Kyle and Amy were very excited last weekend when they got to meet their new baby cousin Dillon who is 4 weeks old. He was just the sweetest little baby and still just a little ball of sleepy infant. They both were quite enthralled with him. Even after having three I still love that baby stage when they are just a little lump of warm love on your chest. I think I will always love babies immensely.

The ten good things about Izzy. My mom suggesed it would be a good idea for the kids to list theirs, but I found it very theraputic to write mine.

A much younger and thinner me! (this was taken when izzy was about 9 months, so 14 years ago… no wonder I look so young and am wearing such tacky ear rings!) Look at that love for my first baby!

1. She always purred when I held her.

2. She never, ever, complained about anything except being a little too ferocious at 5 am about being fed. Not one insulin shot did she ever complain one bit about

3. Even though she was my first baby, she moved over to let me be mom to my next babies without complaint and she loved them too.

4. When I was all alone and single I had her
there, snuggling, and sweet as can be to sleep with.

5. She has given me a novel worth of stories and I honestly could write a book titled the adventures of Izzy Belle Gregg… and even considered starting it when I was teaching.

6. I will forever hold in my heart the memory of an excited 12 month old Kyle running around the living room with Daddy’s bathrobe tie and Izzy following it and batting at it as frisky as can be…Kyle was so exciting to her back then.

7. Evan… oh he loves “kitty kitty” This spring I’d come home from dropping the kids at school and put a video on for Evan and often find him laying on Izzy under the play structure, completely snuggled up on her just ready to fall asleep.

8.She had the best tail in the world, her first vet even said she’s got a tail that should be on raccoon!

9.Devotion… She has been as devoted to us as we have been to her.

10.You were my first baby before I had babies, and I’m sorry you got displaced by them, and you loved them all so much. I will forever be grateful that you are were gracious and let the kids crowd you out.

My favorite pic of Izzy… excuse the quality these were all scanned in by my mom. Thank you for doing that mom!

A young 1 year old Kyle with his Izzy!

I had to put my cat down today. She was 14 years old an she’s been diabetic for 5 1/2 years. I have given her insulin 2x a day for that whole time to treat the feline diabetes. It was very hard to decide to put her down but she had deteriorated considerably in the last couple weeks, lost weight, wasn’t eating, and it was just time. I found this article about cat euthanasia very helpful. The vet and his office staff were wonderful, I’m thankful that they got us in quickly and were very sensitive and understanding. The vet had very kind and consoling words for us. We chose to stay with her to the end, I just needed that closure of saying goodbye and felt guilty just dropping her off.

The kids are taking it pretty well. Amy’s said a couple times that she misses Izzy. I ordered the book The Tenth Good Think About Barney (wish I’d had the foresight to order it ahead of time) which is a great book to help kids deal with the loss of a pet.

I’m just feeling really sad and numb this morning. She was a good kitty and I had her for a long time, almost half my life. I will miss her greatly.

A friend on one of my chat boards recently asked about books and it got me thinking. I’ve done my top books several times for various book clubs. I actually am feeling really guilty. I was in a book group for years, first in Portland and then in Missouri. When I moved to Roseburg I was invited to a group very quickly, but it had a different feel than the ones I had been previously and I’ll admit, for me it wasn’t a good fit. So that was kinda it. We were in Portland this week and I went to Borders and actually bought two books to read! I haven’t been a very voracious reader lately, but Kyle is reading and I want to be a good role model. I spent most of my childhood immersed in reading and I hope he can find the same diversion. I just finished the last Harry Potter (that is a whole different post in itself!) and found myself looking for other things to read, it’s a good habit.

So anyways… blah blah blah, aside. Here are my favorite reads.

BEACH READING… requires little thought or concentration…

I Don’t Know How She Does It… Alison Pearson

The Nanny Diaries… Nicole Krause

The Devil Wears Prada….Lauren Weisberger

Good in Bed…Jennifer Weiner

Jemima J… Jane Green

Where the Heart Is…Billie Letts

Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood….Rebecca Wells

FAVORITE READS LITERATURE

Age of Innocence… Edith Wharton

The Shipping News…Annie Prolux

Ishmael… Daniel Quinn

Angle of Repose… Wallace Stagner

Night… Elie Weisel

The Secret Life of Bees

I Know This Much is True… Wally Lamb

A Prayer for Owen Meany… John Irving

REALLY LONG BOOKS that are worth the effort

Trinity

Pilars of the Earth

The Thorn Birds

Clan of the Cave Bear (and the sequels)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE… some of my favorite books are considered childrens literature

Harry Potter (all of them!)

The Golden Compas (and the sequels)

The Giver… Lois Lowery

Z for Zachariah… Robert C. O’Brien

I have had this extremely compelling something urging me to “go green” for weeks upon weeks upon weeks. And I have acted on several of these urges.

I was raised green. It was easy to do in the town I grew up in (Eugene, Oregon) I remember going with my mom to the recycling center and dumping off all our recyclable containers WAY before curbside recycling showed up. And now when I think about it I feel guilty b/c our little piddly small town doesn’t offer curbside recycling for much and yet DOES have a recycling center… it’d take such little effort on our part. And then I take that thought… it’d take such little effort in a lot of ways….

I am not one of those militant green people, I honestly dont’ have it in me, but I am capable of trying my best to reduce my use and I think if we all did that we’d have a much better world. I used to be a teacher and when I talked to my student’s about this issue it was almost always class divided, which is telling I think. Americans COMSUME, but some consume MUCH more than others, and some are much more able to be responsible than others.

As I stated above I am not by any means militan green… but I do think I could do more and I’m making a commitment to expore more environmentally sound options for our family.

Now here is a unique idea I hadn’t hear of before, a baby concierge service! I recently sent some swaddling blankets to Melissa Moog founder of Itsa-belly . Melissa is based out of Portland, Oregon and I ran across one of her cards at a Portland coffee shop. She provides a whole host of services to help new moms and dads get ready for their little bundle of joy, and adjust to the big shock when the baby actually arrives. I wish I’d had something like that when I was expecting!

Melissa also sells gift baskets with lots of yummy “green” baby products. If you have a minute be sure to check out her site!

I can see the writing on the wall. Kyle and Amy are doing Itty Bitty Soccer at the YMCA this summer. It’s a 4 week program intended to teach 3-5 year olds how to play a little, a little of team spirit, the ethics of sports, etc. It’s non-competitive. We have one “game” day left and Kyle is already in denial about it, depressed that only 8 sessions and done. I see a fall full of soccer for him. He’ll be in kindergarten so he’s old enough to do league soccer this year. We did Itty Bitty last year too. This year Kyle and 2 other 5 year olds are on a team with Amy (4) and a bunch of 3 year olds. Today we played a team full of 3 year olds. They were all so busy crying (half was our team) that the older boys just basically kicked goals the whole time. I’m thinking 4 is a better age to start soccer than 3.

At any rate Kyle came out feeling like a king, he scored 3 goals then got sent to be a “defender” and he basically plucked the ball every time it came on our side and kicked it back to the offense, the other team honestly didn’t have a chance. Which is a good thing because Amy was our goalie the second half and she spent the whole time hanging from the goal post…

On to the pictures! All of these were taken with the “sport” setting on my sony alpha, After I saw how they turned out I actually regretted this choice. The light was very flat and the camera seemed to struggle with trying to figure out where to focus, I got a lot with great pics of the moms from the other team in the background w/ Kyle and Amy in blur. Even the goal shot below is not what I would have hoped for.

Also on the list of camera things to buy and figure out is a good sports lens, whatever that may me!

Amy dribbles in practice.

Kyle dribbles in practice.

Go Team!

Kyle SCORES! His first score of the season!

I got a Sony Alpha DSLR for my birthday last year, and quite frankly the thing scares the pants off me. I LOVE the pictures it takes, but trying to figure out how to use the thing has been a down right PITA. I haven’t figured out much except it takes great pictures on Manual, which hasn’t motivated me much to move beyond that. Now mind you I know nothing about photography I wouldn’t know an f-stop from an ISO if it bit me in the butt. It’s not the camera’s fault one bit, it’s my own ignorant fault for not studying more and trying to learn it all better. Also, I have a history of killing expensive cameras, I guard the thing with my life putting it carefully back in it’s case after every shoot. The one thing my kids know is “don’t touch mommy’s camera!”

So, I am proud to announce that this weekend I figured out not only what Aperture Priority is but also how to use it! If you know nothing like me. Long story short. Basically one of the things the aperture does is sets the depth of field on your camera. Low aperture only the things closes to your focal point are in focus. Higher aperture all the things in your viewfinder are in focus. Now this term scared me to death until I figured out that what it means is YOU the photographer get to adjust ONLY the aperture to manipulate the depth of field, and that fancy camera with all it’s fancy senors and programing goes ahead and figures everything else out for you! Now how is that for fancy beans? If you are a busy mom like me and get lots of great pics of your kids with lots of fugly background, this is a great feature b/c you can put your camera on Aperture Priority, then set the Aperture low (on the Alpha roll the dial in front of the “shoot” button) and you will find you suddenly get some striking pics of your kids with a very nice blurred out background. I have only tried this two times. The first was last night and the light was so bad I had to use the flash and the pics were yuck yuck! I used it today at the soccer game on my first few shots, and I was so pleased with the results!

No she didn’t just win a goal she’s mugging for the camera, practice hadn’t even started… little diva!

These are with the kit lens Aperture around 5-5.6.

I can’t wait to get a good 50mm lens!

I always love floral motifs and just love how this applique turned out. I used some scraps from a lovely Cath Kidston print to create this darling hand beaded flower. Available in a very limited amount on Etsy. I have enough to do another one but have to hunt down a tank top, these were the only sizes I had on hand. Available in my Etsy shop.

Finally! I’ve been trying for weeks to nab a treasury on etsy. I woke up in the middle of the night tonight and couldn’t sleep so I thought why not… I’ll go see what is up. And low and behold they were down to 225 lists! Woo Hoo! So I dinked around for a few minutes, down to 222 and I got one. My first treasury.

Ladybird, Ladybird Fly Away right to my home! Ladybug love abounds.

It was so fun to put this together. Please check it out, it will only last 3 days!