.

HE LIFTED ME OUT OF THE SLIMY PIT, OUT OF THE MUD AND MIRE; HE SET MY FEET UPON A ROCK AND GAVE ME A FIRM PLACE TO STAND. -PSALM 40:2


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

"Reading"

Julianna has become increasingly interested in the process of reading. She's always loved for me to read books to her. Jules loves asking questions, many quite thought-provoking. Her favorite reading skill to date is making connections from the story to life-experiences. It is so fascinating to watch her little mind whirl.

Above she is "reading" an impromptu story. I only caught the second half. She is using the pen to point to each "word" as she "reads." : ) The sound quality on my digital camera is really poor. The jist of the story is...about a little girl who goes to a picnic and brings too much food. Jules lists the real and make-believe foods she brings (including "Coke, Fire Stew, and fruit). At the very end she adds, "dot.com" for an unknown reason. : )

A Simple Explanation

Sorry. There are no subtitles. : )

Jackie, I feel the "Whirling Dervish" is only days away...

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Fall Festival (aka, how we made daddy sick riding a zillion kiddie rides just after he ate chips and salsa)

This was my favorite! (oh, and Julianna's, too :)


Away we go!


Ava's fav, too.



Joyful!


Spinning! Lots of spinning!



Festival Love
We had an AWESOME time at the (mini) Fall Festival last night. It was just around the corner from the house, had a few rides, a few inflatables, a few snacks, a few carnival games, and a wholelotta fun. : ) Since the girls are still young, it is really nice to have some mini fun. Just a perfect Saturday night. : )

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Dress Rehearsal

THANKS FOR THE BELLE COSTUME MORMOR & PAPA!

Dress Rehearsal

THANKS FOR THE AWESOME TINKERBELL COSTUME MORMOR & PAPA!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Pumpkin Pickin'









Pumpkin Patch 2008!

Little Turtle




These pics were taken today. Chad found a little turtle on the trail when he was running and brought it back for the girls to see. They were very taken with every aspect of this little turtle. : )

Little Miss Personality

She reminds me of Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30 doing "the thriller." : )

Glam-

-or-

-ous

Painting on a Lazy Afternoon



Sharing the easel


Watercolors

Ava painted lots of "pots" (spots), "tars" (stars), and "moooon" (moon).



Sweet Ava

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Fall Days


My Jules




My Ava on a big swing! She loves it and swings like this for ten, fifteen or more minutes at a time.


Best Buds


Walking on the trail to feed the fish.


A Hansel & Gretel moment.




"Ooo. Ish. Eat it. Num-num ish."




75 degrees baby!


"Sitting" on the dock of the pond, "wastin' time."


Friday, October 3, 2008

Little Red Boots







Ava loves her latest consignment store purchase!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Lucy and Ethel in the ATL

Girls Weekend!


Art imitating life? Or...



Life imitating art?...





The High Museum where we saw the "History Remixed" exhibit, which is a compilation of photography documenting the Civil Rights Movement.



Me and Monique



Botanical Gardens with city view






Isn't this just a lovely plant?



She's always been one of those deep thinker types : )



There was this really cool art piece right in the middle of the gardens. It was made of what appeared to be a marble table-top with large ceramic balls rolling about the top. The fencing around the perimeter was made from some type of elastic material and caused the balls to bounce off the sides. The cool part was this...when the balls stopped moving viewers were asked to clap loudly in order to start the balls moving again. So we stood for a moment and contemplated just how this whole thing worked. Very interesting. : )



My girls would have died over these turtles. So cute!



The Anthropologie window display...pretty cool, huh?

Pottery Barn, in person, ahhhh.

I probably spent at least two hours walking and retracing my footsteps in Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn. It was a living magazine for me. Loved it!

I didn't have to work very hard to envision this dining table back at my place. Unfortunately, it was too hard to block out the vision of a giant hole in my checking account. Alas... : )

Back in 2000 I worked with a woman, BG, whose husband had been in the Marines for twenty-eight years. Chad and I had only been married a year and we were living in D.C. while he went to The Basic School. BG was a wealth of knowledge and taught me a lot about the Marine Corps through a wife's eyes. She told me I would meet some great friends along the way, but I would meet one friend who would be a friend for life. A Lucy and Ethel type. Someone who was a kindred spirit.

Monique and I met at a Marine Corps party because our husbands worked together. There were many things that struck me about Monique: she was fabulously witty, confident and yet humble, could hold her own with the guy talk (and there's a lot of that in the Marine Corps), super smart, polite yet throws in some shock and awe for good measure, and well, just all together terrific. I liked her instantly. The four of us became good friends over the next years.

Today, both of our husbands are out of the Marine Corps and we live hundreds of miles from each other. We try to write and talk as often as we can. Recently we were able to spend a weekend together in Atlanta where we took in some culture, some botanical gardens, some terrific Greek tappas, a lovely glass of white wine, politics talk, theology talk, "Christmas morning breakfast", and window shopping. Oh. It did the soul good. : )