Back to the basics…

So far, our trip has been great! We left our house at 5 am Saturday morning and caught a flight out of IAH to O’Hare. Our flight from O’Hare to Dubuque almost got cancelled because the stewardess got sick, but luckily, some one-stepped in.

Erin did great on the plane. Flying into Dubuque was fun. It’s a Podunk airport – one runway. Its one of those airports when you get ready to land you still see no sign of an airport and begin to wonder if it’s a strip mowed in the grass buffer between fields. But Dubuque is moving up in the world, the runway was paved and they actually have a luggage carousel.

My parents met us and dropped off a car and dad directed us on the back roads so we didn’t have to “fight” the “heavy” city traffic of Dubuque. And it was a good choice. The way home took us past several quaint churches, and old monastery that is still running and a seminary nestled in the hills far from anything. It was a beautiful drive and made us realize how much we miss this place.

Sunday Max graduated from high school. The commencement ceremony was so long and boring, makes me happy I did not attend my own college graduation. But it was cool to see him finally walk across the stage and start his next stage of life. Leave it to Max to place a remote controlled fart machine under the stage at graduation. Every time the principal stood up to speak they triggered it. The sound only carried to the third row but those three rows were laughing so hard, it was noticed.

Sunday night we drove to Des Moines to see Renshaws. Jared’s grandpa got out of the hospital after two months so we stopped by to see them. He’s doing well. We have just been hanging with family. Erin is getting spoiled and is loving every minute of it. Today we are heading to the zoo and tomorrow back to NE Iowa.
Till Next Time…

Heading Home....

In less than 24 hours we will be on a plane heading home…. I am so excited! Its been a rough week. I had several deadlines to meet prior to leaving and I finished up everything yesterday. Erin has been sick with a stomach virus all week…lets just day some days I am thankful I live in an apartment….need I say more.
My baby brother graduates from high school Sunday, its hard to believe he is that old. So I am heading off for two weeks of low air pollution, non-existent traffic with people who actually wave with all five fingers, few stoplights, lots of cows and miles of gravel roads…

BIRD FLU HITS TRAILER PARK IN FLORIDA

Someone sent this to me via email. I thought it was hilarious and it was worth sharing

Children's Museum

Erin got to go to the children’s museum again this week. We went with a group of friends and they were wild. She had a blast. Her favorite thing was the wheelbarrow (yup, I got myself a dirt digger :)
Her second favorite thing was the Mexican van. They have an exhibit about Mexico and the main attraction is a stripped down 1970’s baby blueVW van. It seems like a broad cultural assumption to put an old party van in the Mexico exhibit, but all politics aside it was the hit of the museum. Driving the Mexican Van
Besides that things are crazy here. I am working like mad trying to meet some product deadlines before leaving for home. Speaking of 10 days until I see the rolling hills of Iowa, I can’t wait. I was doing great until I was stuck in traffic this week and I thought to myself I soooo need some fresh air and gravel roads before I break out in a major episode of road rage. Well may be not that major- its Houston, serious road rage involves guns….:)
Kylie & Erin Riding in the Party Van
So for all point people, we’ll be home for Max’s graduation and the following week.
She has her Daddys sense of fashion.....

Dead Man Walking

Last week I got the chance to attend Body Worlds 3 - The anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies. Morbid, I know…..but after reading Mary Roaches “Stiff – The curious life of Human Cadavers” this exhibit caught my interest. It is the first time the exhibit has toured the US and since its just a hop, skip and a jump (okay a 30 minute agonizing drive in bumper to bumper traffic) from me, I went. Dianne had to go for her biology class and Jared pretty told me there was not a chance over his dead body I could drag him to something like this, so naturally I went with Dianne and Jared happily babysat for the night.

We went late at night because the admission is cheaper ($15.00). After getting our tickets we walked through a maze of dark hallways and back elevators until we finally arrived at the exhibit. We were met the entrance by a praying cadaver at an alter as a tribute to all the Christians who have donated their bodies to the project (now over 6,000).

The exhibit had two main focuses - strictly medical and the odd cross between science and art. The medical part was amazing. It was a look into the complexity of the human body. Many of the organ displays included genetic deformities, different stages of cancer and physical deformities from accidents. There was a regular brain sitting next to alzheimer's brain for comparison and smokers lungs and just a lot of really fascinating stuff. That was all good and very interesting.

Aside from the individual organs, which were kept under plated glass, there was about 15 full bodies on display. This is where the exhibit got plain weird. All the bodies had the skin stripped off (the first guy was carrying his tanned skin like a spring jack over his shoulder, see photo) so the muscles and tendons were exposed. Some cadavers were missing exterior muscles so you could see the internal organs and their placement and function. But the first thing that got to me was they would glue the eyebrow, nipples and ears back on (I am guessing to give it a humanistic feel.)

The full cadavers were not behind glass and there was no touching (but lets face it how often do you get to touch something like this)? I didn’t know if I should stand there and stare completely enamored with these cadavers or feel sick about what I was looking at. It wasn’t the bodies that got to me, it was the explanation of how the bodies are run through saws and then plasticasized with pretty much the same substance you varnish you kitchen table with.

The plastinization process stop the body from decomposing, they think more than 1000 years. Which brings up another question why? Plastinization used as a learning tool is a tremendous advancement. But as a person, why would you do it? The thought crossed my mind while looking at an exhibit with three cadavers playing rummy at a big mahogany table….1000 years of playing rummy in a museum….why is our society so possessed with avoiding death? I guess this is some people way of continuing.
Anyway, if you get a chance( It is coming to Minneapolis later this year). I highly recommend it. Besides the oddities of it, it is an amazing look at the complexities of the human body.

Check out more info about bodyworlds at www.bodyworlds.com

Hurricane season lurking around the corner….

The official start of Hurricane season is about a month away and the south is gearing up for another hard season or still recovering from the last. Today we went to a hurricane preparedness session. Our church put on this one, although there are several going on around the community. It was an interesting look at lessons learned from last year’s evacuation and this year’s preparation for the upcoming season. Last year the emphasis was just on the evacuation part, making sure everyone had a place to go and ample supplies to get there. Typical newbie information that was great for us but old news for anyone who has lived in these parts for years.

However, this year’s focus was not only on evacuation, but also after storm clean up and restoration. We filled out surveys of who has what equipment (hint hint Dad, Emmy wants a STHL chain saw and a pair of hot pink chaps for her birthday :) and supplies so work teams can be formed and working within a few days in the case of a major storm hit.

Will it hit us this year? It’s hard to say… Houston has been lucky lately. The latest 2006 hurricane prediction is 17 named storms, 9 hurricanes – 5 of those being major (level III or above) and the gulf has a 30% landfall probability. That makes me wonder when the luck will run out and the statistics kick in.

Either way, its nothing to go crazy over, I just find it interesting; I guess its human curiosity. Its like growing up in the Midwest, you stand outside the cellar watching the sky turn from yellow to green, then green to purple as the clouds churn and funnels form. It when noon turn to midnight and 9pm looks like dawn. And then you feel that breath-taking stillness, the air laced so heavy you can hardly breath. That’s when the curiosity ends and you seal the hatch (aka crawl into that nasty musty century-old basement and roast marshmallows over a lavender scented candle while it sounds like the gate of hell open above. Somewhere in the innocence of childhood those storms are all exciting and safe.

However, here there are no basements and at 7 ft above sea level, underground is the last place you want to be with a storm surge. So will curiosity keep up here? Above a category III we are heading north and if it hits, maybe never looking back…we’re curious but not stupid. This year if needed we’ll evacuate 72 hours prior to landfall.

So now that the world knows our plans - Moms & Dads can stop worrying and know we have a plan :)

As for our little hurricane….This is her new “fort”
Till next week….

H.O.G.S. DAY

The Group (for some reason I seem to have more paint on me than any one else hmmm....)

Saturday I participated in H.O.G.S. Day (Hooked on Giving Service). We do an annual event with the youth where we team up with a non-profit in Houston to paint and repair homes of elderly people. The non-pro-fit provides the boards, paint and other supplies and we supply youthful labor. We left at 7am and headed into the loop and into a neighborhood that many youth only see when we do this project. A group of white suburban kids looked out of place in the midst of this small inner-city community. Although I think it’s a great experience for them. The neighbor hood we worked in is by far not in the worst part of the city, but these people live in humble homes with simple amenities.

A city girl's introduction to a caulk gun

We worked on a little shotgun house on blocks (welcome to Houston –everything floods) that was white with black trim. Our group had about twenty youth. We started with pulling off siding that was rotting or suffered termite damage. Then we scrapped, painted and did the final trim.

Fearless Leaders

About halfway through the project I was beginning to wonder if the house was going to look worse than when we started (lets face it teenager attempting to paint black trim on a white house is not exactly an ingenious idea). After seven hours the project was complete (and miraculously looked good), we were exhausted and elderly lady that lived there was so sweet and happy with the outcome.
Kayla hard at work

Running Behind

So, I am a little behind on posting things. I have been busy this week attempting to get Maxie’s graduation announcements and photos ready to be printed.

After having family in and out, I am attempting to get back into the groove. It’s been a long week. Erin was sick all week with a double ear infection. Now she is feeling better but still is feeling the adverse effects of the antibiotics she is taking.

Last week we went mini-golfing with Max. Erin is always swinging around Jared’s putter so we got Erin her own set for Easter (before she swings the real one through the TV.) She loved it and went mini-golfing with us. However, the clubs were made in China (ya for the price but most of the clubs broke within the first few days).

We had Easter Dinner with our friends Brandon and Erin and their extended family. It’s always hard to be away from family over major holidays, but we had a great time. Erin went on her first Easter egg hunt and really got into it. I think she has been on a sugar high all week from the candy.

Erin really misses her Uncle Max. But we’ll be home in under a month.

More zoo photos

Maxie's Visit

My baby bro is visiting this week, although I can hardly call him my baby brother anymore, he is now 18 and graduating from high school in May. Max flew in Tuesday morning and Erin and I picked him up from the airport and then headed to the zoo. Erin loved it and we all had a good time. The male orangutan was sitting right next to the viewing deck glass and Erin runs up and keep yelling “baby puppy”, we still need to work on her language skills. A 600-pound hairy monster is a long call from the neighbor’s mini-mutt.
After the zoo we walked over to the Hermann park train. The train is a historic feature in the park although I don’t know the story on it besides it gives a tour of the whole park and the kids love it. So we took a ride and even got the caboose.

Easter eggs

It's been years since I have painted real eggshells for Easter. Last night Erin and I set out to do it….of course I painted the eggs and Erin painted everything in the room.

Chubby Bunny…

Ah, the innocence of youth. The carefree uncontrollable laughter that sometime I forget about in the midst of responsibility….

I still laugh a lot, life is good, but I rarely laugh so hard that it become uncontrollable. If fact I think the last time I have laughed this hard was over Christmas while listening to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Denny talk about the “hunting lodge” suite they got at the local motel with the stuffed duck motifs hanging over the 1950’s vibrating bed with the worn electrical wires…but that a story for another time…. Tonight was one of those nights where we laughed until we cried...

Friday night I chaperoned a young women’s campout out on a farm about thirty miles from my sprawling suburbia. It was good timing for me since I am so homesick for the rolling hills and open fields of Iowa. We took about 15 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 just for a quick overnight camp to get them ready for Girls Camp this summer. My car arrived an hour late after fighting the Friday night rush-hour and then missing the road. (I had two teenage girls promising me they knew exactly where we were going….ten miles past the turn I decided I would have better luck finding the place driving with my eyes closed than listening to them). We got there and made some tinfoil dinners and set up camp.

And then the infamous marshmallows made their appearance with the introduction of the first round of “chubby bunny.” If you are not familiar with this game (a.k.a you had no life as a child) everyone keeps shoving marshmallow into their mouth until they can no longer pronounce the phrase “chubby bunny.” I was proud of myself for my six marshmallows, but opted out of the second round because my allergies would not allow me to breath through my nose, which poses a significant health problem. Before we started the head camp director, Sueann took a stern motherly position and said – “don’t place too many in your mouth, you could breath in the marshmallow dust and asphyxiate yourself”. And then she turned around and won with a total of eleven marshmallows – she must be built like a chipmunk.

When I left for the campout it was almost 90 degrees and humid. I think it was the hottest day yet this spring. Friday we also had out apartment exterminated and so our entire kitchen was piled in our bedroom in front of the camping equipment closet. Texas weather does not vary much so instead of digging out my sub-zero thermal sleeping bag (which I have yet to use since I moved here) and I grabbed an old comforter to sleep on and a light fleece blanket.

We retired to our tents about midnight (after twist-tying the zippers together on another tent) and everything was soaked with dense dew and the wind had picked up to over twenty miles per hour (which is odd for this area). And then the cold front moved in, the only day I should have watched the weather report. The temperature dropped to fifty degrees and I spent the night shivering in my pathetic sleeping setup. I can honestly say this is one of the few times I have been cold down here. Cold is almost an unknown feeling now, when it hits the body can’t adjust. I woke up thinking that I just had the most miserable night in years.

So we left Saturday morning after a homemade breakfast and some horseback riding and headed back to suburbia to fight the smog and the traffic.

An early weekend, not by choice….

Ah life is good. I put in 11 hours of freelance work in this week, which will be a nice little chunk of change and one step closer towards buying a house, which hopefully will finally materialize this summer. The whole freelance thing is working out well; it’s a good balance of home and work. I take the projects I want and leave the nasty ones. No cubical, no commute, and if I really don’t want to talk to the project manager and I let the call go to my voice mail.

Its been a pretty crazy week, but its ending early. I got a notice a few days ago that they are fumigating out apartment building tomorrow. We had some really nasty neighbors that just moved out. We’ve had a roach problem for almost a year on account of them. The roaches are so vile and now they are big enough they could carry my kid away! For your northern folk, I would much rather have the ladybugs than roaches, at least they look pretty. So today I am busy emptying my kitchen and bathroom from ceiling to floor and attempting to find room for everything in our bedroom so they can spray. They are kicking us out all day. And then Saturday we get to wash everything and reload the cupboards and drawers. It’s a long process and a deep spring clean, I was not planning on, but if it solves the problem I am more than happy to comply.

Tuesday night we made homemade ice-cream for the first time in years. We borrowed a ice-cream maker from someone, who laughed as she dug it out of her attic. The box is a hoot – so 1970 fantastic! Its purple & pink stripped and has these hippie kids making icecream. And what’s even funnier is the brand is Norelco. Make you wonder how a company goes from kitchen gadgets to razors. I guess the same way the Nestle bought out Purina and now makes chocolate and dog food. But the ice cream was great (Jared grandma’s recipe), I am in the process to see if making your own if cost effective.

Well Erin and I are going out for a swim, since its almost 90 today….

Only a Face

Today was the first sign of summer with temperatures reaching the high 80’s. The weather has been beautiful the last three or four months and today was a reminder that the horrific heat and humidity of the summer is looming around the corner.

Yesterday I went to a few garage sales since Erin is finally growing and is about ready to streak solely from lack of well fitting clothing. I actually found some good deals on clothes and I got a booster seat so we can pack away the highchair.

Today all three of us woke up sick. I am not sure where we picked it up, but we are all suffering from a cold. So we stayed home and watched general conference over the internet.

Tonight I was eating ice cream and left my bowl on the floor. Erin loves ice cream, so she decided to lick the residue out of the bowl. Thus, producing a face only a mother can love.

Here’s to a productive week….