Halling Go To Alaska

Sunday Homemade salsa with tomatoes from the garden.  It was yummy.  I ate it for dinner.  Monday fail Tuesday My mom folded clothes when she was babysitting for me.  Wednesday This was one of the oops that came with the bracelets we ordered to fundraise for my niece. My MIL found it and thought that I needed it.  Thursday The 9yo made a sign for the school room.  Friday After visiting my niece in the hospital,  T and I stopped at In & Out for dinner.  It tasted so yum.  Though the salt content was high as on Saturday during my run  my fingers were so swollen.  Yes, I hydrated a lot. Saturday The table set up at the Car Show this weekend.  We sold bracelets and took donations for my niece and her family.  

Sunday Family day at the Idaho Air National Guard.  I've never seen an inflatable climbing wall before.  The 9yo didn't hesitate on climbing to the top... in a skirt. It was about 20 feet up.  Monday (fail) Tuesday A day at the park.  Getting in my H2O. Wednesday It's a little blurry, but the look in Pumpkin's eye and her perky ears?  It's better than the picture taken just before it with her ears all twitchy. Thursday My monthly board package.  (Shh. Don't tell. It's still in the wrapper. Must get it done.) Friday Sweet Pea and I in the outdoor backseat of a 1931 something-or-other that was at the  Show and Shine benefitting my niece.  The car in focus and us out of focus is what happens when you hand your camera to a random car guy.  (picture #2 - I'm including it because, well, my blog and I did miss Monday) This is our head gymnastics coach's cars.  He races cars.  McKenna used to go to their gym when she was SmartyPants' age an...

This week Beth gave us free reign as to what to capture.   Life has been...rough lately.  We spent some time at the park the other day.  I brought my camera.  Trying to capture life as it happens to focus on the good.  Glancing down I noticed something The creases on my hand. Those lines that allow my hands to bend and grasp. But look! More lines and cracks and creases.  But somehow we see a piece of bark as so different from our own living skin. But they each allow protection and a level of comfort for their surroundings.  Each show scars, weathering, the passage of time. The bark may no longer be living but it can tell you where it's been.  Just like the stories of our hearts.  Check out what others decided to capture this week.

My Saturday in Idaho started by getting up at 5:30 a.m.  That's 4:30 my time.  I was actually dreaming when my alarm went off.  Wanna know what I was dreaming about? I was dreaming that my alarm hadn't gone off and I woke up all happy and rested.  Uhm, yeah. Anyway.  I got up had a light breakfast, changed, and waited for some daylight before I went out for my long run...of 16 miles. Luckily I have awesome hosts who made pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast upon my return.  After I cleaned up, the girls headed into Boise for Art in the Park.   We saw fun metal sculptures. Look! A moose! We ate. (She looks thrilled about her caramelized pecans, huh?) Pink cotton candy is the best. And then, because the big girls were tired (me and Tiffany), we headed over to the zoo before we ran out of steam. We saw sad and/or tired-looking monkeys lazy lions lounging in the sun a wallaby  (a new addition to the zoo since last year!) fat and happy prairie dogs ...

The second weekend in September is sorta of a tradition for us.  Since the year before we moved to Idaho (we were house hunting in September 2001) we have been frequenting an art fair put on by the Boise Museum of Art at Julia Davis Park.  Once we became neighbors with Tiffany and her husband, Tiffany started going with us to Art in the Park.  We have our standards of consumption: Pronto Pups (the best fresh corn dogs anywhere), cotton candy, fresh roasted corn on the cob (which I'm sure is freshly picked from one of the many local corn farmers in the area), fresh squeezed lemonade.  This time we added some carmelized pecans to the deal since Smarty Pants can't eat corn on the cob with all the orthodontia in her mouth. Taking a weekend-long trip 400 miles from home should not require all the paraphilia that we took.  These pictures didn't even show the suitcases. So Friday morning we were on the road by 8:45.   The wide open-ness of I-80 headed east. The g...

Sunday Blurry cell phone picture of a yard of strawberry margarita.  Don't worry. If it actually had tequila in it, it wasn't very much.  It was still yummy on a hot afternoon at the Rib Cook-Off. Monday Another blurry cell phone picture.  Did you know that the 80s are coming back? And that I gave birth to Axel Rose? Tuesday Sweet Pea playing a game on my phone while waiting for Sass to be done with swim practice. Wednesday Flying through the air with the greatest of ease.  Thursday Snacks packed for the road trip to Idaho. Friday Showing the past and the present.  Saturday Giraffe at Zoo Boise!

I know that's a shocker to everyone, right?  But I've prided myself on the fact that I don't usually let things bring me down.  Add to that fact is that my life is pretty sweet.  I have a husband that loves me, three girls who are smart, funny, precocious and sometimes greatly annoying (but I'm sure I'm annoying too if you spend enough hours with me).  My parents are supportive and wonderful with my kids.  My friends are supportive and helpful and funny and make me smile when I most need a smile.  They comfort my heart.  (Many of them I've yet to meet.) But this last month and a half has been rough.  Death, sickness, stress, distance.  It's a lot to handle in such a short period of time.  Because doesn't the proverbial "it" always happen to someone else?  I talked about my feelings on mortality after my aunt died.  It's a scary world out there.  I'm trying not to let the realities of life bring me down, but my heart has be...

Sunday 14 miles babee! Monday Aiming for my morning zen. Tuesday My new friend - the foam roller Wednesday Sweet Pea coloring before bed.  Thursday fail Friday Wine courtesy of Pam! Saturday fail though I could have taken pictures of the piles of snotty tissues the family was filling. 

This weekend was a mix of relaxing, enjoying, and trying not to die from the gunk that infiltrated from what I can only assume is new germs from Sweet Pea's new preschool mixed with allergies.  Fun times in our house, let me tell you.  I'm behind on my pictures from last week.  I'm *hoping* to get those done by tomorrow.  But I've been busy fundraising for my niece and getting all the background stuff and management stuff that goes into starting something like from the ground up. I'm here. I'm trying.  I'll be back.