Santa came early.

The local Fire Station brought Santa and Mrs. Claus right to our house on a fire truck last Sunday. Harry was truly amazed, but of course, George wanted nothing to do with the old guy in the white beard. They both got a stocking full of fun stuff. Moving here gets better and better!

Our Tree

Just for you to see, Savanna. Our Christmas Tree!

Ick!

I'm not a big fan of the yucked up baby photos, but George was just so happy that I let him go to town on his jar of baby food. He was one happy dude!

Day Trip to Sedona

We decided to get out of the house on Saturday and drive to Sedona and Oak Creek. We hiked Through slide rock park and the boys had a great time climbing all over everything they could. George was great for Brian in the sling, just went along for the ride.

This week, we adventure to Phoenix!

Dog Heaven

The clan is just coming off a Nathan's hot dog binge courtesy of our nearest Shell gas station. We are 20 miles from any real fast food, so while were so occupied with the moving and unpacking, we kept running down to the Shell station for their 99 cent hot dogs. it became quite addictive since there were almost never enough for all of us to get one, so we'd have to take turns and depending on the person, we'd either hope that they WERE the jalapeno version or NOT.

Here is George enjoying the last one we got, 4 whole days ago.

I wonder if Shell has noticed a precipitous drop in their hot dog sales?

Monday's View

Why, yes I do realize that it's Wednesday, but between a sick baby and an absent daddy, it's been a few days of hell here.

This was the lovely view from my front window on Monday morning. The little powder was gone by lunchtime, but it was so pretty to wake up to.

She didn't get on the bus...

and I don't think she would have fit even if she tried.

Brian spotted two elk (or maybe mule deer? I'm not sure.)feeding on grass and such when we took Harry to his bus stop this morning. I wonder how many kids get to see that?

Go Vote!

Today is election day; don't forget to vote!

In the Pines

We arrived on Wednesday night. The drive wasn't too bad, both Harry and George were champs for the 13 hours it took. We stopped in Hawthorne, NV for breakfast and then in Tonopah, NV for gas and potty breaks and we had a long break in Vegas for lunch at Chipotle and donuts from Dunkin Donuts. (haven't had those in YEARS!) Our only other stop was at Hoover Dam. Harry hasn't seen it and I thought we should stop, just in case it was harder to get to when the new highway opens.



Our "cabin" in the woods is a whole 'nother story. It is safe and warm and dry; no critters or anything scary. Well, I guess that depends on your point of view....

...to be continued

We are downsizing...

but not quite this much.

We are moving into my in-laws "cabin" near Flagstaff, AZ. We are just tired of struggling to live here in Reno. The cost of living here is ridiculous and there are no tech jobs for Brian. I am sick to death of worrying about how we are going to pay our bills. We are starting over again.

Here's the real deal:



It's on a 5000 sq ft lot in the Coconino National Forest. The kids will be going to Flagstaff schools, which are very nice, highly rated and Brian will be taking a deep breath and figuring out what he wants to do next.

Part of me will miss our big two-story house, but I was getting way to attached to a house that we don't own and by helping someone else pay their mortgage, we were certainly making sure we would never have one of our own. With Savanna and Steven on the brink of adulthood, we were going to have FAR more house than we really needed anyway.

So, on to the next adventure! We'll see how rustic life can be.

5+ years later...

We finally made it to a museum here in Reno. We went to the Nevada Museum of Art yesterday and I will freely admit, we only went because Savanna needed to go for school. One of those things you never get around to, but are really glad someone finally forced you to go.

Harry's favorite exhibit was Dan Goods "The Hidden Light." It was an interactive visual display; very cool.

My favorite was Katie Holten: Atlas of Memory.

I realize that they do it to keep it relevant to the area, but the predictable Southwestern/Western oil paintings wear me out. I guess I need to get away from this region to see anything else. Overall, it was an interesting and cheap expedition for an otherwise uneventful Sunday.

George's First Birthday!

Hard to believe that my littlest sunshine is already one! This past year has gone by so fast.
(click to see it bigger)

In my fantasy world

Here's what we would be wearing for the Holiday picture that I haven't taken yet:



It will probably never happen this way, since stuff usually never does, but it's a fun thought!

My two little "Caricatures"

When we last got to IKEA in May, they were having a Kids Day and there was a very nice Caricature artist there named Susan Johnson (artbysue@sbcglobal.net). Somehow, the line was only one kid long when we walked in, so we wrangled her into doing both boys. George sat pretty well for only 7 months old at the time. Sue asked them what they liked to do, so Harry is building a Lego raft and Georgie is playing with blocks. I don't recall George ever really getting into blocks, but I imagine that's what Harry told her that he liked to do.

Latest Pages

I am way too lazy to worry about cut-off edges and perfect scans, but here they are!

What I wouldn't do for Georgie's Head

Poor George seems to always have a "bruised apple" head. If he doesn't have a fresh one, he's got an old yellowing one. He is constantly pulling out drawers, getting on top of things or under them, or otherwise banging his head.

Consequently, I've had to elevate my drafting table really high to keep him from using it as a target and since it is so high now, my short self has to stand to use it and keep it at an angle to do so, which means that everything slides off because long ago I took off the bottom tray because it was broken.

So.... after this steam roller of events, I got a new trimmer that has grippy feet. Pretty much everything else will stay put for short periods, but my old gigantic guillotine trimmer was just too scary to ever put on there. With discount coupon in hand, I got this little guy at Michael's and it really works great. They have really improved upon the rotary trimmer since I last had one and the price was great.



I don't know if it was the new trimmer or what, but I have been scrapbooking like a maniac this past week. Fun to have my mojo back! Maybe I will even scan some to post!

Goodbye Mrs. Martin

We were so thrilled to find out that Harry LOVED his 2nd grade teacher this year. He was truly excited to go to school everyday and did his homework without any fuss. He was happy and thriving until we found out that due to decreased enrollment, they were going to eliminate one of the 2nd grade classes, and you guessed it, it was Harry's class with Mrs. Martin. She is normally a 1st grade teacher and got bumped back into 1st grade and Harry's class got split up between the other 2nd grade classes. He's back in a team teaching class, which I think is incredibly stupid. One teacher teaches the class while the other grades homework and does paperwork. I'm not impressed with the idea.

This photo was taken on the last day that Harry went to Mrs. Martin's class. What a sad day for him.

Signs of Fall

Harry left this for me on my desk. He thought it was so cute, he knew I would like it, but wanted to make sure I didn't eat it. So like him, the sweetest little boy on earth.

11 Months Old

Hard to believe we're coming upon the big 1st Birthday already. George started the celebration early by rolling right out of my bed at 1am. While he was not very happy ending up on the floor, he spends pretty much his entire day trying to dive off of things. He did NOT get the stuntman gene from me, that's for sure. None of my other kids were so fearless, they learned quickly that they didn't like the end result, but good old George just keeps trying. My little thrill seeker.

Slacker Update

So, it has been two weeks since I've darkened the doors at Gold's Gym. Not really because I want to skip it, but I have not had any opportunity (read: no one likes to babysit for me for free anymore).

I have been doing quite an extensive routine of exercises at home. Almost an hour of crunches, leg work, and very light weight training. No cardio at all though. Not good.

Will I resort to driving a 30 mile, just for gym trip at night to fit it in? When evening is Georgie's MOST clingy time? and when he still nurses himself to sleep. Can't really see it happening, but I don't know what else to do.