ahhhhh........now back to reality!

so this weekend my dearest friends in the world and i got together for a weekend at the beach. so relaxing, so fun, so needed. i remembered who i was again, finally! i realized that i still can have adult conversation, something i thought was long gone. we talked, we swam, we rode bikes, we talked, we sat on the beach, we talked. it was glorious! i encourage all of you moms out there to make this happen in your life! i think in my own it needs to happen more frequently! (it's also great to remind my husband of what my life is like really, every now and again!)

this morning has been the complete opposite. i brewed coffee too strong (sounds impossible, i know), i couldn't find the car keys, joshua refused to take a nap (for 1.5 hours he screamed!), and then...to top it all, some friends came over for the first playdate in three months that i have setup and noah falls and scrapes his knee and arm. now this kid, in tandem with screaming joshua, begins his 2 hours of inconsolable drama. TWO HOURS! and what kind of kid doesn't like band-aids?!!!! come on!

i have just gotten them both to sleep (whew! it's 1:45). nothing like trying to entertain friends with small children when your own are so needy. kind of funny; definitely a shift from the weekend.

off to nap i go.
i promise one day soon some upbeat posts!

coolest toy ever!

so my dad came by yesterday to give noah what jeff and i have deemed the coolest toy ever! a whole array of muppets - all of them! - to play with and sleep with and throw in the air (noah's favorite). thanks pappy for such a great toy! we're all enjoying them! joshua likes animal the best, of course! noah's favorite is the swedish chef.

my first crocs

thanks to yah-yah, joshua has gotten his first crocs! he isn't walking yet (we hope soon!) but we're trying to get him used to wearing shoes. not sure if crocs are a suitable 'first shoe' but at least they're cute!

happy sunday!

a rough week....

but riley is okay. she made it through surgery, came home a little later than expected, but is back to herself--at least almost!

yes, it's been a trying few weeks i guess. trying in that it's been busy, and for some reason with kids (for me), busy equals hard. i'm ready to have normal again, whatever that means. school is starting soon which will be nice!

anyways, after riley's surgery noah got the stomach bug, then i got the really awful stomach bug, and now noah has a cold and jeff left town for work. oh my! i'm tired and irritable to say the least.

let's end on a happy note.
today noah learned how to sing his first song. he gave me those eyes that say, 'please, mommy, help me learn all the words.' and we did it. it's that thomas song 'they're two, they're four, they're six...,' singing yet? (of course sending a video clip of it isn't possible! now that i figured out how to do the video thing on the blog our video camera needs fixing...UGH!) we usually hear it on pbs, but noah's ama and akon (jeff's parents) gave him this very entertaining book last week and now we get to hear the tune all day long!

hopefully soon we'll have more regular blogging and more happy things to post (including more sleep for me in the coming nights)!

oh no! not surgery!

our sweet riley-girl had to have emergency stomach surgery on sunday (5am!). luckily we saw that she was having a difficult time and got her to the emergency room (for dogs!) just in time. they immediately had to de-bloat the poor thing, untwist her tummy and spleen, and sew her back up. she has been so pitiful. we had visitation at the clinic (which was hysterical in some ways!) but there she was, all curled up in her cage with a blanket over her (she's been really cold since surgery), even with hot water bottles surrounding her. i was impressed with the care she was receiving. today i had to go pick her up and transfer her to our vet where she is continuing to be monitored by them for a day or two.

as annoyed as i get with having yet another one to care for, this has been a great reminder that life is precious, even in a dog! sure, we may have to sell a limb to pay for the surgery (ha!) but we are so glad she is okay. the house is so empty and quiet without her here.

sweet poodle, girl, feel better!

failure!

so my movie didn't work. i'll figure it out (maybe with help from someone reading this?!!!) and i'll resend.
: )

dinner on the porch

so this is a month old but i wanted to send it along. hopefully it will make you smile! God knew i would need joshua's little laugh to counteract his wild ways! we're headed to char-latte today to visit my mom and niece zoe. hopefully we'll return with some great shots of the visit. blessings. go run through the sprinkler!

fun times

here are a couple more photos....
lake susan, the darling joshua who is getting so big! and hanging out in asheville. i love how we are all doing our own thing in this picture! very typical....

family...a good thing

so we really enjoyed our time with family the last few days...it was busy, i am tired, but all well worth it. and yes, being with family always brings up issues, right? but there is such hope in being together, as we learn to accept the good with the bad and grow closer in the process. my status as 'big white girl' is diminishing, and i am thankful to feel less threatened by the different culture in which jeffery grew up. it's an interesting dynamic but one that probably every married couple experiences -- we each grow up in a different culture, whether our nationalities are different or not. so we're looking forward to the next one, already. and hoping that everyone is home, safe and sound.

some highlights: we LOVE montreat. that place is so great! the lake, the playground, the quaint town of black mtn just five minutes away. the musty smells, the whirring of fans, the hikes with a weighty double stroller up and down steep hills. we went to asheville and ate at one of my all-time favorite restaurants, Salsa. oh my gosh! i think it's the fusion of carribean & mexican, a really interesting combo. we also shared a fun game of dominoes, and well, i guess the rest was playing with the kids and just hanging out. oh yeah, and the creek down at the montreat playground. noah loved skipping rocks and wading through the cool mountain stream! joshua liked it too!

of utmost fun for me was seeing noah connect with uncle rich and aunt julie. living so far from them we rarely see one another, but noah had instant connection with both. uncle rich let noah play with his camera (he took LOTS of photos from his three-year-old perspective. here you see one of 'akon' with a hard to capture smile.) and there were lots of wrestling matches, pillow fights, games of hide-and-seek, and lego building. so fun. noah and i both cried as rich drove away yesterday. so sad to think it will be months before we see them all again.

so we're back. heading to charlotte tomorrow to visit with cousin zoe (age 5) who is with yah-yah for the week. we should have some great fun there too.

i'm trying to learn more about this blogging thing, so hopefully i can post some video soon. and learn how to put captions in the pictures.

enjoy your hot day!

the mountains!

so we're back from the mountains, jeff's family has departed from our mini reunion, and rich solved most of our computer problems. whewee! it feels good to be back online.

this is a test, so i'll blog more in a moment. check out our kitchen table in montreat. lots of blue! go heels!

computer crash!

sorry i've been so quiet on the blog-front. the hubs has really put a wrench in things for me! my outlook was completely deleted - emails, contacts - and my entire system of putting photos on our computer, sending out info in general has been majorly halted!

the hwang clan comes on friday so hopefully the eldest son, rich, can help revive my near-and-dear info. he's such a techy (sp?) and we love him so for that! a more updated post soon, hopefully with some beautiful photos of the mountains. we are taking the reunion to montreat for some needed R&R together.