Never a Dull Moment

That's a pretty accurate way to sum up my life since kids entered the picture; however, I think our adventure yesterday tops the charts.

I was getting a few chores done in the morning before heading off to a playgroup scheduled for 10 a.m. The kids were playing in their bedroom when I walked in loaded up with clean clothes, and began hanging them in their closet. All was well...until I heard the bedroom door shut, and Cole asked, "Momma, do you have a key for this door?"

I immediately felt sick. I ran over to the door and confirmed my fear--we were locked in. One of our best discipline tricks is turning the doorknob on the kids' bedroom lock-side-out so that we can use their bedroom for time out. In El Segundo, I had the tool necessary to unlock the door stored in their bedroom. Unfortunately, in our new place I hadn't gotten that far yet. I started tearing through their bedroom, looking for something I might use to pick the lock, and found a ballpoint pen...score! That's all we need to unlock the downstairs bathroom (which I've had to use numerous times since we moved in and locking us out became Weston's favorite pastime)...but I attempted the same maneuver on this door with no success. I had no other tools at my disposal. No phone, either. To make things worse, the kids' room is on the third floor of our townhouse...no jumping out the window to escape. I began to panic. Luckily (I guess?!?) all three of us were locked in there together, so I didn't have to worry about Weston wandering the house unsupervised. But that was about the only positive thing I could think of.

I opened the window to their bedroom, which faces the common area between our row of townhouses and the row behind us. It would've been nice if we were facing the parking lot, where more people are likely to walk by, but we weren't...at this point I figured our only hope was to call for help and hope someone would come by and rescue us! I called several times with no response, so after awhile I just sat by the window and hoped someone would pass by. Weston started asking for a drink, and I started contemplating my future...trapped in a tiny bedroom with a 4-year-old and 2-year-old from 9 a.m. until at least 5 p.m., when we could hope that Brian might come home from work on time. No bathroom, no food, no water. We would survive, but it was going to be miserable.

After about 30 minutes of staring out the window and praying for someone to walk by, I caught movement. A girl, probably in her 20's, came walking along the sidewalk which passed our window maybe 20 feet off to the right. I called out, "Hey, can you hear me? I need help! Can you help me?" She glanced over her shoulder, and without breaking stride, continued walking. I became desperate and called more loudly, crying, "Please!! I know you can hear me. I'm trapped in my house with small kids. Can you come help? Please?" She continued walking, glancing over her shoulder often enough that I felt confident she heard me, but never hesitating or giving any indication that she was considering helping. I was shocked and angry, and starting to panic. What if nobody would help, even if several came within earshot? It was a devastating feeling.

I started alternating between watching at the window and making more futile attempts at the doorknob. Where on earth is MacGyver when you really need him??

Luckily, it wasn't much longer before I saw someone from the townhome across from ours walk out onto the balcony. I called out to her and asked her if she could help. She didn't speak English, but she found someone who did. I explained our situation and told her that I thought our front door was unlocked. Would she be willing to come in, come upstairs, and unlock the door? She said she would. In a minute or two she returned, though, and said that the door was locked. My mind started racing. What would we do now? Brian's work is close enough that he could drive home, but we haven't been here long enough for me to memorize his phone number. Rats!!! And I can't think of another soul who would have it. She called up to me, "Should I call the police?" I couldn't think of a better option, though I was cringing inside. How mortifying.

Just to make it a little more interesting, she hung up after her call and said, "They said this isn't an emergency." What?!? So, what would it take to constitute an emergency? A fire in the kitchen on top of it all? I asked her if she had mentioned that I had two small children with me. She hadn't, so she called back, and that did the trick. I'm glad it worked, but I'm just a little miffed that if it had just been me, I wouldn't have been worth it. Oh well.

So, the firetruck showed up, complete with a troop of very friendly firemen. I now blame the "it's not an emergency" issue on a dispatcher, because the firemen were awesome. I expected a lecture of some sort, or at least a question or two about why our doorknob was turned backward, but not a thing of the sort. They very cheerfully put their ladder up to the balcony, climbed up, then hoisted the ladder up to the window, and a fireman jumped in the kids' bedroom window (imagine the size of their eyes!) and used some nifty fireman tool to pry the lock open, and we were free. The fireman talked with the kids for a minute (turns out he has boys the same age, so maybe he understood my plight a little), invited us to come down to the fire station anytime for a tour, and off they went.

Last night as I laid in bed, thinking about the whole thing, it occurred to me that it might be nice to take the firemen a plate of cookies. Today Cole and I baked a batch and took them down to the fire station. True to their word, they gave us the grand tour of the station and the fire engine, and even let Cole get in and operate the lights on the fire truck. They loved it.

All in all, it turned out okay. It definitely could have been much worse. Brian laments that the firemen left a path of destruction in their wake (some bent window screens and the back gate off its hinges) which he had to repair. I'm just hoping that's as exciting as our life will get for a long, long time.

A Virginia Thanksgiving

I never planned to put on my own Thanksgiving feast--at least, not for a LONG time. Thanksgiving is the ultimate family holiday, and I thought we would celebrate it with one side of the family or another at least until we became grandparents! Moving to Virginia changed all that. There was no way we could turn around 3 weeks after arriving and fly to Utah. So, I tackled the preparation of a Thanksgiving feast on my own this year for the very first time.

Luckily for us, Thanksgiving was not lonely, even though we were away from family. Our awesome friends, Kirk and Jamie, came all the way from Boston (braving horrendous traffic which turned a 7 hour drive into a 12 hour drive) to spend the holiday with us. Jamie did a great sum-up of their visit on her blog, complete with pictures, so click here to check it out. We had a great time with them and were sad to see them go, even though we had to spend a few days recovering from what we fondly refer to as a "Carpenter Hangover" (a combination of lots of food, laughing, and sleep deprivation). The food turned out pretty well. The stuffing had a little too much sage, but otherwise was better than expected. And I made my first attempt at cheesecake, which turned out much better than expected. Oh, how I love holidays that involve lots of food! I had more fun putting the meal together than I had anticipated.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

No, SERIOUSLY

I gather that there's a little confusion about my last post. No, I wasn't just stating the results of the poll. I had an ultrasound yesterday, and we are having a girl!

Now that I look at it, I can see why my first post was confusing, sorry about that.

(Good job, Tara and Sarah for getting it the first time around!)

Majority Rules!

You voted, and the results are in! We're having a girl!

Baby Poll

I have an appointment with my new doctor next week! I'm not sure when they'll do an ultrasound, but it could be anytime now. I'm putting up a poll, so make sure to vote!

5 days down, 2 to go

The hotel we're staying in is really nice. But I'm kinda tired of living in a hotel, all the same, and (as you can see above) counting down until our stuff arrives on Wednesday. And crossing my fingers that there aren't any delays. The driver of the moving truck said he'd give me 48 hours notice prior to his arrival, so that means he should be calling today...

Speaking of the driver, I forgot to mention in my last post a funny little tidbit about him. Both times we've moved with professional movers, we've had a great driver, memorable in some way. This guy has been awesome, he went way above the call of duty on a couple different occasions...for one thing, Cole's quite-difficult-to-put-together bed had to be completely disassembled in order for them to put it on the truck, but he's going to reassemble it when we get there. Also, the guys who packed our stuff were less than thorough. When the loading guys came we discovered a couple of dresser drawers still full of stuff. Not a big deal, but what was a big deal was when we discovered that they hadn't packed up the stuff in my cedar chest--stuffed to the brim with random breakables. The driver took it upon himself to pack it up. I was deeply grateful. I could've done it, but I had two clingy kids hanging on me and begging me to go outside, and it would've been very painful.

Anyway, near the end of the day as they were finishing up, the driver was sitting on the living room floor doing paperwork when his cell phone rang. I was in the kitchen cleaning and not paying much attention, when suddenly I heard him say, "Zaraz, zaraz." My ears perked up immediately. Was he speaking Polish?!? Sure enough, as he continued the conversation I became sure he was. When he hung up, I asked him where he was from. We had a great conversation about Poland. That's one thing I love about having served my mission there...you don't run into Poles very often, but when you do, they become instant friends because it's so uncommon for them to meet an American who speaks their language and understands their culture. As a funny side note, earlier in the day when I was showing him the stuff that needed to be loaded in the garage, he suddenly asked, "Are you Mormon?" Puzzled, I said, "Yes, actually. How did you know?" He said, "The food." We did have a tiny little bit of food storage in there, but I had sold about 80% of it before moving day! The things that give us Mormons away...he said he had recently moved a Mormon family with 9 kids from Albuquerque to Salt Lake City, and they had a 2-car garage entirely full of food. We must look a little strange to people sometimes. :)

Anyway, so here we are, waiting for our stuff to arrive...but we've found some pleasant ways to pass the time. On Friday I took the kids to Ellanor Lawrence Park, which is essentially a huge forest with lots of walking trails and a pond. Gorgeous this time of year, with the fall colors and the crunchy leaves underfoot, and the smell of forest and decomposing leaves. It has been so long since we've had close access to nature, I just kept breathing in the fresh air. I couldn't get enough!

Saturday we took the Metro into Washington, D.C. It was my first time there, and didn't disappoint! Everything on the National Mall is so beautiful, well kept, and impressive. We only visited one of the many museums, the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History. We thought that would be most interesting to the kids, with the dinosaur skeletons and everything. They did like it, though their attention spans are still too short to explore a museum thoroughly. We also saw the White House, the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument (how could you miss it!) the World War II Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. There was a lot we didn't see, but it was kind of like having annual passes to Disneyland--we don't have to wear ourselves out seeing it all in one day, because we live right here and can easily go back whenever we want. I need to make a list of all the historical sites worth visiting and just knock them off, one at a time, as much as we can. There's so much to do and see! I think Mount Vernon is next on my list.

We didn't get to attend our ward yesterday...or should I say, we chose not to, as it starts at 9 a.m. and the kids are still not adjusted to East Coast time. They didn't even wake up until after 9, so we attended an 11 a.m. ward instead. I think I might have to stop using the blackout curtains in their room after all, and start letting them wake up with the daylight...if I don't, they may just happily settle into a pattern of staying up until 9 or 10 and sleeping until 9. It's nice in the morning (like now) when they're still asleep and I can get things done, but probably not the healthiest schedule for them or us in the long run.

After church we were invited over for dinner by some new friends, David and Cheryl. Cheryl is the sister of our friends Kirk and Jamie in Boston. They have two boys; Austin, who is 5 years old, and Jack, who is 17 months. Cole and Austin hit it off instantly - as quickly as I've ever seen Cole take to a new friend. They played very happily for the two or more hours we were there, and when it was time to leave they gave each other a big hug and Cole even planted a big kiss on Austin's cheek. When we got home, Cole said, "My favorite friends are Bennett (cousin), Jalen (cousin) and Austin." Wow. This kid made it into the elite circle with great swiftness! We're going back over for a playdate tomorrow. It was great to see Cole making friends. Weston and Jack were both still a little too young to notice each other's existence much. As far as the adults went, we really enjoyed chatting with Cheryl and Dave! They were great. And it feels good to have friends here already.

Whew! Congratulations on making it to the end of this post, which as it turns out is more like a journal entry than anything! And the kids are waking up (it's 8 a.m.) so maybe we're headed for a more reasonable schedule after all...

A Good Beginning

We've finally arrived in Virginia! It's been a crazy couple of weeks...getting ready for Halloween, then the packing and cleaning in preparation for the move. Thank HEAVENS Brian's company finally decided they'd pay for packing and transporting our household furnishings (and not just our "personal effects", as they first said). Things were crazy enough as it was!

Anyway, it was very strange, saying goodbye to friends and leaving El Segundo, the place we've called home for the last 4 1/2 years. It was strange looking back at the empty, echoing house as we locked the front door for the last time. It was strange flying out of LAX knowing we wouldn't be coming back for a long time! It kind of felt like every other time we've left on vacation, except that this time we only had a one way ticket.

We've had some wretched airport experiences the last few times we've flown, so we were dreading the flight (though not nearly as much as we would have been dreading a cross country drive). We were very pleasantly surprised as every step of the trip went smooth as honey. There were no lines to check in at the airport (pretty sure that's NEVER happened to us at LAX), the airline folks were actually pleasant to deal with. We had debated whether or not to bring our double jogging stroller with us or have the movers take it in the truck, ultimately deciding to take it with us. Then we debated whether to check it with our luggage or take it to the gate. To the gate all the way, baby! Why haven't we ever thought of this before? It was so much easier pushing the stroller through the airport than holding/dragging small screaming children. I wondered how they'd handle it at security, but it was actually an asset. The security people pulled us to the front of the line and then took the stroller to another location, where they gave it a thorough screening. Easy as pie. We arrived at our gate an hour early (that's also without precedent in our family) and leisurely ate our breakfast from McDonalds. The flight itself, which was supposed to be 5 hours long, only took 4 1/2 hours. The kids were relatively good. I think the biggest miracle of all came when we got seated on the airplane and realized that the seat in front of Weston was empty. The kid always kicks the chair in front of him repeatedly, earning us dirty glares and sometimes lectures from the person seated in it. I can understand this, as I don't particularly enjoy it when someone kicks the back of my chair either...but it's an exhausting task to keep a two-year-old from doing it. What a blessing that we didn't have to worry about it! The relief was intense.

We had a minor glitch when we got lost trying to find our hotel. According to Brian, this is an essential feature of any trip to Virginia. What should have been an easy left hand turn became tricky because we couldn't find the street we were supposed to turn on. As it turns out, the street is named one thing on one side of the road and another thing on the other side of the road, and we kept looking at the other side of the road. Alas, we found the hotel and all was well. The hotel is great. Blackout curtains in the kids' rooms kept them asleep until 9 a.m. this morning (when we had to wake them up so I could take Brian to work). There is a DVD player in the room, a CD player in both bedrooms (very handy since Weston's become obsessed with listening to music when he goes to bed) and the lobby has a library equipped with kids' games. Nice! So it hasn't been as hard to keep the kids happy inside the hotel as I imagined--this afternoon after lunch Cole and I played Candyland while Weston watched Baby Einstein. Pretty nice.

This morning after dropping Brian off at work, we went to pick up the keys for our townhouse. I had never seen it before, so I was very curious what I'd think of it. I have to say Brian did a great job. It's in a really pretty location. You walk in the front door and can see out the sliding glass doors to the back, where there's a huge, gorgeous tree whose leaves have turned bright yellow. The kids ran out onto the patio and had a ball throwing the leaves off the deck. The kitchen is much nicer than the one in our El Segundo house, though I don't think it has as much cupboard space. More drawers though. There's a fireplace in the living room, and Cole can hardly wait to start a fire in it.

I'm actually glad we moved here in November. I have missed fall weather ever since we moved to California almost 5 years ago, and we are at the tail end of fall here, but it's still definitely fall. Some trees have lost all of their leaves, but many still have bright colors (like the one in our backyard!). I am loving the cold air and the change from the sameness of California weather. It will be pleasant to have a fire in the fireplace, and I'm sure Cole would insist on one even if we moved in July! I'm looking forward to a holiday season that FEELS like a holiday season--chilly air, impending snowfall, and all. Cole seems to like it too, he has said on a couple of different occasions today, "Momma, I want to stay in Virginia forever." This coming from the kid who has been telling anyone who will listen, "We'll be back in California in one year."

It doesn't feel like I'm on the other end of the country--I guess that's what air travel does for you! We're going to head into DC either tomorrow or Friday though, and maybe then it will sink in how far away we are from familiar territory. Maybe it's living in Los Angeles for so long, but the unfamiliarity doesn't bother me like it used to. I'm ready for this adventure!

One Thousand Inches Tasty

Awhile ago I made a post about how Cole seemed to think that any number in the 20s was about the biggest number in existence. His concept of numbers and measurement is evolving in some really funny ways. For example:

• A few weeks ago his Sunbeam teacher told me that Cole informed her that we are moving to Virginia. He then stated, "Virginia is ten thousand inches away!!" He also said that his mom was going to have a baby in three weeks. (This was about three weeks ago, should I be nervous?)
  

• Today, Cole was making me a pretend birthday cake and said, "Momma, this cake is going to be one thousand inches tasty." (Hence the title of this post.)

• He has also become very interested in the speedometer. Anytime we're in the car, he asks me to move my hands down on the steering wheel so that he can see how fast we're going. If he still can't see it, then he asks about every 5 seconds for a verbal update on how fast the car is going. He regularly asks what will happen if we make the car go one-four-zero (140 mph is the maximum on our speedometer). He never tires of hearing about how the police officer will pull us over and make us pay a lot of money--that is, if we don't get in a terrible accident and die first. I was impressed to hear from his Sunbeam teacher on Sunday, though, that he told her in front of our house we can go 20, on the big street we can go 40, on the freeway we can go 60, and there's ONE SPECIAL road in Utah where we can go 80. He's dying to make another trip to Utah so he can see the speedometer hit that wonderful mark.
  

Because of his speedometer obsession, Cole is now very fond of the number one-four-zero and writes and talks about it wherever possible. I think it's about to take over for ten thousand inches in his estimation of the biggest number in existence.

As if there wasn't already enough excitement around here...

This little one will make his/her appearance around the end of April 2010!

When the ultrasound technician took this picture, she said, "Ooh, a nice Halloween face!" I must say I agree. Good thing babies get a little chubbier before they make their actual appearance...but very appropriate for the season, anyway!

The Big News

It's been awhile since we did any blogging, and for good reason. Things have been crazy around here! And we've been in limbo about our future, so I just kept holding out on a blog post thinking that when we actually knew what we'd be doing, I'd finally make a post.

Well, that time has finally arrived. After months of waiting and wondering, pursuing various options and waiting and wondering some more...

We are moving! To Virginia. Chantilly, to be precise. If you don't know much about Virginia and its cities (I don't...I've never been there, and will make my first "visit" when I get on the plane to move there) Chantilly is a suburb of Washington, D.C.--about 20 miles from D.C. itself. We aren't going to be there permanently--this is a temporary relocation for Brian's work. He's not changing jobs, but rather he's accepted a rotation position with the company he works for. We'll be in Virginia for about a year, after which we plan to come back to California and...well, who knows? We'll see how things stand in a year. We hope to be able to buy a home at that point, but only time will tell.

So, the insanity is about to ensue! The plan is for Brian to finish work here by the end of October, and we will probably be moving the first week in November. That gives us about six weeks to figure it all out and get out of here! I've been asked how I feel about it, and the answer is, I have very mixed feelings. I love El Segundo. We've been here for 4 1/2 years. I feel settled here, we have great friends and are happy. But we also feel very good about this opportunity. It's exciting in many ways. I've visited the East Coast a few times, but never thought I'd live there. This gives us the chance to experience something completely new without having to commit to permanently living so far away from family. I've never been to Washington D.C. or anywhere in the vicinity, so I'm excited to explore all it has to offer and for our family to have an opportunity to learn about so much of our nation's history there. I do dread change in many ways...it's hard to have to start all over, but we can do it! And we're excited.

Anyway, it feels good to finally be able to make the "announcement" and to move forward. Limbo isn't my favorite place to be, so I'm glad it's over. Onward and upward, here we go!

Noxious Weeds: 1 - Cole & Bennett: 0

Pretty, huh? This little bush is not as innocent as it seems.

We went to St. George over the Fourth of July weekend to visit Brian's side of the family. We stayed with his sister, Angie, and her family. Cole always has a blast there because he and his 6-year-old cousin, Bennett, adore each other. We hadn't been there more than five minutes before Cole and Bennett disappeared into the backyard. We were really enjoying the quiet and commented a few times on how nice it was to have a kid that's old enough to play with his cousin without constant supervision. It was great.

It was probably 45 minutes later that Jennie (another of Brian's sisters) and her family showed up. Jennie's husband, Jonathan, walked into the backyard with his kids and came back in a minute later with a piece of a plant and a seed pod in hand, asking if anyone knew what this plant was, because Cole and Bennett were apparently in the backyard, happily munching away on the seeds. See the picture on the right...this is pretty much what they looked like, but green instead of brown. They looked an awful lot like pea pods, so I couldn't blame the kids too much for thinking they were edible...

Anyway, Jonathan did some research online and we concluded that even if the seed pods were toxic, there was no way they could have ingested enough of them to be fatal. Phew! Off they went to bed, and we thought all was well.

Fast forward to about 11 p.m. that night when Angie walked past her kids' bedroom and thought she smelled vomit. Sure enough, she went in the bedroom to discover that Bennett had puked all over his bed. She came to tell me, concerned that Bennett had the stomach flu and that we were all exposed to the virus. Not five minutes later, I heard Cole coughing and throwing up in his bed. It only took a second for us to put two and two together. Sure enough, there were lots of little green seed-like pieces coming up.

I am a little ashamed (but only a little) to admit that I found the whole thing pretty amusing. For one thing, I was relieved that it wasn't a virus, so I didn't have to worry about Weston, not to mention Brian and me, getting sick as well. Also, I figured what we had here was a classic case of letting consequences do the teaching. I figure that they have both learned their lesson about eating unidentified plants! What we didn't expect was that the effect would be so lasting. I thought they'd probably throw up a few times, until their bellies were purged, and then they'd go to sleep and things would be mostly back to normal in the morning. Not so. The puking (or really, dry heaving) continued all night and well into the next day. Both boys were completely exhausted. They both slept for most of the day, waking up occasionally to beg for water and then throw it up. We watched them closely for dehydration, which thankfully didn't end up being a problem. During the course of their illness, when we were getting really concerned because they couldn't keep anything down, Dan took a sample of the leaves and pods to a local nursery to find out exactly what they were. The shrub is called a yellow bird of paradise (caesalpinia gillesii), and according to Poison Control, the seeds are classified as a "gastric irritant". Um, YEAH. We're just thankful they weren't truly poisonous.

But man, did it take them down!! It was a full two days before they were relatively back to normal.

(Note that Cole is wearing a diaper. Yep, it's exactly what you think. Thank goodness for Pull-Ups.)

As of the end of the weekend, Cole and Bennett are changed: a little older, and hopefully a lot wiser.

More Cole-isms

Lately I find myself wishing I had a notebook on hand at all times to write down the things Cole says. Unfortunately, even if I had such a notebook there are still times when it just wouldn't work. For example, in the car today I was cracking up at a bunch of stuff he was saying, but I just can't write and drive at the same time. Sure enough, by the time we got home, I couldn't remember what he'd said.

With that in mind, however, I want to record a few of the funny things he has said lately that I do remember:

Lately he's obsessed with the number twenty (and any number that begins with it - so really, he's obsessed with 20 through 29). He has learned to count to twenty, so he thinks that it's the biggest number in existence. We've learned this fact because of things he says. For example, we went on a walk on Sunday afternoon. On the way home, he said, "There are a lot of ways to get back to our house! You can go this way, or that way, or this way, or another way...there are twenty-eight ways to get to our house!"

Or, yesterday, after we picked up a bunch of trash on the road, Cole told Brian, "We picked up lots of trash today. We picked up twenty-one trash!"

Yes, indeed...if he uses the number twenty, you can pretty much mentally replace it with "infinite".

Another funny conversation happened between Weston and Cole on the way to the store today. Yes! That means I did remember something that happened in the car! Anyway, Weston still doesn't talk much, but he's picking up words quickly. Lately he's been trying to say "house", but it sounds more like "hhhow". Cole has taken upon himself the responsibility of instructing Weston in the finer points of pronunciation, and as we drove along in the car, Weston would point at a house and say, "hhhhow." Cole would get very agitated and say, "No, Weston! It's hou...sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssse. Hou...ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssse. I told you yesterday twenty-one times! It's hou...ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssse." Upon which Weston would point at another house and innocently say, "Hhhhow."

Cole's New Dream

The spider was eating my belly button. The spider was the only one that liked my belly button.

Our Fabulous Vacation

As many of you know, we just returned last week from a 10 day vacation. We were in Cape Cod for a week and then stayed with our good friends, Kirk and Jamie, for 3 days in Boston. It was SO MUCH FUN! Click below to view pictures from the trip...there were too many to post to the blog (and these are only a fraction of the pictures we took!) but I did put captions on all the photos to give you an idea of where we were and what we were doing. Many thanks to my parents who made this trip possible! We love you guys!!

Cape Cod and Boston

Cole's Dream

This morning, Cole told me about what happened last night while his eyes were closed. It was the first time that I think he really acknowledged having had a dream. Here is his description:

"There was some white bad guys that had white dresses on them. They looked like a carrot and pea, and they were this tall (gesturing as high as he can reach upward) - that means that they were a giant. They didn't have arms. They had an eye, and another eye, but not nose and not mouth. And they could talk without a nose and mouth. They just went woooo-oooh (gesturing motion with his hand) into my room. They put hard bubbles in my mouth. They made me choke. I couldn't talk after all. They supposed to be the only one who has to be the one who it is. They just put me on the cross and then they put a nail here, a nail here, a nail here, and a nail here (pointing at his hand, wrist, and various points up his arm). They were really giant nails and they stick blaaah (gesturing with his hand sideways). Now I have to type a little bit more: kmkjhuhjhjhhhfghbggh. Then I died."

Kind of disturbing, huh?

Cole's Prayer

At breakfast:

"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless the food, and I already ate it all, it's too late...and if we already ate all our food, we lose the prayer...please bless the food, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Guess I need to make sure we say the prayer before he snarfs down his whole bowl of yogurt.

Quotes of the Day

Me (while combing Cole's hair): "Cole, your hair is getting really long!"

Cole: "Yeah."

Me: "Do you like your hair long, or do you think you want a haircut soon?"

Cole: "I think I wanna keep my ears big. Like yours."

What does that mean?

Then,

Cole: "Momma, can I play computer games?"

Me: "Mmm, I don't know...I'm not sure I want you to."

Cole: "I promise I won't let it suck up all my time!"

Wonder where he heard that phrase?

MacGyver

I'm a huge fan of MacGyver...in fact, Richard Dean Anderson was probably my very first celebrity crush. I remember waiting eagerly for Monday nights when each episode would air...and being teased by my older brothers chanting "Karene loves MacGyver, Karene loves MacGyver..." I'd adamantly deny it, but my red face gave me away every time.


Brian, knowing of my great enjoyment of this series, gave me the first season for Christmas. I've watched an episode here and there but haven't been able to watch very many because, well, we spend a lot more time around here watching PBS Kids and Disney movies. The few episodes I have watched have been in the evening after the kids go to bed. However, yesterday Cole was playing on the computer and Weston was napping and I decided to watch an episode while I was folding laundry.

At some point Cole joined me and watched the rest of the episode. He didn't say much about it, but when Brian got home from work Cole turned it back on and when Brian tried to turn it off, Cole forbade him. He didn't really watch it, either, but he insisted on having it on in the background and protected the TV quite closely. It was really funny. So today I decided to watch another episode, and to my great surprise, Cole laid on the couch with me and watched the entire thing. He then told me, "Momma, TheGyver is my favorite show." TheGyver. I LOVE IT!

I don't know if Brian is a fan of Cole's new favorite show, but I think it's awesome.

As a side note, I've really enjoyed rewatching the old MacGyver episodes, but one thing is sad. I've become a little cynical as an adult and it's harder for me to believe that MacGyver can do ANYTHING, save the day in any situation...yeah, the guy is extremely resourceful, but it's extremely unlikely that he'd always have just the right random materials on hand to build a bomb or a blowtorch just when he needs one. And I've come to the conclusion that he was really the only great actor on the show. Dana Elcar as Pete Thornton is pretty good, but all the characters that play the side roles (the ones that are just on one show and then gone) really aren't great. And it's hard to take them all seriously with their 80's hair and clothes. Though I still don't mind MacGyver's mullet, and he's about the only person on the planet I can say that about.
(Okay, I have to take that back, I just found this photo, in which the mullet is no longer forgivable.)


On the bright side though, I really do love the morals of the show. MacGyver's defining characteristic is that he prefers brains to brawn in defeating the bad guys...he never carries a gun, and though he has to fight with the bad guys a lot, he always tries to avoid doing any more harm than he absolutely has to. There just aren't any shows like this on TV anymore!

My new "do"

Unfortunately I forgot to take a "before" picture, so I'm posting this truly awful one from a couple weeks ago that's the best shot of my hair I have, and gives you a good idea of the extent of the bushiness my hair had achieved. At least it's good for a laugh...



Here's my new look! I certainly have a lot less hair...now it just remains to be seen if I can figure out how to style it right!

(Cole just walked in and saw it for the first time. He giggled and said, "Your hair looks funny!" I'll take that as a compliment...)

Discovery

While reading a friend's blog the other day, I discovered a really, really cool website. A lady in Utah has developed a business of helping people build up their "practical" food storage (the stuff your family actually eats on a regular basis) by comparing ads from five major grocery stores and e-mailing out a list of the best deals for the week so you can stock up on items when they're really cheap. In addition, she sends a shopping list, a weekly meal plan based on the deals of the week, and recipes. It's pretty fantastic.

In addition to all this, the website is packed with awesome information. There's a section of free downloads, which includes a food storage inventory sheet, meal planning tips and a cooking calendar, food storage recipes, a one-year supply guide, info on 72-hour kits...there's just a ton of awesome stuff. Also, I recommend you check out the associated blogs as well...for those click here and here. Such great info!

When I first saw it I thought, bummer. Looks like a great thing if you live in Utah! Then I found out that they are just starting to expand into Nevada and Southern California. And for the first few weeks of their expansion, they're offering their service for free! Even once they get established, the service is only $5 per month.

So, I thought I'd share. Check it out, you'll be impressed.

Crickets

I've got to admit, I'm a little disappointed. For all the people I had asking me, "Is your research project done yet?" and bugging me to get the results up on the blog, I'd expected some response. I didn't think there'd be anyone falling at my feet in adoration or singing my praises, mind you, but maybe, "Hey! That's cool!" or something. Anything! C'mon, people! Throw me a bone! I've been working hard at this for the past month!

The silence is deafening. :)

Project Results

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Round one of my research project is complete, and the results are in! Click here to see my write up of how things went over the last month!

Round 2 will begin on Sunday, March 22nd. Leave a comment here, or e-mail me at karenesproject [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested in participating.

If anyone out there would be willing to link to this post on your blog, that would be great...I'd like to expand my reach a little in order to make this available to anyone who might benefit from it.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Round 1. It was awesome!

Tired Boo

(For those who don't know, Weston's nickname is Boo Man, Mr. Boo, Boo-meister...you get the idea.)

I had to sneak into the kids' room during Weston's nap yesterday and this is what I found...


It really is true that kids are extremely flexible. I've tried to do this during yoga practice. It ain't happenin'. But he can fall asleep this way?

Haircuts

Cole was born with a ton of hair. He had his first haircut at 5 months old, and has needed a haircut every couple of months since then. Weston, on the other hand, was born with some hair but not nearly so much. His is finer, and could grow a lot longer before it needed a cut. He's 18 months old and until yesterday, he hadn't had anything more than a trim to keep the hair out of his eyes and off his ears. But the adorable curls at his neck were getting really long (mullet-style long) and his hair was getting matted easily...in short, when it looked good, it looked really good, but when it didn't (which was much more often the case) it looked really bad. So, the time had come.

BEFORE:




AFTER: (haircuts are a traumatizing experience for all involved)


A little happier, after the trauma subsided:



Cole got a haircut too:


And while I was at it, I cut Brian's. (We didn't get any pictures of that one.) Someone needs to start paying me to do this job. :)

Adventures in the Kitchen

My parents gave me a Yogourmet yogurt maker for my birthday awhile ago. I had a few not-so-great batches of yogurt, and then recently thought I had figured it out because I made two or three perfect, creamy, delicious batches. Then I lost my touch. The last two batches have turned out badly, with the curds and whey completely separated, and the curds all crumbly. The texture has been all wrong.

So, I have an idea of what I did wrong, but I have to go get more milk at the grocery store before I can experiment further. However, there is a happy ending to the most recent batch of botched yogurt. I hated to just throw it out, so I got online to see if there was anything I could do with it. It turns out that if you drain the whey off the curds, TA DA! You've got cream cheese! And it just so happens that the yogurt maker came with a cheesecloth bag just for this purpose. I poured the whole mess into the cheesecloth bag last night, put it in a strainer to drain in the refrigerator, and this morning here's what I pulled out of the bag:


It looks, feels and tastes just like the Philly stuff. Actually, I take that back. It's better. So, I got all excited and thought to myself, "I'm going to have to go buy bagels tomorrow!!" Then Brian said, "Can you make homemade bagels?" I thought it would be really hard, but I found this link that made me think it might not be so bad. I tried it out, and voila!!


They're not as beautiful as the kind at the bakery, but they taste just as good, and I was so proud of myself! Homemade bagels and homemade cream cheese! Who would've known I could pull it off?

We sweetened some cream cheese, added coconut extract, and aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. That was good stuff. I think we've found our new favorite food.

So, yeah, I've got to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the yogurt, but the good news is, every time I mess up a batch, I get cream cheese out of the deal!

Pretty cool.

Quotes of the Day

Quote #1:

After reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", Cole thought for a minute and then said, "Eating lots and lots and lots of food makes you into a butterfly. I want to do that!"

Quote #2:

Yesterday Brian informed Cole of some heavy truths about life. One of these was the fact that we eat animals. Today when I was cutting up some grilled chicken, Cole provided the following commentary:

"First we pull out their feathers. No, first we pull off their ears. Then you take out their legs. Then you cook it on the grill, and put it on the grill, and eat it! No, first you take out their arms. Oh. They don't have arms. Then you put it on the grill and eat it! That's how it goes."

When Brian first told Cole that we eat animals, he was very upset and said, "No! No, we DON'T eat animals!" But he has apparently come to terms with it.

It's Beginning!

For those of you who contacted me about my project, I just wanted to let you know that I sent out the e-mail with the plan details this morning. Please check your e-mail, and let me know if you didn't receive my message--I may have mistyped your e-mail address or something.

If anyone else is interested, I can accept additional volunteers throughout the day today, but the doors close tonight at midnight. :) How's that for sounding like a sales job? Anyway, after today if anyone comes across this and is interested, you can still send me an e-mail at karenesproject [at] gmail [dot] com. It's possible there will be a round two, depending on how round one goes.

Thanks all!

Holy COW!

Forgive me for indulging in what will seem like shameless bragging about my child. But you've got to hear what just happened.

The TV was on, and tuned in to World News Report with Charles Gibson. They're doing a story about salary caps on executives of institutions who have received federal bailout money. Anyway, there was a piece of footage of President Obama talking in a press conference or something. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Cole: "Who's that?"

Me: "That's the president."

Cole: "What's a president?"

Me: "He's the man that is in charge of our country."

Cole: "Oh! That's Barack Obama."

Me: "What??"

Cole: "That's Barack Obama!"

Me: "WHAT?"

Cole: (looking shy) "That's Barack Obama."

For those of you who don't know, Cole is 3 years old.

Please note that I didn't say, "That's President Obama." I just said, "That's the president." Now, I'm sure that Cole didn't come up with the name of Barack Obama by listening carefully to a newscast. He's not quite that advanced. Brian is really good about telling Cole things that I never think to tell him, so I'm guessing Brian has mentioned Barack Obama to Cole before. But I never in a million years would have guessed that he would be able to recall it like that! Wow.

While I'm bragging, I should mention that for Christmas, Santa gave Cole a wooden puzzle of the United States of America. Personally, I thought that it was a little early for such a present. I didn't know if he'd be interested, and I was sure it would be a couple of years before he'd possibly be able to put it together by himself. I sent Santa a letter arguing my point, but apparently he knows my child better than I do. Cole has been obsessed with that puzzle ever since he got it. Lately, a common thing I hear from him is "Momma, where's Arkansas?" or "Momma? Have you seen Louisiana?" As of about one week ago, he can put the puzzle together with absolutely no help from me or Brian. He does this several times per day. And speaking of listening carefully to newscasts, yesterday I was listening to NPR in the car and they said something about India. Cole piped up, "Hey! I have India on my state map!" I explained the difference between India and Indiana, and then he was quiet for awhile. Then they said something about China and Cole said, "Momma? Is China on my state map?" I said, "No, China is another country." Cole said, "I need a map of China."

Well, for what it's worth, I don't take any credit for how smart Cole is. In part, Brian is a really great teacher. And, in part, he was born that way. But I am a little concerned that Cole's going to be significantly smarter than me by the time he's 5 years old.

Quick Update on the Project

Wow, I'm so happy to see that there are people interested in my project! Hooray!

I just wanted to make a quick post to answer questions I've had from some of you.

I'm going to give this a few more days to give people a chance to check the blog and see what I'm doing. I'm thinking that this weekend, I will send out an e-mail to everyone who has contacted me. This e-mail will explain all the details of the plan. Then you can decide, based on that, whether or not you're going to commit. I'll probably ask you to let me know for sure whether or not you're participating by midweek next week.

The official start date will be Sunday, February 15th and we'll go through Saturday, March 14th. That way you can party hard for Valentine's Day, if you so choose, and then we'll dig in and get started.

So, if you've told me you're interested, expect to get an e-mail this weekend. And make sure I've got your e-mail address!

Thanks, everyone!

My Project

I have an important announcement to make. (Drum roll, please...)

I have decided to undertake a research project. Yes, you read that right, RESEARCH. No, I haven't gone back to school, nor is this a job on the side (nor have I gone clinically insane, though that might be debatable). For once in my life, I've actually just really developed a sincere interest in something, and am curious enough about it that I want to undertake some research on the subject.

And to all of you, my lucky blog readers, I am offering the chance of a lifetime. The chance to be involved in (what I'm sure will be) groundbreaking research! To be a test subject! A guinea pig! This is your lucky day!

Alright, alright. All kidding aside, I'm just throwing this out there. Some of you may be interested, others may not. But I'm hoping at least some of you will be, because I really do need real live subjects to do my research. Intrigued? Read on...

Over the last several months, I have had significant (and for me, surprising) success in overcoming my long standing struggle to lose weight, get fit, and become more healthy. Several people have asked me what I've been doing and have wanted me to share my "secret". Really, it's not much of a secret. It's very simple and straightforward. Yes, it has taken a very firm resolve and discipline. But it's totally do-able. No pills, starvation, or days on end of eating only bananas. Anyway, when people ask me what I've done, I'm not sure what to tell them, because it seems too simple (not necessarily easy, but simple). I've been wondering, "Is this something that would work for many people in many different situations, or is it just something that worked for me in my specific circumstances?" I truly believe that it could be widely applicable. And I want to test that theory.

My personal testimonial is that I love living life this new way. For the first time in my life, I've been successful at losing weight (a battle I've fought unsuccessfully for a long, long time), and I feel very confident that it's something I can sustain for life. Along the way, I've come to love food even more (if that's possible!) and eat more flexibly than I ever have before. In a world full of fad diets and unsustainable, crazy weight loss plans I just keep thinking, "Really, it doesn't have to be that way! It can be so simple!"

You probably see where I'm going with this. I only have my own experience to go on right now. But I would love to see my experience benefit anyone who would like to feel healthier and maybe lose a few pounds (or a lot of pounds!). And I would love to get feedback from real people who would be willing to try it out and let me know what they think. Of course, I can't make any promises. Also, I'm not a certified researcher, or a fitness expert, or anything like that. But I do think there's a lot of potential here.

So...here's what I would be looking for in my "test subjects":

1. Willing to commit to one month of trying out my ideas. (This doesn't mean perfect implementation of these ideas, just willingness to give them an honest try, every day, for one month.)

2. Willing to give me honest, daily feedback about your experiences, probably in written form--by e-mail, for example. (I would not ask you to tell me your weight. As far as that goes, I would only want to know after the one month is over whether you lost weight or not, and if so, how much.)

Really, that's all I would expect. In return, I plan to provide regular support along the way. I'm thinking of setting up a separate blog dedicated to my project, on which, during the course of the month, I would regularly post tips, ideas, and discussion threads designed to support people and give them additional ideas or motivations which would hopefully help them to be successful. I anticipate that some people will really like this and find it works great for them. I also anticipate that there will be some who find it's really not their style. I am sure that there will be some who like parts of it and find they want to modify other parts. I'm interested in all these types of people. I want to get all kinds of information. I'm just really, really curious about it. And I think it has the potential to benefit people. I have nothing to gain from this except to gather information, I promise. I'm not selling anything. :) So...

If you're interested, will you just shoot me an e-mail at karenesproject [at] gmail [dot] com? By doing so, you're not committing. I first just want to see if there's any interest. If there is, once I have pooled together a group of people who are interested, I'll go from there, letting you know exactly what the plan is and from there you can tell me whether you want to participate or not.

Thanks for humoring me. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment here, or e-mail me questions as well. We'll see if anything comes of this or not. Feel free to post a link to this post on your blog if you think that any of your blog readers might be interested, as well. I'm very curious to see where this could go!

On My Own

I consider myself a strong, independent sort of person. However, when it comes to parenting, I'm a total wimp. I depend on Brian coming home from work to relieve some of my stress and strain. Brian has to travel occasionally for work, and every time that's happened I've used it as an excuse to go visit family. I really don't like doing the single mom thing. But...I can't run away forever. Brian left this morning for a 5 day business trip, and I decided to buck up and be a real woman. I'm braving it on my own.

It kind of sucks. But I'm sure I'll survive.

Victory

You can all stop worrying...

I'm still alive, and I don't have any road rash on my face.

WE DID IT! Here's proof:


Wait, does that count as proof? I guess all you can tell by that picture is that we're tired, sweaty, and have race numbers. There is a little video clip of us running that Brian took, but I'm not going to post it because it takes too dang long to upload videos here. So you'll have to take my word for it. :)

It went really well, actually. We finished in exactly 2 hours and 18 minutes. I had hoped to finish in under 2 1/2 hours, so I felt very happy about that. (You can tell how happy I am about the whole thing based on the fact that I'm already making a blog post just a few hours after the race.) There were some very windy parts of the race that weren't my favorite, but overall it was a very nice course...fairly flat...Irvine is a beautiful city. Chelise and I dug up lots of good conversation topics (we've gotten good at this over the course of our training) and distracted ourselves by talking the entire time. Brian and Eric (Chelise's husband) drove down with the kids to meet us at the finish line, and it was really fun to have a little cheering section. There were also a few others from church who ran the race, but they are speedy and ran ahead of us. It was fun to have other friends there as well.

Anyway, hooray! One big goal accomplished and it's only January 10th. Onward and upward!

Thanks, everyone, for your support!!

Nerves

I don't know if anyone else is watching the countdown on the right side of our blog, but if not, I'll draw your attention to it.

YIKES! I'm running a half marathon in less than 48 hours!!

It's strange. I didn't think I'd be nervous. Although the typical training schedule for a half marathon only requires running 10 miles prior to the race (which is 13.1 miles long), Chelise and I decided, for various reasons, to try to run the full distance prior to race day. Last Tuesday we did it (or at least got really close). So I shouldn't be nervous. I know I can do it. But...

Some people have told me that running a race is easier than training for it because of the adrenalin boost on race day. My experience has been the opposite. My nerves, along with the unfamiliar course, have always made a race harder for me. I'm guessing this race will be no different. So here I sit having last minute panic episodes. Do I carbo-load? Do I not carbo-load? What do I eat the night before? What do I eat the morning of? Should I just do what I've been doing, or should I try to do something to really improve my performance? Unfortunately, online searches just provide conflicting information, so I've come to the conclusion that I need to pretend that Saturday morning will just be another ordinary run, and eat/sleep/behave accordingly.

Really, my aspirations are not that high. I don't have any intention of competing, I have no goals for how fast I want to complete the race. I just want to run the whole thing...

Maybe I should at least set a goal that I won't fall on my face. :)