Lady Stacia

Boxing Day

2012-01-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here's my boys enjoying Boxing Day. We spent it with Aric's sister and her beau. Thanks to him we got to try Christmas pudding! They set this lovely table for dinner. The goblets were actually from us and ended up matching the table perfectly!

Fun in the winter...

2012-01-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here's Curran the day after Christmas having fun by the frozen lake waving up to us on the fourth floor! Luckily the camera has a zoom :)

By the tree...

2012-01-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T11:42:00.001-08:00

This is the kids enjoying the fondue dinner we had the week before Christmas. This wee table has been ever so handy! The adults had a marvelous time too with 3 cheese fondues, 2 broth fondues, and 2 dessert fondues. I'm so happy to have pulled off a themed dinner party! (Thanks to all our friends who provided all the dippers.)

A nurturing boy

2011-12-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

Avery loves playing with babies :)

So I got behind..

2011-12-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna see if I can post kinda chronologically. This is the boys at the pumpkin patch this year :)

Avery 2nd Grade

2011-10-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Got the school pictures back! What a smile :)

NOT Lame

2011-10-13T13:02:00.001-07:00

I just got my statement of eligibility in Spanish K-12!!!

This means that I can apply for Spanish teacher jobs with just my BA and then when I get the job, do training during the first year to get my actual teaching credential.

Another step closer! Woo!

Lame

2011-10-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

Literally, I'm lame. I have Plantar fasciitis says my doctor; and it will never go away. This means I will always have to wear heavy-arch support shoes, and pay for it if I wear heels. I can do exercises to try and reduce it and take pain meds constantly (as needed), but my feet may always hurt from now until I die.

Cheery :(

~~~~~~*

2011-09-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

When 4 Halloween costumes combine...

2011-08-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

They raided the costume closet and insisted that I record their shenanigans! This was after we drew a chalk "space tree" trimmed with rockets, planets, and every size/color of star. So we've had a fun & busy afternoon :)

New beginnings...

2011-08-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

"Well hello little preschooler..." This is kinda what I must have looked like as I greeted six of my students-to-be at their homes today. (Except my hair was up in an awesome french braid.) I didn't have to do any translating today, but I did read the same story in spanish to one little sister (4 times) while my boss-teacher did the actual interview with the parent. I also got to hold a chihuahua and yet another student & her older sister cuddled with me during the entire process at their home. Pretty fun day :)

Avery also had his first day of 2nd grade today. He wasn't super excited this morning, but he was really excited when he came home. Said he had a "great day". He already made a new friend in his classroom & borrowed a Magic Tree House book from his teacher last night at the Open House. They filled out a 'what do you like' page at open house and he liked everything except: singing songs, writing, and exercising. The singing is the only part that really surprizes me. He takes after his mom in the other two ;)

Boys' pics 4

2011-08-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

Peek a boo, Curran sees you!

I can't even say how many pictures are up close shots of Curran's chin, nose, or eyes!

Chess troubles...

2011-08-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm in the mood for cheesy jokes today, so here's one I archived ages ago for your pleasure :)

Wow sick...

2011-08-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

Please kill me now. Even 3 ibuprofen aren't taking away the body aches. I pray that I'm better before my 2pm interview tomorrow because this is no way to live!

Boys' pics 3

2011-08-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, looking through the pictures I swear that Avery photo-documented every single thing in our house! This is his artsy picture of a lego starship.

On a side note: the boys are eating again, and keeping it down. Avery says he's feels great (but is super-grumpy). Curran still feels yucky and has a small fever.

Culinary experiment

2011-08-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

So I make this with giant toothpicks (with pre-decorated ends) for the boys' birthday party. Once the kids realized it was okay to take apart they loved it :)

Where the heart is...

2011-07-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not a gigantic fan of Wizard of Oz, but I do LOVE this doormat!

Yes!

2011-07-29T10:36:00.001-07:00

I have a job interview in four days! Keep your fingers crossed!

Boys' pics 2

2011-07-28T08:28:00.001-07:00

One taken by Curran at my parent's house.

Boys' pics 1

2011-07-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

So I FINALLY moved the pictures from the boys' Fisher Price camera to my computer. So I'll be putting up a few of the cuter or more interesting ones. There are some great ones of my parents & sister, but I figure they'd prefer those by email :)

The glass

2011-07-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

I was just discussing this with my husband the other day. Between the scientist in me and the raging optimist, this picture is my answer to the glass half empty or full dilemma!

Organized sabers

2011-07-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

A couple daddies tried to organize a shot during the light saber extravaganza at the birthday party. One little girl has her own ideas of how it should be done!

Pool party fun

2011-07-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Another picture from the boys' birthday party. Fun in the zebra pool!

Home to a new girl...

2011-07-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is the home of our friends who just had a baby girl, woot!

This is the one with the creek out back and all that jazz.

Pentecost awesomeness

2011-07-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

So I painted the outline of this on a 6x6 foot frame, then during worship members of the church came up and colored in a piece. I think it looks way cooler than if I had colored it myself. Go holy spirit!

Epic battles

2011-07-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

The heels

2011-06-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

At my sister's request -

these are the heels I wore on easter.

The ladies...

2011-06-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

Here are my two friends that are due this summer (the guy's just playing a baby shower game involving a balloon and shoe-tying). Maybe one of you reading this even recognizes the yellow duckie.

Time with my friends...

2011-06-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

We recently converged upon the humid state of Missouri for a week to spend some time with good friends. Here you can see us banging our heads against Ghost Stories. I think we played every single game that we collectively own during the visit. Well maybe not quite...

Pictures of the mothers-to-be and baby showers will be forthcoming :)

Happy Birthday!

2011-05-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Poor man...

2011-05-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

Avery's up to 103.7 degrees between medicine doses, but at least it's well controlled by Ibuprofen. This morning he was hyper and crazy 15min after being dosed! Still - no school tomorrow for him!

Update May 24th: He finally made it back to school today and said he felt great this morning. *whew*

Scrabble pain...

2011-05-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Four rounds into a nearly impossible game! WOE is about the worst start ever, when TOY is crossed with it. Believe it or not we managed to finish the game, but boy was it painful trying to open up this baby...

A little fun...

2011-05-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

Aric wanted to have a bit of fun for his birthday, so he got a bit of blond highlighting in his hair!

Brothers..

2011-05-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

A funny little comparison: During Avery's singing performance in preschool he spent all his fidgeting time brushing his hair off his face. Last night, during Curran's preschool performance, he spent all his fidgeting time brushing his hair straight down on his forehead. *roll eyes*

I love that my boys are so unique, it makes life exciting :)

Butterflies go free!

2011-05-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

We let the butterflies go today. To our surprise when we went to release them, the fourth (and assumed dead) crysalis had hatched! The boys were so excited! The newly hatched one is the one that is sitting on Avery's hand. Once again it hatched during naptime, so I guess they like being born mid-day.

Our little buggers on May 3rd

2011-05-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

For the van

2011-05-06T14:28:00.001-07:00

So I got two of these for my van plates because the front plate keeps getting bent forward at the bottom corners. They were on the only non-plain ones that I liked, and was pretty happy with them. When I brought them home to Aric he chuckled and asked why I wanted a 'tramp stamp' for my van! Still, they're staying :P

Easter 2011

2011-05-03T18:20:00.001-07:00

<-- Here are the boys covered in confetti after playing with the cascarones they got in their baskets. Cascarones are colored hollow eggs filled with confetti, and are made to crack on people's heads.

Below you can see Avery looking spiffy with the lady he always sits with in church instead of his own mother :) Curran wore a spiffy suit too, but he had it off within 30 seconds of coming home. He likes his casual clothes...

Looth Tooth

2011-04-22T22:13:00.001-07:00

Avery finally lost one of his top teeth! This is lost tooth #3. It fell prey to a piece of toast :)

There's also a couple of new necklaces. I did the one on the right and Eddie did the middle one. Mine is made of a stone called African Turquoise that is a richer color than the picture managed to capture. Yay Bead Bazaar!

FINALLY!

2011-02-14T18:33:00.000-08:00

Just got my substitute teacher licence (after 4 months of waiting)! Woo hoo! Let the adventures in teacherdom begin :)

Prepared...

2011-02-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

Here's Curran all prepared for the sub-zero weather. I wore it last night when I had to pick up my gas grill that had blown over.

To the right is a "villain" that I drew from a cartoon-drawing book. I added the evil crystal orb, but Curran insisted that he HAD to have a spear too!

My buddy

2011-02-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

Curran's having a rough day, so the only company he will support is his newly-attired Mr. Scrumpletom.

Cuddles

2011-01-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

Just a sweet picture of Aric cuddling a sick boy on Thanksgiving last year.

His favorite game..

2011-01-26T11:59:00.000-08:00

This is Avery playing his favorite game - Pirateer. He likes it so much he's figured out how to play by himself because we can never play it with him enough!

A pair...

2011-01-25T23:25:00.000-08:00

Someone who's hair is just as unruly as Curran's!

At the local botanic..

2011-01-24T21:36:00.000-08:00

These are pics from the free day at our 'local' botanic gardens. Avery wanted a picture in front of every statue (which we took) but I decided just to post the one where he looks the least like he's choking his brother. The other pic is me in the bamboo forest - a happy place for me.

Birthday rewards...

2011-01-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

For those of you who donated to my birthday spoiling fund, here are a couple of the things that I've gotten. The purse has silver studs on the strap too. It's huge compared to my last purse, but it's got major character :) The shirt is darker by a bit than shows in the picture, and has little rutchings at the bottom of the 3/4 sleeves and on the sides of the tummy. I also got a pair of jeans, leather gloves, and desperately needed tights. Thanks!

It begins again

2011-01-04T13:13:00.001-08:00

Today the boys both went back to school. I think it'll be a bit of a rough day since they both got used to sleeping until 8am (so did I). Avery was looking forward to going back though, so that got him eventually out of bed to dress.

A couple of days ago I got to shop for beads with money made from a commission (so fun!) and see a hockey game live. It was the Avalanche vs. the Canucks. We lost, but it was still super super fun. Aric said I was fun to watch during the game 'cause I'm so animated :)

Oh, to the left is Curran with his new tiger from the Denver Zoo, Mr. Scrumpletom. This cat now goes almost everywhere with us. The box it was wrapped in came with breathing holes - so cute!

Christmas Joy

2010-12-25T23:54:00.001-08:00

Avery's winter recital

2010-12-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

Avery is in the back row in a white shirt with red pinstripes. He starts out at what looks like the 3rd from the right. And below is Curran pretending to be Santa :)

Color themed...

2010-12-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

So for my birthday I got a plethora of red ornaments for a gothic tree, but as black ornaments have been super-hard to find, it ended up being a super ruby red tree!

Geek at heart...

2010-12-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

What do radioactive atoms watch during the holidays?

"It's a Wonderful Half-Life"

LOL! I'm so sorry :)

Learning a new tool...

2010-12-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

This was the result of some playing around with the software Anime Studio Pro 6 that I got for my birthday. Hopefully it will get much much better! (In the program the first video is on loop so it looks kinda like flapping.) But this is some serious professional level software, so there is a lot for me to learn. And I can't help but laugh thinking that the second butterfly seems to take off like an airplane...

Pick your pose...

2010-12-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

Some votes have already been put in for this one --->
Still taking votes :)

The weather

2010-12-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's been so dry! And not just in the 'I need lotion' sense, but in the lack of precipitation sense. And I know logically I should be happy it's not precipitating, because at these temperatures we'd just get dangerous ice on the road. But I'm having a hard time really getting into the holiday spirit without something falling from the sky :(
I feel like I'm in a creepy limbo land, stuck in between seasons.

We had a small chance of snow today according to Yahoo weather, so I stuck my head out the door just now hoping to see a sparkling dusting of snow. Instead I got a nose full of sulfur from our local factory. Ug. Not the cheeriest day ever...

Will it never end?

2010-11-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

So we had a marvelous time visiting our friends in Missouri! We saw an awesome cave; the Devil's Icebox. Played lots of games with much fervor :) And I even got to satisfy my sushi craving (as at home I have to make it myself).

Avery's cough went away finally. Then of course this morning he wakes up complaining of a sore stomach. I figure it's just from having junk food on the road, but and hour and a half later the school nurse calls to tell me he "lost his lunch" and he needs to go home. Two hours after that he's curled up in a ball with a fever over 101. My only guess is he got some stomach flu at Sunday school. Poor dude. I want us all healthy for the holidays!

I'm even going to the doctor today because my ears have hurt the last couple of days and my throat is still achy. *le sigh* Wish us luck!

Update: Avery's fever hasn't gone up anymore, but nothing stays in his tummy but a bit of water. Poor guy's head is killing him, but he can't keep the medicine down :( I swear after all this we better have one big "get out of illness free for a year" card!
Doctor gave me antibiotics. She thinks I have a throat infection that is bad enough to reach up and make my ears achy.

Theseus & the Minotaur!

2010-10-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

Costume base...

2010-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the start of Avery's minotaur head. Please note the very even stitching around the horns (hehe, it took a long time and a few finger pricks). The cow face is supposed to arrive today, then all will be covered in black shaggy fur. The kilt's done already. Just gotta find laces or ribbon to make his sandals go up to his knees.

Of course we also have to get both the boys healthy now so they can actually trick-or-treat on the big day!

A notable day:

2010-10-22T14:06:00.001-07:00

Avery has his first loose tooth today!

Avery wanted to share...

2010-10-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of Bakugan brawls in case it's not obvious ;)

Fancy pics

2010-10-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

So here are links to some portraits:

1. The family
2. Aric and I

Avery's 1st informal recital

2010-10-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

This is after one month of classes. He has a yellow stripe on his shorts and stands near the middle or right in the second row for a lot of the dance. It was to the "Eye of the Tiger". And yes, he was the last one on stage. Poor guy had to perform after 8pm, he was quite tired, but he really enjoyed himself :)

Inventory 2

2010-09-25T19:20:00.001-07:00

The sets to the right are (top)real garnet and (bottom) stone beads which have a wonderful weight to them. The bottom left necklace has some lovely filigree-detailed beads.

Inventory

2010-09-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

Some bookmarks and jewelry I made for our craft faire. You'll probably have to click on the picture to see them properly. The wooden one has very nuanced shades of wood in browns and greens. It's quite lovely if you have a better camera (user) than I. :)

The display

2010-09-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

I take pleasure in the small things, like this roughly color-themed set in front of my kitchen sink. There you go sis :)

...it looks better in person...

Random gathering pics..

2010-09-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

To the left is Curran with our dear friend Nick and to the right is the boys with their cousin (some number removed). If you can't tell they had lots of fun with the family!

If I ever...

2010-09-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

If I ever make candy apples I want them to look like this!!!
http://mattbites.com/2009/10/13/adams-scary-apples/

Preschool begins!

2010-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Here's Curran all ready to go for his first day of Preschool! Wish him luck! Even with all the toys, I'm not sure he's totally convinced that today will be fun...

Postcard flowers

2010-09-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

The blue hydrangeas are from a botanic garden in Vancouver, Canada. What an amazing plant!

The yellow roses are from the international rose garden in Portland, Oregon.

Boogie woogie boy

2010-09-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

Curran just watched this video with me and said, "I'm a good dancer, huh?"

We went to Curran's preschool open house this morning and he was very excited. He dismantled their kitchen area in two minutes flat. Tomorrow will be his first day.

A cute pair...

2010-09-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

These two like playing together, and she seems to enjoy sunglasses just as much as Curran does! This picture was taken a month or so ago.

Mother-son collaboration

2010-09-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

A little passing...

2010-06-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

Found a bird just sitting on my lawn today; it didn't move when I got close. Seems it was hurt somehow, so I put it in a padded box on my porch since we expect big storms tonight. I let him alone for an hour to two so he could calm down after being handled. I went back out and Curran thought we should sing him a song. We sang Twinkle Twinkle, and the bird started moving a lot and opening his beak. Curran ran off, and I picked up the bird, hoping it wouldn't have to stuffer too much longer. I sang a lullaby and oh-so-poetically, in the last line of the song, it stopped breathing. Talk about a bittersweet moment.

For your amusement...

2010-06-17T01:35:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at poetry in quite a while, and written while sick and trying to fall asleep. So don't be too harsh :P

Why I Love The Night

The silent dark of evening
Is like being surrounded by subtle mirrors
Where you see reflections too dim to perceive in the day

When we look in these night mirrors
We start to remember the right questions
We don’t ask “Do I look pretty?” we ask “Am I happy?”

In the quiet hours of our day and of our minds
We find ourselves - like adored stuffed animals
Temporarily lost under a pile of dirty clothes, schoolbooks, and the day’s dishes

As we find ourselves again
And contemplate these hidden reflections
We start to remember priorities and passions

In the dark the possibilities
Are only limited by creativity and imagination
Instead of time and money

The midnight hour blessedly conceals complications
So our spirit can soar over chasms of “How”
And speed past deserts of “When”
To any place at all

(copyright Stacia A.C.)

Copyright Stephen Vincent Benet

2010-06-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

THANKS

For these my thanks, not that I eat or sleep,
Sweat or survive, but that at seventeen
I could so blind myself in writing verse
That the wall shuddered and the cry came forth
And the numb hand that wrote was not my hand
But a wise animal's.
Then the exhaustion and the utter sleep.

O flagrant and unnecessary body,
So hard beset, so clumsy in your skill!
For these my thanks, not that I breathe and ache,
Talk with my kind, swim in the naked sea,
But that the tired monster keeps the road
And even now, even at thirty-eight,
The metal heats, the flesh grows numb again
And I can still go muttering down the street
Not seeing the interminable world
Nor the ape-faces, only the live coal.

Some doodles

2010-06-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

So here are some sketches that I did (without touch-ups) from "how to draw" books. If you actually want to see them you can click for the larger image :)

We'll see...

2010-05-11T18:53:00.000-07:00

So this picture is for fun and not related to:

I had a job interview today for a teaching position in a preschool. Turns out it would be a real teacher position not an assistant teacher post. That would be an upgrade for me! It also turned out that ten people were interviewing me, not one. *look composed, look composed* Cross your fingers...

New shoes finally..

2010-05-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

To those concerned we got new shoes for the boys today. Avery is now size 12w and Curran is size 7.5 regular (or wide, depends on shoe). Avery got the even more garish version of this for his sneakers (read: more neon green) and sandals kinda like these. Curran got the same sneakers as Avery, but with more silver. They were Slime Monsters (like the shoe name) all evening! Curran also got brown leather sandals, but the stuff we get at the outlets isn't online anymore.

Weird things..

2010-05-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

So there I was making apple cheddar muffins on a whim, when Avery out-whims me and makes potato chip muffins. I kid you not. They were cheddar muffins like mine, but with cheesy potato chips instead of apples. ...They were actually pretty tasty :)

Movin' kids

2010-04-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

So here is the video of the Circus at Avery's Kindergarten. (The video file's pretty big, about 3 minutes, so loading could take a min.) He could have taken his own glasses for his costume, but he said he wanted to use his teacher's... Now I know why. He wanted the shiny glasses.

New springtime 'do

2010-04-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

My hair was down to the middle of my back, so I was ready for a bouncy kind of change :)

The back of Avery's schoolwork...

2010-04-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

This week Avery's tests/schoolwork came home with a series of Star Wars scenes on them. We haven't watched them in months, so I'm surprized at some of the details!

The top part of the picture to the left is Han frozen in the block and Leia beside him saving him. The bottom part shows Luke throwing a rock to bring the gate down on the pit monster trying to eat him.

To the right is poor Jabba getting choked by Leia's chain... I wonder if his teacher looks at the back of his papers...

The last picture is Luke fighting Vader while standing on the grate where Han was frozen. I'm just impressed at his detail and ability to re-create scenes (for a 5 year-old). Oh yes, he also aced his tests :D

The Project

2010-04-07T13:48:00.001-07:00

So this is the stole I made for our friend Doug, on the event of his ordination, yay!

The design was Aric's idea, I was simply the executioner. Thanks to help from Eddie's embroidering sewing machine, Eddie herself, and Chip the sketch artist, it is finally finished. Not to the perfection I'd like of course. But I learned a lot about embroidering, new fabrics, and how many needles one can break trying to go through too many layers of fabric :P

If you click on the picture, you may be able to see more detail, but it looks better from far away anyways! It is supposed to be the dragon from Revelations.

Let the soccer/football begin!

2010-04-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

So here is Avery (on the right-hand side) going
for the ball in his first soccer game. He knows many kids on his team and the other teams (there are like 10 teams in his age group!), so that makes it fun. Though he seems to enjoy the social hour just as much as chasing the ball!

Curran had some fun watching, but of course his favorite part is playing on the playground at Optimist Park. Though he did ask to go get the ball a couple times, so I think he'd have fun if he was allowed to play.
All the soccer games are on the field right by the park.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

The morning started out with basket explosions. They both got kid gardening gloves, mini pots, and seeds as part of their gifts amongst candy, stickers, etc. In the second picture, Curran was the only kid who had to stop and drive the "car" at church before he went to look for more eggs.

Below is after they finished finding eggs at home. We learned that Curran didn't really understand exactly how gently he needed to put the real eggs into his basket. Let's just say that several of them were... dented :)

South Dakota - More giant carvings

2010-03-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here's my boys looking at the Crazy Horse Memorial. We didn't get to go up close, but boy do we look forward to how it will look in 20 years! With the newer technology the next stages of work should go much faster than the first 50 years. My favorite thing? That case is full of jars and jars of beads! See below:

South Dakota - Caves

2010-03-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

None of the pictures we have do the Wind Cave justice. There was really cool lace-like 'boxwork' all over the cave, and it was just HUGE. There were openings for side caves all along the tour route. Curran is standing by the natural opening of the cave (not where we went in). Avery swore it was that a dragon was living in the cave!

South Dakota - Bones

2010-03-29T14:49:00.001-07:00

Our first stop was the Mammoth Site. The boys are sizing up a mammoth femur replica and then had lots of fun playing in the hut made from mammoth bones. A totally cool dig, way worth the stop!

Guess where...

2010-03-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yay 8 years!

2010-01-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the recent lack of pictures, but our camera's been on the fritz. On to better news - Aric and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary this month. We had a great dinner at Fogo De Chao. If you ever get a chance to go to this place, it's worth it! All the food and all the service is divine.

We've just started looking for our new car (amazing how one bank taking over your loan bank can really slow down paperwork *bleck*). Luckily friends and community have been gracious enough to cart us around or lend a vehicle when we really need it. And when the weather gets below 20 degrees regularly, sometimes we do really need it!

Both the boys are having growth spurts, eating about twice what they normally do. Avery's regularly writing out sentences (asking how to spell things still of course). There was a science night at school where we did experiments and then wrote observations, and now he's doing that at home just for fun. Whatta cool kid :D Curran recognizes that he sees letters and numbers, but doesn't know how to say their names yet. He sings a lot of songs lately too; Avery jams his air guitar next to Curran.

Hope the new year is treating you all well. I'm looking forward to constant improvement...
I hope!

Christmas morning...

2009-12-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

A funny moment...

2009-12-18T16:04:00.000-08:00

I told Curran he needed to grow up a bit before he did something on the computer...so he looks at me, sits up tall and says, "I grow up!"
*smile*

Happy success...

2009-12-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

So here is my first ever attempt at making 'sushi rolls'. I made them with canned tuna so that first-timers to sushi would feel a little braver. I made it spicy with chili sauce, but still didn't have quite the right flavor balance in my opinion. But they looked pretty! (And stayed rolled which was my big worry.) Curran actually helped me...by eating the seaweed wrappers and using wet (clean) fingers to flatten the rice.
I made these for a short public presentation I did on international holidays. In my little speech I touched upon Guy Fawkes day, Shichigosan, Baba Marta, Loi Krathong, Teej, Semana Santa and Eid al-fitr. I think about 12 or more sat through my presentation and participated awesomely, offering up their own stories of local and international holidays and traditions. The event was even written up in the local paper beforehand afterwards here as well. I had so much fun putting this presentation together, and I learned a lot which felt great.

Getting ready...

2009-12-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

We're having fun getting ready for Christmas here. My mom and I tried an apple fruitcake this year. (You can see we were serious about cutting it well! hehe) It was too tasty! We got our tree put up a week or so ago. If it's not too dark you might see the boys peering at our finished tree. What fun! I'm really enjoying getting ready for Christmas... Baking and eating waaay too much I'm sure =)

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

Avery was King Arthur and Curran was Sir Lancelot. They both had sooo much fun, I was glad that all the costume-making effort was appreciated by my boys!

These are our pumpkins. Mine's at the top, and had a motion-activated spooky noise light inside that managed to scare several neighborhood kids, mwuh-ha-ha! Avery's is on the third step down. Dad carved it for him, but he collaborated with the design.

Kindergarten portrait

2009-10-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here's our handsome little man :)

Just a couple days ago he randomly asked, "Mom, why don't soda and beef jerky mold if you leave them out of the fridge?" *chuckle* Boy he takes after his mother (or so I like to think.)

Bunch of giggles...

2009-09-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Had fun with the boys this evening. Though these pictures were taken during the summer, it portrays the crazy fun we had. We did what must be the wildest dances ever to Paul Simon's Graceland! I'll have to get up a video soon, 'cause I swear Curran has turned into a kangaroo!

A tradition continues...

2009-09-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

We just got a new rocking recliner today! I have fond memories from as early as I can remember of a big, fuzzy, Lay-z-boy rocking chair in our home. Especially when the kids have been sick, I've really missed having that super-comfortable place to rock them all night. After saving up for a long time, I also really look forward to a cozy reading chair!

1st day of Kindergarten

2009-08-24T21:40:00.001-07:00

Here's Avery ready to go to class! He was groggy at 6:45 this morning, but woke up quickly when he remembered what day it was :)

Day number one was a lot of fun he said. I guess they practiced numbers and visited the computer lab. He was very impressed by the huge cafeteria. (His kingergarten is public and has about 500 students.)

He was on an excitment high all day. I'm very happy for him!