Contraband Part II

Yes, that phone lasted a day.  If you count the actual hours she played with it and demolished it, maybe 2 hours.  Sorry about the blurred photo... taken with a baby in my arms who was leaping for the phone.

Contraband

Why she loves to chew on watches, cell phones, tables, chairs, sharp objects, cameras, etc I will never understand.  Daddy occasionally allows her to play with his watch.  But most everything else gets a quick "nuh-uh," and taken away.  Finally I pulled out my old cell phone (minus battery) and let her play.  Oh my, contraband items are exciting!

More spring flowers in our yard

Pretty pansy

Hyacinth at the end of its bloom

Technically a weed, but a beautiful violet to me

More violets in our grass

Cardboard Boxes = Best Toys

Drive-by Shoeting

Ah, ha!  Gotcha!

Checking out the victim

Halmoni the mechanic and auto detailer (or crime scene investigator)

This little plastic buggy was a garage sale find on Saturday morning as we walked back from breakfast at our local LEED-certified, eco-friendly, green McDonalds.  We took the back route home and stumbled across our neighbors having a sale.  Halmoni excitedly and meticulously cleaned the vehicle, inside and out.  Lucia Sora enjoyed racing around the house in it.

Aunt Linda and Uncle Ken

This week, we enjoyed more company!  We were thrilled to see Linda and Ken, and walked all over town with them.  Unfortunately, I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of them.  Bummer!  The highlight of our evening together was dashing through the rain.  We started out for the local frozen custard shop on foot despite some clouds looking ominous.  We observed the wind blowing the opposite direction than the shop so thought we'd be ok.  We walked over and sat to eat our treats.  Just as we started back home, the winds picked up to a big gust and drops of rain started falling.  We scurried as fast as we could and made it to the next available shelter which was Taco Bell.  The employees there all came out to observe our commotion and smiled at us with big grins.  Lucia laughed even though we covered her entire head while she sat in her new backpack carrier.  The rain stopped in a minute and we made it home.  Whew!  Worth a few laughs!

An apple a day...

Lucia likes to grab my apple when I'm eating it, so I decided to go ahead and let her have it.  She enjoyed her new toy for quite awhile!

Isabel Emo

Since Isabel Emo flew into town this past weekend, Lucia had fun hanging out with her.  We waited patiently for our table to clear, but enjoyed visiting during that time.  Lucia gawked, giggled and grabbed at the three wonderful children who were also with us.

Planter, Troy-style

So Troy encourages me to believe that I can actually grow things, like vegetables and flowers.  Truthfully, I'm not a gardener, having the brownest thumb of anyone I know.  However, a friend of mine tells me it's just a matter of water -- not too much and not too little.  I totally understand that, since I've skillfully knocked off many a plant because of this very issue.

After a wonderful cleanup of the yard on Saturday, aided by perfect weather, Troy cut into one of the wood pieces left from our tree to make a planter.  The ambrosia is beautiful.  What to plant in it?????

Almost everything but the kitchen sink

We spent the morning taking cardboard boxes and branches to the dump, and then donated other miscellaneous stuff to Goodwill.  They accepted bags and bags of clothing, shoes, etc but kindly refused our attempt to donate our old kitchen sink which is leftover from our remodel two summers ago.  Ah well.... we'll have to find another way to discard of it.

Get in my belly

Fiesta Chicken Salad

Tricolor Chicken Salad

This week's salads included a fiesta chicken salad featured in the top photo, contains mixed greens, seasoned chicken, black beans, tricolor peppers, cilantro, sour cream, salsa, cheddar cheese, and is topped with tortilla chips.   The tricolor chicken salad includes salad greens, chicken breast, tricolor peppers, cilantro and avocado. 

"We don't observe trash day"

Ok, we still are observing trash day unfortunately, but would like to reduce the amount of landfill that we produce.  Inspired by the Johnson family (see video below) and their near-total elimination of waste, we'd like to start be more conscientious of our consumption and waste.   We were appalled recently upon receiving our new high chair that came packaged in masses of cardboard and plastic.  In general, we only fill 1.5 trash bags per week, but even that's too much.  We're not fanatical about this, and have chosen to use disposable diapers, which many would argue is a primary culprit of landfill overload.  But, we want to start with baby steps to reduce, reuse and recycle more.  Less consumption = less junk, less clutter, less mess, less headache, etc....

Love is a beautiful thing

At random times, Troy brings home a rose for me.  I love the surprises! This picture of my latest rose was taken a week later, but is still beautiful.

Now he has two ladies who love surprise flowers.  This yellow rose is for Lucia.

This cotton bloom came home the other day.  It qualifies, too!

Weekend update

The weather was glorious this weekend, so we took advantage of it and enjoyed walking to our local park and also wandering around to downtown.

Lucia LOVED the swings, and also spent the first few minutes staring at the little boy in the swing next to her.  She's excited to see other babies and children these days.

She also loves her sweet stroller and often lounges back in the seat.  For whatever reason, she decided to ride with her right foot stuck out (or maybe on the gas pedal?) the entire time we were walking around town.   

The Magic Toothbrush

This toothbrush is the absolute best friend any mommy can have!  It fascinates and keeps Lucia quiet and happy when nothing else works.  One side has soft bristles and the other side is a gum massager.  Hopefully she'll love brushing her teeth when she actually has some!

Yum-o.  Note my daddy's high school mascot bib that I'm wearing.

Oh, I love this brush, it makes me laugh with excitement!

Neighborhood watch

Most days, Lucia and I trek outside to walk around the block.  She really enjoys the fresh air and like her dad, enjoys watching birds and hearing them tweet.  Entertainment at it's best!

My neighborhood observations have accumulated over the past few weeks, and since I now think in "blog post mode," it's time that I finally write about them.  One thing that strikes me is that we really love our neighborhood.  The tall trees, the different house designs, the wonderful neighbors, the mature landscaping, the brick, the quietness, the proximity to stores that allow us to walk to specific destinations are all positives.  We also live in a neighborhood that was established in the '60s and many of our neighbors are the original home owners.  SO, I've seen more Buicks per capita on this block than probably anywhere else (i.e. the average age = 70). 

Yesterday I noticed half a block ahead that someone rode a bike with a child's bike attached at the back, which almost looked like a tandem bike except the back seat was lower.  As the person whizzed by, I wondered if it was a teenager given the slight build, but that puzzled me as cool teenagers don't usually ride such things.  Lucia and I extended our walk to the baseball fields and on our way back, saw the LADY on the bike with an elementary school aged girl in the attached bike behind her.  Mom wore the girl's backpack on her back, so must have picked up her daughter from school.  Cute!

Also, since we tend to walk in the afternoons when it's warmer, we often run into the high schoolers meandering home.  One time, a girl headed home toward us and cut through her lawn, but I could hear her ear-bud music all the way across the yard and down the block.  The next two boys we passed also rocked with their loud music woofing from their headsets.  I'm going to encourage Lucia to become an ENT surgeon and specialize in cochlear implants or whatever invention pops up by then, since by the time she's ready to practice, these kids will all be deaf.

The teenagers that make me happy are those who actually look up, make eye contact and say hi with a smile... and they CAN because they don't have plastic thingies stuck in their ears.  We usually chit chat about school or the weather or something equally boring, but how refreshing to be reminded that there are teenagers who aren't glum, moody and  too self-involved to look away from their texting.

Oh yeah.... school bus drivers!  They love racing the neighborhood.  Nothing around here looks like the Indy 500 or Daytona but the drivers must be evaluated on making timely stops since they'll gun it the half block to the stop sign and then screech to a halt.

I wonder if the VERY pregnant Korean woman had her baby yet.  Poor lady literally waddles.  She looks wistfully at Lucia in a stroller.  My sympathies...

Linus

We're excited for Amberly who has been practicing a lot for her high school drama which opens this weekend!  She plays Linus in "You're a good man, Charlie Brown."  Break a leg, Amberly!!!

Dr. Day

I spent the whole day Tuesday in and out of doctor's appointments, waiting patiently for all the boring grownup activities.

Waiting patiently for mommy at the dentist's office.

We couldn't help but notice the horribly designed (and brand new) radiant heaters - just waiting for the first kid (or adult) to jump up and down on them.

Out behind the parking lot we discovered a stormwater retention area.

Daddy let me sit on the storm sewer outlet for a couple minutes.

But he only let me play with the mulch outside the retention area because the other mulch was exposed to nasty parking lot runoff. I surprised him by not even trying to eat any mulch.

I practiced transferring items from one hand to the other. In this case I transferred some pine needles back and forth.

Next stop was Duke Clinics, where I waited patiently (again!) for mommy to check in.

We waited about 1.5 hours in the exam room.

I showed off my mad peekaboo skills before taking my first nap ever in my sweet stroller. The resident who spoke with us was disappointed that I was napping when she returned with the Doc. She wanted to hold me.

 This picture isn't very good, but it's worth posting. Mommy and daddy scored a free meal at Ted's! They were pretty happy by the time they ate their burgers and walked out with a chocolate malt shake in to-go cups.

New Blog to Follow

This weekend I learned about a new blog to read.  Julie and John have been posting since November.  Julie is Troy's cousin and manages a beautiful, happy, active family that includes two young sons who are very well-mannered.  They've started eating more vegetarian, so we're excited to follow their food experiences and get inspired!  Julie and John were dating about the same time that Troy and I dated at first, and so that brings back good memories too.  We were thrilled to see them this past weekend, and Lucia was happy to watch all her cousins play together.

Day's Whirl = Head Swirl

We filled our day yesterday with appointments but tried to make it fun, too.  First stop was for xrays, then onto a highly recommended periodontist.  Lucia played outside with her dad while I sat in the dental chair.   We stopped for lunch at the Q Shack.  In the afternoon, we headed to Duke for an appointment with the lymphoma guru which my doctor set up for us.  Lucia played peekaboo by lifting her pink blanket and peeking at us with a grin!  (We'll post those photos when I can unload them from Troy's phone).  She also charmed the doctors, nurses, lab techs, etc with her smile.  She loved her happy day hanging out with her fun dad.

Our minds were swirling with all the information and thoughtful discussion regarding treatment.  We felt dazed so decided to walk around the mall, and ended up eating at Ted's Montana Grill where our meal was comped because our order went to the wrong table.  The very nice manager came over and 'fessed up, although truthfully we wouldn't have known any different if he hadn't said anything.  Later on, he even insisted that we order dessert on him, too!

Quick Ohio Trip

We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend in Ohio.  Lucia delightedly laughed at her boy cousins antics, got held a lot by her girl cousins, as well as aunts, uncles and of course Grandma and Grandpa.  We also were happy that Lucia could meet her Great-aunt Dora who is on her home visit from laboring for the gospel in Argentina.  We appreciated visiting with her about her experiences and hearing about some helpful things some shared recently.

On our trip there, we saw the major flooding that caused schools to be closed last week.  The river banks were swollen, roads had been closed, and even the famous Lehman's hardware store in Amish country had 18 inches of water.  The store reopened within 24 hours after volunteers helped to clean the mud, and damaged merchandise is being sold at 50% discount.  We stopped in on our way home, browsed but didn't buy.

The main reason for stopping in Kidron on the way home was to see Iva, who is the Amish woman who helped care for Troy and his siblings while they were growing up on the farm.  I've heard much about this wonderful lady and had hoped to meet her.  We tracked her down at the place where she volunteers and visited for at least 30 minutes. 

We miss our family already!

Non-meatatarian meal

The last time I made curry, I was able to sneak in some tofu.  I don't think Troy noticed, or at least he didn't say anything.  This week, I decided to make a completely vegetarian curry with tofu, chickpeas, squash, peas and onions.  The meatatarian noticed this time.

This week's menu

started with a roast chicken on Sunday, which turned into Monday's chicken tortilla soup, and later in the week also nachos with chicken.   To round out the Mexican theme, we also had fish tacos.  Inspired by Lorena's delicious meal, I tried Cooking Light's blackened fish taco recipe.  I tried to copy Lorena's mango salsa which turned out decently.  (At least, it got the hubby thumbs up.)  I learned that she cooks like I do --  a little bit of this and a little bit of that, no measuring!

My toothache

Technically, it's more a gum ache.  Lucia Sora has been clingy, crying, screeching more these past few days.   I noticed yesterday that she's also been drooling a lot.  Ding, ding.  Quick check of her gums, and it does seem like there's a little swelling on the right side.  Poor thing.  Today at her noon nap time she became almost inconsolable --- didn't want to be held, didn't want to be put down, didn't want to play, didn't want to sleep, didn't want to chew on her frozen toy, didn't know how to be happy.  But she saw her daddy tonight... then, it was giggle, giggle.  Sigh!

Tent

There must be something very amusing to children about tents.  Lucia discovered that her blanket can become a tent and giggles every time we both get underneath it.  It's light pink in color so enough light penetrates the fleece blanket  to make it exciting.  Giggle, giggle.