posing

home

playing with food

safety.

So I'm getting lots of messages that you people don't like snakes. Sheesh! At least I know someone's watching. Now it will be easier to behave myself. Well, how about dogs and flowers. Stick with what's safe. Well okay. And that whole plan to post a new photo every day of August, it is not happening. What is? Lots of nothing accompanied by quite a case of nausea. I'm sure someday I will look back on this time and have a good laugh. Anne, like many a good Vizsla I've known, has become my constant companion because she knows I don't feel so hot. See her up there in the sun? Isn't she just cute. Her face is getting so white, she's like a ghost dog. During Gus and Mom Camp week (aka Brownie Day Camp week) when we took her to the coast, Gus kept saying, "She's smiling Mom!" Of course. We all were. She also tries to sit very near me while I do yoga. It doesn't work so good. I keep pushing her out of the way, but she continues to snuggle. Today, Gus was reading Encyclopedia Brown on the purple cloud chair, and Anne basically sat on top of him. He told her to move, moved positions and then she proceeded to sit on top of him again. He said, "Don't take a picture of me, Mom." So, I didn't. Don't you wish I had?

Home again...

We are home from an unsuccessful rental house hunt in Portland. We are going to just tweak the present situation so it works better. This will mean lots more driving for my sweet husband. I hope it works better, anyhow. Gus and Eleanor are lego-ing, Lucy is reading Fox in Socks (this one is so tongue twisty, Mom!) I am cleaning, Dog is chilling, and the weather is ever so much cooler.
Two years ago right now....


I would really like a pasty like this right now.

Happy August

I'm not gonna promise, but I'd like to do at least a photo a day for all of August. I also wanted to tell you that that snake on Gus' wrist is totally real. It's called a rubber boa, and it lives under the tarp on our pile of soil. It will hang out on a wrist for a while, then it gets sort of sick of it and will slither away. Fun, huh? We like to learn lots of tricks with our forest friends.
It has been kinda hot here, I know we all keep talking about it. It's just that temperatures of 100 degrees make us all a little more nutty out here in the pacific NW than we are usually, which means we're a bunch of fried granolas. That sounds like a very very bad thing, doesn't it? I actually got a sunburn on my legs for the first time since the Madison Public Pool, I think. We were escaping the heat in our friend Meg's pond. It was total bliss!
Gus had a great time in this boat after everyone else jumped out. He rowed all around the pond. That boy sure has a nautical streak.
I also wanted to add that I've been having a lot of fun with my new toy, a Canon T1i, a gift extraordinare from my sweetie. We used to have a lot of fun doing photos together, and now we are again. Just ONE good picture is a lot easier to come by when you can take so many and not have to think about all that film you're wasting. That's about all from the woodsy woods.
Oh, except that:
The Cirque de Doggett will be adding a new act to the show come March 2010. That's right, a new Baby Doggett. How's about that for a summer surprise!

Back to the woods

we are back in philomath
having sister time on the purple cloud

hanging out in meg's pond

getting sunburnt

learning how to dive

missing cousins

summer happynings

drinking cold beverages and knitting with yarns like 'fruit smoothie'

relishing amazing colors provided by mama nature

becoming the villian in a ballet production

becoming a princess in a ballet

dancing with a bunch of other swan princesses

I hope if you're reading this, your summer is going well, and you are having new adventures, lots of sun, and good times. We certainly are!

Come summer....

There will be joy!

And there will be creek rambles!

And trips to the coast!

And there will be berries!

Some Brother!

I am just going to brag a bit about my brother, Pete. He was recently awarded a Fullbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Award. I have been braggin to anyone who will listen about Pete for a while, but never in the blogosphere, I don't think. His blog, The Artclectic Academic has lots of details about what he's been doing in Uganda. I usually tell people that he's becoming a 'doctor of drums.' His research is so interesting to me, and getting this award means a lot to him, to FSU, where he goes to school and to his department, Ethnomusicology. It seems to be another message from the universe that if you do what you love, and love what you do, the money will find you! Now if there was only some way to zip up the land between here and Florida so I could plant a wet sloppy one on you, Pete, and then some way to zip up the land between there and Uganda so you and Jenn wouldn't have to be so far away for the time you are there. Way to go, little bro, soon to be Dr. Pete.

Mother Warrior

It is late, and I have just read a book from cover to cover for the first time in a while. What book could be keeping me up this late? What book is worth sacrificing sanity and sleep? MOTHER WARRIORS by Jenny McCarthy.

I don't really know who Jenny McCarthy is, being a TVphobe, aside from the fact that she's a comedienne, who also happens to be 'with' a comedian named Jim Carrey. What a home it must be. I also recognized her name because a couple years ago, while picking up another copy of The Baby Book by the Searses I saw her book Belly Laughs which was mostly humor about how round she got when she was pregnant and how sick she felt a lot of the time. Not my cup of tea.

Jenny is now speaking out LOUDLY about the connection between vaccinations and autism. This whole book is about it. It has stories of other mothers and fathers who have helped bring their children back from the abyss of autism with diet and supplements, and other therapies such as chelation and treating candida. OH MY GOODNESS THE WORLD NEEDS THIS BOOK.

I did not vaccinate my children (except Gus and El did have one round of DT before we went to Mexico, to which Gus reacted. Thank goodnes we had homeopathic DT! He stopped reacting after 1 dose.). I do not know the pain and suffering of the parents who did and saw their children slip away as a direct result. I hope they will read this book and find their way to Defeat Autism Now! or DAN! and Jenny's organization, Genration Rescue.

Thank you Jenny McCarthy! You are a true Mother Warrior.

a couple more...

Goodbye May

And now we must bid adieu to the lusty month of May. It is so lusty around here, with flowers going crazy: lilacs, irises like mad, rhododendrons, lupines starting, columbines colliding and hummingbirds and butterflies zipping and fluttering through it all. The squirrels and chipmunks seem to be holding their own in the world of exploding nature around here, and a few mice have found their way in--I have been brutal, as one must if one wants not to lose one's home to rodentia. It seems like there is no better place to be at this time of the year, although we have been spending some time up in John's Landing, which is in Southwest Portland, in a sweet Victorian with real gingerbread. Here's some photos of our woodsy wonderland:

more photos:

Busy busy in the garden and green house, and celebrating Kodomo no Hi with our Japanese Class. Happy Spring Everyone!

Daddy has a new toy.

s

Can you guess what it is? He shared it with me this week... but some of these are his.

Some Kids!

As I mentioned in the 'yomimono' section (which means 'things to read' in Japanese), we are reading Charlotte's web again. Taking a little idea from E.B. White's masterpiece (yes, I do think it is a masterpiece), I made up a little spiderweb sign that said, "Some Kids" in it and hung it in the corner of our front window the other day. And truly, rather than having days where I just tear my hair out wondering how I will last until bedtime, we have been having some rocking awesome times. I read a daily inspirational thing called Enjoy Parenting by a guy named Scott Noelle, and he is all about having Some Kids, no matter what you or your kids are like. They're so funny though, they say, "Mom, did YOU write that?" I just feign ignorance. They fall for it. Some Kids.
These photos are from the walk up to Multnomah Falls. It was a little long because a little Lucy did NOT really want to make it the whole way, but she did. Then, she got really mad at me for MAKING her go, because I KNEW it was going to be muddy and that she would fall down in her Dorothy Dress. Hmmmm. Some Mom.

kid thoughts

me: whatcha doin gus?
gus: getting ready?
me: (to go outside?) oh, what kind of guy are you?
gus: Oh, i just like to dress up. I like to wear airy clothes that puff out when I swing, not hot sweaty heavy stuff. And, CAPES!


me thinking: oh i'm so glad he's not done with that part of his life yet.

here's a photo of gus and his buddy. i think they're indiana jonesing: