The Streetpoet

On a typical Santa Barbara Saturday morning with the clouds hanging about us and sea breeze blowing in, we picknicked on the beach…seven girls and two babies! We were there to celebrate Noel’s last week of singleness and to honor her history and love of that beautiful city.

Anna packed a delicious lunch for the whole crowd…and saved a heart shaped loaf for the bride. 🙂

This is the coffee shop where Noel studied for her culinary school finals. Such a cute place!

An antique consignment shop called the Yes Store had this couch for sale upholstered in “my” fabric! I fell in love with this Waverly pattern and for our first Christmas Peter bought me a couple yards of the stuff and I made a skirt out of it. And that’s not the only item of clothing made out of upholstery in my wardrobe. 🙂

We walked to an early dinner at Pascucci’s where Noel had been during her school days and it is her favorite resteraunt in town! It has great food and was very affordable!

But unfortunately that was the end of my adventures with the girls. That evening Brennan came down with the croup, and since my boys have had it before I thought the worst case would be a few hours of sleep lost but it never eased up like it should have in the wee hours. He was still pretty bad and Ian was restless so Donna and I left Santa Barbara and got home by 4am. Ian still didn’t sleep well at home, but Peter took him and let me sleep in til the afternoon! Poor Brennan had to be hospitalized Sunday afternoon and given breathing treaments and steroids, transported to a different hospital for overnight observation and discharged late Monday and he’s better but still feeling bad here three days into it. He’ll be one year old next week!

Since Ian was exposed all day Saturday to Brennan I was watching for any signs of croup and have had to check my fears and trust in our Father to protect him. It is now past the time that the doctors say the germ is in incubation and Ian is still healthy and happy, praise be to Jesus!

My Mama comes in tomorrow for Thanksgiving and Noel’s wedding! It’s been six months since Ian’s birth that she was out here and I’m so thankful that she’s making the trek again. And this will be the first Thanksgiving I’ve had with Mama and Regina in years!

We were going to go on a road trip in September, then October…for sure October. My sister Regina was going to go with us and the boys to see the central coast and we were going to have a weekend away on our anniversary! But Peter’s professor announced the week before that midterms would be held the following week…so he needed the time to study at home. I was sorely disappointed. So was he. So to offset my disappointment he gave me my birthday gift early…two tickets to Lord of the Dance at the Civic Center in Thousand Oaks on November 15th!

I wonder if God was reminding me that He holds all of our disappointments, however small? When I was a teenager I adored Irish step dance and in particularly Riverdance. I learned the songs and wrote down the words. At the time my twin sister was dating a guy whose family was sensitive to my feelings and invited me along on their family outings with them. Except for once when they had only one extra ticket to Riverdance. Oh, how terribly I wanted to go! And now as I sit disappointed that our anniversary trip is cancelled, Peter pulls out two tickets to Lord of the Dance! How funny.

Last night I decided that I still like Riverdance better, but seeing the show with Peter was so much fun! And very memorable. 🙂 Thanks Babe!

 Regina and Peter put together a surprise birthday party for me on Tuesday evening with some of my closest friends! Except I was sorry that Misty was sick and Donna couldn’t make it. Ken of Japan gave me this robe to put on and took the picture for us! It was an amazing night and awesome food! I’m so blessed to have such wonderful sisters and friends!

Today in the mail I received these beautiful earrings from my friend Maxine! So Jerome took a picture for me. 🙂

All day I have been waiting in anticipation of Vanessa’s phone call. It was the brightest 20 minutes of my day! It is wonderful to be celebrated and to have my friends tell me what I mean to them! But I feel incomplete. It’s not just my birthday today, it’s Vanessa’s too. So laughing with her and catching up on her life today felt right. Thanks for the phone call Nessers!

Here’s a glimpse of us:

I love you, Nessers! Happy birthday, my twin! Our age is finally catching up to us! 😉

Thank you for the phone calls and e-cards and gifts everybody! Birthdays are so nice. 🙂

Sunday Mary brought Grandpa Charlie down to visit us and he got to meet Ian!

Seth helped me stir the polenta for dinner one cold night this week. He was happier than he looks, ablsolutely thrilled to get to stir (I was happy for the help too, as the stuff requires constant attendance)  but unfortunately he didn’t like the finished dish. He ate it anyway. 😉

Ian in the johnny-jump-up!

He’s started on oatmeal cereal this week and he absolutely devours all I give him. He’s also really close to crawling!

Jerome made cards for his cousins in Peru and dictated his love and scripture verses for me to write inside! Note his costume…

It’s been a good week, but since Peter worked last weekend every day has felt like it should have been Friday! So here we are on Saturday finally, so I’m gonna go enjoy some of Peter’s Belgian waffles!

Just a few things that have been meaningful to me recently:

“God is good in all that He does, and all that he does is good.” ~Johnathan Peppers

“God is too kind to do anything cruel, too wise to err, too deep to explain Himself. Therefore, when thou canst not see His hand nor trace His sovereign plan, Christian, trust His heart of love.” ~Spurgeon

“Oh, Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!” ~Aslan in ‘The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S.Lewis