Cry Out With Joy To The Lord, All The Earth

That's the first line of psalm 100. It crosses my mind every morning and it really makes me happy to think of all of creation praising the Lord in its own way. Even when it's hot, like it has been here for the last couple days. HOT! So hot that I can only do a little bit of stuff before I want to lie down and take a nap. Blue and Waylon apparently feel the same way. Right now Blue is asleep under my desk and Waylon is outside sleeping under a bush.

It's been so hot that poor Hammy collapsed on the floor of her cage and I thought she'd breathed her last...but she's OK today. I don't know what I'd do if she died; she's such a sweet little hamster.

SIE is on vacation this week so his mom, Kaliedoscope Girl, and I are heading off to see the coast tomorrow. She just had her birthday - on a day in Portland that was as hot as the day she was born in Chicago. Half the guests were under age 5 and spent the party in the backyard seeing how wet they could get - water balloons, squirt guns, and wading pool provided - plus one crazy Hapapapa who kept egging them on. "Wet" = the only way to keep cool. SIE and I made her a lamb cake and the whipped cream gently rolled down the lamb melting into sliced strawberries. Someone called it a camel cake, I think because a naked lamb looks sort of like a camel, but maybe because only a camel could make it through the heat to a party.

I've been working on one of my projects and I'm not sure if I've already told you all about it. I had a kitchen table made to fit the spot in my kitchen that looks like a dining spot. It's made from reclaimed wood and looks like a "Little House in the Prairie" table. Hapapapa said it looks like a table Jesus would make. I've been wanting to stain it and gotten several opinions from people about how to and how not to go about it. Every idea seemed like a little more expense and too much troulbe driving around to look for supplies. So I finally decided to use my old artist's ingenuity. I had some burnt sienna oil paint, a jar of linseed oil, and a hunk of bees wax already in my art supplies. So last week I mixed the oils together and stained the table soaking in the aroma which reminds me of growing up. My mom used to oil paint and she'd put the brushes in her mouth to make the hairs form a point - artists do that. I always thought of her kisses as a combination of lipstick, coffee, and oil paint. It took a couple days for the table to dry - yes, even in this heat! Then I melted the bees wax (my only expense - a $2.00 enamel stove-top pan from the thrift shop) and started painting it onto the table. The 1st area go too thick, so I got out my hair dryer and was able to smooth the extra wax over to a bare spot. Then with an old cloth and the hair dryer, I was able to finish the table top. I love that the wax was made by bees and not petroleum. For some reason I can't figure out, it is very soothing to me to work the wax into the wood. H-mmm?

Next is to finish recovering the sofa and making curtains and my little house will look good! And before long the chilly, wet days of Portland winter will be upon us.

Baby Soon

I've been hoping to paint a picture of the Beachys for my living room. I have the spot ready and the materials...just not the time. I know it will get done before long. I was thinking it would be a nice surprise for Mr. Beachy and Peaches. They've been such fun to have around. And Mr. Beachy has been great working in the garden. Peaches has been busy caring for the baby. But today she surprised me! She brought me a photo of Soon! It's the first "official" baby portrait of dear baby Soon and I think it's so cute. Almost as cute as Soon herself! Don't you just want to hug her? SIE loves her pointy ears. Thank you, dear Peaches!

So How Do They Do That?

I know dogs can be taught a lot of things - like hunting and drug sniffing and fetch. And I know there are training classes for dogs. And I suppose some dogs just have a propensity toward something or other - like Huskies pulling sleds through snow, or bloodhounds tracking lost kids. But something happened the other day that puzzles me and I would love it if someone knows just how they do this.

SIE was over one afternoon this week. He brought his new bike (see www.jodessa.com/blog/ for pictures) and we decided to ride down to the playground near my house. His two dogs were here so we left the back door open so they and Blue could hang out in the back yard. There's a fence around the yard and I am pretty sure that Blue could jump it, but she hasn't figured that out yet. When I first got her I would put two baby gates on top of each other to try to keep her out of the room where I took care of the babies. She would jump it no matter how high and how little running room she had. But so far at our new house, she hasn't jumped the fence, or dug out, or learned to unlatch the gate.

The playground is two blocks from my house and around the back of a school. Blue and SIE and I have gone on walks through the neighborhood in every direction, but only twice to the playground together. On this day, we were down at the playground for about 20 minutes when here comes Blue with a big smile on her face. She had an expression that looked like this was just a normal occurance. I paniced because I wasn't sure how she got out or where the other dogs might be. We went home right away and there was Hapapapapa and the two dogs starting down the street to find us. He had dropped by and perhaps hadn't fastened the gate tight enough when he walked over to the store. When he returned, his two dogs were resting in the grass next to his truck. Smart Dogs!

So, all turned out well and I have just been pondering ever since. How did Blue know where we were? She's a wonder dog, but this I never suspected. Could she smell our tracks? Could she hear our voices from that far away? Could she understand when we were talking about where we were going? If anyone has an idea, let me know.

Ode to Brother Bear & Sweet Sis

Last Sunday was my brother's 40th wedding anniversary. For some reason that seems like a miracle to me. Not the fact that the same wife stayed with him forty years...just that anyone can be married that long. I was only married 13 years, and my parents (D/T my mom's death) were only married 35 years.

I grew up adoring Brother Bear. He's 4 years my senior, so always that much more experience to look up to. He carried around a b-b gun when we lived on my grandma's farm. When the neighbor's Brahma bulls looked toward us, he'd encourage me to be brave: "Hold your breath, don't show fear, and when I say so - RUN!" I remember him cracking his very own bull's whip. Later, when I fell in love with Davy Crockett and Zorro, they didn't seem all that amazing. I felt like Brother Bear had had all these adventures before TV was even invented. I was sure he'd killed a b'ar or two while he was only three.

Brother Bear was allowed to ride his bike on fishing trips Down in the Valley. I was only allowed to go two driveways on each side away from home. I was never so thrilled as when he got a new bike and I inherrited his old reddish-purple one. I rode that one till I went away to college and passed it down to the next sibling.

He went with me to pick out my first prom dress and helped me decide to buy elbow length white gloves instead of wrist length. He taught me to slow dance and practiced with me so I wouldn't be too awkward.

He studied a lot and had a bedroom in the basement through college. We all had to be really quiet so he could work on calculus. If I was very stuck on a homework problem, I could go down and he'd help me on it. And sometimes while making himself a snack late at night, he would make me a "dagwood sandwhich" too. I loved those nights not so much for the snack as for the company.

I don't think I'd met Sweet Sis until the day of Bro Bear's college graduation. I had heard about an office girl where he worked during college - a girl he liked to flirt with. How I heard about her I have no idea. I'm sure he never would have told me about her! She turned out to be wonderful. She was sweet and smiled and didn't treat me like an obnoxious little sister. She probably thought I was a snob - Bro Bear had duly warned me before meeting her to keep my mouth shut and be polite.

They got married on 6-8-68. I was looking forward to having a sister and it had been a rough year for me away at school. Sweet Sis had asked me to be one of her six bridesmaids. Yes, she did! And, yes, I wore a dress. It was pink and long and I think it had an empire waist. I'm not sure but I think my shoes were pink, too. It was a Polish wedding and I was excited to see what it would be like. It was the first time I'd been in the Polish neighborhood and it seemed old-fashioned and sweet with buildings and shops clustered around the church. I remember looking at the outside of the church. It was built of grey stone and had Polish writing on the outside. Inside, in the undercroft, a couple men were already drinking! Yikes! After the Mass there was a formal sit-down breakfast for the families and wedding party complete with Polish meatballs. My then boyfriend had come with me and I think we sat together instead of at the main table. He was a small town boy and totally freaked out at the whole scene. When everyone started klanking their spoons against the glasses for someone to make a toast or to get the couple to kiss, he was horrified. I think this was the first wedding I'd ever been to, but I knew about the spoon klanking and thought it was so much fun. The tradition is for the bride and groom to go to each families' home and have a little welcoming drink and pastry or snadwiches. My boyfriend hid out in our backyard and I felt like I had to take care of him so I felt torn......But the bride was beautiful and even my brother looked pretty handsome. Later was the reception and I was looking forward to the traditional dances and the part where they take away the bride's veil and give her a broom. A pouting boyfriend and a tight girdle convinced me to leave before the dancing began.

Forty years. No boyfriend. No girdles. But still a wonderful sweet sister married to an adored brother.

In Which Miss Ingu Ponders the Day

I'm sitting in my white chair as I write this. The day has just begun. I fell asleep with the blog in my lap last night before I could write anything! I promise - I'm trying to write!

Yesterday was a beautiful day with those grey Irish clouds that make all the greens look like dancing emeralds. Everyone's yard seemed bursting with blossoms that take on such a cool combination of colors when the sky is overcast. To day is the same, but the wind is blustery like a storms a-coming. The trees are blowing wildly and the sound of the trains has a strange muffle to it. And it's chilly. The heat is still on! Who ever heard of a June when the heat still came on.

My day began with Waylon licking my hand, then my cheek. I have heard that having a cat lick you is a special blessing. The licks start out tiny and tender then progress to a rough sand paper cleansing. My eyes are still closed; I'm ignoring him. I think about people who are allergic to cat saliva and wonder why Waylon licks me. Does my skin taste good? Or salty? Or does it stink to him, so he's cleaning me up? Or is he just doing it to annoy me? I try not to move. Maybe he'll go away.

Then Blue comes to the side of the bed. She breathes her dog breath into my face and takes her head and starts bumping the mattress, sort of like a baby goat. With every bump there's a tiny growl. If I hold still long enough will she go away? Nope. The bed bumping and growling increase with eash attempt to rouse me until the whole bed is slamming against the wall and each growl is accompanied by a sharp bark.

I think it's sibling rivalry. A cat and a dog trying to compete at who can make me get out of bed to open the back door and put food in their plates. After all is accomplished, they ignore me.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane. It's a Four Year Old Gymnast! Yesterday morning I went with Kaleidoscope Girl and SIE to his last gymnastics class. His teacher is moving to Corvalis. I had heard about gym class and wanted to see it for myself. The gym was a huge room the size of a basketball court. I'd pictured it smaller. It was sparsely filled with equipment, but had a lot of large, padded floor coverings of different shapes and colors. SIE ran, tumbled, bounced, colided with cushioned walls, and walked the high beam. He would start across the beam, then turn to wave and make sure we were watching. He was wearing his pajamas - more comfy for free movement even though the britches kept slipping down because they're a little too big for his tiny butt. He doesn't care about the slippage. He's mastered a slight-of-hand "pull up action" for such occassions!

After class we sent to check out the award winning roses at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink, stopping first at the bookstore where Sie mannaged to find several books we had to read right there on the spot. I guess that's better - otherwise you'd have to buy them. Then down to the ice rink. Where does all that ice go? We walked around the rink, but it wasn't open for viewing yet...so I still haven't seen Dr. Pottinger's rose in bloom. Then we found a pirate store. When I was little it was Peter Pan and Davy Crockett we loved. Today it's pirates, complete with bildge rats, sabres, and cool bandanas covering dread locks.

Next stop was the Sushi Train. Have I told you about that before? It's a little sushi bar where the sushi is put on a conveyer belt and you grab what you want as they dish passes by. The dishes are different prices according to the color of the plate, so the waiters can just add up your plates when you're finished. SIE is an expert sushi catcher. Miso soup and crab rolls are his favorites. Yesterday he ate 9 crab rolls and a bowl of jello.

Back home by way of the pet store to pick up some dog food. They have a parrot named Claude who talks and can say "Harper" and "Grandma". We stop to see him, as well as the baby guinea pigs and fish, a couple small snakes, and a lizard that hid under the sand.

I thought for sure that SIE would fall asleep on the drive home. But he was still awake and I decided to take him with me on a couple errands. We had to stop at the airport post office to pick up some 1 cent stamps (they're for all those Christmas cards that never got sent). They have a display case with model airplanes that he loves to look at while I'm in line.

Then we stopped at the craft store. I had a purpose in mind and they didn't have what I needed. But SIE found plenty. I could be more disciplined about getting things for him if I didn't like to play myself. I found a bag of blue marbles for Nimblethread's project. SIE explained why he would like a bag of blue marbles for himself - "Grandma, I've lost most of my marbles." We had a controversy over some sequins that were on sale. He claimed he wanted them for himself because "they are so really pretty to look at." I bought them, but took them home. I hope it didn't cause a fuss when he remembered them. We also found a model hot rod that he "really, really needed...please, grandma". I explained that I couldn't help him put it together, but he was quite confident his mom would know how. The clerk gave us a 50% off coupon, so that sealed the deal. And I last saw him sitting with his mom on their living room floor taking a million little pieces out of the box. It didn't look as easy as I thought. I thought I better get away fast! My apologies to Kaleidoscope Girl.