Monday, October 26, 2009

More from Will's visit

I did it! I called him Will!

These are photos he took in Rock Creek Park.


The creek from the path.

Us on a rock.

The creek from the bridge

The trail

The awesomely colored Caterpillar I found on the path.

And one last photo of Clark, in the carseat looking quite serious.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Seven Quick Takes (10:45pm version)

1. Check out Conversion Diary if you haven't already. They are the host of seven quick takes. She writes amazing stories about her conversion to Catholicism.


2. We are going to Chicago this week. I dropped Tom at the airport this morning. Clark and I are joining him tomorrow. Tom is going for the Neuroscience Conference.

3. I saw my best friend, Liz and her sister this week. They are going to New York State for a month or more to live at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch and do yoga and farm. I'm hugely jealous.

There are millions of pros to being an adult who is married and has a kid and a house and a community. But there is one huge flaw. Its very irresponsible and unheard of (even though people DO do it) to completely abandon everything and search for yourself/give up your old life to get a new one. While I feel quite happy with myself, having "found myself" many years ago during some deep searching that started in high school when most girls are looking for the perfect haircut and nail polish color, I still feel jealous when people can blow off their old lives and find a new one. This thought applies to the yoga ranch, missionary work, and world travel.
I wouldn't trade what I have for anything, but if I didn't have what I have, that's what I would do.

4. I went to Arundel Mills Mall today and bought some nursing bras. I've been doing this for 7 months. I have 3 shelf bra tank tops and one proper brassiere. Now I have 2 more real bras. I should have gone there MONTHS ago. They cost $15 and $9. I bought my first nursing bra for $60. What an idiot!

5. I also got a pretty turtleneck from United Colors of Benetton. This is the most ridiculously priced store ever, HOWEVER, they have AMAZING clearance. My turtleneck cost 9.99. Yeah, and its like dry clean only, or wash, but don't tumble dry, the tag has about 19 languages on it, i can't figure out what kind of fabric it is in the midst of all of the languages, but i did find washing instructions. i tumbled it for a few minutes before hanging it up.

6. I put Clark to bed and he woke up an hour later, but Tom called (from Chicago). Clark was crying, but he listened to his dad talk on the phone and was happy. He saw Tom's photo on the caller-id and he laughed. it was really sweet

7. Tonight I hosted our first "Babies and Beer". Andrea and Jake used to do it in DC, so I finally got some friends and babies and beer over at my house. We had a food picnic on the living room floor with the two neighborhood babies: Eva and Simi (she was featured in the video and park photos last week). It was nice, but the babies go to bed at 7:30 or so, so it doesn't last long.

Have a good weekend! I'll post next time from Chicago!!! (if I have a computer)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My brother's visit.

So I have to call him "my brother" first of all because he is my brother, but secondly because he is going through a name transformation in my head. My entire life, he has been called, "Stephen" at least by me and the immediate family. However, on this trip, I was told that I was the only one that still called him that. Even mom was calling him, "Will" now. So, I just called him, "brother" while he was here. This also helped me not accidentally call him "Tom" just as "brother" always calles me, "Katie".

My brother isn't a big "real smiler" in photos, so here is a goofy one of him and me together.


When brother was here, we pretty much hung around the house and made a trip to home depot. I dont think we did anything else outside of the house. He spent his time cuddling with Clark and fixing stuff around our house. We also went for a walk in Rock Creek Park, we saw lots of deer. He took photos during the walk and still hasn't emailed them to me (slacker!). When he does, I will post them. As a result, I have mostly photos of Brother and Tom doing manly things around the house, and photos of stuff Brother fixed. Thankfully, he saved us from 2 pretty bad fire hazards that were lurking in the form of bare, electrified wires. Glad he came! Its really great to have an engineer in the family who isn't afraid to take things apart in order to put them back together.

Light he fixed in our pantry.


Tom working on the roof.


Brother spotting Tom on the roof and handing him stuff.



Brother Crazy talking about wires and stuff (I think this had to do with the TV)


"We're men, we're manly men, we roam around the country looking for fights!"


where should we put the antenna? how about there?


So after the visit, we have a fan that won't fly off of the ceiling and kill the baby, a fan electrical power source that won't burn the house down, two closet lights that work, one less live, electrified wire in the pantry, an electrical plug that's safer, a TV that gets CBS, and two leaky faucets (well, he didn't have time to fix everything!)

And we had a nice visit, lots of hanging out and movies watched.

I'm glad he came because it gave my family a little bit more gravitational pull. Tom's family is like Saturn, there are 14 people to visit in 4 cities and I only have 6 in 2 cities. Now my little family has a little more gravitational pull, more like Mars instead of Mercury. We've got two moons now! yay! it still doesn't compare to Saturn's rings and 61 moons, but its more than before!!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Swinging!

Clark's first visit to the park.



I went with a neighbor baby and her nanny to the park the other day. The kids went on the swings and tried the slide. Clark generally liked the slide (maybe a little scary) but thought the swing was great. He has lots of joie de vivre and we love it!








Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

I iz dressed leik a pumpken

This post has ZERO content. Its just pictures of Clark in his adorable Jack O'Lantern costume from Aunt Nina. Sometime life is really boring or just sucks. When you look at these pictures, I hope your life is happy.

Consider it my LOLBABY gift to you. (You can come up with the captions)

















i haz a leaf!



I IZ DUN!!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Labor Day Weekend



Yeah, its October, I know, but I never posted these pics and told the story of our Labor Day Weekend.

We had planned on visiting Tom's Uncle Ray and Aunt Karla in New York. We even bought bus tickets. However, Tom wasn't feeling well, so we cancelled the trip. After resting and getting better on Saturday and Sunday, he was feeling pretty good on Monday. We decided to take a day trip.

We looked at the map to see where we could go in a few hours that was awesome enough, yet low energy enough, to warrant the trip. We decided to Go West! We had our hearts set on Sideling Hill. Its a big, giant mountain that the gov'ment cut a big gash in so they could put a road through it! Its also at a point in MD that is like a mile wide from West Virginia to Pennsylvania.

Here is a view from the air (taken from Google Images)


Along the way we stopped at the C&O Canal near Hancock, MD. We went to the visitors center and learned about the aqueducts of the C&O Canal, a little bit more about how it was made, and how it was defeated by the train. We walked along it and the Potomac River, as well as the MD Rail Trail for bike riding.


After visitng that stuff, we set out for our Geological Wonder of the Eastern States.
Unfortunately,

the visitors center was closed. BOOOOO

Fortunately, you could still climb up the side of the mountain (a little bit) and view the hill and take some photos.


It was very interesting. We would definitely like to come back when the visitor's center is open. We looked in the windows and they have some interesting stuff in there!!!





Then we drove to Pennsylvania and looked at some nature through the car windows. We also got out and bought fireworks. Wee hee!!!

Too bad its illegal to set off fireworks in Montgomery County. =( booo