Children

I was visiting Nick and Jenn the other day and my heart warmed at the picture of Nick cuddling Little Bradlee.  Nick gazed at the little guy contemplatively, smoothed his duck-down-soft hair and observed, "Usually, when you bring something life-changing into your life, you spend time researching it and choosing your options before ordering your specifications; 'Let's see....we want brown hair...blue eyes...about eight pounds....'   With a baby, it doesn't work that way but we're sure happy with what we get!"

"But," Mike pointed out when I told him later, "you choose your specifications beforehand when you look for your spouse."  

Well, yes, I guess you do.  But I never saw '9lbs, 11oz' on Mike's manifest, nor did I see 'nearly bald for the first six months'.  But I agree with Nick - we're sure happy with what we get!

I got a few more pictures of Bradlee and this one of Nick but Jenn was not ready to be photographed and I didn't even ask.

Here he is taking a peek at the world.

Enough of the world.  Back to sleep again.

Baby Bradlee

Here's the latest addition to the Miller family corner.  Little Bradlee arrived Tuesday, July 20th at 9:22 pm.  He weighed in at 8 pounds even and measured out at 20 1/2 inches long.  He has a head full of dark hair and long fingers and toes.

While Jenn was on oxygen because of minor complications......

Nick was catching up on a bit of missed sleep.

Proud Daddy!

Happy Mama!

New Grandma

New grandpa

First bath

We've got the diaper on and we're content.

He's adorable and we love him to pieces!!

Cameron and Serena's Wedding

I've finally gotten some pics of the wedding.  Here's Richelle as one of the bridesmaids.  She, Serena's two sisters, and Serena's best friend (who happens to be male) were her attendants.  

Here are Cameron and the groomsmen.  His brother Nick is second to last and his cousin Chris is last.  The ring-bearer is Serena's nephew and the other young-un is the ring-bearer's brother.

Mr. and Mrs. Cameron Miller!

They were so kind to each other cutting the cake.

Richelle was wearing Melissa's fine pearl necklace so all the siblings were included in the ceremony.

Spring has....um....sprung?

May has been unseasonably cool for us this year but a few days ago, the weather was very spring-like.  The flowers were blooming....

...the goldfinches were feasting by the dozens.....

And then, after a day of Mary-Poppins-turn-the-umbrella-inside-out-and-the-patio-table-over winds, this rolls in.....

The rain made the flowers less than bright but were determined to be cheerful anyway.

We had driving rain like this off an on all day yesterday.  You can see the haze of rain splashing off the table.  The little iris buds are thankfully protected through the onslaught. 

Sunset.  But it didn't bring "sailor's delight" as the red sky promised.  Today was another day of torrential downpours interspersed with spells of....not dryness, really....more like....not raining.

It got up to 49 degrees today and the forecast for tonight is snow as low as 2,000ft.  I suppose if we lived in Prince Albert, Canada, this would be normal.  But we live in western Oregon and it's not normal.  Global warming?  I shake my head as I toss another log into the wood stove.

Language/Culture studies

Richelle wearing a Roman girl's tunic and belt.

We started a course of Latin language study back in September with other homeschooling families.  In name, Richelle was the student and I was there to audit the class.  In fact, we both learned Latin grammar, pronunciation, word derivatives, culture, and history.  Richelle didn't want to take the class at first but when I told her I wouldn't require English grammar if she studied Latin, she was all for it.  For those who may be wondering, we used Latina Christiana I.  

She had so much fun that she's quite ready for a second year.  This course is rather easy compared to a high school curriculum but by completing Latina Christiana II, she will have one credit of foreign language.  Not to mention a leg up in vocabulary and grammar.

Speaking of grammar, Latin is quite interesting.  Have you ever declined a noun?  Everyone knows how to conjugate a verb (I hope!) but English nouns only have two forms:  possessive and everything else; each either singular or plural.  Latin has five; subject, possessive, indirect object, direct object, and object of the preposition; each either singular or plural and each having their own ending although some endings are the same.  So wherever the noun occurres in the sentence, you know by the ending what it's function is.  For example, we could write "Billy put the dishes on the table." or "Billy put the table on the dishes." and by the noun ending (-a in this the object of the preposition case), there is no confusion.  Handy, isn't it?  

Also, just to make things more interesting, Latin has five declensions: feminine, masculine and neuter, and third, fourth, and fifth declensions (they don't seem to have a label other than that) each with their own endings.  We just touched the third declension the last few lessons this year.

The class had an end-of-year party last week.  They all dressed up in as close of dress as they had available, brought food that would have been eaten in Roman times, and watched a movie that had some Latin spoken in it.  A tunic is basically a pillowcase with holes for the head and arms and a belt around the waist.  Boys' were just below the knee and girls' were ankle length.  Men wore the togas we associate with Romans and women wore something very similar to an Indian sari.  Richelle decided she wasn't a woman yet and I made her a tunic from an old sheet.

The class was lots of fun and, although it required a weekly trip to town, it well worth the time, money and effort.  We're looking forward to next year's classes.

The Worst Mom

I am probably the absolute worst mom in the world.  


Richelle had a choir concert this afternoon after more than two months of practice and rehearsals.  This is the first performance in arts that she's done so you'd think I'd make sure things were special for her.  Especially since she's had a bad cold the past few days, looks a bit pale, and has a lingering cough.


Instead, I~

1. Managed to bring the camera with me from home (maybe not the absolute worst mom, then) but completely forgot I had it in the car until after the concert started and I noticed a much better mom in front of me recording on her video.
2. Neglected to make the suggestion that Richelle use a touch of make-up to give some color to her wan face.
3. Spaced out about giving her a couple of cough drops - or even a roll of Life-Savers for cryin' out loud! - in case she got a fit of coughing while singing. (She did, poor thing, but on the last half of the last song.  She lip-synced most of it and suddenly had a lot of color from stifling the coughs.)
4. Didn't remember to get her a bouquet of congratulatory flowers.

Here's where I'd insert the photo of a healthy-looking, smiling Richelle holding a bouquet of flowers.


****sigh****

Spring Break, continued

I had to have Richelle post the last entry and she took liberty with a post script.....

The girls got a little out of hand that first night so we stayed together as a troop the first day until lunch.  The girls groused a little but they had fun and we turned them loose at lunch time.  We took the precaution of making sure they understood the consequences of getting separated from their buddies and checked that each buddy pair had a cell phone.

I went on Splash Mountain and rode in the front.  It's always like a different ride when you sit in front.  This is a water ride and the two of us in front got thoroughly soaked from head to knee in my case and head to foot in hers.  We met up with some of our girls after the ride and they pointed and laughed.

I didn't get to go on Space Mountain the first time I went because they were re-doing it for the 50 year celebration.  I sure missed a great ride!

I suppose my favorite rides are Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Soaring Over California, and California Screamin' - the last two on the California Adventure side.  If I could only ride one, it'd have to be Screamin'.  I just love the first five seconds!

A few great memories:

The girls do something called a "force push" where they pretend to lick their hands (sometimes it's not pretend!) and then shove it in someone's face, causing the victim to flinch back.  The six girls I was with one afternoon were doing that to each other while we were waiting to meet up with a group going to the motel.  One girl did it to me only I purposely didn't flinch and her wet (!) hand made full contact on the side of my face.  I hollered her name and took off after her.  On about the third step, my brain clicked in and I realized she'd used water, not spit, on her hand.  She was pleased as Punch to have gotten me so good.

I didn't realize it but one of the girls was/is absolutely terrified of heights.  In spite of that, she went on most of the rides everyone else did at least once.  Sometimes her hat was pulled over her face and sometimes her eyes never opened the entire ride, sometimes there were tears of terror and always there was screaming but she was determined to do what rides she could.  She flatly refused to ride Maliboomer and I had to do some fast talking to convince her to go on Tower of Terror but California Screamin' became one of her favorite rides.

This was Richelle's favorite pastime - eating Mickey Mouse ice cream.  She must have consumed at least half a dozen in those three days.

The contrast in this picture:  Richelle in the front row with a big grin and arms straight up vs. the girl second row, second from right.  That's the one and only time she rode Tower of Terror.  What a trooper!

The fireworks show was spectacular.  We weren't in a good spot for photos but I did my best.

It took two hours longer to get home than it took to get there.  The girls weren't pushing to get home like they were to get there and they had a little spending money left that had to be spent before they got home.  Plus, they had to figure sales tax before they could decide if they had enough to make the purchase.  We also stopped for lunch and supper going home but the girls had brought a sack breakfast and lunch for the trip down.  Seventeen hours after we left the motel, we pulled into the same library parking lot and ended our adventure....at 2:30 am.

I still had two girls to connect with a parent in a nearby town on my way home so I didn't walk into the door of my house until 3:30 am.  It's taken me until today to feel completely recovered.  Whew!