Happy 4th Birthday Brody!

Brody turned four today. Where does the time go? He brought cookies to Kountry Kids and then we had a fun birthday party with his cousins Turner, Weston, Meredyth and Keston, Aunt Karena, Uncle Brian, Uncle Matt, Papa and Nana. We had pizza and lady bug cupcakes with ice cream. He got everything he wanted for his birthday and is going to bed a very happy little four-year-old. Pictures to come ...

Wildflower Pics 2010

Thanks to Wrenda for taking these photos for us. You can visit her site here.

Jump Rope for Heart

Thanks so much to all of you who donated to Houston's Jump Rope for Heart campaign. He was one of the top six donation earners at his school. We just got home from watching the top six slime and pie their PE coaches on the morning announcements. Funny stuff!

It's Garden Time Again

So remember the last couple of years how we'd have this great big garden growing and then it would get eaten by a fungus just as soon as the fruit was about to set? Well we've learned that this area has a really bad fungus problem ever since the '04 hurricanes. It also is apparently not killed by any known fungicide ... which is okay with me b/c I don't want to put that stuff in my garden anyway. We have to solarize (cook it under plastic) the garden plot for a good three months during the hottest months of the summer to get rid of the fungus. So it's a container garden for us this year. We got to work clearing out the old tree nursery. We bought a trailer full of mushroom compost, another of chopped pine bark, some humus and organic plant food and mixed our own hopefully super-duper vegetable growing potting mix. The nursery was quite a challenge to get cleaned up but we did it. We got everything planted and so far the sprouts are coming along nicely.


The Before Picture ... Yikes!

RIP Captain Kwame Waikenda - My Brother, My Friend

Often times in life I find that there is a balance ... one that I don't always like. It seems like happy things are often balanced by sad. Last week was one of those weeks. A knitting group friend of mine is pregnant with twins and with the help of her husband we planned a surprise baby shower. She was gifted with lots of great hand knits that I know she will treasure forever. I planned the event, made the desserts and knit two shirts for her twins. I love doing things like this so it was looking to be a fun week of last minute preparations. Babies are always happy occasions, especially in a situation like this where the parents are so deserving yet struggled to become pregnant.

So here comes the bad to balance out the good... A friend and fraternity brother of ours from college passed away a couple of weeks ago. We all just found out about it a few days before the baby shower. I'm still in shock. Kwame Waikenda was one of the nicest, happiest, most intelligent and driven people i've ever met. He's someone I wanted my kids to meet. You couldn't not be happy in his presence. We are all shocked and saddened by the news. I've coordinated an effort through our fraternity brothers to buy a memorial brick at UF in his memory and to raise money to donate in his memory to the Wounded Warrior Project. We also wrote an article to be published in The Gear, the national magazine of Theta Tau.

So once again the happy and the sad come together. I'm going to attempt to paste the article below. We'll see how it comes out. I've also scanned a couple of pictures from college that i'll add.

Captain Kwame Waikenda

August 14, 1976 – March 30, 2010

Zeta Gamma #124

Always Our Brother, Always Our Friend

It is with deep sadness that we share the news of our brother’s passing. Kwame was an amazing person full of kindness and joy. His integrity, motivation and positive disposition were an inspiration to those who knew him. He had an infectious smile and an incredible spirit. He will forever be remembered and deeply missed by those of us who were lucky enough to call him our brother and friend.

Originally from Kenya, he graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Computer Engineering and entered the US Marine Corps. He went on to earn his wings and was promoted to the rank of Captain in 2006. Kwame had just returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq and was gearing up for a tour of Afghanistan when his life was tragically cut short. He was one of our finest brothers and countrymen and his service to our country will never be forgotten.

You can read more about Kwame at the memorial website created by his family:

www.kwamewaikenda.com.

In H&T,

Celena M. Crews ZG #61

Brett A. Crews ZG #89

Theta Tau brothers, Fall 2000 Graduation
Left to right: Marcos, John, Angela, Paul, Me, Kwame, Jamie


This was taken during a Theta Tau campout at "the farm" where we now live. Brett and I are on the far left and Kwame is on the far right, smiling as usual.


This is a little graphic I made to set as my facebook profile during the days of his memorials in NC since we couldn't be there.

Human Ovulation Photographed for the First Time

This is amazing! Check this link (peaceful parenting blog) to see more pics and read the story. http://www.drmomma.org/2008/06/human-ovulation-clearly-photographed.html

Our Leprechaun Catcher

Houston had to build a Leprechaun Catcher for school this week. We had a blast with this project.

Leprechaun's love gold and rainbows ....

The rainbow leads the way ...

Look, gold!

The trap door ....

Houston ... Future Engineer?

So yesterday after I picked Houston up from school we headed out to the back yard to lay in the sun. Had to take advantage of a gorgeous 70 degree day as we haven't had many of those lately. Well I loaded a few Circuits I lectures from MIT's opencourseware site onto my Blackberry and decided to watch one while I was laying in the sun. (reason for this in a later post) If you want to learn about anything that is taught at MIT I highly recommend their opencourseware site. You can download lecture videos, assignments, tests, course notes ... just about anything for any subject. So back to the story ... Houston, as Houston does, wanted to do what I was doing so he got another lawn chair and set up next to me in the back yard. I started watching the first lecture and he was like "what is that and why does he talk funny?" ... professor has an accent. Well then he had to see what was going on so he leaned over to watch. Kid was totally fascinated. I couldn't believe how long it held his attention. Then he started asking a bunch of questions like "is that high school?" and "do they have a playground?" ... funny stuff. I thought for sure he would get bored at any minute and go do something else. Nope. He wanted to sit in my lap so he could see better. He ended up sitting there watching the entire 41 minute lecture. I couldn't believe it. Houston has the attention span of a doorknob (nonexistent, it seems). He doesn't stay focused on any one thing for long at all. (Drives me crazy most days but he learns fine and I've been told he doesn't have that problem at school.) I was done with Circuits for the day but he wanted to watch the next lecture so I told him he would be able to see better if he watched it on my computer inside. Once he knew he could watch it on a computer he was insistent that I load the lectures onto his computer. Next thing I know Houston has me adding a network card to his computer so we can get him on the internet, download iTunes and start downloading Circuits I lectures to his computer. He now has the first four lectures of the Circuits I course at MIT on his computer. I'm curious to see if he remembers it when he comes home today and also to see if he actually watches an entire lecture again. I also wish I could go to MIT. As far as Circuits I goes, this professor is quite entertaining. My Circuits teacher never tried to blow up a pickle by sending 120V into it during any lecture I made it to. ;o)

The Symphony of Science

This is amazing. From http://symphonyofscience.com/

Annual Valentine's Fondue

Jump Rope for Heart

Houston's new school is doing JR4H in a couple of weeks. I remember doing Jump Rope for Heart at my elementary school. Things have certainly changed in the past 20+ years. When I did it we went around to our neighbors and asked them to pledge a certain amount for a certain amount of jumping. Nowadays kids get their own website to collect donations with. Sign of the times I suppose. Sure does make it easier to raise money. You can view Houston's page here. Thank you so much to all the friends and family who have already donated. Houston is really excited about this. We check his page every day and he is all kinds of excited about his goal thermometer being full already. :o)

The Known Universe

Just found the most amazing video on the Astronomy Picture of the Day site. Take 6.5 minutes and go watch this. Amazing.

Christmas Photos

Big changes are in the works around here but i'm not ready to blog about it yet. So for now, here are some photos from Christmas time.

Soup!

So I combined one of my soup recipes with one my friend Andy shared with me. It turned out fantastic and I've had some requests to share the recipe so here it goes.

Ingredients:

1/2 sweet onion, diced

3 carrots, sliced thin

3 stalks celery, diced

1 c green beans, snapped into short pieces

1 c cabbage, shredded

4 medium red potatoes, cubed with skin on

olive oil

salt & pepper

roasted garlic powder

onion powder

2 cans chicken broth (i use Swansons with no MSG)

2 cans water (just filled the broth cans after i used them)

2 c soy milk

1/2 c flour

1 package/link Hillshire Farms polish kielbasa, sliced then quartered (think small bite size)

Directions:

1. In large soup pot, saute the onions, celery and carrots in some olive oil.

2. Add the broth, water, green beans, cabbage and potatoes and bring to a boil. Stir in the salt, pepper, roasted garlic powder, and onion powder. Cover and let simmer.

3. In frying pan, sauté the sausage until good and browned.

4. While the sausage is cooking, whisk flour into milk in separate sauce pan and heat to a simmer.

5. Drain the sausage and lay out on paper towels to soak up the grease.

6. Add sausage and milk mixture to the soup pot. Let simmer together for a little while.

Yum!

Houston's First Day of School at Columbia City Elementary

Look at this ... going to school in regular clothes with a ... what's that? A Transformers backpack?!?!?! Say it isn't so! :o) Houston is loving every bit of his new school. He is especially enamored with the hot lunch line in the cafeteria. His teacher is fantastic and he has already made new friends. He loves all the things they get to do and the playground at recess is a big hit too. He has transitioned better than I could have dreamed. He just fit right in.

Where Do I Start?

Really ... so much has happened lately, especially just this last week. I don't even know where to start or how much I want to post about. Maybe i'll just start with the facts ...

• Our family is no longer associated with The Blake School in any way. The boys don't go there, I don't teach there, Brett and I are no longer on the Advisory Board, I am not running the Christmas Parade float tomorrow. Done. Finished. Over. Yes I am happy about this. Not happy about how it went down, one thing I cannot stand in life is a lier, but the stress that has been lifted from my life is tremendous. One word ... "karma".

• Houston starts at his new school (Columbia City Elementary) tomorrow. I've heard great things about the school. It's been an "A" school for seven years now. I've heard great things about his teacher, Mrs. Kennon. We are excited about this. She was super nice when we met her on Friday and Houston is really excited about all the fun things at his new school. Pet hamster and hermit crabs in the classroom, computers in the classroom, really big playground with lots of fun playground equipment, the lunchroom where we will actually be able to afford the hot lunch ($1.75 vs. $4).... he's been asking all weekend if he can go to his new school yet. It's super close too. It literally takes us only 5 minutes from our driveway to the school. Why we had to get re-zoned for this is beyond me. The school we are zoned for would probably take us closer to 20 minutes to get to in the morning given the distance, traffic and area we would have to drive through.

• I am really looking forward to spending more time at home with Brody. Rock on.

• I am super excited about teaching at the community college. LCCC is actually now a four year college and is going through a name change. It will be Florida Gateway College. The math department just won a big award. More good news. Also, less than 24 hours after things fell through at Blake I was contacted by the math department to see if I could teach two more sections of the math class i'll be teaching in the spring. Heck ya! Bring it on! :o)

• Sometimes when things get too stressful it's good to look around and see what needs to change and allow yourself to be open to the new things the universe has planned for you. Good times folks, good times. I am so excited about the new direction our life has just taken and I truly hope this is a sign of wonderful things to come in 2010. I'm healthy, i'm happy, i'm really excited about my new job, lots of stress is gone ... good stuff! And I still haven't even posted about my awesome weight loss/weight watchers/running goals met. I think I'm afraid to jinx it. ;o)

So I think that's a good update for now. Houston and Brett are on their way to see the Jacksonville Jaguars and the the Houston Texans play in Jacksonville. Wish I could see the look on Houston's face when he walks into that stadium. He's never seen anything like it. I told Brett he better take lots of pictures with his phone. Brody and I are enjoying a lazy Sunday. I suppose we'll have to get out of our pajamas eventually and make it to knitting group.

Ahhhhh .... life is good. Now if CES could just get a new project or two so we can pay the bills life would be just about perfect. Minus an SEC championship and a national title. Poor Tim Tebow. I hate it for him.

Big Changes

Big things have happened here lately and I promise to blog about it soon. Hopefully before the weekend is over and after the Gators beat some 'Bama tail! Go GATORS!!!!

And so it begins ...

I taught Houston how to make a crochet chain. I woke up two Saturdays ago to find him showing his brother how to do it. Now they both sit on the couch at night and crochet.