1000

It's been 1000 posts since I first started this blog 4 years ago...A lot has changed since 2005, besides the big obvious one of us having a kid...

Here's the very first blog entry of mine in 2005.

When I look back, I think about politics, where I was living, what I was doing, and what I was wishing for. It really amazes me how in four years the road our lives can take can be so different, personally, professionally, and for us as a collective, both in the community we live in and as a nation.

Technologically, things have changed as well. As you know I don't spend as much time blogging these days. I usually post pictures and continue to blog here just as a more permanent record than the daily repartee of Facebook.

But just in the past couple of years, so much has changed in our lives:

We moved to Oregon to be near family after we learned of Nora's arrival...

We lived with Jeff & Judy for 6 or 7 months until our house in Denver sold...during which time I was hospitalized for 5 weeks (and Nora for nearly 2 weeks since she was 6 weeks early)...

Our move into our house in Salem, as Brian works for a company that keeps him on his toes. As he describes to me what he did today (he's down in Southern Oregon working on Rice Hill and other remote areas), he tells me about this part or that part, and how he fixed or figured something out, and I realize how much HE has learned/changed in the past couple of years since we came out here...

And our daughter has grown and changed, and with each new day, looks at me with increasingly intelligent, knowing eyes. She brings me clothes she wants to wear, can find the letter E and A on the refrigerator magnets, and thinks the dog running by her is a hoot.

I have always loved newspapers...I loved working as a journalist, but I also have to recognize the end of the era, and unfortunately for many of my friends and me, there isn't as much room for writers as there are writers anymore. Sadly, for me, that means moving on. I'm in school at the local college to finish studying the prerequisites of Anatomy, Physicology & other subjects...and I expect to be in nursing school next year. I can't wait to have a new and meaningful career -- one that I hope will not only help support my family, but give me the chance to travel and use my skills to help people.

Since my first post, Brian and I went with our parents and my Aunt to Paris, France...I can't believe it's been 3 1/2 years since that trip...I ache to go back to Europe and MANY other places.

If nothing else, the past four years have taught me that life is short, and the opportunity for travel is even shorter. Oh how I wish I could take Nora everywhere and let her see everything.

It's late, which is pretty much the story of my life these days...I spend lots of time on the computer between online classes and my social life. I love it all.

So here's to #1000 posts to my blog. Thanks to all who have read, who continue to read, and if nothing else, look at pictures of our girl!

---- Jules

Big Girl Bed

Nora is a tall girl, and of course that means escape from the crib will just happen that much sooner.

Brian was putting her down this weekend and noticed that she was trying to escape the crib by lifting her leg, and she's getting close!

So this weekend I looked on Craigslist and found a toddler bed with a mattress, and it happened to be just a mile down the road from Jeff & Judy's house.
So yesterday, I took my $40 and headed over, and we brought the bed home last night.

Well of COURSE she loves it. ESPECIALLY now that it has her favorite zoo crib sheets on it. I put her PALP quilt on it (a special quilt friends of mine from my online group made for her when she was born), and for a good part of today, Nora spent it getting in and out of bed, and covering herself with her blanket.

She wants to sleep in it, but of course she wouldn't possibly stay IN bed, so the crib it is -- until she escapes, OR we can explain that she can sleep in the big girl bed when she STAYS in the big girl bed.

Whichever comes first.

And yes, I'm taking any additional tips on how to get a kid to stay in their bed!

Fountainstic Day

We've been BUSY this weekend! Zoo trip Friday, housework and a trip to the park with Nora this morning for Brian, I did errands, homework, and then we all got back together this afternoon and headed to the fountain for a couple of hours, just to cool off.

It hit 90 degrees or so today! NUTS!

It didn't take Nora long to figure out the water is FUN!

She did wonder at first, but all the other kids there screaming and having a good time finally convinced her she was enjoying it! Daddy took his first turn at it, then...
It was my turn! We got SOAKED to the bone. So glad I brought a ton of towels, just in case. Turns out we needed them because...

Nora would come back, cuddle in a towel with Daddy, then go back for more!

I love watching her try to interact with older kids. She can't say anything, and the kids aren't always sure what to do with her, but these kids shared their balloon with her briefly, and they all stood around her for some time. It was very cute!

Cute Picture of The Day

Nora and I go to Riverfront Park on a pretty infrequent basis, but recently she's gone a few times, and has recently broken into a run when she sees the playground.

It amazes me how quickly she's learned to climb stairs, ramps, and how to throw herself down slides so willingly and gleefully.

She even learned that she can't climb UP the slide (she has to go around) AND that if she lifts her feet up, she goes down FASTER.

And to her, FASTER is BETTER.

Cute Picture of The Day

Nora had her Uncle John, Aunt Jill, and cousins John and Erik here for a nice long holiday weekend, and she couldn't have been spoiled more rotten by all the wonderful attention!

Saturday we had a day at the park with the kids, and Sunday afternoon Jeff, Judy, Mom and the girls all came over for a barbecue and to hang out in the fabulous weather. Some friends of John & Jill's also came over, since they live in town, and they brought a little girl who was beyond adorable! (I promise to blog some bbq pictures too later!)

This morning before JJJ&E left for home, we all went to breakfast at "Word of Mouth" bistro & cafe in central Salem, and it was WONDERFUL!

Nora thoroughly enjoyed sitting with John and Jill most of the time...after she wanted down we all took turns following her around too!

I just love this picture of all three of them. Like Pastor Mark and others have said "Wow, it's hard to see all the LOVE for that kid, huh?!"

Yeah...right!

Learning All About "Poppy" (aka Potty)

Nora's learning to talk, and along with that comes some sign language (showing me by grabbing her diaper in front that she's gone potty) and also outright telling me she's gone "poppy".
After reading in my Parenting For Dummies book (I love that book for straightforward questions like "when is my kid ready to start potty training?") it said to get one and start showing the kid around it, and talking about going potty, and what we do.

This week, we got a new potty in the house, and Nora mostly uses it as a step stool to get up onto our bed, but I did finally show her, with no diapers on, how to sit on the thing with the lid up, which she did, and was so very proud of herself when I cheered her on.

We're a long ways from peeing in there as far as I know, but it's begun!

The Enchanted Day!

Zoo Doo

We went to the zoo this morning! Brian left for the whole week in Bandon, out on the coast, and in the morning we got up, loaded up the girl and off we went.

Being that it is a holiday weekend, and being that it's the first day to crack nearly 70 degrees on a weekend, it was CARAZY at the zoo today!

We had to wait in line for tickets, and even to have our tickets checked! There is an advantage to going in February when it's 40 degrees!

We walked down through Northwest Trek -- it's a long slow decline through a NW forest, which has bears, bald eagles, cougars, and salmon...Nora had a ball walking and crawling through this hollowed-out log play feature thingamajob. She liked it SO much she kept running back up to it and going through it long after we thought we were past it!


When we finally got to the bottom where the petting zoo was, we took her in, and Nora went up to each goat and said "HI!" When Brian asked her what goats say, she changed her tune. She went up to the next goat and said "Baaaaaaaaaaaa!"

After that it was time to check out the monkeys and the Amazon area, which had lots of big fish, some orangatans, and of course...ROCKS?

Nora, aka "Magellan" as I call her, spent most of her time today not necessarily looking or talking to the animals, but checking out the texture of nearly every inanimate object as well.

We had lunch down in our Africafe, and then Nora ran wild and free all over the Great Lawn/Ampitheater they have near the elephants. It's amazing how within just a week or two, she's more agile, faster, and more able to run and stop to go down the concrete stairs without falling.


Here's a picture with Daddy after we tried our very first "Elephant Ear" at the zoo. Dough, sugar, cinnamon...usually she doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but that was delicious!


And here's one with Mommy! Miss Nora is such a funster...it's hard to get everyone looking at the camera, but even when she doesn't she's cute!

Sprinkler Discovery

It was a gorgeous 80 degree day here in Oregon today...and after Nora's nap, we took a sprinkler out in the back yard and hooked it up, and had a little fun! Nora had fun walking back and forth...

Sometimes she'd come over to me and point at the water like she was saying "Hey! Look Mommy!" as if she'd just discovered it AND it was brand new to me too!


After we went through three pairs of shorts in one morning/afternoon, I realized we didn't have nearly enough, so we went to the fabric store and found a few wild colors and a simple pattern...


I got a few of these cut out and sewn tonight (they're VERY simple) and now she's got a few pairs of capris and shorts to wear this summer. She LOVED the first ones I tried on her before she went to bed. Ladybugs and butterflies are a new favorite around here!

Life Among The Crazies

This picture, imperfect as it is, struck my funny bone yesterday.

I was looking through pictures to blog, and realizing that a GOOD picture of Nora looking at the camera is tough to get these days, since she's in CONSTANT motion... but getting both of us at the same time is, well, virtually impossible.

We're constantly doing something around here. My school, Brian's work, our house stuff, our trips to the zoo with Nora. Teaching her all the things that she wants to learn -- she's talking a little more each day -- it all just makes each day blaze by.

This past Friday we went to the zoo and spent some time down by the elephants, but Nora spent an incredible amount of time just running around, not looking at anything to speak of. But in the kids play area where a number of statues of smaller animals exist, a couple of Dads were standing in the middle, wrangling their four kids, when Nora walked up to the elephant and I said "Nora, give the elephant some LOVE", and Nora went up to the elephant, nuzzled it and said "Ohhh."

The Dads melted.

School's busy, but I'm getting all A's. Nora's growing, learning colors, shapes, letters and loving music, singing and dancing. She's 20 months old today, and definitely a strong-willed toddler careening towards her two's as fast as time will let her.

Here's a few things from this week:

From my friend Gerry's comment the other day that Nora should be on "What Not To Wear -- Toddler Edition", we find ourselves having to agree. This makes me remember days of Hannah's stripes/spots/plaid get-ups from her toddlerhood, and Miriam's various shades of pink/purple/red concoctions and we realize our daughter didn't fall far from the P/M family tree in the bad fashion decisions at an early age.

The good news is, Hannah and Miriam are now gorgeous teenagers with much better taste, so we maintain hope...

The difference in her clothing is that when Brian dresses her, she ends up in a dress with pants and a hat because "that's what she wanted to wear". When I dress her, I say "Nora, come here." HA. And the results are staggering. Here, we have her dressed in an outfit that makes parents at the zoo say "Oh, what a cute little girl," instead of "Someone should call this in..." Don'tcha think?


That's it from here!

A Day At The Beach!

We're All Over The Place.

I love this picture of Brian and Nora...I have titled it "There's a haircut in somebody's future...but not yet!"

All right. Well, you know you're WAY behind on blogging when your mother-in-law e-mails to make sure you're alive and ok...

It's been over a week, maybe two now...I don't even know anymore!

Busy busy busy around here...

In less than a week I had two midterms, one in Psychology (got 49/50) and my Anatomy & Physiology class (90/100). And of course a couple of quizzes and lots of other stuff.

Then Nora, Brian and I ALL got the same horrific snotty cold from hell.

We're not over it, but we're over it enough to move on with life. As I've said a few times this week between DayQuil & NyQuil doses for myself: At least it's not Swine Flu.

Nora's a busy girl. We've been working on talking...her sounds get more varied every day, and the other day I would have sworn she said "ALL DONE!" at the end of a meal.

She laughs and has a great time over everything, and despite her nasty cold, still saw the zoo today with me, and has had a lot of fun learning to draw with crayons and markers and sidewalk chalk too. And she's learning to play new instruments with Daddy. This past week or two she's learned to actually blow into the recorder!


Friday night was The Pizza Night Thing (PNT) at Jeff & Judy's house, where Nora got a little extra time (and nice weather) to run around the yard and check out the horses too...and of course spend some time with her lovely cousins (Miriam's in this picture with her). She ADORES Hannah and Miriam and remembers them so well that when I tell her that's where we're going, she stops complaining about the ride in the car!



She also has learned the value of doling out hugs and kisses. When I say "Give Bestema some love..." Nora says "OH!" and goes cheek-to-cheek and hugs her Bestema.


This weekend we got a lot of "administrative" stuff done around here, like moving our iTunes library (and backing it up), which really shouldn't have taken forever...but it did.

Brian bolted the last of the furniture to the walls after yet another story of a toddler climbing a dresser and it nearly falling on top of him.

So while I took Nora to the zoo (I seriously said "Show the elephant some LOVE!" and she went "OHHHHHHHHH" to the elephant for this picture above), Brian not only handled the last of the topple-proofing, but he vented the bath vents properly out of the attic...they were both improperly attached upstairs.

We've had a little good weather too these past couple of weeks, where I've put up the tent for her to play in (and later bought something more expendable and permanent at Goodwill for a "Fort" for Nora).

And finally, Nora and I participated in the March of Dimes "March for Babies", which my friend Patti does every year as a tribute to her son Cannon.


Patti and I bonded quickly over the fact that she lost a son in similar circumstances as I lost Jacob.



She's a wonderful person with two sons who are both pre-approved for Nora to go out with later in life. We don't want to actually ARRANGE the marriage, because you know, that would be sorta counter to our otherwise staunch view of equality for women.

So there you have it...the past two weeks, despite runny noses and big boxes of lotion Kleenex, have been busy!

Artsy Picture of The Day

My sweet girl.

She looks so cute, sitting on the steps.

We've had some lovely spring/summer-like weather these past few days, and she's discovered the horror of sunscreen and the bliss of sitting on the steps: waiting for whatever it is to come by and catch her fancy.

The Last Is First

Nora got a lot of pictures of her taken today. She's back into realizing that if she just holds still and smiles, it's over faster.

But that's not what this is about.

This photo is one of her very first real conversation with Daddy on the phone. It involved her actually taking the phone OUT of my hands and yelling "HI! HI! HI!" into it as she heard his voice (he's out of town on business this week).

And when he talked to her, rather than just walk around pushing buttons until the call was lost, she ACTUALLY put the phone to her ear so she could hear his voice!

Just too cute.

Today was a big day spent in the yard...

We went to the store and bought sidewalk chalk, and spent a LOT of time playing with it, dropping it in the grass, putting it in (and out) and in again to the plastic holder...

And of course trying to eat it.

A tour of the yard shows everything that should and should NOT be up is growing and doing great...
Being that it was 80degrees here today, we grew EVERYTHING.
My favorite part though was digging out my REI tent and putting it up in the back yard, and finding a place for it where it wouldn't kill the grass, but where Nora could still play with it.

She took some animals in with her and of course, it has a few chalk marks...

But she thoroughly enjoyed her "outside fort". We have a date for tomorrow after my exam to play in it a LOT before the weather changes again on Wednesday!