In the interest of kicking my butt into gear...

I, Alicia, do hereby promise to try my best to be a better blogger.

Okay, so that was less than convincing, I know. It was fairly pathetic. I am just stuck in a slump. Being without (and sometimes, for a little bit, with) internet for over a month on vacation really atrophied my blogging muscles. And I'm just going to have to do what Brent and I are doing with the gym and working out. Doing it every day for a while, even if we don't feel like it, even if our muscles are screaming "DEAR GOD! NOT ANOTHER SET OF LEG PRESSES!!!!!" we will push through it, b/c we know that it is in our best interests to get back into shape, hop back on the wagon (or is it off of the wagon....I can't ever seem to get that one right) and start afresh, knowing that it will be painful and not-so-pleasant, but that we will feel better and healthier, and our bodies will thank us for it in the end. (Seriously....that was the longest run-on sentence in the history of all mankind. I apologize to all of you english majors out there. ) Anyway...not that I'm promising to blog every day, but I'm going to try. And you don't have to read all of them, really. It may be one of the most boring undertakings of my life, but I'm going to try. I really would never consider myself a "writer" but I do remember my lit profs telling me to just start writing, something will happen. SO that is what I'm going to try to do.

It won't be ALL writing, for the love.....I'm a picture-a-holic! and I have over 800 or so pictures from our vacation just waiting in the wings, and every single one of them has a story behind it, so there are plenty of blogs posts jsut waiting to be written. All I really need to do, is pick one and DO IT!!!

For know, I will leave you with some pictures, some of the only ones on our computer. ( I have yet to put all the vacay pics on here!)


Mr. Grump Face at G-ma and G-pa's house in Idaho



Yarny goodness dyed by yours truly


The other new obsession, little drawstring bags for knitting/crocheting projects


'Tis all for now, I will be back tomorrow (hopefully)!!

a sad day

Today has been rough. It was the last day of vacation bible school at our old church in Nampa, which has been so much fun for me and Judah! (I got talked into being a helper...) So I'm pretty much pooped out as is Judah.


Right after VBS today, I made my way to a funeral for a kid Brent grew up with in church. Shawn Burton. Shawn was the same age as me, and I knew him as well through youth group and such. He was always the jokster, full of life and energy.


I remember one night at youth group when Brent and I were dating, Shawn jumped up on Brent's back and Brent whipped him off of there so fast, and HARD... Shawn said he was fine, but later we found out he had a concussion! Anyway, he was like that, willing to take on anything.


He died last Friday night, on his was home from a friend's bachelor party. He was riding his motorcycle, going too fast around a tight curve.


He left behind his wife, Sarah, and their un-born son, Ezekiel, who is due in one month. I was told Shawn was so looking forward to being a dad for the first time, and I don't doubt it. He always had such a loving spirit about him.


And I know that he is with his LORD now, but it still hurts. It hurts to see his pregnant wife walking in front of his casket on the way to the limo. It hurts to hear all his family crying while friends tell stories of his full life. It hurts to know that little Zeke won't ever get to meet his daddy.


We loved you Shawn, and we'll miss you. I can't wait to see you on that wonderful day when we all get to be reunited in God's presence.

crap crap crap

Our computer is dying. Today it won't boot up at all. Ugh. I haven't backed up pictures at all in so flippin' long and I'm scared!! I know it's been too long since I've blogged. And this isn't very exciting. Sorry! This will be breif, sorry! (Posting from my phone)

Judah's Dreaming....

No, really, he is dreaming. At night. And remembering them. I'm not sure at which age that normally starts, but I don't remember remembering my dreams that early.

This morning he turned to me and said, "I had a dream last night."

"oh yeah? What was the dream about?"

"We had licorice. We weren't eating it, we just took it out of the package."

"Do you remember where we were in the dream with the licorice?"

"Yeah! We were at home!"

So, this is really weird. Because we never have licorice. Not really ever. And not ever at our house. But I was planning on getting some today, which is weird.

When I was growing up, our family would always go out to the (then) public pool at Gowen Field to go swimming. We would pack our own lunches in order to pinch every penny. But mom would always "splurge" on one thing. We always brought licorice. You know, that big bag of licorice with red and black together? Heather would eat all the black, and the rest of us would fight over the red. My favorite was the chunk that had the 5 short pieces stuck together. We would lay out on our towels, hands wet with the over-chlorinated water, and feast on that licorice. It is burned in my brain. I even remember the one time we brought a bag of chocolate licorice. Blasphemy, I know, but I love chocolate licorice.

Today, we're going over to a friends house to swim. Last night I was thinking that on our way over, we should stop at the grocery store and pick up some licorice and keep the tradition going. But I'm pretty sure I never vocalized that thought. And then to have Judah dream about licorice kind of freaks me out!

Anyway, there's my freaky thought for the day.

Now, for some long awaited pictures!

Playing with Grandma Debbie at the park

HI-YA!

Lilah's trying to stay cool

Feeding the Goose at the Dairy

Saying goodbye to Grandma at the airport

Cooling off in our "pool".

Cheese ball

Playing soccer with Dad on Father's Day

My most recent knitting adventure....dyeing my own yarn!

Here is it washing up in the sink, pre-dye.

I used kool-aid! Here it is bubbling on the stove.

Hanging out to dry

The finished product! A little neon, but it was fun!

and knitted up into my very first sock!

Blogging from my Blackberry!

That's right, my friends. A blackberry. We were waiting for our stimulus check for what seemed like forever, and it came just in time. My old phone (trusty razr) was really starting to crap out on me. For example: -turning off every time I would try to open a text message. -randomly be off in my purse for-who-knows-how-long. -hanging up on someone at least half of the time. Etc. Anyway, you get the drift. Brent finally drew me over to the dark side of The blackberry... And I'm not too ashamed to say that so far, I love it!

And in other news, I caught the death flu once again from my wonderful son. This time it seems worse than before and it doesn't bode well that he has been fairly sick and out of service since Monday. By that count, I'll be down until at least mid week next week. Can you all take a second and pray for me and Judah? That we'll be healthy and happy in time for my parent's visit a week from today? I would greatly appreciate it!

Ok. Pictures next post, I promise. I'm not sure I'm up for trying to figure that out right now from the phone!

tsk tsk tsk on me...

sorry. It's been kindof a crazy 2 weeks. Polly and Polar both got adopted (yay) Brent's mom came for a visit, it's hella-hot outside, and not Judah's sick again. Stomach flu type stuff. third time in two months. ugh.

some highlights:

--Brent and his mom finished right in the middle of the pack at the 5K. Debbie got 1st in her age group, and Brent got 3rd.

--I've been knitting alot, and completed my first successful sock (now I just have to knit it's mate)

--We might be selling the tempo and buying a motorcycle. (for Brent and possibly me. I know. shocking)

--Judah's been playing in the sprinkler alot. And he's getting the feeling of swimming again.

--Haven't been to the beach at all, so we were planning on going tomorrow...that won't be happening if Judah's still sick.


pictures are to come. Time to try and keep something in my baby.

new judah-ism's:

When told he had to get ready for bed after that last cracker, "Aye-Aye captain"

Upon seeing 2 convertible cars in a parking lots, "Look! There's some cars with out toppings!"

Life is good here. Brent still has his job, and we're starting a new budget this month. Our NO tolerance budget! so that kindof sucks, but it's good too.

I've been knitting some, and not selling much. Maybe it'll pick up more during the colder part of the year.

I don't feel much like blogging right now, so I'll just post some pictures....



my new knitting needle case from Andrea!


Brent knitting.... (don't ask)


After our torrential downpour


Judah finding the joy in running through the sprinkler



Joyful Lilah too


Nothin' like running though the sprinkler on a hot summer day!