Why I love my town

Every Friday night when the weather is good, there is a classic car show. We got there early and saw about 40 cars (which is only 1/3 of the cars that usually come). After that we went to Sam & Jake's for ice cream.
It was a great start to the weekend.
And I've decided I need a Chevy Imapala.

hurrah!
there is pizza!

did the pizza man walk?

right now, the pizza man is my enemy.
doom to you, pizza man!

Sun, at last!

Here is my cute house! And my lovely veg beds in the foreground. My radishes are already up & thriving! Can't wait to pull them from the ground, wash them, smear them with butter & devour!

Here is my front step with the newly painted planters.

The peonies in the front yard are blooming! The fragrance is one I look forward to all winter long.

Adrian on his very last day of school! He already has plans to make me crazy.

And here she is, the very-nearly birthday girl. A rare solemn moment. That's all! Enjoy your weekends and I'll catch up with you next week!

Today, and other stuff

Awww. A boy & his dog. After our crazy weekend of crazy fun, Adrian spent time watching TV while using the pups as a headrest. She didn't seem to mind.

Our neighbors are redoing their kitchen & today they got their appliances. And with appliances come REALLY BIG BOXES. In my opinion, the best summer toy ever. Aaron cut a door & some windows. And Hambone is now referring to the place as his "apartment".

It's nearly summer! Which means tasty treats like veggie quesadillas, made with sauteed zucchini & onions. YUM! (Of course any excuse to eat salsa and sour cream I will take)

Here are the kids eating the last of the girl scout cookies. Adrian, I mean Hambone, is living up to his new name. And FionaLeigh is growing before my eyes. She will be 2 in 18 days. She also suffers from crazy hair, my biological gift to her.

Today Adrian went to the allergist for some tests. They did the scratch test--23 pokes down his back. Good News! He has no food allergies or animal allergies. He has mild allergies to tree pollen & outdoor molds. Cross that off my list of things to do. Next visit will be to the pediatric dentist, after his summer physical for school. (And the bills pile up!) Seriously, WHY DOES HEALTHCARE COST SO MUCH?

It pains me.

(And I haven't forgotten your yard photos, I just haven't had a sunny morning to take them yet)

ITS THE CRAZY TRAIN

For 3 consecutive nights, Adrian was up waaay past his bedtime. Last night, it was nearly 10 before he was asleep. It's been a crazy busy weekend, and tomorrow is the last of it.

Thursday we hosted The BarBQue That Wasn't.
We invited 13 people. 3 called in advance to let us know they had prior engagements and would be unable to attend. 4 cancelled the day of, due to last minute work emergencies and sick kids. 1 never called, never showed. 2 called an hour before and said that maybe they'd catch us over the weekend. 1 called and was "on the way" for 4 hours before falling asleep.
We had 2 people show up. For a ten-person feast. I tried my best to make them feel comfy and welcome, but they didn't arrive until 7:30, at which point Adrian was laying prone on the couch with a glazed look in his eye.
When I got the call about the work emergency, I was pretty sure the whole thing was done for. The experience really put me off entertaining.

Friday Aaron's mom (Nina) and sister (Erica) came to town to take Adrian to his frog song class at the zoo. They got in around 11, and we bopped around in the yard while we waited for Fiona to get up from her nap. We had a great plan that involved all of us going to the zoo, walking around, grabbing dinner & then Aaron, Fion & I would take off and head home while the rest stayed for class*. This plan would have worked, but we didn't leave the house until 3--it takes 45 minutes to get to the zoo. There was construction on I-55--they had to squish 3 lanes of traffic down to 1 so that a guy could put tape on the road. And they had a lane closure on IL-171. So our 45 minute trip turned into an hour and a quarter trip. We walked through the gates of the zoo 10 minutes before the animal houses closed. Fion got a 40 minute tour of the outdoor animals. As we were leaving, she kept saying "see animals! yes! please! good girl!" and the further from the zoo we got, the more plaintive her statement until finally we had full-on tears and body tremors. It was AWFUL. At one point she was crying and apologizing "sorry sorry sorry! see animals! please!"
We got her calmed down enough to meet Nina, Erica & AD for dinner. When we put her back in the Jeep it was the same litany of "see animals, yes, please, good girl". So what could we do but....

On Saturday: BACK TO THE ZOO.
We got there at 10:30 and left at 3:30. All sorts of animals were seen: bears, otters, monkeys, alligators, giraffes, zebras, and of course the hoard of geese that populate the zoo grounds. Adrian fell asleep in the car on the ride home & then continued to sleep for 2 more hours. When he woke up he was fairly certain it was morning and he had slept all night. He ate dinner and then he & Erica made ice cream sundaes. Fion ate dinner and was shuttled off to bed. After dinner, there was a walk around the block, and much discussion about the days events.

Today:
Fiona was up at 6:30. (Darn you 5:30 sunrise!) Adrian slept until 7. Nina, Adrian & Erica walked down to Zettlmeier's Bakerei for an assortment of breakfast goodies. Meanwhile, Fiona stayed home and pitched fits, in between watching a pair of mallards (male & female) waddle down the middle of our street. I tossed Adrian outside at 11:30 for failing to eat lunch & being generally obnoxious while the rest of us were trying to hold conversations. He came back in to eat at 1:20 thanks to Erica's urgings. At 12, Fion was sleeping, Nina was touching up the walls, Erica & AD were outside scrubbing the siding on the house, so I went to work in the yard. I planted corn and melons, tickseed and bee balm. I weeded, watered, and swept. I painted giant planters yellow, and then planted stuff in them. I hung out our flag out on the giant maple in the front yard. I investigated lichen with Adrian using a magnifying glass and we added the word "symbiosis" to his vocabulary.
All in all, a long and busy day. And now I am to bed. Pictures....tomorrow, Tuesday latest.

*A class which turned out to be pretty fantastic. They went to the "behind the scenes" swamp and caught frogs with nets. Adrian was smiley about the experience all weekend long.

Remember the doom?

Sunday's doom was caused by hand, foot, and mouth disease. (yes, I had to go look it up at the CDC website too)
Thankfully his fever had broken by 6:30 Sunday night, so he was only at home Monday & Tuesday for quarantine. And based on the events of those 2 days, it is going to be a long and painful summer.
I am hoping it was just the recuperation that made him so awful.

And then I thought maybe I was just being over-sensitive, because that happens sometimes you know, but Aaron said no, he's just being a turd.

Oddly enough, Fiona hasn't seemed to have caught it. Of course, she still eats giant handfuls of dirt so she's probably pretty resistant to a lot of things.

Now it's late & i'm tired.
Remind me to tell you later of the BBQ that wasn't, or the story of chicken for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Sunday of doooooom

Hey all!

Today was supposed to be a scouts day. And as you may remember, because Adrian is in the youngest age group we rotate meetings from house to house. We were going to host today AND I had arranged for a guest speaker to come & talk to the kids about geology (to fulfil a requirement of the--you guessed it--geology badge). It was going to be a grand day of small kids and fun.
Adrian woke at 5:30 this morning to tell me that his throat hurt. Wooooooah, it hurt. It hurt like I could not believe, because it hurt so bad. My solution? Motrin & a glass of water. But nooooo, mom. It hurts still and the medicine isn't working, and my throat aaaaaaaaaugh. Dude, give it time. It's not instant medicine. Okaaaaay, but can you rub my back until it feels better? Yes, but first mom really needs to use the bathroom. Go fast.

I set up a little pile of blankets on the floor and "slept" until Mooooooooom. I have to go potty but my legs are tooo wobbly. I need your heeeeeelp. And then Can you wash my hands for me? Because my legs, they are so wobbly. Get his hands washed, wash my hands, go back into his room, where he has snuggled up in my pile of blankets. Where am I supposed to lay down? You can lay in my bed, because the floor is much warmer and softer for me.

And there he slept until 9 AM.
The complaints about his throat were repeated through the day until his fever broke at about 6:30.
If I had to pick one word to describe my son, that word would NOT be stoic.

uh. yeah, hi!

i amn't ignoring you, blogosphere!
it's just that aaron is on his vacation & we have been busy around the house.
and all those moments when the kids are asleep or busy, i have been hoarding him all to myself. it's remarkable that we're nearly 6 years into this marriage and i still find myself giddy at our moments alone.

anyway, today we went to the zoo. adrian had a class (dino discovery!) and aaron was his grown up and fion & i went and looked at the animals. today's favorite was the giraffes, partly b/c there were giraffes and partly b/c there were frogs in the giraffe pool. it was like 2-fer-1. she asked to go back 3 times.
now the babies are sleeping & aaron is out to see star trek w/mr. mike, so i am studio-bound. i have agreed to do 2 art show/sales in june--which means i have a lot of jewelry to make between now & then.

you'll have to pardon my lack of capital letters. i am just not feeling the shift key much today.

stay classy, san francisco.

Dear IT peoples

Dear IT peoples (at one of my many email addresses),

I appreciate your zeal for my online secuirty. I understand the need to change one's password frequently. However, giving me a 240-day countdown seems rediculous & bizzare.

Thank you, that is all.
Kara

This weekend

Today Nana & Papa are coming for the weekend.
Who knows what we will get up to! Probably some digging in the dirt, cooking in the kitchen, and laughing a whole lot.

I love spring.

A letter to Hershey's Chocolates

The following is an actual letter I sent to the Hershey's corporation:

Dear Hershey's Chocolates;

I would like to congratulate you on filling your kisses with caramel. This was a stroke of genius & whomever came up with deserves a cape, a crown, and a day in their honor.

Eternally Grateful,

Kara DeCarlo

Hooray for May!

In this part of the country, May is truly when spring happens. It is when the trees burst into flower, the lillies of the valley come up, and we can say goodbye to Jack Frost for 6 months. Around here, people don't plant until Mother's Day--almost 4 weeks later than what I knew growing up. I'm not sure that it'll ever feel normal--for the past 4 years it has seemed late.

This past weekend Adrian went to his first ever drop-off birthday party. Here he is making the card to go with the gift. On weekends, I try to get the kids outside to play by 9AM. I figure 2 hours for breakfast & getting dressed should be ample time. I love being outside. I think that there is no reason to sit in front of the TV when you can be outside sitting in the sunshine. This summer I will be pushing the kids out the door every morning, with inside breaks for lunch (and nap for Fion) and potty and that's it. I also have plans to tidy the garage so they can play out there when it rains.

Today at Adrian's school, it's teacher appreciation day. The PTA sent home a letter asking the kids to bring a flower for the teacher to show their gratitude. All of our yard flowers are dead, and we sent tissue paper flowers at winter break time...so I got crafty and made 3 flower pins for his teachers. Felt, button, embroidery floss, a safety pin & a needle; 30 minutes later I had these to pack away in his folder!

the danger of sitting down after a meal is that you wind up either a) covered in children or b) asleep.

It is spring!

It's our FIRST spring in our new home. And I love the way the backyard looks when the sun is shining in the afternoon.

The trees are blooming, the flowers are coming up, and I have a million seeds to plant.

But enough about me. Fiona wishes to say cheese:

And to let you know that finger painting is AWESOME! But not as awesome as trying to evade capture after making a mad dash from the table. (remarkably, there was not a spot of paint on the walls or furniture)

Lovely weather!

And you know what lovely (but windy) weather means!
Banishment to the backyard!
Aaron was good enough to watch the kids yesterday afternoon so that I could get some work done. Fion was in her element: climbing, running, digging.

Adrian spent a great deal of time building sand castles in TWO sand/water tables, with a little help from Dad.

Amazing pooch strikes again!

When you is a dog, lifes can be hard sometimes....

Last night around 1 AM, there was a growl & bark from the living room, where the pups usually sleeps soundly. Then there was a jingling of tags and really quiet barking while she ran to the back door.
This behavior is totally out of sorts for the dog who sleeps in when it rains, so I let her out to see what was what. I didn't see anything unusual but Rhianna-belle spent a good 5 minutes barking & growling into the dark.
Then when she came back in, I caught a whiff of a musky animal scent on the breeze.
She paced & grumbled for a while before settling back down for the night. And I was quietly amazed that this 50 pound pooch decided she needed to protect her home & family from animals that go stink in the night.

Photos for you!

These loaded backwards, so bear with me!
First the awesome climby tower in the backyard which recieves 4 small thumbs up. (And 4 big thumbs up, although we don't actually climb the thing)

And then there are gifts from the elusive but generous spiring time bunny. Adrian has it in his head that the Easter Bunny looks and is the size of your average pet rabbit. Which gives us questions like: How can he reach the gate lock to get in the backyard?

And here we are Easter morning prior to getting dressed & hunting eggs. The bunny was very into eyewear this year.

And the night before:

Nina cooks 2 dozen carrot cake cupcakes. We have run out of counter space, top of the fridge space, and table space to put them to cool. The solution: put them on the front step to cool.

Turns out we have theiving squirrels!

Mom! Come & gone.

My mom was here!
(Hi how are you, how was your easter, ours was quite nice, thanks)

She arrived on the 7:30 train Sunday night. Adrian & I picked her up and drove her to Chez Flecker-DeCarlo, where she was fed and entertained and sent to bed at a reasonable hour.

Monday morning, doom struck.
Fion woke up crying at 6:30 (early for her), because she had thrown up in her bed. She spent the next 10 hours being sad & listless and throwing up once more. Thankfully, Adrian took Granma to play and to the grocery store and they had a lovely time. We ordered pizza for dinner, by which time Fion was approaching her old self.

Tuesday, Fion still on the mend--problems out the other end this time. She is mostly cheery, but quite disgruntled that I won't let her have her favorite snack from the fridge (prunes). Dinner rolls around & it's french onion soup for the grown ups and chicken noodle soup for the kids. Fion has 2 helpings, while Adrian lays on the couch & brews a small fever. Sniffling & coughing ensue.

Wednesday: I am exhausted. I was up 3 times with the kids and 3 times with the animals. We can our plans of a trip to the zoo & opt for a trip to the pet store instead. Then I take the cats to the vet, spend more money than I see on a regular basis and come home to make dinner. My mom walks the dog (god love her). We have dinner, I get the kids to bed by 8 and colapse on the couch like something what colapses--lawn furniture, maybe?

Thursday: ANOTHER SLEEPLESS NIGHT. I contemplate nyquil for babies....Mom leaves at 8:30.

And we have done zero of 3 activities we had planned. And I have no pictures from this visit (just like the last time), and she didn't get to see the kids climb on their brand new super awesome backyard tower of fun.
I feel like the worst hostess ever:
welcome to my house! have some germs!

Sorry, Mom. Please come back. I'll have the kids on quarantine the week before.

Sunday, and why my house has a peanut butter surplus

Ok! So the snow has mostly melted and I am ready to stop crying into my Cheerios and tell you about our fun Sunday.

The first and third Sunday of every month, Adrian has scouts. Not cub scouts, but Spiral Scouts. Since he is wee, he is in the first age bracket, known as Fireflies. This is for kids aged 3-8, and anyone who has spent any ammount of time with children of this age will tell you: they are not known for their lengthy attention spans. To that end, we meet in each other's homes, and we keep the meetings short.

This past Sunday wasn't our turn to host, but the host family had their sump pump fail (doom!) so we had everybody here instead. We were working on our birding badge: we made nesting bags out of old mesh onion bags which we stuffed with dryer lint, yarn, twine and twigs. Then we made pinecone birdfeeders by smearing peanut butter on pinecones and then rolling that in birdseed. I had 6 children under the age of 9 with peanut butter fingers in my house and somehow I do not have peanut butter walls. (Will wonders never cease?)

Adrian loves scouts. I love that his group is a mix of boys and girls of various ages. I love that he can do projects to achieve a goal (a badge) and that he is gaining an understanding of his world in a fun & interactive way. It's also nice to be around a group of creative & fun adults on a regular basis.

Our next goal for the birding badge is to identify some of the birds that live in our neighborhood. We have robins, sparrows, a woodpecker, crows, cardinals...we'll see who else in the coming weeks!

Whhhhhhy?

Firstly; Fion says "cheese". She's so cute you want to just pinch her.

Secondly, it snowed last night. I hate this place.

It's Thursday, right?

Oh heeeey.... so Fiona all of a sudden looks huge. And last week she dumped 1/2 a cup of pink milk into the DVD player. Turns out electronics don't drink pink milk.

And Adrian is enjoying the pup. Here he is brushing her with a grooming glove. My favorite thing is to watch the two of them run in circles in the backyard, while Adrian shrieks with glee.

And this past weekend with two days of beautiful weather, I took Adrian outside and showed him how to build "pirate houses". Teaching him to find natural materials and see them as building materials has kept him busy for DAYS. And I am exhausted from trying to cram everything into the regular 7-day week.

Where would you go?

Occasionally, Aaron and I toy with the idea of moving. Not just from Chicago, but from the United States. (Don't get all panicky, we aren't actually going anywhere)

Our criteria for our new home country varies wildly depending on our moods, the weather, and what time of day we're having these discussions. We have chosen places based on free healthcare, year-round temperatures, the national custom of a many-houred lunch followed by a nap, the ability to thrive on 5 US dollars a day.

Which leads me to wonder: where would you go, if you had to?

Looking for suggestions

What can I give the pup to chew on when she's bored?
I have an aversion to rawhide, as it gets all slimey.
I can't keep giving her treats or she'll never eat her kibble.
And she can't keep raiding the kids toy bin, because that is just trouble waiting to happen.

On to happier things

I just looked at the calendar this morning and saw that it was Friday the 13th.
And to that I say: enh. Just another of 52 Fridays in a calendar year.
I do like the number 13, though. 13 full moons in a year. 13 plates on a turtle's shell. It's one of those numbers that pops up & waves from nature every so often.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 50 degrees! I can totally take the kids outside to play. Or rather, Adrian will play and I will try to keep Fiona from eating dirt by the shovelful. I was pretty sure she was supposed to have outgrown that by now, but as of last Friday she was still enjoying dirt as a part of the food pyramid.

And Sunday we will be hosting scouts! I am excited. It is always nice to be surrounded by people with whom you can just be yourself. It's been a while since I have had that in any quantity. Us grown-ups will be talking about upcoming projects, and the little ones will be hunting for eggs and burning off energy so they will sleep like rocks. (Hooray for sleepy rocks)

And Friday next is the FIRST DAY OF SPRING. (happy dance-happy dance)
I am excited because I am no great lover of Winter. The kids are excited b/c we can go outside to play more often and we're going to watch a tadpole grow into a frog. Aaron is excited b/c it'll be the first time I have shaved my legs since the first day of Winter.

Is it just me?

Or does everyone have that person in their life; the one you want to take by the shoulders and shake while you yell:
WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LOVE ME FOR WHO I AM?

yeah.
so that's on my plate now.
I'm going to art it out.

Meet Rhianna!

Hey! We adopted a dog. Because I am crazy. Crazy for chaos. Her name is Rhianna, she's a 2 year old english coonhound. She is sweet and gentle and AMAZING with the kids. She is also scared of the cats (they are pretty pleased with that).

Adrian is currently enamored of her. He talks to her, feeds her, trails after her and makes sure that she is never lonely. He is so enamored of her that this morning he didn't even turn the TV on. Fiona cries whenever Rhianna goes outside. Did I mention that this dog is housetrained? That right there is a whole bag of weasels I can completely avoid. So, she's keeping us entertained and we're making sure the kids don't love on her too much....And Aaron the self-proclaimed hater of dogs has said that he might like to get another coonhound in the future. (behold the miracle of a good dog!)

Mixing business and life

I try not to have too much crossover between my art blog & this one, but I have just open my etsy store and I am too excited to keep it in one place.
So go visit!
Or I will set an onery 4 year old upon you.

norabbitshere.etsy.com

Farewell!

Last Monday, when it was still February, we had some men come and cut down our pear tree. It was a decision I struggled with. I liked the free fresh pears. I loved that the kids would beg to go outside and watch as I manuvered the giant manual pear picker around the branches, searching for the perfect snack. I loved that they would eat and laugh and smell like pears for the rest of the day.
But I did not care for the the pears that would fall when the wind blew, and turn to jelly on impact. I did not enjoy the fact that your previous owner had let you grow untended and that most of your fruit was too high to reach, even with a 20 foot pole. I did not like the influx of mice brought to my attention by generous cats. I did not like the wasps which were territorial and covered the back half of the yard for three months.
So farewell to you giant pear tree. You were fun for a bit.

Adrian's quote of the day

"But, Mom, I always want to get what I want"

Don't we all, my son.
Don't we all.

Hello, stranger!

Hey! I have not been ignoring you! Not as such. I have been busy over here, and the kids have ensured that daily life isn't boring! Adrian was quite the hellion last week: he bit his sister, threatened to punch me "until you die", and generally explored the boundries of acceptable behavior and my patience. He IS still alive, and so are we all. Fiona has been exploring the world of negotiations, alternately declaring "no!" and "2 more minutes!" She is also trying to convince Lunchbox to be her bestest friend ever....

There was snow. Adrian & Aaron shoveled. I sat inside in the warm and played with Fion.

Fion's turn to play with snow! We brought it inside and set her up on a towel on the kitchen floor. I tried to show her how to make a snowman, but all she really wanted to do was eat it.

Hey February!

It's February! And we're enjoying a false spring! The temperature is above freezing and should be for a few more days. I'm so happy, I could cry!
But instead, I'll recap the past few weeks: with photos!

Fiona! Is huge! And looks more like my mom & her sisters every day. She is lovely and mostly good humored. And still insists: I need dogs. (God bless that girl!)

The snow has all melted, but when there was snow, Adrian took to balancing precariously on fallen branches.

And hey! the sparrows are back! Which means that real spring is approaching, even if we get more nasty cold & snow.

We are chugging along. Adrian only has 2 days of school this week, thanks to parent/teacher conferences and some other stuff. I am hoping that the warm will hold out long enough for us to take a trip to the zoo.

And Wenesday is Aaron's birthday. He's not a big birthday celebration kind of guy, but too bad for him because I am. There will be birthday dinner and birthday pudding (he doesn't like birthday cake), and birthday dancing. Mostly the kids and I will dance and he will watch and laugh.

48 hours. Of minor mayhem.

Hello to all!

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I love animals. I learned the unpleasant and hard way the ultimate truth of NOT caring for animals when I was in elementary school--they were hamsters. I regret that due to my ineptitude they became ex-hamsters sooner than they should have. But again, I was 9 and I learned a valuable lesson: domesticated animals can't take care of themselves.
We currently have 2 cats and I have been lobbying for a dog since Aaron and I got married.
I would say let's get a dog!
And he would say NO! I have been bitten by dogs! On the butt!
And I would say but that was years ago! And you do have a very cute tushie!
And he would say my tushie is quite awesome, but we're not getting a dog!
And I would say but I love dogs!
And he would say but they are terrifying--teeth out of nowhere!
Then I would list all the dogs with which he has had a good teeth-free relationship.
And he would go yeah, but we can't have a dog now because a) we have babies b) we are renting c) dogs are terrifying.

Well, we are no longer renting.
And Adrian is 4.
And the apple of his eye, Fiona Leigh, keeps saying "i need dogs". He has been outnumbered, outvoted, and has given in. (hooray!)
Thus the great dog search of 2009 has begun. Last night we went to the animal welfare league shelter. Rows upon rows of dogs, leaping at their cages, barking their fool heads off. The whole time, Adrian has his hands over his ears and Fiona is clapping her hands exclaiming "yay! dogs!". We met 3 dogs that we thought might be a good match. The first dog was a one and half year old male hound dog mix. He was the size we wanted and was reported to be good with cats and children. It was hard to tell because his tail was tucked between his legs the whole time, and the look on his face was "please don't hurt me". It was so sad. The second dog was a 4 year old female, she was friendly, playful and sweet...and had been handed over because she had snapped at her previous owner's child. And the last was a large male black lab. He was a giant spazz and kept knocking Fiona over. She didn't mind, but I could just see him inadvertently destroying the whole house.
So that trip was a wash. We looked again on petfinder and contacted a few rescue groups, but as Aaron says we aren't looking for A dog, we're looking for THE dog.

And then there was today. I went to the dentist. I like my dentist. Sadly, he only does root canals now....so I have a new dentist. He looks like a cross between Jason Bateman and Rod Stewart. But he filled a cavity and I'm scheduled to go back next Thursday and get 2 more filled. And then, because I have hit the dental jackpot! I have to get a root canal/crown and I need my wisdom teeth extracted in the next 12 months. I am a lucky lucky girl!

As a result of todays novacaine, I spent the better part of today looking like a lopsided chipmunk. Aaron spent the better part of today trying not to laugh at me. He was mostly successful.

Where oh where oh

Where did my safety glasses go?
I need them b/c I have some glass cutting and soldering to do.
I am crafty like ice is cold.

I love me some flamey burney hot molten metal.
(With appropriate safety precautions and emergency fire extinguisher at the ready)

Although there are days when the idea of walking around weilding a flamethrower does hold a certain appeal on a primal level.

Yeeee haw!

And other exclamations!
We are most pleased to see the era of Bush & Cheney to come to an end. Now maybe we can just get our soldier friends home (hi jesse!), make a little cash, and mend all of those damaged relationships across the globe.

A funny:
We were watching the inaugural proceedings on tv and every time Obama was on the screen Adrian anounced: There's our emperor!

I hate winter.

And Old Man Winter knows it. He's taking it personally. Let me say this: a high of negative 4 is not the way to win me over, Old Man.

Ice! And Snow! And frosty frosty doooooooom!
(Photographic evidence to follow)

Awesome.

Hey! It's really cold here. And there's snow. Lots of snow. And it's warmer in Oslo (Norway) than it is here. It's so cold, in fact, that they have cancelled school tomorrow. Enjoy some pictures of our snow, taken through the windows of our house.

The sunset out the dining room window. It was the most color we had all day.

This is the snow engulfing Adrian's tricycle, as taken through the kitchen window.

Our lamp post out front, wearing a hat of snow.

The railing on the front steps. Note the wicked looking icicle.

Winter white everywhere. brrrr.

Hey! It's 2009!

Farewell 2008--you were bittersweet, memorable, and left quietly.
No, really. This was the first year in the 4 that I've lived in Chicagoland that the New Year wasn't marked by gunfire. I love my new house. My neighbors rang in the year banging pots and pans. At this point, they could fling dog turds into my yard and I'd be ok with that because it doesn't involve firearms.
I am excited for 2009. New president! Adrian goes back to school Monday! Fiona turns 2! And I am a bread-baking fool. I love that book! Witness the first loaf from the oven:
It was delicious, smeared with marmalade. The kids had theirs with Nutella. And we ate the whole loaf. Nom nom nom.

From our family to yours:
May 2009 bring you awesomeness like...

trees made of playdoh and...

crazy hair.

Peace.