leaving today!

Getting on the plane this afternoon (for CA). Took Benadryl at midnight last night due to terrible, TERRIBLE allergies. Paying for it today (so sluggish and non-motivated). Wanted to get these pics posted before my trip or they'll be old news when I return. Can't say enough wonderful things about my friend Eliza. This trip was so fun with her!!

for him

I'm in the middle of making some of this for Geof. FIVE minute artisan bread! And how can I not when I find him so often doing things as shown in the below pic?? He is a wonderful man and such a good daddy.
*Don't mind the red eye. Not taking the time to edit pics..

now

I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Yet the blog is a priority? I do it for you, Mom and Dad. I don't even have any pics cuz I can't find my camera battery charger. Haven't looked for it, but still can't find it. (; I'm blaming it entirely on Geof. I could have sworn seeing it in his backpack that he uses for travel. I'm so tired tonight because I've been staying up way too late to watch LOST. I decided to get into it after the series finale since I had a free summer of no school..so nice. It's been great, but not good for me in the mornings when I'm exhausted (and the seasonal allergies I'm dealing with do NOT help). I took Dayne in this morning to sign her up for Kindergarten. Why has this been so hard for me? I think she'll absolutely LOVE it, but I can't believe this little one of mine is old enough to attend school! Isn't she three? We also cut all of June's hair off today. My hair stylist friend Lindsay was against it but we did it anyway. The growing out aline was not cute. Was it a mistake? Wish I had a camera to show pics. I think she's adorable, but Geof. has started to call her boy names. Either way, it'll grow out. We walked around a little lake tonight. We've been wanting to do it forever since we drive by it almost every day on our way to the gym. The kids were in heaven and we tend to be also when we're all outside. There were little turtles (and big) all over the place. So fun to watch their little noses peak out of the water. We also saw a blue heron hiding in the reeds. Amazing stuff! Geof. and I both agree that we've seen more wildlife living out here than we ever did back west (and we grew up in places like WA state and Alaska!). We bought a hammock for our backyard that has made it much more enjoyable (despite the fact that our neighbors are a mere 10 ft. away and that makes for a lot LESS romantic evening swing in the hammock with Geof.). I also started a container garden that I fear might only produce tomatoes and squash. I also planted watermelon, red cabbage, eggplant, melon, cilantro, some sort of bean, and basil. Most of them don't seem to be doing that well. How do you plant a container garden you ask? Well, I was told you plant it in decent size pots and then let the plant either grow straight up like normal, or hang over the pots (like squash and melon, for example) and spread onto the ground. I really don't know how it's going to turn out but was anxious to begin a garden-FINALLY! We did grow tomatoes in Utah one year but that's been the extent of my gardening. I got a hose to water and a sprinkler and Cole comes running home everyday to jump on the trampoline with water shooting up from underneath. Heaven for us both! The kids and I leave on Thursday for a month in California (and a week in WA, too!). I'm starting to get travel anxiety. I'm much calmer knowing this time around we have tickets, unlike before when we flew standby. So not fun. However, it's so nice to have Geof. around to help out with the kids. He's incredible. I've been thinking way more than I should lately about what I'd do if he died (eery?). Such a sad thought. Could I go on? How do people do it, I wonder. I really admire single moms who don't give up after they lose a spouse (no matter the reason). I mean, I REALLY admire those women. I've become so dependent on Geof. I need him every day. Going to sleep now. Wait! I forgot to mention my trip to the edge of Virginia/Kentucky last weekend. I won a trip to Breaks Interstate Park back in October and was hoping GEof. and I could go alone. When that didn't happen, I pleaded with the magazine people (who ran the contest) to let my 3 kids tag along. They complied. With 3 weeks to go before our trip, Geof. told me to take a break and either go alone, or go with a girlfriend. I opted to take my good friend Eliza who conveniently lives 4 hours west of me (and only 2 hours from the park). We had a wonderful time talking each other's ears off until our head and mouths hurt, and eating all the yummy southern hill billy food we could. And to laugh like that! It's been a long time. We giggled all weekend! Southwestern Virginia and its bordering neighbor, Kentucky, are different than ANYTHING I've experienced. We were in coal mining country. Back country. Deep in the bible belt. Great people, but we did think the whole place was a tad creepy and possibly haunted. When I decide to find that battery charger, I'll upload our pics.

*DAY AFTER POST: I found the battery charger this morning, right where I thought it was. Geesh, I'm lazy. I'll get these pics up soon, but I thought this video was too funny not to share. This June is quite the talker. Non-stop, in fact.

Happy day to you, Chris!

Happy birthday to my big brother Chris!! 35 years old..wow! This little video was a spontaneous act. You can tell by Dayne's apathy (I mean, she's turned around for most of the song), Geof.'s obvious irritation with the whole thing, and my choice of clothing (I was on my way to the gym). We love you, anyway, Chris and wish we could spend every summer with you up in beautiful AK.

The A.T.

I've been listening to these books on tape lately about mountain men. Men who follow their Muse to the great mountains of Pakistan and Nepal. The first was Three Cups of Tea, which chronicles the life of Greg Mortenson. While attempting to summit K2 he came upon a village and fell in love with the people. They of course had no schools and the girls in particular were taught nothing. He told them he would build them a school and has committed the rest of his life to raising money and building schools all through out Pakistan. It is amazing the role he has had in educating people and doing more to attack the Taliban than any other single individual simply through abolishing ignorance. I then read John Krakauer's Into Thin Air which was an account of the 96' Everest expedition massacre. This of course had no moral lesson of committing your life to educate forgotten youth, it was a tale of the adventurer, which means who wants to be as close to the stars as they can be while on this Earth.
Needless to say I was day dreaming a lot. Fortunately, I have a great wife who let me go on a quick hike along the Appalachian Trail. The trail runs from Georgia all the way to Maine which is 2,175 miles. I hiked a small portion of this in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. My hike allowed me to come into contact with several hikers who began the AT in March which is a typical start date for those who wish to hike through. The first encounter I had with one of these alter egos was a man named Ten Fitty, an electrical engineer, who after receiving his Masters and putting in a year of work in the rat race, cashed out and bought a pack. Of course his name is not Ten Fitty but those who hike the trail no longer go by their real name. They create trail names, which they think of themselves or have placed upon them by their fellow hikers. Ten Fitty looked burned, bitten, grizzled, and calm. I picked his brain for quite awhile, trying to find out what it would be like to have even 2 months, where the only concern was walking to the next camp site, setting up a tent, and then figuring out which crappy dehydrated meal you wanted to devour. That's it. Those are the extent of your worries. It takes most hikers who complete the trek 6 months. Not that it is continual bliss and you wouldn't miss the comforts of home, but I couldn't imagine the emancipation from the daily grind. Actually, I could.
Luckily for me there are stronger pulls than Sagarmatha, K2, or the Appalachian Trail. There are my 4 Muse below 5'4" who make me whole. Some day when we send off the June bug to school Darla and I will have to take a six month hiatus along the AT.

P.S.

If any of you would like to check on Ten Fitty's status his web site is http://www.iversfam.us.fm/atblog3/atblog.php

I took the kids to an air show last Saturday up in Maryland (Geof. was on a backtrip on the Appalachian trail). The event was awesome! I'd been wanting to take Cole for years since he's loved airplanes, and even more, helicopters from a very young age. He was entranced and also overwhelmed by all there was to see. I say the "event" was awesome because the endless amount of lines we had to stand in was NOT. We stood in line for more than an hour just to go through security to get on a bus to take us to the base. Very high security (possibly because it's the closest air force/army base to D.C.??). We were not allowed to bring food in so once we arrived, the kids and I were starving and had to pay astronomical prices for a little pizza we could have bought in the frozen section of the grocery store. That was almost a 2 hour line. I'm serious. The girls slept in the covered stroller, thankfully.., and Cole was kept entertained by the air show above him. It was hot, hot, HOT and I forgot sunscreen, and although Cole and I were quite burnt when we got back on the bus, we were still very glad we went. Oh, and did I mention the line to get back on the bus was another 2 hours? Absolutely crazy. So, the show was just great, but I think next time we'll choose a smaller base for our air show thrills.

















I got an email from Cole's teacher saying he did really well on the most recent reading test she gave him. That makes us so happy! He's really improved. Lately, Cole's been coming home from school, taking his shirt off, soaking it in the sink, and running out to the trampoline. He stays out there forever throwing his shirt high up in the air and catching it all while doing crazy flips and jumps. I'm so grateful for that trampoline, let me tell you..

Hair

The girl who cuts our hair lives a skip, hop, and a jump from our house and only charges $5 for hair cuts. She's great!! She braided Dayne's hair after cutting it and said I really should learn how (I do know how..but it looks pretty sad when I try) so she won't get as many split ends. I took her hair out this morning and coudln't believe the results. Her hair is beautiful! I remember being in first, second, or third grade (gotta love my memory) and my mom would do braids on each side of my head and pull them under into a loop, like this. (Don't laugh. It's the only pic I could find!!). I had a huge crush on a boy named Brian Burns (I think that was his last name) and later on in the day I'd take my braids out and they'd be flowy and pretty..so I thought. I was sure Brian was so in love with me. {;
We cut June's all short in the back (stacked?) and it turned out adorable! June still has baby fine hair and it'll need to stay short for a while. The curls do help.