hangers

I went on a walk yesterday morning, and was thinking about how so many people (even strangers!) refer to our move as me being back.  Is it wonderful being back?  Bet you love being back!  Welcome back!  The list goes on.  But really guys, it seems like the only part that is the same is the weather (and yes, I do like that).  The last time I lived in Tennessee, I had been married for 9 days.  Now we're in an entirely different part of the city, we've been married for 10 years, and we have 4 kids.  It's really not the same.  I didn't expect - or want - it to be, so that's no problem.

What is kind of strange to me is how much I feel like I've forgotten.  And that leads me to hangers.  I had a teacher in high school who referred to her brain as a closet of sorts.  Each memory was a hanger.  Something happens you want to keep - anything - hang it up.  Phone numbers, faces, multiplication table, laughter, moments, maps.  Everything gets a hanger.  Something you need to get over and move on from - take that hanger down.  Throw it away and hang up something else.  When she'd forget things, she would say "Uh oh, I'm running out of hangers!"

All this to say, I want to hang up the right things.  So when I come across a good recipe, I pin it.  When I hear a song I like, I email it to myself.  If I see a book I want to read, I write it down.  Does it really matter that I have to take a list with me to the grocery these days?  Really doesn't matter.

I'd rather have hangers and hangers full of this - my favorite five.

giddyup

We took S&P to a rodeo last week.  Not a super big one like we had at Nat'l Western, but it was just the right size for their short attention spans.  It was fun to watch them watch the action.  They cycled through interest, delight, shock, sympathy for each rider.  Started out hot and cooled off nicely.  Oh, and evening low light + action + allison = blurry pics.  Sorry!  Guess I should figure out how to do that.

get my cape on

We had a sweet 4th of July.  Burgers on the grill, all that.  Dustin has become a master burger-mixer, I think.  One of my favorite parts was using paper products and not having to do dishes.  Seth helped make a strawberry pie.  It tastes just like the ones at Gray's in Indiana, so I'm told - I always ate apple pie there, so I don't really know.  But it was yummy.  Adam thinks that his apron is a cape, and he thinks it is only for cooking.
"Adam, do you want to help make _____?"
<scampers to kitchen> "Yes!  Get my cape on!"

Dustin rigged up a child-pulling system for the little waffle block toy and big surprise, S&P put Adam right to work for them.  Noah liked the corn - and a hamburger, watermelon, potato chips, & strawberries from the pie.  Dustin probably also gave him whipped cream while I wasn't watching.  This boy is a serious eater.  He still kicks his feet when he's happy (he has done that since infancy), and it's sweet to watch him grab a piece of watermelon from his tray, kick, kick, kick.  Steel cut oats for breakfast?  Kick, kick, kick.  He also bonded with a grapefruit during an impromptu game of grapefruit bowling in the kitchen (my mom was unimpressed).  Wild blackberries are growing one neighborhood over from my parents and I turned some into beautiful blackberry-raspberry-peach jam.  The ratio of blackberry to raspberry was 4 to 1, but it is this amazing purple-red.  Yes, I still rhapsodize over jam tints each year.  There are gobs more blackberries to pick (probably for another few weeks, unless all the neighbors realize it!) and we're planning to pick blueberries this weekend.  You know me, always happy in a berry patch!

my first ride

 Pretty darn fun.  And thankfully, Noah is the only one who will fit.