A couple other pics

James in his choo-choo sweater. He almost got attacked by at least 2 other kids at story time who were so excited about seeing a train. I wonder if it scared James to have kids following him around wherever he went pointing and yelling "choo choo choo choo". Ha. The second shot shows James' chompers, we told him to "smile big". We're excited for the teeth to come in more, his smile looks kind of funny right now :)

The new dent we found in our car from a hit and run parking lot incident.

Making a list and checking it twice

Through my own over-zealousness this Christmas season, I have created quite a long holiday to-do list. Here are some of the few things I have actually done (we won't go over the things yet to be completed):
1. Decorating the house, complete with the tree my dad gave us. We moved the couches to make the tree more of a central part of the room. The hidden advantage is that now when toys are scattered all over the room it just looks like Christmas morning instead of looking messy. James topped the tree (kind of)
2. Made 40+ cards by hand. James even tried to help!
3. finished making plane and bus reservations
4. At least know what I want to get for most people, even if I haven't bought/made everything yet.

Why My Wife Is Awesome

This is a stereopost.

1) She is the best mom ever. Seriously, you have to see how James lights up when he sees her. You have to see how James interacts with her. He trusts her. He loves her. He knows that she's going to always make him happy and take care of him.

2) She's an incredible wife. Staying at home and supporting me and our family has been a difficult adjustment for her...she's incredibly intelligent and motivated to work in her field...but she has been wonderful. She works hard to have food ready for our family, she works hard to make our house beautiful, and she works hard to make my life easier in any way possible.

3) She's a wonderful friend. Lisa genuinely cares about me and my life and tries to care about the things which are important to me. She calls to see how my day is going and thinks about me when I'm not with her.

4) She's one hot mamma :)

Hodge Podge

1. Video of James doing animal sounds. He just finished a bath, hence the wet hair and the finger in his ear (he doesn't like having water in his ears). He can say "mama" now too!

2. Here is option #2 for shoes (the first two pics). I don't know how to do a link to a previous blog, but the picture of the other ones are in a previous blog. The other two are kind of options, but I don't know about the shiny style (they would all be in black). Which do you like?












3. Thanks for your comments on the red coat--I agonized over that one too. Burlington Coat Factory, by the way.

Pictures of the weekend

Re: recent questions, you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them and can save them to your computer by right-clicking and selecting the save image option. Let me know if this doesn't work!

Wagon ride Thanksgiving morning in the snow flurries.


Playing with Aunt Stephanie








At a hamburger joint in the mall. James ate an entire 100% beef hot dog and then some! He also put on a little fashion show photo shoot for us with this paper hat.

We all went to an indoor driving range and took turns hitting balls off of the second tier (which makes you look a lot better than you actually are!) and watching James play by the putting green and mini golf course. James had 2 major accomplishments: keeping himself entertained for 2 hours with golf balls, and being really tolerant of us switching who was watching him. He was happy with any of us whether it was his mom, dad, aunt, grandpa, or grandma. By the end of the weekend he recognized and most of the time could point out everyone when we named them. By the way, isn't that a perfect little golf shirt for the occasion?


reading with Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike. I wish I had more pictures of him playing with Grandma and Grandpa. James especially loved playing Mr. Potato Head with Grandma Dianne...over and over and over.








While unpacking, I would give James things that needed to go upstairs and tell him to put them on the stairs. He was very proud and I was very pleased to see the bottom step with everything I had given him on it.

Canada

Knowing that this is a broad generalization based on a very limited sample, I have some observations concerning Canada.

1. Gas is really expensive there and our already weak US dollar doesn't help the situation. Worse yet, you don't even know how much it is until you get the receipt because the price listed is per liter, let alone figuring out the conversion between the US and Canadian $.

2. Alluded to above, they use the metric system. Kilometers per hour, meters until Toronto, etc.

3. They do have Costco, but the prices aren't as good. The ice cream sundaes are more expensive and way smaller. For that reason alone I am proud/glad to be an American!

We are safely home. Its amazing how no matter how wonderful your trip is, it always feels good to be home. Oh, and Dianne, James' first matter of business when he got home was to get out the potato head set...we're gonna miss you!

I'm sorry, car

After a fun 3 hours playing (swimming, playing basketball, cardio, lifting weights, bouldering) at the Lifetime Fitness Center where my Dad and Dianne are members, we discovered a huge dent in the driver's side front quarter panel of our car! I mean, the person must have hauled into our car...its big and deep. The insurance office is closed, of course, but we did go to the police station and file a report. We decided that the other driver could not have missed that big of a collision, but probably had a good reason for not leaving his/her information. I think the story that Dan, Linda, and I were able to piece together through a collective effort went something like: "They are really poor...and just lost their job...and spent all their money...because their daughter was dying...of gonorrhea." Thank you Dan for the conclusion. I'm sure there was a good reason :)

While in the Lifetime Fitness Center locker rooms I noticed that a lot of people are very confident about their naked bodies. I mean, I can see getting changed or even walking from the shower to the locker without a towel, but do you need to lean over and blow dry your hair before you put any underwear on? Or can't you put lotion on somewhere other than in front of the full length mirror? According to Dan and Mike, the men's locker room may as well be a nudist colony and the couches will need disinfecting. But this has already become graphic enough.

Gobble Gobble

Happy turkey day! Pictures to follow, but we had a great Thanksgiving: an easy going morning including a wagon ride around the park and a trip to the airport to pick up Linda and Mike (yay!).

The dinner hour was shared with my dad, his wife Dianne, her daughter Stephanie, Mike, Linda, us, a family that is friends with Dianne, and Dianne's brother and his partner. Dianne's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew joined us for dessert. It was great company.

The family of Dianne's coworker that was here was a wonderful couple with a set of twins who were miracle babies after an extremely premature birth. Both of the children have developmental delays and cerebral palsy. I was so impressed with the family, though. The parents seemed so supportive, dedicated, patient, and loving. If only all children with special needs had a home and parents like them!

James is once again proving his love of Michigan by being on wonderful behavior. I think it has to do with the endless supply of food and attention. That combination could keep him happy almost perpetually. What a great day!

Safe and Sound

Eight hours of rainy roads and 4/6 discs of "Freakonomics" later, we have arrived in MI. We actually only made 1 gas stop and 1 food stop (only 30 minutes or less combined), but customs, of course, took a long time since we went through Canada. After a long wait to get to the customs booth, I admitted that we had fresh fruit (apples from NY for the road). We were then immediately informed that we had been "randomly selected" to be searched and could go inside. *Sigh* Their suspicion was already piqued by the Utah plates despite our claims to live in Rochester, NY.

James did great and is already pal-ing up to his Grandpa and Grandma Jeppson. Dan and I decided on the way here that Thanksgiving is a great holiday (especially when not the one in charge of the meal) because it has such a relatively little amount of hype and prep. Its relaxing to have a holiday that really is just a nice meal and being with family with no other concerns to accompany it. I hope you all enjoy your turkey and company tomorrow!

It's (almost) beginning to feel a lot like....

The bags are (almost) packed, the house is (almost) clean, so we are (almost) ready to go!

Here is our holiday itinerary for anyone who is interested:

Thanksgiving: My Dad's in Michigan Wed-Sunday.

Nicole's Wedding: Washington DC Dec 8-10. I will probably be spending some time on either side of that in NJ.

Christmas: 23rd-ish to the 29th in NJ and 29th to 12th in AZ with my mom and sister (5 of those days will be on a road trip to CA and Disneyland!).

In honor of the upcoming holidays, I made some Christmas curtains for the kitchen! I also called the exterminator to get rid of our silverfish. That's right, I have shared stories about the many yellowjackets, squirrels, skunks, and ladybugs we have encountered here, but I have yet to mention the silverfish. Mostly that is to avoid the visceral reaction I have even thinking about them. Apparently they are super-human silverfish. My neighbor didn't think that's what they were because they were so big. The exterminator didn't think that's what they were because there's a colony in the light fixture (drier than where they usually live), but upon seeing them confirmed that they are in fact silverfish. Plan A has been set into action. We set some traps in the bathroom and are leaving the light on to try and get rid of the light fixture colony. Hopefully we won't have to get to plan B.

Keeping Commitments

Here are some commitments I have proudly kept/am keeping recently:

1. To sign with deaf people when I see them in the community. I have approached deaf people 2/3 times I have seen them at Wal-Mart recently. The missionaries (who teach my sign class) were so excited and proud of me...as was I!

2. After getting my oil changed today at Valvoline in preparation for our road trip to Michigan, I took a phone survey during which I said it was very likely I would recommend them to someone within the next 90 days. So here I am recommending them. It was, honestly, the most amazing car maintenance experience I've ever had!

I drove up, someone met me in the parking lot, and directed me to the back. I drove my car into the garage and stayed in the car the whole time while they did a fast oil change and even took care of payment right there at my car window. It only took like 10-15 minutes and I didn't even have to pull out my or James' books to keep us busy. The only downside was that even with my coupon, it was a little more than I have paid in the past for oil changes (with coupon: $26).

3. Learning to cook. I have decided to focus on making one unique meal a week and then do cheap casserole-type meals the rest of the week. This helps me budget my money and time while allowing me some room for creativity in the kitchen. Today I made Chinese beef and broccoli.

YOUR COMMITMENT: I would like each of you to take a vote on the shoes pictured here. I bought them for a great deal at Pay-Less to go with a dress for my sister-in-law's upcoming wedding. Dan doesn't like them, which I predicted when I bought them, because he says they look like old lady shoes. So don't worry about offending me, I just want to know if you think they are cute or a little too old looking. (oh, and my legs always look that stalky, so that's not the shoes' fault).

5 facets of James' premature manliness

1. He gets stinky breath and feet.
2. He "fluffs" (passes gas) at very inopportune times, particularly at the dinner table.
3. He finds both of the above hilarious.
4. He loves all things sports-related.
5. He cannot multi-task. Undivided attention for one task at a time.

He does, however, still love doing his hair.

An aside: we have found a downfall to baby sign. The sign for please is a great one for making requests at meal time. However, the sign is to rub your hand on your chest in a circular motion, and I always end up kicking myself for asking Mr. Sticky-hands to say "please".

merely 5 facets of my girliness

1. I like eyebrows. I think of this because for the first time today I noticed I was having a "good eyebrow" day. For the little time it takes to maintain eyebrows, I think it does make a big difference, especially with Bert eyebrows like mine. I was recently informed that the method I was taught years ago on how to determine where the arch in my eyebrow should be, is now wrong! I am working on moving it over and I have learned how to trim my eyebrows. How girly and vain is that?

2. Can't stop talking. I even spent some of my birthday money on a phone headset so I can keep talking in the car without breaking the law.

3. Small things are cute. Seriously, have you seen tiny batteries? Somehow, they're cute.

4. Chickflick books and movies. We tried to watch an old-time movie last night. It was kind of hard to follow and in the end we (I) decided that if 30 minutes had gone by and there was no love story yet, it wasn't really worth watching. There are exceptions to this of course.

5. Gilmore Girls. Thanks to my fabulous sister-in-law, Nicole, I am now the proud owner of all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls (she got me the 7th for my birthday). While watching, I will be working on homemade Christmas cards and Christmas curtains for the kitchen.

However, I did go walking for 1+ hours in just a t-shirt when it was less than 40 degrees outside. I'm tough, oh yeah. Don't worry, James was super bundled in his stroller!

If I only had a brain

I don't know if it was when I graduated, or when I spent several days driving across an endless stretch of nothing, or with my 3,000th repetition of 5 little monkeys swinging from a tree, but somewhere along the line my mind sprung a leak and I have crossed the threshold that allows for normal functioning.

On the way to the museum today I had to run after James who was making a break for the basketball hoop behind our apartment. It took 2 trips to the car and around the field behind our apt to find my keys after that.

In the parking lot at the museum I checked to make sure I had my museum pass, but by the time I got James out of his car seat, I had lost it. Fifteen minutes and a fussy baby later, I found it between my seat and the console.

I almost ran a red light on the way home. Stopped way past the line and had to put the car in reverse, sheesh. Luckily I was the only moving vehicle in view.

I cooked a meal that required chopping, mincing, kneading, and multiple dishes. Silly me. I took a picture to show you all and then when I went to put it on my computer I spent 5 minutes looking for my camera. It was in my hand the whole time. Yikes people. Yikes.

Dinner tonight was a change from the usual casseroles. I call it my "Fall Feast" because once it was on the plates I realized everything was red, orange, and tan. I made pasta with shrimp and tomato cream sauce, focaccia bread, and baked sweet potatoes. It turned out reasonably well, although the kinks are not all out yet.

The focaccia bread, supposedly a Macaroni Grill copy cat was kind of bland but a good texture. Neither Dan nor I particularly like sweet potatoes (the chicken-leg looking thing on the side of the plate), but we both liked these more than we anticipated...enough for the three of us combined to eat half of one potato!

Funny how a meal is never quite as enchanting as you anticipate once you've spent hours making it and doing dishes. Maybe there's a physiological component in addition to the psychological. Maybe I can't taste as well because my senses are inundated from the long-term exposure to onion and garlic.

This, by the way, is our counter space . Yup, that's it. Other than this we can use the stove surface (which gets hot to the touch when the oven's on) and our kitchen table. Notice how our entire "counter" has to be cleared if we want to open the microwave. Cooking can be quite a juggling act with this arrangement!

I'm thankful for:

1. Always having food when I'm hungry.
2. A well-equipped kitchen.
3. The play museum.
4. Extended family. James' most recent accomplishment: mastering shape sorters .

Book Review and I'm thankful for my mom

The Dowry Bride

I am a sucker for all things chick-flicky, so I enjoyed reading this book. However, that's really all the book was. The plot was interesting, but pretty predicable. The characters seemed pretty unidimensional and conventional. They always did exactly what you thought they would. The heroic male was always forgiving, the evil mother-in-law was forever ruthless and cruel, etc. I guess in that sense it had a fairytale feel to it. Anyway, a fun read, but nothing I felt like taking a highlighter to or discussing at length in a book club meeting.

I'm grateful for:
1. My mom (who sent me this book). I am grateful that all growing up she supported in me in whatever ambition I chose to pursue. Whether it was finding me a clarinet teacher, arranging for me to watch her dental work when I wanted to be a dentist, or even managing to find someone who would tutor me in writing when I wanted to be an author. I remember asking her to present at our elementary career fair. She brought chocolate coins and managed to make her station about accounting (of all boring topics for a 10-year-old) a hit! Even when trying to decide whether or not to do grad school/CF, she praised me for my accomplishments and reminded me of them when I needed to hear it most. Thanks mom for helping me to make the most of myself!

2. free PCS to PCS calls so I can talk to my mom, sister, and husband as much as I want.

cooking flop

Despite extra fatigue today, I decided to work toward my goal of improving my cooking and satisfy my craving for a Dunkin Donuts coffee cake muffin by making a recipe I found online for a strawberry coffee cake with streusel topping.

I realized I was too tired to be cooking when I tasted the batter and realized I had forgotten the vanilla...and the sugar. Yikes! Good thing I always taste my batter while cooking! My first batch for the topping looked really weird and didn't even coat the top of the batter. Since I was making these essentially for the streusel topping, I decided to double the topping. Somehow, the second batch came out looking COMPLETELY different! I read and reread the recipe and couldn't find any discrepancy, must have happened after the recipe before the ingredient...in other words, in my brain. Then, just like dinner last night, they took forever to cook! By the time the middle was cooked, the craved streusel topping was caramelized and a little burned, to bad!

Fortunately it did taste good (although the topping is a little weird in texture). Definitely worth a second shot someday. Unfortunately, the cluster headaches/migraines I have been getting for the past 4-5 days are triggered by sugar. Silly me paying attention to a craving like that. When I told Dan it was now up to him to finish it, he suggested we give half the pan away with a note that says "really, they taste better than they look."

And no...craving + migraines + tired does not equal me being pregnant, just female. I promise.

Christmas on Craigslist

There are so many toys I'd love for James to have. I want our basement to be Super Basement in the winter time. Craigslist may just be the solution to my low-budget, high self-expectation, Christmas woes. Today I got James a Little Tike plastic slide for $5 and a plastic 4' basketball hoop (he LOVES basketball hoops) for $15. Add the gas money for the miles I put on the car driving to opposite sides of the county to get these two items, and I think I still got some great deals. I hope I didn't ruin anyone else's gift plans. If so, let me know and I can always make someone else's Craigslist Christmas wishes come true!

Picture: Dan always teases that James is a wimp because anytime another kid encroaches on his toy territory, James just backs away, and as I like to say, "shares". So today James was starting to play with this car when his little age-mate buddy decided he wanted to play with it to. When James backed away I encouraged him to share it and play with his friend. He walked over and opened the door while the other boy climbed in. Much better James. Daddy will be happy to know that instead of letting other kids take your toys, you are now opening car doors for your boy-friends.

James is also sporting his classic fish-face. Ever since we started showing him fish faces, he has started doing this while playing. If we ask him to do a fish-face, however, he puckers, smiles, or grimaces. Is this proof for mirror neurons?

Our first bloody accident

No, I am not swearing in British, but that title is better than "our first accident that resulted in bloodshed". Either way, that is what happened today. James got a little overzealous drumming on a bench at Dick's Sporting Goods and smacked his mouth on the bench.

I picked him up to console him and he had blood all over in his mouth. It was coming from his two top teeth (both cut within the past week). I had no idea what to do. I shouted to a salesperson "Excuse me! I need tissue, he hit his face and is bleeding!" That got a response from her and a kind woman near me who apparently has a much better equipped mom purse than I do, complete with Kleenex and Purell, which she offered so I could more cleanly examine James' mouth (yeah right lady! My child is bleeding I'm not taking time to put Purell on my hands!). She said he probably just pushed the teeth back up a little and that's most likely what caused the bleeding.

Of course, before the bleeding had stopped (or my mind had stopped reeling), James had abandoned his screaming and was back to pulling shoes off of shelves. I quickly checked out (snow boots) and set off to find a popsicle for James, at the suggestion of the kind lady with the mom purse. We found a chocolate-covered frozen banana and I let James get as messy as he wanted. Poor baby.

For the rest of the day I kept asking him how his teeth were. He would point to them and give me a triumphant smile. He just thought I was asking where his teeth were. Apparently he's over it!

Book Reviews

Going along with Dan's recent blogs, I'll take a minute to get caught up on book reviews.

Dispatches from the Edge
A book written by Anderson Cooper of CNN. This book provided Anderson's own feelings and experiences while becoming a major newscaster and while covering many major current events and disasters. It was arranged however, in a more free-association thinking type of format. He would skip back and forth between countries, decades, and events based on a particular observation he made that reminded him of another place or time. He actually pulled it off really well. An interesting way to look back on the last 10 or so years of major current events (primarily natural disasters and wars, not politics) that have defined history. The whole style, however, kept me enthralled. He expressed the emotions associated with each experience so well that I began to doubt if I could trust someone who could craft words so well.

I though it was interesting learning about Anderson's history, I had no idea his mother was Gloria Vanderbilt. I also thought his stories gave a really unique and interesting spin to many current events that we have seen on TV. He even commented on how many stories cater to what the networks want. I related to his emotional swings throughout the book as he went from being appalled by the things he witnessed to inured and back again.

The main theme I drew was how similar yet totally different each drama was that he witnessed, in his own life and internationally. The main similarity being that there is really no way to explain away or simplify the complexity of any event. No one cause, no one solution, no one prevention, no one cure, no one response, no one fair and complete representation to give the American people.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Another emotionally charged book, but a fiction. The story of a man who gives away his twin daughter born with Down Syndrome (a common practice at the times) and tells his wife that she was born dead. The entire book revolves around how this single event, and the man's inability to tell his wife, step-by-step destroys their family. It sounds monotonous, but throughout the book each character's motivations and background is gradually revealed keeping you really invested in each character and his or her development over the course of the 25 or so years covered.

In contrast to the destruction of this family, we see the woman who takes the girl with Down Syndrome into her home. That impulsive action leads, step-by-step to a wonderful life that was nothing like what she had planned but everything she could ever hope for (wow, that sounds like something from a back cover!)

The theme of this book was turning points in people's lives and how one decision to act, speak, not act, or not speak, can change the future for the individual and those around them indefinitely. The ending, however, managed to leave me strangely satisfied as it portrayed that even though many of the characters looked back with regret on the direction they or others turned at those crucial moments, all they could do was continue moving forward and making the most of their own lives and do their best to forgive and understand others' decisions.

A few anecdotes

James with candy corn, signing 'candy'
1. We continued my birthday shopping today and I finally bought something. Two things actually: snow pants for me, capris for Linda. *Sigh* that's what happens when I live in Rochester and she lives in AZ. She gives me her parkas, I buy her $7 dress capris at Old Navy which is making room for their racks and racks of coats and sweaters. It got down below freezing today.

2. It took forever to find snow pants here in Rochester. Are people just so bitter about the snow that they aren't interested in playing in it? How am I supposed to go sledding with James without the proper attire? Why does every store have endless racks of coats but no snow pants or boots?

3. James is cutting both of his top teeth now. Soon to have 4 teeth...go James! We also taught him to put one finger up when we ask him how old he is. I think this is along the lines of my friend Janelle's daughter knowing where to point when she is asked to identify her "subcutaneous prepatellar bursa": they know what to do but have little idea what it means.

He currently gives kisses by biting his bottom lip, but we are teaching him to pucker, hence the picture.

4. Major driving differences here. Traffic lights are really long. There are quite a few intersections where you can turn left from the right hand lane. The off-ramp speed limits actually say the best speed to go. Overall lower speed limits. Overall less speeding. Lots of people get "stuck in the box" in intersections. If you turn on your blinker, people will speed up to keep you from merging. I hardly ever get cut off. It's ok and commonplace to swerve into the shoulder and go around people who are waiting to turn left. HIghways and roads bifurcate often and in weird ways-you really have to watch the signs. NY state law mandates having your headlights on in the rain or construction areas and only hands free telephones in the car. I think that does it.

5. Today was our primary talent show. It was great. The acts were short, adorable, and it was fun to see talents in their beginning stages, even if it was just the talent of being confident enough to perform. My favorites were an ASL story done by a boy whose dad is deaf, one of my sunbeams "ballet dancing" while her sister played the violin, the pogo stick performer who also showed off by hopping in circles on one foot, and the piano performance that only had 1 or 2 notes but showed the little girls ability to read eighth and quarter note rhythms.

I am so thankful to be living somewhere new and experiencing new things. I am grateful that my friend Dakon is having a girl and that Linda is finally getting to see Wicked.

Nov 9

I'm thankful:

1. That after 3 months I finally got maintenance to come and fix our tub so that it can hold water without using a bath toy to plug the drain. Apparently they don't have the right parts so they just gave us a stopper, hopefully James lets it stay there.

2. for Jane Austen books and movies

3. for Raw cookie dough

classic moment

We were walking through Penney's with James holding one of each of our hands. We each passed on one side of a plastic post. We stopped when we realized what was happening, but James didn't notice. He kept walking. Forehead right into the pole. Classic...and funny.

and so often a slacker

but I get off free because ITS MY BIRTHDAY! Other than religious holidays, birthdays are my favorite. When else do you get a day that's just about you (or at least you and your twin sister)? I'm not afraid to admit how much I love it! In keeping with the Gilmore Girls tradition, I have already declared this my birthday week...even the sign Dan put up in the entryway declares it!

Today Dan has a midterm, so no getting him to play hookie for a day, which is my favorite birthday gift. He is going to come home early (around 4) after his midterm and we are going to eat at Panera and go shopping until James' bedtime. It will be my first time to the mall here in town and I have some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket! The main item(s) to find: snow gear!

I'm thankful:
1. for my birthweek
2. that James is finally getting his 3rd tooth (yes, at 15 months)
3. for Whipple Park story time. Fun and gives me song and story ideas!
4. that the migraine that kept from posting last night is gone!
5. WICKED IS COMING TO ROCHESTER! May 28-June 15. Want to see some church history sites and a great musical? Guest room currently available :) I think we'll have started to thaw by then.

Rochester's Seven Dwarfs

If I could use the names of 7 dwarfs to describe the current Rochester weather, they would be:
Rainy, Snowy, Chilly, Windy, Soggy, Cloudy, and Colorful.

No complaints from me though. A morning walk through alternating rain and slush started off the day today. Although I came home dripping, James managed to stay dry, quiet, and warm throughout the walk!

This evening he even pointed to the stroller and signed "please" enough times that we took another short walk around the "block". This evening's walk was drier but compensated by being even more cold and blustery.

The afternoon time between the two walks? Thankfully spent inside at an ASL practice group and curled up reading an engaging novel. I couldn't ask for a better rainy day.

Oh, and I haven't explained how Colorful ended up in my clan of dwarfs. I love tree-lined streets. To me nothing is more romantic, quaint, or picturesque than a tree-lined street. And guess what? The street leading back to the secluded Whipple Park (family housing for U of R graduate students) is fairly long, slightly curvy, and most definitely tree-lined. I'm talking about those beautiful tall trees that our forefathers must have planted and you only find out East. Plus, after my recent lamenting about the trees' bad timing when it comes to changing colors, they have finally decided to put together a more cohesive effort. Suddenly all those trees that were holding back and not changing all changed at once, and they are more vibrant than their forerunners! Now probably 90% of the street-lining trees are draped in Autumn beauty. I really need to take a video of the drive down the street. Its spectacular.

I'm thankful for those things I listed above, plus this quote from Dan's Webelos class tonight:

D: when was the war of 1812?
kid 1: Oh I know! I know! In the 1700's or something!
kids 2: No, you idiot, it was in 1984!

Nov 5

I'm thankful for:
1. My wonderful husband who is working so hard in his Master's program
2. A fridge full of food already prepared
3. Moms I walk with in the morning to give me good tips for cooking and for living in the area.

so soon a slacker

So I only made it the first 2 days of November with a post each day. Ironic since I usually post too often!

Saturday's:

I'm thankful for

1. the amazing human body. While Dan's parents were in town this weekend they, in honor of my upcoming birthday, took us to the Our Body exhibit at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. The exhibit is amazingly preserved human bodies and body parts dissected and displayed to show all the major systems of the human body. Our bodies are such miracles. My newest book is a Physiology text book, I'm excited to learn more.

2. an amazing son who is always learning and who, recently, is always mimicking the words/sounds we say...so close to talking!


Today:

I'm thankful for

1. the gospel of Jesus Christ
2. the American Sign Language (ASL) missionaries we had over for dinner and who teach my ASL class at the church
3. baby sign language, the means by which James told me all through church (combined with the "ch" sound) that he was dreaming about cheese, which he got right when we got home (see above pic)
4. adorable baby church outfits
5. a wonderful weekend with the grandparents
6. that James can point out his grammy and grampy by name

Today I am thankful for Fall, the park, and good company

Today James, Grammy (Dan's mom), and I went to a nearby park to play at playground and in the leaves. This is a park that I walk through or past every morning with the other moms on our walk. It is so beautiful. I now add my ode to Fall to the collection I have seen on so many of your blogs. Doesn't he look just like a backwoods country boy?

I am learning to use digital scrapbooking. I think clicking on the picture will expand it.

Accepting the challenge

I accept Janssen's challenge to join the movement of blogging everyday in the month of November. I haven't decided on a theme yet, but many blogs are likely to revolve around JJ and being thankful for things.

I need your help

I want to be an educated voter, but I don't know the best approach. I would like to start a group for women/people in our ward/apt complex to discuss presidential/political campaigns and issues. Where is the best place to start? Any suggestions on the format of the meetings? I am going through the registration process and I have checked out the seemingly uninformative websites, but now what? I guess I can find videos online of past debates? Anyway, I'd love help!

Happy Halloween!

We went to the Museum of Play costume/trick-or-treat day. James had lots of fun for 3 hours, had a smorgasborg of food at the food court, then crashed in the car on the way home. This time he was a football player (see below for his bball outfit).













Video above: James loved helping to push Grammy's wheelchair!

Daddy finished this week's midterms the afternoon of Halloween so he got to be with us to hand out candy and to take JJ trick or treating to some of our friend's houses in the neighborhood! James was SO happy to be with his Daddy! (by the way, one of his new favorite songs is "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home". He makes me sing it over and over again in the car on days when we pick Daddy up at school and he does most of the actions too!)


Some of James' sweetest and biggest smiles come when he is walking holding both of our hands. He will take mommy's hand and then arch and crane and stretch until he gets Daddy's attention and hand (or vice versa). This picture (taken while trick-or-treating) doesn't do his smile justice, but it sure is cute!