upgrade

thanks for your sweet comments, kim, about yesterday! you're awesome! i'm putting on my big girl pants and movin' on. (btw, rob thomas' "little wonders" is just about the perfect song for when you feel like i did yesterday.)

anyhoo, here's the promised better news:
kalei & i had tae kwon do testing last weekend! and we both passed! woohoo!!

here's kalei (in the orange belt) taking on a taller green belt. you go, honey girl!

and here she is with miss lowe, our favorite instructor, in her new green belt.

and here i am, rocking the yellow belt!

we get to go through it all again in two months! can't wait!

rage against the machine

okay, it's one of those days. already. and it's like, what, 9:30 in the morning? swell. i woke up with a pulled neck muscle (how the heck does that happen?!), the boys are in hyper/deaf mode, the house is a mess (seriously), and i just sliced my finger open with my sewing scissors (not like the time last week when i sliced my finger open with childrens' safety scissors - these scissors went a bit deeper). ugh!!!!! now, i know this is the point where i'm supposed to say that i will choose to be happy and laugh off all the junk that's got me down and trade up on my attitude.

not happening.

i'm tired. i'm tired of rain. i'm tired of disappointment. i'm tired of little guys getting screwed by businesses/corporations/medical professions because there's nothing they can do about it. i'm tired of the treadmill. i'm tired of feeling guilty for not loving vegetables. i'm tired of crappy drivers and slow mail and health care debate and debt/budgeting and self-control!

deep breath.

right now, i will just try to be grateful. i'm grateful that i still have enough self-awareness to stop myself from going to any store where i might purchase a bb gun, a giant chocolate cake, and/or hair dye. i'm grateful to be able to get up in the morning, even if it hurt today. i'm grateful for sticky little boy kisses. i'm grateful for baby wipes. i'm grateful for washing machines (for clothes and dishes). i'm grateful for a loving heavenly father, who lets me have days that pull me out of my bubble, and who never leaves me to suffer alone.

i promise i have better news to post about, but i just needed to get it out, you know? thanks for listening.

for sherri

here are two quilt tops that are waiting for batting, backing, and binding. (oooo, that rolls off the tongue!) i still can't decide what to do for the backings, so if you have an idea, please feel free to share! this top quilt will be a throw for the living room:

and this little one will be quilted in wavy/water-looking lines and will hang over our bed:

the only hold-up here is their backings, so please feel free to share your inspiration with me - i'll even show the finished items and credit you with your brilliance! put those thinking caps on! (i think mine's batteries are dead.)

kissing scam

with kawelo, we are really trying to enjoy each stage that he goes through, since he's our last bambino. right now, i love that he gives kisses so freely. in fact, when told to say "please," he gives kisses instead. (he can totally say "please" - he just apparently chooses not to - i don't pretend to understand the 2-year-old psyche.) i am shamelessly taking advantage of his please/kisses! when he asks for juice and gives his requisite please/kiss, i keep asking him for kisses as i fill his sippy cup and then as i hand it to him. i bet i get at least half a dozen kisses each time! (picture me here rubbing my hands together and laughing an evil laugh - mwah ha ha!!!!) i know that one day he will think kisses are gross and will avoid them at all costs, so, for now, i am scamming as many kisses as i can..... and loving it.

kalei's coat of arms

kalei made a coat of arms at school and i just had to share it. i love that she put an easter egg by her birthdate. i love that she included her goggles in the picture of her swimming. i love, love, love that james and i have our arms around each other in the drawing of our family, and that she drew kawelo chasing josie (so true!). we love our creative girl!

big excitement in a little town

guess who came to visit bowling green: vern yip! (insert shrill squeal here.) he came as the finale to the library's speaker series this summer featuring people who make a difference in their chosen field. vern (mr. yip?) came and spoke about working with "deserving design." (which, by the way, is no longer filming. if you would like to see it come back, feel free to write a letter to hgtv. they won't accept emails, just snail mail.) he was funny and pocket-sized and gave some good tips about design (use a color saturatedly throughout a small room to give it a larger feel), as well as gave some dire information (neon colors are back in, his favorite color is charcoal gray). it was a great evening and i'm really glad i could attend - it totally didn't hurt that anne and i got 2nd row seats, and no one sat in front of us! score!

auntie melo!

melo came to visit us this month!!!! the kids absolutely loved having her around. (koa still remembers auntie melo in his prayers - so precious!) one of the things we did with melo was visit mammoth cave. earlier in the year, all the state park caves were closed because of some killer bat disease, but now they're open again - yahoo! it was totally huge in there - and very dark, of course. we almost hit a crisis in the beginning of the tour when the tour guide announced that they had 132 species of animals that live in the cave. koa promptly started to disintegrate. i got down face-to-face with him and assured him that he would not see any animals at all and that they were far more afraid of him. he bought it! crisis averted. (luckily, we didn't actually see any animals. phew!) we did get to see the main areas of the cave, including an area where an entrance had caved in - reassuring! it was interesting to see inside and hear the history of the cave. the kids all did really well, but were kidsicles by the end. (it's very chilly in there - the guide said it was 54 degrees, but it felt more like somewhere in the 70s, upper 60s at the least.) thank you, melo for visiting us! come again soon!!!!!!!!