Euro Trip Blogging and Pics

Because I didn't want to spend all of my time on the computer while we traveled, I have been tweeting and posting select pictures of our Sister's Euro Trip on facebook to give quick updates. Over the next few days, my plan is to post a blog a day and to eventually get all of our pictures online.

Stay tuned...

Sisters Euro Trip: Arriving in Amsterdam

Last year for my sister’s 29th birthday, I told her I was going to take her to Europe for her 30th. We immediately started looking for trip ideas, and when I found out that Keith’s company’s European conference was going to be in Amsterdam, I thought that would be a perfect location to begin our trip. My sister liked the idea too, so here we are!

Rewind to the Saturday morning on the day of our departure… Before leaving for our trip to Europe, Keith and I decided to run in a little 5K race. The race was the Art Festival 5K, and it is one of my favorite races because it is so challenging. It goes over the Melbourne Causeway bridge and back, so having any sort of uphill in Florida makes it a toughy. When I ran the Downtown Melbourne 5K a few weeks ago, I ran through the pain of my cramping calf to the point that once the race ended it knotted up and I wasn’t able to walk regular for a week. Needless to say, I was a bit afraid to try running again even though I knew this Art Festival race was coming up. I did get on the elliptical once, and tried the treadmill only to start cramping up again. The day before the race, I went to our local running store to pick up our race packets and see if they had any suggestions. I ended up with new running shoes and “leg sleeves”. The leg sleeves are like knee-high compression socks without the feet. One or both of those things (combined with taking my vitamins with extra magneseum, eating lots of banans, drinking gatorade, and staying very hydrated) must have done the trick because I was able to actually run the race with no cramps! Keith and I both did really well in the race too… he nudged ahead of me and finished the race with a time of 26:09, while I finished 11 seconds later at 26:20. We both finished in the top 25% of 1500 runners! Also, when we ran this race about 5 years ago when we were in super-shape, we finished the race in 27:00… I guess some things do get better with age!

After the race ended, we immediately began another race: the race to the airport. We had to get home to shower and do last second packing, get a little more quality time with the kids, then head right over to the Melbourne airport. Thanks to the great job that we did packing ahead of time (it’s amazing how much easier it is to pack for just yourself and not 2 kids too!), we weren’t too terribly rushed.

In Atlanta, Keith and I found my sister, Kelly, at her gate from Huntsville. My brother, Kyle, lives in Atlanta, so he met us for lunch since we had a 3 hour layover. We had an interesting lunchtime conversation followed by killing some time taking pictures before getting on the plane to Amsterdam for an 8 hour flight.

My mom’s BFF (and Kelly’s godmother), “Aunty Paula”, was the lead flight attendant on our flight, so we got the total hook up. Unfortunately, first class filled up at the last second so we didn’t get upgraded, but we got every other perk you could possibly have without being in first class… including ice cream sundaes, extra biscoff cookies, and getting to actually sit in the captain’s seat! The plane itself was awesome! Each chair had it’s own TV with touch screen capability. They had on-demand movies and TV shows (I watched Benjamin Button, Kelly & I watched Slumdog Millionaire, Kelly watched Yes Man, and Keith watched Frost/Nixon), games (we played trivia, poker, and some tetris-logic type game), music, and you could track exactly where the plane was graphically. Even on this overnight 8 hour flight, the tv kept me so entertained that I only slept for maybe 20 minutes… and I’m usually a plane sleeper!

Our flight left Atlanta at 5pm on Saturday and arrived at 8am on Sunday in Amsterdam (due to the 6 hour time change). We met up with Keith’s co-workers, Jeremy and Jen, at the airport, then found our way to the hotel via train and foot as fast as we could. None of us really slept so we were ready for our beds. Unfortunately, when we arrived at our hotel, they told us that check-in wasn’t until 3pm, so we all set up camp on their couches in the lobby. After a little sweet talking and some help from the conference coordinators, we managed to get into our rooms around 11:30am. Since Kelly was sharing a room with us, we had requested a room with 2 beds. When we opened the door to our room, there was one king-sized bed (which was actually 2 twin-beds, but there was no way to separate them anyway). We were so exhausted that we decided we’d deal with that later, and it didn’t take 5 minutes for us to all crawl under the covers (with me in the middle), close the curtains, and fall asleep! We didn’t wake up until about 7pm.

Many of Keith’s collegues from out of the country arrived on Sunday so a large group of us went out for dinner at an Indonesian restaurant that night. Kelly wanted a traditional Dutch meal, but we found that there really wasn’t such a thing. The guidebook told us that because of Amsterdam’s location, they’re acutally known for importing food from other places so they don’t really have a food that they call their own. So… Indonesian it was!

The food at the Indonesian restaurant was amazing! Even a picky eater like me was able to find something that I loved! Kelly and Keith split a sampler entrée that consisted of about 10 different items, and they loved every bit of it too. Kelly even got a “lemon squeezer” souvineer to take home (she swears that the waiter told her to take it home when she was raving about it, but he didn’t really speak good English so I have my doubts).

After dinner, everyone else was still tired so they headed to their rooms to prepare for the next day, but we hit the fair that was going on in Dam Square right in front of our hotel. We didn’t go on the rides, but we checked them out and partook in a huge bag of cotton candy. And no, cotton candy doesn’t taste the same as it does in America. It’s not quite as sweet and a little bit more cottony. :)

We ended the night walking around the area and found a good coffee shop that we visited a few times during our stay, then stayed up way too late watching some really bad British television.

And this… is only the beginning…

Enjoy the pictures from before we left the country!

Corgan's School Progress

I could not be more thrilled with Corgan's school experience! It has been so good for him for so many reasons! At first I really felt bad for sending my 18 month old to school 5 days a week (under 2 years they don't allow less than 5 days/week... even for half days), but not any more. He LOVES school, and they pick up my "Mommy of a 2nd child" slack. He's been learning things that I have forgotten that he was ready to learn, he sings songs on his own, he does the motions for the songs, he LOVES his teacher (and she couldn't adore him more), and he loves being a big boy going to school. Seeing him ask for his lunch box and run to the door is one of the cutest things ever!

One of the things that I really like about his teacher is how great she is with the daily status sheets for Corgan. With a class of 6 kids all around 1.5 years old, I don't know how she finds the time, but every day when we pick Corgan up she has a status sheet all filled out and it has wonderful details about Corgan's day. Here are some of the comments from a few of them that I have saved so far:

1/6/09- (Corgan's 2nd day of school) "He had lots of smiles today"
1/12/09- "Corgan liked hearing the different whistles" (they did trains that day) & "Corgan & Ben had fun playing with leaves outside today"
2/26/09- "Corgan is very shy- but he is starting to open up"
3/30/09- "For science we observed earth worms in their habitat! Corgan hit at it, but wouldn't hold one! He was excited and laughing!" (I can just picture that from her great description)
4/1/09- "He was singing 'twinkle twinkle' when my back was turned! Too cute!"

Lately, Corgan has started cuddling with his teacher, and it's been a long time since he's been sad about being left there. He loves his classmates too. The other day I was asking him to repeat the names of the kids in his class, and when I got to one kid, "Ben", Corgan said "Bubba" for his name (because that's what his teacher calls Ben). It was SO precious! It's so cute to see him see-sawing with one of the other little ones too.

Since we're FINALLY transitioning all of the toys to the playroom, toys that have been buried under other toys in the closet are surfacing so the kids have a whole bunch of "new" toys to play with. Corgan's latest toy obsession has been his shape sorter. I was surprised a few weeks ago when he took it out and just started sorting away all by himself. Then I got Corgan's class calendar for April and the teacher included a note that said something like "All of the kids in my class love the shape sorter." and the whole shape sorter thing made sense.

Corgan is so into singing songs now too! I love when I'm riding along in the car and hear Corgan in the back seat singing a song that is clear enough from the tune and the few understandable words that I'm able to actually identify the song. Annabelle knows pretty much all of the songs that Corgan knows and loves, so she'll sing the songs to him (as he asks for them with words and hand motions) and he'll join in. I definitely plan to get this adorableness on video soon!

School has been so great for Corgan to get used to other adults watching him too. Like I said earlier, he LOVES his teacher (almost to the point that I get a little jealous), but he also does really well when they have substitutes. He's doing really well with the gym daycare workers too (although there is one worker who LOOOOOOVES Corgan and I think she scares him because she gets so overly excited when he shows up... he's warming up to her now too though).

My little guy looks so grown up walking in to school holding his lunch box and following his sister's steps (literally)! Hard to believe he's so big already!

Donald B-Ballers

Now that we have concrete to play on, yesterday I finally set up the kid-sized basketball goal that Keith got for Christmas last year. The kids were having lots of fun with it today, so I got my camera out to capture some action shots.

Corgan is a super dunker!

Corgan started out just dunking, but then after seeing how Annabelle shoots the ball, he decided to try that too. He shot that ball that's falling through the net in the picture.
They both seem to have their daddy's natural ability with the basketball. Belle used the soccer ball to shoot since Corgan had the basketball, and she does pretty darn well!

A Life's Goal Accomplished!

Yesterday morning I ran in the Downtown Melbourne 5K, and totally amazed myself by accomplishing one of my 43things goals of completing a 5K in less than 26 minutes! For days before the race, I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to run at all because last Monday night at the end of my speed intervals on the treadmill, my left calf severely cramped up just like it had been doing for months until last January or so. I tried to take it easy this week, and didn't try running again until Thursday. That didn't work out so well though because I started cramping up again after about a quarter-mile, so I just did the elliptical. I stayed off of it again on Friday and ate lots of bananas, drank lots of water, and took vitamins. Saturday morning I decided to go ahead and go out to the race since I had already paid and had nothing to lose. I arrived over an hour early and stretched and jogged nearly the whole time to try to loosen up my calf. While the cramp never totally went away, it kept alternating between a horrible knot and a dull pain. Sometimes jogging made it better, other times--- worse. I was worried that I was going to wear myself out with all of the jogging that I was doing before the race even began!

Before lining up at the starting line, I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to be finishing the race. I stood there continuing to stretch, getting my music ready, and planning my move to the outer edge just in case I needed to drop out. Then, all of the sudden, the race had begun and I took off. I spent about the first 30 seconds of the race fooling with my iPod while keeping up with the pack, then finally gave up on my perfect playlist and just went with whatever was playing. Despite my calf, I felt pretty good as the race adrenaline took over. I don't have a GPS or anything so although I didn't know exactly what pace I was at, I felt like I was going at a pretty good pace. I found a couple of girls who were running at about my pace and stuck to them whenever they started moving ahead. The first mile flew by, and when I saw the race clock at the 1 mile mark that read "7:26", I literally said "Holy Crap!" out loud! I never imagined that I was going any faster than 8:00 mile pace at the VERY least!

After seeing my mile time, the adrenaline kicked in even more as I continued and realized that I might actually be able to meet my life goal of completing a 5K race in under 26 minutes! I did slow down a bit because my calf was starting to knot up again, but I kept going and continually prayed that I was able to finish the race! By the time that I reached the 2 mile mark, I was at 16:00, which means my 2nd mile was only an 8:30 mile pace... still 30 seconds faster than the 9:00 mile pace that I was planning to run the race at! At that I point, I was SOO stoked to realize that I could slow down to nearly a 10:00 mile pace and still meet my 26:00 goal!

A little after the 2 mile mark, my calf really started to cramp up again, but I adjusted my step a little and was able to keep going. I really think worrying about my leg the whole time made the race minutes fly by because before I knew it I was at the 3 mile mark and turning the corner toward the finish line. I gave it everything I had to finish the last .11 miles as fast as possible without the cramp getting me. I crossed the finish line with an official time of 25:46 (even though I swear it read 25:45 when I crossed), and felt so amazingly elated!

After the race, I kept moving and drank lots of gatorade to try to keep my calf from seizing up. Regardless of my efforts, my calf got worse and worse until I was barely able to walk. I ate 6 bananas within about 12 hours because of this freakin' calf! 3 of my girl friends ran the race too, so we all hung around for the awards just in case. It turned out that the 3rd place girl in my age group (30-34) finished at 25:06, and I actually finished 4th in the age group and 44th (out of 228) in the girl's race overall (see the race results)!

Here's a picture from the race website... I'm the one about 4 people back in the black shorts.

I am still planning to run the Art Festival 5K race, which goes over the Melbourne Causeway so there is about .75 miles of steep uphill running, but will have to make another game-time decision based on how my calf is doing at that time. This race is 3 weeks away, so I may have to just stick to the elliptical until then to keep my lungs in shape. While I really want to run it, and think it was worth it to run through the pain in this last one (and enduring the pain that I suffered the rest of the day), I am getting on a plane for Amsterdam within 4 hours of the race start time and I am not about to risk limping through the airport and Europe for a race that I will be running again someday. :)

A New Bedtime

Tonight we are all going to sleep in our new rooms! I have been waiting for this day (or night) for over 2 years! YEA!

Bedtime went pretty well. Other than the new rooms, I tried to keep it as close to the way it was before to make the transition easy. While Daddy kept running up the stairs to get nighttime essentials that we forgot to bring down in the first place, the kids and I read 2 books in Corgan's room, then I rocked both kids through one song from Rockabye's Smashing Pumpkins CD. Corgan laid down in his crib with his blankies, and Annabelle and I were off to her new room to put her in bed. She did pretty well too, except that she calmly explained to me that she didn't want to sleep in her new bed, she wanted to sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor. I guess after 5 months of sleeping in a tent in the living room, she's gotten used to the hard floor. She told me that on Tuesday she'll sleep in her new bed and that I shouldn't be sad. The whole "Tuesday" thing definitely made me smile. I conceded and set up her sleeping bag in the middle of the floor, then we went through her nighttime routine (prayers, "La Lechuza" while scratching her back, and kisses) and she is now down for the night too.

Our bed is all made and waiting for us too! We still don't have the bed frame, but we have the mattresses, complete with sheets and our new king-size pillows. I tested it out, and I can't wait to cuddle up on our new cloud we call a bed!

P.S. Tonight after prayers, Annabelle asked what "Amen" means. I told her it means "I love you God, and I'm done talking now." Does anyone have a better definition? :)

P.P.S. Corgan's bed in his new room:

Annabelle's bed in her new room:

BFFs Through the Years

Since they were tiny, I've periodically taken pictures of Annabelle and Halle in Belle's green rocking chair. It's hard to believe they're so big already!

Halle & Annabelle- 5 months old

Halle & Annabelle- 11 months old

Halle & Annabelle- 22 months old

Halle & Annabelle- 37 months old

I wonder how long we'll be able to fit the two of them in that chair together. :)

Corgan's First Haircut

Corgan got his first haircut today! I had a feeling it wouldn't go as well for him as it did with Annabelle, but as much as I love blonde curls, it just wasn't working for him and was starting to have too much "party in the back." So, after a failed attempt on Saturday (they closed too early... or we arrived too late... take your pick), I tried again today after school. As soon as I sat Corgan down in the haircutting chair, the waterworks came!

He cried the WHOLE time, lollipop in hand. Fortunately a buzz cut is an easy one, so all of his squirming and screaming didn't seem to phase the lady cutting his hair. About 8 minutes after the screaming began, the haircut was finished, and he still pouted for a while, but eventually started eating his lollipop and brightened back up again.

Before brightening back up:

After brightening up:

I sure do love my handsome little man, who now has the same haircut that I used to make fun of my brother for while calling him Sinead O'Connor. :)

More photos of the big event, including before pictures of his curls, are on our photo gallery. And while you're there, check out the pictures from our trip to the zoo after the haircut.

The Coolest Staircase Ever!

I've always had in mind that I wanted a staircase to the loft in Annabelle's room. Exactly what I wanted that staircase to be wasn't quite clear, but I did know that I didn't want to lose the footprint of the space that the stairs took up. If there's one thing our house does, it's use the space in the every little nook and cranny, and I wanted to continue that with these stairs.

Because there were so many things to design with this house, the stairs didn't actually get designed until this past Christmas break. I sat down with google sketch up and a few inspiration pics that I found online, and sketched up what my dream stairs would be if cost wasn't an issue. Once I had them designed, I fell in love with them!

When we got back from Christmas break, the house was just at the point that the rooms had been painted so there were 1000 other things to do and I forgot about the stairs until time for final inspection was nearing. Although the stairs were designed to code, our "lofts" are technically "plant shelves" on the permitting so I couldn't even give the idea that stairs were going in until inspections were totally done. Finally, near the end of February, I got a good friend (who also happens to be an excellent carpenter) to give me a quote on my dream staircase. He did, and although the number was higher than I had budgeted in my head, it was definitely a fair price and something that I wanted to do the right way now so we went for it. And I sure am glad that we did!

Here is my original design:

Here is the actual finished product:

The stairs were designed to be 3 feet wide to allow for a wall railing on the right side and no railings on the left side of the stairs. I did this in hopes of keeping the shelving the primary focus of the staircase instead of the stairs part. We will see how this works out safety-wise once the wall railing is installed. If it doesn't, then I have already considered the future addition of a railing on the left if necessary. Also, I made the stairs that wide to allow for a play space underneath the stairs. The shelves are only about 1 foot deep so that leaves 2 feet of space behind with access through the door under the landing (the door isn't installed yet, but will be soon).

As you can see, there are a few minor tweaks including adding vertical support in one of the lower stairs (the shelf was split vertically) and the shelves at the tallest point in the stair case were added instead of the blank panel. I originally designed the blank panel thinking it would be a good play area and would also allow for placing furniture in that corner without blocking any shelves. When the carpenter asked me about it, I told him I wasn't in love with that idea so he could do shelves there if he wanted to... but only if there was a secret back opening built into one of the shelves for puppet shows, etc. So he did... and there is!

While my amazing carpenter, Mark Ely, definitely did the hardest part, I was impressed with myself for designing such an amazing piece of furniture and for doing a good bit of the finishing work (caulking the edges, spackling the holes, and painting the entire thing) myself. I learned a lot in the process, and hope to learn more as I attempt to design and construct the wall railing myself... which will actually consist of a standard height wall railing and a lower, smaller railing (for smaller hands) below that at little kid height. Stay tuned...

Annabelle with an H

Today after school, Annabelle informed me that her name is spelled "H-A-L-L-E". When I asked her who taught her that, she, of course, said "Halle did!" I told her that H-A-L-L-E was how you spell Halle's name, and spelled her name for her. She yelled at me and said "NO! My name has an H!" When I told her it didn't, she was very upset. She refused to believe that I knew how to spell her name and kept insisting that it's "H-A-L-L-E".

Sigh.