For several months now, I have been searching for a good deal on Le Creuset cookware. I knew it was expensive and had hoped to find some on sale at TJ Maxx or something. Well, one French oven at TJ Maxx prices was still $175. Eek. So I sort of thought maybe it just wouldn't happen for quite some time.

Then I was skimming an email my mom sent me about an upcoming estate sale and it mentioned a set of Le Creuset cookware. My radar went off... So my mom and I went to this estate sale yesterday, and veteran estate-sale-er that I am, I whipped on my sling, stuck August in it, Brooklyn grabbed DD's hand and in we went. I made a BEELINE for the kitchen - always my first stop, particularly now that I was on the hunt for Le Creuset. And there it was, unobtrusively arranged on the counter along with tons of other nondescript kitchen items...as unobtrusive as Flame orange can be... A 13 piece set priced at $200. Ok, so at estate sales, I can usually walk away with a STACK of items for under $60, and I paused at the price tag. And meandered around the rest of the house deliberating. I put some other items together, found a great Limoges tea cup and saucer, a vintage strainer, a beautiful porcelain tea set...and decided not to get the cookware.
Until I got my stuff in the car, the kids strapped in, and was ready to put the car in gear and drive away. I groaned in indecision! My mom looked at me and said, "Ashley, you cook all the time. Is this something you will seriously regret if you don't get it?" She shared a recent estate sale experience where she had almost bought something she really wanted, but decided against it. Only to have second thoughts, return and it was already sold.

That sealed it. I pulled back in the driveway, left everyone in the car, grabbed my checkbook and dashed to the kitchen. A man was slowly lifting the lids and peering in the various pots and pans. I reached across him, ripped off the price sticker and ran to the checkout. The cookware, which is the heaviest thing you can possibly imagine, was soon nestled in my trunk along with my other finds. I am one happy girl.



I later looked online at Williams-Sonoma and found that a 12 piece set - on sale - runs around $1200. SWEET! I got home, immediately washed everything and made myself some hot chocolate in the smallest saucepan.

I feel lucky to reach the ripe old age of 32 and never have been called for jury duty. Prior to this year, that is. Early this year I received a letter notifying me that my turn had come. I was being put on notice that I would be on call for the federal court for the month of March. Problem was, we had scheduled a family vacation for March. So the courts graciously bumped my on-call to October. So a week before the first Monday in October, I opened the mail to find my official letter, summoning me to jury duty Monday morning at 8:00am. A knot formed in my stomach.

Because I'm a stay at home mom and am still nursing August, this made me so anxious for some reason! Not because I have anything against serving on a jury - it is, after all, our civic duty! And loved The Runaway Jury! It just made me anxious. No good reason for it.

The Sunday night prior to my Monday morning appointment, I had my mom all lined up to come over bright and early so I could head to the courthouse. But then I realized there is a number you're supposed to call after 6 the night before you're scheduled to report.

So I call. And the recording said...if your name isn't called you have been excused. I breathlessly listened to a listing of about 20 names...until I realized they had not called my name! The recording said if you have been excused, wait for another letter to arrive. All right!

Two weeks go by and I'm thinking, the month of October is slipping away. Surely I won't get away with just one letter? And the next day my letter came. Show up Monday morning at 8am! That was supposed to be this past Monday.

So Sunday night I call in just KNOWING they'll need me this time. And sure enough, they called my name, along with about 20 others. Show up Wednesday, though, not Monday, they said. Wednesday at 8. And they said call Tuesday night to make sure there have been no changes.

Tuesday night, I call. The message said, all jurors whose names are called, show up Wednesday at 12:00 instead of 8. And call at 10:30 to confirm this. Sigh. So I went to my Bible study this morning and in between small group and lecture, I called the number. No change in the instructions. So I leave Bible study early, drop the kids off at my mom's, eat lunch and then head to the courthouse.

On the way down the road, I happen to think...maybe I'll just check that recording one more time. It's 11:20. Sure enough - the message now said, all jurors reporting on Wednesday - do not report today. Report instead on Thursday morning at 8am. COME ON!!!!! Pick a date and time already!!!!! And of course....call the night before after 6 to see if anything has changed.

So I line up my mom to keep the kids again on Thursday and watch the hands of the clock circle around to 6. I give them a good 30 minutes to get their message in and then I call.

"All jurors scheduled to report Wednesday or Thursday, do not report. The trial has been cancelled. Your term of service is over. "

I break into a little dance around my kitchen I like to call "The Jury Duty is Over" dance. It was nice. You'll probably do it spontaneously some day yourself when you are in my shoes.

While Brooklyn sleeps, August and I get to hang out. It's always a good time. I never know what he'll do, so sometimes I just sit back and watch.

Last Saturday, we took advantage of a gorgeous sunny day to go to our very first Pumpkin Patch. I was so glad Kyle was around to go with me because it was not the sort of outing I think I could have handled on my own. The place was packed with people, cars, strollers, wagons hauling pumpkins, trailers hauling people back and forth to the pumpkin patch...it was muddy and yet dusty at the same time, but definitely a festive atmosphere. Brooklyn and August were abuzz.

They got to peer at animals up close, poke their heads into haybale tunnels (too scared to venture through), ride ponies, pick a pumpkin, stick their head into a cutout for a picture, saw some friends from the gym and all in all wear themselves (and me) out.

I really don't know what to think at this point. Since receiving the unexpected news last Wednesday that my car had major problems, we've been in limbo. Kyle's car went into the shop immediately after to get its maintenance (and timing belt changed), so that is another really big check.

Regarding the choices we had to make about my car, we just sort of stutter-stepped around. A huge praise right off the bat was that my parents loaned us their Suburban, so we had more than adequate wheels!!! Thank you SO much, Mom and Dad!

Then, we couldn't figure out exactly what to do about my car. We pulled all our Audi records and made sure they hadn't missed something. Then we called some trusted mechanics and got their feedback. And then we drove through 2 car lots sort of perusing the selection...nothing excited us. And we still weren't sure whether we should be looking for a large car (since we want more kids) or a small car to replace mine. Questions just piled upon questions.

And so, today, Kyle took the Audi to a guy my dad knows who has a test he can do to determine if the problem originally diagnosed (seeping head gasket) was really a problem. I mean, if it was seeping, it was definitely a problem! But we were puzzled why we had noticed NOTHING. No changes in driving, etc. Well, Kyle called me this afternoon with some interesting news.

Ash, he says. Guess what's wrong with your car?

I hesitantly ask, What?

Absolutely NOTHING. The guy's test revealed absolutely nothing wrong with our car. In fact, he can't believe the other guy said it was a seeping head gasket. The car is perfectly fine.

So, how about that? I am SO glad we didn't rush out and buy a car! Somehow that just never felt quite right. And all along, as I was working through my daily Bible study in Genesis, specifically studying Abram, I was reminded of the dangers of acting in haste. The lesson being driven home was to wait patiently on the Lord. Abram and Sarai got themselves in big trouble by not waiting on God to bless them with their own child. Reading over that passage the other day, I told myself, Ok, the God of Abram is also YOUR God, Ashley. And He will take care of you. So just be patient and wait to see how this thing plays out. And God is so good! It appears we may not need to immediately get rid of our car!

You just never know what will happen. I guess, in the meantime, Kyle and I ought to figure out what car we do want when the time does come. So, thank you to those who specifically prayed for this situation. God is real, active and definitely involved in our daily lives. And Praise Him for that!

Have you ever seen Gosford Park? Well, one of the main characters is played by Maggie Smith, who also plays Professor McGonagall on Harry Potter. Well, she cracks me up in Gosford Park because she loves to eat and every time she sits down to her food, she claps her hands together and says, "Oh, Yummy, yummy, yummy!" Makes me laugh every time.

Then I found myself saying the very same thing yesterday when I iced these fabulous cupcakes I made! I borrowed a cupcake cookbook from Lauren and just dove right in. My first experiment?


The cupcakes are chocolate sour cream (seriously YUM!) and the frosting is a meringue-like whipped concoction that makes me want to dive in. So good. It was a little bit of sweetness in the middle of a bad-news kind of day.

You ever have a day in your life when you're just going along minding your own business and then...WHAM...out of the blue you get just knocked off your feet by something? Almost like you're playing baseball, sitting in the dugout waiting for your turn at bat and suddenly the pitcher zings the ball right at you where you're not paying the slightest bit of attention and you just get nailed! Cause it's not your TURN! You're not at the plate! You're not READY!

Well. I had one of those days yesterday. A couple of things happened yesterday, actually. I'll start with the positive stuff: Kyle and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! And folks, it was a great day because of that alone, in spite of the other stuff which I'll tell you about in a minute. I seriously love me some Kyle and would not do a single thing over any other way. As I wrote in his card, (Kyle, hope it's ok that I share this), "If I were standing at the end of the aisle about to walk down it, knowing all that I do today, I would not walk slowly down the aisle to him. I would kick off my high heels and SPRINT down that aisle into his arms." Marriage to Kyle has been far better than I even anticipated, and I had pretty high expectations. He is the most amazing man, husband, father, friend, you name it, that there is. If I'm talking in baseball metaphors, I hit this one out of the park.

Ok, so that was the good part. The not so good part. Ahem. You know how cars have to have periodic maintenance and how it's never cheap on a good day. Well, for awhile now, my Audi has been reminding me that it's due a service visit. And I knew it would be one of those costly visits, cause nothing with cars is EVER cheap. And I also had this little tickling feeling in my gut that I just needed to get the car in...like something hidden might be going on. The car was driving fine, no obvious problems or issues...but I just had this feeling. I didn't even mention it to Kyle. I hoped I was misreading my internal cues. Well, Kyle calls me yesterday with the report from the mechanic.

Fortunately, I was sitting down when he called. My precious little car had been hiding under its hood problems that would result in about $4,500 of repairs. Oh yeah. Something leaking that means my car is a ticking time bomb for an engine head to crack...plus standard timing belt replacement...plus some other stuff. Now, you just don't plop down that much on a car for repairs. And in fact, our mechanic gave Kyle explicit instructions to NOT DRIVE THE CAR A DAY LONGER. Sell it immediately, he said. Not to some unsuspecting person...please, people, we would never do that! He said sell it to a dealer or use it to trade in for another car, because a dealer can fix the stuff for much cheaper.

The thing is, we knew we'd be looking at buying another car soon. Realistically, 2 new cars, just not yet. We had hoped to wait a little bit longer, save a little more money...God just dramatically scooched up the timetable on us. It's looking like NOW!

As unpleasant as the news was about my car, again, I think God really prepared me for it. I had a suspicion founded on nothing other than...God's nudging, I guess. I'm sad, though, because I love my car! It's my zippy little baby! And there are no cars out there that excite me or that I really want to buy. Plus, there's that painful element of just parting with that much money.

And we had not planned to purchase from a dealer. I love shopping online using the vast marketplace of the internet. In fact, we bought the Audi online from a guy in NYC. That sort of shopping experience doesn't look like it's gonna work right now. We need to find something quick. So it's probably some sort of car for Kyle at this point.

I spent a good 45 minutes yesterday just pouring out my heart to God, asking for guidance and direction. And I happen to be studying the life of Abram and am seeing daily how faithful God is in the little and in the big. So I sit here tonite not real thrilled about the thought of having to car shop, but also curious as to how God will reveal Himself to me through this. He already has just by protecting me through the subtle urging to get the car in asap. So I know he has our future car waiting in the wings just awaiting its cue to come on stage.

I'll keep you posted. And I would greatly appreciate your prayers as we pick ourselves up from the dirt and wait for the next pitch.

Names, names, everywhere names. Never thought I'd be Little Miss Monogramming, but I have learned that when it comes to making it home with YOUR stuff, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I have made friends with a lovely lady named Judy who runs AJ Monogramming and whose shop is within walking distance of my house! Actually, my mom made friends first and introduced us. Thanks, Mom!

Judy turned my little $6 Wal-Mart lunch bags (found after weeks of searching online and finding awhole lot of nada) into personalized favorites. PLUS, they clip onto the backpacks which have become a major necessity in our house!

(If you can't see the names on the lunch sacks, click on the picture and it will expand for you).

Tonite my family celebrated a birthday dinner for Zach at the Butcher Shop - a long-standing favorite of my family. We were seated at our usual really long table and once our orders were placed, commenced our usual chatter and buzz. There is never a shortage of things to discuss, particularly with Anna's baby due in about 4 weeks and Lauren & Josh's little Sawyer to pass around. Plus, Michael has now flown the nest and has a house with another guy, is working as a teacher and we never see him anymore. So it's voices streaming in and under and around and over, all while I play Mommy, trying to make sure my kids are happy and eating something, but not stuffing their faces with JUST bread. And mostly trying to make sure August doesn't actually manage to reach my plate, grab my steak and shove it in his mouth! He's wily like that.

Sometime during the evening, Brooklyn found a friend. She always does. In fact, it's rare to leave anyplace without having made at least a new acquaintance. And that's true for me as well as her! Next thing I know, Brooklyn and her new little friend, a girl named Marina, are sharing a booth and just chattering away like little birds. They're squealing and huddling shoulders together and grinning and giggling...like they've known each other for years. Turns out, they are only a few days apart in age. Turns out Marina has a little brother who's a few months older than August. Turns out her mom and I hit it off, too! Turns out she's Brazilian and her mom had joined her and her husband for dinner that evening. Turns out my brother, Michael, is pretty fluent in Portuguese as well as Spanish and was able to brighten their WHOLE day by conversing with them in their native language! According to MY new friend, Izabela, Michael's pretty darn amazing at Portuguese!

As our parties broke up, my family trickled away to my parent's house to have birthday cake while Kyle and I (plus our kids) and Michael lingered in the parking lot making friends. Michael was learning new Portuguese words, Izabela and I were scrabbling for pens to take down each other's names, numbers and email addresses, and Brooklyn and Marina were twirling. August was trying desperately to keep up with his big sister.

What I found interesting was Izabela's comment that our family - the whole shebang, not just me, Kyle and tots - was more like a Brazilian family than an American family. She commented on the boisterousness, liveliness, love between family members and relaxed attitude towards children. And my extremely social children. She has no idea. :) She said she finds it very unusual to find a family as open, easy-going and willing to interact with whomever's around - apparently that's very Brazilian. Hm, for those who have wondered what's wrong with my family, maybe we're displaced! Maybe we're more Brazilian than we knew! I'm ok with that. I wouldn't want it ANY other way.

For one thing, it expands the boundaries of my world and scoops up anyone standing on the edges and draws them in. I love that. And I find very few people object to being loved and included as part of a gigantic family.

So, to my new friend, Izabela, thank you!

One interesting thing about parenting is that new things crop up every now and then that stump you. Such as this: on the days when Brooklyn does not actually sleep during her afternoon nap, she goes down beautifully at bedtime. She falls asleep in no time - with no begging for me or Kyle to come sleep in her bed with her. However. Without fail, on those days, she wakes up with nightmares. Why is that?

I've noticed a distinct pattern in regards to this. And her nightmares are not preceded by watching any new movies, anything scary...just an afternoon naptime where no nap actually happens. I wonder if she gets TOO sleepy and drops into deep sleep TOO quickly and this somehow results in a troubled sleep? I have no idea, really. Just that it is most definitely a conundrum.

Last night, this happened again. And to add to the weirdness, she was sleeping so deeply that she wet the bed. This was early early in the morning after she'd crawled in our bed (unbeknownst to us). She's been sleeping in her "big girl" panties at night for over a month with NO accidents. I heard her sort of crying and moaning and next thing I know, Kyle was jolted from HIS deep sleep by the feeling of a creeping wet warmth on the sheets. He yelped and leapt from the bed! I groggily rolled over and said, huh?? By this time, he was hauling Brooklyn to her room for clean clothes. I really think that in her deep sleep, she just couldn't crawl out of it to tell us she had to pee!

So then this morning. She wakes up....odd. Oddly quiet. Oddly somber. Oddly still. And as I am making french toast in the kitchen, she drapes herself belly-down over a kitchen chair and just hangs there, hair dragging the floor, for about 15 minutes. She slowly and quietly eats her breakfast, claiming she feels fine. I knew something was wrong, but just could not figure out what!

The storm broke while I was on the phone with Kyle. Standing at the sink washing dishes with the phone to my ear, I'm listening to Kyle when I hear this frantic scream, "MOMMY!!!!!" I skid across our tile floor in my socks and see Brooklyn's terrified face looking at me as her hand grabs her little bum. AA! The lightbulb goes off - her stomach IS bothering her! I hang up on Kyle and with lightning speed, whisk B to the bathroom, strip off her clothes (too late...) and plop her on the pot. Within a few minutes, my old Brooklyn is BACK! All it took was a little "explosion." Sigh...

I learned a very valuable lesson. When in doubt, when my child is unnaturally quiet, make her sit on the pot for a while. The problem may resolve itself without requiring a separate load of laundry.

Have not had much time to share life's little stories as of late. Time slips away with the little things of the day: waking up, breakfast, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, calling Terminix about more bugs, doing my Bible study and have a quiet time, putting the kids down for naps, holding and loving my kiddos, making lunch, making dinner, cleaning more house, working out, making and crossing off to-do lists....it's never ending.

But I did have a blessed interlude to my regularly scheduled day: Kyle and I went to see Mamma Mia! last week! It was in celebration of my birthday (in August), and I had SO much fun. It was all I could do not to hop out into the aisle and sing and dance right along with the people on stage! I swear, in another life I would have been a Broadway performer. Note I did not say "star". I have no real talent...but just to PERFORM would be super fun!

Brooklyn found it incredibly confusing that Mommy went to see a play called Mamma Mia. She knows and loves the movie, so to her, I went somewhere and "played" with Mamma Mia people. It was hard to clear that up.