A Friendly Wave from Little Bumblebee

Due date: mid-August. Boy, oh boy!

An Expensive Workout

One idea for Super Date is to do a sprint triathlon together. In theory this is a good idea if you both train for the event and neither participant is very pregnant (a little pregnant is okay ;). As it was, neither of us trained very well and one of us is 22 weeks along. Briton pushed himself, but was still sunk by the swim. This worked well for a date, because after my Michael-Phelp-ish swim at a different pool, but then leisurely transition ("Does anyone have a hair dryer and curling iron?") we ended up seeing each other in the bike transition area.

Back up a bit ... for some reason, we made it into the transition area before the race without being marked, so that happened at poolside. Briton found someone with a ballpoint: Number 3. That's pretty cool!

I found someone with a sharpie and good handwriting: On the other leg they write your age. I liked that aspect of the race -- checking out everyone's calves to see how old they were.

The "race" was in Corvallis. The night before we stayed at the parents home of some friends. Great folks -- they made us feel like we were at a Bed and Breakfast.

Back to the race: Corvallis is beautiful countryside to pedal through. The weather was comfortable, even at 7 a.m. The 5K circled a campus block three times. This was handy for me when I needed a bathroom break after one mile of shuffling along. I was able to cut across the street to a building and use the bathroom there, "down the hall and to the right."

I finished 401st out of 409th. Heather always told me, "There will always be someone faster than you, and there will always be someone slower than you." She was right once again. Tho' barely so this time. I'm sort of envious of number 409th and wonder if they have a good story.

Briton's take on the event: He was glad when the swim was over, and glad he didn't have to wear a swim cap.

Here we are, commemorating the event as we jet out of the place.
We only had eight hours left of our super date and wanted to get back to Portland for some serious bonding over yard work.

Roll Call, April 2-8

Mon - Spaghetti w/ red sauce, peas, salad. It was a beautiful day today -- who wants to be inside cooking???
Tue - Stacked Chicken and Zuchinni Enchilada with Creamy Green Chile Sauce (Perry's Plate)
Wed - Baked Fish Fillet with yogurt topping (Perry's Plate)
Thu - Southwest Chicken Barley Soup (PP)
Fri - Super Date
Sat - Super Date
Sun - Easter Dinner con familia

Conference Weekend, April 2012

For the first session we went to OMSI with the cousins to see the Lego exhibit and etc. The below picture could be considered symbolic of our religious priorities.



There were two areas sectioned off for Duplo building and little Lego building. Sydney set to work in her imagination land with the Duplo people and blocks. Talmage wanted to go in the little Lego area but saw the sign that said "6 and up only" and came back to me in tears. "You have to be six!" So I taught him another important religious principle about how some rules don't apply to you. He got busy building a set of jeeps and a garage.



While the older kids watched a show at the Planetarium, I took Isaac and Clara to the kiddie play area. They spent a solid hour playing in the water. Clara was soaked to the bone by the end. She loved it.




It was a very profitable morning at OMSI and we hope to take advantage of the cousins' membership there for many conferences to come.

OH! And mom came home from Bolivia on Friday. That was another exciting thing about this weekend.

As Sunday morning session of conference was beginning, we were digging into breakfast. Here, Clara literally feasts on the word.

"Gifts from Heaven":



Later in the day we took a stroll to the mailbox to see what we could find. Heather sent Syd some summer skirts she'd made (all lickety-split and fancy as she is won't to do -- zippers and bows and everything). She sewed up this Easter dress, too, as an after thought because, get this ... she was "already making three for Rick's grandkids, so why not make just one more?" Sydney loves the dress and wore it most of the afternoon and even wanted to wear it to bed.


Briton played with the kids all afternoon. They constructed this Rube Goldberg contraption. I'm including all three videos because: a) the contraption that took two hours to build was destroyed by the end of the evening. Honestly, some kids have zero sentimentality!


and, b) in this first one you can see how the ball triggers the button to activate the counterweight, that then sets in the car in motion, which hits the hammer to kick the wheel




c) in this middle one Clara is hilarious



d) this last one you can see the ending path the best

It has been a very enjoyable conference weekend. Look forward to hearing the talks now.

And The Beat Goes On

Brit's been taking drum lessons. Last week Coyote Bar and Grill hosted a Beatle's Night for the music students. Briton's group had one rehearsal and then it was the Big Time.



The fans, in various stages of engagement.



Briton has a great teacher. It's that guy wearing the glasses and blue shirt.

We had a good time watching him and by all reports he had a super fun time playing. Who knows where this will lead. He's already got the papparazzi going nuts as you can see from the video.

http://youtu.be/pRsd3Q9gYxY

http://youtu.be/md0j2-NXb6w 

A Little Rumbly Ro-Bear

This is the sound of sweet slumber after being awake for 32 hours straight.

Mar 26-April 1 Roll Call

Mon - Baked Potato Bar (yeah. It didn't happen yesterday. We ended up whipping up fried rice and wontons instead).
Tue - Butternut Risotto, pork tenderloin, green salad (friends coming to dinner) (MEL's)
Wed - Meatloaf (Erin)
Thu - Black Beans n' Rice (Mom)
Fri - Foil Packet Chicken with Snow Peas and Carrots (MEL's)
Sat - Mt. Hood Trip
Sun - Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole (MEL's)

March 19-25 Roll Call

It's Friday and I'm planning the menu for the week. This past week, that is. But first up, review of last week. Posting the menu really helped me be accountable. There were a couple nights when I didn't feel like cooking, but did it anyway "because of the blog!" The best new recipe were those Veggie Burgers. The Cooks Illustrated recipe is delicious (tho' involved) -- and even carnivorous Briton didn't miss not having meat. Saturday and Sunday was super busy-er than anticipated, and I worked through Sat night -- so the Veggie Soup and Lasagna didn't happen on those days. Which means .... I got to save them for this past week.

Mon - SICKER than a dawg. The natives fended for themselves.
Tue - Lasagna finally appeared.
Wed - Veggie Soup (to clear the system) and homemade Foccacia (from Mel's Kitchen Cafe)
Thur - Still sick. But an ever-generous friend offered to bring dinner over. Just out of the blue. I can't say enough about how much that meant.
Fri - Hawaiian Haystacks (Mel's)
Sat - Pizza (maybe)
Sun - Baked Potato Bar (maybe)

Very Vintage

This dress was made by Heather for one of Marybeth's daughters back in the 80's ... or 90's or something. She stitched the smocking and everything. MB had held onto it (there were two other matching dresses for her other girls) and awhile ago passed it on to us. I remember thinking how beautiful the dresses were when MB's kids wore them and was tickled that they were was still around - at least this one - for Clara to wear. I was all nostalgic-y dressing Clara for church last Sunday. Next Sunday we'll try it on Sydney. Did you ever think, Heather, that when you were sewing this dress that it would one day be worn by your sister's kid? Trippy.

"Roll" Call

I kill myself with that title. This post aims to be the first recording of our weekly dinner menu. Get it? "Roll"? When I was a teenager our family went on a really long bike-ride that took a month. During that time, Nathan recorded everything he ate for all his breakfasts. We made fun of him because it seemed historically uninteresting. This will probably be uninteresting to you, too.

Week of March 12 - and Cousin Marianne, who supplied most of the ideas for this week.

Mon - Veggie Burgers (Cooks Illustrated, p. 302; freezer-friendly)
Tue - Oven-Fried Chicken (Weight Watchers) with Quinoa salad (Marianne's recipe)
Wed - Indian Dal (Marianne) with Na'an (Heidi) and Apple Salad (Marianne)
Thu - Cream Cheese Chicken with Broccoli (Marianne; Slow-cooker)
Fri - Date night
Sat - Vegetable Soup (Mom's recipe) and WW Bread (Grandma Kartchner)
Sun - Fred's Lasagna (Paula)

Maybe I'll note the winner meals the following week. Mmm. We'll see.

A Crisis. Then True Love Triumphs.

From the Archives c. 2005.

It was a sunny day today.

She's 2!

Literary Forays, by Talmage. In the Manner of a Parable.

There was a man woo saled hotdogs. every day he wold say for sale hot dogs for sale he says. and every day when he says that noone listened.
2 The same man who saled hotdogs he soled sweets instead. but every day he called everyone wold come running and running and the [he] was happy. The end.

Valentine's Eve

This is the first year the kids have done Valentine exchanges. It's been a kick seeing the process from the parent angle. The melted heart crayon idea is from Family Fun. Talmage decided he'd personalize each card and ditch the valentine-y play on words ("You 'color' my world" - or what-have-you).

These were some of my favorites:


"Vacation trip Valentines" (Valeria just moved to Mexico; Mrs. Weber is mailing her the kids' valentines).
Several of the girls he addressed as or referred to princesses. Really sweet.

"Every recees" [recess] - To Michael (every recess .... what? very intriguing).
"Got a strike?" - To Ryder
A castle scene for Maddie
"You make a rainbow with your heart" - To Olivia "Look on the back" (poetic)

Sydney opted for illustrations only for her non-school friends. She'll be taking the standard "free printable" download-type valentine for her preschool class secondary to her quickly diminished interest in the whole valentine card-making scheme.


I came home from a meeting the other night to this scene. It was like a living, breathing valentine. Have you heard of the Mercy Watson series, by the way? Funny. Great illustrations.

Sensitive Reader Warning: A Demure Clara Narrates Her Bodily Functions

"whynah" [?]
"Plate"
[Burp]
"Burp"
[Self-conscious laugh]
"Poo-poo. Poo-poo."
"You have a poo-poo?"
[Turns head bashfully away in acknowledgement]

Budget Reduction Day=Beach Trip With Cousins

That was a fun day.

January 12, Clara's cast came off. It was pretty traumatic for her. The saw cut (shallowly) into the side of her foot, barely missing a small pressure sore.

A few days later, it snowed a little bit. The kids bundled up and raced outside. Clara stood in the garage and cried the whole time. She had to be ignored, as the snow was melting before our very eyes. As it was, we did what we could with what we had:




A few days after that, Sydney turned four. She was really excited to be four. "I'm so excited!" she'd exclaim, over and over in the days leading up to it.

She had a special morning breakfast and enjoyed opening a few presents from G&GB.





The next day she and a few friends went to an indoor playground. Rules of the place prohibited birthday celebrations, so midway through we (me and two friends who thankfully saw the silliness of me trying to do this alone and decided to stay) shuttled the kids out into the lobby, where they (the kids, not the mommies) sat on the cold tile and ate chocolate cupcakes and spread frosting all over tarnation.

It was pretty ghetto. But I guess the girls had fun and that's what really counts. When Talmage turned four, since I didn't know any better, I stayed up 'til the wee hours making that Radiator Springs racetrack cake. We hosted a birthday party here with a few of his friends, who we tried to entertain with mediocre games. One kid threw up. It was a very stressful experience (the entertaining part, not the throw-up part) and I don't know as if the benefit was any greater than the good time Sydney had with her friends at the playground where we just let them run amuck. So, I think, given it is not "my thing", that birthday parties around here will generally continue to follow the same grain I grew up with, i.e. benign neglect. "It's good for your character!"

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

Clara gets her cast off tomorrow. Having a cast has meant minimal bathing. A couple days ago, the Kids Club at the gym called me back to change a supposedly poopy diaper. Was she poopy? Nope.

When the cast comes off, gone will be the rhythmic "clunk, clunk, clunk" when Clara walks around the house. She's been like a pirate with a peg-leg. That's been kind of funny.

With the cast gone, I won't have to answer the question, "What happened to her leg?" Usually I just say, "She broke it" - as if that solves any mystery.

While Clara has had the cast, we've wondered, "What does Clara think about it???" For all she knows, she's going to have this thing on her leg for the rest of her life. She's accepted this supposed fact and moved on without complaint. That's a pretty admirable quality.

Another good thing about the cast is she learned a new word that I haven't seen in any Priddy Books. "'Ast, 'ast" she says as she slaps her cast. Pretty good for a 22-month old. Although, it reminds me of a sad story from nursing school. During a pediatric rotation, a 3 year-old (or so) kid told me, "Heparin burns." And I thought, "You shouldn't even know that word."

The background music would be better if it were something more pirate-y.

Christmas Morning

Christmas on Sunday. It was the best. Kids got up and got dressed for church without the usual fuss. It was best behavior all around. Maybe we'll have a stack of presents waiting at home every Sunday from here on out.

Sacrament meeting was wonderful: great talks, beautiful music. It gave Christmas morning the spiritual impact that is usually missing when we just open presents willy nilly. And then we got to go home after only an hour. That was a really good present.

The annual Lego set:

Clara found this doll a couple months ago. I got it at a consignment sale for two bucks and was saving it for Christmas. She's been dragging her "baby" around since then. To sweeten the deal on Christmas morning, she got a baby bottle to feed her with. She really liked that.

Talmage has been asking for a "scripture case like Tate's." I didn't know what Tate's scripture case looked like, but blogland instructed me on the one below. It has a magnetic snap, which is the coolest feature, I think. And also, it was free to make except for the purchase of those snaps.

Also in the pic below, Sydney is playing with a castle Talmage made for her. A few weeks before Christmas he said he wanted to make Sydney a castle for her present. So we'd work on it after she left for preschool or when she was napping (ok. and 15 minutes before bed on Christmas Eve). I don't have a good picture of it because Clara already smashed it (It's a cardboard box and foam board). But it was cool while it lasted -- especially the creation process. The concept and interior decor were all directed and mostly made by Talmage: paint color, fabric wallpaper, room dimensions, and a ladder going between floors.

Richard Scarry's "Busy, Busy Airport" game was a hit:


Ah.

Syd loved her unicorn from G&G Barker. She strapped her toolbelt on and went to town.

So that's some of the loot. It was a really relaxed, lazy week. Now, it's back to the grindstone.

The last thing I wanted to say, though, was that I ran 940 miles in 2011 from February 12-November 26 (then I stopped recording. And then I stopped running because I'm too busy eating milkshakes).

Christmas Traditions in the Making

The Bruno's.

The kids had a great time dancing around to carols.
(And spying on the cat)

Clara's wearing a candy-cane stripped legging to match her cast. I love Emily's dance moves and crazy hair. And Heather's piano playing.


My alto miraculously and instantly improves whenever I sing with Heather (and Grant).


You can see the Bruno's fun Christmas season (and then stalk the blog). I also include it here so you can notice our pictures from our 2010 and 2011 version of Sleigh Bells. It's about half-way down. Also, I want you to notice how fat my face was in 2010 compared to 2011. Now that I'm eating treats again, that 2010 face is coming right back. It only took 4 days. And six truffles. And a Burgerville Chocolate Hazelnut milkshake. And a ...


The Grotto.
The kids are looking at the nativity. This was a very powerful moment. I think you can get a sense for it by Syd's expression.

True to a stable-style, The Grotto also features animals. Above: a very, very patient rabbit.

And popcorn after the puppet show.

Gingerbread Houses.
The kids double-teamed on the houses. ... except for Clara who did not go through the charade of decorating a house to get to the candy.

Talmage and Joseph's forested abode.

Sydney and Isaac's .... Contemporary Modern Vintage Classic abode.

Pittock Mansion.
Christmas Eve morning courteous of the Cultural Pass. But first, a look at our living room - I finally finished the holiday decorating. In the NICK of time!

Briton had a fun time with the kids at the Pittock Mansion while I scurried around town finishing up shopping for our "12 Days" family. In retrospect, I could have been a lot more organized about Christmas.

A fancy bathroom, dressed in holiday style.

"Clara, say bidet."


Sydney making an "owl face" (intuitively).

Mt Hood.


Then they went to the park.

Cleaning up on Christmas Eve eve:

Caught on candid camera.

That's all for now.

Spun by silver light and shadow.

"It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get." --- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 15

Brit spied this spidey-web one frosty night. One of the perks of taking out the garbage.