we're still here

My brother has been a blogging fool. As I have low expectations for this blog, as do you by now, this is not an attempt to keep up. Here we are at Butler's Orchard for our second annual Christmas tree cutting.

Summer is here

I'm on school break. A couple of days a week I'm home with the kids, which has been really fun. Al gave me some great advice about spending the day with them..."it is great, as long as you expect to get nothing accomplished" She was right. Low expectations never fail. (like the ones I've made for this blog) I had zero expectations for projects, errands, personal grooming, etc. and we've been having a wonderful time. Al is working on being home 2 days a week too, so we'll have long weekends together. I've been trying to go out each morning with the kiddos to a new neighborhood spot...I don't have any pictures though as I have had my hands full, but I did get a great pic of them at home.
AND we finally got Iris singing on camera.

Mother's day out

Happy Mother's day to the 2-3 mothers that might read this. Oliver is now about 5 months...he's grown a bit since last update. We've gone through a lot of transitions with Al going back to work and all kid things doubled, not that I'm complaining, it's wonderful. A few break throughs this week; Oliver rolled over a bunch of times and Iris has used the potty 5 times, all on her own! I hope this isn't a blip on the map but the begining of the end for her in diapers. We'll see...or you'll find out in another 4 months. Here's some pics from our day out honoring the fabulous mom of our family.




Iris knew I was taking this one

She thought this one was off camera...much more honest.

Ollie six weeks old

Oliver's been doing great. He's holding his head up really well (see below), working on a range of facial expressions and generally, he's very chill - lots of sleeping, unfortunately not as much at night. Otherwise he tolerates his sisters rough head patting, kisses, and pouncing with little complaint. He's biding his time.
Here's a link to Youtube, Al got a good video of our boy.

New baby, new house

On December 16th Oliver joined the family! He is a great looking guy (of course) and while he doesn't have a huge range, he does the three basics really well. Two days before birth he was in perfect position, then in less than 48 hours he did a flip and Allison had to have an emergency c-section. Iris loves pointing out his facial features and giving him kisses. It has been a very busy month - we moved into our house on November 21st.




Friends of ours had their daughter two days later at the same hospital and were in a recovery room two doors down. They took this pic.

We took Oliver home during the "Capital Crippler", "Beltway Blizzard" etc...
Ghandi was covered.




Iris out in her first big snow.

The house

This was the first night. We've re-organized slightly since.

catch up - Maryland Challenge

This idea sprung from a conversation that a friend, Bill, and I had while walking with our families on a stretch of the Appalacian Trail (AT) in Maryland. It's a flat, scenic walk running between what used to be the C&O Canal and the Potomac River. Years earlier Bill met a group of high school kids at a Maryland state park who looked terribly tired - after inquiring he found out they were trying to walk the Maryland portion of the AT (42 miles) in 24 hours. Our ensuing conversation went something like this "light pack, sneakers, energy food and head lamps - NO Problem! If high school kids can do it (Bill didn't actually know if they were sucessful) so can we!"
On Saturday, October 2nd at 10 AM, Bill and I parked in Pennsylvania and embarked on the stupidest and most painful thing I've voluntarily done. We did it though.

We begin

When walking was still fun and we had energy for silly pictures.

Half way done at 6:30 PM, only 21 more miles to go. We ate "dinner" (pita, pepperoni stick, peanutbutter, and raisen bread...dumb) at the first Washington Monument, errected by the citizens of Boonsville in 1827.



About 24 miles in we came upon the South Mountain Inn. Bill had some history here, but it was my first "Uncle Bretsky". And we actually met Uncle Bretsky (pictured). I think we made his week when we ordered 2 of his special, which can be found in many area lean-to log books. We departed around 8 PM


2AM - Trying to get some energy to keep moving. We had about 5 more miles to go from this point and no place to bail out had we wanted to.

We limped into Harpers Ferry WV at 5:30 AM. We finished in 19 1/2 hours. This pic was taken at 6:30 AM. After I fell asleep under a bush in someone's front yard for about an hour, Bill found a ranger who let us into a bathroom where we finally got warm and were conviced that we would live. Sure, light packs and energy food...

catch up - Birmingham

The second weekend of September I was able to go on a professional development trip to Birmingham AL. Other than Florida, which apparently really isn't the south, Birmingham is the furthest south I've been. The sweet tea and BBQ rocked. But the food was secondary - I was able to go to three days of speakers, presentations and field trips regarding the protests and bombings in Birmingham during the 50's and 60's. I was able to meet and chat with Civil Rights workers, activits and survivors of the 16th St. Baptist Church bombings and attend a service at Fred Shuttleworth's church, Bethel Baptist. Neither the pictures nor my descriptions will do it much justice, but I can't wait to incorporate this experience into my classroom.
Kelly Ingram park where Bull Connor used water hoses and dogs to dislodge protesters. We weren't able to see the place where he jailed hundreds of children for marching downtown.





16th St. Baptist Church where four girls, preparing for a children's service, were killed in 1963 and Bob Cherry, one of the bombers, who was finally prosecuted in 1998