Missing Grandma and Ice Sculptures by Jaime

Great to have Ann for a while.

Jaime the Artiste is on the left.
Beautiful!
Wall-E

Jackson is a budding Artiste as well.

Boston Museum of Science

Another day of adventure and Grandma time. We went to Boston's Museum of Science and had a blast. The highlight of the day for me was going for dinner at Boston's North End at La Famiglia Giorgio's, then picking up some cannoli and cream puffs from Mike's pastry.

Grandma pic's:

At the North Chapel on the way home, in front of a full triceratops skelaton--one of three in the world, just after the electricity storm/show, and view of Boston's Charles' River--The museum is on a bridge over the river.

Hip scarf T-Rex.

Heat sensing camera.
I rubbed my shirt to make a smiley face.
Yes I know I am such a nerd.

A cast of the only T-Rex footprint.

James asking a question about Franklin the Alligator.

Jackson maybe small for his age, but he is at least over 700 million nanometers.

Christmas Comes Early

Becky's Mom came in last night for a visit and came with an extra suitcase full of presents. Because she wanted to witness their unveiling, we opened presents with James and Jackson.

Chemistry and light set. This will be fun.

Jackson got cool bowling pins and bowling ball. He loves them, but he prefers to be the ball and knock them over while holding the ball.

It is nice to have Grandma Hallows around. Tonight Becky and I went to see Twilight, the first grown-up movie we have been to in probably 3 years. I was about to write adult movie but Becky and I don't watch those kind. Tomorrow we are going to the science museum in Boston. Stay tuned. . .

Flecktones Concert

Imagine combining the world's greatest bass guitarist, banjoist, and saxophone player with a guy who has invented a drumitar and changed his name to Futureman--You get Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Then combine that with holiday music and Tuvan throat singers and you get a concert that leaves you in awe.

We dressed up like rock stars, dropped off Jack(thanks to the Mickelson's), drove 1 hour and 20 minutes to Northampton, and enjoyed 2 and 1/2 hours of great live music.

Tuvan throat singers in the background.

From right to left Victor Wooten bass, Bela Fleck banjo, Jeff Coffin sax, and . . .
Futureman

The opener was Scratch and Sniff
Here is a good live version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWNiFw_W3mA

Becky is abolutely gorgeous. It was fun being crazy with clothes and wear stuff we normally wouldn't. Maybe we will start a trend.
The power is still out in many places so our church was cancelled, so -staying up late didn't bother us to much.

For a great Victor Wooten cover of the Beatles' Norwegian Wood click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9a4ThBNacY

P.S. Check out the addendum to our previous post for more about the crazy storm here in MA.

Roughing it at Home

So we had an ice storm that came in on Thursday. This is when it rains because the air at high altitude is warm and then as it falls it cools and freezes on whatever it lands on. Well this one was a bad one and our power (heat and hot water) was out for nearly 24 hours because of tree branches breaking and falling on power lines . We are grateful for the power we have now because we were told by the governor, who declared a state of emergency to Central Mass, that it could take as long as Monday to get our power. We got firewood, hunkered down in the living room, used our grill and coleman stove to cook dinner, and prepared for a cold night--it is supposed to be in the teens tonight. We're grateful for everyones prayers.

Lollipop antenae, imagine this on every single tree branch.
The chunks on the top were from the tree above. You will see later.
My windows look a little cold.
This is our rododendron in our front yard.
This is the power line in our front yard.
It is a little abnormal.
A longer view from the front yard.
All the tree branches that fell. You can see the icicles off the hanging branch.

I moved my car behind Becky's because a branch at the top of the picture was hanging directly above my car. I am glad it didn't fall since my car has been totalled once since coming here.

Another view. The icicles on the power lines are crazy.

What an adventure.

Addendum to post. Sunday, December 14: Aftermath of an ice storm:

I wanted to remember some of these things we've experienced after the storm, because it's all been just crazy. This is for my own memory as much as anything else, so sorry for lengthening the post! Here's my list:

1) All of Massachusetts is still in a state of emergency, 3 days out from the storm

2) Many areas, including in Gardner where our church is, are still without power or heat. Church is cancelled today. Gardner doesn't expect to have power restored until Wednesday or Thursday of this next week. A week without heat. It was in the teens last night.

3) You can't get a hotel room anywhere within 60 miles or more.

4) The local schools are serving as shelters for those who don't have anywhere warm to go.

5) Trying to find any kind of supplies has been tough--people have gone crazy. I went to Home Depot the day after the storm to try and find some type of heater, and it was nuts. They had sold out of generators in 10 minutes when they opened at 6 AM. They were completely out of D batteries (for flashlights), chainsaws (broken trees), and quickly running out of other things.

6) I had to go to 3 gas stations to fill up our car Saturday. We had half of a tank, but wanted to fill up just in case we needed to get out of here and try and find a hotel. The first station I went to was completely out of gas. The second station had lines so long it was blocking the street. The third one finally worked out.

7) The power is on in our town, so we went to Walmart to get some groceries. As I walked back to the dairy cases, it was eerie. ALL of the dairy cases, meat cases, many of the freezer cases were EMPTY. The only thing they had was a little bit of milk. According to an employee I talked to, everything had gone bad with no power to refrigerate it. They had to throw it all out. What a waste!

8) There are still branches down everywhere. The cleanup will probably take weeks or months. The day after the storm there were downed branches on the highways, on people's houses, and on the power lines.

9) What a lesson about BEING PREPARED! We were somewhat prepared: we had plenty of food--we could have probably easily gotten through several weeks without even really breaking into our food storage. We have camping lanterns that we could use for light (the battery-powered ones), and working flashlights. Both our cars had some gas. We had a camping stove and our grill that we could cook on--warm food tasted great. The only thing we really lacked immediately was heat. We were able to purchase firewood, but it didn't warm the house much, and wouldn't have lasted too long. I went on Cabelas.com yesterday and ordered a Mr. Heater Big Buddy propane heater that's safe to use inside. If we have another emergency like this, it will be $120 extremely well spent!

Take a lesson from Massachusetts! -Becky

Photosession

So since we have sent out the majority of our Christmas cards I decided to send out some funny off shoots. We were going to have somebody professional take our photos for the christmas card this year, but that fell through and the leaves were perfect that weekend. So we hiked out to Leominster State Forest, got out my tirpod, and we did the pic with the timer. Unfortunately I don't have a remote and it was a cloudy day. When the sun did come out it cast too many shadows. Anyway, enough of being defensive, these are some that didn't make the cut.

Camera off center and James. . . eew?

Who made a funny?

Jackson good, Becky good, Jake good. . . James?
This was 2nd on our list for the card but Jackson looks bored. He probably was.

Too many shadows.
?James?
Where's our legs. The scenery is nice at least. ?Jackson? Becky and I are doing the two-step.

There are others but you get the idea. Next time I am hiring someone.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

We took a trip into Cambridge this morning to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It was quite the adventure as Jake had to work, so I took the boys in on the train by myself! We had one little mishap on an escalator (that's another story . . .) but other than that it went great and the museum was AMAZING.

This is a triceratops skull. We met some friends in Cambridge that came with us to the museum. These are their kids with James . . .This is a giant skeleton of a prehistoric sea creature. I can't remember what it's called, but James calls it a sea monster. This picture is only half of it! HUGE! This is a 7 foot long turtle shell.

It's mentioned in the Guiness Book of World Records for how large it is

Jack loved anything he could touch. Like this asteroid behind him.

We'd definitely recommend this museum to anyone. My favorite thing was something I guess the museum is known for--its exhibit of glass flowers. Glass cases filled with different flowers and plants--they all looked very real, but were made of glass. They even had made roots of plants out of glass. Pretty amazing.

And, it was fun for us to see more of Harvard's beautiful campus. Oh to be a smarty pants . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES!

Well, this post is a bit late as James' birthday was yesterday. However, yesterday I was a little busy hosting a party for James and 5 friends! It ended up being a little more crazy than I thought it would be, but I think the kids had fun!

James was going to have a Narnia party, I had it all planned (but luckily hadn't done much preparation), then he changed his mind about 5 days before the party.

The new theme was "WALL-E"!

I was amazed the cake actually turned out . . .

For one of the activities, I collected a bunch of boxes of different sizes, then wrapped them in brown paper. I provided all kinds of different craft supplies and the kids made and named their own robots. I was so impressed with their creativity!

We're so grateful for our James. He's the greatest kid ever. He's very smart and creative. He's positive about everything and has a great sense of humor (think Jake . . ; )
He is better at making friends than I am,

and he's a great big brother.
We're lucky to have him and I'll never forget how I felt when we finally got him after so many years of wanting a baby.

He is truly a miracle!

Thanksgiving Weekend

On Thanksgiving morning I had to cover a high school football game. Leominster vs Fitchburg. This rivalry began in 1894 and is the thanksgiving tradition for about 7,000 high school alumns and future alumns. The school made some money since tickets were $10 a piece.

This is the Leominster side. Go blue... we lost in OT.
The day after we went to the Boston Children's Museum.
Super Freak.
Jack in his apron.
The Water Room.
The Bubble Room.
The Air Room.

I must say Becky made a wonderful Feast, the best I've had. I did miss the Star Valley experience however.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sweet

Published!

So, I am bragging about Jake! He was asked to help write an article in Ogden this last Spring with a sports medicine doc at McKay Dee. They worked hard on it, and it was accepted for publication by a well-known sports medicine journal. If you click on the link below, you can bring up the table of contents for the journal. His article is near the bottom "Injury Prevention in Youth Sports". You can click on "abstract" if you want to see the abstract for the article. GOOD JOB JAKE!

http://www.acsm-csmr.org/pt/re/jsr/currenttoc.htm;jsessionid=JhxWM9yNQFJjcVjMcddSpZQJMRxyhQfp8xpYmpcC32XvGkxJhjMz!-628279283!181195628!8091!-1

Crazy Eights

So people are doing lists of eights favorites so I am posting one only because I am tired of looking at the leaves all over the place post, which indeed was a little boring and only got two pity comments. So here goes. Oh and because I wasn't tagged I am making up my own topics.

8 favorite places to eat
1. Becky's kitchen the best by far--various locations throughout the years
2. Robintino's Bountiful
3. The Mandarin Bountiful
4. Kopp's Milwaukee
5. Red Iguana SLC
6. S.S. Lobster in Fitchburg, MA
7. Mac's Diner Worcester, MA
8. Botana's, Milwaukee

8 best albums some of which I don't have
1. Time Without Consequences by Alexi Murdoch Have
2. Anodyne by Uncle Tupelo don't have
3. The Messiah by Handel don't have
4. Petsounds by the Beach Boys don't have
5. Jingle all the Way by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Have
6. Heartland: An Appalachian Journey by various artists Have
7. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Have
8. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Luther College Have

8 Band Names I've made up all of which have stories behind them
1. Prosaic
2. Scratch and Sniff
3. Jose Vega and the Funky Triad
4. The Dillydallies
5. The Lonesome Polecats--from guess the musical?
6. The Sleeping Dogs
7. Sherpas from Omaha
8. The Shakies

8 things on my Wish list
1. To be where everybody knows my name
2. To be done with training and in a job I absolutely love
3. To be the doc at Mt Everest Base Camp since I'm wishing
4. To play the guitar excellent
5. To be debt-free
6. To Rock
7. To own a restaurant/Music venue
8. Absolutely nothing because I'm totally happy

Make Like a Tree and Get Outta Here

We had a rain storm last night and our tree decided to shed. We woke up to this when the day before the driveway was clean as can be.