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My Climb time was 16 minutes, 11 seconds. I'm okay with that....
Just as a point of interest, however, there were 321 people who did the full climb (94 floors) faster than I did the half (52 floors). The fastest half-climber was 4 minutes something, the slowest was 51 minutes. The fastest full climber was nine minutes something and the slowest was one hour, 12 minutes.

Hustle!

I may have complained about our early start time, but it is a nice feeling to have already completed the race and had breakfast and be home by 10AM! Now we have the rest of the day to make celebratory brownies and cookies to take in to school tomorrow. Actually, the treats were to announce the sale of our condo, but they can be for the Hustle too.

Here's the documentation of the event....pre-hustle:

















With the Greenbriar girls....
















Me coming out at the end, mildly dazed, a minute or two behind Kristy and Colleen....



















All of us at the top, still smiling!!

















And, finally, Henry enjoying the view....


Thanks, again, to everyone who gave their support and donations! I actually had some fun! Kristy and I are already considering trying the full climb next year......but don't hold me to that.

Real News!!

This is the house that we bought.


This is the condo, with the late-fall leaves, that we had to sell to move to the house that we bought.


This is the spot, all sparkly and clean, that I can quit scrubbing daily to sell the condo to move to the house that we bought.


This is the room, all cozy and orange, that we just didn't paint, but we still sold the condo so we can move to the house that we bought.


This is the room, all newborn and sweet, I may miss the most when we move to the house that we bought.


This is the yard, all spacious and green, that makes up for the orange and the sweet baby's room that we'll miss the most when we move to the house that we bought.


These are the boys, all happy and cute, eating their lunch at the celebratory meal that we had on the day when we learned we had probably found a buyer to purchase the condo that we had to sell to move to the house that we bought.


Moving date? April Fool's Day. No joke.

Caught Red-Wagoned

I fear my little boy is a daredevil. Yesterday he pretended to be playing all innocently with his wagon (please note that he had ALL of his toys out and strewn about yesterday). When I looked over from my computer he was climbing into his wagon. My first instinct was to grab the camera, but then he climbed back out. I finally caught him though. Once he was in there he tried to push the wagon from the inside....he couldn't seem to make it go quite so easily that way. But kudos to him for being inventive and trying to take himself for a ride!

Something new.

I know I haven't posted in a while...I'm working up to a big one. In the meantime here are some new photos...
Franklin thinks he's hiding from Henry. Henry thinks Franklin's playing peek-a-boo.

Someone has droopy drawers.

Me and my boys. Franklin likes to pose.

Be a responsible pet owner

I've adopted a new pet. He's a hamster. His name is A.C., as in 'air conditioner'. He is named this because our air conditioner is called The Hamster. A.C. is a virtual pet for all to share. Please don't feed him any gumdrops.

Very Busy

Henry has many jobs to do at home. One of them is to take the lid off the kitty food bin, then to put the pet food bowls into the kitty food bin, then to take the lid off the kitty food bin....and repeat. Franklin's job is to stick his nose into anything that seems like it might have food in it.

And then one day you understand....

If you're like me you've just been going along in this world, wandering through Target, noticing all of the things that say "non-toxic" on them and making jokes like "oh good, it's non-toxic, just in case you were thinking of eating the crayons!" and you've been thinking you were pretty witty. And then one day you have a kid. And you realize that, actually, someone IS thinking of eating the crayons, and it's not your dog. And then all of a sudden you understand why they put those words on the box, and you're actually kind of grateful. You're also glad that your son's new trick is "show me your mouth" because it comes in handy when you're trying to figure out how much of the waxy goodness he has ingested. Also, you may be ashamed to admit it even inside your own head, but you're kind of starting to consider the idea of getting some of those Color Wonder markers that only work on the magic paper. Who knows what's in that stuff, but at least no one will know if your child is trying to eat the marker.

Do The Hustle

The Hustle Up The Hancock is coming up in about a week and a half. I'm getting a little nervous, because, though I've been doing the stair-master at the Y I couldn't say I've gotten myself in shape. The half-hustle is 52 or 54 flights of stairs. I've done 60 on the machine, but I realized an important thing the other day. The machine has handles! The stairs only have a railing on one side. I guess I could do it the way Kristy* suggested and reach all the way across to the other side, monopolizing the entire stairwell, but supporting myself in the process. Or I could borrow a walker of some sort to lean on while I climb. I guess what I'll probably end up doing is just plodding up slowly, step by step...dreaming of the bagels and juice that await me when I'm finished. Thanks, again, to those of you who have pledged money to the ALA in support of my climb, or who have just offered general words of support! I have already surpassed my goal, but if anyone else is still interested in pledging you can go to: Hustle click on 'sponsor a climber' type in my first and last name and it will tell you what to do. Use 'Betsy'.

*Kristy= A friend and coworker who is also doing the Hustle. We agree that our other climbing partner-friend, Colleen, is crazy, as she is going to attempt to run the thing. We figure we'll wave as she turns that first corner and jogs out of our line of sight.

Happy VD!

I must say....I love the Ten-Years-Ago Challenge! I wish we had more people to take it up....
Here is a photo of Henry and one of his many Valentine's. This is Ava, daughter of my co-teacher, Cari. Ava is 2 and a half and thinks Henry's name is 'Hungry'. It's fitting. They both came in to enjoy the 2nd grade Valentine's party today. I wish the 2nd-graders had been as well behaved as these two munchkins. Ava enjoyed giving Henry hugs and chasing Henry down the hall telling him to "come back!". Alas, Henry seems to enjoy keeping the ladies running after him.














Henry also enjoyed dinner tonight at Dave's (our favorite casual Italian spot) with his buddy Jonah....who was very sleepy.

Almost Valentine's Day...

I spent part of my weekend making Valentine's day cookies. Had a little chat with Henry about how next year he'll be helping me make cookies! Today he got to have a little taste...he just sucked on the cookie for a while and looked about with dazed eyes, enjoying the moment. This is a boy who understands the value of a cookie!

The Ten Years Ago Challenge

Amber issued a challenge to figure out what was happening in my life ten years ago. She had a very cute blog entry about meeting her husband at Mizzou in February of 1996. I have been struggling to figure out what I was doing. So I thought back to 12 years ago...that's when Pete and I had our first date. Which means that 11 years ago we were celebrating our first dating anniversary. We had spaghetti on the floor of his room in the apartment he shared with Marty and Craig. Then, somehow, I have no idea what happened 10 years ago. I know Pete and I were together for Valentine's day.....I can establish a few details around the month, but not really anything specific from February itself. Fall of 1995 was when I was starting my first teaching practicums, October of 1995 was when both of my grandpa's were sick, and Grandpa Bob died. That was also when I Pete took me to my first Phish concert. December of 1995 was when Linus came into my life...much to Ellen's chagrin. Then my memories (and journals) sort of fast forward to March, when Pete and I took a spring break trip in his silver Buick LeSabre. We tried to go camping in the Carolinas, but were met with some serious snow storms instead. I just realized we have no photos from that trip, which is really weird. So, I guess that's it for me 10 years ago. 9 years ago was the bad Valentine's day when I had a date that was distinctly NOT Pete. He did send me a nice package though, even though we still lived in the same town. We hadn't been seeing each other and he sent me a comp. tape that made me cry. I think we pretty much spent the rest of our Valentine's days together.....2002 we got engaged, 2003 Pete's parents had a big engagement party for us, 2004 was our first married Valentine's day. We spent it in San Antonio. Then Henry came along the next November (I"ll let you work out the math...) and last year Joyce was here to sit with him while we went out for one of our first real dates since Henry was born. She said we had to talk about things other than Henry, and she chastised us for coming home so early. This year we plan to spend the evening of Valentine's day at Dave's Italian Kitchen with a couple other friends-with-babies. Should be nice and low-key. Then we'll come home and watch Gilmore Girls. And now I pass the 10-Years-Ago Challenge on....who will bite?

Be Kind.

Here is a definition of not fun: swimsuit shopping in pasty-white February with unshaved legs, extra weight and navy socks. The last two swimsuits I had were a maternity two-piece and a honeymoon two-piece. I am in neither maternity nor honeymoon figure right now. But we really want to take Henry swimming. And I really didn't want to have to stand at the edge of the pool while Pete had all the fun. So I went to TJ Maxx (scary!!) and tried on the only 2 suits they had that didn't make me shake my head in wonder. The first was a very cute red, but apparantly made for a torso about 4 inches shorter than mine. The second was a little bit of a granny suit with sort of a heavy-girl pattern. I did not feel attractive in either. I stood for a while, looking in the mirror, criticizing myself in my head. Then I caught a glimpse of the pin stuck to my mini-diaper-bag-purse. Be Kind it says. I bought it in the fall from a little boy raising money for hurricaine victims. I like it. I mostly like it as a reminder to all of the jerks in the world, a reminder that all you have to do is be a little kind, it's not so hard. Today it seemed more like a reminder to me. Be Kind to yourself. It's okay to be a little pudgy. It's okay that you skipped the last few days of going to the Y....just go today and don't get a cookie on the way home. Everything will be okay. Oh my gosh...and then, if you go to the Y, there is this cuteness to come home to:














I went for the granny suit. Stay tuned for a post-swimming entry some time this weekend.

Apples Galore

Dad visited this weekend. We were all type type typing on our laptops. We had a mostly hang-out weekend. Dad played with Henry a lot while Pete and I bustled about doing our usual stuff. "One nice young couple" came to our open house on Sunday. We had a showing today as well. Other than that it's been pretty pokey lately. In Henry news... Henry is not a napper lately. Just does not want to nap. He's a tired little monkey by the time I pick him up at the end of the day, and he sleeps on the way home, but that's about it. Frustrating. We suspect he's working on his second top molar, which might be contributing. Also, he's not too into the tahini noodles he's supposed to be eating tonight. Instead he's trying to get some work off of his dad's beef stew...from a can...jam packed with sodium. For some reason, Rob & Carrie and Amber both have cartoon televisions on their blogs today. So here's mine, just to fit in....

What's Up?

Something is up with our digital camera. It's putting me into a funk. That's why there are no new photos. Aside from that, I worked Wednesday through Friday and now Dad is in town. So we've been a little busy. Yesterday we were able to take advantage of Dad's new shiny red truck to take a few big things out to Deerfield. We took the big cd shelves, Pete's dresser (which I wouldn't mind not seeing again) and a bookshelf. It opens things up a bit more in here, which will hopefully help it show better. We have an open house again today. Not sure if anyone will show up, what with the chilly cold weather and the Super Bowl today. When we come back from Deerfield I plan to make some Elk chili. I'll mostly stick to the recipe in My First Elk Cookbook. I figure it's got to be good, since one of the ingredients is 'A Can of Beer'. Not sure if I've ever had a can of beer in this house....but we do currently have lots of Guinness and Bass stocked up for the big game. I'm not really rooting for anyone...we're playing 'squares' at school, so I'll be paying attention to the "one's place" in the scores. I'll be looking for scores where the Seahawks' score ends in 2 or 1 and the Steelers' score ends in 2 or 9. Heres a photo of Henry participating in one of his favorite activities; walking the dog.

A Million Little Blog Pieces...

So many things to write about....it really should be several entries. I'll keep the items brief. We start here with the miracle double fortune cookie that came in our take-out the other night. Sadly, the fortunes themselves were not miraculous, nor really even fortunes if you ask me.....



















We move on to the elk meat. Yes, elk meat. Pete brought 15 lbs. of it home, along with a cookbook made by some friends of ours. I've always kind of thought hunting was sort of okay if you were going to actually use the meat, so I guess we'll try to eat it. Please take note of the wine reccommendations included in the cookbook.











And finally....the photos you've all been waiting for.....Space Bag!!!
Before:

















After:
















It's a miracle of modern vaccuumism. Less impressive in the photos than I thought it would be....