Minnesota memories, part 1

This August we went to a neat park/nature center in Bloomington with Kara and Camryn Johnson. Graham and Annie (who have visited before) just loved the pond, the functioning beehive and the wild turkeys outside the window. Well ... maybe they didn't "love" the turkeys. But it is a great place, no doubt about it, and this photo of the two of them just strolling hand in hand was a keeper. Notice that I didn't post the picture of them both pulling on the turtle puppet.

JDRF pictures

JDRF walk

I've gone a week+ without my home computer. Kyle figured out that the problem was the monitor (not the harddrive, so yea!), but it's been strange to have a silent screen staring back at me for these many days. Yes, I have a laptop, but strangely, my hands get very tired when I use it & I don't like to use it to email. The feng shui is off, I think. I need to get a mouse for my laptop. Also, I'm set in my ways. I can understand why writers (Philip Roth?) continue to use typewriters in the age of computers. I'm not a typewriter user, but I like the machine I know.

Anyhoo, E.J.H.L. is back online.

We participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk for a Cure event this past weekend in Houston. It was pretty amazing to see SO many folks out and about, all affected by type 1 diabetes. Graham enjoyed reading one team's name on the backs of their t-shirts: The Finger Prickers.
"They do that too?" he said. Yes, there was a great sense of camaraderie!

Kyle, Leighton, Casey & I were the assigned walkers, but lo & behold (thanks to Casey's urging), Graham joined us and completed the 3 mile trek around Reliant Park. There were apples, bananas and glasses of water at several stops, so no one was potassium deprived. We are already making plans to include Annie next year. Kathy, Gammy & Annie had fun at the family tent, however, since Annie had the jumpy castle to herself. That's a treat.

I had envisioned a track with serious walkers making good time. The reality was people of all ages and sizes walking and chatting. Lots of folks were on scooters or skates while others pulled wagons and pushed strollers. It really was a family event.

We were invited to walk with the The Flying Ms team (hence the logo on the t-shirts). Lynn Gibson, the team captain, is a dynamo and the team raised over $5000 for JDRF research, thanks to her efforts. There were hundreds of other people there, and it is awe-inspiring to think of the money raised. I never was one to follow medical breakthroughs too closely, but I have joined the ranks of those who follow findings. Anytime I see a "Diabetes" headline, I'm there.

In fact, this recently NYTimes article [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/health/16diab.html] reports one researcher's findings that the skeleton is part of the endocrine system. Wow.

Lynn's 9-year-old daughter Meredith (they live in Baytown and know the Littlefields) was diagnosed just a few weeks after Graham, and Graham LOVES having a "friend" who understands the annoyance of injections. He's only met her twice, but considers her a great pal.

Um ... correction (already!)

"Now the recoil when I try to run a comb through."
THEY recoil, actually

"and would be really to read up on men's haircutting."
I mean I would be WILLING

"Both Marni & Courtney cut their husbands' heads."
Sorry Jon & Andrew ... I didn't mean to get you injured. Marni & Courtney cut hair, not heads.


Obviously I pushed "post" instead of "preview".

Hair Wars

Just had to post this ... yes, it's two years old, but I think it's adorable.

Annie's hair isn't nearly as curly as it was then, but on the plus side, it's much thicker. She asks me nearly every day when it will be A) as long as Rapunzel's hair B) long enough for a "very long" braid or C) like a teenager.

We are growing it out a little bit, and I use that as leverage whenever it is time to brush hair. Of course she doesn't like that! I have a theory about both Graham and Annie's resistance to brushes: since they were bald until two and a half years old, they did not get used to the feel of a brush or a comb. Now the recoil when I try to run a comb through.

Graham also wants his hair long. There are a couple of boys at Ross Elementary with surfer-style hair - very blond, touseled, long, stylish. Unfortunately, when Graham grows his hair out it seems to concentrate in a giant clump on his forehead. He looks like Attack of the Killer Bangs. I think like looks really cute when it's trimmed a bit but I haven't convinced Graham.

Speaking of convincing ... I tried to talk Kyle into letting me cut his hair yesterday and he looked at me as though I suggested he decamp to Antarctica. (I think he still holds the trim I gave him back in 1995 against me.) I told him I knew what I was doing ... and would be really to read up on men's haircutting. Both Marni & Courtney cut their husbands' heads.
But no! Kyle insists on a "professional" at Pro-cuts. Never mind that I could save him $12. :)

I don't like my hair much right now either. It was cut quite a bit shorter than I like it in the summer. It looked cute for about 5 minutes, then promptly clumped on my forehead. (That's where Graham gets it, I'm sure!) The shorter cut was supposed to make it "easy".

Uh, it hasn't.

Actually, it's more work because I look like an escaped prisoner if I don't gel, spray, curl and style it every day. I'm a wash, scrunch and go, but this cut does not allow for that.
Also, it's growing it very mullet-like in the back, so I have to cut it myself. Yes, I bought a (can't think of the word) hair-cutting device (electric razor?), and have to keep trimming up the back so that I don't like Billy Ray Cyrus' younger sister.

I can't wait until I have my chin-length bob back.

Dream shelves

I pulled this from a New York Times home feature months ago. It's such a great room - very cozy with those beautiful creamy built-in shelves.
In my next life, I'd like to come back as a skilled woodworker.

Sports mania

We're in the thick of October already ... but still waiting for the promised cold front to hit Texas. I was expecting a chill all weekend, and even tried to dress Graham and Annie in long-sleeved shirts for Annie's soccer game. When we actually walked outside, we were hit with a blast of hot, humid aid.
Annie is having fun with soccer, though she's asked a couple of times why she isn't scoring any goals. (Um ... total inexperience, lack of footwork,etc.?) There are a couple of kids on her team, including several from our ward, who really know how to move the ball down the field and kick it in. But she's doing well at running near the action, kicking the ball in when it rolls out of bounds and giving enthusiastic thumbs-ups to us in the stands.

I was going to sign up Graham for soccer too, until he said, rather plaintively, "Mom, I really don't like running on the field with all those people crowding around me, yelling. It gives me a headache."
Instead, he wants to play golf and has already had one session with PawPaw Littlefield, who, conveniently, is a golf coach.