Catching Up

Isaac spends his time divided among five places: crib, blanket on the floor, swing, car seat, and this: his bouncy seat. He loves it in here and is propped up to watch what the rest of the family is doing. He's very content to sit and kick his legs while keeping an eye on Mommy working in the kitchen. Oh, maybe his time is divided among six places -- because we love to hold him in our arms, too!

As you might guess, this look is courtesy of his big sister...

We went over to my friend Naomi's house to play, and here's a picture of the two Isaacs!

At the Wild Animal Park. Although it may look like we live at the Animal Park since we take pictures there so often, we truly don't...we just love going there! These were taken on the same day as all of those plant pictures were taken. Here's Isaac and his too-big hat!

Daddy and his little boy


We took the train around the African exhibits. It used to be difficult to take this train around because December was younger, couldn't see the animals very well, and loathed the confinement. Now she gets into it more, and it's enjoyable to ride around! As for Isaac, you'll see how he likes the train ride in the next picture.

For him, it's a lulling, soothing ride! He can't resist the gentle rocking -- it makes him sleepy.

Me pushing the surprisingly heavy double stroller. Or, more accurately, since we're on a hill, it's me trying to keep the stroller from rushing downhill and pulling my arms out as it does so...

I can tell Isaac is getting older, because his interest in toys is growing! I can't keep him on his back anymore -- as soon as I lay him on his back, he flips over to his belly and finds toys to amuse himself.

Some Daddy-baby bonding time (Isaac is mesmerized by the contrast on Daddy's shirt)

This picture makes me laugh. If only you could see how many layers Isaac has on in this picture! He's a little puffy blue marshmallow. It was FREEZING cold in our apartment that morning. The apartment below us was getting repainted, and they had kept all the windows closed overnight, which meant the paint fumes rose straight up to us and made our apartment smell. And I mean reek. Since paint fumes are bad for children to be breathing in, we opened all of our windows and had fans going, etc -- and that meant our apartment got cold! So the next morning, the temperature inside was 57 degrees F (13 degrees C) -- very cold! So in this picture Isaac is wearing 5 layers to keep him warm!


These last two pictures are of December at the park, in her favorite park contraption -- the swing. Every Tuesday is Park Day for us, when all of us seminary wives with young kids get together at different parks around the city and hang out together. We ALL enjoy it!

It's a Dr. Seuss World

One thing I love about living here is the assortment of plant life. Recently I decided that I don't take enough pictures of the fun plants here, so when Brad and I took the kids to the Wild Animal Park, I took pictures of plants instead of animals. The Wild Animal Park's collection of plants is actually worth more $$$ than their collection of animals! Pretty crazy!

Ever since we moved here, Brad has commented that many of the plants here look like they came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. As it turns out, he was right! We were watching PBS one night, and Mrs. Seuss was talking about her late husband. She said how he lived right in the area where we live, and he got the inspiration for his weird plants and creatures from the plants that grow naturally around here.

Here's a sampling (all taken at the Wild Animal Park):

(A close-up of the previous flower)

This is a picture of the tree above Brad's and Isaac's heads, and below is a close up of the flower that grows on it.

Pretty Dr. Seuss-esque, eh??

This is more of a landscape-type shot -- of the view we are very blessed to look at!

I wish that this picture was scratch-and-sniff. The wisteria hanging above Brad's and the kids' heads smells completely heavenly! A close-up, below...

Another landscape shot.

One of my favorites.

A tree in bloom (one of December's favorites...for reasons I think are obvious!)

And We're Back!

Hello!

I apologize about the lack of posting. There have been a number of things that have come up in our life here, but now I can with certainty say that it will be more regular again! As I have told you before, the laptop's busyness is synonymous with Brad's busyness. And this is the busiest semester of Brad's entire schooling, from kindergarten until this very semester! :o) We knew this semester would be like that, from seminarians who have gone along before us. I feel really bad for Brad, because he has so much on his plate! Five papers (and these aren't your quickie little ten-pagers...!), Greek and Hebrew reading notes, quizes, and exams around the corner. He and the laptop have been very busy. I can't wait until next year, which supposedly is a breeze compared to this year of seminary! The rest of this semester can't pass quickly enough.

The week of April 5 was Brad's Spring Break, and Brad's parents came out and visited us. What an incredibly fun-filled week! We had a blast with them and were so sorry to see them go. I'll post pictures of that. They will be pictures from Brad's Dad's camera, because when we went to the beach, we dropped the camera in the sand...and it did not survive, despite the heroic efforts of Brad and his father to completely dissect it and put it back together. So we currently have no camera.

Last week, I was down the entire week with a bout of food poisoning...ick. I am just now beginning to get over it, but that is surely something I would never wish on anybody! So, all of these things combined has ensured the laptop and I's certain separation -- and hence, the lack of posting. However, this week Brad got a new laptop (an HP Mini) that he's very fond of, and that means the old laptop can stay home! Yay! I can blog again! I've got so much to tell you and show you...

Words

I like words. I like learning the meaning of different, new, interesting words. I like to read. When I tell Brad that, he tells me to read all of the assigned theological books for his classes for him. So I've learned to qualify that statement...I like to read, but I hate boring books. Theological books and textbooks for classes are like sleeping tablets for my brain. Because I like words and books, it makes sense that I think puns are fun! I love them -- they make me laugh. So I thought you'd like to read some, too.

1. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils.

3. Leif Ericson, a famous Viking explorer, returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely, saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

4. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from very bad breath. This made him a super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

5. The Cleveland Symphony was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage - about 20 minutes - during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around that whole time, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one. After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch.

"Hey -- we need to get back!"

"No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we'd need extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled."

A few moments later, they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor was a bit edgy and said so to her companion. "Well, of course," answered her friend. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."

6. Did you hear about the Buddhist monk who refused Novocain during a root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication.

7. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

8. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named Amal. The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him Juan. Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Amal. He responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal."

9. The friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought this was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that: Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.

10. There was a person who put ten different puns up on a blog, in the hope that at least one of the puns would make its readers laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

Well, they all made me laugh!