Pictures!

So, I just realized that I never did link some of the super cute, recent pictures of Andros sled riding and playing outside and just generally being super duper incrediably cute :) So, here you are!

Andros & I on January 17, 2008 Andros & I on the 17th of January, 2008. Aren’t we cute??

Andros on his rocking horse on the 18th

Andros & me sled riding

Andros & Kevin Sledding

Eating Less Meat

So I just ordered How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I’ve been trying to learn to cook more vegetarian recipes and thereby eat less meat. So far though, I’ve been pretty much stuck on about 4 recipes - spaghetti squash, black beans & rice,vegetarian stir fry,tostadas… So, after seeing this at borders yesterday I came home and read lots of reviews on amazon. Most of the complaints seem to be along the lines of ‘hes not a vegetarian and talks about meat’ - but since we aren’t either, it doesn’t really worry me. In anycase I’m excited to get it and start cooking 2 or 3 or 4 meals a week vegetarian, and saving meat/fish for the weekends and special occasions. I’ll post about how I like it when it comes!

Tae Kwon Do class last night was very good. We did the usual stuff and then take downs and how to get OUT of take downs at the end of class… and then left the mats down so that we could actually practice our fighting steps after class. I’m feeling slightly better than I had been about testing on the 9th, though its still more than just a bit nerve wracking. I’m excited to go again tonight though, and practice some more. Its just very hard to do so here at home what with Andros running around, and the simple lack of space…

We went up to Canton yesterday, so we stopped and got Grandpa a longer printer cable, which made him very happy. Now he can actually pull it all the way out and not have it get caught or anything. We also found out that my Aunt Carol was in the hospital and got her appendix removed! Which got us wondering how you get appendicitis anyways. I mean, is it like a virus/disease or does your appendix just randomly quit working properly?? Maybe I’ll look it up and figure that out sometime…

hmm

So, today I went in to New Philadelphia, just me and Andros, for the first time in a while. It was pretty nice to get out of the house (even if it was just grocery shopping, mostly!), and away from everything just the two of us.

The first thing we did was stop by the Verizon store to see what is up with my phone. The guy there was super nice. He updated the phone somehow (thought I did that before, but apparently not…), so we’ll see if it works better now. If not, he said to just come back in and they’d get me a new phone. So, we’ll see. Hopefully it works now.. I’ll just have to see.

Afterwords, we went to the grocery store and went shopping. Andros did wonderful, just riding around in the cart smiling and looking at everything. Its so cool watching him notice different things and be OK with things for the first time. Its so cool that he’s really starting to “play” with some of his toys - especially his cars/trucks/etc pushing them around, and even making little sound effects!

I also dropped off our application for Financial Assistance to the YMCA. So, hopefully they’ll give us a call here soon and set up an appointment. I really hope we get a discounted membership. I’d love, love, love to be able to go in and swim once or twice a week. Swimming just makes me feel soo good, makes me so happy.

Sled Riding!!

So, today we went sled riding over at Atwood Lodge’s golf course. It was a lot of fun, and really the first time that Andros went sledding. We’d gone outside last week and played outside and done a tinsy bit of sledding, but nothing like today. It was a lot of fun, and I really think he had a good time. We got a couple good pictures… I’ll try and get them up tonight or tommorrow.

We saw Stardust the other day - Kevin got it through Netflix. And it was amazing! Such a good movie - definetly one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Why don’t they make more movies like that? Just good, interesting, fantasy. Some special effects but not the entire freaking movie! Such a great film. We also saw Sunshine, which was also really good. Almost made me cry a couple times, but, again, great movie. Those are definetly two of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Hopefully tommorrow Kevin will hear about an interview (or two?) for a job at McDonalds or Dairy Queen for a couple months. Just something to hold him over till his job starts back up at Atwood Lake Park in March. I know it’d make him feel super good just to be working again, and so will I. It’ll be nice to have a little bit of “alone” time again, though at the same time, I’ll miss having him around!!

Swimming at the Y

So strange, last night after tae kwon do, I was freezing cold. Seriously, the room couldn’t have been more than 55 or 60 degrees, and it was just a slow class, so I was *COLD* by the time it was over. It didnt’ help that it was like 5 degrees outside and in the car… by the time I got home, I was SOOO cold, I layed under two blankets on the couch shivered for like an hour… and then I puked :( Had a little fever, just felt horrible… but by 2am I was fine. So weird.

In other news, I think I’m going to apply to Baker College, for their Computer Programming associates degree, so I’ve got one option good and open. Then we’ll see what Oregon State says (should hear from them by the 1st of February), and go from their. I’m still pretty torn…

We went to the Tuscarawas County YMCA today, and got info on how to get a discounted membership. Its a very nice Y - two pools, one standard for doing laps in and then a smaller one thats super warm where they do classes thats nice and shallow. I did 20 laps (down and back), while Kevin & Andros played in the small pool - they had a lot of fun, and Kevin did like 6 laps in the pool. Then we went and worked out in their weight/fitness room which is also super nice. I walked around the track carrying Andros (walked a mile;) and then he fell asleep. Kevin ran a couple miles and did some other random stuff… not really sure what all he did. Overall it was a very nice day. I hope we get a membership one way or another, and end up going at least once or twice a week. It took me a couple laps to get back into the rhythm of swimming, but it was super nice. Almost forgot how much I love to swim!!

Training

So I’m going to call some colleges today and make a decision by this weekend, on what exactly I’m going to do. I’m leaning towards Baker College’s online Computer Programming associates degree right now. Though, I’m also considering Westwood’s Software Engineering associates, and Oregon State University’s Bachelor of Natural Resources. I’ve pulled out my old copy of The C Programming Language and am working my way through the first chapter right now. Its going pretty good, and I’m enjoying it so far, which is a large part of why I’m leaning towards computer programming. We’ll see though..

Andros is so close to walking, its incredible to see. He’ll pull himself up, turn around, balance, and turn around and grab something as he takes a step. Its absolutely amazing. Any day now he’s going to just stand up and start walking around… I actually dreamed that he did so the other night.

I’ve stated trying to exersize more now too. I rowed for 15 minutes-ish today, did 40 cruches and 10 pushups along with some other random exersizes. Hopefully if I really start exersizing every day, I’ll be able to get into shape and loose the last 15lbs ish of pregnancy weight. That’d be awesome, so, we’ll see if I can really stick to it. Plus, it’d be nice to be in decent shape for my black belt test on the 9th…

Going back to School

Today I spent looking for a college where I can get my bachelors degree. The only place that sounds reasonable/practical is Oregon State University. They have an e-campus option, and I should be able to get my degree in Natural Resources… I’ve been trying to figure out how many credits I have that would transfer and I’m just not in the least bit sure. Its so hard to try and match up whats what, you know? Plus I might have to take a year of Biology somewhere around here - depending on whether or not they accept classes I took at hocking for that, which its sounding like they aren’t going to do.

My other option I suppose is to just get a bachelor’s degree in “general studies” and then go for a master’s in environmental science or whatever I really want to do. And for that, I think I’d have a lot more options… although I think I’d much rather have a degree in *something*…

Andros seems to be back to himself again, finally. He had me pretty worried yesterday, what with pooping 5x in one day - which he hasn’t done in *MONTHS*. It was just… wierd. He’s been sleeping a lot lately, or at least, it certainly seems like it to me. He slept nearly the whole time we were driving both down to and then back up from West Virginia, plus all night long. So, its been kind of a relief that he’s back to himself.

The Future

So, we turned down The Mountain Institute. It’s a beatiful place, rugged and wild. With the 6+ inches of snow that they had while we were there, it was even more so. However, its also very remote. In a lot of ways thats nice, and very cool. But, its also just a tad bit on the scary side - what if something happend? Its about an hour from the closest “decent grocery store”, so how far to real emergency medical care? Its also quite rustic - we’d be living in, basicly, a hut. Thats not bad, but it’d be a big change. Currently, most of them don’t even have elctricity, let alone a bathroom, kitchen, stove, etc. We’d have to share those things with the rest of the center. Thats not neccarily a bad thing, it’d just be… different. In anycase though, we turned it down.

Which, leaves us back at the question of “whats next?” After a good bit of discussion our plan for now is to stick around here at my dad’s place untill next fall/winter. Kevin will either go back to work for the MWCD or get a factory-type job with a temp agency. We’ll save up as much as we possibly can, and then in the fall/winter Kevin will go down to Hall’s Diving Career Institute and take their Professional Diving Instructor course… and we’ll move down to Florida or similar and go from there.

So, thats our plan for now.

West Virginia

Well, we drove down to Spruce Knob Mountain Center on monday - it took right around 5 1/2 hours to get there, and Andros did wonderfully. We got there right around 5pm, and met Dave Martin. He took us up to the dorms and the main yurts, and so we just ate dinner and hung out and then went to bed. Its a beautiful area, and was especially so with the snow.

Its very remote - the closest town being 9 miles away (six miles down 28/10, a forest service road, and then 3 miles up 28), though it doesn’t even have a post office. The next town, 3 miles up the road, Circleville, is where they get their mail. But the closest place with a decent grocery store is Franklin, an hour away, or Elkins 1.5 hours away. In between are several tiny towns, Seneca Rocks, and miles apon mile of national forest.

The mountain center itself though, is pretty cool. Most of the buildings are yurts, including the main one which houses the the kitchen, dining area, library and a “bubble” at the top from which you can see the night sky. Its also connected (via a short walk way) to the other big yurt which is just one big open room where they can have lectures, classes, whatever. Its pretty cool. From there, there are two dorms, each of which can house aprox 20 people, as well as several small yurts which are usually indivudual residences for field staff and/or visiting “dignitaries” over the summer. Some of them have had wood stoves in them in the past, which is how most everything is heated (except for the bathrooms which do have a gas heater). Theres also a few other buildings, including a geo-dome, several sheds, the main office and another all-season residence.

Overall its a pretty cool setup, very rustic but cool. The only thing that bothers me at all is just how remote it is. Andros wasn’t feeling very good while we were there (and still seems a bit more fussy/upset than usual), and it kind of made me worry about what would happen if he were to get really sick, or hurt or something. Other than that… its awesome. I’m not sure I’d really want to stay there over the winter, but during the spring/summer/fall? I think it’d be very cool.

The drive back took about 2 hours longer than the drive down, due to very, very bad weather. It took over two hours to get to Elkins. When we left they hadll like 6-8″ of snow and it was still snowing. So, probably a good thing we left when we did. The roads were horrible till we got to Elkins and then pretty bad through till we got to 79. So, its good to be home again. Very, very good to be home.

We still haven’t decided if we really want to do it or not. I think we probably will tell them we’re interested. But we’ll see. It’d be a change thats for sure… one heck of a change!

Africa's Holocaust

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a civil war which supposedly ended over 5 years ago, goes on. Over six million people have been killed during the past six years. That’s the equivalent of the entire population of New Zealand - or New York City - dead. Its also the approximate number of Jew’s killed in the Holocaust, the first major genocide. Like every other genocide, it is being largely ignored. Half of all deaths are of children under the age of five - a quarter of all children born in the Congo today won’t make it to the age of 5.

The worst of the violence though, is being committed against women. Rape has become the weapon of choice of the Congolese military, as well as the “Mai Mai” militias, civilians, UN Peacekeepers, and perhaps most telling of all Hutus who fled Rwanda after committing genocide against the Tutsis their and who have taken up residence here in the Congo.

Some of the Hutus have become known as the Rastas, who wear shiny track suits and LA Lakers’ jerseys. They have become notorious for burning babies, kidnapping children and killing any and everyone who dares to get in their way.

There is one light of hope though in all the killing. At Panzi Hospital Dr Mukwege, an OB/GYN does six surgeries a day on women who have been raped. Most who come have fistulas - holes inside of their bodies. Many are the result of having had various implements - guns, bayonets, bottles, sticks - shoved inside of their vagina’s and rectums, literally ripping them apart from the insides. Others stem from birth complications. A mother who cannot give birth due to militias, who has no time for labor and whose child dies inside of her. One carried her dead child inside her vagina for a week before arriving at the hospital.

Because of their woods, they are unable to control their bodily fluids, and so their urine and feces literally leak out of their bodies. Many are shunned by their communities - and yet in some villages over half the women have been raped. Few are spared - Dr Mukwege says his oldest patient was 75, his youngest just 3.

Why is this occurring? That is the question, that no-one can answer, although it is clear the purpose of the attacks to terrify. Why else would women be raped in front of their families - husbands brothers, sisters, children, communities? By doing so they are raping not only the women but everyone around them as well. Showing them, proving to them, that they are powerless and helpless before such as them.

I’m still trying to figure out what I can do, what we can all do to help, to end the violence. Perhaps the best option is to write the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila Kabange, and urge him to take action to stop the violence. Write your representatives, and urge them to start proceedings to take action. Or you can donate money directly to Panzi Hospital where Dr Mukwege works, print out posters, and sign up for email alerts at http://www.vday.org/contents/drcongo.

But, perhaps most importantly, you can speak out to your family & friends. Tell them about the conflict, and keep it fresh in your mind. The perpetrators would prefer that we forget, that we pretend its not happening. But it is. And the least that we can do for those who are being hurt is to not forget them, and their struggle.

Climbing

Well, today we drove back up to Kendall Cliffs in Peninsula, OH and went rock climbing again. It was a lot of fun… we went, I have to admit, mostly because we forgot *all* ov my climbing stuff their last weekend.

Anyways though, it was a very fun time. Plus, Sue, Brad, Christian & his friend Micheal, Jenny & her boyfriend Tim all came too, so we got to see and climb with them, which was very cool. I managed to climb one route that I hadn’t been able to finish last weekend, as well as a couple of others, so that was cool. I think the hardest one was probably around a 5.8, which isn’t too bad.

Our plan is, to drive down to The Mountain Institute’s Spruce Knob Mountain Center on monday morning and check it out. I really hope everything goes well and we like it. It *sounds* very cool, almost too good to be true in fact. We’ll spend the night there, and then on tuesday drive down to Seneca Rocks and check it out, maybe climb a little and then drive back home. I really don’t know what time we’ll get back home, so I may very well not make it to tae kwon do on tuesday night… but thats OK. I’m just very excited to check this place out… the pictures of it are beautiful. And it would be super cool to get back to doing what we love, especially for Kevin after everything he’s been through this past year.

First Steps!

So, today Andros took his first steps! Pretty incredible. He’s getting so big, and so amazing. He’s learned how to climb onto the shelf infront of our windows now. Just has to have something to use as a stepping-stool, and up he goes.

I’m also totally shocked at our sudden change in fortune. I posted a little blurb about Kevin & I on Google’s “Outdoor Education Jobs” group the other day. And have so far gotten two responses. One from a couple of camps up in Massachuesets somewhere, the other from The Mountain Institue’s Spruce Knob Mountain Center.

The Mountain Institute sounds awesome. Theres no other way to say it. Up in the mountains of W. Virginia, just 25 miles from Seneca Rock. They’re surrounded on 3 sides by the Mongahala National Forest. During the spring & fall they mostly do environmental education with schools, but in the summer its much more of a mixed bag. So, in the spring/fall Kevin would be mostly doing EE stuff, and in the summer just random odd jobs (cooking, maintenance, trail maintenance, etc).

Thinking

Well, ok, try again. I just had a nice long well-thought out post and its gone now! Bah. Not a good start :( So, here goes, again!

I really wish I would have started writing last year about this time. So much has happend in the past year. I got married last august, my son was born in March, Kevin got in a motorcycle accident in June, and then his step-dad in a motorcycle accident in October (insane, I know). Our lives have changed so much, and I have basicly no record of it. It really makes me quite sad when I think about it. But, oh well. I suppose we all have regrets...

Kevin is basicly back to "normal" now, which is absolutely amazing. I was so worried for so long that I would never have him back... and he is now, mostly. His brain's still not quite where it was pre-accident, but its getting better, getting closer every day. And, at least he realizes it now, somewhat. Which, wasn't true just a couple months ago. Whether he's actually getting better or just hiding it well (which implies that he IS in fact better, I suppose?), I'm not entirely sure. But, either way at least it seems like I can talk to him and hold a decent conversation.

Physically hes probably 90% back. He actually went and ran today for the first time He ran about 1.5 miles in just over 11 minutes! Which is just awesome, especially since its what he'll have to run to pass the OPOT (Ohio Peace Officers Training), course in 8 months :D I really hope that it (the OPOT) goes well, and he ends up with a decent job doing something he likes. Even if we do have to move out and get our own place.

Andros is amazing. Theres no other way to say it. He's gotten so big, so fast its pretty hard to believe that 9 months have already gone by. It seems like he was just learning to roll over yesterday. And, now he's up crusing along the furniture, learning to stand unassisted, crawling around and opening cupboards and getting into just EVERYTHING!!

I'm trying to learn to cook more different things. Stir fry and pasta are good, but something different is always good, you know? So, I've been trying to make at least one or two new things every week. Its been pretty hit & miss, but lots of fun. I find that I'm making fewer and fewer things exactly as the recipe calls for them and modifying stuff more and more. Plus, now that I have deer and lamb to cook with its opened up a whole new area of cooking... I'm a huge fan of AllRecipes.com partially cause the recipes tend to be pretty good, and partially cause of the community's super helpful reviews... I have so many cook books that just sit on the shelf though, its really pretty sad.... probably should ebay them (along with a bunch of other stuff).

I'm also thinking about going back to school, possibly for something with computers. Both my Dad and Kevin keep telling me I should, so maybe I will. I just have to figure out how I'm going to do it with Andros. Online classes would be nice, but some part of me doesn't know how I'd really do with just online classes.

Anyhow, thats been our year in a nutshell.