That place between

I spend a lot of my time competing with my toddler for my computer. She likes to slam the laptop shut and smash the keys when I'm trying to do something. If I happen to have computer time without tiny fingers, she will find a way to beckon me over for bouncing on the tiny trampoline or running up and down the tiny staircase her grandpa Nick made for her. Right now, at 8:30 on a Monday night, I am having a moment of time because her dad is holding her. The problem is now that I'm free, I have no idea what I had been trying to get out all weekend... I did jot down notes. I have notepads I carry around in my pocket and my purse and leave in places for easy finding. I have pens and pencils and all of the tools I need to keep my thoughts together. When it comes time to sit down, I find myself either unable to find these notes or I find myself deciding that all of the scribbles no longer make sense like they once did... Writing is a part of me. It is what I think about when I...

Some people call their family when they go into labor and are having their first born. We called to help raise our first house. It wasn't that it was a large home or particularly difficult undertaking as it was a time constraint - we were closing on the land on January 22nd and wanted to be into the house by April 1st.  On top of that, we needed to do so while Ross continued to work a full time job as an employee at Creative Visions in Monterey and getting time off for the project was difficult. In stepped his mom and dad, Nick and Cathy. When they came, his sister Anji followed shortly thereafter.  Suddenly we had half a dozen people standing at the wheels of our base floor lain trailer, ready to raise the roof, as it were. The framing for the walls was like magic.  Words were passed quickly back and forth between father and daughter, sister and brother, mother and son.  Jeff and I wedged in where we could, took commands when they came and did what we could w...