lessons from Up

I know that y'all probably saw the movie Up ages ago... but I am just getting on that bandwagon now and so you get to hear my musings months after you've thought this through.

This is what I'm thinking now:
1. I want Adam and I to be that cute and in love when we're old. Heck, I want us to be that cute and in love now.

2. I don't want to spend so much time bogged down in life that we don't live. We have no shortage of grand plans (ok, mostly I have no shortage of grand plans). I don't want to get to the end of our life and wish we'd actually gone out and done some of them. There will always (ALWAYS) be something to save for, something to plan ahead for, some reason that the dreams don't make sense. The nature of grand plans is inconvenient and incompatible with normal life. I know that the rearranging and sacrifice is worth it- I hope we can keep that in mind and see that as we allocate our time and resources.

3. On the flip side, I want to stop and see the adventures we're having right here and now. So much of life happens in the mundane, the everyday, the 'glorious middle.' There are chances for really miraculous stuff in my daily life- taking the opportunity to read with burke and really be present with him, giving up sleep to stay up late to create something that is just on the fringes of my imagination, taking a minute to kiss my husband, using my conversations to speak life and encouragement to my friends and family. These are the things that make life well lived. I hope I can see that too and not just always be waiting for the grand plans to come to fruition.

I'll leave y'all with a cute picture that Jordi took of us... the glorious middle indeed. ;)

thanksgiving goodness

I know y'all already know this... but it bears repeating: I. love. my. family. Also, I love thanksgiving. Delicious food and time with mom and dad and jordi, drew and the girls this week has been pretty darn great. If only kiji, aj, trish and patrick were here.

Yesterday was a grand conglomeration of food (everyone's favorite recipes mashed into a thanksgiving feast o' glory), lots of fun people (gpa & judith, cody & the kids, jess & matt along with our fam), thanksgiving-ish decor (y'all know how jordi and I love doing that stuff together), a mini photo shoot (check out those family pics! I always feel like there should be a disclaimer on jordi's pictures: 'subjects in photos are not as cute as they appear') and football. Fabulous.

Mama and dad even kept all three babies overnight so we could do the black friday thing this morning. Again- fabulous.

I hope y'all had a terrific thanksgiving as well!

ps- Just a quick reminder that if you want to take advantage of jordi's photo christmas card deal (the one where you get 100 free cards and envelopes when you order), the deadline is the 29th (Sunday). I wouldn't want you to miss it... She's working on ours today- I'll show y'all when she finishes it. :)

rocks-giving

Yep, my supersmart hubs thought of that title. And it's the perfect way to sum up our pre-turkey Thanksgiving festivities. There were costumes (don't you love Jordi and Drew as School of Rock? and Adam's and Burke's gold "G" chains? and the Anglins as Billy Idol and Cyndi Lauper?) and music and food and lots of laughter. I think this may need to become an annual affair!

naughty squared

the pictures were taken AFTER I scrubbed him... ink stains EVERYTHING (even skin)- imagine that

Hmmm... well, even after burke's before-bed resolution to reduce the naughtiness factor around here, we are still in knee deep.

The latest and greatest? Pouring out our ink reserves on the floor (cleanable, no problem), the down comforter (bleachable, no problem), my cashmere sweater (not so cleanable- a big problem), that blue shirt he's wearing (again, not cleanable... and I LOVE that one... and it's not even ours!) and himself. At least the fits have died down a bit- those are the part that eat my lunch. Can terrible two's start at eighteen months, by the way?

Weasel. Weasel. Weasel.

***Also, if you're planning on ordering Christmas cards from Jordi, our printer just raised their shipping prices, so the shipping will cost $6.00. Just FYI.

photo card superdiscount

Sorry there's been so much kojo stuff on here lately... you'll want to hear this, though! Jordi is offering a deal to her friends that she said I can extend it to y’all as well.

If you order one of her digital jpg Christmas cards before November 29, you’ll get 100 printed 5x7 photo cards (and envelopes to send them in) FREE! The jpgs are $15.00, so you could feasibly get all of your Christmas cards for just $15.

Here are the details:

*Choose a photo card on the etsy shop (www.kojodesigns.etsy.com)

*Order from the etsy shop and follow her directions (you need to send her the picture(s) you want her to use)

*In the “notes to the seller” let her know that you’re ordering the cards as part of the friends & family deal…

*Be sure to include your email address (it’s required to set up your photo account) and your mailing address

*Wait a couple of days and get your oh-so-fabulous super-deal cards in the mail!

Just thought I’d let you know. :)

naughty

If Burke's day had a title yesterday it would be, "More Trouble Please." It was just one of those. He's pretty funny right now. Except for yesterday. Yesterday he was just naughty, not funny-naughty, bad-naughty. I was cuddling him before bed and I asked him, "Was today a rough day?" He nodded vigorously- "aahhh" (yeah). "Will tomorrow be better?" More nodding. "Aahhh." Hopefully so.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple of funny pictures. The first one is of him dumping out cereal (again with the pictures... I know, I should put the camera down and stop him, but I just can't resist documenting his naughtiness as it occurs). The second is just of him being cute. He's sort of hard to stay mad at. Weasel. Naughty, cute weasel.

congrats renee!

jenny, renee, katie, bree

julie, my mama, jess, linda, kimiko, kim

kimiko, me & jen

Having your third boy = a gift-card-and-undies baby shower at the Uptown Tavern. We're more thrilled than I can say to welcome little Beckett to the world. Congrats Renee & Dave!

burke's first date...

...with the lovely Miss Avery Houle (an older woman). Love her, love her family- I see a promising future for this little couple.

dada's biggest fan

Burke loves (LOVES!) going to watch Adam play volleyball on Monday nights... He cheers for Adam's team (he knows some of their names, but most notably will chant, "Dody! Dody!" to cheer on our friend Cody), throws things on the court, and dashes from game to game (and sometimes onto a court, but usually I stop him before he gets there). It's a riot to watch!

I think cleaning is my love language...

I am crying a little as I type this post... Guys, we possibly have the Best. Friends. Ever. You know, the kind of friends that do things for you just because life has been a little stressful lately. The kind of friends that know what will bless you even when you don't.

Let me elaborate... We've been spending our weekends in the Springs with Adam's dad. It's a good choice for us- we want to be there as much as possible. Plus, Burke is the great smile-maker, which is fantastic when you're as sick as Mark is.

However, it means that our 'normal' life has been shelved for a bit. And particularly, chores like mopping, scrubbing bathrooms, raking our leaves, house projects, etc. are currently kind of tough to get to. Life isn't super rough (certainly, CERTAINLY, not as rough as Mark's life currently), just a little chaotic and on pause.

Enter our fabulous friends. This weekend, while we were in the Springs, they let themselves into our house and cleaned EVERYTHING... they scrubbed our cooktop and window wells and floors and tile and the top of our fridge (yep, you read right) and cleaned our laundry room and shined every possible surface and even handwashed our wine and martini glasses (I should interject that anyone you trust to clean your house and see how gross it really gets are good friends indeed) until there was a faint fragrance of lemon and shiny, sparkly goodness as far as the eye can see. The guys also raked 12 bags of leaves and yanked out a tree that Adam has been wanting to chop down (it provides too much shade in the garden). Then, as if that weren't enough, they distributed beautiful bouquets of flowers throughout the house, left us a whole pile of treats (and dinner in our freezer) and went on their merry way... It was like the forrest friends on Cinderella whisked through, cleaning everything in their path, leaving us Coke Zero and wine and brownies and Starbucks gift cards and then scurried home.

I vaccilate between wanting to spend every moment here to soak in the pristine clean and wanting to get the heck out of here to preserve the goodness for as long as humanly possible.

We are a bit overwhelmed and SO thankful. It is such a picture of God's graciousness to us; His extravagant, you-don't-need-it-but-I'll-give-it-because-it'll-delight-you provision. I think this is how things are supposed to be in a community and we are so privileged to be a part of such a thing.

happy kirstin day!

When we were first married, a few times a year, we would deem a Saturday "Happy Kirstin Day" or "Happy Adam Day." The person-of-honor would get to do all of their favorite things, eat at their favorite places, peruse their favorite shops (and maybe aquire an item or two after the perusing) and just generally have a day filled with stuff they love. Usually my days included a trip to Starbucks AND Sonic, sushi, new clothes, wandering through some cute little boutiques, a book store, a great wall of chocolate from PF Changs, and some sort of creating (I didn't even have a sewing machine then, so my crafting always involved paper).

This tradition has fallen by the wayside (it needs to be reinstituted, does it not?). However, my wonderful, fabulous mama gave me my very own Happy Kirstin Day earlier this week. A whole day, minus Burke, to use as I please. She suggested a massage (I have a gift certificate from Mother's Day that I haven't used yet). But friends... and I know this will sound so silly... all I wanted to do was finish up some items that just linger (and linger and linger) on my to-do list. And, in the spirit of a true Happy Kirstin Day, my mom was fully supportive of my plans to wittle that baby down.

So I cleaned my craft room... for hours. I can't tell you the feeling of glee that I have when I walk into my OH SO FABULOUSLY ORGANIZED room now. Everything tucked away into neatly labeled containers, fabric folded and put away, an ironing board at the ready for my sewing projects, all the Juju chaos organized... seriously, glee. I'm a little embarrassed to put a picture on here, because I know that craft rooms are supposed to be all the way coordinated and inspirational and mod decor-y and mine is mostly repurposed containers and not mod decor-y, but just look at how clean it is and forget about all that stuff.

I also meandered through the clearance section at Target, tried a few items on without my white haired gibbon dashing around, and bought a super cute dress for six bucks (it's alarmingly short, so you'll seen it worn as a shirt).

And I pulled out all of my January-October Christmas gift purchases, just to assess and see what I have and still need to buy. I even wrapped the gifts I've already bought.

It seems that all that remains of Happy Kirstin Days of yore is a trip to Sonic... how times have changed my friends. Though, I wouldn't trade my-life-now for my-life-then for anything, so I guess it evens itself out. Thanks for the Happy Kirstin Day, mama! :)

***ps- This has nothing do with my day o' glory... but if you live in Denver, it's still pertinent. Jordi will be here for Thanksgiving (not Christmas like I initially put) and is offering her photographic genius to a few families. She'll do a mini family photo shoot (around an hour) and make you a Christmas card pdf file using your newly taken, gorgeously wonderful family photos (check out her photo Christmas cards at the etsy site) for $60. I would gush and gush about the pictures she's taken of us in the past, but her pictures (above) speak for themselves.... Let me know if you're interested.

a puma kind of day

As a nod to my hubbie's fond affection for all things Puma, Burke had a head-to-toe Puma day last week... a Puma tracksuit, Puma shoes (thanks Jojo) and even Puma socks. Even the lady at Starbucks admired his well coordinated attire!