the boys' birthdays (sooooo last month)

So, somehow, I managed to produce two sons, one born October 20th, 2000 at 12:06AM, and the other born 9 years, 11 months, 29 days and 3 minutes later (that's almost 10 years, minus 23 hours and 57 minutes, in case you were wondering) on October 19th, 2010 at 12:09AM. I don't know. I guess I am fertile Myrtle sometime around the first of the year??? 

They are both treasures. My first son, Dakota, taught me to be a mother, made me grow up quickly and has brought out the best and worst in me. I love him dearly... and having him to mother makes me examine who I want to be as a mother. I am sure he will need therapy, but he knows his mama fights for him! He has the most loyal, kind, and tender heart, and has always been playful and wild. He forgives easily and loves to snuggle. I love my Dakota! He turned 12 this year.

Noah Bear is full of heart and ferocity and I love him with that same fierce love. Maybe it's because he is my baby, but I can't get enough of his kissable cheeks, the way he says "Mommy! Mommy!" all the time... he is so dang cute and absolutely has me wrapped around his little finger. I could not love this kid more. He turned 2 (ayyyyyyyyye) this year... can't stand it!!

For the boys' birthdays, we kept it simple this year... We planned a special birthday meal at home for each of them after which we opened presents. I also had one simple joint birthday party for both of them at my Mom's where all the kiddos in attendance played on the awesome tree house and swing set my husband just finished building. 

For Noah's birthday, we did a birthday dinner with dinosaur chicken nuggets (of course), sweet potato fries and fruit and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. He got some more dinosaurs, wooden block stacking set and SWORDS!!!! That kids loves a sword... he calls it his HI-YAH!

  

For Dakota's birthday, he requested that I make whoopie pies for his birthday dessert. I made my famous homemade chocolate chip cookies and vanilla buttercream icing, and well, you get the picture...

My fancy camera was having problems so I had to take a lot of photos with my iPhone... Dakota's birthday meal was breakfast. He is a serious bacon lover, and pretty much wanted a pound of bacon, eggs and chocolate chip pancakes. With whipped cream. And that's what he got. 

For his birthday he wanted us to pre-order Halo 4 for him. So we did. And he was happy, as you can see. :)

treehouse and swing set my husband built... and site of the party!

Noah fell in love with this giant T-Rex he got for his birthday... he was talking to him and walking around with him. It was totally adorable!!

And that's it. I love mah babies. Happy birthday pumpkins!

one year older

I turned 33 last Monday.

As far as birthdays are concerned, it wasn't high on the scale in terms of celebratory themes. Truthfully, ever since my 30th birthday, I had sort of decided not to make much of birthdays. Though I do look forward to doing something that I want to do on that particular day, planning parties and stuff like that has just been thrown out of the water. What I have found is that parties  - and all the work it takes to plan them - aren't really all that much fun when you have to prep for them and clean up after them. I LOVE hosting and the food part, but the older I get, the less I enjoy the overall experience, especially with two very small children to try to care for in the process. 

So this birthday was meant to be very low key. I wanted to go to the mountains, go on a long, exhausting hike (either the Gahuti Backcountry Trail or the James E. Edmonds Backcountry Trail) and eat a good meal. That's it. But with the passing of my Uncle Clyde, our plans changed. We rescheduled the family birthday dinner to the night of my birthday. My hopes of a quiet date night with my honey were dashed and though we still got the chance to go on a hike, we didn't make it to the mountains. It was okay though. The hike was great... we did the full loop at Gold Branch which was about 3.5 or so miles... the majority of it was along Bull Sluice Lake which is the reservoir created by Morgan Falls Dam on the Chattahoochee River. There is plentiful wildlife viewing and serenity to be found. We enjoyed it. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Fickle Pickle where I had a pimiento cheese/bacon/pepper jelly grilled cheese. HELLO!? Amazing.

For my birthday, in case you were wondering... I got a subscription to Mother Earth News, a chicken raising guide, three CD-ROMs containing almost (together) 60,000 pages of early 20th century farm/field/livestock/survival guides, a camp kitchen, new grey wool blend Toms, Ken Burns' documentary, "The War" DVDs, and a Target and Starbucks gift card. :) Oh and some clothes from my mother-in-law.

This past year has been full of challenges. Personally, spiritually, financially, emotionally. I see more wrinkles and lines than ever. The important thing is that I am learning in this season. Things are changing. There is hope of Spring. I am not sure where I will be this time next year. My hope is for some dreams to have become reality. My prayers are for simple things... a yard for my children to run in and for a garden, to be able to be the wife and mother that I need to be for my family, to be more available for these roles... the things I hope for and aspire to are simple. I just want to be content, available, and present. 

Spiritually, I feel impressed by the Lord to practice more grace towards others and to operate out of that place more instead of a place of fear which results in judgment. Everyone is messed up in some way. No one is perfect. Everyone needs the Love of Jesus that looks beyond EVERYTHING into the depths of their hearts and embraces the core of who they are. The Love that gives a million second chances. So much peace to be found in this, for sure. 

Anyway, I don't have all day to blog. I gotta go change a poopy diaper and go to Target. 

Here are some photos from our hike last Monday.

Bless y'all,

Brooke

what you've missed.

I didn't say much about our anniversary (September 24th - 6 years)...

Or my birthday (October 8th - 33 years)...

Or anticipation of either date passing... or celebrations of either.

So...

Maybe I should do that?

And maybe I should catch y'all up on what we've been doing lately?

I think I will.

Tomorrow.

But for now, a couple of photos from over a weekend.

Much love.

phish are friends, not food

It was meant to be a surprise, except when my husband found out through various sources that Phish was playing ON HIS BIRTHDAY... IN ATLANTA ... I just couldn't contain myself any longer. I sprung for tickets and told him later when I realized the threat of disappointment was looming... 

I gotta say, I looked forward to this show and this weekend forEVER and for a variety of reasons. One, I had never seen Phish. Jason has, many times. I had seen Dave Matthews probably ten times, Widespread Panic a few times or more, with lots of other great "jam bands" mixed in there between all the festivals and such I've been to. But it had been awhile since a really good show. And Phish, well, that's just one of those shows you don't miss. And I'd missed a few in my youth. And it wasn't going to happen this time. And to be able to celebrate this with my man, knowing how much he loves this band, I wanted to make that happen - to share a memory with him of something we'd mutually enjoyed in our younger days... I was really looking forward to it. 

As the weekend got closer our plans evolved and we decided to make as much of a weekend of it as possible. We toyed around with the idea of getting a hotel in the city to make our commute to and from the amphitheater a little less of a distance and to just "get away" together. The only way that was going to happen was if we got a sick deal... I watched Hotwire for a couple weeks and just kept watching until the day of the concert. After we left the kids with grandma, we found a room in Buckhead for $75 in a 4-star hotel where you'd normally pay $160... um, yeah!? So we did it and to my DELIGHT we ended up at the W Hotel which is a super neato boutique chain with AMAZING rooms, decor, amenities, etc. What a treat!!

We got home, got all of our crap together and got ready for the concert and drove down to check into the hotel. Couldn't believe how awesome the room was... so swanky!! 

here I am, all dressed up and ready to go... 

me and my man, the birthday boy

swanky hotel room!

 We got to the parking lot about 6:30. It was slightly hilarious... here we are expecting to be surrounded by droves of dirty hippies and end up parked between a super new, super expensive Audi and a brand new Range Rover. One of the dudes was a doctor at Emory. Ridic. Anyways, we drank some margaritas and beer, walked around, did some talking about how much we have changed in 10+ years from when we were the dirt foot hippie children running around the lot, and eventually made our way in... Gawd it was so amazing walking in and realizing I was seeing Phish finally, and with my man!

seas of dancing kids

first encounter

hi!

We probably drank too much and GAWD how I wish Jason hadn't bought two waters on our way over to Shakedown Street because we'd have grubbed it up something serious!! We had both developed some kind of super headache and decided to head back to the hotel. I took a nap in the truck on the way back. We had some room service and coffee and went night-night in that super comfy bed....

next morning... parting shot

the W hotel

We had an amazing time together and just enjoyed being together. We need to do more of this but Lord it's expensive! It's expensive but you can't put a price on quality time together. We really needed it. 

Some parting thoughts... being in this scene at one time of my life WAS my nature, my identity. It was a real interesting contrast to see how much I have grown and changed as a person. I felt okay in my own skin, I could see through some of the image and the desire for belonging in much of the crowd that I encountered. Only years give this to you... I used to live to be high, and hate myself the morning after. There is nothing worse than the morning after... and that is all I could think about when I saw many of these kids so effed up. So much desire for belonging to something bigger than themselves and to identify with some kind of community. I have found that in a much more fulfilling and life-giving way through my relationship with Jesus and with Jesus-loving people who hunger for community the way it was meant to be within the church. 

But anyways, great time, great people. Great experience. I'd do it again, in a heartbeat. 

Here's a video Jason took and the set list in case you're interested. :o)