Spring break means it’s a little bit tougher to get my workouts in so today I had a teeny tiny exercise time with Eliot that ended up being the best 10 minutes of exercise in a long time.
Today’s workout with Eliot:
4 minutes tabata jumping jacks
6 minutes yoga. First I lead then Eliot lead. He even invented a fantastic little transition move going from downward facing dog to crab. It was inspired.
XOXOXOXO
This weekend husband and I were talking with Eliot around the dining room table where all the best conversations tend to blossom. On Saturday night Eliot asked about why some people break up and then he named all the kids he knows with separated or divorced parents. I then asked him to name all the families he could think of who are still together. We talked about who Grammy used to be married to when my husband was born and Eliot’s face was hilarious. He couldn’t believe the pairings of 30 plus years ago. So after we blew his mind on that topic husband started reading a chapter from Charlotte’s Web to him. I don’t know what came over me but I decided to share with him that when I was in grade 11 science we had to dissect a fetal pig. I may have written about this years ago but the short story is I refused to do it so I was assigned to have a lab partner who would do the hands on work and I would write about everything she did and found. So, of course I named the baby Wilbur and wrote about him in detail and his lost life. Eliot was a little puzzled as to how they got this baby pig (unborn) from it’s mother. He just stared at me and said, “I would have liked to hug it before it died.”
Off the strip in Las Vegas there is a quiet little pale building, with a small parking lot and concrete all around. But inside is a little haven of delightful vegan food. I clearly thought I had a huge appetite and ordered their brunch special which includes almost everything on their menu (kidding, kind of). So here’s our feast! Photos include husband’s breakfast burrito and Eliot’s pancakes. I forgot to take a photo of my trio of desserts, frech toast, pancakes and- oh I forget but everything was very very good!
Sights, sounds and foods to come this week. For today some quiet photos.
A human being and his cigarette caused this:
Stay with me. I’m loopy-tired and had a large glass of red wine. It’s Thursday night February 23, 2012 and I need to write about what happened last night.
Husband and I were talking on the couch and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. We heard a large crash and then pops (this is hard to recall now but it was very loud and unusual). We looked out the front windows- nothing. Looked out the back windows and saw sparks/flickering light. I said to husband something about fireworks and stupid… Well H opened our back door and realized it was a fire, the house behind us was ablaze. We immediately assigned ourselves tasks, H go get Eliot and I grabbed the phone to call 911 (I yelled to H to make sure E had his blanket, we’ve never been without E’s blanket and if this was it and we were about to loose everything I wanted our son to have his baby blanket). I put on my rubberboots and we dashed out the door. I was in the middle of the street yelling into my phone “9-1-1” because you have to say it after the beep! UGH! I was scared and the flames were getting higher and higher faster than I can tell you. I didn’t know who was still in their homes in our cozy cluster of old houses but even in the mayhem I knew it wasn’t windy, I knew it was wet and I hoped the fire wouldn’t jump. There were so many people in the street. Someone yelled to me that 911 was already called. I stayed on the phone anyway, talked with the dispatcher (or yelled, rather that they needed to hurry up). H & E were standing in the street glowing orange and I again, probably yelling told them to move. At the same time a woman came by telling H to get away from the power lines. I looked at H and said, we need the car. I didn’t know how long this was going to last, we were outside, it was cold and we were frightened. I ran in. Grabbed keys. Got the car out. Pulling to the curb as the fire trucks finally arrived. Six minutes felt like 60 minutes. We shivered with fear in the car watching the flames and smoke rise. E kept asking if our house was on fire. I said I don’t know and I don’t think so over and over again. We called loved ones, they called us, H tweeted and facebooked as he trembled. It took about 10 minutes for the fireman to control and 45 minutes until it was completely out. We asked a couple different officers if we could cross the police tape and enter our house again. They finally said yes. We went in. We are grateful. Half the house had a power outage. E and I snuggled up in his bed. He said, “Mommy, I’m feeling all kinds of different things at once. Sad, tired, nervous, happy, scared.” I said, me too. He was soon asleep. I checked on H. Cleaned myself up. Stared at the fire trucks out the front window. I hate bright lights but hours had gone by and now I could just stare and watch the blue and red bleed into purple. I went to bed. So tired, unable to sleep. I just let myself rest with my eyes closed. I heard the trucks leave. H came to bed. I fell deeply asleep.
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I hate cigarettes even more now. And I already REALLY hated them.
Maybe it was because I just had my birthday or maybe it’s because things are finally a little more quiet in our lives but I started to recently reflect (with amazement) on the last year and a half of our lives. When I said this out loud to Eliot and husband, I’m not kidding, Eliot flopped down on his back and said, “Oh it makes me dizzy. Sad. Bad. Good. I don’t want to talk about it, it makes me dizzy.” So husband and I started listing all the events while Eliot, I think, tuned us out.
1. Went to Maui and Lanai.
2. Evicted from our house.
3. Moved 99% of our belongings into storage.
4. Drove to California and moved into my in law’s guesthouse.
5. Husband went to the White House twice.
6. Went to Barcelona, Spain.
7. Went through a severe illness with a very close family member.
8. Watched him recover.
9. Found a house we loved online.
10. All 3 of us came down with an awful flu.
11. Bought our dreamy purple house.
12. Moved back to Portland.
13. Went to New York.
14. Went to the Big Island.
15. E was home schooled for first grade.
16. E started public school for second grade.
17. Went to Mammoth (where E got pneumonia for the second time).
18. I went on my first vacation without husband & E. Wanderlust was SO fun.
19. Marriages close to us ended.
20. Siblings and cousins got engaged.
21. Went to Las Vegas.
22. Went to Disneyland- as much as we could.
23. I started a more devoted yoga practice.
24. Went through a major lawsuit.
25. We sold a lot of our stuff.
26. And of course, so much more. Big and little. Sad and happy. Good and bad. Wow, life. Grateful.
Years ago, I can’t even remember exactly when, I was looking at art on etsy and found work by a girl calling herself The Black Apple. I loved her style, mood, use of color and penchant for portraits. I bought a few prints for hanging in our hallway at that time, which happened to be our first house in Portland. Fast forward to today and I call The Black Apple, Emily and she is a friend. (Life can be lovely like that.) So I wanted to share my love for her work here with a few photos! And to let the Portland peeps who read my blog know about Ms Emily Winfield Martin’s book signing this weekend at Green Bean Books on NE Alberta at 2pm this Sunday February 19th. Hope to see you there! XOXOXOXO
A Black Apple sketch/blank book and her new chapter book, Oddfellow’s Orphanage
Views of their backsides
Eliot’s favorite character at Oddfellow’s
1. I don’t mind if I don’t have a pillow to sleep on.
2. While living in California I was on tv a few times.
3. I had a dream about Eliot just before I learned I was pregnant.
4. Often my dreams come true. Like I’ll have a dream of a person or place or something happening and then it will be true in my waking life.
5. I once ate only raw food for 30 days.
6. I gave birth without pain meds in a hospital.
7. I’ve met Tori Amos twice.
8. One of my close childhood friends drowned when she was twenty years old. I grew up swimming in the Puget Sound with her all summer long when we were young.
9. My mother’s intuition for Eliot is very strong. And he can frequently read my mind as well.
10. Eliot asked me last night if anyone has ever climbed a tree and kissed and I had to answer, yes. Because I have.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
We spent a week here on Hawaii last month and it was magical. I was overwhelmed with peace as I did yoga while Eliot played in the water, trees overhead, birds singing and monarch butterflies playing above my head. Seriously. I couldn’t make up all this beauty in my head if I tried.
It’s against the law to touch the sea turtles and I can’t even tell you how many people I saw touch them! Pet them! Feed them! Stop it! They are beautiful wild animals and our oils on our human hands can hurt their shells and feeding them, do I really need to explain this? Let’s move on. But the photo below was a sea turtle pursuing Eliot’s little colorful intertube hoping for a snack, I think!
So grateful! More Hawaiian memories to come! XOXOXOXO
Heartshapedsky 