Baby's birth day

Stolen from Marianne's Blog:

Penelope Grace Alene Scrivner
Born 6:21pm at home on August 20th 2009
10 pounds 14 ounces (after three poops)
22 inches long with a 15 1/2 inch head circumference
(she just couldn't let the boys out-do her in any way)

taken with my iphone an hour after birth

Marianne is an amazing woman, to say the least. After 2 c-sections she successfully delivered a healthy and big baby girl at home with the assistance of her loving husband and mother, a doula, a midwife and assistant.

I was privileged to sneak in for the last 3 hours of the birth and experience the joy with the birth of the newest Scrivner. I took many photos and I'm sure Marianne will post them just as soon as I drop them off to her. What a blessed woman I am to have been given the opportunity to share in this moment of strength with Marianne. The moment Penelope wiggled out I was overcome with tears of happiness...I still well up every time I think of that moment. Marianne is a brave, loving mother and I am honored to call her friend.

A cliche' can sometimes have merit

I've done a lot of reflecting lately, as if you couldn't tell. One of the things I've learned is that the cliche' really is true: honesty (really) is the best policy.

I'm not talking about the kind of honesty that happens when someone calls you out, or when you're caught in a lie. I'm not talking about the kind that is shocking or controversial cause you 'went there'. I'm talking about the kind that hurts. The kind that refines you. The kind that can begin with a confrontation.

But another thing I've realized, not everyone likes this kind of honesty.

Just a warning to people that know me. I'm not so timid anymore. If I am wronged, if I am hurt, if we're talking about it behind a closed door when we should be talking about it in the family room, I will say so. This is loving. This is honesty.

Why walk through life with a chain of hurt around your neck? Why carry frustration like a basin on your head?

Of course being confronted by someone is difficult, and being the one to confront is difficult too. But how often can a comment someone makes or a phrase someone types online be misconstrued, misunderstood? I'd wager somewhere in the 'a lot' range.

One reason I want to be someone that is truly honest is because I want those around me to be truly honest with me. If honesty is given out of love, to heal a broken relationship, to further a friendship, to encourage another person, to refine, then although it may be difficult, it is necessary.

Honesty isn't something to shy away from. True honesty is freeing, and better yet true honesty is an amazing way to refine our character.

a note to a friend.

I'm thinking of you. I can't find your address and so I'm writing you a letter here...

I wonder what your drive has been like. I wonder who you've seen and what you've said. I hope you're well and feeling brave and powerful.

I can't wait for you to begin a blog and take over the commentator world. I can't wait for you to call me on your commute home and fill me in on your students and their quirks.

I hope you know I feel we are cherished friends for life and that you must let me stay a part of it. We can have future joys, and tears, and fright, and support together. Just know that I'm willing to keep it going. You being a hella far away means nothing.

And also just remember that we're in different time zones, so don't call to early and I won't call too late.

It sure is a big world that's smaller than we think.
Safe journey.

fall leaves & cheers for scholars

The colors won't last forever, but while they're here, I'm a happy girl.

I couldn't resist snapping this picture
as we stood outside on the sidewalk.
Two of my favorite things to see...
fall leaves & shoes

A while ago, I'm done saying when, cause it makes me look like I'm a slacker, and I'm not a slacker. I want to blog. I love to blog and I love sharing about all the things we're up to... I'm just a bit bombarded with life...so I can't mention the exact date, cause it was over a week ago and I don't remember it, but...

on a crisp Sunday afternoon, we attended as "sit in parents" for an amazing Gutenberg student as she was honored, along with her class, for her accomplishments at this fine institution. They're half way done with their 4 year Course Requirements and after accomplishing the rigorous 2 year exams they were presented with Greek New Testaments at a Tea & Luncheon.


The 2 year exams as described from the Gutenberg Website:

Second-Year Qualifying Exams
At the end of the second year, students take exams that they must pass in order to qualify for advancement to the final two years of the program. The exams, designed to determine the student’s mastery level of basic learning skills and necessary background material, cover the content of all their courses during the first two years. A written math exam focuses on the student’s ability to think mathematically and problem solve. An oral science exam focuses on the nature of science. A Greek exam consists of translating a selection and defending it orally before a panel of tutors. An oral Western Civilization exam gives students ample opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned; administered individually to students by a panel of tutors, the exam consists of a wide range of questions covering the whole scope of history.


I hope you're impressed. I certainly am. Congratulations Class of 2009!

and her name shall be moe-ptuh no more

So you know when you're feeling down and you don't think anything will cheer you up? That's how I was a week ago. As one friend later called it, I was a little bit in the belly of the whale, having a Jonah moment.

Then my man made a call and asked a friend to come by and work at cheering me up. So this guy showed up.




And he brought this with him.





















It is a beautiful, Millennium Falcon-esk, canary Moped. Or as we lovingly refer to it a Moeptuh.

So here I am, takin' it for a bit of a ride. Lovin it and wishing I'd opted to wear the helmet. But never-the-less, feeling smiley for the first time in a time. For some reason blogger hasn't made it possible for people with Macs to upload videos. Otherwise you guys would see a sweet, sweet video of me ridin dirty all on this moeptuh.

Thank you to my man. Don't I have a good one? I haven't mentioned this before have I? And of course, how could he resist taking it out for a bit of a spin himself? He is now trying to convince me that we need to find a couple of moeptuhs for ourselves. Joesighmah has even offered to assist us in creating our own custom bikes, I guess time will tell.

And a big thank you Jo-sigh-mah for taking time out of your Saturday to ride your moe-ptuh over to my house. You made my day brighter, one (meaning me) might even call you a bit of a hero.

i smile about the memory

*a sitting with walter update.

Since finding my camera battery, then loosing all the digital photos on my hard drive, I have realized what a life saver this blog has been. I post about life and things I'm doing and then I post photos from all of the events, and then, when I transfer all my photos to my external hard drive and erase them from my laptop hard drive and then realize that they are not on the external hard drive ... I don't have to cry for too long, cause they are on blogger, along with little journal entries and they are saved from hard drive erasing sadness.

Since I didn't have my camera to take photos of walter in his worst state I thought it was fitting to show an update of how his leg is doing after being hit by a car (while on his bike), having surgery to put a metal pole in his leg, and being forced to hobble about for a month.



This was taken at the Wandering Goat coffee shop where Walter works. They make a beautiful and delicious tasting cappucinio. go there and drink one.



We were all there to see my husband's band play a show. It was worth the wait, the place was packed with heros and heroines, the science was delivered and the science buttons were devoured by all the friends of science.

Although this was on September 17th and I'm just talking about it now, does not mean I didn't love it and adore seeing everyone I hadn't seen in forever or that I wasn't proud of my husband ... it's because - let's say it all together now - I was just too busy to blog!

sitting with walter

*Updated below*

i'm not at home but i can hear all the same sounds as if I were home. perhaps it's because I'm a mear hundred feet from my apartment, in another apartment down the lane. i am here because a friend has been injured. we are sitting in the living room of Erik and Sara's apartment. Walter is on a twin mattress reading "The Forms of This sickness" (fitting, no?) and I am behind him on the couch, writing to you.

it's nice to be able to sit, talk, read and write with a friend.
so thanks to walter. not for getting hit by a car, flying across the road to the sidewalk, breaking your leg, having surgery or needing someone to help you get up from a laying to a standing position. thanks just for being a friend.

*begin update*

read walter's comment below ... for over two weeks now I have not been able to locate my camera's battery charger. And, it is killing me. While in California, my camera ran out of batteries and an entire day and a half was not captured. I have such a system down for re-chargeing my battery that I won't believe that the charger is gone forever. If I don't find it this weekend on our trip back up to Vancouver (which is the last place I knew where it was) then I will break down and buy a new one (a knock off for sure, but a new one no less.)

words don't compare to THIS

Saturday August 6th - doing nothing in SLO
& Josh's 30th Birthday Party


hooligans hanging out on the corner


If Jessa had a baby this is what she'd look like, so stop wondering.


see...it's probably not a good idea for them to have a baby.


well, she looks good with a baby, maybe it's not her
we're worried about.


Anna, being awesome.


Anna with her baby.


Two mom's chatting it up with their babies.


Amelie's party dress, Happy Birthday Dad!


Sera takin a ride on her dad's birthday pinata.


I love when kids smile like this, all squinty and grinning.




Sera wanted to take some pictures with funny faces


Josh smokin, Andy chillin, Toby talkin


boys.



join us next time for the pinata, cake and drinks. and, a look at the other people that showed up for the par-tay.

Day 2 ...no you didn't miss a post, our first day we spent in a car and that's so not exciting.

Friday August 3rd - California, Cam's Birthday Party

Cam didn't know we were all driving down to California, so when we all appeared in our own ways and in our own time, it pretty much rocked his world. Since we drove to California, for 13 hours, basically to go to parties, there's really not much to talk about. What I did capture in photos is probably as close as were going to get to anything. So...

It pretty much went like this.


Cam & Jessa (a.k.a. brother and sister)


Anna & me (a.k.-47, Cam's wife)


yeah, she'll kick your ass, that's right.


drunk mom Skylana


Skylana, hoping I got the sweet shot of her downing
a beer while holding her daughter.

*side note - while hanging out with Skylana and her daughter, Arabella, on multiple occasions people on the street have
asked her how old her SON is... the girl wears dresses, she's
always in pink or wearing bloomers and headbands, and has
diamond studs in her ears! How hard is it to be a little, tiny bit observant before opening your mouth?


drunk mom Flo


alright, so she didn't drink all night, or ever, but
I think it's funnier the other way.


smoking Josh


drinking, smoking Toby


i love Polaroids

After that, I had too much fun to be walking around taking pictures for all you to look at ... on to the next day.

people you should know

The Clemon's family drove all the way from
Sacramento, CA to Vancouver, WA to meet me.

Well. Not entirely. I think, in reality, they all came to see little mister. And celebrate his entrance into the world...in the form of a kick ass baby shower.



Mr. Clemons, patriarch of the family, started the day off with a crazy pork piled high barbecue. I could lie and say they were delicious, but since I don't eat pigs, you'll have to take the boy's word for it. They couldn't get enough and talked about ribs for days.
In fact, the next day, at home, Andy and Toby moaned about how they wished they had ribs and that they were so amazing and they wanted to know how Burt did it ..and on ... and on... and on.
*little side note, Jessa attempted to enjoy the ribs but cracked everyone up when she slid up next to Toby and whispered, "so, these ribs? how are you supposed to eat them?"

The Clemons girls each have a little boy, and damn they're all adorable, it's just not fair! (she stamps her foot) I'm going to steal one. But I actually think that would be mean...to separate them, you leave me no choice but to steal them all...



To be fair, there's another Clemons boy, er, man you should meet. He's also adorable, but much better at having a conversation with another adult than Bethany, Ana and Jen's boys. He's an amazingly talented musician, I mean rapper, I mean M.C. I'm not good at promoting people's music, sorry. Let's refer to this as "my attempt".

LISTEN TO MAC'S MUSIC HERE

I'm sleepy and even though this is technically a "catch up post" I'll have to save the rest of the pictures for the next installment. Look for a photo frenzy in the next few days. I've been on some amazing adventures and you all are going to love....okay, that was so ridiculously sarcastic and I'm so tired that I can't even finish. Tah blog world. Sleep tight.

STP doesn't always mean Stone Temple Pilots

*Events take place sometime in the afternoon on Sunday July 15th

Apparently, it can also mean Seattle To Portland, and it can refer to a 204 mile bike ride over a weekend and I have a friend that's now done it for the second year in a row.




These people all came out to the Finish Line in downtown Portland to cheer on Jessica "Crash" as she accomplished her goal. It all happened so fast. One minute we were standing around looking at our clocks, looking around, laughing and the next second she was right there, crossing the finish line...



She's the one in red






Congratulations Crash, we are so proud of you!









*Andy nicknamed Jessica "Crash" after a near fatal accident she was in during her early days at Gutenberg. The nickname is really a testament to the fact that Jessica's a survivor and ain't nothin gunna keep her down.

*The reason we were waiting longer than expected for her to cross the finish line was because about 2 miles from it, she and a biker she was riding with crashed into one another around a turn and they had take time to recover.