Monthly Archives: September 2012

This is a long shot but you just never know until you throw it out there. Who knows, maybe one of you knows someone who knows someone who is Eddie Vedder’s uncle… :: :: :: Dear Pearl Jam, I am certain you get so many letters from long-time adorers and new-found fanatics. Your music does that to people. What an awesome accomplishment.  My name is Nici Cline and I live in Missoula with my husband and two daughters. We love … Continue reading Dear Pearl Jam, →

This is a long shot but you just never know until you throw it out there. Who knows, maybe one of you knows someone who knows someone who is Eddie Vedder's uncle... :: :: :: Dear Pearl Jam, Continue reading →

hump day nuggets: bits of the season in photos and words about the last week Margot ran out of her room, arms wrapped around her chilly shoulders. She wore a bathing suit and announced the day's plan would be to swim in the creek. "Or, if you think it's too cold we could fill up our baby pool and pretend it's the creek. Or take a bath and pretend it's the lake." We're all feeling a little punchy and desperate for fun outdoor activity. Our forests are on fire. Smoke fills our valley, our eyeballs, our lungs. I wasn't bothered a bit at first, knowing it would pass, still high on our wonderfully mellow, warm summer. Our forests burn, it's part of where I live. But, getting into week two of this haze, I feel melancholy when I look up. They gray density is disorienting and boring. It's like all of Missoula treads in paste. Suffocating, white, slow, blah. Last week, while Ruby and I picked tomatoes, she stomped her foot and said, "GRRRRR! This smoke! I am over it!" which made me notice how often I had said that in the last few days and notice that, no matter how consuming it felt, I didn't want to focus on what I didn't like. So I decided that if looking up makes me feel like poop, I'd look down. There is a lot to feel thankful for on the ground. :: Garden days are numbered, evidenced by low-slung, frost-kissed jungle in our backyard. Still, every day, we manage a basket full of something. Continue reading →

I have a million ideas queued in my head right now. To do, to arrange, to share, to make, to finish, to start. Today -- as coffee cut cream in my mug, as sun fought through the thick smoke haze that's got us all disoriented, as my daughters scooted about all bed head-shiny -- I decided to not do a lick of anything because I felt I should. I announced this out loud to my daughters, as they chewed granola."OK," said Margot with a yogurt mustache. "So, we could, like, totally play family." Ruby nodded.I had a dream in the morning, just before waking up. I came home to my house and Andy was in the kitchen with the girls and he said Babe, look. Babe, she's home. and he was holding Olive. Everything was brilliant and electric and she purred and I buried my face in her fur. I touched her ear tufts and counted her belly spots with the kids. And then she looked straight into my eyes and we were locked there in a deep, spiritual stare. Everything was blurry around me. She was peaceful and pensive. I woke up. I smiled and I sat right up, knowing for a hot second that it was real. I believe Olive is dead. My dream was my goodbye. I got to see her and hold her one last time and for that I am thankful. Continue reading →

I remember, when I was first seriously in love with Andy -- like introducing him as my boyfriend to anyone who looked our way, reading something that declared seven years in a relationship equals one of two things: true love or divorce. Eight years later we married and we've now been married for seven years. Happy to report it's true love over here.I know it's unusual that I met my guy when we were 12. That I've had a crush on him since then. That he was starry-eyed over the class photos of me that adorned on my aunt and uncle's fridge, even the one where I chose to wear a canary yellow ribbed shirt under overalls that were two sizes too big.It's funny to me now that I questioned (and even felt frustrated with) our love-at-first-sight energy. But I did. Because, when I was 19, I wanted to travel the world! Fall deep in love and have my heart broken! Date around like a regular ol' single gal! It quickly became clear that none of that was my fate. I am so happy I grew up with this man and then grew alongside him to where we are now. From holding hands in the Roman Theater in high school to holding hands while I pushed our kids out of my body. He's the greatest person on the planet, I think.Happy Anniversary, love of my life. Hard to find recent photos of us! This gem by our bff Caroline. Continue reading →