Megan came home from church on Sunday singing "I am a Child of God" in the car all on her own. When we got home we tried to film her singing in her church clothes, but of course she wasn't going to let that happen. Four days later and the one time we were able to film her was when she had stripped down to her diaper, wouldn't face the camera and wouldn't sing the hymn. Sometimes you take what you can get. At least her hair was done.
For those of you who don't speak her particular dialect of toddler, there are subtitles.
By the way, we've officially given up on youtube. It just always delayed the sound too much for some reason. Try out one true media if you're interested, it seems to work ok.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Happy Birthday
I have found a great way to celebrate birthdays: celebrate the whole month long and really live it up the actual week of your birthday. You will never be disappointed! I really enjoy every birthday moment -- the special cards in the mail (I still love any mail with my name on it that isn't a credit card application), excuses to go to lunch with friends, girls night out, eating chocolate fondue, pedicures, the little extras bought during the month that I claim as birthday presents, wild camping trips. My actual birthday was April 18th, I turned the big 27. Mike had class late so we celebrated the night before. I came home to one of Mike's fantastic dinners and famous chocolate strawberry birthday cakes. Thanks for all the great phone calls (those are still nice on the actual date) and all of the nice things that everyone did to make it a great birthday.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Everything's Better with Bluebonnet on it
NOTICE: Stupid Blogger made us repost all these pictures, so we added this one for those of you that had already seen the others.
This is Lupinus texensis, the Texas state flower. The namesake of an imitation butter spread and a nudist park between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls, the Bluebonnet owes its name either to the resemblance of its petals to a pioneer woman's sunbonnet or to the traditional blue coloured version of the Scottish Tam o'shanter hat of the same name. The city of Austin seeds the sides of the roads with the bluebonnet and they are blooming like crazy right now. Apparently it is a tradition for everyone with a camera to get family pictures when these flowers come out.
Here's Megan picking the state flower with Brooklyn Adams and Gwen Barlow.
Gwen and Megan are either best friends or Gwen can't get away. You be the judge.
Finding that picking them one at a time was a slow way of killing all the flowers, Megan decided to trample them instead.
She finally settled down and we got a couple good pictures.
She's so pretty that I'm always surprised that no one has approached us about using her to endorse their product. I've decided to forward these pictures to Blue Bonnet margarine spread to see if we can come up with an easier way to pay back those student loans.
This is Lupinus texensis, the Texas state flower. The namesake of an imitation butter spread and a nudist park between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls, the Bluebonnet owes its name either to the resemblance of its petals to a pioneer woman's sunbonnet or to the traditional blue coloured version of the Scottish Tam o'shanter hat of the same name. The city of Austin seeds the sides of the roads with the bluebonnet and they are blooming like crazy right now. Apparently it is a tradition for everyone with a camera to get family pictures when these flowers come out.
Here's Megan picking the state flower with Brooklyn Adams and Gwen Barlow.
Gwen and Megan are either best friends or Gwen can't get away. You be the judge.
Finding that picking them one at a time was a slow way of killing all the flowers, Megan decided to trample them instead.
She finally settled down and we got a couple good pictures.
She's so pretty that I'm always surprised that no one has approached us about using her to endorse their product. I've decided to forward these pictures to Blue Bonnet margarine spread to see if we can come up with an easier way to pay back those student loans.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Camping on Friday the 13th - or - "I want an Adventure"
Friday we decided to take an adventure and go camping. We haven't been camping since we moved to Texas because last year we waited until school was out (prime Utah camping weather) only to realize that trying to camp in an Austin summer is pretty much a death wish. We had gorgeous 80+ degree weather all week, and with Kim's birthday coming up we thought we'd take advantage and head to Buescher state park. We checked the weather reports in the morning and were somewhat discouraged by a 60% chance of rain in the evening, but we decided to go anyway (the weatherman is always wrong, right?) We packed up the car, threw Megan in her seat, and headed out for what should have been an hour and nine minute drive (according to mapquest). In the middle of nowhere we got stuck in a traffic jam that added 45 minutes to our journey. Of course this meant that Kim and Megan were getting pretty hungry, so we stopped at McDonalds to get something to tide us over until we got to our campsite. It seemed that the guy running the drive-thru had no headphones, just a microphone, and he was just making his best guess at what people ordered. We ended up with two cheeseburgers, two small fries and a small coke to share between the three of us. We got back on the road and made it to Bastrop, a town about 10 miles from Buescher park, and the car got stuck in a low gear. This had never happened before, and since we needed to stop to get some groceries for camping anyway we thought that it would be a good idea to give the car a break, hoping that it might be fine after we got our supplies. It was. At least it worked long enough for us to get about 5 miles out of town and then the radio shut off, every light on the dashboard came on, and the Jetta lost all power to the brakes, steering, and transmission (apparently). Since the only thing I have ever fixed on a car before was the alternator I assumed it must be the alternator, altough the fact that the Jetta wouldn't switch gears made me question myself. We turned around and just barely rolled back into the last gas station in Bastrop before the car died. Here are some pictures of us at the Tiger Tote Exxon gas station in Bastrop. I'm pretending that I know something as I look under the hood (that's what you do when your car breaks down). At least I could identify the alternator.
The gas station gave us the phone number for a towtruck, but Al the tow truck man told us that since it was 6:30 on a Friday night there was really no place to tow us to. As luck would have it this was not our first visit to Bastrop. We had come here over a year ago with our friends the Ashfords to eat at their favorite Mexican restaurant with Craig's parents who live in Bastrop. As luck would further have it, the gas station we were at was literally at the intersection that lead to the Ashfords house, about a half mile up the street. Keep in mind that the Ashfords parents are the only acquaintances we have in the entire state of Texas outside of the city of Austin. We called Craig and he called his parents, and they were kind enough to come get us. By this time it was getting late, and it was apparent that the storm was moving in, and we considered staying at the Days Inn. There was no way to fix the car before morning, and we didn't want to incovenience anyone by asking for a ride back to Austin, especially since we were going to have to be back down in Bastrop to take care of the car the next day. We decided that since we had come this far and we had all of our camping stuff with us that we might as well go camping. Craig's mom was nice enough to drive us down to the state park and drop us off. The ranger's office was closed by this point so we didn't know which campsite was reserved for us. We decided to just drive around and pick one. We hurried and set up the tent and tried to get a fire going. We immediately realized that we were missing a crucial component of our dutch oven dinner -- something to pick the dutch oven lid up with. We had always used our dutch oven with Matt and Gina back in Utah and they provided this important piece of equipment. Since it was getting late, we figured we might as well just make do with our kilbasa and hot dogs to roast over the fire. Unfortunately, the fire would not stay lit. Although I worked on it for over two hours and used half a bottle of lighter fluid and 6 newspapers (and inhaled enough smoke to come down with a case of black lung) it never stayed lit longer than 5 minutes. It burnt well enough to burn clear through five logs with all of our attempts, but they would not stay lit. It was some kind of magic wood. By this time it was completely dark and hundreds of weird beetles were swarming around the lantern we were using since we didn't have a fire. In the midst of their buzzing the park ranger pulled up in a truck to inform us that a thunderstorm was on its way in from Austin, and that it had caused a tornado by Dallas. He advised us to leave, and the other people camping by us did so. Unfortunately, we had no way to leave since we had no car and no cell servie to call back the Ashfords to rescue us. I decided not to tell Kim about the tornado or the advice to leave (she was in the tent when he came up). We packed all of our stuf into our little two man tent so that it wouldn't get rained on and we hunkered down with no dinner (except for the shared McDonald's meal from hours before).
It made for some pretty cramped conditions, but at least Megan went down easily (which was actually the first time in her entire life that she has slept next to us.) Kim and I stayed up for a while and played War by the light of our new lantern (I won). The crazy beetles threw themselves at the walls of our tent trying to get at our light. Some of them made it inside each time we opened the tent, so we had to keep it closed. It was stifling hot. The storm moved in and it was a doozy. It poured buckets, and the thunder and lighting was like it only is in places where there are no mountains and the clouds can get really low. Megan was very brave about it all (probably because Kim was hugging her and singing to her the whole time). The storm basically lasted all night, although in between downpours we would hear crazy people from another campsite blaring 80s rock and being belligerant. Our tent proved to be as awesome as we always say it is (thanks REI) and didn't let a drop inside.
We woke up in the morning and had a nice meal of breakfast bars and apple juice inside our tent. We walked around a bit outside to survey the damage. Megan loved playing with everything, and fell in the mud about 7 times.
Craig's mom came to pick us up at the appointed time and we went back into town. At the gas station we were informed that we had been parked in a handicap space all night (look at the wall in the first picture), although luckily we didn't get a ticket. Bob the towtruck man came to take us to the only shop in town that was open on Saturdays, and on the drive we had a nice conversation about "planned obsolesence" and how Australia was somehow to blame for the fact that Dodge Chargers only come in four doors these days. The mechanic informed us that it was indeed the alternator that had gone out (I knew it!), and that it would set us back $500 dollars and four hours to fix it. As if enough hadn't gone wrong with this whole event, we realized that the extended five year warranty that Kim had bought when she got the car expired on APRIL 9, 2007. If you are doing your math, that means that the extended warranty that cost $1,200 dollars expired four days before we could use it for the first time ever. The Barlows were nice enought to come pick up Kim and Megan so they didn't have to hang out at the mechanic all day, and we made it home pretty exhausted Saturday afternoon. We are still recovering from this adventure.
The moral of this sad tale? DON'T GO CAMPING ON FRIDAY THE 13TH.
The gas station gave us the phone number for a towtruck, but Al the tow truck man told us that since it was 6:30 on a Friday night there was really no place to tow us to. As luck would have it this was not our first visit to Bastrop. We had come here over a year ago with our friends the Ashfords to eat at their favorite Mexican restaurant with Craig's parents who live in Bastrop. As luck would further have it, the gas station we were at was literally at the intersection that lead to the Ashfords house, about a half mile up the street. Keep in mind that the Ashfords parents are the only acquaintances we have in the entire state of Texas outside of the city of Austin. We called Craig and he called his parents, and they were kind enough to come get us. By this time it was getting late, and it was apparent that the storm was moving in, and we considered staying at the Days Inn. There was no way to fix the car before morning, and we didn't want to incovenience anyone by asking for a ride back to Austin, especially since we were going to have to be back down in Bastrop to take care of the car the next day. We decided that since we had come this far and we had all of our camping stuff with us that we might as well go camping. Craig's mom was nice enough to drive us down to the state park and drop us off. The ranger's office was closed by this point so we didn't know which campsite was reserved for us. We decided to just drive around and pick one. We hurried and set up the tent and tried to get a fire going. We immediately realized that we were missing a crucial component of our dutch oven dinner -- something to pick the dutch oven lid up with. We had always used our dutch oven with Matt and Gina back in Utah and they provided this important piece of equipment. Since it was getting late, we figured we might as well just make do with our kilbasa and hot dogs to roast over the fire. Unfortunately, the fire would not stay lit. Although I worked on it for over two hours and used half a bottle of lighter fluid and 6 newspapers (and inhaled enough smoke to come down with a case of black lung) it never stayed lit longer than 5 minutes. It burnt well enough to burn clear through five logs with all of our attempts, but they would not stay lit. It was some kind of magic wood. By this time it was completely dark and hundreds of weird beetles were swarming around the lantern we were using since we didn't have a fire. In the midst of their buzzing the park ranger pulled up in a truck to inform us that a thunderstorm was on its way in from Austin, and that it had caused a tornado by Dallas. He advised us to leave, and the other people camping by us did so. Unfortunately, we had no way to leave since we had no car and no cell servie to call back the Ashfords to rescue us. I decided not to tell Kim about the tornado or the advice to leave (she was in the tent when he came up). We packed all of our stuf into our little two man tent so that it wouldn't get rained on and we hunkered down with no dinner (except for the shared McDonald's meal from hours before).
It made for some pretty cramped conditions, but at least Megan went down easily (which was actually the first time in her entire life that she has slept next to us.) Kim and I stayed up for a while and played War by the light of our new lantern (I won). The crazy beetles threw themselves at the walls of our tent trying to get at our light. Some of them made it inside each time we opened the tent, so we had to keep it closed. It was stifling hot. The storm moved in and it was a doozy. It poured buckets, and the thunder and lighting was like it only is in places where there are no mountains and the clouds can get really low. Megan was very brave about it all (probably because Kim was hugging her and singing to her the whole time). The storm basically lasted all night, although in between downpours we would hear crazy people from another campsite blaring 80s rock and being belligerant. Our tent proved to be as awesome as we always say it is (thanks REI) and didn't let a drop inside.
We woke up in the morning and had a nice meal of breakfast bars and apple juice inside our tent. We walked around a bit outside to survey the damage. Megan loved playing with everything, and fell in the mud about 7 times.
Craig's mom came to pick us up at the appointed time and we went back into town. At the gas station we were informed that we had been parked in a handicap space all night (look at the wall in the first picture), although luckily we didn't get a ticket. Bob the towtruck man came to take us to the only shop in town that was open on Saturdays, and on the drive we had a nice conversation about "planned obsolesence" and how Australia was somehow to blame for the fact that Dodge Chargers only come in four doors these days. The mechanic informed us that it was indeed the alternator that had gone out (I knew it!), and that it would set us back $500 dollars and four hours to fix it. As if enough hadn't gone wrong with this whole event, we realized that the extended five year warranty that Kim had bought when she got the car expired on APRIL 9, 2007. If you are doing your math, that means that the extended warranty that cost $1,200 dollars expired four days before we could use it for the first time ever. The Barlows were nice enought to come pick up Kim and Megan so they didn't have to hang out at the mechanic all day, and we made it home pretty exhausted Saturday afternoon. We are still recovering from this adventure.
The moral of this sad tale? DON'T GO CAMPING ON FRIDAY THE 13TH.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Megan Little
After dinner one day Megan ran off to hide. We found her in a new spot -- tucked away behind the couch.
She was hiding something in her hand, and she didn't want to come out. Eventually we talked her into it.
When we got a better look at what she was hiding, it was a fist full of cheese! She must have grabbed it out of the bowl on the table (we were having tacos), and then went to hide in her little mouse hole.
No wonder Rascal runs away from her, she's the biggest mouse he's ever seen.
She was hiding something in her hand, and she didn't want to come out. Eventually we talked her into it.
When we got a better look at what she was hiding, it was a fist full of cheese! She must have grabbed it out of the bowl on the table (we were having tacos), and then went to hide in her little mouse hole.
No wonder Rascal runs away from her, she's the biggest mouse he's ever seen.
It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes
Grandma McFadden came for a short visit this week. Since she was only going to spend one full day here, we really packed it all in. Megan kept saying "fun day!"
We went to the park and flew the kite that Grandma brought. At least we tried to fly it, there wasn't much wind. It was good exercise though.
Megan made Grandma nervous going down the slide head first -- she's our little daredevil.
We sat by the lake, and Megan took over the second rocker so she could be by Grandma.
The little boy next to us showed Megan the fish he'd caught. She was a little nervous about it.
We went on a hike in the woods.
Then Megan helped put together her new "bike."
We had a lot of fun with Grandma. She went home on Tuesday, but Megan still wakes up in the morning and from her nap saying "Grandma!" Every time we have to tell her that Grandma went home on the airplane she gets sad again.
We went to the park and flew the kite that Grandma brought. At least we tried to fly it, there wasn't much wind. It was good exercise though.
Megan made Grandma nervous going down the slide head first -- she's our little daredevil.
We sat by the lake, and Megan took over the second rocker so she could be by Grandma.
The little boy next to us showed Megan the fish he'd caught. She was a little nervous about it.
We went on a hike in the woods.
Then Megan helped put together her new "bike."
We had a lot of fun with Grandma. She went home on Tuesday, but Megan still wakes up in the morning and from her nap saying "Grandma!" Every time we have to tell her that Grandma went home on the airplane she gets sad again.
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