Camille in the 3rd person

Creepers be gone!

2011-12-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

A sign that I've been way too neglectful of the blog: unfiltered creepers making bizzaro comments on my blog. And of course I am referring to Willy's Nillies and his apparent blogging co-dependency. Willy, you've been placed on notice. Don't make me get an electronic restraining order.

So I've cleaned out the creepers, dusted off the keyboard, and made a new year's resolution. Let's see what comes of this... stay tuned, but don't get your hopes up.

the 4th

2011-07-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it was because I watched the movie Polyanna too many times as a kid, but the fourth of July always reminds me of the 1920s and barbershop quartets. It always feels like an attempt to capture a bygone era of ice cream parlors and open-air buggies. Maybe that's just me.

Today we attended a July 4th picnic...yes, I know today is the 2nd, but we're just getting an early start to our holiday. Anyway, there was a definite feeling of nostalgia to the celebrations that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

On an unrelated note, fireworks are legal here in Virginia, so we're really looking forward to a spectacular 4th.

Does the fourth of July remind you of any era in particular? What are your plans?

"Somebody is out of my mind!"

2011-06-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Today Griffin came to me and, holding an old cell phone to his ear said, "Somebody is out of my mind!" You and me both, kiddo. The last six months or so have been rather odd.

I was planning in November on doing a post about all of the amazing fall colors and the 30+ bags of leaves we spent 10+ hours raking,

blowing, and bagging.

I planned to do a post in December about spending Christmas week in both Arizona and Utah and the massive snowstorm that left us stranded somewhere in between the two (Flagstaff).

In January I would have posted about Landon's parents coming for a great visit and playing around DC tourist-style. Grandpa Huber was particularly patient and climbed into every available plane with Griffin at the Air and Space Museum.

In February I thought about posting something about my brother Spencer leaving on his mission to Roseville, California and my trip to AZ to hang out with family for the occasion.

(cation to this picture: Griffin: There's a camera out, time for me to ham it up. Isaac: this is my xylophone.)

In March I should have definitely made note of Anna's Spring Break visit. We spent half a week in Virginia Beach and then half a week in D.C.

In April I really should have mentioned the amazing cherry blossoms and moving into a new apartment.

And then May came and went in a blur that I don't even really remember.

And now suddenly it's June and I have nothing to show for it, but the pictures above.

*My excuse for all of my blogging laziness is this: Landon was assigned to work in Chesapeake, Virginia for six-ish months. Chesapeake is a four hour drive south of D.C. Living out of a hotel sounds fun, and it's not all that bad...but it makes life weird in so many, many ways. But now that we are back in the swing of normal life, you can expect more frequent blogging...at least until something else distracts me.

Spooky Cutie

2010-10-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

Halloween hasn't arrived yet, but Griffin has had plenty of opportunities to dress up. His Aunt Rachael got him this fantastic set of skeleton pj's.

They have quickly become his favorite pj's. Luckily, when we packed all of our belongings into boxes for the moving van, we kept these with us. Our boxes have yet to arrive here in Virginia, so last night when our ward had a Halloween party, Griffin went in these pj's.

At the church Halloween party

Griffin as skeleton as Groucho Marx

Griffin love playing with Landon's ties and thought it was hilarious when Landon put one on him. He kept running around the house saying "Dad's tie!"

No, no one is dressed up in this picture, but it's a good one anyway. We went to the National Zoo on Saturday. Griffin liked seeing the panda bears, but he loved the elephants most of all.
We showed up for an afternoon stroll around the zoo, but it was closing early for Halloween festivities, so we only spent an hour or so there. Luckily, the zoo is free here so we'll just have to go back later to see the rest of the animals.

Confessions of a Nomad

2010-10-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry.

To all of you whom I did not contact during my life's most recent upheaval, I'm sorry. There have been a million and a half time during the past month that I've thought to myself, "I really need to blog about this!" Sadly, I never did post and so now I can't remember the exact instances that inspired me enough to create a blog post inside my head. Be assured that they were nothing short of blogging brilliance and the world is currently a less enlightened place because of my inaction.

But I digress...

Back to discussing the upheaval: I'm back in Washington, D.C. Well, McLean, VA to be more precise. We are living for the next 6 months in the home of an 86-year-old woman whose late husband was a former British Ambassador. She dislikes east coast winters and so is renting her home to us for 6 months while she goes to New Zealand.

About a month ago Landon submitted his resume for a job out here on a whim. That whimsy turned into 3 weeks of home repairs, placing our home on the market, finding a place to live in the DC area, 1 week of packing, 3 days of driving, and a bucket load of anxiety.

Is your head spinning yet? So is mine.

We're here, we're excited, we're exhausted, and we're happy.

To all of our friends in Denver, thank you! Thank you again and again. To the guys who came over the night before the Open House and helped mow our lawn and paint our banister and paint the bathroom: thank you. To the friends who offered hours of babysitting and countless boxes: thank you. To our neighbor who showed up with a chainsaw and offered to get rid of the dead tree in our backyard: thank you. To the guy who lent us that amazing compressor nail gun and miter saw: thank you. To the friend who showed up the night before we left and helped me figure out how to fit everything into the car: thank you. To the dear friend who offered to rent our house on an as-needed basis: thank you. To that same friend who later agreed to oversee the delayed moving company load our stuff onto the truck so that we could leave on time: thank you. To the friends who brought us dinner when all of my dishes were packed away and I was too frazzled to cook: thank you. To friends who threw a fabulous going-away party for us: thank you. To my sister who made the 26+ hour drive bearable by volunteering as our backseat babysitter: thank you.

We were sad to leave such great friends and we will miss you each. Thanks for everything!

Where did the summer go!?

2010-08-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

I really don't know where the summer has gone. I turned around and suddenly August is here, and almost gone. Yikes, I've totally let down Griffin's fan club. So here's the summer rundown...

We've had 7 guests stay with us this summer.
We've taken 3 trips to see family.
Took an 8 hour road trip
Gone on 1 family camping trip.
Pounded and patched one hole in our basement wall.
Made 1 amazing birthday cake
Saw numerous oddballs in our first trip to Boulder
Started, abandoned, and restarted potty training.
Learned how to make delicious bread.
Watched Nemo, Toy Story, and Bob the Builder countless times.

That about sums it all up. I’m following this up with a few posts to expand on some of the items on this list. Enjoy!

Happy Campers

2010-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

We've been talking with some friends of ours about doing a camping trip together since April when the weather was just beginning to get warmer. As the summer has zoomed by we simply hadn't ever sat down and made plans. Then suddenly August is upon us and the nights are getting cooler, especially in the mountains. We decided this was the last of the camping weather and we'd better make the best of it. So we went on a last-minute camping trip this weekend. We packed the car Thursday night, I picked up Landon from work on Friday afternoon and we were off to the mountains. His first camping trip, and Griffin loved spending all day outdoors.

Two boys setting up the tent. Griffin really thought he was being a big helper

Griffin and I playing in the little creek near our campsite

Nothing says outdoors like cooking food on sticks. This is my favorite picture from the trip, just look at how happy those two are!

I was pleasantly surprised that Griffin slept way better than Landon or I did on the hard ground in a tent. We loved the friends, the s'mores, the campfire, the creek...and best of all, the telescope! Our friends, the Fredericksons, had brought their enormous telescope (about 4 feet long and 10in diameter) to look at the stars. And I cannot tell you how very very cool it was to look at the moon through that thing. The Sea of Tranquility never looked more tranquil. Incredible! Landon and Nate had a lot of fun trying to find star clusters and galaxies. Julie and I preferred to keep warm by the fire and then come over and look when they'd found something interesting. This was probably one of my favorite camping experiences ever!

Hiding, Seeking, Demolishing

2010-08-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is what comes, dear friends, of playing hide-and-go-seek with a toddler. Allow me to explain.

Recently Griffin has loved playing this game that closely resembles hide-and-go-seek. He chases us and we run behind a corner, into another room, or behind the couch and then jump out at him when he turns the corner. He squeals in surprise and then runs around so we can do it all over again.

The other day we were playing this game down in our basement when Griffin ran into the basement bedroom and shut the door behind him. He'd done this already several times in the course of the game, but we started getting suspicious when he didn't rattle the door handle to get back out immediately. After about a thirty seconds of playful calling to him, we realized that he'd locked himself in the bedroom.

As has been discussed on this blog before, our home is full of re-po surprises. We had one such surprise when we examined the door handle (which he had never before paid much attention to) and realized that it had a locking mechanism that required a key. A key that we did not own. We spent about 10 minutes trying hangers, credit cards, windows, and careful instructions to Griffin before we finally realized there was only one way to get our son out of there: cut through the drywall.

Meanwhile, Griffin thought all of this was hilarious. "Haha! I've found the best hiding place. Haha! Mom and Dad are so funny wiggling their fingers under the door like they are going to get me. Haha! isn't it exciting to knock on the door with Mom and Dad?" It wasn't until we started pounding a hole in the wall that Griffin went from curious to nervous to scared to hysterical in a matter of 20 seconds.

Once we finally got through the wall and opened the door, Griffin was glad to be out of there. Poor guy! Luckily, it hasn't deterred his enthusiasm for hide-and-go-seek

The cabin

2010-08-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July, we took Griffin on his very first road trip. He did great on the 8 hour drive to Alpine, Wyoming, where Landon's grandpa has a cabin. We met up with Landon's family there and had a much-needed extended weekend. We played games in the woods and rode around on an ATV during the day, and played board games and roasted s'mores at night. Griffin loved seeing his aunts and uncles and playing with his cousin Addie. It was such a fun weekend and I can't wait for the next Huber family cabin trip.

This was a huge mining crane we saw on our drive to the cabin. You can't tell from this picture, but this is the most giant crane I've ever seen in my life...and I've been around my fair share of construction sites. To give you a feel for the size, that spec to the left of the crane is its bucket, the much smaller spec to the right...that's a semi-truck. If a semi looks like a spec, you know that thing's huge.

Here's a picture of everyone who made it to the cabin. Don't be surprised if you see this on a Christmas card sometime in the future.

Griffin learns about dirt

Two cute cousins sharing a snack

I thought these were rather clever self-portraits I took while Landon and I took a sunrise ride around on the ATV. It was freezing cold, especially once we got going fast.

Another self-portrait. We look like characters off of Mario-Cart

Addie and Griffin enjoying an afternoon swing. They were both grinning right before I took this picture. I think they were confused when I made them stop swinging to take the photo.

Griffin and Uncle Bubba

this was the coolest tire swing I've ever seen. It swing back and forth and side to side. Griffin would have spent all day every day in this swing if I would have let him.

Griffin's Grandma Huber was much more patient than I and would push Griffin in the swing to his heart's content.

Take the cake

2010-08-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

Last year we were in Greece for Landon's birthday. It was amazing, but I missed out on making him a proper birthday cake. So I felt that this year I had to compensate for last year's cop-out of a pre-made sponge cake and nutella. I think I succeeded, you be the judge:

Relent, Recoil, Reupholster!

2010-05-20T19:38:00.001-07:00

I am so proud of myself! No really. I'm hang-it-on-the-refrigerator, I-deserve-a-medal, blinking-applause-sign, spell-it-out-pommie-style P-R-O-U-D! Proud!

Perhaps, this feels slightly over the top. And no doubt it is. But please, allow me to explain.

Just before we first moved to Denver, Landon's Grandma graciously gave us two chairs that she no longer needed. As we had almost no furniture at the time, we were very very grateful for anything that meant we didn't have to sit on the floor. This is what the chairs looked like.

I don't know if you can tell or not, but these are very comfy chairs. However, as you can tell they had seen some wear and tear. And so I decided that I would reupholster them eventually. A couple of weeks ago, when my fantastic friend Becky was visiting, we decided that "eventually" had arrived and it was time to attempt the task. Tear off the old fabric, slap on some new, a few staples and we're in business. Seems pretty straight-forward, right? Not so.

Truth be told, I had no idea how to reupholster before I started tearing the old faux leather off. (Thanks, Becky, for your help on this part). Only then did I begin to realize what I'd gotten myself into. Here's a picture of one of the chairs completely disassembled.

After I took this picture I realized that it's actually missing several pieces including the arms of the chair and the hardware that holds the buttons in place, along with two missing fabric pieces, but I'm guessing you get the idea.

This is Griffin laughing at me, he liked poking at the disassembled chair with a screwdriver and fought with me for whatever tool I was using at the time. Yeah, he thinks he's a big help.

I'm sorely tempted to go into the nitty gritty detail about sewing technique, staple guns, and unexpected hand-stitching, but instead I'll just say that this was a lot of detail-oriented work with a mean learning curve. Anyway, after a few weeks of work (the most productive work getting done during Griffin's naps) I'm happy to unveil the finished product:

DRUMROLL........

Ta-da!

Seriously, I couldn't be happier with how these turned out. Don't they make a nice little sitting area for our bedroom? Here's a close-up of the fabric:

And another angle, just for fun...and to stroke my ego a little. Tell me what you think.

Little MOUSE on the Prairie

2010-05-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

One week ago I got ambitious and started a garden. We're planning to have a little vegetable patch outside our backdoor. I had visions of a bountiful harvest and delicious salads. I'm guessing most of the world agrees with me that there is nothing better than a garden-fresh tomato.

Since Colorado is still toying with freezing temperatures, we started with an indoor garden tray to cultivate our fragile little tomato and bell pepper seeds into plants before moving them outside. I was thrilled when a few days after planting we saw minuscule sprouts shrugging out of the dirt. "Hoorah!," I thought, "I'm a horticultural genius!"

However yesterday disaster struck sometime in the night. We woke to discover that something...some creature had dug up our seedlings. This disturbed me for several reasons which I choose to present in no particular order in the list below:

I am not a filthy person and I was frustrated to have a filthy rodent in my home, which challenged my self-image of cleanliness
My garden was ruined
I really didn't like to think of Griffin 'discovering' a mouse in the house
I disliked all of my options for disposing of the little beast
I've heard that mice never come alone...they bring their friends

Ew! It gives me the Heebie Jeebies just thinking about it. Lucky for me I have a very chivalrous husband who bought traps and other mouse-exterminating paraphernalia. After Griffin went to bed we baited our traps and patiently waited...for about 15 minutes.

One quick snap and it was all over for our furry little house guest. Again, my knight in shining armor stepped up and disposed of the carnage and I didn't even have to look at it. I feel a little wimpy and ashamed of being so prissy but those mousey guillotine things really gross me right out.

Hopefully, there was just one. But we are not taking any chances, we've got another trap ready and waiting for any other potential house invaders.

What a helper

2010-04-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post for several weeks now, but it just seems to fall to the bottom of my priority list. In a head-to-head competition sleep, dishes, laundry, diapers, and (let's be honest) a batch of cookies have won out over blogging for several weeks in a row.

However, here's a brief update on the goings-on here in the Huber house:

At the end of March we had a huge snow storm blow through and dump almost a foot of snow. Bummer, because that meant that it was freezing cold. My dad called me and told me that AZ was sitting at a glorious 78 degrees that week, I think he's trying to convince us to move back to the Grand Canyon State. On the bright side, Landon wasn't able to drive into work because of all of the snow. So he worked from home. We had a fun lunch break playing in the snow.

I'm sure you remember Landon's snow sculpture of George Washington last year. Well this year what started out as a snow slide for Griffin turned into a snow sculpture of a dog. Griffin is always saying "woof, woof" to our neighbor's dogs and so we thought it only appropriate to give him one of his very own. Sorry Griffin, that's about as close as you're getting to a pet for now. Feast your eyes on this:

As per usual for Colorado, three days after the snowstorm we were sitting at 70 degrees. And with the warmer weather, spring seems to be shrugging out of its oppressive winter coat. The grass has turned a promising shade of green and our neighborhood is sprinkled with budding leaves. As I predicted, this year the dandelions are back. Some of you may remember that last year I spent several hours and lots of energy weeding my backyard. Lucky for me, now I have a helper:

Yeah Griffin, that's how I feel about them too.

Stuff to do...

2010-03-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight is book club night. I just finished reading this month's book called 2001 Things to Do Before You Die. The host for this evening also told us to bring a list of 5-10 things that we want to do with our lives.

I enjoyed this book for some reasons, but the person who wrote it had a distinctly different world view from me. I therefore felt that some of the things on his list I would rather die than do. But reading this book did get me thinking about my mental list of things I want to do before I die. Some of them I've accomplished, some of them I am working on, some of them are distant goals, and yet others are near impossibilities. Here is a sample:

Become a published author
Make my own pasta from scratch
Live on the East Coast long enough to receive mail there
See Michelangelo's Pieta
Live outside of the U.S.
Work in a press office
Design and sew a wedding dress that someone wears in an actual wedding
Visit the Taj Mahal
Raise kind children
Learn to make the perfect soufflé
Learn how to install a toilet, a ceiling fan, and hardwood floors
Reupholster a chair
Live in a house with secret passageways and a hidden room
Enjoy opera
Get a pilot's license
Finally become conversant in Spanish
Get a Master's Degree...in anything
Go on a cruise
Own a Dyson vacuum
Build a tree-house
Grow a lush garden
Become a certified rock climber

What's on your list?

Check that attitude!

2010-03-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

I was taking pictures of Griffin yesterday and this is what he gave me:

Talk about attitude. This little guy's personality is coming in full force. He's often sticking out his tongue to be silly or laughing at himself for no apparent reason. Truthfully, I suppose this should not come as a great surprise to me. Griffin comes from a long line of easily-amused and self-entertaining progenitors. It's nice though for Landon and I that we have a built-in source of amusement with Griffin around.

On Wednesday this week the weather was gorgeous (for the first time in what feels like ages). So Griffin and I decided that we'd have a little picnic in our backyard. We spread out a blanket on our dead grass and ate popcorn for a while.

Then we put on our shoes and tromped around in the crunchy leaves and dead grass. Griffin loved munching popcorn and crunching leaves. The only problem was that when he fell, he wouldn't get back up because he didn't want to touch the pokey grass. So he just sat in the grass until I got up to save him. This happened several times over.

And speaking of personality, I really don't know where Griffin gets it:

I've mentioned before that I work in the children's organization at church. Well, this last weekend we had a church "So You Think You Can Dance" Party. This is the Primary Presidency all decked out for the kids' dance number (I'm the one with the tuft of orange hair coming out of the back of my head). The kids all dressed up like rockstars too. And you know that we took first place, with costumes like that how could we not? Actually, I think the parents' votes really pulled through for us. So far I've dressed up as both a pirate and a rockstar to fulfill my church calling...I wonder what's next?

Movin' and Groovin'

2010-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

This one is especially for Grandma Huber. Enjoy!

Lemonade at the Griffin's

2010-02-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

This week and next week Landon is traveling for work, bummer. But making lemonade out of the lemons in this scenario, Griffin and I decided to take a two week trip to Arizona to visit my family. We arrived yesterday and we are already having a great time. It's great to be here in Arizona's 70 degree weather while Colorado is hovering around 30-ish.

We wish that Landon didn't have to leave town, but since he has to go, we might as well make the most of it. My family is way cool and Griffin loves getting all of this attention from his aunts and uncle. Yesterday, Spencer took some great pictures of Griffin learning about the piano.

Isn't he a virtuoso?

In other news, my sister got a huge lemon as a gift from a friend. This thing is enormous! It's almost as big as a football. She's still trying to think of ideas for what to do with it. Lemon meringue pie? Lemon cookies? Lemonade? Whatever she ends up doing with it, she has a whole bunch of lemon to deal with.

Now who sounds stupid?

2010-01-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

This week has left me feeling utterly idiotic. First and foremost, Griffin and I have both had a bout of the stomach flu. I'll spare the gory details and simply say that I never imagined that there could be anything more miserable than being sick with the stomach flu. However, being sick with stomach flu at the same time as your infant really tops the misery charts. Landon has been making chicken noodle soup and folding laundry and generally being Superman, which of course leaves me feeling grateful and useless.

Also, earlier this week I had a telephone conversation that went something like this:

ME: (Dialing my sister's phone number, and waiting for her to answer)

NOEL: (in a voice that sounds like she's got her nose plugged) Hello?

ME: (amused by Noel's silliness) Hi there. How are ya?

NOEL: (still with the weird voice) Um, good. And you?

ME: Good, what's up?

NOEL: (in the increasingly obnoxious voice) Not much, I suppose.

ME: Noel, you sound stupid. Cut it out.

NOEL: (persisting with the annoying voice) I sound what?!

ME: I said, You sound stupid.

NOEL: (still with the voice) Who is this?

ME: Wait, is this Noel?

NOEL: No.

ME: Really?

NOEL: This is NOT Noel. Who is this?

ME: Uh, this is Noel's sister...Are you sure you're not Noel?

NOEL: This is NOT Noel.

ME: Oh, ummmmm. Okay. I'm so sorry. (awkward pause) Well, bye.

In my defense, what are the odds of me accidentally calling a woman whose voice sounds exactly like my sister with a plugged nose. Furthermore, my sisters are often trying to make me believe I have dialed a wrong number when, in fact, I haven't. And lastly, I've just switched phone plans and I'm using Landon's old phone while we wait for mine to arrive, so I'm now dialing all of the phone numbers I normally have on speed-dial.

None of this changes the fact that I told a random stranger that her voice sounds stupid. Sorry, lady. But truthfully, you did have kind of a stupid voice.

Play it again, Griffin!

2010-01-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

Griffin celebrated his 1st birthday with a flight to Utah. That's 15 flights for one baby in one year. This kid is a trooper. Mere hours after landing in Salt Lake City, Griffin was ready to party. And party we did. The first night we were there, we attended two parties, one for Griffin's birthday, and another for Christmas. The Huber family knows how to party and I think we had some sort of gathering, pow-wow, hoopla, brouhaha, or get-together every single night that we were in Utah. We loved getting to see all of Landon's family, and Griffin loved all of the attention. Here are some of the favorite moments from the trip:

At first, Griffin was really more excited about the flame than the cake

But pretty soon he got the idea. Who needs a fork? Or hands, for that matter?

He was even gracious enough to share with his dad, who apparently

likes squished birthday cake.

Griffin's cousin, Ben, teaches him about static

Christmas morning at the Huber's

After a little practice, Griffin figures out that it is fun to tear wrapping paper.

After a week in Utah, we flew down to Arizona on the day after Christmas...that's flight #16, for those of you who are counting. I don't know who started all of this business about dreaming of a white Christmas (I think perhaps Bing Crosby had a hand in it), but I'll take a sunny 65-degree Christmas when given the chance, and Arizona provided exactly the chance I was looking for. We spent a week in Mesa with my family and it was spectacular. My family isn't nearly as good about taking pictures as Landon's family, so you'll have to settle for these pictures:

Griffin and his Grandpa reading a story.

For those of you with a good eye: yes, that is a Care Bear

book that I've had since circa 1985

Noel got some foam swords for her birthday, and Griffin was a natural.

We're considering signing him up for baby fencing.

Griffin's first desert hike

Not pictured: Mom challenged Landon to a Roller Coaster Tycoon build-off. This rivalry ended in a draw after approximately 5+ hours of cut throat competition, at which I could only sigh and roll my eyes.

And to all of you who gave Griffin birthday or Christmas gifts: Thank you so much! He loves them all, especially the ones that make noises. There is one in particular that sings a song about a puppy in a red truck; I don't think he's stopped playing with it since we got home. I may have to find the off switch on these toys eventually. But for now, I'm willing to listen to that song all day long if it buys me enough time to get the dishes done.

finding my voice

2009-12-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've lost my voice today. And truthfully I didn't really realize what a chatterbox I can be until I am robbed of my ability to talk. So instead of talking I'm posting a quick update to the blog.

In the last half of November, we surprised my family by showing up unexpectedly for Thanksgiving (big thanks to Rachael for facilitating that one). My dad's birthday was also that weekend so it was a double celebration. Griffin had a fantastic time hanging out with his grandpa... with everyone else too, but especially Grandpa. I think that was mostly because my dad gave Griffin everything he wanted. Cookies at bedtime? sure, why not?

a quick swim in November? You bet!

Man, Grandpa is a push-over.

So far in December we've been fighting a really awful cold that just won't seem to let go. And now at the very end when I'm finally feeling mostly better, the virus makes one last desperate attempt at spite and steals my voice.

And have I mentioned before that I love working in the Primary children's organization at church? This week I had a little kid tell me that I was "huuuuuge." But I suppose that before I start getting a weight-complex I should remember that earlier in the conversaion he told me that his mom's "really fast van" could drive from Colorado to Canada in twenty minutes. Hopefully, his perception of time and size are equally distorted.

And last but not least, this Christmas we had the 2nd Annual Huber Christmas Cookie-thon. Here are the results:

Free carpet...sort of.

2009-11-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

Griffin really is much happier than this pouty face would indicate

For anyone who has been to my home, you'll probably remember the carpet in our basement. It's disgusting. Purchasing a home that was repossessed has its risks, and for us the risk was nasty carpet in the basement. Landon and I have been talking about frugal ways to re-vamp that basement ever since we moved in, but inspiration struck back in August when we were visiting my family. My mom told me about this calico-carpet thing that her mother had done a few times when my mom was a kid. It sounded fun and interesting, but best of all: it was cheap. The idea is basically to take carpet remnants and cut them into squares then create a patchwork carpet using carpet glue. When I describe it like that, it sounds like a really straightforward one-day job. Not so.

We spent several weekends searching for just the right free carpet, endured several carpet salesmen looking at us like we were crazy, spent several more weekends tracing and cutting carpet into squares, and then a few days gluing it all onto our existing carpet. Then it took me a while (I am embarrassed to admit how long) to muster the determination to finish off all of the little oddly-shaped pieces around the edge of the room.

So now, after more than a month of work, I am happy to debut the finished carpet here on the blog. I am really proud of how this turned out. And I am even happier with the price. If anyone wants to do this type of thing my recommendation is to give yourself a month of work time, and buy the biggest tub of carpet glue available (it's worth it, if only to save yourself four different trips to Home Depot).

A belated BOO!

2009-11-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

I realize that I'm very late in posting this picture. And I realize that all of Landon's family has seen these costumes before. But I feel that these costumes are cool enough for a repeat, and cool enough to make up for my delayed posting.

In case you are not an avid Pixar fan, we're characters from The Incredibles (Elasti-girl, Jack-Jack, and Syndrome). One of our friends told us, "It's weird to see Elasti-girl fraternizing with Syndrome." When you think about it, though, Syndrome is a way cooler costume than Mr. Incredible. Plus, I don't think Landon would have been excited about wearing red spandex.

Funnily enough, Landon's cape got caught in the door on our way out:

"NO CAPES!"

Snow Day!!

2009-11-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Arizona, I never experienced the childhood pleasure of a snow day. The closest I ever came was one day when the power to our high school went out. I remember that day as possibly the coolest day of my adolescence: board games, movies, ice cream, etc... I suppose it wasn't the activities of the day, but just the unexpected liberation that really made it fantastic. Anyway, in my mind snow days always had a somewhat mystical appeal.

Last week a snow storm rolled through and dropped 14-18 inches of snow over the course of 2 days. Because of the road conditions, Landon decided to work from home. In my mind all of my imagined "snow day" dreams were about to come true. I was really excited that as an adult I was finally going to get a snow day. My list of snow day expectations was as follows: hot chocolate, popcorn, blankets, movies, crackling fire, warm socks. Unfortunately, my imagination did not include the fact that "working from home" actually meant that Landon had to work. To his credit, Landon didn't get frustrated when I kept interrupting with things like, "Hey I was thinking about Christmas ideas and..." or "I'm rethinking our plans for that basement bedroom and..." or "What do you think about hanging curtains in Griffin's bedroom?" or "Remember that one time when..."

Truthfully, my mind is normally jumping around mundanities like that, but Landon typically isn't here to vocalize all of these thoughts to. It took me a while to muster the self-control to allow him to work in peace. So my snow day, in reality, was much more similar to a regular day than I expected. It just meant that I got to eat lunch with Landon.....ok, ok, so we took a hot chocolate and popcorn break too.

A few of his favorite things

2009-10-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Sure, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens are just fine, but Griffin has a few favorite things he wants to add to Frauline Maria's famous list.

Spiderman toy
carpet lint
empty soda bottles
giant flashlights
watching mom brush her teeth
a package of earplugs (unused, of course)
chewing on flip flops
his teddy bear, Radar (thanks, Spencer)
pictures of himself
a wet washcloth
blowing raspberries
"helping" with dishes
open cupboards
drooling on mom's phone
unrolling toilet paper

Italy pictures

2009-09-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

These are some of the favorite pictures from Rome. We spent three days in Rome and saw everything as quickly as we could. But even with our grueling touristic pace, we felt like we could have spent 10 days there and not seen everything we wanted to.

Truthfully, our trip could not have been better. We stayed at a marvelous bed and breakfast inside Rome's city wall. The guy who ran the B&B spoke something like 5 languages fluently. When we acted impressed he simply said, "What kind of a host would I be if I could not visit with all of my guests?"

And, of course, Griffin was a prince in Rome. LOTS of little Italian women (and men) made kissy faces at him as we walked by. One cute little lady we sat next to on the metro even gave him a saint medalion thing (I know there is an actual term for these but I can't think of it.)

Anyway, it was a fantastic city and an amazing end to our Europe excursion! Landon's favorite thing to say as we walked around was, "Can you just imagine this when it was in it's heyday!?" He said it so often that I started to recognize when he was even thinking of saying it.

Truthfully, now that we've been home for a while I've blogged less and taken way fewer pictures. I feel somehow a little less interesting in Denver, but I'll still try to keep the posts coming, you'll just have to forgive me if I'm slightly boring.

Prodigal Sleep

2009-09-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Since we've been back from Europe, Griffin has not once slept through the night. I know, I know, this could be considered my just desserts after all of the bragging I did about his early sleeping patterns. This could also be the price I pay for neglecting to give him a consistent environment for nearly one-third of his life thus far. Whatever your theory, this situation has been taxing, to say the least. There have been many nights where I've rocked a silent pattern of self-pity in the rocking chair as I tried to put Griffin back to bed, and many days where I've complained a not-so-silent whine of indignance to my family.

You may recall the biblical story of the prodigal son and the accompanying parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. (I realize that this seems like a tangent, but trust me, I'm bringing it full circle) At the end of each of these parables the owner/parent/shepard of the lost coin/son/sheep call all of their friends to celebrate the restoration of something that once was lost.

And so today, my dear friends, I ask you to celebrate with me the return of my lost sleep. Last night Griffin slept for eight full hours in a row! Sweet, indulgent, eight hours. When he woke up at 5:30 this morning I could have clicked my heels. Hoorah for Griffin!! And Hoorah for me!!

Oh and yes, I still need to post pictures from our Italy trip, I'll do that soon.

Recommitted

2009-09-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, folks! I've been back for nearly a month now and sadly haven't posted one darn thing. I've got pictures of our trip to Italy still to post, plus a little international quizlet for you all, but for now I'll start with a sumary of the last month.

First point of interest: jetlag is a monster. Griffin is still recovering from it...which of course means that Landon and I are still recovering as well. Poor baby doesn't know which way is up.

We got back into Denver on August 8th and spent a week here letting Griffin readjust to his home environment, before we confused him yet again with another plane trip, this time to Arizona. Griffin loved hanging out with my family, especially his Grandpa Griffin...I think that was because my dad kept feeding him cookies on the sly, plus he let Girffin play with his cowboy hat. I guess that's what Grandpas are for, right?

Then we came back to Denver for a few more days, just in time for Griffin to be really confused when we took off for Utah to visit with Landon's family. We had a great time getting to see Griffin interact with all of his cousins, and hosting a Greek party for Landon's family: gyros all around!!

Now if you're considering calling me a cruel mother for dragging my poor kid all over the place and neglecting to give him a consistent environment, trust me, I'm with you all the way. When we purchased these plane tickets it seemed like a great idea to visit family after we got back to the U.S. The logic being, of course, that we hadn't seen them in several months and Griffin was bound to grow up during that time. Would it not also be cruel to the grandparents to withhold their grandson from them? At least, these were our thoughts when we purchased the tickets.

Not that I'm having any regrets about visiting family. We really had a fabulous time. But perhaps it would have been a little wiser to space our travel out a bit. As it is, I'm sure that Griffin assumes that any day now we're going to pack up and move again. Hopefully, he'll get into a more consistent rhythm now that we are finally back in Denver for good. We've decided that we are not doing any traveling until Christmas time. So if you want to see us, you'll have to mosey on over our way because this rolling stone is kaput and ready to start gathering a little moss...but not too much moss, that might cramp my style.

Long hike, quick post

2009-08-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went hiking in the forrest. We ednded up getting lost (my fault), and then found again (Landon's fault). But as the picture below will prove, even getting lost was delightful because the forrest was so lush and gorgeous it almost invites you to lose your way. My mom told us that we should have sung "The Hills Are Alive" while hiking. For those of you who have heard Landon and I sing, you will know that this would have been a very bad idea.

Strolling Germany

2009-08-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

We once again went on a stroll around the neighborhood, but this time we remembered the camera. here are a few highlights. We love Frankfurt and this doesn't even scratch the surface on the coolness of this city, but enjoy!

A cool park down the street from us.

This is the Alte Oper (Old Opera House) that is nearly next door to us. Please note how very chivalrous my husband is...he carries Griffin in the baby bjorn whenever we go out together.

One of the great things about this city is how you can have a 600 year-old watchtower next to a modern skyscraper. The juxtaposition is at once perplexing, refreshing, and inspiring.

Check out this giant tree we found in a park near our apartment. This was HUGE!

This is one of my favorite architecture pictures we've taken thus far on the trip. I think this cathedral dates back to 847AD.

German product review

2009-08-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

While here in Germany I've had the chance to sample some products that I'd like to critique.

CEREAL: First of all, most of you know that I love cereal. In the U.S. one of my favorite cereals is Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I expected this cereal called Mini Zimtos to taste similar. I was mistaken. The cinnamon is way stronger than I expected. The best way to describe it is to say it is like eating a bowl of Big Red gum...except crunchier. At first, this was a dissappointment, but because we'd purchased a large box I felt compelled to finish it. By the time the box was empty I loved this cereal.

BRATWURST: I'm not a big hot dog fan. Sure I'll have one at a baseball game or a cook out (Becky, do you remember the lecture your dad gave me about the difference between a cook out and a barbeque? I have never again made the same mistake). Anyway, I wasn't expecting to enjoy bratwurst any more or less than hot dogs. But oh wow!!!! We made some friends at church here and they invited us over for a bratwurst cook out and it's embarrassing to say how many bratwurst I ate, so I'll just tell you that it was a lot and they were magnificent!

TOOTHPASTE: I don't know, and can't tell you what flavor this toothpaste says it is. What I can tell you is that it is disgusting. I will point out that I still brush every night and every morning, but with extreme loathing. It tastes like I'm going to bed with a mouthfull of weeds, and waking up with a mouthfull of dirt, with perhaps some undertones of black licorice. Ew.

BREADS: This one is very general. But the bread here is great great great!

GOUDA: And the cheese is even better!

Posts everyone!

2009-08-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss in my duties as an international blogger, and for that I apologize. I hope to make it up to you today. I've got enough fodder for about three blog posts so hopefully I have the patience to download all of the pictures I've got.

First of all, here are a few pictures from last weekend when we walked around to a neat plaza (Romaplatze) in downtown Frankfurt.

This is exactly what I visualized Germany to look like. I was glad that there was a place that so perfectly fulfilled my vivid imagination.

A very talented street performer who is balancing a stacked tower of full wine glasses and plates on his nose while playing the clarinet. I'm not exactly sure what might inspire someone to perfect this specific skill, but it was rather entertaining to watch him work the crowd. Unfortunately, right after he got the whole stack of plates and glasses all balanced and started playing the clarinet it started raining and the crowd dissolved quicker than the wicked witch of the west, poor guy.

During the raintsotrm (at least during the very worst of it) we ducked under this bridge to keep dry. As you can see we were joined by several others, many of whom decided that this was a great time to light up a cigarette, grrrr. So for Griffin's lungs we braved the storm and ran to the nearest pastry shop...oh, the sacrifices we make for our son. As a side note, German apple pastries are delicious!

And here is a picture of a red scooter in the rain.

Stand in the place where you live

2009-07-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

The other day I left Griffin on the floor playing with his toys and walked to the other room for less than 1 minute. When I returned to the front room this is what I found:

Surprise, surprise, my child prodigy is pulling himself up to a stand already. I had some of his extra toys on that shelf and apparently he found them more interesting than the ones I'd left on the floor for him. I don't mean to brag or anything, but this kid is a genius.

The temple and a castle

2009-07-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

The first weekend here in Germany we spent mostly just acquainting ourselves with the downtown Frankfurt area. We are staying in an extended-stay hotel in Frankfurt, which essentially means that we feel a little less like we are living out of a suitcase, and a little more like we are living in an apartment...an apartment, mind you, where someone makes your bed and does your dishes for you. I really shouldn't get used to this.

Just a three-minute walk away is an old opera house and the financial district of Frankfurt. Like the nincompoops we are, we forgot to take the camera with us on our big walk around the area, so I can't show you the cool statues or the neat architecture yet, but I promise that I'll post some pictures of the neighborhood soon.

However, this weekend we went to the Frankfurt LDS temple and then to an old castle and thankfully we remembered the cameras.

Outside the castle walls

We weren't sure exactly where we were supposed to go, but once we turned down this street we realized we were headed in the right direction...you'll note the jubilant look on my face

No mattter how hard I knocked, they wouldn't let me in the back door. But I think I should get points for inadvertently matching my shirt to the exact color of the door.

Landon and Griffin walking around the castle grounds. The gounds were breath-taking. Lots of winding foot paths and orchards and a huge pond. We could have spent hours and hours just wandering the extensive property, but unfortunately a rain storm rolled in shortly after we took this picture.

Flowers with castle windows in the background

This is a cathedral we found along the way, cool, huh?

Anyone have to potty? This was the funniest thing of the day. Inside the castle walls they had a modern art exhibit. To me it seemed slightly incongruous to have a bunch of modern art next to this ancient-looking castle, but I suppose it just made the modern art stand out all the more.

Landon and Griffin at the Frankfurt LDS Temple. We got some good video on the temple grounds, but this was the best still shot of the temple.

At last...

2009-07-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are sour that I haven't posted lately, allow me to defend myself. Over the past two weeks I've attempted to post at least three times only to be frustrated by reluctant internet connections. Now that I am safely in Germany and reunited with my computer (and I suppose I should mention reunited with my husband) and a reliable internet connection, I can blog to my heart's content. In this case my heart's content is three posts, mostly in pictures. Enjoy!

These are pictures from our last few days in Greece. We went to Glyfada, the beach district of Athens and stayed at a hotel across the street from the beach.
Griffin and I at sunset on the beach. Check out the giant fishing pole behind us, I swear that thing was 12 feet long.

Rachael and Griffin playing in the waves. You can just see Noel's head behind that giant wave. Somehow, Noel avoided being in most of the pictures this day.

This was our last evening in Greece. One of the things we loved about walking along this beach was that you could see some islands off in the distance. Additionally, it's too bad that all of the people I know who collect rocks have stopped collecting them (Anna, I'm looking in your direction), because there were some really cool rocks on this beach.

Outshining the moonlight

2009-07-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

Landon left on Monday. That night Noel and Rachael went to see Swan Lake while I watched Griffin. We had planned that Tuesday night the girls would watch Griffin while Landon and I went to the ballet, but in Landon's absence, Rachael accompanied me to the ballet while Noel took care of Griffin (Thanks, Noel you are too kind!).

First of all, we watched the ST. PETERSBURG BALLET!! (arguably the best ballet company in the entire world). They performed Swan Lake (perhaps my favorite ballet) written by Tchaikovsky (historically, the premier ballet composer). We watched from the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (an ancient Greek outdoor amphitheater) under a full moon. Truthfully, this was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

I could try to descibe the grace, complexity, presicion, and artisrty of the evening, but I'd be sure to fall woefully short of the mark. Just take my word for it: AMAZING!!! If you ever have the chance to attend this ballet, or this ballet company, or an outdoor production in an ancient theater at a full moon, I recommend that you do so.

Alive at Sunrise...surprise!

2009-07-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

My family is notorious for being irritable and crotchety before 8 a.m. (My father, of course, is the notable exception. Sadly, his AM cheeriness only makes us grumpier) So when Landon suggested that we venture on a sunrise hike to the outlook point across from the Acropolis, I was more than a little hesitant. But as these pictures chronicle, we did get up for sunrise, we did hike the 3 kilometers, and we were cheerful for most of the trip. (Except for when a stray dog charged at Noel and Rachael and they ran to hide behind the baby). Truthfully,

this was one of our favorite moments of the entire weekend. Check it out:

Sweet digs at Delphi

2009-07-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

For our Happy Fourth of July weekend, Landon, Noel, Rachael, Griffin, and I headed to Delphi. Delphi is about 2.5 hours from Athens by car and about 3.5 hours by bus. For those of you who are looking for Greece travel tips (Sade and Emily, I nod knowingly in your direction), Delphi is totally worth the drive...but only if you rent a car and stay in Arahova which is ten minutes outside of Delphi.

We stayed in a ski resort hotel/spa, and since this is the off season for skiing we got a great deal on the room, an awesome view of the mountains, and top notch service because we were nearly the only ones there. It was 100% worth the ten minute drive to Delphi.

The hotel we stayed at was my favorite Greek hotel by far! It's a swanky family-owned resort. At breakfast the hotel manager kept bringing out tray after tray of pastries, breads, fruits, eggs, cheeses, meats, and more pastries. Happy Fourth of July, let's eat like Americans!

The ruins at Delphi were incredible, the museum was breathtaking, and (though he did get a little hot and sweaty) the Griffin was happy. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Typically I'm not a fan of shots from behind, but I really liked this one of Landon and I walking around the ruins at Delphi.

The sisters at Delphi. We're overlooking an amphitheater, I don't remember the name of this one, because there were lots of them. And check out that view! From where we were standing you could see all the way out to the Mediterranean Sea...unfortunately, not in this picture. Please note that in every single picture, Rachael is looking like a movie star and Noel and I look like tourists.

This was my favorite thing at the Delphi Museum: a sphinx, two of which used to stand atop 25 foot columns at the entrance to the Treasury at Delphi.

I don't know what I was saying when this photo was taken, but apparently I had to say it with attituide.

Change of plans

2009-06-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

The emotions of the last week, summed up in a series of chronological exclamatory statements:

When we signed up for this gig in Greece (and by 'gig' I mean audit), we were excited by the opportunity to visit a Euopean country for three months.

Yay

Because we were planning on this three month stint to be a fairly reliable arrangement, we invited anyone who wanted to visit Greece to make the trip while we were here. My sisters took me up on the idea and they are here visiting for two weeks.

Hooray!

So you might imagine the anxiety I felt when last week Landon's office told him that he was being re-assigned to an audit in Germany starting next Monday.

Uhhhh.

Griffin and I will tag along to Germany. I've never been to Germany before. My childhood dance teacher visited Germany often and every time she came back from a trip I vowed that one day I'd go see what all the hooplah was about. So, in a sense, this turn of events will help me to fulfill a childhood dream.

Sweet!

The best part about going to Germany is that the hotel we will stay at there has laundry machines on site. Here in Greece, Landon's company will pay for him to send out his laundry, but not for Griffin and I. Not a problem if there is a laundromat nearby, unfortunately, from what I can tell, the front desk people here don't know what a laundromat is, so I've been washing clothes in the tub. I'm excessively thrilled at the prospect of a washing machine. No more laundry in the tub.

Hallelujah!

However, next Monday (Landon's departure date) is half way through my sisters' visit.

Eeek!

We've decided that Griffin and I will stay in Greece without Landon for a week...

Awww, man

...and make it a sisters' vacation.

Awesome!

This weekend we misplaced Landon's wallet and still can't find it. We don't think he was pickpocketed because there hasn't been any activity on our accounts at all, so please pray with us that we'll find it in the bottom of a suitcase...not that we haven't already looked there.

Shoot.

During the first weekend of my sisters' visit we've had a lot of fun, and we've got some really cool stuff planned for this weekend before Landon leaves. Stay tuned to the blog for those adventures.

Hmmm.

But for now enjoy these pictures from the first few days of my sisters' visit.

Cool.

Ruins of the Temple of Zeus. Through the bottom arch you can see the Acropolis on the hill. This was right after church on Sunday. The church building is across the street and down one block from where we are standing.

Statuesque Rachael soaking it all in at the National Gardens.

Noel and Griffin at the National Gardens. We strolled around the gardens on Sunday afternoon. The girls managed jet lag way better than I had expected, but even so, it was nice to have a relaxing Sabbath day on the day after they arrived.

And speaking of relaxing, here I am lounging about on the grass after our picnic in the park on Sunday. Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.

To the Beach!

2009-06-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend was filled with firsts for Griffin...a first all-day excursion to the beach, first sand in the diaper, first full night of sleep in Greece, first fireworks, first time trying bananas, and first cucumber, olive oil, salt, pepper, oragano, parsley, and dill.

Let's cover these one at a time, shall we?

First of all, Griffin had been to a beach on Santorini, but we spent less than an hour there, so really this was Griffin's first real beach excursion. We spent most of the morning and into the afternoon on Vouliagmeni Beach. Griffin actually went into the sea with us, but I didn't dare bring a camera into the water, so here's a shot of him just before venturing into the sea. He wasn't sure what he thought about the water at first, but after he got used to it, he absolutely loved to splash and swim with Landon. We ate lunch and Griffin even napped on the beach for about an hour. That evening we went swimming in the hotel pool, mostly to get pictures of Griffin's face when he swims because it's so darn cute.
And perhaps you'll think I've gotten my comuppance when I tell you that jet lag and an inconsistent sleeping environment have left Griffin getting up 2 or 3 times during the night. Anyway, this weekend he started sleeping through the night again, hoorah!!! It's been three nights in a row of solid sleep. I don't want to jinx myself by calling that a pattern, but I'm definitely grateful for it.

Oddly enough, the first night that he slept 8 hours included a midnight fireworks show. We put him to bed at around 10 p.m. and then at midnight Landon and I were jolted awake by an explosive noise. Because I'd been watching the news about the riots in Iran right before I went to bed, in my sleep-stupor I told Landon to stay away from the windows. Luckily, he ignored me and opened our curtains to discover that there was a fireworks show on the beach across the street from our hotel. We were able to watch it from the sofa in our room. It was pretty darn impressive. Even more impressive was that Griffin slept right through it.

We've been trying to ease Griffin into eating solids. So far he's tried rice cereal, apple sauce, mushed pears, smooshed peaches, bread, and this weekend: bananas. He does really well with most of the stuf we've offered him. The only problem he has is that he's apparently allergic to powdered dry milk (since all of the food labels are in Greek, that's a guess based on the translation of the girl at the front desk...yes, food science at it's best).

Anyway, we've been really pleased with his progress into the land of solids...and then we went to dinner on Saturday. We found a little mom and pop restaurant near the beach where we ordered a Greek salad and a couple of gyros for dinner. The owner (I think) of the restaurant came over and made faces at Griffin and offered him a little slice of bread. We didn't object because we already knew that Griffin liked and could handle bread, so we fed him little pieces until our salad came. When our salad arrived, the same guy came over and before Landon or I realized what was going on, he had a cucumber from our salad skewered on a fork and in our baby's mouth. Griffin made a ravenous face and started lapping at the olive oil and seasonings. Landon, as politely as one can launch himself across a table and jerk a fork out of your hand, did just that. The owner chuckled and left. We thought that was the end of it. Nope.

Five minutes later he was back with a waiter (presumably his nephew or something) and again before we could remember the Greek word for "no" had a cucumber in our baby's mouth. Griffin, recognizing a good thing when he tastes one, clamped down on the cucumber with his two little teeth and refused to let go. Luckily Landon kept a level head and was able to fish the cucumber out of Griffin's mouth before things got too dicey...but the whole time I was wishing I knew the Greek words for, "Get that fork out of my baby's mouth before he chokes!" and also, "If he has an allergic reaction to cucumbers, you're in big fat greek trouble!" Luckily, Griffin neither choked, nor had an allergic reaction, so we just paid our bill and left.

Knowing where you are...

2009-06-18T02:24:00.000-07:00

You know you're in Greece when:

You wake up in the middle of the night and you don't need to consult a clock for the time, just listen to the noise level of the club next door- Our hotel is next door to a club/music restaurant called suca cuka (pronounced soo-ka coo-ka). At midnight the party is a low rumble. At 2am, it's in full jumpin' bumpin' swing with lots of Cher, DePeche Mode, and Mambo No. 5. At 4am they enthusiastically throw out all of the glass bottles into the dumpster on the street.

You can park anywhere....anywhere...as long as you put your hazard lights on- This surprised me, stick on your hazard lights and suddenly it's legal to park diagonally in the middle of the road. I'm not lying, I've seen this.

You dress up to go everywhere- Every single Greek woman I've seen in this part of town looks like she just stepped out of a fashion catalogue. Some of the fashion is tackier than others, but still, almost everyone makes a statement.

Everyone is wearing oversized sunglasses- I don't know if the sunshine here is terribly damaging, but I'm in the tiny minority when I walk outside without sunglasses on. And interestingly, all of them wear HUGE sunglasses, the kind that cover 3/4 of your face...lending the entire population a look of giant fashionable insects.

Any blank public wall is in want of grafitti- There is grafitti on just about every public wall, and not just the sloppy scrawl either (though there is plenty of that), but there is lots of really artistic, delicate grafitti artwork. It's almost like walking through a modern art exhibit everytime I walk to the store. My favorite grafitti I've seen thus far is an elaborate declaration of the phrase BUNS CREW...hmmm, I wonder what the qualifications are for that type of a group.

Feta cheese is elevated to an art form- I liked feta cheese before, but WOW!!!! I think almost every native dish has some sort of a feta component to it, and the supermarket has an entire section of the store devoted to the different varieties of feta. This stuff is addictive, I tell you.

You get two parks within walking distance of your hotel- I love going to the park with Griffin. He is fascinated by the outdoors. He likes to sit and pull on the grass and compete with the birds to see who can squawk the loudest: Griffin wins every time. We picnic often while Landon is off at work.

Leaping off the wagon...headfirst

2009-06-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that back in February Landon decided that he would stop eating chocolate for one whole year. He claims that his occasional acid reflux was triggered by chocolate. He kept it up rather well while we were in the U.S. However, just before we left for Greece, a co-worker staged what can only be termed a "chocolate intervention." He told Landon, in no uncertain terms, that fasting from chocolate while in Europe was near blasphemy...to which I say a hearty AMEN!

Anyway, as the pictures below will prove, Landon and I have wasted no time in sampling the cocoa delights of Europe. Today was his birthday and we celebrated, as one should, with chocolate.

But first, let's talk about the birthday dinner: We have a tiny kitchenette, truthfully I feel like I'm cooking in a Polly Pocket kictchen here. But considering our resources, I felt pretty pleased with the birthday dinner I made for Landon.

Spinach salad with poached pears and fresh cherries and a self-made raspberry viniagrette; Roasted red pepper pasta with gouda cheese; and raspberry juice.

We don't have an oven so I couldn't bake a cake myself...but I did find a pre-made cake round at the supermarket, so for dessert we frosted the cake round with nutella. After his first bite Landon said he might want a nutella cake every year. That's cool with me because it was the easiest birthday cake I've ever made.

We topped the evening off with Landon's favorite chocolate: Swiss Toblerone. Yes, we were trying to induce a good old-fashioned birthday sugar headache...and we suceeded.

Griffin was shocked and slightly offened that we didn't leave any Toblerone for him.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Landon!!! I love you.

Looky, Looky!

2009-06-12T11:48:00.001-07:00

I am so smart, I figured out how to write my name. It's like preschool all over again, only this time it's in Greek!

Καμηλ

And Landon's name looks like this:

Λανδον

And Griffin's is by far the coolest:

Γριφιν

An Odyssey to Santorini

2009-06-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

In the Greek classic, The Odyssey, the epic hero Odysseus takes a ten-year journey through the Greek islands encountering all manner of mishaps and adventures including shipwreck, a cannibalistic cyclops, seductive sirens and more. While our journey through the Greek islands notably misses out on the cyclops, I'd definitely still classify it as an adventure.

We boarded a passenger boat and took a 5-hour ride through the Greek islands to arrive at our final destination of Santorini: a.k.a. Greek paradise. Unfortunately, about 1 hour into the ride, the boat's engine died and we sat stranded in the waves for about 45 minutes before the crew had everything up and running again. 45 minutes may seem like too short a time for cabin fever to set in, but I was pretty sure some of the other passengers were considering mutiny.

Santorini was fantastic! It was even more gorgeous than these pictures convey, but you'll have to settle.

Griffin and I at sunset on or balcony

The sunset on Santorini

Griffin at breakfast...what a goofy grin!

Walking around the city

Our hotel was built into the side of the cliff and gave us the most perfect view we could have asked for. My father warned Landon, "Don't let Camille get used to this kind of lifestyle." Truthfully, I'm not sure that I ever could get used to it.

Sundry thoughts about Greece

2009-06-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

I was waiting to post until I had some sort of profound theme or at least a humorous anecdote to tell. But apparently I'm running low on both humor and profundities so we'll just have to settle for a stream-of-conciousness post; hang on tight, this could get messy.

Let's talk about food. The food here is great, no surprise. Greeks really know how to make your tastebuds tingle. We've found a restaurant here that we really like, called Mythos (pronounced mee-thos) and actually spelled Μύθος. Yum, yum, yum! Also, I love that the produce from the local market is mostly locally grown so it somehow tastes and smells better, richer, fuller. Truthfully, I was fairly picky when it came to oranges before, but after eating the most exquisite oranges on the planet (Florida has NOTHING on the Mediterranean) I'm pretty sure to turn my snotty little nose up at Colorado oranges for the foreseeable future.

This weekend we finally made the trek to downtown Athens. I know that a 30 minute metro ride doesn't sound like a trek, but with a 5 month old and a few added bus tranfers because of metro construction, it certainly felt like one. We spent the entire afternoon just roaming around the city. I think you'll get the idea best through picturtes:

Griffin asleep on the bus on our way to Athens

Greece Parlimentary building
Landon and Griffin at the Naional Gardens (I love Griffin's face in this one)

Me in the National Gardens (oddly the only picture with me in it, guess who was holding the camera)

A view of the Acropolis from a square in the city. We didn't hike up to the Acropolis, we're saving that for some other weekend (Apparently, it's free on Sundays)

Stopping for some dessert before heading home: the BEST baclava and lemon cheesecake.

Safe, Happy, and Exhausted

2009-05-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should have known when I saw the cutoms officer stamp our passports, cigarette smouldering at his elbow, that I was in for a bit of a cultural baptism by fire. But I suppose before I delve into my musings on Greek culture (all 12 hours of culture that I have thus far experienced) I should bring you up to date on the trip.

Our flight from Denver to London lasted about 8 hours, Griffin slept for 6 of those hours...this child is an angel. Sleeping on a plane has never been one of my talents, nor Landon's, so I'd say we got a few hours in if you add it all up. We landed in London at noon local time where we had a 9 hour layover. Instead of finiding a cozy corner of the airport to sleep, we left the airport and headed out to see the city. I'm glad we did because Landon had never been to London and who knows if/when we might get the chance again. It was a crash course, to be sure, but well worth the effort.

Griffin's First Train Ride

Buckingham Palace

After Lunch in St. James' Park

Big Ben

Our flight to Greece left London at 9pm, and we hoped that Griffin would once again sleep through the majority of the 4 hour flight. This time we weren't so lucky but Griffin was still a really good baby on the flight and only really lost his patience with the whole process as we drove to our hotel from the Athens airport at 2:30am.

To answer your burning question: yes, it is all Greek to me! And yes, Landon and I have made that joke with surprising regularity and we have yet to find it unfunny. We are staying in a bed-and-breakfast-type hotel just down the street from the ritzy Greek shopping district. I discovered today that it would be possible for me to spend our entire savings on a few pairs of shoes and couple of handbags if I had the mind so do so. Thankfully, I've no intention of doing anything of the sort.

I also have decided that I need to learn the words for "cute baby" in Greek because I'm pretty sure that's what all of these people eyeing Griffin are saying, but I can't be sure. I just hope they aren't saying, "weird Americans."

This afternoon we went to lunch and then to the supermarket a few blocks away and it was definitely a testament to how laid back Greeks really are. At the sandwich shop all of the outdoor tables were full of mostly mustached men, none of whom appeared to have ordered any food, but all of whom were clearly enjoying taking in the afternoon and talking about very amusing-sounding things, but it was all Greek to me. (See, it's funny when it's true)

The supermarket was also quite an experience. This was where we got the most "cute baby" type comments. One Greek grandmother told us our baby was adorable, but that he was so fair skinned that he needed a hat in this sunshine (We only understood this because a younger woman there stepped in and translated for us). Anyway, so far everyone has been really kind and friendly and they don't seem to even be peeved about the fact that we can't speak Greek. I'm hoping though that in three months I'll sound at least a little less clueless when I go to the supermarket. But for now it really is all Greek to me...ok, maybe the joke is starting to get a little lame.

Friendly Woodland Creatures

2009-05-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

When we first moved to our neighborhood I was excited to see all of the wildlife in our area. Furry little bunnies and jittery squirrels scampered about our yard; the trees seemed to be teeming with cheerful little songbirds; and the fields a few miles away are bustling with a city of roly-poly prairie dogs. I imagined a two-year-old Griffin peering out the window and giggling with delight at a bushy-tailed squirrel shimmying up a nearby tree. It is a sign of goodness, is it not, to adore small woodland animals, at least according to all of the Disney movies I've seen.

.....ah, blissful ignorance.

It turns out that the prairie dogs in the area carry the bubonic plague. Woodpeckers, unlike the mischievous and lovable Woody Woodpecker, bore holes into the side of the house. The songbirds wake Griffin up at 5am. The bunnies eat our grass, but not our weeds. All of this I could handle and still take a stance of mutual respect, if not willing admiration, for the nature that surrounds me. I can understand when animals, in the great outdoors, behave exactly like animals: singing, pecking, eating, pooping, scampering, etc. As long as it stays in the great outdoors, I have very few complaints.
But the squirrels, oh the squirrels ruin it for me. They are now at the very top of my black list. Recently, we've heard some scratching and scampering noises up in our attic. Though we tried to pretend otherwise, both Landon and I knew that we had a squirrel nest up there. As the weather has gotten warmer, we decided on Wednesday that it was time to turn our swamp cooler on for the summer. Unfortunately, when we went to turn it on, there was no power to the unit. Hmmm, a short in the cord? After trying everything else, Landon at last decided to brave the attic (as a side note, Landon hates tight spaces and so this was a very chivalrous move). In the attic he found evidence everywhere of our furry little housemates: droppings, chewed wood, clumped insulation. The most infuriating evidence was, of course, the chewed electric wire that runs to our swamp cooler. It's a shame we weren't running the swamp cooler when the little guy started chewing on the cord, that would've at least solved the squirrel infestation. As is, we're planning on spending the afternoon chasing squirrels out of the attic and repairing electrical line. We are assuming the risk of both electrocution and squirrel bite, wish us luck!

Gathering no moss

2009-05-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me the other day if I was nervous or stressed about moving to Greece for three months. While there are a few things that make me nervous (a long flight with a baby, for example) I'm mostly just excited. Not even my growing to-do-before-we-leave list has me wigging out. Yes, there is a lot to get done, yeah it's becoming ever more apparent that I will travel with an inordinate number of suitcases, but I still feel like this is nothing I can't handle.
Upon reflection, I suppose this has been a pattern of my adult life. Since my freshman year of college (nearly 8 years ago, yikes!) I have not lived in the same place for more than a year at a time. In college, I was always returning to Arizona in the summer and switching apartments every year. After college I lived in AZ for four months, then moved to Washington, DC. I lived in DC for two years, but in three different locations. After Landon and I got married we moved to Salt Lake City for one year and then to Denver, where we currently reside. The point I'm trying to make is that in the last eight years I have moved no fewer than 14 times.
This could be a testament to my lack of focus, or perhaps just a symptom of the fact that I get bored very easily. But I prefer to frame my wanderlust as a drive for adventure, or a hunger for a challenge, or an example of my adaptability. Frame it how you will, apparently this rolling stone isn't done tumbling yet. Although, it's nice that Landon and Griffin have joined the ride now.

A guilt-ridden escapade

2009-04-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

I spent two hours of my morning weeding my backyard. Considering that we have a rather large backyard, this is quite an undertaking to begin with. But then add the fact that we don't have much of a lawn...more like a carpet of dandelions and you start to comprehend the fulility of this endeavor. After two hours and a giant trash bag full of weeds, I was only half way across the yard and ready to call it quits. Lucky for me, Griffin woke up from his nap at this point. Isn't it nice when you get a perfectly legitimate excuse for procrastination dropped in your lap? Look at how cute he is!

Truthfully, I don't mind pulling weeds. And I believe that there is something cleansing about yardwork (Spencer, I'm sure you're shaking your head at that). But after two hours of work I like to feel as though my efforts have made a difference. Unfortunately, I fear that these dandelions will be back with a vengence. Ironically, I honestly think the yellow dandelion is a remarkably cheerful little flower and I actually spent a good portion of my weeding time contemplating the beauty of the plants I was so enthusiactically destroying. I suppose that if it weren't for their uncanny tendency to choke out all other plant life I might feel a little more ashamed of my mass horticultural murder, or is it herbicide?

During today's weed purge I also came across a giant ant hill full of angry red fire ants which I bravely dug out and then flooded with hose water, destryoing who knows how many innocent ant lives. Could one call this insecticide? Notably, this will also save our house from a fire ant infestation while we are gone to Greece.

Last on my nature hit list was earthworms. I must have uncovered two score earthworms today. (Yeah, I could have said forty...but it sounds way cooler to say two score). I've heard that having earthworms in your dirt is a good sign that the dirt is fertile. Good news for me, especially when Landon and I plan to have a garden in our back yard. Bad news for the worms because several of the worms I "uncovered" were actually half-worms by the time I saw them (invertibraticide?). It reminded me of a line from a William Blake poem, "The cut worm forgives the plough." Besides, earthworms re-grow, right? like lizard tails?

Anyway, after all of this carnage our backyard looks much better, at least the half that I finished. I just don't know if I have the stomach to do it all over again tomorrow.

It's a WASH!

2009-04-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah, ok. I know I already posted once today, and you may feel free to accuse me of overcompensating, but something blog-worthy happened this afternoon. When Griffin and I returned from Arizona I thought it was an excellent time to do a bunch of laundry. The domestic goddess that I am, it took me about a week to get through all of the laundry from the trip plus some sheets and such. I felt excessively proud of myself yesterday when, for about one nanosecond, all of the laundry was clean.

However, today I discovered an angry red rash on Griffin. After a quick mental itinerary, I realized that today was the first day I had dressed Griffin in the clothes I laundered in the bargain detergent I started using last week.

So guess who had to run to the store this afternoon and purchase expensive detergent? Me! And guess who will be using said detergent to launder all of the clothing she washed last week? Me again! And guess who will never buy cheapy detergent ever again? You get the point.

On the bright side, I totally prefer the scent of the expensive detergent but never felt like I could justify the added price. So aside from the hours of wasted laundry washing and folding, thanks Griffin.

Updates

2009-04-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

I am way behind on my posting quota for the month of April (as has been pointed out by several Griffin fans)... but I'll be honest, I find it difficult to post a blog when my readership doesn't leave comments to vindicate my efforts. So if you leave more comments I'll probably post more frequently.
And now I choose to recite a list:
Significant events and goings-on of the last two weeks

Griffin's passport finally arrived in the mail, hoorah! although, he already looks way different from his passport photo
I got a haircut while in Arizona...short enough so that Griffin doesn't pull it when I'm holding him
In what can only be described as the sharp inhale before the relieved sigh of spring, last Friday we had another snow storm blow through and drop several inches on us. It snowed for nearly two days straight...but by Sunday night it had all melted away in the 70 degree weather
And a relieved sigh indeed...Landon and Griffin and I had our first real spring picnic in the park yesterday. We strapped Griffin in the baby bjorn and played around the park. He particularly enjoyed riding the teeter-totter.
Griffin has discovered his thumbs and he can't seem to stop sucking on them. Fine by me though, because it saves me the trouble of searching for his pacifier (or as my father calls it, a baby "plug")
And the official countdown has begun: Landon's parents get to come visit us (let's be honest, Griffin is the main reason for the visit, Landon and I are just the sideshow) in less than three weeks! Oh, also Greece is less than 1 month away.
Griffin got one of those baby swings, and he LOVES it! I'll have to post some pictures of him in it at some point.
Griffin tried solid food for the first time while we were in Arizona (baby rice cereal...Grandma Griffin ate some too)

And now some pictures for your perusal:

Test Flight

2009-04-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

When we heard the official word that we would be traveling to Greece for three months this summer my immediate reaction was excitement and anticipation. However, those feeling were quickly laced with a little trepedation and concern. Mostly, because we would be traveling with a 5-month-old baby on 25+ hours of flight time just to get there. Call me a little looming rain cloud, but I'll be honest, this prospect seemed rather daunting.

I'm not going to tell you that I've been cured of my nervousness entirely, but after yesterday my fears have been ever-so-slightly asuaged. Yesterday, Griffin had his first airplane experience. We flew from Denver to Phoenix and he was a perfect passenger.

Oddly enough, when you travel with a baby, no one wants to sit next to you (yes, I traveled Southwest). As soon as people saw 3-month-old Griffin in my arms, they beat a hasty path to more promising rows near the rear of the plane. No hard feelings though because on a nearly full flight I had plenty of elbow room. Griffin had a bottle during take-off, slept through the first half of the flight, sat and bounced on my lap for a bit, and with a pacifier in his mouth we touched down on the Phoenix runway without a single whimper. Hoorah for Griffin!

Now I realize that on our trip to Greece we will be multiplying the flight time by ten or more. But at least now I feel secure in my optimism that perhaps the rest of our fellow passengers will not issue silent death threats to us on the flight.

Note to my son: you are not a kangaroo

2009-04-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know if he's teething or what, but Griffin has definitely stepped up the drooling lately. It reminds me of something I'm sure I heard as a kid on either Animal Planet or Bill Nye the Science Guy about how kangaroos behave on hot days in Australia. And after a full minute of intense internet research (it would've been faster except that wikipedia didn't reference this behavior) I found documentation. According to the San Francisco Zoological Society, "Kangaroos drool and lick saliva all over their faces and bodies to cool down."

Now, I don't know if this is a case of species confusion (my little sister once spent an entire week claiming that she was a kitty) but Griffin's face and arms are constantly covered in saliva no matter how often I wipe him off. He drools with a voracity that suggests this is his sole chance of survival in the Australian bush. Landon was even concerned that perhaps Griffin would begin to grow mildew on his chest because his shirt is always damp. Of course, once I pointed out that we change Griffin's clothes daily and bathe him regularly, this became less of a concern.

But seriously, we live in Colorado and spit really doesn't seem like the most efficient way to cool off if you ask me. So Griffin, I hereby put you on notice: you are not a wild Australian kangaroo, so feel free to pear back the drooling at any time.

In like a lion, out like a WHAT?

2009-03-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER:

Please excuse the excessive use of photos in this post, but seriously, Griffin is cute enough to justify it, right?

When you're from Arizona, March is supposed to be the harbinger of Spring. Flip-flops and t-shirts are the order of the day, lawns are mowed on the weekends, and middle school P.E. classes begin the most shame-inducing section: swimming. Not true in Denver. Even though we've been having 65-70 degree weather lately, yesterday a storm rolled through and dumped about 7 inches of snow on us. Landon's work closed early yesterday and he worked from home today because of the road conditions.

This was Griffin's first big snow storm...and hopefully the last of this winter, so we made sure to have a good romp in the snow this afternoon.

Griffin wasn't sure how he felt about being bundled that warm. But truthfully, I was surprised at how much he seemed to enjoy being in the snow. He never even acted annoyed when Landon laid him down in a giant snow pile. I am constantly amazed at what a contented baby I have here. Landon decided that he wanted to show Griffin how to make a proper snow angel. And again, Griffin seemed totally OK with it. Since Landon is much more well-versed than I in all things snow, he decided we needed to make a great snowman. As always, he's a bit of an over-achiever, and the resultant snowman would be better named a snow sculpture of George Washington. (I would like to note that I helped with the snow sculpting). Pretty cool, eh?

This one is for you

2009-03-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

Anytime I get together with my friends who have children, inevitably the topic of Griffin's sleep patterns comes up. I guarantee you I'm not the one bringing it up. Surprisingly, I avoid this topic if I can. You may ask why, when Griffin is such a superb sleeper, I avoid bragging him up.
Well, truth be told, I know perfectly well that the "How is he sleeping?" question is one of those rote questions moms ask each other in order to compare 3-am-feeding/midnight-diaper-blowout horror stories. And frankly, that conversation is going nowhere with me.

I usually answer that Griffin is sleeping just great. Then I pause while my friend gives me an appraising stare. After which I confirm that I am in fact consistently getting 8-9 hours of continuous sleep. I've mentioned this on the blog before, and I know what a rarity it is. I have friends and family members with children ages 3months-3years who cannot get their children to sleep through the night. I've been asked on multiple occasions what my secret is.

Shamefully, there is no secret. I feel a little guilty revealing that Griffin's amazing sleep habits have nothing to do with any superb mothering instincts or groundbreaking behavior science. Truthfully, I won the BabyLotto and I know it. But for those of you poor saps who think I must have some trick up my sleeve, here are a few things that I think make a difference:

I read the BabyWise book when Griffin was 1 week old. I definitely don't do everything it says (it's waaay too structured for me), but it did inform some of those early habit-forming weeks.
Griffin cluster feeds in the evening, meaning he eats more frequently in the evening than during the day. I think the cluster feeding helps him make it through the night.
Typically he doesn't nap in his crib. I let Griffin nap whenever and wherever he chooses during the day. If he falls asleep on the floor, in his car seat, or on my bed I let him sleep there until he wakes up or until it's time for his next feeding.
Before the last feeding of the night we dim the lights and change him into PJs to let him know it's time to go to bed.
Just before we put Griffin to bed, Landon wraps him nice and tight in a blanket (he literally looks like a little burrito)

I really think that last one is the most important. We found that if Griffin gets his arms and feet waving around as he sleeps, he'll wake himself up, but if he's wrapped like a burrito he sleeps through the night.

Anyway, there you have it. Now you know why I avoid this topic if possible...I just got lucky, but if I keep my mouth shut maybe everyone will continue to attribute it to my excellent parenting.

Motherhood is a picnic

2009-03-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Landon accidentally left his lunch at home this morning, so Griffin and I met him at a park near his office with a picnic. The weather wasn't perfect (65 degrees and windy) but it was still nice to take Griffin on his first picnic.

Truthfully, I'm glad that he's not crawling and/or walking yet because the park had a pond with a lot of wild geese...and even more goose droppings. I was really glad I didn't have to stop Griffin from playing with either geese, droppings, or icky pond water. Instead we got to sit in a little gazebo and eat our picnic while we watched the geese swim placidly by.

Call me over-protective, but I bundled Griffin up for the event.
And it's a good thing I got a picture of him while he was looking so cute, because right after I turned the camera off he had a spit-up episode of herculean proportions, requiring a change of clothes. If you look close, you can tell that his hair is coming in blonde.

In other news, we've submitted paperwork for his passport and purchased airfare, so Greece is another few steps closer. Yahoo!

A letter to my son on the occasion of his first cold

2009-03-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Griffin,
I'm given to understand that as a newborn baby there is an array of experiences to which you must adjust. The feel of fabric on your skin, or light in your eyes, the sensation of air in your lungs, the concepts of night and day*, the feeling of hunger, the general operation of a digestive system, the sound of my voice, and the fact that you're stuck with me as your mom.

Unfortunately, this week you are experiencing what we call the common cold: runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, sore throat, cough, headache, etc. I know that these are the symptoms because I had the same thing just last week, and I am very sorry that you got it from me. But seriously, did you expect me to refrain from holding you and kissing you? You're too cute to leave alone and I apologize for my lack of restraint.

According to WebMD, over 200 different viruses can cause the common cold, thus making it practically incurable. I'm sorry to say that the discomfort you are feeling cannot be fixed, it must just be endured. Unlike a messy diaper, or gas, there is nothing I can do to help you through this one. I can hold you, I can rock you, I can dress you warmly. But truthfully each of these things could be soothing one second and really annoying the next. That's part of being sick too: mood swings.

Anyway, you may rest assured that this is not permanent and you should be feeling better in a few days. In the meantime, please forgive my overuse of the booger-sucking bulb the hospital gave us...I really don't want you to stop breathing because of a clogged nasal passage.

Love,
Your mom

*I'd like to add a footnote: Even when he's not sick, Griffin is sleeping 8-9 hours a night now. You may applaud and/or cheer at your discretion.

Dulcet Tones

2009-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Neither Landon nor I could ever be accused of having a terribly adept musical ear. In fact phrases such as "tone deaf" and "off key" and "shut up" have been bandied about during our attempts at singing. (Though I will note here that Landon somehow parlayed his musical ineptitude into comedy and thus landed the lead in his high school musical, making lemons out of lemonade, or whatever). The point here is that, while we like listening to music, neither of us has a discerning musical palette.

Considering his genetic background, I wouldn't have expected Griffin's musical inclinations to be much different. However, I've been surprised at how much he likes certain types of music. Case in point: today I put on my iTunes "classical" playlist and he started kicking and cooing. When Pavarotti came on, it sounded as though Griffin was trying to sing along, and he was all smiles. Occasionally, he'll react similarly to some Ben Folds piano or Aeretha Franklin, but mostly it's the classical stuff that really gets him movin'and shakin'.

So I'd say I'm pretty encouraged that perhaps Griffin didn't inherit our musical ineptitude...but then again, his cooing is pretty off key.

Ummm...don't know what THIS was all about

2009-03-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

So yesterday Griffin was making way cute faces and I tried to take a few pictures. I got some great ones:

But then, he gave me this:
Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure what this was all about, but I laugh out loud every time I look at it.

Call me Greece Lightning

2009-02-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

My Dad works in construction and there was a period of my life when he was bidding on several jobs that took him out of town. This wasn't my family's favorite arrangement because it meant that Dad would go out of town for work and return home only on the weekends.

But then one summer this arrangement spelled Pinetop, Arizona. Before we kids could blink, Mom and Dad had made arrangements for an apartment/townhouse for the whole family to accompany Dad on his weekly excursions to this exotic destination. The townhouse community abutted a horse pasture and a wooded reserve.

Honestly, some of my favorite childhood memories were generated from that summer: hiking through the "Friendly Forest," purposely falling in the creek, shaving my legs for the first time, getting a horrible perm, swimming in the community pool, Rachael chewing on broccoli for 30minutes straight, feeding carrots to an ancient-looking horse. All of it happened in Pinetop, Arizona.

Then a few years later Dad submitted a bid for a job in Hawaii. I don't remember all of the details, but I have a very vivid memory of wearing a plastic lei and practicing the hula with my sisters, of Dad jumping up and down in the kitchen and shouting "Yiiii" in his enthusiasm. "Hawaii," my father said, "is just around the corner." Lightning had struck twice, I reasoned...once again Dad's work transformed before our eyes into the possibility of another fantastic summer vacation: a summer vacation with way more bragging rights than Pinetop, AZ.

But what we had mistaken for lightning, it would turn out, was merely a lot of static. The contract fell through for reasons I don't remember and the leis were relegated to our costume collection.

With this narrative as a backdrop, you can imagine my simultaneous skepticism and excitement when, a few months ago, Landon told me that his work was considering assigning him to a three-month audit in Europe. My response was more or less, "Cool. I'll act enthused when it's written in stone." Well, don't break out your chisel yet, Copernicus, but Landon has officially been assigned to Greece...Kifissia, Greece to be precise (I'm told it's just outside of Athens). With Landon in Greece for three months, I'd be foolish beyond insanity to stay here in Colorado. So Griffin and I will be traveling with him. Woot.

The upshot of it all is: If you ever wanted an excuse to visit Greece, I am happy to serve as just such an excuse. We'll be there from May 25th to the beginning of August sometime. Grab your passport, I hear Greece is lovely in the summer.

P.S. Yes I'm planning to chronicle our Greek journey on the blog. So if you can stomach touristy photos feel free to check back every so often.

Making up for it..

2009-02-25T14:36:00.000-08:00

So I knew the moment I committed myself to posting once a week that I'd fail to follow through. I don't know why I made a public resolution that I was so sure to shirk. Anyway, I have LOTS of stuff to post about so I figured I'd do two posts this week to make up for my lackluster posting as of late. First and foremost, I'm posting some pictures from Griffin's baby blessing last week. He was looking oh-so-dapper in his white tuxedo.

A special thanks goes out to Grandma Griffin for altering the outfit so that it fit, because before she fixed it it looked like the poor kid was wearing a pillow case.

Griffin got in several naps while family was here. These two pictures showcase his napping...and Rachael's and Grandpa Griffin's as well.

And I can't resist one more picture. Man, this kid is adorable!

Baby Mullets and Other Nonsense

2009-02-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to post at least once a week. And of course now that I've said that, if I miss a week I'll have guilt heaped upon me by Griffin's clamoring public. Anyway, over the last week or so I've had several moments where I was unfortunately forced to ask the question, "Are we really this silly?" Listed below are the events that inspired such deep introspection.

1. In the picture below, Griffin sits in a 'Boppy' pillow. For those of you who haven't seen one before, they are fantastic and a must-have baby item as far as I'm concerned. The tag on this pillow (a pillow designed for use while nursing or for baby to sit in) reads: "Care should be exercised near open flame or with burning cigarettes."
Really? We really needed that warning printed on a baby pillow? In my opinion a more apt warning would have been:

HEY STUPID, DON'T SMOKE NEAR YOUR INFANT!
ALSO DON'T LET YOUR BABY PLAY WITH FIRE!

But maybe that's just me

2. A kind and wonderful person gave us a Christmas gift for Griffin that included baby socks. We love the person who gave us these socks. They are cute socks that will keep his toes warm. We will use them and love them. However, I see no need for the non-skid feature so predominantly advertised. I mean, I know that my child is a prodigy, but let's get serious here. I don't know of a single 0-6 month old who needs better traction on the soles of their feet.

3. Griffin was born with lots of hair. I love his hair and have a lot of fun with it. Recently however, I've noticed that the hair on the back of his head is growing a little long-ish while the hair on the top of his head is shedding slightly. The unfortunate result...Griffin now sports a baby mullet. I'm going to have to trim up the back before too long or he'll start looking skeezy and listening to 80's punk rock.

4. The caring and concerned new father that he is, Landon signed Griffin up for dental insurance. I'm not exactly sure what a dentist might have to do in a baby's mouth, but I suppose it's nice to know that we're covered if Griffin happens to get an impacted molar.

5. And lastly, the other day as I was listening to the radio, the local radio personality woman was congratulating her guest on being the "valid Victorian" of her high school. I know that a valedictorian is the person who graduates at the top of their class. But I imagine the Valid Victorian can only be the person who dresses in authentic Victorian-period clothing. There may be a new trend afoot.

Like Father Like Son

2009-01-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

Not even an earthquake could wake this kid.

You think you know someone

2009-01-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

My Dad grew up raising cows and as such he favors whole milk. However, under duress he will tolerate 2% milk. He refers to 1% and skim as "blue milk" because it looks watered down to him. In my adult life most of the guys I have known would side with my father when it comes to milk preference. In fact, I had a male friend refer to skim milk as "impostor milk."

Myself, I've been a skim milk type of girl for both health and budget reasons ever since I started buying my own groceries. When Landon and I got married, I switched to 1% milk thinking I was making one of those accommodating marriage-building compromises everyone tells you about.

This brings me to a discussion that Landon and I had this morning over French Toast and our traditional 1% milk. It turns out that he was raised on skim milk. And it also turns out that he has no preference for fattier milk as I had errantly assumed. A year-and-a-half of marriage and 1% milk....and then he blind-sides me with this news. The way I figure it, at a gallon of milk a week we could have saved a total of $31.20 by purchasing skim milk instead of 1% over the course of our marriage.

$31.20!!! That's a pair of jeans...speaking of which, I am wearing Landon's jeans today because I still can't fit into any of my pre-pregnancy pants, bummer.

More pictures

2009-01-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

So I've been told that I would be remiss in my duties as a mother if I neglect to post more pictures of my child for your enjoyment. So here they are. I sure never get tired of looking at him, hope you don't.

Seriously, I swear his hair is bionic. It sticks up like that on its own.

This last one is my personal favorite, as it reflects Griffin's general attitude toward having his picture taken with the flash on.

Baby's got skills

2009-01-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

I know that every parent thinks that they have the cutest/smartest/cuddliest baby ever. Every parent thinks that the world should stop and take notice of their uniquely brilliant and precocious offspring. Surely all the history of the universe has been building, mounting a suspenseful crescendo to this climax moment: the unveiling of this perfect human being who is your precious little bundle of joy. Why has the clock gone on ticking? Why has there not been an international holiday declared? Why does the world fail to come to a screeching halt and hold its collective breath in respectful awe of your progeny?

Truthfully, I believe that most parents think their child deserves at least this kind of resounding welcome, if not better. However, I offer below proof that my child is in fact the type of prodigy spoken of only in legends and wives' tales. He is truly worthy of your respect, admiration, and yes, even jealousy.

First, he has already rolled over...TWICE! Yes, dear reader, twice. The kid was four days old, four days I tell you and he rolled over. Then he repeated the feat at six days. Physical prowess of this caliber is indeed rare, and frankly I wouldn't blame you if you thought I was exaggerating. But I promise you it is true, my baby is apparently the hulk.

If you had a hard time believing that .... brace yourself for this next one. At two-and-a-half weeks old my child is consistently sleeping for 6-7 hour stretches at night. Seriously, after all of those horror stories about sleep deprivation and 3 a.m. feedings I say, "Bless you, Griffin, for being such a sound and hearty sleeper, bless you again and again." We've moved him out of our room and into the nursery two nights ago because he seems to get better sleep in there, go figure.

And lastly, have you SEEN pictures of this kid? I mean, look at him... I submit that there never was nor shall be a more attractive baby. He gives new meaning to the word adorable.

Griffin's official press release

2008-12-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

The public has been clamouring for the official press release, so here you have it:

Griffin Evan Huber was born on December 19th at 10:54pm. He weighed in at 7 pounds and 7 ounces and 19 inches. And as the pictures below prove, he's quite handsome. Love to you all.

First Lesson of Parenthood

2008-12-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Landon and I went walking around model homes. You may wonder why we chose to do this when we just recently purchased a lovely little 3 bedroom fixer-upper. My answer is twofold: 1. this is how adults 'play house' and 2. I wanted to induce labor with lots of walking. Click here for the house we voted as 'most likely to induce labor.' It has options for a possible 10 bedrooms. I ask you, who in the world has a need for TEN bedrooms? Anyway, it was a fun morning of meandering through sumptuous homes that we couldn't possibly afford. Interestingly, I got the feeling that some of these builders were waaaay desperate to sell.

Along with hiking through model homes, we ate spicy foods, delivered Christmas cookies to our neighbors, cleaned the bathroom, and walked around the mall. Additionally, I've been taking all of the herbal supplements and such that are supposed to encourage labor. Unfortunately, none of this seemed to make a difference as I was still very much pregnant on Sunday morning. And since then the pattern has not changed.

I've decided, though, that I am learning the very first lesson of parenthood: I am not the one in charge. This baby is going to get here whenever he's good and ready and there is very little I can do to change his mind. I can cajole and plead and beg and whimper, but at the end of the day, it's not up to me....who knew that parents were really that powerless?

Cookies and waiting

2008-12-05T13:01:00.001-08:00

As I am currently less than 10 days away from my due date, my schedule is remarkably flexible. I am like the minute men of the Revolutionary War, ready to march at a moment's notice. Well, maybe more like ready to waddle at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, this hyper-preparedness makes me really antsy and nervous.

Anyway, lately I've been trying to do things to work off this nervous energy and distract myself from how uncomfortable and anxious I am. Last night's activity was baking and decorating Christmas cookies. Now, many people may disagree with me, but I really dislike crunchy sugar cookies. Call me crazy, but I simply believe it's impolite to slap frosting on a wafer of cardboard and call it a treat. And to this point, every single recipe I've tried has left me disappointed. So this time, after some research and brainstorming, I concocted my own recipe. And surprise, surprise, IT WORKED!!

Honestly, Landon gets the prize for the most impressive frosting job of the night. He even consulted a world map to make sure it looked just right. My husband, the over-achiever.

You can't tell from the pictures, but these cookies are firm enough to hold as much frosting as you want to gob on them, but soft enough so they don't crunch when you bite them. I feel like a culinary genius. Here's the recipe, if you care.

Finally a Soft Sugar Cookie
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. shortening
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. sour cream
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 c flour

Cream together the sugar and shortening. Add egg yolk, vanilla, sour cream, salt, and baking powder. Stir until well-blended. Add the flour and stir until you get a dough that won't stick to your fingers when you poke it.

Smush the dough into a round disc on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

When you take the dough out of the freezer take out only enough for the first sheet worth of cookies and place the rest in the fridge until you are ready to use it. This dough is just a little sticky and difficult to handle, so before you roll it out, get a large piece of wax paper and lightly coat it with flour. Roll the dough out on the wax paper to about 1/4 in. or a little thicker. Cut out your desired shapes and remove the excess dough from around the edges. When you're ready to transfer the dough shapes to the cookie sheet, lift the entire sheet of wax paper and flip it onto the pan. This eliminates the need to pry sticky dough off the counter.

Bake at 300 degrees for 8 minutes. (Our oven is really finicky, plus we are at a high altitude, so you might want a slightly higher temp or a couple more minutes cooking time) The cookies will be slightly underdone when you take them out and should finish cooking on the pan for 2-3 minutes or so before being transferred to cooling racks.

The Exhibitionist in me

2008-11-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

A good friend asked me last month if I had a blog. “No! Ew!” I answered, “It seems like such an exhibitionist-type thing to do. Placing your entire life on the internet for anyone’s perusal is like inviting a gathering of stalkers and voyeurs into your living room for brunch. It seems rather foolish.” Five minutes after that conversation, I realized that, in fact, I’ve been a bit of an exhibitionist my whole life.
I grew up in a house full of sisters, five sisters and one brother, to be exact. All of my sisters and I, at one point or another, enrolled in dance classes. I also spent a year or two of my high school career participating in local theater productions. Dance and theater are, by nature, trades that cater to the exhibitionist personality. Performers enjoy being the focus of attention, not just on stage, but off stage as well. Attend any gathering of performers, or any gathering of my family for that matter, and you will soon see that most conversations are really a simple unspoken battle for center stage. No matter the subject, everyone vies for their position as the wittiest, the most insightful, inspiring, hilarious, or shocking.
Growing up, we had a living room area that looked roughly like the diagram below:

For most of my childhood the dining room as empty. Truthfully, the idea of a dinette set in the “Dining Room” was nothing short of preposterous! My mother wouldn’t let any of her children eat over carpet until we were 18, and as such, a dinette set would have simply taken up perfectly good play space. The empty dining room, elevated about 4 inches higher than the abutting living room, provided a type of permanent stage for our family. I remember several spontaneous plays, head-stand contests, dress-up parties, and puppet shows blossoming on our in-home stage. And the dance parties, oh the dance parties that hatched unprompted there in our dining room. We danced to the likes of New Kids on the Block, The Nutcracker, Little Richard, Beach Boys, Disney, and Vivaldi. We danced with complete abandon too, because that is what you do when you are dancing in the dining room with your sisters.
One large picture window at the east end of the Living Room gave a perfect view of our shenanigans to any passersby on the street and, more interestingly, to our neighbors across the street, the Harts, who also had a large picture window into their front room. Once, the day after a particularly enthusiastic dance party, when the Harts were over at our house one of the kids said, “It looked like you guys were having a really good time over here last night. What were you doing?”
My sisters and I eyed each other, “A dance party, duh!”
That happened multiple times in our childhood. We’d have a cut-throat somersault contest and the next day the Harts would comment on how they watched a few moments of it from their front room window. We’d be making a movie with our home camera, and the Harts would ask to see it the next day. It never occurred to any of us that perhaps this arrangement had created a certain type of exhibitionist/voyeuristic relationship between us, mostly we just felt like the Harts' living room was a mere extension of our own and that we could count on them as captive and concerned audience members. And honestly, we considered ourselves fascinating people so of course the Harts would be interested in our monkeyshines; who wouldn’t?
That’s one of the things I loved about growing up in that house. There was always something going on, always someone willing to play, always some mischief waiting to happen. I remember my older sister’s friend Jake coming over to our house on multiple occasions, and because we usually had a slew of neighborhood kids running through the house, he couldn’t ever quite remember who actually belonged to the family. In a way, they all belonged. My mother had a knack for making her home an open forum for friends and fun. Our house had a strict come-on-in-the-party-is-just-getting-started policy.
And that, my friends, is why today I can feel secure in starting this blog. Sure, I’ll grant that I am a bit of an exhibitionist for doing so, but at the end of the day you’re a bit of a voyeur for reading it. So let’s just agree that we’re both a little screwy. It doesn’t matter if you’re family looking to check in on me, or if you’re a friend I’ve lost contact with, or even if you’re a complete stranger looking to bask in the glow of my literary genius—let’s everyone pile on into the nut house because, really, this party is just getting started.

*Though I am now an admitted exhibitionist, I have taken the liberty of changing a few names to protect the people who may or may not know that I’m writing about them.