trees

i love the fall. i really do wish it was our longest season, but i feel like it is our shortest. we bought a couple of trees a few weeks ago, and they are the brightest red i've seen. despite the last few days of strong winds, they have still retained their leaves. it's been great looking out the backdoor, through the rain and wind and greyness of the past few days, and seeing such a vibrant color.

pancakes

lately, whenever i'm in the kitchen, fixing ANYTHING, owen is right there next to me. he pulls up a chair from the dining room and climbs up to help. either he's washing dishes, well he's really pouring water all over the floor, or he is right there in the mix of all the cooking. a few nights ago was pancake night, and he poured, mixed, flipped, and served mostly all by himself... with a little help after he burnt his knuckle slightly.

please touch museum

last sunday we were invited to the friends and family opening of the new please touch museum, along with carl and kim and their kids. we had a great time watching owen run all over the place. there were so many cool things for him to do. the museum is great and we definitely want to go back.

not enough

so i'm not one to go all philosophical on you, or debate the upcoming election... you can just look at the back of our cars to see where we stand on that issue... but i have noticed, unfortunately, that i am a want'er and a wisher. i want "things", and i wish i could be better at "that". God has given me/us so much and it is very hard for me to stop and appreciate it all. i can see that i am passing this down to owen. every morning he comes into our room and i ask him "what do you want to do today, owen?" and he replies one of two ways, either, 1. "go to disney world" or 2. "go shopping, new dump truck". everyday. the same question with the same response. did i mention that we have 5 dump truck of various sizes, including the biggest one that you can find. anyway.... today i was "browsing", meaning looking on the internet for things to buy that i need, i mean want.... and i came across a deal on a backpack, and i want it. we have 5 perfectly good ones in the basement waiting for use. then i came across this article on Patagonia's website. here is the end of that article. i think it sums up my life perfectly and i'm ready for a change.

Many of us in the United States live in what is thought to be abundance, with plenty all around us, but it is only an illusion, not the real thing. The economy we live in is marked by “not enough.” We once asked the owner of a successful business if he had enough money and he replied, “Don’t you understand? There is never enough.” We don't have enough money, and we also don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough energy, solitude or peace. We are the world’s richest country, yet our quality of life ranks 14th in the world. As Eric Hoffer, a mid-20th century philosopher, put it, “You can never get enough of what you don’t really need to make you happy." And while we work harder and harder to get more of what we don’t need, we lay waste to the natural world. Dr. Peter Senge, author and MIT lecturer, says, “We are sleepwalking into disaster, going faster and faster to get to where no one wants to be.” We might call this economy, the one we live in, the economy of scarcity.

team dinner

i was looking back at older photos and totally forgot that i took these. a few weeks ago i took owen with me to practice and we ended up heading over to the girls team dinner. the girls were making tshirts and had one for owen. if you cant tell... he enjoyed himself immensely.

so lame

yo... so i would blog more... but you can yell at nikon for holding onto my camera for over 4 weeks now getting fixed... ugh, so frustrating!