weekend in ocala

it was so good to be home. good to see my parents and todd. good to see how happy scott and holly are with cora. she is just beautiful. slept a lot when we were there, but i could stare at her little face forever.

cora lynn lanker

cora lanker arrived at 3.26 pm 7 pounds 13 oz
we're heading up to ocala friday to see her. but a few pictures so far...doesn't she have the most perfectly round face?

so i hear it's the longest day of the year....

we would never know this in melbourne, since large clouds gathered yesterday and today around 4 and never cleared in time to give us a long evening! although, i was up with dobby at 6.35 this morning, and the sun was fully out for our walk to the park, so i guess it's true!

it's been a great summer weekend - went out to dell's for ice cream friday night, saturday morning we picked up smoothies and went fishing with one of our youth families on the beach. well, matt fished and i splashed around in the water, scaring all the fish i'm sure! saturday afternoon it started pouring, and i did something i haven't done in months...took an afternoon nap! it was glorious. went to a barbeque and played clue with some of our other youth kids.

this morning, we worked in the nursury at church, which is another blog entry entirely. (it would be hard to describe the tantrum that happened in this meager post!) and we just got back from swimming and playing volleyball with our youth at the beach.

something i've realized this year (being the first full year i haven't been on a school schedule) is how easy it is to let the seasons run together, and not actually enjoy them. all the summer things i love get pushed back when i'm so tired from work, or feel overwhelmed with errands or things around the house, so i've decided this year, i'm going to truly enjoy summer and take times to actually live it! this weekend was the first step....

and here's some pictures from our trips to chicago and ohio earlier this summer....

memorial day weekend yardwork

a photo update

a few pictures from youth sunday, our trip to the keys with scott, holly, and mark, and some from holly's shower in ocala. that little white crib was home to all four lanker kids for the first few months of our lives. (and actually 32 other cousins on my mom's side!) i guess since it's lasted that long, it can handle cora lynn lanker. 

this is the first summer week in my opinion. yesterday the air was sticky and still, and the first afternoon thunderstorm rolled in...makes me wish i wouldn't have taken all those cool april evenings for granted. walking dobby this morning, i was soaking in sweat before i even reached the end of the street. 

looking forward to a long memorial day weekend to work in the yard - plant some things and get around to a few projects. the new house excitement still hasn't worn off - i love waking up every morning and walking out into the sunny living room...right to the coffee pot! ok. off to curves i go! 

cravings and a fourth grade nothing

this weekend has passed sweetly, with enough time to get things done and still enjoy this unbelievable weather. i always forget how wonderful april and october are...until may comes and the humidity starts! but until then, we're relishing dinners on the back porch shaded by our giant oak tree with a coolness in the air, and walks to the park to see dolphins as close as 20 feet. it never gets old.

friday night matt got tickets to the children's theater in vero beach...judy blume's 'tales of a fouth grade nothing'. one of our curves members' son was peter (the fourth grade nothing), which was really dear. before the show, we went to cravings - a sidewalk cafe on the beach for chicken salad wraps, panini's and espresso chip ice cream. the best part is that they encourage dogs to come, so dobby had a blast charming every retired person in vero! before that warms your heart too much, i should counter that story with the fact that i walked onto the back porch a few minutes ago and saw that dobby had drug an entire roll of paper towels outside and shredded it into a million pieces. given these gentle breezes we've been having, the pieces were flying around the yard like snow with dobby in the middle, barking hysterically at it all!

yesterday i made italian sausage and greens soup, which we'll have tonight when the exley's come over for dinner. but for now, i'm going to walk dobby down to the park with a book and lay by the water and soak up the last few hours of sunday before the week begins!

100th post

as i was logging on to post, i noticed that i have posted 100 times now. and now i'm scratching my head wondering what i actually post about....and then i realized that probably 92% of my posts are funny little stories, or tiny things that happened in a day that set it apart. it makes me realize how much i love blogs and journals and albums that make mountains out of mole hills in a good way - make us remember the little things. one of my favorite quotes is from annie dillard 'how we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives.' it's quite a challenge. 

this past thursday and friday i was in a little production called 'how the west was dun' as calamity jane. it gives me new appreciation for todd and people who actually have talent for this sort of thing! (i might post a few pictures later) it was really fun - i got to wear a red cowgirl hat, a cow print belt and toy gun and ride a stick horse through the audience, which was a highlight ;)

yesterday was a perfect sort of day. the kind we've been wanting since we moved here....90 degrees. clear. breezy. woke up with my parents here, had coffee and went on a walk to the park....they left after a long breakfast at bob evans, and matt and i puttered around the house. i made potato salad and rib sauce, got groceries, played with dobby. went to the beach for a few hours to read and walk along the water while matt surfed, then headed home for a picnic on the porch with ribs and (now chilled!) potato salad and lime chips. it was one of those perfect spring evenings in florida. a few birds singing, a soft purpley-orange sunset and really comfy porch chairs to take it all in. such a relaxing sweet weekend. 

oh. today i'm putting the last coats on a hutch we brought down from ocala. painting it a creamy white called 'cookie crumb' which always gives me serious cravings for sugar cookies! i hope the cravings stop since the hutch will be a permanent piece in the living room....

easter

i'm soaking in this saturday morning. drinking vanilla coffee and marveling that dobby is actually behaving himself! today we'll be spending some time at our beautiful park, and getting ready for sunday. first thing: youth mess day, which involves all those games that seems so grossly wonderful when you're 14. my personal favorite is the slip n' slide sundae requiring 50 feet of plastic tarp, 2 bottles of oil, 2 giant tubs of ice cream, chocolate and strawberry syrup and cherries. my personal goal will be staying as far away from the sundae as i can! 

on sunday, kaileigh and brittany will be coming, followed by karlie, matt's cousin on monday. we'll be stealing away for some beach time during the week, which i'm so excited about. 

and here are some pictures from easter weekend. the yard, dawnie's baptism, and our trip to ocala...

an 87 degree weekend

oh, a few pictures of curves recently. one of our members brought in john wayne to keep us all motivated. and oh he does! especially after i dressed him in a curves shirt...

the beginning part of the weekend was busy with curves and working saturday morning. i went out mandy, one of our youth girls to the sun shoppe downtown for a chat. wow. i'm so glad i'm not 18 anymore! 

last night matt was feeling a little better from his pneumonia, so we went to a thai restaurant beachside and sat on the deck at sunset. it was the most beautiful evening, a breeze off the ocean would shake the flower bushes behind us, giving off an amazing smell....after chicken pad thai, we walked down the beach for a while, then stopped to get dibs and frosty paws ice cream (for dobby) at publix.

today has been a wonderful mix of coffee, a stroll around the zoo, grocery shopping, and working in the yard. i pulled 2 yard bags full of weeds out of the front yard alone! 

i'll post some pictures when it's even halfway decent! 

LATTeLAND

is where i'm sitting in downtown kansas city, watching the snow pouring down outside and feeling very pleased with my choice of a chocolate croissant for breakfast. 

walking here this morning, i remembered the long-ago feeling of panic when i walk. every third step my feet would slip a little on the sidewalk, i would gasp in an over-reacting sort of way and grab matt's arm. it brought back so many wheaton memories of heading down the smith-traber sidewalk and falling 'ass over tea-kettle'.  i was really relieved to arrive at latteland in one piece!

tonight we're going to a children's theatre production of 'a separate peace', which todd informed me was only one hour fifteen minutes max due to the shorting attention spans of today's youth ;) todd's studio apartment is appropriately decorated for him with shelves and shelves of books and plays, wood floors, piles of shoes, and his own paintings hanging on the walls. 

dobby is spending his first weekend away from his parents with my mom and dad, and from every report i hear, has been an angel. who knew??! i hope they take a video of him so we'll know what that even looks like...

our house (and dobby)

some pictures of the new place - no pictures of the guest room, since mark and his friend jonathan stayed here last night (i didn't think they would love a camera in their face at 7 am!) we still have some pictures to get up, but it's come a long way since last saturday. my favorite part is waking up in the morning, and seeing the sun pouring in the windows across the wood floor. in fact, when i finish posting, i'll start the coffee and sit on the couch and take it all in while it is sunrise and quiet.

from dreamworld to reality

after a sleepy morning and a busy afternoon spent packing up all our 'worldly possessions', matt and i thought it would be lovely to unwind at starbucks. i imagined sipping something warm, flipping through decorating books from the library, and having dobby sweetly sleeping at my feet on the outside patio. 

we arrived at starbucks at 8.40 - forgetting that it's saturday night and a balmy 70+ degrees. every patio table was full. knowing we couldn't take dobby inside, i got the drinks while matt walked him around. finally, when still no one was moving, we squeezed in at a table that someone was using only for the chair. finally, the moment! i took one sip of my vanilla soy steamer and felt a little drop. then quite a few more. then the wind picked up and all the people on the patio ran inside...all except our crazy little trio! we threw everything in the bags and ran with a frantic dobby to the car. 

now i sit in an empty room that used to be our office, taking the last swigs of my steamer, and am noticing a strange smell from the carpet. we've actually renamed this room 'dobby's bathroom' since he seems to have an unnatural attachment to it. 

i'll post some pictures of the house soon, since we're hopefully closing on the 25th. lots to do before then, but we're taking care of the truly crucial thing, like picking out reflective numbers for the mailbox.