Bring it on! (an update)

A fuzzy ultra-close-up of Teancom. I LOVE fuzzy shots. Heaven only knows why.

I haven't written a real update for quite a while now. It seems like life has been less celebrating and more strictly survival. Updates don't fit in survival mode. :)

Our June. Iv'e decided that June was just about a wasted month. I would have preferred falling asleep in mid-May and waking up again for the last 3 days of June. :) But, it's past us, so that can only be good!

We'll go through updates in the order I remember them.

About 2 weeks before Rob's defense Rob's sister, C, called and asked if it would be helpful if she took Miciah and Elijah for a while. Since Rob was pulling late nights, I told her that would be helpful indeed. She ended up taking Miciah only and Miciah had a GREAT time playing with her cousins for the week. She came home dark, dark, dark after playing in the sun and water all week. Here's a thank you to M and C for thinking of me and my family during that time.

Father's Day

Rob's parents came down for the defense and they showed up on Sunday evening. On Saturday Rob and I had spent all day making his father's real Italian lasagna to surprise V (all day is not an exaggeration--we made the sauce for about 10 hours). V loved the surprise and I think Rob really liked being able to do that for his father on Father's Day. It was a lovely evening.

D-Day

The next day was the defense. Some lovely friends of ours, the S's, took the kids all day, which was super swell of them. So, while JS was watching the kids at their house, DS kept me and Rob's parents company during the downtime following the defense but before the reception. And that was actually VERY nice of him. At the reception D offered to watch the kids overnight, too. So, really, the S's are the best friends ever!!!

The highlight of the reception for me was asking Dr. R if he would come to dinner at my house. :) Got a good laugh about that. I've been trying to invite him over for years, but he "doesn't do that", apparently. I don't get it. Someone suggested that he wouldn't come because Rob was his grad student. So I used the reception as an opportunity to test that theory. :) Dr. R was quick to say, "That's very kind of you, but no." I told him as we were leaving that if he ever wanted to jump into the new waters of Eating Dinner at Other People's Houses, we would be happy to have them over.

We got home and had about an hour and a half to kill before dinner. So we took a nap. And that's a real nap, by the way. I was EXHAUSTED from the day. Then, for dinner, we celebrated with R & C, B, and A at Walt's Barbeque, just down the street, B's treat for us. We went to that restaraunt in particular hesitantly. R said their ribs were good, but Rob and I aren't really rib people. Well, we WEREN'T until we had the ribs at Walt's! SOOOOOO good. Yummy! I ate half a rack. ... It was nice to be out celebrating and hearing Rob talk like a normal person in conversation and laugh like a normal person. :) Then we went home and played a game with B and just talked like normal people do until 10:30 or so. It was lovely. Halfway through talking with him, I said, "I feel like I need to go turn on the TV and the radio and start jumping on the stairs!" :) It's sure different without kids around.

To The Beach!

We woke up the next morning, Tuesday, and went to gather our kids from the S's house. We headed over to The Beach Waterpark. Someone in our ward gave us free tickets. Rob originally wasn't going to take the day off (need to get the work done!), but I figured it must have been fate. How often does someone call you up and offer you and your family free tickets to a waterpark the day after your husband defends his dissertation? Right. So we went and had a GREAT time. There were several other people from our ward there, including the S's, C's, and R's, and we had a good time hanging out with them all day.

Dead cicadas. So cute.

Oh! One of the highlights of the waterpark was at lunch time. We were all sitting down for lunch when the friend who got us in to the park came over to say hi. Miciah was freaking out about the cicadas everywhere. They'd fly all over you, run into you mid-flight, stuff like that. It was craziness. The friend, a long-time Cincinnatian, said, "We eat cicadas." Then he picked up a live cicada and put it in his mouth! He hid it in the pocket of his cheek and said, "That's how we do it in Cincinnati." Miciah FREAKED. She hid behind me and looked just completely shocked. One of those, can't look but can't look away things. He then took the cicada out of his mouth and let him fly away. Wow. It was pretty cool.

It was SO nice to have a day off with the family. Miciah looked at Rob and said, "Daddy, will you be off all the time now?" :) I wish.

Out to Eat

Thursday night was funny. T & M C took us out to dinner to surprise Rob. Keeping it a surprise was hard, and involved some lying on my part. :) It was funny when T showed up at our house and Rob looked at him like, "What? Is there a bishopric meeting I forgot about?" I had told Rob we were going out to watch a late movie. He said dinner with good friends was better (I agree!). They took us to Don Pablos because Rob digs Mexican. T even had the waiters come over and congratulate Rob for earning his doctorate. The one waiter yelled over everyone talking, "Hey! This guy just earned his doctorate! Let's hear it!" and everyone cheered for Rob. T loves surprises, apparently. :) Rob turned about 50 shades of red, but it was cute. I told T that he was not allowed to come to any party of mine. ... It's nice to have friends who care.

Scout Camp

Then Rob headed off to Scout Camp. :) The week went by pretty quickly. We had friends over to play on Monday, then Miciah and the boys played at another friend's house on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that made the week go by really well. I was totally fine until Rob came home and then wanted to take a lengthy nap. I lost my mind about halfway through his nap. But we all survived.

the beard

The best part of Scout Camp is that I convinced Rob to keep his week-long beard for church on Sunday morning. :) This is happiness. He didn't want to do it cause he's amazingly obedient and that's cute. I made a special call to a member of the Stake Presidency in our ward whom I love and adore. I told him my marital happiness hinged on him telling Rob he could keep his beard for this one Sunday. He laughed at me, but he said yes. I then convinced Rob to not shave for Tuesday night (we had agreed when he wouldn't shave, but we hadn't talked about when he WOULD shave, I reasoned). So he had it almost a full 2 weeks, and it was gorgeous. I took a picture of him Saturday night (last night) before he shaved it off. I then printed off the picture and included it inside a thank you note to the Stake Presidency member who okayed the beard. ... If it were up to me, Rob would have his beard full-time right now. I LOVE the beard.


If the saddest part of Rob's calling is that he can't grow a beard, ... I can live with that.

Scout Camp went really well, especially compared to some years previous that were fairly disastrous. Rob made me a cute leather bracelet that I love. Some guy at camp made fun of Rob for making me the bracelet. And, undeterred, he replied, "You don't know my wife." What a wise husband he is! :) I'll have to take a picture of it. It's pretty neat.

top of the bracelet:

bottom of the bracelet:

caving

A fun Scout Camp story. Rob went caving at Carter Caves, KY. He called me that night to tell me the story of how he got stuck. His first problem: trying to go through a passage called "the birth canal". But, he's lost weight and he thought he could do it. They crawled through the whole passage till they got to the section for which it was named. And his shoulders wouldn't fit through. So he decided to breathe all of his air out and then wriggle his way through. ... He told me right to there and I said, "Rob, this is how people DIE in caves." :) I think this is a basic caving rule: don't go through a passage if you have to breathe all your air out to fit!!! Anyways, he got his shoulders through, then his chest and his waist. He figured his shoulders should be the widest part, so he'd be fine. Wrong. His butt got stuck. Can't blow much air out from that area (no comments on that, please). Luckily a leader was behind him still, so the leader pulled on his feet from the back and Rob blew all the air out and pushed from his side. They got Rob free and then they crawled all the way back through the passage. :) No born again experience for Rob.

Camping in the Backyard

The Monday after Rob got home the kids wanted to camp out in our backyard. Every time Rob leaves on a camp out, Elijah wants to go, too. So I thought camping out in the backyard was a good compromise, and a fun thing to do as a family. We got out 2 tents and made a camp fire and had s'mores. Totally cute. Of course, no one slept particularly well, and everyone was awake with the sun at 6 am. But at least it didn't rain and the weather was PERFECT for it. It's the simple things.

4th of July

We spent our 4th of July at a friend's house. Their neighbors had spent, they said, about $2000 on fireworks. Crazy! But it was awesome. They had these cool ones that would go up, and then explode into parachutes dropping with trailing purple smoke or American flags hanging down from them. They were wicked cool. ... Of course Elijah thought the fireworks were really cool and wanted to touch all of them. My mind went back to years and years of my father saying, "NO FIREWORKS!" ... I did get injured, actually. A pretty good burn. There was a smoke candle that the adults had been carrying around. No explosions, just smoke. Then they gave the second candle to a kid who flicked it a few times. No problem, except whatever was making the smoke inside of that candle flicked out and got on my foot. It HURT. It's the smallest blister known to man. It's rather cute, actually.

We were there with the R's, and CR is doing his plastic surgery rotation for his 3rd year of medical school. When we started the evening he said, "I'm going to be called in, there's just no way around that." Someone ALWAYS gets hurt on the 4th. Sure enough, before the evening was over, he got a call. He didn't leave the party for it, but C told us what had happened. The guy was holding a mortar that a friend had made him for his birthday. They lit it, something went wrong, and both of his hands were blown off. Woah. C went in later and said that they had him on the operating table for 4 hours trying to salvage any part of his hands at all, but in the end, they had to amputate both hands. That's crazy. Again, my father's voice in my head, "NO FIREWORKS!" ... To this day, the only thing I've ever purchased is sparklers and those little pop-it things (which are actually dang fun). I'm hoping to instill in my own children that voice of sanity, "NO FIREWORKS!"

Double in Stupid, Stupid in Double

One of the funniest kid stories for the last little bit involves a piece of paper that is now taped up on my wall. I'll include the picture. ... Elijah just started crying really hard and I knew that Miciah had taken this piece of paper off the wall and crumbled it up. I told her that wasn't nice, and what if Elijah had done that to her papers that she put up. She said, "Yeah, but it says I'm stupid!" Granted, it DOES say stupid on it. It says "stupid in double" and "double in stupid", "to Miciah" , "from Elijah". The funny part about this story is that MICIAH WROTE IT! She said, "Yeah, but he told me what to write!" I just laughed. You didn't have to write it, silly goose. :) I've kept the paper up cause it just cracks me up. I keep repeating in my head, "Elijah called me stupid!" You wrote it, sweetie.

Babies in the Crusher

Oh. Another thing that's been cracking me up. Elijah watched the video of Teancom being born that I posted to the blog. Since then he's been saying that we all were babies once. The doctors took us, put us in a crusher, and that's how we got inside our mommy's belly. I'll have to watch the video with him again and have him identify the "crusher". ... I suppose it makes sense, really. How ELSE could we become small enough to fit in there?

Miciah

And a heart-warming Miciah story. When Rob got called into the Bishopric months ago, he told Miciah that she needed to be a really big girl and help me on Sunday mornings. She's been a brilliant helper ever since. Like this morning. Rob and I had stayed up too late reading scriptures (honest), so I was zonked. Miciah got up on her own. She fed herself breakfast (after asking me if that was okay). She got dressed, including her tights and shoes. Then she came in at 9:00 am, an hour before church, and said, "Mom, you need to get up." :) She then got Teancom dressed all by herself, including tying his shoes. She's amazing.

Related to that. I was frustrated at Miciah and was having a hard time not yelling at her (this was before Barbie Mariposa). I wrote her a note saying that I was sorry that I wasn't perfect and that she was a wonderful girl, even if I do yell too much sometimes. I thanked her for being patient with me and for helping out so much. ... Rob talked to her later about that and other things. Rob told her that sometimes I need some help around the house and that sometimes it's hard to be patient, etc. She said, "Dad, when you got called to the Bishopric, I said I'd help on Sunday mornings. And then I thought, "If I can help Mom on Sunday morning, I can help her out on every other day, too."" So thoughtful. It was one of those moments when you think, "I am the worst person in the world!" :) Here's this amazing little girl who's trying so hard to help out and be a big girl. And I'm getting frustrated at her for what reason? Sometimes she's a wiser soul than I am.

And that's life here.

Rob's Re-Write

Rob's re-write is going great. He should be done in the next few days. Retzinger will read it, sign it, and then it will be signed by all the neccessary people, and we'll be done! The mandatory week off, the 14th - the 21st, will be spent, Rob and I, at Carter Caves, caving. :) I told him I'd like to pretend that we like each other enough to spend time together without the kids around. So we'll pass the kids off to their surrogate grandparents, the W's, for almost 3 days, 2 nights. Exciting! ... I told Rob that if he has to work till midnight every night to ensure that we can take that trip, it'd be worth it!

Catch Phrase, Too Late at Night

Here are some funny things I wrote down from playing Catch Phrase too late at night. I play with Rob late at night sometimes, just to hear the silly things he'll say when I give him clues. These are not all G-rated, but they're not dirty, either:

clue: "This person takes a certain instrument and makes all the keys sound the same."
real answer: piano tuner
Rob's answer: Darth Vader!

clue: "This is what we should be doing right now."
Rob: Sex
Me with clue #2: "No. You sleep in...?"Rob: a hammock!
real answer: Go to bed

clue: "This is something you wear in the winter."Rob: A sweater.
Me with clue #2: "Yes. This is a type of sweater that comes to a point."
Rob: "Cleavage sweater!"
real answer: V-neck sweater

Clue: "People do this down a mountain and I think they're insane."
Rob: Have sex!
real answer: skiing

(I guess you can tell where Rob's mind was. What a cute man.)

Teancom in a car seat, with binky.

We've been watching N, my cousin's son. My kids LOVE N. They paw all over him and feed him M&M's and shove toys on him and all that good, loving stuff. When N is out of the car seat (mostly to save him from the over-love), Teancom grabs the binky, shoves it in his mouth, and climbs into the car seat. It's cute. I had to take a picture. Elijah, too, found a way to get into the car seat for the baby doll! It's got to be near-impossible for that to happen. He got himself in the other day, strapped himself in, and then couldn't get out. If I had thought about it, I would have taken a picture of that, cause it was hilarious. If it happens again, I promise a picture.

And this picture of Teancom would have been the fabulous picture I was trying to get, if half his face wasn't off the picture. :) Oh well.

Tamra and family

Rob's Defense

I should have written this update about Rob's defense a week ago, but I took an entire week to just breathe again. :) I feel like life has welcomed us back again and that feels SO nice.

Rob defended on June 16th, last Monday. The presentation went really well. Obviously Rob was nervous, but he's a good presenter, so it went really well. Rob was cute and included a thank you to me as his wife (I'm amazed he even THOUGHT of it), and an entire slide at the end that had pictures of him and me and then all the kids.

Then Rob had that hour with just his committee where they tore everything apart, just for fun. :) It was a little discouraging on Monday, what their feedback was. One of the committee members basically said that Rob needed to re-write the entire thing because it wasn't "professional-sounding". Whatever. Formality is so against my nature that I wasn't happy with that feedback. I wanted to yell at her and say, "Your "professional" writing is so formal and BORING that no one can understand it. You want him to write like THAT?" Good thing it wasn't me in there. :)

But through the week as Rob went and talked to each of the committee members one-on-one, it came out what they really wanted. One of the members (not the nasty "professional" lady) said just to revise certain parts of it and not worry so much about an expansive re-write. He said, "I think she meant blah blah blah by what she said." No, not so much. Rob went and talked to her and she meant exactly what she had said. But turns out a lot of her objections were just silly ones and Rob tried to tell her so (in a diplomatic way--my way would have been, "You're a loser. Get over it."). Basically she said she wasn't going to re-read it after the re-write. So when R is happy with the re-write, she'll sign off. And that's taken a LOT of the pressure off.

Rob has extended his start date at Children's. Because the re-write was so expansive, and because Rob is at Scout Camp all this week, it didn't give him a lot of time to make the changes. He said he could have done it in the time he had if I never saw him. Not happening. So he called Dr. J who graciously gave him another 2 weeks. So his new start date at Children's is July 21st. Dr. R wants Rob done at his lab by July 14th (R arranged to pay Rob for the extra time, but wants him out by July 14th), which would give Rob a mandatory vacation with us. :) Happiness! R also said that if Rob needs that extra week, he'll pay him for that week too, so it's pretty stress-free here.

Some of the things we've learned through this process:

1. I don't like Rob getting home every night at 8:00 p.m. for 2 weeks. Yuck. On Thursday as we were nearing the end, I looked at him and said, "Rob, could you think about coming home a little earlier tomorrow? Like 7:00?" He got this look on his face like, "I don't know, that might be really hard." And I almost started crying and yelling all at the same time: "Can you JUST THINK about it?" :) He was home at 6:30 the next night (though not because of me. An advisor was talking to him and said, "I think you're freaking out a little about this defense. Go home to your family." Good woman).

2. It's hard to tell just how stressed out you are until you're no longer that stressed out. :) Tuesday I was driving home from The Beach Waterpark (I made Rob take the day off to play with us--someone gave us free tickets. I thought, "Free tickets the day after Rob defends? That's fate) and I turned on the music. I've been into music lately as a way to tune out. And I realized, as I turned the radio on, that I like music, but I didn't need to tune out any more. Things are good and I'm not stressed past max capacity. And other things happened that week, too. I've been in a state of spiritual apathy lately. I had some issues that I'd resolved no problem, but the apathy remained. I wasn't sure why and I was pretty confused by it, actually. And then on Tuesday it was just gone. Like that. Amazing.

3. As Rob was giving his presentation a few interesting thoughts struck me. First, it's not too hard to see why Rob would have been so stressed about this presentation and defense. He had to take the last 4 years of his life and condense it into a coherent 1-hour presentation. Wow. I thought a lot about that. I mean, what would I present about MY life for the last 4 years? It's an interesting idea. Take the last 4 years of your life and make it a cohesive 1-hour presentation. It made me want to sit down and think about my life the last 4 years. What have I learned? What was disappointing? What didn't happen the way I thought it would, but how did I handle that? What worked just perfectly? Interesting.

And that's the update about Rob's defense.

Rob is not officially Dr. Thacker yet, and I'm not sure when that'll be official. But like it matters. The title is unimportant. Being DONE, though, that's what's important.

Tamra

It's About Time

I kept stalling on this update because we were waiting to know what our next step in life was. Our next step is so subtlely different, though, that it hardly felt update worthy once we got there. But I'll explain...

The Story of Dr. Colbert, Michael Jordan, and the NIH

So, in the Fall Rob decided to go with Dr. Colbert at Cincinnati Children's. No problems with that. A few months ago Dr. Colbert brought Rob in to talk to him. We assumed it was because Colbert just wanted an update on where Rob was with his dissertation, etc. Nope. Dr. Colbert had been offered a position at the NIH and was pretty sure he would take it. He went through a process of offers and counteroffers (strong incentives, he called them--it'd be nice to be Dr. Colbert), and during this whole process he told us we couldn't tell anyone else. He wanted to announce things himself. We respected that.

So he was going to the NIH, that was his final decision. This left us with a decision. Dr. Colbert had offered for us to go with him. Aah! The NIH is a great place to be and we knew this was a perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's not every day opportunities like this just fall in your lap. So we thought and thought and thought about it. We went back and forth. It felt equally good to stay or go. There were hic-ups with both. If we went, how in the WORLD would we sell our house, and live in the DC area on $40,000 a year? If we stayed who would Rob do his post-doc with, and would he regret passing up the NIH? Colbert suggested a few people at Children's. It felt like we were doing this all over again, like we had in the fall. Rob re-contacted people, just to see what options were. There was no one that was jumping out at him.

Then he went to his Immunology Conference in San Diego. He said he got just about nothing out of the conference, and that was disappointing. Plus he re-injured his knee (that's another story). But the one thing he DID get out of it was he saw a booth there for Cincinnati Children's, and there was a Dr. Michael Jordan advertising for a post-doc. He hadn't been looking in the fall, but he was looking now. So it took Rob going all the way to San Diego to find out about this guy. Funny how that works. And then on the flight home he met a woman who works in Jordan's lab. Interesting, eh?

Anyways, Rob talked to Dr. Jordan and that's how things ended up working out. About 3 weeks ago Dr. Colbert FINALLY announced that he was going to the NIH (it felt like we'd been keeping it mum for ages), and we quietly transitioned over to going to Dr. Jordan's lab.

I fell in love with Dr. Colbert during this whole process. He looked out for us and gave us some valuable advice. Rob approached him at one point and said we'd decided to go to the NIH after 6 months to a year (Rob would stay here and work in someone's lab while we got our house ready to sell, etc.). He also discussed with Colbert how Dr. Jordan's research is more along the lines of what Rob wants to do, but Rob didn't want to pass up the NIH OR working with Dr. Colbert (he's a great guy). Dr. Colbert looked at him and said, in essence, "Rob, don't settle for me. If Dr. Jordan's research is what you want to do, then don't go with me." What fabulous advice.

There were lots of other pieces in this complicated puzzle of a process. Two of the most interesting things:
1 - We had a hard time with this decision just because both options were good. It wasn't easy to see which one was the better choice. Finally, after flip-flopping for weeks and getting super-annoyed with that (I have little patience for the decision-making process. I'd rather make the WRONG decision than have to think about it for longer than a few weeks), I had a moment of supreme clarity. I saw the decision for what it really was. It was about Rob's career and nothing else. Would Rob regret going to the NIH with Dr. Colbert if it meant that years down the road Rob wouldn't be able to get back to doing the research he really wanted to do? The answer to that was Yes. And that's the decision right there.

2 - Rob kept talking to Retzinger, his advisor, about staying or going. Retzinger kept saying, "I think you want to stay just because it's convenient to stay. You don't have to sell your house and move." Retzinger was pretty strongly of the opinion that we should go to the NIH. Rob finally told Retzinger that had he known of Dr. Jordan's lab in the fall when he was originally looking, he wouldn't have gone with Dr. Colbert at all. That helped change Retzinger's opinion on it.

End of that Story.

The (Short) Story of Rob's Knee

Upon looking at my last update, I already told you part of the story of Rob's knee. How he re-injured it at the San Diego Conference. How he went into the doctor for it, and the doctor sent him to physical therapy. Rob spent a good month going to Physical Therapy twice a week. After that month, he went back into the doctor who said something like, "Good. Keep doing the right stretches to strengthen it." Rob went back to Physical Therapy one last time to get a list of stretches and exercises he can now do at home. And that's good because I'm not sure how many more PT sessions our checkbook could have handled. But it's worth it for Rob to be able to walk/run/exist without pain. Now Rob can actually flex his left quad. I didn't realize he hadn't been able to flex his upper leg for years.

The Story of Ocean City, New Jersey

I went to Ocean City, New Jersey for about a week. We got to see LB on QVC. We toured the studio, which was pretty dang cool. The live show was an interesting experience, as far as just getting the live QVC show experience. It's fun to watch what's going on behind the scenes. And L is always a doll and fun to watch. We were pleasantly surprised that L's family showed up to be there for her 10th anniversary show on QVC. It was fun to see them.

It was also nice to relax for a week without the kids. I read 2 books, wrote a lengthy letter to my brother, sat down and did nothing, walked along the beach. Fun. It was not warm in Ocean City, but that's okay, cause I think it was the perfect weather: 50 degrees F. Perfect sweatshirt weather. I bought a grubby sweatshirt there that says OC on it. I was sad to not have been in Ocean City, Delaware (which doesn't exist), cause then maybe my sweatshirt would have said OCD and that would have made me very happy.

Elijah was cute while I was gone. Right before I left he said, "Can I go, Mom?" I told him no. "But I'm a big boy!" :) He'd talk to me on the phone while I was gone and say, "Mom? Can you come home now?" I told him I couldn't. Then a few minutes later he'd say, "Can you come home NOW?" :) On Saturday Rob and the kids went to a church activity. As they were driving back down our street Elijah said, "Maybe her is there now!" Rob said, "Who, mommy?" "Yeah!" Oh, cute. Elijah also asked Rob if he was "small enough to go with him to California." Rob figured out that Elijah was asking if he was small enough to fit inside Rob's suitcase, like Rob had joked before leaving for CA. :) It broke my heart to talk to him and hear his sad little voice that I wasn't coming home right away.

So I was interested to see what would happen when I actually arrived at home. I got back into Cincinnati late Sunday night, like at 11:15 pm. So the kids were already asleep. The next morning Miciah and Teancom got up first and Teancom came and cuddled with me immediately. Miciah was happy to see me and gave me hugs. And then Elijah got up. I expected him to run to me or something. Instead he opened his bedroom door and peeked out. His door is directly across from our door, which was open. I tried to play coy for a minute to see what he'd do. But he didn't do anything. So I opened my eyes and said, "Hi, Elijah." He just stared at me, a blank look on his face. Finally one corner of his mouth turned up just barely for a split second. Then he walked off. It cracked me up.

It took me almost a whole week to get used to being around my kids again (they're so LOUD compared to adults). And a whole week to make dinner for the first time since I got back. We ate out the whole time I was gone, so when I got home and Rob asked what I wanted for dinner the first night I said Ramen. :) ... Rob is a great guy. I told him I was most concerned about that Monday I got home. He offered to stay home so I wouldn't go crazy that first day back with my kids. I was so tired that I took a good 4 hours or more worth of naps that day. And I was STILL exausted and snappy at my kids by the end of the day. Good thing Rob was there to keep me sane.

The (Very Short) Story of G and M

G, Rob's little brother, married ML on May 16th. We got to go up for a few days and be with family. It was absolute CHAOS (family is chaos) with everyone there, but it was wonderful. And the wedding was beautiful. Rob and M sang some lovely songs and I got some of them on video. I also got a lot of great pictures of Rob dancing at the reception. Rob's an animal on the dance floor. The saddest part of taking the pictures and videos was that I had taken a stinkin' cute video of Miciah and Rob dancing all snazzed up (Miciah was a flower girl and looked like a princess, and Rob was wearing a tux), and then the next day I accidentally deleted it. That is absolute sadness.

We did get G & M two of the world's best wedding gifts EVER. I am exceptionally proud of them both.

The (Exceedingly Short) Story of My Camera

My brother bought me a new camera cause he's crazy. It's just like my old one that I loved, but it's updated. So it takes really really good pictures. Love, love, love it.

The Story of Our Digital Upgrades

Because of the camera, we needed a new SD card. A 256MB SD card isn't super useful for a camera that takes 8.2 Megapixel pictures (about 3.5 MBs each shot). So we got a new one of those (plus a friend gave us a coupon for another free one, so we now have a 1G and 2G SD card). Plus we got an external harddrive to hold all the glorious pictures. Then we had to get a USB port hub. We used to have 4 USB ports, but Elijah broke the 2 in front, so that left us with 2. And EVERYTHING goes off USB ports these days. So we got a 7-port USB hub, and it's almost all the way filled already. We were telling a friend that we opted for an external harddrive instead of a DVD burner, but we wished we had one of those still and they said they had an extra one laying around. Did we want it? Of course! It's nice that now you can upgrade your computer dramatically without replacing it.

Plus, we got digital TV finally. Sent away for the coupons for a converter box. Spent $10 on a converter box and now we can watch non-staticy TV. And we get like 10 new channels. It feels like we have cable, without the pricetag. Nice!

So, add that together with our hi-speed internet that we turned into wireless with a wireless router (free from the company--didn't know that when we first signed up), and we feel firmly in (but well behind) the digital age. Let's make a list, shall we:
-hi-speed internet
-wireless
-500G external harddrive
-1G and 2G SD cards
-8.2 Megapixel camera
-DVD burner
-digital TV

It's nice to finally invest in the digital age when the price is affordable. Those SD cards, I got the 2G, top of the line, Panasonic SD card for $15. Last year when I looked at them they were $60 - $80 (you can now spend about $60 on a 32G SD card). And most everything else we purchased was the same way. Yea for affordable technology!

The Story of N64

We stole the Thacker Family Nintendo 64 (G claims it's his, but we know it's not ). Our kids are enjoying playing Zelda and stuff. Elijah runs around saying, "I'm going to kill your guy, Mom." And then he lets people kill little Link. I actually play the guy and the kids watch. It works for us. ... When I get bored with it, I'll send it out to Bryant or whoever else.

Elijah Stories

Elijah is always doing funny stuff. Some of my favorite Elijah Stories:

While I was in OC, NJ, Rob bought the kids doughnuts (now every time we pass Dunkin' Donuts Elijah asks if we can get doughnuts--thanks, Rob!). Elijah was eating a jelly-filled one and said, "Dad! This one tastes like peanut butter and jelly sandwich!"

We were at the Nursery choosing the bushes for the side of our house (we can't keep grass there, so we thought we'd try bushes instead). The guy who worked there was helping us decide (we decided on lilac bushes--5 of them), and while that was happening, our kids were bored out of their minds. Elijah was throwing gravel into this little hole. The hole was maybe a foot and a half deep or so. While he was messing with it, he fell in. He wasn't hurt, just scared, and we were standing a ways off from him. A stranger came up, trying to be helpful, and asked if he was alright. Elijah scowled at her and shouted angrily at the top of his lungs, "YOU ARE NOT MY MOM!" ... We were pretty embarressed.

At the Memorial Day picnic yesterday Elijah and Miciah were going over to the playground. Elijah started running and Miciah told him to slow down and grabbed his hand. Elijah pulled his hand away, scowled at her, and said, "I'm not crossing the street, stupid!" ...

While that is pretty funny, his use of the word "stupid" got him in trouble later that day. Not with me, with a group of boys. He came and reported that a boy was hitting him. I told him to ask him not to hit. It was some boys that I wasn't familiar with, and they're apparently rougher than the boys I'm used to. ... Elijah walked off and I didn't think much of it until another mom came and reported that a group of boys were having issues. She said, "The boy in the blue was saying, 'My mom said not to hit, stupid. So don't hit me.' " Guess who the boy in blue was. Yep, Elijah. Then, as I walked toward the group, a 7-year-old boy was pushing Elijah and the 4-year-old looked like he was about to hit him with a stick. Seriously. As I got to Elijah, the 7-year-old had pushed him to the ground. I pulled out a little Mother Bear on him. Looked him right in the eyes and said in that don't mess voice, "Do NOT push or hit my son again."

I was glad I was there, in a way, to help Elijah out. I think he would have been pounded a little more had I not been there. However, I won't always be there for him. ... We had a long talk about how if you're trying to get someone to not hit you, you probably shouldn't call them stupid. A little counterproductive.

We took Elijah to the doctor for a well check last week. He got a shot. I was SUPER impressed with him. He said he was going to be brave. He asked if he could have 2 stickers, and the nurse said if he was really good. She gave him the shot and he got this look on his face like, "That HURT." He said, "Ow," and looked at his arm, and that was it. No crying, no nothing. The nurse told him he could DEFINITELY have 2 stickers. It's nice to know that kids overreacting to shots isn't my fault. :) After Miciah, Elijah's reaction was comforting to me.

Teancom Stories

Teancom is just dang cute.

He's finally decided to claim a blanket as his "blankie". We tried to make it the crocheted blanket that my Mom made for him, since that's the one my other 2 have chosen for their blankies. But he wasn't having it. I can't tell which of a certain 2 is the chosen blankie, though. For a while he said it was a duckie one with tied ends. I was happy with that, since it's the one I made for him (I didn't make one for my other 2 kids). And the second one he's been claiming lately is the quilt that Grandma D made for Elijah. Both good choices.

Teancom is talking a lot and it's fun to listen to him. He is deciding to walk lots of places instead of me holding him, and since he's almost 2, that's fine with me. He's very obedient and will stay close and not run off. And people love to see a cute little 2-year-old toddling around. I must admit, it's pretty cute to watch this little person walking around.

Teancom still loves it outside. He will literally spend all day outside if I let him, and hence he's pretty darn tan already.

The other day Teancom fell off the couch onto his head and said, "Woah," then went and did it again. So, as good parents, we didn't ask him to stop for fear of hurting himself, we encouraged him to do it again so we could get it on video. :) So we have this super-cute clip of a video of him hanging off the edge of the couch going, "Aaahhh! Help me!" in this high-pitched voice, then falling on his head, saying, "Woah," and then getting up to do it again. ... Rob and I have been walking around giggling to ourselves, going, "Aaahh! Help me!" Too cute.

Here's the link to the youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEfVHReXAi8

Teancom is almost constantly singing "Twinkle, Twinkkle, Little Star." He's also started singing when I carry him. He'll sing in beat with the gait of my walk, and that cracks me up.

He is also now saying, "Where's Teancom? There he is!" He'll cover his eyes and do peek-a-boo. Super cute. It's fun to hear him say his name, "Tay-tome". That's "tome" like "come", not tome the long book.

Miciah Stories

Miciah doesn't usually do cute stuff like that any more. But she's always making cute things for people. Cards and stuff. She is spelling creatively and making up jokes and stuff. The jokes are never funny, but she thinks they're hysterical. I've been creating a pile of things she's made to send out to you guys.

She made this one at church for Elijah:
"Wus the bilding toll yes.
I thek it wus smolle
but it wus big
i wunt it"
She translated it as:
"Was the building tall? Yes.
I think it was small.
But it was big.
I want it to be the way it is."
Then she said, "I didn't write some of the words down."

Another church creation:
"From Ceryoes
To Ceryoes"
That's:
"From Cheerios
To Cheerios"

A cute letter she wrote me the day before I got back from my trip:
"To Mommy
I love you. I
mist you a lot
Mom. Sume times
i Tenk tat you
r her wen you r
not.
love
Miciah
From Miciah"

That's: "To Mommy. I love you. I missed you a lot, Mom. Some times I think that you are here when you are not."

A joke she wrote out for me:
"To Mom
I mad up
a jok and
this is
how it go's
wut did
the hen
biy
[a box for me to fill out:]
a__________"

I said, "An egg."
Then she wrote again:
"no he bot
a egg sandwich.
Git it?"

That's:
"I made up a joke and this is how it goes: What did the hen buy?"
"No, he bought an egg sandwich. Get it?"

We told her we didn't get it. But she thought it was dang funny.

:) She makes us happy and makes our house a sunshine-y place.

Miciah is done with school at the end of this week and then it's summer! We have no big plans of travel. The only big summer thing is Rob switching jobs.

The Story of Rob's Life

Rob is stressed out of his eyeballs right now. He wasn't really stressed and then the Monday after we got home from G's wedding, BAM! he was stressed. He has to have his dissertation turned in at the end of next week (but he's hopeful to get it done by Friday of this week), and he has his defense on June 16th.

Then Rob goes to Scout Camp for a week, the week of June 23rd. Super excited about that. :)

He officially starts at Children's on July 7th. I'm half-hoping that we'll get to see him some of that time after his defense and before starting at Children's, but he really doesn't sound like that's going to happen. He'll be revising and finishing his dissertation after those last-minute changes they suggest. I think a break with his family might be in order (hint, hint), but what do I know? I'm just the subserviant wife and mother.

The Story of Tamra Playing Soccer

I haven't played soccer for years. When I had stopped playing, in HS, I had a distaste for it. Too many power-hungry coaches and ultra-competitiveness. Lost my love for it. And now that I'm playing again, it's GREAT. Everyone I'm playing with is well past their prime, and so we can't be too competitive. Everyone on the field is there because they love the game. And it's a perfect fit for me.

Plus, it's a nice ego boost every week. People think I'm a superstar and I like to play that up. I played yesterday at the Memorial Day picnic and wowed everyone. (I like to be just a little cocky, just for fun.) It's nice to be in-shape enough to do what I want to with the ball. I still have my shot and my precision on passes, pretty much. It's nice to play and it's also nice to be admired. Makes me feel like I'm at least good at SOMEthing (since I'm clearly not a good mother/wife/housekeeper by today's standards and that's all I do all day). :)

The Story of Life

Life is good. Life will be nicer when Rob starts at Children's and we're paid a little more. He'll be getting paid about $3,000 more a year than they originally told him, and that's nice. The HR guy said it's because Jordan thought Rob was worth the extra money. That's gratifying for Rob, I'm sure. It's nice to be recognized as being worth something. Even if it's only pennies. We'll take pennies.

Hope you're all doing well! I'll attach some pictures and hopefully get some more out tonight or tomorrow. I have a bunch of pictures to send out from the wedding and other times.

We love you all!

Tamra

Attached pictures:

My wicked-cool bruise. Sweetness! It's been 4 1/2 weeks since I got that bruise, and it's still there as a hard knot under my skin. I'm hopeful it'll be gone in another 2 weeks. ... Got another one on Friday. You could see the lines of the soccer ball on my skin. I LOVE bruises. My skin just gets a whole bunch of awesome colors. :)

The kids. Miciah's holding a vase of lily-of-the-valleys. It's the picture I sent my mom for Mother's Day. Oh, that reminds me! I'll tell that story in the next e-mail.


A close-up of Teancom. It was a good picture of him from the shoot, but not of the other two. So I cropped them out.