But will he give it up to the Tooth Fairy?

By the way, M4 has his first loose tooth! I could cry!

Tagged

More than a month ago, Jenn tagged me. I am lame, so I haven't been "it" yet. As we are leaving for our vacation soon, here it is, Rocky Mountain National Park edition:

My joys:

• My family (including everyone we'll be seeing soon...yay!)
• Sitting around the campfire under the stars with a beer in my hand
• Watching my children dance around in the dark with glow sticks

My fears:

• Large wildlife (this includes bears and mountain lions)
• Bubonic plague? (in Rocky Mtn Natl Park...what?!)
• Campground bathrooms

My goals:

• Patience
• Hiking Longs Peak (this is M1's plan...12 hours round trip? I'm not so sure)
• Leaving behind my worries of possibly carrying two mortgages soon

My current obsessions/collections:

• Yoga (this has no direct connection to the Rockies, but it would be pretty to cool to do Mountain pose at the top of a mountain!)
• Bubonic plague (obsessing, not collecting)
• Maps (park maps, campground maps...one has to know how to find the pit toilet in the dark!)

Random surprising facts about me:

• My ability to obsess over worst-case scenarios: bear attack, mountain lion attack, fleas carrying plague, thunderstorms above tree line, below freezing nighttime temps, full campgrounds (you get the picture)
• I still love sleeping in a tent and living outdoors
• Nature is the place that can most easily convince me of the possibility of a greater power

Of course, it's hard to narrow these categories down to three answers each! Also, I don't know enough bloggers to tag anyone. I can't just tag you back, Jenn! So if anyone reads this and wants to think about these things, cool. If not, that's cool, too.

In sharp relief

I have to remind myself often to really look at my children's faces. Too often I'm just hollering at them to get out the door or something, and a day will go by and I'll think, "Did I really look at them today?" That kind of look where you're really absorbing the details of their being, y'know? Because in a few years, I won't even have the opportunity to look every day.

Last night, M4 wanted to have a dance party after dinner...since the rest of us were finishing dessert, I went and sat, eating ice cream and watching him dance. It was just this lovely few moments of him dancing with his audience of one. He was so free and unself-conscious (not his usual state!) and creative. I wanted to burn the images into my brain...really look so that I wouldn't lose the details. So of course I tried to get it on camera, and that just didn't do the moment justice. He got self-conscious and silly, and then M3 came in and hogged the camera as she does. But I have to remind myself to really look in those moments, too.

Seven kids

We had a really great time with our friends this past weekend! Between our three families, we have seven kids! How weird is that?? The kids got along great; the big girls were so helpful and patient with the smaller kids, allowing the adults to actually have some reasonable conversations! It always just makes me a bit sad about how our lives require us to live so far away from each other (dang these academics!). K and C are awesome hosts...thanks so much, guys!

RAGBRAI 2008

Yesterday, I rode with Mom and Dad on RAGBRAI. It was so fun! And so cool to see thousands of bicyclers of all ages and abilities rolling across the Iowa landscape. We made the most important stops: for Mr. Pork Chop, cherry pie, sweet corn, and beer (Mom and Dad's team provided some delicious Iowa-brewed stout at the end of day, but they weren't so hot in the directions-to-the-campsite category!). Most of the day looked like this, only not as sunny:

Who wants to sign up for next year?

New house

As promised, here are several pics of the new house. I am still having a bit of "what did we get ourselves into?!" remorse, so these photos are to convince myself how awesome the house is.

Front porch

Front of house

Fireplace in living room

Library

Hall off kitchen

Kitchen

Upstairs bath

M4's bedroom

M3's bedroom (the door is to a little porch off her room)

Backyard

Garage (yay!)

Mother Nature...

...has been pretty brutal in Iowa this year. Last night was no exception. About 4:15 am I woke up to lightening like a strobe light and some extremely violent wind. M3 woke up, too, and the wind and the noise were scary enough that I woke up M1 and M4 to go to the basement. That is the first time we've done that all year. The power was out of course, so the lightening was really vivid! Thanks to M1's ongoing effort, the basement is reasonably clean (for a basement from 1888!). We set up a few folding chairs and hung out. I was grateful to be there and grateful the storm passed without anything major occurring. The kids went right back to sleep, no problem! It took me a little longer.

I checked on Grandma and Grandpa who are riding RAGBRAI and camping at night. Fortunately, they were staying at Aunt Marnie's, so they were sheltered. Apparently, the several thousand camping RAGBRAI riders were awakened at 2 am last night by fire trucks rolling through and telling them to get to shelter. What a night!