Friday, March 24, 2006

Trying to send invites

Today is Sam's birthday. I'm trying to finally send out party invitations. We want to have a book swapping party, where everyone brings a wrapped book instead of a present and the kids exchange and then open a book. Everyone gets to take a book home with them, and presents are opened all around. It seems like more fun for a third birthday than one pre-schooler opening presents while the others cry because it's not their turn. Besides, Sam has more toys than any one boy should ever have. Right now there isn't a square inch of carpet visible in his bedroom or our living room. Yes, Sam also has more books than most boys his age, but we can always find room for more books. Posted by Picasa

Monday, March 20, 2006

Fire Scar

This was taken from the top of the Laguna Meadow trail. The scar is hard to see if you don't blow this up pretty big, but it's the grey smudge going up the mountain pretty much dead center in this photograph. Posted by Picasa

Sam in my glasses

I'm hoping Sam follows his father's genetic path and doesn't ever need glasses like this. However, everyone else in his family wears glasses, except the current cousin crop and his little sister, and that may just be a lack of testing so far. Posted by Picasa

InfantSEE

I think I need to post about a program that everyone should know about. InfantSEE provides free eye exams for babies under 12 months, and it's free. So if you have a baby in this age range, I suggest you visit this website, http://www.infantsee.org/ and find the nearest participating opthomalogist.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I am still having a heck of a time posting camping pictures. They keep being spit back at me. I was able to post other pictures, and another post that hadn't made it showed up a couple of days after I'd tried to post it. Hmm. how odd. Posted by Picasa
Awyn is following a time-honored tradition of playing with pots and pans while dinner is being cooked. Posted by Picasa
Hopefully not a sign of things to come... He's related to a lot of people who wear glasses, with the big exception being his daddy. Posted by Picasa

Home from the Fire

Eric took a self-portrait before heading off for the shower after last week's fire in the Chisos Basin. Our bedroom still smells like smoke. The basin has a nice fire scar. Thursday I will be adding an extra day of work on fire time hiking the backcountry looking for fire rings and handing out information on wildfires and their causes, and prevention. As the Chisos are a no-smoking area, it will be interesting to pick up cigarette butts. Posted by Picasa

Monday, March 13, 2006

Fire, Work, and Life

While I do still have a ton of pictures from our camping trip to post, I thought I'd try to update on what's been going on around here. First, while I was trying to add pictures, the blog server wasn't accepting them. It might even eat this post, as it's eaten my last three entries too. Second, there was a fire here in the park that called both Eric and I into working more hours than usual. Eric was called out to fight a fire in the Basin that they managed to put out in record time, with only about 38 acres burned, and no structures threatened. Credit is being given where it's due, and the park staff that responded so fast to the fire made a huge difference on getting it contained quickly. Also, Eric thinks perhaps a bit of divine intervention, as the wind tended to blow the fire into the rocks and ridges instead of toward the campground or up Telephone Canyon, and made their job less difficult. The fire was caused by high winds snapping a pole, downing live power lines. So the fire isn't considered natural causes, but there isn't any one person who started the fire. I was called to work extra hours at the entrance gate to help spread information to visitors entering the park. Nothing nearly so exhausting or dangerous as what Eric was doing, working overnight on a fire line. His big perk, beyond the overtime and hazard pay? He finally saw his first black bear in Big Bend. It walked serenely up a ridge that goes up through the fire, surveying the goings on. It disappeared over the side of the ridge when it noticed observers.

Awyn has either been teething, or fighting off a cold. She was snotty at the beginning of the week, and was choking on the snot, making her throw up and have other issues. She seems to be doing much better, but she's getting weaned at night, no more night time snacks. Those seem to be the worst for her, and I'm tired of changing all our sheets and pajamas multiple times a night. It's amazing, she stopped getting sick the first night we cut them out. But the drawback is that she's a bit dehydrated. She won't really take a bottle, and I've been at work, so she couldn't nurse. So I have to give tons of credit to Katrina, who has spend half of her spring break at my house taking care of the kids, and managing the impossible feats of not only feeding Awyn and getting her to keep her food down, but actually putting Sam down for naps. She's a terrific girl, and I know the kids love her. I think she enjoys getting to be big sister/auntie to them.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

1800diapers.com

I ordered diapers last week for the kids. Of course, they just shipped today, so they won't arrive in time and I now need to drive up to Alpine or Ft. Stockton to buy diapers. Actually, I'm the one who chose the cheap free shipping option. You can buy a Sam's or Costco sized box of diapers and wipes or even formula, and they ship it for free. Or for a fast shipping update, you can pay for shippping. I thought I'd be using my cloth diapers more than I have this week, and Awyn and Sam have had diarhea, so we've been chugging through my limited supply. I would estimate that we'll be out of diapers by midnight. I will say the price is right at 1800diapers, it really doesn't cost any more online than at Sam's Club. If anyone wants to try it, use this coupon and you get $2 off your first purchase. ELLE6714

Also, I've been trying to post pictures of our hiking trip and it's not going well. So I'll keep trying, if you keep checking back.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Here's Eric with his 45 lb pack on. We weighed it before water bottles were added, so it was close to 50 lbs for the hike up. Posted by Picasa
We're hiking up the Pinnacles trail, on our way to Juniper Flats. Sam walked a pretty good distance, but wanted to hold hands. Posted by Picasa

Guacamole

While I probably spelled that wrong, Awyn does like guacamole. She won't eat plain avacado, but she will eat it if I spice it up. Posted by Picasa