Teaching ... myself

Dave, me, Reid before we froze our butts off.  The beard helped.  Its gone now.  Zoe is happy about that. Esme already sticking her tongue out at the camera? Trio of goobers Trio of cuties Jon - after the dino egg pinata - kind of stormtrooperish - this is an old pic from Zoe's birthday - we just found these on a camera.  We realized that we never did anything with them because it was just after these were taken that the blood clot was diagnosed.  That was 3 months ago. Dino egg pinata - Zoe's 5th birthday.  What craftsmanship on the egg! Zoe's birthday, obviously Nice cake Zoe!  What kind of an artist could do that? MawMaw, Zoe, Ash, Adia Ashley's masterpiece - the sock horse.  It is really amazing what Ash can do with almost nothing. I just like this, no real reason.  It makes me smile. OK, I started this a week ago - and now I had to go back and redo it because it is now all old news.  And I'm in a rush, so it won't be too detailed.... but last weekend, the 3...

But I still haven't gotten any of the grading done I was supposed to do.  Today.  Yes, today I shall conquer the pile.  But we are probably going to go skiing again:)  A nice little snow hit the other day and this is now the 3rd snow day (I should be grading right now...of course, isn't assigning a grade a bit ridiculous?  Is grading the best way to help someone learn?  Did I learn to juggle a soccer ball, or keep bees, or even learn to love biology because of grading ?  I don't think so.  In fact, grading is what drove me from biology in high school.  I understand feedback and critique... but grading ? I'd better shut up now:)  As for this week.  Esme is doing fantastic and has gotten another chin off of her liebfraumilch diet.  Ash is doing well and is making the lovenox/coumadin transition to hopefully make this blood clot a memory only... and a bad one at that.  Adia is pretty much at that all around amazing stage - so sweet with Esme, so coordinated, so bald, an...

Apparently, not running for a couple months DOES NOT do anything for performance.  But it was nice all the same.  I've had my reasons for not running recently - end of pregnancy, new baby, unicycles are more fun, running is painful, etc.  But I got up and out to Valle Crucis for our ol beloved 7 mile Cub run.  It was oh-so-cold and windy - but I was back in my tights, reflectors, and trusty fanny pack and off I went.  I listened to some music this time because I figured that the sound of my wheezing would drown out nature anyway.  Well.... it was noticably harder.   But I was pretty pleased.  As I came around a bend up on Baird's Creek the sun slammed into my face just as Bono blasted his first "ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY!" - and it really was.  And I wasn't totally out of it - at the end of the looong uphill to the steep ridge I was able to push it - I had the whole furrowed brow, focused eyes, "Rocky" theme playing in my mind.  When I got to the top I stopped...

Today we went to church and Shelly Wilson really hit home in her sermon.  It followed on the tide of the Obama inauguration and the Martin Luther King rememberance.  In a nutshell, it was about finding your voice - both personally and communally.  All the people throughout history who have seen a wrong and have spoken out to challenge it and push humanity forward spiritually... often at their own peril.  And we all peer into the promised land on their shoulders.  It has been the voices of the few that have done this and I have quietly gone along, content in watching the parade progress... slowly.  Doing very little to help it along.  When have I protested injustice?  When have I really done anything that was difficult in the name of Truth?  Well, I have been inspired to be better about that from here on out.  I want to be an advocate for peace despite my fear.  OK, there it is, lets hope it sticks.  In other bits of gratitude - our family has been on the receiving end of a lot of good ...

Quick post.  Took Zoe to the dentist and to go skiing today and she loved both of them!  I thought the skiing would be a slow process but it basically went like this.  Step 1: Get lift tickets (5 min)  Step 2: Get Zoe's rentals (40 minutes...helpful hint: don't wait in long ski line before you figure out that you should get boots first)  Step 3: Go get on bunny slope with Zoe and talk a bit about snowplowing - oh and put on the Edgie Wedgie.... very important.  Step 4:  Forget about the bunny slope and head for the lift.  Step 5: simply be amazed at how fast kids can learn stuff.   All in all a wonderful, fun day.  If you haven't figured out yet, I am quite taken with being able to put in video to the blog.  A unicycle clip will come as soon as the snow clears...which sadly to say will be tomorrow as Dr. Marty has already called and announced that tomorrow the dream ends and we go back to school.. but on a 2 hour delay.  Life begins.

This is not how you want to see your baby.  So we were discharged from Asheville on Thursday - we went to Greenville to get the kids and stay a day.  We ended up staying for a few days because Zoe ended up with a stomach bug.  Lovely.  We think it was the same thing Adia had a week or so back but don't know why it took so long. To make it worse, our aunt Kelli came from Rock Hill to watch the kids one day and ended up with the bug as well.  A 1000 apologies Kelli!  But it passed quickly and we were all set to go home on Sunday.  Kathy was coming as well to stay for a week so we all caravaned to Boone around mid-day wary of an ice storm that slicked roads that morning.  Around Blowing Rock, Ash notices that Esme looked a bit more yellow so she called our doctor in Boone.  We didn't get a call back until 10 minutes after we got home.  But in that time, Susan and Bobbi from our church ( High Country United Church of Christ ) came by and dropped off a wonderful dinner - not only d...

We are finally home. Well at least we aren't in the hospital. Ash got discharged last night and we headed to Greenville to meet up with Zoe and Adia who had been staying at MawMaw's . So I guess I should go back a few days and recap. Monday: I had gotten my stuff at school in order for a week and Ashley picked me up at school and we headed to Greenville to drop off the kids. Tuesday, early: Ash and I headed to Asheville for the induction. Ash was being induced due to the fact that she was diagnosed with a blood clot a few months ago and needed to time the blood thinners just right. But all has been well with the clot and up until Tuesday - life had pretty much returned to normal. We checked in and went up to our room - it was facing the mountains and was a pretty glorious sight - quite a plus for a hospital - we never closed the blinds. I realize now that had someone been looking up a few floors late that night they would have gotten quite a show of beauty and terror. We ha...