Becoming 16

Gus longboarding in Chelan last summer.

this one.  this kid o' mine.  August.  he is turning 16 today.  big day, i tell ya.  those of you who know him.....can you believe it?!  because i can hardly believe it. and i gave birth to him!

how did this happen, that he is 16??!!

us in Chelan last summer during a storm.

it kills me that he is turning 16, that i only "have" him for two more years. 

akkk!  i hate that! 

but it gets me thinking about what a fantastic gift it is to be his mom.

catching fish on lake roesigner, at jeremy and kirsten's, 4th of july.

it's a pleasure to help guide this child o' mine as he finds his way through the big, big world. 

waiting for the ferry to Lopez Island to hang out with the Kvistad's.

even though it can be an intimidating and messy task, this raising kids business.

listening to music at the woods stage, Pickathon 2010

the figuring out when to offer counsel, direction, assistance, and advice

dinner at Six Arms before the Head and the Heart and Vampire Weekend concert.

the knowing when to dive in and advocate for them without being in defensive mama bear mode,

trying on a full length fur coat at the thrift store to crack me up!

and when to put on the brakes, back off, trust in all you have offered and exposed them too, and let them discover their own path,

stylin in a vintage plaid jacket, denim shirt and silk tie

even, and foremost, when it means allowing them to flail, falter and find their own two feet.

carving pumpkins with the family.

but really this boy of mine has transformed me, changed me,

nudged me gently and willingly into motherhood,

August with his cousin Jack at Thanksgiving.

altered me,

cracking me up, being a total goof ball!

made my world more deep and meaningful than i ever thought it could be.

trying on an awesome vintage sweater that his great grandma knit for his uncle almost 40 years ago!

he is amazing.  August, you are awesome!

whale and bird watching near Sayulita, Mexico

you are more than worth the worry, stress and sleeplessness!

after a day of surfing, la lancha, mexico.

you are my sunshine.

playing nightly guitar.

you are an amazing artist and musician.

massive comic collection (self portrait!)

you are smart, silly, and thoughtful.

asleep in the car from Tombstone to Tucson.

you are a loving and influential big brother!

new vintage shirt, tucson

you can do anything.

birding in Sabino Canyon

you are golden, my son.

my boy-man.

my love.

Happy 16th Birthday August!

I love you to the universe and back!

xoxoxox

mom

Mom

i recently found this photo of my mom.

it was taken when i was 12.

so she was 34.

i just adore it.

she looks so happy.

she had just met my other dad, Greg.

married now for more than 20 years.

and still so happy together.

i love you mom.

thank you for choosing dad.

thank you for showing us how to make it work.

thanks for always sending a card.

and thank you for taking the "deep dive" with me even when it's uncomfortable.

i love love love you!

Happy Mother's Day!

xoxox

jennette



El Dia de los Muertos

We are getting ready to celebrate our loved ones who have passed and welcome the souls of our dead.

We are not afraid of the spirits of the dead.

At this time of year the veil between the worlds is very thin.

 The dead are our friends and family, our ancestors, who gave us life.

We call them our "beloved dead."

This is a photo of Bob, Chad's dad, holding August when Gus was a couple days old.  This photo is always on our Day of the Dead alter.  We miss you Papa Bob!

Here are the skeleton figures I made, about ten years ago, of my Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen.  We have photos all over the alter of them too.

We try to collect one figure each year, to add to our alter.  We try to find ones that represent us or our deceased. Kirsten gave me the pregnant woman with the heart on her belly, when I was pregnant with Jasper and I bought us the man and woman pushing baby in a pram when I was pregnant with him. 

Birth and death are two sides of the same thing.  Death is a natural part of life.  Death is a gift of change and growth.  Birth and death are both times of new beginnings.

I made this melon-holding skeleton figure many years ago.  I fancy it to be myself.  I hope to have melon wherever I go!

Hunters, healers and helpers.  These remind us that our lives are gifts given to us by other living beings.  Because all food is a gift of a life, it is sacred.  We treat food with respect and leave offerings, ofrendas, of our deceased's favorites on the alter during this time.

Masculine energy. 

Feminine energy!

These are our sugar skulls from last year.  For the past few years I have been taking the kids to the big Dia de Muertos celebration at Seattle Center, where we made these.  They have great art activities, food, dancing, face painting, etc.  This years Mexican rememberance to remember our departed will be held Oct. 30 and 31.  Get there if you can!  It's free and fantastic!

This nun Catrina and her sister witch(below) were purchased in Nogales when my dad took me there during my first visit to his condo in Tucson.  We crossed the border to buy booze, smokes, trinkets and to feast at La Roca.  I scored on these tall, delicate ceramic figures and carried them all the way home to Seattle in my arms!

It's hard to see but she has an owl sitting on her shoulder.  The paper marigold flower she is holding is one that we made last year at the Seattle Center celebration.  And the pumpkin at her feet is one I needle felted a couple years ago.

Celebrating the Day of the Dead is a joyous occassion, not morbid.  We have a feast on All Souls Day, Nov. 2, and we tell stories of our beloved dead.  We laugh and we cry when we recount the good things we miss about the people we loved.  It's good for my kids to hear the stories and see us honoring our elders who have gone ahead and remembering the young ones who went too soon. 

We have many pictures of my cousin Michael who died in a head on collision car accident in 2003.  He was a radiant young man, full of life,happy and charismatic.  He loved to ride motorcross and he was good at it.  We miss him.

We have many photos of Chad's dad, Papa Bob, who left this world in 2000.  It took me a while too not be angry at him for leaving us but now I am able to celebrate him and tell my children about what a eccentric, crazy, pagan lovin, hippie he was!  We actually still see him, quite often, in the flight of an eagle, when the warm sun kisses our cheeks, in the babbling of a river.  We still miss him though.

We have many photos of my grandparents.  Both Gma and Gpa Nielsen, my dad's parents, and Gpa McAlpin, my mom's dad.  My kids like to hear stories I recount to them of growing up surrounded by my loving grandparents.  I spent time every month with my dad's folks and it's one reason I am no longer sad my parents were divorced.  If they hadn't been, I would not have spent a weekend every month with my dad, at my grandparents.  I cherish that time I had with them.  And my Gpa McAlpin always let me pick out horses for him to bet on at Long Acres.  My kids think this is so funny!

And we honor all our greats, and great greats, etc.  Our grandparents parents, and so on.  We put out all the photos we have and talk about how it might have been for them.  We wonder and we speculate.  We laugh with a bit of awe and feel blessed for what we have.  We love one another and remind each other that we have it so so good.  We celebrate and rejoice.  Life is good and we honor our beloved dead.  Rest in Peace, loved ones,

R.I.P.

xoxox

Jennette 



Pickathon, I miss you!

Goofin off at Pickathon!

Oh, I can't believe it's over.  My beloved Pickathon 2010 has come and gone.  Oh, how I miss you, my Pickathon, my roots, indie, americana, folk, alt country Pickathon.  Not one other subject has been spoken of since our departure.  We will reminisce about you till the end of our days.  You give love in mega doses.  It's just like the sign in the barn says, "Your pleasure is our motto!"  True dat!  I was as pleasured then as I am now, to have the memories and loads of new vinyl to listen to. Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.....

This may end up being a HUGE post!  I took a lot of pictures and video.  May have more images and less words as we progress.  And so.  Here we go!

Our trip started on Thursday when we camped at Beacon Rock State Park, on the Washington side of the Columbia river, in Skamania county.  Gorgeous!  We loved it and cant wait to stay again next year.  Camping here made it so that we were less than an hour from Pickathon so we could roll in early on Friday morning. 

On Friday morning we had breakfast

then bought some local honey at the entrance to The Bridge of the Gods and crossed over to Oregon.

Once at Pickathon, the real fun began!  There are a million cool things about Pickathon and one of them is that for the entire weekend, there are kids activities scheduled.  So after we set up camp we headed over to the Circus Cascadia area to try our hands at some circus stunts.  They also have yoga, self defense, tracking, wild edibles and medicinal plants walks, crafts, story telling, music workshops, theatre performance for the kids to experience.  Way cool!

Chad doing a balancing trick.

Gus on stilts.

Me on the balance board.

Jasper Hula Hooping!  By the end of the weekend he could raise his arm over his head, twirl the hoop up to his wrist, back down around his neck, and back down to his waist, all in one non-stop whirling dervish minute!  He loved it and boy did it wear him out!  He slept well at Pickathon!

Now for the music and musicians!

This is a (not so good) photo of Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews of the Everybodyfields doing a workshop in the Workshop Barn.  Oh yeah, another cool thing about Pickathon, they have an entire barn dedicated to workshops with all the musicians, on all different subjects.  Incredible!

The Fruit Bats in the Galaxy Barn!  I was SO excited to see these guys.  Big fan!  And I got to see them perform twice plus I attended Eric Johnson's banjo workshop as well.  Good Stuff!!

One of our favorite bands to return to Pickathon was Breathe Owl Breathe. Here they are on the Fir Meadows stage. We discovered them at Pickathon last year, have since seen them perform three times in Seattle, on of those at a house concert, and then again at Pickathon this year.  Yes, we are stalkers!  We love B.O.B.!!!  More below:

 

Here is Breathe Owl Breathe on The Woods Stage, a stage set in the middle of a magical forest.  Here are my kids watching them in awe:

A picture August drew about one of B.O.B's songs.

This is Michael Hurley's back!  Ha!  Love this guy!  Another awesome thing about Pickathon is that all the artists hang out in the crowd, checking out their favorite music too, and you get to see them, talk to them, appreciate them and get to know them.  It's Lovely!

Here are the Red Stick Ramblers doing a set in the Workshop Barn.  I love these guys, they are super cool, but I do love me any kind of cajun/french/Lousianna-ish music!  Chad and I were in Baton Rouge(Red Stick) last fall to see the Avett Brothers and bought both Red Stick Ramblers and Lost Bayou Ramblers, who we saw last year at Pickathon, CDs.  This is dance your booty off kind of music!  And boy did we!

Here are the Black Lillies on the Woods Stage.  Before we left town on Thursday morning, we had spent Wednesday night at The Tractor Tavern watching these amazing Knoxville musicians, along with Sam Quinn and also Chatham County Line, who I didn't happen to get a photo of but who are an amazing North Carolina string band and also played at Pickathon as well. 

This is Sean Hayes playing on the Mountain View Stage.  Look at the pretty clouds!  It was SO HOT over the weekend, the clouds provided random and welcomed bits of shade.  You can see Mt. Hood from here too but not in this picture.  Sean is an excellent musician from the San Francisco area. Bought a CD of his.  Also bought 3 Bonnie "Prince" Billy and the Cairo Gang albums on vinyl, 1 Michael Hurley vinyl, 1 Anais Mitchell vinyl, 1 Chatham County Line on vinyl, 1 Black Lillies on CD, and 1 Jill Andrews on CD.  Already had 2 Breath Owl Breathe on vinyl and CD.  Lots of new music to listen to!  Yay!

We saw a ton more music but I didn't get pictures of every single band or performance. 

 The last thing we saw before we left late Sunday night was Bonnie Prince Billy and the Cairo Gang on stage and it melted my heart.  LOVE me some Bonnie Prince!  I go gaga over them!

Pickathon is also a great place to meet up with friends and make new friends.

Here are some friend photos:

  

Karli and I chillin in the sun.

Eric, Karli, Cedar and Rowan visiting our camp sight.  We adore this lovely family and miss them now that they live in Port Townsend.  Don't get to see each other much but love it when we do!

Me with Tony, Daisy, Ruby and Cash.  Love these guys and have lots of fun being with them!

Jasper with Ruby and Cash.  Jasper LOVES his friends so much and it was such a blessing for him to have other children to run wild with all weekend!  Wore him out so he would pass out with his big brother in the tent each night so his momma and papa could go get their groove on!

Jasper with me and Daisy, my better half, more sweet, super cute "twin"!

Next I will show you some pictures from around the farm.  Pickathon is held on Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon, about twenty minutes from Portland, but out in the country.

Some of the "critters" around the farm.

Ewwww!  No, these feet aren't bruised!  They are DIRTY!!  This is what feet look like when you are having fun camping on a dusty farm!

Another farm critter and a 7th annual Pickathon t-shirt.  This was our third year attending and it was the 12th year of the festival.

Here is the amazing outdoor showers under the red tents, all made of wood and beautiful and gorgeous.  And an Airstream turned into a sauna!  Yes, a sauna!  And the other photo is of the Pendarvis Farm House.

Here is a back view of the stages with the sails strung overhead for shade and a view of the farm house mini amphitheatre in the backyard.

Pickathon is one of the first festivals I have attended that is committed to going green.  They offered one pint Klean Kanteen stainless steel cups for sale AND offered NO PLASTIC OR PAPER!  Can you believe it?! The food vendors offered some cups but gave a discount if you had your KK cup.  The bottom of the cup says, "Eat, Drink and be Wary of Plastic."  Love it!  KK made the first BPA-free stainless steel water bottles.  It is awesome that Pickathon held an event of this size, with the help of Klean Kanteen and was able to pull it off with no plastic or paper cups!  It should be the law!  In the beer garden you paid $5 for the cup and then you could buy your beer or wine. We bought a set for our vintage travel trailer and we bought the Pickathon cup cozies to use with them.  Perfect! 

So now we are home.  And unpacking and repacking for a trip out to the Olympic Peninsula for a family reunion.  I have a lot of new music to listen too and I am happy for that.  The last three or four weeks has been a whirlwind of coming and going, trips, and lots of good times.  I enjoy it.  But I am really looking forward to being home next week, for a good solid three weeks, before another trip away.  I miss my crafting, sewing, gardening, friends, and house. I am sure my space at M&M is looking atrocious.  Lots to catch up on and do.  But I wouldn't trade it for the what the last few weeks has provided in fun, experience, and adventure.  Love you summer.  And miss you Pickathon.