Walking with Trinity

Ok, I know I said vacation photos were coming, and they are. I first had to share this last weekend and the time we had with Trinity. We spent Friday running errands with him tagging along with us and we had a blast grocery shopping, messing around the house, and fun stuff like that. Before we took him home we wanted to take him to an apple festival that was going on in town over the weekend. Well, the fun stuff ended just before we got there and the evening military music had started. (Not quite what we had in mind) At first we were really bummed, but leave it to an eleven year old to create his own fun and of course we had to join in.

Trinity and the apple on a string.

You can do it!!!

It's harder than it looks. :)

It's hard to believe that we have been spending time with Trinity for two years. He has really created a spot for himself in our hearts.

Naomi

Home Again

We are home from our lovely, lovely vacation, while it's nice to be in our own place again, it's sad that our trip has come to an end. I keep telling myself that Monday it's back to life as usual. It makes me happy and a little bummed too. I will post pictures later. We have to sort through them a bit.



I went through our newspapers today and found this one tucked in the bunch. We were a little shocked and had a good chuckle.

Naomi

JUST A QUICK REMINDER

A Great Deal!

Wednesday on my way home from work I stopped by Target to pick up some dog food that was on sale. I love sales and love them even more when they are on something that we need to buy. I also had a coupon to go with this really great deal.

I honestly was looking forward to the time shopping and have a chance to refocus on my own life. I had just spent the day with two kidos who were projecting the stress of their families move by fighting. It had been a day of shoving, hitting, toy grabbing, and book stealing. Did you know that there are two ways to move to Africa? I didn’t. Did you know that both ways need the same dump truck to move? I do now.

Anyway, I needed to unwind. I walked into the store grabbing a cart while relishing the air conditioner, spent a little time browsing the sales rack, (found a cute pink top that looked good) and headed to the dog food. I found it right away, because of the great sale it had been moved to the main aisle of the store. I smiled at the store stocker working an aisle away from me and grabbed the 40 lb bag of food.

R-r-r—i-p is what I heard as all of the small, crunchy bites my dogs love started pooling around my feet and I was holding an empty bag. 40 pounds is a lot of anything and it most certainly is lot of dog food. It was up over my ankles and spread out all around me. The store clerk just stared, people were poking their heads out of aisles to see what the noise was, some sweet lady walked by telling me how sorry she was, a man told me I needed a pack of dogs, and I had too decide whether I was going to be embarrassed or look at it as funny. The latter won. The difficult part was trying to extract myself and my cart from all the food while a cleanup crew was called. I did have a moments hesitation when I went to grab another bag for my cart, because a repeat performance would have been embarrassing.

Naomi

Birthday Hike

Yesterday to celebrate Terran's birthday we hiked one of our favorite trails here in the valley. Crag Crest runs about 10 1/2 miles, long enough to challenge, but not completely exhaust. It was a great way to escape the heat, enjoy each others company, and celebrate God's creation.



Starting out.

A bit of beauty on the way.

This is one of our favorite spots. The trail opens up to a boulder field with a small grassy meadow, filled with wild flowers, and a flowing creek. It's lovely.

Local wild life, a Marmot.

The trail follows along the top of the crest a far you can see. It drops down the other side just over the peak covered with trees.

Happy Birthday most wonderful husband.

Some more wild life.

View from the crest, this is one reason we try to hike this each year.

Made it at last. See you later.

Ski Hill

Terran playing around during our hike this weekend. It was a

beautiful day and lots of fun. :)

What I Learned in Sunday School Today

"Power Ranger's don't laugh!!!"

Lucky Number Seven

Seven things I love about you on our seventh
anniversary.






1. Your sense of humor


2. Your sexy good looks



3. Interest in events around the world









4. How you love me


5. Your steady faith in God

6. The appreciation you show for my cooking, because I love cooking for you

7. Your diverse hobbies

My true love hath my heart, and I have his.

sir john philip sidney

I love you Terran,

Me

Computer Woes

I am going to have to make this quick, because I never know when our lovely computer is going to shut itself down. I just wanted everyone to know that I will be back as soon as T. gets the parts and fixes the Beast. Hopefully the Beast will then turn into a Prince Charming and work like it should.

I'm looking forward to catching up on my blog reading as well as writing.

Smiles,

N.

Green the New Vanilla

Noticed how a couple years ago or was it last year everything seemed to have vanilla as an added flavor? Vanilla Crunch Cereal, Vanilla Mints (I never understood those), Vanilla Milk and the list goes on. T. & I are always on the look out for the next "Vanilla", curious aboout what the next fad will be (before vanilla it was green tea and right now we think chocolate is it) and if it will taste good.
I have always loved the color blue. It’s been my favorite for as long as I can remember. Lately I’ve been going for green. I wouldn’t call it my favorite, but it’s becoming a close runner up. I have two green jackets, green sunglasses, several green shirts, green earrings, and a pair of green shoes. Anyway, you get the picture of the not quite my favorite color in my life.
While eating dinner the other night I opened an edtion of Bon Appetit Magazine looking for a cupcake recipe and there in bold letters it advertised being the Green Issue. Yep, the Green Issue and they aren’t talking about the food. As I stared at the word Green in bold letters I had a memory flash of all the Biggest Loser contestants wearing green shirts for "Green Week" on NBC, and what about the aricle I read several monthes ago in Runner’s World about the marathoner who reuses his nipple bandaids and carries his own water bottle to stay "green"; I can’t forget about the table at Barnes and Noble selling only "green books". What if green isn’t really kinda, sorta my new favorite color and it’s all a passing fad that I’ve fallen for?


Feeling green around the gills,

Naomi

First Drive!!

Hi all, the "other half" here. If you remember, back in Nov. I bought a little Austin Healey Sprite. Well for the past few months I have been slowly getting her roadworthy.

This involved replacing all brake components front to back, as well as some rust removal and general "sprucing up" for a car that has sat for 5 years. The motor is in great shape though and runs well too. This past Saturday all new parts were in and Aaron, a friend from work, came over and we bled the brakes and clutch. Then, the moment of truth..................

Success!! After the first little run to warm up, it ran and drove great. Now for license and insurance.

T

This is only a test. Do not adjust your television set.

Kaia loves balloons.

What I've Been Reading

I have been reading the greatest books of late. I love it when I hit a stretch of books that I look back on and can’t find a bad one among them ; I find only good stories that I was sad to leave. I have been wanting to write a blog about the books I’ve read for a long time and realized that it would be wrong of me to put it off any longer and not share these stories with you. I can be such a procrastinator at times; it drives me nuts. Anyway here are the books. Enjoy.

Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris
Yes, this is yet another book about the world that Jane Austen created in Pride and Prejudice, one I have to say does a wonderful job following the tone that Austen set in her original story. Pride and Prescience starts at the newly married Darcy’s wedding party and follows them through the first weeks of their marriage as they become involved in a mystery concerning Mr. Bingley’s sister Caroline. I would put this book in the Victorian Cozy Mystery reads, a genre that I find light and fun, even when dealing with some of the supernatural as this one did. I enjoyed this book so much that I went to the library to find book two, Suspense and Sensibility, and enjoyed it as well, though it delved a little more heavily with spiritualism than the first, changing the tone slightly. Still it was a fun read, that I enjoyed.

The Thief Taker by Janet Gleeson
Agnes Meadows a cook for a family of Silversmiths is asked by her employer to help solve a burglary that has taken place, leading her into criminal underworld of 18th century England. I could not put this book down. It felt like I was back in Old England myself with the descriptions of the area and the people. At times I could smell the food that Agnes was cooking or the open sewers of the city. I felt that Gleeson really stayed true to how the people would have behaved, especially the servants towards the employers. My only warning about The Thief Taker is that it can be a bit grisly when a murdered body or two show up. It didn’t bother me, but if one is very sensitive be warned. I can’t wait to read some of Janet Gleeson’s other stories.

A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin
Lynn Austin is one of my favorite authors; I have immensely enjoyed all six of her books that I have read. She brings both other times and places alive in her stories while creating wonderful characters that are real in their life and walk with the Lord. I have purposely not read all of her books so that they are there when I’m at a loss of what to read and just want a good book. Silly I know, but fall backs are very important in the literary world. When I first started A Proper Pursuit I was slightly taken aback, because it dealt with a young woman out of finishing school in the 1800’s; like so many other books both Christian and non-Christian that are in the market right now. I almost didn’t read it; what a loss that would have been on my part. Instead of finding a silly book about etiquette fiascos I found a really sweet, charming story about a young woman in search of a mother that she barely remembers. While searching for her mother in Chicago during the Worlds Fair in 1893 with her Grandmother and Great-Aunts in tow Violet Hayes finds more than she bargains for (with one or two fiascos) in suitors and the reality of life. I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story with it’s delightful ending.

The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff
Emma Bau becomes a spy for the resistance during World War 2 masquerading as a gentile secretary to a high ranking Nazi official. Written in first person this story does not go into a lot of historical detail, but more into the moral decisions and stresses that Emma has to make to help her people against the devastation of the Nazi’s. Her job places her marriage vows and the people that she loves on the line. While I didn’t agree with all the choices that Emma made in her life, I found the story to be interesting, bringing to light situations that I hadn’t thought about concerning World War 2. I don’t think that Pam Jenoff created a really strong, memorable character in Emma, at times I felt that she really didn’t grasp the seriousness of the war and what was going on around her, but then does one really understand what they are in the middle of each day, while trying to survive. Maybe in writing about a character that felt lost, confused, and a bit selfish Pam Jenoff created a real person. For me personally I wouldn’t call this a great book in writing style or characters,but an interesting read all the same.
There are other books that I would like to write about, but I have been catching up on email and other computer stuff all day and am going a little cross eyed. I will have to write more later and share a little about our daily lives too.

Happy Reading,

Naomi

Terran's New Career

Terran and I have been talking about him pursuing a different line of work. You know how it is when you have those "what if" conversations. While in Ireland Terran found, quite by accident, his new career. Here for your eyes only is a little peek into what the future holds for us.




Aah, very natural





GQ Pose




Wow, really working it now




Let me introduce you to America's Next Top Model, or is it Canada's?






On second thought, maybe he'll stay in aviation,

Naomi

PS My Husband can be such a clown and I love it.

Superbowl Snow

Terran and I had a delightfully lazy Superbowl Sunday last week. Our favorite aspect of the day was the food and this year featured an Ale we had in Ireland and Mackeral in tomato sauce that Tamara introduced me to over there.

We ended the day by taking a walk and playing outside with the dogs in the snow. We got about four inches that evening. I love it when the flakes are big and fat. It felt like an adventure being out in the dark with the snow falling hard and fast.

After such a great snow fall Sunday I had to get out Monday and do a little crosscountry skiing. It was way too beautiful of a day not to.

The Turds catching their breath.

Enjoying the day to the fullest. It couldn't have gotten much better, other than not having bruised my tush ,when I fell going down a hill.

Hoping for a quick recovery,

Naomi

THE LAND OF THE IRISH

We had a wonderful time with Mark & Tamara, Wes and our friend Greg in Ireland. The place is beautiful, with a surprise around every corner. I feel as though we barely scratched the surface of what there is to see.

Naomi

I DREAM OF IRELAND

I have been dreaming of Ireland these last few night. Beautiful visions of the Emerald Isle fill my head or getting lost in the fog as I look for my hubby causes my heart to pound and then I awake to realise that I am in my own bed and that our Ireland adventure has not begun yet.
Hurray for today, because in about an hour we will be riding in a car with family and friends over the mountains for Denver and then boarding a plane tomorrow that will carry us to my beautiful dream of the Emerald Isle. I refuse to believe that I am going to lose Terran in the fog.

Back in 10 days,
Naomi