Childhood Re-revisited

Our good friend John came over last Sunday with a gift for the kids. I was astonished when he showed me a four-wheeler (we used to call them quads) in the back of his car. Today we gave it it's test run for the first time. Here's a little video of the boy riding down the road.

Obviously this is an off-road vehicle, but we couldn't resist just trying it out on the road. The neighbors seemed stoked that we were having fun.

So, now I'm feeling like those redneck roots of mine are coming to bite me in the ass. We live for football season and we own a quad. Shit, I feel like a kid all over again.

This and That

We plugged in our old computer a couple of days ago. There was so much information in there that we haven't seen in a loooooooooonnngg time...we had fun going through and looking at some old pictures. Here are some to see. Remember that you can click on a photo to see it enlarged.







Seven Sisters (The Hoh Rainforest)

Sun In The Maple

Sunset on Second Beach (La Push, WA)

Forest Trillium

Wagon Stop

Fun Guy (Hoh Rainforest)

Oldest and Youngest: A Vet and His Grandson (My dad and youngest child, 2000)

Old Chevy

Another Sunset on Second Beach (La Push, WA)

There's also a whole mess of information that I was so excited to see again, including a book I'd been working on for a few years and my entire research project from 2002-2003 and the 19 page paper I wrote on childbirth for an independent learning contract. It's cool to look back five years and see how passionate I was about birth--and know that I still feel that passion. I have a doula client due at the end of this month. I'm so excited.

Remember a posting about Laurie Michaels, a woman here who had an aneurysm about half way through her third trimester of pregnancy... Her baby was born on December 12 (I think she was due toward the end of January)and she saw and held her baby for the first time on January 8. Here, again, is the link to her husband's blog. I cried when I read about her meeting little Ella for the first time. Here is a link to the picture of the reunion.

So, still busy, still loving my job, still loving my family more and more each day. May you always know that you're loved by someone. It's the most beautiful feeling in the world.

Raven Weirdness

Anyone traveling along the south end of Lake Washington on Highway 522 this past Saturday got a weird treat. About 10,000 crows/ravens were swarming and hanging out. It seriously looked like a scene from the Hitchcock classic "The Birds." For about a block and a half all we could see were black birds. We were sitting at a red light when I realized we had our camera and I took this small bit of footage. Hopefully you can see it--it really doesn't show the true scale of what we saw. Everywhere we looked, all the rooftops and any open ground was covered in crows and the sky was alive with black birds. I'm not sure they were all crows or ravens or a mix of both, but it was maniacal!