Well planned sick day

Friday, Alder came down with what turned out to be a stomach virus.  I must say he was quite tough through it all - obviously feeling terrible, but hanging in there as best he could.  He actually went to work with Les on Friday.  He loves doing this, so he forced himself.  And how he picks the day to be sick!  Two years ago about this time, he stayed out of school sick on a day that Les and I had planned to go out to a study site and band some sparrows.  So his sick day turned out to be a field trip, again!

Same thing this year coincidentally.  Today was pigeon disection day.  We thought he would be thrilled... Not so much.  Looking back, perhaps this is because he was nauseous and didnt care to see tables filled with pigeons corpses splayed apart.  Makes sense.  But he did enjoy some red-tailed hawk talons.

Luckily again, we thought, was that there was a Darwin Days talk on dinosaur and bird evolution.  Unfortunatley it was not so exciting, Alder got particularly miserable that time of the day, and he and Les left early.  Then, he finally puked in the car, but we were all very pleased that he managed to grab his lunchbox and fill that instead of his lap and the car.  Yay, Alder !!!  Once he was done, he reported that this was the third vomit of his life.  He's right!  Unforgettable, that vomitting!

On such a sick day, Heath would have intensely protested going to school alone.  But, this week was parent visitation week, and on this day, I was scheduled to spend an hour with him  in class.  I always LOVE seeing the work they do, and watching them do it.  Sparing many details...Heath could not contain himself.  He was so excited when I got there, and put on quite the scene when I left.  Havent seen that in awhile...

Here is Heath matching some consonants with various objects beginnign with that sound.  Cool thing that in the box of objecs are also pictures of their friends.  So an "o", is "o", "o", "o" for "Otto", one of his classmates.  "Guh", "guh, "guh", "goggles" and so forth.

Then Heath and I traced sandpaper letters and he made them into a book.  He did this with Les too.  She visited two days prior.

Here is a pic of the Primary III class, Alder's class.  Heath's class has a big view of them down below.  These classes are so very abuzz with activity.  All the friends are so deeply and excitedly engaged in everything...

Here is Heath with the Hanging Teens work.  He loves this work; the trip to Alders class to take it from the shelf, the careful trip upstairs carrying it, working through it, talking through it, the trip back downstairs to restore it.  The works throughout their classes are so simple and brilliant.

The rest of the weekend treated us well.  We spent lots of time together, Alder is about 90% now...

Oh, Lesley got both the boys on a roadtrip craft they love: a little embroidery with burlap and yarn.  Alder took his all the way to a little pillow.
 

Here's Heath last weekend.  What a trooper.  I tackled a full brake job on the Honda, and he was right there, the whole time.  Sometimes a bit TOO right there, but I set him up with a tarp on the cold ground and myriad tools and magnets, and he was in a zone.  (I didnt let him spray the brake cleaner by the way.)

He is Heath this weekend, on a Spiderman kick.  He wore this for aobut 48 hours straight.  He will be working on us in the morning, to try and wear this to school.  We made the mask hands-free with an old underwear wasteband.

He is really thinning out these days.  Still a chunk though.

A Little Explanation...

for why we have not posted in over two months?  For why we failed to blog a letter to record and share our Christmas?  Our New Years?  Our adventures afar and our times in Richmond with friends?

Actually nope, way too much of a gap to fill there.

But a little explanation is in order for some very recent - one week old - developments here. Some of you know.  We are moving. We werent even "in the market".  Or at least we didnt think we were.  Last Tuesday morning, around 530, Lesley caught a glimpse of an ad on line for a house a mile away from us, in our fantastic neighborhood.  That afternoon we looked at it.  Within 24 hours later, we made an offer, and within 12 more, it was a done deal.  Today we had the chimney and whole house inspections, and there is no foreseeable reason why this isnt going to happen now.

So I wont even get into how cool this house is, the yard is, the location, how much more space we will have, how uncharacteristically risky and capricious it is for us to do such a thing.  Once we saw it we (more Lesley, OK) knew it just made sense.

This is where the explanation comes in, as some of you may ask (and have asked) "But, I thought yall were looking to leave Richmond?"  True, for years we have been.  I have no doubt reading 10,000 job postings, at least, I have delved more deeply into details on at least a 100, and probably seriously applied and/or interviewed for 10 or so, all over the U.S.   I am always beating the bushes.  And to some extent, so is Lesley.

So, as bizarre as this is, it has helped me to take stock, take a step back for the past week and try to figure out what has happened here.  It was not deliberate.  At no point did Lesley and I look at one another and say "Lets stay in Richmond" or "Lets stop killing ourselves looking for and applying for jobs, on top of the demands of our current jobs and family".  We have long felt that something needed to change to give us more space in our lives; be that physical space, space from the stress of our jobs,  space to fill with more of what matters, some other spaces as well.  We envisioned this playing out as, 'OK, one of us gets a job to take us somewhere else, then we go there, we find that space somehow'.  Locked into that process, somewhat of an ideal, we kept blinders on to all factors that we could change, and instead we were focusing all energy on finding a job elsewhere, sort of as a mandatory first step.   (Granted this is my reflection.  Lesley's may differ a bit.)

Then I think we sort of subconsciously arrived at the opportunity, at the space that we could create, that being a new place right here.  Once we considered that as a real option, and took a peek, it seemed very exciting, and very real.

So we are doing it!  We are closing on March 20th.  We will sell our house shortly thereafter and we are optimistic that all will be fine.

Are we still looking for jobs?  Well of course!  Isnt that part of our 'job' as parents and spouses, to make sure we are filling satisfying niches that give and give back.  But if we are here, and have been for six years now (come this Valentines Day), we might as well be more comfortable.

So if you have made it this far, you deserve to feast your eyes on

Ok... okay.  Maybe a few others...

two from our (now) traditional Christmas Day hike.

Two by the tree.  

Its amazing how much older they look already.

P.S.  Heath gets out of bed now about every night within 10 minutes of being in there.  Walks out swivelling his head like a slow-motion bobble head, half-grinning, trying to think of something creative to say so that we will engage him in conversation to hopefully forget he should be in bed, and let him stay up longer.  Just now, he "humm" and "umm"ed for about 30 seconds, after creeping towards me, nuzzling up to my leg, and looking me in the eye to say, "Daddy, I love the earth and the sun because the sun keeps us warm and the earth keeps us on the ground."  It is so hard not to let him see us smile when he does this.

The other day, in the same mood, he told me "Daddy, I wish Jesus and the Buddha were still alive.  That would be so happy."