Chanticleer is the "clear-singing" rooster in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Well, for my birthday Brent gave me tickets for us to go see the musical ensemble "Chanticleer," and we went to see them last Saturday at the St. Philip de Neri Church in Portland. From
chanticleer.org:
"Chanticleer - based in San Francisco - has developed a remarkable reputation for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. With its seamless blend of twelve male voices, ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as “an orchestra of voices.”
My favorite music of the night was the Renaissance music. To give you an idea of how beautiful and ethereal this type of music is (especially in a Catholic church with a very high ceiling), I uploaded Franz Biebl's version of "Ave Maria" (that's my favorite version) to my music list on the side of the blog. It is the last song and they are on random, so you will have to search for it (if you would like to be uplifted by very beautiful music).
Thanks Annie and Nate for babysitting. We can't wait for our next concert: Vienna Teng in April! (She's on the sidebar too).
13 weeks pregnant and skiing on Mt. Hood (Brent boarded, of course), and life's never been better!
WOW. That's all I could say when I got off the lift at the base of Mt. Hood. You can see forever. We could literally see the curvature of the earth. We could see eastern Oregon, the smoke stacks in Oregon City, the Coastal Range off in the west, and Mt. Jefferson off to the south. The difference in elevation is what makes this so different from being on the mountain tops skiing (or hiking) in Utah. In Utah, one mountain peak is about as high as the next one. The elevation change from the valley to the ski resort is not drastic. In Oregon, however, you go from sea level to 7016 ft in about an hour of driving (the top of Mt. Hood is 11240 ft). It is dramatic!
Here we are at the top of lift that got us the closest to the top, Mt. Hood in the background. There is one more lift that is closed in the winter (because of unstable winter weather), but it is open until about the end of July and sometimes longer.
Our friends the Hartleys are experienced Oregon Natives, and they showed us around the mountain...as well as giving us many, many good tips for fun things to do
Happy times on the mountain.
This is a series of shots I took of Brent flying down the mountain. The one on the bottom left is not posed. It is total luck that he happened to fly right past me while being his goofy self.
These are some of my shots. I wanted Brent to take some really nice shots of my turning down the slope, but he refused to go down the slope farther, so I kind of had to pose :-(. I don't blame him for not wanting to waste time taking pictures though.
Apres-ski, we checked out the Historic Timberline Lodge. Built during the depression via the FDR Civilian Conservation Corps. It is really neat! Have you ever seen the movie "The Shining"? It was filmed here. Spooky, huh?
Here is a view of the entire lodge in the summer
Here is a picture of FDR at the dedication of the lodge
Here is the view of Mt. Jefferson from the dining area
We feel so lucky that we were able to go on our Valentines/Birthday date a week late. We were so lucky that the snow was good and the weather was beautiful. We were dang lucky that we had my sister and her husband Annika/Nathan to watch Toby and friend Tara to watch Joshua after school. We were lucky to have such good company. I was so lucky to feel so good and ski so safely without falling or harming the little (still under the pelvic bone) fetus. Did you know that flying down the mountain cures the pregnancy blahs, by the way?
Yep, totally blessed and lucky.
Ok, so I had a busy week...and now I'm finally getting around to posting about Valentine's and my birthday.
Valentine's Day was really fun this year. It was the first year that both of my little ones really got into it. Joshua made his own hand made valentine card with a kit from the craft store. Toby thought that was very cool and when Joshua was gone at school, I helped him make some valentine cards for his friends and for our family. Another fun thing we did this year was making valentine love notes for each other on the Family Night before Valentines. We wrote a love note to each person in our family, including one to ourselves. The notes were pretty darling!
Here are some of the love notes:
We ended up having cake for my birthday the day before, since Brent had to work all day on my birthday. So the day before, we took a hike together on the Canemah Bluff in Oregon City (post a comment if you want directions) and Brent picked me up an ultra creamy cake from the Russian store. Oh yeah...I turned 31! Now I am officially a 30-something mom of 2.5 kids.
Brent with his lovely pick of a cake...
A few other awesome things that happened...Brent made breakfast for us on Valentine's Day! It was a total surprise! He made very delicious French toast with yummy apple bread and an orange sauce. Brent gave me tickets to see a concert for my birthday (Chanticleer), which is always a fun gift! On Valentine's day, I gave Brent (and the family) the entire series of Planet Earth on DVD and we sat around all evening being amazed by our planet. We had to postpone our date(s) for the week after when Brent had some more time off. More to follow...
You know what they say? Better nate than lever...
After reading this article on kgw.com (an Oregon news source):
Often-fatal airborne fungus turns up in Oregon
Some random person made this comment:
"The Earth makes no claim, either inherent or implied, that anyone on it will have a nice time. Furthermore the Earth is not responsible for lost or stolen chances to have fun. You exist on the Earth at your own risk. Lastly some aspects of the Earth may not be suitable for younger children, and some may find its contents objectionable."
I thought, in light of the subject matter, that this comment really puts the not so good stuff into perspective...and I had to laugh in spite of all this craziness that is going on right now.
I'd bet that you guys already knew this, but today I discovered that the best way to actually get your kids to want to play with their toys (instead of watching television or playing on the computer) is to make them clean up and organize. Voila!! Not much cleaning gets done...but I am totally impressed with the great amount of play that is going on!
Joshua started gymnastics last week and he is having so much fun! He has a real coach and a very rambunctious little class of boys. He's hoping that in a few years he'll learn how to do a Jedi double jump. This is the best idea we have ever had for extra-curricular Joshua.
Please excuse the poor picture quality from the camera phone.
One of our favorite things to do on a sunny Saturday in the Portland area is go park hopping. There are so very many parks and natural areas here that it takes a long time to find all the good ones and enjoy them. Yesterday we explored two parks in Tualatin and one in the Pearl District in downtown Portland.
At our first park (Brown's Ferry Park), Toby found some wild daisies starting to spring up! They grow in the grass, like dandelions. He always picks them for me. What a sweet boy!
We took a walk around the pedestrian trails, and explored along the Tualatin River.
I snuck up on Joshua taking a little rest on a bench...
and pondering the river, the Pythagorean Therom, the meaning of life, and the Universe...
Toby toby was having a great time collecting sticks, observing the birds in the pond, etc.
Next we went looking for some playground action at the Tualatin Community Park...and boy oh boy did we find it! This playground was the favorite of all the playgrounds we have found around here!
If you know me, you know that I can't resist a good climb! Wahoo!
The boys played and climbed and climbed and played for a long time, while Brent and I took turns jogging up the pedestrian path to check out the new pedestrian bridge that spans the Tualatin River and connects the Tualatin Parks and trails to the city of Tigard and amazing Cook Park. It was an awesome and serene path and bridge through the forest and over the quiet river. When I was standing on the bridge watching the water far below me, I dropped three of those daisies that Toby gave me earlier into the water. I wanted to see just how slowly the water was flowing. Now I wonder how far along the journey to the ocean they are...
Anyhow, these parks and trails were what we were hoping to encounter when we decided to move to the Portland area. It is a more expensive area, but we are thinking that it would be great to move there eventually.
This picture doesn't do it justice, but it is a picture (off the internet) of the pedestrian bridge while it was still under construction.
Last of all, we hit a really different kind of park in downtown Portland (in the Pearl District). It is a sqare of city block that had a steam buried underneath it for years, until the city decided to dig it up and renew the wetland. It is called Tanner Springs Park. Very cool! Once again, here is a picture of it that I found on the internet:
Ok, so I'm now entering the phase of pregnancy where my stomach looks bloated and fat. I really don't like this part of pregnancy and I am counting down to the days where I actually have a nice firm baby bump. But I am at least entering my second trimester next week, so that will be coming sooner rather than later. And now most foods finally sound good to me, though my stomach is still not excited about cooking them. On the other hand, I am not looking forward to not being able to sleep on my back anymore. I guess this is really the first pregnancy I have had where I am more excited for the baby and just want to get the pregnancy over with. Usually I really love being pregnant. But I guess that I am A LOT busier now that I have older kids and a house. I just keep telling myself that the results will be worth it! And now...I really MUST go exercise to keep this little fatty at bay.
FAQ's
2/01/2009
| Author:
jefferies
Since I've been asked so many pregnancy-related questions, and I rarely get to see any of you face to face to answer them, I thought that I would just answer some Frequently Asked Questions on the blog:
-How are you feeling?
I have been much, much more tired with this pregnancy than either of my others. I have been craving sleep all the time. I could never function with a full time job like I did when I was pregnant with Joshua. When I was pregnant with Toby I don't even remember being tired. I've also felt a lot more disgusted by food in general during this pregnancy. I am just shy of the 2nd trimester right now, and I am starting to feel relief in both of these aspects.
-Will you find out what you're having?
As much as I would like to be surprised, and I really admire those of you who wait to be surprised..I am just too much of a planner and a nester to wait for the surprise. So yes. I think.
-Are your kids excited?
It's all they talk about. One of the reasons why I went ahead and announced it now.
-Was this planned?
Well, not that it's exactly anyone else's business, but yes. Very planned (I'm a planner, remember?). We've been planning it for years, so if 10 plus other people happen to be having babies within of 6 month period of me that is a wonderful coincidence. But I think it is very fun! Just think of all the potential playmates my little one will have.
-Are you hoping for a girl?
It would be silly to say no, but I don't want to hurt this baby's feelings if it happens to be a boy, which would also be wonderful. I'm excited to be having a BABY. But having said that, Joshua and Toby would both like a little sister. Joshua has been talking about "her" for a couple of years now. I think that deep down Brent has always wanted a little girl. Brent's mother has nicknamed this baby "Priscilla" (kind of objectionable, but Joshua was nicknamed Hercumer in utero by Jane). And last of all, I have felt impressions that this baby is a girl, but I would feel really stupid if I was wrong so I just pretend that I didn't tell you that. OK?
...is out of the bag.
We are expecting baby #3, very happily. I am due at the end of August/the beginning of September.
Meow!
Chanticleer is the "clear-singing" rooster in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Well, for my birthday Brent gave me tickets for us to go see the musical ensemble "Chanticleer," and we went to see them last Saturday at the St. Philip de Neri Church in Portland. From chanticleer.org:
My favorite music of the night was the Renaissance music. To give you an idea of how beautiful and ethereal this type of music is (especially in a Catholic church with a very high ceiling), I uploaded Franz Biebl's version of "Ave Maria" (that's my favorite version) to my music list on the side of the blog. It is the last song and they are on random, so you will have to search for it (if you would like to be uplifted by very beautiful music).
