The hike of ill-repute

Beautiful day for an after-work hike....until....(insert suspenseful theme music here)

OUCH

I sprained my ankle! I'm so bummed. As most of you know, I have been trying to get back in the swing of things weight-wise. To that end, Mom and I have been taking hikes as regularly as we can. We went to Silver Falls on Monday and it turned into a total fiasco. First, mom walked into a mob of hungry wasps that proceeded to sting her repeatedly. At that point, about halfway down our chosen trail (it was a small one since we were short on time, so this is about a mile into the hike) we decide to turn back since there seemed to be more swarms further ahead. Ok, I saw one more wasp and chickened out. Whatever.

As Mom was lamenting about our foiled trip, I started to give her a pep-talk. You know "just be glad we got out" "enjoy the scenery" "exercise is exercise"...yada yada yada.

It was at this ill-fated moment that my ankle decided to shut me up by rolling inward during mid-stride. OOOOWWWWW.

I decided it would be ok to hike back out because I could wiggle my toes so I must be fine. The real pain didn't set in until later. Its just a minor sprain, but it's really cramping my style. Oh and not to mention my workout routine.

My camera is out of batteries but I did get a few pictures. I'll post them as soon as I can!

Can't wait to see you all on November 22!

All things bright and beautiful

Just another school day

Today Elijah was invited to start attending the extended day at his school, meaning he would be there from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm instead of picking him up at noon. This is a very special invitation, as not all children are invited to stay for the longer days. They have to show certain signs of readiness first. I just wanted to post this picture of him with his teacher Amber.

The Pink Tower

This picture was taken by the director of Elijah's school, which she decided was a great moment to capture the quintessential Montessori exercise. She liked it so much that she put it on the school newsletter :) I was just going to post the picture so everyone could see him in action- and get a peek at the school, but I decided to write a little something to explain what he is doing. The lesson is called "The pink tower" for obvious reasons, it being pink and also...a tower :) In this case, it had toppled over and Elijah volunteered to put it back up. Sooooo, why is he stacking stuff? I looked into it a little and found that he is actually doing alot more than stacking.

The purpose: Build blocks of graduated 3 dimensional sizes in order to understand sequence and order.

When building the tower, the children grasp each cube with one hand to get the muscular impression of the size (Again the connection- the hand is visually measuring the cubes for the mind to process). As the teacher is giving the initial lesson (these are done on-on-one), they introduce the concept of large and small, large, larger, largest, small, smaller, smallest. This is very basic, and would probably be used for smaller children initially....but when they are older or ready for more, you can add the counting of the cubes. The concrete difference between 1 and 10 is the first step in understanding addition. Later, they teach the child to count backwards, using the tower again. Count backwards from 10 as the largest cube down to the smallest cube. This visual aid is invaluable to understanding subtraction. Basically, it makes numbers mean something.

When the child can build the tower easily they are taught to build the tower with one corner exactly above the other all the way up, the two edges exactly even. The smallest cube can fit on each ledge on each level. This shows the size and difference between each of the cubes.

Develops -
1.Visual and small muscular perception of dimensions.
2. This awareness of dimensions leads to observation of the child’s environment.
3. Helps to make smoother and more coordinated movement.
4. Math readiness by introducing concepts of smaller, larger, prepares for the decimal and number system.

Eventually, this same lesson is used to help to prepare for the cube root. 1000 smallest cubes make the largest 10th cube. 8 of the smallest cubes make the second cube, 27 of the smallest cube make the third cube, 64 of the smallest cubes make the fourth cube, 124 cubes make the fifth cube, and so on.

I dunno about you, but I had to read that cube root part a couple times...maybe I need to build a tower.

Pretty cool!

The rise of the blog

I've decided to re-institute the blog. It's been so long since I've written and so many times that I wanted to but as you all know, I've wanted to keep my location private. I have pictures that have been taken with the specific intent of posting to the blog, so you will all get to see our new home.

Re-starting the blog is weird...its been so long, i don't know where to even start. I guess I will skip all the in-between stuff and skip straight to now.

We are all doing well, its been sunny and hot. I think we will be the first people to complain that it doesn't rain enough here. I wish everyone could have come and visited this summer, its amazing how fertile it is here. Everyone here grows something it seems, most of the time they sell it on the side of the road too. U-Pick farms abound, and we have found a favorite where we can get blueberries, blackberries, raspberries...ok a lot of berries. They also have apples and pears and assorted delicious veggies that are all organic and so cheap! It's really neat to take a walk in any direction and be able to pluck fresh ripe fruit from trees that are growing on the side of the road. Thats probably one of my favorite things about living here so far. I realize that yeah, maybe it rains alot (or so they say), but it has a payoff!

We are doing well at work despite alot of obstacles thrown our way. In fact all three of us won an award at out annual seminar for "Best Turnaround Property".


Ok, now for the pics.



This one was taken earlier this year right around the time Anthony started. Thats Anthony's "King of the Complex" pose.







This one of the guys is a pretty funny story actually. Since we manage a Federally subsidized complex, we sometimes need to make special accomodations for people with disabilities. The picture below was taken when Jay and Ant had to move an elderly and disabled man from an upstairs unit to a downstairs unit on the other end of the complex. They were dreading moving all his boxes and furniture across the complex one by one, so they devised an ingenious solution involving a riding lawnmower and trailer as seen below...
















And here is a cute one of Eli standing in front of my next-door neighbor's tomato plants




















I guess I will leave it at that for now, but I will be trying to update regularly as requested.

Love to all!

A word about thank-you cards

I have got to be the most horrible thank-you-card-sender in the history of the universe. That's a fact. It takes me forever to buy them, longer to write them and then eventually I end up thinking it's too late and therefore completely lame to send them. I promised myself that I would do better with the thank yous from our wedding. See, the thing is that I really am completely grateful...the problem is that I don't like writing just a quick 'hey thanks' and leaving it at that. No, I like to really think about what I am writing and I can't write something general for each one, it has to be personal. I'm just bad at cards, as all my friends can attest. So anyway, I am almost done writing the thank you cards from our wedding, but I am not going to lie, it may take a while for me to actually send them all, haha.

Nana is having her surgery on Monday. I really hate to be so far away from my family when all this is going on. It's hard to think that I'm so far away that I am completely useless when everyone needs me...or at least I like to think I could be useful.

I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel with this whole hunting business. This season has been a tough one, but I think I can count on seeing Jay a bit more in the coming weeks and then before we know it, season will be over. We are excited about our move to Oregon. It will finally feel like we are settling down, which is really all we want. I have to admit that I am going to miss it here. It's something to do with the wide open spaces and untouched beauty, as well as that small town feel...I'm really going to miss that. I'm also going to miss the zero traffic, heck there isn't even a stoplight until you get to Jackson. I'll miss the constant deer sightings, the quiet, the feeling that everything here is clean.

I am looking forward to working again, seeing a friend (Winter), friends for Elijah, and what feels like the official start of our future. I'm also just open to the adventure of it all...a new place, new sights, sounds, people, new things to learn, a broader perspective.

Ok, now time for some pictures :)

....Yup that is snow...



The expo was having some trouble starting due to a bad battery connector-thingy...big strong man fix! boogah boogah!


Ain't they cute? Jay was at that very moment through clenched teeth saying "this is so going on the blog". Do not be fooled, that smile is fabricated! Fabricated, I tell you!

And here is some random Elijah cuteness: