The Wood Between the Worlds

At our house, we often talk about having a family band.  Once or twice we've recorded some music.  We need to do it more often!

Brent works every other Saturday.  That means on his Saturdays where he is not working, we do something fun...RAIN or SHINE!  {of course it usually works out that on the Saturdays he works it's sunny and the ones he has off it's rainy!}
Rainy day...what to do?  Ah well, just make the best of it!  Pull on your galoshes and rain jacket and hike to a waterfall!

Kirkland brand artichoke hearts: they make delectable additions to your dishes...like pizza and pasta.  ...IF you can get into the jar!! 

How many Jefferies and their implements does it take to open one jar of Costco artichoke hearts?

The answer is 4.
1) There is the grippy rubber pad method.  (Not pictured)
2) There is the grippy foot method, observe:


 3) There is the wrap your belt around the lid method:
4) AND the pry the lid open with a screwdriver method:

Oliver is now 9 months old...officially tomorrow.  And as of last Friday he has been outside of my body longer than he was inside.  I always find that a profound milestone.

Anyway...I'm having a hard time keeping caught up on blogging again, so I bring you Oliver's 8 month old photo shoot...1 month late!  I decided to forgo a 6 month and a 9 month photo shoot and just have an 8 month one.  These pictures were taken by the lovely and talented Tara Mansius and Amy Morgan (Tara's best friend and apprentice), at their photo studio.  Have photographer buddies definitely has its perks!

My favorites of Amy's pictures:

I know you don't look at me and think "runner".  You know the type...the ones with long slender legs and tall willowy bodies (I have an "apple shape" and short muscular legs).  And I know I'll never win a race.  I do not care.  That does not stop me from enjoying running.  I get my high from running.  And I get my best epiphanies while I'm running.  

So after two back to back pregnancies and ending up more out of shape than I've been since, since probably before I ever started running (9th grade).  And well, I like being in shape.  I like the way I feel most of all...like I can bound up several flights of stairs with great energy.  Like I can chase my kids around for hours without getting tired or grouchy.  I also like that with consistent running, the belly gets a little less apple shaped.

I decided that I really NEEDED some motivation to get to the kind of shape I like being in...so I do what I always have done to look for that motivation.  I decide and/or sign up for a race.  This time I have my sights set on the Sauvie Island Half-Marathon on July 4th.

And in order to train for a race like this, the most important thing for me is having a place to run.  I need to know where I am going to be able to run 4 or 9 or 12 miles before I do it.  And it needs to be in a place I find enjoyable.  Every location we live it takes time to find that *perfect* running place.

I feel really lucky where we live here in Oregon to have found that *perfect* location nearby.  There is a long paved pedestrian-only trail which traverses through beautiful trees.  I took some pictures the other day as I was running...mostly just for me to look back on in the future.






And as I was stretching out at the end of my run I played "I spy":

the beautiful, pure trillium flower in bloom!