SLIDER

Thursday, December 31, 2015

(What's Good) - 12/30/15

Working a half-day.

Delicious Thai food in NW with B and Z and Alex and Francie.

Frozen yogurt treat for the Bean.

A 1.5 hour nap.

Dinner party with the fam. 

Settlers of Catan late into the night.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

(What's Good) - 12/29/15

The Hubs getting up to eat bfast with the Bean. 

My final session with my therapist of over a year. I gave her a terrarium. And a hug. It was awesome and awkward, all at the same time. 

Asher at the Bean's school told me Francie is his best friend. In the car I told her how nice of him it was to say that. She explained, "all my friends at school are my best friend."

Hanging out and talking with just my sister in law after work. 

Alex turned our kid into a Frozen kid, because she chose an "Elsa and Anna CD for Mama for Christmas." She now, a couple years behind the times, walks around singing her own version of "Let It Go."

Watching part of a movie. On a school night. 

Monday, December 28, 2015

(What's Good) -12/28/15

Waking up to the sweet Bean in my bed, with no recollection of when or how she got there. Her soft chubby arm wrapped around my neck.


Francie sporting some new clothes - that actually fit!


Very minimal traffic on my commute back to work after a week off.


Allowing myself to entertain other job opportunities.


Seeing a veteran that hasn't been in my clinic for more than 1.5 years. And he's doing better overall. His depression managed. His PTSD/anxiety somewhat subsided. And his motivation to return to school. He even smiled a few times.


Isagenix e+ shots. And the Isalean protein shakes.

Interviewing and audio recording my brother for two hours. 

(What's Good) - 12/27/15



Sleeping in until 9. Nine!?!


OCD-inspired purging of kitchen drawers.


Hanging at home with the Hubs, the Bean, and B & Z all day. Football. Snow outside. In-house childcare for a mid-day bone.




Watching a movie in the daytime (Adult Beginners was pretty good).




Talking to my (drunken) brother about some of his memories and perspectives of our family.


Alex set up Francie's new easel from Mimi and Papa.








Talking names for Baby Girl Hartman - my vote is on Zoe.


Observing my daughter and brother loving on each other.




And comparing bellies.




(What's Good) - 12/26/15


(What is not good is that the Internet has been broken at our house since before our trip to Tahoe. And we get spotty cell/data service. But what is good is that Alex is home for another week of vacation and will fix it for us! But in the meantime I haven't posted these in the last couple days.)


Sunrise and full moon illuminating Martis Valley for our early morning departure for home.









A relatively cry/whine-free 12-hour drive from Tahoe to PDX.




Listening to my playlist while driving on the open road outside Shasta, the Hubs and Bean asleep.




Gas station coffee.




Unpacking nearly all our things before B and Z arrived.


The Bean's insistence that I "text Santa right now" to tell him how much she loved her scooter.








An extra day of vacation to get settled, hang out with family, and prep for the week back to work.




Friday, December 25, 2015

Close Family Christmas Letter & Family Photos 2015




December 2015
Dear Friends & Flamily,

This is Francine. I’m three-and-a-half. My mama asked me to write the annual Close Flamily Holiday Letter this year. I DID just learn to write my own name. She told me to talk about highlights from 2015. I like to tell people about that time I saw a dead pig in Ireland. It was verrrrry stinky. I flew on an airplane for a long long time with my parents, my Mimi and Papa, Uncle Brian and Aunt Jen, and Grandma Lambie – four generations! My mama and daddy wish I would instead tell people about using my passport for the first time. Or all the Irish cousins I met. Or visiting the northernmost point in Ireland. Or walking across that rickety old bridge to a fishing island.

I’m in the Preschool Class at daycare now. I go two whole days and one half-day each week. On my first day I wore a fancy dress. I’m learning to write all the letters and I get to play outside almost every day. I like to choose my own clothes, draw and paint, play with dolls and music, and ride my scoot bike. On Wednesdays I have Beebee Days. We play at the park and eat yummy treats at the coffee shop and go on fun PDX adventures. I reeeeeally like babies and pretending to be pregnick. I don’t nap anymore. I’ve already had my first cavity, so now I take fluoride medicine every night. I finally weigh more than 30 lbs and am taller than 3 feet.

My daddy teaches Big Kids. In June he talked in front of A LOT of people. He was voted some kind of favorite or “distinguished” teacher and spoke at the Big Kid high school graduation. When he was done, I tried to run up on the stage to give him a hug and a kiss but froze when I realized how many people were watching me. He started teaching a new class this year, for Big Kids who don’t speak English. And he volunteer coaches a Unified soccer team. Daddy got a new-old truck this summer and likes to spend a lot of time fixing it. He also brews beer and I help; I like to watch for the bubbles. He didn’t have to teach the Big Kids this summer, so we played a lot – he built a deck in the back with Mimi and Papa and he took me camping.

My mama works some days. She helps people with brain injuries. I pretend my babies have brain injuries and go see the doctor for shots to make them all better. She is a speef pafolojis and works in a hospital. I like to draw pictures for her to take to work and give to the people she helps. Sometimes she doesn’t come home right after work because she is helping Big Kids with their studying. She says she wants to be a writer. But the only thing I ever see her write are lists. Or funny things I say. “Write it down, Mama!” I tell her when she laughs at me. And she keeps a silly little blog, mostly writing about, you guessed it, me. Mama says she’s afraid to fly, but it seems like she goes somewhere on airplanes a lot. Sometimes she goes with just her girlfriends, and sometimes I go too, like to see Mimi and Papa in Tahoe and go skiing for the first time, or when we took a girlcation to visit Uncle B and Zahavah on Block Island. I’m SO excited I’ll have a baby sister-cousin before next summer! 

This year we also drove lots of fun places, like to Sunriver, a few camping trips, and to stay with friends in Bend or at a cabin on a pretty lake. This summer with my Beebee I used my passport a second time. We took a long drive and went on a ferry to Victoria, B.C. We rode in a taxi boat and saw a miniature goat stampede. Mama and Daddy daydream about us taking a big US road trip next summer. I don’t love riding in the car for a long time, but I do love to go new places and talk to new people. Mama and Daddy say I’m sweet and charming and think I’m just the funniest, with the cutest big tummy and tiny buns they’ve ever seen. I think I’m funny too. My very favorite is doing Ring Around the Rosy or having flamily dance parties in the living room. We mostly have a blast together, the three of us, even though sometimes we are all prone to tantrums.

They just told me to stop talking about myself, and to tell everyone that I hope they are healthy and happy and get to laugh a lot, too. Happy Holidays and a Happy 2016!

Love, Francie


P.S. Mama made me include just a few of the silly things I have said this year:

  • “I’m Doctor Francine. Let me make you feel better (hug!).”
  • “I need to put on lipstick and make a few phone calls and then we can go to the museum.”
  • “Our fingers and toes are PHALANGES!”
  • “We are Oregon girls. We climb up to the clouds and squeeze out the rain.”
  • “Hey, you know what? Pigs are made of BACON.”
  • “Before I nap, you and Mama should try and make a baby.”
  • “Hey guys, wanna see my table dance?”
  • “Daddy, I’m scared. Actually, I just want attention.”
  • “Is the sun farther than the moon? I love you to the sun and back.”
  • “I just don’t like your face with glasses on.”
  • “Do you think owls are eating dinner right now? Because they are okturtle.”
  • “These glasses help me see better than motorcycles. I have six eyes. Not in my brain, but outside my brain. I don’t want baby books. I want 4-year-old books.”
  • “I don’t have to go potty. I’m just rubbing my crouch.”
  • “Mama, I LOVE ginger beer.”
  • “Does Grandma Nancy not have arms and legs? … Look! I drawed her. Doesn’t she look pretty?”
  • “Mama, does that sparkly pajama shirt make you feel like a motherf@*#er?”
  • “My belly says I’m all done pooping.”
  • “I want to take your selfie.”



Alternative holiday cards:





Family photo session w/Patti O'Mara:

















Thursday, December 24, 2015

(What's Good) - 12/25/15

Christmas morning and Santa came!!

A most wonderful day with family. Those who inseminated my mother, those who share my sibling DNA, those I married and married into, and those who married into mine. And, of course, our most precious little Queen Francine. I couldn't be more grateful for such good fortune, both in the material and immaterial sense. 



Dutch baby. Fresh squeezed OJ. 

Sledding. Radio Flyer style. 

Homemade cheesecake. 

Good photos to remember good times. 

(What's Good) - 12/24/15

Waking up to a very white Christmas Eve day. 

Watching Nesta enjoy the snow. 

Baking my mom's lace cookies. 

A very powdery walk in the woods on snowshoes, reminiscent of our old active days. 

Napping. Again. While my daughter did not. Can I blame it on the a-a-a-a-altitude?!?

Seeing old friends. The Bean's very sweet curiosity and subsequent questions about Julian (why does he not talk?) and our being able to seize the teaching moment about how badass it is that people are all different. 

Another flamily dinner at CQ. Fish tacos a la Uncle Chef B Love. 

Reading The Night Before Christmas. Over FaceTime with my dad. 

The Bean's relentless curiosity about all things Santa. Including a plan for how he could deliver all the other presents and then open gifts with us. 

This sweet sleepy girl in her reindeer PJs. 



Tuesday, December 22, 2015

(What's Good) - 12/23/15

A skiing Bean. 










Apres ski. 




Go Fish with Beebee. 


Watching the Bean enjoy her new Legos with Uncle Brian and Aunt Jen. 


Salty brisket dinner. 

Going to bed early. Reading in bed with the Bean falling asleep on me. 

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