Hands on Museum

The boys got a Hands On Museum Pass from their grandparents for Christmas. We went twice this week, and had a great time! Timmy said "That was sure fun at the Hands on Museum, huh, mom?" after we went the first time.

Evildoers

So, we got some cameras for Christmas: KT bought three with generous return policies, and we need to decide what to keep. They are all very different beasts: mini/cheap camera, bigger but still kind of cheap camera, and waterproof video camera. Any opinions?

While you're stewing that over, here's some video of KT's children practicing their evildoer laugh. You heard right, whenever they are doing anything that has to do with evil, I'm pretty sure they are KT's. I just want to shirk the responsibility of cleaning up after their evil mess.

SANTA

Timmy and Holland with Santa Claus.  Aaron was too afraid of him, cried and ran away when we tried to get a photo with he and Santa.

German Playgroup

We have been meeting with some friends for a German Playgroup for about a year now. We made this cute Gingerbread House at Andrea's for our last playgroup. The kids had a fun time sticking candy on it and eating it!

Timmy said a whole sentence in German as we were making the house and astounded the ladies. He has really made a lot of progress in his speech the last 2 months, in both English and German. Although, he doesn't speak German most of the time, he'll pull out a sentence here and there, and it's really darling.
These are our good friends, Andrea and her kids Zarah and Mortiz. Lisa and Emma are the organizers. Lisa plays such fun songs on the guitar, and we have such a great time! Emma Mae is also pictured. Sadly, her family is moving in March. 

Although meeting every week is stressful for everyone.  With kids, it's hard to get them ready, out the door, in the car, have everything you need, and drive across town.  However, this has been so fun for us.  Timmy, Aaron and I have some of our closest friends here now and Timmy and my German has been improved so much.  I have them to thank for restoring my confidence in speaking the language!  They have been so welcoming and patient!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Wa Yecom

Very common phrase as of late:

"Wa Yecom!  Wa Yecom, buddy!"  (Your welcome!  Your welcome, buddy!)
He's been calling people "buddy" lately since that is what people call him. :)

Timmy Quotes

Timmy has been "on one" lately.
A few quotes:
Timmy yelling.  Aaron imitating.  Timmy says "Like dis....Ahhhhhhhhhh."  Aaron copies "Ahhhhhhhhhhh"

I've had a cough for a while now, and have had to *ahem* cough up some phlegm here and there.  Timmy and I were in the woods and he starts pretending to cough and then spitting on the ground....over and over and over again.  He had this look on his face like "See mom?  I can do it too!"

Timmy and Aaron were wrestling today and Aaron pulled a cheap shot.  Timmy yelled "Awin!  Das mag ich nicht!"  (That is perfect German for "Awin!  I don't like that!")

This week we went to Kalhari Resort, an indoor water park (where there are lots of elephant statues and other African animals).  When we got home today Timmy kept saying "Yet's go.....hmmmm.... to da Ephent Park!"  I kept saying that I'd love to go again, but we'd have to go at a later date.  He says " How 'bout....Yet's drive in da car an go to da Ephent Park?"  So, we pretended that we were at the Resort, going down the lion slide and on the car slide and in the wave pool, and to my surprise, he was just happy to pretend that we were there!

November

Most of my time seems to be consumed with preparing food, feeding the boys, and cleaning it up. "Didn't I just feed you?" is the most common thought of the day. Timmy likes to look at the cereal boxes and milk cartons as he's eating.

It rained several times in the past few weeks. After a hard rain one morning, there were lots of puddles left over outside. On our way back from preschool, I instructed the boys to watch out for puddles. We carefully maneuvered around all the puddles, all the way home. Just as we came up to the door, I turned around to find that my little ducks had veered course and were laughing with great delight at running up and down the grass line through a huge puddle.
At that point, we decided that we might as well play outside for an hour and get our wiggles out.

Poor Lamby needed a double washing afterwards, along with all the other muddy clothes and shoes!
"We made a fort" says Timmy. This morning Scott and the boys used every chair and blanket they could find to make this little fort in the living room.

Yesterday for my birthday, we ate at our favorite German restaurant, Metzger's. They give 50% off your bill + a free dessert on your birthday! We had rouladen, kaese-spaetzle, potato pancakes, rye bread, rotkohl and bread pudding. Mmmmm!

Timmy and I made necklaces from the "Fun Stix" they gave us to play with.

We hope that when the forest is full of snow soon that we will still bundle up and visit our little Eeyore House.

Timmy and I just watched this powerful song with video.  Great message!

Birthday Discounts

A favorite birthday pastime here in student housing is to run around town on the special day and collect on all of the free Birthday swag available from the local commerce. We certainly don't get as into it as some, but we had this 50% off meal at a local german resteraunt (+ free dessert), free ice cream cone, cup cake, and half-dozen bagels. That's about as much "shopping" as I can handle. If you haven't yet, you should definitely go online and see what kind of deals you can swing for your birthday: the possibilities would probably surprise you!

Here we are at the german resteraunt Metzgers, eating our fat Wurst Sampler! We had a great time, but it inevitably turned into a wrestling match on the bench!

Saturday we got out our camping stove and made pancakes for dinner in the forest. It was fun, but it inevitably turned into a wrestling match in the dirt.

The sport of Curling

Last Saturday we went curling.  When we got invited, I just had to try it.  I'm always up for trying something new.  For those of you who are like me and have no experience curling, it is a Canadian game.  Some play also in Scotland.  You sort of scoot off a rubber footstopper and skid on your right knee with your left foot on the ice while aiming a stone at a bullseye up the ice.  You are supposed to gently "curl" the stone to help place it.  Our skills did not reach such technical levels, but we tried. :)
Here's me after practicing skidding out.



Here's a photo of the other members of our team, Lisa, Bill, and Scott.  Lisa was a very patient instructor!

Curling was sort of like a combination of bowling and bocce ball on ice.

Then, the BEST part is that if the stone is curling too much, or needs to go faster, you SWEEP quickly in front of it to smooth the ice, which actually speeds the stone slightly and stops the curling, which can sometimes help it over the line, or into the bullseye.  That is fun to try, and especially to watch!

So, now I understand the whole sweeping part of the sport.
Very fun night!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Halloween

Showing off the costumes

Timmy was Pooh Bear and Aaron was Elmo.  We enjoyed having a little red monster running around the house the last few weeks.  Aaron really enjoyed dressing up this year, and would beg to have his costume put on every time he saw it hanging up.

Timmy playing at Maiko's house.  Thanks Maiko!

I heart the forest

I know, it's kind of lame to have to spell out "heart" rather than a nice, bright red heart like one would find on any number of fine quality t-shirts, but I just really love the forest and really don't love looking through the Html code to change the heart into a real heart. C'mon, how much free time do you think I have?

Anyway, as I have bragged to most of you, I live about 10 ft. from a nice strip of forest, with a bunch of little trails and a creek running through it. I miss the mountains, but living so close to the forest is the next best thing. I have no idea where I'll end up in the long run, but if there are no major mountains around, I hope I live near the woods.

Me and the boys head down there every chance we get, and just play around with sticks and jump on logs and throw stuff around. Some neighbors of ours built the frame for this cool little house, and a bunch of us have done our part adding to it and building it up. Timmy calls it "Eeyore House" and we like to find "Eeyore Sticks" to put on it. So be jealous of my cool little forest.

New suit and Basket Helmet

The title explains it all.

Apparently, church was a little too much for him to handle, so he tanked out in the middle of singing time. They just left him here, and he slept the rest of church in his own little corner of the nursery. I wish someone could tell me why adults don't generally fall asleep with their behinds in the air!

To The Rescue: President Monson and Warm Fuzzies

Millcreek with the Johnsons

I haven't been much of a blogger since Scott got his new laptop. 
(He's been our primary poster this year)
Reason being that the new laptop is so much more convenient to download pictures on, so that's the one we use. And I work on the old laptop. So, there's a repeating cycle.

I think, "I'd like to post some pictures", then, "Oh yeah, I don't have any on this computer." then, "I'll wait until Scott gets home, since he has the laptop." ......Then the next day the same things happens again!

So, I apologize our moms and dads for our lack of cute kid postings.  AND a BIG THANK YOU to Ryan and Lizzy for posting this cute pic on Facebook from Millcreek Canyon last month. What a fun night!
And I finally had a picture to post!
-Katie

Lone Peak

I just climbed to the base of Lone Peak (UT) with my brother. I wanted to prove that I'm not that old, but I guess I am. It kicked my little behind. Got some awesome pics though:

No post. no cry

Me no post blog for long time. Me sorry. Me put pretty pictures to make sorry better.

We go to Utah. Here are cousins, Sophie, Ellie, and Bellie.

You think we go to tropical place like Hawaii or Mexico. We trick you, Ha Ha. We go to Idaho. Yes you hear right, Idaho. You no believe it, I know.

You think this picture prove Timmy bigger man than me. You wrong. Timmy no catch fish, he just hold rod. Mommy reels it in. Me still big man of house, no worry.

Me get Utah trip for free by giving U of M recruiting talk at U of U. Me cheapskate. Big time!!

OK, no more pictures. Me very tired of caveman talk. Me hope you never waste time reading blog written by idiot talking like cave man again. Don't repeat mistake.

Who knows this quote?

For the second time today I have overheard Timmy saying to himself quietly...

"There is no charge for Awesomeness."

Anyone know that quote?

I'll give you a hint...he followed it up with

"Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting....dada-dada-dumdum-dumdumdum!"

Perenzels

"Timmy, do you want pretzels?"

"Yay! Pencils!"

"Pretzels"

"Pencils!"

"Say 'prrr'"

"Prrr"

"Say 'pret'"

"Prrret!"

"Pretzels"

"Perenzels!"

Chicago

So we went to Chicago this weekend and hung out with our friends Nate and Missy (who were nice enough to let us crash at their house and force them to sleep in the same room as their kids for a couple of nights). It was a nice, laid back vacation and we really enjoyed what we saw of the city. We are learning that when little kids are involved, less is most often more.

Enough chit-chat, here's some pics:

The ever-so-much-fun train ride

The Bean: a very cool sculpture in the middle of town. Unfortunately, we were not up the the challenge extended by Nate to produce a picture of such originality as to surpass all previously known bean pictures. We hang our heads in boring, cliche shame.

Alas, the shallow fountain also located in the middle of town. The fountain consists of an inch-deep pool of water and two towers on either side with rather creepy faces televised on them. I'm not sure what the faces are for, but they pretend to spit out water every once in a while. I think that someone is trying to get Chicagoans used to the idea of being watched over by floating heads and being reprimanded by their high-pressure spittle. Perhaps the Wizard of Oz wants to extend his realm to Chicago. One can only hope. We could use a lot more over-sized candy and psychedelic horses in this sad, lonely world. Especially the over-sized candy part. Yum!

Wave Field

So, I'm sure I've posted about this before, but there's this awesome outdoor art "sculpture" by Maya Lin called "Wave Field". It's pretty awesome, apparently patterned after some fluid dynamics phenomena (I guess I should actually know something about that sort of stuff, but I pretty much slept through my fluids course). It's really fun to run around on, and this nice picture is Timmy with his new friend Holland running around on the waves.

Michigan Pride

His coordination may be a little lacking, but at least we know where his loyalties lie.

Summer Fun

So we've moved back from Cleveland, and into a new apartment. The new apartment has one of the most beautiful views of the forest. Not only that, but the front yard is super shady, there is a huge sandbox right out the door, and we are surrounded by a lot of good friends. Aaron is a big fan of running around and pushing around pink girl-cars, while Timmy is a little more distracted with his new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse game. His love for it is simmering down a little, but for a long time it was all he ever wanted to play with. Luckily, his friend Holland has been getting him to run around a little more.

Aaron has been enjoying life, and he rolled his Cozy Coupe car racing around the corner and got a real nice bump. They don't make the roll cages sufficiently strong on those things. Anyway, Katie was worried about the bump, but I think that a little swelling stretches his skull and makes room for more brains.

Swimming with the Whiteheads. I'd provide more commentary, but I wasn't there, so you'll have to enjoy the cute pictures without the meaningless commentary.

This was the Saline Town Fair. Apparently the town was named Saline after a salt spring nearby. I've wondered that my whole 3 years here. Who knew that a simple historical trolley ride could answer all of life's burning questions? Who knew indeed...

Seeping Doobie

Timmy is looking at the "Disney-yand" book.

- "Timmy, what's that?" (Pointing to the Disneyland Castle)

"Seeping Doobie's Castle!"

"Goofy and Gona Guck and Mickey and Chip an' Dayew at TunaTown!"

- "Timmy, what's your brother's name?"

"Awen"

(Timmy used to call Aaron "Anon" when he was younger, so we still call him that a lot)

This morning we were playing at the playground. Stepping inside the pirate house, he approaches the side as if coming up to a pulpit and announces loudly "Good moaning bruddrs and sisters! A Book a Mormon tells 'bout Nephi....gibberswqua....an Tscheesus Scist .....gribslequaribra.... Tscheesus Scist, an a Tscheesus Scist Amen!"

He is apparently imitating the bishopric conducting church on Sunday. :)

A little help from our friends

We just wanted to give a hearty thanks to everyone who helped us with the kids in Cleveland so that KT's back could heal up:

Macha and Pappa Tim from Utah

Tracy, Isabel, and Ethan Hansen from Columbus

K.C. and Angie Liu from Arizona

Stacy, Jacob, and Rebecca Hoops from Ann Arbor

Thanks a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I can't type enough exclamation points to show my enthusiastic gratitude) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess that's enough. Thanks again.

Fireflies

We're back in Ann Arbor, safe and sound. Our big move is tomorrow. We'll be moving the contents of our old apartment into the new one. We will be so relieved when we get everything settled in. Moving is always so stressful, even across the parking lot. :)

We have a lovely view of the forest now with the twinkling fireflies and evening raccoon visits. Who could ask for more than to look over a forest from your front living room window?

The Back

I never really explained what was up with my back, because I didn't want to be a whiner, but I've had several people ask. So, I'll just post my email to my cute friend Barb so that everybody knows what's going on. Basically, if you see me lift anything over 15 lbs. Get mad at me! :)

To Barb 7/5/2010

"Oh my injury - it was just crazy. I threw my back out one Sunday right before Thanksgiving just when I bent over to put my skirt on. It got worse over two days, so I went to the chiropractor 2 days later, thinking that it might help me heal faster. It hurt in a way I'd never felt before. I thought that I'd better have some health care specialist look at it and give me an assessment ASAP. I had a friend give me a refer and tell me that she knew a really great chiropractor. If the chiropractor couldn't assess it, I thought I'd go for the doctor after that.

The chiropractor gave me a quick assessment, asked my symptoms, and was really confident I would feel great after an adjustment. He said "Let's get you on the table and feeling better." So, I said "OK!" But after he treated me, I was in more pain than I have ever experienced in my back before. It was terrifying. I could hardly stand on my own. My first thought was that he would call an ambulance, but he told me to come into the next room and he would try something else. I thought, "Oh good. Maybe it's just out and he'll pop in back in or something." I trusted that he knew what was going on. He did something on my back that he call "opening the disks." After that I could NOT sit up or stand at all on my own. I couldn't even lift my body up an inch off the table. I was so scared I started crying. I thought maybe I would be paralyzed. He lifted me up really really slowly, first to sitting, then pulled me to standing. While he bore my weight, he told me to come into the next room and told me to lay on a table with ice and massage. I couldn't even lay down on my own. I laid there for about an hour, and then he told me to get up, strapped a back brace to me, which allowed me to stand on my own, helped me out to my car and sent me home. I asked him what I should do and he told me that I should just lay down for the night. It was 10 in the morning. I thought he was the spinal specialist so I just told him I'd do whatever he said I should.

In retrospect, I really should have just gone to the emergency room. But, I decided to trust him, and just do what he said, thinking that he knew better than I did about what was wrong. He said my muscles "just didn't have anything to grab on to." and I didn't really understand what that meant, except that my muscles were hurt. I went back for X-rays the next day and he "opened the disc." I left again in more pain than when I had arrived, but he said I was just so messed up that I really needed to be adjusted a few times to make sure I was in alignment so I could heal. He told me to come back a few days later. I said that I thought I needed to leave it alone for a while. So, I waited 9 days, and went back. I was feeling pretty good by that time, and I thought that according to what he'd told me, that this time, I would get adjusted and feel no pain, and then I'd know that I was better. But....I had the same experience as I did the first time. I couldn't move. Instead of even having me ice, he just put the back brace on me and told me to leave. He STILL told me to come back and told me he'd let me in on some exercises and stretches I could do "next time." So, then I knew he not only did not care at all about me getting well, but also really didn't have any idea what he was doing. I got the impression that he wanted to rush me out so he could see other patients and because he really didn't know what was wrong with me. But since he still told me to come back I thought "OK - this guy thinks he's going to get a steady income out of me, even though he's the one who HURT me!!"

So, I didn't go back after that. I thought at the time that I had a sprained wrist (I'll explain that later) and severely pulled muscles in my back. I thought that they would get better if I just rested and had Scott help me with the kids more.

It seemed to heal up after about 8 weeks. Never quite the same though...like I couldn't do back bends anymore...I always had a sharp pinch. I would try periodically to do very gentle back extensions, very low range of motion and no weight, just to increase my muscle strength, but I would wake up the next morning with my back locked up. Basically, I was OK if I avoided back extensions and exercising too much. (No running! :( ) I thought I was pretty much out of the woods until I went to Orlando with my husband and kids. I really really hurt after taking the kids out to Beach Club at Disney World. The next week I saw a spinal specialist and he said that the symptoms of my original injury were classic for a ruptured (torn) disc, but that it should heal up in 6 weeks. Again, I felt somewhat better after a few weeks, and again started getting worse. The doctor did an MRI, said I had reinjured it, needed to stop Physical Therapy and stop lifting my kids or anything, stop bending over, and try not to do any one thing...sitting, standing, or walking for too long. I'm now in my 6th week of recovery without having lifted my kids. I still hurt. I hope that as time goes by, it will get better. My back will certainly never be the same, but it's really supposed to be OK without surgery...uh....soon I guess. :)

This has been particularly difficult because at the same time the chiropractor adjusted my back he also asked if I had other pain. I mentioned that my right wrist had been a little uncomfortable when I did yoga or pushups, which I hadn't had before. He adjusted my wrist. It didn't really hurt right off, but after I could walk the next day again, and I felt well enough to try to lift my kids, I noticed that I couldn't use my right hand anymore. I had a lot of pain when I tried to lift or mix or do anything with a lot of weight on my hand. It was like a bad sprain. I thought, "Oh, great. He sprained my wrist too." but thought that it was just sprained and would get better, so I didn't see a doctor right away. It didn't get better though, and during our Christmas in Utah, I made an appointment to see the doctor right away for the very next day after we got home - both for my back and wrist and also because my knees had begun to hurt.

Long story short, after an MRI and several referrals, the doctor told me that my scapholunate ligament was ruptured (torn) in my right hand, and that it was a really bad injury because there is not a good surgery for it, and left alone, it will get arthritic. Even still, he thought no surgery was the best option, even though I would have to avoid putting much pressure on it, because it would really contribute to more injury. To me that meant, no yoga, no canyoneering, no pushups, and avoiding anything that hurt at the time...like lifting my kids with my hand or using a can opener. All sorts of things. I got a second opinion, and he was more positive. He said that even though the ligament was torn, it was still attached and that the bones were still held together. Same restrictions though for now, and with the hope that maybe over time it might actually heal.

So, anyway, it's been a hard year, but I know it could be much worse, and I am still hopeful that over time, I will get better. I'm just so impatient!! :)

Here's my huge update. :) I suppose I will post this on my blog since I've had a few people asking me what happened.

We like Cleveland a lot. It's nice to come here and get away from the norm for a while. We'll be back in Ann Arbor on Saturday.

Thanks for caring!

Katie

He's Home!!

Giving Aaron a welcome back kiss

Taking a peaceful nap at Historic Kirtland

Kirtland Temple Grounds

Macha and Papa Tim with the gang at the Kirtland Temple

The highlight of our time here so far has been little Aaron coming home!! It was so fun to have him back and spend time with mom and dad Stapleton.