The New Year brings hope...

Ahhh...'tis the new year and with it comes a new president.
Less than three weeks from now Barack Obama will start his first term of US President. While the war overseas continues and the economy dwindling, he could not have more work to do. Let us hope that he can dig us out of the ditch that we have created for ourselves, lower unemployment rates and keep human rights from danger. I hope he can pull our troops out of the Middle East, and start the healing of those countries once and for all. I hope he can work to stop the senseless fighting over differences of race, opinion and religion.
We have much to be thankful for. Brent and I have amazing, healthy children and we never stop learning life's lessons from them. We have a home and we have jobs and we have hope.
Happy New Year!!

No excuse for not updating in over 3 whole months

The new year is almost upon us and we have had snow for the last 2 weeks. Up until about 3 days ago I was enjoying its beauty, its way of lighting up the darkest of nights, and the way it made everything inside the house feel that much more cozy. Then...enough was enough. Cabin fever sets in, the fight or flight response shows its ugly face. Luckily the snow is now melting and going away...hopefully for a very long time.

Forget Spring Cleaning, Fall Cleaning is Where its AT.

Fall...always seems to be the season for renewal. Brent starts a new school year, and this year Alice too. People are settling in, wearing more clothes, eating warmer foods, the sunny highlights fading from their hair. Its the perfect time to do some Spring cleaning.
There is just one question that crosses one's mind...how did all this STUFF get in this house? Honestly, I don't know. I'm envisioning a large bonfire in the front yard, and us on the second floor throwing random STUFF out the windows just to watch the flames swallow up all the useless items. Certainly not an environmentally-conscious answer, but one solution to the madness. Now really, is the STUFF a result of too many trips to Target on a less-than-exciting Saturday afternoon? Maybe we really thought we needed it...seemed like a good idea at the time. Did we purchase this STUFF thinking, "Yes! This will make great clutter once we get it home!"?
Okay, maybe I'm not ready to go live in the bush with only the bare necessities...but god help us please try to eliminate all the *%&^!!#@#$% STUFF this year.

Seasonal Denial?

Hard to admit that Fall is just around the corner...though there are a few things to look forward to coming up. The Presidential Election in November makes things interesting. We have been tuning in to the Democratic National Convention going on in Denver the last few days and are very excited to see Barak Obama make history. Tonight he is the first African-American to be nominated as presidential candidate in history. Fantastic!
We look forward to Alice starting pre-school in September, attending two days a week at Grant Elementary. She will also begin Chinese Academy on Saturdays in September, where she will be re-introduced to Mandarin, and experience Chinese culture (food, dance, writing).
Next weekend is Labor Day, and we are hoping to have some dry weather so the kids can be outside a lot and we can all get some exercise.

Rain

After weeks of warm dry weather...this weekend in the 90s...we have rain. Gray skies and rain drops in August seem to bum people out for the most part. There are a lot of weather complaints today around work, though its clear everyone is just grouchy because it is Monday. This weekend we visited Lola’s folks in Fall City for a backyard campfire, complete with wieners and marshmallows. Eli and Isaac were visiting from Idaho and it was great for us to see those kiddos. Alice and Dominik loved chasing and wrestling around with them on the grass, as well as the soccer games and picture drawing.
On Sunday, Alice had a friend over to play and we went to the sprinkler park nearby to cool off in the humidity. That evening we measured Alice on the wall chart and discovered she had grown 3/4 inch since we measured her a month ago. She has always had visions of herself being a college kid and growing too tall to fit inside our house...and still asks us about this from time to time. At this rate, she may have something to worry about.

Summer of the Dum Dum

Dum Dum suckers have been a bit hit this summer...we always seem to have a bag on hand and of course Alice and Dominik have their favorite flavors.
We have been having a great summer. The weather calls for lots of kiddy pool/sprinkler parties with neighbor friends so the kids have basically been living in their swim suits. We took a little trip south to Santa Barbara for some fun on the beach earlier this month. We stopped in San Francisco, Monterey, and Morro Bay on the way down to visit friends and to be tourists. The Aquarium in Monterey is fantastic...huge and amazing. It is housed inside a big old cannery building on Cannery Row, and it will not disapoint.
Lola has been creating some cool garden space in the back yard, which has been fun. We tried vegatables for a change and that has been very exciting for Alice to see the progress and growth.
We harvested snap peas, and will soon be picking our string beans for a lovely dish that Brent has planned, "Grandmommy's Green Beans" or "West Virginia Green Beans". You can call it whatever you like.