a life beyond running shoes.

i did not run this year. BUT, my friend jessie did. (she's in the red shorts waving at us with her sister in the black shorts, red top) so, i took the opportunity to live vicariously through her and took the kiddos to the park. we cheered her on just before mile 7 and then hopped on the train to cheer her on near the finish line down at coney island (that would be at mile 13). what fun. her husband helped me wrangle my two boys all the while wrangling his own two. here they are completely in awe of the runners.... and watching the finish line..... but here are the boys on their first amusement park ride.... the duck boats. it was the right speed for my two as the other crew went on the wonder wheel. it was a fun day and sweetpea slept through most of the excitement. for the rest of the afternoon little bit kept asking when we got to see miss jessie run..... uh, i think that is what we just spent the entire day doing and if you hadn't been more excited about the chocolate...

i can honestly say that i devoured it. it could be that the last couple of books we have read have been higher on the "literary" acclaim scale but what i have felt was lacking on the plot scale.... this was all plot (a little flat on the character development but i won't be too picky). in fact it was a murder mystery which was engaging and smart... i finished two weeks ahead of schedule. i have to admit i am usually finishing our book club books during nap time the day of our meeting with a chapter to go when i walk into group. not this time!!!! i finished with a whole week to spare. my family was ready for me to be done since it consumed much of my attention when there were any quiet moments. i opted for this instead of tv one night! whoa! any way.... an entertaining, good, fast read. i do recommend.

i could not resist this one!

a way to spend a dreary, wet day inside.... we baked cookies. peanut butter chocolate chip. played with the bungo (which we have never had for any other children). she looks so funny sitting up so erect..... and the boys like trying to sit in it just as much. played on the bed and tried not to destroy all the laundry i had just folded. this is how she sleeps - with her head cocked upward... funny girl.

dad gets one year old.... friday: dinner with friends.... with mojitos. yum! saturday: farmer's market, the park then brunch at friend's house (including feeding his worm compost farm - a treat for both little boys) finished with a steak dinner and fabulous chocolate chip cookies (dad's favorite in lieu of cake). sunday: homemade pasta with browned butter sauce. the kids ate every bite!

ten weeks old. 10 pounds 8 ounces. wow this past month flew by. and this one is just cute and funny! just in case you couldn't catch what he is saying: on this face and on this face. micah hit me with a broom. he said sorry, sorry. i cried.

mostly because i know what happens after this memoir ended. i read a book by ann patchett over a year ago. it was the memoir of her friendship with lucy grealy. this is lucy's story. the problem is that patchett's book tells of the sadness that followed the publication of grealy's book. so while reading this book and getting caught up in her prose and reflections, i also knew that whatever happiness was in her story did not last long after the pages were written. it colored the reading of her story.... which is a bummer because it is a story of obstacles and victory. i just wish i hadn't known that her victory was short lived. lucy grealy had cancer at the age of 10. it was in her jaw and so she grew up with a disfigued face, chemotherapy and surgeries, and her body (for the most part) stay pre-pubescent. her story is of coming to realize what truth and beauty looked like when it was not what you looked like. she found solace in poetry and frienships in colleg...

and boy did it go quickly.... yet it also feels like a lifetime. she is very well loved by both her brothers but in particular by little bit who might love her just a little bit too much. we have also taken time to work in the garden. our lettuce has popped up and has been included into our salads twice this week. of course, there are also lots of weeds that make it hard to tell what we planted and what needs to be taken out. we think the squirrels might have gotten our squash seeds. oh well. it is a learning experiment.

the lord gives and he takes away. while we mourn the passing of my father-in-law it was elixir for the soul to be blessed with three newborns within four weeks of each other. that is my sweet pea in the purple polk-a-dot onsies. she is 11 days older than boy cousin in the green stripes and exactly four weeks older than girl cousin in the pink & green polk-a-dots.... the poor boy sandwiched in there between two girls. g'ma and girl cousin. so very cute! i'm not sure how much i actually held my child while we were in florida. she was snuggled and cuddled by g'ma, aunts, friends, and cousins alike. sweetpea particularly loved her aunt kristen. it is hard to figure out how to grieve a father-in-law. the hurt is as deep as losing a father, but he was not my father. i loved him like a father even though i have a dad that loves me. he was just different. maybe that is why i loved him so. he was just different.... different than my dad. which meant that i got to know h...

it is hard being home. it was excruciating to leave. is nice to be home. it was nice to sleep in my own bed. but the strange thing is that walking thro ugh the airport yesterday i realized than anyone seeing us would think we are normal people - a cute family getting on a plane after their florida vacation. we aren't. look close. we are sad. we are grieving. our lives have been altered. but you can't see that without looking really close. in florida, everyone has lost him. everyone's lives have been altered by his death. his fingerprint was on everything and everyone. here at home, reality has not been shifted. nobody else lost him. it won't always hurt like this, but our family will never be the same. we have friends, dear friends, that are mourning with us, grieving with us, loving on us. and for that we are thankful.... so very thankful . but it made leaving hard. some helpful words from a friend: "events and things come with the moments; but god...

i think this was the summer of 2006. what a handsome man! the last five days have been a long blur. at moments i forget what day it is, if i have eaten, when the last time i fed sweetpea. but in the midst of those moments of forgetfulness, i realize that he isn't on his way home.... or up asleep.... or out at a job site. he is at home in heaven. my husband got to do the call to worship for his father's funeral on saturday. it was amazing. here are some things he said: We are grateful you are here to help us mourn, to help us grieve and to help us celebrate the life of an amazing man. My brother said last night that he was a man whose heart had been gripped by Christ, and that turned him into a man who gripped each of us. But most importantly, we are grateful you are here to worship the risen Lord with us this morning. It is what DAD loved to do above all else, and there is nothing else we can do that is more important than to come into the presence of our loving heavenly ...

jesus, i am resting, resting in the joy of what thou art i am finding out the greatness of thy loving heart. today...... my husband lost his father. my children lost their grandfather. i lost a hero. i don't think i could love this man any more if he were my own father. this man that loved me generously with abandon....he loved my kids that way too. he loved his own children, his wife, his city. i feel like i said some of these same words about my husband's grandfather.... but this man i knew intimately. he built me a home, he raised his son to be my amazing husband, he loved his wife for over 35 years and showed my husband how to love a wife...... and boy did he love jesus. he loved jesus in such a way that it shaped the way he lived every part of his life....and man did he pray. tuesdays were my day... the day he prayed for our family, our church, our network, our marriage, our children.... for peanut's need for patience; for little bit's to survive to his third bir...

one thing i love about living in new york is that you really can experience things for free. for example, the brooklyn botanic gardens are free on tuesdays and saturdays (before noon). so.....we took a family adventure this morning. it was beautiful. we were also curious to see what was at their garden shop. of course the boys were more interested in the koi pond than the flowers. but we managed to keep little bit from falling in... that is a successful day.

picnic in the park on a lovely spring day. playing with sticks by the water. falling in the water and getting all wet. all in a days work for little bit.

but it was an emergency trip to the dentist to make sure we didn't need to go to the ER. and at the end of a very eventful day. it all started with a smoking car. next, my six-week-check-up. a picnic on a beautiful sunny, spring day. a borrowed a diaper from another group of mom's for one nasty poop. AND a face plant on the concrete after jumping off a two foot step. little bit just has it in for his mouth. this is the second major mouth injury in the last 8 months. of course, there have been lots of little ones but this one is the only other major one: a gum lacerations and two chipped teeth..... oh, and lots of blood. of course the car at this point has been delivered to the auto shop (thank you awesome husband), so i can't actually get to my pediatrician across town nor do i actually have his phone number. BUT my friend has our mutual dentist in her cell..... one phone call and a three block walk with a screaming two year old and we are sent home with a prescription for ...

today is my brother's 28th birthday. it makes feel old because i don't feel a day older than 25 myself and him turning 28 means i am for real not 25. he is also going to be a dad.... that amazes me. not because i think he won't be a good dad but because it means we really are adults. i realize i am saying this after having given birth to my third child but it seems more real with him having a kid than me having one (or three). i still think of him as the kid i drove around when i was in high school and was still taller than....never mind that he is almost six feet tall.... and his arm muscles are about the size of my head ( being a marine makes him buff..... so does training for a triathalon). i've realized a couple of things about him as an adult: he is super funny. his blog makes me laugh out loud (his is called "a real superman"). i realize that it might only be funny to those who know him but i found his experience at the new kids on the block conce...

i wish i could say that i liked this as much as i liked the lovely bones . i didn't. the almost moon . i started this the day before sweet pea was born. it was a quick pick up before i went to the hospital for some fetal monitoring. i knew i would be sitting there for over an hour....which was true. i recognized the author and was looking for something to pass the time. let's just say that i got through three-fourths of the book over six weeks ago. it was just stubbornness that made me finished the last part today. it was hanging over me that i had not finished this book.....and i only had about 50 pages left. i was about 30 pages into the book when i considered putting it down. while i think she is a good writer, i can't say i found her story all that gripping. she kills her mom, sleeps with her best friend's son, and considers killing herself. not where i am.... perhaps at a later time i might have found this as amazing as all the reviews did. here is a gre...

i love easter. i love season of reflectiveness that comes with lent that is concluded with the glorious celebration of the resurrection. i love that it is tied with spring, which actually means something when you live in the northeast. the dreary days of winter are gone....sort of. the cherry blossoms are in blooms. there are warmer days and people start coming out of the word work....in the parks, on the sidewalks, on our street. neighbors we have not seen since thanksgiving are out again. there is an energy to the city that starts to reverberate around here because we can all of a sudden be outside again exploring places like the park, the zoo, the sidewalk. i also love the excuse to put my children in matching outfits. i think it is the only time my husband can really tolerate that matchy-matchy thing. i think they are super cute!

i finally finished my last book club reading. they met about two weeks ago and i just couldn't get myself out the door. i was planning on going and bringing sweet pea but reality sunk in and i was in bed by 9. and two weeks later i finished the read: song of the lark. i think i love willa cather but this is only the second book i have read. i read some of her short stories in college and really loved them. this novel i was engrossed in from the beginning and was lost by the end. i found the end section to have a very different voice from the beginning sections. i did not savor her descrptions any more and simply drudged through the finals chapters. i am thoroughly glad that i read it but finishing was a chore. my sistster's keeper. jodi picoult is always good for an interesting and engaging read. i actually finished this in the hospital after giving birth. it was a far better option than the saturday tv they had available. i do like how she deals with controversial...

the transit museum. the 4-year-old check-up. 40.5 inches - 55% 30.4 pounds - 3% 2 shots 1 tb test 1 finger poke the bronx zoo. got my hair cut. and had dinner with my husband. phew. i needed my mom to leave so we could get back to normal life. not really!