father's day

there's no mistaking it: i have the best dad there is to be had in the whole wide world. ok, well maybe your dad is the best, too, and that's ok. because there's plenty of room in the world for the best dads ever.

these are two of my most favorite pictures of us- the top one i'm taking a bite out of my bad mcdonald's clown (yes, i look like a little dude- like grace, i didn't grow hair until i was like 5), and the second one shows one my most best times i ever had with my dad, picking apples and pears in my nanu's tree in the bucket of our tractor. i can still vividly remember the excitement of going up in the bucket, getting swarmed by bees, the exhiliration of being allowed to do something so "dangerous" with my dad. taking big bites of the crisp tart apples.

for anyone who's ever been lucky enough to meet my dad, you know that he's selfless, open-hearted, simple, and kind. what you see is what you get. he will literally give you the shirt off his back if you say that you like it. it's best to stay on his good side, and if you do, you will be taken care of (taken caramel) forever. he holds his family close to him and cherishes every moment. he likes to taste life and is known to say over and over when surrounded by the ones that he loves "i'm a lucky guy. who's luckier than me?" this is why i love my dad. this and so so many more reasons.

in addition to having the best dad, i also happen to be lucky enough to have the best husband. my children, therefore, also have the best dad. i love the happiness on john's face in this picture. glowing with fatherly love and dedication for his little bean. i've never met anyone with such a drive to be successful and happy- someone who loves the feel of being outside, of being surrounded by his peeps, of going on little adventures. someone who dreams of a comfortable and snugglefilled future. my children can depend on his constant love and dependability. there is no question of him: he just is. he, too, is the best daddy in the world.

happy father's day to my two best dads. how lucky am i? look at me. who's luckier than me?

dilly bar humor: comfort

dilly bar humor, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

the other day we decided to pack up the kiddies and truck into the forest for some letterboxing loving, some friendly forest comfort. but nature had other plans for us. pretty quickly we all started getting attacked by steroid-shooting mosquitoes. covered. i got very freaked out when i looked down into the stroller and joey was being swarmed. so i bolted, leaving john to venture deeper with grace because she was FREAKING OUT. she wanted to go letterboxing so badly. it was heartbreaking seeing her clutch her little stamp. when she watched me leave so fast she got overwhelmed and they trucked back to the car right behind me. she was sobbed hysterically. this is a girl who rarely freaks out from sadness...and there was no comforting her. so i pulled out the big guns and said "does anyone think we should go to daaaaaaaaaaaaairy queen for some dilly bars?!?" and it totally worked. we drove a couple of blocks to the DQ we had previously spotted and got her her favorite cherry dilly bar. i grew up on these things. cheap, delicious, immediate gratification snack. as john came back from ordering and handed grace her dilly bar, she says "look! look! my dilly bar has a nipple!" now if that's not comfort food i don't know what is.


happy weekend!


www.mamasaysom.com

photobooth fridayertins

oh photoboothie! how i adore you! there's no writing on the back of these babies. they feature yours truly, my little brother uncle tingtingtingballs, and jared woodsum, who i liked to call "jared wood-scum". my first real kiss (summer before high school...late bloomer i guess). a sort of best friend turned boyfriend but should've always been a friend. love didn't last long for me but our friendship stretched on for years and years. there's lots of crazy jared stories. i remember driving around is his parents little car listening to rap music. we thought we were the coolest. we were invincible. here's another example of "i have no idea what happened to..."- jared in this case. i'm sure he turned out just fine...despite his craziness he was a good kid. here's hoping that jared is healthy and happy!

can't wait to see everyone else's friday lovelies.

more baggage

thank you to everyone for your comments about the diary posting. it's so interesting to explore how we all view our pasts and some of the measures we've taken to hide who we were, etc. i have to say i was horrified slash having the best time of my life last night when john and i snuggled up into bed and john proceeded to read aloud half of my diary. it's very freeing/excruitiating to hear someone else read your angst and fickleness. i love john because we've known each other forever, and he knows all the people i wrote about when i was 10. i wrote about HIM when i was 10 (see above connections...stacy c. is connected to "jon" (my husband's name...spelled wrong). i love sharing a past with john. i love that he gets as much excitement as i do reading and rereading all these pieces of the past. i'm sorry for breaking up with you in 7th grade for being too fast johnny! he bought me a heart-shaped balloon and i thought the next natural step after a heart-shaped balloon would certainly be kissing, so i dumped his ass.

and eddie's real last name was molina, and eddie was my first boyfriend...so from then on i was known as "nina molina the caaaaahpet cleeaaaanah" (you've got to picture the methuen accent and remember the reference to the then-popular vacuum commercial to get it).

as promised, my diary- age 10

"i am 10 and it's not very fun. i can hardly do anything by myself. i'm usually bored because i have a little 4 year old brother but he keeps me busy because i'm usually cleaning up his mess. and he makes alot of them believe me and i'm always their to clean it up. well i can't understand why he can't clean it up himself. he is such a baby."

priceless.

john will appreciate my writing about driving to the beach and my discussion of highway vs. backroads, which we still have today.

every time i look back upon these pages, i realize that i was one angsty little girl. i'm glad i grew out of labeling everything either "cool" or "stupid". everything was so black or white. even though i was angsty i hope i was still a sweet girl to those around me...maybe i was just venting in the diary.

good morning good morning

up early
stretching
drinking water and oj, hydrating the old bod
crafting planning dreaming
hoping for sun again today
going downstairs to brew some coffee
then out into the garden
to check on my tender babes


if i can get my act together, i thought it would be a funny and heart-wrenching assignment for me to randomly post images from old old old school journals of mine. well, i guess i used to call them my "diaries", so we'll go with that. i was always the girl writing in her diary, jotting down hideous (yet at the time INGENIOUS!) poems and wishes. i'd be at a slumber party with my notebook, writing instead of gossiping. steph and i used to sit right in front of each other and write back and forth in my diary (sometimes about my now-husband) instead of actually talking to each other. it was just what we did. my diaries were usually the ones that friends got to read. i never seemed to mind- nothing was really sacred (which is kind of sad in a way). like always, i'm here blogging and putting it all out there (and steph's diary is STILL a secret!).

i got to thinkin' about my diaries recently with all this rain...when the water started flowing in the basement, my tub of diaries were the only thing i cared about (ok, that and maybe hot water and heat-). i carry these things around with me, make sure they're always near. yet rarely ever look at them. they are just a part of me. it's like i'm keeping a tub of spare limbs in the basement. and i'm not quite sure what they say about me, who i am, or what i've become, i just know that they're me. so please join me while i whip out the baggage and post some of if for all the world to see.

(now that i've actually written that i'm going to do this, i have to actually do it, right?)

self portrait attempt at pop art

self portrait tuesday: my stinky feet, not pop art

my feet ridin' on the T in boston this weekend

this is what happens to feet in a mudpit at pride after weeks and weeks of rain. you should smell my basement.

i can't do the pop art thing. i don't have cool software, and i don't have a good enough understanding of pop art. the first picture is a real self portrait, and the second picture was taken by boo as i was (trying) to walk away from his booth at pride. that's all you're getting for my self portrait tuesday.

woke up this morning semi-rested because joey only woke up once last night to nurse. life is good! and gray slept semi-late after coming into my bed at 5:45am for snuggles. and then shanshan called and asked if she could come over for a visit over breakfast, so we tried desperately to talk and catch up while our FIVE kids roamed around mischieveously. gray is a hideous sharer but i tried not to be too crazy about it because shanshan and i quickly realized that the kiddies do so much better when left up to their own devices and are allowed to navigate the ups and downs of friendship by themselves. this weather rocks. it's sunny and the birds are happy. i'm happy. my garden is looking good after i had to replant all my cukes because some critter decided to snack on my tender babies before they even had a chance to grow. i was out early this morning spreading my coffee grounds on the soil. does anyone know if this even works or helps? i read it somewhere but i'm not sure if it helps. i'm wondering if that's why my critter at the plants...they were like "WHAT?!? coffee? i'm all over that shit!" and chowed down. i would if i were a rabbit.

in other boring news, i've decided to have another mail swap. sometime soon. i've reduced myself to becoming a total mailjunkie now. and i love it. i don't want my high to end! i love getting little pieces of you. so i'm thinking monday june 26th i'm going to post some pins and swappiestuff. do check in!

so it's been a long day

mini moopie cooloos for the twinners, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

it's late, and i'm about to roll on into bed for the night after a nice cocKtail, but i just wanted to send some happy wishes out into the universe in hopes of having some good dreams tonight. i've been dealing with some serious sleep deprivation and bad dreams and nursing all night long. my milk is all out of whack. today was wonderful but i hit many walls. grace is going through this fabulous stage of screaming NO at me and really meaning it. she doesn't budge. lots of crafting with boo tonight. taught him how to make stuffies. these little cuties pictured above were made using the mini moopy pattern from nest studio (and if i was really good i'd find the link but i seriously can't right now) via kiddley.com. i'm bad at patterns so this is a bit of an enlargement. i made them for kristen and craigie's (our twin niece and nephew's) first birthday. the stuffies are being punished in this picture and taking some time out in our time out chair. i wish the picture wasn't so blurry, but again, i'm too tired to find a better one.

hello, this is me blogging + tiredness + drinkie + buffalo chicken stromboli + crafting head.

finally, i'd like to add that gray's favorite song is that really REALLY popular song that's always on the radio (and american idol) that goes "so you had a bad day..." but she's made up her own words that go "so you had a bad day. you sing a sad song and drag it around." i love her words so much better than the real ones (which i don't know off the top of my head). i love the imagery of singing a sad song and then just dragging the crap out of it.

oh, and one last thing, i got the most beautiferous bracelet from my girl jen today in the mail. i've been wearing it ever since. she's converted me from a non-bracelet-wearer to a bonafide-bracelet-wearer! i love how it's all nina-hippie-style, too. boo even commented that if HE were to design a bracelet for me, that he would've chosen the same doodaddies. thank you jen! you crafty mama.

peace out lovelies!

my heart pants for pride

today was filled with torrential downpours and winds that turned people's umbrellas inside out. it was also filled with beautiful gorgeous screaming people waving flags ringing bells singing crying laughing.

very pride-a-licious with jo and libs- at the end of the parade....soaking wet (hi, that's dirty) but happy. (that's my fake a-stranger-is-taking-this-picture-and-my-camera-is-getting-soaked smile).

to intensify my near-nonexistent glaminess and femmishness, i wore a pink sequin and lavender satin tutu...

our soakin' and stinkin' feet

my girlies


i march in pride for lots and lots of reasons, most of which i'm not going to get into now. yes, despite my hesitations, i went into the city, skipped the birthday party, and marched with madfemmepride. i thought to myself...which thing will i remember more 20 years from now? and of course marching came out on top. but mostly i wanted to go to honor my girlies pictured above, and all my wonderful friends who welcome me into their arms with love and understanding. who are getting married. who rock. for everyone in my life who's queer or misunderstood or prejudiced against in any way. thank you for being you and letting me be me.

i felt a lot of things today, and definitely saw some haters along the way. at one point i was feeling a lot of sadness about some of the looks and comments i saw being tossed around from members of the lgbt community. but then something beautiful happened. there were two women cheering us on from the side of the road, a couple (i think). the looks of love and complete happiness for us marching, saying "thank you for marching!" and smiling and waving with such joy wiped away any negativity i was feeling. there are people out there who can't march or who might be too afraid to march or who are just plain old inspired by watching other people march. that made it all worth it.

madfemmepride poster

the ultimate best part of the day was when jo looked at me and said "pride is like my birthday. it's better than my birthday". or something very close to that. she gets more excited about freakin' pride than her birthday. people call her and say "happy pride!". seeing her happy was worth any pneumonia that i'll get later from being so cold and wet.

my heart pants for you.

"dear ma: everybody's feeling fine and eating their heads off. nothing much doing except that pa cut warren's hair this morning and did a fine job. did you enjoy your auto ride? will look for you sat. with love, bertha."

do vintage finds get better than this? we think the postage is 1919. i love the grubby fingerprints. and the fact that it's from malden ma. and good old bertha mentions an "auto" ride. a real piece of history. and i love the image on the front....it immediately caught me eye a couple of weekends ago when we were antiquey-peeky at todd farm. i knew i had to have it even it was blank on the back. the words were just a bonus. my heart pants for you? what's up with that? i love it.

seriously people. the mail love. after the kiddies went to sleep last night and johnny and i were watching possibly the new worst show on television (windfall), i got a nice chance to sit down and look through my treats. i've arranged them all just so in a box because that's how i am. i'm a girl that's easy to pleasey, a girl who loves mail. i want to post pictures and more details, but it's 6:30am and i don't know where my camera is at the moment. i'm hoping that it miraculously plugged itself in to be charged for pride today. although it's hysterically raining right now. soggy.queers. not fun. (soggy.straight.people.not.fun.either., ok?) so we'll see. i'm not a big driver and especially not during flood warnings. so in the meantime, before i post deets and pics, just know angela, danielle, mindy, and ali- you all rock my socks off, and my heart pants for you.

freakin photobooth friday y'all

here's another good high school one, in honor of my boy denny's 30th birthday. here we all in all our high school sexually charged glory. me in my kool aid rainbow hat that i used to think was really cutting edge (ha!) and shanna again, and denny, who wants to have sex with the world. denny is known for coming to my house randomly, sitting on my couch, staring at the womanly painting on my living room wall and walking me through his fantasies about her. the naked lady in the painting that is. denny is a special duck. an old boyfriend who's still around. that takes a special kind of ex-boyfriend, wouldn't you say? and a special kind of husband to deal with the whole mess, i guess. i hope denny is always, always around...surprising me at my screen door when i haven't brushed my teeth, reminiscing about the way things used to be, and speculating what it would be like if we got married (um, no thanks). for all of you that know denny, you're laughing to yourselves right now, because he is a character. i could go on and on but i won't in fear that someone somewhere will take it the wrong way. i love you denny (he in no way reads this or ever will)...i'm proud of everything you've become, your wife, your family, your job, your heart. and i love that you weren't afraid to eat dinner at my house uninvited every single night of my high school life.


to add to the randomness, i offer you part of a definition from wikipedia.com:
"The Care Bears' ultimate "weapon" is the "Care Bear Stare", in which the collected Bears stand together and radiate light from their respective chest symbols, combining to form a ray of love and good cheer which could bring care and joy into the target's heart. The "Care Bear Stare" has several different looks. One has a beam coming from the tummy being made up of several replicated images of the symbol. Another variation forms a rainbow when multiple Bears and/or Cousins are involved. A yellow beam with red hearts is sometimes seen as well."

i can't help but imagine all us bloggie sisters in a big cyberworld care bear stare.

and more appropriate thanks to come, but in the meantime, thank you danielle, alison, mindy, and angela for all the OVER THE TOP mail love. i'm in a mail-induced coma, totally overwhelmed and surrounded by your care bear stares. thank you thank you thank you to all my lovely ladies.

gotta run...i just finished mowing the lawn for the first time ever and i'm covered in sweat and grass...going to go wash.

meow!

oh the things i love thursday, and every stinkin' day!

for more love and thursday goodness, check out the flickr group
and thanks to love green dog for introducing me to the idea!

there's a bunch of things today:

gray falling asleep in the car yesterday after a really hard day of refusing everything, saying "no" and meaning it, and just being an all-around piece of work (POW). it was a good 30 minutes of me being able to sing and dance in my seat, dodging puddles and hydroplaning around town. of course, these adverse weather conditions did not stop me from whipping out the camera and snapping a shot of the peacefulgoodness.

gray refuses to wear "pannies". no, seriously, she does. i spend a large portion of my day re-putting-back-on her underwear. and she always manages to find a way to take them off again and hide it from me. i find her underwear stuffed in the strangest places...like her wonder woman lunch box (thanks HALA!). so basically lots of people have seen grace naked. it doesn't bother her one bit. it makes for interesting dinner conversations, like last night when my mom politely asked her to remove her "chaunna" (what i used to call it) from the table, followed by boo informing her that she had a piece of feta cheese stuck to it. i'm not kidding you, this stuff really happens.

my little potting bench outside our slider. metal lanterns, some pansies that gray (with the help of nana) bought me, a shell, a clay birdhouse, and some crazyold rosemary.

my garden. it really looks like poo right now and will until everything starts to grow. all those little white things you see all over the place are what we like to call "cotton". our neighbor (in very close proximity neighbor) has this huge tree that spews what looks like cotton all over our yard. our grass is nearly invisible right now, covered in cotton. so our my rugs. and my garden.

my girl tracy. seriously. this girl is good people. spending the afternoon with trace yesterday, i realized (not for the first time) that she's one of those special people. she is so good with my kiddies, and is going to be the best mom. she's in a really really special relationship with her man. her house is clean. you could eat off her floors. she puts out carrots to snack on and has a basket of toys. she trusts grace with permanent markers on her carpet. seriously. tracy. good stuff.

my little stinkin' grad-i-ated bro. seriously cute.

slurpin' noodles with the fam at fresh city. although we're never going there again, because that place is seriously overpriced for sh*t i could make at home way better. but i'm adding it to my list because we had a nice time because the crazy gilberts at a "restaurant". although it's hardly a restaurant. it was joey's first time in a big-boy's high chair. only after our visit, when i was telling my dad how the place was strangely not busy, did he inform me that it was recently on the front page of the paper for being closed down for these gross health code violations. awesome! now that i'm thinking of it, it really shouldn't be on this list at all. except i like the picture.

my stinkin' basil. i was some pesto in the worst way. can't wait to bust out the blender and force feed everyone around me my pesto concoctions.

old maps and scissors. these purple ones are on their way out. i must break down and get a new pair. someone (cough cough) must have used them to cut some sort of uncuttable metal products, or their pubes, or something. because they are having a hard time cutting through string. yes, string. i need new scissors.

randomness galore!

i know, i know, the sideways pictures are killing everyone. but i'm too lazy this morning to rotate this one...i'm posting it because it's so rainy and chilly out (i secretly love it!) and i took this during one of our weekend letterboxing hikes a couple of weeks back. this tree is called "the three graces". could we have stumbled upon anything more perfect in a mosquito-infested forest? i love how the trunks are keeping eachother company. a tree family. the three graces.

and here's a little pic from out dinner out on monday night...fire and ice in cambridge. look at my girl steph's twin-filled belly! i have that vacant zombie look in my eye when i have a coctail or two. the mussels were to die for and i loaded up on the goodness. happy birthday amy! (she doesn't read this but it can't hurt). it was fun being an adult out on the town for a couple of hours, without worrying about the wee ones. joey did spectacular with my dad, fell asleep by 7:15p and woke up at 5:30a to nurse. i really don't know how he lives without his milk but sometimes he manages.

trying to figure out my pride parade boston details for the weekend. of course sat. is proving to be one of those days when 5,000 things are going on. i was going to march with joey in the pack (with madfemmepride) but it's supposed to rain. basically i can't take joey if it's raining (miserable wet baby in backpack marching for gay pride) or too sunny (miserable roasted white boy in backpack marching for gay pride). so let's hope for an overcast day people! otherwise, i might cart my cooloo over to danvers for a tag sale to meet mindy. (btw mindy, i'd love directions if you get a chance) and then go to a birthday party in derry nh. oooooh, it's one of those weekends! if only gas wasn't three freakin' dollars a gallon i'd be all set.
in other news, john asked me out on a breakfast date for sunday so i'm also very much looking forward to getting my munch on with my husband (whoa, that's dirty).

ps, i'd just like to state for the record that i'm in bloggieparadise because of the recent addition of some of my favorite ladies to my blogging world!

hope everyone has a rainy but wonderfully spinachpieintheoven smellin' day!

self portrait tuesday: pop art me

here is me, pop art style. i honestly don't know much about pop art, but this is as good as your gonna get from me. i love the acidic quality of it- what i don't like is when you enlarge it it looks like i have black stubble on my chin. let me just state for the record that i do not have black stubble on my chin, ok?

happy self portrait challenge everyone!

my final post of the day, i promise

just a little video to make y'all smile:


Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing

"it's a strawberry cake!" and helicopters and the big, big world again

check check check it out!

my new friend mindy (who i'm destined to meet sometime soon, i'm sure of it!) is working on a cool bloggie sisterhood project. if you're looking for something fun to get in on, go on over to pink sky productions and get a piece of the pinky action!

gotta love community spirit. go mindy!

eye eye eye

today's just one of those days. not enough time to do all the things that i'd like to do. running around getting presents ready (why can't i just give store-bought gifts?) and going to the library book giveaway (the last day of the sale is free day! lots of vintage finds that will soon be turned into children-themed notecards-). toying with the idea of opening a tiny etsy (etsy.com) shop to sell some handmade things. going to sell some items at my dad's booth at an antique fair on the 24th of june. going to the city tonight with the girls to fire and ice...been wanting to go there forever and never had the chance. cringing after the expensive weekend but trying to remember what john told me...you only live once.

you only live once!

(so eat all the chocolate and drink all the coffee...no need to worry about the little soft bulgie belly that gray keeps poking at saying "mami, it's so sooooooooft!")

weekend poopshoot

woman with lace, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

this is one of my newer vintage finds...the tag read "woman with lace." i love the little look on her face. i love how her face reminds me exactly of the face of the woman who owns the antique store where i bought it. i love her crazy bangs and the way she's looking off into the distance. what's going on in her mind?

this weekend was kind of a poopshoot. not much going on, not too much family time. i just finished reading a fabulous book...ariel gore's "The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show : A Novel". super good except now i don't have a book to read because i'm on hold for francesca lia block's new one at the library. you think after the book sale i'd have something to read, but i don't buy grown-up books, just kiddies.

yesterday john was at a bachelor party (hi chris and erina!) and i was left to my own devices, which included throwing joey in the pack (gray was with puppa) and going all over the place. uneventful thrifting and grocery shopping and talking to lots of strangers. boo and jason came over and took caramel...made me delicious food and emptied my dishwasher and had coctails with me and watched bad alien tv. and looked at my boobs. even though they probably didn't want to. there's a lot of lovin going on between those two boys...and with john gone, i was feelin' a bit lonely watching the lovefest. i wanted in on the action. but not their action.

today i spent most of my productive day at my little bro's graduation. the most BORING graduation i've ever been to in my life. and i'm pretty sure he doesn't read this, but tingy...i'm so proud of you. to graduate with your engineering degree summa cum laude...and to be going on to get your masters...damn boy. you've come a long way from the big pants and leaving bowls in the back seat of my honda. love you!

hope all my peeps had gooder weekends than i! and swapladies, if you haven't already gotten your treats...you should probably be getting them tomorrow! glad you liked yours, mindy! i'm still thinking about my song, and will post a thingie about your cd tomorrow when i can get my head out of my water-logged bum.

meow!

almost forgot: photobooth friday

so here we are...friday again. i would've forgotten about photobooth friday if i hadn't checked out love green dog and seen her cool pics. anywho, here's my humble contribution...i love these because of the plastic ice cream spoons. priceless. this is high school...me and a friend shanna. i have no idea what happened to shanna. i know that she was the only person from my high school to go to my college (clark university in worcester MA). we were tight in HS but didn't really even talk in college. strange. i don't know what happened to our friendship. or happen to her. she was a cool girl...we both had snakes. strange times. someone told me she smelled like pee in grammar school, but i never believed it. she was good people.

maybe someday i'll find her again. (except she'll probably be mad at me for writing that bit about the pee thing. oops!)

he's going to kill me for posting this!

photo by gray

john read the love memes (or as he likes to call them "memeres") i wrote about him. he loved them, of course, and questioned me about every one of my answers. i encouraged (read: forced) him to respond by doing one for me, and he did. he says that he can't remember his blog password (adventures in googledom) so he can't post it, so i'm posting it here. i can't resist. it's the sweetest. some of you that don't know john personally may think that he's a pig and offensive, but he's just a big fat kitty cat and a jokey joke guy foolin' around. i especially love how the font is all messed up (he did it at work and tried to send it to me a million different ways) and one question is in size 800 font. (i attempted to fix some of it- still kind of messed up)

here it is...sorry piglet.

Two for Togetherness

2 things you compliment your wife on while in her presence.
1. Her hair
2. His post baby weight loss

2 compliments you make about your spouse to your friends.
1. she?s the smartest person I know
2. she?s the best Mom in the whole world

2 traits you married him for.
1. her inability to get mad
2. her care-free spirit
2 days you cherished the most with your husband being together.
1. Any time we ?talk without talking?
2. every stinkin' weekend!
2 material things you could give your husband if you just inherited a fortune.
1. A spa/women?s prenatal wellness center
2. any crazy necklace she wanted
2 things you would miss the most if she/he left for two weeks.
1. Her rubbing her sandpaper foot on my legs during the night
2. Her constant proddings to get me to go to bed at 7:30 on a Saturday.
2 things that crossed your mind when you first met/saw your spouse.

1. 7^th grade: "Holy tits! That's jerk off material for at least the next 10 years!".
2. College: That peasant/hippy look is so sexy . . . holy tits, they're still hot!?
2 favorite dates
1. Todd Farm in the FALL.
2. Any drive started before 8:00am with coffee and sesame seed bagels (another thing she opened my eyes (tastebuds) to.
2 funny odd things you love.
1. Her dancing and singing.
2. Her little calves- mooooo.
2 two places you have lived with your spouse.
1. watertown, NY
2. South Boston on the water in the disguised getto.
2 favorite vacations
1. The Cape
2. Ithaca, NY

if she were a virtue, which one would he be?
She would be patience, love, giving, caring, unselfishness.

where were you when you had your first kiss?
First time: CGS parking lot before school began for the day. I believe I complimented her fab 80's earings and went in for a cheek kiss. I was definitely too fast for her- she dumped me. Second time around: Halibuts Point State Park in Rockport, MA. Still one of the nicest places in the world.

what school subject is she?
Womens? studies.

what is her favorite piece of clothing?
Her hideous but perpetually cute sweater vest

which side of the bed does she sleep on?
the left side, but but by morning she?s completely taken over the entire bed and I usually end up close to falling on the floor.

would she rather bask in the sun or stomp in the puddles?
She would rather be in the puddles, she ?hates the sun? enjoys dreary days because its often cause to snuggle, make shmores and tea or craft.

what was the most wonderful vacation or adventure you had together?
I love all of our adventures but I especially like

what's his sign?
i have no idea. her bday is Aug 18th

what is her favorite dish to cook?
Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff.

what is the biggest surprise she ever gave you?
She?s good at giving gifts and remembering things from 5 years ago to surprise me with. She?s the most unselfish person I know. The biggest surprise would have to be my favorite blue ceramic mug that she bought me for no particular reason.

what little thing does he do that you love, and has no idea that it makes you so happy?
Calls me 1000 times a day to tell me little things like ?Grace just said poop? or ?Joey just smiled?. The way she always says, ?can we talk about the weekend??

what does she drive and what does it say about him?
a white 99 ford windstar. It says that she is practical, secretly hates being ordinary (she put two hip mama stickers on the back just to let people know that she?s not as uncool as the car would have you believe) and that she could care less about cars as status symbols.

does she read your blog?
yes. Although I?m the worst blogger ever.

if she is reading this now, what message do you want to send?
piashire, I miaaaaasss you and love you. It?s almost five years! Meow.

how stinkin cute is he? i've realized lately that i rarely ever blog about johnnyhusband...maybe because things are always so good, so solid. he's just there, being johnny. there's nothing ever scandalous or debriefable about it.

i also love how all the quotes came out as question marks...makes him look like he's all uncertain about everything. like...i love you? anyway, i had to share. i've got myself a good one.

we're all about the buttons

we're all about the buttons, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

well, peeps, the swappie swap went off successfully yesterday. and to all my sisters who "won" the treats, be checking your mailbox soon. no worries about reciprocating or "is it good enough" or anything like that...that's not what this whole thing was supposed to be about! i really such wanted to share a piece of myself with you- that's the important thing.

i hit the motherload of vintagey childrens books last night at the library book sale. haverhill public library has this massive sale twice a year and i have to admit that they are two of my very favorite days of the year. i will post some of my finds when i can get my camera act together. oooh, and a 1979 cookbook that completely rocks. and my all-time favorite book from when i was a kid. the sale was made even better because boo met us there...and i got to buy him some trollish witch books, etc. classic boo material.

poor horizon-

how come nobody loves little stinkin' 'horizon'? i thought it was the best of the bunch! come on ladies! where's the horizon love?

swappers

lately i've been feeling cheesealiciouslygood about my bloggie community. like real, real good. and i just wanted to put that out there. it's like back in the day when i had a pen-pal, except maybe about 5,000 times better and now we can write about bigger and better things than new kids on the block!

so, with that being said: i have a proposition. anyone interested in a trade? if you know me, you know about my flower pins...using vintagey (i use this term loosely) fabrics and buttons and wool felt. they are nothing special but they are signature nina-style, and i like to mix it up and make little limited edition batches. i make them one way and then usually never make them the same again. so i made up a little batch of randomness recently and i was thinking i'd like to offer them up for a little swaparific lovins: i'm going to post pics, and if you likie what you see, email or comment and it's yours. what do i want? you ask...how about a little letter, a button, a scrap of you. nothing much. i'm not picky. i just like the idea of putting a piece of me out there, and getting back a piece of your life.

re: size...i should've posted coins or something so you could get an idea of how big they are. tiny peanut is the smallest of the bunch, maybe the size of a silver dollar? ahoy! and fiesty are the bigger of the bunch, but they are all relatively smallish. a cute way to spice up a summer tank.

email me or comment re: which one you'd like...first come, first serve. if this is a fun thing for everyone, maybe we can do it more often!

danielle b. and boho, you've got treats coming to you in the mail already, so you can't play! :)

so here are the goodies:

1. summer lovin'- "SOLD!" to mindy

2. fiesty- "SOLD!" to four sweet peas

3. croquet- "SOLD!" to jen c.

4. horizon- "Finally SOLD!" to la vie en rose

5. ahoy!- "SOLD!" to katie at little potatoes

6. wink wink- "SOLD!" to ani in NV (i'll email you soon-)

7. poolside: "SOLD!"

8. tiny peanut- "SOLD!"- love green dog :)


in other news: yesterday i went to two places that i would rather never have to go to again...1. kay bee toy store and 2. mc donald's. for a sweet cherubs birthday party. grace was great, but got bullied in one of those filthy tubes by two little girls...they didn't want to play with her, and then beat her up (poked her in her eyes three times!) she was more heartbroken about the fact that they wouldn't let her play. i got all upset for a while afterwards, thinking about how we can't protect our little ones from bullies, from the reality of life. there are just meanies, people who don't play nice, peeps that don't play by the rules. i just hope she can remain herself, remain strong, and resist the pressure!

last night we made smores with freakin' peanut butter cups. we'll, we actually ate all the ingredients separately due to a really smoky fire, but if you haven't done the whole peanut butter cup thing, you've got to try it.

(yes, we let grace eat four p.b.c.'s before bedtime. we pick our battles.)

finally, the other day i took gray to preschool to try it out. preschool! she's a big girl. she did wonderfully and the place had good methuenish vibes...accents and all. so she'll start in september. now the quest is on for the perfect lunch box.


love this poem by jane kenyon:

philosophy in warm weather

now all the doors and windows
are open, and we move so easily
through the rooms. cats roll
on the sunny rugs, and a clumsy wasp
climbs the pane, pausing
to rub a leg over her head.

all around physical life reconvenes.
the molecules of our bodies must love
to exist: they whirl in circles
and seems to begrudge us nothing.
heat, horatio, heat makes them
put this antic disposition on!

this year's brown spider
sways over the door as i come
and go. a single poppy shouts
from the far field, and the crow,
beyond alarm, goes right on
pulling up the corn.