i say coast instead of beach.) the event was completely free and they promised and delivered free dinner (hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, drinks). the only problem was that about 800 people showed up and there was one lone guy working one lone grill.

the food line was insane. that was pretty much the main attraction. it took two hours for us to reach the front. i say us, but really it was just dave. ellen and isaiah couldn’t take it, so i took them to find something exciting.

the city brought in a drumming group that was somehow associated with the park designer. they were pretty impressive. and the kids loved them of course.

ellen and isaiah found some kids to dance with.

ellen did some serious dancing.

and here was the great reward for dave’s two hour wait:

one of the great rewards, anyway. we also scored another hotdog and a hamburger and two chip bags. definitely worth it. actually, in typical dave style, he struck up conversation with the guy next to him and now they’re best friends and we’re supposed to go visit them soon.

and after dinner, our favorite storytime lady, Teresa, entertained the kids for a bit.

cakes

dave’s company has very casually hired me to be the official birthday cake maker. this works out great – i get a chance to bake and try new things, other people eat it for me and then tell me its great, and i get a couple bucks to boot. this one is the second one i’ve done so far, and there’s another coming up in the next week.

and, i also made a cheesecake for the first time today. it came out pretty good. i’ve decided that new york style cheesecakes are not beautiful picture worthy things, so i’m sparing you that.

isaiah did not see me make it, but must have heard the mixer cause while it was cooling in the oven, he started banging on the oven door and wouldn’t rest until we had sampled it. (word to the wise, warm cheesecake – not so tasty. much, much better cold.)

permission

me: ellen???!? (looking for her in the backyard. and then finding her in the front filling up the watering can) you need to ask permission before you go over the gate.
ellen: i did mom.
me: you did? who did you ask?
ellen: me