Snow in Mansfield, OH

Jenny & Keith got 15+ inches this week. Insanity!!

Bath Photos

They're getting so big!

Li'l Shorty

On Monday I finally got my up-to-the-armpit cast removed and got a shorter replacement. It looks kind of like an arm warmer one of the the Fame dancers would wear. But it's been great finally having my elbow back again (although painful getting it to bend like it's supposed to).
What I learned during my this visit to the doc: (1) having an X-ray technician with reasonable communication skills make a big difference; (2) it takes eight-to-ten weeks for new bone to completely form; (3) the six weeks I am supposed to be in a cast was really just a tease, because; (3) I am supposed to wear a forearm splint for at least two weeks after this deadweight is finally removed.
Bah.

vegetables

Our farm is trying to provide produce from within a 100 mile radius for us this winter. It's not easy with the climate here. We've been eating lots of turnips, parsnips, rutabaga, braising greens, carrots, potatos, apples & pears. Last week we also tried sunchokes for the first time. They do manage to get us some interesting things like locally grown shitake and crimini mushrooms and fresh herbs too. But it's definitely been challenging to figure out how to cook turnips and rutabagas in a familyfriendly way! Now that all our spring bulbs are blossoming I'm sure looking forward to summer's vegetables!

days

We've been busy and having fun. Unfortunately, we haven't been good at taking pictures of anything! Last weekend we gathered the grandparents and GG and headed to Carkeek Park for a fun morning of playing. Emmett got to go to the beach for the first time and he quite enjoyed it. Clara and I had fun flipping rocks over and watching the crabs scurry around. We started building a sand castle but only had one bucket and two shovels. Clara ended up scrounging a Starbucks cup from a neighboring builder to expand her options. We'll have to get more buckets for our next trip. Just before we left a train came through. There's a walkway built over the traintracks so Clara got to stand over the train and cheer for it...she was pretty excited about that. The next day we went to hang out with Noel, Eva, Quinn & Kallen. Clara couldn't wait to see them and had so much fun playing with all their big kid toys, climbing on their swingset, and riding their skateboard/scooter. Emmett loved their fishtank and took a record-breaking nap there. I had a lot of fun too!

Broken

Yep, I done broke my arm. The worst part about it is the (lack of) story behind it. I stumbled on some uneven pavement, sleepily zoned out on my iPod at 7:30am, walking to work on Wednesday. Caught myself wrong, I guess. The result:



I didn't immediately know it was busted. I still went up to my office thinking "maybe it's not broken" while a huge goosegg grew on the side of my wrist. Then it hurt too much to even take my coat off. So I went back downstairs and grabbed a cab to the ER.

The damn Navy says that I can't keep Ryan home from Iraq just to take care of "a dolt civilian with an owie." Bureaucrats.

more car conversations

clara: when you get big will you be the drink girl?
jill: um...what do you mean?
clara: i'm gonna fly the airplane. will you be the drink girl?
jill: oh! sure! yes, i'd really like that!
clara: and what will emmett be when he gets big?
jill: how about your co-pilot? you need two people to fly the plane. he'll sit next to you in the front.
clara: okay! emmett, do you want to be my co-pilot?
emmett: (no noise)
clara: he said yes!
jill: oh good! yay!
clara: what will gramma be? will she be my copilot too?
jill: how about she's a drink girl like mommy? she can pass out sodas, and water, and juice.
clara: yeah, and milk! and crackers!
jill: how about some pretzels or peanuts? do you think she would like to do that?
clara: no...just cups and drinks.
jill: okay.
clara: and daddy!
jill: what will daddy do?
clara: he'll be my pretzel boy!
jill: yep, i think daddy will be a great pretzel boy...

My company in the news

King5 News did a report on RFID last night...our founder and CEO have short bits in here: http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_020408WAB_RFID_SW.8cd5def0.html.

There's supposed to be a more in-depth follow-up piece on Feb. 17 that will hopefully not be so alarmist.

Beef in the news

Every now and then we entertain buying and eating meat from our farm. But, I'm still not comfortable with buying it at the grocery store...two articles in the past couple of days that I've stumbled across. Honest, I'm not looking for this!

Rethinking the Meat Guzzler (New York Times)

Video of workers abusing cows raises food safety questions (CNN)

Treefrogs @ Kidspace

One of Clara's teachers started a website about their room. "Kid Quotes" rock...
(Jenn, Consetta, and Galen are the teachers)

"I smell cats! You smell like cats."- Nic to Jenn
"Is that a good smell or a yucky smell?"- Jenn to Nic
"It's a good smell!"- Nic, 1.18.08

"I lost my penis!"- Clara, while having diaper changed, 1.15.08

"It's crunchy out there. Crunch, crunch!"- Ryden, after our snow/ice storm, 1.15.08

"My ding-dong doesn't work."- Payton, while discussing doorbells with Galen, 1.14.08

"The bear left...he went out the door to outside then to his car and he drove to the zoo, to have dinner."- Josie, talking about the bear in the core, 1.8.08

"Ouch! I don't like that!" -Clara to the top of our climber after she bumped her head on it. (9.21.07)

"I need some coffee." - Aiden (9.20.07)

"I don't like spiders. They have too many hands." - Julian (9.14.07)

"A free time that never ends." - Joise to Consetta when asked about her dream at nap time. (9.6.07)

"Scoop it...Good boy Galen." - Clara to Galen while playing with sand together.8.24.07

"I'm a busy-body!" - Josie (8.23.07)

new things

Our old rice cooker burnt up so we decided to splurge on a Zojirushi. It came yesterday. And it's super cute. I also got some new cookbooks. Thinking I was going to be at work today, Jeff & I prepped a recipe (No Hurry Vegetable Curry) from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker" last night. I popped it into the crockpot for it's slow cook this morning. The Zojirushi comes with this neat feature that lets you program it to have your rice done cooking at the time you tell it to. I was a little nervous trying that on its first use but luckily I'm home with wonky-eyed Emmett (see below) today so I just set it up to make my rice for dinner in a few hours. It played a happy little tune "ABCDEFG, next time won't you sing with me" (okay no words, just the tune) when I was done. That will sure make Clara happy.

Speaking of Clara, she's been quite funny this week. Some new sayings:
"Grampa, you're freaking me out!"
"Tough Nuggets!"
"Rock On" (complete with what she calls "bat" fingers)

milk woes

So I was thinking yesterday that I'd like to start buying local milk and eggs and ideally have it delivered, you know, milkman style. We're going through quite a bit of milk every week for the kids. Smith Brothers is the place I've heard the most about. But...due to some government regulations that make it really hard to have a dairy on the same land you have cattle, they had to sell off their herd and now buy milk from a co-op. But I wanted to go to the source. So I kept looking. I read a bunch about Wilcox Farms which sounds interesting cause they've got "Salmon Safe" certification and are doing a lot of "green" practices. But...again they ran into the regulations problem and had to sell off their herd...though I read an article that says they're trying to bring a couple hundred cattle back for their organic milk. I think it's when you get over 300 cows you start running into problems. Both Smith & Wilcox are pretty big operations. Wilcox is actually sold at Costco. I wouldn't mind going more mom & pop. So I posted a message to my vegetable farm box subscribers asking if any of them had recommendations. And one person responded that she uses SPUD which I'd been thinking about off and on too...it's really hard grocery shopping with the two kids in tow! Anyway they supply milk from a couple of smaller local farm/dairies. But it's creamtop or raw milk. And I am not sure about doing that. So I'm still looking. But it's making me sad that it is hard to find. I haven't been to the farmer's market in a couple of months. Maybe I'll go see if anyone shows up there and/or ask around. I suppose it's funny that I live in a big city and I'm looking to find a small farm to supply my milk and eggs.

Mama's boy

The doc says it's not pinkeye and should clear up in a coupla days. Phew.

Let's Play "Name that Loon"

You know you want to write a caption for this one!

mama

riding in the car...
clara: mama.
jill: yes?
clara: mamamamamama
jill: (silence)
clara: mama. mamamamamama.
jill: what?
clara: mom. mamamama. (increased pitch)
jill: clara, what?!! please use your words!
clara: mamamamamamamama
jill: (silence while gritting teeth))
clara: can i have a cracker? (high pitched whiny baby voice)
jill: no. we've talked about this! we don't have any snacks left. you've eaten them all already. we're almost home. can't you just sing a song for us?
clara: i want a crackkkeerrr!
jill: clara! you're driving me crazy! can't you please sing a song? how about abcd?
clara: no, i don't wanna sing abcd!
jill: fine, how about twinkle twinkle!
clara: i don't know twinkle.
jill: fine, pick another song.
(silence.)
(silence.)
clara: mom.
jill: (silence)
clara: mom. mamamama.
jill: (silence)
clara: mamamamamamama
jeff: clara, STOP IT!!! USE YOUR WORDS! WHAT DO YOU WANT?! QUIT SAYING YOUR MOM'S NAME OVER AND OVER!!!
(silence)
(silence)
clara: mama. mama. mama. my mommy!
jeff & jill: ERGH!!
clara: mama. mama. mamamamama.
jeff: CLARA! it is NOT NICE to keep saying your mom's name over and over and over! quit it! how would you like it if someone said your name over and over?! claraclaraclaraclaraclaraclaraclaraclaraclaraclara
jill: jeff! i spy with my little eye something green
clara: i don't wanna spy!!
jeff & jill: ERGH!!

i'm not sure we're going to survive much longer. we're trying. but...
clara talks nonstop whenever we're in the car (which thankfully is usually just 15 minutes at a time). we're her captive audience. and usually it's to hear her constantly say mama. mommy. my mommy! the girl has a huge vocabulary. a huge song repertoire. and still she can't seem to get out of her catatonic mama state in the car. oof.

Day 9

It's Day 9 of the PinkEye drama. Went to an eye specialist a couple days ago and he said it was a viral form of pink eye. In extreme cases they prescribe an antibiotic drop with a steroid. He said I looked like I'd suffered enough and got some for me. He told me to do 4 doses per day and that I should get in 4 doses that first day even though it was already 4:30pm. It helped! My basset hound-like swollen eyes now look nearly normal though I've got a bruise where one of the under-eye bags used to live.


Luckily (for Jeff) I documented what led up to it. Today was my first day back to work since I got called to pick up a fevery Emmett on 12/20. I put in eyedrops before I went to work. My boss said my eyes looked like I'd been swimming in Chlorine. By the end of the day they were getting pretty sore and kinda itchy again...and more red. I was happy to get home to my eyedrops. I hate eyedrops but I don't know what I would've done without them these past 9 days.

owie eyes

On Thursday afternoon my eye started feeling like I had something in it. So I itched it. And itched some more. The next morning I woke up with both eyes crusted over and so swollen I couldn't keep them open. Jeff managed to get me into a doctor that morning and the doc thought I was having allergy-induced pink eye. We told him it was 3 days before Jeff's brother's wedding and we needed it taken care of ASAP. He said to take Claritin and some over the counter eye drops and it would clear up in a few days. That afternoon the swelling went down quite a bit. My eyes just looked like I'd been crying a bit. I'd been told I wasn't contagious so I went off with the gals for a pre-wedding mani/pedi outting and dinner. My eyes were getting really achey by the end of the night but I didn't have any swelling. On Saturday I woke up to a swollen mess again and started getting really tender spots on my jawline and Jeff started feeling like one of his eyes was going bad. So we went to an urgent care clinic together. We asked to be seen together. I wore dark glasses because my eyes were bright red and swollen. I think most people probably thought we were there for some STD checkup or something. The nurses and doctor were pretty grossed out when I took my glasses off. The doctor pretty much kept her distance from both Jeff and me and just wrote out a prescription for bacterial pinkeye treatment. She said I also had some cellulitis causing the swelling. So that was 3pm and we were on 24 hour countdown to the wedding now. We missed out on the rehearsal dinner and all the pre-wedding fun (some of which I'd even planned!). Needless to say we were sooo bummed. We put in our eyedrops even more often than we were supposed to for several hours in the hopes we'd be okay by today, wedding day, and went to bed. I woke up this morning looking like this:


That's as far as my eyes open cause it's all swollen above and below them. You can kind of see weird puckering next to my eyes where it goes back down to where everything is supposed to live. My face is kinda puffy and swollen too. It was actually pretty uncomfortable going to sleep cause I have weird lumps (lymph nodes?) swelling up in my face. I've been trying to lay with my eyes closed most of the morning and the swelling is going down a little bit. But my eyes are very red and watery. So I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to the wedding or not. Jeff's one eye is still red but doesn't look too horrible. He'll be through 24 hours of antibiotic so will be through the contagious period in another couple of hours just as he's supposed to meet the rest of the groomsmen for lunch. I'm still not even convinced that this weird mutant thing going on with me is pink eye. I haven't had any goopiness in my eyes. They're just red and swollen. I dunno. So far nothing is helping them.

Christmas pics

We had a great time on Christmas, having all the Washington family over to our house for gifts and food (so much food!). It even surprised us all and snowed!

Click the photo to see more...

mama's little miracle

I referred to something as a miracle today. Clara said, "Mama, that's not a miracle." So I asked her what a miracle was to which she replied, "A miracle is when it snows on Christmas." Yep, we had just such a "miracle" yesterday.

Family Photos

We heart Della Chen (dellachen.blogspot.com). We had a blast during our "Day in the Life" photoshoot. Here's an excerpt she put together for us: http://www.dellachen.com/client_access/West/