Happy Birthday Hans, Mason & Riley!

Where did the month of June go? I know I had a baby, but I wasn't asleep for the last 3 weeks.

While I was baby-mooning, (get it? instead of honeymooning.) Hans had his 33 birthday and Father's day on the same day. It was so sad, Hans wanted some new running shoes and while we were out on a random shopping trip, he picked out the ones he wanted and I said "Happy Birthday/Father's Day." No spontaneity, excitement or pizazz, just running shoes. :(

I did sort of make it up to him the next week, while my brother was in town. Mason's birthday is on the 26th, so on his birthday we had Hans' favorite meal: steak and potatoes and homemade mint ice cream cake (Mason's favorite.)

Mason came up to visit and help out a couple of weeks ago, just before he left for his mission to San Antonio, Texas. (Spanish speaking.) My kids were in heaven. He took them all swimming almost everyday, played chess with Riley, held Quinn, entertained Amelia and talked about scouting & out door adventure stuff with Conrad.

Mason was determined to get the 1st extended family picture with Quinn.
I think to make our mom jealous.)

Quinn is such an angel. Mason wrapped him up and I snapped a photo of my little sweetheart.

Riley's birthday landed on a Sunday and he wanted to do the friend thing on Monday, so his birthday was fairly low key. But the kids did go out and play with sparklers and I got to play with my camera's shutter speed. (These pictures are all taken with a 10 second shutter speed.) Below are pictures of them all writing their names, err, backwards. ( I need learn how to invert pictures.)

Conrad

Riley
(his is actually the most legible.)

Amelia (with the help of Hans)

I think Hans might legally change his name to this symbol, just like Prince.
(You know Prince is from Minnesota.)

Oh Sugar Honey Ice Tea

This picture was taken in January not April. (Yes, Spring has finally come to Minnesota.)
You may be asking, "Who is that masked man?" Don't let the hand-made scarf, camouflage gloves and orange reflective ankle straps (you'll notice that this was his pre-helmet period) fool you.
No, Hans isn't climbing Mt. Everest or preparing to brave the arctic tundra in search of lost baby sea lions. He is fearlessly dressed to ride his bike 3 miles for another grueling day (or so he says) of dissertation writing.
Hans prides himself on riding his bike every school day of the year come rain or shine, Hell or high water, extreme heat or obscene cold; he's like the United States Post Office. This winter he set a person record for biking in -21 degree (we took this photograph to document the occasion), technically with windchill it was -35. He has yet to lose a nose or finger or any other appendage. There have been a few close calls, but those stories cannot be publicly posted.

"I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bike."

Hans has been riding a bike to school ever since 1999. And in all that time he has never worn a helmet until last week. He could just never find the right one and he thought people who wore them "looked pretty dorky." (I admit that I think fashion does play a part when it comes to accessorizing a bike or any sport, but I was surprised when Hans agreed with me.)
What brought about the change of heart in Hans? The concern of his running buddies Mark & Scott and Mark's sweet wife Stacey.
Hans spent a whole day looking for the right one, (luckily bike helmet fashion has come along way since 1999.) and found this little sweetheart. It's a Giro Flak and this one so happens to be called "Red Creep." One of his students told him that his helmet was "Pretty B$%&@#in''!"

September Morn

We had a fantastically busy summer and as of Sept. 2nd, my boys are finally back in school. They were not exactly excited to get back on a sleeping (7:45 p.m.) and waking (6 a.m.) schedule or having to do home or school work of any kind, but the free juice, doughnuts & espresso, (offered by our student housing community) Tuesday morning helped them to get energized at least for one day. (Please note that neither Conrad or Riley had a shot of espresso, that would have been pretty funny, but I'm sure their teachers would have thought otherwise.)

Riley & Conrad's First day of school wouldn't be complete without tie dye, jeans & new shoes.

Sunday after church is pretty lazy at our house, if we're not napping, we lying around reading or posing like supermodels ready for a candid.

Ever since Riley found out that he could get a dollar for a tooth, he has been diligently wiggling & yanking at his chompers & finally it "paid off." I pulled that puppy out just before they had to go to school.

My little Riley is growing up.

I had to take 10 pictures & most of them came out blurry because I was laughing at all of his silly faces. what a ham. I love you Riley!

Amelia wanted to get in on the picture taking action



Isn't she lovely?

The Sting of the Spelling Bee

Hi, this is Hans in my first blog post.
The National Spelling Bee just ended, and it brings me back to my spelling bee days. Oh, the chances missed, the lessons learned. Spelling bees in our house became a little bit of an obsession. Once my sister happened to place in our local spelling bee in fourth grade, my Dad saw potential. But potential is only as good as the effort that is put in to achieve it, so she started studying spelling words, and I soon followed. When the city, county, state, and regional contests neared, we would sometimes miss school to get through that last list of words contained in the overfilled green canvas bags. Even at that time, before the internet, there was a powerful underground organization of parents (and occasionally students) willing their way to spelling bee stardom. My Dad even got in on the action and went to an adult spelling bee. Anyway, Hannah and I won the city and county contests and went on to the state contest in Wyoming.
But then, in 8th grade, our family moved to South Dakota. There was no city, county, or state competition. We just were invited to come straight from Hill City middle school (Hill City is really the name of the town) to the regional competition held by the Rapid City Journal. The winner of this competition would go directly to the National Spelling Bee. Unfortunately, the lack of warm-up competitions failed to sustain me in my spelling word fervor, and my Dad had to go out of town for an ill-fated business trip.
I don't remember all of the details (maybe PTSD-related loss of memory), but we rode to the competition in a school bus, with Mrs. Prelle as our chaperone. There was a written round. I think that I scored second on that round. Then we moved on to the oral round. We were in a large auditorium, and we all lined up in the aisle that ascended from the stage to the door in the back. My first few words went okay, but then I received the word (blast it!) "regnant". This was not that hard of a word, so I had probably skipped over it quickly. I couldn't remember if it ended in an "ent" or an "ant". I stood there thinking. I saw my spelling-bee-life (and that of my sister) pass before my eyes, and then calmly misspelled the word. I then heard the infamous last words, "That is incorrect!" as I staggered toward my seat.
The regional championship was within my reach, and I missed it. I attribute any failures in my life since to that fateful day in a non-descript auditorium, with only a few onlookers in Rapid City South Dakota. Missed opportunities. Paradise lost. I can repent of my ways, but there is no way to go back and change the past...
My Dad was to return home from his trip shortly, but even though we did not have very much money, he called later that day to see how I had done. I told him the story, and he proceeded to point out that "regnant" was on a list that he had left with me before he went on his trip. He said, "If you had studied the list that I left, you would have won." Well that felt better.
As part of my grieving process, I am including a list of the spelling words spelled CORRECTLY by the most recent national spelling bee competition.

demitasse, quadrat, diener, hyssop, macédoine, basenji, numnah, chorion, nacarat, sinicize, hyphaeresis, taleggio & esclandre

In a spirit of truth-in-advertising, I have to say that this post was inspired by Monica's realization that her blog's readability (ranging from elementary school to genius) is not rated as highly as she would have hoped (I won't disclose her aspirations). I suggested that she include a list of spelling words that would up her score. I'm hoping this post does it because I can't keep reliving these painful memories. :)

My Hero!

Hans is my Hero! I know I said Captain Underpants was my hero, but I meant that in the fictional sense. Hans has totally become 500% braver, stronger and sexier ever since he took the law into his own hands and brought some punk kids to justice.
Let me set the tone. We live in a fabulous student housing community. I rant and rave about it constantly because I love the comeraderie, diversity and fraternity with the people that live here. But, unfortunately there isn't a glass titanium bubble protecting our little alcove and some outsiders have snuck in and run a muck, stealing: strollers, wagons, scooters, shovels, barbecues, and bikes.
Last year, we had 5 + bikes stolen. (dirty rats). At the end of the last summer, Hans and Mazar, (a super friend, fellow PhD student, and resident from Bangladesh) citizen arrested the 10 year old crook and took him to his house. His mom swore & smacked her delinquent son and we didn't have any more "issues" with him for the rest of the year. I'm sure this incident scared the pants off of him and the -15 degree weather kept him away as well. So now with no snow, a memory lapse, no parental supervision, and a bunch of loser friends, our little shyster is up to his old shenanigans. He and his little geek squad started their rampage early this year and almost got away with Conrad's bike. Conrad (bless his heart) has got a stubborn streak in him that is stronger than fear and when the bandits tried to take his bike, Conrad stood his ground. They pushed and shoved and threatened and he still didn't give in. I AM SO PROUD OF HIM!!!!!!!!!!! I think he would have taken a bloody nose and fought back, fortunately one of our adult neighbors came just in the nick of time and the little gaggle of geeks hit the road empty handed.
I just want to say one more time, "WAY TO GO CONRAD!!!"
Hans had enough bullying and went to Desean's house. (I'm just going to use his real name; it's getting hard to find new adjectives for robber.) He recoved a friend's scooter and noticed a super sweet Diamondback women's bike in his back yard and later saw him riding the women's bike. He went back to Desean's house the next day, saw the bike again, called a friend (whose stolen bike fit the descriptions of the bike in question), called the police and Desean's mother once again swore and smacked him; he and his band of hoodlums friends almost peed their pants with fear, after all they are only 11 years old. Hans was invigorated and I think he will continue his vigilante mission, to stop bandits from desecrating our habitat of sanctuary. Isn't Hans awesome?!? His only gripe was that it took an hour to get the whole bike recovery process finished, you know, time is money. I love my husband.