This is for Julie

Here's me in my new shirt. I look like I might have had some numbness in my left eye - a stroke, perhaps.....anyway, scroll down, there's lots of new pics!!!!

Jocelyns-One-Year Give-Birth-Day

Oops....is that selfish of me to say? Did I really just turn Aria's birthday into something for me me me? I'm pretty good at doing that for most everything.....ahh....the crux of human nature....Anyway, what i REALLY think of as I reflect on Aria's little life is that I am so proud of her and I think she is so cute and sweet and smart already...and she handled her birthday with such graceful humility, she was a great hostess for her party, she let her papa's and nanas and mimis and aunties hold her and play with her and she smiled as we sang to her, she ate her cake and opened her presents without freaking out at ALL....then she just peacefully went to sleep :) It was a good day, a proud day for the mommies and the daddies....even though we didn't do anything, God did - but He entrusted us with such great little humans.....

This is Ellie and her cousin Sterling - they look alot alike in real life, I'm not sure if that comes through in the photo, but these two play like siblings and look like siblings too...good thing, cuz ellie will never have a big brother, although she reallyy wants a little brother, she keeps telling me....to which i reply, um, uh, ok, maybe, i don't know, ellie, isn't aria enough?

just curious

is it sacreligiuos to put organic tomato soup in the microwave?

who's who?

Which one is Ellie and which one is Aria? Is it an easy guess or no?



here's ellie this year. oh my, she does the princess thing quite well.

depth

Breakfast: referring to Stoneyfield Farms "YoBaby" Yogurt that she is INHalINg, ellie, the supposed three and a half year old, says "this is Yo-big girl" and she kackles.....
Dinner: one of the first evening meals she has actually eaten in weeks, she looks up from her "Lil-Entree" of Turkey, green bean dices and sweet potatoes and says "this is the bomb" and closes her eyes and sighs a silent laugh at her strategic and appropriate use of vernacular...

it was harder on me, obviously...

After much anticipation, Ellie started preschool last week. I was so excited and nervous i didn't take any pictures - good thing Dion was there too. She had fun. Aria had a peaceful nap. I took a shower. It was great! Then we all went to Arbys for lunch - Ellies choice.

vacation pics

Fortunately, Dions mom has a brain in her head, unlike us, and she brought her camera on our vacation. Here's a few....

Is anybody with me on this?

Last week, the sermon was about priorities - what priorities do you actually live out and what priorities do you wish you had - are they the same or is there some disparity. I couldn't think of much in the beginning but I have been thinking and it seems that vanity is a priority of mine. How embarrassing is that. I spend alot of time thinking about how i look and if i am honest - it rules my life. I HATE it. Its such bondage. Knowing that I am a child of God, loved by God no matter what, I am so grateful for that - and I am moved to act in many areas of my life becuase of that fact - but the vanity is still there. I guess I am admitting to this because - for one, its probably evident to everyone anyway, all true priorities are, but two, I want freedom from it - so I am confessing to....hmm....the internet - I am such a chicken. Anyway, I thought it was a profound thought and I hope to grow in this - maybe one day i will wear no make up, wear old clothes, slouch, and not file my nails and not care at all - I doubt it - but its all i can hope for. ???? I don't mean to minimize and make it sound like something silly, but I don't know if this is one of those "balance" things or if you have to just be rid of it all together - i am thinking God thinks its really stupid and meaningless and ugly - so I should be rid of it - but how, i know not.

Ellie and Aria

Sometimes Aria looks just like Ellie did when she was 7 months old and sometimes she looks really different..here is a pic of ari now and one of ellie at about the same age..

the almighty calendar

So, I go in waves. Sometimes, I like to fill my calendar with things: appointments, dinners with friends, dates with Dion, playdates with the girls. Other times I like to "keep it open" so that I can do things spontaneously: coffee with Kath after aerobics class, lunch with Dion in his office, (I can't think of many of these, i think because they are spontaneous and I have never written them down, like I do with the others that go IN my calendar :) but anyway, I MUCH prefer the spontaneous lifestyle, but the fact is that most people don't operate that way, so that leaves me with no one to be spontaneous with...I don't think I have the wrong friends, I think everyone is just scheduled...we have to be to a certain degree, I suppose....but I just wish that the dread of the impending events on my calendar would not be so....Its not like I DON'T look forward to things, because I do, but sometimes I feel like something is contrived once the event is in progress - there are manners that come with a scheduled event. And, there should be. I don't think we can get past that - Its just harder for me to be myself and feel comfortable when the boundaries of appropriate social behavior rule me....I am just looking for some authenticity, in myself, mostly....and sometimes it happens, alot if times it does, but the occasional spousal argument before a scheduled social event or disappointment in the initial 5 minutes of a scheduled interaction gets me frustrated and feeling the need to pose....

motherhood

My life is so different than it used to be. I used to be so much better at eyeliner. That was the first thing I noticed. I'm still pretty selfish. I just spend more time acting unselfish.

vacation!

so we did a week of vacation last week. Went to Traverse City and beyond.

It was a lot of fun. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge (one of those indoor waterpark places) b/c we weren't sure about the weather and wanted to have something to do in case of cold and rainy... on the other side, we also weren't sure if we'd go nuts with all the screaming kids and the chlorine smell of the waterpark. But we took a risk and it was really fun. Ellie had a blast (so did the rest of us) on the waterslides. The little idget rode ALL of them... to the surprise of many of the lifeguards. Aria was a champ too... she actually loved the chaos of the waterpark and enjoyed getting wet herself... i don't mean "wet herself" although she seems to enjoy doing that too. lots of fun.

we also did some day trips. Headed to the dunes and took in some natural beauty.
(excuse the camera phone, we forgot our real camera)





Also went up thru charlevoix and petoskey to mackinac island. it reminds me that we DO actually live in a beautiful place here in Michigan, one of the most beautiful... but we're just stuck down in the "not quite as beautiful" part.

All in all it was a great trip. I'm thankful for the chance to enjoy my family... i wish life would provide more opportunities like that. Ah well, take em as you can get em, right?

nothing new update

just wanted to let you all know that we're doing fine. haven't had a lot of time lately for thinking of clever thoughts or witty anecdotes. maybe good things will come soon?

love to you all :)

easter with the family

we had the WHOLE family (immediate) over for easter this year. despite our apprehensions about room and whether everyone would get a long or not, it turned out to be really fun... here are some shots from the day (the mcguires came later- i think i had already put down the camera--if any family has pics of them, please send!!)

from LEFT to RIGHT


papa doyle and talon


bro-in-law rich, sisters dayna and hyacinth and little talon(who belongs to dayna and rich)


garrett chicks-, hyacinth, dayna, nonna karen


aria and talon-cousins (only 5 weeks apart!)


the whole slew of cousins- cullen, drake, ellie, aria, holden, sterling V, talon



ellie in birthday garb (from auntie jen) easter weekend was ellie's bday

raising kids right

the other day ellie did something that made my heart leap for joy. It's the kind of stuff that every parent hopes for out of their kid...it just makes all the hard work worth while.

jocelyn was at a wedding shower and took aria, so it was just me and ellie. Seizing the opportunity to spend some time with her i thought we could go grab some food somewhere AWAY from home. So i ask her, "ellie where do you want to eat tonight?" and her answer? makes me wanna cry... she looks back at me and with big eyes and excitement coursing through her body and says, "CHIPOTLE!!" man, makes me so proud. (BTW, she loves going to coffee shops too... here's a recent pic of yet another chipotle visit followed up by starbucks next door. the adorable redhead is Berkley, daughter of our friends Jason and Julie)


(below: aria's first look at a huge, yummy, chipotle burrito)

because its fun

Dion pointed out something the other day that I have been thinking about alot. It wasn't like a major life changing insight, or at least it didn't seem like it was at the time, but I am now trying to remember the thought in my parenting and in life in general.

Ellie has been in this "thing" where she wants to wear a dress ALL the time. It has been winter, obviously, and cold - and she is sick of all of her winter dresses anyway - so she asks to put on these strappy summer dresses. For awhile I was really trying to distract her, change the subject, and at all costs, dissuade her from putting on a dress. Its too much of a hassle to take her clothes off, put a dress on....do more laundry, yaddayaddayadda....So, naturally, I start to get irritated everytime she asks to put a dress on, since I'm operating on the premise of "try to avoid the dress situation -its too annoying"....So, Ellie, being the beautifully stubborn lady that she is, keeps asking and pushing and whining and asking....so I eventually ask her "why do you want to put a dress on, Ellie? It's winter (trying to rationalize with her, maybe i can convince her its sort of silly). So, Ellie says in the sweetest most desperate little voice "Because its fun". And Dion just melts. She wants to do it because its fun. Who cares. Why do I care? Is it really that inconvenient for me to let her put on a dress? What is the big deal? So, I try to indulge her....I say, ok Ells, which one do you want to wear, the pink with starfish on it or the flowery one? And she gets so happy! She is like giggling and can barely contain herself that I am going to let her put one on and help her pick on out. So, we have this little activity....putting on her dress OVER her clothes....that is the deal....and since, I have let her wear her dresses over her clothes to aerobics, to the grocery store, wherever, pretty much.....and man, life is happier! People might think we are quakers or legalists or something, but who cares. Ellie gets to have fun. And its harmless. There are plenty of things that I can be consistantly adamant about, wearing summer dresses in 25 degrees does not have to be one of them.

Dion reminded me that being a kid is supposed to be fun. Kids are so good at having fun. I get so much joy out of watching Ellie have fun. I don't have to spend every moment "teaching" Ellie how to be, although I think that is VERY important for a parent to do and I do it ALL the time. Its okay to ket her have fun and its actually rewarding for both of us, good for our relationship, and LESS stressful than doing more laundry or changing her clothes one more time than normal. Deep thoughts by Jocelyn Garrett...

brown is the ugliest color

18 hours after jocelyn, ellie, and aria got back from Florida we boarded another plane headed for OREGON. Best part is that this time i got to go! We were headed out to see Jenny (jocelyn's sister) and Rob (her fiance). I'd never been to oregon before- absolutely beautiful it was. We went up into the mountains and stayed for a few days in Rob's family's vacation home... it was awesome. (thanks to the brookes)

It was good being with Jen and Rob, it was good being away from work for a little while. It was good to spend fun time with my girlies, It was good seeing mountains and green, living things again. It was a great trip.

We flew home on Tuesday... a depressing day. And as we were going to land at Metro, i looked out the window. Everything was flat and BROWN and very un-oregon-like. The only thought that was coming to mind was "why are we living here?" I've traveled to beautiful places many times before, but i never remember returning home thinking michigan was quite so hideous as this time.

I used to think Michigan was pretty, have i been wrong all this time? or have i just had my fill of winter?

They're HOME!

Jocelyn and the girls came home last night. Life feels normal again. Ellie hates my guts, she wouldn't hug me, let me say that i love her or that i missed her. She kept just saying, "its not fair!" and jocelyn would ask her what wasn't fair (because if i did she would just scowl at me) and she would say, "it's not fair that i have to go to bed!" ... yeah back to normal alright. Aria (ARE-ee-uh, just thought i'd toss that in since i hear chronic mispronunciations of her name... who would've guessed) has gotten bigger, i'll toss some pictures up soon.

I should say in Ellie's defense that it was way after midnight, so she might have been a little over-tired. I can understand that because i'm pretty darn over tired at the moment. So if you see me today and i keep talking about stuff not being fair, just ignore me, or toss me a blankey.

happy FL kids

I've been calling jocelyn 13 times a day since they've been gone. I feel like such a loser because her nana and papa keep answering the phone and when i ask to talk to jocelyn they sort of chuckle, like "you big whiney baby!"

The thing that shocks me whenever i talk to joc is that i was half expecting the girls to give her a really hard time, being out of their normal element and all... throwing fits because of how much they miss their dad :) ... but that isn't even close to reality.

Ellie is still a toddler down there and a beautifully strong-willed kid, and she's having a great time playing at the beach and swimming around. She won't even talk to me on the phone. When jocelyn makes her, I inquire how the trip is going, how is she liking FL and she responds, "I love you daddy bye!" and hands the phone back. Apparently florida is THAT good.

Aria has ALSO fallen in love with Florida. Jocelyn says she's never been happier. She hardly gets upset, she's sleeping really well, she's become the perfect baby. Despite the ego damage (how can she be so happy when she hasn't seen her dad for DAYS!) i'm glad that things are going so well, jocelyn deserves a nice trip.

But all this has led me to the all important conclusion: We are clearly living in the wrong state!

sad

i miss my girlies. And they've only been gone for about 18 hours now. i'm pathetic, but i'm not used to this. Even on days when i get up and go to work before they are awake, i'm missing them like crazy come 5:00.

It could be that I'm pathetic. Or it could be that GARRETT GIRLS ROCK!!! and once you've had them in your life going back to life w/o them is crap.

have fun my loves. but come home to me soon.

i got nothin'

I must be honest. I have started about 10 blog entrys, including a few replies to posts. I have deleted them all. I'm not sure that i have one complete coherent thought left in my head. I start to type, then i delete, then i undo, then i backspace, then i just quit. I am afraid of all of you!!!! I think I'm trying too hard. So, instead of trying to be somewhere I'm not (in the mode of intellectual thinking) I will be as i am (entrenched in my family and the goings-on therein).

We are going to Florida tomorrow to visit my grandparents, Nana Great and Papa Chuck, to Ellie. Its me, my mom and the girls. I think i might be crazy to try to do this without my husband. Its going to be a girls weekend (lotsa girls + my papa). I am looking forward to being in the sun, taking ellie to the beach, and giving her the opportunity to know her Great grandparents. I am also secretly hoping to get a tan and read a magazine, perhaps while my mom and nana goo over the baby and ellie takes a nap). The weather is supposed to be lovely, so I am excited for the trip.....so we'll be there until Tuesday. Then, on Thursday (yep, two days later) our family, including the husband this time, will all go out west to Oregon for 5 days to visit my sister Jenny and her fiance Rob. That should be super fun - I can't wait to see Jennys apartment and to get a feel for her new life out there, in the west.

I have alot of fear about these next two weeks....kids could get sick, they could be up all night, i will really miss Dion while we're in Florida....I am thankful, however that I am able to travel to see people i love. So, hopefully I can act like it. ie. let go of my fear and just roll with it and have fun. :)

Now before I overthink this, read it a thousand times hoping i didn't spell something wrong or offer an incomplete thought, resulting in the deleting and quitting...I am gonna "publish post"....

ok, here i go...

ok, so the pressure of putting something on the family blog has taken me over the edge, and i am finally taking the plunge....many of the bloggers in our circle are men, except for my girl, Linda, who is a brave lady and i come with courage drawn from hers....and knowing that many-a-chicks are blogging without fear, like my girl Kate.....so thank you, for being strong and treading waters that in my world, men have been dominating (good thing womens liberation wasn't up to me, we would be REALLY unfairly treated if it was). So, I can't promise to be witty (although i will try) or to have any deep revelations about life or to even have anything interesting, in fact I guarantee that i won't - but my theory about blogging is that we aren't really looking for that when we read other peoples blogs, we really just want a peek into each others lives in an honest and creative venue...what a perfect "spot" for that, this blog.....I am the first one to say that people watching is the GREATEST pass-time....I used to intentionally block out time at the mall for the activity, and i think that blogging is the mall-watching of our generation....if it was people watching at the mall in the 80's, its blogging in the 00's....is that sort of twisted????

shoe fetish

Ellie is angry, not so much when she's awake, but when she goes to sleep (it's a mcguire gene i think) :)

the other night she had fallen asleep with me on the couch, and she had her new sandals on that she's going to wear when the girls go to FL, she had been wearing them ALL DAY. So i take her to her bed, put her in and gently remove her sandals, knowing that if she senses me taking them off it's OVER (she's got a shoe-fetish already, again a mcguire gene. Her aunt jenny even works for Nike... crazy mcguires)

So i get the shoes off successfully and think i'm in the clear when she starts up, and yells, "give it back to me! give it back to me!" not sure what to do, because i have NO hopes that i could actually put the shoes back on without making her totally awake, i sit there with my eyes darting around the room for possible options. She's still yelling "give it back to me!" with her eyes half closed so i decide to hand her one shoe. "Maybe holding them will assuage her majesty's anger?" i think.

So then she takes the shoe in between her two hands, almost cradling it, she puts it up to her mouth and makes two loud sucking noises... "what the h---?" i'm thinking?

Then she shakes a little and pulls it away from her mouth and says, "eeeaaaaahhhh! why'd you do that?!?"

by now i'm lost, no idea what has just happened, then it dawns on me, "she thought i was giving her her sippie cup" I look at the shoe and the back side of it is totally wet from where she put it in her mouth and tried to draw some water out of it. "Oh great!" I think, "i've just taken this shoe fetish thing to a whole new level!" I look back at her and she's sleeping again...

hopefully she'll forget this ever happened!

update-who does she look like?

aria is 7+weeks old. She's into smiling and "talking". Her hair is mostly fallen out and starting to come back in, seems like the perfect opportunity to do another side by side, her to ellie, same ages... any new insights? any change of opinion? (aria is top ellie is below)

she's a big kid

it has been in the works for quite some time now...

the amazing vocabulary
the adult-like phrasing (responding to a question with "actually...")
the developing preferences that are expressed quite vocally and adamantly
the changing face, the long, thin, mostly-graceful limbs

ellie is becoming a big kid, joc and i both realized it was coming...

but the scales have been tipped, she is DEFINITELY a big kid now...why? (don't get too excited the diapers haven't exactly come off yet)

because she has now come to embrace that essence of big-kidness. Namely that when a camera is pointed in her direction, it is an opportunity to make an obnoxiously goofy face. Goodbye to all those sweet candid shots of toddlerhood. Maybe she'll recover by her wedding day.

always learning

so the walmart post (below) apparently struck a nerve in all of us. For the record, bob and I have talked it over just between the two of us to try to further understand each other's point of view and to apologize where offense was given. That was an important lesson, some discussions are better handled in private rather than in a semi-public forum like this.

but the other major learning i had is how strongly personal and moral convictions can lurk behind a simple opinion on something that is otherwise trite.

My original post on walmart was intended to be funny. I guess i do have a concern about a walmart monopoly, their scale as a company is massive, their influence tremendous... any company with that kind of power frightens me. But mostly i was going for humor... the chaos, the crazy walmart shoppers in search for bargains, the long lines... i know we've all been there and was trying to capitalize on that shared experience for some lighthearted humor. so where did it go wrong?

This got frighteningly serious because of all the aforementioned underlying convictions that i didn't take into account. On my part, they are concerns about capitalism as an immoral economic system, consumer accountability for what they support with their $, american materialism which is stronger than ever and destroying so many families who are under huge debt-loads yet still trying to get more, the funneling of money out of local communities to the wealthy people "at the top" and even the disdain for the way that so many organizations manipulate our allegiance to Christ by trying to make us believe that if we spend, or vote, or even watch their stuff that we are then being "good Christians" (when in fact their motives are selfish, using our faith for their personal gain)

my good friend bob, he's got strong feelings about "class-warfare" that happens so frequently in america. For the way the lower-classes are dehumanized and looked down upon. He (along with one of our anonymous post-ers) has concerns about the "forgotten" of society, the developmentally disabled, the elderly. Noble convictions.

the rest of you who posted or at least thought about doing so also have your convictions that run deeply and come bubbling up in issues like this. AND I DIDN'T TAKE THESE THINGS INTO ACCOUNT WHEN I WROTE THIS ENTRY. Nor did i understand them for what they were when they were articulated. I assumed my convictions were most important and obvious.

Responsible communication doesn't rely on words alone but must take into account what is being said indirectly, what is being heard also. So often we refuse to take responsibility for the underlying messages we convey. How many times in arguing with a sibling, parent, or spouse have we said, "that's not what i said!" when in fact, that's true, you didn't say it, but it was exactly what you meant. Or how many times have we refused to take accountability for what was heard by someone else because it wasn't what we intended to say.

I guess i've learned (and re-learned) a lot here and wanted to share it.
1. work to understand and respect the convictions that undergird someone's communication--including your own.
2. take responsibility for what you say and how it's heard. if you're not being heard in the way you intended try a different way to communicate. Don't restate the same thing in the same way and expect a different result-that's just insanity (and could be a friendship breaker)!
3. be humble. try to be understood and to understand MORE than trying to be right.
4. know when to shut up. agreeing to disagree is a skill we all need to learn. I know i do. I should've shut up much sooner in all of this and left it where it was but i've got this deep need to win people over to my side. that's a dangerous tendency sometimes.
5. (as mentioned above) learn what belongs in public and what belongs in private. Draw the line where needed and pursue a different avenue for the sake of unity.

I admit fault for the way i handled this debate after the original post and for oversimplifying something as complex as human emotion and personal convictions. But God is good and allowed this to be a learning experience for me. Hopefully it was for you too.

sorry for offense i've given. Thanks for reading :)

the future is tacky

[EDIT: please read the post always learning in conjunction with this one. Some of the stuff said here and in the comments after is inappropriate and/or handled poorly. this is left as a lasting memorial of what you might NOT want to do.

had some lunch with friends yesterday afternoon. For some reason the conversation turned toward WAL-MART

that's never a good thing, in my opinion. Because Walmart is the scourge of the planet.

I openly expressed my dislike for the big blue and white superstore of tacky and I think they might have been offended slightly. Because next thing I knew, we were debating the pros/cons of walmart (guess which side i was on?)... in the middle of that one of the friends told me i should write a post on it. I guess this isn't something I could post on my church website. We'd become the "church that hates walmart"... i can just see it in the paper, right there next to pat robertson's wicked comments about ariel sharon, and TV networks, and all the other stuff pat robertson hates.

So i've been thinking about this for the last 12 hours or so. Is my hate for walmart justified? Or does it well-up out of my tendency to exaggerate and ruffle feathers. After serious reflection I'm convinced that yeah, my hate for walmart is genuine AND justified. Here's why...

1. going there is a nightmare of an experience.
stuff all over in the aisles. dodging stray carts rolling around all over the parking lot. fighting off all those aggressive walmart die-hards who will run you and your kids over to get the last $12 dvd player that they've been plotting to get since combing over the bulk-mail ads the entire week previous. Oh and then the checkout lines... they are always SO long, but they have 100 of them that always remained closed--if you ask me it's a deliberate form of humiliation "we could open more lines but we WON'T" Its the stuff of brainwashing, driving your self-worth so low that you start to believe that you DESERVE to stand in these ridiculously long lines. All part of their strategy to take over the world.

2. stuff you've never heard of.
so while i'm getting run over by the crazy lady diving in the aisles after the last $12 dvd player, i look at the box she's now tucking under her coat like some football at risk of getting stripped from her hands. "QUANTAXX"? What it the world is that? I look again... yup! QUANTAXX is the brand she's buying! I don't believe in brand loyalty, but really where did this thing come from?? My hunch is this, that they've got some sweatshop down in arkansas of poor preschool children that they are forcing to assemble consumer electronics... since all the kids is this sweatshop are deprived of nutrition and education, they scrawl out the few letters they've been allowed to learn on the press that makes the labels for the DVD players and Ta-da! you've just created QUANTAXX!

QUANTAXX-are they a reliable company? YOU'LL never know! are they semi-moral in their business practices? Human Rights Watch has never heard of them! Will it be compatible with my existing home-electronics equipment? not sure, but if not, power-converters are on a "roll back" in aisle 437.

3. their pricing strategies are a little dirty... and geared toward world domination.
pricing stuff at or below cost to "draw you in" to their head-spinning land of discount chaos, they undercut any respectable retailer. I don't think the government should intervene here or anything, but i think consumers should think more about it. when you buy something at walmart you are making a decision for the future of the world... will i help the world become a cheaper-and simultaneously a TACKIER place? Or will i fork out the extra $1.75 for the dustbuster and make an investment to keep the world on a slightly classier plane?

Every time someone buys something at walmart, realize what is being done, you are rewarding them and penalizing another... more than that with every purchase you are making our world "wal-mart-ier" keep it up and pretty soon the whole planet will be a big blue and white catastrophe. Is that what you want???

The next time you are in dire need of paper towels or that new Will Ferrell movie, think these things over, think about the world you'd like to leave for your kids and your grandkids... then bite the bullet, and pay a little more for the investment in the future of mankind.

want more blogging? you might be interested

i haven't blogged on this for a while. We've been sick and time has been short. I just wanted you to know that I also have a blog that i write on more philosophical/ spiritual matters. Check it out, especially if you are angry at the lack of content here, but never fear, we'll have more here soon (especially as soon as i can motivate my jocelyn to step out into the blogosphere)

Big News!

well it is for us at least.
At long last, Chipotle is here (pronounced CHEE-POTE-LAY)!!!!

chipotle is a mexican grille place... have big fat burritos that are out of this world It's cafe style and pretty cheap...($5.50 or so for a big burrito) it's oh so tasty too.

when we lived in MN, our church was right across the street from one... how we've missed it the last 3 years. but now there is one in west bloomfield (orchard lake between 14 and maple) and one in Rochester (rochester road) coming soon.

i HIGHLY recommend this place to any of you. Way better than Qdoba or baja fresh or any of that other crap!

maybe we'll see you there. You'll never be the same...

Aria's Baptism

It happened yesterday, Aria Bess is now a "child of God" (officially!)

It was a great day, awe inspiring to think about what God gave to her yesterday, very humbling for me to be the human agent for it too. Most of the family were able to make it (those that we actually told about it) I know, I stink at keeping people in the loop... sorry to any who are offended, I just imagine that these things "get around" on their own

On another exciting note, our nephew, Talon Joseph (dayna and rich's son born Nov 22) was baptized on Sat the 7th... so it has been a very miraculous month (i got to do that one too!) I'm still waiting on my lazy family to email me pictures for that affair, because we forgot our camera. When i get pics, i'll put them up!

Love to you all

Baby Acne

Aria is going through her first awkward phase--baby acne. Ellie had the same thing for a few weeks, i know a lot of babies do. But it really got me and joc thinking/talking about how hard it was for both of us to be teenagers with really bad acne.
It must be the cruelest joke in the world.

Take a young teenager who is in a crazy, difficult life phase. Who is struggling to form identity, who is longing to make friends, fit in, be grown up, be cool, be stylish, be popular... and add to this young person an awkward growth spurt, a changing voice (only half of our readership will identify :) ), hormonal imbalances, and ice the cake with a really bad complexion. IT STINKS.

We both look back on those days in horror. They were awful, if you were (are) in a similar boat maybe you can relate. I think that is where i learned bad posture (which i'm still trying to grow out of) because i certainly didn't want to walk around with my head held high.

And the most humiliating moment of all had to be the day, each school year, when you'd get back your school pictures. (by the way, why do school picture companies fake it like they are doing fine photography? I'm pretty sure that a drunk cave-man with a hammer, chisel, and a stone slate could create a more flattering image) They passed them out in school and all your "friends" (most like fellow members of the "complexion and orthodontically challenged" sect) would say, "Oooh! let me see!" and after feigning not to hear them the first 5 times, you'd eventually have to give in and flash them a looksie at that frankensteinian bust sitting in front of some middle-aged man's idea of a "really neat-o" blue background. And then you'd have to pretend not to notice them stifling a laugh so you could go on acting like you really didn't care anyway... but inwardly you were dying.

And the only thing that could make you feel worse was when your mom burst into your room as you were laying on your bed, listening to Kurt Cobain's suicidal chants wishing an airplane would fall on your house, and she'd notice the brightly decorated waxy-paper pack on your floor (again some tacky middle-aged man's brain child--do they really think high school guys are into confetti?) and say, "Oh, your school pictures!" At which time, she'd snatch them up take them out into the living room and in 10 seconds flat would have them put in the big 8x10 frame that hung on the wall all year, clamoring for the annual opportunity to renew your self-hatred. If your life really sucked, she'd give a copy to all your aunts and uncles and grandparents, to ensure that there'd be no sanctuary for you.

I guess all this is to say i hope my girls make it through adolescence a little easier than we, their parents, did. And should good fortune not be theirs in this matter, I'm giving them carte blanche to skip school every picture day.

answer the question, please

i know it may not be important to the rest of you, but for some reason, i'm really seeking input on WHO ARIA LOOKS LIKE!
jocelyn and I think she might look a little more like me than ellie does. I don't know why it's important other than to feed my own inquiring mind. But so far only joy has weighed in (thanks joy)-what about the rest of you?

cheers!

not exactly twins

here's aria a few days old...
less than a week (<--left)

here's ellie about the same age (right-->)

What do you think? Do they look anything alike?

am i on to something or do i need to grow up?

having another kid has stirred something within me that has been there for a long time.

See I think I'm a guy who was built for family (unless jocelyn disagrees). I love being able to spend time with my girls and I feel most alive when I am. So does this mean something?

Maybe I watched one too many episodes of the Waltons growing up but I wonder if there isn't some gross inequity in the balance of my life. I think i'm pretty good at spending time at home interacting with my family-maybe more than most (not bragging, my circumstances are good) but part of me really doesn't think it's enough.

I spend my "professional" life trying to help people, trying to help them come closer to our Great and Loving God. "Success" is a hard thing to measure, but then i look at these two lives God has entrusted me with and I know that HERE i have the greatest chance of impacting the world for good... thru ellie and aria.. so what's the other 80% of my life spent on??

I guess the bottom line is that i'm afraid that I spend a lot of my time being busy with semi-noble tasks that in the end won't amount to much. All the while giving less to the one place that offers maximum impact and minimal regret.

My grandparents' generation (keep in mind, garretts have kids young) had to work hard to surivive-so they say. My parents' generation didn't have to worry about survival, but they believed that their jobs defined their whole existence. I feel like i'm caught between the two, not really sure if either one is true. Not really sure if I'm going along with the crowd on something so important without really thinking about it.

Maybe there's another way to live life that undermines all the assumptions that are bred into us.

Or maybe I'm just a lazy bum who's looking for an excuse to stay home and play so i don't have to go to work...
what do you think, am I on to something? Or do i just need to grow up?

aria bess

aria bess graced the world with her presence on dec 27. we are now 4 strong.