Busy

Busy busy busy.

But wanted to share some exciting news from my company. We acquired part of Intel.
Here's an interesting article:
http://www.rfidupdate.com/articles/index.php?id=1636

Emmett's Shiner

Never one to shy away from posting photos of us looking less than our best. Here's Emmett with his recent shiner. You shoulda seen the other guy.


That's the pose (including facial expression) he strikes whenever you say, "Hey Emmett, show me your muscles."

Crack boom

Crazy lightning/thunder storm last night. At about 2am the lightning flashed so bright it lit up our room and then thunder cracked so loud it set off our neighbor's car alarm. I have never heard anything like it.

Superstar

I'm trying to add photos to our Smugmug site. But we're not up to full operating mode yet on the PC. So it is taking a lot longer than I had hoped and the uploading isn't working quite right.

But...I'll share these.
Clara was supposed to be taking a nap yesterday. But she didn't. Instead she came downstairs with a too small shirt and pants on. I told her to go up and put her old outfit back on. She went back up. But came down with a different too small outfit on. I told her to go back up. She came back down with a different outfit on. And so on. Here are a couple of the "looks" she was putting together...




Are those model poses or what?

but i neeed you

Emmett ate 1.5 corndogs (yummy veggie corndogs) for dinner, plus a bunch of edamame, plus a bunch of french fries. That kid can eat.

Speaking of food, I started a food blog/journal at greensandthings.blogspot.com since it's my favorite thing to talk about besides my kids. If you want to talk about food too let me know and I'll give you editor "privileges." And for the record, Jeff made the corndog dinner.

I was just sitting here typing away, however, Clara has figured out the childproof lock on her door and just came down to find me. I asked her to go back up to her room. But she said (in the most sickeningly sweet voice I've ever heard) "Mom, I need you to come with me. I can't get my blanket straight the way you do."

clean teeth

Clara's been home sick since Thursday. She has been in great spirits but running a fever off and on and has a nasty cough. Today she definitely seems to be feeling better. GG's playing games with her now. I think they've played 6 games in 30 minutes. GG's a trooper.

This weekend we took the kids to the Children's Museum. We had a great time playing in there and then had lunch at Seattle Center and wandered around the grounds for a bit. There was some sort of cultural festival going on so the kids had fun dancing to the bands. We had a few moments of non-rain and ran around in some grass and sat by the fountain. Clara really wanted to run through it but we decided to save that for a warm day. Emmett was quite fascinated with the seagulls.

After naps for everyone we went to Target. Got a new Sonicare toothbrush. Oh.my.gosh. I loved my old sonicare...we'd had it for nearly 6 years and it started to crack so we needed a new one before (heaven forbid) we had to switch to manual brushing. Anyway brushing with the new one is like switching to Sonicare for the first time all over again. My teeth feel soooo clean. And my gums felt so great getting scrubbed so good. Seriously, if you don't have a Sonicare yet. Go get one. Now! We just got the lower end model they had at Target...I'm wondering what difference it would make getting the higher end ones cause my teeth already feel so good.

Yesterday we went to the farmer's market and got some heirloom tomato plants and veggies. So ready for summer to be here. But more rain today. Rain, gloom, grey, clouds, wet, muddy, yuck. I don't know how the tomatos are even going to grow in this.

in the car...

Clara: you better be careful, dad, those are some wee-wee hills.
Jill: uh, what do you mean? what happens on a wee-wee hill?
Clara: We go wheeeeeeee!

word

we're having technology issues. first, the new camera broke. then the ipod broke. then my laptop broke. then the pc broke. sheesh. the camera got fixed. the ipod went to the repairshop but jeff thinks it still isn't right. repairshop thinks my laptop is probably toast...apparently sony's have a history of power issues. jeff's not sure he can fix the pc either. all of this happened in under 2 months. oof. i'm borrowing a laptop from work to tide me over.

we've gotten rhubarb every week for the last 4 weeks in our produce box. that's a lot of rhubarb. i'd been stocking it up cause i didn't really want to make a rhubarb crisp. i wanted to find a savory rhubarb recipe. tonight i decided i really needed to do something with all that rhubarb. so i researched a bunch and finally found some crazy stuff. i ended up making a lentil, rhubarb, spinach stew! it even had tomatos in it! but it tastes pretty good. and then i made a rhubarb syrup for waffles this weekend. it's supposed to go on top of rhubarb waffles but i'm thinking that might be rhubarb overkill.

the kids are great. clara's super excited to be moving into a new classroom at school. if you see or talk to her, she'll take a deep breath and yell "i'm gonna be a DINO!" she thinks it means she's turning 4 and is telling everyone it's her birthday. asked when her birthday is she'll say "after christmas, in april." which to her, is tomorrow. she's excited.

emmett is big. oh my gosh, he's growing up. he's fun and funny. and loads of trouble. he's starting to talk a lot and trying out new words all the time. putting them together in mini sentences. it's such a great age. we started to transition him to the toddler bed because he was starting to try to climb out of his crib...his top leg on the top railing had me nervous. but then we wimped out after only a couple days and he's back in his crib.

if you haven't looked yet, check out pictures of the kids on emily's blog/picasa site!

Brothers & Sisters

I sure hope Clara & Emmett will love each other as much in the future as they do now. They're so adorable together. Emmett wasn't feeling good last night and couldn't sleep and I let Clara stay up late too. So we were sitting on the couch together and Emmett was sitting on my lap snuggling me. He climbed down and nestled into the space between me & Clara. Then laid his head on her shoulder. She kissed his head and then laid her head on top of his. They sat there for a minute. And we talked about how much they loved each other. And then Emmett sat up. Then he laid his head on her shoulder again and she laid her head on his. And then he laughed and sat up. And then they did the routine again. That happened a couple more times and then he stoop up and pet her hair a bunch of times. Then he climbed on her lap. He sat facing her and grabbed her hands and started singing Row Row Row your boat and leaning back and forth like he usually does with me. Then Clara decided she wanted to go look out the window and see if she could see her dad coming home from the store. Emmett followed her over there but couldn't quite get on the couch himself. So Clara sat down and grabbed his arms and hauled him up. She's such a good big sister. I'm sure lucky to have them.

more birthday fun

What a gorgeous day! We got some long overdue yardwork done (well, started). Then we had more Clara birthday festivities. Layne & Lorraine brought over a big sandbox and loaded it up with toys and sand. Clara had a great time digging her toes in. Poor Emmett has been sick the last few days. Jeff took him to the doc this morning just to make sure it wasn't another ear infection. It's not. But it's hand, foot & mouth disease. He was a trooper today though. The family met us at Carkeek Park for a picnic. The park was packed with people. Clara and Emmett were really excited to get to hang out with their big cousins, Quinn & Kallen. Clara got to open more presents and got some cool new books, a bubble "generator" and lots of super cute clothes. Thanks everybody!!! After cake, we headed down to the beach and went rock tipping. We found lots of tiny crabs, clams, snail-type things, anemones, and a weird worm with tentacle type things...I think it was a new species. :-) I love tipping the rocks over to see what is underneath, but I sure don't like to touch any of it. I admit, I even screamed at one point. Ick. It was a super fun afternoon. A special thanks goes to Emily for introducing me to my new favorite snack: apple slices with a dip of cashew butter, honey and golden raisins! Unfortunately, we still don't have pictures. We found out our camera wasn't just having a battery issue...it's something more. So if you took any pictures today, please send them to us!!

Almost 4

Clara celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday. When she woke up in the morning, I wished her a happy birthday and she asked if we could have cake. Then she wanted her family to come and play with her. Unfortunately, we weren't going to do either of those things at 6:30am. So...off she went to school. When we got there she waited patiently at the director's chair while the woman finished a phone conversation. As soon as the phone was hung up, Clara yelled, "It's my BIRTHDAY!" That got her a big hug and the chance to wear a Happy Birthday necklace. It had big beads and birthday cakes on it. It was supposed to flash too but the batteries were dead. Clara was thrilled. It hung down to her knees but she wore it _all_ day. She was so proud to walk up to everyone and show them her birthday necklace. Jeff and I left work early and surprised Clara while she was out playing on the playground. She showed her dad around the new play structure. We walked by a couple of her friends and she said "hey, henry, hey dylan! did you meet my mom & dad?" It was so adorable. She did it to her friends Mia & Julian too, to the point where she went and grabbed their hands and brought them up to us and said "hey, did you meet my mom & dad?!" So sweet. Emmett spotted us through the window in his room so we went and got him and went inside for a birthday treat. He was thrilled to hang out with the big kids and explore all their fun stuff. I took in mini-donuts with raspberry glaze and we popped a candle in Clara's and sang her happy birthday. She was pretty excited about being the center of attention. There was a little scare afterward when Jeff was reading stuff around the room and realized that one of the kids had a berry allergy. Luckily the exposure was minimal enough he didn't have a reaction. Clara was anxious to get out of there and get home to some presents. She wanted to know who was going to help her get the ribbons off of her gifts. I made her favorite dinner, mac & cheese, and we had some mini cupcakes. Then it was present time. She had a great time playing and opening her cards. At bedtime she wanted to sleep in our bed, so I let her. Happy Birthday, Clara! We'd have had pictures of all of this if the camera batteries hadn't died...

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)