dear inkberries.

I love the earth and the things that grow in it. However, I have never pretended that I do a good job at keeping living plants and things under my care.

I almost always kill plants. Even those that are tough to kill. I had a ficus in college (which I loved) and my roommate and I got to the point where if you didn't touch it (or stare at it for too long) it looked okay because the dead leaves were barely hanging on. One bump to the tree and a whole branch would drop its leaves. Sad.

I do the same in my home now- people give me beautiful things and try as I may, I kill them. If they aren't dead, they just don't go anywhere. I mean, they sit and look the same, no blooms, no nothing. I didn't even think that was possible. I have had tiny successes- like half of our veggie garden grew last summer! The other half was eaten by mangey squirrels. And, my aunt gave me a philodendron years ago that is virtually impossible to kill, though I have gotten close more than a few times. But, that's about it.

When it came time to finally do something with our flower bed outside of the front of our house, Ben and I searched far and wide at the local nursery to find the most deer-resistant and Tara's-lack-of-a-green-thumb-resistant plants. We chose these happy little hollies called Inkberries. They are green, they don't need much sun, or water for that matter, and deer don't find them tasty. Perfect!

And I did not kill them.

But the snOMG did.

I can't believe it... the snow has been melting quite a bit in the past week with some of these "warmer" days- And finally the horror was revealed to me. Under the weight of 800 inches of snow were my Inkberry bushes- broken. Now what? do I trim them to nothingness and hope they grow back into the lovely shape they once were?

bawlamore, hon.

Really, this post starts with a plea for prayer. My sweet little friend is in the ICU with a yucky infection on top of his chronic lung disease. Ever since the day that he was born (9 weeks, or so, early) God has done so many great things and shown Himself in amazing ways- but he is fighting another little battle right now.

In an effort to help out his mom and dad in even the tiniest way, we spent a couple of days with his big sister, trying to keep her 5-year-old-self occupied and entertained with some of the fun that Baltimore has to offer.

First stop, the Maryland Science Center. When we first arrived I thought this adventure would only be short lived. The dino bones were only so-so compared to the cheap-as-free Smithsonian and for a five year old, Newton's Alley just wasn't going to cut it. As much as I tried to interest her in gyro-sphere's, how pulleys work and a stringless harp, it was a little above this kindergartner (and she's the smartest!). And, one can only stare at the giant animatronic blue crab for so long.

Then... we found the Kid's Corner...

A special haven of wonder for kids only up to 8 years old- this trove included the simplistic joys of knobs to turn, buttons to push and running water to splash around in. And it, was, awesome. We spent well over an hour playing "captain of the ship" and other such imaginary games.

Here we are "under water". This section featured 4-foot tall ceilings... hooray!

Day two we visited the National Aquarium, because, "prices take a dive, fridays after five". As a side note, you may or may not know that I have a relatively irrational fear of aquariums. Mostly it's a claustrophobia thing that tends to be very real when I have to drive through underwater tunnels (don't judge) and all I can think about is the amount of pressure above me... somehow this transferred to aquariums which is just embarrassing.

Anyway, I've gotta tell you- National Aquarium- really not so bad after all. (phew!) I found that most of the tanks housing the fish were small and spread out.

And truly, all of the fish and squid and eels and whatever that live underwater are pretty incredible creatures.

Of course, we eventually got to the gigantic panes of glass lodging only sharks, and I was less than excited about that section.

It was a little tighter of a space and I believe that I have a healthy and totally justified and rational fear of sharks. To anything that bears its two rows of razor-sharp teeth and moves too fast for me to be able to even snap a picture of, I say, no thank you.

She felt the same way...

But don't worry, once we made it through we thought we would do our best to show those sharks what we are made of!

Whadd'ya think of our jaws, you Baltimorean mega shark?!

when school has been cancelled for over a week...

...because of ridiculous amounts of snow, it feels so good to get out. Ben hasn't been in the classroom since February 5th and we didn't clean any buildings at camp last week for fear of getting lost in a snow drift. When it was finally relatively safe to venture out in to the world we decided to keep ourselves busy with some out-of-the-house activities.

We did some sledding at Ben's family's farm.

I mainly took pictures, but did my fair share of sledding too.

I feared a little bit that Ben or Kristi would break one (or more) bones.

Then, we spent a day walking the not so cleared sidewalks of DC.

We even met up with a DC dwelling friend who, unfortunately, had a hard time digging his car out from being plowed in on the street- but it was so good to see him and so good spend time with friends who were willing to brave the mess that was DC.

A stranger offered Ben a dollar if he was willing to walk out on the reflecting pool.

He was a man of his word.

Valentine's day was yet another good excuse to get out of the house... And what is v-day without a feather boa?

nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

We had a teeny-tiny argument this morning.

And then I remembered life is too short.

Then, I forgot why we were even arguing.

Then, I remembered it's Valentine's Day.

And then I remembered how very thankful I am that he is my Valentine.

i'm sorry, i didn't realize we live in siberia

I want to talk about something else- but lately it's all I can think about.

Every one is feeling it.

This blizzard of 2010, snowpocalypse, snowmageddon, call it what you will, is out of control.

We haven't done too much other than try to stay warm today because we lost power for about 4 hours. Ben created this outdoor refrigerator to save the perishables we had.

We played games and stared at each other while reminding ourselves that the settlers of colonial America did this all the time. And then, we praised Jesus for restoring warmth and running water to us.

Ben and I, once we felt we could come home to a home with electricity, decided to take a little adventure to camp. It was then that I realized when the news said this storm would be "paralyzing", they weren't kidding. Sure it snowed some more today, but the wind is especially crazy as it has formed drifts past my waist at some parts. We just wanted to take our trash to the dumpster over at camp because we know we aren't seeing the garbage men any time soon... but I didn't fare well.

I couldn't help myself- I took a short video of part of our trek, because I was actually amazed at how ridiculous these "blizzard conditions" were. I live in the mid-atlantic for cryin' out loud. This doesn't happen to me. But here it is...

on laryngitis

I don't always understand it, but I lose my voice a lot.

Sometimes, it seems almost out of the blue and sometimes it's totally explainable. When I was a camp counselor I spent most of my summer whispering to those around me because I would lose my voice so quickly. Every word out of my mouth was dripping with hope that my campers would listen and understand me. If it healed, it was still mildly raspy for the remainder of the summer. Even now during summer camp (in my more supervising/overseeing role), I still tend to get a little hoarse if I yell too much. And by yell, I mean if talk excitedly to one or more people in a day for longer than 10 minutes, my voice weakens.

Other times, I wake up without a voice and there seems to be little to no explanation. Sometimes I think it's because I am allergic to a lot of things and those allergens can irritate my larynx.

This weekend I thought maybe I was having some allergy issues-- then, I remembered that I was buried under snow and there isn't a lot about snow to spur on allergies. So, maybe I had a small cold. I mean, small. I blew my nose (but I do that a lot, every day, anyway) and sneezed a couple of times. But I felt pretty great.

Then- I woke up this morning. with. no. voice. When I first tried to talk to Ben this morning and no sound came out, I figured I was just getting over morning grogginess... but it didn't come back. In fact, when a friend called and I answered the phone I actually got a little light-headed from putting forth so much effort in order to be heard on the other line.

Laryngitis. More like, laryn-this is really inconveniencing me-gitis.

Again, I feel great! I wasn't doing any major cheerleading yesterday, so I guess it comes down to my mild cold. But my throat doesn't even hurt- I just hurt others' ears, as it is, I open my mouth and a squeaky yet deep and raspy excuse for a voice comes pouring out.

I drank tea, rested my voice, tried using my voice to- I don't know, stretch out the vocal chords... and it has gotten a little better. I am hoping that I wake up tomorrow totally revived (er, at least back to my normal day to day raspy voice).

I read once that there might be a problem with the way you talk if you keep getting laryngitis. Soooo, speech training maybe? Apparently, you can have speech habits that cause laryngitis. What are mine? Well, the obvious I guess is that I talk too loud and too long. But, that can't possibly be it...

For now, maybe I'll check Craig's List for a humidifier. That sounds lovely.

snowpocalypse

they say it's your birthday...

Today is my aunt's Birthday! Isn't she just the most?

I think so. She is one of the strongest, most beautiful, hard-working, outgoing, talented women I know with a contagious personality. Carolyn is someone who chooses joy. My aunt laughs a lot, loves a lot and gives of herself a lot. Her beautiful self is being celebrated at her new home in dixie with 60 degree weather. Today, in honor of her b-day, we are enjoying a 'nor-easter.

Though Carolyn isn't here to play in the snow-- her birthday twin and grandson (my cousin), Edward, is celebrating his birthday in the the snow!

Happy birthday to Carolyn and Edward-- I love you both, a lot.