"Well, I guess now we are in the middle of nowhere."

That is what Elijah pronounced tonight when he saw a stop sign with a flashing light on top of it.  Earlier in the week he had asked Marty what these were all about and that was Marty's answer.

Also, when we landed at the airport.... Elijah asked (very loudly I might add) "Daddy, are we in the middle of nowhere now?"  Daddy said "No, we have to drive an hour and a half and then we will be in the middle of nowhere."  Hope we didn't offend any rural Iowa residents.

We got a nice tour of the Iowa scenery this evening when we drove to the airport to learn our flight was going to be delayed by 2 hours.... which meant we couldn't make our connection to get back to Oregon. Oh well, we have new tickets for Sunday and hopefully we'll have better luck then.  :)

The only bad news.... our "manna from heaven" seems to have nearly disappeared.  That is what Marty has named the cookie supply.  We go to bed every night to nearly empty trays of cookies (I think there were initially 7 or 8 varieties) and when we wake up in the mornings they are all filled up again.  It is probably for the best just in regards to the intense number of calories I have consumed since being here.

This is all that is left of the cookie supply (I think someone stole the head off of the green, sprinkled cookie.  Looks like he was originally Santa):

Happy New Year all and best wishes in 2011!!!!!

Wacky Wednesday #4: "The Wursts"

This week is being spent on the farm in Iowa, so I'm adding some 'wackiness' from our farm experience.  The trip has been great and has included all the standards: present opening, cookie eating, wine drinking, wii playing,  cookie eating, baby holding, cookie eating, snow playing..... did I mention the cookies?  I may need a size bigger pants to make the trip back to Oregon.  

It has been bitter cold, but also beautiful.

I should mention I took these photos from INSIDE the house.

The big excitement of the trip is that it is time to butcher.  As in "kill a cow and make meat out of it".  In my parent's basement.  Really.

So, my ancestry is purely German.  My great-great-grandparents were immigrants from Germany in the late 1800's.  For my entire life (and my dad's entire life, his dad's entire life, etc, etc) a cow and a pig are "processed" sometime in the bitter cold of winter so there is meat to eat for the year... and of course, a couple varieties of "wursts" (we are Germans, that is what we do).

I have to add that I have not actually participated in butchering and processing meat since the mid-1990's.  I've been on about a 15 year hiatus coming from living in different states.  It is also the first time that Marty has ever participated.

There is some prep work that happened before we got here.  The cow was actually killed a week ago, skinned, gutted, cut into quarters and has spent the last week hanging in the walk-in cooler to age.  (Located in my parents basement.)  I used to find it great fun to take friends downstairs to show them the dead cow in the basement.

Marty jumped right in and found himself the cow apron.  Seems fitting, huh?

My Uncle Dave & my Dad at the saw cutting up the beef. 

Might not look like what you imagine for a place to process meat, but believe me, it is very clean. 

My cousin, Carly using the grinder to process the hamburger.

Some of the meat in the walk-in-cooler.  There ended up being 3 of those blue bins full of hamburger.

One bin of T-bone steaks.

Wrapping up some roasts.  My mom, Aunt Marlene & Aunt Jolene.

Uncle Dave mixing up the hamburger.

It's a mini assembly line.  Jo is wrapping, Ron is taping, Carly is stamping (date & what it is) and Anna is separating everything to be weighed out.

And where do we store all this meat?  My mom has two freezers like this in the basement.  It is also filled with all sorts of goodies from her giant garden.

 Today was day one.  There were 225 packages of hamburger that were wrapped up and divided out among the family.  Just over 300 pounds of hamburger.  That is a lot of burger.  I have no idea how many packages of steaks and roasts were made.  It was a lot.

Tomorrow everyone comes back over the make the "wurst".  The wurst of the day is Rinderwurst.   The kids are excited to see the cooked cow tongue, heart and kidneys (which I guess also goes in the Rinderwurst.... well whatever doesn't get eaten).  I'll have to write about that tomorrow.

We are still enjoying the "wurst" from last week.  That is the Liverwurst.  It came from processing the pig and in my opinion it is quite tasty.  But I have also eaten it my entire life.  Marty wasn't quite as fond of it.  I have to admit, it doesn't look very appetizing, but it is good.  We eat it spread on Ritz crackers.

Liverwurst

Pretty wacky stuff, huh?  Not sure how many people can honestly tell me that they have actively participated in butchering a cow or a pig.... much less in their own basement.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, 

   to us a son is given, 

   and the government will be on his shoulders. 

And he will be called 

   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 

   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

We are enjoying this special season in our new home this year.  It is great to have time as a family and to get out and do the things we love to do AND celebrating the birth of our LORD, Jesus Christ.  We just pulled cupcakes out of the oven for our Christmas morning tradition - a birthday party for Jesus!  The only time of year that we have dessert for breakfast without throwing Marty into a tizzy.  (He has a thing about no sweets before noon - I totally don't get it).

Here are a few photos of the past week or so.  We hope that everyone is doing well and that you are enjoying this time with your own families and traditions.  :)

Last weekend we got out for a little hike in the freshly falling snow.  This place is no more than 5 miles from our house.  How great is that?!?

  

We had a lot of little breaks to enjoy eating the snow. 

Gavin continues to LOVE being outside.  

And there is no better place to nap than with Mommy holding him.   :)

The boys are having so much fun with each other!  I've got some great videos if I can figure out how to get them posted. 

Christmas PJ's!

Elijah "skyping" with a friend in Colorado.  This kid LOVES to skype.  It cracks me up that this is a totally normal thing for him when to us it is this amazing new technology.

Elijah says this should be our Christmas Eve tradition.  Who taught this kid the word/concept tradition?!?
Anyways,  a great sledding hill about 20 minutes away.

Elijah LOVED it!

Eventually Gavin realized he should have a turn.  In his very limited 9 month old communication style, he started to dive for the tube when Elijah would bring it back up to the top again.  That progressed to a happy squeal when it came to the top.   So, Marty and I took turns taking him down.  It was pretty funny - he was completely silent on the ride down the hill, but it was obvious that he wanted to do it again.  :)

Merry Christmas!

Wacky Wednesday #3: Round-A-Towns

This town has about a million round-a-bouts.  Elijah calls them round-a-towns.  In order to leave our neighborhood we go through a minimum of 2.  They are especially interesting when there is a lot of snow/ice (I will have to make another Wacky Wednesday about the snow removal policy here).  Overall though, I would have to say I think I like them.  I can get downtown without going to a single stoplight or stop sign.  Not one.  It is about an 8-10 minute drive.

Another funny thing about the round-a-towns is that a lot of people just drive over them.  Marty thinks that is fun.  I think it is probably illegal, but Marty still thinks it is fun - until he gets a ticket for it.  I have never actually seen anyone (other than Marty) just drive over them.  But people obviously do because there are lots of tracks in the snow.

A follow up on my post from yesterday.  I do LOVE that I get to stay home with the boys.   I am pretty lucky.  Sometimes I just run out of ideas of what to do and the days are long.

Well, TV time is done.  I now need to try to answer the questions of the last five minutes while I am typing this (because he saw that I got the computer out and was not engaging in watching Yo Gabba Gabba):

- When will my baby teeth fall out?  ME: When you are six.  E: Why when I am 6?
- What time is the babysitter coming?  Is she here yet?  Why isn't she here yet?
- Is the tooth fairy real?
- Is Yo Gabba Gabba real?
- Is Santa Claus real?  How does he get into our house?  Do you give him a key?  Can we go look for the thing on the roof where he gets in?
- Can I write on your computer now?  Can I sit on your lap?

In conclusion, Elijah is going to get on my lap and write on the computer.  (Next question: Why did you write my name right here?)

v.glhmtbhnvbhb

55 hours a week

55 hours a week.  That is amount of time I have by myself with the boys each week while Marty is at work.  Not the average amount of time... probably more like the minimum.  No wonder I have a hard time coming up with things to do!?!  That is a lot of hours!

11 hours a day.  Generally Elijah is in preschool 3 hours a day, but this week he is off.   So, a full 11 hours.  We do have 1 hour a day of TV time which I try to plan to do during Gavin's naps.   Yay!  That leaves 10 hours.  

10 hours.  1 mom.  2 kids.

There are days that go by SOOOO fast and are tons of fun.  Then there are the days that seem to drag on forever with lots of whining (sometimes more by me.... sometimes more by the kids).  :)

All that to say, my conversations are primarily with a 4 year old throughout the day.  Not quite the same as conversing with an adult, but I do laugh A LOT.  Here are some of my favorites from the past couple days.

#1: Story preface: We don't use the word supper in our family, so I'm pretty sure he is referring to the Bible story.  Elijah LOVES building guns and shooting things and I just go with it.
Elijah:  Mommy, did you know Jesus said shooting was okay?
Me: Huh.  Didn't know that.
Elijah: Yah, that one night when those one guys were at supper with him, they asked him and said some prayers or something and Jesus just said that shooting guys was okay.  As long as they are the bad guys.

#2:  When I grow up I don't want to be a stay-at-home-dad.  I want to work.  I am a good at working.

#3: Stinkin' shoot.  (Elijah's new favorite thing to say when things don't go the way they are planned).

Roughly 5 hours left in our day 'til Marty gets home.  I see some snow-playing in our future.  Likely some hot chocolate drinking.  And definitely some laundry folding.  In between snacks, diaper changes, and dinner making.... that take us 5 hours.

Wacky Wednesday #2 & other stuff

If you didn't already know, the house we live in is mostly furnished (beds, towels, basic kitchen stuff, etc, etc).  We haven't met him, but we kindly refer to him as "Dan-the-man".   Dan-the-man apparently hired an interior decorator to outfit the place and I would say that over she has great taste.  But what is up with these forks?

To start with, they only have three tines.... and then the curly que on the end.  Really?  They crack us up (we are obviously easily entertained these days).

In other news for the week, here is a quick summary in pictures.  We made these wonderful Christmas cookies.  I frosted them and Elijah did all the sprinkles by himself.  I was especially impressed with the candy cane.  As we were finishing them up, we saw our neighbor Pat outside, so she came over and enjoyed cookies and tea with us.  Yah for meeting neighbors!

The moving boxes have been a lot of fun.  If you can't make out the photo, I can interpret.  One circle with a person is for Elijah- meaning he is allowed in the box.  The other circles/people all have lines drawn through them.  They represent Mommy, Daddy and Gavin.  We are not allowed to play in the box.  Just so that is all clear.

 We went to Christmas light display over the weekend and found Santa!  It was after G's bedtime... thus the stylish PJ's.

Elijah had a Holiday program for school today.  Love the hats and scarves, huh?  His wonderful teacher made them all for the kids.  Elijah is in the back row.... kind of looking at the camera.

Kids performing Jingle Bells.  Santa came to watch.  :)

Elijah in his adorable hat and scarf.  The kids did each sew on their own red button.  His preschool is pretty cool.

The boys with Santa after the program.  This was kind of funny.... when I went to pick up Gavin he had gotten his hand all wrapped up in Santa's beard and was nearly pulling it off.  Thankfully disaster was avoided but it was a bit dicey there for a minute.

And last by not least..... Gavin has mastered the "butt scoot" and makes it across the floor in a sitting position to the chairs to use them a teething toy.   I need to get a video of the "butt scoot" uploaded.  It is pretty funny.  :-)  He can't make it from the army crawl position to the sitting position yet.

Have a great day friends!  :)

Feeling more settled....

Our stuff arrived on Thursday, 12/1.   For Elijah, more than 2 weeks of not seeing his toys, his bed tent, and his stuff animals, he was elated.  Gavin was equally as excited to see his crib.... or at least he sure does sleep better in it!  I was on a mission to get a Christmas tree, so we had all of our boxes unpacked by Saturday, 12/4.  I kind of felt like Superwoman.  Marty helped with the just the last box.

Saturday, 12/4 I met with Elijah's new preschool teacher to get him registered there and then we also went to the Christmas Parade in town.  We were kind of amazed that it is actually a Christmas parade and not a holiday parade.

All bundled up to watch the parade.

Then Sunday 12/5 we were able to go get our tree and decorate the house for Christmas.  :-)

Really, how cute are those boys?

Gavin came over the check out the tree, but we quickly more interested in his toys again.  He has ventured over to pull off some ornaments, but Elijah is kind of the "Christmas tree cop" and he always moves G and tells him "It's not safe".

Marty lifting up Elijah to put baby Jesus near the top of the tree.

The finished tree!

The rest of this week went by in a blur.  Elijah is going to preschool M-Th mornings and is really enjoying it so far.  He has pulled through with the coffee and has brought home a baggy of freshly ground coffee for me everyday.  It is really pretty cute. 

Marty's job seems to be going really well.  He says he feels like he is doing a good job.... it is just a matter of taking time and building relationships, etc.  He has been working some really long days.... he flew to another area of Oregon one day last week and didn't get home 'til almost midnight, just to be back at the office by 8am with a work dinner that night.... so we basically didn't see him from Tuesday morning until Thursday night. 

Oh, and a new move wouldn't be complete without tracking down the nearest Urgent Care within the first couple weeks.  :-(  Poor little Gavin has another ear infection.  He started antibiotics yesterday, so hopefully the terrible fever will be gone soon and he'll start feeling better.

All that to say - we're feeling more settled!  A couple wall hangings to hang up yet and then everything is in it's place.  :-) 

Happy Sunday! 

Gavin meets hard things....

Poor little Gavin doesn't get as much blogging or FB time as his big brother.  Only because he doesn't talk yet and tell me ridiculous things.  But he is plenty cute, amazing, and entertaining in his own right.   And he is doing new things and making us laugh every day!

Gavin's experience thus far in Oregon can be summarized as "Gavin meets hard things".  Not all bad, but not all good either.  He was already eating plenty of solid food before the move, but in the last couple of weeks he has really mastered picking up little things (Cherrios, etc).  His favorite is frozen peas.  I think they feel good on his mostly toothless mouth.  He gets all excited and shoves them all in at once and then has to work on them for a while.

Gavin with a mouth full of peas.

More food adventures.  He is a mess.

The other hard things aren't quite as positive.  In the last week he has mastered the army crawl.  He has not mastered the idea that he must look where he is going.  So, he tends to crawl right into things like the corners of the walls, the table legs, etc.  And his most favorite thing to do is to make it under the coffee table and then try to lift his head up (more hard things).  For the most part he has now figured out how to get from sitting to army crawl position without continuing to bang his head.  Yah, Gavin!

Here is a video of the Gavin doing his army crawl this morning.  By this point in the morning he was a bit tired as you can see.... but you get the idea.  :-)

Wacky Wednesday

There are quite a few "wacky" things we have found since moving to Oregon.... so I'll see how many Wednesdays I can make it with writing about them.  A big one is the law that says you cannot pump your own gas here.  Which probably contributes to gas prices being well over $3/gallon.

I got this from Wikipedia.... obviously the best source of information on such a topic.

All stations in New Jersey and Oregon offer only full service and mini service; attendantsare required to pump gas because customers are barred by statutes in both states from pumping their own gas. New Jersey banned self-service gasoline in 1949 after lobbying by service station owners. Proponents of the ban cite safety and jobs as reasons to keep the ban.^[12] Likewise, the Oregon statute banning self-service gasoline lists seventeen different justifications, including the flammability of gas, the risk of crime from customers leaving their car, the toxic fumes emitted by gasoline, and the jobs created by requiring mini service.^[13] In addition, the ban on self-service gasoline is seen as part of Oregonian culture. One commentator noted, “The joke is when babies are born in Oregon, the doctor slaps their bottom, ‘No self-serve and no sales tax’ [. . .] It’s as much a cultural issue as an economic issue. It’s a way of life.”^[14] In 1982, Oregon voters rejected a ballot measure sponsored by the service station owners, which would have legalized self-service gas.^[15]

The town of Huntington, New York bans gasoline self-service to save jobs. The ban went in effect in the early 1970s during a recession.

The constitutionality of the self-service bans has been disputed. The Oregon statute was brought into court in 1989 by ARCO, and the New Jersey statute was challenged in court in 1950 by a small independent service station, Rein Motors. Both failed. New Jersey governor Jon Corzine sought to lift the ban on self service for New Jersey. He asserted that it would be able to lower gas prices, but some New Jerseyans have argued that it can cause drawbacks, especially unemployment.

In New Jersey and Oregon, it is legal for customers to pump their own diesel (although not every station permits diesel customers to do so; truck stops typically do).^{[citation needed]} In Oregon, "certain nonretail" customers may also pump their own fuel.^[16]

Questions

This post is not at all related to our move.... but some funny stuff.

Elijah is in the phase of asking questions CONSTANTLY.  The amazing thing about it is that he is now old enough to take things in and understand the answers I give him.  So far this morning (in the 1 1/2 hours he was awake before I dropped him off at preschool) here are the questions he asked.

1. E: What does "glee" mean?  (Me: Where did you hear "glee"?)  E: In the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song.  (Sure enough, it is there).

2. What does the "N" mean? (As we are in the car to preschool.... we've already reviewed the "D" and the "R").  Next: What does neutral mean?

3. How do the trees get water and not die when it is snowy?  Then: How does the water get from Oregon to the ocean?  Then a discussion about the Continental Divide to which Elijah responded: "Mommy, that is very interesting.  I would like to visit that place."

There are 2 questions that keep coming up over the past couple weeks that I just keep diverting and Elijah is very aware that I am not giving him complete answers.  They are:

* How do you make people?

and

* Is Santa Claus real or imaginary?

Any good ideas to help a 4 year reach a solid conclusion on those ones?????

The car adventure

Friday, Dec 2nd:

I get a call from our English-is-not-my-first-language driver at 1:37p saying he will be here is 10 minutes.  I patiently ask if he needs directions and he says "No, I have it on my GPS."  I attempt to explain that the GPS is not going to get him to our house, but the language barrier is not helping.

2:10p: Call from driver.  "I cannot find your address."   I try to navigate him here with the language barrier and the screaming baby who I am attempting to feed a bottle and put down for a nap.  The roads are icy, snow packed and it is still hilly and covered with round-a-bouts.  I try to suggest he just unload our vehicles where he is and I will come meet him.... but at the moment he just says he is going to go ask someone for directions and hangs up on me (in his defense I think he was also trying to turn a corner in his giant semi and there are cars parked on both sides of the street, it is icy, and the streets are very narrow).

2:18p: Call from driver: "I am just going to unload your vehicles here.  I cannot make it to your house.  Can you come meet me here?" Yes.  I load up the kids and we drive about 1/2 mile to meet English-is-not-my-first-language driver (who, by the way, is actually SUPER nice and not anywhere near as grumpy as the driver the day before).

So, we drive to meet the driver and drive him back and forth to get both the cars parked out in front of our house.  Gavin waited in the rental car while Elijah and I watched him unload Marty's truck.

The driver said the drive here was pretty horrendous - at least 2 foot of snow most of the way. And my car was on the lower level and has quite the mud/ice cover. It is really pretty impressive.

Marty's truck about to get unloaded.

The "clean" side of my car

This morning (after a couple inches of snow overnight) - Marty starting on the de-icing of my car (the not-so-clean-side).

It needed gas, so he had to chop off the ice to get to the gas cap.

This is the ice chunk from the side view mirror - impressive, huh?

When Marty went to put gas in the car he forgot about the silly Oregon law that says you can't pump your own gas.  So, he just gets out and pumps his gas and wonders why the 5 other patrons at the gas station are just sitting in their cars looking at him funny.  Then the employee walks up to M and he remembers!  Marty apologizes and says he just moved here and forgot, so "is there anything I need to do now?".  The employee says "Nope, as long as you did it right."

That statement cracked me up.  I've been pumping my own gas for 17 years..... I think I can manage to do it right.  But it is against the law here.  Funny.

The adventure continues.... :-)

We have our stuff!  And our cars!  And it was an adventure getting both.

Thursday, 12/2:  Got a call at 1pm from our driver (Ron) saying that he would be to our house around 3pm.  GREAT!  I have spoken to Ron daily for a few days now and I had warned him that our address does not show up on GPS (it is a very new neighborhood.... construction going on all around us).  He says "No, I have it on the GPS".  Okay, great - I will trust the confident truck driver because he does not seem interested in what I am trying to tell him.

3pm arrives and the guys are here to help unload the truck, but no Ron.  Ron is in the neighborhood with his semi truck trying to get here.  Did I mention it is snowing?  And our neighborhood is FILLED with round-a-bouts?  And we live at the top of a hill?

Against my better judgement, I hand my cell phone to the unloader guy and trust him to give Ron directions to our house.  I also provide unloader guy with a map of our neighborhood.  Apparently, unloader guy did not take the class in 5th grade that teaches a person how to read a map - that did not go well.  Unloader guys #1 & #2 then run around up and down our street trying to find Ron.  Uhmm... not very successful there.

Unloader guys foot prints in the snow.  It was quite the show.

45 minutes later, Ron is driving up our icy, snow covered hill with his giant semi truck.  Lets just say that Ron was not a very happy guy at that moment.

See the semi?! It was slow going up the hill, but he made it!

 And we have stuff!  The first thing Elijah saw was his laundry basket.  He was so excited for his laundry basket.  It was cute.

Yah!  Our stuff!

Did I mention that during all of this Marty is at work?  And Gavin needed a nap?  And it was almost dinner time?  And you have to check off a box on an inventory for each item that comes in the door.  It was quite the adventure.  Marty had a dinner for work that night, so it was just me, 30 some boxes, 2 little boys and a mission to find the toys.  We were successful.  

The house on Friday morning.  It doesn't look much better than this now.  Here is to a busy weekend.

So, part of the driver's responsibility is to set up the beds.  The only bed that we moved is Gavin's crib.  Driver Ron and unloader guy #1 who can't read a map, set off to set up the crib.  There was a lot of swearing going on under their breath and they were less than happy.  I eventually just told them to go and we would figure out the crib... seemed like a much better option.  When I go in to put Gavin to bed in the pack-n-play I see that driver Ron has left his drill and tool set here.  Great.  So, on Friday we got to go to FedEx and overnight the drill to Ron.  Elijah drew him a picture and wrote him a letter.  Maybe that will cheer him up a bit?

Elijah's drawing & letter to driver Ron

After all of that, we have all our belongings minus one campchair that somehow got lost between Colorado and here.  So, we need to fill out a claim form and do something with that in between shipping back the driver's tools, unpacking the boxes and setting up the crib.

Good times.  :-)