Winter Weather

A couple of weeks ago we had some really nice winter weather. I just love snow and how clean everything looks. Including the kids snowsuits. Sadly the snow only lasted a few days in town.

When we are not playing outside, there is serious demolition (see lower left) or wallpaper to be done. The kids like demolition the very best. Ryan got me a new wallpapering belt clip. All my needs fit right into that handy carrying case. I am pretty sure that the phone is even in there too on speaker so I can keep working while chatting. I have really come into my own. Don't worry the curtain you see is not going in that room when we are done.

  This weekend Grandma Bee came for a visit and we had a great time playing, reading and doing puzzles. One of the highlights was the trip to the Dinosaur park. What is more scary, the dinosaur or us? I'm pretty sure that we take the cake.

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday Alice and let Christmas Vacation Begin

Alice turned 4 this year and there was nothing that I could say to talk her out of a "flat chocolate cake." Not that I tried really hard, I'm a big fan of Texas sheet cake.

She was so excited to be the center of attention all day beginning with Helen shouting "Happy Birthday Alice!" when the alarm clock goes off. Jane even gave her the sticker she got from Kindergarten to celebrate. Here she is with a set of gears that are a gift that keep giving.

On the first day of winter break I decided it was time to start scraping the wallpaper off the walls of the second bedroom. The kids were delighted, ecstatic, excited beyond words to get to help. Helen is my most diligent helper and able to pull the biggest sheets of wallpaper off the wall to date.

Jane calls herself "the wallpaper scraping machine" and Alice was always willing to lend a hand with the squirt bottle.

I thought we could try the pressure sprayer to get more water on the wallpaper. Here is Carl using all his muscles and his forehead to pump it up.

I've since decided not to use said sprayer because of the number of falls we've had in puddles on the floor. When questioned the kids all blamed Carl for the water on the floor. Not that I didn't see some real casual spraying from other quarters with all sorts of swinging arms punctuating the excitement of scraping wallpaper. I'm happy to report that with recent my recent policy changes OSHA has not shut our production down. 

La Repulica Dominicana

This fall I went to the Dominican Republic for a Nutrition Conference, clearly a serious sacrifice.

It was so much fun to catch up with all my colleges and learn what has been going on in the last 7 years in the world of nutrition. One of my co-authors from years ago said, "look at what has happened based on all the work you did, it's amazing." Another woman from Venezuela said, "Michelle Hackett, I know you, I cited your work in a paper I just wrote." It's good to know that something has come from all my blood, sweat and tears. I was asked multiple times if I was ready to come back and start working. I assured them all that our two year old had just been potty trained and this was no time bail out. 

The second day I was there, none of the topics were in my area of research so I played tourist and went up in the mountains to visit a farm.

Not only was this house pink on the outside, the inside was exactly the same color. The girls think we should move there. 

Can you see the vanilla vine in the background? It was so exciting to be that close to such a lucrative crop especially after reading Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid. 

Here I am making sugar cane juice on a large scale and roasting chocolate beans on a smaller scale.

Home Repairs

I tried to capture our front room at it's worse to make the final pictures look better. Sadly I didn't think of taking the "before" picture until after Alice and I had taken the old wallpaper off the wall. It was surprisingly easy to peel the wallpaper off, in fact, Alice helped me tear it off in long sheets. She thought it was great fun (and so did I). It is a little suspicious that little pockets of wallpaper all over our house have mysteriously started "falling off the wall" since we started.

Ryan, very hesitantly, let me talk him into putting new wallpaper up. This was against his better judgment and extended family pressure (Craig and Emily). Maybe I've lived in too many rentals, but I've never lived in a house with a good paint job. Nor has said paint ever hid even a hint of fingerprints. 

Here is the final product complete with a Mt. Fuji valence. Oh, and you can see the new windows too. It's so nice to be able to open windows now. Only 5 out of 36 windows in our home opened before due to paint jobs gone bad (mmm, hmm) and broken pulley ropes. Although it's cold now, I'm excited for spring and throwing all the windows open wide.

The Johnson's came for a visit at Thanksgiving, and Craig was all about discovering nooks, crannies, and hidden spaces. We pretty much let him have free reign as documented by the picture below. Can you find him? He also helped Ryan and Spencer put a ventilation fan in our bathroom amidst his wanderings. It was no small task considering the size of the attic access and we are grateful for the help. 

Fall Flings

This summer we broke down and bought a house. We decided that it wasn't really feasible to live in Amber and Spencer's basement any longer. This picture was taken right after we bought it. We've since done some pruning, window updates and had Fall. 

One weekend we went on a quick trip up to Roan Mountain State Park for hiking.

Carl was thrilled to hike a lot, but it sure is hard for those little legs to get over those big rocks.

This fall I broke one of my cardinal rules and let my kids pick up leaves. I decided that their little hands couldn't hold that many; boy was I wrong when we got back to the car. Luckily they could be convinced that the squirrels needed their leaves to make their nests so we should leave them on the ground by the stream.

The leaves were lovely, and the girls look great in their matching undershirts.

I thought this picture of the canopy turned out really cool.

Carl is always up for a picture.

The Finch's, a.k.a. the Seven Dwarves, joined us for trick-or-treating in downtown Elizabethton. They were serious contenders in the costume competition.

Ryan and the kids talked me into getting a pumpkin this year. I thought it was festive enough to buy pumpkin window clings and put them up. Silly me. Ryan was on his own for jack-o-lantern making. Well, he wasn't really alone as you can see from the picture, but I had already put up my window clings and was wiped out.

One of the great features of big shade trees are all the leaves that make for great piles to jump in.

Summer

This is Ryan.  I sensed a tone of discontent from the prior post's author regarding our data-security arrangement.  It is a lamentable but understandable viewpoint, from one with such a nebulous view of "The Cloud".  I can take the criticism though, knowing that our photos are safe from loss, if also safe for the time being from most other members of our household.

Enough said.  Here are a few shots from this summer we've been meaning to share . . .

It's been a great summer for bicycling, and here are the McClure's with us about to embark on a rain-ride.  It was a priceless few days we got to spend with them in September, and the kids had so much fun playing inside and out every waking moment.  We're so lucky they drove up here for a visit.

Here were are taking a break at  Elizabethton's famous Covered Bridge, and Michelle giving her best Japanese-teenager-taking-a-photo impression.

Helen and Jane are loving their freedom on their bikes, especially when riding to the library or to a park.

Carl and Alice are usually Michelle's riding buddies, but around our home driveway they get to head out on their own.

Here's Michelle and the kids tackling the job of pruning our overgrown cherry trees.  Notice that Carl, with a rake 3 times his size is also in on the action.

Columbus Day and Happy Birthday Carl!

So in the process of moving across continents, someone, who will remain nameless, sequestered all our family photos to a "cloud" where they are, for all practical purposes, inaccessible to me. Then this same unnamed person upgraded our computer to Windows 10 - another roadblock to my technological pursuits. Ergo, I only have found these pictures posted here. I'm not sure where the rest are, somewhere on The Line I'm sure. Once I'm done updating our blog I'm going to go listen to some music on my cassette-tape player. 

 Here are Carl and Alice playing some great tunes for us.

This year's model's of the famous Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. I think that they are getting less elaborate, but no less loved. I'm not sure what we are going to name the 4th boat when Carl gets older. Maybe he'll make the Endeavor.

This year for Carl's birthday we had the Finch's and Call's over for a good time. Although Ryan taught Carl to say pumpkin pie, I put my foot down and we made him a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. 

The younger set of cousins really appreciated all his new toys. His favorite gift may be the goggles we got him. As a side note, I just don't think Carl could have too much in the way of safety protection.

As if it weren't fun enough to have a birthday party, the Elizabethton Homecoming Parade marched right by our house after dinner. I think this might be the first time Ryan has incited panic in the kids getting them all excited to run outside. I've never seen kids inhale burritos so fast. Happily we didn't have to put our CPR training to use.

Happy 1st Day of School!

Helen started 2nd grade this fall and is doing great adjusting to the new school.

 Jane is so happy to be in Kindergarten and could hardly sleep the night before her first grade.

Fun with the Finch Family

The Finch Family has graciously let us live in their basement while we've been in the house buying process. Not only has it been fun to be around 7 cousins all the time, but there are also 6 chickens that need daily human interaction as well. 

(I have serious doubts that they are ever going to lay eggs after all the psychological and physical trauma they've been through in these kids hands. But perhaps chickens are made of tougher stuff; they have been around for a long time. Our kids cannot be the first kids to harass our avian friends.)

 Our kids were quickly (instantly) incorporated into the job chart when we got to Amber's house, and Hunter and Helen have been great buddies. Okay, the truth is both of them like to be the boss and there is no small amount of friction. Here is one of their quieter moments.

 Alice and Bianca love jumping on the trampoline during sprinkler time.

 Here are the kids doing their best to keep the Sabbath day holy while enjoying their fowl friends.

 A couple weeks ago I broke down and bought a tea set for $2 at a garage sale. It has been a big hit.

 Being around all these older kids has given Carl all sorts of ideas... This is not my favorite idea: potty train a 22 month old in the middle of the biggest family move of our life. No, I'd prefer bamboo shoots under my fingernails.