Pictures from Denver

Here are some other pictures from our trip to Colorado.

Charlie sleeping during our layover at the Chicago airport. Our 3 1/2 hour layover in Chicago wasn't so bad thanks to the children's play area they have set up, sponsored by the Children's Museum of Chicago. The play area has an aviation theme: a play plane with a cockpit, cabin and storage area, large foam blocks for luggage, large storage crates for the kids to crawl through, a control tower with a phone that connects with the cockpit of the plane, and a play helicopter with propellers that move when someone pedals the stationary bike in the helicopter cockpit. Coulson had a blast!Coulson posing for a picture at the Denver Zoo. A pretty good zoo with a large variety of animals and several animals I had never seen before (okapis and tapirs and some others). I feel pretty spoiled by the NC Zoo and its vast habitats for the animals, so I have a high standard when it comes to zoos. Oh, and one of my favorite parts: In the bathroom, instead of piping in music through the speakers, they piped in weird facts about animal excrement, so I learned about termite flatulence and rhino dung.

Coulson and Charlie dressing up as firemen at the Children's Museum of Denver. I've been to 3 children's museums and I think this one is the best so far. They had a mini-sized basketball court (and of course Charlie loved that!) and a section to build things with tools and trash (Coulson made a helicopter) and puppets and an oversized tree where the kids can climb through and pretend they are the squirrels that live there.

Of course we had to go hiking too, we were in Colorado after all. Since we didn't bring along a backpack for Charlie to ride in (we are light travellers, often leaving things at home that would have been very helpful just because we don't want to lug it all over the country) so we had to find a place that was super easy. Alderfer/Three Sisters park in Evergreen was the recommendation that fit our family best from Fun Colorado Hikes and it was great. We went twice. The first day we did a super easy hike and found a large rock formation that was perfect for the boys to climb around on (i.e. not steep enough to make me freak out if they walked more than a few feet from me.) The second time we took a more adventurous hike to a beautiful scenic vista. Casey's brother and sister-in-law joined us for the second hike.


I wanted so badly to get a nice family photo at this scenic spot, but this was the best one we could get....Well, at least Casey looks good.

Wedding Pictures

It was a beautful wedding and everyone had a lot of fun. The Bride and Groom are happily honeymooning in Hawaii (a quick change from their original destination of Cancun!). They have uploaded pictures to their Facebook to make everyone so jealous, but I'm glad that they are able to start their new life together with such gorgeous memories.

Jet Lag

I had to wake up my child today so he could get to preschool. My child - who for the first year of his life only slept about half the time that all the parenting books prescribed for newborns, who for the second year of his life woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am, who for the third and fourth years of this life woke up bouncing and jumping at 6am, and who for the fifth (and just starting his sixth!) year of his life sleeping past 7am is considered "sleeping in" -- this child slept until 9am yesterday (we skipped preschool) and I had to wake him up at 8:40 this morning (we're still on Denver time!). Well, it turns out that this supposed "morning person" is actually a grump in the morning. It was very funny to see this child actually wanting to get more sleep in the morning. I can see where this is leading in a few more years and I plan to hold on to my bitter 5am memories for some payback when he's a teenager - better watch out Coulson!

Charlie on the other hand, woke up with just my mere presence in the room. He rolled over and looked at me, gave me a huge smile and said, "What are you doing here?" (The boys usually wake me up every morning). "I'm waking up your brother for preschool." I replied. "Oh!" he said with a laugh and started to jump on the bed.

The picture above is from last fall, soon after Charlie transitioned from his crib to his big boy bed and they wanted to sleep together. So precious when they're sleeping!

home again

So for the past week I've been in Denver, CO celebrating Casey's sister's marriage. She had a beautiful wedding! I planned to blog while I was gone, made sure I brought all the cables so I could upload pictures, but our laptop died on us at the airport. It might have been unrelated to the travel, because it was acting weird before we left, but we didn't expect a complete breakdown. So I was unable to blog :-(
I don't have time to blog now, I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a great trip, the wedding was lovely, Coulson didn't make it down the aisle, Charlie did, but I had to go with him, so I became an inadvertent member of the wedding party. Our flights were all on-time with no problems. We had layovers in Chicago both ways, but the Chicago airport has a special children's play area, so the layover wasn't a problem.
I'll try to post pictures later. Right now I have a lot of unpacking and laundry to do...

7,600 miles away (as the crow flies; I think it's even further in airplane frequent flyer miles)

Last week my parents left for another trip to Kenya. They are working at a mission house that serves missionaries travelling through Nairobi. It's kinda like they are the hosts at a bed and breakfast, which is perfect for my mom's inherent Southern Hospitality (never mind the fact that she was born and raised in the North). And of course they are super-excited that God's plan for their lives at this time just happens to lead them to the same city where their son and his wife and 3 girls live. What a coincidence! ;-) I'm sure they will have a lot of fun with my nieces. My brother wants to take my dad deep sea fishing while they are there, but my dad's not so sure about being on a boat in that part of the Indian Ocean... (geography hint: the country directly north of Kenya is Somalia)

They will be gone for 7 weeks and of course we are missing them already. I hope to blog more frequently and post photos more often so they can stay updated on all the exciting adventures of me and my boys because I'm sure they won't have any adventures of their own. But if they do have any adventures, my mom might blog about it herself. Yep, my mom has started her own blog and if you want to read up on her adventures in Kenya, check out Mimi's Musings.

Here comes the ringbearers...

Casey's sister is getting married in a couple weeks (or as her fiance posted on Facebook last Sunday: "Three weeks. 21 days. Just about 509 hours. That equates to roughly 30540 minutes. Getting close!" I think he might be excited about getting married.) Several months ago she asked us if Coulson would like to be the ring bearer. It didn't really matter what Coulson thought, I would like him to be the ring bearer and I thought I could talk him into it. At first he agreed, but then he balked at the thought of walking down an aisle with people watching him.

Coulson doesn't like to be the center of attention among large groups of people. Our church has a special "Children's Time" every Sunday during the service when all the kids go up front to hear a special message just for them. For the first 6 months of attending the church, I had to go up there with him. A few months ago he started going on his own as long as one of his friends was right there with him to walk down the aisle. Gradually he's gotten more comfortable with Children's Time and the past few weeks he been running down the aisle, so there's hope.

Back to Faith's wedding - So I've been talking about it with Coulson for a while now. A small part of him wants to be the ring bearer, but mostly he's terrified about everyone watching him. We decided to throw Charlie in with him, thinking that it might be easier to walk down the aisle with someone else. That didn't seem to help. We tried "incentivizing" him with candy at the end of the aisle. Nope.

But this week we may have had a breakthrough. On Easter Sunday, one of Charlie's friends was wearing an adorable outfit: dress pants, shirt and tie, and a vest. I asked his mom where she got it and luckily they were on sale at Sears. So Casey went out the next day and got outfits for both boys. They were so excited that they had to try them on immediately and they started practicing carrying pillows down the hall. The wedding is a "black and white" wedding, so I'm going to look for white shirts and black ties instead of the pink and blue that came with the outfits. And please don't tell Coulson that his shirt is pink. He's colorblind (for real) and he thinks his shirt is white. Casey called me from the store and asked if Coulson would mind if the shirt was pink. I said, "He's colorblind. He won't know it's pink." And sure enough, when we pulled the outfits out of the back, he exclaimed, "I want the white one!" Hopefully for the wedding he'll have a real white shirt.

The boys loved wearing their little suits. They didn't want to take them off. Coulson wanted to wear his shirt and tie to school the next day. But I'm afraid someone will tell him it's pink, so I said no. I put the outfits away so that they can save their enthusiasm for the wedding.

More Easter Photos

These are some photos from the Easter Egg Hunt we did at our church last Saturday (I know, I'm a bit late). Nanna and Grandpa Bud (Casey's parents) joined us for the festivities and everyone had a lot of fun.

Happy Easter

So here's the cake we had for our Easter Celebration. (If you haven't read my previous post "A disater in the making?" you should scroll down and read it first.) It's a "Pink Azalea Cake" with a strawberry cream filling and fruity whipped frosting (from Cook's Country magazine). It actually came out pretty good. I was worried about the frosting being too liquidy, so I put it in the fridge right after I frosted it last night. The above picture is right after I frosted it and it looked like the frosting was just going to slide right off the sides of the cake. But overnight in the fridge firmed it up and although it didn't look great, it stayed on the cake, which was all I was hoping for. I was also afraid that the frosting would be too flavorful from the jell-o pack, which wasn't exactly strawberry jell-o, but mixed fruit flavor. I think the flavor was great. I used more cool whip than the recipe called for, so the flavor was subtle, not overwhelming. It was a pretty pink color and my guests liked it, so that's all I was hoping for.

For my Easter Celebration we had my parents, my brother, sister-in-law, their kids and a family friend that we've known since way before I was born, so she's practically family too. (Casey had to work, bummer. Can't everyone just agree not to get sick or injured on holidays please?) We had a great time. After lunch, the kids hunted for eggs outside. Empty eggs, because between their own Easter baskets, parties at school, church and with friends, there has been no shortage of candy in the past week. But they had fun hunting nonetheless.

At Sunday School this morning, everyone had a few minutes to share their personal thoughts on Easter. Some had memories from childhood or traditions that were meaningful, while others waxed theological about the purpose of Easter. I followed the theological path and shared about the freedom that came with Christ's resurrection. That we are no longer bound by the laws and rules of the Old Testament, but have the freedom to live in God's Grace. (And trust me, I need that Grace all the time.) It got me thinking about what if Christ never came and we still had to live by the Old Testament law. I don't think I would be able to do it. I wouldn't be counted among the faithful with Abraham and Moses; I'd be over there with the crowd worshiping whatever easy foreign god was in vogue. So today I am grateful for God's awesome plan and Christ's ultimate sacrifice and the freedom I have to live the abundant life! Happy Easter!

A disaster in the making?

It's now midnight and I have just finished making a cake for my family's Easter celebration tomorrow, but I'm thinking it might be a disaster. I messed with the recipe. A lot. I didn't intend to mess with it, but the magazine I found the recipe in requires an online subscription to get the made-from-scratch recipes for the cake and icing, or you can substitute with regular cake mix, but they didn't give a substitution for the icing. I wanted something easy, so I thought I'd go with a Cool Whip based icing and I looked some stuff up online quickly before I headed to the store. But of course the store didn't have the one main ingredient (instant strawberry pudding, does that even exist?) but I thought I remembered some other recipes using just strawberry jello and cool whip, so I grabbed that stuff.
So I got home and I put the kids to bed and then I started on my cake. I looked up the recipes again and it didn't look too promising. I should have gotten instant vanilla pudding and used red food coloring - there are lots of recipes with great reviews using instant pudding, not so many with gelatin. But of course by now the kids are in bed and Casey is at work and won't be home till midnight, so I was stuck. I did find and use a recipe with cool whip and jello, but I wasn't sure it would work. Well, now I've done it and I'm still not sure it will work. It's pretty sloppy. It's in the fridge and I'm hoping it will set a bit better by tomorrow. I'll try to take some pictures and let you know how it turns out.
Happy Resurrection Day!

"The Dog"

We attended our first homeowners association meeting last night. We'd already met all our neighbors immediately surrounding our house, but we hadn't met many of the other people in our neighborhood, so the meeting was a good opportunity to meet some of the other people. (And I guess I'll get to see them more often because I'm in charge of the social committee now -I forgot the number one rule of meetings: just keep your mouth shut and you won't get burdened with any responsibilities.)

At these meetings, after you introduce yourself to someone else, the first questions is always, "Which house is yours?" Our house is the house that faces the entrance to the neighborhood, so everyone sees our house every day. So we really hope we're not known as "that house with all the dead grass" or "that house that never mows" or "that family with all the toys laying around" or "that family with the poor naked children."

We were relieved to discover that our identity rests with Chester. All the neighbors we met last night asked if we were the family with "the dog." Then they would go on about how sweet he is, and how beautiful, how nice. Chester likes to spend most of his time resting on the driveway in front of the house and apparently whenever a car drives into the neighborhood, he stands up and watches as it drives by. And everyone loves that he's watching over the neighborhood. Little do they know that he wouldn't do much to protect the neighborhood, aside from annoying any intruders with requests to throw his frisbee over and over and over again.

Zoo

The boys are on Spring Break from preschool and today was a beautiful day to start off the week. We went to the zoo with one of Coulson's best friends from preschool and the boys had a great time. The pictures are from the carousel and playground. Did you know that a merry-go-round only has horses, but a carousel can have all sorts of animals? My friend was corrected when she tried to buy her tickets for the "merry-go-round."

It was a good day for the animals too. We are blessed to have a fabulous zoo about an hour away. It's a large natural habitat zoo, which means that the animals have pretty good sized yard to live in. It's great for the animals to have so much space that closely resembles their own habitat, but they often like to take naps tucked up in small corners far from the veiwing area. But today a lot of the animals were out and about, enjoying the wonderful weather. One of the aligators was swimming around, both black bears were climbing the rocks and swimming in their water hole, the river otter was jumping in and out of the water, the elk and bison were grazing in good view. We didn't even make it to the African animals, so we'll have to start there next time we come to the zoo. Charlie was afraid that the black bears were going to climb up and eat us. But don't worry, they didn't. We all made it home safely.

And you should be proud of me - I uploaded photos and blogged on the same day of the event that I am blogging about! Usually I take pictures and mentally write up some fun things for my blog, but then the pictures just stay in camera for weeks or months and by the time I finally transfer them to the computer, the event is so old and I've forgotten all the great things I was going to say, and so I never blog about it. But I'm trying to get better...

This is the video where Charlie talks about the bears. He says "polar bears" but they were really black bears. The video is a bit wobbly because he kept moving around during the conversation.

Moving

I've decided to move my blog.  I'm going over to Blogger for 2 main reasons.  First, in order to comment on my blogs here in Vox, you have to sign up for an account (which many of you have been so gracious to do and I appreciate it, thanks!)  Secondly, we use Picasa to organize our pictures on our computer and Picasa can upload to Blogger directly, so hopefully it will make posting pictures less of a hassle.  Also, it automatically saves drafts, so I can avoid the anguish of a suddenly locked up computer. (So I guess that makes 3 reasons)

I've tried it out with a few posts and I have liked it better so far, so I've decided to make the move.  (I also tried it out a long time ago, so there are some older posts there too)  So here's my new address, make sure you bookmark it!

http://livigirl.blogspot.com/

Hope to see you there ;-)

And Casey says: don't forget, if you use a feed reader, update your feeds. (I think I know what that means, but I woudn't have been able to say it myself.)

 

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Home Sweet Home

Growing up, I lived in the same house until I was 18 years old. Right before I left for college, my parents moved to a different neighborhood. In the years since, I have driven through my old neighborhood several times, but I hadn't been inside my old house since my parents sold it, almost 13 years ago. I remember at the time asking my parents to make sure they sold it to a nice family with young kids, because that house was good for raising kids. They didn't - they sold it to an older couple with a grown son who had moved back in with them. Oh well.

Well, a young family from my parents' church bought the house last year and renovated it. Actually it wasn't just any family - the mother of the family is just a few years younger than me and I remember playing with her and her siblings at church when we were little. Our parents have been friends since before she was born. So when they had an open house to show off their newly renovated house, they invited my parents and I tagged along with the boys.

It was fun to go back to my old home. I showed the boys the hill that I sled down (back when it actually snowed in the winter) and the backyard where I spent most of my time. I showed them the rooms that I played in and where I brushed my teeth. They were so interested and had great responses, like "That's nice mom, I'm hungry. Can I have another brownie?"

The renovation was great - I was really impressed. I remember how it was decorated very nicely with late-eighties/early nineties decor: blue geese in the kitchen, wallpaper throughout, blue carpet everywhere. It was nice back then and in my mind, that house has always been stuck in that era. When I lived in Charlotte, I saw several split-level homes, probably built around the same time as my childhood home, that were updated and looked very nice. But I could never see my old house like that; it would always be just that - an old house.

Now it's like a brand new home. They installed hardwood floors in the kitchen, living room, stairs and hallways, gutted and completely remodeled the bathrooms, brand new carpet in the bedrooms, new windows, new paint (I think they may have even put in new walls), moved a few closets around. The kitchen was completely redone, brand new cabinets, a beautiful island in the middle, gorgeous.

She showed me some before and after pictures. It was a disaster when they bought the house! The bathrooms still had all their orignal tile (brown and green!) and the carpet was horrendous. Here's the conversation I had with my dad:
"Dad, look it still had our carpet when they bought the house."
"No, that's not our carpet. Our carpet was blue, not brown."
"No Dad, that is blue carpet. Look at the edges."
It was really gross. Apparently the previous owners had 6 dogs. And we got this carpet when I was in elementary school, circa 1985.

I like what they've done with the place. It wasn't sad or weird to see my old home looking different. I think it wasn't weird because I totally approved of all the choices they made in the renovations - I loved the floors, the cabinets, the lighting, the fixtures, the colors. Now in my mind, my childhood home isn't an outdated, aging house. It's a beautiful home with a wonderful young family living in it. And like I said 13 years ago, that house is good for raising kids, so I'm happy.

More Fine Print

As I was looking for some oil to protect my new apple trees from bugs and disease, I found Ortho's new line of products with a nice green label "Ecosense Brand*." Since I was looking for something environmentally and family friendly, I picked it up to read the label and followed the astrisk at the end of the brand name.

"not intended to imply environmental safety either alone or compared to other products."

There should be a law against the blatant abuse of the prefix "eco." So I went for the organic stuff, since I know there are distinct guidelines they must follow and thus they can't try to bamboozle me with eco-names.

A special weekend

Coulson's Nanna and Grandpa Bud invited him to visit them for the weekend. Just him, without Charlie. So Coulson was excited to have his very own special weekend with his grandparents. All morning long he kept asking, "when is Nanna going to get here?" and I kept telling him she would arrive sometime during Charlie's nap. Sure enough, she arrived and picked up Coulson during Charlie's nap. Well, Charlie had been hearing all the talk about Nanna coming throughout the morning and the first thing he said when we woke up, "Is Nanna here?" When I told him that she and Coulson had already left, he burst into tears. It took a while to settle him down and I had the insight to explain the situation as "Charlie's special weekend with Mommy and Daddy." I hadn't thought about it that way before the outburst, but once I did, I thought it was a pretty good idea.

(He finally calmed down after I let him watch some of the NCAA tournament because he loves any and all sports. Speaking of, I started out pretty well in my fantasy bracket yesterday and earlier today, but tonight has been ugly!)

Since Coulson is older and can express himself better, Charlie usually just has to go with the flow. But this afternoon, Charlie was able to call the shots. He got to enjoy the playground at his own pace and just be his natural, funny, goofy little self without any fighting or fussing with his brother to get in the way. And he is a pretty goofy little kid. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend.

Oh the Madness!

 

Basketball

North Carolina isn't one of those super important states like New York, or California, or Texas. We kinda get lost in the jumble of all those other states. Except in March. March Madness is the time for NC to shine. Let's face it, when it comes to college basketball, North Carolina pretty much kicks ass! (pardon the expression, it just feels good to say it that way.) So once a year I emerge from the sports-free cocoon that is my life (except for sports played by athletes in the 3-7 year old age range) and embrace the world of ESPN and all the stuff that goes with the NCAA Championship.

 

Tonight we filled out our brackets for a friendly online competition. Knowing nothing whatsoever about college basketball and being from NC, it's no surprise that 3 of the teams in my final four are from NC! The rest of the teams I chose randomly, relying mostly on rank, with a few upsets here and there to make it exciting. I used a coin toss once to decide.

 

Coulson had 2 criteria for his picks. First, most importantly, and following in his mother's footsteps, he supports the NC tradition. His secondary criteria was the name of the school – he went for whatever school had a funnier name. And those aren't easy criteria to work with – he was stumped when Carolina came up against Gonzaga, but ultimately he chose to honor his roots. He also thought Mississippi was a very funny name and laughed every time I said it, so Mississippi makes it pretty far in the brackets. Although he said he chose based on the funny names, I noticed that when I gave him the choice of two teams, he generally chose the team that I mentioned last, so no. 15 seeds Rob Morris, Cal St. and Morgan St. do pretty well until they meet up with a team from NC.

 

Casey also filled out a bracket, but he looked up commentaries on the internet, analyzed probablities and consulted with his father on his choices, so his approach was kinda boring.

 

Good luck on your own brackets!

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God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt

When Coulson was about 6 months old, I read a quip in a parenting magazine that went something like this:  "With your first child, you sanitize anything that the baby drops on the floor; with the second child, you follow the 5-second rule; by the time the third child comes along, if he can get to it before the dog does, he can have it."  As I looked over at my firstborn child and my dog sharing some Cheerios under the kitchen table, I realized I was way ahead of my time.  My personal parenting philosphy on germs is mostly based on exposure to build up immunities.  I have followed this exposure philosophy, not out of science, but simply because cleaning is not my default setting in life and if you've ever lived with me or even just been to my house on a normal day, you know that very well.  (I've always claimed that I'm an excellent mother, but terrible housekeeper, so I use "stay-at-home-mom" as my profession instead of "homemaker".)  But now I can claim that my housekeeping habits are in the best interest in my children and here's the science to back it up: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?_r=4

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The fine print

I like reading the fine print on packages.  Like the chicken I bought yesterday - In large print, the package proudly declared that no hormones or steroids were added to the chicken (or something to that effect, I didn't write it down), followed by a tiny astrisk.  I followed the astrisk to the tiny print at the bottom and learned that "federal regulations prohibit adding hormones or steroids to the chicken."  Wow, their chicken complies with the minimal standards of the law!  They deserve a medal!

But the one that really has my head spinning is on the package of flushable wet wipes that the kids use to wipe their bums.  I bought it because it can be easier for the kids to wipe their own bums when they are learning (ok, so I'm not really entrusting that task to Charlie yet).  I figured that it would be easier just based on logic that a wet wipe would work better than dry toilet paper.  But Pampers took it one step further: "Cleans up to 30% better than toilet paper" the package tells me.  30%  A specific percentage makes me think they did some scientific, measurable, quantitative research to determine this.  But I ask myself - How does one measure this type of cleanliness?  And who wants to do this type of research? 

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The Fine Print

I like reading the fine print on packages. Like the chicken I bought yesterday - In large print, the package proudly declared that no hormones or steroids were added to the chicken (or something to that effect, I didn't write it down), followed by a tiny astrisk. I followed the astrisk to the tiny print at the bottom and learned that "federal regulations prohibit adding hormones or steroids to the chicken." Wow, their chicken complies with the minimal standards of the law! They deserve a medal!
But the one that really has my head spinning is on the package of flushable wet wipes that the kids use to wipe their bums. I bought it because it can be easier for the kids to wipe their own bums when they are learning (ok, so I'm not really entrusting that task to Charlie yet). I figured that it would be easier just based on logic that a wet wipe would work better than dry toilet paper. But Pampers took it one step further: "Cleans up to 30% better than toilet paper" the package tells me. 30% A specific percentage makes me think they did some scientific, measurable, quantitative research to determine this. But I ask myself - How does one measure this type of cleanliness? And who wants to do this type of research?

An important appointment

Fellow NPR junkies will totally know how cool this is, but for those who don't have their local NPR station as the 1st pre-set in all their radios, here's some background info.  StoryCorps is a national oral history project with a simple mission: "to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening."  Basically they have a mobile recording booth that travels around the country and people can make appointments to bring in a loved one and interview them for an hour.  After the hour, they get a CD recording of the interview and the interview can be archived with StoryCorps and the Library of Congress.

Well StoryCorps has come to Winston-Salem and they started taking reservations for appointments a few weeks ago over the internet.  Now, whenever there is a limited number of spots available online, I am always too slow - even when I log on right when the tickets go on sale - so I wasn't surprised when all the appointments were already full by the time I tried, but they had a waiting list in case of a cancellation, and I added my name to the waiting list, thinking it would be futile anyway.

So imagine my surprise when I got a phone call this afternoon informing me that there is an opening tomorrow afternoon.  And it's not like tomorrow is busy enough since I am volunteering at a local ministry in the morning and going to the annual fundraiser for Women of Vision/World Vision in Charlotte in the evening.  Sure, let's throw in another thing to do!  Since having kids, I realize I don't like last minute changes in plans because the childcare arrangements can get so problematic.  But thankfully my kind-hearted, loving, generous husband doesn't have to work and doesn't have any meetings tomorrow (a rarity on days that I actually want to do something...)  So now I have to prepare for my hour of history.

The biggest decision is who to interview.  I know my dad would be great - He loves to tell stories from his childhood.  But I really want to interview my mom and talk with her about life from a women's perspective.  I guess I want to explore how being a woman has shaped her life and how that in turn has shaped my life and the decisions I make as a woman, a wife, a mother.  Of course, I'm not sure what direction the interview will actually go in, it's really more of a conversation than an interview, so I don't have concrete expectations of what information I plan to extract from my mom.  I just hope that we have fun doing this together and that I get a chance to know my mom a little bit better.

StoryCorps offeres suggestions of questions to ask, so I'll probably check out some of those.  (Also a great resource if you think this sounds like a great project and just want to grab a recording device and a friend)  I also asked my oldest brother, a professional historian, for some guidance too.  Now I have to go and pick some really good questions to get our conversation started. 

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Weekend Getaway

I've been wanting to do this for a very very long time, and finally this weekend we were able to make it happen.  We dumped the kids at my parents' house (we sold this to the boys as "A Special Weekend with Grammy and Pop-Pop, no mommy or daddy allowed") and enjoyed a weekend to ourselves.  I call this Retirement Planning, because someday the kids are going to grow up and move out (and yes, they will be moving out because we'll charge an exorbitant room rate) and we need to be prepared for what it's like to be together alone.  So far, we're doing okay, because it was a lot of fun to be together alone. ;-)

I'm trying to get out of the dating rut that we've been in lately, basically dinner and a movie once a month, maybe twice if we're lucky.  So I'm looking into new, fun dates (I'm saying "I" because Casey thinks that dinner-and-a-movie is the perfect date, but he's going along my notion because he's wise and knows it's good for his health in so many ways.)  So Friday night we just did a slight variation on the dinner-and-a-movie routine.  We had dinner downtown at an Irish Pub, then went to see a play at the local university.  We had a fun time and now Casey's even looking forward to seeing their production of King Lear this spring.

Then Saturday we took off for the mountains, the quaint town of Blowing Rock.  We stayed at an inn that was just off Main Street, so we were able to walk around the town and visit the antique, pottery and gift shops without needing to get in our car.  We took a hike along a creek with several waterfalls.  It was a moderate hike, tough enough to give us a good workout without wiping us out, but something we would not have been able to do with the boys.  We even did some geocaching before the weather got too cold.  Sunday was pretty cold, windy and snowy.  We did some shopping at the outlets and then warmed up in our room with some good books.  Casey's reading Oliver Twist and I just started The Friday Night Knitting Club. Then we did something really crazy: We joined Facebook.  We finally caved into the urging from our college friends, my brothers and (this is where we recognized that we are so not with the times) my dad and all his siblings who are all on Facebook.  So now were having fun tweaking our profiles and re-connecting with old friends.

Then this morning we headed back home to see our boys. It was really nice to get away, but it was also really nice to hug our boys and see their smiles again.

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Half a decade...

So Coulson turned 5 a little over a week ago.  It's so cliche to say that I can't believe he's that old already, but it's true.  As you can tell from all the goofy expressions in the photos, he's an amusing kid with typical 5-year-old silliness all over.

I don't have any superheroes flying around the house these days; currently I am protected by the watchful eye of a Jedi Knight.  Jedi Luke Skywalker to be precise.  Everyday.  I got him a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants so he could dress up as Luke (circa Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) during playtime, but that wasn't enough.  Every single morning he wants to dress like Luke.  When his black clothes were dirty, he would ask of every outfit we picked out, "Is this what Luke Skywalker wears?" 

Jedi Jump

At first I looked for orange and told him that it was like Luke's orange flightsuit, but he wasn't too impressed with his flight suit because there is no light saber involved.  Then I progressed to "earth tones" because it was like something Luke might wear on Tatooine (Episode IV).  And now it's anything comfortable, "because Luke has to wear something comfortable when he's Jedi fighting and this is comfortable, so yes, Luke would totally wear this."  After some persistence on my part, he's finally accepted that almost everything in his closet is something that Luke would wear.  Now he wants to know which color light saber goes with each outfit.  Apparently Luke has a blueish-white light saber in the earlier movies, and a green one later, when he wears the black outfit.  Our big birthday gift to him was a homemade Jedi cape to wear that we are quite proud of - crafted from a real pattern (Butterick B4319) and sewn on my own sewing machine.  I'm not a sewer, so it's a pretty big deal for me.

He had a dinosaur birthday party and everyone had a great time.  The kids made dinosaur masks and then we went on a dinosaur "imagination adventure" (kinda like the animal safari from last year's birthday party) where we went back in time and looked for inflatable dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs in our backyard.  The dinosaur eggs, one of the party favors that each child took home, contained a 3-D dinosaur puzzle which turned out to be a mental exercise that challenged the adults for hours, so now I have to apologize to all the parents for sending such a horrible brain teaser home.  Many of the moms have super-glued the puzzle together so that their children never, ever take them apart again.

Coulson is enjoying getting older and being able to take care of other little ones.  He's the oldest child in our small group from church and he likes his position of helper.  There are two other boys Charlie's age and one a little younger and Coulson especially likes the younger one.  He watches over him at the playground, keeping him away from the edges, directing him to the safer slides and holding his hand on the bouncy bridge.  It's very sweet to see him so caring to a younger child.

Because he's not with his own brother.  A while ago, someone asked me if the boys got along and I absent-mindedly answered "most of the time."  I reflected on that answer later as the boys were screaming at each other and realized I totally lied.  They didn't get along at all.  Charlie is old enough to know how to push Coulson's buttons and Coulson knows how to really get Charlie worked up, so they pretty much pick at each other all day long.  Many many many time outs and confiscated toys later, they continued to be at each others' throats.  But recently I got smart and told them they couldn't watch any TV until they played together nicely.  Miraculous transformation from both of them!  So now sometimes I do find them getting along.  Charlie has started to get into pretend playing, so he can play along with Coulson now.  Usually Coulson tells him what to do or who to be and Charlie goes along with it.  It's a lot of fun watching them become playmates.  And then they watch TV.

He's getting a little bit better about playing on his own, although he still strongly prefers to play with someone else.  Friends are always super important to him and he's learning to branch out and make new friends.  He notices the oddest details about things and asks an amazing amount of questions.  He's starting to get interested in reading and he's learning bits here and there, but he doesn't quite have the attention span to sit down for a short lesson.  He loves books and will drop anything if I want to read to him.  He also loves to hear stories and sometimes will tell some of his own stories.  Unfortunately for my readers, he tells his most interesting stories when I can't record them, like when I'm driving in the car, and when I sit down with him to type up a story, they are still amusing (to me, at least), but lack some of the spontaneity of his original tales.  But he is very creative with his words and I look forward to seeing that develop as he gets older. 

Yeah, I think five is going to be a good age.

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Conversations with Charlie

"Charlie, what are you going to do today?"

"I'm gonna get my booger and put it on my finger," (holds up pointer finger) "and put it here" (wipes finger on his shirt)

 

At least he's not eating it!  I can't wait to find out what he plans to do tomorrow.

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The depths of my love

When I was pregnant with Coulson a little over 5 years ago, I fell in love with the cake served at one of my baby showers.  It's the sheet cake from Costco. It's huge, serves 44, comes with a mousse filling and it's only $15!  For that price at the grocery store, you can get a cake half the size with no filling and it's not as delicious.  Oddly for a life-long chocoholic, my love of Costco cake is limited to the white cake with white buttercream frosting.  Chocolate cake just isn't as exciting.

If you've ever been to one of my kids birthday parties, you've enjoyed this cake (except for their first birthdays, we made our own cake for those special days).  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if subconciously the main reason that I enjoy throwing birthday parties for my boys is so I can get this cake.  And all the extra cake from these parties is not a problem because the Costco cake freezes beautifully!  We freeze it in smaller chunks so we only have to thaw out a few servings at a time (yes, this is a well thought-out process for us.)

Well, Coulson's birthday party is Saturday and now he's old enough to have an opinion about things like cake.  We were at Costco and I was asking him what decoration he wanted on his cake when he suddenly stated, "I want chocolate." 

"Chocolate filling?  Okay."

"No. Chocolate cake.  With chocolate icing."

At this point, I was about to state my usual, "Well, that's not a decision you get to make, that's a grown-up decision and you have to live with whatever I decide."  But I realized that it was his birthday and he probably should get to decide.  But I was the one doing all the work for the party, this cake is my payoff, said the little voice in my head. 

Well, my maternal love won, so Coulson, when you eat your chocolate cake on Saturday, just know how much I love you and remember the sacrifices I've made for you! 

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Star Wars

Another installment from the writing desk of Coulson, almost 5.  I bet you can guess what he's been watching lately... Casey could write a blog about that experience. 

 

Episode 1 - The Emperor Strikes Back

Luke Skywalker and R2D2 and C3PO were going to a mission to blow the Death Star up.  But the Emperor was sneaking off it.  But Luke Skywalker was faster.  He was running but there was a forest ahead and there was too many trees.  But the Emperor was slowing down.  He was getting tired.  Cause a house blocked him and he was getting tired of trying to run through it.  The End.

 

Episode 2 - The Jedi Returns

Luke Skywalker was back on his way to Yoda's planet Dagobah to have his last bit of training, but he left before soon, but the Empire was in charge of that planet too and they wanted Luke Skywalker to get off but Luke did not do it.  But they couldn't make their things on every planet because Luke used the Force to reach them with his light saber so he could cut the wire.  The End.

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Universal Truth

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a child crying, fussing, pulling at his ears and constantly wanting to be held will succomb to skipping and laughing mere minutes before seeing a healthcare professional/filling prescription medicine.

Thanks Charlie!

As a side note, they wanted $50 for ear numbing drops and I have good insurance.  $50!  And since he was now skipping and laughing, I certainly wasn't going to shell out $50 (confession: I wouldn't have paid that much even if he were still fussing.)  Thankfully, the pharmacist was able to recommend a similar generic for $3.50 so I got my "health care professional" to prescribe that one instead.  Who would pay $50 for ear numbing stuff??????

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Little Cupids

I found this quote in a magazine from Author Unknown: "I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day.  When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." 

Maybe it's just me, but at this point in my life, I totally see the connection.

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Snow Day

Here are some pictures from our short-lived snow day!

DSCF2746

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Let's get our hands dirty!

{Okay, I know this is a pretty wordy post, but I'm writing from my heart and I get wordy when I do that.  Please read anyway.  Thanks!}

About 3 years ago, I saw a movie that changed my life.  It's not a movie I can watch again, once is enough, but if you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda, you should.  It's the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a hotel in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994.  He managed to protect over a thousand refugees during the crisis. It's an extraordinary story about "an ordinary man" (the title of his autobiography.)

In the middle of the movie, Paul has a conversation with Jack, an American cameraman for a news crew that got stuck in the middle of the crisis.  This conversation basically knocked the wind out of me:

Paul Rusesabagina: I am glad that you have shot this footage and that the world will see it. It is the only way we have a chance that people might intervene.
Jack: Yeah and if no one intervenes, is it still a good thing to show?
Paul Rusesabagina: How can they not intervene when they witness such atrocities?
Jack: I think if people see this footage they'll say, "oh my God that's horrible," and then go on eating their dinners.

And then go on eating their dinners  That line has stuck with me ever since.  I don't want to be that way.  I don't want America to be that way.  But there are so many atrocities happening today: the Congo, Darfur, the Gaza Strip, the list could go on if I were more informed...  It seems like the problems are so horrible and the solutions so unattainable, that it's easier to just ignore it and go on eating our dinner.

But there are ways to do something.  Sure they may be small and seem insignificant, but collectively it can make a difference.  I personally don't have a great idea that can bring peace to the Mid-East, but I do know of organizations (MCC and World Vision) that are working there (and in Africa) and I trust their judgment.  Perhaps you have your own favorite organizations that you trust.  Many of these organizations have avenues to advocacy on their websites, such as sample letters to representatives in Congress (very helpful, because I sure wouldn't know what to write myself), petitions to sign, or they might endorse other advocacy campaigns, such as the ONE Campaign, which is supported by both MCC and World Vision and numerous other faith groups, secular groups, justice groups and relief groups. 

But here's my challenge for you this week:  Feb 12th is Red Hand Day. From their website "The goal of Red Hand Day is to raise global awareness of the plight of child soldiers through public protests, demonstrations and other activities. The Red Hand symbol, has been used all over the world by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and many civil society organizations to say no to the recruitment and use of child soldiers."

Handprint

Now, I'm not asking you to grab a sign, put on an angry face and go chant at some government building until you are arrested; I'm just asking you to get your hands dirty.  The Red Hand Campaign is asking people to send their red hand prints to them, and on Feb 12, they want to deliver 1 million red hands to the UN.  What impact will 1 million red hands have?  The UN has already forbidden the use of child soldiers, yet children continue to be forced to fight.  Again, from the website, "The collective aim of this global campaign: To impress the responsible persons in New York with the huge numbers of red hands and so force them to act!"

This is something you can do as an individual, but it is also a great activity for a small group, church, school, friends or co-workers to do together.  Just paint your hand red (have some washcloths or paper towels handy) and stamp it on a piece of paper.  Write your name and your town on the paper and send it (after it dries) to:

Red Hand Campaign

c/o HRW

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10118

If you want to learn more about the project, check out their website.  And if you do send in your handprint, please let me know and share any stories you have from it.  I already got my boys to give their hands (that's Charlie's hand in the picture), and I hope to do it with my small group from church next week.

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Where's the gymatorium?

Registration for kindergarten is in the next couple months and our school district gives parents some choice in the school their child attends.  They can choose the local school, or they can choose from 4 other schools in their "zone" and there are a few magnet schools in the system that are available by lottery. 

Casey and I visited one of the schools today and it was so cute to be in an elementary school again with all the miniature desks and chairs.  In the bathroom, the sink was mounted short and there were signs everywhere reminding me to flush, to use a small amount of soap and to only crank the paper towel dispenser 3 times. 

The kids were great.  They have a "zero talk" policy in the hallway for the kids, so when we passed a group waiting in line for the bathroom, they were completely silent.  (Yeah, I'd love to see Coulson do that!)  Even when the principal asked them questions, they didn't answer!  In one class, the kids were all wearing their pjs.  They did something good, or completed a goal or something like that and for their reward they chose to have a pj day!

It was fun to tour the school and get an idea about what elementary school is like.  I think Coulson will like school, once he gets used to the longer days and that whole foreign concept of "sitting still" that he keeps hearing about.  He loves to be around other kids (once he knows them), he does well in a structured environment, and he does like to learn knew things. 

We liked the school today, but we have a couple more on our list to visit.  Can you believe that I'm looking at elementary schools already??!!!!  My little boy is growing up so fast I mean, not fast enough, I mean, too fast.  (The end of this sentence changes many times throughout the day, but since he's sleeping so innocently and peacefully upstairs right now, I'll probably stick with "too fast" for the next few hours.)

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Conversations with Coulson

Why don't the people living on the bottom of the world feel Jesus or God holding them?

*******

What if instead of watering plants, we poured milk on them?  And then we watered the cows!

********

Coulson: Did it ever rain Bibles?

Me: No.

Coulson: Then how did the people know what to write?

********

 

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Introducing the Adventures of Rice Pudding Man

And now for what will hopefully become a recurring installment on my blog....

The Adventures of Rice Pudding Man

 

Rice Pudding Man

Episode 1: The Bad X-orater

By Coulson Glass  age almost 5

Rice Pudding Man was going shopping when Bad X came along and was stealing from the grocery store.  Rice Pudding Man used his sticky power to stick him to one of the shelves.

 

Episode 2: The Bad Monster of City Quiet

By Coulson Glass

One day Super Rice Pudding Man was fighting Bad X when he sent out one of his bad monsters and it was called...Jambalya.  So the monster was gonna go underground but Rice Pudding Man stuck him to one of his rice puddings.  And then the monster got stuck underground.

 

The End

 

I don't know where he got the idea of "rice pudding."  It's not something I've ever eaten.

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Welcome to our world, little one!

I'm so happy that Olivia Jayne has finally made an appearance!  Her mommy, Anne, was my roomate and best friend in college.  She is also the one responsible for getting me into blogging.  She told me about "mommy blogging" years ago and now she gets to do her own mommy blogging.  I can't wait to read her stories.  Congrats to Anne and Steve - you will both make wonderful parents and Olivia is lucky to have you! 

I'll also put in a plug for Anne's gorgeous jewelry - AnneMade Jewelry, but I don't think she'll be filling custom orders anytime soon.

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I'm trying to get better about uploading photos of the boys, especially since my original intent with my blog is to update friends and family from far away about the boys as they grow up.  So here are some of the photos from Christmas.

I will sit down and write a real blog again soon, since one of my New Year's resolutions is to be a better blogger.  But right now my house is a complete wreck since I haven't been able to absorb all the extra stuff we got for Christmas.  The boys were thoroughly spoiled by grandparents, aunts and uncles from both sides, in addition to the gifts that we got for them, so I have toys scattered everywhere and I'm not sure where to put the new toys and which old toys will get the boot yet.  And I have gradually accumulated 6 loads of clean laundry sitting in a pile on my bedroom floor that I haven't been able to fold or put away since I've been so busy from hanging out with family between Christmas and New Years  (But let's give me some credit because the clothes are clean).  So to properly procrastinate from these arduous tasks, I need to sit on the couch and watch a lot of TV or play Mario Kart on the Wii and that just doesn't leave a lot of room for blogging.

The boys had a great Christmas, I mean, three days of Christmas.  On Thursday we celebrated Christmas with just the four of us.  Then Friday was Christmas with my parents and brothers and sister-in-law and nephews and nieces.  Then Saturday was Christmas with Casey's parents and brother and sister and sister-in-law and so-to-be-brother-in-law.  Then we spent the next few days with my family while my brother and nephew and niece were in town from NY. 

For New Year's Eve, we held a mini party for the boys and their cousins, complete with a countdown (to 8:00pm) and a ball drop (I stood on the bed and dropped a beach ball) and noisemakers (empty toilet paper rolls wrapped in tin foil).  They were a very enthusiastic crowd, and of course I forgot to take pictures.

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