Marshall Hut

Why, hello there

2012-02-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

You're back!!

This goes without saying...

So, here we are.

Ethan started preschool in the fall, is now writing his name, singing new songs he's learned and has been "teaching" his teachers how to shoot hoops, make "donks", and practice their defensive football tactics.

Rian is doing awesome in 3rd grade. He LOVES his teacher (as do I!) and has some really great buddies. He's been playing football at recess as of late and I hear he is quite the wide receiver. He played soccer in the fall and will be playing again soon in the spring. Basketball season started last month for him and he plays like Gerald Wallace. I mean, this kid has some wicked skills. He plays his heart out and just has the most awesome, up-beat attitude.

I'm taking a break this quarter from classes. It has been really, really nice. I'm running more again and have recruited a few ladies to run with me in the early morning hours during the week. Nothing like the alarm going off at 5:15 A.M. Ugh...and to think I once thought of myself as a morning person.

Eric is keeping busy, studying some crazy stuff and working hard at the same time, leading a Cub Scout den, teaching the boys about math, science, the solar system and just EVERYTHING. Yeah, he's pretty great. :)

Why has it taken me so long to get back to this? That wasn't so hard! A brief catch-up, an awesome tune and I'm thinking the happenings in 2012 might be blogged about after all.

Running? Not so much

2010-11-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

Since the marathon I've run twice. TWICE. Once that week after the marathon, a short and easy 3 mile recovery run that felt really good. I did have some knee pain but nothing too serious but I decided to not push it and take a full week of not running to recover. So then my next run was two weeks after the marathon. I ran a 6 mile loop and ended up limp-walking about 3 miles of it.

BOOO.

My knee hurt for two days after that. It sucked.

Lucky me, I had a doctor's appointment that week anyway and she advised me to not run for the next 4 weeks, ice my knee and take Aleve. Then try an easy run. If I still have knee pain then she'll set me up with an orthopedic doctor. I honestly don't think it's anything serious. I think I just ran through an already injured, tired knee and it's letting me know it needs a break.

I know that rest is a good thing and the only way any healing will happen. I don't want to end up one of those stupid people who runs through pain and ends up really doing some real damage. Hopefully I haven't already been one of those stupid people. So, I'm following doctor's orders. I really shouldn't complain, this isn't that bad.

Still, it kinda sucks. I miss running.

We are going to be friends

2010-11-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

I can't get this song out of my head as I post these.

*After spending the afternoon playing in leaf piles, yelling "Surprise!" while throwing leaves in the air or when jumping out of a pile, Ethan now points to leaves on the ground and calls them "surprise".

Random sweetness

2010-11-07T22:48:00.001-08:00

Tonight as I was reading to the boys Ethan got up to play some football.

"Oofball, please? Play oofball please?"

Sure Ethan, anything when you say it like that. I would lasso the moon if you asked for it.

I kept reading, Rian and I were so into the story.

After a few minutes Ethan stops playing, leans over Rian and says something to make them both giggle and then gives him a kiss. Then leans over and gives me one.

He looks back and forth between Rian and I.

"I wuv you guys."

Quite possibly one of my favorite moments ever.

Marathon (FINALLY!!)

2010-11-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

26.2 in 4:35:17

Rocked it. Well, slowly rocked it. I DID IT. I finished. I ran a freaking marathon. Yay!

Marathon morning dawned dark and rainy. NO PROBLEM, SO EXCITED. Months of training lead up to this day. A little rain wasn't going to dampen my excitement. I was also pretty much over the top excited because of my outfit: new shorts, awesome new running top and my new-ish shoes. (Umm, went a little crazy and got a whole new running outfit. Thank you mom and dad!)

About two hours before the race I ate a bowl of cereal, banana, biscuit with jelly and drank a cup of tea and half a cup of coffee. I was drinking as much water as I could and then about an hour before the race I drank about 12 ounces of Accelerade. It totally worked and I felt hydrated and fueled. :)

My amazing husband drove me out to Hood River. We had a hard time finding the start, the idiot who made the map of where to go apparently had never been to Hood River and didn't actually follow his own directions, which were ALL WRONG. Talk about stressful. I could practically feel my body burning off my breakfast fuel just from those stressful 15 min. And then I started stressing that I'd get hungry during the race and feel weak and have to eat something, which I don't usually do, so I'd end up with a stomachache and have to walk and it would take forever and AHHHH!! I think my brain nearly exploded.

We ended up following some group that looked like they knew where they were going, found the start, went pee, stretched a little. It stopped raining, the sun peeked through the clouds and a beautiful rainbow made an appearance.

Starting line!!

(You can stop staring at the neon-stripe bums now.

Dang, I should have turned around and asked for posing pointers)

I had a few minutes before the race was to start so I kissed Eric, grabbed some water, stretched, hugged Eric, deep breath, walked to the starting line, stretched some more, ran back and got one last encouraging hug from Eric and then, finally, I was ready (and the announcer started counting down). Hopeful. Excited. Ready. HA!

My sis-in-law Jessie had hooked me up with a friend of hers that was running the marathon as well so while we hadn't run together in training we planned to run at least some of the marathon together. She was awesome. Such an amazing, incredible woman. She was so, so encouraging. Plus it was super fun running with someone. I really do like running alone. I get lost in my own head, listen to my music, escape. But running with someone is really fun, especially when running that long of a distance.

It's so hard to run slow when that gun goes off. Everything in you wants to leap forward and just take off. I make that mistake every race I have run (haven't been many) and didn't, couldn't make that mistake for this one. My first hour of songs were selected specially because of their zen-calming, chill effect. A little Jack Johnson, Portishead, Hooverphonic, Alexi Murdoch, Modest Mouse to start things off. It helped. Then I picked it up with some M.I.A., Blakes, Snoop, La Roux, T.I., Fratellis, Zox etc, etc, etc. Oh man, my marathon playlist was KICK-BOOTY. Seriously, it totally rocked. I totally want to just sit here and type it all out so that everyone knows and appreciates how great it was but don't worry, I won't. So worth the hours of my life it took to put it together. Such sweet tunes. Ahh, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. SO. FREAKING. GOOD.

The first three miles were immediately uphill. I was really worried that I might die at the top but I actually felt really good and it didn't hurt that I was running it at a slower pace than I have ever run a hill before. But then it started raining. We're talking torrential downpour. It was awesome. We were all immediately soaked. I was so thankful that I wore a hat (not at all part of my original ensemble but so thankful for it!). It poured on us for a couple miles.

This is when my knee started hurting. Well it started hinting to me about mile 3 but I ignored it because it wasn't too bad and I just couldn't even entertain the idea of walking that early. I figured that would happen but thought it would be later on.

Check it out: a nearly 900 ft elevation gain from mile 1 to 14. 800 ft of which are between mile 8 and 14. Ouch! Actually, I swear those downhills nearly killed me. I was run-limping (yes, there is such a thing) downhill at mile 15. I'm sure that was attractive.

Grace and I ran the first 18 miles or so together and then hit (another) steep uphill and she had some foot trouble and wanted to walk up. I thought she would end up catching up to me but something came over me at about mile 19 and I just couldn't stop running. I was on autopilot. I thought I would hit the "wall" but instead I couldn't stop. Weird. My body just took over and my legs kept moving. Plus whenever I slowed to walk through the aide stations to grab Gatorade my legs started SCREAMING and my knee hurt like hell when I started running again so it was just better to keep going.

When I hit mile 24 I texted Eric so that he would know when to meet me at the finish. I started heading down the dreaded last couple miles of downhill, turned a corner and heard some shouting, looked up and there was my family cheering me on. I think I may have actually skipped a bit, swung both arms up in an attempt at a wave and managed a loud shriek of excitement (it really was excitement guys!). Seeing Eric, Rian, Tom, Carol and Ethan gave me a huge second (or maybe eighth) wind and I ran the last 2 miles.

I'm such a lucky girl. Not only did some family surprise me at the race and meet me at the finish line but they planned a celebration afterwards with yummy food and made complete with a Costco cake (yum). A huge, HUGE THANK YOU!! I'm truly blessed. Thank you!!

OH, I did do the whole ice bath thing afterwards and thought I was going to die. Literally. I thought running for over 4 hours was bad, but soaking my feet and legs in ice might have been worse. I felt so much better after that though. I shiver now just thinking about it.

I feel a little silly talking about how proud I am but I'm going to talk about it anyway. This is my biggest accomplishment (duh, besides having two amazing boys and keeping them alive) in the past 7 years. I haven't felt totally proud of me but haven't given myself anything to be completely proud of for the past so many years so feeling pretty proud of this. Anyway...

I finished this. I trained, I struggled, I did it. I ran a marathon.

And I had FUN!! And I'm going to run another one someday. I'm totally hooked. :)

Good Day Sunshine

2010-11-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ethan and I got to go to the pumpkin patch yesterday with our little discovery class. He was so freaking adorable. He keeps talking about wanting to go back to the "punkins patch."

"Dis one for mommy"

"Dis one for Etan"

All Shook Up

2010-10-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I ran what was supposed to be an easy, short, slow run. It ended up being a discouraging, short and slow walk. My knee started hurting at the beginning of the second mile so I ended up walking the rest of the way. Not really a good sign. Urrgghhh.

Enough about that though!! A few weeks ago the boys and I went to a sock-hop put on by Rian's school. It was super fun! They danced their little legs off and we were having too much fun to take pictures of it. But at least we got a few...

Couple of cute daddy-o's

BIG NEWS!

2010-10-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

No, it's not that. Sorry.

I am going back to school!!

And this time I'm pretty sure I know what I want to do. It only took 7+ years to figure it out. (Oh, and if you count the three years of different schools and different plans before that we're looking at 10 years. Nice)

I have decided to go into nursing.

I had applied and been accepted to the local community college in August and I just got an email stating that I have been ACCEPTED TO OSU!!! I am enrolled in a degree partnership program where I can go to both schools and my credits will carry over. That way I can take all my general classes at the (way cheaper) community college and then take the more important ones at OSU. Then I'll apply to nursing schools.

It'll be crazy I'm sure. It's a bit frightening and I'm not sure how everything will all work out but I'm really, really excited!!

The countdown begins

2010-10-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

These babies and I are going to be running a marathon in less than a week!

I went and got new running shoes a week ago and I LOVE them. I took a chance and switched from my trusty, beloved Asics to Brooks. So far so good. I have about 20 miles on these and I am loving the fit. I LOVE my Asics and actually planned on getting the newer model of what I have but tried these on and fell in love. Aren't they CUTE?!?

I ran last Saturday and my knee started hurting around mile 4 so that was a little discouraging. I am mostly resting this week and plan on doing a couple short, easy runs so hopefully that will take care of it. Hopefully!

Some randomness...

Ethan and I have been going to a parent/child "discovery" class at the community college that a friend teaches. The class is in a preschool classroom at the college so the kids have free range to all the learning toys and great stuff in there. This class is basically a time where the kids (ranging from 2 to 5) can play together, work on simple craft projects, listen to a story, have snack and sing songs during circle time. It is sort of an introduction to preschool. It's cute. Ethan LOVES it.

Listening to the story (Ethan is in the brown shirt and jeans)

Ethan's friend Lucy is in the class with him.

I adore this little girl. She is just too freaking cute.

SOO HAPPY!

I know, he doesn't exactly look happy but trust me, he is.

This is his favorite picture face lately.

Not sure why.

I love this boy.

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Before I forget...

2010-10-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

This week:

- Rian is a foot taller than Ethan.

- Rian learned how to tie his shoes!

(Again. I'm feeling like I should defend him. He learned how to tie his shoes two years ago but has forgotten because his silly, silly mom kept buying him shoes with velcro.)

A few Ethan stories...

We were playing at the playground after school and Ethan was on one of the swings. A boy who looked about the same age wanted a turn so Ethan got off and stood to the side of the swing. After a few minutes of sizing the other boy up, Ethan cocked his head to the side and asked, "You a dinosaur?"

We hit the library at least once a week and every single time there is some sort of drama. Usually Ethan drama. We have never made it out of the library without him screaming about something. Last week when we went Ethan decided to look for books himself by pulling them off the shelf one by one, looking at the cover and deciding "not dis one" and depositing the book on the floor. He then realized that a more efficient and fun way of finding books was to just pull as many books off the shelf at one time as he could. His squeal of delight caught my attention and by the time I reached him, he had proudly cleared an entire shelf of books. Fun.

Anyway, this time he had just finished an especially loud protest about us leaving when I scooped him up and we rushed to the nearest exit. We reached it at the same time as this other man and in the confusion of getting Rian, our bag of 25 books slung over my shoulder, an unhappy Ethan, and the other man out of the door, Ethan fell and hit his head. I had set him down and he had somehow tripped backwards out of the door and his head (of course) hit first. Poor baby. I felt awful.

Later that same day I took the boys to ride bikes and Ethan fell again hitting his forehead this time. It wasn't a bad fall and he just whimpered and said, "I do it again to the head." (Rian and I shared a secret giggle when he said this and after we hugged him)

Last night we were going through some clothes that my sister-in-law handed down and Ethan just had to wear this "new" spiderman shirt. He took off immediately, flying around the apartment, blasting his web at all the baddies we have around here.

"Mommy, I want to fly?"

"Sure bud, go for it."

Puts his arms up, looks disappointed, tries again this time stretching his arms up as high as he can while grunting and making silly faces. He slumps over, his arms fall to his sides.

"Is not working."

Nothing like a sad spiderman....

He ended up settling for me flying him around. :)

22 miles

2010-10-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

(Sorry for the ultra lame title....)

Yesterday I woke up, ate a little breakfast, drank some advanced sports drink (Thank you, Carol!!) and headed out in the cool, crisp morning to run 22 miles.

I DID IT!

I felt really good until mile 17 when I headed down a hill and my knee started screaming. It was pretty bad. I was doing the whole limp, jog a little, ouch-that-hurts-have-to-walk, then repeat thing. But after about two miles of that I found a slow jog rhythm that worked and I made it. WHEW.

My calves and knees hurt like hell last night but icing them helped. I'm feeling better today and relieved that I don't have to run that far again for 3 weeks!! HOLY CRAP, 3 weeks! Just realized that this marathon is 3 weeks from today....yikes.

Rian came home from school with this, which, of course, I think is too cute:

I went to a curriculum overview night given by his teacher (who I LOVE!!!) and she brought this up, pointing out how sweet that he states that the most important thing about him is that he is special. Maybe we're doing something right after all.....

This makes me want to just bundle him up and keep him at this age forever.

Ethan loves bugs. Loves. After a run the other day I let him out of the stroller to run around and he found a new friend.

(We find new friends all the time but this one was special and lived long enough for me to get a picture, which is longer than most....)

And then he ran with his new friend...

Scoping out new friends (after he squished ant-friend).

My little outdoorsman explorer.

18 miles

2010-09-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

It was rough. I struggled. I'm not feeling especially proud of this run. My arms felt exhausted, legs felt like jello, my back hurt, I ended up with blisters on my hands but I did it. That's the important part, right?

Eric had to rescue me at mile 13. I was starting to lose it (pathetic, I know) and ready to give up but he took Ethan and the jogger and encouraged me to finish what I had set out to do. Thank you honey!

But I did it. And I can say that today I ran 18 miles. Yay.....

I was all jazzed about this route that I chose because it was an actual loop (I've been doing mostly out-and-backs), it was totally doable with Ethan in the jogger, and I have been carb loading since Wednesday. More like Tuesday. Oh gosh, who am I kidding, I have been carb loading since signing up for this marathon. Mmmm....I'm suddenly hungry for a bagel.....

So anyway, this route seemed perfect. The first nine miles were mostly flat and then I'd have a slight downhill, then I would head up a serious hill (about a mile of the most nasty, beast of a hill) and finish off with a mostly flat five miles. Sounds great, right?

I don't know what I did to screw up preparing for this run. Maybe I just started out too fast and burned out quickly. Running with the jogger might have something to do with it, the warm weather might have played a part, maybe I wasn't hydrated enough. Luckily at mile 13 I was close enough to home that I could just drop in, freak out a little and have Eric get me back on track. That last five miles was much easier and I did reach lucky number 18.

Sweetness

2010-09-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

Ethan just came over to me and put an arm around my shoulders, leaned his head to mine and said "I wuv you".

Completely out of the blue, without responding to it being said to him.

Needless to say, it made my evening.

And if that isn't cute enough on it's own, I have more to share. Rian started brushing his teeth and Ethan (who is obsessed with brushing his teeth right now) ran into the bathroom shouting "Brush teeth! Brush teeth!" Rian happily got the toothbrush all set for Ethan and they are in there giggling and brushing.

Ahh, savoring this sweet moment. I know any second it could (most likely will) change from giggly fun to arguing and inevitably, Ethan screaming.

Yup, there it is. :)

It's On

2010-09-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I registered for my very first marathon!!

It's official. No turning back now.

(AND, I'm getting it done before I turn 30!! YAY!!)

My confirmation email had a message from the race director that says, "You have just registered for one of the most scenic and demanding marathon courses around." Yikes. Isn't a marathon demanding enough by itself??

This should be fun!! All my former ambitions of finishing under so many hours have been thrown out the window. I'm just focusing on finishing now (ESPECIALLY with that whole "demanding course" part). Running my 26.2 miles and getting my butt across the finish line alive.

I started training and ran 14 miles last weekend. I thought I'd be all proud about it because that's that farthest I've run so far in one run. (Dude, from here on out every long run will be the farthest I've ever run, HA!) I'm kind of embarrassed about it though because it took me forever and I ended up walking some of it. I hadn't run that much that week, Ethan came along for the ride and I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before so I had a few strikes against me. Oh well. This weekend will be better!

It has to be. I have 5 weeks and 3 days left!!

Feels like something is missing...

2010-09-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

This morning Ethan and I drove Rian to his first day of SECOND GRADE.

Holy cow.

HOLY COW!! I can hardly believe we have such a big boy.

He was darling. I almost cried. You'd think I would be used to this. This year was different though. He actually ran into his classroom. Ran. Didn't even say goodbye, just took off for Room 1. Last year he cried and didn't even want to go in (it was AWFUL). Today I got teary just thinking that it'll probably be like this year from here on out. He is becoming so independent and it makes this momma want to snuggle him and keep him little for a while longer. (Haha, although I must say it is nice to be able to hear myself think this morning...)

I gave him a few minutes and just watched through the window. I seriously don't think he would have noticed if we just left right then. I watched his face light up when he recognized fellow classmates from last year and then (with great enthusiasm) hug them. He's such a sweet boy.

We finally headed in and helped him get settled at his table, which was also super exciting. Ethan actually tried to join the group at Rian's table by sitting down at an empty seatand grabbing a pencil. Rian pointed out the few new faces and already knew their names, giving one girl a little wave. (Remember how this is the first day of school?!)

Yesterday Rian expressed some nervousness about starting school again and how difficult the work would be in second grade. This morning, however, I saw an independent, completely confident, enthusiastic boy.

Second grade, watch out!! Rian is ready!

Dang, I miss him already.

Recap

2010-08-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

We did it!

Hood To Coast was AMAZING. Oh my gosh, what an awesome, awesome race. I had such a blast running in this relay and I am already looking forward to running in it next year. I'm hooked!

The adventure started Thursday night with a kick-off, carb-loading dinner. Got to meet the entire team for the first time and get even more pumped about the race. We had two vans to decorate and some of the kids ended up doing it (something I think we all regret and won't allow to happen on whatever teams we all end up on next year...ok, ok, it wasn't too bad, we just weren't as proud of our vans as some teams probably were).

Van 1 started up at Timberline around 9am on Friday. I was in Van 2 and we drove up to Sandy to meet Van 1 and start our first runner around noon. I ran my first leg of the race Friday around 2pm. It was 4.55 miles and described in the HTC handbook as "easy". It also said that it was mostly downhill, rolling hills and limited paved shoulder. Definitely wasn't "mostly downhill" but it was a nice run, awesome weather, etc. I finished with a 8:14 pace which was a personal record!!

My second run:

Yeah. And on a gravel road. At 2:30am. Trucks passing on my right. I had to use my bandana a couple times so I didn't inhale all the dust. I was tired, dirty and ended up being passed by two guys while running on the first downhill. (Booo) It was crazy though because I was excited to be out there. It was so fun. Really fun.

Oh, a crazy little thing happened while being out there. I had gotten a side ache/stitch on my first leg but ran through it because, HELLO, this is a race. It ended up not going away all evening, even when I was all rested up. As I was ready to jump out of the suburban to start my second run I asked the group if they would just say a prayer that it would go away because it was going to be hell out there if it didn't. Started running and didn't even think about it until half-way through when I realized that I didn't have any pain!! In fact it didn't start up again until right after that leg. Pretty neat, huh?

My third and final leg was a "moderate" run but only 4.09 so I wasn't even worried about finishing. I was worried that I'd start running and my legs would turn to jello. I ended up getting behind this guy and liked the pace he was running so decided to keep up with him. I even tried passing him a couple times but he would speed up. Finally at the end I was frustrated that he was still in front of me and gave one last effort and passed him right before the exchange. I was pretty excited but even more excited when I learned I ran with an 8:04 pace!!! NEW PERSONAL RECORD. I couldn't believe it! First, this is really fast for me and second I felt a pang of disappointment that it wasn't under 8 min. So close and something to shoot for next time. :)

We met up with the rest of the team at Seaside and headed over to a team member's beach house to celebrate with showers and a yummy BBQ. Eric and the boys met me in Seaside and I was so happy to see them! I really, really missed all my boys. Eric did a great job holding down the fort here and I'm pretty sure he had the harder end of the deal. THANK YOU HONEY!! :)

So yeah, it was such an awesome few days and I definitely want to run again next year!!

Final Count

Roadkill: 54

Me being roadkill: 5

(yay!)

Packing Break

2010-08-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

This past week Rian lost another tooth. Well, it was actually sort of knocked out but it was ready. When we go food shopping, Ethan sits in that front part of the cart and Rian will put his mouth by the handle bar and for some strange reason this is a fun game. I've pushed the cart from the other end, not looking, and ended up hitting Rian in the face with the cart. I feel bad but seriously can't tell you how many times I've told him not to do that. Not only can teeth get knocked out but IT'S SO GROSS.

So anyway, that's what happened Monday. He is pretty excited and proud of it. I love his smile!!

And just for the fun of it....

Aren't I the luckiest mommy ever?! I love, love, LOVE these boys.

Weekend plans

2010-08-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

This is what I'm doing this weekend.

That's right. HOOD TO COAST 2010 BABY!!

I am really, really, REALLY EXCITED!! I've wanted to be on a team for the past three years but it didn't work out. Finally!! Muahahaha....(uhh, blaming that on the nerves)

I can't believe it's here already. We'll be running down Mount Hood on FRIDAY. We have twelve lucky peeps on our team. Each gets to run three legs. (*squeal* This is going to be so AWESOME!) Mine are legs 8, 20 and 32. This means I get to run the first leg Friday afternoon, second in the wee morning hours on Saturday (a little nervous about this one) and then the my last leg before noon.

Sooooo, yeah, I'll let you know how it goes....

I feel ready. I've been running all summer. I ran that half-marathon in July. I've run two mini HTCs on my own. My jogging stroller, Ethan and I have become good friends. Yup, I think I'm ready. Bring it on Mt. Hood.

Bring. It. On.

I'm nervous.

Wha? Wha? Whaaaaat?

2010-08-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

Three months?!? Seriously? Can that be right? Have I really not posted anything on our poor little blog in OVER three months? Yikes.

I can't believe how busy this summer has been. I vaguely remember telling another mom at Rian's school how I was needing to make some plans and fill up our summer because I didn't want to be sitting around bored with two very energetic boys for our first summer here. Sheesh, guess I didn't have anything to worry about.

So yes, there are many stories to tell and wonderful pictures of our exciting summer to upload but I will have to get to those later.

Today something amazing happened. (Well, I think it's pretty amazing.) My 7-year old, incredible, funny, crazy smart boy started riding his two wheel bike. YAY!!! I have been trying all summer (not as diligent as I could have been but trying nonetheless) to teach him how to ride. I really wanted him to do it this year so badly. I want him to want this so badly. As a parent, one of the most difficult things I think we face is how to balance what we want for our kids and what they want or even the timing of what we/they want. (UGH)

So, I wanted him to ride a two wheel bike without training wheels last summer. We tried and tried but he wasn't ready. I wanted him to ride the first somewhat nice weather day this year but he wasn't ready. All summer, didn't want to do it. I wanted him to ride last week and he STILL WASN'T READY. But TODAY, he was ready!

Ethan helped by pushing his bike around, chasing Rian and keeping him on the move.

I kept trying to get a picture of Rian (ALONE) and this is what happens....

He's so proud. :)

Yay Rian!!

Pet Days

2010-05-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the boys and I went to a Pet Days event at OSU. I thought it would just be a little petting zoo type thing where people brought their dogs and bonded. It ended up being more of a pet carnival. It was fun. They had all kinds of farm animals to be pet, a bounce house, a dunk tank, face painting and all kinds of displays set up.

I took the camera but Ethan was on a mission to see everything and be everywhere at once that I could only get some pictures with my phone. (Oh my gosh, that kid is fast and LOUD)

The bunnies were a huge hit with both boys.

At first Ethan expressed his love for bunnies by trying to eat one.

He did get to hold one and whispered sweet nothings to this little guy. I heard "love bunny", "sweet" and "so cute". Lucky little bunny.

This is pretty much Ethan's expression the whole time we were there. I had no idea such loud squealing could come out of such a little guy. People were actually stopping to point at Ethan.

Neither boy was very impressed by this pony.

Running, T-Ball and Blazers, Oh My!

2010-04-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

I decided that I wanted to run 50 miles in March. I counted up the miles yesterday and it came to 61! I was so excited!! I've been wanting to run more and more regularly and also speed up a bit. I think I accomplished both goals! Now to think of a goal for April...

Rian's first T-Ball practice was tonight. He was so excited and it's fun seeing him try a new sport. He's so into basketball right now (AWESOME, love this) but it'll be fun trying T-Ball.

The Blazers are taking on the Denver Nuggets right now. I freaking HATE the Nuggets. Mostly because of this guy...freaking Andersen....

Oh, and this guy...freaking Martin. ARGH!!!

And these guys....(I don't actually think Chauncey is that bad, just hate that he plays for the Nuggets)

SUNSHINE!!

2010-02-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

The sun was out yesterday and it was SO nice! Yay! It's supposed to be nice the next few days (of course, right as we're getting ready to head out of town).

The boys and I spent a couple hours at the park to run around and enjoy it.

I love this boy.

Ethan stood for maybe a second before he was off and running again.

Birthday Boy

2010-02-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ethan!

I can't believe my crazy little boy is 2 already. He's such a fun, sweet little guy. I'm proud to be his mamma.

A few things about Ethan (that I don't want to forget!):

-He ADORES Yaya (Rian). He follows him around and laughs at everything silly Rian does. When we pick Rian up from school, Ethan waits by the door and then squeals "Yaya" with arms stretched out for a hug. Pretty dang cute.

-He LOVES dogs ("Puppies". Every dog is a puppy)

-He LOVES daddy

-He's really into trains and cars. We played with cars the other day for 2 hours straight. Yes. Mostly his car saying hi to mine and driving around on the carpet following each other. If I stopped for even a second he would pick my car up and hand it to me grunting "truck". Lots of fun.

-He can be challenging. I know, I know, all kids can be. He has a strong will and knows what he wants. A good thing. But it seriously wears me out. However, when he's happy, he's extremely happy and SO much fun.

-He's copying almost everything we say, especially Rian.

-He HAS to carry something to bed with him to sleep with. He won't go unless he has something in his arms. It's been anything from a book to a train, a piece of the train track, a toy car, legos, to a stuffed animal. It was even a container of play dough once. Lately he has to have his stuffed "Puppy". I ADORE this.

-He shouts "Go! Go!" at the TV when there is a basketball or football game on.

--He LOVES Hummus. The other day he ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

-He's very huggable and when this kid wants a hug or to hug he is all over you. Whenever we are sitting on the couch he has to be on someone's lap or pushed up against one of us. I love it.

-He sings. And can really boogie. He's got some moves that I'm a little jealous of.

He's a great little guy. I think we'll keep him. :)

List Comprehension

2009-11-07T23:28:00.000-08:00

I am enrolled in an Artificial Intelligence class this quarter which consumes about 20 hours per weekend every other weekend for the fortnightly programming assignment. (This is just how long it takes to complete the programming assignments, and doesn't include time spent preparing for the weekly quizzes, doing the required reading, completing the regular homework assignments, and studying for tests. Not that I'm complaining. I signed up for this, after all. :)) The programming part isn't usually too bad -- maybe eight hours of work -- but then I have to write a paper about the assignment. The writing usually takes quite a bit longer. Anyway, this is one of those weekends, but I'm taking a short break to talk about my current assignment and this sweet use of list comprehension I just whipped up.

We are studying constraint satisfaction problems and our latest assignment is to solve the game of Sudoku using some specific heuristics. We can use any programming language we choose, so I have used Python for all of the assignments so far. Python is so awesome that sometimes I feel like I'm cheating. For example, for this assignment, in order to implement one of the heuristics, I had to get a list of the coordinates for each block in the puzzle.

The "board" is basically a 2-dimensional array, where the top-left cell is at (0, 0) and the bottom-right cell is at (8, 8). Recall that the board is broken into 9 blocks of 9 cells each. The first block consists of the first 3 cells in each of the first 3 columns. What I was trying to get was a list of the coordinates for each cell in each of the blocks. The first block would look like this:

[(0, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2),
 (1, 0), (1, 1), (1, 2),
 (2, 0), (2, 1), (2, 2)]

The standard way to do this kind of thing, and the approach I would have taken if I were writing this in Java or C++, is to put together a couple of for loops and iteratively populate a big array. The whole thing might take 3-5 lines of code. But in Python, we can take advantage of some really cool features, like list comprehension, that can save the programmer a lot of time.

So here it is, the coordinates of each block in a Sudoku puzzle, in one line of Python:


>>> x = [[(i + a * 3, j + b * 3) for i in range(3) \
for j in range(3)] for a in range(3) \
for b in range(3)]
>>> x
[[(0, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2),
 (1, 0), (1, 1), (1, 2),
 (2, 0), (2, 1), (2, 2)],
[(0, 3), (0, 4), (0, 5),
 (1, 3), (1, 4), (1, 5),
 (2, 3), (2, 4), (2, 5)],
[(0, 6), (0, 7), (0, 8),
 (1, 6), (1, 7), (1, 8),
 (2, 6), (2, 7), (2, 8)],
[(3, 0), (3, 1), (3, 2),
 (4, 0), (4, 1), (4, 2),
 (5, 0), (5, 1), (5, 2)],
[(3, 3), (3, 4), (3, 5),
 (4, 3), (4, 4), (4, 5),
 (5, 3), (5, 4), (5, 5)],
[(3, 6), (3, 7), (3, 8),
 (4, 6), (4, 7), (4, 8),
 (5, 6), (5, 7), (5, 8)],
[(6, 0), (6, 1), (6, 2),
 (7, 0), (7, 1), (7, 2),
 (8, 0), (8, 1), (8, 2)],
[(6, 3), (6, 4), (6, 5),
 (7, 3), (7, 4), (7, 5),
 (8, 3), (8, 4), (8, 5)],
[(6, 6), (6, 7), (6, 8),
 (7, 6), (7, 7), (7, 8),
 (8, 6), (8, 7), (8, 8)]]
>>> len(x)
9
>>> x[0]
[(0, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2),
 (1, 0), (1, 1), (1, 2),
 (2, 0), (2, 1), (2, 2)]
>>> x[1]
[(0, 3), (0, 4), (0, 5),
 (1, 3), (1, 4), (1, 5),
 (2, 3), (2, 4), (2, 5)]
>>> x[8]
[(6, 6), (6, 7), (6, 8),
 (7, 6), (7, 7), (7, 8),
 (8, 6), (8, 7), (8, 8)]

Go Blazers!

2009-10-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is SO EXCITING! We are watching the Blazers' first game of the season and LOVING it. Love this team. Rian even made a special sign.

2009-09-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Ethan loves toy cars and trains. More than anything else right now. He's been known to carry one around ALL DAY. I've even put him to bed and he'll still be hanging onto one.

This Thomas the Train bedtime shirt is Ethan's favorite shirt. He LOVES it! He even carried that around one day. (I got this thing for free from a clothing donation place where my mom has been volunteering. Bonus!!)

He wore it to bed the other night and I take it off to change him the next day. He started throwing the biggest fit. As soon as he's dressed he takes off for the bedroom and comes back out carrying the Thomas shirt. He's still wailing and saying "Dis? Dis? Choo-choo?" It was pretty sad so we changed his shirt. He immediately stopped crying, laughed (all the while saying "choo-choo") and lifted his shirt up so that he could kiss Thomas.

After all this excitement I gave him a snack. I put a handful of goldfish crackers on the table and turned away to get his water. I come back to see him stuff all of them in his mouth. He didn't chew, just shoved them all in. He turns to look at me and immediately starts signing "more".

The boys and I have been going for walks a lot lately. We found this awesome path that is away from the road so Ethan can get out of the stroller and walk (try to run) with Rian and I. This is what happened during our walk on Sunday....

Ethan got out, Rian got in. Ethan then started pulling Rian in the stroller.....

Then changed his mind and found that pushing was much more efficient.

(He's a little nutty!)

My Boat

2009-07-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

I've never used craigslist to sell anything before, but I realized today that I need to get rid of my row boat. We are moving next weekend and we need to get rid of all this stuff. So I decided to put the boat on craigslist this week and if it wasn't gone in a week, I'd take it to the dump. It's been a good boat for me, but it's just not practical to live in an apartment with a boat (or so I hear).

So I took the ol' boat out of the garage, took a few pictures of it, and even found a couple pictures from years ago when I took it to the beach. I adjusted the photos to improve contrast, add a vignette, etc. I wrote a short little blurb about the boat and posted it all to craigslist.

The result? I received the first call 10 minutes after submitting the post. I ended up getting 8 calls (two after I took this screenshot) about the boat and having someone show up on my doorstep to haul it away in a truck. All of this happened within 45 minutes of making my first craigslist post.

Thanks, craigslist!

Lunch

2009-07-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

He came inside long enough to get his plate and then rushed back to his post.

When I grow up...

2009-07-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

We have a couple guys building a Tuff Shed in our backyard right now. When they first started working Rian told me, "Hey mommy! I know it. I know what to be when I get big. A Tuff Shed guy! Yay! I know it." He's out there right now in his folding chair watching them work.

I just heard him yell, "Good job, guys!" Man, I love this kid.

8.2, baby!

2009-06-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

I should be folding laundry. I have this awful habit of dumping clean, dry loads of laundry on our living room couch with every intention of folding it right away but doing something else instead. It sits there taking up our couch, sometimes for a couple days, until I realize that it won't fold itself or we run out of things to wear. Bah. I don't really mind doing laundry but today I'm staring at the mountain of it on the couch and feeling inspired to do this instead. Crazy....

Rian's sixth birthday was on the fourth. I can't believe we have a six year old! He's growing up so fast. He's such incredible, fun, caring boy. I love you, Rian!!

Monday was my birthday. The boys and I spent a lazy day at home playing outside. We broke out the sidewalk chalk, ran in the sprinklers and played a ton of basketball. Eric came home from work early so that I could go for a run. I ran 8.2 miles and finished in an hour and twenty minutes! (Turned 28 so ran 8.2 miles.... maybe a little silly) It felt awesome. It's the farthest I've run since the half-marathon in October. (Ok, that's a little pathetic but I've been busy.... putting off laundry and stuff) I was totally expecting to be so sore the next day but it wasn't bad at all.

Alright, I guess those clothes aren't going to fold themselves and if I don't do it before Ethan gets up from his nap I'm in trouble.

Hooray for us!

2009-05-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

Today is our sixth anniversary!

Eric, in honor of our special day I made something for you. (My first EVER!)

I love you so much.

Happy Anniversary sweetie!

Game 5

2009-04-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

Blazers vs. Rockets. Game 5. Win or go home.

We got to the Rose Garden with plenty of time before they opened the doors. Lacey got her face painted as Rian and I picked out a Roy jersey for him. Ethan stayed home with Grandma.

As soon as they opened the doors, we headed down to the floor and watched some of the players warm up. When I got down to the floor, I found myself standing about 15 feet from Yao Ming. I was stunned. It turns out that he's pretty big. 7' 6". Go figure.

We watched him shoot for a while and then headed over to watch the Blazers warm up. Lacey and I got Martell Webster's attention a few times and got him to return our waves. Aldrige gave me five, and Blake signed one of those little Blazers signs that they hand out as you enter the arena. Rian sort of enjoyed the pre-game, but was mostly freaked out by the self-proclaimed Blazers Rally Monkey (a dude with a gorilla mask) that we happened to be standing next to.

I didn't really take any pictures during the game. I was too busy screaming my head off. The middle-aged man in front of me, on the other hand, was busy updating his facebook status on his iPhone during the game.

Game 6 is on Thursday!

Wanna Be a Baller

2009-04-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

I had a basketball game on Friday. As I was warming up, Rian joined me on the court, as he does before and after all of my games. Usually he just rebounds for me and the other guys on the team, but lately he has been shooting more and more. When he shoots at a full-sized hoop, as we were on Friday, he shoots granny-style, holding the ball underhanded below his waist and scooping it up to the hoop in one motion. He just isn't strong enough to shoot overhanded at a hoop that high. Even when shooting underhanded, strength is the biggest problem. It is usually cause for celebration if the ball gets high enough to touch the net. He has never so much as hit the rim, much less made a shot. But he tries. Over and over and over.

So there we were on Friday. The game wouldn't start for about 15 minutes, and the gym wasn't very full yet. I was working on my touch around the basket (after missing about 5 shots from point-blank range last week... sigh) and Rian was hoisting granny shots up toward the rim. I was in between shots and happened to catch Rian lob another ball up toward the basket. Right away I could tell the trajectory of this shot was different than all of his others. It was going higher, faster. I turned and watched as it rose higher and higher toward the rim. The ball reached its apex just as it got above the rim, landing on the front of the rim. Time seemed to stand still as everyone watched, wondering if it would curl over the rim and into the basket, or fall back toward the floor and the wide-eyed boy that had thrown it so high. The whole thing took less than a second, but felt like it lasted much longer. The ball hesitated for a moment on the rim, then rolled forward and into the hoop.

Rian had made his first basket!

I let out an exclamation that got the attention of everyone in the gym, and made sure that everyone around knew the significance of what had just happened. Not only was this Rian's first basket, it came on a full-sized (10') hoop and with a full-sized ball. He was beaming as he received high-fives from my teammates and me, unsuccessfully trying not to smile.

So that's how Rian made his first shot.

Leprechaun Dash

2009-03-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

I love running. LOVE it. And I'm so proud of my little boy who also gets excited about running. We both ran in races last Saturday. Rian ran in the Leprechaun Dash which is a one-mile race that his school participates in and I ran in the 5k after that.

The Leprechaun Dash was super crowded and a little crazy. I was planning on running with Rian but he got really independent while stretching and wanted to run all by himself. Never again!! Scared me half to death because we couldn't find him right away after he crossed the finish line. He was with his teacher but I panicked not knowing where he was. It was a terrifying few minutes.

Rian fell during the race. Poor guy. His puffy lip had dry blood on it and he had scrapes on his nose. At first I felt so awful and guilty for not being there when he fell but later he was telling us that he just got right back up and kept running. I'm so proud of him! He was also excited because he passed some big kid during the race. Way to go Rian!

My race was right after and I made it back to the starting line just in time. I thought I was starting towards the front of the pack but started towards the back. Yes, it was that crowded. A friend and I were planning on running together but I lost her. She ended up finishing 9th out of the women! Out of 244 women I'd say that's pretty good. Maybe it was a good thing we didn't run together....I wasn't even close but I did finish under 30 min. Yah! I'm so ready to do it again.

Eric was so awesome and not only watched a slightly grumpy Ethan and then cared for Rian after his race but took some great pictures. Thank you sweetie!

Runners from Rian's school

War wounds

Eeeek! I'm so proud!

Shopping

2009-03-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

I love my boys.

Ethan

2009-03-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

Ethan's walking! Ok, so this isn't new news but we haven't posted it yet so it's sort of new. He's been walking regularly for a little over a month now. He just stood up and walked across the room, gave my mom a hug, turned around, and came back. He hasn't stopped since.

Ethan is obsessed with the dishwasher. He's big on seeing how much noise he can make by tossing dishes out or how loud I'll screech when he's chewing on the utensils. Yummy.

The other day he was "helping" me unload the dishwasher and the second I was done he was climbing in. He used all his strength and chucked the bottom drawer across the kitchen. He was so happy with himself and pretty dang cute.

First Steps

2009-01-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

Ethan is well on his way to becoming the fourth bipedal member of our family. Recently he has begun standing on his own without holding onto anything. Then last week, a few days before his 11-month birthday, he began taking one little step, which was always followed by immediately collapsing to the floor.

In any case, he is very excited and proud of himself for his new skill. The first time he stood on his own, we all started clapping and congratulating him. Since then, about every time he does it -- even if we aren't paying him any attention -- he begins beaming with a huge smile and making little exclamatory noises.

He thinks that he is pretty hot stuff.

My BFF

2009-01-14T22:25:00.000-08:00

Rian and I were sitting on the couch yesterday talking, when I said something that made us both smile. I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't anything terribly special. The funny thing was how he responded.

"Daddy, you're my BFF!"

And then, only a second later, "That means you're my friend!"

I was shocked to hear this acronym come out of my 5-year-old's mouth. It's one of those acronyms that I missed out on because most of those Internet words hadn't evolved yet when I was a 14-year-old girl. I was so surprised to hear him say those three letters, I responded with three letters of my own:

"WTF?!"

Okay, so I didn't really say that, but I might as well have because that's what I was thinking.

(If you're lost, here are some definitions: BFF, WTF.)

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

Here we are, two days before Christmas, and I feel like the big day should still be a month away. I finally got around to taking some Christmas pictures over the weekend. Rian has always been pretty photogenetic [sic - he gets it from me ;)] and cooperative when it's time to take pictures. Ethan, on the other hand, is a different story.

When it came time to take pictures, Ethan wasn't really in a mood to sit still. I hope you can't tell from the pictures, but he was only still for about half of a second for every 10, and when he was still, there was no telling where he would be looking. Babies just aren't good at posing for pictures, but of course the baby is usually what everyone wants to see.

I love this kid.

So we did what we could, and Lacey deserves a lot of credit for distracting Ethan just long enough for me to get a decent shot.

Merry Christmas.

Memory

2008-12-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

One of Rian's favorite games is Memory. He usually plays with Lacey, because I don't really like that game, but today we decided to play - just him and me.

Now, something you should keep in mind is that I am a fairly competitive person. I let Rian win at some games, but not so much that he thinks his dad can be beaten consistently by a 5 year-old. The thing that I try to teach him whenever we're playing games is that you can have fun whether you're winning or losing, and how to win and lose with grace.

So one reason I don't let him win very often is to teach him how to lose, but the other reason is because he just doesn't need much help most of the time. He has an uncanny ability to roll sixes in Trouble, and in Candyland, somehow I always end up getting the card that pulls me all the way back to the beginning, while he gets the cards that pull him closer to the end (you just don't know what it's like to be frustrated until you've been pulled back to the Gingerbread Tree multiple times in a single game of Candyland).

A few years ago when he was learning how to play Memory, we would help him by leaving cards flipped over or helping him find matches, but these days he plays by the same rules that I do, and these rules are strictly enforced. We played two games today, the first of which I won by a single pair. He definitely held his own in the game, and may have even won if I hadn't run the table with four cards remaining. The second game, however, had a very different outcome.

As we play, we stack our cards up in a pile and then compare the stacks at the end. In this picture, Rian is comparing his stack to mine to determine the outcome. Needless to say, he won by a landslide.

And, while I'm at it, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving and from around the house.

Ruby on the phone

Lily

Ethan as a foot rest

Boo Boo!

Yawn...

2008-10-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

I am so ready for Ethan to be sleeping through the night. Heck, I'll take anything over 4 hours. I'm tired. I love this kid to death but he doesn't sleep. We're up at least once a night but most of the time it's twice. I'm exhausted. I was hoping that I would get lucky with Ethan and have a decent sleeper but no such luck. BLAH! Ahh, but on the bright side, he is SUCH a love and so snuggly when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Rian's race was awesome! I was so proud of him. He was pretty excited about the whole thing and wants to run another "marathon".

I ran my half-marathon the day after Rian's race. It was really fun. It took me longer than I had hoped but I did it! I can't wait to do it again. I seriously have to lose this baby weight though. I'm pretty sure it's the extra (gulp) pounds I haven't lost since having Ethan that slowed me down. Errgh! Anyway, I'm glad I did it.

I love this time of year. Rian, Ethan and I went to the park yesterday after we picked Rian up from school. We played in the leaves and came home to make apple cider. After drinking half a mug of apple cider, Rian pushed it away announcing that he didn't like it. He told me it was an "only for adults drink."

Happy Fall!

2008-10-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, October has turned out to be such a crazy month! I can't believe it's almost over. Rian is literally counting down the days until Halloween and letting me know each morning. He's so excited about it. I love having kids!

We all went to the pumpkin patch with Rian's school. It was really fun. We'll post pictures soon.

My best bud from California and her husband came to visit. We haven't seen each other in about two years. It was so much fun! I miss her like crazy. Thanks, Jennie!!

Rian had his last soccer game and most of Eric's family was able to come see it and hang out with us. (Thanks guys!) We found out that Eric's sister is pregnant. We're so excited for you Amy! I loved watching Rian's soccer games and cheering for him but it'll be nice to have our Saturday mornings back. I'm looking forward to making french toast, watching cartoons and staying in our pajamas all morning.

Tomorrow Rian runs in his kid's marathon. A teacher at his school has been keeping track of each mile they run. She has been commenting on how enthusiastic Rian is about running and how he just keeps running laps even after the other kids are done. So anyway, she gave me Rian's running log this morning and he has run over 34 miles in two months. I was like dang, he's pretty good. I'm so proud of him!!

Sunday is my race. I'm feeling so nervous but crazy excited too. It'll be fun. Eek! My stomach is doing flip-flops as I'm thinking about it.

Ethan started clapping! It's the cutest thing. Oh my gosh, I love it. Another thing he started doing is pulling himself up on things. First it was the living room table. I left the room for like two seconds and came back to find him standing at the table, a huge grin on his face. That was it. He's pulling himself up to stand at anything. It's so exciting and yet I can't help but feel a little sad that my baby is getting more and more independent. And I was just thinking how I couldn't wait for him to start doing this kind of thing. Sigh.

Teeth!

2008-09-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Ethan's teeth are coming in! It's a good thing as he's been a little chew-crazy these days. Poor guy, he's just trying to get some relief from those aching gums.

He's almost crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth but then does the army crawl thing to get around. It's so funny. He moves pretty fast for a little guy and if I head into another room he'll soon follow, protesting loudly about being left behind.

I'm running a half-marathon this year. I had this big, lofty plan when I was still pregnant with Ethan that I was going to run a marathon within a year of having him. Ha. I obviously forgot about how hard it can be to find time or energy to do the dishes some days, much less run. (Oh wait, maybe that's just laziness...) I don't know what I was thinking.

Anyway, I finally found a teammate (about a week ago) to run half of our area's big marathon with the last weekend in October. I'm really excited!

Rian's running in a kid's marathon. He's so funny. "Mommy, I love marathons." He runs everyday at school and they keep track and then I keep track of how much he runs here at home. The kids have two months to run 25 miles in half-mile increments and then on the 25th of October they participate in a 1.2 mile race. Rian is pretty excited. He calls it "my marathon". I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk/run the other day and he said no. I then asked him if he wanted to go running for his marathon and he jumped off the couch and got his shoes on.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2008-09-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Rian says some of the funniest things. He can make me laugh almost as hard as Eric can. I love his little voice and hearing what he thinks about things. Lately though, I just get annoyed and frustrated that he never stops. Seriously, he doesn't. He even talks in his sleep. I'm really trying to work on being thankful for his talkativeness. The things he says are so precious and special. I'll be longing for it when he's a a teen and I'm dying to know what he's thinking about and the last person he wants to talk to is his mom. He's growing up so fast and I don't want to look back on this time with regret that I wasted so much time being an impatient or annoyed mommy.

ANYWAY, here are some of the funny things he's said lately...

A friend watched Rian and Ethan so that Eric and I could go to the parent orientation at Rian's school. When I picked up my monkeys it was dark outside so I flicked on the headlights. Rian started giggling in the backseat. I asked him what he was laughing about and he said, "Mommy, why are you turning on those flashlights?"

Rian: "Mommy, are Coach Kelly and Coach Scott married?"

Me: "Nope. Coach Scott is married to Miss. Marci. Coach Scott and Coach Kelly are friends."

Rian (after thinking this over for a minute): "Mommy, I'm going to marry you."

Me: "Oh sweetie! That is so precious. I'm married to daddy."

Rian: "Oh yeah, I marry daddy too."

Me: "What about me?"

Rian (hugging himself and smiling): "Yes, we all married. Mommy, daddy and Rian."

I had a doctor's appointment and had to take Rian and Ethan with me. The nurse had come in to take my blood pressure so I was holding up my arm while she got the cuff ready. Rian, sitting in the chair next to me, suddenly became very interested in my arm. He stared at it for a few seconds and then poked it a couple times.

Rian: "Mommy, why does your arm move?"

Me (starting to giggle and feeling my face turn red): "I don't have enough muscle so it jiggles."

Rian: "It's very jiggly."

Me: "Yup."

Rian pokes it again and then starts singing, "I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it. I like to MOVE IT!"

Guess it's time to start lifting some weights.

Rian: "Ethan, no! Mommy! Oh no, Ethan is playing Brain Quest!"

Six Months

2008-08-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

Ethan turned six months last week. In a way it seems like the time has gone by quickly, but at the same time it's hard to imagine life without him. I think he has made a pretty big impact on us in a relatively short amount of time . So far we like him a lot.

At his six-month checkup, he weighed in at a little over 20 lbs, which ranks in the 93rd percentile. He now stands (kinda) at 2 feet, 3 1/2 inches, which puts him in the 80th percentile for height. So he's slowing down a little, but he still routinely draws raised eyebrows when people find out how old he is.

Last night he was sleeping in his crib and I thought he looked pretty cute, so I started taking some pictures. After a few minutes of playing with lighting and moving some things around, I was staring through my lens and all of a sudden he started smiling. This isn't the first time he has done this. In fact, the first time he smiled in his sleep was at the hospital when he was about 15 minutes old. It makes me wonder how many nights he's been in his crib all by himself in a dark, quiet house, smiling to himself for no one to see.

GRE

2008-07-17T00:06:00.000-07:00

What a crazy few weeks this has been! We took a trip down to Newport Beach in sunny California (See pic of where we stayed. It was gorgeous.) and had a fabulous time visiting with Lacey's family. We got back a few days before the 4th of July. Our neighbor had a little party so we hung out over there for a while. But before the weekend had finished, it was time to start studying for the GRE! The GRE, if you don't know, is a standardized test, similar to the SAT, that is required for admission to grad school.

I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I started looking around on the intertubes and found out that some people take studying for this test pretty seriously--like, studying-for-several-weeks-and-memorizing-hundreds-of-vocabulary-words serious. I started to panic, as I had only given myself about a week to prepare.

I calmed myself down long enough to review some Math problems like I hadn't seen in 10 years. Someone at work recommended that I get a book on how to study for the GRE. I think it's kind of ridiculous that they sell books on how to study for this single test, but I guess that's just how it is these days. I got one on an inter-library loan (W. Richland library is crap), but it didn't arrive until the Friday before the test, which was on a Monday.

So from Friday night when I got home from work until Sunday night when I went to bed, virtually every waking moment was spent reading that book, memorizing vocabulary words, and taking practice tests. I managed to memorize about 150 new vocabulary words over the weekend, so if anyone needs to know the definitions for useless words like enervate, penurious, perspicacious or magnanimity, I'm your guy.

So after a week of intense studying I felt fairly well-prepared. I took the test and scored above the minimum goal I had set for myself, but when the computer showed me my scores (they are scored instantly) I made an error adding them in my head and thought I had done a lot worse than I did. Dejected, I called Lacey to tell her the bad news. I told her my scores and what they added up to and how they didn't add up to my goal, but she corrected me and informed me that they *did* add up to significantly more than my goal. Hooray!

Dual Booting with Wake On Lan

2008-06-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

I don't usually talk about technical stuff here, but I'm going to take a little break from gushing about my kids to explain part of how I solved my problem of too many pictures. To quickly summarize, I found that my digital picture library was too large to continue storing on my laptop, and even if I upgraded the hard drive in my laptop to a 320 GB or possibly a 500 GB drive, I would just be delaying the inevitable as my library is growing very rapidly. The crux of the problem is that only one hard drive will fit in my macbook pro (I have the 15" model which doesn't support this crazy option, even if I wanted to).

To solve this problem, I am now storing all of my original photos on a desktop computer running Windows. This computer has multiple hard drives and provides plenty of space for my pictures. I use Lightroom on my laptop, which is smart enough to only store reasonably small previews of all my photos, drastically reducing the amount of space required on my laptop.

This setup works fine when both machines are up and running, but I usually keep my desktop turned off to conserve energy. I often find myself in a situation where I am in another room and don't feel like walking down the hall to turn on the desktop, just so I can import photos from my camera. Wouldn't it be nice if I could remotely boot my desktop and import my photos without getting off the couch?

It turns out I can. I poked around in my BIOS settings and enabled a feature called Wake-on-Lan. Then I installed a Wake-on-Lan Dashboard widget on my laptop. Now I can boot my desktop from another room at any time with 2 simple clicks.

This worked well for a while until I decided to install Ubuntu on that same desktop and dual boot between that and Windows. Now things are a little trickier, because sometimes I will want to remotely boot into Windows, but other times I might want to remotely boot into Linux. Unfortunately, Wake-on-Lan doesn't have the capability to choose an OS when the computer turns on.

The solution I came up with (read: found on the Internet) was to use Wake-on-Lan to boot the computer and let Grub boot into whichever OS is set to default, then use a shell script to change the default OS to one of my choosing, then reboot the machine. It's a few more steps than I'd like, but it sure beats getting off the couch!

Here's everything you need to get it working yourself.

Requirements:

Grub bootloader. This solution could be adapted to work with other bootloaders, but right now it only works with Grub.

Ext2 IFS. Allows your Windows partition to access your Linux file system.

To get started, create two copies of /boot/grub/menu.lst in Linux. Name one menu.lst.win, and the other menu.lst.lin. Then edit each one to boot into the corresponding OS (Windows for menu.lst.win, Linux for menu.lst.lin). You will probably only have to change one line like:

default  0

to something like:

default  4

But there are instructions for doing this out on the web if you need help.

Once you've done that, create a file named grubEdit.sh with the following.

grubEdit.sh

usage="Usage: grubEdit [win | lin]"
grubHome="/boot/grub"
menuLst="/boot/grub/menu.lst"
menuLstWin="/boot/grub/menu.lst.win"
menuLstLin="/boot/grub/menu.lst.lin"

if [ $# -ne 1 ]
then
 echo $usage
 exit 1
fi

if [ $1 = "win" ]
then
 rm -f $menuLst
 cp $menuLstWin $menuLst
else
 if [ $1 = "lin" ]
 then
  rm -f $menuLst
  cp $menuLstLin $menuLst
 else
  echo $usage
 fi
fi

Now boot back into Windows and create a file named grubEdit.bat, and copy in the following.
Disclaimer: I think this is the first time I've used goto's in a real script. I don't write many shell scripts, but I think this is how it has to be done.

grubEdit.bat

@echo off
set grubHome=L:\boot\grub
set menuLst=%grubHome%\menu.lst
set menuLstWin=%grubHome%\menu.lst.win
set menuLstLin=%grubHome%\menu.lst.lin

if "%1" == "win" goto win
if "%1" == "lin" goto lin
goto error

:win
del %menuLst%
copy %menuLstWin% %menuLst%
goto end

:lin
del %menuLst%
copy %menuLstLin% %menuLst%
goto end

:error
echo Usage: grubEdit [win ^| lin]
goto end

:end

Now from either OS, just run:

grubEdit win

to boot into Windows, and

grubEdit lin

to boot into Linux.

It's that easy!

(Note that you'll need to prepend sudo to either command on Linux, and I've left out instructions for editing your PATH to make sure the shell can find your new scripts.)

Five

2008-06-11T01:42:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Rian's birthday last weekend. I still can't believe that he is five already. Rian had a blast and now he has a bunch of new stuff to play with.

One of his presents was Mouse Trap, which we played today for the first time, but we didn't quite do it right. We spent a bunch of time putting together this elaborate trap, and then read in the instructions that you are supposed to build the trap gradually as the game progresses. Whoops. Rian didn't seem to care that the first half of the game had pretty much no point as a result. I'm pretty sure he could play a game where you just roll a die and move your piece around a board with no variation and no special spaces on the board and have fun for at least an hour.

The game got pretty exciting when we started trying to trap our opponents' mice, though. The trap failed two or three times before I got a chance to trap Rian and Lacey for good. I carefully inspected the trap to ensure its correct operation, then I turned the crank which rotated the gears, which caused the lever to move and push the stop sign against the shoe, which tipped the bucket holding the first metal ball which rolled down the stairs and into the pipe which lead it to hit the rod held by the hands, causing the second metal ball to fall from the top of the rod, roll down the groove, fall into and then out of the bottom of the bathtub, landing on the diving board, catapulting the diver through the air and right into the bucket, causing the cage to fall from the top of the post and trap Lacey and Rian's unsuspecting mice.

They never saw it coming.

Michelin Man

2008-06-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Ethan had his four month check up this morning. I can hardly believe he's four months already!

He weighed in at 18 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long. He's in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. I knew he was big but, holy cow! His head circumference is in the 97th percentile so at least he's pretty balanced.

Too Many Pictures

2008-05-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

I am quickly running out of disk space on my laptop. I was looking for a way to visualize my disk usage to see where I needed to focus on cleaning things up, and ran across JDiskReport. It's written in Java, and thanks to Java Web Start, is simple to get running.

It turns out that a little over 50% of my hard drive is filled with pictures from my digital camera! This tool allows me to take a closer look and see where all that space is going. I found out that the amount of data from pictures I took in 2005 is greater than the years 2000-2004 combined! Also, I accumulated more picture data in 2007 than the previous 7 years combined!

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, in 2005 I upgraded from a 2.1 megapixel point-and-shoot to an 8 megapixel DSLR. Second, I started shooting exclusively in the RAW format in 2007. All of this increase in image quality comes with the obvious cost of having to store all this data. So I guess I'm in the market for a new hard drive.

Looking Back at Rian's Surgery

2008-05-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

I put together a little video about Rian and the days leading up to his surgery. I mostly put it together for myself, to help me remember that time, but also for Rian so that maybe when he's an adult he can look back and see what he was like when he was 4 1/2 years old and preparing for eye surgery. By putting it on the web I'm not only giving you a chance to watch it, but also increasing the odds that it will be around in 10 years when Rian might appreciate it.

Anyway, enough of that. This video is pretty long. Believe it or not, it was actually a lot of work to get it under 10 minutes, which is the maximum length that YouTube allows.

Cousins!

2008-05-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

We had some family visit recently, which is always fun. We tried getting a group picture of all the cousins together, which can be quite a challenge since they are all so young and have such short attention spans. Joshua didn't make it into this picture, but maybe I can photoshop him in later. There isn't a lot of room though. Maybe I'll just give Ethan a 2nd head.

Joshua was pretty interested in Ethan. I think they're going to be friends. Joshua wanted to touch Ethan's skin and face, but he hasn't quite developed the gentle touch that Michelle so effortlessly employs so we had to keep an eye on him. :)

Ruby was beautiful, as always. I know Amy gets tired of hearing that, but I think that is a good problem to have. If you don't know Ruby's story, it's a fascinating one. Much of it is detailed at my sister's blog, Finding Love in Liberia.

We sat down with the kids and watched one of my favorite movies, Ratatouille. Well, I guess not everyone actually sat down to watch it. Reid preferred to stand about 2 feet away from the TV. Perhaps he has had a look at this chart and was just trying to appreciate the film in all of it's 1080p Blu-Ray glory.

This last photo shows Ruby and Ethan holding hands. I think the contrast in skin color is interesting, but the other thing you'll notice is the contrast in body fat. Of course, this shouldn't come as any surprise if you've seen pictures of Ruby when she lived in Africa.

Now We're Rollin'

2008-04-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

Our chubby little baby turned 2 months last week. He had a checkup where he was weighed and measured. The doctor confirmed what we already suspected: he's big. And fat.

Just how fat? He is the 90th percentile for weight, and the 75th for height. And his head is ginormous. It ranks in the 95th percentile for that category. We could have another John Madden on our hands. But cuter. And a little younger. And without the unhealthy fascination with offensive linemen's butt sweat.

Today Ethan rolled over for the first time. I wasn't home at the time, but Lacey snapped the picture below mid-roll. She tells me he was lying on the sun when he started. Sadly, the monkey was caught completely off guard and was hurt badly. We're trying to teach Ethan to "look, then roll," but he's just not getting it, no matter how loudly I scream.

Taxes!

2008-04-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

I just filed my taxes! Hooray! I guess you can call me an early bird. Now I can kick back and relax as all you procrastinators scramble to get things together. I can't believe you waited this long.

Of course, we owed again, but not as much as last year. This year I had to pay a little over $100, but last year it was nearly $500. What a rip off. TANSTAAFL? Can't we pass a law to ban that?

Because I don't have anything interesting to show you besides my kids, here is a picture of how we found Rian last night at 3 am. Poor guy. He falls out of bed quite regularly. When Ethan outgrows his crib, I plan to get them a bunk bed and put Rian on the top bunk. Then I figure the problem will just take care of itself.

Romo, Cars, and Fatty McJude

2008-04-07T00:34:00.001-07:00

Cameron visited recently and surprised us all with a gift from his friend: a TONY ROMO jersey! Romo of course is the Cowboys quarterback and a weekly guest in our homes each Sunday between September and January. Here is Rian modeling his new threads in our barren back yard.

Earlier on Sunday he quietly stacked all of his cars onto his Thomas the Train (am I the only one that hates calling him "Thomas the Tank Engine"?) track.

I was amazed.

Ethan is gaining a ton of weight. Lacey must now take great care to wash between each roll, lifting each flab and getting in there. Check out those thighs.

Here she is demonstrating what she calls Ethan's "armpit rolls."

Ben Is Jammin

2008-04-02T00:58:00.001-07:00

During my freshman year at George Fox University, I lived across the hall from a guy named Benjamin Hawkins. We weren't really good friends, but we talked a bit and saw each other almost every day. He was the kind of guy that was always happy. He had a great sense of humor, and always had some little thing to say that would make you smile.

We both graduated in 2004 and I remember talking to him several times over our 4 years together. Talking to Ben wasn't like talking to most people, though. Whenever I talked to him I was always surprised because he always listened. I'm not sure how he did it, but whenever someone was talking to him, you could tell that he was really listening. He was a genuinely caring guy.

This was a guy who I never, ever saw do anything selfish. He was very interesting to talk to, an outstanding musician, and one of the greatest guys I've ever met - cheerful, honest, and trustworthy. On Sunday, he was struck by a car and killed in what is being called a freak accident. He was 25.

This simply couldn't have happened to a better guy. Keep on jammin', Ben.

Surgery

2008-04-02T00:58:00.000-07:00

I wrote the following about 3 weeks ago, but for some reason I never got around to posting it until now.

In a previous post I talked about Rian's eyes needing to be operated on to correct Strabismus.
Last Tuesday we drove up to Kirkland (near Seattle, about a 3 1/2 hour drive) for Rian's eye surgery. He had an appointment with the surgeon on Wednesday to measure the degree that Rian's eyes needed to be corrected. Their measurements matched those from our local doctor, which was important to me just to rule out the possibility that our local doctor was nuts and that Rian's eyes were fine.

As part of the pre-op appointment, they had to give Rian some eye drops to dilate his pupils. They got big. Huge, in fact. They got so big that his pupil nearly covered his entire iris, so we gave him Lacey's sunglasses to wear afterward because otherwise it would have been too bright.

Thursday was a difficult day. Rian had been very good about accepting the idea of a doctor fixing his eyes in the weeks leading up to the surgery, but it all caught up to him at the surgery center when it was time for the nurse to measure his vitals. Suddenly the surgery got very real and he didn't want any part of it.

They got most of the vitals that they needed and it was time for Rian to go back into the sterile room, alone. They brought him a little red wagon, which he thought was very cool, and the nurse asked him if he wanted to go slow or fast. "Fast!" We gave him some kisses, the nurse counted to three, and off they went, running down the hall. Rian looked like he was having fun, but he turned and looked back at us as if questioning whether this wagon ride was worth leaving the safety of Mommy and Daddy. He would tell us later that they had him lie down and breathe like an astronaut, and that he screamed, "I miss my daddy and my mommy!"

We waited in the waiting room for about an hour. A nurse finally came out and led us back to the room where Rian was recovering. I had looked online at some pictures of kids that had already had this surgery beforehand to help prepare myself. I knew it was going to look bad, but nothing prepared me for this.

His back was toward me as I entered the room. Lacey took him, sat him down on her lap, and held him. He turned and looked toward me, staring at me with these huge, bloody eyes. They didn't move at all, just staring . . . lifelessly. At first I wasn't sure if he could even see out of them, but then I figured out that he could, in fact, see. It just looked so . . . creepy. It was hard not to wonder if we had done the right thing.

The next day we took him back to the doctor's office where they ran the same tests on him that they had before the surgery. This time things were much different. For one test, the nurse would ask Rian to focus on something far away as she would cover one eye, then the other. Before, his eyes would jump back and forth as she would switch eyes. But now, both eyes stayed straight, as they were both able to focus on the same point without compensating. For another test, Rian wore 3-D glasses and was asked to indicate which in series of images was popping out off the page. Before the surgery, he could get about half of them right, but this time, he got them all right!

Nearly 4 weeks have past since his surgery. One eye is looking much better, but the other is still very bloody. The doctor told us that it will clear up in a few more weeks, but that it's nothing to worry about since none of it is new blood.

Long Night

2008-03-02T05:33:00.000-08:00

I stayed up with Ethan tonight while Lacey slept. (I slept in really late on Saturday, so it all works out.) Lacey was telling me earlier about her system she has when changing Ethan's diapers to minimize the amount of time he is left exposed, since he has a tendency to pee right when you take the diaper off. I kind of dismissed it and told her I didn't think it was that big of a deal. After all, I told her, that hadn't happened to me in over a week.

In retrospect, I think she may be on to something.

I was changing Ethan's diaper around 3 am, cleaning up his little bottom, when a spout appeared. This has happened before--in fact it had happened a couple hours earlier as well--and what usually catches my attention first isn't the stream arcing from his little body, but the sound of the stream hitting something. This time it was a box of wipes sitting on the floor next to the changing table.

I used the wipe in my hand to minimize further damage, then grabbed another one to start cleaning up. Assuming he was done, I let my guard down, but then, wouldn't you know it, it happened again. This time it landed on the changing table and ran down toward him, pooling at his back.

He was pretty wet at this point. Most of his back was wet, and parts of his tummy. I think the first stream may have been running for a little while before I noticed it, because he was a lot wetter than I thought he could be from just the 2nd one by itself. So I wiped him down, but now I needed somewhere to set him so I could finish changing his diaper (I still hadn't finished cleaning up the original mess). The changing table was drenched, so I set him in the crib.

I turn around to get a wipe and pick up a clean diaper when... yeah, you know where this is going. He had done it again! Now the crib was wet!

From now on I'm going to listen to everything Lacey tells me as if it's straight from the mouth of God.

So what's up with the pictures of Ethan's feet? Well, it was a long night. We went through 4 or 5 diapers and 79 pictures. So you see, I had to post one or two, even if they're just of his feet.

For the Babies

2008-03-01T03:49:00.000-08:00

Lacey and I were talking a few months ago, after we had found out that she was pregnant, and I admitted that I wasn't crazy about newborns. My reasons were that they are kind of boring, kind of funny looking, and they don't really do much. You can't really have fun with a newborn. You can't even make them smile.

I've changed my mind.

While some of that is still true, Ethan is just a lot more fun than I thought he would be. His skin is so unbelievably soft, you just have to feel it to believe it. When I was taking these pictures I couldn't help but lean in and kiss him on the belly. His perfect little skin smells so clean and feels impossibly soft. Sometimes I just have to smother him with kisses, and the funny thing is he doesn't appreciate the affection at all. If anything, he finds it mildly annoying. But I love that about him. He just has a few very simple needs, and beyond that, everything else is largely ignored.

Alright, sorry for getting mushy. I've really got to stop posting late at night...

Strabismus

2008-02-28T02:23:00.000-08:00

A while ago we started noticing that one of Rian's eyes had a tendency to drift off to the side on its own under certain conditions. We usually only saw this when he was doing something that required the sight from only one eye, like looking through the viewfinder of a camera. At first, I thought he didn't know how to look through the viewfinder. It looked like he was holding the camera up to his face, and then looking to the side, as if trying to see around the camera. I mistakenly thought that he didn't know to look through the viewfinder, and tried to correct him.

But after seeing this happen a few times, we eventually figured out that his eyes weren't looking in the same direction. One eye would look through the viewfinder, and the other would just go off to the side, all on its own. This would happen just about every time he would look through my camera. Very strange.

So we mentioned it to the doctor. He referred us to an ophthalmologist, who examined Rian and ran him through some vision tests. He explained that this was normal, and that Rian's vision was fine. The eye, he explained, naturally reverts back to a different position when at rest. He demonstrated this effect to Lacey and told her that when Rian's eye would drift off to the side when looking through a camera, it was just at rest, and that happened to be where its resting point was. Everyone is a little different.

But that seemed a little strange, and when Lacey explained all of this to me when I got home, I was a little skeptical. She showed me an exercise the doctor recommended involving a string and a ball that is supposed to strengthen the muscles in the eye. I tried it, but grew even more agitated. It just didn't make sense to me.

But, after all, this is what the doctor told her, and he was an ophthalmologist. He probably sees this all the time. So I decided that I needed to trust the doctor.

Some time passed and everything seemed normal. His eye would wander occasionally, but it could usually be corrected by reminding him to "focus." But as time went on, we started seeing it happen more and more. Now it was happening in low-light conditions, like when tucking him in at night, or even in the living room during the evenings.

His teacher had noticed some things, too. She had seen him being very cautious when going up and down stairs. Having seen a few students with vision problems, she recommended a vision clinic that had a good reputation. We took him there and right away, the doctor could tell something was wrong. After running him through some tests, the doctor diagnosed Rian with strabismus. This guy actually specializes in this stuff, and told us that he was very surprised and disappointed that the first doctor hadn't seen it.

He explained that strabismus is a serious problem that can ruin depth perception and in some cases can lead to blindness in one eye (read about it at webmd or wikipedia). The doctor asked if Rian still preferred a tricycle to a bicycle, and if he seemed afraid of a ball when thrown to him. Of course! These are both indicators of a lack of depth perception. Sitting up high on a bicycle would make me pretty nervous too, if I couldn't see how close the ground was. And of course, it would be pretty hard to catch a ball if you can't tell how far away it is.

Since then, Rian has been back to see them several times. Although various forms of vision therapy are often enough to correct strabismus, because of the severity of Rian's case, he will need surgery. The surgery has been scheduled, and will take place one week from today.

And now, finally, I will explain the picture. Part of the preparation for the surgery is to identify exactly how far his eye wanders. This is so that they know how much they need to correct for during the surgery. They performed many vision tests, which we described to Rian as "eye games" (which he actually looks forward to "playing"), and they got a pretty accurate number. Then, they take a prism which bends the light by the appropriate amount to account for his eye looking in the wrong direction, and attach that to a pair of glasses. This allows both eyes to sit where they want to (looking in different directions), but because of the prism, both eyes see as if they were looking directly ahead. They needed Rian to wear these special glasses for 24 hours and then at the end of that period, they do a test to make sure they had the number right. They did.

One thing you'll notice right away is that the prism bends the light in both directions, so it looks like his eye is way out to the side instead of right in there next to his nose. This effect can be a little uncomfortable to see, because it changes the appearance of the shape of his face. It's not as obvious in this particular photo (which is why I chose it), but it is a lot more pronounced when you can see his eyes.

Anyway, please pray for Rian as he prepares for surgery on March 6th.

Back to Work

2008-02-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

I have really enjoyed being a stay-at-home dad the last 2 weeks, but now it is time to go back to work. It was fun being able to take Rian to school in the mornings and then picking him up in the afternoons. Before this week I had only picked him up from school once, and that was when I had jury duty. And of course, I've enjoyed spending time with Ethan, changing diapers, and taking pictures. But alas, on Monday it will be time to go back to work.

Lacey's parents visited last week and got to meet Ethan for the first time. Here's a picture of Ethan holding onto (Grandpa) Bob's finger. This was actually Bob's idea, but I'm mostly satisfied with how it turned out. So thanks, Bob!

Blurry Moon

2008-02-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to get some good pictures of the moon tonight, but unfortunately nearly everything came out blurry. The weather was mostly clear, but there were very thin clouds that disrupted the light just enough to make everything look out of focus.

I'm So Tired

2008-02-18T04:23:00.000-08:00

I mentioned recently that I am surprised by how much Ethan sleeps. Well, I know that none of you believed me, so I decided to make a video about it. I hope this will convince some of you doubters.

Don't forget to turn the volume up.

What a Week!

2008-02-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ethan is one week old today. He had a little operation on Friday, so changing diapers has been a little more challenging the last couple days. He's doing better now, though.

Last night I was trying to change his diaper when he started peeing all over the place. Fortunately, there was something in the way and so it was just deflected harmlessly down his side and onto the changing pad. No problem.

A minute later I heard something and looked down. My worst fears were realized as I watched the changing pad getting even dirtier...much dirtier. The diaper was just a couple inches out of position, but that's all it took.

Now I was really stuck. Ethan was still dirty from the diaper I was in the middle of changing, and the changing pad was dirty from...well, from Ethan. I didn't know what to do, so I started calling for Lacey, but she was asleep in the other room. Aaack!

Lacey eventually woke up, but she was so tired that I had to raise my voice to the level of what probably sounded like an angry, frantic yell. She came tearing into the room, looking a little alarmed and probably expecting something horrible. She came in and took over like a pro, cleaning him with an ease I'll probably never attain.

Stretching

2008-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Ethan cracks me up. I knew that newborns slept a lot, but I had forgotten just how much that was. Ethan usually looks completely wiped out, like he just finished something incredibly exhausting. He'll wake up for about 45 minutes and sit with Lacey, getting something to eat, but apparently nursing really wears hm out, because by the time that he finishes, he's fallen asleep again!

Spam with a Twist

2008-02-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

I use gmail at home, and it usually does an excellent job filtering spam out, but this morning an email sneaked past the filters and into my inbox. Take a look at it and you can see how it got through.

From: chalbappah@gmail.com
Subject: underlaid Viiaxgra
Date: February 15, 2008 4:52:45 AM PST
To: ericjmarshall [---at---] (public email service mentioned above)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Viiaxgra from $1, 20 http://www.[domain removed].com

Very very well, said Madam Pomfrey, looking startled, and she too left.Not that I know of, said Mr. Weasley. Yes, its a minute off ...Wedcontrasting strongly with the black of his hair and beard

It's kind of funny how the spammers are trying to get past the filters by disguising part of the message as something that doesn't look like spam. Of course this is nothing new, but I hadn't seen a message quite like this one before.

Lunar Eclipse Coming Soon

2008-02-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

There's a lunar eclipse coming up on February 21st. I had so much fun during the last one, back in August, that I'm hoping to take pictures of this one as well. I recently bought a 2x Kenko Teleconverter that allows me to get in a little closer. I took it outside today and took some pictures of the moon, and I think they have a lot more detail than the photos I took last August.

But you probably didn't come here to see a picture of the moon, so here's another picture of Ethan.

Learning to Read

2008-02-14T04:01:00.000-08:00

I decided to do something a little different today. Ethan has been getting a lot of attention lately, and I can tell that Rian feels left out sometimes. It was especially evident at the hospital the other day. Some people came to visit and they were all talking about babies, but Rian found that boring and decided it would be more interesting for everyone to look at his soccer pictures from last summer, which I happened to have on my computer.

He started pulling the soccer pictures up on the screen and talking about them, but nobody really listened. It made me sad for him. As the youngest of 3, I remember what it was like being little and everyone being excited about something that I didn't appreciate or understand, and wanting to turn the attention of the room back to myself.

So, as cute and adorable as Ethan is right now, I want to show you a video that I made that is all about Rian. Rian is learning about some exciting things, and one of those is learning how to read. Today he brought home a book from school, so I sat down with him while Ethan was taking a nap and he read it to me.

Fitting In

2008-02-12T15:48:00.001-08:00

I picked Rian up from school today, and his teacher told me that he was telling everyone in his class that his brother "came out of Mommy!" Lacey and Ethan were waiting in the car, so I asked him to guess who was waiting in the car. "Umm... Eli! I mean, ETHAN!" (His cousin Eli is 16 months old.)

Ethan seems pretty comfortable in his car seat. The straps have to be pretty tight in order to hold such a tiny body and I thought I was going to break him last night when I was getting him ready to go home. He slept through it though, so I guess it wasn't too uncomfortable.

It may sound strange, but it's easy to forget how small he is when you have been around him for awhile. But then when we put him in his car seat it puts his size back into perspective and I remember to appreciate his tiny little body.

We're Home!

2008-02-11T22:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight will be our first night together as a 4-person family. I'm planning on sleeping through most of it.

Blue Steel

2008-02-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

We're trying to break Ethan into the world of male modeling. We're calling this look Blue Steel.

Going Home

2008-02-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

It looks like they are going to let us go home. With the exception of some difficulties upgrading to 10.5.2, everything is going well.

A little while ago a nurse came in and pricked Ethan's foot to collect some blood samples. He cried like it hurt, and I'm sure it did, but after a few minutes he had fallen back to sleep, even as she was still collecting the blood. I remember Rian cried and cried when he had the same thing done when he was a baby, and it was very traumatic for everyone involved. This time it was a little easier.

The lady told me that she pricks a lot of babies (which in any other context would be a little alarming) and that about half of them throw a fit, while the other half respond more like Ethan did.

Recovering

2008-02-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

Lacey is recovering well - much faster than after Rian was born. Dr. Smith, who delivered Ethan, was at a loss for words this morning when he came to check on Lacey. "You look... above average!" She looks great and is recovering well.

Ethan is also doing well. He is getting lots of sleep and all of his little body parts are getting some practice. Last night I changed a dirty diaper for the first time in quite awhile. It was a lot harder than I remember.

If everything continues to go smoothly, we may be able to go home tonight.

Details

2008-02-10T23:44:00.000-08:00

Dr. Larry Smith delivered Ethan at (officially) 11:08 am, although my records show he was actually born at 11:11 am. His birth weight was 7 lbs, 10.2 oz. He is 20.5" tall.

Baby Pictures

2008-02-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of Ethan. I haven't had much time to go through the pictures, but I'll update this post with more a little later.

*** UPDATE - 11:25 pm ***
As promised, here are a few more pictures.

It's a Boy!

2008-02-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

We did it! Ethan Jude Marshall was born around 11:15 am. He weighs 7 lbs 10.2 oz.

Lacey did a great job. Ethan and Lacey are now resting.

Here We Go

2008-02-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

After hours of waiting, things are finally starting to happen! Lacey is at 9 cm now, after being stuck at 2 cm for about a month, finally changing sometime after 6 am. The nurse thinks this is going to be quick. Lacey is resting now, but as soon as she comes back in it will probably be time to push. We could have a brand new baby before lunchtime!

This room is nice. It's a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. There is some natural light coming in through the windows. It is quiet, except for some classical music playing on my laptop and the baby's rhythmic heartbeat coming from some medical equipment. It's very soothing.

At the Hospital

2008-02-10T03:27:00.000-08:00

We're at the hospital now, waiting in the delivery room for things to progress. We were at home keeping close track of how frequent the transactions were. They were pretty regular, averaging about 15 minutes apart for an hour. We were trying to decide whether to start getting ready to leave or wait for another contraction when Lacey's water broke. That made the decision a little easier.

A few minutes ago there was a guy in the hallway trying to give someone directions to the hospital over the phone. I think they were having some problems communicating, because it sounded like he was getting pretty upset.

"You're where? 395?! How'd you get over there?"
"You're in Pasco? I thought you were in Kennewick!"
(To a female voice in the hall) "She's on Elm--she's not supposed to be there. Do you know where Elm is?"

Things have quieted down, so I guess they figured it out.

Off to the Hospital!

2008-02-10T00:55:00.000-08:00

It's go time.

Updates

2008-02-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

You might notice a few changes I've made around here lately. The colors are a little different and I've moved some stuff around. But do not fret. We're still doling out the same old boring stuff.

Also, notice the new poll off to the right. I added that because let's face it, polls are fun. Now, it's going to be really embarrassing if the poll closes with like 2 votes, so take a moment and let your voice be heard!

Rian will be tallying the results and providing some analysis in a few days after the baby comes. As you can see, he's already hard at work. But he needs your help! Get out and vote!

Overdue

2008-02-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, when I had my 40 week doctor's appointment, I was pretty bummed to hear that things weren't progressing. My doctor had wanted to induce but I really want NT to come on his own. He's giving this little boy until early next week before he'll push for induction. I know this happens all the time but I still don't want to do it. Blah!

Someone said that he's just comfortable right now but I'm seriously doubting that with how cramped he must be. With all these contractions I'm hoping he's on his way! Funny how I look forward to each painful one. I'm just ready to be done with it and see our little guy!

Almost There

2008-02-08T01:52:00.000-08:00

NT's due date came and went without incident. Still no babies.

I think we're getting pretty close though. Tonight, Lacey had 7 contractions in about 90 minutes. Some were only 5 minutes apart, others were 10 minutes apart, but a couple were still as many as 30 minutes apart. Overall, this is much better than where we were just a couple days ago. The close ones gave us a little scare, but that didn't last too long as there wasn't much consistency to them. The doctors have recommended that we come to the hospital when the contractions are about 15 minutes apart, and remain that way for about an hour. We're almost there.

Contractions Increasing, Snow Falling, Patriots Crying

2008-02-03T23:12:00.000-08:00

Lacey has been having contractions throughout the day, including 3 in the last hour and a half (as of a few minutes ago--she is sleeping now). She tells me that the intensity of the contractions is also starting to increase, as they are also becoming more and more regular. This whole baby thing is starting to sink in and become a little more real.

In other news, the snow from last week finally melted, just in time for some fresh powder to fall on Saturday. Here is a picture I took on Saturday night. I tried to get my HDR groove going, but I don't think it really helped.

Finally, I feel that this entire NFL season has been a success. Even though the Cowboys weren't able to win a playoff game, and subsequently lost nearly their entire coaching staff to the Dolphins, and even though their bitter division rival went on to win the big game (after losing to the Cowboys in both regular season meetings), and even though Marion Barber didn't get half the carries he should have, and even though I had to hear about how great Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were every single week, this season finally made up for all of its shortcomings on Sunday night when the Patriots lost. What a time to lose their first game of the year.

One more thing - February 5th is my half-birthday (I will be posting a wish list very soon), so if the contractions continue to progress as they are, there is an outside chance of Number Two coming on a semi-special day for me. If he misses that date, the next notable date is February 10th, which of course is (my sister) Amy's birthday. But I don't think any of us want to wait that long...

Snow!

2008-01-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

We got some snow this weekend. It started on Sunday morning and didn't stop until late that night. It has snowed a few times earlier this year, but never this much and never for this long. I finally got a chance to take Rian outside and play in the snow.

Here are some pictures I took while we were out getting cold.

The snow didn't have any problem sticking...

We had freezing rain the night before, creating a nice cold surface for the snow to stick to.

This little shrubbery didn't stand a chance.

Rian loves snowball fights... until the first snowball gets thrown at him :)

Between the freezing rain and the snow, icicles were everywhere.

These were on our trash can.

This one was hanging from our roof until it attacked me, provoked by a slight, accidental bump with an umbrella.

Baby's Heartbeat

2008-01-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

Lacey has been having weekly doctor's appointments, so I went with her the other day and brought the camera along with me. Check out the video below to hear what our baby's heart sounds like.

Christmas Pictures

2008-01-07T01:05:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures I took around Christmas.

Lacey and I stayed up late one night trying to get our Christmas cards to print correctly. We never quite nailed it, so the cards didn't look quite as nice as we were hoping they would.

Rian had a very good time on Christmas. This was the first year he got really excited about Santa coming.

Lacey and Rian relaxing on a Saturday afternoon.

Thank Heaven for Little Boys

2008-01-07T00:45:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures of Lacey's big belly and some baby stuff and put them together in a little slideshow. Running time is 1:56. I hope you enjoy it!

35 weeks

2008-01-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

The countdown is on! I can't believe we only have about a month to go until NT's due date. I can't wait to meet him and see what he looks like, kiss his tiny toes and hold him. Last week we had our 34 week check up and everything looks good. We heard his heartbeat, learned that he's "dropped" and weighs about five pounds. So we're definitely in the home stretch. I totally feel like he's running out of room!

We're getting ready for when NT gets here. Over the weekend we got the crib and changing table put together. It's so exciting! I love all this baby stuff. Rian was so helpful and it's awesome that he's excited about a baby brother. He even told me he wants to change diapers and feed his baby brother. We'll see...I love hearing how he wants to do these things.

You Make Me Feel So Young

2007-12-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

I made a short (90 sec) video of Rian and I playing catch with a football in the front yard. Hope you enjoy.

What Can I Say?

2007-11-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

I have noticed recently that some of the common expressions that people say are really dumb and don't make any sense. Here are a few I've noticed lately:

As of late
I was watching a Blazers game on the Internet the other day (more on that in a future post) and the announcer said something is a certain way "as of late." I've heard this expression many, many times. I've even used it before without thinking twice. A quick Google search returns over a million hits.

But when I stopped to think about it, I realized it doesn't make any sense. As of when? Late. Late? Double you tee eff? Isn't there a better way to say that? How about recently or lately? Somehow it has become acceptable to use this expression that makes no sense at all. How about saying as of early? Oh yeah, I'm really tired as of early. You know, earlier this morning. It's the same thing, and neither of them make any sense. So let's all agree to stop saying "as of late" and use one of the many other alternatives we have available. There are about a thousand different ways to say any particular thing in this language, so let's find another one.
The Other Day
I use this expression all the time. In fact, I've already used it in this post. But I don't like it because it doesn't make any sense. It implies there is only one other day in question in the current context, which is almost never the case. Starting today, I'm going to try to refrain myself from using this expression.
A Whole Nother
I occasionally catch myself saying something like, "That's a whole nother thing!" When I catch myself I feel ashamed because it sounds so stupid. A "nother"? You mean, "another," which undoubtedly comes from "an other." I think "a whole other" or simply "an entirely different" are better choices.

There are more, to be sure, but I won't bore you with any more of this stuff. I know that languages evolve and there are all sorts of social and cultural factors at work, but I think every now and then it is worthwhile to pause and think about the words we use and ask ourselves if what we are saying makes sense. And if it doesn't, then why are we saying it?

Streaming NFL Games

2007-10-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I talked about how frustrating it can be when your favorite team is playing a big game, but you can't watch it on TV for any of a variety of reasons. Today I'm going to talk about a solution to this problem, which has allowed me to watch almost all of the Cowboys games this year, even when the game isn't carried in my area, or is broadcast on a channel which we do not receive.

The solution I have found is a piece of software called SopCast. It is a peer-to-peer program for broadcasting normal television broadcasting over the Internet. It works by downloading the SopCast client, logging in, and joining a channel. The channels are similar to regular TV channels, but not as convenient. For example, in my experience it takes about a minute for a channel to start showing video.

The video quality is quite poor. A few weeks ago I was watching a Cowboys game using SopCast when a play was challenged. They showed the replay over and over, but because the video quality was so poor, it was almost impossible to determine the correct outcome of the play (which I am usually an expert at, along with every single other person that has ever seen a play challenged).

Although it's not perfect, SopCast is a much better alternative to following a game than that stupid live GameCast thing that ESPN has. The video does sputter sometimes, and it occasionally freezes, but the audio is pretty resilient, so even if you can't see what's going on, the announcers usually do a pretty good job of filling in the details.

This Sunday the Cowboys play the Minnesota Vikings. Although the game will be carried in other markets, our local affiliate has decided to show the Rams vs. Seahawks game instead. I'm starting to get sleepy just thinking about that matchup, although we'll probably watch at least parts of it because Lacey likes the Rams, and we both love to root against Seattle. My prediction: Rams win their first game of the year in an upset.

So if you find yourself wishing you could watch a game that isn't broadcast on any of your channels, check out SopCast. Once you have it installed, you just need to find the right channel that is broadcasting your game. Lucky for us, there are people out there that have setup a website for finding out which channels you need to watch to see your game. Sometimes they even have regular video streams, so if you're paranoid about p2p software, you just might get lucky and find a direct video stream, although when I tried one to watch the Cowboys vs. Bills game a couple weeks ago, the video would freeze after a couple minutes and would have to be restarted. I eventually switched to the sop feed and had a much better experience.

Wiggle Worm

2007-10-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

This baby is moving daily and using every inch of space he's got (or so it feels)! I have been able to feel him moving around from the outside for a few weeks. I also saw my stomach move a little which was pretty cool. It's hard to believe that this little guy is only half-way done growing because of how tight and big my stomach is now! It's so exciting to be able to feel him kicking and moving.

Last Saturday was Rian's last soccer game of the season and it was a little bittersweet. I'm glad to be done being assistant coach even though it's been a fun experience. Rian has really enjoyed playing soccer and I have loved watching him play. I actually watched him on the playground yesterday at school dribbling the ball around all by himself for their entire recess. He's so cute.

What a Game!

2007-10-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Everything went wrong for the Cowboys last night. Romo looked awful, throwing 5 interceptions and losing a fumble. What was supposed to be an easy blowout win for Dallas quickly turned into a nightmare.

But as you probably know, they came back and scored 9 points in the final 20 seconds to win on a field goal as time expired. They improved to 5-0 and are set to play the 5-0 Patriots next Sunday in Dallas.

Looking forward to the game, many people predicted a blowout. I was listening to some pre-game blab on the radio and they were predicting scores like 37-3, or 34-10. But when Buffalo picked off Romo's first pass of the game and returned it for a touchdown, it was obvious this game was not going to be how anyone expected. The announcers on ESPN called it the best game of the season. After the game, some journalists would dub it an instant classic.

I don't know about all of that, but it was a great game -- a game I almost wasn't able to watch because it was broadcast on ESPN, which of course we don't receive on our Over The Air antenna. It was a situation I've found myself in many times over the years: a big, important sporting event which I am unable to watch because it's either broadcast on a channel I don't receive, or our local affiliate chooses to broadcast a different game or program instead of the one I want to see.

This happened a couple of weeks ago when Dallas played Miami. It was a Sunday morning, and the 10 AM game was supposed to be Cowboys vs. Dolphins. I wasn't going to church this day, so I turned on the TV around 9 AM to see all the Fox guys doing their pre-game routine. It ended at 10 AM, but instead of switching over to the Cowboys game, our local Fox affiliate switches to... That 70's Show. That's right. After spending an hour previewing all of the NFL games that day, our Fox affiliate, in all of its infinite wisdom, decides nobody wants to watch the actual football game this Sunday morning. The pre-game show plenty.

Two weeks later it was Cowboys vs. Rams. Lacey likes the Rams; I like the Cowboys. Our local Fox affiliate? They like Seafa^H^Hhawks vs. Cardinals.

So what's a guy to do? Your favorite team is being broadcast on national TV, but your local affiliate isn't interested in carrying the game. Or, it'll cost $50/month just to get a sports channel so you can watch them once a week. In my next post, I'll tell you the solution I've found to this problem that has allowed me to watch every game this year without spending a nickel.

Baby Pictures!

2007-09-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

I am happy to present the first pictures ever taken of Number Two (NT). Although we now know the sex of the baby, I am going to try to avoid pronouns by referring to NT by name for now and let the photos speak for themselves.

We did not know going in that we would get the 3-D treatment, but apparently it is standard procedure now - where we were anyway. Number One was born back in 2003 when this kind of thing was just starting to go mainstream. The ultrasound equipment was modern enough that not only did it take regular and 3-D sonograms, it also supported annotations and CD burning. You may notice some arrows and text in some of the images that the nurse added. When she was done taking the pictures, she selected a bunch of the interesting ones, clicked a couple of buttons, and the CD started burning. It was pretty cool.

I think I can be pretty objective, so I'll give my opinion on some of these. We start off with the classic profile view. You can see NT's mouth, nose, eyes, forehead - even a fist. There's a little hint of an ear. We can see the chest. Everything looks perfect. Nice looking head. Heads are important.

Here's our first 3-D look at NT. It looks like he is shielding his face from a very bright light, but I am told that it is very dark in his world right now. He doesn't look very happy, but it gives us a good look at his left arm and hand, including all 7 fingers. Wait, sorry, no, there are only 5 there (the left thumb makes an appearance in another image). Whew!

Here we get a pretty good look at his face. You can already tell that he's going to be cute. Little button nose, scrunched eyes, little mouth. This baby is perfect. Try to ignore that big Chunk-o-Mama on the left.

As if I haven't given it away already, here's the evidence. After the ultrasound we met with the doctor and he laughed heartily over this picture. "It's definitely a boy!" he chuckled.

On a side note, I had a lot of trouble understanding the perspective in this one. Lacey got it right away, but if you're like me, here's a hint: the thing to the left of the arrow is the top of his knee. The large round thing... no the other large round thing... the one on the far right. That is his belly. He's basically sitting on his bottom, and of course, he's going commando.

I hope you enjoyed these. We are very excited about raising another man. We're up to the challenge and if NT is anything like Rian, it's going to be a blast. I'm looking forward to meeting this guy face-to-face in February and taking a lot more pictures!

20 weeks

2007-09-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that we're at the half-way point in this pregnancy. The best part about that is finally being able to see our baby tomorrow morning at our ultrasound appointment! I'm so excited and can hardly wait!
I feel the baby move so much now. What started as a few fluttery feelings now seems like he (or she) is doing flips and kicking. Feeling him (or her) move is amazing and reminds me that there is a little person in there! :-) Wow, I can't wait to actually see this baby on the ultrasound screen!!
We're taking Rian with us to the appointment and I think half the fun will be seeing the look on his face. He has been telling people that "mommy's tummy is getting big, big, big". He talks to the baby almost daily now and today he sang songs for the baby. Too cute!

Soccer Week 5 - Rams vs. Geckos

2007-09-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

The Rams faced off against Geckos on Saturday. Rian scored another goal in very similar fashion to his goal last week. Once again it happened suddenly, early in the game, and in his own goal. Also like last week, it was followed by Rian jumping up and down shouting, "I scored a goal! I scored a goal!!"

The soccer Rams, unlike their football counterpart, are still essentially undefeated. I've mentioned before that nobody keeps score at these games, but if we did, the Rams would be headed for the playoffs... again, if there were playoffs.

Cowboys

2007-09-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

The Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants 45-39 on Sunday night. It was a good game and fun to watch. The linked article on espn.com notes the unusually high score:

This game produced the most points in the 90-game history of this series. Dallas also scored its most points in an opener since putting up 49 in 1971 -- the year the Cowboys won their first Super Bowl...

Go Cowboys! Last year they were a gimme field goal away from advancing to the NFC Championship before Romo's blunder. The Cowboys should be pretty good this season with Romo as the starter, since he won't be in a position to fumble the football and prevent the place kicker from even getting it up, even if their QB Coach is now having a similar problem.

In honor of the Cowboys starting their season, this weekend I took some pictures of Rian wearing a cowboy hat we recently got from Lacey's parents. He loves wearing this hat. We were watching the Cowboys game and he decided that he needed to wear his cowboy hat. So I had to go help him find it, which as it turned out was just inside his room in plain sight. I thought it was cute that he had already looked in his room for it before he asked me for help, but didn't see it even though it was kind of hard to miss... :)

Soccer Week 4 - Rams vs. Koalas

2007-09-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

After a week off for Labor Day, the Rams were back in action on Saturday facing the fearsome Koalas. The game started off quickly, with the Koalas scoring a goal in the opening minutes. On the ensuing kickoff, the ball bounced to Rian who looked up and saw an open goal. Rian did not hesitate. His leg swung back, his eyes focused squarely on the ball at his feet. As four Koalas narrowed in around him, Rian swung his leg forward, his foot striking the ball with more force than he knew was possible.

The ball flew forward. Rian watched with anticipation as the ball flew through the air. Time seemed to stand still. The Koalas were all around him now, but it didn't matter. The ball was already on its way. It bounced a few feet in front of him and rolled through the green grass, each blade of grass bending toward the earth under the force of the ball.

The colors on the ball flashed vividly in the bright sun as it tumbled toward the goal. The ball landed in the back of the net, and Rian jumped with excitement.

GOAAAAAAAAAAL!!!

He had done it. Rian had just scored his first goal. He was beaming. He looked around the field at his teammates as if questioning if they understood the monumental impact of what had just transpired. He began shouting, "I scored a goal! I scored a goal!!" His face said it all. Sheer excitement. Unbridled enthusiasm. He had done it.

Coach John congratulated Rian as he kneeled in front of him. He began to explain that the Rams' goal was actually on the other side of the field (see picture). But it didn't matter. Nothing could take away from this moment. Rian had just scored his first goal ever, and wouldn't be bothered by this minor detail. It made his day.

Lunar Eclipse

2007-08-29T02:40:00.000-07:00

Early Tuesday morning the Earth passed between the Sun and the Moon causing a lunar eclipse. While not particularly rare, lunar eclipses can be very interesting to observe as the moon turns an eerie brownish-orange. Tuesday was no exception.

The event didn't start until a very inconvenient 1:51 AM PDT. That in itself wouldn't have been so bad if it happened quickly, but of course the Earth isn't known for its quickness. It takes Earth's shadow about an hour to cover the Moon, spends another 90 minutes completely covering the moon in an event known as totality, then finally meanders its way back across the moon in the other direction for the next hour. So watching the whole thing is a pretty serious commitment. On this particular Tuesday morning that would have meant you wouldn't be able to go back to bed until 5:24 AM PDT.

I'm not that hard-core. I'm used to staying up late, so staying up until 1:51 wasn't a problem. Around that time I went outside with my tripod and camera and set out to photograph the eclipse. Earlier that night we went out and picked up a remote switch for my camera. This allows me to control the shutter on my camera without physically touching the camera, which turns out to be really important when you're taking pictures at night, because just the slightest movement will blur everything in your photo. I also looked through my camera's manual and figured out how to lock the mirror up, because apparently even the movement of the mirror in an SLR camera can shake the camera enough to ruin some low-light photos.

So I felt fairly prepared and I took a bunch of pictures of the moon and finally gave up around 4 AM after nearly 2 hours just as totality was ending. I figured I had already seen the first half and the second half would probably be pretty similar. Plus I was really tired and had to work in a few hours.

I ended up with a bunch of photos and I think some even turned out alright. I took a few from the various stages of the eclipse and put together in this montage. You can clearly see the Earth's shadow creeping across the moon from left to right until it completely covers the moon. At that point, the only light reaching the moon to illuminate it is passing through the Earth's atmosphere, which filters out some of the colors, leaving us with this interesting color of the moon.