the nature page

Tips and Treasures for Enjoying Nature:

Always use proper eye protection when swinging from trees (or while at the park somewhere in Southern California).

Tracking: These are real peacock footprints and they are right by a real-life Diva!

Nature can be fun - and hilarious (for an off-color moment, read the sign on this sad tree Nate is leaning on)

When you find yourselves in the midst of a bamboo forest, be sure to stand straight and a tall and let me take a picture of you.

Pictures and outings are all thanks to our little weekend adventure we took to the greater area of Pasadena, California.

GNO

Saturday Grace and I enjoyed a little Girls' Night Out (but to be technical it really was Girls' Late Afternoon Out (GLAO
)). We had a blast! Here are some of the highlights:

"Mom, I am having so much fun and I'm not even getting in trouble!"

"Yes, I do have a crush on him, but only when I'm a mile or more away from him. When I'm up close I find he's not a real Prince, he's just a regular boy."

"She has the skunkiest voice ever!"

She dined on a bowl of pasta and cheesy-ness, accentuated with squirts of ketchup, and accompanied by a small dish of pickles. This was all chased down with a bottle of root beer. (Thankfully I got to have something else!)

Our GLAO was so much fun, I'm very much looking forward to the next one!

toasty

(not sure what this was all about, but I like it anyway)

How to Make Toast, by Grace

Toast is great! Here is how to make it,
but first, here is what you will need.
1. You will need some bread,
a knife, toppings (optional.)
This is how to make it.
First, take the bread out of the sack.
Next, put the bread in the toaster.
Then, push the lever down.
Then, wait, and read a book.
Then, POP! out it comes.
Then put on your toppings (I use cheese).
Lastly, you clean up.

I need to go back

California is really an amazing place. Of course there are the beaches, the mountains, the wonderful weather, and all that. But most importantly they have a real Chicago institution. And I do mean it is the real deal.

The closest one is a mere 1 1/2 hours from our house. We descended on it to celebrate my birthday (which was a few months ago, but I finally uploaded my pictures, I'm sure you don't mind!)

Boy, was it a celebration! I try not to put unflattering pictures of myself on here (because I do have a say about that at least on my own blog!), but I thought this one best illustrated the amazing tastiness of turning thirty-ahem, what I mean to say is reaching closer towards your mid-thirties.

Perhaps I haven't fully embraced my inner-mid-ish-thirty-ness. I think I need to go back.

jimmy nick

Sometimes Jimmy cracks me up. This is a post dedicated to him.




(Just don't tell him, he might get cranky!)

hard work

Sometimes when one is faced with big challenges,
One can dive head first...


And work long and hard...


With repetitive determination...


Until one tastes sweet success..


*It is important to note one may require having one's hair washed afterwards.

the night before the night before

He leaves tomorrow morning. Tonight has been calm, but with a buzz about it.

This exam has been on the horizon for the last ten years. It is an obstacle to overcome and a hoop to jump though. I can't even begin to number all of the other obstacles and hoops over the last decade. This is just another one and it happens to be at the end of a very long road.

So BRING IT! He'll take it. And man, I just can't wait for Sunday night.

Y'know that light at the end of the tunnel? It'll be bright on Sunday night.

do you believe?

I cannot tell you how happy I am it is Friday. Not just Friday, but the Friday before Spring Break. We (the children and I, at least) do not need to be roused by an alarm clock for many days.

The last few weeks have been busy, hectic, and rough for Nate. Is it something in the air? are the ocean currents off? is the moon out of alignment? So many kids have been really sick and more of them have been swallowing things they shouldn't - coins, small batteries (super-bad, so bad that please, right now, make sure you have none w/in your kids' reach - the internal burns they cause are just awful), one baby even swallowed the mesh part of an ear-bud! Not an easy removal. With all of this, the dept's case load has increased and then weird emergencies have been added on top.


And what is looming ahead? B O A R D S . The BIG ones. The ones I'm trying to figure out how he can wear his testing pants under his suit (for a brief explanation, please click here and read the last paragraph. For an amazing photographic experience, please click here). The ones he has to fly all the way to Chicago to take. The ones that can make or break you. The ones I dread. (Please note I said "I." He of course isn't approaching them with near the trepidation I am, and I'm not the one taking them!).

Next week is G's spring break. The kids and I are headed across the desert once again. This time our mission is two-fold: 1. allow Nate a few nights without any Honey or Daddy distraction (I know those are his favorite kinds of distractions, but stapes, mandibles, frenulums, facial nerves, and ossicular reconstruction are current priorities), 2. maybe, just maybe find a place to live. There are so many homes for rent, they would love for us to move in yesterday.


So wish us luck and believe, dear readers, B E L I E V E in the power of the testing pants.
Btw: Good thoughts sent his way are currently being accepted, and highly sought after on the days of April 16 and April 18.