So, the snowman died

Had a good time

So, now that we grouped together again, I really see how much we got to know each other over the years. Good people. Good times. We'll have to keep eatin' and playin' for some more good years.

Our first snowman of the season...

...complete with a carrot nose and raisin eyes and buttons.

our backyard

I feel good

I just got out of the shower (still steaming),
the kids are watching their second Barbie movie,
I ate Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast,
I read two chapters of "Sex God" - Rob Bell (learned: you don't love somebody because they're beautiful, you make somebody beautiful by loving them),
I contemplated a dream I had (something about me being one of the last survivors of a war and being chased down by the enemy army),
and David will be arriving any minute from the Amtrak.
Not a bad morning.

My weekend in Chicago

Union station

Sunset cruise on a tall ship at navy pier

Lots of subway

David's workplace!

A progression of a painting I started yesterday

Mozart and the Whale

Watched this movie last night and laughed so hard at one point that I cried! They say laughing and crying are good for you, so why not do both at the same time? A whale with a shirt that says "beneath this t-shirt lies a real woman..." How could I not?

Official Notice

I have it from good authority (a friend who attended a writer's conference) that there is a new, profoundly impacting change in the grammatical order of things. Are you ready? Here it is:

YOU MAY NOW END SENTENCES WITH PREPOSITIONS!

You can let out that breath you were holding. Wow, I'm just amazed. Who am I going to tell this TO? Whoever I'm talking WITH! In fact, with news this big, I think I'll parade around town here where I'm FROM. No one will have to ask what my business is ABOUT. That's for sure.

Hi Chicago

Here's cheers to Chicago!
Happy housewarming, Mark. Had a great time.

ADORABLE!

...there's nothing more to say.

Good thing that happened today:

My birthday! (and all the love I got in it)

Not a dish I'd like to try:

Duck with Chinese Caterpillar Fungus

the "other" me

So, I randomly discovered this today:

Another Johanna Weststrate (my maiden name) existed exactly 200 years before me.

Her: born 1779, married 1799, had 2 daughters, 2 years apart.

Me: born 1979, married 1999, have 2 daughters, 2 years apart.

Freeeeeaky.

Now, of course, there are a couple of inconsistencies:

Her: born in Krabbendijkein de Reijgersbergsepolder (try to say that 5 times fast...or even 1 time at all).

Me: NOT born in Krabbendijkein de Reijgersbergsepolder.

Her: Dead at 48.

Me: Not dead yet. I'll keep you posted on this one.

Laundry:

My life.

I saw a deer.

I stopped. There she was, the same color as the trees, that pearl gray with brown edges, tall and lean, just like the trees. But then I saw her eyes. Black, wet circles poked from her gray tree form, and she looked at me. Perfectly still, she saw me. I don't know how long she had watched me walk down the trail, how long she had stood there measuring me, determining the level of my threat, before I noticed her. But there she was staring with those black eyes and pointed-up ears.

I stopped as soon as our eyes met, and we looked at each other, listened to the leaves and the birds and the lack of footsteps. I wanted to reach out and touch her, to feel her coat. Was it as soft as it appeared? I wondered what she wondered. I wanted to be close. I wanted to know. Then she turned, and, with a flick of her white fluff tail, jumped away into the rest of the gray trees, and I listened to the sound of her bounce on the leaves, pause, bounce on the leaves, pause again, and then her final retreat, the white plume of her tail pulsing one last time through the branches before she was gone.

I have a new niece!

Welcome to the world, little Eleanor Jane Weststrate! Just got the official call from Joel that she has arrived!

No need for a garden hoe today

Today, I laboriously worked to get my garden ready for planting... I took a deep breath, leveled my eyes, and said, "Thanks, Sam."

Good thing that happened today:

I went on a treasure hunt with my retired 2nd grade teacher and twelve 6 year-olds.

Good thing that happened today:

My girls cleaned up the whole house (with a little bribing of chocolate chips for each step of the way).

My girls take life a little slow...and I often try to push them faster.

But...
"Everything that slows us down and forces patience," wrote May Sarton, "everything that sets us back into the slow cycles of nature, is a help."