yikes!
it's been a while. I have been a bit caught up in facebook.
mike and I got new phones. and we can access the internet and a lot of the time, it is easier to check facebook from the phone than get on the computer. and it is easier to type on a real keyboard than the phone keyboard.
I am getting better at typing on the phone keyboard. so I thought I would just bite the bullet and type out a post on the phone.

it's sick week, or two, at the the Thiebaud house. mike and I have been fighting a stomach bug for a while, him more than me. and hannah picked up a rockin' cold earlier this week. since most of my friend's kids have colds also and it is the week before our church's christmas pagent, I have been watching some extra kids over here a few nights this week.

I feel bad for the sick little dudes. but am glad that we can help our friends out a bit and keep some germs out of the nursery...not that that isn't where they all picked the germs up in the first place!

hoping and praying that we all get healthy soon!

...why i love my daughter...

...mike and i went out to dinner on friday night with some friends. (we usually enjoy friday night as a date night and hannah gets to spend some quality time with her grandma and grandpa - mike's folks.)

so, we picked her up pretty late and were on our way home. i asked her what they did, did she have fun, all of the regular questions... one of which is "were you a good eater? what did you have for dinner?"

she answered me.

"yes, i was a good eater. we had sandwiches for dinner."

"what kind of sandwiches did you have, bud? peanut butter and jelly?"

"nope. regular sandwiches, you know, pig meat and cheese."

i thought mike was going to crash, he was laughing SO hard!

seriously...

i've been...

...tagged.
never thought that would happen. i feel like i have just barely existed in this "internet world" and actually enjoyed just "lurking" around (not in a creepy way, i just don't feel like i am a very eloquent commenter...so...)
anyway, my friend rachael marshman tagged me to tell six things about myself. six unspectacular quirks. i also need to tag six more bloggers and leave each of them a comment. and from there, the madness should continue...
without any further hesitation...my unspectacular quirks...

1. i am not a morning person. capital n. capital o. capital t. a huge part of me desires so very much to be the early riser who accomplishes much before lunch time arrives but the reality of the situation is that i am not...i know that God can mold me throughout my life to be that person, and don't doubt that that is something planned for the future ashley.
2. even though i have some hideously messed up knees, like since junior high, i love to run...i don't do it very often because it is wicked painful, but there is just something about it that i find so electric. it's like you get to connect and disconnect at the same time. i would love to participate in marathons (any length actually) in the future. it's kindof hard to explain. since i don't get to run, i like to get out and move other ways. i have been riding my bike, with hannah in tow, for a few months now. i average around five to ten miles a day, for most days of the week. we all ride to church together on sundays, which is super fun. hopefully we'll get geared-up for the "winter" down here, so that we can continue our biking throughout the year.
3. i spent a summer living out of a tent/under a porch. it was at a camp in arizona that i worked at for a few years. the summer before, i slept on a porch. the summer after, i did a lot of porch sleeping again. the first week was always a bit creepy, getting used to the sounds and never knowing if you'd wake up to a javelina sniffing aroung your sleeping bag. but it is the best, sleeping outside. once a week, we'd sleep out in the woods with the kids. then i slept right in the dirt. i love to be dirt-dirty. not, you know every day. but, i worked in the camping industry for almost seven years, and camped for fun. i'm down for three weeks with out a shower. smelling like campfire smoke, swimming in a lake. i feel like there will always be something about "civilisation" that i just won't get.
4. i hate wearing shoes. my feet need to be free. i need my feet to be free. i have three pairs of sandals that i wear, two are "everyday" and one is for riding my bike. even then, i can't really stand to have them on. i loved lifeguarding because you don't need shoes to do that. i love southern california weather because in the "winter" i can wear long pants that cover my feet and most people don't even notice that i am not wearing shoes. i fell like my feet are really wimpy since i have worn my sandals regularly, for like, the past big handful of years. i used to be able to walk around in the woods barefoot without a problem.
5. i'd like to start a little business from home. i like to sew and "make stuff." i am not very profit-minded, so i haven't made a whole lot of progress on this front. but someday...
6. i really don't like technology. here i am, telling you that on my blog. but really...there's just something about a notebook and a nice sharp pencil. something about a card catolouge and a book shelf full of encyclopedias. something about stamps and knowing you just have to wait for a reply. something about a tape deck...casettes, vhs...something about a corded phone and having to be intentional about time for conversations. i think it's the part of me that is romantic. i idealise those days before everything was happening at 100 miles an hour.

so, there's a glimpse into my unspectacular, quirky life.

1. debra, my sister.
2. jessie, a central coast friend that i met through my sister
3. hope, high school friend living on the east coast
4. mike, the husband
5. jen, from the seattle years
6. emery, a really honest blogger i learned of through my sister

here is your charge:
-link to the person who tagged you
-mention the rules
-tell six unspectacular quirks of yours
-tag six bloggers
-leave a comment for each

can't wait to learn something new...

...that's the way i roll...

...slowly, sleepily, and finally back to my own house.

hannah and i were gone on our grand adventure for almost three weeks. (just a few days shy)

we made it back to buffalo from north carolina safe and sound. and a little bit quicker with the help of grammy's new gps. it was quite a trip.

the next day, mike, josh, and my dad arrived around noon. that was last thursday. we left friday morning for pennsylvania. my cousin ali's wedding was great. i did miss the reception, though. i made the executive decision to stay at the hotel with hannah and take some "down time". we'd been going so hard for so many days and she was way past her limits of being able to handle things and function without a regular nap. (although, she was a champ during this whole trip. capital c. h. a. m. p.) the reception would not have been much fun for me or for hannah if we had decided to go. i'm sad i missed it, but it was the right choice to stay back. monday morning, we left pa and headed back to buffalo. we got to visit gettysburg and amish country in between the wedding and heading back. it was a lot of fun.

tuesday, we went to niagara falls and spent most of the day at the park. it was a lot of fun. mike and hannah had never been to see the falls, and i hadn't been there since high school...
God is so amazing. everyone should get to experience seeing the falls in person. they are awesome.

wednesday, we went to the erie county fair. that was also an "all-day-er". hannah got to ride on some of the carnival rides, which was very exciting, for all of us. she's never really been on anything besides a carousel, especially with out a grownup. her most favourite was the giant bouncy, blow-up slide. she could have spent all day on that thing. we saw some so-so "competitive place setting" displays. (that's what my brother decided to call them. they are like table-scapes i guess. it's my mom's favourite part of the fair.) we found the ag building where the maple booths were. (my favourite! i got maple cotton candy and a maple snow cone. i know, overload! but the products were from local, western new york farms...and what sort of local maple sugar farms am i going to run across out here?) saw some historical reinacters...soap makers, wood carvers, broom makers, potters, iron forgers...it was really cool.

thursday morning, the boys left at, like, four in the morning.

friday night, we left to come home. hannah and i "spent the night" at my folks' last night. we didn't get there until three this morning. guess who was awake for the two hour car ride and then decided to stay up for almost an hour and then decided to wake up at seven-thirty this morning...?

i'll get some pictures up this week...

i am so glad to be home.

we have..

..done a bit of traveling during the past few days.

friday morning, we left buffalo around nine a.m.
we arrived in winchester, virginia around eight-thirty that night. after dinner, we took the kids swimming for about a half an hour and then off to bed.

this morning, we hit the road at about eight-thirty and we rolled in to godwin, north carolina a bit after six.

i drove the whole way. it was a lot of driving. i got to spend all of that time in the car with my sister. it was great, even when the kids were throwing food and toys and fits. i haven't seen her in a long-ish time.

it's been good.

i'll be sad to leave on tuesday.

i love you, debra.

we shuffled off...

...to buffalo. tonawanda, actually, but it's just outside, so...

we'll be here for two more weeks.

that's a long time without my bike.

and i most likle will not be on the computer again untill i get home.

the wheels keep turning...

so, sunday and monday were both twelve mile days. tuesday i rode a little over seven. and yesterday, about the same, a bit over seven. today we are going out of town so it will be hard to fit some bike time in. will hopefully make up for it tomorrow.

one month later...

gee, i wish it was something exciting, but it's really just another month.



i have been on my bike a lot lately. since i started riding instead of driving most places, i have clocked almost eighty miles. yeah. eight - zero.



we cut our car gas bill by more than half of what we had been spending on average. that was super exciting. the tough rides are getting easier. the only thing that sucks is my pants are not getting any smaller yet...we'll see...



we have also been swimming a lot more recently. our complex has a pool and we (which would be hannah and i) try to go out a few times a week. i am really sad that i have missed out on getting hannah into swimming lessons this summer. (i may have a last minute chance, but am not holding my breath.) she's doing great in the water, not swimming on her own, but feeling safe and getting more comfortable.



today, we rode 12 miles...5 total to church and home this morning and 7 total to some friends' house for a fellowship dinner this afternoon/evening. hannah fell asleep in the trailer on the way home tonight. she was so exausted! we had a really good time with some new friends and some friends we don't get to spend a whole lot of time with.

here's the girl...practising one of her new skills, winking. this photo's from a few weeks ago, she's gotten quite proficient at it since then. although, it's still really funny

we went camping up in idllwild a few weeks ago with lots of families from our church. here are a few shots...nothing too grizzled, but for the kid's first trip, not too bad.

walking with dad

stopping for a shade break and posing with the friends.

our last morning. she actually cried after i woke her up and told her we were going home that day...that's my girl...

"operation grow tomatoes so hannah will like to eat them" has been deemed a huge success. maybe it should only be a partial success, since i haven't tried to get her to eat any tomatoes besides the ones from our plant. but she inhales the ones we've grown like i just sat her down with a bag of sugar and turned my back on her. it's really cute.

so, maybe our month has been pretty exciting. i just don't notice it while it's happening.

oh, my aching bones...

...well, muscles really.



yesterday, i biked almost 8 miles with hannah in tow. it was a great ride.



we rode up to the house of some friends for our first summer playgroup. there were pools to play in things, to climb on, lots of friends, and some shade. the kids had a picnic lunch, well, we all did... and played some more.. then they did a quick-popsicle-stick-picture-frame-craft for father's day.



the trip up was a little grueling. it took me about 40 minutes. it was uphill. the whole way. by the time we reached the last street, i was seriously contemplating getting off and walking. but i pushed through, literally, and we made it there. my bike was in some little gears and i was spinning my way up the last hill. but i felt great. when i was done!

here's a picture of hannah from january...it's my new wallpaper...

nutella is sooooo tasty!!

here's a shot of our grape tomatoes. our first batch, harvest? there are probably abround forty or fifty green ones still on the vines and three or four bunches of flowers.

here's a close-up or the tomatoes that hannah picked from our plant. she ate them like candy.

operation: "grow our own tomatoes so hannah will eat them" is a success, so far...

this one's a bit harder to see, it's the first flowers on one of our bell pepper plants. there are three... i wish there were a LOT more because we go through bell peppers like nobody's business. they make for some good snacking.

this plant is supposed to produce purple peppers. i am a bit excited to see them all grown up and ready to be eaten by me.

the new pad...

well, they are not super great, and won't give you the best idea of the amount of space, but here are some photos of the townhouse...

the place where i do laundry, it's inside. did i mention it's inside?

the two sinks where we brush our teeth. there are two of them, and we can actually use them at the same time. there's space...

the kitchen, where i cook. and just look at the counters, because there is more than one. oh, and the pantry, where i don't have to use half of my cupbaord space for food storage...

our front door. the big window actually looks into the garage. (that's mike's favourite spot, the garage.)

so, incase you didn't know our previous residence was just under 650 square feet. the new place is just over double that. it's has been quite an adjustment for me, the space. it's great. but there is so much more to do now.

we have been so very blessed by our Lord to be where we are now. i am really looking forward to seeing how He helps me to use this blessing to bless others...

mike did take a video of a walkthrough he did before we moved into the new place. if you enjoy listening to him talk, you should check it out. (it's like five minutes long!) i'll find out where you can view it and post a link.

oh, yeah, don't worry. it's not the year 2212 yet. our camera date was just off.

crazy mustaches...

today, we biked a bit over 7 1/2 miles (round trip) to take dinner to some friends who just had a baby girl. it was a great ride. i "made" a salad for them, since they had been eating out a lot in the past week. i was able to fit all of the parts into hannah's trailer.

i really need to get a lock so that i can ride to some more places...i am really enjoying this.

oh, and here's some pictures of the kid...

crazy face at the san diego zoo...

pizza crust mustache...

bikes and birthdays...

well, we've been in our new place for just over a month. i still do not have pictures to show because i have not yet found my camera-computer cord.

we are getting fairly settled and i am fighting more and more each day the thoughts of how much stuff i "need" to fill this empty space. it helps a lot that there is not a lot of disposible income to be devoted to those "needs".

hannah is three now. she's growing every day and really misses her cousin...even though she won't talk to him for the video camera.

one of my favourite things about our new location is that we are just a few miles from the things we do most often...mike's work, our church, a huge majority of our friends...so i have been trying to ride my bike more and drive less. so far, i've only made trips to church and friends houses. i don't yet have a lock for the bike and trailer, so public places are off limits still.

yesterday i biked over (with hannah in tow) to meet up with some friends and watch the cherry festival parade. it was a lot of fun and a really nice, easy ride.

this morning, we all biked to church together. (it was nice to ride all together.) then we biked to the house of some friends and had lunch. then back home. later this evening, we biked a few miles to mike's folks' place for an early father's day dinner. our route home was disrupted by a stopped train, so we ended up riding a few more miles out of the way to get home. it was way longer than i was planning, so i am pretty wiped out tonight. all totalled up, today i biked just over 14 1/2 miles...not bad.

and i am saving on gas. well, not really saving, prices are going up, up, up...but streching out our tank.

feels good.

oh, yeah...i turned 30 a week ago.

hannah is lame...

sorry debra, i can not get her to talk to nehemiah on the video. she wants to watch him over and over but will not make him a message. i think i need to get her used to being taped, i dont do it nearly as much as you do. anyway, i am working on it. and i will try to get some pictures up next week. keep bugging me.

one month later...

i have been thinking i needed to post for a while now, and every time i remember it's really not convenient or i feel like i need to post some pictures and i don't have any new ones loaded to the computer yet...

so, tomorrow will be one week since we moved in. it's so nice to be done with the moving part. the settling in part is a whole different journey. especially since i didn't do any of the packing. finding things is quite a busy job. but i am really making it out to be more difficult than it is. most everything is actually put away, although not in it's permanent spot. our bedrooms and the kitchen are fairly situated, as are the kitchen and living room. there are still things to go through in the garage...we have a garage! which we park our car in, something i have NEVER had in my almost thirty years (the being able to park in part, not the actual garage itself...anyway)

it's really nice. i feel like i am living in a hotel. it's so much bigger and newer than our old place. it will take me a while to detach myself from barbour street. it was where we became a family (hannah's first, and only so far, residence) and where all of her "firsts" happened. a nice little space, for all of the complaining. but there are so many new things to come here on allegheny avenue. God has truly blessed us witht this new season and we look forward to what he has in store for us.

what adventures will unfold for us here?....

we eagerly await them.

...pictures to come.

well...

it looks like we'll be moving.

we've had a good run here, in our little abode (less than 700 square feet. it's really, for real, little.) mike and i (first trimester pregnant) moved in in the fall of 2004. we welcomed hannah into this home a few months later in the spring of 2005. it is now the spring of 2008.

where has the time gone? i am not quite sure, but it has definitly gone. and i feel like it has been spent very well. we have made some amazing new friends, learned some amazing new things, and look forward to this new chapter.

this new chapter will be taking place, Lord willing, in beaumont, about six miles closer to everything we do than where we are now.

things have been really great out here, but some things have come up and we feel like God is opening a door for us to move forward (or at least, westward!)

so, please pray for us.

that our relationship with our landlords with remain stable and friendly and that throughout this exchange, we will be upright and worthy witnesses of Christ's love

that we will be listening to and following God's leading in the season.

that we will have the strength, the energy, the motivation, and the patience to tackle this adventure over the next three weeks.

that will will retain our sanity and health over the next three weeks.

that God will give us some good rest when this has been accomplished!

thank you, friends who read this. i look forward to updating you all when i can.

a day to remember...

i suppose, out of any day, i feel like easter is the day that i most like to remember.
to remember what Christ did. on the cross. and in the tomb.
most especially what he did in the tomb...when he defeated death and rose up from his burial place.
if he had not risen from death, his crucifiction would have been in vain. another man, put to death for HIS sins.
with his ressurection, what he went through covered ALL of us.
it's something i am most grateful for, thankful for, humbled by.

i would not be who i am today, had he not done what he did.

thank you, Lord.

what i woke up to this morning...

ususally, mike puts a baby gate up in our hallway when he leaves for work in the morning. it's purpose is to confine hannah to our bedrooms and keep her from discovering things unsupervised in the mornings. (i am not an early riser, and she usally wakes me...)

so, this morning, mike didn't put the gate up. and i didn't think it would matter because i had talked to hannah before bedtime about coming to see me as soon as she woke up so she could go potty.

i woke to the cute sounds of hannah playing by herself in her room. clanking of the kitchen toys, talking to herself (or whoever she talks to when she's alone...) and the music coming from her radio.

and then i heard something that sounded like the television. it must be something on the radio, i thought. then i heard a commercial for USA. there is no way that would play on AIR1...now i hear "monk".

so i hop out of bed to discover the television is on. and there is a packet of crackers open next to the laptop. by the scissors i left out. it is hacked open.

the crackers, not the laptop.

i call for hannah to come out to the living room. what were you doing?, i ask. oh, i was watching mr. monk and eating, she answers nonchalantly. just checking, i add, thanks.

i later discover that she also ate two little boxes of rasins and sat in my favourite chair with her ridiculously over-soaked diaper, which of course leaked through her super-wicking fleece jammies and made itself at home in the cushions.

which have been heavily febreezed and are outside, relaxing in the morning sun.

i suppose it's a good thing. i do need to vacuum today. i just wasn't planning on it. thanks, kiddo. you really know how to motivate.

i thought i had a choice, i hope i still do...

so, i heard the other day something on the radio about homeschooling and california. it didn't sound positive. as someone who is seriously contemplating being a homeschooler, i thought i needed to look into this a bit more.
today i heard on the radio that there wasn't going to be an immediate negative action taken. but there is the possibility...
i still am planning on doing some more research and talking to some of the homeschoolers i know about how this is affecting them, or could affect them...and me in the future.

check out this post on www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com/blog.htm called "california call-to-action" for a bunch more info. i'm new to linking, so i typed the address out also.

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