Time Capsule Tuesday- Baby kisses

One of my very favorite times with Natalie is in the morning.

She cuddles into bed with me and we watch cartoons and wake up slow. Most of the time, Natalie is not much of a cuddler. She'd rather be running, building, climbing, tickling, playing.

But in the morning, she rests her little head on my chest and we yell "Oh Tooodles" together at the t.v. and it makes this mommy's heart very, very happy.

This morning, we were cuddled up together. I was checking email, she was watching Little Einsteins save the day. Suddenly she pulls back the blankets, lifts up my shirt, says, "Baby!" and gives my tummy a big, wet kiss.  

Heart...melting....

B.F.F.

Back in the day, before there was texting and tweeting and facebooking, social life looked a little different. When I was a pre-teen and teenager, we did something that is practically unthinkable to teens these days. We wrote notes to each other. With a pencil and paper. And our own handwriting. And a "short" note was one page long. And since this was before text talk, words were not abbreviated.

Except for one little phrase at the end...

B.F.F!!! 

(or occasionally to switch things up, B.F.F.L!!!)

Any girl who was a teenager in the 80s or 90s knows exactly what that means.

(To help the rest of you out: Best Friends Forever or Best Friends For Life)

Any decent note passed to your girlfriends included this ending. (I'm pretty sure that boys didn't write notes. At least not to each other. I'm not really sure though. I was too busy writing notes about boys to pay attention to what they were doing.)

Obviously, looking back, it makes me laugh. It's such a naive and immature concept. But we believed it. Just like we believed we were invincible, our clothes looked awesome, and the fair was the highlight of summer. (What?! Your entire town didn't show up for the local fair? Okay, so maybe that was a small town thing.)

Real life doesn't exactly work that way. People grow up. Graduate. Move. Change. Marry. Change some more. 

Life moves on- with or without our 7th grade best friends by our sides. (Or college roomates, or summer camp best bud, or you-fill-in-the-blank.)

But every once in awhile, those silly little promises have rung true in my life. 

There is a handful of people in my life, who despite graduations, moves, marriages, divorces, babies, and lots of changes, are still just there.

And isn't that half of what makes a great friendship, great?

Just being there.

Through the good. The bad. The ugly. (Whistling...)

Mostly, through time.

I talked to several of them on the phone the last few months.

I watched one get married last month. 

I got to meet with one of them last week.

So to all of you who have been there for me, with me, through the years-

Thank you.

I love you.

And yes,

B.F.F!!!

Frugal Friday-Field trip to the Apple Farm

When I first moved to Portland, I lived in Beaverton, but worked in Hillsboro. After several weeks of sitting in morning traffic and waiting at traffic lights, one of my co-workers found out about my route and asked me why I wasn't taking the "back way."

The "back way" turned out to be my best friend. It's a two-lane, no traffic road that winds through farms, orchards, and peaceful country landscapes and then suddenly pops you out onto a main road in Hillsboro. For me, it was home. And it was the perfect way to unwind after a day spent with my crazy, precious little students. And their crazy, wonderful parents. And the eight pounds of paperwork I had to complete each day.

One of the beautiful farms on this road is called Oregon Heritage Farms. It's primarily an apple farm, but they add in hay rides, a pumpkin patch, a big blow up apple bounce house, barn animals, and a little gift shop with antiques and cutesy local crafts during the height of their season.

I stopped there to get pumpkins and fall decorations for my class that first year in Portland and have been going back ever since.

Since Natalie and I have been learning our "A" verse this week and learning all about the letter "A", today we decided to take a little field trip out to the apple farm. We prefaced the event by coloring letter "A" apple pictures.

Natalie must think green and red apples are boring, because her apples turned out to be rainbow colored. I'm pretty sure she used every single colored marker we have. (This took an incredibly long time. We were completely ready to go at this point, so I just sat there watching, doing my best not to make too many, "Okay, honey are you all done now? We're going to the apple farm remember? When you're all done, we get to go" comments. To which she'd glance briefly my way, look back at her coloring and announce which color would be next. Apparently, she had some inner-knowledge that the apple farm wasn't goin' anywhere.)

Once we finally had our apple pictures done and up on her bulletin board, we grabbed our snacks and our camera and headed out. It's pretty early in apple season, so unfortunately there were only two types of apples available. One was a really tart apple, not great for snacking, and the other was Honey Crisp. Honey Crisp is one of my favorites, but also pretty expensive for apples. The kind worker let me know that they aren't yet at the peak of their season, so they're not quite as sweet as they normally are. We got to taste samples and they were both pretty sour. We ended up deciding to come back in a few weeks when there were more varieties for apples, but left with a jar of delicious apple butter.

Walking around the rest of the farm was a blast. I clicked away while Natalie petted the goats, explored the tractor, and blew "wishes"on dandelions. I made her pose for a couple pictures, which ended up costing me a dum-dum sucker. (Maybe not parenting at it's best...but man the pictures came out cute!)

The goat just nibbled her fingers.

She didn't mind too much.

She looks so small!

Kinda looks like she needs a bathroom, but look at that smile!

Make a wish!

No more Mommy! I want my sucker now.

Random toys in the kid's play area. First non-bribed smile since the goats. Go figure.

Total cost of our fun morning: $4.95 for the jar of delicious homemade apple butter (and one dum-dum sucker.)

Alphabet Scriptures-Day One

Ever since Natalie was crawling, I've been turning over ideas in my mind on ways to incorporate learning into our everyday activities. At the same time, Keith and I have talked about how important it is to us that Natalie learns about Jesus. After all, our biggest goal for her in Heaven, not Harvard.

So when I saw the idea of doing ABC Scriptures from a blog link on Pinterest, I was hooked. It was the perfect blend for us. I could expose Natalie to meaningful, simple Bible verses while also exposing her to ABCs and lots of preschool concepts. A perfect match for all the ideas floating around in my head and what I truly want for her heart.

The hardest part then, was choosing Bible verses that were simple, short, and meaningful for her little life at this point. Keith and I have no false ideas that Natalie will be reciting the verses back to us. (It would help if she could talk first!) But we do recognize that Natalie is like a little sponge right now and she learns and remembers nearly everything we teach her. Some letters were super easy. And I stole many of the verses from the amazing blog that I got the idea from in the first place. But some letters had us stumped. Like X. Once we had that figured out, Natalie and I spent the large part of a morning walking to the library and checking out a bunch of books for letters A, B, and C to get us started. Then I spent a couple evenings/naptimes looking up fun, simple, toddler appropriate activities to do together.  We now had a plan for 3 weeks for the first 3 letters.

Last night, while Natalie was cuddling with Daddy watching sports, I put up a make-shift bulletin board to display all our creations each week on her closet door in her room. I also posted this weeks verse and stuck up a couple of die-cast letter A's on the board to get it started. It still looks pretty bare and plain, but Natalie was excited. Before going to bed, I displayed our "A" books on the TV stand and put all the magnetic letter A's I could find on a cookie sheet for her to play with during breakfast. (Which she looked at, said "Yeah!!" and then didn't touch. =)

We started out simple today. We pointed out the letters on her board and then I asked her if she wanted to use her new art supplies. I had bought some bingo markers from the dollar store and she had found them this morning before we were ready, so I knew starting with an activity that used them would be really exciting for her. (Picture small clapping hands and running feet when I told her to go get them.) Our "A" verse is: "A gentle answer turns anger away." Proverbs 15:1

Here's what we did:

The first one we did was a capital A. At this point, she was a little overexcited about the bingo markers and just started going to town on the paper.

By lowercase A her intensity went down a notch and she actually put the dots inside the circles.

I know, I know. It's a pretty ground-breaking activity.

But she had a blast.

And I was surprised at how much learning was incorporated into such a simple craft. We read (and sang) our "A" verse, we pointed out letter "A's" in the verse, I had her ask for each bingo marker by color (she signs half of them and attempts to say the other half), and she learned to unscrew the caps by herself (a great fine motor task!)

Then we hung them up on her bulletin board and she smiled for pictures. She was so proud! Definitely a success for day one!

I came that they may have life...

And may have it abundantly. John 10:10b

That verse has crossed my mind a lot this summer.

This summer has been full.

Full of activities.
Full of travel.
Full of adventures.
Full of emotions.

Full of life!

And what a joyous, abundant life it has been.

Our Starr family reunion was a blast.  We spent the days chatting away with family, dipping our toes in the beautiful (but frigid) Lake Tahoe, and watching our popsicle stained lipped children giggle, run, and get dirty together.

Disneyland was enchanting- and not because of all the colorful sights, yummy smells, charming music, and general Mickey magic- although that was all wonderful, but because there is nothing better than watching wonderment in the eye's of a little child. The entire trip was beyond magical to her. She woke up every morning and popped up out of bed smiling and yelling "Mimi!"
And we were delighted to say "Yes, sweet girl, we get to go see Mickey today."And thus every day there began with excitement and ended in sweet exhaustion.

Since that big adventure, life just kept coming.

We recovered though another sickness. (The not-so-happily-ever-after ending to the end of our Disney trip.)

We got to see our new baby for the first time. (Cute side note- when I laid back and pulled up my shirt so the ultrasound could begin, Natalie, who was in Daddy's lap, laid back and pulled her shirt up too. So darned adorable.)

 I survived a single-mom week while Keith was in Ohio for work.

We went on an amazing trip to the beach with Keith's family where we packed biking, playing in the sand, a carousel ride, shopping, and swimming into a perfect weekend.

Natalie began sleeping (cough, for maybe the first 2 hours of the night) in her big girl bed.

We went to the drive in movie theater and Natalie saw her first movie on the big screen. She loved it! (Which coincidentally the baby liked too and shared his/her enthusiasm by kicking for the first time!)
We went berry picking (unsuccessfully as we hit it just between seasons.)
We splashed in the pool.
We saw friends from Canada.

And then began our 3 weddings in 3 weekends.

The first was for my longtime friend Jamie. It was beautiful and fun and perfect and lovely and everything I hoped for her. Natalie and I were both in the wedding and we were so honored to be part of such a special event. And Natalie only peed in her dress on the grass during rehearsal, not the real wedding. (Another story, another time...)

The second wedding was for Keith's cousin Marissa. The Callahan's (Keith's Dad's side) are a big family. And by big, I mean BIG. We got curious one night and started counting cousins. There are 14 first cousins. Many of which are married. And many of which now have children of their own. And this crew knows how to have a good time. So needless to say, it was a great weekend. (P.S.- This is just his Dad's side! I think when we counted cousins on both sides of his family we lost count around 21.)

The third wedding is for my cousin, Jessica. It's in Boise and we leave to drive there tomorrow. (I really should be packing...)

And then?

Well, hopefully, life will keep coming. (Hopefully a little slower?)

Because it's exhilarating.
Because it's what we were made for.
And mostly, because it's what He died for.


And this is just a glimmer of what He has in store for us? How could I not be excited for His return?!

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 

John 10:10b

Thanks God.