adventures with eli, the last

This last Friday was my last day with the Youd boys for the semester. We had lots of good times and I am going to miss hanging out with them. What a joy to watch them both grow and learn these last few months. 

Eli and I rode Geoff's bike to pick Ryan up from school in the afternoon. I left about 30 minutes early so we could ride around for a bit, and not feel rushed to get there. Eli and I were talking about everything we saw, colors, shapes, animals– then suddenly he wasn't answering me anymore. I realized what was happening as his head dropped down, and I couldn't wake him up again. 

Thanks boys, for a semester of wonderful Fridays. 

art journaling

I've been researching lately, art journals. I've kept a journal since elementary school, off and on in the early years and more consistently now. I stumbled across the idea of keeping a journal with only art a week or so ago and have been truly inspired since. I love the way each individual has their own style and technique. You included. The idea simply combines two of my favorite things. Example: 

I found these images by searching for art journal images. Artists often blog and write about different techniques or ideas and I am excited to get into this. What I really like about it is that it is a place to be creative, in my own way, knowing no one will ever look at it or determine the worth of my creativity. 

forward step

Court tastes like bitter coffee in my mouth. It looks like old men with suits and ties and briefcases. Shiny shoes, beige walls, and the woman asleep next to me. It sounds like hushed voices and raised voices, clicking of heels on the stone walkways that walk into elevator doors that open and shut open shut open. It reminds me that I hemmed my pants last night and even though they look great with my shoes at any moment it could unravel and I would trip and fall. There is a language they speak and you listen and it's almost English but not quite so one can never be sure of what is going on. 

It's waiting. It's compromising. It's concrete diction. 

I went with a friend today, to support and encourage. She is...pause as I think of how to describe her to you... simple and genuine in spirit, quirky, speaks her mind, vulnerable. Free spirited, dreamer, a great mom, joker, thoughtful, caring, friend. There were some laughs and after we went back to her home to spend time with her son. Ordered pizza, watched movie, and worked on some sign language and smiles with him. Cozy afternoon. 

going strong

I sat a group of four women today, mothers and daughters. They enjoyed their meal with quiet wonder at the parties cheering for the US in the FIFA World Cup. One older woman in particular caught my attention, in the midst of the ruckus. She was simply sitting with a smile on her face watching everyone, with her back to the television. 

20 minutes later the group of women got up to leave. I was saying goodbye when the eldest of them stopped, turned around and retrieved a dessert menu and straw off the table. She handed them to me with a big smile that I returned. Her daughter then said to me, "Oh goodness, she must have thought those were the check and pen, she's 95". 

Ninety five and enjoying lunch with her family. Ninety five and walking around Balboa without a walker or a wheelchair. Ninety five and still able to enjoy to sit in a restaurant full of cheering fans and have some pizza. 

I need to drink more milk. 

more than one day a year

More than ever on Father's Day this year I wanted to pull up to my house and surprise my dad with my presence. My mom gone in Germany, sister with her, he was hanging out by himself doing his thing. Today I had a hard and good conversation with him. I think we are really learning how to communicate, to get frustrated and to laugh together. 

Early morning before the Nascar race this year. 

Graduation.  

Family pictures 2009.

He's the greatest. 

one more travelin song

Lately I've been adding more blogs to my blogroll, but this one I want to highlight specifically. My dear friend Courtney is backpacking through Europe and she is a wonderful writer and photographer. Currently in London she writes about the funny moments as well as the memorable. 

This is another one of those people who came into my life in the most unexpected of circumstances, yet has brought color and laughter like I couldn't have imagined. 

teawithacupofbooks.blogspot.com

i'd like to recommend..

                                                                *

..some new stops for you. It seems I have branched out from my usual places to get a tea fix. A) I've discovered how far and above Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is to starbucks. I've found myself craving tea lattes lately and the fact that they sell lose leaf teas in the most interesting combinations is a definite plus. 

B) I'd also like to recommend The Lost Bean, off Newport Ave in Tustin. A little bit of a drive but they have incredible specialty teas. Blueberry black being my current favorite. Couches and lots of tables help, and I find that it is hardly as crowded as other shops I like to visit. The workers are also great. 

Not London, but we're gettin there. 

*This is spray painted on one of the tables at The Coffee Bean on Newport and Harbor. 

beginnings

It is interesting the way there are so many things we can do in life. I am just beginning to realize how much freedom I truly have to walk down different paths or make decisions for myself. It is overwhelming at times yet there are moments when I begin to dream about what I want to make reality. 

Sometimes I am afraid I will wander down the wrong path, or a path that will bring more hardships than I bargain for. Except when we look at the epic tales of our time it took hard work and hardship to gain the things that were really worth fighting for. 

Pretty sure the only way I could walk down the wrong path is if I hold back and let fear of adventure and change guide my way. Here's to life, the way it should be done. All out. 

another song in my head

today

Today is a special day. I met my best friend a year ago on this Thursday and it also happens to be his birthday. 

It's amazing the way people walk into your life and while you're not expecting it they become apart of it and change it forever. Here's to the laughter. 

love her

Sometimes I get called "beautyface".

 I think this picture gives definition to that word well.

what?

It is interesting the way communication doesn't work sometimes. 

There are literary theories, deconstructionist mostly, that talk about how we all have different associations for the same words. When I write the word, "chair" or "house" we all get different images for such things based on our previous experiences or what we have learned those words stand for. It gets more complicated with abstract words like "beauty" because we each had a different set of people explaining to us what these words and ideas are. 

Some would even say that when it comes down to it, words have no relative meaning, and none of us are actually communicating the way we think we are. 

So you start with this and then put a phone in the middle. Bad connections, distractions going on, no facial expressions or hand movements to help make up for the lack in language– might as well be Babylon. 

love my job

I post about my nannying jobs a lot. Mostly because there are lots of adventures or unique families and children I meet and interact with. A lot of times I look down at the dash and realize I have 10 minutes before I'm expected to arrive and I'm lost, and running out of gas. Other times I am handed screaming children and get smiles from parents as they walk out the door. I can look completely confident in myself to the observer, but on the inside all I can think to do is call my mom. Yet on the other hand sometimes I surprise myself–I'm pretty great at convincing kids they want to go to bed or that another cookie probably isn't a good idea. 

But with some of the jobs I say yes to, there are definite perks. 

I arrived yesterday at the Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Coast. The valet then takes me, in a Bentley, to the villa where I will be sitting. Today I meet them at their pool-side cabana and enjoy myself for a while. One of the women walks over and says, "So I'm not sure if you care but Gwen Stefani and her husband are over there by the pool." Most of me doesn't care, but it is just another moment when I realize the strange situations my job puts me in. After the kids were in bed I read, drank tea, enjoyed chocolates left by the turndown service and a sunset on the terrace. 

memorable moments

I took a personal retreat this last weekend in Dana Point. A friend is house-sitting for a woman in our church who owns a home about a five minute walk from the ocean. So I went and spent some quiet time. 

I drank tea. I journaled. I slept in a big double bed with way to many pillows on it. I walked. I listened. I painted. I had breakfast with friends. I drank tea. I read. I played in the ocean. I talked. I slept deeply. I spent afternoons alone. I drank tea. 

It is so important that we take time for ourselves and rest. It is important to spend time making meals that look beautiful or finding a scene that is memorable. To sit outside in the morning and sip tea while reading a book under the oceanmisty air, beautiful. To take a long bath and look out the window at the Pacific. To breathe in the silence.

Currently I am devouring Donald Miller's, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. A prominent theme throughout is the idea of a story, and how as characters in our own story the moments we will remember are those that we make unique. He writes, 

"When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked harder to make a day stand out...We have to force ourselves to create these scenes. We have to get up off the couch and turn the television off, we have to blow up the inner-tubes and head to the river. We have to write the poem and deliver it in person. We have to pull the car off the road and hike to the top of the hill. We have to put on our suits, we have to dance at weddings. We have to make altars."

home

One small part of the sermon this morning, almost a side note, caught my attention. 

Lately I have been craving to be at home. Even though the word "home" is confusing in this sense I am talking about where I am from and what is most familiar to me. It's getting to be spring in the Sierra Nevadas, with a high of 68 that would probably feel warm and a low tonight of 49, just right to keep one snuggled under covers. I want to be surrounded by beauty everywhere I look. Trees, lakes, rivers, meadows, long walks and stars that fill the sky a thousand times over. A place of exploration and a quiet that you can hear. 

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He said, "Love the place you're in. Where you are right now today. If you don't love Southern California good luck. You may think you are supposed to live somewhere else but for today, right now you are here." I think I wrinkled my nose a bit. 

However much I'm tired of freeways, cement, huge buildings, people everywhere, and a lack of trees– I need to not take living here for granted. I should probably enjoy it while I am here and love the place I am in. Which brings me to my little side project today. 

I love where I am from because I know so much about it. I know the names of all the trees and what their seeds look like. I know the back roads and the best places to swim in the summer. I know who first traveled there, settled there and built up community there.  I know the history of the land and how it has changed. So, it seems I need to do some research. I think I'll go to the library and check out some books. 

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an early night

Some nights I feel like it is two hours later than it actually is, tonight is one of those nights. So tonight I think I'll curl up in bed and watch Hamlet (which I found tucked between two books this evening on my desk). 

Thanks John, for thinking of me. 

Olivia and Jaiden

I watched the adorable twin girls I posted about a month or two ago again tonight. It is amazing how little ones grow so quickly. Tonight they were crawling and playing and rolling and rolling around. There was about an hour when they weren't either eating or trying to sleep so we just played on the floor. Such a joy these two little ladies are. 

Jaiden.

Olivia on the left and Jaiden on the right. In their jammies,

 about to read before bedtime!

a little garden

No secret, I like to garden. Last summer we had quite the adventure gardening however this season I think I am going to keep it smaller scale. There is a little nookspace on our porch that will do just nicely I think. June started out this morning with its typical overcast indecisive self, so I took it on with a little project. 

I started with some flowers. 

these cups 

with a few hooks, some twine and ribbon I got this. 

thanks for the idea Sam! 

the song in my head

a memorial first day of summer

Yesterday a few friends–those of which I would consider myself closest to, relate to, and find that they in fact are the kind of friends one has for life–and I drove down to Dana Point to spend the morning together. Johanna is housesitting for a woman in our church who lives in a beautiful home about a five minute walk from the beach. 

After exploring our little dream house we all started making breakfast. A feast really. With these friends I laugh a lot. This kind of humor and laughter you find only when friends have known each other a good length of time, experienced life together and gone through some difficult things– but have arrived whole on other side. 

Breakfast was: Eggs with bell peppers, tomatoes, avocado and cheese. Yogurt with walnuts, strawberries and blueberries. Sausage as well as orange juice and coffee with pecan ice cream (because we had no milk).   

All this was eaten with a view of the Pacific Ocean in the background and great conversation around a table outside. 

After breakfast we cleaned up and walked to the beach where Bethany and I actually dove into the water.