harpyr.

I've taken to exploring the forest trails near my home and came across this placid forest pool where I can contemplate the forest's beauty.

Current Mood: content

Everytime I think about updating this thing I feel as if I should take the time to sit down and write something lenghty and thought-out which means that it never happens because I just don't ever have the time or energy for it. So I am now making an attempt at squashing that feeling in order to just hop on here for a couple of minutes and pound something out just so this isn't neglected any longer.

Today the weather is hot and sunny.. a welcome change from the mild 60 degree, cloudy, rainy weather that this summer has been characterized by. Although by hot, I don't mean anything near what y'all down in the states have been enduring of late.. Ugh... I don't think I could survive a week of 100+ degree weather.. I am miserable when it gets into the 80's. By hot I mean that today it's in the low 70's and it's hot enough to make me all sweaty...blech.



I should take the kids to the lake or something but I wouldn't feel right about it considering how much house work needs to be done. We got way behind in the last few weeks before the wedding and we still haven't recovered. Every room in the house is wretchedly cluttered and I'm soo tired of it. It doesn't help that I'm not an organized person by nature. It's something I have to struggle with.

Right now the big thing is baby proofing. While Zayzay has been crawling for almost two months now, she only now just really cruising at a goodly clip and starting to seriously investigate
e v e r y t h i n g. Meaning that my babyproofing of the house cannot be put off any longer.
A friend gave us a higb chair and right now she's sitting next to me munching on some tempeh and rice chex. She still gets her primary sustenence from mamasmilk but she is snacking alittle bit everyday. She has started going after what we are eating and is soo cute.




I've been really enjoying taking pictures with the wonderful camera my mother bought us as a wedding gift. It gets really up close to stuff like no other camera I've ever owned and it's opened up a whole new realm of photography! I am LOVIN it.



Allrighty... off to clean... evermore....

Current Mood: hot

http://flickr.com/photos/harpyr

Current Mood: happy

oh dear o mee oh my... I've not been very good at keeping up with this blogging buisness....

Lets see..the weather has been really nice here lately.. I've been slowly getting a little herbal container gardening going. So far I've got basil, cinnamon basil and mint..yuuuum.. Herbs are definetly my favorite thing to grow. I think I'm going to get some flowers going this year too. Haven't gotten started on a veggie patch yet but I'm still planning to get atleast a few things going, even if I don't undertake a whole garden.

On the wedding front, we've finally nailed down a reception site. Thanks entirely to my father who stepped up and said he'd take care of that aspect. THanks DAD! It will be at a nice riverside restaurant that has a banquet room. It's a great place.. a log building with a nice Alaskan ambiance and a beautiful deck overlooking the Chena river. Still haven't nailed down a place for the actual ceremony yet.. I know that June 24 is practically on top of us so I'm having a bit of anxiety but I'm trying to have faith that things will work out.

We got Quinn signed up to play tee-ball this year. I'm a little concerned that we haven't recieved the phone call telling us which team he will be on, considering that try-outs were a week ago but I'm assuming these things take time to sort out. We bought Q a tee, bat and special tee-ball ball and have been out practicing in the back yard. He's very excited about the whole thing and such a quick study. I'm having fun being the his coach.. it reminds me of my childhood tee-ball days when my dad was showing me how to throw and bat.

Azalea has four new teeth on the top now.. bringing her total to 8! Can you believe it? I'm kinda surprised she's getting them this fast. Quinn didn't have this many until he was nearly 1, if I remember correctly. Zaylee is still nursing exclusively but she's tried little bites of things here and there. Some banana, some curry rice, some chicken and veggie burger just last night, some mashed peas. So far she's liked everything except the peas, which made her scrunch up her face into the ultimate "YUCK" expression- soo cute.

For fun lately we've been doing a weekly poker game with some friends. It was their idea and I think they've been abit surprised to find that I'm not exactly a novice. In fact, I usually end up taking everybody's money. I guess during my years living with an aspiring professional poker player some knowledge of the game rubbed off on me. It kinda surprised me as well.

Current Mood: cheerful

So.. it's a bit late but here's an Easter update. We had great fun the night before Easter painting eggs with my brother Doug, who was in town visiting. Quinn is quite the budding artist.. he even managed to achieve some kind of antiquing effect on one of his eggs, making it look all cracked and aged.. (and no... not by actually cracking the eggs..lol) We couldn't figure out how he did it and he wasn't sharing his secret. Artists must remain mysterious I suppose..

The Easter bunny arrived as scheduled and Quinn had great fun locating the hidden eggs and basket. He's much better at it this year than last.. In fact I think this was the first year that it was fun and not frustrating for him. Quinn was very happy that the bunny brought him a dinosaur fuzzy coloring poster that he'd been wanting.. He said, "It's what I was always wishing for!!"

Current Mood: drained

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Today we are off to take a walk and stop by the tourist information center to hopefully get some ideas about where to have our wedding ceremony.. I'm starting to get really anxious that we haven't nailed down a particular site yet....Yikes!

Current Mood: anxious

Today we are off to a birthday party across the street. Little Becky is turning three! Quinn picked out a My Little Pony stuffed purple pony with rainbow yarn hair.. She's cute!

Current Mood: happy

So.. here's what I've been up to lately.. planning my wedding gown.
I've already purchased the central component. The underbust bodice in a stunning dark purple on black.. it's being custom made to my measurements right now. Yay! Check it out. (Just the bodice.. not the undershirt)


So the next step is to find the dress to go with it.. I think I've found my ideal.. I just need to see if they can alter it ever so slightly in the neckline area.. I need it to be stretchy or drawstring so I can breastfeed in it.. It's soo pretty.. I'd like it in the sage green color.




I'm really enjoying browsing around the renaissance clothes makers on the internet.. There's soo many!

I also have to share the cooolest thing I've come across in a long time..Handmade leather masks.. They are stunning!
http://www.falconrose.com/FALCONROSE/MAPx.html





I'm in love!

Current Mood: excited

Just went grocery shopping and Quinn had a total meltdown in the checkout isle. I knew it was a mistake to get him a toy. I never do that and the first time I end up giving an inch, he throws a fit to try and take a mile. Aargh. I won't be taking him shopping with me for awhile. It's so embarrassing to have a 4 year old screaming bloody murder at the store. Remarkably, Azalea was perfectly quiet the whole time. Usually she's the one who fusses before the shopping trip is over.

I've got to mention that I'm addicted to MySpace now.. I've found a whole bunch of people that I haven't been in touch with for YEARS.. It's pretty cool. My site is pretty too. :D www.myspace.com/harpyr

Right now I'm reading "The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It" and boy, is it an eye opener!

Current Mood: embarrassed

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set
up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away
They moused
They faxed
They e-mailed
They e-mailed with attachments
They downloaded
They did spreadsheets
They wrote reports
They created labels and cards
They created charts and graphs
They did some genealogy reports
They did every job known to man

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.
Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly
flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off
Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curseword
known in underworld. Jesus just sighed
Finally the electricity came back on, and both restarted
their computers.
Satan started searching frantically, screaming "It's gone! It's
all GONE! I lost everything when the power went out!"
Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files
from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate "Wait!" he screamed "That's not fair!? He cheated!
How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"
God just shrugged and said

JESUS SAVES


---------------------

Its' nice to start the day with a joke. Now I'm off to make a post-breakfast, pre-lunch snack.....Sometimes I feel perpetually hungry....

Current Mood: hungry

Poor little Azalea has a cold. I'm afraid it was the girl scout cookies that did it. Too much sugar is bad for the immune system and the day after I binged on thin mints and samoas my little girlie got super irritable and green boogers. The only way to get her to go to sleep is to do a little bouncy step while holding her for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. The first night she woke up at midnight and wouldn't let me put her down until 3 am. The only thing that kept me sane was that I could pop in an Alias dvd for a distraction.
Have I mentioned that I'm officially addicted to a t.v. show that has been on the air for almost 5 years but never noticed until now, it's final season? Brett and I got so hooked watching season 1 reruns that we splurged and bought the first three seasons off ebay. Two weeks after getting them and I've already watched all 66 episodes. Yeah, I went into total t.v. junkie mode to such a degree that my eyeballs were hurting.
There's just something I can't resist when it comes to young, intelligent, beautiful, strong, brave, kick-ass ladies sneaking around fighting bad guys with gusto while wearing super sexy outfits. I used to want to be a spy when I was a kid and some part of me still likes to live vicariously through such fictional mediums as t.v. My eyeballs are relieved to be taking a much needed break from the t.v. watching. Also, my library books need to get read soon before they are overdue.

I have to share what I discovered today- it's a video of Nirvana performing on a British t.v. show.
( http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2006/01/nirvana.mpeg )
Aparently the BBC forced him to sing live over the recorded instrumentals from the album. It's soo strange. Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic made no attempt to appear as if they are actually playing their instruments and Kurt sings in an octave lower with this kind of a lounge singer take on it. Not to mention some different, more twisted lyrics. It's eerie and oddly amusing and yet manages to strike me with this sense that I'm seeing this rare, hidden glimpse into a secret aspect of a band that is of mythic proportions within my generation. Much of the power of Nirvana came from this sense of intimacy that Kurt brought to stage and this performace conveyed a sense of sarcasm in a way that made me laugh out loud. Another thing that really tickled me is that this performace took place on November 27, 1991- my thirteenth birthday. I love it.

Current Mood: amused

today during my daily perusal of the vaccine forum..
If I were to call Child Protective Services and say,
"I am planning on injecting my child with mercury, formaldahyde, aluminum and antifreeze and was just wondering what the proper amounts are," I would be carted off to jail.
But nothing is mentioned of that when you take your child in for their vaccinations at the tender age of 2 mo., 6 mo., 12mo. and so forth, even though those are the very same substances that they are pushing on our children. I think that's twisted.

A mother on the site mentioned that her pediatrician told her if she didn't sign the permission slip to administer the vaccines then the doctor could potentially be charged with assault with a deadly weapon!

Even the CDC will admit that the odds of having a serious reaction to a vaccine is greater than dying from one of the vaccine "preventable" diseases..

It saddens me that I didn't research this issue fully soon enough and allowed Quinn to be injected with these toxins. I mean, mercury is the second most toxic substance on earth after plutonium, for cryin out loud! I keep running that realization over and over in my head... How on earth could anybody claim there is a "safe" amount of this poison to inject into our children?? I don't need science to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that vaccines cause long term injury to people, it's only common sense as far as I'm concerned.

Okay.. Enough of my ranting.. I guess I'm just not in the mood to write about much else... oh well.

oh, here's an interesting read... http://spaces.msn.com/vaccination/

Current Mood: angry

WoW!

I just downloaded Google Earth ( http://earth.google.com/ ) and it is AWESOME.  I can see our house, albeit somewhat fuzzily.  Just put in an address and it zooms right in!  Holy Cow, it's wonderful and frightening at the same time....
I can't stop exploring with it... theres's so much to see and so few hours in a day that aren't filled up with food making, diaper changing, dish washing, laundry folding and kid entertaining.......

Beware everyone out there.. someone may be watching you from above.. heheheheh..

Current Mood: excited

hear that?





Everything is quiet here.
Azalea is sleeping.
Quinn is across the street at his buddy Dana's house.
Even the dogs are sleeping.
The only sound is my fingers typing and the computer fan whirring.
It's kinda wierd.

I guess I should be cleaning or doing something productive...
I have a hard time tearing myself away from this computer sometimes. Why am I so adverse to cleaning? I really just dislike it. I'd much rather be reading. I'm such a book worm...

Right now I'm reading 'Evidence of Harm'. It's about the issue of thimerisol in vaccines. It's a shocker, I've got to tell ya. It boils down to the fact that mercury is the second most toxic substance on earth after plutonium and yet our government allowed vaccine manufacturers to put it in something that we inject into our children at the very youngest of ages. How is that okay???
The media makes it seem like the book is closed on the issue but it really isn't.

Okay.. I really must go clean now. The house is no longer quiet.. the munchkin just woke up from her nap....

Current Mood: thoughtful

I'm having a blah sort of day..
It's all cloudy outside.

Last night Brett and I had a discussion about our future and what we want from it. We are both afraid that we will have to sacrifice our dreams to pursue what the other wants.
He is passionate about reptiles and dreams about being a serious herpeticulturist who breeds a wide variety of snakes.
I am passionate about permaculture and living in an intentional community with others of like mind, where we grow much of our own food and are as self sustaining as possible.
We don't know how compatible these two goals are and it's difficult enough to figure out how to manifest just one of these, let alone both of them simultaneously.

I'm thinking that we need to pick one or the other and start with that and then work on the second goal after we got the first one underway atleast. Of course neither one of us wants to be the one who has to put their goals on the backburner.

What really sucks is that it always essentially boils down to is money. If we had enough money than this wouldn't even be an issue. We could easily manifest both of these things simultaneously. I hate that lack of money causes difficulty in our lives. Blah.

Current Mood: blah

yup.. I've got a little babee sittin in my lap rockin back and forth to the music. (some bluegrass/folksy stuff) I swear she's got to be the cutiest lil girl EVER. She's getting pretty good at sitting up on her own for short periods of time. She's not rolling over yet though. I just read in my 'what to expect in the first year' book that they should be rolling over by the end of the fifth month. Granted, we've just entered the fifth month but she almost never even tries.. The worry wart in me is getting all in a tizzy even though the book said that not all babies hit the same milestones at the same time. *deep breath*

I'm sure she's normal. Everything else is on target and her little legs seem to work just fine. She can hold her own weight on them for several minutes at a time.

The little Q is across the street playing with his buddy who just got back from a two week long trip. So they are stoked to be hanging out. I'm always happy to get alittle downtime from the kiddo. Not that he's really much trouble at all. He's got to be one of the easiest 4 year olds to deal with. He's so considerate and helpful. We are really excited about homeschooling too. He's already writing his name! I just bought a big book of nature activities and I'm sooo excited for the snow to melt so we can get outside and start gardening!

I'm also toying with the idea of taking a homestudy writing course that specializes in writing for children. I'm going to take an evaluation test and send it in to see what they think of me. It sure would be nice to be a writer... work from home.. influence young impressionable minds... hehehe. No seriously, wish me luck. Goddess knows I'm terrible at following through and buckling down to commmit to something like this. I'm going to need all the positive vibrations and motivating thoughts anyone can send my way.

Current Mood: optimistic

for the first time in many weeks we are getting some significant snow. It's nice. Winter always feels more pleasant when there is regular snowfall. This wretched global warming trend has dramatically reduced the amount of snow that falls here in Fairbanks over the course of the winter.

Today is Jeff's birthday. I miss him. I find myself missing the sound of his laughter a great deal. It had an infectious quality. I miss his music. Listening to recordings of it isn't the same.
I hope wherever he is that he is at peace.

Current Mood: melancholy