Naturally Optimistic

Not my photo...but man, I love calling this space my "backyard." *sigh* I wish summer/autumn could hold on a little longer....

Steve & I have wanted to have a block party since moving into our house 3 years ago. Of course we can never managed to get the living room picked up, let alone get a neighborhood party planned. So while talking about the idea with our neighbor Sally about a month ago, she said that she & her husband Jim have also wanted to have a party. And thus the 1st annual neighborhood party was born. We wanted to have it in the street between our two houses, but the cops will only allow that on National Night Out & we missed that by about a month. (maybe next year?) So we decided to have it sort of in our front yard/sidewalk, with room for t-ball & bocce in their front yard across the street. We started setting up yesterday afternoon & hoped that the rain would hold off. We had tables & fun table cloths; a ring toss game & a Clifford bean bag toss game (both borrowed from my friend Melissa). We had fresh veggies & herbs for the taking from Sally's ridic...

Had a lovely visit with Peder & Sarah yesterday. It's difficult when there's 4 kids under age 4 running amok, but they understand how to hold a conversation with on ear/eye on the subject, & the other watching for the toddler who is obsessed with running over to the tallest, steepest slide at the park. I long for days with lengthy conversations that are uninterrupted because dang, I think of SO MANY THINGS I wanted to talk about/ask them after the fact but my brain, while is pretty good at multi-tasking, isn't THAT good. It was fun though to see our kids play 'together.' For the most part. The boys are still very much in their own world & Dahlia's speed is a little less than Relia's but thankfully they all got along! It's so nice to see old friends & be able to hang out as if no time had passed. Oh & after talking to Peder, I wrote again at 750words. I had crapped out of the monthly challenge last week (I blame the fancy tea ...

The long, cold dark is steadily approaching. While I appreciate the cozy nights, a fire in the fireplace, dark skies which make bedtime easier & thoughts of baking pumpkin, I do dread the cold cold coldness of it all. The isolation that comes with it. The LENGTH of winter. So, after a bright beautiful morning, followed by dark ominous skies & pouring rain, followed by near 70 degrees & sunny, I decided I had to get out of the house. August was fussy (as per his norm) but he loves to be outside, so into the Baby Bjorn he went & off we went. This is truly one of my favorite parts about where I live. It quite literally takes me two minutes (less?) to be here:

Today our family went and did our good deed right off the bat. We walked down to the Burrito Union at the lower part of Chester Park and joined in with others who were cleaning the place up. We were a little late, as usual, and we couldn't find the guy handing out bags, but that did not deter us. We walked back home and got our own bags. We were not to be deterred! WE ended up spending most of our time in the upper-lower parts of the park...the trails near the look out on 14th ave E, Along 14th Ave e and the lesser known trails headed up towards 8th st. We found so much garbage! Unbelievable! It was quite a haul back to the BU with our "finds" all the while pushing Dahlia in her jogger. Back at the BU we were disappointed to find out they ran out of t-shirts. *sigh* I love the Burrito Union's whole thing - (for those of you who don't know it's done in "socialist" style...so you order a Two-Fisted Fat Capitalist if you want a really big pulled pork bu...

Well, to us - not by us... Did I mention we bought a new house? Oh, I did but sort of not really? Well, for all of you who didn't just point blank say to me "did I miss something?" we bought a new house! There it is! We originally had a closing date at the end of Sept. Then the sellers moved it up to Sept 1 which really means Sept 2 due to Labor Day and then we moved it up to Aug 29 - so we could take advantage of the long weekend. And hey - if you're going to have 2 mortgages - what's the harm in a couple more days? (*sigh*) We're excited to get in there and rip up some carpet, tear down some wallpaper and paint some walls. Of course our "to-do" list is a million miles long and I think we'll be hiring some pros to do some of it but soon we'll be in our new little house, nestled in the woods. I can't wait! Now....if only we could sell our current house......

I am alone in the house for the first time in 8 weeks and 1 day. It is quiet. It is still. It will not last (Steve is picking up Dahlia from Grandma's as we speak). We tried to go skiing today - it's bloody cold out though. Warm enough this morning (27 degrees) but the arctic air mass moved through and now it's windy and blustery and COLD. Ugh. We got a teensy way onto the trail and turned around - screw that! Instead we hiked in Chester which is much more protected instead. Much better but still cold. Both Steve & I are CRABBY and I think the baby is crabby too. We're going to have Sammy's Pizza for dinner...hopefully that'll ease the crabbiness around this place. I hate being crabby. Tomorrow Dad arrives - YAY! And next weekend we're journeying to Austin - yay! My Mom has even offered to take Dahlia's overnight shift next Friday - I am already dreaming about dreaming!