A week after giving birth or really being sliced open in a kind of sci fi way (c-section)... zander obliged me for a walk down his parent's street. There and back again, he urged me to venture a little further. We rounded the corner on Lafayette and strolled along the mini canal. He began to reminisce about catching crawdads this time of year with his friends. The air, the light, the sounds, in unison called him back to his childhood.

His eyes suddenly getting big he asked, "would you want to fish for crawdads?!"

Wearily, I replied, "right now?! but what about the baby? he needs to eat soon."

"Nah, he's fine, lets do this!"

Well, if he was going to play that card, I haughtily replied, that as a little girl I didn't use a line and hot dog (as z suggested) but my BARE HANDS! Gasp! Yes, i was a tom boy.

Zander was too excited to bother with my curt response as we decidedly walked back to pillage his parent's place for a hot dog and fishing line.

It was the perfect evening. Ender, our beloved, was napping with grandma, and we escaped.

Barely containing himself, he ordered me to pinch a piece of dog off and he tied it to the line. Seeing that he was taking his craft very seriously left me no room to laugh at him. I found myself getting caught up in his happiness and I listened to the master fisherman. He casted the line in at a shadowy, squirmy figure lurking just below the surface of the silt. The hot dog scared the critter away. He re casted. Then from down stream, an army of crawdads appeared (picture Pirates of the Caribbean when the skeletal pirates are marching under the ocean and the moon light spills onto their decrepit bodies. Imagine, the heart thumping music as they advance with evil stealth toward their fleshy prey). Yes, I tell you the truth, crawdads are just like that!

Zander and I squealed with delight and a little bit of the creeps. The hoard was soon upon the hot dog. Their bodies roiled and fought each other. With a few tries, zander coached me in the art of yanking one up on land. The fishy glutton still ate ferociously as it spun on the line in mid air. Disgusting! I found myself, giggling. Yes, giggling, giggling like a very non tom boy.
That evening i was huckelberry's little girl friend. And I didn't mind.

Besides, if I'm honest with myself. I only pretended to catch crawdads with my bare hands to impress my ultra tomboy best friend, danielle. I actually, just splashed the water really hard as my fingers went for them, hoping that they would be scared off before I was forced to pinch the back of their necks.

Its a very delicate illusion being a tom boy.

oh halloween

my two best friends. as a pilot, its good to have the force of mother nature and the cunning of zorro as your wingmen.

its a very small world

in his world today, his umbilical cord fell off! now he can enjoy baths and showers, though grandma's spas are unbeatable! the kid melts in her lathery palms, ha! its true.

we have matching bags under our eyes. huh.

to make my heart beat a little faster...thanks for the e-mail mom.

Finding myself soaring between Heaven and limbo. i'm quite pleased that Jesus stays awake with me late at night comforting me. " in the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comfort delights my soul" psalm 94:19.

These days clinging to Jesus in a new and desperate way.

tree company

a boy and a girl living as wild people in a tree fort in an abode that is drafty, creaky, old and any wind rattles the frail, leafy windows.

one day, they wake up to an unusual sound. Looking down to see the most strange and beautiful creature cradled in the knarly roots of the tree, the man boy quickly scrambles down to load this alluring oddity in their basket and hoist him up to take a closer look.


it looks like them, but smells a lot sweeter. not sure why they are falling deeply in love, they take the cub and tuck him in a little corner and decide to keep it.


they call him ender.

that night the woodland fairies enter in through their window and tell them secrets about ender. most perplexing of all...these magical beings resemble their own dear mothers.

climb on

ender and i lounged on the crash pad while these nerds scrambled up a beautiful rock face. it is the last hike we will have done before he gets evicted from his kangaroo pouch.

one more week!

on the plot for fall

last season's lessons:

1) know what "grubs" you are disposing of, eh'hem zander! lady bug babies are great!

2) water slow and deep

3) heat wave tomatoes are true to their name.

4) corn is a waste of our humble plot's time. it attracted gluttonous green caterpillars.

5) don't be afraid to start a compost pile, they actually work!

6) give most away! especially to moms who know how to thoroughly use the potential of a home grown good.

A quote for our zander: "Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden" -orson scott card.

~isla victoria's~ birthdays

1st day with nana. pool party.
aunt leslie's homemade isla bean bags.

an aunt extraordinaire

aunt kim, bless her, is endeavoring to make little alexander v a quilt! i sent her a splash of ideas that hopefully she can make sense of. i'm too all over the place when it comes to colors and themes. i can't wait to see the magic she weaves. i'm on sewing pins and needles! ha!

a rich man's song

people smile and tell me i'm the lucky one
and we've just begun, i think i'm gonna have a son
he will be like you and me, free as a dove
conceived in love, the sun is gonna shine above

even though we ain't got money
i'm so in love with ya honey
everything will bring a chain of love
in the mornin when i rise
you bring a tear of joy to my eyes
and tell me everythings gonna be all right

seems as though a month ago, i was beta chi
never got high
oh i was a sorry guy
and now i smile and face the girl who shares my name
now i'm through with the game
this boy will never be the same

pices, virgo rising is a very good sign
strong and kind
and the little boy is mine
now i see a family where there once was none
now we've just begun
yeah, we're gonna fly to the sun

love the girl who holds the world in a paper cup
drink it up, love her and she'll bring you luck
if ya find she helps your mind, better take her home
oh dontcha live alone, try to earn what lovers own

even though we ain't got money
i'm so in love with ya honey
everything will bring a chain of love
in the mornin when i rise
you bring a tear of joy to my eyes
and tell me everything is gonna be all right

ender's dreams

these winged beauties will hover in front of an old map of arizona. so while he is getting his pants changed, he can dream and scheme his desert escapades.

little oklahomas

some dads don't know how to talk to their daughters. when it comes to apologizing, they just tap into their martha stewart psyche and voila! a garden masterpiece! the man is full of mysteries!

ender's sea parents

leslie.
sperm whale: specifically moby.

They have the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on Earth.

Sperm whales and giant squid may be mortal enemies. Many stories of deadly battles between these two massive animals exist, and sperm whales have even been seen with suction cup-shaped wounds and remnants of giant squid in their stomachs.

zander.

Seahorses are truly unique, and not just because of their unusual equine shape. Unlike most other fish, they are monogamous and mate for life. Rarer still, they are among the only animal species on Earth in which the male bears the unborn young.

Male seahorses are equipped with a brood pouch on their ventral, or front-facing, side. When mating, the female deposits her eggs into his pouch, and the

male fertilizes them internally. He carries the eggs in his pouch until they hatch, then releases fully formed, miniature seahorses into the water.

{nationalgeographic.com}

cool photographers in cool jeep clubs

http://www.keijiiwai.com/Clients/SchultzFireSmall.mov

thankfully, it is under 'control'.

peach farm!

two of the weirdest, coolest people i know. zander and our neice abdul-qaadir, well her christian name is isla, but she had to convert to protect herself from the sun. very typical here in phoenix.

the fellas

"Through it all there is order and symmetry and a vision of what the completed edifice will be, a vision of a perfect structure, dedicated wholly to the honor and glory of a great, good and loving God" - margaret ecclesine i just knew these photographs would be the perfect pairing!

what can i say?

if its a boy, i hope he's just like this guy! and if its a girl, i hope she's just like this guy!

my body is the host of the most mysterious kind. a human being. i cannot grasp that there is a separate person within. i think i almost did, one morning, but the understanding was faint and fleeting.

life in me!

i wonder, "this has never happened to me before!" i wonder again, "perhaps, though, it has..."


i have the life of God in me, an infinite being. that powerful Someone who defied death, gruesome perversion, and decay has made a perfect little hovel in me.

i'm really anticapating feeling the baby's jiu jitsu moves, but i cherish deeply when i feel the Spirit move.


oh i can't wait to be like this woman!

greg & erin - camp

& noah was only a twinkle in their eye....

i think i had a perelandra moment....

with a lilac tree.

i was utterly stunned by its fragrance, its form, its existence. they visit junipine, like i do! but they come in may, apparently.

thanks to divine intervention, i encountered my very first lilac cluster. i will never be the same again. no seriously. img.credit



by another divine intervention, zander and i were walking habitually to our fry's store, down the way, when we walked into a fog of jasmine exhaling. i stopped dead in my tracks. unbelievable! a corridor of them all escaping over a neighbors backyard wall. now a pinch of them are visiting. they are drenching us.

"smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the weedy mass of many years and experienes. Hit a trip wire of smell, and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth." - diane ackerman

oh my!

scrumdiddlyrumpcious!