Goin' Out West

Photo episode

2011-12-03T22:22:00.001-08:00

In reverse. Here we are at bedtime tonight. Glowsticks were obtained at the light parade we went to earlier this evening. Isabelle if you look carefully is wearing a Minnie Mouse costume obtained at an impromptu trip to the thrift store today.

The parade was fun and we were smart because we got a parking spot close to the road and watched it all from the van instead of braving the snowstorm.

Here is Max, and no that's not dirt on his face. He is a kitty cat. Obviously.
James and Helena, a dog and a cat respectively. Looks like the cat captured a bird's nest.
This was a dance party instigated by Helena. It was hard to capture the mania since they move so fast!

So the Advent wreath. The kids helped me decorate it and I was proud to actually have all the candles BEFORE advent started. I believe this is a first. However I couldn't find the little brass ring candle holder to actually put it all together--well--until today that is. James wanted to me to take his picture but wasn't interested in standing still.

Awwww!!!
Sisters.

Good night.

Trick-or-Treat on Mainstreet

2011-12-03T21:56:00.001-08:00

I wrote a nice little blurb about Halloween but then deleted it. I'm having technological problems tonight. Here they are though, the pictures that is. Eric and I made all the hats in October. I may have finished the last one 30 minutes after the event started. Eric didn't believe I could but he must not understand my ability to crack down under deadline.
And look how snazzy and natural we are that we had roving ON HAND to make our beards. The down side to all that naturalness is the strong smell of sheep that is nestled occasionally up your nose. . .

Here we are L-R: Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Eric in back as Sneezy.

Max up there on the left as Dopey. He played the part well... Almost too well.

I wish we had a close-up of Sally she slept the whole time and was adorable in her little baby sized hat.

There are the kids running because, well, CANDY!!!!!!!!!

Everything was kinda crazy and overwhelming when we were there. Lot's of milling.

I really like my eyebrows.

Dabbling in the flower arts

2011-10-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post pictures for a while of the flower ladies' work. Sometime last year the position coordinating the Mass flowers opened up and I had secretly been wanting to try my hand at this job so I leaped at the opportunity. I had some ideas for increasing the scale of arrangements and after I took over I found myself in a position that came with LOTS of freedom. I scoured books on floristry from the library, including ILLs and certainly have learned a few tricks of the trade. Over the year a few other very talented women have joined in and every week we have a great time trying to create worthy arrangements for our Church. It's definitely been an awesome creative outlet, and a privilege to work with such wonderful artists who help bring all my visions to bloom (so to speak).

Small altar vase for mission church by Logan.

Offertory vase by Ceci.

Deconstruction.

Rosary table vase by Logan.

This one was being ornery for Sue.

Sue showing that freesia who's boss.

One of the main altar arrangements.

The more I learn the less I know

2011-10-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

I love how James knows when to tell me "I love you so much mommy," he's a pretty intuitive little boy.

It's funny how being a parent makes you a better parent. It's funny how before you have kids you kinda think you have an idea of how it all works. How you'll always be the picture of firm, yet loving, equability. And of course I am! ;)

I feel that having small kids is kinda like having manic depression, extreme highs and lows. The scary thing is how the ups and downs come in freakishly close succession-- seconds apart even. Right now is pretty high, Sally's chewing on my finger. Children are playing pleasantly. Laundry has a chance at getting finished. Much is right with the world.

As a parent you can never have too many bodily fluid stories

2011-10-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Around 3am this morning Isabelle crawled into our bed next to me. Around 5am she peed and got up and went over to Eric's side leaving me to roll into her puddle. . .hey, no fair! Eric left around 6am and I was awoken an hour later by the smell of poop. Somehow that smell always has the ability to jar me awake no matter how good the dream. Anyway, there was Max standing next to my bed with his exceedingly loaded diaper next to him on the floor. Thanks Max for letting me know! The third and final story also stars Max, who decided a good time to get on the table and pee all over it was when I was concurrently organizing our CD collection. I just looked at him and asked "why?'

Strict Constructionist

2011-09-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today Eric said to Max, "you have to have pants to go outside." Max took this quite literally and went to his drawer and obediently took out pants (and a shirt!) and carrying them walked outside.

Naked.

Stuff my kids do

2011-09-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking I'm going to start keeping track of the crazy things my kiddos do, I figured why not keep it here for the amusement of all. I'm trying to look at this list as therapy... perhaps it will keep me from losing my cool. :)

The latest escapade was a productive activity James and Max wanted do, which was to throw rocks off the porch. A seemingly harmless amusement until I realized their source for the rocks was my decorative hurricane glass that got smashed on the floor in order to empty it of its contents.

When questioned why, James pleaded that he only wanted to put the rocks in the garden.

Maybe I should actually call it "things my kids break."

To every season...

2011-09-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we drove up into the Jemez to see the damage. It was damp from recent rain and still smelled like char. I was surprised to see what burned and how and oh so sad to see all the recovered aspens were gone. Yesterday I was talking to Wayne (he works for the county and was there fighting the fire) about the fire and he said he hadn't really thought that there was going to be a chance this time for the town. Weird to know that in retrospect. Alls well that ends well?

I had an EKG the other day. That was a new and exciting thing. I was surprised how quick it was; it took longer to hook me up then to perform the test. Turns out I am in supremely good health. I mean, I thought so, right? Always nice to have confirmation. The reason for this was my midwife thought I had a funny sounding heartbeat. Apparently the explanation for that is that sometimes young people just have extra beats in there. Who knew?

boring bullet list of my day

2011-08-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Coffee
Arranged flowers with the cool Church ladies.
Packed vegetables with the cool foodnerds.
Ate some of said vegetables at lunch with cool kiddos.
Drank some more coffee.
Cleaned repulsive looking kitchen.
Processed beautiful cabbages, kale, and carrots to put up enormous keg'o'kraut.
Made large vat of granola.
Made wise decision to pick-up pizza.
Tried to justify pizza eating by topping purchased pizza with a salad.
Made white russians with Eric.
Tried to justify white russian by making it with kefir.
Just kidding!
Cuddled with lots of children while watching "Honey I shrunk the Kids."
Mused over feelings of nostalgia while watching "HISTK."
Put a wittle baby to bed while Eric wrangled other children (the benefits of having boobs).
Cuddled with Eric while watching embarrassingly bad movie... oh wait... that hasn't happened yet. . .

******************Goodnight!

A west wind, an atom of ocean

2011-08-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

Some days are just designed for breakfast burritos and today was just such a day. Bacon, ham, sausage, redways, greenways, hash no hash? Take your pick. I went out to grab one for Eric and me to split. The morning was cool, misty, damp, thanks to recent rains. I felt light and unattached going out by myself; almost like a college student, certainly not like a parent of five.

I like being out while others are still sleeping, there was a quiet camaraderie amongst the few coffeehouse patrons as we clasped warm paper cups full of liquid energy. Chorizo, green, mmm.

oh monday

2011-07-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while. I feel like getting back into it though so maybe friends will trickle back in.

Today was my first day home alone with all five little hornelings. I sensed some of my coming challenges with this episode. Everyone is out on the porch "painting" as we like to do with water and brushes. Isabelle spies some chicken "hoop" (aka poop) on the porch and thoughtfully mops it up with her brush. I see this from my nursing position on the love seat and tell her she needs to wash the poop off her brush before she can paint again. She comes over and sits down at my feet just out of reach and proceeds to paint chicken shit onto her feet. This, I can tell you, is as disgusting as it sounds, the poop was definitely fresh and had attractive bits of slimy white that is now sliding down Izzy's ankles. I yell out some wordless exclamation of horror, but Isabelle is calmly ignoring me and continuing to do what she does. As I said I was just out of reach and otherwise occupied which made manuevering difficult, so I decide to swipe for the brush and grab it but Izzy is holding tight and then suddenly lets go which just flings the wet brush across the porch showering Helena, Sally and me with the delightful mixture. At this point Helena and Sally start to cry and Isabelle pees on the porch.

Afternoon Showers

2009-09-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Things I like: eggs
Things I don't like: messing up my eggs so that the yolk breaks. I take a lot of pride in my ability to prepare eggs. Sometimes it can be crushing to my ego to mess up my flip.

Something else I like: the most awesome cake ever that I made yesterday. It's called Easiest Best Chocolate Mousse Cake. Mmmn...

Note the ingredients:

1 lb. bittersweet chocolate
2 sticks butter
8 eggs

Yeah, you read that correctly.

And I for one have died and gone to heaven. It even partly makes up for my badly fried egg.

September Silences

2009-09-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

Babies are sleeping for now, that is except, for Max. Maximilian for the last few days has just slept in snatches prefering instead to practice supermans, arm flapping, and rolypolies. I think he is pretty nice company though, whenever I look at him he grins at me with this huge open mouth, and a look of pure adoration. Who could resist that?

I haven't written anything in so long that every word I write looks funny as if it's misspelled. Eric has been begging me to start up the ole blog again, he thinks I don't hold up my end of the posting. Which is true. Sometimes though its hard to find things that I'd like to write about.

Mmm... I smell coffee brewing in the next room. Paul and Chip, a couple Youth Apostle friends of ours, stopped in to visit a couple weekends ago. They had this one cup coffee maker with them and left it in our care as they won't be needing it in the future. Both of them are becoming consecrated in the fall which is very exciting. And also good for us because the coffee maker brews some damn good coffee and it's fast. A whole lot faster than my trusty french press.

Tuesday was an interesting day. I was having a rough time with the babies, it seemed as if all four had been crying all day. Morale was low. I called Eric in desperation and he came home early from work, we all got in the Cobra and drove to Taos. It was my first time there and I loved it. So charming. We ate at this place called "The Love Apple" which was set in an old adobe church. They had mismatched glassware and flowers and Zucchini picked from their garden decorating the tables. I really enjoyed the setting and the food was fabulous too. All the food is locally grown and raised. They use traditional methods of preparing food (very Weston-Price) and everything was delicious. On our way back we stopped at Taos's natural food store and bought some grass fed beef and a few other tasties. The sun was setting over the Rio Grande gorge as we drove home and no one was crying anymore.

Thanks, Oscar!

2009-07-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up to find that our neighbor's cat, Oscar, had given us a gift... a dead bird for our porch! IU knew something was missing out there, I just thought we needed some flowers...

we haven't identified the bird yet, but hope to soon...

Oh, Hail no!

2009-07-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

At work today Logan called me on my cell phone. "Is it hailing where you are?" "No" "Well, it's hailing golf balls here." We live about a mile from the Church where I work. "Oh wait Logan, I see one just hit the ground. And another..." in about 2 minutes, it was coming down. Hard. I'd hate to have been stuck out there...

My office is in a building about the size of a double wide. There's the office part, and then the main room with couches, etc. I moved to the main part, and open the front door to watch the hail come down. it started pea size, then got gradually bigger... and bigger... it started ricocheting off the railing of our front step and shooting inside. I decided it would be wise to close the door at this point, no sense in getting unnecessarily bruised! I turned around just in time to see one of our skylights break. glass and hail started falling from the ceiling. There was now a basketball-sized hole in the ceiling, the hail was getting bigger, and the hole in the skylight was getting bigger. If you walked near the skylight, you'd get hit with hail. I played it safe. When it was over, I found some large hail that had fallen in the building. There was one that was literally the size of a golf ball that landed inside, but it split into two and melted before I took pictures.

I ventured outside once the danger had passed. It had been a nice day, but the temps had plummeted with the hail. Now they were back up, mid-80's, and the hail was melting fast. our car was... well, it will start. but the windshield is cracked, with at least 5 or 6 obvious impacts. Time to call our insurance... oh, what fun.

The skylight... note the clouds. The skylight is about 2 feet x 4 feet.
There are two layers to each skylight in the building. The five other skylights were broken on the outer layer, and this was the only one where the hail got all the way through.

found these little guys inside. they had already started to melt. There were bigger ones that fell outside, but these were the biggest I found after I started taking pictures.

Bourbon Milkshake

2009-07-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Milk
Ice Cream
Bourbon

Blend until frothy and delicious.

Tonight, ours was on the thinner side, I'll use less milk next time. When I discover an acceptable ratio, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I'm enjoying this nice summer evening, this nice summer evening bourbon delight, sleeping babies, and a wife who'll soon fall asleep with me as we cuddle and watch a movie. Praise God!

but where were the amber seas of grain?

2009-06-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

Logan and I took a nice drive with the newest babies down the hill to Española today. On the way down we caught the last gasps of breath of the setting sun, and it was spectacular. It is amazing how the same landscape can have so many different manifestations, depending on light, season, clouds, and whatever else makes this the land of enchantment.

Slot Canyon!!

2009-06-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

I went to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument today with some kids from my church. In addition to seeing some pretty sweet rock formations (from the volcanic rock in the area and way-cool erosion), we got to hike through a slot canyon.

They're way cool, but you gotta be wary of the weather... a sudden heavy rain could be deadly.

see that little crack in the rock? It's about 1/3 up from the bottom and 1/3 from the left edge of the photo. That's the slot canyon we hiked through, then hiked up to the top of the mesa, then were greeted with 360 views of NM. You can see some of the formations for which the Nat'l monument is named (they look like tents... or at least upside down ice-cream cones...) The tent rocks were interesting, but it was the slot canyon that stole my heart.

Scrunchy

2009-06-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

James has started to make the same face every time he realizes you're taking his picture. He thinks the flash is going to go off, so he scrunchees his face pre-emptively, whether or not you have the flash on.

New Carpet!

2009-06-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

Out with the old, in with the new. Logan's pick, but I like it too.

Helena likes to climb

2009-06-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

maybe in a few decades, helena

2009-06-04T19:32:00.001-07:00

sooooo... funny story. At night, Logan keeps her breast pump at the foot of our bed for easy access. In the morning, Helena and James usually come storming into our room, full of smiles or tears, depending on whether or not James has woken Helena by ripping her hair out (it happens). One recent morning, we were all hanging out in our bed as a family, I had gotten up to do one thing or another, and I notice Helena starting to take off her clothes. This isn't unusual, as she likes to play dress-up, and sometimes plays dress-down. Well, things start to get hilarious, and awkward, as she, naked but for a diaper, picks up the pump cups and holds them up to her own chest, and turns on the pump. Um, yes Helena, that's what they're for. But not for babies, for mommies.

She also loves to hold the babies, though can be a bit distracted. We hold Helena and the help her hold the babies, and while sometimes she stays focused, it's good to have your own arms as a backup when she decides that the bird outside the window is more exciting than her little brother or sister. She's so very... maternal. It's wonderful!

green oatmeal

2009-05-27T07:22:00.001-07:00

We're not the type of parents to disguise vegetables in otherwise tasty dishes, because vegetables are tasty by themselves. I mean, you should see our kids eat asparagus.
However, Helena simply will not eat an avocado in any way, shape, or form. even in tasty guacamole dip form, it's a no go. There are two ways we have discovered to have her eat what everyone else in our family fights over. They are to hide the avocado in smoothie or oatmeal form.
This morning we had green oatmeal, and it was tasty! yum yum time at our table, and toddlers asking for more. Helena was so proud and happy to finish her oatmeal this morning... hahaha! the joke's on her!

Christmas in May

2009-05-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

When I was little, I could never go to sleep on Christmas Eve, even though I knew that if I did that Christmas would "come sooner." Close your eyes, open them, and voila! Presents!

But I would stay awake and read, or just lay in bed staring at the wall. Right now I feel the same way, but instead of Christmas it's Max coming home from the Hospital. Except while Christmas comes no matter what, we're still not 100% sure Max will be coming home Sunday. He needs to a) pass his car seat test (he's doing that right now... or at least sometime during night shift) and he also needs to b) not have any serious Apnea events, which would mean an automatic longer time in the hospital.

And here I am, up later than I thought I would be, anxious about the wonderful present we will receive into our home tomorrow. At least, that is our hope and prayer, and that Isabelle will follow soon after.

adventures in diaper changing. and barack obama.

2009-05-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Logan and I were visiting Max and Isabelle in the NICU last night, and Isabelle was due up for a diaper change. At least, she smelled like it. When I checked her diaper, there was the tiniest smidgen of a poopy smear, but nothing significant. Oh well, all that stink but no substance, I thought. I wiped her little teeny bottom clean, which must have triggered something inside of her, because that was directly followed by explosive, projectile poo. All over my hand, and my protective yellow hospital gown (for once I was happy to have one), and her bassinet, and the blankets inside her bassinet, and the wires, and the cart the bassinet was on... wowee, you wouldn't think such a small package could have such great range. the girl isn't even 5 lbs yet!

Well, we got cleaned up, and started to head home. it was around midnight. the curious thing was, all the roads on the way to the highway were blocked off by police cars. that's strange, we thought. the first one we thought was an accident, but there were only cop cars. the next three streets as we drove parrallel to the highway also had cops blocking them. finally, we came to a stop as there were cops blocking our street. what was this all about? Oh yeah! Barack Obama was in town! All this hullaballoo was for him as he made his way from Kirtland AFB to wherever it is that presidents sleep in Albuquerque (the presidential suite at the embassy suites?) After a ten minute wait, we saw the President's motorcade, full of motorcycles and police cruisers and decoy limos and... ambulances? huh. traffic soon got underway again, and we finished off our early-interrupted 100 mile drive back to Los Alamos...

she sees flowers where everone else sees weeds

2009-05-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Our backyard has a veritable carpet of dandelions. It's awesome to look out in the early morning and see them all closed up, then to watch as they open with the rise of the sun... from green to gold. i know they're weeds, but they certainly are beautiful weeds. in the meantime, our front yard looks like a jungle as we just haven't had the time, resources, or energy to do anything about it. The lilacs and columbine are blooming, though... and some other trees that i don't know the name for that Logan could tell you. pictures soon, I hope.

Max and Isabelle

2009-04-29T23:58:00.001-07:00

For your viewing pleasure, we have some pics from Logan's mom's blackberry. I was silly and in my rush packing everything up before heading down to Albuquerque, I wasn't able to find our camera. it's okay, though... until today the babies had all kinds of breathing tubes and stuff, didn't make for very cute pictures. they are off those machines now, which is great. The tube in Isabelle's nose is her feeding tube. Whatever she can't eat on her own goes down that way... you can also see an IV on her hand.

If you are in the neighborhood, we'll take visitors...

partly cloudy with a chance of baby.

2009-04-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

So, I had made a yummy breakfast, slaving over a hot stove (really just stirring their cereal every now and then...) and it was time to eat. James was around, but Helena was not in the kitchen, so I go searching. She's not in the living room, not hiding under the table... the doors to the bathroom, office, and guest room are all closed.

I check our bedroom. No Helena. I check the babies' room. No Helena. Hmm... maybe she was hiding in another room? As I turn to walk back down the hall, I hear a sound from inside the babies' room. Aha! She's hiding! Not many places to hide in there. I check behind the door, no Helena. I hear a small sound again coming from the closet. The closet! of course. The closet door is usually closed, which makes it playtime promised land. all that fun stuff to play with, like outgrown clothes and carseats, which are all about to get some use again very soon.

I curse myself for leaving the door to the closet open, when I realize it's possible they opened it themselves: James can open doors now, after a sustained effort. These are the thoughts going through my head as I navigate across the toy-strewn floor, which are interrupted by Helena making her appearance: not, as I thought, hiding on the floor, but rather flying out of the closet from a few feet off the ground. It was raining babies! Helena landed in a pile of 6 mo. onesies and plastic Easter eggs without a sound, and looked thouroughly shocked. She had been climbing up the boxes of old clothes, and was no worse for the wear, just a little surprised.

What do April Snowstorms bring?

2009-04-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

New Mexico weather confuses me...

are you sure you're insured?

2009-04-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

Sooooo... funny story, that set me on edge for about 24 hours but has a happy ending:

We recently received our bill for our auto insurance, postmarked 4/10, but due 3/13!!! the next day, we received a notice from the insurance company letting us know that since we hadn't paid our bill, we were no longer covered... gaaah!

Well, after speaking with our agent, it seems there were a number of problems, none of which was our fault (except maybe one). We got our auto insurance before we bought the house, when we lived in our temporary apartment. When we bought our house, we got it insured with the same company. What was supposed to happen was they were supposed to take our new address and change it for our car policy. well... that didn't happen. Our agent tried to call my cell phone when he got the bill returned in the mail, but apparently couldn't get through, or the number was wrong. unfortunately, we never gave him our new home number, which would have solved things. It's very possible that he called while my cell phone was on the fritz, but we'll never know.

Anyway, to make a long story short, our agent assured us we hadn't lost our coverage, he has all the proper phone numbers, and everything is hunky dory. Don't you just love a happy ending?

I'm dreaming of a white Easter...

2009-04-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

So, I woke up this morning to find... It was snowing! Holy Cow! This is April, do the NM weather gods know that? This is Easter weekend, do they know THAT? Anyway, the neighborhood birds have been very grateful for our birdfeeders... Juncos, House Finches, Spotted Towhees have all been hanging around the feeders. In our yard this morning we also had at least 8 individual robins, a pair of mourning doves, and two as-yet unidentified birds...

In the meantime, preparations for the resurrection continue. H. and J. enjoy helping me sweep and vacuum, although I doubt you could call it "help."

There is a castle in the backyard...

2009-04-10T12:55:00.001-07:00

Little Exhibitionists Pic

2009-04-10T12:52:00.001-07:00

little exhibitionists

2009-03-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

Today I managed to be home for the latter half of the afternoon, which was fantastic. There were two cute babies running around in their diapers... until Helena loaded hers with pee and it started drooping... then it started dropping... then she cut herself free from the bonds of pampers and ran around butt naked and loving it. Logan and I laughed and laughed, she was just too cute with her little bottom running spastic around the house. Well, James must have been jealous of the attention we gave her, for as I was putting another diaper on the little ball of energy, he came out from around the couch with nothing on but his birthday suit. "hey, look at me! I can be naked and cute too!" then he ran off to the back of the house to attend to important things... like play with blocks.

naked.

Babies are like Goats

2009-03-25T18:10:00.001-07:00

Babies are like goats... they'll eat anything. Yesterday Helena and James discovered that the leaves of our ficus come off when you pull on them. In addition to us discovering leaves in various random places throughout our home, the little kiddies tried to eat them. When Helena tried to put a leaf in her mouth, I sternly told her no. She proceeded to try to replace the leaf by holding it up to the plant again, hoping it would somehow reattach...

in other news, it seems that many of our friends are either pregnant now or recently gave birth. Babies are contagious, I guess.

pocket full of memories

2009-03-22T09:46:00.001-07:00

Our lilacs are starting to bud, and I can't wait for spring. We keep getting teaser weather followed by gloom and wind. I really want to go outside and work in my garden and am frustrated that instead I'm confined to looking out the window at all the work that needs to be done.

I'm listening to Jason Mraz right now, I have been organizing our CD collection, and found this relic of 2002. I think it's Eric's, which was surprising to me, doesn't really seem like his type of music. I don't even like JM that much, but I do like that he is from Mechanicsvilles and so I feel closer to home listening. Also, I have really funny memories of Elizabeth Sieb when I hear it too. . .

Mary Rothlisberger dropped in on us the other day with her friend Lisa. She called our house phone, and I almost didn't answer because the number looked like a telemarketer's. I'm glad I did answer; there was a girl claiming to be Mary on the line. The only thing was I didn't recognize her voice or believe her at all when she said she was in Los Alamos. I thought it was some crazy person who had stalked us via our blog. It was really funny when we finally figured it all out; we got to catch up for a couple hours before she left as quickly as she had come. Seeing her made my day.

I had a nice weekend with Helena and James, they were in good moods, which was nice considering James has been rather a pill lately. Eric was gone leading a confirmation retreat, but some ladies from church brought some food over and Caryn K. came by and played with H&J saturday afternoon. So the weekend has gone by without a hitch and I'm alright with that.

This is a boring post. But not too much happens when you're in bed all day.

Playground fun

2009-03-10T08:05:00.001-07:00

Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop and an illustrated book about birds...

2009-03-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

We have a new bird feeder in our backyard. So far, I've seen at least three different species, although one is unidentifiable as yet. House Finches, Dark-eyed Juncos, and the mystery bird.

We thought we would install the bird feeder after the late finch who died such a tragic death. Hopefully his birdie soul will find peace through our actions... and birdseed. There's plenty to go round.

It is now Spring, and in New Mexico that means wind. Lots and lots and lots of wind. It's kind of miserable, really. Who wants to go outside when it's windy? the cold is tolerable, even in a t-shirt for short trips out to the garbage can. But wind? Bah. I say bring on Summer!

The Cain and Abel of the bird world

2009-02-28T22:09:00.001-08:00

One of our finches (Lil Jon) killed the other one (Robin Hood). He had been picking on him (pecking on him?) for quite awhile now. This is the end of six weeks of abuse, during which he had lost most of his feathers and had suffered several bloody attacks. We think they (the two males) were fighting over the female, Beyonce, their sister.

Today, after returning from a trip all around the state, we found poor little Robin Hood mangled but still living, breathing slowly and hiding in the food bowl. His eyes were swollen shut and his face was bloody.

We transferred him to his own box, to try to nurse him back to health. While we were watching him and pondering what we should do, he fluttered his wings one last time, stretched out his legs and died before our eyes. It was a sad moment in our house... you feel bad for the little guy getting picked on. I showed the dead bird to Helena and James, and it is hard to tell what they thought. They acted differently than how they normally react when I show them a bird in my hands, worth two in the bush. They normally are interested and fascinated, and they still were with he dead bird, but in a different way, yet it was clear they had no idea what had actually happened.

Robin Hood is laying in state tonight, and a backyard funeral is planned for tomorrow. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you make a donation to your local chapter of "STOP Bird-on-Bird Violence NOW!" (SBOBViN)

"Happiness Attracts"

2009-02-24T23:20:00.000-08:00

When asked about his strategy for increasing vocations in his new Archdiocese, Soon-to-be-Archbishop of NY Timothy Dolan said "Happiness Attracts." As I read that in the NYT, his words struck a chord in my heart and in my mind. I feel that we are here "Out West" for more than just a few reasons. One of them is to live the life we are called to, and be examples for others. If there is one thing about the way someone lives that is convincing of the fact that the person in question has "got it right," it is their genuine happiness.

pics from fun in the sun

2009-02-22T21:44:00.001-08:00

food and sun

2009-02-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

I think that if I were rich I would have a personal chef. I like cooking a lot, but somethings I want to eat are beyond me. Not that I couldn't make them I just don't have that kind of energy right now to make gourmet fare everyday and you know-- I really wouldn't mind having savory crepes for lunch everyday followed by dinner of elaborately cooked meats in exceedingly complex rich sauces. I'd really not mind at all.

Yesterday here was pretty lovely, Eric and I hung out on our front steps and watched the babies explore. It was so warm that I was barefoot, and the sun felt so nice. I'm very much ready for spring, actually I'd skip spring and head right to summer. Enough of this cold already bring on the tank tops! Supposedly Springs in New Mexico aren't that pleasant. Capricious weather and extreme winds. I guess I'll always be longing for those idyllic Mary Washington azalea fests in April.

Eric made me delicious pancakes this morning. I can't stand to watch him make them because he never measures things properly, but I must admit his pancakes are always dynamite. He might be the next best thing to a gourmet chef I get so maybe I shouldn't give him such a hard time about how he measures flour.

Vegetable Vaccuum

2009-02-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

My daughter's mouth is a veritable vaccuum for all things green. broccoli, asparagus, spinach, peas, kale, chard, if you put it on her plate, she'll suck it right up. it's amazing the speed of her hand from her plate to her mouth when there are anitoxidants to be had.

Free Hugs

2009-02-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

H. and J. have learned to hug, and it's adorable. In the kitchen, in my arms at Mass, playing on the floor, it's a hug-fest here out West. Even cuter was the 3yr old that H. made friends with after Mass today, a little boy who loved to hug as much as she did. In addition to hugs, each of our children now can give normal kisses, not those silly open-mouthed slobbery ones they've only been able to give until now.

Out with the old, in with the new (furnace)

2009-02-12T19:32:00.001-08:00

The men came by today and installed our new furnace, which is good on many levels. first, the old one was the original furnace, installed improperly by the construction company in such a way that all the furnaces they installed were in constant danger of blowing up. yes, blowing up. we weren't too keen on the fire hazard. (explosion hazard?) also, the old one was really loud, and made many bangs, clangs, and booms, just to keep you guessing when the explosion would happen. also, the blowers didn't circulate the heat very well, and half the house was always 10 degrees colder than the rest. Today, we found out from the manly men who installed our furnace that the weak blowers were a good thing, because they kept the carbon monoxide from circulating, thus keeping us alive.

The new furnace is whisper quiet and heats the house perfectly. yay :)

also, we got pie to go from a local diner to eat for dessert. the bag seemed rather heavy for two slices of pie, and I was pleased to discover that while Logan's slice was a normal size, mine was 1/4 of a 10 inch pie. needless to say, we shared.

but not with the babies.

spoon fighting

2009-02-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

As they have grown up, we have had to place the babies' chairs further apart. If they are too close, one might steal from the other (peas! let me have some of yours!) or one might try to unload something they don't like onto the other's tray. today they learned how to bridge that gap.

Breakfast for the babies is usually eggs or oatmeal, and maybe a little fruit. Both are easy to make, although the oatmeal can get a little messy. Today I had my back to the babies as they ate their oatmeal, and I heard the clink clink of silverware coming together. Turning around, I see the babies have each reached across the divide and are are pirates dueling on the gangplank, or knights on the field of battle, or whatever it is they were imagining. (probably something along the lines of "hey, let's hit spoons together!")

A baby rump, and a baby belly (cross-wise)

2009-02-10T11:38:00.001-08:00

On the left, we have Baby A, mooning the world On the right we have Baby B, looking like a cut of ham.

Extravagant gesture: take two

2009-02-08T08:59:00.001-08:00

Wow, so we're having twins again! That seems pretty big. We're still trying to wrap our heads around the concept. I pulled out my multiples nutrition and birth book from off the shelf this morning and flipped through it looking for reminders as to how much more protein I need every day etc. (it's a lot). While I was skimming, I came acrosss a chapter that I found amusing. It was on the myriad of reactions that people usually feel after finding out they are carrying multiples.
They said typically, women (and men), go through four stages: Shock-- Denial-- Anxiety/Anger/Depression--Acceptance/Adaption. (It's interesting these are also the stages of grief and mourning).

I tried to recall my feelings from my first pregnancy and I think that it is quite possibly true that I went through a period where I felt all of these emotions distinctly. This time though I think I went a lot more quickly to the acceptance and adaption stage. I don't think that that is necessarily because I've been through it before and am thence prepared. I just think that what else can you really do. Leading up to the ultrasound I perhaps felt more anxiety, but the second I saw those two little heads I moved very quickly past emotion to "well that is that." I felt peaceful and a strong sense that God will provide for us as he always has done. Everything that needs to be done will be done and we will be blessed once again with two more babies that we will love and care for and who will bring exceeding joy and poop into our lives. Perhaps this peace was only due to the holy hour I made before the sonogram, but I am grateful for it.

who wants chowda?

2009-02-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

This is reality in our home right now.

WARNING: Explicit Content

2009-02-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

So... last night was crazy. Helena was very upset before bed, almost to the point of being inconsolable. We chalked it up to teething, and perhaps the strange acidic number 2 she dropped in her drawers right before bed. Bedtime went off without a hitch, and life continued as usual.

Until she woke up crying at 5AM...

Logan: "I think Helena's diaper is overflowing, could you grab another diaper?"

See, this isn't usual, but not unheard of. Sometimes they pee alot at night... While I'm getting the diaper from the next room I hear:

Logan: "Um... you'd better come get her..."

It seems as though the overflow was not urine-related, but was rather more sinister. And the sinister stuff was leaking out all over Helena's legs, the sheets, the comforter, and Logan. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. I get to work on the diaper aspect, Logan gets to work on the sheets. James gets to work on waking up and crying, and Helena gets to work on being a sad little miserable girl with diarrhea the consistency of pudding made from texas chili. See, the chili was the previous night's dinner, and I swear Helena must have eaten almost as much as I did. We surmise it was now tearing through her poor little innards, and we promised to never again repeat our mistake.

H. got a nice dip in the tub, Logan continued work on the sheets, and James, well he kept crying. Eventually everyone was clean and dry (except for James' eyes, pobrecito) but the bed was still poopy, so we decided to retreat to the guest bed (a double bed; we usually sleep in our King size swedish bed.... ahhhhh....) We hadn't all slept in that bed in several months, and the babies are decidedly larger now. It was tight. And James liked to kick. And Logan had to wake up in 30 min. to go to work. Who needs an alarm clock when you've got texas chili?

Things are calmer now, a night later. the babies are asleep in the guest bed, as our king bed is getting another treatment of stain removal. After a day of airing out, the smell was still lingering...

In other news, almond milk helps contribute to an excellent white russian.

1st Haircut!

2009-01-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

Compare to his shaggy mane in the pics below. Also, those are dad's hands doing the cutting... Logan couldn't bring herself to do it.

sleeping like a baby

2009-01-27T12:33:00.001-08:00

Three words: Chocolate. Covered. Bacon.

2009-01-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

tempus fugit

2009-01-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

it's been a while since the last post. more pics coming soon. In the meantime, there's still snow on the ground, and here's a funny story from Mass today:

Fr. John Carney, our pastor (and only resident priest) related a story from last week's coffee and doughnuts after the 9:00 Mass. Someone came up to a parishioner manning the right to life table, and said that the church should keep it's nose out of politics. After relating this story, Fr. John said:

"Well, politics should keep it's nose out of theology! The sacredness of Life from conception til death is a matter of theology, as is the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. We'll never shut up! Not until these issues aren't issues any more. Put that in your coffee and drink it, whoever you are!"

Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. or, in our case, they were laid by the wood burning stove with care. The far left stocking is for the new baby. It wasn't stuffed.

Our little drummer boy on X-mas morning, not sure what to do with all this stuff.

Cool! ornaments! let's grab them!

Daddy made some sock monkeys for his babies.

The aftermath

More snow, cuddly babies, and boxes are the best toys

2008-12-23T19:40:00.000-08:00

So here are some random pictures from today. First, it's been snowing for the past 24 hrs. Here are the Jemez Mts. in the snow.

Second, James gets very cuddly mid morning and midafternoon. He's doesn't fall asleep, his nap times are different. He just wants to cuddle with his daddy.

and the babies had a blast playing with a box today. so much fun!
Helena is inside this box, they're playing peek-a-boo through the handle hole.

And a final video for your enjoyment:

Birdies!

2008-12-18T09:29:00.000-08:00

There were three new additions to our house yesterday. One of the teens from the church was giving away some finches in anticipation of going off to college. here they are in all their finchy glory:

Like father and mother, like son and daughter

2008-12-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

The babies love to climb. They'll climb anything: chairs, bookshelves, tables. They can't quite make it into bed yet. Airports are particularly fun because there's so many tables and chairs in the waiting areas. I put together a short photo essay on the amazing climbing babies. keep in mind that no parental help was given at any time (except when Helena wanted to get down)

Step 1: getting up. This generally involves grabbing something with your hands and then hoisting your butt up as high as it will go, hoping your knees or feet can get some purchase on something.

Step 2: Pointing at Daddy and laughing. Hey kid, don't brag. I can do it too, you know. I just don't fit between the shelves.

Step 3: Try to get down, realize you can't, and laugh some more.

Step 4: Turn into James. Lounge like a monkey in a tree.

Step 5: scoot right off!

that wasn't so hard, was it? Next time, Helena, I expect you to do it all by yourself. Also, pick up your toys, both of you!

snowy skies

2008-12-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and the day before it snowed, but those were insignificant amounts that soon melted. Today it snowed steadily alllllllll day. In the last two hours I think 3 inches accumulated on our balcony rail. Furthermore! It is supposed to continue snowing till Friday-- we're going for around 20 inches here. As of right now there is no more than a two hour delay for schools and the lab (that's with at least six inches already down and no sign of letup). What?! If this was Northern Virginia the county would be peeing its pants right about now. The world would shut down and the supermarkets would be devoid of tp and bread.

I (Logan) for one am enjoying the snow. So far. :) When Eric got back from work today we bundled up, babes and all, and went for a walk. We were intending to go a few blocks down the hill to visit the Kohlrusts, but we never made it more than a few houses down because we met some of our other friends who were outside shoveling. We stopped to chat and pet their dogs and soon they brought out their sleds and showed us their sledding hill in the empty lot next to their house. We had so much fun sledding with Helena and James! I'm not quite sure if they had as much fun as we did. . .

Finally we were all frozen and decided to head back home for some hot mulled cider. A very nice time. We joked about it being so cold on the way home, that we're not used to it being snowy and so bitter--just under freezing is all you need for snow in Va. Now we know we're just a bunch of wimps about the cold.

The snow stopped for a few hours Tuesday morning, but it has started falling again, soft and heavy.

Anyway, enjoy the pics from the snow.

Our Deck after 3-4 inches of snow. Taken Monday around 5PM.

Our deck Tuesday Morning. How many inches is that? 12? 14?

"Um... what's all this white stuff? It's cold!" Our neighbor's driveway. They had just shovelled 15 minutes ago...

Helena and Eric sledding. Eric needs to learn how to steer...

Dancin' Babes

2008-12-01T15:03:00.001-08:00

The babies love dancing, and we finally caught it on tape! Enjoy these two. In James' video, I think he decided to quit dancing to go play Backgammon with Helena...

and a bonus video: Helena playing dress-up with my coat:

Snow!

2008-12-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

Apparently, it snowed whilst we were in NY for Thanksgiving, then melted away. We got maybe 1/2 an inch the night we returned, but that's mostly gone except for the part of our deck that never sees sun.

And, just to reiterate the previous post, today I lifted my arms to get something, and Helena got a glimpse of my belly button and went berserk, in a happy, giddy way.

belly your neighbor

2008-11-20T17:54:00.001-08:00

Helena is obsessed with belly buttons. Hers, yours, her brother's, it doesn't matter. If it's a navel, she'll play with it. First she finds it, lifting your shirt up a little bit. Then she plays with it with her index finger, smiling and laughing the whole time. Sometimes she'll blow raspberries on you, other times she'll hug your belly like it was a dear friend.

It's great to watch them grow in intelligence from day to day. Each day it seems like they are more interact-able. We play fun games, read stories, and eat good food together.

Life is good.

Up to my throne

2008-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

We have an armchair that James has taken to climbing into and sitting, but only when the seat cushion is removed. He never liked sitting in it until he stained the seat cushion, and we took the cover off in order to wash it. While the cushion was gone, James found that the new, lower seat height was just right for climbing into and proudly sitting in the cushionless chair.

When the cushion got put back, he found the chair too high to climb into, and now whenever he wants to sit in the chair he labors to remove the cushion as big as he is so he can climb into the chair and once again sit proudly.

He watches from his mountain walls

2008-11-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

Every so often I am privileged enough to witness the sunrise over the Sangre de Christo mountains. Before the time change and our move, Logan saw them often, but I am only up once a week or so.

This morning it was glorious. A front came through last night, and there was a curtain of gray across the Eastern sky. The peaks of the mountains disappeared into the clouds, but there were places the Sun could peek through, deep orange and red overflowing its gray walls and pouring out to meet me. I drove the longer way to work with the better views so I could take it all in.

veggies!

2008-11-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

Well, very exciting news-- we finally got hooked up with a vegetable coop that delivers fresh local produce to us every monday. The produce has been really great so far, we've had two deliveries. Really fresh, and its fun because its a surprise what you get every week. They only collect from local farms so all the food has to be seasonal so you don't get any tomatoes around now, but you do get bok choi. We're lucky here in New Mexico though because there is a really diverse growing season-- in the south it stays warm pretty much throughout the winter. I'm excited to get on the eating seasonally/locally bandwagon. The more I read about it the more important it seems to take these small steps in the local foods direction. And its far more important than just eating organic food. When I signed up for the coop they had a little questionnaire that polled: "Would you rather purchase organic apples flown in from California, or local apples from a small farm in Albuquerque? " I thought that was an interesting question to pose to people who wanted to join their coop.

Wacky weather

2008-11-05T10:40:00.001-08:00

Man we're having a crazy storm today. It's freezing cold and alternating dark, windy, and snowing, with bursts of cheery sunshine. We've seen rain, snow, and sleet today. Not much is sticking though. Anyways, a good day to stay warm indoors and make some yummy soup.

Chutes and Ladders

2008-11-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

Los Alamos just built a new skate park in front of the public library. There was some controversy over the location, with many vocal opponents at city council meetings. I don't see how it's a bad thing, the Library is close to downtown and across the street from a park. The skaters hardly interrupt anybody.

In any case, we went to play on the adjacent playground, and watched the skaters. For Helena and James, it was the first time we had been to a playground that they could truly appreciate. Helena proved herself to be the more daring, practically diving down the slide. James warmed up to it eventually, but Helenas thoroughly enjoyed herself.

It was a good day.

rare little rose, piece of inmost horticultural art

2008-11-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last night was Halloween. Los Alamos has a "Trick or Treat on mainstreet," where every kid in town goes trick or treating around the several businesses downtown. It's quite the event, nobody goes around the neighborhood until that event ends around 7. We only had 4 or 5 groups of kids come to our door between 7 and 9. Logan and I speculate that many people don't give out candy because they figure the kids get enough from mainstreet. Also, we didn't see any teenagers or middle schoolers, which was strange, because I know for a fact that there are several that live on our street. My guess is they focus on certain neighborhoods, especially the more well-to-do areas. There is a house in one neighborhood that gives out Godiva chocolate. According to the teens I work with, people come up from towns 30 and 40 minutes away in order to hit up that houses and others like it.

We also had our friend Jeff over. The idea was we could play games and give out candy together, although the dearth of costumed visitors meant we pigged out on the smarties and snickers ourselves. It was good to chat and play games and drink Sangria.

Episode IV: A New Home

2008-10-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

We have bought a house! We don't have internet there yet, but soon. The babies love it, we love it. It's cute, but big enough for our family. God is good.

The Bonsai adventure begins!

2008-10-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Inspired by several trips to the National Arboretum, and sidelined from Rock Climbing while my knee heals/recovers/stays the same, I am intrepidly undertaking a new hobby: Training bonsai trees!

it's a slow process, but i've taken the first step: getting a tree. Two, actually. One's more of a shrub right now, but with a little patience and diligence (virtues I often lack, and hope to cultivate through bonsai) both will grow into great looking bonsai.

in the pictures: The little shrub is a flowering quince, and the tree is a trident maple.

Helena's Scrunchy face caught on film!

2008-10-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Reddening the sun with smoke; or, smells like bacon and SUVs

2008-10-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

As we didn't bring much furniture with us across the country, some parishioners have been very kind and have donated things such as chairs, bookshelves, and a dresser. The guy who gave us the dresser delivered it the other night with his friend while I was in the kitchen cooking bacon. Logan was at first confused when he showed up at our door, because he is a cop and was still in his uniform. His buddy was another cop. We weren't in trouble with the law, they only wanted to give us a dresser. After it was moved into our apartment, I thought I would be neighborly and offer some of our food that I had just finished cooking... "Hey, do you guys want any bacon?" They accused me (in jest) of making a cop joke in poor taste, and we all had a good laugh.

Today we have just returned from a grocery trip to Santa Fe. As there is only one grocery store in Los Alamos (Well, two, but they are both Smith's) If you want anything special or something that Smith's doesn't have, you have to drive to Santa Fe. Our itinerary included four different natural food stores (different sales, stock, etc. you see.) Upon exiting the first, we found that a huge SUV had done a horrible parking job next to us. It was a foot over the line, and about a foot and a half away from our car. Our passenger side door bore the marks of a huge ding obviously caused by the urban assault vehicle's Driver door. It was ridiculous, we had to put both babies in the car from the other side because we couldn't squeeze in on that side. Some people. I contemplated writing a note, but thought that it would be useless, as the driver already knows he or she did a horrible parking job. There was about five feet of space on the other side of the car, no exaggeration. We weren't unnaturally close the the line, we were spot on in the center. The other guy had to know it was horrible, either through banging up our car upon exit, or after returning to his car and seeing how it was taking up the better part of two spaces.

We shrugged it off and got lunch at a mediocre buffet, then proceeded on to whole foods and trader joe's. At trader joes, we pulled into our spot and parked, then noticed that the car directly in front of us was the same monstrosity that had parked so poorly only an hour before! They must have been on the same natural foods tour we were. We recognized the people getting in the car as customers from the first store, so we are pretty certain that it was the culprit. Logan ran in to the store and I stayed with our sleeping babies as I watched them load their car, and leave their cart in an empty space next to them (their parking job this time was ok). I couldn't believe they would just leave a cart in the middle of the parking lot, when the store was just twenty yards away! Some people. sheesh.

In other news, the population of our apartement is going to double over the weekend, as my family will be in town. We'll see how that works out, space-wise.

How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise

2008-10-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

The babies are becoming generous, offering to help out in their own special way. The other day I arrived home from work, and James toddled over to greet me. He gave me a hug and then showed me what was in his mouth (a piece of pita he was working on). He stuck out his tongue, and was very proud of the fact that he had pita, then the mushy half-chewed pita fell onto my leg. James sauntered off, happy to give his father a gift. Thanks James. This morning he also tried to feed Helena the bits of food he found on the ground after breakfast. yummy.

Helena helps out, too. Just yesterday I was changing James, who had given me a rather large gift in his diaper. Helena went for the baby wipes, which she loves. I managed to get them from her before she pulled them all out, but she still got a few to play with. I continued to clean James up, and Helena decided she would help. Squatting down next to James, she took a wipe in her hand and started to dab at his nether region. Thank you Helena! But I think I can handle this myself...

Photos are here!

2008-10-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Lots has been going on here. For one thing I've been on a really big cooking kick, which has resulted in some tasty delights. I was most proud of my homemade potato bread which was a hit around this place. Also, I finally made cream cheese (I've been scared to try it) and now have some whey so I can try my hand at culturing something, anything! Other cooking ventures were not as successful, for example-- my hommus. I really like garlic you see, so I thought if I just added five cloves of garlic instead of the three called for, then it would taste super delicious--right? Eric still won't kiss me, 24 hours and many tooth brushings later. The face the babies made was priceless.

Next project, PESTO!

Here is my beautiful basil plant I bought for the occasion:

Next up in our strange and unusual lives, Eric's knee decided to develope a swelling the size of a grapefruit above it. This is apparently quite painful, so painful infact, that Eric actually went to the doctor to see what it was about. The doctor ordered xrays and speculates that it's either bursitis or some sort of inflammatory arthritis. We're hoping its not the latter because that would not be very fun. Today we get to go to back to the doc to have the thing drained, I'm hoping I get to watch!

Finally some baby action-- cuteness from last night's bath. Enjoy!

we will no longer roam

2008-10-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

There are a number of Arizona Ashes surrounding the Smith's parking lot, and as I walked home from the bus stop this evening, the leaves were crisp and rippling off of branches as the wind disturbed their peace. I got caught in a rain yellow, the clear sounds of fall all around me as I continued home. The sound of skittering leaves faded as I walked through the ghost town strip mall, an abandoned parking lot full of boarded up windows, weeds and potholes.

I learned from the residents here that White Rock used to be thriving, with a movie theater, bowling alley, two grocery stores, and more, but there had been a decline. Los Alamos (of which White Rock is technically a subdivision of) has experienced a similar decline, but has bounced back in recent years, with a variety of restaurants and stores available. White Rock has very few restaurants (2, maybe 3?) and only a smattering of other services. No fast food places can stay open, because there are no employees available... All the teenagers get enough money from their Los Alamos National Lab-paid parents, and with the increase of gas prices in the past 2 years, nobody from Santa Fe wants to drive all the way up the hill for a minimum wage job. So, the result is that White Rock is mainly a bedroom community, with a few gas stations, tiny library and beautiful parks.

On my way home I was reading a book, taking my time strolling through the suburban desert. I kept feeling small drops of water, but a quick glance up from the pages revealed blue skies and no threat. 200 yards from our apartment, the drops came more regularly, and it was then I realized that directly behind me a grey cloud was approaching. The cloud was friendly, not threatening, and the rain coming from it was hardly a bother, even to the pages of my book.

Arriving home I had a rollicking good time playing on the floor with the babies, who loved my cashmere sweater. I like it, too.qww

Life in the Logan-verse

2008-09-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well new for me is my position as barista-of-the-morning at Hot Rocks Java cafe. Now I rise as early as "in the fours" to go make lattes and such for the lovely folk at Los Alamos National Lab. I'm actually delighted with my little job (even though I get up at hours I didn't actually believe existed ) and I enjoy all the seemingly trite aspects of this new adventure. People are so friendly here and I think its fun to start their day off with a smile and a warm brew. I beam with pride when a customer complements a drink I crafted for him. The people I work with are great too, and help me feel better adjusted to being here. I never knew I had missed my true calling in life.

In other news, today we saw a parade. I've had "it's a parade, it's a parade, it's a parade, it's a parade..." (to the monotone mar-lu ditty) running through my head all day. Anyways, the whole town I believe turned out for this parade, actually, let's say half--and the other half were in it. It was pretty cute, especially since the only occasion warranting the event was the highschool's homecoming. This town is small, let me stress, and pleasantville. We got quite a kick out of it. Babies were unenthused and fell asleep. I ate smarties.

Also exciting, we're under contract for the house we were scouting. HURRAY! I can't wait to move in, I want to finally be somewhere I can unpack and make a home and know I won't have to move again for a loooonnnnnng time.

close to the sun in lonely lands

2008-09-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

we saw the most amazing sunset the other night, after picking ben up in Santa Fe after his 24hr jaunt into Colorado. The Entire valley between the Jemez and the Sangres was covered with clouds and grey, except one large window which revealed a blue-gold sky in the distance. to the west it was raining, and the light from the sun was filtered through the raindrops, spreading the sunset along the ridge. it was like the ridge was on fire, or the volcano had become active again. on top of that, there were several rainstorms in the valley, purple from the light of the sun, and lit up with bolts of lighting. It was an amazing sight, and hard to keep my eyes on the road because of the beauty of the sunset. We would have stopped to gawk, but the babies were tired and hungry and crying.

Always roaming with a hungry heart

2008-09-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, the babies love the drawer under the oven where all the pans are. Our stuff still hasn't arrived (I talked to the driver of the moving van today, he said he's on his way... so that's nice) and so the drawer is mostly empty except for a baking sheet. The babies love to pull out the drawer and play inside. there are also a few toys that they keep there... whenever I find them in the drawer (the toys, not the babies) I take them out, but they inevitably find their way back in.

At least they're learning to put their toys away...

such a tide as moving

2008-09-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

James is now old enough and big enough for his carseat to face forward, and we turned it around for the first time today, right before the short drive home. He didn't like it at first, until he realized he was face to face with his sister (who is also old and big enough to face forward, but we don't have the right carseat yet).

they spent the rest of the trip laughing and giggling and playing and grabbing each other's hands and feet. It was a good moment in their relationship. A nice way to close out their first year of life outside the womb. Helena and James have grown much and travelled much, and it is an honor, privilege, and blessing to know, to love, and to parent them.

I'm gonna drive all night (or, Mark Spurrier was right)

2008-09-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

We saw a red tailed hawk today, and a coyote. I suppose those aren't unusual sightings for this area, but hey, I'd never seen a coyote before. He was taking a pair of jet boots from an ACME box, in an attempt to catch a clever roadrunner. The last we saw, he had chased the road runner off a cliff, and didn't fall until he realized he wasn't on terra firma anymore. Actually, the coyote we saw was just prowling the streets of Los Alamos at 9:30 at night. The streets are already pretty much empty by that time.

The hawk was on a telephone pole on the side of the road, then it swooped down right in front of an F-150. it missed whatever varmint it was going for, though, and the Ford missed the hawk, so no wings were lost and there was no injured animal to take to the New Mexico DNR for rehabilitation and use in children's wildlife show-and-tells.

I'll let you know when we come across elk. Haven't seen any yet, except in burger form.

I don't wanna grow up

2008-09-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

James has never been one to enjoy a pacifier. from very early on, pacifiers would last about 2 seconds in his mouth before he would eject them out across the room somewhere. Once he learned to hold things, he no longer spat them out, but turned them around. He would put the "wrong" end into his mouth. the strange thing is, that would pacify him, and he'd be quiet for awhile. it wouldn't put him to sleep or anything, but it would occupy him.

Well, he's almost a year old, and neither James nor Helena needs/uses a pacifier, but we have them laying around the house with the other toys. Helena will periodically pick one up and parade around the room, showing how good she is at walking with something in her hands (as a side note, here favorite things to hold while parading are socks, preferably a matching pair). James will play with a pacifier, but still will only put the "wrong" end into his mouth.

Two cute things bear mentioning. First, while Helena was parading around on Sunday after church, she picked up one of her summer dresses and walked around the living room holding it up to her, as one would do while shopping for a dress, seeing how it might look. She eagerly let Logan put the dress on her (over her church dress!) and was so happy once she had it on, she marched around the room feeling very happy.

James is not without his cuteness, either: I was laying on my stomach, reading a book while the babies entertained themselves with fun exciting things like boxes and socks, when James crawled over near me, laid out on his stomach like me (an unusual position for James for playtime), and began to read one of his books. A chip off the old block, as the saying goes.

I seem to think alot about all the things I forgot to do

2008-09-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Highlights of the week include:

1. Internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a big one, ('specially for me, logan) since I was feeling completely out of touch with everything and everyone. In my desperation for information (prior to said web installation) I bought a book on edible plants and spent the last two weeks memorizing it. When I'm out with Eric now I can inform him of the edible parts of any plant we pass. I think he finds this mildly annoying and endearing (or at least I'd like to think so). [Edit by Eric: I find it endearing and only slightly annoying]

**some persons in this houselhold remarked that my use of multiple exclamation points is lowering the literary value of this blog, to that I say "pshaw."**

2. Making an offer on a house!

Yesterday we sat down with our real estate lady and hacked out an offer on this cute house we found. The whole process seemed surreal and too grown up. We're super excited about the prospect of this house, and are anxiously waiting to hear if our offer was accepted.

In baby news, James took some real steps the other day. And I think he'll be walking like Helena soon. Hurray for James!

Man, and just think it's almost their first birthday-- where did my year go?

don't need no makeup

2008-09-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Our weekends here are very relaxed. Not knowing many people yet, we spend our time either exploring the area, or just lounging as a family. Since our furniture hasn't arrived yet, our lounging surface is generally the floor. The babies love it, though: Helena runs around on two feet while James sticks to what he knows, crawling on all fours. They love to laugh and play: one chases the other, then they switch. James' favorite game is being chased until he's caught and tickled.

Yesterday we drove up into the Jemez mountains. It was a rainy day, and beautiful. The drive up through the woods reminds me of Transylvania, or at least what Transylvania looks like in the rain. the scenery is beautiful, especially the Valle Grande, a huge grass valley in the Valle Caldera. We originally intended to get a babysitter and check out some of the local rock climbing, but we were shut out by the rain. We made the most of it, and had a pleasant drive over mountains and through valleys and canyons. The volcanic nature of the area means there are hot springs and interesting geological formations all over. We had dinner in a nice little mountain diner. I had an elk burger, Logan had a La Cueva dip, which is a French dip sandwich, New Mexican style.

So, a culinary aside: New Mexico's biggest crop is Green Chiles. And New Mexicans' favorite food is green chiles. They put it on everything. Enchiladas, tacos, and the usual suspects, but also burgers, soups, and more. We were invited to a BBQ where we had chicken with green chiles and cheese.

Being newly New Mexican, we have embraced the green chile. Everything is better with green chiles, especially French dip.

Where the wind blows tall

2008-08-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

We've had two New Mexican experiences in the past few days worth sharing, one regarding cuisine and one regarding the local citizens.

Although Los Alamos is relatively small and isolated, there is a surprising number of international restaurants, including two sushi places and a mediteranean/mid-east/north African cafe. There is also a Thai restaurant in town, Lemongrass. Last Friday Logan and I, being without kitchen, and upon a friend's recommendation, dined there. However, this being Los Alamos, the delivery truck with the Thai chiles had not made it for some reason, so instead of being flavored the traditional way, we were served our entrees with a side of spicy red chile sauce. It was Thai food New Mexican style, and quite good. Certainly better than Italian gelato French style.

Yesterday, we met a character while using the free wi-fi of the best coffee shop in town. It shares a building with a fancy cookware store. A young man sauntered in, and was looking at the various pans and knives, and one of the most bizarre exchanges took place:

store's proprietor: "Can I help you with anything?"
young man: "not unless you have $200 or a bottle of vodka."

the kid couldn't have been older than 18 or 19. He came up to us and asked:

"Do you think there's Native Americans living around here?"
"I'm sure there are."
"Well, you're looking at one!"

We had a nice conversation with him later, and he told us all about life on the reservation, his love of breaking horses, and how instead of going to McDonald's, they would slaughter a sheep. It was quite educational.

twilight and evening bell

2008-08-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

Since Los Alamos is snuggled up against the Jemez mountains to the West, the Sun disappears behind the skyline long before sunset. Being somewhat of a sunset lover, this was a disappointment, at least until tonight. Logan and I took the babies on our passeggiata, exploring the neighborhood, checking out trails, and enjoying each others company after I was away at work all day.

As we turned around to head home, we had a clear view across the valley to the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Above the mountains the sky was lavender and gradually changed colors, like a wide, fuzzy rainbow stretched out across the ridge line. It was not as brilliant and bright as the sunset to the West, but rather was subtle and fair to behold.

They are night zombies! They are neighbors! They have come back from the dead! Ahhhh!

2008-08-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

So Helena is walking, and when she does, she looks like a zombie. She holds her arms out in front of her, her movements are jerky and stiff, and she lets out a long groaning sound as she moves forward. I'm not sure how she did it, but today I even saw her do a zombie run.

I'm not worried that my daughter will eat me, or at least not yet. If she learns how to say "Brains..." I'm heading for the hills.

Eric

flora and fauna

2008-08-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

The other day I hopped in the car to go pick up Eric from work. As I was heading into town I felt something tickling my leg. I looked down and a rather large spider was crawling up my ankle. Suppressing arachnophobic panic and a strong desire to drive the car off a cliff I managed to slow the car and shake the spider off my leg and under my shoe. I continued on my way with phantom creepy crawlies prickling all over me. When I reached Eric, I joked that I had almost got into an accident on my three minute drive because of a spider. Eric usually sneers a bit at my fear of spiders, but I insisted that it was a really big one and no laughing matter. Holding back his eye roll we got back into the car, but before we drove any where I ordered him to remove the body of the dead spider (I didn't want it coming back to life and eating me). He glanced around on the floor grabbed one of its black legs and pulled it out. I punctuated this ceremony with faux girly squeals, but felt a real shiver of panic when he flipped the black bulbous body over to reveal the perfect red hour glass on its belly.

Hello Mrs. Widow.

"Do what I want, and I'm gonna get paid"

2008-08-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

We arrived in NM Sunday afternoon, and were greeted by a big storm as we drove across the Rio Grande to go up the hill to Los Alamos. The afternoon Sun was in our eyes and our entire field of vision was white from the glare. The rain and hail pounded the car, then cleared up as we drove up to the Atomic City. They say that after living here for two years you get a super power, though I'm not sure if you get to choose or if it is assigned to you.

The drive out West wasn't bad. The worst part was leaving less than 24 hours after returning from Europe. We made several stops to visit family and friends, which was nice. Helena and James took everything in stride, sleeping in their carseats, mostly. They charmed the country at every rest stop and restaurant along the way, smiling and giggling and being cute. It's what they do best.

My first day of work coincided with the Los Alamos County Schools first day of schools. Several of the kids from my new parish stopped by during their lunch period, which was nice. (Immaculate Heart of Mary is right next to the High School) We have our own building for the youth, the John Paul the Great Center, which was an old visitors center for the county that got uplifted and planted right behind the Church. Everybody has been very welcoming, especially the pastor, Fr. John Carney.

So here we are, at the end of our Transatlantic Oddysey: New Mexico by way of Italy and France.

Eric