wkrp in cincinatti

a show i watched a lot when i was younger. probably as a re-run directly following afternoon cartoons. i don't remember much about the show (blonde hair, big bosoms, cool shades the most prominent). but i do remember the immense satisfaction i felt with the fact that my initials were the exact same as the radio station's, minus the "w." in fact, it was even a source of pride for 8-year-old me. anytime the show came up in conversation, (which my memories lead me to believe happened fairly frequently. although thinking about that now, it seems just weird for 8 year olds to be discussing that show ever) i was always very quick to point out the fact that my initials were KRP. i mean, i practically was that radio station. it must have been impressive because i was really proud of that for a long time.

and even still, there remains a strange little flutter of something, some tiny little residual surge of that pride, whenever i am reminded of the show. of course, i'm only reminded of it about once every six years (a fact i consider a good reflection on my life). but last night chip flew to cincinatti for work. naturally, i had my weird 8 year-old pride and the little theme song and jingle running through my head all yesterday afternoon. today i'll be making up different words to the song and trying to get the girls to sing along. by tuesday, eve will be telling me she doesn't like that song anymore. i'll agree, but won't be able to stop myself from singing it over and over and over until chip finally gets home. at that point i'll be completely disgusted by it and ready for the burial. . . but deep down inside that little bit of pride will swell as i lay the song to rest. and maybe in six years when eve is 9 and ruthie almost 8, (the perfect ages, if my memories aren't completely fabricated) i'll tell eve and ruth all about my ridiculous and secret glory, that i was once KRP. just like the pretend radio station in a tv sitcom that aired 30+ years earlier. then they'll know how cool i really am.

just. can't. let. go.

of the brookings trip, that is.

so, in addition to looking at pictures and making eve tell me her favorite things at the beach and ocean, over and over and over, i've immortalized the trip with the little help from a newly made flannel board.

i've had a large ikea frame in the girl's closet for two years, with the plan of making a flannel board. last week i finally pulled it out to get to work. i had the flannel and the masonite but no staple gun. but i did have a tiny little stapler. i so wish my camera was working because i would love to have this tiny thing documented for you to see. teeny tiny. but, i was not deterred. a little entertained, yes, but not deterred. i set to stapling the flannel to the masonite and was shocked to find some success with my mini stapler. at one point a staple went all the way through the masonite and into my wood floor. who would have thought? (umm, sorry chip. don't worry, no extensive damage was done) so, itty bitty stapler and all, the work of immortalizing the trip has now taken form in flannel board felt shapes of all the things that played prominently in our stay. the girls are having fun with them.

fish and campfire

shark (we never saw one but chip's fear of them is always prevalent when we're near the ocean) and evergreens (i'd say redwoods if they weren't so wonky. i was getting impatient)

rocky coastline (the elephant looking thing is supposed to be an arch rock. i'll have to work on it). and anemone and starfish.

there's a lot more on the list before true immortalization and felt-piece documentation of the trip is complete. my salamander attempts have been laughable and end up looking like tailed aliens, but i'm getting closer. i think switching to a free-quilting foot will help. whales, seals, otters, kites, kayaks, water and people will be coming, but for now we'really pretty happy with what we've got. the girls have surprised me with how often they're playing with them. eve's voices for the shark and fish are fantastic, while ruthie just yells "fish! fish! oh no!" over and over.

** note for me: this was initially posted 8.23.07. blog managing confusion.**

good advice

especially on a dark, rainy day like ours where there will be lots of reading. . . along with maybe some sewing, some baking, and definitely some watching of this for about the five thousandth time.

**

this is from a book i fell in love with at a fantastic brookings bookstore to be featured in the near future.

this originally posted 8.21.07. technical difficulties. i.e. i'm kind of clueless sometimes.

an almost-dress and a quilt

these two items are the reasons i schlepped my sewing machine as a carry-on across the country with me. i deserved the looks i was getting during my three hour delay at the san francisco airport, the ones that said "wow, i feel sorry for you, you poor lonely girl with two little children and what looks to be the crappiest stroller known to man. . . oh, wait, is she trying to push that one-handed? what does she. . . is she carrying around a SEWING MACHINE? in the airport? she looks kind of sweaty and i'm pretty sure that stroller is going to come careening into my shins at any minute. honey, honey! watch out, let's give the sweaty girl some room. she just needs room! no help for her, she's brought in on herself. smile politely and move on, quickly. quickly!" the many looks and sore forearm aside, i'm so glad i did. i loved my janome even more than usual as i finished my projects in brookings on the table that i ate every childhood family dinner around.

first, we have the almost-dress that i will be wearing as a tunic:

not only are you, my seven lucky readers, seeing the the product of my handiwork, but you also get to see some double chin and what my niece, mia, refers to as a "pancake" on my sister's floor. just to be clear, sarah is not one for throwing breast pads around willy-nilly, but, you know how it goes. and to be even clearer, sarah's house only stays this messy for about five minutes. she's like a robot, in the best way possible.

so the tunic is my rip-off of one i saw in the barney's co-op catalog months ago. i used the basic shirt pattern in sew u with several adjustments and alterations.

and here we have the baby quilt for little baby bryce:

i love looking at chip hold it up for me to photograph. and i'm happy with how it turned out. my favorite baby quilt so far. we also gave this really great book to baby bryce, to use when he is older and wiser. for now, he can lie on his quilt while he watches his siblings make arrows and go-carts and teach him about latitude.

** for my own records, this was initially posted 8.17.07. accidentally removed it while trying to make corrections.**

we're back

we were gone 21 days and i wish i had at least that many more to go. i'm rarely excited to come back home after a trip to oregon, but i was nearly heart broken this time. it was terribly hard to say goodbye to the life we live when we're in brookings. the life where ruth's first statement each morning. . .wrong, her first is always about food or daddy. . . her second statement each morning was "i wa go o-side" (i want to go outside) and i was able to just open a door and let her go out to run and play and find. (do you people with real yards take that for granted? don't. you and your backyards and garages haunt my dreams, taunting me. . .). the life where nature is at its best all around you, all the time, and you can access it all in no more than 10 minutes. the life where there isn't a shirtless, toothless guy from the government housing across the street drinking a 40 in your stairwell. . . the life that, admittedly, still entails some semi-public urination but that's only by my own three-year-old daughter and niece. . . that life.

anyway, it was a perfect trip, really. summer in that little coastal town is heaven and being with family there is an even better heaven. chip and i are racking our brains trying to figure out how to get ourselves closer so we can take part in some of the goodness more regularly. so far, we haven't come up with any viable options, but we're thinking of maybe setting some real goals, which, if happens, will be a momentous landmark occasion for us. our goal-setting sessions usually go like this:

"ok, so, goals."

"right"

"what do you want to do?"

"uhh. . . be happy and someday maybe have a backyard and garage of our very own?"

"ok, where and what should i do with my career?"

"sigh . . . do you want some ice cream?"

"yes."

so, until that process improves (and i really do feel like we're on the brink of something here) i'll stick to the highlights of our trip.

clearly, family was amazing. mom and dad, sarah and eric and their FOUR kids. little baby bryce is so cute and sweet and may end up being the first chubby jones baby. jeanie and her three were joined by scott about a week into the visit. food poisoning and a stubborn kidney stone added up to it maybe not being his favorite trip but he and his vicodin were good sports. and then, for a quick and amazing visit, david and erin and their SIX (six!!) came up for the weekend bryce was blessed. for four days there were all 15 porter grandkids running around laughing and fighting and playing and crying. it was insane and maybe a little much for my mom, but so entertaining. bobby and megan couldn't make it because bobby is apparently a dedicated student and megan seems to be a responsible employee. . . here's to getting them to slack off next time we're all together. . .

secret beach. the last place my camera took a picture. i hate broken cameras. we hiked down with the kids, kayaks and supplies. the hike is a little rough, especially when carrying ruthie on my back and half a kayak (the other half being held by sarah who happens to have given birth 5 weeks prior to the child she is carrying down in a sling. no big deal.) but i'd do it every day if i could because the place is amazing. we went kayaking out on the ocean and through a bunch of sometimes-small and creepy but always beautiful arch-rocks. while out we saw, of all things, mountain goats on a cliff nibbling on little bushes. mountain goats people! they were perfect and i was happy. chip and jeanie also saw seals on their trip out which i am sure made chip nervous that a shark was going to come for them, get him by mistake and leave him legless or dead on the ocean floor, bloody water his last sight on earth . . .

mcvey park beach. post camera death. perfect rolling fog and clouds, receding tide and full of great rocks to throw. and dad came with us. elise and eve and ruth played in the rocks and on papa's lap while ethan looked for cool rocks, chip and i threw them into the ocean and dad entertained the girls (who are in love with him completely). i love a good rocky beach in the morning.

chetco point beach. the parking lot for the park and then trail to the beach is right next to the town's water treatment plant which, predictably, smells like an outhouse. makes it hard to enjoy the view when you're sucking that in. but, soon we were out of it and chip, mia, ethan and elise and i (girls napped in the car with sarah and bryce) wandered. the ocean was almost completely smooth, the water barely lapped in over the rocks and two seals were on a nearby rock sunning themselves. ethan found and accidentally de-clawed a crab, we touched some anemones and crawled up some big rocks. papa joined us with ruthie who quickly threw herself into the water, rolled in the sand in her pants and sweater and then screamed and contorted her body as i tried to get her out. that's my girl.

cape ferrelo. maybe my favorite day of the trip. perfectly clear. hiking out to the cape i felt like a pioneer, like i should have been wearing a long skirt and an apron that i was using to wipe my hands just after making fresh blackberry jam. long, wavy grasses, rolling hills, glittering ocean, strong breeze. . . as we were gathering kites and putting babies in slings and backpacks chip spotted a whale. we made our way out to the cape, planted ourselves on the edge (with the ever-paranoid eric and chip keeping vigilant watch of the little kids), got some kites going and watched the pod of whales for the next couple hours. a lot of spouting, a lot of backs and even the occasional tail fin. it's nearly criminal none of us had cameras because the coastline was breathtaking.

the river. when we wanted some real swimming for the kids (outside of swim lessons) we went 15 minutes inland, popped floaties on the girls and played at loeb park on the banks of the chetco river. eve and ruth are fearless with those floaties. eve jumped off rocks and ruthie practiced doing sideways rolls as the current moved them slowly downstream. the adults swam and kayaked while the big kids went looking for salamanders and snakes, which they found both of. a river otter joined us one night and a sad, broken-legged heron the next.

swim lessons. eve spent most of the lessons (which she took with her cousins elise and chloe) shouting "i want to go again. i want my turn." i was hoping the teacher would be a little more hard core and make eve struggle more than she did. i really want her to be able to swim the way she thinks she already can. but, it was still adorable to watch the little girls all lined up. and watching their individual interpretations of the teacher's instructions was hilarious.

slugs and stones. this place, paired with my complete lack of discipline, are to blame for my extra tummy chub. but who can resist a place that serves delicious ice cream (bing bang cherry whammo and lemon sugar cookie= yum) and gives kids three and under free cones? we couldn't, so we went there as often as possible. if i lived in brookings the owner would know me and my children by name and i would be at least 15 pounds heavier than i am. sarah is desperate to re-do the poster menu. i think it is a part of the place's weird charm, and a good indication of the town's general level of sophistication.

i have more to share and document (sewing, shopping and the curry county fair) that all added up to my favorite vacation, but i'll save it all for another post or two. this is already mammoth.

summer hiatus

we're taking a break from brooklyn and hanging out on the coast of southern oregon for a few weeks. brand new nephew, pacific ocean, beaches, kites, salamanders, swim lessons, cousins, morning fog, redwoods, back yards, sweaters, papa and didi, thrift stores, hikes, night sewing, windows, tennis, "so you think you can dance," sisters, ice cream,  reading, and tons of laughter through it all. we're loving this tiny town.

i may report again while we're here the next two weeks, or i may just cut myself off from the computer altogether, which the internet gods seem to be doing for me anyway. this is the first time i've been able to get online for five days. it's good for me, i'm scarily dependent.

until my next fix, hope you're all enjoying summer as much as we are.