the coolest cousins..

my cousins are the sweetest. i'm so thankful to be living in the same town as them, and they crack me up regularly. alex is thirteen (i literally can't believe that), and ellie and faye are nine. here are a few e-mails that i exchanged with the two of them recently.

faye: Did Ruby get the chicken pox? aww! I am sorry! hope Ruby will feel better soon

me: Hey Faye! Ruby does have the chicken pox. She seems to be feeling ok but she has some red bumps on her body and she can give them to other people who haven't had chicken pox yet. I love you! <3>

faye: hope she feels better soon! love you!

short, sweet, and to the point. gotta love that.

ellie: (e-mail titled: RUBY HAS THE CHICKEN POCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Dear Alinna, I can't believe RUBY has the chicken pocks! I Feel so bad for her! Is she throwing-up or coughing or stuff like that?

( I found out when mom blurted out,"OH NO, RUBY HAS THE CHICKEN POCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!" and saw it on her phone).

me: Hi, Ellie! Yes, Ruby does have the chicken pox. She is not really coughing or throwing up, but she just has some red bumps on her body. Thank you for making sure that she is ok. I miss you! <3>

ellie: Dear Alinna, That is a relief! I am so glad! When she gets rid of em, mabye we can chat on gmail.

i love the enthusiasm.. and of course i love that she wants to chat on gmail. :)

and, lastly, a little update e-mail about the status of her braces sent from ellie to the whole family.

ellie: I think i might get my braces off the next time I visit at the orthodontist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) -February 23, 2011

they just melt my heart. i love how much they love ruby, and that they're at an age to be able to communicate so well (especially through technology! impressive.). oh, and did i mention that they both have a blog? i linked to them above. like i said.. the two of them and alex combined.. the coolest cousins.

finally..

i was crafty! i'm thankful i finally let the crafting bug bite me a couple times. it's hard to fit that love of mine into life as i know it right now, but it always feels good once it happens. here's what's happened lately.

i've been wanting to make curtains for ruby's room since, well, i can remember. we've actually never had curtains in any of the three places we've lived since we got married because i'm stubborn and wanted to make them rather than buy, but then i never got around to actually making them. until now. these are my first curtains ever, and i'm not in love with how they turned out, but they get the job done and i learned a lot for the next go round. i wanted to use this thick fabric i bought from a random home furnishings sale my sister-in-law and i went to because i thought making ruby's room a bit darker would help her take better naps and wake up later in the morning.. wishful thinking, i know. :) they haven't made a big difference in that department, but even ten or fifteen minutes here or there is enough for me.

and here's the pincushion i made for my sister-in-law's birthday. i think it turned out super cute! i like this pattern a lot, and the only change i made was adding rice to the bottom since i couldn't find the natural batting they suggested to make it weightier. i'll probably be making one of these for myself, and any other friends i can think of who'd like to have one sitting alongside their sewing machine. you came to mind, jessica anderson. :)

welp, hopefully i'll be in the crafting spirit more often from here on out, so i'll share whatever comes up next.

balumtine'th day..

i'll take any excuse to watch a dave barnes video. so hilarious. happy valentine's day!

flawed..

although i do attempted to add some "saltiness" to the content of my blog, sometimes i find that overall what i include here tends to err on the side of what is flowery and in some ways keeps from showing more of the "realness", you might say, of my life. so, i thought i'd submit some not so favorable tidbits to add some balance..

..sometimes i do not love my place in life right now. i see single/childless free friends around me and envy them at times. parenthood and marriage can be tiring and overwhelming, and i never want to get to the point where i deny that. i don't dwell on these feelings nor do i forget that there are many who want nothing more than a mate and/or child, but nonetheless now and then i really feel like i could use a day off.

..i compare myself more than i should to other people. friends. moms. wives. christians. non-christians. small talkers. crafters. bloggers. child raisers. worker outers. career havers. intellectuals. home owners. debtless folk. wives of regular-hour-working spouses. the list goes on. i often spend more time waiting on who i hope to be than enjoying and appreciating who i am right now.

..sometimes i have roaches in my kitchen and it mortifies me.

..i am yeller. i don't do it all the time and i believe it's something i can and will overcome, but it does happen. sometimes i am much harder on and get more frustrated with ruby than i'd like to, and it breaks my heart and spirit every time.

..i still haven't fully worked through all of the transition that has come during the past few years. i would say that it's made me more fragile emotionally than i'd like to be, but it also makes me self evaluate because if i don't it just ain't pretty.

..i am judgmental. i have more opinions about what other others do than i'd really like to say, and i very often have to ask for God's heart and words towards them because my own need to be put in major check.

..i'm lazy. i lack motivation in a lot of basic areas in my life right now, and i am prone to letting meaningless pastimes keep me from being productive.

..i can be a major nag. sometimes i really don't know how daniel puts up with me.

..i have very little consistency in my walk with the Lord. i doubt a lot, and very often have more questions than answers.

..i deep cleaned our bathroom for the first time last week since we moved into our apartment. in september.

well, there's some of the down and dirty for you. there's more, but there's no need to be excessive. :) like we were talking about at journey group last week, vulnerability is something i so appreciate about others but can at times stray from myself. here's to putting it all out there.

progression..

sometimes i look at this sweet girl and think about how bald she still seems.. and then i remember this progression. i do look forward to braid and ponytail days though. :)

crafty..

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