Because it's there...

NASA has a research facility here. Did you know that? And they have a couple of museums on the NASA campus--one of them is free. Did you know that?!? Well, now you do. Saturday we took the kids over to the Ames Research Center to take a walk through the (free) NASA Exploration Center. It isn't very big but it has a bunch of pretty cool stuff--and it is free. We spent about 90 minutes walking around a big room with models of different space crafts, 3-D pictures from the Mars Rover, a slide show of the Hubble Telescope's greatest pictures/discoveries, a moon rock, space suits and the first craft sent up into space. (I know I say this about a lot of stuff but I cannot help it) The Exploration Center is WICKED COOL! Wyatt had the most fun because in between wanting to be a Mailman and a Cake Decorator he also wants to be an Astronaut.

Check out the pictures:

The kids loved seeing the life size pictures through their 3-D glasses. Wyatt knew how the Mars Rover was powered--solar panels.

There was this totally hot guy there showing my kids all around the museum and talking like he graduated from MIT or something...smart and hot! I managed to sneak a picture of him with his 3-D glasses on. Pretty hunky, huh?


Did I mention the Astronaut cut outs you could stand behind to pretend you were walking on the moon? Say it with me folks: "Wicked cool, wicked cool."

Sleep where she will...

Will has been coaching the High School wrestling team this season. Clare loves to go to wrestling with Daddy. She has too much fun climbing on the mats, running around the room and wrestling whoever dares to take her on. Sometimes practice goes too long and Clare is understandably tired. This is how she ended practice today...

Classic...

I missed my work out this morning--bummer. My van is in Oakland, with my husband and the wrestling team he coaches. We are out of a number of food staples (including milk) and we are expecting company for dinner tomorrow evening. For a laugh, I decided to walk to the grocery store with Clare in the wagon and Lorien and Wyatt on their bikes. I made my shopping list and headed over to the grocery store. (Here is where the tale takes an interesting turn.) This was not just a quick pop into the grocery for a loaf of bread this was a trip to feed my family for a week. It was four gallons of milk, it was fresh chicken breast for Sunday dinner, it was cereal, apples, bananas, broccoli , carrots and bagged salad. It was canned goods on sale and dairy products we were out of. It was eggs, people, EGGS! I ignorantly tossed whipped cream and olive oil into my grocery cart--completely forgetting the fact that I had not come to the grocery store in my van but in a red. plastic. wagon... The sobering fact of the wagon came all to soon when I wheeled my overflowing cart of paid groceries out the door and was halted by said wagon. My optimism prevailed, "No problem!" I thought. I loaded the milk into the wagon and using long forgotten Tetris skills I managed to fit most of the other groceries into the wagon (giving all of the produce a solid bruising in the process.). With most of the groceries balancing precariously atop the milk I turned my attention to the four cereal boxes that would not be squeezed into the wagon. Naturally, if my sweet children wanted to eat the cereal they were going to have to carry it home. I looked at their small bikes, their knobby knees, spindly legs and thin arms...perfect pack mules...of course. Attaching a plastic bag containing one box of cereal to each of their handle bars we headed home.

One block into the walk home, the youngest child who was forced out of the wagon by all the groceries ran a few paces ahead of me, tripped over her own feet and skinned her knee. With mule # 1 too far ahead to hear my screams of "Wait! Lorien, wait!" and mule #2 in hot pursuit I had no choice but to scoop up the crying baby and run to catch up. I am not a graceful runner and hauling 50 pounds of groceries one handed in a red wagon while balancing a crying toddler on my other arm does nothing to add to my running style. Mercifully, mule # 1 has about as much biking grace as I have running grace and several yards before I was about to sit down and cry, she lost her balance and fell over...onto a pile of rocks...effectively stopping her parade. With the unstoppable force of a speeding wagon behind me I had to keep running until I nearly collided with the sobbing Lorien. In the middle of my attempt to comfort both Lorien and Clare an elderly woman passed us on the sidewalk. She gave me a weak smile and kept on her way. At the time I thought she must not have spoken any English. However, as I reflect now, I think it is far more likely that upon seeing the scene before her (two screaming girls, a dirty faced boy and a crazy woman pulling a red wagon full of groceries) words simply failed her. She couldn't even muster the vocabulary to sympathise or scold and she was way too polite to give me the dirty look I deserved. After all, what kind of person makes a gigantic grocery run with a red wagon and two kiddy bikes? Well, a person who is in the odd habit of grossly overestimating her abilities, that's who.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not need to work out. Hauling 50 pounds of groceries up a steady incline to home will keep me in tip-top shape. More over, using all of my mental powers to will a wobbly 5 year old on a bike to stay on the side walk and out of the road will keep my brain out of Alzheimer's territory for a long time. I have everything under control...really.

Sleep over...

The kids have been wanting to have a sleep over together since I changed their room set up. Previously, Lorien and Wyatt shared a room while Clare was on her own. Now Lorien and Clare are in the "girls room" and Wyatt has his own "boy space". Anyway, they miss being together (Lorien and Wyatt) so a few weekends ago we let them all sleep together on the fold out couch in the office/garage/laundry/exercise/guess room/mini storage unit. I wish I took a picture of the whole room--that was the best part--seeing our kids squashed together on a bed surrounded by office equipment, holiday decorations, weights, gym mats, office chairs, boxes and piles of laundry. I guess a shot of them sleeping will have to do.

(Notice the box nearly falling onto Wyatt in the upper left corner.)

I love Anne, yes I do! I love Anne, how 'bout you?

Happy Birthday My Dearest Anne!

Let me tell you why I love Anne and why, if you are not friends already, you should befriend this lady. She is so kind and compassionate. She understands every situation and has advice for every complication. No one throws a better party and no one lends a better shoulder to cry or laugh on. Happy Birthday, Anne (again) and thanks for being such a great friend.

Love him...

Wyatt is growing into what I believe is a "typical boy". He loves video games and super heroes. He acts very silly around all of Lorien's friends and he does not want his Mother to kiss him any more--not even at bed time. But every once in a while he lets his tough-guy act slip and his sweet side shows:

He and I were walking back to the car this morning after dropping Lorien off at school. Wyatt looked around and observed: "There's nobody else outside right now. Just you and me." "Yep," I began "we are two lone people on the side walk." "We aren't alone," he corrected "we have each other."

Tug-tug (the sound from my heart strings) sniff-sniff (the sound from my tear-induced runny nose).

Ouch...

I am no athlete...not by a long shot. In high school my "sport" of choice was Cheer leading. I know there are die-hard girls out there who will insist that yelling, jumping, dancing and clapping in unison is a sport but I am not one of them. I'd call my high school cheering squad more of a social group than a sport. Sure, every so often we'd hoist the smallest of our squad up on to our shoulders or hands in an amazing feat of pubescent athleticism but really-we were just a group of peppy dancers in short blue skirts. (I've included a very old photo for proof--or laughs, your choice).

(I am the smiling brunette on one knee to the right--laugh all you want.) I am well aware of my low athletic threshold. I am also well aware of my deep and unstoppable love affair with ice cream, cheese burgers, milk shakes and chocolate. In (yet another) attempt to ward off heart disease I started "working out" this week. It is not going well. I posted that picture of me as a high school cheerleader because, believe it or not, it is waaaaaay less embarrassing than a photo of me trying to run down our street. My butt hurts, my legs hurt, my arms hurt and my abs hurt. Heaven help me...

December Blog Post Vomit...

Too much has been happening around the Anderson house and while I know it is exceedingly shallow of me to think anyone but myself would care about our daily comings and goings, I am going to post it all any way. Moreover, I am only fooling myself when I say "too much has been happening..." you'll see...if you make it through this loooong post...nothing has been happening. I just have the handy ability to talk for hours about events that lasted a minute.

First up, New Year's celebrations around the world! Lorien's teacher made the last week of classes all about New Year Celebrations. The kids learned customs from Thailand, Germany, China, England and Romania--to name a few. I was in the classroom almost every day that week. I loved being with the kids and watching their excitement over the little projects they were doing. On Friday Lorien's class had a big party to celebrate and act out all of the traditions they had learned. It was a crazy week.

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Squashed in the middle of a week packed with class room activities Lorien and I had a date at the San Francisco ballet to watch the Nutcracker. My friend, Heather, bought tickets a month in advance and asked if Lorien and I wanted to go. I agreed and forgot all about it... The evening before the performance I got a call from another friend wanting to know if we wanted to car-pool. (Thanks a million for calling, Bryant, I would have forgotten all about it otherwise.) My week had been busy and as the time to leave drew nearer I frantically tried to think of a way out with out wasting the money we spent on tickets. When nothing came to mind, Lorien and I loaded up, picked up our friends and drove to the city. I am so glad my attempts to back out of the ballet did not work. The show was spectacular! I've seen my fair share of Nutcracker performances so I can say with authority: San Francisco put on the best show I've ever seen. Lorien was enchanted by the costumes and dancing. We were both entertained by whispered conversation with friends. Even though I drove the wrong way down a one way street--straight into an awaiting police car--and missed my exit for the freeway the evening was a success. I especially enjoyed the time I had to visit with my friend, Marilyn, on the drive to and from the city. She is a fun gal who knows how to be patient with a scatter-brained driver!

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The weekend before Christmas we drove down to visit Will's Aunt Betty Jo and Uncle John (or as Clare says: Uncle Betty-John) who live in San Jose. We were totally spoiled with a mountain of gifts for the kids, a trip through "Christmas in the Park" and dinner at Original Joe's. Our very first winter here in California we met up with Betty Jo and John for dinner and Original Joe's and a walk through "Christmas in the Park". I remember laughing because a father standing next to us was scolding his son about taking his coat off: "You have to keep your coat on." He said "Do you know how cold it? It is 40 degrees, freezing!" I thought of Boston and knowing it was actually freezing there made me laugh. I must have acclimated to the warmer winter temperatures because I thought "Christmas in the Park" was absolutely freezing this year.

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And then there was Christmas! The wonder, the joy, the anticipation--no one was disappointed. We spent Christmas Eve making cookies for Santa and watching Christmas specials on TV. Clare managed to fall asleep at 5:00 pm but only slept for an hour. Will and the kids tracked Santa across the globe via NORAD, Wyatt was especially thrilled every time Santa's sleigh was spotted. As a result of living in the Pacific Coast time zone we are one of the last stops Santa makes. Lorien nearly burst into tears when Santa cruised over Boston at 7:00 pm our time. "Why did we ever move away from Boston?!?"

We got the kids into bed and started in on our "Christmas work". At about 12:30 am we heard Wyatt crying and coughing. He had the croup. Will spent a chilly twenty minutes outside with Wyatt wrapped in a quilt but Wyatt couldn't calm down enough to breathe. So we brought him into our room and opened the window as wide as we could. Will set up our cozy chair and I turned on a television show. Thank goodness for satellite channels that play kid cartoons around the clock. With some random ninga cartoon to distract him, Wyatt was able to calm down, return his breathing to normal and fall asleep. I thought with Wyatt up 1/2 the night we'd get to sleep in a bit but at 6:45 am the girls were up and Wyatt launched himself out of bed like he'd been sleeping for the last 12 hours instead of 4. Oh well!
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Christmas morning was perfect. I'll spare you the gift details and just say we felt very blessed for all that we have and received. Because of Wyatt's illness he and I missed a visit with Grandpa Clay and Grandma Lizz. Will took the girls over to Uncle David's house for a few hours so they could see Grandpa and visit with their cousins. (Sorry we missed you Clay and Lizz!)

Last, but not least, I got our holiday cards out!!! Hip-hip hooray for me! If you do not get a card in a week or so (and you want one) email me your address (anderson.cassie@gmail.com) because I am sick and tired of trying to chase down addresses. Seriously friends, I love putting together our holiday card but I would rather shoot myself in the butt with a potato gun than round up addresses for mailing. I hate it. Happy New Year!

Literally bursting with pride...

My daughters are watching the Nutcracker on PBS and trying to mimic every...single...move... I love it!

Clare has been through three different outfits--so far.

Tis the Season!

The Holidays are here! Time to trim the tree, bake cookies and play the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Cannon" at max volume until my family goes crazy. We haul a tree home from the hardware store and start hanging decorations where ever we can. The mantle is draped with stockings and piled high with Christmas nick-knacks. The walls are plastered with Lorien's home-made decorations and sugar is all over the kitchen. Tip-toeing in right behind the holiday decor is always the bribe of presents from Santa in return for good behavior. (I love this holiday tradition...) Last year we had to make a chart for the kids. Their names were on the top with two columns below labeled: "Naughty" and "Nice". Every time the kids were nice, they got a check in the "Nice" column...you can see where I am going with this... We were forced into a visual reminder of Santa's All-Seeing-Eye to keep the kids in line leading up to Christmas. Seriously, we told Lorien and Wyatt a thousand times "If you have more naughty checks than nice checks Santa is not going to bring you any presents." The kids counted their check-marks all the time trying to keep edging the naughty out with the nice. There were more than a few tears when the naught inevitably out numbered the nice. Really folks, we are those kinds of parents. Sad, but true. This year however, we've only had to threaten to put the chart up. Nothing like dishonesty to keep your kids well behaved.

Last weekend we kicked off the holidays with the ward Christmas party. The primary kids sang a few songs as part of the evenings entertainment. The kids were great! Check out their "choir" outfits. Each child got also got to wait in line to sit on Santa's lap. This was the first year we didn't have a child melt down at the idea of sitting on the lap of a white-bearded stranger.




Oh--it is also time for the most stressful holiday tradition of all--Christmas cards. I will probably send mine out on Christmas Eve again this year. I am breaking out in hives just thinking about it...