Joy of Leaves

Given the hot, dry summer we endured this year, I fully expected the trees to go brown and drop their leaves before the Oktobeerfest. But we were pleasantly surprised when October brought rain enough to bring most of the trees back that hadn't dropped yet, and even allow them to present a modestly colorful autumn. And since we haven't seen any long cold snaps yet, our last few trees didn't start to give up their leaves until this past weekend.

One of the last trees in our yard to drop is always the big mulberry tree by the playset.


And this event is always special because it means I get to rake a good pile of its leaves up at the base of the slide for the kids to splash into. This is the second year that Paul has gotten to do this and he really enjoys it. He has gotten in the habit of going down our slide head first, which is especially fun when a big pile of leaves is waiting for you at the bottom. For some odd reason, he thinks its especially funny to open his mouth on his way down so he comes up with a mouthful of leaves. This is probably in large part due to the reaction he gets from us. Paul also likes to spin around, make himself dizzy, and collapse in one of the other piles of leaves I raked up around the playset. We've started playing a tackling game outside this year, which is especially cool when you get tackled into a pile of leaves.

Julia is still a little suspect of sliding down into the big pile of leaves, though she's tried it a few times at least. However, she really likes watching Paul disappear mostly into the pile before popping his head back out. She also seems to really enjoy just walking through the leaves and kicking them around. Since some of the trees started dropping months ago, whenever she finds a patch of thick leaves on the ground, she gets a big grin on her face as she walks through them with her feet kicking out vigorously with each step.

Its amazing what fun the autumn leaves can be, especially to little kids who are unconcerned with the appearance of the lawn or the dirtiness of their clothes. They are simply enjoying what God has brought for them at this time. What a good reminder for me to take the time to enjoy the simple things, especially in the company of my family & friends.

Thanksgiving Weekend Notes

I had a lot of fun this this holiday. Steve's folks were good enough to caravan north with me toward my parent's house. Grandma Kuhlman rode shotgun and helped keep the kids entertained, which was especially nice considering the rain we were facing. Given the rain and the number of cars on the road, the traffic wasn't to snarly at all. Steve made it up later in the day and didn't seem too battered by the trip either.

At my parents' house the kids had a great time playing with the dog and being showered with attention from grandparents, great grandparents, and super fun Aunt Carrie. We got a chance to shoot some family photos and had a pretty relaxing holiday.

Steve and Carrie both headed south Thursday evening, so on Friday we focused on continuing Paul's potty training effort and hanging around during the day. Friday evening we got to take the kids on an outing. We had dinner at McDonalds. Paul and Julia ate some fries, played with some chicken nuggets, and vied for control of the Happy Meal Box.

Then we went to the zoo to see the Christmas lights. Paul kept repeating, "But I don't want to go to the zoo. I don't want to see the animals." So we promised that he didn't have to look at any animals if he didn't want. We pulled into the parking lot across the street from the zoo, and Paul started calling out in awed tones, "Look at all the colors."
"Would you like to go see the colors Paul?"
"Yeah!"
The colors, of course, were the zoo lights. Both kids did really well. They both got colder than I would have liked but they didn't complain. Even Julia rode in the stroller silent and wide eyed, looking at the lights and colors. Paul walked about half the zoo and then rode in the stroller while Dad and I took turns carrying Julia. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip around the zoo and we didn't see everything, but it was just about the right amount for the kids when we decided to head home. Paul only lost one of Grandma's mittens, and I got to wear Carrie's nice heavy varsity jacket. And when we got home the kids were treated to hot (read tepid) chocolate milk.

Saturday we headed home over the children's nap time. Everybody was glad to see daddy again, and I was delighted to see that daddy had cleaned house while we were away. A couple of Steve's college housemates came by for the evening and it was just lovely to catch up with old friends.

We were looking forward to meeting house mate Andy's girlfriend. We found Nicki to be very friendly, funny, sweet, and cute (by the way, she has our approval if anybody cares). While waiting, Steve and Julia were looking out the window into the dark November night to see if they were there yet. Julia saw her own reflection in the window and waved and said, "Hi baby." We think it may be her first sentence.

Making Progress

Julia is scaring me a little bit with how smart she is. Part of the scariness is that she is small for her age, so I expect her to act a little younger than she actually is.

We have been training Paul to ask to be excused from the table so that he knows when it is okay to get down and go play, and when it isn’t. Julia has observed this enough times, that when she hears Paul say, “I want to be excused please,” she perks up and looks around. And if we tell Paul that he may be excused, she instantly has her arms up in the air, legs kicking, looking expectant and saying, “Up! Up!” That is her subtle little way of saying that she would also like to be excused, please.

The other night at supper we were having fish and neither Paul nor Julia were really impressed with it. We had some leftover birthday cake available for dessert, so I told Paul, “If you eat all of your fish, then you may have some birthday cake for dessert.” Then I turned to Julia, and without really expecting her to understand, I said, “And Julia, if you eat all of your fish, then you may have birthday cake too.”
She looked up at me and said, “Treat?” Then started toying with her fish. We were all a little surprised that she understood that birthday cake meant treat, and that fish was the prerequisite to treat. She never did eat her fish. I guess it wasn’t worth it.

The other day I started munching an apple. Julia saw me and came over, rubbing her belly to say, “Please,” and marching anxiously in place. It looked like she was doing a little Irish jig. First I let her have a bite of the apple. Then I let her hold on to the apple while she was scraping her teeth across it. The next thing I knew, she had pried it completely out of my grip and was wandering around the living room eating it and grinning. She would come over close to me, hold the apple out for me to see, and then snatch it away and take a nother bite. Troublemaker.

She’s been picking up books and plopping in our laps with them expectantly. She’s not real big on letting us turn the pages in any sort of order, but she knows she likes the book time.

And the last couple of days she’s been singing, “Bdyu-bdyu-bdya.” It’s like she is just so close to having the words she needs to carry on a full conversation.


In other news, we’ve been sitting Paul on the potty every 15 minutes for the last 7 days. And we’re down to needing to do a load of undewear and pants for him only once every day and a half. I think we’re making progress. Thank God for Underoos.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Sarah! My beautiful bride of over 6 years is turning 30 today, and its hard to believe. Looking at her, you'd never know she's that old, or that she's given birth to 2 good-sized kids. Then again, after looking at this picture, maybe you could guess she's got 2 kids.

I thank God for my wonderful wife every day, and I pray that He continues to give her the patience to put up with me and the kids so she can reach another 30 years without having pulled all her hair out.

Happy Birthday, Sarah! We love you.

Dream Car

I suppose you could say this dialog started over a year ago. A friend was discussing financial planning with us and asked, if money were no option, what would be our dream car. Steve rattled off a couple of sports cars he wouldn't mind owning. He's also been long fascinated by the capabilities of Humvees. I've told him that if we have that kind of money, we're going to have to own land that requires a humvee, before we own the actual vehicle. And if we do that, we're getting a real one, not one of those silly H2 or H3 things.

I had to admit that I'd never picked a dream car. I like my Jeep Cherokee. It has been practical and dependable. I did a double take the first time I saw a Plymouth Prowler on TV. I've always admired Jeep Wranglers: small, tough, a little bit fun - just like me! That has been about the extent of my car dreams. I thought about it a while, and decided that if money were no option, I would buy a working '79 VW Minibus, with the camper option. That would be my dream car.

So that was just over a year ago. A few weeks ago, the dream car dialog opened again because we were following a Porsche Boxter going about 45 mph in a 55 zone. Steve was muttering something about the proper way to drive a car of that caliber. I told him that when he owned a Boxter, we'd let him drive it more assertively than that. Then I added, "But honey, I think you're going to get a Humvee before you get your Porsche."

Steve told me that if we were throwing that much money into vehicles that he'd be pretty pleased to buy a big tractor. And I have to say, that one of the things I love about my husband is that he would even consider putting big tractor into the same paragraph of thinking as Porsche. I think that's beautiful.

And then last week we talked a little bit about the eventuality of getting a bigger family car. No we are not expecting. But we do at some point hope to have one or two more children. Neither of our current vehicles has room for a third child. Yes, they are both 5 seaters, but 2 child safety seats = 3 car seat spaces. So we started discussing our options.

I will not own a minivan. I have a hang-up with them and I'm not letting go of it.

We could get a van.
We could get a mid-sized 7 seater SUV.
We could get a grande 7 seater SUV.

Steve did a little research and found that the big SUVs were not significantly more expensive to buy than the midsized ones. More painful at the pump, but not much more expensive to buy. And they have better crumple zones. And they have the towing capacity we use periodically for the wagon.

Then it occurred to me that a minibus could probably seat 7 people. I have chance of getting my dream car! Okay, so the VW minibus isn't actually being manufactured right now. But VW has a very similar product called a Eurovan available. (Yes, I understand this is a kissing cousin to the minivan, but we're going to disregard that fact right now.)

I mentioned the minibus idea to Steve. Then I added, "Or, we could go with your dream car and get a big tractor as our family car. We'd hook it up to the wagon and put a big orange triangle on the back. We would not have to worry about the kids wanting to borrow the family car for date night. We wouldn't have to worry about them being in high speed impacts. And they wouldn't legally be allowed to drive after dark. Hey, this idea just keeps getting better and better."

But I have to admit that Steve trumped the tractor idea. I'm a little embarrassed that this idea didn't occur to me first. He replied with, "Well heck, if we're going that route, let's just get a couple of draft horses and a buggy."

That's my man!

Time Change Woes

In general, I've got nothing against the time change. Especially before I had kids, the return to standard time every fall was always enjoyable for me. Between the extra hour of sleep and the early daylight time for us early-riser types, its a nice change. However, unlike clocks, young kids just don't get reset over night to the new time.

So, Sunday morning, even after attempting to move their bedtimes back the previous couple nights, Julia started waking us up a little after 4am (EST) and everyone was fully awake by just after 6am. That extra hour of sleep was a complete misnomer for us.

We figured the later naptime on Sunday would help with the adjustment. But what did the kids do? They largely avoided naps. Paul got little more than an hour (usually 2-3 hrs), and Julia got 20 minutes in the car on the way home from church, and about an hour after supper (way off). At this point, Sarah leaves to go to a meeting at church for the rest of the night. So I've got 2 tired & surly kids from a little after supper time through bedtime. And I'm working without a nap or full night's sleep, too.

So what do you think a responsible father like me would do in such a situation to preserve his own sanity and the lives & health of his kids? That's right...pop some popcorn and veg-out in front of a movie with the kids. And the good folks at Pixar had the foresight to recognize situations like this might come up, and provided us with some good entertainment, in the form of the Cars movie last night. God bless 'em.

Chasing the Camera

We were all out playing in the yard Sat. afternoon, enjoying what will probably be one of the last warm(-ish) afternoons we'll see for a while.

Sarah brought the camera out and was trying to get a good picture of Julia in front of the barn.

Well as you can see from this series of pictures, once Julia saw the camera, she was much more interested in acquiring it for herself than posing for mom.

















And then, of course, Paul wanted in on the action too!

Garage Time

Over the last couple weeks I've gotten (finally) a chance to work on organizing the garage a little. Ever since we moved in, stuff has just gotten shifted around hurriedly to get jobs done, but I haven't until recently made the time to clean it up and organize it. Of course, I'm still not done with that endeavor, but at least I got a good half-day or so worth of effort into re-arranging & reorganizing. I focused my efforts for this half-day on the portion of the garage where I do most of my projecting, as I'll see the most immediate benefit there.


So here's a couple pictures of the end result. If you've not been to my garage before, then you can't really appreciate how much of an improvement this is. But to give you an idea, about half of the visible floor space wasn't visible before, plus the top of the workbench was pretty well covered. Another half-day or 2 and I oughta half the rest of it whipped into pretty good shape, too. But who knows when I'll get that opportunity....

And to continue with the theme, yesterday I had the good pleasure of replacing all 4 sets of brake pads & rotors on the VW. I've never done brakes before, but plenty of car-guys have told me how easy it is, so I called one of 'em up and went over to his garage yesterday to learn how to do it. I have to say that it took a little longer than I expected, but it really was pretty simple. Of course, part of the extra time was a result of the trip to a couple of auto-parts stores in the middle. But really, 5 hours of my Sat. doing fun guy stuff to save at least a couple hundred bucks in labor is still well worth it. And next time, now that I know what I'm doing a little better, it shouldn't take much more than 3 or so.

And while we had it jacked up, I of course got the oil changed, which marks the first time I've done that on the VW. I've done it plenty on the Jeep & the tractor, but I've always had the dealership do it on the VW. But now that I'm a little past the 100k mile mark, I decided it was time to start doing that myself to save a little coin.

All in all, I've enjoyed some good guy garage time over the last couple weeks. Now it must be time for some football.