Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma

The kids had Monday off school this week for MLK day and we decided on the fly to take a road trip. Back in Virginia, pre-kids, we loved to head out of town exploring West Virginia and Maryland so we decided to head north to Oklahoma, and not just because the awesome movie line from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, one of my favorite, terrible 80s movies. 

One of my cousins lives in Oklahoma City and she makes the drive to Dallas all the time so Bjorn found us a great deal on a historic hotel and we made the 3 hour drive. 

I went in with zero expectations and was totally pleasantly surprised. They now have an NBA team and they've revitalized the whole downtown area near the stadium (and our hotel) called Bricktown to have walking paths around a canal with loads of restaurants. It was lovely. It's not as busy as the San Antonio Riverwalk, but they have a minor league baseball team stadium down there, too. It would definitely be a fun weekend spot (not to mention there is loads of places to gamble around town, too, which we had to save for a weekend without the kids). 

The highlight was seeing my first cousin and her husband who met us for dinner and then lunch today after taking us to the western museum. The kids didn't care for the art, but they did like dressing up in the pioneer village and making food for the chuckwagon. Afterwards, my cousins took us on a tour of their food factory. I felt like I was in an episode of How It's Made. Plus, we got to wear hair nets.  

Bricktown even has carriage rides in addition to canal boat tours. 

Matilda and Margaret in their pioneer hut. 

The closest Andy wants to ever get to riding a horse. 

We watched the boxes get loaded onto the pallets. This was Andy's favorite part. 

Bjorn, Andy, Margaret, Ed and Matilda as we watched strawberry jam be made. 

Obligatory WTH birthday post

So Andy's birthday is today. EIGHT. That kid is eight! Like all parents on a birthday, I can't quite believe he's that old. And then again, I can't believe he's only that old. How is it possible that I had a life before he was born? That just seems like 2,000 years ago already.

Today at school. I brought donuts for the class. Mmm...donuts. 

He's about four here in the tub with his cousin. 

Christmas age four. 

Fifth birthday. 

Summer 2012, age 7. 

Summer 2005, age six months. 

Birthday, age 2, 2007. 

Age three with his birthday goodies. Note that he can sit with his knees back like that. I've never been able to to that. It makes my knees ache to see. 

And today again, age EIGHT. 

MacBook love

I bought myself a MacBook Pro with some of the money Santa brought me for Christmas. I was really toying with getting a Google Chrome. I need something for graduate school and I was curious to try something other than a PC which left a Chrome or a Mac. I have spent years arguing with my graphic design people against Macs. Well, I take that back. I think Macs are great, but I have always maintained there was no way for our organization to support Macs since its hard enough with PCs. But every design person starts by saying they'll work fine with PCs and then lobbies fervently thereafter about the failures of design programs on PCs. But I digress. 

I went to the Apple store was, as usual, turned off by the genius bar that treats everyone who walks in like they're morons and Apple is doing them a favor by existing. So we went over to Best Buy to look at the Chromebooks and was surprised to see that they sell Apple products -- better yet, Apple products cheaper than at the Apple store and without the condescention! I looked at the Chromebook. I really liked the concept - a $200 computer (really a tablet with a keyboard) with an Android operating system. It is perfect for working on the internet and using e-mail which is 95 percent of my job since my databases are web-based. The problem with the Chromebook is it has no Word processing. They say you can use Google Docs, but as someone who has used Google Docs, that's not sufficient for, oh, I don't know, trying to do anything like write a document or share it with colleagues. I talked to some friends who used to work with Google about it. They say Google paid big money for some word processing software that works but for whatever reason, they're missing the boat on installing it free on all their devices. That would, in my opinion, make the Chromebook more viable to students and give Google a huge jump on the tablet/netbook market. 

So for me, that left the MacBook with a purchase of Word and Excel so I could do work and schoolwork. I toyed with the MacBook Air. It's so darn light and pretty. However, it lacked any of the peripherals like a CD/DVD drive and had fewer ports. 

I have had good fun with the computer over the holiday. Bjorn and I bought took two desktops and removed everything from them and he deposited at Best Buy, which conveniently recycles computers for free. In the process, I removed about 6,000 pictures from my old desktop from 2005 to 2009. These were pictures from when the kids were really little. There were a few videos mixed up in there, too. 

I just couldn't believe all the changes they've undergone in eight years. I mean, I was there and all, but somehow seeing it in all its glory was amazing. 

How awesome are these guys?

The Christmas with the snow

So it snowed. In Texas. On Christmas. This has happened all of never in my lifetime so it's super exciting. I live for snow. And I live to wear my cute rain boots so it all works out.

Holiday party

Margaret's school had its holiday party last night. It was hilariously adorable. I know some people get upset that we can't call it a Christmas party, but considering the kids in her class are Christian, Hindu and Jewish, it seems find to be generic with these things. It was, however, held at a local church that let us use their stage.

The kids are getting very excited about Christmas in two weeks. Bjorn, too, who seemingly can not stop shopping. As long as the presents are all for me, that seems just right. The kids keep repeatedly asking Santa for a kitten or kittens. I have explained that it might be tough for Santa to put them in his sleigh and/or their stockings, but they seem to think Santa makes things happen. Any ideas on how Santa could make that happen? I have a few that I might suggest but I'm welcome to input.

Fireballs

End of soccer season! Meg did well and seemed to enjoy it although I think she needs more practice. By the end of the season she was much more interested in smiling for the camera the running for the goal.

Binders full of women

I wish I had something more witty to say on this matter except, well, wow.

Instead I leave you with some pictures that are more fun.

Kung fu fighting

 

Andy is really getting better at juijitsu. It's really fun to see the improvement. He totally wigged last night because he thought he was testing for his orange belt and he didn't think he was ready. Plus our neighbor who helped him last time is out of town so that totally added to the stress.

Thanks, folks

Andy ran/walked a 5k yesterday to raise money for kids with hemophilia. I am so proud of him! He (we) raised more than $1,000. Granted I did most of the haranguing of family and friends, he still practiced and ran the race. Plus he got a lot of props for his efforts so I think he's motivated to do it next year. Meg even wants in on the action but she wants to ride her bike so she can win.

Your kid in singing what exactly?

My taught went to pre-school yesterday singing, "Balls in Your Mouth." I know, it sounds pretty awful, even though it's really about the BP oil spill and tar balls. As I dropped her off, I explained quietly to her teacher that she had been singing a Jimmy Fallon song and while it sounded really awful, it wasn't as bad as all that. She snickered and nodded, but I'm not sure how she felt when Margaret started singing in later.

In my defense, Bjorn got the CD for father's day. That's right, in June. But somehow, Andy started singing it over the weekend and Meg got in on the action. The refrain stuck and before we knew it, they were singing it together. As we tried to shut it down, we, naturally, made the whole thing more interesting. As a result, I have two kids singing about Balls in their Mouth.

We try to stay classy here.

Wow

This new school year is in full swing. The kids are adjusting to their new routines. Andy is finding second grade is harder. He has a weekly packet due on Fridays. Naturally he procrastinated until last night when he cried for three hours about having to do it. It was my fault of course that I didn't make him do it sooner. See photo below of his moaning at doing school work.

First day of school

Today is the first day of second grade and the beginning of Meg's last year at preschool. We clearly took a lot of pictures this morning.

I thought this was so funny. He often looks very skeptical.

Now he's happy again!

Yellow belt

Andy's been taking jiujitsu through the city. It's been a good fit of practicing wrestling-type moves (not the official term, certainly) which is helping with his confidence. He has expressed worries before that other kids would pick on him. None have really, but this is helping him feel he could hold his own.

After 12 weeks, he tested for his "yellow belt", the next step up from a "white belt." He had to demonstrate five moves against an older kid and then he sparred with one of the two girls in his class also up for a yellow belt. I videotaped the sparring.

It was actually kind of awesome watching them wrestle. I was really impressed with how well he held his own and how well he stayed in it. After this, he sparred with this same girl one more time. Then they practiced one kid vs two kids. Andy did that as both the double-team and the singleton. His sensei's point of the double-team is to help the kids handle themselves in case of an unfair fight. I like that the class focuses on self-defense. I think that's such a useful thing for a child to know.

He was so proud of himself afterward that he actually told me he was happy. That's a rarity. It's like Simon Cowell saying he liked your performance.

Visit to the (old) homeland

Last week the kids and I flew back to DC (well, Virginia really) for the week. I had a big meeting to run and needed to go in the office and the kids came with me to see family. It was just awesome, even though it was 99 and 90 percent humidity most of the time. The kids loved seeing their grandmother, sister, uncle and cousins. I had really good work stuff and it was fun to see old friends.

Andy, Margaret, Fafa and Jennifer playing Old Maid.Fafa wouldn't let them watch TV or play on the iPad (sacrilege according to them!), but they played other games and had a grand time.

The kids with our old neighbors Ernie and Doris. Meg looks like a demon zombie here. I think it's the candy coma she was in. The kids didn't remember our old house or neighbors, but they remembered that Ernie and Doris had candy and that recollection was rewarded with, well, lots of candy.

Our old house in Fairfax, which looks exactly the same. We talked to the new owners (who didn't invite us in, which was just as well) who said they love the house. Yay!

Our house before that in Alexandria. The whole Del Ray/Arlandria area looked good overall - lots of new construction and additional retail, etc., but the Warwick Village area looked like it had seen better days. Our old house in particular looked a little rough.

I just had to take a picture of the Wafle Shop, which clearly has a new sign since we moved in 2003, I think. I am amazed the new sign is still misspelled which makes it even funnier.

Cousin Camp

This week Andy and his cousin Megan have been in day camp together so my sister and nieces have been staying with us. It has been so fun to see all the kids together. I think we have all stayed up too late and gotten up too early but we can sleep later. Tonight Bjorn read to all the little ones who were so tired but so interested in his storytelling of Swedish fairy tales.

I have a whole trip to Ireland to blog about but it's so big I haven't been able to tackle it yet.