Little D turns THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Happy, happy birthday to our most precious eldest nephew! It pulls at my heart to remember how excited we all were for his arrival three years ago. He's such an affectionate, funny, bright little guy, and we're proud that he's a part of us :)

Derek & Sara hosted a party for him yesterday, which Jan & I couldn't attend, but Derek has been kind enough to let me steal his pictures for your viewing fun.

They began the shin-dig with some action on the boards.

Have you ever seen such a hip 3-year-old? I didn't think so!

Derek & Sara win the award for super cool Uncle & Aunt with the gift of this SWEEEEET ride. They did not make bikes like this when we were 3!

I love the joy on his face in this one :)

He reminds me here of someone who's won the lottery :)

Peace, brotha!

A very tasty raw cake made with love by his mama :)

Friday

Yesterday evening, Derek, Sara, Jan & I all went to a wedding not far from here. Just a short jaunt down the road, really. And then, to continue the fun, D & S stayed with us for the night. There were fierce matches of Wii bowling & tennis, and the brothers continued their tradition of going to the grocery store in the wee hours of the night for midnight snacks. A fabbbbbbbbbbulous time!
The Mr. & Mrs
"Give me your bowling face," I said, and this is what I got :)
Intimidation!

Tuesday fun for us

Last week Jan brought home the Nintendo Wii so we could play the bowling game together. It's super fun, but my wrist starts to hurt after a few games, so here he's playing Legend of Zelda for a little while instead. We also have tennis, baseball, boxing and maybe one more that I can't remember, and you're all welcome to come over anytime to whoop it up :)

Tooting my own horn

Tonight I ran 3 miles. Before this, the farthest I had ever run (or is it ran?) was 2 miles. So I am patting myself on the back :)

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
- Inspirational sign on a runner's office wall

Rain & running

Tonight we are having our first fall thunder & lightning & downpour extravaganza, and I love it. I love the summer, too, but there's something so cozy about fall & cold weather & even lots of rain. I think it's amazing how God made and timed the seasons so that they all meld perfectly into one another.

On the exercise front, we've started running at the high school track. We had to pay $10 to rent a key for the year, and it's well worth it, considering the pounding we avoid on our poor, growing-older-by-the-minute knees. Tonight we ran one mile and then did sprint intervals for 3/4 of a mile, and then jogged a lap to finish it out. Jan Michael is the boss when it comes to plans like this, because I would not normally subject myself to something as difficult (for me) as sprinting. However....

"I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is 'Don't overdo it' and 'Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond."
- Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.

All done

Boy, when our neighbors decide to do something, they get on it right away. They had the old fence ripped out within the day, and by the evening, the new posts were going in.
Jan helped with the whole process, which made everything go faster, but also, now he knows what to do, and we'll be able to build the other two sides on our own.
Quite pretty, isn't it? Also, the tree on the right side used to live in the middle of an old, rotten stump. The neighbors pulled the stump out for us, which was ugly & not my favorite part of the landscape, and helped us re-plant the tree. So, now we have a brand new fence (which we will begin to stain this week), and our tree has a much better home.

Good riddance!

Our fence has seen better days (so has our lawn, but please ignore that). We talked a few months ago with our very nice neighbors, the ones that share the eye-sore with us, about replacing it some time next year. Since our neighbor is very, very handy, he offered to build it himself; we would split the cost of the lumber, and everyone would be satisfied. Last night, though, our neighbors came to tell us that they've come into some extra money, and have decided to go ahead and replace it now. If we will just stain it, they said, they would not only build it as originally planned, but pay for it as well. Naturally this is too great a deal to pass up, and we gave an enthusiastic go-ahead. And so, we are currently witnessing Stage 1: Demolition.

Strike two, spiders!

So we were enjoying a lovely conversation Friday evening with our friend Josh, when another wooly mammoth-sized spider came waltzing out from who knows where, bold as all get out. How lucky that I'm married to a skilled exterminator, who just happened, quite coincidentally, to be wearing his Spiderman t-shirt. It's always good, though, to look on the bright side of things, and so I am thankful that while we may wake up one morning to find that our legs have been gnawed off by the surviving members of the spider's family, we do not have an honest-to-goodness termite infestation like my poor parents.

Running wonder, that's my Jan Michael

Jan has been very diligent with his running the last couple of months (I took this after today's run), and it's super cool because he's running farther and faster all the time. It's very inspiring, and I am proud, proud, proud.

Outrage

Earlier tonight I checked the Mariners vs. Yankees score. The Ms were leading 2-1 in the top of the 7th inning. This was a good sign, because a win tonight would mean we would be just one game behind New York in the wild card race. A little while later I hopped in the shower, and was discouraged to hear, according to the radio, that it was the bottom of the 7th, and the Yankees were in the lead, 5-2. I was discouraged, but not without hope. Three runs is not an impossible thing to overcome, after all. But. During the course of my very short shower, the Yankees scored not 1, not 2, but FOUR runs, with Alex Rodriguez hitting his SECOND homerun of the self-same inning. Blahhhhhhhh. The Mojo appears to be plummeting, people.

Labor Day shenanigans, chapter 1

Today we hopped in the car, braved holiday weekend traffic, and headed south to Mike & Kristin's for a get-together & barbeque. There were lots of very fine folks there, including some of our dear college friends, so it was also a sort of Western mini-reunion. We had scrumdidiliumptious food (blackberry pie by Kristin & cake by Jenny & hamburgers by Mike : yum-o!), played rousing games of bowling & baseball on the Nintendo Wii, took a trip to the park for wiffle ball and ultimate frisbee, and enjoyed each other's company. It was a very good start to a three-day weekend, so thanks to M & K for letting us all invade :) [It seems I somehow missed taking any pictures of wives or kiddos. Grrrrrrr.]

Former Buchanan Towers boys

Grand Salami!

Mike, Jan Michael, Matt, Marshall, Todd & Mark - Wiffle Ball Wonders :)
Ultimate frisbee, which I think is the official sport of WWU

JM & H Productions presents...

JAN MICHAEL
VS.
MANDIBLES OF DEATH

The epic tale, re-told by Jan Michael:

I was on my way to the kitchen for a bowl of lentils when he appeared out of nowhere. He paid no heed as I put my foot down to stop him from scuttling behind the desk. It was time for step two of Operation Stop the Spider, which entailed waving my arms wildly about in a frightening manner, much like a bird of prey taking flight, and yelling at the top of my lungs. Much to my disbelief, this didn't faze him either.

Before he got too close to my foot (60 inches), I fell back to a more defensible position. By then he had stopped going for the desk; instead, alerted by soft pink flesh, he headed for me.

Stumbling back, I reached into the laundry room with the horrible thought that there might be more of his minions waiting for me. My hand came to rest on my excalibur - four feet of solid plastic, capped with an army of deadly yellow bristles.

I felt the power,thoughts of Castle Greyskull sweeping through my mind. As the spider raced for my exposed flank, my swift pole-arm of justice raised up overhead, as if by its own power, willing me to slay this fiercesome beast.

Realizing too late that death was imminent, the spider tried desperately to sink it's fangs into my slippered foot. But it was not to be, as the whoosing deadly bristles finished him off. Exhausted yet elated, I slumped into my desk chair, secure in the thought that for now, I was safe and the Pearson way of life was preserved.

Evidence..

that fall is just around the corner:
-It's completely dark by 9:00
-The last few early mornings have been foggy
-The draft for fantasy football is on Saturday
-We saw Halloween costumes at Costco this week
-I can feel it in the air
-And...

We have our own little orchard in the front
and back yards,
which the deer are helping to eat.

Hold on to your hats! And your spare change, and your lunch...

Ooh, what a Saturday. Here's the deal: After a quick & dirty few hours at the building site, Jan Michael, Brent & I bazzowmed up the freeway to Enchanted Village. All three of us have happy memories of visiting there when we were younger, and since we're really just little kids trapped in grown-up bodies, we thought it would be a good place to spend the day. Our first stop was the Tip-Top, which is just like the teacup ride at Disneyland (and one of my very favorites), and watching the people already on the ride while we waited in line was almost as fun as the ride itself. One woman was crying by the time it ended, and there was a teenage boy who looked positively green (I'm not sure if I've ever seen someone look so ill) but managed somehow not throw-up all over his friends. And then it was our turn. Jan & I sat back while Brent spun us faster than the speed of light, and that is where the hysterical laughter began, as well as the desperate attempt at preventing whip-lash. Next was the Timber Axe, which is like a huge tomahawk. People are strapped into the axe part, and then you're whipped around and around in 360 degree circles at very fast speeds. Jan had to do some fast talking to convince me to get on this one, but his convincing & my feeble courage paid off because it was super fun. SUPER FUN. However, about half-way through the ride it began to rain in earnest (there had been a couple of sprinkles earlier) and by the time we hopped off, we were soaked to the skin. (It is not, by the way, wise to wear white pants on a day in which showers are forecasted, because the showers inevitably turn into a downpour, and then you are in trouble.) We decided to take shelter underneath a tree by the men's bathroom, but high-tailed it out of there when Brent was almost hit by a falling limb. We spent a few minutes hiding under a covered area in a ride that was out of order, but then we decided we didn't care since we looked like drowned rats anyway, so off we went to the bumper cars. Poor Jan ended up in a car that didn't work - it wouldn't go anywhere, of all the dumb things - so I, being a chivalrous wife, rescused him by ramming into his car from behind and pushing him around for the duration of the ride. After that it was several more rides, including a wooden roller coaster and a metal roller coaster with lots of upside-down loop-de-loops and a really lame ride on the Octopus, which used to be my favorite but is now at the very bottom of the heap because it was so slow. We strolled out of the park at the end of the day with hoarse voices from all the screaming, sore jaws from smiling and laughing the whole blasted afternoon, and more happy memories to add to our list. Next stop is Six Flags in California :)

Thursday date night takes us to the fair :)

We are very lucky ducks because the fair is just a few miles down the road, and as everybody knows, the fair is LOADED with fun.
We saw a Clydesdale show...
and some neat things carved out of logs with chainsaws...
and a lumberjack show, complete with axe-throwing at a bullseye, log-sawing contests, log rolling (and for that, they even called two people out of the audience to try it, and Jan & I were VERY GLAD it wasn't us), and tree climbing.
It took this guy about 8 seconds to get up that tree,
and much less to get back down. Maybe Jan will quit his job and we'll run away to seek our fortunes as a lumberjack and lumberjill :)
And we also saw lots & lots of animals, including cows and ducks and geese and sheep and goats and a zebra, but my very favorite are always the brand new pigs.
This litter is only two days old. And, there was another great big mama-to-be in a nearby pen with a sign above her that said "Lady in waiting" :)

A jolly good fellow

Happy Birthday to our best big brother. We love you & wish you 75 more :)

Let's take a look back in time to 1973, shall we?
Average cost of a new home: $32,500.00
Average income per year: $12,900.00
Gas per gallon: 40 cents
Chrysler Duster 340: $2,822.00
Jaguar Series III E Type V12 Convertible: $8,470.00
#1 song: Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree
Fads: backgammon, CB radios, pet rocks
Nonfiction best seller: The Living Bible

Weekend fun

It's scandalous, really, how good friends can live only a few miles apart and hardly ever see each other. Tonight, somehow, the two of us plus Bill & Sheryl all managed to converge at Eric & Tessa's for games, a barbeque, and the breaking in of Tessa's new fire pit. We pretended we were camping - it even rained, making it all the more authentic :)
Chief cook & bottle washer (and corn husker, too)
Too much smoke!
Taboo winners, recipients of the coveted foil-marshmallow-on-a-fork-trophy...
and the losers, who don't look too terribly sad about it :)
S'MORES!

Maybe you'd like to know...

about a few of the things that illicited rather strong emotional responses from me this week. I'll let you guess the emotions.

- Two fawns in our backyard Wednesday morning

- A garbage/recycle man using the side of the road as his urinal

- A sign advertising manure, except the writer ran out of room, so M-A-N-U-R was written in huge letters, followed by a tiny, squished E

- The second in a long line of Thursday date nights with my favorite person on the planet

- A marionberry pie at Fred Meyer for $2.99

- An ad on the internet for "Poof Stretch Pants, a fashionable addition to any casual wardrobe"

Fairy tale

This is the story of Little D, who wanted, wanted, wanted to go wading in the river. But even though he's growing to be bigger and stronger and more of a boy-wonder by the minute, he still needed a hand to hold while he ventured into deeper water. Kind, unsuspecting Auntie Sara volunteered for the job, and off they went, traipsing and splashing over the smooth river rocks. But river water is cold, even during the hot months of summer, and very quickly Little D decided that instead of holding Auntie Sara's hand, what he wanted was to scale Auntie Sara like a lumberjack in a tree climbing contest. So he held his hands up, scrambling about, shrieking and pleading with Auntie Sara to rescue his dripping, sopping little self from the Arctic waters. And while Auntie Sara had originally signed up only to hold his hand, in the end she realized that resistance was futile, and so hoisting him up, she and Little D made their way back to shore, both considerably less dry than when they started. The end :)