random cell phone photos from our life

The party and photos compliments of Claire who rules!

have I mentioned that I love her?!!!!

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

oh and my birthday party was a blast and made extra special by my visitors from the main land!!!! There might be some photos to post if you beg and plead hard enough!

just a bad dream since I mailed my vote in today!

Sukkot on Orcas and Dia De Los Muertos alter at our house

Fall is full of festivals and it has been one week after another. Today my Mom hosted a Sukkah decorating party albeit a bit late into the festival. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful tradition to share with our friends and the kids loved it. Emmit's teacher and her children joined also. This coming Friday is the big PARTY!!! so our alter is up and looks amazing.

my latest obsession

I have just discovered Rosa Pomar and her ribbons. I just ordered some of the Snow White one and am waiting for more of the Little Red Riding Hood to arrive in the US. I finished the front of a quilt I am donating to the Salmonbery Auction and need to get started on Sarah RB and Mr. Rafer's quilted pillow cases. Send me the initials you wanted for Rafer again Sarah please. We have a fun weekend planned or at least I do. The kiddos are completely obsessed with hammering nails into any piece of wood they can find. I stocked up on some wood from the free wood box in town. Sunday we all head over to my Mom's for a Sukkah decorating party. Lots of excitement happening her next weekend for the big Dia De Los Muertos party that Dennis is throwing me. I am so excited. Thanks to Georgia we are well stocked in skulls and skull related memorabilla.

Sunday Hike from last week

I again apologize for not posting more often, Orcas life just seems to sweep us far away from such simple tasks like uploading photos and getting them to the blog. Dennis and I have also been getting a little taste of Facebook too. Today was the Fall Festival at Salmonberry and we forgot to bring our camera and I am hoping someone will share a few with us. It was one of those perfect fall weather days with absolutely blue sky and sun and everything about the day was so much fun. The kids even found a Firehouse "dollhouse" at the Exchange. They are in pure heaven. I have often felt torn about whether to get them a dollhouse or not and this is the perfect solution since they love anything having to do with firefighting . We have found an amazing group of Jews on Orcas to celebrate holidays with and are forming ourselves into a once a month Havurah group. Dennis is throwing me a birthday party towards the end of the month and I am enjoying celebrating 34 for all of October. Maryjane and her husband Rich, have arrived on Orcas for the winter and potentially longer. They are living on their sailboat. I was mesmorized by Maryjane as a child and she was my first Waldorf mentor. They joined us at my Mom's for a Yom Kippur hike into an old growth grove of Douglas Fir trees. We feel so at home here and love that we have found mulitiple intertwined communities. We think you all should join us here and move!

Emmit is learning to embroider

sorry about the blur but he was moving to fast for my poor camera phone! Emmit has been very eager to learn to embroider so today he made a little flower and some wool felt which we then sewed into a little pouch for the gnome he made at school this week. Oh how we love Waldorf!!! He is also obsessed with wearing his new Indiana Colt's jersey from the Ohrn cousin's hand me down box! I need to take some new photos of our beautiful house now that it is unpacked and all clean.

happy wife, happy life

I can't remember where I heard that saying but it is so true and it has a nice ring to it. Ah life is incredibly busy and yet so simultaneously relaxing. It was in the 70-80's and today feels like typical NW fall with the dampness. I love it all. We have been picking apples and pears and I caught Asher sleeping with a whole bag of apples he had picked so now his bed is full of leaves! I have been trying to sew a stock pile of items to sell at a winter event on Orcas and have a couple stores interested in carrying my things if I only had time to sew enough. I need to look into wholesale ordering of fabrics to make it more profitable for me. This morning the kids got up, put on their boots and coats and headed outside to play which left Dennis and I to sleep in until 8!!!! Getting photos onto the blog seems to end up low on the priority list but with the weather changing I imagine we will get back to regular posting. Facebook has also become a major blog distraction and while I am not going over to the other side it is rather intriguing to remember about forgotten people. Dennis is throwing me a birthday party after about ten years of my begging him to do so! I can't wait although it will be at the end of the month not in five days. I love my birthday and honestly anyones birthday. Have I mentioned that we love our house? I heard Emmit declare just last night to Dennis, "Papa, I love this house so much". Our building start date keeps getting postponed but now it is set for early November. I found a pair of Carharts in my size and now just need the tool belt and some hip rubber boots! Another great quote to share is Emmit's declaration of love for his friend Leo, "I know who I am going to marry. (who we inquire?) I am going to marry Leo because I want everyone to know how much I love him." Leo's family couldn't be more happy and already have offered their B&B for the event. They even invited us to stay with them at their beach house in Nicaragua. We can't go this year because of house building but it is on the calendar for the following year so hopefully they are still in love.