Every year the volunteer fire company in our little town drives
around in their firetrucks & ambulances with lights flashing and
sirens blaring, giving Santa a ride through the neighborhoods as he
waves to the kids and his "elves" pass out candy canes. This year we
went to a friend's house and made a small donation to the fire company
to have Firetruck Santa make a personal visit to the kids.
When we got to the friend's house, Anna and Cara kept looking up in
the sky asking if we saw Santa yet. After playing with their friends
for awhile (there are 3 girls in the other family right around the same
age), we heard the sirens. All the kids piled by the front door to see
the firetruck pull up with lights flashing, and Santa stepped out.
There was MUCH excitement!
He passed out candy canes to all the girls (most of which got broken
before we left), and each one took a turn on his lap. Anna talked to
Santa so quietly I couldn't really hear what she was saying. Cara
didn't really care to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas; instead,
she introduced him to everyone in the room: "that's my sister; that's
my daddy; that's my mommy; that's Lauren," etc. I'm sure Santa was
enthralled!
Today after playing at the park, we got some chicken Mcnuggets and
fries from McDonald's. As usual, I got some sweet & sour sauce to
use just in case the girls didn't finish their nuggets. We must have
played hard enough to make the girls hungry, because they both ate all
their nuggets, which is rare.
This time, though, Anna actually asked to have some of the sweet
& sour sauce, which is a first, because she never tries anything new
and has always just eaten her nuggets plain or with ketchup. She
actually liked it, too, which surprised me. I asked if she liked it and
said that it's called sweet and sour sauce, and she said "Yeah! It's
apple sauce for your chicken!" Ok, I guess it's the right color…
I know it's been awhile since I've written anything - life's been
very busy, work's been busy and frustrating. I plan to write some
entries to catch up on what the girls have been up to the last couple of
months. Today I uploaded a bunch of new pictures to our photo gallery for the last couple months, so you can enjoy those in the meantime. They're under Day-to-Day->2008 Summer, Day-to-Day->2008 Fall, and Vacations and Trips->2008 IndianaIllinois.
Tonight we took the girls to the Montgomery County Fair. We haven't
been able to take them to any of the local carnivals this summer, so we
wanted to be sure to take them. Anna loved the ferris wheel last year
and had been talking about it for awhile. This time, Cara was able to
ride with us. She really liked the ferris wheel, too, and kept saying
she wanted to do it again. I can't remember without looking if Cara
rode the merry-go-round last year or not, but this year she really
enjoyed it, too. She had to sit out and watch Anna go on the "jet skis"
by herself, though, since she wasn't tall enough yet. The only drama we
had was when we were leaving. Nobody wanted to go home!
Montgomery County is the county south of us. I always thought the
name of OUR county's fair was a little grandiose: "The Great Frederick
Fair." I discovered that there must be a rivalry between counties
regarding who has the best one, because down there, theirs is called
"The Spectacular Montogmery County Fair."
More pics are in our photo gallery under Day-to-Day, 2008 Summer. Here are a few videos of the girls having fun at the fair:
There's a grocery store that Beth likes to use, when possible,
because they have little miniature shopping carts for kids to push
around. I think it's a great idea. Anna insists on having her cart,
and only her cart, loaded up with the groceries.
And completely unrelated to that, the other night Anna found my
noise-cancelling headphones and tried them on. She was very pleased
that they could make it so she couldn't hear the thunder, and said, "I love your ear muscles, daddy!"
A friend asked Beth the other day if we were going to sign Anna up
for soccer. Anna had said something about dancing before, so Beth asked
her if she wanted to be a soccer player or if she wanted to dance.
Anna replied, "I want to be a dancing ballerina in my tutu!" She loves
this tutu - everything with the tutu these days. Beth said that we'll
have to ask daddy because dancing costs a lot of money.
Apparently Anna had been thinking about it the rest of the day,
because that night at bedtime, she asked Beth again if she could dance,
and was very distressed when Beth said, "We'll see, we have to ask
daddy" again. Anna then made the suggestion, "But daddy could just buy
some money to have for the dancing!" Hmm, that would be nice depending
on their prices, but a money tree would be better. Maybe it's time for a
little lesson on money and an allowance…
We got a package from Lelo and Abuela Menendez today, for Anna's
birthday. She was very excited about the crown and the jewelry and
couldn't wait to put it on. When we asked if she wanted to draw a
thank-you card, she said, "Yes, but I want the crown first!" So she put
on her crown, the necklace, the earrings, the jewelry… the only thing
missing was the princess dress, but she didn't want to try it on,
"because I'm already wearing my crab shirt." She'll try it on later,
she says.
The next big hit was the fishing game. Anna, Cara, and I pretty much
played it until it was time for bed. We'll pull out the sticker books,
the leapfrog pad (which I hope Anna likes so she can start learning to
read!), etc., later on when they're not thinking of fishing. The girls
say, "Thank you!"
This is Part 7 of my account of our tour to Israel with The National Christian Choir.
This entry begins with our visit to the Church of the Annunciation,
then to Beit Shean, Jericho, and finally arriving in Jerusalem with a
stopover in Bethlehem. To start at the beginning, click here. All my Israel pictures and videos are in the photo gallery under Vacations and Trips, then 2008 Israel.
Day 5 - Church of the Annunciation
We started out the day by visiting the Church of the Annunciation,
which is the traditional site where the angel appeared to Mary and
announced that she would give birth to Jesus. I have to say that I was
impressed with the churches that they built on many of the traditional
sites. I thought they were beautiful, and they were also great places
for our group of 300 to sing in. Since this was where Jesus' name was
announced, we sang Holy is His Name by John Michael Talbot - a very nice choral arrangement that sounded fantastic in this church.
Today I took the day off, and we took the girls to the National
Aquarium in Baltimore. We got a membership that pays for itself in 2
visits, but gives you year-round admission and lets you enter right away
instead of getting a timed ticket. We thought it'd be good since the
girls loved SeaWorld, and each time we go to Walmart, they go crazy
looking at the fish, calling it the "aquarium."
They really had a good time. Anna was so excited about seeing
seahorses, that's all she could talk about. Then when we saw an
alligator, she was so excited telling mommy about it that she made
herself cough and couldn't finish. Cara liked laying down on the ledges
and watching the fish lying on the ground next to the glass. While it
was neat seeing dolphins, the show at SeaWorld is much more
entertaining.
Anyway, I imagine we'll being going back a few more times during our
membership year. Anna was crying when we were walking back to the car -
she didn't want to go home but wanted to stay at the aquarium, or at
least walk around the Inner Harbor more. It is a neat section of
Baltimore, right on the harbor. We'll be back.
Tonight, Anna and I went to our old friends the Morris's annual 4th
of July party. Beth and Cara couldn't go this time. We love the
Morris's and always look forward to their get-togethers. This could
have been the last one, though, since sadly they're planning to retire
and move away to Ohio. Life goes on.
Anyway, this year I bought a few tame fireworks to share at the
party. And the Morris's had some old hand-held sparklers lying around.
Anna really liked the little firework that I bought - just a tiny thing
you set on the ground, and it shoots sparks and colors, relatively
quietly, into the air for maybe 15-20 seconds. After some "dinner" (2
bananas, but that's better than nothing) and some cake, she was ready to
go see the fireworks.
We lit the sparklers first. Anna didn't want to hold one initially;
just enjoyed watching. But then she saw another 2 1/2 year old hold
one, so she got the courage to hold one. I helped her hold it, showing
her to hold it away from her and watch it, and she really liked it.
When it burned out, I turned to get the disposal can, then I turned back
around just in time to see her reach with her other hand to grab the
portion of the sparkler that was burned out but still very hot, too late
to stop her.
I
feel really bad. I had talked her into holding one, she went out on a
limb, and because I didn't think to warn her not to touch it anywhere
else, in 2 short seconds she got burned. Fortunately it was just a
little blister on her finger, and holding a cold washcloth helped.
Surprisingly, she even agreed to help pass out sparklers to everybody -
she just didn't want to hold another burning one. I'm sad that her
first sparkler experience ended like that, but maybe by next year she'll
be willing to try again.
She did thoroughly enjoy the other fireworks I brought. I also had
two bigger ones that popped kind of loudly. John Morris held Anna as
those went off. The first one, she covered her ears and was half
crying, half laughing. Then for the 2nd one, she covered her ears, but
was clearly laughing and enjoying it. Then on the way home she
excitedly pointed out fireworks in the sky - maybe next year she'll be
ready to see some "real" ones at the park.
Tonight at the Morris's 4th of July party, I was chatting with Fran
Morris, catching up. In the course of the conversation, she cautiously
asked me, "So Dave, how is your health these days?"
"Huh," I thought, "this is a new one." It was such a general
question, I was trying to comprehend what would have sparked it. Do I
look sickly? I didn't think that was it. Do I look older than I should
at 32? No, I didn't think that was it, either. Is there an unspoken
age that I've now reached where people just know they better ask about
your health? If so, is 32 that magic age? Seems young to me.
"Uhhm," I replied, "my health? It's uh, fine, really. Nothing
exciting - I don't even think I've been to the doctor since high
school!" That seemed to surprise her, so now I really wondered what was
wrong with me.
Hoping she wasn't opening a can of worms, Fran cautiously told me why
she asked. Apparently, Tony, the hispanic pastor of our old church,
leads their Bible study. Two years ago or so, he apparently got the
impression from somewhere that I had multiple sclerosis, so I've been on
their prayer list for two years! I was certainly touched that they
prayed for me, but it's pretty funny - except for the real person with MS who's been missing out on all the prayer.
Now I have to wonder who told Pastor Tony that I had MS. I'm willing
to bet it's the same person that told us that the Morrises had already
moved out of Ohio and made us miss their parties last year. Whoever it
is - they must be stopped.
In a previous post, I noticed a little sign of Anna growing up - she
stopped putting two feet on each step as she climbed stairs. She's now
all but stopped having to have her kitty and blankets with her wherever
she goes. She does keep them in her bed, though, and sleeps with them
every night, along with her pink snowman slippers. Today in church she
actually sang with her VBS class in front of everybody. Before, she'd
cling to her teacher, but this time she asked us to sit up front so we
could see her, so we did. And I think it helped her confidence, because
once she saw us, she got a big smile on her face and sang out. And
she'd smile big throughout the other songs when she'd glance over and
see us still there, watching. She can also count to at least 5, maybe
10, thanks to her friend Dora the Explorer. She knows some other
Spanish words as well, though "perrito" comes out as "burrito."
Cara is now walking down the steps standing up, but still using two
feet per step. She is very, very independent, but still loves to copy
whatever her sister does or says. She likes to sit on the kitchen
counter and watch Beth do whatever. She is still a big mess at the
table - yesterday we had spaghetti and that Texas Toast garlic bread
with cheese. She ate the spaghetti with her hands, and after licking
the cheese on the garlic bread, she peeled it off bit by bit to eat just
the cheese, then somehow ate a hole in the middle of the bread, and was
trying to put the bread on her arm like a bracelet.
In other kind of sad growing up news, I may need to start limiting
how much the girls, at least Anna, can jump on my belly. The girls like
to hold my hands while they leap up and pounce on my belly. Anna's
getting big enough now, though, that it's starting to hurt!
Both girls are very scared of thunder - Cara probably only because
Anna screams whenever she thinks she hears a little thunder. When a
tiny roll of thunder came during naptime and Anna freaked out, I tried
to calm her down by saying it was just the sky burping a little, and she
just needs to say, "Excuse you, sky!" That seemed to work, a little,
we'll see. But now whenever she gets scared by thunder, she says, "I'm
scared of the burping!"
Last night at 3:15 a.m., Anna came and woke me up. "Daddy, I lost a
slipper! I need to find it!" So I got up to help her find her single
lost slipper in her dark room. Once we found it, all was ok. She put it
on (she was wearing the other one already) and went back to sleep. Titi
Edna, these are (still) the pink snowman slippers that you gave to Anna
in Orlando last fall. She loves those slippers and still wears them to
bed (i.e., sleeps with them on) every single night. They're getting a
little worn from so much use. Titi Toni, you asked what Anna would like
for her birthday - I think she would love another pair of silky, shiny,
fluffy slippers. I could be wrong, and she might insist on the pink
snowman slippers till they literally fall apart!
My mom recently sent me this picture of her first time "rapelling,"
if you can call it that. I had to laugh, because it reminded me of my
first time rapelling at summer camp. I hate what I call "low heights,"
meaning I'm just fine riding on or piloting an aircraft, but if I'm
standing on a cliff where one misstep will obviously cause a painful
fall, I freeze up.
Anyway, I was absolutely terrified, but they made all of us do it. I
was frozen up, maybe a quarter way down this 100 foot cliff, when my
whole harness thing started to slip off. I started yelling, "Oh crap!
Get me down! Get me down NOW!!!" Everyone started laughing, but I
didn't see the humor in being 75 feet in the air with my safety
equipment tenuously wrapped around my ankles instead of my groin, where
it was supposed to be. I guess I got my skills from mom.
Anna just has bad luck when it comes to the driveway. When we
pulled into our villa in Orlando last fall for our family reunion, she
was quite horrified when she saw this dead lizard right outside her van door.
Today, when they were getting into the van, Anna discovered yet
another life claimed by the driveway, again right next to her door.
This time, it was the decapitated carcass of a bird. Not only was it
headless, but it also looked like something ripped its chest open and
took the insides, in the style of Temple of Doom or The Thing.
Probably the only thing I could do to make it more scary for her
would be to tell her that a thunderstorm did that to the bird, but Beth
didn't think that would be a good idea.
Yesterday (the 6th) we had a party for Anna's 4th birthday. She was
very confused because on the 5th (her actual birthday), we wished her a
happy birthday, and she thought she was having a party that day. After
work I had done a big run to the grocery store for Beth to get both
general groceries and things for the party. When I brought the stuff
home, I had to run back out to get more things for the party so
everything would be ready (a new propane tank, for one). So I wasn't
actually home much on her actual birthday. Poor Anna - I don't know what
she thought was happening, but she said, "This is the best birthday
party EVER!" to Beth, when there was no actual party, no presents yet,
and daddy wasn't even home. I think she was confused when she went to
bed.
Yesterday made up for it, at least, when she had her actual party,
which she'd been looking forward to for months. It was really a simple
cookout with several friends from Beth's MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)
group and friends from Anna's preschool. The guys, of course, met for
the first time. But we had balloons, cupcakes, and a bunch of toys in
the backyard to play with. I have to count in my head how many girls
were there… I don't even know, maybe around 15 little girls? Counting
the boys is easy - there was only one! Anna's friend Alex, who's
deathly afraid of our black-and-white cats and asked me repeatedly to
"put them away," even though we were outside and the cats were nowhere
to be seen. I forget what the game was, but at one point all the girls
were chasing Alex around the yard.
Anna was too excited to eat her hot dog & baked beans, so she
told us that she "didn't like it" and "wanted to play." We let her,
since it was her birthday after all. She didn't have a problem eating 2
or 3 cupcakes later, though. All the kids had a really fun time
playing in the sprinkler when we turned it on. At first Anna didn't
want to get wet, so she stood far back and held her hands out to feel
the water droplets. But one of the other dads somehow convinced her it
was fun, then picked her up and held her over the sprinkler and got her
all wet - after which Anna repeatedly went back to him to do it again
and again. After the sprinkler, there were bubbles for everyone to play
with.
Below is a short collage of some pictures and video clips from Anna's party (or click here for a high-quality version, ~25MB). All the pictures and raw video clips will be in the photo gallery, under Day-to-Day, 2008 Summer, Annas 4th Birthday.
It was a fun time, and all the kids had a ball, I think. It was a
little warm, but our backyard is shaded in the evening, so it wasn't too
bad. It was good we had it yesterday because we have an excessive heat
watch for the rest of the weekend, with heat indeces near 110 degrees.
The only casualty was after everyone left, when Cara let one of Anna's
11 balloons float off into the sky. When Anna saw it, she screamed in
horror then cried for her one lost balloon. It didn't matter there were
10 others.
Last night I was going to put together a short video collage of
the clips we took of the girls (1 and 3, at the time) "dancing" their
little hearts out at our family reunion in Orlando last fall. I did
that, but as I was watching the clips and looking through all our
pictures from that week, I began to really miss the fun time we had, all
together, which are very few and far between, playing games, dancing,
singing, relaxing, laughing, Titi Edna cheating at blitz… I started to
get that really sad feeling I had for the first hour when we drove away,
heading for home. I don't know when (or even if) we'll get to see
Abuela again. So this video contains the dancing clips I originally set
out to put together, but I also followed it with a short slideshow of
our time together. I hope we see each other again soon.
You can view the video below, or click here to download a high quality version (~75MB) to play back locally on your machine (right-click the link in your browser to save the movie file locally).
The first couple of dancing clips are a bit dark, and the video clips
were taken on our old digital still camera, so they’re a little choppy -
sorry about that. The slideshow begins around 3:30 into the video if
you want to skip the dancing videos. If you want to re-read all about
our reunion, you can find my entries under October 2007 and November 2007 in the "Blog Archive" sidebar section.
Beth & the girls went to a shoe store yesterday. One of my friends in the choir
manages the store, and he was kind enough to give them full service and
a nice discount. While the girls got a few pairs of new shoes, their
favorite item by far was their new rainboots. They wanted to wear them
out of the store and in the car back home. This morning they insisted
on wearing their rainboots with their outfit for the day. They love
those boots - now we just need it to rain so they can go splash in
puddles.
This evening we played a little bit on the porch with sidewalk chalk
and bubbles (in our boots, of course). Anna wanted a chalk outline of
her whole body. After I outlined her and Cara a couple times, I took a
rest, and the girls continued outlining each other.
We got out some games recently that Beth got at yard sales. One was
Connect Four. The girls just like to fill the thing up with all the
pieces, then move the switch to dump them out, then repeat. And repeat.
We also got out Hungry Hungry Hippos. That was a big hit. Cara
likes to hand-feed the hippos. Anna likes to talk to the hippos,
sometimes giving them their "food" by hand, but mostly dumping all the
marbles into the middle and making one chomp and chomp furiously.
Cara still likes to eat all her food with her fingers, whether it be
spaghetti, corn, yogurt, or ice cream. Anna still loves to wear her
pink snowman slippers to bed (the one Titi Edna and Abuela gave her in
Orlando), regardless of which set of PJs she's wearing.
This is Part 6 of my account of our tour to Israel with The National Christian Choir.
This entry begins with our visit to various sites around the Sea of
Galilee, including the Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha (feeding of the
5,000), Capernaum, and the Jordan River. To start at the beginning, click here. All my Israel pictures and videos are in the photo gallery under Vacations and Trips, then 2008 Israel.
Day 4 - Sea of Galilee
We started the day bright and early, as usual. After breakfast at
the hotel in Nazareth, we piled into our six coach buses and headed for
the Sea of Galilee. The trips really were not that long wherever we
traveled in the country - it's just not that big. Probably the longest
we sat on the bus was an hour, and that's when we traveled from the
northern part of the country to the southern part, by the Dead Sea. But
they obviously didn't have the luxury of vehicles 2,000 years ago, and I
have a new understanding of how difficult the various journeys
described in the Bible must have been. The scenery was very pretty -
tall hills, deep valleys, covered with green grass and lots of rocks.
Pretty to drive by, but I bet a pain to walk over to get from here to
there.
Yesterday Beth asked Anna what she wanted to be when she grew up. In
what I'm sure is only the first of many interesting career choices we'll
hear from the girls, Anna replied, "I want to be a jello maker!"
Well, after much discussion, thought, and prayer, we made the
decision to pull our house off the market for now, so we'll be staying
put in the DC area for awhile longer. We probably should have tried a
year ago at the latest before the market turned so sour for sellers.
The market is completely saturated with so many homes in foreclosure and
with people in trouble needing to sell their house… combined with a
much smaller set of viable buyers due to the credit crunch, prices keep
dropping and dropping, lower than we were willing to go, and we were
also not willing to dump any more money into the house to try to make it
stand out any more in the sea of homes on the market. All the advice is
that if you don't have to sell now, don't.
So we'll sit and be patient. Who knows how long it will be. We're
disappointed that we can't move closer to Beth's family now, but we're
ok with it. We're thankfully not in a position where we have to sell, I
have a good job, the girls are happy, and even though I wouldn't have
plopped down the money if we weren't trying to sell, at least we now get
to enjoy the new silestone countertop, sink, faucet, and laminate
flooring in the kitchen. It does make the kitchen much more pleasant - I
hated, hated the old baby blue counter and old, stained vinyl that we put up with for over two years.
Plus, I'll get to remain with The National Christian Choir
for awhile longer - next year is the 25th anniversary season, so there
will be some exciting things we're doing. Our recording this year is a
new Christmas album. In July, we're giving a concert at the Richmond
Coliseum in Richmond, VA, to open the 300th annual Church of the
Brethren conference (7,000 people). And we're ending the season on May
5, 2009, with a special 25th Anniversary Concert at the Strathmore Music Hall, accompanied by full orchestra.
The concert will consist of the top 15 or so songs that current
singers, alumni, and partners have voted as their favorites from a list
of all songs the choir has ever sung, and we saw the winners last
rehearsal (among the highlights for me will be The Mind of Christ,
No More Night, The Majesty and Glory of Your Name, Psalm 95, Creation
Hymn, You Are My Hiding Place, Midnight Cry, and Hallelujah Chorus).
It will be a very moving concert, and it will also be recorded live and
released as next year's recording. Hope to see you there!
In Part 5 of my entries about the Israel trip,
I talked about Megiddo. I forgot, however, to include links to a few
brief videos dad took there. I've updated that entry, but here they
are, too, in case you've been following along:
