miss miley & the fake alice

miley attended her first "drop-off" birthday party last weekend. because she has a tendency to go missing, i took her picture before we left. it was an alice in woanderland tea party. we were all very eager to hear about her experiances on the car ride home. she delivered the following synopsis very quickly and with much attitude:

there was tea, but it wasn't real tea, it was only juice. there was an alice, but she wasn't the real alice, she was a fake alice. she didn't go to wonderland. she took off that wig and went home.

30 by 30

1. make a chalkboard list for every season
2. buy real shoes and actually wear them
3. become a better listener
4. get a passport with my picture on it
5. earn a degree with my name on it
6. read for enjoyment
7. dine at sundance with my man
8. "desire less in order to avoid obligation" (to quote my favorite professor)
9. grow lots of pretty, native, drought-resistant somethings in the front
10. grow something edible in the back
11. sled down a hill in sensible, winter clothing
12. make yoga a part of the daily routine
13. ride a zipline
14. have margaritas with my cousin karen
15. hike to a waterfall
16. sleep in a bedroom i'm not embarrassed to photograph
17. publish the photographs in a post entitled "where the magic happens"
18. make halloween costumes for the whole fam damily
19. see credence at the fair
20. when the kids ask to do something rad (yoga, paint, puddlejump) say "yes!"
21. ride in a taxi (for the first time)
22. host a girls night at the roller derby
23. fill the house with instruments and learn to use them
24. figure out what i want to be when i grow up
25. introduce my aunt brenda to the wonderful world of hand & foot
26. foster gratitude
27. make photobooks for years 2003-2010
28. dance with christa at the joshua tree music festival
29. sail in a boat
30. let it shine

twenty-nine, i'm ready for you.
bring on the shine!

impatient & impulsive

11/2010 race weekend

because i'm impatient, i ended up with a shaggy mullet version of this. because i'm impulsive, i let a total stranger "fix" the bad cut and ended up with the justin bieber pixie pictured above. on most days, i like it.

obligatory october post

happy belated halloween from the teacher, the firefighter, & the fairy princess. i have given up trying to coordinate costumes or manipulate the kids choices. levi picked out his firefighter suit at costco, but his favorite part of his costumes was daddy's flashlight. miley went for the fairy princess (of course/again).

mia wanted to be a teacher (yeah!). we got her reading glasses from the dollar bin, a $5 sweater from walmart, and borrowed jewelry from her kindergarten teacher. i cut apples and letters out of felt and hotglued them to the sweater. she was very happy with the result and even happier when she took first place in the girl scout costume contest.

mia asked me to put a chicka chicka boom boom tree on her sweater. i love her creativity. and i love hot glue.

a few lazy cooking tips

1. you won't feel nearly as guilty feeding your family quesadillas for dinner if you cut cute shapes in them.
2. banana bread made with wholewheat flour is grose.
3. banana bread made while listening to cat stevens is great.
4. cook once a month (what!?!?). i havn't done it yet, but i'm going to very, very soon.

dining room before & after

(let's pretend that i didn't fill the previous post with dining room pictures)

this room was used by the previous owners for television viewing. this room is used by the current owners for about everything but television viewing. it seems like our giant dining room table (housewarming gift from crazy grandma- thank you!) is never without craft supplies, homework packets, or laptop computers.

this room, like the rest of the house, was a family effort. tiff helped place the photo wall frames (which was a lot more work than it sounds like, or should have been-sorry). katrice helped me paint. but, as usual, brian did the bulk of the work. he installed flooring, baseboards, & the light fixture. and made my red bench long enough to sit the monkeys and all their crazy cousins.

chalkboard by brian, tree painting by mia, misspelling of 'origami' by me.

a more accurate depiction.