Photo shoot!

Ah Mondays. Today I worked for awhile while Judit took the kids bowling. I think I would have rather gone bowling, but I'm also glad I got some work done. I still have a lot more to do before I'm ready for the school year to begin, but thanks to my Yearbook Business Manager, I'm well on my way.

In the afternoon we picked up Bryan at his office and went to a country club where he and his coworkers got their pictures taken for the website. Judit, the kids, and I went - and I brought my camera so I could get some pictures of the kids & Judit.

I bribed Bubby with a quarter to dress up. Judit and I think he looks ADORABLE. Bryan thinks he's going to look back on these pictures and say "I can't believe my mom made me wear that!" Maybe it'll be both. You decide :)

In his pirate shirt with suspenders

Bubs & Judit

He's totally in love with her. He's both very sweet and a little mean, just like most boys are when they're in love! We went out for ice cream after dinner and he was very concerned that we had left her behind since she say in the back of the van and he couldn't see her from his carseat. Once we got there he kept asking where she was until he got out of the van and then he held her hand as we walked into the ice cream parlor. He's really, REALLY going to miss her.

Penelope and Judit. Penelope has started using the "Nicolas Black smile".

This smile is totally my brother. It was one of his more hilarious phases. I think it is funny, cute, and a little frustrating. The frustrating part is that I want a nice, genuine smile - not an angry grimace. But she's 4, so whatevs. She's still adorable.

My children insist on laying on top of me all.the.time.

I really should have taken my sunglasses off. Oh well.

My sweet almost-5-year old

Relaxing in the shade

He needs a piece of straw between his teeth and he's Tom Sawyer.

Lifting the kids while his coworkers look on

I like this one because it has my 3 favorite people in it :)

More fun with Daddy

In order to capture a genuine smile from my husband, he can't know he's being photographed... or at least, it can't be posed. He's an incredibly handsome man (and a great dad) and so this picture gets all of that. Plus I'm amused by how amused his coworkers are with his shenanigans.

Hugging Daddy's leg - his new favorite pasttime

Griffin's new thing is to hug our legs and not let go. Makes for cute pictures. Not really for getting anywhere on time.

Playing

They really do love each other. And I love them.

Born to Dance

I often wonder what my children will be like, what they will do, and how they will act as adults. Usually my day-dream adult children are rock-stars or baseball players, but in reality, Bryan and I would be completely content with financially independent children who don't live in our basement and have college educations.

However it would not surprise me if Penelope ended up as a ballerina and Griffin decided that he was going to make a living as an edgy street-dancer (provided he was financially independent and not living in our basement) because they both seem born to dance. Although if I'm being completely honest, perhaps ballerina isn't the right word for Penelope's dance style - she's more like Elaine from "Seinfeld" than Prima Ballerina in Nutcracker. She did invent a dance of her own, called the "P.A.C." (if you've seen Nemo a million times then you know where that came from) and it's a combination of pseudo karate moves and the Can-Can.

One day I will stop laughing long enough to take a video. It's cute. It's adorable. It's also hilarious.

You know what else is funny? A break-dancing 2 year old. Especially one in knickers, suspenders, and a bow-tie.

I really wish I had video of last night. I know one is out there, there were videographers & photographers at the wedding - so somewhere there is evidence of my children's dance-related wedding antics. And so hopefully one day I will get my hands on said evidence and be able to share it with you so we can all be amused at my children's unique interpretation of "dancing".

They had fun. A lot of fun. And Griffin kept his suspenders on all night. They danced with just about everyone brave enough to share the dance floor with them, and gave everyone they met on the way out a hug goodnight.

They also made a new friend - Tigist, who was the flower girl and is about a year older than Poe. The three of them had a wonderful time together. In fact, Penelope and Tigis got married a few time this weekend, the first time was at the rehearsal dinner. Plus the two of them adopted a "baby" (i.e. a doll) so now Bryan and I are proud grandparents.

And let me say this - being a grandparent is oodles easier than being a parent. Especially if said grandchild is made of plastic.

It was really a wonderful long weekend, minor tantrum at Security in San Jose aside. Tomorrow is the plane trip home, so hopefully it will be uneventful.

It was nice to see B's family - it's been about a year since we've seen most of them (6-ish months since we've seen his Dad & stepmom) & longer for some. The kids really enjoyed spending time with their cousins - it's so cliche (but so true) that they're all growing up so fast. I remember when Gadge was Penny's age and now he's in the 3rd grade. Crazy. We often wish we lived closer, but - while I love my inlaws - you couldn't pay me to live in Wyoming. I hate snow. And gusty wind.

This has been a rambly post, hasn't it? But hey, at least it's a post. Since school has started it's been hard to fine the time & energy to blog.

....and the Bubs is up from his nap. Time to sign off.

July

This has been a pretty crazy month... we've been out of town every weekend and have spent more hours in the car than I can count (but I'm gonna try!).

The first weekend of July was spent at my Great-Uncle Merv's cabin in Butte Meadows (14 hours in the car with kids total). It was a quasi-family reunion and it was the kids' first camping experience. They *loved* it. I loved it too, I have a lot of wonderful memories of family gatherings at that cabin. The kids played in the freezing-cold creek, roasted marshmellows, slept in a tent, and got really, really dirty.

I posted a ton of pics on Facebook, but here are a few more.


Poe and Cousin Terra


Bubby & Grandpa playing dinosaurs


The kids with cousin Tyson and cousin Christy (whose expecting a new cousin on P's birthday!) walking to the creek


Bubby and Granny in the FREEZING COLD creek




Squishy was not so enamored of the cold as Bubs...


Which is why she asked cousin Terra to cart her around the creek

After the cabin, we stayed home for a week and then took off to Sac to drop the kids off at my parents house for a week (3 more car hours, new total is 17). Bryan and I headed to San Francisco to see a Giants game with B's cousins (don't have pics of that).

And then we were kid free for a week! A whole week!

Unsurprisingly, I got less done than I wanted, but more that I would have if the kids had been home. They had a fun time hanging out with Granny & Grandpa - including a trip to the State Fair, the zoo, and G&G's special water park in their backyard.

We picked them up on Friday and drove out to Reno (2.5 car hours with kids, new total is 19.5) and spent a short weekend with Bryan's family. We went to the Discovery Museum, went shopping, and the kids practiced "fishing" in the backyard with their new fishing poles. Sissy's getting pretty good at casting. I have a few pics on the iPad, but am too lazy to plug it in an upload them.

The way back added 6.5 kid car hours - total thus far is 26 hours.

Next weekend is a day-trip to Livermore (1.5 hours each way) and then we're home-bound for a few weeks until we leave at the end of August to travel to Colorado for a wedding.

Exhausted would describe us all... in fact, Bryan fell asleep putting the kids to bed tonight. I think I'll go join him. Goodnight blog-o-verse!

The next chapter

So I should really, really, really, really, really be finishing my sub plans for tomorrow. But I'm not. In part because ohmyholypasta that is boring - I've written way too many sub plans already this year for trainings and seminars and I'm tired of writing them. Luckily for my sub, my LAD kids are taking the CELDT and my Freshmen are typing in the library. Easy peasy (hopefully). So it's not like my plans have to be magically detailed. But I'm still not motivated to write them. The larger part of my reluctance to be productive is that I sooooooo owe you all a blog. It's been AGES since I posted last. I can't even remember what my last post was about. Probably about how weird or disgusting the youngest child is, because he's really weird and disgusting (in that sweet, endearing way). But you all deserve a real update and I have one to give you. We're adopting. Not today. Or even next week or next month. But today I talked with someone from a local adoption/foster agency and in November I'm going to attend an informational meeting so we can start the process. Ideally we'd have a new little Rodgers by *next* Christmas. So Poe will be 4, Griff will be 2.5, and NLR (new little Rodgers) will be...??? Our ideal age range is 3 or younger. So we'll see what the universe has in store for us. This has been something Bryan and I have talked about for awhile. And I don't want to put it off anymore - we have the love and the room (well, we need a bigger car, but that's an easy thing to fix). I've always wanted lots of kids, and three is our compromise. I also hate being pregnant with a passion of one thousand suns... plus I've finally lost all my baby weight. So this allows us to grow our family while preserving my sanity and my waist. My PPD with Griffin was pretty horrible, I don't want to go through that again. I also don't want to take off weeks and weeks of work. Obviously I'll take some time off when NLR joins our family so we can all have time to bond, adjust, and enjoy each other. But there's no "healing" time involved in adoption. No breastfeeding woes. No pads the size of life rafts. I'm sure it will come with it's own unique set of challenges, but I'm looking forward to facing those challenges as a family. I asked Penelope if she wanted a new brother or sister and she said "ummm... yes Mommy, I would please" Griffin just headbutted me. I take that as a yes. I'm really looking forward to it. Since both Poe & G were unplanned I never got the opportunity to anticipate or plan. We rolled with the surprise and were happy - but the intentionality of this process is a whole different animal. And the organizer in me loves it. So the process will not be fast. And I'm sure it will be stressful at times. We don't have any race/gender preferences. We do only want one (so no sibling groups), and for a variety of reasons we can't take a child with significant health issues. But we've made the first step, and I'm so very glad we have.

Refreshed

This weekend was truly wonderful - for a lot of reasons, mostly though it was because we were able to spend so much time together as a family. Last weekend we were still so busy unpacking, the weekend before was the move, and prior to that I was working at HLC at least day each weekend so we only had one day during the weekend to be all together. Bryan's been swamped too, so he's been spending as much time as possible working. This weekend, while he and I both did a little bit of work (him more than me), we spent a lot of time doing fun (and free!) family activities.

But before I get into the weekend (with pictures!) I wanted to talk about daycare. Friday was the kids' first day in daycare and it went really, really well. Stephanie said they were great and Poe had such a good time that she didn't want to leave. She actually asked me twice this weekend to go play at Stephanie's house, so I think daycare is a hit. I'm sure both kids will have days when they don't want to go, but we've found a good fit I think. This week will be their full week in daycare and I don't really foresee any problems. So that's nice.

On to the weekend!

Friday night after picking the kids up we headed back to campus for the Freshman mixer. I saw a lot of my students, met a parent, and the kids got to play with some other teacher/admin toddlers. My principal has a daughter a month younger than Poe (and a baby boy that's due any day) and the activities director has a daughter the same age as the principal's daughter. The girls seemed to have a really good time together. Penelope was wearing her Princess crown, so one of the little girls kept calling her Princess... as in "hey Princess! Come here Princess!" So cute.

Saturday G and I woke up early and took a mommy/son trip to Seaside for teacher appreciation day at Staples. It was nice to spend some time with him one on one and I think he enjoyed it as well. Afterward B and I talked about the beach or the Aquarium, but decided to get a small start on the backyard. Our backyard is basically an L shaped dirt run. Not super wide, but not super narrow. Semi divided in two. All dirt.

Since we live in the "salad bowl" I decided that I'd really like to start a garden. We're not planning on being in this place for years, but I know almost nothing about gardening and so am considering this my starter garden. When we own a place out here a few years down the line then my experiences with this garden will help me design my permanent garden.

So we picked a spot and got to digging. The plot will end up being 13' x 6' - so not huge, but decent sized. We got rid of all the top soil (like my handy dandy gardening for dummies website suggested) and did a bit of tilling. It took a little while to get the soil removed so we didn't till it all. We'll probably rent a small roto tiller in a couple of weeks and get the rest done. We're also considering putting sod on one side of the yard so we have a place to come out and sit/play, but I don't want to get too ambitious.

After lunch and naps we unpacked the office (finally). We also did an early dinner/bath so we could all watch a movie together downstairs. It was a nice homebody day. At one point Bryan took Penny for a bike ride and I took Griffin and the dog for a walk, but in general we stayed at home and just enjoyed being together.

Sunday we were more ambitious. The beach topped our list, followed by shopping, lunch, naps, a bike ride to the grocery store, dinner, the park, and finally baths and bed. Here's some beach pictures.










Ok, so this picture has to be explained... Griffin was digging trenches with his head. Yes, you read that right. I have no idea why. I have some video, will upload it later



So yeah, we had fun. Penelope was all about running up and down the beach. She ran with Harley and I for awhile and then ran for a long stretch with Bryan and Harley - that child loves to run. She also loves the beach, who can blame her?

Griffin and I buried each others feet and I made sand castles that he knocked over. He was all about immersing himself in the sand.

Neither child was brave enough to put their toes in the ocean :) I was! And Harley, of course, she loves the beach more than all of us combined.

I wish I had more pictures of the park, but we were too busy having fun. The kids spent some time in the swings, I swung... we played tag as a family, we climbed on the playground equipment. The park itself is small, but I LOVE having a park less than 2 blocks away. The library is also super close, less than a block. And I bike to school, it's only 1.5 blocks away. Love.

We did some light grocery shopping as well, just enough to fit in the back of the bike trailer. It is wonderful that I can take the kids to the grocery store on my bike. It is amazing that I can go days without getting into a car.

I do wish our daycare provider lived a little closer so I could ride my bike, but alas she does not. She's on the other side of town and while I could technically ride my bike, parts of that ride are just not safe for cyclists. Oh well. Even with that daily ride, we haven't had to put gas in the car since 8/5, which is a record for us.

Tomorrow starts the first full week of school and I feel ready. I still have some planning to do for the week and a few copies to make in the morning, but I feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle my 6th period... I thought 6th period last year was an anomaly of energetic and... challenging kids, but apparently that's just 6th period. My group this year is a level up from last year's group (and I mean a level up in challenge). Things should get even more interesting when they shuffle schedules around after this next round of placement testing (long story). But I'm ready for them. Bring it on LAD B!

Cows!

Saturday (back in Wyoming) we left Casper and headed to Douglas to have dinner at B's grandparent's ranch. Although first we had lunch with Bryan's step brother, his 10 month old son, and Bryan's step sister. It was nice to spend some time with them, and the baby is adorable :) Jill, B's step sister, was nice enough to give up her room while we were in town so Penelope could have a bed to herself. Poe loved sleeping in Aunty Jill's room and constantly commented about how pretty Jill's ribbons are (Jill is an accomplished equestrian).

So lunch was nice. We got to catch up and I know Bryan really enjoyed the one on one time with his siblings.

I had hoped the kids would sleep on the way to the ranch, but alas they I'd not. That's ok, they would have missed this if they had:





Yup, that's right. A road entirely blocked by a herd of cattle. There were three real, live cowboys herding the bunch. Here's a cow close up:




I was driving, so I got to drive through my very first herd.

Oh! That day was the day for animals in the road, as we were leaving Bryan's dads house, some antelope decided it would be an excellent idea to run zig zags across the road.




So we got our fair share of wildlife.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:The couch, at home

Family Pics

About a week ago I hauled my parents, brother, Bryan, and the munchkins out to McKinley park at 9am to get our pictures taken. I had a met a photographer there a few months ago who has a daughter P's age and just had a baby boy.

We were out for maybe an hour or so and here's what he came up with. I really like them. I'll post some directly once I get the CD, but for now please visit his blog and comment.

http://www.robertcristiephotography.com/?p=965

Right now I don't have a favorite, but the ones of Nic and Penny with the dandelion are wonderful. I also really like the solo Griffin ones. And... well, all of them.

Family time at the ballpark

Bryan had the afternoon off so we decided to get in some family time... between school, work, and everything else we don't really spend a lot of time doing fun family things. It was a pretty nice day (bit on the windy side) and we all had a nice time. Penny decided she loves peanuts and Griffin and I were able to successfully nurse without the nursing pillow.

Here are some pictures: