New-ish Software

A while back friends and family would ask me what program I use for digital scrapbooking.  Several years ago (2007?) I got a new program, and although I tinkered with it a bit, life happened I never got around to using it.  Or my old program, for that matter.  No scrapbooking since January 2008.  *sigh*  Determined to catch up as much as I can before Baby Isaac appears, I sat down tonight to start the repentance process.

So I'm now using My Memories Suite by Polaroid.  And while the interface is a little different than I'm used to with my old program, I'm getting used to it and I like what I can do.  What's killing me is the program keeps crashing!  I wish it weren't so buggy.  I pretty much have to save my work after any change I make, or I'll have to start over.  And six pages and probably a dozen crashes later, I've started over plenty of times tonight.  Good thing it's New Year's Eve and I'm staying up late on purpose.

An hour later...
Golly gee whiz, it might help if I actually installed the latest version that I bought 6 months after I bought the program!  Installed it now and hoping that helps.

Now if only I could get the yellow ink nozzle on my photo printer unclogged so I could actually print these works of art...

Tick-tock

So often David lives up to his name's meaning, "Beloved."  He has such a tender heart.  The past couple of days he has shown particular interest in new baby Isaac's wellbeing.

Yesterday as everyone was bundling up to go play in the 7+ inches of snow we got (!!!) he said, "Mom should stay inside, because we don't want Isaac to get cold."  He's got a point there.  I'd better stay dry and cozy inside with a cup of hot cocoa... ;)  Seriously though, I was glad for his concern, because my midsection is rapidly making my warm outerwear gather dust on hangers.  I can get by for brief stints outdoors, but I'm not really equipped for snowball fights and snow angels.  Not that I could get down to actually make a snow angel...

But I digress...  Today David asked me at lunch time if I had eaten yet.  "Not yet," I replied.  "Mom, you need to eat because Isaac will get hungry.  He won't be thirsty now because you just had a drink."

Bedtime prayers: "...please bless Mommy and baby Isaac, and please bless Isaac when he comes out that he won't be cold, because it will be winter time..."

As I tucked him in and arranged his yellow blanket (his favorite since he was a baby), he said, "Mom, I'm getting too big for this blanket, so we can give it to Isaac."

What a precious boy!

Meanwhile the reality of the close proximity of Isaac's birth has started to sink in for Nathan and me.  I had David two weeks from this point in the pregnancy.  I've still got 5 weeks to go, but give me three more weeks to incubate this fella and then I'll be happy to push him out any time.  I'm tired of being pregnant!

So anyway, I've been thinking this past week that it's probably time pack the hospital bag (and by extension, dig out baby clothes and buy diapers), and type up the boys' schedules/routines for whomever lands them on the big day. Today Nathan was talking about how he's going to rearrange some exercise equipment in our room to make room for setting up the pack-n-play.  Which means that I also need to start thinking more seriously about how we're going to arrange all three kids' sleeping quarters once Isaac is ready for the real crib that is currently set up as Daniel's toddler bed.  I'm not sure I'm ready for David and Daniel to share a room (they'll keep each other up at night and will wake each other up pre-dawn, I guarantee it), but I'm not ready to give up my spare bedroom, either.  Okay, truthfully, I'm just not ready to give up that closet.  In the absence of much usable attic space, it's my favorite storage place in the house, and I don't want to mess with it.  But, something's gotta give, and the clock is ticking!

Christmas Panic

I woke up to Daniel hollering that he was ready to get up. I nudged Nathan and said, "Hey, the little guy is ready to come out. Shall we go down?" 
Him: "Really?!" 
Me: "Yeah, it's 7:00." 
Him: "Oh, Daniel! Be more specific next time!" (he thought I was in labor)

This 'n That

Long story short: My dad's ancestors were potters in England.  When he and my mom went to England on a family history trip in 2007, they learned that Dad has a fourth cousin, Mark Hewitt, with a kiln right here in North Carolina.  I got to thinking that it would be fun to get them a piece of Mark's pottery for Christmas.  His kiln is only open to the public three times a year, so when I saw he'd have an opening the first two weekends in December, I invited my folks to come up and check it out.  I enlisted my siblings to all pitch in and then contacted Mark about doing a custom piece for Mom and Dad to reflect our Hewitt Pottery heritage together.  We ended up having a private appointment to go see Mark the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so that we could really talk about family connections, etc, without the pressure of other customers around.  It was a lovely afternoon!  He has a delightful family and I'm so glad to have met them.  Here's the pot he made for Mom and Dad:

My paternal grandmother is a Hewitt.

NC SC on the reverse side "for balance" and to reflect our current geographic status, I guess

The sides have these pretty blue drips

JaNice, Dennis, Mark, Natalie

That weekend Mom and Dad also painted David's room for us, so the monster truck mural is all gone!  David's very excited.  We topped it off by rearranging the furniture in his room too, and he thinks it's pretty swell.  (Thanks so much Mom and Dad for your help!)

We set up our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening that Monday, and the boys were absolutely delighted that they got to put all the ornaments on.  After we got it up, Daniel declared, "It's so bootiful!"  He loves all the lights, and he asks me several times a day if it's time to open presents yet.  We have an advent calendar that my sister made where you move Mary and Joseph towards the stable, and on Christmas day you take out a baby Jesus to put in the manger.  Last week I overheard David explaining it to Daniel, telling him that at the end we'd get to open presents, and later that morning, after David was at school, Daniel called me over and showed me that he had moved Mary and Joseph to the end and pulled out baby Jesus.  "See Mommy?  It's time to open presents now!"  Bless his little heart.

David is excited too, but I love how he keeps reminding all of us that we need to remember that Christmas is about baby Jesus.  My brother sent us a replica of a tradition we had growing up, with a small manger and some straw.  Every time you do service for someone else, you put a piece of straw into the manger to make Jesus' bed softer.  I haven't had it out the past couple years, but David has been very enthusiastic about being a "Secret Service Agent" (kudos to whomever came up with that Primary lesson!  He's doing little acts of service all over the place), so I got it out and showed him.  He has embraced it wholeheartedly and is excited for opportunities to make the bed softer for Baby Jesus.

I took each of the boys individually to the Dollar Store to pick out a present for each other.  They both picked exactly the same thing.  How sweet is that?  I took David second and was actually rather relieved that he picked the same gift, because Daniel REALLY liked it and I had a hard time getting him to let go of it so I could wrap it up.  :)

Last weekend I took David to the Knightdale Christmas Parade.  He was very excited about seeing Santa in the parade and all the candy that would get distributed.  He was not disappointed!  He got loads of candy (good thing we brought a goody bag!), our town has a Miracle-on-34th-Street-quality Santa (real beard, real belly, beautiful costume), and it started snowing as the parade started.  I think winter is David's favorite season, because he loves the snow.  He did NOT get that from me.  By the time we were walking back to the car, there was about half an inch on the ground.  David was a real trooper, but a stones-throw away from the car he broke down bawling about how cold he was.  Poor fella.  Of course, by the time we got home all he wanted to do was go play in the snow in the back yard.

David waiting for the parade to start

This week we got official notice that Nathan's company will be transferring him to the San Jose, CA office.  We've been planning in this direction since August, but it's nice to know it will actually happen.  Now we're just waiting for the official "when."  After talking to the COO for an hour, Nathan said it sounds like we'll have a good deal of say in that matter, but there's going to be a big meeting in January with more details, so hopefully after that we'll know better what's going on.  If it's entirely up to us, I think we'll stick around here until July so David can finish out the school year.  Who'd want to be the new kid with only two months left of school?

I made a DVD of my visit to Hewitt Pottery to share with my siblings, so they could learn about this family connection too, and also to see Mom and Dad's faces when we surprised them with the pottery.  As I was working on it I thought, "I'd love to have a small piece of Hewitt family history, too," so I talked Nathan into coming out with me and the boys to the last weekend of Mark's kiln opening (today), since I don't know if we'll be around for the next one.  I made a batch of Great-Grandma Hewitt's Lemon Cheese (our family calls it "lemon cheese" but the rest of the British Empire calls it "lemon curd") and took some to share with Mark.  I thought he'd appreciate it.  :)  He was delighted and opened it right there in the yard and stuck his finger in for a taste.  Fortunately, it was the best batch I've made in years.  I even made it in Great-Grandma Hewitt's double boiler.

The pottery I selected is on the right.  Mark gave me the mug as a thank-you for the lemon cheese.

After I'd selected my pottery we went into his workshop to check out and also enjoy hot cider and cookies.  Mark's 26-ish-y/o daughter Emma came in and when she saw the boys, she immediately asked them, "Have you seen our swings?  Come with me, I'm your cousin!  Let's go play!"  "Okay!" they both chimed and as simple as that she wooed my thus-far bashful, hide-behind-parental-legs children immediately into following her out the door without even looking back at us.  (A little scary, actually, how easily they were convinced.  Pied piper comes to mind...)  They had so much fun with her, though, and asked me the rest of the afternoon where Emma had gone.  I pulled up the Hewitt DVD project on the computer and Daniel immediately said, "We went there!"

After we got home, Nathan pulled out a big box of his old toys that he's saved.  Out came the original MicroMachines and Transformers.  Grand Slam!  The boys sat upstairs and played with them all afternoon.  I told Nathan we should have wrapped them up and put them under the tree, but he just grinned and said "They're enjoying them now."

Pregnancy is going well, aside from feeling a lot more uncomfortable than I recall feeling with the first two.  We've decided to call the baby Isaac.  Still some discussion on the rest of his name. 

I decided it's probably time to start taking profile pics for posterity.  It's not a particularly flattering angle, or time of night for that matter, but here I am.  I must be quite a sight, though, because my burgeoning belly elicits comments every time I leave the house.  The public at large is convinced I'm due any day now, even though I'm only 32 weeks.  Last time I went to the grocery store, I had four employees eye me and ask how far along I was.  I think the best (and worst) reaction I've gotten so far was today as I was checking out at Michael's.  The cashier was a young man, probably mid-twenties.

Him: When are you due?
Me: Eight weeks.
Him: Are you having twins?
Me: Nope, just one.
Him: Man, you're SO BIG!

Quite the charmer, wasn't he?

Email Update

The IT department at BYU is cleaning house and discovered that I have an email alias (@byu.edu) they only want current employees using.  So, I have to change over to the alumni handle (@byu.net) which will be hard for me because I always type "ent" instead of "net."  Oh well!  So please,

Delete 211ta@byu.edu

Update to natals8@byu.net

While you're tidying things up, go ahead and delete pamperedbynatalie@gmail.com, too.  That chapter of my life has closed and I'm shedding the email address with it.  If you use my other gmail, you're fine to leave it.

My new byu.net email will (hopefully) be a permanent thing which I will always have set to forward mail to my primary email address (that was the plan with 211ta).  So when in doubt, send it to natals8@byu.net.  That should always find me even if I change other email addresses.

Thanks!

I Spy

Once upon a visit, Nathan's mom taught David how to play "I Spy" during a car ride.  On their most recent visit, Daniel decided he wanted to play, too.  He kind of gets it, but kind of not.  For example:

Me: I spy something... black.
Daniel: Is it outside the car?
Me: Yes.
Daniel: Okay, my turn!

At least it takes the pressure off having to spy something he can actually guess in a moving vehicle.  It gets even more interesting when it's Daniel's turn.  He usually spies something "black and yellow," but that's not a dependable description because it could really be anything at all, regardless of color.  One time he spied black and yellow and it was a tree--before the autumn colors had come to our neck of the woods.  And sometimes he spies things that are nowhere in sight.  This morning I spied something green (traffic light) and he insisted the answer was a school bus.  No school busses in sight.  Not even black and yellow ones.

A couple weeks ago I watched his little friend Tanner for the afternoon and they played I Spy on the way to pick David up from school.  I don't remember their dialogue, but imagine two little guys playing a la Daniel, and it's pretty comical.  I do recall that Tanner would say "I Spy something orange" and then proceed to name everything in sight that was orange.  It kept them entertained, though, so who am I to complain?

"You are Getting Sleepy"

I'm told that when it comes to sleep patterns, some kids are timers, some are alarm clocks.  Meaning regardless of when they go to sleep, "Team Timer" will always wake up X amount of time later, and "Team Alarm" will always wake up at the same time.  My kids are alarm clocks, and David's is set very early.  Ridiculously early.  As in, sometimes he's awake when Nathan's leaving for seminary at 5:45.  When he was in diapers, we just kept his bedroom door locked to make sure he wasn't getting into mischief until we woke up. After he needed the freedom to emerge and use the modern marvel of indoor plumbing, however, we took a different approach.

I bought him a bedside clock and we stressed emphatically that he could get up to use the bathroom, but otherwise he needed to stay in bed until 7:00.  If he woke up, go back to sleep.  Stay in bed.  But whatever he did, unless there was a dire emergency, he was not to come bounding into our room before 7:00 under pain of death.

Now, we happen to know that he's usually out of bed by 6:30, a fact merely confirmed when Nathan started teaching seminary last year.  He often just goes downstairs and reads.  We wake up briefly and notice a light on, or hear him playing, but we figure as long as he leaves us alone and doesn't wake up Daniel, there's not much we can (or care to) do about it.  However, when we notice he's up especially early and ask him what time he woke up, he, brainwashed with our ultimatum, always answers straight-faced that he got up at 7:00.

Today he was acting very tired while we were on an outing.  On the way home, as David looked on the verge of falling asleep in the car, Nathan asked him what time he got up.  "And don't say 7:00, because we know you were up earlier."  David hesitated a moment and then replied, "6:59..."

Giving Thanks

Daniel is still in the early stages of potty training, so I still get to enjoy all the thrills of diaper changes.  Thursday he did an incognito poo in his diaper either right before or at the very beginning of a 2.5-hour romp at the playground, which of course I didn't notice, so he started to get diaper rash.  Friday morning he greeted me with a not-so-incognito big load, walking like a saddle-sore cowboy.  Whenever I tried to clean him up, I had to deal with the usual sore-bum evasive maneuvers amid protests of pain.

This morning I walked in and saw that he had another big load (how does such a small body create so much waste?) and I carried on with what must be done.  I was very surprised, however, as I started cleanup on aisle 1, when he said, "Mommy?  Thank you for cleaning my bum."  There's a first!  He stayed remarkably still while I wiped him up.  That poor diaper rash even started bleeding a bit in one spot.  He calmly reminded me to put medicine (Desitin) on his bum, which I'm told stings, and after I finished, he gave me a big hug and said, "Mommy, thank you for feeling me better."

I'm so thankful to have such sweet boys!

Pancakes

Earlier this year, around May, I think, I got David some books to look at for a road trip.  One of them was Curious George Makes Pancakes, and it has a pancake recipe on the back cover.  Every time we go to make pancakes, he runs and gets the book and asks to make that recipe.  And Nathan, as the designated pancake-maker, reaches in the cupboard for the Bisquick.

See, we're a Bisquick family when it comes to pancakes and waffles.  Sure, you can make 'em from scratch, but Bisquick is so much easier and tastes good, so why mess with a good thing?

There's a reason Nathan is the designated pancake-maker.  I think first and foremost, my dad usually made breakfast, so in my mind that's "the Dad's job."  Dad would make them from scratch.  Mom would make them with Bisquick (which to me was a treat).  Secondly, Nathan doesn't follow the Bisquick directions.  He totally eyeballs it--and makes wonderful pancakes that are fluffy but not heavy.  I am SO not an eyeballer.  Give me a recipe and I will follow it to the letter.  So the last time I made pancakes, I followed the directions and ended up with very fluffy, but dense pancakes.  I decided then to pass the spatula back to Nathan and let him keep it.

Yesterday the boys asked if we could make pancakes.  Since there is no school today in observance of Veterans Day, I figured we could go for it.  Unfortunately, I had to make them since Nathan is in Vegas on business this week.  I silently resolved to myself to use more milk and fewer eggs to try and lighten my Bisquick concoction.  I think that's what Nathan said he does.  David excitedly pulled out his Curious George book and I thought, hey, I don't know Nathan's magic combo for Bisquick, so let's give this other recipe a shot and see if I do better.


Riiiiiiiiiiight.....

Here's the recipe:
1 egg
1 1/2 c milk
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp salt

So I start making Curious George pancakes.  I had some heavy cream in the fridge from a previous recipe that needed to be used pronto.  I recall that Marianne and Nathan have both added heavy cream (if available) to their pancake batter in lieu of milk and it tasted wonderful.  I just don't know how much they used.  All cream no milk?  Just a little cream and mostly milk?  I had a cup left, so I decided to use all of it and top it off with skim milk...

...since David just poured the last of the 2% in his cup, and dribbled milk all over the kitchen in the process of trying to crush the jug for recycling.

So 1 egg, 1 c cream, 1/2 c milk, (David can hardly contain his glee that I'm making Curious George pancakes and is bouncing all over the kitchen,) 2 c flour... I had "batter" the consistency of cookie dough, and I wasn't even done adding dry ingredients.  Added a little more milk, then decided to start over.  Must have been because the cream was so thick.

Take Two
1 egg, ("David stop climbing all over the counters,") 1 1/2 c milk, ("David, keep your feet on the floor please,") hmm, should have whisked the egg before adding milk, ("David, stop bugging your brother.  Here, Daniel, have some milk while you wait,") 2 c flour, this is still looking too thick, add a little more milk.  (David: "blah blah excited chatter blah blah blah") 2 tsp salt.... OH CRUD.

Take Three (4 cups of flour, 1 c cream, 3 cups milk, and 2 eggs later)
2 c Bisquick, 1 c milk, plus a little extra, 1 egg instead of 2 as directed.  Pourable consistency.  Progress!  I scooped the batter onto the griddle, watched for the edges to go dull, and flipped.  Beautiful, fluffy, and golden.  Perfect.  Drama behind me.  Somehow, from across the table, Daniel supposedly spilled David's full cup of milk.  I have my doubts about who's to blame, but grab a roll of paper towels and start mopping it up.  Shoot!  Forgot pancakes on the griddle.  Dash over and flip onto a plate.  Not-quite-but-pretty-close-to-burned, doggonit!

Finish mopping up milk.  Distributed so-called pancakes.  Brusquely countered protests of over-doneness and told them to just eat it while I scoop out remaining batter.  I will not burn these, I will not burn these, I will not burn these.  Poor kids need something to make the first batch more palatable.  I return to the table to smear peanut butter on theirs, butter on mine, help them cut their pancakes into bite-size pieces, pour syrup.  Rats.  Pancakes on the griddle!  How does Nathan DO this??  Dash back, flip them over, one lands straddling the edge of the griddle.  I whimper slightly and stand there and wait so I don't burn the other side.   Still dark, darn it.  Must have the heat too high.  Putting them on the plate, and the last one slides onto the floor.  Twice.  Can I cry now?  Sit down and take the first bite of my almost cold pancake short stack.  Fluffy.  But dense.

Where's the cereal?

Choices

David had me [secretly] chuckling again tonight.  During dinner, Daniel reminded me that they still needed their multivitamins, which I usually give them at breakfast.  While Daniel was insisting he wanted two (his maximum dose), David said he only wanted one now, because he thought they were starting to taste funny and he didn't care for them anymore.  I said, "No problem, but then you're going to have to start eating vegetables."

Instant response:  "I'll take two vitamins, please."

* * *

We also encourage him at times to take a "thank-you bite" of something at dinner to try new foods and show gratitude for what has been prepared.  He's only obligated to eat one bite, and we've managed to get him to discover a fair amount of new foods that way.  Oddly enough, sometimes we have to force him to take thank-you bites of things any normal kid would leap at the chance to eat.  Like ice cream or homemade cookies.  He's only just recently tried and discovered he likes both my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and iced molasses cookies.  Good thing, too, because what kid doesn't like chocolate chip cookies?  It's un-American!

Today I made both Scotcheroos and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies for several treat-appropriate gatherings this week, and he came home from school raving about how good the cookies smelled.  I encouraged him to try the pumpkin cookies since he thought they smelled so good, but he resolutely declined.

So tonight after dinner he requested a treat, no doubt with his dwindling Halloween stash in mind.  I told him he could have either a Scotcheroo or a pumpkin cookie, and that was going to be his thank-you bite since he didn't have any vegetables at dinner.  He silently eyed the Scotcheroo Daniel was trying (more like inhaling), looked at the pile of pumpkin cookies I was bagging, then went and fetched peas from the freezer.

Fax Fun: 18 months later

In April 2009 I posted about nuisance fax calls to our house.  Read it here.

We hadn't heard from our Fax "Friends" for a while, but the other day, those calls came rolling through again.  The stars must have aligned, because it happened to be one of those days when the phone was ringing off the hook anyway, and add 5 calls from the fax machine.  Thankfully I wasn't home when they tried to send me the fax.  I might have ripped the phone off the wall and thrown it into the street.

But, as I was deleting the 7 messages from my answering machine, 5 of which were from the fax, I decided to try and find an office number once again to see if I could get this thing resolved.  Remember those stars aligning?  Yep.  I finally found a number online that would get me a human being!  Score!

So I called today and wasn't really sure how to start.  "Hi, um, I'm just an ordinary citizen..."  I'm sure the girl on the other end of the line thought I was nuts with that opening line.  But she transferred me to someone else and I again explained the situation.  That woman was skeptical she could help, since the number on my caller ID did not match their fax number, but she promised to look into it, and wouldn't you know, she called back within 10 minutes to tell me she'd found my number in the system and had deleted it.  Thank you!!  I should send her cookies.   Or the peanut-butter-caramel swirled brownies I made yesterday.  (Yummm!  If you look up the recipe, I skipped the espresso powder.)

Turns out our number was linked to a regular customer of theirs, so every time he made a purchase the computer tried to fax him an invoice, but he now uses email fax or something like that.  Whatever his method, cue the Hallelujah Chorus, 'cause I'm FREEEEEEEEE!

Persuasion: Part II

Two weeks ago I posted about David getting the FluMist.  Read it here if you missed the first go 'round.

Today Nathan got the flu shot at work.  When he was putting the kids to bed, David gave him a big hug and in the process squeezed hard right over the inoculation site.

Nathan: "Ow."
David: "What's wrong?"
Nathan pulled up sleeve to reveal a band-aid
David: "What's that from?"
Nathan:  "I didn't sniff."
David got huge eyes and said: "Daddy, you should have sniffed!"

Priceless

When we bought our house 3 years ago, there was a mural of monster trucks in what is now David's bedroom.  As a 3-year-old, he thought it was pretty nifty, and we left it up.  About 15 months later, he started mentioning on occasion that he didn't want the trucks on his wall anymore; he wanted dinosaurs.  He has gradually increased the frequency of his request over the past couple years, but it hasn't been high on the home-improvement-priorities list.  More like rock bottom.

Last night David emerged an hour post-bedtime with a very urgent request to get rid of the trucks.  Wanting to start instilling financial awareness in him, I told him, "Sweetie, we just don't have money for that right now."  Today he retrieved $0.85 from his piggy bank and said, "Here Mom, you can use this to pay for the paint."

Persuasion

I took David to get FluMist today in lieu of a traditional shot (it's administered as a nasal spray). The nurse gave him the first dose in one nostril and told him to sniff. Nothing. Gave him the second dose in the other nostril and again asked him to sniff. Nothing.  We asked and asked in a variety of ways with no results.  Finally I said, "If you don't sniff, you'll have to get a shot." 

**SNIIIFF!** 

Sniff! Sniff! Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!

I think he sniffed all the way home.


[update: He sniffed for three days afterwards.  We finally had to tell him it was okay to stop sniffing!  Read Part II here]

Hot Dog!

We had hot dogs for dinner tonight.  As he was eating, David declared:  "I know what hot dogs are."

Nathan:  "Oh really?  So what are hot dogs?"

David: "Meat!"

Nathan: "That's right, they're a type of meat.  Sometimes they're beef, or turkey, or pork, or...

David: "Carrion?"

...

[much laughter ensued]

Design Musings: Round 2

Thanks everyone for your input!  Here's some follow-up on other suggestions I received.

Several people on Facebook suggested a collage of family photos. I saw this idea in Good Housekeeping and decided I could tie family pics in with my theme by using pictures we took at our favorite beaches:

Several said they didn't think I needed to worry about tying the pictures to my theme, but I think it would look randomly placed otherwise.  Call me OCD.

In context (because that's how I roll):  Pretend there isn't a darker circle around it.


Others suggested a mirror. I found this 38x68 one at Kirkland's for $100. Is that a good price for a big mirror? Seems like ones that size are usually several hundred, but I really don't know...


Come to think of it, that mirror has just the right proportions...

Hey, a gal can dream, can't she?  :)

Design Musings: What do you think?

Long story short: 18 months ago we repainted, recarpeted, and added a pair of comfy chairs to our living room.  Here are the basics of the room:

I'm happy with the feel of the room, except for this view:



When anyone walks in the front door, they don't see all my lovely, accessorized built-ins or pretty blue wall.  They see beige foyer, beige wall, beige carpet, and brown chairs with no decor or accessories.  Besides fantasies of end tables, console tables, lamps, and greenery (preferably silk, since I can't even keep spider plants alive), I really, REALLY want to get some art on that wall to break up The Bland Band.

I've been told that if you're going to hang art behind multiple pieces of furniture (such as my pair of chairs), you need one item that extends, at a minimum, to the midpoint of both furniture pieces to unify them instead of a collage of smaller things.  So I need something at least 48 inches wide.

(Quick furniture arranging note:  I'd put the chairs on the blue wall, which I don't think needs art, and put the sofa on the white wall where I'd have more options for what to hang behind it, but if we do that, the chairs have to be practically in the middle of the room to allow for rocking/reclining.  We've toyed with a variety of furniture arrangements, but this really is the only arrangement that makes any kind of sense to us with built-ins, windows, traffic flow, etc.)

So back to the task at hand.  I would love to introduce this piece to the room:



Unfortunately, the largest print sold by the artist is 29"W x 17"H.  $45 plus framing, which always ends up with a doozy price tag.  Plus, I don't think adding 10 inches of matte all around to achieve the necessary dimensions will look right.  Back to the drawing board.

Last summer I was at a street fair in Mount Vernon, WA and I saw this piece:

The print is available in a size 42"W x 20"H, which once framed is PERFECT.  I think the blue in the sky might tie into my blue wall enough to forgive the greener blue of the water.  I'm willing to overlook that part since this bridge is one of our favorite spots in Washington, and it isn't far from where Nathan grew up.  The only reason I do not have this piece hanging in my home right now:  $420 just for the print.  Framed I think it was $725.  Or maybe $825.  That's an "ouch" no matter how you slice it.

And so I've been mulling, musing and wishing for a more budget-friendly solution for that wall.  The other day I saw this idea in an old Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  I don't know if you can read the caption at the bottom.  It says "Sylvie created her own artwork by attaching a cotton shower curtain to a batting-covered board..."  :


Now THAT I can afford.  So this morning I went online and perused shower curtains to see what I could find that would fit my lighthouse/nautical theme without looking like a shower curtain stapled to a board.  I have two possibilities, and here's where I want your input.  Mainly:

• Is this a good idea or a terrible one? (and I need you to be honest please)
• Does it look too much like a shower curtain?
• Does it fit the rest of the room?

Option #1:

An attempt to view it in the proposed context (I don't have software that lets me cut out the chairs and paste them over the other image, so use your imagination).  I tried to get the approximate scale, too.

One more time with the general room sense so you don't have to scroll:

Option 2:

Unfortunately, the online image is not complete, so I don't really know what's on the left side of the curtain. I don't really care about the seagulls, so I'd probably make this one with a shorter height to focus more on the lighthouse, water, and sky. Or maybe I'd just prop it on the floor behind the chairs so you mostly see the bluer parts and the whole thing doesn't tower over the nearby door frame.  Hmm...

Here it is in context: (wouldn't it be nice if the image were flipped so the water tied in the blue wall and light from the window to the right?)

Okay, so what do you think?

Infanticipation

So in case you didn't know yet (I think I've covered most forums for such an announcement), we are yet again in a state of what my brother so appropriately calls "infanticipation."  

We had the ultrasound today and are somewhat dazed (but happy) to announce #3 is... decidedly a BOY.

[None of the Y-chromosomes in this house are shy about their manhood.]

Nashito #3 is scheduled to debut February 4, but true to tradition, he is measuring big, so *hopefully* we'll get to meet him sooner.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but not my legs.

Becoming Childlike

Over the past week, David has given me daily reports on which classmates did not get a "superstar" stamp for good behavior.  He often mentions two boys who apparently tease the other kids a lot.  When he first mentioned their behavior, I wanted to make sure he did not follow suit, and so encouraged him to be a good example to them by not teasing the other kids, and to still be nice to them even if they were not nice to him.

Tonight while he was saying his bedtime prayer, without any prompting for me, he prayed for those boys by name, and specifically asked Heavenly Father to help [Boy A] not tease and [Boy B] to not hit other kids so they could get superstar stamps.  I was completely blown away.  His prayers are usually pretty predictable, so it was not only remarkable to have a new subject, but one of such maturity.  Matthew 5:44-45 came to mind:

"44 But I say unto you, ^aLove your ^benemies, ^cbless them that ^dcurse you, do ^egood to them that ^fhate you, and ^gpray for them which despitefully use you, and ^hpersecute you;

  45 That ye ^amay be the ^bchildren of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth ^crain on the just and on the unjust."

How often do we pray for our enemies?  And when we do, how often is our prayer on their behalf instead of our own (i.e. please make him stop bullying me)?  I feel humbled by his compassion.

Afterwards he helped me get Daniel in bed (who was having a bit of a rough time) by bringing up a couple special toys, giving him kisses and hugs and comforting words.  (Daniel went right down after that).

I then got to enjoy an animated conversation with him about school.  We haven't gotten much feedback about it, in spite of all his talking.  We'd ask him how school was and he'd reply "Good."  "What did you talk about today?" was met with a shrug.  Tonight I asked him, "Do you like school?" (smiled and nodded with a twinkle in his eye) and perhaps by inspiration followed up with, "What is your favorite part?"  Those were magic words that opened a floodgate of feedback.  He was so excited to tell me about their routine and especially the playgrounds.  He described in great detail the number and shapes of slides, the climbing wall, and other apparati at his disposal.  He described how he wanted to try something and [Girl A] didn't think it was a good idea, but he thought he could do it and tried anyway, and how he fell when he landed.  He talked about how he and a few other kids buried toys in the sand on Friday and how they worked together today to dig them up, but couldn't find all of them ("The Team that Never Gave Up!") and how they found other things and what everyone's opinion was as to what those things were.  He was so enthusiastic, and I loved hearing him share that with me.

Overall, it was a very sweet, tender bedtime experience, and I'm so thankful for it.  I sure love my boys!

Kindergarten Musings

David's first full week of Kindergarten has led to some interesting observations on effects of school restraints.

THIRST

Before: David's always been a thirsty kid.  I wasn't sure which of my kids was anomalous after I had Daniel, since he only drinks a fraction of what David does.  When our niece got diagnosed with Type-I diabetes and my mother-in-law said her constant thirst was the symptom that alerted her to the problem, I panicked.  David is always thirsty.  So last summer I had my sister-in-law check David's blood while she was doing her daughter's, just to be sure.  I was relieved to find out he's "normal" as far as diabetes goes; I guess he's just exceptionally thirsty.  

Now: The first couple days when I picked him up from school, he'd beg and berate me for a drink.  How dare I not have one ready the moment he stepped in the car!  I've decided that it's simply a result of not being free to get a drink as often as he would at home.  I've also decided it is to everyone's benefit to have a water bottle on hand for him so he can slake his thirst and not keep complaining about how thirsty he is all the way home.

ENERGY

Before:  My mom used to say she's never seen such a busy child.  I can't tell you how many times a day I tell David he needs to keep his feet on the floor.  He's usually climbing up or jumping off something, or just running around the house in circles.

Now:  Raise that to the n-th power.  I was convinced I needed to go out and find a 4-foot hamster wheel to install in his bedroom after his first day of school.  He was almost literally bouncing off the walls.  Can we get two recesses, please?

TALKING

Before:  David didn't really start talking until he was three.  He's been fairly chatty since then, and Nathan and I joked that he was making up for lost jabber.  He's not the kind of kid you can tune out though.  He wants direct responses to his chatter and follows up with periodic pop quizzes to make sure you've been listening.

Now:  Non.Stop.  Energizer Bunny of conversation.  Chatterbox.  All of the above.  Once again, he can't vocalize as much as he normally would, so he makes up for lost opportunities once he gets home.  I commented on this to Nathan, how David doesn't seem to really have anything particular to say, yet he keeps on talking about anything and everything.  Nathan shrugged and said "that's okay," but after about two hours of D's breathless chatter, he turned to me (David still talking in the background) and said, "You're right; he just doesn't stop!"

Summer in Review

We are still binky-less!  Hurrah!  There were a couple times on our trip where I thought "this would be so much easier if I could just plug him up," but he never asked and I never wavered.  Whew!

Speaking of our trip, here is our summer in photo summary:

My Dad came up for 4th of July weekend (Mom was in Utah), and the boys had a "ball" playing baseball with him.

We also did sparklers and driveway fireworks, which the boys LOVED:

We went to the beach that Monday.  The boys loved playing in the waves and digging in the sand:

Then we drove by Dinosaur mini-golf and decided to have a round.  Daniel liked to smack his ball where-ever from the starting point, then pick it up and place it right next to the hole for an easy putt in.  He did NOT want to do this last hole, because he realized he would not get his ball back!

We went to Utah for a Nash family reunion.  My mom picked us up from the airport and we enjoyed spending the weekend with her and my sister DeeAnn's family down in Nephi.  We then joined up with the Other Nashes in Provo Sunday night.  Here's Nathan with his sisters:

We visited Thanksgiving Point in Lehi and enjoyed a mini zoo, pony rides, dinosaur museum, and a 3-D IMAX film about some oceanic dinosaur whose name I cannot remember, then went and had ice cream before heading back to our hotel.

We took family pictures with all of Nathan's family (sans Jeff, who unfortunately had an urgent work matter he needed to attend to last minute).  This is one Nathan took from the "sideline".  We'll post others when we get them.

A highlight of the Nash reunion for the boys was when we made and launched rockets.  They carried those things around for DAYS.

We learned to play a fun game called Bang!, and I confess it often led me to conflicting emotions.  You're supposed to take other players out, and I never wanted to pick on anyone.

The boys got to see all 5 of their living great grandparents on this trip.  I always think this is so remarkable, because I never knew any of my great grandparents.

Here's Four Generations of Nashes.  I wonder which of my boys will be the one to carry on the look-alike trend.  Unfortunately, we got a picture with Grandpa Nash but not Grandma (sorry!).  I was not in charge of this--don't blame me!

We stayed overnight with my Grandma Rabiger before flying up to Seattle for the next leg of our trip:

Many thanks to my Aunt Deanne for having us over for a Pioneer Day cookout and Aunt Joyce for taking us to the Salt Lake airport!  My brother Sean picked us up from the Seattle airport (the Other Nashes were still driving en route) and we enjoyed an evening with his family.  Then Nathan's Grandma and Grandpa Merrill picked us up from Sean's and took us up to Anacortes.

While we were up there, Nathan went hiking with his dad.

And discovered that his 16-year-old hiking boots are not as sturdy as he supposed they still were...

We got home late Tuesday night and David started his first day of Kindergarten on Thursday.  Here are the obligatory pictures of starting school:

I asked David to take off his sunglasses for the next one...

Okay, now take them all the way off, put your arms down, and give me a nice smile...

What a ham!  Let's try again...

Still a little dorky, but considering what it took to get THAT, I'm satisfied.  When I showed Nathan, he laughed and said it reminded him of this Calvin and Hobbes strip:

Anyway, then we took David to his first day, and the teacher invited Daniel to join them on the mat while I filled out some paperwork:

His first day was just a day of assessments with only a small part of the class.  They read a story and toured the school while "looking for a raccoon" (part of the story, I guess).  David came up to one of the signs for the tour and read it out loud, taking his teacher quite by surprise.  I guess only a couple kids in the class can read yet.  Wait until she discovers his mad math and puzzle skills...

Oh yes, in case you didn't get our announcement yet... we're expecting #3 on February 4th!