Halfway Up the Stairs

Jonah's milestones

2009-07-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

Jonah will be a year old in less than a month. Right now, I have barricaded the entrance to the living room with the hopes that it will contain him this time. So far, he has discovered how to get through three different barriers between the living room and the rest of our apartment. I set my baby down in the ultra-baby-proof living room, where all of his toys are, leave for a few moments to use the bathroom, and when I come back I find Jonah in the hallway. As I sit here peering over my monitor at the baby zooming around the room, I have to wonder "when did this happen?" It seems like Jonah's mobility came overnight!

I haven't been doing a very good job of blogging about Jonah's major milestones, so here is the rundown post for all of Jonah's developments in mobility!

Soon after we moved to Toledo, Jonah began to roll over. It was pretty sporadic and random at first, but soon after Thanksgiving, rolling was a regular occurance during tummy time

Jonah got to be pretty sufficient at rolling, and if he wanted to get somewhere, he put his mind to it and got there! He would use a combination of rolling and kind of inching along on his belly. By March, he was ready to show us his next milestone: sitting. The family was getting ready to go to Daryl and Dallin's birthday dinner. To put Jonah's shoes and socks on him, I propped him up on a toy, but he proceeded to sit up completely unassisted! Surprise Mommy! Happy Birthday Daddy!
He began to perfect his "army crawl" and became less reliant on rolling as a means of transportation. In May, just after Mother's Day, I went into Jonah's bedroom to check on him during nap. This is what I found:
Jonah, on his hands and knees. Throughout May, we encouraged him to move forward, but he would just collapse back into an army crawl. Then, in Mid-June, Daryl and I left Jonah with his grandparents overnight for the first time. When we had left, Jonah had been showing interest in crawling, but wasn't quite making it. When we returned, Jonah was able to crawl full-fledged.Early this month, he began to pull up onto furniture on his own. While he isn't cruising any distances yet, he has managed to get from the corner of the couch to the corner of the ottoman. He has also just recently learned how to get down from standing up.

All in all, it has been incredible to watch my little guy learn to get around. At the same time, he has definitely been keeping us on our toes in the baby-proofing department!

Peek-a-boo and signing

2009-05-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

A fun thing happened to us this week. My last post, I shared that I wasn't thrilled with the pattern of fabric on our new carseat, but we got it at a closeout price. Well, the company that I ordered the carseat from was out of that pattern, so they let me choose any pattern that I wanted. So I still got my first pick for the closeout price! The seat just came this afternoon, and we will be installing it into the van first thing in the morning. We are leaving tomorrow to visit friends in Pennsilvania, and since it is the longest trip Jonah has made in the car, it will be nice to have the new seat for him.

Here are some fun videos from this week. Jonah has been signing "all done" very consistently. Daryl isn't impressed. He says that Jonah doesn't do the sign properly (your supposed to flip your hands back and forth) but I say for a nine month old, he's got it pretty good. In this video, we had just finished putting sunblock on to go outside. He's waving his hands in the beginning because he had to sit still to put the lotion on, but you can see when he stops randomly waving his hands and when he does the sign. This is exciting for me, that he is finally doing this!!! I've been signing with him since the day he was born.

And here is a video of Jonah goofing off after bathtime

Pancakes and kaspetties

2009-05-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Today we went to IHOP for brunch. We don't go there often, but we were making a trip to Babies' R Us to purchase Jonah's new carseat and a few other baby items, and IHOP is right across the street. We have come to a routine when eating out. I feed Jonah his purees after we order, while we wait for our meal to come, and then after our food comes Jonah gets puffs or other finger foods. We've been experimenting with different finger foods for Jonah. Today as he looked longingly at our plates of buttermilk pancakes, I gave in. Out went organic, out went whole grain, out went all of my health-nut-mommy rules. I tore up my pancake and gave it to my son. He loved it of course. He devoured each morsel laid in front of him, with huge smiles that melted the hearts of everyone eating around us.

We ended up not getting the carseat from Babies' R Us. They didn't have the model that I really wanted, and the models that they did have were at least $80 more expensive than what I've seen them go for online. I actually ended up buying a better carseat for $40 less than the least expensive one that we were considering from BRU. We were considering the Britax Marathon, which is a convertible carseat that extends rear facing to 35 lbs and forward facing to 65 pounds. I feel that it is extremely important to keep children riding rear-facing as long as possible, and then still in a five point harness as long as possible after that. Britax is by far the best built car seat sold in the US, and top notch in safety.

The car seat I actually bought online is a few models higher than the Marathon. Jonah will be riding pimped out in the Britax Boulevard. This car seat has safety measures to ensure as little movement as possible in either side collisions or front/back collisions. I wasn't too thrilled with the pattern of fabric that we got, but it was really cheap because the pattern has been discontinued. It matches the interior of the van, and was about $100 cheaper than current patterns, so it isn't so bad (just not my first choice.)
I also picked up some jarred baby food for Jonah. I've noticed that he can eat the textured baby foods that come from a jar, but he isn't doing so well with the textured foods that I make for him. I'm trying to get him used to different textures, but with the home made food, he gags until he throws up. So, I decided that the jarred foods might actually be better for introducing the textures. Tonight he tried spaghetti with cheese. There are a couple of new things in this meal- tomatoes and dairy. I had planned on starting yogurt tomorrow, so dairy isn't such a big deal. Tomatoes aren't that big either, since I was thinking about trying spaghetti with him soon anyway. I've found in my years of working at a nursery, that spaghetti is actually one of the best foods to start offering when beginning table food. If he has a reaction, we will wait a week, then try each separately. So far, it does not look like he will have food allergies. When he was a couple months old, he seemed to have a reaction to strawberries that were in medicine he was getting, but now berries don't seem to bother him.

It is just hard to believe that my little man is already eating pancakes ad kaspetties with cheese, and getting a big boy carseat. It seems like yesterday that he was kickin around in my belly, and I'm sure he'll be off to college by tomorrow.

A Legend Lives

2009-04-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

I was outside, rearranging the seats in the minivan, when Daryl came and told me. "Frankie Manning is dead." Daryl doesn't sugar coat anything. He doesn't gently build up to bad news, hoping to soften any blows; it's just not his way. "Frankie Manning is dead. He died this morning."

I only met Frankie once, just about a year ago, and he was getting ready to celebrate his 95th birthday. His health was failing. Yet, I felt that I had just been told that a close relative had suddenly passed away. Frankie Manning was a legend. He had begun to become a fixture in everyone's minds; an immortal who would always be there. This man, this 95 year old man, who was born in Florida and grew up in Harlem; this retired postal worker, someone who had lived most of his life just trying to get by, became the inspiration for the song of thousands of Americans.

I could go into detail about the history of his life, but it is too easy to just google his name and find hundreds of tributes to him. I will only say this: Some people refer to him as "the original lindy hopper" but I think it would be more accurate to call him "THE lindy hopper." There is not a single move, not a single step, not a single turn that we do that was not touched or influenced by Frankie. We owe his legacy all that we are.

Paddinton's New Groove

2009-04-26T17:46:00.000-07:00

This week, I am starting Paddington's pre-agility training. It is my hope that by next spring, I will be able to begin training him on an actual agility course. Before attempting to train for competition agility, there are some things I would like Paddington to work on. I would like for Paddington to always look to me, or his respective handler, for commands. Right now, when Paddington knows that he is going to get a reward, he begins doing all kinds of random tricks. I could ask him to roll over, and he will sit pretty, play dead, spin, talk, and THEN roll over. He begins his long string of tricks before I even give him a command. And so, I would like to work on having him look to me, receive the command, and THEN do the appropriate trick. In agility, the course is never in the same order, or laid out in the same way. The obstacles are the same, but the dog must look to the handler to know which obstacle he needs to go to next. This relationship is very important in agility.

Second, Paddy needs to come when called. He needs to come every time, in every situation. There have been quite a few instances recently, where he has bolted out of the house and nearly gotten hit by cars because he will not come if he knows we can't catch him. This is my fault as a trainer, and I should not allow my dog to get into such dangerous situations. I feel that this needs to be accomplished above all else.

Third, Paddy needs to learn the command "heel." This goes along with looking to me for commands.

After we have accomplished all of these things, I will begin introducing Paddington to the obstacles. He needs to get used to them, and kind of "bond" with them. Two obstacles that I know we will have problems with are the tunnel, and the chute. I know that he will be timid to go into these obstacles. He seems to be a bit claustrophobic, and won't even go under Jonah's swing to get a toy.

Here is a video of dogs doing what I hope to be the end result of our training in a couple of years; I had looked for a video of a yorkie doing it, but they are so tiny you can't see them on the video:

Time for an update

2009-04-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

It has been pointed out to me, several times by several people, that it has been FORever since my last blog post. Truth be told, I have a new blog. I decided in January that I wanted a more serious blog to discuss my parenting choices, and some of the paths we have chosen to take with Jonah. I want to keep this blog as a lighter side to everything. Not long after I began my parenting blog, I was asked to blog for a website just for mommies. The main feature of the site is the message boards, but there are also articles and of course the blog. I am now one of a few bloggers who posts about my experiences in motherhood.

In order to continue blogging for the website, I have to update my blog at least three times a week. This sucks up just about all of my blogging time.

So, readers, I am sorry that it has been several months since my last post. I will try to continue to keep this blog. A lot of things have happened with Jonah since my last post. He learned to sit up. He is beginning to show signs of crawling, and can make it across the room in just seconds. He has begun eating several different purees (besides avocado) including meats. He has begun a few select finger foods as well! He can say Mom, and he signs "all-done" and "Nurse." He poops in the potty about 80% of the time that we are at home! We have had so many breakthroughs, it will take several posts to catch everyone up!

If you would like the address to my new blog, or if you would like to know the mommy site that I am posting to, email me and I will send it to you!

On the Mend

2009-02-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

It has really been a while since my last post. For those of you on facebook, this is a cut and paste from a note that I wrote on there, because I see no sense in typing it all over again, just to say the same thing:

Last Wednesday, Jonah and I went to meet the new pediatrician. It was to be an interview, a well visit, and two vaccines. My heart sank when they weighed him, and I realized that he weighed exactly the same the day before Thanksgiving. The pediatrician, who was meeting him for the very first time, was also obviously concerned. I had known that he was tiny, but I didn't realize that he had completely stopped growing. My world stopped that day.

We were admitted to the hospital to find out why he stopped growing. As soon as we arrived the tests started. Chest x-rays, blood and urine samples, CT scan, swallow test, all kinds of consultants were called in, my milk was analyzed; you name it and they tested it! The final verdict was that his reflux had gotten so bad that he had an aversion to eating. Reflux, for those who don't know, is heart burn times a thousand for infants. It is very painful. When he was first diagnosed with it, it seemed like it was getting better and instead of medicating, we chose to try alternate remedies such as keeping him upright throughout and after, I changed my diet etc. We thought we had it under control, but my natural parenting failed me on this point. I cannot tell you the guilt that I feel for not taking the simple action of giving him this one very inert medication. The end result was that Jonah would only eat two ounces, sometimes less, at each feeding. This is enough to sustain him but barely enough to get by. It also resulted in my body only producing two ounces of milk for feeding (breastmilk works on a supply and demand basis- Jonah asks for two ounces, the body makes two ounces) We had to teach Jonah to eat more with each feeding, stretch his belly so that he could physically take more food, and train my body to make enough milk to keep up with his new feeding schedule. I may have to stop breastfeeding altogether because of this, but we will see. For now I am doing everything in my power to continue to produce milk, and hopefully soon I will produce it in abundance and it will not dry up.

We were released from the hospital today after a week of being there, but we still have a list of appointments to go to. We are all just glad that it is a relatively easy problem to fix, and not a life threatening or chronic illness. Mommy is not happy about needing to use formula, but is going through the humbling process of learning that it does have its place.

Avocado Baby

2009-01-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

On Sunday January 4, Jonah had his first practice taste of food. We decided to start with avocado. Avocado is actually less likely to cause an allergic reaction than rice cereal, and much less likely to cause long term allergies to gluten or grain products. It has a texture that allows it to easily be pureed, but has a much milder taste than bananas or sweet potatoes. It is also believed that an avocado has all the nutrients and fats needed in the human diet, and that an individual can live on a diet of avocado alone without any deficiencies.

We mashed the avocado with breastmilk to a thin consistency, and rather than using a spoon and introducing two strange things to his palate, he was fed with my finger. When he turns six months, we will introduce the spoon, followed by homemade brown rice cereal. Because I use rice cereal as a thickener for thin foods, I want to make sure he will not have a reaction to it before introducing him to foods that may need to be thickened. We will also introduce an eating schedule and larger quantities of food at six months. Right now, we are only giving him a couple bites every few days, to build up practice, and introduce him to the texture and taste of foods.

Making the avocado

Mmmm

First bites!

He's done....

It's true!

2008-12-23T13:34:00.001-08:00

sheer brilliance

You better not pout!

2008-12-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

We took the dog and Jonah to see Santa yesterday at Petsmart. It was the last day for Santa to be there, so it was yesterday or not at all. The temps were -5 without windchill and everytime I took a step my shoes froze to the ground a little bit. It was SO COLD. Petsmart uses pictures with Santa to raise money for their no-kill shelters, so I always contribute when I can. Paddington was terrified of Santa this year! He wasn't scared at all last year, and was giving him kisses in his picture. This year he tried to run away. We still got good pictures. Jonah LOVED Santa, on the other hand!!! He loved his beard. In the picture we got just of Jonah and Santa, Jonah is eating Santa's beard! His eyes got wide when he saw Santa, and he just made this face like "Wow, this guy is big and cuddly, and HE HAS A BEARD!!!! SWEET!" It was priceless.
Paddy was dressed as an elf, but wouldn't sit in Santa's lap so we could see the outfit. He was too scared, so Santa had to hold him like that from the front. I was a little sad, but I'd rather it be tat way than having him get loose in Petsmart!

Why couldn't he be my geometry teacher?

2008-12-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

(sigh) there's just something about hot british guys who play the guitar and sing about geometry:

2008-12-14T12:47:00.000-08:00

Jonah is rolling over all the time now!

And a beautiful video that my friend sent me a link to.

My kind of logic!

2008-11-22T22:13:00.001-08:00

Those of you that have seen me do math will understand why I think this is so amusing!

Paddington the Circus Dog

2008-11-21T15:20:00.000-08:00

Jonah has been hogging the blog a lot lately, so I thought I'd post something about Paddington Bear again! Because Paddy is such a demanding dog, I spend quality time with him everyday by trick training him. I am hoping that in the spring, he will be trained enough that we can teach him an agility course and compete with him. This is quite a high hope, because he needs to be able to perform outside, off leash, around distractions, and so he needs to mature quite a bit in his obedience training.

For now he is loving the attention that he gets during our training sessions, and of course the treats! Since he is a small dog, I can cut his treats into eighths, so a small $1.79 bag of really good treats (the sample bag) goes a long way. I took this video of us performing our tricks today (I got the date wrong, today is the 21st)It isn't an A+ video, because he has been really sick and eating pretty much nothing but rice and bland chicken, so liver treats were super exciting for him. So he is anticipating the reward A LOT in this video, and a lot of times it got in the way of his trick. It is still the best video I have (usually he stops working when the camera comes out- I think he is afraid of the lens)

He also knows "spin" and "talk to me" but those are still not consistent yet, and I decided not to ruin the video by adding tricks I might have to ask for several times. You can see in the video that he was a little confused and did "spin" when I asked him to roll. That is because I goofed and made my hand signal for spin very similar to the one for roll, and he still relies more on hand signals than word commands. Once he has all of his current tricks solid, we will be teaching him to make soccer goals!

On a side note, we have come to the realiation that Paddy is not a member of my beloved breed. He is not a yorkie, but a silky terrier. Although I had my heart set on a yorkie, for their looks, Paddy has stolen my heart and I don't care if he grew up to be a doberman! We might get a true yorkie from a more reputable breeder in a couple of years, and I am not sure if I should write Paddington's breeder an angry email or not. On one hand, I got a wonderful dog who I love, but on the other hand, this guy kind of ripped me off and wasn't true to his word. I can't help but think of how many other people he is hurting, and how many people will dump their dogs in shelters or by the side of the road because they turned out to be completely different than what they had wanted. Paddy is three times bigger than a yorkie, and has much shorter hair and a longer narrower snout. The vet agreed that I got taken, and that Paddy is definitely not a yorkie. So beware to all my friends who are thinking of getting a dog: make sure you know who you are dealing with, and if the breed of dog you want happens to be popular at the time (I did not know that yorkies were the most popular breed in the US at the time of my purchase) be aware of the scams that people are trying to pull over!

Ode to Genius

2008-11-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

Because we all need to laugh a little now and then:

Random pictures

2008-11-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened in the last month since I've posted. We've moved from our beloved home in Cleveland to a town outside of Toledo, Perrysburg. The move has been an adjustment for everyone, but we are slowly reaching a level of normality. Here are some random pictures from the last month. The last portraits were taken at the Picture People. They are poor quality because they are pictures of a picture, but I wanted to share them.

Jonah saw his first snow in the beginning of the month:

We said goodbye to our house on Halloween (Paddy is dressed as a skunk):

The nation saw history in the making:

Our family:

And here is a short video of Jonah rolling from tummy to back. It's not a very good video, but it proves that I'm not crazy and he can do it!

And this is what Paddy thinks of our new "room mate"

2008-10-23T07:58:00.002-07:00

Last week's trip to the cardiologist went as well as could be expected. Jonah's heart murmur is caused by blood flowing from the lungs to the heart too quickly, and he will grow out of it. They also found some things that are normal, but not common. They don't cause any health problems, but aren't found in the majority of people with a normal circulatory system. When blood flows to his head it goes up the left side of his neck, and down the right side. In most people it goes up the right and down the left. He also has a left aortic arch, which I don't remember what that means, but it has something to do with things going opposite directions from most people. The doctor said everything works, it all just works differently!

Another "big news" item: We will be leaving the Cleveland area to live in Toledo. Daryl has accepted a job at Hanson Inc. in Toledo. The company had been looking at Daryl for quite some time, and finally made him an offer he couldn't refuse. I have several mixed emotions about this move. On one hand, I am thrilled because it means we can get out of debt without me having to go back to work. I am pretty much guaranteed to be able to stay at home with Jonah and we can maintain the lifestyle we enjoyed before I stopped working outside the home. One the other hand, I was starting to like our current lifestyle. I just found a pediatrician that I like, mommy groups to go to, and activities for Jonah like library time and gymboree classes. I know all of those things still exist in Toledo, but I already have them here. Not to mention, all of my friends and family are here! And all of the work I've recently put into making this house a home. It's all just a little unsettling. I am hoping that I'll be used to the idea soon. We will be moving around the first of November.

2008-10-23T07:58:00.001-07:00

2008-10-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

We are having a very busy week this week. Yesterday I took Jonah to meet his new pediatrician. He thought it was hilarious when she checked his heart. He smiled and laughed at her, and talked more than I have ever heard him talk! Unfortunately, I didn't think it was as funny as he did. She heard a heart murmur, which means a trip to the cardiologist to find out what is going on. We're hoping it is just a benign murmur that he will grow out of. We also have to take him to the Cleveland Clinic to have some tests run on his digestive system, because he is throwing up and choking a lot. I'm very happy that our new pediatrician is listening to our concerns, instead of dismissing them like our old doctor.

Last friday we carved pumpkins with my family! I took Jonah and Noah outside for a photoshoot with the pumpkins. Noah wasn't terribly interested in having his picture taken with his cousin, and to add excitement he let Paddington out into the woods. But we got a few good pictures!

Fall Traditions

2008-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the cool weather, the smell of the trees, the changing leaves, and just about everything else. Of course I made sure we spent time as a family sharing some traditional fall activities. We went to an apple orchard today and picked our own apples, took a hayride, and selected a pumpkin. It was so disappointing that they were out of apple cider, but we got a lot of different varieties of apples to make apple sauce and caramel apples (my favorite!) Here are pictures from the day. Some are blurry because I forgot to tell Daryl that I changed the features on the camera to take pictures earlier. The video, as usual, will come later when it is finished uploading to youtube.

Picking Apples

The sweetest of the bushel

Walking through the orchards
Hayride!
Look what we found in the punkin patch!
They had pumpkins that were bigger than Jonah!

Our Pumpkin!

Completely unrelated to our farm adventures, my mom bought Jonah a swing and it arrived yesterday! She doesn't know that she bought him a swing, but she did! It has a star projector, a canopy, and plays not only lullabies, but also nature sounds! It swings two different directions: side to side, and front to back. Jonah loves it!

Noah and Paddington

2008-09-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

One month old!

2008-09-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

Jonah is one month old!It seems like it was just last week that we were bringing him home. He is becoming so alert and aware of his surroundings, and he is spending more of his time awake! He has definitely gone through some growth spurts, and can finally fit into some of his outfits!

Here is his one month picture with the teddy bear!

I am hoping to take him to The Picture People soon to have his portraits taken. He has a bad case of baby acne right now that I am waiting to clear up. The Picture People is my favorite place to get children's portraits done. Working in preschool, we've had a lot of different portrait companies that we've worked with, and The Picture People really made an impression on me. They are so patient, and are able to get even the difficult kids to smile. They really seem to understand how to take great portraits of all the different ages.They are a little more expensive than JC Penny, but the portraits are actually worth paying for. I wouldn't take Jonah anywhere else for those kinds of portraits.

Happy Birthday Noah!!!

2008-09-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday September 6th was Noah's second birthday!!!! Here are videos and pictures of his celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's! We went to Ray's for dinner. If you ask Noah what he did for his birthday, or what presents he recieved, he'll tell you "We ate cake and blew out the candles!"

Here he is opening his tractors from Uncle Will and Aunt Heather.

They also got him a Marvin the Martian ray gun!

Singing the song and blowing out candles.

Opening gifts from Will and Heather

Eating cupcakes at Ray's Place
Showing off his new guitar from Uncle Daryl and Aunt Jess
Rock Star!!!

Look what he can do!

2008-09-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

On September 9th, Jonah smiled socially for the first time! He was laughing at Mommy for making funny voices. Luckily the camera was sitting right next to me, and I was able to get as good of a shot as I could hope for... it's a little blurry, but I was trying to hurry and snap it before it went away!

I was hoping to post video of Noah's second birthday celebration, but youtube is being slow again, as usual, so I probably won't be able to post them until tonight.

On How People Move Their Junk

2008-09-08T17:28:00.001-07:00

"Music is so important. It inspires us, and helps us move our junk..."~Ellen Degeneres

One of the things in this world that continues to remain inexplicable to me, as well as bring wonderful moments into my life is the way that music affects various peoples. In short, I like the way people "move their junk." This weekend, we were privileged enough to see the different ways in which individuals engage in "moving their junk" and I would like to document it here in this short commentary.

This is my preferred way to move my junk. The band that we are moving it to is The Boilermakers Jazz Band with Erin Keufel on Vocals (sorry if I misspelled her last name) They are a band from Pittsburgh, and one of my favorites. Erin is a local singer, and the best voice in Cleveland by far! The acoustics on the video does no justice to them at all.

Here are members of my home community moving their junk to African dance music. The musicians are the Kent African Drum and Dance Society, at Art in the Park 2008. Check out the older gentleman with the cane moving his junk. He totally rocks his junk.

Finally, we have steel drummers moving their junk, also at Art in the Park 2008. The group is Flash in the Pan.

Flash in the Pan made Jonah move his junk while helping Papaw with the sound equipment. Papaw helps people hear the band, and it's his job to make sure people want to move their junk when they hear the people on the stage!

Other things that make Jonah move his junk are:

The Sitar

The Alpaca

And our good friend, Troy!

Things that make Noah move his junk are:

The guitar

and Cake!!!

More Pictures

2008-09-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

As per request, more Jonah pictures! He will be three weeks old tomorrow, and I already can't believe how much he has changed! He is becoming less of a "lump" and is starting to gain personality! He is responding to a lot of different things like toys and music, and holds his head up like a pro! When he's awake his head is always up and he is looking at everything so wide-eyed. He is also putting himself on a regular sleeping and eating schedule, which is really good for mommy!!!

Last weekend he got his first bath! I tried to find some internet appropriate pictures (trying to save him from all the pervs that might stumble upon the site... if any of my family would like pictures of his first bath let me know and I'll gladly email them!!!) He was NOT happy about being bathed, and peed in his first water! He did not even care that he had rubber ducks to play "Cops and Pirates" with! Mommy had fun though!

Here is another one of my favorite pictures, taken when he was barely a week old. I took this picture to show one of my friends the cloth diapers we are using, and now it's one of my favorites!

Tiny hands and feet! I love it when he folds his little hands like this!

Two weeks old

2008-08-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

Jonah is two weeks old today! It is hard to imagine what life was like three weeks ago before we had him. It was definitely less sleep deprived, for sure! Sometimes he sleeps well at night, and other times he is up every hour or so. I've come to realize that when Jonah's sleeping, I have three choices: I can try to sleep myself, eat, or check my email. I almost always choose to sleep! (notice showering is not an option...)

He has a belly button! We had to go to the doctor today because it has been bleeding for a whole week. He has grown to 8 lbs 5 oz. I didn't see how long he is, but I should have asked.

Here's one of my favorite pictures! I took it on Wednesday.

Jonah is here!

2008-08-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

The moment we've all been waiting for! The prince has arrived

Jonah Levi Jensen was born on Friday, August 15th 2008 at 2:25am. He weighed 7 lbs 14.5 oz and is 20 inches long. Labor was 33 hours long with a push time of 2 and a half hours. He was worth every minute of it

So much for maternal instinct!

2008-08-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

So, I thought this baby was definitely a girl. I just had that "instinct." An ultrasound tech proved me (and my instinct)wrong.

Then everyone asked when I thought he'd come. I "just knew" he'd come early. I really thought he'd be born in July.

Yeah right!! 39 weeks, and still no progression into labor. He's going to be stubborn like his mother... Here's a picture of the two of us in all our bellified glory. Yes, my belly button is now an outie:(39 weeks and counting)

New hair cut!

2008-08-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

Paddington is getting jealous because the baby is hogging my blog, so I told him I would include him in this post. He got a hair cut this past weekend, and even though it looks kinda funny to me, I'm SO glad to see his eyeballs again!!!

Here he is before his new look:

and here he is right after the groomer!
I think I liked his shaggy look better, but now at least he can see!

Oh, and this is what he thinks of the pilates ball that he recently discovered in our room:

Vaccines

2008-08-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

It makes me itch all over to read these ingredients to vaccines. I realize and acknowledge the medical importance of vaccinations, and feel that some of them are in fact necessary for survival against pandemics. However, the materials that are used to make these vaccines seem to be equally harmful at times. It concerns me that many vaccines have become needlessly routine, and even though there is no medical need for them parents are still chided for not having their children receive them. There are recent studies that show no link between the polio vaccine and autism, however the media and medical community are using these most recent studies to sweep other studies under the rug which may show a correlation between vaccinations and MS as well as psycho-social disorders. There are other studies which show links between un-necessary vaccines and auto-immune disorders. Looking at the ingredients to many of these vaccines, it is not surprising as many of our immune systems no longer understand what species we are!

I understand that vaccines for diseases such as polio have saved countless lives, and that it continues to save countless lives. I am not debating the importance of vaccinations. What I disagree with is the materials with which the vaccinations are made, and how often we needlessly subject our children to these chemicals and harmful organic material, for a vaccine against something like rotavirus (a vaccine that was never thoroughly tested, yet administered to infants, and later recalled for its dangerous effects) Yes, rotavirus can be dangerous if the infant is not treated for dehydration. Yes I've dealt with it and seen how nasty it can get. However, I do not see this as a reason to pump "bovine fetal serum" and "potassium monophosphate" into my child just in case he comes into contact with it.

Daryl and I will be declining the hep. B vaccine that we just found out is systematically given to newborns at birth. After doing research, we learned that the vaccine was initially intended for babies who were born to mothers that are carriers of hep. B, and somewhere along the line it became what is referred to as "routine procedure." I KNOW that I do not have hep. B, and if I didn't know it before being prego, I would have found out because that is one of the things they tested me for at my first visit. So I don't think the baby will be exposed to the disease within the first few hours of life, nor do I feel that this is the time to inject him with an antibiotic that he may have a bad reaction to. He has just come into the world, and already we want to bombard his poor little body with foreign matter and chemicals. It just doesn't seem right to do this when he has no need for the vaccine at this time!

On a lighter note, we are still waiting for his arrival! I am getting extremely uncomfortable and tired, and am no longer scared of labor. I think I would shout for joy if I went into labor right after posting this. Everything is ready for you Jonah! Come out to play!

Our little baby abode

2008-07-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

The nursery is juuuust about finished! Still a lot of details, but if Jonah came today I'd be okay with it! The border needs to be painted, and I just got the final stencil that I need for it. hopefully that will be finished over the weekend! We also need to add a rocker to the corner next to the crib as that will be my nursing station (the clothes and baby rocker won't be there much longer) The clothes also need to be organized, but I figure that will get done in a more productive manner once we find out what size he is, and which clothes he will fit into soon. Some of the 3-6 month items are smaller than the newborn sized items! So we will wait to see what he can wear before completely arranging his closet.

Here are pictures!!! I am so proud, I have to show it off.

Here is dad painting the stripes. The room would not look half as good
as it does without my dad and my brother's help!!!

The furniture along the striped wall. We will be making
music notes with letters spelling out his name to hang on the wall above the crib
The opposite wall. I'm hoping that adding the yellow border
will break up some of the blue. The good people at Lowe's did a great job
matching the shade of blue to my nursery items, but I think it all looks "too" blue!
Inside the crib. Before anyone goes on about SIDS and suffocation, I should
say that we won't be using most of the stuff that is in the crib. The bumpers will come out and hopefully I'll be able to find another use for them, and the
quilts will be used for tummy time and to cover up on outings. Some of you know that
I've been collecting the John Lennon items for years, I just wanted to finally see what they
look like all put together! Also, they look nice for pictures. The sheet is light blue with dark blue music note s all over. I tried to get a closeup, but it was all blurry.
This dresser/changing table combo has been named the furniture from hell!
I have never had such a hard time getting a piece of furniture together!! It wasn't all the dresser's fault. Most of the problem was REALLY bad instructions. Half the time, it would
show a picture of a screwdriver screwing nothing... so I had no idea which pieces to use etc.
In fact, right after this picture was taken, the bottom drawer completely fell apart. They could probably hear me cursing all the way down the street (and I am not a cursing type of person) The door needs to be put onto the cabinet, but for now I am happy to leave it as it is!!!
I love this lamp
The pull-up mirror. I L-O-V-E it!!! This is going to be where our little play area
is for tummy time etc. I hope Jonah likes it as much as I do! My dad also installed this for us!
I have tons more books to add to this shelf, I just haven't gotten them out yet!

Getting ready for Baby!

2008-07-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the end of the first week in July! We are busy preparing our house for the arrival of little Jonah, due to arrive in only a few weeks! Neither of us can believe how fast time has gone by, and we have a LOT of things on our "to do" list. The nursery has been under construction, as the Ullinger men have been painting away! It is so close to being finished, that I have decided to begin setting up the furniture and putting clothes away. Soon it will be a restful and inviting space where we will nurse, sleep, and play. But right now it looks like a blue tornado hit it!

The dresser/changing table made it out of he garage, out of its box, and is now laying on the floor in all its parts waiting until I get the nerve to begin deciphering the directions once again. You would think that they'd make these things simple, since their marketing target is expecting mothers who don't have the patience or energy to put into complicated furnishings. Even if the furniture is a little more complicated to assemble, they should at least make the directions clear!

For those of you who are wanting to see how big the baby's gotten, here is the last picture I took of my belly. It was taken a couple of weeks ago, at just a little over 32 weeks (eight months, if you don't want to do the math)I am quite a bit bigger now, and he is growing f-a-s-t!

Hawaiin Safari

2008-05-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

Today we went on a hike through the Hawaiian "rainforest." There wasn't a lot of rain, no animals at all, but there were a lot of really cool plants! Daryl and I tried a strawberry guava, that wasn't very pleasant. I can see why the locals see the guava trees as pests, and are trying to rid the island of them. I also ate a flower that tastes like a mushroom, although the guide gave us the hawaiian name for it and I have no idea what it was (or how to spell it) We also saw a really cool fern that closes up when it is touched. It is called a "shy fern." We tried to get a video of it, but the lens on the camera didn't open, so the video turned out to be just black bluriness. The hike was only about a mile long, but it was tiring! We also drove around the back road of Maui, which was really twisty, and made me very car sick. I am still nauseous from it- or maybe that is just the sea water that I accidentally ingested while snorkeling on the beach this evening. Anyway, it was a beautiful drive, just make sure you take some sea-bands with you if you ever decide to do it! Here are pictures of the highlights!

We drove up this crazy road, got to the edge of a cliff, and the guide said "Well, our hike begins just on the other side of that cliff!" We all thought he was joking until he started handing out the hiking gear! We all made it down the cliff, but it was a bit scary!

Here we are in front of one of the small waterfalls that we saw on the hike. They weren't very dramatic because it hadn't rained in a while. The guide said they can be really impressive right after a heavy rainfall. I think they were beautiful even if they weren't huge.

Here we are in front of the banyan tree. Speaking of impressive, these trees are one of the most amazing things I've seen on earth. They grow downward instead of up, so their could be several places where one tree comes down to root in the ground. There could be what look like several banyan trees, and really it is just one big tree taking root in several places! They are pretty cool. Oh yeah, we climbed down the roots, too...

I let Daryl go first.

But I made it down too.

Another waterfall. This picture is really blurry, and I wish we had it taken closer up. Oh well, we are still cute

After the hike, we continued our journey around the crazy road. We stopped at Auntie Julia's Banana Bread stand and got free samples of some really great banana bread, pineapple-mango jam, and my favorite: Coconut candy! We hadn't brought our money though (for fear of losing it in the rainforest) so we couldn't purchase any to take home. I'm almost willing to drive up there myself to get some of the coconut candy!

We stopped to see the biggest blowhole on Maui. I was a little underwhelmed by it, but I think we were just too far away to get the "wow" effect.

We also stopped to look at Honolua Bay. I'd like to go back and actually go into the bay to snorkel. Our guide said that it was the best place for snorkeling if you want to see turtles, and it was only about a 15 minute drive from our hotel.

When we got back to the hotel room, we took a long nap and then headed out to the beach for some practice snorkeling and relaxing. I still don't think I am liking this snorkeling thing. Even with the tube to breathe out of, I still feel like I am drowning. I bought an underwater camera, but it is really difficult to get a good picture, because to snap a picture you have to stop swimming against the waves to take it. You end up floating away from what you want a picture of. We'll see how they turn out when the film gets developed.

We ended the day with a little grilling!

I'm sad that our week here is almost over. We only have two more full days, then on Saturday it's back to the dreaded airport.

2008-05-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick video of Daryl and me dancing on our wedding night to my favorite song, Smooth Sailing sung by Ella Fitzgerald. I have more coming! Youtube takes a long time to upload and process videos, so they are slower to come than pictures.

ALOHA!!!!!

2008-05-27T01:34:00.000-07:00

Getting here was an adventure (too much adventure even for me!) but we finally made it to Maui! We just finished our first day here, and all I have to say is wow. I have never been to a place more relaxing and laid back! It's hard to believe that getting here was so stressful! Of course I have pictures to share, as always!!! I'll post video of both Hawaii and the wedding onto YouTube soon, as well, but maybe not until we get back home because that takes more time then I wish to spend at a computer while in this beautiful place!

After almost 24 hours of traveling, we did not look out our window when we reached our hotel room (it was dark anyway) but when morning came, this is the view we woke up to! It was enough to take my breath away.

Breakfast at an overpriced buffet

Koi pond.
There are several of these throughout the resort, and there are scheduled times when children can feed them. It is really fun to watch the kids interact with these giant fish! They're curious about them, but also kinda scared of their big mouths.

Making a lei. This was actually very informative! I absolutely loved the flowers we used to make them.

Sitting in the pool area with my finished lei

Relaxing on the beach! There are no shells on this beach, but we walked along and collected bits of dead coral instead. It's a nice beach, but still no comparison to Florida's beaches!
Listening t o musicians with my "virgin" pina colada
Sunset

Tomorrow it is hula lessons and shopping at Whaler's Village! We're also going to go grocery shopping to make use of our HUGE kitchen in the hotel room, and stop eating at overpriced buffets!!!!

Wedding Post #2

2008-05-27T00:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of the reception. I don't have any pictures of the ceremony, because I had left our digital camera in our bag rather than giving it to someone to get pictures. There were lots of pictures taken, I just don't have them right now! I did not wear my gown to the reception because Jonah decided that it was just too uncomfortable. Instead I wore a white skirt and blouse, which I think was fine because the reception was so laid back.

Here is the cake! The bottom layer was Yellow (Daryl's favorite) and the top was Chocolate (my favorite) I thought it would look nice outside, but I don't think the caterer's were happy about having it outside rather than inside.

The cake topper almost didn't make it in time for the wedding! It arrived literally moments before the rehearsal dinner on Friday! It has mine and Daryl's initials. The flowers weren't supposed to be on the cake; it was just supposed to be plain and we were going to add daisies to it when it was being set up, but they decided to pipe roses on at the last minute. Didn't really go with the other decorations, but it was still pretty. The brown piping also started to melt, as it had also been on display during lunch.Cutting the cake. Daryl looks so into it, doesn't he?

Feeding Daryl the first bite. I am not sure why I don't have a picture of Daryl giving me a bite. I guess I eat too quickly. It was really delicious and moist!

Our wishing well invited guests to write down well-wishes for our new life, as well as to take a wish that we had created. In the middle of the table were our sand ceremony vases and information on our photographer's website, where she will be posting all the images from the wedding.
The tables looked wonderful. I had wanted just pink ribbon on the tables, but we ran out and had matching brown, so we added that to the centerpieces to even it out. The favors were "butterfly kisses" chocolate boxes, filled with homemade chocolates in the shapes of butterflies and chocolate kisses, and a donation in honor of our guests to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Everyone eating dinner. The menu was a big hit. I was thrilled that every one liked the choices, because I wasn't sure if every body would like the buffet.
Dancing!!!!!!
There are no pictures of Daryl and me dancing together because our camera was being used to take video. The other guests seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did!

Loreto and Sheree. Loreto was also our DJ. He did a great job, and I was so happy to have a friend do it because we were able to keep it informal, yet entertaining for every one. Lo really is a great DJ!

Will and Heather

Noah and Grandma
Noah and "Great" Aunt Kay

Wedding post #1

2008-05-27T00:38:00.001-07:00

Well, the weekend of our wedding has come to a close. Even though there were some snags, the whole thing went fairly smoothly, and was exactly how Daryl and I wanted it! It was very small and simple with our closest friends and family. It was a very special day for us.

Here are some pictures of the rehearsal dinner. We had BBQ at the community hall in our condo complex, and then did a quick run through of the ceremony. It really gave everyone a chance to sit down and talk, which is something our families haven't had the chance to do. Some of them were meeting each other for the first time

Noah and Grandma

After dinner, we all went out to look at the sunset

Soooo busy!

2008-05-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Wow have I been busy the last couple of months!!!

Everything is going well with the baby! He never stops moving, and if you're lucky he'll put on a belly dance show for you! I start working part time next week, and boy do I need the break! I'll post pictures later, when I'm not so busy!

2008-03-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures from the ultrasound. I didn't put all of them up because the tech gave us too many! Sorry about the quality- I have to take a picture of them with our digital camera to get them onto the computer. Maybe this weekend I can scan them on my parents' scanner so that they aren't blurry. Also, I didn't post the picture of "the goods" because I figure if my son were here and could talk to me, he'd tell me to please not post pictures of him in all his glory on the internet!

Here's my favorite pic. His hand is right near his face.

This is my second favorite pic. He was twirling his hands around one another, and waving them all over the place. It was really amazing to see him moving like this. (These are his two hands- sorry so blurry!)

Here is another profile. He was such a booger and kept hiding his face and rolling over when she wanted to look at his heart and profile! We finally got him to co-operate though!
I'm not sure how I feel about this picture. It's kind of creepy, but also adorable. This is his face. I think it kind of looks like the face on Mars.

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails

2008-03-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Last week we received an alarming call that some of my bloodwork turned up some things that the doctor was concerned about. They scheduled me to see a genetic counselor which sounds scary, but really it turned out to be not such a big deal.

The bloodwork that was giving concerns was a screening test called the quad scan. Basically it detects the levels of hormones caused by pregnancy. Some hormones are found in either lesser or greater quantities in pregnancies of infants with certain genetic disorders, and the doctors can use this information to give a probability of these disorders occurring in this pregnancy. Basically, they look at all my information and spit out a ratio based on a simple bell curve. The scan was showing a 1 in 140 chance of the baby having downs syndrome. This sounds more alarming than it actually is, and the risk of harming the baby with additional testing is actually almost equal to the risk of the baby having downs. We chose to keep the probability in mind and stay closely monitored by our OB rather than do any further invasive testing.

That was our scare of the week. But with it came a silver lining. There are several "red flags" for downs that can be seen via ultrasound: enlarged kidneys, enlarged heart, etc. So we had a level two high def. ultrasound. None of the red flags were spotted, which just strengthened my stance on not having further invasive testing. The ultrasound tech turned out to a parent of one of the toddlers I care for at the preschool! It was nice having someone I know, because it didn't seem as mechanical, and I think I relaxed a little better. The baby was very active, and moved all over the place! Not at all shy, the first thing we saw without even trying was......

HIS boy parts! Yes, the "curse" of Pappy Bill is still going strong. This will be the seventh baby born in the family since he yearned so hard for a grandson, and it will be the seventh boy! So much for Mommy intuition! I am very happy about having a son, but not as happy about having to re-design my nursery (it was painted the perfect shade of purple when Daryl bought the house...) I guess that is what happens when you pick out nursery decorations before truly knowing the gender- next time I will NOT just go by my hunch! (I had picked out a lavender butterfly and dragonfly motif.... just in case anyone was wondering) I already have a lot of boys things though, and now the nursery will be decorated with the John Lennon line from Carter's (it's discontinued, but worth the effort to hunt down the items) I also thought of doing Charlie Brown and the Peanuts, but I already have half the John Lennon stuff, and Charlie Brown items are so expensive!

Back to the ultrasound, it was really neat because we got to see every little baby part in detail- all the limbs and organs working. He was playing with his hands (very coordinated... he's a genius already!) and we got an adorable picture of that. Our camera battery is dead, and since we don't have a scanner that is the only way for me to get pics on the computer. I will probably add them tomorrow. She printed tons for us!

So while we are a little concerned, we are not hysterical like I was a week ago right after receiving the call. I think it was a good thing to have this testing (and not just because we got an ultrasound two weeks earlier) but I think they need to explain it MUCH better when they offer it, and when they call to tell someone that there are concerns. Part of what made me so upset was that I didn't even know what a "positive" meant. It's scary to be told that something could be wrong with your child and then have no further explanation for a week. I'm glad to know the odds of having a child with downs syndrome, I just wish things had been discussed with me differently.

Oh, and other news from in utero: The movements have gone from light and feathery to kickboxing world championships in my tummy! Last night I couldn't even read my book because he was kicking it so hard I would lose my place on the page! I've also had to stop my evening meditation the last couple of nights because he was just going to wild. I thought I was crazy, but the tech said that with a baby that active it isn't surprising for me to feel movement that strong this early! I'm hoping he has "happy feet" when he comes out, and Daryl thinks he'll be a piano prodigy since he was so involved in his hands. We'll both be wrong and he'll be an ultimate fighting champ or something! Either way, we can say "we knew before you were even born!!"

When Life Gives you Lemons...

2008-03-09T14:41:00.001-07:00

you make lemonade; when it's too cold for lemonade you.....

build a snowman!

some people never grow up!!!!!!! Here is Paddington "enjoying" the snow!

(He hated it!)

This week's doctor appointment

2008-03-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

I went to the doctor this past monday, and all was well! I am just now back to my pre-pregnancy weight (I lost a lot of weight due to morning sickness, which is almost completely gone now) and the doctor wants me to gain about two pounds a week until I see her again in April.... I am SO on that doctor's order! I could eat half of new york I've been so hungry lately!

The heartbeat was still in the 150's, which is a good sign that it's a girl! An old wives' tale, sure, but good enough for me. We'll be having another ultrasound at our next visit, April 1st, and will be finding the gender then. I know, April Fools' day! I tried to get it on the 31st of March instead, but they wouldn't do it. I'll just have to put all superstitions aside.

I also had blood tests to see if there is a possibility of any heart disorders or downs syndrome. If the tests come back with a high possibility, the doctor will recommend further testing like amniocentesis, but I will refuse. I just want to know the possibility so that I can prepare myself for what is needed to raise a special needs child.

I am now 17 weeks, and starting to feel the baby move, but really it just feels like someone is tickling me with a feather from the inside. It's still beyond me that there's a *person* in there, moving around, the size of a potato, and I can't feel it.... crazy. Everyone tells me that I'm too tiny to be 17 weeks already, but I've heard that once the belly "pops" it gets kind of miserable, so I'm enjoying my waddle-free pregnancy days while I can. Everything shows that the baby is healthy and growing, so I'm not worried.

We were snowed in for Daryl's birthday, which was kind of a bummer. I'm not sure that we could get our cars out of the driveway! Hopefully some of it can be cleared by tomorrow. We got well over a foot! Looking out the window now, everything seems very dark and a little eerie. I don't even see any headlights on Rt. 8, which is usually busy even at night. We're hoping this is the last winter blast.

I love Ebay!!!

2008-02-17T12:38:00.001-08:00

After a couple months of looking, I "accidentally" found my wedding dress at a thrift store on Ebay!!! I have to say accidentally, because I searched ebay several times for a used wedding gown that would fit my needs (pun intended) The wedding gown I originally had chosen just won't fit over a belly that is 28 weeks pregnant! I found several cheap gowns, that were made in China to doupe the unsuspecting bride to be.... but no decent gowns that would fit over a baby bump.

I gave up looking on ebay for a dress and resigned myself to buying an expensive maternity gown. THEN I was doing a search just for wedding stuff in general (not even a gown) and I came across this gorgeous dress in an ebay thrift store. It was going for $12 when I found it, and the final bid was $32. With shipping, I paid $43.75 for this beautiful gown. The beading and embroidery are stunning, nothing like what I'd expect from an ebay purchase! It's exactly what I want, except that it has no sleeves.

It has a high empire waistline, with a skirt shape that will go nicely over the belly. Also, it is two sizes bigger than my normal size, so there's a little extra fabric. I'll have it fitted a week before the wedding. I wasn't going to post pictures, but what the heck. I love pictures.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

2008-02-05T08:19:00.001-08:00

The head is to the left (you can see the profile of a face if you look at the detail) and the baby is facing the bottom of the picture. A hand is under the face, and you can see a leg under the body. The heartbeat was 152 (very healthy!) and my due date is August 18th! No visible doodle, so I'm still rooting pink!

The other family rumors are true

2008-01-19T17:44:00.000-08:00

I was waiting to make a formal announcement, but because everyone who reads this blog seems to already know, I would like to address some things.

Yes, I am pregnant. I was "keeping it a secret" as many women do, to make sure that everything is working properly before making it known to the world. I've been faced before with the task of telling everyone "Oh, I'm not pregnant anymore" and didn't want to do that again. But since everyone is trying to find out for themselves without asking me, I'm going to kill the rumor mill right now and say yes, it is true. This is the fastest most direct way to resolve the matter as far as I can see.

I am fine. Daryl is fine. The baby, so far, seems to be fine. We have our first ultrasound in about two weeks, and we will be sure then. I would also like to say that the biggest reason Daryl and I are getting married in May is because we want to have children together. Obviously, we are getting married because we love each other, but love has many underlying facets. I love Daryl because he is the perfect partner for me to have throughout life. I never thought that I would be as compatible with someone as I am with Daryl. I don't want to raise a family with anyone but him. If you could see us together, you would understand the truth of this. We are happy to raise a child together, and in my opinion we are more ready for this baby than are couples who have been married for years.

One more rumor that I'm going to kill before it is started (well, I honestly don't know, maybe people are already starting with it): We did NOT get engaged just because of this pregnancy. We were engaged in August. We just found out about the baby in early December. So that's just absurd to think- if we had gotten engaged because of the pregnancy, we would have gotten married right away instead of waiting until I was a blimp floating down the aisle. Our wedding date will be the same, and I'll be about 28 weeks (I'm due mid-august)

I hope that this has calmed any concerns and worries. I hope in the future that my family can come to me directly to deal with any worries that come up.

I'd like to sum this up by quoting one of my favorite people John Lennon, because this was definitely a surprise (you guys think YOU were surprised- this was nowhere in our plans for this year!) and we have to remember that surprises like this are what make life beautiful. So as he put it, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Finally, pictures!

2007-12-16T14:02:00.001-08:00

We just got our first real bit of snow, and I thought some nice warm garden pictures would brighten the day! I finally got the pictures of our wedding site off the camera! We're both getting excited!

Here is the house that we rented for the day. It is on a plot of land that the gardens just bought. We have the entire house and grounds for the day! This is the front entrance.

Weather permitting, the ceremony will be on the side patio. We're really counting on the weather to cooperate for the entire day!!!!
This is looking out from the side patio (facing away from the house)

There will be a luncheon/tea hour immediately following the ceremony. This will be on the back patio of the house:
The guests have full access to all of the gardens at the arboretum. We're going to give a few hours for everyone to explore the beautiful gardens!

Holy Flying Flips, Batman!

2007-12-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

Holy shnike is all I can say about Yuval's workshops this weekend! Every muscle in my body aches. And we still have one more day. I'm a little scared because today's classes are the ones that send us flying in the air. His dips class made me scream, and that was with both feet on the floor! Agh! I'm going to try to get a video of me doing the stuff we learned this weekend, so everyone can actually see me dance (I know, the moment we've all been waiting for...)

Before the classes start this afternoon, I am meeting with our wedding photographer to finally book her. I'll be glad to get this off the checklist and finally have dates for some important shoots. I'd like to do our engagement photos in downtown Kent, but I know that the weather probably won't cooperate this time of year. I'm thinking maybe a good alternative would be an old dance hall that Daryl and I go to; there are a lot of photo ops there. I was also thinking of someplace like the Botanical Gardens, but I know that they charge a per-hour fee to do photography there. I definitely want to do a trash the dress shoot by the river in the snow. I love artsy photography, and photos that I've seen of 'trash the dress' are awesome. Don't worry, the dress doesn't usually get trashed beyond salvageability. It can usually be cleaned. I'm not planning on keeping either of my dresses anyway- and who cares if my first wedding gown gets tromped in the mud, submerged in freezing water, and lit on fire (okay, no fire involved) Here is a website with some examples
http://trashthedress.wordpress.com/

feel the burn

2007-11-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

This is my dance teacher this weekend (the guy)

and it's gonna look just like that when I'm done! (yeah right!) Seriously though, this guy is kicking my butt. I've only had one two hour lesson with him and it feels like we were working for weeks. Two more days of this! yay! and Ouch! and someone stop the room spinning please, I'm getting dizzy!!!!

The Devil in Modern Society

2007-11-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

Go ahead, ask me about my computer at work! Ask me why I prefer linux... just ask....
(uurgh grumble grumble grumble)

A video because I need to laugh at my situation:

and another, that makes me laugh even more:

"Let's have a dance for the computer genius man"... "woman"

Wuv.... twue wuv

2007-11-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, the family gossip is true. Daryl and I are engaged to be married. It was as much of a surprise to us as it was to anyone, but when something is perfect in life there's no need to waste time figuring out that it is perfect because it all just falls into place that way.

The wedding will be very small- our location can only hold 50 people (so don't be sad if you don't get an invitation. If we could invite everyone then we certainly would!) We are having it at the beautiful Holden Arboretum towards the end of May. The last time we were there, I snapped some pictures of the important locations. Daryl has the camera at the Brown's game, so I can't upload the photos right now. When you see the photos, it is easy to imagine how gorgeous it will be in the spring with all the blooms!

Plans are pretty well underway. Next week I'm meeting with the photographer to schedule our engagement shoot. I'm disappointed that we didn't do this earlier when the weather was nice, so that we could do the shoot outside in my hometown of Kent. Now I'm not sure where we should go. Maybe one of the dance halls. Any suggestions are welcome! This is our photographer. I just love her style and the way she sees the details. Her personality fits so well with mine and Daryl's! She's been a joy to work with so far!
Melissa Rudick Photography

Also, I think this "first dance" is hillarious. watch it and laugh.

2007-10-31T18:20:00.001-07:00

Our final day was spent on Ellis and Liberty Islands. The

Statue of Liberty was neat, but I was disappointed
that we couldn't go in the crown. There were spectacular views though!
We were definitely exhausted and in need of better lodging at this point!
It's a good thing we stayed at the airport hotel after this day's excursions!
Ellis Island was very informative. The museum of immigration
is an invaluable experience. I learned a lot about not only what
people coming to a new country at that time had to deal with, but also
about the logistical problems the country faced when taking in
so many immigrants at once. One picture is the front of the museum
(which is the old immigrations building) and the other is a picture of
Daryl looking at an exhibit of all of the currencies that were exchanged there.
After we got off the ferry, we headed to Times Square in search
of a restaurant. Times Square is the scariest place I've ever been to.
Not a good place for people who don't like crowded areas! We ate
at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co (My absolute favorite restaurant- we
need to get one of these in Cleveland! Every other city has one!)
Look for Steve in the pictures here- turns out that we were in
exactly the same place at exactly the same time and didn't even know it.
That is how chaotic Times Square is!

"don't worry folks, in the event of a threat, NYPD knows
how to stand around and look important"
While we were eating dinner, the police came and did an
evacuation drill in the street right outside the window!
This is how we know that Steve was right there- he
was being pushed out of the street right next to the
army recruit center- where we were looking (under
the lit up sign that says "NASDAQ" on it) We probably looked
right at him and his friends without realizing it.
The Empire State Building was under construction
and the inside was disappointing. First of all, the elevators
that we took weren't golden. It looked nothing like the movies.
But then when we stepped outside, we were thoroughly impressed.
The size of the city becomes very real up there. City lights reached
as far as we could see... not just dinky residential lights, but
full-blown city lights. We couldn't see anything but! I'm so
glad we went at night! It wouldn't have been as impressive
during the day. What a marvelous way to end the trip. Finally,
we were off to sleep in a decent bed and (FINALLY!) take a shower!!!!!!

Hellloooo New York!

2007-10-31T17:19:00.001-07:00

Daryl and I went to New York City a few weeks ago, and I thought I should post some pictures of the high lights. It's a great city, but I don't think I could survive there longer than a week. Maybe if we had stayed in a nicer hotel; the hostel was pretty gross, and didn't even have a kitchen (I thought it said on the website that it did) Note to everyone, stay away from Jazz Hostels unless you are really pressed for a place to stay- for what we paid, I was really disappointed! Although, we couldn't have gotten a better location. It was right down the street from all the museums, and next to Central Park!

Pictures!

This was the first stop, and by far my favorite.
The Museum of Natural History. We took a guided
tour of their dinosaur collection, which is the largest in the world.
Man those guys are cool!

The Hayden Planetarium is what made
the Museum of Natural History my favorite
stop. This is by far the coolest planetarium
I've ever been to. Unfortunately, there were no
star shows scheduled during our visit, but we
got to see an imax style movie about our universe.
The planetarium is featured in the movie K-Pax
if you want to see how awesome it is!

MoMA came in close second as my favorite. We got to
see several paintings that I adore. Starry Night was
one of them. We also saw Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie,
and several of my favorite artists' work! You can tell that we're both starting to look
exhausted in the pictures.
The reason for our trip to NYC was to hear The Dalai Lama speak
at Radio City. Rockefeller square is insane. So is Times Square. I highly
recommend that everyone see the Dalai Lama speak if they have the chance.
After hearing the Dalai Lama, we went on a harbor cruise.
We were a little upset at first because the cruise was terribly delayed,
and it was freezing on the deck of that boat
but then we got to see fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge!
Blogger won't let me put any more pictures, so I'll make this a two part post!

smell my feet!

2007-10-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Halloween! I used to think that it was because of all the hayrides, bonfires, cinnamon apples, pumpkin pies, crunchy leaves, and the typical fall activities, but I've recently discovered something else to love about the holiday! I can dress my dog up like an astronaut, and no one looks at me like I'm as crazy as I actually am!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful, safe, harvest holiday!

Maybe this is going a little too far

2007-08-09T19:33:00.001-07:00

The sad thing is... he has a shirt to match it (I couldn't find it, or he'd be wearing both in the pictures)

At the music fest

2007-08-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

We went to the music fest last weekend as one big happy family, and we got kicked out as one big happy family. Apparently there were no pets allowed. The sign that said this wasn't really clear (although they acted as if we must have been blind not to have seen it) and the security guards played with him as they let us through. We ended up standing right outside the fence, because that was okay... we just weren't allowed to go inside with him. What silly boundaries humans create! Anyway, Daryl had a chance to play with his new camera. Here are some pics of me and the Bear.

Bad hair day

2007-07-16T21:09:00.003-07:00

Paddington Goes to the Groomer

2007-06-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Paddington got his first haircut today!!! He doesn't look so mangey now. He had gone to the groomer once before, but just for a bath. This time he got the whole treatment! They even put his hair in a topknot! (My baby boy is growing up!)

I was so sad because the groomer told me he was bad and needed to go to obedience classes... to which I responded "um... er... he's already halfway finished with the classes offered here (Petsmart)" She didn't believe me...He's such a brat!!!!! At least she was able to trim him, so his hair is no longer in his eyes, and he looks more like a yorkie rather than a scraggly mutt! The second picture below shows his topknot bow straight... he is a rebel and knocks it crooked every time I straighten it for a picture. I also bought him a shirt to wear this week to the fireworks and patriotic gala. (last picture) Yeah, I know, I dress my dog up.

Slacker

2007-06-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

I am such a slacker with my blog lately. I suck. Sorry

My Baby Shot Me Down

2007-06-12T05:02:00.001-07:00

My psychology degree came in handy for something

They get in so much trouble!

2007-06-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Paddington and Noah get into so much trouble together!

He's taken over!

2007-06-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

This has become The Paddington Bear blog!I didn't know that a puppy would take over my whole entire life, including my blog! I've meant to write about several things- the government going on a banning streak, telling us poor unfortunate uneducated people how to dress, eat get married, and spend our money; about the amazing children that I work with every day; about the rise of evil capitalist empires (just for Daryl) .... but I've been too busy with my dog. You have to admit though, he's SO cute! And dead sexy in that denim jacket, with his "bitch" by his side (that green stuffed poodle is his bitch...)

I taught him a new trick today! I wasn't feeling well enough to play his rough games, so I kept him occupied by teaching him "BANG! you're dead!" He does it pretty well now! Once I get him doing it more consistently, I will video tape it and put it on youtube. He is so funny! I point my finger like a pistol and say "BANG! you're dead! and he rolls over onto his back. He gets confused unless he's already laying- he hasn't figured out how to get onto his back from sitting or standing. We're working on it though. He's a genius!

Paddington

2007-06-01T17:52:00.001-07:00

Paddington

2007-05-29T20:45:00.001-07:00

Paddington

2007-05-29T19:58:00.001-07:00

Paddington!

2007-05-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is Paddington! He arrived last night around midnight, and already I'm in love! I can tell he misses his litter mates, but he loves all of the attention he is getting here. Today he spent the day meeting people in his new family! He and Noah simply adore each other, and were getting into quite a bit of trouble together. He loves playing with his small-sized tennis balls (they squeak, which I think is the major attraction) and his "muppet" which was a $1 impulse buy at petsmart. No one knows what it is, but it looks like something Jim Henson created... some kindof bird with four legs. It was on clearance, and when I go back to get his crate this week I may pick up a few more of these little treasures so that we'll have more when he tears this one apart (which shouldn't be too long) Here are more adorable pictures!

The muppet... any idea wtf it is supposed to be??? It has a big feather on it's butt, too.

Puppy!

2007-05-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Only three full days left until the puppy gets here, and I am scrambling to "puppy proof" his living quarters (my room, and select sections of the house). I am waiting to see the puppy's personality before attaching a permanent name to him, but so far I like Django (pronounced like Jang-oh) Dante, Pippin (it *isn't* gay! Pippin is a hobbit, and my dog is teeny like a hobit!!!) and Paddington (after the teddy bear).

2007-05-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

This is the puppy I bought. Isn't he adoooorable...awwww! He is a yorkshire terrier and is estimated to be about five to six pounds full grown! I'm so excited to have a pet again! (I *really* miss my cats!) Even though puppy won't ever be able to fill the place of Amadeus and Misty, I'm sure he will be a perfect second best! He's coming from MO, and won't be here until Sunday the 12th. I'm currently taking suggestions for names.

Another year older

2007-03-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've learned over the past few years that my birthdays really stink. Next year I am not even going to try to get together with my friends and family. At least this year I didn't get any traffic violation/parking tickets, I didn't get fired, and our president didn't bomb any other countries! Perhaps I should be thankful that the only thing to complain about this year is that no one wanted to go out for a drink.

Takes two

2007-03-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

Tango is sexy, and my new favorite thing.

New Blog Post

2007-03-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a very long time since my last post. I wonder if anyone still comes to read this anymore.So, for those of you who have remained faithful to the blog, I give you this: A New Blog Post.

A lot has happened this past month. I've gotten a lot of response from putting my resume on Monster.com. The most promising however, is with another daycare company Bright Horizons. Check it out at brighthorizons.com It looks like it is a good company to work for, and the people I've had the chance to talk to that work there really seem to like it. They are offering a lot more benefits than where I currently work.

Daryl is in acapulco for his family vacation, so I am camping out at his place this week just to get a bit of alone time. It's been nice to escape to a "place of my own" but I'd rather be in Mexico with Daryl...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-02-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

The final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on July 21! I am so excited!!!!

Elephant in the Way

2007-01-31T18:08:00.000-08:00

This is from http://www.robmonroe.net
It makes me laugh. Hard.

Progress

2007-01-31T18:07:00.000-08:00

I hope this makes a difference:

"There is no compelling evidence that the New Jersey death penalty rationally serves a legitimate penological intent."
-- New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission

USA: The New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission – set up by the state legislature in 2006 to study all aspects of capital punishment in New Jersey – released its final report. Its report recommends abolition of the death penalty and its replacement with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. It further recommends that any cost savings resulting from abolition be used to assist the families of murder victims. Many thanks to the AIUSA activists in New Jersey for encouraging their representatives to pass this important legislation.

How to Write a Fugue

2007-01-20T12:49:00.001-08:00

A Time to Break Silence

2007-01-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

An Excerpt from "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence"

By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967

"A time comes when silence is betrayal"[. . .] The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

Click here to read the whole speech

Duck is Dirty

2007-01-16T20:48:00.000-08:00

I cannot say how much this amuses me. Pay attention to the price.
Duck is Dirty

Duck, the Beginning Steps classroom salutes you. Quack.

An Article

2007-01-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

The Great Emergency: Global Warming, Mass Death and Resource Wars in the 21st Century

by Juan Santos
Infoshop News
January 12, 2007

"We are the watchers. We are the witnesses. We see what has gone before. We see what happens now, at this dangerous moment in human history. We see what's going to happen, what will surely happen unless we come together---we, the Peoples of all Nations---to restore peace, harmony and balance to the Earth, our Mother."

--Chief Arvol Looking Horse, from White Buffalo Teachings

At the Sundance Film Festival Al Gore declared, "We have a category five denial of this issue [global warming]. I believe our political system is broken, however, I have optimism and hope. A rebellion is gathering." But rebellion isn’t what Al Gore is fostering. Speaking at NYU against what one commentator called a “stately backdrop of American flags,” Gore’s comments were focused on “uplift,” and calls to action slathered in a “thick layer of patriotism” and good old capitalist know-how. He seemed oblivious to irony, saying of the US, “Our natural role is to be the pace car in the race to stop global warming."

The feel good approach Gore pushes is dead wrong: Economic growth and saving life on Earth are not compatible goals. Industrial civilization isn’t harming the Earth, it’s killing the Earth. The system has long since passed the limits of growth - it can’t be sustained.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year analysis of the world's ecosystems sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute, showed that 15 out of 24 ecosystems essential to human life are "being pushed beyond their sustainable limits," toward a state of collapse that may be "abrupt and potentially irreversible." These ecosystems and the civilization that is killing them are both approaching an endpoint.

People are calling Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth the most terrifying movie you will ever see – but really, Gore’s film is a soft sell, one that underestimates the dangers we face and that veils not only the root causes of global warming, but the drastic military responses the US is planning in the event of an abrupt shift in the climate.

Call it Category 4 denial. Gore ignores the real problem. Global heating isn’t “caused” by CO2, it’s caused by industrial production and those that profit from it – capitalists in oil, gas, coal, electricity and automobiles, among others. And the system isn’t “broken,” no matter what Gore claims. The system is producing what it’s supposed to produce; power and profit and the corollaries of power and profit; denial and death.

For those addicted to power and profit, who are “winning” at the expense of all life, global warming is business as usual.

Try telling an abusive alcoholic he’s taken one drink too many, that animals and plants, even other people, are not objects, that he’s beaten his wife one too many times, or that, as Brother Malcolm put it, the chickens are coming home to roost. Unless he’s hit bottom, he’s not listening. Even George Bush has publicly acknowledged the obvious: the system is addicted to oil. But he’s not listening.

The analogy to addiction is not facile and the denial of the crisis we face is no accident; it is both conscious and deliberate. In this system, denial of suffering is the key to success. The ability to distance themselves from the meaning of their actions is what put those who are on top on top in the first place.

Look at Exxon and its global warming disinformation campaign. They’ve spent millions on propaganda to consciously deceive us about the reality of global warming and the impending mass death it implies, much like the Nazis told their victims they were heading for a shower, not a gas chamber, like the cigarette capitalists told us smoking carries no harm. But the genocide the Nazis perpetrated was not this extreme. This is different. This is not ethnocide or genocide. This is omnicide. Life on Earth is in the balance.

The stakes, the costs of this crime and its coverup, could not be higher. World renowned paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey tells us, “Whatever way you look at it, we're destroying the Earth at a rate comparable with the impact of a giant asteroid slamming into the planet, or even a shower of vast heavenly bodies."

Within 50 years a million species will be extinct. Within 100 years 50% of all species now living - 5 million forms of living beauty - will be gone forever. Within a mere 30 years, a quarter of all mammal species may be gone.

Today, bears are no longer hibernating in the north of Spain. With the melting of polar ice, the Polar Bear is on its way out. The Orangutan has ten years left.

Fish are starving to death in the Great Barrier Reef – the unthinkable equivalent of primates starving in the jungle. In the meantime, the jungle, the Amazon Rainforest, which provides 20% of the world’s oxygen, will be a savannah, or perhaps a desert, by 2100.

Forty percent of the world’s species will die with the Amazon.

The new Age of Extinctions is being driven by global heating, ozone depletion, toxic chemicals, habitat destruction, and invasive or infectious species. The cause isn’t just CO2, it’s our whole way of life. The Earth is in its most profound crisis since the mass extinctions of the Eocene period, 54 million years ago.

Before that, two hundred and fifty million years ago at the end of the Permian era, 95% of all species perished due to runaway global warming, warming that occurred due to the same kind of positive feedback loops that we see emerging in today’s heating trends. Scientists call it The Great Dying, a period in which life on Earth was all-but wiped out.
The Permian mass extinction was apparently caused by a series of gigantic volcanic eruptions, triggering a runaway greenhouse effect. Geologists have said the impact of this "post apocalyptic greenhouse" was so severe that only one large land animal was left alive. 100 million years would pass before species diversity returned to its former levels.

In light of such potentials, how many people are willing to wager that the world scientific community is wrong and that George W. Bush – the idiot savant of the Christian Fascists – is right when he claims the verdict is still out on global warming? How many will be willing to leave the fate of the Earth, of their children and their children’s children, in the hands of propagandists for ExxonMobile? The impact of global heating - on humans alone - would be almost beyond imagining.

James Lovelock, who developed the Gaia Theory – the scientific theorem that Earth acts as a single self-sustaining, self-balancing organic system – tells us that by 2100 there will only be 500 million humans left on Earth. The Earth, he says, will no longer be able to sustain more than that. There are 6.5 billion of us now; by 2050 that number will rocket to 8.9 billion, then drop precipitously. If Lovelock is right, only one out of 18 people will be left alive at the century’s end. 95% will be dead. And Lovelock is only looking at global warming. He isn’t counting the threats posed by Peak Oil or nuclear resource wars over oil, water and arable land that, if current trends continue, will become all but inevitable.

The glaciers of the Himalayas are disappearing. Forty percent of the people in the world draw their water from sources directly fed by the regular summer melting cycles of Himalayan ice and snow. Their sources of food will melt with the glaciers. With mass starvation in Asia, the probabilities of war over water and arable land - and of mass death - grow exponentially.

By the summer of 2040 all of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean will be gone. That means that theromohaline circulation in the North Sea – the Gulf Stream, which carries vast amounts of heat from the equator to the North Atlantic - will cease. Even as the planet heats, northern Europe will freeze. In Britain, for example, the Gulf Stream provides 27,000 times more heat than all current power supplies can generate, warming that nation by 5-8C. Warm winds from the Gulf Stream eventually reach the Himalayas, where they play a role in stimulating and regulating the East Asian monsoon system.

With the collapse of the Gulf Stream, temperatures in Europe could fall by 20 or more degrees Fahrenheit, creating an ecological nightmare as farmland turns to frozen tundra, with temperatures dropping to below -20C. Europe is currently self sufficient in agriculture, feeding its 600 million inhabitants, an obvious impossibility under such devastating new conditions.

Would Europe, with its vast armaments and its history of colonization, genocide and global wars aimed at re-dividing world resources and markets, slip quietly into a frozen death - or would it find war, even a Third World War, preferable to collapse and relentless famine at home?

The question is far from academic. Ice sheet melting from the Greenland ice cap into the Greenland Sea and the melting of floating ice during the 1980s caused the Gulf Stream to diminish by 80%. A recent report shows that the Gulf Stream came to a dead halt for ten days in 2004. The melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Arctic Sea’s ice all but guarantees the end of the Gulf Stream before mid century.

Which lands a frozen Europe might target in order to feed itself could eventually pose an all-but insoluble problem for the sub-continent’s rulers. A recent study by the British government shows that if current trends continue, a third of the planet will be desert by 2100. According to their calculations, areas susceptible to moderate drought will double to 50% of the Earth’s surface. Areas susceptible to severe drought will more than triple to 30% of the Earth’s surface.

Exxon-Bush Inc. would have us believe these impacts and their causes are debatable. Republican Senator James Inhofe would have us believe that the world scientific community is perpetrating an elaborate anti-capitalist hoax – the biggest hoax in human history, with the highest stakes. Rush Limbaugh says global warming is just another way to make civilized white people and capitalists feel guilty, the moral equivalent of a commie plot. The Right wants to cast doubt on climate science and the impending realities of climate chaos, because by pretending that there is a debate, they can defer action and continue to profit. For these men, the world itself can end, but not profit.

The fossils of our time sit in Washington, apparently inured by the pleasures of power and wealth to the realities before us. But, appearances notwithstanding, the ruling elites understand that we are on an irreversible path to global heating, caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels for the sake of production and profit. The question is what they plan to do about it.

As resources of petroleum peak and begin to expire, the Bush regime offers no alternative other than resource wars – war, not to end the use of the fuels that are destroying the Earth – but to get more of them, the last of them. Their aim is not to save the world, but to ensure their continued ability to dominate it by controlling the rapidly dwindling sources of oil. This, after all, is what the war in Iraq is about, and this is the meta-madness that guides the imperial preparations to attack Iran.

The ruling elites know exactly where we are heading and exactly what they are doing. Quietly, they call global warming a “national security threat.”
A 2004 Pentagon report, "An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security," cautions US strategic planners that in a scenario of abrupt climate change “Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.” The report predicts that Third World countries will develop their own nuclear threat to secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. By 2020, the report concludes, “catastrophic” shortages of water, food and energy will plunge the planet toward war. The United Nations identifies some 150 flash points where wars may be fought over water, alone.
The Pentagon report suggests that there could be global economic depression, destruction of technological infrastructure on a global scale, nuclear war, mega-droughts, famine, mass migrations from Third World countries, and widespread rioting around the world.

“Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,” the Pentagon says. “…warfare would define human life.”

The report calls for the development of what it calls “no-regrets strategies” by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Welcome to the apocalypse. This is the Great Emergency. The future of all Life on Earth is in our hands, in the hands of this generation. We have two choices: stop them, or prepare our children and grandchildren to be among the 5% who might be so fortunate – or unfortunate – as to survive.

(An excerpt from Apocalypse No! Part 3:The Law of Life and the Law of Death)

2007-01-12T21:36:00.001-08:00

Wow; it's been nearly a month since I've posted anything...

'Tis the Season

2006-12-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is. The week of christmas, and I have been such a Grinch this year! I have baked no christmas cookies; I've watched no holiday specials; I've only bought one gift; I was not in attendance at my work's christmas party (although, the reason I did not attend is because I was at a different party with Daryl...); and I have not sent (nor recieved, I might add) a single christmas card. Why am I such a scrooge?? Maybe it's because the weather is not sending out the usual wintery christmas vibe. As much as I hate being cold, there's something about Ohio winters during christmas time. It just doesn't seem like it's christmas without having to thaw out the locks on my car every morning. Or maybe it's because my shoes are too tight... or maybe it's because my head isn't screwed on quite right... but the biggest reason of all is that I work way too much (I know it doesn't rhyme, but I'm no Dr. Seuss)

Starting tomorrow, I will be heading off to work around 8am and won't stop working until 10pm. This will be all week. I need the extra money, and the discount at Borders is nice (okay, it's more than nice) but I feel like I won't have time to enjoy the Holidays. I do find comfort, though, in knowing that when January comes I'll have some extra cash to fall back on (I can finally start saving) while everyone else will be recooperating from the expenses of the season. In the meantime, if you don't see my face among the carolers outside your door, know that I am there in spirit.

Rothko

2006-12-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last 'featured artist' so I thought I should share some of the amazing art that I was able to see while in England. I only visited one art museum while in London, which was the Tate Modern. The collection had several artists that I plan on sharing later, such as Mondrian, Beuys, Manzoni, and Lichtenstein, as well as a few paintings by Pollock, whom I've already discussed here. I think the highlight of the museum visit was seeing Summertime by Pollock:

It's difficult to see the vibrant forms from this picture of it, but the work itself is really quite brilliant. By the way, that is Jack the Dripper himself standing in front of the painting. However, as the title of the post suggests, this isn't another post about Pollock. It is about Mark Rothko, who had several paintings on display at the Tate, London.

The paintings that I have pictured here display Rothko's belief that a painting should be just color on canvas. That is what the medium of paint is, afterall, just color.. there is no demension to paint, and to create the illusion of dimension by various techniques is to take away the true form of painting. He also felt that painting should not refer to anything outside itself. That is, the subject of these paintings is the paint itself. When you look at the painting, you do not see reference to Lady Madonna, or a pastoral scene, but you see (get this) the painting. Just the painting. In art theory, we say it points inward rather than outward.

These paintings are quite large, and quite moving. Sometimes I cry when I look at them. Because they are so large, and because of the nature of the painting to point inward, it is easy to get lost in them; you forget that you are standing in an exhibit room of a stuffy museum looking at art. You only see the colors and feel the colors. As Rothko said himself: "The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."

It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to understand Rothko just by looking at these pictures. You need to get to a museum and stand in front of one. The art institute of Chicago has a couple that I can sit in front of for hours. Another note about these pictures is that many of the paintings were originally contracted to go to a restaraunt, but while painting them Rothko realized that they would not reach their full potential in such an environment and instead donated them to the Tate Modern, London. They are being displayed as Rothko wished, in a dark room. The lighting makes it easier to get lost in the color squares, because there is very little telling your senses where you're actually at. When I looked at some of the paintings, I felt like I was falling- kind of like alice.

***Note: I am having troubles uploading my rothko images. As it is very late, I will post the pictures later. If you're really curious, go to google.com and do an image search on "rothko" Sorry!)***

Centering Prayer

2006-11-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

Centering prayer was taught to me by one of my philosophy profs. We were discussing prayer, and someone mentioned that they often felt moved to pray yet they couldn't find the words to express their prayer. The next lecture, the prof. brought this excerpt in. I use this method often for prayer and meditation. After a stressful situation, five minutes of meditating in this way calms me down and gives me a better attitude about the situation. It also helps me control my breathing after an extremely hard workout, when my athsma kicks in. To use this for meditation, I do exactly as described below and I choose a word that describes the emotion I seek- "calm" and "peace" are two that I use often.

This comes from http://www.thecentering.org/centering_method.html

"Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God's presence and action within." (cf. Open Mind, Open Heart, chap. 5)
The sacred word expresses our intention to be in God's presence and to yield to the divine action.

The sacred word should be chosen during a brief period of prayer asking the Holy Spirit to inspire us with one that is especially suitable for us.
Examples: Lord, Jesus, Abba, Father, Mother
Other possibilities: Love, Peace, Shalom

Having chosen a sacred word, we do not change it during the prayer period, for that would be to start thinking again.

A simple inward gaze upon God may be more suitable for some persons than the sacred word. In this case, one consents to God's presence and action by turning inwardly toward God as if gazing upon him. The same guidelines apply to the sacred gaze as to the sacred word.
<br>
"Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within."
By "sitting comfortably" is meant relatively comfortably; not so comfortably that we encourage sleep, but sitting comfortably enough to avoid thinking about the discomfort of our bodies during this time of prayer.

Whatever sitting position we choose, we keep the back straight.
If we fall asleep, we continue the prayer for a few minutes upon awakening if we can spare the time.

Praying in this way after a main meal encourages drowsiness. Better to wait an hour at least before Centering Prayer. Praying in this way just before retiring may disturb one's sleep pattern.

We close our eyes to let go of what is going on around and within us.
We introduce the sacred word inwardly and as gently as laying a feather on a piece of absorbent cotton.

"When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word."
"Thoughts" is an umbrella term for every perception including sense perceptions, feelings, images, memories, reflections, and commentaries.
Thoughts are a normal part of Centering Prayer.

By "returning ever-so-gently to the sacred word", a minimum of effort is indicated. This is the only activity we initiate during the time of Centering Prayer.

During the course of our prayer, the sacred word may become vague or even disappear.

"At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes."
If this prayer is done in a group, the leader may slowly recite the Our Father during the additional 2 or 3 minutes, while the others listen.
The additional 2 or 3 minutes give the psyche time to readjust to the external senses and enable us to bring the atmosphere of silence into daily life.

Some Practical Points
~The minimum time for this prayer is 20 minutes. Two periods are recommended each day, one first thing in the morning, and one in the afternoon or early evening.

~The end of the prayer period can be indicated by a timer, providing it does not have an audible tick or loud sound when it goes off

~The principal effects of Centering Prayer are experienced in daily life, not in the period of Centering Prayer itself.

What I learned at work today:

2006-11-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

Santa Clause reads Playboy....

you learn all sorts of things about people by the books they buy!

2006-11-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

The Force is a Tool of Satan - Star Wars Protest

I am no longer going to write in my blog, only post videos.. hehe, just joshing.. this was shared with me by Elizabeth; we found it amusing.

2006-11-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Scientology Explained

This is the best episode of southpark ever made... ever

2006-11-07T03:13:00.000-08:00

The Smiley Intervention

2006-11-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to hear a really good jazz band. I enjoyed the band, as well as the company. It was great fun. Adele and I also went to the Lowry, which is an art museum here in Manchester. It features work by the artis Lowry, of course, but also by several other artists. There was a video of one of Fishli and Weiss's performance art pieces, which is interesting because I've only heard about them. Lowry himself is an interesting artist. His paintings seem to use neutral and vibrant colors to accentuate eachother. For example he'll have a background of all greys and whites, and the subjects of the painting have splashes of rich reds and yellows, and over-emphasized characteristics. In contrast, the background is also standing out becuase it doesn't seem to fit completely with the subjects in the painting.

This week I am planning on getting some work done. Even though I am on holiday, I still have deadlines for applications in the beginning of December. The University of Calgary is still asking for a research proposal, and since that is where I really want to go I think that is what I'll work on most. There is a pretty big library in town, so I will head out there to get some research done. Hopefully by the end of the week I can have the shell of a draft, and at least an idea as to what my proposal might be. It will probably be easier to get it done during vacation, since I don't have to worry about work or the lab.

Over the weekend, I'm going to Liverpool (finally, hehe; I've said every day "I think I'll go to Liverpool tomorrow") and British Jess is coming with me. I hope she doesn't mind that I am a beatles freak and want to do all of the beatle's things, no matter how cheesey. After that, it will be time to head home! The time has flown by quickly, and I've seen some really great things. Now I'm looking forward to having a nice relaxing (but productive) week.

Tonight we are going to see fireworks for Guy Fawkes night. Last night was really crazy with the neighborhood fireworks. Just about everything is legal to set off in the streets here, so there were quite a few large displays going on (Kind of scary, too, considering how close the houses are to eachother) I really don't understand the holiday. For those of you who don't know, Guy Fawkes tried to blow up parliament with gunpowder in 1605 on 5 November. There's a lot of speculation about the plot- for example that the gunpowder was wet and that is why he failed. So now on the 5th, people remember the event (or the failure of the event) by having bonfires and fireworks. I'm not sure that I understand exactly what it is about the occasion that they are paying hommage to. Is it the sentiment that Guy Fawkes failed in his attempts to assassinate King James and thus revolution was thwarted, or are they in fact remembering that government must always be kept in check. Arguments could go either way on this one, but it is evident that Fawkes has become highly revered in his failure. Lennon has a song about him, and his name appears in Harry Potter as Dumbledore's Phoenix (a symbol which goes deeper than just a name randomly picked, when you look at the roll that Fawkes the phoenix plays in the story). So I'll go, and I'll enjoy the fireworks with great puzzlment tonight.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'Twas his intent.
To blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below.
Poor old England to overthrow.
By God's providence he was catch'd,
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, let the bells ring
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip Hoorah !
Hip hip Hoorah !
A penny loaf to feed ol'Pope,
A farthing cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down,
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar,'
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head,
Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.

Back in Manchester

2006-11-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I've finished looking around London and now I'm back in Manchester!

More than two weeks into the trip, and I'm ready to come home. Yep, I'm being a fart-head party pooper, and I should be enjoying myself abroad learning about another culture yadayada, but I have had a bit too much vacation. I've seen wonderful sites, and met very wonderful people, and I've done everything that I wanted to do so now it's time to go home. The only thing left is Liverpool. Well, I can't say the *only* thing; there's plenty here worth seeing. I just miss my home.

In London, I was sitting on Gabriel's Wharf (by far my favorite place in London) writing postcards, and a man came over to me. I was a little apprehensive about his approach, since it was after dark, but it seemed like he just wanted to talk, so we talked. With my accent, people here are good at picking up that I'm American (they like to play the "Guess which part of Britain I'm from by the way I speak" game) and he asked me what I was writing, so I told him postcards back home. And we sat there and talked about Ohio for about twenty minutes. There I was, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and I wished I was back in cow-town Ohio.

Part of it is financial. The exchange rate is just about £1=$2. However £1 works and acts in Britain the same way that $1 works and acts in the US. So my $100 US, when used here in Britain, act just as $50 US would at home. This means that everything from public transportation to eating puts a serious dent in my budget, even when I am just lounging around Manchester doing sudoku puzzles.

But most of it really and truly is that I am homesick. I've had a break from life, and now I miss it and want to get back. My babies, my family and friends, and all the obligations that I was taking time away from. I thought I needed a month, but two weeks would have been perfect.

One thing I want to say, so no one gets the wrong idea, is that England is beautiful. I in no way regret having made this trip, and I highly reccomend that everyone come here sometime. Even the small towns have so much character and history, there is nothing negative about this place at all. I've had a blast. and now I'm ready to go to the airport and fly home. Unfortunately, the airline refuses to change my plane ticket, so here I sit and wait.

2006-10-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

This week I'm in London, and it's been really wonderful. The weather cleared up, and was quite sunny both saturday and sunday, so it was perfect for walking about. I have seen so much already, it is hard to imagine that there is so much more that I haven't seen yet. So far my favorite area is Gabriel's Wharf, which is a walkway that runs alongside the Thames. There are tons of shops and street performers on the wharf, and the veiws of the city are beautiful from there.

Today I went to the modern art museum, and saw the changing of the gaurd. The changing of the gaurd is probably the most fun I've had while here, despite the fact that it is merely government spectacle. The modern art museum, Tate Modern, was breath-taking. It is the largest modern art museum in the world, and the collection includes works by Mondrian, Rothko, Polluck, Barnett-Newman, and Lichenstein, all of whom are included on my "favorites" list. I could have easily spent more than a day there, but there are so many other things for me to see. Tomorrow, I am going to see the Rosetta Stone, which excites me terribly. I may also try to get to see the national archives, which has Shakespeare's will, Jane Austin's will, and Guy Fawkes' confession papers, and I also may try to get to the cemetary where Karl Marx is buried, but because I have no idea where these are it may not happen. I also may make a trip to Baker's street, which has a Sherlock Holmes museum, and the Charles Dicken's museum, but again I'm not sure if this will happen because of time restraints.

I am not sure when I am heading back north to Manchester, because my train ticket is good for any train within a month, but it will most likely be Wed. or Thursday. Pictures will be up as soon as I get them developed! (I have six rolls to be put on disc!)

2006-10-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, it really doesn't feel like I've been here for one and a half weeks already! I really haven't done as much as I thought I would, but this is vacation, right?! Besides hanging around Manchester, I've been to see York and Chester. In both towns I've been to see the cathedrals, which are really nice. The York Minster Cathedral is unique because it has all of it's stained glass, something that was damaged in most churches and cathedrals during the civil war. It was quite impressive to see such a huge peice of architecture. The whole thing is falling over though because it was built on sand- kind of ironic when the processional banner they use in service has strong reference to the verse "build my house on rock and not sand" I was the only one in the group to find that amusing, I think....

Chester had a smaller cathedral, but I think I enjoyed the windows there a bit more. Also, it is where Handel was forced to rehearse The Messiah for the first time, as a storm kept him from sailing to Dublin on schedule. The cathedral has the original manuscripts on display. That was really neat for me to see. I went to the Dewa Roman Experience in Chester, which is supposed to be this big great thing. It is basically a hokey museum where you walk past statues and look at piles of rocks and old roman pottery. Dewa was the name of the town when Rome was occupying britain. It was pretty bad... but I still had fun.

Tomorrow I am heading off to London!I have a whole list of things to do there. I want to see the Rosetta Stone, and Portebello Road, and the Queen's horses, and Karl Marx's burial site. The UK is great because a lot of the things to do are free. I try to give at least £3 donations to the museums and cathedrals, but it's nice to be able to do these things when I am utterly broke.

Still haven't made it to Liverpool, but I have plenty of time. I'll probably do that on Monday or Teusday depending on the whether. My pictures are here: http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/OpheliaLoved/England/
Although the pictures from Chester aren't developed yet; I'm waiting to get a couple more rolls so I can take them all in together.

I'm off to do some dishes and then to meet some friends for "tea" (that's dinner)
Pip pip!

Mornin' Gov'ner

2006-10-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few excerpts from the journal I've been keeping:

10-17
(En Route from Chicago to Manchester)
When the world is telling me it is 6:00am, my body is telling me it is midnight, and my brain can't even tell me which portion of the space-time continuum I'm on, a warm roll and warmer cup of coffee are comforting enough to anchor me back to reality; especially when they are served with a smile. I owe the flight attendants much gratitude.

10-18
(Hyde/Manchester)
This morning I woke up early, which is how I know that my body has not yet adjusted to the time difference. Last night I was dissappointed to find that my phone doesn't work here at all, not even to tell time. I'll have to buy a watch, but other than that I don't mind. I'm writing this at a small tea shop in Hyde, just down the street from where I'm staying. A sweet old lady at the counter, who refferred to me as "love"helped me count the coins to pay for my coffee, the first purchase I've made with British pounds. I went dancing last night with keith and met a nice group of people. We played pool and table football (which is foozball, but they told me only the French call it that... well, and apparantly the Americans do too) Don will be driving me into Sheffield tonight for more dancing.
Something pleasant about the people here is that instead of saying thanks and you're welcome, they say "cheers." Also, everyone says please for everything.

10-19
(Hyde/Manchester)
Well, I must've adjusted finally because this morning I slept in until nearly half past noon which is way too late to head out to Liverpool, as I had originally planned. It is also too late to go into town and see the museums of manchester because everything closes by 5:00pm. It's okay though, because I need a day of lounging around and there will be plenty of other days to see Liverpool and go to museums. Tomorrow I am going to York to see a cathedral. It is also Keith's wife, Adele's, vacation as well, so she is planning several day trips and has invited me along. It's nice to have the company. I'll most likely have lunch at the tea shop again, or perhaps at the pub down the street (which is where I've eaten a club sandwich and diet pepsi- with chips added- for the last two days) I'll have to get an alarm clock, since my phone isn't reliable to wake me up anymore. Also, I couldn't find my toothbrush this morning so I guess I'll get a new one as well. Yesterday at the market I bought a proper journal to write in as well as a watch. I looked for peroxide to keep my ears from getting infected, but I found out that it is illegal to sell it here. I got directions to a Claire's though, which is where I got my ears pierced, so I'm sure I'll be able to get the solution there.
Dancing last night was fun. It was mostly classes, but it was interesting to see the differences. They don't swivel too much here, and they focus a lot on the triple step. Tandem charleston also seems to be quite popular, but not 20's charleston or solo charleston like it is in Cleveland. I'm excited to meet new dancers this weekend at the workshop that Keith is putting on, and also excited about the London Bal Fest next week. Even though Bal isn't my favorite, I'm excited to meet people. I'm a bit worried though because I got an email from my dad saying that my tickets were mailed to me back in the states, so now I don't have them. Hopefully this is nothing that a couple of emails can't fix.
I'm meeting my "British" family (Keith and Adele) for dinner (or as they call it here, "tea")in town tonight, since I was supposed to be coming in from Liverpool anyway. I hope I don't get lost on the bus system; it's very confusing. I might go a couple hours early, just in case, and if I get there on time I will just walk around the neighborhood and take some pictures. I love my brother's camera. It took me a while to figure out all of the buttons, but I have it down now and I like it much better than my old point and shoot digital camera. I took a walk near the Tames river yesterday and got some good shots of a horse farm and the country side around the river. I can't wait to see how the film turns out.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2006-10-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

I head out for Manchester in the morning. I definitely have mixed emotions about this. It always seems like no matter what, I am rushing around to get things ready to go. I must have packed my bags about ten times before finally getting what I want to fit into a carry on bag. I bought a carry on backpack, that has this nifty little day pack that snaps off the front, because I am using a seperate airline to get to chicago. I'd rather carry on my luggage than go through the hassle of checking and claiming it twice. I'm really excited, but also nervous and even a little reluctant to go all at the same time. I guess I haven't travelled so far by myself before- I've always had Elizabeth or some group with me. I'm sure that once my flight is underway I'll be super excited again... how can I not be, when I am going to see the birthplace of John Lennon???

2006-10-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

Exactly one week (to the minute) until I'm flying on an airplane to Manchester!!!!!

I got my ears pierced today! I got Amythyst stones, for the twins because they were going to be born in Feb. I was kind of freaking out in the mall, but the lady who did it said I did well because sometimes people punch her... I rondomly decided to just get this over with today, otherwise I will never do it, and I want to be able to wear pretty earings for the holidays. I'll be able to take my starters out by Thanksgiving.

I case you're wondering, yes I did cry, and yes I did treat myself to a cookie after. :) Now I have princess ears

2006-09-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is what I learned at work today:

hemo-dynamics [hee-moh-dahy-nam-iks]
noun (used with a singular verb)
the branch of physiology dealing with the forces involved in the circulation of the blood.
[Origin: 1855–60; hemo- + dynamics]

You meet all sorts of people when you work at a book store....

No time to blog

2006-09-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this past week has been nuts and I've had very little time to post anything. Sorry! My job started at Borders this week, and I've been pretty busy, making cutesie craft things for my classroom. We have this parents' night on thursday where the parents get to come and participate in class with their children. I want my room to be pristine by then. It's hard because our center is trying to become a Reggio Emilia influenced center, but there is not a lot of support for switching an infant classroom over to reggio. I wanted to post about the pros and cons of the method, but I am lazy and have tons of other stuff to take care, of, so here's the wikipedia version of my intended post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach

19 days until I leave for England!!!!

Countdown

2006-09-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

23 days until I leave for Manchester!

Art Critic

2006-09-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post some of my favorite art, which I have done, but unfortunately the quality of pictures is very poor on my blog. I have posted them for discussion purposes, but I can't emphasize enough the importance of seeing the actual works of art; you can't possibly experience these pieces properly just by viewing them on the web, even if I was able to post high-quality pictures. The purpose of this post is for discussion, so please feel free to post any comments!

The first artist I want to feature in this post (and he is first only because I had mentioned him in a previous post, not necessarily because I prefer him to the others) is Jackson Pollock. Pollock emphasized the process of the creation of art, rather than a particular subject or style of painting (he didn't draw emphasis to the fact that the painting was cubism, or modernism, or any other -ism) People look at a Pollock and think 'what a mess; my one year old could do that!'and indeed a one year old could! They called him Jack the dripper because he created his paintings by dripping the paint onto canvas laid on the floor. When viewing a painting by Pollock, one is able to visualize the action of the painter to achieve his end result.

Lavander Mist:

Galaxy:

Blue Poles:

hmm

2006-09-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

I was going to post something inciteful today, but I forgot what it was... maybe I'll think of it later.

Hello Brave New World!

2006-09-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

Noah John Michaels was born at 12:01 this afternoon. The doctors first told christi he would weigh almost ten pounds, but he came out at a scrawny 8 lbs 6 oz!

"Auntie Bo" holding little Noah...

Halfway Up the Stairs

Jonah's milestones

Peek-a-boo and signing

Pancakes and kaspetties

A Legend Lives

Paddinton's New Groove

Time for an update

On the Mend

Avocado Baby

It's true!

You better not pout!

Why couldn't he be my geometry teacher?

My kind of logic!

Paddington the Circus Dog

Ode to Genius

Random pictures

Fall Traditions

Noah and Paddington

One month old!

Happy Birthday Noah!!!

Look what he can do!

On How People Move Their Junk

More Pictures

Two weeks old

Jonah is here!

So much for maternal instinct!

New hair cut!

Vaccines

Our little baby abode

Getting ready for Baby!

More wedding video

Hawaiin Safari

ALOHA!!!!!

Wedding Post #2

Wedding post #1

Soooo busy!

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails

When Life Gives you Lemons...

This week's doctor appointment

I love Ebay!!!

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

The other family rumors are true

Finally, pictures!

Holy Flying Flips, Batman!

feel the burn

The Devil in Modern Society

Wuv.... twue wuv

Hellloooo New York!

smell my feet!

Maybe this is going a little too far

At the music fest

Bad hair day

Paddington Goes to the Groomer

Slacker

My Baby Shot Me Down

They get in so much trouble!

He's taken over!

Paddington

Paddington

Paddington

Paddington!

Puppy!

Another year older

Takes two

New Blog Post

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Elephant in the Way

Progress

How to Write a Fugue

A Time to Break Silence

By Rev. Martin Luther King4 April 1967

Duck is Dirty

An Article

'Tis the Season

Rothko

Centering Prayer

What I learned at work today:

Back in Manchester

Mornin' Gov'ner

Leaving on a Jet Plane

By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967