Father's Day: June 16, 2013

In 2013, Brian decided to treat himself to a man-toy for Father's Day:

He's loved it.  He's used it about 3 times on the house and about 30 times at a safe distance on Michael. :)

Billy happened to be in the area for work, so we took him to our fav Mexican place, Mi Cocina.  Here's two dads sharing a molcajete:

Best described as a Mexican vat of deliciousness.  There's cheese and cream and Mexican sausage and Mexican meat and Mexican spices and Mexican green onions and various other delicious Mexican things that I don't know.  Made my carnitas not seem nearly as exciting.

Michael got in on the picture too:

Michael gets chicken tenders and rice when he goes to Mi Cocina.  He's not a fan of Mexican food.  LOL.

Somehow, I stole Brian's cup of horchata, a delicious Mexican rice milk sweet drink.  Shout out goes to our friends the McNiehs, in Austin, for introducing us to a nectar of the gods.

First Track Meet: Sunday, March 23, 2014

On March 23, 2014, Michael had his first practice track meet at Bishop Shanahan High School.  Michael loves running as a "Pee Wee" in track, and we love socializing with the parents in the stands while he runs!  :)

Here's Michael, all business, for the 200m:

This is where the kid cut into his lane, which really threw Michael for a loop:

He couldn't ever get around the kid, and Michael ended up with a 20.74 second 200m run.

Last year, Michael's worst race was the 800m.  It was just too long!  He would skip, talk to his friends/etc.

Not this year:

There's Michael pulling in the lead.

Here he is in the lead after the first quarter lap:

This is where my neighbor, Kelly, said, "Hurry!  Take the picture while he's still in the lead and before he stops running because he's tired!"

Michael, still in the lead, finishing up the 2nd lap and 800m:

Michael with Daddy after finishing 1st in the 800m!!

CRAZY!

This track meet was smaller than most.  Only about half the schools were there, but we'll take it!  Can't wait to see how he does when there are twice as many runners.

He's doing very well with his sports, but his school assessment folders have been less than stellar.  I have a teacher/parent conference scheduled and will be asking lots of questions!  One of which I wonder if he is involved in too many extracurricular activities.  We have lots of practices, but we have it down pretty well this year since we had the same last year.

But last year, he did fine in school!  I'm going to say that all the snow days led to less practice, which led to a not so great performance on his assessment tests.  :(  But I will find out what's going on!  In the end, I need to do more at home for him.  I've kind of let the teachers do the teaching, but I can see now that I need to be much more involved with teaching him the material at home, including the material for the next lessons.  I used to be very on top of all that stuff through Kindergarten, and this has shown me that I have really slacked off in that regard!

June 10, 2013

Pity me, many years from now as I go back through my blog and find 2014 and 2013 all jumbled in together.  :)

On Sunday, Grammy drove Michael home from Giggleberry Farm (I think that's what that's called!).  It was a children's amusement park, which Michael loved!

On Monday, we got Grammy all ready to go back to TX!  However, not after popping into Valley Forge!!!

It was opening day of the red trolley tour, so we took it.  In the drizzling rain.  I "high-tailed" it there to make it in time for the first tour, and we made it!

The tour was informative and let us explore different areas of the encampment.  Here's Michael with Grammy at the log cabins:

And pretending to be a solider: 

Because I'm writing about this nearly an entire year later, I can't remember what we learned.  All I remember is that it was raining; we barely made it for the tour; and we saw log cabins and some command center house.  And this was a training camp.  And you could fit about 8 guys in one log cabin.  And that it was a good place for a training camp because you had the mountains to your back, protecting you on that side, and a river somewhere protecting you from another side.  Or at least I think.

Basketball in da house! On Valentine's 2014

This winter, Michael signed up for basketball with the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) sports!

HE LOVED IT.

Michael started out not knowing how to barely dribble, and now, he's pretty good!  His last game, he had a breakaway moment and scored a 2 pt lay-up.  The second to last game he played, he scored all 8 of his team's points.  Pictures for that next!  :)

I have NO idea if that's the "right" terminology or not.  I'm sure Brian will make good fun of me.  Like the day I accidentally called the basketball "court" the "field."

Well, I am also the school CYO sports photographer.  I scheduled a session with a team on Valentine's Day, and Michael stayed after school with me. 

This is a lot of what I take for sports pictures:

Not exactly inspiring, but it's sports pictures!  It gets the point across!  We play hoops, and we love God.

After school, Michael played some hoops in his school uniform:

And he acted silly:

And he acted so very cute:

And he acted so very Michael:

And his "Big Momma" is so proud of him.  He gives his all and does his best, and you can see the determination in his face when he's playing.  He brings joy and dedication to whatever interests him, and we could not be more proud of who he is growing up to be!

Saturday, June 8, 2014: Weddin' Time

The plan for Grammy's visit was for Grammy to take Michael to Sesame Place, a Sesame Street themed amusement park, while Brian and I went to Doylestown for his grad school friend's (Jason Cheung), wedding.

Sesame Place is literally 30 minutes away from Doylestown.  We sure do know how to get away!  LOL.

As a result of logistics, I drove Grammy, Michael and I to Sesame Place and got them checked into their hotel across the street.  Brian met us at that hotel since it was on the way to Doylestown!

Friday night - check!  :)

Brian fetched me and off we went to be a young couple again!

We started Saturday exploring quaint downtown Doylestown.  We walked around, poked into some shops and met our friends for lunch at a bar downtown.  It was cute and quaint, like all small towns in PA.  But nothing to really write home about.  Like most small towns in PA.

In the afternoon, we prepped ourselves for the wedding!  Here's us waiting for the wedding to start:

Still love that man since 1999 in College Station, TX.  Isn't he still so handsome?  I think so!  And he's FUNNY!

I only took my smart phone with me for the weekend.  I was on vacation.  :)

They had their wedding at the James A. Michener Art Museum:

Funny story - when they booked the wedding, the museum had a great exhibit of landscapes going on.

On the actual wedding day, it was an exhibit of nude paintings/sculptures.

Couple's First Kiss:

The reception was tres chic:

They had a live band, and it was AWESOME!!!  I'm totally converted!  If Brian and I ever have a renewal of vows party, we are having a live band.  

I love going to weddings of couples in our 30's (or late 20's).  I always feel like the weddings are more stylish and thought out.  This wedding was BEAUTIFUL.  The food was delicious, the decor classy, and the entertainment spot on.  I know in my 20's, I was kind of all over the place in that regard.  Now, in my 30's, I have a better idea of what I like and what I don't!

The best man, JD, gave probably the second-most awesome best man speech I have heard (second to John's at our wedding where he opened with Brian chasing him around with a kitchen knife).

Some highlights from it:

"One of Cheung's best gifts to Sharla is his sense of optimism and humor, which is a good thing, because if you know Cheung, spending money is not his thing.  You see those two tables full of his friends there laughing?  They know what I'm talking about."

"Cheung is a great mix of my grandmothers.  My one looks at me and says, "JD, make sure you have FUN." and the other one says, "JD, make sure you wear your seatbelt when you're driving."

JD is currently living in LA trying to make it in stand-up comedy.  We were thoroughly entertained with his delivery, timing, and wit of his speech!

Brian and I had a fantastic time, dining on the delicious food and drinking from the open bar!!!!  I had something called a Bay Breeze.  And then I had more of them and never looked back.  

We danced, we sang, and we enjoyed ourselves.  It was a fantastic time.

The wedding finished with sparklers:

Oh - I forgot to add - one of the COOLEST details from their wedding.  Because they had an open bar, they provided transportation from the hotel to the wedding site - A BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUS.

IT WAS AWESOME!!  We rode with this group of older guests, who were a RIOT.  When I finally got on the bus, they yelled, "FINALLY!  ONE OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE!"

On the way back, they regaled us with a hilarious version of spiritual music.  Watch the whole thing.  It's worth it:

*insert funny video here.  Blogger had trouble uploading for some reason.  Will try again later.*

We went back to the hotel and got into some comfortable clothes.  We stayed up drinking, talking and living old memories with our old Austin friends.  We laughed a lot.  

I think that makes for a pretty awesome date. :)

Weekend of June 7, 2013 - Friday

Grammy came to visit us and play with Michael the weekend of June 7th because Brian and I were attending a wedding out in PA for one of his grad school friends!

We are so thankful to have her spend some quality time with Michael while at the same time enabling us to spend some quality time with each other!

First thing's first - Grammy flew in on a very rainy and stormy day.  We fetched her and carted her off to the Please Touch Museum, a children's Museum in Philadelphia.

We love it there, but you have to drive pretty far and kind of through the ghetto to get there.  As a result, we do not go often.

Here's Michael on the child's hamster wheel:

Grammy and Michael, headed to the Alice in Wonderland play area:

One of my favorite memories of the Houston Children's Museum growing up was their grocery shopping area, and the Please Touch Museum has one too!

Here's our little baker:

Hope that plastic bread doesn't contain azodicarbonamide...

Our carb junkie:

As a checker:

One valuable lesson I learned as an adult in the children's grocery store is what a child must feel like shopping with US in an ADULT grocery store.  One time, Michael spent an entire HOUR grocery shopping here, and I was SO done.  But was he?  ABSOLUTELY not.  We went back for more.

I was bored.  There was nothing for me to do.  We had touched all that food already once.  WHY OH WHY were we going again?

Yet when he was little, every week, we had to go to the grocery store!  I'm sure he was bored!  I'm sure he couldn't believe we were going in AGAIN because I had forgotten one item!  This trip to the Please Touch Museum Children's grocery area was an eye-opening experience for me.  :)

After that, we were off to ride their very cool antique indoor carousel:

NOT.  

Oh well!  Moving on to child-operated cranes, which scoop up small plastic balls!

Michael had a great time with Grammy, as always!  

One day, I need to take a picture of the outside of the Please Touch Museum!  It's in a really cool older building and the architecture is really amazing.

Grammy had this great idea for a picture:

Unfortunately, my focus box was on the ceiling.  :(  Photography 101 - FAIL.

Up next - the wedding!!  

Strawberry Pickin' - June 5, 2013

One of our FAVORITE traditions to do every year come late spring/summer is to go to our local farm to go strawberry picking, Walnut Springs Farm!!

They grow raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb, strawberries - fresh and all you can pick.  

Doesn't that picture make you want to get your strawberry-jelly-preserving-jam-on?  

Michael loves strawberry picking.  For about 10 minutes.  In that time, you will net about 20 strawberries in your basket.  Then, it's WHINE city.  But I got this picture before he got started:

For whatever reason that day, I came up with the ingenious suggestion that he should be my "Strawberry Train!"  We both had baskets, but I needed mine to be empty so that I could collect strawberries.  He could be the strawberry train and transport the strawberries from my full basket to his empty one.

It worked.  For nearly an hour, Michael transported strawberries, 2-5 at a time, while saying, "Choo choo!!"

And at the end, he told me:  "Mommy, that wasn't very fun until I became the strawberry train.  After that, I had a great time."

Let it be known, that this moment was probably my most creative mommy moment to date.  And the rewards of being creative and helping your kids to find something fun to do is worth it for the both of you!

Let it also be known, that's the ONLY time in my 7 years of being a mom that I remember being creative instead of yelling, "Well - you can either complain about your situation or find something fun to do.  Now GO and quit your complaining!"

Michael got this picture of me being a migrant worker:

It was a fun and sunny day, and we picked about 3 pounds of strawberries!!!

Conversations

Michael has been throwing out hilarious stuff since we came back from our trip abroad.

All the different currencies and countries really threw him for a loop!

Yesterday, we were talking about Disney and Florida.
M:  "Mommy, do they use American money in Florida?"

With all the different languages we experienced while abroad, Michael has been counting up all the languages people know.  You better watch out - he'll want to know if you speak more than one.  And if it's "only one," he'll be glad to know he's not the only one that speaks "only one" language.  He thinks you guys are part of the same club.

Then, there was this gem:

M:  "Mommy, why did God make ticks?"
Me:  "I'm not sure."
M:  "Ticks are bad, but God is good.  So why did he make something so bad?"

Oh my, that could be a very deep question if you wanted it to be!

Or, you could take it at face value and wonder, "Well, ticks are good for something aren't they?  Are they good for anything in the realm of the whole wild food chain?  Or are ticks truly a creation of the devil?"

Deep ponderings...I know.

Baby Racoon! June 1, 2013

On June 1, 2013, Brian and Michael found a baby raccoon in our woods during the day.  It made a lot of noise and looked to be quite forlorn and lost without his mom.  Apparently, there were others, but we only caught one on candid camera:

Here's a video of the little guy up in a tree:

Exciting times out here in the "2-lane country."  :)

Nearly a year ago: May 30, 2013

I'm not quite sure if this is worth writing about and catching up, but I'm going to do it!  I'm going to catch up on nearly a year's worth of pictures!  iPhone/fancy cameras/everything.  HANG ON TIGHT.

First up:  Bring Your Kid to Work Day at Air Liquide!

Venkat, Brian's very funny Indian co-worker with a Canon 7D, was instrumental in organizing this picture with all the kids and the tank as demonstrated here:

They started with a safety talk with all the little ones in a conference room.  Note the safety glasses at the liquid nitrogen ice cream exhibit:

Sadly for the exhibitors, they did not take Brian's advice on making large batches of ice cream instead of "Dippin' Dots," which Air Liquide provides nitrogen for in real life.

So the kids got these Dippin' Dots that basically froze their tongues off, and they complained about it.

Let it be known that when you make ice cream with liquid nitrogen - get a large stainless steel bowl and make a big batch of it with half and half, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Mix in the liquid nitrogen and voila - perfect ice cream.

There was also a station where they froze flowers and the kids beat the petals right off of them. 

Michael also attended the exhibit Brian did as well where they basically made slime, and Brian put Mentos in a coke bottle, which makes it ricochet into the air.  I'm sure you can guess what was most popular with the kids!  ;)

Michael's last exhibit was seeing a very powerful microscope where they looked at a bug under high magnification and a feather as well.

Michael LOVED being there!!  It was a fun day for all of us!  Here he is with his group and Mr. Rob:

It was a gorgeous spring day, and Michael enjoyed going to his Daddy's work!!

Winter 2014

Winter of 2014

The Winter of 2014 will go down as:

According to Michael:  "SNOW"

According to Mommy:  The Winter where Michael had practically no school.

We were slammed left and right between snow storms and ice storms.  School has been cancelled or delayed for many of the days in the last 6 weeks.  Michael has spent many days at home, which have been warm and fun (excluding the one day where we lost power for 16 hours - February 5, 2014 - due to a bad ice storm).

I really haven't felt the desire to get my camera out because the high temperatures of the day have been SO COLD.  Most days, the highs have been in the low 20s.  And with me being preggers, my ski jacket/etc does not fit.  I usually wear Brian's snow stuff to the bus stop to get Michael.

Well, we got a doozy of a storm yesterday, Thursday, February 13th.  Brian's work even closed for the day.  

That's sayin' something.

All told, we got about 12"-14" of snow during the day.  Then, an additional 2"-4" overnight.

We, surprisingly, did not lose power.  I'm sure the fact that Michael and I pulled up wood for 2 hours from the wood pile, filled all our vessels with water, and charged all our devices ensured we would actually have power.  I am always happy to spend a snow day at home, in jammies, with power.  :)

They always say that the first child gets lots of documentation, and the second doesn't as much.

Fortunately, I set the standard pretty low with my pregnancy pictures with Michael.  I have one vertical picture in Seattle on our babymoon at about 5-6 months.  And another horizontal with a flowering bush at a wedding.

Sweet!

SO!  Here's my vertical picture at 26 weeks preggo:

I have the same number of ultrasound pictures so far.  So I think I'll be able to just to copy my old scrapbook layouts to start Lothar's scrapbook.  :)

It is a sweet time for our family right now.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

P

Tuesday, May 21st

On Tuesday, May 21st, two important things happened.  All while Brian was out of town.

The first, I ran into two birds:

When I looked in my rear view mirror, I saw feathers and one bird body on the ground.  I didn't think too much about the second bird body until I noticed something strange under my grill.

YUCK.

Brian was coming home late Wednesday night.  I'm not about to do a bird extraction on my own.  I'm a city girl at heart.  Luckily, Brian took care of it for me on the weekend.  And when Brian pulled it out, it kept coming and coming and coming.  It was a MUCH bigger bird than I expected!

The second thing happened at Michael's baseball game that night.  Mrs. DeColli came to watch Michael and Liam play.  Almost at the end of the game, Michael ended up getting hit in the face with a baseball while he was on the pitcher's mound.  Luckily, it bounced and THEN hit him in the face.

A friend of mine said that he saw it coming and held his glove up to his face to protect himself but it just was barely in time and kind of ricocheted off of his glove.  I'm proud of him for his self-preservation abilities!  I only saw the ball bounce, I didn't see what happened afterwards because I was further away!

There was blood and I tried my best to keep calm.  I'm a bit of a drama queen when it comes to blood.  Explains why I never was interested in becoming a doctor!!

Luckily, we have a fireman/EMT in the stands of us parents - PLUS a mom who is certified in CPR/First Aid - and the coach is a physical therapist.  So I knew Michael was in good hands.  I didn't freak out because I knew they would know what to do.  :)

Mrs. DeColli was great and told Michael he didn't have to go to school the next day!! WHAT!?!?!  He was fine - there was no swelling or bruising even!  He went to school.  We were 15 minutes late and I walked him into class.  Since Mrs. DeColli was there the night before, I knew it would be just fine to give him some extra time to get ready for school.  Michael DID try to stay home by telling me that his legs were heavy.

Uhhh - son - you got hit in the FACE last night.  Nice try.

Friday, May 24th - Visit to Prost German Restaurant!

On Friday, May 24th, we kicked off Memorial Day weekend by visiting Prost German Restaurant in Port Deposit, MD, which is only about 20-25 minutes from our house.

My neighbor, who is local, said to me, "Were you ok there?"  There is a large population of racist KKK people south of us in MD.

I told her - well, my waitress was African American and there was another interractial (Asian/American) couple there so I guess it must be safe in German restaurants in Port Deposit, MD!  :)

Here's father and son splitting their sausage sampler platter that came with a delicious sauerkraut and warm German potato salad:

I had a jager schnitzel with gravy and spatzle, which was SOO good!!  We will definitely be going back.  And Michael should be ok when we get to Germany - he was a fan!

Unfortunately for me, I'm not used to eating that large a quantity of heavy friend food anymore.  So I spent the evening drinking green tea to settle my stomach.  

Our Memorial Day weekend was busy with friends:
Saturday - had dessert/smores/pinochle with the Hillegasses (school/church friends)
Sunday - had crabs/hotdogs with the Boyes (my grocery shopping buddy)
Monday - had hotdogs/hamburgers with the Resetars (Mops/Church/School friends)

After three years here, we can finally say we are making friends.  I hope to see that they are still good friends with us when we leave!  Friendships change over time sometimes - we can only hope for the best! :)

Thursday, May 23, 2013 - Michael's Spring Show!

Michael had his end of the year Spring Show on Thursday, May 23rd!  He had a speaking part!!

Here they are - lined up and ready to go:

A photographer's kid - I had front row seats!

Here's the video!!  Michael's speaking at the very beginning:

Here's what happens when you don't make sure your focus box is on the right kid:

To my defense, I KNEW my focus box was on the wrong kid, but I hoped for the best.  Because I was in AUTO.  This shows you what happens when you shoot in Auto.  Auto does not always know best.

Michael - singing his heart out:

I tried to upload the video of the whole class signing, but it's giving me an error.  Michael was LOUD and clear - and a bit off key.  He's the LOUD kid.  I find that hilarious.

I guess as he is growing, he is getting his desire for performance from me.  I thought he'd end up like his Dad, but Michael is not shy in front of a crowd.  It cracks me up.  He's been chosen for "speaking" roles multiple times now.  When he was chosen as a wiseman in his PK-4 Christmas play, he froze up and didn't do anything!

This year, that was not the case!  He sang his heart out and spoke confidently for his speaking role.  So proud of him!

The last song was the funniest.  The nurse, who is as old as the earth itself, had a part and she was so funny!  Here's a silhouette of part of that skit: