The boys and I went to the airport this morning to pick up Dave's best friend, Ty.
We were a few minutes early and we got to see two soldiers in desert camo get their tearful, squealing, "Welcome Home" mugging from their girlfriends and their families. It was totally making me tear up seeing the sheer joy and relief on the faces of their loved ones.
We also got to see a woman in a full burka. She was with her family and the 4 year old little girl with them wore a headscarf and the 2 year old little girl with them had her head uncovered. When T saw the woman in the black burka with only her eyes and hands showing he turned to me and asked, "Is she a ninja?" When I got done laughing, I explained that her religion requires her to wear clothes so that nothing of her body can be seen. He said, "Hmm, that's cool." (which is what he says when he means, "How interesting."). I said, "No, T, it's really not cool at all. It's very repressive. But everyone is different and that's just how they have chosen to live so it works for them."
And who knows? Maybe underneath those robes, she really is a ninja!
What was evident was her delight in her daughters. The little one started to wander off and the mom held out her hand and called her back and you could see the mom's eyes light up at the sight of her smallest child! Even with nothing else showing, you could tell she was smiling.
Seeing Ninjas, Ruth!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Coasters and Baseball and Skeptics - Oh My!
We had such a busy and fantastic weekend!
Dave took Friday off and we went to Elitch Gardens. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Dave and I are crazy for coasters. On our honeymoon, we went park hopping in CA. Last year, we left the kids with the grandparents and went to Elitch with our friends Dona and Daren.
This year, the library's summer reading program had an end game of Elitch tickets for the kids! They read the required amount (12 hours? 20 hours? I can't even remember) and turned in their papers for some paper tickets. The tix also had a discount for adult tickets so off we went!
We got the kids on the easier rides first then worked them up to the bigger rides. We got them on the Tower of Doom (which D2 LOVED and wouldn't stop talking about all day) and one roller coaster (the Boomerang) which they both hated. They are super-skinny guys and if you are smallish or short (like me) you know that the restraints on roller coasters only click down so far and if you are smallish or short, you get banged around in your seat pretty good.
The Tower of Doom takes you up slowly to a height of 200 feet then drops you straight down. D2 loved it and after a few more spinny rides, we figured out that he liked the spinny rides but hated the coaster because he didn't like being upside down. That combined with being flung around in his seat made him feel like he was going to fall out. T didn't like either one. He's a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to rides. There were plenty of other rides that they loved (the swing ones, the log ride was a big hit, the teacups.... yes, we actually rode the teacups!).
I took some sock knitting with me and I got about 2" done while standing in line for the rides! I knew I was going to rip it all out when I got home but I kept going anyway as it kept me entertained. How did I know I was going to frog? I set up the sock the night before - CO and ribbing cuff (it's the Conwy sock from Knitting on the Road) and when we were driving away from home on Sat, I pulled it out to work on it. I then realized just by the feel of it, that the needle was too big. I didn't pay much attention to it the night before as I was just trying to crank out a little bit so it'd be ready for Sat. I was working on a US 3/3.25mm and I wanted to have it on a US 2/2.75mm. Oh well.... good thing I like knitting! Ribbit.
We also went to Elitch's waterpark. We should've gone there first as it closes at 6p and the rest of the park is open until 9p but we still spent a good couple of hours in the wave pool and going down the kid's water slides! My glasses have these magnetic sunglass cover thing and they popped off and are lost forever in the wave pool - so that kinda sucked.
Dave and I took on a couple of the big people water slides - he went down the really fast blue one and I went down the twisty purple tube one. I hated it! I was trying to hold my head up but the centrifugal force forced my head back and the tube isn't smooth. WHAM, WHAM, WHAM every time you pass the sections of tube-seaming. It gave me a monster headache!
We left our house at 9:30a and didn't get home until 10p! We left the park at about 7:30 or 8p and went downtown to Sam's #3 for dinner. It's a great diner with really good food. The whole ride home (about a half hour or so) D2 went on and on about the Tower of Doom - "Which was your favorite part?" "Which was your least favorite part?" "Which part did you like the best?" "Which part of the Tower did you like the least?" "Which part of the Tower was the scariest?" "Which part of the Tower was the least scariest?" The same questions to each and every one of us and asked over and over and over. He really liked that Tower!
Saturday the boys both had games. D2's game was at 11a and T's was at 2p.... on one of the hottest days this summer. It was super hot at D2's game but one of the parents brought this big collapsible gazebo thingy and a couple of other parents had squirt bottle/fan thingys so the boys did OK. D2 and I didn't go to T's game - it was just too hot! I'm sorry I missed it because T finally got to play pitcher! But I'm not sorry I missed it as Dave told me there were no collapsible gazebos and no dugouts so no shade at all! It's all relative as the 100 degree weather here is a cold snap in Tucson! We have become heat wimps just like everyone else in CO and we pretty much melted at home the rest of the day.
Sunday, we went to a picnic/pot luck thing. Dave signed us up! I was so shocked that Dave signed us up for anything even resembling being social that I didn't even mind missing my knitting group! He found this Secular Parents Club (Secular Parent's Club? I guess it works with or without the apostrophe) at meetup.com. He actually found it right before we left Parker but we haven't had the chance to go to any of the meet-ups until now.
It was great fun! I've never seen Dave be so outgoing with strangers! The shindig was at Bear Creek Park and we had this huge wooden gazebo to ourselves and it was right next to a bathroom and also right next to a largish creek. Their were only 2 or 3 kids that were the same age as our boys, everyone else had babies or toddlers. But the kids had a great time and the adults were similarly entertained. Everyone brought food and the adults stayed in the shade and ate and shared stories of our past religious lives (or lack of) and our current state of skepticism and/or outright atheism. One of the guys was a minister and is getting his degree in religious studies! With his current beliefs/doubts, he's not sure what he's going to do when he graduates. His dissertation is on TV evangelism - I can't imagine the horror stories he must be finding!
There were about 20 people there (including the kids) and I am looking forward to spending more time with these like minded folks.
What a weekend, Ruth!
P.S. I haven't forgotten about the contest. You can still enter until I reveal. I'll tell all soon....
Dave took Friday off and we went to Elitch Gardens. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Dave and I are crazy for coasters. On our honeymoon, we went park hopping in CA. Last year, we left the kids with the grandparents and went to Elitch with our friends Dona and Daren.
This year, the library's summer reading program had an end game of Elitch tickets for the kids! They read the required amount (12 hours? 20 hours? I can't even remember) and turned in their papers for some paper tickets. The tix also had a discount for adult tickets so off we went!
We got the kids on the easier rides first then worked them up to the bigger rides. We got them on the Tower of Doom (which D2 LOVED and wouldn't stop talking about all day) and one roller coaster (the Boomerang) which they both hated. They are super-skinny guys and if you are smallish or short (like me) you know that the restraints on roller coasters only click down so far and if you are smallish or short, you get banged around in your seat pretty good.
The Tower of Doom takes you up slowly to a height of 200 feet then drops you straight down. D2 loved it and after a few more spinny rides, we figured out that he liked the spinny rides but hated the coaster because he didn't like being upside down. That combined with being flung around in his seat made him feel like he was going to fall out. T didn't like either one. He's a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to rides. There were plenty of other rides that they loved (the swing ones, the log ride was a big hit, the teacups.... yes, we actually rode the teacups!).
I took some sock knitting with me and I got about 2" done while standing in line for the rides! I knew I was going to rip it all out when I got home but I kept going anyway as it kept me entertained. How did I know I was going to frog? I set up the sock the night before - CO and ribbing cuff (it's the Conwy sock from Knitting on the Road) and when we were driving away from home on Sat, I pulled it out to work on it. I then realized just by the feel of it, that the needle was too big. I didn't pay much attention to it the night before as I was just trying to crank out a little bit so it'd be ready for Sat. I was working on a US 3/3.25mm and I wanted to have it on a US 2/2.75mm. Oh well.... good thing I like knitting! Ribbit.
We also went to Elitch's waterpark. We should've gone there first as it closes at 6p and the rest of the park is open until 9p but we still spent a good couple of hours in the wave pool and going down the kid's water slides! My glasses have these magnetic sunglass cover thing and they popped off and are lost forever in the wave pool - so that kinda sucked.
Dave and I took on a couple of the big people water slides - he went down the really fast blue one and I went down the twisty purple tube one. I hated it! I was trying to hold my head up but the centrifugal force forced my head back and the tube isn't smooth. WHAM, WHAM, WHAM every time you pass the sections of tube-seaming. It gave me a monster headache!
We left our house at 9:30a and didn't get home until 10p! We left the park at about 7:30 or 8p and went downtown to Sam's #3 for dinner. It's a great diner with really good food. The whole ride home (about a half hour or so) D2 went on and on about the Tower of Doom - "Which was your favorite part?" "Which was your least favorite part?" "Which part did you like the best?" "Which part of the Tower did you like the least?" "Which part of the Tower was the scariest?" "Which part of the Tower was the least scariest?" The same questions to each and every one of us and asked over and over and over. He really liked that Tower!
Saturday the boys both had games. D2's game was at 11a and T's was at 2p.... on one of the hottest days this summer. It was super hot at D2's game but one of the parents brought this big collapsible gazebo thingy and a couple of other parents had squirt bottle/fan thingys so the boys did OK. D2 and I didn't go to T's game - it was just too hot! I'm sorry I missed it because T finally got to play pitcher! But I'm not sorry I missed it as Dave told me there were no collapsible gazebos and no dugouts so no shade at all! It's all relative as the 100 degree weather here is a cold snap in Tucson! We have become heat wimps just like everyone else in CO and we pretty much melted at home the rest of the day.
Sunday, we went to a picnic/pot luck thing. Dave signed us up! I was so shocked that Dave signed us up for anything even resembling being social that I didn't even mind missing my knitting group! He found this Secular Parents Club (Secular Parent's Club? I guess it works with or without the apostrophe) at meetup.com. He actually found it right before we left Parker but we haven't had the chance to go to any of the meet-ups until now.
It was great fun! I've never seen Dave be so outgoing with strangers! The shindig was at Bear Creek Park and we had this huge wooden gazebo to ourselves and it was right next to a bathroom and also right next to a largish creek. Their were only 2 or 3 kids that were the same age as our boys, everyone else had babies or toddlers. But the kids had a great time and the adults were similarly entertained. Everyone brought food and the adults stayed in the shade and ate and shared stories of our past religious lives (or lack of) and our current state of skepticism and/or outright atheism. One of the guys was a minister and is getting his degree in religious studies! With his current beliefs/doubts, he's not sure what he's going to do when he graduates. His dissertation is on TV evangelism - I can't imagine the horror stories he must be finding!
There were about 20 people there (including the kids) and I am looking forward to spending more time with these like minded folks.
What a weekend, Ruth!
P.S. I haven't forgotten about the contest. You can still enter until I reveal. I'll tell all soon....
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Rock, Paper, Scissors
I'm cleaning off my floor. I have this filing cabinet next to my desk and I usually just put things in front of it instead of in it and sort things out later! (Lazy much?)
I'm going through all the papers the boys brought home during the school year to see what I want to keep and what to toss. Their file cabinet slots are getting way too full, so yesterday I bought two plastic bins to put things into.
Going through T's papers I found this story....
One day Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln raced outside from the White House to see who would steer the helicopter. They got there at the same time. They had a big fight. Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln had an election. They tied nine to nine. They did Rock, Paper, Scissors but Abraham kept cheating. Barack decided that they should play bowling.
THE END
by T (edited for minor spelling errors)
That kid slays me!
Loving Summer Break, Ruth!
I'm going through all the papers the boys brought home during the school year to see what I want to keep and what to toss. Their file cabinet slots are getting way too full, so yesterday I bought two plastic bins to put things into.
Going through T's papers I found this story....
One day Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln raced outside from the White House to see who would steer the helicopter. They got there at the same time. They had a big fight. Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln had an election. They tied nine to nine. They did Rock, Paper, Scissors but Abraham kept cheating. Barack decided that they should play bowling.
THE END
by T (edited for minor spelling errors)
That kid slays me!
Loving Summer Break, Ruth!
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