Well, I did it. I've been putting it off, but I finally changed my sidebar. Sophie is gone. Nils has flown home. Howard is gone. Sigh.

Howard - Little Piggie, Big Attitude.

I am very sad to announce the passing of a valued member of our household, Howard the Guinea Pig. On Wednesday I suspected that his body was starting to shut down, and I did the best I could to make him comfortable. True to his piggie name, he still ate all the veggies I offered him. When I found him, he appeared to have just gone to sleep and never woken back up. I am so glad that he was a part of my life, even if I had never planned to have a Guniea Pig. I have always been more of a dog and cat person, but Howie was so unique, and had such a big attitude for such a little thing! He lived to be six, which is OLD in piggie years

Chowing down on a carrot, his favorite treat.

He had many homes, starting with the nature center in the camp I worked at in college, then lived with my mom for several years, with intermittent stops at babysitter Dee's house. He had them both trained by squealing loudly any time either of them opened the fridge door in order to get a treat, but oddly enough knew not to do it with the husbands - or me, for that matter. I guess he knew we weren't softies!!

When Mike and I moved into our first house two years ago, he came to live with us. We have enjoyed sharing our home with such a funny, unique little guy!
He is now buried beneath our bedroom window, keeping company with some vining plants. Rest in Peace, Howard!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!!

For someone who doesn't like raw tomatoes, I sure do grow a lot of them! But Mike eats them raw and has been enjoying snacking on them, and if I can ever stop making salsa, I'm going to try my hand at making a tomato sauce.

Yesterday's harvest. I wish Mike had thought to mark which the plants when he put them in the ground so I could tell you what varieties these are, but we planted mostly heirlooms.

Veggie bowling, anyone?

Some of them were picked green because I've been having problems with this variety splitting. I am in love with the teardrop shape of these guys!

"Fierceness is the willingness to overcome your own timidity to do that which is necessary."

I clipped that quote out of a magazine earlier today, not really knowing why. I pondered it while I went about my day, thinking about how it applied to my life. I feel that I have changed and grown so much as a person over the past year - I have learned how to get both a six-year old and a sixteen-year old to do what I want by getting them to think it was their idea. I have finally learned how to not let people take advantage of me. I have learned how to deal with impossible people. I have learned that not everyone who is friendly to me is my friend. But one goal I have struggled with is to become fearless. I know that I tend to be fearful of the what-if's and how-to's of this life, and I thought that if I could eliminate fear, life would be much easier.

There are many people in my life who I see as fearless, one of them being my dear aunt, Debbie Cook. She faced cancer with what I percieved as absolute fearlessness. Even before her diagnosis, she lived a life that was far from easy, but she always carried a sense of grace and peace about her. She fought the cancer that attacked her body for far longer than any doctor predicted. She was told to get her affairs in order countless times. But what I mistook for fearlessness I now think was actually fierce-ness. I am certain that she experienced her share of fear, but she was willing and able to overcome that fear in order to live her life with a sense of fullness. She was a Godly, lovely woman whom I greatly looked up to, and even though she is no longer living on this Earth, her legacy will continue - all because she was FIERCE.

And so for the next school year, my personal goal will be to overcome my timidity in order to accomplish that which I find necessary - in short, to be fierce.

One Brave Woman

I come from a long line of brave women. My "Grandma B." is one of them. She will try just about anything once, including riding in my cousin's hovercraft!

Getting ready to go.

I can tell what she's thinking: "What will this do to my hair?!?"

And away we go! For those of you who are wondering, a hovercraft is something straight out of a Star Wars movie. It actually hovers! I don't know why that surprises me.

She made it!

Sorry Grandma, your hair did not pull through so well.

Still radiant, even after a hovercraft ride!

She even had enough courage left over for a jet ski ride with my dad!

More Water Pictures

My last post was strictly dogs, but I took some other picture from our day at my parent's house. We all had a great time jet-skiing, and Nils got to do some wakeboarding:

Ready to go...

...getting up....

.....almost there...

Woo-hoo!

This is the "Pirate Truck," which belongs to my parents' crazy neighbors. Since the lake levels have gone down so much they use it to get around the beach (which is normally covered in water!)

My dad.

My uncle on one of his favorite toys.

Dad and Mike with one of Mike's favorite toys. Yes, that is the boat that we've had many adventures on. Yes, he's still trying to get the engine to work reliably. Yes, I am incapable of talking about that thing without rolling my eyes.




Mike recently roped my dad into giving it his best shot. The jury is still out on that one.

Mollie and her new friend Roxy gad-about while my mom looks on.

Had to end with a dog picture!!

Amen to that!!!

Precious Puppies


We took Mollie to my parent's house for a visit and jet-ski riding (pics of that to come later). Mollie has had a "thing" for sand since we've had her, and she went absolutely BESERK when she hit the sand on the beach. My parents have several hundred yards of beach now that the lake levels are so low. Great news for our sand-obsessed dog!


She had a grand 'ol time streaking around by herself, trying to eat the white caps on the waves and generally getting filthy. Then, the neighbor's dog appears in the distance....




Mollie comes running to investigate....

And the chaos increases by a factor of about ten thousand:The introductions didn't last long.

Soon they were chasing each other around with great abandon!



A third dog briefly joined, and Hoverdog came over to investigate.

I was able to capture a lot of crazy facial expressions on Mollie. Flared lips. Wide eyes. Ears all over the place. Love it!

Paw count: 1 out of 8 on the ground!

Mollie took several shake breaks.

Take a look at those teeth!!

She also took a break of, ahem, another sort. Just keepin' it real.

All the craziness made for one tired dog!

Precious puppy paws are palpably perfect!!!

Mother's Day 2009

This year I got my first Mother's Day card......although I did not give birth to the person who gave it to me and it featured Steve Carrell, it was still really nice and sweet. We also met with my side of the family for lunch and took some pictures:

My grandma and her two children: Randy (my uncle) and Vicky (my mom). I was lucky enough to have all of them be a large part of my life growing up.

Me, my dad, and his mom. Also a large part of my life.

I love these women!!



Me and my son for a year, friend for a lifetime: Nils!

This is a family friend with her grandson. She deserves every honor reserved for Mothers on this special day:

I call this one "Sugar-induced daze."