Happy New Year Ya'll

Had the first white Christmas since 1975 in NWA. Not sure I believe that, but that's what the local news reports anyway. Maybe it is the first time it has snowed ON Christmas day, but it sure does seem like there has been snow on the ground at least once for a Christmas in my childhood. Below you can see that Santa visited Henry even though his behavior has been a little naughty lately. Is it just my child, or does Christmas bring out naughtiness in your kids too? We have had tantrums at the neighbors, the hair salon, the coffee shop, church, home...you name it.

Santa and the Missus

Can you guess who this Santa is?

We have even had trouble getting Henry to go pee lately. Potty training is so difficult and Henry has a much stronger will (and bladder) than we do. One day over break we tried to get Henry to go before we left the house because he is terrified of "foreign" toilets. This resulted in a tantrum where we were basically begging him to go and he was doing a whole lot of screaming, shouting and refusing. Finally Henry looked at both of us and shouted, "I want to pee pee on the CHRISTMAS TREE!"

On a cuter note, I took the tree down yesterday and when Henry arrived home today after a stay with Mormor he pointed to where the tree formerly stood and said, "Mama, it's not Christmas today."

Can't wait to see the Hogs in the Liberty Bowl, but just got word about the suspensions. Hope we can pull out a victory. I can't believe the break is almost over. I graded all my papers last night, so at least I'm prepared to go back to work.

Is Jay Berry really engaged? Can anyone answer this question?

P.S. Does your mom monitor what you say on Facebook? At what age do you outgrow this kind of help from mom? Well, I removed a post for mine.

P.S.S. You were right, mom.

Thankful for...

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday--food, football, and family. No presents or decorating to complicate things.

Here are some things I'm thankful for:

1. A funny and creative husband who takes good care of me and Henry. (He's cooking dinner for us right now.)
2. Henry. He is such a sweet and affectionate son. He works so hard for a three-year-old. He goes to speech and OT three times per week and seems to enjoy going and learning.
3. My extended family. They are so supportive in all our endeavours.
4. Hot coffee in the morning.
5. Velour sweat pants. They are so comfortable and soft.
6. Razorbacks. Even though I was disappointed by the LSU game, the Razorbacks provide many hours of entertainment and joy for me. We took Henry to his first football game this year. He went to the South Carolina game, which was a good one.

Henry & Chad at Arkansas vs. South Carolina

Things I'm not-so-thankful for:
1. Cavities. Just found out today that Henry has one.
2. Jury duty. Just found out today that I have been called to serve from January 1-March 31. I won't have to do it every day, but I will basically be on call for three months.

Halloween Night

Monkey Henry, Dinosaur Kaden, & Rat Karl

Henry had a blast for his first authentic Halloween experience. We ate pizza at Erik and Karin's house, played with another Henry, went to a neighborhood party, played on a see-saw & swing set, ate chips, met a cute girl named Kara and chased her all over, and then went trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween

"Study the past if you would define the future."
Confucius

Henry will be a monkey tonight, but he wore his Confucius costume from 2007 to daycare on Thursday because it still fits and I thought it would be more comfortable than wearing a monkey suit all day.

Last weekend I went to Nashville for a bachelorette party for Jennifer Haley. She is a good friend from high school. Here we are in front of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

Texas

The fam traveled to Texas this weekend to see Arkansas vs. Texas A&M. Since the Hogs won I have no complaints. Hope has been restored for the season ahead (I think).

The new Dallas Cowboy stadium is amazing. It is beautiful on the outside and the inside. There was a little drizzle on Saturday, so the dome was closed. All the seats are chair back, padded, and comfortable (or at least all the ones I could see). I don't think there are any bleacher seats anywhere. The jumbo screen is nearly 60 yards wide. I think it is the largest in the world of its kind and it truly is extraordinary. There was a little mishap with a Texas A&M fan. In the first quarter after one of A&M's touchdowns they panned the A&M crowd cheering. One fan was so excited that her tube top fell down while she was cheering on the jumbo screen. Can you imagine the horror and embarrassment of your breast being magnified and enlarged to about ten feet wide? Oops!

The A&M band was great. Yes, they are as good as they say and the Razorback fans gave them a much-deserved standing ovation. Their style is totally different than any other band I've seen. The formations that they march in are complicated: chevrons, reverse chevrons... all kinds of crazy stuff. They never stop marching back and forth and changing their formations. The A&M fans were great too. They were very loud and organized due to the all male yell-leaders. (They have no cheerleaders.) Each team was well represented, with A&M fans slightly outnumbering and out-yelling Hog fans.

I was also pleased to see this Felix Jones Dr. Pepper billboard which was inside the stadium. I was wondering if they put it up just for Razorback fans or if they always have it up.

Here are Chad and Erik, my brother, posing as Tom Landry in front of the statue outside.

You can see that the day was dreary & a bit wet by game time, though it started out sunny and warm.

Georgia On My Mind

The Razorbacks opened their SEC season with a loss to Georgia last night. I can't figure out if both teams are really good or if both teams are really bad. Here are some thoughts:

Thumbs Up to:

1. Ryan Mallett. This guy is talented and had a record 408 passing yards in the game. I think we can compete with anyone as long as he stays healthy. He got a little shaky when it appeared that we were losing, but I think if he can keep his confidence he will be our best weapon.

2. Michael Smith's toughness. Smith got hurt and was taken to the locker room, but returned and really helped our running game.

3. the fans. There did not seem to be an empty seat in the house and everyone stayed well into the 4th quarter even though the game lasted almost four hours.

Thumbs Down to:

1. the new ribbon board. The stats are unreadable from the opposite side of the stadium. With the old-style board I could see everything clearly.

2. defense in general. Both teams were atrocious.

3. Razorback punting and kicking. This might have been the deciding factor in our loss.

4. our goal-line offense. It seems like we re-live this nightmare every year.

5. penalties leading to a four hour game. Way too long, even for football. The man next to me commented that he had "never been this bored at such a high-scoring game."

My Guys

Look at these two handsome guys.

Chad and Cory ran a 5K on campus for Juvenile Diabetes this morning and Chad came in third in his division and 23rd overall. Yea! Henry cheered them on and then afterwords got to fist bump the Razorback mascot. The cheerleaders were there and they had a bunch of food and stuff for kids to do there like those bouncy castles. Henry decided right then and there that he wanted to see the Razorbacks play football this fall. I guess it's time to indoctrinate!

Blair

Blair arrived at 9:54 last night. She was 7 lbs 3 oz. Everything went well and Meredith looks great. Mer was up and walking around this afternoon. Blair is really cute and has lots of dark brown hair. I think her lips look like Cory's. I wish I had taken a picture to show.

One more important thing...Only 11 more days until...
Do you know?
You should.

A Few Things:

1. I can't stop reading this book. Have any of you Swedes read this? I have about 100 pages left, but I can't put it down. I'm not the only one; a journalist for Entertainment Weekly claims to have read this book while in the emergency room having an appendectomy. I also read somewhere that this book is the best-selling book of all time in Europe, second only to the Bible. Can this be true?

If you are interested, here are some details. The setting for this thriller/murder mystery is Sweden. That makes it particularly interesting for me to read. It was released in Sweden under the title Men Who Hate Women. This book would make a great feature film that I hope to see someday. In fact, I think it has already been done in Swedish. Is this so? Was it good? Also, Stieg Larsson recently died of a heart attack at the age of 50 and the third book in this series is still in manuscript form. I am told that it will be released in English in October, though Larsson's girlfriend objects to its release. (The second one, The Girl Who Played With Fire, was just released in English.) Guess what I'll be reading next? (KMS teachers: This one's not for kids, so don't go starting this as a read-aloud for your class.)

2. Staying with my exercise routine while working is going to be very challenging. I have already skipped 2 days, and I just started back to work a week ago.

3. Meredith, my sister-in-law, will be induced into labor on Monday. Baby Blair will be here soon!

So Much

So much to write about. We finally got our computer problems worked out (we hope!) and the good news is that instead of a $60 problem it turned out to be a $30 problem. The bad news is that we have basically been without internet (it was too slow to use) the whole summer. I would rather play on the internet any day than exercise, so I guess maybe in a way it was good that the computer wasn't there tempting me to be sedentary.

Henry and his cousin Kaden.

Henry is still working on potty training. He can pee on the toilet almost 100% of the time now, but I'm not sure what is going wrong with the other part. Any advise?

He has taken swim lessons this summer. Our next-door-neighbors just built a pool so Henry has had private lessons, which has been really convenient. He has come a long way, but is still a little leery of putting his head under water. He can float and kick on the noodle all by himself though. His instructor says that three-year-olds can swim. Is this true? I think he still may be a little young.

I have had so much fun over the past two weeks. On the 25th I went to Little Rock to see the American Idols Live Tour. I went with my sister-in-law Meredith plus her sisters Sarah and Mallory, plus Janice, Lindsey, Marron, and Andee. Little Rock gave Kris Allen the longest ovation I think I have ever seen. It was pretty cool. (If you are not familiar, Kris was the winner of American Idol this season and he is from Arkansas, so that made this tour stop extra special.) The highlight of the concert was, of course, Kris. But we had to wait almost three hours before he came on, and though most of the Idols were quite good, I could have done without Megan Joy altogether. Kris sang Heartless and Ain't No Sunshine like he did on the show, but I thought it was interesting that they had replaced Kara's song No Boundaries with All These Things That I Have Done by the Killers (which is a much better song anyway, but a bit of a slap in the face to Kara.) Perhaps the most entertaining part besides Kris was that there was a very large fellow sitting in our section with a shirt on that read "Adam's Ho." He sat very calmly throughout the show, but when Adam Lambert began to sing, he started weeping (confirmed REAL tears) like a teenage girl. He drew a lot of attention because he was the only one standing in our section during this portion of the show. At one point he ripped his shirt down the middle because Adam's appearance had worked him into such a frenzy. The funny part was that we were sitting about six rows behind him, so we couldn't hear everything he said. However, the principal of our school was sitting directly in front of Adam's Ho and he really got an earful.

Don't tell:
Janice is only pretending to read at the concert
for a bulletin board at school.

We all fell into the $35 t-shirt trap, as you can see.

We had a nice visit with my Swedish uncle and aunt too. They came bearing gifts from Sweden. Henry got some children's books from Swedish authors. He LOVES one of the books called Good Night, Alfie Atkins. It is a cute story about Alfie and bedtime. I guess kids are the same everywhere because it sounded so familiar when we read it. Alfie does not want to go to sleep, so he keep calling on his father to do things like bring him a drink of water, change the sheets, find his teddy bear, and check the closet for lions. Finally Mr. Atkins is so tired that he falls asleep before Alfie does. I definitely know that feeling.

Chad and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on the 27th. For a little treat to ourselves we decided to go to Branson. We mostly shopped, but we also visited the Titanic museum. It's a bit pricey, but I would say that it was worth the money. They have a Leonardo DiCaprio look-alike working there. This guy is identical to Leo. In fact, I saw his picture on TV's Regis and Kelly before we saw the real guy. They are having a celebrity look-alike contest and I think he will win it. Even Kelly commented that the picture must have been the real Leo.

I have so many blogs stored up (in my head) for later!

Better Late Than Never?

I know, I know. I have not posted anything in a LONG time and I should be ashamed...and I am. But in my own defense, we have had a few computer problems around here. My internet was running super slow (fixed by Cox) and our wireless router died (still dead but in the process of being resolved.) I have to admit that I have gotten spoiled with the wireless thing, carrying my computer around the house wherever the action is.

We have been really busy for people with no big summer plans. Henry is potty training, which has been endlessly frustrating for all of us. We started about three weeks ago and he has gotten pretty good about going pee in the toilet (about 80% success rate.) Now we just need to work on the other.

Henry on his toilet watching who-knows-what.

I have also done some archeology this summer. The Arkansas Archeological Society hosts a dig each summer and this year it was a site called Carden Bottom in Yell County along the Arkansas River. It is an interesting site because it shows evidence of European/Native American contact. French copper bells have been recovered from the site. These were popular trade items. The site dates from the late 1500s to the early 1600s. I didn't find anything quite as interesting as a copper bell myself, but I did find pieces of pottery including a rim sherd that was Barton Incised. We camped at the Rockefeller Institute atop Petit Jean Mountain. I don't think I have ever camped in a nicer place. It wasn't really designated as a campground, but they let us stay anyway. Hydrangeas, babbling brooks and duck ponds? Does it get any better?

Rockefeller Center "Campground"

On the Monday after school got out, we took a family vacation to the Buffalo River. Chad and I had a relaxing and beautiful float on the Buffalo one day and then the next day we took the boys to the river to play. Henry and Karl could throw rocks into the river for hours (and probably days if we let them.) The view from our cabin was extraordinary. You can't really appreciate it from the photos.

Henry & Karl having fun in the cabin's kitchen cabinets.

The view.

Throwing rocks.

I have tried to turn over a new leaf and get into shape. It's so hard, but I think I am doing a pretty good job so far. During the winter and spring I had become very sedentary and was eating anything and everything that came my way. I decided to do 30 minutes of cardio per day at minimum. I've done that every day since school got out except for maybe five days. I think the body needs to rest some anyway, so I don't feel too bad about missing a few days. I won't bore you with all the details, but I am mostly running for the cardio with some jumprope mixed in there. I'm up to 3.3 miles now. I don't run that far every day, but I can at least. I'm also doing some hand weights, bands, exercise ball, etc... for strength. I do the strength several times per week. I think I have probably bored you enough on this topic, but I do have lots to say on diet too. I've been reading alot about nutrition and I think the Swedes have it right. More on that later, but I'll just say that I am trying to change my lifestyle as far as food goes.

I promise I won't wait so long to post again!

The Right One

Last night Chad and I watched Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire flick. Suddenly I am dreadfully afraid that a twelve-year-old vampire girl will drop out of a tree and drain all my blood. I will say that after making it through the night vampire attack-free, I did enjoy the movie.

Love Me Some Arkansas

Arkansas native Kris Allen, a major underdog, just won American Idol!!! Nobody gave him a chance. Take that San Diego!!! Take that Vegas odds-makers!!! Take that judges!!! Take that America!!! HA

I feel like Arkansas just won a Superbowl or something (which could never happen since we have no NFL team here.) We're a pretty supportive state, ya know. Look at Darren McFadden's campaign for the Heisman Trophy, or even Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign. And we all got behind the Razorback basketball team on their way to a national championship. Yeah Kris! You Go Arkansas!

Zetta's Big Day

Zetta has waited ten years for a day like Saturday. I think it was the best day of her life. For those that don't know Zetta, she's not like most dogs. Though she's happy to see us when we get home, she's pretty aloof for a dog and she hardly ever barks. But in one aspect she is a dog through and through--Zetta is a hunter. She is constantly prowling for prey. She actually catches things too; she's quite the mole killer. There's one beast that has alluded her until now--the SQUIRREL!

Here's the story: I was outside doing yardwork on Saturday afternoon and, of course, the dogs were outside with me. We heard a squirrel scurry up the lone tree in our backyard. The dogs immediately ran over, got excited, and stayed under the tree and barked a while. Jerome lost interest after about two minutes, but Zetta stayed under that tree all day and watched that squirrel. Many hours later I looked out the window and Zetta had the squirrel in her mouth. Zetta must have been mighty proud of that squirrel, because after she played with it and killed it, she buried it. Not once, not twice, but three times. And she wouldn't leave her kill. She stayed outside and guarded it all night. We finally had to take it away from her on Sunday. Poor squirrel, but I think it brought Zetta true happiness and joy for one day.

Happy Birthday Henry!

My mom brought Henry a cake because we all felt so sorry for the little guy. It's a bummer to have the flu on your birthday. Henry loved blowing the candles out, but did not eat any cake. He hasn't had much of an appetite. He has been playing quite a bit today and I think he is feeling okay. He just needs to get rid of that nasty cough.

Don't Panic Part 2

I'm making an effort not to panic here.

In my last post I said that Henry was completely recovered, but that was not exactly true. He only vomited once on Friday, but now he has developed a pretty serious-sounding cough. Chad took him to the doctor this morning and--long story short--he tested positive for Influenza A. They are sending it off to the capital to check for Swine Flu. In the meantime, we are not supposed to take him anywhere. We have had to cancel his birthday party, which was scheduled for Friday. The poor little guy will not be allowed to leave the house on his birthday.

Back to the panic: I realize that this is probably just the regular flu. The logical side of me tells me so. But it is still scary to have a doctor say that she will need to send his sample off to Little Rock. Meanwhile I rushed myself to the doctor to see if I have the flu. (I don't.) I have been feeling ill since Sunday night and actually left work early on Monday. I figured it was just seasonal allergies, but since I work in a school and I know I have been exposed to flu, I felt it was my obligation to find out. Anyway, we will not have Henry's results for one week, so until then I will try to keep the panic to a minimum.

Don't Panic

Joe Biden is a real guy and a straight shooter. I like that. While our President and the CDC are telling us not to panic about Swine Flu, Biden just tells it like it is. He suggested on the Today show that he and his family are not taking the subway or riding airplanes until this problem is contained. Of course, this became a publicity nightmare for the White House. They had to spin what he said later so people would not panic, but isn't Biden's attitude more reflective of the existing sentiment in the U.S.? I mean...come on...people are panicked! I've received multiple emails at work regarding prevention of the spread of Swine Flu, there are new posters up in our bathrooms about hand washing, and as we speak I have a student headed for Mexico.

On top of that, Henry threw up on Friday morning. Naturally we rushed him to the doctor to make sure he didn't have Swine Flu. (Henry is fine by the way; he has completely recovered.)
Side note: When he's sick, Henry likes to cuddle. It's so sweet and heartbreaking at the same time.

More bad timing--the tornado sirens went off in Fayetteville on Friday night. Turns out a very small tornado struck east of us at about 5 pm. Pretty scary. But hey, don't panic.

Sick and cuddling.

This little piggy went to market...

Five States, Four Days

I will go through five states in the next four days. (I have a feeling I'll be very tired on Tuesday). Tomorrow morning we leave for Dallas to see the King Tut exhibit--fun! It's a family trip and I think it will be Henry's longest road trip. That should be interesting; I'll let you know how that goes when we get back. We get home on Sunday then Monday morning I am taking my class on a field trip to Kansas to build a house. So, that's Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas if you were wondering. (Does Arkansas count? I think it should since I'm leaving it and coming back twice.)

Springtime

Springtime around here is so nice. This is my second favorite season. The only bad thing is the rain. It has been absolutely gorgeous every weekday while I'm cooped up at work and then rainy, cloudy, and very windy every weekend. I need to get out and do some yard work and start the garden, but the weekend weather will not cooperate. We have a dogwood tree that we planted in the front yard a few years ago and it has never bloomed until this spring. I'm so proud! It only has a few blooms on it, but maybe that's a good start for next year. We also have creeping phlox (lilac) and azaleas (fuchsia) blooming. You can see the dogwood blooms in the foreground of one of the pictures.

As for my last post, I really am doing better now. Thanks for all your support. I think sometimes it helps just to get it all out.

Today

Today was my due date. Today I hurt. I hurt because I never got to tell anyone my due date, or talk about baby names, or plan a nursery theme. I think it's okay to be sad for what might have been, even though I know this one was not meant to be.

My Worst Nightmares Have Been Realized--OK, at least my teeth haven't fallen out!

My students are taking their state standardized tests this week and my worst nightmares have been realized--and we are only halfway through! (This is a very stressful time for students and teachers too.) The air conditioner on our wing has been out all week and it is 75 degrees in my room. A part has been ordered, but no word on when it will arrive. We can't open the windows, because THEY DON"T OPEN! (Who was the architect that designed our building and has s/he ever been in a room with 30 stinking, body odor smelling, farting teenagers?) I also woke up on day one of testing sick. Since substitutes can't give the test, I had to drag myself to work with a fever. I can't tell you anymore because it probably wouldn't be professional, but let's just say that I've seen the bi in bipolar. Between the kids antics and some teacher antics too, I have enough material to start writing a novel.

Speaking of nightmares....what is your worst nightmare? I have this recurring nightmare that my teeth are loose and falling out. I have this dream so frequently that I finally looked it up to see what it means. They say that if you have this dream you have either said too much or have not been able to say your piece. Alright, now it's your turn... What is it? Serial killers? Falling off a cliff? Come on...spill it.

Happy Easter

#1 vs. #1

Last night the Razorback baseball team played #1 ranked Arizona State. Although I had no energy when I got home from school yesterday, I decided to go to the game. (I really regretted not going on Tuesday night because it was such an exciting game to listen to on the radio, but I knew it would have been better if I had been there in person.) I was glad I went because it turned out to be a thriller of a game and the Razorbacks pulled out a victory even though they were down by 5 at one point. It was also a beautiful night to watch baseball and the crowd was fantastic. There were 11,000 people there! I have never seen them close the Hog Pen before, but they quit letting chairs and coolers in due to crowding and then finally they decided to quit letting people in too.

Henry & Ribby the Razorback
(Henry was not at last night's game--it was past his bedtime!)

Henry with Uncle Erik calling the Hogs.

I think this is so sweet--Henry loving on his cousin Kaden.

Colorado Style

Colorado style is so easy: just throw on a sweatshirt, stick some dried fruit in your pocket, put on some Chap-Stick, and you're ready to go. Chad, Henry and I, along with my parents, are on spring break in Durango for a little skiing and relaxing. Henry was enrolled in a ski class today. He got to be a "Powder Pig" even though he is not quite three. They just stick some Nordic skis over their regular shoes and basically teach them how to "walk" on skis and maybe change directions. It's all done on a flat surface. No downhill yet. We snuck up on him and watched his lesson in progress and got a few pictures. Henry seemed to be doing well and following directions. (I was a bit worried since he was the youngest one in the class.) Tomorrow we return to reality.

Our Little Powder Pig

Henry didn't like the sled at first,
but here you can see he warmed up to the idea.

Brynn, Chad - Durango Mountain

Henry in front of the train station in downtown Durango.
I though he might be scared of the train when it came into the station, but he loved it. We had to drag him away.
There's just something about trains and boys.

ABCs

Henry has learned so many new things. His favorite pastimes are singing, coloring, typing on his laptop, playing with PlayDoh, listening to music, painting, playing games and looking at books. He is trying to learn to catch a ball and occasionally is successful if you can throw it right into his hands. He's not very good at writing letters yet, but he can write a darn good "H" and he can tell you how to spell lots of words. The other day he saw the letter "V" and said, "Uh-oh, letter "A" fell down."

Here's Henry singing his ABCs.

Silver Lining

Werner, Irma and baby Kaden.

The ice storm had a silver lining; we were able to spend some time together with Karin's parents before her father passed away. All of us stayed with my parents for about a week. Henry got really close to "Oma & Opa," which is grandma and grandpa in German. Henry started by trying to call them Irma and Werner, their first names, but that was too hard. Oma and Opa is what stuck. (That's what Karl and Kaden will call them.) Please keep Karin and her family in your thoughts and prayers.