trippin'

We are leaving today for the Ukraine. Or is it just Ukraine? I am going to find out. Our family is glomming on to Chris's Maharimba band which is going with The T.O.U.C.H. Project as part of Corvallis's sister cities program. Whew, that is a mouthful.
In order to reduce my anxiety (and because I have had a bit on my mind lately) I've been ignoring the trip. I pretend things are not happening. I go about my life as if we are not about to leave. But eventually the reality hits me and I just realized we are leaving in 1 hour!!!!
We'll be gone for 2 weeks.

See ya later!

More on the "H"

A dear lifelong friend sent the following to me in response to my question. It is so good I had to share it with y'all.

The Etymology of Jesus H. Christ

by Peter Kirby (May 11, 2003)

Question: What is the origin of the H. in the phrase, Jesus H. Christ? There is no great mind which has not but come to rest on this important question. It is a question which every man must consider in the course of his education, and the answers discovered are as varied as the approaches taken.

The child brought up in a home of prayer, on first hearing the expletive from his father's lips, need only look to the words of the Our Father for the explanation: "Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, Harold Be Thy Name."

A young man who has studied the principles of biology, in contemplating the holy mystery of the Virgin Birth in the light of reason, will inevitably conclude that the H. stands for none other than Haploid, a distinction conferred only upon God's Son of all men, that He would not have the taint of Original Sin.

The theologian will undoubtedly be familiar with "IHS," which stands for the Latin phrase "Jesus Hominum Salvator," which means Jesus, Savior of Man. Note that the J, as a separate character from the I, is only a few centuries old. This trigraph is frequently found in medieval and Renaissance art.

An historian may be familiar with the tale that, before an important battle in 312, the Emperor Constantine saw vision of the cross in the sky and heard a voice saying that he would conquer "under this standard" or "in this sign." The Latin words would be "in hoc signo," which abbreviates to IHS.

The Greek scholar will look to the Greek letters for Jesus: "iota eta sigma omicron upsilon sigma," which is variously transliterated IHSOYS or IHCOYC, the latter when converted to Latin letters using the common curved sigma variant. If one takes the first three letters as initials, it is not difficult to derive "Jesus H. Christ."

The Judaic scholar can supply the reason for taking the first three letters. This is the practice of using standard abbreviations for sacred names, or nomina sacra, accompanied by a horizontal line as a warning that the words cannot be pronounced as written. The two most common forms are abbreviation by suspension, which is to use the first two letters, and abbreviation by contraction, which is to use the first and last letters.

A scholar of manuscripts noted that such abbreviations in early Christian fragments take the form IS, IH, or IHS when writing the Greek name Jesus. This would provide the basis for clever Latin writers later to make this sacred abbreviation of the name Jesus into a three letter acronym, a sort of pun, including "In Hoc Signo" and "Jesus Hominum Salvator."

The earliest writer to speculate on the initials of Jesus is the author of the 2nd century "Epistle of Barnabas" (9:6-7). In Lightfoot's translation, "Learn therefore, children of love, concerning all things abundantly, that Abraham, who first appointed circumcision, looked forward in the spirit unto Jesus, when he circumcised having received the ordinances of three letters. For the scripture saith; And Abraham circumcised of his household eighteen males and three hundred. What then was the knowledge given unto him? Understand ye that He saith the eighteen first, and then after an interval three hundred. In the eighteen 'I' stands for ten, 'H' for eight. Here thou hast JESUS (IHSOYS). And because the cross in the 'T' was to have grace, He saith also three hundred. So He revealeth Jesus in the two letters, and in the remaining one the cross."

A man who has wondered about the origin of the sacred middle initial, who has traced the etymological thread back to its ancient spool, and who has detailed the findings of his serious inquiry, may take a moment to reflect upon the nature of the question, a question that he has expended great efforts to understand.

Jesus H. Christ!

Circumspectful meta-pondering produces ineffable epiphany. Now that we have an answer, the question is, why did we ask the question? What is it that makes a man concerned to know the details of a matter so trivial, so irrelevant so as to seem beneath the briefest consideration? I am not sure that I know the answer to this question. But at least now I know that I am not the only one who suffers from acute curiosity, for, indeed, you have read it all to the end.

Jesus H. Christ on a Pogo Stick Brownie

At our favorite local restaurant Sunny Side Up, they make a brownie called "the Oh My God Brownie"
I wanted one.
This led to a discussion about creating a dessert called the Jesus H. Christ on a Pogo Stick Brownie. It would contain numerous and varied treats all hand dipped in chocolate and served with a plastic Jesus pogo-ing happily across the frosted surface of your brownie.

Then XuMei came up with a " XuMei brownie." In it, she wanted "those nuts I like."
"Which nuts do you like?", I asked.
"Um..I don't know", she said this as though I was crazy for expecting her to know the name of such a thing.
She said she knew what the nut looked like just not the name.
I said I know my favorite nut.
"What is it?", they all asked.
"Y'all are my favorite nuts.", (hardy har har, I thought I was so funny)
Xander innocently asked, "What are yall nuts?"

All that aside, when Mary and Qacei, proprietress's (is that a word???) of Sunny Side Up heard that I had miscarried (more on that later....maybe) they made me a ....
.
.

wait for it...
.
.

Jesus H. Christ On a Razor Scooter Brownie!

While we were ogling Jesus and admiring his shiny Razor scooter, Mormon missionaries came to my door.
Ugh, I didn't want to answer the door.
Mary, Qacei and XuMei happily answered the door, graciously offering them our own special form of salvation. One of them accepted, the other declined, they both wondered what the H stood for.
The truth is I am not sure.
Holy? Happy?
DO you, dear reader, have any idea what the H might stand for?

"Tillamook" : A Retrospective (artsy fartsy parts)

Art in many forms. Flower arranging, light stick parades, witty conversation, face and body painting, stickers, ATC's (artist trading cards), sand castles, rock balancing, the age old art of breathing. Cassie did the amazing face painting.

Corbin as a Green Ninja.

Alden as a superhero, of the red masked variety.

Sawyer also chose the red masked superhero.

Sydney as a mermaid/fairy/princess (?).

Sara painting XuMei's belly.
"Oh!"

Cassie let her body be a canvas.

This is Sawyer's "legster piece"

"Tillamook" : A Retrospective (self absorbed parts)

Because I was camping with Xander and XuMei and no Chris and no Ma I felt utterly on vacation. I made the kids whatever they wanted to eat, whenever. Because there was always so much to do they wanted very little from me. XuMei even ate her cheese and mac out of a plastic cup held in her bicycle's water bottle holder while she rode around the campground! With very little to do for anyone else aside from heat up the occasion hot dog, or taquito I was left with a ridiculous amount of time for myself.
I took naps everyday, in the tent if it was rainy or at the beach when the sun broke through. I thought a lot. I had moments of boredom and loneliness, but also moments of supreme beauty and joy. I ran my own radio talk show in my head. I sang to myself---sometimes the words would pop out! My favorites were:
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!" (thanks to phenomenal Diana)
and
"Let it be, let it be, whisper words of wisdom, let it be......"
and
Cat Steven's:
"Trouble
Oh trouble, set me free"
Speak to me Cat!
Here is some other trouble I got into:

I kissed a slug

and it turned into a handsome prince

(who showed up on the weekends to help with camp chores and make us all happy)

XuMei painted on a mustache.

The truth is, trouble has set me free.

"Tillamook" : A Retrospective (part B as in Boogy Board)

Xander had is first "Maytag" and was so proud!

Sydney became a regular "surfer Betty" (as defined by the slang dictionary:

	Betty	155 up, 74 down
	A cool kind of girl, teens in aussie use this word to describe girls. Their generally laid back surfer chicks who just chill out.

She'd surf all day coming in only to eat ham sandwiches and quickly go back out for another "session".

Ayako ----- she is NOT cold, no she's NOT!

Cousin David

Cousin Sara

Friends going to ride the waves.

Um...hang 3 or 4 maybe?!....

um....surfer power! no hang 2, yeah, right on!

um...."I love you", no ...it's Emily Post going Boogy-ing!.....

AW, heck---who cares?!? Sydney is going surfing and XuMei says, "Backock!"

"Tillamook" : A Retrospective (another part)

Many hours of each day I observed these creatures interacting in the areas between campsites. This one was a pirate ship at least part of the time. Important discussions took place here among the "natives".

Information was passed from the larger to the smaller creatures as they deftly scrambled the length of the logs (er..I mean deck of the ship).

A strict hierarchy was enforced. Here I observed the individual in the hat called "Jesse" remind the younger turquoise dressed female to be careful on the logs (er...slippery deck). She took the advice to heart as she appeared to have a special fondness for the one they called "Jesse".

I was caught taking these pictures and immediately judged a traitor and a cast away. I was thrown piteously into the brig and left there to die until my body was thrown overboard to the sharks.
Notice the little one grinning at me as I take my farewell photo from my prison in the bushes, before being thrown into the depths.

"Tillamook" : A Retrospective (in several parts)

This is why I am afraid of dogs.

Clearly, this beast is trying to eat my face off. To be fair, the beast has a name. It is Big Mac. Someone mistakenly called him "Hamburger"--I liked it.


Doggies make XuMei VERY happy. If you look into her eyes just right you can see just how much she wants a dog. Someday, Love, Someday. We have to work on Daddy.



Many hours were spent performing unauthorized veterinary examinations on Big Mac. All of which he slept blissfully through.

Back to Blogging

I'M BAAAAAACK!!!!!

Here it is, the TOP TEN Reasons I have not been blogging:

10. I'm Pregnant!

9. I wanted to tell all the important people, whose lives might be directly affected by this news , in person (or at least personally over the phone) If you are important and you are finding out here now via blog, please forgive me!

8. I must sleep all the time, see number 10.

7. Whenever I am not drooling on the pillow I must be shoveling food into my mouth, again see number 10.

6. I was camping for 2 weeks on the coast with family and have fabulous pictures to share soon!

5. There was the briefest moment of concern that I may not be pregnant anymore, and so I delayed blogging. All is well now!

4. Had Patrick and Ivy, after Not Back to School Camp, and Sara, my lovely niece, staying at our house and Xander and XuMei to play with and a wedding to be in and all manner of wonderful gatherings and fun things to do in REAL LIFE.

3. So very Tired.

2. So extremely Hungry.

And the number one reason why I have not been blogging:



1. Did I mention, I am PREGNANT!??!!?!!??!!!