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