lewis girls

This one might tug at your heartstrings (Especially if you are my mom)

2011-06-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

I've decided to sell some stuff on Craig's List lately... stuff that is taking up space that we never, ever use. This Radio Flyer wagon was one of the first things to go. No one has played with it for about 2 years... but it was the toy Nana and Grampa got Crosby for his 1st birthday, and the thing that helped him learn to walk.

I was surprised at how sad I was to see it go. I'm really, really not a person who gets emotionally attached to things. But this little toy symbolizes so much to me. For one, I kept it for so long because I had planned on having another baby after Crosby. I finally accepted that Crosby and his challenges are so demanding on my time, that it would be unfair and probably unwise to add another child to my life.

I also view this toy as a much happier time in my life. This was before Crosby had autism. Before my dad was diagnosed with leukemia. I loved where we lived... we had finally made the jump from Brooklyn to the suburbs and were surrounded by good friends, some who have moved away and we greatly miss. This was a very happy time in my life. I'd go back to that time in a second if I could.

What really surprised me the most was the kids' reaction when they saw the lady walk in and realized I was selling the wagon. Calder, especially, was very sad. I could see it all over his face; he hadn't looked at this toy in ages (even though it's been sitting 10 feet away from the Wii) but he was remembering all the good times too. He even said, "But I love that toy! That's the toy Crosby used to walk!"

But the lady was there, with a cute little one year old in the car, and was so excited to get it for him to practice walking with. And we really don't use it or need it anymore. And, we have lots of pictures of it so we'll never forget. But it was hard to say goodbye to the little red wagon.

Lest I leave you on a sad note, check out what's been hanging out in our living room for the past 2 weeks. Trav brought it home from work and the big kids (+Ezra) dressed it up. It's scared several people (mostly Crosby's therapists) over the time it's been in there. The weird thing is, no one seems to be taking it down. I see a Craig's list posting coming soon...

April Fool's

2011-04-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't have much of an audience for April 1st this year. Travis stayed at work all night, Scout is in Philadelphia with the 5th grade (also known as "Philly without parents"), and Croz doesn't know what's going on. If he did, I think he would really enjoy April Fool's day. So that really only left me with one target: Calder. AKA Mr. Grumpy Pants.

I did the blue dye at the bottom of the cereal bowl trick, so when you pour the milk it starts turning blue. I thought it was awesome! He barely acknowledged it. Oh well--- at least he didn't start crying and screaming, "IT'S NOT MY BIRTHDAY ANYMORE!!!"

I also put one of Crosby's diapers in his lunch with his snack, and wrote April Fool's on it with a sharpie. When I was up at the school for Pizza Friday, I yelled, "Hey how was your SNACK?!" and I got the tiniest of smirks. I hope he brings that diaper home. They ain't cheap.

So that's the report from NY. I'm trying to come up with a great idea to do to Scout when I pick her up off the bus from Philly at 4 PM. Ezra suggested we all have water guns and spray her. It's already rain/snowing, so not a terrible idea. I'll let you know if I come up with anything good.

See the joy in his face? This kid really loves holidays and tricks. Snicker. Just like his Grampa, in so many ways!

One of the best days EVER

2011-03-15T11:12:00.001-07:00

On our last trip to CO, Scout and I got to do the funnest thing ever. Nana had found a company that does Dog Sledding, and thought... "What 10 year old girl would enjoy an outing like that?!" So she bought us tickets and signed us up. Scout could barely contain herself all week... she just wanted to get up to the mountains and get on her dog sled.

There was a group of 8 of us, and we all took turns driving and riding in the sled. Whoever wasn't on the sled was pulled by a snowmobile on a little cart thing. We were with the nicest people, and one of the ladies took these pictures for us and emailed them to me after. My pictures are not nearly this good... taken with my iPhone while hanging off the back of a snowmobile!

One of the highlights was when I was the rider and we went around a curve, and suddenly I became aware that Scout had fallen off. I started yelling, "I've LOST MY DRIVER!!!" and was digging my heels into the snow to try and slow down the dogs. Luckily, they are super well-trained and as soon as the snowmobile stopped, they stopped. But I was picturing myself having to do some kind of Indian Jones move where I'd have to get into driving position on the sled to stop the dogs. All while wearing my sister's Sorel boots that weigh 10,000 pounds and are about 2 sizes too big.

All in all, it was such a great adventure. One we will remember for our whole lives! Next up, Iditarod.

Thanks Nana. You are the BEST!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

The Stratfords got crafty!

We blatently ripped this idea off of Design Mom from last year, and they came out so well (and were so easy!) we might do them every year from here on out.

The Scarf

2011-02-02T08:11:00.001-08:00

I meant to do this post in December. But really, the fact that I got anything done in December, with all the Christmas madness, is remarkable. I spend January shoveling (post forthcoming). So I'm spending an icy Groundhog day doing what I should have done 2 months ago!

A year ago November, I was in a really bad place. My dad had just died. My youngest son was diagnosed as autistic (PDD-NOS) and I was barely surviving the constant feelings of stress, sadness, anxiety, grief... you can imagine. I wasn't functioning well.

I was talking to a lovely mom of one of Scout's friends, who has since become a dear friend of mine, and we were talking knitting. Barbara is an amazing knitter. Knitress? Whatever. She was wearing a very chic chevron striped scarf that was long and narrow and so cool. I admired it, and she encouraged me to knit one... even though I haven't knit much since my days as a Girl Scout, when I learned to knit for a badge.

She went one step further than encourage me... a few days later she dropped off a set needles, the pattern, and about 10 rows already knit to get me started. She suggested I could practice with her leftover yarn until I was ready to buy my own yarn. I was encouraged just enough to start, and found it soothing. I bought some yarn and on our long annual drive to DC for Thanksgiving, I was on my way... knitting a scarf that I planned to give my mom for Christmas that year. [Ironically my friend Barbara learned shortly after Thanksgiving that she had breast cancer, and she has spent the past year kicking its a**!].

Knitting that scarf took me a full year. I would work on it slowly, put it away for a month or so, pick it back up. It was hard. I made a ton of mistakes, and had to pull it out and reknit it. You get the point. I drug that thing all over the place with me. I finally finished it almost exactly 1 year later. Barbara blocked it for me and I mailed it out to my mom, 1 year late!

I still had two half skeins of the very expensive yarn left, so I decided to knit another one. I could not believe how much easier it was the 2nd time. I got nearly 1/4 finished by the end of Thanksgiving break, only to discover that it was impossible to buy more of the yarn in the same colors, so I pulled it out and started a new pattern.

The thing is, I couldn't get past the parallels to the scarf and my own life. Last year was so hard. And getting through it seemed to take forever. I made mistakes; I had to do things differently and start over a few times. But as this new year begins, I'm realizing that this year is going to be like the 2nd scarf. A lot easier. Not easy by a long shot, but easier than the year before. I know what I'm doing now... or know MORE of what I'm doing. I'm slowly but surely figuring out Crosby... and he is making slow but steady progress. I miss my dad like crazy, but I am able to remember him now without constantly thinking about the painful end he endured. I was so worried about my mom and how she would cope... she has surpassed all our expectations in the many ways she has navigated this year. She is a rock. I'm so thankful that last year is finished (and the scarf is finished too!) and am hoping this year will be better for us all.

And I'm proud of myself for finishing the scarf!

It's the most wonderful time...of the year

2010-10-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

Oh Halloween, how I love you.

We had our ward Halloween party last night. I spent all afternoon masterminding different costumes that might work with my current physique. Several of my ideas included painting and exposing my belly, but I couldn't figure out a way to do that without simultaneously exposing the back fat that is helping everything stay balanced around here. I finally gave up after trying on about 20 shirts, none of which fit - and went with the one that did. Dave's soccer jersey. Yes, I was a soccer player...possibly the lamest costume in the history of the world. I promise to come up with something better for Sunday. And yet, I still won funniest costume at the party which leads me to believe two things:

1. There was very little costume competition
2. No matter what I'm wearing, I look funny.

I do find it ironic that literally the only picture we've taken of this pregnancy I happen to be dressed as a soccer player. I really need to get a less ridiculous shot for the picture montage I will make of baby girl's birth story.

And as long as we are looking at this picture, I would like to draw your attention to the girl in blue sitting behind me. I know, I know. It would be a lot easier to see her if I wasn't quite so wide. Anyway, she is actually pregnant...and only about 3 weeks behind me. I know what you are thinking. "But she doesn't really look pregnant..." TELL ME ABOUT IT! When she tells people she is 31 weeks pregnant I know it shouldn't feel like an insult directed at me...but...

Pictures of the rest of the fam in costume coming soon.

Sunday style

2010-10-17T20:25:00.001-07:00

Upon picking up Oz from nursery today, this was what awaited me. Apparently he had a blow out, so Trav had to take off his pants.

Nothing goes better with Blundstone boots than a diaper! and very chunky thighs. Mmmmm.

Apple picking...in the backyard

2010-09-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

We have an apple tree in our backyard. Our first year in this house we got zero apples due to a late frost. This year there were so many apples growing I was dreaming of homemade apple sauce, apple cider, apple pie, apple butter, apple crisp & apple jam. Little did I know there were others in the hood who had their eyes on our apples also.

At the end of the season (today, as proclaimed by Dave) we picked 35 good apples off the tree, and we think we got maybe 1% of the apples. So, we estimate the rest of the apple harvest was divided as follows:

2% or 70 apples went to "the kids." Brig and his friends liked to pick the apples, throw the apples, roll the apples down the slide, you get the idea. For some reason the hundreds of apples laying in the grass held no appeal. They insisted on doing their own picking.

16% or 420 apples went to worms. So many apples looked nearly perfect from the outside but had that little black spot indicating some creature had inhabited this apple for a time. Argh.

85% or 2975 apples went to the most obnoxious gang in the hood, the squirrels. Have I mentioned how much I hate squirrels? Perched on the highest tree branch they would pick an apple, eat a bite, and drop it in our yard. Pick a new apple, eat a bite, and drop it in our yard. While Brig was playing in the backyard I would pick up the ruined apples and throw them at the squirrels. I never even got close enough to make them flinch. After hucking about 100 apples over the course of the summer it occurred to me my neighbor might not be a big fan of me throwing apples directly into his backyard.

Well, the apples are fantastic. They are crisp, sweet, and organic. I'll be lucky to get 1 apple pie and a few apple slices. Next year I'm going to be a little more defensive about protecting my crop. That's right, some squirrels are going to die.

Week 1

2010-09-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy week. CRA. ZY. We made it through though, in one piece... but man, are we tired. Overall Croz had 3 rough days at school and 2 good ones, but he ended on a high note (his teacher today told me he was an angel and had a great speech session) so I'm calling the week a success.

For some reason, when I learned that Oz would be in a full day school program, I thought I would have gobs of time on my hands. I pictured myself leisurely reading in the middle of the day, going to the temple, meeting friends for lunch. So far, none of these things have happened. I've been running around like mad each day, trying to pack the millions of things I have to do in before it's time to go and get him. Hopefully things will settle down soon because I've got Mockingjay to read! And the Bachelor Pad finale to watch. And, yeah... I need to go to the temple.

Let's reflect back though to happier, simpler times. I'm going to do several posts on our summer vacation, since I just synched my iPhone and got all my pictures off. Some examples of the fun we had in Zion:

We got to hang out with George. The sweetest little baby, but not a fan of sleeping at night. Poor Amy and Brian were thrashed.

Riding the carousel with Brian, Ella and Vera. This was at the base of the Alpine slide. Right after this we ate ginormous shave ices.

Someday I'm going to make a book, filled with all the pictures I have of Scout on carousels all over the world. The only thing she likes riding better than a fake horse is, of course, a real horse.

Ye-Haw! You'd think by this awesome pose Calder rides carousels as often as Scout, but in fact, he NEVER rides them. I think he was pumped from his Alpine slide adventure and that's why he agreed to go on the carousel. He's a natural, no?

Sadly, the only picture I have of the Alpine slide. And it's not even of the slide. We rode the chairlift up and then cruised down the mountain. Look how peaceful and happy these two look. What you can't see is Calder freaking out to my left as I took this shot. He insisted on the bar being put down, and had both my arm and the back of the chair lift in a death-grip. Apparently, he's afraid of heights. And Alpine slides. We forced him to go down though (all by himself!) and after two turns he was racing Scout and loving it. When we got to the bottom he asked if we could go again. Uh, not for another 70 bucks. Sorry bud.

Croz and Scout sleeping together. So cute! I love that his head is on her chest.

Calder trying on his jumpsuit to prep for his baptism.

Oh look! There's two jumpsuits. I guess Scout should try one on too... but why?

Hot! Trav's jumpsuit. (Or is he in Calder's?!) He opted for a white shirt and his temple pants instead. Probably a good choice.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY S

2010-09-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today is Sara's 37th birthday. She brings so much light to everyone's life that she touches. I stand in awe at her strength as in 2009 alone she faced among other things:

Crosby's diagnosis
Lice
Death of T Gordon Lewis
Multiple squatters who she opened her home to for months (we love you Palmers)
Psycho neighbor
Broken refrigerator
Possible cancelling of Friday Night Lights

But through it all she still laughs, takes her children to do multiple fun activities, religiously applies sunscreen, follows Perez Hilton and showers on a regular basis (something some of us may or may not do). She leads the Lewis family in fashion and I couldn't survive without her.

I love you S

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

First day of school

2010-09-13T06:44:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday was technically the first day of school for Crosby, but I was way too emotional/stressed to take any pictures. Here we are walking down the steps to put him on his little bus.

Here he is on the steps of the bus, about to go get in his car seat. He looks a little stunned, but trust me, he was fine.

An artsy shot of him in his car seat, taken by Trav through the window. Bye Oz! Have a great day at school! Mom's going to try not to cry all day long while you're gone...

Then we have these two. (The gnome/dwarf is not going to school this year.) Calder couldn't have been less thrilled, but it's a far cry from the crying/screaming/anxiety of school 3 years ago, so I'll take it. Scout was PUMPED.

Walking to school with dad. I'm realizing more and more that we wear a lot of black. It just shows the dirt so much less than any other color! Except maybe brown. But we wear a lot of that, too.

Bye guys! I miss you already!

3 seconds before a timeout

2010-09-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

He really has the innocent look down, doesn't he? You can almost hear him thinking, "I have no idea why my cousin is crying! I hope he is ok..."

And I would almost believe him if we hadn't caught this on camera 3 seconds prior:

A special day

2010-09-04T21:31:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, September 2nd (or to you hard-core crafters, Swiss Days EVE), Travis baptized Calder in Grandma and David's pond in Midway, UT. It was such a simple, beautiful evening. Nana came from Colorado, Grampa and Oma came from Ephraim, the Barkers were there from D.C. (and blessed baby George), the Defords from Grand Junction, and Calder, Starr and Stella came all the way from 3 blocks away. All the hymns and songs were done by guitar and mandolin by Sally and Willie, and Scout sang "When I am baptized" while Willie accompanied her. George was blessed and Hank wore pretty pants that were filmy, pink, and jingled when he walked. There was of course a Costco cake (Calder's favorite).

Sally took some beautiful pictures. See them here.

Recommitting to Blogging Excellence

2010-08-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Carrie and I had a frank conversation the other day where we recommitted ourselves to the blog. We've realized we can't keep a journal, so this is the next best way to document our lives for our children. And our mom.

I would have forced a similar commitment from Yah Yah, but she is way too busy when she gets home every night from work. She has to help me pack for the cabin, unpack from the cabin, make Calder's birthday cake, make Calder's birthday treasure hunt, give Oz a bath, put Calder to bed, comb through the dreadlocks gracing Scout's hair... it's a busy job being my nighttime helper. So there hasn't been a lot of time for idle conversation with her, but hopefully she'll read this post and get inspired to blog more as well.

I have tons of pics I took with my phone this summer, but to kick things off here's a gem. Scout's been into eating red onions (raw) dipped in ketchup. One day I walked in and this was what I found:

Apparently, the onion was a tad strong so she used her goggles to protect her eyes. I wonder what alternative uses she will come up with for her swim cap?

Brig's 2nd Birthday (times 3)

2010-08-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Who says you only turn 2 once? Brig got to turn 2 three different times this year. We first kicked things off on his actual birthday with a little party at our house. Aunt Yah Yah had been charged with making a "choo choo" themed cake, and as you can see below, she did NOT disappoint.

There were a variety of train cars, each unique, and all made from candy. But WAIT! Don't eat them...they have been hot glued together. When Yah Yah showed up with the cake Brig pointed at it for a solid 12 minutes while jabbering away in "Brig talk." We have no idea what he was saying, but the cake was definitely the topic of conversation (he loved it!) The only problem with this picture is you can't tell how freaking delicious it was!

Aunt Yah Yah also showed up with a Thomas the Tank Engine Pinata. Don't you wish you had an Aunt Yah Yah? (If you don't - you should). It didn't take Brig long to figure out how the bat and the pinata were related. Here the cousins are collecting and enjoying the loot.

Next up was presents. In typical 2 year old fashion he opened one present and wanted nothing to do with the others. He sat right down and wanted to read his choo choo book indefinitely. Why am I ripping a book from his hands and forcing him to open more gifts again?

Here is a picture of Brig's gift from us this year - a play structure my mom's neighbor was getting rid of. Dave had to take it apart, haul it from Boulder to Denver, reassemble it, sand it, and stain it. No small feat - but Brig loves it. And so does Dave. Every time it starts raining Dave yells "to the fort" and Brig and Dave climb up there. I've never actually seen Dave go down the slide - but I can't monitor his behavior 24/7...

Last but not least we ate the fantastic train cake. Brig had been practicing for months with a yankee candle and started blowing well before the singing began. After 20+ blows he extinguished the candles and the eating began.

Brig's 2nd birthday celebration was the very next day at Dave's parents neighborhood pool. We celebrated 4 July birthdays that day - Uncle Chris, Calder, Brig, and Anne.

It is a good thing we snapped this picture of Brig because I don't think he smiled again for the rest of the party. Try explaining to a 2 year old who just got the concept of his birthday yesterday, that he is now "sharing" his birthday with 3 other people. He spent most of the party running from person to person trying to open their presents and collapsing in anger when he realized the gifts weren't his. It didn't help that his 3 year old cousin got a scooter for his main gift, and Brig got a pottery barn activity table. Don't get me wrong he now loves the table - but it wasn't of much use to him at the pool party.

Here is a good shot of Brig trying to claim the party for his own, once again blowing well before the singing has stopped.

Brig's 3rd and final birthday celebration was a little party with friends and their moms. My master plan was to put a hose at the top of the new green slide and let the kids go wild. I only had 2 problems - the hose wouldn't reach, and the slide ends in a dirt pile which I figured would quickly become a mud pile. I wasn't sure how the other moms would feel about the party turning into a mud wrestling match. So instead we did pin the tail on the donkey, and a bean bag toss (aka, throw these balls in this wagon.) Brig wanted nothing to do with either game - instead he gathered up all the balls, and sat in the wagon so no one else could play. I love this picture of him suspiciously eyeing the nice, patiently waiting kids. You can just hear him thinking "This isn't happening people - no way are those kids getting near my wagon."

To sum up, I think Brig's birthday was well celebrated and (mostly) a success. Brig is one feisty little man. He has a passionate will and probably twice the amount of personality meant for a little body like his. But I couldn't change anything about him - he is just too funny, already an entertainer, and I love him too much just the way he is!

Now you tell me!!!

2010-08-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

Tuesday after work I met Scout, Calder, and Sydney (chauffered by Nana) at SuperTarget. The plan was to procure a birthday present for Calder. Two Leggo sets, 1 Playdough ice cream making set and 1 remote control spider later we got into the car and headed for Flatiron's Crossing.

We played on the dinasaurs and headed to Fuzziwigs to fill sacks with candy. Distracted by getting my own mix of goodies, the pitter pat of candy falling on the floor and the dirty look from the cashier pulled me from my Willly Wonka reverie to find Sydney with a FULL bag of candy moving from bin to bin. Not feeling comfortable enough to put some back, I quickly paid for Scout, Calder, Syd and my treasures and exited before they called the resident mall cop.

No one was hungry for "dinner" so we headed home. As we passed the shaved ice booth on the way to the parking lot, suddenly they had an appetite so everyone chose their flavor and we ordered. Suddenly I realized I didn't have any cash. Sydney assurred me she would "wait there" (I guess she figured I would go somewhere to get the cash). I apologized over and over and explained we couldn't buy it but she wasn't deterred and assured me she would stay and wait there until I.....? Finally I convinced her we would come back later in the week. We hopped in the car and headed for home.

Finally back at Nana's house (keep in mind we had been together for several hours) we were getting out of the car when the following dialogue occurred:

Scout: "Um Yah Yah, don't take this the wrong way but do you ever date?"

Me: "No"

Scout : "why not?"

Me : "well I've never really dated much and no one ever asks me."

Scout: "have you ever thought that you aren't doing it right?"

Me: "hmmm, what do you mean"

Scout: "well you have to crush on boys and talk to them a certain way"

Me: "do you like boys?"

Scout: "sure, in fact I crush on _ _ _ _ in my class but I'm in love with Jonah and JP Pacheco"

She then preceded to explain to me how it all worked.

Where was Scout 20 years ago?

Baby #2 is a girl!

2010-07-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Luckily we already have a general idea of what she will look like...

My sister is a genius...

2010-06-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

Sara suggested we put food on tooth picks to try and get Brig to eat something new.

Worked like a charm with Mangos. He kept saying "mmmmmmmmmm!" and handing me the empty toothpicks for a refill.

Just beware how you use this powerful tool. The next item I tried was zucchini. He put it in his mouth, chewed it, and spit it out. He hasn't touched a toothpick since.

Like father, like son

2010-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

Like Father......

Like Son......

Happy Fathers day Dave. Thanks so much for being such an amazing father. I really couldn't hope for anything more. I hope Brig turns out just like you.

(And based on the number of times he ran off the diving board today - I think we are off to a good start).

Cupcakes

2010-05-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

These are the sunflower cupcakes we took in to Scout's class. How clever are we? Actually, we copied them out of this awesome cupcake book Yah Yah bought us. The brown is an oreo, which as reported by Scout the next day, got rather soft from the frosting and was THE MOST DELICIOUS THING SHE HAD EVER TASTED. The red lady bugs were M&Ms. Hilma gets props for doing most of the tiny black dots on the ladybugs' backs. There were spearmint leaves on the cupcakes too that were disgusting, but people could just pick them off easily.

All Scout's friends said they were the best cupcakes brought in all year. Just call us Martha Stewart.

Scout turns 10

2010-05-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted, I could hardly remember how to add a picture. Apparently I did these in reverse order (see, I used to know stuff like what order to add the photos in) so just know that these events happened in reverse order for the party. Are you confused yet? Good. So am I.

Scout turned 10 in April, but this year she REALLY wanted to do a carriage ride in Central Park (something she's always wanted to do but we've never been willing to shell out the money for) so I did a little research and discovered that actually, it's not nearly as expensive as I had always assumed. AND you can have 1 adult and 4 kids in a carriage, which is perfect because she has three favorite friends so it made where to "draw the line" at who to invite easy.

We spent quite a bit of time in Central park... climbing on rocks, walking around, trying to find this awesome playground we had been to once before with our cousins. We finally found it. They could have played there for hours, but we had to catch the 8.25 train back to Scarsdale, so I loaded them into a cab and headed for Crumbs bakery. MUCH TO OUR DISMAY, it was closed. We were so bummed. What is a party without cupcakes? And I really had my heart set on a red velvet one. Luckily, when we went down to the dining concourse of Grand Central, we found that Magnolia had put a bakery in! So we bought 6 cupcakes but then had a mishap and half of them dropped. We bought the last cupcake and ran to catch our train back home.

This is outside of the Museum of Natural History, where we sat by the fountain and ate our dinner from the Shake Shack. I was so glad Emily was along. I had forgotten to charge my phone, on which I had mapped out every place I was taking them. Plus I use the Maps app all the time to figure out where I'm going. But my phone was dying and I was afraid to use it, in case I needed it later on for an emergency, so I was trying to go from memory of where the Shake shack was. This was difficult since I had never actually been there. Emily knew exactly where to go from Central park! She knew it was one block AWAY from the park by the Natural History museum. What a genius New Yorker. The food was AWESOME and as you can see from Sydney, we had plenty of ketchup for all of our burgers and fries. We had to top things off with a concrete, too. Mmmmm.

This is the horse that pulled our carriage. His name was Michael. Or maybe it was Joseph... I was unclear on whether the driver was Joseph or the horse. At any rate, who names a horse Joseph OR Michael? What happened to something like, "Merry legs"?

Thanks to Joseph (Michael?), I got to be in one of the pictures. The driver took this picture, not the horse.

Seriously. How cute are they?

This is the the train ride IN to the city. We couldn't find a big enough spot for us all to sit together on the way home, so they sat a row in front of me and ate their cupcakes and then got very loud. I pretended I didn't know who they were and surfed the web with what was left of my iPhone battery.

Sorry for the backwards telling of the party, but it was kinda cool like the movie Memento, right? All in all, it was the perfect day. The weather was awesome, the girls were lovely, and I felt so lucky to have the best daughter in the whole world. She really is fabulous... worth a thousand days like this in the city.

I love you Souter!!! Happy 10th birthday.

April 24 - A Perfect Saturday

2010-04-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

The elements of an almost perfect saturday

I woke up and it wasn't raining
I didn't have to go to work
Did I mention that it wasn't raining?
I drove to Carrie's house in Denver
Washington Park was beautifully green and alive with runners/walkers/bladers/bikers
Carrie and I just sat for a while and talked
Brig woke up and we went to the park
Brig wasn't interested in the play ground
Brig headed straight for the water
Brig threw wood chips in the water
Brig wanted to throw himself in the water
Brig waved goodbye to each stick he threw in the water
Brig pointed to the sky as each airplane or helicopter passed overhead
Brig waved at each airplane
I carried Brig protesting back to the playground
Brig headed straight back to the water
Brig and I just stayed by the water
We headed home
Carrie and Dave ordered pizza
Dairy Queen was having a sale - buy one blizzard get the next for 25 cents
Dave and I went to Dairy Queen
We put in "The Bad Leutenant"
The movie was well titled
We turned it off after 15 mintues
I drove home
It never rained

Top Gun

2010-03-21T06:13:00.001-07:00

Guess who got new sunglasses?

Next we have to get some for Oz. He has serious sunglass envy! Wants to wear everyone's all the time.

Beard me

2010-03-21T06:09:00.001-07:00

Oh the fun to be had on the internets!

Kitchen

2010-03-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

We kept the hanging cabinets because they are original to the house and match the butler's pantry. Once Dave re-stains them we are done. (Dave loves it when I say stuff like this...as if it won't take him 3 weeks to re-stain the wood. Poor Dave!) Did I mention how much I love having a kitchen sink in my home? HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!

That's a wrap people. Now if only our basement didn't feel like a haunted house...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Butler's Pantry in the Kitchen

2010-03-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

That bloody wallpaper was everywhere! Cementing it to the entire ceiling was not enough - the former owners also lined the inside of all the cabinets with it. Argh!

We've sanded the sea-green stain off all the original wood but still need to re-stain it so the kitchen isn't quite done. However...you get the general idea.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I love how mini our fridge looks next to the massive built in.

Brig's Room

2010-03-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Dining Room

2010-03-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

View of Dining Room from Kitchen

2010-03-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

The wall we took down...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Bathroom

2010-03-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Family Room

2010-03-06T20:42:00.001-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Rennovations

2010-03-06T20:35:00.000-08:00

After 8 very long, painful months filled with blood (mostly Dave's), sweat (mostly Dave's), and tears (mostly mine) the upstairs of our home is officially renovated!

I thought I would post some before and after pictures to:

1. Document the pain
2. Remind us how far we have come
3. Motivate us to turn our attentions to the dungeon/basement.

Before / after pictures will come over the course of the next few days...

This picture almost makes it look fun. Trust me. It wasn't.

Bath Time

2010-03-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

Bath time with dad is definitely more fun.

Snowmaggedon, part 3

2010-03-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures of the most recent snowstorm, intending to post them and garner some sympathy. Too bad I was so busy shoveling all day and never got around to sitting at my computer!

The snow was basically the consistency of wet cement. After about an hour, I had to switch to the kid sized shovel because my aching arms could no longer lift the big one.

Scout was in charge of Crosby while I was shoveling the back deck. We've had some water get in, so I was shoveling the snow away from the house. When I came in, I found this mess:

But he was alive, so it was all good. I did find a couple of plastic beads in his poopy diaper two days later. Yum.

These two were marginally helpful with the shoveling. They preferred to spend the bulk of the day digging out holes for snow forts. I might have thought that was fun too, in December. But as for now, I'm done with winter.

Done.

I am sick of Winter

2010-02-25T19:46:00.001-08:00

The end.

My monthly post

2010-01-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

We went to Colorado for Christmas, and about halfway through (well after Christmas day) Travis downloaded Shake it photo for my iPhone, so I took a few pictures. I really hope to be better about blogging this year (one of my resolutions!) because more than anything, it serves as a journal for me. I love going back and reading old posts. So, here is a really brief accounting of our Colorado adventures:

We did several things every day. Like most days, Rand, Carrie and I would pile on Rand's warmest clothes and go for a run. We would have loved for Laura to join us, but she often got sick of waiting around for us and would leave before we had gotten out of our pajamas. I liked the running. But there were other activities that took place EVERY DAY I could have done without. Such as the daily (or bi-daily) games of RISK.

Hm. What is Carrie wearing in this picture? Oh yeah, this was the day that Dave forgot to load her suitcase into the car, so she dipped into Nana's sweatshirt stash.

More freaking Risk.

Another thing you see a lot of when the Lewises all get together is many, many Hanna Anderson pajamas. I caught two really cute boys on a Wii break in theirs.

We can be quite loud, and at times it is too much for the Croz. We tried to not be offended when he plugged his ears during all the hymns we sang while acting out the nativity.

We tried to keep things interesting by never sleeping in the same place more than 2 consecutive nights. We spent 2 in Boulder, then Christmas Eve at Rand's, then back to Boulder, then back to Rand's. The packing and unpacking and trying to keep track of everyone's Christmas presents was enough to drive me mad, so I was really happy when we finally got up to the mountain house and stayed put. Here's a picture of a very full hot tub. Right after I took this, Trav, Oz and I hopped in as well. C did about 27 dares per hot tub session, many of them involving him putting his butt in the snow. Excellent.

One of the big highlights of snowboarding was my new outfit. Although I was warm and looked hot, I was a little sad to no longer be riding as a member of "Team Lewis". Laura gave her green North Face to Tanner this year, so we really would have looked awesome all matching.

But here I am in my cool new outfit. It's very motorcycle-ish, right? I love all the silver zippers.

Here's a shot of Carrie and Dave. I can't believe they let us stop to eat lunch! If I had known we would be stopping, I would not have eaten TWO Clif bars before we left in the morning. I always make the mistake of over-eating in the morning and then feeling like I'm going to throw up for the rest of the day. I vow to never eat two Clif bars in one sitting ever again.

And the highlight (or one of them, anyway) was when we left all the kids with Nana (she is fearless) and went to see Avatar. In 3-D. I'm pretty sure Rand took his glasses home and is tooling around Denver wearing them right now. Looking just like Robert Pattinson.

I skipped a lot of parts, like all the fun we had with Nana and Yah Yah watching movies and Psych, and Brig's obsession with everyone else's toys and no interest in his own, especially the Princess "Makeover" vanity that Sydney got, and all the good food that Leslie made, and how excited I was about my new ski outfit. Oh no wait, I covered that. I wish everyone in the world could have as awesome of a family as I do.

Things I will miss when she's grown

2009-12-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about my daughter is the inventive way she plays. I'm always finding little groupings of things that she's been playing with. I came across this one today, and had so many questions:

1. Why is there a 4th wise man? And why is he a snowman?

2. How do the sea shells enter in?

3. At the "real" nativity, was there a panda, blue whale, and hamster grouped around the baby Jesus?

I love to eavesdrop while she plays in her room. Thinking about her growing up, and the playing ending, makes my throat tight. I hope it never happens, and yet how weird would it be if it didn't?!

Sometimes, even though you've forgotten your blog exists, you hear a conversation you just have to post

2009-12-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

S: We're learning all about the layers of the atmosphere in school. I can't believe the ozone layer has holes in it! It's so terrible. So I raised my hand and said, "That's why we should go back to riding horses."

C: Riding on sweaty animals isn't going to save the environment.

Those two. They kill me.

T. Gordon Lewis 2/26/1941 – 11/2/2009

2009-11-02T15:08:00.000-08:00

Please visit our other blog for an update on our life.

tglewis.blogpot.com

Best. Day. Ever.

2009-09-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

We had such a fabulous Saturday. I know I'm probably in the blogging doghouse here, since I haven't really posted anything in months (don't call this a comeback) and I swear I'm working on an update, but I just had to celebrate the awesomeness that was yesterday.

It was a crisp, sunny, PERFECT fall day. Oz and I got up a tad earlier than I'd have chosen, but we got out for a gorgeous run and stopped to throw rocks at the duck pond before heading over for a little of this:

Yep. It was Calder's first soccer game of the season. And he was PUMPED before it. I'm a big fan of pretty much all sports, and had high hopes that Scout's natural athleticism would translate into many hours of team sport participation. But alas, she's not really that into organized sports. So I was more than thrilled to see Calder in action. He's pretty good, and I must admit I was surprised.

We were all pumped as we headed home, and nearly expired when we saw what our neighbors (who have been cleaning out their garage for the past 3 days) had left on our doorstep. Not one but TWO giant boxes of Legos, a huge Lego Yoda in an unopened box, and several different cool sets of wooden blocks, and about 10 years supply of zoo books. Here's a sampling of what the kids did on Saturday:

The best part of it all was that the boxes had all kinds of Harry Potter Legos, which you can't buy anymore. And my kids are TOTALLY into Harry Potter (Scout read all the books last year and is now on her 2nd go round, and I bought black fabric to make Hogwart's robes for Halloween costumes.) So as they found stuff, we'd all celebrate. "I found Dumbledore!" "Look! It's Hermione's HAIR!" "Calder, it's the Nimbus 2000!!" This was pretty much all we did for the next 4 hours. At first we were saying, "This is just like Christmas" but then we had to revise that, because who are we kidding... we never give them this much for Christmas. Calder started saying it was like Halloween if we got presents, Christmas, Hanukah, and and his birthday all combined.

Then we piled in the car and went to Brooklyn for a birthday party. While buying the present on Court street, we bumped into some of our favorite people on earth, the Linds, and a family we loved from our floor in our apt. building. We had the best time at the party catching up with old friends and fell into bed that night happy and tired. (And I made Travs drive by Zaytoons on the way back home so I could get a falafel sandwich to eat in the car. Mmmmmm.)

What an awesome day. The only thing that could have made it better is if there had been Magnolia cupcakes at the party, but the chocolate ones Robin made were pretty fabulous too. Oh, and if Wayne had given me the clog boots he had bought for his wife.

The end.

Golden Nuggets

2009-09-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

My sister Sara the other day was rather overwhelmed with being a mom of three, worried about dad, the rash and the spinal tap, and in general not in a good place when she heard a knock at her door. She opened the door and there was a package there with a baseball cap from Georgia and this note inside

Sara:

Sending love from Georgia! So wish I had been with y'all the other night. I have been thinking about you so very much. I know some of the feelings you may be feeling- there are some things I know for certain the gospel is real and eternal families are freaking real. I know that the lewis family is amazing and together you'll be good and I know you have people in NY that love you so much. So when you wear the GA hat know there is someone in Georgia that REALLY cares.
Love to you.
LeeAnne Pope

Then last week mom and dad got a package in the mail from Washington D.C. and inside were two DVD's about golf and some candy with the following note:

Dear Gordon and Kathleen,
We have been thinking about you a lot lately. We are sorry you must endure this trial but admire the way you are going about it. You are in our prayers and we wish you the best in the coming weeks and months. We hope you will be blessed with strength and peace.
Love,
Brian and Amy Barker [travis' sister who has probably met dad once]

These are just a few of the many Golden Nuggets that the Lewis Family has received in the three longest months of our lives. The following are a few of my personal nuggets:
· Tanner, Christian, Scout, Mason, Calder, Sydney, Crosby, and Brig who are hands down the best part of my life.
· Weekly deliveries of fresh bread and homemade fruit pies for dad from Sister Rude Jude Maxfield.
· Becca Bracy Knight and Pepper Sessions who are two of the funniest most delightful people on the planet. [even if Becca doesn't know what a spatula is]
· Jim Strong's shaking shoulders as I sit behind him during Sacrament meeting each Sunday and witness the man of "very few words" giggle at whatever unexpected hilarious thing has happened during the meeting [today it was Millie Martindale saying she wouldn't wish her trials on anyone except maybe Osama Bin Laden]
· My ASICS 2050 running shoes that are always willing/able to be laced up and go as I pound the streets of Btown "running out" my stress, fears, and frustrations.
· Travis Stratford for not only working long hours to provide a living so that Sara can stay home and be supermom but who is alone in NY as his family stays for weeks in Colorado. [I think a move is in order!]
· Rhonda and Meg Hansen for bringing homemade goodies, teaching me about politics, knowing the primary songs [when I don't] and emailing me the opportunity to sign the declaration of independence.
· Chris Martin and the music of COLDPLAY.
· Bishop Dietz, dad's home teacher, who is always right behind me asking how dad is and how he can help.
· Charles Langston for taking the time to gather "golf" reading for dad.
· Comcast for making available every sporting event for TGL's viewing pleasure.
· TGL himself who lies there hour after hour, visits doctor after doctor, swallows pill and pill and NEVER utters a word of complaint or frustration.
· My Savior Jesus Christ who tolerates my constant mistakes, questions, and complaints and supports me and the family more than I know.

So this post is an official shout out to all of YOU who through your words, prayers, notes, thoughts, and acts make our days and lives better. WE love you

A day late and $100,000 short

2009-09-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Sara Elizabeth Lewis Stratford's birthday - she turned 36. As you can see we have sort of dropped the ball in doing funny and fabulous tributes on birthdays - probably due to kids/cancer/moving/appliance debacles/remodels/gossip girl episodes and just "life" in general.

So I'll make this short and sweet. Sara rocks. Once Erin McNeil, Carrie and I were chatting and Erin commented that she didn't really know Sara that well. Carrie's response was "that really is too bad because she is such a treasure."

A real diamond in the ruff that Sara. No one makes us laugh more than Sara, she just has a way of turning daily events into a Seinfeld episode. She is clever, smart, fit, efficient, classy, and "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound".

If you have a cyber minute, I'd love to hear what your favorite thing is about Sara AND if you could buy Sara anything for her birthday what would it be.

I love you sis.

9/9/09

2009-09-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Becca alerted me to the fact that today should be celebrated. She and my other friend Pepper, perhaps two of the funniest/smartest and least reverent people I know [outside the other Lewis girls and Erin Boss]have offered their suggestions on how to celebrate this most auspicious day.

- drinking 9 cups of tea
- eating 9 donuts
- sending 9 postcards to people you like
- biking 9 miles x 3
- going to The Nines in Denver to pick up some modern furniture
- stop by Coors field to blow Ian Stewart #9 kisses from the 3rd baseline, followed by 9 9" hot dogs (they don't sell foot longs on 9er days)
- committing to only driving 9 miles an hour wherever I go so everyone on the road will know how serious I am about this holiday.
- Nena 99 Luft Balon www.youtube.com/watch?v=14IRDDnEPR4
- TP the houses of 9 people you don't like
- Rollerblade 9 miles backwards
- Dance to "party like it's 1999" by the artist formerly known as Prince
- Interview your cat and some of his friends to find out which of their 9 lives have been the most meaningful
- Dip 99 strawberries in chocolate

I would love to hear any other ideas

Devil's Causeway

2009-09-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

Dave on his recent backpacking trip - he is the one with the blue backpack.
What could be more fun than carrying a 50 lbs backpack across a 3 foot ridge with death cliffs on either side. What a surprise that he just happened to forget to mention this part of the trail before he left.

Little Glass Animals

2009-08-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

(As overheard by Carrie from the living room)

Scout: Hey... will you watch my animals for a minute?

Calder: They're not real.

Do we look 30?

2009-08-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

I recently had a little reunion with my college friends in celebration of our 30th birthdays. Sadly, one is behind the camera. We did lots of talking...and eating...and some eating...and some more talking. I wonder why I gained weight in college? It was so fabulous to be with them.

So...do we really look 30? Man I'm getting old...

Eight is Enough

2009-08-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Since Rand and Leslie were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary tonight, the rest of us, sans TGL, did a bit of celebrating ourselves.

Time: 6:15 pm
Place: Pearl Street Mall
what: dinner at the Cheesecake Factory

Mom, Carrie and I got to the restaurant first and approached the hostess.

Carrie: "we have a party of 13, 5 adults, 8 kids two highchairs".

Hostesses [looking skeptical to say the least]: "Okay, let me look around and talk to the manager to let you know how long the wait will be

Manager: "The wait will be at least a 1 to 1 1/2 hours" [She wanted to scare us away but we were committed]

Me: "Sounds great, we'll just go out and play on the rocks".

I got the bright idea to get menus so we could all order right away. Luck was on our side and we were seated within 45 minutes; in the bar area [nothing dumb about that manager] I figure the waitpeople were drawing straws in back to see who would serve us.

Everyone ordered and when it came to mom she looked panicked and said "where is my menu?". Now if any of you know my mom, she suffers from ordering anxiety and usually looks at one of us and says "what are you getting? what do I usually order here? I need more time"

The waiter went to get drinks and brought bread which disappeared faster than a plate of cookies at a LDS Youth Fireside. We waited, and waited, and you guessed it, waited. Sara pulled out Crosby's gluten free dinner and was soon handing rice cakes to Sydney and Kix to Brig. The 2nd round of bread was brought and we realized it was Tanner's Flatiron Steak that was probably holding things up. We moved to the Dora portion of the evening as Sara whipped out her laptop in an attempt to entertain Sydney [who was crawling around under the table] and Crosby who was actually very well behaved.

The food finally arrived. Mason took one bite, or so he claims, of his Nonkraft mac 'n cheese and declared it inedible. At that point Dave made an announcement that if there was any food that wasn't going to be eaten, he was a willing recipient. The waiter disappeard for a while, probably out back doing shots, and we decided against Cheesecake opting for Oreo shakes at Nana's house instead.

We had all parked in the parking garage where I have a pass. I swiped my card as Dave in his car, Carrie in her car, and Sara in the minivan, drove to freedom. At that point a parking security guard [who knew they existed] informed me in Spanish that my actions were not to be tolerated. I jumped in my car and swiped my card one more time.

We arrived at 655 Emporia Rd and I went into Oreo Shake Mode. Crosby and Sydney [and Christian] were entertained by baby einstein and sara went down to chat with Dad. At 10 pm Sara realized Rand and Leslie might be wanting their kids in bed to arise for 9am church so she rallied the troops. She was in the car ready to go when we realized some were missing. Mom called downstairs and Scout, Tanner and finally Mason came up. "Sara's in the car ready to go guys". said mom.

Mason was the last up the stairs: "Hey Nana I'm hungry!!!"

I hope Rand and Leslie had a nice relaxing dinner because we had a BLAST!!!

granola fairy

2009-07-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

What happens when...

1. You don't have a kitchen for several months
2. Your eldest sister knows you love homemade granola

?

You get regular visits from the granola fairy. Thank you yah yah! After a month of eating it for breakfast & lunch it still hasn't gotten old!

The first time...

2009-07-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Brig had a lot of "firsts" in honor of his first birthday. Here are a few:

First taste of a Duffy's cinnamon roll

First trip to a Water Park, "Pirates Cove."
First time sitting on someones lap for 45 minutes without moving a muscle - thank you lazy river! Who would have guessed you would make Brig so, well, lazy?
First picnic at the park!

First shy moment. In 365 days of living, this is literally the first time I've seen you shy (while we sang happy birthday).

First ever (that I know of) cake decorated WITH sugar cookies. How can you beat that combo? Trust Aunt Yah Yah to invent something completely new and delicious!

First taste of said cake & ice cream.

First game of kickball. I held you while I pitched, that counts right?
First time watching cousins open your presents for you.

First time waking up at 4:00am with a whole bunch of sugar related poo and a horrible diaper rash. I hope you enjoyed your sugar...you don't get more until you are 2!

Happy Birthday love. I hope you had as much fun celebrating your birthday as we did!

Happy 1st Birthday Brig

2009-07-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

I love you so much sweet boy. You are perfect just the way you are. I wouldn't change one thing about you.

The women of 655 emporia rd.

2009-07-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

When Carrie was little if you asked her where she lived she would exclaim sixty the five emporia road. It seems like just a couple of episodes of the Bachelor ago that she was a baby. Now she is days away from her first child's first birthday. Yes, the baby of the family with a baby. When she first got pregnant sara, mom and I would often wonder what it would be like to see her as a mother. We just couldn't get our heads around it.

which... brings me to this post. These past months have been chaotic, tragic, exciting and heart wrenching for the Lewis girls. Everyone is dealing with change, upheaval, sorrow and stress. Carrie is living in a house with no kitchen and will be for at least 2 more months. They don't have a working washer and dryer and they are in the midst of massive remodel. Each time she needs something from the fridge she climbs over the "child gate" and walks down stairs to climb over the metal pole that is jimmied to secure the back door which doesn't have a lock only to go down more stairs. Most of her possessions are packed and stowed away in the basement as they paint, peel wallpaper, clean, sand, etc. and live through renovations. She has setup a room for my mom to sleep in so that she can be near dad while undergoing his "chemo torture". She drives to massage dad at least every other day and throws baby showers and takes dinner to friends with newborns. Oh and did I mention she has a full time job?

It is delightful to watch her as a mother. Every time she sees Brig she acts like it has been a couple of weeks since they were together. She is seriously in love with this little boy and I have to say, he has stolen all of our hearts. i still remember when he was a newborn and she would say "I just can't believe I get to take him home with me". The other night when she went to meet Dave at the ER in Louisville because he had mistaken his leg for a tree branch while trimming with a power saw, she said "will you lock the door behind me. and don't let anyone steal brig". i'm glad she mentioned that because both mom and I wouldn't have thought to lock the door or stop someone from walking in and making off with Brig.

so motherhood has come quite naturally to Carrie but she also had the benefit of learning and watching my sister sara. When I look at sara's children it is absolutely clear that she was on the honor roll in heaven. Sara has been sent very special spirits. Scout's absolute faith and obedience and Calder's raw honesty and desire to "walk the line" Crosby's exuberance and sheer joy are tangible testimony of God's trust in sara. She is patient and tireless as she provides opportunities for her children to experience everything. One of the leading factors for Travis and Sara to move to Edgemont was because of the school.

During the summer while visiting Colorado Sara takes her kids to do something fun everyday. Each night Calder and Scout will say "what are we going to do tomorrow mom?" She is so well read and dedicated to providing her children with good nutrition and health. She rarely gives them fast food and Scout would choose a tomato sandwich, cucumbers and yellow waxed beans grown in grampa's garden over Kraft macaroni and cheese any day. At the park when all the other mom's are sitting around chatting, Sara is the one playing with all the kids. She is definitely "the fun mom".

Her ability to access information on the internet is uncanny. She linked her sudden bout of excessive sweating to an absence of iodized salt [this was after several visits to the doctor]. She eliminated her sudden migraines and dizziness through a change in pillow. She knows what lip balms have petroleum, what additives in foods are harmful and her children are never without sunscreen or seat belts.

Which brings me to the matriarch of "sixty the five emporia road", my mom or nana.

Mom was definitely ahead of her time when it came to motherhood. We were the only kids who always had to wear seat belts, bike helmets and sunscreen. We always had homemade bread made with wheat procured from the basement wheat grinder. Ironically, I used to think we were poorer than the kids who had wonderbread. We weren't allowed to have lunch meat with "nitrates" and cold cereal for breakfast was a definite no go.

She always made a point of getting to know our friends and their parents and she never missed a school presentation, choir concert, track meet, basketball/volleyball/soccer game, court of honor, tennis match, or recital [to name just a few]. I never remember my mother being sick in bed. Her motto was "if you're sick you just work threw it".

She always encouraged us to have parties and bring our friends over. Things got a bit out of hand when 1/2 of Carrie's senior class was eating lunch everyday at 655 emporia. But mom didn't mind. We were always encouraged to invite everyone to a party as she was determined that no none feel left out.

No matter how scared, saddened or stressed she is about Dad's condition, she goes to the hospital each day upbeat with a smile and happy. Just the other night at the dinner table she was eating beans from his garden [a delicacy he couldn't indulge in due to mouth sores] and she gleefully exclaimed "these are soooo good. I can just eat them plain they have such a wonderful flavor".

Mom is the one everyone calls with their problems or needs. Whether it is taking toilet paper to Denver for Carrie [they don't sell it at grocery stores down there] or sewing a hook on my skirt or altering a dress for Sara [they don't have tailors in NY], she does it.

so those are the women of 655 that I get to rub shoulders with. i'm not sure how or why i was chosen to be one of the lewis girls but i am thankful every single day. they inspire me and make me want to be a better person.

Irony

2009-07-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

2 Mondays ago, I went to the post office to mail off Carrie's birthday package. On the card, I wrote that I wished more than anything I could be with her on her b-day, and had planned to write about the perfect day we could have had on the blog for a post in her honor.

Then on Thursday night, at 7.30, I got a call from my mom telling me my dad's leukemia had returned, and on Monday he would be admitted to a hospital in Denver for chemo treatment. By 9, I had purchased plane tickets for Oz and I, and spent the rest of the night frantically packing for an undetermined amount of time. There was a chance I would stay for the weekend, or maybe stay longer and send for the big kids (the idea of S and C on a plane by themselves makes me simultaneously freaked and thrilled. I know they they could do it, but do I really want to find out?)

I barely got to say goodbye to them. I kissed C early Friday morning but he didn't wake up, and when I went in to tell S I was going she smiled like she does when she knows I'm joking. Then she looked in my eyes and realized I wasn't. She was very mature and said she could handle being in charge and helping Amy with the kids and that she would be praying for Grampa. She's growing up so much, I can't believe it.

As luck would have it, Palmers had been living with us for the past 1.5 weeks while waiting to close on their new house, and then waiting while it gets painted. Amy was a real trooper to take on 2 extra kids, on top of being pregnant, watching her cousin's two kids all day, and her own three. So if you think about it, she was in charge of 8 kids (I'm counting the one in-utero) for over a week. She amazes me. She handled all the end of the year school festivities, birthday parties, and even offered to take my kids to their annual physicals but I drew the line at that. I should have made her take Calder for his Lyme disease blood test... I am NOT looking forward to the inevitable drama that will come with that event.

Travis and Enoch acted as Amy's lovely assistants, filling in where needed at such events like the Kindergarten picnic, C's birthday celebration at school (Enoch took C to purchase which ice cream treats he'd give to the class, the cousins put together the goody bags, and Trav went in to hand it all out and read C's favorite book to his class, missing work to do so). I emailed with C's teacher to make sure he was handling it all okay, and she wrote back that he was doing fine and didn't seem to mind that his parents weren't at the picnic because Amy and Enoch were there. My kids are so lucky to have a second set of parents around! So many other people here filled in too, taking my kids for playdates and to swim and letting S attend all kinds of birthday parties she had not been officially invited to. Never one time did Travis tell me I should come home. He kept telling me to stay as long as I needed, and assured me that the kids were great and doing fine.

So, in an ironic twist, on the morning of Carrie's birthday she picked me up from DIA with Nana, and in the backseat was the only person more social than Carrie, ready to bond with his cousin and attempt to maintain constant eye contact with me for the next week. We headed to Boulder and had time to do Tae bo and put the babies down for naps before Grampa came walking in from his golf game (upon learning he would be going to the hospital in three days, he made as many tee times as was humanly possible). I didn't want him to know I was coming, because he would have told me not to. So when he walked in and saw me in an all-too-familiar Billy Blanks pose, he smiled and said, "What are you doing here?"

Everyone celebrated Carrie's birthday that night with take out from the Cheesecake Factory. Saturday we hung out with Rand's family in Broomfield, and Sunday was a nice Father's Day dinner from which Dad, even though feeling fatigued from his low white blood cell count and the beginning symptoms of the leukemia, refused to let us do the cleaning up without him. Typical.

We have come a long way from the first time cancer entered our family. We are even able to make the occasional joke about it, such as at the end of Carrie's birthday party when we adjourned to the living room for Rand and Dave to give my parents blessings, and my dad quipped, "Well, that's one way to kill a party." We are optimistically hoping for another remission, though we know achieving it will be a long and painful road. If this remission is achieved, a bone marrow transplant is likely, which will also be long and difficult. This time around we have a better idea of what to expect from his treatment, which in some ways is better but in many ways worse.

Monday morning the mood changed dramatically, when Dad called the hospital and was given an arrival time of 1 PM. He was stressed and scared, which shook us all to see. He has always been the rock we all lean on in times of distress. He patiently waited in the hospital until Wednesday morning, when finally all the necessary testing had been completed and his body was ready for the first round of chemo.

It was a long week for all of us. Crosby developed a fever on Tuesday afternoon, and I was afraid to go visit my dad until I was sure I wasn't contagious. A virus at this point entering his system would be a disaster. When we visited him, we wore gowns and gloves and my mom and I wore face masks to be doubly sure we didn't infect him with anything, which made our visits rather hot.

When I went to say goodbye to him on Thursday evening, we talked while I gave him a massage. Then as I was preparing to leave, I told him how much I loved him and to stay strong. He told me my job was to take care of my family and "not worry about him." Yeah right. He also reminded me not to be thinking about him while I drove home; he was worried about me being sad and getting in a car accident. Today Rand told me that my dad apologized to him for "ruining his vacation." It's so true to his character that even when sick in the hospital, he worries about everyone else more than himself.

I got back to NY late Friday night, and snuck in to hug and kiss the big kids who I missed like crazy. I spent most of the night with Oz, who woke up every two hours screaming. As I rocked him through the night, I was reminded to enjoy every moment of my life, even the bad ones.

I love you, Dad.

If you'd like more regular updates on Gordon's condition, you can visit tglewis.blogspot.com.

The price

2009-06-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Turns out the price of our home is greater than just the purchase price. We've also had to donate:

-one fifth of a thumb that got drilled off (Dave)
-one sprained finger (Dave's brother)
-one sprained wrist (Dave's brother)
-one bloody gash in the leg from a hand saw (Dave)

Before:

After (taken at 1am in the ER):

10 stitches. Granted it would have been more, but about 2 inches of skin was too far separated to be stitched back together. So the Dr. went ahead and just cut that chunk of skin off.

When I asked Dave if he was ok as we sat in the ER for 3 hours, he said "I'm just mad that I haven't gotten home to eat my dinner yet."

The 2nd coming

2009-06-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Farrah Faucet and Michael Jackson in the same day? Typical Jackson move to try to steal poor Farrah's thunder.

In other news, there is some horrible smell in my mom's refrigerator that we can not isolate and eliminate. The offending smell surfaced Saturday and at this point, Sara, Carrie, mom, and I have all individually and collectively opened, smelled, discarded and personally interviewed each item in/around/under or on the fridge. It is truly maddening and will be the demise of us all if we don't find it.

Tonight we plan to move the fridge out and see if something or someone has died behind it.

I have some other pictures, too

2009-06-15T11:26:00.001-07:00

Here are my pics from the shower, to prove that people (at least the guest of honor and Carrie and I) attended this event.

A new kind of shower

2009-06-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

This post in long overdue. A few months back Sara and I hosted a 40th birthday party for our fabulous eldest sister - Miss Yah Yah.

Since there is nothing Laura loves more than chocolate, we decided the only logical thing to do was shower her with chocolate.

Thus...and new kind of shower was born - The Chocolate Shower! The party was great fun, and here are pictures to prove you wish you were there.

The Invite:

The Table:

The Chocolate:

I would kill for one of Sara's chocolate brownies right now which sadly did not get photographed. People also did not get photographed, although they were there. I was too distracted by the chocolate to take pictures.

Adios, Winnie.

2009-06-12T11:42:00.001-07:00

Poor Scout.

She's been wanting a dog for YEARS. She's always been an animal lover, even when she was tiny. Plastic animals were her toy of choice... which was handy, because they were small and we could easily fit her whole collection in a little box in our tiny apartment. Every time she's asked me for a dog recently, my reply is either, "Not until Crosby is 3" or the newer one, "I'd rather have another baby than get a dog."

When our friends got a dog and were looking for a new home for their guinea pig, it seemed all Scout's dreams were about to come true. I geared up for having an animal in the house (not something I'm remotely a fan of) and for about a week, she was the world's best pet owner. That pig got more baths than it knew what to do with. It was fed constantly. It's cage was cleaned religiously, every few days.

Needless to say, this level of care did not continue. Travis and I began discovering Winnie didn't have any hay, or water. We began wondering if we were being party to pet abuse. We had discussions with Scout about this, and promises were made; charts created. And finally, guess who mostly ended up taking care of the guinea pig.

But the real problem was the allergies... Trav's allergies. They just kept getting worse and worse, the longer Winnie was in our house. Once it warmed up enough, we moved her to the garage... which at least meant we could play Rock Band again without Travis wheezing all night long, but by no means was a solution. So, I began in earnest looking for a new home.

I finally found one through the magic of Craigslist. Is that the greatest of all inventions, or what? I emailed back and forth with Winnie's new owner, figuring out a time we could drop her off. The new owners had a baby pig named Trixie that they thought was lonely, and the lady promised Scout could meet Trixie and be assured that Winnie was going to a great new home.

Fast forward to Tuesday, when was threatening rain. I loaded all of Winnie's supplies into my car and we took her to the address in Yonkers; definitely not the best part of a not super nice town. Trixie's owner wasn't home, and the guy who opened the door looked a lot like a white supremacist: shaved head, ripped jeans, tats all over, many piercings, and huge black combat boots. I made awkward conversation while we lugged all her stuff to their porch, where the kids talked to a black cat. We had heard a dog bark when we knocked, so I smiled and said, "Man, you guys really have a lot of pets! You must love animals!" and he grunted and said, "It's for the wife and kid. The only one I like is the rat."

Well. Calder jumped on that and before you knew it, he was talking about how he was dying to see the rat. The kids had already been told they'd get to meet Trixie, so what was the problem with meeting the RAT? The supremacist looked uncomfortable and said, "Uh... the rat is sleeping" while I tried to corral the kids into the car. As we walked down their driveway to where Oz was waiting in the car, I had one kid wailing, "BUT YOU PROMISED!! YOU SAID WE COULD GO IN AND MEET TRIXIE" while the other one was crying, "YOU LIED TO US! YOU SAID WE COULD SEE THEIR GUINEA PIG!" Oh boy. Things were not going my way. Apparently I've done too great a job of teaching my kids to not judge people by what they wear.

It all came to a climax when Calder angrily kicked some rocks which hit the car. I lost it and said, "I'm telling Dad that you did that!" and I snapped at them both to GET IN THE CAR, NOW. Finally, once they were inside I tried to explain that I didn't lie, but that the woman who had promised me that we could meet Trixie wasn't at home and it would have been an unsafe idea for us to go into that man's house. I'm still not sure they really get it, but at least we got out of there in one piece without having to interface with the rat.

So goodbye Winnie. And may I add... Good Luck.

To give you a taste...

2009-06-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

...of how much work we have ahead of us.

Wish us luck.

Better Know a Reader Series: Television land

2009-06-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'd like to thank Carrie for that most excellent lead in to my latest inquiry about the minds of our readers. I don't know about you, but it's been a long, sad week for me. All the shows I was watching are now over, and I'm missing my TV friends. So my question to you is this: If you could "live" in a TV show (note that I said TV, not movie... we'll get to movies later), which show would it be and WHICH CHARACTER would you be?

Let's say I had to pick from the TV shows that are current right now. My top two favorites are Gossip Girl and FNL. Well, that's not entirely true... I completely adore 30 Rock but honestly, I wouldn't want to be any of those characters.

So, if I chose GG I'd definitely chose to be Blair Waldorf. She's rich but not freaky rich like some of the characters, she has by far the best clothes, and I love her looks. Dark brown hair, big brown eyes; she's so adorable. If I were her, I'd be a whole lot nicer but I'd probably pick Chuck over Nate too. Does that seem weird?

Now if I were to be a character on FNL, this is much, much harder. The obvious pick would be Lila Garrity, for the main reason that I would get to be the girlfriend of Tim Riggins. But I don't think I could take having Buddy Garrity as my dad... not even to get to kiss Tim. So then I thought that I'd maybe want to be Julie, because she's so cute and has the best parents in the world and I figured next season she'll probably steal Tim away from Lila anyway, because Lila will be off at college and Tim will probably still be in Dillon. But then I remembered that episode where Julie had her hair up, and she had the freakiest ears I've ever seen. Seriously. So I don't think I could be her either. Which puts me back at being Lila, and I've decided that this is okay because for sure Buddy is going to die of a heart attack very soon, and hopefully he has a big life insurance policy of which Lila will be the sole beneficiary, since everyone else in the family ditched him and moved with the mom (who can really blame them?)

But, let's say that you can pick a TV show that is no longer on the air. Well, then that's simple. I'll give you one guess who I'd be:

And if I had to be a character from Dora the Explorer, I'd be Benny the Bull. He's the coolest.

80210

2009-06-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blog posts. Things have been a bit hectic. We close on our new house tomorrow. (New "old" house as Nana keeps saying. Apparently a home built in 1924 doesn't qualify as a new house.)

This in and of itself is decent news, but the REAL news is that our new zip code is only 1 numeral off 90210.

80210.

Needless to say I'm thrilled.

Do you think the theme music will kick in everytime I pull into the drive way? A girl can only dream...

Memorial Day Part II: NUGGETS fever

2009-05-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

This is in no way a rival to Sara's eloquent,clever and as always tremendously delightful post but I needed to piggy back a bit to describe Memorial Day weekend in Colorado. One word my friends

RAIN!!!!

Yep, I am convinced [and have substantial statistically corroborating evidence to prove it] that it always rains Memorial Day weekend and then is sunny and gorgeous the next day - you know what I am back at work.

So it was good TV watching weather as I watched the Nuggets play on Saturday and Monday! Yep, I've been a hardcore fan for almost 2 weeks now. In fact, I'm first chair clarinet on the bandwagon that we've all been enthusiastically jumping on as we cheer our team on. As you may recall, The Rockies had a similar "Cinderella" season to the World Series several years ago and our State experienced the same sort of unifying phenomenon. It is amazing as everyone is just a little nicer, just a little happier, just a little more yellow and blue. You pass folks on the street and you give them that knowing "so did you watch the game?" smile. Unless of course you are Rand and have celestial connections and somehow get tickets to both games. This leads me to my favorite conversation of the weekend [I was with Carrie, Dave, and Brig on Monday]:

Laura: Hey guys, are we going to watch the game? Let me call Leslie and see if we can go there.

Leslie: Rand and I are actually going to the game but you are welcome to come watch it with the boys and Becky [impostor babysitter]

Dave: Even though I haven't done anything today, I'm really tired and don't feel like driving to Broomfield.

Carrie: Yeah, I want to watch the game also but feel the same as Dave

Laura: Don't you have any friends who have a TV/cable? What about Wandrys?

Carrie: No, they don't have cable.

Laura: Is it on the Internet?

Carrie: Dave, can we splice in cable just for the game?

Dave: Uh, no and plus it isn't legal. Maybe we can drive to my mom's to watch it.

As we drive in the pouring rain 20 minutes South to Dave's mom's house

Dave: Carrie, I'm thinking we should get cable for Christmas!!!

Tune in tonight for game SIX!!!

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-28T11:42:00.001-07:00

What an action-packed weekend we had!

It all started Friday morning, when Scout awoke with big puffy red eyes. I knew it was an allergic reaction to something, and kept thinking (especially as it turned into a nasty rash on her cheek and forehead as well), "Man am I glad she didn't have this on Tuesday when she had her photo shoot!" She had been chosen to model for a new Johnson and Johnson product launch. The above photo is one that was taken that day. I don't have any of her poison ivy on this computer (and am too lazy to walk into the living room to get some) so just imagine that beautiful girl, covered in a nasty red rash.

Friday evening Amy and Brian showed up with their little cuties, Vera and Ella. Ella and Scout hit it off immediately, and had not one but TWO cousin sleep overs (Scout is only allowed to have sleep overs with her cousins, so she was very excited about it... so excited she didn't mind sleeping on a shared blow up mattress the size of a postage stamp.) Vera was adorable and we tried not to notice what an amazing communicator she is... despite being 5 months younger than Crosby. Get a delayed kid and an advanced kid together, and there is a vast difference. They very much enjoyed watching Dora together though, so once again we find that Dora is the glue that holds us all together.

We had fun playing in the backyard all afternoon and ate dinner, and then around bedtime Calder complained that his ear was hurting (he had mentioned it that morning, too) so I decided to take a look. And nearly freaked out. Because inside his ear was one of the freakiest things I HAVE EVER SEEN. It looked like a wheat kernel (maybe bigger) and was surrounded by tiny black specks. My first thought was that a bug had taken up residence in his ear and laid one thousand tiny eggs. I casually said to Trav, "Hey... will you come and take a look at this?" and he looked as shaken as I felt. It was clear something was wrong, but we were trying to keep things mellow for C. Brian looked in and declared it was a tick, which I had suspected. He began describing the ticks that would attach to his dogs and how they'd get so big their shells would crack apart, and Travis began giving Brian non-verbal cues to stop talking while I sauntered over to the phone to call our resident health expert, Tania.

Thank goodness she was home (and thank goodness all the people in this story so far have blogs, so you can go and check them out with my awesome links). She told us to come right over and she and Emily graciously paused their movie to remove said tick. She was amazed at how big it was... I think it's been in there quite a while. What's so crazy is that three years ago almost exactly, after we first moved here, Calder had a tick behind his ear and Tania took that one out too. We were both amazed at how much better he handled this tick than the last one. He's come a long, long way in three years. I can't believe it happened to him AGAIN. Scout would have been delighted at the chance to show up at Emily's house on a Friday night, and would have been intrigued by the tick. She probably would have brought a vial for it, and kept it in her room and named it Phil. But she did get the poison ivy, so I guess her life isn't totally charmed.

Saturday morning Brian and I went for a run (impressive because he'd gotten up with Vera when she awoke at 4.30 AM!) and then we headed to the Bronx zoo. We had a blast riding the monorail and seeing the giraffes, and any other animal we passed on the way to and from the monorail. Our favorites from the train ride were the elephants and the baby rhino, which Calder declared was about the same size as Oz. Not too far off, for sure.

We BBQ'd that night and went to the duck pond and had fun hanging out. The next day we did church and more BBQing (we are loving our grill. Can't believe how easy and tasty it is!) with the Palmers, and did lots of playing on the swing in the backyard. The swing/backyard post is coming... it definitely deserves a post all it's own.

Monday I finally took Scout to the dr. Her rash was worse than ever and she was losing it from all the itching, and I'm glad I did because he told me that when poison ivy gets on your face, the only way to get rid of it is using steroids. He also told me that she was exposed to it THREE DAYS before it showed up, so yeah... she got in it at the photo shoot in Long Island! Good thing, because I had been stressing about Crosby getting in it and was afraid it was in our yard somewhere.

We headed into Central Park to hang out with the Barkers one more day before they left. It was a hot, crowded day at the park and the train ride was long both ways, but all in all we had a great weekend. We loved having our cousins come to visit! And thankfully everyone is healing well from their adventures in nature. Can't believe we got a tick and poison ivy and we didn't even go camping! Now we just have to wait three weeks to see if Calder gets lyme disease. Sigh...

Crosby is Two

2009-05-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

On Friday May 8th, Crosby turned two. How is this possible? I can't explain it. It only feels like a year, at most, since I experienced what both the midwife and doctor who delivered him said was the 2nd worst birth they'd ever seen. Seriously.

With the older two kids I wrote monthly letters for about 2 years of their lives. I seriously have dropped the ball on that, and it makes me so sad. I'm going to try and start it up again... even if it's a "group letter" to all three kids. When I look back on those letters, I read so many things I had forgotten about. Cute things they did or said; aspects of their little personalities that have now gone.

Anyway, here's a letter to Crosby on his 2nd birthday.

My darling Oz:

Happy birthday! It's hard to believe you are two. In some ways you seem younger (because you still don't talk... but we're working on it!) and in some ways you seem older (because you're bigger than most 3 year olds we know. And some 4 year olds. And physically, you're quite advanced.)

Here is a snapshot of you at exactly two. I wish I had a picture of you eating the yummy cupcakes Amy made for your birthday party, but you hate cake and the picture would have just been of you dropping a cupcake off your high chair, so I didn't bother. I didn't want you to waste one of those cupcakes that I could have been eating! But there are plenty of foods that you do like, for example: GRAPES! (this is probably your favorite thing in the world to eat. But they have to be purple, not green. And when you eat them, after I cut them in half and put them on your tray, you have to turn EACH AND EVERY one of them over, cut side down, before you eat them. OCD?) apples, pineapple, strawberries, toast, yogurt, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas (but just in baby food form. Real bananas get thrown to the floor), and chocolate. You have no interest whatsoever in ice cream, cookies, cake, lollipops, or really any treat except for chocolate. So your belly is unexplainable... unless maybe you are going to be Santa Clause when you grow up. But if that's the case, why don't you have a beard?

One of the funniest things about your eating habits is that if I offer you something, you always accept it. Then, after inspection if you deem it unworthy of eating, rather than hand it back to me or refuse to take it in the first place, you hurl it to the ground. Nice. You're a big fan of water, green plant juice, and milk. The only "grown up" food you eat is pizza. No meat. Not a chance.

Your prized possession is your blankie. Here is a montage of photos displaying your kiddie pool we have on the deck in back. Your all time favorite past-time is throwing things in water, preferably rocks. So we fill this pool with water, and then get you rocks from the back yard, and you'll spend HOURS throwing rocks in, then getting in the pool and throwing them out, and then getting out of the pool and tossing them back in. The problem is, other things have gotten thrown in besides rocks. Like Dad's iPhone, which miraculously survived the dunk. And Erin's cell phone. Which did not. And an Elmo plays the piano book. On the day I whipped out the camera, you decided to throw your blankie in the water. This provided much entertainment... and I was glad we have 4 backup blankies!

Because you are so interested in water, we have to keep all the toilets in the house tightly shut. But recently, we discovered we also now have to keep the doors to the bathroom shut as well. This is because your new trick is to get in the bathtub and start the water, and then throw your plastic animals in the water rushing from the tap. You often do this when we are rushing to school, requiring a full clothing change, which does not help our punctuality. But we still love you like crazy.

You've become a proficient jumper lately and adore climbing on my bed, burrowing in the pillows, and then jumping all over the place. You also enjoy jumping in your own bed. Most mornings I wake to the sounds of you jumping and laughing. It's better than any alarm clock I could imagine, even the one that puts out a bacon smell instead of an alarm.

Your love and devotion to Dora the Explorer is still intact, despite my attempts to introduce you to other worthy cartoon characters such as the Backyardigans or Bob the Builder. You'll tolerate Diego, but only if Dora is in the episode (or, inexplicably, Baby Dino.) You'll watch certain Baby Einstein shows, and really love watching the kids play Wii sports. In fact, you love watching anyone play sports, your favorite being basketball. When we take the kids to swimming you spend the first half of swimming scanning the floor for items you can pick up and attempt to throw into the pool, and the second half of the time trying to escape to watch the college team practice basketball. This does not include the time you spent about 10 minutes eating a yellow crayon while I talked to Ellis's mom, and then you threw it up all over the two of us. That was super classy, by the way.

Being outside is the best thing in the world to you, and you make a break for the door whenever it's left open for even a second. On rainy days you stand in front of the sliding glass door and stare out, desperate to be out in the water. At the playground, your favorite thing to do is swing. I like it too, because it keeps you in one place so I don't have to chase you all over to keep you alive.

All in all, you are a busy, joyful little guy. This probably goes without saying, but I love you fiercely... as do your siblings, dad, your siblings' friends, and everyone we come in contact with. Your joy is contagious. As I run on the Bronx River path with you in the jogger, people I pass smile with glee at the look of rapture on your face, as you squeal with delight and open and close your hands. You live life to the fullest. Now promise me you won't get any older... I don't want you to stop ever being my baby.

I love you buddy.
love,
mom

My son is turning into my dad

2009-05-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

This isn't a current picture of Calder. If you could see him now, his long hair flowing in the breeze, you might think he was a young lad with a hippie mother. I've offered many times to give him his "summer cut" (we buzz the boys every May) but he's decided he wants his hair long. So I've offered a trim. His bangs are so long, they pass his eyes by at least a couple of inches. Maybe when people start thinking he's a girl will he take me up on the haircut.

But, I digress. The picture very aptly shows a side of Calder that is quite a bit like his grampa. Birthday party season is heating up around here, and every time he gets an invitation [and declares that he will NOT be attending] I realize I never posted about a conversation that happened about a month ago.

S: It's Saturday! What are we going to do for fun today?

Me: Well, Calder is lucky... he has a birthday party at 4:00.

C: [Grumbling and sighing heavily] Is it going to take the whole day?

Bread

2009-05-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

I really like the Better Know a Reader series. I always find your answers (the SEVEN of you who commented, no wait, Yah Yah commented twice so actually only SIX of you commented) very entertaining.

In case you were wondering, I would pick bread. I LOVE bread, especially my mom's homemade bread. I could live on that for six weeks if needed, along with chocolate. My mom usually makes bread before we come to visit, but this trip out she didn't have time, so she took an entire day to make it while we were there. I think Scout and Calder each ate an entire loaf. Nothing beats it, especially fresh from the oven. I made sure my food storage has tons of flour and yeast, so I can make it if need be. Assuming my oven would turn on, that is.

Laura, I love that your "real food" item of choice would be chocolate chip cookies. See for most of us, that's considered a treat. You crack me up.

Better Know a Reader Series: Swine Flu Edition

2009-05-03T18:33:00.001-07:00

It's going to take a minute to get to the point of this post... bear with me. It's been a long week, and an even longer DAY. (2 sick kids, no husband, and no end to the rain in sight. 12 hours of being in the house together and I'm ready to climb the walls!)

Things started out badly with the fridge flooding 30 minutes before Trav got on the plane to leave us for 2.5 weeks [this deserves a post by itself, so I won't go into detail here] so it set me back a good 2 days. Set me back from what, you ask? Oh, my OCD kicked in with the arrival of the Swine Flu in NY. I've already been trying to build up my food storage, but the imminent risk of a pandemic threw me into overload as I hit Costco and other stores with a vengeance, trying to prepare for being stuck in the house for 6 weeks or so.

As I walked up and down the aisles, struggling to push my uncooperative cart, I wondered what we could eat for 6 weeks straight. Forget any canned fruits or veggies... my kids wouldn't touch them. I decided on rice, ramen, lots and lots of pasta (seeing a trend here?), peanut butter and honey, and a few other items. Which brings me to the reader input part of this post.

Let's say you were stuck in your house for 6 weeks but could only eat one kind of food. What would it be? Is there anything you could eat over and over again? For the sake of fun, let's say you can pick one "regular" food and one "treat" food. I don't want to influence your answers (I know how you all look up to me...) so I'll answer in a follow up post.

Ready, set... comment!

Calderado

2009-04-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

Well, today I decided it was time to stop reading everyone else's blogs and update my own. Nothing makes me more depressed than when other people don't update their blogs... and yet it's been a full 21 days since my last post. Dear, dear. I must blame my lack of posting on the inevitable depression which hits every time I return from a trip back home. Suddenly upon arrival in NY, I realize that I am the one responsible for unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming, buying the food, MAKING the food, sweeping the floor... and that I have to drag my kids along with me while I do it all. So yeah, I've been re-adjusting to life without constant fun and entertainment, and unlimited babysitting. Sigh.

We started our trip up in the mountains. Our flight was delayed, so by the time we arrived at the mountain house it was 5 AM NY time. We slept about 5 hours, and awoke to the Fun Nazi (Rand) asking how long it would be until we were ready to get on the mountain. So we popped some Diet Dr. Pepper (who thought to buy that? I am hooked!), Advil, and decongestant for my raging cold, and hit the slopes. It was a beautiful day... warm, new snow, and almost half the family was on snowboards, a day I never thought I'd live to see. Even Rand was riding! Scout did great on skis and Calder stayed home with Nana and the babies, to begin his marathon TV watching. Life is so great with "channels".

The next day Rand declared our departure time for Vail at 7.30 AM. Luckily, we went to bed at about 7 the night before, but nothing could have prepared us for the day of unlimited powder and hard core boarding that Rand, Tanner, Carrie and Dave had planned.. I've never ridden in so much snow, and had a hard time staying upright at the beginning. On one run, I fell about 20 times in a row and couldn't get up, so I decided to lay in the snow crying, while yelling at the sky: THERE IS NOTHING FUN ABOUT THIS! Luckily, I figured it out and it eventually got fun. But we had a long, full day of riding and I was very glad when we finally got home and headed to the hot tub.

Sunday and Monday we decided to take it easy, so there was sledding and Scout snowboarding and conference and a trip to the Rec Center, along with lots of good food and hang time with the crew. We missed Ya Ya though... it's never the same without her! Plus no one takes the initiative to organize any games, and there weren't any chocolate chip cookies to eat.

On Tuesday morning Trav left (Rand and Co. had left the day before, since they had school) and Carrie and Dave left, but then Carrie got home and realized she didn't have much work to do, so she and Brig came back. Horray! I took the big kids skiing following the crazy huge breakfast Carrie blogged about, and Scout again was a rock star and Calder... well, Calder wasn't a huge fan. There was some whining and complaining and I tried to be patient, but finally called Nana to come and get him so Scout and I could have some fun. I decided to ski to make it easier to help Calder, and while at first nervous (my first time on skis in 14 years!) it all came back to me, and I felt like I was coming home again.

Nana and the kids and I headed back home that evening, since Scout and I had a dental appointment the next morning. Some think I should get a dentist in NY, but really... that's just a crazy notion. I'm pretty sure my mouth would explode if anyone other than Dr. Roper looked at my teeth.

The rest of the time was a blur of fun and games. We had an early b-day party with everyone for Scout, and Nana + Grampa gave her Molly, her first American Girl doll. Her aunts and uncles gave her tons of accessories for Molly... a hair care kit, clothes, camping equipment, etc. She was so thrilled to get her, and has played with her way more than I anticipated.

Nana pulled a miracle out of her hat and got a horseback riding lesson for Scout, and her friends took the kids to brush and feed their horse and ended up letting them ride it around... even Calder got on!

We went to Ocean Journey, and I took some photos, and then Scout took some photos. This was the best one of her batch... all the rest were super blurry.

Crosby loved it at first, and then I think he got scared. This is a fun shot of him trying to touch the water. He was constantly scanning the ground for rocks, hoping there would be an opportunity to throw something in the water.

Just had to include this picture of Croz in the t-shirt his Aunt Amy gave him last year. Could a Thrasher t-shirt be more appropriate on anyone else?

Here's Scout posing by a replica of the mouth of a Megalodon. Freaky... and, nice pose.

Here's Calder in a diver suit. Sort of.

This is the picture from Scout's horseback riding lesson. If we lived in Colorado, I'd totally sign her up for lessons. It was only $35 for a 1.5 hour lesson! That's less than what we pay for a half hour swim lesson for 2 kids each week.

Hanging out...

Oz and Syd had a fun love/hate relationship this time. They got along well unless Dora was playing, and then it became a wrestling match as they both jockeyed to be the one standing DIRECTLY in front of the TV. Here they are playing with a pop up toy, where Syd would open all the doors and Oz would close them. At one point, Syd decided that she wanted to be the one to open AND close the doors, and all heck broke loose.

The peeps and their newest little cousin. We all fell in love with Brig (Briggy, as Calder calls him) and he fell in love with us. He especially liked Calder, but Brig tried to maintain eye contact with me at all times, even when he was nursing. I think it's because my voice sounds so much like Carrie's. He would listen attentively whenever I was telling a story, and at one point I was on the top of a very tall staircase about to go down a water slide, and even then, could see Brig's eyes on me. He is the best baby ever!

Overall, a completely fabulous trip. We finally got some time with Ya Ya at the end, and I keep hoping Carrie is working on a post about the chocolate shower. I'll give her 3 more days and if she doesn't, I will. And then you can look forward to another tale in the adventures of homeownership where I'll in great detail describe how my fridge flooded my basement yesterday. It was awesome!

Peace out, playas.

Better Know A Reader Series

2009-04-08T20:41:00.001-07:00

Today at the Denver Zoo in perfect weather, Carrie and I were discussing how much we enjoyed the comments on the Edward vs. Tim Riggins post. Thus, I'd like to kick off a new segment to the lewisgirls blog... the "Better Know A Reader Series" (inspired by none other than the lovely and talented Stephen Colbert). I will pose a thought-provoking question and you, dear readers, will answer. Let the fun begin.

In case you were wondering, here is who I'd pick between Edward and Tim:

Sorry, Sally. Edward would have had me a few months ago, but Tim Riggins has really turned a corner. As Carrie said, he's the new leader of the town. I love it.

Yesterday I got hit with the nastiest case of hives EVER. I'm unsure as to the cause... could be the horrible cold I've been nursing for a week now, or a reaction to the medicine I took for said cold, or the hot tub at the mountain house, or maybe the Bath and Body Works hand soap I used all over my body for two days because there wasn't any other soap to be found. At any rate, by yesterday evening I was ready to RIP THE SKIN FROM MY BODY it itched so bad. The worst spots, by far, are the hands and the feet. Can you imagine anything worse than the soles of your feet itching while you drive for 1.5 hours down the mountain? Last night I loaded up on Benadryl and slept like a baby, but today the hives were back. So I took only 1 Benadryl, which greatly reduced the itching but made me very, very, VERY drowsy. I was driving down to the zoo and felt like I was moving through honey, and trying to keep track of Crosby at the zoo was almost more than I could bear.

So the question for today is, Would you rather be itchy (incredibly itchy, not just minorly itchy) or very, very drowsy but have to still take care of your kids and function like normal.

Discuss.

7 am breakfast order at Kingsbery CPAs

2009-04-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

4 Advil
1 red bull
1 5-hour energy
2 glasses emercen-C
1 mocho kappa frappachino with a shot of espresso
5 Cheetos

Days are long for tax accountants while life is good for their relatives in the mountains.

9am Breakfast Order...

2009-04-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

...with Sara, her kids, Nana, and Brig:

3 orders of blueberry pancakes
2 orders of french toast
1 side of cinnamon rolls
1 side of bacon
2 hot cocoas
2 root beer floats
1 order of french fries

Life is good in the mountains.

April First

2009-04-01T11:14:00.001-07:00

April Fool's Day really snuck up on me this year... I didn't even think about it until 10 PM last night. Luckily, I had a stash of mini-marshmallows in the garage for an emergency just like this. I wish I could have pulled a similar stunt as last year, but she didn't have school lunch today and you can't buy it spontaneously at our new school. So I just packed a regular lunch, and then jammed as many marshmallows as possible in there and zipped it shut. I hope they explode all over the classroom when she opens it to get her snack.

I'm already planning ahead for next year... I'm thinking tons of superballs in their lunchboxes. Plus I like some of the ideas I saw over at Katie's blog. That colored milk trick is awesome! And I love the balloon idea.

Calder had a half day, so I couldn't pull the lunch joke on him. I did tell him he had a playdate today with his LEAST favorite person in the class today, but he just scowled at me and didn't find it very funny (he can be such a grouch!) He's going to Ada's April Fool's Birthday party later on, though, so I'm sure he'll get his fill of fake food and pranks!

Saturday Night Conversation

2009-03-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

11am. Dave is back from a morning drive with Brig
Dave: Hey - guess what? Our favorite restaurant just opened up a few blocks away!
Carrie: Cafe Rio?
Dave: Pei Wei! We should go there for dinner tonight.
Carrie: Naw, we have all that left over white chicken chili. Let's just eat that.

6pm. Dave and Carrie just returning from a run
Dave: So what are you thinking for dinner tonight?
Carrie: I thought we were going to have chili.
Dave: Oh really? I thought we were going to Pei Wei.
Carrie: Well, it just seems like a waste of money with that delicious chicken chili just waiting for us in the fridge. We can go to Pei Wei another night this week.

6:30pm. Carrie is feeding Brig squash
Dave: So what time are we leaving for Pei Wei?
Carrie: Davvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve...
Dave: It's a Saturday night. We should hit the town as a family.
Carrie: I hate to buy dinner when we have so much food in the fridge...
Dave: But none of that food is Pei Wei spicy chicken.
Carrie: Fine. If it is that important to you, let's just go.

7:00pm. Carrie is putting Brig in his car seat.
Dave: If you don't want to go, we don't have to go.
Carrie: I'm happy to go.
Dave: Because just say the word, and we won't go.
Carrie: We are going!

7:15pm. Carrie and Dave arrive at Pei Wei. There is a giant sign saying the restaurant isn't open for another few days.
Dave: Crap. Is it not open?
Carrie: I don't know - look at all those people in there.
Dave: That is weird
Carrie: It has to be open
Dave: I'm going to go see what is going on...

Dave returns from checking to see if Pei Wei is open
Dave: They aren't open until Monday. But they are "practicing" tonight. They want to know if they can buy us 2 entrees, 2 appetizers, and 2 drinks so their wait staff can practice serving us.
pause
Dave: Is that ok with you?

I will never question Dave again.

If I had to choose...

2009-03-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Rusty has this awesome blog. I visit every few days and cast my votes, often surprised that my views don't line up with the rest of the votes. (Apparently there are a TON of people who would rather have a Barcalounger over an Eames Lounge chair. Unreal.)

After a particularly moving episode of FNL, I forced myself to consider this conundrum. If I had to choose, who would I pick between Tim Riggins and Edward Cullen?

So I ask you, dear readers: Who would YOU choose?

***If you don't care either way, well... then you probably shouldn't be reading this blog.

Best Salad Ever

2009-03-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

I've been going through my iPhoto library, trying to clear stuff out since I'm rapidly running out of space. I came across this picture and realized I meant to post about this salad I made almost a full year ago:

It was one of those totally serendipitous moments. I had BBQ chicken left over from a Sunday dinner (made in the crock pot), lettuce, fresh corn on the cob, tomatoes, corn chips, black beans, and if memory serves, monterey jack cheese. I cut the corn off the cobs (we had eaten them the day before too, and had some left over) and topped it all off with this:

If you are lucky enough to live by a Stew Leonard's, I highly recommend picking up some of this dressing. If you don't, I'm really sorry for you. But then you probably live in the West and have access to an awesome indoor rec center, so we're even. Except you're getting fit and I'm eating salad dressing.

Anyway, I'm going to make this salad again... as soon as I see fresh corn for sale!

***As I'm looking closer at this picture, I don't see any black beans. So maybe I didn't have any on hand but they would make it even more delicious, don't you think?

***I also highly recommend placing Legos by whatever you're eating. It will make everything taste better, just because Legos are so awesome.

Things are breaking in NY, too.

2009-03-23T11:46:00.001-07:00

Lest Laura feel like she's the only one with bad luck, here's a run down on my past few months.

In December, our boiler broke. The burner was bad, and the coil was shot (don't worry if you have no clue what I'm talking about; neither do I!) and we had to spend around 2 K to get things up and running again. There were quite a few days where we had no heat and no hot water (more like a few months of no hot water. We had lukewarm water... but no hot).

Next it was the dryer. After paying Sears to come fix it, I was told the replacement parts would surpass getting a brand new dryer. So I paid the guy and then ordered a new dryer.

Then our water dispenser stopped working on the fridge. This would have been no big deal, until the Sunday evening jam session when I was sitting at the drums and looked over to realize that we had definite water damage in the basement ceiling and wall. We pulled out the fridge and found out that the water tube had sprung a leak! I got a local company to come and fix it. The tube was repaired but Patrick (the repair man) told me he didn't have the part to fix the water. He also told me the tube to my ice maker was now frozen, because we had turned the water off to the fridge to stop the leak. I had turned the water flow back on, and that evening we had a NEW leak because the water tube popped off the back when water met the frozen ice tube. So currently I have no ice, no filtered water, and no COLD water at my kitchen sink. It's super annoying, but I'm not going to get it fixed until I'm back from my trip, just in case the fridge starts leaking again while we're away.

My hair dryer up and died last week. I had to buy a new one at Target... at least this repair only set me back $25.

Then this morning, I was running and started to smell burning rubber. It doesn't look good:

What else can go wrong? Don't answer that. I don't want to know.

5 years ago today...

2009-03-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Wish I could re-live that day. It was the best.
Love you Dave.

what brig is really doing is waiving "happy birthday" to nana!!!!!

2009-03-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Give me the camera

2009-03-19T10:35:00.001-07:00

Mobile - Phase Two

2009-03-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

It took just 11 short months after buying this paper to finally fold my cranes! Phase two of Brig's mobile is now complete.

(Phase one of the mobile is shown here.)

Cheeseheads

2009-03-13T20:17:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday the fire alarm went off. Of the 4 floors in our building, only one floor evacuated and it was...... the CPA firm. No big deal, we are really slow right now.

The first floor houses the infamous, "large portion serving" , ornate, crowded, and overpriced Cheesecake Factory. A fire in the restaurant set off the alarms and sprinklers; but, NO ONE evacuated. Yep, they just sat there like life was the bees knees and everything was hunky dory. Their food was a bit soggy; but, they knew the value of a dollar in these troubled times.

Given that floors 2 and 4 also didn't evacuate, it was all the CPAs standing outside for 10-15 minutes, tapping our feet as we lost 10-15 minutes of precious billing time.

Today, I ran a quick errand and came back only to be highly annoyed that yet again the back elevator wasn't working. As I walked around front I noticed several Cheesecake factory workers walking by. Then sitting on an outside bench were 3 of my coworkers sipping Starbucks "iced" drinks.

L: "well hello there ladies"
Coworkers: "Hi Miss Laura"
L: "Arghh, the fetching elevator isn't working again" [yes I used the"f" word]
Co's: "Neither is the front one, most of Pearl Street is without power"

Sidenote, their drinks were gratis since Starbucks couldn't provide hot drinks. [Visions of a nationwide power outage like sugar plums were dancing in my head. Ahh, to get back at Starbucks just for a few minutes would be so fun]

So we took the stairs to our floor. It was very strange b/c the network, computers, phones, adding machines, postage meter and fax were all inoperable but some offices had overhead lights and the entire kitchen and appliances were working [go figure]. So for 2 hours we tried to work with pencil and paper. AT this point in my career I can't even add 12 + 14 without an adding machine. You just don't realize how much you rely on electricity until you are without it.

But the best thing was that the entire Cheesecake Factory was empty. ALL had evacuated so I guess wet food and burning to death are okay but eating in the dark is a no go.

Okay, now back to work.

Happy New Year?

2009-03-04T19:22:00.001-08:00

As usual, we're a tad late with our New Year's card. This year we're going with email instead of snail mail, but in case I don't have your email address (or don't get around to ever sending it), here you go.

May the force be with you in 2009.
Love, us.

Laura Turns 40!

2009-03-03T10:26:00.001-08:00

Unbelievable! Today our darling Laura turns 40... yet she looks not a day over 12. In honor of your special day, Yah Yah, I decided to skip the traditional list making and instead devote my poetry-making skills to honoring you. So I started off with some haiku, tried a limmerick, and I think we'll all be happy I decided to skip writing you a sonnet. Here you go!

Chocolate in the fridge
It looks delicious... calling me
Hands off! It’s Laura’s.

A well deserved massage
Relaxing... then, POP!
That was my sternum.

Laura is running
We see her on Ithaca
And on Broadway, 2 hours later

Watching a movie
Laura is baking again
Turn off the mixer!

A LIMERICK FOR THE LOVELY LAURA

Laura, Laura where do I start?
I’m singing your virtues, but what’s the best part?

You’re kind, you’re loving, you’re generous to a fault.
You also make a delicious Oreo malt.

Your neighbors below, they’re increasingly crazy.
I’m sure that they wish you were a tiny bit lazy.

You run and you run, through the wind and the snow...
And often with several sweatshirts in tow.

You bake the best treats, of that there’s no doubt.
And I bet you could make something tasty of trout.

Always the one to bring the very best gift to a party,
Which makes up for the fact that you probably arrived tardy.

She can sleep like a champ; she can sleep all day long,
And she does a great job playing or singing a song.

She’s fun and gregarious, and an ace question asker.
And when working at night, is a huge multi-tasker.

Her body is tiny but her heart is GIGANTIC,
And I think that her favorite movie might be Titanic.

She’s a lover of fleece, it’s her most favorite fabric...
and she is considered by some to be quite a maverick.

She excels in her callings, others’ love for her abounds.
But her love for everyone doesn’t extend to hounds.

So Laura, for you, in your 40th year...
May the chocolate flow freely, more abundant than beer!

I love you Laura. Thanks for being the WORLD'S best sister, aunt, friend, and running partner (or general partner in crime). Wishing you the best year yet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

2009-02-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

Ten things you may not know about Gordon Lewis

The "T" in T. Gordon Lewis stands for Theras not "the".
He didn't have an indoor bathroom until he was in 7th grade
He plays the guitar, piano and has a lovely singing voice
He gardens in long sleeved button up dress shirts, jeans, and church shoes
He finished his PhD course work at Stanford University after graduating from BYU as the top engineering student in his class. Mom was scared to death when they first arrived. "Kathleen, this is a whole new ball game and I am up against much tougher competition". Needless to say after the first couple of A+ grades, she stopped worrying.
He prepares the tax return for his daughter who is a CPA with a Master's in Tax.
His favorite dessert is gooseberry pie
Once on a business trip while waiting for his flight home, he accidentally mailed is return ticket thinking it was his weekly handwritten letter to his mother.
Among other things, he does the vacuuming, dusting, cleans the bathroom, and many times grocery shops [no, Kathleen isn't just sitting around eating bon bons]
He is a very dedicated, calculated, educated, and self-deprecated golfer.

This man is my hero and the wisest advisor I know.

I love you DAD.

The dangers of a semi-mobile baby

2009-02-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

If you had told me I would still be at Avaya when Brig turned 7 months old I would have laughed in your face. And yet, here we are.

So far, so good.

Sure Avaya has frozen salaries, and bonuses, and 401K contributions due to the economy...but I'll take what I can get.

About once every two weeks I have a really stressful day. Otherwise, things are very manageable. My angelic mother comes down almost once a week to hang with Brig during my long conference calls, and I'm typically able to get the rest of my work done while he naps.

However, Several times a week I have a shorter conference call when Brig isn't sleeping, and I'm on my own. Brig is pretty chill and can "play by himself" for a good 45 minutes to an hour. So usually I lay him on his back, turn on baby Einstein, surround him with toys, put the baby monitor by him, and head downstairs for my call.

This works 95% of the time - especially since he doesn't crawl, sit up, prefers not to roll, etc. He is typically in the same position I left him, or at most, has pivoted 90 degrees.

Leave it to Brig to learn a new trick while un-supervised.

On Tuesday I had been on a conference call for 45 minutes. I listened to the baby monitor - Brig wasn't crying, but I thought I would go check on him anyway. He had gotten himself into quite the predicament.

One of his toys was a good 6 feet from where I had left it. He must have been trying to grab it and kept pushing it away (inching towards it), pushing it away (inching towards it), pushing it away (inching towards it), until it was 6 feet away under the entertainment center. He then somehow rolled from his back to his stomach (FOR THE FIRST TIME) in an attempt to get at his toy. And, proceeded to get his feet stuck under the entertainment center, so he couldn't roll off his tummy to his back. Note: he hates being on his stomach.

When I came into the room he wasn't crying, just pushing with all his might to try to get on his back. Of course the entertainment center was preventing this from happening. Poor little peanut. He was thrilled to see me when I walked through the doorway.

I guess I need to come up with a plan B. Baby Brig can no longer be left un-supervised. Thus - I've entered a new, and I suspect, never ending era of my life.

InterOffice Email

2009-02-25T17:33:00.000-08:00

Just a sample of what overworked, overfed, and underslept CPAs do about 6:26 pm [read from the bottom up]

From: STUART KINGSBERY
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:26 PM
To: CHRISTOPHER L. DENHAM; LAURA LEWIS; LOGAN BURDINE
Subject: RE: My lost towel

Well, I feel better I didn’t steal anyone’s towel…..

From: CHRISTOPHER L. DENHAM
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:23 PM
To: LAURA LEWIS; STUART KINGSBERY; LOGAN BURDINE
Subject: RE: My lost towel

Fortunately for everyone’s sake I do shower after running but I use the same towel every time and come to think of it I should probably take it home for a wash one of these months.

I’ll keep an eye out though.

From: LAURA LEWIS
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:16 PM
To: STUART KINGSBERY; CHRISTOPHER L. DENHAM; LOGAN BURDINE
Subject: RE: My lost towel

Not sure this is the correct answer but I never have used the shower and don’t “towel off”. This hopefully doesn’t put my personal hygiene in question.

Have you checked craig’s list?

From: LOGUN BURDINE
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:16 PM
To: STUART KINGSBERY; CHRISTOPHER L. DENHAM; LOGAN BURDINE
Subject: RE: My lost towel

I’m about 99.9% certain that I don’t have it but I will keep an eye out around the house.

From: STUART KINGSBERY
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:14 PM
To: LAURA LEWIS; CHRISTOPHER L. DENHAM; LOGAN BURDINE
Subject: My lost towel

About a month ago, a light blue/lavender towel disappeared off of one of my hooks in the shower room – does anyone have any leads on this? Are there other shower room users? I’m hoping this isn’t a towel I stole from someone….let me know if it is.

Thanks!

Stuart

Saturday Night McFever

2009-02-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

Each Saturday I have a date with Tanner, Christian, Mason, and Sydney. This week we were slated to go.....

Bowling, Bowling, BOWLING but alas, itwas not meant to be. Both Tanner and Christian had friends over when I arrived so 5 boys in full basketball shoes, shirts, and shorts and Sydney in her juicy sweatsuit, collared shirt, purple bow and tennis shoes with svaroskis loaded into the Odyssey [have I mentioned how much I love this vehicle.]

First stop, Splitz which is the premier alley. They have video games, they give you socks and you can order pizza, nachos, and probably sushi. The guy at the register informed me it was a 1.5 hour wait. Next stop, some other ghetto place by Target, but, it was league/satin jacket night and a 3 hour wait. Last stop and my Ace in the hole, Flatirons crossing mall.

Everyone got food from their preferred place and we all sat down at a huge table to eat in the middle of the very crowded Food Court. Ethan, T's friend, pulled a jalapeño pepper from his sandwich and Christian popped it into his mouth faster than you can say Barak Obama. Literally 1 minute later C stands up and looks at me wide-eyed and says “I think I’m going to throw up”. PANIC. Tanner said “run to the bathroom” but C had the “I’m going to do it now” look on his face. So I glibly grabbed the McDonalds bag that the McNuggets came in and held it under his mouth. C preceded to throw up, the bag got heavier and heavier and all the while I was ghost patting myself on the back for having so quickly diverted a most certain and smelly disaster.

Suddenly I noticed how heavy the bag was getting and then THE BAG MCBROKE and you guessed it, puke spewed everywhere. I took Christian and got him cleaned up and came back to see a poor little Latino worker staring at the mess radioing for backup. Our group had conveniently moved to another table.

And you guessed it, C was fine, went and ran around the dinosaurs and slammed a huge Wonka candy bar.

Winter Break Recap

2009-02-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Friday night and Winter Break is officially over.

I think Winter Break is a grand idea. In the middle of February, it sounds so idyllic to escape the final cold days of winter and lay on a beach somewhere tropical. I'm all for it! But sadly, we didn't have the funds for such a vacation. So I really think they should have cancelled Winter Break in honor of the recession. Apparently, though, we are just about the only family in Scarsdale who is saving their ca$h right now, because everyone else got out of town for warmer weather. Lucky ducks.

So I made the most of what I had (a zoo pass!) and decided we'd do fun things in NY that we rarely have time to do otherwise. Thankfully on Monday, the big kids went into the city with Trav. He had some work to do [cleaning out the office] and they were going to work on Calder's 100 days of school project. Cros and I had a day of fun, which involved not much of anything besides a trip to Stew Leonard's and a baby adventure in the cold and muddy backyard. We drove in to pick them up, and all the stuff Trav cleared out, around 8 PM. Crosby wreaked havoc around the office while we loaded things in the car, and then we stopped by the American Girl store to get Scout "Steps High". It's a horse that's the size of a dog, in case you don't know. Her plan is to get the doll that rides it for her upcoming birthday. [Nana, hope you are writing this down in your Daytimer... her name is Kaya.]

The next day we headed to the Brooklyn Aquarium. If I could give this week a theme, it would be: Crosby is really hard to take places. Catchy, no? He loved the aquarium, as we knew he would [he's a big fan of water], but once he got to an attraction, he'd refuse to leave. I'd have to forcibly pick him up, kicking and flailing, and move him to the next spot. He also spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to touch the water he was seeing, but luckily, he couldn't get to any of it.

This is the only picture I was able to get. I was too busy trying to make sure I didn't lose the kids [I actually did lose Scout for about 5 minutes, but that was her fault, not mine.] It was super stressful, so I was relieved we had the dryer repairman coming the next day so we couldn't go far from home.

Wednesday and Thursday were mostly playdates and frustration. The Sears man informed me it would cost $475 to repair the dryer, making it pointless to fix. But I still had to pay him $80 to tell me that. Nice! Plus I've been out of clothes for a few days now, and was really banking on having the dryer up and running by the afternoon. No such luck. So I ended up washing several loads of clothes (Scout had an incident the night before that required ALL her bedding to be washed, along with the entire bathroom, at 3 am) and taking them over to Palmers to dry. Super fun.

Today the new dryer arrived (I didn't waste any time ordering a new one, once I had checked Consumer Reports) and luckily, the guys who delivered it charged me very little to hook it up. [It was all "under the table... just between us" as Pepe told me over and over. Got it. Sears will not be held responsible when it turns out to be a bad electrical job and the whole thing explodes]. So since we got that done in the morning, and Scout had a playdate and Calder got to hone his Lego Star Wars skillz for about 6 hours, we were ready for another outing. Destination? Ikea!

I have a real love/hate relationship with Ikea. Today I was returning several items Travis had bought a few months ago, that didn't work out. It seems as if every time we go there, we end up with a few things that have to be returned, which is a major pain, and then we end up spending way more than the value of the items we returned. I'm happy to report that I broke the cycle today. I showed miraculous restraint as I returned $130 worth of merchandise and only left having spent $27... on shower curtains, a child's tea set (we need it... we really do!), and some tea lights.

The real problem today was my fault. Crosby had refused to take a nap, so he fell asleep in the car on the way there, which was my plan. The problem being that I had taken the stroller that I always keep in the trunk out the day before, because we had taken bikes and scooters to the park to play (the weather was a balmy 45 degrees, so we had to make the most of it). Normally he'll transfer to his stroller and sleep for a while, which would have been lovely. We could have returned the stuff without incident and the kids could have played in the ball pit for a while, while I sat on the couches and chilled. But no such luck. He woke up the second we went into the store... maybe because I tried to lay him down in a shopping cart to nap. He turned into a lunatic, clawing at my face and throwing his body with force all over the place. There was no other option but to hold him as tightly as I could, to keep him from seriously hurting himself. This went on for about 20 minutes, no lie. It was a nightmare. Finally he calmed down and we were able to venture through the store. Here are my grainy pictures taken with my iphone:

Scout was the only one who wanted to stop in the cafe and eat, go figure. The rest of us played in the kids' area while she ate dinner #1.

Calder got eaten by several stuffed animals, but we made it out alive. Phew.

Crosby looks deceptively happy here. In fact, he was a total nightmare. This was the only period he wasn't screaming while trying to rip off my head.

I just thought these lights looked so cool. I love Ikea (when I don't hate it).

So in summary, Winter break: Over. I'm wiped out. If you made it this far, I can't believe you're still reading. You deserve a medal or something.

Pimp my ride... Westchester edition

2009-02-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

Shazam!

Check out my wheels for the day. I went to get our car serviced, and they were out of loaner BMWs so they called Enterprise to rent a car for me. When the lady led Crosby and I out to this hot little number, I couldn't believe it. SWEEEEEET!

I'm desperately hoping that they don't call me to come get my car before tomorrow. Trav and Scout are going to a daddy/daughter Valentine's dance tonight and really, can you imagine a better ride for such an event?

Budgeting

2009-02-12T19:38:00.001-08:00

There are many (many) things I could/should be doing right now instead of this blog post... such as:

1. Sleeping. I could always be sleeping.

2. Prepping my YW lesson for Sunday on, get this, Homemaking. Can't wait to see how I tweak that lesson!

3. Sewing patches on my kids' jeans. Lesson to be learned: Skinny jeans are VERY cute on kids, but they rip the knees out about 3 months earlier than in normal pants. Tight pants + crazy kids = big holes. Bummer. Thank goodness I got a bunch of patches from Trav's dad about 10 years ago. I KNEW they would come in handy someday!!!

4. Did I mention sleeping already?

5. Scraping the glue off my table. I'm detoxing from a Valentine making marathon this afternoon. I'll deal with the glue, and dinner dishes, tomorrow morning.

But, I really want to quickly discuss budgeting.

So for the first time ever, Travis and I have decided to track what we spend and keep a budget.I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong. We are actually quite frugal. We discuss our purchases for months (years!) before going through with them. We don't eat out much, we clean our own house, and the amount of vacations we've taken that didn't involve visiting family equal 1. It was that trip to the Jersey Shore where we stayed in my parents' friends' condo.

But we've never kept track, or been sticklers for a monthly budget. So step one was to total and categorize the past 3 months of spending. And oh, was it painful.

We were both pretty shocked at the amount of money we've spent lately. Granted, we're in a new (largely unfurnished) house, and had Christmas one of the months, and had to pay about 2 K in boiler repairs. But still... we need to slow things down.

So I'm wondering, in these tough financial times, what are you doing to "trim the fat" from your monthly expenses? There are many things I'm willing to let go of, but a few I'm not, such as:

1. High quality food: Mostly organic, lots of produce.

2. At least 1 activity per child... right now they are doing swimming, but I'd really like to have Scout start piano.

On the note of frugality, and so you have some idea of what I'm surrounded by, the other day a friend and I were talking and she was telling me they were on a "spending freeze." Then about 2 seconds later she mentioned they were going to the Bahamas next week for vacation, and that she just signed her kids up for drum lessons. It's hard to NOT think you're super thrifty when surrounded by New Yorkers.

At any rate, let me know what you're giving up... and what you refuse to.

ps: Don't tell me to turn my heat down. If it gets any colder in here, we'll be wearing snowsuits all day long... and Travis and I will never be able to get out of bed!

Overheard Yesterday

2009-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Calder: I'm giving out Fun Dips to all my friends for Valentine's day. I'll have to get you something different.

Ezra: But I'm your BEST friend!

Calder: No. You're one of my brothers.

Ezra: Oh yeah.

Such cute buddies... just like their dads.

Baby's first haircut

2009-02-11T08:20:00.000-08:00

In November Brig was rocking the following hair style:

All his original hair on the sides and in the back had fallen out - but the top was holding strong. It would stand straight up - and his new hair was starting to come in.

By December his top hair was getting quite long and a little floppy. He really looked like he was about to fly away at any moment.

By February the new hair was also quite long and it was just a big shaggy mess. What you can't see is the bald spot in the back, and how all the long hair on top would lay over it like a baby comb back. He was starting to look pretty hobo-esque.

So I finally agreed to a hair cut which Dave, and my mom, and everyone else has been talking about for some time. Here are some before pictures. Poor kid has no idea what is coming his way.

Don't you love how he is holding his feet?

And the after...

I have to say I was a little traumatized at first, but it is growing on me. I do think Brig is bugged we messed with his mojo though. He shed a tear for every lock we cut off. He is NOT a fan of the clippers.

National Western Stock Show

2009-02-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

Brig loved the animals, hated the rodeo. It was way...too...loud. It took us 5 minutes to realize he was crying while he sat on our lap. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic evening.

DC Diaries

2009-02-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Monday

At first Dave was excited Brig and I decided to crash his business trip, but as we attempted to get our 12 billion bags / stroller / car seat through check in and security I could see him beginning to look at us as liabilities instead of assets. Luckily our own row on the airplane + 1 angelic baby made for a very successful flight! Brig only cried a total of 60 seconds. It helped that Dave had some baby Einstein music and his noise cancelling head phones on hand. Once the headphones were on Brig froze and did not move a muscle for 30 minutes.

We headed straight to the Georgetown Ritz Carlton and took a minute to relax. We laid Brig down on the bed so he could stretch out and with-in 90 seconds he fell asleep. Apparently he is a fan of high thread count and down.

Next we were off to find the National Mall. We walked by the department of interior and Dave said, "Hey, that is Ken Salazar's new assignment. I bet he is in there." I point this out only because we ended up walking past the department of interior another 5 times in the next 40 minutes (we were lost.) Each time we happened upon the department of interior it felt like Ken Salazar was slapping us in the face.

When we finally made it to the National Museum of Air and Space Dave made me stand by this exhibit for a picture. Turned out he thought it would make an excellent science project for Brig. Apparently we are really planning ahead.

We LOVED this museum. That night we went to a oyster bar in Georgetown and got - hamburgers, what else? Dave ordered the cheeseburger and I ordered the cheeseburger sliders. I figured a big plate full of small cheeseburgers was way better than just one burger. Oh how wrong I was. My plate came and there were 3 cheeseburgers each the size of a quarter. Dave's hamburger was more football sized. I finished my 3 burgers in 3 bites and proceeded to beg Dave for fries, lettuce scraps, ketchup droppings, whatever I could scavenge. Never again!

Tuesday

Dave had to work so Brig and I were on our own the rest of the days. I woke up and turned on the news. Immediately I was bombarded with "WINTER STORM WARNING" and "ICE STORM" and "ALL THE DC SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED" and "STAY INSIDE!" So I put Brig down for a nap, took a bath, and tried to decide what to do. After he woke up I decided I might as well and try a walk. We could always return to the hotel. The Ritz staff saw me coming down the hall with my stroller and tried to get me a cab, give me an umbrella, anything to shield us from the storm. I told them we would be fine. I walked outside and there was maybe 1 inch of beautiful snow. Unbelievable!

We walked around for 3 1/2 hours looking at the amazing homes, the university, and the shopping district. At 2pm I was starving to death and intimidated by all the cute little restaurants. I tried to find something easy and familiar. Minutes later I saw a guy walk by with a Chipotle bag - BINGO! So I followed him. It took me 10 minutes of tailing this guy, at a break-neck speed, pushing my stroller through the snow, flying off curbs - when it donned on me. If this guy HAD a Chipotle bag, he probably wasn't heading to Chipotle. So I turned and walked in the opposite direction and finally found it.

That night I made up for my lame lunch by going to a cute little Italian restaurant with Dave for dinner. Poor Brig was so wiped out from our big day he passed out on my lap.

Wednesday

We switched hotels and moved to the Ritz in Pentagon City. I was nervous about navigating the subways with my stroller, so I put on my yellow coat, put on the Bjorn, put Brig in his grey fleece get up, and put him on. We went to the Holocaust museum which was amazing. When we arrived at the museum they asked if I wanted to check my coat. I said no.

WHY?
WHY?

Like anyone in DC would even remotely consider stealing my giant yellow coat.

After 15 minutes both Brig and I were SWEATING TO DEATH. I finally took him out of his sleeping bag thing and just carried it (while carrying him.) But I had to leave on the furnace (coat). In addition my back was pleading for relief due to the 18 lbs baby strapped to me. By the end of the tour I decided no amount of intimidation would keep me from using my stroller the next day.

That night we got some Thai food and took Brig for a dip in the hotel pool. It was a literal dip as when we got in the pool we realized it was freezing cold and got right out.

Thursday

This was my favorite day. I survived the subway and made it to the National Museum of Art. I walked around for 30 minutes wondering who I was trying to impress, after all I was alone, and let's be honest, not a big fan of old art. So I left and headed over to my new true love, my new home land - The Museum of Natural History. I LOVED THIS MUSEUM! I couldn't get enough of the dinosaurs, mammals, giant whale replicas, etc. A++++. I loved it so much I decided I had to try to take a picture to capture the moment. Taking a picture of yourself is tricky as is. But taking a picture of yourself, with an IPHONE, that doesn't have a button, just a "touch" button that can't be seen from the other side of the phone proved impossible.

Below is my best picture. Yes, I said best.

They had a butterfly pavilion exhibit that Brig went crazy for. He flapped his arms and legs like...well...a butterfly. His highlight was when one landed on his arm and he tried to grab it.

That night we got some Mexican food with Dave and packed up.

Friday

The next day we headed home. We gave Brig his first real "food" and let him suck on my apple core. Big mistake. He would scream every time we tried to take it away. Other than that, he was a great baby on the return flight.

I fully intend to crash all of Dave's upcoming business trips. We had a great time!

Summer Recap III

2009-02-05T08:32:00.001-08:00

We went on lots of adventures all over the greater Denver area while in Colorado, but we also spent a lot of time just hanging at Nana and Grampa's house (the former domain of Ashes the cat). I'm not going to lie to you... there was a TON of TV watching, by kids big and small. Since we don't have cable, when my kids are exposed to regular television (particularly Cartoon Network) they go crazy. We watched a lot of Chowder, Avatar, Jimmy Neutron, Yugioh and Bakugan. Is it me or do all kids shows feature animals that live in balls and come out to fight each other?

It's also so funny how into the commercials my big kids are. They're not used to them, and they watch them with the same attention and interest as the shows. For example, one day Scout said, "Mom, do you have any old jewelry you don't want any more?" I thought about some of my old bead necklaces and thought I could part with a couple of them, thinking she wanted to wear something pretty. Oh no. Next she said, "Mom, you can turn your old jewelry into CASH!" Apparently she had seen that commercial where they want to buy your old gold. Nice.

There are two high chairs at Nana's, which works out really well for all the little grandkids. But they also come in handy with the bigger kids, who for some reason take most of their meals in the high chairs, even though they are way, way too big for them. Maybe they like being at the same height as the TV?

Another fun activity was making homemade ice cream. The kids loved it. Note that the ice cream was being made at about 8 PM, and Scout is still in her bathing suit. Also very indicative of a typical summer day. She puts it on first thing in the morning and only takes it off to go to bed. You'd think she'd get cold.

Summer Recap II

2009-02-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

One more post and then I'm forcing myself to call 2 plumbers.

When we were in Colorado this summer, we spent lots of time at the cabin. We had so much fun. We did lots of swimming at the rec center, snorkeled in the hot tub, roasted marshmallows with swim goggles on, hiked, rode bikes (often during a rainstorm), played games, and watched lots and lots of Dora the Explorer. Dora has such universal appeal... kids of all ages get sucked into watching her.

Summer Recap

2009-02-04T10:44:00.001-08:00

Well, we're four days into February and already, I'm suffering. I never do well in February. By now I'm so OVER winter, and cold, and snow and ice and wind, that I slip into a weather-related depression/funk. Since I never posted much about our summer adventures, I thought now might be a good time to reflect on days past. Days that were much, much warmer.

These pictures are from the last week in my old house. We had this beautiful bush outback... it was kind of like a lilac bush, but blue. It smelled awesome. My mom had come out to help me pack up the house, and it's a good thing she did. I NEVER would have finished in time, what with the broken ankle and the C of O drama. It's good to post this because even though it was warm when I took these photos, I'm so happy to not be living this time of my life. It was a stress fest.

Welcome Home

2009-02-02T09:32:00.000-08:00

While trying to navigate the subway system of DC with a giant stroller holding one very cute baby, I was the receipt of many looks filled with:

Surprise
Scorn
Curiosity
Amusement

Everyone saw me. Trust me. I was hard to miss - especially in my bright yellow coat (I didn't realize DC had a "black wool only" dress code). While everyone took a good long look at me - no one let me on the subway first, helped me on the escalator, offered me their seat, said hello, or moved out of the way to let my stroller off the train.

My first errand back in Colorado was to Sunflower Market grocery store. The lady in front of me purchased a bouquet of tulips, and before she left turned around and handed them to me. She said, "Here. I bought these for you because you are a mom, and you deserve them."

Ahhh.

It is nice to be home.

Retraction

2009-01-29T18:49:00.001-08:00

Remember the post where I recommended you buy this candle?

Hopefully you didn't run out and buy it.

I lit mine for the SECOND time today, and get this: it wouldn't burn. It had gone all the way down to the bottom, and I only burned it once for like maybe 6 hours. Hello! I thought soy was supposed to burn slower/longer than parafin? Or whatever other candles are made from.

I was very disappointed. So, although I love the citrusy cilantro smell (so subtle! so fresh!), at 7.99 a pop, I can't afford to buy any more of them. That's nearly $2 every time hour of burn time. So Yankee Candle Company, you've got me back. I just discovered they now have an all natural soy line. Hopefully I like some of the smells. (Pumpkin? Yes. I love pumpkin.)

And in case the above paragraph didn't tip you off, a budget post is in the works. Just a little something to whet your appetite!

**********

In other news, I've decided to go back to using capitals. I've always used them when I type blog posts or journal entries, but never when I'm on Facebook or emailing. I thought it was cute and fast and figured since I KNEW the rules (oh, do I know the rules) I was allowed to break them. Well, I had a change of heart tonight and decided to take capitalization back by storm. Shift key, here I come.

Is it totally retarded that I posted about this? If so, keep it to yourself.

Barf-o-rama

2009-01-28T18:52:00.000-08:00

The title of this post says it all. If you are a queasy person, I highly suggest you NOT read this post. Mom, that means you.

The other night, Oz was acting rather odd. He wanted nothing to do with dinner and was fussy... I thought it was because he was overwhelmed by all the people we had over for dinner. Then when I was trying to give him his bottle, he was very squirrely and only drank half of it.

I put him to bed where he proceeded to make this sound: RAAAR RAAAR RAAAAAAR for like an hour. He does that a lot, but I knew when it turned into crying things weren't going well (he NEVER cries when I put him in his bed. I think he got that from me!) so I went and got him some Motrin, assuming he had the same sore throat I did. Then I brought him into our room, planning on giving him more milk on our bed. Suddenly, PROJECTIVE VOMITING EVERYWHERE! Argh. All over the [freshly washed] down comforter, our blanket, the floor, my socks and pants, everywhere. It was so super nasty. He puked again and then we just sat there while Travis jumped up and tried to clean it up.

Travis is not known for having a strong stomach. He can barely abide diaper changes, and I knew this wasn't going to be good. As he valiantly cleaned up the puke, he was plugging his nose and moaning. I think I said a few times [at least]:
"Hey, don't worry about it! I can get it. Just go get the baby some gatorade." But he wanted to help, which was so sweet... until he started to gag.

By this time I had gotten the baby in clean PJs, and was rinsing stuff off in the bathtub. Travis came barreling in and barfed ALL OVER the bathroom. I mean, it was everywhere. And all over me, wiping out the rest of my clothes that hadn't been tainted by Oz. He nailed the sink, the toilet, the floor, the cabinet, the radiator... you get the picture. At this point it was so ridiculous, all we could do was laugh. He had a beard of vomit.

Cleaning it up was one of the worst things I've ever had to do. We've had several conversations since about it, analyzing the puke and why it was so much gnarlier than regular puke. Was it the key lime pie? The whipped cream? The mashed potatoes? I'm shivering now with dread just thinking about it.

We also established some rules as well. The first rule is: If you are cleaning up vomit and feel the need to vomit, stay and puke there. Do NOT head to a new location! Good rule of thumb to all of you out there.

It's been a long week here. Today it was coming out the other end of Cros, just as damaging. He went through 4 outfits in one day, a full set of bedding, and two pairs of shoes. I think I've done more laundry this week than in my entire life. I really really hope the big kids don't get it tonight!!!

6 months

2009-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

My baby is officially 0.5 years old.

Weird.
Really, really, weird.

He is 50% in height.
He is 50% in weight.
His head...well, what do you expect? A solid 90%.

So it isn't just my imagination that it is nearly impossible to get onesies over his head.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this baby?