This summer was beautiful. There was an endless supply of sunshine and outdoor activities for us all.
We spent many summer afternoons meeting Gabe for lunch at this water fountain.
We took the bike, our favorite form of transportation (we found this bike trailer on craigslist for $20 in June! best $20 spent this year, I think....I wish I knew how many miles we've put on it already.)
It is just a few blocks to the little downtown area here where Gabe worked at the Boys and Girls club. We met him there as often as we could and would eat our packed lunch of whatever we brought....ranging from less-traditional picnic fare like soup, spaghetti or pad thai, to the more normal sandwiches or bread and cheese and fruit...
Some weeks we would be there every day.
It was awesome, to say the least...
Now that there is snow everywhere, we stay inside a little more often.... but we still find things to keep us all entertained.
The boys invaded our recycling box so they could transform into robots...
and of course, plenty of cardboard box forts.
Since I have just started this blog, we'll probably be reminiscing our eventful summer a lot, but I'll try to throw in our current doings as well.
Everyone informs us that a Boise winter is far superior to those we've experienced in Rexburg... I guess we'll find out!
(I guess we can thank the randomness of the internet and wikipedia for an anatomy lesson of the cello in German--)
Well. As I wrote in my list of things I'd like to do someday, I've been wanting to play with an orchestra again--
And so I decided to not let it wait any longer- I know that after January it won't get any easier, what with having a brand new baby and all...
I auditioned a few weeks ago actually... but they were right about to have a concert at that point, and so I joined in and started rehearsals for the next concert (Christmas... woohoo!) just last week-- I'm happy to have the opportunity.
For now I'm happily bringing up the rear of the very talented cello section-- and I have quite a bit of practicing to do to get un-rustified.... But it's still there somewhere...I hope. (I have put the boys to sleep to a bit of lullaby-ing on the cello some nights.... but I'm not sure how much that counts for practice...)
Anyway. What I was thinking about is how it's fun to see the different personalities in a community orchestra- I don't know if you know what I mean?
It's this group of a bunch of wildly different people... In our particular group I've noticed a few interesting characters already--
First--the conductor-- tonight I noticed holes in his shoes and 3 buttons missing from his suit jacket- two from the sleeve, as well as one of the front buttons.. all gone, maybe at times sort of vaguely missed by the owner, but nobody cares-- that is dedication, I decided.
The older gentleman playing viola to my right was wearing a t-shirt with a saying that had to do with mountain biking-
something that went like,
"you could ride off a cliff and DIE."
"you could crash and break your legs and be left for wild animals to devour-- and DIE"
"or you could stay home and fall off the couch and DIE"
(he must be maybe 67 or so? but very spry-- and after thinking about it, I seemed to remember just maybe actually seeing him around town riding a bike....either way, I don't think his shirt was just for fun-- I think he means it and that is Awesome. I will add to my list of things to do-- to still ride my bike when I'm old--)
Then there's the phenomenal musician who obviously knows it... but seems to be a nice person anyway.
Of course a few jokesters in the percussion section-- is that just a pre-requisite? It just has to be, at least in every group I've ever played with..
I debate whether I should have auditioned on trombone-- they seem like a right jazzy sort of group--
There's also "Handsome young guy violinist who probably got made fun of at some point in life for not being good at sports, but has plenty of girls in love with him now so it doesn't bother him",
and "Old guy that has been so dedicated to his music that he never got married, and maybe is sort of grumpy about things in general-- but is still so dedicated to the music.."
and plenty of other personalities I haven't yet noticed-- but it's always intriguing to me to see how much personality can come out just in a little community orchestra rehearsal...
It's great to be part of it.
I suppose for now I will fill in the spot of 'mom who gave up her consistent practicing for too long of a time...but is trying to get back into it before it's too late...'
Also, on another note-- If you're sick of my random ramblings and just want cute pictures of Elijah and Henry, I apologize for the lack there-of so far.... but I'm sure by the end of this blog there will be plenty of little boy pictures. So hang in there.
We live in an upstairs apartment of an old farmhouse.
It's a family house. Room for kids and grandkids. Efficiently built to use every space well... None of that huge, but mostly useless space that you see sometimes in modern homes.
Of course, on our 'almost graduate but not quite' budget, we only rent the top floor, not the whole house. A one bedroom, charming place at the top of twenty stairs around back.
The nice gentleman who owns the place probably remembers a different view from the windows than we now have. I mean, we have a great view, at least in quantity. We can see a lot of things from up here... just not an expansive field with trees and livestock and such, as I imagine once was the view.
We look out front and this is what we see:
A busy street which becomes somewhat congested most every day, around 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM with people headed to the freeway right around the corner.
Next door to one side is a monument manufacturing facility. Yes.... monument manufacturing. (Also known as a gravestone factory...)
They make headstones, engrave the big cement box things that caskets go in... and also supply the area with those big rocks they use as signs in front of their businesses.
On the other side, as you can see in the first picture (kind of surrounding 3 sides, actually-) we have a huge storage unit place on both sides of the street. Orange squares of doors all over.
Every day we see people coming and going with their precariously loaded pick ups and trailers. Off they all go, moving truckloads of stuff from here to there.
Then, out back again-- we see truckloads of those cement casket things and gravestones. All for a different type of 'storage'.
They load them up out back where my boys love to yell "Hi guys!!!!" and "TRUCK!!!" at them over and over. (poor guys.. they probably wonder what's wrong with us.)
I don't know if anyone could live here without thinking about which kind of storage is better to work at... I mean, the material kinds of possessions, or the important things that will still matter when you're dead...
So, anyway. That's where we live.
(I'll post some pictures of our cute little apartment too, one of these days.)
I'm always enthralled by other people's goals and lists of things they're going to do.
Maybe you are not enthralled by that. But if you are, here is my list...
Of course it's not inclusive of everything. But some things that I want to do in the near-ish future that come to mind are:
*Keep at least two hives of bees in our yard (oh, and have a yard...someday)
*Journal more. (nobody now even knows who I am, or whatnot... let alone posterity...)
*Pick wild asparagus and harvest acorns. among other wild foods. because that is awesome. We used to always go get elderberries when we were kids...
*again...have a yard and also a big garden-grow all the good stuff...
*so.. when we have that yard.... I'd like to also own chickens. I'd really just like to have a little farm, I guess...
*Travel a bit. It wouldn't hurt to go to Europe.
*Have the rest of our children a birthing center (or maybe home?..we'll see) instead of a hospital. In fact, I'd prefer to avoid hospitals in general. (why go there, when there are places like this? I plan to walk there when I go into labor this January because it's only a couple of blocks away. Seriously. People think I'm nuts, or that I'm kidding when I say that, but when you're in labor, walking is good. At least for me. Anyway. I think it's pretty awesome that we happen to live around the corner.)
*Never own a boat, but own a canoe perhaps, if we live near a body of water. (does it count as a goal if it's to Not do something? For some reason, I'm just anti-boat-owning...random I know...no offense to people that own boats... I just would never want one. Unless I decided to be a professional sailor or fisherman. Then of course I would)
*Climb mountains, go hiking and camping with my boys. (and girls of course, if we ever have one)
*Go to the theatre often with my boys. (we just saw Peter Pan last week! yay!)
*Play with an orchestra or jazz band again.
*Be an influential person in my community (all moms are in some way of course. but I'd also like to get more involved in community events and organizations at some point)
*Make my sister Marianne's wedding dress-- perhaps from recycled wedding dresses/fabric...(because she's up for it--and it's awesome.)
*Say what I mean, and mean what I say. Exactly. All the time. (this is just such a talent. Is there anyone who can do it 100% of the time? Just to pick Exactly the right words to convey exactly the right meaning... I don't know if I'm even doing it now, but someday I want to have this talent...)
*Give away awesome stuff on the free section of Craigslist. Or just however, really- When we have awesome stuff to give away...(we've found some awesome things on Craigslist though... just want to pass on the favor...)
*go to a place where Spanish is the main language and brush up my skills.... at least, I'd really like to be fluent in some other language besides English.
*Play the accordion on the street with my boys. (I'm picturing Elijah and Henry with cute outfits and armed with their harmonicas.... Really. I want to do it sometime...)
*still shop at thrift stores even if we're ever well off with money... because I'd rather spend money at an organization that helps others and doesn't fuel more demand for more and more new things to be produced, when we don't really need it..Plus then we could take the extra $ of what we would have had to pay to get whatever clothes, furniture, whatnot-- and donate it to a good cause...
* keep in touch with people better.. and just be a better friend. To understand and be understood.. that's what the world needs, isn't it?
*Re-start up my Etsy shop.. which has been stagnant for so long, sadly. I just haven't had the time...
*Go on a vacation/road trip or something with Just Gabe for at least a week each year. We went to New York in April, and I have decided that getting away for a while is a good thing... I'm not sure when or how we'll always work this one out, since it will depend on other people too... but somehow...
*make a pair of shoes. (I've actually been in the works on this one.. just one of a billion crazy projects. I'll finish them sometime.)
*buy a home that needs a bit of work, and fix it up to be awesome.... (Not TOO much work--it has to stand up on it's own and not be completely awful....Because I'll have to learn a lot to do this one.. I don't really know how to go about it. But it's always been something I think would be cool.)
*Buy said house with cash, or pay off our mortgage within 10 years?? I have no idea if we will be able to do either of those. Something miraculous would have to happen first... But I can still have a goal, even if it's unattainable, right??)
There you have it. My list for now.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~Mark Twain
Also, here is our new painting as of the other day. Not drastically different this time. The boys were feeling like some yellow though I guess.
So- just for your information, the picture I decided to use for the header of this blog is the latest version of our continually changing painting. It's this canvas I've been carrying around with me all through college, waiting for some awesome idea of something to paint....
We decided to paint on it with Elijah and Henry every so often.
Because my boys love painting and could fill up a billion canvases, papers, walls, clothes... or anything you let them paint on...
And because I want to have a place to display their fun times and experiments with art besides on our fridge... it gets a little crowded and messy after so long. Papers full of crayon or paint rain down all over when all you wanted was to get the orange juice out of the freezer...
Therefore, this painting has been living on our wall in its various forms, ever changing. I thought I would start taking pictures so I can remember the changes it's gone through.
These are just the past few-- there were many incarnations before I started taking pictures. By the time my boys are old, the paint on this canvas will be quite thick I guess.
So, our method is basically two boys without shirts, paint and paintbrushes all over the place (good thing we're just using a classy old card table here.) and I just have them go at it, while I throw on random whatever I feel like throwing on there too. It's a group effort.
Very fun and spontaneous.
And if you have trouble with change, this is good therapy to get used to it... There are a few versions of our little painting that I've gotten attached to before, and it's always a little hard to get it down when the boys want to paint again...
But that's life I guess. Any time you get used to the way things are, something happens and you're not always sure you're ready for the change. Sometimes you just want to pack away the paints and brushes and keep things the way they are... Because things might not look as good if you change them. It's risky.
But who knows what wonderful thing could be next?
I think we're painting again today. I'll let you know what it ends up looking like.
If you're reading this, I suppose it probably means you cared enough to come on over here.
So...since you're here, you get to find out--
that we're having another baby.... Another boy specifically.
(!)
January 31 ish...
Yes, that does mean I'm over 6 months pregnant with our third guy.
So....
Yeah. True. It is well past the point in time where maybe you usually tell people about another person joining the family. I know. I know. We're just in kind of a weird place in life, where we don't have as much real life contact with most of the people we know outside of family (like probably you, if you're reading this)
... And it's an announcement that I prefer to make in real life...
So, due to having found out about being pregnant after we moved away from Rexburg, where many of our buddies remain, and also due to the fact that many of our friends have scattered across the earth in their various directions.... ....we have hardly told anyone that we haven't seen in real life recently. So don't feel left out.
If you wondered why I haven't said anything on good ol' Facebook, it's just because I feel like Facebook is such a habitual place for people... I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook... Maybe you know what I mean?...Facebook reminds me of all the people I never get to see anymore, and the people I wish we'd gotten to know better, and the people I wonder about if they really even want to be friends, except on Facebook... and it seems weird (for me) to make a big important announcement on there, just to be lost amidst all your other friends' big and important/not so important announcements.
So I'm announcing it here on me new blog. I guess because it's an exciting way to start a blog, for one thing. Right?
And simply because it isn't Facebook. Yet it is still a message to all of you good friends who care to find out. :)
So with that, welcome to my blog.
A blog that I feel like starting, just to remind myself of some things. More of a thoughts/inner workings of Kara/journal kind of blog. Not like my other blog, which has it's own purpose. Which is different than this one.
Feel free to stick around to keep track of us if you'd like.
And if any of you find yourselves out in the Boise area anytime, come have lunch. OK?
