Sprang

Don't you fret my little chickens, spuhrang is a comin'.

photo challenge sans street light

 texture

 something i do every day

the sky

favorite sweater

this is theo, when he was still called 'muffin'

Autumnal Mumma.

My husband surprised me yesterday by giving himself a mini-vacay...a few days off from work. I LOVE it when he's off work and home with us.  Then, THEN, this morning? You guys? He got up with my early riser boys (they are his boys, too, don'tcha know) and I was sleeping sweetly until nearly 8:30, when I woke up all on my own because my body was ready to stop sleeping and start waking and move about. I've heard of other people experiencing this sort of thing. In fact, if you've ever spoken to me for even six minutes you know that my greatest wish is to sleep as long as I sleep and wake up on my own.  I'm not kidding, here, my husband has, yet again, made my dream come true. Sleep is so stinking awesome! So is, you know it, my SUGAR BOOGER.

I love this cool weather, crunchy leaves, the color in the trees, the panic of the squirrels, and you. Happy Friday!

Who is ready for picture day?

Pick me!

(it was Wednesday)

 click-click! I got this.

 oh yes, i am the cutest strawberry eater. ever.

and yes, my mom has since trimmed my fro.

shh...please don't tell on me

i JUST have to share this picture.

i'm learning

last week i met this kid at parker's lake for a stroll and a pose

he's just got the sweetest face.

the week before i was at the depot with this lovely young thing.

there are so many ways to go with an edit...

i just love those jumping photos, so i asked her to go for it

so fun, right?

and here's what jb did when i suggested he jump off the bench.  awesome smile.

and i love that he just jumped right down, ack!  it cracks me up...only his hand in focus.  i'm learning how important it is to give thorough instructions.

here he is when i was getting stung by bees. i am sure his ma and dad will get this framed, life-size in their living room.  this area was blocked off with yellow caution tape.  we couldn't see any reason why, until i sat down on the bench.  three bees caught me, at least one got jimmy on the noggin'.

it takes me a little bit of warm up time to get the feel of my camera.  i realized it was very difficult for me to arrange a meeting at the right time of day.  if i get another chance to do more portraits, i'll be sure to choose a softer light.  in fact, i invited this feller to meet me in the evening tomorrow for a minute & a few close-ups.  wish me luck!

.....

wishing you a happy friday.

warming up my editor

this is from mem-day out in park point (duluth)

suvi likes to dig in my Christmas decorations.  this heart is a hand-me-down from mari.  i can't remember now if it was suvi or her daddio who put the loop on dad's toe.  that is judah's hand.

theo likes angry birds.

this is a little comparison for you.  i was really playing with the editing.  

i just noticed he only had one shoe on.  poor kid!

and somehow this beach picture hopped in this batch.  where is carol, is my question.  maybe holding b-bel...

don't come a-knockin'

hope your weekend is groovy

a few more wedding day scenes.

until confirmation, my mom brought this guy to sunday school.  he spent many weekends at our house!

his bride is lovely...but i wish i could take those spacers out of matt's earlobes.  but then, i'm his aunt.

i made it with no help from you.

I was a little nervous, I'll admit it, but I made it through the wedding photos!

This is my nephew and his bride.  Love you Matt and Danelle!!

hold on for one more day!

break free, break from the chains.  I'm sorry for the Wilson Philips reference, but it is a song that stays with me.  Whenever I hear it or think of it I remember sitting on Mari and Tim's blue couch listening to the entire cd.  Late 80's, early 90's.  I spent a lot of time at their house: "babysitting," napping, mooching, doing my laundry, picking on the kids... one time i had my clothes on the line and Kevin shot up my clothes with a bb gun.  there were tons of divots in my fave lime green gap cardigan.   AAAAnyhoo, it's rather gray and chilly here today, so I am looking back to the sunshine of one month ago at the arboretum.  And I will hold on to the memory for one more day.     There's another 'holding on' song that bounces around the old noggin' quite often...it's from The Cat in the Hat on PBS.  "holding on, holding on, you'll never get me off cuz i'm holDING ONNNN!" 

There are other kinds of 'hold on' that are less happy.  The kind of 'hold on' you say over the phone when you have to shush the kids or grab a pen.  Or the kind that really means 'not now.'  How about the 'hold on' we use when we really want to exclaim, "Wait. WHAT!?"  At this moment, I'm sweeping the baditude hold ons under the rug, or shaking them off the rug out on the rug-beating thing with that big rug swatter.  And I am warming my back in the sunshine and my eyes in the flowers.  This day feels good and right and warm, and i am happy to hold on to it.  I'll hold on to the three and four year olds who drew masks on their faces with markers-for the second day in a row.  I'll hold on to my 18 month old who's a little under the weather, and pretty snuggley.  He's waking up from his nap.  I'll hold on to the happy little break I took online just now.  Hold on for one more day!

You gotta play to win.

here it is.  my 500th post. (cascade of confetti)
my plan was a playful, celebration post...can you believe it?  five hundred?
my plan was a little fishing for interaction from my readers.  i am longing for some participation!
it isn't coming to me...how can i draw some reaction from my readers?  i googled contests.  i kind of liked this one:
Construct a sentence of at least 6 words where every word starts with the same letter. (ex-super sweet softball shoes should shine)
You cannot use a letter if another contestant has already made a sentence with that starter letter.  Unless all 26 letters have already been used.
what do you think?  are you ready to play to win?  i want some InSPIRaTion!  eLeVaTiOn! intervention? why not.  i want to see your creation.  enjoy your contribution. so,if you want to celebrate, if you want to enter a drawing to win this, 

then you'll have to play along with me. you can enter by emailing me. (please use 'ethiopifinn' in the subject) or by commenting on this post with some mamAlliteration.  i want photos.  something wonderfully wonderful or horrendously ugly.  i don't care which way the wind blows, i just thrive on the movement.  seriously, if you want something from me, you have to knock my socks off.  i want an inspirational story/experience/hope.  i like limericks! a super fabulous joke? (no s-e-x or poopoo or boogies.  i'll delete right after i puke.)  why not compile a group of fan-freaking-tastic hairdos!?  OR. a mother-in-law story, in honor of my VIP.  (i roasted the coffee beans for mine today.  she was tres impressed.  go jenny.  go jenny.)  i like top five and top ten lists. just give me something, for crying out loud.  i want to laugh, i want to cry, i want to snort, i want to sigh.  yes.  the contest is to draw a reaction from me with your contribution. me, the Queen of Everything.  or we, the Queen of Ethiopifinn.
i'll give you til next friday, september 23rd. a weener will be posted on monday, september 26th-ish.

stone arch bridge and a caribou crossing

downtown

that'd be the mighty mississip'

my sils are so beautiful

                     I would like these fluffy, feathery plants in front of my house next year.

purple flowers are da bomb

my sugar boogar and me

those apartments are in NE mpls

we bumped into a group of my pals...a send off as a Northern Bird migrated

(hope you are enjoying it up there, my yooper friend!)

but the afternoon before that, at a caribou in the dreaded maple grove,

a beautiful thing appeared...

a little surprise visit



raindrops on roses

i'm ready to find a new post here on my little blog, but it hasn't revealed itself as of yet...

But it should be something sparkly and bright.

heh, heh.

it's gray and wet here today.
last week i ordered some new shoes for theo; the honkin' huge shoes that will maybe fit him next year arrived today.  so now i have the task of finding some light-up lace-up sneakers for my finicky 4 year old who doesn't care much for velcro.  ;)

coming & going

Well, well, well.  That is my hope for my three little darlings, that they stay/get well!  It seems that we have had sickos over here for a couple of months.  Gnarly colds from oldest to youngest, then Theo had some kind of bacterial infection that left him whimpering in my arms (antibiotics really can be good!), then Suvi came down with what we thought was hand, foot, and mouth disease, but now, unfortunately, we are pretty sure it's not that (the real name for fever b l i s t e r s). She is really on the mend, and her face looks much improved.  The last spot to appear is still healing, but I can see she is completely back to herself (her non-napping self. what?? i know. she/i really need that rest in the afternoon...), for which i am so thankful.  And Now, Mr Judah Lambcakes is suffering with the same.  He has a mouth and throat full of blisters, and quite a few on his chin.  Poor baby!!!  So they will have a few cold sores in their future.  Small thing, but I just want everything to be perfect for them.  And for now, I just want little Judo to be out of pain.  He slept through the night last night, as did the other two, so Mama got a solid 6 hours of much needed rest-itution. ;)

So that is the sick update. Riveting. No?

here's our dolly on the mend (boots on the wrong feet)...

despite the snow that greeted us yesterday morning, spring is here.  And the snow is gone.

i wish i could just chill like judey <3

can you see the smile in my back yard?

I cut my hair this week.  It was my Midwest Britney moment.  I just stood in front of my bathroom mirror and cut four inches off my length.  And then I tried to shape up the back.  There may or may not have been a little hole in the back...so I might have gone even shorter than my initial vision.  Ahem.  Yes, the hair I've been working on painstakingly growing for over 2 years is now pretty much bobbed, chin length.

What's that? No, no I really don't like it.  Clearly the haircut was not the "haircute" I had planned on. Heh.  It's not a bad cut (thanks to MOE picking up where I left off), but it is just so normal and not at all sassy.  I've been so middle of the road as far as hair bravery for the last couple years, trying to achieve the length, so staying safe in the color and layer veins.  Now that I have been liberated from my lengths, I'd like to take up the funkability, max the sass out.  It may take a few weeks before I stop whittling at it.

411

Here's the 411: this is my four-hundred eleventh post. Word.  We spent a night in Duluth...Love it up there.  We stayed at a new to us place, used the groupon, the gas fireplace and the mondo jet tub, on the point side of the lift bridge.  Sweet.

The kids were concerned that Judah didn't make it to Grammy's house with them, she said he stayed with Auntie Mari.  We're just going to keep up that fib, unless they study the pictures and catch on: Judah was in Duluth!  Theo showed his disappointment at our interrupting his computer time when we arrived to pick them up.  My Suvi-girl hugged and patted and smoochied me for about six minutes straight. I asked them separately how the overnights went; fun at Mari's and fun at Grandma's, although they seemed more relaxed and excited about being at Grandma's house.Theo's been asking for a "Scrub Way" chocolate chip cookie since June when he ate one for the first time.  There was still a little left on the gift card (part of an awesome and super thoughtful gift for Judah's birth) from some HHC girls (and others?), so I knew it was time...Theo squealed with joy.  {People, no need to get your kid a toy or t-shirt when you go away, a cookie will do.}

 

We went for a Duluth weekend to celebrate H's 40th birthday two years ago.  That was the last time we went away together, too long ago.  I was pretty teary for the first stretch of the drive then, the looks on their faces made me feel so bad!  This go round was way easier.  Theo got a little "I don't know why there was tears in my eyes, Mommy, because I was NOT crying, and then they went away," in the evening at Mari's.  But poop stories, like the ones he told, would cheer anyone right up, I'm sure.

Suvi's pressure valve let loose as soon as she got out of the car.  She started sobbing because she was afraid the train was coming (she does not like to be outside when it goes past our house).  She sobbed and sobbed while I was unlocking the door, and for some time once we were inside.  Poor Suves.  She sat with me on the couch, snuggling her blanky-with-stars.  Just let it out, my little Lamb! 
Theo's bawling started after he'd played outside a while.  His little hands were so cold from mudding...it was 'the straw'.  He cried while we rinsed the mud off, he cried while I held him, he cried and snuggled and pushed and acted out...  H took Suvi to the city to get injera, so while Judah napped, Theo was able to decompress.  I remember that it went on for a couple of days the last time...like a punishment for leaving him!  He really did much better this time, I don't anticipate that it will go any further.  After he was all snug in his bed, I layed down with him to whisper and cozy until he got sleepy.  I told him how brave he is for spending 2 nights away from home at two different places.  He closed his eyes and smiled...