1st Report Card

Moira has received her first report card. Students are evaluated 2 times a year in kindergarten.

My how times have changed, gone are letter grades in favor of the numbers 1-4. I'm happy to report that Moira exceeded the standards set forth in mathematics, writing, and reading.

She got a glowing a glowing report from her teacher who says she's simply a joy to have in class and that Moira can always be counted on to be hard at work.

Nick and I have been a little disappointed with the rate of learning at the school. At this point they still haven't covered any new material for her, but Moira certainly enjoys spending time with all of the other children and likes her teacher.

In the mean time we will continue to supplement Moira's school with fun games and activities at home.

In other news both girls will be starting gymnastics classes this week. Kiah is so excited she's about to pop. She's been prancing around the house in her new leotard in preparation for the event.

The final sled ride

So we took the girls out on wensday for some more sledding. It was the third day in a row of winter fun so the girls enthusiasm was a little diminished. Nick was in charge of sending the girls down and I was there to capture the moment on film and help them shuffle back up the hill. Now only Nick will ever know if he meant for Moira and Kiah to hit the jump . . . either way the girls were not interested in anymore sledding after this.

snow, snow, and more snow

Well the last few traces of the snow are finally melting away after two days of rain. The girls and I manged to make a very iconic snowman, ticking off the final winter experience on the girls list. Unfortunatly right after we built him there was a warming period followed by a few more days of snow. He fell over the first night and was quickly burried.

The dogs also thouroghly enjoyed the snow. Suki likes to chase frozen water just as much as the wet stuff, and Kess well she's always happy.

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SNOW!!!

Because we live on the top of a hill in the convergence zone we always have way more snow than anyone when it finally hits Seattle. The girls were super excited to see the first flakes fall, and once fully bundled up spent hours playing in the backyard. The only way to lure them inside is hot cocoa.

It's really fun to enjoy the winter weather with the kiddos. The girls were quite convinced it wasn't really winter until it snowed. We found a great sledding hill by Moira's school. It's a little to far to walk, but a level and easy drive. Moira and Kiah had a whole list of winter activities to cross off. Snow angels (sorry no pictures), snowball fights, and sledding. Build a snowman has been deyaled as the snow is to light and dry to form up well at this point.






The first hill we tried was smaller and ended in a slushy puddle so not the best. Nick went first to show the girls how it was done.

We could hear a fare amount of whooping and yelling coming from across the park so we decided to investigate. Our reward was a far superior hill on the other side of the park, which was awesome for kids. It was steep enough to make it exciting but then finished off on a nice flat ballfield. There was even a set of stairs with a handrail to go back up, can't beat that!



After a few runs with mom and dad Kiah was the first to request a solo mission on the big hill. Moira had already been taken out by an unknown assaliant with a snowball to the face and a pretty spectacular sled crash so she was just fine with letting Kiah taking the lead.

Kiah was adorable screaming the whole way and then just glowing full of adrenaline and pride at the bottom.

After Kiah survived her trip down there were many many more. Sadly Nick can't remote in to work as he's using a Mac for his iphones programming so he'll be taking off in my Subaru today leaving us stranded :( Oh well sounds like a great reason to make cookies.

Rope Swing

So we have made numerous kid friendly additions to our backyard to help entertain the girls and keep them occupied for a bit outside. The girls favorite outdoor toy by far is the rope swing. I used an old dock line courtesy of Juju, and a round piece of scrap wood for a mini seat or foothold. The swing was a big hit from day 1, and the girls are always innovating, and finding even more dangerous ways to play on the swing.

You should have seen Nick swell with pride when Moira came running in to declare that jumping off the chair on to the swing was the best way yet. Moira is also usually really keen to help Kiah out on the swing, which leads to lots of super cute giggling and playing nicely with each other and who can resist a photo op like that.

Halloween Costumes

So last year I was going to make costumes for both of the girls, but quickly ran out of time and enthusiasm for the project. I got Moira's finished, and decided I would head to the store for Kiah's. When we got to the store Kiah was actually a little sad that I didn't make hers, but quickly decided on a princess dress. I felt like a horrible parent and resolved to make both costumes this year. Of course both girls wanted to be princesses again, so I imposed a princess ban.

Moira decided that she wanted to make up her own super hero costume with a star for her symbol. I cut out a bunch of colored starts and we moved them around until we came up with a final superhero symbol. Here's the finished product.

Kiah was at a bit of a loss for a costume so we flipped through some of the patterns I've amassed thanks to the $1 pattern sales at Joann's. She decided on a parrot costume. It was certainly more involved than Moira's but not particularly difficult. It turned out warm, fuzzy, and adorable. Both girls are primed and ready for their candy haul this year, fingers crossed it's not raining.

Spiders

Came across these two spiders in the backyard

Kiah Knievel

Well miss Kiah finally figured out peddling her tricyle a couple of weeks ago. Apparently she needs another lesson in steering. Poor little Kiah sent her tricycle end over end off of the retaining wall and broke her collar bone.

I of course wanted to wisk her to the ER right away, but Nick pointed out that there wasn't any swelling and she seemed to be able to move all of her parts the right way so we didn't think anything was broken. Assuming she just had a hard fall and would bruise up and be sore for a day or two we put her to bed. After putting her down she continued to wake up crying every few hours. At 3am I decided it was time to head for the er. 2.5 hours later we were headed home with Kian's arm in a sling and a prescription for liquid vicatin.

Thankfully she got a full nights sleep last night and she sems to be figuring out how to move around without aggravating her injury. She must wear the sling for 5-6 weeks, and no running or playing :( We're meeting with her preschool teacher today to see if she will be able to manage Kiah's injury at school.

First Day of Kindergarten

We've really enjoyed the last few weeks of summer and it has all been a big build-up to the much anticipated first day of Kindergarten. Moira has school from 9-11:30 every day of the week. I drop her off in the morning and a bus brings her home after class. Moira's a little nervous about the bus, but the giant laminated notecard pinned to her chest includes all her bus info and my phone number so I'm sure it will all work out fine. Parents have to wait outside for the kiddos and I'm sure I'll be out there more than a few minutes early.

2011 Campout

This August we rallied the gang for our 2nd annual campout. Last years camping spot was less than ideal so waaaaay back in Jan I booked the group campsite at Sequim Bay State Park. It was nicer than we could of imagined, with a massive area all to ourselves with little traffic from the rest of the campground coming through. Just below our campsite was a large dock and cobble beach and it was deserted for much of the time we were there.

The kids enjoyed rambling along with their fellow toddlers and the parents all got a chance to relax a little too. I spent most mornings out with my new camera trying to capture some of the beauty of the place.




The group has already started scouting spots for next year, and I can't wait.

Veggies

Our little raised veggie bed has been highly productive this year. We even had a rogue pumpkin appear from a seed that survived being composted. The girls and I both enjoyed watching it grow and trying to guesss what type of squash it might be. They were delighted to discover that one of their Jack o' lanterns from last year had managed to sprout a seed. So far we have 7 little pumpkins growing out there. Hopefully at least 2 of them will get large enough to carve.

In addition to the pumpkins we planted sugar snap peas, yellow wax beans, carrots, lettuce, cilantro and one tomato plant. The cilantro bolted right away and was a bust, but I let it go to seed in the hopes that we'd have cilantro all over the place next year. We've had numerous salads and bean side dishes this summer, and it has been by far our most productive year. I've stayed on top of the watering and this is the 3rd year in a row we've ammended the soil in spring so it looks like my black thumb with veggies might have a hint of green in it yet.

A little catch up

So I've been a total slacker with the blog. Despite the lousy weather it's been a busy summer full of fun. Between the country fair, frisbee dogs, and various holidays it seems like every weekend is bursting at the seams.

Here's some pictures from Moira's preschool graduation picnic. Kiah will be attending the same school in Sept, and Moira is moving on to kindergarden!! Due to some silly district lines Moira will not get to go the school that is 3 blocks away. She has to go to the one a mile down the road. The silver lining is that this school is much less crowded and instead of a class of 20+ kids ahe will have around 14 kids in her class.

Kiah Turns 3

Kiah had a wonderful birthday. Despite the cool temperatures and looming clouds we managed to put together a fun new play house for her. Her little buddies Conan and Morgan made it down to help her celebrate, and all the kids had fun checking out the new toys. Kiah has been overjoyed with all of the new additions to her wardrobe and ditches her jammies as soon as we shut her bedroom door for the night in favor of something more acceptable to her particular fashion sense. It was lots of fun to celebrate Kiah's big day.

Rykers First Birthday

The girls had a great time hanging out with cousin Ryker at his first birthday party.

Moira Turns 5

We had a full week of celebrations with dinner at Chuck E. Cheese with the Juju and Paul on wed night, followed by a trip to the aquarium and a tasty birthday lunch on thursday. It just so happened that a friend of my mothers was volunteering at the aquarium when we were there so the girls got some special one on one attention at the touch tank. They took several of the animals out and put them in a smaller bowls so the girls could get a good look. Kiah was fearless about touching the animals, Moira was a bit more hesitant, but quickly joined in the fun.

The crowing celebration was Moira's fishy themed party on sat. We had 9 kids over and everyone had fun. We attempted a game of pin the tail on the fish, with partial success. Everyone had fun, the house was destroyed, and we were all exhausted. Just think in one month we can do it all again for Kiah.

My friends call me Tombi

There may be a few of you who have no idea that I always introduce myself as Adriana to strangers, and since 7th grade have gone by Adriana at school and work. My middle name is Tombi, but it is the name my family has always called me by and introduced me as.

So at the recent Microsoft Christmas party I noticed that when Nick introduced me as Adriana to his co-workers that it sounded absolutely alien coming out of his mouth. Then I started thinking about the reasons I started introducing myself as Adriana. I was starting Jr. high and switching schools. The last thing I wanted to do was stand out, and a name like Tombi deep in the heart of TX was basically a giant target. To make matters worse I was a total tomboy and it doesn't take a real rocket scientist to make the Tombi-tomboy connection. Thus was born Adriana.

Pretty soon I had this elaborate name structure in which once friends were permitted into the inner circle they got to know Tombi.

While it's pretty amusing to watch people who've only known you as Adriana encounter people who only know you as Tombi it leads to lots of confusion during the birthday song.

Currently a lot of the people I consider friends call me Adriana and it seems a lengthy but worthy task to re-introduce myself as Tombi. So with just a little bit of sadness Adriana Ericson has passed away and been supplanted by Tombi Ericson.

Now for something completely different

Here are some of the outtakes from this years christmas card photo shoot. I'm still holding out hope that I can get a few cards out in the mail so I'll save the keepers for a later post.

Held Hostage by the American Dream

So the last ten days have really made me take a hard look at this country, and what it does to it's middle class citizens. The American dream . . . work hard, go to college, buy a house and live happily ever after.

College was a struggle. I started out lucky, and didn't even know it. My parents were able to pay for my school. Instead of taking advantage of this opportunity I floundered and failed out of my classes. My parents of course withdrew the checkbook, and their own financial situation had changed when I was ready to go back to school, so it would be up to me to fund my education. I don't even really know why I went to college, other than the fact that, that is what you do. When I went back to school on my own dime I was a much improved student and never made less than a B. I worked full time while I was in school and was able to keep my student loans down to about $15k. I never got any practical work training through school and my degree in Biology with an emphasis in zoology provides me with zero skills with which to get a job. It would have been really great if the school that I gave ridiculous sums of money to would have sat me down at one point and explained that I would need to work for free as an intern if I wanted any practical work experience. I wish I'd gotten a two year degree . . . then I'd have a skill and a job.

Nick fared a little better. At least he chose a degree you can make some money in. Allthough since he went for a masters his student loans ended up closer to $30k. All in all we're much better off than most students who pay their own way through loans. We came out of school with nothing but $45k in student loan debt over our heads, but at least we never got credit cards.

So we continued our frugal life. We NEVER go on vacation, maybe eat out once a month. Never got to the movies or really do anything that costs more than $5. I keep our groceries below $150 a week and work hard to be a thrifty bargain shopper.

We saved up $60k and decided to buy a house. In the Seattle market that's a scant down payment, but we found a short sale we could afford, and bought a home. 2 years later like many other Americans our house is now worth $70k less than when we bought it and we are now trapped by our house, unable to sell it and unable to rent it for anything close to our mortgage. Despite the added expense of the house we were able to purchase and payoff two used cars and save up another $60k dollars over the last two years.

Another major development was the increasing severity of my psoriatic arthritis. As if my loser father didn't do enough to ruin our family I have the lasting legacy of his genetic disease to remind me my whole life, just where I came from. My arthritis was so severe after Kiah was born that I could no longer walk without something to hold on to. I was taking multiple over the counter pain killers, prescription pain killers just to get through the day. I cried a lot, both for the pain in my body and in my heart. If you would like an idea of the pain think about how it feels to hit your bone against something hard, that sharp pain that makes you cry out, now put that pain in to every joint in your body. Even the ones you never think of in the middle of your hand or foot. It got to the point where my body had begun to refuse to follow instructions because of the pain. I got stuck in the bath tub, unable to crawl out because my body simple refused to move. It's a very strange sensation to realize that your own body is shutting down from pain.

You become keenly aware of just how many joints you have in your body when every single one of them is screaming out in pain constantly. I thought of the burden I already was on my family and the burden would become as I already needed a walker even though I had refused to admit it. I was really, really depressed and even considered taking my own life to prevent my children from having to take care of me, but hope is a miraculous thing and I just kept hoping that this miracle drug my Dr wanted to try would save the day. The day I went to the Dr for the first injection, it took me 10 min to shuffle across the 2 parking spots between my car and the door to the lobby, there was no hand rail and so I had nothing to help me walk, and would fall over from the pain if I tried to take a step.

1 week later I could walk pain free, one month later I could run. I had my life back and whatever the side effects of the drug they were minimal to the amazing glory of a pain free day, that was my salvation. We were very fortunate to have insurance that paid completely for the medication as it is $2k a month without insurance.

Now after being in Seattle for 4 years we still find ourselves unable to make any meaningful connections with people here. Sure we have acquaintances, but it's very lonely here. I don't have any girlfriends so I spend 20hrs a day, usually more at home and the only person I ever talk to is Nick, the kids, or my mom. If Nick goes out for the evening then I don't talk to anyone all day, I'm just alone. It's really hard to meet people when you are home all day with your kids, and for whatever reason our peculiar set of hobbies are shared by lots of people in Bellingham and seemingly no one in Seattle. Everyone we meet, just seems to busy to add anymore friends to their social calendar.

Nick was recently offered a well paying job in Bellingham. A job that pays this well in Belligham only comes along every 5 years or so, I was so happy. I thought everything in the world would be right again. We'd be able to move, I'd be healthy and surrounded by friends. As it turns out we can't sell our hose without being completely wiped out, so we thought we'd rent it and make up the difference in the payment and just live on an even tighter budget in Bellingham, so we could continue to save.

Then we came to the next hurdle, health insurance. We did find carriers that would insure me, but not pay any out for my medication. So I did the math and even if I work full time for $11.50/hr, I will not be able to pay for my medication. I don't even know how to really absorb that fact. I have a college degree and can't earn enough money to pay for just my medication, forget living expenses. I can never go off of this medication . . . this is something I will need my entire life and now in addition to overcoming the challenges of owning a giant money pit of a house I now know that I can never switch insurance carriers and Nick can never switch jobs unless my medication will be covered and after 16hrs on the phone with different insurance companies I am realizing that pigs will fly before that happens.

So just to re-cap before we can move away from this place that has brought us nothing but misery the housing market has to turn around (10 years hopefully). The government has to offer a public option for health care, because no insurance company wants to have anything to do with me. Based on these realizations it's obvious that we're screwed.

I feel like an indentured servant, part of Americas new class of slaves. Canada is looking better every day.

toddler powered perpetual motion

Addie, Cary, and Conan came up for a visit this weekend. The guys decided that the best way to keep the kids entertained was to get them to jump off the table onto a bunch of pillows. It was lots of fun for the kiddos and did indeed keep them very entertained for an hour, at which point they became to exhausted to move.

Snow!

The girls were super excited about the snow. They even had their first snowball fight. Moira went straight for the face shot so we quickly changed the game to hit mom with snowballs. I was lucky enough to cath the fun on video.