Snow Adventure

I braved the ever-falling snow today. I packed Sophie and my mom in the minivan and took them to Safeway. On the way I missed a stop sign, u...

WIP Wednesday: Another Binge

It's late. But it is still Wednesday for the next fifteen minutes, so here's a little Work-In-Progress update. I haven't had tim...

Stomachache Land

I trust everyone had a good Christmas. I did. In the morning we opened presents. In the evening we went to my in-law's house and ate. A ...

Home for the Holidays

You're not going to believe it. We're moved into our new house, out of my in-law's house, we're hooked up to the internet,...

Haitus

I'll be briefly on haitus. Mainly because we're moving today and won't have internet access at our new house until Wednesday. Al...

FitG Update: Speak

Amazing. An absolutely amazing, hilarious, vivid, heart-wrenching book. Speak speaks to the teenage experience and to the terrible realitie...

Sick

Olivia is sick. I can tell because she has stopped. Just stopped. She's not thumping around. She's not dragging things from one loca...

Snow Day and a tiny WIP update

Our first snow day couldn't have come at a better time. Last night we were planning on a two-hour delay, but this morning we got the big...

One Week

I have one week. One week to unpack our boxes. One week to find a place for everything. One week to haul in a tree, decorate it, hang up sto...

Settle

Yesterday I started unpacking boxes at our new house: plastic storage boxes layered in dust and sturdy cardboard boxes with Chinese writing ...

FitG Update: The Graveyard Book

On the night when a mysterious man called Jack murders an entire family, there's one who escapes the edge of his knife. A baby boy toddl...

Snow

today it snows finally warming us covering the cold blankness the ting of frozen cement the crunch of ice-grass softening the blast of wind ...

Creation

Your writing is your creation. Your characters' worlds are based on reality, but they're places and names and surroundings you'v...

Cowboy Church

Tonight I got to sing a couple of duets for the Cowboy Church. I'm not kidding. There is such a thing as Cowboy Church. I didn't kno...

WIP Wednesday: Typing Keeps Your Fingers Warm

Just a quick update on this sunny, frozen Wednesday. For those of you who are newish to my blog, WIP stands for Work In Progress, and while ...

Clean your Room!

I'm not a gimmicky parent. In other words, I don't have a bagful of tricks to get my kids to obey me. I rarely play games with them ...

Don't Feed the Dog

My sister-in-law has a miniature dachshund named Sadie. She's cute. She's sweet. She's little. She's also a little bit stupi...

The Season

'Tis the season to... ...Set the Costco-sized bottle of Eucerin in its place by the sink. Anything to assuage these cracked, burning knu...

Details

Yesterday I went shopping. At the door of the store sat a man ringing a bell. Next to the man ringing the bell was a red bucket with a sign ...

Losing Focus

While scanning my Google reader the other day, I came across this wonderful nugget from The Greenhouse Agency's Julia Churchill . She wa...

Optimist

I tend to be an optimist. Unfortunately. When it comes to our house remodel, I'm afraid I've been a terrible optimist. Me: "Su...

Bring on the Bird

Happy Thanksgiving! And what a Thanksgiving tomorrow will be. My parents-in-law have been cooking almost non-stop for the last two days. I t...

I Ask Myself....

...why do I spend money on toys for my children when packing bubbles entertain them just as well?

Close-Up

Every baby goes through this stage, but that doesn't make it any less of a milestone. Now that Sophie's walking, I can't take no...

Nutty for Nutcracker

Believe it or not, Christmas is in the air already here in Prosser. This year, we had a first for our family: Anna wanted to be in the Nutcr...

Chinese Road Rules

This CNN article about driving in China made me seriously homesick for Tianjin. There was always something fun, exciting -- let's just ...

WIP Wednesday: Uh, It's Thursday

I know, I know, it's not Wednesday, but I haven't written one of these posts in so long, and I finally have something to share. For ...

FiTG Update: Criss Cross

I'm glad I read Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. She captures something about the beginnings of adolescence, something intangible. I ...

Selfishly

Thursday was the last football practice of the year. I don't like being selfish. Everyone knows I love Prosser football, and it would ha...

He's Six

What craziness possessed me to schedule our furniture delivery on my son's sixth birthday? Needless to say it was an exhausting morning....

Wanna Go To Red Robin?

"Do you wanna go to Red Robin?" The Loy family in Bellingham, WA are our dear friends. We met them when we lived up there for two ...

Boo!

Talk about culture shock. We barely got into September before I was walking into stores and seeing Halloween everywhere. Everywhere. Aisle a...

Firsts: The Pumpkin Patch

(Anna's overly-sensitive sniffer was greatly offended by the smells at the pumpkin patch. She spent most of her visit plugging her nose ...

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

Guest Blogger: Olivia Sonnichsen Eight-year-old Olivia is an avid reader. She enjoys any kind of chapter book she can get her hands on. Her...

Another Baby Step

I had a pleasant surprise this evening. I was scanning my long-neglected Google reader tonight, when I came across a post by kt literary sup...

Stripped and Primed

I've moved on from stripping wallpaper now. I've graduated to slopping primer around. I stripped wall paper for so long, I considere...

Home Is Where The Putty Knife Is

Several people have asked to see pictures of our new home. Here are some outside shots the day we closed on the house. The previous owners w...

Rush

Sorry for the long silence. I've been talking on the phone non-stop, standing on a ladder ripping off three different patterns of pink w...

Better

You're not going to believe this. Or maybe you will. Olivia woke up this morning just fine. Fever gone. Energy returned. Doing cartwheel...

Oink

I was planning a lengthy, insightful post for tonight with deep insights into American culture. However, my eight-year-old has apparently co...