Catching up: Rally for Sanity in DC

On the last weekend in October we went to DC with 200,000 other people to see the Rally for Sanity and/or Keep Fear Alive with Jon Stewart and Co.  Turns out, if there are that many people crowded into the area of a few blocks, the cell towers are completely overwhelmed and you have no coverage for the entire day.   It was like we were all isolated on our own remote little island.

If you got your report of the Rally from a major news source, then chances are they completely missed the boat.  I just want to dispel any falsehoods and say, it was awesome.  The weather was perfect, the mood was incredible, the crowd so amazingly friendly, and the message central to why everyone was there for the day.   Yes, the medium for the message was comedy (and sometimes the program was silly), but I also really think that people who were there were completely serious about the message: that we're a nation of diverse and good people who compromise and cooperate with each other everyday, and that it's time for the media and government to take it down a notch or two and do the same.  If you missed it when live, then at least  read Jon Stewart's closing remarks.  Or watch it here.  (He even gives a shout-out to Mormon Jay-Z fans--to which Adam replied with a hearty whoop).  I also thought that this analysis was pretty spot-on.

We left early from our house with our lawn chairs and sack lunches.  Adam's mom was even with us too (although she's extremely skilled at escaping our camera).  We were early enough that we sailed into town and parked at a lot really nearby the the Mall.  That turned out to be a good decision since we heard that the Metro stations from the suburbs were completely jammed. We had a spot in view of one of the jumbo screens and we spread out a place for ourselves with blankets and chairs.  Adam took the kids to see the National Gallery to pass the time before it started while Sharon and I staked out the spot.   

And when it was all over, people stayed milling around on the mall just hanging out and photographing each other and their funny signs. We did too.  Seriously, the friendliest crowd of hundreds of thousands that I've ever been in.  The couple next to us kept trying to share their food with our kids.  People were walking around with trash bags helping collect garbage.  A cute, eager little couple came by our spot with some trash bags just as I had finished changing Saul's diaper.  And don't think that I didn't take them up on the offer to carry it off for me. 

And after all of that, we walked over to the National Portrait Gallery to see the current Norman Rockwell exhibit.  Nothing like rounding out a day of friendly rallying with some good old-fashioned Americana.  Actually, we really loved the exhibit too. 

Although, by the time we were driving home Max complained that "We haven't done anything fun today!"

I guess sanity really is in the eye of the beholder.



Thanksgiving, part 2: Harpers Ferry

The day after Thanksgiving while in Virginia, we went with the Hastings, et. al. on a little day trip to see Harpers Ferry (actually in West Virginia).  I knew Harpers Ferry only as the famous setting of John Brown's raid of the Armory and its influence in the Civil War.  The lower part of the town is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, and so is a flood plain with floods reaching 34 feet, even as recently as 1996.  So, much of the town is built up into the hillside at some pretty sharp steepness.  It was much more incredible than I had expected, with its fantastically picturesque setting and also the little town buildings and the stonework and such.  But I'm kind of a sucker for all the historical preservation/re-creation stuff.  You know, it makes that movie-in-my-mind just that much more romantic. (Just me?) Well, we had a really great time, despite the cold and Katy's valiant attempts at trying to take some family photos for us while there (but I'll save that for another post). 

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of all of us there together.  I was being lazy with the camera.  So, thanks, also, to Katy for many of the fabulous photos used in this post.

Direct Marketing

I've recently discovered that my children are highly susceptible to direct marketing. Once last summer they all had to come with me to Costco.  After steering me toward every sample table in the store, they ended up a completely captive audience to the demonstrator for whatever power blender company happened to be there that day.  So I left them standing there slack jawed while I circled about shopping in the nearby aisles.  When I finally forced them away from the table I had a full 10 minutes with each child's overlapping conversation parroting the many virtues of this incredibly fabulous product because, Mom, did I know how healthy it was....And, Mom, it makes hot soup....and cold smoothies! And we have to get this today, Mom! Because today it would be only $300 but if we wait until next week it would cost like $800!  Mom, it's on a super sale!  MOM!!  (Well, at least they know how I love to shop a good sale.) 

Then, in the last couple of months, our DVR hasn't been fully operational and so they have discovered that there are other tv channels outside of PBS kids.  They are now begging me to buy some amazingly fantastic program that teaches infants to read. Yes, you heard it: infants.  And they're not just memorizing the pictures.  No, they really know how to read!  Saul could do this! 

I must want Saul to be the dumbest baby on the block since I keep ignoring their urgent and well-placed advice.

Now with Christmas just around the corner, the number of catalogs arriving in the mail is on an upswing. Each new educational toy magazine that comes is instantly dissected into a comprehensive directory that lists out which toy should go to which child.  And the American Girl Doll catalogs are arriving at like two a week.  It's like they know I have two girls in the house.

The other day Isabel tells me that she really, really wants a popcorn machine for Christmas. I was confused, seeing as how she has been talking about wanting the little stuffed toy cat from the American Girl Doll catalog.  I was completely ignoring this request seeing as how it's got to be the most ridiculously overpriced plush toy ever. Then I saw the most recent circular that had come from Bed Bath and Beyond.  Check out what's smack in the middle of the front cover.

And, by the way, she also tells me that Olivia wants the cotton candy machine.  Suddenly, the little "Ginger" cat seems like it might must be a good idea after all.

Insulating

This is the first house that Adam and I have ever owned.  In fact, it's really more like the first actual house that Adam has ever lived in.  Let's just say, even with all of the things that are really great about the house, there are plenty of times where we feel like jumped into the deep end/ bit off more than we could chew/got in over our heads, etc., etc..  I should admit that I have an imaginary blog in my head that I can never actually publish because every other entry would be some ridiculous lament about the hardships of home ownership and house maintenance.  Blah, blah, blah.  I act like I'm the only person who's ever owned a house and hated having to spend several Saturdays raking leaves or seeding the lawn or spending more money than I ever thought possible on boring stuff like new gutters.  But sometimes it's the pits.

Well, with that in mind, today we crossed another major project off of the list and insulated the attic.  And only after five years of thinking about it as a necessary project, and 26 days before the tax credit for doing it expires!

Despite my whining just now, I do have to give Adam a ton of props for stepping up to the whole home-ownership plate, especially when he doesn't get any utils over doing house projects.  He always comes through and is completely thorough and exact in whatever it involves.

So, for the attic project, the goal was to take the existing insulation that was only about 6 inches thick (at best) and bring it to 18 inches thick.  But this meant that there was way more than just blowing in the new insulation.  He had to seal off the gaps around any electrical and prep for soffit vents, but the biggest task was that he had to construct new walkways that would be above the new insulation so that we could still have access to the electrical, etc., that was up there. He also had to build a little "crib" like structure around the access steps to keep the insulation from falling on the doorway.  It was a lot of work, most of it done by headlamp late at night after kids were in bed.

Before:

Note the markers sticking up from the joists that will be guides for

reaching 18" mark when blowing in the new insulation. 

We used 67 bales of insulation for the project. 

While I fed the bales of insulation into the blower, the hoses extended

 up to the atticand Adam spread it throughout. 

After:

 He came out a bit dusty.

No, he's not wearing a white hat.

   All done! 

And if we only save $10 a month in our heating bills, then it will only take something like 9 years for the investment to pay off.  But I'll sure be happy knowing how pretty it looks up there now. 

Catching Up: Olivia's Birthday Party

Not so very long ago Olivia turned 7yrs old. 

She was due for a "friend" birthday party, so we planned one straight out of my personal parenting philosophy of not-exerting-too-much-effort-and-still-getting-by.  We had a pizza and movie party and the whole thing turned out super duper.  The girls each got to make their own pizzas, we had cute little clip to make as a craft, there was a fabulously delicous cake (big and pink, by request), we managed to find a movie that none of the girls had seen before, and then the movie was scheduled to be shown until 9pm, which is really like staying up 2am in seven-year-old-girl-universe (so that made it even extra awesome!). 

What we didn't know is that we had actually completely overplanned considering that we could have just played the song Party in the USA on two hours of repeat while they were yelling/dancing/singing along into pretend microphones and the whole thing would have been a smashing success.  Next time!



Making the pizzas.

I thought that the clips were pretty darn cute. 
Mostly I was just proud of myself for doing something crafty.



We watched The Gnome Mobile, which not only had none of the girls seen, but apparently I am the only adult that has ever heard of or seen this movie either.  It held up pretty well from my memory as being fun and yet not too annoying, despite its now completely outdated graphics/special effects.  And it has got enough "magic" to keep a room full of girls interested, but also enough physical comedy/car chases to make it absolutely hysterical!  However, if you're tempted to get this movie, be warned that there is that oh-so-1960s psycho-analysis part of the plot making the whole thing kind of absurd.  Otherwise, those Mary Poppins kids are just as adorable and charming as ever! 

And so far, Olivia has made one fantastic seven year old.  We love her mucho.

Well, now that I've finally blogged about it, the only thing left is to get around to finishing the Thank You notes. 

Thanksgiving 2010

 This year, Thanksgiving was with the Hastings at their new place in Virginia.  And, while it appears that Rob and Anna are now living a real-life episode of Sister Wives, it was only the Aunties--Anna's sister Katy visiting from Houston, and Rob's sister Courtney who now lives in Virginia too.  The whole thing was awesome.  If there's anything good about living far from family, it's that we get to celebrate with good friends instead. 

Adam did the turkey (with much use of scientific method).  It was as delish as always.

Katy did the centerpiece.  (When did Katy grow up?)

 I'm hoping that she wants to come visit us for a week next year.

I don't know about everyone else, but I always have to take a picture of the food at basically any event.  This year we had two different dressings (because you can never have enough dressing, and everyone has their "traditional" recipe), the classic Taylor cabbage dish with some Russian name I can't remember, roasted veggies, rolls, and a sweet potato dish that sure tasted like the recipe was basically one part sweet potato/one part butter and sugar.   It's probably all Saul ate for dinner, and who can blame him.

Pre-dinner activities

Silly little feasters.

Little Feasters with post-dinner sillies.

Good times. 

Merry Christmas

This is just a random picture of Mr. Saul since he's been severely underdocumented in the last 6 months.  And it's also to record that he's actually eating something (that's not a bottle of milk or a cheesestick...or candy) without being coerced.  Oh, and to show that he finally got a "big boy" haircut too. 

So, it's now the first day of December and I am realizing that I haven't written a blog post in over a month. 

Recently I participated in a fitness challenge that a friend organized.  It meant that for eight weeks I had to give up eating sugar, soda, etc., and then exercise a certain amount during the week, among other things.  It made me work hard--and in the end, I did it, and it felt really great.  100%.  Honestly, I didn't feel more healthy or fit or I didn't lose a certain amount of weight, but none of those were my goals.  My goal was to see if I could make time for exercise when I am constantly sure that I am too busy.  My goal was to see if I could pass up the lousy storebought cookies that are being passed out and the end of Pack Meeting or the canned frosting on the cupcakes at Olivia's class party.  And I learned a few things about myself--like that I can say no to an open bulk-sized bag of peanut MnMs in the cupboard and all of those other desserts, and that I can actually run more than 400 feet without deciding to take a break.

Yes, thank you, thank you....I am really happy about getting through the whole thing. So, armed with all this new-found empowerment (is that a word?), I thought that I'd take a break for Thanksgiving pie and such, but then I would go back to skipping the sweets.  But, so far, not so much.  I would list off the amount of sugar/fat I've eaten today, but it would be embarrassing.  Instead, I've learned something else about myself:  that I don't have much discipline unless it's my reputation and/or money on the line.   

Which, after I finished a second piece of lemon cake that a friend brought me tonight, made me decide my newest challenge.  And unless I make it public, I won't feel any obligation.  So, for December I'm going to try and do a post a day. Well, maybe this will all end up like my announcement that I was potty training Isabel...

If anything, it might get me to stop feeling like I have to "catch up" before I can actually post anything that I'm currently doing.  Or it might get me to stop thinking that I have to mop the floor first so that I feel like I did something that was actually useful.  But more than anything, I'm sick of not having a record of what our family is doing, or what funny things my kids are saying (i.e. Isabel: "Frick-or-Freat!").  And, in the long run, this blog is for me.  And, well, maybe for my mom too, since she's been dilligently checking the blog everyday hoping more more pictures of Saul and the promised announcement that after 21 months, he finally is walking!  So, if it means I have to make it into a challenge for myself, then it's about time I embraced who I am. 

Oh, shoot....It's 11:59.....PUBLISH POST!

Post Edit...Well, dangit, I was two seconds too late, and according to Blogger, it's now December 2nd.  Why didn't I think of this at 9:30 instead of 11:50! Well, I'm still counting this for December 1st post.  And, then perhaps next month's challenge: time management.