My latest garage sale find.  Mama made the mistake of allowing her son to take the Mother Pig and the Goat into the local Winco (grocery store) where they are probably happily frolicking in the bulk bins of brown sugar.  They will surely be missed! 

One of the joys of moving is finding memorabilia.  We have moved five times in five years since being married on July 7 2007, and each time I begin to unpack all of our stuff in our new place, I find more and more boxes I didn't know exist that are labeled "Isaiah's Memorabilia." As much as I enjoy getting the house in order, it is even more fun to uncover Isaiah's memorabilia.  Recently, I found that he had a sketchbook that had portraits of several girls he used to like.

Isaiah and I are both sentimental people and we like to keep everything.  Somewhere along the lines I became willing to give a lot of it up and Isaiah has not. When we were first married, I found five backpacks that were beaten up in his closet when I was cleaning it.  I asked him "Why do you have five backpacks?"  He answered a very long story for each of them.  I allowed him to keep one.  He can let the stories live in his memories.

If you ever wanted to rob our house, you will probably be mostly disappointed. Unless you want a golf ball from a youth group event or piles of philosophy books.  (Oh no I probably just encouraged a bugler to come who has been looking for these items.)

But these things are priceless to us.  It is very hard to get rid of them and I am glad that we can combine our memories together from the past, and make one home.

In order to write this blog, I set my oldest one in front of the computer to watch "Garfield" (from the 80's.) I handed the little one a cordless phone to keep him occupied.  So if you got a strange call from me and on the other line you heard lots of shrieks and squeals than you know why.

Andrew's Graduation Photos

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph my dear friend's son in honor of his graduation.  This is the farm that has been in this family for many many years and is a very special place for them.  I am glad to have had the opportunity to have shared in their memories.  Plus, his grandmother greeted us warmly with a batch of amazing chocolate chip cookies.

I recently had the opportunity to photograph the massage studio of Renew Massage Therapy. Tamera has given me several massages which were of excellent quality.  She took the time to give me lots of helpful suggestions and thoughts regarding the health of my back. I am pleased that I was able to come and take some great shots of her in action in her lovely and inviting studio. 

  

'Til Death do us part

"I" is "Isaiah"
"M" is "Me"


I:  I am dying.
M: Oh, what is wrong?
I: My back hurts.
M:  Maybe you need a back massage.  I can do that, you'll be fine.
I:  No, this is MUCH more serious than a back pain, I can barley walk.
M:  Maybe you need to go to the urgent care.
I: Naw, I'll be fine if I just lay here on the floor for a few minutes.  OW!  OW!  OW!
M: Are you sure you don't want a back massage?
I:  The pain is deeper than that, it feels like a muscle, but it is inside.
M:  I think you have a kidney stone.  Let me look up the symptoms.......Okay you aren't acting like you are in labor you are not having a kidney stone.
I:  OW OW OW!!!!!!!!!!! AAAK AAAK AKK!  This is HORRIBLE!!!!!  help it REALLY hurts!!!!!!!!!!AAAH!!!
M:  Okay, maybe you are in labor.
I:That's ridiculous, I am sure it's just a pulled internal muscle I'm fine.
M:  Okay, well then, I'm gonna carry on about my day.  I'll be upstairs folding laundry.......
 I: (20 minutes later) Glued to a computer screen, hunching over and moaning:  "I think I've figured out what's wrong with me."
M:  Well, what is it?
I:  Well, it's Renal Cancer.
M:  Oh, well that will go away if you just lay down and take it easy for a few hours.
I:  Oh no, it hurts way way too much.  I can't lay down OW OW OW!!!!!!!
M:  Okay well then lets go to urgent care.  There's nothing else I can do for you.
I:  No, I am fine don't worry about it.  (He then gets up and goes upstairs to work).
M:  (30 minutes later, I go upstairs to check on him)  Uh, why are you laying on the floor in a fetal position?
I:  Well, I can't think of a better way to sit and think about who I am going to leave my belongings to when I die.
M:  Well, you don't need to think too hard about that, because all your things will belong to me.
I:  But.....you have to tell Jedidiah I love him.
M:  Okay I will do that.
I: And, that I hope he grows up happy.  OW OW OW!!!!!
M:  Have you tried Ibuprofen?
I:  No.
M:  Well how about it.
Isaiah took Ibuprofen for two days and was perfectly fine. 
Because this story happened over a year ago, I just turned to him and asked him how this got resolved.  He looked at me and said "Are you writing in your blog about all the times I was about to die and I didn't?"

The end.

July 4th

Yardsale

This is how we kept our child from running in the street during a yard sale:  The shoes were kind of heavy for him to run very fast.