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08.12.2010 Catch Up

Nature and Embroidery 14 Comments

In order to prevent killing each other in this teeny condo, the girls and I have been trying to knock out all that Seattle has to offer. The first Thursday of every month, Seattle offers free entrance to a lot of their museums. Since last Thursday was the big day, the girls and I went to MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry). There, they learned all about catching and canning salmon:

We saw the “glue pot” that is believed to have started the fire that burned nearly all of Seattle to the ground in 1889.

And Mr. Ibsen gave me a great idea of what I can do with all the girls’ old Keds:

While the museum was interesting, if you are planning a trip to Seattle, I don’t think I would put MOHAI at the TOP of your list for sites to see. What I would highly recommend, however, is a picnic at the Washington Arboretum, just outside of MOHAI.

While we ate, we were visited by some feathered friends.

And then we did the half mile (or so) walk through the water that is part of the Arboretum. Trees bowed to make an arched path,

And sites different from ones we are used to, delighted us all.

We saw why the Seahawks think they have a leg up on our tailgating. I still think half the fun is walking from one one tailgate to the another and sampling everybody’s food. That would be hard to do by boat.

At the other end of the Arboretum, the girls took a lot of joy from feeding the ducks their left-over grapes. We did bite them in half…and I wasn’t sure if grapes were really safe for ducks…but we didn’t see any signs of choking.

On Friday, we met some blog friends at the zoo! Where I managed to find a new giraffe friend to replace my baby in Birmingham:

And some people friends! This is Andrea and Madeline:

Andrea is from Trussville, AL (just outside of Birmingham), went to Auburn, has been living in Denver for the past several years and just happened to be in Seattle this summer because of her husband’s job. When she saw we were moving here, she kindly offered to be a little Southern comfort to us, and we were all very thankful.

It was probably the coldest and wettest day we had had in Seattle so far. So we didn’t see a whole lot of animals, but we did have a lot of fun at the indoor play area. Mary Aplin and Madeline got to run off some energy:

And can you tell how much fun Pace had learning about the animals from this young zoo worker?

Pace planted herself in that seat and didn’t get up for about 45 minutes, just soaked it all up! Mary Aplin stopped by to see what all the fuss was about…

…but quickly got distracted by the elephant behind her 🙂 A little more along the lines of her idea of fun.

I think that Madeline was trying to figure out what kind of species we all were.

Thanks Andrea and Madeline! We had a lot of fun with y’all!

I didn’t have my camera with me for the weekend, but we took the girls for a hike on Big Tree Loop at Tiger Mountain Saturday afternoon and then that night…JEREMIAH AND I WENT ON A DATE!! I have managed to make a Seattle friend (who I want to tell you more about later) and she offered a babysitter name so that Boots’ dad didn’t have to do it 🙂 Thank you all for the kind babysitter suggestions from the last post. The one we used this weekend is about to get married, so I will definitely be taking you up on your ideas!

I wish so badly I hadn’t forgotten my camera on date night. Jeremiah looked really handsome in a coat his Mom gave him for graduation. We went to Palace Kitchen, and if you come for a visit you must go, and if the blackberry cobbler and coconut cream pie are on the menu YOU NEED BOTH!

On Sunday, we went for a run at Greenlake, bought fresh produce/had lunch with our new friends at the Capitol Hill Farmer’s Market, and then found our church home on Sunday. I really think we found it…more later! Hard to know how our Sunday night was so bad after such an awesome weekend…huh? I thought so.
08.10.2010 You Know You Need a Babysitter When:

Life and Laughter 13 Comments

[I wrote a post earlier this morning, in response to yesteday’s comments. It’s below this one, just in case you might not notice.]

Last week, as our family was crowded in the hallway of our apartment building, waiting for Jeremiah to figure out which of our new 100 keys actually unlocked our door, I noticed a sign posted for a lost cat. Now, we have lost a dog or two (or three…) over here in the Maddox family. Each loss has been followed by a frantic sign campaign and search effort (one of those may or may not have involved a private investigator…another story for another time :)), so these types of signs always tug especially hard on our heart-strings. We know the hopelessness (insert hysteria) those poor owners are feeling, and we all took time to commit “Boots” and his cute little self to memory…just in case.

Later that night, as I lay dead asleep in bed, I was awakened by the unmistakable clatter of vinyl mini-blinds, followed by the throwing open of a window. “Jeremiah!” I hissed. “What in the world are you doing?!”

“Did you not hear that noise?” he asked.

“What noise? I was asleep!”

“I heard a cat make this horrible noise, like it’s head was being ripped off. I was trying to see it. I think it might be Boots.”

“You have GOT to be kidding me! Go back to sleep, that wasn’t Boots! You’re talking crazy…” I say, as Jeremiah begins stepping into his pants and feeling around on the floor for his shirt.

“You are not really about to go outside this apartment in the middle of the night, are you? You could be shot out there! I’m serious!” I cried, half laughing, as he ignored me and went out the door.

I dozed back off–thinking that those micro-chip devices that they insert into your pet in case they are lost, would be worth whatever they cost if it would prevent my husband from going insane over lost pets. This time, I’m awakened by the overhead light in our room being flipped to the “on” position. I squinch my eyes in the glare and look around…

There is Jeremiah, standing over me with a grin like the Cheshire Cat, holding…Boots. Hysterical laughter.

“I stand corrected!” I choked out between laughing tears. “I cannot believe you found Boots, but what are we going to do with him now? It’s two in the morning!”

“I’ve already called the owners. They were really excited and are on their way over right now.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

So, Jeremiah got Boots back to his very excited parents. They turned out to be a young couple and the girl lived in our building (but was currently staying at the boyfriend’s place a few blocks away). I didn’t meet them myself, but Jeremiah said they were very nice people.

The next day we were all riding in the car when Jeremiah got a phone call from Boots’ Dad. The phone was on speaker, and I heard him telling Jeremiah that they had offered a “Reward” for finding Boots, and he had forgotten to mention that in the middle-of-the-night confusion. Jeremiah explained how we were just so happy to have helped and, of course, didn’t want any money. The guy kept on and was insistent that, if we didn’t want money, there must be something they could do to thank us. That is when I heard my husband say this:

“Well…would you mind babysitting our kids sometime? I mean just for an hour or two so that my wife and I could grab dinner together?”

My mouth dropped open so far that my jaw popped. I looked at Jeremiah in silent, but utter disbelief. Had he really just asked a TOTAL STRANGER to babysit our kids? Boots’ dad was almost as speechless as me. He stuttered some reply like, “I mean, sure. I guess I could babysit kids, why not?”

Jeremiah hung up, looked over at me, and smiled. “Did you really just do that? Really?!” I asked. Not mad, just nearly as flabbergasted as I’d been to see Boots in the flesh, in my bedroom. I guessed this was why God made women mothers and not men.

“Baby, he was insistent, and we do need a babysitter more than anything else…”

“I’ll find us a sitter,” I said as I grabbed his hand. “Please don’t ask any more random strangers.”
08.10.2010 And God’s People Say…!

Faith and my Mom 4 Comments

Wow. Wow. I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for all of you. It’s hard to say you feel abandoned by God, when you re-wake up (sometimes I might sneak back in bed after I write these :)) to ten missed calls and a whole load of encouraging comments and emails! I hardly got anything done yesterday for reading over your Scripture references and sending everything along to Jeremiah’s phone. To show love and true, heart-felt concern for (in a lot of cases) a total stranger, says a lot about all of you. We felt showered by blessings and prayers and were reminded (how many times does He have to show us?) that He is always near. Thank you.

Let me also clarify that we suffered no bodily harm in the night. I think that lack of sleep and stress really brings out the flair for the dramatic in my writing. Sorry about that. I got a lot of calls wondering if the authorities had been alerted–surely we’d been robbed at gun-point. No, it was just an all-night onslaught on our hearts and minds….And I think I’m being truthful when I say, I would have preferred a man who wanted to steal our worldly possessions. Besides this computer, he would have been pretty sadly disappointed anyway 🙂

You’ll have to forgive me for not going into more detail on the blog. If you could drop in for a cup of coffee, I’d love to hash through our current heart hurts with you. However, it’s hard to know who all sees this little blog, and I just can’t be more explicit than I already have been. That’s annoying as heck, isn’t it. Sorry.

Now, I’m going to write one of those happy blogs, because guess what–I AM happy this morning!

I love y’all. I mean that.