Where have we been???!!

Sorry for the lack of posts -- we have had a BUSY last few weeks and there has not been time. In mid-February we were beseiged by ice storms, which made getting around very tricky! Nonetheless, school was open on Valentine's Day and Mom was able to help decorate and run the Moo's Valentine's Day Friendship party at her school. The pictures above show the kids helping their teacher to make Friendship Fizz -- within seconds of drinking it the kids all declared themselves to feel much more friendly than they did before!

Most exciting, though, we had a visit from Granpa D and Grandma L!! Grandpa D had his official retirement ceremony on Wed, 20 Feb, and mom got to attend (Dad wanted to but the Moo was too sick to go to school so he very graciously stayed home with her). It was a wonderful ceremony filled with an astounding number of people saying wonderful things about Grandpa and Grandma, who although she officially had to resign was treated as a retiree as well. Grandpa also received a coveted distinguished service medal, which made Grandma cry!!

After the ceremony we came home and prepared for Grandpa and Grandma's retirement dinner at Lightfoot restaurant. The highlight of the night was when Aunts T and B surprised Grandpa by showing up (thanks to weeks of plotting by mom, Grandma, and the two aunts in question). It seemed to make Grandpa's night, and it was GREAT to see all of the people who came out to wish them both well in their retirement!

Immediately on the heels of that excitement I was off to Syracuse on a recruiting trip. I just got back last night, and although it was a fun experience, if they want me to recruit in Syracuse again it will NOT be in February--brrrrrr. The campus was beautiful though and I really enjoyed meeting some eager and enthusiastic young grad students (although it made me feel very old). I am hoping that one or two of the more promising ones will end up coming on board!

That's all for now as the Bean and I have to go and cover lunch for the Moo's teacher. Dad is going to spend soem time with Grandpa S tonight -- Grandpa S is not feeling too well and we hope that things get better soon. The girls have been saying special prayers for his recovery. Thanks to all for their well wishes on my 37th birthday (yikes -- 40 is staring me right in the face!!)

Crush Week (In More Ways Than One)

Sorry for the lack of posting. The Moo has pronounced this "crush week" and she is right in many ways. For me, it has been crush week trying to frontload hours so that I can meet several deadlines -- I was at work all weekend, and yesterday got there at 130pm (the Moo had a birthday party that I need to escort her to before I could go in -- the Bean had a "playdate" with Dad) and did not leave until 230am. I am running on about three hours sleep as I had to get up with the Bean and take her to swimming lessons shortly after I managed to get to sleep (Dad was nice enough to take the Moo to school).

It is also crush week in terms of getting everything together for the Moo's PreK Valentine's party. I made up the girl's valentines and goodie bags to go with them two weeks ago, so that is taken care of, and order the girls' presents for their teachers. Not sure if you all have heard of a place called Edible Arrangements, but they make fruit bouquets (fruit cut to look like flowers, see pic above; www.ediblearrangements.com) and I thought that might be a cute idea, so I ordered those this year. All that is left if getting all of the decorations, craft, goodie bag, and game materials to Molly's school on Thusday in time to set up, run the party, and hope I don't forget some crucial component. Then its off to get the Bean, take Molly to riding lessons, and then the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa who are coming in for their retirement ceremony and party (I will stress about that one next week!).

Anyway, the Moo also observed to me that this week was a week for boys. I asked her why and she said because she heard on TV that this is "crush week." I asked her why boys would like crush week more than girls would, and she said, "Because boys like to crush things!" She added that she thinks that maybe they will like clobber week as well, but she is not sure when that comes.

I have no crush related stories about the Bean (other than her crushing my self esteem as a mom by having a terrible meltdown in the locker room at swimming lessons) but she did AN AMAZING JOB at swimming lessons, actually got her body horizontal and swam half way across the width of the pool, AND swam out to her teacher on her own without making her teacher reach out an arm to guide her. Yay Bean!!

Oh, and speaking of swimming lessons we had to reup for the Spring semester, which crushed my bank account! Happy crush week, all!!!

MooBeanisms: Tights and Hurt Tongues

The Moo had riding lessons today, and when we got there and I want to change her into her habit, I discovered that her jodphers were not in her riding bag. So, she had to ride in her school jumper and tights. When her instructor came in to get her from the observation room, I explained why she was in a jumper. The teacher kind of laughed and said something about trying not to get her uniform dirty. The Moo took her hand to accompany her out to the ring and as they walked down the hall I heard the Moo say, "Don't worry at all, these tights are completely washable."

Dad also told me that on the way to Beantree this morning the Bean started to say that her tongue hurt. Dad asked her what the matter was, and she said that Evan did it. Dad said, "Evan hurt your tongue??" and the Bean said, "Yes Daddy, Evan did it. Evan put a whuppin' on my tongue!!!"

Mom better stop blogging and get up to help out with bathtime as it sounds like Dad is getting sorely tempted to lay on a whuppin' of his own. Good night all -- will try to blog more tomorrow although I unexpectedly have to work all day so am not sure I will be able to.

Mr. Men

We just got the Moo's scholastic book order from her school, and in it came eight volumes of Roger Hargreave's Mr. Men books. The girls are very excited as they have watched the new Mr. Men show on TV and love it, but I am excited for a completely different reason. The Mr. Men series reminds me of my family's time in Helsinki, when my younger sister (we will call her Aunt B -- although that seems way too prim a name for a hip Chicago actress) had all the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. I have been very nostaligic reading them to the girls, and miss you guys very much!!

The girls were back in school today and the Bean had a great day, although Ms. Jen told me that she has to remind the Bean and Evan to keep their hands to themselves. She noted that they are best friends, so it might be a losing battle -- the Bean is mischevious enough alone, but with a partner . . .

The Moo had a very cool day. The mayor of Leesburg came to visit her class and talk to the PreK-ers. The children made a book that the mayor is going to read at the start of the town council meeting next week; we have our DVR set! We also got a notice from LCDS telling us they are raising tution by 10 percent next year. Ouch.

I have been up since 3 am trying to finish a content analysis of some press material I brought home from work, with the final very unsatisifactory result being that it's probably stuff that is not very helpful in predicting future movement on my account. Oh, well, I guess you have to try. Dad continues to struggle with cold, which now is looking more and more like a sinus infection. If he does not get himself to the doctor tomorrow, I am going to call and make the appointment for him, and see that he gets there!

The Girls on Romance

Dad is working late tonight so the girls and I ran errands after the Moo's swimming lessons and then had dinner at a Thai restaurant that just opened up [drunken noodles -- yum!]. While we were there, the lights dimmed noticeably so the Bean asked, "Hey, why did they turn off the lights?" I explained to her that that is called ambience and the Moo asked why they needed ambience. So I told her that some people don't like to eat in restaurants that are too bright, as that is not very romantic. She asked me what romantic meant, and when I [very haltingly] tried to explain that, the Moo and Bean looked at each other, looked at me, and the Moo said, "And you mean people actually want that?"

The Bean, meanwhile, pointed to the chandelier and said "Is that beyond too?" It took me awhile to figure out that "beyond" is Bean for "ambience."

Weekend Activities and Bean Swim Pics

Here is our little bug floating and (FINALLY) swimming horizontally with her eyes in the water. She worked very hard at swimming today, mainly because she knew Mom had a bag of chocolate chip muffins in the swim bag waiting for her when she got done. The first thing the Bean said when she got out of the water was "chocolate chip muffins??"

Here are more pictures of the Bean at her swimming lessons with Coach Bonnie -- the Bean did a great job but still has a tendency to stay vertical when she needs to be horizontal, so even though she is kicking her feet and making her big "circle arms" she is not getting anywhere. Coach Bonnie laughs because the Bean has a big smile on her face while she is doing it -- so she looks like she is drowning but having a great time. Big sister Moo came with us as LCDS had a teacher work day -- the Moo was a big help cheering the Bean along and helping Mom carrying the ever expanding number of things that end up accompanying us on swimming lessons.

The pictures below are from Granpa S's visit this week to see the girls and take us out to dinner. Dad and the Moo somehow ended up watching a Champion Bull Riding show while Mom was trying to get some work done, and the Moo was capitivated with it. She made Dad tape it and show it the Bean when the Bean got up from her nap (the Moo, needless to say, did not take her nap). After that, they took turns playing "bull" and remarkably, when it was all over, there were no injuries or blood. In between playing rodeo, they took turns attacking Grandpa!

Retractions!

This is what I get for not self-editing! Dad just pointed out several typos in the blogs that I had not noticed, and for the most part are due to lack of spell checking. Two of them do make a difference substantively though, and therefore warrant an official correction:

First and most importantly, no Dad they are not getting all of their clothes from Wal Mart! I know what I ended up writing but you know what I meant, so the fact that in the blog it says that they are does not constitute a contractual agreement on my part! :)

Second, I accidentally wrote that you can do everything the same for both kids when everyone who has more than one child knows that you just can not. It is very hard to accept at first, but I am coming to terms with it and can even see some benefits. The Bean is definitely more free spirited and less high strung than the Moo, and that probably comes from not being subjected to our laserlike focus for the first years of her life.

I will endeavor to have fewer typos in the coming posts, although I can't guarantee that they will not persist. I will at least run spell check before posting, although I'm not sure I can bring myself to re-read anything. I have always HATED reading anything that I wrote, as I generally end up disliking it and will likely never post at all if I do (ironic, I know, for someone who does a lot of writing for a living, but I have editors who reread things that I write at work, so they catch any substantive issues).

Even though this post is not really about the family, I have included some gratuitous photos anyway (hmmm . . . gratutious . . . now I really need to make sure I hit spell check . . . ) Two of them are of Molly and her Fiancee, whom we will refer to as 'C'. She has known C since they were both two years old, and she has never wavered in her determination to marry him, even when they started attending different schools. C has applied to LCDS for next year, though, so maybe we will have to start planning the wedding after all . . .

A Few Words about Dad

We are in the middle of an early morning ice storm, and we just got word that school is cancelled for the day. So, the Moo, Bean, and I will have to find ways to entertain ourselves today! I'm actually glad to have the extra time with them, although I had a lot of errands planned for today -- hopefully the ice will melt and we can all run them together. They have gotten easier to take along on things like this, although they continue to have somewhat limited tolerance for more than three stops, unless one of those stops involves ice cream.

I thought I would use this post to say a few words about Dad (since he is not here to defend himself). As the girls will tell you, their Dad is the best and craziest dad in the whole world. He has shown remarkable flexibility as a parent -- a lot of the things we are doing with the kids (discipline, private school, the amount of clothes that they have and where we buy them) are not things that Dad would choose given his druthers. But he goes along with things and gets on board, and is really committed to investing in the girls and their education (not so much in their clothes, but that's why we don't have don't have Dad have buy them -- sorry Dad they are getting all of their clothes from Wal-Mart). Dad is also very involved in the girls lives - he plays with them, tells them stories, and makes sure that they know how much they are loved by their father. He reminds me very much of my dad!
Here is one example of how great Dad is: our normal routine for the past few years on days that I work was that I got up at 430 am, got ready, got the girls up at 530 am and got them ready while Dad is getting dressed, tried to run out the door before 630, and Dad took them to school. We have been very concerned about the amount of sleep the girls are getting (or not getting) though, so for the past month Dad has been letting me get going to work earlier and letting the girls sleep in. This means that he has to get them ready, including getting uniforms on and hair brushed and styled, something a former soldier is not exactly experienced at! He is doing great now, but it was a bit rough in the early going. Above is a pic of the Bean from mid-December, with uniform on although the hair is a bit crazy. Below, please notice how he dressed the Moo for school on this extremely chilly December morning:

Sigh -- when confronted about her lack of SHIRT Dad said, well, I put a sweater on her. I had to email her teachers to explain so they would not think I was completely crazy! At least he got the uniform jumper on.

But, as I said that was a long time ago and Dad has come a LONG way -- we may even teach him to french braid yet (although that may be pushing it). In addition to all of this, Dad works incredibly hard to make sure we have everything we need and to give me more time to spend with the girls. Thanks Dad -- we love you so much!!

Here are two Friday morning quotes from the girls about their Dad:

Moo: I like my Dad because he is going to see my sculptures and he will yell out loud "Who made these sculptures??!!" He plays with me and I love him so.

Bean: I like my Dad because I like him so, so much because I love him so much because he goes like "bleah-bleah-bleah-bleah-bleah." (I think she's trying to say you are crazy, Dad). :)