stars n stripes and baby talk

welcome home!!!

its so nice to have afshin safe and sound at home again. we took a trip up to the cabin to just chill. it was awesome. pictures coming soon...

and it was the first trip where I didnt have to pack diapers or sippy cups, or worry too much about avery running away into the forest alone.

just when I was reaching that point with Juniper, Avery was born. And now hes 2 1/2, And everythings so different. While some things are getting harder, so many things are getting easier. and way more fun. I cant wait to go camping this summer!!

no more playpens to sleep in at night, no more crying the whole way in the car, no more stops for diaper changes,
AND ..get this...we actually went out to breakfast! at a restaurant...and heres the catch... we got to sit down and actually eat our food!! it was lovely. And the kids sat and colored, and ate pancakes. and avery sipped his coffee.

everyone's always asking me if we are done having kids... and i just dont know. On most days I think "yes, we are done", on other days...i long for a baby in my arms again...

Next year avery will be in preschool, juniper will be in KINDERGARTEN, and for the first time in 5 years I will have a moment to myself again. i can feel a little hard lump rise in my throat when i think about all the change...

And i just am so thankful I get to spend these baby years with them at home... playing around, dancing and singing.. bath time... cuddling...

and shit...maybe I will get knocked up again in a few years. I know I will miss all that stuff, there's no doubt...but...ahhh...it was nice to sit down at that restaurant for a change...

Cool Cards...Spread the word. word.

Hello!
Here is a link to this years Holiday Greeting Cards!
Unique designs, High Quality Prints, envelopes included....1.99 each.

pammy

pammy was in town for a week , and it FLEW by !!!! =(
we drank coffee and hung out. it was the best. i had missed her SO much.
jeni, pammy, and I all went out for margaritas and nachos one night.

and before i knew it, i was saying goodbye at the airport. I miss you pammy!!!!

pumpkin patch

over the hills and through the woods to grandmothers house we go....

"missing grandpa...."

This picture was taken at my parents house. thats our driveway in 1984. good times.

I have this same exact picture of my bro, cousin, and I when we were kids.

everyone always behaves when kids are around. they make things happy. glorious. new again. and they bring out the best in everyone.

one of my favorites parts of the day was the delicious homemade pumpkin pie with coffee...
the kids ate pie too, and had hot apple cider. it was just wonderful.

Powersliding.

"i cant believe that. theres people that are crazy everywhere." says brandon
in reference to the accident brandon witnessed en route to get coffee...
this lady bolts across an intersection. (the one on Valley, where you can go left out of the safeway parking lot and the jack n the box parking lot. ptown people you know what im talkin about. its the worst "intersection" ever)
anyways...brandons driving along and sees this car crossing the intersection and slam into this other car just cruisin along down valley.
Brandon gets out of his car to look up and see its my dad that had gotten hit.
how weird is that? the 87 YEAR OLD LADY driving the car had a passenger (her daughter) who got out and was yelling at my dad,
"you were powersliding down the road! i saw you. thats what those lexus's do! you were powersliding right towards us! "
Brandon walks up and says, "he was just driving along".
dad "thank god i have a witness here. " turns to brandon "thank you sir"
ha haaa
brandon then told the story to the cop, left the scene to get coffee, where our lovely coffee man hooked him up, since he had been overseeing the whole ordeal from his coffee drivethrough.
thought id share this funny story.
people are so freaking weird. i swear.

and now the good stuff...

i order avery a decaf coffee now, since he always tries to drink my highly caffenaited one. the other day, after dropping junie off at school we went to coffee and he walked over to a different table and wanted to chill by himself and watch for motorycles and firetrucks im assuming. .

a tomato worm!!

fun with pa pa out on the farm!
they got hitched! woo hoo!


shannon's halloween town.


more fun with the tomato worm...averys obssesed with it.
meow
and fun a the antique festival downtown...

so ya...

um..

yesterday, 12 oclock. neighbor comes to my door. i have nothing to say. im staying out of this. brandon doesnt want me to say anything anyways cause he doesnt want me to blow up at this guy.

i keep my mouth shut and say "brandon will be home at 5"

5oclock. im out taking pictures...brandon arrives home to see neighbor waiting outside.
....brandon profusely apologizes for the second time. "we didnt realize the tree wasnt ours to cut down. we want to replace your tree"
he says he can get us for vandalism and trespassing. he says hes going to pick out a
tree and we are going to buy it.

SO, this morning...i leave to go take pictures...guess whos outside. the cops.
two cop cars. they dont say anything to me. i leave.

when i arrive back home, neighbor confronts me again. tells me he called the cops
I said , "we will replace your tree, but not for $3000. we just dont have the money." i wish he could please pick out a tree and ill plant some ivy and within a year it will look just as it did before. a big old ivy ball of a tree. fucking gorgeous. so much for relandscaping the front yard.
i guess hes going to have to take us to court.
I just got a quote from alden lane nursery that a 24 gallon 8-10 ft tall deodor cedar (which i think it is) is $300.
at this point, im just still hoping that tree is on our property .
and...if you could have seen the state of this so called "tree" you would just laugh.
its probably the only thing within a 5 mile raduis i hadnt taken a picture of.

black ave drama

gotta love suburbia. centrally located. check. close to great schools. check.

anal neighbors. check.

cars gettins stolen, paying for backyard fences, rude mailmen, creepy Shwaans men, annoying people trying to sell you Kirby vacuums and magazines, discusting tap water, cats almost getting hit by cars...

i must say...im not used to such things. i grew up in the middle of nowhere. well..at least thats what it seemed like for me. McDonalds was the closest thing to us. NOb hill was the closest grocery store. I remember how excited my parents were when the "rose pavilion" was going in. (where longs is). ha!! we had well water (still do) , no cable in the lines, no school bus service. etc etc.
ahh...but the peacefull emptiness was something i took for granted all those years. and its the reason my parents moved out there in the first place.

so. my point being. brandons been working on the yard. and he accidently cut down a tree that was on the property line. dude... let me first tell you...this was not really a tree. ok. our house was built in the 70's . its a big shrub thing thats been trimmed to resemble a tree over the years. AND might i add, been overgrown with MASS ammounts of IVY , filled with spiders and trash. you couldnt even see what kind of "tree" it was. (not exaggerating here i swear).
Anyways...regardless. brandon made a big mistake. he thought the tree was on our property . it sure as hell seemed like it was. without a thought, he ripped it out. lets face it, our yard looks like shit compared to everyone elses...
so..we thought eveyone would be stoked about us re-doing our yard.
alas...our neighbor is not.
he is not happy at all.
he wants his tree back. he wants his privacy back.
hes been bringing branches to nurseries and quoting the tree to cost an estimated $3000
he says he is "devastated & heartbroken" about the loss of the tree. (ya. for reals)
he says hes gonna take us to court.
FUCK
i mean...regardless of how ugly the tree was, it wasnt ours to cut down..and now...well..i just dont know whats gonna happen now.
We said we will replace it. Brandon said we will put in a huge beautiful thick maple tree.
but ... he wants "his tree back" well.. the shits cut down dude, what are we supposed to do now?
whatever. its just a goddamned tree. i mean..dont people have more important stuff to worry about?
next step .,.. get a land surveyer and figure out whos property ist actually on...and figure out what kind of godammned tree it is.
lets just keep our fingers crossed and hope its actually our tree.

ps. happy positive note.. i love suburbia..i do. i love that i can ride my bike to the grocery store and walk my kids to school. have cheap basic cable, and having people stop by on their way through town. but theres just some things that will take some getting used to

never thought id see the day...

35mm film is rotting away in my drawers...

baby bug

welcome home!!!

af's home! we have all missed you!
..and i just love these pictures he took...

"last view"

girls night out!

there's miss bonnie!! yay!!

random cuteness

he heee

i glanced over from the computer and there they were... watching the rain. it was a beautiful sight.

Averys' first day of "school"

oooh man...hes such a big guy. Junipers school has a new program for little ones. He was SO excited!! He got to play outside on the playground, play with playdough, he went on the toilet at school! They said he had a grea time. it was so weird to leave him there.

"oook oook gingerbed peeschool shirt"



a little nervous...
thats his buddy tate in the background.



and juniper was super excited to go out to a real restaurant! ha haa. its nearly impossible to sit down and eat with avery..so this was a big deal..
especially since daddy was home too! yay!! it was a fun morning.


brandon took me to show me "his" maple tree thats going in the front yard eventually. which by the way is really coming along. and the stove is gone!! yay!

baby things

bit by bit . piece by piece . i let the baby things go...
craigslist. ebay. pregnant friends..
todays garage sale at ba ba lorinda's house...

sigh.

itty bitty snake

he had that "are you sure she should be holding that snake" look in his eyes when i picked up a snake in the front yard and handed it to Juniper. It was a garter snake.
"they dont bite honey. well...it might bite her, but it wont even hurt . i grew up holding snakes."
The snakes jaws open wide! juniper flinches...i smile. brandon flinches.
"its not going to bite her honey"
My mom pulls up..."julie...yadda yadda yadda..something about snake bites"says brandon.
"Oh B! ,no they dont bite" my mom says.
We snicker about the boy who just held a frog for the first time this year, my mom and I.
Juniper held the snake for about 30 minutes. walking around, talking to it in her sweet little voice. "oooh..you cute little baby snake i love you...oooh...i love you baby baby snake" wrapping it around her wrist like a bracelet. "mommy. the snake loves me. it loves me because it knows i love animals and that im really gentle and caring"
And then it bit her! the little shit!! but she just said "its ok mommy, the snake is just afraid. they get 'ascared' of people sometimes".
I sigh, so happy knowing she's not afraid, or "ascared" (he he)
So...avery wakes up.
"ok avery be gentle. dont squeeze it"
Brandon glances over at us "its not a good idea".
avery takes the snake in his tiny hands very gently, and the snake wips around and graps hold of the web of skin between his little chubby fingers, "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" he screams bloody murder.
Brandon is looking at me with those eyes still...except now they are saying "see..they bite"
"oh honey, he's fine!!" as i frantically try to pry the snake from averys skin. It wont let go. Damn...
I get one jaw off, the other is stuck like a prickly leaf into his skin. but, it wont budge. screaming ensues. pulling up and away, I finally get the little bastard off him.
And the blood rises to the surface. little red beads in the shape of a tiny iron . one on each side of his hand. and then the blood starts to drip. and Juniper looks down at her hand and little beads of blood are rising too. (She hadnt noticed.how bad could it really hurt! i mean come on!)
I swear Brandon jinxed me. he suggested I go online and prove that they werent poisonous in any way.
"oh dont be silly!" i said, in a half you-are-crazy-but-now-i-feel-really-bad-and-i-better-check-to-make-sure sort of way.since im obviously not right about the biting thing.
so i checked. and they are not. DUH! ha ha...(insert small hidden stubborn sense of relief here)