She's alive!!!

Three semesters done...two to go! I can see the finish line and boy does it look good. This last semester was quite a challenge but I have emerged victoriously with a little help from my mother and mother-in-law. Oh! And Tom too! Although my classes were really tough this time around I sure have learned a lot. Sometime in the near future I will share with you all how anthropologists view the concept of "race." It's really interesting.

So much has happened in the last month and I have so many pictures to share (which is why most of you read my blog anyway). Here is kind of a hodge-podge of what we have been up to this last month including playing in the grass, picking "flowers," visiting the Detroit Zoo, and a tour of the Michigan State Capitol building.

A little slice of Seattle

Last night Tom and I were lucky enough to take a break from the craziness that is the end of the semester. Connor stayed with a babysitter while we went to a Death Cab for Cutie concert...can you believe it? They came here to East Lansing. It was like having our own little slice of Seattle. They are such a great band. There music is creative and smart, not to mention the fact that they are great performers. Some of their music makes me tear up though thinking about growing up in the Northwest. One of my fondest memories of their music is how the father of one of my best friends in the whole world used to call them Dead Cat for Katie....oh how we used to roll our eyes at our parents.

The concert took place in the basketball stadium so when we sat down we found ourselves sitting on bleachers amidst a huge group of 18 year old undergrads. Man did that make me feel old. There was absolutely no room so Tom and I went to the ticket counter to see if they could move us back up to the chairs. They told us no but they could place us in the handicapped seating. I guess we looked too old and decrepit to be sitting with all the "kids." So we had our seats changed and ended up sitting on a balcony with chairs that we could move anywhere we wanted and only had to share the place with two other people It was great. We are pulling the handicap card now every time we go see a show!

Happy Spring everybody.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody! We love you and miss you terribly!

Culinary Horizons

Over the last few weeks Tom and have tried to widen our culinary horizons by trying all sorts of new dinner and dessert recipes. I figured that as we went along I would share with all of you the recipes that really stood out. The first one that comes to mind is one that I found just recently in a wonderful cookbook by Nigella Lawson called Feast. The recipe itself is called Chocolate Guinness Cake and is pictured above and yes...it does contain some Guinness. Interestingly, however, the flavor that the alcohol leaves in the cake does not taste like alcohol at all. Instead the cake has a bit of a tangy flavor that is really appealing. It is a really dense and moist cake with a creamy whipped cream cheese frosting and if anybody is interested I can send you the recipe.

I leave you now with a picture of my little man who is now 15 months old and finally walking!!!

Home again...

Our short trip to beautiful Northern California has come to an end and we are back to the routines we left behind in Michigan. Spring is slow to arrive to this part of the country but we are enjoying our slightly above freezing weather and the return of the chirping birds. We have just contented ourselves with the warm and wonderful memories of our trip across the country this past week...


This is the view of Mt. Shasta that is visible from my parents deck. I can't even begin to express how beautiful this little corner of the world is.


This is another view of Mt. Shasta during the day and from a much higher vantage point.


During the fist few days of our visit Tom's mom joined us and we traveled to several wonderful little towns throughout the Siskiyous and beyond. Connor's favorite town was Jacksonville because it had a wonderful toy shop where his Oma bought him a rather noisy toy.


One of the little towns that we past through had a small motel that was made up of 20 or so old rail cars. It also sat at the bottom of another natural wonder of the area known as the Castle Craigs.


Here is another view of the Castle Craigs. The photo does not do it justice.


We took the long way back to Sacramento through tiny towns like Ferndale and Weaverville. Most of the time was spent peeking into adorable little shops and enjoying the scenery.


We stayed at a wonderful little Victorian Inn in Ferndale with period furniture and everything. I woke up in the middle of the night hoping to see a ghost of some sort but alas...no luck.


I was surprised to not see a ghost as we were right next to one of the oddest cemeteries I had ever seen. It stretched all the way up this little hill and was really quite old. Many of the graves belonged to individuals who died in the late 1800's. Too cool, but that's the forensic anthropologist in me speaking.


We also drove through a section of the Redwoods known as the Valley of the Giants which was absolutely amazing. It was so dark and peaceful beneath those gigantic trees.


What a wonderful adventure. And the best news of all...


Connor took his first steps on his own on Wednesday! Yay!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody...cheers!

California

My goodness...life never seems to slow down. Right now I am so grateful for Spring break and my parents as I am writing this post from their house at the base of Mt. Shasta in sunny and warm California. I absolutely refuse to go back to Michigan now! I can't even begin to describe the beauty that surrounds us in this little corner of the world. I will be sure to post some pictures as soon as possible. So far we have been all over Siskiyou and Shasta County and are planning a trip out to the coast this weekend.

In other news Connor is now standing on his own. He hasn't quite made any steps without our help but he teeters about the room quite quickly with Mommy or Daddy in hand. He is quite the little dancer now too and loves to dance to just about any kind of music. This morning it was Bach. What a character.

Our town

I miss the Northwest, where the changing seasons move subtly from warm to cool to warm again. Here in Michigan we endure 5 months of brutally cold winter that never seems to end. Connor and I have been watching snow flakes dance outside of our windows this morning while listening to Craig's music. It has been very peaceful but honestly, I am so tired of feeling cold! In honor of the spring that never seems to come I thought I'd share some pictures of the new town that we live in that were taken during the summer.



Here's to that elusive Spring...may it come quickly and warm our frozen bones!

Word wiz

Just popped in to say Connor is up to three words now in his vocabulary. Yesterday while I was trying very hard to put on his shoes (I really dislike baby shoes by the way) he said..."Shhhooooeee!" I don't think he likes shoes either. =) And today it was, "Hi!" What a character.

Fish and Flowers

Last week I ordered a print from a good friend of mine who is an artist in Washington and I just had to share it with all of you. It's beautiful! The colors, the precision...everything!



Her art is a mix of everything odd and beautiful and if you are interested she has a blog with a link to her online shop. The address is http://eggmanstudios.blogspot.com/ so check it it out!

-15

Finally! Lansing reached 30 degrees today! What a difference from our -15 degree nights and 0 degree days. It feels like a heat wave.



The three of us are doing well despite a few runny noses and some coughs. School has started again with a bang. I'm taking biocultural evolution, advanced osteology and law and forensics. I thought this semester was going to be easier because I didn't all those bone quizzes every week but boy was I wrong. I'm currently reading the equivalent to several books a week and writing, writing, writing. Phew...this is only the second week of class and I'm already exhausted. I also have been working on several different ideas for my thesis, most of which are based on determining ancestry in either Northwest Native American or Native Michigan skeletal remains. Ancestry is kind of a hot topic in forensic anthropology these days because of all of the controversy that surrounds it. We'll see.

Have a great weekend!

Done!

Lately I have been trying to get Connor to express to me in some way when he is finished eating and ready to get down from his highchair. So everyday for the last few weeks I've been asking him, "All done?" On Saturday morning after breakfast he finally said Done!!!...very loudly which was his first official word besides mama and dada.

Connor is also crawling like a mad man and races with us down the hallway in our apartment. He has made several attempts to stand without holding on to something and is getting closer every time. My boy is growing up so fast!

Overdue!

Happy New Year! I can't believe how quickly this last year has gone by. And what a year it was. Having a baby, moving between Washington and Michigan, and flying through my first semester with a baby. I know I haven't been very good at keeping up with new posts so I thought I'd just recap the last few months.
Halloween: Connor was a lobster and we took him to the mall to trick or treat. Everybody there told us he had the cutest costume of the night...Thanks Mom! Next year we will brave the outdoors with him.

November: Tom's mom came to visit and we made a trip up to Traverse City and the Leelanau Peninsula. I was so greatful for all of her help. I don't think I could have made it through this last semester without her.

Thanksgiving: We had a potluck at my good friend Carolyn's for Thanksgiving and I made the turkey...can you believe it? I cooked a turkey and it tasted good!


December: We moved! We finally made the move off campus to a three bedroom apartment in a small town outside of East Lansing. It is within walking distance to the downtown area where there are little shops, a great coffee place/book store and the county courthouse.

Christmas: Christmas was quiet with just the three of us but we were able to get a tree up and have a small celebration. The snow was falling really hard in the morning and we made cinnamon rolls which Connor absolutely loved. A couple of days after Christas my parents joined us and we opened presents.


January: The best news so far...Connor had his first birthday and crawled the day before. Our little man is growing up so quickly. He is also a smart little bugger. Yesterday my Dad was taking a nap and was snoring very loudly which Connor heard and proceded to copy. He also loves to lift up people's shirts and tickle their bellies.


Well that's it for now. Tom got me the complete Northern Exposure series on DVD and I finally have a few moments to watch an episode. I wish you all a peaceful New Year.

Merry Christmas! We love you all and miss you so much!

More Christmas Fun

I know I've been a little video happy lately but here's another one of my Christmas favorites. Oh for the days of Will Vinton and his claymation specials...

Black holes and a Merry Christmas

I have finally emerged and recovered from the black hole that is finals week. It went pretty well but we will find out HOW well next week when grades come out. =) Connor is doing great and I promise to give you a full update very soon. Until then I leave you with one of my favorite Christmas songs...

Lost in a sea of stuff to do!

*If you want to watch the video, make sure you scroll down and push pause on the music player on right side of the screen. =)

My goodness! What a month. Life never seems to slow down when you are a mother. I love the line in John Lennon's song Beautiful Boy that says, "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans." Connor is growing so quickly and doing so many new things I'm always so afraid that I'm going to miss something. He's pulling himself up now into a standing position and loves to say Whoa! It's really cute. He has also become quite the picky eater recently. Homemade macaroni and cheese and pancakes. That's it! Or at least those are the only foods he doesn't complain about.

School is going well but is much more work than I ever thought it would be. I still have one more presentation, a paper, and a final to go and then I will be off for a month. Yay! I have really loved my osteology class and will miss it. Next semester I'm taking a Law class where I learn how to testify as an expert witness in court. SCARY! I guess the final is actually testifying in a mock court in front of a real judge and jury and the person cross examining me is one of my anthro teachers! REALLY SCARY!

Well, life continues to march on and all the while we are missing everybody so much! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!!!

We hope you enjoy our Halloween selection of ghoulish music and have a scary evening filled with ghosts and pumpkins!

Oh wow...

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I have had a crazy couple of weeks which included moments where I was thinking I was on top of the world and others where it was more along the line of..."what on earth have I got myself into." I guess life is just like that though. To make a long story short the lab has been very busy...very very busy. I did, however, get to work on my first recent murder case. Very CSI/Law and Order. I survived my first trip to the morgue and boy do I have some stories to tell. Unfortunately, they are not the type of stories that should be written all over a blog so...moving on!

Our little family is doing great. Tom is now working part-time in the evenings and Connor is still growing like mad. He has all four of his top incisors which give him the cutest smile I have ever seen. He is also moving around like crazy, rolling from side to side and scooting all over the floor on his back. His Halloween costume came in the mail the other day and looks great on him! Our little lobster. Well, I have yet another bone test tomorrow so I must be off. Happy Wednesday to you all!

Our poor sick boy!

What a week. I have a new profound respect for any parent who is trying to go to school and raise a child at the same time. It seems that Connor picked up a virus last weekend and has had a sore throat, rash, fever, and cranky disposition all week. This came at the perfect time seeing as I had a bone fragment test and presentation this week. No sleep + screaming baby + bone fragment test = disaster. It would really be nice if we could schedule Connor's illnesses. =) So much more convenient. He is doing better, however. Poor little guy.

If you have noticed, I have added some music to my blog. If you are not a fan or would like to hear the sound on one of the videos I have posted, just scroll down on the right side and you will see a little music player. Just press pause and it should stop.

Autumn has finally come to Mid-Michigan. It seems that the weather knows when October starts so it brings in the cool breezes and bright colors. This is by far my favorite time of year. This will also be Connor's first Halloween too! His Oma is getting him a lobster costume so stay tuned for the pictures.

The plan for this beautiful clear Saturday is to go looking for Fall colors so I will be off and leave you with a picture of our little Cheerio hound.

Have a great weekend!

Giggles