A drift...

 Our family has been migrating to the ocean every year for about six years now.
Our favorite places include Bella Beach on the Oregon coast just outside of Depot Bay and Seabrook, Washington.

 It's my favorite place on earth.  The smell, I would wear it as perfume if I could.  The mix of pine trees, sand,  salt water, the wind, the sunshine (sometimes), the rain (sometimes) is just the best.  I grew up southeast Alaska with very similar surroundings and it just feels right.  The ocean is humbling.  It is powerful and demands respect.  It is endless, ever changing, alive.  It is my idea of true beauty.  And the fact that you put more clothes ON than you take off to hit the beach in the northwest...love.



Every time I come home with  treasures.  Also known as "what is all this sand and junk in the back of the car." A couple of years a go at Seabrook I kept collecting drift wood every time we went down to the beach.  We moved twice and refused to let my husband through my treasured sticks out. 


 We finally made something lovely with them.  The kiddos and I arranged all our treasures from longest to shortest.  Then I drilled a whole in each piece of drift wood.  We lost several doing this part because they were so soft or brittle they broke apart.  Strung twine through all the pieces and now we have a drift wood mobile from the beach.

There's even some sand still hanging on to a few of the pieces of wood.  



I love the soft color of the gray wood, how smooth it looks.  Can't wait to go to the beach this next year.
I feel the need for sand between the toes, pots of homemade soup, drinking hot coffee all day long, and of course collecting more treasures!


Chocolate gelato and one decaf Americano please...












My girl and I 

Coffee and chocolate gelato

The Collville Street Patisserie

Home town production of The Snow White Ballet

I think that she will remember this night long after I will

I was tired, not feeling that great

She was all tingly excited

She felt special, like a big girl

She wore pearls because, "we like pearls...don't we mommy"

I wore mine to just for her

I hope ten years from now she still wants to go on dates with me

That she still gets excited...

and calls me "mommy" once in a while.


Hello sunshine...


The sun came out and said hello today.




 I'm not quite sure what I did to deserve this loveliest of gifts...




but my it was nice.


Wear your Converse...








 The ballet was splendid.

My husband was happy because he got to wear his Converse to this kind of ballet.

I only forgot one important piece of a costume.

Good thing husband wore Converse so he could sprint home to retrieve it.

They did great.

The whole performance was just lovely.

And most importantly...

they had fun.

Tonight...


I'm going to the ballet tonight.  

It will be very ohhh la la. 

I'm a huge fan of the white twirly stars that will be performing tonight.

And a sweet little tiger.

That's right.

A ballet with a tiger.

You know it's going to be good.


It's been a long week of practices.

Lots of hard work.

Tonight it will all pay off.

But first I must feed the tiger.

And hair spray the heck out of the white twirly star's bun.  

Then I'm off to the ballet.

Ohhh la la.

Try again....



We get to try again.  All of us.  We will call this trying again 2011.  

At our house we get to try parenting again.

We get to go to the beach again.

In the spring Audra will try to learn to ride her bike again.

Elliot gets to learn to swim at lessons.





 This summer I will try to plant cucumbers that don't taste bitter.

I will get to sweep the floor nine gagillion times.

We get to try to be more patient with our kids in the early morning rush to church again.


We get to try to increase our intake of broccoli.

We have the chance to lift our eyes from our own little worlds, glance around and see opportunity to be something to someone else.

We get to try to remember to wear more sunscreen.

We get to try to remember to take time to see just how lovely life is.


This year is gonna make us cry.

Make us laugh till we pee our pants.

It will have lots of opportunities to grow patients, deepen character and sharpen our sense of  humor.

Lets's give it another try...see how we do.