KFTD

Approximately sixty circus performers have been shot from cannons. At last report, thirty-one of them have been killed.

(edited to add: our country seems to be in such a better place now, thank goodness...can't you feel it?)

CHANGE...

Finally, change is coming...

This man, this year, this lifetime.

Thank you...

KFTD

"In 1801, 20 percent of the people in the United States were slaves."

Appropriate for today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

P.S. keep reading below for more newness

We were in the "Top 10"

For those of you new to our scene, our family was in a very amazing music video last year. I entered a "casting call" and we were selected as one of the families in a hip-hop video.

Seems I didn't realize it but the video made it to the "Top 10" in the LOGOonline video selection (LOGO is part of MTV).

Anyway, click here to view us again if you wish, it's Melange Lavonne's video "Gay Parenting: AKA "I've Got You". Latest word is that the video is still going strong, gaining popularity and "we" are being shown all over the world.

Totally fun...memories for a lifetime and a message for our kids that they are the best blessings we have ever received.

Highlights from our day

Seth

Logan holding up "Mommy Ivy" and "Mommy Laura"
Playing
Taking care of his babies
Seth as Iron Man
FORTS in the living room

Foster, looking very pre-teen-ish lounging at his fort

KFTD

"In Egypt around 1500 BCE, a shaved head was considered the ultimate in feminine beauty. Egyptian women removed every hair from their heads with special gold tweezers and polished their scalps to a high sheen with buffing cloths."

(OWWWWW)

KFTD

Couples who marry in January, February, and March have the highest divorce rates.

((Whew, Laura and I got married in September - guess we're safe!!:-))

Knowledge For The Day (KFTD)

All snow crystals are hexagonal.

Your useless knowledge for the day...

The University of Alaska stretches across four time zones.

Another one tomorrow, and the day after, the day after, etc.

Almost forgot!...

The "Walking with Dinosaurs" show was excellent. The boys really had a good time, they were all so enthralled. It was pretty amazing how they did it, I was very impressed. I did snap some pictures which I'll post below (even though it was recommended that we do NOT take pictures, it upsets the dinosaurs...).

I recommend the show if it comes to your town!

Boys anxiously awaiting (and Logan and Seth wearing their "Dinosaur" sweatshirts)

Pterodactyl

Fighting Dinos

Prehistoric plants, very colorful

Triceratops

Ankylosaurus

Mama T-Rex and baby

ROAR!

Countdown - SIX months from today!

In six months time...July 11th, we will all (Laura, myself, the 3 boys, my mom) be on the Norwegian Cruise Line on the rFamily Vacation Cruise to Alaska!!!

I'm beyond excited...this is a total T.O.A.L. (Trip Of A Lifetime) for us. We'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary (which is July 4th) and my 40th b-day (April 13) this year so why not go all out and celebrate?!?

Anyway, as I speak, my mom is making all the flight arrangements. We are flying into Seattle, WA the day before the cruise departs - we want to be all rested and ready to board on the 11th of July.

I've always wanted to see Alaska...that's one of my top 3 places I want to visit in my lifetime, this is our chance. Foster is very excited - we've told him we're "going on a BIG boat to Alaska", I don't think he really understands it just yet. I'll have to order some videos/books in preparation.

And best of all, this is a cruise that I've been wanting to go on since it's inception. I can't think of a better way to celebrate being with "family" than an rFamily cruise!!!!!!!!!!

Whohoo!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to YOU.

Happy Birthday to YOU.

Happy Birthday dear (mommy) Laura....

Happy Birthday to YOU!

And many, MANY more.

Love you,

-me

confidential:

YKIWALYFEAEAE. IMTRD, TIK.

Signs I'm tired and need a break...and message to ANITA!

Got home from work early but I was doing work still, and more work...

So, I thought about a mini-break and started folding laundry - I know I'm tired because I just spent 7 minutes (okay, I was watching Ellen as I folded, and I timed it) trying to unbutton a SNAP.

You just can't unbutton a SNAP, I think it goes against the laws of physics.

Oh, and Anita my dear friend - I did call my Dr. and no, I don't have a brain tumor!!! ;-) My optic nerves are fine - both the eye Dr. and my G.P. stated the same thing - just so happens that at the magic age of 40, it's actually common (per my G.P.) for people's near-sightedness to get better as the far-sightedness stays the same or gets worse (that's what happened to me). I'm sure my dr. has now stuck a bright, neon orange label on my chart which reads "HYPOCHONDRIAC - PROCEED WITH CAUTION".

But you know I love ya!

I have found the Fountain of Youth...somehow...

I went for an eye exam today (thankfully back with Kaiser - I really love those folks - didn't like Scripps). Anyway, the last time I had an exam was in June of 2007. I got new glasses at that time as my Rx changed - for the worse. My left eye is pretty bad but my right is semi-okay.

Anyway, about 6 to 8 mos. ago I noticed that every time I wore my glasses I started to not feel well, got dizzy, felt "unwell". So, over the past 6 to 8 mos. I started to wear my glasses less and less until I really only wore my Rx sunglasses which are about 2 years old - okay, I did NOT wear them inside...

So, at today's appt. I explained my above symptoms to the dr. thinking that in a year and a half since my last appt., my eyesight has probably gotten progressively worse, hence why my current glasses make me feel dizzy, etc. I told her I actually feel better when I'm NOT wearing my glasses.

Afer a few tests...and re-tests...and then a re-test of the re-test, she remarked that my eyesight is actually better now than it has been in about 5 years! My current glasses are more than twice as strong as I need and I feel ill wearing them because my eyes are trying to over-compensate the over-compensation - constantly. When I wear them and read, my focus changes rapidly. AHA! My right eye is about 20/20 now and my left has improved greatly. So much that my new Rx is more than half the strength of my old glasses. In fact, she recommended that if I don't want to, I can leave my glasses off for reading!

Weird.

She said that she hasn't seen it happen many times but it CAN happen.

HA! Better eyesight with age. This year I hit the BIG "4-0" so I was convinced bi-focals were on my horizon - looks like I get to pick out a really cute pair of single-vision glasses!!!

NYE Pic's - a few days late...

BTW, Seth is fine (wee boy who was throwing up the eve of new years eve) - whatever it was I'm glad it went somewhere else. I seriously thought our washing machine and dryer was going to bite the proverbial dust in the middle of a puke-load. Ewwwww.




Onto the pic's:

FOOD

Wii

BINGO


CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN

DREIDELS

PLAYING "EXPRESS YOURSELF"

WATCHING THE "BALL" DROP

CLIMBING THE WALLS
MORE CLIMBING
AND SOME MORE
PASSED OUT JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT




LOGAN AND HAT

FRIENDS

'Tis the SEASON...

One wee boy that is throwing up - and awake until 1:30am...

Two complete changes on the bed...

Three spots on the carpet to clean (at 1:40am)

Four baths of wee child...

Five loads of laundry...

Oh, and altho backwards ---

A partridge in a pear treeeeeeeee...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy..............bullets...

Too.Many.Blogs.Too.Much.To.Do.

That says it all huh?

Hanukkah - first night tonite - presents, Wii... ;-)

Need.To.Wrap.For.Christmas.

My work holiday party - FUN!!! I won a $15.00 GC to Wendy's and one of our medical directors picked 20 names out of a hat to take out to dinner! I was one of the lucky ones! YAY ME! Can't wait for a 'free' dinner out!

Our tree is still standing, that's a good thing.

Work is so busy now. On-call this past week, no calls - also a good thing.

Going to a play next Saturday night for Laura's birthday - we're sitting FRONT ROW CENTER. I've never sat so ummm, perfectly before. Not sure how I scored those tickets but I logged on at exactly the right time...

Getting over my cold - that's also...a good thing.

Just checked my work v-mail (Sunday night at 11:45pm) and I had 20 NEW messages including 3 or 4 (I lost count) new admits - okay, not such a good thing...

Better shower and sleep - tomorrow is gonna be a busy day - not to mention I wanna get home early - you know, to play the Wii with Foster...

We're going to ROAR with the dinosaurs and sail to the glaciers!

We bought tickets a little while ago to see Walking with Dinosaurs and I can't wait .

Perhaps I'm even a bit more excited than the kids? Not sure...

We're going in Jan., when they roar into San Diego. I showed Foster a clip on YouTube but I don't think he got the enormity of it from that. I think they'll be as fascinated as I am.

Can't wait!

Okay, now I need to seriously plan for our "T.O.A.L." - Trip of a Lifetime. Looks like we're going to Alaska next summer on the Rosie (rFamily) cruise!!!!! Whohoo!!! Now THAT'S totally exciting!

Oops, the "I forgot post" - but keep reading after this one...

Well, it's been a while. Let's see. Where were we? Oh yeah, we got our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. It looks great next to the Hanukkah menorah! It's just so fun being an interfaith family, we get to celebrate double the times!!

Anyway, see, this is what happened.

We went to a tree farm about 40 minutes from where we live. We thought we'd continue our tradition of cutting down (or selecting a tree and then having someone cut one down) our tree.

On the way to the tree farm is when Foster lost his first tooth! A day to certainly remember. It gets good though. So we get to the farm and select our tree (after searching 3938478 trees). It looks perfect. We shove place it carefully into the back of the van and head off to lunch. After getting home we put it up in the corner in the stand. The kids are having a great time decorating it, we put all the lights on, etc. After that we decide to go outside and let the kids run around. Seth wanted nothing to do with that and elected to stay inside and watch tv (he is my NON-outside kid). Laura goes in the house to do something and I hear her scream my name - uh oh...I run inside only to find Seth all tangled up in the tree lights and the tree on top of him. He apparently was sitting quietly on the couch and the tree just toppled over.

After getting him all untangled and quieted down we decide to head to Target to get a new and improved (read: STURDY) tree stand. So we got it home and proceeded to put it back into the new stand. We had to take off all the lights and ornaments (we only surprisingly lost one ornamnet and no, Seth had no injuries from his "encounter" with the tree).


After the kids went to bed, Laura and I set to the task of re-decorating the tree...only to have it fall over...again. Okaaaaaaaaaaay, we right it back up and make sure it's in properly. Good. We stand across the room to observe and the damn thing fell over again. Ummm, and it happened again after that, for good measure you know. Finally, being convinced the tree was either possessed or a "closeted "Yes on 8"" tree (gotta have some humor here guys) we decide to tie it to some screws in the wall. And thankfully, it has remained upright for the past week.


During all this I reminded Laura that an artificial tree would (probably) not have fallen over, would not have gotten water all over our new carpet, and no pine needles would need to be vacuumed up. Prior to this "tree incident" this was going to be an argument that I would not win. However, I think I've swayed her over to the artificial side. Yes, a fresh tree smells great and it is fun to select it and bring it home - but an artificial one is cleaner, sturdier, and well, easier to decorate (especially when pre-lit). So, we have decided to get our tree at the "after Christmas sales" on December 26th.


Here are the photos.

The Family

Watching the guy cut down our tree


My future poll vaulters?

Logan is "helping" cut down the tree

It's that time of the YEAR - funny!!!

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