Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

Here's the money pit: The garden is on the side, along with an enclosed porch. Our little pocket garden...can't wait for summer! Our bedroom is the room with the bay window...possibly the coldest room known to man. Open porch The garage is in back (where Hans and Joe are walking)...

It takes a lot of energy to tear up an entire package of toddler diaper wipes! A rare moment of complete harmony... (psst...check out the curtains!) Sorry, Josiah and Annika woke up almost simultaneously. We had promised Josiah a trip to Barn & Neville (Barnes & Noble) when he woke up, so we had to go right away. Seriously. He goes and gets his shoes...he has really good memory. After Barnes & Noble, we ended up stopping for a bite to eat. I really wanted to come home and cook a dinner, but if I even comment about how a place looks good to try, Hans slams on the brakes and swerves into the parking lot. So, anyway...enjoy the pictures.

Hi. Here I am, posting a new blog, though I have nothing really new or interesting to tell anyone. I just know that if I don't blog on a regular basis, certain people get very upset, and they are not the sort of people I want to enrage. IF you know what I mean. The kids have been asleep for almost three hours, though I just heard Annika making some noise upstairs. I hardly know what to do with myself when they do this...truthfully, I just want to dance around the house in a single-person conga line singing "BonUS, BonUS, BonUS!!". I should be doing the things that I never get time to do on days when their naps (or quiet time for Josiah) don't last longer than an hour. Like painting my toenails. Starting on the picture montage that I want to do of our Japan experience. Calling my grandmothers. E-mailing an old friend. Completing a scrapbook page. Trying my hand at writing the great American novel, in tiny increments. Again, there is nothing to report. It wa...

Josiah's First Day of School Joe's Classroom Mommy! Daddy! Joe's New Buds Oh, I forgot to mention that after telling us all about his big day, Josiah said "I missed you Daddy, and I missed you Mommy". Awwww.

Yesterday was Josiah's first day of school. I was a little nervous to leave him since he hasn't been in any form of daycare, with the exception of the center at Ikego. I first left him there while we completed our "area orientation brief". He was about 16 months old at the time and he seemed to really love it, though he was always happy to see me at the end of a long day. Those were some pretty looooong days. Catching the bus from Ikego to Yokosuka because we didn't have our licenses (when I say "we" I mean Alexis and me). We would get up very early, catch the bus in at 6:30 and sit through the AOB from 8-4 or so, then catch the bus back home. This went on for about a week. But I digress. After Annika was born, I tried putting Josiah back into the CDC on a part-time basis, maybe once or twice a week. I had this grand idea that he would go there, have a great time playing with the other kids, working on art projects, playing on the playground. Me...

Hans had yesterday off and we were all feeling a bit more spunky, so we decided to pack everyone up and head up to the Providence Place mall. Big mistake. Josiah was in a "mood". Even though they both napped most of the way there, the minute we got into the Pottery Barn he proceeded to have a tantrum. Preceded by the words all parents dread "Mommy, you're hurting me!". I assure you, I was not hurting him in the least little bit. I was trying desperately to hold his hand and keep him from knocking some $200 piece of bric-a-brac to the floor in Pottery Barn. Of course, the minute those words are out of his mouth, every person in the store whips around and proceeds to stare at us and give me suspicious looks. Josiah really took it and ran with it...proceeded to cry about how he didn't want to shop (at Pottery Barn? Who doesn't love Pottery Barn? It is my Mecca) he wanted to go home, and etc., etc., etc. I am horrified by his behavior and the fact that all ...

Did anyone else ever watch "Northern Exposure" back in the day? I think that I have mentioned before that the only channel that we really enjoyed in the Kuehl household was CBS (see prior posts about "Magnum, PI"). Anyway, I totally remember watching NE. It was a really groundbreaking show at the time...kind of different and kitschy. It had a new flavor. About a year ago, I saw that the first season is out on DVD and considered buying it, but talked myself out of it. Then, as I was flipping through the channels the other day, I came across a NE marathon on one of the HD channels. So, now I'm TiVo - ing it. Yay ! What strikes me as really funny though is the fact that I remember all of the character names and stories. My son needs a lead test done before he can go to school--I keep forgetting about that. But I remember all about Shelly and Holling . Sheesh ! So...I got the cold. Right now I am at the apex, the peak, the whatever of my cold medic...

Sorry for the lack of recent posts, dear readers. It's not that I don't have news, it's that I haven't had much of a spare moment to sit down and expound. Obviously, we made it to and from Minnesota. Actually, the trip went much better than expected. We left from Newport on December 21st at noon and arrived in Rochester at 8:00 a.m. on December 22 nd . We weren't sure how it would work out, but it worked great. We stopped once in somewhere in Connecticut (does anyone else have to say "connect-i-cut" when they spell that?) because Annika , reveling in the marvelousness of her newly forward-facing carseat , got a bit carsick. Well, it is rather a big change for her...we really should have driven around town a bit to give her a chance to get used to it. When one is used to scenery mainly comprised of a seatback and perhaps some treetops passing by...to be thrust, literally headfirst into rapidly moving scenery...well, it makes me a little dizzy. Th...