Please Touch.......

Museum

This past Saturday we went down to the new Please Touch Museum that opened up in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. We had never been to Fairmount Park and it was really nice. There were some amazing old buildings that had been built for the Centennial celebration and so they are all over a hundred years old and amazing architecture. Beautiful old oak trees lined the street, although they are mostly bare of leaves now.

We met my friend Jessica, her husband Mangesh (Manny), and their beautiful little girl Layla Mungekar. Jessie is a dear old friend and my old roommate from Portland, OR. It was so nice that we both ended up on this end of the country close enough to see each other once in awhile.

Layla and Miranda became fast buddies and Layla followed Miranda all around the museum. Actually I guess Miranda did more of the following. Toddlers aren't known for long attention spans.

There was a beautiful old wooden carousel. It was pretty tame (slow) even for a Merry Go Round. Miranda was bored with it but it was just right for Layla.

She was waving at her DaddyThe butterfly was my favorite piece of art. It was in the Alice in wonderland garden.

Two cute.......

SLUG BUG COOL

Here is Miranda in the Zephyr

They had some cool old toys on display. This was psychadelic barbie....having lunch at McDolnalds.

And here is Stewardess Barbie (no, not flight attendant Barbie. We didn't have those in the 60's)

And who could forget Light Bright?


And don't forget Ken and Chrissie...

Halloween (Belated)

Happy November. Ok, Happy Mid November.

I know it is a little late but I wanted to document our Halloween. Halloween is a big deal at our house. I’m not so much into over decorating, but we put up some lights and decorations.

Miranda is on the right. I don't remember what the catalog called her costume. It was cute though. On the left is her friend Lauren.

We make icker green punch, float glow sticks, and put dry ice in it, all in a black cauldron. We heat the punch slightly which makes the dry ice bubble and foam. The kids, and even the adults, love it and people remember us from year to year.

David also sets up a ground fogger, strobe light, glowing skull, laughing skull, and we have Halloween music playing. We add a few more things each year and this year we got the punch just right. We had been ordering a green punch from Schwans but they quit making it so we had to concoct our own. We had peach juicy juice, Gatorade powder, lemonade, and Hawiian punch and added some V-8 smoothie to it which made it just a little bit cloudy (creepy), and it also seemed to make the dry ice bubble and spit even more, which really added to the witches brew effect.

My other project has been to start going through 10 years of baby gear and girls clothes. I went to the storage unit and hauled (from the back of the unit no less) all the baby clothes out and they are now clogging my living room as I sort them for friends, family, good will, or the garbage. Next is to get rid of the baby gear. I am not hauling this stuff to North Carolina. I already hauled it across the country, through one apartment and 2 houses. I has just sat there not doing me or anyone else any good. So out it all goes. It is very nostalgic going through all those little clothes though; Lots of memories. I am sorting some of them out for Miranda to keep. You have to have something you wore as a baby to put on your own kids. I didn’t actually have any of my baby clothes, but I had some of Jeanie’s. They may go out of style but it is about the memories.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!

Two weeks ago we traveled down to Greensboro for more house hunting. The previous offer we had made fell through. We couldn’t come to a price agreement. The builder seemed to want to charge us money simply for choosing colors, not for any upgrades so we walked away. We felt he wanted too much for the house especially for this

market. So we started over. After looking at 7 choices on Friday and Saturday we made an offer.

It is a traditional 2 story home on a beautiful wooded end of cul-de-sac lot.

It is double fenced with lots of roaming room in “the forest”. There is a fence through the middle of the main fence which was meant to be a dog run. Rusty will be so happy. This is the out building

It also has a kid fort (Didn't get a picture of that) for Miranda. I am assuming they will leave it.

It has a brick/stone patio and a hot tub. That was a nice bonus.

It has three bedrooms and a bonus room which will be David’s office and a tv room for Miranda. David doesn’t expect Volvo to provide office space like Mack has so he will be working from home at least initially.

We were to close on the house later

this month, but the home inspection brought up some issues that will have to be addressed before we will sign on the house. There are some issues with mold in the crawl space and the vapor barrier is

“bunched up”? There are some minor electrical issues, roofing seals issues, cooling system drainage and a gas leak issues: all stuff that can be fixed but will be done before we buy the house. But assuming all goes well we will own it by the end of this month or next.

Da Hoosbund

Ok so I am doing the bloggers husband survey. Every once in awhile these things are fun and revealing. So read mine and then tell me about yours.



What is his name?

At work he is know as David. Around here we call him the oldest 11 year old. (He rolls his eyes but acknowledges its accuracy.)



How long have you been married?

Almost 11 years.



How old is he?

Just turned 40 in May. Yes, I robbed the cradle.



Who eats more sweets?

In general or at one time? The first would be me, the second would be him so it evens out. He is the large portion hungry man, I am the small scoop, small slice girl who sneaks chocolate and hard candy sometimes. (Ok, alot)



Who said I love you first?

That was him after our first date. Ok, so we had a 5 day long first date.



Who is taller?

That would be him. Not hard as I barely qualify for 5'4".



Who can sing better?

He is a talented engineer who is good at many things but when it comes to singing he can't even find the bucket in which to carry his note. His mother once commented to me that he had such a lovely singing voice and I wrinkled up my brow and wondered to my self, "Did you raise this man?" Then we went to church with them and I realized that she was as tone deaf as he is. He cannot hear the similarity in two c notes an octave apart. Might as well be c and g.



Who does the laundry?

I think he is aware of where the washing machine is because he put it there when we moved and I know his memory is good. When I attended an out of state wedding a few years back he decided that lightening must have struck the washing machine because it wasn't working. But to be fair, it is a front loader with a freaky little feature of not starting back up for nearly a full minute after you open the lock to add a sock or something. I didn't blame him for that one but it was funny. He puts away his socks and underwear without too much complaint. And he will usually haul the laundry basket upstairs for me. Thanks honey. I don't mind laundry much though. Except I just hate putting it away. Don't mind sorting, treating, washing, drying, or folding, but hate hangers and drawers. Weird huh?



Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

I have always taken the side closest to the door/Miranda's room. That has always been the right.



Who mows the lawn?

We share that. Although this year I think I have done it about 80% of the time. 3 times while we were out of town we hired it done. That is sooooo nice. But gets expensive when it is a landscaping company.



Who cooks dinner?

That would be me mostly but he likes to concoct in the kitchen on occasion. And he is great about taking me out when I have been working or doing some extended project or yard work or something. I like to cook but I HATE cleaning the kitchen. I'll take a toilet brush over a pile of dishes any day.



Who pays the bills?

We each have our set but he takes the lions share of that chore.



Who drives?

He does mostly, when he can't get me to do it.



Who is more stubborn?

Oh that would be him.



Who kissed who first?

He was being the gentleman so I kissed him.



Who asked who out first?

I don't remember who brought it up first but we were living on opposite ends of the country so it was pretty much a mutual decision.



Who proposed?

All him, on Christmas eve in a small church he attended as a child after a Christmas eve service. The pastor got very excited when he realized what we were doing.



Who has more siblings?

That would be me but he borrows them quite regularly.



Who wears the pants?

That is shared. He has his moments and I have mine.

The Catch up

Ok so I am not as avid a blogger as some but I thought I would catch up on some of our summer events.

In June we went to San Diego and Los Angles. We had a great time….mostly. We stayed with my friend Shannon in San Diego and also in Los Angeles for 3 days in the middle.

Laguna Beach

Little Star Peyton

Miranda and Maddison at the Padres/Mariners game.

Miranda and Reina Kropf at Disneyland

Two little peas in a pod even though they hadn't seen each other since they were 3.

The Howells and Kropfs at Cinderella's castle

We had dinner with my cousin Ronda and her family and went to Disneyland with our old friends the Kropfs. Also, Ronda’s youngest daughter, Felicia, works at Disneyland and served as our tour guide.

It was so much fun getting to know her.

She reminds me a great deal of Jeanie, and also of me 20 or so years ago. Miranda and Reina

Kropf, who were two little peas in a pod when they were 2 and 3, picked up right where they left off.

Disneyland was crowded and we really didn’t get to do much, but we were really there to see our friends so we had a good time. After waiting in line 45 minutes for space mountain, it broke down and we didn’t get to go. Miranda was really disappointed. So was I. It was so crowded it was almost hard to move around. Much more so then when I was a kid.

Our last day there we also had lunch with one of my old roommates from Florida in 1984/85, Shari, and her husband and son. I haven’t seen her in about 18 years and it was nice to renew the friendship.

In San Diego we went to the beach and pool several times and also the San Diego Zoo. We took Shannon and Doug to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in Down Town San Diego and Shannon got tickets for us to go to a Padres/Mariners game. It is the first professional baseball game I ever went to. We have since gone to two Iron pigs games here in Allentown since then. We decided we like baseball games.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Shannon and her family until the last day when it became clear that we had overstayed our welcome. I should have planned our vacation a couple days shorter, but that was why we had gone to Los Angeles in the middle to give them a break. Long story short my pregnant little Shannon had an angry outburst at David and we ended the vacation on a sad note. She has not responded to any of my emails or text messages since then. I don’t even know if her pregnancy is going well and it makes me incredibly sad. I keep her and her family and the baby in my prayers.

But moving on to happier things, in July Miranda turned 10 years old. Several days before her birthday we took her to Great Wolf lodge in the Poconos with her friend Lauren. They have a large indoor water park. They had a great time. She also had a sleepover on her actual birthday. We did movies, at night and then nail polish and Henna tattoos. Miranda had gotten one in the San Diego Zoo and it lasted almost a week. I ordered the stuff online and we did pretty well with them. They had wanted to sleep out on the trampoline, Miranda’s early birthday present in the spring, but it rained. It was fun but I, for one, have had enough of sleepover birthday parties. With more than two additional kids it is just too crazy. Miranda has picked a Jump U. Birthday for next year.

Miranda and Lauren at Great Wolf Lodge

In late July we went to an amusement park called Knobles. It specializes in old fashioned rides, the kind we all grew up with as kids. Old powerful bumper cars, an old fashioned carouselle, wooden roller coasters, etc.

In August Miranda and I went to Utah to visit my brother and his family. Miranda has two little cousins now. Esther was 2 in July and Taemarin, or Tae Tae, will be 1 in November.

We went to the Moab area and saw just a few things in Arches that would not be too far away for little girlies, and we also stopped at Dead Horse point in Canyonlands. On our way out we stopped at Goblin Valley. Other than a windy canyon that forced us to pack up the tent and run for the hotel in town and cranky girls on long car rides, we had a really nice time. Our favorite moments, I think, were playing in the cool moist sand under Sand Dune Arch. We must have all sat there and played for about an hour. Miranda and I had sand mountains constructed, with everyone’s help, on our legs. Miranda dubbed mine Mt. Momsuvious, and Heather called hers Mt. Mirandamunjarro. Both of the little girlies were in heaven playing in the sand. We were all kids for that hour.

On our way home we stopped by for an overnight visit with Lalagene. She fed us well and we had a nice visit. I worry about her there all alone. At least she has the two cats for company, and I know that Ivan is close by when she needs help.

At the end of our trip I rented a car and Miranda and I spent two days in the Bountiful area. While there I showed her the places I knew as I grew up. What used to be a laundry mat is now a chocolate shop. We definitely stopped there. I also took her to see where Grandma and Grandpa Calkin are buried. That was harder on me than I expected. I don’t think she has ever been in a cemetery before. On the way out she was reading some of the headstones and was wondering how young people had died. We even found one baby. Death hasn’t been a big part of her life yet, only my Dad, so head stones were something new for her. She traveled out to say

goodbye to Grandpa but she stayed home for the funeral. We knew that it would be a long hard week for her. So she got to see where her flowers had gone to.

The next day I surprised her with a river trip down the Weber canyon. That was a first for her too. She even got brave enough to climb out of the raft and float in the river for awhile. We both had a really great time.

Just after we arrived in Utah, Volvo Trucks announced that they were moving the Mac World Headquarters and Engineering/ Testing center to Greensboro, NC. So we wrapped our mind around having to move. Just after we returned from Utah we made a trip down there to house hunt. We wanted to have possibilities if David’s parents got an offer on their house. We planned for them to move into our house while theirs is being built down there. We were in the process of moving them closer to us up here when the news came down. We were hours away from finalizing an offer for the house they wanted up here. But their house was already on the market so we are trying to juggle the schedule of their move, their build, our move, etc.

We put an offer in on a house which is currently under construction but the builder wanted his full asking price, plus the cost of upgraded appliances and one addition, plus $15,000 for us to choose paint and carpet colors. Not upgrades, mind you, just custom colors. He wouldn’t budge so we walked away. You don’t get to expect your full asking price in this market and then try to rape your buyer for choosing their own colors. We decided we didn’t need it that badly. We also have quite a few months till we are moving and so we could afford to hold our offer firm. Even our realtor was telling him he was being unreasonable. I say, good luck getting that price in this market. There are many homes, with nothing wrong with them, that have been on the market for 6 or more months. It’s his loss. I hope he likes the landlord business. Actually, I am sure he will sell it, but will probably be more reasonable with the next buyer and by then the house will be finished his way and he won’t have deal with someone’s customizing wishes. After telling us he could do this and that and no problem, he seemed to be fussing at every choice we were making. It is just as well. We really wanted the house but it was up in the range where it was going to be a financial stretch so it is just as well that we aren’t going to get it. We will look for an existing house and paint and carpet it our way before we move in.