Earlier this month, Lindsey, my good friend from Mentor, came to visit with her daughter Thalia. Thalia is 2 months older than Asher and they got along swimmingly. Lindsey & her husband have been living in Switzerland for the past 2 1/2 years and are in the process of moving to Dubai. So while their stuff is in transit, they are spending a month in the US visiting family and friends. While we were sorry that Frank couldn't make it to Denver, we were so excited to have Lindsey & Thalia for a long weekend.
We did a ton of stuff in just 3 days as you can see by our pictures. The weather cooperated and we were able to enjoy lots of outdoor time - which probably helped with the jetlag.
The highlight of the visit for me was Girl's Night Out. I really haven't taken a true girl's night out since before I was pregnant! Four of us headed downtown once the kids were in bed for some drinks and great conversation. Lindsey & I didn't get home until 3am! so you can see it was a great Girl's Night Out. Now, the next day we were tired beyond belief, but still managed to have some fun with the kids in the leaves.
Enjoy the Photos!
11.23.2008
11.03.2008
A Momentous Moment: Random Thoughts from Angela
This is the first post I have done that does not have anything to do with Asher! Woo-Hoo! I am making progress here. Incidentally, it will also not have any photos, since, as you have noticed, we only take photos of Asher.
So, I was driving home from work today, normally a 20 min. drive and ended up getting stuck in some crazy traffic jam for over 50 min.! Luckily I was in Paul's car (luckily might not be the best choice of words since the reason I was in his car was that mine was in the shop for a Power Steering catastrophe - which is a whole other story)....anyway, in Paul's car, he has a CD player (I only have a cassette player in mine) and he had made a mix CD which was actually quite good. While I don't normally listen to anything when I drive (another story having to do with Real Simple magazine article in 1999), I was in stop and go traffic and needed to distract myself, so I turned on the CD. Ahhh, there's nothing like a song from your past and being stuck in a traffic jam to get you thinking.
So, I am reading this book called "Living You Yoga" by Judith Lasater (sp?) which is just awesome - even for people who don't practice physical yoga - it's just a great "life" book. Anyway, one of the recent chapters had to do with being present, in the moment and watching your reactions to things happening around you. So here I was in the traffic jam and I could have gotten really pissed and angry and tried to weave through lanes to get 1 minute ahead of the car beside me, but instead, I decided to wait it out, be in the moment, look around me at the other drivers and just chill.
In doing this, I saw some really awesome displays of humanity. A motorcyclist was actually walking his motorcycle instead of riding (yes, traffic was THAT slow). I thought, what a great idea, not wasting gas, not emitting fuel and getting some exercise! He was also talking to the other cars who passed him with their windows open. Then the lady behind me was TOTALLY groovin' in her car (Amy - think Davy Jones). It made me smile and laugh and also made me lighten up a bit because as you may remember from Chapter 10, Verse 5 of this post, I was listening to some pretty great tunes myself and wanted to sing and groove, but felt a bit self conscious as traffic was moving so slow. However, after seeing this lady (mid-40's maybe) totally rockin' out, I started singing and really enjoying the music. Then the Flaming Lips "Do You Realize" song came on, it was just really fitting, if you don't know that song then you need to go find it and listen to it.
That made me start thinking of one of my absolute favorite occurrences - some of you may already know this, it is odd, I admit - when the traffic lights are out at an intersection and there is no one to direct traffic, I think it is totally awesome that everyone automatically takes it upon themself to treat it like a 4-way stop and take turns! I don't know why I think this is so awesome, but I do. It takes us out of our methodical rushing here and there and makes us stop and be in the present moment. It forces us to take responsibility for creating order alongside our fellow man to ensure a safe passage for everyone involved. There is no one taking charge and telling each person what to do, yet as each new car pulls up to the intersection, they have to take part in this display of community and humanity.
I guess that's why this drive home tonight was so thought-provoking as to constitute this Volume of Random Thoughts. So, I think you should all try it tomorrow, try being fully present - especially when it's not a particularly great situation you find yourself in - and see if you can find things to appreciate and wonder about in the most mundane of circumstances.
So, I was driving home from work today, normally a 20 min. drive and ended up getting stuck in some crazy traffic jam for over 50 min.! Luckily I was in Paul's car (luckily might not be the best choice of words since the reason I was in his car was that mine was in the shop for a Power Steering catastrophe - which is a whole other story)....anyway, in Paul's car, he has a CD player (I only have a cassette player in mine) and he had made a mix CD which was actually quite good. While I don't normally listen to anything when I drive (another story having to do with Real Simple magazine article in 1999), I was in stop and go traffic and needed to distract myself, so I turned on the CD. Ahhh, there's nothing like a song from your past and being stuck in a traffic jam to get you thinking.
So, I am reading this book called "Living You Yoga" by Judith Lasater (sp?) which is just awesome - even for people who don't practice physical yoga - it's just a great "life" book. Anyway, one of the recent chapters had to do with being present, in the moment and watching your reactions to things happening around you. So here I was in the traffic jam and I could have gotten really pissed and angry and tried to weave through lanes to get 1 minute ahead of the car beside me, but instead, I decided to wait it out, be in the moment, look around me at the other drivers and just chill.
In doing this, I saw some really awesome displays of humanity. A motorcyclist was actually walking his motorcycle instead of riding (yes, traffic was THAT slow). I thought, what a great idea, not wasting gas, not emitting fuel and getting some exercise! He was also talking to the other cars who passed him with their windows open. Then the lady behind me was TOTALLY groovin' in her car (Amy - think Davy Jones). It made me smile and laugh and also made me lighten up a bit because as you may remember from Chapter 10, Verse 5 of this post, I was listening to some pretty great tunes myself and wanted to sing and groove, but felt a bit self conscious as traffic was moving so slow. However, after seeing this lady (mid-40's maybe) totally rockin' out, I started singing and really enjoying the music. Then the Flaming Lips "Do You Realize" song came on, it was just really fitting, if you don't know that song then you need to go find it and listen to it.
That made me start thinking of one of my absolute favorite occurrences - some of you may already know this, it is odd, I admit - when the traffic lights are out at an intersection and there is no one to direct traffic, I think it is totally awesome that everyone automatically takes it upon themself to treat it like a 4-way stop and take turns! I don't know why I think this is so awesome, but I do. It takes us out of our methodical rushing here and there and makes us stop and be in the present moment. It forces us to take responsibility for creating order alongside our fellow man to ensure a safe passage for everyone involved. There is no one taking charge and telling each person what to do, yet as each new car pulls up to the intersection, they have to take part in this display of community and humanity.
I guess that's why this drive home tonight was so thought-provoking as to constitute this Volume of Random Thoughts. So, I think you should all try it tomorrow, try being fully present - especially when it's not a particularly great situation you find yourself in - and see if you can find things to appreciate and wonder about in the most mundane of circumstances.
11.02.2008
Happy Ween!
I think Asher is still a bit young to really understand Trick-or-Treating and Halloween, but he's old enough to follow instructions on what to say and do to get candy! The Children's Museum has special Halloween activities for the kids so we headed over there once again this year to check it out.
The weather was beautiful (not like last year when we nearly froze!). They gave you a bag when you arrived, which was good since I completely forgot to get Asher something to put all the candy in! He loves the bag and still likes to carry it around (probably on the off chance that someone will drop some candy into it!) Once I explained how it worked, he was like a man on a mission. He spotted the candy booths throughout the musuem, (not even wanting to stop to play in the train room!!!!) and went from booth to booth holding his bag open and saying some form of "treat please". I kept having to remind him to say Thank You, which he usually ended up doing when he was about 10 feet away from the booth. Once we hit all the candy booths inside we headed outside. As you can see in the photos, he had a blast - face painting, games, characters in costumes, train rides, etc.I think the museum gave him some good practice for the real deal the next day. I figured that we would do about 5-7 houses on our street before he would get tired and want to be carried or just get bored. Boy was I wrong. No only did he do our entire street - both sides- but then went out for round two with Paul and did the street behind us - both sides! Never once asking to be carried.
He was so friendly with everyone walking up and down the street, saying hi and Happy Ween! One house we went had a little girl dressed like a fairy giving out the candy, Asher said "Thank you princess" and went on his way - too cute! There was one house that had a man dressed as a skeleton sitting in a chair handing out candy. We got about 10 feet away and Asher froze....literally froze. He didn't blink, move, say anything. I tried to tell him that it was ok, just a costume and to remember the skeleton we hung on our door earlier in the day. He was having none of it so I finally pulled him away from the house and he was fine. It was so odd, he didn't cry or grab my leg, he just froze and stared at the man. The man tried to assure him it was ok too, by saying hello and trying to offer the candy, but I guess this did not fit in with Asher's idea of what was supposed to be on this magical night where mommy & daddy took him house to house to get candy.Anyway, hope you had a Happy Ween and enjoy the photos!
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