Pittsburgh, PA - Day 2

Bike Rodeo

Every year the local Pittsburgh area police department and EMT puts on a bike rodeo, and we just happened to come on the weekend it was happening, and so we brought the kids' bikes with us on the trip.

What a great idea, this rodeo.  They safety checked the bikes, and gave all the kids free helmets, adjusted correctly by the EMTs.  There was also a free raffle for a new bike (they gave away 4 bikes), and Elizabeth won!  ...  Elijah was VERY disappointed that he didn't win the cool green boys' bike.  In an act more Miciah-ish than Elijah-ish, he cried and sulked for about 15 minutes.  Then he was over it.

I thought the kids would get bored relatively quickly, but they rode around the parking lot obstacle course for over 2 hours!

By the end, Miciah was noticeably better at riding her bike (remember, she's only been riding without training wheels for a few weeks, which really only equals a few hours total riding time).  She was also noticeably sunburned.

Of course, what did Tank do most of the time?

He's an observer.  Though he enjoyed riding the course as well.  He just didn't have the 2-hour stamina like the older kids did.  (I took lots of pictures of him sucking his fingers, watching the other kids.  When he's older I'd like him to realize just how often he sucked those fingers.)

As we were driving back to Aliess' house, Elijah asked if we could come back to the Bike Rodeo next year.  It was that cool.

Downtown Pittsburgh and the Incline

My friend had told me that downtown Pittsburgh had been voted one of the prettiest skylines in the world.  I was skeptical.  I mean, I'm fond of Cincinnati's skyline.  Was Pittsburgh really that much better?  The answer is yes.

I wish I could have found a historic picture of Pittsburgh, when the steel factories were still downtown.  There were shots of downtown, pitch black, and the captions said, "Pittsburgh, 3:00 p.m." or "Noon."  Craziness.


Fun for me:  Pittsburgh still has 2 working inclines.  Cincinnati used to have a few inclines, but they've all been torn down.  I've always been sad that I couldn't see them in action, so I was thrilled to ride the Duschene Incline in Pittsburgh, instead.  This is a great fuzzy picture of the group of us riding the Incline:

I like to think of the shot as "modern" and "edgy."

Our family at the top:

It was, umm, bright.  Further proof of the brightness:

Pittsburgh also, by the way, has more bridges than any other city in the world.  FYI.

I took this picture of downtown Pittsburgh with the Incline in front:

There are about 50 different versions of this exact shot.  Seriously, if you google image Pittsburgh, this shot will be one of the first you'll find.

It's hard to demonstrate how steep the Incline really is.  That hill is STEEP.  There used to be stairs that went from the bottom to the top.  And don't be thinking stairs that went straight up the hill.  There was a historic picture, and those stairs wound all over the place.  Crazy.  I might have walked up those stairs once, but I wouldn't have done it twice.

Oh!  Another REALLY cool thing about downtown Pittsburgh is that where the tip is, 2 rivers come together to form the Ohio.  Did you know that the Ohio River starts in Pittsburgh?  Neither did I.  Here's the 2 rivers coming together:

The two colors stay separate for quite a while.  Not as dramatic as the Amazon's 2 rivers coming together:

But still, very cool.

So, thank you, downtown Pittsburgh, for being gorgeous.  No thank you, Pittsburgh-area roads, for being puke-ish and awful.  And thank you, Aliess, for letting us come visit.

An Update - No Stress Involved

Believe it or not, we have been involved in things other than just taking strolls through Stressland.  I'm going to take a moment and report on those things.

The House

Tomorrow we are closing on our refinance!  When we bought this house, we acquired 2 lousy loans.  We knew they were lousy at the time, but I'm not sure we realized just HOW lousy.  ...  Anyway, the interest rates are low right now, and one of our 2 lousy loans will go variable in November, so we thought that now would be a good time to try to refinance.

The trick, of course, was to get our house to appraise for something manageable.  Because our 2 loans were lousy, we've essentially paid off nothing in 5 years.  Which is ... depressing.  And since we've paid off nothing, and the housing market has dropped since we bought the house, it was nowhere close to a sure bet that the house would appraise for what we needed it to appraise for.  ...  So we painted a little.  Made things look a little nicer.  And then prayed and hoped for the best.

And our house appraised $2,000 higher than we needed!  Hurray!  We passed the other tests, the credit scores and background checks and drug histories and Algebra tests.  ...  Tomorrow we sign our lives away AGAIN, but at least we'll be paying off the house.  Which is something we haven't done before.

Rob's Calling

Last weekend Rob was released from the Bishopric.  This has been coming for a while, and Rob and I knew it.  Rob has been pretty unavailable to the Bishop, since he's been working Tuesday nights since August 2009 (Tuesday is Bishopric meeting night), and is going to be working them through December 2010.

A month or two back, Rob came home from a Sunday afternoon Bishopric meeting and said, "Today we discussed the fact that it's time to release Brother E. as Ward Mission Leader."  Okay.  "Tim kind of half-jokingly mentioned my name."  And then it hit me.  It was sure knowledge.  I said, "Rob, that's your new calling."  Rob said, "Yeah, I was thinking that, too."  "So, did you tell the Bishop that?  Did you tell him that's your new calling?"  Rob said something to me about how it's not really his decision, but that he had hinted to the Bishop that he would be willing, if that call was issued.

A week or two later Bishop Tim called me for something unrelated.  We're good friends, and so when he finished talking about the unrelated subject, I said, "Tim, the calling you discussed a few weeks ago, you know that's Rob's new calling."  "What calling are you talking about?" he said.  As if he didn't know.  I told him that Rob and I both knew that Rob was supposed to be the new Ward Mission Leader, and that I thought Tim knew, too.  Tim said, "Tamra, it's going to be a busy calling.  Busier than the Bishopric."  And I shrugged and said, "When the Lord says "go and do," you do it."

Rob's excited about the new calling, and I'm excited that he gets to sit with us at church again!  The kids are also way excited about that.  Miciah shouted, "FINALLY!"  I guess 2 years is a long time.

Also, Rob will be able to grow his beard again.  ...  Actually, I haven't okayed that with Tim yet.  But if he doesn't okay at least SOME beard time, he's going to have a fight on his hands. 

Family Campout

The last of our Friday Family Nights in April was a family campout in the backyard.  It was a perfect night for camping, but Rob said, "It's supposed to storm."  I thought, "Whatever.  It's gorgeous!"

Here's our backyard set up:

Notice the log on the fire.  It's bigger than our fire pit!

Elijah brought it over to the fire pit all by himself, rolling it end-over-end.  So we had to burn it.  It burned for 6 hours.

Here's the kids, calmly getting ready for bed:

And, of course, it stormed in the middle of the night.  Starting about midnight it got gusty, but not awful.  Then, around 3 am it started getting REALLY gusty.  And at 6 am it started pouring down rain!  We ran with the kids, and all the bedding, into the house.  The kids finished the morning in sleeping bags on the living room floor.  And I took a nap later that day to make up for not sleeping much from 3 - 6:30 am.  

Miciah

marathon
Miciah ran the Kids' Flying Pig Marathon last weekend, for the 2nd year in a row.  They run 25 miles in the months coming up to the race, and then do the last mile at the marathon.  It was a little weird this time, because the day of the Flying Pig was when Miciah broke her arm.  Hard to believe it was a year ago.  Miciah will still not jump off the swings (can you blame her?), but Elijah will!  We'll tell Elijah to be careful (whatever.  Like we were careful as kids), and that Miciah broke her arm that way, and he'll come back at us with, "Yeah, but I didn't break my arm."  Good point.

bike
Miciah has officially learned to ride a 2-wheeler bike!  She wouldn't try for a long time because she was scared.  She is definitely like me:  not a daredevil.  It may surprise you to hear that, since I was a tomboy, but I am not, and have never been an adrenaline junkie.   Danger is for idiots, i.e. boys.

Shortly after learning to ride without training wheels, she rode her bike into the dust.  It was a beat-up, er, well-loved hand-me-down bike (thank you SO MUCH, Chiara!) that was really too small for her this year anyway.  So we bought her a new bike. 

bedroom
Also, we rearranged Miciah's room last night.  I've been frustrated with her room because it's always a mess, and that's partly my fault.  Her room has been 1/2 her room and 1/2 my room (it's a woodworking room turned craft room turned bedroom).  I decided it was time to change that.  So we moved her bed, gave her more wall space and another bookshelf.  Gave her the shoe bin so she could organize her shoes (she has lots of hand-me-down shoes) (and now we have no shoe bin upstairs.  But it's worth it).  Put up permanent hooks so she can hang up her jackets and hats.  And then cleaned.

And cleaned.

And cleaned.

About a million times she said, "Oh!  THAT'S where that was!"  Socks.  Toys.  Papers.  Books.  It was pathetic.

But it looks great now and I'm so happy with it!

(If you're thinking, "It doesn't actually look that great," then you obviously didn't see it before.  I'm sorry I don't have a Before picture for you.  Suffice it to say that I felt like throwing up every time I entered her room.  And no, that's not an exaggeration.)

Elijah

reading
Elijah is reading.  I'm still not sure when you can say a kid is officially Reading, but he's doing really good, so I'm going to call it official.

wii
He also is very proud of himself because he beat New Super Mario Brothers wii.  He did the last level all by himself because Miciah and Tank wouldn't help him.  They get scared and bubble (which means they're just along for the ride, and don't help).  He's been telling everyone he can all about it.

He also frequently gets grounded from the wii because he throws fits when I ask him to turn it off, etc.  Surprisingly, he doesn't complain about not playing while he's grounded.  

Jesus stories
A funny story about Elijah.  He was at Pen's house with Tank.  The 3 of them were dancing in the dust specks that you can see in the sun, when suddenly Elijah said, "Wait, guys!  The dust is good.  It's faith.  It's Jesus."

He's been really into Jesus lately, which is great, but can get a little weird.  He'll say funny things about what Jesus is or where he is or whatever.  ...  But sometimes he's so in touch with the goodness that is Jesus Christ, and it's inspiring to me.  He went to a Primary activity focused on Jesus Christ and prophets and when he came home I said, "Did you like the activity, Elijah?"  He said, in an awe-filled voice, "I LOVED it.  We learned about Jesus Christ."

His latest question about Jesus Christ is, "How can he be alive if he died?  And how is he alive if he's in Heaven?"  Good, good questions.  Most people, after all, are dead when they die, and if they're in Heaven, that means they're dead, too.  I'm glad he's asking the questions.

Tank

Tank is ... grumpy lately.  And hasn't been eating much of anything.  I don't know what that's about, but whatever.

bike
He graduated to a new bike at the same time Miciah did.  He only had a little trike (also a hand-me-down.  Thank you, generous people who love us!), and he was too big for it, but we were pretending not to notice.  But when we went to the store to get Miciah her new bike, he saw a bike just his size and Rob let him ride it in the store.  Which means you have to buy it.  Is there a parent who lets their kid ride the bike at the store and then walks out of said store without said bike?  Tank kept saying, "Look!  I can ride it!"  "It fits me!"  and "Look at me ride my bike!"

It was late when we got home, so the next morning he got up and said, "Put on my shoes, Mom.  I'm ready to ride my bike!"  He loves it.

Oh.  If you're wondering how it worked to take 3 kids to the store and give 2 kids a bike, ...  At the store Elijah said, "What do I get?"  I told him that he didn't need a bike, and that's true.  He has a great little bike that fits him perfectly.  He was okay with not getting a bike.  He proposed getting a $25 Hot Wheels set instead.  I said no.  Then I saw a bubble wand for the perfect price of $1.  I said, "What about this bubble wand?!"  And Elijah was thrilled.  Love the boy.  He really doesn't keep tally.  If it had been 6-year-old Miciah walking out without a bike, we would have had a MAJOR fit on our hands.

Rob is Home!

Rob came home last night to find 3 hyper-excited children.  They jumped all over him and talked non-stop.  You'd think he was gone for weeks.  But it's cute how much they love their daddy.

He came home with gifts for all of them.  None were Baltimore-centered because, ... it's Baltimore, blah.  At first he pulled out his Immunology conference book and said, "This is for Teancom!" and Tank lowered his head and groaned.  It was hilarious!  Actually Tank got a bath toy.  It's a battery-operated motor boat.  It's pretty cool.  AND it got Tank to take a bath.  That's something he hasn't been keen on doing lately.

Elijah got a boomerang.  After playing with it outside, and even though he didn't get it to come back to him, he ran inside and said, "Mom!  It's awesome!"

Miciah and I got these itty-bitty shirts:

Seriously, don't those look like doll shirts?  They're called Popcorn shirts.  ...

 When I first had the bag in my hands, and I couldn't tell what it was, and the outside said, "I love popcorn," I thought to myself, "Rob has seriously misjudged how much I like popcorn."  ...  But the shirts are actually pretty cool.  Here's Miciah with the shirt on:

They're fun shirts.

And it's good to have Rob home.

Christmas Day

So, now that it's the end of January and no one cares about Christmas any more, I'm posting my Christmas pictures.

This is the scene the kids saw when they got up:

We kept it simple this year, and less expensive than normal. So we made oragami frogs, cranes, and paper airplanes for the stockings. And did you see that cool bike?! Here it is closer-up:

Bike Story

The bike is actually part of a cool story. Keeping it simpler than Really Complicated: Some really good friends in our ward called us one night in October or so and asked if we would like a bike for Elijah. They said they could hold onto it until a certain upcoming holiday event. We thought about it and said alright. They had bought the bike for their own son when he was Elijah's age, and he had refused to ride it. He's the youngest and now he's 12. The family had just cleaned out their garage and found this bike and thought of Elijah. They also had 2 bike helmets, and elbow and knee pads, too.

When they initially told us about the bike, I was wondering what condition the bike was in. They said it was "like brand new", but that means different things coming from different people. So when we picked it up I almost gasped. It was in such good shape, that the little "hairs" on the bike tires were still there! Incredible!

So we spit-shined it up a few days before Christmas and I'm still amazed that we ended up with such a great bike for free. It was Elijah's Santa gift.

A funny side story to the Bike Story: The bike tires needed air (because Santa doesn't bring bikes with flat tires), and Rob went out to the van to get the pump. It was the night before Christmas Eve, so on one hand we needed to know if the tires held air because if they didn't we needed to buy new bike tire tubes. On the other hand, there was a terrible ice storm that day, so it wasn't worth getting hurt over. Rob announced he was going outside anyway. I had just watched Cleo, our cat, trip all over herself trying to get across our deck. I told him he was going to break his arm or something! He went out anyway. He came back inside with the pump but also with a huge bruise across his shin from where he slipped across the driveway and right into the bottom of the van. Ouch! ... I tried to feel sorry for him, but, you know, I did tell him so. (And the bike tires did hold air, thankfully.)

2 Teancom Pictures

These two pictures are of Teancom with 2 of his gifts. One he really liked and has played with constantly since he got it: His green sparkly ball from Grandma (it's one of those balls with water and sparkles inside it--it's pretty cool). The other is his fireman's hat (each of the kids got one). You can see how much he likes wearing it:



This year, since the kids have been earning their own money, and since we didn't buy them many toys, we let them all take their money and pick out 1 gift a piece at Toys-R-Us. They didn't have much money, and we told them it had to be something they could afford. So this is what each of them chose:

This is Teancom's dog. It came with a bright red leash so he can pull it around. Who knew this was really TWO toys: the dog and a red snake!

Elijah wanted a camera. I told him this was just a "play camera", thinking he'd be disappointed that it didn't take real photos. He said, "It's not a PLAY camera. It's a pre-TEND camera." If you look into part of it, you can see photos of animals, and he thinks that's just as cool.

Miciah actually went with a single purchase in mind: Barbie and the Christmas Carol, the newest Barbie movie. And then she saw the duck. We had said only 1 gift, and we knew she'd be disappointed to not get the movie. She started crying when she knew she had to put the duck back. Rob was unmoved, but Miciah LOVES duckies, for some reason. So I suggested that, since she still had money left, we could make an exception. And she loves the duck. (Luckily our boys are nothing like Miciah and so there were no fits of "But she got more than me!" and "But you said...!")

Santa

Speaking of gifts, let's talk briefly about Santa. I'm not a huge Santa fan. In fact, this year Miciah was cornering me on some Santa questions and I couldn't redirect to Rob as I normally do, because we were in the car alone. She was asking how his reindeer could fly, etc., etc. I don't mind Santa being the Spirit of Christmas/Christ, in fact, I quite like the symbolism. But SANTA DOESN'T HAVE MAGIC REINDEER!!! I finally shouted to her, "Miciah, Santa is fake! He doesn't exist." She was quiet for a moment and then quietly said, "You're saying he's fake?" ... You'd think I'd ruined her Christmas, but of course she promptly acted like she hadn't even heard me and continued believing, just cause she wanted to. And I guess that's kinda cute.

And for those of you who are about to tell me, "Just say, "What do YOU think?"" I think that's a cop out and it plays on the believing nature of children, and that's just not nice or right. Santa just doesn't have flying reindeer.

However, flying reindeer or no, he still brings our children 1 gift a piece. Santa gave Elijah a bike. Miciah got the game of Life. And Teancom got a small tool set. The cool thing about getting the bike is that because you can't wrap a bike, Santa didn't wrap any of his Santa gifts this year. Less wrapping is always good. It did create a funny situation, though, when Elijah woke up and came out to see his Santa gift. We took a video of it, expecting this great reaction. You can watch the video if you want, cause it's cute. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhAiDpzgX_s ) But if you don't want to, the best part is that Elijah hardly reacted at all, since he was just barely awake and somewhat dazed. And even after he saw the bike, he got up closer to it and then saw Teancom's gift. He pointed to the tool set and said, "I've been wanting one of those." Figures. Teancom shares really really well, though, so they've both been enjoying the tool set.

Holiday Barbie and a Stuffed Reindeer

Miciah also wrote Santa a letter this year. Very cute. Unfortunately, she presented it to us a week before Christmas in a sealed envelope. This was of course well after we'd decided on and purchased her Santa gift. We opened it up Christmas night to read that she'd asked for a stuff reindeer (of all things) and a Barbie doll. The Barbie doll wasn't completely unexpected since while walking through Wal-Mart Miciah pointed out the $40 Holiday Barbie that she wanted. Beautiful. But $40. And we already bought Life! But the stuffed reindeer? Where did THAT come from?

So imagine our surprise and the humor surrounding the whole situation when R&C came over to give us their (mostly HOMEMADE) Christmas gifts (put me to shame). Gave us an onion chopper thing (it's genius!!!--one slam down and it's diced!) (the only gift not homemade), some bath salts and soaps (for me), a snowman and "snow balls" that you can throw at it and the balls stick (for Elijah), some hair ribbons (for Miciah), and for Teancom: a stuffed reindeer. Miciah eyeballed that for a long time. Then asked C if she could make her one, too. We explained to C that Miciah had asked Santa for a stuffed reindeer, but that she should NOT feel obligated to make her another one. C, thankfully, told Miciah no. Miciah then tried to talk Teancom into letting her have it, or at least borrow it. Teancom, the good sharer that he is, has let her borrow it several times and I find it just as often on Miciah's bed as in Teancom's room.

When Miciah had to pick a single gift to take to her class for a special show-and-tell, she chose? Teancom's stuffed reindeer.

Miciah and Elijah, opening one of Miciah's gifts from Grandma. We had curled Miciah's hair in curlers a few nights before and so it was still wavy that day. I think it looked really really cute and we should do it more often.

Aprons

My mom gave Rob and me aprons for Christmas (among other things that I'll talk about later). After we opened ours, Miciah said, "She didn't make me one!" So she was very pleased when she opened a package to find:

And my sweet boys. Elijah wasn't jealous at all when Miciah got one and he didn't, even though he's now in a stage where he loves to cook. After Miciah got hers, we just handed down the other aprons (also from my mother when she was getting rid of some or hers) and Elijah grabbed the one that used to be Miciah's and said, "This is mine now, huh, Mom?"

The Wii

Me putting the wii together. Great picture, eh? I need a haircut in this pic, and I hadn't bothered with putting myself together yet (not that I look much different AFTER I put myself together, but you know).

We saved the wii to open last, of course. The kids were excited to get it, but not near as excited as we'd hoped. I'll upload the video so you can watch if you want (and when that's done, I'll include the link here). And another gift got hidden in the pile, so the very last gift they opened was Season 3 of the Avatar TV show. They were just as, if not MORE excited to get Avatar. Oops. It made me think, "And we spent HOW MUCH on the wii?" We'd planned all year to get the wii, and it's ALL we got the kids for Christmas. All the other gifts you saw there, besides the Santa gifts, were from someone else or we got them for free/really cheap.

For instance:

When asked later in the day, after playing the wii and riding his bike (in the fantastic 60 degree weather), what his favorite gift was, Elijah said the fire truck. The fire truck was a wooden set that Rob got for free at Home Depot. Elijah and Rob built it together and had a great time doing the project. It just cracked me up that it was his favorite, and we didn't spend a dime on it! ... Next time I think our kids will be scarred by going simpler, I'm going to remember the fire truck.

Elijah also loved this toy:

It's a Spider-Man nerf gun thing. It shot those darts pretty fast, actually. Of course, he broke it by the day's end. It was a clearance toy that I got for like 50 cents. Rob promised we could buy him a "real" nerf gun type toy that hopefully won't break in a few minutes. I have no faith in the toy lasting any longer if we spend more money on it. But, I guess we'll find out! (And check out Elijah's tongue in that picture! Totally cute.)

Keeping it Simple

This is the kids eating breakfast at the table, with Christmas goodies everywhere. We cut back in terms of candy and food this year, too, so most of what is on the table is from others. We even saved some Halloween candy to put in their stockings. That's pretty lame, even I admit that. But it meant things were simple, and yet we still had a lot.

For instance: The kids get cereal every year (Rob's family's tradition). Usually we get them some brand name goodness, but this year opted for the cheap stuff. Not only were they just as happy to get the cheap stuff, they got like 5 times as much that way! All 3 kids still have some cereal left, and since there was so much in each bag, they've also been really good about sharing.

Christmas Gifts for Each Other

Another side to Keeping it Simple was our gifts to each other. In November I started telling Rob that what I wanted for Christmas was for him to grow a beard. He kept looking at me pitifully and saying that I KNEW he couldn't do that. No, I didn't know that. And Yes, yes you can. You just stop shaving. He kept telling me no, and I kept telling him that's all I wanted.

So finally he turned to me and said, "You know, I just looked at the calendar and we're going to be out of town for 2 Sundays in a row, so if you want, I can grow my beard for 3 weeks [Sunday night to Sunday morning 3 weeks later]." Fantastic!

My Christmas gift from him, then, was a beard for 3 weeks. It was amazing and I LOVE his beard. The Saturday before he had to shave it, though, was painful. I cried. Rob kept saying, "There has GOT to be some other reason you're upset." Nope. I just really really like the beard. ... For that reason--the pain of having and then losing his beard--I took no special pictures of him with the beard. ... And I will ask for a different gift next year.

My Christmas gift FOR him was, as it turns out, nothing. For yet another year, the gift I planned didn't show. But he loves me anyway.

The Best Gifts for 2008:

* Finances Taken Care of in December: My mom came in town for Thanksgiving and set us up really nicely. She bought some nice gifts for us (like the renewal of the Museum Pass!) and took care of groceries for several weeks. She didn't have to do any of that, but it made it so we were able to save quite a bit of money in December, and since we have such intense financial goals, that was a FANTASTIC gift!

* New Pots and Pans: We were given almost $300 in gifts from others and were setting out the Saturday after Christmas to buy needed pots and pans. So imagine our surprise and delight when on Christmas Day R&C brought over another few gifts from my mother. One of them was a new set of pots and pans! They're wonderful and beautiful. Bright red.

* The wii: Needs no explanation. It's fun.

* Rob's beard: Though after crying for an hour over the loss of it, Rob's beard also qualifies as the WORST gift for 2008.

* Clearing up a Misunderstanding with a Good Friend: I had been stressed for over a month because of a complicated misunderstanding with a good friend. On the Sunday before Christmas, we had a long conversation and it not only cleared a lot up, but also took a huge weight off my shoulders. Starting with that Monday, I felt like I could think clearly again, like I'd been given my life back. So this DEFINITELY qualifies as one of The Best Gifts for 2008.

* Canned Chicken: Grandma Thacker usually gives all the grandkids $50 for Christmas. This year she gave us $50 worth of canned chicken. Excellent!! ... If you're not understanding why this would make my Best Gifts list, just know that it's an exceptional gift. Trust me.

And here's where I should add something sappy about how one of the best gifts is always the love and support of our family and loved ones. I'll skip the sap. You guys already know we love and adore you. (Though, if you don't know, or if you're doubting for some reason, send me an e-mail and I'll tell you again.)

Thanks for indulging me on this long post (though I guess you're all used to it). The next post will be back to funny kid stories, like normal.