Mercy

Mercy and I have had a bunch of bonding experiences - baths apparently are no exception. I remember giving her a bath when she was only about 5-6 weeks old, and here we are together taking a bath at Aunt Susan's and Uncle Richard's in the jacuzzi tub. Boy Mercy loved that (although Geoff says in this picture I look like I'm enjoying it more).
I was there the day Mercy was born. There is something very significant about my connection to my sister's daughter. Gini even sometimes says that she had my child, because Mercy and I share some similarities. I mean come on - the child's first word was "puh-puh" (puppy). I became an aunt when I married Geoff, but I became Aunt Minnah when Mercy came into the world.

Sara

This picture isn't quite as recent as today. It was taken back in May, but close enough. Sara's a total beauty! She makes me think of snow white with her red lips and dark hair and eyes. Her uncle Geoff is completely enamored with her. Since she came along, he talks more about having a daughter than a son.
I was there three days after Sara was born. I was there again when she was back in the hospital as an infant. My first neice, she has a close place in my heart. Stubborn and willful, she's gonna be a handful, but what a beautiful sweet little thing she is when she's not throwing a tantrum!

Matthew

What can I say about Matthew. My first phone conversation with this little guy was his calling to tell me about seeing horses at a farm. He said (and I quote) "Horse. Pee Pee. Poo Poo." He hasn't outgrown the humor of bodily functions, but then neither has his uncle. What impresses me most about Matthew is his mechanical mind and determination. Instead of wanting to be a pilot, he wants to build planes. And he could too. He's smart and he's a mess, probably why I just adore him!

Updated Pics - Jonathan

It's about time I update some photos of the neices and nephews. I'll see what's cute that I haven't put up.

Jonathan is eight now, and getting to be more of a big kid every day. He's a lot like his uncle Geoff. He wants to climb every tree, visit every stream, and he is dying to go canoeing! I keep telling Geoff we'd better hurry up and get started on our own family, but on the bright side, Jonathan will be big enough to babysit our children by the time we have some.

Defending the Alpha Position

Sometimes it is tough to be the owner of two pit bulls. They don't rough me up by biting me like some people would probably think. Once Colson got so excited to get back into the house that he wrapped my arm around the posts on the entryway to my porch - I ended up in ER. Nothing was broken, but I was pretty swollen and hurt.
Another time I got a black eye - my only shiner ever! He just bumped me in the right spot to blacken it. And then there was the time one of the neighbor kids decided to throw a stick for the dogs and clobbered me in the head with it. I know that wasn't technically the dogs' fault, but it was a related injury.
And as I sit here typing this post, I have a throbbing tooth and a bloody lip. Soozie this time, bumped my tooth with her hard head, splitting my lip open. If I still have a headache this bad tomorrow, I'm going to the dentist. If I lose my front tooth over this, I'm not going to be too happy! But these are the perils of pit bull ownership I guess...

Dang! It Feels Good to be a Poet!

It feels good to be writing again. I've been into E.E. Cummings lately, and I think it shows. That and my post-modernist training, which I'm still coming to grips with. I love structure and syntax and twists and turns and strange words with double entendres and everything about language. Just love it. Believe it or not, this is a love poem. That's as much as I'll give away. I'd love to see commentary on it - of any sort - good, bad, or ugly. I'm interested in a, whether or not anyone's reading this other than my sister; and b, what you think...

(Non) SENSE

The smell of wanton sulfer -
his careless gentility -
an odor of undoing
and taste of starlit apple

he has a touch so malignantly
sagacious
(both alarming and familiar)

and still -
on the (almost
imperceivable) pauses
between comingandgoing

sober intoxication - and
inopportunity -
share between petals,
the thorns