10 Things We Did While the Markets Crashed

I left my heart in San Francisco--last year!
Marina at Sausalito, CA 2007.

1. Ate homemade cherry preserves on toast. Yum!
2. Played the game Pass the Pigs. Strangely addicting.
3. Tried out some new toenail polish. Color? Jezebel. Oh, yeah.
4. Learned some new card tricks, courtesy of our neighbor Greg.
5. Made a final decision on Taylor's Halloween costume. It was close, but the Pink Mummy Fairy costume won. I can't explain. Just wait for pictures. And use your imagination in the meantime.
6. Made some Bird in a Bowl and some of John's Chili.
7. Ate breakfast with chopsticks.
8. Shopped for a new set of PJ's for the upcoming Read-a-Thon at school.
9. Made our first leaf pile on the lawn.
10. Daydreamed about vacations past and future...

Kristin

A Little History Lesson

4th of July, 2008.
I always smile when Taylor 'poses' for a picture.

Taylor treated us all to a little history lesson while we were playing handball on neighbor Greg's driveway. As kids often do, Taylor piped up with some unsolicited information gleaned from a recent history lesson at school. It's always interesting to me to hear the lesson filtered through a second-grader's brain. Here's an excerpt, as best I can remember.

Taylor: "Hey Mom! I know what Independence Day is!"

Me: "Really? What?"

Taylor: "It's the same thing as the Fourth of July."

Me: "Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July?"

Taylor: "Because it's when we got free from England. We threw a bunch of tea in the water and said we wanted to be free on our own. Then England got mad and said they wanted their money and we said no."

Me: "What was that fight called?"

Taylor: "The Boston Tea Party. I don't know why they call a fight a party, but it's when things got bad."

Me: "Did you know that fight led up more fighting and then a war?"

Taylor: "No. We didn't talk about the other fights. Just the party."

Me: "You'll probably get to that stuff later. The war was called the Revolutionary War and we fought against England for our independence as a country. That's why the Fourth of July is also known as Independence Day. Guess what, though? You know the guy that led our military in the Revolutionary War. We've seen his picture a lot lately. Do you know who I'm talking about?"

**************************************************************************************

I should point out at this juncture that Taylor and I had been working on money math every day for the past two weeks. George Washington's picture was in every math problem she'd been doing for weeks! We'd talked a great deal about George Washington being the first president of the United States and why his picture was on the one dollar bill and on the quarter.

**************************************************************************************

Taylor: "Uh, I don't know........." (she smacks the ball to Greg, thinks for another second or two, then her face lights up) "OH! I know! Grandpa Ed!"

Greg and I cracked up!

It made perfect sense to Taylor though. Grandpa Ed is a career military guy, she had seen his picture a lot lately and I had given her the hint that she knew the guy. Besides, Grandpa Ed is one of Taylor's heroes, so to her all of the pieces fit!

Sorry Grandpa Ed! A little misunderstanding about exactly how old you are is the price you pay for being a hero to your granddaughter. :)

Kristin

What I'm In Love With Right Now

Since I don't really have anything noteworthy to blather on about, I thought it would be a great idea to blather on about all those simple things that make life a joy to experience. Autumn is a wonderful season with so many things to find joy in.

1. I think early fall is right at the top of my list. 80 degrees, sunny, all the leaves starting to change colors and a little nip in the air at night. What could be better? Here are a few pics of the glorious color changes happening right in our own back yard. Taylor and I went on a photo shoot today to capture some of the glory.

2. The parking garage (and the cool sky bridge connecting the parking garage with the hospital) being constructed at my place of employment gets a huge shout out from me! Long time comin', my friend. :)


3. Roasted peppers, squash and all the other early fall bounty found at our local farmer's market. Taylor and I went to the market today to ogle the pumpkins and drool over the smell of peppers roasting and kettle corn popping away. Yum yum!


4. Hayrides and horses. More fall favorites that we've been enjoying. Taylor went to a classmate's birthday party recently and was reunited with an old equine friend named Brownie. The first time Taylor rode Brownie was well over 4 years ago. Brownie is still giving out free rides at The Farm and accepting carrot and apple bribes to take the long track. Sweet!



5. Fall flowers are blooming everywhere! The mums, asters and late sunflowers are showing off, not to mention one last hurrah for the annuals. They're all loving the cooler weather and recent bout of rain.

6. Fall fishing! John has been journeying into the wild on solo fishing missions. He's caught carp, blue gills, trout, perch and this monster below, whose common name or species we do not know.


Even better than the fish (all catch and release of course), he also catches some glorious pictures of the outdoors. We still have plans to take one more sojourn up the Poudre Canyon before the weather gets too chilly.

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all."
- Stanley Horowitz

Kristin

Meet Rosita Ocho

Meet Taylor's new furry remote-controlled friend.

Taylor has been dying to go to the toy store to pick up this latest and greatest (not-so-greatest in her mom's opinion) invention from Animal Planet--a remote-controlled tarantula. Who thought this up? I have no idea, but it must have gone over in a big way in the test marketing phase. Every kid within a two-block radius of our house has declared it the coolest toy ever. Well, at least for today.

Taylor saved up her allowance money for a whole month in order to buy this furry little thing. After taking a good look at it out of the box, we think that Rosita Ocho (Taylor's name for her fake arachnid) bears a striking resemblance to this fellow we visited at the Butterfly Pavilion.

A cool specimen of spider, but we're pretty sure she doesn't do
wheelies and spin in circles like Rosita Ocho. :)

All I have to say is, "What will they think up next?" Well, that and, "If I ever find Rosita in my bed, shower or racing after me when I least expect it, that will be the end of Rosita Ocho!"

Kristin

Happy Birthday Bon Bon!

The Birthday Boy on a fishing trip with Taylor.

Lordy, lordy, look who's..........well, thirty-nine. Happy Birthday Bon Bon! Even though everyone you know is trying to rush you by a year, hold fast to that last year of the thirties. Before you know it, you'll be opening the door to middle age and meeting the rest of us in the foyer. :)

When I met John in 1992, he had just turned 23. One of the first things I learned about him was that he had a list of things he really wanted to do before he died. What?!? A "Bucket List" at the age of 23? Yep. Among the things listed were:

• operating a Zamboni
• skydiving
• returning to the Netherlands

I'm sure there were others of equally unique bent, I just don't remember them. See what happens when you enter the next decade of your life? :) I just know that the three above things were on his list 16 years ago and we haven't managed to move them to the DONE list. Hmmm... I sense a wild fortieth birthday party in the works for next year.

Kristin

Boom and Bling

This post should also be known as "Our Tenth Anniversary (A Month Late...)".

This past August 8th, John and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Where, oh where, has the time gone? Seems like just yesterday we were both looking forward to going back to school to pursue new ventures and wondering what it would be like to have a little 'us' running around our house...

For each of our wedding anniversaries, John and I have tried our best to give each other traditional gifts. I don't know who made up the traditional gifts list for anniversaries, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't compiled in this century or the last. Funny, but also part of the charm. We've given each other clocks, leather jackets, tea sets and the occasional appliance. On our 8th anniversary we decided to get Taylor's baby shoes bronzed.

Year	Traditional	Modern
1st	Paper	Clocks
2nd	Cotton	China
3rd	Leather	Crystal/Glass
4th	Fruit/Flowers	Appliances
5th	Wood	Silverware
6th	Candy/Iron	Wood
7th	Wool/Copper	Desk sets
8th	Bronze	Linens/Lace
9th	Pottery	Leather
10th	Tin/Aluminum	Diamond Jewelry
11th	Steel	Fashion Jewelry
12th	Silk/Linen	Pearls
13th	Lace	Textiles/Furs
14th	Ivory	Gold Jewelry
15th	Crystal	Watches
20th	China	Platinum
25th	Silver	Silver
30th	Pearl	Diamond
35th	Coral/Jade	Jade/Agate
40th	Ruby	Ruby
45th	Sapphire	Sapphire
50th	Gold	Gold
55th	Emerald	Emerald
60th	Diamond	Diamond

John and I both looked at the gifts to give for this year and simultaneously yelled out, "Yeah!". We've always been opposites, so it should come as no surprise that he was excited about tin and aluminum and I was excited (very) about the diamond jewelry thing. Here's the pics of what we chose for each other.

John's Boom! I don't know the name of this rifle or why it is so cool,
but John has been wanting one forever. The cool part
has something to do with the length of the barrel
and how light the assembly is.

Kristin's Bling! John picked this anniversary band out for me
all on his own. He was so disappointed when we had to
send it back to be re-sized. I was disappointed in
NO way whatsoever! :)

I was going to joke around and buy some rhinestone cuff links to give John. He probably considered trying to find a tin wall hanging to play a practical joke with. We both decided that the gifts slated for this year were far too cool to joke around about!

On our actual anniversary, John and I took Taylor to Boulder, Colorado for a night of fun. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory (yum yum!), then strolled along Pearl Street and browsed the shops. The highlight of the evening was the impromptu street show that we watched at the end of the evening. A guy named Dave performed acrobatic tricks and wowed the audience by hula hooping while balancing on cylinders. Taylor loved it.

Dave does the undoable--hula hooping while balancing
on cylinders (and ,we suspect, after tipping back a couple of cold ones...)

Ah, yes. 10 years and counting. For two souls of opposites-attract persuasion, we've sure made a go of it, as my grandma would have said. We're pretty lucky-- we both have jobs we love, a daughter we adore and a family to call our own. Best of all, we still have each other.

Kristin

Nurse and Friend, Now Author!

My friend and co-worker, Peg (aka Maggie), has just published her first book for kids! I found out this terrific piece of news while at work last night and I am absolutely beyond thrilled for her!

Her book is titled "In Real Life" and tells the story of Libby, a twelve-year old girl who gets involved with an Internet predator. I haven't read the story yet, but plan to just as soon as I get my hands on a copy. The book is written for anyone and everyone, but especially for 8-12 year old kids and their parents. I plan on reading this book with Taylor and using it to teach her important things about Internet safety.

To find out more about Peg's book, go to Peg's web page and also visit the In Real Life website. Peg talks in depth about the book "In Real Life", introduces other books she is currently working on and even shares an excerpt from the book. You can buy a copy of the book by visiting the online store Book Locker , or searching for it by name at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Kristin

Happy Grandparents Day!!!

A shout-out to the grandparents today!! We're pretty sure that Taylor has the best grandparents on the face of the planet and want them all to know how much we love and appreciate them. :)

Grandma Lou and Taylor on Easter Sunday 2008.

Grandpa Ed, Grandma Connie and Taylor at
The Outerbanks of North Carolina 2007.

We are separated from the grandparents by many, many miles, so each time we visit, or are visited by them, we take the opportunity to get the most out of each and every minute together. As someone once said, we should all have someone who knows how to bless us despite the evidence. Taylor has 3.

Kristin

Tae Kwon Do Progress

Here's some new film on the Ninja Girl. She's about got her one-steps and forms memorized, which will earn her a third stripe on her belt. Then she's ready to test for her orange belt! Woo hoo!

Practicing one-steps at class.

Taylor tries to complete her forms from start to finish.
A little self-congrats at the end. :)

Kristin

Learning to Speak Chinese

Christmas Morning 2007.
Taylor is sporting her new pink 'Chinese' kimono she got from Santa.

Anyone who knows Taylor very well knows that she is in love with all things Asian. Kimonos, silk fans, tiny tea cups and tea pots, jade figurines, Japanese animation series, artwork and good luck kitties--she loves it all.

Knowing this very well myself, it should come as no surprise that she has decided she wants to learn how to speak Chinese. She asks me on a daily basis what the Chinese word is for something: a dog? a cat? a book?

Today she came up to me and started the process in reverse. She politely interrupted my reading to ask me, "Mom, is javina (she pronounced it jahv-eye-nah) Chinese?" I thought for a second, then said, "What? That's not even a word Taylor!" She insisted several times that it was indeed a word. I repeatedly (futilely) told her that no, it is not a word!

Temporarily defeated, but undaunted, she left for a few minutes, then returned and picked up right where she left off. "Mom! It is too a word and it rhymes with China!" She stares at me stubbornly. So I then asked her, "Well, if it really is a word, what does it mean?" Thinking this would end the discussion. She immediately responded with, "It means what girls call their parts Mom".

Waiting....

Waiting...


My light bulb goes on!

I start laughing like crazy. "OH, you mean vagi..." I couldn't say it! I use the word on a daily basis at work, have even talked to Taylor about that word and what it means, yet I couldn't cough it up. Oh, but it was too funny! I explained to Taylor that no, that word is NOT Chinese, even though it rhymes with China. She was finally satisfied in her quest for knowledge and I now have a priceless memory to put in my stash.

Kristin