Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

Last year for Spring Break I went back to Utah for a wedding and to work on a project for BYU. This year, I was in Lawrence. Because I work in research rather than teaching, there is no such thing as a break. Ever. There is always something that has to be done to move research forward. This week, it was working on a chapter for a research handbook summarizing the state of online learning and students with disabilities.  On Monday, which was St. Patrick's Day, I went to work. I worked from 10 until 2 p.m. when my boss sent us home. I made corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread and we all wore green so no one got pinched.  On Tuesday, I read my email at 7 a.m. and my boss said that we could work from home. She has never offered us the chance to work from home. I took it. I sat on my bed and Hannah played intermittently between Brian downstairs and me upstairs and then we all took a nap.  On Wednesday, I worked from home again. We made a trip to get Hannah an Eas...

We had our first picnic of the year today. We bought a sandwich from a local shop and drove to our favorite park to eat it and play. It was 77 degrees, but windy. Hannah doesn't like to wear sunglasses, so I took her to a store and let her pick out a hat with a brim. She choose this one. She wears it outside when we go to get the mail and then walk around the block and she took it with her today. I think she made a good choice of millinery.  I slathered UVA/UVB sunscreen on us both before we ventured out.  She calls the climbing toy at the park "the jungle."At first she wanted a little bit of help and then how to do it all came back to her.  At one point we ventured over to the swings and her hat blew off. I got this great shot of her pretty face with her tousled hair as it whipped in the wind.  Brian took this picture of me. Good day at the park. Here is a short movie of her going down the slide. 

There's a family we know that lives in on campus housing. The husband is going to school and they have two kids--a girl and baby boy. When I was there visiting I saw that the girl had an American Girl doll. She saved her money and bought it on her own, which I thought was very commendable for a six year old. When I saw an American Girl outfit on clearance I bought it and gave it to her. The next time I went to visit, she had drawn me this picture. Here is Hannah's latest creation. She did it on Tuesday evening after dinner. I was impressed with the coverage and the bold strokes. 

 We found this thermal Superman shirt with a hood a couple of weeks ago and bought it for Hannah. I through she looked cute in it and so I was trying to take a picture of her while her dad held her, but she wasn't very good about staying still for a good picture. When I loaded these onto the computer I thought that what I captured was cute as a sequence of failed shots. As you can see, her dad wasn't exactly a calming influence, but they are very happy.

This Valentine's Day, I got the flowers ...  And Brian got the Candy.   The night before Valentine's Day, Hannah told me she was going to make me a card. Her dad helped her achieve this goal. It reminds me of the old Family Circus Valentine show where PJ makes a Valentine for his momma.   Grandma Aldred sent Hannah a shirt with a heart vest and a little feeding set for Zachary. Hannah feeds Zachary 1-2 times per day.      Sometimes she siphons some his food. For dinner again this year, we went to the Boy Scout Fundraiser. These are the shots that Brian and I took of each other while we were waiting for our dinner salad, and just before I thought to go check on Hannah.  She goes to nursery class on Sunday just fine, but she hated going on Friday. It must have been because there were a lot of people she didn't know and her nursery leaders were not there. I went back to check on her and found her in a terrib...

Last year at this time, we were buried in snow too. Classes were cancelled for two days and I used the time to finish moving into my house, but we lacked provisions for winter weather and were generally unprepared. This year, when there was a winter snow warning we realized that we were in for some real snow and so we grocery shopped in advance, got out our snow shovels, put the salt within easy reach, and covered our doors to keep them from freezing shut. We did much better.  We had two snow days. On the first one, Hannah got her Valentine cards ready for her friends and family. It was after lunch and yes, she was still in her pajamas.  For dinner, we took a cue from my sister's family and we made pizza. I put the sauce and oregano on the dough and Hannah put on the cheese and the pepperoni.  She has a board book we read her about making pizza and so she knew the steps already. And I must say she was quite meticulous about it. Note that it is dinner time and y...

On Friday nights during the semester, we usually go out to dinner. We try to find places to go that are inexpensive, but also interesting. There is a place called Oriental Bistro in Lawrence and we had been driving by it for months saying that we were going to go there, but then it would be too crowded or something would happen and we wouldn't get there. This past Friday I got done working at 5 o'clock and when Brian came to pick me up, I told him to go to Oriental Bistro right then. So we did. And it was a good thing we went then because it was Chinese New Year and we didn't know it. We were able to eat just before it got really crowded.                      Hannah really likes the sticky rice. She also ate the orange that came with my food and  little bit of curry.  I had the vegetables in brown sauce and Brian had the chicken curry.  The owner came by and gave her a Happy Chinese New Year envelope. It h...