Hey, remember ROLLER SKATING????

Today we went to Skate World to attend a birthday party for one of Urban’s friends.  The last time I was in a roller rink was when some friends and I went to our high school Christmas formal in 10th or 11th grade—how sad that I can’t even remember which, but in any case, no skating was actually involved.  The last time I wore a pair of roller skates, I was probably in 6th or 7th grade!  (I was a decent skater, though I always felt more comfortable in ice skates.  It’s only been 12 years since I last ice-skated.)

I didn’t actually skate today.  Most of the parents didn’t.  Our poor babies needed us to be stable on our feet.  None of my boys had been skating before, so they needed lots and lots of help.  (Urban was so bad at it at first that one of the rink refs came over and offered him a ticket for a free skating lesson!)  My helpfulness, I’m sorry to report, was dubious.  At one point, Urb lost his balance and grabbed for me, started to fall, and then took me down with him.  Ouch!  But we laughed.  He has a good-sized bruise on his right knee as a result, though.

I have to say that the roller skating rink in my hometown was, at least when I knew it, quite a bit nicer than the one we were at today.  But then, the 70s and 80s were kind of the “heyday” of roller skating.  Places like Smart Skate could afford coat hooks above the carpeted benches and a real d.j. to play the tunes (and even take requests!).

But some things never change.  Today, they even did the “Hokey Pokey.”

Oh, the memories….

Dear Friends,

Happy Holidays! 

I hope you are all ready for Christmas—or at least feeling at peace about your current level of “readiness.”  We here at Echowood are ready and very excited (the kids especially, of course).  This is actually something of an oddity for us—to feel and be ready for Christmas when it comes.  Ever since moving to the South, it’s been hard to register the reality of holiday time.  How can one sing, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” when it’s 80° out?  Because of this, time seems to get away from us, and too much gets done last-minute.

Not this year, though.  We were fortunate enough to have a Parents’ Day Out through church, so we could drop the boys off and get almost all our shopping done.  Another day, they all went to a friends’ home for the afternoon so we could finish up—we even had a chance to have lunch out together (just the two of us, imagine that!) and get groceries, too.  We put our tree up over Thanksgiving weekend.  How on the ball was that?  Last night we went to see all the beautiful lights at a local park, and today we decorated cookies.  I’ve been doing the daily Advent Scripture readings, which really helps keep my mind focused on the reason for the season, as they say.  Brian and the boys have been doing an Advent calendar—a really beautiful one that he got for them, with little doors to open and magnetic figures to add to the scene each day.  Tomorrow little Levi will get to put up the Baby Jesus.  It always gives me pause during Holy Communion at Christmas to remember that our Savior began as we all did, as a tiny little baby; yet he was born to give His Body and Blood for us. 

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  We’re trying to get the boys to clean up their playroom now, rather than putting it off ’til tomorrow, as we’d like that day to be busy with fun things and attending services at church.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop a note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  May you have a beautiful and blessed holiday.

~ Kimberly

Hi Everyone!

Would you believe that 38% of registered Florida voters had already voted prior to Election Day?  Crazy.  Brian and I had originally planned to vote early—to avoid long lines—but discovered the “long lines” were at the early polling places.  Thanks to all those who did vote early, we were able to walk in to our precinct and go straight to casting our ballots with no wait at all!

I wanted to let you know that, in spite of the uncomfortable conversation I had with my friend Miss Blue (which I wrote about in this controversial post), it has turned out that both Blue and her husband are voting against the pro-abortion contingency.  I don’t think it had one single thing to do with me or my comments to her at all, but I am still very relieved!

In other news….here we are, finished with daylight savings time.  Is anyone else even more tired than they were last week?  I’m exhausted.  And to make matters worse, my kids are still on DST—goofing off at bedtime (staying up too late) and then up at the crack of dawn, which is now a whole hour earlier.  I don’t have any time in the mornings after I take my 7-year-old out to his bus stop.  I used to be able to check e-mail, write a blog post, read, pray, or even just go back to bed for a bit.  Brian and I talked about the possibility of putting them all to bed at 7, instead of 8; but as Brian said, if we just stick to the usual routine, they’ll eventually adjust, and then the little ones will sleep a bit later in the mornings.

The other night, I saw that the movie Mean Girls was going to be on TV.  I remember all the hype a few years ago, when it first came out.  I seem to recall Oprah doing a whole show about it.  I’d never seen it, so I decided to watch.  It was nothing like I thought it would be.  I imagined something very dramatic and serious.  But instead, it was funny.  I guess it would be considered a “black comedy,” but it really wasn’t all that dark, in my opinion.  Mind you, I was watching the edited-for-television version, which dubbed over any swear words and cut the worst stuff out (presumably).

Maybe I just had my head in the sand, but I don’t remember there being girls like “the plastics” in my high school.  Even middle school, which was the worst as far as cliques and “popularity” went, was not like that.  Have things gotten really bad these days, or was that movie just totally unrealistic?  Oprah seemed to take it all pretty seriously, and the girls she had on her show could really relate to the events in the movie.

I just don’t get it.  Does anyone remember Heathers?  It was kind of like that—similar, but not very funny and rather morbid.  I was much younger when that movie came out, and I couldn’t really relate to the mean girls in that movie, either.  I must have been really lucky to go to a high school without so much nastiness and melodrama and superficiality.

I think I am getting a cold.

This is all for today, but I will write again soon.  I have some thoughts to share on the subject of beauty, as well as a terrific book to recommend, so be sure to check back when you get a chance.

Take care.  Hope the rest of your day goes swimmingly!

~ Kimberly

Hope it was a fun one!

We had a good time here. Brian and the boys carved a jack-o-lantern. We took a family vote to decide whether to give our pumpkin a happy face or a scary one. I was the big loser—totally outnumbered! But look at that expression. Wouldn’t you call it more “goofy” than scary? Somehow, it reminds me of Charlie Brown (maybe it’s that ultra-round, hairless shape?) and my husband, who makes a similar face when he’s annoyed. (No smiley-face icon here, because I’m not kidding!)

I had the joy of separating the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin guts, rinsing them, and laying them out to dry on paper towels. (We roasted them this morning, with kosher salt and olive oil, and they are soooo good!)

We met up with some neighbor friends, at their place, for trick-or-treating. We live in a huge neighborhood, so we really didn’t have to go too far for the kids to get their buckets so full they could barely carry them. Lots o’ candy, let me tell ya!

(Oh, and I should mention it was a perfect night for walking around outside. Right around 60 degrees. Last year, it was outrageously hot, and we were all miserable.)

Here are the boys in their costumes. Urban was Annikin Skywalker, Charlie was Luke Skywalker, and Levi was a pirate. Originally, I’d put a blue bandanna (with paisleys on it) on his head, but that made him look like a cleaning lady. The black one was a *bit* better, but we all joked that he was the poor pirate stuck with the job of swabbing the deck, because he still, somehow, looked like a washer-woman!

Some of the neighbors really went all-out with their Halloween decor. One house, especially, was downright scary! But all the kids were such good sports about it.

Afterward, we went back to our friends’ house and had hot chocolate and talked until around 10:30. By the time we got home, the kids were so, so tired, and so were we.

But I think that is the most fun I have had on Halloween since I was a kid. Hope your night was a good one, too!

Dear Friends,

I’m back!  So, I thought I’d tell you a bit about our camp-out.  This was for the Cub Scouts family camping weekend, at a campground owned and (sort of) run by the Boy Scouts.  I say “sort of run” because nobody seems to actually “run” it—it’s all volunteers, which is nice, but causes some problems.

The area where the camp is located is beautiful—lots and lots of trees, a lake, and far enough away from civilization that we could see millions of stars in the black sky each night.

On the other hand, the facilities aren’t real clean or in the best repair, there is a dearth of picnic tables and benches (no where to sit!), and the paths are covered in sticks and pine needles and debris (when they ought to have been raked/swept/otherwise cleared previous to the start of camp).  To top it all off, the lack of “being run” means the whole thing was quite disorganized.  When we arrived, there were no signs to direct us where to go.  We had not a clue what we were supposed to be doing or where we were meant to put our tent.  Thankfully, we ran into the only other folks there from our “pack,” and they happened to have done this before and were better informed.  We let them lead us!

Our camp site was on a slope.  Every time I walked into the tent, I felt like I was going to topple over.  Once I sat down in there, I could barely manage to get back up.  At night, we would go to sleep in our proper places, and in the morning, we would all find we’d slid downhill.  I must  have gotten used to it, though, because when I got back home on Sunday and was standing at the kitchen sink washing my hands, I felt like I was in a boat—even that floor didn’t feel level.  I felt totally out of balance and had to take a travel-sickness prevention pill to be able to get my bearings back.  Urban,  too, felt a little woozy.

But now that I’ve had my Complaint Fest, let me tell you the good things about the camp-out!

We shared our campsite with a lovely couple and their two sons, the oldest of whom is in the same Cub Scout pack as Urban.  They generously shared their grill and lawn chairs with us (we hadn’t brought any chairs—didn’t know we’d need them).  The wife’s name is Tiffani, and she is the exact opposite of what you’d expect someone with that name to be.  I was delighted to learn that she is a soap maker—something I am hugely interested in.  Her husband, Mark, works at the university and knows many of the same people Brian knows.  The two of them even had some students there at the camp, doing demonstrations.

Saturday was the main day of activity.  There were stations set all around the camp with things for the kids to do.  Urban walked across a rope bridge.  We learned about how scientists test water for levels of dissolved oxygen, acidity, turbidity, and something else I can’t remember.  We went on a nature scavenger hunt and got very lucky, finding everything we needed in a matter of minutes.  The boys got to shoot bows and arrows and b-b guns—Urban even earned a high enough score to qualify for the Junior U.S. Shooting Team!

At night, we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows and made s’mores.  The five boys (ours and our friends’) played hide-and-go seek.  I think that was probably everybody’s favorite time, just hanging out around the fire.  (It was mine, anyway!)

* * * *

On Sunday, we returned home.  Thus ensued all the crazy post-camp activity of sorting laundry; giving kids baths; hanging the tent out to dry (it rained for hours between Friday night and Saturday morning, so the tent was still wet in spots); and putting things away.

Late Sunday afternoon, we had to attend a faculty picnic for Brian’s work.  He “had” to go because he’d discovered late on Friday that he wasn’t on the e-mail list informing everyone of a special/important meeting on Monday afternoon—a meeting he was ill-prepared for.  He had to be at the picnic in order to meet-up with one of his colleagues to discuss what their presentation at the meeting would be.

The picnic was at a lovely park owned by the university.  Right on the lake-front (not the same lake as the Boy Scout camp, though).  There was a huge metal slide (the old-fashioned kind like we had at my elementary school, the kind they don’t make anymore) and some swings, so the boys had a great time running around and playing.  The meal was catered by a barbecue joint and was quite good except for the drinks—all they had (all they had!) was iced tea, sweet or even sweeter.  “Sweet tea” seems to be the beverage of choice here in the South.  I’ve never liked iced tea, and I don’t know if I ever will.  I choked down as much of it as I could, and so did Brian.  The boys each took a tiny sip and then proceeded to ask, “Isn’t there anything else to drink?”  We all left parched.

* * * *

Still and all, it was a really lovely weekend.  It was so nice to get away from computers, television, the phone (especially those annoying telemarketing and political message recordings!).  And it felt good to get such an abundance of fresh, cool, fall air.

I am exhausted from it all, but rejuvenated, too.  I just realized this morning that October is rapidly coming to a close.  I’ve got to get a move-on.  There are so many things I want to do before the holidays!

Hope you and yours are all well.  Stop by again soon!  Now that I’ve had my break, I’m ready to blog up a storm!

~ Kimberly

Was knock down this tree in our yard. More like, “pull it out by the roots,” actually. It knocked over the fence and fell straight across our neighbor’s swimming pool. Amazingly, it was just short enough that it didn’t hit their house—just sort of “brushed” it. (This tree is bigger than it looks, by the way—probably about 1-1/2 feet in diameter at the base of the trunk!)

Would you believe? Our insurance company says the clean-up is not our responsibility—we’re not liable for this mess. Why? Because the tree was not dead to begin with. We told the neighbor to check with his insurance, too. Likely, it won’t be worth getting insurance involved at all (you know they’d just cancel his policy the next day, right?). So we’ll probably split the cost of a tree service.

At least they don’t have to cut down the tree. Merely chop it up. And we’ll have plenty of wood for the fireplace this winter!

Here are some photos my husband took.

I still find it so incredible that the house was left unscathed!

Last night we celebrated our youngest son, Levi’s, birthday. He was so cute blowing out his candles and opening gifts.

I can’t believe he is three years old now. It seems like he was born yesterday…..and at the same time, it’s hard to remember a time when he was not a part of our family.

We’d been living in North Carolina for less than four weeks when he was born. Shortly after the move, I made the big bold decision to have a homebirth, with a midwife in attendance. This was not the easiest thing to arrange, but after experiencing a couple of visits to the local OB/GYN, I was pretty convinced it was the right choice. The whole ordeal of “hiring” the midwife kind of made my husband uncomfortable, but he wanted me to do what I felt would make me most at ease—after all, I was the one who was going to have to go through labor and delivery!

Fortunately, the midwife was wonderful. Everything went so smoothly. I did have some of the dreaded “back labor,” and I recall at one point near the end (in transition) thinking to myself, “Next time, if there is a next time, I’m going to go to the hospital and have an epidural like everyone else!” (This was my third drug-free labor.)

But then Levi was born, and the pain was over, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Our wee one was without a name for a few hours. Brian and I couldn’t agree on what to call the poor fellow. I’d been hoping for “Joseph,” but that had been relegated to middle-name status. None of the names we’d tossed around while I was pregnant were jumping up and seeming just right.

And then I remembered “Levi.” It was a name I had loved years ago, back when it was just Brian and me and no babies. I’d kind of forgotten about it. When it came to mind, I suggested we call the baby that just for a while—like an experiment, to see if it would work.

It did. He’s called all sorts of things now: Levi, Levi Joseph, Levie Joe, Weenie. He’s got the biggest, whitest smile and the skinniest little body. His head looks like a mushroom when his hair gets too long. He leaves little bits and pieces of disposable diapers all over the carpet—just one more reason we bought him “big-boy” underpants for his birthday. Time to potty train!

]]> http://echowood.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/three/feed/ 0 Kimberly at Echowood http://echowood.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/it-was-a-lovely-day/ http://echowood.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/it-was-a-lovely-day/#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:13:42 +0000 Kimberly at Echowood http://echowood.wordpress.com/?p=371 ]]>

Thank you, friends, for your kind wishes on my birthday. As the first day of being “the perfect age,” it was quite nice!

It poured rain much of the day, so we nixed any plans to go out and about and opted to stay at home instead.

Brian made a delicious dinner of meatloaf and mashed potatoes; and, of course, there was cake (chocolate, naturally!).

As for presents, I was spoiled. I’d already gotten my “main” gift about a week hence—a new blender. But Brian and the boys also gave me new guitar strings (and a special little tool to be used when stringing—Brian strung the guitar for me, too, so that was nice); Captivating, a book by John and Stasi Eldredge; and two games (one a board game called Blokus, one a card game called Set). My mom sent me a little package that had a book in it—a collection of columns from old issues of Victoria magazine (my favorite!). And earlier in the week, a dear friend sent a copy of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited.

We spent the day hanging out together as a family, playing games, and watching the Summer Olympics on TV. I played my guitar a little—I still have the booklet we used in 7th grade music class, with many of the chords and several songs (I’ll never forget “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley!”).

Brian and I played Skip-Bo after the boys went to bed, and then I got some reading done.

It was an ideal day!

It’s my birthday!

A few weeks ago, I expressed to my mom a kind of dread of turning 35. She replied that she had found 35 to be a very nice age. “The perfect age,” she called it.

Her reasoning: “At 35, you’re still young, but you’ve also had some experience, and you’re old enough to be taken seriously.”

So starting today, I’ve got one year to live life at “the perfect age.” Whatever shall I make of it?

(This funny, old-fashioned-looking portrait was taken when I was around 1-1/2, I think. I didn’t want to sit still for the photographer because I was excited about visiting some friends afterwards!)

July 15, 1995

Brian and I often go have lunch or dinner at McDonald’s for our anniversary—after all, it is where we met. But after all the traveling we’ve been doing, neither of us is exactly in the mood to either drive anyplace or eat fast food. Still, we do have to pick up the dog from the kennel, and we really need groceries; so it looks like we’ll be going out anyway.

We had a lovely wedding. It was held at my parents’ house on Lake Marquette, in Bemidji, before they moved to Florida. The ceremony was right on the beach, with the pastor of my hometown church officiating. My friends Heather and Jeff, who were then engaged, played the processional and recessional music on their instruments—trombone and French horn, if I remember right. Sabrina did the Scripture readings. My confirmation teacher gave a little talk on the subject of marriage. My sister, Amy, was my maid of honor; and Brian’s friend Jonathan was best man.

There were about a hundred guests at our wedding, including my maternal grandparents and Brian’s two grandmas. The reception was held under a canopy tent in the front yard. My parents, with some help from church ladies and relatives, made all the food (except the cake). We even had a bit of dancing in the garage.

It was a lovely and perfect day…..well, maybe not “perfect,” for whose wedding truly is? But it was very nice indeed. Several people commented that it was the nicest wedding they’d ever been to. They were probably just saying that to make us feel good, but I don’t care. It was the nicest wedding I’ve ever been to, and that’s a fact. :p