Niner

10 minus 1

5 plus 4

18 divided by 2

3 times 3

Equals….NINE

E+C

2010 minus 2001

1 kid plus 1 kid

6 humble abodes

College plus grad school plus degrees plus career

Equals…NINE

At least in Anniversary Math.

Nine years of married life is a very complicated mathematical equation.

First, you add apartments and houses and cars and degrees and experiences and vacations and friends and families and jobs.

Then you subtract money and places you’ve lived.

After that, you divide your time and attention and then multiply it all by happiness and adventure, which is an entirely different set of factors that add up to an ambiguous formula.

So this year,our Anniversary Math equation equaled the

magical number NINE.

Seriously?

Nine?

And since I’m pathetically behind in posting, it’s actually 9 years and 2 months…how do you feel about THAT?

In celebration of NINE, we took to the proverbial (indoor) skies and defied gravity, just to prove we could handle NINE and fly high into ten.

(I repeatedly bumped into the wind tunnel’s walls and plummeted toward the safety net—is that a bad sign for ten? Well, if nothing else, we felt the wind on our faces. And in our noses. Oh, our noses….)

It was a kick-back dinner at a charming little joint and…

NINE was a done deal.

The equation only gets longer for ten and while math is not my preferred pastime, I’m excited to get equating.

:)

HAPPY NINE TO US!!

In honor of (the too many to count) friends whose torsos are overtaken in the Human Growing process--and those (also too many to mention) recently reclaimed-- May 21st will hereafter be known as

Torso Gratitude
Day.

I love my torso. Do you? Then SHOW it!

Let's hear it for torsos! Torso! Torso! Torso!

**A special thanks to Heather for making me count my very movable, unoccupied torso in my blessings today.**

Attentional Blink

Meet Attentional Blink, my latest State of Mind.

Attentional Blink loses track of time easily,

is inconsistent

and fails to post regularly in order to properly document Life.

BUT….A.B. produces multitudes of photos and is found occupying its most recent prey in various and enjoyably sundry activities.

(Enjoyably now granted Word Status in my world...)

Like Belly Puffing

and Headdress (and ear tube) Donning,

Winter Doffing,

and Cavorting About the House

while the Snow Falls

and the Rains Drop.

Luckily, the side effects are fairly harmless.

Witness Protected: A Shamelessly Belated Easter Tale

These eggs knew. 

They knew about Easter and needed proper protection and hiding.  

As a result, we were forced to change their appearance altogether.

But sadly, in the end, the disguise was not enough protection from the likes of these eager Easter Egg Private Eyes…

  

or their assistants.

    

The Office

Quotes of the Week

"Is that the program where the puppets live in the barrio?"

--Dwight, speaking of Sesame Street

"He's not really a snappy dresser...reminds me of Easter."

--MIchael, speaking of Andy

A hearty welcome to the newest Delicious Word, my good friend,

Blather.

Feel free to use it in a sentence. Or say it over and over in varying pitches and tones.

Not only is it sheer fun to repeat, but by doing so, you are employing the pure defination of the word. :)

This morning, I woke to the sound of this

and the smell of this

and thought to myself, “Am I in Heaven? Maybe England?

Ahhh…doesn’t matter—it’s all the same.”

Happy Rainy Day to....me.

Snail Trails

On the rare occasion rain fell on the scorching New Mexico ground, an Underground Snail Scene emerged.

Our driveway would be cluttered with water-deprived snails and their iridescent trails, luxuriating in the puddles left behind by the in-and-out storm.

I was always first on the scene, mixing and mingling with the Snail Folk, picking them up, studying their reflexes and following their slime trails.

Recently, I’ve noticed trails around the inside of my house, but they’re not from snails—they’re from little boys.

I would like to say that following these trails has not led me down slimy paths, but, you know boys….sometimes slime is involved in what would be an otherwise slime-less pursuit.

Nonetheless, these Little Boy Byways remind me that snails are not the only ones to leave reminders of their presence…