Happy New Decade · Jan 2, 16:05
So my New Year’s Res is: Up, Down, In, Out. Cryptic, huh?
The “up” part is about putting more blog posts up. Which would be easier if I could’ve remembered my password, which I could have probably done if I ever actually blogged. Complicating matters, I am my own site admin and I manage my own domain. So there’s no “forgot password” option. Instead, there is a “you are really pretty stupid” option. So I spent the afternoon studying directions like:
shell blah blah host’s control panel blah blah query field list of users update txp_users set pass=password(lower(‘pass’)) where name=‘user’;
and I have not a clue what any of that means, but it finally worked and here I am. The alternative was blogging under Todd’s user name, which could have been slightly amusing….
Anyway, here’s a NYE pic for you.
Champe is in the middle, holding baby Pax very carefully. All 6 of these boys, plus one other, and one very sleepy one year old girl stayed up til about 1 am on New Year’s Day. There was dancing and horns and a pretty amazing ability to hold it together way past their bedtimes for Champe and three of his very best friends.
And just for you, here’s a recap of my decade
2000 Met Todd
2001 Married Todd
2002 Started Xcapacity
2003 Bought new house
2004 Champe born
2005 HWT becomes client
2006 Discover Discovery Woods
2007 Caden born
2008 Adopted daughter, Maritta
2009 Receive amazing Bleigießen prediction :-), stay tuned for realization of this prediction. LOL
— LCM
"All the Way" · Dec 23, 19:33
We’re taking a short Xmas tour of the South. Well, not the deep South, but there are some parts that might as well be.
On our way from my hometown of Lynchburg, VA to Asheville, NC today we stopped at a roadside diner for lunch. Todd ordered a bacon cheeseburger, and the waitress asked what he wanted on it. He said, “Everything, I guess.” “Alrighty,” she replied, “All the way it is.”
When the burger came it was topped with the bacon and cheese of course, plus mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles AND slaw AND chili.
I think in the South “all the way” is short for “all the way to arteriosclerosis.”
I suppose I should confess that I had Southern style green beans, which means heaps of salt and pork fat back, and cooked all day til there is not one whit of nutritional value left, and creamed potatoes to which I added some additional butter. When in Rome you know…...
— LCM
Old Peer Place · Oct 23, 14:24
This past weekend, we went camping with The R’s to a very rustic cabin in WVa. Rustic means: built circa 1840, no hot water in the kitchen (but yes, in the one bathroom, thank goodness), a fully functioning outhouse which we actually made use of (see “one bathroom” reference above), floorboards that creaked, splintered and groaned, and gaping holes in the 2nd floor leading to highly suspicious stairs. It also means marshmellows toasted over our fireplace, the brightest stars you have ever seen, our own private pond on our own private 55 acres with a myriad of fields, woods and outbuildings to explore, an apple tree from which Todd made a delicious apple cobbler, and two VERY, VERY happy 4 year olds.
Photo album link follows….
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| Old Peer Place |
— LCM
Welcome Maritta! · Sep 5, 11:15
Our new au pair arrived on Friday. Maritta is from a village with about 8 too many syllables in Austria. I’d love to write it, but my keyboard couldn’t handle it. It’s a suburb of Vienna though.
We are enjoying getting to know her. She had Champe won over the very first night at dinner, playing foot fights with him under the table.
It’s only been a week, but we/she have experienced the folllowing:
-southern dinner at Old Hickory Grill
-Champe spiking a fever of 102 for 24 hrs
-Laura and Maritta watching the movies, Little Children (a complex plot for someone who’s not a native English speaker) and Stand by Me, drinking a glass of wine and getting distracted from the movies and having girl talk instead.
-eating Chinese noodles downtown
-visiting the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial
-going to the Maryland State Fair and watching pig races
-visiting the JCB, BCK and Zander and enjoying PF Chang’s
-Maritta, Champe & Caden visiting every park within walking distance of our house
-Maritta and Champe baking cookies
-buying new dance clothes for Maritta
-Maritta opening her US bank account
And we captured one picture out of all of the above!
— LCM
Hiking · Aug 18, 11:13
Part I, The Road Less Travelled
We took the boys on a short hike Sunday. We didn’t do the loop exactly as shown on the link; we did a more direct round trip. On the way down to the river, Champe was a bundle of energy and we could not get him to stay on the trail. A la his wonderful expeditionary school, he was off climbing on creek rocks, (insisting it was “easier” than the flat, gravelled trail, by the way), and finding side trails to explore while yelling, “I just want to see if this one meets back up with you guys!” Todd had Caden on his back in the Ergo, and I am less sure-footed on creek rocks, but Champe and I did a fair amount of rock walking. We were rewarded with a nice spot on a fallen tree beside the waterfall (or water fountain, as Champe insisted on calling it) to eat some sandwiches we brought.
Part II, I’d Like to Travel This Road LESS
On the way back – a good chunk of which was a steep uphill climb, Champe’s energy waned. Much of the way back to the car, he sang a litany of complaints, ranging from too tired to not wanting to leave to legs hurting, all designed to get someone to carry him. He took an unusually long nap yesterday and slept beautifully for 11 hours last night. :-) Exhaustion is good for kids.
— LCM
Did you miss me? · Jul 28, 15:12
I missed you too.
But look! I can make it like we were never apart. Here are the top ten things that happened while I goofed off and didn’t blog for months and months. I’m only starting again because I’ve gotten so much grief from my readersreader, that I better start again. (Hey, at least, I found the time to perfect my plagiarizing skills.)
Number Ten – Caden has a tooth!
(Oh alright, that’s not even Caden; I just pilfered this off of the Internet. But his looks exactly the same.)
Number Nine – Caden is eating food.
Number Eight – We had TEN people come stay at our house. On purpose!
(Note: picture includes Champe and Tine, and no the brass monkey was NOT a house guest. The visiting adults, dear friends, Karen and Amy, are missing from the picture.)
Number Seven – We cheated on our favorite beach, Corolla, with a new, closer beach – Sandbridge.
Number Six – We went on vacation. We swam. We hiked. We saw friends.
Number Five – Caden is sleeping through the night! (I still wake up every 2-3 hrs like an automaton, but I’m hoping I’ll be sleeping soon too.)
(You don’t like this picture? Fine, you sneek into a sleeping baby’s room in the pitch dark with a camera you barely know how to use and get something better. What’s worse; I woke him up to get this fabulous shot.)
Number Four – Champe is almost swimming. Face in the water and everything!
(The backfloat.)
(That submerged kid is Champe.)
Number Three- Todd now plays hockey 13 nights a week. OK, so maybe it just FEELS like 13 nights a week. In any event, it’s having an effect on Champe, who had 4 hockey games of his own in our living room this morning. He says he won them all.
Number Two – Our fabulous new au pair, Maritta, arrives from Austria in just over a month.
And the NUMBER ONE thing you missed: I STILL have SUPER CUTE children.
— LCM
Comment [2]
V-Day · Feb 14, 20:47
For V-Day, I got:
-Lunch out with my husband, no kids, despite having a big sickie at home (see next post)
-An awesome homemade stamp card from Champe – and Todd and Champe made the wood cut stamps themselves
-Caden’s first laugh!!!
— LCM
Comment [1]
Christmas Tree! · Dec 22, 11:38
Here’s a couple photos of Todd and Champe cutting down our Christmas tree a few weeks ago.
— LCM
How Mommy Gets a Break · Dec 20, 21:24
A few weeks ago, we took a short weekend trip. This was my rear view mirror “view.”
— LCM
Site Name Change · Sep 28, 16:19
Concurrent with our new arrival, I am pleased to announce our new site name – 4M – which reflects the numbers of Ms (Mitchells) that this blog is about. Plus, now we’re no longer at risk of violating 3M’s trademark. I know they were probably alarmed at our overtaking them in brand recognition, given the 19 regular blog readers we have over here.
— LCM